OrionWorks
Fri, 25 Apr 2008 15:26:33 -0700
>From Mike Carrell: > Mills is no fool, nor are his board of directors. He > business strategy is very different from Jed's concept > -- but there could be a global scramble of > entrepreneurship when BLP becomes "real". Mills has to > have his 'ducks in order' for what might be a firestorm. > The new solid fuel reactor is a non-trivial anouncement. >From Jed Rothwell: > For too long, people in cold fusion and at BLP have > been searching for an experiment that will "convince > the skeptics," or they have been trying to write a > "bulletproof" paper that will be "published in > Nature." These are the last steps you take, not the > first steps. To put it another way, these steps are > analogous to the World War I military strategy of > attacking the enemy at his strongest point after > giving him a week's notice that you are coming, and > after ordering your soldiers not to wear helmets. > It is self-defeating. The 2004 DoE review of cold > fusion was a good example. I would agree with Mike's perception in the sense that BLP's recent "solid fuel reactor" announcement is indeed a non-trivial announcement. The only way I can read the announcement, and in a way that makes any sense to me, is that BLP has finally discovered a commercially viable process that is exploitable in conventional terms (No new science and/or technology needed!), even if that process still has to be commercially developed and at great expense. I think Mike has, in recent years and months, hinted though his positioned un-official source(s) over at BLP that things continue to progress in a positive direction. Unfortunately, I gather Mike is not privy to anything more specific than that, which of course leaves such banalities totally up to interpretation for the rest of us, and probably for Mike as well. (Half full / half empty). The rest of us fools are forced to continuously speculate through the tea leaves of the latest BLP announcements which remain carefully couched in public relation terms to accentuate the positive while simultaneously glossing over what I could well imaging are daunting engineering tasks that could be as serious as trying to get the Apollo 13 astronauts back home safe and sound after their on-board fuel cell had the audacity to spring a leak in route to Luna. "Cranbury, We have a problem! We appear to be venting hydrinos into outer space!" It's frustrating to be left in the peanut gallery year after year. I would also agree with Jed's perspective in the sense that choosing to go into the lion's den to make their demonstration case is not likely to be as effective as focusing first on collecting as much friendly support as possible. For now, I feel I have no choice but to rely on Mr. Carrell's vast experience in the world of R&D, combined with his judgment of character regarding Mills & Co's strategy plan. Considering the millions of dollars in investment capital BLP has been able to secure over the years, I guess I would have to agree with the premise that they aren't fools. This of course pisses off the skeptics to no end. Regards Steven Vincent Johnson www.OrionWorks.com www.zazzle.com/orionworks