On Thu, 17 Dec 2009, Jed Rothwell wrote: > Needless to say, incompetent and dishonest people have caused much > harm in over-unity energy research, cold fusion and related fields. > It is not fair to hold Prof. A at fault because Prof. B makes a dumb > mistake, but people tend to tar them with the same brush. The > attitude is that a mistake by cold fusion researcher is a mistake by > all. They don't often say this about plasma fusion researchers or > doctors. On the other hand, I guess that is what they are saying > about climate research, in this so-called Climate-gate scandal.
I once saw reference to the Curies being terrified of attracting the "perpetual motion" label, and being relieved when it didn't occur. But this was in some online article, and I've not seen such a thing mentioned in the two biographies I've read. If things went a bit differently, the Curies could have faced the same barriers as the Wrights. > Americans regarded the flying machine as little more than a chimera > pursued by foolish dreamers" (T. Crouch, "A Dream of Wings.") > Nowadays, of course, people use "cold fusion" to mean the same thing. And today if you mention that flying machines were long ridiculed, people get angry and insist that no such thing could have happened. I expect that if CF starts being sold as products, 'Skeptics' will conveniently forget the history of ridicule. Perhaps we should congratulate Park and crew for actually publishing books. Imagine if CF supporters could point to a crop of specifically anti-Wright bros books, anti-spaceflight books, etc. All we have is embarrassing quotes from famous astronomers. (((((((((((((((((( ( ( ( ( (O) ) ) ) ) ))))))))))))))))))) William J. Beaty SCIENCE HOBBYIST website billb at amasci com http://amasci.com EE/programmer/sci-exhibits amateur science, hobby projects, sci fair Seattle, WA 206-762-3818 unusual phenomena, tesla coils, weird sci
