Should we develop Maglev?

[carnej1]

Maglev

carnej1

I make no claims about the Earth's core; this is a crustal phenomenon.  The Earth's inner core is in fact solid:

Inner-core shear-wave anisotropy and texture from an observation of PKJKP waves

George Helffrich, James Wookey

Nature 454, 873-876 (14 August 2008).

Ah, I stand corrected on that..but my question was how would you generate electricity using Geo-fusion different from a conventional geothermal system?

[Maglev]

I submit a proposal to the Department of Energy Inventions and Innovations Program while I lived in Hawaii.  It involved revisting some old ideas with new technology.  Geothermal development in Hawaii could produce electricity for refining ocean minerals, but when this was first proposed after Hawaii's statehood the United Nations quickly banned ocean mining to preserve global trade patterns.  We are talking about reserves relative to what is on land of copper 20%, nickel 80%, and manganese and cobalt exceeding known land resources.  Also, in the 1970's, the lack of remote undersea technology (semi-autonomous underwater vehicles) meant that mining at that time would have been an environmental disaster.  See J. Schneider and H. Thiel, "Environmental Problems of Deep-Sea Mining," Manganese Nodule Belt of the Pacific Ocean, pp. 223-228; Stuttgart: Ferdinad Enke Verlag, 1988.

I had requested information on tritium in 1999 before submitting my DOE proposal, but the packet they sent was delayed in the mail by six weeks and most of the references were sensitive military stuff (eg, all zeroes for location of information).   I did not get any information until I actually visited DOE headquarters in September, 2000, where they have a small library with journals such as Science and Global Security and full-text Environmental Impact Statements for nuclear projects. Among other things, just the value of tritum produced by a fusion plant is significant (a couple kilos per year at $26,000 per gram). 

I am still waiting for my current Congressional Representative Rick Larsen (D-Washington District 2) to answer my questions about tritium, so I will refrain from answering carnej1's question at this time.

 

[carnej1]

Maglev

I submit a proposal to the Department of Energy Inventions and Innovations Program while I lived in Hawaii.  It involved revisting some old ideas with new technology.  Geothermal development in Hawaii could produce electricity for refining ocean minerals, but when this was first proposed after Hawaii's statehood the United Nations quickly banned ocean mining to preserve global trade patterns.  We are talking about reserves relative to what is on land of copper 20%, nickel 80%, and manganese and cobalt exceeding known land resources.  Also, in the 1970's, the lack of remote undersea technology (semi-autonomous underwater vehicles) meant that mining at that time would have been an environmental disaster.  See J. Schneider and H. Thiel, "Environmental Problems of Deep-Sea Mining," Manganese Nodule Belt of the Pacific Ocean, pp. 223-228; Stuttgart: Ferdinad Enke Verlag, 1988.

I had requested information on tritium in 1999 before submitting my DOE proposal, but the packet they sent was delayed in the mail by six weeks and most of the references were sensitive military stuff (eg, all zeroes for location of information).   I did not get any information until I actually visited DOE headquarters in September, 2000, where they have a small library with journals such as Science and Global Security and full-text Environmental Impact Statements for nuclear projects. Among other things, just the value of tritum produced by a fusion plant is significant (a couple kilos per year at $26,000 per gram). 

I am still waiting for my current Congressional Representative Rick Larsen (D-Washington District 2) to answer my questions about tritium, so I will refrain from answering carnej1's question at this time.

 

 And again, acknowledging that we are FAR off topic but why bring up the subject when you are unwilling to discuss it?

[Maglev]

We may limit the discussion to the relative merits of maglev, but in fact I am urging my Congressional Representatives to support a nationwide high-speed rail network.  If I find evidence for a new source of abundant, inexpensive, clean electricity; then the development of a futuristic system may become viable. 

Please contact me with questions:

[e-mail]

[Maglev]

Cover of July Trains:

Is Maglev on its way? YES

An update on a topic relating to power needed for high-speed transportation--I wote that there are examples of non-linear results regarding air resistance and size at high speed, and also said that cold fusion in volcanoes was a non-linear process.  FIrst, I want to provide a reference for the existence of non-linear physics. 

P. Barthelmy, J. Bertolotti, and S. Wiersma; "A Levy FLight for Light," Nature v. 453 pp.495-498, 22 May 2008. 

The theory of Levy Flight is 80 years old; it contrasts with a "Brownian" view of the universe.  A good analogy is a vibrating tray of loose ball bearings; they will exhibit Brownian motion.  The theory of Levy Flight, in very simplified terms, says that every now and then a ball bearing will go flying off the tray.  It is easy to observe Levy FLights in artificial systems (tracking human movements traced by cell phone calls is a classic example), but finding natural examples has been elusive.  Some promising lines of research have been species evolution and predator foraging.  The study cited above is very significant.

The "news" is that I am not alone in believing in non-linear physics.  I recently received issue #85 of Infinite Energy (May / June, 2009).  Among the interesting (and outlandish!) articles is a summary of cold fusion presentations at the 237th meeting of the American Chemical Society in Salt Lake City, March 22-24, 2009 (by Scott Chubb, pp. 11-15).  There were over 40 presentations from respected institutions throughout the world.