RE: Ball lightning, very close hit

["Tesla list" <tesla@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Original poster: "alfred erpel" <alfred@xxxxxxxxx>




Howdy Bill and all,


        I'll avoid the issue of possible disingenuousness that could be
brought up by your practice of selective snipping by which you make your
points which may or may not have to do with your original message.  Too, it
is totally perplexing why you would respond to my original message which has
the subject of [RE: Ball Lightning from high-amp discharge]  and then post
under this different subject line. You had to go out of your way to do that.

        I don't think many people deny that there are a group of phenomena
associated with the term "ball lightning".  They are unexplained.  These
seem (at least to me) to be in the category of eventually getting explained,
then they will be new science or not.  If not, they will continue to be
people's religious beliefs just like they are now to some core group of
believers, exactly as I have said is now.  Don't take it personal, I didn't
say you were in that group.



Regards,

Al Erpel




> -----Original Message-----
> From: Tesla list [mailto:tesla@xxxxxxxxxx]
> Sent: Thursday, January 18, 2007 12:50 AM
> To: tesla@xxxxxxxxxx
> Subject: Re: Ball lightning, very close hit
>
> Original poster: William Beaty <billb@xxxxxxxxxx>
>
>
>
>  > What is ball lightning right now, except a religious
> belief to some  > people?
>
> Have you studied the topic?  Obviously not.  I strongly
> suggest that you read the Ball Lightning article in this
> months' issue of Skeptic magazine.
> Track down some of the references given.
>
> Also see Dr. Martin Uman's popular book "All About Lightning"
> and his technical book "Lightning."  The scientific opinion
> on BL has shifted from ridicule to tenative acceptance.  This
> only occurred in the last 10-20 years, so lots of people who
> are not directly involved in the research are unaware of the
> change.  For example, the annual BL symposium for
> professional physicists is now in its 9th year.  In part the
> change occured because several physicists themselves have
> directly witnessed the phenomenon in the field, with one
> particular incident occurring in an airliner with several
> scientists on board returning from a conference.
>
>
> Where rare natural phenomena are involved, the background,
> education, and reputation of eyewitnesses is the key to
> separating the hoaxers from the genuine, as is the issue of
> hostile disbelief where eyewitnesses fear being labeled as
> "true believers."  As with any other emotion-based prejudice
> in science, hostile disbelief can be just as bad as gullible
> acceptance, since they both easily lead to cherry-picking, to
> selection of data.
>
>  > That said, if ball lightning DOESN'T exist because it
> can't ever be  > reliably shown to be replicated and/or
> theoretically posited, a thousand  > years from now most true
> believers will still be passive disciples of  > the idea.
>
> Wrong, because a growing number of physicists have turned
> into so-called "true believers" and are now looking at
> possible physical mechanisms, and publishing papers on
> various aspects.  With this movement away from ridicule,
> chances become far better that a researcher will be in a
> position to take measurements: stumble upon the natural
> phenomenon and aim a spectrometer (etc.) at it.  As is
> probably obvious, the Neils Bohr of BL research hasn't yet
> come along and solved the theoretical mystery.
>
>
>
>
> (((((((((((((((((( ( (  (   (    (O)    )   )  ) ) )))))))))))))))))))
> William J. Beaty                            SCIENCE HOBBYIST website
> billb at amasci com                         http://amasci.com
> EE/programmer/sci-exhibits   amateur science, hobby projects, sci fair
> Seattle, WA  425-222-5066    unusual phenomena, tesla coils, weird sci
>
>
>
>