But he is Gallifrean, not Brit.bennmann wrote:Except for Dr. Who, insane optimism might be his appeal and why as an American I love him.
Recovery.Gov Project Tracker
I think the issue is snarky expressions of the failures of others, and insane optimism about one's own endeavours. Just look how he rubbishes the Daleks/Cybermen superiority! Just think of him and his 'team' as the Brits (which they usually are!), and the automaton make-everyone-in-the-Universe-think-the-same, strength-through-military-superiority Cybermen as the Yankees. I think the parts should fit well, don't you think!?bennmann wrote:Except for Dr. Who, insane optimism might be his appeal and why as an American I love him.
I suspect that this is, actually, just human nature and is manifest on a sliding spectrum. I don't think I am fully at the snarky end, just heading there in the general direction - and getting closer as the years roll on by....!
Mine is less likely than a one in 10 billion, but it seems a dead cert to me too! (Insane optimism??)PNeilson10 wrote:I have been debating taking on a new and hard project myself, here in the USA. I have been uniformly cheered and praised by friends and acquaintances for thinking about taking a chance on a project with a self described 1% chance of success.
(I'm also universally told that I am not at all as scary to talk to than it seems in writing.)
Go ahead... tell us what your 1% project is and we can test whether I fall on the sarky side or not.
sad yawn ...
... doesn't take much to get you guys excited these days. A bald one line statement from a govt. bureaucrat in pseudo-corpro speak and your mobility scooters click into overdrive.
If the results are as great as you are all claiming, then there should be an army of competing labs from all around the world investigating how to get this working from a multitude of angles ... its a travesty, this cloistered little group toiling away with a small club of old fan boys sitting outside the walls, cobwebs growing over them .... "any day now we'll hear something about the greatest thing man has ever done"
uh-huh.
... doesn't take much to get you guys excited these days. A bald one line statement from a govt. bureaucrat in pseudo-corpro speak and your mobility scooters click into overdrive.
If the results are as great as you are all claiming, then there should be an army of competing labs from all around the world investigating how to get this working from a multitude of angles ... its a travesty, this cloistered little group toiling away with a small club of old fan boys sitting outside the walls, cobwebs growing over them .... "any day now we'll hear something about the greatest thing man has ever done"
uh-huh.
I think I'm prohibited from saying what the watering trough is for, but I think I'm safe in saying it is an indication that they don't squander money if there is a practical and economical alternative, unlike some big government projects.
When I was with EMC2, a couple of our biggest scientific equipment suppliers were Home Depot and Vamac Plumbing Supply. We tried shopping at the Black Hole of Los Alamos, but had more luck with a couple of other surplus houses. Dr. Bussard was fascinated by some of the trinkets at American Science and Surplus, although I don't think much of that wound up in practical applications.
But it is hard to avoid spending the money where it counts, in things like vacuum hardware, pumps, and magrids.
When I was with EMC2, a couple of our biggest scientific equipment suppliers were Home Depot and Vamac Plumbing Supply. We tried shopping at the Black Hole of Los Alamos, but had more luck with a couple of other surplus houses. Dr. Bussard was fascinated by some of the trinkets at American Science and Surplus, although I don't think much of that wound up in practical applications.
But it is hard to avoid spending the money where it counts, in things like vacuum hardware, pumps, and magrids.
Chris, "Mine is less likely than a one in 10 billion, but it seems a dead cert to me too! (Insane optimism??) "
For my own part, I appreciate a mind running in paradox mode, it keeps one sane in this world (only when self aware that one is doing this, most don't!)
Best, cheers!
Mike
For my own part, I appreciate a mind running in paradox mode, it keeps one sane in this world (only when self aware that one is doing this, most don't!)
Best, cheers!
Mike
Counting the days to commercial fusion. It is not that long now.
icarus wrote:If the results are as great as you are all claiming, then there should be an army of competing labs from all around the world investigating how to get this working from a multitude of angles
You might think this should be the way things are, but it isn't - especially in fusion. Labs are fixated on their particular experiments and do not even pause to read up on new approaches. This is the fundamental problem for 21st century science - gravy train ticket financing tends to move folks attention away from 'general innovation'. Go ask any one of those listed in DV's 'fusion race' about the latest developments in the others, and I'd betcha they'd neither know, nor care to know (excepting myself, of course!!
)I am absolutely convinced that this is a fundamental problem embedded in the way these things are funded. Imagine if EMC2 suddenly dropped polywell to go build a mini tokamak with their budget - y'see, they just CAN'T do that, the basic funding mechanisms just don't allow it to happen. They've drawn up the plan, the gov/VC/whatever funding has been put in place for THAT project, and they don't have a brown dollar left to spend 10 minutes reading about what they think is a different project.
That is very funny Icarus, like being a spots fan, no? Difference is most of these guys could actually contribute, unlike myself. I do understand most of what is said and find it more meaningful than sports.icarus wrote:sad yawn ...
... doesn't take much to get you guys excited these days. A bald one line statement from a govt. bureaucrat in pseudo-corpro speak and your mobility scooters click into overdrive.
If the results are as great as you are all claiming, then there should be an army of competing labs from all around the world investigating how to get this working from a multitude of angles ... its a travesty, this cloistered little group toiling away with a small club of old fan boys sitting outside the walls, cobwebs growing over them .... "any day now we'll hear something about the greatest thing man has ever done"
uh-huh.
Best,
Counting the days to commercial fusion. It is not that long now.
I vaguely remember an article where RNebel mentioned a water tank in relation to protecting against high voltage arching, something about the cap bank, something learned with previous experimental work, am I lukewarm?Tom Ligon wrote:I think I'm prohibited from saying what the watering trough is for, but I think I'm safe in saying it is an indication that they don't squander money if there is a practical and economical alternative, unlike some big government projects.
When I was with EMC2, a couple of our biggest scientific equipment suppliers were Home Depot and Vamac Plumbing Supply. We tried shopping at the Black Hole of Los Alamos, but had more luck with a couple of other surplus houses. Dr. Bussard was fascinated by some of the trinkets at American Science and Surplus, although I don't think much of that wound up in practical applications.
But it is hard to avoid spending the money where it counts, in things like vacuum hardware, pumps, and magrids.
CHoff
Rereading it, it's hard to interpret it as in bold. That would be the part bolded below:Betruger wrote:It could also be interpreted as (iirc) Chris said. Positive demonstration of useful/useless physics. And one of the alternative reasons for ambiguous wording is specifically to give be as slippery as possible for speculation like this forum's.
IOW another effective deflection of public influence on their work, as probably was the "proprietary" claim in response to FOI request.
Just leaves out how positive.As of 1Q/2011, the WB-8 device operates as designed and it is generating positive results.
"operates as designed," would be trivial if thought to mean the vacuum pumps work or the magnets work, or the program controls work, etc. Those things as well as the sun is rising and setting every day are not worth the time to print. We already know from the last report that the machine generates plasma, and we know since WB-7 ran like a top that WB-8, which is based on what was learned there, will also. The idea of the machine operation is to produce fusion with the already known wiffle ball, at voltage, without excessive losses. That is what the design is about. What was to be learned and is worth reporting is, does it scale as expected? That is the only thing that motivated WB-8 work. To say there are positive results means it scales. It does not take 9 - 12 months to know if it scales adequately. 9 - 12 months operation is useful to gather engineering design data and optimization data.
Maybe Simon is busy with WB plans? I would be if I had that skill set, and would find time to post here scarce.
Maybe Simon is busy with WB plans? I would be if I had that skill set, and would find time to post here scarce.
Counting the days to commercial fusion. It is not that long now.
Re: Drove by EMC^2 today.
Thanks for sharing! Pictures would definitely be exciting, though as Tom says they won't tell us much that's useful (unless you happen to get a shot of a computer screen with the power and loss scaling given in a 20 point font).pbreed wrote:I live in San Diego and when I'm driving near EMC^2 I sometimes drive around their building. Today the garage door was open.
The following was my impression gotten in a 5 second glance.
About 1/2 the machine was covered in what looked like insulation, or shielding. Whatever it was it was made up of flat panels. Dark brown or black.
1/2 the machine was bare stainless, so I suspect that the other was insulation for the cryogenic parts. They still have the large LN2 Dewar outside.
I saw no sign of any shielding on the doors or on the visible office partition. This means either EMC^2 is not making as many neutrons or are not as careful as the LPP guys that have their machine in a shielded room.
I've been tempted to drive by with a camera and take a picture, but I have been unable to google myself an answer to the question, "if you take a picture from public land into an open door is that considered public or not public?" Any authoritative references on this could induce me to snap a picture next time I'm in the area.
FWIW, Alan Boyle said "Thanks for the tip!" No word on whether an interview will be forthcoming, but I left a couple suggested questions on the off chance...
n*kBolt*Te = B**2/(2*mu0) and B^.25 loss scaling? Or not so much? Hopefully we'll know soon...
Re: Drove by EMC^2 today.
That's all?TallDave wrote:FWIW, Alan Boyle said "Thanks for the tip!" No word on whether an interview will be forthcoming, but I left a couple suggested questions on the off chance...
He was much more cooperative a couple of year ago. I wonder if he knows more than he is allowed to disclose.
Oh man, I am starting to become paranoic too....
