[the48thronin]

The company in charge of a California project to extract vast amounts of renewable energy from deep, hot bedrock has removed its drill rig and informed federal officials that the government project will be abandoned.

and

The project’s apparent collapse comes a day after Swiss government officials permanently shut down a similar project in Basel, because of the damaging earthquakes it produced in 2006 and 2007. Taken together, the two setbacks could change the direction of the Obama administration’s geothermal program, which had raised hopes that the earth’s bedrock could be quickly tapped as a clean and almost limitless energy source.

and

In addition to a $6 million grant from the Energy Department, AltaRock had attracted some $30 million in venture capital from high-profile investors like Google, Khosla Ventures and Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers.

“Some of these startup companies got out in front and convinced some venture capitalists that they were very close to commercial deployment,” said Daniel P. Schrag, a professor of geology and director of the Center for the Environment at Harvard University.

NYTimes

[Plantagenet]

Ooopsies.

[mos6507]

Planty, don't steal my lolcat posting style.

[eXpat]

Excellent thread the48thronin!! we can post here in the future all the failed proyects that the "technology will save us" cornucopians throw to us! . It could be like a monument to human folly and misplaced hope.

[rangerone314]

Excellent thread the48thronin!! we can post here in the future all the failed proyects that the "technology will save us" cornucopians throw to us! . It could be like a monument to human folly and misplaced hope.

I still keep waiting for a cornie to post an article about someone discovering Tesla's mysterious endless powersource where you just plug an antenna or something into the ground and get free energy, LOL!

[efarmer]

I think it should be a contest to see who posts the very best
violation of thermodynamics and there should be a prize put
up for incentive.

Now what to offer for the prize?

Water powered car, flex fuel, plain tap for everyday, and
European mineral water for road rally and race events?

Computer forum "dogfight" powered laptop?

Nostradamus vs. Tesla fighting robots. They plot and brood
on zero point energy, scuffle on auxiliary battery power.

Yeah, we need prizes for this to work.

[JJ]

I think it should be a contest to see who posts the very best
violation of thermodynamics and there should be a prize put
up for incentive.

Now what to offer for the prize?

Water powered car, flex fuel, plain tap for everyday, and
European mineral water for road rally and race events?

Computer forum "dogfight" powered laptop?

Nostradamus vs. Tesla fighting robots. They plot and brood
on zero point energy, scuffle on auxiliary battery power.

Yeah, we need prizes for this to work.

efarmer, you're being too wordy. My boss merely says "our cars will produce their own electricity". no explanation. case closed. And he REALLY believes it.

[EnergyUnlimited]

Excellent thread the48thronin!! we can post here in the future all the failed proyects that the "technology will save us" cornucopians throw to us! . It could be like a monument to human folly and misplaced hope.

EEStor's ultracapacitor hamster wheel driven EV are failing to materialize.

These were to be shown 2 years ago... 1 year ago... by the end of this year... and f*ck nothing is coming by now.
Only few days left to end of the year.

One of the most successful high tech investor scams up to date perhaps.

[EnergyUnlimited]

I think it should be a contest to see who posts the very best
violation of thermodynamics and there should be a prize put
up for incentive.

OK, I might try:

Universe is an example.
It came out of nothing, just after coming to life was very close to thermodynamical equilibrium and yet as time is passing it is increasingly out of equilibrium.

In cosmology this phenomenon is described as entropy gap.

All that nuisance might be clarified if so called Big Rip scenario of the end of Universe is correct.
In that scenario 2nd Law of Thermodynamics despite of being currently defied in cosmic scale (entropy gap is observed only on scales larger than a cluster of galaxies) would reassert itself at the end.
Some observations are suggesting that Big Rip is coming in ca 30 billion years but few other are casting doubt on it.

[efarmer]

Good point EnergyUnlimited, entropy gap and Casimir effect could start a run that would suck us dry of prizes. I suppose tighter rules and prizes that could be actually made to work would both be good things to consider.