Dr. Mike's Report

I just got done reading Dr. Mikes full report. You can read it here:
http://www.eskimo.com/~eresrch/Steorn/final_report.text

The report reiterates what we've all read about Dr. Mike's trip. I think the main point worth noting is that Dr. Mike does not believe that Steorn is a scam or a hoax, that they really believe what they have. Unfortunately, he cannot go into details about the tech because of his NDA.

An Active Day in the Forum

There was a substantial amount of activity in the forums today. We'll start off with a visit from Sean:

Folks,

Sorry that I have not been able to come in here and take the beatings, I will try to get some time over the next few weeks.

Thanks,

Sean

Sean stays around for a little bit and answers a few questions:

Fiksu_Vekotin: Does this failed demo change your plans on releasing the tech in anyway?

Steorn: Our strategy will remain the same, however it is fair to say that we will to do some different things at a tactical level, but I am not going to comment on what they might be at this stage.

genesis:what can u say about info leak from DrMike--is this true----did this impacted to his visit?

Steorn: I have not seen any 'leaked' info, I have not had a chance to be on the net till now. Hows my health - grand, at the end of the day I droped the ball, I did it in a public way but its done, I have to dust myself off and get on with it.

A cryptic leaked info debate between crank and drmike can be seen over in this thread. crank claims to have deleted a post from drmike with proprietary information in it. she then goes on to say that she and drmike worked out their differences in a private conversation.

jimboot:Any news on the new SPDC intake yet?

Steorn: Hi Jim, I met with a few of the new SPDC folks yesterday for quite a while. I will be following up on getting thier accounts set up when I get back to the office.

probus:how do you want to regain credibility, Sean? dont you think that it is almost impossible to do so?

Steorn: Well I guess that many would say that the nature of the claim never allowed me to be viewed as credible, for sure we will have to do something to regain the confidence of those who hope we are right, we will do that.

Sean makes a good point here. The failed demo doesn't do Steorn very much damage, considering that most everyone didn't believe them in the first place. What it does is do is attract more folks who may have a proprinsity of believe for this type of thing.

genesis: SEAN----free energy is what u believe or is what u say to get science on this.....PLEASE answer if u can......

Steorn: We have measured every energy source that it is possible to measure and hence we are confident in our claim that it is free energy. There is always the possibility that the tech taps ZPE/Dark Energy, but it is just not possible to measure these. Even if we are tapping ZPE/Dark Energy the net result to all of us is the same, the energy is free.

sb2020: You said you would have something to show - either Stop/start or CM. Why not show the original config when the CM failed?

Steorn: The reason that the demo failed was at the end of the day the pressure put on our engineers to get the system running in the demo case in a few hours. This compressed time frame forced us to do things (replacing parts on the fly) that would not have happend if the pressure was not there. It was my call to do this in the short time available to us on site, it was a bad call and not one that I am going to repeat by pre-announcing a time frame. When the demo is done next time we will install the tech in a calm and rational manner, then announce it.

probus: i m convinced Sean, you are absolutely aware of the fact that it its not about hope but about hard scientific facts and indeed a working device. do you think you and your company is able to respond within the next 2 coming months in a way that will satisfy all the disappointed people?

Steorn: We will respond, we have to, but I am not going to discuss time frames at this point.

Supposedly the Jury will be delivering at the end of this year, so the time frame for any response from Steorn will most likely come before then.

b2020: So why not show the old config - would have saved some face?

Steorn: The straight answer to the is that the 'stop-start' configs are not as robust as the CM systems. You may view it as saving face, but for me the key issue is not to compound the error I made.

Sean mentioned in the Friday update that the old configuration has been known not to survive a car trip. These devices seem to be very fragile! I'm guessing it will be a while before my cell phone battery is replaced.

Dr. Mike gave a short update on his trip:

drmike: No shift for me. I'm still really skeptical.

twinbee: So can we interpret that to mean you haven't seen the device in action yet? Didn't Steorn show you anything?

drmike: I got to see what all the other spudders saw. It was the same thing that Steorn sent me in a tech report. Sean is actually thinking about releasing it all to open source - but wants some NDA to cover ip so needs to think about it.

And finally:

You'll get a full report when I get back home on a real Linux machine. I can use anything, but I like comfort

It's was a bit unclear, but it sounds like he'll be back Wednesday for the full report.


One last item of interest. crank today revealed a little bit about what SPDC'ers know regarding the manufacturer of Steorn's toy:

Fiksu_Vekotin:By the way Crank, a long time ago there was talk about a "well known" partner that Steorn had. I know you know who it is, but does the SPDC know it?

crank: Yes, the SPDC knows who it is. The SPDC has been given basically all the same info that I was given at the start, plus some additional stuff..

It's hard to believe that the details of this well known partner haven't leaked out of the SPDC along with all the other leaks.

As drmike put it "too many threads to scan!!"

Dr. Mike Gives a Brief Update Today

We had our first quiet day in a while. Today in the forums, Dr. Mike gives us this update:

I got way to smashed last night to join the party this evening. There were a lot of people let into the kinetica site today around 11:00 this morning. Sean again profusely appologized, then answered a few questions. After that, we all went upstairs and several people played with rotors and stators and neos while Sean gave some descriptions of the core technology.

Sean said the main reason he had problems was the short time scale he gave the engineers. So he will not make any decisions for the next few days while the dust settles and he will give the engineers as much time as they need. If they have something before the end of the week, he may turn things back on - but he made no promises this time.

I left around 16:30 when most people headed off to the pub. I had to go back to my hotel to recover from last night out - there is no way I can keep up with these Irish drinkers!!!

Patience, persistence, truth,
Dr. mike

PS - I got to wear the "drmike" t-shirt today!

We're not sure what type of agreement Dr. Mike has with Steorn about releasing his opinion on the past few days at the moment. Hopefully we'll learn soon what events transpired. The whole bit about SPDC members playing with magnets doesn't surprise me at all :-). I wasn't under the impression that Steorn had given them the know-how to actually build an Orbo, so my hunch is that they are just playing around with magnets.

Also, I would like to give some credit to Steorn's forum administrators. All though we love to hate them, they've been doing a fair job in my opinion moderating these past few days. It's gotta be stressful for them. Remember, crank and Magnatrix are not Steorn employees and are volunteer moderators.

The Tickets Have Arrived

From the Few questions to drMike thread:

You will all be happy to know that I have received tickets to London (and back) for the July demo (and 2 days before). So I'll have to make sure my Sv Experiment hardware is portable, not just sloppy prototype!

I'd like to give Steorn credit for following through with this, there were a lot of doubts about whether Dr. Mike would ever get these tickets. Now let's see how they follow through with the demo!

Dr. Mike also has posted here a bit more about what he hopes to accomplish with the experiment:

The idea of this experiement is to test Steorn's methods by a direct attack on the physics. They claim Sv is part of it. They claim magnets moving towards and away from each other are part of it. This test does both, and if we don't see any Sv (either within a few runs or after many) then Sv can't be part of Orbo.

It's a cool test because it should show all the OU builders how to measure real world parameters. It's fun for me because Sv is based on quantum mechanics, so if I can measure something, I can dig into quantum theory to attempt to explain it.

So either way, it's fun and educational. We may not convince Steorn there's no such thing as CoE violation, but at least we can see reality for what it is.

Dr. Mike's Magnetometers

After a little bit of activity this weekend, it's been dead silent over in the forums from Steorn. With all the new folks joining the forums, at least we've have had some entertainment. I figured I'd share some of Dr. Mike's comments on his upcoming trip to London:

There won't be time to prove anything, but I hope to hook up some magnetometers and 'scopes so I can measure fields at various points in the operational cycle. I'd also like to hook up microswitchs to measure delay times. And I think just touching it and getting a feel for what it's doing will be interesting. If it's got more than 100 Watts power I'll have to careful (might want to rub M'abuse's nose in it ), but I think just giving it some physical drag will tell me a lot.

I will also try to rearrange simple parts to see how things fail. Sometimes it is easier to understand failure than to understand function, and that may give us all some clues as well.

Also today Dr. Mike confirmed that Sean has sent him the PR agencies reasoning for not making the demo dates public. Here's Dr. Mike's opinion on the whole thing:

It makes no sense to me. But I'm an engineer/physicist, not a marketing expert!
The person who sent the advice is definitly a marketing expert.

Questions for Dr. Mike

First off, thank you Magnatrix for posting the contents of Sunday Times article. If you haven't read the article yet, you can see it here. There doesn't seem to be any new information in the article, just a summary of what has been going on.

Finally, I thought you might enjoy this forum thread. Dr. Mike points out what he'll attempt to do to Steorn's Orbo if they let him:

It would be really nice if I can take it apart and put it back together again, both correctly and incorrectly. If not, attaching some magnitometors and watching things change will help. Sean did say at one point (jokingly I'm sure) that I can "hit it with a hammer", so I think taking it apart and looking for hidden power sources is ok.

I really hope Dr. Mike makes it out to the July demo and gets to hammer on the Orbo. His analysis will definitely change a few minds around here, one way or the other!

Dr. Mike's Trip

Today we learned more details about Dr. Mike's trip. Instead of visiting Steorn Headquarters as initially planned, Dr. Mike will be meeting with Steorn at the demo site in London. He'll have to days prior to the demo to look at the device. While Dr. Mike mentions bringing tools with him so he can dissect the machine, it's unclear how Sean feels about that:

Steorn: Well its great to see that you are preparing your ....screwdrivers.... This whole thing is clearly going to be interesting.

As many pointed out in the forums, it is somewhat disappointing that Dr. Mike won't be able to visit Steorn in Dublin. It's also disappointing that we have to wait till July. Many thought Dr. Mike would be making his visit before the end of April.

The Day After Questions

Today Sean posted this to the forum:

After all the disappointment of yesterdays 'news', drop any questions in here and I will try to answer.

Unfortunately Sean wasn't able to keep up with the gazillion questions from everyone, including myself. He did address many of the questions and concerns. Here are most of Sean's comments broken into sections:


On The Jury Process and the Demo:

SteornTracker: ...Do you have any plans between July and December to keep up the publics awareness? What impact do you expect the July demos to have on the Jury?

Steorn: Hi ST - the July demo was never in the original plan, it is a 'opportunistic' move on our part. Again I have to stress that I cannot with any degree of confidence say when the Jury process will end, its just not up to me/Steorn in any way. We have no other plans at this point, but I would not rule out anything at this stage either.

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

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

Dovetailed: What is the principle reason for Steorn's current level of secrecy?...

Steorn: There are several reasons, on a very basic point it will make no difference to our time to market, since we are obviously waiting until validation anyway. There are IP and patent issues also and clearly there is a risk of giving counterfeiters and competitors a heads up.

The decision on the July demos was a risk/reward decision for us - we feel that the public exposure will be worth taking some of the risks highlighted above. And it is also about the time that we need to engage with main stream media again.

Sean didn't explain why Steorn needs to engage the main stream media again before the Jury process is over, that'll be a question for a future discussion.

nleseul:Have the jury members seen a working device? (If this is something you can comment on.)

Steorn: They are currently in part I of the process (an addition at the request of the applicants), this is a form of 'peer' review and is paper based. We have confirmed visit dates set for the near future, but I am not going to go into this any further for obvious reasons.

nleseul: Unfortunate that the skeptics are going to love spinning that one, though.

Steorn: They are entitled to their views, the non-believer/believer war will not be resolved until the Jury process is complete, and for the truly crazy this will in fact be part of the scam as well. Its all noise, lol Seamus was showing me some of the comments from another forum, its pure vitriol, according to the stuff that I was shown I had already made 750k from sale of Steorn shares (I have for the record made zero from the sale of Steorn shares), there are crazy theories surrounding the Steorn Nominees thing and so on.

We do far more than most companies would be bother do do about demonstrating that we are about the validation process, and not a fraud. People will always make their own minds up about this. It is never the reaction of the fringes of either side of the argument that matter, it just seems that way because the fringes tend to be very vocal!

spinn3er: General expectations (at least here on the forum) for the jury to conclude phase 1 was from 5min to a month maybe. Now after more than 3 months, what is going on? Thanks for the answer. (i hope)

Steorn: Yes, but again I have to state that the addition to the process was done at the request of many applicants. We are very much slaves to the process that we have engaged in, it was never going to be fast, some parts may be faster than we expect and some may be slower. I personally believe that the current phase of the process will in fact speed up the overall process, because the fundamental 'science' issues are being looked at, but as always time will tell.

We've learned a lot more about the current state of the Jury process this past week. From a closure standpoint, it's sad to learn that the Jury process may go on for a much longer period then what was initially expected.


On The Technology and Orbo Product:

my_pen_is_stuck: Can you please tell me the colour, length, width, etc of the 100K orbo toys?

Steorn: They will fit on a desk, but I wont say anymore than that at this time, sorry!

Steorn: The colour, like the device itself we will only 'reveal' following validation. They are all going to be the same colour though!

Neutrino: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?

Steorn: 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.

babcat: Could you share any more technical specifications of the technology with us (start/stop or constant motion)? ... is there anything you could tell us about the general direction the specifications (for example power densities or power to weight ratios) are headed?

Steorn: Hi babcat, the answer is no at this point. Of course the very limited details we put on the site yesterday in no way could be considered 'detailed', and I am genuinely sorry about the disappointment that this caused. With respect to the direction, the version that we are currently developing will have a significantly greater power density than the 0.5 watts/cm3 quoted yesterday.

I appreciate Sean accepting the fact that yesterday was a bit of a let down for us.

rubentherat: How far are you on the road to continuous motion. An estimation? 50%, 60%,70%

Steorn: I would say 80-90% of the way.

uomipoika: What's the basic difference between start/stop and continuous motion devices? Does the start/stop mean that the device must be restarted and restarted all over again to keep it running? Or does it mean that the device is startable and stoppable? (Once you start it, it rolls until someone presses the stop-button?)

Steorn: Stop/start devices stop in the middle of a cycle, there is no manual intervention.

Chilean One:Does the Continuous motion involves electromagnets?

Steorn: Nope

icuken: What is the cycle timeperiod for the start/stop device?

Steorn: Well obviously it depends on the config, they can be pretty fast, I do not know off the top of my head, sorry.

smarthousesys: Sean, Any unfamiliar elements used in Orbo (Neo is a familiar element) - just looking for a yes/no? Thanks

Steorn: No!

J i O: You've publicly stated that your intention all along was not to move forward with the development of continuous motion. Yet that decision was reversed? What did you learn or ascertain that motivated this reversal?

Steorn: Well we obviously continue to look at methods of implementation (mostly from a patent standpoint), one of these concepts we spent some time building a test rig and testing and the results from these tests lead us to believe that the development would d be worth the investment.

On the SPDC and Near Term Activities:

Suomipoika: Question about crank's and drmike's visit. Have those visits been scheduled? If not, why?

Steorn: The answer is that no they have not yet been scheduled, the reason is that we have been extremely busy for us. Cathy C keeps our to-do list and she has started to hassle me about it so I think that these will get set up pretty soon.

my_pen_is_stuck: I'd like to know your reaction to the progress of the SPDC. Are they living up to about what you expected?

Steorn: Again another slow process - we are pushing content up as fast as we can produce it, but it takes time. I guess the real question would if the members feel that it is living up to expectations, if I were a member I might be frustrated with the speed of content .

On the Media, the Documentary, and Everything Else:

my_pen_is_stuck: ... So, are you guys deliberately trying to look like nutters to avoid attention?

Steorn: lol, we never had any doubts that we would be viewed as nutters from the outset, and we have rejected any media interviews since early September, we have no more to say of an substance until the key question is answered.

Neutrino: Since Steorn technology is known to public for 8 months now, have you been contacted by some influential people, e.g. governments, military, UN, European Commission, greenpeace, individuals?

Steorn: We still get contacted by loads of people from across the spectrum, we do not meet any of them to be honest, there is just no point until the validation process is complete.

Neutrino: I remember you said that the validation should be completed before the documentary will be released. What is the planned format: one episode 45 or 90 minutes long or whole series dedicated to one of the greatest inventions/discoveries of XXI century? Any clues from the production company?

Steorn: My understanding is that it will be a single 60 min documentary.

With all the video that has been captured and the magnitude of the claim, I expected at least a mini-series!

my_pen_is_stuck: At this point, the fence sitters still don't know if it's real or not. Are they wasting their time? Or are they in for the most exciting ride of a life time? We just want to know if the bloody thing works or not.

Steorn: I understand that, but to be honest the if it works or not is up to the Jury, it has always been. I must admit to being shocked at how much time people spend debating us, I think that in a way that Steorn is just the topic that allows the people in here to get into debate, it could just as easily be religion or something else. The answer to the question is still some time off.

I do enjoy a good debate. Good observation Sean! And finally, iscore4ever wanted to know how Sean felt about the technology somehow being thwarted by big oil, governments, or some other entities:

Steorn: Ok first, we do not file patents in the US only, second we will not only rely on patent protection and finally our 'market' is the internet.

I wonder what else they will rely on besides patent protection. With their claimed licensing model, and the Jury publications digging into the fundamental physics of the phenomena, it doesn't sound like they plan on holding any trade secrets. Sean's comment on the market being the Internet sounds a little dot-com'ish to me. Maybe he was getting a little tired by this point!

I appreciate Sean's willingness to confront some of the more ardent skeptics in Steorn's Forum. I hope he continues the dialog. There are so many more questions!