  In a recent article [Phys. Rev. Applied 6, 014017 (2016)], Chyba and Hand
propose a new scheme to generate electric power continuously at the expense of
Earth's kinetic energy of rotation, by using an appropriately shaped
cylindrical shell of a well chosen conducting ferrite, rigidly attached to the
Earth. No experimental confirmation is reported for the new prediction. In the
present Refutation, I first use today's standard electromagnetism and
essentially the same model as Chyba and Hand to show in a very simple way that
no device of the proposed type can produce continuous electric power, whatever
its configuration or size, in agreement with widespread expectation. Next, I
show that the prediction of non-zero continuous power by Chyba and Hand results
from a confusion of frames of reference at a critical step of their derivation.
When the confusion is clarified, the prediction becomes exactly zero and the
article under discussion appears as pointless. At the end, I comment about the
persistent invocation by Chyba and Hand of the misleading legacy notion that
quasi-static magnetic fields have an intrinsic velocity, and other questionable
concepts.
