Yet another perpetual motion machine company with 60M in funding | Hacker News Reader

Yet another perpetual motion machine company with 60M in funding

spectrum.ieee.org

18 pointsrms19 comments

The Grand Unified Theory of Classical Physics, a 1771‑page work that he’s self-published on his Web site. It claims to offer explanations with no “spookiness or weirdness” for quantum phenomena like entanglement, as well as some extraordinary predictions: that under certain conditions electrons acquire antigravity properties, which Mills calls “the fifth force,” and that the mysterious dark matter permeating the universe consists of large hydrino agglomerations.

Link: http://www.blacklightpower.com/theory/book.shtml

Looks like an E8 on the cover. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E8_%28mathematics%29

And here is something of a summary of his theory: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydrino

Is there a step-by-step guide by a former person like this on how they obtain funding?

I (and a few co-founders) could set up gas->electric vehicle conversion centers around the country and rake in the dough for this amount of money. How can someone like this get sixty million!?

These guys are not good at doing what they say, but they are VERY good at faking it.

Is it then any surprise that people who are very good at faking it can raise a lot of money?

Why do you think business guys wear suits, it's a costume, for theater.

To be picky, snake oil/crank rather than perpetual motion per se by the sound of it.

Surely that would be snake hydrogen, if we are being picky. Isn't he trying to solve the "oil problem"? ;)

I thought is was interesting that the calorific contribution from oxidising the metal of the experimental chamber was estimated at 1% of produced energy. A decimal place can be, either here ... or here.

So many people want to believe that this can be true. However, like consistent 12% annual returns, and flying cars, it seems more likely that 'BlackLight Power' is more of a vehicle to fund Randall Mills retirement, than a real possibility of a revolutionary source of near-free energy.

Obviously, if it does turn out to be true, the scientific world may have to take his grand-unified theory a little bit more seriously.

So, a distinguished but elderly scientist says it's impossible, eh? Where do I sign up?! ;)

This is actually more like "the entire physics community speaking in unison" which is slightly more formidable especially when they use actual math rather than just making stuff up a la Lord Kelvin.

I'm reserving judgement--if it doesn't get a lot of publicity and garner a large following of believers, it might still be true (http://thinkexist.com/quotation/when-however-the_lay_public_...)

Hint: "The other would use a batch operation, in which some catalyst is successively retrieved, recycled, and reinserted for a new cycle."

You don't need to recycle catalyst's. One off bursts of energy are easy to fudge so it seems like something interesting is happening when it's not.

In this house we obey the laws of thermodynamics!

I feel bad for all those employees that are going to lose their jobs when the runway is over.

Turns out that Bernie Madoff did invest some of his fund!

I liked the Steorn guys better. I mean -- full page ads challenging scientists to disprove them! That took some chutzpah.

Can someone with a physics background explain his theory, and whether his theory has been tested experimentally yet?

Hey, at least their story isn't as silly and they didn't get as much funding as the Catholic Church.

Yet.

Ugh. Hopefully they're as entertaining as the Steorn idiots, those investors should get SOMETHING for that money.

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