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06/30/07 - Cooking with gas made from food waste
 The photo shows the biogas plant at the Panavila Muslim Working Women's Hostel, Trivandrum. A project to turn waste food into cooking gas has picked up £30,000 in an international competition to find the best sustainable energy schemes. The project in India collected the prize in one of the five international categories of the Ashden Awards for Sustainable Energy.
06/30/07 - Home Hydrogen Generator
 A British company is developing a low-cost home electrolyzer for the production of hydrogen to refuel a converted dual-fuel vehicle that uses both low-pressure hydrogen and gasoline for fuels. The ITM Power electrolyzer uses a 10 kW electrolyzer operating at 75 bar pressure. ITM Power modified a gasoline engine Ford Focus to a dual-fuel vehicle, and has fueled the converted car with the output of the electrolyzer.
06/30/07 - Low-energy light bulbs 'can trigger epilepsy'
 Energy-saving light bulbs can trigger epilepsy-like symptoms in sufferers of the condition, it has been revealed. The bulbs - soon to be compulsory in homes - have caused dizziness, lightheadedness and other symptoms experienced in the early stages of a fit. Epilepsy affects up to half a million, including 23,000 whose fits are brought on by flickering lights. It is unclear how the bulbs are triggering the symptoms. Though they do flicker, the rate is different to that usually associated with seizures. The answer may lie in the way the light is generated, with light produced by low-energy bulbs having a different wavelength pattern.
06/30/07 - Diet pill that will leave you as stuffed as spaghetti
 An as yet unnamed tiny pill that swells to the size of a tennis ball in the stomach is being touted as a cure for obesity. The pill contains an absorbent substance which expands by more than 1,000 times when combined with water - making dieters feel full. Its creators, who discovered the absorbent ingredient while testing materials for nappy linings, liken the sensation to "eating a nice plate of spaghetti". Experts remain unconvinced, however, warning that the pill - which also contains the indigestible fibre cellulose - could delay the emptying of the stomach and damage its lining. Any slow-down in the progress of food through the gut also increases the risk of stomach and bowel cancers. Experts predict that 12.6 million Britons will be classed as obese by 2010.
06/30/07 - Without Heat, Much of N. America Would be Underwater
A University of Utah study shows how various regions of North America are kept afloat by heat within Earth’s rocky crust, and how much of the continent would sink beneath sea level if not for heat that makes rock buoyant. New York City would sit 1,427 feet underwater and Los Angeles would rest 3,756 feet beneath the Pacific.
06/30/07 - Nuclear rockets could cut cost of Moon base
 Nuclear-powered rockets could save NASA billions of dollars in launch costs for its planned return to the Moon, a top nuclear scientist says. He argues that the higher efficiency of nuclear propulsion would reduce the number of launches needed to build a lunar base. The higher efficiency of such an engine means almost 29 tonnes of cargo could be delivered to the Moon in a single Ares V launch, compared to 21 tonnes with the non-nuclear version. This would allow a 250-tonne lunar base to be constructed with only nine rather than 12 Ares V launches, Howe says. NASA has not said how much each launch would cost, but Howe estimates it at $1.5 billion each. At this price, three fewer launches would save $4.5 billion. Previous work, including a NASA study, have suggested that it would cost only $2.5 to $3 billion to develop the nuclear rocket technology, so even with development costs, the nuclear option could still save NASA billions, Howe says. Once the technology is developed, it could also be used for missions to Mars and beyond, he says. Robert Singleterry says as for crew safety, natural radiation from speeding space particles called cosmic rays presents a much bigger hazard than radioactivity from a well-shielded nuclear rocket. "The radiation they get [from cosmic rays] just from being outside the Earth's magnetic field overwhelms what they would get from the rocket."
06/30/07 - How to add Chroma key (green screen effects) to a movie for FREE!
Wanna make a movie like the pros? Using green screen editing? It's all free (besides the actual green screen itself) with this awsome program. Debug Mode's WAX is a video/picture/music editor. It hase a drag and drop time line like in Windows Movie maker, so you can add pictures and music to your video.
06/30/07 - Will Science Render Men Unnecessary?
 Scientists announced they had made artificial sperm from human bone marrow. If a woman chose to do so, speculated tabloid journalists, she could make sperm from her own bone marrow, fertilize another woman’s egg - and voila! “Men could be completely sidelined,” according to Britain’s Daily Mail. Stock, author of the book “Redesigning Humans,” believes there were so many stories recently because such experiments are as much symbol as science. “The importance is just the idea of two women having a child, one creating sperm and other having an oocyte [egg]. Well, what does that say about marriage laws? About whether men are needed? There are all sorts of ways that play into our psyche, who and what we are, what relationships are all about, the limits of the technological vision of ourselves.”
06/30/07 - Obese People Being Refused Life Insurance
A growing number of people with common medical conditions are being refused life cover, as soaring obesity levels hit insurers. In recent years, insurers have been forced to pay out growing sums on protection policies -- which include level term and whole-of-life cover as well as critical illness insurance -- according to the Association of British Insurers (ABI). They paid out 4.2 billion pounds in 2005 -- up 11 percent on 2004 and 24 percent on 2001, an ABI spokesman said. Moonesinghe said that a higher number of claims forced insurers to raise premiums, making them less competitiveness. "The way (for insurers) to keep premiums low is to pay fewer claims -- and that means excluding those people who are likely to make claims," he added. There are currently 2.1 million people with diabetes in Britain and a further 750,000 who have it but are yet to be diagnosed, according to Diabetes UK. The vast majority -- 85-95 percent -- of sufferers have type 2 diabetes, which results from a lack of or resistance to insulin and, in most cases, is linked to being overweight. Only a handful of insurers -- including Friends Provident, Royal Liver, Scottish Equitable and Legal & General -- are now generally willing to insure diabetics, according to the Insurance Helpline, which helped to develop the first British life insurance contract for people with HIV last year. Getting cover is, however, subject to a string of other factors, such as type of diabetes, height, weight, family history and whether or not the applicant smokes. Diabetics able to find an insurer can expect to pay inflated premiums.
06/30/07 - 700 MW of Electricity to Come from Landfill Gas
 LFGTE projects are especially valuable to utilities because they provide dependable baseload power. A typical facility will run about 95 percent of the time, making it a good fit with intermittent renewables such as wind and solar. Landfill gas, produced when microorganisms break down organic material in the landfill, is comprised of approximately 50-60 percent methane and 40-50 percent carbon dioxide. At most landfills in the U.S., these greenhouse gases are simply burned off, or “flared.” Waste Management sites that have LFGTE facilities will collect the methane and use it to fuel onsite engines or turbines, generating electricity to power surrounding homes and neighborhoods while creating a new revenue stream for the landfills. By building LFGTE facilities, Waste Management reduces greenhouse gases by offsetting the use of fossil fuel at the utility power plants.
06/30/07 - Turn a C battery into a D with quarters
You need a D battery but all you've got laying around are C cells. Since C and D batteries are both 1.5 volts (they differ only in size and energy storage), you can build a makeshift D to C "adaptor" with a few regular, conductive, George Washington quarters.
06/30/07 - Russia Claims Large Chunk of North Pole
 "Russia has laid claim to over one million square kilometers of the Artic. This announcement comes on the return of a scientific expedition into the region which found that the Lomonosov Ridge connects to Russia. The area is supposed to have a reserve of 10 billion tons of natural gas and oil. 'A BBC map shows Russia's proposal; this set of maps from The New York Times illustrates the area at stake and different ways it might be divided ... The Russians have tried to advance their claim before, and were turned away by the United Nations in 2001. The new geological data is evidently meant to improve the odds for a second try. '"
06/30/07 - Genotropin- a miracle medicine that makes dwarves grow tall
 The human growth hormone Genotropin (www.genotropin.com) is used to treat children and adults who for one reason or another do not produce the hormone themselves. Without the treatment, a child could only grow to 125-140 centimeters while after treatment, the person can grow as tall as 180 cm. For adult patients who lacks growth hormone the treatment gives a possibility to come back to a normal active life.
06/30/07 - Video - Steppenwolf's Prescient Monster
At the time of this song, I don't recall our world being near as bad as now.
06/30/07 - 100 Portable Apps for your USB Stick (for Mac and Win)
 This stuff can be installed on any portable drive, i.e. USB thumbdrive, PDA or an iPod. You can use them at work, school, or any other place where you can plugin your device. Check them out, you can either scroll-down for relevant category, i.e office software, email tools, messengers, games, etc. or get a ‘all-in-one’ package (all essential tools) . While there are more apps for windows users, I tried to include a mac version for each essential tool. All free. Enjoy!
06/30/07 - Video - Cyclone Rare Earth Engine
Permanent Magnets used by an Australian company to create a 300 HP engine that creates perpetual energy. www.cycclone.com
06/30/07 - PUSH the Future - US no longer top dog in the world
 The PUSH Conference brings together voices from economics, social policy, technology, demography, art, and design to construct a window on the future of work, business, and society. Ronald Reagan’s secretary of commerce. Clyde Prestowitz advises Presidents and CEOs alike on the state of the world, "All of our lives, the U.S. has been the most powerful country. Oil has been priced in dollars. Water has been readily, cheaply available. Energy, pretty much the same thing. We take that for granted; we assume that's the way life is going to be. But study the life of a corporation, or a country, and you find that changes take place. Sometimes they're gradual, sometimes big. We as a world have come to a moment of big change. The U.S. has been the only country in the world that can run large trade deficit for a long time. But now, other countries have big dollar reserves. As that happens, there are concerns about the ability of the U.S. to pay; fear has begun to creep into global financial markets that the dollar isn’t as solid as we’ve all thought."
06/27/07 - Not sure yet why KeelyNet was down Wednesday but it's up now, though email remains down.
 It's probably due to the DELUGE Dallas and Texas in general has suffered. Dallas is where Dan York's server is where he kindly hosts KeelyNet so he must be fighting alligators. / Dallas is looking a lot like Seattle these days. Drenching rains pounded the city and north-central Texas again on Wednesday, forcing the precautionary evacuation of thousands of residents from several communities to the west of Fort Worth that were threatened with possible flooding. A prolonged drought has been washed away in north Texas. Dams that were low just a couple of months ago are now brimming with water, and rivers are roiling. An official at the local office of the National Weather Service said this has been the second wettest June since records began in 1899 in the Dallas/Fort Worth area with over 10.5 inches of rain. That is about an inch short of the previous record set in 1928.
06/27/07 - $10.00 FLV Audio Extractor
I like to save FLV youtube.com music video files and want the music separate as an MP3. At first, I played the FLV file and twinned the audio with an audio capture program, but it was tedious AND the files sounded terrible, no matter how I adjusted it. A search found this excellent cheap program that does batch processing. So I batch processed ALL my FLV files and now have an excellent assortment of new music. / Freez Flv to Mp3 Converter is a a tool to convert Flash FLV files to Mp3 files so that they can be played in Windows Media Player. You can set the output mp3 audio's bitrate, frequency, channels, or simply set the values same as Flv's audio stream. With just a few clicks, you can convert batches of Flv files to Mp3 files with high speed. The simple and friendly interface make the program very easy to use.
06/27/07 - British steam car aims for landspeed record
 (Once, an elderly friend told me the top speed for a Stanley Steamer had never been truly tested because of chassis vibration and control issues in early models, so this article is of interest. - JWD) A British steam car is in the final stages of preparation for an attempt on the land speed record, or at least the steam-powered version of it. In the early days of motoring, steam cars outpowered their petrol and electric-driven cousins. A Stanley Steamer was the world's fastest vehicle in 1906 with a top speed of 127 miles per hour. It kept the record until November 1909 when it was beaten by 3.5 miles per hour by a 21 litre petrol-driven Mercedes-Benz. The British Steam Car Challenge is ready to go, except the steam boilers are producing too much power. The car is aiming to produce more than 300 brake horsepower, which will allow it to reach 200 miles per hour. It uses four boilers powered by liquid petroleum gas. The car is built on a tubular steel frame with carbon composite front panels. In order to stop it uses disc brakes on all four wheels... and a parachute.
06/27/07 - NASA to unleash 'mind meld' intelligent machines
According to the NASA's chillingly frank press release, the aim is to "to develop a machine-to-machine (M2M) intelligence system that would be tailored to space missions" and which would "enable machines to make intelligent choices, execute self-guided adjustments, and communicate with one another, all without human intervention, in a way that they presently cannot". Here's the money shot - check the last sentence: As envisioned, an M2M intelligence system will work with a broad spectrum of machines, from wireless tools and sensors to robots, spacecraft, and computer grid systems. The goal is nothing short of machine self-dependency. "Our technology interconnects all machines and provides an intelligent way for them to communicate and exchange information much more efficiently than before." Machines in an M2Mi environment interoperate seamlessly, because each is augmented with knowledge of its own behavior and can communicate with all others. Information, communication and intelligence enables global system awareness and adaptive control. To process huge data volumes over large distances, transform data into information, and derive actionable intelligence, m2mi leverages a meta-data-driven architecture (MDDA). Drone trawlers are used to proactively scan both the semantic web and traditional protocols to interact with machines and applications. When new intelligence is to be deployed (new devices, change of applications or behavior), the drone trawler spawns and manages the life cycle of multiple task agents.
06/27/07 - Age Progression
 Upload a photo, and they'll make the person look older: Phojoe Forensic Art. Through Forensic Compositing we can do Age Progression/Regression to help investigators solve crimes and find missing people. This service is also available for the general public. Ever wonder what your child will look like in 10 years? Have you lost a Loved one and are wondering what they would look like now...We Can Show You! We can also combine 2 peoples features to predict what their children will look like. Anything is possible.
06/27/07 - Democrats plan to cut Cheney out of executive funding bill
Following Vice President Dick Cheney's assertion that his office is not a part of the executive branch of the US government, Democratic Caucus Chairman Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D-IL) plans to introduce an amendment to the the Financial Services and General Government Appropriations bill to cut funding for Cheney's office.
06/27/07 - $12-$17,000 Smart Car in 2008
 The base pure model comes standard with convenience features such as a 5-speed automated manual transmission with manual or automatic mode, central remote locking system, 2-spoke leather steering wheel, radio-ready console, and more. Air conditioning, power windows and alloy wheels are optional. The top speed of the smart fortwo is approximately 90 mph. The vehicle is designed to achieve 40 plus mpg under normal driving conditions and current standards. smart is a member of the Mercedes Car Group. smart vehicles are sold in 36 countries throughout the world. Over 750,000 fortwo vehicles have been sold since its introduction. When the United States starts selling the smart fortwo it will become the 37th country.
06/27/07 - Hypnotist Spammer Exchange
If you have a couple of minutes, click the link and read this fascinating exchange between a spammer and a blogger. "I recently posted about a spam email I received from a hypnotist named Wendi: Spam From Wendi. The email came from an internet marketing company called Constant Contact. Last night, Wendi noticed the post and posted a few comments..."
06/27/07 - Ear Excerise Gymnasium to restore Hearing - May 1933
 An ear gymnasium, devised by a Michigan inventor, is said to aid those of defective hearing by exercising the nerve centers of the ear. Special earphones are slipped over the patient’s head and at the tone frequencies at which hearing is defective, a series of tone exercises is given at a volume great enough to be heard by the patient. Over a period of time, this is said to improve the hearing.
06/27/07 - New Tech for More Energy-Efficient Ethanol Production
The researchers' invention, called a spiral-wound liquid membrane module, potentially could replace the widely-used process of distilling ethanol from fermentation broths. The module offers ethanol producers the important advantage of combining two separation processes, extraction and membrane permeation, in one piece of equipment. With further research and development, the module would require less energy than distillation. In brief, the fermentation broth--typically containing about 5% to 12% ethanol--would travel through a sandwich-like configuration of membranes and mesh sheets, called spacers, that keep the membranes separate from each other. One membrane has a solvent in its pores that extracts the ethanol from the broth. A second membrane, with the help of a vacuum, pulls the ethanol out of the solvent. The ethanol and water vapor that results then is condensed into an ethanol-rich liquid in other equipment. The scientists have applied for a patent. They now plan to build and fine-tune a prototype, then turn it over to a membrane manufacturer for further development before commercialization.
06/27/07 - Ten Predictions Regarding Global Warming That Came True
 Ten predictions made by climate scientists that have come true (or are becoming true). 1) That the Earth would warm as more CO2 was put into the atmosphere (Svante Arrhenius in 1893) 2) That we'd begin to see noticable changes to Earth's climate by around 2000 (some IPCC scientists ). 3) That sea-level would start rising 4) That Earth's Ice would start melting rapidly (James Hanson) 5) that hurricanes would increase in intensity (this one goes back to Alfred Russel Wallace in 1900) 6) That species would start going extinct as a result of climate change. 7) That Australia would start drying out (Hadley Centre scientists) 8) That tropical diseases would increase 9) That food crops would be adversely affected 10) That the CO2 would begin to acidify the ocean
06/27/07 - Insulin pill could mean no more Injections
An oral dose of an insulin pill, taken twice daily before breakfast and the evening meal, controlled glucose levels successfully in the patients treated. Oral insulin has long been the Holy Grail for diabetics researchers as a replacement for daily injections, particularly for young diabetic children who often have problems with needles. However, until now one of the main obstacles to this has been that insulin is a protein which can be digested just like other proteins in the food. The stomach is a very acidic environment and proteins are quickly 'denatured', which would make the insulin ineffective. The presence of food also influence absorption and make a dose less predictable. This is why oral insulin has never been successful. The Diabetology company claims to have achieved success by enclosing the insulin in a capsule that resists stomach acids and passes intact into the small intestine, according to the Times.
06/27/07 - Space Diving
 Sixty miles up, you float easily in the cabin of a small rocket, admiring the stars above, the Earth far, far below. Suddenly, alarms sound. Space debris has pierced the ship, and it begins to break apart. In seconds, the air is gone. It’s utterly silent. Pain gathers in your face. Your tongue and eyes seem to be boiling. The captain rushes over and flips down your visor, and you feel better. Then he screams “Go!” over the radio, and pushes you toward the door. There’s nothing for it now: You don’t want to die. You close your eyes and leap, tumbling into the abyss. The curved horizon spins wildly. You let out a scream of terror as it rushes up toward you, and then you black out. Minutes later, a sudden jerk wakes you. This must be death, you think-your flesh meeting Earth at horrible speeds. But it’s the tug of your chute deploying at 3,000 feet. You realize you’re going to be all right. You glide in, touch down, and collapse in convulsions, traumatized. Through your tears you see your friends nearby, similarly undone but alive. You spot smoke on the horizon where, a mile away, your ship returned to the ground in an angry hail of twisted metal. For sport or safety, hurtling to Earth from space without the protective shroud of a heavily engineered space vehicle seems like sheer lunacy-a hellish descent punctuated by intense heat and terminal, well . . . splatter. But believe it or not, the physics actually works out. With a heat-resistant space suit and the right kind of chutes, such a daredevil plunge should indeed be possible. And with the right people involved, it edges into the realm of the probable.
06/27/07 - 1200 Frequency Microwave turns plastic to oil
Global Resource Corporation (GRC), uses a finely tuned microwave and a mix of materials that were made from oil which can be reduced back to oil and combustible gas (and a few leftovers). Key to GRC’s process is a machine that uses 1200 different frequencies within the microwave range, which act on specific hydrocarbon materials. As the material is zapped at the appropriate wavelength, part of the hydrocarbons that make up the plastic and rubber in the material are broken down into diesel oil and combustible gas. GRC's machine is called the Hawk-10. Its smaller incarnations look just like an industrial microwave with bits of machinery attached to it. Larger versions resemble a concrete mixer. "Anything that has a hydrocarbon base will be affected by our process," says Jerry Meddick, director of business development at GRC, based in New Jersey. "We release those hydrocarbon molecules from the material and it then becomes gas and oil." Whatever does not have a hydrocarbon base is left behind, minus any water it contained as this gets evaporated in the microwave.
06/27/07 - Artificial Intelligence Is Lost in the Woods
 (And this guy is supposed to be a 'professor'? - JWD) A conscious mind will never be built out of software, argues a Yale University professor. Artificial intelligence has been obsessed with several questions from the start: Can we build a mind out of software? If not, why not? If so, what kind of mind are we talking about? A conscious mind? Or an unconscious intelligence that seems to think but experiences nothing and has no inner mental life? Software today can cope with only a smattering of the information-processing problems that our minds handle routinely--when we recognize faces or pick elements out of large groups based on visual cues, use common sense, understand the nuances of natural language, or recognize what makes a musical cadence final or a joke funny or one movie better than another. AI offers to figure out how thought works and to make that knowledge available to software designers. The current debate centers on what I'll call a "simulated conscious mind" versus a "simulated unconscious intelligence." We hope to learn whether computers make it possible to achieve one, both, or neither. I believe it is hugely unlikely, though not impossible, that a conscious mind will ever be built out of software. Even if it could be, the result (I will argue) would be fairly useless in itself. But an unconscious simulated intelligence certainly could be built out of software--and might be useful. Unfortunately, AI, cognitive science, and philosophy of mind are nowhere near knowing how to build one. They are missing the most important fact about thought: the "cognitive continuum" that connects the seemingly unconnected puzzle pieces of thinking (for example analytical thought, common sense, analogical thought, free association, creativity, hallucination). The cognitive continuum explains how all these reflect different values of one quantity or parameter that I will call "mental focus" or "concentration"--which changes over the course of a day and a lifetime.
06/27/07 - Overprotecting our Kids
When you were a kid, did you run around the neighborhood, play in the woods, and have fun down by the creek? Would you let your own kids do the same thing now? Even though, statistically speaking, kids are much safer now than ever before, parents are increasingly protective, to the point of keeping their kids from having some great experiences. Food for thought.
06/27/07 - Cuba is exporting some of the best healthcare in the world
 (This was of interest because an elderly friend here thought he might need new kidneys and wanted it done overseas. I found Apollo Hospital in India would install new kidneys for less than $8,000. Fortunately, the cyst my friend had was easily removed with no complications. While researching it, there seem to be many people who choose other countries for their major health care needs, for lower cost and excellent service. - JWD) Cubans say they offer health care to the world's poor because they have big hearts. But what do they get in return? They live longer than almost anyone in Latin America. Far fewer babies die. Almost everyone has been vaccinated, and such scourges of the poor as parasites, TB, malaria, even HIV/AIDS are rare or non-existent. Anyone can see a doctor, at low cost, right in the neighborhood. The Cuban health care system is producing a population that is as healthy as those of the world's wealthiest countries at a fraction of the cost. And now Cuba has begun exporting its system to under-served communities around the world -- including the United States.
06/27/07 - More Evidence the 'war' is about Oil and GREED
Cheney Energy Task Force Docs Feature Maps of Iraqi oilfield - This report was released by Judicial Watch in 2003, but has very significant relevence with the current Cheney scrutiny. Mind you, these maps were used BEFORE the invasion began. ...documents turned over by the Commerce Department, under court order as a result of Judicial Watch’s Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit concerning the activities of the Cheney Energy Task Force, contain a map of Iraqi oilfields, pipelines, refineries and terminals, as well as 2 charts detailing Iraqi oil and gas projects, and "Foreign Suitors for Iraqi Oilfield Contracts."
06/27/07 - A Depressing Dynamic - Bootstrapping other countries backfires
 Today, there's an interesting case emerging as we look at the possibility that the very prospect that we think will avoid a Depression - namely prosperity and a rollicking good time in financial instruments - will likely cause the very thing we fear most. I told you a week or two back about Dallas area petro-geologist Jeffrey Brown's fear: That as we send more and more money to oil exporting countries, such as places in the Middle East and Russia, the prosperity that oil brings causes a massive increase in these country's internal demand, which, in turn, leaves less for export to us - and oh, by-the-by, at a higher price due to supply and demand. (via urbansurvival.com)
06/27/07 - Video - Welcome to Hell
Funny skit featuring Rowan Atkinson as the Devil.
06/27/07 - Electric Bath Fights Disease - June 1932
 SOME London hospitals are now equipped with the latest in scientific methods of combatting disease, the electro-therapeutic bath. The diseased patient sits comfortably, as the photo below shows, with his hands and feet in small tubs. The artificial fever is produced in the body by the passage of an electric current which combats the disease germs and hastens recovery. The electric current is run into the solution in the tubs through electrodes. The intensity of the current can be altered by rheostats on the control board shown in lower left corner of the photo. / Another tie-in to the Dotto Ring, iontophoresis, the claims of Lee Crocks Aura Cleanser and the Mexistim.
06/27/07 - Can Shots Safely 'Melt Away Fat'?
Marketed as a safer and less invasive alternative to liposuction, proponents say lipo-dissolve is useful for treating small "problem areas" such as love handles, bra fat and a softening jaw line. A growing number of doctors, nurses and even spa personnel are offering the procedure known in medical circles as injection lipolysis -- and more colloquially as the "flab jab." But critics, among them officials of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons, the American Society of Dermatologic Surgery and the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery...say there is no convincing evidence that lipo-dissolve is effective -- or safe -- and they warn patients to stay away from fat-loss shots...
06/25/07 - Desalination 'not the solution'
 Turning salt water into drinking water is not a solution to tackle global water scarcity, the WWF has said. A report by the environmental group said a growth in the energy intensive technology would increase emissions and damage coastal and river habitats. More attention should instead be paid to conserving supplies, it suggested. "Desalinating the sea is an expensive, energy intensive and greenhouse gas emitting way to get water," said Jamie Pittock, director of WWF's global freshwater programme. "It may have a place in the world's future freshwater supplies but regions still have cheaper, better and complementary ways to supply water that are less risky to the environment." The report called for greater emphasis on managing existing supplies before the go-ahead was given to major water projects. It added that new desalination plants, which were primarily located in coastal areas, should also be subject to tighter impact assessments to minimise damage to the marine environment. Advances in technology meant that it was also possible to develop alternative "manufactured water" systems, such as treating waste water, the authors wrote. "The basic problem is that by taking sea water and producing fresh water, you are going to get a stream of fresh water, which is what you want, but you also produce a concentrated salt stream," Professor Bowen explained. "You have to be very careful what you do with that concentrated stream and where you put it back into the environment.
06/25/07 - Inventor claims Copper Mask for health benefits
 Up first from New York is Carlo Giansanti, 71, retired and a grandfather, born in Italy. In the past recaps, I have chosen not to repeat the ages of the contestants, but since age and occupation can sometimes be relevant to the audition and the information is given in writing on the screen, I have decided to go ahead and include the information in the recaps. Carlo has invested $10,000 in a copper mask invention. The idea is not to eat copper for health benefits, but to breathe copper. He claims that he is in much better health than a few years ago and that he no longer needs to wear glasses. Trying to keep an open mind, this idea may not be a crazy at it seems, but I need actual proof like research and a little science behind it before I can take it seriously. Even something like that it has been used for centuries would help, although at that point it might no longer be an invention. He gets all no's from the judges. / Related Nose Mask Healing claim - Come to find out there is a fungous, bacteria and a mold that is resistive to antibiotics (coming from the chem. trails). It has been found that copper ions coming off the mask kills all three. The fungous, bacteria and mold infect the lungs and mucous glands causing protein chains to grow in the mucous sticking to the walls of the lungs, with sugar part of the food it uses to grow rapidly. This is not a cure but a remedy and possibly a preventive measure when the chem. trails are being sprayed. This is how I think it works; The Nose Mask is constructed in such a manor that it has super conducting current but no amps or voltage. When a slight voltage is added to the Mask, the voltage is amplified forty times. So when it comes in contact with the skin the slight voltage from the body powers up the mask with a sizeable super conducting energy that is not harmful to the body but helpful. This energy might aid in producing ionized oxygen. It is already known that when copper is exposed to water it will oxidize, the moisture comes from your breath when it comes in contact with the copper. As you breathe in, the ionized oxygen is ripped off the copper pulling a copper ion with it. / Health Benefits of Copper - What can foods high in copper do for you? * Help your body utilize iron * Reduce tissue damage caused by free radicals * Maintain the health of your bones and connective tissues * Help your body produce the pigment called melanin * Keep your thyroid gland functioning normally * Preserve the myelin sheath that surrounds and protects your nerves. What events can indicate a need for more high-copper foods? * Iron deficiency anemia * Blood vessels that rupture easily * Bone and joint problems * Elevated LDL cholesterol and reduced HDL cholesterol levels * Frequent infections * Loss of hair or skin color * Fatigue and weakness * Difficulty breathing and irregular heart beat * Skin sores. Excellent food sources of copper include calf's liver, crimini mushrooms, turnip greens and blackstrap molasses.
06/25/07 - DNA marking system for Personal Security
 A creative range of ‘DNA alarms’ has won a British inventor a Science & Technology prize at The European Women Inventors and Innovators Awards. Liz Williams from Denbighshire took home the prize for the best entry in the Science & Technology category at the ceremony in Berlin last weekend. Williams said that she was encouraged to develop a personal safety alarm that could offer a better deterrent against attacks after the tragic murders of young schoolgirls Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman. The Linkz DNA range is now being marketed under a different name by RedWeb Security as ‘the world’s first intelligent forensic trace alarm’. It uses unique biosynthetic DNA, registered to each individual premises or person, to mark intruders clothing and skin to provide forensic and visual proof of their presence at the crime scene. This technology is said to be highly regarded by law enforcement agencies, who refer to it as prima facie (first instance) evidence. Indeed, the Redweb range of DNA dyes has been classified as ‘Secured by Design’ by the ACPO’s Crime Prevention Initiative. / A month or two ago, I posted a news article about a 1920s or so invention that used a breakable dye containing rod so women could 'stain' any attacker for easy identification. Looks like someone is renewing an old idea. - JWD
06/25/07 - Ionic liquid offers greener recycling of plastics
Chemists Akio Kamimura and Shigehiro Yamamoto at Yamaguchi University in Ube, Japan, have shown in laboratory experiments that liquid salts or "ionic liquids" can dissolve nylon back into its basic chemical units. Ionic liquids are closely identified with the 'green chemistry' movement because they rarely evaporate, so cannot be inhaled and do not form smog. Like all salts, they are made up of positive and negative ions. But unlike most salts they have unwieldy ions that refuse to stack neatly into crystals like table salt, and instead exist as a disorganised liquid. The researchers mixed different ionic liquids together with a catalyst and with nylon samples, and heated them. They found one that - when heated to 300°C - converted 86% of the nylon back into the compound caprolactam from which it is made. The heating seems to make it easier for the catalyst to split the long polymer chains of nylon into its constituents. The experiments were performed in everyday laboratory glassware, without increased pressure, or very high heat. The researchers say this "will open a new field in ionic liquid chemistry as well as plastic recycling".
06/25/07 - Create a back-up copy of your immune system
Imagine having a spare copy of your immune system on ice, ready to replace your existing one should you fall victim to AIDS, an autoimmune disease, or have to undergo extensive chemotherapy for cancer. An Anglo-American company called Lifeforce has received permission from the US Food and Drug Administration to do just that. The firm collects 480-millilitre samples of blood from healthy individuals, extracts the white blood cells and stores them as an insurance policy against future disease. The service comes at a price, though: around $800 for taking the initial sample then $25 per month for storing the cells at -196 °C. "That sample would have the complete repertoire of all your white blood cells," says Del DelaRonde, co-founder of Lifeforce in Newport, UK. By taking some of the stored cells and exposing them to natural growth factors such as interleukin-2, whole new armies of white blood cells could be grown in the lab and reinfused into the patient. Many people with cancer undergo similar "adoptive" therapies using immune cells extracted before they have chemo- or radiotherapy, which can destroy immune cells. But there is a risk that the cells won't work optimally because of previous cancer damage, DelaRonde says. "Instead, we can send them their 'pristine' system from 25 years ago."
06/25/07 - Energy from Balloons
 A new way to produce electricity using helium balloons coated with solar cells has been devised by researchers at the Technion Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa. Gurfil and doctoral student Yossi Corrie developed a technique of using helium-filled balloons coated with solar energy cells to provide electricity. The same cable that brings the helium to the balloon will also carry the electricity to the ground. The Technion researchers estimate that each home or apartment would need only two balloons. If they were mass produced, their cost could be reduced below the estimated $700 per square meter of today's solar cells. The pair filed a patent application for their invention and hope the technology will compete with existing power producers. Coated helium balloons could be used, at first, to supply electricity to ships and homes in jungles, deserts and other isolated spots off electricity grids. Beyond that, Gurfil and Corrie hope that homes in cities around the world will get their electricity from such balloons.
06/25/07 - Simple Spark
The Simple Spark Catalog is the place to find all of the really cool web applications...that will become an integral part of your life online. Not only does the Simple Spark Catalog have a comprehensive listing of really cool apps that gets larger every day, but we also give you the tools to organize and share all these apps with your friends. Our catalog is a marketplace where both established companies and independent developers come to strut their stuff... Over 3000 apps in categories of Media, Living, Office, Organization, Travel, Marketplace and Finance.
06/25/07 - Thinking to change Channels
 THE ultimate couch potato's dream could soon be a reality, with the development of a TV that changes channels when you think about it. Japanese electronics giant Hitachi is working on a "brain-machine interface" that analyses slight changes in the brain's blood flow and translates brain motion into electric signals. It was linked to a train set, which reporters were able to make stop and go simply by thinking about it. Scientists said the technology could have huge implications for medical research, but Hitachi's scientists are more interested in using it to develop a TV remote controller that lets users switch channels by thought.
06/25/07 - HIV Infection Theory Challenged
A longstanding theory of how HIV slowly depletes the body's capacity to fight infection is wrong, scientists say. HIV attacks human immune cells, called T helper cells. Loss of these cells is gradual, often taking many years. It was thought infected cells produced more HIV particles and that this caused the body to activate more T cells which in turn were infected and died. Imperial College London modelling suggests that, if that was true, cells would die out in months not years.
06/25/07 - Table Top USP Lasers Slice, Dice, and So Much More
 "A company in Petaluma, California has developed highly programmable ultrashort pulse (USP) desktop lasers. The same devices used in hospitals could also be used to turn any metal surface black by simply changing the software. From the article: 'The technology once filled a large room at DARPA until Raydiance scientists made it into a compact, tabletop unit. Schuler (The CEO) said he hopes it will replace just about any cutting device you can think of, from a big metal saw to a precise surgical blade ... Now that it's a little bigger than a breadbox, researchers want to use them to kill tumors, identify friend or foe during combat, and even remove tattoos.' Femtosecond lasers for eye surgery have been around for years now, but these new lasers are far smaller and promise to have much greater versatility."
06/25/07 - Alternatives to clunky Microsoft Word
We don’t need distractions and we don’t need a bloated, expensive word processor with way too many features and way too slow a load time. What we need is a minimalist, distraction-free word processor - and being the cheapskates that we are, we want it free. Luckily, there are a number of great alternatives. I personally use several of these, depending on where I am and what I need to do (Google Docs, AbiWord, and DarkRoom are my poisons of choice), and I’ve used all the others, and I can attest that they are speedy and very productive. They do what you need to do - just write - and they do it well. (via lifehacker.com)
06/25/07 - Video - Rubber Girl - Time Displacement
 Interesting and very cool video technique that uses time-delay to make bodies warp and twist. / Comments - That technique is called slit scan. It was popular in the 60's and 70's. I was inspired to google slit scanning and came up with this: someone de-slit scanned the 2001 images. This is the artwork (he infers) that was used in the movie. Kinda neat. / The technique used in this case is called Time Displacement which is a cool After Effects effect that uses colors and grayscale gradients to play different parts of a video timeline in a single frame. (via boingboing.net)
06/25/07 - CIA to Air Decades of Its Dirty Laundry
The CIA will declassify hundreds of pages of long-secret records detailing some of the intelligence agency's worst illegal abuses -- the so-called "family jewels" documenting a quarter-century of overseas assassination attempts, domestic spying, kidnapping and infiltration of leftist groups from the 1950s to the 1970s, CIA Director Michael V. Hayden said yesterday. The documents, to be publicly released next week, also include accounts of break-ins and theft, the agency's opening of private mail to and from China and the Soviet Union, wiretaps and surveillance of journalists, and a series of "unwitting" tests on U.S. civilians, including the use of drugs.
06/25/07 - Pain Measuring Probe
 (Thanks to Bob Paddock for the headsup on this. Years ago, I saw a demonstraton of a microwave horn device that measured pain so this is an interesting development. - JWD) The Pain Measurement apparatus aims to help physicians prescribe pain relief medication to patients suffering from varying degrees of pain. The apparatus determines the amount of cooling required for pain disappearance and relates it directly to the severity of the pain. The Method: For measuring the severity of pain, the operator selects a suitable tip or probe attached at the end of the apparatus and applies the probe over the area where the patient is experiencing pain. The probe is equipped with a heat transfer surface which is in direct contact with the area of skin that is in pain. Then, the temperature at the probe is gradually lowered and the patient is instructed to indicate immediately when pain relief is obtained. The temperature drop is obtained through a liquid refrigerant which expands and evaporates over the surface taking away the heat from the body. The instrument is then held at that temperature and skin surface temperature is measured. The difference in temperature and the time taken to provide relief is graphed and the slope of the line constitutes the degree of pain. The Pain Measurement is unique in that it: 1. Measures the degree of pain(Dols)in quantitative terms 2. Divides the severity of pain into precise grades, using the Pain Measurement Chart and suggest proper types of analgesics and narcotics 3. Detects when pain is not felt but imagined or faked, if no relief is encountered by adequate cooling of painful area (Include any tests done/examples of case studies) With its ability to measure and quantify degree of pain prior to any medicinal prescription, the apparatus can prove to be useful at: • Hospitals and medical clinics • Medical Research Centres • Medical equipment manufacturers
06/25/07 - Dismal World
Count your blessings. This site is about a world in which human beings suffer due to social, political or economic reasons. About a world of diseases, gang fights, uprisings, sanctions, wars, protests, poverty, activists, coups, hunger, and other sorts of daily affairs.
06/25/07 - Rejoice!
 New Book - "The Sinners Guide to the Evangelical Right" / Comments - "A handbook for coping with bible thumpers.... When considering the power and influence evangelical Christians wield in this country, you have to laugh to keep from crying. Robert Lanham... understands this well and offers much needed, totally biased comic relief." - Village Voice / "This book is hilarious... [Lanham] didn't skimp on his research. The book provides a telling overview of the religious right's leadership, the beliefs they espouse, and just how incredibly absurd and hypocritical they are." - The Campaign to Defend the Constitution / Editor's Pick: "From the author of The Hipster Handbook comes this irreverent navigation of all things Evangelical. Learn enough slang to fit in at a church picnic or why SpongeBob SquarePants is an agent of the Devil" - Chicago Sun-Times
06/25/07 - Questions your Pastor will Hate
* "Who was Cain afraid would kill him when God put him out of the Garden for killing Abel? There were mom, dad, bro and himself on the whole planet at the time." Answer...He must have known his sisters were going to have kids with dad, no not that. He was speculating. Cain wasn't thinking very clearly that day. / * "Why does the Apostle Paul, who writes most of the New Testament, NEVER quote Jesus, tell a story of his life or death, discuss a miracle or teaching?" / * "Isn't it strange the man who writes most of the New Testament and tells us all how to live, think and believe about Jesus, never met him, while the Twelve who did, vanish into thin air and write nothing?"
06/25/07 - Comment about Cordarone
 I was visiting an elderly couple today and we were talking about various medical things. The man is 90 years old and sharp as a tack. His 88 year old wife told me about 5 years ago he had a very weak heart and low oxygen intake to give him breathing problems to the point he often needed an oxygen bottle as an assist. She said a French doctor checked her husband out and prescribed pills called 'Cordarone' / Amiodarone / Pacerone. Within days after beginning this medication, his breathing improved and he no longer needed the oxygen bottle nor did he have any breathing problems. In addition, his heart strengthened and healed to the point he no longer takes any heart medication. They both swear by these pills. Note: This is simply an anecdote, consult your doctor if you have health problems. / It is used in the treatment of a wide range of cardiac tachyarrhythmias, including both ventricular and supraventricular (atrial) arrhythmias. Widely used throughout Europe as an anti-anginal medication. The FDA was reluctant to officially approve the use of amiodarone, since initial reports had shown increased incidence of serious pulmonary side-effects of the drug. In the mid 1980s, the European pharmaceutical companies began putting pressure on the FDA to approve amiodarone by threatening to cut the supply to American physicians if it were not approved. In December of 1985, amiodarone was approved by the FDA for the treatment of arrhythmias. The only absolute contraindications to the administration of amiodarone is allergic reaction (ie: anaphylaxis) to the compound.
06/23/07 - Radical Engines, Quirky Designs Refuel Quest for Car of Future
 Where will the car of the future come from? Detroit, which fumbled the electric automobile and let Japan grab the lead in hybrids? A team of researchers at MIT's Media Lab, meanwhile, hopes to use the same approach to reduce congestion in today's crowded cities. They're experimenting with small electric motors located in the wheels of the CityCar, a tiny, nimble and practically silent vehicle with wheels that turn 360 degrees, enabling it to slip neatly into tight urban parking spaces. Designed to stack like supermarket carts when not in use, the cars could be parked strategically in front of subway stations and office buildings, where people could grab one as needed for short-term, one-way rentals, says Ryan Chin, one of the MIT researchers. Others are looking to revolutionize the automobile's engine, not replace it. The radical new design of the Scuderi power plant splits the cylinders of an internal-combustion engine in two, compressing air in one chamber, then shooting it into a combustion chamber where it's mixed with gas and ignited. The Massachusetts startup's design allows recovered braking energy to be stored as compressed air. It also creates a highly efficient combustion environment, promising to double gas mileage while drastically reducing tailpipe emissions. Colorado-based Sturman Industries is working on another type of under-the-hood innovation. Run by former NASA engineer Eddie Sturman, who designed an electronic valve for Apollo spacecraft in the '60s, the company uses digital valves to control the flow of air and fuel to internal-combustion engines, eliminating the need for camshafts. Then there's the new "external combustion" engine being developed by Ethos Environmental, a publicly traded San Diego company that makes fuel additives. The engine, says Ethos CEO Enrique De Vilmorin, runs on energy derived from an expanding gas similar to Freon. The gas is heated outside the engine, and only has to be warmed to about 100 degrees. Any one of a number of fuels could work, including coal pulverized to a fine powder that looks like the toner used in laser printers. "Desulfurized powdered coal is nontoxic and much safer than a liquid fuel like gasoline," says De Vilmorin, "and you don't need a gas station. You could pick up a bag at Wal-Mart, and 75 pounds would get you across the country." Listening to De Vilmorin describe the engine sounds like a pitch for snake oil: Based on the company's early tests, he says, an engine the size of two basketballs could propel a full-size car down the road with only a fraction of the emissions of today's internal-combustion engines. But De Vilmorin has a boatload of patents on the technology, and is in discussions with a San Diego landfill operator for a pilot project to use the engine to generate electricity from the methane gas produced by garbage. Payback time on that project, according to De Vilmorin: two years or less.
06/23/07 - White Roofs mitigate CO2 buildup faster than Solar Cells
 We are often slaves to preconceived notions such as "complex problems require complex solutions." Take the surprising trade-offs between even the most technologically advanced solar panel and plain white paint. Which product would make you a better environmental citizen? Our sun illuminates the earth with a steady 1,350 watts per square meter. Some of this energy is absorbed by the atmosphere, some is reflected back into space, and some makes it to the earth's surface, where it might be absorbed or reflected as well. Countering this reflective system are greenhouse gases like CO and methane. These now retain an additional 2 watts per square meter of solar energy over and above retention levels in preindustrial times. Such gases are disproportionately effective at capturing heat despite what actually remains a relatively small atmospheric concentration of 380 parts per million of CO. That minute increase in retained heat is fairly inconsequential if you are baking cookies in an oven. But for the earth as a whole, it's of critical importance, as the resulting extra few degrees is sufficient to melt the polar ice caps. On average, a panel that's 1 square meter in size will receive 300 watts of sunlight over a 24-hour period. In turning that sunlight into electricity, about 80% of that energy is lost due to the inefficient conversion process. Here's the rub. If, instead of a black solar panel absorbing light and producing electricity, you simply painted that square meter white, it would reflect back into outer space perhaps 50 of the 300 watts incident from the sun. So it would take about 25 days for the solar panel to catch up with the more efficient reflection of sunlight that the white-painted panel would provide in a single day. This seems counterintuitive, of course, as solar panels are net-positive in reducing global warming. And, in many cases, you could install the black solar panel on an existing black building roof, so you wouldn't be "adding" yet another black, heat-absorbing surface [another "albedo-decreaser"] to the earth. Except for the small issue of money. A 20%-efficient, 1-square-meter solar panel costs about $1,000. For $1,000, you can buy 40 cans of good quality white paint. Each can covers 2,000 square meters with a nice bright reflecting film. So for the same $1,000 investment you could buy one square meter of photovoltaic cells, or cover 2,000 square meters with white paint. It would take more than 2,000 times 25 days, or about a century, for the CO mitigation from $1,000 of solar panels to catch up with the albedo increase of a large painted roof!
06/23/07 - Highway Windpower
 Arizona student Joe who posted this amazing idea on his Archinect school blog for a highway wind turbine would harvest the wind created by fast-moving automobiles to send power back into the grid. If feasible, this wind turbine project could be easily retrofitted to transform most of the world’s highways into endless power sources. Imagine highways being known for their power generation instead of their traffic!
06/23/07 - Converting CO2 to Energy
 Clifford Kubiak and Aaron Sathrum from the University of San Diego have devised a way to use solar energy to obtain both fuel and electricity from CO2, and have a working prototype to prove it. The prototype works by turning the solar energy into electrical energy. The energy created is used to activate two layers of catalysts which then convert the CO2 into Oxygen and Carbon Monoxide, that while highly toxic on its own, is actually a fairly useful and very sought after chemical that is commonly used in the production of products such as laundry detergents and more importantly methanol, which can be used as a fuel. The technique itself is not new; there are plenty of scientific papers that speak about similar proposals. The aim of this particular prototype is to get it to a stage that allows for this to work purely by solar, something which the current prototype does not do.
06/23/07 - Three Laptop Tricks For Better Presentations
The audience fights narcolepsy as they're gently lolled into a passive PowerPoint stupor. The slides themselves are random, artless, complex and -- worst of all -- numerous, and make a long series of points mainly irrelevant to the audience. The presentation exceeds its time, despite the fact that he glanced at his watch several times during the talk. Sound familiar? This account describes 90% of the PowerPoint presentations I've witnessed, and I've seen thousands. If you don't want to be that guy, I think I can help. (via lifehacker.com)
06/23/07 - Ethos Fuel Additive to clean the air and environment
 Cleaner air will be due in large part to a local manufacturer of a fuel additive that reduces exhaust emissions 30 to 40 percent or more. The additive is an ester-based product dubbed Ethos Fuel Reformulator and is produced by Ethos Environmental Inc. in South San Diego. "The air quality regulations there are comparative to the 1950s here, so we are a solution for them," said Ethos President Enrique De Vilmorin. "If you take 15 percent off the emission rolls in any city, you're going to make a difference." And with the price of gas at record levels in this country, Americans can also benefit from using the product, its proponents say. In some cars, the addition of Ethos FR has improved gas mileage 50 percent or more, but the company's official line calls for a 7 to 19 percent improvement, depending on a number of factors, De Vilmorin said. He stresses that a person's driving habits have a huge effect on gas mileage, so someone who drives with a lead foot on the accelerator is not going to see the improvement that someone driving more conservatively will. But it's the reduced emissions he really wants to talk about, not improved mileage. "That's really the only fair way to do a test, because there are a lot of variables that affect gas mileage," he said. However, because reduced emissions means that more of the fuel is converted into energy rather than going out the exhaust pipe, that also translates to reduced fuel consumption and improved gas mileage. It pays for itself not only in lower fuel costs, he said, but because it will extend the life of the engine, and it will increase the likelihood of a vehicle passing the state-mandated smog test. The product works because it is a super lubricator, explains Jerry Schnitzius, the general manager of Pacific Waste Services, the San Diego division of Allied Waste Industries, the second-largest trash collection company in the nation. For three years, Allied has been adding Ethos FR to its truck fuel, reducing exhaust emissions, fuel consumption and maintenance costs. The product is also added to the power steering and transmission fluids. "We're absolutely sold on it," Schnitzius said. "It reduced emissions from our trucks by 65 percent. The ester-based Ethos FR removes carbon deposits and cleans and lubricates an engine's internal parts without using petroleum-derived solvents. An ester is a tiny molecule that is smaller than a hydrocarbon, so it penetrates hydrocarbon residue and breaks it up, sending it out the exhaust pipe. "It's a cleaning process; it gets between the carbon and the metal and the carbon falls away," De Vilmorin, adding that it's good for environment because 99.999 percent of the product is consumed during engine combustion. Esters occur in nature, and the primary one used by Ethos Environmental originated in palm oil, although the company develops its esters synthetically. "Otherwise, we'd have to cut down all the palm production in Central and South America," he chuckled. Ethos FR is offered sale to the public on the Ethos website for $19.95 a pint, but the company is not actively promoting it. The ratio is 1 to 1280, or one ounce per 10 gallons of fuel. (1 pint [US, liquid] = 16 ounce [US, liquid])
06/23/07 - Video - Singing Tesla Coil
 This is a solid-state Tesla coil. The primary runs at its resonant frequency in the 41 KHz range, and is modulated from the control unit in order to generate the tones you hear. What's not immediately obvious in this video is how loud this is. Many people were covering their ears, dogs were barking. In the sections where the crowd is cheering and the coils is starting and stopping, you can hear the the crowd is drowned out by the coil when it's firing. (via boingboing.net)
06/23/07 - The Privacy of Email
"A U.S. appeals court in Ohio has ruled that e-mail messages stored on Internet servers are protected by the Constitution as are telephone conversations and that a federal law permitting warrantless secret searches of e-mail violates the Fourth Amendment. 'The Stored Communications Act is very important,' former federal prosecutor and counter-terrorism specialist Andrew McCarthy told United Press International. But the future of the law now hangs in the balance."
06/23/07 - Gas at $6 per gallon? Get ready
 A bill being debated in the Senate this week is described by some of its supporters as “far from perfect” but “a good start.” A good start, yes, to higher gas and food prices, to new taxes and to forcing consumers to pay for high-cost “renewable” energy sources - solar and wind, for example - that are to energy independence what bicycle trails are to traffic-congestion relief. The Senate bill, grandiosely and falsely dubbed the Renewable Fuels, Consumer Protection and Energy Efficiency Act of 2007, should come with a section prohibiting price gouging - by Congress. The legislation “could result in significantly higher prices for gasoline consumers,” according to Heritage Foundation researchers. “A review of S. 1419, including the just-completed section on tax changes, reveals that the bill could increase the price of regular unleaded gasoline from $3.14 per gallon (the early May national average) to $6.40 in 2016 - a 104 percent increase,” write Heritage Foundation researchers William W. Beach and Shanea Watkins. “Gas consumers can expect to pay between $3.16 and $3.79 a gallon for gas in 2008 after adding in the estimated impact of the Senate energy bill. By 2016, all states can expect gas prices in excess of $6. As a result of S. 1419, consumers would spend an average of $1445 more per year on gasoline in 2016 than in 2008,” they write.
06/23/07 - What is Popfly?
Popfly is the fun, easy way to build and share mashups, gadgets, Web pages, and applications. Popfly consists of two parts: -- Popfly Creator is a set of online visual tools for building Web pages and mashups. -- Popfly Space is an online community of creators where you can host, share, rate, comment and even remix creations from other Popfly users... What’s Microsoft’s motivation for releasing Popfly? Popfly is another piece in our company-wide outreach in helping non-professional developers build everything from Xbox games to Robotics to custom Web applications using Windows Home Server. Popfly becomes the online home for building and sharing all types of non-professional projects, from static Web pages to mashups, to game mods. Is Popfly free? -- Yes, Popfly is free, but some 3rd party blocks services may require a subscription fee...
06/23/07 - Edible Estates, transform your lawn
 From Salinas, Kansas to the pages of the New York Times, Edible Estates, has had a big year. The combination of increased awareness around resource conservation, rising concern over food safety, and the gourmet cachet of a homegrown vegetable has gotten more people than ever interested in trading a water-hogging lawn for a productive garden. The first Edible Estates front yard makeover took place in Kansas, followed by one in Los Angeles. Now founder/designer Fritz Haeg has plans to take it to the East Coast with a New York lawn; but he hasn’t yet found the perfect site! Do you have a lawn you want to transform within a short distance of New York City? Do you know someone else who does?
06/23/07 - Video - How to maintain classroom discipline
Pretty good video for teachers to hone their craft and earn the respect, admiration and cooperation of their students.
06/23/07 - Prayer Circles in the Playground
 Imagine yourself back in the third grade. It is recess, and you are with your classmates on the playground. There is a teacher in the vicinity, but the supervision is fairly minimal. Suddenly, a group of 6 or more children approach you and say something along the lines of, "Have you been saved?" You are not sure what to make of the question, so other questions about your religious beliefs and experiences follow. Without understanding the consequences, you tell them that you and your family are atheists, Jews, Catholics, Buddhists, non-fundamentalist Protestants, etc. The children start calling you names and hurling insults at you. If you happen to be Jewish, you will hear things that would make neo-Nazi's proud. You are a sinner. You are going to burn in a lake of fire. You will rot in hell. They form a circle around you, holding hands to make sure you can't easily escape. They tell you that the only way you can save yourself is to accept Jee-zuhs. They begin praying around you loudly to "save your soul."
06/23/07 - The Henoch Prophecy (with regard to the USA)
 In addition to producing the clearest photos, films and video of UFOs ever taken, as well as other physical evidence, for the past 48 years Meier has published the most specific, prophetically accurate, scientific and world-event-related information of any known source. Before you consider the prophetic information below, please note that from his 251st Contact on February 3, 1995, Meier published advance warning of the US attack on Iraq, the increase in Islamic terrorism to follow, the appearance of SARS, the spread of "mad cow disease", the renewed public concern over chemical warfare, and the near accident at the nuclear power plant near Lyon, France (which occurred in August 2003). All of this information and more from the 251st Contact was also published in Guido Moosbrugger's book, And Yet They Fly!, in September 2001-well before any of the foretold events occurred. / The USA will set out against the Eastern countries ahead of all other financial states and simultaneously she will have to defend herself against the Eastern intruders. In all, America will play the most decisive role, when in the guise to strive for peace and to fight against terrorism she invades many countries of the Earth, bombs and destroys everything and brings thousandfold deaths to the populations. The military politics of the USA will likewise know no limits, as neither will their economic and other political institutions which will be focused on building and operating a world police force, as it is the case already for a long time [sic]. But that will not be enough, and, in the guise of a so-called peaceful globalisation, American politics will aspire to gain absolute control of the world concerning supremacy in economy. And this will point towards the possibility that a Third World War could develop from it, if human beings as a whole will not finally reflect upon reason, become reasonable and undertake the necessary steps against the insane machinations of their governments and military powers as well as their secret services, and call a halt to the power of the irresponsible who have forsaken their responsibility in all areas. If this does not happen, many small and great nations will lose their independence and their cultural identity and will be beaten down, because the USA will gain predominance over them and with evil force bring them down under her rule. At first, many countries will howl with the wolves of the US, partially due to fear of American aggressions and sanctions, as will be the case with many, many irresponsible [ones] in Switzerland and Germany but also of other countries. In part, others will join in because they will be forced somehow to do so or will be misled by irresponsible promoters of American propaganda. Finally, many Asian, African and European states will rise up against the American hegemony, once they recognise that the United States of America is only taking advantage of them for purposes of war, conquest and exploitation. In this way, many countries will become puppet states of America before reason and realisation will emerge in the responsible ones of governments and in many of the population, resulting in a turning away from the USA. However, the great war will hardly be avoidable because the human beings of Earth will probably not accept the directions towards the better, therewith towards true love, true freedom and real peace, striving instead only towards wealth, pleasure and riches and for all manner of material values and unrestricted power. Thus, huge and deadly formations of tanks will roll across the countries while fighter planes and rockets sweep through the air and bring death, ruin, destruction and annihilation to countries and people.
06/23/07 - Blameless?
 The United States Flag Code says; (a) The flag should never be displayed with the union down, except as a signal of dire distress in instances of extreme danger to life or property. / Public Law 829 (77th Congress) Sec. 4(a) :
"The flag should never be displayed with the union down SAVE AS A SIGNAL OF DIRE DISTRESS." The flying of your Flag upside-down represents that you see "This Country IS In Crisis". This flag shall remain tattered and upside down as a sign of Constitutional distress! / This page lists the 35 U.S. backed coups in the past 55 years is here: US backed Coups. And this page lists the 158 U.S. interventions in the past 56 years: US 'Interventions'. The main page for this information can be found here: Why would anyone want to attack the good old USA?.
06/21/07 - Vertical farming in the big Apple
 Scientists at Columbia University are proposing their vision of the future as one in which the skyline of New York and other cities include a new kind of skyscaper: the "vertical farm". The idea is simple enough. Imagine a 30-storey building with glass walls, topped off with a huge solar panel. On each floor there would be giant planting beds, indoor fields in effect. There would be a sophisticated irrigation system. And so crops of all kinds and small livestock could all be grown in a controlled environment in the most urban of settings. That means there would be no shipping costs, and no pollution caused by moving produce around the country.
06/21/07 - Superbug zapper recreates 'fresh air' indoors
A device that mimics the naturally disinfecting quality of fresh air could be used to purge hospital wards of superbugs, its makers claim. The Air Disinfector, launched in London, UK, on 19 June pumps a continual stream of reactive hydrogen radicals into the atmosphere, killing microbes within minutes. Outdoors, microbes are killed by hydroxyl radicals, highly reactive agents constantly produced through natural reactions between airborne ozone and organic scented chemicals from plants such as pine trees. Macdonald, Elwood and collaborators say they have recreated this effect using a customised device the size of a flower vase that constantly generates the radicals. To do this, it draws in oxygen and exposes it to electric currents to produce a cold plasma rich in ozone. The hydroxyl radicals are generated by constantly reacting the ozone with pre-loaded supplies of scented chemicals, called terpenes, in cartridges that need renewing each month. The ozone and terpenes are retained within the device and not released into the room. Bacteria, including methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and Clostridium difficile - two of the most notorious hospital-acquired superbugs - were undetectable within as little as an hour of the device being switched on, Macdonald says. "In earlier experiments, in which we flooded rooms with more than a billion bacteria, levels were effectively down to zero within an hour," he adds. Although hydroxyl radicals are lethal to microbes - disrupting their ability to absorb nutrients - they appear harmless to humans. The device is now on sale in the UK and is also being tried in wards at three hospitals. There are also plans to launch it in the US, where it is being tested at 17 veterans’ hospitals.
06/21/07 - Fruit could make 'powerful fuel'
 The sugar found in fruit such as apples and oranges can be converted into a new type of low carbon fuel for cars, US scientists have said. The fuel, made from fructose, contains far more energy than ethanol, the scientists write in the journal Nature. Scientists at the University of Wisconsin-Madison say that a simple sugar called fructose can be converted into a fuel that has many advantages over ethanol. It is called dimethylfuran - it can store 40% more energy than ethanol, does not evaporate as easily and is less volatile. The scientists say that fructose can be obtained directly from fruits and plants or made from glucose. Setting up new production facilities is estimated to be ten times higher than for current biofuel refineries.
06/21/07 - From Leftovers to Energy
Scientists develop microbes that convert food scraps into energy. Giant vats filled with hungry microbes. The bugs are devouring cafeteria leftovers and lawn clippings and converting them into biogas--mostly methane and hydrogen--that can be burned to generate electricity or compressed into liquid to power specialized vehicles. Similar bioreactors, known as anaerobic digesters, are commonly used at wastewater treatment plants. Zhang's bioreactor, however, is different because it's designed to work on solids, such as food and yard waste. It works 30 to 50 percent faster than conventional systems and presents a promising new way to cut back on landfill waste, producing clean burning gas in the process. (Natural gas, which is primarily made up of methane, releases fewer toxic compounds into the air than gasoline or diesel fuels.) An industrial-sized demonstration unit has been running at UC Davis since last October, converting eight tons of restaurant waste, cafeteria scraps, and lawn clippings into 300,000 to 600,000 liters of biogas a day--enough to power approximately 80 homes. (In Davis, the gas is used for electricity and powers the nearby wastewater treatment plant.)
06/21/07 - Maize of Deception
Ethanol Fuels Are Not Necessarily The Universal Cure. As the Bush administration continues to push its alternative fuels agenda, it has become increasingly evident that corn-based ethanol could be as much the global villain as a boon to society. Instead of improving the environment and moderating oil prices, corn-based ethanol could result in mass deforestation, strained land and water resources, increased food prices, augmented poverty and swarms of farmers uprooted from their land. While the negative effects of corn-based biofuels are obvious, Washington continues to emphasize their importance, while increasing the size and number of subventions to the ethanol industry. This is being done despite the adverse ramifications that its cultivation is having on the sites where it already is being produced, with the situation likely to further deteriorate in the near future. As a result of the Washington-backed initiatives, an enormous volume of corn is being consumed for ethanol production. Consequently, the decreasing availability of it as a food crop and for livestock has contributed to the rise of corn futures from $2.80 to $4.38 a bushel. This recent price hike occurred over the course of several months and is said to be the sharpest increase in the past ten years. Thus, fewer low income consumers are able to purchase corn-based products, which is a very serious detriment to countries where corn is a staple of a population’s diet. Mexico already has been significantly affected by the rising costs of corn. Because 107 million Mexicans rely on corn as their main source of sustenance, its soaring price increase has sent shockwaves throughout the country’s corn-related industries. The price of tortillas in Mexico has risen by 100%, resulting in mass protests by tens of thousands of enraged consumers last January. Recently inaugurated Mexican President Felipe Calderon stated that the price increase of corn is unjustifiable and “threatens the economy and millions of families.”
06/21/07 - Bones Could Allow Data Swaps
 The Rice team decided to investigate using sound instead of radio waves. Bone is known to be a great conductor of sound, but so far it has only been used to transmit analogue signals in applications such as checking how bone is healing after a fracture, and in hearing aids that transmit sound from outside the skull to the auditory nerve. To see if bone could transmit digital signals over longer distances - to a headset, say, from a sensor worn on the wrist - the team applied a small vibrator to various parts of the body. When they then measured the acoustic signals received elsewhere on the body, they found that a "frequency shift keyed" (FSK) signal gave the best distinction between 0s and 1s. In FSK signalling a 0 is represented by one frequency and a 1 by a different one. They then measured how well bone conducted these signals when they were generated in places on the body where devices are normally worn: the wrist for watches, the lower back for cellphones worn on a belt, and behind the ear for headsets. They found the skeleton conducted even low-power vibrations from one location to another with surprisingly few errors. "This is quite amazing because all the links involved multiple bones and many joints," Zhong told a conference on body networks in Florence, Italy, this week. The researchers suggest applications such as a vibrator in a wrist receiver/transmitter that could tell an implant placed near a bone to release a drug dose, with the implant then sending back data from its sensors. Similarly, tooth clacks or finger clicks could be interpreted by a receiver to activate, say, functions in a phone.
06/21/07 - Valuing the Lives of Hypermilers
Hypermilers are people who attempt to increase the gas mileage of their cars by driving really, really closely behind large trucks to cut down on the mileage-robbing wind resistance of highway speed driving - a practice known in racing circles as drafting. Fans of the Discovery Channel's MythBusters series will recognize drafting as the myth taken on by the show's build team, who provided the empirical data for the increases in gas mileage that come from trailing a semi-truck at distances from a slightly too close 100 feet to an entirely too close 10 feet. [Not to mention to an insanely too close 2 feet separation!] Use the form to calculate the value of your life versus gas savings.
06/21/07 - $300 to save 25% on Electric Bills?
 (Thanks for David Smith for the headsup on this. - JWD) The Power-Save reduces the amount of power drawn from the utility by storing (in its capacitors) otherwise lost electricity (watts) caused by the inductive motors in your home. (Some examples of inductive motors are Air Conditioning units, refrigerators, freezers, washers, dryers, dishwashers, pool pumps, vacuum cleaners, furnace blower motors, fans etc.) The technology applied by the Power-Save 1200™ Unit supplies that stored electricity back to your inductive loads, thus causing you to decrease your demand from the utility. If you decrease your demand from the utility, your meter slows down, and you use less electricity. The thought is, you’ve already paid for that electricity, why pay for it and waste it when you can pay for it, store it, and reuse it again. This whole process is called power factor optimization. Power factor is the percentage of electricity that’s delivered to your house and used effectively, compared to what is wasted. For example, a 1.0 power factor means that all the electricity that’s being delivered to your home is being used effectively for its purpose. However, most homes in America today have a .77 power factor or less. This means that 77% of the electricity that is coming thru your meter at your home or business is being used effectively, the other 23% is being wasted by your inductive load. With a low power factor, the utility has to deliver more electricity to do the same work. However, the Power-Save unit increases that power factor in most cases to .97 or .98, thus increasing the effective use of your electricity and lowering your usage.
06/21/07 - Companies create plant-based liquid that replaces oil in plastic
The nation's top energy official hailed on Friday the innovation behind a new $100 million bioengineering plant that produces a plant-based liquid that can replace oil as a raw material in plastic. The plant is expected to make 100 million pounds of propanediol, a clear liquid related to the propylene glycol used in nontoxic antifreeze. DuPont and Tate & Lyle say their product, which they call Bio-PDO, will find new uses because it helps fabrics take dyes more brilliantly, carpets become naturally stain-resistant, face creams be gentler to the skin and airplane deicers biodegrade.
''It is the most significant invention since nylon,'' DuPont Chairman and CEO Charles ''Chad'' Holliday Jr. said in an interview with The Associated Press. The Wilmington, Del.-based company invented nylon in 1935. The Loudon plant, about 35 miles south of Knoxville, uses corn sugar or glucose from an adjoining Tate & Lyle ethanol plant. An E. coli bacteria modified by DuPont scientists breaks down the glucose through a fermentation process much like making beer. The result is a clear liquid compound that might be used in a quickly growing range of products, including fabrics, cosmetics, liquid detergents, boat hulls, ski boots and runway deicers.
06/21/07 - Dirty diapers to Clean Energy
 Joseph Longo, founder and CEO of Startech Environmental Corporation, developed from his own sweat, tears, and blood (and some money in research grants) a machine that transforms the most disgusting forms of waste (think dirty diapers) to clean energy. Longo’s invention, the Plasma Converter, is a $250 million machine that effectively eliminates 2,000 tons of garbage daily. That’s the equivalent to the daily output of a city with a million people. Although some people may balk at the hefty price tag, the Plasma Converter could pay for itself in 10 years and shed landfill tipping fees. The Plasma Converter is self-sustaining and utilizes plasma gasification to destroy waste and produce syngas, a substance that can be produced into eco-friendly fuels. As an added bonus, the gasification process is circular meaning that waste enters the machine’s reactor and outputs syngas, which is used to produce electricity for itself. No smoke, acid rain, or oil slumming on the surface of our oceans.
06/21/07 - Cookware Revolution
Inventor John Repetti was watching the barbeque and realized that the grill with the top down kept heat in and saved energy. "I thought it was too bad that we didn't have something like that for the stovetop," he said. "Then I thought maybe you could put a cone on top of the pot to keep the heat in. But that wouldn't work because the heat would slip away any time you lifted it off to stir or check on the contents. Then I thought, what if you put something on the side?" He imagined a kind of metal skirt with the bottom open to be fit around the belly of the pot, capturing all the heat that is lost along the sides of a pot while being heated on the stove. "Three times more of the pot is heated than without it," he said. This invention, he believes, could be used on nearly any kind of pot, and if used widely, could result in significant savings in energy. The skirt is portable, so it can be used almost anywhere. Repetti said the skirt could be made in various sizes to accommodate large venues, such as cruise ships or even military mess halls, or smaller versions for use in ordinary homes.
06/21/07 - Android Double
 In June 2006 at the ATR Intelligent Robotics and Communication Laboratories in Keihanna, Japan, reporters and scientists gathered for the unveiling of a major new project by Dr. Hiroshi Ishiguro. Once everyone had arrived, an assistant pulled back a curtain to reveal…another Dr. Ishiguro? Certainly the second figure had a very strong resemblance to Dr. Ishiguro, wearing the same glasses and dressed in the same clothing. Seated in a chair, the duplicate was rocking one foot back and forth, blinking and adjusting itself. It looked around and then, in ordinary Japanese, introduced itself; it was named Geminoid HI-1. For the reporters, up to that point virtually the only clue that Geminoid was an android had come from knowing that Ishiguro is a prominent roboticist. Ishiguro's creation is more a puppet than an android, strictly speaking; Ishiguro speaks and acts through it via the Internet. As well as transmitting his voice, a motion-capture system allows Ishiguro to project the movements of his mouth and upper body onto Geminoid. The android itself is built of silicone and steel, and based on casts taken from Ishiguro's body. Regular, small actions such as blinking are controlled by autonomous programs.
06/21/07 - $1 a Minute Live computer help - 24 hours a day
YourTechOnline.com provides online computer help 24/7. Our technical support staff can fix computer problems, kill viruses, speed up your computer, remove spyware, and eliminate computer crashes. Computer repair has never been easier or quicker. Just sit back, watch and learn as we fix computer problems right in front of your eyes. Pop ups, Homepage Hijackers, Spyware, Rootkits, Viruses, Slow Computers, Email, Networking - we fix it all. Online computer support is available for all makes of PCs and all versions of Windows operating systems.
06/21/07 - Ever Present Video
 Camera-wearing freaks: Sure, the Justin.tv lifestream network now hosts streams from a dozen cameras, most attached to or pointing at one exhibitionist asshat (me, for example). But the real freaks to worry about are the camera-phone carriers that rapper Mike Skinner lamented in his latest album ("How the hell am I supposed to be able to do a line in front of complete strangers when I know they've all got cameras?"). Still-shot cameras are already standard-issue on phones, and mid-range phones now come with video cameras. Every digital camera takes thirty-second videos, and proper camcorders are pocket-sized and under 500 bucks. So if you don't want to end up on YouTube where a million children and losers will say "omg that was gay," just don't do anything stupid for the rest of your life, mmkay?
06/21/07 - TUT to speed up your Computer
If your computer is getting slower, one of the things that helps is to shut down programs running in the background. We use TUT, ("The Ultimate Troubleshooter") to check up on those. This costs $29, from AnswersThatWork.com. In a recent check, Bob found 46 programs running the background of his Windows XP computer. He stopped the five worst offenders (the ones using the most memory and processor time), which still left 41. That seems like a ton, but actually it's pretty normal. The TUT program informs you about whether a program running in the background is part of normal operations or not; these are color-coded with "safe" and "not safe" readings.
06/21/07 - Bush Faithfully Follows The Henoch Prophecies Script To Destruction
 Since 2002, the Henoch Prophecies have been disseminated in English, and, according to Meier and FIGU, they have not escaped the notice of parties at the highest levels of the U.S. government and military intelligence. Perhaps then, President Bush’s closest advisors should inform him that the purpose of these prophecies is for us to avoid the devastation otherwise foretold for our country, not to do everything possible to bring it about. Unfortunately, and contrary to their intended purpose, instead of heeding the clear and dire warnings contained within them, the president must be viewing the prophecies as a script to be fulfilled. Even leaving the prophecies out of the equation for the moment, through either ignorance or willful defiance of the laws of cause and effect, the president effectively condemns this country and the rest of the world to unimaginable destruction. For while most Americans are probably unaware of the more than 200 unprovoked acts of aggression committed in their name over the past 60 years, the country cannot and will not escape the “law of the pendulum”, especially when instead of attempting to dramatically change the dead end course it only compounds its culpability with further aggression.
06/21/07 - CCW Hair whorl direction for Gays?
 (I just don't get this, that parts of the body would indicate sexual preference. It's been disproven that hand and foot size relate to penis size, but the bigger the nose... - JWD) There are now a range of established findings that suggest that gay men are likely to have a number of physical traits not shared by straight men (the findings on gay women are a lot less clear-cut it seems). For example, a 2004 study [pdf] found that gay men were much more likely to have a counter-clockwise hair whorl (as pictured) than straight men. Other studies have found differences in finger lengths, size of structures in the hypothalamus (a deep brain area), and on a number of psychological abilities like mental shape rotation and navigation to name but a few. Some researchers believe that the same biological conditions that increase the chances of homosexuality, also increase the chances of some of these body, brain and mind differences. / Statistically, for instance, gay men and lesbians have about a 50 percent greater chance of being left-handed or ambidextrous than straight men or women. The relative lengths of fingers offer another hint: The index fingers of most straight men are shorter than their ring fingers, while for most women they are closer in length, or even reversed in ratio. But some researchers have noted that gay men are likely to have finger-length ratios more in line with those of straight women, and a study of self-described “butch” lesbians showed significantly masculinized ratios.
06/21/07 - Video - DIY Ping Pong Ball Gun in 30 Seconds
06/19/07 - New Engine Could Double Efficiency, Massively Bump Power
 Imagine a four-liter normally aspirated V8 that makes 1,000 horsepower and gets good mileage? According to the Italian NEVIS (New Exhaust Valve & Intake System) Engine Company LTD., this sort of engine will soon be a reality. Complete with innovations such as donut-shaped pistons, the ability to run on any fuel you like (gasoline, diesel, bio, meth, hydrogen) and the Trekkie sounding Bortone Cycle, NEVIS's product should extend the life of the ICE for many decades to come. The killer app is the already mentioned Bortone Cycle that allows a power stroke for every 120 degrees of crankshaft rotation. Which means that for every power stroke your dirty old four-stroke pulls off, the NEVIS engine is performing six. Which we must say is pretty intriguing. Especially the part about the variable compression ratio going as high as 38:1.
06/19/07 - Solar Coolant power system
 (The diagram is an example using air instead of the coolant used by the students. - JWD) MIT students used a sheet of metal and car parts to invent a tool that generates electricity, heats water and cools food. The idea behind Promethean Power came from Matthew Orosz, a former peace corps volunteer in Africa, who wanted to provide electric power, refrigeration and hot water to poorer nations. He and fellow graduate students designed mirrors to focus sunlight onto tubes filled with coolant. The hot coolant then turns to pressurized vapor, which turns a turbine to make electricity. The leftover heat can be used to warm a tank of water and to run a refrigerator or an air conditioner using a gas-absorption process that chills liquid ammonia by first heating it. The invention relies on car components so that the system does not require pumps and coolant condensers that are hard to obtain and maintain in poor countries. As well as electricity to run lights, the chemical refrigerator could be used to preserve food and the leftover heat would deliver hot water.
06/19/07 - Precise Identity of Mysterious Dark Matter Revealed
Jerome Drexler's new book discloses the precise identity of the mysterious dark matter of the universe and its surprising and significant roles and functions in creating spiral galaxies and their dark matter halos, the stars, starburst galaxies, synchrotron radiation, and the mysterious ultra-high-energy cosmic ray protons that bombard the Earth every day. Dark-matter cosmology theory is employed to solve over 15 cosmic mysteries. Although astronomers, astrophysicists, and cosmologists have assumed for the past 20 years that the dark matter of the universe is cold, passive, and absolutely dark it actually may be hot, active, and emit EUV or UV light or even soft X-rays. Dark matter is a very active and dynamic medium. Dark-matter cosmology appears to be linked to over a dozen important cosmic phenomomena. Relativistic-proton dark matter satisfies the three basic requirements of a dark matter candidate. Do such protons have sufficient mass? Yes, relativistic protons can have enormous mass. Have they ever been detected? Yes, relativistic protons bombard the Earth every day and are called cosmic rays. Don't relativistic protons move too fast to form small galaxies? The protons can form small galaxies after the protons are slowed down by muon-producing collisions or synchrotron radiation losses and after the protons combine with the electrons created by the muon decay, thereby forming hydrogen. Since protons are electrically charged particles, they would be constrained by the galactic and extragalactic magnetic fields into curved trajectories forming dark matter halos around galaxies, dark matter curved streams within galaxy clusters and also would be concentrated in long large curved filaments of dark matter. All three of these dark matter configurations have been detected by astronomers.
06/19/07 - 12mpg to 70mpg with 'Fuel Blender' invention
"I remembered that my father had made a carburetor that would pre-stage the fuel by converting it into a gas before it went into the in-take manifold," Talbert said. By modifying the "fuel blender" device his father once worked on, he is achieving his goal of beating the pump. Talbert figures he's getting about 49 miles per gallon, which covers more than 900 miles of driving and would be considered good with one of today's tiny hybrid cars. But Talbert isn't driving a hybrid; his car is a 1981 Oldsmobile Delta 88, with a gas-guzzling 350 V8 engine. Talbert bought the Olds for $500 specifically for his project. "I've always preferred big cars," Talbert said. He filled the car's 20-gallon tank in November of 2006 and didn't fill up again until March of 2007. He was living in his hometown of Abilene at the time. To fashion the modification, he relied on things he had learned from his dad, and also from Tom Ogle, a Texas inventor who obtained a patent for the device in 1977. When George Talbert began experimenting in the 1970s, he used a metal tube, similar to a diving snorkel, and mounted it on a 1969 Lincoln Continental. The device reportedly increased fuel efficiency from 12 mpg to about 70 mph. Talbert was five years old at the time. "I remember my father couldn't get the hood down, so he left it off because of that little snorkel sticking up," said Talbert, 39, who lives in Manhattan. Talbert began his experimentation by reverse engineering the "fuel blender." He knew that fuel, like a wood log in a fire, must go through four known states of matter to complete the cycle. Wood will reach its flashpoint, and then the outgases will combine with oxygen, leaving oxidized ashes behind as the process is finished. Fuel must also reach a particular temperature in order to begin the reaction. When fuel is in a vapor state the process requires less energy and heat to conclude. This process is process is called gasoline vaporization. Talbert said the key to getting the "fuel blender" to work this time was going with smaller rubber tubing than what had been used by his predecessors. He used tubing measuring 1/8th of an inch in diameter as opposed to 2 inches in diameter. He explained that with a larger line, only the high octane portion of the fuel was being vaporized. "There is a separate little can under the hood, and fuel is pumped from the gasoline tank into the can and then the can becomes the fuel reserve," Talbert said. "Because the can is small and the line in it is small, then it completely vaporizes whatever is in that can. Talbert admits that while his Olds Delta 88 gets great gas mileage, it is hard to drive. It is also slow to accelerate, taking about two minutes to get up to 55 mph. / Fuel Saving eBook - you can buy this $16.95 eBook which has 14 ways to save on fuel costs and includes details on how to install a simple device very similar to what is in this article. It does not require modifying the engine.
06/19/07 - Oxygen keeps organic food cool
Scientists in Israel have found a way to use oxygen to store organic fruit and veg for longer, according to a report in the journal Chemistry and Industry. Edna Pesis and her team at the Volcani Center, Israel, have devised a cheap technique to keep apples in cold storage for longer. A week long pre-treatment with low levels of oxygen at 20ºC was shown to prevent chilling injuries associated with prolonged cold storage. Pesis said that 90% of apples treated with oxygen were saved from chilling injuries after eight months of cold storage. With organic fruit and veg, chilling injuries result in big losses when conventional methods of refrigeration are used to preserve it. Although many organic farms have good refrigeration units, there are very expensive and used only for brief storage before collection, which is a high price to pay to ensure a whole crop is not rejected by a retailer because it is dehydrated.
06/19/07 - Gas Prices to Stay High as Refinery Expansions Not Needed
A push from Congress and the White House for huge increases in biofuels, such as ethanol, is prompting the oil industry to scale back its plans for refinery expansions. That could keep gasoline prices high, possibly for years to come. Oil industry executives no longer believe there will be the demand for gasoline over the next decade to warrant the billions of dollars in refinery expansions -- as much as 10 percent increase in new refining capacity -- they anticipated as recently as a year ago. Biofuels such as ethanol and efforts to get a |
