Talk-Polywell.org

Other area of speculation: Why did someone (presumably EMC2) invite Tom Ligon to see the current machine? What technical issues require Tom's expertise? Given Tom's bent to writing, perhaps EMC2 is getting ready to publish results in more popular media (e.g. Analog)?

Tom, I have a warm place for you in my heart because I learned about the Polywell from your Analog article several years ago. I do hope you don't get in trouble for violating the NDA you signed!

And since you have (violated the NDA), you might as well tell us more...

"You'll Have a Great Time on Yule at Ultima Thule!"

"Have a Yummy Yule"?

Giorgio,

Cousin of yours?



We ate lunch there on our way home from visiting my in-laws. Good restaurant in an excellent location.

BTW, did your shop build the steel & titanium wiffleball for you?

Lots of ways to skin the cat... Part of the point was the relative smartness of the mirrors and their small size made it an easily scalable project. Start the mirror building facilities, release the mirrors and one doesn't need to wrestle with a large, flexible structure in orbit (since we're really...

After further thought, the solar wind would probably blow it away rather quickly. A few years ago, someone posited putting lots of relatively small, smart mirrors at the relevant Lagrange point (L1) to reflect a small fraction of insolation.* The twist was the mirrors would not attempt to completel...

And to you and yours!

All this talk of copper reminds me of the metal scavengers operating in the U.S.* Are they part of secret program to gather enough copper for a net-power demo?

*The stupid ones get themselves electrocuted!

I would add three: 7. An orbit too close to the Sun, which drives the sixth challenge. 8. No substantial moon; might have something to do with the fifth challenge. 9. "A Venusian sidereal day thus lasts longer than a Venusian year (243 versus 224.7 Earth days)." (from Venus' Wiki entry) I think Venu...

In another thread (for which I don't have time to search) we speculated on Scaled Composite's next step. With more information, speculate some more: Allen Places Big Bet On Air Launches "In what is probably the year’s most exotic approach to space launch, billionaire entrepreneur Paul Allen and airc...

This idea might work as well: Utah Lawmaker Resigning Due to Fundraising Ban (AP) SALT LAKE CITY — A law prohibiting fundraising during Utah's legislative session has at least one Republican resigning his post and another considering stepping down instead of challenging the ban, as candidates have s...

Further on the case for randomness: Perhaps we should take a page from William F. Buckley and submit to rule by the first one hundred names in the New York City telephone book. I like the (dis) organizational principle of the Occupy Movement. @Skipjack, what makes you think a third party organized t...

I think without a chance of reelection, they will have even less incentive to keep their promises and do what is best for the people instead what is best for their pockets. And such short-term gains would be more easily detected. Oh, I admit I am depending on the goodness of at least a majority of ...

Creating a new political party is a lot of (probably fruitless) work. I advocate an easier approach: "My current political debating tack is to argue no elected federal politician should be re-elected for the span of about a generation. With no chance of re-election our politicians would not have to ...