Re: [Vo]:Cold Fusion X Prize
I wish this would have happened in time for me to win the FQXI Essay contest. On Sat, Sep 13, 2014 at 5:14 PM, Eric Walker eric.wal...@gmail.com wrote: On Wed, May 28, 2014 at 12:09 AM, Kevin O'Malley kevmol...@gmail.com wrote: *Thinking Big Is The Easy Part: My Weekend Dreaming Up The Next XPrize* http://www.fastcoexist.com/3030775/thinking-big-is-the-easy-part-my-weekend-dreaming-up-the-next- xprize On E-Cat World there is a post about the Forbidden Energy XPrize that was discussed sometime back: http://www.e-catworld.com/2014/09/13/xprize-offers-20-million-for-forbidden-energy/ A video of the pitch to the audience at the Visioneering conference is included. The prize will pay 20 million to the winner if the conditions are met. I find it encouraging that this prize was put together. It suggests to me that there is some receptivity to cold fusion in the larger public beyond the people who follow the usual sites and lists. Eric
RE: [Vo]:Cold Fusion X Prize
All I see is self-indulgent hype and pampered rich people (not that there’s anything wrong with that when they are giving away something). Where are the entry rules ? Why could Dennis Craven’s not enter and possibly win it with a new version of the NI-Week demo? From: Kevin O'Malley I wish this would have happened in time for me to win the FQXI Essay contest. Eric Walker wrote: Thinking Big Is The Easy Part: My Weekend Dreaming Up The Next XPrize http://www.fastcoexist.com/3030775/thinking-big-is-the-easy-part-my-weekend-dreaming-up-the-next-xprize On E-Cat World there is a post about the Forbidden Energy XPrize that was discussed sometime back: http://www.e-catworld.com/2014/09/13/xprize-offers-20-million-for-forbidden-energy/ A video of the pitch to the audience at the Visioneering conference is included. The prize will pay 20 million to the winner if the conditions are met. I find it encouraging that this prize was put together. It suggests to me that there is some receptivity to cold fusion in the larger public beyond the people who follow the usual sites and lists. Eric
Re: [Vo]:Cold Fusion X Prize
Jones Beene jone...@pacbell.net wrote: Why could Dennis Craven’s not enter and possibly win it with a new version of the NI-Week demo? That would be sweet! He sure would deserve to win. I loved that demo. I even get the impression that I am more impressed by it than Cravens himself. That makes me a little nervous. Maybe he knows something ba-a-a-d about it that I don't know? With most other demos I have been less impressed than the person doing the demo. (I did not see the demo in person. I am going by the write-up in Infinite Energy, which was impressive in its own right, as a paper: http://lenr-canr.org/acrobat/CravensDcoldfusiona.pdf) - Jed
RE: [Vo]:Cold Fusion X Prize
From: Jed Rothwell Jones Beene wrote: Why could Dennis Craven’s not enter and possibly win it with a new version of the NI-Week demo? * That would be sweet! He sure would deserve to win. * I loved that demo. I even get the impression that I am more impressed by it than Cravens himself. That makes me a little nervous. Maybe he knows something ba-a-a-d about it that I don't know? With most other demos I have been less impressed than the person doing the demo. I can see your point, but my impression is not that he is unimpressed, but that he realizes the similarity to Arata, which also was understated – and the similarity to Les Case and the Arata replications, and moreover - that he has also improved it, possibly substantially - and finally… (but most importantly)… that he is not the same kind of self-promoter as are many inventors in LENR. As to the range of improvements, I am going by Bob Higgins’ visit, where it appears that one reported improvement was going from D2 to a mix of D2 and H2. That detail could be important for understanding the basis for the thermal gain. It make the mechanism more likely to be “non-fusion” (i.e. the fusion cross-section for D+D exceeds D+H). Quite possibly, there are additional improvements besides the gas mix. And finally – it is likely that Dennis is way ahead of us all on this, and that he has been waiting calmly for the X Prize to become formalized, and has an even better demo to present than the one in Austin! He is in a very good position to reap the rewards, and I hope he wins it, but we can only hope that they have not made the “Rules” for the X-prize so onerous that it is difficult for LENR to qualify. Obviously, if they made the requirement to be a minimum of say - 100 watts – then that could eliminate this type of demo. Jones attachment: winmail.dat
Re: [Vo]:Cold Fusion X Prize
Jones Beene jone...@pacbell.net wrote: With most other demos I have been less impressed than the person doing the demo. I can see your point, but my impression is not that he is unimpressed, but that he realizes the similarity to Arata, which also was understated . . . Arata's demonstration calorimetry was bad. Awful, really. As Ed and I pointed out: http://lenr-canr.org/acrobat/RothwellJreportonar.pdf Arata was upset with us. Upset to say the least. He has quite a temper. – and the similarity to Les Case and the Arata replications . . . Do you mean Cravens' replications? I do not recall that he replicated Arata. McKubre did. Are you saying his demo was too similar to their experiments to stand on it own merits? I disagree, if that is what you mean. It was different enough. , and moreover - that he has also improved it, possibly substantially If it is improved, that is all the more reason to do the demo again, and to enter the contest. - and finally… (but most importantly)… that he is not the same kind of self-promoter as are many inventors in LENR. Well, when you do a demo, you are promoting yourself. So you do the best you can, and you stand by the results. He honestly does not think the demo is as impressive as I do. That is a matter of opinion. I guess it could be modesty, but we have specific technical reasons on both sides. It is a mild disagreement. Obviously, if they made the requirement to be a minimum of say - 100 watts – then that could eliminate this type of demo. Yup. It would resemble the demonstration the British astronomers set for chronometers. See the book Longitude for details. Around 1780 the astronomers launched the biggest, most expensive science project in history to compile lunar tables for navigation. Along came Harrison with a chronometer suitable for use on a ship, version 1, 2 and 3. The government set up a reward for a working chronometer, similar to the X-prize, but it put the astronomers in charge. They were determined to prevent the use of a rival technology, since they had this make-work Tokamak-like project underway. All three of Harrison's devices were tested in transatlantic voyages, in tests dictated by the astronomers. All three passed with flying colors. They were easier to use than lunar tables. So the astronomers kept moving the goal posts and making the tests harder and harder. Finally, Harrison and the others gave up. By that time they were selling directly to ship captains, so the contest was moot. The lunar table project continued until 1911, as I recall. (With the lunar method, you use the moon as a clock to know the time at the prime meridian. With a chronometer, you leave the chronometer set to Greenwich time. You would adjust the chronometer when you reached a port at a known location. The local astronomer would fire off a cannon or ring a bell at midday for the navigators aboard ships in port.) - Jed
Re: [Vo]:Cold Fusion X Prize
On Wed, May 28, 2014 at 12:09 AM, Kevin O'Malley kevmol...@gmail.com wrote: *Thinking Big Is The Easy Part: My Weekend Dreaming Up The Next XPrize* http://www.fastcoexist.com/3030775/thinking-big-is-the-easy-part-my-weekend-dreaming-up-the-next- xprize On E-Cat World there is a post about the Forbidden Energy XPrize that was discussed sometime back: http://www.e-catworld.com/2014/09/13/xprize-offers-20-million-for-forbidden-energy/ A video of the pitch to the audience at the Visioneering conference is included. The prize will pay 20 million to the winner if the conditions are met. I find it encouraging that this prize was put together. It suggests to me that there is some receptivity to cold fusion in the larger public beyond the people who follow the usual sites and lists. Eric
[Vo]:Cold Fusion X Prize
It appears that my X prize proposal wins the popularity contest. *Thinking Big Is The Easy Part: My Weekend Dreaming Up The Next XPrize* http://www.fastcoexist.com/3030775/thinking-big-is-the-easy-part-my-weekend-dreaming-up-the-next- xprize When a couple of journalists join a bunch of powerful people for a weekend on the beautiful California coast, tasked with thinking about the biggest challenges facing humanity, techno-optimism, and visions of cold fusion prevail. On a picture-perfect afternoon at a resort in Ranchos Palos Verdes, a wealthy Los Angeles suburb, I joined up with three business executives to come up with a tough question for others to solve. We brainstormed this challenge: Devise a plan to generate half the food supply for an entire small city of 500,000 people within a 50-mile radius. Oh, and make sure the methodology could be transferred to most other similarly sized cities around the world. Audacious? Of course. Doable? Over the course of several years, possibly. This was our idea for the next XPrize, a series of public competitions that asks entrants to come up with radical breakthroughs that solve some of humanity's biggest challenges, in exchange for multi-million dollar prizes. Past and current XPrizes have included challenges to land a private craft on the moon, build a 100-mile-per-gallon car, and create a real tricorder. Our Self-Sustaining Food Supply XPrize, as we called it, was one of dozens thought up by some of the smartest and most powerful people in the world at last weekend's XPrize Visioneering gathering--a weekend of learning from experts and designing challenges aimed at tackling the major problems that humanity faces today. Peter Diamandis, the charming techno-optimist behind the nearly 20-year-old XPrize Foundation, reminded us several times throughout the weekend that past XPrizes were influenced by the Visioneering event. But this year, the stakes were higher than ever: The idea from the winning team would go straight into the prize pipeline, get its own event for further refinement, and after proper vetting, possibly become the next big XPrize. I wanted to win. A Short History of XPrize Diamandis, a physician and engineer who once worked in the space technology industry, launched the X Prize Foundation after reading The Spirit of St. Louis, an autobiography by Charles Lindbergh detailing the explorer's solo trans-Atlantic flight in 1927. It was a feat inspired by a prize challenge: the $25,000 Orteig Prize for the first person to complete a solo trans-Atlantic flight between New York and Paris. In winning the prize, Lindbergh helped familiarize the previously alien world of aviation to a generation of people, and brought us closer to today's aviation industry. Diamandis was inspired to create his own incentive prizes, starting with spaceflight. A decade ago, the $10 million Ansari XPrize--the first prize launched by the foundation--asked teams to build a private spaceship that could carry three people 100 kilometers above the Earth's surface twice in a two week period. Some 26 teams entered, spending over $100 million in total. In 2001, SpaceShipOne, designed by aerospace engineer Burt Rutan, won the competition. Ultimately, the spaceship technology was licensed by Richard Branson to create the foundation for Virgin Galactic--a move that, according to XPrize lore, opened up the larger private spaceflight industry. Today, the XPrize Foundation has awarded prizes for three challenges, including the Ansari XPrize and a prize to develop a better method of oil spill cleanup. The four active prizes include the Tricorder XPrize for a device that can diagnose patients at least as well as a physician, and the Google Lunar XPrize, for teams to create a rover that can launch and land on the moon and then transmit video back down to Earth. A number of prizesare in the pipeline, addressing everything from literacy to organ cryopreservation. Building A Prize After a brief session on prize design, the Visioneering weekend participants were sent off to brainstorm, divided into sections based on interest. My section on day one, held in an open-air half-dome outfitted with couches, pillows, and an especially soft shaggy rug, focused on the challenges facing cities. Paul Romer, the New York University economist who garnered attention recently for his ideas on charter cities, led a whirlwind 20-minute talk on how humanity can prepare for the 5 billion new urban residents who will emerge in the next 100 years. Romer pointed out that we have the power to shape the many new cities that will pop up, but there is a limited window of time to do so. In 100 years, it will be over. Humans will live forever with the cities we leave them, is the somber thought he left us to chew on. After dividing into small groups and writing themes on post-it notes, it was time to hone in on prize ideas. We regrouped and split up into teams based on interest. My four-person team--Ken
Re: [Vo]:Cold Fusion X Prize
Kevin O'Malley kevmol...@gmail.com wrote: It appears that my X prize proposal wins the popularity contest. *Thinking Big Is The Easy Part: My Weekend Dreaming Up The Next XPrize* http://www.fastcoexist.com/3030775/thinking-big-is-the-easy-part-my-weekend-dreaming-up-the-next- xprize When a couple of journalists join a bunch of powerful people for a weekend on the beautiful California coast . . . Can you explain in more detail? Is this article about your proposal? Or is it a coincidence? If this about your proposal, great! - Jed
RE: [Vo]:Cold Fusion X Prize
Kevin’s proposal is apparently to create an x-prize specifically for LENR, and not the device itself. … or else I missed it. From: Jed Rothwell Kevin O'Malley wrote: It appears that my X prize proposal wins the popularity contest. Thinking Big Is The Easy Part: My Weekend Dreaming Up The Next XPrize http://www.fastcoexist.com/3030775/thinking-big-is-the-easy-part-my-weekend-dreaming-up-the-next-xprize When a couple of journalists join a bunch of powerful people for a weekend on the beautiful California coast . . . Can you explain in more detail? Is this article about your proposal? Or is it a coincidence? If this about your proposal, great! - Jed
Re: [Vo]:Cold Fusion X Prize
Jones Beene jone...@pacbell.net wrote: Kevin’s proposal is apparently to create an x-prize specifically for LENR, and not the device itself. My question is: Is this article about Kevin's proposal specifically? Or did the people in this article happen to talk about an X-prize for cold fusion, without knowing anything about Kevin's proposal? - Jed
Re: [Vo]:Cold Fusion X Prize
There was quite a bit of research put into the legislative language for fusion prizes http://www.oocities.org/jim_bowery/BussardsLetter.html. You might at least cite it since the late Robert Bussard thought it was fair and well enough drafted that he promoted it. On Wed, May 28, 2014 at 1:17 PM, Jed Rothwell jedrothw...@gmail.com wrote: Jones Beene jone...@pacbell.net wrote: Kevin’s proposal is apparently to create an x-prize specifically for LENR, and not the device itself. My question is: Is this article about Kevin's proposal specifically? Or did the people in this article happen to talk about an X-prize for cold fusion, without knowing anything about Kevin's proposal? - Jed
Re: [Vo]:Cold Fusion X Prize
It is a coincidence. But my original proposal was to 2 members of the X prize committee. Great minds think alike (GMTA)... On Wed, May 28, 2014 at 4:46 AM, Jed Rothwell jedrothw...@gmail.com wrote: Kevin O'Malley kevmol...@gmail.com wrote: It appears that my X prize proposal wins the popularity contest. *Thinking Big Is The Easy Part: My Weekend Dreaming Up The Next XPrize* http://www.fastcoexist.com/3030775/thinking-big-is-the-easy-part-my-weekend-dreaming-up-the-next- xprize When a couple of journalists join a bunch of powerful people for a weekend on the beautiful California coast . . . Can you explain in more detail? Is this article about your proposal? Or is it a coincidence? If this about your proposal, great! - Jed
