On Dec 18, 2011, at 4:01 PM, Jed Rothwell wrote:
Horace Heffner <hheff...@mtaonline.net> wrote:
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.
Many others have made efforts of similar magnitude, even risking
their lives and health. However, when all is said and done, I
expect the creation and maintenance of LENR-CANR.org will prove to
be the most important contribution to the field.
Perhaps. I hope so. But the point is, it did not call for any moral
courage. I have no standing in academia and nothing to lose. I
sacrificed nothing, other than money. Okay, lots of money. Other
than that, it was tedious work and some rudimentary programming.
People like Mallove and Mizuno made tremendous personal sacrifices.
I would not want to be compared to them. Gene went from a top
academic career to working in a warehouse at night to feed his
family. Mizuno spent every yen he ever earned on equipment. (He has
the Japanese equivalent to Social Security, and they have national
health insurance.) He went without a promotion for 20 years, and
was still doing junior professor assignments at the end.
Fleischmann and Pons had a terrible time. I think it traumatized
Pons. It did not bother Fleischmann as much because he is a tough,
cynical person who had nightmare experiences during WWII. The
Gestapo beat his father to death, and he himself barely escaped. He
told me that he knew calling that press conference would mean the
end of his career. He knew he would be vilified and ridiculed for
the rest of his life. He went into it knowing what would happen.
That was an act of courage. But as he said, it was nothing like
running for you life at age 13.
Mind you, it gets his goat. Sheila Fleischmann told me he complains
for hours. Who wouldn't?
- Jed
I should have said: "However, when all is said and done, I expect the
creation and maintenance of LENR-CANR.org will prove to be the most
important contribution to the field, with the exception of those of
the founding fathers Fleischmann and Pons."
Best regards,
Horace Heffner
http://www.mtaonline.net/~hheffner/
