Last night, the Art Bell show's host
mentioned the guy who claims to have reduced gravity by 2% or so in an experiment. I don't remember who this was...its not important... it was the host who commited the offense.

The host made me mad when he said that other scientists have not been able to reproduce his findings, but what do they know? They didn't go for Einstein at first either, did they?

What an idiotic thing to say. Einstein had a new theory that made testible predictions that were in fact tested and found to hold up.

This guy makes a direct observational claim that no one can reproduce. Not a new way of interpreting things, not a new theory. He said, I see this great new effect, can you see it too? Oh, you can't? Well my eyes and ears must be better than yours because I can. Still can't? You're treating me like you treat all new ideas. Can't see it even now? well...lets have a debate about it and let the people decide....

If others can't reproduce your results, it is a BIG DEAL. You can't brush it off like the host of the Art Bell show did, and the "Cold Fusion" crowd still do.

To ask for your crazy new theory to be tested and given a chance is one thing. For it to be directly falsified and then pretend that it is NO BIG DEAL....just another obsticle to overcome....

Sorry buddy, it is a big deal. If no one can reproduce your results, the burden of proof is on you to show why. To dismiss as NO BIG DEAL the hard work of others who showed respect for you, tried to reproduce your results, and couldn't is insufferable arrogance. And it makes me mad. How can people get away with saying such things?
Isn't the media supposed to pounce on people like that, or at least ignore them? Maybe in my dream world...

Most scientists realize that talk shows aren't the correct forum for intellectual inquiry. Such things are best ignored.

The observed phenomenon cannot be duplicated to be studied in order to determine its cause. Therefore, it will sit in obscurity.

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If you're not part of the solution then you're part of the precipitate.

Not only idiotic, but wrong.

Witkowski, upon reading Einstein's 1905 paper on relativity, exclaimed "A new Copernicus is born! Read Einstein's paper!". Other heavyweights like Planck and Minkowski immediately recongonized the value of special relativity.

But such comments in such shows add to the anti-scientific sentiment in the public...

I'm just glad I didn't hear that, my bp would have went up...

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"Ignorance has caused more calamity than malignity" H.G. Wells

"Getting lost is part of exploring." Uniqua in "Backyardigans-Heart of the Jungle"

"Trying to wrap my head around creationist astronomy is like trying to ride a unicycle around a Moebius strip: it’s off-balance, physically impossible, full of one-sided arguments, and in the end you don’t go anywhere." Phil Plait

Boeing is trying to duplicate it.
http://biz.yahoo.com/djus/020729/200...2000258_1.html