Steorn Demo Take Two

As folks have pointed out in the comments section of this blog, Steorn is gearing up for a second demo of their Orbo technology. As many remember, the first demo back in July 2007 didn't go particularly well.

So far the information we have, reported by an anonymous insider over on reddit, is that the demo should take place next week, and that Steorn is in the process of setting everything up at the Waterways of Dublin. The anonymous source has posted photos inside and outside of the building:





Also pointed out in the reddit post is that Steorn is projecting the following video on the side of one of the buildings:



The video contains the following quotes, including the final Jury decision:

"It's a fraud" - Dr. Michio Kaku, ABC News, August 2006
"Powered by Blarney" - Forbes, July 2007
"...prolonged self deception" - Eric Ash, BBC, 2007
"Perpetual nonsense" - The Economist, July 2007
"10 Great Snake-Oil Gadgets" - Wired, November 2007
"...magic fairy powered rotary and magnetic systems" - Engadget, February 2009
"...have not shown evidence of energy production.." - Scientific `Jury`, June 2009

The video teaser concludes with the blasphemies quote, which we've heard a few times from Steorn.

If you are feeling Steorn withdraw and want to read about what has been going on this year, especially related to Steorn's 300 announcement, I recommend checking out Nolan Chart's blog. Nolan is a true optimist, but as you can see from his most recent posts he's beginning to realize the situation the 300 are in.

Curtain Drawn...

Steorn today revealed their new website with a video, along with already mentioned plans to open up Steorn's SKDB for a group of 300 Engineers. Also today, SteornLab launched with two products. Also today, Steorn has launched Steorn Enterprise, which includes licensing Orbo tech to the automotive and mobile industries, as well as offering up a new product entitled ZeroF Passive Magnetic Bearings.

In addition to the main headline, Steorn posted a few comments in the forums:

Big Oil Rep: So how much burn money you got left then Mr Steorn? Mr Ping says 2 months...unless you've recently raised more money?

Steorn: lol - no new funding, and Mr. Ping can't read a balance sheet it would seem ...

And last but not least, the story today made it's way to Engadget: Steorn returns, promises to open Orbo specs, give you a pony.

Conspicuously absent was any mention of a jury, or any hint at a demo.

Steorn's Curtain, along with some Finances and Patents

Steorn updated their website today with a rendering of a curtain, along with "4 February 2009". We'll learn more tomorrow, but this is probably the kick off of Steorn's 300 Engineers campaign mentioned by Sean in December.

Also, we learned that Steorn's financial statements were made avialable. I haven't had a chance to look at them yet, but according to 15-India-Street:

They lost 3,5 million in 2007, and still had some 4 million cash on 31 December.

Assuming the burnrate continued in 2008, they had only 0.5 million on 31 December 2008, with less than 3 months left. The end may be near, at last.

Finally, Steorn has submitted another patent application, SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR MEASURING ENERGY IN MAGNETIC INTERACTIONS. Here is a list of three patents that Steorn has submitted through the patent system so far.

Thanks to all the posters here for filling us in on the activity!

Energy Quizzes...

A little while ago I had an idea to automatically generate quizzes from Wikipedia. I spent a few weekends writing an algorithm that can parse an entry, and then generate mostly relevant questions. Check out some of the completely generated energy quizzes that were made:

The Zero Point Energy Quiz
The Solar Energy Quiz
The Perpetual Motion Quiz
The Renewable Energy Quiz

And of course check out the fully auto-generated Steorn Quiz!

If you find a question that seems bogus, or have suggestions for additional questions for any of these generated tests, the user interface allows you to submit feedback. I hope to continue to add to the site, making it more like Wikipedia so that users can easily mark up quizzes and add there own.

Prime Time Steorn

Sean McCarthy, CEO of Steorn, appears on RTE News: Prime Time in the following video along with a test setup:



Sean offers his opinions on improving the Irish economy. He also briefly mentions Steorn's technology.

Sean Talks

Sean McCarthy, CEO of Steorn, appeared as expected at DIT to update us all on Steorn's activities. You can listen to the talk here:



Thanks Battman for posting the audio, and to Speccy who converted it into embeddable flash form. Some of the highlights include:

• The first ~8 minutes Sean spends discussing Steorn's background in fraud technology.
  
• Sean goes on to give a background of the quest for free energy, which is still ongoing of course.
• He then spends time "embarrasing himself" explaining Orbo technology. He brings up the failed demo multiple times, highlighting how difficult it is to engineer this discovery.
  

Why did he do this?

It's been difficult for Steorn to develop their discovery. Steorn will start to provide their Orbo technology to a broader audience starting in February, offering licenses for their technology. According to McCarthy, these licenses to develop the technology will be free, but require the developers to pay a royalty if a device is built around the technology. The point of these licenses according to Sean are to help with validation.

What's amazing are the things left unsaid. Almost no mention of the Jury, which was the central premise of Steorn's original public launch. I would presume if the Jury was working out well for Sean, it would be mentioned on many occasions during the talks. When asked about the Jury, Sean gets very defensive and admits that their is no near term validation day. Sean makes no mention of a validation toy, which was supposedly going to be in production. And there was no mention of the Aftican pump project.

Now we'll all have to wait until February to see if Steorn delivers on making their Orbo "technology" more available to the world.

Steorn Talks

It looks like Sean McCarthy, CEO of Steorn, will be giving a talk in Dublin this December on Orbo's principles of operation. It's been a while since we've heard from Steorn, so hopefully someone will be able to post a recording of the video:

According to Steorn's website, there will be additional talks given in the US, Europe, and the Middle East.

Thanks Gary for the tip!

News?

Steorn appeared in Dublin's Sunday Tribune a few days ago:
http://www.tribune.ie/article/2008/aug/10/free-energy-firm-generated-8m-in-funding/

The gist of the article is that we shouldn't expect to see or hear anything out of Steorn until their full commercial launch, which should come before next summer.

Significant Steorn Forum Changes...

As many of you are aware, recently Steorn's forum changed from public viewing to member only viewing. This of course has caused a lot of discussion and debate, but there are plenty of places still out there in the open to discuss Steorn, including FreeEnergyTrackers, Fizzx, and of course this blog.

Something you may not know, is that Crank has now resigned as forum administrator. Crank's been administrating Steorn's forum for well over a year, and because of her relationship with Steorn, has been able to provide us with a lot of insight into the organization. I'd like to personally thank Crank for her service, and wish her well as a regular forum member! I also want to wish Magnatrix the best of luck putting up with everyone in the forum.

SPDC Visit London...

Today, Magnatrix, one of Steorn's forum administrators, answered a simple question:

double-z:
Has anything been heard from them since the "demo"? (surely, just turning the lights off would have solved the problem, or illuminating it with LED lights instead...)

Magnatrix:
Yes.
The SPDC got together in London, earlier this year.
That's all that I can say about that

And the fun continues.

Steorn still has lawyers...

This is the closest thing to news I could find for everyone:

http://dispatchesfromthefuture.com/2008/04/steorn_still_alive.html

Last year, both Dispatches and this blog went through legal threats with Steorn, this is the first time that I'm aware of that Steorn actually dispatched (pun intended) actual lawyers.

Sean, if you are reading this, we'd love to get an interview with you on how things are going inside Steorn. Maybe we could set up an IRC channel or ask some questions over in the forums. Up for a chat? A lot of us miss having something to report.

They're not quite dead yet...

Today in the forums, Sean McCarthy reacted to JREF's declaration of Steorn's death, based on a quote over at What's New by Bob Park:

Steorn: Wow, I wish that some one would tell me this stuff, I need not have turned up to the office all that time. Good to see that JREF is reliable as ever!

Also today, an anonymous poster shares with us a newly available patent application filed by Steorn:

SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR MEASURING INTERACTION OF LOADS

This patent was filed right around the time of Steorn's Economist Ad. It will be more interesting if we start seeing Steorn's core Orbo patents start appearing on these sites. Another anonymous poster did some research on the named inventors, two of which haven't appeared before in documents relating to Steorn. They are Ciaran Mythen and Guillaume Reux. Here is a translated version of Guillame's resume.

PEREPITEIA

"What I can say with full confidence is that our system violates the law of conservation of energy" - Thane Heins

The free energy world has erupted again in Canada this week. I have received many emails and comments about Thane Heins, an inventor in Ottawa claiming to have violated the law of conservation of energy. Many forums and discussions have occurred since the original articles appeared in The Toronto Star. If you are interested in following the story a little deeper, here are some links you should read:

The original two articles, written by Tyler Hamilton of The Star:
Turning physics on its ear
http://www.thestar.com/Business/article/300042
'Holy crap, this is really scary'
http://www.thestar.com/Article/300041

Potential Difference Web Page with Large Videos:
http://www.g9toengineering.com/backemf/demonstration.htm

Speccy's YouTube posting of the videos:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ogLeKTlLy5E

Tyler and Thane comment on the article over on Tyler's blog:
http://tyler.blogware.com/blog/_archives/2008/2/4/3505063.html

Steorn Forum Discussion:
http://www.steorn.com/forum/comments.php?DiscussionID=60276

Overunity.com Discussion:
http://www.overunity.com/index.php/topic,4047.60.html

PhysOrg.com Article and Discussion:
http://www.physorg.com/news121610315.html

This blog's primary goal has been to keep track of Steorn more so then all free energy claims, I think I'd have to quit my job to keep up with all of them. Thane hasn't yet claimed free energy, although I'm sure he wouldn't be getting this much attention if he weren't implying it. But unlike Steorn's claims, Thane's are testable and publicly available. He's even hosting a demo for Ottawa's skeptics on Monday! Seeing examples like Thane, in which well known universities and professors are willing to test these types of claims publicly, suggest that Steorn's excuses for their approach are bunk.

The closure that I'm looking for with Steorn may never happen, but events like these help bring home the fact that closure is most likely already here.

Nearly There...

Today we learn that Shaun Menzies, one of the founders of Steorn, reached the South Pole after 58 days of hiking. To learn more, check out Shaun's blog or visit the team's website, Beyond Endurance.

Creating a new sticky thread entitled "Nearly There..." sure caught a few people's attention today. Sean McCarthy, CEO of Steorn, was kind enough to answer a couple of questions:

overconfident: Sean, Did Shaun take an OC MPMM with him to keep warm? What does it take to get you to participate here?

Steorn: Hi OC - sorry man - life has been hectic, all in a very positive way :-), I was going to say that Shaun was in fact testing bearings in different climates, but to be honest that would just be making a joke of what is a huge achievement on his part, something that he has wanted to do since I have known him - and fair play to him.

I will have more time over the next while so I will try to pop in and chat.

Sean

WhiteLite: Sean, I think overconfident is refering to this video that has caused quite a stir. ;-)

Steorn: Hi WhiteLite,

Yep I saw it, seems pretty cool. Go ahead and test the hell out of it, from the chat that I have seen it looks like the guys know what they are doing on that front.

Sean

As WhiteLite points out, and many of you have already noticed, Alsetalokin has been the center of attention the past few days in the forum with his video, posted primarily to shut up Omnibus. Unfortunately for Alsetalokin, he has attracted every other nut out there. With this episode so far we've learned more about the dynamics of the free energy community and the larger geek community more so than the interesting physics that might be occurring within Alsetalokin's WhipMag.

New Year's Wish: Closure in 2008

I'd like to wish everyone a happy New Year. Thank you all for your contributions in 2007 to Free Energy Tracker, together we've been able to keep up with Steorn's events and claims. My hope for 2008 is that some form of closure is reached. I realize that this might be wishful thinking on my part! To everyone, including Steorn, enjoy your holiday, and have a successful and productive 2008!

Wired: Vaporware 2007

In addition to making Wired's 10 Great Snake-Oil Gadgets, Steorn now comes in at number 10 on Wired's annual 10 Vaporware Products of 2007. One interesting note is that unlike the great snake-oil gadget list, Wired's vaporware product list is determined by votes cast by Wired readers. Steorn is becoming part of the geek culture, unfortunately not in the manner that they had anticipated.

‘Free energy’ firm raises €1.1 million

It looks like 15-india-street isn't the only one checking out Steorn's latest financials. Gavin Daly, a writer with The Post.IE, writes his second Steorn article:

Steorn, a Dublin firm that claims to be developing a system that creates free energy, has raised €1.1million in funds amid rising losses.

Gavin Daly was the first to write about Steorn and its free energy ambitions, a few months before their official Economist announcement. In the article Firm strives to extend mobile battery lifespans, Sean McCarthy, CEO of Steorn, compares Steorn's tech to kinetic watches.

Free Energy Trackers

I came across a new website called Ning, which allows anyone to set up a custom social network, like Facebook or MySpace. I've set up Free Energy Trackers for all of us who are interested in what is going on with Steorn. Our first members are Dr. Mike, Sean McCarthy, and myself. Join and connect, and maybe we can figure this out together!

Another Round of Investment...

On November 22nd, Steorn submitted another allocation of shares document to the Irish Government. Steorn raised another 1.08 million Euros. Three existing investors, Eamon McKinna, James Murphy, and JJ Sullivan bought a total of 661 shares of Steorn for 1640 Euros each. These three are the top investors in Steorn, investing more than a combined 9 million Euros. Thanks go to 15-India-Street for pointing us all to the latest allocation of shares document. Note that nleseul also mentions that Steorn's annual return has been filed, but has not yet been scanned for all to see.

Wired: 10 Great Snake-Oil Gadgets

Along with 9 other gadgets, Wired has selected Steorn's Orbo as one of the 10 Great Snake-Oil Gadgets. From the article:

... File this one under deluded: enthusiastically setting up a public display, the inventors were humiliated when it failed to operate. But wait! Steorn gave its deal to 22 scientists who'll "validate" the device. Don't hold your breath, chaps. ...

... Think it might be real? For the love of Liebniz, get a freakin' clue: if it looks like a toy and the net gain is almost imperceptibly small, you're selling a measurement error. ...

They seem to have sided with Dr. Mike on their opinion of Steorn.