Search found 552 matches

by scareduck
Tue Jan 06, 2009 4:44 pm
Forum: News
Topic: comp?
Replies: 23
Views: 21136

Too bad their whole explanation of operation remains tied to an unlikely rewriting of large parts of physics.
by scareduck
Fri Jan 02, 2009 6:44 pm
Forum: General
Topic: Where is Bill Gates when you need him ?
Replies: 159
Views: 44059

In any case, my point is concerning the General case of very wealthy people sending their money to "cultural investments", using Bill Gates as a specific example. I'm actually kind of incredulous reading this, because it reveals an astonishing level of ignorance about what the Bill & Melinda Gates ...
by scareduck
Fri Jan 02, 2009 6:35 pm
Forum: General
Topic: Where is Bill Gates when you need him ?
Replies: 159
Views: 44059

Do you have a link to his rebuttal? Is it as different from Bussard's as is his device? Not a huge amount of detail, but this is what's available . PS: the original poster didn't specify that it was. (philanthropy -- JAB) As long as we're in the nits: ...Wealthy individuals donate a huge amount of ...
by scareduck
Thu Jan 01, 2009 10:04 pm
Forum: General
Topic: Where is Bill Gates when you need him ?
Replies: 159
Views: 44059

One can cut Gates and Allen some slack on this, however it doesn't detract from my statement about philanthropy. It would have been philanthropy, for example, for Allen to have provided the $10M for the X-Prize rather than leaving it up to an Iranian family. It would have been philanthropy, for exa...
by scareduck
Thu Jan 01, 2009 4:05 am
Forum: General
Topic: Where is Bill Gates when you need him ?
Replies: 159
Views: 44059

Mike Holmes wrote:I get the feeling that they're about as respected as Focus Fusion...
Much, much more. At least the FRC doesn't require the upending of entire branches of physics in order to explain its operation.
by scareduck
Thu Jan 01, 2009 4:03 am
Forum: General
Topic: Happy New Year
Replies: 3
Views: 2693

Likewise!
by scareduck
Thu Jan 01, 2009 3:43 am
Forum: News
Topic: More EEStor news
Replies: 40
Views: 27685

As I believe they say in craps, this is betting on the come.
by scareduck
Wed Dec 31, 2008 7:40 pm
Forum: General
Topic: PDO explains twentieth century warming?
Replies: 60
Views: 21961

That doesn't void Tom's point. Even if Mann is shown thoroughly to be corrupt, for instance, that doesn't mean that everybody on his side of the debate is also corrupt. Or their data bad. Guilt by association No. Guilt by using the same data, the same reasoning, and same opacity in cherry-picking d...
by scareduck
Wed Dec 31, 2008 7:38 pm
Forum: General
Topic: PDO explains twentieth century warming?
Replies: 60
Views: 21961

There is a common strand to the climateaudit objections. Take one part of the overall evidence, poke holes in it, claim the authors are deliberately distorting the truth, use this character assasination instead of a critical assessment of the whole corpus. These words do not mean what you think the...
by scareduck
Wed Dec 31, 2008 7:33 pm
Forum: General
Topic: Where is Bill Gates when you need him ?
Replies: 159
Views: 44059

One, it's noblesse oblige.

Two, Gates and Paul Allen have already invested in Tri Alpha Energy, which is using a field-reversed approach advocated by Norman Rostoker of UCI (and others).
by scareduck
Thu Dec 25, 2008 12:15 am
Forum: General
Topic: Merry Christmas!
Replies: 4
Views: 3153

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas, everyone!
by scareduck
Wed Dec 24, 2008 11:11 pm
Forum: News
Topic: oznick's Latest KOS Diary
Replies: 8
Views: 5966

Professor Science wrote:cost effectivity is for engineers, discovery is for scientists, and there's no money in discovery, the profit motive doesn't work when the benefits don't manifest in the form of a check.
The whole point of fusion is cheap, effective energy. If the costs of fusion are prohibitive, there's no point.
by scareduck
Wed Dec 24, 2008 6:18 pm
Forum: News
Topic: The Navy Is Looking For One Good Man
Replies: 10
Views: 6443

Re: The Navy Is Looking For One Good Man

They dont seem to be doing our kind of thing. It occurred to me that this could either be terrible for Polywell or great. Terrible, because if this position gets under the thumb of the tokamak guys, all alternative fusion approaches then have NO funding (or insufficient that it will make any differ...
by scareduck
Wed Dec 24, 2008 3:29 pm
Forum: News
Topic: oznick's Latest KOS Diary
Replies: 8
Views: 5966

Get the researchers back to the universities and out of the corporations.
Right, because government is so terrific at developing cost-effective anything. Not. (See also, ITER.)

The Internet didn't become useful to the vast majority of its users until it got kicked out of the NSF.
by scareduck
Tue Dec 23, 2008 11:44 pm
Forum: News
Topic: The Navy Is Looking For One Good Man
Replies: 10
Views: 6443

WOW, good catch, MSimon. It's fair to say the Navy is looking into building up a new plasma physics division, and maybe beyond that, that there's a no-confidence vote on ITER.