[Rezwan]

But I am optimistic about the direction things are going. Initial establishment reaction is to blame foreigners for instigating all of this unrest. Trying to distance this from “true Iranians” – externalize it. Parading people on TV that say exactly this. Arrested protesters confessing to being recruited by America or Israel. [Do it to Julia!] [And tu quoque argument here, with Gitmo in it’s back pocket, US is in no position to criticize prisoner handling here. Squandered moral authority. When states feel threatened…states will be states].

That “foreigners are behind this” refrain is a strong and convincing one. We all remember ’53. I wasn’t even born, and I’m deeply paranoid about foreign interests. Before twitter, this country has a history of social media and mass movements (’53, ’79). It all spiraled out of control and didn’t lead to a fully engaged and open society with informational checks and balances…

1st move, blame foreigners. But the unrest is so widespread that it’s pretty clear to everyone this is homegrown, spontaneous, and not externally orchestrated (well, OK, I’m sure there’s some external input, nefarious UK!).

Denial is not going to work here. Eventually establishment will have to sit down and listen. The strategy of trying to just shut up the chatter and pump out propaganda* won’t work this time. (*well, “news”, but even if it’s true, credibility is shot and people are labeling it propaganda – except the choir, of course)

Better to co-opt, I always say. Trying to get Snyder’s “Nation of Cowards” translated into Farsi. You can have a fully outspoken society, fully armed, and still get away with murder and squander gazillions of taxpayer dollars when you’re in government. Just look at America! It’s brilliant! Happy people, working hard, innovating, creating wealth and ingenious solutions to problems. You tax them, and use the proceeds to play your games around the world! They go out and protest, and you just laugh all the way to the bank or to the bombing run on Iraq or whatever.

Well, that’s one pitch. These guys are really not seeing the possibilities of a free society. It’s win win.

Whoa, cynicism.

Like I said, I have no idea what’s happening/will happen.

[Rezwan]

Hi Duke,

You realize you’re asking me to analyze the present, as if being on the ground gives me better perspective, and to then project the future. These things are beyond my abilities. I disclaim this at length in my blog: http://www.planiran.com/index.php/site/article/unpredictable/

And I twitter, too. http://twitter.com/planiran

I teach at the university here in Shiraz, innocuous things like English language and environmental science for planners. Still trying to forumulate a strategy to bring about something constructive like an effective civil rights movement out of all this, without being labeled a zionist american spy (I’m 1/2 American, and Mom’s born again, so, clearly, if arrested, the case is slam dunk). Although, for the record, I am not a zionist american spy.

I am a human being.

But I don’t think it’s people with guns vs. without. There are guns all around here. Thriving black market. This is Iran! Be real! The caution comes more from what Khamenei warned about in his Friday sermon. “Take a look at our neighbors and all their chaos.” That was a “bad cop” reminder. e.g., if these young upstarts try to destabilize the regime, they won’t be able to establish anything stable in its place. Because a lot of people feel very strongly on all sides. (And the crowd at the prayers went wild! Chanting the litany that includes death to america, death to israel. Death, death, death.)

This country needs to hold together. And it (especially the govt., but also people in general) needs to develop the skill and discipline to have civil conversations (dude, “death to…????”). As it is, things are very reactionary, and developing this aptitude will take some…miracle.

Six impossible things before breakfast. No problem.

[Rezwan]

OK, I read the Freeman Dyson article. http://www.nybooks.com/articles/21494

I was told, above, “Cap-and-Trade had the very worst consequences, except for Gore’s recommendations.” But Kyoto, which uses cap and trade, is actually neutral or beneficial, according to Dyson. It’s close to their optimal – global carbon tax. A plus one, vs. plus 3 for their optimal.

Perhaps Stern (which is terrible, but better than Gore) uses cap and trade with a vengeance and that’s why the above quote about “cap and trade” being the worst? But there must be other factors involved, however that make a difference in the -15 vs. +1 scores for two systems which incorporate cap and trade.

Here’s the quote from Dyson article:

Here are the net values of the various policies as calculated by the DICE model. The values are calculated as differences from the business-as-usual model, without any emission controls. A plus value means that the policy is better than business-as-usual, with the reduction of damage due to climate change exceeding the cost of controls. A minus value means that the policy is worse than business-as-usual, with costs exceeding the reduction of damage. The unit of value is $1 trillion, and the values are specified to the nearest trillion.

The net value of the optimal program, a global carbon tax increasing gradually with time, is plus three—that is, a benefit of some $3 trillion.

The Kyoto Protocol has a value of plus one with US participation, zero without US participation.

The “Stern” policy has a value of minus fifteen,

the “Gore” policy minus twenty-one, and

“low-cost backstop” plus seventeen.

Which brings me back to not throwing the baby out with the bathwater. Cap and trade – I need more info. It’s theoretically a market based solution to environmental problems, which seems worth looking into. Although “religiosity” seems to be clouding an investigation into it, both pro and con.

[Rezwan]

Brian H wrote:

Hi, moved Phil’s Dad’s post in reply to above over here: https://focusfusion.org/index.php/forums/viewthread/308

Actually, Rezwan [ed], you moved my post in reply to Phil’s Dad. 😉 >:-( :cheese:

My bad!

[Rezwan]

Hi, moved Phil’s Dad’s post in reply to above over here: https://focusfusion.org/index.php/forums/viewthread/308

[Rezwan]

Hi y’all!

I always find your posts very informative and fascinating. You seem to have an intimate working knowledge of utility and power industries and comments about your credentials are scattered throughout the posts. Is it possible to summarize this credential information in your bio?

Change bio at your control panel – see top nav line.

Also, trying to think of a way to harness this experience not just in forums, perhaps give blog posting privileges to explain various aspects of the industries involved. Otherwise it’s just me, thinking of writing a summary and linking to these cool forum discussions.

[Rezwan]

Each organization and politician and bureaucrat will operate on the “Qui Bono?” principle, meaning “Who Benefits—will it be me/us?”

I thought that meant “Where’s Bono”, as in U2 lead singer. It’d be great to get him on board with promoting fusion alternatives.

About the date, when I contacted intrade for a focus fusion listing, that was the thing we had to work out with them before they would list us. We settled on 2014 as sufficient time to prove the concept either way. Including peer review, though. That was important to them. More at this link: https://focusfusion.org/index.php/forums/viewthread/288

You’ve got to keep that disclaimer in there. This is still unproven and it all comes down to “will it work?”

I think getting interest in that question alone will carry the game. With ITER’s recent troubles, I don’t think most people expect this to work, so it’s still at the level of speculation and game. Once the game gathers interest, and is publicly won (inshallah), people will want to benefit from it, will demand it. There will be large public & political support.

But yeah. At this time, politicians and people are rightfully skeptical. And we’ll have to respect that skepticism. The burden of proof is on focus fusion. Will it work?

In the meantime, the preparation work you guys are doing is great. Laying the groundwork for when, not if, this works, explaining the options to people, and the possible ways of integrating this. Anticipating barriers and arguments, devising workarounds. Keep up the great work!

[Rezwan]

OK folks, after a bit of back and forth, mostly over trying to figure out how to phrase it, Focus Fusion is now listed on Intrade. Check it out,

Will net power be generated using the Focus Fusion process?
Focus Fusion process to generate net power before midnight ET on 31 Dec 2014.

Wanna bet? Go to the contract on intrade.

Want to find out more, read our post: https://focusfusion.org/index.php/site/article/195/

[Rezwan]

Breakable wrote: One problem with the error page
https://focusfusion.org/index.php/site/404/
is that it seems not to provide the 404 error status to browser.
So looking for broken links using some software like
http://home.snafu.de/tilman/xenulink.html
is harder.

I’ll look into this, too. This site uses expression engine, and creates pages dynamically, so the 404 page doesn’t always come up when it should. E.g., sometimes your url will generate a page, but it’s not really what you want.

[Rezwan]

Yep! Those are placeholders for categories. I have yet to design the pages they link to. My bad. I’ll get to it! It’s been on my list for a while now.

A bit distracted with the election – http://twitter.com/planiran

[Rezwan]

Wow! For a second I got really happy, thinking I’ve been so involved in the Iran Election, I didn’t notice all that other stuff happening. Then realized it was fake news. Bummer. http://www.fugue.com/pics/about.html

They can also do this on twitter. There is a trending topic, #happiermovietitles – in which you post movie titles with a happy twist. Like “Secret Santa Sangre”, or “The Empire Negotiates” (vs. “Strikes Back”.

So, they could have #happierheadlines.

And then we can make them come true.

[Rezwan]

Rematog wrote: But, again my point is that INSIDE the FF module, you will have large conductors and big, heavy switchgear, etc. I just want people who havn’t dealt with this kind of thing to get an idea of what it’s like. Your run of the mill residential/commerical electrican could easily kill himself trying to work on this stuff. It take proper training and tools to do so.

Yes, the safety issues need to be made clear. I just read this article about Hybrid safety. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/31112317/ If we’re headed into an electrical world, we need to understand how to deal with it. Not take it for granted.

[Rezwan]

Brian H wrote: Christ’s plea/diagnosis from the cross, “Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani!” (Lord, Lord, forgive them; they know not what they do!”) is true at all times; we are permanently ignorant, and blameless and without virtue.

Eloi eloi etc. means “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?”

I had a friend in seminary who was also of the persuasion that God doesn’t know what’s going to happen and is thus engaged more enthusiastically in creation. The whole predetermination vs. free will debate comes down to that question. The next question is, are dynamism and ignorance compatible with absolute perfection and omniscience?

Mysterious ways. But we digress.

[Rezwan]

Hi Aeronaut – I tried to find the article you referred to. Found another one, but it didn’t have your quote. Seems to be part of a series. Do you have the direct link? Also, that pdf was for the Virginia Water Resources center, seemed to be a brochure about the institute, nothing definitive about water issues.

Jimmy, the article I quoted (not one of it’s sources, who likely does have an agenda), also states that agriculture, industry, and the electric industry are the US’s largest water users in that order. This is a VERY long, multi-faceted article that makes the point that no single industry or resource can be singled out by policy. Rather, water, air, energy, transportation, (just for openers) should be planned in an integrated manner.

Anyway, we’re starting fresh here. Brand new topic thread.

[Rezwan]

JimmyT wrote: The truth:
Almost half of all water withdrawn in the United States each year is for cooling electric power plants. And the vast majority of that water is simply raised a couple of degrees and returned to the river or lake from whence it originated. There have been environmental impact studies ad-nauseum which show that very little if any harm is done to the ecology in the process.

So this thermal pollution thing is a non issue? Send some links, we can add those to the post.

Either way, we want it to work for us – for Focus Fusion to look good.

For those who are convinced it’s a non-issue, we show due diligence in acknowledging the issue.

For those who aren’t convinced it’s a non-issue, who have fears of thermal pollution, we should be able to show how we’re much less alleged-thermal polluting than anything else out there.

We do claim this is “clean” energy, so we have the burden of addressing all the potential criticisms to be lobbed.

[Author]

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