just received this email braodcast from Focus Fusion - calling for support of a rally in Washington USA, this comming Saturday, against the cuts in US funding of fusion (non-mainstream) projects.
heres a link to the page on FF's site: http://focusfusion.org/index.php/site/a ... n_funding/
heres the email:
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Dear Focus Fusion Society Friends and Members,
Hello and Happy Monday!
Rally | Case for Fusion | Free Fusion Designs | LPPX Webinar | Jacking the Fusion Strat | Order of magnitude
Join us at the Rally to Restore (Fusion) Sanity
John Shellito and I are going to be at the Rally To Restore (Fusion) Sanity, which Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert have graciously hosted on our behalf.
OK, they have no idea. Our plan is to infiltrate - nay, inFUSE - the rally.
I’m posting this item first because it’s time sensitive: The rally is October 30 - This Saturday! In Washington DC. More info.
We’d love to see you there! If you’re going, let us know! If you aren’t, but your friends are, tell ‘em to join us! We’ll form a fusion “flash mob”.
Aside from being fun, what purpose does attending a rally on the mall serve? Somebody has to make the…
Case for Diversified Fusion Funding
In case you missed it, here’s some sad news on fusion policy.
The Rally sounds like as good a place as any to get our feet wet with this sort of activity.
Now, if you’re going to go to a rally, you’re going to want some signs. Feel free to make your own, or print some out from our site:
Free Fusion Designs to make great SIGNS!
Glen Millam and a few others have made their fusion-themed artwork available, so help yourself to images and print up fusion stuff galore! Feel free to modify and personalize the images and post your pictures. Send us a link!
There’s a lot more artwork available from Glenn, Torulf Greek, and others (see, for example, Zapkitty’s “get fusion” sign).
I have yet to upload all the images. Working on it! Under-staffed!
And keep it going. Well after the rally, we’d like to see a profusion of your fusion imagery evolving and proliferating and turning up in unexpected places. Fusion gnomes traveling the world….
Oooh! I just had a sign idea. A thermometer - put “cold fusion” way down near the bottom, “you are here” just above that, a volcano up higher, the sun, NIF, tokamaks, and above that - DPF/pB11! Will this be a good tool to explain? Experiment!
LPPX Webinar
For those of you who haven’t seen them yet - LPPX hosted an informative webinar. Derek has edited the webinar down to a series of four videos, available here. Check it out!
Spreading the word via Social Media aka “jacking the fusion strat”
Speaking of not having heard of the videos - we’re trying to make it easier for people to spread the word. Every post on the site has buttons to facilitate spreading the word (retweet, share, etc). We’ve also prominently placed buttons on each page to enable you to follow us in various ways. Please take advantage of these buttons. Why? Why not?
Note that our “Case for Diversified Fusion Funding” story was re-posted by someone on Reddit, and we got one of those handy visitor spikes.
So much to do
Of course, when those visitors come, some parts of the site are woefully under-presentable. We’ve been chipping away at the backlog.
I want to thank all the members who have been giving us great suggestions. The vision is getting clearer. Soon this will translate into a clearer website. We have yet to implement many ideas, but we love feedback, so keep it coming! Get involved!
We continue working to improve the site. We want to make it easier for you to see all the ways to jump in. There is a vision here. It may not be obvious, but I assure you it’s cool.
Fall Support Drive: an order of magnitude to go!
A big THANK YOU to those of you who contributed to the Fall Call for Support. Without you, I shudder to think.
We’ve raised approximately $2500 in the first round. If we raise another $2,500, we’ll be just one order of magnitude short of our goal! This seems like a lot, but if you compare it to a typical fusion project which needs several orders of magnitude for breakeven - we’re doing great! So keep it coming and we’ll get there!
Donate!
Thanks again for your role in advancing focus fusion, aneutronic fusion, and the diversification of fusion research.
Rezwan Razani
Executive Director
Focus Fusion Society
http://focusfusion.org
Follow us on twitter @focusfusion
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Rally in Washington this Sat 301010 - fusion research cuts
I can't make it, but if anyone wants to use the art from my tee-shirt design (worn at NASFic and the Swedish Embassy PechaKucha), be my guest. That's what it is there for. If we ever open a gift shop, I can see tees and coffee mugs.
The front art is "What part of ..." then equations ... "Don't you understand." It includes Poission's equation, the Langmuir-Blodgette spherical reflex diode equation, fusion reactions including p-B11, Fokker-Planck bounce averaging, and the bremsstrahlung mediation strategy for electrodynamic machines. The back art is my fusor.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/sexyfitsum ... 218723816/
You can contact me by making my forum name one word, then e-mail that name at that name dot com.
The front art is "What part of ..." then equations ... "Don't you understand." It includes Poission's equation, the Langmuir-Blodgette spherical reflex diode equation, fusion reactions including p-B11, Fokker-Planck bounce averaging, and the bremsstrahlung mediation strategy for electrodynamic machines. The back art is my fusor.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/sexyfitsum ... 218723816/
You can contact me by making my forum name one word, then e-mail that name at that name dot com.
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GIThruster
- Posts: 4686
- Joined: Tue May 25, 2010 8:17 pm
I'm sure I'm not understanding. Isn't non-traditional fusion research currently undergoing an all-time high in funding, despite the dismal economy? Lerner has funding from ARPA-E, something he was without for many years.
How is "infiltrating" someone else's rally adult behavior? If you want to be counted as part of Stewart's rally, that's fine, but the entire notion of going to someone's rally in order to support a second agenda is a morally bankrupt notion, IMHO.
Reminds of all the folks who talked about "infiltrating" the Tea Party rallys in order to act out and discredit people they knew nothing about. This is the very worst of democracy in action. I highly entreat y'all to have no part in going to a rally with an agenda other than to support the principles intrinsic to that rally. It's deceitful and disgraceful behavior.
How is "infiltrating" someone else's rally adult behavior? If you want to be counted as part of Stewart's rally, that's fine, but the entire notion of going to someone's rally in order to support a second agenda is a morally bankrupt notion, IMHO.
Reminds of all the folks who talked about "infiltrating" the Tea Party rallys in order to act out and discredit people they knew nothing about. This is the very worst of democracy in action. I highly entreat y'all to have no part in going to a rally with an agenda other than to support the principles intrinsic to that rally. It's deceitful and disgraceful behavior.
"Courage is not just a virtue, but the form of every virtue at the testing point." C. S. Lewis
I'm a bit confused, too. Sounds like much-of-a-muchness, but I don't understand the US politics, from afar.
Looks fairly straightforward as presented in;
http://www.science.doe.gov/ofes/Annual_ ... 10-EJS.pdf
I am presuming that other than the main research centres (as per slide 4), which shows that the only real big cut is ITER (aww... sad
). I guess other projects are on a one-on-one basis and each have their own project funding, aside from this wad of grants.
Can someone please give me a bit more coverage on this... is this politics, or real fusion budget cuts?
Looks fairly straightforward as presented in;
http://www.science.doe.gov/ofes/Annual_ ... 10-EJS.pdf
I am presuming that other than the main research centres (as per slide 4), which shows that the only real big cut is ITER (aww... sad
). I guess other projects are on a one-on-one basis and each have their own project funding, aside from this wad of grants.Can someone please give me a bit more coverage on this... is this politics, or real fusion budget cuts?
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GIThruster
- Posts: 4686
- Joined: Tue May 25, 2010 8:17 pm
Er... what?!?!GIThruster wrote:Lerner has funding from ARPA-E, something he was without for many years.
As for the rest, I'd call it more piggybacking than infiltrating but, as I'm well over a thousand miles from the capital, I'll be doing other things on the 30th anyway.
My personal opinion is that LPP needs private capital more than it needs publicity. Of course, one can lead to the other, but...I'll stop there.-
GIThruster
- Posts: 4686
- Joined: Tue May 25, 2010 8:17 pm
Who did you think paid for Lerner's reactor?Ivy Matt wrote:Er... what?!?!GIThruster wrote:Lerner has funding from ARPA-E, something he was without for many years.
Search "ARPA-E" This was a breakthrough for him.
"Courage is not just a virtue, but the form of every virtue at the testing point." C. S. Lewis
Private investors. Like the Abell Foundation.GIThruster wrote:Who did you think paid for Lerner's reactor?
Well, I can't seem to find any mention of Lerner, LPP, or the DPF on arpa-e.energy.gov. From LPP's website, I see they submitted a proposal to ARPA-E in 2009. It was rejected.Search "ARPA-E" This was a breakthrough for him.
well, its the wrong side of the Atlantic for me too (we have our own 'end of civilization' scenarios kicking off here).
the FF site referers to
the FF site referers to
and the programmes not cut all Tok/Stellarator related. So doesn't look like terribly good news to me, but maybe no great surprise in the current climate.Allegedly, 29 out of 40 university fusion programs have been cut.
Wrong Rally.
Those guys will be lame ducks in 5 days. You would think that when it comes to political science the scientists would pay more attention to politics.
Ah. Well. Have Lerner contact me after the elections. I have some good contacts with the incoming. I promise nothing except introductions.
Those guys will be lame ducks in 5 days. You would think that when it comes to political science the scientists would pay more attention to politics.
Ah. Well. Have Lerner contact me after the elections. I have some good contacts with the incoming. I promise nothing except introductions.
Engineering is the art of making what you want from what you can get at a profit.
Well, they could hold a rally outside the APS DPP meeting, but it's not likely they'd get much attention. I have the impression this Fusion Sanity rally is a case of "as long as you spell our name right". With any luck, someone will get arrested, and then "alternative fusion" will become a household phrase.
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rschaffer8
- Posts: 24
- Joined: Sat Aug 30, 2008 11:23 pm
Washington Post Coverage
From today's Washington Post:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/co ... 0102500055
"It wasn't a singular, coherent movement on display as much as a rollicking expanse of nano-movements. Recycling enthusiasts mingled with D.C. voting rights advocates, who bumped shoulders with fusion-power activists who stepped on the heels of 9/11 truthers."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/co ... 0102500055
"It wasn't a singular, coherent movement on display as much as a rollicking expanse of nano-movements. Recycling enthusiasts mingled with D.C. voting rights advocates, who bumped shoulders with fusion-power activists who stepped on the heels of 9/11 truthers."