Jed you underestimate the contribution you have made. You have invested
a lot of time, effort and skin in creating LENR-CANR.org You kept the
LENR flame visible and alive when many others worked to put out the
flame and to bury it in an unmarked grave that would never be found.
On 12/19/2011 9:38 AM, Jed Rothwell wrote:
Horace Heffner <[email protected]
<mailto:[email protected]>> wrote:
One lasting achievement of Rossi's genius at generating free
publicity may have been to bring young people into the field.
I hope that will be the outcome. It hasn't happened yet.
The timing of all this is unfortunate. Should an ignominious
failure of Rossi' s venture occur, following the Solyndra, Inc.
bankruptcy and scandal, that will likely result in the ferreting
out and dismantling, unfunding, of any LENR work in the government
or academia whatsoever.
In the U.S. LENR work in the government was dismantled and unfunded
between 1992 and 1995. The field is dead as a doornail. Things can't
get any worse. I am not kidding. I am not worried about the fallout
from Rossi being revealed as a fake. Even if that happens he has done
more good than harm.
Incidentally, as far as I know, the only fake in the history of the
field was from MIT in 1989. It upset Gene. I thought it was silly. It
was unimportant. I doubt the original was a genuine positive, so who
cares if they lied about it? I think Ed Storms concluded the original
was just noise.
There may be other fakes, but I have not discovered them. There may be
some fake positives, but I doubt it. Why there would be? Publishing
positive data gets you into a world of trouble. It is like holding up
a dead skunk at a picnic. People do not flock to your side
to congratulate you.
I know of about a dozen compelling results such as the ones Beene and
Stolper described at MIT that were never published because -- as one
of the authors said to me -- "I want to keep my job." Very reasonable.
People who have families and responsibilities do not wish to martyr
themselves to the cause of academic freedom. Especially when you are
sure to lose, and you will accomplish nothing. I wouldn't do that! I
have no great moral courage. If I were an academic researcher,
dependent on the good well of the establishment, there would be no
LENR-CANR.org. I can do it because I am not a member of that congregation.
It is odd that someone wrote to me recently saying I am a "leader" in
"supporting and promoting LENR" and I have "position of authority."
That's absurd. Imagine a grad student asking for a letter of
recommendation from me! It would be the kiss of death. It would be
applying for a job at Republican National Committee with a letter of
recommendation from David Plouffe (Obama's campaign manager).
- Jed
