Wednesday, July 4, 2007

Kinetica Museum Update with Photos

The Kinetica Museum website has been updated:

From 5th-13th July, visitors to Kinetica can witness for themselves 'Orbo' as it perpetually spins a clear polycarbonate wheel with absolutely no supply of external energy or power supply attached.

THE MUSEUM OPENS AT 11AM ON THURSDAY 5TH JULY
Also, thanks to one of our readers, here are pictures of the outside of the Kinetica Museum:

"True Science teaches us to doubt, and in ignorance, refrain" - Claude Bernard



Update:
On Steorn's Website:
Due to technical difficulties we will now be live from London on the 5th July.

21 comments:

Anonymous said...

"Due to technical difficulties we will now be live from London on the 5th July."

From Steorn's home page at http://www.steorn.com just now.

They may not be frauds but they sure do follow a straight fraud script!

Eliot Sykes said...

Those new No Smoking signs get everywhere...

The Kinetica Museum is at Spitalfields market (East end, London). Here's the details:

Kinetica Museum • SP2 Pavillion • Old Spitalfields Market • London • E1 6AA
info@kinetica-museum.org • Tel: 020 7392 9674

And here's the web site:
http://www.kinetica-museum.org

Ping1400 said...

From SeamusF:

"Here they ran into some technical issues, firstly a problem with the bearings, which was fixed once identified. The next issue appears to be an environmental issue. We think possibly the temperature from the lighting system in the immediate area, but this has to be further assessed in the morning.

The current plan of action is to have a technical meeting in the morning and we will update you from there - we are planning to turn on the web streaming by lunch time so we can give you an ongoing update on progress (and you can see some stressed Engineers working in real-time, if it is not fixed by then!)"

Why am I not surprised?

Anonymous said...

The technical difficulties are with Orbo.

Hi Folks,

I was just chatting to Sean a couple of minutes ago and he asked me to pass on the following :


A test unit which was built yesterday in Kinetica, in the temporary lab we have set up. Once we had signed off on the final magnetic configurations we went to transfer this magnetic config to the display unit & casing on the exhibition floor.

Here they ran into some technical issues, firstly a problem with the bearings, which was fixed once identified. The next issue appears to be an environmental issue. We think possibly the temperature from the lighting system in the immediate area, but this has to be further assessed in the morning.

The current plan of action is to have a technical meeting in the morning and we will update you from there - we are planning to turn on the web streaming by lunch time so we can give you an ongoing update on progress (and you can see some stressed Engineers working in real-time, if it is not fixed by then!)

The demo will go ahead as soon as we fix the small outstanding issues.

Please except our apologies on this and we will update you first thing in the morning.

Kind regards,

SeamusF

I can hear the skeptics laughter already.

Anonymous said...

[Sticky, Closed] London Demo Update
http://www.steorn.com/forum/comments.php?DiscussionID=58649&page=1

So at best we are now looking at 8 days.....if it's fixed, and the lights are not too warm and the wind is right and everyone has happy thoughts and the moon aligns just so.............

And these guys are going to save the world.

PPPFFFFFTTTTT!
Keystone Kops.

Cappy said...

Aww rats I was at a meeting that went past 11pm BST, I just came rushing back to my desk and find... technical difficulties!

Och I can just imagine what it could be. Hopefully it's just a bug with the web cams. However... if it's because the machine just doesn't work any more, or can't get fired up, well the whole outfit is gonna get hammered over that.

Actually, I would not agree to permit such a show unless I had TEN machines each doing something different. That way if one of them craps out you can drag it off the floor and tinker with it, figure out what went wrong, while the other 9 keep doing their thing. Risk management! But Steorn never asked me, so they are the ones in the mess, so it goes.

Anonymous said...

So...no lifting weights?

Judging from their past history, this definitely seems like a Steorn endevour.

Cappy said...

Oh, one other thought..

Here's something else wrong with this public demo. They are showing a simplified machine that is completely transparent, right?
Well if it's just made of clear plastic and magnets, what would stop some interested individual from figuring out how it works from watching it and making their own overnight?

I used to work at a roofing plant in Calgary (Canada) here, and the story goes that one time in the 1950s a group visiting from Japan came with a zillion cameras and they took pictures of EVERYTHING. And by the same time the following year, Iko had an identical sister plant operating in Japan! Without knowledge or permission! They sure changed the way they did things, including setting up a security shack & not permitting cameras on site. But in my estimation, from Steorn's perspective, this demo is nothing but a bad idea UNLESS they are ready to commercialize, and in a big, imminent way.

Because I have half a mind to hop a plane to London with my camera and do precisely this. I mean, depending on how realistic the demo appears to be. That's because today I work for an oilfield equipment manufacturer that may have to drastically change its business in short order over this, and I may be without much employment prospects in the near future. I'm not complaining, just stating a (potential) fact.

Anonymous said...

When were those pictures taken?

I don't see any Steorn people scurrying around trying to fix things or set-up.

Did anyone else notice that the cameraman is BALD? (pic 3&4) One of the Steorn crew maybe?

Anonymous said...

Well, that was a long strange ride but Steorn is officially a bust. For the believers time to wake up.. no company would "unveil" free energy to the world in such a completely botched way. Kinetica is not a "museum" by the way, it's a two roomed art gallery ffs. What a joke. Onto the next thing.

Anonymous said...

Hmmm..silence everywhere suddenly LOL
I wonder what went wrong, the feed is working ok for me at least, but no orbo just big ben...two blurry blobs of it.

So none of the 4 cams worked? or thr orbo itself refused to start up? May be it works only in their lab. ;)

But I'm going to keep quiet for now, lets give them a few more hours, they've been a flop show master since the beginning.

ggreg said...

I disagree Maryugo. No con-artists could possibly be this incompetent! Con-artists would make sure that the demo worked and check things beforehand and have a suitable backup.

The fact it is so messed up suggests they are sincere.

They sure haven't broken Murphy's law.

Thicket said...

Must... resist... laughing... *snrk*

Gawd. A well-organized scam would do better than this.

Whatever happened to two days examination by Dr. Mike? The device isn't working yet? That's three days behind schedule... assuming that Steorn ever intended to let Dr. Mike see the working device.

Nice banners though. Must've cost a few hundred quid. Not bad for a company that collected millions from investors.

Amateurs!!

Too bad that that there are butt-stupid investors and believers that still fall for this crap.

Any bets that when (and if) Steorn gets their little toy working tomorrow, or a bit later, that the believers will be crowing their assinine beliefs that Steorn has succeeded? Lookie, lookie... it moves!!! Why aren't the scientist's jaws dropping in disbelief?

Tremendous entertainment though. Rofl.

I'm reminded of the line "can't organize a piss-up in a brewery."

Anonymous said...

Does anyone else wish that Thicket and Co would shut up about goddam Dr Mike.

Anonymous said...

but what about the IPHONE?!?!?!?!?!?!

dobson said...

Guys, I should have rumbled this ages ago... the exhibit is in an ART GALLERY, specifically an art gallery dedicated to "kenetic art" - i.e. moving sculpture.

So here's the deal folks, we have just fallen for a very clever marketing ploy for what is in-fact an art exhibit. The inventors are not liars, they are actually artists who are exposing the dire state of British scientific education.

These guys are operating in a long and noble tradition of British prank artists.

Neath eh?

Anonymous said...

No Demonstration Today

zdnet article

Father Luke Duke said...

"...No con-artists could possibly be this incompetent! Con-artists would make sure that the demo worked and check things beforehand and have a suitable backup."
----
Not really. Once you have displayed a fraudulent machine you are definitely into scam territory, legally speaking.

However at the moment they can claim that they had a genuine discovery, took the investor money in good faith and just can't get it to work properly. This way they are just idiots rather than con-men - and you can't send someone to jail for being an idiot.

Anonymous said...

dobson said...

These guys are operating in a long and noble tradition of British prank artists.

A KLF style hoax with meaning perhaps? The guys and their production is way to slick to be the work of boffins me thinks. Fair play to them for getting our attention

Unknown said...

Amazing how many commenters don't WANT this to work.
Yes, in hindsight there should have been "ten machines as backups". I'm happy with twenty respected scientists, though, who will report in September. Investors, who are not 'butt-stupid', will also be happy to wait another few weeks.
As for the The Law of the Conservation of Energy:

" Newton, forgive me . . ."
–Albert Einstein, Autobiographical Notes

Anonymous said...

Person makes device spin 8 hours
person was named on steorn forum
post was immediately removed
was this the device at the kinetica museum?