[XBob]

25 - Sorry guys, but I must ask youall to task your memories. I realize this is not my area, theortical physics, however, government boondoggles are my area.

As I remember, in the late 80's and early 90's there were numbers of breakthroughs in supercooling/superconducting.

As I remember, they developed new techniques and new magnets, which would have reduced the size and cost of the Dallas project by half (this at a time when the price went quickly from $2 billion, to 5 billion, to 6.5 billion, to 7.5 billion to 8+ billion, and on up to 12-25 billion. Just like the shuttle, which was to be an 'inexpensive' way to go to space, it appeared it was going to be a 'yacht' - you know - a big hole in the water into which you pour money.

And while it was last generation technology, as they were 'digging', it was to be bigger and better by than anything currently existing.

And the government, in it's usual stupidity, rather than regrouping, just dropped the whole thing, wasting billions of dollars and billions of research and hundreds of millions in contracts, facilities, holes, etc.

Please think back.

[Physicist]

As I remember, in the late 80's and early 90's there were numbers of breakthroughs in supercooling/superconducting.

If you mean the ceramic high-Tc superconductors, they are completely inappropriate for ultra-high-current applications like the SSC magnets. The design for the LHC magnets now being installed at CERN is fundamentally the same as the SSC magnet design, almost 20 years later.

As I remember, they developed new techniques and new magnets, which would have reduced the size and cost of the Dallas project by half (this at a time when the price went quickly from $2 billion, to 5 billion, to 6.5 billion, to 7.5 billion to 8+ billion, and on up to 12-25 billion.

I don't believe that the magnets made up anywhere near half the cost of the SSC, so even if they were free, you wouldn't save half the cost. Moreover, the initial price tag was $5 billion, and the final price tag was around $12 billion. Part of that is inflation, but most of that is due to cuts in discretionary spending. In each budget cycle, the SSC would get less than was budgeted, which would cause the schedule to stretch out, which would cause the total price to rise. The cost overruns were almost entirely political in nature.

As for antigravity, there is no theoretical or experimental reason to believe that such a thing exists. A search for the operating principle behind flying witch's brooms would be as wise a use of public funds.