Slashdot Mirror
News Media Scammed by 'Free Energy' Hoax
The General Electric corporate empire was scammed - they modified the story with a skeptical headline but otherwise left it alone. The AOL/TimeWarner corporate empire didn't have any problem with the story. The Environmental News Network, which probably should know better, didn't.
Now I know that wire stories are often run with minimal verification - each paper or website assumes that Reuters, or UPI, or AP has checked the story for veracity before it went out. And I know that reporters and editors can't be experts on every field of endeavor that they report on.
But this is Basic Science. The Three Laws (everyone loves the Second Law[1]) are not a new thing, and they're not going away any time soon. This should have been taught in junior high. There's a simple, well-known test that Reuters could have applied to this story: "Extraordinary claims demand extraordinary proof". This claim is the most extraordinary of all - free energy, perpetual motion, whatever you want to call it, and it demands proof beyond question. Reuters is running this story based on an anonymous inventor. Is that extraordinary proof?
But wait, I said perpetual motion. The phrase "perpetual motion" is one which sets off alarm bells in people's heads, so the anonymous inventor was quick to head off that thought process:
"But he is keen to head off the notion that he has tapped into the age-old myth of perpetual motion. ``Perpetual motion is impossible. This is a self-sustaining unit which at the same time provides surplus electrical energy,'' he said."
This quote is simply embarassing. It parses to "Perpetual motion is impossible. This is a perpetual motion unit." The inventor must be snickering in his Guinness right now to have snuck that one past.
The story gets better when you read it several times. Three 100 Watt light bulbs created a drain of 4500 Watts, according to the nameless inventor. That would be an impressive feat all by itself, except that it's total nonsense.
The piece would have made a good humor article. A properly skeptical and properly educated Reuters reporter could have examined these claims, poked holes in them, and published a story that simultaneously reported on the claims and educated the public about why they are a load of hogwash. Too bad that's not what happened.
Maybe you'd like to take a crack at evaluating their claims? You think you can examine their device a little more critically than Reuters? Give them a call.
And I have a second task as well. Slashdot is occasionally criticized for getting a story wrong, even though we diligently correct ourselves when necessary. My theory is that the difference between Slashdot and other media is that they never correct themselves, no matter how inaccurate, so readers are left with a false picture of accuracy. To test this claim, I'll send a Thinkgeek t-shirt to the first person who finds a retraction of this 'free energy' story published by Reuters or any of the newspapers/media outlets that ran the original story. *Any* of them. I don't expect to pay out.
Update: 01/24 16:38 GMT by M : CNN has updated their story with a new headline and several new paragraphs at the end, which qualifies. A couple of people also noted that ZDNet appears to have taken their copy of the wire story down. Lucas Garsha was the first to email, so he gets a t-shirt. I wasn't clear whether the claim should be email or in the comments, so I'll also send a t-shirt to the first commenter noting this, which appears to be skia.
[1] This is a fine world that we live in, where I can find a website devoted to the Second Law of Thermodynamics.
Not only did he scam most news agencies, he drinks Guinness.
I can't spell or type, but that doesn't mean I'm unusually stupid.
cya
Ethelred
Everyone wants to be Ethelred. Even I want to be Ethelred.
But the *$!? lameness filter won't let me type it in.
Carousel is a lie!
-- Homer Simpson
Mmmmmmm. Floor pie!
Well, doesn't this bring us one step closer to the Infinite Improbability Drive ?? Hmm ??
I wonder if the inventor will prove NP=P and provide a 2 terraherz processor that can be overclocked indefinitely with zero waste heat.
:-)
Personally, I think this story is a hoot!
The bitter lessons of a veteran coder: http://bitterprogrammer.blogspot.com
"The 58-year-old electrical engineer, who lives in the Irish republic and intends -- for ``security and publicity-avoidance reasons'' -- to keep his identity a secret, has spent 23 years perfecting the Jasker Power System."
Ummm... Mr. Jasker... I think we let the cat out of the bag.
Next time you are handed one of those promotional AOL CDs with a "free 70 hours", here is your new retort:
"So is that Free as in Beer, Free as in Speech, or Free as in Energy?"
"Your superior intellect is no match for our puny weapons!"
Maybe that Mendocino guy could use this to power the town without all that nasty electromagnetic radiation?
sulli
RTFJ.
Wouldn't it be ironic, the one time slashdot takes a high headed journalistic stand, it's for a some crazy story that some time from now turns out to be true.
J
Then you power three 100W light bulbs for an hour. That's only 0.3kWh, or probably close to $0.05 worth of electricity.
Upon demonstration to the reporters, the three batteries on the outside are left with an "increased charge". The machine put out more than it took in *.
The secret: Four car batteries are in the box. It's self repleneshing! Demonstrate this to enough reporters, using nwe external batteries each time, and it will run forever!!!
Sigh.
*Editor's Note: If only more women were like that.
that means I'll never have to stop to charge my Segway Human Transporter!!
How about if the inventor of said device allows himself/herself to be locked in a hermitically sealed container with their invention powering a CO2 scubber/Oxygen Generator. Wait 24 hours and open up. Yes/No.
Succesful completion of this test would be extraordinary and get peoples attention.
It would probably be irresponsible to pull some strings at the newspaper I work at to have a retraction printed just for the t-shirt, wouldn't it...
Oh well.
Username taken, please choose another one.
Money does not abide by the laws of thermodynamics.
Guinness, the beer that eats like a meal!
I believe sex is highly over rated... unless it involves me
Free bridge discovered in Brooklyn.
Thanks for reminding me about K5... I hadn't visited them much since their server problems back in December. Now, about the K5 readers being "...taken in...", allow me to quote the first comment -- I think it sums things up perfectly.
-- END OF LINE.
"...America's great minds of today, teaching America's great minds of tomorrow. Poor bastards." -- A Beautiful Min
It generates power until the hamster gets hungry and stops running.
"Da ist ein Technölüst in mein Unterpanten!"
From jasker.com:
Attainment is determined by the systematic mathematical application in the defined mode, of the accurately selected operational segments... To reiterate there are no physics heresies, no physics contradictions and no ambiguous claims.
I love that last part. =)
And yes, I realize that A Modest Proposal was a satirical political statementa and has an incompatible context (and was sarcastic in nature, unlike this post), but it still sounds good as a subject line, and was Ireland-related, sho up yersh. I gesh th'Guinnesh is gettin' to m'.
of course it's possible, just run a long power extention from your neighbor's house (=
I figure some jerk reporter was pecking some geek to provide him with some juicy info, and the geek made something up...
cya
Ethelred
Everyone wants to be Ethelred. Even I want to be Ethelred.
1. I unplugged a lamp from my desk and put it on top of the dishwasher;
2. Opened the dishwasher, left part of the lamp power cable hanging down;
3. Ran couple of short wires from 2 new Duracell 9V batteries to inside of the dishwasher;
4. Closed and locked the dishwasher making sure all 3 wires/cables got in while the lamp and batteries stayed out;
5. Put the lamp switch on the ON position;
6. Ran the dishwasher on a short wash setting.
The expected result (if the Jasker theory were true) was that
Actual resutls from the test:
From these results I conclude that perpetual motion is possible as demonstrated by my dishwasher; however, it doesn't generate excess power/electricity.
I think Hawking would say this.
Thanks to the crew at www.mchawking.com we now know how Stephen feels about the second law; and by extrapolation, how he feels about "Energy from nothing".
Try to hack my 31337 firewall!
> The office would then set it going and if it was still running a year later, they would consider the patent application.
So why don't they do this with software patents?
grep -ri 'should work'
The author of new super machine noticed, that it works especially well when placed above buried electricity cable or by the aerial electricity wire hangers. "The Zero Point energy loves our current electricity transports and seem to be attracted to them".
:)
In other stories today, Irish electricity company filed for chapter 11, citing as a reason mysterious drains of electricity from its systems at undisclosed location in Ireland. Company insider says, there were numerous sighting of a man with something, that looked like a washing machine, by systems, experiencing power drainage. He was not identified, and referred to in company's files as simply "an electricity pirate".
*the above story is completely fictious
Hyperom.com
I just can't help thinking of this quote from Carl Sagan as I read about this story:
"They laughed at Einstein. They laughed at Newton. Of course, they also laughed at Bozo the Clown."
Editor Emeritus and Senior Writer, TeleRead.org
"THIS INVENTION EFFECTIVELY GUARANTEES THE CONTINUITY OF MANKIND".
No, that would be sex.
No sig, sorry.
No sig, sorry.
Someday, I'll live in a world where every child grows up with a decent science education and critical thinking is encouraged... Violation of the eighth law of thermodynamics. Systems don't go from higher entropy to lower.
when the audience watching a play or movie knows more then the character(s) speaking the lines on stage.
No, ironic is getting a lecture on proper usage of an English word by someone who couldn't pass a grade two English course.
This is not a hoax. I happen to have seen the device working, and I can tell you that it does create energy out of nowhere, something we've been taught that we cannot do. Just like turning lead into gold, which is also very much possible.
Actually, not only have I seen the device, but I once met one of the inventors. As a matter of fact, I know one of the inventors personally. To be perfectly honest, I am actually the lead inventor of this system. I'm going to market it and make a fortune that will make Bill Gates look like a beggar on the streets! I will use this device to create warp drive, and the conquest of the universe will begin!
OH WELL.
50 VDC sounds like the telephone exchange voltages. Maybe trickle charged from his phone line and increase in voltage was all those incoming calls from the world's press !.
It's OBVIOUSLY welded shut to keep the excess energy in! Conservation of energy in a closed system, right? Maybe that's just because systems haven't been closed ENOUGH, and it's just been leaking out the whole time! That welding job closed it up good and tight so it couldn't get out, Duh!
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RESULTS MAY VARY. NOTE: Go to here to be removed.
It is a VERY heavy beer.
The shiny metal case it comes in looks like an overclocker's wet dream.
Somebody needs to ship this brilliant Irish guy over to California to meet the "Wireless Free" wackos. Certainly his incredible new device wouldn't release any harmful radiation. I mean.. that might break the second law of thermodynamics or something! Hell, this amazing machine absorbes all the deadly cell-phone radiation within a 100 mile radius and simultaneously renders aspartame harmless! How? Sorry, I can't tell you. It's a secret. But honestly.. it does work! Hypochondriacs everywhere can attest to this. Just ask 'em!
Sounds to me like this guy belongs in the "Duff Book of World Records".
I've hit Karma 50 and gotten a Score:5, Troll... I win!
Hedrick, chief executive of a company set up with a view to licensing the device in the United States, said the technology shattered preconceived laws of science.
I wonder if ENRON has bitten yet?