Jerry Decker's Twitter Updates and breaking news

Check out these YouTube clips - Updated with 6 new Youtubes 01/24/09

1) - The Physics of Crystals 2) - History of the EV Gray Motor 3) - Browns Gas Water Torch Research and Applications 4) - Getting there and Saving on Gas Costs 5) - Shape Power and Gravity Resonance Phenomena 6) - The World of Free Energy 7) - The Dark Side of Amateur Science 8) - The Konehead Pulse Motor 9) - Aether, ZPE and Dielectric Nanostructure Arrays 10) - A Method of Stimulating Energy

03/15/10 - Adios Peter Graves!
Peter Graves, the tall, stalwart actor likely best known for his portrayal of Jim Phelps, leader of a gang of special agents who battled evil conspirators in the long-running television series "Mission: Impossible," died Sunday. Graves died of an apparent heart attack outside his Los Angeles home, publicist Sandy Brokaw said. He would have been 84 this week. Graves appeared in dozens of films and a handful of television shows in a career of nearly 60 years. The authority and trust he projected made him a favorite for commercials late in his life, and he was often encouraged to go into politics. "He had this statesmanlike quality," Brokaw said. "People were always encouraging him to run for office. But he said, 'I like acting. I like being around actors.'" Star of 'Mission Impossible', the show ran on CBS from 1967 to 1973 and was revived on ABC from 1988 to 1990 with Graves back as the only original cast member. The actor credited clever writing for the show's success. "It made you think a little bit and kept you on the edge of your seat because you never knew what was going to happen next," he once said. - Full Article Source

03/15/10 - New charging method could greatly reduce battery recharge time
Part of the headache of having to constantly recharge batteries is not just how often they need to be charged, but also the time it takes to charge them. In a new study, researchers have proposed a charging method that could greatly reduce the charging time of lithium-ion batteries, which are used in everything from electronic devices to electric vehicles. The new method uses an additional oscillating electric field (besides the charging field) that should be capable of charging a lithium-ion battery in a fraction of the time compared with traditional methods. In the charging process, lithium ions first diffuse within the battery’s electrolyte until they reach the graphite anode. At this interface, ions must overcome an energy barrier in order to be intercalated into the anode. In their simulations, Hamad and his team found that an additional oscillating electric field can lower this energy barrier, enabling lithium ions to intercalate more quickly into the anode. The oscillating field also increases the diffusion rate, which helps further reduce the overall charging time, albeit to a lesser extent. Specifically, when the scientists applied an oscillating square-wave field with a frequency of 25 GHz and an amplitude of 5 kCal/mol to the graphite sheets in the anode, the lithium ions intercalated into the graphite sheets within an average time of about 50 nanoseconds. By changing the amplitude of the oscillating wave, the researchers found that they could further improve charging time by lowering the energy barrier and speeding up intercalation. Their simulations showed that the dependence of the intercalation time on the amplitude is exponential, meaning that a small increase in amplitude leads to a large increase the intercalation speed, which offers the potential for very fast charging times. In the future, the researchers plan to further investigate the new method, including analyzing how changing the frequency of the oscillating field effects the charging time. They noted that the new method might provide an increase in battery power densities, as well. - Full Article Source

03/15/10 - The Story of Bottled Water
http://storyofbottledwater.org The Story of Bottled Water, releasing March 22, 2010, employs the Story of Stuff style to tell the story of manufactured demand—how you get Americans to buy more than half a billion bottles of water every week when it already flows from the tap. Over five minutes, the film explores the bottled water industrys attacks on tap water and its use of seductive, environmental-themed advertising to cover up the mountains of plastic waste it produces. The film concludes with a call to take back the tap, not only by making a personal commitment to avoid bottled water, but by supporting investments in clean, available tap water for all. - Full Article Source

03/15/10 - Scientist tests 'Goasis Waterboxx' water condenser
A Dutch scientist, author and major exporter of lilies and flower bulbs from Holland is bringing an innovative tree-growing approach to the harshest, most arid areas of the high and low deserts. Pieter Hoff's “Goasis Waterboxx” invention produces and captures water from the air through condensation and rain. He describes it as an “intelligent water incubator” that uses no energy, prevents water from evaporating from the soil and distributes water to saplings, seeds and, eventually, trees in small doses. Although the Waterboxx is a relatively simple-looking device that resembles a plastic, rectangular bucket and is about the size of a motorcycle tire, its inner technology is more complex and surrounds saplings or seeds that are planted in the soil and distributes water in small doses. Trees that get a head start and tend to survive in the toughest environment. The Waterboxx, which can be used up to 10 times and is built for less than $10 , also protects roots against sun, wind, weeds, rodents and some animals. Anyone interested in viewing animations about the science of growing trees or the Waterboxx can visit www.groasis.com/page/uk/animation.php. - Full Article Source

03/15/10 - Deering Man's New Invention In Wind Energy
It’s got a small front set of wings, three blades, that actually spiral. Dan Parker stands outside Blanchard Machine Development in Hillsboro. He’s holding onto a pole that’s attached to his new invention. Parker calls it the Spiralairfoil. You can see she’s very responsive to the wind, it will find the wind every time. The Spiralairfoil is a funnel-shaped wind turbine that’s six feet in diameter and 10 feet long. This prototype has plastic blades that spiral in the wind like a corkscrew. A lot of the wind spills over the front blades and then wraps back in and collapses into the back set of blades. As a result of the spiral, Parker says the contraption pivots itself into the wind like a weathervane. Parker has spent the last three years trying to perfect the turbine. He says they’ve tested different types of materials for the turbine’s blades-- from stainless steel to plastic. We’re looking into a carbon composite material which a lot of traditional three bladed windmills use a carbon composite material which is very rugged, we’re told that material can be colored so it can match a person’s house if they wanted it to.” But what makes this windmill different from much of the rest…it functions at a much lower wind speed. Parker says it starts up at just one point six miles an hour. “So we’re actually gaining power earlier than everybody else, so it will produce more power on a given day than anybody else’s wind turbine.” Squeezing more power from available wind is ideal for customers who may not live in extremely windy locations. - Full Article Source

03/15/10 - New use found for 'world's most useful tree'
A recipe for using "the world's most useful tree" to purify water is being offered for free download, in the hope that this will help get clean drinking water to billions of poor folk around the world. The tree in question is the Moringa oleifera ("oily moringa") aka the horseradish or drumstick tree (also "Mother's best friend" in some places). The Moringa is cultivated across the tropical world and furnishes food in the form of apparently highly nutritious* pods, leaves and flowers. It also yields oil which can be used as lighting or cooking fuel (or to make biogas). You can even make a highly effective crop fertiliser out of the miracle Moringa. Handily, the trusty tree is also drought resistant and tolerant of poor soil. But that's not all, it turns out. You can also use Moringa products to inexpensively purify dirty drinking water. “Moringa oleifera is a vegetable tree which is grown in Africa, Central and South America, the Indian subcontinent, and South East Asia. It could be considered to be one of the world’s most useful trees,” says Michael Lea, a Canadian water-purification researcher. “Perhaps most importantly, its seeds can be used to purify drinking water at virtually no cost.” The method in outline involves crushing the tree's seeds to powder and making a solution with this. When the solution is added to turbid, dirty water it causes the suspended gunge to rapidly stick together into bigger flecks and so sink rapidly. Almost all contamination is thus carried down quite quickly into a sludge at the bottom of the container, allowing nice clear water to be decanted or siphoned off from the top. The Moringa-seed technique, according to Lea, isn't foolproof - there are various bacteria and viruses which will not be affected by it. But it makes water much safer and more pleasant to drink, and Moringa treatment is hugely better than no treatment at all, which is the norm for far too many people. “This technique does not represent a total solution to the threat of waterborne disease," concedes Lea. "However, given that the cultivation and use of the Moringa tree can bring benefits in the shape of nutrition and income as well as of far purer water, there is the possibility that thousands of 21st century families could find themselves liberated from what should now be universally seen as 19th century causes of death and disease. According to Lea, despite the fact that Moringa is widespread in the very regions where bad water is a serious problem, the seed-paste purification method is little known. Thus his paper on just how to do it is being published for free online. Now all that's needed is for the knowledge of the recipe to spread. We don't suppose we have all that many readers in regions where it would be useful, but perhaps some of you can pass it on. ® * The leaves of the Moringa are said by some sources to be several times as rich in the relevant desirable vitamins and minerals as orange juice, bananas, carrots and milk. - Full Article Source

03/15/10 - Buy Older Leafy Greens to Get More Nutrients
There's an informal assumption that spinach and other leafy greens lose nutrients the longer they sit on grocery store shelves, and it's actually backwards. A plant physiologist in Texas says supermarket lighting actually boosts the vitamin content in your salad fixings. - Full Article Source

03/15/10 - Underground Lightning GPS
News has emerged of a secret US military programme intended to let troops navigate about inside huge underground enemy tunnel complexes by measuring energy pulses given off by lightning bolts. The project is known as "Sferics-Based Underground Geolocation", or S-BUG, and is focused on building "a mapping and navigation system that provides Global Positioning System (GPS) equivalent accuracy in underground environments". Not only does a deep tunnel complex shield an organisation from the prying orbital eyes, it is also good protection against a sudden bombing raid of the sort which destroyed Iraq's Osirak reactor in 1981 or smashed a possible nuclear facility of some kind in Syria during 2006. Thus the world's superweapon projects, secret bases, command and control HQs etc have tended to move underground more and more: and thus the US military/spook/special-ops community has tended to ponder subterranean operations more and more. DARPA boffins have noted that one of the few kinds of wireless signal which can penetrate underground is low-frequency radio. Unfortunately such signals are quite hard to generate at the required power levels. A network of lo-freq RF nav stations widespread enough to offer decent accuracy would probably be impossible to deploy. But the right kind of signals are generated naturally by lightning strikes, which cause the emission of "atmospheric" ("sferic" or "spheric") radio pulses. An underground receiver could perhaps be built capable of detecting sferics from lightning bolts hitting the surface hundreds of miles away. It could be informed of the positions of the strikes over LF comms by a single specialised surface base station, similarly far off, and thus calculate its own position from sferic data coming in from several directions. - Full Article Source

03/15/10 - Best Fluid Motion Pictures Named...
Fluid motion can move the observer even when static... Resembling a river valley seen from the air, this two-dimensional, computer-generated picture—one of the American Physical Society's best fluid-motion images of 2009—illustrates what's known as a von Kármán vortex street. Named after Hungarian aerodynamicist Theodore von Kármán, a vortex street occurs when an airstream flows around a body—in the above image, a hollow cylinder—and breaks behind it into a series of wakes and eddies. The purple-blue regions show where the resulting waves have met, and the red regions show where the airstream will split in the future, according to the winning team of scientists from the Zuse Institute in Berlin, Berlin Institute of Technology, and Northeastern University. - Full Article Source

03/15/10 - The One True Cause of All Disease
Alternative practitioners constantly claim that conventional medicine treats only symptoms while they treat underlying causes. They’ve got it backwards. Nope. Not true. Exactly backwards. Think about it: When you go to a doctor with a fever, does he just treat the symptom? No, he tries to figure out what’s causing the fever. If it’s pneumonia, he identifies which microbe is responsible and gives you the right drugs to treat that particular infection. If you have abdominal pain, does the doctor just give you narcotics to treat the symptom of pain? No, he tries to figure out what’s causing the pain. If he determines you have acute appendicitis, he operates to remove your appendix. I guess what they’re trying to say is that something must have been wrong in the first place to allow the disease to develop. But they don’t have any better insight into what that something might be than scientific medicine. All they have is wild, imaginative guesses. And they all disagree with one another. The chiropractor says that if your spine is in proper alignment, you can’t get sick. Acupuncturists talk about the proper flow of qi through the meridians. Energy medicine practitioners talk about disturbances in energy fields. Nutrition faddists claim that people who eat right won’t get sick. None of them can produce any evidence to support these claims. No alternative medicine has been scientifically shown to prevent disease or cure it. If it had, it would have been incorporated into conventional medicine and would no longer be “alternative.” Are these practitioners treating the underlying cause, or are they simply applying their one chosen tool to treat everything? - Full Article Source

03/15/10 - Wind resistance
MIT analysis suggests generating electricity from large-scale wind farms could influence climate — and not necessarily in the desired way. A new MIT analysis may serve to temper enthusiasm about wind power, at least at very large scales. Ron Prinn, TEPCO Professor of Atmospheric Science, and principal research scientist Chien Wang of the Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences, used a climate model to analyze the effects of millions of wind turbines that would need to be installed across vast stretches of land and ocean to generate wind power on a global scale. Such a massive deployment could indeed impact the climate, they found, though not necessarily with the desired outcome. In a paper published online Feb. 22 in Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, Wang and Prinn suggest that using wind turbines to meet 10 percent of global energy demand in 2100 could cause temperatures to rise by one degree Celsius in the regions on land where the wind farms are installed, including a smaller increase in areas beyond those regions. Their analysis indicates the opposite result for wind turbines installed in water: a drop in temperatures by one degree Celsius over those regions. The researchers also suggest that the intermittency of wind power could require significant and costly backup options, such as natural gas-fired power plants. Prinn cautioned against interpreting the study as an argument against wind power, urging that it be used to guide future research that explores the downsides of large-scale wind power before significant resources are invested to build vast wind farms. “We’re not pessimistic about wind,” he said. “We haven’t absolutely proven this effect, and we’d rather see that people do further research.” - Full Article Source

03/15/10 - Has Blogging Peaked? Twitter Is So Much Easier
First there were BBS's. They were supplanted by Internet message forums and newsgroups. Which where then done in by blogs. Which are now going the wayside as Twitter, Facebook take over. So, what's next? / There is increasing evidence that the art of blog writing is losing ground to even faster forms of communication, from 140-character Twitter blasts to one-sentence status updates on Facebook and MySpace. Nielsen Media Research estimates that of the 126 million blogs counted by its crawlers, the vast majority are rarely – if ever – updated. Many longtime bloggers say that the blog is entering a period of important transition – from one-size-fits-all soapbox to just one more tool in the cluttered Internet toolbox. Facebook and Twitter, and not the blog, are now "the glue that holds online communities together," says Dylan Wilbanks, a Web producer in Seattle. Gone are the days when Mr. Wilbanks would take to his blog to describe quotidian events or record passing fancies. "Sharing small pieces of data like links over blogs was like owning a heavy-duty pickup that you only used to pick up bread and milk at the grocery store," he says. "Blogs are meant for people for whom being a writer, being a creator, is a passion, or perhaps a requirement of life. They're meant for people for whom Facebook's 'What's on your mind?' question can't always be answered in 500 characters or less." As Wilbanks is quick to point out, not everyone has that passion, which is why blogging is losing its luster. ( via fark.com ) - Full Article Source

03/15/10 - The Marble Lifting Machine
This is a wooden marble machine. It is 6 feet tall, and is powered only by potential energy, a little kinetic energy and gravity. there are no motors, batteries or cranks. It uses a 3/8 inch diameter steel marble, which starts at the bottom, and goes to the top, and then returns to the bottom,making this trip about 1,300 times in 24 hours. - (This reminded me of Uncle's Perpetual Motion Toy except that with this machine, he has to preload some of the devices like cocking a spring, etc..so it's not self-running as the Uncle device was claimed to be. - JWD) - Full Article Source

03/15/10 - The Man Who Plucks All the Strings
String theory explains what you might see if you zoomed in without limit, past the cells that constitute your body, past the atoms that make up those cells, past even the electrons and gluons that those atoms are made of, all the way to the scale of a billionth of a trillionth of a trillionth of a centimeter. At that level, according to the theory, lies the foundation of all the particles and forces in the universe: one-dimensional strands of energy, or “strings,” vibrating in nine dimensions. That may seem wildly counterintuitive, but many scientists agree it is the most promising approach to explain the laws of physics. Columbia University physicist Brian Greene has become the public face of string theory. He has provided insight into the topology of those additional dimensions, and in 1999 he introduced the theory to nonscientists in a best-selling book, The Elegant Universe. As scientists we track down all promising leads, and there’s reason to suspect that our universe may be one of many—a single bubble in a huge bubble bath of other universes. And you can then imagine that maybe these different bubbles all have different shapes for their extra dimensions. This suggests a landscape of different universes with different forms of extra dimensions and therefore different properties within those universes. If that is true, our universe would be one of many, and then the question becomes why are we in this one and not in some other one. - Full Article Source

03/15/10 - Smart Windows: Good for Seeing Through, Generating Electricity Too
PV panels aren't exactly the most attractive of household additions, in their typical "we just bolted these suckers onto your shingles" installation (though they are much more visually attractive than the solar heating units the come with the ugly cylindrical water tanks on the top.) There are fresh re-inventions that are tackling this problem, like the neat PV solar roof tiles, but they're not universally suitable. Whereas every home has windows. And this fact has led Dutch company Peer+ to create Smart Energy Glass panels that generate current from the sun while also acting as like those old-fashioned devices that lets you see right through a wall. But that's not all. Similar to the other up-and-coming LCD glass treatments that let you blank a window at the flick of a switch (removing the need for curtains, blinds or shutters,) these smart windows also have selectable darkness. Darkest is the highest privacy mode, and thanks to a trick of the optics concerned, also leads to the most efficient power generation from solar input. And you can even choose between a range of shades for the glass and also incorporate logos or text into the panels, which will appeal to countless businesses. - Full Article Source

03/15/10 - Plastic solar cell a boon
A Université Laval discovery has led to the invention of a tiny plastic solar cell that will allow people to charge cellular phones as they sit in a bag, or to recharge a laptop from a sun umbrella. Leclerc discovered a family of plastics that can conduct energy. Konarka used that discovery to develop a plastic film that has the capability to capture outdoor and indoor light and convert it to energy. The technology is being evaluated by the U.S. army for lightweight and portable battery charging. It has also been incorporated into Neuber's Energy Sun-Bags, solar energy bags that can power cellphones, MP3 players and cameras. - Full Article Source

03/15/10 - Nokia Seeks Patent For Kinetic Battery Charger
Nokia's invention makes use of piezoelectric elements, which absorb energy as the device is moving around in a pocket or purse, and transforms it into electricity, the company said in an application filed to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. As electronic devices add ever more complex features they also require more energy, so extending the battery life is getting increasingly difficult, Nokia said in the patent application. The kinetic power generated by the new application will probably not be strong enough to charge a mobile phone on its own, according to Nokia spokesman Mark Durrant, but it could provide supplemental energy. The piezoelectric effect, by which certain materials when bent or compressed generate an electrical charge, is the same phenomenon that powers quartz watches. Still, Durrant said the patent application is a lengthy process. The patent application was filed back in August 2008, and it is still uncertain whether the invention will eventually end up on the market. It typically takes around six years from application date until a patent is granted by the U.S. authorities, he said. - Full Article Source

03/15/10 - How to Make a Lava Lamp the Easy Way
http://www.sciencebob.com has detailed instructions for making this easy lava lamp. Chances are you have almost everything that you need at home, so try it out and let us know how it goes. We used fizzing antacid tablets that go by the brand name alka-seltzer here in the US. I'm not sure what they may be called in other countries. Have fun! - Full Article Source

03/15/10 - JPL Background Check Case Reaches Supreme Court
"A long-running legal battle between the United States government and a group of 29 scientists and engineers of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California, has now reached the US Supreme Court." At issue: mandatory background checks for scientists and engineers working at JPL, which they allege includes snooping into their sexual orientation, as well as their mental and physical health. - Full Article Source

03/15/10 - Les Aventures Extraordinaires d'Adele Blanc-Sec
Avatar, Alice in Wonderland, now this! - Full Article Source

03/15/10 - Why Are Digital Hearing Aids So Expensive?
"Over the last couple of years I've been slowly getting deaf. Too much loud rock and roll I suppose. After flubbing a couple of job interviews because I couldn't understand my inquisitors, I had a hearing test which confirmed what I already knew: I'm deaf. So I tried on a set of behind-the-ear hearing aids. Wow, my keyboard makes clacks as I type and my wife doesn't mumble to herself. Then I asked how much: $3,700 for the pair. Hey, I'm unemployed. The cheapest digital hearing aids they had were $1,200 each. If you look at the specs they are not very impressive. A digital hearing aid has a low-power A-to-D converter. Output consists of D-to-A conversion with volume passing through an equalizer that inversely matches your hearing loss. Most hearing loss, mine included, is frequency dependent, so an equalizer does wonders. The 'cheap' hearing aids had only four channels while the high-end one had twelve. My 1970 amplifier had more than that. I suppose they have some kind of noise reduction circuitry, too, but that's pretty much it. So my question is this: when I can get a very good netbook computer for under $400 why do I need to pay $1,200 per ear for a hearing aid? Alternatives would be welcome." - Full Article Source

03/15/10 - $79.90 Songbird Hearing Aid lasts 6 Months
The doctor-recommended Songbird flexfit™ is the world's first digital disposable hearing aid for people with mild to moderate hearing loss; especially those who feel they may not need hearing help all the time. Use it at meetings, when watching TV - or anytime you want to hear better. Conversations will be easier. You'll notice the difference, and others will too. Songbird is an affordable and hassle-free way of receiving outstanding digital sound without having to pay the high costs of traditional hearing aids and their maintenance. With a built-in battery that lasts up to 400 hours of active use (or up to 6 months, depending on usage patterns), Songbird eliminates the hassles of battery replacements and professional cleanings. Once the battery runs out, simply discard and begin using a fresh new flexfit™. Songbird is truly Better Hearing Made Easy

03/15/10 - Morons with Signs
Why? Dissent is the highest form of patriotism. I believe in this whole-heartedly. And I appreciate anyone who has the gumption to protest despite their handicapped abilities to articulate what they oppose. Their right, and ours, to a freedom of speech is something few in this world can savor. Another right we should not forget to savor, though, is the right to mock them. Some of these signs have been floating around the internet for a while and could be called classics, others are new. They just needed to be collected in one place. Please enjoy, and share it with your friends. - (I'd think if you have a point to make and take the time to create a sign, you'd at the very least make sure the spelling was accurate. - JWD) - Full Article Source

03/15/10 - Former Astronauts Call Obama NASA Plans "Catastrophic"
"Talking to the BBC at a private function held at the Royal Society in London, former astronauts Jim Lovell and Eugene Cernan both spoke out about Obama's decision to postpone further moon missions. Lovell claimed that 'it will have catastrophic consequences in our ability to explore space and the spin-offs we get from space technology,' while Cernan noted he was 'disappointed' to have been the last person to land on the moon. Said Cernan: 'I think America has a responsibility to maintain its leadership in technology and its moral leadership ... to seek knowledge. Curiosity's the essence of human existence.' Neil Armstrong, who was also at the event, avoided commenting on the subject." - Full Article Source

03/15/10 - Air Force Spaceplane Readying For Launch
"The US Air Force is currently preparing for the launch of the secretive X-37B OTV-1 (Orbital Test Vehicle 1) spaceplane, which was transferred from NASA to DARPA back in 2004 when NASA opted to focus its budget on lunar exploration. The reusable unmanned spaceplane is set to launch in April on top of a commercial Atlas V rocket, orbit for up to 270 days while testing a number of new technologies, reenter the atmosphere, then land on auto-pilot in California." - Full Article Source

03/15/10 - What is Wrong with Israel?
One thing is claiming to be the victim all the time, over centuries. Another is acting in the same way, or worse, as those that are criticized for treating Jews badly. Those nations which do not behave as members of the international community, logically, should forfeit their rights to membership, just like a member of a sports club is banned if (s)he does not pay the fees or breaks the rules. So why is Israel always playing the victim card, when it violates international law? And if Israel accepts the notion “an eye for an eye” then it cannot complain when inevitably the type of violations it commits daily go full cycle and are visited upon Tel Aviv. Can it? - Full Article Source

03/15/10 - Classmates.com Settles Lawsuit Over Phony Friends
"Techflash reports that Classmates.com has agreed to pay up to $9.5 million to its users to settle a lawsuit that accused the social network of sending deceptive emails that made people believe their old friends from high school were reaching out to connect — only to discover, after paying for a membership, that their long-lost buddies were nowhere to be found. Lawyers for the plaintiffs asserted that Classmates had 'profited tremendously from their false or deceptive e-mail subject lines and related marketing tactics.' Under terms of the proposed settlement, Classmates.com members who upgraded to premium memberships after receiving one of the 'guestbook' emails will be able to choose either a $3 cash payout or a $2 credit toward the future purchase or renewal of a Classmates.com membership. Classmates.com is also among companies that have come under scrutiny for their use of 'post-transaction marketing' tactics — in which customers are given additional offers as part of the online payment process, sometimes in such a way that they aren't aware they're also signing up to pay more. A November 2009 US Senate Committee report said Classmates made more than $70 million through its relationship with post-transaction marketing firms. The Classmates Media unit posted $58.8 million in operating profit for 2009, up more than 24 percent from the previous year, making Classmates 'the most profitable social network in the world,' according to CEO Mark Goldston." - Full Article Source

03/15/10 - the Get Some Scam
If you have delicate sensibilities, you don't want to follow this link. It happened to me yesterday and I found it so outrageous and funny that I just had to post it on my Hellboxer blog. - Full Article Source

03/12/10 - A Sign of the Times

03/12/10 - Nanotube cuff is 'solar cell' for exhaust pipes
The hot gases passing through a vehicle's exhaust could be tapped to generate power, using "cuffs" made from a new carbon-nanotube-based material. The "thermocell" produces electricity at a similar cost per watt as commercial solar cells. The basic design is simple. Each thermocell contains two electrodes, positioned at either end of a temperature gradient: for example, one right next to a hot pipe and the other closer to the surrounding cooler air. In between is a chemical mix, in which the heat encourages chemical reactions that push electrons around an external circuit. Ions in the mix shed electrons at the hotter electrode and pick up electrons at the cooler one to complete the circuit. One of the team's thermocell designs is intended to be wrapped around a hot pipe, inspired by the fact that heat leaks out from such structures in many situations, such as chemical factories and power plants. "You could harvest energy from the tailpipe of a car," adds Baughman. The "hot" electrode wrapped around the pipe is surrounded by a heat-resistant layer, which is itself encased in a 'cold' electrode. An aqueous solution can move through pores in the heat-resistant layer, allowing ions to circulate between the reactions at the two electrodes. In tests, a prototype thermocell functioned well for 90 days. With an electrode temperature difference of 60 °C it produced energy for $5.14 per watt based on materials costs for the prototype – comparable with that of mass-produced silicon solar cells. - Full Article Source

03/12/10 - Propeller-Drive CAR has VANE Control (Sep, 1931)
CARRYING the development of air driven automobiles a step farther, Emil Sohn, a Berlin aviation engineer, has invented a motor car that secures high flexibility of control from power of an airplane motor and twin propellers located in the rear, in the position of the rumble seat. The propellers are mounted horizontally, the windstream being directed by means of adjustable vanes like the blades of a steam turbine. The powerful windstream tends to push the car forward at a tremendous speed when the vanes are set for “forward,” that is, slanting toward the rear. To go in reverse, the vanes are slanted forward, so that wind-stream pushes the car backward. Chief among the advantages offered by this method of propulsion are: utmost economy; the ability to climb steep mountain grades; smooth passage over roughest of roads; and the elimination of all danger of skidding on wet or icy streets, due to downward pressure on wheels exerted by upward windstream. - (Now this is a simple yet fascinating ducted fan method of propulsion. Imagine this with a jet engine. - JWD) - Full Article Source

03/12/10 - Twice-Monthly Half Mortgage Payments Might Save You Money
Some financial planners advise making two half payments on your mortgage each month instead of one full sum. The idea is that homeowners will save thousands of dollars over the years in interest payments. Does this idea hold water? Finance blog The Simple Dollar posits that, assuming your lender allows you to split your monthly payment without penalty, the plan just might work. Your next job, then, is to find out when your interest gets compounded. If it's only monthly, then half-mortgage payments won't do a thing. If, however, your interest compounds based on the average monthly balance, paying it down partially mid-month will end up saving you money over time. ... A superior method of doing this would be to simply make a payment equal to half of the amount of the monthly mortgage bill every two weeks. Over the course of a year, this adds up to one extra full payment: since there are fifty two weeks in a year, you'd make 26 half payments, and thus 13 full payments. - Full Article Source

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

03/12/10 - Cellphone Popcorn Trick again and debunked
WARNING: DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME. THIS IS VERY DANGEROUS. I AM NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY INJURIES CAUSED BY THIS EXPERIMENT. =] - Full Article Source

03/12/10 - Unbelievable - ATV Lake Skimming - 400 feet, doesn't sink!
Danny skims his Raptor 700R 400 feet with ease! Water is about 15-20' deep. He's Able to do this because he has paddle tires on the rear, additionally he's running low pressure in the stock fronts. No paddle tires in the back and high pressure in the front = bad things. / Walking on Water - "Although molecules in a liquid are electrically neutral in nature, there are often small attractive forces between them. These attractive forces (called Van der Waals forces) are caused by the asymmetrical charge distribution inside the molecules. Within a body of a liquid, a molecule will not experience a net force because the forces by the neighboring molecules all cancel out. However for a molecule on the surface of the liquid, there will be a net inward force since there will be no attractive force acting from above the molecule. This inward net force causes the molecules on the surface to contract and to resist being stretched or broken. Thus the surface is under tension and has Surface tension. Due to the surface tension, small objects will "float" on the surface of a fluid. When an object is on the surface of the fluid, the surface under tension will behave like an elastic membrane. There will be a small depression on the surface of the water. The vertical components of the forces by the molecules on the object will balance out the weight of the object." - (Thanks to Jerry Draughon for the headsup. - JWD) - Full Article Source

03/12/10 - 5 Creepy Ways Video Games Are Trying to Get You Addicted
So, the headlines say somebody else has died due to video game addiction. Yes, it's Korea again. What the hell? Look, I'm not saying video games are heroin. I totally get that the victims had other things going on in their lives. But, half of you reading this know a World of Warcraft addict and experts say video game addiction is a thing. So here's the big question: Are some games intentionally designed to keep you compulsively playing, even when you're not enjoying it? Oh, hell yes. And their methods are downright creepy. / #5 Putting you in the Skinner Box / #4 Creating Virtual Food Pellets For You To Eat / #3 Making You Press the Lever / #2 Keeping You Pressing It... Forever / #1 Getting You To Call the Skinner Box Home - The danger lies in the fact that these games have become so incredibly efficient at delivering the sense of accomplishment that people used to get from their education or career. We're not saying gaming will ruin the world, or that gaming addiction will be a scourge on youth the way crack ruined the inner cities in the 90s. But we may wind up with a generation of dudes working at Starbucks when they had the brains and talent for so much more. They're dissatisfied with their lives because they wasted their 20s playing video games, and will escape their dissatisfaction by playing more video games. Rinse, repeat. And let's face it; if you think WoW is addictive, wait until you see the games they're making 10 years from now. They're only getting better at what they do. - Full Article Source

03/12/10 - Is the Web Making Us Passive?
Popular culture expert Adam Hanft - CEO of the branding firm Hanft Projects, co-author of The Dictionary of the Future: The Words, Terms and Trends That Define the Way We'll Live, Work and Talk, who blogs for the Huffington Post and FastCompany and has appeared on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart - recently said: Even during the most heightened emotional outbursts, when people were mad over the bonuses being given to Wall Street, the people haven't reacted. I wonder if with the Internet, we're given the ability to vent and rant, and that releases everyone's energy, and then people keep doing what they're doing anyway. It seems like a curious psychological phenomenon. While the web is spreading long-buried truths for millions to see, it also may be bleeding off the energy we need to do something about the truth we've learned. Indeed, the passivity-inducing potential of the Internet will probably increase in the future. - Full Article Source

03/12/10 - The green revolution sweeps into the bathroom
Environmentally-friendly "NoMix" toilets that separate urine and faeces could help to reduce pollution and save water. And support is growing for the adoption of the techno-toilets, CNET reports. NoMix toilets collect urine at the front and faeces at the back. Separating urine before it reaches sewage treatment plants could reduce the amount of nitrogen and phosphorus nutrients entering rivers and triggering algal blooms, according to a paper in Environmental Science and Technology. The collected urine could also be recycled as agricultural fertiliser, conserving water. Researchers at the Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology reviewed surveys of 2700 people across Europe, and found 80 per cent supported the idea of the toilets. What's more, three-quarters of those surveyed said they found the comfort, smell and cleanliness of the new loos equalled that of conventional toilets. - Full Article Source

03/12/10 - Energizer USB battery charger contains backdoor?
The United States Computer Emergency Response Team (US-CERT) has warned that the software included in the Energizer DUO USB battery charger contains a backdoor that allows unauthorized remote system access. When the Energizer UsbCharger software executes, it utilizes the UsbCharger.dll component for providing USB communication capabilities. UsbCharger.dll executes Arucer.dll via the Windows rundll32.exe mechanism, and it also configures Arucer.dll to execute automatically when Windows starts by creating an entry in the HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run registry key. US-CERT said that Arucer.dll is a backdoor that allows unauthorized remote system access via accepting connections on 7777/tcp. Here’s the major risk: An attacker is able to remotely control a system, including the ability to list directories, send and receive files, and execute programs. The backdoor operates with the privileges of the logged-on user. Anti-malware researchers at Symantec have posed a detailed write-up of the Trojan discovery. - (Why the heck do we need a simple battery charger to be connected to a computer??? - JWD) - Full Article Source

03/12/10 - Hate Paying for Cable? Here’s Why.
Love grousing about cable TV? Then I’ve got a list for you. It comes from industry analyst SNL Kagan, and I came across it via a research note Barclays Capital’s Anthony DiClemente sent out last week. DiClemente was arguing that the bundled approach to cable TV–whereby subscribers get dozens or even hundreds of channels for one big fee, no matter how many networks they actually watch–wasn’t going anywhere for quite some time. If ever. But if you’re the kind of person who thinks we’re headed for an a la carte model in which programmers compete directly for consumer dollars, you can use this as fodder for your argument. Because you can see just how much you’re paying for stuff you don’t want.

Obviously these are wholesale prices, not retail. But this gives you a very good idea of where the money goes–to a lot of channels you likely never, ever, look at. - (And while we are at it, NO COMMERCIALS, we are already paying for the cable service...jerks! - JWD) - Full Article Source

03/12/10 - Oxygen may lead to lighter Hangovers
Oxygen, it would seem, has an effect on the severity of hangovers. On March 1, a new study was published in Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research, an academic journal, and researchers concluded that "enhanced dissolved oxygen concentrations in alcohol may reduce alcohol-related side effects." Researchers at Chungnam National University in South Korea found that when healthy subjects drank "elevated dissolved oxygen concentrations in alcoholic drinks," the metabolism and elimination of alcohol increased faster (30 minutes) than without the oxygenation. I had heard that pure oxygen breathed through a respirator is an amazing hangover cure. Here's proof... / It's unclear how oxygen-infused cocktails will be concocted, though one possibility may be that machines to oxygenate water will be used to transform well drinks into wellbeing drinks. Koreans may have figured it out with O2 Linn, a new oxygenated soju (traditional distilled alcohol beverage usually from rice or sweet potato) drink that will still get you drunk (if that's what you want) minus the hangover. The company claims O2 Linn will "help clarify your brain, energize your body cells and maintain healthy and resilient skin." The campaign is "O2 Linn for 3B (body, beauty, brain) and has above 22ppm of oxygen in each bottle touting an "exceptionally large amount of oxygen is dissolved in O2 Linn than any other liquor or soju." - Full Article Source

03/12/10 - Vertical Prison Concept Hides Prisoners Up In the Sky
Alcatraz was designed to be impossible to escape from by being out on an island in San Francisco Bay. And this vertical prison concept has the same idea: if you want to escape, it's a long way down. It would use "pods" to transport people and equipment up to the top levels where everyone is, which is fun. And really, even if this just stays a concept, it might just inspire some filmmakers to include it in a sci-fi movie, which is almost better than it becoming a real prison. / Rehabilitation essentially involves both the offenders and community. to achieve this, we propose a prison where the criminals are taken off the street to a place within that community and while serving their sentences, they continuously contribute to that particular community yet remain separated; a vertical prison. Design to separate – a prison without wall the purpose of a prison is to isolate the inmates from society and a prison needs a barrier to do so. A vertical prison does so without a wall, instead it isolates the inmates through height, where jumping off the prison is the only option. - Full Article Source

03/12/10 - As suspected, some Toyota acceleration cases have ulterior motives
Jalopnik reports that "James Sikes, the San Diego runaway Toyota Prius driver, filed for bankruptcy in 2008 and now has over $700,000 in debt. According to one anonymous tipster, we're also told he hasn't been making payments on his Prius." So was his story a fake? (props to boingboing.com) - Full Article Source

KeelyNet BBS Files w/bonus PDF of 'Keely and his Discoveries'
Finally, I've gotten around to compiling all the files (almost 1,000 - about 20MB and lots of work doing it) from the original KeelyNet BBS into a form you can easily navigate and read using your browser, ideally Firefox but it does work with IE. Most of these files are extremely targeted, interesting and informative, I had forgotten just how much but now you can have the complete organized, categorized set, not just sprinklings from around the web. They will keep you reading for weeks if not longer and give you clues and insights into many subjects and new ideas for investigation and research. IN ADDITION, I am including as a bonus gift, the book (in PDF form) that started it all for me, 'Keely and his Discoveries - Aerial Navigation' which includes the analysis of Keely's discoveries by Dr. Daniel G. Brinton. This 407 page eBook alone is worth the price of the KeelyNet BBS CD but it will give you some degree of understanding about what all Keely accomplished which is just now being rediscovered, but of course, without recognizing Keely as the original discoverer. Chapters include; Vibratory Sympathetic and Polar Flows, Vibratory Physics, Latent Force in Interstitial Spaces and much more. To give some idea of how Keely's discoveries are being slowly rediscovered in modern times, check out this Keely History. These two excellent bodies of information will be sent to you on CD. If alternative science intrigues and fascinates you, this CD is what you've been looking for... - Full Article Source

03/12/10 - New Fuel Injection System gets 64mpg
A California-based company called Transonic claims that its fuel injection system increases fuel efficiency by 75% while cutting emissions in half. No electric motors, no gimmicks… just a supercritical injection process. / Transonic Combustion successfully tested a new fuel injection system that gets 64 miles per gallon of regular gas during highway driving in a car weighing similar to a Toyota Prius. For comparison, the Prius is currently the most fuel-efficient car at 48 mpg highway. In your face, hybridouche. By heating and pressurizing gasoline before injecting it into the combustion chamber places it into a supercritical state that allows for very fast and clean combustion. This in turn decreases the amount of fuel needed to run the vehicle. The gasoline is also treated with a catalyst to further enhance combustion. Unless that catalyst is something cheap that can be dumped right into the tank, that’s a problem. You can’t get “gasoline plus catalytic unicorn essence” at a regular pump. Not until I get my gas station and unicorn farm franchises up and running anyway. Dream the dream, people. / TSCiTM Fuel Injection achieves lean combustion and super efficiency by running gasoline, diesel, and advanced bio-renewable fuels on modern diesel engine architectures. Supercritical fluids have unusual physical properties that Transonic is harnessing for internal combustion engine efficiency. Supercritical fuel injection facilitates short ignition delay and fast combustion, precisely controls the combustion that minimizes crevice burn and partial combustion near the cylinder walls, and prevents droplet diffusion burn. Our engine control software facilitates extremely fast combustion, enabled by advanced microprocessing technology. Our injection system can also be supplemented by advanced thermal management, exhaust gas recovery, electronic valves, and advanced combustion chamber geometries. Our fuel system efficiently supports engine operation over the full range of conditions – from stoichiometric air-to-fuel ratios at full power to lean 80:1 air-to-fuel ratios at cruise, with engine-out NOx at just 50% of comparable standard engines. Our real-time programmable control of combustion heat release results in dramatically increased efficiency. Thus far 3 patents (#7444230, #7546826, #7657363) have been issued to Transonic from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office related to our technology, with another 14 patents pending. - Full Article Source

03/12/10 - Climategate: 3 of 4 Temperature Datasets Now Irrevocably Tainted
The warmist response to Climategate — the discovery of the thoroughly corrupt practices of the Climate Research Unit (CRU) — was that the tainted CRU dataset was just one of four independent data sets. You know. So really there’s no big deal. Thanks to a FOIA request, the document production of which I am presently plowing through — and before that, thanks to the great work of Steve McIntyre, and particularly in their recent, comprehensive work, Joseph D’Aleo and Anthony Watts — we know that NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) passed no one’s test for credibility. Not even NASA’s. In fact, CRU’s former head, Phil Jones, even told his buddies that while people may think his dataset — which required all of those “fudge factors” (their words) — is troubled, “GISS is inferior” to CRU. Really. NASA’s temperature data is so woeful that James Hansen’s colleague Reto Ruedy told the USA Today weather editor: “My recommendation to you is to continue using … CRU data for the global mean [temperatures]. … “What we do is accurate enough” — left unspoken: for government work — “[but] we have no intention to compete with either of the other two organizations in what they do best.” To reiterate, NASA’s temperature data is worse than the Climategate temperature data. According to NASA. - Full Article Source

03/12/10 - Magnet Skills
Zen Magnets are small but curiously strong rare earth super-magnets, 5mm in diameter. How powerful? 8 Times more powerful than the ceramic magnets driving your speakers. 30 Times more powerful than the average fridge magnet. Pull them into a chain, fold them into a fabric, and meld them into limitless shapes: both abstract and geometric, flat or 3D. Use them when you need to massage your mind, practice your patience, relieve some boredom or alleviate some stress. - Full Article Source

03/12/10 - How obscure security makes school suck
DrJohn2005 Recently out of Virginia's public school system, youngster James Stephenson writes in to say that being a kid sucks. So what's new? A gauntlet of cameras, invasive searches and authoritarian security theatrics that don't make schools feel safer—but do tempt administrators into privacy abuses such as Lower Merion's recent webcam-spying scandal. Special feature: "Seen Not Heard: How obscure security makes school suck." - Full Article Source

03/12/10 - Water-Scraper: Underwater Architecture
To create the more resilient cities of tomorrow turn sky scraper designs upside down and float them in the sea. The hO2 scraper proposes to break free of the urban fabric and functions as self-sufficient ambassadors in the sea. The hO2 scraper is an autonomous floating unit of livable, functional and self sustaining space which will function, in a collective manner, as a floating city. It is self sufficient as it generates its own power through wave, wind, current, solar, bio etc. and it generates its own food through farming, aquaculture, hydroponics etc. / The hO2+ scraper proposes to break free of the urban fabric and functions as self-sufficient ambassadors in the sea. The hO2+ scraper is an autonomous floating unit of livable, functional and self sustaining space which will function, in a collective manner, as a floating city. It is self sufficient as it generates its own power through wave, wind, current, solar, bio etc. and it generates its own food through farming, aquaculture, hydroponics etc. It carries with its own small forest on top its back and supports places for users to live and works in its depths. Its bioluminescent tentacles provide sea fauna a place to live and congregate while collecting energy through its kinetic movements. Such sustainability strategies aim to ultimately create and provide an oasis with ‘Zero’ negative impacts to the environment, not only that but also improves on it hence the ’Plus’. Aptly as poetic antithesis to a skyscraper which goes up into the heavens the hO2+ scraper goes down to the depths of the sea. The main components of the programme for the hO2+ scraper consist of resource generation (i.e. power, food, air etc), living, work, play, waste treatment and maintenance. The programme is spread evenly in accordance to the proximity of any specific required external resource i.e. the wind generators are placed of the roof garden island, the livestock farming component is also placed there, the living areas are placed just below sea level where the natural light is the best etc. The building itself is kept upright using a system of ballast and balancing tanks. The tentacles also serve as balancing elements as they, in generating their power, are constantly moving with the rhythm of the tide. The buoyancy and ballast controls are placed at the lowest portions to create the proper counterforce for keeping the building upright. - Full Article Source

03/12/10 - Ranking the Countries - Where best to live for you?
If life in your nation becomes untenable, how do you find the best alternative? One of the best tools available for evaluating nation states is the Heritage Foundation's Annual Index of Economic Freedom. The Foundation assigns a 1 to 10 score for each of ten criteria (Business Freedom, Trade Freedom, Fiscal Freedom, Government Spending, Monetary Freedom, Investment Freedom, Financial Freedom, Property rights, Freedom from Corruption, and Labor Freedom). Then the ten scores are totaled to obtain an overall rating for each of the world's nations. Other resources are the International Living Quality of Life, Doing Business Rankings and American University's Country Ranking Guide. - Full Article Source

03/12/10 - Sweet, Sour, Salty, Bitter, Protein ... and Now Fat
"The human tongue can taste more than sweet, sour, salty, bitter and protein. Researchers have added fat to that list. Dr. Russell Keast, an exercise and nutrition sciences professor at Deakin University in Melbourne, told Slashfood, 'This makes logical sense. We have sweet to identify carbohydrate/sugars, and umami to identify protein/amino acids, so we could expect a taste to identify the other macronutrient: fat.' In the Deakin study, which appears in the latest issue of the British Journal of Nutrition, Dr. Keast and his team gave a group of 33 people fatty acids found in common foods, mixed in with nonfat milk to disguise the telltale fat texture. All 33 could detect the fatty acids to at least a small degree." - Full Article Source

03/12/10 - This is one of the key things America is about, Free Speech
You might not agree, you might be offended, but according to the Constitution, he and everyone of us has the right to say whatever we want. Bill Balsamico, the outspoken owner of Casa D' Ice in North Versailles, PA is featured in this brand new short documentary film entitled 'Portrait of Bill'.

They would do it better

Why is that, are kids safer?

It's their History, leave'em alone

I don't agree with everything this guy posts but he does have the right to say it. (Thanks to Jerry for the headsup about this website. - JWD) - Full Article Source

03/12/10 - Bill To Ban All Salt In Restaurant Cooking
"Felix Ortiz, D-Brooklyn, introduced a bill that would ruin restaurant food and baked goods as we know them. The measure (if passed) would ban the use of all forms of salt in the preparation and cooking of food for all restaurants or bakeries. While the use of too much salt can contribute to health problems, the complete banning of salt would have negative impacts on food chemistry. Not only does salt enhance flavor, it controls bacteria, slows yeast activity and strengthens dough by tightening gluten. Salt also inhibits the growth of microbes that spoil cheese." / Assembly Bill A10129, introduced last Friday, says, "No owner or operator of a restaurant in this state shall use salt in any form in the preparation of any food for consumption by customers of such restaurant, including food prepared to be consumed on the premises of such restaurant or off the premises." The measure proposes fines of $1,000 for each violation. - Full Article Source

03/12/10 - Cellphone photo of Barcode yields User Product Reviews
Never buy crap again, just snap any bar code with your smart phone's camera to get buyer reviews using the Stickybits application. It lets you scan any barcode and attach a message to that physical object. If only those cheaply made products at Walmart could warn you of their inferior quality. Well now they can. StickyBits turns any bar-code into a personal message board that can be accessed by photographing the bar code with your smart phone. You can even stick your own bar-codes on any objects around town and append virtual reality data to them that other users can access. / The app is free, but stickybits sells packs of 20 vinyl barcode stickers for $10. You also can download and print your own barcodes for free, or scan an existing one on a physical product like a can of Coke. (Future business model: charge brands to claim their barcodes and place their own messages first). Each barcode is programmable by the first person who scans it and and leaves a photo, video, audio, or text message. The next time somebody scans that barcode, the previous message will appear on their phone. Anyone can add a new message to the same code, resulting in a stream of messages connected to whatever object or place the barcode is stuck on. Each scan, and related message, is geo-tagged so you can see as an object moves around how its story evolves. - Full Article Source

03/12/10 - Researchers Beam 230Mb/sec Wireless Internet WIth LEDs
"A group of scientists from Germany's Fraunhofer Institute have devised a way to encode a visible-frequency wireless signal in light emitted by plain old desklamps and other light fixtures. The team was able to achieve a record-setting data download rate of 230 megabits per second, and they expect to be able to double that speed in the near future. While the regular radio-frequency Wi-Fi most of us use currently is perfectly fine, it does have its flaws — it has a limited bandwidth that confines it to a certain spectrum and if you've ever had someone leech off of your connection, you know that it also leaks through walls. LED wireless signals would theoretically have none of these downsides." - Full Article Source

03/10/10 - Gasifying Biomass with Sunlight
Sundrop Fuels, a startup based in Louisville, CO, says it has developed a cleaner and more efficient way to turn biomass into synthetic fuels by harnessing the intense heat of the sun to vaporize wood and crop waste. Its process can produce twice the amount of gasoline or diesel per ton of biomass compared to conventional biomass gasification systems, the company claims. Gasification occurs when dry biomass or other carbon-based materials are heated to above 700 ºC in the presence of steam. At those temperatures, most of the biomass is converted to a synthetic gas. This "syngas" is made up of hydrogen and carbon monoxide, which are the chemical building blocks for higher-value fuels such as methanol, ethanol, and gasoline. But the heat required for this process usually comes from a portion of the biomass being gasified. "You end up burning 30 to 35 percent of the biomass," says Alan Weimer, a chemical engineering professor at the University of Colorado, Boulder. - Full Article Source

03/10/10 - Solar Industry Learns Lessons in Spanish Sun
Puertollano, home to the Museum of the Mining Industry, had two enormous solar power plants, factories making solar panels and silicon wafers, and clean energy research institutes. Half the solar power installed globally in 2008 was installed in Spain. Farmers sold land for solar plants. Boutiques opened. And people from all over the world, seeing business opportunities, moved to the city, which had suffered from 20 percent unemployment and a population exodus. But as low-quality, poorly designed solar plants sprang up on Spain’s plateaus, Spanish officials came to realize that they would have to subsidize many of them indefinitely, and that the industry they had created might never produce efficient green energy on its own. In September the government abruptly changed course, cutting payments and capping solar construction. Puertollano’s brief boom turned bust. Factories and stores shut, thousands of workers lost jobs, foreign companies and banks abandoned contracts that had already been negotiated. “We lost the opportunity to be at the vanguard of renewables — we were not only generating electricity, but also a strong economy,” said Joaquín Carlos Hermoso Murillo, Puertollano’s mayor since 2004. “Why are they limiting solar power, when the sun is unlimited?” For now, electricity generation from the sun’s rays needs to be subsidized because it requires the purchase of new equipment and investment in evolving technologies. But costs are rapidly dropping. And regulators are still learning how to structure stimulus payments so that they yield a stable green industry that supports itself, rather than just costly energy and an economic flash in the pan like Spain’s. - Full Article Source

03/10/10 - Leonard Nimoy to guest on 'Big Bang'?
The executive producer of The Big Bang Theory has revealed that he hopes to recruit Leonard Nimoy for a cameo appearance. Bill Prady told Entertainment Weekly that he will approach the Star Trek actor next season about a part in the comedy. "We'll probably make a general inquiry," Prady said. "And if there's enough interest, we'll develop a story. The fans have said that's the dream get, and we agree." Nimoy, who has made several guest appearance on Fringe, turned down a spot on Big Bang last season. Prady added that "there's always an issue with actors playing themselves, which most actors would rather not do" and joked that Sheldon could clone Nimoy for the part. - Full Article Source

03/10/10 - Cisco Says New Router to "Forever Change the Internet": 'When?'
Cisco made headlines today announcing a next generation router that will revolutionize the internet by increasing downloads to unheard of speeds. The Cisco press release makes the following claims about the CRS-3 router: It enables the entire printed collection of the Library of Congress to be downloaded in just over one second; every man, woman and child in China to make a video call, simultaneously; and every motion picture ever created to be streamed in less than four minutes. - Full Article Source

03/10/10 - Pelosi's latest Idiotic Statement
Nancy Pelosi said, "But we have to pass the [health care ] bill so that you can find out what is in it." - (Let's not read it all and correct it beforehand, just pass it and suffer the consequences...who isn't appalled by such faulty procedure and total lack of common sense? - JWD) - Full Article Source

03/10/10 - U.S. Sitting on Mother Lode of Rare Tech-Crucial Minerals
China supplies most of the rare earth minerals found in technologies such as hybrid cars, wind turbines, computer hard drives and cell phones, but the U.S. has its own largely untapped reserves that could safeguard future tech innovation. Those reserves include deposits of both "light" and "heavy" rare earths - families of minerals that help make everything from TV displays to magnets in hybrid electric motors. A company called U.S. Rare Earths holds the only known U.S. deposit of heavy rare earths with a concentration worth mining, according to a recent report by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). Light rare earths include the minerals ranging from lanthanum to gadolinium on the periodic table of elements, while heavy rare earths range from terbium to lutetium. Averting disaster - If developed, such deposits could help the U.S. avoid a possibly crippling rare earth shortage in the next decade. China has warned that its own industrial demands could compel it to stop exporting rare earths within the next five or 10 years. - Full Article Source

03/10/10 - Fishing Banned!?!
No more public input for a federal strategy that could prohibit U.S. citizens from fishing some of the nation's oceans, coastal areas, Great Lakes, and even inland waters. Nnot really a surprise for fishing industry insiders who have negotiated for months with officials at the Council on Environmental Quality and bureaucrats on the task force. These angling advocates have come to suspect that public input into the process was a charade from the beginning. "When the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) completed their successful campaign to convince the Ontario government to end one of the best scientifically managed big game hunts in North America (spring bear), the results of their agenda had severe economic impacts on small family businesses and the tourism economy of communities across northern and central Ontario," said Phil Morlock, director of environmental affairs for Shimano. "Now we see NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) and the administration planning the future of recreational fishing access in America based on a similar agenda of these same groups and other Big Green anti-use organizations, through an Executive Order by the President. The current U.S. direction with fishing is a direct parallel to what happened in Canada with hunting: The negative economic impacts on hard working American families and small businesses are being ignored. "In spite of what we hear daily in the press about the President's concern for jobs and the economy and contrary to what he stated in the June order creating this process, we have seen no evidence from NOAA or the task force that recreational fishing and related jobs are receiving any priority." Consequently, unless anglers speak up and convince their Congressional representatives to stop this bureaucratic freight train, it appears that the task force will issue a final report for "marine spatial planning" by late March, with President Barack Obama then issuing an Executive Order to implement its recommendations — whatever they may be. - Full Article Source

03/09/10 - Growing arteries could lead to 'biological bypass' for heart disease
Coronary arteries can become blocked with plaque, leading to a decrease in the supply of blood and oxygen to the heart. Over time this blockage can lead to debilitating chest pain or heart attack. Severe blockages in multiple major vessels may require coronary artery bypass graft surgery, a major invasive surgery. "We found that there is a cross-talk between the two signaling pathways. One half of the signaling pathway inhibits the other. When we inhibit this mechanism, we are able to grow arteries," said Simons. "Instead of using growth factors, we stopped the inhibitor mechanism by using a drug that targets a particular enzyme called P13-kinase inhibitor." "Because we've located this inhibitory pathway, it opens the possibility of developing a new class of medication to grow new arteries," Simons added. "The next step is to test this finding in a human clinical trial." - (Balderdash, why must they always complicate simple things. As discovered by Matthias Rath and Linus Pauling way back in 1994, you could just clean out the plaque naturally by taking megadoses of Lysine and Vitamin C which cleans out the circulatory system. - JWD) - Full Article Source

03/09/10 - “Flying Saucer” Programme Approved
Government of Ulianovsk region recently approved the long-term project of flying saucer construction. The project is aimed at developing and building a revolutionary transportation device – aerostatic thermoballasted aerial vehicle. This new vehicle doesn’t depend on time of the season and provides high lifting capacity, low fuel consumption, almost unlimited flying range and flight duration. The vehicle doesn’t need airdromes and complex terrestrial infrastructure. This project was approved by Russian government last November. New aerial vehicle is useful for military men, medics, rescuers, and etc. - Full Article Source

03/09/10 - Pirate Adventure Cruise
To The Point Cruise Lines is excited to offer the ultimate adventure cruise, along the pirate-infested coast of Somalia... - Full Article Source

03/09/10 - Razor Blade Tip
Today I found out how to drastically increase the life of your shaver razor blades, such as Gillette or Schick Brand razors. This trick is incredibly simple and just as incredibly effective. It will also save you a nice chunk of change over time and make all your dreams come true… For instance, Gillette Fusion Brand razor cartridge sets typically will run you about $27 per set of 12, which will typically only last you a few months and less if you actually go by their expiration "strip" in determining when the cartridge needs replaced. With the below method, I have now gone about eight months using the exact same cartridge and the blades on the cartridge are as sharp as when I first popped the cartridge on. I have no idea how long this will keep up, but now a package of 12 cartridges is apparently going to last me at least 12 years or more. Here's the secret (it requires a pair of jeans):

'The Evolution of Matter' and 'The Evolution of Forces' on CD
Years ago, I had been told by several people, that the US government frequently removes books they deem dangerous or 'sensitive' from libraries. Some are replaced with sections removed or rewritten so as to 'contain' information that should not be available to the public despite the authors intent. A key example was during the Manhattan Project when the US was trying to finalize research into atomic bombs. They removed any books that dealt with the subject and two of them were by Dr. Gustave Le Bon since they dealt with both energy and matter including radioactivity. I had been looking for these two books for many years and fortunately stumbled across two copies for which I paid about $40.00 each. I couldn't put down the books once I started reading them. Such a wealth of original discoveries, many not known or remembered today. / Page 88 - Without the ether there could be neither gravity, nor light, nor electricity, nor heat, nor anything, in a word, of which we have knowledge. The universe would be silent and dead, or would reveal itself in a form which we cannot even foresee. If one could construct a glass chamber from which the ether were to be entirely eliminated, heat and light could not pass through it. It would be absolutely dark, and probably gravitation would no longer act on the bodies within it. They would then have lost their weight. / Page 96-97 - A material vortex may be formed by any fluid, liquid or gaseous, turning round an axis, and by the fact of its rotation it describes spirals. The study of these vortices has been the object of important researches by different scholars, notably by Bjerkness and Weyher. They have shown that by them can be produced all the attractions and repulsions recognized in electricity, the deviations of the magnetic needle by currents, etc. These vortices are produced by the rapid rotation of a central rod furnished with pallets, or, more simply, of a sphere. Round this sphere gaseous currents are established, dissymetrical with regard to its equatorial plane, and the result is the attraction or repulsion of bodies brought near to it, according to the position given to them. It is even possible, as Weyher has proved, to compel these bodies to turn round the sphere as do the satellites of a planet without touching it. / Page 149 - "The problem of sending a pencil of parallel Hertzian waves to a distance possesses more than a theoretical interest. It is allowable to say that its solution would change the course of our civilization by rendering war impossible. The first physicist who realizes this discovery will be able to avail himself of the presence of an enemy's ironclads gathered together in a harbour to blow them up in a few minutes, from a distance of several kilometres, simply by directing on them a sheaf of electric radiations. On reaching the metal wires with which these vessels are nowadays honeycombed, this will excite an atmosphere of sparks which will at once explode the shells and torpedoes stored in their holds. With the same reflector, giving a pencil of parallel radiations, it would not be much more difficult to cause the explosion of the stores of powder and shells contained in a fortress, or in the artillery sparks of an army corps, and finally the metal cartridges of the soldiers. Science, which at first rendered wars so deadly, would then at length have rendered them impossible, and the relations between nations would have to be established on new bases." - Full Article Source

03/09/10 - Hybrid fusion: the third nuclear option
Hybrid nuclear fusion combines the two forms of nuclear power, fission and fusion, in a single reactor. This has several advantages over fission alone: it minimises the environmental impact, reduces risks, enlarges reserves of nuclear fuel and is more flexible to operate. Hybrid reactors have other advantages too. One is that the fission reaction can burn a range of fuels, including the long-lived high-level nuclear waste produced in conventional fission reactors. It "transmutates" these waste products into isotopes that decay over a hundred years rather than tens of thousands. Not only does this eliminate some of the nuclear industry's waste problems, it also potentially helps to rid the world of plutonium and other weapons-grade materials. - Full Article Source

03/09/10 - The Arizona Solar Bullet: Tuscon to Phoenix in 33 minutes
A campaign is underway in Arizona to initiate studies and build support for the world's first solar-powered bullet train. Intended to travel at speeds up to 220 MPH, the train is proposed to run between Tucson and Phoenix with stops at seven stations along the I-10 corridor. It is also expected to have a zero-energy footprint due to its route-long solar array. Arizona may be the only place worldwide with both sufficient sunlight and sufficient population density to launch such a project today. This is a unique opportunity to benefit from the rapid growth of solar technologies in coming decades, including R&D in our own labs and companies. And once it is possible to travel swiftly between Phoenix and Tucson, economic opportunity of all kinds will accelerate. - Full Article Source

03/09/10 - Tata Nano EV – World’s Cheapest Electric Car - the new Model T
India’s Tata Nano EV, world’s cheapest car, transformed into the world’s cheapest electric car, went on display at the Geneva Motor Show. The Tata Nano EV seats four, has a predicted range of about 80 miles and will go from zero to about 35 miles per hour in a blistering 10 seconds. The car has super-polymer lithium-ion batteries, which Tata says provide superior energy retention. - Full Article Source

03/09/10 - At Witz' End - It's the Battery, Stupid!
The Volt has long been rumored to retail for about $40K, and the Leaf will likely come in at a hair under $30K (now that Nissan has decided it will be sold battery included). The Volt should run about 40 miles on its 16 kWh pack – using just half its stored energy to head off safety issues and preserve its life – before its thrifty IC engine kicks in to keep it going. The Leaf promises "up to" 100 miles from its 24 kWh, depending (as always) on temperature, terrain, time of day, speed and driving style. The going OEM rate for li-ion packs today is an estiimated $1,000-1,200 per kWh. At the lower end of that range, Volt's pack is a $16K bill and Leaf's $24K -- 80 percent of (my) estimated price for the car. Both companies insist they will not pay anywhere near that much, especially once they're building their own packs, but lop that in half to $500/kWh, and it's still $8K and $12K! - Full Article Source

03/09/10 - Preventing Urination to control disease-spreading mosquitoes
Cornell researchers have found a protein that may lead to a new way to control mosquitoes that spread dengue fever, yellow fever and other diseases when they feed on humans: Prevent them from urinating as they feed on blood. Regulatory, Integrative and Comparative Physiology has identified a protein from the renal tubules of Aedes aegypti mosquitoes that appears to be involved in promoting urination as they feed on blood. When mosquitoes consume and process blood meals, they must urinate to prevent fluid and salt overloads that can kill them. Also, "they have to undergo rapid urination when feeding, or they can't fly away," said Peter Piermarini, the paper's lead author and a postdoctoral research associate in the lab of Klaus Beyenbach, a professor of biomedical sciences in Cornell's College of Veterinary Medicine and the paper's senior author. "Too much weight will impair the mosquito's flight performance, like an aircraft with too much payload. [If they get too heavy,] they may become more susceptible to being swatted by their host or eaten by a predator," said Piermarini. The researchers discovered a key protein expressed in the mosquito's renal system that contributes to urination. In lab experiments, Piermarini, Beyenbach and colleagues demonstrated that blocking the protein's function in the renal tubules with a drug reverses the enhanced rates of urination that would occur during blood feeding. "Thus, blocking the function of this protein in natural populations of mosquitoes may limit their ability to survive the physiological stresses of a blood meal and to further transmit viruses," said Piermarini. - Full Article Source

03/09/10 - Link Between Obesity and Germs in the Intestine
Germs in the gut may help drive appetite, says new research into the link between obesity and bacteria. Previous studies have shown that overweight people and normal-weight people harbor different types and amounts of microbes that naturally live in the intestine. To determine why, scientists are peering into mice. - Full Article Source

03/09/10 - Mattel Mindflex hack shocks you into serenity
Okay, we're in love with this delightfully evil Mattel Mindflex hack, which delivers an electric shock if you don't remain calm, but we have to wonder: wouldn't this thing be amazing if you hooked it up in reverse and punished not thinking enough? / The guys over at Harcos Labs connect a brainwave reader to an electro-shock unit. Ouch! You can read the how-to on our site: http://www.harcoslabs.com - Full Article Source

03/09/10 - Frozen Vegetables More Nutritious Than Fresh Vegetables
Frozen vegetables can often contain more nutrients than fresh vegetables, a report has claimed. Up to 45 per cent of important nutrients are lost in fresh vegetable by the time they are consumed. - Full Article Source

03/09/10 - This Car Runs on Coffee
The wacky UK invention comes in the form of a converted 1988 Volkswagen Scirocco that downs about 56 espressos per mile, the Daily Mail reports. That should only cost about 25 to 50 times the cost of running a car on gas. The concept came out of the BBC1 science program called "Bang Goes the Theory," and will go on a 210-mile drive between Manchester and London that consumes about 11,760 espressos. But coffee aficionados shouldn't scream just yet -- the fuel comes from waste coffee grounds provided by a branch of Costa Coffee. A top speed of about 60 mph won't save the UK crew from making pit stops to refill the tank every 30 to 45 miles. There's also the added task of cleaning out soot and tar from the car's "coffee filters" about every 60 miles. - Full Article Source

03/09/10 - Lack of Vitamin D supresses the immune system
Scientists at the University of Copenhagen have discovered that Vitamin D is crucial to activating your immune defenses and that without sufficient intake of the vitamin, the killer cells of your immune system – T cells - will not be able to react to and fight off serious infections in your body. For your T cells to detect and kill foreign pathogens such as clumps of bacteria or viruses, the cells must first be 'triggered' into action and 'transform' from inactive and harmless immune cells into killer cells that are primed to seek out and destroy all traces of a foreign pathogen. The researchers found that T cells rely on vitamin D in order to activate and they would remain dormant, 'naive' to the possibility of threat if vitamin D is lacking in your blood. - Full Article Source

03/09/10 - New "Hairy" Material Is Almost Perfectly Hydrophobic
"Wolfgang Sigmund, a professor of materials science and engineering at the University of Florida, has created a material modeled after spider hairs that acts as a nearly perfect water-repelling surface. Quoting Science Daily: 'A paper about the surface, which works equally well with hot or cold water, appears in this month's edition of the journal Langmuir. Spiders use their water-repelling hairs to stay dry or avoid drowning, with water spiders capturing air bubbles and toting them underwater to breathe. Potential applications for UF's ultra-water-repellent surfaces are many, Sigmund said. When water scampers off the surface, it picks up and carries dirt with it, in effect making the surface self-cleaning. As such, it is ideal for some food packaging, or windows, or solar cells that must stay clean to gather sunlight, he said. Boat designers might coat hulls with it, making boats faster and more efficient.' Hairy glass, anyone?" - Full Article Source

03/09/10 - Revolutionary Invention Allows Planting Without Irrigation
The Groasis waterboxx invented by science award winning Dutch innovator Pieter Hoff is about to change the course of history. On March 16 at the Green California Summit in Sacramento, Mr. Hoff. will announce global planting experiments without irrigation. Four projects to be conducted in California's high and low deserts of Palm Springs, in the Napa Valley with the Robert Mondavi Winery and USA's first sustainable city, Sonoma will join twenty other global experiments in seven countries spanning four continents. Mr. Hoff completed a four-year treeplanting test in Morocco's Sahara desert with 88.2% survival rate. Monitored results of the worldwide tests will prove that mankind can plant trees on bushes, rocks, mountains, in deserts or any other difficult place, without irrigation. California along with the rest of the world eagerly looks forward to the results of these tests as a way to solve deforestation, food shortage and water conservation. The Groasis waterboxx is the size of a motorcycle tyre with an opening in the center, that surrounds a sapling or seed that is planted in the soil. This 'intelligent water incubator' produces and captures water from the air through condensation and rain, without using energy. Additionally it prevents water evaporation from the soil and protects the roots against sun, wind, weeds and rodents. After a year, the tree is strong enough to grow by itself and the box can be easily removed and reused. Hoff, one of the largest flowerbulb exporters of Holland, sold his business five years ago with one thought in mind, to find a way to reforest the planet and feed the world. He expects the waterboxx to reforest 2 billion hectares (5 billion acres) of desert, eroded by mankind, in the next 40 years. CO2 molecules can be unbound through trees, which produce fruit, medicines, oils, etcetera while transplanting the C atoms from fossil fuels into wood. Let's make money with trees while unbinding the CO2 molecules instead of continuously talking about climate change, he explains in his book 'CO2, a gift from heaven'. General: http://www.groasis.com - Full Article Source

03/09/10 - MIT discovers thermopower waves
A team of scientists at MIT have discovered a previously unknown phenomenon that can cause powerful waves of energy to shoot through minuscule wires known as carbon nanotubes. The discovery could lead to a new way of producing electricity, the researchers say. One that seems perfectly suited for powering implants, wearware or pocket gear. The phenomenon, described as thermopower waves, 'opens up a new area of energy research, which is rare,' says MIT's Michael Strano. A thermal wave (moving pulse of heat) traveling along a microscopic wire can drive electrons along to create an electrical current. / In the new experiments, each of these electrically and thermally conductive nanotubes was coated with a layer of a reactive fuel that can produce heat by decomposing. This fuel was then ignited at one end of the nanotube using either a laser beam or a high-voltage spark, and the result was a fast-moving thermal wave traveling along the length of the carbon nanotube like a flame speeding along the length of a lit fuse. Heat from the fuel goes into the nanotube, where it travels thousands of times faster than in the fuel itself. As the heat feeds back to the fuel coating, a thermal wave is created that is guided along the nanotube. With a temperature of 3,000 kelvins, this ring of heat speeds along the tube 10,000 times faster than the normal spread of this chemical reaction. The heating produced by that combustion, it turns out, also pushes electrons along the tube, creating a substantial electrical current. In the group’s initial experiments, Strano says, when they wired up the carbon nanotubes with their fuel coating in order to study the reaction, “lo and behold, we were really surprised by the size of the resulting voltage peak” that propagated along the wire. After further development, the system now puts out energy, in proportion to its weight, about 100 times greater than an equivalent weight of lithium-ion battery. The amount of power released, he says, is much greater than that predicted by thermoelectric calculations. While many semiconductor materials can produce an electric potential when heated, through something called the Seebeck effect, that effect is very weak in carbon. “There’s something else happening here,” he says. “We call it electron entrainment, since part of the current appears to scale with wave velocity.” The thermal wave, he explains, appears to be entraining the electrical charge carriers (either electrons or electron holes) just as an ocean wave can pick up and carry a collection of debris along the surface. This important property is responsible for the high power produced by the system, Strano says. - Full Article Source

03/09/10 - AOL still has 5 million customers paying for dial-up!
'Nuff said... - Full Article Source

03/09/10 - Stem cells heal dog
Your dog has access to stem cell treatments more advanced than your own. A Fox News affiliate in Atlanta has picked up on a local story of a dog, named Behr, who could barely run a year ago, but who is now frolicking like a puppy. The secret to Behr’s success? He underwent stem cell therapy that the FDA will not allow you to undergo. Millions of Americans are already doomed annually to unnecessary pain, suffering and death by FDA regulators. The ranks of sufferers are exploding because FDA regs make personalized genetic medicine all but impossible. - Full Article Source

03/09/10 - New invention saves energy by temp redistribution
Three-and-a-half years ago Paddle Fan Adapter inventor Tony Anchors was looking at a ceiling fan when he noticed an issue with air distribution. "It just throws it out and goes off the end of the blade and it rises back up," he said. With the warm air continuously rising, energy and money is wasted to keep the ground level at a comfortable temperature. Anchors created a casing that uses the fan's power to push and cube the air sending it down and then spreading across the floor- destratifying heat, humidity and carbon dioxide. "We've caused that blade, that fan, rather than throw it off to keep and come straight down and we've found that the reduction of energy costs and savings is very big," he said. Those backing the invention, including 5 B's Lee Biles, had it lab tested and tested in real life by installing the adapter at the 5B's production warehouse. They tested by putting censors on the ceiling, middle and floor of 5B's. Those sensors send information to thermometers throughout the warehouse which shows there's only about a one-degree temperature difference. "It's a very, very big savings. In fact that calculates out to about $2790 in a three month period based on consumption and degree days for our part of the country," said Biles. In testing the adapter has shown a 8 to 10 percent savings in warm weather and 15 to 30 percent in cold. "I can tell you it's in the 30 percent range for our plant, 30 percent reduction in energy costs. I don't want everybody to expect that, you know, because everybody has different conditions, but I'm getting a 30 percent reduction in energy costs," said Biles. The adapter will go on sale this week, and everyone involved is hoping it takes off. "It's winter somewhere in the world all the time and this can save big dollars for our country and our world and help maybe reduce consumption of a lot of energy," said Anchors. To learn more about this invention log onto www.paddlefanadapter.com. - Full Article Source

03/09/10 - Praying mantis vs. hummingbird
A rivalry I never knew about, captured in glorious slow motion. Science blogger GrrlScientist says the hummingbird involved lived to fight another day. EDIT: Sadly, that is not true of all hummingbirds that choose to take on the (apparently rather badass) praying mantis. Mrs.Bug offers pictures of what happens when the bird loses. They are not for the faint of heart. - Full Article Source

03/09/10 - Disposable Toilet To Change the World
"A biodegradable and self-sterilizing bag for people of the toilet-disenfranchised world (40% of humankind) to dispose of their bodily waste and turn it into safe fertilizer has been created by a Swedish entrepreneur. It's a dead simple and brilliant solution to a vexing problem. From the article: 'Once used, the bag can be knotted and buried, and a layer of urea crystals breaks down the waste into fertilizer, killing off disease-producing pathogens found in feces. The bag, called the Peepoo, is the brainchild of Anders Wilhelmson, an architect and professor in Stockholm. “Not only is it sanitary,” said Mr. Wilhelmson, who has patented the bag, “they can reuse this to grow crops.”'" - Full Article Source

03/09/10 - Gas Wants To Kill the Wind
"Scientific American has posted an article about the political efforts of natural gas and electric utilities to limit the growth of wind-generated electricity. Although several of the points raised by the utilities and carbon-based generators are valid, the basic driver behind their efforts is that wind-generation has now successfully penetrated the wholesale electricity market. Wind was okay until it became a meaningful competitor to the carbon dioxide-producing entities. Among the valid points raised by the carbon-based generators are concerns about how the cost of electricity transmission are allocated and how power quality can be improved (wind generation — from individual sites — is hopelessly variable). But there are fixes for all of the concerns raised by the carbon-based entities and in almost all cases they have been on the other side of the question in the past." - Full Article Source

03/06/10 - Hydrogen Cobalt Catalyst could power homes on a bottle of water
With one bottle of drinking water and four hours of sunlight, MIT chemist Dan Nocera claims that he can produce 30 KWh of electricity, which is enough to power an entire household in the developing world. With about three gallons of river water, he could satisfy the daily energy needs of a large American home. The key to these claims is a new, affordable catalyst that uses solar electricity to split water and generate hydrogen. Using the electricity generated from a 30-square-meter photovoltaic array, Nocera’s cobalt-phosphate catalyst converts water and carbon dioxide into hydrogen and oxygen. The process is similar to organic photosynthesis, except that in nature, plants create energy in the form of sugars instead of hydrogen. The hydrogen produced through artificial photosynthesis can be stored in a tank and later used to produce electricity by being recombined with oxygen in a fuel cell, even when the sun isn’t shining. Alternatively, the hydrogen can be converted into a liquid fuel. - (Thanks to Bert Pool for the headsup. - JWD) - Full Article Source

03/06/10 - Is GEK a modern-day Mr. Fusion?
[Nanomonkey] spent the weekend building generators that run off of syngas. All Powers Lab produces Gasifier Experimenter Kits to convert raw material to energy. The kits use Gasification to make a “natural gas like” fuel from materials such as wood chips, walnut shells, construction debris or agricultural waste. So is this the Mr. Fusion that powered the DeLorean? This Honda fitted with a GEK sure makes it look that way. But all joking aside, this looks like a great way to turn waste in heat or electricity. There’s tons of info on the site to dig through. The controllers are open source which would make it easier to interface with the Google PowerMeter when the system is used as a generator. - Full Article Source

03/06/10 - Electro Dynamic Air Vehicle using Vortices
As a civilization, we have always tried to create horsepower using methods surrounding combustion. The opposite of combustion is vacuum. The areas of vacuum have least to be explored for extracting great quantities of energy. Now a quote by Dr. TJJ See, “ The centrifugal effect in a vortex throws normal dense air out to the perimeter whilst lighter air is pushed to the center.” See my illustrations 1 & 2 on how this light air encapsulates the vehicle. Using this analogy we have now encircled the aircraft Vehicle with a bubble of light air which causes it to levitate. Lets talk about the opposite effect and use water as an example. Once there was an oilrig floating on the ocean. The drillers hit a huge gas pocket that sent up bubbles 50 feet in diameter. Soon there was no water underneath the platform, only ever expanding gas bubbles. So the huge oil platform sank into the ocean. Why, because the gas bubbles displaced so much water fluid the platform had nothing to hold it up. Well just maybe, if you displace so much light air around the object than the object has no heavier resistant air or air pressure to hold it on the ground and bon voyage. As the aircraft is sucked into the air by the upside down vortex, then the aircraft pushes the vortex further out, which creates a pulsing effect. Velocity is squared by the distance and speed becomes reality. Now the aircraft has to go horizontal sooner or later or you might find yourself on planet Marduk in no time. The light hydrogen air vortex will flatten out slightly but will continue to flow ahead of the aircraft. This vortex flow will continue to separate the denser air away from the air vehicle creating a sort of vacuum bubble for the aircraft to ride in. See my illustration dubbed PG 140 which shows a circulating air current riding ahead of a UFO. Also see Illustration three, showing the sucking and pushing effect of the closing envelope. Was the UFO using repulsion energy? Any ways since the lighter fluid or gas is cutting the denser air as stated no sound barrier is broken, and no air resistance is felt on the aircraft. So the aircraft is free to obtain velocities not achieved by aircraft previously. A pushing effect is applied at the rear by the closing air gap. I quote again the words of V. Schauberger, “ If you create a situation where normal air is more dense than the air directly above or ahead of the vehicle, the normal air will move the craft.” - Full Article Source

03/06/10 - Lucid dreaming
When we saw [merkz] use of an Arduino to produce lucid dreaming we were quite shocked. Unlike typical setups that just flash a light through sleep, his system monitors eye movement through electrodes and is able to send the data to a computer for graphing and analyzing. The only problem being we couldn’t find a circuit diagram or code. Not ones to be shot down so quickly, a Google revealed this thread on making ‘Dream Goggles’, which was really a Brain-Wave Machine based on the parallel port. Some modifications of an ECG collector’s electrodes using sound cards, and you could have your own lucid dreaming. - Full Article Source

03/06/10 - Debunking the Myth that Patents Create a Monopoly
Those who are against patents always seem to argue that a patent is a monopoly, or at least use those terms interchangeably. Don’t be fooled into thinking that a patent is a monopoly. Simply obtaining a patent will not result in the arrival of a money truck to your doorstep. Just because an inventor has been granted a patent does not mean that there will be a market for the patent product, and without a market there can be no monopoly. The patent only gives the patent owner the right to exclude others from making, using, selling and importing. A patent carries with it no expectation for market success. Granted, if the product does have a market a patent can be a significant barrier to entry that insulates the patent owner from competition, but a patent in and of itself does not guarantee business success. A patent only dangles the opportunity to achieve monopoly profits. This is due to the exclusive nature of the right and the ability to be the only player in the market. - Full Article Source

03/06/10 - Fiverr.com
Hire yourself out or hire someone else for $5 a job. Someone is offering to make a personalized work of art from your photo. Another wants to make you an Alice in Wonderland poster. There’s also a translator from English to Finnish. And hundreds more. ( props to http://oncomp.com/ ) - Full Article Source

03/06/10 - Brain Scans predict consumer response for ad campaigns
Labeling their new science 'neuromarketing', researchers at Duke University and Emory University say they have developed techniques for utilizing brain scans during product design that can create products consumers will find too appealing to pass up. Tools like functional MRI can be used to tweak product designs to insure a positive customer buy response. - Full Article Source

03/06/10 - Cellphone shows your current location with 93% accuracy
Using only the cell phone call and message data from 50,000 anonymous users over a three-month period, researchers were able to accurately predict each individual current location with a 93% rate of accuracy. Big Brother no longer needs to watch you, your cell phone is doing it for them. - Full Article Source

03/06/10 - Ah, to be young!!!
"Can I Get Get Get" (Greatest Song of All Time of the Day: Special Saturday Night Dance Party Edition) - Full Article Source

03/06/10 - TV anywhere
TVGorge.com has thousands of TV shows you can watch online, including those previously unavailable outside the U.S. We thought TVGorge was better than Hulu in many ways. It had the latest episode of our favorite show, “The Mentalist,” for instance, while Hulu had only short clips of older episodes. ( props to http://oncomp.com/ ) - Full Article Source

03/06/10 - Saddam's magic blue stone
(The pictured stone is not THE stone.) - According to an interesting article by Sudarsan Raghavan for Mercury News, many Iraqis believe that Saddam Hussein cannot be killed. It is a belief that has been reinforced by his uncanny ability to survive whatever bombs we drop on him. Even now that he has been captured, many Iraqis remain convinced that Saddam is immortal. What gives him this mystical power? A magic blue stone. Saddam had this magic stone made, so the story goes, by his favorite fortuneteller not long after he came to power 24 years ago. To be sure the stone was effective, it was tested first with a chicken. The stone was somehow placed inside the chicken, then a soldier fired at it at point-blank range. All of its feathers were blown off, but the protected chicken survived. So Saddam had the magic stone implanted in the upper section of one of his arms, protecting him from any assault, including bullets and bombs. "That belief," writes Raghaven in the article, "common throughout Iraq, presents uncommon challenges for U.S. and British forces as they try to persuade Iraqis that Saddam is gone and will not return. Without a body to display, it may be impossible to overcome the mythical creation of a propaganda apparatus that was bent on showing he was a worthy heir to a long line of Babylonian kings." An Iraqi army deserter named Adnan Mohammad Yousef told Raghaven that Saddam has seven lives and cannot die. He illustrated that belief with a story about an attempted assassination of Saddam by one of his Republican Guard. When the soldier pointed the gun at the dictator and pulled the trigger, it jammed. Saddam then allegedly grabbed the gun, pointed it at the soldier, saying, "This is how you do it," and shot him dead. - Full Article Source

03/06/10 - New Heat-Reduced Magnetic Solder Could Revolutionize Chip Design
"The result is a tin-silver alloy that contains a dispersion of iron particles tens of micrometers in diameter. When a magnetic field is applied to the solders, two things happen. First, the iron particles heat up, locally melting the solder. This localized heating, which works on the same principle as inductive stoves, remains completely contained, keeping the surrounding area cool. And second, the iron particles line up with the direction of the magnetic field, squeezing and pushing the liquid in that direction. This alignment is retained when the solder solidifies, and the well-ordered particles provide mechanical reinforcement that's greater than that afforded by a regular dispersion of particles." - Full Article Source

03/05/10 - Rube Goldberg eat your heart out!
The video was filmed in a two story warehouse, in the Echo Park neighborhood of Los Angeles, CA. The "machine" was designed and built by the band, along with members of Syyn Labs ( http://syynlabs.com/ ) over the course of several months. - Full Article Source

03/04/10 - New Zealand inventor creates 'flying hovercraft'
Rudy Heeman, who lives in the South Island city of Nelson, requisitioned a gas bottle from the family barbecue, parts from his wife's car, and the control lever from his daughter's motor scooter for his creation. Looking like a conventional hovercraft but with the addition of detachable wings, the vehicle cruises at 56mph when flying, has a range of more than 140 miles, and reaches a height of about 10 feet. It is powered by a 1.8-litre engine. On the www.trademe.co.nz auction website the sale has already received more than 100,000 hits, has shot past the reserve price of NZ$20,000 (£9,300), and has attracted a long string of questions from viewers. "It has been called all sorts of things, including aircraft, aeroplane, hovercraft and flying boat. "It is in fact a WIG [a wing in ground effect] in the form of a hovercraft. "This machine is fast and furious, it roars like a lion and is not for the faint-hearted. It is adrenalin-pumping and exciting. "Having a go on it is like a bungee jump, however, the thrill lasts as long as the ride." Mr Heeman said he thought farmers could make good use of his invention. "You can land in a paddock and you wouldn't have to worry about opening and closing the gates. You just go over them." The lightweight, canvas-covered wings are attached to the craft with what he calls a "Jesus pin". "If that comes out, you see Jesus," he said. Because the hovercraft is not classed as an aircraft under New Zealand aviation laws, the operator does not require a pilot's licence. It has taken Mr Heeman, a mechanic, 800 hours to build his invention and he has clocked up more than 75 hours' flying time in it. He said he was selling the craft because he needs the funds to get started on more "secret projects". - Full Article Source

03/04/10 - A Frightening New Law of Hurricane Formation
A new mathematical model of hurricane formation finally solves one of the outstanding puzzles of climate change but also predicts dramatic increases in the number of storms as the world warms. One problem that climatologists have puzzled over in recent years is that the number of hurricanes have increased in the north Atlantic but not in the Pacific, despite similar temperature increases. Many say that this is proof that other factors must influence hurricane formation. However, there's an important difference between these regions: in the Atlantic, the water tends to be cooler to start with and the hurricanes tend to form at a slightly higher latitude. When you take this into account, the difference in the number of hurricanes is exactly what Ehrlich's model predicts. He says the specific form of his mathematical model "yields larger percentage increases when a fixed increase in sea surface temperature occurs at higher latitudes and lower temperatures". That could help to solve an important climate change puzzle but before greater reliance can be placed on Ehrlich's, it needs to show its colours by accurately forecasting the numbers of hurricanes in the next few years. Its predictions do not make for pleasant reading. The exponent of 3.5 in Ehrlich's power law means that numbers of hurricanes should increase sharply as the world warms and much more dramatically than climatologists have been expecting. His prediction is that a 2 degree C increase in average temperature will lead to an 11-fold increase in the number of hurricanes. And the increase in numbers of hurricanes is only part of the story, he says. "An eleven-fold increase in hurricanes at a particular location would just be one part of the story, which would include (1) a potentially larger increase in the total number of hurricanes given the increase in the size of the basin as temperatures rise, (2) an increase in the destructive potential of each hurricane, and (3) an increase in the height of the storm surge due to rising sea levels that would invariably occur in a warmer world." Frightening stuff. - Full Article Source

03/04/10 - Scaling Up Solar Power
Applied materials makes the equipment needed to produce the biggest solar panels in the world. Applied Materials now sells a complete set of equipment for transforming large glass panels into thin-film solar cells, transporting it to manufacturers in several shipping containers. The company claims that each factory using its equipment can produce enough solar cells every year to generate 80 megawatts of power, enough to provide energy for 35,000 U.S. homes during peak hours of electricity use. The process of building the solar panels themselves starts with glass sheets 2.2 by 2.6 meters in area and only 3.2 millimeters thick. These come to a factory precoated with a micrometer-­thick film of a trans­parent conductive metal oxide that will serve as the top electrical contact in the finished panel. A robotic arm shaped like the business end of a forklift loads the delicate glass sheet onto the metal rollers of a conveyor belt, which moves it through a cleaner and then through a seamer that reinforces its edges to prevent chipping during manufacturing. The panel then travels through a machine called a laser scribe, which carves lines through the conductive coating to define the boundarie­s of each of 216 cells on the panel. The panel is now ready to be coated with two silicon films that will absorb sunlight and convert its energy into electrical current. First is a layer of amorphous silicon, which strongly absorbs light from the blue end of the spectrum. A second robotic arm slides the panel into the airlock of an apparatus called a plasma-enhanced chemical-vapor deposition chamber. Inside, the air is pumped out; silane, a gas composed of silicon and hydrogen, is pumped in and ionized. In the resulting reaction, the gas decomposes, depositing the silicon uniformly on the glass. Conveyer belts and robots then move each panel down the line to one of three additional vapor deposition chambers, where it is coated with a film of multi­crystalline silicon. This layer absorbs red light, allowing the panels to take advantage of more of the energy in sunlight. F­orming multi­crystalline silicon takes time and care, but having three systems perform this step on different panels in parallel keeps it from slowing down the entire manufacturing process. Because of their large area, the modules have among the highest power outputs in the industry--about 500 watts. The large size leads to savings on installation costs that help the panels compete with other thin-film systems on the market. The cost of electricity generated by the giant panels is $3.50 a watt, including installation. Panels of this size are best suited for use in massive ground-based solar farms. - Full Article Source

03/04/10 - FanWing is like a harvester in the sky
The FanWing aircraft concept has been around for a while but this is the first time we’ve seen working models. It gets rid of the propeller and adopts a rotating cylinder for propulsion. The look reminds us of a combine harvester and in a way it does reap the air, pulling the craft through the sky. We’re not holding our breath for the decommission of jet propulsion in the wake of this method, but we’d love to see some fun-loving death from above whenever you can get your own off the ground. Check out the video clips after the break to see, and hear, this in action. - Full Article Source

03/04/10 - Spy cameras won't make us safer
Although it's comforting to imagine vigilant police monitoring every camera, the truth is very different, for a variety of reasons: technological limitations of cameras, organizational limitations of police and the adaptive abilities of criminals. No one looks at most CCTV footage until well after a crime is committed. And when the police do look at the recordings, it's very common for them to be unable to identify suspects. Criminals don't often stare helpfully at the lens and -- unlike the Dubai assassins -- tend to wear sunglasses and hats. Cameras break far too often. The important question isn't whether cameras solve past crime or deter future crime; it's whether they're a good use of resources. They're expensive, both in money and in their Orwellian effects on privacy and civil liberties. Their inevitable misuse is another cost; police have spied on naked women in their own homes, shared nude images, sold best-of videos and even spied on national politicians. Though we might be willing to accept these downsides for a real increase in security, cameras don't provide that. - Full Article Source

03/04/10 - Monocle fixes webcam farsightedness
[Vik Oliver] came up with a webcam focus fix that is so quick and simple we never would have thought of it. He received the webcam as a gift and mounted on an articulated lamp so that it could easily be positioned around his projects. The problem is the camera lacks a focus adjustment so the close-up shots were blurry. In what we consider a eureka moment, he sourced a pair of dollar store reading glasses to fix the optics. The glasses came with their own mounting bracket. He clipped them in half and wrapped the wire ear support around the camera body. Great hacks don’t have to be complicated, and we need to do a better job of looking at the dollar store for project parts! - Full Article Source

03/04/10 - The Curse Of Making Too Much Money And Not Pursuing Your Dreams
The luckiest people on earth are those who don’t make a lot of money. They’ve got very little downside and can really pursue their childhood dreams. Imagine if from the moment you graduated college, you landed a plum corporate job that paid just enough to keep you motivated, but not enough to enjoy your freedom. The longer you work the more you realize there’s really no escape, because there’s simply too much at stake. This is the problem that plagues my friend, Lyndon. - Full Article Source

03/04/10 - Tetrahedral Water
In the liquid state, every water molecule fleetingly interacts with its four nearest neighbors, forming a tetrahedron, explains Kumar. These tetrahedrons, however, are slightly imperfect and the degree to which they are changes as temperature and pressure change, ultimately affecting which individual water molecules partner up with each other. Kumar found that it is the fluctuations in the degree of tetrahedrality that contribute most to one of water's most notable and valuable features -- its capacity to resist heating or cooling and thereby regulating and maintaining the temperature of biological systems. The ability to measure water's shifting degrees of tetrahedrality also gives scientists a means of measuring how much order or disorder each water molecule imparts. The better the tetrahedron, the more order it imparts in the system. "What we have done essentially is define the structural entropy of every molecule in our system," says Kumar. "And since water molecules are constantly moving in space and time, this gives you a way to study the transport of entropy associated with local tetrahedrality -- something that has never been done before." Understanding how individual water molecules maneuver in a system to form fleeting tetrahedral structures and how changing physical conditions such as temperatures and pressures affect the amount of disorder each imparts on that system may help scientists understand why certain substances, like drugs used in chemotherapy, are soluble in water and why some are not. It could also help understand how this changing network of bonds and ordering of local tetrahedrality between water molecules changes the nature of protein folding and degradation. "Understanding hydrophobicity, and how different conditions change it, is probably one of the most fundamental components in understanding how proteins fold in water and how different biomolecules remain stable in it," says Kumar. - Full Article Source

03/04/10 - Wi-Fi finders let thieves track down hidden laptops
Stuffing your company laptop into the car trunk or even a locker, without turning off its Wi-Fi radio, can be an open invitation to thieves, according to Credant Technologies. Theives with increasingly sophisticated, directional Wi-Fi detectors can home in on the laptop's radio, tracking it down even when the PC is hidden away. The detectors, sometimes called "Wi-Fi finders," are readily and inexpensively available. But many of them simply register the presence and strength of Wi-Fi signals, such as those from public hotspots. USBFever, for example, offers for $14 a ballpoint pen with a built-in radio detector for 802.11b/g radios. ThinkGeek.com offers the "Digital Wi-Fi Detector", which can scan signals over a 200-foot distance, priced at $50. Depending on the features, the detector may not be very helpful in finding a precise location, for example, an active laptop radio in an automobile parked with a lot of others.But Hawking Technologies' Hi-Gain WiFi Locator Professional Edition includes a high-gain antenna that can more precisely locate a Wi-Fi radio. It is priced at $50. Sean Glynn, Credant's vice president of marketing, said in a press release that some number of users close the cover of the laptop without realizing there may be a delay of 30 minutes before it shifts into sleep mode. The Wi-Fi radio remains on, detectable by a scanner. The solution is simple, he says: make sure you shut off the radio. - Full Article Source

03/04/10 - Sued For Removing Lawn
Some Southern California cities fine residents for watering their lawns too much during droughts. But in Orange, officials are locked in a legal battle with a couple accused of violating city ordinances for removing their lawn in an attempt to save water. The dispute began two years ago, when Quan and Angelina Ha tore out the grass in their frontyard. In drought-plagued Southern California, the couple said, the lush grass had been soaking up tens of thousands of gallons of water -- and hundreds of dollars -- each year. They said they were trying to do something good for the environment. But city officials told the Has they were violating several city laws that require residents to cover significant portions of their frontyards with live ground cover. On Tuesday, the couple is scheduled to appear in Orange County Superior Court to challenge the city's lawsuit against them. - Full Article Source

03/04/10 - Movies the perfect medium to beam up new inventions, says researcher
FLIP phones, video conferencing and super adhesive devices are just some of the many fanciful ideas portrayed in movies, only to become reality years later. A Sydney scientist says such examples are exactly why scientists should be encouraging film directors to be ''bolder and more daring'' when crafting science fiction, rather than reining them in, as some scientists claim. Mary-Anne Williams, director of the innovation and enterprise research laboratory at the University of Technology, Sydney, said it was ''ludicrous that scientists, of all people, would attempt to impose their view of what is possible, especially when there have been spectacular instances of the seemingly impossible suddenly becoming possible''. Take the invisibility cloak. It is every child's dream to vanish into thin air like Harry Potter. In 2008 scientists in the US brought that dream closer to reality when they invented a material that makes light bend away from it. Video conferencing is another example. Skype may seem ordinary now but in the 1960s when the Jetsons started communicating with people face to face remotely, the technology was seen as wishful thinking. And flip phone-style ''communicators'' were used by the characters in Star Trek long before they became a trendy type of mobile phone. In fact, episodes of Star Trek prompted the invention of many modern gadgets, said Djomyi Baker, of the University of Melbourne, who watched more than 700 episodes of Star Trek and its spin-offs for her PhD. Translators, automatic doors, voice recognition and portable data storage devices were all featured in the series. ''Most of the banal things like mobile phones and automatic doors we take from granted were very futuristic at the time,'' she said. Dr Baker said Star Trek also inspired doctors to develop a novel technique of administering drugs. Instead of piercing the skin with a needle, Star Trekkers are dosed up with a ''medical hypospray'' that absorbs through the skin. Doctors in Australia have since developed a prototype of the technology. The transporter from Star Trek, which moves people from one place to another by disintegrating the atoms that make up the body and recombining them in a different location, had been called the most outlandish idea, she said. But since then scientists have transported a particle of light. ''That's far more simplistic than moving a human being but the concept is there.'' - Full Article Source

03/04/10 - Inventor wins $15-million verdict against Home Depot
A former Boca Raton, Fla., man won a $15-million (U.S.) verdict Wednesday from a jury that found hardware giant Home Depot (HD-N31.470.110.35%) willfully stole his invention for a saw guard that keeps employees' hands safe. “Good. Very good,” Michael Powell said, describing how he felt minutes after the jury announced its decision. Because the jury of four women and three men found that the Atlanta-based company had acted willfully, Mr. Powell's attorneys said they will ask U.S. District Court Judge Daniel T.K. Hurley to triple the jury award. The dispute began in 2004 when Home Depot officials contacted Mr. Powell, asking him to figure out a way to improve the safety of radial saws used to cut wood for customers. Concerned with the number of accidents that were occurring, the CEO of Home Depot ordered that safety be improved by the end of 2004, his attorney, Peter Herman said during closing arguments. Company officials liked the “Safe Hands” gadget Mr. Powell ultimately invented, Mr. Herman said. Home Depot purchased eight of them for stores in Los Angeles and Atlanta. Officials told him they'd like to buy the devices for each of their 2,000 stores for $1,200 apiece. After Mr. Powell balked at the price, they contacted another company to produce the safety equipment. Home Depot attorneys countered that he had signed an agreement in which he would share ideas and products with them. Further, they said, his invention wasn't unique and he didn't patent it properly. - Full Article Source

03/04/10 - Magnetic Migraine Relief
Researchers found that people who suffered from migraine 'with aura', when spots in front of the eyes or pins and needles precede the headache, can benefit from the treatment. A team from Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York, America, gave 200 migraine sufferers identical devices, made by Neuralieve in California, to use when they felt a migraine coming on. The study published in Lancet Neurology found in half of them the device delivered a magnetic pulse and the others buzzed and vibrated in the same way but did not produce a pulse. After two hours 40 per cent of those with the real device said they did not have any pain compared with 22 per cent of those with the sham device. There were no side effects and the patients found the device easy to use. The effect lasted for 48 hours. "Our findings are relevant in view of the disabling nature of migraine. For patients who commonly have aura as a signal of an impending migraine, treatment with sTMS may abort progression of the attack and abate disabling pain and other symptoms." It is not known how the device affects migraine as the causes of the headaches are still under investigation but it is thought to disrupt the electrical signals in the brain. Even though the device is small and portable, slightly smaller than a shoebox, patients could use it at home it would not fit in a handbag, for example. - Full Article Source

03/04/10 - Batting Simulator Invention helps Red Sox win
Jay Russo, the managing director for Sports Vision Technologies in Maine, is in Fort Myers, Florida with the Red Sox, pitching the company's new batting simulator. Russo says the Sox batting coach, Dave Magadan, was so impressed with the invention, he claims the Sox would have made it to the World series with its help. The technology measures everything that's happening with the bat, from a hitter's resting position right through impact. - Full Article Source

03/04/10 - Invention to help locate Lost or Misplaced Items
The Dot 2 Dot Object Locator would enable a user to locate small household or personal items quickly and easily. This navigating device would eliminate the daily frustration resulting from lost items. Designed for do-it-yourself and commercial use, the invention would be simple to use and could provide a way of finding a specific item among many similar items or "look-alikes." The invention would consist of both a transmitter and receiver devices. The transceiver consists of a circular disk that could be enclosed in a variety of attachments. Each "dot" contains both the transmitter and receiver, and each dot in the pair can signal the other. To use, an individual would affix one dot to a personal item such as a calculator or power tool and presses a button on the other dot. One of the dots would be triggered by signal to emit an audible or visual alert. - Full Article Source

03/04/10 - Listening device aimed to make TV viewing easier in bars, restaurants
The system has been tested with as many as 30 TVs in a single room. With his technology, each of them can be heard independently using a small device that is about the size of an Ipod. Headphones plug into the listening device, which receives sound through waves of light that aren’t visible to the human eye. “It is wireless,” said Hintzen, 60, who lives on Fort Myers Beach. “But we do not use radio waves.” He had to wait for technology to evolve to develop his product. “Each TV set has a very little box, a wave generator, that puts out the waves of light with the sound encoded on it,” he explained. The wave generators are part of his invention, which has 21 system-level patent claims. His invention, he said, is ideal for sports bars where fans gather to watch their favorite teams play. Without the Wavrydr, a sports bar may only turn up the volume on one or two games. With the system, customers can listen to any game that’s playing on any TV. The device has two jacks so two people can listen to the same program on one receiver. The Wavryder system uses less than 10 cents of electricity a day, Hintzen said. It’s being offered to businesses for about $150 a month through a lease-to-own program. After 60 months, they could own it. The idea is that it will keep customers in bars and restaurants longer, leading to more food and drink sales. “It’s very, very cost effective,” Hintzen said of his invention. The system could quickly pay for itself, Clark said. “The TV has a way of sucking you in,” he said. “Before you know it, you’ve ordered a few more beers and now you are ordering an appetizer.” The receivers are simple to use. Touch any button and they’ll turn on. They’ll turn themselves off when they are not being used. The Wavrydr can easily be carried around. It fits in a shirt pocket. “You can still be social,” Clark said. “You can still walk around the bar.” The cover on the Wavrydr is transparent so you can see inside. Lights glitter when it’s on. “The receiver charges right through the plastic,” Hintzen explained. “They make no direct electrical connection. That is part of the patent.” Links: www.wavrydr.com - Full Article Source

03/04/10 - Bad news for vegetarians...?
A new study by researchers from Harvard suggests that without meat our species might not have evolved with bigger brains. Richard Wrangham of Harvard argues in his new book that the invention of cooking meat led to larger brains and gave us enough free time to develop tools and social skills. Cooking freed humans from having to spend half the day chewing tough raw food — as most of our primate relatives do, Wrangham argues. Cooking also allowed early humans to devote themselves to more productive activities, ultimately allowing the development of tools, agriculture, and social networks, he said. - Full Article Source

03/04/10 - Student develops superior hydrogen storage method
Determined to play a key role in solving global dependency on fossil fuels, Javad Rafiee, a doctoral student in the Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Nuclear Engineering at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, has developed a new method for storing hydrogen at room temperature. Rafiee has created a novel form of engineered graphene that exhibits hydrogen storing capacity far exceeding any other known material. This new graphene has exhibited a hydrogen storage capacity of 14 percent by weight at room temperature – far exceeding any other known material. This 14-percent capacity surpasses the U.S. Department of Energy 2015 target of realizing a material with hydrogen storage capacity of 9 percent by weight at room temperature. Rafiee said his graphene is also one of the first known materials to surpass the Department of Energy’s 2010 target of 6 percent. Rafiee’s graphene exhibits three critical attributes that result in its unique hydrogen storage capacity. The first is high surface area. Graphene’s unique structure, only one atom thick, means that each of its carbon atoms is exposed to the environment and, in turn, to the hydrogen gas. The second attribute is low density. Graphene has one of the highest surface area-per-unit masses in nature, far superior to even carbon nanotubes and fullerenes. The third attribute is favorable surface chemistry. After oxidizing graphite powder and mechanically grinding the resulting graphite oxide, Rafiee synthesized the graphene by thermal shock followed by annealing and exposure to argon plasma. These treatments play an important role in increasing the binding energy of hydrogen to the graphene surface at room temperature, as hydrogen tends to cluster and layer around carbon atoms. - Full Article Source

03/04/10 - Cheap bumwad scare-ads of the late 1920s
This 1928 bumwad advertorial from Scott is part of the toilet-paper maker's sustained attempt to create a global panic over the use of cheap TP by convincing people that if you used the wrong brand, your asshole would fall out and you'd end up in the hospital. - Full Article Source

03/04/10 - Figure out Toyota's problem: Win $1 million
Nobody knows why Toyota cars are having issues with "unintended acceleration". In fact, there's some evidence that all makes of cars do the same thing at a similar rate—it just looks like more Toyotas because there's more of those on the road. Now, Edmunds.com is making an offer: Recreate the accelerator issues under controlled conditions and prove the cause, and you could win $1 million. - Full Article Source

03/04/10 - Toyota acceleration problem probably driver fault
What's the real problem behind Toyota's unintended acceleration? Is it simply a sticky pedal, or is the trouble more fundamental? PM senior automotive editor Mike Allen delves into modern car tech, explaining why widespread theories about electrical throttle problems and electromagnetic interference are misguided. All of the affected pedal assemblies were made by Canadian supplier CTS. Toyota's boffins have documented a problem that can make a few of these pedals slow to return, and maybe even stick down. Problem solved. But the media, Congress—and personal-injury lawyers—smell the blood in the water. Not to diminish the injuries and a few deaths attributable to these very real mechanical problems, but they're statistically only a very small blip, which may explain why Toyota took so long to identify the issue, especially when it has symptoms similar to the similarly documented floor mat recall. Plus, sudden unintended acceleration (SUA) is notoriously difficult to diagnose because, more often then not, the problem can't be repeated in front of a mechanic. Let's not forget the Audi SUA episode back in the '80s; the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration eventually concluded that there was no mechanical problem. The culprit, as hard as this is to admit, was most likely driver error. - Full Article Source

03/04/10 - Building high-speed wireless in Afghanistan out of garbage
Volunteers in Afghanistan -- both locals and foreigners from the MIT Bits and Atoms lab -- have been building out a wireless network made largely from locally scrounged junk. They call it "FabFi" and it's kicking ass, especially when compared with the World Bank-funded alternative, which has spent seven years and hundreds of millions of dollars and only managed its first international link last summer. The boys at the Jalalabad Fab Lab came up with their own design to meet the growing demand created by the International Fab surge last September. As usual all surge participants who came from the US, South Africa, Iceland and Englad paid their own way. Somebody needs to sponsor these people. For those of you who are suckers for numbers, the reflector links up just shy of -71dBm at about 1km, giving it a gain of somewhere between 5 and 6dBi. With a little tweaking and a true parabolic shape, it could easily be as powerful as the small FabFi pictured above (which is roughly 8-10dBi depending on materials) - Full Article Source

03/04/10 - Humidity in kitchen or bathroom can degrade vitamins in a week
The high humidity present in bathrooms and kitchens can degrading the vitamins and health supplements stored in those rooms, even if the lids are on tight, a Purdue University study shows. Crystalline substances like vitamin C, some vitamin B forms and other dietary supplements, are prone to a process called deliquescence in which humidity causes a water-soluble solid to dissolve. Keeping those supplements away from warm, humid environments can help ensure their effectiveness. "In a week you can get complete loss of vitamin C in some products," said Lisa Mauer, an associate professor of food science. - Full Article Source

03/04/10 - Russian Teenager Designs Noiseless Electric Rifle
Maxim Kotelnikov, an eighth-grader, designed his weapon after he had seen a TV program about the use of similar rifles in the USA and Korea. It took the boy a year to design the new weapon. He used his friend’s broken game rifle as the basis. The rifle weighs nearly six kilos (6 kilograms = 13.227 pounds); it fires special cartridges that need to be magnetized in advance. “This weapon is unique for it fires noiselessly. There is no shock of discharge and a shot does not produce a flare. No other sniper rifle can do it. I designed my own system, which I called the “Nucleus System,” the boy said. The rifle is based on the principle of accelerating coil. The rifle is powered with electricity only. A bullet gathers speed immediately. - Full Article Source

03/04/10 - Microsoft Says, Don't Press the F1 Key In XP
"Microsoft has issued a security advisory warning users not to press the F1 key in Windows XP, owing to an unpatched bug in VBScript discovered by Polish researcher Maurycy Prodeus. The security advisory says that the vulnerability relates to the way VBScript interacts with Windows Help files when using Internet Explorer, and could be triggered by a user pressing the F1 key after visiting a malicious Web site using a specially crafted dialog box." - Full Article Source

03/04/10 - The Computer That Can Read Your Mind
"Gtec has showcased a computer that can read your mind over at the CeBIT trade show in Germany. Designed primarily to help those who can't write or speak, the system makes use of a skull cap and wireless technology to transform brain waves into letters. It's the first patient-ready computer-brain interface, according to its Austrian makers. It takes around 30 seconds per letter for the computer to recognise what you're saying the first time you use it, according to Gtec, but this improves vastly with practice. '"One second per letter is very tough," Gtec's Engelbert Grunbacher said, adding users can usually easily get to five or 10 letters per minute. "You learn to be relaxed, focused. You improve."' It might look quite wacky (pictures here) and at €9,000 the system is not cheap, but it could help enhance the lives of many people who have a great deal to say but no real way of saying it." - Full Article Source

03/04/10 - Using Classical Music As a Form of Social Control
"Classical music is being used increasingly in Great Britain as a tool for social control and a deterrent to bad behavior. One school district subjects badly behaving children to hours of Mozart in special detention. Unsurprisingly, some of these youth now find classical music unbearable. Recorded classical music is blared through speakers at bus stops, outside stores, train stations and elsewhere to drive away loitering youth. Apparently it works. Detentions are down, graffiti is reduced, and naughty youth flee because they find classical music repugnant." - Full Article Source

03/03/10 - Magnetic Levitation video
Sure, its all tethered, but its still pretty cool. Must be something interesting and/or useful we could do with this, if not just as a cool toy or demo. - Full Article Source

03/03/10 - Timelapse of a City growing and dying
Rob Carter's stop-motion paper animation film, Metropolis, moves like a pop-up book on speed. The nine-minute film chronicles the urban expansion of Charlotte, North Carolina, with graphics that burst forward, putting the city's evolution into perspective. - Full Article Source

03/03/10 - SNL 'Presidents' Reunite For Video Pushing Wall Street Reform
In the video, the fake presidents approach Obama in a dream as he contemplates the multimillion dollar lobbying campaign banks are waging against the CFPA.Banks and Senate Republicans argue that banking regulators must have authority to veto consumer protections created by the CFPA in order to protect the "safety and soundness" of the financial sector. Rep. Brad Miller (D-N.C.), a champion of the CFPA in the House, told HuffPost that he finds it strange that a bank would argue that it could only manage to stay solvent if it was allowed to engage in abusive and deceptive practices. "I don't find that particularly persuasive," he said. House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank (D-Mass.) told HuffPost Tuesday the proposal is "crazy." The Fed already has consumer protection authority but has elected not to use it. Frank said that such a proposal would be a non-starter with the House. "For months, the Big Banks and their army of high priced lobbyists have been swarming Capitol Hill looking to either kill or weaken real reform -- including a strong and independent agency focused on standing up for consumers," said Americans for Financial Reform chief Heather Booth in a statement. "We are thrilled the folks at Funny or Die, and their friends in Hollywood, are joining this fight." AFR is launching a week of action, encouraging people to call Senate offices and urge them to get behind an independent CFPA, in coordination with the video. - Full Article Source

03/02/10 - Dark matter could meet its nemesis on Earth
A SPINNING disc may be all that is needed to overturn Newton's second law of motion - and potentially remove the need for dark matter. The second law states that a force is proportional to an object's mass and its acceleration. But since the 1980s, some physicists have eyed the law with suspicion, arguing that subtle changes to it at extremely small accelerations could explain the observed motion of stars in galaxies. Stars move at speeds that suggest that galaxies have far more mass than is visible, which astronomers attribute to dark matter. But if Newton's second law could be modified ever so slightly, it would obviate the need for dark matter. De Lorenci's team has figured out that a spinning disc can reproduce the effect any time and anywhere on Earth. Their calculations show that if the disc is positioned accurately and its speed precisely controlled, the acceleration at specific points on the disc's rim would cancel out the accelerations produced by the motion of the Earth and the sun. If the second law is correct at all accelerations, a measuring device mounted on the rim should register no anomalous force at these points. However, if MOND is correct, the device should feel an aberrant kick. "We are able to control the conditions to produce the MOND regime in any place at any time," says De Lorenci. However, the experiment can only test a version of MOND that says that all forces act differently at tiny accelerations. Another version postulates that just gravity would be affected, and this can only be tested in space. - Full Article Source

03/02/10 - The sweet smell of morality
Can a clean smell make you a better person? That’s the provocative suggestion of a recent study in the journal Psychological Science. A team of researchers found that when people were in a room recently spritzed with a citrus-scented cleanser, they behaved more fairly when playing a classic trust game. In another experiment, the smell of cleanser made subjects more likely to volunteer for a charity. The findings suggest that simply smelling something clean makes people clean up their behavior - that a smell can provoke a mental leap between cleanliness and morality, making people think differently about the world around them. The authors even suggested that clean smells could be employed as a tool to influence how people act. - Full Article Source

03/02/10 - Secret Society for Creative Philanthropy
Altruism is something of a novelty these days, and most people have little time to partake. But altruism is the whole idea behind the new charity, called the Secret Society for Creative Philanthropy. It's the brainchild of Courtney Martin, a South of Market writer who dreamed up the idea four years ago in New York and has handed out a stack of her own $100 bills every year to select good-deed doers who agree to dream up unusual ways to use the dough. - Full Article Source

03/02/10 - Visiting Aliens will probably be nanobased robots
Reality is that any alien race out there with whom we have any kind of physical contact at all is virtually certain to have (a) full-fledged nanotech, and (b) hyperhuman AI. Given these capabilities, if they want to find Earth-like planets anywhere in the area of space they would have the physical capability of travelling to, they will find them. Period. Doesn’t matter whether we are standing on the shore waving or not. Of course, that assumes they are interested in Earth-like planets in the first place. Most commentators on the subject seem to be stuck in E. E. Smith’s universe, worrying about whether the aliens who notice us will be the (kindly, academic) Norlaminians or the (evil, rapacious) Fenachrone. The aliens, wearing bodies like ours (or at least some form of animal life) will have spaceships and spacesuits and takeoff and land on planets and basically act like people on ocean-going boats. - Full Article Source

KeelyNet BBS Files w/bonus PDF of 'Keely and his Discoveries'
Finally, I've gotten around to compiling all the files (almost 1,000 - about 20MB and lots of work doing it) from the original KeelyNet BBS into a form you can easily navigate and read using your browser, ideally Firefox but it does work with IE. Most of these files are extremely targeted, interesting and informative, I had forgotten just how much but now you can have the complete organized, categorized set, not just sprinklings from around the web. They will keep you reading for weeks if not longer and give you clues and insights into many subjects and new ideas for investigation and research. IN ADDITION, I am including as a bonus gift, the book (in PDF form) that started it all for me, 'Keely and his Discoveries - Aerial Navigation' which includes the analysis of Keely's discoveries by Dr. Daniel G. Brinton. This 407 page eBook alone is worth the price of the KeelyNet BBS CD but it will give you some degree of understanding about what all Keely accomplished which is just now being rediscovered, but of course, without recognizing Keely as the original discoverer. Chapters include; Vibratory Sympathetic and Polar Flows, Vibratory Physics, Latent Force in Interstitial Spaces and much more. To give some idea of how Keely's discoveries are being slowly rediscovered in modern times, check out this Keely History. These two excellent bodies of information will be sent to you on CD. If alternative science intrigues and fascinates you, this CD is what you've been looking for... - Full Article Source

03/02/10 - New California law to raise minimum for consumer solar power buy back
Friday, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is expected to sign legislation that will make it possible for more Californians to sell the electricity they produce back to their utilities at retail prices. The legislation, written by Assemblywoman Nancy Skinner (D-Berkeley), doubles to 5% the overall amount of energy that California's investor-owned utilities must buy back. Previously, state law required electric companies to sign so-called net-metering contracts for up to only 2.5% of their load. Solar advocates said the net-metering boost would allow consumers to recoup their investment faster, which is critical to California's goal of installing a million rooftop arrays by 2017. Some 50,000 California homes benefit from net-metering today, a number that would need to grow rapidly if the state is to reach its goal of obtaining 3,000 megawatts from rooftop solar. - Full Article Source

03/02/10 - Google's New Mirror Technology to Cut Costs for Solar Development?
According to reports at CNBC, Google’s Bill Weihl said that, if all goes well with testing, the product could potentially be ready in three years. What makes the product so unique is its unusual material makeup which allows the sun to reflect off a surface, causing it to heat, thus producing steam to run the turbine. With Google’s new invention, the mirror focuses the sun’s rays on the heated substance. This rumor comes around a time when the Internet mogul has been investing in companies in the renewable energy market, while also doing its own research part in efforts to be more progressive in the movement. And with this mirror technology, Google’s plans are to cost of making heliostats, the fields of mirrors that track the sun. "There is a decent chance that in a small number of years, we could have a 2-X reduction in cost," Weihl said. - Full Article Source

03/02/10 - New material traps radioactive waste like a Venus flytrap
Venus flytraps are notoriously picky eaters. Drop a pebble into their open jaws and they won't bite, but when a fly enters they instinctively know to snap shut immediately. Now scientists have invented a chemical material which acts in a similar fashion, though unlike the carnivorous plant, its favorite food is radioactive waste. Before the invention of this material, sorting out deadly isotopes from harmless ions in waste proved to be an arduous and inefficient process. The new material works because its crystalline structure is specially designed to bond in a different way with cesium than with sodium, trapping the former but releasing the latter. Since cesium ions don't bond as well as sodium ions with water molecules, only the sodium ions manage to pull through the material when it is dipped in a solution to prompt ion exchange. Cesium, on the other hand, actually binds to sulfur atoms embedded in the rings of the material's framework, causing a hole to seal shut around it. "As far as we know, this Venus-flytrap process is unique," Kanatzidis said. "It also works over a large range of acidities—an essential property for cleanup at different sites around the world, where pH can range considerably." - Full Article Source

03/02/10 - Self-ejecting plugs are here
A student at the Rhode Island School of Design has come upon an ingenious solution to a major energy problem -- phantom power. The charging of devices like cell phones, cameras and laptops is increasing the amount of energy consumed in the U.S. These devices continue to draw energy even after they have been fully charged. Conor Klein, a RISDE student, was inspired by the physiology of the leech which ejects itself from its host when it becomes full of blood. The device is called the Outlet Regulator and it uses "...a timer circuit and electromagnetics" to trigger the plug release thereby guaranteeing that energy is not being wasted overcharging devices. - Full Article Source

03/02/10 - Birds have built in magnetometer?
Specialized iron compounds in the dendrites locally amplify the Earth magnetic field and thus induce a primary receptor potential. Most probably each of these more than 500 dendrites encodes only one direction of the magnetic field. These manifold data are processed to the brain of the bird and here - recomposed - serve as a basis for a magnetic map, which facilitates the spatial orientation. Whether this magnetic map is consulted, strongly depends on the avian species and its current motivation to do so: migratory birds, for example, show magnetic orientation only during their migratory restlessness, as could be shown in multiple behavioural experiments by Prof. Wolfgang Wiltschko, who has discovered magnetic field guided navigation in birds. The cooperation with his research team has suggested that magnetic compass and magnetic map sense are based on different mechanisms and are localized at different sites: The magnetic compass resides in the eye, the magnetometer for the magnetic map lies in the beak. - Full Article Source

03/02/10 - Cyberwar hype cooked up to sell Internet-breaking garbage to the military
For years, McConnell has wanted the NSA (the ultra-secretive government spy agency responsible for listening in on other countries and for defending classified government computer systems) to take the lead in guarding all government and private networks. Not surprisingly, the contractor he works for has massive, secret contracts with the NSA in that very area. In fact, the company, owned by the shadowy Carlyle Group, is reported to pull in $5 billion a year in government contracts, many of them Top Secret. Now the problem with developing cyberweapons -- say a virus, or a massive botnet for denial-of-service attacks, is that you need to know where to point them. In the Cold War, it wasn't that hard. In theory, you'd use radar to figure out where a nuclear attack was coming from and then you'd shoot your missiles in that general direction. But online, it's extremely difficult to tell if an attack traced to a server in China was launched by someone Chinese, or whether it was actually a teenager in Iowa who used a proxy. That's why McConnell and others want to change the internet. The military needs targets. - Full Article Source

03/02/10 - Memory Problems? Try Magnesium
New research from Tel Aviv University suggests that magnesium, a key nutrient for the functioning of memory, may be even more critical than previously thought. The research, lead by Dr. Inna Slutsky, focused on a new magnesium supplement, magnesium-L-theronate (MgT), that effectively crosses the blood-brain barrier to inhibit calcium flux in brain neurons. The new study found that the synthetic magnesium compound works on both young and aging animals to enhance memory or prevent its impairment. The research was carried out over a five-year period and has significant implications for the use of over-the-counter magnesium supplements. - Full Article Source

03/02/10 - Thorium most practical way to achieve Energy Independence
Thorium is a readily available & much safer, lower waste product nuclear fuel. Thorium's capacity as nuclear fuel was discovered during WW II, but ignored because it was unsuitable for making bombs. A liquid-fluoride thorium reactor (LFTR) is the optimal approach for harvesting energy from Thorium, and has the potential to solve today's energy/climate crisis. In fact, it is probably the only practical way to do. This 16 minute video summarizes 197 minutes worth of Google Tech Talks on the subject of Thorium & LFTR. - Full Article Source

03/02/10 - Islamic terror web sites urge followers to attack the economic system
Jihadist terror organizations have set economic terrorism as their new target, intending to harm and paralyze Western economies, the United Sates in particular, claims Prof. Gabriel Weimann, expert researcher on terrorism over the Internet at the University of Haifa. Prof. Weimann monitored websites hosted by terrorist and terrorism-supporting organizations and concludes: 'For the Jihadists, the present economic crisis signifies an ideal opportunity and platform to leverage an economic terrorist campaign.' - Full Article Source

03/02/10 - 'Biological clock' could be a key to better health, longer life
If you aren't getting a good, consistent and regular night's sleep, a new study suggests it could reduce your ability to handle oxidative stress, cause impacts to your health, increase motor and neurological deterioration, speed aging and ultimately cut short your life. That is, if your "biological clock" genes work the same way as those of a fruit fly. And they probably do. The study concluded that expression of the "period" gene naturally declines with age. If the same is true for humans, that could help explain why people may lose some of their ability to handle oxidative and other stresses at a time of their life when they need it most. The scientists theorized that the "period" gene is regulating pathways involved in removal of oxidative damage, and those without this function experienced the symptoms of aging more quickly. This could ultimately have impacts on everything from neurological damage to heart disease and cancer. "What's worth noting, of course, is that every animal species, unless they are in a protected laboratory, experiences stressful events," Krishnan said. "That's part of a normal life. The metabolic challenge we presented to these fruit flies was only a moderate stress. But even so, it appeared to later cause motor and neuronal degeneration and an earlier death in the mutant flies, due to faster buildup of cellular damage." Further research will explore ways in which biological clocks might be "re-vitalized." - Full Article Source

03/02/10 - Solid State Electrolyte to Triple Lithium Battery power at half the cost
AMPAC scientists independently confirmed that Planar Energy’s new generation of solid state electrolytes have ionic conductivity metrics comparable to liquid electrolytes used in traditional chemical batteries. It will allow solid state battery fabrication that will enable manufacturers to increase their capacity by 200-to-300 percent, while reducing costs more than 50 percent. - This is what the automotive industry needs to make electric vehicles practical and affordable.. - Full Article Source

03/02/10 - Open Gov Tracker Reveals Best US Open Government Ideas
"In May of 2009, the White House launched an Ideascale site to gather ideas from citizens to identify ways to 'strengthen our democracy and promote efficiency and effectiveness by making government more transparent, participatory, and collaborative.' The digital letdown was when many of the top ideas generated by the process were to legalize marijuana, solve tax issues and to reinvestigate Obama's birth origins. Fast forward to February 6 and the same process has been repeated with individual federal agencies as the subject. This time the idea generation has been much more productive, with ideas such as establishing clear benchmarks on humanitarian progress in Sudan to the State Department, funding for open source text books and materials to the Department of Education, making it easier to access previously FOIAed documents to the Department of Justice, and creating a Wiki for NASA to share its data and to engage the public. Hackers from NASA's Nebula cloud computing platform have created a site that aggregates 23 of these idea sites to give a quick peek into the best rated contributions in each category. Programmed in Python and using the MongoDB and Tornado web server, the Open Gov Tracker was highlighted by the open government blog Govfresh this past week as well. Jessy Cowan-Sharp, one of the creators, explained their motivation: 'We thought that a single access point would give a sense of the participation on all the different sites, a window into the discussions happening, build some excitement, and inspire people to participate.' The process closes on March 19th, so go and visit the site to contribute your ideas and vote!" - Full Article Source

03/02/10 - "Patent Markings" Lawsuits Could Run Into the Trillions
"The latest legal bugaboo facing manufacturers is the false patent marking suit. Using what has been until recently an obscure type of legal action, individuals and enterprising law firms have targeted large manufacturers with lawsuits that can easily run million of dollars — in a case involving a drink cup manufacturer, over $10 trillion — for incorrectly including patent numbers on products. Some companies named in such suits are 3M, Cisco, Pfizer, Monster Cable, and Merck. Even expired patent numbers can be actionable." - Full Article Source

03/02/10 - Chilean Earthquake Shortened Earth's Day
"Days on Earth just got shorter. The recent earthquake in Chile shifted the planet's axis by about 8 cm and shortened days by 1.26 microseconds 'The changes can be modeled, though they're difficult to detect physically given their small size... Some changes may be more obvious, and islands may have shifted... Santa Maria Island off the coast near Concepcion, Chile’s second-largest city, may have been raised 2 meters (6 feet) as a result of the latest quake...'" - Full Article Source

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

KeelyNet BBS Files w/bonus PDF of 'Keely and his Discoveries'
Finally, I've gotten around to compiling all the files (almost 1,000 - about 20MB and lots of work doing it) from the original KeelyNet BBS into a form you can easily navigate and read using your browser, ideally Firefox but it does work with IE. Most of these files are extremely targeted, interesting and informative, I had forgotten just how much but now you can have the complete organized, categorized set, not just sprinklings from around the web. They will keep you reading for weeks if not longer and give you clues and insights into many subjects and new ideas for investigation and research. IN ADDITION, I am including as a bonus gift, the book (in PDF form) that started it all for me, 'Keely and his Discoveries - Aerial Navigation' which includes the analysis of Keely's discoveries by Dr. Daniel G. Brinton. This 407 page eBook alone is worth the price of the KeelyNet BBS CD but it will give you some degree of understanding about what all Keely accomplished which is just now being rediscovered, but of course, without recognizing Keely as the original discoverer. Chapters include; Vibratory Sympathetic and Polar Flows, Vibratory Physics, Latent Force in Interstitial Spaces and much more. To give some idea of how Keely's discoveries are being slowly rediscovered in modern times, check out this Keely History. These two excellent bodies of information will be sent to you on CD. If alternative science intrigues and fascinates you, this CD is what you've been looking for... - Full Article Source

'The Evolution of Matter' and 'The Evolution of Forces' on CD
Years ago, I had been told by several people, that the US government frequently removes books they deem dangerous or 'sensitive' from libraries. Some are replaced with sections removed or rewritten so as to 'contain' information that should not be available to the public despite the authors intent. A key example was during the Manhattan Project when the US was trying to finalize research into atomic bombs. They removed any books that dealt with the subject and two of them were by Dr. Gustave Le Bon since they dealt with both energy and matter including radioactivity. I had been looking for these two books for many years and fortunately stumbled across two copies for which I paid about $40.00 each. I couldn't put down the books once I started reading them. Such a wealth of original discoveries, many not known or remembered today. / Page 88 - Without the ether there could be neither gravity, nor light, nor electricity, nor heat, nor anything, in a word, of which we have knowledge. The universe would be silent and dead, or would reveal itself in a form which we cannot even foresee. If one could construct a glass chamber from which the ether were to be entirely eliminated, heat and light could not pass through it. It would be absolutely dark, and probably gravitation would no longer act on the bodies within it. They would then have lost their weight. / Page 96-97 - A material vortex may be formed by any fluid, liquid or gaseous, turning round an axis, and by the fact of its rotation it describes spirals. The study of these vortices has been the object of important researches by different scholars, notably by Bjerkness and Weyher. They have shown that by them can be produced all the attractions and repulsions recognized in electricity, the deviations of the magnetic needle by currents, etc. These vortices are produced by the rapid rotation of a central rod furnished with pallets, or, more simply, of a sphere. Round this sphere gaseous currents are established, dissymetrical with regard to its equatorial plane, and the result is the attraction or repulsion of bodies brought near to it, according to the position given to them. It is even possible, as Weyher has proved, to compel these bodies to turn round the sphere as do the satellites of a planet without touching it. / Page 149 - "The problem of sending a pencil of parallel Hertzian waves to a distance possesses more than a theoretical interest. It is allowable to say that its solution would change the course of our civilization by rendering war impossible. The first physicist who realizes this discovery will be able to avail himself of the presence of an enemy's ironclads gathered together in a harbour to blow them up in a few minutes, from a distance of several kilometres, simply by directing on them a sheaf of electric radiations. On reaching the metal wires with which these vessels are nowadays honeycombed, this will excite an atmosphere of sparks which will at once explode the shells and torpedoes stored in their holds. With the same reflector, giving a pencil of parallel radiations, it would not be much more difficult to cause the explosion of the stores of powder and shells contained in a fortress, or in the artillery sparks of an army corps, and finally the metal cartridges of the soldiers. Science, which at first rendered wars so deadly, would then at length have rendered them impossible, and the relations between nations would have to be established on new bases." - Full Article Source

High Voltage & Free Energy Devices Handbook
This wonderfully informative ebook provides many simple experiments you can do, including hydrogen generation and electrostatic repulsion as well as the keys to EV Gray's Fuelless Engine. One of the most comprehensive compilations of information yet detailing the effects of high voltage repulsion as a driving force. Ed Gray's engine produced in excess of 300HP and he claimed to be able to 'split the positive' energy of electricity to produce a self-running motor/generator for use as an engine. Schematics and tons of photos of the original machines and more! Excellent gift for your technical friends or for that budding scientist! If you are an experimenter or know someone who investigates such matters, this would make an excellent addition to your library or as an unforgettable gift. The downloadable HVFE eBook pdf file is almost 11MB in size and contains many experiments, photos, diagrams and technical details. Buy a copy and learn all about hydrogen generation, its uses and how to produce electrostatic repulsion. - 121 pages - $15.00 - Full Article Source

09/23/09 - Hypnosis CD - 3 eBooks with How To Techniques and Many Cases
If you have a few minutes, you might want to read my page on hypnosis and all the amazing things associated with its application. Included is an experience I had when I hypnotized a neighbor kid when I was about 14. As well the hypnotic gaze of snakes, the discovery of 'eyebeams' which can be detected electronically, the Italian Hypnotist Robber who was caught on tape with his eyes glowing as cashiers handed over their money and remembered nothing, glamour and clouding the mind of others, several methods of trance induction and many odd cases, animal catatonia, healing, psychic phenomena, party/stage stunts, including my favorite of negative hallucination where you make your subject NOT see something...much more...if nothing else, its might be a hoot to read. - Full Article Source

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

New Vanguard Sciences eBooks - Save a Tree! eBooks make great gifts!
Shape Power - Dan Davidson's analysis of the mysterious pyramid energies, Keely's aether force, Reich's orgone energy, Schauberger's diamagnetic energy, plus a host of others, and shows how shape and materials interact with the universal aether to modify the aether into electromagnetic, gravitic, and various healing energies... - Shape Power Youtube

The Physics of the Primary State of Matter - published in the 1930s, Karl Schappeller described his Prime Mover, a 10-inch steel sphere with quarter-inch copper tubing coils. These were filled with a material not named specifically, but which is said to have hardened under the influence of direct current and a magnetic field [electro-rheological fluid]. With such polarization, it might be guessed to act like a dielectric capacitor and as a diode...

$5 Alt Science MP3s to listen while working/driving/jogging
No time to sit back and watch videos? Here are 15 interesting presentations you can download for just $5 each and listen to while driving, working, jogging, etc. An easy way to learn some fascinating new things that you will find of use. Easy, cheap and simple, better than eBooks or Videos. Roughly 50MB per MP3. - Full Article Source

15 New Alternative Science DVDs & 15 MP3s
An assortment of alternative science videos that provide many insights and inside information from various experimenters. Also MP3s extracted from these DVDs that you can listen to while working or driving. Reference links for these lectures and workshops by Bill Beaty of Amateur Science on the Dark Side of Amateur Science, Peter Lindemann on the World of Free Energy, Norman Wootan on the History of the EV Gray motor, Dan Davidson on Shape Power and Gravity Wave Phenomena, Lee Crock on a Method for Stimulating Energy, Doug Konzen on the Konzen Pulse Motor, George Wiseman on the Water Torch and Jerry Decker on Aether, ZPE and Dielectric Nano Arrays. Your purchase of these products helps support KeelyNet, thanks! - Full Article Source to Buy

Want to make a difference? If you have the funds, check out;

The Vanguard Sciences Lab Project experiments in energy, transport, gravity and healing/rejuvenation

The Vanguard Sciences Gravity Control Project to Re-Discover how to control Gravity with related projects

Looking for 'PoP'
Proof of Principle

Chaos Converters

Rhythmodynamics

Who is Decker???

great magazine covers many topics

Bill Beatys'
excellent huge science site

Tesla Patents

Low cost Dental Work and Mexican Artesanias