Steorn, I'm all out of faith

Tuesday, August 22. 2006

Steorn, I'm all out of faith

Is the worlds energy crisis about to be saved by a company that has specialised in...

Technology Risk Management
Ensuring Project Delivery
Creating Value through Innovative Technology
Security and Fraud Prevention
Intellectual Property

I think not, but then I am pretty cynical. They say it takes one to know one, and I've been known to talk bullshit now and then. Anyways, this particular one is bugging me, primarily because of the harm it can do to the reputation of Irish Science. What the hell are Steorn up to?

Weighing up the evidence

Thanks to archive.org, and AjaxWhoIs.com, I've gathered a small bit of information about these guys, and this much I can say. The case for it being real, slim as it is...

The company exists
Sean Mc Carthy has been affiliated with the company since 2000
It costs 125,000 Sterling to place a full page advert, like theirs, in the Economist
Shaun David McCarthy, Alan Simpson, and Michael Daly hold a patent(pdf) for a "Low Energy Magnetic Actuator"
Their claims are supported by Magetic Power Inc

Then on the other side we have the evidence that implies it's bullshit

The company has several different registered addresses according to ajaxwhois, doesn't take phonecalls unless it's a large media company, has removed the majority of contact details for it's PR people from it's website and seems to be astroturfing its company forum
They are violating the Principle of the Conservation of Energy, which until now has stood pretty solid.
They are featured on the Museum of Hoaxes
During interview, Sean McCarthy failed to answer many questions, other than verifying that the site is not a promo for the next release of Halo. (some people highlighted a similarity in logoes)
Bullshit energy claims have, unfortunately, come out of Ireland before. Surprisingly news stations far even more reputable than RTE have fallen for the claims as well. See this takedown on Slashdot
The steorn website offers next to no information bar promotional materials to allow the public to increase the hype surrounding this idea. Then again, the website for Steorn has never been impressive. Have a look at it's evolution through the years

There are four (well three at least) possibilities here as to whats going on...

It's all true. Our energy problems are over. Everyone go buy SUVs and sell your shares in Oil companies.
It's yet another case of a company believing they've cracked perpetual motion. The company don't fully understand why it's wrong, and are hoping scientists will prove them right
The company know full well their claims are bullshit, but are hoping to somehow profit from the hype surrounding them at the moment. Given that they need at least 125,000 sterling to recoup the their advertising expenses, and most likely more to cover their website costs, they better have a good plan
It's the most obscure twisted Viral Marketing Campaign we've ever seen in Ireland

I personally believe it is #3, but I am wracking my brains trying to think how can they recover that much money, what scam do they have lined up. Sure they might have 17,000 email addresses from respected scientists, but financially whats that worth? This is what I'd like to see people talking about at the moment, How do you profit when all you have is hype and a broken product? Sell it on eBay?

See Steorn on Technorati.

Posted by Des Traynor at 06:05 | Comments (14) | Trackbacks (0)

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Hmm what are economist readers more likely to be
a.) Venture capitalists who think my god this could be the biggest investment chance since microsoft

or

b.) Scientist who go what a load of bull.

#1 simon (Homepage) on 2006-08-22 10:30 (Reply)

Ehh, A?

But I am presuming that people aren't stupid enough to hand over lumps of cash without waiting for the results of the "challenge".

Unless the plan is to tempt people into an initial investment "We'll give you 10% today for €100,000, tomorrow when these tests come back positive, it'll cost €10,000,000. "

Hmmm, that sounds plausible I guess. I would say it's immoral. Then again letting an idiot keep their money is also immoral, at a poker table at least.

#2 Des (Homepage) on 2006-08-22 11:15 (Reply)

You could try selling the IP rights to the Nigerian scammers... They probably have the money.

Imagine, the perfect way to get revenge for all those '411/419' Scam emails... they could spend all their gains on it...

If it does work (???), then a contribution has been made to alleviate poverty in Nigeria (maybe). If not we can all point and laugh at the poetic justice of scammers being screwed out of millons!

#3 Trekkypj on 2006-08-22 16:55 (Reply)

In fairness, claims to have invented perpetual motion machines are pretty regular. Someone seems to have sunk a fair bit of captial into this one for God knows what reason, but other than that, a quick Google will turn up thousands of folks claiming the same crap.

A full-page ad in the Economist? FFS. If you really think you've broken the laws of thermodynamics, you submit a bloody paper to a peer reviewed physics journal. Whatever about the scientific merit of their claims, taking this route is just a publicity stunt.

Pretty run of the mill BS here, bout the only thing that ticks me off about this lot is that they're not doing this country any favours, publicity wise. Unfortunately this joke seems to have gotten a fair bit of media attention the past few days.

And it's not even April.

#4 Dave Cahill on 2006-08-23 02:54 (Reply)

I agree that it's not an unusual claim, what I can't understand is why put soo much money into it? They obviously think they've done something special, or they have a big scam ready.

#5 Des (Homepage) on 2006-08-23 08:20 (Reply)

I wouldn't worry about the reputation of Irish science. No country is immune from this kind of nonsense. Genesis World Energy came out of the U.S. Xogen came out of Canada. And of course less publicized bullshit is everywhere, like quantum flux.

#5.1 rabbit on 2006-10-22 17:18 (Reply)

This whole thing just reeks of bulshit to me. It's an extrordinary claim which should be accompanied by extrordinary proof but instead it's accompanied by extrordinary little. My full rant is here: http://www.bartbusschots.ie/blog/?p=272

(I linked back to your post here but the trackback doesn't seem to have worked for some odd reasons)

#6 Bart B (Homepage) on 2006-08-23 08:48 (Reply)

Des:

"The harm it can do to Irish Science"?

WTF!! How about the harm it's going to do to world science PERIOD, which already suffers blatant bullshit attacks on a daily basis. This is done mainly by a**hole news articles misrepresenting every food and diet related study ever done. (And as a result portraying actual science as mythology)

They are professional scientific obfuscators who don't understand what makes water boil, but instead misinform and misrepresent any and all legitimate scientific study to line their pockets.

Damn, you need to see the big picture here bud.

Why don't you guys get over to this mystical "industrial park" in Ireland and start getting these jokers on video avoiding hard questions and post it.

--ARGG!

#7 Anonymous on 2006-08-26 22:54 (Reply)

Hi Anonymous,
Being from Ireland, and falling into the "Scientist" Category, my immediate concern here is for the reputation of Science in Ireland.

I have no doubt that this work will be dismissed by any scientists who evaluate, and hence the reputation of Science will survive. However my main worry is that any interesting work coming out of Ireland will, from now on, might be labelled
"another steorn.com bullshit claim"

Several bloggers have already been over to their site, from what I understand they were greeted, and asked what their business was, and "We want video evidence to show you are bullshit artists" isn't exactly going to get you a 2pm appointment.

Cheers for the comment,
Des

#7.1 Des Traynor (Homepage) on 2006-08-27 16:34 (Reply)

Des
Heard the interview on BBC PM programme today and by the magic of the internet ended up at your page. Have just looked at the patent and I can see why Steorn are so convinced of their invention. It is based on the simple and intuitinely appealing (but, unfortunately, fatally flawed) notion that a monopole magnet can be created by magnetic screening of the other pole. Primarily it is the second law of thermodynamics that is contravened here, although, if the machine actually started to move, it would then contavene the first. I filed a patent many years ago using mu metal shielding to allow a magnetic field sensor to be formed into a convenient shape. That piece of intuition actually worked because I drew no current from it - you can't tamper with the universe!
Kind regards, John

#8 John on 2006-08-28 13:27 (Reply)

Your all missing the key problem in the Peer review system and the US patent system. An invention of such radical kind just wont get peer reviewed. It would be rejected repeatedly by the journals. The US patent system also has a clause that allows it to reject perpetual motion machines out right with out review. People have shown them working cold fusion cells, magnetic motors and even ceramic superconductors and its been rejected at both the peer review level and the patent office. The guys with the ceramic superconductors went public, blowing their patent chances, and we have high temperatures superconductors now. Yes they got the nobel prize but their papers were first repeatedly rejected. Steorn knows this and has endevoured to find a new path that leaves their patent rights intact.
Watch and learn.

#9 wesley bruce on 2006-10-22 06:12 (Reply)

i completely agree with you,i like to read your comments on the possibilities of this new technology would bring to the world,could this bring about some war?

#9.1 enrique on 2006-10-29 21:02 (Reply)

The only free energy will be the methane from the amount of bulls***. Sounds like the mkt guys are at it again, remember that development on dublin bay a few months back.

#10 disbeliever on 2006-12-08 00:45 (Reply)

If you are interested in what has been going on at Steorn, check out my blog:

http://steorntracker.blogspot.com

Any feedback is appreciated!

#11 SteornTracker (Homepage) on 2007-03-26 16:26 (Reply)

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