Akira posted Julian Brown's recent criticism on Rossi in which he shares Steven Krivit's skepticism, based on lack of scientific standards of proof. Like Krivit, he cannot say that there is no robust anomaly, but only that the proof is weak to non-existent; and that Rossi is not only stubborn, but confused in his approach, seeming to ignore the "wet steam" issue.
By the way, Brown is a top-rated scientist whose work we have talked about
before, and with many publications in related fields. You may have
remembered that back in January he sent a glowing congratulation to Rossi
for possibly 'saving the world', or something to that effect. IOW - he has
no axe to grind.
When Krivit's original blog piece came out, many of us here were openly
critical of him because it seemed to make value judgments ("Unethical")
based on a paucity of evidence, and seemed to repeat criticisms going back
months. This made no sense and in one post - I accused Steven of basing this
judgment on being supported by Widom and Larsen.
This is not correct, and I apologize to Steven for accusing him of what
would be unethical journalism. I have met with him since then, and am fully
convinced that he is not supported by Widom and Larsen financially or
otherwise; but that his strong and unwavering support for their theory goes
only to what he considers to be its scientific validity.
Many of us remain as skeptical, if not more so, of this particular theory
than of Rossi, since confirming results are meager and it tends to overlook
a known field - "ultracold neutrons". Claytor's recent disclosures further
strengthen the case for real fusion, since tritium from an arc discharge
stands almost as proof that ULM cannot be involved.
At any rate, I am taking this opportunity to apologize to Steven for
suggesting that he has been supported by Widom and Larsen. He has not.
As for Rossi, there is really nothing that will be known until October, and
it is already looking like he is hedging on the timetable. He has done
everyone involved a disservice by calling Julian Brown a clown.
If there is a clown in this circus, it is Rossi himself.
Jones
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