Jones Beene,
You are deliberately misleading about Rossi getting his degree
"on-line." He got his PhD from Milan University. He did take an
on-line course in chemical engineering later, in order to learn about
that. Seems to be a reasonable thing to do.
You make much of the lack of theory for how the Li7 gathers a proton.
The authors admit they don't know. BUT the idea of the Be splitting
into two alphas and not emitting gamma radiation suggests to me that it
is worth looking for a mechanism for the Li to gain the necessary
proton. I assume no one knows at present.
