[Tasmodevil44]

Even in these open – minded focus fusion forums, you still find a little closed – minded arrogance and smart – a – leck sarcasm from time to time…… I guess because some people think they are being funny or cute…… even if they’re not funny or cute. Comments like: ” You do a lot of talking to yourself a lot “, or statements like: ” Yes…… leave it to future generations ! ! ! ” ( Do I sense a little of that same kind of arrogance and sarcasm from people like Jimmy T or breakable in this forum subject…… or just my imagination ? )

On the subject of religion and religious fanatics, I really loved the movie ” RELIGULOUS ! ” with anti – religion bashing comedian Bill Maher in it. It was hyterically funny ! ! !

However, Bill Maher made a statement near the end of the movie which I TOTALLY disagree with. He said that ” SKEPTICISM IS HUMBLE ! ! ! ” :snake: :exclaim:

WHAT ? ! ? ! ! ! Could you please repeat that again ? :snake: :exclaim: :ahhh: :question:

By no means is skepticism always humble. Closed – minded skepticism can be just as ARROGANT as too much faith without evidence…… especially in the face of OVERWHELMING EVIDENCE for things like cold fusion. If anything, the fact that life is full of uncertainty is all the more reason to be open – minded about the UNLIMITED POSSIBILITIES…… not to be skeptical…… whatever it may be…… whether it be spiritual, scientific, or anything else.

Behind all types of arrogance you always have this arrogant air of absolute certainty…… that there’s an absolute 100% chance that you’re right…… and a ZERO PERCENT chance of any other alternative being correct…… whether it be fundamentalist religious fanatics who are absolutely certain they are right with no facts to back themselves up…… or arrogant athiests who go to the opposite extreme in being absolutely certain no god or supreme being exists (But were they there when the Big Bang occurred ?)…… or the stubborn mainstream science community absolutely certain Low Energy Nuclear Reactions ( LENR) is junk science…… stubborn denial of overwhelming evidence for cold fusion (the coulomb electrostatic charge barrier of repulsion is more of a psychological barrier than a physical one. Nothing that quantum mechanical tunneling can’t handle).

In fact, the only certainty in life is uncertainty itself (Well, maybe death and taxes ). 🙂

[Tasmodevil44]

By no means have all the big questions been answered. We still know absolutely nothing yet. This is typical of mainstream scientific conservatism…… thinking that science already knows everything and there’s nothing new to be found. Science only raises more questions than answers…… very queer universe inded.

[Tasmodevil44]

Not that I’m down on all psychologists as quacks, just most of them. 🙂

[Tasmodevil44]

Some stubborn arguementive types have no scientific method to their irrational reasoning (or lack of reasoning thereof). Everything to them is just ” Your opionion vs. My opinion “. As if there was no such a thing as absolute concrete reality or absolute concrete facts that is subjective to being testable with experimentation or evidence. Believing something in your mind does NOT necessarily make it REAL. That is, unless you are into total escapism and denial of reality. Although I myself detest the closed – minded arrogance of conservatism and much of mainstream science these days, virtually ALL of the scientific disciplines which dash listd as pseudoscience have been proven and backed with enormous incontrovertible EVIDENCE…… not personal opinions.

Now, if dash had mentioned psychology and psychiatry and pseudoscience quacksalvers like Sigmund Freud, then I would be more inclined to agree. :cheese:

[Tasmodevil44]

I have always been very open – minded about thinking outside the usual paradign. However, this has nothing to do with mainstream science’s closed – minded arrogance against things like cold fusion at room temperature (simple quantum tunneling explains it).

But instead, dash keeps arguing about scientific facts that have already been overwhelmingly proven beyond any shadow of doubt. The closed – minded arrogance of dogmatic mainstream scientific thinking is one thing……hypocritically calling absolutely indisputable facts pseudoscience is another. No offense dash, but you are the one preaching pseudoscience here…… like the radical right – wing fundamentalist preachers in the pulpit who stubbornly deny overwhelming evidence of evolution as being a pseudoscience.

When considering the amount of potassium 40, thorium 232, length of half – lives, and internal volume to mathematical surface ratio of something as volumous as the Earth, it’s quite obvious where most of the thermal energy comes from (radioactive decay ! ! !).

Although a smaller amount may come from fission as well. Contrary to what some may think, it’s a lot easier for fission to occur in nature than you may think. Natural fission reactors have been found in Africa (although these fizzled – out eons ago). As for light atom moderators which slow – down neutrons, enormous quantities of primordial hydrogen from the Earth’s creation is believed to exist in the molten core. Tremendous pressure keeps the hydrogen dissolved in molten iron like CO2 is dissolved in a soda pop. Only if the pressure is reduced will it bubble and fizz out. I’m not the only one to theorize that the Earth is a fission reactor……many other scientists have also come to this conclusion. However, it is still a very slow and inefficient reactor in which most of the neutrons are absorbed before fission occurs. Therefore, most of the geothermal energy still comes from the decay of common radio – isotopes like uranium, thorium and potassium.

[Tasmodevil44]

I think it was belbear who first got me thinking about carbon, when he asked Lerner about this same question. I have also thought about the possibility of an exotic particle of antimatter or something of that sort which might act as a catalyst to excite and destabilize ordinary carbon – 12. You would certainly get a lot more energy from a lump of coal this way than conventional coal – fired plants ! ! ! But such an idea to excite and destabilize ordinary garden variety carbon will still require some kind of new breakthrough discovery we still don’t have yet.

[Tasmodevil44]

I don’t know if a rotating insulator would work. Especially when considering the short few picoseconds it all has to take place. Interesting concept, though. But never give – up thinking outside the usual paradign of thought. Sooner or later, one of these hair – brained ideas will strike the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow…… er, ah……. plasmoid ! ! ! 🙂

[Tasmodevil44]

This is getting a little off the subject, but believe me jeg3, you don’t have to tell me about our lovely Gov’t non (action) of good ‘ol Uncle Sam…… and how good research money of taxpayers at work is poured down the drain. Everybody already knows about all the mismanagement and waste (Heck, doesn’t everybody these days ?). There’s just no continuity or consistency to NASA, the Pentagon, or anything else these days. Build an Apollo Saturn 5 rocket, then scrap it. Finance a renewable space shuttle only ” half – assed “, by going with dangerous external tank and solid – fuel boosters…… instead of riding ” piggy – back ” on larger rocket plane…… then scrap all invested in the shuttle, too. Finance the Bussard nuclear fusion device, then cancel all funding as soon as it begins to look very promising…… what a way to run a government ! ! !

And the very sad thing about it is not only that we were so close (but still so far thanks to gov’t dropping the ball), but also the fact that all the knowlege and expertise for this may be permanently lost and unrecoverable. Bussard is now deceased R.I.P. , as well as a lot of these other old – timers. Many of the younger physicists are specialized in things like solid – state electronics and robotics and the like, but lacking much of the plasma and vacuum physical know – how of many of these old guys. And although many people don’t believe in conspiracy theories (and consider them all to be nuts), how much specially intrenched vested interests like oil companies, coal mining and the like may have been involved in killing it ?

[Tasmodevil44]

You are indeed correct, jeg3. The LFTR is specifically designed for the use of thorium. I can see where BOTH focus fusion and thorium reactors can have their special niche they fit into best. Just as solid-stste transistors did not make all applications of the vacuum tube obsolete overnight. Focus fusion may eventually beat the LFTR in economics of electric generation, but the LFTR may be better suited to destruction of long-lived transuranic actinides that remain highly radio-toxic for so long.

But I have abandoned the idea of any fission / fusion hybrid in which heavy atom fission might aid pB11 in the DPF. There would be too much X-ray losses caused by such heavy atoms. Not to mention the difficulty in getting them to fission in the first place. Belbear is definitely correct about the difficulty in applying this approach. Plutonium fission might trigger an H – Bomb, but employing fission to trigger fusion in the DPF is far more problematic. Plus the same costly radioactive problems reactors have now.

Although skeptics like Jimmy T argue against the idea of lithium…… that pB11 is still the so – called ” Holy Grail ” of fusion…… I still think that lithium may still have the best potential chance for a ” kick – starter ” to help get pB11 going. It has only three neutrons, which means less X – ray energy loss. It also has a lower ignition temperature. Which means it may ignite first before the boron does, dumping more energy into the plasma to pre – heat it more than the power supply alone can. And it might even help to extend the reaction time window beyond only 6 picoseconds so that more reaction events can occur. Forget large atom fission. I still think lithium has the best possibilities.

Hydroboranes like decaborane and pentaborane have only two chemical elements: boron and hydrogen. But there’s another class, or family, of chemical compounds which contain all three: hydrogen, lithium and boron. I wonder…… has Lerner thought about these as possible fuel candidates yet ?

[Tasmodevil44]

Like I’ve said in the past, it would be great if the blacklight process could somehow be employed to assist nuclear fusion in helping it get over the difficult “hump”. But first we must still determine whether or not there is any substance to this. Only time will tell. Meanwhile, the world is waiting.

[Tasmodevil44]

The more I got to thinking about this ” outside – the – box ” idea, the more I began to realize how correct belbear is in the major technical and nuclear physics obstacles to trying to ” burn ” thorium, uranium, etc. in the DPF. Belbear said it takes about 6 hours for protactinium to decay into U233. But it gets even worse than that. After reading more on thorium nuclear power, I found that it can take as long as a month and a half for the transmutation to occur ! ! ! Far too long for only a 6 picosecond time window.

I also looked at other possibilities. For example, you might be able to leapfrog over the lengthy protactinium step if a thorium nucleus absorbs an energetic enough alpha particle and goes directly to becoming uranium. But this would be working against the binding energy curve and would actually tend to absorb energy from the plasma rather than heat it. Not to mention the enormous X – ray loss from an atom with such a large atomic number. I also checked – out on the internet an exotic new type of thorium fisssion discvered by researchers in Ohio back during the 1990’s. ( Read my other post) . But alas, this produces no energy at all, even though it’s a nuclear reaction !

[Tasmodevil44]

This concept by Electron Power Systems sounds a lot like the natural phenomena of ball lightening. Once dismissed by many skeptics as something in the pseudo – realm of U.F.O.’s and bigfoot, it is now commonly accepted fact by the scientific community that the rare electrical phenomena of ball lightening does indeed exist. In fact, this is not the first time these naturally occurring plasmoids have been suggested as a method of harnessing nuclear fusion. Years ago I heard about an inventor who was trying to do the same thing. He even applied for a patent on a ball lightening plasmoid generator for harnessing fusion. I wonder if Electron Power Systems might somehow have something to do with the same guy or somebody else. I find the overall concept to be somewhat fascinating.

[Tasmodevil44]

Here recently, not too long ago, I read something about how the random motions of molecules could somehow be organized and harnessed. This is not perpetual motion, but has interesting possibilities on the small molecular scale and possibly scalable to large scale power production. Living cells use this technique to harness the random motions of water molecules to perform useful work. I decided just to throw in this footnote because it sounded somewhat interesting.

[Tasmodevil44]

Yes, I have already been doing some research and reading – up on Thorium Power, based in Washington, D.C. They are working on fuel rods that can adapt thorium to already existing nuclear plants. There is also the LFTR (liquid flouride thorium reactor) specifically designed for thorium. When research on it was cancelled back in 1974, it was one of the biggest mistakes in nuclear research. Thorium can definitely be a second back – up alternative in the event things like focus fusion don’t pan – out for some reason (although I have pretty high confidence that focus fusion can work).

But as far as any attempt at hybrid fission/fusion in a DPF, I have done ruled – out and discounted the possibility that it might be able to assist pB11 fusion in getting it over the so – called “hump” to help it along. Such hybrid fission/fusion works well in the thermonuclear H – Bomb, but is incompatible with the DPF. But while researching the subject, I found this other bizarre kind of thorium fission to be rather academically interesting, but still impractical and useless.

[Tasmodevil44]

I just found some more interesting reading on the EEStor. This post was done by a skeptic who still has doubts. He thinks it’s tantamount to technological snake oil until they actually have produced working models that perform as claimed instead of hot air. I’d like some feedback on what others may think about this. Here’s the link :

http://globalwarming-arclein.blogspot.com/2009/03/eestor-posting-of-interest.html

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