At 01:30 PM 8/23/2012, OrionWorks - Steven V Johnson wrote:
After a very thorough analysis of the status of CF reporting was
summed up by Abd, he concludes with:
> And we need reporters who will look more carefully. Any volunteers?
I volunteer you.
Great. Thanks. I accept, any idea about funding? It's been suggested,
by someone I greatly respect, that I might get some support in
attending the next ICCF, and I'll be preparing a proposal for that.
I've been writing for over three years without any outside funding. I
went to two MIT conferences at my own expense. I'm not complaining,
it was fun and it didn't cost much, because I have a friend who lives
close, and because I could drive there.
In that time, I gained the general trust of the cold fusion research
community, including some with whom I occasionally debate assertively.
(I'm not afraid to be wrong. Indeed, being wrong is the fastest way
to learn, as long as we don't get attached to being right.)
I did get help (from a Wikipedia editor) in setting up the SPAWAR
neutron detection replication kit project, which is currently
inactive, but which I intend to start up again (and would start up
immediately if interest ramps up, I do have all the materials
needed). That's separate, though, from the writing.
I actually function, with people, far more effectively, face-to-face,
I'm finding. It is possible that I could address a room full of
nuclear physicists, for 10-15 minutes, and many would walk away
thinking, "Maybe there is something to this ...." I can address their
issues, I'm sympathetic, at least in a way.
I'm still trying to figure out how all this cold fusion stuff could
be a big mistake. I'm failing at that. Lots of pseudoskeptics have
tried to relieve me of my illusions, but, unfortunately, perhaps, I
can read scientific papers and do understand the issues.
(Okay, okay, I can't read Takahashi very well, just enough to get
what he's getting at, roughly what he's doing. Anyone here who can
follow Takahashi *in detail*, verifying his math? I'd love to
communicate with you!)
Yes, I know precisely why so many thought cold fusion was impossible.
It did require "extraordinary evidence." That evidence was supplied.
"Extraordinary evidence" does not mean a truck that drives through
your living room, mowing everything down, to prove that trucks exist.
It does mean, quite simply, the preponderance of the evidence, beyond
coincidence and reasonable error. It requires independent
verification, in ways that eliminate or make preposterously unlikely
"unknown artifact." And that work was done before 2000, with nothing
since then casting doubt upon it.
(With PdD, that is. NiH is a New World.)
