If you doubt that skeptics still dominate mass media discussions of cold fusion, see the comment section following this article about global warming. See the comment I posted, and the responses to it:
http://www.slate.com/blogs/bad_astronomy/2013/07/08/global_warming_wall_street_journal_article_cites_bad_evidence_draws_wrong.html It might as well still be 1989. It is ironic that most of these people commenting think they are in favor of science because they oppose the global warming deniers. The last comment is one that I have heard countless times. It is a get-out-jail card that allows you to ignore any breakthrough: "I'll believe in cold fusion when I see 10KW of electric power out of a cold fusion power generator. That's net power out, so you have to subtract out all the power that holds the thing together and the energy required to make the fuel. . . . Clalming that a technology that's not proven to work is going to 'solve' anything is ludicrous." Note that I did not say it is going to solve it, I said it "might." Anyway, I saw a similar argument the other day. Someone writing about robots said they are no threat to employment because "I can hire a Mexican for $10 an hour to do garden work and you can't point to any company that makes a robot that could do that at any price." The issue is not what technology can do today, but what it will probably be capable of doing in the future. Robots are improving rapidly. They can drive cars in California traffic. There is no longer any reason to think they will not be able to do agriculture or gardening cheaper than $10 an hour soon. Cheaper than $1. Eventually, $1 per day. - Jed
