Dr. Moffett Smears ‘Active Thermitic’ Paper by Association- Again by Erik Larson

Direct link to smear job- leave a comment: http://www.opednews.com/articles/911-NanoTech-Thermite-Publ-by-John-R-Moffett-090616-456.html

See this link for hyperlinks in my post:

Dr. Moffett Smears ‘Active Thermitic’ Paper by Association- Again
http://www.opednews.com/populum/diarypage.php?did=13504

In another headlined article at OpEdNews.com, Sr. Editor Dr. Moffett has again smeared the peer-reviewed paper, Active Thermitic Material Discovered in Dust from the 9/11 World Trade Center Catastrophe published in The Open Chemical Physics Journal, published by Bentham.org. A different Bentham.org journal, The Open Information Science Journal, recently published a hoax paper, and 2 editors resigned: Open Access Publisher Accepts Nonsense Manuscript for Dollars. See Dr. Moffett’s previous smear job rebutted by Dr. Michael Green, here: Pardon Our Dust, or, Why the World Trade Center Dust Matters. See Dr. Moffett’s current smear job here: 911 NanoTech Thermite Publisher Accepts Fake Paper, Editors quit

I find some areas of agreement with Dr. Moffet; for instance, he says: "The only way to find out what really happened [on 9/11] is to have a large panel of independent researchers reopen the case, with access to the classified documents that would be needed to make a valid assessment of all the data."

However, the paper is devoted to attacking the Active Thermitic paper, in ways that are unjustified. For instance, Dr. Moffett says: "The subgroup of 911 Truthers who are advocating this particular [nanothermite] theory of the WTC collapse have declared victory over those advocating the controlled demolition theory, or the missiles disguised as planes theory, or the directed energy weapons theory, or even the secret nuclear reactors in the WTC basements theory, because they now have a “scientific paper published in a peer reviewed journal” to buttress their claims."

The Active Thermitic paper simply documents nanothermite in the WTC dust; it doesn't present a theory of how the towers were demolished (although the findings obviously support theories), and the presence of the red-gray thermitic chips doesn't preclude the use of other types of explosives as well.

Regarding the holograms, mini-nukes and energy beams Moffett mentions; these are ideas for which no, or extremely flimsy evidence exists, and hardly any real people claim to believe them. It may be these ideas were invented in order to discredit the Truth Movement by association- in addition to pushing these bogus claims, some of their main proponents have also engaged in disruptive, divisive behavior and have subsequently been shunned by a large number of truth movement activists and orgs. Similarly, Dr. Moffett has tried to discredit the Active Thermitic paper by associating it with the now-discredited Open Information Science Journal.

Dr. Moffet also says: "It is not surprising that the public is not aware of the fact that the so-called Bentham Open Science publishing group is basically a vanity publication where anyone can publish a “peer reviewed scientific journal article” which is not actually peer reviewed."

Actually, as Dr. Moffet knows, if he's looked into the hoax paper incident at all- the authors of the hoax paper also acknowledged; "From this one case, we cannot conclude that Bentham Science journals practice no peer review, only that it is inconsistently applied. Earlier this year, I reported on a case in which a nonsensical article submitted to another Bentham Science journal was rejected after going through peer review [1]." Open Access Publisher Accepts Nonsense Manuscript for Dollars

If Dr. Moffet were objective, he would have acknowledged that himself. And contrary to Dr. Moffet's claim that it’s a “fact that the so-called Bentham Open Science publishing group is basically a vanity publication where anyone can publish a “peer reviewed scientific journal article” which is not actually peer reviewed."

The Open Chemical Physics Journal and 154 other Bentham journals are listed in the Directory of Open Access Journals operated by Lund University Libraries. Open Access is a fast growing model for peer-reviewed publication. Open Access generally means there are no fees to subscribe to the journals and papers are published online, so the entire world can read the papers. This vastly increases access, public knowledge and scrutiny of published findings. As there are no fees to subscribe, the financial support for journals’ existence comes from subsidies, the paper’s authors, or the Universities they’re associated with- as was the case with the Active Thermitic paper. Those responsible at these universities- Copenhagen U and BYU- also reviewed the paper.

There have been complaints about Bentham spamming people to submit papers and join Bentham journal editorial boards, but so far there have been no other claims that Bentham journals didn’t perform adequate peer-review of published papers. However, as a result of the hoax incident, there will be increased scrutiny on Bentham, and more examples may come to light.

The 2 editors at The Open Information Science Journal who accepted the hoax paper were right to resign, as the hoax paper was published on their watch. How can an “editor” have no control over what’s being published? Did they not even know they didn’t know what was going on at their own journal?

It seems likely this is the case with Marie-Paule Pileni, who resigned after she discovered the Active Thermitic paper had been published in The Open Chemical Physics Journal, of which she was Editor-in-Chief. She discredits herself in the statement that Dr. Moffet quoted; “I cannot accept that this topic is published in my journal. The article has nothing to do with physical chemistry or chemical physics, and I could well believe that there is a political viewpoint behind its publication. If anyone had asked me, I would say that the article should never have been published in this journal. Period.”

As Dr. Moffet says, “Despite supposedly being the chief editor, she had not been informed that the thermite article was going to be published in her journal.”

Pileni says “if anyone had asked me” - how can the “editor-in-chief” be unaware? Was she simply trading her name for a title and a paycheck, and paying no attention to what was being published at her journal?

In addition, she discredits herself with the claim that “the article has nothing to do with physical chemistry or chemical physics”; nanothermite has everything to do with physical chemistry and chemical physics, and the Active Thermitic paper documented various experiments with the physical and chemical properties of the red-gray chips.

And as Dr. Moffet should know, Pileni is reported by videnskab.dk to have said, “because the topic lies outside her field of expertise, she cannot judge whether the article in itself is good or bad."

However, as documented at the above link, Pileni has an extensive background in chemical physics and physical chemistry- as well as with explosives- and she also has extensive connections to the defense industry. This may have more to do with her resignation- in any case, despite her insinuation, the quality of the paper has nothing to do with her resignation, as Pileni did not point out ANY flaws in it; and if Videnskab is correct, she claimed she “cannot judge whether the article in itself is good or bad."

Likewise, Dr. Moffet has not legitimately debunked the Active Thermitic paper- he has only attempted an appearance of doing so; smearing it by association with the other discredited journal. Again, see this rebuttal of his previous smear job, by Dr. Michael Green: Pardon Our Dust, or, Why the World Trade Center Dust Matters

This hoax incident will no doubt bring even greater scrutiny on the Active Thermitic paper. If there are flaws, let them be pointed out. If there are none, let that be known as well. In any case, independent scientists should be confirming the presence of the red-gray chips in World Trade Center dust, and performing their own experiments on them. If the findings are confirmed, full criminal, congressional and international investigations, with public oversight, are called for- as people have been calling for, in increasing numbers, since the crimes of 9/11 happened.

Dr. Moffett supports a new 9/11 investigation, saying, “I don’t believe the official story of the 911 commission report, and in fact, neither do many members of the 911 commission” and “The only way to find out what really happened is to have a large panel of independent researchers reopen the case, with access to the classified documents that would be needed to make a valid assessment of all the data. In order to facilitate that happening, the 911 Truth Movement should stop squabbling over pet theories, and concentrate on getting a new investigation with subpoena power and the authorization to view classified documents started. This will take some serious Congressional lobbying by those interested parties. So leave your favorite theories at home, and press Congress for a new investigation.”

I agree with Dr. Moffett on the need for independent review of still classified documents- and Congressional authorization of a Citizen’s commission with subpoena power and public oversight would be a good way to have this review. There may well be hard evidence of criminal foreknowledge, negligence and complicity hidden in classified files. The official version of events is already contradicted by thousands of pieces of evidence already in the public record, in the form of government documents and reports, statements by principals, and reporting done by the MSM: see The Complete 9/11 Timeline hosted by HistoryCommons.org. However, the way WTC 1, 2 and 7 collapsed is indicative of controlled demolition. The findings of NIST and FEMA actually support the controlled demolition hypothesis, as documented in a still not debunked or discredited letter published April 2008 in Bentham’s Open Civil Engineering Journal: Fourteen Points of Agreement with Official Government Reports on the World Trade Center Destruction. Furthermore, the EPA’s own data supports the theory that energetic materials were involved in the destruction of the Twin Towers; the paper Environmental anomalies at the World Trade Center: evidence for energetic materials was published August 2008 in The Environmentalist, a journal not associated with Bentham. And also see James Gourley’s October 2008 response to the paper of Dr. Bazant (one of the few vocal proponents of NIST’s collapse theory) published in the Journal of Engineering Mechanics; Discussion of “Mechanics of Progressive Collapse: Learning from World Trade Center and Building Demolitions” by Zdene k P. Bazant and Mathieu Verdure (915). Evidence of mass murder on 9/11 by controlled demolition demands investigation.

Bentham Open DID NOT publish the hoax paper....

they only accepted the paper in order to find the true identity of the author. You may want to correct this is in your entry:

. "...A different Bentham.org journal, The Open Information Science Journal, recently published a hoax paper..."

"I would imagine that if you took the top expert in that type of work and gave him the assignment of bringing these buildings down with explosives, I would bet that he could do it." -1993-John Skilling, Head Structural Engineer WTC Towers

thx Swingdangler- my diary was deleted and posted as a comment

(this is my comment at oped- it's got posted as the last comment, thought i was replying directly to Moffett- thanks for the comments and pitching in everyone- I've had a long day, will be back late tomorrow as well)

and it appears access to my diaries and articles has been disabled- the diary has been posted as the above comment.

Thx to SwingDangler at 911Blogger for pointing out that i incorrectly said the hoax paper was published; it was accepted for publication, then withdrawn by the authors.

To John re the comment above about pointing out a smear; i used one of your quotes twice to document this:

"Dr. Moffet also says: "It is not surprising that the public is not aware of the fact that the so-called Bentham Open Science publishing group is basically a vanity publication where anyone can publish a “peer reviewed scientific journal article” which is not actually peer reviewed."

Actually, as Dr. Moffet knows, if he's looked into the hoax paper incident at all- the authors of the hoax paper also acknowledged; "From this one case, we cannot conclude that Bentham Science journals practice no peer review, only that it is inconsistently applied. Earlier this year, I reported on a case in which a nonsensical article submitted to another Bentham Science journal was rejected after going through peer review [1]." Open Access Publisher Accepts Nonsense Manuscript for Dollars"

Obviously, if Bentham journals are not all "vanity publication[s] where anyone can publish", then to label them as such is a smear. However, John has not proven that even the single journal that has been shown to have accepted a hoax paper is a “vanity publication” where ANYONE can publish; so far a single instance of a failure to conduct a proper peer-review has been documented. Perhaps there are other incidents, and perhaps NONE of the papers published were legitimately peer-reviewed, but the experiment conducted by Scholarly Kitchen does not document that, and the authors don’t claim it does. In addition, the problem has only been documented at a SINGLE journal among the hundreds published by Bentham- as Scholarly Kitchen notes, another Bentham journal rejected the hoax paper for publication. They say this incident only proves the peer-reviewed process is applied inconsistently.

However, your article claims that no paper published in any Bentham journal can be said to be "peer-reviewed". This is a smear, as it's not backed up by the facts of the matter, so far as they have been established.

As i noted in my deleted diary, this incident will increase scrutiny of Bentham and more examples may come to light. However, even if papers have not been adequately peer-reviewed before publication, once published in an open access journal, they are open to peer-review by anyone, and if there are flaws they will be exposed.

John's failure to actually debunk the Active Thermitic paper in his previous article was documented in this article by Dr. Michael Green: Pardon Our Dust, or, Why the World Trade Center Dust Matters

So far, no one- at JREF or anywhere else- has pointed out any substantive flaws in the Active Thermitic paper- some have made a pretense of doing so. And none of the "debunkers" have performed any experiments on the dust themselves, that I know of- John, if you have any links showing that experiments have been done and gotten different results, please post them.

John says in the comment below: "I merely pointed out that the Bentham Group does not publish actual peer reviewed science articles. Did you go to the science web sites I linked to in my article? Of course not. If you had, you'd have to accuse a lot more scientists of "smearing" by association."

Please- provide us with some quotes. John, you accuse me of not having read the articles, without basis; this is a smear. Re: the 3 articles you linked to; I read the NewScientist article linked from your article, and before I read your article I had already read the ScholarlyKitchen article- I quoted from it and linked to it from my deleted diary! And as ScholarlyKitchen was the source of the issue, I didn't bother registering for read-access at the-scientist.

Here's a quote from the NewScientist article, proving that even traditional journals that charge subscription fees make mistakes:

History of hoaxes
NewScientist.com
"What's more, it seems that even some journals that charge readers for their content may be prone to accepting utter nonsense. The SCIgen website reports another incident from 2007, in which graduate students at Sharif University in Iran got a SCIgen-concocted paper accepted by Applied Mathematics and Computation, a journal published by Elsevier (part of Reed-Elsevier, the publishing giant that owns New Scientist)."

John, please explain why The Open Chemical Physics Journal should be listed at PubMed, a medical/bio website. And please provide us with a link backing up this claim; “What does it mean when a “scientific article” is not listed at PubMed? It means the journal is not considered legitimate”
In this comment here: 911Blogger.com I provide a list of the 15 universities, libraries and research foundations that list The Open Chemical Physics Journal.

John, in the current and previous article you repeatedly associate investigation of evidence of controlled demolition with the ‘no planes-holograms’ and ‘energy beams’ hoaxes, despite the fact that these so called ‘theories’ are rejected by the Active Thermitic paper's authors and the vast majority of people that part of the 9/11 Truth Movement. Please explain your reason for doing so, and explain how this is not another example of smearing by association.

Also, please explain any flaws in my arguments here, or in my deleted diary; you have not done so in this comment thread- reference something specific or quote me, and point out the errors. Why was my diary deleted; what did I say or do that violated the terms of service?

http://911reports.com

Applause

Thanks loose nuke for the stellar job you've been doing on this. It's amazing what a difference one person -- doing what you are doing -- can make.

Bentham is a very well respected publisher...

"The Open Chemical Physics Journal" is owned by Bentham. Bentham is a major publisher of Scientific, Technical, and Medical (STM) Journals. Bentham is a very, very prestigious journal publisher. Bentham is a publisher of 92 online and print journals, 200 plus open access journals, and related print/online book series. An example of its prestige is 7 Nobel Laureates endorsing one of its journals.

Some of their journals are available to the public free of charge, some require the public to pay to read the journal. "Open" means that you do not have to pay. The scientists who published the recent nanothermite discoveries intentionally published in an "open" journal so that the information could easily be made available to anyone without having to pay to read it.

There is a benefit for the public with these "open" journals in that some articles can be publicly accessed. Many times this is not the case on a scientific study. Some journals can only be accessed by subscription (libraries of Universities sometimes pay tens of thousands of dollars for certain journal subscriptions). [Elsevier is one company buying up many journals and raising the price for access to institutions. Elsevier is also in the arms dealing business.]

Some other papers published in 'mainstream' journals regarding 9/11: "The Environmentalist", "The Open Civil Engineering Journal", "The Open Chemical Physics Journal", "The Journal of Engineering Mechanics" are a few examples. These are not shoddy journals by any means. The peer-review process for having a study published can be gruelling. Standards are extremely high and explicitly scientific.

~~~Mr. Moffett, I suggest that you look at the many thousands of published scientific articles on the Bentham Science Publishers Group. This is not a lame publishing group.

~~~Mr Moffett, you might have more of an intention to "be right" about your article than an intention to look at all the facts in perspective. It would take a lot of courage on your part to retract some of your statements.

...in regards to Moffett's statement: "Thermite is not an explosive. It just burns at a high temperature. "
...I responded with: Nanocomposites can easily be designed to be explosive. It is common knowledge with Universities that nanocomposites can easily be designed to be explosive. The technical definition of "thermite" is "a high temperature producing mixture". http://www.hydrocut.com/Terms/T.html When designed on a nanometer scale, these chemicals can not only produce extraordinary temperatures, but also tremendous gas pressures (explosive).

Nanotechnology can completely change attributes of an element. See this video on nanotech, if you are really interested in learning something and if you are really interested in viewing the scientific facts. Aluminum will not burn with a match, but here nano-aluminum flares http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FWvhthVsVDs
Overview of nanotechnology--> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S4CjZ-OkGDs

good comments, TomT

although that hydrocut site says "under construction"

Also, where is this from: "An example of its prestige is 7 Nobel Laureates endorsing one of its journals."

http://911reports.com

...the source for the 7 Nobel Laureates...

Because some people often confuse the term "thermitic" or "thermite", often only using rust and aluminum as a definition, I wanted a nice, generic technical definition that is not contrained to only these two components. "A high temperature producing mixture" seemed good as a definition, and really...there can't be much argument to that definition, but the source was hydrocut.

Bentham is the source of the 7 Nobel Laureates. http://www.bentham.org/index.htm

loose nuke, you really present well. There were some great comments for our side. It is very evident that Moffett is NOT a seeker of truth.

What is the best source for explosive nature of nano-thermite?

Since Rob Kall and John Moffitt have, for I believe spurious reasons, rejected the contention that nao-thermite can be a high explosive, do we have an unimpeachable source attesting to this fact? I will post on OEN. I do not expect to change the mind of Kall and Moffitt, but I would like to get it out to the readership of OEN that this is a well-documented fact, and help them see past the mis-information (actually, I suspect disinformation, but have not seen the pay stubs).

However, my memory is not so good that I remember the details of where I have seen certain bits of information. Please help if you can.

Regards

Hoffman has a chart of the explosive characteristics...

Hoffman has a chart of the explosive characteristics... http://911research.wtc7.net/essays/thermite/thermitics_made_simple.html
He gives some excellent information about the 'tests' and how the variables of the "explosiveness" and weight and attached mixture may understate the true readings by implication.
Nanocomposites are very "designer".

Is there a source independent of 9-11 folks?

Hoffman's article is good, but is there a reference that anyone knows of that is independent of any 9-11 researcher, that comes from an unimpeachable source, showing the explosive characteristics of nano-thermite? Perhaps there is one in the paper itself, so I will go look at it again.

Regards

This should help some

While this link doesn't address your question specifically, it does report on some of the work done on thermitic nano-composites at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories.

https://www.llnl.gov/str/RSimpson.html

I think that everyone interested in this subject should know about this article.

I will see if I can find anything that does specifically document the explosive characteristics of nano-thermite.

Keep up the great work!

The truth shall set us free. Love is the only way forward.

Here is my most recent comment on the article

Reply: References on the Explosive Nature of Nano-thermites

There seems to be some dispute about the explosive nature of nano-thermitic mixtures.

From The Open Chemical Physics Journal, 2009, Volume 2, page 23 ( link ) we have the following passages, with citations:

“ .... These observations reminded us of nano-thermite fabricated at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and elsewhere; available papers describe this material as an intimate mixture of UFG aluminum and iron oxide in nano-thermite composites to form pyrotechnics or explosives [19-21]. The thermite reaction involves aluminum and a metal oxide, as in this typical reaction with iron oxide:

....

Commercially available thermite behaves as an incendiary when ignited [6], but when the ingredients are ultra-fine grain (UFG) and are intimately mixed, this “nano-thermite” reacts very rapidly, even explosively, and is sometimes referred to as “super-thermite” [20, 22].

....

[19] Gash AE, Simpson RL, Tillotson TM, Satcher JH, Hrubesh LW. Making nanostructured pyrotechnics in a beaker. pre-print UCRL-JC-137593, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory: Livermore, Ca; April 10, 2000. [Accessed February 7, 2009]. Available from: link

[20] Miziolek AW. Nanoenergetics: an emerging technology area of national importance. Amptiac Q 2002; 6(1): 43-48. [Accessed February 7, 2009]. Available from link

[21] Gash AE, Satcher JH, Simpson RL, Clapsaddle BJ. Nanostructured energetic materials with sol-gel methods. Mater Res Soc Symp Proc 2004; 800: 55-66. [Accessed February 7, 2009]. Available from: link

[22] Puszynski JA. Reactivity of nanosized Aluminum with metal oxides and water vapor. Mater Res Soc Symp Proc 2004; 800: AA6.4.1. [Accessed February 7, 2009]. Available from: link ....”

There sometimes seems to be some confusion about the authorship of the paper, attributing it to Dr. Steven Jones. He is not the lead author. For the record, here is the list of authors:

Active Thermitic Material Discovered in Dust from the 9/11 World Trade enter Catastrophe
Niels H. Harrit*,1, Jeffrey Farrer2, Steven E. Jones*,3, Kevin R. Ryan4, Frank M. Legge5, Daniel Farnsworth2, Gregg Roberts6, James R. Gourley7 and Bradley R. Larsen3

1 Department of Chemistry, University of Copenhagen, Denmark
2 Department of Physics and Astronomy, Brigham Young University, Provo, UT 84602, USA
3 S&J Scientific Co., Provo, UT, 84606, USA
4 9/11 Working Group of Bloomington, Bloomington, IN 47401, USA
5 Logical Systems Consulting, Perth, Western Australia
6 Architects & Engineers for 9/11 Truth, Berkeley, CA 94704, USA
7 International Center for 9/11 Studies, Dallas, TX 75231, USA

by MikeZimmer (0 articles, 1 quicklinks, 1 diaries, 22 comments [5 recommended, 0 rejected]) on Thursday, Jun 18, 2009 at 4:32:04 PM

good comment, good source on the nano-thermite

Thanks for the kind words, everyone.

Here's my latest comment at oped- i should find additional muses, but seeing some injustices really piss me off and drive me to write (I got nicknamed "rude" in high school over 20 years ago):

I see there's no response from John

to my responses to the points he addressed to me, or to any of the points I made and questions i addressed to him, in my deleted diary and in my comment above. I hope you're OK, John.

I'll check out tinyrul- if i bother to continue submitting to opednews, which headlines disingenuous smear pieces written by Senior Editors, and deletes critical diaries which don't violate any of the terms of use, but embarrass Senior Editors by pointing out the lack of substance in their arguments, and their use of rhetorical dirty tricks.

I'm gonna check back again around this time tomorrow, to see if there's any response by John.

I post at 911blogger.com as loose nuke, at nowpublic.com as Erik Larson, at TruthAction.org as rancho truth, at TruthMove.org as nornnxx65, at tpmmuckraker.com as transparency

PS- i noticed i was typing too fast last night- re: "In this comment here: 911Blogger.com I provide a list of the 15 universities, libraries and research foundations that list The Open Chemical Physics Journal."

It's not "the" 15; that was the 15 that came up in "the" first 5 pages of a google search- no doubt there's others.

http://911reports.com

Good article, but it leaves room for rebuttal

LeftWright,

This is a good article, but it seems to leave room for objections from the debunkers. It discusses nano-thermites, and it discusses the use of nano-scale particles in the improvement of explosive mixtures. It does not, as far as I can see, show that the nano-scale thermitic composite is in itself explosive. It does talk about the temperature this stuff can reach when ignited.

This article makes it appear as if this technology is still confined to research labs. An argument about the practical implications of the Harrit et al paper requires that large quantities of nano-thermite be produced. If indeed, nano-thermite was used (as I believe most likely, based on the work in the paper), there exists somewhere a facility capable of producing large quantities. This supposition is clearly a view that can be attacked, and I would be surprised if it has not been attacked. I don't follow JREF, but would think that such an argument would be found there. Clearly we can't know where such a facility might reside, and the science of nano-thermite found in the dust must stand or fail independently of how it was produced, who made it, and who planted it. However, the debunkers will seize on all of these points in an attempt to discredit the paper, as we have seen.

Regards

Better link for the explosive use

Melt dispersion mechanism for fast reaction of nanothermites

Appl. Phys. Lett. 89, 071909 (2006); DOI:10.1063/1.2335362
Published 16 August 2006

An unexpected mechanism for fast oxidation of Al nanoparticles covered by a thin oxide shell (OS) is proposed. The volume change due to melting of Al induces pressures of 0.1–4 GPa and causes spallation of the OS. A subsequent unloading wave creates high tensile pressures resulting in dispersion of liquid Al clusters, oxidation of which is not limited by diffusion (in contrast to traditional mechanisms). Physical parameters controlling this process are determined. Methods to promote this melt dispersion mechanism, and consequently, improve efficiency of energetic nanothermites are discussed.
American Institute of Physics

http://scitation.aip.org/getabs/servlet/GetabsServlet?prog=normal&id=APP...

TNT = 18.3 GPa,
TNT = 6.73 km/s

Superthermite: The volume change due to melting of Al induces pressures of 0.1–4 GPa
than Superthermite = 0,03 bis 1,47 km/s

1,47km/s is at the border to explosive stuff.

.1–4 GPa is only inside the Al particles....

before the Al oxide layer cracks. I don't think you can easily extrapolate any information, from such a small scale, to the igniting/exploding substance, as a whole.

http://www.DemocracyABC.org
http://www.therealnews.com
http://www.pdamerica.org

Watch nano-aluminum burn with a match...

Aluminum does not burn with a match.
Nano-scale changes the way elements behave.
Watch nano-aluminum burn with a match. 15 seconds
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FWvhthVsVDs#t=3m20s

Fascinating

Just so everyone knows: a milligram is one-thousandth of a gram... a micro-gram is one-millionth of a gram... and a nano-gram is one-billionth of a gram. This is an incredible difference in scale and changes the way elements behave, as you said, TomT.

Micro-scale aluminum does not burn. Nano-scale does. Think about what this would do to thermite.

Straw-man argument

Folks, look at this straw-man setup, in Moffet's editorial:

"Don’t get me wrong. I don’t believe the official story of the 911 commission report, and in fact, neither do many members of the 911 commission. But just because that story isn’t correct, it doesn’t mean that missiles disguised as planes, or directed energy weapons, destroyed the towers. It just means that the official story is inaccurate."

These rather strange claims have nothing whatever to do with the Hamit, et al. paper. Mentioning them slurs that paper. Why not deal with the actual content of the paper itself?

excellent point- total strawman BS

i didn't focus on that in my diary, but specifically asked him about it in my comment.

http://911reports.com

Did you pull your diary entry?

LooseNuke,

Did you pull your diary entry? It seems now to be a comment on Moffitt's article.

Also, I am finding that the Op Ed News comments rating system is not working correctly for me. The comment rating counts are wrong compared to the commentators listed, and I only get intermittent acceptance of my ratings. Last night, it was double counting, now I get no counting. Have you tried it out? I will try later on another machine and OS, to see if it is a problem at my end.

Regards

'Diary entry could not be found'

That's the message I got, along with a lot of blank space, when I clicked on the link to Loose Nuke's post. The link to the article which prompted the comment works just fine, however (no surprise there!).

it was deleted by someone at oped - see my first comment above

I ask for evidence i violated terms of service

http://911reports.com

Wanted to thank you for the information...

I came across the OpEdNews article this morning . Found your 911 blogger comment and began to learn what was really the issue.
Couldn't respond on OEN until I got home from 10 hours seeing patients.
Replied on OEN re: Moffet's hit piece. Didn't get into the journal issue per se ..... That needs a more comprehensive article I hope somebody writes. hint...

btw ... a number of folks (called COTO .. coalition of the obvious ... name provided by 'M' ) ...... were banned from OEN (when they pushed someone's or some group's button ... :-) and started a great alternative (911 truth is pretty much assumed and other issues such as NWO, the false right-left paradigm, Monsanto, the hegemonic wars and many other relevant issues are the focus) I happened to not be banned and still post on OEN but I highly recommend instead visiting: http://cotocrew.wordpress.com/ Just a promo .. but really, all like minded folks must coalesce . I've been a member of 911blogger for a long time. I apologize for not commenting much ... 9/11 IS the key to persuade many. And it is one, perhaps the most seminal of all issues - except maybe JFK --- to affect history. But many issues propel other folks .... farmers, for example, are particularly receptive to farm control legislation and Monsanto issues .... and thence can be brought down the 'rabbit hole'. And so forth with others.

Anyway, thanks Loose Nuke.....
==================================================================
"There are none so hoplessly enslaved as those who falsely believe they are free." (Goethe)

thx medicis, been meaning to ck out coto

i used to be really active on the comments at oped, that dropped off when I moved and school started Jan 09.

I became aware of the shitstorm over there after the fact- now with the recent changes i don't know that i'll ever invest as much as i've put in- well over 500 quicklinks. Keeping an eye on it.

http://911reports.com

Posting on OEN

It looks as if LooseNuke may have lost his privileges on OEN. It will be truly a sad day if we have lost LooseNuke. It is within the realm of possibility that eventually all of the most effective commentators on 9-11 on OEN may be banned.

COTO may be an alternative; I am a supporter. However, they will attract a different audience than OEN, and may never get the number of views that OEN has. I don't want this to be self-fulfilling, so please check them out. See http://cotocrew.wordpress.com/ .

I would post on Common Dreams or Smirking Chimp or another high readership site over OEN, if I thought that we could start to get some serious discussion on 9/11. We can't. Are we dealing with gatekeepers (controlled disinformation) or folks as thick as a brick? I don't know. So, until OEN closes off 9/11 debate entirely, it is one of the better sites for reaching a left-of-centre audience on 9/11 issues.

COTO is not a progressive site. It a mixed bag of libertarians, progressives, conservatives, liberals, deity knows what. I am toying with the idea of adding my blog to its collection of affiliated blogs, but don't know all of the technical issues involved at the moment.

Medici, you are one of the more articulate and wise voices on OEN, so I hope that you can continue to post there. I stand in awe at your ability to craft a response.
Regards

Hey, Dr. Moffet...

I still have OpEdNews as a link from my website, again am not sure if it is a left-gatekeeper or not. I am registered there and have commented at that site before, but today they gave me a "must have registered public bio to leave comment". I don't feel like wasting any more valuable web time today, but if anyone here does get in to comment at OpEdNews, please include the gist of what I wanted to say to Dr. Moffet:

"Sir, why do you continue to try and denounce the search for 911 Truth? Are you a CIA asset, a simple Zionist, or what is your true purpose in covering up the truth? Yes, the corrupt disgusting elites of the world are now fully in control, but don't think that things will not someday change. The US, UK, Israel, and associated parts of the Western Empire can collapse at any point, and those like myself will work within the smaller communities to charge those involved in the coverup of the truth about 911 with crimes against humanity. If that is my local Fox News affiliate or daily newspaper or college professor, such is what must be done. Dr. Moffett, you are now on my list at the national level, hope you are fully prepared to defend your present purpose in front of a commission of non-government affiliated citizens in your neck of the woods. I'm sure computer-savvy Truthers will be able to locate your whereabouts, although many here at the blogger seem to think that 'debunkers' such as writers at "The Nation", "The Progressive", and "Popular Mechanics" are simply innocently confused citizens. No, my friends, this is a willful, purposeful attempt to debunk the truth in the name of the fascist, anti-human elites that are presently in control of the sheep that are the innocent majority of humanity. Our power as Truthers is simply the Truth, yet the lies are still in control of the mass conscsiousness. Dr. Moffet, you are on my list, yet in the arrogance of your trust in the Empire, I'm sure you sleep better at night than I do...wish only that I truly believed in a superior being that was in control, but alas, what me and many of the elites in control do have in common is our agnosticism/atheism."

To the Christian/Moslem truthers out there, I do, myself, wish there was a god, but the true purposes of the 9/11 events do not allow for the existence of one, in my belief system. The Truth Movement is a movement in support of the goodness of humanity, and if we lose humanity as a whole loses, and my belief system does allow for the possibility/likelihood that we are, and have always been watched by 'others'. Best Luck to all.

Strange...same thing happened to me!

I had an excellent rebuttal to as well as comments and citations from the various publications Mr. Moffet cited and when I went to submit the comment, I was left with the "bio information" in my face. I spent a good 25-30 minutes writing and researching a rebuttal to this nonsense only to see it disappear. I will know next time to copy and past the thing in notepad in case this happens again.

"I would imagine that if you took the top expert in that type of work and gave him the assignment of bringing these buildings down with explosives, I would bet that he could do it." -1993-John Skilling, Head Structural Engineer WTC Towers

that sucks- writing in a text/word doc is a good idea

not that i always do- sometimes i think i'm gonna post a quick reply- and keep thinking of additional points and links...hope you can recreate it, i'd like to see it

here's my latest:

John, Are You OK?

Still no reply from John.

While waiting for an explanation as to why my diary was deleted, I thought of some simple illustrations to highlight the problem with John’s article- John has essentially said that because 1 Bentham journal in one known instance did not conduct a proper peer review, then not only is that journal a ‘vanity’ ‘pay to publish’ journal, but all Bentham journals are. By this logic, I can argue that because John Moffett employs a logical fallacy in an argument, that not only does he ALWAYS employ logical fallacies in ALL arguments, that the whole Moffett family always employs logical fallacies in all arguments. Do you see how ridiculous and unfair that is?

John also said that because the Open Chemical Physics Journal is not listed on PubMed (a medical/bio website), then “the journal is not considered legitimate, or worthy of consideration as a reliable source of scientific information.” No link yet to back up this claim- but on the face of it, it seems the same as saying, if you go to the bank and don’t find apples and oranges for sale, then it isn’t a bank. Now wouldn’t it be absurd for me to make an argument like that- it would kind of diminish my credibility, wouldn’t it?

John also has yet to address the paper published in The Environmentalist, or point out any flaws in Gourley’s response to Bazant (see links at the end of ‘my’ comment above, that was created from my deleted diary)

Furthermore, what is the deal with John’s insistence on repeatedly associating- in 2 articles- investigation of the evidence that WTC 1, 2 & 7 were destroyed by controlled demolition (see the above links to mainstream journals, plus Journalof911Studies.com) with the bogus claims about holograms and energy beams? These are rejected by the paper’s authors, and have been debunked in articles published at Journalof911Studies.com, a site co-founded by Jones and Ryan. Is it that John thinks that theories about controlled demolition involving explosives-thermate-nanothermite are as absurd as these other ‘theories’, that he associates them this way? It seems an equivalent argument might be, “I’ve never seen George W Bush in person; therefore, he’s as real as Santa and the Easter Bunny.” I can respect the position of someone who says they’re not convinced by the evidence so far, that they don’t have the expertise, or that they’ve looked at videos of WTC 1, 2 & 7, and they don’t feel they can say one way or the other. Watching one of those videos with WTC 7 side by side with a controlled demolition, collapsing at the same rate, in the same way- it seems incredible that anyone can not recognize that WTC 7 was a controlled demolition- but if people are cautious and conservative, I can respect that. But that’s not John’s position. He’s not just “unconvinced” by the evidence so far available; he’s mocking the inquiry itself- he’s denying that anything worthwhile can be accomplished without “classified documents” and a formal, government-authorized inquiry.

It is immensely ironic that OpEdNews.com would headline an article like this, which employs logical fallacies, false premises and insults- and ban my diary, in which I criticize the use of these techniques, citing quotes and sources, but don’t attack John Moffet personally- when Rob recently sent this to his email list:

We believe it is the right thing to do to move OEN in the direction we want it to go-- towards continuing to be a trusted, respected media site/ community blog where progressive ideas and visions are explored in a respectful tough minded way, and where progressive ideas reach political and thought leaders, so our writers not only get their ideas out, but also reach, influence and make a difference.

This article was posted June 16; I think the comment window is 5 days.

http://911reports.com

My final comment on that thread- 4 days, no Moffett response

4th reply; my first got posted much further down by accident, and I put my 2nd and 3rd ones after, to keep them in one place- perhaps John is sick, or somehow otherwise missed that i answered his questions and rebutted his accusations already.

Any, for the permanent public record, i'm just putting in a last comment here (unless John replies) to direct people to my comments way below- and reading this comment again, I thought i'd add a few quick things to sum up, quoting John:

"I merely pointed out that the Bentham Group does not publish actual peer reviewed science articles. Did you go to the science web sites I linked to in my article? Of course not. If you had, you'd have to accuse a lot more scientists of "smearing" by association.""

As I noted below, I read the articles at the 2 out of the 3 sites that didn't require registration- if John had carefully read my deleted diary (posted as the above comment by someone at opednews) he would have noticed that I QUOTED FROM and LINKED TO the Scholarly Kitchen article. And if he had carefully READ the Scholarly Kitchen article, he would have seen that the authors note that a different Bentham journal REJECTED the hoax paper after peer-review. As the authors note, the acceptance of a hoax paper by a Bentham journal only shows that peer-review is inconsistently applied. Unlike John and Rob Kall, they don't SLANDER Bentham by calling them a "vanity" journal publisher.

"To smear by association is to say that because Obama knows Reverend Wright, Obama agrees with everything that the Rev. writes or says."

By John's own definition he committed "smear by association"; he has said that because this one Bentham journal- out of over 150 Bentham journals listed at DOAJ.org- screwed up in a single documented instance, then this proves it NEVER does real peer-review, and is a "vanity" journal. Not only that, that ALL Bentham journals are "vanity" journals- even though they each have their own editorial review boards.

"To discredit a vanity science publisher as not being credible, and therefore cast doubt on articles that are published there, happens every day in science."

It may happen every day, but John has not discredited the Open Chemical Physics Journal or Bentham- moreover, his attempt at doing so by association was at best ignorant and likely disingenuous; his comment shows that he knows better. Rather, considering his previous smear article, which was debunked by Michael Green (see link at the top of my comment above), and the current one, it seems John has an agenda; he wants to discredit the Active Thermitic paper, but as he apparently can't find a genuine flaw in it, and has no evidence that it didn't undergo a proper peer review, he's using the news about this other journal in an attempt to discredit the Active Thermitic paper- by association.

"Is the Thermite article listed at PubMed Erik? Did you even check? What does it mean when a "scientific article" is not listed at PubMed? It means the journal is not considered legitimate, or worthy of consideration as a reliable source of scientific information."

Yes, I checked; The Open Chemical Physics Journal is not listed in the index of a bio/medical website run by NIH; why would it be? John has yet to provide evidence that it should- and considering his attempt to discredit by association, I'm skeptical of any claim he makes. In my comment down below I provided a link to 15 universities, libraries and research foundations that list the Open Chemical Physics Journal.

"I think you need to read my article much more carefully, and read the articles I linked to as well. You should do some actual research on Bentham and then please get back to us with your findings."

Well- I've been getting back to you, once a day since your article was posted, and you haven't responded. Your article has already been indexed by search engines, but the comment thread here shows the opednews community has seen through it- you've discredited yourself, and opednews has been discredited by accepting your smear article- headlining it even- and deleting mine, which points out its flaws. Darn shame, cuz if Bentham's peer review and business model has deeper problems than thus far exposed, or if there are flaws in Harrit et al's research, your (and Rob's) 'crying wolf' here may have turned many in this village against listening to you guys, should problems come to light in the future, and you report on them.

I checked my records- I've donated $190 to OpEdNews since March 07, and this is my track record on writing here: (4 articles, 568 quicklinks, 39 diaries, 1111 comments [56 recommended, 1 rejected])

Considering that my diary was deleted- even though I haven't violated terms of use- and no explanation has been given- why should I submit anything again? It may get rejected or deleted- not for just cause, but simply for presenting facts the editors find uncomfortable to deal with.

If you don't care that you're driving away someone who put a bunch of time and effort in here- that's your loss.

Good luck to everyone that tries to work with OpEdNews

http://911reports.com

Well put

You kept your composure and you showed respect and civility. That's very difficult in many circumstances, including here, where OpEdNews is apparently helping to smear people on zero grounds while censoring any attempts to rectify. I wonder what became of the promises made by Rob Kall to Jon Gold...it appears the crackdown on 9/11 truth continues..

Thx, SnowCrash- I emailed

Thx, SnowCrash- I emailed Rob Kall directly a little while ago, and got this response:

"your diary was a response to another article. I deleted it and copied the total contents of the diary to the comment where you linked to the diary. No content was removed or deleted. \
It is the prerogative of the site publisher to determine what is published and how."

I received his reply 6 minutes after I sent the following message, to which I "PS"d my 4th and final comment (pasted above)- obviously, he read enough of my email to give the above response to my question, but it doesn't seem likely he read my comment or considered any of the points I made, which bear on how Kall and opednews are perceived by the public. Oh well, it's a private operation, and no one has to participate- it's an incentive to go elsewhere, and i'll never give em another dime:

Hi Rob,

Some features you may want to consider implementing-

1) Many sites that allow comments make it possible to link directly to comments, which makes referencing a comment simple and convenient.
2) In addition to the above "permalink" feature, the Democratic Underground and JREF forums number comments- DU also shows the number of the comment being replied to.
3) Many sites, i guess by using cookies, flag comments as "new", that have been added since a person's last visit.

And I would appreciate it if you would tell me the reason my diary was deleted:

Dr. Moffett Smears ‘Active Thermitic’ Paper by Association- Again
http://www.opednews.com/populum/diarypage.php?did=13504

As you probably know, it was posted as comment on John's article- the one my diary pointed out various flaws in:

911 NanoTech Thermite Publisher Accepts Fake Paper, Editors quit
http://www.opednews.com/articles/911-NanoTech-Thermite-Publ-by-John-R-Mo...

I get home very late usually- I saw that both you and John had participated in the discussion thread when I first checked it late last Wednesday night; John had addressed a couple comments
specifically to me, in which he ignored the points I made in my article, while accusing me of not having read his, or the articles he referenced- even though I had quoted him and from the Scholarly
Kitchen article, and in the comments I quoted from NewScientist, which noted that a traditional subscription journal was also busted accepting a hoax paper. I've left a comment every night since
Wednesday, refuting John's accusations against me, pointing out the errors in his article and comments, and requesting an explanation of why my diary was deleted- he has not responded, so I'm contacting you
directly.

Erik

PS- I've left a 4th and final comment on that thread, in which I also address your statements about Bentham:

http://911reports.com