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Archive Index

1 - 02/28/11 - Aviso Tech High Voltage Repelling Force
2 - 02/26/11 - The material Universe is solely made out of Waves in Aether
3 - 02/26/11 - Chemists create current-bearing plastic
4 - 02/26/11 - Darpa’s Cheetah-Bot Designed to Chase Human Prey
5 - 02/26/11 - Watchdog says electric cars 'are as dirty as diesel'
6 - 02/26/11 - 2045: The Year Man Becomes Immortal
7 - 02/26/11 - mobile phone app that 'spots cancer with 100% accuracy in ONE HOUR'
8 - 02/26/11 - Camouflage to Disrupt Facial Recognition Programs
9 - 02/26/11 - Upgrading the Electric Grid With Flywheels and Air
10 - 02/26/11 - Gauss Weapons
11 - 02/26/11 - Mice For Airport Security?
12 - 02/26/11 - Invasion Base on the Moon (Apr, 1948)
13 - 02/26/11 - New Police Siren: You’ll Feel It Coming
14 - 02/26/11 - Eco-Dome provides more heat from the same energy
15 - 02/26/11 - Study Calls Craigslist 'a Cesspool of Crime'
16 - 02/26/11 - Tiny Transistors Could Be Used To Track Cash
17 - 02/26/11 - Activists Seek Repeal of Ban On Incandescent Bulbs
18 - 02/26/11 - HarperCollins Wants Library EBooks to Self-Destruct After 26 Loans
19 - 02/26/11 - Smart Phone Gets Driver Out of a Speeding Ticket
20 - 02/25/11 - Some clarifications & Amazing news from Ismael Aviso
21 - 02/24/11 - Aviso E car tested by DOST & DOE feb 24 2011
22 - 02/23/11 - Can Zero Point Energy Gain Credibility?
23 - 02/23/11 - Rossi Cold Fusion test produced 15KW of heat for 18 hours
24 - 02/23/11 - Radiator Booster invention stretches heating budgets
25 - 02/23/11 - Low cost solar by growing Silicon sheets instead of slicing
26 - 02/23/11 - What Makes the Rocks Move in Death Valley When No One is Looking?
27 - 02/23/11 - Eyelid shutter glasses: fake but still a hack
28 - 02/23/11 - How to Leave Your Body
29 - 02/23/11 - Six-Legged Meat of the Future
30 - 02/23/11 - the Virtual Living Room
31 - 02/23/11 - Amazon Movie Streaming
32 - 02/23/11 - Girandoni amazing 40 shot Air Rifle as used by Lewis and Clark
33 - 02/23/11 - Company Creates Biodiesel Converter from water boiler
34 - 02/23/11 - Parker and ParkNow apps make finding parking, paying for it easier
35 - 02/23/11 - Did the auto industry cripple Detroit?
36 - 02/23/11 - What happens when you stick your head in a particle accelerator
37 - 02/23/11 - Wristbands change color to warn of PMS
38 - 02/23/11 - $7 UV Window Alert for Birds
39 - 02/23/11 - Conn. man’s invention to provide clean drinking water in Peru
40 - 02/23/11 - Cubans say lots of sex and tobacco is why they live longer
41 - 02/23/11 - Brazil to produce generic version of medication for AIDS and Hepatitis
42 - 02/23/11 - Chinese man sits at Internet cafe playing for 3 days non-stop and dies
43 - 02/23/11 - Feds Pay Millions For Bogus Spy Software
44 - 02/23/11 - Iceland Eyes Liquid Magma As Energy Source
45 - 02/23/11 - Would the Developing World Use E-Readers More Than Laptops?
46 - 02/23/11 - The Death of BCC
47 - 02/23/11 - Huge Amounts of Oil Found On Gulf of Mexico Floor
48 - 02/23/11 - Financial Malware Hijacks Online Banking Sessions
49 - 02/23/11 - Earth's Inner Core Rotation Slower Than Estimated
50 - 02/23/11 - George Carlin - Airport Security and they paranoia of 'Terrorists'
51 - 02/23/11 - Nautilus-X: the Space Station With Rockets
52 - 02/23/11 - the Currents of Life
53 - 02/20/11 - Compact Fluorescent Invention Recycles The Ballast
54 - 02/20/11 - Unhappening, Negentropy and Negative Energy
55 - 02/20/11 - Cutting $100 Billion?... Easy - If Only Washington Had a Brain
56 - 02/20/11 - Killing Disease by Phase Cancellation
57 - 02/20/11 - The BETAR Sound Relaxation System using Phase Conjugation
58 - 02/20/11 - Understanding the importance of Phase Conjugation
59 - 02/20/11 - Why has Tom Bearden given up on Phase Conjagation?
60 - 02/20/11 - Hydrogen-Powered EkranoYacht Will Perform 250 MPH Travels
61 - 02/20/11 - eFuel - Is Human Waste the New Coal?
62 - 02/20/11 - $30 Million Race to the Moon Announced by Google Lunar X Prize
63 - 02/20/11 - Brain Pacemaker Zaps Away Obsessive Compulsive Disorder
64 - 02/20/11 - Simple household status system
65 - 02/20/11 - Creationist finally Gets It Right
66 - 02/20/11 - Study shows churchgoers live seven years longer than atheists
67 - 02/20/11 - Micro-Beads allow Hydrogen to run in all Cars, Unmodified
68 - 02/20/11 - A World Wide Web that Talks
69 - 02/20/11 - The Machine Breakers We Have Always With Us
70 - 02/20/11 - $10,000-Gizmo Lets You Turn Plastic Bags Back Into Petroleum
71 - 02/20/11 - Green Cars Are Not New – Let’s Look Back 90 Years
72 - 02/20/11 - Innovative, flexible new solar charger provides energy on the go
73 - 02/20/11 - Fingertip heart rate monitor
74 - 02/20/11 - The Dumbest Thing Ever Said!...by Hillary Clinton, about Drug War
75 - 02/20/11 - Latest Pentagon Brainstorm: Nuke-Powered War Bases
76 - 02/20/11 - New theory behind climate change
77 - 02/20/11 - Ten reasons why it is so difficult to find job in America today
78 - 02/20/11 - Sysbrain Lets Satellites Think For Themselves
79 - 02/20/11 - Scientists Invent World's First Anti-Laser
80 - 02/20/11 - Ants Build Cheapest Networks
81 - 02/20/11 - Parakeets inside cage equipped with Gill-like Membrane
82 - 02/20/11 - Why Multiculturalism Can't Work (in the US)
83 - 02/20/11 - Researchers Say 100% Renewable Energy Possible By 2050
84 - 02/20/11 - Magicians 'trained' fish creates uproar
85 - 02/20/11 - Kids Who Skip School Get Tracked By GPS
86 - 02/20/11 - A Car You Can Drive With Your Thoughts
87 - 02/20/11 - Driver Sued For Updating Facebook In Fatal Crash
88 - 02/20/11 - Hummingbird-Size Wing-Flapping Drone Unveiled
89 - 02/20/11 - Vibroacoustic disease: bio-effects of infrasound and infranoise
90 - 02/20/11 - US Navy Breaks Laser Record
91 - 02/20/11 - Scientists Aim To 'Print' Human Skin
92 - 02/17/11 - Speaking In Defense Of Science
93 - 02/17/11 - Rooftop Pipe-Dream
94 - 02/17/11 - Bone treatment may extend life by 5 years
95 - 02/17/11 - Gadget makes bombs, mines go off 'on average' 20m away
96 - 02/17/11 - easyJet use revolutionary aerodynamic paint to cut fuel bills
97 - 02/17/11 - Zapping Microbes Could Cut Chemical Use in Wastewater by 50%
98 - 02/17/11 - Bees That Work For the Police
99 - 02/17/11 - Jesus Should Be More Manly
100 - 02/17/11 - Crops fertilised according to needs
101 - 02/17/11 - 'Toba heat technology to battle pests in high demand
102 - 02/17/11 - Actor Baldwin Sues Costner Over Oil Invention
103 - 02/17/11 - When the wells run dry
104 - 02/17/11 - Super-Efficient Cells Key to Low-Cost Solar Power
105 - 02/17/11 - Light Bulbs Advertised as 'Green' Contain Arsenic and Lead
106 - 02/17/11 - Time for America to Run With an Idea Popular in 1905 -- The Electric Car
107 - 02/17/11 - Swimming microbots master U-turns
108 - 02/17/11 - Sun unleashes huge solar flare towards Earth
109 - 02/17/11 - Infertility Could Impede Human Space Colonization
110 - 02/17/11 - Have Scientists discovered the Root Cause for Aging?
111 - 02/17/11 - Two-way Radio Breakthrough To Double Wi-Fi Speeds
112 - 02/17/11 - The Seven Types of Hackers
113 - 02/17/11 - US Gov't Mistakenly Shuts Down 84,000 Sites
114 - 02/14/11 - Pinoy free energy invention causes sensation on YouTube
115 - 02/14/11 - Pinoy free energy invention causes sensation on YouTube
116 - 02/14/11 - How to change the world
117 - 02/14/11 - Thermic lance made from spaghetti
118 - 02/14/11 - Laser stops spreading cancer cells in their tracks
119 - 02/14/11 - Vacuum has friction after all
120 - 02/14/11 - 'Air laser' tech could sniff bombs, probe atmos from afar
121 - 02/14/11 - The Cars of Tomorrow
122 - 02/14/11 - US gov says it can't build an interstellar starship
123 - 02/14/11 - Saudi Arabia cannot pump enough oil to keep a lid on prices
124 - 02/14/11 - How Small Towns Have Found the Trick to Defeating Corporations
125 - 02/14/11 - Glass Melts When it Gets Ultracold
126 - 02/14/11 - Sticky Tape Could Soon be Used to Diagnose Skin Cancer
127 - 02/14/11 - People Don’t Explode in Space
128 - 02/14/11 - 'Eco' LED lights could cause cancer
129 - 02/14/11 - All-American Streetcar Boom Fuels Urban Future
130 - 02/14/11 - Chernobyl birds have smaller brains
131 - 02/14/11 - Uncrippling lower model speakers
132 - 02/14/11 - Radiation sterilizes space born Baby Girls
133 - 02/14/11 - Human Wings Are Predicted (Dec, 1929)
134 - 02/14/11 - Mubarak used last 18 days in power to secure his fortune
135 - 02/14/11 - Unwashed socks could be antidote to mosquito bites
136 - 02/14/11 - Thinking Cap improves creativity by about 300%.
137 - 02/14/11 - Science Programs Hit Hard By Proposed Budget
138 - 02/14/11 - Subtle Cyber Attacks Could Tilt Global Economies
139 - 02/14/11 - DailyMotion Now Streaming Live News
140 - 02/11/11 - Self-powering Hot Water Heater
141 - 02/11/11 - House Fails To Extend Patriot Act Spy Powers
142 - 02/11/11 - Float: ultralight rubber-band-powered duration model planes
143 - 02/11/11 - Helping America Win the Clean Energy Race
144 - 02/11/11 - Water Turbine Designed after the Basking Shark
145 - 02/11/11 - UFO over Temple Mount in Jerusalem is a Hoax!
146 - 02/11/11 - Nissan Esflow hybrid has 149 mile range
147 - 02/11/11 - Hillary On Drugs
148 - 02/11/11 - American dream being demolished
149 - 02/11/11 - Facts about Solar Energy
150 - 02/11/11 - ARPA-E projects attract big money
151 - 02/11/11 - 98 Incredible Photos of Levitation
152 - 02/11/11 - Solar thermal power plants
153 - 02/11/11 - Cut Spending or Invest in Energy Innovation: A Timely Debate
154 - 02/11/11 - Muslim Inventor Provides Off-the-Grid Electricity
155 - 02/11/11 - Putting Poppies in the Gas Tank
156 - 02/11/11 - The search for habitable exomoons
157 - 02/11/11 - Archeo-Acoustics of Peru's Temples
158 - 02/11/11 - Drivers Blamed For Out of Control Toyotas - Again
159 - 02/11/11 - Spinach Could Be Used For Hydrogen Fuel
160 - 02/11/11 - Feds Settle Case of Woman Fired Over Facebook Posts
161 - 02/11/11 - JAXA To Use Fishing Nets To Scoop Up Space Junk
162 - 02/11/11 - This Robotic Dragonfly Flew 40 Years Ago
163 - 02/11/11 - Charity Raising Money To Buy Used Satellite
164 - 02/11/11 - Gov App Detects Potholes As Your Drive Over Them
165 - 02/11/11 - NASA Invents New Technique For Finding Alien Life
166 - 02/11/11 - DARPA Wants To Know How Stories Influence People
167 - 02/11/11 - Can World Governments Veto Your Domain Name?
168 - 02/11/11 - Leaked Cables Reveal US Thinks Saudi Oil Reserves May Be Overstated
169 - 02/11/11 - Court Says California Stores Can't Ask Customers For ZIP Codes
170 - 02/08/11 - Engineering Is Not Science
171 - 02/08/11 - Dr. Robert C. Beck on Electronically curing Cancer, AIDS, anything viral
172 - 02/08/11 - UK Documentary on Energy Inefficiency and Waste
173 - 02/08/11 - Predicting Solar Flares
174 - 02/08/11 - Can Hurricanes Trigger Earthquakes?
175 - 02/08/11 - Dan Haley on Nuclear Waste Remediation w/Browns Gas
176 - 02/08/11 - Multiple Asteroid Strikes May Have Killed Mars’s Magnetic Field
177 - 02/08/11 - Astronauts Inc.: The Private Sector Muscles Out NASA
178 - 02/08/11 - Laser delivers power through the Air
179 - 02/08/11 - Electronics on Anything
180 - 02/08/11 - Delivery Fleets Love Electric Trucks
181 - 02/08/11 - Ancient body clock discovered keeps all living things on time
182 - 02/08/11 - A Detector for Explosives and Drugs Developed
183 - 02/08/11 - Clay bubbles may have nurtured self-organizing precursors to life
184 - 02/08/11 - Smile Trainer
185 - 02/08/11 - Wood-burning stoves exhaust fumes can cause heart disease
186 - 02/08/11 - Startup Boasts Better Lithium Batteries
187 - 02/08/11 - The Key to Better Solar Cells: Bumpy Mirrors
188 - 02/08/11 - Never Use A cell phone While plugged In
189 - 02/08/11 - Submitting Ideas to Procter & Gamble
190 - 02/08/11 - Cicadas' wings inspire cheaper nanosensors
191 - 02/08/11 - A great invention would find missing items
192 - 02/08/11 - Wheelchair for developing world: cheap, rugged, easy to maintain
193 - 02/08/11 - 21 of the craziest inventions of all time
194 - 02/08/11 - Nurse’s invention will help asthma sufferers
195 - 02/08/11 - Intellectual Property - Japan
196 - 02/08/11 - the Streisand Effect
197 - 02/08/11 - Research Finds That Electric Fields Help Neurons Fire
198 - 02/08/11 - Tethered, Water-Powered Jetpack Provides Two Hours of Flight Time
199 - 02/08/11 - USB Autorun Attacks Against Linux
200 - 02/08/11 - Private Space Shuttle Flights
201 - 02/08/11 - An Open Letter To PC Makers: Ditch Bloatware, Now!
202 - 02/08/11 - US To Fire Up Big Offshore Wind Energy Projects
203 - 02/08/11 - Possibly an End to Seasonal Flu?
204 - 02/05/11 - What have we learned in 2,064 years
205 - 02/05/11 - The skin gun
206 - 02/05/11 - Magnetic Brain Stimulation Makes Learning Easier
207 - 02/05/11 - Space Stasis
208 - 02/05/11 - Pub Patrons Down Under Subject To Biometric Datamining
209 - 02/05/11 - Solar cell could beat theoretical efficiency maximum
210 - 02/05/11 - Underwater compressed-air energy storage: Could it work?
211 - 02/05/11 - An Engine that Harnesses Sound Waves
212 - 02/05/11 - Floodbag invention to protect your stuff
213 - 02/05/11 - Understanding the chaos phenomenon
214 - 02/05/11 - Cyclus: A Spring-Powered Phone Charger
215 - 02/05/11 - Cy-Fair patents invention that could improve body armor, solar cells
216 - 02/05/11 - Using the Force. Messing with kids' heads can be fun!
217 - 02/05/11 - Now its 'global weirding', unpredictable weather worldwide
218 - 02/05/11 - How much would you weigh on other planets?
219 - 02/05/11 - obama’s Blocking Of New Power Plants Triggers Nationwide Blackouts
220 - 02/05/11 - obama's Energy Agenda Under Assault in Congress
221 - 02/05/11 - Night landing at LAX sped up to Mach 1.5
222 - 02/05/11 - Low paid Scientists in Egypt
223 - 02/05/11 - What atheists are really concerned about
224 - 02/05/11 - Religious fanatics kill themselves refusing from medical help
225 - 02/05/11 - Statistician Cracks Code For Lottery Tickets
226 - 02/05/11 - Researchers Lift Fingerprints From Clothing
227 - 02/05/11 - Bombay High Court Rules Astrology To Be a Science
228 - 02/05/11 - 'Death By GPS' Increasing In America's Wilderness
229 - 02/05/11 - License Police go after Computer Scientist For Too Good a Complaint
230 - 02/05/11 - US Team Seeks To Top Steam-Car Speed Record
231 - 02/05/11 - Karma
232 - 02/05/11 - JASON Proposes a 'Library of Congress' For Pathogens
233 - 02/05/11 - Prison Cell Phone Smuggling Out of Control
234 - 02/05/11 - Senator Wyden Asks DHS To Explain Domain Seizures
235 - 02/05/11 - Some thoughts...
236 - 02/05/11 - Verizon To Throttle High-Bandwidth Users
237 - 02/05/11 - Japan's Elderly Nix Robot Helpers
238 - 02/05/11 - Giant Archaeological Trove Found Via Google Earth
239 - 02/02/11 - Saving the World Two Strokes at a Time
240 - 02/02/11 - Hydrogen based 'artificial gasoline'
241 - 02/02/11 - Primary objection to relativistic interpretation of Casimir effect
242 - 02/02/11 - Coconut Oil Shown to Reverse the Effects of Alzheimer’s
243 - 02/02/11 - Cork Paradox
244 - 02/02/11 - Check out this R5800 Solar Death Ray, built by 19-year-old Eric Jacqmain
245 - 02/02/11 - Portable solar charger on the cheap ($20) thanks to UM students
246 - 02/02/11 - WIPO assigns patent for Formaldehyde Solar Generator
247 - 02/02/11 - Explosively awesome Chinese popcorn popper
248 - 02/02/11 - Microbubbles method benefits biofuel production
249 - 02/02/11 - The Solution
250 - 02/02/11 - Solar powered smart road of the future
251 - 02/02/11 - Scientists Detect Cancer with Light
252 - 02/02/11 - Companies invest $300 Million looking to new energy
253 - 02/02/11 - ATM skimmer that doesn't require any modifications to the ATM
254 - 02/02/11 - Besler Steam Powered Airplane
255 - 02/02/11 - Claim invention Produces MWs converting Potential Energy
256 - 02/02/11 - Escher/escalator mashup
257 - 02/02/11 - Has China Already Flown a Space Plane?
258 - 02/02/11 - US Gov schemes To Boost TSA Budget and Implement Body Scanners
259 - 02/02/11 - Wind farms 'produce no energy' when cold and no air moving
260 - 02/02/11 - Israeli Emergency Bandage
261 - 02/02/11 - Birds use quantum theory to 'see' Earth's magnetic field as they fly
262 - 02/02/11 - If you MUST worship something, worship your god, not a book
263 - 02/02/11 - Spoon.net - run/test desktop apps without installing
264 - 02/02/11 - How Germans change a VW fan belt
265 - 02/02/11 - Luc Montagnier, Nobel Prize Winner, Takes Homeopathy Seriously
266 - 02/02/11 - Subtle energy, magnetism, electricity, Grebennikov, Mexistim y mas
267 - 02/02/11 - Sensor Measures In Fingertips If Driver Is Drunk
268 - 02/02/11 - SnowWorld VR Game Reduces Pain For Burn Patients
269 - 02/02/11 - Molybdenite As an Alternative To Silicon
270 - 02/02/11 - China Starts Molten Salt Nuclear Reactor Project
271 - 02/02/11 - Scientists Work To Grow Meat In a Lab
272 - 02/02/11 - Structured Holy Water Photos
273 - 02/02/11 - US Authorities GPS Tagging Duped Indian Students
274 - 02/02/11 - What’s the Internet? (on 1994's Today Show)
275 - 02/02/11 - Blogger Sued By Restaurant For Bad Review
276 - 02/01/11 - How you can help Support Keelynet

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ITEM #1 02/28/11 - Aviso Tech High Voltage Repelling Force A page I created for Ismael Avisos new high voltage repelling technique which is being used to run an electric car and he says he is working on a home power generator. Not such a big deal except that these are supposed to be self-recharging or at the very least super efficient. Independent testing has shown 125-130% efficient operation which is clearly overunity. The page has many video links and correlations to the original EV Gray high voltage engine as well as the infamous Tilley fraud where he also cl aimed a self-recharging car (and other vehicles) as well as a self-running home power system, all of which he showed to us when he invited our group to his lab. Of course, he never revealed what was in his mystery power box but it finally came out when he lost a $26 million lawsuit and faded back into the woodwork. The thing that makes Ismael so interesting is he welcomes outside, independent testing to verify his findings. He is also seeking donations and funding if you or anyone you know might want to accelerate his research efforts to help bring this techno logy to market. Feel free to email him directly. - Full Article Source ITEM #2 02/26/11 - The material Universe is solely made out of Waves in Aether Matter is made of waves. Nothing else exists but the aether. Yes, I realize that this may sound quite weird. However I know a lot about optics, waves and physics and this is why I strongly affirm the wave nature of matter. For example, one should answer t his simple question: how does a photon work, from a mechanical point of view? Surely, nobody ever proposed an acceptable explanation. The point is that, as long as this question remains unanswered, nobody is entitled to believe that photons really exist. Up to now, it was just a convenient word hiding one's ignorance. Additionally, there is absolutely no evidence of photons inside radio waves. There is no evidence of electric and magnetic fields inside them either because they may simply induce such field s inside matter as well without any need for carrying them all the way. Finally, the true nature of light, radio waves, electric and magnetic fields, gravity, energy, fields of force, electrons and matter itself is still totally unknown. Despite our immen se knowledge, we are still standing in front of the Unknown. The goal is to find the truth. So our first step should be to propose hypotheses and examine them. Actually, this web site does explain all from a mechanical point of view. Nobody else ever prop osed so many acceptable hypotheses. There are many revolutionary assumptions throughout these pages. If you are unable to propose some of your own, do not reject my ideas simply because they sound ridiculous. You should examine them first. And if you disa gree with them, you need an acceptable reason. Ray Tomes - Matter is made of spherical standing waves. A standing wave is a wave that may be thought of as two waves traveling in opposite directions. For a particle, this means an incoming wave converging on the centre and an outgoing wave coming out of the centre, which is just the incoming wave after it travels through the centre. Seeing matter as real waves rather than just probabilities is consistent with the thinking of Schroedinger and de Broglie who established the important formula for the behaviour of particle waves. My own studies are consistent with Milo Wolff, Yuri Ivanov and Gabriel La Freniere and lead to the formulae of relativity and quantum mechanics in a realistic way wit hout any hocus pocus. Geof Hazelhurst and Karen Howie have developed a substantial web site on this. See cyclesresearchinstitute.org where the idea is explained a little more and where you will find links to all the people and animations mentioned in this video and much more. - Full Article Source Gabriel LaFreniere - Interferences Ray Tomes - Wave Structure of Matter Yuri Ivanov - important part is 0-1:27, rest is junk Dr Wolff Philosophy Physics Video: Wave Structure of Matter ITEM #3 02/26/11 - Chemists create current-bearing plastic Chemists have found a new way of producing plastic that conducts electricity, potentially paving the way to cheaper, more robust and er, more plasticky computers. Polymer electronics isn't new, and the printed electronics business is reckoned to be worth around $2bn, although not all the printing goes onto polymers. But with all the attention lavished upon nanotubes, the more mundane research breakthroughs can be overlooked. A team led by Professors Paul Meredith and Ben Powell at the University of Queens land, Associate Professor Adam Micolich of the University of New South Wales School of Physics and UNSW doctoral student Andrew Stephenson used an ion beam to "tune" the plastic film. "In theory, we can make plastics that conduct no electricity at all or as well as metals do – and everything in between," says Stephenson. - Full Article Source ITEM #4 02/26/11 - Darpa’s Cheetah-Bot Designed to Chase Human Prey Cheetah is designed to be a four-legged robot with a flexible spine and articulated head (and potentially a tail) that runs faster than the fastest human. In addition to raw speed, Cheetah’s makers promise that it will have the agility to make tight turns so that it can “zigzag to chase and evade” and be able to stop on a dime. Cheetah builds off work on the company’s previous four legged animal bot, BigDog. It was built as a kind of unmanned pack mule, designed to carry equipment for troops on the battl efield. The robotic donkey could carry 300 lbs. over 13 miles on flat ground, take a swift kick and keep on moving. It’s creepy, lifelike movement can be seen on a number of videos online, climbing over hills and snow and hiking alongside soldiers, using GPS coordinates as its waypoints. Aside from its unspecified military applications, Cheetah’s makers see it galloping to the rescue and building a brave new future in the fields of “emergency response, firefighting, advanced agriculture and vehicular trav el.” Think that’s creepy? Wait till you see its humanoid, Terminator look-alike buddy. Meet Atlas, Cheetah’s humanoid pal. Atlas is supposed to look more or less like the T-800 series of Terminators, minus the head. Its designers say it’ll be able to walk like a human over rough terrain, crawling on its hands and knees when necessary and turning itself sideways to slip through any narrow passages it encounters. Headless, with a torso and two arms, it’s a step up from Boston Dynamics’ other biped, the lowe r-body-bot Petman. Petman was built to test out chemical weapons protective suits for the Army by “walking, crawling and doing a variety of suit-stressing calisthenics” and “simulat[ing] human physiology.” Designers made it capable of walking heel-to-toe at 3.2 miles per hour and staying upright even after it gets pushed. As the new models go into development, let’s hope Cheetah never develops a taste for human flesh and that Atlas doesn’t have any hard feelings about its predecessor being a poison-gas gu inea pig for the Army. (Thanks to Ken for the link. - JWD) - Full Article Source ITEM #5 02/26/11 - Watchdog says electric cars 'are as dirty as diesel' Electric cars may portray themselves as 'zero emissions' but the overall pollution they generate can be almost as great as a frugal conventional diesel car, consumer watchdogs said today. The main difference is that while a conventional car's emissions come out of the vehicle's exhaust pipe, those created by an electric car are generated at the power station which supplies the electricity. The Which? report noted: 'The common manufacturer claim that electric cars produce ‘zero emissions’ ignores the fa ct that most drivers use a conventional electricity supply to charge them, which has a carbon cost from burning fossil fuels.' electric cars are much 'greener' than diesel cars when it comes to localised emissions, as they don’t emit toxic chemicals that degrade air quality. This is especially significant in cities, where the uptake of electric cars is predicted to be highest, says Which? The consumer report concludes:'While we don't agree with the car makers' 'zero emissions' claims, we can't knock their efforts to create greener cars.' Richard Headland, editor, Which? Car, said: 'We applaud car makers’ efforts to create greener cars – but we don’t agree with their ‘zero emissions’ claims. Until more electricity is produced from renewable sources in the UK, the carbon footprint of driving an electric car may not be as small as owners think.' The report adds that electric cars are still costly - often more than double the price - despite a £5,000 taxpayer subsidy:'Electric cars offer drivers a lower-carbo n output and cheaper fuelling costs, but are expensive compared with their traditional counterparts and not as versatile.' - Full Article Source ITEM #6 02/26/11 - 2045: The Year Man Becomes Immortal Take the question of whether computers can replicate the biochemical complexity of an organic brain. Kurzweil yields no ground there whatsoever. He does not see any fundamental difference between flesh and silicon that would prevent the latter from thinki ng. He defies biologists to come up with a neurological mechanism that could not be modeled or at least matched in power and flexibility by software running on a computer. He refuses to fall on his knees before the mystery of the human brain. "Generally s peaking," he says, "the core of a disagreement I'll have with a critic is, they'll say, Oh, Kurzweil is underestimating the complexity of reverse-engineering of the human brain or the complexity of biology. But I don't believe I'm underestimating the chal lenge. I think they're underestimating the power of exponential growth." In Kurzweil's future, biotechnology and nanotechnology give us the power to manipulate our bodies and the world around us at will, at the molecular level. Progress hyperaccelerates, and every hour brings a century's worth of scientific breakthroughs. We ditch Darwin and take charge of our own evolution. The human genome becomes just so much code to be bug-tested and optimized and, if necessary, rewritten. Indefinite life extension be comes a reality; people die only if they choose to. Death loses its sting once and for all. Kurzweil hopes to bring his dead father back to life. We can scan our consciousnesses into computers and enter a virtual existence or swap our bodies for immortal robots and light out for the edges of space as intergalactic godlings. Within a matter of centuries, human intelligence will have re-engineered and saturated all the matter in the universe. This is, Kurzweil believes, our destiny as a species. - Full Article Source ITEM #7 02/26/11 - mobile phone app that 'spots cancer with 100% accuracy in ONE HOUR' The U.S. researchers said the gadget could ‘transform cancer care’ by also making it easier for doctors to track how well drugs are fighting the disease in a patient’s body. In initial tests, it was 88 per cent accurate in distinguishing cancerous stomach tumours from benign growths. Refining the technique boosted accuracy to 100 per cent, the journal Science Translational Medicine reports. This compares with an average accurate of 84 per cent for the gold standard technique which involves using chemicals that stain cancerous cells and show up under a microscope. The tiny amount of tissue needed - one thousandth of a millilitre - would also spare patients the pain and risk of having repeatedly having pieces of their growth cut away for testing. And with t he most expensive piece of equipment costing just £60 or so, the system would be cheap to run. The device, developed at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, consists of a smartphone connected to a miniature MRI machine. In tests, patients with suspec ted stomach cancer had tiny samples of their growths removed using a fine needle. The researchers then added in antibodies designed to bind to proteins found in stomach tumours and tiny magnetic particles designed to latch onto the antibodies. They then u sed the magnet in the hand-held MRI machine to excite the molecules in the sample, making them vibrate. The more the molecules vibrate, the more likely the sample is cancerous. - Full Article Source ITEM #8 02/26/11 - Camouflage to Disrupt Facial Recognition Programs During the First World War, Allied nations painted their vessels with odd, angular shapes to break up their lines and make them harder to see at a distance. CV Dazzle is a thesis project by Adam Harvey of New York University that attempts to do the same t hing with hair and makeup in order to disrupt facial recognition computer programs… - Full Article Source ITEM #9 02/26/11 - Upgrading the Electric Grid With Flywheels and Air The modern electric grid is getting some help from some admittedly old-fashioned technology. Flywheels and compressed air don't sound as sexy as wind turbines and solar cells, but the latter probably won't go mainstream without the former. "The growth of renewables has posed a problem," said Imre Gyuk, program manager for energy storage research at the United States Department of Energy (DOE). "It used to be that the load [demand on the electric grid] was unpredictable, and generation would try to follow it." As wind and solar installations proliferate, supply also has become unpredictable. Beacon's flywheel facility can dispense power for up to 15 minutes, but if a power plant wants to store energy for a longer period of time, it can do so by pumping wat er uphill. When the energy is needed later, the water flows back downhill, powering turbines that generate energy. This so-called "pumped-storage hydroelectricity" is one of the most common forms of electricity storage now being used on the grid. But the DOE is looking into cheaper systems that rely on compressed air instead of water. A compressed air energy storage (CAES) facility would use cheap, off-peak electricity to pump air into an underground cave or aquifer for storage when demand is low. The sys tem then would mete out the air later when demand goes up, likely using a gas turbine to heat the air as it exits the cavern. The electricity that pumped the air in the first place would have been generated by wind, so "you're using off-peak wind, which m ight conceivably have been 'spilled' otherwise," said Gyuk. Such a facility would require favorable geology, Gyuk said, but "every state in the union has a possibility for compressed air storage." - Full Article Source ITEM #10 02/26/11 - Gauss Weapons This collection of gauss weapons use rare earth magnets to accelerate projectiles to damaging speeds. They work using the same concepts as a coil gun, but instead of just one projectile travelling along a length of guide track, there are many projectiles that work in a chain reaction. A series of magnets are placed at equal distances along the track. Each has a couple of large ball bearings on the muzzle side of the magnet. The first ball bearing is fired using mechanical force – like a spring mechanism – and accelerates as it approaches the magnet due to the attractive force of that magnetic field. When it impacts the magnet it sends one of the ball bearings on the opposite side down the track where it will accelerate when it nears the next magnet in the chain. The weapon above achieves a final projectile speed of about 68 miles per hour, breaking six fluorescent tubes in a row on at the right side of the apparatus. - Full Article Source ITEM #11 02/26/11 - Mice For Airport Security? Israeli scientists are training mice to detect security threats in airports, and they’re far more effective than both x-ray machines AND dogs. The scientists have created a detector, sorta like a full-body scanner, but containing mice. Eight of them, and they’re highly trained, skilled professionals. They work four-hour shifts, their only reward being the occasional puff of air injected into their containers so they can breathe. When the mice detect drugs or explosives, they trigger an alarm. In the long run, the teams of mice will be more cost and time effective: they require less training, and they don’t need to be tempted with treats, like dogs do. Suffocating is a good enough incentive, it seems. - Full Article Source ITEM #12 02/26/11 - Invasion Base on the Moon (Apr, 1948) “The first nation to establish a lunar military outpost will rule the earth” says Willy Ley, expert in rocket research. THE man in the moon may plot the attack that will open World War III. For the man in the moon will be a powerful “spy in the sky” rocke ted to the earth’s satellite by the aggressor nation to prepare the way for an all-out assault to conquer the world. Soon after a 20th-century Columbus pilots his rocket to the moon, the nation that sent him there will have a lunar base that will expose a ny spot on earth to celestial spying and sudden rocket invasion. The base builders, then, will face a double problem of maintaining an even temperature and providing themselves with air and water. By going underground they will solve the temperature probl em, since the extremes of temperature occasioned by the month-long lunar cycle are strictly surface phenomena. The first expedition to the moon will look for a large, deep cave, because the temperature below the surface debris, although probably cold, wil l be even. If the moon men find no natural cave, they can make an artificial one by tunneling about 500 feet into a mountain. Before the earthmen can solve any problems on the moon, however, they will have to set up an atomic pile; this will be the key to their permanency on the moon. The atomic pile will produce the heat, and this, in turn, will produce the steam which will run any construction equipment needed. And eventually the pile will produce the air and the water by which the moon pioneers will li ve. While the moon men build their atomic engines, they will live on the rocket ship that brought them to the moon, and use a supply of air and water from the earth. Space suits, with airtight joints. Plexiglas head bubbles and built-in heating units will enable them to work away from their ship on the lunar terrain. The cave shelter will be sealed off by an airlock, a set of two airtight doors with a space between them. In this way, only the air in the space between the two doors will be lost each time s omeone enters or leaves. Additional fresh air will be made right on the moon. Since oxygen atoms are locked in most rock compounds, decomposing the rock will liberate breathable oxygen. Hydrogen— needed to combine with oxygen to form water—also is hidden in many minerals. These elements can be liberated from their rocky prisons by energy from the atomic pile, which produces this energy continuously by transforming heavy atoms into lighter atoms. With this unlimited atomic energy, many of the necessities o f life can be extracted from the rocks forming the mountains of the moon. With the cave supplied with air and water, the moon men will draw further on their atomic pile for heat and light, by steam and steam turbine, and electric generator. The lamps whic h light the cave will be Vitamin-D-producing sun lamps capable of supporting plant life. Since the crushed rock of the moon’s surface will be useless as soil, hydroponic gardens will produce tomatoes, cucumbers, lettuce and other vegetables. The breath of the men in the cave will supply the carbon dioxide necessary for these plants. The plants, in turn, will give off oxygen. - Full Article Source ITEM #13 02/26/11 - New Police Siren: You’ll Feel It Coming Joe Bader tried setting the two tones of his invention four notes apart on the musical scale, but the result sounded like music, not a siren. Same thing when he played around with a five-note interval. But when he set the two tones apart by two octaves an d gave the siren a test run outside the Florida Highway Patrol headquarters in Tallahassee, the effect was so attention-grabbing that people came streaming out of the building to see what the strange sound, with its unfamiliar vibrations, could possibly b e. A siren that would make people sit up and take notice — even people accustomed to hearing sirens all the time. Even people wearing ear buds or talking on the phone. Even people insulated from street noise by a layer of glass and steel. Even New Yorkers . Rumblers, as Mr. Bader called his invention, achieve their striking effect with a low-frequency tone, in the range of 180 to 360 hertz (between the 33rd and the 46th key on a standard piano keyboard), which penetrates hard surfaces like car doors and wi ndows better than a high tone does. When it is paired with the wail of a standard siren, the effect is hard to ignore — like the combination of a bagpipe’s high chanter and low drone, or perhaps like a train whistle and the caboose that moves that whistle through space. The Rumbler is no louder than a standard siren. In fact, it’s quieter — 10 decibels lower, which translates to only half the volume. But because low-frequency sound waves penetrate cars better than those at a higher pitch, drivers experien ce the Rumbler as much louder than a standard siren. That’s good news for pedestrians who might prefer not to be deafened, though not necessarily for the officers in Rumbler-equipped cars. To spare the officers’ ears, the device cuts off after eight secon ds. But the officers who demonstrated it for me said they had used it in repeated intervals for longer durations. And though Federal Signal describes the Rumbler as an “intersection-clearing device,” the officers also recounted using it while zipping up l ong stretches of highway. “It’s like the Red Sea parting,” Capt. Christopher Ikone said. Low-frequency sound can have physical effects, like making you feel queasy. Enough, in fact, to be of interest to some weapons manufacturers, but their experiments ta ke place at much lower frequencies and much higher amplification than the Rumbler employs. In fact, despite the siren’s name, the rumbling effect is subtle — far less than what you experience when an Escalade rolls up beside you at a stop light, tinted wi ndows lowered, custom speakers blaring and thunder bass thumping. Hearing a Rumbler while standing on the street, I felt a slight tingle under my ribs; in Officer Gallagher’s car, I felt a gentle reverberation on the seat. - Full Article Source ITEM #14 02/26/11 - Eco-Dome provides more heat from the same energy Vista inventor John Bechtold couldn't stand that his tabletop patio heater wasn't doing the job: He could see the heat radiating off the top, and even at its highest setting, he was cold sitting around the table. "What if I put something over this?" he sa id about the heater. "I ended up with aluminum pasta pans ---- I just banged it out and tried all these things." Bechtold showed his device to his parents and friends, and everyone who saw it agreed: With the extra cap on the heater, there was far more wa rmth ---- so much that they often had to turn it down. That was in 2008. Two years later, Bechtold and family friend Jerry Fleming brought the Eco-Dome to market: a 45-inch extra cap that sits atop patio heaters in restaurants, reflecting more heat at din ers and burning less propane, Bechtold said. The Eco-Dome adds a second layer above the radiant shield that sits on a typical patio heater. It reflects waste heat down, instead of letting it escape into the air; and thanks to its large diameter ---- the l argest it could be and still fit on a shipping pallet ---- it can heat a wider area. The extra heat allows restaurants to have fewer heaters or run their heaters at lower settings, Bechtold said. "It heats a larger radius," said Frank Busic, the Stone's g eneral manager. "More often than not, guests want us to turn it down because it gets so stinking hot underneath it." In 2010, Bechtold sold 180 Eco-Domes at $179 each, and he and Fleming hope that 2011 will be the year the domes take off. But Bechtold kno ws that every sale means making a demonstration. - Full Article Source ITEM #15 02/26/11 - Study Calls Craigslist 'a Cesspool of Crime' "Classifieds site Craigslist has been linked with 330 crimes, 12 murders and 105 robberies or assaults in the United States last year due to anonymous interactions on the site, says a new study. The report calls Craigslist 'a cesspool of crime,' citing mu rders, rapes, robberies, assault and rental rip-offs as some of the examples." - Full Article Source ITEM #16 02/26/11 - Tiny Transistors Could Be Used To Track Cash "Banks have long considered placing silicon transistors on currency for security purposes, but the technology was too chunky and intensive for paper bills. Now, tiny low-power organic transistors developed by German scientists could make it possible to re ally follow the money." - Full Article Source ITEM #17 02/26/11 - Activists Seek Repeal of Ban On Incandescent Bulbs "Daniel Sayani reports in New American that Senator Mike Enzi plans to introduce legislation to reverse the ban on incandescent light bulbs which is scheduled to go into effect January 1, 2014. 'CFLs are more expensive, many contain mercury which can be h armful even in the smallest amounts, and most are manufactured overseas in places like China,' says Enzi. 'If left alone, the best bulb will win its rightful standing in the marketplace. Government doesn't need to be in the business of telling people what light bulb they have to use.' Faced with a phaseout, some consumers are stockpiling incandescent bulbs, although a poll by USA Today indicates most Americans support the US law that begins phasing out traditional light bulbs next year. Despite some consu mer grumbling, they're satisfied with more efficient alternatives. 71% of US adults say they have replaced standard light bulbs in their home over the past few years with compact fluorescent lamps or LEDs and 84% say they are 'very satisfied' or 'satisfie d' with CFLs and LEDs." - Full Article Source ITEM #18 02/26/11 - HarperCollins Wants Library EBooks to Self-Destruct After 26 Loans "HarperCollins has decided to change their agreement with e-book distributor OverDrive [and other distributors, too]. They forced OverDrive, which is a main e-book distributor for libraries, to agree to terms so that HarperCollins e-books will only be lic ensed for checkout 26 times. Librarians have blown up over this, calling for a boycott of HarperCollins, breaking the DRM on e-books -- basically doing anything to let HarperCollins and other publishers know they consider this abuse." - Full Article Source ITEM #19 02/26/11 - Smart Phone Gets Driver Out of a Speeding Ticket "Sahas Katta writes in Skattertech that a traffic cop pulled him over while driving home and gave him a speeding ticket but thanks to his Android, he ended up walking out of traffic court without having to pay a fine or adding a single point to his record . "I fortunately happened to have Google Tracks running when an officer cited me for speeding while heading back home from a friend's place," writes Katta. "The speed limit in the area was a mere 25 miles per hour and the cop's radar gun shockingly clocke d me driving over 40 miles per hour." Once in court Katta asked the officer the last time he attended radar gun training, when the device was last calibrated, or the unit's model number — none of which the officer could answer. "I then presented my time s tamped GPS data with details about my average moving speed and maximum speed during my short drive home. Both numbers were well within the posted speed limits," says Katta. "The judge took a moment and declared that I was not guilty, but he had an unusual statement that followed. To avoid any misinterpretations about his ruling, he chose to clarify his decision by citing the lack of evidence on the officer's part. He mentioned that he was not familiar enough with GPS technology to make a decision based on my evidence, but I can't help but imagine that it was an important factor."" - Full Article Source ITEM #20 02/25/11 - Some clarifications & Amazing news from Ismael Aviso Meralco is the largest electric company in the Phillipines, so they are using wallpower versus battery power with the Aviso Tech circuit attached. To quote from a prior post about the car technology; "...the investment cost for a conversion kit is less then 3,000 USD. With the motor and battery the prototype can potentially travel 80-1000 kilometers before it needs recharging. No ot her electric car technology can do this. This means using 10,000 watts the battery could potentially reach 1,000 kilometers. The next design is intended to be 100% re-generating." The proof will be driving the car nonstop and see how long it takes to rundown or will it always recharge and keep running. For pure batteries, it should run down in an hour or two depending on how many batteries. For a home power generator, he believe s it will be continually self-running while putting out sufficient power to run a home. Inventor Ismael Aviso sent the following; Testing DATA 5 Test1. Meralco: 1,300watts/ 6.4amps./ 223 V Dyno: 291 Newton / 570 watts Aviso tech: 308 watts/ 13amps / 23.74 v Dyno :210 Ntwn / 418 watts Test2 Meralco: 2000watts/ 9.5Amps / 227V V Dyno: 455 Newton / 931 watts Aviso tech: 306 watts/ 13amps / 23.6V Dyno: 210 Newton / 402 watts Test3 Meralco: 2,300watts / 10.98amps / 229V Dyno: 507 newton / 1,100 watts Aviso tech: 306 watts/ 13amps/ 23.56 V Dyno: 200 Newton / 389 watts We drive outside few 100 meters & back again to LAB & again some testing, due to they found two sets of batteries 7amps/12V in front of the Car. I told them they only supply power for the FAN & Microcontroller, but they don't believe me so we test agai n for the 4th time & confirmed no connection powering the motor & drops of volts & increase of current draw. Very minute draw of current only either on or off of the motor. Note: Actual Average time testing of AVISO tech 5 minutes. Two minutes running al located for the DYNO computer setting up. I am now moving on a fast momentum of getting the 5KW to 10 KW GENSET (home power generator) to run. Using my repelling force technology. Mr. Aviso says he is working on a self-running home power generator which is scalable to whatever power needs are required. You'll note his claims are reminiscent of the fraudulent Tilley claims with one major difference. Tilley never allowed outside testing of his claims, always his own people. Mr. Aviso has allowed outside testing and invites anyone to come test his repelling force technology for themselves. He also invites anyone interested in investing in or licensing the technology to contact him with questions or for additional information. He is currently working on the home power generator and hopes to have the video proofs available in the next 2-3 weeks. In a recent email Mr. Aviso says his lawyer is adding a clause requiring any buyer to actually put the technology on the market within a reasonable period else the technology reverts back to the seller and the buyer loses any monies paid. This is similar to what Tilley had in his contract for the express purpose of preventing the technology from being bought and locked away. Have to admire that! Mr. Aviso is working from a shoestring budget so would appreciate any donations to help his extremely interesting research. You can send donations via PayPal directly to ismaelaviso@yahoo.com I have verified the link and believe this inventor is onto something extremely important for all of us. Not only a self-running electric car but where the basic principle can be applied for home power generation or to power other craft, cars, airpla nes, boats, trucks, buses, you name it. There is every probability this technology can be further optimized for higher efficiencies. - Email Contact for Mr. Ismael Aviso ITEM #21 02/24/11 - Aviso E car tested by DOST & DOE feb 24 2011 This incredible electric motor technology has now been confirmed. At present to mass produce the technology the investment cost for a conversion kit is less then 3,000 USD. With the motor and battery the prototype can potentially travel 80- 1000 kilometer s before it needs re charging. No other electric car technology can do this. This means using 10,000 watts the battery could potentially reach 1,000 kilometers. The next design is intended to be 100% re-generating. With further endorsement and funds Ismae l is confident that it can be done like EVGRAY did it. There is a lot of promising new phenomena that Ismael has demonstrated. This must be endorsed and investigated further. Any car manufacturer or individual who wants to adapt or manufacture this technology can pay pay a license fee. This figure is curre ntly being organized as you read this. Ismael is currently offering 100 minutes of technical support/Q & A about how the E car system parts works. A royalty fee & NDA & application is offered and is currently limited to a sedan type of car - Ismael is st rict on that. The tests in Ismeal's video have confirmed that the unit is able to run on capacitors or keep the batteries charged. A self sustianing design has also shown promise.This is a new discovery and can advance education. "No one can produce a repelling forc e from a small battery ( 64watts only ) that repels a 1 kilo object up to more than 25 feet high WITHOUT DISCHARGING THE SMALL BATTERY, Only FYMEGM ENERGY can do that now. Once this repelling force applied into a rotating engine 60 times per second. It co uld go on to run a Car hundred kilometers without worry of battery discharging." From the youtube; Confirmed It's a BREAKTHROUGH. Test by DYNO. Two type of supply from Ac wall outlet & Aviso tech. Conventional MERALCO supply 45% eff. & Aviso tech 133%. DOST will release the final result next week & they will immediately recommend t he funding of Aviso techn. (Thanks to Ismael Aviso for this headsup! Mr. Aviso has given permission to post a link to contact him directly if you so wish. - JWD) - Full Article Source ITEM #22 02/23/11 - Can Zero Point Energy Gain Credibility? rputman writes: Two of my 4 college majors were math and physics. Nevertheless, I'm primarily just a seriously interested lay person, since I don't work in the fields of physics or math. For years, I've had some Google News Alert queries that pertain to ZPE. Most of the hits aren't worth much. Today I got a rare hit that I feel is worth passing on for several reasons: * The article provides a cogent answer to answer to the common question from the public - "But where would this ZPE come from?" * The article provides names and institutions that seriously-interested ZPE folks could contact. * The article transforms tech talk into language and concepts that non-scientific people can understand. * I'm thinking/hoping that some valuable synergy might result... Here's a link to the article. - The name does not compare or connote with ‘dark’ or some miraculous paranormal forces, it simply po ints out, that one can’t see this energy – just like one cannot see anything if it is dark. The name also indicates we have little knowledge of its nature or origin. Sometimes to avoid misunderstanding, this energy is sometimes referred to as ‘space energ y’ or ‘vacuum energy’, because it is a property of mere space, and thus vacuum. If classical physics is right – this energy is everywhere. It does not require a good vacuum in order to establish this energy. There is a great deal of space, even inside ‘s olid’ objects. Things are rather like that: space contains this energy, independently whether it contains any visible matter or not. Another portion of this energy is ‘quantum mechanical zero point energy’ (ZPE), because it is supposed, that it originates from quantu m mechanical zero point oscillations. Though these oscillations are rather abstract, they are well known within quantum mechanics and have been so for several decades. Claus W. Turtur at the Fachbereich Elektrotechnik, University of Applied Sciences Braunschweig-Wolfenbuettel and Wolfram Knapp at the Institut for Experimental Physics, Otto von Guericke Universitat, Magdeburg, both in Germany think they have devised a device that can harvest the ZPE and get some mechanical energy activity. And the result is no small matter, even though the attention paid is quite small. Turtur’s paper proposes a way for theoretical construction of a zero-point-energy converter in the Kilowatt-range. The result is a model of a ZPE motor with a diameter of 9 cm and a height of 6.8 cm producing 1.07 Kilowatts. That’s a little over 8 inches by about 6.5 inches powering more than 10 100-watt bulbs. Now for the layperson, keep in mind that the quantum oscillations are very, very small and happen over time. That makes the management of timing, or tuning the device key to its operation. If one’s device can’t tune to the time segments of oscillatio n the energy pickup isn’t going to happen. That means Turtur has to stabilize the device inputs with pulsed signals. Oscillations are kind of wave like, in that there is an ‘up’ or ‘down’ so to speak, to tune for. Turtur’s breakthrough is understanding that the tuning has to adjust to the two resonances between the two motions of the oscillation. Now for the first ‘A Hah!’ moment, the differential of the two resonances is what energy value can be harvested. (via zpenergy.com) You might want to check out this file on Thrust and Electrical Power by Rectifying Aether/ZPE with Chaos Converters - This paper and the associated images are intended to illustra te how aether/zpe can be envisioned as energy popping into and out of existence to produce mechanical thrust OR electrical energy as described by Puthoff/Haisch/Rueda as a 'Quantum Vacuum/Foam' and by Henry Moray, Sr. as a 'Sea of Energy'. ".... Many res earchers see the vacuum as a central ingredient of 21st- Century physics. Some even believe the vacuum may be harnessed to provide a limitless supply of energy. This report summarizes an attempt to find an experiment that would test the Haisch, Rueda and Puthoff (HRP) conjecture that the mass and inertia of a body are induced effects brought about by changes in the quantum-fluctuation energy of the vacuum.... It was possible to find an experiment that might be able to prove or disprove that the inertial m ass of a body can be altered by making changes in the vacuum surrounding the body." It's just 'there'....and it CAN be used BECAUSE it is a wave, waves can be intercepted and RECTIFIED, Nature does it and one day, in the very near future, we too will learn to utilize this enormous energy source. - Full Article Source ITEM #23 02/23/11 - Rossi Cold Fusion test produced 15KW of heat for 18 hours Andrea Rossi claims to have developed a practical and commercial ready Cold Fusion technology that could cost around 1 cent per kilowatt hour; with the first 1 MW plant completed later this year, comprised of 125 units ganged together. It utilizes nano-ni ckel powder, hydrogen gas, and undisclosed (for proprietary reasons) catalysts under pressure to produce large amounts of energy. The test took place at the University of Bologna. Input power from control electronics: variable, average 80 W, closer to 20 W for 6 hours. The 10-kW modules we produce are safe and for years now we have been testing and using them with no problems. All possible measures of radiation from the reactor have been taken and the modules have always demonstrated the utmost safety. We control it as we want, switching it on and switching it off and we get power on and power off. It can never exceed a certain power because we have designed it so that there can be no Nickel-Hydrogen reaction above the safety limits and, above all, there is no radiation outside of the reactor significantly over the background level. It is true that with our current state of knowledge we do not know what would happen if we started scaling up the reactor from 10KW to 1000KW. In fact, we take care not to do so. To obtain higher power production we combine the modules in series and parallel, as if they were batteries. A 10 KW reactor connecting in parallel increases the amount of energy produced at a constant temperature and putting them in series multiplies t he amount of energy produced at increasing temperature, because you multiply the TD. Combining the two architectures, parallel and series, you can get what you want and stay strictly in the same safety parameters. When converting to other forms of energy there will be a loss of efficiency. In the Carnot cycle efficiency is usually between 30% and 35% depending on the efficiency of the system, this means that if we convert 1MW of thermal power we can get 300-350 kW electric and thermal energy. (Seems like it works like luciferase in fireflies..stroke the membrane containing the chemical a few times and it glows for a long time after. In this case tickle the reactor components with outside power up to the point the heat reaction begins, from that point on, it produces heat until the reaction is eaten away from corrosion and transmutation of the elements. - JWD) - Full Article Source ITEM #24 02/23/11 - Radiator Booster invention stretches heating budgets A simple energy-saving invention called the Radiator Booster that got the thumbs down from Dragons’ Den has become so popular that retailers and the manufacturer are struggling to keep up with the demand. Predicting that they would be a best seller Nigel Berman, founder of www.nigelsecostore.com, managed to buy a large number of radiator boosters and, at one point, was the only company with any stock. Surges in sales coincided with the pre-Christmas freezing temperatures and increasing fuel prices which h ave led to people desperately looking for new ways to heat their homes more efficiently. Nigel said: “It’s a brilliant invention – so simple but it really works. I have tested hundreds of eco products over the years and the radiator booster stands out as one of the best. We find that many people buy one to try and then buy more – some people are now even buying them as presents for friends and family. ” The Radiator Booster, which costs just under £20, disperses the heat from behind radiators around the r oom which would otherwise be wasted through the wall. It works by drawing the heat from behind the radiator using a small fan. The gadget can also reduce the time it takes to heat a room by up to 50 per cent and save an average household up to £140 a year . Recent reviewers have said they’ve been able to turn down their thermostats by at least two degrees and that the investment is well worth it. Inventor David Haydon came up with the idea when he found the radiators in his home were not giving out as much heat as he needed. He considered installing larger ones but then came up with the idea of using small fans to circulate the wasted heat from behind the radiators back into the room. He built a prototype which performed perfectly, heating the room much fa ster and allowing him to turn down the thermostat a notch or two. After more testing and being sufficiently pleased with by the results, David took his invention to BBC’s Dragons’ Den. Although the dragons weren’t interested, other investors were and the rest is history. / A Radiator Booster is an innovative, lightweight product that uses a small fan to draw heat from a standard radiator, gently distributing it better into the room. It will warm a room faster, save lost energy, and reduce heating bills. S imply place a Radiator Booster on top of a hot radiator, holes facing down, and plug it in. It'll heat a room in up to half the time, allowing the boiler to shut down sooner, saving heating time and cost - for a running cost of about 30p a year! It's adju stable in size, has a built in thermostat and could save an average household between £70 and £140 per year. - Full Article Source ITEM #25 02/23/11 - Low cost solar by growing Silicon sheets instead of slicing In its conference room is a large chart showing the declining cost of electricity produced by solar panels over the last three decades. The slightly bumpy downward-­sloping line is approaching a wide horizontal swath labeled "grid parity"—the stage at whi ch electricity made using solar power will be as cheap as power generated from fossil fuels. It is the promised land for renewable power, and the company, 1366 Technologies, believes its improvements in manufacturing techniques can help make it possible f or solar power to finally get there. The company is developing a way to make thin sheets of silicon without slicing them from solid chunks of the element, a costly chore. "The only way for photovoltaics to compete with coal is with technologies like ours ," he says. Once photovoltaics can compete with coal on price, "the world very much changes," says Frank van Mierlo, the company's CEO. "Solar will become a real part of our energy supply. We can then generate a significant part of our energy from the sun ." - Full Article Source ITEM #26 02/23/11 - What Makes the Rocks Move in Death Valley When No One is Looking? Unforgiving sun, punishingly hot days, freezing nights, no water, and a name like Death Valley keep people away from this ultra-dry section of California. Those who do venture there notice that sometimes, in some places, rocks just move. They don’t do it a lot, and they never do it when anyone is watching. Make no mistake, though, they do it. They leave behind long, even grooves in the packed dust to prove it. Some scientists believe that, although the rock isn’t picked up by the water, it is driven by th e wind. Winds across the desert can be intense, and if the lake bed floods and the packed dust becomes slippery mud, the rock might be blown or washed one direction, leaving a long groove behind it. The wind might also cause the water to chill to freezing . Sheets of ice would corral the wind even more effectively, making it stronger and allowing it to push rocks across the desert. The newest suggestions combines both ideas. Rainwater would cause the playa to flood, and ice would be formed by the wind and dropping temperatures. That ice would freeze around the stone. As water freezes, it becomes less dense, and floats. Since it freezes around the stone, a small ice berg would lift the stone up slightly. Then the wind would push the ice raft along, letting the stone scrape along the mud. (Of course, its earth vibrations, very low frequency, very strong, like a vibrating conveyor. - JWD) - Full Article Source ITEM #27 02/23/11 - Eyelid shutter glasses: fake but still a hack If you’ve been keeping up with our featured stories this year you’ll remember the post about using your own eyelids as 3D shutter glasses. Throngs of commenters called this one as fake and they were right. But we still enjoyed the experience… it’s more fu n to be trolled when the trolls are skilled and idea is original. The perpetrators have released a follow-up video that shows how it was done. It’s not just an electronic trinket and some acting. There’s well executed post-production which maps out the ar ea around this gentleman’s eyes and edits in the rhythmic blinking that made the farce somewhat believable. - Full Article Source ITEM #28 02/23/11 - How to Leave Your Body Leave your body and shake hands with yourself, gain an extra limb or change into a robot for a while. Swedish neuroscientist Henrik Ehrsson has demonstrated that the brain's image of the body is negotiable. Applications stretch from touch-sensitive prosth eses to robotics and virtual worlds. In a series of studies, neuroscientist Henrik Ehrsson of the Swedish medical university Karolinska Institutet has shown that the brain's perception of its own body can alter remarkably. Through the coordinated manipula tion of the different senses, subjects can be made to feel that their body suddenly includes artificial objects or that they have departed their body entirely to enter another. His experiments have been published in Science and other leading scientific pe riodicals and journals, and have garnered considered international attention. "By clarifying how the normal brain produces a sense of ownership of the body, we can learn to project ownership onto artificial bodies and simulated virtual ones, and even make two people have the experience of swapping bodies with one another," says Dr Ehrsson. Researchers are currently looking into what kind of bodies the brain can perceive as its own. The self can, for example, be transferred into a body of another sex, age and size, but not into objects such as blocks or chairs. One ongoing project with potential applications in robotics is examining if the perceived body can be shrunk to the size of a Barbie doll; another is studying if the brain can accept a body with thr ee arms. "This could give paralysed people a third prosthetic arm, which they would perceive as real," says Dr Ehrsson. - Full Article Source ITEM #29 02/23/11 - Six-Legged Meat of the Future The vast majority of the developing world already eats insects… Will Westerners ever take to insects as food? It's possible. We are entomologists at Wageningen University, and we started promoting insects as food in the Netherlands in the 1990s. Many peop le laughed—and cringed—at first, but interest gradually became more serious. In 2006 we created a "Wageningen—City of Insects" science festival to promote the idea of eating bugs; it attracted more than 20,000 visitors. Insects have a reputation for being dirty and carrying diseases—yet less than 0.5% of all known insect species are harmful to people, farm animals or crop plants. When raised under hygienic conditions—eating bugs straight out of the backyard generally isn't recommended—many insects are per fectly safe to eat. - Full Article Source ITEM #30 02/23/11 - the Virtual Living Room We created an unique physical 3D video mapping experience by turning a white living room into a spacious 360° projection area. This technique allowed us to take control of all colors, patterns and textures of the furniture, wallpapers and carpet. All done with 2 projectors. - Full Article Source Living Room from Mr.Be am on Vimeo. ITEM #31 02/23/11 - Amazon Movie Streaming Amazon has announced its new and improved Amazon Prime service that now offers more than 5,000 streaming TV shows and movies to customers. Those who already pay the $79 per year for Prime won't have to pay any extra to get access to the streams. Video wil l be available on Macs and PCs in the US, as well as a number of set-top boxes. Amazon Prime costs $79 per year. Until now, that $79 gave you unlimited free 2-day shipping for anything you bought at Amazon -- a pretty good deal for those who buy a lot of stuff and want it fast. When you add in the free movies, it's a great deal. Prime works out to about $6.60 per month. Netflix, on the other hand, charges $7.99 per month for its streaming-only plan. Netflix, of course, has a much better selection. Curren tly, Amazon lists only 2,153 movies that are free for Prime members -- but I assume they're still working on it. You can also get a 30-day free trial of Prime (you can watch a lot of movies in 30 days). It looks like we're entering the "golden era" of mov ie streaming, and cable TV is looking increasingly irrelevant. How long until the ISPs start capping bandwidth and raising rates? (And for those outside the USA who want blocked content, I highly recommend vpntelevision.com for $21 for 3 months or $55 a year! - JWD) - Full Article Source ITEM #32 02/23/11 - Girandoni amazing 40 shot Air Rifle as used by Lewis and Clark Lewis and Clark's secret weapon - a late 18th Century .46 cal. 20 shot repeating air rifle by Girandoni , as used bin the Napoleonic Wars. A Treasure Gun from the NRA National Firearms Museum. See more at http://NRAmuseum.com. - Full Article Source ITEM #33 02/23/11 - Company Creates Biodiesel Converter from water boiler Tucked away in a corner of an empty warehouse at McDonnell Horticulture is a $500 homemade contraption that could save the business and its customers thousands of dollars. The device is a biodiesel converter. It is a gently used water heater and two 55-ga llon barrels connected with nongalvinized pipes, valves and tubing. There are a bubbler, a compressor, a heater and a motor. It converts old cooking oil that commonly comes from deep-fat fryers at local restaurants to biodiesel fuel for the 16 tractors at the 225-acre nursery on old U.S. 1 in Cameron. Biodiesel is made by chemically altering the oil -- essentially thinning it down -- to allow it to run in an unmodified diesel engine. Tractors in the nursery began using the biodiesel last week. The benefit of biodiesel is evident to Melvin Thomas, who is the nursery operations manager. Thomas said the business uses 100 to 150 gallons of diesel fuel per week. Last week, Thomas purchased a tanker load of regular diesel for $4.30 per gallon. A gallon of bi odiesel is made in 25-gallon batches. It costs an estimated $1.80 per gallon to make, Thomas said. To make the fuel, employees collect used vegetable oil from restaurants in several North Carolina counties, including Moore. "These restaurants, for the most part, are paying somebody to haul this off, and when you show up and offer to take it away for free they are a little skeptical," McDonnell said. In addition to the cost savings, Thomas said, the fuel has other benefits. First, it is cleaner-burning . It doesn't produce that thick, black smoke that typically comes from running vehicles on regular diesel, Thomas said. He said the tractors seem to get better gas mileage, but he didn't have the necessary data to prove that assumption yet. There is one t hing, however, that is taking some getting used to -- the smell. "It has a unique smell," Thomas said of the new fuel. "When you burn it, it smells like French fries." Contact Tom Embrey at 693-2473 or by e-mail at tembrey@thepilot.com. - Full Article Source ITEM #34 02/23/11 - Parker and ParkNow apps make finding parking, paying for it easier A new app, called Parker, shows drivers on their iPhone where to find available metered parking spaces in the Hollywood area of Los Angeles. The application costs $1.99 to download and is available on the iPhone. It's coming to Android in a couple months, according to Streetline, maker of the app. Parker is also in use on Roosevelt Island, N.Y., and will soon make its debut at the Fort Totten Metro station in Washington, D.C.. / MobileNow's ParkNow service could mean an end to you searching for coins to f eed parking meters. The service lets you call the special ParkNow phone number listed on the meter, enter a meter number and type in your credit card information. Also, ParkNow has BlackBerry and Android apps that allow users to enter a location and parki ng meter number and pay with pre-funded credits via the app. Mobile payments via the iPhone are next. ParkNow is available in Bethesda, Md.; Decatur, Ga.; and Hudson Valley, N.Y. - Full Article Source ITEM #35 02/23/11 - Did the auto industry cripple Detroit? An interesting thesis from Ed Glaeser: ford, Durant, David Dunbar Buick, the Dodge Brothers, the Fisher Brothers, Henry Leland – it seems as if Detroit once had an automotive genius on every street corner. ... But while their great invention made Detroit wildly productive for decades, it also sowed the seeds for the city’s decline. Cities work best when they are filled with smart people and small companies that innovate by exchanging ideas. Huge automobile plants, like Henry Ford’s River Rouge Plan t, were highly productive, but they were isolated from the rest of the city. Part of Ford’s genius was that he was able to provide high wage jobs for less-educated workers; this helped turn Detroit into a city with too few nonautomotive skills. Glaeser co ncludes that Detroit has spent too much upgrading its infrastructure -- note the beautiful, but empty, people mover -- and not enough on its people. Consider this study examining the way one state's investment in education can end up benefiting a more desirable neighbor. "Massachusetts, California, or New Jersey may benefit more from an investment in Mississippi’s research universities than Mississippi does," the authors concluded. Education, in other words, gives people the option to leave. And they take it. The question for Detroit, then, isn't just about making investments in human capital, but about keeping the humans around long enough to see some returns on those investments. - Full Article Source ITEM #36 02/23/11 - What happens when you stick your head in a particle accelerator Here's the fascinating story of Anatoli Petrovich Bugorski, the only person to have stuck his head into a particle accelerator. His head accidentally strayed into the path of the proton beam at the Institute for High Energy Physics in Protvino in 1978, an d the beam bored a hole through his brain and out his nose. The radiation absorbed by his head was in the region of 1000 gray. 5 gray worth of X-rays is generally considered fatal, but Bugorski survived and went on to complete his PhD (a proton beam movin g near the speed of light has different characteristics from an X-ray!). The side of his face that was burned by the beam's exit has not visibly aged in the years since the accident. / Although the skin on the part of his face and back of his head where t he beam hit eventually peeled off over the next few days, Bugorski did not die as they thought he would. The beam also burned through his skull and brain tissue along with the afore mentioned skin. However, ultimately he came through it all surprisingly w ell. Despite the beam going through his brain, his intellectual capacity remained the same as before. The few negative health drawbacks he did experience were not life threatening either. He lost the hearing in his left ear and experienced a constant unpl easant noise in that ear from then on. The left half of his face slowly became paralyzed over the course of the next two years. He also gets significantly more fatigued with mental work, though he did go on to get his PhD after this incident. The remainin g side effects were occasional absence seizures and later tonic-clonic seizures, though these didn't show up right away. - Full Article Source ITEM #37 02/23/11 - Wristbands change color to warn of PMS A wristband has been designed to change colour when a woman is suffering from pre-menstrual syndrome. It works by monitoring subtle changes in a woman's body temperature during her monthly cycle - and has been dubbed 'Help for Husbands' by inventor Karl D orn. He estimates they would sell for a few pounds and would feature a small thermometer that responds to variations in temperature by changing colour. 'It's a visual aid for men so they can be a little bit more understanding at certain times of the month ,' he said. 'Through my research I've found out that women's body temperatures increase at certain times of the month. This little wristband would be temperature sensitive and change colour. 'It's a very taboo issue - I was a bit concerned about putting i t forward - but if you can help couples understand each other and communicate better that's got to be a good thing.' - Full Article Source ITEM #38 02/23/11 - $7 UV Window Alert for Birds Birds read the reflection of nature in your windows as real and think they are traveling towards trees or sky or another bird--whatever is reflected. The WindowbAlert decals are nearly invisible (so you can barely see them when looking through the window) but the birds see UV light reflected back from the decal, thereby deterring them from flying into the window. Before applying the decals I made sure to wash the window and used rubbing alcohol to remove any residue. It also helps if you place feeders and bird baths either very close to the window or away at an angle. - Full Article Source ITEM #39 02/23/11 - Conn. man’s invention to provide clean drinking water in Peru Through the website InnoCentive.com, which matches corporations and nonprofits with inventors, Micinilio learned about a challenge by the Rockefeller Foundation. The Rockefeller Foundation, which sponsored a competition seeking a low-cost solution that wo uld provide clean, potable water to families in need, selected Gregg Micinilio’s design for an affordable water filtration system, according to the story. Micinilio, an industrial designer, drew on his knowledge of plumbing and construction to design the system, which uses titanium dioxide to kill bacteria in water, the article stated. The Rockefeller Foundation chose Micinilio’s design over about 400 other entries. / The foundation set a guideline that the entire system could not cost more than $300. Mic inilio is an industrial designer for Milford-based Schick, which produces shaving products. He designs razor handles, and is tasked with making them cheap, versatile, and easy to mass produce. The plastic jugs, the stone base, and the PVC tubes needed to connect it are inexpensive. The reservoirs are lined with a titanium dioxide, a paste that causes a chemical reaction when exposed to sunlight and which kills bacteria in the water. To get around using an expensive means of filtering the titanium dioxide out of the water, Micinilio layered five pieces of a regular screen door on top of each other and achieved the same effect. Best of all, if the government does provide water to the rural Peruvians, the entire system can be dismantled with no impact on the environment. - Full Article Source ITEM #40 02/23/11 - Cubans say lots of sex and tobacco is why they live longer Cubans are proud of their longevity, and the sharp mind of Fidel Castrol is a prime example. Certainly the totally free and complete medical care and stress free environment contribute greatly to length and quality of life, as does the the availability of community recreational, cultural and educational programs. A family doctor can be found on every block. A methodical life with varied food habits, which does not exclude tobacco, coffee or sex, would be the "secret formula" to achieve satisfactory longev ity, according to a recent study of more than 50 people over a hundred years old in Cuba. A study of 54 centenarians, over 100 who live in Villa Clara, about 270 kilometers east of Havana, showed that 95% of the elderly have "a varied food habit" based on fish meat, eggs, milk, red meat and vegetables seasoned with natural spices and a little salt. The majority of respondents hold "a lucid state of mind" and were former farm workers, while more than 60% of them were children of people who also surpassed t he one hundred years mark, highlighted the media. Another common feature is the fact that they led a very methodical life. None expressed addiction to alcohol, but, some "drank too much coffee and smoked tobacco," the source added. Dr. Nancy also emphasiz ed that centenarians retain their interests and motivations "including that of a sexual nature." (You should note cancer is caused by the paper, not the tobacco. So cigars wrapped in tobacco leaves or tobacco paper don't cause the tar deposits from paper. Burn a piece of paper in a saucer and look at all the oily creosote. Its great for burns but not built up in your lungs. So if one smoked cigars in tobacoo wrappings I think there wouldn't be all the cancer deaths like we have in the USA. - JWD) - Full Article Source ITEM #41 02/23/11 - Brazil to produce generic version of medication for AIDS and Hepatitis Approximately 64,000 patients with AIDS and 1,500 with hepatitis make use of tenofovir in Brazil. The first national batch of the medication will be available for patients in late March. Domestic production will represent a savings of approximately £410 m illion to the country. The registration for the sale of the generic version of tenofovir for the official laboratory Fundação Ezequiel Dias (Funed - Government of Minas Gerais) was granted by the National Agency for Sanitary Vigilance (Anvisa), through Re solution 487/2011. The drug is used to treat AIDS and hepatitis. According to the Ministry of Health, with authorization, nine million tablets will start to be produced from next week, which represents a saving of approximately $410 million to the country over five years (until 2015). Currently, about 64,000 AIDS patients with hepatitis and 1,500 make use of tenofovir in Brazil. The first batch of the national drug will be available for patients in late March. With the start of manufacturing, 10 of 20 ant iretroviral drugs provided by the Unified Health System (SUS) are being manufactured in Brazil, reducing by about 47% the costs to import the medicine until 2015. "In addition to making the medication available to people living with AIDS and hepati tis, it is guaranteed to offer long-term help to reduce external dependence," emphasizes the director of the Department of DST, AIDS and Viral Hepatitis of the Ministry of Health, Dirceu Greco. - Full Article Source ITEM #42 02/23/11 - Chinese man sits at Internet cafe playing for 3 days non-stop and dies A man from China died after his three day gaming binge. This was after the man sat in an internet café and did not sleep for three days and hardly ate. This throws light over the ever-growing craze of internet in the people of China. It has its effect on thousands of Chinese people; it has been found out in a research conducted, TopNews United States reports. The man, who had reportedly spent more than 10,000 yuan ($1,500) on internet gaming over the past month, was rushed to a nearby clinic but was prono unced dead a short time afterwards. - Full Article Source ITEM #43 02/23/11 - Feds Pay Millions For Bogus Spy Software "The US Government paid tens of millions of dollars to Dennis Montgomery because he said he had created software that could decode secret Al-Qaeda messages embedded in Al-Jazeera broadcasts. Even though the CIA figured out that his software was fraud in 2 003, other defense agencies continued to believe in it. To date, the government has not prosecuted Montgomery, most likely to save itself the embarrassment." - Full Article Source ITEM #44 02/23/11 - Iceland Eyes Liquid Magma As Energy Source "Scientists in Iceland have been studying and utilizing the power of geothermal wells for years. In 2009 one such study hit a standstill when a group ran into magma halfway into their dig. The roadblock has become a blessing in disguise, as recent researc h has shown that the magma can act as a potent new source of geothermal energy powerful enough to heat 25,000 to 30,000 homes." - Full Article Source ITEM #45 02/23/11 - Would the Developing World Use E-Readers More Than Laptops? "Stuart Turton writes about how the local children reacted to his Kindle on a recent visit to the Nagpur region of India. 'About 20 kids stood in a big group, just watching me: big eyes, curious expressions, ridiculously cute and all intent on the Kindle, ' he writes. 'Just turning the page caused them to drag their friends over, and there's no reality where changing the font size of your book should make you cooler than a Jimmy Hendrix guitar solo. That was just the warm-up act though; it was the text-to- speech feature that pretty much made me the best friend of the entire village. A charity could do a lot worse than to load a few up with dictionaries, school books and novels and send them to some remote schools in developing nations,' he observes." - Full Article Source ITEM #46 02/23/11 - The Death of BCC "An interesting op-ed at NeoSmart discusses the demise of BCC in emails at the hands of Facebook and the like. It discusses how certain technologies that are slowly being supplanted by 'cooler' yet less effective alternatives have actually been spoiled fo r all, since they rely on a basic community-wide awareness regarding these technologies for them to work." (Seems like I am forever asking people to shield the lists of their group emails which are sent as To: or CC:. So easy for spammers or bots to inter cept an email and harvest all those innocent names. Its a nice thing to do using BCC: to shield your friends from mischief you did not intend to invite. - JWD) - Full Article Source ITEM #47 02/23/11 - Huge Amounts of Oil Found On Gulf of Mexico Floor intellitech tips news of a study examining the Gulf of Mexico sea floor in the wake of the Deepwater Horizon disaster. Marine scientists have found a thick layer of oil, and say it has devastated life there. "Studies using a submersible found a layer, as much as 10cm thick in places, of dead animals and oil, said Samantha Joye of the University of Georgia. Knocking these animals out of the food chain will, in time, affect species relevant to fisheries. She disputed an assessment by BP's compensation fund that the Gulf of Mexico will recover by the end of 2012. ... 'The impact on the benthos was devastating,' she told BBC News. 'Filter-feeding organisms, invertebrate worms, corals, sea fans — all of those were substantially impacted — and by impacted, I me an essentially killed. Another critical point is that detrital feeders like sea cucumbers, brittle stars that wander around the bottom, I didn't see a living (sea cucumber) around on any of the wellhead dives. They're typically everywhere, and we saw none .'" - Full Article Source ITEM #48 02/23/11 - Financial Malware Hijacks Online Banking Sessions "A new type of financial malware has the ability to hijack customers' online banking sessions in real time using their session ID tokens. The OddJob Trojan keeps sessions open after customers think they have 'logged off,' enabling criminals to extract mon ey and commit fraud unnoticed. This is a completely new piece of malware that pushes the hacking envelope through the evolution of existing attack methodologies. It shows how hacker ingenuity can side-step many commercial IT security applications traditio nally used to defend users' digital — and online monetary — assets." - Full Article Source ITEM #49 02/23/11 - Earth's Inner Core Rotation Slower Than Estimated "Scientists at the University of Cambridge believe they have achieved the first accurate estimate of how much faster Earth's core is rotating compared to the rest of the planet. The rate — about one degree every million years — is much slower than previou sly thought and arises from the complex dynamic between Earth's inner and outer core, which generates Earth's geomagnetic field. Without our magnetic field, Earth's surface would not be protected from charged particles spewing from the Sun, and life would not be able to exist." - Full Article Source ITEM #50 02/23/11 - George Carlin - Airport Security and they paranoia of 'Terrorists' America needs to LISTEN TO George Carlin on Airport Security & Terrorists & STOP THIS STUPIDITY... - Full Article Source ITEM #51 02/23/11 - Nautilus-X: the Space Station With Rockets "So we have a space station, now what? We've heard some rather outlandish ideas, but this is one concept a research group in NASA is taking seriously. By retrofitting the ISS with rockets, Nautilus-X will act as an interplanetary space station of sorts, i ncluding room for 6 astronauts, an artificial gravity ring, inflatable habitats and docking for exploration spaceships. When can we take a luxury cruise to Mars? 2020 by the project's estimate. It all sounds very 2001, but the projected costs of retrofitt ing the space station seem a little on the low side." - Full Article Source ITEM #52 02/23/11 - the Currents of Life To show the coupling of energy fields with cells, here is a post I made way back in 2002; An unusual claim that correlates with Burr/Ravitz (electrodynamic fields of life), Sheldrakes morphogenetics and others who claim fields control tissues http://www.science-frontiers.com/sf012/sf012p06.htm "Danny Brower and Richard McIntosh of the University of Colorado at Boulder have discovered that growing cells apparently generate electrical fields that control the shapes of living organisms. They have been experimenting with a disc-shaped alga with a lobed edge. Normally the algae reproduces by splitting in half with each half regenerating the lost half. Nicely symmetric discs are manufactured. But if an external electrical field (about 14 volts/cm) is applied across the nutrient medium, the regeneration geometry is distorted. The experimenters surmise that the membrane chemistry is affected by the external field which augments or reduces cell-created electric fields. (Anonymous; "Electric Charges May Shape Living Tissue," New Scientist, 86:245, 1980.)" - See Regen/Rejuve - Full Article Source ITEM #53 02/20/11 - Compact Fluorescent Invention Recycles The Ballast When compact fluorescent bulbs first hit the scene, they were a revolution. A bulb that lasted many times as long as the incandescent counterpart and used only a fraction of the power. Well, GE put out an ecomagination challenge to see what they could do next and this idea is easily one of the best. In the video below, you can see Robert Hand show a prototype of his idea that requires you to just replace the “bulb” part of a compact fluorescent rather than replacing the whole thing. The ballast part ca n be reused, Hand say it’s really the most expensive part of the package anyhow and easily outlasts the tubular twisty bit containing the chemical gas. CFLs are supposed to save you money in the long run because they last so much longer and use less e nergy. They can get even cheaper if you can reuse the ballast part. (This clever guy needs to be rewarded in a BIG WAY and lighting manufacturers should be required to adopt this idea, brilliant! This is what INNOVATION is all ABOUT! - JWD) - Full Article Source ITEM #54 02/20/11 - Unhappening, Negentropy and Negative Energy I highly recommend that you strongly support the further biophysics research of Julián Alejandro Mancilla Rendón, as he is now approaching what can be a giant advance in medical biochemistry to cure diseases. At the same time, the same process is capable of solving the world fuel/energy crisis by a new way of causing the water molecule’s O-H bond to simply “fall apart” or, more technically, “unhappen” from the modern physics view. All that is necessary is to “tickle” the local Dirac Sea of the vacuum in which the water resides, with tiny RF pulses. Each is a sharp gradient across a region of vacuum/space. This pops out electrons from some of the involved Dirac Sea holes, leav ing behind the holes (which are negative mass-energy electrons). As a source charge, a negative mass-energy charge emits negative energy photons, so that the associated EM fields are negative energy fields. This process places a “covering froth” of ne gative EM energy in that affected region occupied by the water molecules. The negative energy added also adds its negative probabilities, thus adding the probability of “unhappening” an already established and continually sustained physical reality condit ion. This applies to chemistry, biochemistry, physics, energy, electrodynamics, and just about every other part of modern science. It also will be of the utmost benefit to all humanity. Very important work in this area or related to it is undergoing by Dr. John Kanzius and by Dr. Dan Solomon. In modern physics and chemistry, anything physical, from elementary particles up to atom s up to molecules up to materials etc., really is continually being created and sustained as an underlying tremendous set of direct QEDV interactions. The vacuum is not to be regarded as a basic “emptiness” filled with separate virtual particles and their activity! Instead, the vacuum identically is those virtual particles and their ongoing statistical interactions and activities. And it organizes and “builds up” (with positive energy processes) all those virtual interactions into observable interactions, to continually create and sustain what we observe as “physical reality” itself. Adding positive energy to the local vacuum means adding positive energy to these underlying statistical interactions that “make up” and “create and sustain” everything physical that we observe in that local region. So one gets higher and higher (larger and larger and more energetic) observable changes and things and entities in that “physical thing” in that region, as one builds up the positive energy and the positive probabilities in those underlying interactions. So the positive energy vacuum continually “happens”, creates, and sustains everything physical that exists and continues to exist, be it living or dead. If we then deliberately introduce a “fitting” negative energy into that underlying positive energy vac uum, we start to “unhappen” the desired observable entities and parts in reverse. The higher energy cancer (or other disease condition) will be “unhappened” first!!! (via zpenergy.com) - Full Article Source ITEM #55 02/20/11 - Cutting $100 Billion?... Easy - If Only Washington Had a Brain There’s a perfectly obvious path toward that Republican goal of $100 billion. If we were to embark on it, there would be even more cuts to follow and -- believe it or not -- they wouldn't be all that painful, provided we did one small thing: change our t hinking about making war. After all, according to the Pentagon, the cost of the Afghan War in 2012 will be almost $300 million a day or, for all 365 of them, $107.3 billion. Like anything having to do with American war-fighting, however, such figu res regularly turn out to be undercounts. Other estimates for our yearly war costs there go as high as $120-$160 billion. And let’s face it, it's a war worth ending fast. Almost a decade after the Bush administration invaded Afghanistan, the U.S. military is still fruitlessly engaged in possibly the stupidest frontier war in our history, thousands of miles from home in the backlands of the planet. It's just the sort of dumb conflict that has, historically, tended to drive declining imperial powers around the bend, just the sort -- in the very same country -- that helped do in the Soviet Union. And though news from that war remains remarkably grim, were we b y some miracle to win, for hundreds of billions of dollars we would have gained tenuous control over the fifth poorest, second most corrupt, and premier narco-state on the planet. Al-Qaeda, on the other hand, would undoubtedly still be happily enscon ced in the Pakistani tribal border areas with a range of superbly failed states available elsewhere for exploitation. There’s genuine money to be slashed simply by bringing the troops home... (MUCH Better Idea - No More WARS, bring all our troops home and focus all our wasted TRILLIONS and efforts on the USA. - JWD) - Full Article Source Dwight D. Eisenhower exit speech on Jan.17,1961 Warning us of the military industrial complex ITEM #56 02/20/11 - Killing Disease by Phase Cancellation Mechanism of electronic medication - The concept of electronic medication is similar to the radio wave technology. In radio wave transmission the wave energy patterns are transmitted in air and the radio set or television set will act as a receiver and si multaneously change the energy wave to voice or image on a television which we can see and listen. In electronic medication the energy wave produced will be transmitted into two ways namely Constructive Wave Interference and Destructive Wave Interference. In order to better understand how waves interfere with one another. Consider a pair of waves from the same source that are traveling in direction D, as illustrated below. If the vibrations, which are perpendicular to the propagation direction as repres ented by C, are parallel to each other and are also parallel with respect to the direction of vibration, then the light waves may interfere with each other. However, if the vibrations are not in the same plane or vibrating at 90 degrees to each other, then they cannot interfere with one another. Constructive Wave Interference In this method the wave energy is utilized for activating the function of the hu man organ or vitalizing energy vitamins which is required by the body, this is done by increasing the energy signal pattern. Assuming all of the criteria listed above are met, then the waves can interfere either constructively or destructively with each other. If the crests of one wave coincide with the crests of the other, the amplitudes of the waves are additive. Thus, if the amplitudes of both waves are equal, the resultant amplitude is doubled. It is important to remember that wave intensity varies d irectly as the square of the amplitude. Thus, if the amplitude of a light wave is doubled, its intensity is quadrupled. Such additive interference is demonstrated above and is known as constructive interference. In this method the wave energy is utilized for activating the function of the human organ or vitalizing energy vitamins which is required by the body is done by increasing the energy signal pattern. Once again Newton’s Third Law of Motion is applied b ut in a constructive manner, this means both waves meet and they will create the increase of resultant wave which is optimized for activating the human organs. In Destructive Wave Interference , if the crests of one wave coincide with the troughs of the o ther wave, the resultant amplitude is decreased, as illustrated below. This destructive interference is accompanied by a decrease in wave intensity and may even result in a total cancellation of waves occur. In this method the energy wave is used to treat any type of diseases. The mechanism behind is cancellation of energy waves. For example when two waves of energy signals which have the same frequency and same amplitude, but out of phase (180 degrees) th e result will be cancellation of signals. In this process any diseases can be treated and eventually the patient will progress for total cure. In physics, reference to the “Law of Resonance & Dissonance” of energy wave concept can be applied in treating diseases. Application of energy wave in electronic medication to combat diseases can be defined as follows: Law of Dynamism defined that in a dynamic state, all particles vibrate and we termed it as ‘Simple Harmonic Motion’. The wave energy pattern form can be recorded , digitally coded and can be used to prepare various digitally coded remedies in combating diseases. In order to cure, the dig itally coded remedy or artificial disease wave must be stronger than the natural disease wave with phase difference of – 180 degrees and slightly longer in terms of its wavelength (minimum ½). Application of ‘resonance’ technology, proves that energy wave is created without the use of particle. This energy wave can be made stronger or destructive without involvement of any particle. - Full Article Source ITEM #57 02/20/11 - The BETAR Sound Relaxation System using Phase Conjugation With regard to cancelling disease patterns for health, you might also be interested in reading two papers written by my late friend Peter Kelly on this subject, totally fascinating and Peter was so far ahead of everyone else he kept me in awe of his genio us. If and when you are clever enough to locally cancel the magnetic and related components, while devising a way of tuning into the "energy-as-information", then with a combination of this tuning plus your own "intent"; (or desire/will), you can affect th at which gives identity to any reality. By careful tuning you can achieve a resonance which allows you to modify that reality. Working with this simple premise and very minute amounts of normal electromagnetic (electricity), one can, for example, detect a nd analyze biological conditions in humans and animals, as well as the various patterns and energies that make up a farmer's fields and crops, the weather patterns, and the telluric or earth energies at any given location. Equally important, one can make basic and fundamental modifications to these various realities in their patterns of energy-as-information, which then reflects back into our normal 3-dimensional world. THE USE OF PHASE CONJUGATION (TIME REVERSED) SIGNALS IN THE BETAR AUDIO SYSTEM TO ACCO MPLISH RELEASE OF DEEP, LOCKED-IN STRESS OF THE HUMAN BODY. - Full Article Source ITEM #58 02/20/11 - Understanding the importance of Phase Conjugation My approach(es) have been primarily two fold... Years ago I noticed "interesting" phenomena when one took more or less ordinary transistor circuits (ge types at first - not General Electric) and split the input signal into as many as a dozen or so (parall el amplifiers) of them, and then recombined all of their outputs inductively. It seemed to add layers of what I called at first "density" of signal, or "richness" of signal. Now I know it is not Power, per say, in watts, or Voltage, or current, that I was trying to describe, and it turned out not to have ordinary terminology to explain it... That is, until you look at the possibility of it as a phase conjugate construct of the input. I suppose a crude analogy would be the difference between a single condu ctor of say, 10 gauge, and a cable equivalent of 10 gauge that is actually 5000 filaments of 42 gauge wire. Because the apparent input is (relatively) the same in each of the conductors, there is an equivalent amount of power transferred from one end of t he conductor to the other (at least in the relative sense), but, due to the nuances of the conductor manfacturer and etc. we end up adding back in, "content" that got left out of the original creation of the signal. For example (again) if I speak into a m icrophone in a monotone, you would have a hard time "detecting" my emotional state. You might guess from hearing what I say, that I was bored, or at least had no passion for what I was saying. With my version of what I call "Linear Parallel Processing", ( or sometimes "Analog Linear Parallel Processing") we add in all of what I feel, and some of that is palpable. You sense, or feel it. What in fact we are doing is adding more of the information that makes things what they are, in the quantum electrodynamic s sense of the quantum mechanics sense of our universe and how it works. In the e-field vector, is, potentially at least, ALL of the information needed to describe and re-create any object... and if the object is dynamic, (and especially like biological,) comes the basis for doing so easily. - Full Article Source ITEM #59 02/20/11 - Why has Tom Bearden given up on Phase Conjagation? For many years, Tom Bearden (the "father" of scalar electromagnetics) has been touting "the way" to free energy, anti-gravity, etc. This was through the use of phase conjugate principles. Scalar effects are produced by phase conjugating a wave by 180 degrees to cancel out the energy, yet it produces a "stress wave" that can have physical effects. Many of us who study or research this field have been fans and friends of Bearden and were puzzled by his recent change to the "degenerate conduct or" theories as specified in "The Final Secret" documents. We took Tom Bearden, Ken MacNeill and Bill McMurtry to dinner Friday evening with several others in our group. I mentioned to Tom how several folks had wondered why he had given up on phase conjugation and done this complete shift over to the degenerate conductor idea. Tom says he has in no way given up on phase conjugate theory but that he has gone as far as he could with what materials and research tools he has. So, he decided to put some of his own observations out and those resulted in the Final Secret treatise. The work continues on these two primary fronts (i.e. phase conjugation and degenerate conductors), but with the main focus being on the degenerate conductor app roach. According to Tom, there was nothing behind the change, simply that he decided to share an additional approach based on some of his own observations and thoughts. - Full Article Source ITEM #60 02/20/11 - Hydrogen-Powered EkranoYacht Will Perform 250 MPH Travels Inspired by a cold-war ultra secret Russian invention, the Ekranoplan, Jaron Dickson, an Australian designer has designed a hydrogen-powered boat that can hover above the water at astonishing speeds by using the so-called “wing-in-ground-effect.” An air c ushion between the wings and the water is created when Dickson’s flying boat hovers above the sea. He called his baby “EkranoYacht.” Despite its similarities with the Russian invention, the EkranoYacht is fueled with the cleanest energy carrier in the uni verse: hydrogen. The onboard fuel cells will only emit water as output, and will propel the thing to a top speed on 250 miles per hour, being able to carry six. Because the drag is greatly reduced when the boat floats above the water, the fuel consumption will be even smaller than that of a normal boat (that would have never been able to reach this speed, anyway). The Russian Ekranoplan used to travel 66 feet above the water, weighed 550 tons and had a speed of up to 460 mph, so you can imagine how much f uel it actually spent. At that speed, though, a vehicle acts more like a plane than as a boat, but without flying very high. - Full Article Source ITEM #61 02/20/11 - eFuel - Is Human Waste the New Coal? Dean Kamen visits a power plant that is taking human excrement and turning it in to a burnable fuel supply with 66% more power per ounce than coal! The manufacturing process takes a day as opposed to centuries. - Full Article Source ITEM #62 02/20/11 - $30 Million Race to the Moon Announced by Google Lunar X Prize The X PRIZE Foundation has announced the official roster of 29 registered teams competing for the $30 million Google Lunar X PRIZE, an unprecedented competition to send a robot to the Moon that travels at least 500 meters and transmit video, images, and d ata back to the Earth. This group of teams signifies this new era of exploration’s diverse and participatory nature as it includes a huge variety of groups ranging from non-profits to university consortia to billion dollar businesses representing 17 natio ns on four continents. The global competition, the largest in history, was announced in September 2007, with a winner projected by 2015. - Full Article Source ITEM #63 02/20/11 - Brain Pacemaker Zaps Away Obsessive Compulsive Disorder The pacemaker-like therapy, known as Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS), involves passing a weak current through thin wire electrodes inserted deep into the brain. Around 50 patients have undergone the pioneering treatment in the US. The new findings presented today showed that some of the worst affected had managed to keep their symptoms under control for more than eight years with on-going DBS. OCD affects around 1 per cent of adults at any one time. The condition causes intrusive and obsessive thoughts, comp ulsive urges and repetitive actions such as washing hands and locking doors. The procedure involves inserting wires just over a millimetre thick into the brain’s ventral capsule and nearby ventral striatum. Both regions contain nerve fibres carrying signa ls thought to be important in OCD and related neuropsychiatric illnesses. DBS has already been used successfully to halt the tremors and rigidity suffered by many thousands of Parkinson’s disease patients around the world. It has also been tested as a tre atment for depression. In 2008 Dr Greenberg and US and Belgian colleagues reported success after treating 26 severely affected OCD patients with DBS for three years. In 73% of the patients, symptom ratings were reduced by 25 per cent. The new results show ed that patients who improved initially continued to respond for eight or more years, demonstrating for the first time that the treatment could be a long-term solution for severe OCD. - Full Article Source ITEM #64 02/20/11 - Simple household status system [BrianH] decided that he no longer wanted to venture outside on cold or rainy days just to check if the mail had come, so he built himself a notification system that would alert him if the postman had stopped by. Additionally, he admits to being forgetful on occasion and wanted a way to monitor whether or not he forgot to close the garage door. His Instructable details how he accomplished both of these tasks with the household monitor he built around an ATmega168. His project uses a mailbox mounted photor esistor to determine when the mailbox has been opened, and a reed switch that is triggered when the garage door has been opened. If either of these things occur, a beep is emitted from his notifier, and the appropriate status LED is lit. Simply monitoring whether the garage door has been opened is not all that helpful, so he programmed his notifier to beep persistently at 10-minute intervals if the garage has been left open for more than an hour. His hack is pretty useful, but he does mention that there i s an inordinate amount of wiring that needs to be laid, citing his driveway repaving as a great opportunity to do so. - Full Article Source ITEM #65 02/20/11 - Creationist finally Gets It Right In today's blog post, creationist Ken Ham makes the most intelligent statement of his life: "If there is no literal Adam and Eve, no literal Fall, then there is no origin of sin and no need of a Savior." Bingo! - Full Article Source ITEM #66 02/20/11 - Study shows churchgoers live seven years longer than atheists For a growing yet largely unnoticed body of scientific work, amassed over the past 30 years, shows religious belief is medically, socially and psychologically beneficial. In 2006, the American Society of Hypertension established that church-goers have low er blood pressure than the non-faithful. Likewise, in 2004, scholars at the University of California, Los Angeles, suggested that college students involved in religious activities are more likely to have better mental and emotional health than those who d o not. Meanwhile, in 2006, population researchers at the University of Texas discovered that the more often you go to church, the longer you live.As they put it: ‘Religious attendance is associated with adult mortality in a graded fashion: there is a seve n-year difference in life expectancy between those who never attend church and those who attend weekly.’ Exactly the same outcome was recently reported in the American Journal of Public Health, which studied nearly 2,000 older Californians for five years. Those who attended religious services were 36 per cent less likely to die during this half-decade than those who didn’t. Even those who attended a place of worship irregularly — implying a less than ardent faith — did better than those who never attended . Pretty impressive. But there’s more; so much more that it’s positively surreal. In 1990, the American Journal of Psychiatry discovered believers with broken hips were less depressed, had shorter hospital stays and could even walk further when they were discharged compared to their similarly broken-hipped and hospitalised, but comparatively heathen peers. It’s not just hips. Scientists have revealed that believers recover from breast cancer quicker than non-believers; have better outcomes from coronary d isease and rheumatoid arthritis; and are less likely to have children with meningitis. Intriguing research in 2002 showed that believers have more success with IVF than non-believers. A 1999 study found that going to a religious service or saying a few pr ayers actively strengthened your immune system. These medical benefits accrue even if you adjust for the fact that believers are less likely to smoke, drink or take drugs. And faith doesn’t just heal the body; it salves the mind, too. In 1998, the Americ an Journal of Public Health found that depressed patients with a strong ‘intrinsic faith’ (a deep personal belief, not just a social inclination to go to a place of worship) recovered 70 per cent faster than those who did not have strong faith. Another st udy, in 2002, showed that prayer reduced ‘adverse outcomes in heart patients’. - Full Article Source ITEM #67 02/20/11 - Micro-Beads allow Hydrogen to run in all Cars, Unmodified The new hydrogen-based fuel costs only 90 pence per gallon and could even run in existing cars. The revolutionary fuel, which has been invented by Cella Energy, produces no greenhouse gases and is “suitable for widespread use as a carbon-free alternative to petrol”. It is formed of “micro-beads” that can be poured and pumped like a liquid. RAC motoring strategist Adrian Tink last night described the invention as a “very exciting breakthrough.” He added: “The test is whether it is green, accessible and affordable. “This appears to tick all the boxes. If it can run in current cars, that is a huge bonus and would speed through its distribution. “Any fuel costing less than £1 a litre would be welcomed with open arms by motorists. Anything that r educes the misery for motorists is 110 per cent welcome. This is a very exciting breakthrough.” The technology has been developed over a four-year top secret programme at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory near Oxford. Stephen Voller, chief executive of C ella Energy, said: “We have developed new micro-beads that can be used in an existing gasoline or petrol vehicle to replace oil-based fuels. Early indications are that the micro-beads can be used in existing vehicles without engine modification." ( Odd, remember the Carl Cell hydrogen conversion plans from years back? Same name? - JWD) - Full Article Source ITEM #68 02/20/11 - A World Wide Web that Talks IBM builds a search engine aimed at the estimated fifth of the world's population that cannot read. Some 10,000 people worldwide use a version of the Web like no other: it is operated by voice over the telephone. Called the "Spoken Web," it is the result of an IBM research project attempting to re-create the features and functions of the text-based World Wide Web for people in developing regions with low levels of literacy and technical skills. Four years since the first prototype was released, the spoke n Web is part of everyday life for users in four Indian states and parts of Thailand and Brazil. These people use it to learn of things such as local grain prices or job opportunities. On the spoken Web, telephone numbers replace Web addresses. A person c an call in to a voice site and listen to or record content. "We want you to be able to speak a pesticide name, for example, to quickly find content about that," he says. But designing a search engine that works like that is far from simple. Voice-recognit ion technology can be used to take a person's search term and match it against a previously processed index of recorded voice sites. But presenting the results is a challenge. "We can't have it read out a list of 20 results. It would take too long, and pe ople would not remember them all," says Rajput. "Instead it [must] tell the user it has that many, and ask how to narrow them down." The user is asked which categories they wish to filter the results by—for example, by the name of the person who owns the site, the place it was created, or whether the search term was found in a section of a particular type, for example announcing news, or asking or answering a question. This step is repeated until there are five or fewer results, at which point they are al l read out to the user who can choose which they want to "browse" to. - Full Article Source ITEM #69 02/20/11 - The Machine Breakers We Have Always With Us The historian Arnold Toynbee writes of the Roman emperor to whom it had been reported, "as a piece of good news, that one of his subjects had invented a process for manufacturing unbreakable glass. The emperor gave orders that the inventor should be put t o death and that the records of his invention should be destroyed. If the invention had been put on the market, the manufacturers of ordinary glass would have been put out of business; there would have been unemployment that would have caused political un rest, and perhaps revolution." The Roman historian Suetonius writes, of the Emperor Vespasian (69-79 AD), that someone came to him with a new, cheaper technology for transporting heavy columns to Rome. The emperor rewarded the inventor but quashed the dev ice on the grounds of displacing manual labor. Suetonius quotes Vespasian: "How will it be possible for me to feed the populace?" More familiar are the self-designated "Luddites" of early 19th century England who broke textile machines in order to preserv e their jobs. The adjustment from one set of jobs to another -- from manufacturing to services, say -- can be wrenching to impossible. Long-run, there's probably less cause for consternation. What do most people do for a living in an "advanced" economy li ke ours? Provide services -- more than 80 percent of us. (Doesn't this bring up why some radical discoveries might be suppressed, mostly for economic reasons? - JWD) - Full Article Source ITEM #70 02/20/11 - $10,000-Gizmo Lets You Turn Plastic Bags Back Into Petroleum His name is Akinori Ito, and his invention is now for sale through Blest Corporation. According to the website, one model–the Desk-top Waste Plastic Oiling System–weighs a mere 110 pounds. But the best part is that this non-polluting conversion process is also highly efficient: two pounds of plastic can be converted into one quart of oil using a mere kilowatt of power. It works by capturing the vapors released by heated plastic, and then funneling them through a network of pipes and water chambers, which gradually cool the vapors until they coalesce back into crude oil–where the plastics originally came from. That process creates oil that can power certain types of stoves and generators–and more refining can turn it into gasoline. But as Clean Technica du ly notes: Of course, the end product of this conversion system is still fuel that must be burned, and thus, it will give off CO2 as part of the combustion process. Still, recycling is a cornerstone of environmentalism, and such systems, if they became wid e-spread, could offer a form of energy independence to consumers and seriously lessen demand for more extraction as we transition into a carbon-neutral (or “clean,” carbon-negative) energy economy. The concept of turning plastics back into oil isn’t anyth ing new–there’s a power company called Envion, in Washington, D.C., that has been making oil from waste plastic since 2009. What’s new here is how this Japanese inventor has made the technology viable for the home consumer. With the United States generat ing 50 million tons of waste plastic every year, any further incentive to recycle plastic–albeit to make fossil fuels–qualifies as a noble endeavor. However, at $10,000, the cost of this recycling system is still a bit too steep to make much of an impact– although Ito hopes to gradually reduce the price if demand rises. - Full Article Source ITEM #71 02/20/11 - Green Cars Are Not New – Let’s Look Back 90 Years In addition to factory produced models, other articles have on “do it yourself” (DIY) models, which have included a home-made electric car, using conventional wet cell car batteries; and even a Palestinian home made electric car powered by solar energy. Let’s look back a little at what people before us had come up – well before the notion of Peak Oil and global warming. Jamesburg “Steamer” – 1940 - Perhaps the most innovative car of this time, was a steam propelled model built in 1940 by two teenage boys in Jamesburg, New Jersey, completely out of old parts and items found at a local junkyard. The two-seater car frame and transmission came from an old truck; the boiler from two home space heaters. The firebox for wood fuel originated from an old stove. T he car’s steam “boiler” could generate 25 pounds per square inch of steam. When WWII broke out a year and a half later, and gasoline became rationed, this home made “Stanley Steamer” had no problem going along on its scrap wood fuel supply. Times have ch anged and DIY cars are now made to run on a variety of fuels, including solar energy. In the days when gasoline was selling for as low as 10 cents per gallon, trying to save energy costs was not on people’s minds. But then again, in the 1930?s a “dime” we nt a lot further than it does now. - Full Article Source ITEM #72 02/20/11 - Innovative, flexible new solar charger provides energy on the go In the mid-1990s, APL researchers Joe Suter, Binh Le and Ark Lew had a clever idea for a small, thin, flexible device that can convert light to electricity. They also had foresight and—fortunately—a bit of patience. More than a decade later, their patente d invention is close to reaching consumers. In late 2009, APL licensed the technology to Florida-based Genesis Electronics, which incorporated APL’s ideas into a sleek solar recharger called SunBlazer. When attached to a cell phone or related electronic d evice, SunBlazer’s 2-by-4-inch solar panel will continually draw energy from the sun—or any sufficient light source—and keep the device charged. “With its power and portability, the SunBlazer is a true breakthrough in the recharging concept and an effecti ve application of renewable energy,” said Edward Dillon, CEO of Genesis Electronics Group. - Full Article Source ITEM #73 02/20/11 - Fingertip heart rate monitor [Embedded lab] has a nice tutorial on building your own heart rate monitor. The monitor works by shining infrared light into the fingertip and looking at the changes in the reflected infrared signal caused by a heartbeat. The IR detector produces a very small AC signal so a couple of op-amps are used to filter and amplify the signal. The output of the filter circuit is then read in by a PIC16F628A, which counts the beats and displays it on a seven segment display. This might be a good project to try if you’ve got your microcontrollers down and you are looking to learn some analog electronics. Its noted at the end that the two main problems with building a circuit like this are going to be cross talk and adjusting the filters. The infrared diode and rece iver should be close to each other to allow maximum reflection but you also need to make sure that you don’t allow the emitter to shine directly into the detector because the reflected light will be drowned out by the bright emitter. / Heart rate measurem ent indicates the soundness of the human cardiovascular system. This project demonstrates a technique to measure the heart rate by sensing the change in blood volume in a finger artery while the heart is pumping the blood. It consists of an infrared LED t hat transmits an IR signal through the fingertip of the subject, a part of which is reflected by the blood cells. The reflected signal is detected by a photo diode sensor. The changing blood volume with heartbeat results in a train of pulses at the output of the photo diode, the magnitude of which is too small to be detected directly by a microcontroller. Therefore, a two-stage high gain, active low pass filter is designed using two Operational Amplifiers (OpAmps) to filter and amplify the signal to appro priate voltage level so that the pulses can be counted by a microcontroller. The heart rate is displayed on a 3 digit seven segment display. The microcontroller used in this project is PIC16F628A. Theory - Heart rate is the number of heartbeats per unit of time and is usually expressed in beats per minute (bpm). In adults, a normal heart beats about 60 to 100 times a minute during resting condition. The resting heart rate is directly related to the health and fitness of a person and hence is important to know. You can measure heart rate at any spot on the body where you can feel a pulse with your fingers. The most common places are wrist and neck. You can count the number of pulses within a certain interval (say 15 sec), and easily determine the heart ra te in bpm. - Full Article Source ITEM #74 02/20/11 - The Dumbest Thing Ever Said!...by Hillary Clinton, about Drug War Recently, during an interview with Mexico's Televisa, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton declared that the United States can't legalize drugs "because there is just too much money in it." Apparently, Clinton doesn't understand that there's so much money t o be made selling illegal drugs precisely because drugs are illegal. Reason.tv uses Clinton's love of pant suits and Chardonnay to explain the economics of prohibition to the former presidential candidate. - Full Article Source ITEM #75 02/20/11 - Latest Pentagon Brainstorm: Nuke-Powered War Bases Buried within Darpa’s 2012 budget request under the innocuous name of “Small Rugged Reactor Technologies” is a $10 million proposal to fuel wartime Forward Operating Bases with nuclear power. It springs from an admirable impulse: to reduce the need for tr oops or contractors to truck down roads littered with bombs to get power onto the base. It’s time, Darpa figures, for a “self-sufficient” FOB. Only one problem. “The only known technology that has potential to address the power needs of the envisioned sel f-sufficient FOB,” the pitch reads, “is a nuclear-fuel reactor.” Now, bases could mitigate their energy consumption, like the solar-powered Marine company in Helmand Province, but that’s not enough of a game-changer for Darpa. Being self-sufficient is the goal; and that requires going nuclear; and that requires … other things. For now, Darpa proposes to spend $10 million of your money studying the feasibility of the project. But it’s just one part of the researchers’ new push to green the military. Anothe r $10 million goes to a project called Energy Distribution, which explores bringing down energy consumption on the FOBs. An additional $5 million will look at ways to keep fuel storage from degrading in extreme temperatures. For $50 million, Darpa propose s to build a turbine engine that uses 20 percent less energy. But all of that is mere isotopes compared to the Nuclear FOB. Darpa appears to have thought about it a lot. It says it plans to work with the Department of Energy “to ensure that existing advan ced reactor development activities are being exploited and/or accelerated as appropriate, based on the military’s needs.” Still, if it can’t find the right non-proliferable fuel, it suggests that it might look to the “development of novel fuels.” Says a s tunned Parthemore, “I have no idea why you’d want to bring that upon the world.” - Full Article Source ITEM #76 02/20/11 - New theory behind climate change The Earth's magnetic pole is inexplicably shifting, creating unstoppable forces generating monster storms which we have seen at the beginning of 2011. There is evidence that a cycle of super-storms has started, the latest being the gigantic ice storm acro ss North America. Is this the beginning of a new Ice Age? According to the research, a change in the Sun's electromagnetic field is reacting with the Earth's, having an effect not only on the Earth's magnetosphere, but also its wobble, the dynamics of its core, the Ocean currents and the weather. The result is that the Earth's magnetic core has been shifting 40 miles to the East annually over the last decade, as opposed to the 5-mile average. Worse, it is accelerating. Terrence Aym reveals NASA reports wh ich indicate the Earth's magnetic field now shows cracks, affecting the ionosphere and troposphere wind patterns; the work also quotes the Federal Agency NOAA, which "issued a report caused a flurry of panic when they predicted that mammoth superstorms in the future could wipe out most of California." Even more worrying is the quote from The Economist in a detailed article about the magnetic field: "There is, however, a growing body of evidence that the Earth's magnetic field is about to disappear, at lea st for a while. The geological record shows that it flips from time to time, with the south pole becoming the north, and vice versa. On average, such reversals take place every 500,000 years, but there is no discernible pattern. Flips have happened as cl ose together as 50,000 years, though the last one was 780,000 years ago. But, as discussed at the Greenland Space Science Symposium, held in Kangerlussuaq this week, the signs are that another flip is coming soon." Not only that...all the signs are there for the beginning of a new Ice Age. - Full Article Source ITEM #77 02/20/11 - Ten reasons why it is so difficult to find job in America today It now takes the average unemployed worker about 33 weeks to find a job. There are millions of Americans that have not been able to find a full-time job even after searching hard for an entire year. Some areas of the United States have been devastated so badly by the economic downturn that they are starting to resemble war zones. Unless you have been there, it is hard to even try to describe the extreme frustration that one feels when you are unable to pay the mortgage and feed your family. It can be abso lutely soul-crushing. But it is not the fault of those who are unemployed. The truth is that our economy is dying and it is not producing nearly enough jobs anymore. Unfortunately, as you will see from the facts listed below, most of the things that are c ausing our economy to die have no realistic chance of being changed any time soon... - Full Article Source ITEM #78 02/20/11 - Sysbrain Lets Satellites Think For Themselves "Engineers from the University of Southampton have developed what they say is the world's first control system for programming satellites to think for themselves. It's a cognitive software agent called sysbrain, and it allows satellites to read English-la nguage technical documents, which in turn instruct the satellites on how to do things such as autonomously identifying and avoiding obstacles." / The collision-avoidance system has been tested using models in a Southampton lab. Miniature satellites were c reated that glided across a perfectly-level smooth glass table on integrated ball bearings, to simulate the frictionless environment of space. Overhead visual markers stood in for celestial bodies, which the satellites would use for navigation via onboard cameras. Instead of the thrusters that actual satellites use for positioning, the models were able to move themselves using a set of eight propellers. Using sysbrain, inertia sensors and additional cameras, the models were able to navigate their way acro ss the table while simultaneously detecting and avoiding one another. The system is programed and updated via special English-language digital documents, which sysbrain “reads” using natural language programming (NLP). The type of English used to write th em is known as sEnglish, which is short for “system English.” Devices equipped with sysbrain could read such documents directly off the internet, which would allow their control system to be updated remotely – although outer space internet is still a work in progress, sysbrain has also been suggested for use in a variety of terrestrial vehicles. - Full Article Source ITEM #79 02/20/11 - Scientists Invent World's First Anti-Laser "Two scientists at Yale University have built the laser's first doppelganger: the anti-laser. While a conventional laser emits a constant beam of light in one direction, the anti-laser simply does the opposite. It takes that same steady light stream and i nteracts with it in such a way that it absorbs and cancels out the light. And scientists hope the strange creation could help the fight against cancer. A. Douglas Stone, one of the two researchers behind the project, said he came up with the idea for a 'n ega-laser' when working with equations for a random laser with his partner in crime, Hui Cao. 'I figured, if we just somehow illuminated the cavity, and replaced the gain medium with something that tends to absorb light, we could essentially reverse the p rocess,' Stone said. Oh, that makes sense." - Full Article Source ITEM #80 02/20/11 - Ants Build Cheapest Networks "When building a network from scratch, Argentine ants tend to connect their nests in the way that, while more inconvenient for individual ants, requires the minimum amount of trail. Researchers studying 'supercolonies' of the ants found them building netw orks that closely resembled the mathematical shortest path — a Steiner tree. They hope to apply their work to self-healing, organic computing networks of self-organising sensors, robots, computers, and autonomous cars." - Full Article Source ITEM #81 02/20/11 - Parakeets inside cage equipped with Gill-like Membrane - Full Article Source ITEM #82 02/20/11 - Why Multiculturalism Can't Work (in the US) Culture reflects beliefs of the people. In fact, cultures are formed by those beliefs. For a society to survive it has to have one culture -- a culture that enjoys the participation and contributions of all of its peoples. Look at the United States. O ur national motto is “e pluribus unum,” or “out of many, one.” Multiculturalism fails because it denies the need for the “one,” for unity, and in our case, for a shared commitment to the American creed: “We hold these truths to be self evident, that all m en are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” Many around the world marveled that the American people elected a black president. I didn’t see it as a surprise. I saw it as a vindication of the American creed. A creed, we must never forget, that is founded on the Christian belief that all people are created in the image of God. He goes on to explain that black people have assimilated becaus e most of them have embraced Christianity. He also explains how Koreans and Chinese can fit in if they become Christians. - Full Article Source ITEM #83 02/20/11 - Researchers Say 100% Renewable Energy Possible By 2050 "There are no technological or economic barriers to converting the entire world to clean, renewable energy sources, said author Mark Jacobson, a Stanford professor, saying it is only a question of 'whether we have the societal and political will.' During this decade, the two 'fuels of the future' will be electricity and gasoline. Beyond that, we can't project." - Full Article Source ITEM #84 02/20/11 - Magicians 'trained' fish creates uproar Animal rights activists in China are furious with magician Fu Yandong who performs the trick seen above in which he directs goldfish to swim in formations. He was meant to encore the trick today during a Lunar New Year holiday TV program but China Central Television cancelled the performance in light of the controversy. From AFP: However, a separate regional broadcaster said magician Fu Yandong would perform the controversial trick again on Thursday night -- and reveal its secret so as to silence his crit ics. Animal rights activists cried foul over the stunt, saying Fu had likely fed the fish magnets -- or implanted them in the fish -- so they could be dragged around their tank from underneath. They said the trick amounted to animal cruelty... Fu has so f ar refused to reveal the secret. "My fish," he wrote on his microblog, are "living happily". - Full Article Source ITEM #85 02/20/11 - Kids Who Skip School Get Tracked By GPS "Frustrated by students habitually skipping class, police and the Anaheim Union High School District are turning to GPS tracking to ensure they come to class. The six-week pilot program is the first in California to test GPS. Seventh- and eighth-graders w ith four unexcused absences or more this school year are assigned to carry a handheld GPS device, about the size of a cell phone. Five times a day, they are required to enter a code that tracks their locations – as they leave for school, when they arrive at school, at lunchtime, when they leave school and at 8 p.m." - Full Article Source ITEM #86 02/20/11 - A Car You Can Drive With Your Thoughts "German researchers have demonstrated a car that can be driven with brain power alone. In the video, a driver wears an EEG head cap, which records brain activity. Software converts the neural signals into steering and acceleration commands, feeding the da ta into the car's drive-by-wire system. The brain-car interface, which the researchers call the 'BrainDriver,' is far from being commercially viable. But it could one day allow disabled and paralyzed people to gain more mobility. It could also, the resear chers say, help people control autonomous vehicles, like a future driverless cab; just by thinking, passengers would tell the cab where to go." - Full Article Source ITEM #87 02/20/11 - Driver Sued For Updating Facebook In Fatal Crash "21-year-old Chicago motorist Araceli Beas has been accused of attempting to update her Facebook page on her cell phone when she allegedly struck and killed 70-year-old Raymond Veloz. The victim's daughter, Regina Cabrales, has filed a wrongful death laws uit in Cook County Circuit Court, asking for an unspecified amount of money. Cabrales alleges in her suit that Beas operated her vehicle without keeping a proper and sufficient focus, drove while using an electronic communication device, and failed to slo w down to avoid an accident. As proof, she points to the fact that Beas' Facebook page showed an update posted at 7:54 AM on December 7, 2010, which is the same time that Veloz's cell phone records showed a call being made to 911." - Full Article Source ITEM #88 02/20/11 - Hummingbird-Size Wing-Flapping Drone Unveiled "AeroVironment, Inc. has demonstrated a tiny new drone called a 'Nano Hummingbird.' The hand-made prototype aircraft has a wingspan of 16 centimeters (6.5 inches) tip-to-tip and has a total flying weight of 19 grams (2/3 ounce), which is less than the wei ght of a common AA battery. This includes all the systems required for flight; batteries, motors, communications systems and video camera. The aircraft can be fitted with a removable body fairing, which is shaped to have the appearance of a real hummingbi rd. The aircraft is larger and heavier than an average hummingbird, but is smaller and lighter than the largest hummingbird currently found in nature." - Full Article Source ITEM #89 02/20/11 - Vibroacoustic disease: bio-effects of infrasound and infranoise At present, infrasound (0–20 Hz) and low-frequency noise (20–500 Hz) (ILFN, 0–500 Hz) are agents of disease that go unchecked. Vibroacoustic disease (VAD) is a whole-body pathology that develops in individuals excessively exposed to ILFN. VAD has been dia gnosed within several professional groups employed within the aeronautical industry, and in other heavy industries. However, given the ubiquitous nature of ILFN and the absence of legislation concerning ILFN, VAD is increasingly being diagnosed among memb ers of the general population, including children. VAD is associated with the abnormal growth of extra-cellular matrices (collagen and elastin), in the absence of an inflammatory process. In VAD, the end-product of collagen and elastin growth is reinfo rcement of structural integrity. This is seen in blood vessels, cardiac structures, trachea, lung, and kidney of both VAD patients and ILFN-exposed animals. VAD is, essentially, a mechanotransduction disease. Inter- and intra-cellular communication is ach ieved through both biochemical and mechanotranduction signalling. When the structural components of tissue are altered, as is seen in ILFN-exposed specimens, the mechanically mediated signalling is, at best, impaired. Common medical diagnostic tests, such as EKG, EEG, as well as many blood chemistry analyses, are based on the mal-function of biochemical signalling processes. VAD patients typically present normal values for these tests. However, when echocardiography, brain MRI or histological studies are performed, where structural changes can be identified, all consistently show significant changes in VAD patients and ILFN-exposed animals. Frequency-specific effects are not yet known, valid dose-responses have been difficult to identify, and large-sc ale epidemiological studies are still lacking. - Full Article Source ITEM #90 02/20/11 - US Navy Breaks Laser Record "The US Navy has broken the existing record for the power of a laser. Their new free-electron laser can burn through 20 feet of steel per second. 'Next up for the tech: additional weaponization. The Navy just awarded Boeing a contract worth up to $ 163 million to take that technology and package it as a 100 kW weapons system, one that the Navy hopes to use not only to destroy things but for on-ship communications, tracking and detection, too — using a fraction of the energy such applications use now , plus with more accuracy.' Now all we need to do is upgrade the sharks..." / Scientists there, in coordination with the Office of Naval Research (ONR), injected a sustained 500 kilovolts (KV) of juice into a prototype accelerator where the existing li mit had been 320 kV -- a world’s record, the scientists explained. “This is brand new -- it has not been done before, in the world,” said Carlos Hernandez-Garcia, director of the injector and electron gun systems for the FEL (Free Electron Laser) prog ram, who added that Friday’s breakthrough was the culmination of six years of development. / The Navy’s death ray weapon keeps burning through laser records, on its way to the ultimate goal of searing through 2,000 feet of steel per second. The Free Elect ron Laser’s latest milestone involved running its electron injection system for eight hours at 500 kilovolts. It currently produces a 14-kilowatt beam, and it needs to reach 100 kW to become a viable defense weapon. The ultimate goal is a 1-MW laser. - Full Article Source ITEM #91 02/20/11 - Scientists Aim To 'Print' Human Skin "Scientists at the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine, inspired by standard inkjet printers found in many home offices, are developing a specialized skin 'printing' system that could be used in the future to treat soldiers wounded on the batt lefield. 'We started out by taking a typical desktop inkjet cartridge. Instead of ink we use cells, which are placed in the cartridge,' said Dr. Anthony Atala, director of the institute. The device could be used to rebuild damaged or burned skin. . .. Burn injuries account for 5% to 20% of combat-related injuries, according to the Armed Forces Institute of Regenerative Medicine. The skin printing project is one of several projects at Wake Forest largely funded by that institute, which is a branch of the US Department of Defense. Wake Forest will receive approximately $50 million from the Defense Department over the next five years to fund projects, including the skin-creating system. Researchers developed the skin 'bio-printer' by modifying a sta ndard store-bought printer. One modification is the addition of a three-dimensional 'elevator' that builds on damaged tissue with fresh layers of healthy skin." - Full Article Source ITEM #92 02/17/11 - Speaking In Defense Of Science While many countries are working hard to educate their young about the values of science and of scientific research, in the U.S. countless people are teaching them to mistrust science and scientists, taking every opportunity to politicize and theologiz e the scientific discourse in ways completely incompatible with the goals and modus operandi of the scientific enterprise. Now, many will say that they are not anti-science per se, just against the science that clashes with their religious beliefs. So, antibiotics are fine, but the theory of evolution is not. If only they'd take the time to learn about how antibiotics work and about how over-prescribing can result in germ mutations that render some antibiotics ineffective. It's is a real-time i llustration of the theory of evolution at work. Or take the statement made by Bill O'Reilly, that my co-blogger Adam Frank posted here yesterday, concerning the tides and the existence of the moon. Can a man living in the 21st century, and with enormous m edia clout, actually state that God put the moon around the Earth to promote the tides? Apparently, yes. - Full Article Source ITEM #93 02/17/11 - Rooftop Pipe-Dream A booming market in renewable energy sounds great, but here's the rub: Only the tower-mounted turbines, suitable for homes with an acre or more of land, have really been proven to work. Rooftop turbines, on the other hand, only work in very specific setti ngs, and almost never in urban areas—precisely where many consumers seem keen on putting them. For a turbine to generate enough power to be of any use, it needs to be consistently hit with wind at speeds above 5 miles per hour. In cities, there are just t oo many physical obstacles—cell phone towers, skyscrapers, apartment buildings—in the way. "It's like putting a solar panel under a tree or in the shade," says Ron Stimmel, AWEA's small-wind expert from 2006 to 2010, now an MBA student at Columbia. To boo t, most roofs are simply too weak to support rooftop turbines, which create additional drag and can cause vibrations that range from annoying to potentially dangerous. - Full Article Source ITEM #94 02/17/11 - Bone treatment may extend life by 5 years Evidence that patients undergoing bone treatment are not only surviving better than people without osteoporosis, but may also be gaining an extra five years of life has been published in a new study. People taking bisphosphonates - are a class of drugs th at prevent the loss of bone mass – as part of their treatment displayed this unexpected side-effect, which results due to a prevention of toxic metal release caused by bone loss. According to the researchers, by preventing bone loss, bisphosphonates preve nt some of this toxic metal release. “While we know that this is the case, we don’t yet have evidence that this produces the survival benefit,” said Center. Osteoporosis is a serious and disabling condition that affects around 2 million Australians. Someo ne is admitted to hospital with an osteoporotic fracture every 5-6 minutes, averaging 262 hospitalisations each day. It has already been shown by Garvan and others that osteoporotic fractures increase a person’s risk of dying, even after relatively minor fractures if that person is elderly. “Osteoporosis is a big societal burden and remains a poorly understood and severely undertreated disease in Australia,” said Eisman. - Full Article Source ITEM #95 02/17/11 - Gadget makes bombs, mines go off 'on average' 20m away Colombian and Swiss boffins say they have developed a cunning electromagnetic device which can make landmines or terrorist bombs explode from a distance. Félix Vega and Nicolas Mora, doctoral students at the école polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) in Switzerland, developed the bomb-triggering device as part of their doctoral theses. It works by using powerful radio waves to induce currents in the heating filaments within electrically-actuated detonators, so causing them to go off without benefit o f any energy from the mine or device's firing system. The radio waves are emitted in short, intense pulses, targeted at specific parts of the radio spectrum. “We then realised that in spite of the wide diversity of these mines, they are however all in sim ilar frequency ranges,” says Mora in an EPFL statement issued yesterday. “So we developed a system that concentrates on those, and thus loses less energy.” The EPFL Electromagnetic Compatibility Laboratory tested this system in Colombia last November, usi ng actual improvised mines provided by a team of professional bomb disposal experts, which they were able to set off at an average distance of 20 meters. - Full Article Source ITEM #96 02/17/11 - easyJet use revolutionary aerodynamic paint to cut fuel bills It is the UK's first commercial airline to apply a ultra-thin hi-tech coating - 100 times thinner than the average human hair - which smooths out microscopic 'hills and valleys' in the paint used on a plane's fuselage. The super-micro technology means t he jet becomes more aerodynamic and 'slippery' and can slide more efficiently through the air, cutting costly fuel bills and giving airline bosses more leeway to cut fares, they say. The new technology works like an aviation 'Polyfilla' but at a microscop ic level - filling cracks and uneven surfaces to make the plane's exterior surface smoother and more aerodynamic, yet adding only around 4oz to the weight of the aircraft. It has been used on US military aircraft, but easyJet and its inventors. Poole-bas ed firm TripleO, say it is the first time a UK airline has applied it to commercial jets. - Full Article Source ITEM #97 02/17/11 - Zapping Microbes Could Cut Chemical Use in Wastewater by 50% The process is called electrobiochemical reactor (EBR), through which small doses of an electric charge is applied to microbes to help them more quickly and efficiently remove the toxic pollutants from mining, industrial and agricultural wastewater. The p rocess has shown to improve the microbe activity by two to 10 times, and drastically reduce the cost of processing wastewater. Not only is the use of chemicals reduced by at least half, if not more, but also the contaminants can be collected and recycled. To make the process even more eco-friendly, the electric voltage can be supplied by a small solar array, taking the process off-grid. So far, five lab tests have been successful, and the group, which has a start-up called INOTEC, is readying for an on-si te pilot-scale project at an inactive gold mine, and a second contract for a pilot project at a silver mine is in the works. The start-up has been recognized at the prestigious Clean Tech Open competition this year, and is confident that after pilot testi ng, the process can be scaled up for industrial uses at not only mines, but also agricultural areas like feedlots and industrial areas. Other innovative ways to use microbes to clean water supplies includes igloo-shaped domes on the bottom of wastewater t reatment plants that house microbes, as well as simply playing Classical music. While playing Mozart might be an iffy strategy, providing electric stimulation will probably prove useful. - Full Article Source ITEM #98 02/17/11 - Bees That Work For the Police Here's a nerve-wracking notion. Let's say you have an illegal plant in your garden or even in your home. And let's presume this plant (because it's marijuana, or some genetically altered vegetable that's illegal in Europe) will get you in trouble if the p olice find out. Now imagine that your local police have their own bees, bees they release each morning to scour the neighborhood looking for illegal plants. Police maintain 43 bee hives in South London and, "a little bit of [nearby] Kent," how these bees collect pollen in the neighborhood and then, being bees, they return to the hive to tell the other bees exactly where the good plants are. Bees give directions by performing a "waggle" dance. The police, meanwhile, have developed software to read bee comm unications. As Mr. Machan explains, "There's a video camera in each hive. And what we're able to do is to decode that, to tell us where the location of the pollen is." In the video, a computer seems to lock onto the waggle dance and transmit decoding sign als in green, red and blue. The police, the video suggests, will then check the pollen. If it comes from an illegal plant, they simply note down your address (thank you, bees), get a warrant and drop by and arrest you. That's when I noticed this video was not a news story. It was part of an art exhibit at a gallery in London, The Wellcome Collection, so the video, the posters, they aren't real. Thomas Thwaites made this up. It's a fantasy. But not a complete fantasy. As far as I know, computers can't r ead bee dances. We don't have police cameras in bee hives. And, I thought, we don't (yet) dust, sort and categorize bee pollen to catch criminals — except occasionally. In an interview with Regine Debatty of the "we make money not art" blog, Thomas Wa ithe says he based his video on research in "pollen forensics" at the Centre For Security and Crime Science at University College London. - Full Article Source ITEM #99 02/17/11 - Jesus Should Be More Manly Christian men are much more attracted to a he-man Jesus: OVERLY FEMINIZED IMAGES OF JESUS MAY HAVE CHASED MEN OUT OF CHURCH. An unspoken reason for the defection of some men from church may be in the way Jesus has been portrayed by artists, at least since the Renaissance and Reformation. In a huge number of portraits during the past few centuries, the Lord is depicted as nearly androgynous -- when indications from the world of visions and mysticism are that He was anything but. George G. Ritchie agrees. H e had a near-death experience and met Jesus. "The instant I perceived Him, a command formed itself in my mind, 'Stand up!' The words came from inside me, yet they had authority my mere thoughts had never had. I got to my feet, and as I did came the stupen dous certainty: 'You are in the Presence of the Son of God.' This was the most totally male Being I had ever met. He probably looked like Chuck Norris. The article concludes by suggesting that the Shroud be used as a model: It is the type of manliness tha t men can relate to -- as opposed to the excessively soft and sometimes effete images with which the modern Church has been inundated. - Full Article Source ITEM #100 02/17/11 - Crops fertilised according to needs The invention is a new prize-winning dual function mobile sensor. The sensor, called MobilLas, can help the farmer determine if it is necessary to fertilize with nitrogen in a given small area. This is done using spectral reflection, which says something about plant chlorophyll content, and laser measurement, which can indicate plant density and plant size. In other words, the sensor can tell the farmer how much plant cover there is in a particular spot in the field and how green it is – i.e. if it necess ary to spread nitrogen fertilizer or not. MobilLas also contains a GPS so that it can indicate precisely where in the field the plants are. MobilLas can be used independent of sunlight at all hours of the day or night. This is crucial with regard to its p ractical use and data quality. - Full Article Source ITEM #101 02/17/11 - 'Toba heat technology to battle pests in high demand Bruce Klassen developed the Heat Assault technology out of mobile glycol heaters his company produced mainly for construction sites. Working with Manitoba Housing, which had a burgeoning bedbug problem in its properties over the past few years, Klassen’s invention is now in demand all over North America as the pests multiply drastically. The mobile system uses a diesel engine to produce high heat a home’s electrical system could not churn out. The system employs no pesticides. Bedbugs at all stages of dev elopment, from eggs to adults, are killed when infested property is heated above 50 C, causing the pests’ exoskeletons to crack, drying the bugs out. The process takes several hours. “This machine will put out 500,000 BTU an hour,” Klassen said. “I t’s the equivalent of 85 1,500-watt electric heaters plugged into the wall at the same time, so it’s an enormous amount of power we’re producing.” It costs about $1,500 to bring the Heat Assault system into an average-sized home in the city. “It’s a uniqu e system in that it’s so powerful,” Klassen said. “We’ve successfully done 20-storey buildings a floor at a time.” Reminds me of using car exhaust to kill rats - Exterminating Rats With Deadly Automobile Exhaust Gas - “IF THE fumes f rom an automobile exhaust can kill humans, they should have the same effect on rats,” said the head of the Department of Health of Highland Park, Michigan. And so onto the exhaust pipe of a dilapidated Model T Ford discarded by the police officials, the h ealth officers rigged up a rubber hose and established themselves as modern pied pipers. The “hunters” first seal all the holes of the building to be operated upon, leaving just two openings. The hose is then inserted into one of these, the engine of the Ford coaxed to wheeze a bit, and the carbon monoxide does the rest. (They should try this for the bedbugs and other critters...don't they breathe??? Seems like it would a lot cheaper and not waste so much power. - JWD) - Full Article Source ITEM #102 02/17/11 - Actor Baldwin Sues Costner Over Oil Invention Actor-turned-evangelist Stephen Baldwin is suing Kevin Costner amid claims he was "duped" into selling shares in the Field of Dreams star's company just as BP was about to invest in the firm. In his lawsuit, filed in a New Orleans federal court, Baldwin c laims he was "duped" into selling his shares in the company, Ocean Therapy Solutions (OTS), at the exact same time BP agreed to plough money into it. The filmmaker is demanding more than $4m (£2.5m) in damages while his fellow claimant, Spyridon Contogour is, is asking for more than $10m (£6.3m). Costner has requested the legal action be dismissed. He said that although he acted as a front man for the devices, he played no official role in the company responsible for distributing them. - Full Article Source ITEM #103 02/17/11 - When the wells run dry The practice and funding of science may change drastically when humanity enters an era of energy crisis, in which cheap oil is but a distant memory. The impending end of cheap oil has enormous implications for many of the ways that scientists, and especia lly ecologists, operate. These issues have generally gone un-discussed by economists and scientists over the last few decades of energy abundance, but the golden age of science where hundreds of billions of dollars have been spent on expensive and far flu ng research programs to answer basic scientific questions may be coming to an end. A second golden age could dawn, however, with scientists working closer to home on projects that provide for the human population and maintain valuable ecosystem services. Only time will tell. - Full Article Source ITEM #104 02/17/11 - Super-Efficient Cells Key to Low-Cost Solar Power The Amonix 7700 Concentrated Photovoltaic (CPV) Solar Power Generator, developed by Amonix and the U.S. Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory, is the size of an IMAX screen but costs much less than comparable generators, partly becau se of the efficiency of its small solar cells. It delivers more "energy per acre" than anything yet available in the solar energy world. NREL's partnerships with industry, such as this one with Amonix, are key to reaching aggressive White House goals incl uding lowering solar energy's installed cost to $1 a watt, which would make America a leader in renewable energy. The 7700 uses acrylic Fresnel lenses to concentrate sunlight up to 500 times its usual intensity and direct it onto 7,560 tiny, highly effici ent multi-junction PV cells. The cells, originally developed by NREL scientists, can convert 41.6 percent of the sunlight that shines on them into usable electricity in a laboratory setting, a world record. Production cells never work quite as well as cel ls produced in the lab. But the multi-junction cells on the Amonix 7700 are achieving 31 percent efficiency at the module level and 27 percent at the system level in the field, the highest ever achieved for an operating CPV concentrator. That unprecedente d efficiency opened the door to reducing costs and reducing land use — both key for solar electricity to reach cost-parity with fossil fuels. A six-inch square silicon wafer in traditional photovoltaic (PV) panels produces about 2.5 watts of electricity. That same-sized wafer, cut into hundreds of square-centimeter cells in the Amonix 7700, each teamed with a Fresnel lens, produces more than 1,500 watts. It reduces the required area for cells 500 times. The 7700 already has driven the price of electricity from solar down to the price of electricity from natural gas, according to the California Market Price Referent, which establishes a proxy price for electricity generated by a new state-of-the-art natural gas plant. Solar power is at or near price parity in six other states that share California's sunny and dry climates — Arizona, Nevada, Utah, New Mexico, Colorado and Texas. The 7700 also keeps down costs by integrating the lenses, the cells and the mounting structure into a single unit that eliminates most of the parts and costs associated with other concentrator designs. The seven MegaModules that make up the 53-kilowatt system can be hauled on two flatbed trucks, then assembled in the field in hours, rather than weeks. - Full Article Source ITEM #105 02/17/11 - Light Bulbs Advertised as 'Green' Contain Arsenic and Lead Those energy-saving little LED bulbs advertised as eco-friendly -- and used in strings of holiday lights and in car headlights -- actually contain toxic lead, arsenic and some other bad stuff, new research shows. As long as the bulbs aren't crushed, they pose no danger. And for saving electricity, they hands-down beat Thomas Edison's invention, the incandescent bulb, as well as the traditional bulb's successor, mercury-containing compact fluorescent bulbs. "We're not recommending that people throw them aw ay. These things have a long life expectancy," Oladele Ogunseitan, chair of University of California Irvine's Department of Population Health & Disease Prevention, told Consumer Ally about LED lights. For research published in the science journal Environm ental Science & Technology, Ogunseitan and his colleagues examined crushed holiday LED lights in a quest for health hazards. (That such examination hadn't been done before is, in itself, a "surprise," he says.) Oddly, they found the danger level varied by bulb color. White bulbs overall appeared to have relatively low toxicity: "they contain less copper and do not contain arsenic or lead," the study states. Red lights contained up to eight times the toxic lead permitted under California law. In general, b righter, high-intensity bulbs were more hazardous than others. "We find the low-intensity red LEDs exhibit significant cancer and non-cancer potentials due to the high content of arsenic and lead," the study states. Breathing toxic fumes from a single bro ken bulb wouldn't automatically cause cancer, but could prove a tipping point on top of chronic exposure to other carcinogens, according to a university press release. Toddlers could be harmed, Ogunseitan warned, if they mistook the bright lights for cand y. - Full Article Source ITEM #106 02/17/11 - Time for America to Run With an Idea Popular in 1905 -- The Electric Car Believe it or not, electric and hybrid cars were available for sale in America as early as 1905. Since that time, little has changed in the performance and availability of electric and hybrid cars. Electric-powered cars in the early 1900s outsold all othe r types of cars, including gasoline and steam engine vehicles. Consumers loved them because they lacked the vibration, smell and noise of gasoline-powered cars. Another advantages electric had over gasoline-powered vehicles was there were no gears to chan ge while driving. These are the same arguments being made today for development, production and sale of electric and hybrid cars. - Full Article Source ITEM #107 02/17/11 - Swimming microbots master U-turns Tiny robots swimming through our bodies zapping polyps or delivering drugs has been the stuff of future tech hype for decades. But even as this concept becomes closer to reality (albeit slowly), one of many big questions is: How do you steer the micromach ines? North Carolina State University recently demonstrated a technique to make their microbots do U-turns. From New Scientist: The microbot, a mere 1.3 millimetres long, is essentially a diode - an electrical element that only allows current to pass in o ne direction. The diode is exposed to an alternating electric field, which induces a voltage across it, creating an electric dipole. This dipole pushes on ions in the water, driving them backward and propelling the microbot forward. In order to mak e the bot turn, the group added a DC element to the field, modifying the initial AC field. Rachita Sharma and Orlin Velev believe that the DC field changes the distribution of the ions near the diode, and the torque they exert on the electric dipole cause s the microbot to rotate. Once the microbot completed its 180-degree turn, the researchers turned off the DC field, and the microbot swam off in the other direction. - Full Article Source ITEM #108 02/17/11 - Sun unleashes huge solar flare towards Earth The Sun has unleashed its strongest flare in four years, observers say. The eruption is a so-called X-flare, the strongest type; such flares can affect communications on Earth. Nasa's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) spacecraft recorded an intense flash o f extreme ultraviolet radiation emanating from a sunspot. The British Geological Survey (BGS) has issued a geomagnetic storm warning, and says observers might be able to see aurorae from the northern UK. The eruptions are expected to hit the Earth's magne tic field field over the next couple of days, causing an increase in geomagnetic activity. BGS scientists says that studying past solar activity could inform the prediction of future space weather and help mitigate threats to national infrastructure. In 1 972, geomagnetic storm provoked by a solar flare knocked out long-distance telephone communication across the US state of Illinois. And in 1989, another storm plunged six million people into darkness across the Canadian province of Quebec. Displays of the Northern Lights (Aurora Borealis) have already been seen further south than usual in Northern Ireland and elsewhere in the UK. And further activity is expected over the next few days. Researchers say the Sun has been awakening after a period of several y ears of low activity. - Full Article Source ITEM #109 02/17/11 - Infertility Could Impede Human Space Colonization "The prospect of long-term space travel has led scientists to consider, increasingly seriously, the following conundrum: if travelling to a new home might take thousands of years, would humans be able to successfully procreate along the way? The early ind ications from NASA are not encouraging. Space, it seems, is simply not a good place to have sex." - Full Article Source ITEM #110 02/17/11 - Have Scientists discovered the Root Cause for Aging? Scientists uncover the 'core pathway' of aging, the root molecular cause of declining health in the old. What we have found is the core pathway of aging connecting several age-related biological processes previously viewed as independent of each other," s aid Ronald A. DePinho, senior author of a report posted online by the journal Nature. The first author, Ergun Sahin, is a member of the DePinho Lab and an instructor in medicine at Harvard Medical School (HMS). DePinho, who is the director of Dana-Farber’ s Belfer Institute for Applied Cancer Science and also a professor of medicine at HMS, said that although the studies were conducted in mice, "The findings bear strong relevance to human aging, as this core pathway can be directly linked to virtually all known genes involved in aging, as well as current targeted therapies designed to mitigate the toll of aging on health." The scientists found that the basic cause of age-related health decline is malfunctioning telomeres — the end caps on cells' chromosomes that protect them against DNA damage. As cells reach their predetermined limit of times that they can divide, th e telomeres become shortened and frayed, making the chromosomal ends vulnerable to increased rates of unrepaired DNA damage. Faced with this increasing reservoir of injured DNA, cells activate a gene, p53, that sounds an alarm and shuts down the cells' no rmal growth and division cycle, ordering them to rest until the damage can be repaired or, if not, to self-destruct. Scientists previously had blamed this emergency shutdown and cell death for age-related deterioration of organs whose cells divide rapidly and are rejuvenated by reserves of adult stem cells. Such tissues include skin, intestinal lining, and blood cell s, among others, which generate trillions of new cells each day of life. However, left unanswered is how cells with less cell division, such as the heart or the liver, sustain equivalent levels of aging. The scientists felt if they could solve this myster y, they might gain new insights into how DNA damage could lead to age-related decline across all organs. The new findings demonstrate that the telomere dysfunction and activation of p53 also trigger a wave of cellular and tissue degeneration that links telomeres to well-known mechanisms of aging that are not simply related to rapid growth and division. In other words, telomere dysfunction is not just one culprit in the declining health of advanced age. It's the kingpin, according to DePinho and his colleagues. (And then there is Regenerat ion and Rejuvenation Project with 10 novel methods of life extension and rejuvenation. - JWD) - Full Article Source ITEM #111 02/17/11 - Two-way Radio Breakthrough To Double Wi-Fi Speeds "Scientists at Stanford University have built a radio that can transmit and receive at the same time on the same frequency. The breakthrough could lead to a twofold increase in performance for home wireless networks and end that annoying habit of pilots f inishing every sentence with 'over.'" - Full Article Source ITEM #112 02/17/11 - The Seven Types of Hackers A nifty article lists the seven types of malicious hackers. The list is: Cyber criminals; Spammers and adware spreaders; Advanced persistent threat (APT) agents; Corporate spies; Hactivists; Cyber warriors; and Rogue hackers. - Full Article Source ITEM #113 02/17/11 - US Gov't Mistakenly Shuts Down 84,000 Sites "Last Friday, the United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) seized ten websites accused of selling counterfeit goods or trafficking in child pornography. However, in the process, about 84,000 unrelated websites were taken offline when the gov ernment mistakenly seized the domain of a large DNS provider, FreeDNS. By now, the mistake has been corrected and most of the websites' domains again point to the sites themselves, rather than an intimidating domain seizure image. In a press release, the DHS praised themselves for taking down those ten websites, but completely failed to acknowledge their massive blunder." - Full Article Source ITEM #114 02/14/11 - Pinoy free energy invention causes sensation on YouTube A little over three months ago, googling “Ismael Aviso” would have you come up with a couple of YouTube videos showing a stationary, skeletal-looking car with a running engine fed not with petroleum but with power apparently coming from a box of capacitor s and a thick, horizontal antenna that collects and harnesses free-flowing energy. Inventor Ismael Aviso created a small prototype vehicle using just one 12-volt battery which is recharged by ambient RF energy. ...Engineer Ismael Aviso is a Microwave engineer and Industrial Automation designer invented the GREAT REPELLING FORCE OF FYMEGM ENERGY. It just a matter of time we can drive a Car without Gasoline and pollution. FYMEGM energy been featured in Chan2, N ET25, Chan4 and many newspaper like Bulletin. Witnessed and verified by three UP Professor including Dr. Scoto, Electronic and Electrical Professor Ismael discovered a new repelling force which has been coined by Ismael as the "FYMEGM ENERGY force". Th is technology is capable of powering an electric car engine with out the need for fuel. The Tests in Ismeal's video have confirmed that the unit is able to run on capacitors alone without the need for batteries. From his web site: So far only FYMEGM ENERGY (electromagnetic energy principle) can be the promising alternative repelling energy force now in the world. In terms of consump tion and availability of materials. No one can produce a repelling force from a small battery (64 watts only ) that repel a 1 kilo object up to more than 25 feet high WITHOUT DISCHARGING THE SMALL BATTERY, Only FYMEGM ENERGY can do that now. Once this repelling force applied into a rotating engine 60 times per second. It can run a Car hundred kilometers without worry of battery discharging. He said real road test by the prototype will coming soon. - Full Article Source Update of Electric Car being tested (Thanks Leysander) ITEM #115 02/14/11 - Pinoy free energy invention causes sensation on YouTube A little over three months ago, googling “Ismael Aviso” would have you come up with a couple of YouTube videos showing a stationary, skeletal-looking car with a running engine fed not with petroleum but with power apparently coming from a box of capacitor s and a thick, horizontal antenna that collects and harnesses free-flowing energy. Inventor Ismael Aviso created a small prototype vehicle using just one 12-volt battery which is recharged by ambient RF energy. ...Engineer Ismael Aviso is a Microwave engineer and Industrial Automation designer invented the GREAT REPELLING FORCE OF FYMEGM ENERGY. It just a matter of time we can drive a Car without Gasoline and pollution. FYMEGM energy been featured in Chan2, N ET25, Chan4 and many newspaper like Bulletin. Witnessed and verified by three UP Professor including Dr. Scoto, Electronic and Electrical Professor Ismael discovered a new repelling force which has been coined by Ismael as the "FYMEGM ENERGY force". Th is technology is capable of powering an electric car engine with out the need for fuel. The Tests in Ismeal's video have confirmed that the unit is able to run on capacitors alone without the need for batteries. From his web site: So far only FYMEGM ENERGY (electromagnetic energy principle) can be the promising alternative repelling energy force now in the world. In terms of consump tion and availability of materials. No one can produce a repelling force from a small battery (64 watts only ) that repel a 1 kilo object up to more than 25 feet high WITHOUT DISCHARGING THE SMALL BATTERY, Only FYMEGM ENERGY can do that now. Once this repelling force applied into a rotating engine 60 times per second. It can run a Car hundred kilometers without worry of battery discharging. He said real road test by the prototype will coming soon. - Full Article Source Update of Electric Car being tested (Thanks Leysander) ITEM #116 02/14/11 - How to change the world In Brazil, Fabio Rosa helped bring electricity to hundreds of thousands of remote rural residents. Rosa saw that high water costs were a significant obstacle for local rice farmers in Palmeras and that lowering these costs could improve productivity and w ealth. To address high water costs, Rosa understood that there was a need of an invention that would provide low cost electricity. At the time, 70 percent of rural residents in Palmeras were living without electricity. Rosa favored expanding access to ele ctricity through a new invention, which turned out be an inexpensive mono-phase electrification system developed by Professor Ennio Amaral. However, the system did not adhere to certain technical specifications as set forth in Brazilian law. Amaral and Ro sa waged a war against the government and big energy companies. With very primitive and insufficient facilities, but a very big heart for villagers, they won the battle. The use of mono-phase technology reduced the costs of electricity for each of these r ural households from $7,000 to $400. - Full Article Source ITEM #117 02/14/11 - Thermic lance made from spaghetti [Frogz] sent in a video he found of a thermic lance constructed from spaghetti. If you are not familiar, thermic lances are typically comprised of an iron tube filled with iron rods, which are then burned using highly pressurized oxygen. This lance howeve r, was built by tightly wrapping a bundle of spaghetti in aluminum foil and attaching it to an oxygen tank. While thermic lances are commonly used in heavy construction where thick steel needs to be cut, [latexiron] and his friends use theirs to cut apart a chair. While we don’t necessarily condone drunken destruction of innocent patio furniture, we can’t help but watch this video again and again in amazement of the incredibly novel use of everyday pasta. You too can join in the drunken revelry after the jump. If food-based cutting torches are your thing, be sure to check out this bacon lance as well. - Full Article Source ITEM #118 02/14/11 - Laser stops spreading cancer cells in their tracks In Photodynamic therapy, or PDT, doctors inject a light-sensitive drug into tumours near the skin's surface and then turn an infrared laser on it. The light encourages the drug to produce a form of oxygen that destroys cancer cells. The therapy is already used to precisely target several types of cancer tumour. But by using it on nearby vessels instead, Tuomas Tammela and his colleagues at the University of Helsinki in Finland think that PDT might help to stop cancer spread in its tracks. To halt cancer s pread through the lymphatic system, Tammela's team simply destroyed the lymphatic vessels near the tumour. They began by injecting the ears of mice with cancer cells and waiting for tumours to develop. They then chose a light-sensitive drug – verteporfin – that is an ideal size to squeeze into the lymphatic vessels and injected it under the skin of the ears of the mice. Two days later the team confirmed that verteporfin had been taken up by the lymph vessels around the tumours by shining ultraviolet light on the area, which makes the drug glow green. "Almost all collecting lymphatic vessels of the mouse ear could be filled with verteporfin after three to four injections," the researchers report. When the team then shone an infrared laser on the injected e ar, they were able to destroy all of the lymphatic vessels in the region – as well as the cancer cells in the tumour. A day after treatment, only one of eight mice had any trace of cancer remaining. - Full Article Source ITEM #119 02/14/11 - Vacuum has friction after all A BALL spinning in a vacuum should never slow down, since no outside forces are acting on it. At least that's what Newton would have said. But what if the vacuum itself creates a type of friction that puts the brakes on spinning objects? The effect, which might soon be detectable, could act on interstellar dust grains. Alejandro Manjavacas and F. Javier García de Abajo of the Institute of Optics at the Spanish National Research Council in Madrid say these forces should slow down spinni ng objects. Just as a head-on collision packs a bigger punch than a tap between two cars one behind the other, a virtual photon hitting an object in the direction opposite to its spin collides with greater force than if it hits in the same direction. So over time, a spinning object will gradually slow down, even if equal numbers of virtual photons bombard it from all sides. The rotational energy it loses is then emitted as real, detectable photons. The strength of the effect depends on the object's make-up and size. Objects whose electronic properties prevent them from easily absorbing electromagnetic waves, such as gold, may decelerate little or not at all. But small, low-density particles, w hich have less rotational momentum, slow down dramatically. The rate of deceleration also depends on temperature, since the hotter it is the more virtual photons pop in and out of existence, producing the friction. At room temperature, a 100-nanometre-wide grain of graphite, the kind that is abundant in interstellar dust, would take about 10 years to slow to about one-third of its initial speed. At 700 °C, an average temperature for hot areas of the universe, that same speed decrease would take only 90 days. In the cold of interstellar space, it would take 2.7 million years. How to float above a vacuum Houdini would be proud. It seems there is a way to levitate an object in a vacuum just by channelling the quantum fluctuations. The trick involves the Casimir effect, in which objects very close to one another are pulled together thanks to quantum fluctuations in the vacuum between and around them. When two plates are brought ever closer together, for example, fewer fluctuations can occur in the gap between them. Fluctuations on their outer sides, however, continue as normal. This pressure difference on either side of the plates forces them to stick together. In recent years, physicists have been trying to develop ways to reverse the Casimir effect and repel nearby objects, causing them to levitate. Previous suggestions have included inserting various materials between the objects to be repelled - such as exotic metamaterials, which bend electromagnetic waves in the opposite way to that expected, reversing the Casimir effect. Now, Stanislav Maslovski and Mário Silveirinha of the University of Coimbra in Portugal outline a way to repel objects with no filler material. Their setup, described in a paper to appear in Physical Review A, uses 40-nanometre-wide silver rods stuck in a substrate like candles on a cake. The metallic "candles" would channel the fluctuations between them, pushing anything placed there away. So if a perforated metal bar was lowered over the candles, with a candle poking through each hole, the bar should float, repelled in all directions by the candles between and around each hole. This makes me think there is a correlation with Specific Speed; Sec. 146. "I imagine that Specific Speed applies to all forms of matter. It consequently applies to light, to sound and vapor, quite as much as to lead, iron , or other ponderables, if it be true that everything which we can perceive is matter or partakes of the nature of matter. But if the assumption that light is material is a sound one, then the Specific Speed of which it is possessed must be the result of a very great affect upon its matter by dynamic force. There is nothing against such a postulate as this. Sec. 147. "What is Specific Speed? It is a definite rate of motion of an atom about its own axis in a given direction..." Sec. 161. "Specific Speed offers the most reasonable explanation, it appears to me, for when two definite speeds, each different, unite to retard each other, and thereby produce a new Specific Speed, of course, the behavior of the new Specific Speed in company with the second Specific Speed would be different from the action of the parent speeds mixed with the same agent. Sec. 171. "When you admit that dynamic force (or magnetism) is the agent of motion - which by more or less affecting inert substance is productive of all the various aspects of matter, whether that matter is ponderable or imponderable, luminouse or non-luminous - you make a very important admission, in that if we can find a means of so controlling this dynamic force that we can of ourselves cause it to affect inert matter to a greater or lesser degree, or can cause it to augment or retard matter already possessed of its motion, we have the power of changing one element into another at our option. The Aether/ZPE Spectrum aether/zpe slowed down produces ....gravity slowed down produces .......magnetism slowed down produces ..........electricity slowed down produces .............light slowed down produces ................heat slowed down produces ...................sound slowed down produces ......................vibration slowed down produces matter Or is it magnetism reduces to electricity which reduces to gravity? - Full Article Source ITEM #120 02/14/11 - 'Air laser' tech could sniff bombs, probe atmos from afar Engineers at Princeton uni say they have come up with a way of making a very sensitive chemical analysis of a piece of air that is a long distance from the sensing equipment. Thus the very faint traces of explosive which are emitted from concealed bombs c ould be picked up – just as sniffer dogs can sometimes trace it – but from outside the bomb's lethal radius. The system works by remotely generating a pulse of laser light at the air volume to be sampled, which then shines back at the detector instrument. This strong infrared illumination right by the volume to be analysed means that potentially very low concentrations of chemicals can be detected, the more so as it is coherent light – a laser – which naturally carries information across the distance to t he detecting instrument more efficiently and with less scatter than ordinary light would. The infrared laser behind the target volume is generated out of thin air by shining a cunningly focused ultraviolet laser out from the detector. This energises a cyl inder of air just a millimetre long, situated at the place to be scanned, and turns it into a gas laser aimed back at the scanner. "We are able to send a laser pulse out and get another pulse back from the air itself," says Richard Miles, Princeton engine ering prof. "The returning beam interacts with the molecules in the air and carries their fingerprints." Miles and his colleagues say that their method sends back a beam "thousands of times" stronger than can be obtained by existing methods such as reflec ting lasers off objects beyond the area of interest. They think that this will allow much lower trace levels of airborne substances to be picked up. Thus far the "air laser" effect has only been demonstrated in the lab at distances a bit over a foot, but Miles and his colleagues say that focusing the ultraviolet energising laser at points further off should be straightforward. The engineers consider that it ought to be possible to build a scanner which could be mounted on a vehicle and be able to pick up the extremely faint plumes of explosives emitted from buried mines, hidden roadside bombs etc, from well down the road. - Full Article Source ITEM #121 02/14/11 - The Cars of Tomorrow A short film released by Popular Mechanics on May 21, 1948. A showcase of the technology of the near future. - Full Article Source ITEM #122 02/14/11 - US gov says it can't build an interstellar starship The goal of the US government's "100-Year Starship" project – we are told in an official statement released yesterday – is to hand the task of actually organising, funding and building the eventual starship to someone else as the United States itself does n't think it has the energy and resolution to do the job. “Looking at history, most significant exploration, like crossing oceans or continents for the first time, was sponsored by patrons or groups outside of government," says David Neyland, top boffin i n charge of the project. "We’re here because we’d like to start with a mechanism that gets this long-range project out of the government, and make sure it is an energized and self-sustaining enterprise.” As we suspected when the 100-Year Starship plan was first announced, the idea seems to be that interstellar exploration will require the creation of some new kind of organisation able to somehow seize and focus a major fraction of humanity's resources over a long period of time. - Full Article Source ITEM #123 02/14/11 - Saudi Arabia cannot pump enough oil to keep a lid on prices The US fears that Saudi Arabia, the world's largest crude oil exporter, may not have enough reserves to prevent oil prices escalating, confidential cables from its embassy in Riyadh show. The cables, released by WikiLeaks, urge Washington to take seriousl y a warning from a senior Saudi government oil executive that the kingdom's crude oil reserves may have been overstated by as much as 300bn barrels – nearly 40%. Sadad al-Husseini, a geologist and former head of exploration at the Saudi oil monopoly Aramc o, met the US consul general in Riyadh in November 2007 and told the US diplomat that Aramco's 12.5m barrel-a-day capacity needed to keep a lid on prices could not be reached. According to the cables, which date between 2007-09, Husseini said Saudi Arabia might reach an output of 12m barrels a day in 10 years but before then – possibly as early as 2012 – global oil production would have hit its highest point. This crunch point is known as "peak oil". Husseini said that at that point Aramco would not be ab le to stop the rise of global oil prices because the Saudi energy industry had overstated its recoverable reserves to spur foreign investment. He argued that Aramco had badly underestimated the time needed to bring new oil on tap. One cable said: "Accordi ng to al-Husseini, the crux of the issue is twofold. First, it is possible that Saudi reserves are not as bountiful as sometimes described, and the timeline for their production not as unrestrained as Aramco and energy optimists would like to portray." It went on: "In a presentation, Abdallah al-Saif, current Aramco senior vice-president for exploration, reported that Aramco has 716bn barrels of total reserves, of which 51% are recoverable, and that in 20 years Aramco will have 900bn barrels of reserves. - Full Article Source ITEM #124 02/14/11 - How Small Towns Have Found the Trick to Defeating Corporations "Cities and states across the nation are selling and leasing everything from airports to zoos -- a fire sale that could help plug budget holes now but worsen their financial woes over the long run," the Wall Street Journal reports. "California is looking to shed state office buildings. Milwaukee has proposed selling its water supply; in Chicago and New Haven, Conn., its parking meters. In Louisiana and Georgia, airports are up for grabs." If this seems shocking, it shouldn't. For the past 30 years, there has been a deliberate effort to deregulate industry and to choke off federal support for public services and public spaces, paving the way for greater corporate control. The push to privatize is nothing new, it's just that our economic crisis is the lates t opportunity. This fire sale is ignited during times of crisis -- what Naomi Klein referred to in The Shock Doctrine as "disaster capitalism," courtesy of Milton Friedman and his Chicago school disciples. But there's a glimmer of good news. Across the co untry, small, disparate groups of people are wising up and taking action to combat corporate control by using a new strategy. And these citizens are winning. One of the first rallying calls has been against the privatization of public water infrastructure and attempts by corporate water bottlers to pilfer spring water, as well. Communities are welcoming "Democracy Schools," run by the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund, into their towns, in an attempt to better understand the laws that protect cor porations and the ways to defeat them. - Full Article Source ITEM #125 02/14/11 - Glass Melts When it Gets Ultracold Most of the time, not many interesting things happen once a substance gets below the temperature required for solification. Its atoms are bound to one another, and without the indroduction of some kind of energy, they’ll stay that way. Glass, it turns out , is the exception. Once it gets close to absolute zero, it melts again. But what could make that happen? The atoms in glass chilled to near-absolute zero have almost no energy, so they can’t be jiggling fast enough to tear apart from each other. And yet, on paper and in computer simulations, glass returned to a liquid form when brought close enough to absolute zero. The wild card turned out to be quantum mechanics. Once the atoms of glass became still enough, they stopped acting like particles and instea d acted like waves. The wave-like atoms now were able to flow, moving through spaces too small for particles to get through. This motion, and this ability to fit through small spaces, causes ultra-cold glass to melt into a liquid. - Full Article Source ITEM #126 02/14/11 - Sticky Tape Could Soon be Used to Diagnose Skin Cancer A new study, published in the ‘British Journal of Dermatology’, has found that the tape — a few millimetres wide — can painlessly strip tiny cells from the skin without the need for anaesthetic or the risk of scarring. The study has shown the cells can be analysed using a simple genetic screening technique to reveal if the growth is cancerous and how dangerous it is. Although the research is still at an early stage, the scientists hope they may eventually no longer have to carry out biopsies to diagnose s kin cancers, the ‘Daily Express’ reported. In the study, the scientists found that the skin cells left on the sticky tape contain small bits of genetic information. The scientists demonstrated how normal skin cells contain 17 specific genes proving they a re healthy. But when cancer is present, these genes subtly mutate. Laboratory test of skin cells collected on the sticky tape can reveal any unusual changes in the genes that would indicate cancer. The scientists hope further tests will confirm that their sticky tape works on all patients and may also be more accurate than current techniques using biopsies. - Full Article Source ITEM #127 02/14/11 - People Don’t Explode in Space Countless science fiction films have exposed their characters to the vacuum of space – often, with explosive results. Outland’s victims of explosive decompression leave behind gory, reddened walls reminiscent of a Jackson Pollock painting. Perhaps most fa mously, in Total Recall Arnold Schwarzenegger played an increasingly bug-eyed Quaid when he ventured unprotected onto the airless plains of Mars. Grotesque decompression deaths are a staple of the genre. These displays of spectacular tissue damage might s eem like reasonable speculation, yet we’ve known otherwise for centuries. There are several accounts of human beings accidentally exposed to near vacuum. Most dramatically, a test subject at NASA’s Johnson Space Center with a leaky spacesuit experienced a near vacuum. He was unconscious after 14 seconds and remembers feeling the saliva on his tongue beginning to boil, but after the test chamber was repressurized he recovered quickly. If ever you’re exposed to space for a brief period, don’t try to hold yo ur breath – the pressure difference between your air-filled lungs and the vacuum is likely to cause some damage. Don’t worry about the cold, either – space is chilly, yes, but the lack of air will make the transfer of heat from your body quite slow. There might be some painful swelling, but nothing so dramatic as a messy and very personal explosion. (I couldn't find the URLs but I remember three stories of death by suction. One was a guy who got caught in an industrial suction vent for several hours and it slowly sucked all the blood out of his body, another was probably a fake story about a guy s itting on a jet toilet and flushing which sucked his guts out and the last was about a guy getting caught in a swimming pool suction port when the drain pump switched on, it sucked his guts out. Of course in an ambient vacuum like space, high pressure wou ld seek to escape. - JWD) - Full Article Source ITEM #128 02/14/11 - 'Eco' LED lights could cause cancer They actually contain lead, arsenic and a dozen other potentially hazardous substances, according to Oladele Ogunseitan, chair of UC Irvine’s Department of Population Health & Disease Prevention. "LEDs are touted as the next generation of lighting. But as we try to find better products that do not deplete energy resources or contribute to global warming, we have to be vigilant about the toxicity hazards of those marketed as replacements," says Ogunseitan. He and his team crushed the tiny, multicolored lig htbulbs sold in Christmas strands, along with red, yellow and green traffic lights and automobile headlights and brake lights. They found that low-intensity red lights contained up to eight times the amount of lead allowed under California law, leading to 'significant' potential to cause cancer. High-intensity, brighter bulbs had more contaminants than lower ones. White bulbs contained the least lead, but had high levels of nickel. Other substances found in the bulbs have been shown to cause a range of ca ncers, neurological damage, kidney disease, hypertension, skin rashes and other illnesses. Ogunseitan says that while breaking a single light and breathing fumes wouldn't automatically cause cancer, it could be a tipping point on top of chronic exposure t o another carcinogen. - Full Article Source ITEM #129 02/14/11 - All-American Streetcar Boom Fuels Urban Future Outside the famous Powell's bookstore, a 21st-century streetcar glides to a stop, opens its doors, and lets out a mix of tourists and locals. Modern streetcars have been running in this city for about a decade, and Chandra Brown lives right along their ro ute. In fact, the U.S. is in a streetcar boom. More than a dozen cities either have them or are actively planning for their development, Oregon Rep. Earl Blumenauer says. "You don't have to be a large, metropolitan area to support it," he says. "Little Ke nosha, Wis., has a streetcar. Little Rock has a streetcar." "What the skeptics, I think, forget, is that virtually every American city was designed around a streetcar," Blumenauer says. "I mean, the most ambitious plans for Washington, D.C., are approximately one-fifth of what the District had 100 years ago." Blumenauer was a champion of streetcars years before his state started manufacturing them. He says they're green, they last de cades, and businesses are more likely to set up shop along a streetcar route because they know it won't move the way a bus line might. "So reintroducing the streetcar is actually back to the future," he says, "and this is what this community was about whe n it was coming together a century ago." - Full Article Source ITEM #130 02/14/11 - Chernobyl birds have smaller brains Birds living near the site of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster have 5 per cent smaller brains caused by lingering background radiation, according to researchers. Scientists looked at 550 birds from 48 different species living in the exclusion zone surroundi ng the Ukranian power plant. Brain size was significantly smaller than those living in unpolluted areas, a study published in the journal PLoS One said. Particularly affected were birds under the age of one. They found that radiation could have a greater effect on a bird's internal organs than on its brain. This is because the brain is the last organ birds sacrifice when tackling difficult environmental conditions. But a high level of background radiation is thought to cause oxidative stress in animals. T hey then use antioxidants to combat this, which leaves them with less to develop their brains and therefore a smaller organ, the researchers said. Another theory raised is that the birds' development is being stifled by a lack of prey living in the area. However, scientists have never recorded a case of a wild animal's brain shrinking because of too little food. - Full Article Source ITEM #131 02/14/11 - Uncrippling lower model speakers It looks like this low-end Sennheiser HD speaker has the same internals as it’s better-brother but has been altered to reduce sound quality. It’s not uncommon for manufacturers to hobble a product in order to sell more units at a lower price that reflects less features. Linksys WRT54G routers immediately come to mind, or perhaps the more recent Rigol 100 MHz oscilloscope hack is a better example. In this case, that black piece of foam on the left has been added to the 555 version of the hardware to decrea se the sound quality you get from the much more expensive 595 model. Take it out and you’ve got an upgrade that would have cost you more than a hundred bucks. Don’t think this is the only difference? There is a bit of a difference in case design, but [Mik e Beauchamp] also found that if you acquire a replacement driver for either model you’ll get the same part. - Full Article Source ITEM #132 02/14/11 - Radiation sterilizes space born Baby Girls Astronauts sent to colonize Mars should avoid getting pregnant on the way to the Red Planet, warn scientists. High-energy radiation particles would almost certainly sterilize any female foetus conceived in deep space. And this would it make it much more d ifficult to establish a successful Mars colony once the crew lands, they believe. Studies in non-human primates have found that even relatively low doses of ionizing radiation are sufficient to kill most of the immature oocytes, or egg cells, in a female foetus during the second half of pregnancy. If those results apply to people as well, then a girl conceived in interplanetary space might well be born sterile because of damage to her eggs. - Full Article Source ITEM #133 02/14/11 - Human Wings Are Predicted (Dec, 1929) Click on image for my Gravity Proposal - Full Article Source ITEM #134 02/14/11 - Mubarak used last 18 days in power to secure his fortune The former Egyptian president is accused of amassing a fortune of more than £3 billion - although some suggest it could be as much as £40 billion - during his 30 years in power. It is claimed his wealth was tied up in foreign banks, investments, bullion a nd properties in London, New York, Paris and Beverly Hills. In the knowledge his downfall was imminent, Mr Mubarak is understood to have attempted to place his assets out of reach of potential investigators. On Friday night Swiss authorities announced the y were freezing any assets Mubarak and his family may hold in the country's banks while pressure was growing for the UK to do the same. Mr Mubarak has strong connections to London and it is thought many millions of pounds are stashed in the UK. But a seni or Western intelligence source claimed that Mubarak had begun moving his fortune in recent weeks. - Full Article Source ITEM #135 02/14/11 - Unwashed socks could be antidote to mosquito bites A Kenyan scientist has invented a mosquito bait incorporating worn socks and fermenting yeast in a sugary solution. Dr Richard Mukabana, the inventor of the special insect snare, says the discovery was made while testing various ingredients for mak ing bait that would help lure the little blood-sucking parasites away from humans. So how does Mukabana’s new invention work? The researcher says that it is long established that carbon dioxide that forms part of the breath exhaled by humans and other boned animals lays an important role in helping any blood-sucking insects to locate them. "To locate us, mosquitoes follow the carbon dioxide we emit from our skin and exhale in our breaths. They then suck blood from us during and/or after which they transmit diseases like malaria and dengue into our bodies." For this reason, the scient ist confides, for a long time scientists have been using traps that are baited with industrially-produced carbon dioxide to capture mosquitoes for study. Mukabana set out on a mission to search for, develop and/or adopt any existing method of producing carbon dioxide cheaply. This is how the researcher settled on using the readily available baker’s yeast, sugar and water. When these three are mixed, he says, the sugar starts fermenting thereby releasing a lot of carbon dioxide. The top performing traps were those containing a combination of carbon dioxide derived from the yeast mixture and worn socks. In the semi-field trials, unbaited traps caug ht only five per cent of the mosquitoes that were released. And where the bait was worn socks alone only 43 per cent of the insects released were ensnared while the combination of a worn sock and yeast-produced carbon dioxide caught nearly 80 per cent of released mosquitoes. The scientist thinks that the yeast may also release other gases in addition to carbon dioxide when it ferments. "If I am right in my hypothesis, then other gases that are produced during fermentation could be also produced by bodies of the human being," he said. Traps made using socks and yeast solution could, he says, significantly reduce costs and allow sustai nable mass application of odour-baited devices for mosquito sampling in remote areas. While producing carbon dioxide from yeast using a bottle of sugar and water is easy and possible in every African home, more research is needed to determine exactly what chemicals from the human scents attracted mosquitoes, says the researcher. - Full Article Source ITEM #136 02/14/11 - Thinking Cap improves creativity by about 300%. Researchers create a 'thinking cap' that can safely up-mod your creativity by about 300%. Professor Allan Snyder and Richard Chi from Sydney University's Centre of the Mind have engineered a cap that can make you three times as likely to be able to solve a complex problem. It was previously know that brain trauma victims sometimes experience a suppression of the left temporal lobe, which has the effect of removing the governing function that part of your brain normally exercises over the right or creative side of your brain. The scientists found that they were able to duplicate this rare effect sometimes induced by brain trauma, by creating a cap that creates 10-15 minutes of electrical pulses in your brain. These pulses safely and temporarily reduce t he activity in your left temporal lobe. Freeing up the creative side of your brain to function at several times your normal levels of creativity. The effect last for about one hour. Then your temporal lobe begins restricting your right brain's creativ e function as usual, and your level of creative declines back to your norm. - Full Article Source ITEM #137 02/14/11 - Science Programs Hit Hard By Proposed Budget "The House of Representatives Committee on Appropriations has released a list of proposed spending cuts for the US Federal Government. The proposed cuts include reductions in spending on many science organizations and funds such as NASA, NOAA, nuclear energy research, fossil fuel energy research, clean coal research, the CDC, the NIH, and numerous EPA programs. There are also quite a few cuts proposed on domestic services, such as Americorps and high speed rail research. The House Appropriations Ch airman, Hal Rogers, acknowledges that the cuts go deep, and would hurt every district across the country. But they are still deemed necessary to rein in Congressional spending. Notoriously absent from the proposed budget cuts are two of the largest spe nding sinks in the federal budget: the Department of Defense and Social Security." - Full Article Source ITEM #138 02/14/11 - Subtle Cyber Attacks Could Tilt Global Economies "A subtle, yet powerfully destructive force of electronic attacks may be working slowly and silently to disrupt elements of the world's market-based economies. Recent cyber-attacks on the European Emissions Trading Scheme shut down that exchange's carbon market just a few weeks ago. Along with the fear of lights-out DDoS attacks that has traditionally stalked electronic markets, and logically still does, new types of attacks by subtle manipulation could slowly turn electronic markets on their heads by cor rupting their very legitimacy. What's worse? Attacking someone's borders, or slowly disrupting and degrading confidence in their entire national economic well-being?" - Full Article Source ITEM #139 02/14/11 - DailyMotion Now Streaming Live News "Beet.TV reports that DailyMotion has begun streaming live news from Al Jazeera, BBC, and France 24 among others. They write, 'Paris-based DailyMotion, the world's second biggest online video site, has integrated with London-based live news portal Livesta tion to provide a number of live streaming television news networks including Al Jezeera, Bloomberg, the BBC, France 24, and sources from other nations as well as from oganizations including the United Nations and NASA.'" - Full Article Source ITEM #140 02/11/11 - Self-powering Hot Water Heater Errol Kreamer, 87, has improved on the solar-powered water heater he has used for the past 25 years to help heat the water in his Marrero home. The new heater, which measures 12 feet by 6 feet by 4 feet, can hold 500 gallons of water in its tanks – compared to just 60 in the initial heater – but runs on the same elegantly simple principle. The system, known as a “batch heater,” is basically an insulated box in which cold water enters the box and is heated by the sun, and then the hotter water rises to the top and out to the shower, sink and even the washer/dryer. “There’s no pumps or anything to hook up to it,” Kreamer said. The new heater also uses three large reflectors to augment the existing solar energy entering the tank, which is particularly helpful during the colder, darker winter months when water entering the heater’s collector can be below 40 degrees. Both heaters – the old and the new – cut down on Kreamer’s energy costs tremendously. - Full Article Source ITEM #141 02/11/11 - House Fails To Extend Patriot Act Spy Powers "The House failed to extend three key expiring provisions of the Patriot Act on Tuesday, elements granting the government broad and nearly unchecked surveillance power on its own public. The failure of the bill, sponsored by Rep. James F. Sensenbrenner Jr. (R-Wis), for the time being is likely to give airtime to competing measures in the Senate that would place limited checks on the act's broad surveillance powers. The White House, meanwhile, said it wanted the expiring measures extended through 20 13." - Full Article Source ITEM #142 02/11/11 - Float: ultralight rubber-band-powered duration model planes These beautiful dragonfly-like model planes can float for up to half an hour under the power of one single-wound rubber band. Check out the trailer for Float posted by Phil Kibbe. Amazing craftsmanship and techniques! - Full Article Source Float Documentary Trailer from Phil Kibbe on Vimeo. ITEM #143 02/11/11 - Helping America Win the Clean Energy Race Dramatically increasing the certainty and transparency of market demand for innovative, clean, and efficient technology is the first and most important step in ensuring that the U.S. remains a major player in these rapidly growing global markets. Without clear market signals here at home, domestic investment in clean tech will falter and we will cede potential American jobs and businesses to our global competitors. The sooner we make a commitment to build a domestic clean energy market, the sooner Amer ican innovation, entreprenuership, venture capital, and advanced manufacturing skills can be fully unleashed; that will be needed to ensure early leadership. We offer in this paper five “design principles” that are essential for ensuring that a clean energy standard speeds the coming transformation of our nation’s electricity grid to a truly sustainable mix of clean, efficient, and renewable energy, while realizing the jobs and economic promise of these emerging industries. As Congress and the Obama administration work to craft effective clean energy legislation they should ensure that any standard meets the following core principles: * It must generate new, long-lasting jobs and grow the economy * It must effectively spur development and deployment of renewable energy and energy efficiency technologies * It must account for regional diversity in resources and electricity markets * It must be simple and transparent, and minimize costs * It must provide a floor not a ceiling for clean energy, strengthening and building on existing state leadership To put these design principles into practice we will later in this paper introduce nine key milestones that should shape the design and development of a specific clean energy standard. If we meet the challenge of passing an effective clean energy po licy for the nation, we can create jobs in American industries evenp as we cut bills for homeowners, safeguard public health and the environment, and improve our national and economic security. - Full Article Source ITEM #144 02/11/11 - Water Turbine Designed after the Basking Shark Industrial designer Anthony Reale was inspired by the natural flow of water through a basking shark to design a water turbine that could be used to harness the energy of the Detroit River. The basking shark swims for eighteen hours a day with its five foot-wide mouth open to sift for food. Reale thinks that this model of water flow is more efficient than conventional turbines. He built a prototype and tested it successfully in an experimental water tank. - Full Article Source ITEM #145 02/11/11 - UFO over Temple Mount in Jerusalem is a Hoax! It’s pretty cool, but an obvious hoax. Imagine you’re standing late at night videotaping the scene with a friend because it’s so pretty. Out of nowhere a bright light comes down out of the sky, hovers over one of the most famous temples on the planet, the n flashes brilliantly and shoots straight up at fantastic speed. Would you just stand there like a lump without showing any reaction at all, like the guy in the video? Also, it seems a little weird that such an incredibly bright object could hang over thi s heavily visited site, even in the middle of the night, and there were no reports of any eyewitnesses. Just one video that turns up, and a few days later a couple more. Seriously? And now this video has been conclusively shown to be faked. Whoever made i t used commercial software to mimic the "handheld camera" effect, as can be clearly shown in this debunking video (you only need to watch the first minute to see how it was done)... (So why doesn't he make a similar video using the technique he claims??? If you can't make a similar video, equal to or better than, then why believe you? - JWD) - Full Article Source ITEM #146 02/11/11 - Nissan Esflow hybrid has 149 mile range The two-seater Esflow is unmistakably aimed to compete as a sports car with an ultra-low-profile aluminum chassis, a wraparound windshield, and roll bars incorporated behind each seat. It's a rear-wheel drive car that contains two electric motors, each on e mounted over the rear wheel it powers above the rear axis, according to Nissan. The car was designed using the same lithium ion batteries as in the Nissan Leaf, but mounted very low and toward the center of the car. Nissan claims this change "centralize s the mass of the car, and thus its rotation point, close to the driver's hips." The Esflow has a range of about 240 kilometers (149 miles) per charge, significantly more than the current Nissan Leaf which claims to get about 100 miles per charge. The all -electric 2010 Tesla Roadster Sport, for comparison, claims about 244 miles on a full charge, though CNET testing of the Tesla found its range to be between 150 to 200 miles. It can accelerate from zero to 100 kilometers (62 miles) in 5 seconds, according to Nissan. Other features include LED lights, LCD screens, and small rear-view cameras mounted near the car's side mirrors. - Full Article Source ITEM #147 02/11/11 - Hillary On Drugs Asked by Denise Maerker of Televisa what she thought of drug legalization, Clinton said it was unlikely to work. "There is just too much money in it," Clinton said. "You can legalize small amounts for possession, but those who are making so much money sel ling, they have to be stopped. They can’t be given an even easier road to take, because they will then find it in their interest to addict even more young people." The comments drew criticism from legalization advocates who argued her position was a misun derstanding of the situation. "Clinton's response illustrates not only the intellectual bankruptcy of the prohibitionist position but the economic ignorance of a woman who would be president," Jacob Sullum argued at Reason.com. - Full Article Source ITEM #148 02/11/11 - American dream being demolished To the Editor: As a 20-year-old college student, I am very concerned about America’s future and the problems that are going to be left to my generation. After watching president obama’s State of the Union speech last Tuesday, I was somewhat confused. First, I wish someone would explain to me how this works: the President says we need to spend more money on educating students, rebuilding our infrastructure, and funding research for innovation in alternative energy sources, all the while saying we’re not going to spend more money. The President also stated that he would work more closely with Republicans, by making the same offers he has made but not acted on in previous speeches. For example: “If you have ideas about how to improve the heath-care reform law…I am eager to work with you,” and “I’m willing to look at other ideas to bring down costs, including one that republicans suggested last year: medical malpractice reform to rei n in frivolous lawsuits.” My point is, how can you take this promise of obama seriously while he is admitting he didn’t act on it when the Republicans proposed it before. I wish I didn’t have a 250-word limit because there are so many other points to be made. Anyhow, maybe I am just young and naïve but I believe in the American dream, a dream that is being demolished by our current leader. To me this is very scary, mayb e not for everyone out there, but certainly for my generation. Luke Roman Madison - Full Article Source ITEM #149 02/11/11 - Facts about Solar Energy Solar Energy is better for the environment than traditional forms of energy. Solar energy has many uses such as electricity production and heating of water through photovoltaic cells and directly for drying clothes. Solar energy can also be used to heat s wimming pools, power cars, for attic fans, calculators and other small appliances. It produces lighting for indoors or outdoors. You can even cook food with solar energy. Solar Energy is becoming more and more popular. The worldwide demand for Solar Energ y is currently greater than supply. Facts about Solar Energy usage: * Solar Energy is measured in kilowatt-hour. 1 kilowatt = 1000 watts. * 1 kilowatt-hour (kWh) = the amount of electricity required to burn a 100 watt light bulb for 10 hours. * According to the US Department of Energy, an average American household used approximately 866-kilowatt hours per month in 1999 costing them $70.68. * About 30% of our total energy consumption is used to heat water. * A home solar system is typically made up of solar panels, an inverter, a battery, a charge controller, wiring and support structure. * A 1-kilowatt home solar system takes about 1-2 days to install and costs around US$10,000, but can vary greatly and does not take into account any incentives offered by the government. * A 1-kilowatt home solar system consists of about 10-12 solar panels and requires about 100 square feet of installation area. * A 1 kilowatt home solar system will generate approximately 1,600 kilowatt hours per year in a sunny climate (receiving 5.5 hours of sunshine per day) and approximately 750 kilowatt hours per year in a cloudy climate (receiving 2.5 hours of sunshine per day). * A 1-kilowatt home solar system will prevent approximately 170 lbs. of coal from being burned, 300 lbs of CO2 from being released into the atmosphere and 105 gallons of water from being consumed each month! * About 40 solar cells are usually combined into a solar panel and around 10-12 panels mounted in an array facing due North to receive maximum sunlight. Solar energy can be collected and stored in batteries, reflected, insulated, absorbed and transmitted. Relying on the battery back up, a solar energy system can provide electricity 24x7, even on cloudy days and at night. - Full Article Source ITEM #150 02/11/11 - ARPA-E projects attract big money The Advanced Research Projects Agency - Energy (ARPA-E) announced yesterday that 6 of their 37 projects have been successfully attracting outside investment. Since their initial funding under the Recovery Act (a total of $23.6 million), the highlighted pr ojects have taken in $108 million. One of these potential game-changers is General Compression, which has attracted an additional $12 million since last July when it received its seed funding of $750,000 from ARPA-E. The company hopes to solve the problem of storing big influxes of wind and solar power for steadier use by the grid. Altogether the projects target energy storage, cheaper solar, more efficient wind turbines, and better batteries. Though they will likely not see commercialization anytime soon , sparking investor interest offers hope that the innovations might eventually surface in the marketplace. The ARPA-E Energy Innovations Summit takes place at the end of this month. / ARPA-E was founded on the idea that technological innovation in energy is an imperative and that the government can play a significant role in helping the private sector thrive. By conducting potentially breakthrough research that the private sector deems too risky, the agency has the potential to open up whole new industrie s, just as DARPA did with the Internet and GPS. - Full Article Source ITEM #151 02/11/11 - 98 Incredible Photos of Levitation Man can fly, but he can't yet levitate. Maybe that's why these 98 photos of levitation—using Photoshop only to remove the strings—are so striking. (I think people once COULD fly using mental or mechanical means, to that end, my Gravity Research Proposal for those who 'get it'. It's all about reducing local gravity. - JWD) - Full Article Source ITEM #152 02/11/11 - Solar thermal power plants Strong growth in the capacities of solar thermal power plants can currently be observed around the world, the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems ISE reports in a press release. So far, these Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) plants have been constructed mainly in southern Europe and the US, even though North Africa and the Middle East actually have the biggest global application potential and thus the largest opportunities for this technology. Action plan to realize local production capacities - The study “MENA Assessment of Local Manufacturing Potential for Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) Projects” was conducted by Fraunhofer ISI and Fraunhofer ISE in cooperation with Ernst & Young. Working together with industry in North Africa and Europe, the researchers analyzed the CSP value chain, the production processes of a solar thermal plant’s core components and the industry potentials in the MENA countries. An action plan to realize local production capacities is shown in the form of a roadmap. Mario Ragwitz, who heads the study at Fraunhofer ISI, emphasizes that such an action plan is able to tap a large potential of the local value added and the turnover and jobs associated with this. 80,000 new jobs could be created in the MENA region - The study results indicate that the local value added for CSP plants in the MENA region can reach up to 60 percent on average. Christoph Kost, head of the study at Fraunhofer ISE, estimates the effect due to local value added in the region to be USD$14.3 billion if sustainable, long-term demand is created. 60,000 to 80,000 new jobs, some of them highly qualified permanent positions, could be created in the MENA region by 2025. Countries stand to profit from the development of production capacities and extensive infrastructure construction projects in the field of renewable energies if they exploit their regional advantages and dismantle market barriers. According to Fraunhofer, European plant manufacturers and component suppliers also see large growth opportunities in this market in the medium term. Europe and MENA both stand to benefit from the enormous solar power potential of the region via new markets for the companies of the two continents. - Full Article Source ITEM #153 02/11/11 - Cut Spending or Invest in Energy Innovation: A Timely Debate With the Tea Party's success in the last election and bama's recent focus on re-investing in America's innovation capacity, the debate between 'deficit hawks' and 'innovation hawks' has dominated recent headlines. Today's event, much like the larger dialogue, focused on the appropriate role of the government in the economy. In Fred Block's opening statement, he defined a three point argument that became the focal point for much of the debate: 1. Most of the necessary deficit reductions will have to come from economic growth - a position shared by conservative as seen in their support for Bush's tax cuts. 2. Greatly expanded R&D is critical for the rapid economic growth. 3. Public investment in R&D, especially in energy, is essential because of market failures. The government's long history of funding the R&D that has lead to some of the nation's greatest inventions also became a point of contention between the two sides. Kreutzer pointed to ARPA's creation of the predecessor to the Internet as a reason the g overnment should not pursue clean tech R&D, saying that the intended function of the Internet was not to facilitate commercial exchanges, but rather for military purposes. His argument being that the government does not do a good job at applied research.< /p> Yet that example, and his basic analysis, seem like the very argument for federal R&D. Government supported research, because it gives technologies multiple strikes, facilitates profound unintentional positive outcomes. Where as projects in a privat e lab are meant for commercial ends, the government is able to provide more flexibility due to its lack of profit seeking. It is in fact commercialization that the private sector excels at, as Kreutser's example of the Internet shows us, and the gover nment should continue to provide the seed of innovation by which companies grow whole industries. Moving forward, it is crucial to remember that the debate need not be black and white. A smart government strategy will combine the best of each tactic, cutting wasteful spending and using that money to invest in America's economic engine, innovati on. - Full Article Source ITEM #154 02/11/11 - Muslim Inventor Provides Off-the-Grid Electricity Sameer Hajee, one of the two winners, engineered his winning design through his company Nuru Designs which he founded in 2008. “I am totally committed to social enterprise and the technology I develop is to help the poor rural population. Two billion l ack access to energy sources across the developing world. In India I visited them and found they spent a quarter of their monthly salaries on kerosene,” he told OnIslam.net. Although the government subsidizes kerosene, still it forms a significant par t of people’s tiny income. Kerosene also has a very harmful impact on the environment. Hajee wants to remove kerosene from these rural households. “You see kerosene is also carcinogenic and that hits so many women and children who breathe these kerosene fumes in their closed, tiny huts.” What Hajee has invented is off-the-grid ene rgy. The concept is being replicated in Kenya and India and is spinning off employment opportunities. The machine looks like two cycle pedals fitted on a box and is raised on a stand to pedal on. The machine charges a set of pod light bulbs which can be used for task-based lighting. For instance, studying, looking after a baby at night, and the toilet. It can charge five light bulbs to provide to forty hours of light. To charge the bulbs, a person pedals it with their feet at a comfortable speed and not necessarily faster than one rotation per second. Hajee was proud that his invention tries to use h uman-power efficiently. “That is not a tiring speed for a normal man. The machine costs US$150 which is bought by an entrepreneur with micro-finance. The rental is 20 cents per light bulb and the entrepreneur can pay back his loan in six months. In India, there are five entrepreneurs in Madhya Pradesh and Orissa.” (Don't know this guy, but I like him and his goals. Things like this I wish misguided, brainwashed radicals would focus on instead of death and destruction. Do good things and 'BE GOOD' as ET said. - JWD) - Full Article Source ITEM #155 02/11/11 - Putting Poppies in the Gas Tank Rudolf Diesel’s first engine ran on peanut oil; Bester wanted to be sure that poppies would function as well. So he and his partner consulted with experts, including an Australian plant geneticist named Philip Larkin, who had recently drafted a funding pr oposal titled “Biodiesel From Afghanistan Poppies.” Larkin knew that tractors in Tasmania, the site of the world’s largest legal opium industry, ran on poppy biodiesel. If it worked in Tasmania, it could work in Afghanistan: poppy seeds have an exceptiona lly high oil content (45 to 50 percent, compared with 40 percent in canola seeds), the oil has good “cold flow” properties (resistance to viscosity in cold weather), and, oh yeah, Afghanistan’s poppy crop could produce 100,000 tons of oil a year, or about 2.5 percent of annual global biodiesel consumption. Even the Pentagon’s budget-minders could benefit. The United States was paying perhaps as much as $400 to protect and deliver a single gallon of fuel to forward operating bases in rural Afghanistan, whe n a gallon of locally made biodiesel would have cost less than $10. - Full Article Source ITEM #156 02/11/11 - The search for habitable exomoons This bizarre concept—a habitable, Earth-like world orbiting a massive planet like Jupiter or Saturn—has proved so captivating that it has inspired not only Avatar, the highest-grossing movie of all time, but also a canonical 1997 peer-reviewed research pa per published in Nature. Besides the idea's pure novelty, there are sound reasons for scientific interest in habitable "exomoons." The growing consensus is that after the Earth, the moons of giant planets like Jupiter and Saturn appear most likely to harb or some sort of life. When it comes to the search for alien life in our own backyard, moons are the next great frontier, even though they are quite different from the environments we're used to on Earth. And, according to David Kipping, an astronomer at U niversity College London, moons may also be the next big thing in the search for life beyond the solar system. - Full Article Source ITEM #157 02/11/11 - Archeo-Acoustics of Peru's Temples Stanford University achaeologists and acousticians are studying the three-millennia old pre-Incan temples underground in Peru's Chavín de Huántar to understand the use of low-tech sound and light, in combination with hallucinogens, to create mystical expe riences. Now, Stanford has documented more of that story, focusing on how acousticians are attempting to recreate and listen to sounds that worshippers heard 3,000 years ago. "We have evidence of the manipulation of light; we have acoustic spaces where it seems that they were playing around with sound. We've got evidence of the use of psycho-active drugs," said (anthropologist John) Rick. But what other effects were they using in this very early multimedia show, and why? Was it a kind of mind control usin g sensory manipulation exercised by the priestly elite?... - Full Article Source ITEM #158 02/11/11 - Drivers Blamed For Out of Control Toyotas - Again "An intensive 10 month investigation into possible causes of unintended acceleration in Toyota cars found no fault with the automaker's electronic throttle control systems, the Department of Transportation announced Tuesday." Didn't the NHTSA say essentia lly the same thing last July? (I always got the feeling it was people trying to scam a deep pockets company cause they just can't drive. - JWD) - Full Article Source ITEM #159 02/11/11 - Spinach Could Be Used For Hydrogen Fuel "If Popeye had made alternative fuels, he'd have probably come up with something like this. Researchers from Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) have developed a system that converts solar energy directly into hydrogen using the common spinach plant." / The team discovered that the proteins in spinach are capable of self-assembly with polymers in a synthetic membrane structure. This means they can produce hydrogen from water in the presence of sunlight, and in essence, the spinach-membrane acts as a sort of hydrogen producing solar-panel. The final stage of the process sees hydrogen transformed into electricity through power cells, where it will then be used to power motors. - Full Article Source ITEM #160 02/11/11 - Feds Settle Case of Woman Fired Over Facebook Posts "Employers should think twice before trying to restrict workers from talking about their jobs on Facebook or other social media. That's the message the government sent on Monday as it settled a closely watched lawsuit against a Connecticut ambulance compa ny that fired an employee after she went on Facebook to criticize her boss in 2009." - Full Article Source ITEM #161 02/11/11 - JAXA To Use Fishing Nets To Scoop Up Space Junk "We've seen high-fallutin proposals to tackling the space junk problem before — and now the Japanese space agency JAXA has teamed up with Japanese fishing net maker Nitto Seimo to haul in some of the 100,000-plus objects of space junk orbiting the planet. AJAXA satellite will deploy and release a kilometers-wide net made by Nitto Seimo of ultra-thin triple layered metal threads. The net will gradually be drawn into Earth's magnetic field and burned up along with the abandoned satellites, engine parts and other litter it's collected." - Full Article Source ITEM #162 02/11/11 - This Robotic Dragonfly Flew 40 Years Ago This is a robotic dragonfly. If I told you that some company had just invented it and it was flying around today, you’d probably be impressed. Instead, I’m going to tell you that it was developed by the CIA and was flying in the 1970s. And not just flying like proof-of-concept-it-gets-off-the-ground flying, but reportedly, the flight tests were ‘impressive,’ whatever that means. It was powered by an ultraminiaturized gasoline engine (!) that would vent its exhaust backwards to increase the bot’s thrust, a nd the only reason they seemed to have scrapped it was that its performance in a crosswind wasn’t that good: In the 1970s the CIA had developed a miniature listening device that needed a delivery system, so the agency’s scientists looked at building a bum blebee to carry it. They found, however, that the bumblebee was erratic in flight, so the idea was scrapped. An amateur entymologist on the project then suggested a dragonfly and a prototype was built that became the first flight of an insect-sized machin e. A laser beam steered the dragonfly and a watchmaker on the project crafted a miniature oscillating engine so the wings beat, and the fuel bladder carried liquid propellant. Despite such ingenuity, the project team lost control over the dragonfly in eve n a gentle wind. “You watch them in nature, they’ll catch a breeze and ride with it. We, of course, needed it to fly to a target. So they were never deployed operationally, but this is a one-of-a-kind piece.” - Full Article Source ITEM #163 02/11/11 - Charity Raising Money To Buy Used Satellite "For those of us who live in the developed world, internet access has become pretty much a given. It's become so ubiquitous that we almost expect to have it at all times and in all places, but even in this 'Information Age,' the majority of the world's po pulation lacks access to the internet – either because service isn't available where they are, or they can't afford it. Kosta Grammatis has a plan, however. Through his charity group ahumanright.org, Grammatis aims to set up a network of satellites that w ill provide free internet access to everyone in the world. He's starting by attempting to buy a single used satellite that's already in orbit and moving it to a location above a developing country." - Full Article Source ITEM #164 02/11/11 - Gov App Detects Potholes As Your Drive Over Them "The City of Boston has released an app that uses the accelerometer in your smartphone to automatically report bumps in the road as you drive over them. From the article: 'The application relies on two components embedded in iPhones, Android phones, and m any other mobile devices: the accelerometer and the Global Positioning System receiver. The accelerometer, which determines the direction and acceleration of a phone’s movement, can be harnessed to identify when a phone resting on a dashboard or in a cuph older in a moving car has hit a bump; the GPS receiver can determine by satellite just where that bump is located.' I am certain that this will not be used to track your movements, unless they are vertical." - Full Article Source ITEM #165 02/11/11 - NASA Invents New Technique For Finding Alien Life "From the IB Times article: 'Researchers from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., have come up with an idea to improve on an old standby of space exploration instruments and improve the odds of finding life, if any, on Mars. By adding a laser and an ion funnel to a mass spectrometer, it is possible to analyze the elements from the Martian surface directly, without the complex handling samples usually needed... The new version uses a two-step technique. First it shoots a laser at the samp le's surface. This creates a plume of molecules and ions. To get the ions into the mass spectrometer, the new system uses an ion funnel. The ion funnel uses conductive, progressively smaller electrodes in the shape of a ring that attract the ions, effecti vely vacuuming them into the mass spectrometer.'" - Full Article Source ITEM #166 02/11/11 - DARPA Wants To Know How Stories Influence People "DARPA in a nutshell wants to know how stories or narratives influence human behavior. To this end, they are hosting a workshop called 'Stories, Neuroscience and Experimental Technologies (STORyNET): Analysis and Decomposition of Narratives in Security Co ntexts,' on Feb. 28th to discuss the topic. 'Stories exert a powerful influence on human thoughts and behavior. They consolidate memory, shape emotions, cue heuristics and biases in judgment, influence in-group/out-group distinctions, and may affect the f undamental contents of personal identity. It comes as no surprise that these influences make stories highly relevant to vexing security challenges such as radicalization, violent social mobilization, insurgency and terrorism, and conflict prevention and r esolution. Therefore, understanding the role stories play in a security context is a matter of great import and some urgency," DARPA stated.'" - Full Article Source ITEM #167 02/11/11 - Can World Governments Veto Your Domain Name? "There's been talk recently of the Obama administration wanting the right to shoot down possible TLDs, but it looks like things may be going even a step further — According to this article by Laura Stotler, 'the NTIA is asking for the power to object to a ny proposed Internet address for any reason.' What happens if, say, the government of Germany decides they don't like your domain name? ICANN's had its share of bureaucratic nightmares, what happens when world governments also have a say?" - Full Article Source ITEM #168 02/11/11 - Leaked Cables Reveal US Thinks Saudi Oil Reserves May Be Overstated "Estimates of oil reserves in Saudi Arabia are overstated, meaning crude output could peak within the next decade, leaked US diplomatic cables reveal. Washington fears Saudi Arabia overestimated its oil reserves by as much as 40 percent and the kingdom ca n't keep enough oil flowing to control prices, US diplomatic cables obtained by WikiLeaks and published by The Guardian newspaper in London reveal." (I think so too, thats why they are so desparate to fund other businesses for income, no one wants to r evert to living in the sand! They know they have to make it count while they have it, cause when it's gone, they'll have nothing. - JWD) - Full Article Source ITEM #169 02/11/11 - Court Says California Stores Can't Ask Customers For ZIP Codes "CNN reports that the California Supreme Court has ruled that retailers in California don't have the right to ask customers for their ZIP code while completing credit card transactions, saying that doing so violates a cardholders' right to protect his or her personal information, pointing to a 1971 state law that prohibits businesses from asking credit cardholders for 'personal identification information' that could be used to track them down. 'The legislature intended to provide robust consumer protections by prohibiting retailers from soliciting and recording information about the cardholder that is unnecessary to the credit card transaction,' the decision states. 'We hold that personal id entification information ... includes the cardholder's ZIP code.' In her lawsuit, Jessica Pineda claimed that a cashier at Williams-Sonoma had asked for her ZIP code during a purchase — information that was recorded and later used, along with her name, to figure out her home address by tapping a database that the company uses to market products to customers and sell its compiled consumer information to other businesses." - Full Article Source ITEM #170 02/08/11 - Engineering Is Not Science And confusing the two keeps us from solving the problems of the world. In political discourse, public policy debates, and the mass media, engineering is often a synonym for science. This confusion might seem an innocuous shorthand for headline writers, bu t it can leave politicians, policymakers, and the general public unable to make informed decisions about the technical challenges facing the world today. Science is about understanding the origins, nature, and behavior of the universe and all it contains. Engineering is about solving problems by rearranging the stuff of the world to make new things. Conflating these separate objectives leads to uninformed opinions, which in turn can delay or misdirect management, effort, and resources. Scientists might argue that the government needs to invest in basic scientific research that will lead to unspeci fied discoveries about energy, water, and waste. Although a good deal is already known about those things, it certainly would not hurt to know more, but what would really move things forward would be investments in engineering. Throughout history, a fu ll scientific understanding has been neither necessary nor sufficient for great technological advances: The era of the steam engine, notably, was well into its second century before a fully formed science of thermodynamics had been developed. Indeed, sometimes science has impeded progress. Had Marconi believed his physicist contemporaries, he would have "known" that wireless telegraphy signals could not be sent across the ocean, around Earth's curvature. Engineers welcome any and all ava ilable scientific knowledge, but they needn't wait for scientists to give them the go-ahead to invent, design, or develop the machinery to advance technology or to check it when it runs out of control. Without understanding this, we will continue to u nderfund the engineering needed to solve our greatest problems. - Full Article Source ITEM #171 02/08/11 - Dr. Robert C. Beck on Electronically curing Cancer, AIDS, anything viral In 1990, an astounding discovery was reported at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in NYC by Drs. Kaali and Wyman, resulting in Patent No. 5,188,738 being issued in 1993 entitled "Alternating Current Supplied Electrically Conductive Method and System fo r Treatment of Blood and/or Other Body Fluids and/or Synthetic Fluids with Electric Forces.". This research work involved an in vitro & in vivo human Blood Electrification process, which electronically sterilizes the blood, resulting in all know n pathogens, including bacteria, viruses, parasites, and fungus, being completely eliminated! Their research had been anticipated 24 years earlier in 1973 with the research involved in Patent No. 3,753,886. Not surprisingly though, due to the s tranglehold, that the Pharmaceutical Cartel has in the U.S., this revolutionary clinical data was almost totally suppressed. Other than a few News Articles such as the Science News: Mar. 30, `91 pg. 207, Longevity: Dec. `92/pg. 14, and Houston Post: Mar. 20, '91 /Sect. A-10, plus the Patent No. 5,188,738, there has been a complete BLACKOUT since then in the News Media about this powerful medical technology. The late Dr. Bob Beck delivered a health lecture you will never forget in 1997. Presented at the Granada Forum, explained known cures for AIDS, Lupus, Cancer and many other ailments. The method was entirely electronic, not herbal or pharmaceutical. The document with construction and full details to which Dr. Beck refers can be downloaded in .pdf form here. - Full Article Source ITEM #172 02/08/11 - UK Documentary on Energy Inefficiency and Waste Did you know that two-thirds of all the energy created in the UK literally disappears into thin air? It's lost up the cooling towers or along the transmission lines as waste heat. Greenpeace has launched this short film - narrated by Clive Anderson - on h ow decentralised energy projects around the world are capturing this "waste" heat and using it to heat buildings and districts. We have the technology to combat climate change and ensure energy security without nuclear power - what are we waiting for? For more on decentralised energy, visit http://www.greenpeace.org.uk/moredecentralised - Full Article Source ITEM #173 02/08/11 - Predicting Solar Flares Yesterday, joining the Super Bowl spectacle, NASA released the first 360-degree images and video of the entire sun after the twin STEREO probes moved into position on opposite sides of our star. The satellites were launched in 2006. "For the first time ev er, we can watch solar activity in its full three-dimensional glory," says Angelos Vourlidas of the STEREO science team at the Naval Research Lab. "This is a big moment in solar physics. STEREO has revealed the sun as it really is -- a sphere of hot plasm a and intricately woven magnetic fields." Added STEREO (Solar TErrestrial RElations Observatory) program scientist Lika Guhathakurta at NASA headquarters: "With data like these, we can fly around the sun to see what's happening over the horizon — without ever leaving our desks. I expect great advances in theoretical solar physics and space weather forecasting." Back in September, as they were maneuvering into place, the probes (named "Behind" and "Ahead" because of their relative positions in space) captu red some spectacular solar eruptions. - Full Article Source ITEM #174 02/08/11 - Can Hurricanes Trigger Earthquakes? Earth scientist Shimon Wdowinski and his colleagues at the University of Miami presented an idea at the American Geophysical Union meeting last month linking the devastating Haiti earthquake in January 2010 to strong tropical storm systems that struck the region in 2008*. The hypothesis put forth by Wdowinski and colleagues is that the mass of sediment removed from Haiti’s uplands (and deposited in adjacent lowlands) influenced the stresses on the Léogâne Fault zone enough to cause it to rupture, resul ting in the devastating Jan. 12, 2010 earthquake. The cause of such rapid erosion, according to the abstract, was the combined effects of two hurricanes and two tropical storms in 2008 on a severely deforested landscape. The authors combine observatio ns and calculations of the changing landscape from satellite imagery over the past 35 years with modeling of the stresses on the fault zone. - Full Article Source ITEM #175 02/08/11 - Dan Haley on Nuclear Waste Remediation w/Browns Gas Former state assemblyman Dan Haley from New York describes what he witnessed. Date of lecture unknown, estimated mid 90's. Assemblyman Haley was Chairman of the Legislature’s Joint Commission on Energy and launched a campaign against nuclear power and for renewable energy. - Full Article Source ITEM #176 02/08/11 - Multiple Asteroid Strikes May Have Killed Mars’s Magnetic Field Once upon a time, Mars had a magnetic field, just like Earth. Four billion years ago, it vanished, taking with it the planet’s chances of evolving life as we know it. Now scientists have proposed a new explanation for its disappearance. A model of asteroi ds striking the red planet suggests that, while no single impact would have short-circuited the dynamo that powered its magnetism, a quick succession of 20 asteroid strikes could have done the job. “Each one crippled a little bit,” said geophysicist Jafar Arkani-Hamed of the University of Toronto, author of the new study. “We believe those were enough to cripple, cripple, cripple, cripple until it killed all of the dynamo forever.” Rocky planets like Earth, Mars, Mercury and even the moon get their magnet ic fields from the movement of molten iron inside their cores, a process called convection. Packets of molten iron rise, cool and sink within the core, and generate an electric current. The planet’s spinning turns that current into a magnetic field in a s ystem known as a dynamo. Magnetic fields can shield a planet from the constant rain of high-energy particles carried in the solar wind by deflecting charged particles away from the surface. Some studies have suggested that Earth’s magnetic field could have protected early l ife forms from the sun’s most harmful radiation, allowing more complex life to develop. But traces of magnetism in the Martian surface reveal that the red planet lost its magnetic field some four billion years ago, leaving its atmosphere to be dessica ted by the harsh solar wind. Previous studies suggested that a massive impact could have shut down Mars’s dynamo by warming the mantle layer, disrupting the heat flow from the core to the mantle and shutting down convection. The fact that the crust of Mar s’s younger impact craters is not magnetized supports this idea. Earlier computer models by geophysicist James Roberts of Johns Hopkins University showed that the largest known impacts on Mars could turn the mantle to a warm blanket, bringing the dynamo t o a standstill. - Full Article Source ITEM #177 02/08/11 - Astronauts Inc.: The Private Sector Muscles Out NASA NASA has never been an exclamation-point outfit. The folks who work there may do extraordinary things, but they tend to talk about them in the dry and uninflected tones of the engineers they are. So it was something of a departure last week when, after an unmanned version of what may well be the next spacecraft that will carry American astronauts into orbit took off from Cape Canaveral and returned home safely, the first official dispatch read simply: "SPLASHDOWN!!!" Unfamiliar too was how the announcemen t was made: it was a tweet. That tonal change was by no means the most important thing that made the launch of the fancifully named Falcon 9 booster and Dragon space capsule different from all the granddaddy Saturns and Titans that have gone before it. Fa r more significant was that this ship was privately designed and privately built, the brainchild of the California-based rocketry start-up SpaceX, owned and operated by engineer Elon Musk, who also created PayPal. If old NASA hands winced at this kind of giddy talk, they kept it to themselves — and wisely so. In the face of contracting federal budgets and an expanding private sector, the space agency of the golden years is being blown up and rethought — transformed from a government operation into a public-private partnership that, so its advocates say, will replace the politics, stodginess and glacial pace of Washington with the speed, nimbleness and accountability of the marketplace. Detractors worry that it's exactly the wrong way to take people into orbit, much less to the moon and beyond. Manned spaceflight is a uniquely risky, uniquely pricey, uniquely time-consuming enterprise that does not respond well to the pressures of the business cycle. Go too fast and people die (think the Apollo 1 fire), but go too slow and investors gripe. Best to tak e your time, keep the investors out of the loop and avoid the periodic tableaus of the flag-draped coffins and grieving families. "Every time we f___ up," says Mike Griffin, NASA administrator from 2005 to 2009, "it's because something that we didn't think mattered turns out to matter. Who knew that a briefcase-size piece of foam could bring down an orbiter? The stuff that kil ls us isn't going to be the thing we think will hurt us." But even old-school rocketeers — including Griffin himself — recognize the current reality, which is that without the private sector, America may simply not have the wallet to put human beings into space for a very long time. Giving private comp anies skin in the game may be an inevitable step if we don't want to become an earthbound nation, but what worries detractors is whether it's a prudent one. - Full Article Source ITEM #178 02/08/11 - Laser delivers power through the Air THE Pelican, a small, remotely controlled helicopter drone weighing less than a kilogram, is powered by a battery that provides about 20 minutes’ flying. And yet, one evening last October, the Pelican took off, rose ten metres and hovered throughout the n ight. It was brought down in the morning only because the exhibition hall near Seattle where it was airborne was about to open for business. This remarkable feat was achieved with the ingenious use of a laser beam. The laser, aimed continuously from the g round at photovoltaic cells on the Pelican’s underside, charged the chopper’s battery, keeping her aloft for an unprecedented 12 hours and 27 minutes. An optical-tracking system kept the laser beam on target, creating a “scientifically exciting, yet a lit tle boring” experience, according to Michael Achtelik, an operator from the Pelican’s German manufacturer, Ascending Technologies, after a long night monitoring flight data. Conventional photovoltaic cells, made of silicon, are designed to collect energy from the wavelengths of sunlight. LaserMotive uses special cells made with arsenic and gallium, elements better able to capture the near-infra-red wavelengths of its laser beam. The panel on the climbing robot, about the size of a coffee tray, harvested e nough power to run a small lawnmower. One of LaserMotive’s founders, Jordin Kare, reckons that a similar laser could deliver about as much energy 20km up if the photovoltaic panel were only a few times larger. Power beaming is also becoming more efficient. A few years ago lasers typically converted less than 40% of the electrical energy used to charge them into beam power. The figure is now about 60%, and costs have dropped—the result of efforts to develop b etter laser-based office printers, CD burners and even dermatological devices for the removal of excess hair. Moreover, engineers have worked out how to make laser beams more intense by using short lengths of optical fibre to narrow the beam. Such intense lasers are better suited to power-beaming because the cells that collect the light they deliver can be smaller. The Pelican’s successful flight probably means that the first big application for power beaming will be supplying energy to drones. At the mom ent, most small drones rely on battery power, so their flights are short. LaserMotive reports that American army officials, including some responsible for special-forces kit, have expressed a desire to obtain power-beaming systems for drones. DARPA, the A merican Defence Department’s technology agency, is also sponsoring research into power beaming. - Full Article Source ITEM #179 02/08/11 - Electronics on Anything There's probably not much call for printing solar cells on toilet paper, but a method developed at MIT can do just that, if it's ever needed. More to the point, oxidative chemical vapor deposition (oCVD) could allow low-cost production of solar cells and other electronic devices on thin, flexible materials that other processes can't easily handle. Miles Barr, a graduate student in the lab of MIT chemical engineering professor Karen Gleason, described the process at the fall meeting of the Materials Resear ch Society, in Boston. The technique deposits conjugated polymers, plastics with good conductivity and semiconductor properties that are also flexible, stretchable, and even foldable. "We're particularly interested in polymers because of their good mechan ical properties," Barr says. The process sprays a vapor of a monomer and an oxidizing agent onto a substrate. When they meet on the surface, they polymerize, joining into long chains to form a plastic popularly known as PEDOT. Varying the surface temperat ure of the substrate between 20 ªC and 100 ªC dictates how the surface of the film forms; it can range from smooth to studded with nanopores. The polymer is conductive on its own, but lacing the nanopores with silver particles can increase conductivity up to a thousandfold. Barr says the process allows users to synthesize, deposit, and pattern the conjugated polymer all in one step. To show off oCVD's abilities, Barr and his colleagues used the process on a number of extremely delicate materials. Rice pap er, used to make spring rolls in restaurants, would dissolve in most processes, but because this one is free of solvents, it remained intact. A plastic film, such as Saran wrap—hard to coat because it repels water—could be coated with this dry process. Th e researchers even constructed a solar cell printed on toilet paper. There may, however, be applications where the ability to build electronics, such as flexible displays, on fabrics or paper will come in handy. And engineers are increasingly looking to roll-to-roll printing—in which inks are printed onto plastic or ano ther flexible material as it unspools from one machine and is wound up on another—as a faster, less costly method for producing some electronics, including photovoltaics. The team built solar cells on a commonly used plastic and bent them to a radius of l ess than 5 millimeters more than 1000 times, then tested them to see if they still worked. Their efficiency was still greater than 99 percent of what it had been before bending, Barr said. Electrodes were bent to a radius of less than 1 mm, creased more t han 100 times, and stretched to approximately 200 percent and still maintained high conductivity. A solar cell built on Saran wrap performed well even while it was stretched to about 180 percent, at which point the wrap pulled apart, destroying the cell. - Full Article Source ITEM #180 02/08/11 - Delivery Fleets Love Electric Trucks Even as auto manufacturers seek to convince car buyers of the virtues of electric vehicles, one key group needs little persuasion: delivery fleet managers. While commuters and vacationers may fret about so-called range anxiety—the fear of not making it to a charging station before the car's battery needs topping up—drivers of commercial delivery vehicles tend to follow the same route each day, so they have a pretty good idea how much power they'll need. And since trucks typically return to the gara ge every night, there's little worry about finding a charger. Electrics "are quiet, don't pollute, and vibrate less than diesels," says Mike O'Connell, director of fleet capability for Frito-Lay North America. "Our sales reps are fighting over who gets th e next one." Frito-Lay has bought 176 electric delivery trucks for use across the country, or about 1 percent of its total fleet. As that number grows, O'Connell says, the vehicles will be instrumental in reaching a company goal to halve fuel use by 2020. The trucks, all of them a model called the Newton from Smith Electric Vehicles of Kansas City, Mo., have cut fuel expenses and boosted worker productivity, says Bob Simpson, Frito-Lay's fleet manager for the New York region. By May, 6 percent of Simpson' s fleet of 250 trucks will be electrics, and if he had his way he would replace all of his diesels with them. They offer "real savings [on fuel], and we expect even more when you factor in very low maintenance and repairs," Simpson says as he threa ds his way through greasy diesels to show off his Newtons on a Brooklyn lot. - Full Article Source ITEM #181 02/08/11 - Ancient body clock discovered keeps all living things on time The mechanism that controls the internal 24-hour clock of all forms of life from human cells to algae has been identified by scientists. Not only does the research provide important insight into health-related problems linked to individuals with disrupted clocks – such as pilots and shift workers – it also indicates that the 24-hour circadian clock found in human cells is the same as that found in algae and dates back millions of years to early life on Earth. One study, from the University of Cambridge's Institute of Metabolic Science, has for the first time identified 24-hour rhythms in red blood cells. This is significant because circadian rhythms have always been assumed to be linked to DNA and gene acti vity, but – unlike most of the other cells in the body – red blood cells do not have DNA. Akhilesh Reddy, from the University of Cambridge and lead author of the study, said: "We know that clocks exist in all our cells; they're hard-wired into the cell. Imagine what we'd be like without a clock to guide us through our days. The cell would be in the same position if it didn't have a clock to coordinate its daily activities. For the study, the scientists, funded by the Wellcome Trust, incubated purified red blood cells from healthy volunteers in the dark and at body temperature, and sampled them at regular intervals for several days. They then examined the levels of bioche mical markers – proteins called peroxiredoxins – that are produced in high levels in blood and found that they underwent a 24-hour cycle. Peroxiredoxins are found in virtually all known organisms. A further study, by scientists working together at the Uni versities of Edinburgh and Cambridge, and the Observatoire Oceanologique in Banyuls, France, found a similar 24-hour cycle in marine algae, indicating that internal body clocks have always been important, even for ancient forms of life. The researchers in this study found the rhythms by sampling the peroxiredoxins in algae at regular intervals over several days. When the algae were kept in darkness, their DNA was no longer active, but the algae kept their circadian clocks ticking with out active genes. Scientists had thought that the circadian clock was driven by gene activity, but both the algae and the red blood cells kept time without it. - Full Article Source ITEM #182 02/08/11 - A Detector for Explosives and Drugs Developed Russian scientists strongly recommend starting to use a device, able to detect almost all existing explosives, as well as drugs. This device could have prevented the terrible accident in the Domodedovo airport. Russian physicists have developed a unique p hotonuclear detector of hidden explosive substances. This device can detect these substances in passengers’ luggage, boxes and any kind of closed containers. The device, developed in the Lebedev Institute of Physics, can also be used as a portable explosi ves’ detector for demining activities. - Full Article Source ITEM #183 02/08/11 - Clay bubbles may have nurtured self-organizing precursors to life A team of researchers from Harvard, Princeton, and Brandeis universities have demonstrated how small, semi-permeable compartments that form in inorganic clay provide an ideal container for the compartmentalization of complex organic molecules. Scientists say the discovery opens the possibility that the Earth's first primitive cells might have formed inside inorganic clay bubbles. "We have now provided a complete physical mechanism for the transition from a two-phase clay - air bubble system, which preclud es any aqueous-phase chemistry, to a single aqueous-phase clay vesicle system," Subramaniam says, "creating a semipermeable vesicle from materials that are readily available in the environment." The researchers explain, in the journal Soft Matter, how the se clay-armored bubbles form naturally when platelike particles of montmorillonite clay collect on the outer surface of air bubbles under water. When the clay bubbles come into contact with simple organic liquids like ethanol and methanol, which have a lo wer surface tension than water, the liquid wets the overlapping plates. As the inner surface of the clay shell becomes wet, the disturbed air bubble inside dissolves. The resulting clay vesicle is a strong, spherical shell that creates a physical boundary between the water inside and the water outside. The translucent, cell-like vesicles are robust enough to protect their contents in a dynamic, aquatic environment such as the ocean. Microscopic pores in the vesicle walls create a semipermeable membrane th at allows chemical building blocks to enter the "cell," while preventing larger structures from leaving. Scientists have studied montmorillonite for hundreds of years, and the mineral is known to serve as a chemical catalyst, encouraging lipids to form membranes and single nucleotides to join into strands of RNA. Because liposomes and RNA would have be en essential precursors to primordial life, Subramaniam suggests that the pores in the clay vesicles could do double duty as both selective entry points and catalytic sites. "The conclusion here is that small fatty acid molecules go in and self-assemb le into larger structures, and then they can't come out," explained co-researcher Howard A. Stone. "If there is a benefit to being protected in a clay vesicle, this is a natural way to favor and select for molecules that can self-organize." - Full Article Source ITEM #184 02/08/11 - Smile Trainer This new invention just hooks on your child’s ears like glasses while another portion fits snuggly under the chin. Ok so what is the twist? How about electro shock treatment? Yes the portion under the chin sends a constant pulse of electricity through you r child’s cheeks. Set the electro smile unit on high and snap that smile right into place, no more worries about grandma feeling the kids are not happy to see her. The sudden jolt of electricity in the jaw muscles forces the child to smile with complete b ody excitement giving grandma the appearance the kids have really missed her. - Full Article Source ITEM #185 02/08/11 - Wood-burning stoves exhaust fumes can cause heart disease Research by Danish scientist Professor Steffen Loft suggests the tiny airborne specks in the smoke can be a silent killer because they are small enough to be inhaled into the deepest parts of the lungs. research by Danish scientist Professor Steffen Loft suggests the tiny airborne specks in the smoke can be a silent killer because they are small enough to be inhaled into the deepest parts of the lungs. - Full Article Source ITEM #186 02/08/11 - Startup Boasts Better Lithium Batteries A California company called Envia Systems is developing a battery that promises to store twice the energy of lithium-ion batteries—the kind typically used in hybrid electric cars. In current batteries, an imbalance exists between the two electrodes: the a nodes are equipped to accept far more charge than cathodes are able to supply. Envia's batteries use a cathode that is rich in manganese, which allows it to hold more charge. Envia's recipe involves high-capacity, manganese-rich cathodes with a layered-la yered composite structure (made with two different layered components) based on technology licensed from Argonne National Laboratory. Envia's cathode uses relatively inexpensive materials. Although the "cost is in the same ballpark as what cell makers use today," says Lauckner, the material could deliver a one-third improvement in energy density at the cell level compared to what's on the market today. This figure is based on data from a prototype that Envia designed for a specific GM vehicle application. - Full Article Source ITEM #187 02/08/11 - The Key to Better Solar Cells: Bumpy Mirrors Researchers at Stanford University have used a specially designed metal reflector to boost the efficiency of solid electrolyte dye-sensitized solar cells by as much as 20 percent. The reflector is a thin silver film with an array of nanoscale bumps. The r esearchers use the film to coat the cells' back surface; the film helps trap more light inside the cells. "We get about 5 to 20 percent more absorption depending on the dye," says Michael McGehee, director of the Center for Advanced Molecular Photovoltaic s at Stanford. Plasmons are the oscillations of electrons at a metal surface when they are excited by light. By controlling the shape of the surface, you can control the type of plasmons created, which in turn influences how light interacts with the mater ial. - Full Article Source ITEM #188 02/08/11 - Never Use A cell phone While plugged In Never use a cell phone while it is connected to an electrical outlet! A few days ago, a young man was recharging his mobile phone at home. Just at that time a call came in, he answered it with the instrument still connected to the outlet. In a split momen t electricity flowed into the cell phone unrestrained and the young man was thrown to the floor with a heavy thud. His parents rushed to the room and found him unconscious, with a weak heartbeat, and burned hand. He was rushed to the nearby hospital, but was pronounced dead on arrival. Cell phones are a very useful modern invention. However, we must always be aware that it can also be an instrument of death. Never use a cell phone while it isconnected to an electrical outlet! - Full Article Source ITEM #189 02/08/11 - Submitting Ideas to Procter & Gamble You want to submit an invention to Procter & Gamble? You have to abide by its terms. In the early going, that means you can only submit non-confidential information –information you wouldn’t mind also sharing publicly. * P&G “does not receive unsolicited ideas under any circumstances or conditions, express or implied, that could create a confidential relationship or a contractual relationship between P&G and the idea submitter.” Anything it receives from you will be considered public information. The comp any doesn’t come out and say “get a patent,” but it sure does imply it. * “I will rely solely on my intellectual property rights, such as any applicable patent, trademark, copyright and design registrations (collectively, “IP Rights”) to protect informati on included with my Submission,” the company’s guidelines state. “I understand that the protection I have for information included in my Submission is limited to the scope of my IP Rights.” Adding: * “I understand that I must seek appropriate legal protec tion for my IP Rights (for example, filing a patent application or a trademark registration with appropriate government patent and trademark offices) before disclosing my ideas to anyone (including P&G or any other party) on a non-confidential basis, or I may risk losing the ability to protect my ideas with IP Rights according to applicable law.” - Full Article Source ITEM #190 02/08/11 - Cicadas' wings inspire cheaper nanosensors Inspired by the humble cicada, Australian scientists have shown for the first time that optical fibre nanosensors - tiny devices that can be used to detect trace amounts of chemicals - can be mass-produced. There are a variety of ways to create nanosensor s – devices featuring structures one billionth of a metre in size that have the potential to detect in the blood stream molecules such as glucose, and potentially even signs of cancer – and many research groups create them from scratch using electron or i on beams. But the one thing that all research groups have in common, according to Kostovski, is that they have been making only one optical fibre nanosensor at a time. The Melbourne team, however, have now managed to create 40 of these nanosensors in just two hours using a cheap and easy to upscale technique known as nanoimprint lithography – which involves creating a mould of a nanostructure and then ‘stamping’ this on to the tips of optical fibres. Instead of making a new template, Kostovski and his tea m decided to use the clear wing of a cicada - which previous research had shown is covered in a criss-cross of nanostructures that make it less visible to predators. “In general it’s very difficult to make things on the nanoscale because they’re so small – so cicada wings are convenient because nature has already done the hard work for us ... and they’re very cheap,” said Kostovski of the research which was featured on the cover of Advanced Materials on 25 January 2011. After the mould has been created, u p to 40 optical fibres with flat tips are placed into a unique structure, created by the RMIT team, which has micro-sized u-shaped grooves to hold them in place. The tips are then coated in a soft polymer and pushed against the cicada wing mould, transfer ring nanostructures to each of the tips. Finally, the tips are coated in a film of gold or silver, which give the optical fibres the ability to detect chemicals. - Full Article Source ITEM #191 02/08/11 - A great invention would find missing items The only time I ever use our land-line telephone anymore is to call one of our missing cellular phones. Seriously. It seems idiotic to be paying a monthly bill for a communication device I only use to find my other communication devices. I also feel idiot ic placing the call. "Anyone see my cell phone?" is a frequent question. It has become rhetorical, because I don't even wait for an answer anymore. I simply go to the rarely used land line and ring the cellular. I shush everyone and order the television t urned down so I can listen for the muffled ring tone coming from under a sofa cushion, inside my briefcase or, and this only happened once, inside the refrigerator. It isn't just the cell phone that goes missing. I can never find my keys, wallet, briefcas e, comb and so on. Last week, after unsuccessfully looking for my watch for 20 minutes, I uttered, "It's just too bad I can't call it." At that exact moment I believe I came up with the idea that could save land lines from going the way of the dinosaur. W hat if, and I haven't worked out all the details yet, you could call each and every item that is constantly misplaced so that it would ring and you could find it? It wouldn't just be the cell phone anymore. What if you could call your wallet, your keys an d your misplaced reports, and they would ring from under the sofa, under the coffee table or from inside the refrigerator? Oh, man, this could be the next big thing. - Full Article Source ITEM #192 02/08/11 - Wheelchair for developing world: cheap, rugged, easy to maintain MIT Mobility Lab's "Leveraged Freedom Chair" is a fascinating look at the difficulties presented by designing a sustainable wheelchair for use by disabled people in the developing world. The final product can be sold for $100 -- a 90 percent reduction off traditional wheelchairs -- and uses a lever-driven propulsion system that works better over rough terrain. It uses bicycle parts to keep costs down and simplify maintenance. / In fact, according to the Wheelchair Foundation, it is estimated that the numb er of people who need wheelchairs will increase by 22 percent over the next 10 years, with the greatest need existing in developing countries. And USAID estimates that 20 million people in the developing world need a wheelchair. For instance, wheelchair-a ccessible buildings and roads are rare in countries like Tanzania. Beyond that, individuals must overcome narrow doorways, steep hills, bumpy, muddy roads and long distances to destinations like school -- often upwards of two to three miles. All of these issues combined make it virtually impossible to get anywhere with a conventional wheelchair. Beyond that, they were too expensive for individuals who often can't work due to their disability, or make about $1/day if they do work. - Full Article Source ITEM #193 02/08/11 - 21 of the craziest inventions of all time Can you guess which of these inventions were actually patented, and which ones were left on the cutting room floor -- sending the inventor back to the old drawing board? The answer appears at the end of the column. 1. Flying saucer submarine. 2. A method of growing unicorns. 3. A dog watch. I presume this is for the busy executive dog on a tight schedule? And does every hour equal 7 hours in dog hours? 4. An amphibious horse drawn light vehicle, which is used by a horse walking in shallow water. Does it come with a water bucket in case the horse gets thirsty? 5. A leash for walking an imaginary dog, which produces a variety of barks, growls, etc. This one actually made it onto the market back in the 1970s. 6. Toilet seat landing lights. 7. A Santa Claus detector, which signals the arrival of Santa Claus. If this one really exists, would there be a debate over whether or not it really exists? 8. A method of creating an anti-gravity illusion. 9. A drive-thru ATM machine with instructions written in Braille (think about it). 10. A device for producing dimples. And you thought people were just born that way! 11. A haircut machine that sucks in your hair like a vacuum cleaner, and then gives it a perfect cut. Think Flo-Bee®, as seen on TV. 12. A motorized ice cream cone. Don't you wish you would have had that as a kid? 13. A drip pan for caskets (in case the dead leak). 14. A jet-powered surfboard. 15. An all-terrain baby stroller. For the adventuresome little tykes! 16. A pet petter. This device has a human-like hand that pets Rover when you're not able to. 17. A slingshot golfing system. This device slings the little white ball, then converts into a putter once you reach the putting green. 18. A human slingshot machine. 19. A gas-powered snow ski fan. For those who live in the Midwest and other mountainless areas. 20. A horse-powered minibus, in which the horse walks along a treadmill in the middle of the bus to drive the wheels via a gearbox. 21. A ladder which enables spiders to climb out of the bathtub. So which of these 21 "inventions" were actually patented, and which ones were left on the cutting room floor? ANSWER: All of the above inventions were patented! - Full Article Source ITEM #194 02/08/11 - Nurse’s invention will help asthma sufferers A NURSE whose daughter nearly died of an asthma attack has invented a new device set to transform the lives of other sufferers. Paul Watson knew he had to do something when his little girl Katherine was almost killed by the chronic disease six years ago. Despite what doctors told him, his parental instincts and nursing background told him it wasn’t just the asthma she was struggling with – but the way she was taking the medication. It turned out Katherine had been unable to take her medication properly, a nd an asthma spacer she used with her inhaler was causing the drug to build up at the back of her throat – causing an allergic reaction. Spacers are designed to make inhalers easier to use and help deliver the medicine into the lungs. But children often f ind them complicated to use, and they are bulky to carry round. Now Paul has designed a new compact spacer, called the Pocketflow Spacer, which is easier for youngsters to use. He came up with the prototype in his garden shed in just 90 minutes, and now f ive years later it is set to go into commercial production for the first time. He has been helped by Health Enterprise East, the region’s NHS innovation hub, which has invested more than £100,000 into the design, and it will be produced by Vivo Smart Medi cal Devices. - Full Article Source ITEM #195 02/08/11 - Intellectual Property - Japan Japan has a unique employee invention system. Under the Patent Law, when an employee creates an invention in the course of performing his or her professional duties, the right to obtain a patent for the invention rests with him or her. However, the employ er is automatically granted a free, non-exclusive licence to use the invention because it made contributions to it by employing the employee, providing research facilities and bearing the research and development costs. In addition, the employer is allowe d to reserve succession to the right to obtain the patent or patent right (or obtain an exclusive licence under the law) regarding the invention if this is provided in the relevant employment regulations or other stipulations or contracts. If an employer succeeds to the right from the employee-inventor (or obtains an exclusive licence), the employee-inventor can demand payment of reasonable value in return for the succession of the right (or the exclusive licence). If the amount paid to the employee is be low the reasonable value, the employee can demand payment of the difference. The court decisions under considerations were handed down in lawsuits in which an employee-inventor had demanded that his or her former employer pay the difference between the re asonable value and the actual amount paid. The employee invention system grants employers a non-exclusive licence and right to reserve succession and awards reasonable remuneration for inventions created by employee-inventors. It is designed to create inc entives for employees to innovate and invent. It is also intended to incentivise employers to invest in employee inventions. Ultimately, it aims to encourage investment in research and development, and to coordinate the interests of employers and employee s in order to achieve these aims. - Full Article Source ITEM #196 02/08/11 - the Streisand Effect The Streisand Effect: Babs, the RIAA, the Church of Scientology and Officer Bubbles all know what it is. Do you? - Full Article Source ITEM #197 02/08/11 - Research Finds That Electric Fields Help Neurons Fire "'[T]he brain is enveloped in countless overlapping electric fields, generated by the neural circuits of scores of communicating neurons. ... New work ... suggests that the fields do much more—and that they may, in fact, represent an additional form of ne ural communication. "In other words," says Anastassiou, the lead author of a paper about the work appearing in the journal Nature Neuroscience (abstract), "while active neurons give rise to extracellular fields, the same fields feed back to the neurons and alter their behavior," even though the neurons are not physically connected—a phenomenon known as ephaptic (or field) coupling. "So far, neural communication has been thought to occur almost entirely via traffic involving synapses, the junctions where one neuron connects to the next one. Our work suggests an additional means of neural communication through the extracellular space independent of synapses."' If this work is replicated, it could reveal that the brain is even more complicated and sop histicated than we thought — and raise new concerns about whether our cellphones and other electronic gizmos are affecting brain activity and memory. This is truly paradigm-busting work." - Full Article Source ITEM #198 02/08/11 - Tethered, Water-Powered Jetpack Provides Two Hours of Flight Time "Unlike 'ordinary' jetpacks, the JetLev is actually two vehicles, tethered by a hose the thickness of your thigh. On the water is a small speedboat-like unit which contains a 250 horsepower motor and a pump. This is connected to the pack — into which you strap your frail body — by a 10-meter hose. The water is pumped from the sea or lake below up to the nozzles on the jetpack, providing a 1,900-Newton thrust, enough to lift a human weighing up to 150 kilos." / Imagine a fire hose in full, glass-smashing flow. Now imagine that it has gotten loose, and is whipping and snapping like a spastic cobra, at such terrifying speed that it is almost impossible to see its flailing tip. Now imagine that you are strapped to the end. Congratulations. You are riding the JetLev Flyer. Unlike “ordinary” jetpacks, the JetLev is actually two vehicles, tethered by a hose the thickness of your thigh. On the water is a small speedboat-like unit which contains a 250 horsepower motor and a pump. This is connected to the pack — into which yo u strap your frail body –- by the 10-meter [33-foot] hose. The water is pumped from the sea or lake below, up to the nozzles on the jetpack, giving a 1,900-Newton [430-pounds-of-force] thrust, enough to lift even a fat human of up to 150 kilos [330 pounds ]. Because of that hose, you are effectively tethered to the water, meaning your maximum altitude tops out at 8.5 meters [28 feet]. Your horizontal distance is only limited by flight time, however, and you can scoot around at 35 mph for up to two hours. C ontrol is fly-by-wire, so the thrust handles are easy to twist, kept away from the intense pressure of the water. - Full Article Source ITEM #199 02/08/11 - USB Autorun Attacks Against Linux "Many people think that Linux is immune to the type of Autorun attacks that have plagued Windows systems with malware over the years. However, there have been many advances in the usability of Linux as a desktop OS — including the addition of features tha t can allow Autorun attacks. This Shmoocon presentation by Jon Larimer from IBM X-Force starts off with a definition of autorun vulnerabilities and some examples from Windows, then jumps straight into the Linux side of things. Larimer explains how attacke rs can abuse these features to gain access to a live system by using a USB flash drive. He also shows how USB as an exploitation platform can allow for easy bypass of protection mechanisms like ASLR and how these attacks can provide a level of access that other physical attack methods do not." - Full Article Source ITEM #200 02/08/11 - Private Space Shuttle Flights "It has recently been suggested that when the Space Shuttles are retired after their final flights this year, they may continue operations under the funding of private enterprise. United Space Alliance is considering a $1.5 billion per year proposal to ta ke the fleet private. The aging spacecraft have been flying for close to 30 years, and NASA is retiring them for good reason. Is it safe to continue flights in private hands?" - Full Article Source ITEM #201 02/08/11 - An Open Letter To PC Makers: Ditch Bloatware, Now! "This is the final straw, the last stand. This is the year that companies have to wise up and realize that they're destroying the experience of the very machines they are marketing so vigorously against their competitors. We're talking about bloatware, and it's an issue that we simply cannot remain silent on any longer. The term 'bloatware' generally refers to any additional software installed on a machine that is not a native part of the operating system. 'Bloatware' is usually provided by third-party software companies, and can range from security suites to unwanted Web browser toolbars. It's most problematic, as these programs generally attempt to boot up first thing, right as the OS is booting up, be fore the end-user ever has a chance to launch the program on their own accord. It's time for manufacturers to take note: consumers do not want bloatware. It's a royal pain from top to bottom, and moreover, it ruins your brand. When people think of HP and Dell, they immediately think of just how infuriating it is that their last 'new' PC took over one minute to boot up and become usable. To these compani es: why are you saddling your machines with software that makes it less enjoyable to use? The solution seems pretty simple. If you still wish to include loads upon loads of third-party software, stick it all on a thumb drive and include it with every new machine. Problem solved." - Full Article Source ITEM #202 02/08/11 - US To Fire Up Big Offshore Wind Energy Projects "The US government today took a bold step toward perhaps finally getting some offshore wind energy development going with $50 million in investment money and the promise of renewed effort to develop the energy source. The plan focuses on overcoming three key challenges (PDF) that have made offshore wind energy practically non-existent in the US: the relatively high cost of offshore wind energy; technical challenges surrounding installation, operations, and grid interconnection; and the lack of site data a nd experience with project permitting processes." - Full Article Source ITEM #203 02/08/11 - Possibly an End to Seasonal Flu? "A universal flu vaccine has been tested by scientists at Oxford University. '... the vaccine targets proteins inside the flu virus that are common across all strains, instead of those that sit on the virus's external coat, which are liable to mutate. If used widely a universal flu vaccine could prevent pandemics, such as the swine flu outbreaks of recent years, and end the need for a seasonal flu jab.'" - Full Article Source ITEM #204 02/05/11 - What have we learned in 2,064 years "The budget should be balanced, the Treasury should be refilled, public debt should be reduced, the arrogance of officialdom should be tempered and controlled, and the assistance to foreign lands should be curtailed lest Rome become bankrupt. People must again learn to work, instead of living on public assistance." ~ Cicero ~ 55 BC - Thanks to Norman Wootan - ITEM #205 02/05/11 - The skin gun When someone survives being severely burnt, only to die from their injuries later, it's not usually the burn, itself, that kills them. Instead, it's the infections that set into unprotected flesh before the skin has a chance to heal. This National Geographic video clip is about a new way of treating burn victims—closing open wounds faster by spraying them with a protective coating of skin cells grown from the patient's own. Quick note: The skin gun uses adult stem cells, but it's not likely to be affected by the problems with adult stem cells that I told you about earlier today. That's because this technique doesn't rely on forcing a specialized cell to become un-specialized. - Full Article Source ITEM #206 02/05/11 - Magnetic Brain Stimulation Makes Learning Easier "Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) is a technology that temporarily activates – or inactivates – parts of the brain using magnetic stimulation. Its ability to selectively turn areas of the brain on or off allows the functions and interconnections of the brain to by studied in a noninvasive and painless manner. Now researchers have shown that the technology can be used to enable rats to learn more easily. While smarter rats probably aren't high on anyone's wish list, the technology shows poten tial for allowing TMS to better treat a variety of brain disorders and diseases in humans, such as severe depression and schizophrenia." - Full Article Source ITEM #207 02/05/11 - Space Stasis What the strange persistence of rockets can teach us about innovation. The phenomena of path dependence and lock-in can be illustrated with many examples, but one of the most vivid is the gear we use to launch things into space. Rockets are a very old invention. The Chinese have had them for something like 1,000 years. Francis Scott Key wrote about them during the War of 1812 and we sing about them at every football game. As late as the 1930s, however, they remained small, experimental, and failure-prone. We move now to the phenomenon of lock-in. Space travel has not proved nearly as useful to the human race as boys of my generation were once led to believe, but it does have one application, unmanned satellites, that is extremely lucrative to the civilian economy and of the highest imaginable i mportance to the military and intelligence worlds. To employ a commonly used metaphor, our current proficiency in rocket-building is the result of a hill-climbing approach; we started at one place on the technological landscape—which must be considered a random pick, given that it was chosen for dub ious reasons by a maniac—and climbed the hill from there, looking for small steps that could be taken to increase the size and efficiency of the device. Sixty years and a couple of trillion dollars later, we have reached a place that is infinitesimally close to the top of that hill. Rockets are as close to perfect as they're ever going to get. For a few more billion dollars we might be able to achi eve a microscopic improvement in efficiency or reliability, but to make any game-changing improvements is not merely expensive; it's a physical impossibility. There is no shortage of proposals for radically innovative space launch schemes that, if they worked, would get us across the valley to other hilltops considerably higher than the one we are standing on now—high enough to bring the cost and risk of space launch down to the point where fundamentally new things could begin happening in outer space. But we are not making any serious effort as a society to cross those valleys. It is not clear why. Regulation is only one culprit; at least equal blame may be placed on engineering and management culture, insurance, Congress, and even accounting practices. But those who do concern themselves with the formal regulation of "technology" might wish to w orry less about possible negative effects of innovation and more about the damage being done to our environment and our prosperity by the mid-20th-century technologies that no sane and responsible person would propose today, but in which we remain trap ped by mysterious and ineffable forces. - (What could be... - JWD) - Full Article Source ITEM #208 02/05/11 - Pub Patrons Down Under Subject To Biometric Datamining "Pubs and clubs in Australia are signing up in droves to national and state biometrics databases that capture patron fingerprints, photos, and scanned driver licenses in efforts to curb violence. The databases of captured patron information mean th at individuals banned at one location could be refused entry across a string of venues. Particularly violent individuals could be banned for years. The databases are virtually free from government regulation as biometrics are not covered by privacy law s, meaning that the handling of details are left to the discretion of technology vendors." - Full Article Source ITEM #209 02/05/11 - Solar cell could beat theoretical efficiency maximum While most conventional solar cells use the principle of ‘one photon in, one electron out’, whereby a photon particle of light hits the solar cell and produces one electron as an electrical current, according to Gergely Zimanyi, a professor at UC Davis, t he researchers have been working on a method that will allow many electrons to be produced. The previous theoretical maximum efficiency of this transfer was capped at 31 percent, however by enabling several particles to be generated from a single photon t he maximum can be raised to between 42 and 65 percent. The UC Davis and UC Santa Cruz team believe that through the use of nanotechnology they will be able to make the idea become a reality, constructing a fully functioning solar cell from germanium and s ilicon nanoparticles. The researchers will conduct theoretical and computer modelling studies before synthesising the new nano-particles and developing a working device. A prototype has already been constructed, which, while only reaching eight percent ef ficiency, demonstrated the functionality on the device even at a very early stage. However, according to TechEye's reliable sources in the PV industry, while this may sound like a huge step towards much greater efficiency in solar cells, it is not entirel y unusual for university researchers to develop "groundbreaking" technologies that are in reality much more difficult to implement. “Often high efficiency technology may be developed by researchers at a size of 100cm2, which is very hard to keep stable wh en up-scaled to a 1.5m by 0.5m module. “In lab conditions the world is your oyster. You can control the conditions just as you would like, while any work is being done by scientist. In order to be viable commercially the work would instead be done by a sk illed worker in a factory which is a very different scenario. “So in terms such highly efficient technology becoming commercially viable we should not get too excited.” - Full Article Source ITEM #210 02/05/11 - Underwater compressed-air energy storage: Could it work? Hydrostor’s concept is simple, in many ways. It starts with big tubular balloons the size of a bus submerged 80 meters or more under water — anchored, for example, to a lake bed. On the surface a compressor system uses off-peak, low-cost electricity to pu mp air into the balloons at high pressure. As the balloons or bags expand the weight of the water above them compress the air. When electricity needs to be dispatched, the air is let out of the balloons and piped back to a turboexpander turbine on the sur face that generates power. The company figures about 200 of these balloons, called accumulators, would create a system big enough to supply 2 megawatts for four hours. As far as cost goes, it would fall between conventional pumped storage and conventional compressed-air storage (in salt caverns), according to Hydrostor CEO Curtis VanWalleghem. Neat idea — though obviously studies would have to be done to assess environmental impacts on the body of water. Still, the fact that 50 per cent of ther world’s po pulation is located near bodies of water, and the fact that Hydrostor’s system uses off-the-shelf components and is highly scalable, this could be a nice niche in the emerging market for grid-scale energy storage. VanWalleghem estimates at this point that the round-trip efficiency of the system is in the ballpark of 70 per cent, which is competitive with other storage technologies, such as zinc-bromide flow battery systems offered by companies such as Premium Power. - Full Article Source ITEM #211 02/05/11 - An Engine that Harnesses Sound Waves Etalim, based in Vancouver, Canada, says its engine, roughly the size of a basketball, could improve the economics of electricity production for the cogeneration of power and heat in homes, and as a way to harness the heat produced at concentrating solar collectors. The company has created a prototype, but has yet to achieve the kind of efficiencies—in excess of 40 percent—that its computer models indicate are within reach. The device shares some principles of a Stirling engine, in which an external heat source is used to expand a fixed amount of working gas (usually helium), which then contracts when it is pushed into a cooler space. This expansion-contraction cycle repeats itself, turning heat into mechanical work by driving a piston. Encased within the core of Etalim's engine is a plate of metal that replaces the function of a piston in a conventional Stirling engine. When pressurized helium on the top side of the metal plate is heated, sound waves traveling through the gas are amplified, causing the p late to vibrate, and a metal diaphragm below (separated by a cooler layer of helium) to push down on a shaft. All mechanical friction is eliminated. The shaft is attached to an alternator that produces electricity. - Full Article Source ITEM #212 02/05/11 - Floodbag invention to protect your stuff I was thinking of the flooded Queensland homes and all of the furniture and appliances being thrown on to the street because of water damage. One of my prized possessions is my sofa and I was wondering how I'd protect it if I was there. Then I remembered that it was delivered in a very thick polyurethane bag that was bigger than a two man tent. Sure it had a few holes in it now, but a bit of gaffa (duct) tape would take care of those - at least enough to withstand a few days of water immersion. But then I thought I could put loads of possessions on the sofa, in the same bag, and protect those too. In fact, what we need... is a flood bag! - Full Article Source ITEM #213 02/05/11 - Understanding the chaos phenomenon According to academics and other wise people, small differences in like conditions or systems can result in widely diverse outcomes – some good, some bad. It doesn’t matter. The outcomes are not predictable. The accepted term for this phenomenon is chaos. Some philosophers believe that we are accountable for the ultimate results of our actions. If that were the case, we would still be contemplating the wisdom of producing anything involving the use of a wheel. Shortsighted thinking has long been a nemesis for which there are no mitigating factors. No matter what is invented that is intended for the common good, someone will re-think its use and apply it to something questionable at best. I wondered if the inventor of the atomic bomb agreed with the government’s assessment that to assure peace we needed a nuclear weapon. Research revealed that Leo Szilard, a maverick German physicist, actually conceived the idea of the atomic bomb. He allegedly took such full and active responsibility for his creati on that he spent much of the time from 1944 until his death in 1966 as an advocate for the prevention of nuclear war. Although illogical, such is the way of chaos – unpredictable results from clearly defined conditions. Until we find a way of eliminating chaos, we will continue to muddle our way through life in a system we can’t understand. - Full Article Source ITEM #214 02/05/11 - Cyclus: A Spring-Powered Phone Charger An idea by designer Satoshi Yanagisawa is using a spring, some gears and a small motor to produce about 3 watts of electricity. The 6-volt energy generator is hand-cranked, and its energy lasts for 30 minutes. He calls his invention Cyclus. Well, I have t o admit I thought about building such an energy device in the past, but Satoshi has actually made Cyclus so that it can be used by me, an urban inhabitant, and by one of the many people who don’t have access to electricity. I have an idea, in case Satoshi reads The Green Optimistic: why not design a Cyclus device with a bigger and stronger spring, having the shape of a bicycle, with properly-sized reductions inside, that could power a 100W light bulb for an entire night, or even a TV and a phone charger? Springs are cheap ways to store energy, they can be recycled easily and last for years, unlike batteries! And their users could actually practice while they’re generating electricity - Full Article Source ITEM #215 02/05/11 - Cy-Fair patents invention that could improve body armor, solar cells A company based in the Cy-Fair area received a U.S. patent this week for an invention that could improve both body armor and solar cells. The patent describes a way of incorporating microtubes into the ballistic protection of body armor that makes it easi er for its wearer to detect flaws, cracks and gaps. The device is designed to let the wearer of the armor know if a certain level of G-force on a section of the armor has been passed, indicating that the armor needs repair. The patent suggests that simila r technology could be applied to detect problems in the surfaces of solar cells and wind towers. The patent is owned by Hisco, a maker of electrical and industrial materials whose corporate offices are located in the Cy-Fair area at 6650 Concord Park Driv e. William R. Steele of Tempe, Arizona, and Paul Mark Merriman of Houston are listed as the inventors. Merriman bought Hisco for $1 in 1970 and served as president for many years; the company is now owned by its employees. The patent's official number is 7,878,140. It was originally filed on April 28, 2010. - Full Article Source ITEM #216 02/05/11 - Using the Force. Messing with kids' heads can be fun! My friend Anne recently passed on the above Volkswagen video, created by Craig Melchiano and David Povill, which involves a kid dressed up as Darth Vader trying to use the force. It's pretty funny and it reminded me of this game we did two years ago at my son's 5th birthday party. Specifically, it was a Star Wars themed birthday party, which we foolishly held in our house (also, if you can believe it, Kate made a Jedi robe for every kid!). What we did was modify the game, "pass the parcel." We had saw onl ine that there were Star Wars versions of this, which primarily involved wrapping something up like a ball, and calling it a Death Star. However, we thought that it would be way more fun if we could convince the kids that if they used the "force" they cou ld get the stereo to stop the music (and therefore entitling them to the act of unwrapping). This, of course, is easy to do since pretty much every stereo these days comes with a remote. Note that, obviously, the Star Wars theme was the music being played during the game. I tell you: it was one of the funniest things I've ever seen - here you have a group of 5 year olds "concentrating" so hard, and doing the classic Jedi hand gesture at the stereo trying to make the music stop. For a Star Wars fan like my self, it was a brilliant sight to see. And just so that everyone had a chance to do it, we would also consistently get them to use the "force" all together to start the music up again ("On the count of 3: one... two... three!!). I should note that if you plan on doing this, be prepared to get a few phone calls from parents. - Full Article Source ITEM #217 02/05/11 - Now its 'global weirding', unpredictable weather worldwide Meet the global weirdos. They’re the ones telling you that all the snow outside is proof that it’s getting warmer. Only, they don’t call it “warming” anymore. No, that was back in the “Earth has a fever” days. Back when Al Gore was predicting that the ice caps were melting, the polar bears were drowning and Manhattan would sink beneath 20 feet of water “in the near future.” But then something happened. Since 1998, temperatures have been relatively flat. We’ve got more polar bears than ever, and Manhattan is buried under snow. For a planet-roasting crisis that threatened the human race with extinction, there doesn’t seem to be much actual warming. What happened? Nothing. Europe has had three winters in a row of snow and cold temperatures. In the Atlantic, “there has been a dramatic decrease in the number of hurricanes in the last five years,” according to meteorologist Art Horn. “The total energy in all hurricanes around the world has plunged since 1993. The opposite of what was predicted.” So the new fall back is “global weirding.” The site thedailygreen.com has a “Weird Weather Watch” page. The uber-liberal Huffington Post ran a story in August headlined “Global Weirding”: Extreme Climate Events Dominate The Summer.” “The extreme climate events all acros s the globe must say something about whether climate change is already upon us,” the HuffPo insisted. “Extreme is the new normal.” They quote a professor of “environmental studies and politics” from Oberlin College who says, “More hottest hots, driest dri es, wettest wets, windiest wind conditions. So it’s all part of a pattern.” Gore is on board, too. He’s now merely claiming rising temperatures will “create all sorts of havoc, ranging from hotter dry spells to colder winters.” Not “warming,” but “weirdin g.” Not “heating,” but “havoc.” Which is how global warming can cause more snow, less snow, no snow, avalanches, heat waves, cold snaps, wetter wets, drier dries, gingivitis, delirium tremens and irritable bowel syndrome . . . all at the same time! - Full Article Source ITEM #218 02/05/11 - How much would you weigh on other planets? Ever wonder what you might weigh on Mars or The Moon? Here's your chance to find out. your weight is a measure of the pull of gravity between you and the body you are standing on. This force of gravity depends on a few things. First, it depends on your ma ss and the mass of the planet you are standing on. If you double your mass, gravity pulls on you twice as hard. If the planet you are standing on is twice as massive, gravity also pulls on you twice as hard. On the other hand, the farther you are from the center of the planet, the weaker the pull between the planet and your body. The force gets weaker quite rapidly. If you double your distance from the planet, the force is one-fourth. If you triple your separation, the force drops to one-ninth. Ten times the distance, one-hundredth the force. See the pattern? The force drops off with the square of the distance. - Full Article Source ITEM #219 02/05/11 - obama’s Blocking Of New Power Plants Triggers Nationwide Blackouts The rolling blackouts now being implemented in Texas and across the country as record cold weather grips the United States are a direct consequence of the obama administration’s agenda to lay siege to the coal industry, launch a takeover of infrastructure under the contrived global warming scam, and help usher in the post-industrial collapse of America. “Mexico’s state electricity company on Wednesday started supplying electricity to the US state of Texas, where demand shot up amid unusually cold temperat ures and caused power outages,” reports AFP. Hospitals are supposed to be exempt from the blackouts which hit yesterday, with power company Oncor attributing the outages to a “mistake,” but there were no such mistakes when it came to supplying power to Co wboys Stadium. The government has ensured that the blackouts will not affect Super Bowl venues, a decision that has left residents furious. Street lights and traffic lights have also been hit by the outages, causing traffic build-ups and other hazards mor e typically associated with a decrepit underdeveloped country, and not with the supposed leading light of the prosperous first world. The inability of power companies to meet demand is almost exclusively a consequence of the obama administration’s publicl y stated goal to bankrupt the coal industry and in turn ram through the de-industrialization of America under the guise of the phony global warming mantra. - Full Article Source ITEM #220 02/05/11 - obama's Energy Agenda Under Assault in Congress In May, Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood announced a new focus described by National Public Radio as "turning transportation policy on its head." Lahood's declaration: that pedestrians and bicyclists should be treated as equals with drivers and that more federal dollars should be devoted to walking and cycling projects. One wonders how his remarks might have been received in Beijing, where the opposite is happening, the ubiquitous bicycle is giving way to the automobile in that country's headlong th rust towards 21st Century industrialization and increased competition with the United States. "We're telling America's scientists and engineers that if they assemble teams of the best minds in their fields, and focus on the hardest problems in clean energ y, we'll fund the Apollo projects of our time." It is our "Sputnik moment," the president said. Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., may have brought the president's enthusiasm back down to earth when he quipped there had been lots of "Sputnik" moments in years pas t, resulting in a lot of "space junk." Only days before assuming the post of energy secretary, Steven Chu told the Wall Street Journal, "Somehow we have to figure out how to boost the price of gasoline to the levels in Europe." Then-candidate Obama told t he San Francisco Chronicle in January 2008: "If somebody wants to build a coal power plant they can, it's just that it will bankrupt them because they are going to be charged a huge sum for all that greenhouse gas that's being emitted." He was referring to proposed cap-and-trade legislation, which, under the weight of the last Congress' ambitious agenda, fell by the wayside. University of Virginia political scientist Larry Sabato suggests the president should not try to revive his pla n fir global warming fees for carbon emissions. "He may or may not recognize it, but the fight is over," Sabato told Fox News. "That energy bill as currently constructed has zero chance of passage." - Full Article Source ITEM #221 02/05/11 - Night landing at LAX sped up to Mach 1.5 "If you have ever flown into Los Angeles at night you know how beautiful it can be. This video is of a landing at LAX International Airport via the SADDE Six Arrival. The song is 'Los Angeles' by Sugarcult. The real time video was sped up to somewhere bet ween Mach 1 and Mach 2." City of Lights indeed! - Full Article Source ITEM #222 02/05/11 - Low paid Scientists in Egypt "Universities are critically under-funded and academic salaries are so low that most scientists need second jobs to be able to make a living. Tourist guides earn more money than most scientists. You just can't expect world-class research under these circu mstances. Also, Egypt has no large research facilities, such as particle accelerators. Some 750,000 students graduate each year and flood the labor market, yet few find suitable jobs - one reason for the current wave of protests." — Michael Harms, directo r of the German Academic Exchange Service in Cairo, Egypt - Full Article Source ITEM #223 02/05/11 - What atheists are really concerned about - Full Article Source ITEM #224 02/05/11 - Religious fanatics kill themselves refusing from medical help A court of the town of Kogalym delivered an unexampled judgment for Russia. The court found guilty the woman, who did not let doctors perform blood transfusion for her son over religious beliefs. The woman's son died. Such incidents, when people either re fuse from medical interference or do not allow doctors help their children for religious reasons occur on a regular basis. As a rule, news agencies mostly report about members of Jehovah's Witnesses organization, which forbids blood transfusion for its ad epts. The above-mentioned woman, Natalia Podlozhevich, was also a member of Jehova's Witnesses. Her five-year-old son was hospitalized in a critical condition. Doctors told the woman that the boy had to receive blood transfusion immediately. The woman ref used from the procedure, and the child died. The woman was found guilty on Article 125 of the Penal Code of the Russian Federation - "Failure to give assistance to person in mortal danger." The criminal case created prerequisites for establishing a law-enforcement practice to call members of religious organizations to criminal account for their decision to refuse blood transfusion to minors over religious beliefs, officials said. - Full Article Source ITEM #225 02/05/11 - Statistician Cracks Code For Lottery Tickets "Lottery Post has an interesting story about Mohan Srivastava, an MIT educated statistician who became intrigued by a particular type of scratch-off lottery ticket called an extended-play game — sometimes referred to as a baited hook — that has a tic-tac- toe grid of visible numbers that looks like a miniature spreadsheet. Srivastava discovered a defect in the game: The visible numbers turned out to reveal essential information about the digits hidden under the latex coating. Nothing needed to be scratched off — the ticket could be cracked if you figured out the secret code. Srivastava's fundamental insight was that the apparent randomness of the scratch ticket was just a facade, a mathematical lie because the software that generates the tickets has to pre cisely control the number of winners while still appearing random. 'It wasn't that hard,' says Srivastava. 'I do the same kind of math all day long.'" The trick itself is ridiculously simple. (Srivastava would later teach it to his 8-year-old daughter.) Each ticket contained eight tic-tac-toe boards, and each space on those boards--72 in all--contained an exposed number from 1 to 39. As a result, some of these numbers were repeated multiple times. Perhaps the number 17 was repeated three times, and the number 38 was repeated twice. And a few numbers appeared only once on the entire card. Srivastava's startling insight was that he could separate the winning tickets from the losing tickets by looking at the number of times each of the digits occurred on the tic-tac-toe boards. In other words, he didn't look at the ticket as a sequence of 72 random digits. Instead, he categorized each number according to its frequency, counting how many times a given number showed up on a given ticket. "The numbers themselves couldn't have been more meaningless," he says. "But whether or not they were repeated told me nearly everything I needed to know." Srivastava was looking for singletons, numbers that appear only a single time on the visible tic-tac-toe boards. He realized that the singletons were almost always repeated under the latex coating. If three singletons appeared in a row on one of the ei ght boards, that ticket was probably a winner. - Full Article Source ITEM #226 02/05/11 - Researchers Lift Fingerprints From Clothing "Refining an existing technique that's been used to successfully recover fingerprint detail from smooth objects such as glass and plastic, forensic scientists have managed to create a kind of photo negative of fingerprint impressions on fabric. It's a bit hit and miss at the moment, but even when clear ridge detail isn't retrieved, the technique could still prove useful to investigators looking for other evidence." - Full Article Source ITEM #227 02/05/11 - Bombay High Court Rules Astrology To Be a Science "In India, the Bombay High Court recently ruled astrology to be 'a time tested science more than 4000 years old.' Not only does this stretch the definition of science, it also reaffirms people's faith in pseudosciences at a broader level." At least we can know for certain the people trying to get creationism taught as science in our schools have equally wacky friends around the globe. - Full Article Source ITEM #228 02/05/11 - 'Death By GPS' Increasing In America's Wilderness "Every year, more and more Americans are dying in deserts and wildernesses because they rely on their GPS units (and, to some degree, their cellphones) to always be accurate. The Sacramento Bee quotes Death Valley wilderness coordinator Charlie Cal lagan: 'It's what I'm beginning to call death by GPS ... People are renting vehicles with GPS and they have no idea how it works and they are willing to trust the GPS to lead them into the middle of nowhere.'" - Full Article Source ITEM #229 02/05/11 - License Police go after Computer Scientist For Too Good a Complaint "When a computer scientist in North Carolina petitioned the state for a new traffic signal in his neighborhood, a transportation official replied with a complaint about what 'appears to be engineering-level work' done by someone who is not licensed as a p rofessional engineer." Kevin Lacy, chief traffic engineer for the state DOT, and the one who filed a complaint with the N.C. Board of Examiners for Engineers and Surveyors, protested that in trying to have Computer Scientist David Cox investigated for his detailed complaint about a traffic intersection while not licensed as a professional engineer, "I'm not trying to hush him up." - Full Article Source ITEM #230 02/05/11 - US Team Seeks To Top Steam-Car Speed Record "Steam-engined vehicles are quaint, retro and obsolete ... right? Well, maybe not. The current land speed record for a steam-powered vehicle currently sits at 148 mph (238 km/h), set by the British car Inspiration team in 2009. Now, Chuk Williams' US Land Steam Record (USLSR) Team is hoping to steal that title in its LSR Streamliner, powered by a heat-regenerative external combustion Cyclone engine – an engine that could someday find common use in production automobiles." - Full Article Source ITEM #231 02/05/11 - Karma Backstabber jerk gets his comeuppance, watch the animated gif. - Full Article Source ITEM #232 02/05/11 - JASON Proposes a 'Library of Congress' For Pathogens "In order to help determine the origins of microbial threats in terrorist incidents or epidemics, it would be useful to have a deep archive of various strains of lethal bacteria, the JASON defense advisory panel told the National Counterproliferation Cent er in a newly released 2009 report (PDF). ... 'This library would consist of strains collected worldwide by methods that preserve sample properties, and capture all relevant data (e.g. geolocation, local environmental conditions). It should include labora tory isolates, natural isolates, and DNA sequence data.'" - Full Article Source ITEM #233 02/05/11 - Prison Cell Phone Smuggling Out of Control "KCRA reports that the number of contraband cell phones discovered in California state prisons has exploded as prison guards, staff and vendors are cashing in on smuggled phones that can fetch between $200 and $800. Although the large majority of inmates are using the phones to stay in contact with loved ones, there have been documented cases of escape attempts, drug deals and conference calls coordinated via smuggled cell phones. 'The potential is there for the worst kind of activity,' says Folsom Prison Warden Rick Hill. Even Charles Manson has been caught with a cellphone smuggled to him. 'We know the problem is out of control,' says State Senator Alex Padilla, who has proposed making such smuggling illegal in hopes of stopping the continued rise of co ntraband cell phones in prison." (Simple fix to my view...buy an industrial version or many of these ($25) cellphone signal killers and they j ust can't call out or receive calls. They could also use scanners to locate the cellphones when on or in use. I'd just jam them. Piece of cake. - JWD) - Full Article Source ITEM #234 02/05/11 - Senator Wyden Asks DHS To Explain Domain Seizures "With Homeland Security continuing to seize domain names without warning and without giving site operators a chance to respond to charges, it appears that at least some people in the US government are quite concerned about this turn of events. Techdirt ha s a copy of the full letter Senator Wyden has sent to both Attorney General Eric Holder and ICE director John Morton, asking a series of pointed questions concerning the domain seizures and how they impact due process, free speech and sovereign rule in fo reign countries." - Full Article Source ITEM #235 02/05/11 - Some thoughts... You know, over the years I've met and been in contact with many, many, MANY people...some slam me or the way they perceive I do things....usually they are pissed because I won't post their material or support them. Don't have a clue why they think my opin ion would help them, it won't, I never claimed to be some kind of guru or leader or any of that crap...just doing what I can with what I have and if people don't like it or don't agree or want to cause problems, MOVE ON! I tell them it is so easy to setup a free or paid website to post their papers, theories, ideas..it is also so easy to setup a free discussion list where they can post their stuff and foster dialogue with interested subscribers. Now what is most amazin g to me...almost NO ONE of these types ever does this...I haven't figured out why, are they lazy or afraid of being tracked or not confident enough in their ideas or themselves? Not a clue but it is SO EASY to do if you really, really care for and believe in yourself and your ideas, WHY NOT create your own forums and draw people of the same mind to participate? Obviously, in my case, it should be VERY CLEAR that I care immense ly for the things I do with Keelynet from the first day in 1988 up to now. Still amazes me to realize its been 1988-2011 now...thats 7 years as a BBS and in my 16th year on the net...23 years total! Yes, there have been some changes but the essence of KeelyNet conti nues and will as long as I'm alive and able to do it. My only regret is in all these years there has not been one single free energy or gravity control discovery which has made it to market to benefit the world. Lots of stories, lots of scams, lots of false leads and errors but the beef never showe d up. And yet...still I believe we can extract/convert energy and force from ambient forms, magnetism, gravity, heat, solar, wind and the ultimate in my view is energy from the actual local aether/zpe field. See; Alt Science Primer and Rectifying Chaos. Time waits for no person so we all die by inches. Intriguing that we shouldn't HAVE TO DIE since the body clearly can repair and replace dead, diseased or dying tissue with fresh, new tissue... Controlled apoptosis (cell death) to kill off and expel th e rot, reverse osmosis to flush out all the toxins and non living materials and energizing the aura to cause the body to regrow strong, healthy tissue to essentially rejuvenate us back to 18-22 years of age. Interesting that the body begins to die at around 20 years, so that is the critical phase change for our bodies...and when we do learn to rejuvenate, our bodies will recalibrate, reform and revert back to the physical age of 20 or so. I have collected 8 different techniques and legends about claimed rejuvenation techniques that are just begging to be tested but no one will fund any of my plans or my lab attempt.... Haz contacts, haz plans, haz talented associates, haz network, haz theories, haz ideas, haz talent but no haz funding... How can some jerkoff kid ask for $1,000,000.00 on youtube with NO PLANS FOR IT and someone gives it to him? No payback expected. And I'll payback, bigtime! - Full Article Source ITEM #236 02/05/11 - Verizon To Throttle High-Bandwidth Users "Verizon has enacted a new policy today that allows them to throttle 'high' bandwidth users on their network. We're not sure exactly what 'high' means but it is probably over 2GB of data per month. This comes as the iPhone launches on Verizon's network. The policy is said to only affect the top 5% of data users on the network. When these 5% of users hit the soft limit they will be throttled during peak times of the day. From the note sent to customers: 'Verizon Wireless strives to provide customers the best experience when using our network, a shared resource among tens of millions of customers. To help achieve this, if you use an extraordinary amount of data and fall within the top 5% of Verizon Wireless data users we may reduce your data throughput speeds periodically for the remainder of your then current and immediately following billing cycle to ensure high quality network performance for other users at locations and times of peak demand. Our proactive management of the Verizon Wireless network is designed to ensure that the remaining 95% of data customers aren't negatively affected by the inordinate data consumption of just a few users.'" - Full Article Source ITEM #237 02/05/11 - Japan's Elderly Nix Robot Helpers "In Japan, robots are friendly helpers, not Terminators. So when they join the workforce, as they do often in factories, they are sometimes welcomed on their first day with Shinto religious ceremonies. But whether the sick and elderly will be as welcoming to robot-like tech in their homes is a question that now vexes a Japanese care industry that is struggling with a massive manpower shortage. Automated help in the home and hospitals, believe some, could be the answer. A rapidly aging first world is also paying close attention to Japan's dalliance with automated care. ... The country's biggest robot maker, Tmsuk, created a life-like one-meter tall robot six years ago, but has struggled to find interested clients. Costing a cool $100,000 a piece, a rental program was scrapped recently because of 'failing to meet demands of consumers' and putting off patients at hospitals. 'We want humans caring for us, not machines,' was one response." - Full Article Source ITEM #238 02/05/11 - Giant Archaeological Trove Found Via Google Earth "Using detailed satellite imagery available through Google Earth, Australian researchers have discovered what may be tombs that are thousands of years old in remote stretches of Saudi Arabia (abstract). 'Kennedy scanned 1240 square kilometers in Saudi Arabia using Google Earth. From their birds-eye view he found 1977 potential archaeological sites, including 1082 "pendants" — ancient tear-drop shaped tombs made of stone. According to Kennedy, aerial photography of Saudi Arabia is not made available to most archaeologists, and it's difficult, if not impossible, to fly over the nation. "But, Google Earth can outflank them," he says. Kennedy confirmed that the sites were vestiges of an ancient life — rather than vegetation or shadow - by asking a friend in Saudi Arabia, who is not an archaeologist, to drive out to two of the sites and photograph them. By comparing the images with structures that Kennedy has seen in Jordan, he believes the sites may be up to 9000 years old, but ground verification is needed." - Full Article Source ITEM #239 02/02/11 - Saving the World Two Strokes at a Time The President and COO of EcoMotors is John Coletti, former director of Ford’s skunkworks performance division, SVT. Coletti is the guy who pushed for the Mustang to stay a rear-drive V-8 performance machine instead of becoming the forgettable front-drive that Ford sold as the unfortunately named Probe. Coletti was also on board during the 1999 SVT Cobra intake manifold debacle and the car’s subsequent comeback that culminated in the incredible 2003-’04 supercharged “Terminator” Cobra. SVT’s crowning achie vement under Coletti’s watch was the Ford GT supercar – unbelievable as it seems today that Ford actually built it. Of course, there were also bread-and-butter rigs like the the SVT Contour, F-150 Lightning and SVT Focus, all excellent performance machine s. But if you think it’s nuts that a guy like Coletti has signed on with an outfit called EcoMotors, you’re really not going to believe the engine they hope to bring to market. It’s called OPOC (Opposed Piston Opposed Cylinder), and it’s a turbocharged two-stroke, two-cylinder, with four pistons, two in each cylinder, that will run on gasoline, diesel or ethanol. The two pistons, inside a single cylinder, pump toward and away from each other, thus allowing a cycle to be completed twice as quickly as a conventional engine. The OPOC has been in development for several years, and the company claims it’s 30 percent lighter, one quarter the size and achieves 50 percent better fuel economy than a conventional turbo diesel engine. Earlier this year, the c ompany received an injection of $23.5 million from Khosla Ventures and Bill Gates, and says it will have a vehicle engine ready for production by 2013. They’re predicting 100 MPG in a conventional car. - Full Article Source ITEM #240 02/02/11 - Hydrogen based 'artificial gasoline' Artificial petrol that costs 19p per litre could be on forecourts in as little as three years. British scientists are refining the recipe for a hydrogen-based fuel that will run in existing cars and engines at the fraction of the cost of conventional petr ol. Professor Stephen Bennington, the project’s lead scientist, said: ‘In some senses, hydrogen is the perfect fuel. It has three times more energy than petrol per unit of weight, and when it burns, it produces nothing but water. ‘Our new hydrogen storage materials offer real potential for running cars, planes and other vehicles that currently use hydrocarbons.’ The fuel is expected to cost around $1.50 a gallon, or 19p a litre. Even with fuel taxes, the forecourt price is likely to be around 60p a litre – less than half the current cost. Current methods of storing hydrogen are expensive and not very safe. To get round this, scientists from the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, near Oxford, University College London and Oxford University have found a way of densely packing hydrogen into tiny beads that can be poured or pumped like a liquid. - Full Article Source ITEM #241 02/02/11 - Primary objection to relativistic interpretation of Casimir effect The primary objection to a relativistic interpretation of Casimir effect and catalytic action is that the equation for Casimir force at MINIMAL cavity width provides results which would seem insufficient to manifest the necessary time dilations to contra ct space time enough to suddenly make the longer vacuum flux capable of fitting between the interior walls of a Casimir cavity. The concept is akin to many SCIFI story lines where the interior volume of a room can be many time larger than the exterior volume. The concept of a MINIMAL cavity width for Casimir plates is based on plate geometry and the quantum accumulation of a field at some small distance paralell to the plate surface. This limit has been established by Liftshitz and others but is based on o ur 3D perspective outside the cavity which my theory attempts to circumvent. I am positing that the 3D perspective inside the cavity is changed by vacuum energy suppression that results in a Lorentzian translation between space and time. The mini hydrogen, hydrino, or other anomalous forms of condensed hydrogen (take y our pick) made famous in claims of excess heat would see the walls of the cavity shrink but an observer on the cavity wall would likewise see the hydrogen appear to shrink. This brings me to the crux of this issue which is, how can the equivalent accelera tion inside the cavity be of such a large magnitude to achieve Lorentzian contraction and sidestep these limits of MINIMAL width and plate proximity constraints imposed by Liftshitz and others? A shortcut is needed that ignores the need for spatial velocity and directly manipulates time. We know that both acceleration and equivalent acceleration due to gravity can result in time dilation. Therefore I assume a relationship between va cuum energy density and time dilation. We see this in the twin paradox because acceleration to fractional C can be replaced by a stationary twin at the bottom of a High G gravity well such as a dead star through equivalent acceleration. time dilation would still accumulate even though both twins are spatially stationary... (via zpenergy.com) - Full Article Source ITEM #242 02/02/11 - Coconut Oil Shown to Reverse the Effects of Alzheimer’s Dr. Mary Newport discusses ketone bodies, and alternative fuel for the brain, that the body makes in digesting coconut and the effective work on memory loss and Alzheimer’s with coconut oil. Dr. Newport came across some information about the use of a spec ific class of fats that were showing preliminary promise in the nutritional management of a variety of neurological conditions. These unusual fats go by the name of medium chain triglycerides (MCTs). The most concentrated food source of MCTs is coconut oi l. With nothing left to lose, Dr. Newport began giving her husband large amounts of coconut oil and incorporating it into their diets. The results were nothing short of amazing. This oil, which most doctors will tell you to avoid like the plague, has halt ed and even reversed some of the symptoms of Steve Newport’s brain dysfunction! If you know anything about coconut oil, you know that it’s loaded with saturated fat. Most conventional doctors consider it one of the most damaging types of fat because it’s “bad for the heart”. When something is harmful for the heart, it typically also impedes circulation to other vital body organs, including the brain. But as you’ll see, recent scientific studies do not appear to support this view. - Full Article Source ITEM #243 02/02/11 - Cork Paradox If a cork ball about an inch in diameter be tied at the end of a thread about a foot in length, and then swung so that it enters a smooth stream of water flowing from a tap at about three inches from the mouth of the latter, it will be found that the ball will remain in the water, and that the thread will make an angle of about thirty degrees with a vertical line passing through the ball. The latter, it should be added, must be thoroughly wetted before this result is produced. - Full Article Source ITEM #244 02/02/11 - Check out this R5800 Solar Death Ray, built by 19-year-old Eric Jacqmain What you are seeing here is a “death-ray” made by gluing 5,800 tiny mirror tiles to a fiberglass satellite dish. According to my Source, it is powerful enough to “melt steel, vaporize aluminum, boil concrete, turn dirt into lava, and obliterate any organi c material in an instant”. Believe it or not, it was built by a 19-year-old named Eric Jacqmain who wanted to prove how powerful the sun’s energy is. Okay, point taken! Unfortunately, Jacqmain’s invention failed because it was destroyed by a shed fire tha t was started by its own energy. Jacqmain says he want so build a more powerful version with 32,000 mirrors in the future. - Full Article Source ITEM #245 02/02/11 - Portable solar charger on the cheap ($20) thanks to UM students Solar power is definitely one of the better ways to harvest free energy from our surroundings, and when it comes to rural areas, it is one of the best ways to provide green and sustainable energy without having to cut down large tracts from the forest. Th e University of Michigan should be proud that three of its alumni from the engineering faculty have come up with the Emerald portable solar panel which doubles up as a cell phone charger and personal light source. The Emerald is capable of lasting for up to 8 hours as a light source per charge, and can also juice up a handset as fast as a power outlet does. These students intend to be philantropic about their invention, selling it for less than $20 to cater for customers in the developing world, making th eir offering 90% cheaper compared to other solutions in the market. - Full Article Source ITEM #246 02/02/11 - WIPO assigns patent for Formaldehyde Solar Generator Publication No. WO/2011/009183 was published on Jan. 27. Title of the invention: "PHOTOCHEMICAL PROCESS FOR GENERATING ELECTRIC ENERGY FROM SOLAR ENERGY, USING FORMALDEHYDE (CH2O) AS THE ACTIVE COMPONENT." Inventors: Wellington Saad Larcipretti (BR) and N icolas Del Collado Larcipretti (BR). According to the abstract posted by the World Intellectual Property Organization: "A photochemical process powered by solar energy, during which the molecules of a combination of water (H2O) and carbon dioxide (CO2) ar e dissociated while passing through a reaction zone, so as to produce the hydrocarbon formaldehyde or methanal (CH2O) by absorption and concentration of solar radiation through exothermal dissociation caused by fast reversible transformation reactions of electrons and protons in a closed circuit, thus generating electricity." The patent was filed on July 13, 2010 under Application No. PCT/BR2010/000244. - Full Article Source ITEM #247 02/02/11 - Explosively awesome Chinese popcorn popper "The kernels are sealed in that thing he's spinning around. As they heat up they don't explode, because they're sealed with no air going in or out. He heats them up to a certain temperature and then he puts the sealed container with hot kernels into a bag . He then opens the container in the bag, allowing the kernels to expand, and every single kernel pops at the same time." (Sounds like this could make a new novelty popcorn popper product. - JWD) - Full Article Source ITEM #248 02/02/11 - Microbubbles method benefits biofuel production Microbubbles of around 50–500 microns in diameter are highly valued for gas and energy transfer due to their considerable surface area per unit volume. They are not a new invention but Sheffield University spin-out Perlemax has patented a novel fluidic os cillator to create them more efficiently. Perlemax founder and engineering professor Will Zimmerman said: ‘Basically we push gas just enough to displace the water needed to create the interface and the bubble. The concept is you use a packet of gas about the same size as the pore and the result is that you get a bubble about the same size — the smallest we’ve gone down to is an average of 28 microns. ‘It’s hard to imagine you could come up with a more energy-efficient way of making bubbles of those sizes. ’ Alternate methods revolve around compressing gases into liquids then transferring the saturated liquid into a pressurised liquid to nucleate microbubbles, which is very expensive. Zimmerman believes the Perlemax fluidic oscillator can save 90–95 per cent on running costs and a considerable amount on capital, since the unit costs only around £100 to make. - Full Article Source ITEM #249 02/02/11 - The Solution - Full Article Source ITEM #250 02/02/11 - Solar powered smart road of the future The Solar Roadway is an intelligent road that provides clean renewable energy using power from the sun, while providing safer driving conditions, along with power and data delivery. Co-founders and co-inventors of the Solar Roadway, Scott and Julie Brusaw based in Idaho USA, predict that the Solar Roadway will pay for itself through the generation of electricity along with other forms of revenue and that the same money that is being used to build and resurface current roads can be used to build the Solar Roadways. Each Solar Road Panel measures roughly 4 meters by 4 meters and contains a microprocessor that monitors and controls the panel, while communicating with neighbouring panels and the vehicles travelling overhead. The inventors suggest that this pr ovides a communications device every 4 meters on every road which could be used for example to warn other drivers of a car which is moving across a centre line and various other speed control issues. The top of the Solar Road panels is made of glass and B rusaw is looking to top glass researchers at the University of Dayton and Penn State to develop super-strong glass that would offer vehicles the traction they need. According to the inventors, the Solar Roadway creates and carries clean renewable electric ity and therefore electric vehicles (EVs) can be recharged at any conveniently located rest stop, or at any business that incorporates Solar Road Panels in their parking lots. The Solar Roadway on the other hand, would replace current centralized power st ations as the Solar Roadways would become the power grid eliminating the need for utility poles and relay stations. The inventors say their Solar Roadway has many applications and advantages from main roads to driveways, parking lots, bike paths, sidewalk s and runways. The Federal Highway Administration has given Brusaw a $100,000 contract to develop the invention and Brusaw hopes to demonstrate a smart-road parking lot in the spring. - Full Article Source ITEM #251 02/02/11 - Scientists Detect Cancer with Light Northwestern University scientist Vadim Backman has developed a way to detect colon, pancreatic and lung cancer using reflected light. Note in the picture above how the cancerous cells have a light-scattering fingerprint with a lot less red. Backman says you could have a simple test in your dentist’s office. He would swab your cheek to detect lung cancer. Your doctor could do a minimally-invasive probe for colon or pancreatic cancer that required no preparation or cleansing. Trials so far have been succes sful for colon and pancreatic cancer and are being extended to other forms. / The analysis technique--called partial wave spectroscopic (PWS) microscopy--was able to differentiate individuals with lung cancer from those without, even if the non-cancerous patients had been lifetime smokers or suffered from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Within affected cells, including otherwise healthy cells far from an actual tumor, the molecules in the nucleus and cellular skeleton appear to change. On the scale of roughly 200 nanometers or less, even to the scale of molecules, an affected cell's s tructure becomes so distorted that light scatters through the cell in a telling way. The ability of cancer to cause changes in distant, healthy tissue is called the "field effect" or "field of injury" effect, and is the physical mechanism that allows cells in the cheek to reveal changes triggered by a tumor far off in a patient's lu ng. "Microscopic histology and cytology have been a staple of clinical diagnostics detecting micro-scale alterations in cell structure," added Backman. "However, the resolution of conventional microscopy is limited. PWS-based nanocytology, on the other han d, detects cellular alterations at the nanoscale in otherwise microscopically normal-appearing cells." "What is intriguing is that the very same nanoscale alterations seem to develop early in very different types of cancer including lung, colon and pancreatic cancers," Backman continued. "Not only does this suggest that nanocytology has the potential to become a general platform for cancer screening, but also that these nanoscale alterations are a ubiquitous event in early carcinogenesis with critical consequences for cell function. Elucidating the mechanisms of these alterations will help us understand the initial stages of carcinogenesis and improve screening." - Full Article Source ITEM #252 02/02/11 - Companies invest $300 Million looking to new energy Top U.S. energy companies announced they were committing $300 million to develop a joint venture to develop emerging energy technology. General Electric, NRG Energy Inc. and ConocoPhillips announced the formation of Energy Technology Ventures, a collabora tion that will help fund roughly 30 "growth-stage" companies working on new and emerging energy technologies during the next four years. The first investments targeted by the joint venture include solar photovoltaic devices for low-cost, solar energy, so- called clean coal technology and non-food biofuels, the companies said. - Full Article Source ITEM #253 02/02/11 - ATM skimmer that doesn't require any modifications to the ATM Many of today’s skimmer scams can swipe your card details and personal identification number while leaving the ATM itself completely untouched, making them far more difficult to spot. The most common of these off-ATM skimmers can be found near cash machin es that are located in the antechamber of a bank or building lobby, where access is controlled by a key card lock that is activated when the customer swipes his or her ATM card. In these scams, the thieves remove the card swipe device attached to the outs ide door, add a skimmer, and then reattach the device to the door. The attackers then place a hidden camera just above or beside the ATM, so that the camera is angled to record unsuspecting customers entering their PINs. The crooks usually return later in the evening to remove the theft devices. On July 24, 2009, California police officers responded to a report that a customer had uncovered a camera hidden behind a mirror that was stuck to the wall above an ATM at a bank in Sherman Oaks, Calif. There were two ATMs in the lobby where the camera was found, and officers discovered that the thieves had placed an "Out of Order" sign on the ATM that did not have the camera pointed at its PIN pad. The sign was a simple ruse designed to trick all customers into using the cash machine that was compromi sed. Bank security cameras at the scene of the crime show the fake mirror installed over the ATM on the right... The attackers hitting this ATM were either very persistent, or varied: A source familiar with the July 24 incident said this particular door l ock would be stolen and modified a total of nine times in 2009. The camera used in this attack retails for about $150, can record up to 2 GB (about two hours worth) of video, and runs on a rechargeable lithium ion battery. - Full Article Source ITEM #254 02/02/11 - Besler Steam Powered Airplane A Travel Air 2000 biplane made the world's first piloted flight under steam power over Oakland, California, on 12 April 1933. The strangest feature of the flight was its relative silence; spectators on the ground could hear the pilot when he called to the m from mid-air. The aircraft, piloted by William Besler, had been fitted with a two-cylinder, 150 hp reciprocating engine. An important contribution to its design was made by Nathan C. Price, a former Doble Steam Motors engineer. Price was working on high pressure compact engines for rail and road transport; the purpose of the flight was to obtain publicity for this work. Following its unexpectedly favourable reception Price went to Boeing and worked on various aviation projects, but Boeing dropped the idea of a steam aeroengine in 1936. Price later worked for Lockheed where his experience with developing compact burners for steam boilers helped to design Lockheed's first jet engine. The advantages of the "Besler System" that were claimed at the time included the elimination of audible noise and destructive vibration; greater efficiency at low engine speeds and also at high altitudes where lower air temperatures assisted condensation; reduced likelihood of engine failure; reduced maintenance costs; reduced fuel costs, since fuel oil was used in place of petrol; reduced fire hazard since the fuel was less volatile and operating temperatures were lower; and a lack of need for radio shielding. For capacities in excess of 1000 horse power a turb ine captures the energy released by the expansion of steam more efficiently than a piston. Thus, the steam reciprocating engine turned out to be unsuitable for scaling up to the needs of large aircraft. (Thanks to Doug Littlefield for the headsup. - JWD) - Full Article Source ITEM #255 02/02/11 - Claim invention Produces MWs converting Potential Energy The Inexhaustible Energy & Power Corporation announced today that it has acquired the Marketing rights to license the use of the first electrical power generation plant design that util izes a Gravity Engine to generate multi Megawatts of continuously generated, totally green, ultra-clean, decentralized electrical power. According to Jim Berling, CEO and Founder of IE&P, "The Gravity Engine Electric Power Generation Plant (GEEPGP) will b e the only power plant design in the world that utilizes naturally occurring sources of potential energy (NOSOPE) as its sole source of externally supplied energy for its operation, making it the most efficient and totally Green electrical power generatin g source available." The Gravity Engine's continuous power output is established by its physical size and the number of engines that are operated as a system. The current configuration of the GEEPGP prototype would be capable of generating 70 Megawatts of ultra clean ac-electrical power utilizing gravity, atmospheric pressure, head pressure, and buoyancy, as the sole sources of input energy for the GEEPGP's operation. It is Important to note that all of the NOSOPE utilized by the Gravity Engine are all in exhaustible, infinitely available, totally free, and exist everywhere. The mission of the Inexhaustible Energy & Power Corporation is to support the implementation and the exploitation of the GEEPGP's design and to market this new technology, throughout t he world. The Patent-Pending Gravity Engine invention has been under development for a number of years and is the brainchild of Jim Berling. The invention design is highly simplistic and requires no new technology for its operation. Additionally, it is comprised of OFF-THE-SHELF components that will provide a high degree of reliability. The invention utilizes a duty cycle waveform that con sists of two (2) power generating phases and one evacuation phase. The Gravity Engine?s duty cycle also includes three (3) distinct regions of energy storage capability. The Gravity Engine electrical power generating plant is provided which generates electricity from a source of hydraulic pressure. The energy that pressurizes the hydraulic fluid is derived from movements of a crane-like class II lever that has its ful crum fixed to a stationary land mass so that the fulcrum?s position is fixed relative to the lever?s opposite “movable” end where the applied load is established. The movable end of the lever is attached to an “applied force vessel” (AFV) that alternatively can be filled with water (or other liquid) so as to sink due to gravity, and then can be evacuated of water or a liquid as to rise due to buoyancy. (I seriously doubt all this because they hide the patent pending number, don't provide diagrams and make claims for HUGE POWER when its clear they haven't built anything on that level. They also need to provide test parameters, maybe a youtube or at th e least diagrams to show HOW what is being claimed works. So take all of this with a big block of salt. The very title of 'inexhaustbile energy' is so carny, so hokey, it shoots them in the foot from the gitgo. Wish them the best but I seriously doubt it is anything real. - JWD) - Full Article Source ITEM #256 02/02/11 - Escher/escalator mashup - Full Article Source ITEM #257 02/02/11 - Has China Already Flown a Space Plane? According to a report published by China Aviation Journal, "China has successfully launched its own space plane prototype; the news came out shortly after the US Air Force announced the successful test of their advanced X37B space plane. This story has no w been deleted. Hong Kong's Ming Pao daily on Tuesday said Shaanxi TV last Saturday quoted acting provincial governor Zhao Zhengyong as saying China has 'succeeded in the test flight of a prototype aircraft that can fly through the atmospheric layer.' Zha o was visiting a state-run aircraft corporation at Xi'an high-tech industrial development zone." - Full Article Source ITEM #258 02/02/11 - US Gov schemes To Boost TSA Budget and Implement Body Scanners I contend that this story is just the tip of the iceberg into the US government’s black operations to further the Patriot Act, funding for Homeland Security and the TSA, and to keep intensity up for the so called War on Terror. Respected lawyer and commun ity leader, Kurt Haskell, has nothing to gain from pointing his finger at the federal government. He witnessed the underwear bomber, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, being whisked past security and led onto NorthWest Airlines flight 253, by a well-dressed man w ith an American accent- all without the passenger’s proper visa and passport documentation. What the news piece doesn’t mention is that the State Dept did indeed put Mutallab on the plane, at the behest of “an unnamed US intelligence agency.” Undersecreta ry Patrick F. Kennedy (Detroit news article was removed from web!). THIS is why we are being groped, molested, and body scanned at the airport by the TSA! Because the government claims the underwear bomber is a real threat! - Full Article Source ITEM #259 02/02/11 - Wind farms 'produce no energy' when cold and no air moving Wind farms in Britain generated practically no electricity during the recent cold spell, raising fresh concerns about whether they could be relied upon to meet the country’s energy needs. Despite high demand for electricity as people shivered at home ove r Christmas, most of the 3,000 wind turbines around Britain stood still due to a lack of wind. Even yesterday , when conditions were slightly breezier, wind farms generated just 1.8 per cent of the nation’s electricity — less than a third of usual levels. The failure of wind farms to function at full tilt during December forced energy suppliers to rely on coal-fired power stations to keep the lights on — meaning more greenhouse gases were produced. Prof Michael Laughton, emeritus professor of engineering at Queen Mary University London, said wind turbines became still just when they were needed most, meaning that the country was reliant on imported oil or coal. The wind turbines may even use up electricity during a calm period, as they were rotated in ord er to keep the mechanical parts working. There are more than 3,000 turbines in Britain and the Department of Energy and Climate Change planned to have up to 6,000 onshore and 4,000 at sea by 2020. - Full Article Source ITEM #260 02/02/11 - Israeli Emergency Bandage The Israeli emergency bandage is the first of a new generation of bandages that can make a difference when it really counts. It combines a sterile dressing, elastic wrap and a pressure bar to make a fast and easy to use trauma bandage. The long tail can b e configured in various ways to hold the bandage in place or to immobilize the limb, plus it can be configured in to an improvised tourniquet. I consider it must carry item since I can use it as a multipurpose bandage, use the tail as an "Ace" wrap for sp rains or to immobilize a fracture to a splint. The bandage comes in 4" and 6" for around $5-$11 and everyone in my family has one in their car first aid kit, backpack or office. - Full Article Source ITEM #261 02/02/11 - Birds use quantum theory to 'see' Earth's magnetic field as they fly Many creatures, including all birds, navigate by sensing the direction of the magnetic forces around our planet to guide them. Now researchers have found that different reactions are produced in the eyes of all avian creatures depending on which way the f ield spins. These reactions could create a picture of the field in different shades of light and dark across the bird’s eye, they have suggested. Scientists said that if true it would be another example of Mother Nature’s wonder - in tests using the most exotic chemicals they could find, they could not match the bird’s eye for its ability to do what it does. In the late 1970s the physicist Klaus Schulten concluded that birds navigate by relying on geomagnetically sensitive biochemical reactions in their e yes. Since then research has identified special cells in the eye which carry out this function using the protein cryptochrome. When a light photon enters the bird’s eye, it comes into contact with the cryptochrome and is given an energy boost which puts i t into quantum entanglement, a state where the electrons are spatially separated but still able to affect one another. Scientists have long suggested that birds' eyes have entanglement-based compasses but now they claim in a new paper the process could pr oduce an image of the Earth’s electromagnetic field in the eye as well. Such an image would not be a clear outline of a shape but just shades of dark and light depending on how the field moves. - Full Article Source ITEM #262 02/02/11 - If you MUST worship something, worship your god, not a book Do you know what I mean by "authoritative?" To me that means seeing the bible as the guide, the source, and the inspiration for my life. In other words, through the writings in the bible I find the directions for how I choose to live. Through the bible I am introduced to God, to Jesus, to the Holy Spirit and the expectations for how to model my existence. But there is a challenge here that is at the heart of what defines the Christian community in particular and human relations in general. And at the sake of being called a heretic, I think many folks are confused about what to do with the bible. For instance, there are many who insist on taking the bible literally in every aspect. They refer to it as the "literal word of God." They then suggest if you or I do not believe it, accept it literally, then somehow we are wrong. And if you are wrong about that, then you probably better get it right or suffer eternal consequences. Take the bible literally? Here is what that would look like. We would stone homosexuals to death ... along with adulterers and misbehaving children. Sorry, but we would never, under any circumstance, allow women to preach the word of God. (But they can teach it to children in Sunday School?) And don't forget, you must tithe 10 percent of your income. Before taxes! Then there is that whole business about handling snakes. It was, I believe, Robert Schuler who warned Christians to beware of "bibliolatry". That is, worshipping the bible to the same degree that we worship the God the bible reveals. To be consistent, that means remembering the Trinity only has three sides, not four. Maybe we should stop buying those fancy versions bound in Moroccan leather with gold tipped pages and red letters for the words of Jesus. Maybe the bible should be made like a laminated auto mechanics manual or a good, serviceable travel atlas. You know, something we can handle and not be afraid of, something that is viewed as the honest tool we can trust as we negotiate the repairs we need to make and navigate through life. Ultimately, I think our engines of faith will run better and we will arrive at that final destination just fine. - Full Article Source ITEM #263 02/02/11 - Spoon.net - run/test desktop apps without installing If you want to try out a program without installing it, the place to go is Spoon.net. It asks you to install a small plug in, but after that you can run hundreds of apps without installing anything further. Our number one go-to tech guy says it’s “fantast ic.” Many of the apps are free, even very large ones, like “OpenOffice,” a free competitor of Microsoft Word. There are dozens of categories to select from, like “Education,” “Home and Hobbies.” We saw a free auction bidding tool and a nice program for ma king your own music. Only a few games are free, but they all have free trials. We played a half hour of “1001 Nights: The Adventures of Sinbad.” It wasn’t great compared to the games we’ve found at iplay.com, but at least you haven’t installed anything if you don’t like it you can move on. - Full Article Source ITEM #264 02/02/11 - How Germans change a VW fan belt Dont be fooled by copies. This is my hands, in my shop, with my tool, with my 67 car. I am the original VOLKSWAGNUT. How to change a Volkswagen Generator belt in about 5 seconds. I was shown this trick a few years back, by Reece Kelso. Kelso was the "VW" man around the Gaston County N.C. area in the 70's. Kelso is gone but the memory is still strong. Here is my go at it ENJOY. - Full Article Source ITEM #265 02/02/11 - Luc Montagnier, Nobel Prize Winner, Takes Homeopathy Seriously Dr. Luc Montagnier, the French virologist who won the Nobel Prize in 2008 for discovering the AIDS virus, has surprised the scientific community with his strong support for homeopathic medicine. In a remarkable interview published in Science magazine of D ecember 24, 2010, (1) Professor Luc Montagnier, has expressed support for the often maligned and misunderstood medical specialty of homeopathic medicine. In addition to the wide variety of basic science evidence and clinical research, further evidence fo r homeopathy resides in the fact that they gained widespread popularity in the U.S. and Europe during the 19th century due to the impressive results people experienced in the treatment of epidemics that raged during that time, including cholera, typhoid, yellow fever, scarlet fever, and influenza. Montagnier has just taken a new position at Jiaotong University in Shanghai, China (this university is often referred to as "China's MIT"), where he will work in a new institute bearing his name. This work focus es on a new scientific movement at the crossroads of physics, biology, and medicine: the phenomenon of electromagnetic waves produced by DNA in water. He and his team will study both the theoretical basis and the possible applications in medicine. Montagn ier's new research is investigating the electromagnetic waves that he says emanate from the highly diluted DNA of various pathogens. Montagnier asserts, "What we have found is that DNA produces structural changes in water, which persist at very high dilut ions, and which lead to resonant electromagnetic signals that we can measure. Not all DNA produces signals that we can detect with our device. The high-intensity signals come from bacterial and viral DNA." Montagnier affirms that these new observations wi ll lead to novel treatments for many common chronic diseases, including but not limited to autism, Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, and multiple sclerosis. - Full Article Source ITEM #266 02/02/11 - Subtle energy, magnetism, electricity, Grebennikov, Mexistim y mas