X-Message-Number: 7614
From: Peter Merel <>
Subject: Visser: wait and see
Date: Sun, 2 Feb 1997 10:18:20 +1100 (EST)

JV Coetzee writes,

>Can Mr. Plat, Merrel and others enlighten us with their accomplishments
>in detail. Since they are such great admirers of peer review could
>they tell us how many papers they have submitted for publication?  

I don't know about Platt, but I'm an engineer, not a scientist; I don't
test fundamental theories, but make new things by plugging together old
ones. Some of the work I do is speculative and I generally make this
work available on the net. You might enjoy an example of this at 
"http://www.zip.com.au/~pete/ss.html". I also make things unrelated to
engineering, and you can find pointers to these at
"http://www.zip.com.au/~pete/".

While I haven't involved myself in the debate on Visser, I don't think
I'd align my comments with those of Metzger and the gents from CC.  I
don't subscribe to the idea that bad science has a "signature" - I
think, for example, that most of Tesla's work fit the "signature" for
bad science, and he's the fellow who gave us AC power generation and
distribution, induction motors, fluorescent lights, and radio: whether
your encyclopedia knows it or not, Marconi's patents were struck down in
favour of Tesla in the 1940s.

So my opinion on Visser remains one of wait-and-see. 

While I'm typing here I should note that I'm well behind on my cryonet
reading, and if other comments have slung themselves my way I hope that
folks will be patient with me. I'm beginning to think that inability to
keep up with correspondence is a fundamental engineering constraint ...

Peter Merel.


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