Reformat paragraphs a little. This is supposed to go: Incidentally, school lunches are ON TOPIC insofar as a 9-year-old girl has gotten more attention, more hits, public support and funding for her cause in 4 days of on-line presence than cold fusion researchers have attracted in 23 years. . . .
It is ridiculous that we have a technology that can solve most of the world's technological problems such as global warming but we are so inept we cannot even persuade people to pay attention to it. Regarding the comment that politics are off topic -- If you think that politics has nothing to do with cold fusion, you do not understand the history of the field. If it were not for academic politics, the technical challenges would have been resolved in a few years, and by now every automobile and factory would be powered with cold fusion. Politics are the alpha and omega of cold fusion. If we could solve the political problem -- the problems caused by human nature -- we would solve everything else. Cold fusion has lingered without funding and without much progress, always in danger of extinction, for two reasons: 1. The opponents are nasty, stupid jerks, and political animals. 2. Supporters and researchers are nasty, stupid, self-destructive jerks, and political animals. That's life. People are what they are. It isn't as if we have a better class of primates waiting in wings, prepared to take over the world and correct the problems caused by our nature. I hope not, anyway. I have not seen "Rise of the Planet of the Apes." Movies like that frighten me. I can barely watch the trailer. It looks pretty good. - Jed
