[Wonder Warthog]

"Storms obviously operates with a considerably bigger budget than do most independent researchers -- and what he shows to the public reflects that fact -- plus -- evidence of good experiment design and technique."

Not really.....he's retired. Pays for it himself plus what some few enthusiasts might donate. He does contract out to do some calorimetric work for other CF researchers, so picks up a few bucks that way.

[TXnMA]

So -- Storms chooses to spend his retirement income on LENR research -- and he apparently has deeper pockets than some of us. IOW, a bigger -- if self-funded budget... Nice position to be in! And, as you said, he spends it well and does nice work.

I, OTOH, now spend most of my time and disposable income on archaeological and historical research -- because that is what I really wanted to do for nearly 50 years -- while I was having other fun with technology -- and putting bread on the table...

My guess is that the two of us would have had a blast playing around together in my personal lab at my last big employer's. That's where I tried new and off-the-wall stuff, did my Q&D setups -- and made most of my basic discoveries. The $20 megabuck clean rooms, OTOH, were mostly dedicated to research on applications of already-discovered principles...

And, I expect that you -- like I -- find "the excitement of the search and the joy of discovery" to be truly fun. (Some of the best researchers I've known have said, "I can hardly believe they pay me this much to have this much fun!")