Friday, July 6, 2007

Reactions from the Press

Here are a few recent articles and blogs highlighting Steorn's failure to produce a demo:

I4U News - Steorn Orbo Demo delayed until further Notice

To cite a friend of mine who reads every issue of P.M. magazine: "This is one big marketing gag". It is just not clear what the benefit would be for the company.
Engadget - Steorn Orbo: canceled
Holy snakeoil Batman, The Steorn Orbo exhibition has been canceled. According to a press release by Steorn CEO (and lead shyster) Sean McCarthy, the company "will explore alternative dates for the public demonstration." Yeah, right.
Respectful Insolence - Repeat after me: Conservation of energy precludes perpetual motion machines
After falling for such claims enough times, you'd think that journalists would go back to the physics textbooks and read up on the basics, you know, like the Three Laws of Thermodynamics. You'd especially think that a techy website like Engadget would know better than to hype this stuff without a bit more of the appropriate level of skepticism.

You'd be wrong.
Belfast Telegraph - Irish firm's display of 'free-energy' machine delayed
NewsFactor - Perpetual Energy Demo Runs into Technical Difficulties
CBC News - Energy-from-nothing device fails to move

28 comments:

dobson said...

I was outside the Kenetica at lunchtime today where I bumped into a couple of friends I had met the previous day, including a chap who had had traveled all the way from Holland to see the exhibition.

The ehxibition was pretty much unchanged compared to this time yesterday, except the imacs had been switched off. There were a couple of gallery staff who could be seen milling around the gallery's reception, but otherwise having nothing to do with the missing exhibition. None of the Steorn staff were visible.

The entire Eastern exterior wall of of the gallery was hidden by a bunch of market-stalls who had set up adjacent to the gallery, probably with the explicit goal of stopping people getting to the front entrance.

The guy from Holland was taking it pretty well considering the amount of time and effort it must have taken to get there. Suitcase in hand we waved him off to catch his flight back to Holland.

As we pondered what next for Steorn and their phantom Orbo we discussed my own theory - that Steorn are a design company who have connections to the Kenetica gallery owners. This whole thing has been a way to draw attention to the Kenetica gallery.

From what I can see, this whole thing has been an ambitious tie-up between a new and well-funded art-gallery, a web-design firm (Steorn) and a firm of publicists who have done a great job of demonstrating how much publicity they can drum up on the most ludicrous of premises.

Anonymous said...

I'm disappointed. Not because they didn't demonstrate the device (which I've never believed exists), but because I expected better show. 14 million euros should be enogh to do that!

Anonymous said...

http://akesavan.googlepages.com/sean.jpg

Anonymous said...

Free T-Shirts say:

"I was promised world saving free energy, and all I got was this lousy T-Shirt."

Anonymous said...

Dear Sean,

Thanks for wasting our time.

Do you have ANY OU device?

If so, put it on display and prove that you are not a completely incompetent liar.

You have missed every deadline, broken many promises, moved the goalposts and insulted those who appear to have been right in saying that you DO NOT HAVE AN OU DEVICE.

Show us the OU or admit that you have nothing.

P.S. If I were Irish, I would be pissed that you bring such shame to such a wonderful country. Good luck at the local pub.

Anonymous said...

I am going to say something, just to point out where this will eventually will lead.

Someone call the authorities and start legal proceedings. Fraud is illegal, and it will get you thrown into prison.

I wonder how Sean would look in a orange jumpsuit?

They've just crossed that line. Publicly, most people who would have given them the benefit of the doubt will now just think of them as frauds. Some investors in Steorn will now start to believe that they've been mislead and their money stolen.

Unless there is some demonstration to show that they have a product that matches what they have been talking about, don't be surprised to see some legal proceedings starting.

I have nothing against them really... but this is going down a predictable path.

Anonymous said...

About the legal proceedings;

Any lawyer who wants back-ups of the Steorn Forum, Detailed Technical Specification pages, or any other of Steorn's posted claims, please post an email where you can be contacted. I would be happy to help in the legal crucifixion of Steorn

Anonymous said...

Randi has a comment:

http://randi.org/jr/2007-07/070607steorn.html

Anonymous said...

I am glad you have backed it up. That was a smart move.

Anonymous said...

* tweakinreaper
* CommentTime20 minutes ago

permalink
EVERYONE FORGOT WHEN SEAN SAID IF THE CONSTANT MOTION ORBO DIDNT WORK THEY WOULD DISPLAY THE START STOP ORBO?

I WAS BORDERLINE BABCAT FEELINGS BUT NOW....SO LET DOWN....:cry:

THEY HAVE HAD MANY YEARS TO PERFECT THE START STOP ORBO....WHY NOT DISPLAY THAT AS THEY WORK ON THE CONSTANT MOTION ORBO?:shocked:

Anonymous said...

The James Randi Foundation article was wrong about one critical fact:

The Kenetica gallery is NOWHERE NEAR the London Eye!

Dobson

Anonymous said...

* Steorn
* CommentTimeApr 14th 2007

permalink

duncan torus:

Steorn:

Neutrino:Hi Sean,

what progress do you have with the continuous motion testing? Do you observe this effect at all, if so, how much more effective it is than the start/stop version, does it it make all your existing patents obsolete? Well, any news in this direction?

Thanks




Yes, we have made huge progress on this - we expect to be demoing this version in July. Again I have to say sorry and say that there is not a lot of detail that I can go into at this time.


hi Sean- do you promise that come July if the constant motion version is not ready you will still demo the original "start/stop" device?



The demo will happen, we fully expect to have a constant speed device, if not we will demo a 'stop-start' device.


--------------


So lets see it Sean.

Or would you rather let this stand as proof that you are a LYING SACK OF ****!

Anonymous said...

They don't have a start stop -Orbo. They don't have a continuous motion Orbo. They only have a lousy low friction spinner, which they built in a rush to please their investors. And that didn't work either. Probably they were too hurry building it.

Anonymous said...

http://www.steorn.com/forum/comments.php?DiscussionID=55851&Focus=2105641


hi Sean- do you promise that come July if the constant motion version is not ready you will still demo the original "start/stop" device?



The demo will happen, we fully expect to have a constant speed device, if not we will demo a 'stop-start' device.

Anonymous said...

LOL

I was just about to e-mail this to Steorn,

"The demo will happen, we fully expect to have a constant speed device, if not we will demo a 'stop-start' device."


But they have removed their E-mail addy from the site.

What a complete ClusterF**k
I guess next to go is the phones......

Unknown said...

Why not send it straight to Sean?

Sean.McCarthy@steorn.com

I think fld's description makes sense on reflection. It would have been hard to claim ignorance rather than fraud if they'd exhibited a fake machine.
This debacle is less entertaining than I was hoping for though. I was looking forward to a fun week working out how they were faking it and trying to knock up a replica.

Oh well, the wheels have truly come off the Steorn train now. The most rabid believers are silent, the middle ground are pissed off and I would imagine obtaining more investment is beyond even Sean’s blagging ability.

Anonymous said...

Thanks Ben,

It's sent.

Sean has clearly stated that he would show the START-STOP unit so there is no excuse now.

(sorry, no reasonable excuse)

Anonymous said...

Two things would be especially interesting at this point.

1. Audio of Sean's speech at Kinetica 1500 GMT -- I believe there was a video feed but no audio. Certainly, *someone* took a recording? PLEASE post it! If he took questions and gave answers, that would be ESPECIALLY entertainting.

2. I'm sure Dr. Mike is being quiet because he's trying to find out what really happened. It will be fascinating when he is finally able to make a report.

Anonymous said...

"You people don't realize that Big Oil made this "Go Away"!!! How stupid can you people be????"

----------

Yep. The apologists/tinfoilers have started. LOL

20 years from now Gaby, Eman, 007 and Babcat's children (*shudder*) will be spamming the world about how Steorn was suppresed back in '07.



I would like to think that after yet another cockup like this that Steorn would give DR.Mike access to one of the multitude of OU devices that Sean has claimed to have in the last year.

But this whole thing about the lights is a crock, so I have to think that Steorn has nothing but bullshit. (and lots of it)

Anonymous said...

"You people don't realize that Big Oil made this "Go Away"!!! How stupid can you people be???? "

Yah Shoore. Then why did they not make it go away before it was announced?

While you're at it, are they making solar, wind, hydroelectric and the huge surge in alternate fuels (look up the ethanol program in Brazil, look up the Tesla auto) go away?

GROW UP! People who keep spouting nonsense like that make me want to THROW UP. Barf! Puke!

Anonymous said...

Steorn Comics

Anonymous said...

Hi Steorntracker,

Thanks again for maintaining the only place on the internet where it seems Steorn can be intelligently and freely discussed.

Someone has posted an interesting spreadsheet on Google (not sure it's new) which purports to show the financial distribution and structure of the Steorn company.

According to him, 10 million euros were spent so far and maybe 3 remain. They don't have much to show for it, do they?

Anyway, the spreadsheet is here.

Info about the location of the URL is from the Steorn forum but it may have a short life over there.

Will Gorman said...

Thanks maryyugo,

Thats a great spreadsheet. 15-india-street created that back in May:
http://freeenergytracker.blogspot.com/2007/05/finances-and-physics.html

Anonymous said...

Where is Babcat? Did he throw himself in front of a double decker bus?

Anonymous said...

I've seen people post in these forums that Steorn doesn't owe anyone anything. I beg to differ.

Steorn was not crowing that they could make a pig fly or some other such carnival claptrap. They told us they had solved the world's energy problems and this affects everyone's life on the planet, especially those who are losing their lives on a daily basis over the tug o' war for the black goo. This is no trivial matter.

There excuses are a load of crap. Lights 8 feet away damaged it... my a$$. What, they don't have lights at Steorn's so called lab? These things only work in the dark? These excuses are a joke on all of us. The world's energy problems are not a joking matter.

These a$$holes have done nothing but impede the chances of real new energy crusaders from getting funding. From now on, everytime I put that nozzle in my tank which funds blowback terrorism, I'll be thinking of Sean's posterior and everyone around me at the gas station will be wondering why I'm being so rough on my fill pipe. FU Steorn!

Anonymous said...

Anonymous said...
There excuses are a load of crap. Lights 8 feet away damaged it... my a$$. What, they don't have lights at Steorn's so called lab? These things only work in the dark?

That's not what Sean said. He said the orbo was in a sealed plastic box and the lights heated the air in the box until it got hot enough to damage the orbo.

Anonymous said...

Anonymous said...
There excuses are a load of crap. Lights 8 feet away damaged it... my a$$. What, they don't have lights at Steorn's so called lab? These things only work in the dark?

That's not what Sean said. He said the orbo was in a sealed plastic box and the lights heated the air in the box until it got hot enough to damage the orbo.

===

It ran for two days supposedly before it crapped out. Of course, no video of this feat.

There is no excuse for not having a backup. There is no excuse for not running the Orbo under the same conditions as the demo weeks prior to same.

There is no excuse for not being able to get it fixed in a few days max. There are no excuses for this debacle, they had months to prepare. How do you claim to be a scientist with such disregard for scientific method. I'm sorry, I wanted this to work as much as anyone here, but this implosion wreaks of fraud.

Anonymous said...

Someone individuals at Steorn forums has published a video with sound of the final interview with Sean. It runs about 16 minutes and it's sort of hard to understand due to the accent, and echoing of the room but there it is:

Click link to to see the video.

I will listen to it a few times -- I think it may take a bit of alcohol to lubricate my patience so it may be a while before I figure out what exactly is being asked and answered. Maybe someone can do a transcript-- that would be helpful and instructive.

Steorntracker, this may be worth a new thread.