Work In Progress

Orbo – The Magnetic Free-Energy Generator from Steorn
Steorn are currently demonstrating their revolutionary free-energy technology to the public in London. You can visit in person or watch live over the internet until we close on Friday July 13.

There is something truly mysterious about these Steorn guys. According to the financials summarized on Wikipedia, they’d spent through 5Mega-Euros on other activities by the time they got onto perpetual motion. No figures since then, but a very professional looking website, advertising in the Economist, exhibits at a museum, academic sponsorship and community activities all come at some price.
C. S. Lewis once said of Jesus “A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic – on the level with a man who says he is a poached egg – or he would be the devil of hell. You must take your choice. Either this was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse.” Well, I feel the same about Steorn.  Either

• They are right
• They are charlatans
• They are poached eggs

(Obviously this post is a troll: mentioning Jesus and Steorn.  And I haven’t even got onto Intelligent Design yet…)

My opinion is that they are not right, and they are not poached eggs. If they were crazy, they wouldn’t have done such a good job of buzz marketing.  But if they were scientists, or engineers, or good business people, they would have kept this under wraps until they could prove it, then either published in Nature and collected their Nobel prize, or until they could bring out a working device and become instantly fabulously wealthy and famous.

So they are charlatans.  Now, what would be the point of such a hoax?  i can think of at least three possibilities.

1. “The Producers” (thanks Jeff).  They are looking to get significant investment in what they know up-front to be a flop. The perpetrators can take 5% of the money to Brazil and never work again.
2. Some kind of weird buzz-marketing. A soon-to-be announced product will launch on the strength of the Steorn buzz. It could be a new onlie game, a new operating system, a journal, a TV show; that kind of thing. Could even be an established product (look at E-Bay advertising as “Windorphins“)
3. This is a subtle effort to discredit Intelligent Design.  Just as Sokal’s article seeded a debate about the credibility of post-modernist analytical though, I could see the Steorn guys turning round and saying: “You idiots!  You believed us?  With no evidence and nothing but contempt from reputable scientific community? No wonder the ID people get taken so seriously.  Well guess what.  They are also either hoaxers or poached eggs.”

I like theory 3. I hope that’s what happens.

Environment Unlimited | Travel and transport | Wheels, two. Options, limitless
Five reasons to ride

Money Owning a car costs around £3,000 a year. Bikes cost about £75. There’s also a tax break scheme (IR 176) that allows employees to buy a new bicycle tax free to use for commuting.

Fitness Driving a car burns up about 58 calories an hour. Cycling at a reasonable pace uses up more than 400 calories an hour.

Environment Car emissions = loads. Bike emissions = zero.

Parking A bike is nearly always, easier than a car, unless you’re in a railing fascist zone.

Happiness There’s plenty of evidence to show that a bit of exercise every day is likely to improve your mental wellbeing, as well as toning your thighs. The same cannot be said of driving.

Environment Unlimited | Travel and transport | Batteries included
“We looked at the efforts of the major car companies … to make an electric vehicle over the past 40 years and my conclusion was that they were made by people who didn’t really like to drive.”

Or maybe people who didn’t really like to spend $100K on a 2-seater

Central Vermont Public Service
Customers may choose to buy 25 percent, 50 percent, or all of their electricity through CVPS Cow Powerâ„¢. Customers who choose CVPS Cow Powerâ„¢ will be charged an extra 4 cents per kilowatt-hour. Customers using 500 kWh per month who choose to receive 25 percent of their power under the Cow Power rider would pay only $5 a month more. At 100 percent, the charge would be $20 per month.

This is not quite as cool as it seems – you aren’t really buying green (brown?) electricity. You’re paying a premium to fund a scheme to subsidise development of methane generators. Still, you get a bumper sticker for the SUV.