Rossi vs. Darden developments [CASE CLOSED]

Quote from sigmoidal

Everyone is entitled to their speculation, opinion (and even delusions), and sometimes even advice.

My free and earnest advice to you for what it's worth: don't quit your day job (but seriously consider that attempts to persuade people to invest their hopes, time, and money in faked technology is actually a detriment to society).

Advice taken. And my free and earnest advice to you is to consider the damage you might be doing to society by actively working to delay and hinder the invention of our lifetime with your advice. We can discuss which is worse; time and money of some limited number of random people (with nothing better to do) on the Internet or ... (consequences of a new cheap energy source for you to imagine). I made my choice and so did you.

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To me it's very strange that he just wave away these question and doesn't understand the physics and problems and need to vent out 1MW.

Ignorant put it bluntly. Yet later the heat exchanger is added to the plot. So to me, it is all an obvious smell in the wind direction, opposite of yours. Some rough figures an order of 10kW is needed to heat a normal

swedish villa in the winter half of the year, 1MW is 100 villas, and this is in Miami with a warm climate.

Thank you, thank you. Rossi is a magician. He can make heat disappear.

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...and my free and earnest advice to you is to consider the damage you might be doing to society by actively working to delay and hinder the invention of our lifetime with your advice.

There are a number really stupid arguments recirculated by believers in Rossi. One I already noted is the idea that for some evil reason, skeptics *want* LENR to fail when just the opposite would be so much more interesting and fun. Well here is another dismal inanity -- that somehow a few anonymous posters on obscure forums and blogs can derail and do serious damage to "the invention of our lifetime." The evidence is just the opposite. Despite reasonable debate about Rossi's tests over six years, dozens of suggestions on how to improve them, the fact that he never took a single suggestion and that the whole thing developed like the classical free energy scam, despite ALL THAT -- Rossi secured a $10M contract from a huge investment fund and was promised $90M more if he could prove the ecat worked. Clearly, even careful, considered, quality advice by experts does nothing to prevent foolish investments with con men!

The flavor of believer arguments, at the extreme (and Siff and Ele are certainly at the extremes) is the same as what I found when I tried to argue with those who defend psychics who talk to the dead (they can't), so-called near-death experiences which supposedly reveal an after life (they don't) and other miracles like telepathy, telekinesis, and the whole rattrap of so-called paranormal or psychic phenomena, including UFO's. The sort of belief Ele and Siff have in Rossi and LENR is a similar sort of logic-immune thinking which gives no consideration to reality, rational thought, logic, past experience or scientific method.

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I would be shocked if they haven't gone through it in great detail. And I would be shocked if nothing from the blog made it into testimony. I wouldn't be surprised if Jones Day starts the process of getting those statement in by making Rossi explain, on the record and in front of the jury, the difference between a "journal" and a "blog." (That's a choice that would depend on their feel for him as a witness, how he'll respond, if it would provoke him in ways likely to help their case, etc.)

This was one of the first things that tipped me off about Rossi's crookedness back in 2011. How could he give his idiotic blog such a pretentious and misleading name and get away with it? He even fooled me the first time I saw a reference to "JONP" -- I thought it was a real journal! I've tried to keep this bit of dishonesty in people's view for years.

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Yes. I have to say i think the psychology of this is tricky. Rossi is good at PR, and has a few real scientists who still adore him as inventor who is saving the world.

That's right but I think much of Rossi's abilities were always about choosing his marks (victims of his scams). He chose people who had much desire and a lot of gullibility. They were also polite and trusting and did not wish to behave towards Rossi in a way that would exclude them for future meetings and demos.

I think that Rossi is currently much deteriorated from the 2011 Rossi, what with some physical illnesses (IIRC) and all the strain and stress of maintaining the scam. I would not be surprised if his testimony were incoherent babble and if he dissolved on cross examination. It's too much to expect but it would be very entertaining if Jones Day cleverly embarrassed and annoyed him to the point where he was reduced to sputtering spittle. Too much to expect but something to hope for, perhaps. Anyway, I think the new Rossi is not as capable at bamboozling, flummoxing and scamming as he once was and a court is not a great venue in which to regain and practice those skills.

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I'm going to go ahead and make a prediction (more of a wild-ass guess, really) as to the outcome of this trial. It should be noted that: (1) this is more of a gut instinct call than anything else; and (2) my track record on trial predictions is mixed.

My prediction is that everyone is walking away from this one with nothing. Rossi loses his case, but IH loses their counterclaim, and each side ultimately pays its own attorneys fees and share of the costs.

Sadly, I agree. I have limited experience with lawsuits, most of it bad, but that was real estate law. It involved judges and arbitrators who made capricious (and IMO wrong) decisions. In the case of an arbitrator, he even refused to explain the basis for the decision, he said he didn't have to, and the arbitration association which had supplied him agreed! Anyway, I would think that sort of result that Mike D predicts to be more likely from a judge or an arbitrator than from a jury but this is from a knowledge base of near zero.

Quote from sigmoidal

Because in the incredibly unlikely event that any of his stuff has any value at all (except as a null finding), he still has a proven record of technically unskilled extraordinarily deceptive behavior.

Ok. So you will sleep well because your intentions were good, not because how it turned out. That is despicable the way I see it ... (but of course, it will keep your back clear)

Dewey Weaver

Do you have a public CV/Bio posted somewhere or maybe on Linkedin? One question I wanted to ask you since you seem actively involved in this case, is why otherwise smart people like Darden and Vaughn, did not bother to have someone look over the internet chatter about Rossi. Or if they did, why they disregarded it so completely? Also, why would they use entirely or mostly people related to or working with Rossi to evaluate the old work? And why in the world did a one year test of a weird kludge consisting of multiple ecats appeal to them when no decent simple test existed before? Or did they even know that? Or did they care about any of this? How did you feel about it? Thanks

ETA: why did neither IH nor Woodford contact Krivit, Wright, Pomp and Ericsson, Shanahan, Zeopfl, and many others. Or little old me ([email protected])? Why did they not ask Boeing (or another credible lab) to test a simple ecat BEFORE they committed $10M. Is that such chump change to them?

@Dewey Well, good luck with your testimony, etc.

I was puzzled about the lack of proper vetting by both IH and Woodford because in the past, several large individual investors *did* contact me and others via internet sources about Rossi and Defkalion. As I said before, I never recommended specifically not investing. I highlighted the concerns about Rossi's past, about his terribly inadequate tests, and told them the correct way to test an ecat claim and who could do it.

Nobody who contacted me (or some of the other parties following Rossi) invested. In fact nobody at all, other than IH/Woodford, invested much in Rossi or Defkalion that I know of except principals in the companies (Defkalion, Ampenergo (what a horrible name), Hydrofusion, distributors maybe) and now, here we are, Anyway, I wish you well and I hope you will answer my questions after the trial. You're welcome to email me at my yahoo address if you prefer to contact my real persona.

Quote from sigmoidal

Res ipsa loquitur, as they say.

Judgement day is coming, and it won't be coming from you or me, but rather a jury trial and Federal Judge, and then from your followers as Rossi delivers (or not).

Squirming, much?

Nope. Not much. I'm fully aware of the unpredictability of the US legal system so I chose not to worry about it. Ethics is generally more important to me. I guess for you it's the other way around? "The road to hell is paved by good intentions", as they say...

Quote from Shane D.

MD,

IH has submitted a couple JONP Rossisays into evidence. Forget which exhibit, but they are in there, and they are relevant. Not sure if one of them was Rossi claiming JMP's product (FTR, there was no product)) absorbed 100% of the supplied thermal, but if not in the docket now, it will probably be presented at trial. JONP is a rich source for Rossi contradictions (Rossisays), and no doubt JD has gone over it with a fine tooth comb.

Good. If they have been allowed as evidence then other JONP Rossisays items should be allowed as well. If I were the judge I'd be focusing on the Rossisays "I would refund IH if I got my IP back" and this whole trial could get wrapped up in 20 minutes rather than 5 weeks.