
Kickstarter accepts anti-gravity device campaign - davidgerard
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1887069385/a-silent-anti-gravity-device-can-now-lift-99-of-it?ref=category
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oms1005
There is a goal of $15000, but only 400 slots of $25 available, which means
best case scenario, he will be $5000 short...

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VikingCoder
Nice. Maybe he's doing a research project on how people fund things that are
ridiculous, but doesn't want the possibility of accidentally really taking
money from anyone.

Or maybe he's SO BAD AT MATH that he didn't realize.

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kailuowang
I am not sure how serious Kickstarter is in regards of its review process. I
submitted a project half a year ago - the website(<http://klekr.com>) was
designed to help amateur photographers expand art taste by showing them photos
taken by their favorite photographers as well as photos liked by their
favorite photographers. A rep from Kickstarter rejected it claiming it's not a
creativity project which Kickstarter is trying to focus on.

Now this antigrativity. Really? I mean really?

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davidgerard
Well, it certainly shows _creativity_.

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untog
To be fair, he isn't selling the device. He's basically asking for funding for
an experiment. Why should he be removed from Kickstarter? If someone wants to
throw their money down that hole they should be free to.

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pekk
I'mma start a breathmint birth control kickstarter.

They'll be made with honey and you won't have any babies if you donate $25 or
more. __

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davidgerard
Homeopathic asthma rescue?!

D-:

Photograph that and spread the photo far and wide. I'm asthmatic and I'm
horrified.

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VLM
google for safecare asthmacare.

Note that they are smart enough to put in bold print "not a rescue inhaler"
but then there's a page or two of weasel words about "might" and "may" cause
virtually any miracle a sufferer could desire.

They claim the bottle is BPA free but diluting the BPA actually makes the
effect stronger according to homeopathic theory so I am not sure about all
that.

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minimaxir
I like his answer to the first question of the FAQ:

 _What evidence do you have that this actually works even though it defies the
laws of physics?_

"You are going to have to spend some time figuring what I mean."

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YoukaiCountry
I honestly want to know, who is his target audience? Does all of that talking
in circles he does in his description really sound like science to an absolute
layperson? More importantly, does he believe what he is saying? We'll probably
never get the answers.

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VLM
Whats odd about it is most psuedo-science involves magnets and conspiracy
theories and this has neither. I can see a new fresh startup trying one at a
time, but trying to innovate by giving it a go without both, seems a bit over
ambitious. He really needs to add magnets and the CIA if he wants other
alternative scientists to take him seriously.

He does have luminiferous aether, which is a plus.

Also don't waste your time on reverse image searches, I didn't find anything
interesting.

On the other hand he is playing games with heat and calorimetry is notorious
both semi-professionally and in psuedoscience land as being some hard to
interpret stuff. So that is semi-traditional.

If you google him you'll find his G+ which has photos one of which is a scan
of some UFO book.

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KillerChihuahua
Thank you for this analysis. "no magnets... no conspiracy theories".
Priceless.

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davidgerard
Spotted by antfarmer12 on Reddit /r/skeptic:
[http://www.reddit.com/r/skeptic/comments/1ch8zd/a_kickstarte...](http://www.reddit.com/r/skeptic/comments/1ch8zd/a_kickstarter_for_an_antigravity_levitation/)

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davidklemke
Did a little bit of Googling about the person behind the Kickstarter and came
across this: [http://scienceblogs.com/goodmath/2010/06/08/gravity-
shmavity...](http://scienceblogs.com/goodmath/2010/06/08/gravity-shmavity-its-
the-heat/)

Considering he couldn't (or wouldn't) even publish his results to arXiv makes
me very sceptical about the merits behind his theory.

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briholt
I feel like the statement:

"Neither Einstein's fundamental premise that mass can warp space nor Newton's
fundamental premise that mass can attract other mass can comprehend this
easily repeatable table top experiment."

is the crazy person way of saying:

"This experiment disproves classical mechanics and relativity."

I'd be more apt to believe the crazy assertion if it weren't worded crazily.

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outside1234
Kickstarter is probably hasn't finished reading his description. I could see
that taking days.

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Tekker
I don't see how this is "anti-gravity" - making something that floats isn't
necessarily anti-gravity. He wants to create a microversion of a weather
system, so I don't see how this is going to work beyond being a few cms over
the ground.

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larrydag
Is it me or is it just a metallic hot air balloon?

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fusiongyro
He has a FAQ entry about that:

> With my device I bring the "cold parcel of air outside the balloon" inside
> my device.... The pressure difference between the the two parcels provides
> the force that lifts my device. By being able to bring the cold parcel of
> air inside my device two advantages are obtained over the hot air balloon.
> First, my device is not restricted to only moving in the atmosphere as is
> the hot air balloon.... Second, I am able to control how cold the cold
> parcel of air can get. Thus a greater pressure difference can be obtained
> which will in turn provide a much greater upward force.

Sounds to me like he's essentially hooking up a fan to a sail boat like in a
Looney Tunes cartoon.

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aosmith
I think he's trying to describe a pulse jet with an external heat / fuel
source?

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astrodust
I don't think he understands Brownian Motion.

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ChuckMcM
I hope he publishes his results in the Journal of Irreproducible Results [1]

[1] <http://www.jir.com/>

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runn1ng
Maybe I can start a project "A simple angle trisection" or something like
that.

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strangestchild
The problem has already been solved: <http://goo.gl/NLdou>

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croddin
Not the compass and straightedge construction. It has been proven impossible:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angle_trisection>

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strangestchild
I know, I was being facetious. I just like the thought of the campaign
finishing and runn1ng posting each of his sponsors a $0.99 protractor.

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fcaf
Hypothesis: The thermoelectric effect is screwing with his force sensor.

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CamperBob2
Reported to Kickstarter as "Miscategorized: Comics"

