[Focus Fusion Society]

Aeronaut wrote: The FF Society has already demonstrated more due diligence than a “flat-worlder” envirocrises monger will ever show. I agree, we need a thread to explore how to minimize our exposure to them, without painting the last 110 years as bad. Hey, they did what they could with what they had.

OK, to continue discussing this topic, visit the new thread here.

[Focus Fusion Society]

Aeronaut wrote: From my experiences with grant research and writing about 15 years ago suggest that it will take at least 1 full-time staffer to figure crud like the above out and navigate all the flaming hoops, only to be hamstrung by government regulations once we’re awarded the 2M$. Don’t see it being worth the effort, or the risks, myself.

I’m sorry you feel that way, because LPP is going forward with an ARPA-E application, for better or for worse.

[Focus Fusion Society]

Thanks Gabster!

We’re on it. The application is in the works. For more info, see this post:

https://focusfusion.org/index.php/forums/viewthread/265/

[Focus Fusion Society]

Rematog wrote:

With steam, you really need to look the conditions up in a steam table.

Enthalpy is the measue of the energy in a fluid at a given temperature, pressure and state (liquid, gas or solid). It’s given (in US units) in Btu/lb

Entropy is a measure of the “randomness” of the fluid, or it’s state of “organization”. It’s units are, like the concept itself, confusing, Btu/lb F.

Well, I am learning something. And here, for those of you who are interested, is a link to a steam table. Who knew?

http://www.engineeringtoolbox.com/saturated-steam-properties-d_101.html

[Focus Fusion Society]

Continuing to track ARPA-E:
EETimes article: Stimulus: Energy Department scrambles to build new R&D;agency notes that:

The stimulus package contains about $43 billion for energy efficiency and technology programs, including $4.3 billion for smart power grid R&D;. Industry groups and companies large and small are already lining up to win federal energy funding. Whoever is selected to head ARPA-E must be confirmed by the Senate, meaning the nominee will likely have to wait to get on a crowded Senate confirmation schedule. The director will report to Chu.

The chief congressional promoter of ARPA-E in Congress is Rep. Bart Gordon (D-Tenn.), chairman of the House Science Committee. Backers said the new energy R&D;agency would act as a “broker” that would bring together industry and university researchers with U.S. national laboratories. The stimulus package will fund “renewable energy technology development, standards-setting and deployment of smart grid technologies, demonstration of carbon capture and storage, grants for companies producing advanced batteries and loan guarantees for the deployment of existing clean technologies,” Gordon said in a statement.

Hmmm. No mention of fusion.

An industry source nevertheless expressed concern about how long it would take to set up the new energy research agency. “How do they expect to spend $400 million quickly if there is no one there?” the source said.

Gordon’s panel has created a Web site designed to track federal R&D;spending. Along with federal research agencies, the committee is also tracking funding designated for the America COMPETES Act, the legislation that created ARPA-E.

Visiting the website, we find Bart Gordon’s on twitter. Yay. We’ll send out a shout.

[Focus Fusion Society]

I like the brevity. It seems like a nice, no-frills, pared down, to-the-point medium of communication and outreach. If used properly. Otherwise, yes, it could be a total trivial time-suck.

Re:

maihem wrote: BTW, change the repeating background of the website. Try to look like the end result rather than a technical element of the technology. Cleanliness and elegance. Simple life. etc.

Can you send an example of such a background? Attach jpg.

[Focus Fusion Society]

The other thing I like about twitter is the text message option. I can see you in the lab or at lunch, having a sudden inspiration, and texting this to twitter, so that we all are informed of it instantaneously.

We have to set up your phone for that.

Also, take a look at it again to see how much info you can convey with a soundbite. I just added a couple of more meaty posts. The tinyurl’s help. http://twitter.com/focusfusion

[Focus Fusion Society]

Yes, I thought it would be good for organizing campaigns, getting the vote out, that sort of thing. Quick, brief messages. On the fly. And for linking up with other fusion approaches if they get on twitter – a way to build a movement.

Facebook and Myspace seem too high maintenance.

And, being in Iran, I’m blocked from Myspace. Facebook seems doable, though.

[Focus Fusion Society]

Additional strategic social marketing questions:

1. We have yet to improve our “Myspace” presence and get on “facebook”. Do we need to? Can twitter be enough? Twitter is so much simpler. A blessed 160 character maximum per post really takes the pressure off.

2. Will we need to set up separate twitters for LPP, Lerner, each of the scientists on the project? Or is this one twit enough? I see other companies out there with a full spread, each department twitting away, and all following each other.

Is this all hype? Is this a passing fad? Can we really leverage it for the advancement of fusion science?

Comments welcome.

[Focus Fusion Society]

Hey, Google webmaster diagnostics, very nice. I’ve updated the meta tag for the index page, but it will take a while for this to appear in Google’s search engine, as they have to re-crawl/index it. Now to see if I can improve the other pages.

Thanks for pointing this out!

[Focus Fusion Society]

Oh! Now I see. I type in “focus fusion” and google returns our site, but with the header “books”. This is new. I shall look into it.

[Focus Fusion Society]

Yes, SEO is in order. Working on it. Suggestions welcome.

I didn’t get what you meant by the second sentence.

[Focus Fusion Society]

Hi All:

Decided to move this to a new thread. Seems like a new topic. Split from Branson Prize post.

[Focus Fusion Society]

You’re welcome. I’m glad we solved your primary problem of getting links to appear.

The deeper mystery, of course, is why forums with the same default preferences behave in different ways. I will get to the bottom of this. Some tiny little code thing, somewhere, lurking. Mocking.

[Focus Fusion Society]

OK. This is probably something simple, but I’m going to stumble around a bit until I figure it out. In the meantime, you can use the manual approach to linking by clicking on the tag above. Dialog box will help you fill in the url. Alternatively, just use url tags:

e.g.,

 http://www.ess.washington.edu/Space/propulsion.html 

Which renders: http://www.ess.washington.edu/Space/propulsion.html

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