Obviously, I mean't "Bob Rohner", not "Bob Papp". I'm rather distracted by my wife being in surgery as I am using the hospital waiting room computer to write this.
On Mon, Aug 13, 2012 at 1:03 PM, James Bowery <[email protected]> wrote: > I visited Bob Papp last Friday afternoon in West Liberty, IA. My main > motivation was just to see if the guy seemed sane and of good character. > He did. > > I say this as someone who has gone through a pretty serious episode of > being drawn in by Paul Koloc and his ball lightning system back in the > 1990s. He had represented a series of 3 still photographs (taken by CCD > camera) as being 3 sequential frames of 30fps video showing a long-lived > plasmoid which he had produced in his attempt to produce ball lightning. > It took me years of working my way into his trust before I could get access > to his laboratory and happened upon the "lost" original video tape from > which these images had been drawn. When I went through the process of > digitizing the tape, it turned out that these 3 images were separate shots > and the apparent movement of the "plasmoid" was simply a result of the > "plasmoid" image being captured in 3 different stages of being clocked out > of the CCD array. The "plasmoid" itself was a result of a very bright > plasma discharge expanding and then contracting as the CCD array was being > clocked, resulting in a oblong profile that appeared to be a rounded > diamond shaped plasmoid. > > There were signs that Paul Koloc, whlie obviously very mentally sharp, was > suffering from some kind of psychological problem that, as I drew closer to > exposing his lie, exhibited as a multiple personality disorder where, > apparently, one of his personalities was aware of his deliberate deception > and another was not. I don't know how to explain this extreme pathology > except for two factors: 1) Kolov had been working with very high power > mercury switches for a long time and/or 2) Kolov had been under treatment > for narcolepsy for decades and the treatment involved daily treatment with > dextroamphetamine sulfate. There were other things going on that I could > attribute to paranormal phenomena but these were not so pronounced that I > could not explain them away as coincidence. > > So my judgement is obviously fallible, but on the other hand, I have been > through the ringer with one very -- dare I say extremely -- pathological > case, and am more cautious as a result. >
