1) - The Physics of Crystals 2) - History of the EV Gray Motor 3) - Browns Gas Water Torch Research & Applications 4) - Getting there and Saving on Gas Costs

$4 gas by Spring? and the latest Land of $5.40 gas - How to Increase Mileage and Decrease Fuel Costs for $15 - Read about it HERE

05/08/08 - Check Gas Prices Online: 11 Handy Tools
Crude oil prices keep breaking through record high prices, and it is quickly reflecting itself at the fuel pumps. About the only thing you can do is try to find the cheapest prices, but you can waste as much in gas driving around as you will by finding it, and that’s where gas pricing location sites come in handy. Just log in and see where the best prices are, and save yourself all of that driving around. We’ve covered the United States, Canada, Australia and the United Kingdom for you, so start price hunting! - Source

05/08/08 - Focusing on Solar's Cost
Sunrgi, which emerged out of stealth mode last week, has created a concentrated photovoltaic system that uses a lens to focus sunlight up to 2,000 times onto tiny solar cells that can convert 37.5 percent of the sun's energy into electricity. Stronger concentrations of sunlight allow engineers to use much smaller solar cells, making it more economical to use higher-efficiency--but higher-cost--cells. Sunrgi, for example, will use cells based on gallium arsenside and germanium substrates. Sunrgi estimates that its system will be capable of producing electricity at a wholesale cost of five cents per kilowatt-hour. Prototypes have been built and tested both in the laboratory and in the field, and the company expects to start commercial production in 12 to 15 months. The intense heat created by concentrating the sun so much can reduce both the efficiency and the life of the solar cell. At 2,000 times sun concentration, temperatures can exceed 1800 °C--similar to the heat from an acetylene torch, and hot enough to melt the solar cell. - Source

05/08/08 - CCTVs Don't Work in the UK
"People who give up a little bit of liberty for a little bit of security deserve neither, the saying goes. But what happens when people give up so much liberty their entire country resembles an Orweillean dystopia — but the pervasive monitoring doesn't help to solve any crimes? That's what is happening in the United Kingdom today. While the Guardian tries to put a good spin on the entire fiasco, the fact remains that CCTVs only help with 3% of all street robberies, the very crimes they were supposed to be best at protecting. Should England finally move to eliminate its troubling state surveillance program?" - Source

05/08/08 - Phone-unlocking SIM-shim
This SIM unlock is made of a very thin piece of FPC (0.10mm) with a Microcontroller mounted on, that goes between your Operator's SIM card & the phone's SIM socket. Because of it's very thin & slim design it fits into almost all phone's on the market and can also be easily removed again. It's got Gold Immersion and makes perfect contact with the card and the socket at ALL times. - Source

05/08/08 - Americans worry about ongoing gasoline price hike
A CNN/Opinion Research Corp. poll released Monday found 94 percent of respondents expect they will have to pay 4 U.S. dollars a gallon (1 gallon equal to 4.55 liters) sometime this year and 78percent said they figure it will hit 5 dollars. The national average price for gasoline stands at 3.61 dollars per gallon Monday. Consumers' fears that they will have to pay more have intensified, the poll finds. A year ago, 79 percent thought gas would cost 4 dollars per gallon by the end of 2007 and only 28 percent feared about the cost of 5 dollars per gallon. At the same time, high prices seem to be easier to swallow now than it has been for most consumers in the past. Of the more than 1,000 American adults surveyed in the poll, conducted April 28-30, 60 percent said high fuel prices have caused hardship for them or their household. - Source

05/08/08 - Solar Lanterns Transform Lives in Malawi, Africa
The average African household uses 55 or so liters of kerosene per year, at an approximate cost of £80 [US $158]. This contributes to health problems as the burning of kerosene inside houses is a major cause of respiratory illness, fires, burns, accidental poisonings, eyesight problems and death in the developing world. Kerosene is far more expensive and far less efficient than electric lighting: the cost of useful light energy ($/lumen hour of light) for kerosene is 325 times higher than the inefficient incandescent bulb and 1,625 times higher than compact fluorescent light bulbs. The training that SolarAid is doing involves teaching your Malawians to convert a standard, medium sized kerosene "hurricane" lanterns (not pressurized or "tilly" lanterns) into LED solar lanterns. Conversion of the lanterns involves putting rechargeable AA batteries into the chimney and using 3.3V, 25mA LEDs (wired in parallel) to direct light down onto an improvised cone reflector, which sits over the top of the old wick. The reflector is constructed from locally collected materials such as aluminium foil, gift wrap, or the inside of a cigarette packet, and is configured in a conical shape to provide uniform reflection. The torches are guaranteed for three years. Batteries are designed to be recharged up to 1000 times without "memory effect." SolarAid tests have shown a solar LED lantern can go for up to 10 days non-stop on a single battery charge, meaning the batteries could last 20 years or more if only used once a week. The batteries are recharged with one-watt solar panels, which are made locally with imported amorphous silicon and wooden frames. The PV panels do not degrade over time and are sold in the West with at least a 10-year warranty. All other components can be replaced when needed as they are sourced locally. - Source

05/08/08 - 5 Psychological Experiments That Prove Humanity is Doomed
Psychologists know you have to be careful when you go poking around the human mind because you're never sure what you'll find there. A number of psychological experiments over the years have yielded terrifying conclusions about the subjects. Oh, we're not talking about the occasional psychopath who turns up. No, we're talking about you. The experiments speak for themselves:... - Source

05/08/08 - Hawaii Man's Invention Really Cookin'
The solar oven looks more like a children's slide, but it will fry foods, bake bread and boil water. The oven is really a long, double-walled vacuum tube filled with vegetable oil that sits in a reflective-compound parabolic curve -- a fancy name for a solar funnel that focuses sunlight on the tube. The outside of the tube is cool to the touch. But the inside reaches temperatures as high as 400 degrees -- 300 degrees on a cloudy day. "I was in Tibet, and I followed three Tibetan girls through the mountains one day. An hour and a half out, an hour and a half back just to get to the nearest tree areas. Everything else denuded on the mountain. I've seen it in these countries," said inventor John Grandinetti. "Solar cooking would work to eliminate misery and save the forest and improve the environmental conditions." The solar tube only costs about $21. The frame and insulation are made from inexpensive materials. And it has another use: With clean water becoming a worldwide problem, the solar oven gets hot enough to boil water, which will purify it. The solar cooker can perform solar pasteurization in 15 minutes. It can pasteurize more than a gallon of water on a sunny day. - Source

05/08/08 - The Future of American Power
Despite some eerie parallels between the position of the United States today and that of the British Empire a century ago, there are key differences. Britain's decline was driven by bad economics. The United States, in contrast, has the strength and dynamism to continue shaping the world -- but only if it can overcome its political dysfunction and reorient U.S. policy for a world defined by the rise of other powers. - Source

05/08/08 - Indian claims duplication of Meyers Water Fuel Cell
On June 27th, 2007, U.S. Patents 4,936,961 and 5,149,407 by the late Ohio inventor Stanley A. Meyer expired, and his technology for the Water Fuel Cell fell permanently into the public domain in the United States. Inventor Ravi Raju now claims suppression by Indian authorities for his production of volumes of hydrogen gas using 12vdc pulsed at 0.51 amps. See the video selection for operation. / (Thanks to Paul Carlson for the headSup on this. - JWD) - Source

05/08/08 - As Gas Costs Soar, Buyers Flock to Small Cars
Soaring gas prices have turned the steady migration by Americans to smaller cars into a stampede. In what industry analysts are calling a first, about one in five vehicles sold in the United States was a compact or subcompact car during April, based on monthly sales data released Thursday. Almost a decade ago, when sport utility vehicles were at their peak of popularity, only one in every eight vehicles sold was a small car. The switch to smaller, more fuel-efficient vehicles has been building in recent years, but has accelerated recently with the advent of $3.50-a-gallon gas. At the same time, sales of pickup trucks and large sport utility vehicles have dropped sharply. In another first, fuel-sipping four-cylinder engines surpassed six-cylinder models in popularity in April. - Source

05/08/08 - Molecular Action May Help Keep Birds on Course
If the hypothesis is true, that the planet's magnetic field lines -- which arch around Earth from north to south -- may be plainly visible to birds, like the dashed line in the middle of a road. The work, described online yesterday in the journal Nature, was conducted in a test tube and does not prove that birds actually use the mechanism. And researchers aligned with a competing model say they are not convinced. But by identifying for the first time a molecule that reacts to very weak magnetic fields, the experiments prove the plausibility of a long-hypothesized method of avian navigation that has had a credibility problem because no one had ever found a molecule with the required sensitivity. "This is a proof of principle that a chemical reaction can act as a magnetic compass," said Peter Hore of the University of Oxford, who with fellow chemist Christiane Timmel led the research. - Source

05/08/08 - Pork, chicken prices may rise in next wave of food inflation
Americans may be getting another helping of food inflation, and it seems likely to come from higher prices for chicken and pork. Overall food inflation could double this year, lifted by the rising costs of fuel, corn and soybeans, some analysts predict. Food inflation hit 4 percent last year, up from 2.4 percent in 2006. While beef prices were already high, chicken and pork prices didn't reflect record costs for feed and fuel. That's poised to change as chicken and pig producers who have been losing money slaughter more animals to decrease the supply and raise the prices they can charge. Higher food inflation would further challenge shoppers who are already limiting themselves to sale items and store brands as they contend with the worst food inflation since 1990. - Source

05/08/08 - Breastfeeding boosts intelligence
Breastfeeding really does boost intelligence, a major study has shown. Researchers looked at almost 14,000 children for more than six years and found that those who were breastfed did significantly better in IQ tests. - Source

05/08/08 - Stuart Jeffries on the rise of Freeconomics
Anderson's freeconomics thesis is that more and more goods and services are being provided for free and that those businesses that fail to follow suit are likely to go to the wall. "As much as we complain about how expensive things are getting, we're surrounded by forces that are making them cheaper," Anderson wrote in a recent article that will form the basis of a book called Free, to be published next year. "Forty years ago, charity was dominated by clothing drives for the poor. Now you can get a T-shirt for less than the price of a cup of coffee, thanks to China and global sourcing. So too for toys, gadgets and commodities of every sort. Even cocaine has pretty much never been cheaper (globalisation works in mysterious ways)." - Source

05/08/08 - Destabilization of the Earth–Moon triangular Lagrangian points
It seems that, a very long time ago, Earth may have had more moons that just the modern one. Having rocks the size of small buildings smash into the planet as the result of their orbits decaying doesn't sound like too much fun. I wonder if they'll be able to correlate a mass extinction or two with such events? - Source

05/08/08 - US Electronic Fingerprints in Syria?
The Israel Air Force's stunning, undetected flight through Syria's air defenses late last year -- as part of a raid on a suspected nuclear facility -- bears electronic fingerprints similar to those left in Baghdad by the U.S. in 1991 and 2003, say U.S. military and IT industry specialists. So what did the U.S. forces do in Iraq in 1991 and 2003 to confound air defenses, communications and the ability to command forces in the field? Drones were used to lure enemy radars into giving away their positions and identity and distracted them from the actual raiding aircraft. Carbon-fiber warheads were used to shut down main-frame computers used for air defense integration (in 1991) and an apparent computer attack on municipal power distribution (in 2003) was used to turn lights off and on in various neighborhoods. There also were campaigns of intimidating e-mail notes and phone calls to various officials and functionaries saying "we know who you are, where you are and what you're doing," says a computer warfare specialist. - Source / (This reminded me of the mysterious Hurwich device. - JWD)

05/08/08 - Tank on Empty? How much further can you go?
Help solve a mystery that has puzzled mankind for years... How far can you go after the gas light in your car comes on? Find your car's stats here! - Source

05/05/08 - Airtab Vortex Generators to Increase vehicle Mileage
Airtabs™ are small, efficient air flow streamliners that are the first practical solution for reducing drag at the back of large vehicles and the tractor/trailer gap. Airtabs™ are designed to work on trucks, trailers, straight trucks, cargo vans, RVs and Buses. Any big box going down the road at highway speeds. Drivers report dramatic handling improvements, better visibility behind in rain, fewer gear changes and less driver fatigue. Airtabs™ keep the rear of you vehicle clean because there is no longer a vacuum pulling in dirt and grime - your tail lights remain clear longer. Our customers are seeing fuel savings of between 2 to 4% annually. Airtabs™ meet vehicle width regulations. (4.76” long, by 3.25” wide, and stick out only 1") Airtabs™ are quick and easy to fit. 3 per lineal foot, down the sides and across the top at the back of the vehicle. Airtabs™ work in concert with existing air management kits. The Airtab® shape has been tested in test track, wind tunnel and over-the-road evaluations. / From a reader; "Saw your post on the fans on semi truck fairings today & thought you might want to check out www.airtab.com They have sold these magical gems all over the world for the past 5 years or more. They're Vortex Generators that are self sticking & go on the back sides and top of anything box shaped moving down the road at highway speeds of 40mph or more. Have 12 of them on my 2001 Dodge Stratus trunk & mileage went from 27.1 mpg to 32.0 mpg doing 65 - 70 mph on interstate driving. Check out their website. Every little bit helps and these babies will pay for themselves in no time flat." (Thanks to Norm E. for this headsup on yet another gas saving technique that we all can use. - JWD) - Source

05/05/08 - Fan-assisted trucks
Travel at 70 mph on a motorway, and approximately 65 per cent of the fuel you burn goes to overcoming aerodynamic drag. So even a slight reduction in drag will significantly improve fuel consumption. This is a particular problem for lorries and buses. Kambiz Salari at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California and colleagues say that much of the drag from a "bluff body" such as bus or truck comes from the air vortices generated behind the vehicle as it moves. So instead of making these vehicles more wedge-shaped, significant fuel economies can be made by modifying their behind. Salari has designed a set of fans to be fitted to the back of a cab or trailer that inject air into the air flow in a way that significantly reduces the turbulence it generates. This should in turn improve fuel economy, although the patent does not say the scale of the potential gains. - Source

05/05/08 - David Bowling's Continuous Charging Device
David Bowling says he has developed a device that will put out a continuous 12 volt electrical current which he has then been using to run motors, small appliances, and charge batteries. "The more you load it, the more it puts out," he said. The device, which is presently proprietary, requires a battery on the input side, and involves a motor; but he says the amount of power on the output side is far more than what is going in. In one set-up, he had one battery charging six, which were then being used to run various motors; and he was then rotating one of the output batteries into the input side, to keep the system running. "I have used it to charge a battery, drain the battery under a load, and recharge the battery. I have charged that same battery 30 times using the device. It will charge the battery in about half an hour or so, and as many batteries wired to it in parallel as I care to connect up (so far)." He recharged his Dad's solar battery array (24 6-volt batteries) using his system in just over an hour. His dad said that it would have taken around five hours for the solar panels to charge it to that same point. Other things he has powered in the past two weeks since first making this discovery include a shop vac, a reciprocal saw, and light bulbs. He says it is easy to build. "Anyone could build it." And it is cheap. "For less than ten dollars you can have a working model." That scaled-down model wouldn't put out 12 volts, but it would prove the principle, he said. The 12-volt model could be replicated for less than $200.00. / (Thanks to Hank M. for the headsup on this. - JWD) - Source

05/05/08 - Key to Hunger Problem - Stop Sending Food
Rapidly increasing world food prices have already led to political upheaval in poor countries. The crisis threatens to tear apart fragile states and become a humanitarian calamity unless countries get their agricultural systems moving. Now, with conference committee negotiations over the final shape of the Farm Bill at a critical stage, Congress needs to change the foreign food-aid program and help avert this calamity. The Bush administration has urged, rightly, that the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) be allowed to buy food locally, particularly in Africa, instead of only American-grown food. / Sam Kinnison says – From an appearance on Rodney Dangerfield’s “It’s Not Easy Being Me,” 1984.” - Source

05/05/08 - Liquid invention that could help in fight against drugs
Ross Penninton developed a substance to try to stop drug-taking. In 2005 the Chronicle carried out an investigation into cocaine use in Newcastle and found traces of drugs on toilet seats and sinks in pubs, bars and public buildings. Ross, who works in Team Valley, said: “It’s a liquid plastic with an aggregate in it to stop people taking drugs like cocaine from basins and toilets by making the smooth surface rough. “You brush the plastic on to the surface and that will make it almost impossible for someone to take cocaine from that surface. “It lasts for around 30 days and works with porcelain so it would be great for pubs and clubs.” - Source

05/05/08 - Naturmobil: Cart runs on ‘horse power’
Unlike traditional horse-drawn vehicles, the horse rides inside, behind the driver, protected by an all-weather canopy. And thanks to a lightweight polycarbonate frame and complex gearing, it can reach speeds of up to 80km/h – although its cruising speed is a more sedate 20km/h. The horse walks on a fibreglass treadmill, generating enough power to move the 300kg Naturmobil along on six motorcycle wheels. Mirhejazi says it produces enough surplus energy to charge a small battery which powers the buggy’s lights, electrical system, and can even take over from the horse when Neddy needs a rest. When the horse’s body temperature gets too hot for comfort, a sensor attached to its side transmits its temperature reading to a controller which automatically turns off the treadmill and switches the vehicle to run on battery power. Neddy can then rest for 20 minutes before the back-up power runs down. - Source

05/05/08 - Researchers claim photovoltaic cell advance
Scientists at the University of Tel Aviv in Israel claim they have found a way to construct efficient photovoltaic cells costing at least a hundred times less than conventional silicon based devices, and with similar or better energy conversion efficiency. The reactive element in the researchers' patent pending device is genetically engineered proteins using photosynthesis for production of electrical energy. The scientists applied genetic engineering and nanotechnology for the construction of a hybrid nano -- bio, solid state device. According to the researchers, although using photosynthesis for photovoltaic application is not new, their specific technique is the first to enable the production of useful photosynthesis-based photovoltaic cells. - Source

05/05/08 - Patent to Overcome the Second Law of Thermodynamics Rejected
‘According to the specification, the invention raises a ferrofluid out of a reservoir by a magnetic column into a mass. The ferrofluid then escapes a "gradually decreasing magnetic field which holds it up against gravitational force" and is drawn away via tubular element by a capillary force aided by Brownian motion. At the end of the tubular element, drops of this ferrofluid accumulate and drop back into the reservoir below, spinning a wheel along their downward paths. Thus, the movement of the ferrofluid imparts mechanical energy upon the wheel. Speas claims that because this ferrofluid is moved and adds energy to the paddle wheel "without input into the system other than ambient thermal energy," it is proof that the second law of thermodynamics is not inviolate – an object of the invention.’ - Source

05/05/08 - Eye Ailments Cured by Dry Heat (Dec, 1934)
EYE inflammations are being successfully treated with dry heat by a new and ingenious apparatus introduced at the annual meeting of the American College of Proctology. The electric controlling unit automatically heats and circulates water through hollow rubber pads held over the eyes by the patient. The temperature of this water is constantly controlled by the physician. - Source

05/05/08 - City engineer gets patent for solar energy innovation
A City-based engineer Prabhakar Wawge, has come up with a solar water heating system, which can be used in multistoried building without using terrace area. It can be used as a wall integrated solar water heating system and does not require any pumping mechanism for circulation. The invention is based on the fin and tub arrangement of the absorber of the collector, which allows it to be used in multistoried building. It also does not need long pipeline to be carried out.Another highlight of the system is that this mechanism will not require cold water tank at the height of 6 feet as it will work with 2 feet head that is normally available at all places. - Source

05/05/08 - Russia can make billions selling fresh water
“All jokes aside, Russian fresh water supplies may equal oil and gas supplies,” Vadim Altaev, the Vice President of the Union of Bottled Water Manufacturers, said in an interview with Bigness.ru. “Specialists from many countries forecast that water will become number one product in the foreseeable future. We can dispense with oil, but we cannot dispense with water. Russia has one of the world’s greatest fresh water reserves,” he stated proudly. According to Altaev, there are numerous fresh water resources in Russia: in the north, in the Arctic Ocean, in the south and in Siberia. - Source

05/05/08 - Taser International Wins Lawsuit to Change Cause of Death
"Taser International recently started a legal campaign against medical examiners who claimed tasers contributed to the cause of death for several people. On Friday, an Ohio judge ruled in favor of the stun gun manufacturer (free registration may be required). While they do have a number of scientific studies on which they establish their claims, it's interesting that the alternate cause of death they champion — excited delirium — appears only in police reports on the deaths of difficult or drug-addled inmates, not in medical textbooks. Of course, that may change soon — Taser is funding and promoting research on the subject. Coroner reports such as the ones in this case contributed to the UN's opinion that taser use is torture." - Source

05/05/08 - Electronic Warfare Insects Coming Soon
"British defence giant BAE Systems is creating a series of tiny electronic spiders, insects and snakes that could become the eyes and ears of soldiers on the battlefield, helping to save thousands of lives, and they claim that prototypes could be on the front line by the end of the year. A fascinating development to be sure, but who thinks this won't be misused domestically for spying and evidence gathering?" - Source

05/05/08 - US patent for common Mexican bean revoked
In the 1990s, a Colorado man named Larry Proctor purchased some beans at a market in Mexico. He selectively bred them for a few years and claimed to have invented "a new field bean variety that produces distinctly colored yellow seed which remains relatively unchanged by season." He called it the "Enola bean," and was granted a "20-year patent that covered any beans and hybrids derived from crosses with even one of his seeds." His claim of 60 cents per pound of beans sold in the US "caused a steep decline in exports of such beans from Mexico to the USA, according to Mexican government sources." Today, the United States Patent and Trademark Office revoked Proctor's patent claims. (via boingboing.net) - Source

05/05/08 - Diet treatment call for epilepsy
A special high-fat diet helps to control fits in children with epilepsy, a UK trial suggests. The number of seizures fell by a third in children on the "ketogenic" diet, where previously they had suffered fits every day despite medication. The diet alters the body's metabolism by mimicking the effects of starvation, the researchers reported in the Lancet Neurology. - Source

05/05/08 - FLV To MP3 Online Converter/FLV URL (YouTube's) Converter
Convert your FLV files (YouTube's videos) to MP3 fast. It's 100% free. - Source

05/05/08 - Government lawmaking Jacks up Prices
When it comes to soaring gasoline prices, we need a federal government that does less. Less contributing to the problem, that is. As lawmakers and presidential candidates offer a number of proposals to lower pump prices, they should keep in mind that past laws and regulations have made matters worse. Washington ought to eliminate these mistakes rather than repeat them. - Source

05/05/08 - A Price Drop for Solar Panels
Solar electricity is about to get much cheaper, industry analysts predict, because a shortage of the silicon used in solar panels is almost over. That could lead to a sharp drop in prices over the next couple of years, making solar electricity comparable to power from the grid. High demand generated by government subsidies worldwide and a shortage of processed silicon have kept prices for solar-generated power much higher than average electricity prices over the past few years. Solar power is more than three times the cost of electricity from conventional sources, according to figures from the industry tracking firm Solarbuzz and the United States' Energy Information Administration. - Source

05/02/08 - For Exxon Mobil, $10.9 Billion Profit Disappoints
Exxon Mobil, the world’s largest publicly traded oil company, said Thursday that its first-quarter net income rose 17 percent, boosted by surging oil prices. But even as it posted the second-most profitable quarter in its history, Exxon’s earnings managed to disappoint investors because of a drop in oil production. - Source

05/02/08 - Neeroga - a wonder anti-ageing medicine
Neeroga is a unique formulation which can easily root out all ailments caused by toxins and various viruses. It was developed after seven years of dedicated research by Dr GR Saini and his team at the Saini Herbal Research & Development Center. It is a modern 'Sanjivani' (life giver) by using which old people become young and young become younger. This product complies with the basic Ayurvedic concept of keeping healthy persons fit and bringing relief to the diseased. It has been tried by several people ranging in age from15 years to 94 years and the results have been nothing short of amazing. Ailments related to vital organs viz kidney, liver, heart, brain and lungs were found to be cured by this medicine and it also strengthened the body's immune system. This wonder drug called 'Neeroga' helps people to live a healthy life and to live up to hundred. Such a composition has been mentioned even in ancient Ayurvedic texts. Apart from giving a younger, glowing and fairer skin, this drug can help to cure many diseases such as diabetes, stroke, cardiac ailments, liver disorders, respiratory stress, and many other ailments. Another remarkable result of the trial of this drug was that the patient remains cured and healthy even when the dosage is discontinued after treatment. This medicine has worked wonders on people. Even octogenarians who were unable to walk or see could actually run. They became fitter in many ways. Their cholesterol levels, blood sugar levels etc jumped back to normal and they stopped taking allopathic medicines. Problems of breathlessness and other respiratory ailments can also be treated with the help of this medicine. People having a count of 42 breaths per minute were treated with the help of this medicine and their count went down to 25 breaths per minute after about a month of treatment. Within 24 hours of administering the medicine, the breathing count reduces by 1 to 6 per minute. Dr GR Saini says, "With the introduction of Neeroga my dream of presenting a herbal composition which should be easy to administer, simple, quick and effective in curing all diseases without any side effects is now fulfilled." / (Neither KeelyNet nor I have any affiliation with this product, just thought it was an interesting set of claims that some might like to test. - JWD) - Source

05/02/08 - Z-Cron Automates Windows Tasks
Windows only: Freeware utility Z-Cron replaces the Windows task scheduler with a more robust, cron-like alternative (but with a graphical interface). Z-Cron ships with a long set of useful actions you can automate, like sending an email, copying a folder, deleting files, emptying the trash, and way more, which makes writing batch files to do these things for you effectively obsolete. Z-Cron is a free download for Windows only. (via lifehacker.com) - Source

05/02/08 - Destabilizing Grain Markets
At the present time, the production of biofuels to solve America's critical energy problem involves placing one of the two most sensitive commodities in the economy, food, at the disposal of the other most sensitive commodity, energy. It’s almost cannibalistic. Ethanol is produced by grinding the corn into a powder, which is then mixed with water and heated. An enzyme is added to produce a solution of sugar. Yeast is then added, creating fermentation in the form of beer, which has about 10 percent alcohol. A distillation process then converts the mixture to pure alcohol. Gas is added to make the pure alcohol unpalatable for human consumption. This ethanol can be used directly or as an additive to power automobiles. As usage grew, pressures were put on the corn market and shortly the price of corn rose. Corn began to consume more acreage as more farmers took advantage of the newly created profits. Less acreage for other grains, notably wheat, increased. Hops, a bi-product of barley, increased from $4 to $40 per pound. Ethanol has destabilized the grain markets. Fields where barley, wheat and oats were previously planted now grow corn. With the introduction of biodiesel, made from oilseeds such as soybeans, the problem has become more exacerbated. - Source

05/02/08 - Catfish guts make Biomass Fuel
Taking inspiration from a cow's digestive tract, bacteria from a South American catfish and raw material from pretty much any plant that grows, Tifton scientist J.C. Bell may have come up with an ingenious way to make gasoline and other fuels. His formula is simple. Basically: Biomass (such as grass clippings or wood chips) plus the right bacteria equals gasoline or diesel fuel. Use bacteria from the guts of Amazonian catfish that eat wood and, boom, you've got a way to make oil - roughly 2 barrels of it for every ton of biomass, Bell said. Given a U.S. Department of Agriculture study that shows that there's 1.1 billion tons a year of "easily recoverable biomass" created in the United States each year with the potential to produce twice that much, Bell is predicting that he can make a dent in the country's energy needs. - Source

05/02/08 - A green fuel solution?
An Oregon inventor says he may have the solution to high gas prices, car emissions and global warming. He says the answer is in a bottle of fuel additive. He's studied and tested his secret formula for years in his garage, and finally thinks it's the right time for the fuel catalyst to hit the streets. " 'Improving air quality won't be easy,' " said Dr. Bob Kurko, quoting today's front page headline from the Idaho Statesman. "It will be very easy (actually), as soon as this goes into all fuels: diesel; auto fuel; boat fuel; it will take care of lawn mowers, and anything that burns fuel will burn it ultra clean." Dr. Kurko and his E3 Fuels company team met with Idaho's Commerce and USDA officials today. They are interested in establishing plants in Idaho that will produce their product, and they say their fuel additive invention will reduce vehicle emissions by 90 percent and increase fuel economy by one third. For more information about E3 Fuels, you can check out the company's website at: www.E3Fuels.com - Source

05/02/08 - Ignore 'global warming' and pursue fossil fuels
Scientists are now saying there will be a natural 10-year suspension of global warming... We don't care about the damn sign, and we don't care about global warming. It's been a myth since its invention 40 years ago. We can't afford, as taxpayers, to go along with it and the massive waste of public treasure it intends to consume. We reject it, and the snake oil salesmen and organizations peddling global warming and giving lectures on alternative fuel. Global warming is a lie, and alternative energy is not the answer. The answer to a better, strong and more beneficial national economy is oil, natural gas, coal and nuclear energy. We can procure all we need of each here, domestically, for less than buying it from other nations. We can extract fossil fuels in a more environmentally sound way than any nation. - Source

05/02/08 - Location logging GPS TrackStick
The Super Trackstick is the perfect tool for individuals, law enforcement and government agencies looking for a way to track anything that moves. The Super Trackstick records its own location, time, date, speed, heading, altitude and temperature at preset intervals. With over 4Mb of memory, it can store months of travel information. - Source

05/02/08 - Glass chip spins silk just like a spider
Spider silk is super-light, super-strong and elastic too. Existing human materials lack its useful combination of properties, and proposed uses span everything from bulletproof vests to optic fibres. Spiders' silk ducts contain glands that process a gel of simple proteins into long fibres of protein. Different glands alter the chemistry of the gel in different ways, producing silk with different properties. The artificial duct is a glass chip shot through with tiny tubes that tries to mimic those processes. "The best thing is to reproduce nature, instead of cutting open spiders," says Andreas Bausch of the Technical University of Munich in Germany, who led the research with Thomas Scheibel of the University of Bayreuth, also Germany. Bausch and Scheibel are the first to create a device that so accurately recreates the chemical and physical conditions of a real silk duct. They are also the first to make fibres containing more than one silk protein. The chip uses two – known as ADF3 and ADF4 – found in silk from the European garden spider (Araneus diadematus). Inside the chip, the two proteins flow along tiny tubes and are exposed to a phosphate salt solution that makes them aggregate into tiny spheres 1 to 5 micrometres across. A sudden jump in acidity and phosphate concentration then partially breaks open the spheres, allowing the proteins to latch together into chains. At this point, the flow speed increases and draws out the proteins into long silk fibres. Creating fibres from two proteins was found to make the silk more chemically stable. The team has not tested the artificial silk's mechanical properties, but its grainy appearance suggests it does not yet rival the quality of the real thing. - Source

05/02/08 - Shortages Threaten Farmers' Key Tool: Fertilizer
Truong Thi Nha stands just four and a half feet tall. Her three grown children tower over her, just as many young people in this village outside Hanoi dwarf their parents. A farmer in Xuan Canh came to purchase some fertilizer from a local vendor. The biggest reason the children are so robust: fertilizer. Ms. Nha, her face weathered beyond its 51 years, said her growth was stunted by a childhood of hunger and malnutrition. Just a few decades ago, crop yields here were far lower and diets much worse. Then the widespread use of inexpensive chemical fertilizer, coupled with market reforms, helped power an agricultural explosion here that had already occurred in other parts of the world. Yields of rice and corn rose, and diets grew richer. Now those gains are threatened in many countries by spot shortages and soaring prices for fertilizer, the most essential ingredient of modern agriculture. Some kinds of fertilizer have nearly tripled in price in the last year, keeping farmers from buying all they need. That is one of many factors contributing to a rise in food prices that, according to the United Nations' World Food Program, threatens to push tens of millions of poor people into malnutrition. - Source

05/02/08 - Video - Space Station being built
Have a look at this animation sequence detailing the construction of the International Space Station. I still think it's a white elephant, but at least now I think it's an impressive white elephant. - Source

05/02/08 - Grain Companies' Profits Soar As Global Food Crisis Mounts
At a time when parts of the world are facing food riots, Big Agriculture is dealing with a different sort of challenge: huge profits. On Tuesday, grain-processing giant Archer-Daniels-Midland Co. said its fiscal third-quarter profits jumped 42%, including a sevenfold increase in net income in its unit that stores, transports and trades grains such as wheat and corn, as well as soybeans. Monsanto Co., maker of seeds and herbicides, Deere & Co., which builds tractors, combines and sprayers, and fertilizer maker Mosaic Co. all reported similar windfalls in their latest quarters. The robust profits are emerging against the backdrop of a food crisis some experts say is the worst in three decades. The secretary-general of the United Nations, Ban Ki-moon, on Tuesday called for the creation of a high-level global task force to deal with the cascading impact of high grain prices and oil prices. He said that countries must do more to avert "social unrest on an unprecedented scale" and should contribute money to make up for the $755 million shortfall in funding for the World Food Program, which feeds the world's hungry. - Source

05/02/08 - Animals may see Earth's magnetic field
The idea that some animals navigate by "seeing" Earth's magnetic field has been shown to be feasible in laboratory tests, a new study says. First proposed about 30 years ago, the theory suggests that sunlight absorbed by molecules in the eyes of animals such as birds and bats triggers a chemical reaction. This reaction makes the molecules sensitive to the local magnetic field, according to study co-author Peter Hore, a chemist at the University of Oxford. The scientists set up an artificial photochemical-reaction system in the lab and monitored its response to a magnetic field weaker than Earth's. When exposed to light, this simulated model became sensitive to the magnitude and direction of the weak magnetic field. The team thus proved that this occurrence, known as chemical magnetoreception, is possible in nature. Thorsten Ritz is a physicist at the University of California, Irvine, whose field experiments with migratory birds support the idea of a photochemical compass. - Source

05/02/08 - Video - Scientists create self-regenerating robot
Silicon Valley startup Robotex, which has won the endorsement of Pentagon mercenary suppplier Blackwater, already manufacturers robots with guns. How long until they or anybody else building an army gets their hands on the creepy robocritter featured in the clip embedded below? Watch as a modular robot made by scientists at the University of Pennsylvania reassembles itself when kicked apart. - Source

05/02/08 - Museums teach society lacking in science literacy
This summer the National Academies, a congressionally chartered non-profit group that advises the federal government, will release a report on what's known about the learning of science in such informal settings. That includes not only museums but also such places as zoos and aquariums. The report comes as experts bemoan a lack of scientific education and literacy among Americans. They warn of a shortfall in homegrown engineers and scientists to keep the nation competitive, a general workforce ill-equipped to function in an increasingly high-tech workplace, and a citizenry struggling to grasp complex public issues like stem cell research. While that has led to calls for changes in schools, science museums — broadly defined to include a range of science-oriented places to visit — can also play a big role in teaching and promoting science to both children and adults, experts say. Studies are showing that such institutions stimulate interest, awareness, knowledge and understanding, said David Ucko, an expert on informal learning at the National Science Foundation, which requested this summer's study. - Source

05/02/08 - GM Rethinks the Old-School Engine
As fuel prices climb higher seemingly by the minute and the American carbon footprint continues to balloon, it’s becoming increasingly important for engineers to find a new way to propel our cars. And we’ve covered their progress across practically every potential solution—batteries, hydrogen, ethanol, even air power. Dismissed as a laboratory curiosity in the 1970s, homogeneous charge-compression ignition (HCCI) has now emerged as a more feasible alternative to alternative fuels—and it’s almost ready to roll out en masse. When used in conjunction with other advanced engine technologies, this combustion process can help deliver a whopping 25- to 30 -percent better fuel economy than today’s spark- or compression-ignited internal combustion engines (ICE). HCCI does all this with near-zero emissions, just like a hybrid—and it won’t have any impact on your driving habits or come at a premium price. General Motors is to a large extent leading the big new charge to re-engineer the engine,... - Source

05/02/08 - Imaging study provides glimpse of alcohol's effect on brain
New brain imaging research published this week shows that, after consuming alcohol, social drinkers had decreased sensitivity in brain regions involved in detecting threats, and increased activity in brain regions involved in reward. “The key finding of this study is that after alcohol exposure, threat-detecting brain circuits can’t tell the difference between a threatening and non-threatening social stimulus,” said Marina Wolf, PhD, at Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science, who was unaffiliated with the study. “At one end of the spectrum, less anxiety might enable us to approach a new person at a party. But at the other end of the spectrum, we may fail to avoid an argument or a fight. By showing that alcohol exerts this effect in normal volunteers by acting on specific brain circuits, these study results make it harder for someone to believe that risky decision-making after alcohol ‘doesn’t apply to me’,” Wolf said. - Source

05/02/08 - Cellular Matrix promotes Regeneration
After accidentally cutting his finger tip off, Mr Speivak's brother Alan - who was working in the field of regenerative medicine - sent him the powder. For ten days Mr Spievak put a little on his finger. "The second time I put it on I already could see growth. Each day it was up further. Finally it closed up and was a finger. "It took about four weeks before it was sealed." Now he says he has "complete feeling, complete movement." The "pixie dust" comes from the University of Pittsburgh, though in the lab Dr Stephen Badylak prefers to call it extra cellular matrix. The process he has been pioneering over the last few years involves scraping the cells from the lining of a pig's bladder. The remaining tissue is then placed into acid, "cleaned" of all cells, and dried out. It can be turned into sheets, or a powder. "One way to think about these matrices is that we have taken out many of the stimuli for scar tissue formation and left those signals that were always there anyway for constructive remodelling." In other words when the extra cellular matrix is put on a wound, scientists believe it stimulates cells in the tissue to grow rather than scar. If they can perfect the technique, it might mean one day they could repair not just a severed finger, but severely burnt skin, or even damaged organs. / (link provided courtesy of Paul Carlson) - Source

05/02/08 - Scientists create missing circuit element "memristor"
American electronics experts have finally succeeded in proving the existence of a fourth fundamental unit of electronic circuits: the "memristor," short for "memory resistor." The memristor was created by Stan Williams of HP Labs in Palo Alto, California, and his colleagues while experimenting with very tiny circuits, who sandwiched a nanoscopic film of a semiconductor(titanium dioxide) between two slivers of metal (platinum). Those are standard materials, the trick is to make the component just 5 nanometers wide, about 10,000 times thinner than a human hair. Williams explained: "A memristor is essentially a resistor with memory. The actual resistance of the memristor changes depending on the amount of voltage and the time for which that voltage has been applied to the device." The memristors behave just like ordinary resistors, where resistance is equal to the voltage divided by the current. That means that a computer created from memristive circuits can "remember" what has happened to it previously, and freeze that memory when the circuit is turned off. This quality could allow computers to turn off and on again in an instant, as all the components could revert to their last state instantly, rather than having to "boot up," he said. The researchers hope that the new components could revolutionize computing, promising an end to frustrating waits for your computer to boot up. - Source

04/29/08 - Gasoline to cost $10 a gallon in US soon?
Translating this price into dollars and cents at the gas pump, one of our forecasters, the chairman of Houston-based Dune Energy, Alan Gaines, sees gas rising to $7-$8 a gallon. The other, a commodities tracker at Weiss Research in Jupiter, Fla., Sean Brodrick, projects a range of $8 to $10 a gallon. While $7-$10 a gallon would be ground-breaking in America, these prices would not be trendsetting internationally. For example, European drivers are already shelling out $9 a gallon (which includes a $2-a-gallon tax). Early last year, with a barrel of oil trading in the low $50s and gasoline nationally selling in a range of $2.30 to $2.50 a gallon, Mr. Gaines — in an impressive display of crystal ball gazing — accurately predicted oil was $100-bound and that gasoline would follow suit by reaching $4 a gallon. His latest prediction of $200 oil is open to question, since it would undoubtedly create considerable global economic distress. Further, just about every energy expert I talk to cautions me to expect a sizable pullback in oil prices, maybe to between $50 and $70 a barrel, especially if there's a global economic slowdown. While Mr. Gaines thinks there could be a temporary decline in the oil price, he's convinced an overall uptrend is unstoppable. In fact, he thinks his $200 forecast could be conservative, and that perhaps $250 could be reached. His reasoning: a combination of shrinking supply and increasing demand, especially from China, India, and America. - Source

04/29/08 - Space war would leave destructive legacy
If war ever breaks out in space it's not the loss of individual satellites that will do the damage, but the debris this produces. It will stay in orbit and go on harming satellites for decades, according to two studies presented at the American Physical Society meeting in St Louis, Missouri, last week. "We have built up such high redundancy to space assets that we're almost invulnerable," says Geoff Forden of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, who assessed the risk posed by China to the US. He found that only a few of the US's low-Eart-orbit satellites are over China at any one time, and that higher-orbiting satellites used for GPS, communications and surveillance could only be destroyed by multistage missiles, for which China has only three launch pads. Crucially, any space attack would increase debris, which can have a long-lasting effect on satellites. David Wright of the Union of Concerned Scientists in Washington DC reports that destruction of one 10-tonne spy satellite in low-Earth orbit "would double or triple the debris" in that zone. Every new collision produces even more debris, triggering a cascade of satellite break-ups with time. - Source

04/29/08 - Simple 'superlens' sharpens focusing power
A simple-to-make "superlens" can focus 10 times more sharply than a conventional lens. It could shrink the size of features on computer chips, or help power gadgets without wires. No matter how powerful a conventional lens, it cannot focus light down to more than about half its wavelength, the "diffraction limit". This limits the amount of data that can be stored on a CD, and the size of features on computer chips. The new lens is a 127-micrometer-thick plate of teflon and ceramic with a copper topping. "The beauty of these is that they're planar," Grbic says, "they're easy to fabricate." The lenses can be made through a single step of photolithography, the process used to etch computer chips. By selectively etching away the copper, Grbic and colleagues created many capacitors sandwiched together. Capacitors are typically used in electronics for storing electric charge for short periods. In the lens, the capacitors instead interact directly with electromagnetic waves like light. This sets up currents in the capacitors that focus the waves passing through the lens into a point 20 times smaller than their wavelength. That is 10 times tighter than a conventional lens can achieve, hampered by the diffraction limit. The team's current prototype works on microwaves, which are easier to focus because they have longer wavelengths than visible light. Simply making capacitors of different sizes would allow the lens to focus other frequencies, including visible and infrared light, says Grbic. - Source

04/29/08 - Sound Waves get your wash clean (Jun, 1951)
Sound Waves get your wash clean, claims Robert Bosch of Stuttgart, Germany. This seven-pound machine works on principle of auto horn. Hooter must sound for five minutes. Cost is $32. / (This looks like something worth digging up and marketing as a cheap, simple clothes washing method. - JWD) - Source

04/29/08 - MIT says it wants a solar 'revolution'
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology on Tuesday announced a $10 million grant to develop technology to make solar power mainstream. The Chesonis Foundation donated the money for research in three areas: materials to improve conversion of light to electricity; storage; and hydrogen production from solar energy and water. Called the Solar Revolution Project, it will provide funding for 30 five-year fellowships in solar energy. The idea is to pursue "blue sky" research, in an effort to fill the void between corporate-funded applied research and the limited amount of federal money dedicated to basic science research in solar, said Ernest Moniz, the director of the MIT Energy Initiative. Although the power is free, solar electric panels are relatively expensive because of the large up-front cost. Solar power is small fraction of the overall electricity production in the U.S.--just half of one percent in 2007, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Researchers and solar companies are trying to develop large-scale manufacturing technologies and higher solar cell efficiency to bring costs down. "Personally, I believe that terrawatts of solar power by mid century is a very real possibility, even likely," Moniz said. The Chesonis Family Foundation was founded by Arunas Chesonis, an MIT graduate who is CEO of telecom company Paetec Holding. - Source

04/29/08 - Gas study finds nothing illegal in soaring prices
A major investigation into the price of gasoline in Washington state uncovered no illegal activity, and discrepancies were explained by differences in wholesale gas prices, according to a report released Thursday by the state Attorney General's Office. The $161,000 study, by University of Washington economist Keith Leffler, found the range between the highest and lowest wholesale gas price in the state was 3.4 cents per gallon. The new 67-page report found that gas prices have doubled since May 2003, and that gas and crude-oil prices are at an all-time high. It found that from June 2000 to June 2001, retail gasoline prices varied by 11 cents; from February 2007 to September 2007, prices varied by 91 cents. Thursday, according to AAA, the average price of gas in the state was nearly $3.60. It ranged from a high of $3.66 a gallon in Bellingham to a low of $3.54 in Vancouver. - Source

14 Ways to Save Money on Fuel Costs
This eBook is the result of years of research into various methods to increase mileage, reduce pollution and most importantly, reduce overall fuel costs. It starts out with the simplest methods and offers progressively more detailed technologies that have been shown to reduce fuel costs. As a bonus to readers, I have salted the pages with free interesting BONUS items that correlate to the relevant page. Just filling up with one tank of gas using this or other methods explained here will pay for this eBook. Of course, many more methods are out there but I provided only the ones which I think are practical and can be studied by the average person who is looking for a way to immediately reduce their fuel costs. I am currently using two of the easier methods in my own vehicle which normally gets 18-22 mpg and now gets between 28 and 32 mpg depending on driving conditions. A tank of gas for my 1996 Ford Ranger costs about $45.00 here so I am saving around $15-$20 PER TANK, without hurting my engine and with 'greener' emissions due to a cleaner burn! The techniques provided in this ebook begin with simple things you can do NOW to improve your mileage and lower your gas costs. - $15 eBook Download / Source to Buy

04/29/08 - Astrology Proven Statistically Meaningless
Astrology is a technique by which people predict outcomes and find meaning within their lives by making associations and connections to environmental stimuli - most notably astrological positioning. People practice astrology by constructing detailed natal charts to determine the influencing factors at their birth. From these charts, it should be possible to divine predicted connections between all the events that transpire in a person's life. According to a study released by London based researchers, astrology is nothing more than artistic guessing. The study began in 1958 to track the lives of 2000 infants born within minutes of each other. If astrology has merit, the scientists postulated, the lives of each infant ought to bear resemblance to one another. Fifty years later, the research concludes the individual's lives are completely unique and not a single prediction could accurately have forecast any outcome. Adding insult to injury, additional testing showed that given a birth chart and the life history of subjects, professional astrologers could not match the two for any of their subjects with any sort of accuracy better than randomly guessing. Despite studies like these having been conducted before, belief in astrology has skyrocketed. - Source

04/29/08 - Bioheat Gaining Support in the Northeast United States
While conservation is an option for some, many people aren't willing to sacrifice comfort to save money. Bioheat systems may provide some relief. Bioheat systems come in many forms. They can be as simple as replacing traditional heating oil with a blend of biodiesel or bio-oil, or as complicated has having a pellet boiler installed that can take care or central heat and hot water. "In terms of bioheating, things are really expanding. There's more stoves and furnaces being sold and more schools are being powered with pellets and wood chips," Perchlik said. "We're definitely getting more requests from consumers. There's more fuel dealers carrying [bioheating products] and the state is requiring it for all new bids for projects that will be funded entirely with state money." Much of the growth in Vermont has been in pellet and other biomass markets. Currently, 30 Vermont schools are heated or powered with pellet and wood chip boilers. Renewable Energy Vermont is also looking into other feedstocks including soy beans, sunflowers, algae and hemp, but Perchlik says those sources are still in the very early stages of development. According to the National Biodiesel Board the current cost of bioheating fuels depends on the exact blend used. Fuel containing 2% biodiesel can cost around US $0.03 - $0.05 per gallon more than generic home heating oil. Bioheating fuel with 20% biodiesel may cost US $0.20 - $0.30 more per gallon. In the Northeast the cost today for one gallon of heating oil is approximately US $3.71. - Source

04/29/08 - Cross-eyes now Cured by Pictures (Feb, 1933)
Curing cross-eyes is play for youthful patients at a New York eye clinic, opened recently. A child places a pair of attractive picture slides in an instrument resembling an old-fashioned stereoscope and manipulates the device to make the pictures fuse together. Thus he tries to trap a lion in a cage or catch a butterfly in a net. Through corrective exercises of this sort, a cure is often effected without recourse to a surgical operation, which hitherto was nearly always considered necessary. / (Reminds me of Dr. Bates claims that proper eye exercises could cure eye problems. - JWD) - Source

04/29/08 - CrossLoop Tech Help - April 2008 - Week 4
There’s a new community of more than 7,000 helpers gathered on a web site called CrossLoop. Anyone who thinks they know their stuff can list Tech Support Kenny themselves. Some charge a dollar a minute and others offer help for free. You have to be willing to provide remote access to your computer to get this kind of Internet help. If you think there’s something wrong as you watch someone doing searches on your screen, you can disconnect at any time. YouTubeThe helpers on CrossLoop are rated by people who have used their expertise. You start out by downloading some software from CrossLoop.com. Then if you want help, click the “share” tab. That generates a number that you need to give to the helper. If you want to be a helper, you click an “access” tab and type in the code provided by the person seeking help. This feature can be extremely useful for people who do not want to become general helpers available to the whole world, but are simply willing to help a friend or relative with a computer problem. The site already has more than 600,000 users in over 190 countries and lots of people are using it. CrossLoop has advantages over other tech support services we have tried, such as YourTechOnline and PlumChoice. Those services are fine but they tend to focus on the most common kinds of problems, such as spyware, viruses, setting up networks, speeding up a slow computer, etc. CrossLoop has such a diversity of knowledgeable people that they can help with unusual problems, such as mechanical drafting or high-end photo editing. We think this is an optimum use of the power of the worldwide web: no matter what the problem, someone out there probably knows the answer. - Source

04/29/08 - India Launches 10 Satellites At Once
"India sets a world record after launching 10 satellites in one go using its workhorse, the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV). All the satellites were put into their respective orbits successfully. It was the core-alone version of the launch vehicle weighing 230 tonnes with a payload of 824 kg in total. Two of the satellites were Indian satellites while the rest were from different countries. By this launch, the ISRO has proven its credibility and it is going to boost India's image in the attractive multi-billion commercial market of satellite launches. This was the 12th successful launch of the PSLV." - Source

04/29/08 - Researchers Create “Green Gasoline” Ethanol Killer From Biomass
Researchers have made a breakthrough in the development of "green gasoline," a liquid identical to standard gasoline in energy contant yet created from sustainable biomass sources like switchgrass and poplar trees. The discovery could transform the renewable fuel economy by eliminating the need to grow corn for ethanol and rescue America from importing expensive and dwindling foreign oil supplies. For their new approach, the UMass researchers rapidly heated cellulose in the presence of solid catalysts, materials that speed up reactions without sacrificing themselves in the process. They then rapidly cooled the products to create a liquid that contains many of the compounds found in gasoline. The entire process was completed in under two minutes using relatively moderate amounts of heat. The compounds that formed in that single step, like naphthalene and toluene, make up one fourth of the suite of chemicals found in gasoline. The liquid can be further treated to form the remaining fuel components or can be used "as is" for a high octane gasoline blend. "Green gasoline is an attractive alternative to bioethanol since it can be used in existing engines and does not incur the 30 percent gas mileage penalty of ethanol-based flex fuel," said John Regalbuto, who directs the Catalysis and Biocatalysis Program at NSF and supported this research. "In theory it requires much less energy to make than ethanol, giving it a smaller carbon footprint and making it cheaper to produce," Regalbuto said. "Making it from cellulose sources such as switchgrass or poplar trees grown as energy crops, or forest or agricultural residues such as wood chips or corn stover, solves the lifecycle greenhouse gas problem that has recently surfaced with corn ethanol and soy biodiesel." - Source

04/29/08 - Peak Water: Aquifers and Rivers Are Running Dry
Water has been a serious issue in the developing world for so long that dire reports of shortages in Cairo or Karachi barely register. But the scarcity of freshwater is no longer a problem restricted to poor countries. Shortages are reaching crisis proportions in even the most highly developed regions, and they're quickly becoming commonplace in our own backyard, from the bleached-white bathtub ring around the Southwest's half-empty Lake Mead to the parched state of Georgia, where the governor prays for rain. Crops are collapsing, groundwater is disappearing, rivers are failing to reach the sea. Call it peak water, the point at which the renewable supply is forever outstripped by unquenchable demand. This is not to say the world is running out of water. The same amount exists on Earth today as millions of years ago — roughly 360 quintillion gallons. It evaporates, coalesces in clouds, falls as rain, seeps into the earth, and emerges in springs to feed rivers and lakes, an endless hydrologic cycle ordained by immutable laws of chemistry. But 97 percent of it is in the oceans, where it's useless unless the salt can be removed — a process that consumes enormous quantities of energy. Water fit for drinking, irrigation, husbandry, and other human uses can't always be found where people need it, and it's heavy and expensive to transport. Like oil, water is not equitably distributed or respectful of political boundaries; about 50 percent of the world's freshwater lies in a half-dozen lucky countries. - Source

04/29/08 - Tiny Magnets Injected to Kill Cancer
Patients could soon be treated by tiny magnets injected into the body and activated by remote control. The robotic particles will target diseased cells and destroy them using heat, leaving healthy cells unharmed. "If we can get these particles to migrate to cancer cells, we can apply the light therapy and kill only the cancer cells, leaving the healthy cells unharmed. This would be a big improvement on the aggressive chemotherapies and radiotherapies we currently have to deal with." - Source

04/29/08 - Smarter ladies have worse sex
BRAINY babes find it harder to have an orgasm – because they are too busy thinking, a study claims. The German survey found that the more educated a woman was, the less likely it was that she would be satisfied by sex. In the study 62 per cent of women who had completed their education said they often had problems achieving orgasm. Only 38 per cent of women with a lower educational qualification said they had such problems. The study conducted by a German lifestyle website surveyed over 2,000 women between the ages of 18 and 49. - Source

04/29/08 - Religion a Figment of Human Imagination
Humans alone practice religion because they're the only creatures to have evolved imagination. That's the argument of anthropologist Maurice Bloch of the London School of Economics. Bloch challenges the popular notion that religion evolved and spread because it promoted social bonding, as has been argued by some anthropologists. Instead, he argues that first, we had to evolve the necessary brain architecture to imagine things and beings that don't physically exist, and the possibility that people somehow live on after they've died. Once we'd done that, we had access to a form of social interaction unavailable to any other creatures on the planet. - Source

04/26/08 - Halfmachine.dk and their "singing plant"
"The Singing Plant is an installation that lets the audience interact with a natural plant. "When the plant is touched it gives feedback in the forms of sounds and light. The more people touch it, the more enegetically it responds. The sound gains volume and the light in the room grows from dim to bright. "People's reactions become part of the installation. We have seen people pity the plant. We have seen people caress it. And we have seen people dance enthusiastically around it. "The purpose is not to provide answers, but to question established preceptions of the relationship between man, machine and nature. "The exhibition went well in the Botanical Garden about 11,000 people came by and saw our installations. We made a video you can see it here..." / (This is an application based on the decades long research efforts of Cleve Backster into 'primary perception'. - JWD) - Source

DVD - the Physics of Crystals, Pyramids and Tetrahedrons
This is a wonderful 2 hour DVD which presents one man's lifelong study of pyramids, crystals and their effects. Several of his original and very creative experiments are explained and diagramed out for experimenters. These experiments include; 1) transmutation of zinc to lower elements using a tetrahedron, 2) energy extraction from a pyramid, 3) determining mathematic ratios of nature in a simple experiment, 4) accelerating the growth of food, 5) increasing the abundance of food, 6) how crystals amplify, focus and defocus energy, 7) using crystals to assist natural healing, 8) how the universe uses spirals and vortexes to produce free energy and MORE... - $20 DVD + S&H / Source to Buy and Youtube Clip

04/26/08 - The Technics of Decentralization
Believe it or not, the following article by Peter van Dresser was originally published-exactly as you see it here-in the June 1938 issue of Free America. Not a word has been changed. The piece stands as dramatic proof that-37 years ago-Mr. van Dresser was accurately predicting today's energy crunch, and outlining possible solutions that most people still haven't considered. / ...since the invention of the steam engine the amount of mechanical power available to man has increased at an unprecedented rate, until the present estimated horsepower of civilization is at least a billion and a half. The United States has such a liberal share of this flow of engine-generated horsepower that for each man, woman or child in the country there is available energy equivalent to the combined strength of fifty slaves or more. It is this enormous increase in power which is held, more than any other single factor, to have made possible modern civilization with its equally enormous increase in productivity. To a considerable extent this is true. Any economic program—such as that of the distributist-decentralist—which calls for an adaptation of the methods of modem technology must take into account the problem of the source, generation, distribution and use of the inanimate power which makes possible this technology. - Source

04/26/08 - Russian scientist create 10-hour laptop battery
‘We begin to develop and organize production of an autonomous source of current for laptops. The given battery should operate for ten hours under 20W load. That is a real scientific and market breakthrough based on domestic developments’, - said Mr. Trusov at the Second International Hydrogen Forum that opened in Moscow the other day. The new battery has been developed on the basis of the so called fuel cells, which differ from ordinary batteries by substances for electrochemical reactions to come from outside. Such a battery life is unlimited (it works till it is provided with a substance for reaction, i.e. methanol, or hydrogen) and it needs no reloading like accumulators. One of the most important constituents of fuel cells is a porous membrane with a catalyst, which participates in the fuel decomposition reaction and electric current production. The narrower the membrane pores, the larger the contacting area with the catalyst, the smaller the element might be. The New block membrane has been developed by the Russian scientists using the so called gradient porous matrix nanostructures. Mr. Trusov believes the battery for a modern laptop should weigh no more than 100-150 grams. A thin multi-layer nanostructure used in the Russian scientists’ invention resolves the issue of high energy concentration density per unit volume. The specific power is 180 MW per square centimeter. Moreover, developers have done their utmost to make the battery harmless for users. - Source

04/26/08 - Power Generation and its Impact on Metals
The New York Times today, April 23, 2008, has a story about the massive increase in the number of coal fired power plants now under construction, or to soon be under construction, in Europe. The story says, “European countries are expected to put into operation about fifty coal-fired plants over the next five years…” The story is deceptively titled “Europe Turns Back to Coal, Raising Climate Fears.” I say that the title is deceptive, because it shamelessly says, “In the United States, fewer new coal plants are likely [in the next five years] to begin operations…” and then goes on to define “fewer” as less than 91! The world’s current installed capacity to generate electricity makes possible not only electric lights, motors, refrigerators, stoves, electronics, and so forth but is the only way we can economically produce, each year, hundreds of millions of tons of steel, 50 million tonnes of aluminium, 15 million tonnes copper, 250 tonnes of gallium, 225 tonnes of platinum, 125 tonnes of rhenium, 30 tonnes of rhodium, all of the ferroalloys and most of the minor metals. Think what you are giving up in your daily life if you agree that no more electricity generating capacity should be built until some political or emotional agenda or fantasy technology breakthrough is achieved. - Source

04/26/08 - Israeli invention could pave way for hydrogen cars
Moshe Stern, head of C.En (Clean Energy), said his company's scientists have developed a revolutionary breakthrough that will enable automobile manufacturers to produce -- and sell -- cars that use hydrogen power. While producing the hydrogen is easy enough, getting the fuel into the car and storing it in a fuel tank are some of the biggest obstacles for the technology. This, industry experts say, has traditionally been the deal-breaker for increased hydrogen use. Most hydrogen vehicles on the road use a liquid form of the material, which requires a super strong and super heavy storage tank. Liquid hydrogen is unstable and needs to be insulated from the excess shocks of bumps and potholes that are a part of e