>>Nothing about the way it has been handled indicates “scam” to me.<<
A couple of years ago I attempted to buy into his experiment but was turned down. Not because the amount I offered was too small but because he is determined to finance it himself. That’s what told me this man had a winner.
Indeed. That piece of info is/was a significant datum on the "scam" scenario in my mind. How does one run a scam when only their own money is involved, and (in essence) in front of the whole internet viewership? Another interesting tidbit is that one of the Swedish physicists who were "in person" at the most recent demo is or was head of the "Swedish Skeptics Society". And "he" was convinced by what he saw.
There is a LONG thread over on "Talk-Polywell" (dedicated mostly to Bussard's approach to "hot" fusion) with a few dedicated naysayers. But looking over what has been published about the various Rossi demos, most of their objections just don't hold up. I don't claim to begin to have the physics background to make theoretical distinctsions, but I'm a pretty darned good experimentalist, and what is shown looks legit.