In a private discussion, someone suggested that it can be difficult to anticipate objections. He said that even if a test convinces the experts at the time it is done, they may later come up with possible errors that did not occur to them at first. Naturally I agree there is some truth to that, but I do not think it applies to this case. I wrote a strong response, below.
Note that Rossi himself was a member of this discussion and I sent this to him. He was not pleased. He objected in capital letters. It would not be good form to quote him. I mention this only to illustrate the fact that I never write a technical critique that I would be unwilling to share with the author himself. In my opinion, if you are not willing to say what you think about an experiment directly to the author, you should not say it at all. That only applies to technical debates. Not your opinion of someone's clothing, religion, politics, or his wife. - - - - - - - - MESSAGE . . . Several days before this test, I sent Rossi a short list of suggestions. For example, I said that all data should be recorded on a single computer with time stamped records. I said that the outlet water from the heat exchanger should be made available to observers so they could independently test the temperature with their own equipment. It would have taken an hour or two to implement these changes. My suggestions would have answered every one of the objections that has been raised against this test so far. Every single one. It is true that a person cannot anticipate all objections. A skeptic can always come up with another reason to doubt something. But many objections can be anticipated and precluded. Other people on Vortex predicted that this test would have a list of specific problems, which were all easily fixed. The test did indeed have every single one of these problems. The instrumentation and set up were sloppy, thoughtless and unprofessional. To me, this expressed contempt for the audience. It said: "I will not make any effort to convince you. You may have traveled for hundreds of miles, but I will not bother to spend a few minutes arranging this equipment, zeroing out the thermocouples, or placing the probes in a way that will give you confidence in the results. You can take it or leave it." The test would have convinced a far larger number of people if it had only been done right. - Jed
