"Panic in Detroit" Revisited

Panic in Detroit

                           "Green Cat" 2005

He looked a lot at his tiara
Driven weasel man
Kept his plans in quiet seclusion
An ambitious man
A vicious survivor
Internationally known hit-man

Panic in Detroit
We asked for for a Golden Calf
They want us to stay home
He sits upon his throne

Panic in Detroit

The city rushed towards his sirens
began to build its tomb
Pleading for his tax deductions
which followed none too soon
A trick of arrangers were all that were left to thrive

Panic in Detroit
We asked for for a Golden Calf
They want us to stay home
He sits upon his throne

Panic in Detroit

Strutting in emperors clothes the man became a ghoul
And found some slouching creatures who would help him rule
I screamed and jumped to smash my favorite slot machine
And dumped the racial bars and demographic blights

Having scored ten trillion dollars
Ran for the Capitol Dome
City sold across the table
No reason to atone
I ran to the window
Smashed out a pane or two

Panic in Detroit
He left with the Golden Calf
“I’ll let you collect rust”
He sits upon his throne
Panic in Detroit

     One of my 'burning Detroit' photos

Notes:
Throughout the 80’s & 90’s Detroit's “Layabouts” covered David Bowie’s “Panic in Detroit” many times, and although the band had its own interpretation, we stuck pretty faithfully to the lyrics.
If I had a time machine, I would love to replace them with this freshly constructed interpretation.
Of course, the ailments that Detroit suffers are complex and cannot be attributed to a simple cause. Nonetheless, in this lyric reinterpretation of David Bowie’s “Panic in Detroit” I have lumped all ills into the personification of a fictional individual whose greed and avarice spells the city’s demise.
As to cadence, I have tried to remain as faithful to Bowie’s lyrics as possible, keeping a line or two intact as they cannot be improved upon.

If I was Back in Doggerland

If I was back in Doggerland

I'd give Doggers a helping hand

and try to save their shrinking land

from all that salty water

If I was back in Doggerland

taking doggy for a stride

I know we'd both run really fast

to cheat that rising ocean tide

Now all that's left is Dogger Bank

The Ice Age it did falter

And so the Ice sheet went and shrank 

- old Dogger's under water

If I was back in Doggerland

I'd never build a Bank

'cause Banks one builds on Doggerland

Are surely going to tank.

Stephen Goodfellow 2012

*Footnote

Why we may find life on Saturn's Moon Titan

Superconductivity may be the key to life on Tian, Saturn's largest Moon...

"Overture to a Revolution"

...Dedicated to all those folks who walked the walk during the "Occupy" and "99%" events.

"The Masters Song"

...Imagine what the master might sing to the slave about the truth of the world through jaded eyes...

"La Gruta" hot springs, just outside San Miguel de Allende, Mexico

This place is fantastic! On a return visit, I thought enought of it to bring my camera in a ziplock bag and bravely head into the steamy darkness of "La Gruta," a natural hot spring just outside of San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. The increasing temperature of the water fogs up the lens as I move towards the huge interior cavern. Beer and soft drinks can be ordered from ever-present waiters. Yes, you may drink in the pool. No damned lifeguards, either.

Solar vibrations and Simulations

Helioseismology is the study of rhythmic oscillations observed on the 'surface' of the Sun.

In order further our understanding about what is going on, laboratory experiments are being performed on models, in an attempt to create on a smaller scale as to how the Sun might be propagating these oscillations. Most of the oscillation research that pertains to helioseismology interprets the origin as a single oscillating source, namely a fusion core, and so much of the research only considers one oscillation source, to mimic the proposed fusion core. But what if the Sun were merely a sphere of hydrogen with a non-space interior, as proposed in "Can Gravity be Induced?"

What would happen if we were instead to consider two oscillating sources, one originating from the North pole using a hollow, partially vacated sphere, and another source of oscillation placed at the South pole? (See Illustration)

Imagine if we could generate waves from the North and South poles. Tweak them so they are slightly out of sync so they create wave interference in the equatorial region, much like the momentary vibration caused by two ship propellers slipping in and out of sync. Would that not look a lot like the 11.11 year solar sunspot cycle?

It is difficult for the trained solar scientist to consider a non-space Sun, because it transgresses our pre-conceived conception of gravitational behavior, basic tenants that have unfortunately become entrenched dogma, holding that gravity and mass are inviolate. Indeed, experiments demonstrate this to be true for solids, liquids and gasses - but little to no experimentation has been performed in this realm on the 4th state of matter, namely super-hot plasmas. This is a shame, because over 90% of the Universe is in this state.
Imagine a scientist listening to a live symphony in an orchestral hall. The scientist is now blindfolded and we switch out the orchestra and replace it with a high quality reproduction. The scientist cannot tell the difference. In the same manner, how does a scientist know if the object is a Sun with a dense interior or a empty shell? All the scientist has to go on is past experience, and I suggest that in this case the experience is faulty.

What is left to us is to attempt to infer by experimentation if we are observing vibrations welling up from a dense hydrogen/fusion solar interior, or are we looking at a maintained solar plasma shell crushing in on sustained subterranean magnetic fields?

You could hear a pin drop: 'Free Energy'?

"Interacting copper and Hydrogen"

Are you an investor? Well, this is serious stuff, and you ought to pay attention. If it's for real - and I give it a 30% chance that it is - you will not have long to act. Once the main media get hold of it, you won't be at the forefront of the wave.

I bring to your attention the murmurings in the shadowy world of 'cold fusion', or whatever it is the Defkalion company is up to. There is presently in an eerie lull in what is usually a lively output of information. Everybody 'in the know' are waiting. As yesterdays article in Wired Magazine article says about Dekalion:

"...What we do know is that according to the test protocol, one live and one inert Hyperion will be tested side by side for 48 hours, with the inert machine acting as a control. Then the active component will be removed from the live and placed in the inert one, and the test will be run again, so the complete test will take a minimum of four days.

Defkalion has confirmed that the tests will start on 24 February. According to Sterling Allan of Peswiki, who visited Defkalion a couple of weeks ago, the first round of tests will be carried out by a Greek government organisation...."

You could hear a pin drop. Not a peep from Defkalion on the web in days, which is highly unusual. It is now the 28th, and according to this article, the tests representatives with the Greek government may be concluded today - unless they took a break during the weekend. Depending on the caginess of the Greek authorities, and if a report is forthcoming to the media, we ought to know if something substantial is going on.

If the report provides a positive outcome, I seriously would consider adjusting your portfolio accordingly. Here are some off-the-cuff speculations:

• Immediately drop any alternative energy interests that deal with source energy. Hot fusion, Solar, tide, wind energy could become liabilities overnight. They are expensive and will not be able to compete.
• Drop oil stocks and put your dosh aside. Should news of a viable alternative energy source to come to light, many individuals will panic and sell off their oil stocks. When you think it has reached rock-bottom, buy all the oil stocks you can get your hands on. It will only take a while before it occurs to the dimmer bulbs that unlimited energy means a greater scope for plastics. Plastics are made from oil.
• Carefully watch how power companies respond. Investors may have a knee-jerk response. However, 'free' energy will not happen overnight, and these companies may well successfully adapt.
• Invest in energy-hungry pollution scrubbers. If energy prices drop, these become viable and very desirable.
• Mostly good news. Almost any viable manufacturing industries ought to thrive. Prices of manufacturing should gradually drop as energy prices decrease.
• The downsides that come to mind are market instability due to the implications an uncertainty caused by such a paradigm-shifting event.
  Ecologically, it will all seem to be good news, as pollution from 'old world' energy output decreases. However eventually - as energy devices become more and more powerful - the Earth's heat sink won't be able to cope with it, and temperatures will start to rise again. The solution will probably be to park industries in space - easier to do, because inexpensive energy will make leaving the Earth's gravity easier. But that, as it says in the "Hitchikers Guide to the Galaxy" - will be somebody else's problem.

Sakharov's Induced Gravity, 1966

Having spent thirty plus years contemplating gravitational induction, it was perhaps only a matter of time before I was to come across Sakharov's "Induced Gravity", which he wrote in 1966.
I doff my cap to his realization that gravity may have a means of being induced.
Reading his paper makes me feel a little like a bull in a china shop, in that it is only with great difficulty that I can grasp the abstract, let alone the equations. This is not Sakharov's shortcoming, but mine.

The clear delineation between Sakharov's approach to the subject of gravitational induction and my own contemplations, is that Sakharov presents the issue in pure theory, whereas my work is at the material end, offering a means by which gravitational induction can be brought about physically, through high energy plasma configurations, a means to directly observe the phenomenon.
Sakharov paper mentions Vacuum Quantum Fluctuations once in the footnotes, but no applicable imposition exists throughout the actual paper, whereas Absolute Vacuums are the cornerstone of my work. Sakharov sees a vacuum in the conventional sense as 'a space with nothing in it', whereas my definition of a vacuum is 'a volume with no space in it'. The difference is significant.
Sakharov never mentions high energy plasmas in his paper, the means with which I believe Absolute Vacuums may come about.

Furthermore, in my thesis of gravitational induction it is not necessary to delve any deeper than the atomic level, rather than the more complex behavior of subatomic matter. Although higher atomic elements surely play a part which I am hitherto unable to discern, most of my reasoning is based

on the fact that the Sun - and the Universe - is for the most part hydrogen; one proton, one electron. The Absolute Vacuum, or non-space part of my hypothesis suggests that the plasmas capacity to create magnetic repulsion of like particles is capable of 'sweeping' space away, creating the conditions for non-space.
Finally, perhaps because of my less eloquent and more pedantic approach to what after all is a fantastic notion that requires extraordinary proofs, I offer a prediction of an as-yet unobserved natural phenomenon on the nature of solar neutrinos and a repeatable laboratory experiment.
Sakharov who is a respected theorist and physicist, expresses his ideas in mathematical formulae, whereas my background can be traced to the mud of visual natural history, in the case of gravitational induction I am inspired by Hans Christian Ørsted. Both approaches are an attempt to tease out secrets from the natural world; I believe mine to be a little more of a 'show me' nature.

Ultimately, I suppose the difference of our approach to gravitational induction is that his concept may be proved or disproved by strokes on a blackboard, whereas my conjectures will stand or fall by observational evidence.

I am glad to find there are others - and in this case a great scientist - who holds the belief that gravity can be induced without a corresponding quantity of mass.

Absolute Vacuums or Non-Space made easy...

I can't count the times I have winced when someone has exclaimed, "Oh! So you're telling me the Sun is hollow?"
For this reason, I have created this little vignette. It is a simple thought model that offers a rudimentary outline of Absolute Vacuums, or Non-Space. The explanation does not go so far as to explain how these are maintained against the implosion of space. For that, you can read
"Can Gravity be Induced?" which I wrote in 1979.

...If you got this far and have not fallen asleep, here is my ten minute video that goes into a little more detail:

An Indictment of the present Scientific Community

"Time, Gentlemen please..." 1985

Andrea Rossi and Defkalion, claiming as much as 20 units of energy created for every one unit of input. Indeed, very interesting subject.

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..."? Isn't the whole point of scientific discovery? If this was 1902, would one not be allowed to discuss the possibility of powered flight? 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 of the back nothing less than scientific cowardice?

It's 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 does that say about the present state of our science method?

Forty years of the supposedly 'scientific' approach, using the 'rational' tools of exploration in the pursuance of controlled hot fusion. Other than 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 yielded?

The deafening silence on Andrea Rossi and Defkalion is the tip of the iceberg. Try to find information on the electric universe on Wikipedia, or any information that explains the Sun's retarded rotation. The institutionalized censorship of rational debate it is nothing less than a conspiracy of petty, elite arrogance.

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.

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 the exclusive guilds. If a graph could demonstrate a timeline of technological innovation, we would observe a rapid incline, 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 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 the Revolution of the Epiphany, a revolution where empirical realizations and insights are no longer the exclusive domain of the scientific guild, a social institution which has to date managed to hide behind a cloak of costly journals that in essence exclude the general public.

This must come to an end. It must evolve into a system where scientific journals are thrown open to the public, and ideas must stand on their observational merit, rather than the questionable speculations founded upon a false edifice where one long-bankrupt theory totters upon another.

It is foolish not to include the general public for, as the Gutenberg Press has proved, the general public are the source of innovation and discovery.

Such a point of view is presently viewed with much disdain by the science elite, to the great disadvantage of our civilization. This mindset seems to believe that scientists spontaneously generate like magic, as if never having had any interaction with 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 punishable offence. How dare they illuminate their 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 and ejected from what can only be described techno-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?

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 - the byproduct of which, is a shamed and discredited science community.

The scientific community has become an inflexible institution, 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.

"Money for Nothing and your Chicks for free..." A new Energy Era?

* Update

Having monitored this unfolding energy drama, in a reverse for Andrea Rossi, the editor Sterling D. Allan of Pure Energy Systems News, 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"

Also, a summary of Andrea Rossi's somewhat spotty history.

Article
Chances are really good that you've never heard of Andrea Rossi or Defkalion. However, IF what they have to sell turns out to be the real goods, you certainly will get to know who they are.

So for the duration of this article, I ask you to suspend your sense of disbelief, because the content is so outlandishly ludicrous that it borders on the absurd. Nor would I be writing this, were it not for a persistent spike in my techno web tendrils that seems to demand attention. So. Here we go:

An Italian inventor called Andrea Rossi claims to have created a generator that produces six units of energy for every one unit expended. What's more, only 48 hours ago, Defkalion, the company that Andrea Rossi was formerly cooperating with - has announced it is ready to allow independent sources to test their generator, purportedly able to produce twenty units of energy for every one you put in.
These are claims that - if verified - would make nuclear fusion researchers drool uncontrollably, after which they would discover pink slips on their desks. A sad end after having ridden the cash cow for over forty years with little to show for it.

To date poorly controlled demonstrations have been performed before a reasonable amount of scientists. Some walk away convinced, others cry foul, claiming it to be a hoax or the feverish imaginings of the delusional. Obviously both can't be right, so what is the problem? Why can't the inventors/discoverers just hand over the device and let the scientists of reputable universities test these generators independently?

This is why: We are NOT talking science here. From all I have managed to read and piece together, these enterprises can best be described as modern alchemy. I'm not saying the generators do not work, no - what we may be seeing here is an individual that has stumbled upon something that does not fit within the parameters of known science. Sure, Andrea Rossi and his physicist supporter Sergio Focardi have an explanation but it holds no water with the international patent community.

Respectable scientists have been down this road before and have burned their fingers on the Pons and Fleischman Cold Fusion Affair of twenty years ago, which produced mixed to negative results. Simply put, they really don't want to go there again. Even at this juncture, respectable physics forums such as physicsforums.com refuse to even allow the subject to be discussed.

In a very real sense, one could accuse the science community of cowardice, in that they would rather stick with what they know than delve into the messy unknown, which - after all - is what science is really about.

In consequence, little to no research has been funded in this quarter and has therefore been relegated to the realm of garage tinkerers for the past two decades. Is it any wonder then, that if any progress has been made it must invariably hearken from this realm?

The Rossi/Defkalion competitors are in a quandary: If they don't have a patent and scientists nose around in their secretive generator, the cat will out of the box and they won't hold legal rights to their discovery/invention.
From the observations one can make based on videos available from the demonstrations, we are not talking rocket science here. Rossi and Focardi say the device works by infusing heated hydrogen into nickel and transmuting it into copper and producing heat. Hints of sonic oscillation circulate on various websites.
Fusion with no lingering dangerous radiation. If it melts down, you are left with a pool of hot lead. Hardly white overcoat and clip-board kinda stuff.

It is a guess, but my hunch is that a dedicated hobbyist could probably hobble something like this generator together if they knew how. - And if it is that easy, it would not take long before everyone and his monkey's uncle would be churning out energy devices similar to these and patents be damned. For this reason - if the principals for constructing such generators turn out to be sound - I would be very circumspect about investing in any company with a claim. Here today gone tomorrow.

Implications: Should these energy generators turn out to be the real thing, I cannot even begin to stress the mind-boggling impact this will have on the early part of the 21st Century. If the energy output at this early stage of research has increased from 1-6 output to 1-20 energy output in less than a year, well - you can see where I'm going with this. Residences, Industries, vacuum cleaners, computers, autos, aircraft, space ships - all running on clean, decentralized, non-polluting sustainable free energy. In mere years, the world society we knew will be utterly transformed. I don't want to sound like a paranoid conspiracy theorist, but once this stuff hits the main media, you can be sure the bad boys of our energy-starved world will not be sitting idle, twiddling their thumbs. Frankly, I'm surprised various elements of society let it get this far. There are fortunes to be lost, powerful who will become powerless.
However, if the principal for making these generators is as easy as it seems, chances are good the cat is already too far out of the bag for these vested interests to do any long-term harm.

Bottom line, the jury's out. The truth of it all can only be a matter of months away. Rossi/Defkalion are in fierce competition. Both have to put out or close shop. There is no Pons and Fleischman dawdling here, either it works or it doesn't. Exciting times.