[extropy-chat] Elvis Sightings (was: cold fusion warms up)

[John K Clark]

"Damien Broderick" <thespike at satx.rr.com>

> Elvis lives!

I don't think so Damien, but nothing would give me greater pleasure than to
be proven wrong about this. Unfortunately I don't think I'm wrong. And by
the way, I'd like to be proven wrong about cold fusion too.

> EXCESS HEAT: Why Cold Fusion Research Prevailed, by Charles G.  Beaudette
> (an MIT-trained retired electrical engineer).

Good God Almighty! AN ELECTRICAL ENGINEER?!  Eeek! Everybody knows
electrical engineers are as dumb as dirt. No exceptions. Not one. There is
simply no lower form of life!

> The error Pons and Fleischman made, in my view, was largely
one of bypassing some of the traditional filters to announcement

It's largely forgotten today but soon after their notorious press conference
Pons and Fleischmann did submit a paper to Nature, and knowing the potential
importance of it the editors put it on a fast track for publication; and In
just a few days they received comments from the referees. They wanted more
data confirming the reaction, but even more important, they wanted
clarification of the experimental setup. As described in the paper the
experiment was so vague and nebulous it would be imposable for anyone to
reproduce it. Pons and Fleischmann responded that they were busy and just
did not have time to supply the requested data. They then withdrew the
paper. For the life of me I just can't imagine what they could have been
doing that was more important than supplying that data! I just can't. Even
more astonishing, now after nearly 20 years, they still haven't been able to
find the time. Just what wonderful and astronomically brilliant things have
Pons and Fleischmann been doing these days?

  John K Clark