On 11-12-05 04:56 PM, Jed Rothwell wrote:
Stephen A. Lawrence <sa...@pobox.com <mailto:sa...@pobox.com>> wrote:
Have you read nothing of how psychics operate?
Actually, I have read a lot about that, possibly more than Yugo has. I
have also read about stage magicians. In both cases their methods
could not begin to fool anyone looking inside a fake cold fusion
device. Any engineer or scientist would see the method at a glance. It
is not possible to hide a source of energy on this scale. The
components are macroscopic and instantly identifiable.
I think you're thinking of the wrong kind of magic.
Don't think David Copperfield and huge mechanisms for producing brute
force effects.
Think sleight of hand, and misdirection while the "magician" moves a
control that's supposed to remain fixed, misdirection as to how a
thermocouple was placed wrong, that sort of thing.
Not all that Randi has written was of no value, you know.
I have corresponded with Randi directly, and I saw his recent video.
Nothing he says about cold fusion has any merit. He knows nothing
about this subject.
No disagreement there!
I was thinking specifically of stuff he's said about psychics.
Having the equipment just happen to not work when there happens to
be someone on hand who's equipped to perform what might really be
a rigorous test, rather than a friendly
oh-sure-that-seems-good-enough sort of test, is *not* a sign of
honesty.
Ampenergo supplied and operated all of the equipment in these tests,
as did other people in other tests that have not been made public.
They decided the method. Rossi only operated the machine. The mystery
customer on October 28 also supplied and operated all of the test
equipment.
The data for the non-public tests is unpublished, AFAIK. From where I'm
sitting, it doesn't count for anything, because I have absolutely no way
to evaluate it, and I have no idea "what really happened" during those
tests.
Maybe the fate of the world really is being decided behind closed doors
here, and the tiny crumbs of factoids which we get in the form of
rumours regarding the "blacked-out" tests are all we'll ever have, so we
should treat them as the precious morsels they are ... or maybe the
claims about closed-door tests are worth no more than most hearsay.
Time will eventually tell (and I hope it "tells" in less time than it's
taken to tell regarding Randy Mills, to name one particularly
long-running example of an "is-it-or-isn't-it" situation).
