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 Forum index » Archive » Archive: General » Old News & Rumors
[NEW|SPEC] Steorn.net claims Infinite Energy, ARG? Hoax?
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number9dream
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Joined: 22 Apr 2005
Posts: 222
Location: Newcastle, UK

 		An interview from today's Guardian in the UK.
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PostPosted: Fri Aug 25, 2006 7:14 am
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imbri
Entrenched


Joined: 21 Sep 2002
Posts: 1182
Location: wonderland
Frankdave wrote:
A lot of people are saying this can't be a arg because it's not looking and smelling like past ones. Well I got news for ya. If it did, it wouldn't work! They have to make it different or people would catch on to it out too quickly.


Not to derail the thread, I've responded to this post in the meta section - click here (need to change things up to work) or here (how real is too real) if you're interested in discussing the bigger meta level questions of Steorn.

PostPosted: Fri Aug 25, 2006 7:48 am
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atdt1991
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Joined: 04 Sep 2004
Posts: 186
Location: Plymouth, MI
number9dream wrote:
An interview from today's Guardian in the UK.


Hey thanks!

From the article:

Quote:
"We couldn't believe it at first, either," says McCarthy, chief executive of the company. He is a 40-year-old engineer born in Birmingham but brought up in Dublin. After a couple of decades in the oil industry, McCarthy, Walshe and two others set up Steorn as a technology and intellectual-property development company. "We did difficult things. If someone had an idea that they wanted to make work, we'd work on it with them, help them recruit staff and get them through to their first product."

Then, by chance, came their "discovery". They were called upon by the police to help gain forensic evidence against "skimmers" who cloned the cards of people using ATMs. Subsequently, when banks approached asking how they could prevent such fraud, Steorn advised that the best way was to catch the small number of people committing most of the crime. They came up with a system of 16 tiny CCTV cameras that could guarantee recording the identities of the perpetrators.

"We wanted the cameras to be independently powered, so we tried out small solar and ambient wind generators," says McCarthy. "We wanted to improve the performance of the wind generators - they were only about 60-70% efficient - so we experimented with certain generator configurations and then one day one of our guys [co-founder Mike Daly] came in and said: 'We have a problem. We appear to be getting out more than we're putting in.'"

That was three years ago. Since then, McCarthy says, the company has spent £2.7m developing the technology. Steorn has also gone into partnership with a European micro-generator company to develop prototypes.

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PostPosted: Fri Aug 25, 2006 12:31 pm
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DrBunker
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Joined: 22 Aug 2006
Posts: 233
Location: Southern UK

 		Um, that article mentions improving the configurations of wind generators.

In the live chat they ran they said it was all about magnets - am I missing something here? Confused

PostPosted: Fri Aug 25, 2006 12:51 pm
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Lurking_Kouzou
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Joined: 30 Sep 2004
Posts: 124
Location: Earth
DrBunker wrote:
Um, that article mentions improving the configurations of wind generators.

In the live chat they ran they said it was all about magnets - am I missing something here? Confused


I am imagining the creative scenario went something like this (if what they say is true):

Since a generator and a motor are essentially the same device (for converting one type of energy -- rotational mechanical energy -- into another -- electrical -- or vice-versa, my hypothesis on this is that after aligning the magnets in the permanent magnet generator just so, they found that their input (the blades of the turbine) had become a output (fan). From then on, the question would become "did we just do what we think we did".

I should be more specific probably, and I can if you'd like. Oh, and when I say energy, I specifically mean Power (torque times angular velocity for rotational mechanical energy and voltage times current for electrical energy).
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PostPosted: Fri Aug 25, 2006 1:17 pm
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steornwatch
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Joined: 22 Aug 2006
Posts: 3

 		Steorn Song... "Something Steorn"

PostPosted: Fri Aug 25, 2006 2:44 pm
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oxdeltaxo
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Joined: 16 Aug 2006
Posts: 238
Location: Canada EH?
Nola wrote:
We certainly don't want to become ARG-Hunters festering every weird thing on the Internet.



You could make a new tv show starring steve irwin! Laughing

PostPosted: Fri Aug 25, 2006 3:48 pm
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Max Steele
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Joined: 26 Apr 2005
Posts: 456

 		Alright, just listened to the Steornwatch phone interview.

It didn't sound staged.

There was no new information, which was expected.

McCarthy is basically stating that they have created this device which generates more energy than it takes to make it, but they don't know where the extra energy is coming from. So they want people to test it and see if they can find out where.

I still find it "convenient" that Steornwatch landed a phone interview.

PostPosted: Fri Aug 25, 2006 4:08 pm
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Rolerbe
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Joined: 01 Mar 2005
Posts: 330
Location: North America
number9dream wrote:
An interview from today's Guardian in the UK.


This is really interesting. Not so much the article, but the existence of this article by a reputable paper and NOT alluding to anything ARGish or viral marketing, etc.

What makes this interesting is that any noted news media would be PISSED at having been taken for a ride by a game in this way. Most pro gamers or marketing groups would know that it could result only in the worst form of negative backlash on them and be very careful to not have it happen.

This to me is the first really compelling evidence that this is, in fact, not a game.
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PostPosted: Fri Aug 25, 2006 4:16 pm
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oxdeltaxo
Decorated

Joined: 16 Aug 2006
Posts: 238
Location: Canada EH?
Max Steele wrote:
I still find it "convenient" that Steornwatch landed a phone interview.


Originally steorn had arranged for steornwatch to come over and witness the building and the invention. But steorn watch was based in north america, so instead of flying way out there they decided to have a phone interview instead.

PostPosted: Sat Aug 26, 2006 2:59 pm
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Lukstr
Guest


 		A couple points:

A) If this system is based on permanent magnets, then as they are "used" they will lose strength, and the system would essentially be "draining" the magnets. I don't see how permanent magnets can create perpetual motion.

B) Many of you have posted about their lack of releasing details. Consider the following: Having a public display of technology, or using technology in a public place forfeits the ability to patent that technology. A patent releases the details after it is patented, as to protect it. They're absolutely correct saying that they cannot release details. I see nothing wrong with this, they'd be crazy to release details.

C) This is still quite interesting.

PostPosted: Sat Aug 26, 2006 4:21 pm
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ShadowDrake
Kilroy

Joined: 22 Aug 2006
Posts: 2

 		Has anyone found a news announcement about Steorn earlier than the one by Team Xbox?

That one was posted at 8:27am on August 18th. I haven't found anything earlier, although admittedly I may be confused about how the time stamping works across time zones. If this is NOT an ARG, where did TeamXbox get their information?

PostPosted: Sun Aug 27, 2006 11:20 am
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oxdeltaxo
Decorated

Joined: 16 Aug 2006
Posts: 238
Location: Canada EH?

 		Reuters had it the day before team xbox did.

PostPosted: Sun Aug 27, 2006 11:57 am
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kfresh
Guest


 		Hello all. Just like to say great work so far. This is an awesome site and I'm glad I've found it (even though my eyes are now bleeding from reading the last 15 pages of this thread Confused ).

Anyway, I am interesting to know why no-one has picked up on this yet. There seems to be some confusion when it comes to Sean McCarthy's past. On this page, it states that

Quote:
A qualified engineer, McCarthy worked for big engineering firms in the Middle East and South America before returning to Ireland in 2000. The internet boom was underway and he recognised a need for ''technological management'' of e-business projects.


Yet, on the [url=http://web.archive.org/web/20010303133231/www.steorn.com/people.html]archived version of the Steorn website, Seans bio reads

Quote:
Sean worked for twelve years in ABB's technology business, starting as a software engineer and progressing through lead engineer, project manager, product manager, account manager and P&L manager. During this time Sean was based in Ireland, England, Ohio, Texas and Bahrain. In 1999 Sean returned to Ireland to take the position of Division Manager for Irish technology firm Microsol.


Whereas in the online chat he mentioned

Quote:
I have a degree in Engineering prior to starting Steorn worked developing systems for the oil & gas industries


This is also mentioned in the live phonecall with Steornwatch, but from my memory it was claimed that he progressed directly from the "gas companies" to Steorn, and never to either Microsol or from AAB's "technology business" (and no mention of him being an accountant for them at one stage). Either there has coincidently been a lot of stuff reported incorrectly, or something is going on here.

PostPosted: Sun Aug 27, 2006 3:47 pm
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Obes
Unfettered

Joined: 16 May 2005
Posts: 329
Location: England

 		They're not creating infinite energy... they're creating infinite McCarthys... RUN FOR THE HILLS!

Obes. Twisted Evil
Yes, that was the most I could add to this conversation.

PostPosted: Sun Aug 27, 2006 3:53 pm
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