something being actually thrust away from the device is the next likely explanation
Yes, exactly ... no idea what you want to say.
Obviously the drive generates "thrust" by "thrusting" something away: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E...

They don't prove any such thing.
Of course they have, I suggest to google.
All they prove is that a bunch of questionable researchers claimed to measure a marginally significant effect
Your way of wording this is: libel.
What you consider marginal is your thing, others might disagree.
, and have been hyping the fuck out of it.
They don't. If they would you would know the names of the scientists and you and we would see them in TV regularly.
There actually is no hype.
Scientific openness is not equivalent credulously accepting the claims of every whacko and charlatain who makes a claim, just because it "hasn't been disproven".
How do you come to the idea that this is happening here?

We do know things about the world. Nothing is absolute in science, but some things come very, very close. Conservation of momentum is one of those.
Yes, it is. And the drive conserves momentum quite fine. Why do you claim it does not, when all the theories about how it works clearly state: it does???

BTW - cold fusion turned out to be a fraud, despite people clinging to the hope even today.

It did not turn out to be a fraud. It turned out to be a 'mistake', and that is even not sure as plenty of physicians are still or again working in that field.

Fraud is a word used in criminal contexts, it means a person is deliberately misleading other people to gain a profit, usually by causing damage to those people.

E.g. if I sell you at a metro station a ticket for 80 cents, which would normally cost 1,30 Euro ... you use the ticket and surprisingly it works, but as soon as a controller checks you, it turns out it is a children's ticket ... that is fraud.

Setting up a weird experiment and finding a strange effect and publishing everything about it: that is science. Even if it get debunked later.

None of that sound scientific approach is present here, so the cold fusion "debacle" was handled right on the scientific side. This thing here is not and nothing of the published results deserves much trust at this time.

You are mistaken. Everything regarding how to build an EM drive is published.
I would start here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E...

which requires independent testing, and that's not being done.

Why do you claim such nonsense when the last weeks articles all tell us: the NASA is testing it?

Or is the NASA not independent enough for you?

The drive being suggested here does not use reaction mass at all, it pushes against space itself
No it does not.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E...

Scroll down to "Theory".

Even a propeller does not work by pushing against something and moving the boat/plane forward. It works by accelerating the medium around it and simply uses the momentum of that accelerated medium like a rocket uses its exhaust.

Actually that aluminium battery is on the horizon.
A just a few weeks ago two youngsters in a school showcased such a thing, you should find it on youtube. It was btw. just two interested 14 - 15 year olds in an american public school doing experiments in a voluntary physics class/course.

When you extract lithium from sea water you more or less automatically extract all other metals like: gold, mangan, iron, platinum, uranium etc. p.p.

So I guess it is quite feasable and not _that_ expensive if there is a market for it.

Only if the programmers know about those clues, which they likely don't. As "ordinary humans" or "doctors" don't know them either.

I'm 48 ... most people guess me 35. Now teach them to guess me close to my age ... no idea how you would do that, even less how you teach a computer to do that.

Actual life doesn't work like that.
Actually, life works like that. Your daughters BF was just a lucky ass.

By the time he gets out, he'll know a LOT about hacking computers.
Certainly he won't.
For that you not only need access to a computer but also a teacher to teach you ... and time to practice.
When he comes out most security problems will be solved and tools to breach a computer will be different.

"Hacking" a computer is not as easy as the movies try to tell you.

We are all ears: how do you good parent a kid not to do that kind of stuff?

The liar is you, or you are just an idiot.

If you have breathing problems at that hight I strongly suggest to consult a medical doctor. A cardiologist perhaps.

If in summer time it is to cold for you there, you must really be in bad shape, or are you sitting there naked in a storm?

When you are sitting in a wind proof spot in the day sun, you are grilled in a few minutes. Calling it 'cold' is idiotic!

You don't know much about Polynesia it seems?

Not much about the USA either ... I doubt that Hawaii is in the upper third of standard of living in the USA ... compare it withh Tahiti perhaps to get a clue about other Polynesians areas? Or New Zealand?

You do know that volcanic ash is one of the most fertile lands, or don't you? And I would rather plant wine instead of taro.

Actually, they own the land.
Hawaii got annexed by the USA somewhere around 1900.
Actually as an american you should at least know the basics.
In other words they are a sovereign - not so sovereign anymore nation - that got conquered and anexed by the US aggressors. With all kinds of slavery, suppresion amd racial violence, similar versus the blacks or native americans.
If they would go to an i ternational court they would win any case supporting their secession.

In our times if a country tries to annex another one there is international uproar ... see Ukraine.

The royal family of the Hawaiians may not even call themself so, it is illegal under the american constitution.

Now another poster wrote: they have the democary and institutions to change what they want. That is wrong, they can't secceede, at least not without war. And the majority of inhabitants on the islands are 'americans' not Hawaiians, so they hardly win any office or anything that matters to then.