Steorn Orbo livestream begins: Look, fairies!
By Thomas Ricker 
posted December 15th 2009 3:40AM
posted December 15th 2009 3:40AM
[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
posted December 15th 2009 3:40AM
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I wouldn't wonder if they set up some kind of hidden induction to magically power the device
@hq: btw guys, the "thing" in front of the device is really a battery according to the steorn website (see http://www.steorn.com/demo/rig/ )
seriously, if this thing can generate energy why the hell does it need a battery for whatever it is doing?
@hq As per their PR video, the battery is spinning the device, while device charges the battery. Just repeating what they claim.
@flammablewater : oh well didn't watch that.
but that would mean the device is using up all the energy that is produced to run itself? what happens with the proposed overunity?
something remains very odd about the steorn... still don't believe in it.
@hq There's a sign in the background that says something about over-unity. Too blurry to read, though. At least they seem to have addressed the problem.
@hq @Kiester I will or I wont believe this, but first I need PROOF one way or another...
One the traditional physicists front, besides quoting the law of thermodynamics over and over again, no one has broken this thing apart and said "HERE!, This is where it is losing energy, and this is when the energy of the system will reach zero and the device will cease working." I mean, if the Law of Thermodynamics holds, that is what will happen, the device will work for a period of time and then fail once the energy in the device finally reaches zero. When someone can tell me exactly where it is losing energy, exactly how much energy it consumes, how much energy it generates, and the approximate half-life of the system, I will call it busted.
Now, for Steorn's part, not one has even BEGUN to tell me HOW this works. Besides saying "Magnets" over and over again. What about the magnets? What is happening? How? What are those charts showing? And the same as the traditional physicists, how much energy in, how much energy out? Oh, and for an added bonus, put a damn load on it. Once you do all that, I will defend you until I die.
Until either of those criteria are met, I will remain apathetic, and kindly ask the lot of you (both sides) to STFU! I can't hear the logic with all your emo bellyaching!
@thebline Go find your own proof? Look at every single other system in all the universe, from a big ass star to, well everything else, and you wont find a single free energy system, anywhere, ever. This wont be any different.
@thebline
Well thanks there. If someone hadn't stated what the requirements for proving if this was fake or real, no one would have ever figured it out.
can you say "bullshit?"
@John Stathakis Yes, I can! "Bullshit."
It works man, it works
they are using my idea too, I should have patented it when I had the chance
@John Stathakis - They should save themselves the money they're spending on advertising and PR by simply waiting until they can power their offices from the free energy they create. That would be proof enough for me :-)
//the odor of fertilizer is strong here
@John Stathakis "Lisa, in this house we obey the laws of thermodynamics!"
looks like it works to me! phew i was starting to get a little worried about global warming!!
@(Unverified) Well, if this or anything else that gives virtually free energy (a working fusion plant as well) really worked, there would rather quickly become a net gain in energy. All energy transforms to heat in the end... THAT would surely lead to global warming...
Wow, you're right! Why did that never occur to me before?!
@(Unverified) Sorry, that's not how global warming works. The cause is extra sunlight trapped by atmospheric CO2, not the actual heat produced while burning fuel (or doing work in general). The amount of energy in sunlight hitting the earth is HUGE compared to the energy stored in all the world's fuel reserves and just capturing a small fraction of that can lead to far more warming than any number of engines.
@rant
The sun is not the one, ultimate provider of heat on Earth; there are many sources of heat. If you added a huge one like enough free energy to power the developed world, then unless you could destroy the energy once it had served its intended purpose, or else create a perfect closed system, you would inevitably get waste energy (heat), and thus get warming.
Of course, all of this is impossible to begin with, so it doesn't really make any practical difference whether you can grasp the consequences of eternal free energy.
@Gad Get
I don't think you quite understand the difference in scale between the levels of energy the sun hits us with and the levels humans are realistically able to produce.
@Gad Get Granted, if you had such a thing as "eternal free energy" you could use that to heat up the earth as much as you wanted. Hell, you could recreate the big bang if you desired.
But my point remains - the average human power consumption in 2004 was ~15 TW. The power of sunlight hitting the earth is more than 10000 times greater (~175 PW). Increasing the absorption of the atmosphere by a single percent would be pretty bad for global warming. Generating more heat on earth is a drop in the bucket compared to that .
Hmm, but they are putting energy into the world out of nothing, won''t that actually warm up our system which is in equilibrium?
Oopsy.
Our system isn't in equilibrium that's why we are experiencing global warming.
@grindboy Global warming is a hoax!!!!!!!!!
@rant
Seriously? You can't be serious? You guys/gurls think that global warming is caused by humans producing excess energy that's lost as heat?
That's like saying people running around and exercising cause global warming because they produce excess body heat.
Yes animals do contribute to gobal warming but by the gases they produce.
Global warming is caused by green house gases a component of which is CO2, but one of it's main constituent is water vapour. These gases form a layer which reflects infrared energy, back to the earth rather than allowing it to dissipate into space. This is commonly known as the green house effect.
e.g. Ever notice when on a warm day if it's cloudy in the evening the night will be warm. but if it's cloudless the night is cool. The cloud cover reflects the infrared heat energy emitted by the earth that was warmed by the sun during the day.
Sorry Science lecture over now.
@(Unverified)
You all are wrong and right at the same time. The Greenhouse effect is caused by excess heat from the SUN being captured by greenhouse gasses on the earth. Global warming is simply a runaway Greenhouse Effect caused by increased output of greenhouse gasses.
However, you are also correct (and quite humorous in fact) to say that this thing, if it did release infinite energy, would inherently heat up our system (aka. the world, the solar system, the universe) due to the fact that it's basically an energy producer. That would be adding heat to the total amount of energy the universe has.
Unless of course this thing works in a way that we don't understand at this moment, perhaps by actually reversing entropy, in which case, the universe is saved from its eventual heat death. Yay!
@grindboy
Say, tell me, at what point is the planet in "equilibrium" and who gets to decided whether or not the planet has reached that point?
@Abe
Er. Decide*
@AlthalusTheThief
Seems like you didn't quite read my post; I think we're arguing the same thing here :)
@rant
Sorry My Bad
@Mike10010100
The Sun doesn't produce excess energy, it produces energy. In the form of solar radiation.
This energy is partially adsorbed and partially reflected off the earth and a portion is converted into long wave Infrared energy.
Greenhouse gases trap higher amounts of the solar radiation and long wave infrared radiation.
Causing the planet as a whole to heat up more than if there wasn't an excess of greenhouse gases.
Lecture Two over, there will be a pop quiz on Friday.
@AlthalusTheThief
That's what I..... Oh. I see. You got caught up on the whole "excess heat". What I meant by that was simply that x amount of heat is produced by the sun. y amount of heat is absorbed by the earth. With high levels of greenhouse gasses, higher levels of y are absorbed than usual, thus leading to the word "excess."
Sorry for the confusion. No need to be snarky. Class dismissed.
@Mike10010100
I'm faiiiiirly sure last time I saw this, the idea was that it wasn't *creating* energy or violating the laws of thermodynamics (even the dopiest VC financiers are getting wise to that now), but "harnessing" some hidden energy source, like the gravito-magnetic waves issuing forth from the earth's core or somesuch. As the outer mantle of our world spins, the core spins more slowly, and the relative movement of the two and the inner field lines passing over the device causes it to generate power... leeching energy out of the core. Entropy abides. Something like that. (See how convincing I can sound even when completely pulling this stuff out of my ass?)
And so long as they can hide the real power source with reasonable sleight of hand, the money keeps coming ;)
What Ever Comes in one end, Must Come out the other End!
@Abdel
That's what she said?
@Colin S How can she possibly do that?
what am i looking at?
@Noswal +1
@Noswal
You're looking at pixels on a computer monitor, presumably.
Noswal a motor that uses no electricity or fuels to power itself.
IT STOPPED!
..wait that was just my internet cutting out.
Uhm, for a moment there it stopped spinning and then started spinning in the opposite direction... interesting... but still not convinced...
It hurts my brain to think about how many people out there are going to believe that this is legit.
@DJWaffles: yeah, well, they used to say the earth was flat and there was no way it could be a ball.. Let's not forget, the laws of physics are written by humans, and we all know how many times humans had it wrong....
I'm not saying this is real, but I'm also openminded to think it might actually work as sometimes the solutions to some problems are the simplest which no-one ever thought of..
@SuperDre
Nope, "they" did not say that the earth was flat. This is a common myth brought up in the 18th century, citing some real outsiders from the dark ages.
It was common understanding since the greeks that the earth is spherical, only the size of the sphere was in discussion.
I can rest easy tonight knowing the future promises unlimited energy.
Thank you Steorn.
1a: Steorn may well be Bullspitting
1b: No-one here knows the intricacies of Quantum Physics to any meaningful extent, and the mysteries of the universe are FAR from explained, explored or discovered, no matter what the general feeling among the "Cult of Science" is.
2: The arrogance of Mockery shows nothing other than a lack of intellect, and while common (see Ars Technical, Neowin, et al) is the bane of loving almost every other aspect of these sites. It is, very sometimes, amusing.
3: I want Steorn to be right so that the Mockers can STFU - maybe once and for all.
@alsheron People are mocking Steorn because when people DID believe him he delivered absolutely 0. That's very different from doubting some innocent little physicist cooking up some infinite energy source in his basement.
@alsheron uh yeah, maybe you should go back to reading '60s pulp science fiction books instead of thinking too hard about science facts...
@alsheron You don't need to know Quantum Physics to mock this. You only needed to pay attention in your high school science class to know this is bogus. Guess you were sick that day.
@alsheron
Actually they could be right... there is a slim chance, but they could be. After all, it happens that physics law are rewritten or revised. In this case, there are probably only 2 options though:
1. they are producing free energy, and the most fundamental law of physics (you know - nothing created, nothing destroyed) is wrong. In which case we might just as well throw all physics books and start from scratch
2. it's not really free energy, somehow by mistake or without realizing they are actually sucking out energy from a parallel universe or something - quantum physics, I guess it's possible... but it's not free energy mate, still got it from somewhere!
@alsheron "I want Steorn to be right so that the Mockers can STFU"
How about you want into one hand and shit into the other, and see which fills up first. No matter how much you "want" this to be real, it isn't.