QuoteWhen I tell him that Darden knew the test wouldn't be valid, he tells me that Darden was betting on the customer. Then when I tell him that Darden had good reason to not trust the customer, he agrees with me and just tells me they were trying to keep Rossi happy while trying to get his technology to work back in Raleigh. I find that highly dubious. I have not seen any indication in the documents that the test was necessary to keep Rossi "sweet." I have not seen anything to indicate they would spend something like $200,000 (roughly) to make that happen. I have not seen any indication in the documents where they say that this was their motivation. But perhaps I stand to be corrected.
I nevertheless have the strong impression that Huxley is not engaged in an honest debate...
I nevertheless object to somone with a weak case (in the sense that you have hunches that you present here as likely but don't back up with facts) calling me dishonest.
Ignoring the personal slur. You are misrepresenting my argument. I do you the credit of viewing this as a lack of attention, and not dishonesty. You force a binary choice on this matter of Darden's motivation, and note the $200K out of context. Remember he had already by this time spent $10.5M to get his hands on Rossi IP. $200K is another 2%. Surely worth it if either it can provide a truly working system, or keep Rossi on side. Darden would be very concerned to make absolutely sure whether or not the IP bought for $10.5M contained the Grail - or not. If he judges 2% of the purchase price will help that process he will pay it. You would judge differently? Maybe, but I can understand Darden's call here. Remember Darden does not care about a PR test. Either he can get Rossi's stuff working in his own labs, or not. That is the validation that matters. A real customer would be interesting because it would be a strong data point on the positive side and encourage continued efforts to get Rossi's stuff to work. But no real customer does not alter the situation. Darden would have to be an idiot not to be aware that this claimed test done on Rossi's terms is probably fake.
Personally I think that in paying the $10M IH made a big and high risk gamble. But I can understand it. Having put themselves in that position everything else is plausible.
You assume that Darden was betting on the Doral test (the 2%). In reality, they bet $10M, and added $0.2M as a judgement call because it would annoy Rossi not to go along with his request, and because perhaps they wete seduced by the independent external customer. I'm sure they would like to have knowm who it was, and I'm equally sure Rossi would not let them check. It is quite clear from Rossi's character and the way he treated this test that it was dear to his heart - presumably because of the possible $89M.
What you find inconsistent is perhaps that Rossi treated this as the GPT and IH did not. Anyone studying Rossi should not be surprised at this misrepresentation.
Personally - I'd not have backed the Doral test. But then I never credited Lugano as showing positive results, and never thought Rossi could have anything, his initial demos were so transparently false. I'm in no position to judge Darden. Calling him dishonest, on your hunch, is just as slimy as calling me dishonest.