Who are These Guys???

[ArMaP]

More examples:  battery technology is pathetic and we haven't progressed much for a century.

We have, compare the new Li-ion technology with the Ni-Cd (the most advanced for decades) and you will see.

We still rely on fossil fuels and internal combustion vehicles.

That's an economic problem, not a science or technology problem. Of all those people in the photo, which ones contributed with a economically viable product?

"Still traveling along it"?  at what, a glacial pace?

At the possible pace, specially when most people keep on complaining about money spent in science projects like LHC.

Contrast that near-stagnation with the boldness and breakthroughs of the 20 to 30 in their own time. Something has changed....

First of all, I don't think those breakthroughs of 20s to 30s appeared from nowhere, if you look at it you will see that many of them resulted from ideas from the 19th century, and second, I don't see any stagnation.
Remember that most of the advances of the early 20th century were theoretical, having an idea and creating a theory is usually much faster than doing all the necessary work to prove it right and advance from there.

[Eighthman]

Wow! I totally forgot about marginally better batteries like NiCd.  I'm sure Edison would faint seeing it after inventing NiFe (which are still being installed for home backup) like a HUNDRED YEARS AGO.

Fossil fuels and cars an economic problem? Uh, no.  Technology hasn't given us good alternatives. Electric cars suck. That's why governments have to keep pushing them on a public that has little enthusiasm for them.

Langmuir did enormous work that led directly to practical technology.  Even without that,  the latest is what, string theory - or other crap lacking empirical value or verification? More stuff valued for "elegance"?

Would LHC give us free energy? Deep space travel? Antigravity? Stuff such as Langmuir achieved?

[ArMaP]

Wow! I totally forgot about marginally better batteries like NiCd.  I'm sure Edison would faint seeing it after inventing NiFe (which are still being installed for home backup) like a HUNDRED YEARS AGO.

NiCd batteries are slightly older than Edison's NiFe and are still in use today.

Fossil fuels and cars an economic problem? Uh, no.  Technology hasn't given us good alternatives. Electric cars suck. That's why governments have to keep pushing them on a public that has little enthusiasm for them.

Yes, I see that as mostly an economic problem, looking for a replacement for something that is cheap and widely available is not considered a priority, that's why electric cars only have been (slightly) improved in recent years.

Langmuir did enormous work that led directly to practical technology.  Even without that,  the latest is what, string theory - or other crap lacking empirical value or verification? More stuff valued for "elegance"?

That's the difference between something that has a direct practical use, like chemistry, and something like theoretical physics.

Would LHC give us free energy? Deep space travel? Antigravity? Stuff such as Langmuir achieved?

Did Langmuir achieved any of those things? If he didn't, why join his name to that list of achievements you are expecting?

[zorgon]

WHAT HAPPENED? You ask?

The Military Industrial Complex

Back in those days we were interested in DISCOVERY  no matter where it led us  Same in Archaeology  We didn't care if it destroyed old established ideas... Damn the torpeodoes full speed ahead!!!

Re: the Photo; EGGHEAD's Not so ANONYMOUS MEETING

Einstein invented the Refridgerator   and then gave us the Atomic Bomb

While the fridge is a safe USEFUL invention that almost everyone in civilized nations has... not so much the Atomic Bomb

Tesla gave us the ignition coil we still use in cars today and AC power without which we would be using oil lamps  but he also invented HAARP and the Scalar Death Ray

While the coil and AC are modern items we cannot live without, not so much HAARP and that Death Ray

So along comes your GOVERNMENT  who we all know has your best interest at heart...

And they create the DoD RESTRICTED TECHNOLOGY LISTS

This means that if a scientist wants to look into ANYTHING that is on that list, he can only do so under the watchful eye of the DoD. If some new discovery pops up, the Military gets it first  and then it will be tied up in Black Ops for around 30 to 50 years

Afterall you cannpt trust "We the people.." with such technology  especially in a time when "We the People..." are considered terrorists

Take Batteries....  Dr Paul Brown invented a NUCLEAR BATTERY. This batterie could absorb radiation directly... so you could use radioactive waste to charge these batteries, at the same time removed that radiation from the waste.

So where is the battery? Weell Dr Brown was assisinated... When I first followed the link to his old website I was redirected to a DoD department in Washington... 

The Battery?  POOF!!!  into the black hole that is black ops

Star Trek?  Well the European EISCAT researchers (EISCAT is the Eurpoean name for HAARP like projects) weere working on one of the functions of HAARP  to create a planetary shield (yes it CAN do that ) in case our magnetic field should fail ( [url'http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2008/16dec_giantbreach/]Giant Hole in Magnetic field 2008[/url])

Now as a SPINOFF of that research they discovered that this same technology could create shield for the Star Ship Enterprise  I pdoted that on the website years ago

EISCAT
European Incoherent Scatter Scientific Association
Shields for the Starship Enterprise: A Reality?
http://www.thelivingmoon.com/45jack_files/03files/EISCAT_Artificial_Magnetic_Shield.html

But shortly after I posted that I went back to find out more  and it had gone POOF!!!  The original links to the press release  give you ACESS FORBIDDEN
http://www.eiscat.rl.ac.uk/~ian/press_release/

Looking further a few years later we get THIS

Updated on Wednesday, 07 April 2010
NEWS & PRESS

RAS PN 07/25 (NAM 21): SHIELDS FOR THE STARSHIP ENTERPRISE - A REALITY?

Last Updated on Wednesday, 07 April 2010 18:09
Published on Wednesday, 18 April 2007 00:00
Travel beyond the immediate vicinity of the Earth carries significant risks for astronauts, not the least of which is the exposure to sometimes high levels of radiation. Now a team of scientists at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory are set to construct an experimental magnetic shield that would protect explorers in their journeys between the planets. Dr Ruth Bamford will present this idea in her talk on Wednesday 18 April at the Royal Astronomical Society National Astronomy Meeting in Preston...

ROYAL ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY PRESS INFORMATION NOTE

EMBARGOED FOR 00:01 BST, WEDNESDAY 18 APRIL 2007
Ref.: PN 07/ 25 (NAM 21)

SOURCE: ROYAL ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY PRESS INFORMATION NOTE
http://www.ras.org.uk/news-and-press/148-news2007/1199-ras-pn-0725-nam-21-shields-for-the-starship-enterprise-a-reality

So as of TODAY  that report is STILL EMBARGOED

That is not quite the same as CLASSIFIED  but it is the scientific version of suppressing new material the same way the Military uses Classified

[zorgon]

The way I see it, what happened was that, instead of 20 or 30 recognisable persons we now have thousands of unknown persons, each doing their work, in many cases still trying to prove or disprove the ideas of the people in that photo.

Yes exactly. Before we had a small select group of geniuses that worked together to actually learn something and share that knowledge

Today as you say we have thousands... more likely 1o's of thousands, around the world and many are duplicating the work because their is little free sharing due to government restrictions, national security, and corporate greed...

In EFFECT what has happened is we have a new Tower of Babble.  You can see it on social media  Post an article on some really cool new technology and within 2-3 posts you will see all kinds of mindless comments and babble  and uneductaed opinions and soon the entire thread is so off topic and stupid you might as well delete it

Quantity has NEVER been an answer for Quality

They found a new direction, but we are still travelling along it.

Going in circles more like...

And are all those things you listed even possible?

Yes they are... but unless there is a huge PROFIT... they won't get off the table.  People talk about FREE ENERGY being suppressed.. but in reality we are USING free energy already

The electricity we use is 'created' by GRAVITY  Water flows downhill by gravity, turns a water wheel and that water wheel spins a copper coil within a magnetic field  VOILA!! FREE ENERGY  You could make 10 dams in a row on the same river and create 10 times the energy. 

In Quebec Canada they proposed such an idea  There is one dam on that river  but half the energy is zapped into the ground as it has no where to go. They proposed they could crate 9 more dams, creating a serioes of 10 lakes for wildlife and create tons of power. All they wanted was someone to put in the transmission lines (Never happened) 

So all that power is generated for FREE once you build the initial infra structure of course...

What you PAY for is the delivery system to get it to your house

If you lived near a river, you could put in your own free energy water wheel (they ddi in Medieval times )  or a windmill

The real problem with free energy is that SOMEONE has to pay for all the infrastructure FIRST... you want TEsla wireless towers?  Well WHO will offer to build them for FREE? Who will build the receivers and converts you need to USE that power fro FREE?  Until some such benevolent philanthropist appears... nothing will change

A kid in Thunderbay invents a carburator that will give any car 100 mpg... story is he was paid off 6 million  and never heard from again... (well a bullet is cheaper and has the same effect  )  There is a second story of a different inventor with the same ending...

So until we have a planetary revolution, or some Alien space fleet pops in to 'fix' things  nothing much will change save the few little tidbits to keep us all amused and docile

Like THIS





and THIS

[ArMaP]

The electricity we use is 'created' by GRAVITY  Water flows downhill by gravity, turns a water wheel and that water wheel spins a copper coil within a magnetic field  VOILA!! FREE ENERGY  You could make 10 dams in a row on the same river and create 10 times the energy.

In Portugal, more than 50% of the electricity is produced in dams or wind farms.

If you lived near a river, you could put in your own free energy water wheel (they ddi in Medieval times )  or a windmill

Some 20 km from where I live we still have some old tide mills.

[COSMO]

More examples:  battery technology is pathetic and we haven't progressed much for a century.  We still rely on fossil fuels and internal combustion vehicles.

"Still traveling along it"?  at what, a glacial pace?  And please note the difference you bring up - "thousands", "in many cases still trying to prove or disprove the ideas of the people in that photo".

Contrast that near-stagnation with the boldness and breakthroughs of the 20 to 30 in their own time. Something has changed....

Well...maybe battery technology is improving...

http://www.zdnet.com/article/us-government-weve-found-holy-grail-of-grid-scale-battery-tech/

C

[Eighthman]

Ever seen Chrysler ads for "hemis" as if they were hot technology?  They go back beyond 1901.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hemispherical_combustion_chamber

There was a time when US newstands were full of illustrations of visionary technology: moon bases, trips to Mars, atomic power sources, new flying vehicles... Popular Science. Popular Mechanics, Life magazine, too.

And today we have......Windmills?  more hydro?  better.....bicycles?  pellet stoves?  WTF??!! 

PS.  OK, maybe about those off world bases.....I dunno about that one.

[ArMaP]

Ever seen Chrysler ads for "hemis" as if they were hot technology?  They go back beyond 1901.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hemispherical_combustion_chamber

That's another problem, the liars that present their things as if they had just invented them and they are the best thing ever.

There was a time when US newstands were full of illustrations of visionary technology: moon bases, trips to Mars, atomic power sources, new flying vehicles... Popular Science. Popular Mechanics, Life magazine, too.

Most of those were not visionary technology, were visionary uses of possible future technology, probably resulting from something many people do, when they see something new they want to apply it to everything, that's why we got all those products with "atomic", "nuclear", etc. in their names, just because it helped selling them (we are also back in the liars area I mentioned before).

Every new technology has areas where it can and cannot be used, and too much optimism is not going to make them work.

And today we have......Windmills?  more hydro?  better.....bicycles?  pellet stoves?  WTF??!!

We also have microwave ovens and induction stoves.

And do not forget about computers.

PS:  what's wrong in having better bicycles (and cars and many other things), making the things we use better is also an advance.

[COSMO]

Wow! I totally forgot about marginally better batteries like NiCd.  I'm sure Edison would faint seeing it after inventing NiFe (which are still being installed for home backup) like a HUNDRED YEARS AGO.

Fossil fuels and cars an economic problem? Uh, no.  Technology hasn't given us good alternatives. Electric cars suck. That's why governments have to keep pushing them on a public that has little enthusiasm for them.

Langmuir did enormous work that led directly to practical technology.  Even without that,  the latest is what, string theory - or other crap lacking empirical value or verification? More stuff valued for "elegance"?

Would LHC give us free energy? Deep space travel? Antigravity? Stuff such as Langmuir achieved?

I have been following energy storage quite closely and I knew that graphene would be a factor and here it is!  How about a batter/capacitor that will take a Tesla over 600 miles???  It's here and you will be able to buy them.
Graphene Polymer!  I must be a total geek because this stuff puts a smile on my face!  lol



http://nextbigfuture.com/2016/03/spanish-company-graphenano-claims.html

C

[Eighthman]

I, too have great hopes for graphene but we have a ways to go before any Really Good Battery rolls off the shelf. I would particularly worry about fire and explosion issues.  More energy density can mean That Much Closer To A Bomb.

I've spent many hours pouring over tech documents about aluminum chloride/bromide battery attempts at Cornell. The sad part is that they go back to the Carter Administration - you know, the guy who put solar panels on the White House that Reagan got rid of?

Visionary science had its value. It gave us hope. It gave us engineers who plowed thru Calculus classes because they dreamed of being "Scotty" (not a joke, an actual poll result once).  It gave us something greater to aspire to beyond You Tube cat videos while lying on mom's couch and praying for weed legalization.