Re: Teslas Ball Lightning

["Tesla list" <tesla@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Original poster: Brett Miller <brmtesla2@xxxxxxxxx>


> Since BL is unproven, watch for your own emotional
> bias.  If you
> constantly argue that BL doesn't exist, then you're
> not very objective.
> (The same is true if you constantly argue that BL
> exists.)   A good
> scientist should be able to take either viewpoint
> and present that side's
> arguments without distorting them or trying to "win"
> a debate.

Everyone is biased.  It doesn't matter.  That's why
science has error correction with competition, peer
review, and everyone showing their work.  In science
we let the weight of the evidence speak the loudest.
So far no one has been able to quantify something
called ball lightning, nor provide a mechanism, or
demonstrate a model which makes testable predictions.


Saying you say a beachball or basketball sized
luminous orb float around, pass through a door or wall
and then later dissolve with a "bang" is a pretty
outrageous claim, especially if you cannot provide a
mechanism.  It is then up to the claimant to
demonstrate compelling evidence of existance, and
generally the phenominon is considered likely to be
nonexistant until then.  Not that it is completely
outside the realm of possibility, just deemed highly
unlikely.

I believed in ball lightning as a child because I
wanted to and it seemed "really cool", but now that I
am older and see how scant the evidence is (pretty
much zero), I am pretty doubtful.  I would however,
love to find out I was incorrect.  Personally though,
I'm going to spend my time building and perfecting new
tesla coils rather than attempting to witness or
reproduce ball lightning.

I don't believe that scientists conspire to hide the
truth about ball lightning because it might embarass
them or shatter their conservative paradigm.  Sounds
to  me like the creationist christians I've heard a
lot who say that evolutionists are involved in a
conspiracy to hide fossils which would server as
evidence that the earth is only 6000 years old.  It's
probably more likely that one or two guys didn't feel
it was worth their time to worry about ball lightning,
even if they did see something that looked a little
weird during a thunderstorm.

-Brett

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