I've read most of the cold fusion scientific papers published and am convinced there was a real phenomena there.
Failure to replicate the original Flieschman Pons experiment seemed to be due to unknown impurities in his platinum catalyst.
At least 10 labs have replicated the basic FP experiment and produced a net energy output, although far from commercial quantities.
The italian scientist at the link appears to have solved the catalyst problem and can produce cold fusion devices cheaply producing commercial quantities of power.
The rush to to discredit and ridicule Fleischman/Pons and other researchers was an early example of the new post modern 'consensus' science and we lost 20 years of research and wasted a couple of trillion on GW and so called clean energy.
#1
Thank you phil_b. Hydrogen and cold fusion will see interesting futures in my opinion. Sad that the post modern 'consensus' science can be so intrusive.
Let people develop and get out of the way. Pet projects, funding cuts, politics and just plane greed. So much to overcome but people keep trying.
#2
1. At the reactions they're talking about, having 10% of the nickel transmuted into copper would have produced nuclear reactor levels of radiation and nuclear bomb levels of energy. Since it didn't, it's probably a salted sample.
2. When he actually had his tests of his machine run, he managed to do it with a system where material was constantly run through the system and then disposed of, instead of a system where you could do honest calorimetry with. This also suggests that the device is a scam. Instead for demos he trickled water into the system at a rate that was hard to measure and trickled the heated water down the sink, through a sealed electrochemical cell made out of the same metal hydrates used to power an electric car. There's a lot of potential for fakery there.
Chances are greater than 50% that you're reading this on a laptop computer or tablet with some sort of metal/hydrogen reaction battery. Chances are small but growing that you have a hybrid car that uses a metal/hydrogen reaction battery. He's running water through a tube full of nickel metal hydrides and saying any heat generated MUST be from nuclear fusion. I'm sure it's a coincidence.
#3
The rush to to discredit and ridicule Fleischman/Pons and other researchers was an early example of the new post modern 'consensus' science
Permit me to disagree. Unlike the global warming hucksters, Flieschman and Pons DID provide their data, calculations and results - just like scientists do. Unfortunately, IIRC, no one was able to duplicate their results. Despite whatever nonsense was generated in the press, there was some interesting stuff going on. Obviously, other people besides me and phil_b thought so because research is still going on with catalyzed reactions. Like this, for example.
Remember that the most exciting phrase is science is not "Eureka!", but "hmmm, that's interesting".
#5
Build it, show it, sell it. The science can come later.
If you can't sell free steak you can't sell anything and it likely doesn't exist. Build it, sell it. Get rich.
Posted by: S ||
08/06/2011 11:35 Comments ||
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#6
I'll go one farther: we don't waste time on this website on how we can double our goddamn money by investing with Bernie Madhoff. Why do we waste time treating this asshole like he's serious when he's followed typical scammer behaviors all through _this_ venture, on top of his history.
Posted by: Barbara ||
08/06/2011 18:10 Comments ||
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#8
SteveS, I wasn't saying FP was a an example of post modern science. Rather I was referring to the reaction of the powers that be in the scientific community and the media.
Amongst other things cold fusion as a potential energy source would have derailed the global warming bandwagon right at the begining.
#10
Call me when you can buy such a device to run your house. Until then - scam.
Lubos Motl has a good take on this at The Reference Frame.
Posted by: Aussie Mike ||
08/06/2011 18:58 Comments ||
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#11
Steve, IIRC from reading a review of research in the field a few years back, nobody was able to duplicate their results but some found a small energy excess. Others didn't. The high pressures and temperatures involved make high sensitivity radiation monitoring hard to arrange. I think one group claimed to see some radiation, but plenty of others didn't. Way back in the day Jones (since become a truther nut) claimed to see increased radiation levels, but at the tiny level expected from known physics.
Posted by: James ||
08/06/2011 23:33 Comments ||
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[Dawn] La Belle France's top judge in the fight against terrorism said Friday that al-Qaeda's North African wing has shown no ability to strike in Europe or elsewhere beyond its zone of operations.
Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, born of a former turban group in Algeria, remains motivated largely out of a desire to attack former colonial power La Belle France. It currently holds four kidnapped Frenchies, and French officials have called the group the biggest terror threat to La Belle France and its interests.
In an interview, anti-terrorism judge Marc Trevidic suggested AQIM is being forced to work hard to control parts of its traditional territory in the Sahel region ... North Africa's answer to the Pak tribal areas... along the southern Sahara.
"It's been shown that AQIM is only able to strike in its own zone, by wanting to kill tourists, and we have seen nothing emerge as a significant foreign operation in Europe that was really organized by AQIM," he said.
Still, AQIM has been active in offering statements of support through the Internet to would-be hard boyz in Europe, Trevidic said, citing his recent case files.
"It's incitation without a structure behind it," he said. The group is "holed up, and already has troubles controlling its zone ... Only when a terror group is very strong in its own territory will it begin exporting."
Many European officials are more concerned. In June, Spanish Interior Minister Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba called AQIM a growing menace that could spread beyond its base unless Western nations step up efforts to counter it. It has rendered huge parts of Mauritania, Mali, Niger and Algeria off-limits to foreigners.
Continued on Page 47
Posted by: Fred ||
08/06/2011 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[11134 views]
Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in North Africa
#1
al-Qaeda's North African wing has shown no ability to strike in Europe or elsewhere beyond its zone of operations.
"Plus, we're paying them a lot of Jazia and helping them to take over Libya."
(KUNA) -- The former Ukrainian prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko was jugged on Friday during her trial on charges of disrupting courtroom order, the Russian news agency, the Interfax, reported.
Prosecutors ordered that the ex-prime minister be escorted to prison for defying judicial procedures and insulting the judges during the proceedings in the case against her, based on charges of illegally forcing the state energy company, Naftogaz, to sign a gas contract with Russia in 2009.
Tymoshenko, who had served as prime minister, has accused the authorities of politicizing the prosecution and clamping down on the opposition party.
She was reportedly escorted from the courthouse after Judge Rodion Kireyev approved a state prosecutor's motion to take her into custody over "systemic violations" of rules. Tymoshenko, who twice served as prime minister between 2005 and 2010, says the case against her is politically motivated and has been fabricated.
Continued on Page 47
Posted by: Fred ||
08/06/2011 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[11137 views]
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
[Dawn] 
(KUNA) -- The former Ukrainian prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko was 
