Charles Hope <[email protected]> wrote: Granted that Rossi is producing anomalous heat, nevertheless absolutely > everything else about this story stinks to high heaven.
Except the fundamental physics, and the fact that a 30 L poorly insulated vessel of water cannot stay at boiling temperature for 4 hours. That does not stink to high heaven. Since this is about science, that is also the only thing that matters. > The conundrum which nobody can decipher is why someone with a real effect, > or a scammer, would operate in such a bizarre manner. That is not a conundrum. It is completely irrelevant. People are complicated and unpredictable. They act in all kinds of ways, for countless reasons. Sometimes the reasons are inexplicable. Sometimes there is no reason; the person is crazy. You can never understand human behavior. You cannot predict it. You can, however, understand what happens to 30 L of hot water over 4 hours, so I suggest you concentrate on that. The other thing to remember about people is that a personality trait is not one thing, with a single value applicable in all situations. People are more complicated than that. A professor might cheat on his wife and his taxes, betray his friends, and plagiarize ideas, yet with it comes to experimental results he may be scrupulously honest. Rossi can be devious, but I have not seen *any* evidence that he lies about engineering data. To take a much darker example, I knew men who had been in WWII, from the U.S., Germany and Japan. When I knew them, they were kindly middle-aged or elderly guys of my father's generation. A U-boat officer; pilots in the U.S. and Japanese navies and so on. They were kind to small children, upstanding, law abiding members of the community, etc., etc. Yet what they did in the war was an atrocity, even when it was necessary and morally justified. Some were forced by circumstances. Others admitted they enjoyed causing havoc and killing people. Sinking British ships, shooting Zero fighter out of the sky and dropping bombs can be fun. For many people it was the high point of their lives. These were not evil people. They were primates, and primates often enjoy mayhem. > The only conclusion left is that the effect is real and Rossi is insane. > He does not seem insane to me. I have met many others like him. He is suffering from the Inventor's Disease, but not as badly as some. - Jed
