Talk-Polywell.org

On 9/11 Among my earliest words were "This is like the bombing of the Reichstag. I sure hope it doesn't turn out the same." and "I'm much more frightened of our government's reaction than of anything the terrorists might do." The dice are still bouncing. Also, I asked all the old people I knew if th...

This sounds like a job for Fluxomatic I don't understand it. But it seems to be able to adjust to focus one ion type on a point. But the other ions are not focused anywhere. We have all the same ion type but want different energies to be focused at different locations. Do you understand the "Fluxom...

Just thinking out loud here: Assume a wide alpha beam coming out of a cusp with a radius of about the gyro radius. (That is how MSimon estimated the beam diameter above.) The alphas should all be orbiting the same direction. The higher energy alphas will have a larger gyro radius than the lower ener...

Tolkein - more times than I want to think about due to kid's requests for read aloud. The Moon is a Harsh Mistress - to corrupt my kids Cryptonomicon - not exactly for kids - nicely complex story The Survival of Freedom - Jerry Pournelle - more libertarian thoughts Carmen Miranda's Ghost is Haunting...

The most common long-duration medical procedure performed in the U.S. is bypass surgery. Traditionally, the patient is put on a heart-lung machine while the surgery is performed. It is believed that the brain damage that results from bypass surgery (bypass surgery almost always reduces patient IQ b...

So my question is: why aren't insurance companies pumping for lower cost therapies? With higher costs they can justify higher rates and management's [ie those who choose these kinds of policies] percent of company earnings is a higher amount. Simple capitalism at work. Too bad so few top level deci...

I think a pumped air rifle (.22cal) or a 22 would be better. Use a pellet gun. This way if you get caught you don't go to jail for a firearm discharge, but rather possessing a deadly weapon. A BB gun won't work as the cover is very heavy glass for that very purpose. I once saw (many years ago) some...

Kiteman, One concern I have with the X-cusp is that it looks like a classic setup to display the Magnetic Reconnection phenomenon. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reconnection AIUI: Magnetic Reconnection losses breach containment and dissipate energy much faster than theory says it should. Have you con...

What happen to the field between unlike faces? Wouldn't it gradually fall to zero at the middle where the two sides cancel? That would mean no cusp and no confinement. The B field direction changes (in to out) at the conductor, where the electric current is and where the B field strength is highest...

Hmmmmm... Good thoughts but..... So for a coil of 1m radius the equivalent "inradius" is Code: tetrahedron 0.707106m cube 1.000000m octahedron 1.414213m dodecahedron 1.618033m icosahedron 2.618033m and the relative field applied by all the coils at the centre of the polygon is Code: tetrahedron 1.08...

not polywell but: Saltwater condensers for steam turbines is not that unusual. There has been a learning curve though on what materials are best to use. We recently replaced our condensers with titanium tubes and tube sheets. Since the cold war end, titanium costs have become competitive. Barnacle a...

The line cusps going across would be the same as for a truncube but only 4 of them not 8 of them. But, yes they exist and I am not entirely happy with that. The twist closes off a planar cusp (4 of them) similar to the original "cusp device". Notice, both pictures have the twist. Triangles exist in ...

A followup to an objection to the design from a long time ago: Here are 2 solutions to the planar leak paths leading between the feed lines. I finally got back to documenting what I was visualizing. There are still the line cusps at the close approach points. But they should be no worse than for a t...

Paul March calculates the effective Isp as being 13 to 26 Teraseconds. Yea, but he does it by assuming complete conversion of fuel mass to energy. A real Isp would require calculating the mass of, say, Boron & Hydrogen burned to generate that power. Even 0.1 G would get you off the ground with wing...

Other factors working against us are obesity rate and sedentary lifestyle. :oops: Both again are because we are relatively rich. Getting medical costs down would be aided by letting anyone write prescriptions so we don't have to pay md's so much just to get access to simple medicines. This goes hand...