You may very well be right, Jed, and I just have too jaundiced a view of
humanity. However, I had one further comment on the "stupidity versus
maliciousness" issue.
On 12/15/2009 04:54 PM, Jed Rothwell wrote:
Stephen A. Lawrence wrote:
[ ... ]
It's exactly like the Newman motor, which had (or has) unmeasured
power in and unmeasured power out. In both cases, the scammer claims
the power out is larger than the power in but there is absolutely no
evidence to back this up.
Newman seems like a sad character. He has had such a tough life, I think
he believes his own claims. He is not making easy money. He is not
living high off the hog. He seems to work hard. His methods do not
support his claims, and that is why he selects these methods. But I
think he is fooling himself.
When the issue of Newman's motor came up on this list, and I asserted
that their comparisons were meaningless because they didn't measure
input and output power, I received a number of extremely obnoxious, and
ultimately highly insulting, emails from a representative of Newman&Co.
But the point-blank question, "what is the power output?", which I asked
repeatedly and directly, received NO response -- except threats and
ranting and a meaningless "challenge" to bet $10,000 that no other motor
could do better than his.
This is not the behavior of someone who is confused or ignorant. A
confused, ignorant person who didn't quite understand what he was doing
would not see the need to dodge the "trap" in the question, "what is the
output power?". An honest person would try, honestly, to answer the
question.
You can debate, discuss, or argue with someone who is merely stupid or
ignorant. If, however, they are dishonest, have a hidden agenda, and
know that their claims are bogus, you can't.
