gfellow

Has an impact crater been found?

You may be right - in which case they will shortly find the crater. Let's see what transpires.

Typo, taking a somewhat humorous direction. Corrected.

Lunar eclipse flash - electrical discharge "...a flash of light seen during totality has astronomers on the hunt for a new crater on the moon...." https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/2019/01/meteor-hit-the-moon-during-blood-moon-eclipse-heres-what-we-know/ They will likely not find any new crater and here's why: It hit me early this morning: When sunlight hits the Moon's surface, the temperature can reach 260 degrees Fahrenheit (127 degrees Celsius). When the sun goes down, temperatures can dip to minus 280 F (minus 173 C) - pretty extreme. Typically, daytime on one side of the moon lasts about 13 and a half days, followed by 13 and a half nights of darkness. But the sudden eclipse of the Earth causes the temperature to drop precipitously. This causes a static charge cascade, much like that experienced touching a door handle in low humidity and experiencing a shock. This rarely, if ever happens when the Moon experiences its slow, regular drop in temp in temperature during its 13 and a half day/night cycle, but the radical shift in temperature caused by the eclipse is the cause of the sudden static discharge. Essentially, the sudden Lunar temperature variation causes electrons move from one surface to another through contact. Because the particular dust surfaces are both insulators, they'll build up an electrical charge. One object will have a positive charge (because it lost electrons) and one will have a negative charge (because it gained electrons). If one of the charged objects then touches a conductor, like a piece of metal, the charge will neutralize itself, causing a static shock. All it takes is a small movement, like a minor avalanche of lunar dust, to trigger an immense discharge. Thoughts?

In a further reverse for Andrea Rossi, the editor Sterling D. Allan of Pure Energy Systems News, one of Rossi's more ardent and effective supporters has backed away from the creator of the E-Cat device and labeled him "Buyer Beware": "Rossi Tells Florida Bureau He Has No U.S. Factory, No Nuclear Reactions" http://pesn.com/2012/03/11/9602054_Rossi_Tells_Florida_Bureau_He_Has_No_Factory_No_Nuclear_Reactions/<h1></h1>

In an article that seems to be quite thorough, Andrea Rossi and his E-Cat energy device are looking less than stellar: New Energy Times: "Rossi's Profitable Career in Science" http://newenergytime...n-Science.shtml ...On other fronts, Defkalion, the breakaway company that Andrea Rossi until last year had dealing with, claimed that representatives of the Greek government tested their device and deemed the tests a success. Only days later, the company shut down their official discussion forum, claiming future announcements of news would be forthcoming. Simply put, to date there is no evidence that either Rossi's or Defkalion's device are credible.

Defkalion issues a short statement upon the conclusion of the tests with the Greek government officials: "Tests with the presence of high level Government officials have been concluded. Opinions and results were very positive. Announcements will be made upon mutual agreements, at a time yet to be defined. Tests continue with international Authorities in the coming weeks" http://www.defkalion....php?f=4&t=1237 Are all monumental historical events this anticlimactic, or is it just me?

It is now Feb 27th, and new news on the web about Defkalion is eerily non-existent (testing of their device is supposedly underway, having started on the Feb. 24th and is expected to take at least four days). While continuing to wait, here is a decently written summary of what the all the various institutions are up to... Wired Magazine: "Race for cold fusion: Nasa, MIT, Darpa and Cern peer through the keyhole" By David Hambling 27 February 12 http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2012-02/27/rossi-roundup

OK, putting their money where their mouth is. We wait with bated breath... "Defkalion: Independent Testing Will Begin Feb 24th" http://www.e-catworld.com/2012/02/defkalion-independent-testing-will-begin-feb-24th/

Andrea does not rise to the $1,000,000 challenge, casting further doubts on the veracity of his device: Forbes: "Rossi Responds to Smith's Challenge to Prove E-Cat Works" http://www.forbes.com/sites/markgibbs/2012/02/15/rossi-responds-to-smiths-challenge-to-prove-e-cat-works/

A One Million Dollar "Put up or Shut Up"?: Forbes: "E-Cat Proof Challenge: $1,000,000 is a "Clownerie"? (Updated)" http://www.forbes.com/sites/markgibbs/2012/02/14/e-cat-proof-challenge-1000000-is-a-clownerie/

At the heals of DefKatlion's announcement last week to allow testing and outside independent monitoring of their energy generator, comes an article by visiting Sterling D. Allan to their establishment with his latest impressions: "Hope from Athens found in Cold Fusion" "...In the coming few weeks, they will be having at least seven different groups come in to test their device, beginning with the Greek government next week. The results from each group will be published. Each group will have 48 hours to test the device and a control to which they can compare it..." http://pesn.com/2012/02/13/9602039_Hope_from_Athens_found_in_Cold_Fusion/

Still more smell: MSNBC - "Fraud claims over E-Cat 'cold fusion' machine heating up" http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/46342612/ns/technology_and_science-science/#.TzliiFxSTZc Mr. Rossi is going to have to pull something out of the fire pretty quick if he has any hope of not being utterly discredited.

Not looking very good for Andrea Rossi. A well-written article that lists a continuous line of misadventures that, when added up, comes off pretty smelly:Report #4: Rossi's NASA Test Fails to LaunchFeb. 10, 2012 By Steven B. Krivit Editor, New Energy Times http://newenergytimes.com/v2/news/2012/Report-4-Rossis-NASA-Test-Fails-to-Launch.shtml

It would seem that the independent tests of the Defkatlion device is going ahead... "...So far we have received applications and we are in the process of preparing independent test with 7 well-known research centers and organizations from Greece and abroad. We have received hundreds of applications from independent individual researchers from around the world. Obviously they can not meet all these requests memonomenon researchers within the space of the next two months..." http://freeenergytru...-defkalion.html

Most great discoverers have walked the walk and put in the time, but at their moment of realization they stand before that which they can barely grasp. At that moment of epiphany they too are rambling neophytes. The 'system' is the clumsy and inadequate structure with which the discoverers attempt to illuminate their fellow man. Sadly, many mistake it for the insight itself.

I wrote "...otherwise there is no discovery ..." 'Otherwise' is the operative word. No conspiratorial tone intended. It is a case of natural human behavior, nothing more. No disagreement there.

In both cases - Andrea Rossi and Defcatlion - there have been no reliable and repeated testing by outside sources and for that reason my skeptical level is very high, but I am willing to entertain the concept as long as I harbor any chance that reliable tests be performed by outside sources in the foreseeable future. In an attempt to read Sergio Focardi's explanation of their supposed energy nickel-hydrogen exothermal reactor, my present impression is that if the device works, it is not because of the reasoning behind it. Frankly, this whole enterprise looks at best more like amateurs stumbling in alchemist fashion upon something they do not understand and cannot explain. From a public relations approach it seems to have all the hallmarks of confused, idiosyncratic amateurs who have no idea how to proceed - and yet, they do. My frontal lobes tell me these are perhaps well-intended, but delusional individuals who have nothing to offer society, but have let the snowball go down the mountain so far that it has swallowed them up. That said, there is this nagging sensation that I can't put my finger on that this bizarre process might - just might - be a natural phenomenon. I keep telling myself that it is just desperately ardent wishful thinking that such a device could be real, seeing mankind's urgent need for clean, unlimited energy. To the superior minds out there in the forum, I would like to know if anyone else has read, or would read Focardi's explanation and let the forum know if it makes any sense to them. Failing that, is there any literature that would point in the direction that would suggest that an energy nickel-hydrogen exothermal reactor was possible? ...If not, it would seem the only avenue is to sit back and see if the Defcatlion company does indeed allow independent tests, and what the outcomes may be. Is there literature that illustrates a discernible link between Pons and Flieshmann's cold fusion and Andrea Rossi's purported means of propagation?

Negligible - perhaps, but not null. In the realm of science, the web has indeed opened a can or worms in that huge numbers of intelligent individuals are in the process of absorbing many ideas gleaned from the natural world. True, many become overwhelmed by the mystery and loose themselves in dead-end non-empirical machinations - but many will not, and they are coming your way. For this reason, it is important that forums such as this be cautiously receptive to new ideas, rather than uncompromisingly combative in nature. Being discouraging will only send them elsewhere, and everyone will be the looser. Hope ought to spring eternal. Moments of empirical insight backed up by observation and/or repeatable laboratory evidence are indeed very, very rare and may only be expected to appear over great time spans. However, if the flower is not open, the bee cannot pollinate. As moderators, your job is an unenviable one, as you have to sift the straw for the needle. But sift you must - otherwise there is no discovery, only repetition. Pertaining to my wish for discussion to be allowed on said topic, you write: Thank you, swansont, I appreciate that very much and will go there now - and apologize to all in this thread if I came across too harshly. In many ways, text can be a terrible conveyor of good will.

The historical parallel that jumps out from reading your comment, is something on par with a Catholic priest objecting to the Bible being translated from Latin to the common language. What do these unwashed masses need to read this for, when they have us to interpret Holy Scripture? What value could that possibly have? Lucky for the public back then the Gutenberg Press came into being. Lucky for the present public the Internet/Web has come into being. I can only assume from your statement above, that the thought of original empirical ideas emerging from the public in general must make you feel very uncomfortable. That is sensible. By that definition, since Praxen Defkalion Green Technologies are going to allow Independent Testing on Hyperion Reactors* the forum would allow the issue to be discussed? Before any assumptions are made, I must stress that I have no other interest in this subject than frank curiosity, and I find it hard to believe that something that may have such potential impact, must not presently be discussed on this forum. *I have included another article here, the additional information refers to the recent date of Defkalion's statement.

By that reasoning and for the sake of argument, if this board was around in 1960, before sonar maps of the ocean bottom were made, would that mean we could not discuss Alfred Wegener's theory of plate tectonics? If this was the year before Man landed on the Moon, would we not be able to discuss the Moon Landing? I acknowledge that the moderators are charged with the difficult task of keeping postings within a tolerable level of empirical reasoning, but - with respect - I would suggest that in the light of the considerable information I find posted on level-headed sites pertaining to recent events in unconventional energy-producing processes, the censorship is crossing the grey line and leaves the scienceforum open to the charge of narrow-mindedness. It bothers me, for I delight in the many other less controversial subjects that are discussed here - but will I be coming to this forum looking for opinions by astute minds discussing controversial up-to-the-minute ideas in science? Within the present ethic framework, probably not.

"The Cosmologists" 1985 Andrea Rossi and Defkalion, claiming as much as 20 units of energy created for every one unit of input. Indeed, a possibly unlikely - but a very interesting subject, worthy of scrutiny if only for the potential impact such a phenomenon might have on our society. While in process writing about this, one for my blog commentary, the other for the DailyKos.com, I came to realize that this subject needed desperately to segue into a much larger, darker and more insidious story. During my attempts to collect information on the subject of energy catalyzers, I was somewhat surprised at the distinct lack of interest in scientific quarters, and it has gradually dawned on me to what degree the so-called empirical science forums, such as physicsforums.com and scienceforums.net have ossified. This realization began when I went looking for research information on Andrea Rossi and Defkalion at these forums and found discontinued threads. Emailing a PhysicsForum.com moderator, I asked him why all LENR posts seem to be abruptly terminated, he responded, "The current consensus among the Mentors is that Cold Fusion needs to be demonstrated and documented in mainstream peer-reviewed scientific journal articles before it can be discussed on the PF." "...needs to be demonstrated..."? Is that not the whole point of scientific discovery? If this was 1902, would one not be allowed to discuss the possibility of powered flight? (Achieved by two men working in a bicycle garage.) Determining what is possible and what is not, is a messy business, it is the meat of scientific debate. Is a shutting down of discourse not an appeasing abdication to this tenant? Is this turning away anything less than scientific cowardice? It is almost like watching a replay of the 18th century French Academy of Sciences encouraging collectors to rid themselves of their meteorites, because rocks falling from the sky was 'nonsense'. Getting back to Andrea Rossi or Defkalion, what piques my curiosity is that here are two entities who were momentarily coordinating, then separate, but both still aggressively pursuing the same purpose. When charlatans and the delusional break up, it usually ends up with one denouncing other as a pursuer of quackery. That is not happening. There is something in this present interaction which amplifies my suspension of disbelief and causes me to sit up and take notice. I want to know more, and see what intelligent people are thinking about the subject of energy catalyzers. Let's say for a moment that Defkalion's announcement to allow independent scientific institutions to test their generator yields a positive result. What an indictment of the present process! What does that say about the present state of our science method? I present to you an example of ongoing science folly: Forty years of the supposedly 'scientific' approach, using the 'rational' tools of exploration in the pursuance of controlled hot fusion. Other than the subsidizing of 'scientists' who have been feeding off of the Department of Energy teat to the tune of countless billions of dollars, what has this 'research' yielded? What ratio of sustained units of energy can they claim to have created? Going back to the root of controlled hot fusion research, you will find a divergence between plasma physicists and 'fusion' physicists. Essentially, fusion physicists cut loose and convinced the Dept. of Energy that they could build a fusion reactor in short order. Then they discovered that super-heated matter does not obey the laws of gasses as expected; it was a forth state of matter, a plasma. Instead of going back to fundamentals, they started messing around with magnets, attempting to 'trap' the plasma. It was like blind men attempting to build a cage for an animal they had never seen. However, the funding was so good and there was careers to be made. The entire venture became an unscientific, expensive, decades-long boondoggle that goes on to this day. Such an abomination can only proceed through the muzzling of rational objections and protests. Unfortunately, replications of this kind of deception have become par for the course in the scientific community. Careers at stake. Money, Prestige, Power. Meanwhile, plasma scientists, specialists who actually attempt to observe plasma behavior became for the most part sidelined, which is a pity when it is this branch of inquiry that should have been pursued way back from the beginning. A little background history: It is a common misconception that the Gutenberg Press made its greatest historical impact due to the publishing of the Bible in the common tongue, rather than Latin, and it is true that this caused much upheaval and plotted the course of history. Gutenberg Press However, what is not largely recognized is the thousands of technical pamphlets that started to appear: "How to Thatch a Roof", "How to build a brick wall", "How to make a pair of shoes". All these technical subjects had until that moment been exclusive domain of the many secretive guilds that flourished, creating an artificial scarcity of information and knowledge. Mere decades after the invention of the Gutenberg Press, the dissemination of knowledge had destroyed the bulk of these exclusive guilds. If a graph could demonstrate a timeline of technological innovation, we would observe a rapid upswing, a flourishing of innovation that has only started to level off in our century. It is appropriate to say that over the past centuries, the general public was playing catch-up, absorbing the basic technical know-how that was locked away by the secretive elements of society that wished to benefit at the expense of their own species. We have now reached a new paradigm. With the advent of the Web, history is about to repeat itself. This time, rather than a Technical Revolution, it is a Revolution of the Epiphany, a revolution where empirical realizations and insights are open to scrutiny no longer the exclusive domain of a secluded scientific guild, a social institution which has to date managed to hide behind a cloak of costly and inaccessible journals that in essence exclude the general public. Word-Wide-Web This state of affairs must surely come to an end. It must evolve into a system where scientific journals are free and accessible to the public, where ideas must stand on their observational merit, rather than highly questionable speculations founded upon a false edifice where one long-bankrupt preface totters precariously upon another. It is foolish not to include the general public for, as the Gutenberg Press has proved, the general public is a major source of innovation and discovery. Such a point of view is presently viewed with much disdain by many the science elite, to the great disadvantage of our civilization. It is a mindset seems to believe that scientists spontaneously generate like magic, as if they were not actually part the general public. Where does such blinkered narrow-mindedness lead? The shunning of Pons and Fleischman Cold Fusion for publishing directly to the public media was a the price they paid. How dare they illuminate their admittedly questionable findings to the great unwashed public, this homogeneous mass that is only fixated on sensational fiction and film stars? The science mindset buried Pons and Fleischman Cold Fusion for twenty years, and anyone pursuing this subject was ostracized side-lined and ejected from what can only be described science priesthood. Funds for research on cold fusion dried up, research was discouraged. Is it any wonder then, that any innovation in this realm that might turn up, emerges from shoe-string garage pioneers stumbling upon something they don't quite understand in an almost alchemic fashion? Once more, back to then articles I was researching on Andrea Rossi and Defkalion. This is stating the obvious, but if Andrea Rossi and Defkalion's energy generators are for real, the World will never look the same. The impact of unlimited, pollution-free energy cannot be underestimated - and the byproduct of which, would be a shamed and discredited science community. Many aspects of the scientific community has become an inflexible, and is beginning to cost our species dearly. There must be change. If not the phenomenon of Andrea Rossi and Defkalion, it will only be a matter of time before some other innovation out of the blue will smash this fraying, defunct paradigm. I do not relish a scenario in which those dark forces of superstition and religious imposition, continuously battering at the door of scientific empiricism were to find entry. Such a pity then, if the breach is effortlessly brought about by the opening of the door from the inside.

I'm sorry - a nubie on this forum. I thought I was posting to <li class="first" style="background-color: rgb(228, 234, 242); margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; float: left; font-size: 0.9em; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(135, 135, 135); ">Science Forums<li style="background-color: rgb(228, 234, 242); margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; float: left; font-size: 0.9em; color: rgb(135, 135, 135); ">> Other Topics<li style="background-color: rgb(228, 234, 242); margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; float: left; font-size: 0.9em; color: rgb(135, 135, 135); ">> Speculations I would be most appreciative if you would place my posting in the appropriate location, and if you feel it does not merit placement, please discard. -S- <br class="Apple-interchange-newline">

Some confusion surrounds the topic of Absolute Vacuums. Most folk are really talking about 'empty space', which is a misnomer. Space is not empty. In this context, the word "hollow" is appropriate, and can be applied to this type of space, as in "A space with nothing in it." An absolute Vacuum is quite different. It is a "Volume with no space in it" From the microcosm to the macrocosm, Absolute Vacuums have never been directly observed in space. Even the thinnest intergalactic space consists of radiation, virtual particles, whole atoms. From its distinct observational absence, many would infer that Absolute Vacuums do not exist, but that is an assumption and an erroneous one, in my opinion. An Absolute Vacuum cannot be directly observed because of the imposition it has on conventional space. We may only observe the volume surrounding it, and the behavior of that surrounding space. The Absolute Vacuum itself is a singularity in that we can only speculate, but never know what occurs on the other side of the volume. I would speculate that within such a volume the concept of time and temperature are meaningless. In the short video below, one section concerns itself with a thought model that goes some way to explaining the nature of the Absolute Vacuum, and its imposition on space. Best, Stephen Goodfellow