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The study of money and how it flows can shut out a great deal of common sense, but there are supposed to be "due diligence" specialists to find prior disasters. Corruption can keep them from doing their job, and somebody gets to build their dream. A few people gamble with their own money. J. Paul Getty put a pulp mill in a tropical forest that didn't have a hope of producing steadily. The enthusiasm for the repetition of history is probably most often due to the Dunning-Kruger syndrome. One has to have a small talent for a topic in order to be able to judge one's own performance. Every field seems to have a few people who seem to have just wandered in, and never add more than noise to the conversation, but remain delighted to be involved. Unfortunately, some of them are also excellent at sales.<div><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div><div>An example from the world of literature is appended below.</div><div><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div><div>Bob Stuart</div><div><br></div><div><div><div><div>On 25-Feb-15, at 9:36 AM, <a href="mailto:linvent@aol.com">linvent@aol.com</a> wrote:</div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><blockquote type="cite"><div style="font-family:arial;color:black;font-size:10pt;"><span style="display:inline-block" contenteditable="false"></span></div> <div> <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>There was recently announced a 1000 ton/day MSW to RDF gasification facility to be built in the UK. The UK has a significant number of waste to energy facilities as do other parts of EU. </div> <div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>However, the announcement said that the MSW would be sorted into combustible (RDF) and non-combustible fractions with the RDF being fed into a gasifier, presumably a fluidized bed reactor. The gas from the reactor would exit at 1200C and then go into a plasma tar destructor. </div> <div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Now, for the life of me, I do not know how anyone familiar with the business and technology can seriously entertain such a process as there is an inherent thermodynamic energy problem doing this and the prior failures in the field are quite significant, one group spending $128 mm on a 3 ton/hour system. The US Air Forces' attempt at plasma waste conversion resulted in the system being scrapped and a paper titled "Lessons Learned". </div> <div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>One definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again hoping for a different outcome. It also applies to those who use the typical gas cleaning system such as water sprays, or baths, or sawdust, bark or whatever trying to clean the aerosols from a reactor gas stream. </div> <div style="font-family:arial;color:black;font-size:10pt;clear:both;"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="arial">Sincerely,</font><br> <div><font class="Apple-style-span" face="'Comic Sans MS', sans-serif">Leland T. "Tom" Taylor</font></div> <div><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Thermogenics Inc. </font></div> </div> <div><br></div></blockquote></div><div><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div><div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">William Topaz McGonagall lived for years in the shadows of the Tay River bridge, and celebrated its completion with an epic poem which began thusly: </div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Beautiful railway bridge on the River Tay!</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">And prosperity to Messrs Bouche and Grothe,</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">The famous engineers of the present day</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Who succeeded in erecting the Railway</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Bridge on the River Tay,</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Which stands to be seen</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Near Dundee and the Magdalen Green.</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><br></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">The poem, and the bridge were very long, but the bridge collapsed one dark and stormy night, eliciting an even greater epic, which concluded:</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">I must now conclude my lay</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">By telling the world without delay</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">That your central girders should not have given way</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">At least many sensible men do say,</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Had they been supported by buttresses - </div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">At least many sensible men confess. </div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">For the stronger we our houses build</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">The less chance we have of being killed.</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><br></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "> I must not leave out the fairer sex, pluckily represented by Amanda McKittrick Ros, an Irish woman who memorialized her visit to Westminster Abbey with these impressions:</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Holy Moses! Have a look </div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Flesh decayed in every nook! </div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Some rare bits of brain lie here, </div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Mortal loads of beef and beer. </div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Some of them are turned to dust, </div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Every one bids lost to lust: </div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Royal flesh so tinged with "Blue"</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Undergoes the same as you.</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><br></div></div></div></div></body></html>