At 03:58 PM 7/6/2011, Jed Rothwell wrote:
Abd ul-Rahman Lomax <<mailto:[email protected]>[email protected]> wrote:
Jed claims that there has been extensive testing, but we don't have
confirmation on that, AFAIK, from the actual testing agencies. And
what, exactly, was tested is not clear.
I did not claim that. Defkalion did, during their press conference.
I'm not going to go back and find the quotation. Maybe you stated
that way, but you stated this as a kind of proof that this must be
real, since it's been, allegedly, tested by government agencies.
The Minister of Energy was sitting in the audience, and the top
newspapers and TV stations were there. So if that were not true, I
suppose the Minister would have told the reporters.
I have no confidence in that at all. The Minister of Energy would
likely keep his mouth shut, it is so easy to open it and look really
stupid later.
He would have objected, strenuously. He did not; he smiled and
confirmed the report.
And what he confirmed, exactly, is important. But even that isn't
conclusive, I don't find government officials, in general, to be
souls of precise speech; indeed, amibiguity can be their stock in trade.
The tests have been described in some detail in the Defkalion white
paper and forum. I am gathering up this kind of thing for a new FAQ
and new page.
Great.
Abd's imaginary conversation:
3 PM, March 27, 2011: We have operated ten devices supplied by
Defkalion for three weeks, now, and they have not blown up, nor do
they show any signs of impending failure. The devices did not exceed
the rated external temperatures.
Memo from the Director of Safety Testing: Did you measure the generated heat?
Response from testing technician: No, of course not, that wasn't in
the test specification. We did not see any explosions. . . .
Ha, ha. Very funny. I am getting sick of such comments, made here
and elsewhere.
Aw, Jed, you've lost your sense of humor. I hope you can find it,
maybe it fell in the cracks of your keyboard. I once repaired a
typesetting computer keyboard that was repeating a code, erratically.
I opened it up and found a dime.
Let us get some things straight here, folks:
First, European and Japanese regulatory engineers and scientists are
every bit as good at their jobs as U.S. ones are. That is to say, top notch.
Uh, or not. I have no reason to think U.S. officials are "top notch,"
all the time. Sometimes they are. Sometimes not.
I have read dozens -- hundreds -- of reports by DoE staff members
and the Italian Nat. Nuclear labs, on cold fusion and other
subjects. These people are professionals. They do not make the kind
of idiotic mistakes Abd imagines (presumably as a joke).
No, that was a story about a safety lab, not an engineering lab. I've
done testing, and you follow the specification. So what was the
specification? That's the real question. Simply, Jed, we don't know.
Not yet. Perhaps the information will come out any day.
Second, the mass media, and the people making these comments here
and off-line to me are parochial, small minded and biased.
Gee, thanks. what's my bias, Jed?
If Secretary Chu of the U.S. DoE had attended a press conference
in which a U.S. corporation said something like: "The DoE has
confirmed that our cold fusion reactors work, and government
agencies are now in the process of licensing them for commercial
production" -- and Chu then spoke with reporters and confirmed
that, I expect that every single newspaper and every person here
would take it as irrefutable proof that cold fusion is real and the
U.S. government is on track to approve commercial reactors. You
would not question this, or doubt it.
That would depend. Probably. However, I haven't heard that Greek
press conference, and I have no idea of the culture and specifics
behind it. I've seen some lousy science endorsed by government
officials, with disastrous consequences for U.S. and world health, so
I'm not inclined to believe something just because a government
official says so. It's a piece of evidence, not proof.
I think you should have more respect for scientists and regulatory
officials in other countries.
Where did I express doubt about that? Oh, the jokey scenario.... That
could be here in the U.S., it is not about Greece as being somehow different.
