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October 2006 Plenum News 2006 (enhanced) Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec 2005 (enhanced) Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Entire Year (minimal, early formats) 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 You can write Comments or read the KeelyNet discussion list. Feel free to subscribe. Be aware in case any of these links don't respond, most will be available through the Wayback Machine, simply cut and paste the link to recall the 'lost' information. 10/31/06 - Broth secret to losing Weight? (Sounds like a perfect New Years Resolution! - JWD) Man eats Broth & Veggies to lose 220 pounds in a year. A Cornwall man has lost 101kg in a year on a diet of Oxo cubes. Stephen Kay, 39, swapped fry-ups, pies, pasties and pints of lager for three bowls of hot broth a day. The dad-of-three, who is 1,89m, weighed 196 kg, reports the Daily Mirror. He devised his own diet made up of Oxo stock cubes, topped up with fruit and vegetables. Within 12 months he had slimmed down to 96kg and lost 60cm off his waist as his belt size shrank from 60 to 36. Stonemason Stephen said: "I'd read all the weight loss magazines and watched all the TV programmes - but I hate salads. "I remember my grandfather eating hot Oxo broth soaked up by wholemeal bread so I went for that." Stephen decided to fight the fat after constant pestering from wife Caroline and children Gary, 21, Claire, 14 and Jack, 11. Caroline makes her husband's filling broths three times a day using two stock cubes, hot water and pepper. She also gives him three slices of wholemeal bread. The 42-year-old part-time cleaner said: "This diet has totally transformed him. He used to get tired easily and spend all his time on the sofa. Now he is out playing badminton." - Ananova.com 10/31/06 - The 249% Solution If you run banner ads, one study for Harris Direct shows that you can increase your brand awareness about 7% after a reasonable buy of banner ads. That’s just fine, though I’m on the record as saying that most banner campaigns are a waste of money. The kicker? In the study, Harris did the banner buy and watched the number of clicks to their contextual ad (you know, the text ads) go up by 249% over the next week. Pow. This means that someone answering the ‘brand awareness’ survey says, “no, I never heard of them,” but then, two days later, is more than twice as likely to click on their text ad. More than twice. 10/31/06 - Growing New Breasts BREAST cancer sufferers could one day grow new breasts, thanks to stem cell research. A technique being devised by US scientists could see an end to reconstructive surgery for women recovering from breast cancer. Scientists in the US are looking at using stem cells derived from a patient's own fat to regenerate lost breast tissue. An initial three-year program of animal research will see stem cells "seeded" on to scaffold structures. These will provide platforms around which replacement tissue can be grown. "The use of adipose or fat-derived stem cells may represent a better solution for soft tissue reconstruction in breast cancer patients." Exposed to specific chemical conditions, stem cells develop into cells characteristic of fat, bone, cartilage, nerve, muscle and blood vessels. Dr Rubin's team hopes to combine fat-derived stem cells with microscopic beads with regenerative properties. Experts estimate that 454g of fat removed in a "tummy tuck" operation would yield up to 200 million stem cells. 10/31/06 - Robots Test "Embodied Intelligence" "Here's an interesting article about a robotics experiments designed to test the benefits of coupling visual information to physical movement. This approach, known as embodied cognition, supposes that biological intelligence emerges through interactions between organisms and their environment. Olaf Sporns from Indiana University and Max Lungarella from Tokyo University believe strengthening this connection in robots could make them smarter and more intuitive." 10/31/06 - Asthma turns on light Scientists used mice to test the effects of ultraviolet light on the development of asthma-type signs such as inflamed airways and lungs. Preliminary results show that if the animals had a 15-30 minute dose of light before being exposed to a common allergen their chance of developing symptoms was "significantly reduced". Research leader Prof Prue Hart said that UV exposure produced a cell type in a mouse that, when transferred into other mice, suppressed the immune reactions and halted symptoms. "We measured the response of the airways and if the mice had been radiated beforehand they had very little responses to those allergens," Prof Hart said. She said the research was the first to prove sunlight was among the environmental and genetic factors that influenced the chronic disease. But Prof Hart cautioned that the theory had yet to be tested on humans. And given that overexposure to sunlight could cause skin cancer, sufferers should not rush out to sunbake. 10/31/06 - Curing Asthma with Hookworms This is my personal account of curing my asthma and hayfever by deliberately infesting myself with the intestinal parasite hookworm. It isn't for the faint hearted and for some should not be read while eating. It involves a great deal of research, a trip to Cameroon and a lot of barefoot walking in open air latrines in west Africa. If you have asthma, or know someone who has asthma (or for that matter Crohn's disease, IBD or colitis) and are suffering badly you owe it to yourself to consider this approach. Because although it sounds strange and is repellant it is founded on sound science and it has one other virtue. It worked. 10/31/06 - Residual biomass: the new oil A technology that turns residual biomass -- everything from forest slash to industrial wood waste -- into a renewable oil for heating and power generation. Advanced Biorefinery has designed a transportable pyrolysis system that can go to where the biomass is, for example, out in remote logging country where there's plenty of forest slash to process. Dynamotive prefers to build larger, more permanent plants beside a feedstock supplier, such as a wood-flooring company in West Lorne, Ontario. The end result of their process is "bio oil," a carbon-neutral alternative to conventional fuel oil that can be used for industrial heating and power generation. 10/31/06 - 'Beware global warming lawsuits' LAWSUITS against governments and companies over their roles in global warming have a good chance of success, academics say. University of Adelaide researchers say scientific evidence shows a `human signature' on global warming as great as that linking cigarette smoking with cancer. Researchers Dr Joseph Smith and Professor David Shearman said they had analysed the basis for potential legal claims against governments and companies over climate change. "The potential grounds of liability are now quite clear," Dr Smith said. "And the scientific evidence is at a point where, in many cases, it would meet the legal requirements for civil standards of proof - that is, the balance of probability being greater than 50 per cent." He cited an ongoing law suit in the US by the state of California against six major car manufacturers seeking monetary damages for alleged contributions to global warming. "Major grounds against companies could include negligence, product liability, nuisance, breach of directors' duties and liability under environmental pollution statutes," Dr Smith said. 10/31/06 - Ethanol boost for gasoline engines Injecting small quantities of ethanol into car engines at moments of peak demand - such as accelerating sharply or climbing a steep hill - could improve the fuel economy of gasoline engines by 20 percent to 30 percent, a scientist said on Wednesday. Adding the ethanol injection system to a car would cost about $1,000 ($NZ1509) and that cars using the new system could be in mass production by 2011. Hybrid engines can add $3,000 or more to a car's cost - and account for just about 1 percent of new car sales in the United States. The limited supply of ethanol, which is made from plant matter, limits its usefulness as a primary fuel source. There are only 900 pumping stations nationwide that sell E-85. The MIT scientists' plan gets around the ethanol supply issue by using small amounts of it - so little that Cohn estimated the ethanol tank in cars using the technology would need to be refilled every three months or so. A turbocharger is added to produce more power. The ethanol injection system with the turbocharger would give a driver more power than a conventional engine of the same size. The higher pressures and temperatures of a turbocharged engine can lead to a problem known as knock, which occurs when the fuel and air in the engine explode prematurely, hurting performance and potentially damaging the engine. Cohn said his group's technology avoids that problem by injecting ethanol into the engine when knock is likely to occur. The ethanol vaporizes and cools the fuel-air mixture, keeping it from exploding until the engine is ready. 10/31/06 - The first 100 days if Democrats win We're told the Democrats have an agenda - in the first 100 days, Congress will overturn the accumulated horrors of the Bush regime. (Except for Reagan's funeral. They'll let that stand.) A preview follows. Day 1: Party like it's 1992; citizenship for all Gitmo detainees; a blanket amnesty; and a "Circle of Healing" ceremony held on the Capitol steps. Day 2: The troops in Iraq will leave, walking in reverse, as if someone is playing the tape backwards; special construction brigades will quickly repair all the buildings destroyed since the 2003 invasion; and the last American out will reinstall Saddam. Thereafter, whenever someone criticizes America for invading Iraq, we'll look quizzical and say we don't know what they're talking about. Day 3: Bush tax cuts repealed, so the upper 10 percent in income pay 67 percent of all federal taxes instead of 66 percent. That will make all the difference. Day 4: Peace Corps sent en masse to Middle East to apologize personally to everyone and hand out gas-soaked flags and matchbooks. Burn one on us! Don't you love us now? Day 5: Peace Corps Hostage Negotiation Unit commissioned. Day 6: Gay marriage legalized by congressional voice vote, so no one has to go on record. (This allows gay Democratic congressmen to vote no without being outed.) Days 7-100: Impeachment hearings. Sure, Pelosi has said she's against them. But as she promised: The children will be in charge. They're cranky if they don't get their way. 10/31/06 - Armageddon believers influencing Politicians The war in Iraq is not a disaster, but the beginning of the fulfilment of biblical prophecies that culminate, possibly very soon, in a mighty struggle between good and evil at Armageddon. Fully one quarter of Americans describe themselves as Evangelical Christians, and their support for the president remains rock solid. Cornerstone Church, a vast squat white temple in San Antonio, is rapidly becoming the movement's epicentre, thanks to the charismatic founder, Pastor John Hagee, the rising star of America's TV evangelists. For these evangelists, the war in Iraq is not a disaster, but the beginning of the fulfilment of biblical prophecies that culminate, possibly very soon, in a mighty struggle between good and evil at Armageddon. This belief lies at the core of the teachings of the bespectacled pastor, who argues that Christians and Jews must make common cause against forces of darkness he identifies as Arabs, Russians and even a future president of the EU. Christians who fail in their duty will be "left behind" when the obedient are summoned to heaven. While mainstream churches across the land struggle to attract congregations, Cornerstone and hundreds more so-called Mega Churches are packed week after week, forming the last remaining bastion of support for the troubled Bush presidency. Hagee set up his church 28 years ago and sits through services on a throne, in suit and tie, facing his son, Mathew, who he has appointed as his deputy. By taking the bible as literal truth, these evangelists argue that Israel can do no wrong because their enemies are, by definition, forces of darkness who can be disposed of. His stance has brought the pastor powerful friends, among them disgraced former House of Congress majority leader Tom Delay and ex-CIA chief James Woolsey. Hagee is rapidly taking the place as top TV preacher from fellow Evangelist Pat Robertson, who has lost support after angering Bush by using one of his sermons to call for the assassination of Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez. "Pastor Hagee is experienced, charismatic and efficient, and his message is simple," says writer Victoria Clark, who is researching a history of Christian Zionists. "Hagee preaches that if Americans want God to bless America then Americans had better bless the Jews." 10/31/06 - Britons 'could be microchipped like dogs in a decade' Human beings may be forced to be 'microchipped' like pet dogs, a shocking official report into the rise of the Big Brother state has warned. The microchips - which are implanted under the skin - allow the wearer's movements to be tracked and store personal information about them. They could be used by companies who want to keep tabs on an employee's movements or by Governments who want a foolproof way of identifying their citizens - and storing information about them. In an official report for Britain's Information Commissioner Richard Thomas into the spread of surveillance technology. The report, drawn up by a team of respected academics, claims that Britain is a world-leader in the use of surveillance technology and its citizens the most spied-upon in the free world. It paints a frightening picture of what Britain might be like in ten years time unless steps are taken to regulate the use of CCTV and other spy technologies. Its use in humans has already been trialled in America, where the chips were implanted in 70 mentally-ill elderly people in order to track their movements. There are now 4.2 million CCTV cameras in Britain and the average Briton is caught on camera an astonishing 300 times every day. This huge enthusiasm comes despite official Home Office statistics showing that CCTV cameras have 'little effect on crime levels'. They write: "The surveillance society has come about us without us realising", adding: "Some of it is essential for providing the services we need: health, benefits, education. Some of it is more questionable. Some of it may be unjustified, intrusive and oppressive." "People are being scrutinised and having their lives tracked, and are not even aware of it." 10/31/06 - New technology finds, flags, and kills tumor cells A growing cadre of researchers are developing next-generation nanotechnology that can both deliver drugs only to cancer cells and allow doctors to monitor the progress of the treatment. The University of Texas system delivers both an anti-cancer drug and a highly effective magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) contrast agent to allow doctors to see that the drug is being delivered to a tumor. The nanocarriers are made of polymers with an inner core that traps doxorubicin, a common chemotherapy drug, and iron-oxide particles that show up clearly with MRI. Polymer strands on the outside of the nanocarrier bear targeting molecules that are recognized only by tumor blood-vessel cells. The nanocarriers latch on to the vessel cells, and the cells engulf the carriers. The polymer releases the drug once inside the cell, where it is most effective. Tests on cells grown in the lab showed promising results, says Gao. Nanocarriers equipped with the targeting molecule delivered twice the amount of drug and killed twice the number of cells (94 percent) as those without it, he reported online in the journal Nano Letters. Because of the nanoparticles, the tumor blood-vessel cells were visible at a resolution unattainable with current MRI contrasts. "We could detect as few as 50,000 cells," Gao says. Studies in mice are now in progress. 10/30/06 - New ‘Ethanol-boosted’ engine to give better mileage MIT researchers are developing a half-sized “ethanol-boosted” car turbo engine that performs like its full-sized cousin, and offers fuel efficiency equalling that of today’s hybrid engine system, at a lower cost. The engines which may be launched in the markets in the next five years, will not only cut the cost of fuel enormously, but will offer greater mileage also. Moreover, the little engines will provide high performance without using high-octane gasoline. The researchers believe that the turbo engines will help cut gasoline consumption in the US enormously. The research team used sophisticated computer simulations for injecting ethanol to suppress spontaneous combustion and essentially remove the knock limit that can damage the engine. They found that once ethanol is injected, the engine does not knock even when the pressure inside the cylinder is three times higher than that in a conventional SI engine. Engine tests by collaborators at Ford Motor Company produced results consistent with the model’s predictions. Using well-established computer models, the researchers have determined that small high-compression-ratio engines will provide the same peak power as the full-scale SI version, and will be 20 to 30 percent more fuel-efficient. 10/30/06 - Ocean Powered Hydroelectric Generator Invention Sea Solar Power International of Baltimore, Maryland, a division of the Abell Foundation, is currently evaluating Portland, Oregon resident, Richard M. Dickson’s U.S. patent pending ocean powered hydroelectric generator invention for possible prototyping and eventual production. The invention is a new type of enclosed hydroelectric dam that works off pressure differentials in sea or deep lake water at great depths. Mr. Dickson refers to his invention as a “hydrosphere”, and claims it can generate up to 500 Megawatts of continuous, non-polluting, renewable energy out of sight in oceans or deep lakes. Mr. Dickson's "hydrosphere" represents breakthrough technology in electrical power generation by opening up ocean and deep lake pressure as a new source of electrical power. Previously, only wave, tidal, thermal, salinity, and ocean current energy were thought to be of practical use in ocean electrical power renewable energy schemes. However, each of these energy sources has limitations on use due to geographical and other factors. On the other hand, Mr. Dickson, claims the "hydrosphere" can be used to generate power in any ocean of the world and deep lakes, except the extreme polar regions; and at various depths. The "hydrosphere" could eventually become a tremendous source of new electrical energy for the world, benefiting all nations with access to oceans or deep lakes. 10/30/06 - Packaging warns of unsafe food Researchers from Strathclyde University used new technology to create an "intelligent ink" to detect the presence of oxygen in packaged food. If the package seal is broken, either accidentally or by tampering, the ink changes colour. "If the seal is broken, oxygen is getting in, so the food may no longer be safe to eat. "Our technology has the potential to eliminate food poisoning due to bad packaging or tampering." The ink was created with light-sensitive nano-particles, which can detect oxygen when triggered by ultraviolet light. 10/30/06 - Boffin invents simpler way to see inside metal objects X-ray pictures of metal objects, no nuclear hardware needed. Cesar Moreno, who heads the "Plasma Focus" Physics research group at the University of Buenos Aires showed impressive pictures of metal objects, taken with the x-ray device built at his research lab -the unit is too large to fit on the small exhibition floor. Unlike other approaches to photograph the inside of metal objects which require irradiating the elements to be scanner with radioactive element, this one works just needs electricity to operate. His work started seven years ago, and at this years' fair he was able to show the result of his working machine: x-ray images of a photo camera, a door lock, and a bolt fixated to a metal bar, among others. This machine is able to take photographs passing through any metal type -even lead- up to 25mm thick, and even moving objects. Moreno told the press his team was able to "photograph the inside of an airplane turbine spinning at 6,000 rpm". INQuired by this correspondent at the show floor if the process has any effect on the materials being photographed, he said there's no trace of radiation or even heat generated during the process "There's no radiation or other effect left on the materials, the whole process is measured in a few nanoseconds, it takes even less time than having x-rays taken of your body, and you don't have to hold your breath". 10/30/06 - Western United States, the Mediterranean and Brazil will likely suffer The world _ especially the Western United States, the Mediterranean region and Brazil _ will likely suffer more extended droughts, heavy rainfalls and longer heat waves over the next century because of global warming, a new study forecasts. But the prediction of a future of nasty extreme weather also includes fewer freezes and a longer growing season. As the world warms, there will be more rain likely in the tropical Pacific Ocean, and that will change the air flow for certain areas, much like El Nino weather oscillations now do, said study co-author Gerald Meehl, a top computer modeler at the research center. Those changes will affect the U.S. West, Australia and Brazil, even though it's on South America's eastern coast. For the Mediterranean, the issue has more to do with rainfall in the tropical Atlantic Ocean changing air currents, he said. "Extreme events are the kinds of things that have the biggest impacts, not only on humans, but on mammals and ecosystems," Meehl said. One of the larger changes in precipitation predicted is in the intensity of rain and snowfall. That means, Tebaldi said, "when it rains, it rains more" even if it doesn't rain as often. 10/30/06 - Giant elastic-powered aircraft fails to take off A UK artist has dismally, albeit heroically, failed to get off the ground in a 20ft aircraft powered by a giant rubber band, the Daily Telegraph reports. Mark Clews prepares for non-take-off. Photo: University of WestminsterMark Clews attempt to reach 3,000ft in the oversized kids' toy ended with the aircraft travelling just six feet backwards at a "rain swept" Dunsfold Park airfield in Surrey. The power plant consisted of 200 feet of bungee cord, powering a red propeller obtained in the Midlands for £100. 10/30/06 - Rising sea levels - 10 years to Fiji Migration AUSTRALIA has been warned it may face a flood of environmental refugees within a decade as the Pacific's smallest island states face submersion under rising seas. The alarmist message was issued by Kiribati's leader, Anote Tong, as fellow leaders of endangered nations gathered in Fiji to discuss their worsening plight. Concerns have been raised that nations such as Kiribati, Tuvalu, Niue and the Marshall Islands face an uncertain future due to rising sea levels caused by global warming. Sceptics argue that such claims are far-fetched, but Mr Tong yesterday warned that regional powers such as Australia and New Zealand may have to prepare for an exodus from these tiny nations within 10 years. "If we are talking about island states sinking in 10 years time, we simply have to find somewhere to go," Mr Tong said. "If we become refugees, then so be it. I think the international community has to get used to it." 10/30/06 - Fish to detect toxins Cities nationwide are using bluegill fish, such as these at a treatment plant in Milbrae, Calif., to detect toxic substances in their water supplies. Unlike man-made sensors that detect only specific contaminants, these fish and other such nature-made sensors respond to a broad range of problems. While they are unable to indicate that, say, there's ammonia in the water like a machine can, they can show that something is very wrong - and in most cases much faster than anything man-made. The bluegill fish and their companion computers are so sensitive that three major cities - New York, Washington, and San Francisco - used them in a pilot program. The cities found them so successful they're making them a permanent part of their water-monitoring defenses. The Army, which developed the fish sensor with a private company, also uses the sensor at some undisclosed locations. 10/30/06 - Look what the cargo ship dragged in Before setting sail, cargo ships take in vast amounts of water for stabilization, and then discharge the water at their destination. Only nominally filtered on uptake, this water, known as ballast, inevitably contains a host of organisms, ranging from algae to the larvae of various mollusk species to (at least in one case) an entire school of fish. "Considering that there are over 30,000 ships at sea this morning," writes James Carlton, director of the Williams College-Mystic Seaport Maritime Studies Program, in an e-mail, "the total number of organisms and species in this global 'bioflow' on the morning your readers read your piece could be staggering - billions of individuals, and thousands of species." Indeed, scientists have long considered ballast water the primary way invasive aquatic organisms are introduced. Aquatic invasives cost the US $9 billion yearly, according to estimates by David Pimentel, professor emeritus of ecology and evolutionary biology at Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y. Zebra and quagga mussels (a cousin to the zebra) alone cost the $1 billion annually. Currently, the Coast Guard requires all ships entering US waters to exchange their ballast at least 200 nautical miles from shore where the ocean is at least a mile deep, or face a fine of up to $27,500 per day. Adapted to the lower salinity of coastal waters, organisms found in ballast water theoretically won't survive the higher salinity of the open ocean. 10/30/06 - Epigenetics - Inherited Pollution It's a discovery that could explain a host of medical mysteries. Contrary to what scientists thought, your diet, the pollution you're exposed to and even your behavior can lead to effects that are inherited by your children, grandchildren, and beyond. We all know pollution can affect our health, but now scientists say the toxins we're exposed to could also affect our children and even our grandchildren. Washington State University researchers found that exposing pregnant rats to certain pesticides caused a big increase in numerous diseases for at least the next four generations. Even behaviors can be passed on this way. Rat pups that are licked and groomed by their mothers handle less stress as adults, and in turn pass on nurturing skills to their young. That might not be too surprising except that it makes no difference whether the mothering is done by the pups' biological mom or a foster mom. 10/29/06 - Wood stoves are big Culprit in Climate Change Scientists have found that smoke produced by these stoves, which are traditionally used for cooking and heating in developing countries, contains twice as many soot particles as laboratory experiments had previously indicated. When released into the atmosphere, the black, noxious particles - which are darker than those produced by grassland or forest fires - absorb light and increase atmospheric temperatures. "They can absorb energy and keep it in the Earth's system when it would otherwise escape," lead author Tami Bond of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, United States, told SciDev.Net. The authors estimate that around 400 million wood stoves are used daily by more than 2 billion people worldwide. Bond established that burning firewood produces 800,000 metric tons of soot worldwide a year. By comparison, diesel vehicles generate about 890,000 metric tons of soot a year. Both sources together contribute 10 per cent of the soot emitted annually into the atmosphere. 10/29/06 - Blue Jean Dye Shown to Kill Cancer Cells Research 1 - Impact LabUK researchers are employing tiny gold "nanoparticles", 1/5000th the thickness of a human hair, to deliver the chemical compound directly into cancer cells, tearing them apart instantly. The common dye found in blue jeans and ballpoint pens is called phthalocyanine and is a light-activated, or photosensitive, agent with cell-destroying properties. 10/29/06 - The Universal Translator Ver.1.0 Imagine mouthing a phrase in English, only for the words to come out in Spanish. That is the promise of a device that will make anyone appear bilingual, by translating unvoiced words into synthetic speech in another language. The device uses electrodes attached to the face and neck to detect and interpret the unique patterns of electrical signals sent to facial muscles and the tongue as the person mouths words. The effect is like the real-life equivalent of watching a television show that has been dubbed into a foreign language, says speech researcher Tanja Schultz of Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Existing translation systems based on automatic speech-recognition software require the user to speak the phrase out loud. This makes conversation difficult, as the speaker must speak and then push a button to play the translation. The new system allows for a more natural exchange. "The ultimate goal is to be in a position where you can just have a conversation," says CMU speech researcher Alan Black. 10/29/06 - Grape Seed Extract Halts Colorectal Tumor Cell Cycle Chemicals found in grape seeds significantly inhibited growth of colorectal tumors in both cell cultures and in mice, according to researchers who have already demonstrated the extract's anti-cancer effects in other tumor types. Their study, published in the October 18 issue of Clinical Cancer Research, documented a 44 percent reduction of advanced colorectal tumors in the animals, and also revealed, for the first time, the molecular mechanism by which grape seed extract works to inhibit cancer growth. The authors found that it increases availability of a critical protein, Cip1/p21, in tumors that effectively freezes the cell cycle, and often pushes a cancer cell to self destruct. 10/29/06 - Russian miracle water can cure cancer and restore youth Researchers of two well-known Russian institutes have almost simultaneously without contacting each other come up with “live” and “dead” water. The de-ionized, or “dead,” water was first mentioned as a study project back in the 1990’s. At that time the theory of two professors from Science Center of Applied Research (SCAR) - Valentine Samoylov and Oleg Zaymidoroga - were looked at as fairytales. But now no one would dare laughing at the ones who take the foundation for their “live” and “dead” waters from… the kitchen! “At first we were taking it from the ordinary kitchen faucet,” explains Oleg, the owner of a mini-lab in Dubna, “Of course it did not become de-ionized water right away. We had to free it of metal ions, microorganisms, and other junk. Where else on the planet would you be able to find water like this!” “It began with my experiments in Italy in the field of physics. I had to design such water for the research that would contain no radioactive traces and no microorganisms. So we began purifying the regular tap water. We passed it through the filter and then removed the 95% of metal ions. Then next step was to remove the rest of radioactive ions and from the heavy isotopes of oxygen and hydrogen. Finally we got rid of the dead bodies of microorganisms and ended up with super pure de-ionized water that is thousands of times more sterile than any artificial solution. So I thought, what if I try to clean the incrustation inside the tea pot with that water? I took it to my wife and she poured the substance into the old boiling pot that had nearly one kilogram of old scales inside of it. After boiling the purified water in it all the incrustation came off. I realized all of a sudden that one could clean the polluted nuclear reactors this way, as well as the human body vessels. Just imagine how many people could be cured with such miracle water!” Tests showed that the miracle water can cure infections and tumors. “In the case of blood poisoning de-ionized water restores the torn DNA threads and helps the wound to heal faster,” the scientist explains, “As for the cancer, this water has the power to affect the bio-energetic molecule ATF, which is responsible for cell division. So when a cancer patient receives the de-ionized water injection the ATF molecule no longer misses the moment of random cell multiplication. The tumor growth will be stopped. 10/28/06 - Gasoline Components and Efficiency consumers have been much more attentive to gasoline facts by learning more about the process of refining crude oil and why prices spiked so excessively is a good way to understand the growing concern. Let's take a look at some interesting facts about gasoline and the impact it has in this country. It is estimated that over 20 million barrels of gas is used everyday. That works out to 840 million gallons. oil refineries process this oil by removing impurities and distilling the stuff through a variety of techniques using heat and pressure to modify the mixture into the fuel that is needed. These varieties include diesel and the regular gasoline most of us use in our cars everyday. Most people are already aware of the different grades and octane levels offered at service stations. How this plays into saving gas and money at the pumps really depends on the make and model of your car. Normal consumer gasoline is available in regular, unleaded, and premium grades. The octane levels are directly related to the grade of the fuel. The octane levels are what determine a certain grades anti knock rating. Your car's owner manual will instruct you to the proper type of fuel. Considering the high cost of fuel currently, it would be a wise decision to use the lowest grade gas that is appropriate for your car. Don't worry; the car's engine is designed to use that type of fuel. By doing so you are not damaging the vehicle. 10/28/06 - Quantum Dot Efficient Solar Cells researchers at the University of New South Wales, in Sydney, Australia, have completed the preliminary steps in making an all-silicon structure that can, in theory, eke out nearly twice the electricity that traditional silicon solar cells--the industry's mainstay--can. To maximize efficiency, Martin Green, lead researcher on the project and professor of photovoltaic- and renewable-energy engineering, and his team are developing a multilayered silicon system that converts varying wavelengths of sunlight into electricity. Each layer is tuned to collect light at a certain wavelength, says Green. Multilayered systems--commonly used by NASA to power satellites--have been studied for years. Currently, these systems can operate at an efficiency of about 30 percent. By comparison, the best single-layer silicon cells in research labs have an efficiency of 25 percent. The researchers tuned the dots to absorb light at wavelengths from about 1,100 nanometers (infrared light) to roughly 600 nanometers (red light). For the complete solar cell to work, the layers of quantum dots would need to be stacked according to their size. The top layer would contain the smallest dots, which absorb the shortest wavelength. The rest of the light passes through to the layers below, which would contain subsequently larger dots. Green's proposed scheme contains three of these quantum-dot layers. 10/28/06 - Nuclear power will 'worsen drought' AUSTRALIA'S crippling drought will worsen if the Howard government succeeds in its push for nuclear power, Queensland Premier Peter Beattie has told a conference. Addressing the New Zealand Labour Party conference in Rotorua today, Mr Beattie said an independent study commissioned by the Queensland government showed a nuclear power station would use 25 per cent more water than a coal-fired power station. "At a time when our farming communities are hurting badly, it is a folly for (Prime Minister John) Howard to be entertaining the thought of nuclear power stations in Queensland or anywhere else," he said. "Many towns and shires in our state are struggling to get enough drinking water, let alone enough to satisfy the amount a nuclear station would need to guzzle." 10/28/06 - Oil industry turns big profits as US economy falters Corporate America is used to vast profits, but the oil industry's earnings dwarf all other industries, including banking, technology, and food and drink. The US' largest energy group, and the world's biggest company, ExxonMobil Corp, posted record third-quarter net profit of US$10.49 billion, or around US$114 million a day, on Thursday. Its earnings soared by 26 percent over the same period a year ago, largely as a result of searing-hot crude oil prices which hit records over US$78 in July and August, although they have since fallen to around US$61 per barrel. Put in perspective, ExxonMobil's quarterly profits at over US$10 billion were bigger than the latest quarterly profits of banking titan Citigroup (US$5.5 billion), Internet search colossus Google (US$773 million) and beverage giant Coca-Cola (US$1.5 billion) combined. "Over US$10 billion in profits during this quarter alone are what Big Oil got in return for writing the energy bill, reaping billions in taxpayer-funded giveaways, winning commercial access to federal lands and rolling back environmental initiatives," Kerry thundered in a statement. "Is it any wonder, then, that Exxon has contributed 89 percent of their campaign contributions to Republicans?" Kerry said. Oil executives bristle at suggestions of unfettered profits, saying their profit margins are lower than those of other industries. 10/28/06 - Bush legalizes martial law -- what Constitution? On Oct 17, George Bush quietly signed a bill allowing him to declare martial law. The Toward Freedom website summarizes it: "For the current President, "enforcement of the laws to restore public order" means to commandeer guardsmen from any state, over the objections of local governmental, military and local police entities; ship them off to another state; conscript them in a law enforcement mode; and set them loose against "disorderly" citizenry - protesters, possibly, or those who object to forced vaccinations and quarantines in the event of a bio-terror event. The law also facilitates militarized police round-ups and detention of protesters, so called "illegal aliens," "potential terrorists" and other "undesirables" for detention in facilities already contracted for and under construction by Halliburton. That's right. Under the cover of a trumped-up "immigration emergency" and the frenzied militarization of the southern border, detention camps are being constructed right under our noses, camps designed for anyone who resists the foreign and domestic agenda of the Bush administration." / Martial Law - A new law that President Bush signed on Oct. 17. It seems to allow the President to impose martial law on any state or territory, using federal troops and/or the state's own, or other states', National Guard troops. From the article: "In a stealth maneuver, President Bush has signed into law a provision which, according to Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont), will actually encourage the President to declare federal martial law. It does so by revising the Insurrection Act, a set of laws that limits the President's ability to deploy troops within the United States. The Insurrection Act (10 U.S.C.331 -335) has historically, along with the Posse Comitatus Act (18 U.S.C.1385), helped to enforce strict prohibitions on military involvement in domestic law enforcement. With one cloaked swipe of his pen, Bush is seeking to undo those prohibitions." 10/27/06 - Energy from deserts could supply Europe Deserts in the Middle East and North Africa could generate vast quantities of electricity to sell to Europe, according to two German research reports. The studies found that concentrated solar power plants, occupying less than 0.3 per cent of the desert area in the region, could provide 15 per cent of Europe's electricity needs by 2050. The high transmission losses of 10-15 per cent per 1,000 kilometres of cable used would be offset by the sheer volume of electricity produced, says the Trans-Mediterranean Renewable Energy Cooperation (TREC), a network that helped conduct the studies. "Every year, each square kilometre of desert receives solar energy equivalent to 1.5 million barrels of oil. Multiplying by the area of deserts worldwide, this is nearly a thousand times the entire current energy consumption of the world," says Franz Trieb, project manager for the two reports at the German Aerospace Center. Solar thermal power plants use mirrors to concentrate solar energy to create steam and generate electricity, creating the cheapest electricity available - costing less than US$0.06 per kilowatt-hour. Excess heat from the plants could be used for water desalination, providing much-needed fresh water in desert regions. 10/27/06 - Suspension of Habeas Corpus Unconstitutional Perhaps the most important and radical departures from constitutionalism, however, are the limitations on the right of habeas corpus - the ancient writ that allows a person being held captive by a government to be informed what the charges are and to have a judicial resolution of them - and the limitation of judicial review. Supporters of the act note that the denial of habeas corpus rights applies only to noncitizens. But when the U.S. Constitution discusses habeas corpus it makes no such distinction, providing only that "[t]he privilege of the Writ of Habeas Corpus shall not be suspended, unless when in cases of Rebellion or Invasion the public Safety may require it." The commission act's suspension of habeas corpus, then, is probably unconstitutional on its face. It may also be unconstitutional in that the present emergency does not meet the constitutional test of rebellion or invasion (when civilian courts might not be capable of operating). For better or worse, our civilian courts are operating at full throttle and could no doubt handle a few dozen trials of alleged terrorists, so the need for a bill establishing military commissions at all - let alone suspending habeas corpus - is far from evident. Ordinary military courts martial might also have handled the job. 10/27/06 - Stored braking energy saves fuel Storing braking energy in a hydraulic accumulator, then releasing it to assist acceleration, could improve heavy vehicle fuel economy by up to 35%. The system is called the Regenerative Drive System (RDS). In its basic form, the driveshaft is equipped with a pump/motor. When a vehicle is braking, braking energy is used to pump oil into a hydraulic accumulator, pressurised with nitrogen. When the vehicle subsequently accelerates, the compressed gas in the accumulator pushes oil through the pump/motor to assist the engine by adding energy to the drive train. The control system simultaneously reduces engine output while the stored energy is returned in order to maximise fuel saving. Hydraulic systems intrinsically have higher energy densities than electric systems, especially when these involve batteries. A hybrid hydraulic system with an accumulator is about half the weight of a hybrid electric system - even one using the most advanced batteries - and about four-fifths that of a system based on a super capacitor for energy storage. Because of the relative maturity of hydraulic components, hybrid hydraulic systems with accumulators are less expensive, and have long times between major component replacement, whereas rechargeable batteries have strictly limited working lives. System efficiency is also said to be significantly higher. The environmental footprint of a hydraulic system is less than that of an electric system involving batteries, since these require careful recycling. For safety reasons, the RDS automatically discharges to zero pressure when the vehicle is switched off. Other claimed benefits are: up to 35% improvement in fuel economy depending on drive cycle; reduced carbon dioxide and NOx emissions; a doubling of brake life, reduced braking noise; and improved acceleration. 10/27/06 - Machine turns scraps into electricity, vehicle fuel Scraps from some of the Bay Area's trendiest restaurants -- Zuni Cafe, Jardiniere, Oliveto and Boulevard, among others -- are being enlisted in the quest for renewable energy. Eight tons a week of everything that comes back on plates or is rejected by the kitchen will be sent to a state-of-the-art digester at UC Davis, where it will be transformed into valuable "biogas" -- methane and hydrogen -- and fertilizer. The digester -- an impressive amalgam of vats, piping, cables, conveyers and hoppers -- was unveiled Tuesday at a site near the campus' wastewater treatment plant. The project is a joint venture between the university and a private Davis firm, Onsite Power Systems Inc. The system employs anaerobic bacteria -- microbes that function in the absence of oxygen -- to break down waste in large tanks, yielding copious volumes of flammable gas. Ultimately, the plant will handle 8 tons of garbage a day, said its designer, Ruihong Zhang, a professor of biological and agricultural engineering at UC Davis. Each ton of slops will produce enough gas to supply 10 homes, but for now, enthusiasts primarily see it as a way to fuel garbage trucks and other commercial vehicles while reducing landfill volume. The digesting process converts between 60 and 90 percent of organic solids to biogas, Zhang said. 10/27/06 - Australia drought sparks suicides (The Aussie government is targeting about 900 million towards this, they SHOULD be buying the water generating machines which use cooling to condense large quantities of water directly from the air. See archive here. - JWD) Australia's severe drought has led to an alarming rise in the number of suicides among farmers. One farmer takes his life every four days, according to the national mental health body Beyond Blue. With the drought now in its sixth year, Australia's big dry is the worst in over a century. Farmers have been hardest hit, forced to make a living sometimes in dustbowl conditions, raising emaciated cattle. With no prospect of significant rainfall before the New Year, the situation has reached crisis point and hope is as scarce as rainfall. Many farmers are being forced to sell up, leaving land which often their families have worked on for generations. The suicide rate among farmers is already twice the national average. More than 300,000 rural Australians experience depression each year, but only a small number seek help. Australian farmers have long been known for their toughness and resilience, the very qualities which make them more reluctant to acknowledge any psychological problems. Loneliness, family breakdown and alcohol abuse are all common in rural communities. 10/27/06 - Gas Hogs tasked A municipal council in southwest London is proposing a parking permits scheme that would reward people driving low-CO2 vehicles and, well, punish those who drive gas-guzzling monsters. Costs range from no charge to a 200-per-cent increase over the current rate based on how many grams of CO2 are released by a vehicle per kilometre driven. Smart Cars, Honda Insights and Toyota Priuses would be examples of cars on the low end of the scale, while Porche 911s, Range Rovers and Jaguar X types would be on the high end. The proposal goes before the council on Nov. 6 and the plan could be implemented before year's end. "The proposals, if implemented, will be a national first and are part of the administration's commitment to put sustainability at the heart of everything it does," according to a council news release. 10/27/06 - The Suntracker Skylight The Suntracker One is an intriguing upgrade on the conventional skylight. Consisting of a 4’X4’ acrylic dome, the Suntracker uses three heliostatic mirrors that track the sun and reflect its light down into the building. A prismatic diffusion lens then spreads out the light through interior spaces. The reflective surfaces within the dome are run by a small solar-powered motor. Every ten minutes, the mirrors move to keep up with the sun as it moves across the sky, maximizing natural light in Winter months when days are shorter and the sun’s path is closer to the horizon. The Suntracker promises a 15%-35% ROI based on reduced energy costs for lighting and HVAC, lighting maintenance, increased personnel performance, and increased sales in retail applications. Nature’s Lighting, its maker, claims that the Suntracker bring in up to nine times more sunlight than a conventional skylight. Individual units are expected to generate the equivalent of 800 watts of fluorescent lighting each. 10/27/06 - Neurochip Acts As A Second Neuro Cortex Researchers at the University of Washington (UW) are working on an implantable electronic chip that may help establish new nerve connections in the part of the brain that controls movement. Their most recent study, to be published in the Nov. 2, 2006, edition of Nature, showed such a device can induce brain changes in monkeys lasting more than a week. Strengthening of weak connections through this mechanism may have potential in the rehabilitation of patients with brain injuries, stroke, or paralysis. When awake, the brain continuously governs the body's voluntary movements. This is largely done through the activity of nerve cells in the part of the brain called the motor cortex. These nerve cells, or neurons, send signals down to the spinal cord to control the contraction of certain muscles, like those in the arms and legs. The possibility that these neural signals can be recorded directly and used to operate a computer or to control mechanical devices outside of the body has been driving the rapidly expanding field of brain-computer interfaces, often abbreviated BCI. The recent Nature study suggests that the brain's nerve signals can be harnessed to create changes within itself. The researchers tested a miniature, self-contained device with a tiny computer chip. The devices were placed on top of the heads of monkeys who were free to carry out their usual behaviors, including sleep. Called a Neurochip, the brain-computer interface was developed by Mavoori for his doctoral thesis. "The Neurochip records the activity of motor cortex cells," Fetz explained, "It can convert this activity into a stimulus that can be sent back to the brain, spinal cord, or muscle, and thereby set up an artificial connection that operates continuously during normal behavior. This recurrent brain-computer interface creates an artificial motor pathway that the brain may learn to use to compensate for impaired pathways." Jackson found that, when the brain-computer interface continuously connects neighboring sites in the motor cortex, it produces long-lasting changes. Namely, the movements evoked from the recording site changed to resemble those evoked from the stimulation site. The researchers said that a likely explanation for these changes is the strengthening of pathways within the cortex from the recording to the stimulation site. Timing is critical for creating these connections, the researchers said. The conditioning effect occurs only if the delay between the recorded activity and the stimulation is brief enough. The changes are produced in a day of continuous conditioning with the recurrent brain-computer interface, but last for many days after the circuit is turned off. 10/27/06 - U.S. Space Policy will push the world closer to a space arms race The NSP reads, in part, "The United States considers space capabilities… vital to its national interests. Consistent with this policy, the United States will: preserve its rights, capabilities, and freedom of action in space; dissuade or deter others from either impeding those rights or developing capabilities intended to do so; take those actions necessary to protect its space capabilities; respond to interference; and deny, if necessary, adversaries the use of space capabilities hostile to U.S. national interests; The policy clearly conveys that the United States considers itself accountable to no one for its military actions in space, says Michael Krepon, cofounder of the Henry L. Stimson Center, a nonpartisan Washington think tank that promotes international security. It also rejects nonmilitary initiatives that include some form of arms control, even if such initiatives would improve the safety and security of U.S. satellites. This is not the first time the United States has asserted what it terms an "unhindered" right to act in space. The 1996 NSP, drafted by the Clinton administration, had the same central theme. The difference, according to Theresa Hitchens, an analyst with the Center for Defense Information, is that the new policy not only dismisses the rights of other space-faring powers but is actively hostile to the concept of collective security. It signals that the United States no longer regards space as a cooperative environment, she says, undercutting 40 years of tradition that has kept competition and conflict in space at a minimum. 10/27/06 - Brazil Bus Firm Powers Fleet on Biofuels A bus company in Sao Paulo is now powering part of its fleet with a new mix of biofuels and diesel in an effort to curb emissions and reduce reliance on fossil fuels. The mix _ a blend of 30 percent biodiesel, 8 percent alcohol and 62 percent petroleum diesel _ will eventually be used by 1,900 buses, about a quarter of Sao Paulo's entire bus fleet, said Paulo Mendes, director of B100, which was created by the Itaim Paulista bus company to research alternative fuels. Brazil has been a leader in the development of biofuels, with ethanol providing about 17 percent of the country's fuel needs. Brazil also will start requiring that biodiesel be added to regular diesel at a rate of 2 percent in 2008. By the year 2013, trucks will have to run on 5 percent biodiesel. 10/27/06 - World's Fastest Text Messager Loses to Voice Recognition When the cell phone screens cleared, the 18-year-old world's fastest text messenger was handed his first head-to-head defeat Tuesday: a voice recognition computer had bested his record time on a complicated 27-word message by 66 percent. Two Nuance employees also participated: one using a cell phone with a predictive text program that turns partial words into full ones and another with a full QWERTY keyboard on a Blackberry. Neither came close to Cook, who used basic "3-key typing," in which several letters share the same number key on a phone pad. To get the desired character it can take three or more clicks. Each contestant took turns completing a text message in three rounds of increasing difficulty. All spelling, grammar and capitalization had to match the sample text precisely. The first message, "I'm on my way. I'll be there in 30 minutes," took over a minute with the predictive software, 29 seconds with a Blackberry and 16 seconds for the record holder. The voice recognition software finished it in under 8 seconds. The final message was a duplicate of one Cook won the world record for. It read "The razor toothed piranhas of the genera Serrasalmus and Pygo centrus are the most ferocious freshwater fish in the world. In reality they seldom attack a human." Cook finished in 48 seconds, worse than his record 42 seconds. But it took the Nuance program just 16 seconds before the 20-foot screens set up on either side of the contestants flashed red to signal the finish. The software comes ready to understand about 500,000 words in English. Thompson could not say how much the service would cost consumers because it will likely vary by carrier. He said it will be available in some new telephones, but existing phones can download software for use as well. Nuance envisions it as a tool for drivers and others on the go who want to send text messages, instead of calling or leaving a voicemail, but do not have the time to sit and type them out. 10/27/06 - Math theory bags lotto jackpot A syndicate of university professors and tutors in Britain thought it could also be related to the principles of mathematical probability. And their theory was spectacularly vindicated this week when they matched all six numbers and scooped the $13 million lotto jackpot. The syndicate, made up of 17 staff members at Bradford University and College, bagged the big prize by using two boxes, 49 pieces of paper and a large amount of brainpower. Syndicate leader Barry Waterhouse, 41, who works at the design and printing section of the university, explained that the syndicate had been doing the National Lottery for eight years without conspicuous success after it started in 1994 with each member picking his or her own line. "We just weren't winning with the numbers being picked that way, so we thought of a different method which would mean all 49 numbers would be used,' Mr Waterhouse said. The syndicate then set up a computer program to check the numbers every week. It took four years and a total outlay of $8700, but on Saturday, the formula succeeded. Matching the winning numbers and the bonus ball, they hit the jackpot. "We just thought that if all the numbers are in use, we must have a good chance of winning and it has proved so, though you never really think it will happen to you, "Mr Waterhouse said. 10/26/06 - Drought creates water theft - Mad Max where are you? DROUGHT-ravaged farmers heading into summer are facing a new and previously unknown threat: water bandits. Police at tiny Gundaroo village near Canberra today Wednesday said they were hunting thieves who used crowbars to crack open water tanks and steal the precious contents. In nearby Bungendore, water has been stolen from village dams and tanks, while 50 kilometers away in Yass police have reports of theft from the city's near-dry river. In the past two weeks, the Government has announced more than $900 million in drought relief as farmers face the driest period for a generation and with the hottest summer months still ahead. More than 90 per cent of the most populous state of New South Wales is in drought, with many farmers enduring five continuous years of below average rainfall. Ms Hayman said she and partner Zed Zawalski lost 75,000 litres from their small Gundaroo olive grove and cattle farm while they were out. Nearby, in the village main street, Kerry Wagstaff said thieves emptied two 30,000-litre water tanks, used to provide water for the house and for their vegetable garden. 10/26/06 - Still Miles to Go for the Plug-In Vehicle Commercially available batteries will not store enough electricity to move a full-size car more than about 60 or 70 miles, enough to meet most drivers’ needs on most days but not a very attractive candidate in the auto showroom. So what about a car with enough battery power for its first few dozen miles, and a gasoline engine to handle the rest? Enter the plug-in hybrid, or rather, the concept of a plug-in hybrid. The idea is to expand on the gasoline-electric hybrids already on the road, which charge the battery from the gasoline engine. With a bigger battery pack, charged from an electric outlet, drivers could go the first few gallons’ worth every day on electricity instead, the theory goes. Comparing total miles driven with the gasoline consumed, advocates say the plug-ins will travel 80 miles or more on a gallon. Hymotion sells a kit that adds a plug-in battery to the Toyota Prius. A crucial problem is that the Prius battery will last well over 100,000 miles, but only because it is babied. It is seldom charged above 60 percent of capacity, or allowed to fall below 40 percent. If it were charged fully and allowed to run down, like a laptop battery, it would, over hundreds of cycles, lose its ability to hold a charge, Toyota says. That suggests a replacement cost in the thousands of dollars. 10/26/06 - Hybridyne to Distribute Hybrid Wind / Solar Power Light The Kazekamome Remote Hybrid System is an advanced Hybrid (Vertical-Axis wind & PV solar-powered) remotely emplaced lamp standard with optional Wi-Fi security video webcam. Since it is powered totally by renewable energy sources, it can be installed anywhere without expensive trenching and wiring, and consumes no electricity. Panasonic's Kazekamome Remote Hybrid System is a stand-alone power source using the wind and sun to generate energy and store it within the internal batteries for use later. The system is ideal for use as a lighting fixture, for security applications, remote asset monitoring and as an advertising platform. 10/26/06 - Dishing out power with a solar engine A company is trying to prove that a 19th-century design known as the Stirling engine has a place in the emerging market for clean energy. Infinia, based in Kennewick, Wash., plans to release a dish--which will look like a large satellite TV receiver--that will use the sun's heat to generate electricity. The great majority of solar companies are racing to squeeze as much electricity as possible out of photovoltaic cells built from silicon or other materials. By contrast, Infinia's solar Stirling engine, which concentrates light from the parabolic dish, is a mechanical device, which the company claims can be more cost-effective than traditional solar panels. "This design means that we can make more electricity for about half the relative space as photovoltaics," said Jim Clyde, Infinia's vice president of sales and marketing. "It won't be half the cost when we first get going, but it will be for significantly less capital cost." Standard solar photovoltaic panels are generally 12 percent to 15 percent efficient at converting light to electricity, though some can go up to 22 percent. Infinia's planned 3-kilowatt Stirling engine will operate at 24 percent efficiency, Clyde said. Stirling engines were invented in the 19th century as an alternative to steam engines. A Stirling motor has a closed cylinder that houses a gas, such as hydrogen, and a piston. Applied heat expands the gas to move the piston that, in turn, pumps other mechanisms, such as a crank, to create energy. 10/26/06 - Warning over Crushed Pills Crushing pills to make them easier to swallow can cause serious side-effects that can sometimes be fatal, experts have warned. The group, including pharmacists and lawyers, says pills often have special coatings that affect how they are released into the body. It is estimated that 60% of older people have trouble swallowing medication. Previous research has shown 80% of nurses in care homes resort to crushing tablets to help residents take medicines. An estimated 75 million prescriptions a year are associated with adverse drug reactions. Drugs that should not be crushed include the breast cancer drug tamoxifen and morphine. Crushing tamoxifen could result in the person who is breaking up the tablet breathing in medication, which can be particularly dangerous if they are pregnant. Crushing morphine could lead to a fatally fast release of the drug. Nifedipine, the angina and blood pressure drug, can cause dizziness, headaches and an increased risk of stroke or heart attack when crushed up. In addition, special coatings can mean a drug is absorbed over a long period of time, so a patient only has to take a tablet once a day, rather than several times a day. If these medications are crushed, the drug is released a lot quicker than it is designed to be. 10/26/06 - HOWTO turn photos into Lichtensteins This simple, terrific tutorial explains how to photoshop any photo into a Roy Lichtenstein-style pop-art image. It looks like it would be readily adaptable to free Photoshop alternatives like The Gimp, too. 10/26/06 - Accountants patent tax-dodges US accountants are filing for patents on tax-dodges: Why would Congress pass a law allowing such a thing? The answer is that it did not. But a U.S. appeals court ruled in 1998 that business methods could be patented, and since then the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has issued 50 tax- strategy patents, with many more pending. 10/26/06 - Glowing LED light Nalgene bottle I've been playing with a demo unit of the Firefly, a battery-powered LED lid for a standard nalgene bottle that turns it into a glowing lantern. It's simple and reliable, and if you fill your bottle with water, it casts a soft, peaceful light. I hung it on my balcony and it looks great out there. / Nalgene = But the Nalgene bottle in particular has inspired a fanatical following, with cyber-disciples waxing aquatic about their "Nalge" on the Internet, "Nalgene bottle decorating" workshops at youth centers and kids who take the brand's unbreakable reputation as a dare. The 32-ounce gray widemouth with blue cap is the classic edition, but sizes now range from 16 to 48 ounces and, depending on the model, come in colors like sapphire blue, pretty pink and fire-engine red. 10/26/06 - Laptops, please: US law permits search, seizure at the border One of the more heated topics under discussion at a meeting of the Association of Corporate Travel Executives this week involves a little-known aspect of US border law. Snip from an article by Joe Sharkey in the New York Times: U.S. customs officials have the authority to scrutinize the contents of travelers' laptops and even confiscate them for a period of time, without giving a reason. Appeals are under way in some confiscation cases, but the law is clear. "They don't need probable cause to perform these searches under the current law," said Tim Kane, a Washington lawyer who is researching the matter for corporate clients. "They can do it without suspicion or without really revealing their motivations." What about encrypted drives and home folders (ie. TrueCrypt or FileVault on Mac). What happens to a citizen if they refuse to give up the password? Can they be arrested or legally barred from entering the U.S.? 10/26/06 - Microwave-oven gun for hacker fun A directed beam of microwave energy can destroy electronics by inducing high voltages in chips and wires. Such a beam could also burn a person's skin, or even detonate improvised explosive devices by exciting unstable chemicals. A megawatt magnetron is normally needed to make the beam, though, and these are big and expensive beasts that need water cooling. However, two inventors from Albuquerque, New Mexico in the US, reckon there is cheaper way to get the power. Simply gather together a stack of magnetrons ripped out of consumer microwave ovens, and lock their output together so that they combine into one coherent beam. What is more, they say, the trick can be done mechanically. Microwave magnetrons come with a tube-shaped component that controls the output signal. The idea is to arrange a dozen or so side by side and have a small metal plate in front that reflects some of the energy from each tube back into the mouth of adjacent ones. This should make all the magnetrons resonate in synchronisation, the inventors reckon. Three hundred consumer devices, rated at 1 kilowatt each, could combine to generate megawatt pulses from the back of a mobile generator. The only puzzle is why the US government Patent Office has published an application that might explain to anyone, including terrorists, how to build such a weapon. - United States Patent Application 20060208672 - Achenbach; Robert Parker - September 21, 2006 - High-power microwave system employing a phase-locked array of inexpensive commercial magnetrons 10/26/06 - Free Windows Defender - AntiSpyWare Hot on the heels of Internet Explorer 7 comes the final version of Windows Defender, the anti-spyware tool that's been in beta for nearly two years. Windows Defender, previously known as Windows AntiSpyware, offers real-time protection from spyware threats. The big news about the final release: It's still free, and Microsoft is even offering two free phone-support calls per user. 10/25/06 - DNA executing computer programs Scientists and Engineers from a private New Zealand research company have scored an international breakthrough by developing the ability to store and execute computer programmes within a microscopic DNA Pharmaceutical crystal. An entirely new form of Data Codon has been produced in this breakthrough which enables an ordinary laptop computer to generate data in a form that can be synthetically encoded into a DNA Tablet and perform high speed computing functions at a molecular~switch level, once digested or inserted into the living biological system. He says a huge advantage of the discovery is that ‘DNA computing’ can be used both with existing computing technology but more particularly open up the scientific frontier for revolutionary new Bio-technology and bio-computing capability, the implications of which are staggering. When the new DNA Tablet’s ability to encode and decode data to a DNA molecule is combined with the molecular potential processing capacity , it produces the ability to store unprecedented libraries of data , as well as process volumes of computing programs within an organic molecule. This company’s technology produces the potential for millions of coding instructions or logic gates to be contained within a DNA crystal only 20 nanometers in size. This would effectively create ‘Bio-computers’ with capacities and processing power exponentially greater than that presently achieved by current silicon technologies. 10/25/06 - Cure Finder Scientists are building a searchable database that reveals the hidden connections between drugs and diseases with the click of a mouse. It should make the search for cures, even for rare diseases, a much faster process. Scientists at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard hope a new tool called the "Connectivity Map" will make it much faster and simpler to find cures, even for rare diseases, by revealing the hidden connections between drugs and diseases almost instantaneously. A team led by Todd Golub and Justin Lamb created a searchable database of information from DNA chips, which monitor the activity of thousands of genes, revealing what genes are turned on or off by specific diseases and treatments, "thereby identifying a match between a signature of a disease and a signature of a drug," says Golub, director of the Broad Institute's cancer program and investigator at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. "In a similar way," he adds, "one might think about matching fingerprints in a database or doing, for example, a Google search." The team's pilot database included genetic profiles of 164 bioactive compounds, 50 of which were drugs already FDA-approved for human use. To generate the genetic signatures, human cells grown in the lab were individually exposed to the drug substances for a fixed period of time. The genetic material isolated from these exposed cells could then give a snapshot of the compound's effects on the cells' gene expression. To test whether the database would work correctly at all, the researchers created genetic signatures of disease states using the same method, including a form of childhood leukemia and prostate cancer. The map was able to correctly match the diseases with their existing treatments, and also predicted new potential treatments. 10/25/06 - Thanks for the Cheap Gas, Mr. Hitler! How Nazi Germany and apartheid South Africa perfected one of the world's most exciting new fuel sources. The circuitous travels of the Fischer-Tropsch process, a chemical technique to convert natural gas and coal into liquid fuels, provide an object lesson in historical irony. Used by the Nazis to make oil from coal during World War II, it was commercialized by the century's second-most-odious racial supremacist regime in the 1950s through South Africa's state energy company. Now, that privatized company, Sasol, may help liberate Western democracies (and non-Western ones, like India) from the grip of crude oil produced largely by loathsome authoritarian regimes. The process that Sasol uses to turn coal or natural gas into liquid fuels was first developed by two chemists working in Germany in the 1920s: Franz Fischer and Hans Tropsch. The two men died in the 1930s. But their invention was used by the Nazis to fuel the Wehrmacht and the Luftwaffe. After World War II, the vast oil fields of Arabia made it uneconomic for most free nations to pursue the technology. Transportation, which accounts for about 40 percent of the world's energy use, relies overwhelmingly on liquid fuels produced from oil. But oil supplies are (a) controlled by regimes that are politically unstable and frequently hostile to the United States and (b) in danger of depletion. Meanwhile, the world is blessed with vast reserves of natural gas and, particularly, coal, that reside under soil that is more congenial to democracy. The United States, for example, is the Saudi Arabia of coal, with 200-plus years of reserves. 10/25/06 - The power of the Future Gas turbine technology will further evolve with blade developments in aerodynamic design, cooling, anti-corrosion coatings and thermal barriers. Siemens points to its past record where the non-cooled blades of 1975 output 0.7MW per blade in a gas temperature of 900?C. Today, film-cooled blades output 2MW per blade in a gas temperature of 1400?. With the recent unveiling of Siemen's latest offerings, the future is here now with the development of the world's largest and most efficient gas turbines, the SGT5-8000H, with an output of 340MW; and the combined cycle SCC5-8000H with an output of 530MW. Siemens says this will make a major contribution to the responsible utilisation of increasingly scarce resources. The turbine’s technology increases the efficiency of combined gas and steam generation from 58 to 60 per cent. And Siemens Power Generation has just launched a gas turbine-based system to help destroy volatile organic compounds (VOCs). The innovative technology, called SGT-300 VOC, is based on a gas turbine, which ingests and destroys volatile organic compounds while simultaneously generating electricity and thermal energy for the facility in which it is installed. A heat-recovery steam generator can be used to capture the thermal energy and raise steam for use in the client's process or it can be used in a steam turbine to generate additional electricity. 10/25/06 - Aquatic car drives with 'oooomph' With its snazzy snout, convertible top, Corvette V8 engine and jet "impeller" -- the stainless-steel cone protruding from the rear that propels it through water -- the Hydra Spyder is poised to become the first, mass-produced amphibious automobile in America. "It's incredibly nimble in the water. The Spyder turns smoothly, docks easily," the 46-year-old inventor boasts. To switch the Hydra Spyder into "marine mode," the driver simply presses a button, which drops the clutch, disengages the road drive, shifts the transmission into aquatic duty, and retracts the wheels. The jet-drive kicks in then, allowing the Hydra Spyder to plane across water like a speedboat at greater than 50 mph. Oooomph does come at a cost: Base price is $155,000 -- to which can be added all kinds of extras, including heated seats ($1,000), a custom entertainment system for in-Spyder cinema ($5,000), Lamborghini door systems ($2,000), and teak interior trim ($1,500). 10/25/06 - Bioneers pioneer alternate energy Turbines can keep fuel bills down in remote villages hit hard by prices. Martina Dabo, the wind program manager for the Alaska Energy Authority, said the authority is working with communities to get wind turbines pumping in remote, off-the-grid parts of the state. "Wind is the fastest growing source of energy," Dabo said. Its time may have come. Energy costs are soaring and some Bush communities face unpayable fuel bills that threaten the survival of basic public services. Wind turbines could help. And, they don't contribute to global warming, she said. Alaska has a lot of wind, and that's a good start. But the biggest needs are in remote places, which makes construction a challenge. Huge pieces of equipment have to be flown to tiny, roadless villages. Sometimes bears attack and destroy equipment set up in their territory. Several communities already use local wind power systems -- sets of giant windmills that turn wind into electricity -- including Kotzebue, Kasigluk and Toksook Bay. The Alaska Energy Authority is working with other agencies toward establishing a wind farm on Fire Island near Anchorage. Using alternative energy makes people extremely conservative with energy use -- they don't leave lights on unless they're being used. Jessica Miller said her family was always watching the weather because they depended on it for electricity. And when the family system was still in its infancy, she learned to read by kerosene lamp. "Alternative energy is a great idea. I know it can work," she said. "It surprises me that more people don't try it." The costs of getting set up can be steep, but over the years, not having utility bills adds up to savings. A small turbine can cost from $3,000 to $35,000, according to a guide from the U.S. Department of Energy called "Small Wind Electric Systems." The length of time it takes to pay back that investment depends on a lot of factors. 10/25/06 - Fitzpatrick Articles website (If you have some time, definitely read some of these incredibly interesting files. - JWD) A totally fascinating series of articles written by Daniel Fitzpatrick and based on his Theory of Everything (TOE) according to Ampere's concepts. Ampere showed us how spacetime essentially works. But Ampere wasn't thinking about spacetime because he hadn't any idea way back then that space and time were essentially one thing. It took Minkowsky---one of Einstein's teachers---to realize this after he saw what Einstein had come up with. If we see each different frequency spin/orbit system as having a different spacetime realm then each of these also must have a distinctly different "spacetime interval". Saul Perlmutter's group studied the supernovas and found their expansion seems to be accelerating which has since been proven by others. Even though Saul Perlmutter discovered this acceleration, he also knew it could not be discerned from Einstein's original cosmological constant. Therefore he knew and published that this repulsive force equal and opposite to gravity---first predicted by Einstein---exists between every star, galaxy and supercluster keeping them apart exactly like things in the microcosm are kept apart. What Perlmutter has shown us is that gravity can no longer be seen as a monopole force. Gravity must now be seen as a bipolar force exactly like the other bipolar forces. What scientists presently see as the speed of light is something entirely different. It's something no one except Dr. Milo Wolff has thought of. It is really our spacetime frame rate. It's a scalar resonance rate. It's the movie picture frame rate that the electrons, that you are made of, are rebuilding themselves and you. You can detect transverse waves like light, radio and water waves that travel mainly in one plane but you cannot detect a scalar wave because it is 3D like the multiple skins of an onion. Instead of seeing individual scalar waves, you see the complete 3D onion that they make. Every object you see is a scalar wave entity. / These concepts are not new, for example, see the over 100 year old, highly prescient simplified version at Specific Speed as well as Phase Conjugation and A Practical Usage for Phase Conjugation by our late friend Peter Kelly. 10/25/06 - Small is Useless: Micro generation can’t solve climate change Renewable micro generation has been grossly overhyped. Those who maintain that our own homes can produce all the renewable electricity and heat they need have harmed the campaign to stop climate chaos, by sowing complacency and misdirecting our efforts. Bill Dunster, who designed the famous BedZed zero-carbon development outside London, published a brochure claiming that “up to half of your annual electric needs can be met by a near silent micro wind turbine.”...To provide the 50% Bill Dunster advertises, you would need a machine 4 metres in diameter. The lateral thrust it exerted would rip your house to bits. Similar constraints affect all micro renewables: a report by a team at Imperial College shows that if 50% of our homes were fitted with solar water heaters, they would produce 0.056 exajoules of heat, or 2.3% of our total demand; while AEA Technology suggests that domestic heat pumps could supply only 0.022 eJ of the UK’s current heat consumption, or under 1%. This doesn’t mean they are not worth installing, just that they can’t solve the problem by themselves. Far from shutting down the national grid, as the Green MEP Caroline Lucas has suggested, we should be greatly expanding it, in order to produce electricity where renewable energy is most abundant. This means, above all, a massive investment in offshore windfarms. A recent government report suggests there is a potential offshore wind resource off the coast of England and Wales of 3,200TWh. High voltage direct current cables, which lose much less electricity in transmission than an AC network, would allow us to make use of a larger area of the continental shelf than before. This means we can generate more electricity more reliably, avoid any visual impact from the land and keep out of the routes taken by migratory birds. Much bigger turbines would realise economies of scale hitherto unavailable. 10/25/06 - Scientists 'too quick' to judge outsiders Scientists may say they are dispassionate defenders of the unfettered pursuit of truth. But history suggests they are often guilty of being irrational and narrow-minded, says an Australian philosopher. Aberrant science can involve the use of methods or the arrival at conclusions the majority don't agree with and is often shunned as if it was fraudulent, he says. And yet, says Little, some aberrant science is by honest hardworking scientists who produce very important results. While fraud is clearly an undesirable form of aberrant science, Little says those whose only crime is to use unusual methods or reach unusual conclusions should not be treated with the same contempt. Instead, he says, they should be greeted with open-mindedness, a feature that is supposed to be the hallmark of good science. 10/25/06 - Ponds vanish; experts blame permafrost loss 4-YEAR STUDY: Fifty percent of ponds in subarctic boreal regions have disappeared in last 50 years. Global warming is causing permafrost to melt, allowing thousands of ponds to shrink across Alaska, according to a new study. The ponds are typically formed when depressions in the ground are filled with water that isn't able to drain, usually because of permafrost beneath the pond. The shrinking ponds could have several environmental impacts, including lowering the water table for migratory birds, which could affect their reproduction. The dryer landscape also could mean higher levels of carbon dioxide would be released into the atmosphere as the carbon stored in the usually wet Alaska soil decomposes as the soil dries, McGuire said. 10/25/06 - The Fall Elections - Follow the Dollars All across the political world, commentators and journalists have been remarking on the strong chance Democrats have to reclaim the House of Representatives and perhaps even the Senate from a beleaguered Republican party. For many in the media, a Democratic victory in the fall elections has become almost axiomatic, it would seem, but are Democrats counting their eggs before they've hatched? Barron's has conducted a study which ignores poll statistics, instead focusing on the funds raised by the candidates. Their analysis sees Republicans retaining control of both houses of the legislature, though with diminished majorities. Barron's insists that the method is reliable, even if it puts them at odds with the conventional pollster wisdom, and says that they have used it successfully in the past. Barron's argues that a "cash advantage has spelled victory about 89% of the time since 1996." 10/25/06 - Malicious Code is More Covert, Less Recognisable Websense Report Shows Malicious Code is More Covert, Less Recognisable and More Targeted Toward Financial Gain. Report reveals increase in malicious sites using code from easy-to-use toolkits designed for criminals with no hacking experience; 100% increase in websites designed to install keyloggers, screen scrapers and other forms of crimeware. Not only has malicious code become more sophisticated, but the infrastructure supporting its creation and spread has also become more complex. Of the sites designed to steal credentials, almost 15% are derived from toolkits, an emerging tactic from the hacker community. These kits, made by professional malicious code writers, are often for sale on the internet and allow non-sophisticated users to launch sophisticated attacks against operating system exploits and vulnerabilities. The criminal motive of attacks has also become more apparent as traditional hacking for fun has been replaced with activities designed to steal confidential data to reap financial rewards. The report notes a 100% increase in sites designed to install keyloggers, screen scrapers and other forms of crimeware. Conversely, Websense has seen more than a 60% drop in websites designed merely to change user preferences, such as browser settings. 10/25/06 - No Penalty Early Retirement? I heard on WTOP radio the following; "Using Rule 72T for early retirement. Quit your job. Roll your 401K over to an IRA, then ask the IRA for an 'Equal Substantial Distribution' which will result in no penalties." - (I don't know if this is true, but its worth checking out if you want to bale out of work earlier in life. - JWD) 10/25/06 - Daniel Cook 1871 US Patent 119825 - Free Energy? (Thanks to James Tabor for bringing this to our attention. - JWD) Regarding the 10/24/06 free energy circuit, James Tabor noticed a distinct similarity to an almost identical circuit patented in 1871. In the patent, Cook writes; "Improvement in Induction Coils - My invention relates to the combination of two or more simple or compound helices and iron cores or magnets in such a manner as to produce a constant electric current without the aid of a galvanic battery...The iron core A may be a solid bar or a bundle of iron wire...Helices alone with large quantities of wire will produce similar results...A ribbon spiral may be substituted for the secondary helix, say of three, six, twelve, or twenty-four inches in width and of any convenient length, but always of sufficient length to raise the tension of its terminal current to a degree necessary to reproduce itself by its action on the primary helix...In the use of compound helices it is important that the secondary coil should be wound on in the same direction as the primary coil, and that the secondary poles or wires should connect to the OPPOSITE poles of the primary coil B...The action will then be as follows; The terminal secondary current of the secondary helix C will circulate through the opposite primary coil B while at the same instant a terminal secondary current from the primary helix B will be developed and circulate through the opposite secondary helix C, both currents flowing in the same direction in the opposite helices B C, and produce a combined magnetic action upon the iron bar A in the center; the opposing intial secondary currents of the two helices B C being overpowered do not manifest themselves in the main circuit D of the battery, there being eight distinct currents developed in the action of one entire circuit of two pairs of helices, two terminal and two initial secondary currents to each pair of helices, the four initial secondaries constantly opposing the circulation of the four terminal secondary currents,; but the initial secondaries being of much lower tension and less in quantity than the terminal secondary are consumed or taken up by the terminal, leaving a sufficient surplus terminal to overcome the resistance of the primary wire and charge the bar A to a degree necessary to reproduce itself in an opposite secondary coil. By this means a constant current is kept up in the several helices...The mode of producing or starting the action in the helices consists in the use of a steel or electromagnet, or a helix, around one of the helices, and causing a secondary current in the enclosed helix by means of a battery current in the outer one; the action then in either the simple or compound helices increases in quantity to the maximum capacity of the wires to conduct with the existing tension of the current. If, now, the circuit is broken the current instantly ceases, and can only be restored by the same means that it was first produced; hence to alow the use of the main circuit for common purposes I introduce a rheostat or a resistance of any kind into the circuit, so that a small portion of the current only will flow along the resistance, by which means the action in the helices is feebly maintained when the main circuit is broken, and instantly restored when it is closed to its full force...The alternate changes of the iron cores or magnets may be used for producing electro-magnetic motion, or motion to a wheel of any suitable device..." 10/24/06 - Claim of Free Energy Circuit Click the above link at zpenergy.com to see an enlarged version of the circuit. As you can see in the small image, there are two circuits which serve as toroidal stepup transformers. It looks like when one transformer is triggered, part of the AC output is rectified, then directed to the input of the second circuit which in turn re-triggers the first circuit ad infinitum to produce a self-sustaining energy source. 10/24/06 - Spidrons produce Swirling Seas, Crystal Balls Spirals of triangles crinkle into intricate structures. A field of triangles crumples and twists into a wavy crystalline sea. A crystal ball sprouts spiraling, labyrinthine passages. Faceted bricks stack snugly into a tidy, compact structure. Underlying each of these objects is a remarkable geometric shape made up of a sequence of triangles-a spiral polygon that resembles a seahorse's tail. A standard spidron consists of two alternating, adjoining sequences of equilateral and isosceles triangles. Start with an equilateral triangle. Draw lines from the three corners of the triangle to a spot at its center, creating three identical isosceles triangles, each with angles of 30°, 120°, and 30°. Then, draw a reflection of one of these isosceles triangles so that it projects from the side of the original triangle. Next, make a new equilateral triangle, using one of the two short sides of the jutting isosceles triangle as a base. Repeat the procedure again and again, producing a spiraling sequence of ever-smaller triangles. Erase the original equilateral triangle, and join two of these structures along the long side of the largest isosceles triangle to create the s-shape of a spidron. Spidron reliefs could be used as shock absorbers or crumple zones in vehicles, Erdély says. Spidron surfaces could serve as flexible acoustic walls or solar panels. Spidron-based structures could also be used as blocks for builders-or construction toys. Pelletier is excited by the possibilities of what he describes as the "expanding spidron universe." For example, he, van Ballegooijen, Buhler Allen, and Erdély have this year come up with various novel types of tilings, reliefs, and space-filling units, including ones that don't have regularly repeating patterns. They've also used spidrons to construct many innovative three-dimensional forms-rings, nests, linkages, labyrinths, polyhedrons, and more. "We've increased what you can do with these things by an order of magnitude in just a few months," Pelletier says. / Spidron Page worth checking out. 10/24/06 - A Practical Fuel-Cell Power Plant GE's advance allows for a solid-oxide fuel cell to use coal-based fuels at costs approaching that of conventional power plants. researchers at GE have demonstrated a manufacturing method that assembles layers of ceramic and electrolyte materials cheaply so that the final product can be built for about $800 a kilowatt, which starts to approach the $500-to-$550-per-kilowatt cost of building a conventional gas-fired power plant. GE's six-kilowatt prototype achieves 49 percent efficiency in converting fuel into electricity, which compares favorably with the 35 percent efficiency of conventional coal-burning power plants. "I do believe GE has established a new state of the art," says Wayne Surdoval, technology manager for fuel cells at the National Energy Technology Laboratory, part of the U.S. Department of Energy, which is funding this project and others aimed at producing better solid-oxide fuel cells. "The bottom line," he adds, is that the GE prototype "is a particularly inexpensive fuel cell to make. Basically, you are using simple manufacturing techniques using fairly inexpensive materials in the cell." Surdoval likens the process to making pizza dough. Three sets of materials--representing the two electrodes and one electrolyte that make up each layer of a fuel cell--are mixed and put through two rollers that squeeze them. "You have three different doughs, you flatten each one, then layer them, then flatten them," he explains. "Then basically, you bake it." The process paves the way for mass manufacture, according to Kelley Fletcher, the advanced-technology leader for sustainable-energy programs at GE Global Research, in Niskayuna, NY. "People have made fuel cells that make more power, and people have also made ones that have done this efficiency level," he says. "But to do so in one package, and at the cost estimate that we have done, is the real achievement here." Previous prototypes have cost thousands of dollars per kilowatt to manufacture, he says. 10/24/06 - HIV Prefers Smokers An article in the journal Sexually Transmitted Infections suggests that smokers may be unwittingly modifying their immune systems, making them more vulnerable to infection by the HIV virus. Past studies have found that cigarette smoking is linked to a higher than normal chance of contracting other infections generally, including those that have been sexually transmitted. Out of six studies that assessed the association between cigarette smoking and becoming HIV positive, five found that smokers ran an increased risk of between 60 and 300 percent. The researchers speculate that tobacco smoke may enhance vulnerability to infection by modifying the structure of the lungs and changing an array of immune system responses, including curbs on the production of antibodies and the activity of infection fighting white cells. The authors suggest, perhaps not unsurprisingly, that encouraging people to give up smoking may also contribute to the effectiveness of HIV/AIDS prevention programs. 10/24/06 - Omnidirectional Robots Will Be “Dynamic And Graceful" A new type of robot - dubbed "Ballbot" - that balances and moves on a single large ball, rather than legs or wheels. Created by Carnegie robotics boffin Ralph Hollis, Ballbot is a self-contained, battery-operated, omnidirectional robot that balances dynamically on a single urethane-coated metal sphere. Ballbot weighs 95 pounds and is the approximate height and width of a person. Because of its long, thin shape and ability to maneuver in tight spaces, Hollis says Ballbot has the potential to function and interact with people much more effectively than other types of robot. Ballbot has an onboard computer that reads balance information from its internal sensors, activating rollers that mobilize the ball on which it moves - something akin to how a mouse-ball moves. Hollis believes Ballbot provides an alternative to not only multi-wheeled robots, but also legged robots, which he says are complex and expensive. Hollis and his team have demonstrated Ballbot moving on carpeted surfaces and future plans include adding a head and a pair of arms. Swinging the arms, said Hollis, would help to rotate and balance the body. "We want to make Ballbot much faster, more dynamic and graceful," he said. 10/24/06 - Two Dimensional Atomic Crystal Computers The discovery of a type of material that could lead to the development of faster, more powerful, atom-thick computers has earned a Briton one of the country's top physics prizes. The new category of material known as two-dimensional atomic crystals. The award honours physicists who have made a great contribution to science. That work made it possible to create a highly stable, flexible, strong and conductive substance called graphene. Composed of single layer of tightly packed carbon atoms arranged in a honeycomb-shaped crystal lattice, graphene is made by splitting graphite into one-atom-thick layers. The high conductivity and the fact that electrons - negatively charged subatomic particles - travel along the sheet in a manner that mimics the speed of light could lead to the development of molecule-sized computer components. 10/24/06 - The Secret of Crystal Units Eckhard Kantz wrote; "I confirm that I have received and thoroughly investigated best to my knowledge some multiple battery-like devices that deliver a continuous energy output without any energy input which would be visible to my (current) measurement equipment. The devices were provided by Marcus Reid, the developer and manufacturer of those units. I am an engineer for energy devices and had the pleasure to take over the task and responsibility for conducting all kinds of experiments on the received crystal units since August 2005 when I met Marcus Reid the first time." Recently a crystal unit running in continuous mode exceeded 3000 mAh electrical charge that was send through a 910 Ohm resistor. The achieved result outperforms the biggest available NiMH Akkumulator of baby cell size on the market which can deliver up to 2900 mAh. 10/24/06 - Fuel cell 'could slash bills' Electricity bills could be slashed by up to 40 per cent thanks to a new home generator the size of a CD. The mini domestic power station replaces the pilot light in an everyday boiler and can generate heat and electricity at a fraction of the cost of normal power. The super-green device will also more than double energy savings, its British developer, Ceres Power, claims. The generator can do all this mainly by using cheaper materials at more efficient temperatures. Instead of components put together with expensive platinum, the cells are made largely from stainless steel and ceramics, using fairly standard low-cost manufacturing techniques. Fuel and air create a chemical reaction at an optimum temperature of 550C, generating enough electricity in the average home to make power stations obsolete, the company claims. Conversion of domestic boilers is said to be straight-forward, and cost about GBP2,500 the same as a conventional premium boiler. Although natural gas and oil can be used to power the cells, other fuels, including hydrogen, can be used, producing water rather than carbon dioxide as a by-product. 10/24/06 - Billiard Transistors Blasts Single Electrons Through Circuits The "Ballistic Deflection Transistor" (BDT) works by bouncing individual electrons off deflectors, something akin to a game of billiards played at the atomic scale at unimaginable speeds. The Ballistic Deflection Transistor differs significantly in this functionality, as it works by bouncing the electrons into their chosen trajectories - using inertia to redirect for "free," instead of wrestling the electrons into place with brute energy. This means the BDT produces far less heat and runs far faster than standard transistors. The BDT resembles a roadway intersection, except in the middle of the intersection sits a triangular block. From the "south" an electron is fired, as it approaches the crossroads, it passes through an electrical field that pushes the electron slightly east or west. When the electron reaches the middle of the intersection, it "bounces" off one side of the triangle block and is deflected straight along either the east or west roads. In this way, if the electron current travels along the east road, it may be counted as a zero, and as a one if it travels down the west road. Diduck says a chip using BDTs would use very little power, create very little heat, be highly resistant to "noise" inherent in electronic systems, and should be easy to manufacture with current technologies. "We're talking about a chip speed measured in terahertz, a thousand times faster than today's desktop transistors" Diduck said. "We have to figure out how to test it because there's no such thing as a terahertz oscilloscope!" 10/24/06 - Battery developer claims hybrid car advance Technology Research Laboratories Inc. (TRL, Research Triangle Park, N.C.) claims its battery technology can extend the range of hybrid electric vehicles to 75 miles or better per charge. The company claims its battery operates on physical chemistry principles different from conventional lead-acid batteries, and is made almost entirely of carbon and plastic materials. The company said it is initially targeting the "plug-in" hybrid-electric car market which has so far failed to mesh gears due to unreliable and expensive power sources. Battery disposal also remains an issue. TRL claims its testing showed that a four-passenger electric car be powered by less than 1,000 pounds of its batteries and could travel up to 100 miles on a single charge "depending [on] speed and road conditions." Total usable energy is 25 kW/hour, TRL said. Battery life, weight and cost have combined with a lack of battery charging capacity to slow consumer acceptance of electric cars. TRL is claiming a weight power density for its battery technology of up to 80 W per pound with continuous use and up to 200 W per pound at peak use. 10/24/06 - Australians discover male fertility pill A tablet containing vitamins C and E, folate, zinc, lycopene and garlic oil has been found to help protect a man's sperm from damage caused by smoking and other infections. The study conducted in Australia found that the success of pregnancy doubled in the infertile couples who took the pill. University of Adelaide researcher Dr Kelton Tremellen, who conducted the study, says while infertility has often been seen as a women's issue, men's infertility accounts for more than 50 per cent of in-vitro fertilisation (IVF) treatments. 10/24/06 - Study turns off tap for 'fountain of youth' hormone The supplement DHEA is touted as a "fountain of youth" but it has no effect on muscle mass or strength, endurance or other markers of aging in elderly people, a new study finds. The body uses DHEA to make sex hormones. Based on limited human studies, DHEA is promoted as an anti-aging supplement, and high levels are linked with long life. Studies on rodents also suggest anti-aging effects, but since the animals make little DHEA they may not be a suitable research model. Nair's new, two-year study involved testing DHEA and testosterone supplements in 87 men and 57 women over the age of 60. Participants, who had low DHEA and testosterone levels when the study began, were randomly assigned to receive the supplements or a placebo. Although the treatments did raise hormone levels, "treatment with neither DHEA nor testosterone had any detectable effect on physical performance, insulin sensitivity, or the physical and mental components of the quality of life," the researchers said. 10/23/06 - Hack to automatically sequentially charge EV batteries The following pages describe using relays with a high-current adjustable 13.5/15V power supply to automatically charge EV batteries one at a time, instead of concurrently in series. It will only work if you are not in a hurry to charge your pack. The advantage is charging with a less expensive power source, in this case an SP-500-13.5 36A supply, which cost about $325 Canadian at the time. There is no reason you couldn't use a less expensive supply - or if you have some way to limit the charging current. The next most expensive piece is the 30A relays, which cost about $4 each. - "It uses a 4020 counter that's pulsed by my dear friend the 555 to activate a series of relay pairs to switch a single charger sequentially between battery cells. A more advanced version could use a microcontroller to monitor the state of each cell to ensure even charging." (via hackaday.com) 10/23/06 - Will Internet evolve to a cross between 1984 and the Matrix? The futurologist is only a step away from the cocktail-party doom-monger boring on about speed cameras, mobile-phone masts and shopping centres. The most contentious issue was privacy. The Pew researchers asked if greater transparency, aided by developments in surveillance, storage and communications technology, would make the world a better place. Just under half agreed, often with the proviso that privacy safeguards would be more needed than ever, because, as the Electronic Frontier Foundation Pioneer Award-winner Seth Finkelstein observed, "The difference between the open society and the police state is political, not technological." The other half had a far bleaker view. "The cost of unlimited transparency will not simply be privacy," wrote Marc Rotenberg of the Electronic Privacy Information Centre. "It will be autonomy, freedom and individuality." Other contentious scenarios imagined by Pew included a world where autonomous machines exert control over humanity, or where virtual reality becomes so compelling for a minority of users that they surrender reality to a perpetual Second Life. Paul Saffo of the Institute for the Future was with 42 per cent of respondents when he expressed the fear that "some time after 2020 our machin