I.e., to send Infusion Institute funding to keep this work going. I started a GoFundMe campaign:
I intend to go to Miami for the trial in Rossi v. Darden — if it happens, which is seeming likely, though the scope of the trial remains unclear at this point. Getting there is relatively cheap (I’ll probably take the bus), but a hotel would be expensive, I expect, unless I share a room — which is how I managed to afford ICCF-18.
This blog isn’t expensive, though it is beginning to push resource limits and I may need to start paying more for hosting.
Hi Abd
I was wondering if you think a Newspaper would pay
you for covering the Rossi vs Darden trial for them.
Regards
Sam
I’ve not noticed any newspapers interested in the story. However, I am in communication with a friendly magazine, and may also collaborate with others.
Abd – last time I simply used PayPal, since though they’ll have their cut anyway I figure there’s no need for GoFundMe to have a cut as well. With money transfers (except by BitCoin which logically is an even-bigger rip-off based on belief that it embodies “computer time”, which is about on par with using used bus-tickets as currency) there are always losses, but I try to minimise them.
PayPal OK this time?
Of course. Thanks.
Paypal does charge fees, under most conditions, but GoFundMe does charge 5% on top, plus normal cc processing. That’s reasonable, for the convenience. If someone wants to donate hundreds of dollars or more, sure, more direct means can be used, ask! Possibly the cheapest way is direct bank transfer, but, without precautions, that’s risky. I routinely use Xoom for subastantial international transfers. For the conditions I face, their flat $5 fee is cheap, and they take a little on the exchange rate, but not much. And they stand behind their service. (I had a dispute with them, but when I took it to the extreme, they more carefully investigated and … I ended up making almost $1000 for my hours on the phone and time spent writing emails. That was an amazing experience.)
Infusion Institute has a public address: 40 Fort St., Apt 1, Northampton, MA 02160, and checks may be made out to Infusion Institute, Inc. Please indicate if you wish the donation to be anonymous: there are two levels of anonymity: 1. Identity anonymous and 2. Identity open, amount anonymous. I will not publish anonymous amounts in a way that would allow identification of the donor.
Abd – what you’re doing looks like having a bigger effect on the future of LENR than most. Yep, I know you’re doing this by persuading others to do the actual experiments and to pay, and not actually doing the experiments, but setting the direction is important. Though the trip to the trial is more of a boondoggle IMHO, I have no doubt you’ll meet some useful people there. Though the net works, it remains that some personal contact helps in working problems out.
At the moment I have some money to put where my mouth is (the pension doesn’t go far) and I’m getting kit for the 2LoT attack, but LENR remains an important possible clean energy source and we really ought to know why and how it works. Rossi won’t tell us that, but Plan B might lead to that by bringing it into the realm of real rather than pathological.
Another part is to convince Rossi followers that they are following a will o’the wisp, and to go back to Piantelli (or maybe Thermacore) if they want Ni/H to work. That might be an outcome of the trial, if it gets to that. If those people can finally see just how much Rossi had lied and laid false trails, there’s a chance that a re-examination of earlier experiments could reveal something we didn’t see before. After all, we now have a bigger set of experiments that worked and that didn’t work.
Thanks, Simon.
Never forget about fun. Fun is important. No Fun, no sustained effort. Infusion Institute largely exists to fund my work, though it may extend to supporting others. III was never intended to be a source of actual research funding, and that is quite deliberate (and this was all discussed at length with the CMNS community on the private list, as III was being formed years back). Rather, the goal of III is facilitation: the research plan (also called Plan B when formulated) was to identify worthy research projects, define them, ideally with extensive public input, solicit bids to actually perform the projects, then provide these with recommendations to sources of funding. The actual research agreements would be between the funding sources and the research organizations, or specific scientists, perhaps. MFMP could be an organization, though they might need to become a bit more formal to manage this. III would merely be an advisor, and, itself, would be advised by the public. This could avoid much of the all-too-common power struggles over property and funds. As part of the formation process for III, I discussed the plan with a scientist working at a National Laboratory, who was in a training that I was a coach for, and he (quite encouraging in general) told me that there were companies that do exactly this: facilitate research.
III is organized not for profit, but may work with profit-making organizations, the workman is worthy of his meat, or LENRIA, the “Industry Association” project of David Nagel and others. I hope to meet Nagel again on my trip south, but I haven’t asked him yet (I’m quite sure that if he is available when I’m travelling, he’ll agree to meet, we have excellent relations, for some years now.)
Yes, much of the goal of the trip is meeting people, as well as seeing the actual human beings involved in Rossi v. Darden. I may go on to other destinations. Developing human contacts is much of the III work, but facilitating the finding of community consensus is a major goal. We don’t need complete consensus, but the effort toward it will, I have no doubt, help move LENR forward.
Part of moving forward is identifying “breakdowns” and understanding causal relationships, when possible. Rossi was … idiosyncratic. So are many LENR scientists, one had to be a bit outside of “normal” to persist in the field. An exception would be McKubre, who was always paid for his work. He is simply a professional. And fun!!! I hope that by the time I go to Texas, his health will have improved enough to travel and perhaps be there. For myself, with what he called “similar issues,” I now know what I need to be careful about, and my overall health may be better than it has been for a long time. But I’m not going to drive to Florida by myself! In 2015, I was planning a massive tour of the U.S. (and Canada) for LENR, but my engine blew up less than 100 miles into the trip. The car engine, not my heart, and … the schedule was tight and I saw no way to reformulate the trip without spending a *lot* more money. I really don’t know how that trip would have worked, with its sometimes 8 hours a day of driving, because the condition that had developed was probably present then….. Now, it’s “leave the driving to us.” Riding the bus is an opportunity to meet “real people,” which I consider fun. It does take a little longer, and in some cases may be as expensive as flying, but it is far more convenient. I can walk to the bus terminal here. The big expense will probably be a hotel in Miami and maybe I’ll find someone to share the room.