EYES WIDE SHUT
"When Jim Millette didn't research the iron microspheres, I goaded two people into doing simple experiments."
Rather than pursuing a weak strategy aimed at undermining the conditions in which iron-rich microspheres can be produced, why did you not do a point-by-point analysis of what was already shown?
You certainly had lots of material to sift through.
Dr. Millette claimed that all the 9/11 WTC dust red chips he tested had to be some sort of steel primer paint, even though he was unable to identify which.
The scientists who produced the 2009 Bentham paper unequivocally claimed that their 9/11 WTC dust red chip samples were not steel primer paint.
Since steel primer paint material and nanothermitic material have such different chemical behaviour, why did you not investigate this significant dichotomy?
This is a real mystery. One which any pursuing investigative journalist should have been salivating over.
Unquestionably, most scientists loyal to the "established view" would not react favourably to questions of a dissenting nature, but given your acknowledged skepticism I am sure they would have warmed up to science-based queries.
If investigative journalism was easy everyone would practise it.
If Dr. Harrit et al, are the liars that Dr. Millette's findings portray them to be, why have you not unburied the real truth which explains the findings in their paper?
But asking Dave to burn some paint in a barrel as an attempted debunking?
There must be physicists galore that would be willing to provide possible alternative explanations for the 2009 Bentham paper findings.
At the very least, they would explain why, say "rubbish", and you could openly argue Dr. Harrit et al to be liars based on scientific authority.
"When he didn't do the DSC tests, I contacted several labs and asked them if they would do it. Six or seven refused, afraid that if it WERE thermite, it would destroy their crucibles.
I reseached and acknowledged that Farrer et al actually DID have the correct crucibles to contain thermite in their 2009 experiments (oooh, come to think of it, does Mark Basile have a specially designed crucible or does IT get destroyed at thermite-burning temperatures?)"
Is it known that a barely visible, dust chip sized sample of thermite could produce long enough lasting heat to damage a crucible?
Since you were aware that Mark Basile did not require the use of DSC for his findings, could you have not asked those labs about using a muffle furnace like Dr. Millette utilized?
Did you ever ask Dr. Millette if you could have some of his chip samples so you could have them tested by a lab willing to use heat above 400C (Dr. Millette was after all finished with his examination of those chips and you had contributed $1,000 of our money to his testing), or even pass them along to Dave Thomas who could perform a heat test in his school's lab with followup XEDS?
So many doors that could have been opened to widen the investigation.
Yet so little interest in doing so.
Why?
MM