>From Jed: ...
> Krivit has done important work, and he has done a lot of good for the > field. Both Steven and I have worked with Krivit, and benefited from > the experience. So I do not wish to turn this thread into a >"bash Steve Krivit" extravaganza. But I would like to add one thing. > > From my perspective, it is pathetic that Krivit is advocating a > theory. I do not think he has the expertise to evaluate cold fusion > theory. I am sure that I do not have that expertise. I am not ashamed > to admit that because Mizuno and many other chemists have told me > they cannot make head or tail of theory, and they skip the theory > sessions at conferences. If they don't have a clue what Hagelstein > is talking about, it is cinch I don't. To follow up Jed Rothwell's recent commentary, I have to admit that lately much of what I have had to say about Krivit has not been terribly complementary. But that was not always the case. I agree with Jed in the matter that Krivit has published serious, useful work. I risk repeating myself here, but several years ago I volunteered to be a member on Krivit's NET BoD. Steve asked me to join the NET BoD. I felt I might be of some useful service. In the end, what soured me, personally, was the fact that very quickly it became obvious to me that Krivit's view of investigative reporting differed from what I thought investigative reporting ought to be all about. In the end I could not reconcile, nor in good conscious continue to be a BoD member based on the direction Krivit wanted to take NET. Also, in the end I think Krivit was no longer interested in any advice or insight I might have to share. It seemed to me that all I had become was just another BoD member (of several) he needed in order for NET to maintain its tax exempt status. By law, BoD members must meet regularly every year. That can be done by conducting teleconferences. However, I gather that at least once a year everyone has to meet in person at an agreed-upon location. I participated in a number of telephone BoD conference calls, as well as an in-person meeting held in a conference room at a motel near the Milwaukee airport. A side comment: Krivit used to post the names and photos of BoD members out on NET. When I came on board however, Krivit had already discretely removed all of that information. He did so because he wanted to protect BoD members from potential reprisals from individuals and/or organizations that were unhappy with his investigation efforts. Say what you will about Krivit's investigative intentions, Krivit WAS concerned about the welfare of his BoD members. That was considerate of him. Nevertheless, I still felt extremely vulnerable as a NET BoD member. Talking to a lawyer friend of mine didn’t ease my concerns. If someone with an extremely vindictive nature REALLY got pissed off with Steve I'm sure they would eventually uncover who the BoD members are and make life miserable for them if that is how they wanted to go about settling the score. Meanwhile, as previous stated, I did not like the direction Krivit was taking his investigative reporting. When I confronted Krivit via eMail pertaining to what I thought was a serious issue, Krivit got angry at me for confronting him. As Rothwell once said, Krivit seems to be extremely thin-skinned. I attempted to confront Krivit privately. Krivit, in turn, decided to parade what I said to him in private in front of rest of other BoD members, presumably to prove to everyone what an asshole I was being towards him. This actually amused me. Frankly, I didn't care that Steve had done this. I had absolutely nothing to hide. I originally sent the eMail privately to Krivit as a courtesy because in the past we had conducted MANY private phone calls over various matters. I though those phone calls for the most part had been productive. However, Krivit chose to take my private email in a different direction, presumably to use it as the justification he needed in to remove me from the BoD. I suspect Krivit came to this decision after I had unwisely publicly critiqued him out in Vortex based on an interview he participated in where he basically inferred that McKubre had deliberately produced false data. Krivit never actually said that McKubre had deliberately "lied", but he let the listener strongly infer that. After I had heard Krivit's interview, I initially tried to rationalize Steve's intentions as just someone who was inexperienced at being interviewed. That was stupid of me. Krivit meant what he meant, and it was not my job to try to reinterpret Krivit's intentions. I eventually resigned over the matter. But enuf of me and my own saga. This is really about Steven Krivit. Krivit in the past used to participate in the Vortex list. However, when Krivit's investigations into the actions of certain prominent CF researchers caused several Vort participants to begin questioning and confronting his actions Krivit eventually found a way to excuse himself from the Collective in a way I suspect he thought saved face. I seem to recall that at one point Krivit actually demanded that Mr. Rothwell PUBLICLY APOLOGIZE to him for imagined derogatory statements Jed had made to him. Of course, Jed never apologized. Why the hell should he. But that was not the point. It seemed obvious to me that Krivit used that exchange as a pretext to excuse himself from having to be grilled insofar as the Vort Collective was concerned. One more point, and I’ll say this for the record, Krivit became terrified of a well known Vortex poster: Abd ul-Rahman Lomax. Abd is an individual who has had firsthand experience trying to work with some of the Wikipedia thought police – i.e. certain self-appointed anonymous Cold Fusion “editors”. What made matters worse for Krivit was that, in my view, Krivit was incapable of recognizing how much Lomax actually scared him. IMHO, Krivit was incapable of facing the possibility that some of Lomax’s lengthy and obsessive-like postings might actually have some merit. Krivit dealt with this by eventually banning Lomax’s name from even being mentioned within future BoD discussions. This, of course, made it impossible to deal with the matter. I noticed that Krivit seemed to prefer to visualize Lomax as some kind of a collective personality, like a MY, or Joshua Cude, or GROK. Krivit feared that Lomax might be a constructed personality, a front man (a puppet), someone that was doing the dirty work for a number of nameless ruthless enemies who had it all in for Krivit. What this meant to me was that If Krivit was incapable of dealing with the individual, Lomax, why would I think that Krivit would be capable of properly assessing the motivations and actions of other individuals he felt suspicious of. Compounding the matter, If Krivit couldn’t even recognize what was unconsciously driving his own actions, such as when it came to Lomax, what value would the conclusions Krivit might draw of the alleged actions of others he might feel suspicious of. Despite all this, Krivit continues to investigate. Despite this rather damning criticism, some of what Krivit reports on is still very interesting, such as the business relationship breakup between Rossi and National Instruments. While I am certainly curious as to what this might mean, I'm not so interested in what Krivit may be attempting to infer from this alleged breakup. In conclusion, my concern is that Krivit has isolated himself from too many individuals who could have helped give him objective impartial feedback. IMHO, it is not possible to produce good quality investigative reporting, not without the assistance several trusted associates (i.e. editors) that could give Steve valuable feedback and act as sounding boards. Without that feedback, Krivit is in real danger of creating a universe of his own making, a universe filled with circuitous facts and figures that will do nothing more than reaffirm what Steve has already concluded. This became blatantly obvious to me when Krivit became baffled over why NASA Chief scientist, Bushnell, did not seemed to be overly concerned about Rossi’s faults, this after all the damming things Krivit had reported concerning Rossi’s actions of the past 12 months. To suddenly stumble across someone prominent, like Bushnell, behaving in a seemingly contradictory way that goes against what Krivit had previously concluded would possibly cause Krivit to question his own value as an investigative reporter. Unfortunately, Krivit is not likely to be motivated to seriously explore such an unpleasant possibility. He might instead be motivated to start attacking individuals like Bushnell. And all the while, there will be no one at NET that could help him peer over the ideological walls he seems to have shielded himself within. Unfortunately, IMO, Steve's BoD will be of no help, this based on my own experience as a former BoD. They certainly don't "direct". Steve would not have that! From what I witnessed none on the board showed much inkling to seriously question any of Steve's intentions. I think that’s the way Mr. Krivit wants it. Regards, Steven Vincent Johnson www.OrionWorks.com www.zazzle.com/orionworks
