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Posted: Thu Dec 15, 2011 2:59 pm
by seedload
martwc wrote:Yes. It is difficult to reconcile the enthusiastic physicist who was posting on these boards a few years ago, with the evasive silent man of today, other than to believe that he is under very strict instructions indeed to stay totally and utterly schtum. Or else.
Or, he figured out it can't work, left the company, and is keeping quiet about his opinion out of respect to Park and the legacy of Bussard.

Too simple?

Posted: Thu Dec 15, 2011 4:58 pm
by KitemanSA
Or both?

Posted: Thu Dec 15, 2011 5:00 pm
by KitemanSA
Or he quit cuz he didn't want to move to San Diego?
or, or, or...

Posted: Thu Dec 15, 2011 5:05 pm
by dnavas
seedload wrote:
Or, he figured out it can't work, left the company, and is keeping quiet about his opinion out of respect to Park and the legacy of Bussard.

Too simple?
Given:
"Nuanced"
An attempt to publicly debate possible failure modes (w/Art)
An experimentalist replacing a theorist
Delivery dates continuing to retreat into the future.

Consider:
If Intel announced its nextgen 20nm prototype was getting "nuanced" results, its engineers debated physics of electron flow through thin wires on public forums, the head of engineering leaves, and the delivery dates for 20nm processors retreated by 12 months, I don't think there would be many claiming that Intel has a super secret weapon that it's going to unleash on AMD and that it's using the rest as cover.

I mean, there'd be some, but there are ALWAYS some.

Seems the most logical conclusion is that it doesn't work, and they don't know why.

YMMV,
-Dave

Posted: Thu Dec 15, 2011 5:14 pm
by ladajo
Delivery dates continuing to retreat into the future.
Not recently. As we have seen on FPDS, the June, 2012 target has been hard for a while. It was just not known publically until now.

I think if you take the FPDS info, and overlay it on to what we have been told publically, its alignment is reasonable. The money chain (hard evidence) is tracking with the few public commentaries.

I also find it very hard to belive that the navy would throw good money after bad if Nebel left because he felt it was pointless. He left a year ago, and they have been funded significantly post his leaving as we have seen on FPDS. Not likely in today's money environment if it was turning into a wash.

Patience.

Posted: Thu Dec 15, 2011 6:25 pm
by mvanwink5
Dr. Nebel also retired from his Los Alamos position. One might just conclude that he did not want to move back to San Diego when EMC2 moved the WB-8 work there (Navy's request?), and so is retiring. There could be other reasons though like you said. I just take him at his word that he is retiring for whatever his reason is.
Best regards