|
02/28/07 - Converting Plastic into Fuel
 A zero-pollution industrial process to convert non-biodegradable - and mostly non-recyclable - plastic waste into liquid hydrocarbons is quietly underway in the Butibori industrial estate, 25 km from Alka's home in Nagpur, the absolute central point of the country. The Zadgaonkars' Unique Waste Plastic Management & Research Company plant devours a whole range of plastic waste -- from discarded carry bags to mineral water bottles and broken buckets to PVC pipes, polyethylene eriophthalate (PET) bottles, even ABS (acrylonitrile butadine sterine) plastic material used in the making of computer monitors and TV sets, keyboards et al -- and converts it 100 percent into liquid hydrocarbon fuels (85 percent) and gases (15 percent). The Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) has recommended use of the Zadgaonkar liquid fuels in running agriculture pumps and boilers, as marine fuel and input feed for petro refineries, and the gaseous fuels as an in-house and industrial substitute for LPG. The world's first and so far the only continuous process industrial plant in Butibori has caught the eye of the scientific community and begun to beckon entrepreneurs to approach its close-fisted promoter with buy-up or tie-up offers. Though the small scale industrial unit has an installed capacity to consume only 25 metric tonnes (MT) of plastic waste - present consumption is 10 MT a day - that would still leave more than 50 MT of the non-biodegradable hazard to the Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) to dispose of. Clearly, the proven industrial process if replicated on a macro scale holds great promise for the country and the world at large. In Los Angeles, 90 percent of the underground space allocated for landfills has already been occupied. Indeed, the Environmental Protection Agency, UK, has found as much as 65 percent increase in the generation of waste plastic litter globally from 1997 to 2005. Given the limits of plastic recycling (output degrades after each cycle) coupled with the fact that incineration is highly expensive and can be hazardous, emitting toxic gases if not done properly, and in view of the future energy crunch, Alka decided to try for herself what several polymer scientists in the world are already experimenting with - conversion of plastic to hydrocarbon fuels. Setting up an apparatus consisting of a cylindrical stainless steel vessel, a condensing system, a receiving flask and an outlet vent apart from a pressure gauge and a timer, Alka started experimenting with the idea way back in 1995 and saw the first signs of success only after four years of nerve-wracking perseverance. The method comprised regulated anaerobic heating of a mixture of plastic waste (90 percent) and coal (10 percent) in the presence of a catalyst. "We receive an uninterrupted supply of raw material and sell the fuel in bulk to an agent who supplies it to small industrial units in the region," says Umesh Zadgaonkar. Citing statistics of crude oil consumption of 115 million MT per annum in India, 80 percent of which has to be imported at the rate of $60 per barrel and pointing out that one litre of crude oil yields only 600 ml of hydrocarbon fuel, Umesh says plastic waste converted into liquid hydrocarbons in his plant without emitting any pollutants would be a cheaper partial substitute. It would also take care of hazardous plastic waste. Coupled with the bio-diesel revolution, the plastic-waste-to-fuel process can prove to be a double-boon for humanity.
02/28/07 - A Practical Use for Waste Methane
 A direct method of converting methane into useful chemical compounds could reduce the release of the potent greenhouse gas at isolated oil fields. About 100 billion cubic meters of natural gas are burned off or simply vented at remote oil rigs and refineries that are not connected by pipelines. The practice wastes a precious fuel and pumps methane, a potent greenhouse gas, into the atmosphere. Technologies for compressing or liquefying natural gas in order to transport it are expensive and only make sense at large oil fields. So, researchers have been looking for viable technologies to convert the natural gas found at small, isolated oil fields into compounds that are easier to transport and distribute. Researchers found a simple way to convert methane into methyl chloride, which can easily be converted into petrochemicals such as ethylene or propylene, used to make plastics. Ethylene and propylene, says Johannes Lercher, a chemistry professor at the Munich University of Technology, are far easier to transport than methane is. The technique could have one drawback, though: it uses chlorine, a toxic gas. The researchers' plan includes recycling the hydrogen chloride and repeatedly using it for the reaction. "In the vision we're playing with, the chlorine would not ever get on a boat," says Eric Strangland, a chemistry and catalysis researcher at Dow and a coauthor of the paper.
02/28/07 - What will be the Fuel of the Future?
 By the middle part of the 21st Century engineers and scientists see a shift to fully electric vehicles. Internal combustion-powered vehicles will be relegated to museums, parades and shows, much like carriages and steam engines are displayed today. As far as the auto industry is concerned there are no restrictions on the range of technologies to be considered. Any and all ideas will be investigated until proven unfeasible, and it’s possible that the "magic bullet" has yet to be discovered. However, the consensus of the industry is that no one technology will prove to be the solution to alternative energy or large gains in fuel economy in existing drivetrains. The solution will almost certainly be a number of different approaches that will cumulatively effect the change.
02/28/07 - Growing Glaciers
 Clyde “Solar Sam” Weihe has been growing three glaciers - with a fourth coming soon - for several weeks at his West Street residence. The pillars of sea-foam blue and snow-white ice jut from the ground as a backdrop to signs that read: “Man Made Glacier Cooling” and “Solar Sam R&D Glaciers.” The spectacle has attracted curious children and slow drive-bys to the neighborhood.Weihe, 89, said he first experimented with the glaciers about four years ago to create slick tubing conditions for his visiting grandchildren. The stunt crystallized into a broader plan for the businessman and 18-patent inventor when he realized its potential to fight the recession of polar ice caps. “I could almost see something similar to this up in Antarctica,” Weihe said. His backyard experiment is only the tip of the iceberg. Weihe said freezers could someday be rigged with solar-powered motors to create ice at a fast pace. He plans to experiment with the idea in his garage with a newly purchased Home Depot freezer. He has no intention of applying for another patent, but hoped his idea could be picked up by another inventor or company with enough money to inject into research and development. Stepping gingerly outside, Weihe surveyed the ice volcanoes erupting in his yard. Each one encases a PVC pipe with an attached garden hose, which sprays water 24 hours a day to form icicles and knobby outgrowths on the glaciers. Weihe said he adjusts the stream for each, allowing water to issue more freely with colder temperatures. Another pipe and hose are being prepared.
02/28/07 - Remote Controlled Pidgeons
 Chinese scientists have succeeded in implanting micro electrodes in the brain of a pigeon to remotely control the bird's flight, state media said. The micro electrodes were used to command the bird to fly right or left, and up or down. The implants stimulated different areas of the pigeon's brain according to electronic signals sent by the scientists via computer, mirroring natural signals generated by the brain, Xinhua quoted chief scientist Su Xuecheng as saying. It was the first such successful experiment on a pigeon in the world, said Su, who conducted a similar successful experiment on mice in 2005.
02/28/07 - An Early Environmentalist, Embracing New ‘Heresies’
Stewart Brand has become a heretic to environmentalism, a movement he helped found, but he doesn’t plan to be isolated for long. He expects that environmentalists will soon share his affection for nuclear power. They’ll lose their fear of population growth and start appreciating sprawling megacities. They’ll stop worrying about “frankenfoods” and embrace genetic engineering. He predicts that all this will happen in the next decade, which sounds rather improbable - or at least it would if anyone else had made the prediction. But when it comes to anticipating the zeitgeist, never underestimate Stewart Brand. He divides environmentalists into romantics and scientists, the two cultures he’s been straddling and blending since the 1960s.
02/28/07 - The Four Best Ways to Sit at Your Computer
 The problem with poor posture is that eventually over time it leads to injury. #1 - Exercise ball - Apparently very popular with the folks at Google. It's pretty tough to slouch on an exercise ball (actually you will probably fall off). #2 - Kneeling chair - It keeps your spine erect and is very comfortable to sit in. #3 - Lotus position - Sitting cross-legged is good for the hips. #4 - Treadmill. Walking while working.
02/28/07 - Experts call for restrictions on childhood imagination
The Department of Health and Human Services issued a series of guidelines Monday designed to help parents curtail their children's boundless imaginations, which child-safety advocates say have the potential to rival motor vehicle accidents and congenital diseases as a leading cause of disability and death among youths ages 3 to 14.
02/28/07 - Honeybees Vanish, Leaving Keepers in Peril
 In 24 states throughout the country, beekeepers have gone through similar shocks as their bees have been disappearing inexplicably at an alarming rate, threatening not only their livelihoods but also the production of numerous crops, including California almonds, one of the nation’s most profitable. The sudden mysterious losses are highlighting the critical link that honeybees play in the long chain that gets fruit and vegetables to supermarkets and dinner tables across the country. In a mystery worthy of Agatha Christie, bees are flying off in search of pollen and nectar and simply never returning to their colonies. And nobody knows why. Researchers say the bees are presumably dying in the fields, perhaps becoming exhausted or simply disoriented and eventually falling victim to the cold. As researchers scramble to find answers to the syndrome they have decided to call “colony collapse disorder,” growers are becoming openly nervous about the capability of the commercial bee industry to meet the growing demand for bees to pollinate dozens of crops, from almonds to avocados to kiwis.
02/28/07 - Old Men Fathering Kids - not good
Long after a woman's biological clock stops ticking, most men can still father children. Yet many men say it's not just women who worry that they are too old to have kids. The physiology might allow for septuagenarians to bounce their beloved bundles on their arthritic knees, but the psychology suggests there is an age to stop bringing another baby on board. "When your kids are young, you want to be out on the soccer field running, actually practicing with them," says Mason, the co-owner of a firm that out-sources sales. "But you get to a point where you can't keep up with the younger kids." While the jury is still out on many details of the male biological clock, there is no consensus on the cutoff age for men to have kids, says Dr. Paul Turek, director of the Male Reproductive Health Center at the University of California, San Francisco. "That's a fuzzy one," Turek says, "There is some evidence that as men age, their semen quality may decline slowly, but only at 1 percent a year after age 40. It's really hard to draw a line at some age." Even though it's physically possible, are children being shortchanged by a dad bent on having kids so late in life? "After 45 to 50, it's getting a bit late" to have children, says Simran Sandhar, 19, an aviation and business student at San Jose State University, who's not yet a father. "Any older, and the kids could be 10 or 20 when the father dies." But just because a man can procreate in the winter of his years doesn't mean it's a good idea, says Jamin Favela, 24, of Hayward. He suggested men have their children by age 40. "You want to watch your kids grow up," says Favela, the general manger at Camera Cinemas 12 in San Jose. "You want to help them figure out their lives. You really can't do that if you're an incontinent 80 year old." Many dads bent on having kids aren't always weighing what's best for their children. "They are selfish," he says. "You have to think about whether you want be a sperm donor or you want to be a father."
02/27/07 - Video - Antigravity trick or real?
 (URL courtesy of Mario Garcia, thanks!) This video claims to show an Anti Gravity demonstration using with a Homemade Levitation kit of only a CELLULLAR PHONE (old style with extendible antenna), 4 batteries, a card, tape, a CD, a dime coin and a can. You can make this at home! It appears to be a more controlled version of the Hutchison Effect but it could just as well be a trick. Needs credible duplication not the yo-yos who commented on the page. If it works as claimed, it might be scaleable but its probably a hoax.
02/27/07 - Ideagora: A Marketplace for Minds
Though today's nascent ideagoras have yet to reach eBay-like proportions, companies such as InnoCentive, yet2.com, Nine Sigma, and YourEncore have planted the seeds for a sea change in innovation. They could arguably spur even more profound changes if services such as InnoCentive looked and behaved a little bit more like the open source software community. Companies seeking solutions to seemingly insoluble problems can tap the insights of hundreds of thousands of enterprising scientists without having to employ everybody full-time. This shift is rippling through Corporate America and changing the way companies invent and develop products and services. Today, some 120,000 scientists like Melcarek have registered with InnoCentive and hundreds of companies pay annual fees of roughly $80,000 to tap the talents of a global scientific community. Launched as an e-business venture by U.S. pharmaceutical giant Eli Lily in 2001, the company now provides on-demand solutions to innovation-hungry titans such as Boeing, Dow, DuPont, P&G, and Novartis. Today, these companies are pioneers among thousands of businesses that participate in what we call "ideagoras" -- places where millions of ideas and solutions change hands in something akin to an eBay for innovation.
02/27/07 - Prisoner Flight stopped with zapped leg muscles
 The Dutch Justice Ministry is planning to test a new system to ensure prisoners do not slip away from their guards while on supervised parole - a knee brace that locks legs in a bend when they try to get away. Criminals who have escaped while on supervised parole and then committed serious crimes - including murder - have plagued Dutch justice system for years. Under public pressure, parliament ordered the ministry to examine ways of keeping such prisoners under control. Other ideas studied included injecting prisoners with sedatives or using electric shocks to stop them from getting away. But the options were rejected as too intrusive, van der Weegen said. The system under development works by sending an electric impulse that cramps a prisoner's leg muscles automatically if the prisoner gets too far away from the guard.
02/27/07 - A Fool-Proof Way Around the Warrant Requirement?
DEA agents have devised a foolproof way to raid meth labs, at least according to this § 1983 decision from the Eleventh Circuit. Here’s the story, straight from that Court’s unpublished opinion: [T]he agents attempted to secure a search warrant for Glover’s residence on the suspicion that he was operating a clandestine methamphetamine lab there. The magistrate judge determined that the agents lacked sufficient evidence to merit a warrant. So the agents arranged to have a confidential source enter Glover’s house on the pretense of delivering a tank of anhydrous ammonia he had ordered. The source was wired and agents were monitoring the situation, ready to raid the alleged lab if necessary. In their affidavits, the agents state that after entering Glover’s residence, the source started coughing and complaining of chemical fumes over the wire. Glover claims that he never heard any coughing but admits that the source went upstairs to use the bathroom. Fearing the source was being exposed to noxious chemicals, the agents entered Glover’s house and made the arrest. Glover pleaded guilty to various drug charges and is presently serving his sentence, but he also filed a civil suit, claiming that the agents violated his constitutional rights during the raid. Among other things, Glover claimed that the warrantless entry into his home violated the Fourth Amendment. The district court granted summary judgment for the defendants, and the Eleventh Circuit affirms. Regarding the Fourth Amendment search claim, the Court explains that the agents’ entry into the home was justified by the exigent circumstances doctrine, since they feared that their source’s life was in danger due to the noxious chemicals inside the house.
02/27/07 - Space blast's huge debris field
 The explosion of a Russian rocket stage in space may have created over 1,000 pieces of orbiting debris which could threaten other spacecraft. The rocket section exploded on 19 February, generating as much debris as the destruction of a satellite by China last month, if not more. This space wreckage could remain in orbit for years, experts say. The anti-satellite test conducted by China on 11 January generated 817 confirmed fragments. Only particles of about 10cm or above can be tracked using radar. But both explosions would have generated millions of smaller fragments which are difficult to detect. The space station has shields to protect it against objects under 1cm in size. Anything larger than 1cm would be perfectly capable of penetrating these shields. If a threat arises from objects of 5-10cm and above, the space station can adjust its position to avoid the debris. But that leaves a gap, objects intermediate between these two size ranges are difficult to avoid.
02/27/07 - Marketing Translation Mistakes
People forward translation and cultural mistakes to me, and I love them. I hope you enjoy these as well. Often I receive the same ones over and over. Please only send me ones that are not listed here. (Please search this page first.) Also if possible, please provide a reference with your submission. I try to research and confirm these before posting. Also, take these with a grain of salt...They may be contrived and not true, or if true, unrecognizably transformed. Check it out!
02/27/07 - 30 Years of the Future
 The authors of legendary British comic 2000AD are shocked how many of their predictions have come to pass. Imagine a society where cities blend into each other to form massive conurbations. Imagine a society where obesity is rife, mass unemployment is a fact of life and downtrodden citizens will do anything to become rich or famous. Imagine a society in the grip of such chaos and crime that it is necessary to give law enforcers the power to punish offenders on the spot without a trial and where everyone is constantly surveyed by video cameras. "There are no happy glossy futures in 2000AD. If you look on the back of the very first Judge Dredd prog [issue] there is a wonderful view of Mega City One and there are all these spy cameras everywhere. It shows in some area the present has caught up with it." Judge Dredd, for those who have never come across the helmeted lawman, was empowered to act both as police officer, jury and judge in a city where crime was rampant.
02/27/07 - DIY Server
This site is a guide to setting up and running a full featured webserver from just about any Internet connection. We cover issues on running a web server, email server, DNS server, news server, FT server, game server and more... We have tested and compiled a list of software, hardware and strategies for setting up and running your own cost-effective web server. In most cases, the software you need to run an Internet server is free...
02/26/07 - Photonic Laser Thruster
 On December 21, 2006, when Dr. Young Bae of the Bae Institute successfully demonstrated the world's first Photonic Laser Thruster (PLT). Repeated experiments since then have reconfirmed results. Dr. Franklin Mead, Senior Aerospace Engineer, and leading rocket scientist in laser and advanced propulsion at the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) remarked, "I attended Dr. Bae's presentation about his PLT demonstration and measurement of photon thrust here at AFRL. It was pretty incredible stuff and to my knowledge, I don't think anyone has done this before. It has generated a lot of interest around here."
Photon particles have been considered inefficient for producing thrust because they have zero mass, and no electric charge. The PLT system overcame the inherent photonic inefficiency by bouncing photons many times between two mirrors. Using a photonic laser and a sophisticated photon beam amplification system, Dr. Bae demonstrated that photonic energy could generate amplified thrust between two spacecraft by bouncing photons many thousands of times between them. The patent-pending Bae Photonic Laser Thruster (PLT) was built and monitored with off-the-shelf laboratory components at the Southern California laboratory of the Bae Institute. With an amplification factor of 3,000, the photon thrust generated from the egg-sized laser head in the PLT prototype is equivalent to the thrust that can currently only be generated by orders-of- magnitudes larger and heavier industrial or weapons-grade lasers. Although PLT can be used for a wide range of space applications, including accelerating spacecraft to near light speed, Dr. Bae has more immediate goals. He plans to include PLT in a Photon Tether Formation Flight (PTFF), another of his patent pending ideas for controlling spacecraft flying in formation with nanometer precision. By integrating PLT and space tethers, PTFF will enable the creation of large telescopes and synthetic apertures in space for high- resolution earth or space monitoring. PTFF promises precision 100,000 times greater than existing formation flying spacecraft missions, notably the Proba- 3 currently planned by European Space Agency (ESA).
02/26/07 - Cheap cold from Student Invention
(Reminds me of the old Icey Ball Ammonia refridgerators that were used long before freon cooling. - JWD) You’ve got life-saving vaccines for people in the jungles and deserts of developing countries. But those vaccines must be kept at between zero and 8 degrees Celsius (between 32 and roughly 45 degrees Fahrenheit), and there’s no way to carry heavy, bulky refrigerators. Chill. Caldwell Academy graduate Andrew Cunningham and four fellow freshmen at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, N.Y., are on the case. The Fab Five of reduced energy dependence designed a hand-cranked refrigerator that can keep vaccines cold long enough to take them to where people need them. It works like this: Hand cranking generates electricity, which generates heat, which warms a holding tank of ammonia and water. The ammonia and water evaporate, then condense in a process that draws heat out of the refrigerator. (Cold is simply the absence of heat.) The mixture then follows a pipe outside the refrigerator, where the heat it has drawn from the refrigerator can be absorbed by surrounding air. Then the mixture returns to the refrigerator’s storage tank and the process starts over again. No heavy condenser. No electricity to run the condenser. Then again, there’s also no time to stand in front of the open top and wonder what you’re going to have for a snack, Cunningham says: "You’ve got to know what you want and get it quick." That means a minimum of 30 minutes of cranking time per day and 20 minutes for every time the top or door is opened.
02/26/07 - Vice Vaccines
 Scientists are crafting a host of vaccines that could attack drugs, nicotine, and an obesity hormone in the body. If the approach works, those addictive agents would no longer satisfy cravings in vaccinated people. Normally, the immune system doesn't recognize heroin and other drugs as foes worthy of attack. When a smoker lights up and draws the addictive drug into his or her bloodstream, antibodies glom on to individual nicotine molecules, explains Nabi scientist Henrik Rasmussen. As a result, the formerly tiny molecules morph into clumps made of nicotine and antibodies. Those clusters are far too big to cross the blood-brain barrier and stimulate the brain's feel-good centers, an action that normally cements nicotine's addictive power. Smokers still experience the typical array of withdrawal symptoms, including cravings for cigarettes. But after learning that cigarettes are no longer satisfying, Rasmussen notes, people find that their cravings quickly decline. "People can still smoke, but they don't get the rush, they don't feel good, and they don't keep the addiction. You take away the reason they smoke," he says. To produce their antiobesity vaccine, the researchers needed a molecule on which to focus the immune system's antibodies, like the nicotine or cocaine molecules targeted by vaccines against those addictions. But obesity is a complex phenomenon spurred by hundreds of different molecules in the body. Eventually, Janda's team settled on ghrelin, a hormone that spikes hunger, slows metabolism, encourages fat storage, and shifts food preferences toward diets rich in fat.
02/26/07 - Use car Exhaust to Clean Cushions
 Using the exhaust gas of the automobile to clean the upholstery is the accomplishment of a recently invented device. An aluminum attachment is fastened to the exhaust pipe and the engine is allowed to idle. As the exhaust gas passes through this device suction is created at the inlet hole. Collected by a nozzle, the dust and dirt are drawn through the hose and expelled into the air at the rear of the car. It is made in three models, for cars of different size.
02/26/07 - Yamaha in Hot Water Over Crop Dusting RC Helicopter Sales to China
 Police in Japan have raided vehicles firm Yamaha in an inquiry into possible illegal helicopter exports to China. Twenty offices and homes were targeted as part of a probe into whether the company exported pilot-less helicopters with possible military applications. Yamaha acknowledges selling nine of the aircraft to China, but says they could only be used for agricultural purposes. The Ministry of Trade and Industry says Yamaha should have sought official permission before exporting the helicopter to China, which Japan views as a possible military threat. Japan's Chief Cabinet Secretary Shinzo Abe said that the worry for the government was that the unmanned helicopters "could be diverted to weapons of mass destruction". Yamaha expressed surprise over the investigation and denied any wrongdoing. The company says it first sold the helicopters to China five years ago and insists they were basic models that could have no military application. The helicopter at the centre of the storm is the R-MAX, which can be flown safely by a relatively untrained operator on the ground using a laptop computer. Around 1,600 of the helicopters are currently in use in Japan, primarily by farmers for crop-spraying. However, Yamaha promotes the R-MAX for its other potential uses as well, including surveillance - and that is what appears to have got the company into trouble, says the BBC's Jonathan Head in Tokyo.
02/26/07 - Utility eyes power grid to boost electric cars
 Idea would have owners charge at night, then sell excess power during day. California's biggest utility, Pacific Gas & Electric Co., is considering a plan to charge fleets of battery-powered cars overnight with wind energy and let consumers sell back some of the stored electricity during the day. In addition to reducing oil consumption and greenhouse gas emissions from standard cars, the plan could help stoke production of plug-in hybrid electric vehicles and give power managers more energy capacity on the grid for hot summer afternoons, speakers said at a "clean technology" investment conference in San Francisco this week. Improving battery technologies to boost energy density at lower weight and cost is a hurdle, but progress on lithium ion battery packs could help develop a bigger market for plug-in cars, Kramer said. Drivers also may have to downsize their vehicle choices. Some electric cars are likely to be small and aimed at urban dwellers who do most of their motoring in or near cities, speakers at the conference said. PG&E's LaFlash said new "smart grid" technologies such as high-tech meters that measure electricity use via remote control and give customers timing and pricing options could help drivers charge their batteries at home or parking lots and also get a bill credit for putting excess electricity back on the grid. Utilities and grid managers would limit the amount of energy uploaded from batteries, he said. Metering and billing systems would be equipped to match a car to an account.
02/26/07 - Living, self-renewing Memory Sticks
Imagine having a "living" data storage system that constantly renews itself, keeping the data safe for aeons. A team in Japan has raised the possibility by loading live bacteria with artificial DNA sequences that encode data. Because the data is passed on with the bacteria's own DNA, it will survive indefinitely provided the colony is kept alive. "Information storage using DNA will probably be robust for more than a million years," says Ohashi Yoshiaki, head of the team at Keio University in Yamagata. He and his colleagues turned the message "E = mc2 1905!" into binary code written in DNA base pairs, then inserted it into thousands of Bacillus subtilis, a common soil bacterium. For extra security, the team encoded the message in four distinct DNA sequences.
02/26/07 - Wave-Pump Technology Hits the Water
 The SEADOG ocean-wave pump captures energy from ocean swells or waves to pump seawater to a land-based holding area or water tower, where the water can be returned to the ocean through hydroelectric turbines. A new pump system designed to turn salt water into fresh water when combined with desalination systems--and produce clean renewable energy when combined with hydroelectric systems--is currently being tested in the Gulf of Mexico, off the Texas coast. To create hydroelectricity, the SEADOG ocean-wave pump captures energy from ocean swells or waves to pump seawater to a land-based holding area or water tower, where the water can be returned to the ocean through hydroelectric turbines. In addition, because the device pumps water to a reservoir, it can store salt water or desalinated fresh water in the form of potential energy to generate power on demand, even if the current wave regime during a particular period is too low to generate power. Developed by Minnesota-based energy technology company Independent Natural Resources Inc. (INRI), preliminary estimates based on SEADOG test results suggest that 1 square mile field of SEADOG pumps could generate anywhere from 50 megawatts to more than 1,500 megawatts (MW) of hydropower on average, depending on the wave regime, according to Solaraccess.com. “Our sea trial in the Gulf of Mexico has exceeded our expectations and we’re confident our engineers have developed a new proprietary technology that serves as a safe, efficient system for gathering renewable energy from ocean waves,“ said Mark A. Thomas, chief executive officer, INRI. SEADOG’s size, configuration and pumping capacity varies depending on the wave regime, height and frequency. During recent testing off the coast of Surfside, Texas, a single SEADOG pump experienced modest waves from 6 inches to 6 feet and consistently pumped a range of 15,000 to 40,000 gallons of seawater per day. “Going forward, we’re seeking actual ocean environments where we can place a wave-farm test field involving 14 to 200 SEADOG wave pumps. If the wave pump continues to perform as well as our sea tests have shown, we believe it has the potential to be a breakthrough for global energy production,“ added Thomas. According to INRI’s calculations, the company’s wave-pump technology is capable of generating an average of 755 megawatts of hydroelectric energy for every 1 square mile pump field, assuming ocean swells averaging at least 9 feet. With swells of at least 5 feet, a 1 square mile pump field could generate approximately 242 MW. The lack of sufficient fresh water is a growing concern in many regions of the world and seawater desalination is increasingly essential. The state of Texas alone has more than 100 desalination plants. Energy consumption is significant in desalination, sometimes accounting for as much as one-third of the operating cost of desalinated water. Formed in January of 2002 by Thomas, the company developed and acquired the SEADOG pump technology from its inventor, Kenneth W. Welch, Jr., and co-inventors Curtis and Harold Rothi.
02/26/07 - When God sanctions killing, people listen
 New research published in the March issue of Psychological Science may help elucidate the relationship between religious indoctrination and violence, a topic that has gained renewed notoriety in the wake of the September 11th terrorist attacks. In the article, University of Michigan psychologist Brad Bushman and his colleagues suggest that scriptural violence sanctioned by God can increase aggression, especially in believers.
02/26/07 - Bee Problems & 2004 Crop Circles - 02/24/07
 I know this is going to sound strange/fluky/woo-woo'ish and more, but here an interesting notion: Back in June of 2004 there was a crop circle formation sighted which resembled a huge bee when viewed from the air. Now, while no one knows for sure what is causing it, a phenomena called "colony collapse syndrome" is wiping our bees by the millions - and that could have a horrific impact on crops. Presaged by a crop circle? Your guess is as good as mine. (via urbansurvival.com)
02/26/07 - Muslim Sex Spies in Malaysia
The word spy generally invokes images of men in sunglasses ferreting nuclear secrets out of a foreign country or other such acts of intrigue and international espionage. The Malaysian government in Terengganu, however, is about to embark on a different kind of espionage - spies to make sure Muslim couples don't engage in illicit sexual activity. The government hopes to recruit spies to operate in public places and watch for people who are giving off signs that they may take their relationship in a lascivious direction. The agents would then inform the morality patrols who could then move in to stop any indecorous sex from occurring. The chief official of Terengganu's Islam and Welfare Committee has insisted that these agents will not act as 'peeping toms.'
02/26/07 - Selling Homeowners a Solar Dream
 "Solar for free," it headlines. "No initial investment needed. Just monthly payments for power." Instead of making you spring for $25,000 or more in gear, Citizenre says it will loan you a complete rooftop solar power system, install it for free and sell you back the power it generates at a fixed rate below what your utility charges. The company hopes to make back its investment with those monthly payments, augmented by federal tax credits and rebates. More than 7,000 people from Maine to San Diego have already signed up for systems. And why wouldn't they? With no upfront costs -- aside from a modest security deposit -- consumers can save on their electric bill and help roll back global warming at the same time. "There's an increasing number of companies that are doing this kind of financing" for commercial customers, says Wiser. "There's certainly a market on the residential side; the difference is how do you make a profit. They will have to bear huge transaction costs to get started."
02/26/07 - Putin orders Soviet troops to protect Iran
Virtually unknown to the American peoples themselves are that their Military Leaders plans do not call for a World based upon democratic ideals, but are instead based upon the ancient Roman model of establishing American based protectorates around the Globe to insure the survival of the United States against both Russia and China, and who their Defense Secretary recently warned the US Congress: "We need the full range of military capabilities," including ground combat forces to battle large armies and nimble special operations troops to scout out terrorist threats, Gates told the House Armed Services Committee. "We don't know what's going to develop in places like Russia and China, in North Korea, in Iran and elsewhere."
02/25/07 - Cellphone Wristwatch ships next month
 The Australian company SMS Technology plans to ship in Australia next month its $510 M300, a tri-band GSM/GPRS Bluetooth WRISTWATCH PHONE. The watch phone has a one-inch LCD, 64 MB of RAM, and plays MP3 and MPEG 4 media files. The company plans to ship the watch April 25 in Europe. The company also plans to unveil later this year a wristwatch cell phone called the M700, which syncs with desktop applications like Microsoft Outlook and other Office applications.
02/25/07 - Software Deletes Files to Defend Against Piracy
"Back in 2004, we discussed a program that deleted your home directory on entry of a pirated serial number. Now, a new developer is using the same method to protect his software, aptly named Display Eater. In the developers's own words, 'There exist several illegal cd-keys that you can use to unlock the demo program. If Display Eater detects that you are using these, it will erase something. I don't know if this is going to become Display Eater policy. If this level of piracy continues, development will stop.'"
02/25/07 - Trapped Sun For Unlimited Hot Water
 The idea of heating water by means of solar radiation isn`t, of course, a new one. Painted black water tanks with self-made shower can be seen near almost every summer cottage. During summer these tanks provide warm shower for their owners, who haven`t got a gas or electric water heater. The drawback of such tanks is that water inside them remains quite cool even in a very hot summer day and cannot be used to heat the house. The problem is that solar radiation is very difficult to be collected and stored. Ordinary items, like water tank or a bench located at the sunny side of a pond, absorb energy of visible light, which warms them. Then they emit heat to the surrounding space almost immediately in the form of infrared radiation and convection. In order to raise effectiveness of solar radiation absorbance scientists use original selective multi-layer coating, with titanium carbide as a main component. Its external side is dark to absorb light better. But the coating hardly emits heating energy after it has been heated. Thus, given coating allows collecting solar energy of visible and near infrared spectral regions, which contain 90% of solar energy, and at the same time storing energy of the heating radiation without emitting it. Trapped heat is transmitted to water, which runs along copper pipes, embedded in aluminum profiles covered with said coating. These pipes form so-called absorber. However, water can be replaced with any other heat-carrying agent, but water is the cheapest one. Absorbers are covered with special plastic cases, which reduce heat losses due to convection. These cases are made of polycarbonate with honeycomb structure. Theses cells are hollow, that`s why the air inside them is motionless, which allows perfect storing of heat. Polycarbonate transmits light, cannot be heated and gives no shaded, thus doesn`t hamper unit operation. Thus, a single 2 sq. m collector is able to heat up to 150 liters of water up to 60-70 degrees Centigrade. Water can even be boiled, if necessary. Several units can provide hot water and heating for a small cottage. In Moscow region, known for its moderate climate, for example, these units can work in case of long warm season - early spring to late autumn. They won`t work in Russia in winter, even if their effectiveness would reach 100%. In mild climate of Europe these units will work all the year round. In a short while a house with described heating system will be built in the city of Sochi, situated in the south of Russia, in a humid subtropical zone. Its facade will be decorated with solar absorbing panels, which look very picturesque. This house will have hot water supply all the year round.
02/25/07 - Pendulum Swinging Toward Privacy
"The New York Times reports this morning on a gathering movement to remove Social Security numbers from online public records. While justifiable, given the reality of and concerns about identity theft, it also doesn't take much to imagine how such concerns will be abused by public officials who are strapped for cash and/or ethically challenged."
02/25/07 - Light Water Production Launched
 Natural light water is found in mountain rivers and melting glaciers. Scientists designed rectifying columns for water fractional distillation and derived water free from its heavy components. Light water normalizes any pathology found in an organism. It also improves body resistance to harmful effects of physical, chemical and biological origin. Clinical trials revealed light water's ability to dissolve higher concentrations of various substances and to penetrate membranes easier than ordinary water. Light water showed anti-inflammatory effect and eliminated tissue puffiness. Recently developed "Langway" water is already available at the US market. Tests proved its potential to refine cell metabolic processes through accumulating energy inside a cell. Light water is highly recommended for skin regeneration stimulation. "Langway" tones the skin, reduces its greasiness, narrows skin pores, slows ageing and helps skin to resist negative environmental impact. Light water also regulates excretion of toxins, salts of heavy metals, cellular debris and infectious germs. Another positive aspect is that such water lowers blood sugar and cholesterol, thus it can be recommended for patients, suffering from diabetes, atherosclerosis, obesity and hypertension.
02/25/07 - Fuel Efficient Five-Gear Rocket Engine Designed
 "Georgia Tech researchers have had a brilliant idea. Rocket engines used today to launch satellites run at maximum exhaust velocity until they reach orbit. For a car, this would be analog to stay all the time in first gear. So they have designed a new space rocket which works as it has a five-gear transmission system. This rocket engine uses 40 percent less fuel than current ones by running on solar power while in space and by fine-tuning exhaust velocity. But as it was designed with funds from the U.S. Air Force, military applications will be ready before civilian ones. Here is how this new rocket engine works."
02/25/07 - Boeing's New Klingon Battle Cruiser/Stealth/Blended wing
 (Courtesy of Jack Veach! - JWD) Boeing to take on Airbus with (1000 seat) giant 797 Blended Wing plane Boeing is preparing a 1000 passenger jet that could reshape the Air travel industry for the next 100 years. The radical Blended Wing design has been developed by Boeing in cooperation with the NASA Langley Research Center. The mammoth plane will have a wing span of 265 feet compared to the 747's 211 feet, and is designed to fit within the newly created terminals used for the 555 seat Airbus A380, which is 262 feet wide. The new 797 is in direct response to the Airbus A380 which has racked up 159 orders, but has not yet flown any passengers. Boeing decide to kill its 747X stretched super jumbo in 2003 after little interest was shown by airline companies, but has continued to develop the ultimate Airbus crusher 797 for years at its Phantom Works research facility in Long Beach, Calif. The Airbus A380 has been in the works since 1999 and has accumulated $13 billion in development costs, which gives Boeing a huge advantage now that Airbus has committed to the older style tubular aircraft for decades to come. There are several big advantages to the blended wing design, the most important being the lift to drag ratio which is expected to increase by an amazing 50%, with overall weight reduced by 25%, making it an estimated 33% more efficient than the A380, and making Airbus's $13 billion dollar investment look pretty shaky. High body rigidity is another key factor in blended wing aircraft, It reduces turbulence and creates less stress on the air frame which adds to efficiency, giving the 797 a tremendous 8800 nautical mile range with its 1000 passengers flying comfortably at mach .88 or 654 mph (+-1046km/h) cruising speed another advantage over the Airbus tube-and-wing designed A380's 570 mph (912 km/h) The exact date for
introduction is unclear, yet the battle lines are clearly drawn in the high-stakes war for civilian air supremacy.
02/25/07 - Russian Scientists Use Rubbish To Get Electric Energy
 Scientists from the Russian city of Ekaterinburg have developed an economic way of transforming heat energy to electric energy - the unit is called "Triode". Press service of the science foundation announced the efficiency coefficient of "Triode" units exceeds 80%, which saves fuel significantly. "Triode" units are able to work on any fuel types: gaseous, liquid and solid fuels, as well as on heat energy of waste gases of metallurgic furnaces. Even heat energy of dumps is suitable for said units.
02/25/07 - SparkFun for Experimenters
 This website has many novel kits for your projects at reasonable prices. Some cool items; 1) The new GPS Logger v2.4 comes with the EM406 with embedded antenna and can log up to 1gig worth of GPS coordinates. Let us know where your cat goes. / 2) 125 RF Channel nRF24L01 based transceiver is meant to couple to the 'MOD' connector on many of the new Olimex boards. While it's just like our MiRF and MiRF v2 products, it does have some good information and example code that users can utilize. / 3) 1-5WATT white, green or royal blue LEDs / 4) The SCP1000 is a MEMs based altimeter that claims to resolve down to 9cm of precision. / 5) The AD7746 capacitive touch sensor board. It's like a switch you don't even have to touch! / 6) Digitally controlled 2A switch.
02/25/07 - Robot builds itself for special tasks
 Researchers built small identical robots that can sense and latch onto each other to self-configure a giant specimen with no center of command. Looking sort of like a train or a swarm of bees, swarm-bots can assemble themselves up to any finite size, the scientists predict. “As components of many living systems, the s-bots of our system can self-organize,” co-author Roderich Groß told PhysOrg.com. “Each individual robot module, called an ‘s-bot,’ interacts only with other s-bots in its immediate vicinity. Failures that occur in one or a few s-bots are therefore unlikely to have any significant impact on the performance of the entire system. Also, the system does not require any supplementary equipment such as global communication channels. We make use of a design approach based on swarm intelligence and evolutionary computation principles, as it helps shape the control to be both reliable and effective even if large numbers of s-bots are involved.” Although a single s-bot is rather complex, the mechanisms used to create and control swarm-bots are fairly straightforward. The s-bots are 19 cm (7.5 in) high and weigh 700 g (1.5 lbs). They currently run on lithium ion batteries, with a lifetime of two hours. Around the center of an s-bot’s cylindrical body is a connection ring, which carries a claw-like gripper that can open and close around the rings of other s-bots. A loose grip enables some mobility, while a tight grip can enable lifting of the grasped s-bot.
With a camera and eight colored LEDs, the s-bots can “communicate” with each other on their status. For example, blue lights mean that an s-bot is not connected, while a red light signifies that the s-bot has gripped another s-bot (or a passive object) and tells other s-bots to approach and latch on. A mobility system of tracks and wheels, or “treels,” enables the s-bots to navigate on rough terrain, and gives them good steering abilities. “Swarm-bot combines the advantages of multi-robot and modular robot systems,” said Groß of the robot’s intelligence. “The component modules of swarm-bot, the s-bots, are fully autonomous and mobile, and they choose whether to assemble into a bigger entity to perform a task.”
02/25/07 - Nano Structure formation in Space
Studies of materials, which spent a long time - up to 1500 days - on "Mir" and "Salut" space stations showed that their surface has changed - it became covered with a layer of condensed nanostructural substance. Russian scientists have discovered such layer on various materials - aluminum foil, polymer composite materials, inorganic glass. Film's structure and composition depend on the original material. Carbon plastic materials are covered with a fine-fibered nanofilm, and materials containing aluminum foil show round coating zones. Multi-layered film was detected on the protective glass cover of solar battery parts - its particles contain mainly silicon atoms. Researchers have come up with several hypotheses of condensed nanostructural films, but still no final explanation is given to this fact.
02/25/07 - Sonic Vibrations to dispel Hail with Video
 "We're trying to see when the weather pattern is coming up, the cells that are in it, if they're dense enough to create hail,” says Diepersloot. One hail storm and John can lose an entire crop of fruit and endure a cataclysmic chain reaction. "If I lose, yeah it's my ranch. If they lose it's their livelihood,” he says. "I believe in WWI or WWII they were seeing them in the war when the Howitzers were shooting up at each other. And when they were shooting there was no hail,” he says. John wants to turn destructive hail into a gentle rain with a hail cannon. "What comes out of the top of this thing? It's a vibrational sonic boom,” he says. "When it hits the clouds it's a little bit of vibration doesn't allow the ice to form.”
02/25/07 - Homeland Security Funding 'Pork' Under Fire
In 2005, Kentucky won a $36,300 grant from the Department of Homeland Security to protect bingo halls from terrorist infiltration, and last year, the federal government granted $46,908 in homeland security funds to protect a limo and bus service that transports New Yorkers to the affluent Hamptons region in Long Island. In 2004, five days before Christmas, the government announced a $153 million homeland security grant to provide food and shelter for the homeless, and in the last fiscal year, $15.7 million in homeland security funds went for enforcement of child labor laws. While spending government money on questionable projects isn't especially unusual in Washington, some government watchdogs and other groups say homeland security money should be off limits for pork barrel spending.
02/24/07 - Innovative Fuel Cell Project
 The technology is designed for use in large fuel cells that can generate 100 kilowatts of power, which is enough for a car, a home or a remote power station. Most power generators come with an unwanted side effect: heat. For a car, excess heat is handled by running coolant from the radiator through the engine block. To date, attempts to use a similar cooling technology with most fuel cells have been unsuccessful. "Even though a fuel cell operates at a higher efficiency than a car engine, it still puts out a considerable amount of heat," said Gervasio. "For a long time people thought that a room temperature fuel cell would be ideal for automobiles, but it turns out that if you power an automobile using a fuel cell operating at room temperature, you need a radiator as big as the car." By designing a membrane that operates at high temperatures (a medium oven setting of 250 F, or 120 C), Gervasio and colleagues want to reduce both the amount of heat management needed to operate the fuel cell and its overall size, weight and costs. A hydrogen powered fuel cell has positive and negative ends just like a battery. It works by splitting hydrogen gas into its component protons and electrons at the negative electrode, which react with oxygen from air at the positive electrode. This produces electricity while leaving only water as a byproduct. The 'cheese' of the fuel cell stack, the fuel cell membrane, completes the electrical circuit by funneling protons through the membrane from one electrode to the other. Just as importantly, it also forces energized electrons to move across a circuit outside the membrane, producing an electron current to power devices such as a light bulb or electric motor. Currently, high temperature fuel cell systems use phosphoric acid in a polymer matrix as the membrane electrolyte, but the voltage generated is about half what could theoretically be achieved. One of the protic ionic liquids that Angell and his fellow researchers have experimented with has generated electric potentials approaching the theoretical limit, but has not yet been able to maintain the voltage at higher currents. One protic ionic mixture being tested uses the combination of two ammonium salts, ammonium nitrate and ammonium bisulfate. "These are some of the cheapest chemicals on the market, and they work like a charm," said Angell. "The whole point of the membrane is to get protons across as fast as possible," said Yarger. "If they are getting stuck in the membrane we want to be able to see where they are getting stuck and find a way to fix it." Yarger and his team can measure how quickly the protons move across the membrane, which will aid in membrane design. "From a practical engineering perspective you'd want the membrane to be as solid as possible, but from a proton diffusion perspective you want the membrane to be as liquid as possible," said Yarger.
02/24/07 - Global warming: It's all about energy
 But global warming is not an environmental roblem in the same sense as these others - it is an energy problem, first and foremost. Finally, after years of effort by dedicated scientists and activists like Al Gore, the issue of global warming has begun to receive the international attention it desperately needs. But while there is a growing consensus on humanity’s responsibility for global warming, policymakers have yet to come to terms with its principal cause: our unrelenting consumption of fossil fuels. In Gore’s “An Inconvenient Truth,” it is generally characterized as an environmental problem, akin to water pollution, air pollution, pesticide abuse, and so on. This implies that it can be addressed - like those other problems - through a concerted effort to “clean up” our resource-utilization behavior, by substituting “green” products for ordinary ones, by restricting the release of toxic substances, and so on. But global warming is not an “environmental” problem in the same sense as these others - it is an energy problem, first and foremost. Almost 90% of the world’s energy is supplied through the combustion of fossil fuels, and every time we burn these fuels to make energy we release carbon dioxide into the atmosphere; carbon dioxide, in turn, is the principal component of the “greenhouse gases” (GHGs) that are responsible for warming the planet. Energy use and climate change are two sides of the same coin. Many political and business leaders wish to deny this fundamental reality. They may claim to accept the conclusions of the IPCC report. They will admit that vigorous action is needed to stem the buildup of greenhouse gases. But they will nevertheless seek to shield energy policy from fundamental change. Global warming is an energy problem, and we cannot have both an increase in conventional fossil fuel use and a habitable planet. It’s one or the other. We must devise a future energy path that will meet our basic (not profligate) energy needs and also rescue the climate while there’s still time. The technology to do so is potentially available to us, but only if we make the decision to develop it swiftly and on a very large scale.
02/24/07 - Virtual Parking
A teenager who has set up a website so people can rent out their driveways or garages to commuters is expanding his business to his native south Wales. Tom Page, 18, set up youcanpark.com, which matches the spaces with motorists struggling to find parking. A trial in Bath and Bristol saw 60 residents sign up to let their unused space either five or seven days a week. Mr Page, originally from Church Village near Pontypridd, said premium spaces in Cardiff could earn up to £250 a month. "I had to park three miles away and walk into work" he said.
"I was walking back one day and saw lots of spare driveways. That was my eureka moment. "They were wasted space and I would have loved to have parked on those driveways so close to work."
Residents advertise their space on the site for free, but pay a commission. Users then search for a parking place in their chosen area, apply and, once approved, can rent it. Mr Page said: "We fully manage it like a letting company does. We collect payment and pay the person who owns the space."
02/24/07 - Use energy toward realistic problems
 I would remind these folks that, while the free exchange of ideas is something our nation champions, obsession takes over eventually and reduces their contribution to society or any type of movement. For every single Web site and blog that trumpets 9/11 conspiracy theories, there are far many more reputable sources of information that discredit those theories. The determination of these conspiracy theorists is futile and they are typically nauseating in their redundancy. After all, if the U.S. government is the secret source of all of the worlds' ills, then wouldn't it be possible that there is a conspiracy behind the conspiracy? Where do the coincidences end?
I politely suggest that these folks contribute to their local communities by volunteering and coming up with new and fresh ideas for solving the problems of Vermont. Problems at hand include, but are not limited to: lack of affordable housing and the fact that Burlington has become a New England trading post for dangerous illicit drugs such as heroin and methamphetamine. Let's put away the conspiracy books, get together and work together to solve the realistic, not speculative, problems of our state and nation.
02/24/07 - NASA procedure for nuts in space
Space station medical kits contain tranquilizers and anti-depression, anti-anxiety and anti-psychotic medications. Shuttle medical kits have anti-psychotic medication but not antidepressants, since they take several weeks to be effective and shuttle flights last less than two weeks. The checklist says astronauts can be restrained and then offered oral Haldol, an anti-psychotic drug used to treat agitation and mania, and Valium. If the astronaut will not cooperate, the drugs can be forcibly given with a shot to the arm. Crew members are instructed to stay with the tied-up astronaut to monitor vital signs. Space station astronauts talk weekly via long-distance hookup to a flight surgeon and every two weeks to a psychologist, so any psychiatric disorder would probably be detected before it became so serious that the astronaut had to be brought home, (NASA spokesperson James) Hartsfield said...
U.S. astronauts at the space station keep a journal for a study by a researcher. But (former NASA psychiatrist Dr. Patricia) Santy said the diaries will not help detect mental illness. "What astronaut is going to tell you they're feeling homicidal?" she asked. "They're very conscious that if they say the wrong thing they could get grounded."
02/24/07 - Islanders tap geothermal energy - the heat beneath their feet
 Geothermal energy provided by heat absorbed in the earth from the sun offers them a free, clean, renewable energy source for heating, cooling, and water heating in their homes and businesses. About 6 to 10 feet underground below the frost line, the temperature remains at an average of about 50 degrees year-round. A geothermal or ground source heat pump system uses that constant temperature to heat, or cool, a building, depending on which way the system is run. Heat is absorbed or discharged through a series of looped pipes buried in the ground nearby. The only electricity needed is for moving the heat between a building and the ground. Geothermal systems work well in below-zero temperatures, and are efficient in both northern and southern climates. The systems are clean, odorless, and use little electricity. There are no moving parts, other than the pump. Two types of geothermal systems are water-based and direct-exchange, Mr. Nelson said. The decision on which one to use depends on soil conditions, space constraints, and other properties at the site, Mr. Nelson said. Water-based systems use a black plastic pipe below the frost line containing a water/antifreeze mixture pumped by a circulator to and from the ground to the building. This heated liquid is then sent to a heat pump inside where a refrigerant loop moves the heat from the liquid into the building. In summer, this process is reversed. A direct-exchange system uses copper tubing containing refrigerant in the ground outside the building. A heat pump inside the building sends the refrigerant into the loops outside in the ground to collect or discharge the heat, then sends it back inside to heat or cool the building. About one square foot of ground heats one square foot in the house, Mr. Nelson said. The specially coated tubing, designed to last at least 50 years, was laid in a carefully configured looped grid pattern horizontally along the bottom of the pit and then buried. A geothermal system can be adapted for use in any size building, Mr. Nelson said. He estimated a five-ton system would be good for a 3,000-square-foot house, at a cost of about $25,000. "It would pay for itself in about five years, and then you'll be getting your energy for about a quarter of the cost," Mr. Nelson said.
02/24/07 - Speedheat Electric Radiant Floor Heating
 Although the concept of radiant heating has been around since Roman times, Speedheat® has taken this technology to the highest level with their energy efficient systems that are installed directly under virtually any flooring material. Speedheat's Generation4™ underfloor heating systems can help improve indoor air quality by reducing the levels of dust, pollen, mold, allergens and other pollutants spread by conventional forced air heating systems. The Department of Energy also says that radiant heating can be advantageous to people with severe allergies due to the lack of moving air.
Additionally, Speedheat's Generation4™ systems provide optimum thermal comfort at lower temperatures than conventional forced air heating systems. Lower air temperatures contain a lesser amount of moisture, which helps prevent the growth of mold and reduces the level of other air pollutants, thereby creating a healthier environment.
02/24/07 - Engine on a Chip - the Dream of the Personal Turbine
 The new turbine engine will allow the creation of smaller and more powerful batteries than anything currently in existence. It might also serve as the basis for tiny powerful motors with applications ranging from micro UAVs to children's toys. In the more distant future huge arrays of hydrogen fueled millimeter turbine engines could even be the basis for clean, quiet and cost effective power plants. The millimeter turbine technology is based on semiconductor manufacturing techniques. This enables the fabrication of complex micro parts and assemblies - devices with dimensions in the 1-10,000 micron size range with submicron precision. Such parts are produced with photolithographically-defined features and many can be made simultaneously, offering the promise of low production costs in large-scale production. The millimeter size turbine has many possible applications ranging from military to civilian and industrial. The millimeter turbine project in MIT is currently funded by the U.S. military which sees a great potential for this upcoming technology. Anything from small unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to a soldier night scope can be operated by a tiny refuelable turbine powered by a small protected hydrogen fuel cartridge. Another interesting possible use of the millimeter turbine engine is the exoskeleton, a technology currently under development which will enable future soldiers to carry tremendous weights across great distances with little effort. On the commercial market, millimeter engines could also have a large variety of applications ranging from refuelable batteries for consumer products such as laptops, digital cameras and cell phones, to cheap micro engines which could be used for agriculture, Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS), sensors and even toys.
02/24/07 - Kinetic powered mobile phone patented
 While most handset manufacturers are concentrating on improving battery life by creating more efficient versions of the current battery cells an inventor has been thinking outside the box and has patented a phone powered by kinetic energy. Famous devices including the Everlite Kinetic Torch and Seiko Kinetic wristwatch have attracted attention in the past but this is the first time we have seen the technology considered for a mobile phone. The Everlite torch needs just a 30 second shaking to give 1 hours light. The kinetic technology powers the phone and charges the battery while the phone is being kept moving so an office worker wouldn't get much power during the day. We can see manual workers in the developing world being one of the main target markets for this sort of invention.
02/24/07 - Making Martial Law easier
 A disturbing recent phenomenon in Washington is that laws that strike to the heart of American democracy have been passed in the dead of night. So it was with a provision quietly tucked into the enormous defense budget bill at the Bush administration’s behest that makes it easier for a president to override local control of law enforcement and declare martial law. The provision, signed into law in October, weakens two obscure but important bulwarks of liberty. One is the doctrine that bars military forces, including a federalized National Guard, from engaging in law enforcement. Called posse comitatus, it was enshrined in law after the Civil War to preserve the line between civil government and the military. The other is the Insurrection Act of 1807, which provides the major exemptions to posse comitatus. It essentially limits a president’s use of the military in law enforcement to putting down lawlessness, insurrection and rebellion, where a state is violating federal law or depriving people of constitutional rights. The newly enacted provisions upset this careful balance. They shift the focus from making sure that federal laws are enforced to restoring public order. Beyond cases of actual insurrection, the president may now use military troops as a domestic police force in response to a natural disaster, a disease outbreak, terrorist attack or to any “other condition.” These new presidential powers were slipped into the law without hearings or public debate. The president made no mention of the changes when he signed the measure, and neither the White House nor Congress consulted in advance with the nation’s governors. There is a bipartisan bill, introduced by Senators Patrick Leahy, Democrat of Vermont, and Christopher Bond, Republican of Missouri, and backed unanimously by the nation’s governors, that would repeal the stealthy revisions. Congress should pass it. If changes of this kind are proposed in the future, they must get a full and open debate.
02/24/07 - Psychics 'hired to find Bin Laden'
 Psychics were recruited by the Ministry of Defence to locate Osama Bin Laden's secret lair, it was claimed yesterday. Newly declassified documents revealed that the MoD conducted an experiment to see if volunteers could 'see' objects hidden inside an envelope. However, after running up a bill of £18,000 of taxpayers' money, defence chiefs concluded there was 'little value' in using psychic powers in the defence of the nation and the research was taken no further. The MoD tried to recruit 12 'known' psychics who advertised their abilities on the Internet, but when they all refused they were forced to use 'novice' volunteers. The report, released under the Freedom of Information Act, shows 28 per cent of those tested managed to guess the contents of the envelopes, which included pictures of a knife, Mother Teresa and an 'Asian individual'. But most subjects, who were holed up in a secret location for the study, were hopelessly off the mark. One even fell asleep while he tried to focus on the envelope's content.
02/24/07 - Canada refuses entry to US citizens for minor US offenses
Some minor offenses were over 20 years old. One was possibly refused entry for having a medical marijuana card. All a result of US and Canada sharing criminal data. ... The Smart Border Action Plan, as it is known, combines Canadian intelligence with extensive U.S. Homeland Security information. The partnership began in 2002, but it wasn't until recently that the system was refined. "They can call up anything that your state trooper in Iowa can,'' ... "As Canadians and Americans have begun cooperating, all those indiscretions from the '60s are going to come back and haunt us.'' ... if you must travel to Canada, you should apply for "a Minister's Approval of Rehabilitation" to wipe the record clear. Oh, and by the way, ... it is just a matter of time before agreements are signed with governments in destinations like Japan, Indonesia and Europe.
02/23/07 - Cheap solar power poised to undercut oil and gas by half
 Within five years, solar power will be cheap enough to compete with carbon-generated electricity, even in Britain, Scandinavia or upper Siberia. In a decade, the cost may have fallen so dramatically that solar cells could undercut oil, gas, coal and nuclear power by up to half. Technology is leaping ahead of a stale political debate about fossil fuels. Anil Sethi, the chief executive of the Swiss start-up company Flisom, says he looks forward to the day - not so far off - when entire cities in America and Europe generate their heating, lighting and air-conditioning needs from solar films on buildings with enough left over to feed a surplus back into the grid. The secret? Mr Sethi lovingly cradles a piece of dark polymer foil, as thin a sheet of paper. It is 200 times lighter than the normal glass-based solar materials, which require expensive substrates and roof support. Indeed, it is so light it can be stuck to the sides of buildings. Rather than being manufactured laboriously piece by piece, it can be mass-produced in cheap rolls like packaging - in any colour. Mr Sethi believes his product will cut the cost to 80 cents per watt within five years, and 50 cents in a decade. It is based on a CIGS (CuInGaSe2) semiconductor compound that absorbs light by freeing electrons. This is then embedded on the polymer base. It will be ready commercially in late 2009. "It'll even work on a cold, grey, cloudy day in England, which still produces 25pc to 30pc of the optimal light level. That is enough, if you cover half the roof," he said. His ultra-light technology, based on a copper indium compound, can power mobile phones and laptop computers with a sliver of foil. Cell conversion efficiency and economies of scale are galloping ahead so fast that the cost will be down to 70 US cents by 2010, with a target of 30 or 40 cents in a decade. "We think solar power can provide 20pc of all the incremental energy needed worldwide by 2040," he said.
02/23/07 - Researchers make hydrogen from waste
 Researchers have found that waste-water treatment facilities such as Toronto's Ashbridges Bay plant could produce significant amounts of hydrogen by fermenting dried-sludge pellets in a mixture of "primary" sludge - an organic cocktail of feces, rotting fruits and vegetables, textiles and paper. The idea of producing hydrogen from municipal waste water isn't new, but controlling the amount of hydrogen produced has proven tricky. One problem is that sludge contains bacteria that produce hydrogen and bacteria that consume it, so the net yield tends to be much lower than its potential. "In order to maximize production you need to kill all micro-organisms that consume hydrogen," said Youssouf Kalogo, a researcher at Hamilton-based environmental consulting firm Hydromantis Inc. Doing this, however, means boiling the sludge - an energy-intensive process that proves uneconomic. Kalogo, along with former University of Toronto professor David Bagley, who now teaches civil engineering at the University of Wyoming, realized that another option was to spike the primary sludge with dried sludge pellets. It turns out that the process of making the sludge pellets kills off the bad microbes and preserves the good ones. The two scientists conducted an experiment, the results of which will soon be published in the peer-reviewed journal Bioresource Technology, which showed that pellets obtained from Ashbridges Bay were an inexpensive, practical, and renewable source of microbes for generating hydrogen from sludge. "This is general research that can be applied to any waste-water treatment plant, and it's a totally new approach," Kalogo told the Toronto Star. "We know that the pellets already exist in plants, so why can't we use the pellets directly as a source of micro-organisms?" The hydrogen that's produced could be used in a fuel cell to produce electricity and heat for the treatment facility, with any surplus power being sold back into the grid. "These municipalities have to manage the solids they're producing, and this is a very good way of doing it."
02/23/07 - Russian Atmospheric Tornado based on Schauberger
 Referring to the 02/19/07 post about the Atmospheric Vortex Engine, reader Harlow Short sent this Russian URL which I had read long ago and didn't recall for this. Check it out as it has many interesting items about Victor Schauberger's research. (Thanks Harlow!) / From the site; The author of the article gives a brief description of the real design of aircraft engine. Probably, this design is not similar to Schauberger's one. However the very appearance of some ideas is rather interesting. Different people in different places and time come to the same conclusions. Whether people think in a common way, or Nature laws are the same. Could you believe that the author of the article has never read or heard about Schauberger's works (I mean his engine, which operates on environment energy and has levitation properties)? But by accident (thanks to Internet) when come upon the description of designs, I was surprised to find so much in common between Shauberger's ideas and my suppositions.
02/23/07 - Capturing CO2 with E. coli enzymes
 A Quebec City-based company called CO2 Solution has developed a bioreactor for capturing CO2 from power plants and industrial facilities. At the heart of the reactor is an enzyme -- extracted from genetically engineered E. coli but also present in all animals -- that can absorb CO2 and convert it into bicarbonate. The bicarbonate-rich solution is then removed and the bicarbonate ions can be extracted for making everything from baking powder (sodium bicarbonate) to calcium carbonate (limestone). Alternatively, concentrated CO2 can be taken out of the solution and pumped into geological storage.
02/23/07 - Electromagnetic Recycler runs many days
 Notice of this came from the discussion list at overunity.com. Others seem to have replicated it and had similar results. / "The old 7 reed relay circut worked exactly as described. EXACTLY. only problem was relays welding shut and short circuiting, Igors 4pole relay should not do that." / "R1 and R1 are resistors of equal value. A printer port controls the relays (1-7) and the step time is 2 milliseconds. One cycle is ABCBCB and repeat. Current is drained from the battery for 2 milliseconds every 12 milliseconds. When small light bulbs are used to replace R1 and R2, R2 glowed for a few seconds as R1 lit up. It then ran with R1 bright and R2 dark. It ran until it stopped over a period of many days. Question: How can R1 become warm while R2 stays cool?"
02/23/07 - Casimir Effect affected by heat as predicted
 For the first time, a group led by Nobel laureate Eric Cornell at the National Institute of Standards and Technology and the University of Colorado in Boulder has confirmed a 1955 prediction, by physicist Evgeny Lifschitz, that temperature affects the Casimir force, the attraction between two objects when they come to within 5 millionths of a meter (approximately 1/5,000 of an inch) of each other or less. These efforts heighten the understanding of the force and enable future experiments to better account for its effects. The Colorado group sent ultracold rubidium atoms to within a few microns of a glass surface. Doubling the temperature of the glass to 600 degrees Kelvin while keeping the surroundings near room temperature caused the glass to increase its attractive force threefold, confirming theoretical predictions recently made by the group's theorist co-authors in Trento, Italy. What was happening here? The Casimir force arises from effects of the vacuum (empty space). According to quantum mechanics, the vacuum contains fleeting electromagnetic waves, in turn consisting of electric and magnetic fields. The electric fields can slightly rearrange the charge in atoms. Such "polarized" atoms can then feel a force from an electric field. The vacuum's electric fields are altered by the presence of the glass, creating a region of maximum electric field that attracts the atoms. In addition, heat inside the glass also drives the fleeting electromagnetic waves, some of which leak onto the surface as "evanescent waves." These evanescent waves have a maximum electric field on the surface and further attract the atoms. Electromagnetic waves from heat in the rest of the environment would usually cancel out the thermal attraction from the glass surface. However, dialing up the temperature on the glass tilts the playing field in favor of glass's thermal force and heightens the attraction between the wall and the atoms.
02/23/07 - Bacteria Could Steady Buildings Against Earthquakes
Soil bacteria could be used to help steady buildings against earthquakes, according to researchers at UC Davis. The microbes can literally convert loose, sandy soil into rock. When a major earthquake strikes, deep, sandy soils can turn to liquid, with disastrous consequences for buildings sitting on them. Currently, civil engineers can inject chemicals into the soil to bind loose grains together. But these epoxy chemicals may have toxic effects on soil and water, said Jason DeJong, an assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering at UC Davis. The new process, so far tested only at a laboratory scale, takes advantage of a natural soil bacterium, Bacillus pasteurii. The microbe causes calcite (calcium carbonate) to be deposited around sand grains, cementing them together. By injecting bacterial cultures, additional nutrients and oxygen, DeJong and his colleagues found that they could turn loose, liquefiable sand into a solid cylinder. "Starting from a sand pile, you turn it back into sandstone," DeJong said.
02/23/07 - LapDawg: cool, in-bed laptop holder
 This portable laptop desk is the most comfortable way I've found to use a laptop in bed. It's a bit pricey compared to the homemade stuff you can find online, but less expensive than similar products like the LapGenie and Laidback, which can go for up to $150. The LapDawg, which is lighter than the Laidback, is also made of wood, which makes it human friendly and gives it a warm touch. It's very simple to put together and fits my 17" notebook perfectly. LapDawg allows you to recline. Interacting with your laptop at a comfortable typing angle, right in front of you without feeling the weight and heat you would otherwise feel on your lap is very refreshing. The LapDawg is not the perfect travel solution, but if you have a big enough bag, it doesn't take up too much space and it weighs less than two pounds. Being able to lie flat on my back and use a laptop comfortably is worth making room.
02/23/07 - A Unique Perspective on a 'Game-Related' Tragedy
"Penny Arcade has a letter from the stepmother of one of the kids who was recently charged with killing a homeless man. Her article is an extremely sobering tale of the problems dealing with troubled teen. She explains how, in this situation, the parents did everything they possibly could. And, in a refreshing twist, she absolves the games industry of any blame for the tragedy these kids perpetrated. From her missive: 'Video games DID NOT make this kid who he was, and it's unfortunate that the correlation is there. The thing that really gets me with this whole thing is that the kid knows full well that by equating what he's done to a video game, that he will generate controversy and media coverage. It makes me sick that the media is jumping all over this, because that is exactly the result that he wants. The only good thing (if there is such a thing) that has come out of this whole ordeal is that the kid is behind bars. That is exactly where he needs to be.'"
02/23/07 - Physics Crackpottery: Electromagnetic Gravity
 From the blazelabs.com site; This paper aims at providing a satisfying theory for the yet unkown mechanism for gravity. High frequency electromagnetic waves sourced by the fixed energetic core of the universe, referred to as Kolob, sometimes also referred to as zero point energy, is predicted from a steady state universe in oscillatory motion and pervades all space. Radiation pressure (Poynting vector) imbalance of such highly penetrating extragalactic incoming radiation, acting through all matter is held responsible for pushing matter together. / What Engineer Borg is on about is his revolution of physics. The central idea of his theory is that relativity is wrong - sort of. That is, on the one hand, he frequently cites relativistic effects as being valid and correct; but on the other hand, the fundamental idea of his theory is that all motion in the universe consists of orbits within orbits within orbits, all eventually centered on a fixed, unmoving body at the exact center of the universe. This is, of course, fundamentally gibberish... Relativity is fundamentally based, mathematically, on a particular kind of symmetry - and what that symmetry means is there is no preferred frame of reference. Take that away, and relativity falls apart. But Engineer Borg doesn't let that concern him. After all, he's got a whole new version of physics, and so he probably has his own version of relativity too.
02/23/07 - Need Help finding a book?
 Are you looking for a book but can't remember the title or author? Founded by former Google Answers Researcher "Juggler," Whatsthatbook.com is a FREE service that can help you find your book! Categories; # Children's Books Juvenile fiction and non-fiction, teens, etc. # Fiction General fiction, literature, mystery, etc. # Non-fiction Health, business, history, cooking, science, reference, etc. # Science Fiction & Fantasy Sci-Fi and fantasy literature.
02/23/07 - Pay-per-use electricity in Dallas/Fort-Worth airport
 Yesterday on a stop-over at Dallas/Fort-Worth airport, I spotted these $2-per-use electrical outlets aimed at business travellers who wanted to get some electricity for their laptops. I found non-paying outlets throughout the airport, but wasn't sure if security would try to shut me down if I plugged into them (I was on the run and didn't get to take out my computer and check). DFW is a hub for people flying cross-country, but it's not the only one. Free electricity and a laptop-friendly atmosphere are a good reason to choose to fly through Chicago's O'Hare instead of Dallas -- though Dallas does have a killer BBQ restaurant that beats the food court in Chicago hands-down.
02/22/07 - Bubble Fusion Vindicated
 Reports that the bubble had burst for a form of cheap, table-top nuclear fusion may have been premature. Rusi Taleyarkhan, the physicist at the centre of a furore surrounding so-called bubble fusion, was last week cleared of scientific misconduct. In 2002, Taleyarkhan, then at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee and now at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana, published a paper in Science claiming that bombarding a solvent with neutrons and sound waves produced tiny bubbles that triggered nuclear fusion reactions. Then in March 2006, Purdue began investigating allegations of misconduct against Taleyarkhan, amid accusations that the evidence of fusion he reported was actually caused by a radioactive isotope of californium. However, on 7 February, Purdue absolved Taleyarkhan's group of any misconduct. The verdict follows independent verification of Taleyarkhan's results by Edward Forringer of LeTourneau University in Texas and his colleagues last November (Transactions of the American Nuclear Society, vol 95, p 736).
02/22/07 - If Cells Renew, how Old am I? - Age of Body Parts
 (Some of the most advanced work on formation and rejuvenation of body parts as a result of 'Fields of Life', was done by Dr. Harold Saxton Burr and Leonard Ravitz. Dr. Robert Becker has taken on part of the work in modern times. - JWD) About a century ago, scientists discovered that most of our brain cells formed during fetal development persist throughout life. But this discovery stimulated other scientists to discover the age of cells throughout the human body. If we look at the adult human body at age 40 from head to toe, the list goes something like this: * Brain cells of the cerebral cortex (the grey matter) are with you from birth. * Brain cells of the visual cortex (the array of cells in the front of the brain used for vision) are with you from birth. * Brain cells of the cerebellum (the structures at the base of the brain) are slightly younger than you are. * Intercostal muscle cells are about 15.1 years old. * Gut lining cells are about 5 days old. * Gut cells other than the lining are about 15.9 years old. * Skin cells are about 14 days old. * Red blood cells are about 120 days old. * Bone cells are about 10 years old. We do not know precisely the average ages of eye-lens cells, heart cells, liver cells, pancreas cells, fat cells, and bone marrow cells.
02/22/07 - Biologically Inspired Vision Systems
 A computer model of the brain has learned to detect and classify objects. Neuroscientists at MIT have developed a computer model that mimics the human vision system to accurately detect and recognize objects in a busy street scene, such as cars and motorcycles. Such biologically inspired vision systems could soon be used in surveillance systems, or in smart sensors that can warn drivers of pedestrians and other obstacles. "You want to be able to recognize an object anywhere in the field of vision, irrespective of where it is and irrespective of its size," says Serre. Yet if you analyze images just by their patterns of light and dark pixels, then two portrait images of different people can end up looking more similar than two images of the same person taken from different angles. The most effective method for getting around such problems is to train a learning algorithm on a set of images and allow it to extract the features they have in common; two wheels aligned with the road could signal a car, for example. The computer model is comprised of 10 million computational units, each designed to behave like clusters of neurons in the visual cortex. Just as in the cortex, the clusters are organized into layers. When the model first learns to "see," some of the cell-like units extract rudimentary features from the scene, such as oriented edges, by analyzing very small groups of pixels. "These neurons are typically like pinholes that look at a small portion of the visual field," says Serre. More-complex units are able to take in a larger portion of the image and recognize features regardless of their size or position. For example, if the simple units detect vertical and horizontal edges, a more complex unit could use that information to detect a corner. With each successive layer, increasingly complex features are extracted from the image. So are relationships between features, such as the distance between two parts of an object or the different angles at which the two parts are oriented. This information allows the system to recognize the same object at different angles.
02/22/07 - Lab-grown ligaments may help injured sports stars
 US scientists bio-engineered anterior cruciate ligaments and used them to repair knee joints in rabbits. Eventually, the researchers hope to treat humans who suffer ruptured ligaments using the technique. The anterior cruciate ligament sits behind the kneecap and can tear when placed under excessive strain, making it a common sports injury. Each year, an estimated 200,000 people suffer this type of injury in the US alone. Since the ligament heals poorly on its own, patients sometimes receive ligament transplants from other parts of their own body or from donors. But only so much can be taken without damaging other joints and donated ligaments are in limited supply. Cato Laurencin at the University of Virginia, US, and colleagues grew ligament tissue after first weaving together strands of biodegradable polyester using a machine originally designed for textile production. This material, called polylactide, naturally dissolves in the body over time. Laurencin's team seeded the woven polylactide structure with cells taken from rabbits' anterior cruciate ligaments and cultured them in a dish for two days. Finally, they surgically replaced whole anterior cruciate ligaments in another group of rabbits with the polylactide scaffold material, attaching it to the joint in the same way as a normal ligament. Twenty-four hours later, the rabbits could already bear their own weight on their knees, and showed fairly normal mobility. After 12 weeks, researchers removed the engineered structure from the animals' knees for further testing. They found that it could withstand 50% more force than normal transplant tissue can withstand after 30 weeks. This is nevertheless only about one-third as strong as a normal, healthy rabbit ligament.
02/22/07 - Video - Monkey feeds self with brain-controlled robot arm
 (This might seem cruel but I think its a fairly benign way to 'induce' the monkey to learn to operate the arm if it wants to be fed, within limits of course. - JWD) Here's a video of a monkey controlling a robotic arm with its brain. It uses the arm to feed itself. The idea is cool and has a lot of potential for disabled people but the video is disturbing, because the monkey is locked in a plastic box.
02/22/07 - Paralyzing Stroboscopic Floodlight
 (We used to hunt rabbits at night and they would freeze when a bright light was shone on them, as do deer. It didn't last but a few seconds but enough time to shoot them. - JWD) The US Army's Aviation Applied Technology Directorate (AATD) plans to demonstrate the use of a 7.5 million candlepower strobe floodlight system mounted on board an unmanned air vehicle as a non-lethal crowd-control system. The project will see a Peak Beam Systems searchlight adapted to operate as a strobe capable of inducing physical effects, such as short-term paralysis, in humans. The system uses a xenon-based searchlight that "can be pulsed with a unique modulation [strobe] effect that results in immobilisation to those within the beam. This effort will transition the lamp from a handheld/vehicle mounted system to an airborne platform.
02/22/07 - Hypnotizing Animals
 (I note this with my parrot when I give him no way out, he just freezes and won't move until I urge him to go. - JWD) Q. Can animals be hypnotized? - A. "Tonic immobility" is the term for this, where you rub the abdomen of a rabbit or hold a chicken on its back and cover its eyes for a minute, and then it will lie still for some time, says Cornell animal behavior veterinarian Katherine Houpt. Or you can swing the chicken back and forth with its head beneath its wing. Other techniques seem to bring on a trance-like state, such as stroking the tentacles of an octopus or the stomach of an alligator or crocodile -- if you have the courage, adds University of Sydney, New South Wales, veterinary anatomist Michael Bryden. "In each case, the animal might just lie motionless, and permit simple procedures to be done on it." This has also been used by fishermen, who grab the tip of a shark's tail and bend it over, rendering the accidentally netted catch "immediately unresponsive, almost catatonic for 30-90 seconds," reports Diver magazine. The hook can then be removed and the shark let free -- and saved. "I've observed alpacas and llamas 'calmed' into a state of relaxation by gently rubbing the upper gum just beneath the cleft in the upper lip. The animals stop resisting being held, and stop vocalizing. / Hypnotizing Chickens - It has been demonstrated that chickens can be hypnotized by holding them still and drawing a chalk line on the ground away from the beak. One explanation given (Experimentum mirabile de imaginatione gallinae Kircher) for this was that the birds imagined that they imagined themselves to be held fast by the chalk line, as by an unbreakable fetter.
The chalk line has subsequently been found to be totally unnecessary. The best way to hypnotize a chicken is to hold it firmly on its side on a flat surface for around thirty seconds. Although the bird will struggle initially, it will suddenly become completely still, the muscles may become stiff and assume a waxy flexibility - remaining in any position you care to place them. This immobility can last from one minute to up to two or more hours with the bird lying inert, until suddenly it will give a few little squawking sounds before rising to its feet and running away. H B Gibson, in his book Hypnosis - its Nature and Therapeutic Uses - states that the record period for a chicken remaining in hypnosis is 3 hours 47 minutes. When the chicken's eyes are closed it is likely to remain hypnotized for a longer time length.
02/22/07 - Is the moon really moving away from the earth?
 It's counterintuitive, but the moon's orbit is getting larger. It's not a big effect -- about 1.5 inches per year (and the moon's orbit has a radius of 239,000 miles) -- but it's definitely there! The moon and the earth are not quite perfectly synchronized as they turn, and the effect of the moon going around the earth making these tides is a sort of "kneading" of the earth, as if it were a big ball of dough. This kneading reduces the earth rotation speed. (A similar kneading of the moon is what caused the moon to end up -- more or less -- always having the same side facing us.) Now for the trickiest part. As the earth's spin slows down, the moon has to move outward to keep something called "angular momentum" constant. We have a similar situation with a twirling skater who slows herself down by putting her arms out. If you think of the moon here as the skater's hands and the earth as her body you get the idea. Where does the energy come from to push the moon outward? Well, the earth is slowing down so it's losing energy. Some of the energy lost goes into heat (friction from the "kneading") and some goes into pushing the moon away.
02/22/07 - Video - All's Fair at the Fair
 Max Fleischer's 1938 cartoon "All's Fair at the Fair" is a retro-futuristic look at the marvels coming to the 1939 New York World's Fair (home of the Futurama, an enormous ride-through diorama of a futuristic city with armchair ride-vehicles). The Fleischer toon shows us the fair through the eyes of a hayseed couple -- one is literally chewing on a stalk of the stuff -- and it has moments of genuine physical mixed in with the funny-strange look at the future past.
02/22/07 - Anti-Terror cases falsely inflated
 Federal prosecutors counted immigration violations, marriage fraud and drug trafficking among anti-terror cases in the four years after 9/11 even though no evidence linked them to terror activity, a Justice Department audit said Tuesday. Overall, nearly all of the terrorism-related statistics on investigations, referrals and cases examined by department Inspector General Glenn A. Fine were either diminished or inflated. Only two of 26 sets of department data reported between 2001 and 2005 were accurate, the audit found. Responding, a Justice spokesman pointed to figures showing that prosecutors in the department's headquarters for the most part either accurately or underreported their data - underscoring what he called efforts to avoid pumping up federal terror statistics. The numbers, used to monitor the department's progress in battling terrorists, are reported to Congress and the public and help, in part, shape the department's budget. Much of the problem stemmed from how that office defines anti-terrorism cases. A November 2001 federal crackdown on security breaches at airports, for example, yielded arrests on immigration and false document charges, but no evidence of terrorist activity. Nonetheless, the attorneys' office lumped them in with other anti-terror cases since they were investigated by federal Joint Terrorism Task Forces or with other counterterror measures. Other examples, according to the audit, included: _Charges against a marriage-broker for being paid to arrange six fraudulent marriages between Tunisians and U.S. citizens. _Prosecution of a Mexican citizen who falsely identified himself as another person in a passport application. _Charges against a suspect for dealing firearms without a license. The prosecutor handling the case told auditors it should not have been labeled as anti-terrorism. "We do not agree that law enforcement efforts such as these should be counted as anti-terrorism," the audit concluded. Even if those cases were not taken into account, the audit said, the U.S. attorneys' office had overstated statistics in all other categories it reported.
02/22/07 - Fear Mongering Red Cross
 The bulletin board above is legit, and documents one of a number of billboard ads for the Greater Buffalo, NY chapter of the American Red Cross. What's creepy about the ad campaign is that they've pegged the date of a future "terrorist attack" at November 9th 2009, and predicted that the incident will be a bio-chemical attack.
02/22/07 - Sexlessness - a good or bad thing?
 (I've noticed over the years that many people who are nervous, uptight, anal retentive and/or sickly, usually don't have sexual relations or much, if any physical contact with others. Reich and his 'orgonotic theory' is right on the money about sex and health, both physical and mental. One guy here told me its been 4 years since he has had sex and he is nervous, never content with anything and overly preoccupied with his diet. Just bounces around like an untethered balloon. - JWD) Dr. Kunio Kitamura: I doubt whether the word "sexless" was publicly aired as much as it was during the past year. It was written up in newspapers and magazines and talked about on radio and TV. I can't recall how many times I was asked to define sexlessness: a lack of consensual intercourse or sexual activity (kissing, petting or lying naked in bed) for at least one month without a special reason for not doing so. In 2001, the Asahi Shimbun newspaper polled 1,000 couples and found 28 percent were sexless. When we surveyed couples in 2004 as part of our research on the health and labor situation, we found 32 percent of couples were sexless. In December last year, a men's magazine discovered that 40 percent of Japanese couples were not having sex. Sexlessness is on the rise and the most frightening thing is the trend is not just confined to married couples. Putting things simply, I'd hazard a guess to say the problem is the rapid decline in the ability to communicate between the sexes. When you consider the wooing process involved in talking somebody into the sack, sex clearly takes a lot of communication ability. This can be bothersome or brilliant, require some wonderful acting skills and require one to do this, that or the other to get what you want. Communication is vital in deciding whether you succeed.
02/22/07 - Australia Bans Incandescent Bulbs
 The Australian government on Tuesday announced plans to phase out incandescent light bulbs and replace them with more energy-efficient compact fluorescent bulbs across the country. Legislation to gradually restrict the sale of the old-style bulbs could reduce Australia's greenhouse gas emissions by 4 million tons by 2012 and cut household power bills by up to 66 percent, said Environment Minister Malcolm Turnbull. Under the Australian plan, bulbs that do not comply with energy efficiency targets would be gradually banned from sale. Exemptions may apply for special needs such as medical lighting and oven lights. Fluorescent bulbs are currently more expensive than incandescent bulbs, but use only about 20 percent of the power to produce the same amount of light and last longer, making them more competitive over time, advocates argue.
02/22/07 - Gambian 'cure' for Aids?
A herbal potion taken with a couple of bananas is being offered as a cure for Aids by the president of Gambia. The free "cure" is backed by Gambia’s health ministry and is touted on the country’s TV and radio stations. "Whatever you do there are bound to be sceptics, but I can tell you my method is foolproof," said Mr Jammeh, 41. "I can cure Aids and I will." The former army colonel, who seized power in a 1994 coup, has said the treatment uses seven plants - "three of which are not from Gambia". A green paste is applied to a patient’s chest. A grey liquid is then splashed on, and finally the patient is given a bitter yellow brew to drink, followed by two bananas.
02/22/07 - Maher: Bush is 'Gilligan who cannot find his a--'
 "The people who were defending [Bush] were saying, 'Well, he's just inarticulate.' But inarticulate doesn't explain foreign policy. I mean it's not that complicated. The man is a rube. He is a dolt. He is a yokel on the world stage. He is a Gilligan who cannot find his a-- for two hands. He is a vain half-wit who interrupts one incoherent sentence with another incoherent sentence [audience cheers and applause]. And I hope I'm not piling on." "We are a nation that is unenlightened because of religion. I do believe that. I think that religion stops people from thinking. I think it justifies crazies. I think flying planes into a building was a faith-based initiative. I think religion is a neurological disorder. If you look at it logically, it's something that was drilled into your head when you were a small child. It certainly was drilled into mine at that age. And you really can't be responsible when you are a kid for what adults put into your head." "When people say to me, 'You hate America,' I don't hate America. I love America. I am just embarrassed that it has been taken over by people like evangelicals, by people who do not believe in science and rationality. It is the 21st century. And I will tell you, my friend. The future does not belong to the evangelicals. The future does not belong to religion."
02/21/07 - Man charged for trying to MacGyver propane tank to car engine
 (Someone needs to teach the guy about hoses. - JWD) A Sarnia man who used a propane barbecue tank to fuel his car has been charged with operating an unsafe motor vehicle. The jerry-rigged car was spotted about 2:30 p.m. Tuesday by officers patrolling London Line Airport Road, Baines said today. “They noticed the hood was up and obstructing the driver’s view.” When the officers stopped the vehicle, they discovered the hood tied down with a rope. Underneath the hood, a propane tank from a backyard barbecue was sitting on top of the hot engine block. “It was connected to the car’s engine with a rubber hose, apparently to the fuel-injection system,” said Baines. Sarnia police have driven propane cruisers to cut down on fuel costs in the past, he said, “but they were production models.” A backyard barbecue may be perfect for grilling steaks, “but it’s not the way to power your car,” he added.
02/21/07 - Rankine Cycle engine may solve energy problems
 With all the concern about global warming, there seems to be a lot of scrambling to find answers on how to fix it. While there is no one answer or one grand easy fix, it is generally agreed that burning fossil fuels is a major contributor. If one surfs the Internet or looks through popular magazines, there seem to be a never-ending list of inventors that have wonder solutions that always seem to have more promise than substance. I am not one to hype any one invention or taken to believe everything I read. As a member of the Steam Automobile Club of America, I had the opportunity to sit down and talk to an engineer from Florida, a Mr. Harry Shoal. While there is not enough space in this letter to go into much detail, I encourage anyone who has an interest in reading about this system to go to www.cyclonepower.com and read the details on this Rankine Cycle engine. This engine is the real deal. It is a true multi-fuel, clean solution that combines a flash boiler, engine and condenser in one compact unit. In my opinion, this engine represents the biggest leap in steam design in a hundred years. Its main feature, and the one that caught my attention, is the fact that it doesn't use any oil to lubricate it. Lubrication is accomplished by using the working fluid, water. It has been, and is still being tested and so far it has worked beautifully. If placed in a car, it would eliminate the need for a transmission, cooling system, exhaust, catalytic converters, and would give fuel mileage comparable to the best diesels. I think this system deserves public discussion. / “Imagine an invention that offers a clean burning, highly efficient, non-polluting, lightweight, compact, mixed multi-fuel alternative to current diesel and gasoline powered internal combustion engines. Picture a future in which we are less dependent upon Middle East oil. Experience an environment in which the air we breathe is ‘scrubbed’ and contaminating particles are removed by incineration in a motor that cleans the air instead of polluting it. Realize that such engines exist and are already running.”
02/21/07 - Cold Electricity website
 Received this about extracting energy from Aether/ZPE in the form of cold electricity as an email; "Please Visit coldelectricity.info - I am sure you will find the PEM Project of interest. I also have some very definite ideas about the structure of Aether and how the vortex structure of electrons provide continuous magnetic flux fields which can be utilizes to do mechanical work. + Gary Magratten" / In all valid cases of overunity, the source of the extra power introduced into the system to be utilized to do useful work must be clearly obvious. With 'Cold Electricity', extra electrons are brought into the circuit by means of the process of 'Electron Avalanche' in a high voltage sparkgap exposed to open air. These extra electrons combine with positrons present in a high voltage static electric field in the process of electron-positron annihilation to produce radiant energy in the form of longitudinal, unidirectional, electromagnetic waves. - G. Magratten - Oct. 24, 2006 / From the KeelyNet Archives, an interesting note - With the vacuum underpinned by a compound medium of opposites we can call the 'ether', a whole new vista appears. Now energy CAN be created or destroyed - provided negative and positive energies change TOGETHER in EXACTLY balanced amounts! At first this seemed to present a difficulty. Would not the two halves of ether MUTUALLY ANNIHILATE as primaries of opposite energy collided at high speed? It turned out that the need to conserve momentum prevented MUTUAL annihilation of energies from occurring during collisions. Indeed the two conservation laws of energy AND momentum, which had to be applied SIMULTANEOUSLY, led to a totally different result. Instead of annihilating, primaries INCREASED in number! In fact, 18% MORE of BOTH kinds appeared, on average, from EACH collision of opposites. When primaries collide by approaching one another from any other direction, so that their trajectories intersect at some ARBITRARY ANGLE, the analysis is only made slightly more complicated. Note it is necessary to consider RELATIVE velocities of approach. From such vantage points some collisions will also APPEAR to be HEAD-ON, so yielding THE SAME RESULT as the one previously described. However, for collisions NOT HEAD-ON, a sideway SCATTERING MOTION is imparted. And this applies equally to the general case just mentioned. Each primary GAINS extra momentum in this transverse direction, the positive one gaining positive momentum and the negative one gaining the negative variety. It follows that corresponding evaluation then yields the average gain ratio just quoted (18%). However, the positive and negative gains of both momentum and energy could CANCEL under conditions of MULTIPLE COLLISIONS (noise). It therefore follows that everything that exists must ultimately have derived from the zero energy state of nothingness.
02/21/07 - Download 'An Inconvenient Truth'
Or you can get a free DVD of 'An Inconvenient Truth' mailed to you if you want a higher quality version than from the web. It's worth the time to watch it and I understand now why there is so much buzz about it. Well done, Mr. Gore!
02/21/07 - Revolutionary Heating System using IR Film
 Forget about radiators, electric and gas heaters - revolutionary heating system is already developed. One hour is enough for infra-red film to raise room temperature on 10 degrees. Moreover, new technology is at least three times cheaper than common radiators. The film looks like long strips made of aluminum foil and steel strings, which are heated by means of electric current. The system is installed on room ceiling and heats objects rather than air. The film is water-resistant, and any possibility of short circuit is eliminated. The system is controlled by means of a special counting device, which considers human presence in the room and switches on sleep mode if necessary.
02/21/07 - Bioplastotan - the "Material Of the Future”
 Biophysicists from Krasnoyarsk Institute of Biological Physics of Siberian branch of Russian Academy of Sciences have created a unique biomaterial "Bioplastotan", which people call "material of future" for medicine. Unique characteristic of said material is that the polymer is made by microorganisms with no synthetic materials used, said the head of the laboratory. Thus, the polymer is biocompatible and is able to degrade completely in the environment. This material can find many applications, including medicine, pharmacology, food industry and agriculture. "Bioplastotan" can be used in cardiovascular surgery and transplantology. Fibers of bioplastotan help restoring vessels and disappear without any clots. The material is very stable and can compete with metal prosthetic devices, since it can replace bone tissue.
02/21/07 - Extravagant Luxury (What could we researchers do with that money?)
The Verona luxury fair in northern Italy -- where billionaires find the kinds of things they hope can distinguish themselves from mere millionaires -- can answer that question. The six pavilions teemed with attractive saleswomen pitching helicopters, Ferrari and Bentley cars, 1.5 million euro watches and hot tubs with champagne bottles in silver ice buckets. At one booth, Italian company Aurum showed off its durmast oak parquet flooring covered in 24 carat gold leaf on offer for around 6,800 euros a square meter. The same price could get you a central Milan apartment. How about champagne-washed, diamond-studded, gold-festooned jeans made by jeweler Xipe of Vicenza and Verona fashion company Move easy? They sell for just 150,000 euros ($196,800). An added benefit is that the gold lining the pockets can be worn as bracelets and the belt loops turned into earrings. The button which holds them up is a 4 carat diamond. / I'd be ecstatic if these people would fund my lab!
02/21/07 - First Mobile Clinical Assistant
 (This is another Star Trek device coming online with many other applications. - JWD) The Motion C5, the first product in the MCA category, integrates durable design elements with key point-of-care data and image capture technologies to simplify workflows, ease clinician workloads and improve overall quality of care. Designed based on input from thousands of clinicians worldwide, the C5 brings reliable, automated patient data management directly to the point of care. Intel and Motion conducted extensive user level, ethnographic, human factors, time/motion and clinical workflow research. This research resulted in clear requirements for a purpose-built mobile device. This collaborative effort resulted in development of the Motion C5 - designed with and for clinicians - that is now being implemented in clinician usability studies worldwide. The C5 is the first highly sealed, fully disinfectable computer to integrate into one durable device the relevant technologies important to clinician workflow and productivity. The C5 combines multiple devices into one -- including a built-in barcode and RFID reader for patient identification and supply, specimen and medication administration verification; a built-in camera; and a fingerprint reader to improve security and simplify clinician authentication.
02/21/07 - Russian Scientists To Test Anti-AIDS Medication
Irkutsk research fellows have developed a silver-containing substance, which kills all known pathogenic bacteria. The Favorsky Institute of Chemistry gave finished in vitro tests of the substance. The preparation is now passing toxicity tests, and animal testing starts in two months - test animals will be either rats or rabbits, since their blood composition is most close to human blood. First tests will be performed with AIDS virus, which is expected to be cured with the preparation. The preparation is delivered to damaged cells in a tiny container made of polysaccharides extracted from Siberian larch. These polysaccharides easily penetrate cell walls, thus delivering silver molecules inside the cell.
02/21/07 - Auditors say billions of dollars wasted in Iraq
 (I think it's more like all 500 billion wasted. - JWD) The three top auditors overseeing contract work in Iraq told a House committee of $10 billion in spending that was wasteful or poorly tracked. They pointed to numerous instances in which Defense and State department officials condoned or otherwise allowed poor accounting, repeated work delays, bloated expenses and payments for work shoddily or never done by U.S. contractors. The auditors' joint appearance before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee comes as Congress is preparing for a showdown with President Bush next month over his budget request of nearly $100 billion to pay for more U.S. troops in Iraq. Of the $10 billion in overpriced contracts or undocumented costs, more than $2.7 billion were charged by Halliburton Co., the oil-field services firm once headed by Vice President Dick Cheney. "According to the Pentagon auditors, more than one in six dollars they have audited in Iraq is suspect," Waxman said. "It's no wonder taxpayers across the country are fed up and demanding real oversight."
02/21/07 - The Rising Tide of Acid
Drop a tooth in a can of carbonated soda, and it will eventually dissolve. That's because the carbon dioxide that makes the beverage bubbly also makes it acidic. The same thing is happening with the world's oceans as they take up CO2 released by the burning of fossil fuels. A research cruise through the Pacific Ocean has revealed just how much more acidic the ocean has become over the last 15 years, confirming the predictions of computer models. The changes in acidity, or pH, are quite small, so researchers use so-called spectrophotometric procedures that can detect differences down to 0.001 pH units. These methods were first used at sea on a 1991 cruise in the Pacific from Tahiti to Alaska. Last year, researchers retraced their route to see how things had changed. Acidity was almost exactly the same as before in the deep ocean, 3 to 5 kilometers below the surface. But in the upper 700 meters, the waters had on average become more acidic by 0.025 pH units--matching the prediction of computer models, says Richard Feely, an oceanographer with the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in Seattle, Washington. In addition, dissolved inorganic carbon had become more prevalent in surface waters over the past 15 years. Factoring this in with the change in acidity, Feely and his colleagues calculate that the aragonite saturation horizon is rising rapidly. In the North Pacific, this danger zone is migrating upward through the ocean about 1 meter per year. This change is largely due to human-caused increases in C02, Feely says. Off the California coast, the rate is 5 meters per year, higher perhaps because of changes in ocean currents.
02/21/07 - Super Critical water dissolves Everything Organic
 Scientists of Novosibirsk Institute of Thermal Physics perform a research on finding applications for supercritical water in creating advanced technologies for power and useful materials production from sewage wastes. Water, brought to a critical state under temperatures exceeding 374 C and pressure of 22 mPa, turns out to provide combustion of any organic compound, converting it to energy and water. Research fellows of the institute do not deny the fact that complete splitting of common sewage wastes is possible. Moreover, scientists even know the products: carbon dioxide, potable water and a paste-like substance, suitable for making cement.
02/21/07 - NHS cash-saving light bulb move
About 40 light bulbs have been taken down in hospital corridors to help an NHS trust save money. Epsom and St Helier NHS, which needs to save £24m over 18 months, said it would only know how much cash it would save when it got its next electric bill.
It said some bulbs had been removed from corridors and communal areas and no clinical areas were affected. The trust's annual electric bill is £3m. Tom Brake MP said the "crazy" move would be funny were it not so serious.
02/21/07 - Grocery Industry Prepares for Bird Flu Pandemic
 Will fresh fruits and vegetables, meat, bread, milk and other household staples still be available if the U.S. is hit with an anticipated bird flu pandemic? If state and federal officials urge people to stay away from public places, like restaurants and fast-food establishments, will they be able to get the groceries they need to prepare food in their homes? Unlike other critical infrastructure sectors like water, energy and health care, the food industry isn't getting much help from state and federal governments when it comes to disaster planning. That puts the burden on individual supermarket chains and wholesalers to deal with a potentially large number of sick workers that could affect store operations and disrupt the food supply. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services estimates a third of the population could fall ill if the H5N1 strain of the bird flu mutates into a form that spreads easily from person to person. It's not clear if that will ever happen and no human cases of bird flu have ever been traced to eating properly cooked poultry or eggs. But if a pandemic emerges, the Department of Homeland Security projects worker absenteeism to reach 40 percent or more over a prolonged period. Hammonds said retail food stores would have to contend with worker shortages and disruptions in the supply chain. The Food Marketing Institute's Hammonds said a widespread pandemic will likely cause food consumption to shift away from restaurants and fast-food establishments and toward in-home eating, causing a greater demand for groceries. "That means stores would need to be prepared for an increase in volume," he said. The federal government and public health agencies are urging people to stock up on nonperishable food, like canned goods and dried fruit, to ensure they have to food to eat during a pandemic.
02/21/07 - Skin Fluorescence Indicates Your Age
(This might lead to something else... - JWD) Russian scientists suggested new simple indicator of organism ageing. Scientists of Russian State Medical University (Moscow) suggested using skin health indexes as noninvasive (implying no intervention to a human organism) indicators of organism ageing. Signs of skin ageing are usually easily detected, but we lack scoring methods, which can also become biomarkers for whole organism ageing process. Scientists suggested to use skin fluorescence after being exposed to near UV radiation (with wavelength of 365 nm). They estimated age-specific changes of intrinsic skin fluorescence by means of measuring fingertip fluorescence on a fluorometer. Experiments showed that skin fluorescence increase (wavelength of 420-480 nm) correlates well with chronological age of 20-70 year-old people (correlation coefficient is 0.7). However, some diseases influence skin fluorescence. For example, liquidators of Chernobyl disaster, which aged less than 43, when the disaster happened, showed fluorescence increase acceleration with time. Children with insulin-dependent diabetes showed same tendency for fluorescence increase acceleration. Formation of glycotoxins (cross-linked polymers) in derma is considered to be one of the main reasons for skin age-specific changes and fluorescence fluctuations. Before the toxins are formed, skin matrix proteins are glycosylated, i.e. sugar molecules bind with protein amino groups.
02/20/07 - Universe offers 'eternal feast'
 There is no such thing as a free lunch, some say, but they would be wrong. In fact, the entirety of the universe defies them. According to Stanford physics Professor Andrei Linde, one of the architects of the inflationary theory, our universe (and all the matter in it) was born out of a vacuum. The conventional theory of the Big Bang says that the newborn universe was huge, containing more than 10^80 [ten raised to the power of eighty] tons of matter. But physicists were stumped for an explanation of where all this matter came from. Inflationary theory solves this problem by showing how our universe could emerge from less than a milligram of matter, or perhaps even from literally nothing. For many physicists, it is disturbing to think that the very laws and properties that are the essence of our world might only hold true as long as we remain in that world. "We always wanted to discover the theory of everything that would explain the unique properties of our world, and now we must adjust to the thought that many different worlds are possible," Linde said. But he sees an advantage in what some others could see as a problem: "We finally learned that the inflationary universe is not just a free lunch: It is an eternal feast where all possible dishes are served."
02/20/07 - Science finds new ways to regrow fingers
 There's the guy who sliced off a fingertip but grew it back, after he treated the wound with an extract of pig bladder. And the scientists who grow extra arms on salamanders. And the laboratory mice with the eerie ability to heal themselves. This summer, scientists are planning to see whether the powdered pig extract can help injured soldiers regrow parts of their fingers. And a large federally funded project is trying to unlock the secrets of how some animals regrow body parts so well, with hopes of applying the the lessons to humans. The implications for regrowing fingers go beyond the cosmetic. People who are missing all or most of their fingers, as from an explosion or a fire, often can't pick things up, brush their teeth or button a button. If they could grow even a small stub, it could make a huge difference in their lives. And the lessons learned from studying regrowth of fingers and limbs could aid the larger field of regenerative medicine, perhaps someday helping people replace damaged parts of their hearts and spinal cords, and heal wounds and burns with new skin instead of scar. ACell Inc. makes an extract of pig bladder for promoting healing and tissue regeneration. It helps horses regrow ligaments, for example, and the federal government has given clearance to market it for use in people. Similar formulations have been used in many people to do things like treat ulcers and other wounds and help make cartilage. The powder is mostly collagen and a variety of substances, without any pig cells, said Badylak, who's a scientific adviser to ACell. It forms microscopic scaffolding for incoming human cells to occupy, and it emits chemical signals to encourage those cells to regenerate tissue, he said.
02/20/07 - Lamps of Tomorrow - May, 1945
 IMAGINE lamps that light by radio power, that stay on when they are turned off, and that kill germs in the home. Will future dwellings contain such scientific wonders? In experimental form, these and other appliances as remarkable have already been demonstrated by Samuel G. Hibben, director of applied lighting at the Westinghouse Lamp Division, Bloomfield, N. J.. Just because fluorescent lamps commonly have a tubular shape is no reason for having to make them that way, he points out. He exhibits laboratory samples shaped like globes or dumbbells. Special glasses or ash trays filled with a metallic vapor also are made to glow from radiopower. Besides white and amber lamps for reading, luminous spheres of any color will suit a homeowner’s fancy for decoration. Wiring? That little matter may be ignored, as far as external appearance goes. By way of trial, Hibben suspended a small diathermy machine, which radiates ultrashort radio waves, from the ceiling of his cellar. When he filled a fruit bowl on his dining-room table with fluorescent globes, they lit up to make a rainbow-hued centerpiece. Permanently installed in walls and floors, similar radio equipment could obviate need for certain special light fixtures and outlets, permitting portable lamps to be moved about wherever wanted. Midget versions of bactericidal lamps used in hospitals, which kill germs with ultraviolet rays, could serve a variety of household purposes. One tiny model would keep baby’s bottles germ-free. Also applicable in preserving, it would offer assurance against spoiled batches. A “shoe-tree” lamp of similar type is said to keep shoes free from the organisms of athlete’s foot. Certain minerals become brilliantly luminous under black light-ultraviolet rays from a lamp screened to shut off visible radiance-and night prospectors apply the fact to search for desirable ores (P.S.M., Dec, ‘39, p. 104). For home decoration, the minerals may be pulverized and made into enamel for walls, which glow in handsome hues when illuminated by concealed black-light lamps. An amusing bit of showmanship demonstrates the “lamp that won’t go out.” While Hibben discusses other laboratory developments, he keeps an innocent-looking little bulb burning in a standard screw socket. At length, he calls attention to it, and takes out the bulb. To the observer’s astonishment, it continues to glow as it lies in the palm of his hand. Its secret is a phosphorescent coating, which gives off light for several hours after being activated by the bulb-shaped vapor lamp. In one practical application suggested by the trick, lights of this design could mark fire exits of theaters and other public places, guiding occupants to safety if normal current failed.
02/20/07 - Bacteria Swamps
Brace yourself - your desk, computer, and drawers contain 400 times more bacteria and bugs than the average toilet seat! Of course, we already know this (more or less). It's a perennial "newsflash" designed to scare us into buying disinfectants and other hygiene products. Sex may sell, but fear comes a close second. This "new research" (carried out by a disinfectant manufacturer, natch) did, however, come up with a few tasty morsels: 1. Women's desks look cleaner than men's, but have three or four times the number bacteria looming there. We men may be scruffy, but we're clean where it counts. 2. 75% of women have "munchies" in their desk. I had no idea so much food was being hidden from me. 3. Men's wallets, nicely warmed as they are, are great bacteria incubators - a veritable bug rave. I've overcome this problem by stapling my wallet shut.
02/20/07 - Corncobs for High-Density, Low Pressure Adsorbed Natural Gas Tanks
 Using corncob waste as a starting material, researchers at the University of Missouri-Columbia (MU) and Midwest Research Institute (MRI) in Kansas City have created carbon briquettes with complex nanopores capable of storing natural gas at an unprecedented density of 180 times their own volume and at one-seventh the pressure of conventional natural gas tanks. Used in a natural gas tank, the new storage technology could increase the viability of methane-fueled vehicles. The walls of the nanoporous carbon adsorb methane molecules as a high-density fluid. The strong attractive force in the narrow pores lowers the energy of the molecules so that they can be packed much more closely than in the absence of the carbon. Such a tank is called an adsorbed natural gas (ANG) tank.
02/20/07 - Air Driven Auto goes 80MPH - Dec. 1932
 Climbing steep hills covered with slippery ice is only one of the feats claimed possible for a curious air-driven automobile recently tested at Detroit, Mich. A four-bladed propeller, driven by a 100-horsepower engine, pulls it along like a tractor airplane. With a wheelbase of 132 inches and a weight of approximately 1,500 pounds, the strange machine is said to reach eighty miles an hour and cover thirty miles on a gallon of fuel. Because the wheels roll free and do not drive the car, it is not necessary for them to grip the ground as on a conventional machine. Consequently, the air-driven auto can travel along muddy roads or climb slippery hills without difficulty. To hold the machine on the road when it is going at high speeds, the front of the body top is slanted so the propeller’s blast strikes it at an angle, pressing downward. Wire guards surround the
whirling propeller blades to prevent accidents. According to tests, the inventor reports, the five-foot propeller gives four times as much forward drive to the machine as could be obtained by conventional rear-drive wheels, enabling the car to carry from six to eight people easily. A new 800-pound, three-passenger model is now under construction in which will be incorporated many refinements in the design. It is expected to cover forty miles on a single gallon of gasoline and will be able to attain a top speed of almost two miles a minute without running the danger of leaving the road or overturning.
02/20/07 - China's Brain Drain
China, the giant of Asia and the country many see as the rising world power, may be suffering from an acute case of 'brain drain.' A new report from the China Daily indicates that two-thirds of the Chinese students who study abroad do not return to China. Of the 100,000 students who have gone abroad since 2002, only 20,000 to 30,000 have chosen to go back and live in China. Unfortunately for China, this number likely includes some of China's most talented scholars; leading at least one of the authors, Li Xiaoli, to conclude that China is in "dire need of people of expertise." Some now argue that the Chinese government needs to foster an atmosphere that will encourage students to return home after their studies.
02/20/07 - T-Rays Advance Toward Airport Screening
 A new laser design helps create usable terahertz radiation, which penetrates common materials but doesn't harm tissue. The rays are particularly attractive: they can see through clothing, paper, leather, plastic, wood, and ceramics. They don't penetrate as well as x-rays, but they also don't damage living tissue. And they can read spectroscopic signatures, detecting the difference between, say, hair gel and an explosive. Qing Hu, a professor in MIT's Research Laboratory of Electronics, has designed pinhead-size lasers that can produce 250 milliwatts at 4.3 terahertz, and slightly less than 100 milliwatts at 1.5 terahertz. That's enough power to send a beam over a distance of several meters, bounce it off an object, and use the return signal to create an instantaneous image. Instead of imaging one pixel at a time, the t-rays could be picked up by a focal plane array, like the detector in a video camera. This would allow security personnel to see under coats and into suitcases as people walk by. "We are able to make a movie in t-rays," Hu says, meaning that his technology can provide real-time imaging. The key to Hu's technology is a quantum cascade laser, tiny semiconductor with nanometer-scale indentations called quantum wells etched into it.
02/20/07 - Venture Vehicles 3-Wheel, Tilting Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicle
 In addition to the low-emission, flex-fuel hybrid model, Venture Vehicles is also developing a zero-emission all-electric version that will have an all-electric range of nearly 200 miles. Two in-wheel 25 kW electric pancake motors will power the two rear wheels, with a small (15 to 20 kW) flex-fuel genset providing on-road recharging. The hybrid will use a 3 kWh li-ion pack from A123Systems. When garaged, it need only be plugged into a household outlet.
02/20/07 - Five easy ways to make someone happy
The Happiness Project, a blog about (you guessed it) happiness, has posted five simple things you can do to totally make someone's day. - Help people think big. Nothing is more encouraging than a friend throwing out some huge goal and saying, "You should do that!" "You should write a book, you should start your own firm, you should run for office, you should join the Council on Foreign Relations." You never know, sometimes one encouraging comment can have extraordinary effect on someone's life. (and more at the lifehacker.com link)
02/20/07 - Colorful murals on brutal Russian tower-blocks
 (What a neat way to tune and brighten up ugly buildings. - JWD) The residences of Ramenskoye (southeast of Moscow) are painted with giant, colorful murals that run the whole height and breadth of these enormous, brutalist apartment blocks.
02/20/07 - How Conspiratorial are You?
 A new BBC TV series explores some of the biggest and most troubling conspiracy theories of modern times. Do you trust everything you are told or do you think there is usually truth in conspiracies? Psychologist Dr Patrick Leman, of the Royal Holloway University of London, has devised a test to see how conspiratorial you are. Once you have answered all 15 questions press submit and we will calculate your score. You will then be able to read Dr Leman's analysis.
02/20/07 - DIY under-desk gadget mount
 (What a cool way to organize all those wires and boxes! - JWD) Organized gadget owner Van Mardian cleared his desktop by mounting all his peripherals - external hard drives, USB hubs, network router - under his desk with pegboard and wire. For under 35 bucks, Mardian hung pegboard under his Ikea desk and threaded wire through it to stow all his gadgets and wires, completely clearing the top area. This coupled with Adam's cord management solution would make for an attractive, sparse desktop with lots of elbow room. (the link with details and this info is from lifehacker.com)
02/19/07 - Atmospheric Vortex engine creates energy via rising heat
 Imagine creating and then harnessing the power of a tornado to help feed society’s thirst for renewable energy. Louis Michaud of Sarnia, Ont., a former Imperial Oil engineer, has come up with a way to create and control a tornado-like vortex, then tap into the energy produced. What feeds the vortex is a supply of heat. The atmospheric vortex engine requires a cylindrical wall at the base in order to keep the tornado stationary and under control. The air inside the wall is heated moderately through upstream deflectors to create the circular motion of a vortex. The process is based on the principal of atmospheric convection, which takes place when the sun heats the ground, causing the hot, moist air to rise. "You’re doing nothing more than what’s being done naturally," Michaud said. Turbines could be installed within the base to capture the circular motion of the vortex, producing clean, renewable electricity. The heat source to sustain the vortex can be waste industrial heat or warm sea water, Michaud said. The larger the diameter of the cylindrical wall, the larger and more powerful the vortex. Michaud said a base 50 to 500 metres in diameter and 50 to 150 metres in height could produce a tornado up to 15 kilometres high. Power output from such a station could range from 100 to 500 megawatts, he said. According to Michaud, 200 megawatts of power generated by the atmospheric vortex engine would be enough to power 25,000 households. With a working one-metre-diameter atmospheric vortex engine in his garage, Michaud has proven the concept works. The next step would be a four-metre-wide working model constructed at the university at a cost of roughly $300,000. Michaud said he hopes to find funding to build a vortex engine in the Sarnia area measuring about 10 metres in diameter, not only to prove the concept works, but also to use it as an attraction as well. A similar invention, a solar chimney power plant, was built in Spain in the 1980s but proved to be inefficient and not feasible. / Additional info from Harlow Short refers to this Russian site about Schauberger technology. I'd seen it before a year or two ago, but didn't recall it for this.
02/19/07 - Microbes govern Fat
 Dr. Jeffrey Gordon, from the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, is also looking for factors that contribute to obesity. He's been studying microbes that live in the gut, and has found that the types of bacteria found in the stomach vary between obese and lean mice. Not only that, but by transferring these bacteria into other mice, he can influence whether they'll turn out skinny or fat. In a similar vein, Dr. Nikhil Dhurandhar is also looking at microbes. But he's studying viruses. He's found a virus that infects chickens, and makes them gain weight. He's tested humans and found that some obese people carry the same virus, suggesting it may be infecting us, too.
02/19/07 - American Belief in Pseudoscience on the Rise
People in the U.S. know more about basic science today than they did two decades ago, good news that researchers say is tempered by an unsettling growth in the belief in pseudoscience such as astrology and visits by extraterrestrial aliens. In 1988 only about 10 percent knew enough about science to understand reports in major newspapers, a figure that grew to 28 percent by 2005, according to Jon D. Miller, a Michigan State University professor. One problem, she said, is that pseudoscience can speak to the meaning of life in ways that science does not. Pseudoscience discussion is often absent from the classroom, Losh said, so "we have basically left it up to the media.''
02/19/07 - The Other side of Global Warming claims
 "The claim that global warming is the result of human activity and not an entirely natural, cyclical phenomenon is the greatest deception of the 21st century so far - and a direct consequence of the politicization of modern science, environmentalism and the mainstream media." "GWH.com site is designed as your one-stop shop for the latest news, evidence and linked resources to help you cure the most serous global pandemic yet - Green Alarmism Madness." / A whois for the site led to 3 other sites who are now all moved to Peter Glover's Wires - Politics, the media, culture & news analysis with Judeo-Christian values (the basis of all Western civilization) - and a dash of English humour.
02/19/07 - How blind can some people be?
02/19/07 - Daylight Savings Time extended by 4 WEEKS in 2007
 A provision of the U.S. Energy Policy Act of 2005, extends Daylight Saving Time (DST) in the US by four weeks, beginning in 2007. Systems and applications that process dates and times using the U.S. DST rules will be affected by this change. Date and time processing functions in systems and applications in countries implementing the new DST rules (U.S., Canada, Bermuda) are affected. Systems and applications in countries not implementing the DST changes could be affected if they support users, transactions, or applications involving countries that are implementing the new DST rules. For example, scheduling or synchronizing problems may arise where systems use date or time stamps relating to transactions in other countries. Applications or systems that interact with the U.S. involving calendar notices should be updated. Any time-sensitive functions could be impacted by this change.
02/19/07 - Nanotech Battery Claims to Solve Electric Car Woes
"A123 Systems claims to have invented a Lithium Ion battery that not only can discharge at very high rates of current but can be recharged very quickly without damage to the cells or overheating. From their website: 'A unique feature of A123Systems' M1 cells is their ability to charge to high capacity in 5 minutes or less. That's a significant improvement over traditional Li Ion, which typically requires more than 90 minutes to reach a similar level of charge.' Using this technology, General Motors has announced a plug-in hybrid SUV and Venture Vehicles is developing a fully electric 3 wheel vehicle. Politics aside, the main technological hurdle to mass adoption of electric cars has been a fuel station replacement when driving distances beyond a single charge worth of range. Will we finally be seeing high current recharge stations in the next decade?"
02/19/07 - Interstellar Ark
 "There are three strategies to travel 10.5 light-years from Earth to Epsilon Eridani and bring humanity into a new stellar system : 1) Wait for future discovery of Star Trek physics and go there almost instantaneously, 2) Build a relativistic rocket powered by antimatter and go there in 22 years by accelerating constantly at 1g, provided that you master stellar amounts of energy (so, nothing realistic until now), but what about 3): go there by classical means, by building a gigantic Ark of several miles in radius, propulsed by nuclear fusion and featuring artificial gravity, oceans and cities, for a travel of seven centuries - where many generations of men and women would live ? This new speculation uses some actual physics and math to figure out how far are our fantasies of space travel from their actual implementation." / Space Ark Project
02/19/07 - CO2 and Green Concrete
We're worried about the emissions from our cars, but how about the roads? Cement production is actually a major contributor to worldwide carbon dioxide emissions. Production of concrete's key component, cement, accounts for at least five percent of global carbon dioxide emissions. Current cement manufacturing methods require very high temperatures, resulting in high carbon dioxide emissions. Ulm and his team are looking for a different mineral to use in cement that would give it an equally strong nanostructure, but would not need as much heat.
02/19/07 - the Bullshit Detector Watch
 This watch not only tells the time, but flashes, moos, and poops at the same time. This watch tells it like it is, where pressing a single button will express your feelings. Imagine people enquiring about the strange sounds that they hear, only to receive a retort from you that it is your B.S. detector hard at work. You can pick up the Universal Bullshit Detector Watch for $39.95 today. Only those with a healthy sense of humor need apply, while the rest of the tight-lipped population had better avoid this at all costs.
02/19/07 - Top 10 Problems with the Kyoto Treaty
1) The United States, the world's biggest man-made greenhouse gas emitter -- 20.6% of all global emissions as of 2000 -- refuses to participate, arguing it would irreparably damage its economy and makes no demands on the developing world. / 2) China, the world's second-biggest emitter (14.8%), is exempt from reducing greenhouse gases because it's a developing country. / 3) The 27-member European Union, collectively the world's third-biggest emitter (14%), undeservedly benefits from the economic collapse of East Germany following the meltdown of the Soviet Union in 1989, not because of anything East Germany ever did to reduce greenhouse gases. / 4) Similarly, Russia -- the world's fourth-biggest emitter (5.7%) -- undeservedly benefits from having huge "emission credits" to sell to other countries, not because of anything it did to reduce greenhouse gases, but because its economy also collapsed around 1990 (Kyoto's base year) after the fall of the Soviet Union. / 5) India, the world's fifth-biggest emitter (5.5%), is exempt because it's also a developing country. / 6) Australia, the world's biggest per-capita emitter of carbon dioxide due to its heavy reliance on coal, refuses to participate in Kyoto. Even if it did, it would be allowed to increase its emissions by 8%. / 7) Almost 850 coal-fired energy plants planned by China (562), India (213) and the U.S. (72) over the next few years -- none covered by Kyoto -- will pump an estimated five times more carbon dioxide into the air than Kyoto removes, even if every other country hits its 2012 emission targets, which they won't. / 8) Canada, which produces 2.1% of global greenhouse gas emissions making us the world's ninth-biggest emitter, is 35% behind our 2012 Kyoto target due to years of inaction by the previous Liberal government -- which locked us into the treaty -- followed by a year of inaction by the Tories. / 9) Kyoto is mainly about transferring wealth from the first world to the third through the purchase of "emission credits" and the like, not reducing greenhouse gases. / 10) Kyoto's unenforceable.
02/19/07 - Video - Homopolar Screw motor effect
 This experiment uses a top mounted magnet with 4 disc magnets mounted on a screw with the tip touching the positive terminal of a battery. The top mounted magnet suspends the magnet/screw assembly for minimal contact resistance. When the negative connecting wire from the battery is momentarily touched to the edge of the 4 magnet stack, the entire assembly spins. Simple, clean, efficient. / A homopolar generator produces direct-current when the poles are presented to the armature such that all are of the same polarity, so that the voltage generated in active conductors has the same polarity at all times; a pure direct current is thus produced, without commutation.
02/19/07 - Suppressed Report Shows Cancer Link to GM Potatoes
"After an 8-year-long court battle, Welsh activists have finally been allowed to released a Russian study showing an increased cancer risk linked to eating genetically modified potatoes. While the victory of the Welsh Greenpeace members in the courtroom would seem to vindicate the work of the Russian scientists that did the original research, there are still serious questions to be answered. The trials involved rats being fed several types of potatoes as feed. The rats who were fed GM potatoes suffered much more extensive damage to their organs than with any other type; just the same, serious questions remain about the validity of the findings. The Welsh group wants to use this information to stop the testing of GM crops in the UK, tests currently slated for the spring of this year."
02/19/07 - Video - Disney Cartoon of Nazi Indoctrination of Children
 (I couldn't help but be reminded of the very misguided Christian madrasas as depicted in the frightening documentary, 'Jesus Camp', as well as the Muslim madrasas, all designed to warp kids to sociopathic ends. - JWD) Walt Disney's "The Story of One of 'Hitler's Children'" is a vintage anti-Nazi propaganda toon that inflames your sense of justice by showing how an innocent German baby could be twisted into a goose-stepping fascist by the machinery of the Reich. (via boingboing.net) / Muslim Madrasas - Turning Children into Enemies - As disturbing as it is to fight a committed terrorist movement, it would be far more disturbing to face an entire generation of Muslim children who are poisoned against the West. Impoverished multitudes usually don't rise to power, but with Saudi financing, repressive regimes, a huge population boom that includes an entire generation of unemployed young men, the absence of a moderate middle class, intellectual hatred of the West, and nowhere else for children to go but the madrasa, the enmity of Islam against the U.S. is all but set in stone. We cannot combat the entire Arab world. / Christian Madrasas - Jesus Camp - A wake-up call for liberals and progressive Christians about the training of evangelical children soldiers in the culture wars. - Cut to the flickering images of children writhing in a spiritual trance on a chapel floor while being hectored about the glory of dying for Christ, and one knows exactly where the first Christian suicide bombers will come from. - It makes an unsettling case that America is fast becoming the thing it professes to hate.
02/18/07 - Plasma Converter - Trash to Clean Energy
 “There’s no flame or fire inside. It’s just electricity,” Lynch assures me of the multimillion-dollar system that took Longo almost two decades to design and build. Then the two usher me into the lab, where the gleaming 15-foot-tall machine they’ve named the Plasma Converter stands in the center of the room. The entire thing takes up about as much space as a two-car garage, surprisingly compact for a machine that can consume nearly any type of waste-from dirty diapers to chemical weapons-by annihilating toxic materials in a process as old as the universe itself. Called plasma gasification, it works a little like the big bang, only backward (you get nothing from something). Inside a sealed vessel made of stainless steel and filled with a stable gas-either pure nitrogen or, as in this case, ordinary air-a 650-volt current passing between two electrodes rips electrons from the air, converting the gas into plasma. Current flows continuously through this newly formed plasma, creating a field of extremely intense energy very much like lightning. The radiant energy of the plasma arc is so powerful, it disintegrates trash into its constituent elements by tearing apart molecular bonds. The system is capable of breaking down pretty much anything except nuclear waste, the isotopes of which are indestructible. The only by-products are an obsidian-like glass used as a raw material for numerous applications, including bathroom tiles and high-strength asphalt, and a synthesis gas, or “syngas”-a mixture of primarily hydrogen and carbon monoxide that can be converted into a variety of marketable fuels, including ethanol, natural gas and hydrogen. Perhaps the most amazing part of the process is that it’s self-sustaining. Just like your toaster, Startech’s Plasma Converter draws its power from the electrical grid to get started. The initial voltage is about equal to the zap from a police stun gun. But once the cycle is under way, the 2,200°F syngas is fed into a cooling system, generating steam that drives turbines to produce electricity. About two thirds of the power is siphoned off to run the converter; the rest can be used on-site for heating or electricity, or sold back to the utility grid. “Even a blackout would not stop the operation of the facility,” Longo says.
02/18/07 - Mesothelioma Cancer from Hugging?
A woman who claims that hugging her father caused her to get cancer is to sue the Ministry of Defence for £75,000. Debra Brewer, 47, has an asbestos-related form of lung cancer called mesothelioma. Her condition is terminal. An inquest into his death in August 2006 found he had died from small cell lung cancer linked to asbestos. Mrs Brewer said she remembered he would always arrive home from work covered in dust but as a young child she never imagined that as she played with her dad, the dust he was coated in could be life-threatening. She said she first started having breathing difficulties in 1994 but was not diagnosed with mesothelioma until November last year. It is understood cases of mesothelioma, cancer of the lining of the lung, can lie dormant for 40 years before surfacing.
02/18/07 - You can SUE telemarketers
 I dread answering the house phone because I am certain half of the calls are telemarketers. But did you know you can turn that daily nuisance into a paycheck? André-Tascha Lammé was granted a judgment of $3,500 last month, and he’s making a living out of it. Lammé started getting pelted with calls from mortgage brokers last year, just as his adjustable rate mortgage was about to reset. Like many consumers, he quickly reached the boiling point over the frequent interruptions. But unlike many consumers, the computer programmer took the time to educate himself - perhaps owing to the spirit of his grandmother, a lawyer for several decades - and quickly discovered the Telephone Consumer Protection Act. “It specifically deals with unwanted calls,” he said. “For each violation, there is a $500 penalty.” Who gets that money? The call recipient. Lammé read on and found he didn’t have to hire a high-priced attorney to pursue the penalty fees - he could file the case himself. And thanks to technology and the ‘internet’ you can file the cases online! “It only took me five or 10 minutes to file,” he says. “No more than a half-hour total.” In two prior cases, Lammé didn’t even have to go to court. Two other companies settled with him for about $2,500 after he filed his case. But don’t go filing suits against your telephone company, or anyone you have signed a contract with - you probably signed away your right to sue them. The key is to file under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, which Congress states penalties should award the consumer. (via lifehacker.com)
02/18/07 - Video - 5 Tricks for Free Drinks
 I must first point out that I'm in no way advocating con artists. Not at all. These are harmless pranks to play on good friends and co-workers. And dare I say it, you may even want to try them on family, maybe that wierd uncle that never buys your a Birthday gift. The main theme of all these hustles is something called a Propostion Bet. Basically, a proposition bet is a challenge which looks like it only has one outcome...and it does...it always favors the person placing the wager. That's because you know something the other folks don't. You know the 'challenge' is always going to go your way. Always. A show in Britain called "The Real Hustle' does these bets often as a way to show you how much fun they can be, and also how to avoid getting caught out by them. So, here we go. My Top 5 free drink hustles, in no particular order.
02/18/07 - Call for "neuroethics" as brain science races ahead
 The news that brain scanners can now read a person's intentions before they are expressed or acted upon has given a new boost to the fledgling field of neuroethics that hopes to help researchers separate good uses of their work from bad. The same discoveries that could help the paralyzed use brain signals to steer a wheelchair or write on a computer might also be used to detect possible criminal intent, religious beliefs or other hidden thoughts, these neuroethicists say. "The potential for misuse of this technology is profound," said Judy Illes, director of the Stanford University neuroethics program in California. "This is a truly urgent situation." The new boost came from a research paper published last week that showed neuroscientists can now not only locate the brain area where a certain thought occurs but probe into that area to read out some kinds of thought occurring there.
02/18/07 - Water Walker to restore leg muscles
 Doug Johnson's sports-weakened legs, knees and ankles lead him to invent an aquatic exercise and therapy device that's now marketed around the world. Johnson took up swimming about six years ago to help strengthen his legs. One day he donned a pair of plastic hand paddles while swimming and was amazed by the buoyancy and resistance they provided. Using a few pieces of scrap wood, several hinges and a pair of sandals, Johnson in 2001 created a crude prototype to be worn while doing in-pool walking exercises. The following year, while awaiting patent approval, he began producing the 2½-pound plastic Water Walker at Minot-based Terhorst Manufacturing. The Burdenko Water Walker works by using hinged flaps plane out during downward leg motion producing increased water density and resistance. The Water Walker de-planes on the upward stroke, reducing density and resistance. "It gives you an incredible workout," said Burdenko, whose clients include professional athletes, dancers and figure skaters. Burdenko has designed 22 exercises to help strengthen and tone muscles, improve balance, coordination, flexibility, endurance, speed and strength. In September, he introduced the Burdenko Water Walker to therapists working with injured soldiers at Walter Reed Medical Center in Washington, D.C. The injured included young men and women with limb paralysis and upper- and lower-body range-of-motion limitation. Many were Iraq war amputees, Burdenko said. The device has been used to help multiple sclerosis and Parkinson's disease patients, and people with hip replacements and spinal chord injuries, he said.
02/18/07 - Robot Cook for Chinese food
 "With the preparation of Chinese food in mind," the robot cook rules the kitchen of the future, promises a patent application awarded yesterday to a Mr. Dawei Dong. Accompanied by an appropriately-equipped and laid-out kitchen arrangement, the robot could be installed in restaurants, trucks, or, for the rich and insane, one's own home. "Vending machines are one example of a food service system with minimal human intervention. The chief drawback to vending machines is their limited menu, and their inability to offer freshly prepared, hot food. Quick service (fast food) restaurants can supply freshly prepared, hot food, but those operations are very labor intensive. Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a method of preparing food automatically, so that labor requirements are reduced. ... It is still another object of the present invention to provide an entertaining dining experience."  U.S. Patent 7174830
02/18/07 - Invention for 2 Wheeler Flat Tire Misery
(It is a pain to push a motorcycle or bicycle with a flat tire, so this is a neat new thing. - JWD) With an Indian patent, called the modular portable castor wheel stand, Aurangabad-based entrepreneur Anant Limaye, who invented it, said he will now talk to two-wheeler manufacturers and dealers across the state to make it available as one of the standard accessories. The product will be commercially available for Rs 375 per set from March 15 onwards, Limaye said. "Pune being the twowheeler city of the country, we thought of introducing the product here first before taking it to other places," he said, explaining that it took him as many as four years to develop the product. Limaye said the idea of developing the 'X wheels' came to him after he saw a motorcyclist walking along helplessly with his wife and two kids, pushing his punctured vehicle. The mechanical device - a portable one - is fitted on to the rear wheel of the vehicle, and can be used in case of a flat tyre. "We are also in the final stage of developing a similar product for the front wheel," he said, adding that he has already invested Rs 1.5 crore in the project. "It's like two wheels - one on each side of the rear tyre - acting like a stand, and allowing easy movement of the vehicle with a flat tyre," he said.
02/18/07 - Batman's Utility Belt to Help Scale Walls
 A 23-year-old inventor has come up with a tool to give mere mortals the powers of a superhero: the ability to zoom up a rope as fast as 10 feet per second and scale the side of a building. The battery-powered, handheld gadget is envisioned as a tool for firefighters and soldiers. Ball collaborated with three fellow MIT students to refine the design from the competition and create the Powered Rope Ascender, a product of the startup company they founded, Atlas Devices. Using high-density, lithium-ion batteries, the device, including its harness, weighs 20 pounds and can propel a person up an anchored rope at 10 feet per second, Ball said. It also can be used to climb down. The device wraps rope in much the same way that a ship raises or lowers its anchor, using a capstan and tightly wound rope. Specially configured rollers and a spindle continuously pull rope through the device. A tighter grip is produced each time the rope is wrapped around a cylinder and more weight is applied to the line. Scaling a structure using the device requires that the building be equipped with ropes anchored at rooftop level a feature Ball says could be added to buildings as a safety measure. ...more info...
02/18/07 - It's time for tech to rein in energy waste
With fossil fuel combustion and energy use responsible for most greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S., large-scale reductions need to take place--from the manufacturing to the consumption of energy itself. To make this a priority, energy use needs to become highly visible on the world scene.
We recently calculated the energy consumed by data centers, a critical sector of the IT industry. The findings show that in the U.S. alone, millions of servers--the backbone of our IT infrastructure--run every second of every day of the year, consuming 45 billion kilowatt-hours annually. That's enough electricity to power the state of Mississippi. The cost is no less shocking. Data centers run up about $2.7 billion in energy bills in the U.S. alone and $7.2 billion across the world. What's more, the study shows that data center power consumption has roughly doubled from 2000 to 2005. Faced with such growth rates, delivering the technology that the world demands without delivering as power-efficient products as possible is quite simply an unsustainable model.
02/18/07 - Game helps Correct Behavioral Errors
 The game is called My Rewards, and Clavet created it 12 years ago as a contrivance to get her daughter, a finicky eater, to ingest more than one food group. With a little help from the game, the child was soon consuming a balanced diet. Later the simple but clever game was used as a potty training tool, with the same positive results. Clavet’s children loved the game, and it has since been used successfully in her family for homework completion, household chores or anything the family decides. Though it’s only a game, the concept provides a way for families to deal with behavioral issues in a positive manner. My Rewards is played on a colorful board, and it comes with four multicolored magnetic game pieces called “movers” that travel down a curved path toward a pot of gold, the reward. The parent sets the rules and picks the reward, or the children can set their own goals. Good behavior propels the child’s mover toward the reward; inappropriate behavior sends the mover backward. The first game was made in the family garage; the background was a simple bulletin board, and the movers were merely push pins. But now the board is bright and slick, and the magnets are fun to move back and forth. Well, maybe just forth. “Kids love it,” Clavet said. Though Clavet is talking with Wal-Mart to sell her product, so far the only way to get a game is to order it from Clavet’s Web site at www.myrewardsgame.us. They will soon be available at Daniella’s Boudoir in Yucca Valley. The game sells for $19.99.
02/18/07 - Driver’s License as Crime-Fighting Tool?
 Critics say the databases may therefore also represent a profound threat to privacy. “What is the D.M.V.?” asked Lee Tien, a lawyer with the Electronic Frontier Foundation and a privacy advocate. “Does it license motor vehicles and drivers? Or is it really an identification arm of law enforcement?” Anne L. Collins, the Massachusetts registrar of motor vehicles, said that people seeking a driver’s license at least implicitly consent to allowing their images to be used for other purposes. “It’s probably one of the more inaccurate biometrics,” Mr. Smith said, referring to facial-recognition technologies. After computers narrow the field of potential matches, Ms. Conlon and her colleagues get to work. “We don’t look at hair,” Ms. Conlon said. “We do look at lips, noses, ears.” Scars and tattoos can be useful, but what seem to be birthmarks are often passing blemishes. Some people make it easy by wearing the same clothes, though they are seeking licenses under different names. They have, Ms. Conlon said, “a registry outfit.” The program, in place since April, has yielded more than 1,000 apparent fraud cases referred to the state police. Other potential matches identified by the computers and confirmed by analysts have turned out to be clerical errors where, for instance, the wrong information was attached to a person’s photograph. In the six months ending in January, analysts found 157 twins among the images flagged as potential matches. The database’s second function, as a resource for law enforcement agencies, is growing in popularity. Police chiefs from around the state e-mail digital photographs for comparison with the database, sometimes several times a day.
02/17/07 - Video - Super Sky Cycle : Flying Motorcycle
 (I want one! This would be great anywhere but especially in Mexico...any of you rich folks out there who have more money than you can spend, send one down to me! Thanks! - JWD) Former test pilot Larry Neal of Boyd, Texas created this awesome flying machine called the Super Sky Cycle (basically a flying bike - technically a cross between a motorcycle and an autogyro). The flying bike goes as fast as 70 mph in the air and 60 mph on the road, and sells for around $25,000US. When running as a motorcycle, it has a range of about 300 miles. With wings folded the patented SkyCycle will fit through a 7 foot wide garage door. The Butterly, LLC factory is located near Bridgeport in Wise County, Texas and other models are being tested with car-type bodies.
02/17/07 - Organic Thermoelectric Material
 Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, have successfully generated electricity from heat by trapping organic molecules between metal nanoparticles to create an organic thermoelectric material. The new UC Berkeley study marks the first time the Seebeck effect has been measured in an organic molecule. The discovery, described in a study published today in Science Express, could lead to the development of more cost-effective thermoelectric converters that could be applied to waste heat recovery-including in vehicles. /
Scientists Generate Electricity in Novel Way - A new technique for converting heat into electricity could lead the way to new, more efficient energy sources. Researchers say they have successfully generated electricity from heat by trapping organic molecules between metal nanoparticles, a finding that could yield cheap refrigerators, not to mention new, more efficient energy sources in general. Currently, about 90 percent of the world’s electricity is generated by burning fossil fuels, which creates heat, often in the form of steam. The steam spins a turbine that drives a generator to produce electricity. But this method is indirect, and in the process, plenty of heat is wasted and its energy goes uncaptured. “Generating 1 watt of power requires about 3 watts of heat input and involves dumping into the environment the equivalent of about 2 watts of power in the form of heat,” said lead author Arun Majumdar of the University of California at Berkeley. For the past 50 years, scientists have been exploring ways to use this wasted heat. “If even a fraction of the lost heat can be converted into electricity in a cost-effective manner,” Majumdar said, “the impact it would have on energy can be enormous, amounting to massive savings of fuel and reductions in carbon dioxide emissions.”
02/17/07 - Two 40MPG+ cars in US /113 40MPG+ cars in EU
In an update of its own December 2005 research, CSI/40MPG.org found that the number of vehicles sold in the U.S. that achieve combined gas mileage of at least 40 miles per gallon (MPG) has dropped from five in 2005 to just two in 2007, while the ranks of such vehicles available overseas -- but not sold in the U.S. -- rose from 86 to 113 in the same time period. Adding insult to injury, nearly two thirds (74 or 65 percent) of the 113 highly fuel-efficient car models that are unavailable to American consumers are either made by U.S. auto manufacturers (e.g., Ford and GM) or foreign manufacturers with substantial U.S. sales operations (e.g., Volkswagen, Nissan and Toyota).
02/17/07 - VEGE - The Hydroponic Plant Growing Appliance
 The VEGE is a hydroponic growing station that is about the size of a refrigerator, allowing you to grow herbs, veggies, and marijuana without having to set foot outside. It doses out the perfect amount of light and gives your budding plants nutrient cocktails to make sure they grow just the way they should. This is just a concept at the moment, but perhaps you lazy green thumbs out there will get to pick one of these up sooner or later.
02/17/07 - Alternative-Fuel Power Boat set for world circumnavigation attempt
 Circumnavigating the globe represents the pinnacle of powerboat challenges, and at 24,000 nautical miles, is also the world's longest race. The current record of 75 days was set by British boat Cable & Wireless in 1998 and the most curious aspect is that outright record is still safely held by sail power (The World’s Fastest Catamaran), at 50 days 16 hours. The 1,200 horsepower Earthrace aims to smash the powered record by completing the voyage in less than 65 days, but is unlikely to get near Orange II’s wind-powered record. Wave piercing is a key element in the boat’s design, as it allows the 78ft wave piercing tri-maran to run continuously at high speed in any conditions. The boat is powered by two 540 HP Cummins MerCruiser Diesel engines (QSC8.3-540) would be the first vessel to break a major powerboat record while running solely on alternative fuels. Earthrace is a 78-foot wave-piercing trimaran designed by New Zealand naval architect Craig Loomis Design Group and built by Calibre Boats. To ensure the lowest weight and highest strength possible, the hull is constructed of carbon fiber with a top layer of Kevlar and is designed to cut through waves, rather than ride on top of them.
02/17/07 - Space Lasers Detect Big Lakes Under Antarctica
 Lasers beamed from space have detected what researchers have long suspected: big sloshing lakes of water underneath Antarctic ice. These lakes, some stretching across hundreds of square miles (km), fill and drain so dramatically that the movement can be seen by a satellite looking at the icy surface of the southern continent, glaciologists reported in Thursday's editions of the journal Science. Global warming did not create these big pockets of water -- they lie beneath some 2,300 feet of compressed snow and ice, too deep to be affected by temperature changes on the surface -- but knowing how they behave is important to understanding the impact of climate change on the Antarctic ice sheet, study author Helen Fricker said by telephone. About 90 percent of the world's fresh water is locked in the thick ice cap that covers Antarctica; if it all melts, scientists estimate it could cause a 23-foot (7-meter) rise in world sea levels. Even a 39-inch (1-meter) sea level rise could cause havoc in coastal and low-lying areas around the globe, according to a World Bank study released this week.
02/17/07 - Earth's Constant Hum Explained
"It has been known for some time that there is a constant hum that emanates from the Earth, which can be heard near 10 millihertz on a seismometer. The problem was that nobody knew what caused it. It has now been shown that it is caused by waves on the bottom of the sea, and more specifically 'by the combination of two waves of the same frequency travelling in opposite directions.'" / No-one was sure what source of energy could be causing the constant vibrations, which have a frequency of just a few millihertz - well below the limits of human hearing.
02/17/07 - $25 Million Offer to Remove CO2 from atmosphere
 Billionaire Richard Branson has announced a $25 million prize for anyone who creates a system that removes at least one billion tons of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere in each of ten years. Removing carbon dioxide is key here. Anyone who has read global-warming studies or seen Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth knows that even if we stop increasing greenhouse gases and level off carbon dioxide, much damage has already been done. Nearly every scientist in the field agrees that human consumption of fossil fuels has already caused global temperatures to climb and ancient ice in Greenland and Antarctica to melt as seas slowly begin to rise. Branson has added a caveat to his prize. The winner gets $5 million up front but must wait ten years to validate the system to get the other $20 million. Winners will have to find their own financing in the meantime, though Branson has said that he will help promising technologies find funding if their inventors are having trouble.
02/17/07 - Congress Tackles Patent Reform
Litigation and poor patent quality can have "chilling effects" on research in areas such as network technologies where open standards are critical, said Mark Myers, a former vice president at Xerox and one-time chairman of the National Academies committee on intellectual property rights. Myers also described the United States Patent and Trademark Office as being "crushed" by its workload. "We had a great expansion of patenting in the technology period of the '90s," he said. "At the same time, we did not increase the number of patent examiners proportionate to the workload." Every year, the patent office receives around 160,000 patent applications, far more than its staff can handle. The office issues approximately 100 patents every working hour, Myers said, meaning that patents with little merit or litigious intent often sneak through the cracks. How else to explain a patent for an idea as inane as "a method of swinging on a swing"? Patents of poor quality also inspire patent speculators (commonly known as "patent trolls"), said Daniel Ravicher, the executive director of the Public Patent Foundation, a nonprofit legal group that campaigns for the public interest. Setting the patent bar low stymies innovation and leads to "thickets of patents that choke out first inventors," Ravicher said. So how to fix the system? Witnesses said one of the most important steps would be to raise the standards for an idea to be patentable. Congress should mandate a strong post-grant review procedure to cut down on expensive lawsuits and allow complainants to bring evidence to the patent office directly.
02/17/07 - Inconvenient Truth Paramount's most profitable film
 The anti-war sentiment in the entertainment community is as pervasive as it was during Vietnam. Yet there are many other cross-currents as well -- and they are strengthening as the '08 campaign looms. Hollywood loves box office, and Al Gore's documentary, "An Inconvenient Truth," has become Paramount's single most profitable release. Suddenly Gore is a star again. / Gore not running in '08 - "I have no intention to run for president," Gore said in an interview conducted in Los Angeles and broadcast Thursday by the BBC. He has since been crisscrossing the globe with his documentary "An Inconvenient Truth," a blistering indictment of pollution that warns against ecological catastrophe by climate change. Gore announced Thursday in Los Angeles a massive 24-hour global concert to save the planet from global warming, patterned after the awareness-raising Live 8 concert about world poverty. Called Live Earth, shows are planned on July 7 in Shanghai, Sydney, Johannesburg, and London, and yet-undecided sites in Brazil, Japan, the United States, and possibly other countries. Gore was the US negotiator for the international Kyoto Protocol that set global goals on emission of so-called greenhouse gases, including carbon dioxide, produced by the burning of fossil fuels such as oil and coal. The protocol was agreed in 1997 and took effect in February 2005, but Bush refused to ratify it, citing its high economic cost and the fact that China and India, the world's largest producers of greenhouse gases after the United States were, as developing nations, not bound by it. Greenhouse gases allow sunlight through Earth's atmosphere, but line glass in a greenhouse, traps heat inside, and is already blamed for shrinking polar ice caps and may cause violent weather changes.
02/17/07 - Court rules against police surveillance video in New York
(It's a start, but will it last and above all EXPAND and CONTINUE? That people and courts begin to put a stop to the meddling in our business and suppressing our rights. - JWD) In a rebuke of a surveillance practice greatly expanded by the New York Police Department after the Sept. 11 attacks, a federal judge ruled yesterday that the police must stop the routine videotaping of people at public gatherings unless there is an indication that unlawful activity may occur. Four years ago, at the request of the city, the same judge, Charles S. Haight Jr., gave the police greater authority to investigate political, social and religious groups. In yesterday’s ruling, Judge Haight, of United States District Court in Manhattan, found that by videotaping people who were exercising their right to free speech and breaking no laws, the Police Department had ignored the milder limits he had imposed on it in 2003. Citing two events in 2005 - a march in Harlem and a demonstration by homeless people in front of the home of Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg - the judge said the city had offered scant justification for videotaping the people involved.
02/16/07 - Bedini-Cole self-running overunity motor!
 Here it is! The first documented selfrunning overunity motor w/o batteries! - Hi ALL, user Mike (HMM) from the gn0sis forum has built a modified Bedini Cole Window motor which he can run without batteries for hours and can charge up empty capacitors! Here is his video which is really amazing! This is what we havebeen looking for all the time. It is a classic Lenz law violation! Here attached is the video of his motor in action. It is a Windows Media Video WMV File and you need Windows Media Player or Media Player Classic to view it. Mike has also documented all the things of his motor. I will post this and all the pics in the next replies! Regards, Stefan. (you must be logged into the forum to get the files) / [Mike] This link is very good: http://www.fight-4-truth.com/Schematics.html - must check it out...I learned alot from these illustrations, look at the commutator to see the timing... (via zpenergy.com)
02/16/07 - Cancer Drug Found; Scientist Annoyed
"A scientist was frustrated when the compound she was working with (called PPAR-gamma) destroyed her sample of cancer cells. Further research revealed that the substance was surprisingly well suited as a cancer treatment. Lab test results on mice resulted in the destruction of colon tumors without making the mice sick." Quoting: "'I made a calculation error and used a lot more than I should have. And my cells died,' Schaefer said. A colleague overheard her complaining. 'The co-author on my paper said, "Did I hear you say you killed some cancer?" I said "Oh," and took a closer look.' ... [They found that the compound killed] 'pretty much every epithelial tumor cell lines we have seen.'"
02/16/07 - Dating Electrically
 So a few days ago, I was on the phone, whining to my dad about throwing a Fifth Annual F-- Valentine’s Day party and trying to figure out my personal life. My dad listened thoughtfully, and then began explaining to me what I was doing wrong. The problem, he said, is that I date girls serially. Let’s let V be potential difference between dating girls and doing something productive, I be current of love, and R be resistance to current flow. The problem with serial dating is the same as with serial circuits. If resistance starts to increase, you’re stuck: because V = IR, and R is increasing, I must decrease to hold the equality. Worse still, because P = IV, you’re just not going to have as much power with the increased resistance. Note on the above diagram that current is a lousy 214 mA, and we’re only able to get 1.93 “jewels” from our relationships. This is even worse than it seems: because there’s only one path-through all relationships-you’ll end up spending the majority of your energy on the relationship with the greatest resistance, which is exactly the opposite of what you want to do. Worst of all, if (horror of horrors) you actually blow out one of your relationships, all current stops until you can manually patch things up. Your love life will be at least momentarily in ruins.
02/16/07 - Software Patch Could Increase Gas Mileage
People who drive gasoline-powered vehicles may be get better gas mileage soon enough. Sadly, it is not because gas prices are dropping. It is because of the possibility that a small software patch may provide. Engadget is reporting that Ford Motor Company and University of Eindhoven student John Kessels have invented a software patch that they believe will allow people to get better gas mileage. The software patch will send a message to the vehicle that will allow it to use the minimal amount of gasoline to operate. The patch would improve engine performances in your car and save an owner "up to 2.6 percent" in terms of miles per gallon. The process is actually quite simple. What the software patch will enable is the ability to dynamically switch the dynamo (which charges the car battery), on and off when it is inefficient for the engine to power it. This will improve the overall efficiency of the engine. Many experts are amazed and pleased to discover that all it took was a simple cable and a software upgrade to boost miles per gallon. The item will not be used exclusively in Ford products and will be made available to other car manufacturers as well.
02/16/07 - Ralph Ring and Otis Carr
 (Thanks to Jose Luis Lopez-Bonilla and Robert Beck for this excellent and fascinating link. I have always been fascinated with the possibility that Carr might have been right and his flux cutting Utron might be a generator like none have seen before. - JWD) In essence, the account is as follows. Carr and a small group of engineers and technicians, one of whom was Ralph, built a flying disk, powered by rotating electromagnets in conjunction with a number of small, ingenious capacitor-like devices called "Utrons". A number of prototypes were built, ranging in size from experimental models a few feet across to a passenger-carrying craft which was fully 45 feet in diameter. The smaller disks flew successfully - one even disappeared completely and was permanently lost - and Ralph himself testifies to having co-piloted, with two others, the large craft a distance of some ten miles, traversing this distance instantaneously. Carr's work has been recorded in several places, but the details are relatively scant. When recalling the heady events of the late 1950s working day and night with Carr, Ring again and again stressed that the key was working with nature. "Resonance", he would emphasize repeatedly. "You have to work with nature, not against her." He described how when the model disks were powered up and reached a particular rotational speed, "...the metal turned to Jell-o. You could push your finger right into it. It ceased to be solid. It turned into another form of matter, which was as if it was not entirely here in this reality. That's the only way I can attempt to describe it. It was uncanny, one of the weirdest sensations I've ever felt." Did the craft fly? "Fly is not the right word. It traversed distance. It seemed to take no time. I was with two other engineers when we piloted the 45' craft about ten miles. I thought it hadn't moved - I thought it had failed. I was completely astonished when we realized that we had returned with samples of rocks and plants from our destination. It was a dramatic success. It was more like a kind of teleportation. "What's more, time was distorted somehow. We felt we were in the craft about fifteen or twenty minutes. We were told afterwards that we'd been carefully timed as having been in the craft no longer than three or four minutes. I still have no complete idea how it worked. We just built it exactly according to Carr's instructions. Everything had to be perfect... it all had to be just so, or it he said it would not work: a kind of symbiotic state between man and machine. "The Utron was the key to it all. Carr said it accumulated energy because of its shape, and focused it, and also responded to our conscious intentions. When we operated the machine, we didn't work any controls. We went into a kind of meditative state and all three of us focused our intentions on the effect we wanted to achieve. It sounds ridiculous, I know. But that's what we did, and that's what worked. Carr had tapped into some principle which is not understood, in which consciousness melds with engineering to create an effect. You can't write that into equations. I have no idea how he knew it would work. But it did. / According to Otis Carr, "Any vehicle accelerated to an axis rotation relative to its attractive inertial mass, immediately becomes activated by free-space-energy and acts as an independent force... We have shown that a charged body, accelerated to an axis rotation relative to this attractive inertial mass, indicates polarity in a given direction. "The dip-needle points, say, up toward the top of the body. But mount this while rotating body, with its spindle, on another platform and rotate this platform on a spindle, then if the counter-rotation is greater than the inertial forward rotation of the body, a dip-needle on the second platform will point down while the first dip-needle points up, indicating complete relativity of polarity. When the exact counter-rotation matches the forward rotation the body loses its polarity entirely and immediately becomes activated by free-energy (tensor stresses in space) and acts as an independent force... The above-described assembly of counter-rotating charged masses becomes weightless and will escape the immediate attraction of gravitational forces."
Carr's engine had only two moving parts - like two spinning tops on top of one another, each spinning in a different direction. Carr stated that "when counter-rotation matches forward rotation, a body loses its polarity... and creates a kind of independent force. This causes the counter-rotating mass to escape the full effect of gravitational influence." / ...More Info...
02/16/07 - Baiting for defunding the War to Pass the Buck
 (Typical of the finger pointing, 'blame everyone else but the perpetrators' type of attitude. If they cut off funding and the war withers on the vine, then all past efforts fall like a house of cards, then Bush can say, its not his fault because we pulled out. A Pyrrhic victory if we stay or if we leave too fast...best way (IMHO), turn it all over to the Iraqis and over 3-6 months, bring all our people home, period. If they can't make it, let them fall. - JWD) President Bush has not been shy about asserting robust powers for the presidency in waging war, but lately he has seemed to concede that Congress has a role to play as well. Lawmakers, he has indicated, are within their rights to try to cap total deployments or limit where troops can go in Iraq. "They have the right to try to use the power of the purse to determine policy," the president told editors of the Wall Street Journal recently, in an interview that took some of his strongest conservative supporters by surprise. Indeed, some Republicans seem to be baiting the Democrats to try to defund the war.
02/16/07 - Can Ageing be Stopped?
 Old age hardly exists in wild animals. Accident, illness or predation usually kill long before the potential lifespan has been reached. Humans, though, especially in the developed world, are pushing in ever larger numbers towards the maximum lifespan, thought by most gerontologists to be around 120. (The world longevity record is held by the Frenchwoman Jeanne Calment, who died in 1997 aged 122 years and 164 days.) In Britain in 1901, life expectancy at birth was 49 for women and 45 for men. By 2002, this had risen to 81 and 76 respectively. This rapid increase in longevity has created hopes among gerontologists not just of an extended "quality of lifespan" well into the nineties, but of lifting the 120-year limit.Each time a cell divides, the DNA of the daughter cells is usually slightly shorter than the DNA of the parent, as a result of deficiencies in the copying process. Evolution has added disposable buffers called telomeres to the DNA to allow for some shortening. However, after a certain number of divisions, these buffers are spent, after which further copying eats into the active DNA sequence. Put simply, some cells can only divide a certain number of times before they die, and so if the time intervals between divisions are increased by slower growth, this aspect of ageing will be delayed. The hydra, a small freshwater animal up to 20mm long, appear to be able to regenerate endlessly with none of the recognised signs of ageing. This is possible because their bodies are permeated by germ cells whose primary purpose is to form buds that break off to yield offspring. These germ cells also create new tissue within the body, which in effect is the offspring of itself, constantly forming new cells to replace old ones. The line between reproduction and regeneration is blurred. There is potential for humans to mimic the biologically immortal hydra, by exploiting our stem cells in the regeneration of organs damaged by age-related diseases. The ability of adult stem cells, which remain in the body throughout life, to regenerate heart muscle cells has already been demonstrated in mice. Organs regenerated this way would in effect be brand new, and "younger" than all the other tissues and organs. Such regeneration might not immediately boost life's span, but should greatly improve its quality in old age.
02/16/07 - Running out of oil may not be the issue at all
John Watson told energy executives and analysts that the so-called peak oil debate focuses on the level of resources below the ground. He joined the prevailing view of speakers at the Cambridge Energy Research Associates' annual conference in Houston that the planet won't run out of oil anytime soon despite opposing theories that a peak and subsequent drop-off in production is imminent or even ongoing. "Every time we say we're about to be tapped out, we find new ways to squeeze more out of reservoirs," he said. Or, companies find new wells in hard-to-reach places, like Chevron's huge deep-water Jack discovery last year about 270 miles southwest of New Orleans in the Gulf of Mexico. But worldwide oil production could still lag behind demand if politics get in the way of access, Watson said. "The truth is we could still run short of oil, above ground where access and politics come into play," Watson said. Watson said other above-ground risks include higher costs of finding oil that could chill production and the lack of enough engineers and other professionals to replace the industry's aging work force. "Above-ground peak oil will trump below-ground peak oil every time," Watson said. Joseph Bryant, CEO of Houston-based exploration and production company Cobalt International Energy, said at Wednesday's peak oil panel that the industry continues to develop new resources - just not "super giant" fields.
02/16/07 - Shoes That Give You A Buzz
 Vibration is one of the most common means of stimulating sore, tired muscles. It is a way of relaxing tight or cramped muscles so that oxygen and blood can flow freely to the muscle, restoring its normal health and functioning. Although vibrating machines designed for feet have been available for years, the Good Vibrations Therapeutic Vibrating Shoes® are the first pair of shoes to offer the technology in a portable form. And the vibration is high frequency, so you don't get the itching and other skin irritations common after use of other vibrating units. Not only are Good Vibrations portable, but they contain rechargeable batteries! "Re-booting" takes only an hour, after which you can buzz right along for up to five hours - although most wearers use the vibration for about 20 minutes at a time, turning the convenient built-in switch on or off, as desired.
02/16/07 - New Software 'understands' your Photos
Scientists at Germany's Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Information Technology FIT and the Fraunhofer Institute for Telecommunications HHI are working on a system that automatically categorizes photographs. Called aceMedia, the system looks at and "UNDERSTANDS" elements in photographs, then indexes and tags them accordingly when they're saved to disk. It knows if the picture was taken indoors or outside, for example, or whether it was snapped at the beach or in a city. The piece de resistance is that it recognizes faces. If you tell it that a person is, say, Janet, then future pictures of Janet are given the "Janet" tag automatically. The tagging metadata is then saved with the picture. A related system for Windows Mobile devices, called the Pocket-PC Photobrowser, lets you do the same thing on a phone.
02/15/07 - Self-sustaining generator magnifies inductive energy
 (This is a groundbreaking patent that ties many historical devices together into one coherent system, EXCELLENT! The problem is has it been built or is this just another 'theoretical' patent application? - JWD) Patent App 20070007844 - William N. - January 11, 2007 - Electrical oscillations in a metallic "sending coil" radiate inductive photons toward one or more "energy-magnifying coils" comprised of a photoconductor or doped semiconductor coating a metallic conductor, or comprised of a superconductor. Electrons of low inertial mass in the energy-magnifying coil(s) receive from the sending coil a transverse force having no in-line backforce, which exempts this force from the energy-conservation rule. The low-mass electrons in the energy-magnifying coil(s) receive increased acceleration proportional to normal electron mass divided by the lesser mass. Secondarily radiated inductive-photon energy is magnified proportionally to the electrons' greater acceleration, squared. E.g., the inductive-energy-magnification factor of CdSe photoelectrons with 0.13.times. normal electron mass is 59.times.. Magnified inductive-photon energy from the energy-magnifying coil(s) induces oscillating electric energy in one or more metallic "output coil(s)." The electric energy output exceeds energy input if more of the magnified photon-induction energy is directed toward the output coil(s) than is directed as a counter force to the sending coil. After an external energy source initiates the oscillations, feedback from the generated surplus energy makes the device a self-sustaining generator of electric power for useful purposes. / The apparatus utilize electrons of low effective mass, which receive greater acceleration than normal electrons in an amount that is inversely proportional to the effective mass. Applicant has determined that effective mass is the same as the electron's true inertial mass. The photon energy that is radiated when an electron is accelerated is proportional the square of the acceleration, so the increase in radiated photon energy from an accelerated low-mass electron over the energy from a normal electron is equal to the inverse square of the effective mass. E.g., the calculated energy magnification provided by photoconducting electrons in cadmium selenide, with an electron effective mass of 0.13, is 59.times.. The use of a transverse force, that lacks a direct back-force, to accelerate low-mass electrons in an oscillating manner circumvents any equal-and-opposite force that would invoke the application of the energy-conservation law of kinetics and thermodynamics. (via zpenergy.com)
02/15/07 - Offshore Wind Farm Could Blow Away Energy Needs
Wind power could supply all the energy needs of much of the East Coast and then some, if a phalanx of wind turbines running from Massachusetts to North Carolina were installed offshore, a new study concludes. Offshore wind farms in Denmark and the United Kingdom are now used to generate electricity, with Denmark drawing 20 percent of its energy from wind power. Oceans make ideal locations for wind turbines because they “are particularly windy all over,” Kempton said. The ocean’s surface isn’t littered with hills, trees and houses like the land is, so winds over the water are faster because there is less friction to slow them down. The wind turns the three blades of the turbine, and their rotation is converted into electricity by a generator. Locating a large body of shallow water is important because with current technology, turbines can only be built out to a depth of 20 to 30 meters (close to 20 or 30 yards). Otherwise, it is too difficult to erect the metal pole that the turbine sits atop. However, experimental turbines have been built out to a depth of 50 meters off the coast of Scotland. These types of turbines may be in commercial use soon, Kempton said, and with reasonable additional costs, he forsees building them out to a depth of 100 meters.
02/15/07 - Did Paul Brown duplicate the Hubbard Coil?
 U.S. Pat. No. 4,835,433 to Brown superficially resembles the drawing of Hubbard's device. Brown's device appears to have the same number and essentially the same general arrangement of wire coils as Hubbard's generator, as nearly as can be understood from the newspaper articles depicting that device. Apparently no information concerning either the Hubbard or Hendershot devices was considered during prosecution of the '433 patent. Brown discusses the conversion of energy of radioactive decay products, principally alpha emissions, to electrical energy by amplifying electrical oscillations in a high-Q L-C circuit irradiated by radioactive materials. "During the absorption process, each alpha particle will collide with one or more atoms in the conductor knocking electrons from their orbits and imparting some kinetic energy to the electrons in the conductor thereby increasing its conductivity." (Col. 3, line 68 to col. 4, line 5.) No claim was made by Brown that the device employed a semiconductor or photoconductor that could have provided low-mass electrons for energy magnification. Brown claimed an output of 23 amps at 400 volts, which is vastly greater than all the decay-energy represented by his reported radioactive content of 1 milligram of radium that was surrounded by weakly radioactive uranium rods and thorium powder. Powdered thorium is highly pyrophoric, so it is typically sealed in a nitrogen atmosphere to prevent spontaneous combustion. In his device Brown reportedly confined the thorium in cardboard without any mention of sealing out air. This condition would have invited a meltdown that could have been misinterpreted as massive out-of-control electrical production. / This Resonant Nuclear Battery is a radioisotope electric power system that absorbs the collapsing magnetic field of alpha and beta radiation and converts it directly to Alternating electrical current. This effect does not rely on a nuclear reaction or chemical processes and does not produce radioactive waste products. This Resonant Nuclear Battery is an LCR resonant circuit oscillating at its self-resonating frequency with energy supplied by the alpha-beta collapsing magnetic fields. A prototype 'NUCELL' the size of a small automobile engine produced approximately 50 kilowatts! / The Nuclear Solutions technology, which Dr. Brown terms "photo-deactivation," involves irradiation of specific isotopes to force emission of a neutron, which produces an isotope of reduced atomic mass. The resultant isotopes are characteristically either not radioactive or radioactive with a short half-life.
02/15/07 - Study To Explore Using Magnets To Correct 'Sunken Chest'
Researchers at UCSF Children's Hospital in San Francisco have launched a groundbreaking study to determine whether a new procedure using magnets can correct sunken chest, the most common congenital chest deformity, in the same way that orthodontic braces gradually realign teeth. Sunken chest, which is known medically as pectus excavatum, is a deformity of the cartilage that connects the ribs to the breastbone. The deformed cartilage pulls the breastbone inward, making the chest look caved in or sunken. The condition occurs in about one in 800 children born in the United States each year and is three times more common in boys than girls. A UCSF team developed the new procedure, in which a magnet attached to the child's breastbone is coupled with a second one outside the chest that creates a steady, controlled, outward pull on the internal magnet to reshape the bone, cartilage and chest wall. The procedure marks one of the first times magnets have been embedded inside the body to treat a health condition, according to Michael Harrison, MD, professor of surgery and pediatrics emeritus at UCSF and lead investigator of the study. Because the internal magnet is placed just under the skin during an outpatient visit, the child can go home on the day of the procedure with relatively little discomfort. The child wears the brace for three to 12 months, depending on the severity of the deformity. It can be adjusted to increase or decrease the pull on the breastbone in the same way that orthodontic braces are loosened or tightened.
02/15/07 - Wanted: Home-Builders for the Moon
 Imagine a world where microwave beaming rovers cook dust into concrete landing pads ... where your living quarters are dropped onto the land from above, then inflated like an inner tube ... where the grit is so abrasive that even the robots have to wear protective coveralls. It may sound like science fiction, but these are actually some of the ideas being floated as part of NASA's plan to build a permanent moon base starting in 2010. NASA announced the broad outlines of its plan for an eventual lunar outpost less than two months ago. The general idea is to set up shop on the rim of a crater near one of the moon's poles. Such areas would be in sunlight, with a line-of-sight link to Earth all year round. The first crews would stay for just a week at a time, but by 2025, six-month tours of duty would be the norm. The polar outpost would serve as NASA's base for lunar research and a test bed for Mars exploration. Some have even grander plans, envisioning the moon as an eventual platform for luxury hotels, astronomical observatories and helium-3 mining operations. The idea of a permanent platform is what distinguishes the future effort from NASA's previous moon program, said Dallas Bienhoff, manager for in-space and surface systems at Boeing Space Exploration. Another neat trick involves cooking the lunar soil right on the surface to turn it into a concrete-hard crust. "You take a microwave and heat the soil up, and it actually fuses into a solid," said John Stevens, Lockheed Martin's director of business development for human spaceflight. Larry Taylor, a University of Tennessee planetary scientist, has proposed building "lunar lawnmowers" that could go back and forth to create hardened launch pads, roads and even radio telescope dishes.
02/15/07 - Deserts are Dying
Researchers from University of Bergen have found that trees, which are a main resource for desert people and their flocks, are in significant decline in the hyper-arid Eastern Desert of Egypt. In places more than 50% of the mature trees have disappeared between 1965 and 2003, while almost no new trees have been recruited. Despite extreme aridity the main cause of tree mortality seems not to be climate, but commercial charcoal production. This indicates that the traditional and sustainable indigenous resource management, which desert people have developed through millennia, is changing.
02/15/07 - Mystery illness devastates honeybee colonies
 A mysterious illness is devastating honeybee populations across the US from California to Florida, claiming up to 80% of colonies in some areas. The losses of honeybees could disrupt the pollination of food crops, researchers warn. The absence of dead bees makes it difficult to know what ails them and where they have gone. Furthermore, experts cannot track the spread of the mysterious illness. “The problem is that it strikes out of the blue,” says Bromenshank. At a loss for an explanation, researchers have referred to the honeybee decline as “colony collapse disorder”. Reports of the problem have intensified in recent weeks and spanned 22 states, but some beekeepers say that they began seeing their colonies decline almost two years ago. Almond crops are immediately vulnerable because they rely on honeybee pollination at this time of year. And the insect decline could potentially affect other crops later in the year, such as apples and blueberries.
02/15/07 - A new energy path for Florida
Florida's electricity demand is growing faster than the state's population. A particular challenge is peak demand - those times when extreme heat or extreme cold crank up air conditioners and heaters. Peak demand is growing even faster than Florida's regular day-to-day electricity demand, and it is the most expensive type of electricity. Fast-rising peak demand requires utilities to build high-cost "peaker" power plants that run only a few hours a year. Florida's energy vulnerabilities have become more apparent during the past several years. Florida is one of the most natural-gas-dependent states in the country, with more than a third of its electricity generated by natural gas. In December 2005, the natural-gas "crisis" drove utility prices from less than $3 per thousand cubic feet in the late 1990s to more than $14, a price that hurt Floridians' pocketbooks. Unfortunately, Floridians are being offered only two choices for energy with no consideration for options to cut demand. By building expensive new coal and nuclear plants to meet growth, we both lock in high prices for utility customers and also ignore serious environmental concerns. Fortunately, another energy course is available. Our study objectively proves that energy efficiency, coupled with renewable energy, can slow the future electricity demand. It also would diversify the state's energy resources, making Florida less vulnerable to global markets. The ACEEE study shows that implementing energy efficiency policies alone, such as efficient windows, compact fluorescent light bulbs, and Energy Star appliances can almost offset the future growth in electric demand. Energy efficiency is the most affordable resource, as evidenced by states from Texas to Vermont finding energy efficiency resources available at less than 4 cents per kilowatt-hour, compared with the cost of building new power plants in Florida of 5 to 10 cents. Adding renewable energy - such as wind, solar and biomass - to energy efficiency cuts electricity demand even more. Today, Florida generates only 0.1 percent of its electricity from renewable resources, compared with a national average of 2.3 percent. Previous research shows that energy efficiency and renewable energy together generate twice the jobs in Florida that would be generated from the same investment in new power plants.
02/15/07 - Putting Nature’s Power to Work (Aug, 1932)
 A Los Angeles inventor has developed a wave motor-an “inertia” motor, he calls it- which gives promise of being developed into a practical commercial project. The new “inertia motor” is absolutely storm-proof-in fact it could outride a tidal wave. And, too, it is the acme of simplicity -it requires no foundation, and has no connection with the ocean bottom except by its anchor chains. A study of the accompanying diagrams makes it clear how the inertia motor operates. If you are mechanically minded, you will be impressed. The application of the name “inertia” will be obvious. When a wave starts to lift the hollow sphere, the massive weight inside, because of its inertia, resists the movement and exerts terrific pressure in the lower cylinder. Finally the inertia of the weight is overcome. Then it possesses momentum. When the sphere reaches the crest of a wave, the combined effort of the momentum and the recoil of the huge, semi-elliptic springs exerts an equal pressure in the upper cylinder. The tremendous pressure is applied to oil, which, in turn, operates a special turbine which runs a generator. The current is conducted to the shore by submarine cable. The idea seems wholly practical. It is readily conceivable that a battery of “inertia motors” could be built into an elongated float set parallel with the wave movement, and power in unlimited quantities would be available. A conservative estimate of the cost of the complete installation, except batteries, indicates that the value of the current generated, at 5c K.W. hour, would equal the installation cost in 18 months. The power available from ocean waves is unbelievably huge. Suppose a wave comes along and lifts a 25,000-ton ocean liner 10 feet in 5 seconds. How much power is expended? The 25,000 tons is equivalent to 50,000,000 pounds; which, raised 10 feet, represents 500,000,000 foot pounds. Since this work is performed in 5 seconds, the amount done in one minute would be six billion foot pounds. One horsepower is that required to perform 33,000 foot pounds per minute, so simple division gives the wave’s horsepower as 181,818! Every day in the year the sun is dissipating incalculable, immeasureable energy upon this earth of ours, energy which can be brought directly under control for immediate use, instead of waiting for a new geological era to make it available.
02/15/07 - Yokohama Tire Technology Cuts Petroleum Use in Tire by 80%
Yokohama Rubber Co., Ltd. (YRC)-the seventh-largest tire manufacturer in the world-has developed a process that combines citrus oil with natural rubber to form a new compound it calls Super Nanopower Rubber (SNR). The major component of citrus oil is d-limonene. The process reduces the use of petroleum products in tires by 80% and is part of YRC’s global EcoMotion environmental program. The first SNR product is the Decibel Super E-Spec, an all-new consumer passenger tire.
02/14/07 - Did God literally speak the world into existence?
 A science student in Kentucky says when the Bible records God spoke, and things were created, that's just what happened, and he can support that with scientific experiments. "If God spoke everything into existence as the Genesis record proposes, then we should be able to scientifically prove that the construction of everything in the universe begins with a) the Holy Spirit (magnetic field); b) Light (an electric field); and c) that Light can be created by a sonic influence or sound," Samuel J. Hunt writes. Sending a sonic signal into bubbles in a fluid causes the bubbles to collapse and they release photons, or create light. That aligns with one of the earlier descriptions of the creation by God, when, in Genesis 1:1-3, the Holy Spirit moved upon the face of the deep, which generally is considered water, and said "Let there be light," he explained. A student at Western Kentucky University in Bowling Green, Hunt said his questions started very simply. "I asked my professors in physics and chemistry, 'What if I could scientifically prove that all matter was spoken into existence and that all matter could be manipulated by sound just as Genesis says? Wouldn't that mean God exists and created the universe?" he asked. "Nobody's ever done that before," was the response. His 84-page treatise, now published, addresses that, he said. Hunt said he believes every event in Genesis can be observed to be happening daily. "Either you experience a universe of chaos or a universe of order and processes that produce immediate and calculable results," he wrote. "The results of my research support and prove that everything that exists was spoken into existence from waves to matter to mind." "People want to know the truth, to have something to stand on that's not trickery and deceit," he said. "This gives people something real to touch, hang on to."
02/14/07 - $150 Voice Operated Shopping List maker
 (Interesting ideas all around us. - JWD) "You walk over to your unit, say 'paper towels,' select, and it goes into your grocery list for the week," Vittardi said. When you're ready to head out, all you have to do is print it out. But more than that, you can program the SmartShopper to recognize different accents. It even lets you add unique items that might not be on the list. "Our hope for future is that it becomes a mainstream device to shoppers across America," said Vittardi. The SmartShopper costs $150, which may sound a little steep, but you are paying for the technology -- a superior voice recognition program with built-in printer.
The two entrepreneurs have signed up with some retailers but are also taking orders on their Web site, SmartShopperUSA.com.
02/14/07 - Gomboc new self-righting shape
 Two Hungarians puzzled by how certain creatures with shells, like turtles and beetles, are able to self-right have developed a shape with one stable and one unstable point of equilibrium to explain the phenomenon. "Nature has created such shapes but we did not understand why they are this way," said Gabor Domokos of the Budapest University of Technology and Economics (BUTE). "For example if a seed falls it matters which side it lands on, and if I turn a turtle on its back it will care whether it can get back to its feet," the head of BUTE's department of mechanics, materials and structures said on Monday. Domokos and his wife spent hours scouring beaches to collect pebbles as part of a learning process to understand shapes and their mathematical dynamics. Each pebble was then classified according to how many points of equilibrium each stone had, before the Gomboc was developed. "It is not only about this one shape," he said. "We have created a classification system for all other shapes as well." Domokos said that by shaving off bits of a Gomboc shape it was possible to increase the number of equilibria. A turtle's shell is like an imperfect Gomboc, with some curves chopped off it, he said, adding that they were working on a further academic paper which will explore the Gomboc's implications in more detail.
02/14/07 - Suncone Uses CSP to Generate Power and Purify Water
 Open Energy Corp., which has completed engineering drawings and performance criteria for the Suncone concentrating solar powered (CSP) desalination system to decontaminate drinking water in remote, off-grid locations, expects to issue request for quotes (RFQ) for first commercial unit in March of 2007. "The potential applications of this invention are remarkable,from water desalination to supplying process heat for power generation." -- David Saltman, Open Energy, CEO The engineering team anticipates that it will be coupled with off-the-shelf membrane filtration or multi-stage flash distillation hardware, depending upon the specific water input sources to be treated. This same design can be used to supplant conventional thermal power system applications, such as pre-heating steam for turbine electricity. "The potential applications of this invention are remarkable," said David Saltman, CEO of Open Energy, "from water desalination to supplying process heat for power generation." The functionality of the Suncone CSP system requires the Suncone reflector, a solar tracking devise, a target that absorbs the incident radiation and conducts it into a heat transfer fluid (HTF), and application-specific hardware to interface with a particular water purification system.
02/14/07 - Nose-to-turf experiments show people can track scent
 (If you get a chance, see the movie 'Perfume' which takes this to extremes. - JWD) By studying blindfolded college students who crawled through grass to sniff out a chocolate-scented trail, scientists say they've found evidence of a human smelling ability that experts thought was impossible. The study indicates the human brain compares information it gets from each nostril to get clues about where a smell is coming from. And it suggests dogs, mice and other mammals do the same thing, contrary to what most scientists have thought.
People compare signals from each ear to locate the source of a noise. But the prevailing notion has been that mammals can't follow the same strategy for smells because their nostrils are too close together to get distinct signals. The new paper reports five experiments. One tracked tiny particles used in theatrical fog to show that each human nostril really does sample a distinct region in space. But most of the paper focuses on what a group of undergraduate psychology students could do on a patch of lawn on the Berkeley campus. One outdoor experiment was designed to see if people could use just their noses to follow a 30-foot-long trail of chocolate scent, which traced a dogleg course through the grass. The trail was created with scented twine. But the 32 participants were blindfolded and equipped with thick gloves, kneepads and elbow pads to make sure they couldn't see or feel it. They also wore earmuffs.
Before they began, they were shown a video of proper scent-tracking form, which requires putting the nose on the ground. "People don't really want to do that," Porter said. Two-thirds of the participants succeeded in following the scent. But when they tried it again with their noses plugged, nobody could do it. Another experiment found that people got better with practice. Yet another experiment, with 14 participants, found that the volunteers did better if they used two nostrils than if one nostril was taped shut. They succeeded 66 percent of the time with two nostrils, versus 36 percent with one nostril.
02/14/07 - ShowerBox to recycle water to plants/gardens
The device pumps shower water directly from the shower base, through a hose and out the bathroom window to be used on the garden. "It’s pretty simple but it did take me 18 months to think of it," Mr Boyer said. "I also had a business coach who said if someone came up with a system to salvage grey water in homes with a concrete slab it would sell really well." Mr Boyer said the system doesn’t interfere with plumbing and can be self-installed ... and it’s already proving a hit. According to Mr Boyer’s calculations, two people having a daily 10-minute shower would use approximately 28,800 litres of water in eight months. The $800 Shower Box would enable people to use this amount on their gardens. "The equivalent cost is a 1000-litre rain water tank," Mr Boyer said. He said in the past eight months in Bendigo, there have been six rain days which would fill such a tank, catching 6000 litres of water. Mr Boyer retired from the boat building game last year to concentrate on The Shower Box. Plus, with the extra grey water he’s now saving at his new Kangaroo Flat home, he is looking forward to establishing a garden.
02/14/07 - Fertility Watch
 A new invention by American scientists is allowing women to track their fertile days by wearing a special kind of watch. Health Watch Systems' watch tracks a woman's chloride levels through sweat excreted through the skin. Levels are low at the start of a monthly cycle and reach a peak at three points during it. The device, which is worn on a woman's wrist, can detect what would be a normal chloride level and on that basis predict the user's most fertile period.
02/14/07 - Perpetual Motion Car Prototype Fails to Impress Investors
The perpetual motion car was about the size of a GI Joe sitting in a little go cart with rings around it, where magnets went around the track. On my design the driver slides his feet and pushes the metal plate forward. The closer he pushes it the faster he goes. Sliding the seat back pushes the rear plate does the same thing. It is how I adjust the speed. The unit pulls the center of gravity of the driver. The magnets keep spinning against themselves once started and they spin as they go around. Each passing tugs or propels the center of gravity, where the driver sits in the middle. The problem we had was that the weight of the system was more than the magnets we could find to move the GI Joe forward, the darn thing works. The magnets keep moving fine and you can see the thing inching forward. It needs a pulse system and the balsa wood frame kept coming apart. It wobbles terrible. It needs more magnets, but the magnets eventually try to come to equilibrium and the whole thing wobbles like the Dickens. In theory it should work. It needs better materials to work, pulse magnetic system not magnets, like a UFO might have, I think I have seen theories of how a UFO might work if there was such a thing in books somewhere. Anyway the cool deal would be to have carbon nano-tube construction, pulse magnetic system, larger scale (ditch the GI Joe Doll) and put the thing in a balloon and float it around? UAV style.
02/14/07 - Nanopatterns Regulate Electricity
 Sodium atoms always arrange in regular patterns, and these patterns determine the properties of the material. The concentration of sodium atoms can easily be varied using chemical methods, and it is possible to change the material from a metal to an insulator, and then to superconductor, just by putting it into an electrochemical cell and changing the applied voltage. The concentration of sodium atoms can vary over a large range, and the detailed arrangement of the sodium atoms determines the electrical properties of the material. When they are far apart from each other, each atom acts as a well confining the electrons constituting the current flow - the material becomes an insulator. If they are arranged in lines, they form wire-like structures allowing current to flow along one direction. Alan Tennant, head of the department Magnetism at the Hahn-Meitner-Institut explains that "the electrons responsible for the current flow behave like waves and they like to arrange their wavelength and their behaviour to fit the predefined structure. In this way the electrons can be controlled by the chemical composition of the material. If the sodium atoms were arranged at random, small changes in their number would hardly influence the current flow."
02/14/07 - Some inconvenient truths about the politics of environmental crisis
 Al Gore's film, "An Inconvenient Truth," raises the issue of global warming in a way that scares the bejeezus out of viewers, as it should since the consequences of global climate change are truly earth-shaking. But, typically, the solutions Gore offers are standard Democratic Party fare. You'd never know by watching this film that Gore and Clinton ran this country for 8 years and that their policies - as much as those of the Bush regime - helped pave the way for the crisis we face today. Gore never critiques the system causing the global ecological crisis. Gore and Clinton did nothing to improve fuel efficiency in the U.S. -- a topic which Gore talks about in the movie without any hint that he'd once actually been in a position to do something about it. The question Gore poses is, Who can best manage the relatively minor solutions he recommends, the Democrats or Republicans? For Gore, it's sort of "trust US, not THEM, to deal with this situation because they are liars and we're not." Well, should we trust him?
02/14/07 - The Four Inter-Dependent Iraq Wars
Our strategic stagnation results from the fact that we are fighting four wars, not one. According to Gates: "One is Shi'a on Shi'a, principally in the south; the second is sectarian conflict, principally in Baghdad, but not solely; third is the insurgency; and fourth is al Qaida, and al Qaida is attacking, at times, all of those targets." The multifaceted nature of these four wars has frustrated American strategy since 2003. Successes in one area produce setbacks in the others, with al-Qaida hovering above the fray to spoil progress whenever it threatens to bring stability to Iraq, as they did by bombing the al-Askari Mosque in Samarra in February 2006 after the successful Iraqi elections. Consequently, any strategies implementing the "counterinsurgency playbook," smart as those plans may be, will necessarily prove insufficient because we aren't just fighting an insurgency anymore. America has sacrificed more than 3,000 men and women, and $500 billion, to fight a war in Iraq that we have never fully understood. For nearly a year, senior administration officials refused to use the phrases "insurgency" or "guerilla war," only changing their rhetoric when their top general in the Middle East contradicted them publicly. Today, it is clear that Iraq has mutated into something more than just an insurgency or civil war, and it will take much more than cherry-picking counterinsurgency's "best practices" to win.
02/14/07 - Video - Invasion of Iraq prophesied in old Harryhausen movie
 An ancient magician-oracle accurately predicts and describes a future war, in the city of Bagdad (from The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad). Harryhausen, the prophet? / Shivers recently ran up and down my spine, as I listened to our fate, so chillingly (and accurately) prophesied by an ancient oracle.
02/14/07 - Sad News - Walter Rosenthal R.I.P. January 13th, 2007
 (This is a reprisal due to changes in the original. - Thanks to Gary Vesperman for letting us know. I have asked for a photo from Walts daughter since in his last days. Updated further 02/19/07. Attached is the photo Gretchen courteously provided, writing that it was used in Walter's obituary, thank you Gretchen! If you knew Walter and would like to post your remembrance of him in the GuestBook, click on the Obit link above to get to it. I suspect the family would appreciate how many friends he had and his impact on the alt science community. - JWD) From Walter Rosenthal's Daughter; "If you have already received this information previously, my apologies. I found an email list on my Dad's desk and thought I should send out this announcement. My Father Walter (Walt) Rosenthal passed away on January 13th of this year from cardio miapothy and heart failure. Memorial service will be held Sat. Jan 27th at 2pm at: The Gate Vineyard Fellowship 4799 Bradley Road in Santa Maria. If traveling on the 101 you will get off on the Clark Ave. exit and head West. Go a mile or so until you get to Bradley Rd. (Light) on the corners will be a gas station and Orcutt Burgers. Turn right. On the left side right behind the shopping center is the church. I am sure that my Father appreciated your friendship and your correspondence with him. - Sincerely, Gretchen England (Walt's Daughter) / Walter L. Rosenthal - - Spent most of his working life employed by several defense contractors at Vandenberg AFB as a member of many different missile launch crews, spanning over 35 years. He has tested at numerous locations an extensive number of energy machines, using a collection of test equipment manufactured by Yokogawa, Tektronix and Hewlett Packard. This equipment was selected to allow measurement and recording of multiple isolated voltage waveforms from DC to 50 MHZ and levels from millivolts to 15,000 volts, along with multiple current waveforms from DC to 50 MHZ at levels of milliamps to 1000 amps. The data recorded on the four channel digital sampling oscilloscope can be dumped to an X - Y plotter for permanent record. The digital scope has computation capability for multiplying voltage times current for displaying power generation waveforms. Walter has also designed and built special purpose electronic circuits for inventors who lacked this expertise.
02/13/07 - Jet-setters pledge to ditch air travel to save the environment
 A growing army of eco-refuseniks is making the ultimate sacrifice in the age of cheap air travel by pledging to give up flying and using slower modes of transport instead. Research for the aviation industry estimates that up to 3 per cent of regular flyers in Britain have stopped boarding flights because of concerns about the environmental impact. The previously unpublicised findings from a survey for the British Air Transport Association (Bata), the trade body for UK airlines, found that a further 10 per cent of flyers - more than 20 million people - had reduced their air travel because of concern about climate change. The data is bolstered by the popularity of a website run by environmental campaigners inviting travellers to take a pledge to stop flying altogether or restrict themselves to one long-haul or two short-haul flights a year. So far 1,240 people have given the undertaking, with nearly two-thirds (776) giving the "gold" pledge not to fly anywhere for a year. John Valentine, a south London stonemason and environmental campaigner who founded the site, said: "There is a need among people to be able to do something positive to cut their carbon emissions and reducing flying is the most obvious and significant way of doing it. "It is very much a groundswell in the absence of the Government failing to take action. We have an addiction to flying which people want to kick. On top of those on the website there is a significant proportion of people out there who will be doing the same but choose not to go public."
02/13/07 - China growing too fast
 China suffers from a monumental environmental crisis, a crisis in non-performing loans, shoddy construction practices and materials that result in collapsing bridges, highway tunnels, and buildings, etc. At the same time, China's economy is projected to continue its almost 10% per year GDP growth at least until the end of this decade. Several recent presidents of the US have assumed that by promoting economic modernisation in China, they were also promoting freedom and democracy. That has not been the case, for reasons discussed in this analysis of China's institutional response to massive economic growth. (via AlFin)
02/13/07 - Video - link to Gores' Inconvenient Truth
 (This is a convoluted link and I debated on posting it or not, but give it a shot, my computer locked up and I didn't have time or patience to mess with the link. - JWD) Al Gore's fantastic climate change documentary, "An Inconvenient Truth", has been posted to You-Tube (update: and subsequently removed from You-Tube). Kudos goes to Calvin and his Climate Change Action blog. To watch it on theWatt, just read on! Also worth mentioning, it happened last year but we just found out about it a few days ago: "Scientists have discovered that an enormous ice shelf broke off an island in the Canadian Arctic last year, in what could be sign of global warming.". The ice shelf is bigger than Manhattan.
02/13/07 - The lights did go out in France and Spain
 I'm sure most of you never heard about this, but French environmentalists began a campaign earlier this year encouraging citizens around the world to switch off their lights for five minutes on February 1 at 7:55 p.m. (GMT), or 1:55 p.m. Toronto time. The event was timed to coincide with a meeting in Paris where the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released its latest, and to date most disturbing, climate change report. The hope was that the viral nature of the Internet would get citizens around the globe to participate, and if enough did, it would send a strong message to government leaders about public concern over global warming. Well, just for fun, I asked Ontario's Independent Electricity System Operator if they registered any strange changes on the grid during that five-minute period. The answer was: No. However, they did tell me that there was an impact in France and Spain. By simply turning off the lights, citizens in France reduced power in the country by 800 megawatts, while Spain measured a 1,000-megawatt reduction. Not bad when you consider how little electricity comes from residential lighting.
02/13/07 - Break-up of Antarctic ice may alter food chain
Despite the icy cold and darkness, beneath the frozen surface of the sea in Antarctica thrives a rich and complex array of plants and animals. But what will happen to all those creatures if global warming reduces the ice-cover, as is predicted for coming decades? UNSW marine ecologists Dr Emma Johnston and Graeme Clark have been working with the Australian Antarctic Division to survey marine communities along the striking coast of Wilkes Land, east Antarctica. It's now clear that ice plays a major role in the ecology of shallow Antarctic marine systems, by reducing light penetration to the waters beneath. The team has found marked differences in the composition of marine communities along a gradient of ice-cover. “Protected areas subject to prolonged ice-cover are dominated by an invertebrate filter-feeding community of sponges, worms and anemones,“ says Dr Johnston.
02/13/07 - Spectacular Flowing Water photos
 (Think of these in relation to Cymatics and sound patterns shown in moving media/fluids. - JWD) FLUID POLYGONS AND POLYHEDRA - When a vertical water jet strikes a circular horizontal impactor, the water is deflected into a horizontal sheet. At sufficiently high speeds, the flow results in a circular water sheet, whose radius is set by a balance between inertial and curvature forces. At lower speeds, the sheet sags significantly under the influence of gravity, and may close, giving rise to a water bell (Figure 1). We have conducted a series of experiments in order to investigate the influence of increasing fluid viscosity on fluid sheets and bells. The circular fluid sheets are marked by an axisymmetry-breaking instability that results in polygonal structures (Figure 2). Fluid streams from the sheet, into then along the rim, and finally streams from the corners of the polygon. In certain parameter regimes, the streams emerging from the corners take the form of a linked chain (Figure 3). The minimum number of sides observed on the polygons was four. By deflecting the sheet from the horizontal, one may produce sagging structures ressembling fluid umbrellas (Figure 4) or fluid parasols (Figure 5). Axisymmetry is also broken in the fluid bells, which assume the form of polyhedra (Figure 6).
02/13/07 - China Carmakers Report 40% Jump in Sales
 Chinese indigenous brands accounted for 30.57 percent of the sales with 126,700 units sold last month. Japanese brands ranked the second with a market share of 25.90 percent, while German and U.S. brands followed with a combined share of over 30 percent.
More than 100 new sedan models hit the country's market last year, including 36 homegrown brands. Santana, Excelle, Xiali and Jetta were among the top ten best-selling made-in-China sedans in January. The country's auto export is still dominated by low-end models. The average price of cars exported by China is 10,000 U.S. dollars per unit, only a third of that of imported models, said Zhang.
02/13/07 - Ethanol Juggernaut Diverts Corn from Food to Fuel
(We are seeing this in Mexico with tortilla prices going up due to more expensive corn. - JWD) Shoppers, brace yourselves. Higher across-the-board supermarket prices may be around the corner, says agricultural economist Lester Brown. A rapidly escalating demand for the corn that underlies a broad range of products-from breakfast cereals to milk and meats-has been driving up the price of this grain, he notes. Those commodity-price hikes could soon inflate the cost of plenty of other products. According to Brown's report, because U.S. livestock producers feed grain to most of their animals, higher corn prices can quickly translate into higher meat and dairy prices. Moreover, as demand for corn grows, farmers may begin shifting some of their acreage away from wheat or soy into corn. Thus, any increase in corn production could reduce the supply of those crops and increase their prices. It's already gotten to the point, Chad Hart of Iowa State University reported at an Iowa Poultry Association meeting in September 2006, that "corn is worth more as ethanol than as feed." With the United States producing 70 percent of the corn that other countries import from all sources, shifting very much of the grain from food into energy could have global economic repercussions..
02/13/07 - Putting the 'Fun' back in Funeral
 (This sounds like a good business to get involved with. - JWD) Mullard is one of dozens of people who have turned to British coffin maker Vic Fearn & Co. with requests for custom caskets. Past creations include a Louis Vuitton duffel bag, a corkscrew and a pink ballet slipper. The 47-year-old Mullard, who has made several expeditions to the Arctic, decided about 10 years ago that he wanted to be buried in a replica of the sled that carries his equipment. "As I get older, that's going to be put behind me and forgotten to some extent," he said. "But the people who get to know me from now to then, they won't know about this important aspect of my life. But that will be made public at my funeral." Vic Fearn, which has been in the coffin business for 140 years, started making theme coffins in the 1990s when a customer requested a coffin shaped like the cockpit of a World War II Spitfire fighter plane. "I thought it was a bit strange," said company director John Gill. "But I dare say since then people have said, 'If someone can have a cockpit, then I can have a car or a barge or whatever."' The company's workshop is filled with both traditional coffins and theme coffins. A Rolls-Royce Phantom coffin is the company's latest commission, and it cost the buyer £3,500 pounds, ($6,800), about 10 times the fee for a traditional coffin. An even more expensive request came from a recent customer who asked for a Ferrari, which Gill quoted at £5,000 because of the difficulty of replicating the car's complex curves with wood. Examples of the company's work, including a skateboard and an egg, were featured in an exhibition at the Museum fuer Sepulkarlkultur in Kassel, Germany, in 2005. Gill said the theme coffins aren't a result of any innovation on the company's part. "We've never had an idea in our lives," he said. "We ourselves are just manufacturers. We don't have this type of innovation. It's the people out there who come knocking on our doors." It takes two or three men at least two weeks to complete a theme coffin, and Gill said the company typically builds one a month. Each usually starts with a photograph, which is the basis for scale drawings. The builders said they enjoy making theme coffins and that their customers' requests aren't necessarily weird. "We're moving into modern times," said Wingrove Warner, who works on both theme and traditional coffins. "This stigma of death is going out the window." Though the coffins may be seen as a modern rebellion against funerary norms, Mullard said he took his inspiration from the burial rituals of ancient civilizations such as Egypt. "I liken it to the way the ancients used to take items with them," Mullard said. "The idea was that I feel comfortable with that equipment and I want to take them on my final trip. Having said that, I don't believe I will for one minute go on some afterlife trip, but I might be surprised."
02/13/07 - Parrot's oratory stuns scientists
 (I have an African red but he is nowhere near this smart. Read somewhere an African grey is the #1 smartest bird, #2 is the CROW! Had a crow when I was a kid and he TALKED! - JWD) The bird, a captive African grey called N'kisi, has a vocabulary of 950 words, and shows signs of a sense of humour. He invents his own words and phrases if he is confronted with novel ideas with which his existing repertoire cannot cope - just as a human child would do. He uses words in context, with past, present and future tenses, and is often inventive. One N'kisi-ism was "flied" for "flew", and another "pretty smell medicine" to describe the aromatherapy oils used by his owner, an artist based in New York. When he first met Dr Jane Goodall, the renowned chimpanzee expert, after seeing her in a picture with apes, N'kisi said: "Got a chimp?" N'kisi with picture card and teacher Grace Roselli School's in: He is a willing learner. He appears to fancy himself as a humourist. When another parrot hung upside down from its perch, he commented: "You got to put this bird on the camera." Alison Hales, of the World Parrot Trust, told BBC News Online: "N'kisi's amazing vocabulary and sense of humour should make everyone who has a pet parrot consider whether they are meeting its needs. "They may not be able to ask directly, but parrots are long-lived, and a bit of research now could mean an improved quality of life for years."
02/13/07 - Afternoon nap is Good for the Heart
 Taking 40 winks in the middle of the day may reduce the risk of death from heart disease, particularly in young healthy men, say researchers. A six-year Greek study found that those who took a 30-minute siesta at least three times a week had a 37% lower risk of heart-related death. The researchers took into account ill health, age, and whether people were physically active. Experts said napping might help people to relax, reducing their stress levels. It is known that countries where siestas are common tend to have lower levels of heart disease, but studies have shown mixed results. The researchers in the Greek study looked at 23,681 men and women aged between 20 and 86. The subjects did not have a history of heart disease or any other severe condition. The researchers found those who took naps of any frequency and duration had a 34% lower risk of dying from heart disease than those who did not take midday naps. Those who took naps of more than 30 minutes three or more times a week had a 37% lower risk. Among working men who took midday naps, there was a 64% reduced risk of death compared with a 36% reduced risk among non-working men.
02/13/07 - What Is The Real Cost Of Corn Ethanol?
 Corn is the most widely produced feed grain in the United States, accounting for more than 90 percent of total feed grain production. Around 80 million acres of land are planted to corn, with the majority of the crop grown in the Heartland region. Although most of the crop is used to feed livestock, corn is also processed into food and industrial products including starch, sweeteners, corn oil, beverage and industrial alcohol, and fuel ethanol. The United States is a major player in the world corn market. Approximately 20 percent of its corn crop is currently exported to other countries. The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) has announced American farmers are expected to get 55 percent more for a bushel of corn in the 2006/2007 growing season than they received in the 2005/2006 growing season. Average annual prices are expected to increase from $2.00 per bushel to about $3.10 per bushel. Thanks to Federal mandates and subsidies, corn used for the production of corn ethanol is expected to increase from ~ 700 M Bushels in 2000/2001, to 3.2 B bushels in 2007/2008 - an increase of 357 percent. If corn prices increase by ~ 55 percent, year over year, then will the corn used for hog, cattle, chicken, turkey and fish feed go up 55 %? Doesn’t that increase the price of meat, poultry, fish, milk and eggs? If corn is used in corn meal, corn flakes, corn oil, and hundreds of other food items goes up 55%, doesn’t that increase the price of all these foods? Maybe. Since 2000, the price of beef is up 31%, eggs up 50%, corn sweeteners up 33%, wet corn milling up 39%, and corn flakes are up 10%. Chicken prices haven’t changed very much. Yet. Food producers are predicting higher prices. The word on the street is that corn futures prices have risen because of the soaring demand for corn to produce corn ethanol. Iowa’s corn ethanol production is projected to exceed 3.6 billion gallons a year. At that rate, corn ethanol production would consume nearly 1.3 billion bushels of corn, or two thirds of the corn Iowa farmers harvested in 2006. Corn for July 2007 delivery, quoted on January 3, 2007, was $3.82 per bushel. That’s a ~ 60 percent increase over the average price for a bushel of corn from 1988 through 2006. But the net increase in the price of food is less than 60%. When processed into corn ethanol, a 56 pound bushel of corn can yield about 16 pounds of distillers grain, gluten meal, and corn oil, thus replacing some of the corn products lost to corn ethanol production.
02/13/07 - Interview With Jailed Video Blogger Josh Wolf
 Video blogger and independent journalist Josh Wolf has been in a federal jail for 170 days for refusing to turn over to a federal grand jury a video of a San Francisco demonstration. On Feb. 6 Wolf's length of incarceration set a new record for US journalism. "Democracy Now!" has an interview with Josh Wolf from his jail cell. If federal authorities can jail bloggers with impunity, it does not bode well for the future of citizen journalism.
02/12/07 - Mirror Houses to save Energy
 The "switchable glass" has certain reflexive properties created by the twin coatings of "40-nanometer-thick magnesium-titanium alloy, plus a 4-nanometer-thick layer of palladium," which allows for the mirror to become transparent when a small amount of hydrogen is introduced between the two panes. Alternatively, tossing in a bit of oxygen forms a reflecting mirror, allowing users to "switch" the glass by injecting gases. Contrary to other commercialized approaches, this rendition can purportedly result in up to a "30-percent savings in energy costs" by having to run your air conditioner less, but there's still work to be done. Scientists at the AIST are still toiling away as they try to fight the relatively rapid deterioration that occurs from "frequent switching," but if they can add a dash of durability and get the price down to a respectable level, we could all be living in a house of mirrors before too long.
02/12/07 - Trash to fuel gets 2nd shot
 Less than a year has passed since Michael Spitzauer set up his machine in Cheyenne. A city councilwoman tossed in a bag of garbage and, a short time later, diesel fuel came out of a spigot. But before the city could sign a contract with the enterprising German, he receded in a cloud of fraud allegations. But now the machine is back. It's the KDV-500, a German acronym for katalytische drucklose verölung, or catalytic pressureless depolymerization. The inventor is Christian Koch, of Buttenheim, Germany's AlphaKat. He's the same scientist who came with Spitzauer to Cheyenne last June. It's possible that Koch may really have cutting-edge technology in waste-to-energy. The KDV can certainly turn grease into diesel fuel - an easy feat. No one has proved the KDV can turn garbage into diesel; yet no one has proved that it can't. The Wyoming Tribune-Eagle asked Morris Argyle, an assistant professor of chemistry and petroleum at the University of Wyoming, to weigh in. He reviewed a 2005 U.S. patent application and a rough translation of a 2006 German patent filed at the European Patent Office. Based on the information in the patents, the KDV appears to be capable of processing grease and oil, but not trash, Argyle said. "I'm underwhelmed," Argyle said. If the KDV really turns garbage into fuel, the information provided in the patents does not explain how, Argyle said. A professor from UT's Arlington campus had looked at the plant in Monterrey, Mexico, said Craig Whitehead, the city's landfill project manager. The professor did write a page-long report saying that it worked. The kicker: This plant does not process trash; it processes waste oil. "I don't believe the KDV has the necessary chemical processing steps to turn complex organics, like food waste or paper, into quality diesel fuel," Argyle said. It's possible that Koch had developed a "one-in-a-billion catalyst" that isn't described in the patent, he said. / New Catalyst - New catalysts in crystallic form can produce crude oil products from waste. The new way for diesel production in the technical and economical size KDV 500. * After long term research in the field of catalytic reaction in hot oil atmosphere the break trough of the synthetic production of diesel from waste in 3 minutes reaction time in a high speed turbulence system * Production of high quality diesel for nearly all organic residue in quality level higher than the available quality * Production costs of 0,23 €/l (catalyst cost of 0,03 €/l) in the small size reactor KDV 500 and lower in a bigger size * No environmental impact with the ion-exchange catalyst with separation of the poison substances in form of salt and crystallized adsorber * Environmental protection as a basis for fuel production and creation of employment
02/12/07 - Resurfacing worn Hip bones
Surgeons have been resurfacing hips since the 1970s, but earlier systems generally did not hold up. The Birmingham Hip incorporates improved designs, materials and surgical techniques. The Birmingham Hip is intended for patients younger than 55 or those 55 to 65 who are very active. In 2004, 43 percent of hip-replacement patients were under 65. In a conventional hip replacement, the surgeon saws off the top of the thigh bone and replaces it with a metal or ceramic ball. When an artificial hip wears out, it can be replaced in a procedure called a revision. But revisions are difficult to perform and typically don't last as long. If the Birmingham Hip wears out, the patient still has the option of a conventional hip replacement. In the Birmingham Hip, the metal surface of the hip ball fits into a metal socket in the pelvis. The advantage of this finely machined cobalt chrome is low friction and low wear. The Birmingham Hip is a more difficult procedure to perform than a hip replacement. Surgeons typically improve as they do more procedures. But since the Birmingham Hip is new in this country, many surgeons lack experience. Although the Birmingham Hip saves bone, the surgery is more invasive. Recovery time might be longer than in a hip replacement, Manning said. The total cost of a Birmingham Hip is about $30,000, similar to that of a hip replacement. Most insurers cover it, Kudrna said.
02/12/07 - PDF Student Study Guide for Video - A Machine to Die For
 (This is a documentary for the Discovery Channel that some of our group helped with a couple of years ago. We didn't have editorial rights to correct some of the statements on the producers part. You can contact me for additional information. Sorry they are asking so much money for a copy of it. The producer lied by promising us copies to each of our group who participated but never came through, but we did manage to get our own copies. None of us were paid anything and we were lied to several times, so beware this guy if he approaches you. - JWD) A Machine to Die For is a documentary about perpetual motion that showcases different inventors, each of whom is striving to create a perpetual motion machine. The documentary could be used as a resource when studying motion and simple machines in secondary science and physics. It could also serve as a springboard for discussions about inventors and inventions and the history of scientific endeavours. It would be suitable for teachers of middle to senior secondary students in Science
(Physical Sciences), History and Materials Technology. Conventional science claims this is impossible, yet generations of inventors have been mesmerised by the promise of an engine that
powers itself. The world’s reliance on diminishing fossil fuel resources and the associated problems of pollution serve to spur them on. A Machine to Die For showcases a number of dedicated, sometimes eccentric, and always obsessive individuals who have devoted their lives to this quest. / Machine to Die For Documentary - Great ideas and great inventions are all guesses, all begin in faith and are nurtured by optimism, and advance in the teeth of resistance. And who should tell a crusader when to stop? After all it was Einstein who said, “Great inventions often receive violent opposition form mediocre minds."
02/12/07 - Independent space colonization: questions and implications
 The Outer Space Treaty has theoretically forbidden any nation from claiming sovereignty over any “celestial body”. Within a couple of decades we will see if this approach can pass the reality test. Once one or more bases are established on the Moon, nations will find themselves exerting control over parts of that body which, in practical terms, will amount to sovereignty. Within a moonbase, even one occupied by only a couple of astronauts, the government that sent them there will regulate their lives in more or less the same way a government regulates the lives of the crew of a warship. The ship itself is considered the sovereign territory of the state that owns it while the waters through which it passes may be international or belong to another sovereign state that is obliged to respect the right of innocent passage. The ship’s crew lacks anything like the ability to function as free citizens and to buy sell and trade in a free marketplace. If the provision in the Outer Space Treaty (OST) regarding their extended responsibility of launching states for whatever they put into space means anything, it mean that states will have to exercise control over the inhabitants of a colony no matter how long ago their ancestors left Earth. It is difficult to imagine a third or fourth generation inhabitant of Mars or of another “accessible planetary surface”, to use the old NASA euphemism, accepting the right of a distant Earth government to control any aspect of their lives, let alone the kind of regulations promulgated under martial law. Their reaction to such control might not be a quick and easily mollified revolt, but a more permanent split between the Earthbound and the spacefaring parts of humanity.
02/12/07 - Weighing the Universe - Looking for Gravity
Many physicists are therefore entertaining the idea that Einstein's ideas about gravity must be wrong or at least incomplete. Showing exactly how and where the great man erred is the task of the scientists who gathered at the “Rethinking Gravity” conference at the University of Arizona in Tucson this week. NASA has a spacecraft called Gravity Probe B that is examining a subtlety known as the Lense-Thirring effect that produces a small force as space-time is twisted by a spinning mass, such as a rotating planet. The probe orbits the Earth's poles; the Lense-Thirring effect is predicted to shift, little by little, the point on the equator crossed by the spacecraft. This may take several months to become noticeable; the results are due in the spring. Data from existing X-ray satellites that show images of gas whizzing about black holes at close to the speed of light hint that time slows as the gas plunges into the zone from which escape is impossible. NASA has proposed a mission, called Constellation-X, that would build on this work by providing detailed pictures of what happens to space-time at the edges of these gravitational chasms.
02/12/07 - $85,000 Personal Submarine Hits the Market
 The one-seater version is 9ft long, and the 11ft model seats two. Owners who really want to impress can get go-faster stripes and custom paint jobs. The tiny C-Quester can dive to 50 metres and cruise beneath the waves at up to four knots using electric-propelled thrusters. It can stay underwater for two-and-ahalf hours straight or 36 hours in the event of an emergency. The vessel's high-strength pressure hull allows the pilot to submerge in a totally dry cockpit and surface straight from the maximum depth without risk of decompression problems. Makers U-Boat Worx, which took three years to perfect the subs, said: "Never before has it been possible for the public to explore the underwater world with a one-atmosphere submarine."
02/12/07 - Sticky Ideas
In the new book 'Made to Stick', coauthors (and brothers) Chip and Dan Heath - a Stanford Business School professor and an education entrepreneur respectively - spent a decade disassembling and trying to understand the inner workings of memorable, persuasive ideas, no matter what kind of packages they came in. They studied political speeches, urban legends, news reports, management directives, and marketing messages like Subway's - not to mention culture-crossing proverbs, the various fables of Aesop, and the many soups of chicken (for the soul).
It didn't matter whether the ideas themselves were good or bad, just that they'd "stuck." (Not only is the Great Wall of China not the sole man-made structure visible from space; it isn't visible from space at all. And still...) What the Heaths discovered was that the stickiest ideas, regardless of intrinsic merit, had a lot in common. Or, more accurately, the ways they were presented had a lot in common. Each of these ideas, as conveyed, could be described using one or more of just these six à la carte attributes: simple, unexpected, concrete, credible, emotional, and story-containing. Line up the first letters of those characteristics, add a lower-case "s" (poetic license), and you've got the handy acronym SUCCESs. (Well, whaddya know...) If that sounds like typical pop-lecture hokum (and it does, as the authors admit), it's not. In separate chapters for each of the six principal characteristics, "Made to Stick" explores in depth exactly how, say, concreteness provides more hooks for recall (the "Velcro theory of memory") and why abstraction is often what unintentionally results from expertise.
"This is the Curse of Knowledge," the Heaths write, describing what they consider the single biggest reason so many messages fail to stick. "Once we know something, we find it hard to imagine what it was like not to know it. [It] becomes difficult for us to share our knowledge with others, because we can't readily re-create our listeners' state of mind." The expert "wants to talk about chess strategies, not about bishops moving diagonally." With ideas it's not the telling but the showing that counts, so they've filled their book with stories that illustrate their theories. "Made to Stick" deconstructs President Kennedy's moon mission challenge, the act of a biologist who drank a jar of ulcer-causing bacteria so he could persuade skeptics of his cure, and the way that the profound simplicity of Southwest Airline's core purpose ("be the low-cost airline") helps "employees wring decisions out of ambiguous situations."
02/12/07 - Grand Canyon Skywalk opens deep divide
 Perched over the Grand Canyon close to a mile above the Colorado River, a massive, multimillion-dollar glass walkway will soon open for business as the centerpiece of a struggling Indian tribe's plan to lure tourists to its remote reservation. An engineering marvel or a colossal eyesore, depending on who is describing it, the horseshoe-shaped glass walkway will jut out 70 feet beyond the canyon's edge on the Hualapai Indian Reservation just west of Grand Canyon Village. Buttressed by 1 million pounds of steel and supporting 90 tons of tempered glass, the see-through deck will give visitors a breathtaking view of the canyon. When the cantilevered structure opens to the public next month, it will be the most conspicuous commercial edifice in the canyon. And, if the tribe's plans come to fruition, the Skywalk will be the catalyst for a 9,000-acre development, known as Grand Canyon West, that will open up a long-inaccessible 100-mile stretch of countryside along the canyon's South Rim. The cost of the Skywalk alone will exceed $40 million, tribal officials say.
02/12/07 - Storing Wind Power In Cold Stores
"According to Nature, a European-funded project has been launched to store electricity created from wind in refrigerated warehouses used to store food. As the production of wind energy is variable every day, it cannot easily be accommodated on the electrical grid. So the 'Night Wind' project wants to store wind energy produced at night in refrigerated warehouses and to release this energy during daytime peak hours. The first tests will be done in the Netherlands this year. And as the cold stores exist already, practically no extra cost should be incurred to store as much as 50,000 megawatt-hours of energy."
02/12/07 - Experiment hints we are wrong on climate change
 The best measurements of global air temperatures come from American weather satellites, and they show wobbles but no overall change since 1999. That levelling off is just what is expected by the chief rival hypothesis, which says that the sun drives climate changes more emphatically than greenhouse gases do. After becoming much more active during the 20th century, the sun now stands at a high but roughly level state of activity. Solar physicists warn of possible global cooling, should the sun revert to the lazier mood it was in during the Little Ice Age 300 years ago. Climate history and related archeology give solid support to the solar hypothesis. The 20th-century episode, or Modern Warming, was just the latest in a long string of similar events produced by a hyperactive sun, of which the last was the Medieval Warming. Compilations of weather satellite data show that cloudiness varies according to how many atomic particles are coming in from exploded stars. More cosmic rays, more clouds. The sun’s magnetic field bats away many of the cosmic rays, and its intensification during the 20th century meant fewer cosmic rays, fewer clouds, and a warmer world. On the other hand the Little Ice Age was chilly because the lazy sun let in more cosmic rays, leaving the world cloudier and gloomier. The only trouble with Svensmark’s idea - apart from its being politically incorrect - was that meteorologists denied that cosmic rays could be involved in cloud formation. After long delays in scraping together the funds for an experiment, Svensmark and his small team at the Danish National Space Center hit the jackpot in the summer of 2005. In a box of air in the basement, they were able to show that electrons set free by cosmic rays coming through the ceiling stitched together droplets of sulphuric acid and water. These are the building blocks for cloud condensation. But journal after journal declined to publish their report; the discovery finally appeared in the Proceedings of the Royal Society late last year.
02/12/07 - Nerve Driven Robotic Exoskeleton Replaces Muscle Work
A robotic exoskeleton controlled by the wearer's own nervous system could help users regain limb function, which is encouraging news for people with partial nervous system impairment, say University of Michigan researchers. The ankle exoskeleton developed at U-M was worn by healthy subjects to measure how the device affected ankle function. The U-M team has no plans to build a commercial exoskeleton, but their results suggest promising applications for rehabilitation and physical therapy, and a similar approach could be used by other groups who do build such technology. "This could benefit stroke patients or patients with incomplete injuries of the spinal cord," said Daniel Ferris, associate professor in movement science at U-M. "For patients that can walk slowly, a brace like this may help them walk faster and more effectively." Electrical signals sent by the brain to our muscles tell them how to move. In people with spinal injuries or some neurological disorders, those electrical signals don't arrive full strength and are uncoordinated. In addition, patients are less able to keep track of exactly where and how their muscles move, which makes re-learning movement difficult. Typically, robotic rehabilitative devices are worn by patients so that the limb is moved by the brace, which receives its instructions from a computer. Such devices use repetition to help force a movement pattern. The U-M robotic exoskeleton works the opposite of these rehabilitation aids. In the U-M device, electrodes were attached to the wearer's leg and those electrical signals received from the brain were translated into movement by the exoskeleton. "The (artificial) muscles are pneumatic. When the computer gets the electrical signal from the (wearer's) muscle, it increases the air pressure into the artificial muscle on the brace," Ferris said. "Essentially the artificial muscle contracts with the person's muscle." Initially the wearer's gait was disrupted because the mechanical power added by the exoskeleton made the muscle stronger. However, in a relatively short time, the wearers adapted to the new strength and used their muscles less because the exoskeleton was doing more of the work. Their gait normalized after about 30 minutes. The next step is to test the device on patients with impaired muscle function, Ferris said.
02/11/07 - China blames the west for global warming
 Rich industrialised nations must take the lead in cutting greenhouse gases since they bear the “unshirkable responsibility” for causing global warming, a Chinese official said on Tuesday. The comments by a foreign ministry spokeswoman underscore China’s determination not to allow international action on climate change to undermine its economic development. Rapid economic growth, a huge population and inefficient industry have made China the world’s second largest carbon emitter after the US - new data show that power generating capacity in the country in 2006 expanded by an amount equal to the entire capacity of the UK and Thailand combined. But the country’s per capita emissions have remained far below the global average.
02/11/07 - China prepares to launch climate adaptation plans
 China will soon release its first comprehensive national programme to mitigate and adapt to climate change. This follows the release of two reports with dire predictions for China's food production and coastal cities due to global warming. According to Lu Xuedu, deputy director of the office of global environment affairs, the four-year programme will outline goals for reducing emissions of greenhouse gases and developing green technologies. Earlier this week (6 February), six central departments and academic organisations - including the Ministry of Science and Technology, China Meteorological Administration and the Chinese Academy of Sciences - released a report on climate change in China. It predicts that China will see continued temperature rises up to 2100, which could reduce grain production by up to 37 per cent in the second half of this century. The report also warns of rapidly melting glaciers. Fang Aimin, a glacier expert at the Institute of Geology and Geophysics told SciDev.Net that glacier loss on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau would severely reduce flow in some major rivers, including the Yangtze and Yellow rivers. A separate report released by the State Oceanic Administration last month highlighted how coastal cities have suffered terrible erosion due to recent sea-level rise. The report predicts a rapid rise in sea level of 9-31 millimetres over the next 3-10 years, largely due to global warming. However, the authors also blame groundwater extraction in some cities. Lu Xuedu said the speed of sea-level rise was "astonishing". He told SciDev.Net that if the situation continued, the government would "either have to build coastal dams or relocate local people, both of which will definitely be costly".
02/11/07 - Low-Wind-Speed Blade Prototype Advances
 A new blade design is promising to increase efficiency and reduce the cost of energy for wind turbines at low-wind-speed sites. The most distinctive characteristic of the blade is a gently curved tip, which allows it to respond to turbulent gusts in a manner that lowers fatigue loads on the blade. Measuring 27.1 meters -- almost three meters longer than the baseline it will replace -- the blade is made of fiberglass and epoxy resin, and features a curvature toward the trailing edge. The sites targeted for the prototype have annual average wind speeds of 5.8 meters per second -- measured at 10-meter height.
02/11/07 - No sleep means no new brain cells
 Missing out on sleep may cause the brain to stop producing new cells, a study has suggested. The researchers compared animals who were deprived of sleep for 72 hours with others who were not. They found those who missed out on rest had higher levels of the stress hormone corticosterone. When the animals' corticosterone levels were kept at a constant level, the reduction in cell proliferation was abolished. The results suggest that elevated stress hormone levels resulting from sleep deprivation could explain the reduction in cell production in the adult brain. Sleep patterns were restored to normal within a week. However levels of nerve cell production (neurogenesis) were not restored for two weeks, and the brain appears to boost its efforts in order to counteract the shortage.
02/11/07 - Moon's surface can get electrically charged
 Lunar colonists could be in for a nasty shock as a team of US scientists has found that the Moon's surface can become charged with up to several thousand volts of static electricity disabling electronic equipment and space buggies. The charging could release sparks that disable electronic equipment, including monitors, space buggies or even the front door of a Moon base besides causing dust clouds that clogs up instruments, Nature magazine reported. What's worse, it can be caused by bad weather in space: just when astronauts need their equipment to give them warning and allow them to shelter from the radiation, the report said. Halekas and colleagues scanned through the data collected by the Lunar Prospector, and found that the surface charge can get as big as 4,500 volts. "That's more than enough to do some damage, if the electric field only extends over small distances," says Halekas. Any metal equipment would be vulnerable, though an astronaut might be protected by the insulation of his or her suit. Halekas said their observations were for charging over large areas, so the strength of local fields on the lunar surface is still unknown - if the charge is very spread out, then it might not cause a shock at all.
02/11/07 - Affluent Panhandlers Ignite Beggar Controversy
 According to a recent article, a couple in Oregon is making a decent living panhandling. In addition to $500 a month in food stamps, the family sometimes makes between $300 and $800 a day panhandling. This anecdotal evidence causes some to be reluctant to give money to panhandlers. In addition, many think that much of the money given to beggars is used to support unhealthy addictions such as drugs and alcohol. A study among panhandlers in Toronto, Canada concluded that most panhandlers are homeless and living in poverty but did spend a significant amount of money on alcohol and illicit drugs. A survey by Change for the Better showed that 7 of 10 panhandlers used change to buy drugs, alcohol, or cigarettes. The perception that most of those in poverty squander money on drugs and alcohol has prompted calls for random drug screening for welfare recipients. Some areas, worried that aggressive panhandling is akin to mugging, have passed laws against it.
02/11/07 - Eaton Medium-Duty Hybrid Electric System
 The Hybrid Electric System (HES), which was seven years in development, is currently deployed in 167 pre-production field units: 93 with FedEx, 50 with UPS, and 24 HTUF utility trucks. Eaton is primarily targeting the pickup and delivery (P&D) and the utility markets with the HES. In the P&D market, use of the Eaton system provides a 30-50% improvement in fuel economy. In the utility market, the system delivers a 40-60% reduction in fuel consumption, including the fuel that would be otherwise burned to support power generation at the job site.
02/11/07 - Pirates of the Constitution
 (Click on the link to see this very well done satirical poster of a recently popular movie. - JWD) What would be fun, whimsical, humorous, and yet be subtle? Then it came to me - the Mad Magazine poster "Pirates of the Constitution" drawn by a genius of an artist who happens to read this site now and then. The poster, available from the Mad Magazine web site, is a spoof of the "Pirates of the Caribbean" artwork - and tastefully done. (via urbansurvival.com)
02/11/07 - Manure: You May Be Walking on It Soon
 Home-buyers of tomorrow could find themselves walking across floors made from manure. Researchers at Michigan State University and the U.S. Department of Agriculture insist it's no cow pie in the sky dream. They say that fiber from processed and sterilized cow manure could take the place of sawdust in making fiberboard, which is used to make everything from furniture to flooring to store shelves. And the resulting product smells just fine. The researchers hope it could be part of the solution to the nation's 1.5-trillion- to 2-trillion pound annual farm waste disposal problem. Traditionally, farmers put manure to use by spreading it in their field as a natural fertilizer. But as dairy farms and other livestock operations have gotten larger and more specialized, they can find themselves with too little land for the manure they produce. A dairy farm can spend $200 per cow per year to handle its manure, Zauche said. Under pressure from regulators and the public, more large livestock operations are installing expensive manure treatment systems known as anaerobic digesters. The digesters use heat to deodorize and sterilize manure, while capturing and using the methane gas it produces to generate electricity. The systems also separate phosphorus-laden liquid fertilizer from semisolid plant residue. The solids have some known uses, such as for animal bedding and potting soil. Agricultural scientists would like to find more. Scientists at Michigan State in East Lansing and at the USDA's Forest Products Laboratory in Madison, Wis., are conducting tests on various types of fiberboard made with the “digester solids.'' As with the wood-based original, the manure-based product is made by combining fibers with a chemical resin, then subjecting the mixture to heat and pressure. So far, fiberboard made with digester solids seems to match or beat the quality of wood-based products. “It appears that the fibers interlock with each other better than wood,'' said Charles Gould at Michigan State's College of Agriculture and Natural Resources. “We end up with, I think, a superior material.''
02/11/07 - NZ public being misled by scaremongering
 The New Zealand public have a right to be annoyed at the extent to which they are being misled by scaremongering predictions of catastrophic climate change, according to Dr Augie Auer, chair of the scientific panel of the New Zealand Climate Science Coalition. “We’ve had this before. When the 3rd assessment came out in 2001, it relied heavily for its predictions on a graph that became known popularly as the ‘hockey stick.’ Well, that stick was broken into little pieces last year when the statistics on which it was based were found to be both inadequate and inaccurate. “Now, we are presented with an IPCC document that is a summary of a draft of an unfinished report not due for release until May, yet this summary is intended to guide policymakers. It is a document that ignores natural climate influences such as sun-related effects and cycles, and tries to pin the whole of the blame on human beings. “I hope that people will take the time to read the measured and scientifically restrained comments of Dr Ross McKitrick and his co-writers, who sum up their findings with these words: Consequently, there will remain an unavoidable element of uncertainty as to the extent that humans are contributing to future climate change, and indeed whether or not such change is a good or bad thing.’
02/10/07 - SCRAM monitors perspiration to detect drinking
 Some people experience bad reactions to alcohol; every time they drink they break out in handcuffs. Judges and probation officers in Bowie County are implementing a relatively new technology, secure continuous remote alcohol monitoring, or SCRAM, to help monitor compliance with a judge’s order not to use alcohol and encourage a sober lifestyle. “It’s like a Breathalyzer for your ankle,” says Jack Pappas, Bowie County chief adult probation officer. “We’re using it with some of our serious DWI probationers and others we have determined have alcohol problems at the root of their criminal behavior.” “It serves multiple purposes,” said Terry Fain, southwest region manager for Alcohol Monitoring Systems. “It’s a great intervention tool. It delivers absolute accountability for alcohol use and it is a constant companion for treatment and recovery support.” The SCRAM bracelet is worn on the ankle 24 hours a day, says Jimmy Jaggers, a Bowie County probation officer who is the SCRAM “hookup man” for the department. “We’ve been using it a little over a year and from what I’ve seen with our people, it’s working.” Pappas says most offenders pay the cost associated with the device, which is about $10 a day. Cash once used for alcohol purchases is now spent to finance SCRAM, he said. Cash once used for alcohol purchases is now spent to finance SCRAM, he said. Money is saved by not having an offender incarcerated and an employed SCRAM wearer continues to pay taxes and support dependents while helping to alleviate jail overcrowding, Pappas said. About once every hour, the device tests the perspiration of the wearer for ethanol, a chemical present in sweat when a person drinks even a small amount of alcohol, says Fain. Additional tests are simultaneously conducted, which determine if any attempts to tamper with the device have been made, Fain said.
02/10/07 - What are the major obstacles for sustainable energy?
What are the major obstacles that lie between our fossil-fuel guzzling present and a future dominated by renewable and sustainable forms of energy? Inadequate ways of storing solar energy, building photovoltaic cells, burying carbon dioxide and converting sugars into fuel are some of the answers given by scientists in a special issue of the journal Science. According to the scientists, the key issues requiring big boosts in research efforts include:
• Developing a full understanding of the chemistry of carbon dioxide, and a better understanding of photosynthesis • Less costly production of photovoltaic cells - the building blocks of solar panels • Better systems for converting solar energy into a usable form, and storing it • Improved methods of converting plant sugars into bioethanol, currently one of the most promising sources of renewable energy • Better understanding of the risks of capturing carbon dioxide released from the burning of fossil fuels and storing it underground
02/10/07 - Identity Thieves Use Post Office
 CBS 2 cameras recently went undercover to tell you about a scam many people don't know about. It starts in your local post office, and right now there is nothing you can do to stop it. An identity thief hijacked Steve Zuckerman's name by stealing his mail, not from his mailbox in Great Neck, but by using a loophole in the U.S. postal system. CBS 2 cameras recently went undercover to tell you about a scam many people don't know about. It starts in your local post office, and right now there is nothing you can do to stop it. An identity thief hijacked Steve Zuckerman's name by stealing his mail, not from his mailbox in Great Neck, but by using a loophole in the U.S. postal system. CBS 2: "You don't need ID?" Postal worker: "No, no." Al Weissmann is Postal Inspector. He said look at the numbers, only 100 out of the 45 million change of address cards submitted last year wound up having the possibility of being fraud. That's of little comfort to those who have been victimized. Their security? Weissmann said it's your signature on the card, but only after someone has been scammed. "We don't see that there's flaws in the system," Weissmann said. "The signature should match the customer signature. The bad guy has to know that we're going to be checking signatures." And he said within a week confirmation letters go out, but it took months for Zuckerman to get his. "They did issue a move validation letter to him within two or three days," Weissmann said. "Why he didn't receive it in a timely manner, that's part of the investigation." Within a couple of weeks, the thieves ultimately opened up nine credit cards in Zuckerman's name, using those pre-approved applications, running up a credit limit of $90,000, affecting his ability to borrow money.
02/10/07 - A New Approach to Mutating Malware
"CBC is reporting that researchers at the Penn State University have discovered a new method of fighting malware that better responds to mutations. From the article: 'The new system identifies a host computer with a high rate of homogeneous connection requests, and blocks the offending computer so no worm-infected packets of data can be sent from it.' This is a change from previous methods, which compared suspected viruses against known signatures. Mutations in malware took advantage of the time-delay between the initial infection and the time taken by the anti-virus system to update its known signatures. This new system claims to be able to recognize new infections nearly instantly, and to cancel the quarantine in case of false alarm."
02/10/07 - Autonomous Robot to take care of Snow Removal
 (I love autonomous devices! - JWD) Japanese 'snowbot' Yuki-taro measures 160 x 95 x 75 cm (63 x 37 x 30 in.) and weighs 400 kg (880 lbs). Armed with GPS and a pair of video cameras embedded in its eyes, the self-guided robot seeks out snow and gobbles it up into its large mouth. Yuki-taro’s insides consist of a system that compresses the snow into hard blocks measuring 60 x 30 x 15 cm (24 x 12 x 6 in.), which Yuki-taro expels from its rear end. The blocks can then be stacked and stored until summer, when they can be used as an alternative source of refrigeration or cooling.
02/10/07 - Princeton ESP Lab to Close
"The New York Times reports on the imminent closure of one of the most controversial research units at an ivy league School. The Princeton Engineering Anomalies Research laboratory is due to close, but not because of pressure from the outside. Lab founder Robert G. Jahn has declared, in the article, that they've essentially collected all the data they're going to. The laboratory has conducted studies on extrasensory perception and telekinesis from its cramped quarters in the basement of the university's engineering building since 1979. Its equipment is aging, its finances dwindling. Jahn points the finger at detractors as well: 'If people don't believe us after all the results we've produced, then they never will.'"
02/10/07 - Urban Cohousing for the 21st Century
 It seems to me that the primary reason 21st century greens shy away from ideas like this is that they seem soft, sentimental, and peripheral to the dire challenges at hand today. But in reality, communities designed for livability can be a fundamental solution to problems with everything from pollution and urban sprawl, to physical health and personal safety. Both cohousing and the creation of "living neighborhoods" dictate certain parameters about the physical design of a community, as well as the way the residents live, encouraging maximized pedestrian area and minimal auto traffic, density without highrises, abundant gardens and access to daylight, and a balance of shared and individual spaces.
02/10/07 - Richard Branson Announces Climate Change Prize
British tycoon Sir Richard Branson today announced a $25 million prize for the scientist who comes up with a way of extracting greenhouse gases from the atmosphere. The person or organization that can devise a method to remove at least a billion tons of carbon dioxide a year from the atmosphere will be able to claim the bounty. There are a few catches, of course. There can't be any negative impact on the environment, and the payment will come in chunks. A 5 million dollar payout will be paid when the system is put into place with the remainder of the bounty to be paid after 10 years of continuous use.
02/09/07 - Dispelling the Hydrogen in Steel Storage Tank myth
 (From 'The Solar Hydrogen Civilization' by Roy McAlister) Regarding Hydrogen storage, it is one thing to talk about future super tanks made of carbon fiber and current tanks of fiber glass and aluminum and then there are old fashioned steel tanks. The remarkable statement is that steel tanks hold hydrogen just fine. We make steel tanks by the millions today. These are at world record low prices. You can go get one today in almost any city in the USA. These are DOT rated and safer than a gas tank full of gasoline. Ok..that's great. Nice statement. This is where other people would stop in their books. Roy's book SHOWS YOU. Roy has a tank here that is dated 1917. This tank has held hydrogen its entire life. It was probably used for fueling blimps back during and after World War ONE ! Yes, I said World War One. Roy is a certified professional engineer (P.E.) and a metallurgist. He is qualified to inspect, test and certify pressure vessels legally. He has sampled, tested and verified the metallurgy and the safety of this hydrogen tank. It passes with flying colors and he still uses this same tank today. So much for the myth and the lies of steel not being able to safely hold diatomic hydrogen molecules.
02/09/07 - Cylindrical fuel cells to take off
Microcell’s headquarters will remain in Raleigh. The company occupies 12,000 square feet of space near the State Fairgrounds and 17 people. Its niche in alternative energy is based on what is called proton exchange membrane, or PEM, technology. Ray Eshraghi, the founder and chief executive officer of Microcell, and the company have numerous patents in the U.S. and several more pending internationally, according to Rehbock. Eshraghi founded the company in 2000. Microcell’s fuel cells are cylindrical in shape and include membranes that are nanometer in size. At this point, the cells produce electricity based on bottled hydrogen, Rehbock explained. It is Microcell’s contention that fuel cells based on a cylindrical shape are cheaper to produce and easier to maintain than fuel cells utilizing a flat, rectangular platform. The hydrogen is fed into the fuel cells and split into negative and positive ions. The negative ions are used to create an electrical current.
02/09/07 - Digital Cameras with built-in Printers
 A startup called Zink and the venerable Polaroid are working on a digital version of the Poloroid camera -- a digital camera with a built-in printer. They're not actually building the camera, but developing technology that miniturizes printers small enough to fit in digital cameras. The secret is that, instead of ink, the PAPER ITSELF is capable of turning any color, and the printer heads simply tell each "pixel" on the paper what color to turn.
02/09/07 - Video - Hack to change traffic lights using the Button
 Claims to show a secret code that lets you prompt a traffic light to change in favor of the pedestrian. The click code to use for the light change button are 3 short clicks, 2 long, 1 short, 2 long and 3 short which should make the light change to green for you, red for the cars. Some cities use a radio frequency code to allow buses, police and emergency vehicles to make lights change before they have to stop, but it is illegal for people to use this technology and you can go to prison.
02/09/07 - Font Viewer to delete what you don't use
 Free font-viewing program Opcion allows you to scroll through all of your fonts for real time rendering of sample text. Opcion Font Viewer is a free font viewer written in Java that allows you to view both installed and uninstalled TrueType fonts on Windows, Linux, Unix or Mac. The main focus of Opcion is to allow you to view your uninstalled fonts so that you install only the fonts you want and keep your system memory free of fonts you don't want. Installing huge font packs can cause major system slow-downs at start-up - Opcion is designed to help alleviate these problems while allowing you to quickly save favorite fonts to projects on the fly.
02/09/07 - Burglar Decoys
Your best strategy, then, is to actually leave some money in obvious places for the burglar to quickly find (the same applies if you keep all your money in the bank). This can not only save your other stash of money, but may actually keep the burglar from destroying your place as he looks for where you have hidden your money. If they believe they may have found the cash that you have in the house, they are much less likely to keep looking (remember, they want to get out asap). In the end, if you hide all your money well, you may win a moral victory in not letting the burglar find the money, but you’ll likely have much more damage done to your place that will end up costing you more in the long run.... His number one recommendation for money was in toys in a young child’s room. As he explained, young children don’t have money, they have an abundance of toys and most parents don’t trust a child around money. Therefore, parents will rarely hide money there. In addition, when money is hidden, it is usually hidden away neatly and securely - a child’s room is rarely a neat place making it an unlikely place for money to be hidden. Plus with all the stuff in a child’s room, it is not someplace that a burglar can search quickly and get out (rule #2).
02/09/07 - Graffiti Research Labs Laser Tagging high-power projection system
 The Graffiti Research Lab has developed a "laser-tag" system to project images onto buildings and other public surfaces. Last night @ 2200 hours, the GRL laser-tag system went online and fully operational. The laser tag system status is GO and we are calling all writers in the Netherlands to please report to Rotterdam most riki-tik for training and deployment. The GRL will be turning over control of the system to writers, protesters, artists and the citizens of Rotterdam from the 7th to the 10th of February, starting each night around 1600 hours at the KPN building in Rotterdam. If you’ve ever wanted to catch a 20-story high tag with a laser beam, WE WANT YOU!
02/09/07 - Video - No corn for oil: the politics of tortillas and ethanol
Many people, including scientists and some big companies believe that we are running out of oil. What oil there is, is located mostly in very hostile environments. One possible alternative to oil is ethanol. Lately, there has been a high demand for ethanol. Even U.S. President George W. Bush said “We must continue investing in new methods of producing ethanol…” Ethanol is primarily made out of corn. The more demand there is for ethanol, the more expensive corn becomes. But ethanol is not the only product made out of corn. So are corn tortillas. Over the last six months, the price of corn meal for tortillas in Mexico has doubled. Most Mexicans rely on corn tortillas to keep from going hungry. Entonces: many Mexican families are now worried about going hungry because we may be running out of oil. (via boingboing.net)
02/09/07 - Hitachi Develops IR Mind Reading System
 It works by flooding the brain with near infra-red rays which are harmless but allow the system to measure blood flow in the frontal lobe areas. This blood flow changes in response to a persons thoughts and this change can be measured and interpreted as images which can in turn be used to trigger electrical devices. They admit their ‘optical-topography’ system is in the early stages but hope to use it to develop remote control systems for disabled people, allowing them to control wheelchairs and other aids using only their minds.
02/09/07 - 1987 "Secret Government" documentary still valid
 "We've turned the war powers of the United States over to... well we're never really sure who, or what they're doing, or what it costs, or who is paying for it. The one thing we are sure of is that this largely secret global war, carried on with less and less accountability to democratic institutions, has become a way of life. And now we are faced with a question brand new in our history: Can we have the permanent warfare state, and democracy too?" "How does it happen that to be anticommunist we become antidemocratic? As if we have to subvert our society to save it? ... The powers claimed by presidents for national security have become the controlling wheel of government..." "...In the bunker of the White House, the men who serve the president put loyalty above analysis, and judgement yields to obedience..."
02/09/07 - Sniffing info on the wind
A search algorithm tracks down information when clues are patchy and there's no easy-to-follow trail. The algorithm, which is similar to the way birds and insects sample air to home in on food and mates, could be used for odor-sniffing robots. (via trnmag.com)
02/09/07 - Electricity from Candle a Hoax?
 John Miller posted the following observation to the KeelyNet Interact discussion list - "I noticed that there is one frame of the flic just as the words, 'There You Go', come up that the little light is on but the striker and right candle are not lit yet." - I took snaps of the 3 frames in question and it does show the lamp lighting to full intensity before the 2nd candle is even showing any flame. Another one Busted, thanks John!
02/08/07 - Video - Electricity from Candles!!!!
 Thanks to James (futurescience) for sharing this incredible video with us here at keelynet.com - (A personal note, I tried this and couldn't get anything out..I used two fat votive candles, with a sanded galvanized nail driven in to hit the wick and a regular flashlight bulb at 3vdc but nothing happened. Not a bit of voltage let alone a lighted bulb as in the video...it might be a grain of wheat bulb and not a typical flashlight bulb, not specified in the video...it could be a hoax or I'm not doing something right. - JWD) This basic demonstration and proof of principle requires just 2 Candles, 2 Nails, a Magnet to magnetize the nails, two alligator clips and a load (+/- 3vdc flashlight bulb, motor, etc.) I think this is the most fascinating video I've yet seen. It is definitely something to test for yourself and the comments on the page below the video indicate OTHERS have also been able to make it work. The video suggests that the nails need to be pushed in far enough to touch the wick inside the candle to act as a conducting wire (waxed wire, like an electret?)...I'm puzzled because I can't imagine it being due to heat or the wax would melt around the wick down to the nail. Could it be thermoelectric? Ionic? Whatever is the cause of this novel effect, it could be a unique way to recharge your cell, iPod or other devices or even provide for emergency power if it turns out to be scaleable. Perhaps a propane burner on two nails or is the wax critical for the production of current. During the rainy season here we sometimes lose electricity and I resort to candles, this way I might be able to power a few flashlight bulbs or bright LEDs from the candles...how COOL!!! Wonder what happens if you hooked a neodymium or rare earth magnet to the nails to increase the flux density?
02/08/07 - Video - Mythbuster Free Energy experiments
 Using 3000 feet of wire, wound on a pvc frame and hoisted up to an 'unidentified' high voltage tower, which the law says must be 16 feet from structures, they measured 2mv on the ground and 8mv in the air. They claim the inspiration for this came from a story about a farmer who had a length of baling wire under a high voltage tower, which gave him a shock when he touched the wire. There are various circuits which claim to collect energy transmitted via induction.
02/08/07 - Hitachi's Storm Scooter Hybrid Robot
 "We aimed to create a robot that could live and co-exist with people," Toshihiko Horiuchi, Hitachi’s Mechanical Research Lab. Excellent Mobility and Interactive Existenceas Workmate - or Emiew, is the new robot for Hitachi, to be showcased at this month’s World Fair. As you can see from prototypes Pal and Chum, the Emiew is a hybrid of a Star Wars storm trooper and a Segway scooter, some sort of storm scooter. It’s 4.2 ft (1.3 m) tall, can move at 3.7 miles (6 km)/hour, has sensors on the head, waist and near the wheels, responds to commands from a vocabulary of about 100 words, and can be "trained" for practical use in 5-6 years. Sony and Honda have also made humanoid robots to showcase their engineering, in a recent robot race of one-upmanhip.
02/08/07 - Measure Anything with a Camera and Software
 "Using a simple concept, iPhotoMEASURE software can measure any objects you can take a picture of. Include a printout of a 7.5- or 15-inch square in the photo and the software can measure any distance or object in the pic to within 99.5% accuracy. Although geared towards contractors, there's any number of consumer usage scenarios as well. Enough to justify a $99 price tag? Jury's still out on that." / The "secret sauce" of the solution is called a "DigiTarget". The DigiTarget gives everything in your photo a frame of reference; it's a single sheet of paper with a 7.5 x 7.5-inch square on it. A 15-inch square version is also available for outdoor measurements. Simply print off a free DigiTarget, affix it to something in your photo scene and snap a pic. The iPhotoMEASURE software uses the DigiTarget to compute the measurements of items in your photo and the company claims that any distance in the picture can be measured with up to 99.5% accuracy. Conceptually, it makes sense since the software has that 7.5- or 15-inch frame of reference.
02/08/07 - Can Stirling Engine
 The Can Stirling engine can rotate using a candle as the heat source. This engine is constructed with very simple materials. There are a can, a balloon, a wood board and others. When the engine is completed, Please heat a bottom face of the can cylinder with a candle. When the face is fully heated, rotate the crank shaft with your hand. Does the engine start to move? There are two important points to move model Stirling engines. One is a perfect seal of the air in the engine. Another is low friction of the mechanical parts. If your engine does not move, check these points. Does the air leak from the hole of the diaphragm ? Does the wood piston touch the cylinder?
02/08/07 - New Loremo LS gets 157 miles to the gallon
 German company Loremo AG has developed it’s LS with a 2 cylinder Turbo diesel engine, 20 horse-pwer and a 160 km/h (100m/h) top speed. The kicker’s that it uses 1.5 literes per 100 km, that’s 157 miles per gallon. The car only weighs 450 kg (992 lb), but still seats four. The planned pricetag on the LS is less than 11,000 Euro ($13,000). Later, Loremo plans to release the GS, which will have a stronger engine (50 hp, 27l/100km) and a top speed of 220km/h (136m/h).
02/08/07 - Action computer games can sharpen eyesight
US researchers have found that playing action-packed computer games can be good for your eyes.
A study by scientists at the University of Rochester shows that people who play action video games for a few hours each day over the course of a month can improve their performance in eye examinations by about 20%. Test subjects were given an eye test similar to one used at regular eye clinics. They were asked to identify the position of a "T" within a crowd of other symbols - a so-called "crowding test". Participants were then divided into two groups. One played the "shoot-em-up" action game Unreal Tournament for an hour a day while the other played the less visually complex computer game Tetris for the same amount of time. After 30 hours of gaming, both groups had their vision tested again. Those who played Tetris saw no improvement in their test score. However, the group that played Unreal Tournament scored 20% better in the eye test on average. The researchers believe the spatial resolution of these players' vision had improved as a result of playing the fast and furious computer game. This enabled them to pick out figures on an eye chart more clearly, despite other symbols crowding in. The researchers say their findings could help patients with certain visual defects such as amblyopia, or "lazy eye". Such people might perhaps benefit from using specially designed training software.
02/08/07 - Video - cheap, easy Tie Dye
 Uses only magic markers and rubbing alcohol to produce permanent patterns on teeshirts and other fabrics. Experiment details - It's a brand new tie-dye technique without the mess... and the results are amazing! This activity combines chemistry and art to create a designer t- shirt that is sure to get lots of attention whenever you wear it. Your designs are only limited by your imagination. Try as many different patterns as you like. The secret is to keep your patterns small and in the center of the design area on the shirt. DO NOT flood the design area with rubbing alcohol. The key is to drip the rubbing alcohol slowly in the center of the shirt and allow the molecules of ink to spread outward from the center. This is really a lesson in the concepts of solubility, color mixing, and the movement of molecules. The Sharpie markers contain permanent ink, which will not wash away with water. However, the molecules of ink are soluble in another solvent called rubbing alcohol. This solvent carries the different colors of ink with it as it spreads in a circular pattern from the center of the shirt. It's important to heat set the colors by placing the shirt in the laundry dryer for approximately 15 minutes. Teachers have also suggested rinsing the shirt in a solution of vinegar and water as a means of setting the colors.
02/08/07 - Videos - list of many to choose from
This site has several categories that might have offerings of interest, including music, lectures, comedy, consciousness, mystery history and much more.
02/08/07 - Development of brain enhancements
 As our computing power grows bigger and our iPods get smaller, the question of cybernetic implants becomes more a reality. Though some still dismiss it as science fiction, scientists have already made the blind see, the deaf hear, and the paralyzed type and move cursors, all through a brain-machine interface. So it’s only a matter of time before entire portions of the brain can be enhanced/replaced by implants. All this raises a curious question in the philosophy of mind, one that echoes a riddle from the classics. If you have a ship and, as parts of it break, you replace them to the point that none of the original parts remain, is it still the same ship? (Further, if someone takes the discarded parts and reassembles them into another ship, which one is the original?) Now apply this to the brain. If you replace it bit by bit until it’s all cybernetic, is it still you? Those who don’t believe that a machine can be conscious will say no, but then what happens to you as you replace those parts? Does your consciousness fade gradually? Is there a specific point when you go from man to machine and your self-awareness vanishes? Perhaps soon we’ll find out.
02/08/07 - Understanding Zero Point Energy
 (Though this was written in 1999 and on KeelyNet from day one, finally, it appears some in the masses are waking up to this. - JWD) For the first time in history, a lot of media attention is being paid to the sea of energy that pervades all of space. It just happens to be the biggest sea of energy that is known to exist and we’re floating inside it. (Credit due to The Sea of Energy by T. Henry Moray for the idea.) Not only is it big but its energy is estimated to exceed nuclear energy densities, so even a small piece of it is worth its weight in gold. What is it? Many people are not sure what "zero point energy" (ZPE) is. Most agree that virtual particle fluctuation contributes to it and van der Waals forces don’t explain everything. Does it offer a source of unlimited, free energy for homes, cars, and space travel? Depending on who we talk to, ZPE can do everything and ZPE can do nothing useful. How can the energy be converted to a usable form? What are the basic explanations of ZPE and the new discoveries, which have rocked the U.S. Patent Office, Physical Review Letters, Science, Scientific American, and the New York Times? Why is ZPE implicated in the latest confirmation of cosmological antigravity? Can the Casimir effect be a source of energy? This article is intended to give a review of the latest developments (as well as an introduction to the topic for those who are non-specialists).
02/08/07 - Video - Toothpick explosions in Microwave
 Fascinating use of a burning toothpick producing balls of flame as the toothpick burns down to expose carbon. The carbon is heated by the microwave energy and throws off flameballs and some report a plasma like ball lightning.
02/08/07 - Covert Iris Scanner
 Sarnoff Labs in New Jersey, US, has been working on a clever homeland security system for the US government. It scans people's irises as they walk towards a checkpoint, without them even knowing it. Current systems require a person to stand still and look directly into a single digital camera from close range. The new system will instead use an array of compact, high resolution cameras, all of which point in slightly different directions and focus at slightly different distances. As a subject walks into range, a sensor triggers a powerful infrared strobe light. The strobing is synchronised with the camera exposures, illuminating pictures of a subject's face thirty times per second, to create a bank of different images. At least one of these shots should provide a clear, high-definition image of the target's iris. Clarity could also be enhanced by combining two similar shots. Sarnoff reckons this could be done at a distance around 3 metres, and a database could be queried fast enough to sound the alarm if the subject warrants a closer check.
02/08/07 - Easy Money
 A man who gave a psychic $32,000 to bless returned the next day to find she and the money have disappeared, the Manatee County Sheriff's Office reports. The strange case began when Manuel Lanaverde, 29, of Arcadia heard ads the psychic ran on two local radio stations, promising she could change your luck. He telephoned her then met with her at her residence, 3200 51st Ave. Drive East, telling her his construction business was not making money. "The psychic advised him that if he brought her a large amount of money she could bless it and that would make his business prosper," the sheriff's office said. "The victim then brought her $32,000 in cash to her residence and had her bless the money." She then told the victim to come back tomorrow to pick up the money because it would take a full day to bless the money. The next day the victim went back to the psychic residence and she was not there. Deputies say he then contacted the apartment manager and had her check the residence for him. The residence was checked by the manager and everything in the residence was gone. The victim also stated that other people were at the psychic residence stating that she also took money from them.
02/07/07 - Video - James Griggs' Hydrosonic overunity Steam Generator
 Excellent overview of how water hammer can be used to hydraulically compress water (the Schaeffer Effect) to produce hot water or steam. An electric motor runs at 3,000rpm to drive a custom designed tightly fitted rotor with many precise holes that turbolate the water at high pressures to produce up to 70% more energy out than in. The rotor holes can be selected to heat water or produce steam as desired. Steam from rotation, how can you beat that?
02/07/07 - Zap-X: 350 Miles and 155 Mph on a 10 Minute Charge
 Electric vehicle maker and importer Zap (stands for zero air pollution) announced in mid January that it had partnered with the consultancy Lotus Engineering to explore the feasibility of new concepts for electric cars. Zap claims this project will lay the basis for a “production-ready electric all-wheel drive crossover high performance vehicle for ZAP in the USA market.” The battery system for the vehicle (details have yet to be disclosed) boasts a 350 mile range between charges and a 10 minute recharge time. Four in-wheel motors will give the Zap-X a total of 644 horsepower and a top speed of 155 mph.
02/07/07 - DCA cancer cure trials underway
 (Would be interesting to try this with radionics, just needs one sample to provide the 'signature'. - JWD) Investigators at the University of Alberta have recently reported that a drug previously used in humans for the treatment of rare disorders of metabolism is also able to cause tumor regression in a number of human cancers growing in animals. This drug, dichloroacetate (DCA), appears to suppress the growth of cancer cells without affecting normal cells, suggesting that it might not have the dramatic side effects of standard chemotherapies. At this point, the University of Alberta, the Alberta Cancer Board and Capital Health do not condone or advise the use of dichloroacetate (DCA) in human beings for the treatment of cancer since no human beings have gone through clinical trials using DCA to treat cancer. However, the University of Alberta and the Alberta Cancer Board are committed to performing clinical trials in the immediate future in consultation with regulatory agencies such as Health Canada. We believe that because DCA has been used on human beings in Phase 1 and Phase 2 trials of metabolic diseases, the cancer clinical trials timeline for our research will be much shorter than usual. This website will be updated frequently to reflect progress in our efforts. / Dichloroacetate (DCA) is a product of water chlorination and a metabolite of certain industrial solvents. DCA is not patented which would make it dirt cheap to produce. / Dichloroacetate (DCA) is a simple molecule with two oxygens, two chlorines, and two carbons. DCA has been used to treat a rare illness in mitochondria, which process energy inside cells. Unlike many new cancer drugs, you can take DCA by mouth. / When the researchers injected human lung cancer cells into rats, tumors shrank significantly in animals that got DCA, compared to the animals that did not get the drug. Tests showed that apoptosis was operating in the tumors in these DCA-treated animals, but not in the control animals. The drug DCA reduces tumors but does not eliminate them.
02/07/07 - NASA May Have to Buy Trips to Space
"Budget cuts could leave NASA without a Space Shuttle replacement, and leave it reliant on private firms to get payloads into space. A similar scenario happened between 1975 and 1981 when NASA made the transition from Apollo to the Space Shuttle. It seems like a strange state of affairs when a magazine can take people to space, but the USA can't."
02/07/07 - Video - Control the Energy to Control the People
 Seven minute - Webisode 38 of Memoirs of a Madman - Free Energy Documentary featuring Bruce DePalma, Stan Deyo, Thomas Brown, Dr. Paramahansa Tewari and Stan Meyer. Shows how oil brings in far more money than drugs, alcohol and smoking combined. Discusses why it is in the government and big business interest to threaten and suppress any working claims of free energy or super efficient devices.
02/07/07 - Introducing the Liquid Transistor
 Researchers in the US have made the first ever liquid transistor. The revolutionary device, which works thanks to an "electrowetting" effect between two competing fluids, could find applications in biotechnology and in the rapidly developing world of flat panel displays. The shape of a liquid droplet placed on a hydrophobic (water-repellent) surface can be changed by applying a voltage across the surface - a trick known as "electrowetting". The LiquiFET works thanks to a competitive electrowetting effect between water and another fluid, like oil, placed on the same surface. Steckl and Kim made their LiquiFET by first placing a dielectric insulating layer between two electrodes. Next, the researchers coated the top electrode with a hydrophobic material. Then they placed a water droplet - containing potassium chloride for conduction purposes - and an oil droplet on top of the structure. With no applied voltage, the oil layer settles in between the water layer and the hydrophobic surface because of the surface tension between the two liquids. Under this condition, the oil prevents any current from flowing between source and drain and the transistor is switched off. However, when the researchers apply a voltage to the water droplet, this pushes the oil layer away and water touches the hydrophobic surface. Current then flows between the source and the drain, switching the transistor on. Moreover, the current increases as the voltage applied to the gate increase, as in a conventional FET.
02/07/07 - Cheap One Second Timebase
 Here are instructions describing how to get one-second (1hz) pulses from a broken quartz clock. This is a precision timebase generator that can be used in any project that needs exactly one-second pulses. This is the modification that need to be done. We need to diodes (1N4148 works great) and 1k resistor. The resistor will reduce the current so the circuit can work from three volts to five volts. As you can see, the circuit generates a pulse every two seconds on each connection of the coil, it makes the round magnet to turn half cycle for each pulse. So, using diodes adds each pulse to generate one hertz. (1 Hertz = One pulse per second.) (via hackaday.com)
02/07/07 - 10 things you shouldn't buy used
MSN Money rounds up 10 products you should never buy used. The list is based on products where the savings doesn't quite justify the risk of buying used. According to the article, that includes laptops, car seats, plasma TVs, DVD players, shoes, and about 5 other best-if-new products. For a view from the flip-side, check out 10 things you shouldn't buy new.
02/07/07 - Video: can a vehicle move downwind faster than the wind?
 Here's a Youtube video of a wind-powered cart (with R/C steering) that goes downwind faster than the wind (DWFTTW -- "No it is NOT impossible!").
Jack Goodman in Florida built this cart to end a long argument on the Amateur Yacht Research Society website (ayrs.org) about whether DWFTTW is even possible -- but it just led to more discussions, with some believing the video is a hoax. The key point is that the propeller is a propeller, not a wind vane, and when the cart is rolling, the wheels are powering the propeller, not the other way around. With the right gearing, the propeller will always push backwards against the air, whether or not the air is moving forwards or backwards relative to the cart. The tailwind and the propeller action combine to make the wheels spin fast enough to keep the whole system rolling Faster Than The Wind. Definitely counter-intuitive
02/07/07 - Iran Set to Unveil Herbal AIDS Cure
Iran was set to make fantastic claims on the anniversary of the Islamic Revolution, including finding an herbal cure for AIDS, an Israeli news agency reported Sunday. "After seven long years of arduous work, Iranian scientists here on Saturday introduced a herbal medicine which cures Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS)," Fars reported. "The drug named 'IMOD' is completely effective and safe with no proven side effects," Iran's Minister of Health Kamran Bagheri Lankarani claimed during a ceremony.
02/07/07 - Mysterious Wis. Wonder Spot Soon to Go
 In a wooded ravine tucked away from the water parks, restaurants and mega-resorts that dominate this tourist town, a piece of history is quietly dying. After more than half a century of wowing tourists (and causing probably more than a few cases of nausea), the Wonder Spot, a mysterious cabin where people can't stand up straight, water runs uphill and chairs balance on two legs, is no more. Owner Bill Carney has sold the iconic attraction to the village of Lake Delton for $300,000. The village wants to build a road through the crevice where the Wonder Spot has stood since the 1950s. Now, the Wonder Spot, one of more than a dozen sites around the nation dubbed "gravity vortexes" and a throwback to postwar, family-oriented tourist attractions, has a date with a bulldozer. "We're kind of wondering how the town is going to deal with the gravitational forces under the road. That might be an issue with driving and how you bank a curve," joked Doug Kirby, publisher of RoadsideAmerica.com, which catalogs odd tourist attractions. The story behind each one is similar _ gravity doesn't work in them. People seem to grow smaller, can't stand up straight and can barely walk. Promotions boast that strange forces in the spots trump the laws of physics. Others say they're just elaborate hoaxes. According to a sign proudly placed at the base of the ravine, the Wonder Spot was discovered June 16, 1948. People who enter the spot, the sign warns, won't see correctly, stand erect "or feel quite normal ... in fact, on the cabin site the laws of natural gravity seem to be repealed." Kirby called the Wonder Spot one of the top five most-visited mystery spots. Generations of people have stopped to see it. Children who visited would return grown up, their own children in tow, Carney said. During the mid-1990s, he saw up to 50,000 people per summer. Carney, a high school history teacher and baseball coach, said the road wasn't going to go directly through the Wonder Spot, but it would come within yards. With the mega-parks dominating tourism in the Dells and the spot's nostalgia compromised _ "it's hard to run water uphill when a car is driving right by the fence," he said _ he decided to get out.
02/07/07 - The mystery shuttle 'zap' photo that 'wowed' NASA
 Feb. 6, 2003: WND documented skyrocketing interest in an unreleased photograph purporting to show the space shuttle Columbia being "zapped" by some kind of purple electrical phenomenon. WND subsequently learned the digital camera model which took the picture has been known to have its own color glitches. "Wow." That was veteran astronaut Tammy Jernigan's stunned reaction when she viewed the photo at the home of the San Francisco man who snapped the shuttle's re-entry into the atmosphere just before it disintegrated. "It certainly appears very anomalous," Jernigan said. "We sure will be very interested in taking a very hard look at this." "In the critical shot," reported the San Francisco Chronicle, "a glowing purple rope of light corkscrews down toward the plasma trail, appears to pass behind it, then cuts sharply toward it from below. As it merges with the plasma trail, the streak itself brightens for a distance, then fades." "[The photos] clearly record an electrical discharge like a lightning bolt flashing past, and I was snapping the pictures almost exactly ... when the Columbia may have begun breaking up during re-entry," the photographer originally said. To WND's knowledge, the mysterious photo has never been released to the public. / Columbia downed by Megalightning - Columbia was mortally damaged during re-entry by a bolt of megalightning. I have now seen the image referred to in the San Francisco Chronicle.* A characteristic corkscrew trail of lightning appears at very high altitude "out of a clear blue sky." It is seen to brighten as it joins the ionized reentry trail of Columbia. Experts who checked the San Francisco photo concluded the time-lapse image of lightning was caused by a camera wobble! But there is no sign of wobble in the Columbia trail or in other similar photographs taken on the same camera at the time.
02/06/07 - Scientists find why conductance of nanowires vary
 (This might have some correlation with Bearden's Final Secret idea of old, corroded wires exhibiting unusual conductance phenomena which could make a device operate in overunity mode. - JWD) A model of the niobium nanowire with the electrical leads on the outside and the two dimers in the center. At left, the dimer is in the center of the leads, giving it high electrical conductivity. At right, the dimer is not centered, giving it lower conductivity. In a collaborative investigation performed by an experimental team and a theoretical physics team, the group discovered that measured fluctuations in the smallest nanowires' conductance are caused by a pair of atoms, known as a dimer, shuttling back and forth between the bulk electrical leads. Leading the experimental team, Alexei Marchenkov, assistant professor in the School of Physics, formed niobium nanowires using the mechanically controlled break junction technique - that is bending a thin nanofabricated strip of niobium until it breaks. In the final stage before the strip breaks completely, all that's left is a nanowire made of a short chain of niobium atoms that bridge the gap between the two sides of the strip. Working at low temperatures, Marchenkov was able to hold the nanowires at successive stretching stages for many hours, long enough to perform thorough conductance measurements, and much longer than the seconds typically characteristic of this technique. Conducting the experiment at 4.2 degrees Kelvin (far below niobium's superconductivity transition temperature of 9.2 Kelvin), as well as performing measurements above the transition temperature, Marchenkov's team measured the electrical conductance of the atomic nanowire as it is stretched during the bending of the strip. As this bending occurs, the atoms separate from each other. The researchers were capable of controlling this separation with a precision better than 1 picometer (one thousandth of a nanometer), which is about 100 times smaller than the typical size of atoms. As the nanowire is slowly pulled, the conductance drops. The drop in conductance was gradual until a rapid decrease in the conductance was observed in a narrow region of just 0.1 angstrom. Upon further pulling of the wire, the conductance resumed its gradual decline.
02/06/07 - MagWind Magnetically Levitated Vertical Wind Turbine
 The "Magnetically-Levitated Axial Flux Alternator with Programmable Variable Coil Resistance, Vertical Axis Wind Turbine". It's called the Mag-Wind MW1100 and, thanks to some interesting technical maneuvering, promises 1100 kWh/month in a 13 mph average wind. The unit will cost around 3.5 cents/kW or, put another way, ROI will be reached in 3 years for someone with an average monthly electric bill of $300 - which sounds very high; a 6+ year ROI might be more realistic for home use. Nevertheless, the inventors claim the unit is cheaper than solar or horizontal wind turbines while requiring much less space to operate. The site's page on roof effect describes how the device can produce as much electricity as it does with such a small footprint: So, how is it possible to make as much electricity as we do with only a 4-foot sweep? We use the roof of a house or other building to extend our reach and increase the volume of air reaching the sails of our VAWT. This gives us the effect of a larger surface area without actually having a larger vane. The great thing is that every house or other building also has a roof. The roof moves the wind, and that wind has a lot of energy. The two major factors that determine how much energy is available are the vertical rise of the roof and the pitch, or angle, of the roof. The more rise there is, the more wind will hit it and be moved upward towards the VAWT. This is good. However, the steeper the roof is, the more wind energy will be lost in pressure against the roof and wind moving around the roof and the building as a whole. This is not so good. A roof with a 10-foot vertical rise and a 30% angle will provide nearly a 200% increase in the amount of wind energy that is available to be turned into electricity. Compared to the same turbine just sitting on a pole, the roof effect increases the power yielded by operation of the wind turbine dramatically. So, although it might be cost prohibitive for some (most), it might be worth looking into if you live in a fairly windy area, as the faster the average windspeed, the quicker it will be to see significant returns on your investment.
02/06/07 - Foot Powered Portable Energy Source
 Freeplay has come out with a nice backup energy solution called Weza. The unit works by having the operator step repeatedly on a pedal to produce up to 40-watts of power, which charges an internal 12-volt battery. The Weza outputs to two jumper cables or, alternatively, a convenient cigarette lighter jack. An optional add-on is required for powering essential 120 volt devices, like your PVR.
02/06/07 - Flexibile batteries
 Gel battery boost for radio tags. "Japanese company NEC has developed a lightweight, flexible battery that is less than a millimetre thick and can be recharged in half a minute. It is called the Organic Radical Battery (ORB) and is based on a type of plastic that exists in a gel state." / "NEC has debuted some ultra-thin and flexible quick charging batteries named ORB, for Organic Radical Battery. We’re having a hard time deciding what is the coolest part about these; their 0.3mm thickness that allows them to be flexible, or the fact that they can be recharged in about 30 seconds."
02/06/07 - MIT makes case for wireless power
MIT's Marin Soljacic, Aristeidis Karalis, and John Joannopoulos have outlined a relatively simple (for physicists) system that could deliver power wirelessly by harnessing the properties of resonance. You know, that phenomena which causes a played instrument to vibrate another of the same acoustic resonance or collapse bridges spanning the Tacoma Narrows when its mechanical resonance is exploited by a bit of wind. However, MIT's solution is based on the resonance associated with electromagnetic waves. Notably, they've investigated a special class of non-radiative objects with long-lived resonances that won't scatter energy like radio waves or infrared. When energy is applied to these objects, it remains bound to them allowing, in theory, for a simple copper antenna with a long-lived resonance to transfer energy to say, a laptop antenna resonating at the same frequency up to about 5-meters away -- any unused energy is simply reabsorbed.
02/06/07 - Alarm Clock that Runs Away and Hides Unless You Wake up
 Clocky is a funny/ingenious/annoying alarm clock that will roll off your nightstand and find a place to hide if you don't wake up to kill its alarm. From the site: Clocky gives you one chance to get up. But if you snooze, Clocky will jump off of your nightstand and wheel around your room looking for a place to hide. Clocky is kind of like a misbehaving pet, only he will get up at the right time. The unit is also available in a few colours as well as in a brown shag and can jump (fall?) from a 2 foot height.
02/06/07 - 181 things to do on the Moon
 NASA has just released a list of 181 good ideas. Ever since the end of the Apollo programme, ‘‘folks around the world have been thinking about returning to the moon, and what they would like to do there,’’ says Jeff Volosin, strategy development lead for NASA’s Exploration Systems Mission Directorate. Now, NASA is going back; the agency plans to send astronauts to the Moon no later than 2020. ‘‘So we consulted more than 1,000 people from businesses, academia and 13 international space agencies to come up with a master list of 181 potential lunar objectives.’’ For example, the moon could be a good location for radio astronomy. A radio telescope on the far side of the Moon would be shielded from Earth’s copious radio noise, and would be able to observe low radio frequencies blocked by Earth’s atmosphere. The moon would also be an excellent place to study the high-energy particles of the solar wind, as well as cosmic rays from deep space. Earth’s magnetic field and atmosphere deflect many of these particles, so even satellites in low-Earth orbit can’t observe them all. The moon has virtually no atmosphere, and it spends most of its 28-day orbit outside of Earth’s magnetosphere. Detectors placed on the moon could get a complete profile of solar particles, which reveal processes going on inside the sun, as well as galactic cosmic radiation from distant black holes and supernovas. Science accounts for only about a third of the 181 objectives, however. More than half of the list deals with the many challenges of learning to live on an alien world: everything from keeping astronauts safe from radiation and micrometeors to setting up power and communications systems to growing food in the airless, arid lunar environment. ‘‘We want to learn how to live off the land and not depend so much on supplies from Earth,’’ says Tony Lavoie, leader of NASA’s Lunar Architecture Team (Phase 1) at the Marshall Space Flight Center. The moon could also provide some creative commercial opportunities: lunar power from solar cells, protected data archives, mining of lunar metals, and research under conditions of low gravity and high vacuum, to name a few. In fact, mining the moon may eventually yield rocket propellant that could be sold to commercial satellite operators to access and service their satellite assets in Earth orbit. Beyond charging space tourists for a chance to visit the moon, lunar entrepreneurs might host special television events from the moon to boost publicity, or place a remote-controlled rover on the moon. People back on Earth could pay to take turns controlling the rover from their Internet-connected computers, letting them take a virtual drive across the moon’s crater-pocked surface. Not all of the ideas on the list will necessarily happen. From the master list of 181, NASA currently is selecting the a smaller number of high priority goals for its initial return to the moon. A radio telescope on the moon uses a crater to support its giant primary dish.
02/06/07 - Tiny windmills to run various devices
An article in Nature says "wireless networks have freed us from miles of cumbersome wiring needed to carry information,but the electronic 'nodes' of such networks still need power. If geologists want to place hundreds of sensors on a mountain to monitor seismic activity, for example,they either have to supply electricity using cables or hike out to each sensor every six months or so to replace batteries. "The problem is keeping the nodes powered all the time," says Shashank Priya,an electrical engineer from the University of Texas,Arlington, adding that wind power could be the answer. His windmill is about 10 centimetres across, and is attached to a rotating cam that flexes a series of piezoelectric crystals as it rotates. Piezoelectric materials generate a current when they are squeezed or stretched, and are commonly used to make a spark in gas lighters. Priya has found that a gentle breeze of 16 kilometres per hour can generate a constant power of 7.5 milliwatts, which is more than enough to keep an electronic sensor running. He unveiled his windmill earlier this year, and has now followed up with precise details of the device's abilities, presented in Applied Physics Letters.
02/05/07 - Pollution Stripper Invention
 Abebe Negash imagines his invention as a thin tube, small enough to fit within a car's bumper and filled with a chemical blend that could strip the auto's exhaust of pollutants. For now, it is a clumsy contraption of PVC pipes and hoses, strapped to a trailer hitch and filled with a murky brown solution. So far, it seems to work. He tinkers with his device, changing the solution and pipe sizes, using some of the ideas he learned from making and testing biodiesel at UNH. Last week the solution included a dash of glycerin, which is a byproduct of biodiesel production, cabbage juice and "some other stuff," which he wouldn't name. Negash said he thinks plant-derived liquids are one of the keys because plants themselves consume carbon. He demonstrated the machine, first holding directly to the car's tailpipe the needle on an emissions detector he bought on eBay. It registered about 14.5 percent carbon dioxide. He attached the bendable hose on the scrubber to the car's tailpipe. The solution inside gurgled like a car without a muffler. When he held the needle to the output on the scrubber, the carbon dioxide reading dropped by about 10 percent. "This measure may not be accurate but it gives me a relative measure," he said.
02/05/07 - Climate change: In graphics
 The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change predicts that temperatures are most likely to rise by 1.8C-4C by 2100. But the possible range is much greater; 1.1C-6.4C. The maps above show how a range of three different scenarios will affect different parts of the planet. The emissions scenarios, A1B, A2, B1, used to create the maps above, are based on a range of detailed economic and technological data. These versions of the future consider different population increases, fossil and alternative fuel use, and consequent CO2 increases. (via zpenergy.com)
02/05/07 - Tracking Your Car by Cellphone and e-Mail
The Inilex "Kepler Advantage" device, sold through car dealers for $600 to $1,100 plus a monthly subscription, looks like a walkie-talkie and gets stowed covertly under the dashboard. Then car owners or corporate fleet managers can go on an Inilex Web site to track their vehicles' locations - and set up alerts that would be delivered by e-mail or a cell-phone text message. With this service, you can be notified within minutes that your parked car has been moved, presumably by a thief, and shown where it is in real time - fruitful information to pass on to police. Or you can set up a "virtual fence" on a map and be told if the car ranges outside it (attention, suspicious spouses). Paranoid parents could halt their kids' late-night joyriding by letting Inilex warn them when the car exceeds a certain speed. In May, Inilex is upgrading its service to grab data from many cars' onboard computers so customers can monitor their vehicles' fluid levels and other vital signs on the Web. The connection to the auto's computer also lets Inilex drivers use cell phones to remotely start, lock or unlock their cars. Some of these features are already available through such services as OnStar for General Motors Corp. cars and LoJack Corp.'s stolen-car trackdown product. But LoJack isn't available nationwide; it uses an older radio-frequency technology rather than GPS and gets activated when owners call police.
02/05/07 - Breathe easy as British invention remedies bird flu
 The new device kills 99.9999% of airborne test virus in minutes and is 100 times more effective than any method of decontamination currently available, according to its inventors Tri-Air Developments. H5N1 (Bird Flu) pandemic is forecast to cost the global economy up to $2 trillion of GDP, with a mortality rate of 70 million people worldwide (source: ‘Global Development Finance’, World Bank, May 2, 2006).
02/05/07 - Video - Plen - the Robot
 Incredibly stable robot takes it to the extreme with skateboarding and skateing. This short video clip shows this small robot doing the most amazing things, yet using graceful and balanced movements. The site doesn't give any details as to how the robot sustains its stability but I'd bet a gyro or two are involved.
02/05/07 - Want to Take On An Open/Unsolved Problem?
 "The accumulation and focusing of knowledge may be the noblest use or purpose of the internet. There are plenty of open or unsolved problems left for this generation. Why not spend some of your time in the dark of this winter working on one of the big problems facing humanity? Open problems exists in almost every field of study. Wikipedia maintains a small list of them and at least one international group called the Union of International Associations maintains a database of open problems."
02/05/07 - Renewable energy projects can help reduce poverty
Renewable energy is the fastest growing energy technology in the world and has a major role to play in reducing poverty while protecting the environment, according to the World Bank. The funding, supporting 34 projects in 61 developing countries, is “an environmentally sustainable way to address the problem of one and a half billion people in the world who do not have access to modern energy,” said Anil Cabraal, the bank’s lead energy specialist. The US Agency for International Development (USAid also is working to expand access to modern energy services in both rural and urban areas in the developing world by helping governments establish legal and regulatory regimes attractive to private investors while safeguarding citizens’ interests, and through multilateral partnerships, the agency said. With three-fourths of people who live in sub-Saharan Africa and nearly 60% of people in South Asia lacking access to electricity, there is a ‘global crisis in energy’, World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz said in a November 2006 speech in Australia.
02/05/07 - HOW TO open a Mazda with a tennis-ball
 You can open the door of a Mazda 3 with a tennis ball -- just burn a small hole in the ball, line it up over the lock mechanism, then push it as hard as you can. The ball forces air into the locking mechanism, which causes it to spring open. See the video for more. "Just a note that the tennis ball trick does work on some cars, but they must have a vacuum door lock system. You can also break into these cars with a toilet plunger, which must look decidedly odd."
02/05/07 - More States Challenging National Driver's Licenses
"A revolt against a national driver's license, begun in Maine last month, is quickly spreading to other states. The Maine Legislature on Jan. 26 overwhelmingly passed a resolution objecting to the Real ID Act of 2005. The federal law sets a national standard for driver's licenses and requires states to link their record-keeping systems to national databases. Within a week of Maine's action, lawmakers in Georgia, Wyoming, Montana, New Mexico, Vermont and Washington state also balked at Real ID. They are expected soon to pass laws or adopt resolutions declining to participate in the federal identification network. Maine's rejection was recently discussed on slashdot."
02/04/07 - Tactical Biorefinery
 A group of scientists have created a portable refinery that efficiently converts food, paper and plastic trash into electricity. The machine, designed for the U.S. military, would allow soldiers in the field to convert waste into power and could have widespread civilian applications in the future. The "tactical biorefinery" processes several kinds of waste at once, which it converts into fuel via two parallel processes. The system then burns the different fuels in a diesel engine to power a generator. Ladisch said the machine's ability to burn multiple fuels at once, along with its mobility, make it unique. Roughly the size a small moving van, the biorefinery could alleviate the expense and potential danger associated with transporting waste and fuel. Also, by eliminating garbage remnants - known in the military as a unit's "signature" - it could protect the unit's security by destroying clues that such refuse could provide to enemies. Researchers tested the first tactical biorefinery prototype in November and found that it produced approximately 90 percent more energy than it consumed, said Jerry Warner, founder of Defense Life Sciences LLC, a private company working with Purdue researchers on the project. He said the results were better than expected. The U.S. Army subsequently commissioned the biorefinery upon completion of a functional prototype, and the machine is being considered for future Army development. The tactical biorefinery first separates organic food material from residual trash, such as paper, plastic, Styrofoam and cardboard. The food waste goes to a bioreactor where industrial yeast ferments it into ethanol, a "green" fuel. Residual materials go to a gasifier where they are heated under low-oxygen conditions and eventually become low-grade propane gas and methane. The gas and ethanol are then combusted in a modified diesel engine that powers a generator to produce electricity. "At any place with a fair amount of food and scrap waste the biorefinery could help reduce electricity costs, and you might even be able to produce some surplus energy to put back on the electrical grid," he said. The machine produces a very small amount of its own waste, Warner said, mostly in the form of ash that the Environmental Protection Agency has designated as "benign," or non-hazardous. Any leftover materials from the bioreactor are put into the gasifier, which has to be emptied every two to three days. "It's about enough to fill a regular sized trash bag, and it represents about a 30-to-1 volume reduction," Warner said.
02/04/07 - Mapping the road to equality
 Danny Dorling of the University of Sheffield and his team’s efforts are to help put global inequalities into perspective. Specifically, he aimed to produce 365 new world maps that revealed social and economic disparities with the help of a special algorithm that re-sizes countries in proportion to the value being mapped. This week Dorling is publishing the phenomenal results of this Worldmapper project in the journal PLoS Medicine. “You can say it, you can prove it, but it is only when you show it that it hits home,” he writes in the intro to his article. Looking at the maps, it’s easy to get stuck on all of the unfairness in the world. But I think it’s best to re-frame each of them as a challenge. We need to ask ourselves what we can do to bring balance back into the picture. And I think that Dorling’s job is far from done: he and his colleagues should regularly update their maps so that we know if we’re heading in the right direction.
02/04/07 - Bad news confirms secret we knew
 Six years since their last report, the world's leading climate scientists have told us what we already know - that they think it is very likely man-made greenhouse gases will cause the planet to warm by 1.7C to 4C by the end of the century. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report is a staged piece of science lobbying - taking the relatively unusual step of corralling 750 of the world's leading climate scientists and their views to magnify the impact of opinion on the policy debate unfolding around the world. In Australia, it doesn't really matter. A significant and sufficient majority of the community and business, and even the Howard Government, accept that 'the risk of global warming is too great to ignore.' As flagged by last year's British Stern Report, the physical, financial and social cost of significant and continuing temperature rises through the 21st century risk being far more expensive than addressing them.
02/04/07 - Giants in Americas - Death Valley, California - Cavern Temple of Giants
 The following are actual accounts of giants in North America. "Atlantis in the Colorado River Desert" - 1947 Nevada news: Near the Nevada - California - Arizona border area, 32 caves within a 180 square mile area were discovered to hold the remains of ancient, strangely costumed 8 -9 foot giants. They had been laid to rest wearing the skins of unknown animals similar to sheepskins fashioned into jackets with pants described as "prehistoric Zoot suits". The same burial place had been found 10 - 15 years earlier by another man who made a deal with the Smithsonian. The evidence of his find was stolen and covered up by Darwinian scientists. Dr. Russell reported seeing hieroglyphics chiseled on carefully polished granite within what appeared to be a cavern temple. Another cave led to their sacred hall which contained carvings of ritual devices and markings similar to those of the Masonic Order. A long tunnel from this temple led to a room where, Hill said, "Well-preserved remains of dinosaurs, saber-toothed tigers, imperial elephants, and other extinct beasts were paired off in niches as if on display." University of Arizona professor Vine Deloria, himself a Native American, made a similar accusation against the Smithsonian for covering up the remains found within the burial mounds of the Moundbuilder civilization. Surviving diaries from before the time Darwin attest to these discoveries. The Moundbuilders were a different civilization than that of the Indians, they said. The mounds contained the remains of hundreds of giants along with the bones of giant mastodons. In Cincinnati, Ohio the giant bones were found with large shields, swords, and engraved stone tablets. In Kentucky and Tennessee the bones of "powerful men of towering stature" were excavated. One of these 7 foot men was buried with an engraved copper plate beneath his head. A woman was also found. She was wearing a silver girdle with letters written on it. The Detroit Free Press reported in 1884 the discovery in Gartersville, Mississippi of the remains of a giant with waist-length jet-black hair. He was wearing a copper crown. With him in his timber burial vault were his children who wore garments decorated with bone beads. The tomb was covered with large flagstones engraved with inscriptions. In Cayuga, Niagra there is a place called "The Cemetary of the Giants" which was discovered in 1880. Those giants were 9 feet tall and appear to have died violent deaths. Their axes were found with them. Giant bones were also unearthed from a rock fissure on Lake Erie Island. In some of the finds of giant bones, the bones lay in confusion as if left on a battlefield.
02/04/07 - Perpetual Motion Seekers
 To the average man it is a self-evident fact that unless you put energy or force of some sort into a machine it won't work. Thus, a locomotive will not move unless you apply steam or electricity, nor a bicycle unless the muscular energy of your own body propels it. But, simple as this fact may seem, there have been, from early times, as we have indicated, men whose whole object in life has been to construct a machine that, once started, shall run for ever by its own momentum. Some, indeed the vast majority, of the chimerical methods for getting work for nothing, are being rediscovered day by day, and, as before, cast aside. An almost incredible amount of wasted labour and fruitless effort have been devoted to this subject. The quest, however, ever seems to be fresh and attractive, and year after year in wearying succession continues to allure, as the records of the Patent Office show, a never ending train of deluded enthusiasts.
02/04/07 - The Commercialization Of Low-Earth Orbit
 PlanetSpace and t/Space will work to develop and demonstrate the vehicles, systems and operations needed to transport crews and cargo to and from a low-Earth orbit destination. NASA will acknowledge the companies' milestone accomplishments. The program administers NASA's Commercial Orbital Transportation Services project. Its overarching goals are to stimulate commercial enterprises in space; facilitate U.S. private industry development of reliable, cost-effective access to low-Earth orbit, and to create a market environment in which commercial space transportation services are available to government and private customers.
02/04/07 - Bird Flu - as millions of birds fall from world's skies
 An alarming series of reports from the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences Influenza Research Institute are reporting today that millions of avian species have succumbed, while in flight, to a rapidly evolving virus linked to the deadly H5N1 Bird Flu variant. Doctor Scientist Oleg Kiselyov, the head of the Influenza Research Institute, states in these reports that a nematode parasite belonging to the 'Superfamily Subuluroidea' has now become a carrier of a 'mutated' H5N1 Bird Flu Virus with 'sub strains' never seen before. More horrifically are that these reports state that this mutated H5N1 Bird Flu virus has now 'jumped' the 'species barrier' and is now infecting both animals and insects, and which has also been confirmed by Indonesian scientists, and as we can read as reported by the Malaysian National News Service.
02/04/07 - Slow Food movement holds Italian convention
 Americans who think of Slow Food as an elite supper club for snobby food purists would be stunned by the scene unfolding inside the former Olympic speed skating arena here over the past four days. Terra Madre, a gathering that is the Olympics of the international movement to deindustrialize food production. That means putting taste back at the heart of food, saving heirloom fruits, vegetables and animals, keeping small farmers in business and in local communities, and pushing farming back on sound environmental ground. More than 5,000 small farmers and foodmakers from 130 countries, plus 1,000 chefs -- including more than a dozen from the Bay Area -- are in Turin to eat, network and build what Waters called "a global counterculture" in her address to the opening session. It's the second such gathering organized by Slow Food International, which is based in the nearby town of Bra. The first Terra Madre, in 2004, generated an astounding force field around the ideas of Slow Food, which started 20 years ago as a way of saving inexpensive Italian restaurants serving tagliarini with butter and sage and other traditional foods from the wave of nouvelle cuisine that put salmon with dill on plates around the world. Now, Slow Food has grown into an international movement, with 80,000 members in 50 countries, including 12,000 in the United States. In the United States, Slow Food leaders are well aware that there's a similar disconnect between the political ideals forged at Terra Madre and consumers' perceptions of Slow Food. "The media still regards Slow Food as a dining club; they still don't perceive the political content," Pollan told a meeting of the U.S. delegation. To try to bridge that gap, to take the ideas of Terra Madre home, Slow Food USA is planning an unprecedented gathering of regional artisanal food producers in San Francisco in May 2008, Waters said. The idea, dubbed Slow Food Nation, could be replicated all over the country, she added.
02/04/07 - Wonderfully soft and thick hair
 (Its the weekend, touch of weirdness time. - JWD) An upmarket London beauty salon says it can give your hair the ultimate shine by treating it with a mixture that includes semen from thoroughbred bulls. Hari's in the ritzy London neighbourhood of Chelsea offers a 45-minute "Aberdeen Organic Hair" treatment that involves massaging a protein-rich mixture of bull semen and a plant root into the client's hair, a spokesperson said on Friday. Owner Hari Salem told media that he tried hundreds of products - including wild avocados and truffle oil - before hitting on bull semen as the elusive element in a formula for making hair look gorgeous. "The semen is refrigerated before use and doesn't smell," Salem told London's Metro newspaper. "It leaves your hair looking wonderfully soft and thick." He said the treatment will remain on offer providing the bulls can keep up the supply.
02/04/07 - Thomas Edison on determining Character
"I have a lot of characteristics that I look at, and the man I would take would be no good in most other pursuits. I have one test which, however, I do not mind telling. I would take a man on and put him on a long job. If he knocked off work and went to sleep that night, he was no good for my purpose. It showed me that he had no interest in his work. If, however, his eyes were bright next morning, and he had not been to sleep, it showed me that he had an interest in his business, and I knew he was all right. I have never known that test to fail."
02/03/07 - 1899 article about Tesla
 (URL notice courtesy of Ken Carrigan - JWD) An interview with Tesla, the Modern Miracle-Worker, who is Harnessing the Rays of the Sun; has Discovered Ways of Transmitting Power without Wires and of Seeing by Telephone; has Invented a Means of Employing Electricity as a Fertiliser; and, Finally, is Able to Manufacture Artificial Daylight. NOT to stagger on being shown through the laboratory of Nikola Tesla requires the possession of an uncommonly sturdy mind. No person can escape a feeling of giddiness when permitted to pass into this miracle-factory and contemplate for a moment the amazing feats which this young man can accomplish by the mere turning of a hand. Fancy yourself seated in a large, well- lighted room, with mountains of curious-looking machinery on all sides. A tall, thin young man walks up to you, and by merely snapping his fingers creates instantaneously a ball of leaping red flame, and holds it calmly in his hands. As you gaze you are surprised to see it does not burn his fingers. He lets it fall upon his clothing, on his hair, into your lap, and, finally, puts the ball of flame into a wooden box. You are amazed to see that nowhere does the flame leave the slightest trace, and you rub your eyes to make sure you are not asleep.
02/03/07 - Indonesia plans new tactic to curb massive mud flow
Indonesia will drop hundreds of concrete balls into a mud volcano in a bid to brake the flow of hot liquid that has displaced more than 10,000 people and inundated entire villages in Java, an official said on Friday. The torrent of hot mud has been flowing since an oil drilling accident in May in Sidoarjo, an industrial suburb of East Java's Surabaya, Indonesia's second-largest city. Numerous attempts to cap or curb the flow since it started have failed. But now the government plans to try concrete balls linked by metal chains. "We will insert high density chained balls inside the mud volcano. This technique is expected to reduce the amount of mud flow and ease the pressure at the source of the gushing," Rudi Novrianto, the national mudflow disaster commission spokesman, said by telephone. He put the cost at 3 billion rupiah ($330,800) and said PT Lapindo Brantas, the company in charge of the well drilling at the time of the accident, would pay. "The chains of balls weigh around 400-500 kilograms (880-1,100 lb) each. We plan to insert up to 300 ... We will do it gradually. Our target is we will try to put 50 chains of balls in a day," Novrianto added.
02/03/07 - Video - Mangosteen cure claims
 For over 40 years the medical profession has been writing about this amazing modality yet few in the west know about its effectiveness in treating cancer, heart desease, diabetes, plus a myriad of other illnesses and diseases. Cancer Association (Web site) found it to be more effective than many of the exteme medicines used for cancer, yet it had none of the bad side effects. / Mangosteen info - Xanthones are found in the most quantities in the mangosteen hull (or pericarp) and can help you to STAY healthy by boosting your immune system. According to professional journals such as Free Radical Research, Journal of Pharmacology, and the Indian Journal of Experimental Biology, these Xanthones...are some of the most powerful antioxidants to be found in nature. "It has been estimated that each human cell undergoes ten thousand hits from free radicals each day... causing damage to cell proteins, DNA, fat lipids, and membranes through oxidation. This results in the generation of dysfunctional molecules responsible for conditions as diverse as cancers, lung disease, demential, cardio vascular disease and eye diseases." ~ The Wellness Options, Lillian Chan. The Mangosteen fruit is not system-specific, but pan-systemic - in other words, good for the WHOLE body.
02/03/07 - Global warming sees polar bears stranded on melting ice
 They cling precariously to the top of what is left of the ice floe, their fragile grip the perfect symbol of the tragedy of global warming. Captured on film by Canadian environmentalists, the pair of polar bears look stranded on chunks of broken ice. Although the magnificent creatures are well adapted to the water, and can swim scores of miles to solid land, the distance is getting ever greater as the Arctic ice diminishes. "Swimming 100 miles is not a big deal for a polar bear, especially a fat one," said Dr Ian Stirling of the Canadian Wildlife Service. "They just kind of float along and kick. But as the ice gets farther out from shore because of warming, it’s a longer swim that costs more energy and makes them more vulnerable." Studies of polar bears have revealed that not only have their numbers declined - by nearly one quarter in just 20 years to around 25,000 - but so has their physique. The bears can be 10ft tall and 1700lbs in weight, using their body fat to keep them alive when the temperatures plummet in the harshest part of their winter to minus 45C. But the scientists have observed that in the struggle for survival, the bears - and females especially - are now much thinner. Scientists believe that four bears which recently drowned off the coast of Alaska had simply been unable to cope with a violent storm. Dr Stirling says that the phenomenon of a female giving birth to triplets is now part of history with usually only single cubs recorded. Soon, he says, the species may be extinct.
02/03/07 - Islands where marriage is an offer that no man can refuse
UNDER threat from increasing contact with the outside world, the world's only surviving culture in which men have no say in who they marry is proving surprisingly resilient. In the Bijagos archipelago of 50 islands off the coast of Guinea-Bissau in west Africa, it is women, not men, who pick their partner. They make their proposal public by offering their groom-to-be a dish of fish, marinated in red palm oil. "Love comes first into the heart of the woman," explains Nananghe, now 65. "Once it's in the woman, only then can it jump into the man." "Now the world is upside down," complains 90-year-old Cesar Okrane. "Men are running after women, instead of waiting for them to come to them." He explains: "The choice of a woman is much more stable. Rarely were there divorces before. Now, with men choosing, divorce has become common." With records not readily available, it's unclear how many divorces there were earlier, but islanders agree there are significantly more now than in the years when men waited patiently for a proposal on a plate. They then waited some more, as their brides-to-be then set out for the eggshell-white beaches encircling the island, looking for the raw materials with which to build their new house. Women built all the grass-covered huts here, dragging driftwood back from the beach to use as poles, cutting blankets of grass to weave into roofs and shaping the pink mud into bricks. Only once the house was built, which took at least four months, could the couple move in and their marriage be considered official. That things are changing is evident in the material chosen for the island's newest house: concrete. It was erected by paid labourers, not local women. There are many matrilineal societies around the world in which women have traditionally been the property owners, with inheritance passing down the female line. The Mosuo people, who mostly live around Lugu Lake in the Yunnan province of China, have matriarchal elements to their society. Women tend to head households and control family businesses and commerce. Descent and property are passed down the female line, but men tend to hold the political power. The Iroquois tribes of the American north-east were an example of women living in communal groups, related through the female line. Men were largely seen as outsiders who belonged to a different family line. The Iroquois were ruled by a council of 50 male chiefs or Sachems. When a Sachem died his replacement was nominated by female members of that family.
02/03/07 - Scientists offered cash to dispute climate study
 Scientists and economists have been offered $10,000 each by a lobby group funded by one of the world's largest oil companies to undermine a major climate change report due to be published today. Letters sent by the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), an ExxonMobil-funded thinktank with close links to the Bush administration, offered the payments for articles that emphasise the shortcomings of a report from the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Travel expenses and additional payments were also offered. The UN report was written by international experts and is widely regarded as the most comprehensive review yet of climate change science. It will underpin international negotiations on new emissions targets to succeed the Kyoto agreement, the first phase of which expires in 2012. World governments were given a draft last year and invited to comment. The AEI has received more than $1.6m from ExxonMobil and more than 20 of its staff have worked as consultants to the Bush administration. Lee Raymond, a former head of ExxonMobil, is the vice-chairman of AEI's board of trustees. The letters, sent to scientists in Britain, the US and elsewhere, attack the UN's panel as "resistant to reasonable criticism and dissent and prone to summary conclusions that are poorly supported by the analytical work" and ask for essays that "thoughtfully explore the limitations of climate model outputs".
02/03/07 - Record $622 Billion Budget Requested for the Pentagon
(What does it TAKE to STOP THESE FOOLS? - JWD) The Bush administration is seeking a record military budget of $622 billion for the 2008 fiscal year, Pentagon officials have said. The sum includes more than $140 billion for war-related costs. The administration is also seeking $93 billion in the current fiscal year, which ends on Sept. 30, to pay for military operations in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere, the officials said. The requests are part of the annual budget request to Congress for all federal spending programs. The budget is to be made public on Monday, and Congress will revise it in the coming months. Together with money for combat operations this year already approved by Congress, the new request would push spending related to Iraq and Afghanistan to $163 billion.
“It is the highest level of spending since the height of the Korean War,” said Steven Kosiak, a military budget expert with the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, a policy analysis organization here.
02/02/07 - Helium helps patients breathe easier
It makes for bobbing balloons and squeaky voices, but now helium is also helping people with severe respiratory problems breathe easier. Researchers at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada have discovered that by combining helium with 40 per cent oxygen allowed patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) to increase their exercise capacity by an average of 245 per cent.
02/02/07 - Ice bullet welding
High-velocity ice bullets could someday be used to weld everything from car parts to industrial components. The trick could provide an alternative to heat, electric arcs or bulky hydraulics for precision spot welding. Researchers at Ohio State University, US, freeze water into the shape of a sharp bullet and use a gas gun to fire them at a metal sheet. These high-energy projectiles briefly plasticise the metal, causing it to deform and bond with whatever it is touching. Carefully aiming bullets at near point blank range can very quickly be used to create precision welds. If a metal sheet is backed with a carefully-shaped material, a barrage of ice bullets can also be used to shape the metal. And the only waste product is water when the ice melts.
02/02/07 - Water from thin air: Australian invention could solve water worries
Max Whisson is the inventor of the Whisson windmill, an invention that can extract water from the air and potentially provide enormous relief to farmers in drought-stricken areas. Max's invention effectively uses the energy of the wind to power a refrigeration unit that condenses the water, very similar to what you might see dripping from the back of an air conditioner. Max says that most people are unaware of the water that can be found in the air around us. "It's very, very dilute. It's only about 10 or 15 grams per cubic metre, a few litres in the room you're sitting in I suppose." "If you calculate the amount people breathe out it works out at more than is used in the whole world for agriculture and drinking... 10,000 billion litres in the bottom one kilometre of air around the world, which is replaced every few hours so the whole world could use only water from the air without depleting the environment at all." Max says that humidity is a factor, but the unit will continue trap and condense water even when it is hot and dry.
"The absolute humidity is the important thing and it can feel dry when the temperature is up a bit because the air can hold so much water when it's hot, but the absolute humidity is not normally quoted by weather people and it's usually about 10 grams per cubic metre or say 10 litres per thousand cubic metres and you can easily collect a million cubic metres in a small roof-top device, in a gentle breeze." That equates to 10,000 litres of water a day or as Max says "enough to feed a few chooks". / Usually a windmill has three blades facing into the wind. But Whisson’s design has many blades, each as aerodynamic as an aircraft wing, and each employing “lift” to get the device spinning. I’ve watched them whirr into action in Whisson’s wind tunnel at the most minimal settings. They start spinning long, long before a conventional windmill would begin to respond. I saw them come alive when a colleague opened an internal door. And I forgot something. They don’t face into the wind like a conventional windmill; they’re arranged vertically, within an elegant column, and take the wind from any direction.
The secret of Max’s design is how his windmills, whirring away in the merest hint of a wind, cool the air as it passes by. Like many a great idea, it couldn’t be simpler - or more obvious. But nobody thought of it before. With three or four of Max’s magical machines on hills at our farm we could fill the tanks and troughs, and weather the drought. One small Whisson windmill on the roof of a suburban house could keep your taps flowing. Biggies on office buildings, whoppers on skyscrapers, could give independence from the city’s water supply. / Whisson, Maxwell Edmund - Water UN Limited - 2006900987 - Wind water trap - 28Feb06
02/02/07 - The Bubbler for Fishermen
 (A Canadian friend recently told me you can drop an alkaseltzer in water and fish will be attracted to it, so this article was of interest. - JWD) Anglers trying to lure bottom-feeding fish such as carp and tench have been hampered by increasing bans on thrown ground bait which rots and pollutes the water. “If you watch fish in a tank they swim with their tails up and blow the bottom to stir up the food such as bloodworm, crab and shrimp,” explained the 67-year-old from Northrepps. Using his background as an engineer who used to check offshore valves, he came up with a compressed air cylinder, which can be filled up with a motoring footpump, and a weighted 6m plastic tube, which is dangled into the water, where it sinks to the bottom of the lake or river bed. A flick of a lever and the air can puff or trickle into the silt, and stir up its contents. “The fish get excited and come up to see what is happening,” said Jacks, who is now put his idea into production as the Natural Fish Attractor.
02/02/07 - Volkswagen Changing Strategy for Hybrids
Rather than target a mild hybrid Jetta for sale into the California market in 2008 as described by Pischetsrieder, Volkswagen will focus first on a full hybrid Touareg SUV. VW has announced a 50-state compliant (Tier 2 Bin 5) diesel Jetta will go on sale in the US in 2008. The additional cost of the compact hybrid or of a hybrid drivetrain applied in a Touran van didn’t make sense for management, given price-sensitivity of the consumers, and a negligible gain in fuel efficiency compared to a diesel powertrain. VW was exploring the use of the Continental mild hybrid system in those applications. Now, Volkswagen will concentrate on developing a hybrid application of the Touareg (along with Porsche with its Cayenne) for the end of 2008, with Bosch providing the full hybrid system, according to the report.
02/02/07 - Cheaper Natural Gas from Coal
Great Point Energy of Cambridge, MA, says its process is cheaper and more reliable than drilling for new natural gas or importing liquefied natural gas from the same unstable regions. "We can take coal out of the ground and put it in a natural-gas pipeline for less than the cost of new natural-gas drilling and exploration activities," says CEO Andrew Perlman. The key is a proprietary, recyclable catalyst developed in house with help from gasification and catalysis experts at Southern Illinois University, the University of Toronto, and the University of Tennessee, among others. The catalyst (which Perlman cagily describes as "a formulation of abundant low-cost metals") lowers the amount of heat required to gasify coal and simultaneously transforms the gasified coal into methane. In fact, the heat released in the syngas-to-methane step is sufficient to sustain the gasification, eliminating the need to fire up the reactions with purified oxygen. "It's perfectly heat balanced," says Perlman. Great Point ran the plant's 14-inch-in-diameter, 60-foot-high gasifier for a week in November with the firm's proprietary catalyst, converting Illinois Powder River Basin low-sulfur coal into between 13,000 and 14,000 cubic feet of natural gas per day.
02/02/07 - Introducing the X-Hawk Flying Car
 Urban Aeronautics, Yoeli's own company, says that the X-Hawk will initially be implemented "as a workhorse vehicle that could be used by firefighters, rescue teams, and the military to aid in the recovery of people stranded in hard to reach places." You see, the X-Hawk flying car has the same level of maneuverability as a helicopter, except the "ducted fan design" has no exposed blades. Taking off and landing is done vertically, whereas horizontal movement can approach speeds as high as 155mph. The exact range of these vehicles has not yet been determined, but they say that it can remain in the air for about two hours.
An unmanned "Mule version" is expected to hit the air in 2009, whereas larger renditions -- including one designed to house 10 passengers -- are being planned for the near future. Flying won't come cheap, of course, with the estimated price sitting between $1.5 and $3.5 million, "and Yoeli admits those estimates might be low."
02/02/07 - Biology Could Be Used To Turn Sugar Into Diesel
ABCTech has an interesting article about an Emeryville-based tech startup, Amyris Biotechnologies, that is planning to use microbes to turn sugar into diesel. Ethanol is made by adding sugar to yeast, but Amyris believes that it can reprogram the microbes to make something closer to gasoline. The company was initially given a $43 million grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to attempt to research the applications of Synthetic Biology for making a cost-effective malaria drug. Jack Newman, the Vice-President of Amyris said, "Why are we making ethanol if we're trying to make a fuel? We should be making something that looks a lot more like gasoline. We should be making something that looks a lot more like diesel. And if you wanted to design, you name it, a jet fuel? We can make that too."
02/02/07 - Maxwell's Demon Soon A Reality?
 (There are a couple of largescale experiments which indicate methods to extract energy using a 'heat diode' effect such as Maxwells' Demon would produce. - JWD) "Reuters reports that a group of scientists from University of Edimburgh may have realized a nanomolecular engine - a Maxwell's Demon. The device selects and traps other molecules based on their direction of motion. Physicist James Maxwell first imagined the nano-scale device in 1867, and the research team cites him as the basis for their understanding of how lights, heat, and molecules interact. The device is powered by light, and may spur advances in nano-scale technology to new heights in coming years."
02/02/07 - Alternative fuels may not suffice
Biofuels, including ethanol, biodiesel and other non-petroleum-based fuels, have been recently buoyed by the high prices of crude. Increased talk of the threat of global warming has also put a greater spotlight on the polluting crude fuels. Problems also exist with regard to ensuring that the diesel that is being distributed to consumers at service stations throughout the country is certified, especially since the new fuel travels though the same pipeline as gasoline and jet fuel, which could compromise its low-sulfur content. A recent EPA survey of service stations found that while 90 percent of the diesel fuel they sold was certified as ultra-low sulfur diesel, 76 percent of the stations did not label the fuel as such, Kassel said. Petroleum retailers don't mind what they sell, but new fuels do present challenges, said John Eichberger, vice president of the National Association of Convenience Stores, who testified on behalf of the Society of Independent Gasoline Marketers of America. Much of our retail infrastructure does not meet the requirements necessary to (hold and distribute) new fuels, such as ethanol, he said. Eichberger pointed to the corrosive nature of ethanol, which could denigrate service-station holding tanks. He said the cost to update or install new infrastructure runs from $17,000 to $60,000 per service station, depending on specific needs. Sufficient demand for ethanol needs to be in place before retailers are willing to make the capital expenditures necessary to ready their service stations for ethanol distribution, Eichberger added.
02/02/07 - Survey: The Richer You Are, the Better Your Sex Life
 The richer you are, apparently, the better sex you have. That's according to a recent survey of more than 600 high-net-worth individuals. And rich women, it seems, enjoy sex the most. Grove and Prince surveyed people with an average net worth of $89 million, and who make more than $9 million per year. They found that money is an enabler in a number of ways to enhance sexual experiences. Some 84 percent of rich women and 63 percent of rich men say having money means having better sex. In the survey, three-quarters of men cited more frequent sex and a greater variety of partners as the primary benefits of having wealth, revealing a fascination with quantity. "In short, men equate more with better," Grove and Prince write. By contrast, women placed significantly less value on the volume of sexual interactions and partners they had than the overall excellence of the experience: Nearly 93 percent of women cited higher-quality sex as the greatest sexual benefit of personal wealth - and the biggest benefit overall to being rich. "And while having sex with multiple partners simultaneously was less important to both genders, more than three times as many men cited it as a benefit than women did," Grove and Prince said. The rich people surveyed believe their fortunes allow them to lead more daring and exciting sex lives than they otherwise would have if they had less money. The average age of the survey respondents was 57 and most of them, 85 percent, are currently married. More than half of respondents had been divorced at least once and almost half, 44 percent, had already remarried. Yet, money doesn't instill a sense of fidelity: 53 percent of the wealthy men surveyed, and 73 percent of the wealthy women surveyed say they have had extramarital affairs. According to "The Monogamy Myth: A Personal Handbook for Dealing with Affairs," 60 percent of men and 40 percent of women will have an extramarital affair.
02/02/07 - Smokable pain killers
The 'smokeable' drug delivery system is a battery-powered pocket inhaler that heats the drug rather than burns it, not unlike a marijuana vaporizer. The company's lead product is a vaporized version of an old drug called prochlorperazine, which Alexza is developing for migraine headaches but is currently used in liquid, oral or suppository form to treat severe nausea. While it is sometimes given intravenously in hospitals to treat patients with acute migraines, the drug is inconvenient to deliver... The company plans to release initial results of a mid-stage clinical trial of its (smokable) migraine drug by the end of March. If all goes according to plan, Alexza could file a marketing application with U.S. regulators in 2010. The company is also testing inhalable drugs for pain and anxiety, and for agitation in schizophrenia patients.
02/01/07 - Look Out for SWINDLERS Who Turn “SCIENTIFIC” - October 1932
 PADLOCK your purses and hoard your gold - the “scientific” swindlers are coining! A flood of such schemes is in the making, ready to be released when the next boom gets under way - Even now we can “get in on the ground floor” of such recent scientific advances as television and radio, or rise to the heights of independence in weird aircraft. Promoters’ promises were never more glowing. The art of extracting gold from the unwary requires better technique from year to year. Swindlers have a great variety of scientific wonders with which to work today. X-rays, ultraviolet rays, electric and magnetic and short waves, atomic and radioactive, high tension and high pressure and high frequency, sounds we cannot hear and light we cannot see. We are in exactly the right state of mind for picking. New devices are being invented for our benefit, while tried-and-true frauds like perpetual motion and gold-from-seawater are being scientifically refurbished. Magnetizing Buried Treasure - A Kansas farmer (not one of those in need of farm relief) was informed not long ago that his farm held a fortune in buried Indian treasure. Oddly enough, the stranger knew precisely how much there was, and to locate the $475,000 exactly he produced a unique scientific instrument. All the fortunate farmer had to do was to turn over $4,000 to the stranger. His device would magnetize it, by a secret process, and its magnetic properties would at once locate the hidden fortune. The whole thing was amazingly simple-especially in view of the treasure-hunter’s willingness to donate the lion’s share to the farmer, when he could just as well have hogged it all himself. The farmer raised the $4,000 by a mortgage, and turned it over to be magnetized. Then the stranger made himself invisible, also by a secret process. But something went wrong, and he failed to disappear completely and suddenly enough. So he landed in the county hoosgow.This kind of treasure finding, to be successful, requires attention to all such details. Nothing is so important to the scientific swindler as the final fade-out at the psychological moment.
02/01/07 - Once a Dream Fuel, Palm Oil May Be an Eco-Nightmare
 Spurred by government subsidies, energy companies became so enthusiastic that they designed generators that ran exclusively on the oil, which in theory would be cleaner than fossil fuels like coal because it is derived from plants. But last year, when scientists studied practices at palm plantations in Indonesia and Malaysia, this green fairy tale began to look more like an environmental nightmare. Rising demand for palm oil in Europe brought about the clearing of huge tracts of Southeast Asian rainforest and the overuse of chemical fertilizer there. Worse still, the scientists said, space for the expanding palm plantations was often created by draining and burning peatland, which sent huge amounts of carbon emissions into the atmosphere.
Considering these emissions, Indonesia had quickly become the world’s third-leading producer of carbon emissions that scientists believe are responsible for global warming, ranked after the United States and China, according to a study released in December by researchers from Wetlands International and Delft Hydraulics, both in the Netherlands.
02/01/07 - A Dubious Distinction - Right to Die
 People are allowed to refuse medical treatment, yet doctors still cannot assist a patient's death. A patient's informed consent should be a prerequisite for all medical treatment, as long as the patient is a competent adult in a position to make a decision. Forcing medical treatment on such a patient who does not want it is tantamount to assault. We may think that the patient is making the wrong decision, but we should respect his or her right to make it. That right is recognised in most countries, but not, apparently, in Italy. Many countries recognise a legal right to refuse medical treatment. But only in the Netherlands, Belgium, Switzerland and the US state of Oregon are doctors allowed to assist a patient in ending his or her life by means other than withdrawing life-sustaining treatment. The Netherlands, in particular, has been subjected to a relentless campaign of vilification. Critics allege that the legalisation of voluntary euthanasia has led to a breakdown of trust in the medical profession and all sorts of other dire consequences. But if these allegations are true, no one has told the Dutch. Despite a change of government in the Netherlands since voluntary euthanasia was legalised, no effort has been made to repeal the measure. There is simply no public support for such a move. The Dutch know how voluntary euthanasia is practised in their country, they know that legal euthanasia has improved, rather than harmed, their medical care, and they want the possibility of assistance in dying. Isn't that a choice that everyone should have?
02/01/07 - Cans Lift Up Water Column in Perpetual Motion Engine - March 1933
 THE latest in perpetual motion machines is a fuelless engine devised by a Frenchman of Paris, M. Miralle. The contraption functions on an application of Archimedes’ principle of floating bodies, and consists of a sort of thick set chimney made of sheet iron and equipped with fifteen flywheels. The machine is set going by turning one of the flywheels about fifteen revolutions, which subsequently sets the remaining wheels in operation. Over these wheels passes an endless chain fixed in the interior of the chimney like a motor, in which is also a series of chambers made of vegetable cans. The chimney is filled with water so that the chamber and the endless chain are submerged in the liquid. One of the columns of chambers contains water and the other, through a process known only to M. Miralle, is filled with air. The air-filled chambers tend to rise to the surface of the water-filled chimney, thus setting the motor in motion. The photo shows M. Miralle standing beside his invention.
02/01/07 - Plywood Dome Will Serve as Church in Korea - January 1958
 All the building materials for the igloo-shaped sanctuary in the photograph above could be carried in a large pickup truck. The 39-foot hemisphere, built from 134 sheets of 1/4-inch exterior-grade plywood, will be used as a church at Naju, South Korea. Using the geodesic-dome design of architect Buckminster Fuller, the building gets its strength from the geometric pattern of the 4 by 6-1/2 foot sheets of plywood on 2 by 2-inch ribbing. It was erected in 16 hours, left, with much of the work done by small boys. The building weighs 3500 pounds.
02/01/07 - Constant Action Pendulum - Janary 1938
 (This reminds me of the 'butterfly effect' idea of David Hamel. It might be interesting to try for 'perpetuum mobile' experiments. - JWD) To a small steel all, attach by means of paraffin or candle wax a piece of ordinary thin cord. Attach the free end of the cord to the end of a stick which is supported over the edge of a table by a heavy object. While the ball is swinging freely, bring a strong magnet close to it, but not on the same level. With the magnet a short distance above the ball, it will continue to swing almost indefinitely. If the ball is attracted to the magnet directly, it indicates that the magnet is too close.
02/01/07 - Electricity Prevents Burial Alive - December 1932
WHAT is claimed as an infallible test of death has been proposed to the French Academy of Medicine. This test consists in applying electric heat to the leg or some other part of the supposedly dead body, using the modern device called a diathermy apparatus. Passage of the diathermy current raises the part of the body to which it is applied several degrees in temperature. If the person is only apparently dead this heat will spread slowly through the body and may be detected after a few minutes by a slight rise of temperature. If temperature does not rise after 30 minutes then burial may proceed. When a test on a body has been made there is no danger that it will be buried alive, as has frequently happened.
02/01/07 - HORSE OF STEEL RUNS ACROSS FIELDS - April 1933
 (Could this be an April Fools prank? - JWD) A MECHANICAL horse that trots and gallops on steel-pipe legs, under the impulse of a gasoline engine, is the recent product of an Italian inventor. With this horse, he declares, children may be trained to ride. The iron Dobbin is said to canter along a road or across a rough field with equal ease. Its design recalls the attempts of inventors, before the days of the automobile, to imitate nature and produce a mechanical steed capable of drawing a wagon.
02/01/07 - Batteries of Robots scoop Power from the Sea - May 1934
 Chester E. Shuler of Los Angeles has invented a system using robot-like machines built in the sea on concrete foundations which have huge metal shovel arms which are lifted upward by onrushing waves. The counter-balance arms drive electric gears, so that a small movement of the arms spins the generators at high speed. Ratchets permit the shovels to drop down freely as the waves pass on, to be in readiness for the following waves. When a battery of these machines are installed to be operated together, the shovel arms are all inter-connected and belted to huge flywheels either on shore or in a powerhouse built in the oceans. Each on-rushing wave lifting the shovels would give a new impulse to the flywheels. The dynamos could thus run at almost constant speed.
02/01/07 - Outboard Makes Current to Keep Swimmers in Trim - February 1932
 COACHES have to resort to many devices to whip their teams into shape, but it remained for Hay Daughters, coach of the Washington Athletic Club swimming team in Seattle, Wash., to hook up an outboard motor on the edge of the pool in order to create a current, against which his team swims. In the photo above is shown the Washington A. C. team fighting its way against the current created by the motor, preparing for Olympic contests.
02/01/07 - Black Lines on Indian Design Cures Insomnia - December 1931
 THE Indians may not have known much about science, but they are able to tell scientists something about getting to sleep after a busy day on the warpath. Their favorite method, which they are now offering to nerve-wracked moderns, was to follow with their eyes the devious lines of a complicated pattern, one of which is shown in the photo at the right. If you are troubled with insomnia, try this method on yourself. Simply take a sheet of cardboard about 12 in. by 18 in. and paint on it the lines illustrated in the photo. Five to ten trips around will bring slumber.
02/01/07 - Pulse Teaching Fido with electro-leash - August 1960
 (This would work with other ill-behaved living creatures. - JWD) AN electronic device, called Electro-Leash, can literally shock sense into your pooch -shaping him into a show dog or simply teaching him to behave around the house. The obedience trainer consists of a palm-sized, transistorized pulse generator, 50 feet of wire which also serves as the leash and a dog collar with two tiny electrodes. Electro-Leash in hand, you don’t have to yell at your pooch or brandish a whip. If he bee-lines for the sofa or starts to chase a car, you merely press a button-and he’s stopped short by a harmless electric shock. The device’s inventor, Gail Lee-of Tucson, Arizona’s, Lee Brothers, who have bred and trained some of the U. S.’s finest dogs-says that psychologically, electronic obedience is the best thing that ever happened to a dog- and its master. “With whipping,” explains Gail, “your dog associates his hurt with you, his master. But a quick shock out of the blue is anonymous and carries no stigma to mar master-canine relations.” The Lees have been pulse-teaching their dogs for the past several years. Redesigned and built by industrial engineer Max Gottschalk, Electro-Leash uses a 22-volt battery to slow-charge a capacitor through a 5000-ohm resistor. Press the control button, and the built-up voltage discharges as an inductive kick-pulse through a transformer. Gottschalk’s Godesca Company staff in Tucson spent days running resistance tests on more than 40 breeds of dogs before coming up with a just-right pulse that would sting but not harm. They found that dog skin resistance varies between 5000 and 18,000 ohms, the average being about 10,000. Trainers, quick to adopt the electronic teaching method, report they can teach show dogs to sit, stand and heel in less than 15 minutes. And without once raising their voices-or hands-in anger.
Future News/Links
|
