SAFIRE - Electric Sun test?

In one of the Electric Comet threads, Haig introduced SAFIRE (or maybe it was Sol88?). In the Phys.org ("PO") comments on an article entitled A celestial butterfly emerges from its dusty cocoon, cantdrive85 ("cd") also introduced SAFIRE.

Here's how it stated:

Quote:

Originally Posted by cantdrive85 It would also seem as if BK completely dismisses lab experiment as being valid to science. He prefers his pet theory to rigorous scientific discovery. What else would you expect from a pseudoscientific metaphysicist tho?

"BK" refers to Brian Koberlein, and the blog post cd cited first cited is Hot Topic; however, the one he was basing his comments on is actually Quacks Like a Duck (as he later clarified).

The part in this blog post which apparently triggered his ire is this:

Quote:

For example, there’s a recent experiment by electric universe supporters known as the SAFIRE project. The basic setup is a plasma globe (or Tesla ball) where things like voltage, current, and gas pressure can be varied. What the project shows is that there are some broad similarities between a plasma ball and the Sun. There are current hot spots, an overall surface glow, and the surrounding plasma gets hotter than the surface of the ball. The similarities are kind of interesting to see, but from them many EU supporters claim that this demonstrates the Sun is actually electrically charged. That is, the similarities show that the underlying physics must be the same.

I asked cd about whether the project had published any papers (no), and then "in what way(s) does SAFIRE test anything to do with the Sun?"

Here's his response:

Quote:

It's an exercise in approximation, fulfilling and developing the quantitative constraints you keep blathering about, further developing our knowledge of plasma discharge given certain conditions, and addressing questions regarding anomalous phenomena observed by astrophysicists. Not purely mathematical gymnastics but experimentation, ya know that ol' nugget.

I invited cd to come over here to have a deep, detailed discussion of SAFIRE, and its role in testing "the Electric Sun", partly because PO's comments are severely restricted in length and formatting. Rather than wait for him to take up my offer, I thought I'd be proactive.

From memory, the link in BK's blog post is the same as the one Haig (or Sol88) posted, repeatedly; it's an interesting read ;)

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