Whoopee! My First Negative Comment

First off, let me say that I take my blog seriously, and put a lot of effort into it. I’m very new to this blogging thing and I haven’t received many comments from readers so far. However, today Jed Rothwell sent me my very first negative comment. So I thought I would honor Mr. Rothwell with this post.

I’m probably opening up a can of worms, Pandora’s Box, and even more when I say that I want my blog to be open to all opinions from all people. I don’t believe in censorship, but I hate trolls. Therefore, if you choose to comment, I only ask that you back your opinions with facts and logic. I would also hope for some courtesy and civility.

That said, here is the comment from Mr. Rothwell:

Cold fusion was not a flop. The cold fusion effect was replicated by hundreds of world class laboratories such as Los Alamos, and these replications were published in mainstream, peer-reviewed journals. I suggest you review the literature before commenting on the research. You should not repeat ignorant, unfounded nonsense from the internet without checking original sources.

You will find a bibliography and hundreds of full text papers here:

http://lenr-canr.org

- Jed Rothwell
Librarian, LENR-CANR.org
March 24, 2008 9:47 AM

This email is in response to my post entitled Easter And Cold Fusion. There seems to be great debate over whether cold fusion was a flop. If you check out the website that Mr. Rothwell recommends you will find a section containing news articles. If you check out some of these articles you will find that many of them are about this debate. If you check out Wikipedia’s entry for cold fusion you will find that it is locked to “editing until disputes are resolved.” So much for the blanket statement “Cold fusion was not a flop.” Some say it is, and some say it isn’t. I didn’t say anything about cold fusion myself. I really don’t consider myself to be qualified. I just linked to PZ Myers, a blogger who is also a biologist and associate professor at the University of Minnesota, Morris. He is also friends with Richard Dawkins. Remember the old saying: "You can tell a lot about someone by the company he keeps." I don’t think that PZ Myers and Richard Dawkins (published author and a professor at Oxford University, for christsake) contribute much “ignorant, unfounded nonsense” to the internet. Or to anything else for that matter.

So, Mr. Rothwell, I will post whatever I want to on MY blog, and you telling me I shouldn’t is not going to stop me.

One last thing, Mr Rothwell. Do you work the day shift? Are you firing off angry emails to poor hapless bloggers like me when you really should be working?

UPDATE - Tuesday, March 25, 2008: Mr Rothwell, has any scientist ever named an asteroid after YOU?