General Fusion in the news

[mvanwink5]

Big crony Green is rightfully worried. Their entire subsidized existence justification is alternatives have perceived issues. GF's fusion engine doesn't have those issues AND it economically blows conventional (and nonconventional) large utility scale energy production out of the water.

Utilities don't care how the power is economically and reliably generated within legal frameworks, but Big Green VC's are entrenched in subsidized businesses. If they can delay or kill GF, they would be happy to do so. KPCB is BIG into crony Green and no fusion company should trust them.

Sometimes I wonder if Canadians are too trusting...

[Carl White]

The thing I get from it is that the system wants to bury breakthrough fusion research because they know it's starting to pay off, too disruptive.

This is what I fear too. They'll sell it off to some bigger company and we'll never hear of it again.

Maybe Jeff Bezos has enough leverage to prevent it.

[ladajo]

...or be wealthy enough to buy some republicans on capital hill.

What? Democrats are no longer for sale? Or are they the ones buying Republicans?

[mvanwink5]

What? Democrats are no longer for sale?

Why pay twice?

[asdfuogh]

Wow, the conspiracists here. Look.. scientists who work on fusion research aren't people who are easily bought and shut up. Just take a look at the small but steady stream of people who go into plasma physics. We're not going into it because we think it pays big bucks (condensed matter) or that it's going to make us famous (particle physics).

[happyjack27]

...or be wealthy enough to buy some republicans on capital hill.

What? Democrats are no longer for sale? Or are they the ones buying Republicans?

I don't want to make a black-and-white fallacy here, but the voting record really is very black-and-white, so there's no fallacy there.

[Skipjack]

Wow, the conspiracists here. Look.. scientists who work on fusion research aren't people who are easily bought and shut up. Just take a look at the small but steady stream of people who go into plasma physics. We're not going into it because we think it pays big bucks (condensed matter) or that it's going to make us famous (particle physics).

Being an enthusiast does not prevent you from getting ripped off by VCs. I have seen it myself, how it goes. These people are sharks. They will take everything you have.

[asdfuogh]

On the other hand, all wallets open with strings attached. You work for venture capitalists, you'll have to watch out for their own financially self-centered interests. You work for the defense department, you'll have to watch out for "national-security-centered" interests. You work for the government, you'll probably lose funding after getting less than a third of what you promised because of politically centered interests. Is there any place to get money that isn't motivated ulterior motives?

Just learn the strings to pull the strings.

[choff]

Just got a Service Unavailable from emc2fusion.org.

[choff]

Back again.

[crowberry]

I'm looking forward to Michel Laberges talk on General Fusion at TED Vancouver next week. But because the time is limited to 18 min and the audience is non technical, I fear that the presentation will be very general in nature without technical details on what they have currently achieved. Here is an article where Michel Laberge outlines what he intends to discuss at TED next week:

Laberge said he plans to use his upcoming TED talk to dispel some misconceptions about fusion energy, one of which is that – after decades of experimentation – it remains a scientific pipe dream.

"We're almost to the point where we can make more energy out of fusion than the energy we put in, and that's not well known," said the 52-year-old Quebec-born scientist. "I would like to say that fusion will come soon."

Laberge readily concedes there's a 50-50 chance his experiment will fail. But if he succeeds?

"I will save the world," he said, only half joking.

http://www.biv.com/article/20140311/BIV ... ion-vision

Does anyone know how fast TED puts the talks up on the website in general?

[mvanwink5]

Very nice find crowberry, thank you for that.

Based on GF's new CEO statement of what change he will bring to GF,

Another thing he (Nathan Gilliland, GF’s new CEO) thinks he can bring to the company is confidence.
“We’ve created something that might just have a breakthrough here. We need to bring self-confidence to that endeavor,” Gilliland says. “Starting to believe in the eventuality of our success is important.”

I would say that M. Laberge will be less reserved on describing their current status in his TED talk. Even this article's quote is bold (This was my suspicion anyway and trifecta bet),

We're almost to the point where we can make more energy out of fusion than the energy we put in, and that's not well known," said the 52-year-old Quebec-born scientist. "I would like to say that fusion will come soon.

If that doesn't spell it out, I don't know what would. The only thing GF seems to need is to build it and see what happens, there is only so much one can do with testing pieces and doing simulation modeling. Still, the old conservative posturing comes back when Laberge then says as reported in the article,

Laberge readily concedes there's a 50-50 chance his experiment will fail.

Sounds like a realist's healthy respect for Murphy and hard knocks experience with anything to do with plasmas and fusion, but not the new view of the new CEO.

For Charles Kramer, I think it is also worth again repeating this from the article which crowberry highlighted above,

Laberge said he plans to use his upcoming TED talk to dispel some misconceptions about fusion energy, one of which is that – after decades of experimentation – it remains a scientific pipe dream.

[asdfuogh]

See, this is why I think General Fusion should always be on the list of the speculatory winners. They are building on top of research that has been done by multiple university groups, multiple national lab groups, and a smattering of private labs. Their idea on how to collapse the conducting shell is pretty awesome. They are open and transparent about the process. They're also just nice people.

[choff]

Just saw an article in the local rag about the TED talk, $7,500 per ticket! Unfortunately, don't have that kind of scratch, otherwise wouldn't mind going.

[mvanwink5]

For $7500 a seat GF better say something stunning... economic fusion is eminent, for instance... something Putin would appreciate, or the Green Mobsters, Banksters, Watermelons, and Kings of Sand.