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Journal by Gaaark
Or at least someone smarter than me does:
http://physicsfromtheedge.blogspot.com/
Job opening to work on actual science instead of hand-wavy, platform nine and three quarters, oompa-loompa dark matter magic.
There's no earthly way of knowing
Which direction we are going
There's no knowing where we're rowing
Or which way the river's flowing
Is it raining, is it snowing
Is a hurricane a-blowing
Not a speck of light is showing
So the danger must be growing
Are the fires of Hell a-glowing
Is the grisly reaper mowing
Yes, the danger must be growing
For the rowers keep on rowing
And they're certainly not showing
Any signs that they are slowing
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
innovate, v.:
To annoy people.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Tuesday October 23 2018, @01:47PM (7 children)
Read a week or two ago that he got a big ole government grant to explore using QI for propulsion purposes. This would be him looking for folks to help him figure it out.
One beef though...
Not much planet-saving going on even if he manages a fuel-free engine. It'll still require chemical power to get out of the atmosphere and an engine used outside the atmosphere doesn't impact the planet at all.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Tuesday October 23 2018, @03:10PM
He has a TED talk where he says at the end about in the future you could use QI to fuel-lessly launch from Earths surface.
Anyways, it's more interesting and realistic than dark matter, to me.
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 2) by insanumingenium on Tuesday October 23 2018, @03:30PM (3 children)
I am not 100% on his whole situation, I am certainly not a physics postdoc, but my understanding is that he hopes to eventually be able to escape orbit on pure QI, as well as perform terrestrial tasks. Also Buzzy, you shouldn't forget the incalculable gain removing some fragment of humanity from the surface of the planet would be.
One thing I haven't seen, and didn't find in a cursory search, is what his detractors say about his theories. I can find plenty of people who complain that a quack got DARPA money, but nowhere a refutation of his ideas directly. Frankly dark matter has always seemed hand wavy to me, but he seems to be regarded as a fool by and large, and I would like to know why. I fear it may be a domain knowledge thing where I don't know the right key words to find the objections or I may not comprehend them (yet).
(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Tuesday October 23 2018, @05:38PM (1 child)
I think it's a tenure thing: if your job is to work on dark matter or string theory, that's what pays your bills. Someone come up with something that may take money from you and "He's an idiot!" because.
Einstein was called a quack too, for a while, until they decide his theory WAS better.
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 23 2018, @07:36PM
But Science! See the big S? Established doctrine or bust!
I kid, little science is great, big Science is the domain of those who are just raging against organized religion ;)
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Tuesday October 23 2018, @10:43PM
That's not a gain, that's a loss. You will likely never recover their mass in the appropriate elements if you ship them off. It's far more green to shoot them and use them as fertilizer.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 24 2018, @03:01PM (1 child)
an engine used outside the atmosphere doesn't impact the planet at all.
Depends on the warhead(s)
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Wednesday October 24 2018, @03:10PM
Damn, and me without mod points.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.