The last few weeks have seen a gradual increase in signs that Steorn will in fact be attempting to pull off some kind of public launch for Orbo in the coming days.

First, in late November Dann McCreary, a member of Steorn’s in-the-know but NDA-bound group of 300 engineers who have supposedly been given first access to the secrets of the Orbo, wrote the following, excerpted from a recent nolanchart.com blog entry:

While I cannot expose any proprietary technical details nor can I reveal any specific dates that I may know of from access to private communications, I do, however, have reason to believe that a significant number of us will become eye-witnesses of the Orbo effect in the foreseeable future. And so, either when Steorn chooses to launch Orbo, or perhaps shortly thereafter, there should be a number of individuals scattered around the globe who are likely to be able to confirm Orbo with direct testimony…

After the ultimate Steorn public disclosure that I believe for these reasons to be imminent, virtually anyone reading these words will be able to sign on for a license to learn and use Orbo in whatever way you may see fit.

Next, in early December Hugh Deasy (another member of the Steorn 300) wrote a blog entry in which he stated:

Something sure is going on in the Dublin HQ: we in the inner forum or OS have, as have the ‘300’ other NDA engineers, been told some details of the release event(s) planned for the next few months…

Yes, this technology is only a few weeks away from exploding on the world stage. Already hundreds of forum members know how to build this device. So the knowledge is widespread. I don’t think it’s outside my NDA to say that this distributed knowledge will play a role in the roll-out of the technology. In 2010 the replications will start to sprout up all over the place, and the slow work of convincing the sceptics will begin.

But beyond mere hearsay, we’re beginning to see concrete actions on Steorn’s part that appear to be in preparation for a major event. First, they closed down their online forum (leaving most members to take refuge in this third party forum). Several days after that, the Steorn servers went down overnight, and when they came back up they were reportedly replaced by newer, faster servers — as if in preparation for receiving much greater amounts of traffic.

Next, on December 10th Steorn opened their own YouTube channel. Currently the channel contains only the video released in February of 2009, showing several engineers waxing optimistic about the Orbo. However, for a brief period of time during the morning of December 11th, a second video was available through the YouTube channel. This video is described as being a sort of advertisement for Orbo, in which Steorn confronts its skeptics. The video was quickly taken down however, and may have only gone up briefly as a test.

Finally, on December 10th a video was posted on YouTube from a source independent of Steorn, showing the projection of a Steorn-related presentation or advertisement onto the side of a building. Having taken place without fanfare, this may also have been a test in preparation of impending events. This video was also removed from YouTube today; Steorn seems intent on keeping the cat in the bag until the appointed moment.

From this sudden ramping up of preparations, something or other appears to be imminent — this could be anything from just another slick video and a brand new deadline months further in the future, to the actual launch of a laws-of-physics-defying technology for generating free energy. My guess is that we’ll find out early to mid- next week (the weekend and the holidays both being bad times to release news if you want it to get covered). I’ll keep you posted as events develop.

Update 12/11/09:

The Steorn ‘ad’ that was posted briefly on Steorn’s YouTube channel is available online, and can be downloaded using the link below. It doesn’t show Orbo at all; it only repeats some of the harshest criticisms from skeptics, as if in preparation for proving them wrong. Now if they can only get to the ‘proving them wrong’ part.

Update 12/11/09:

A post at reddit.com fills in some details about Steorn’s planned demo:

So they’re starting a new demo next week; they’ve rented out the old Waterways Building in Dublin and are currently projecting ads onto an old factory next door. Can’t find anything about it on their site but apparently they will be streaming a “live” demo of their magic-beans-powered device. They are currently setting up a lot of lights, equipment etc in and around the building.