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May 2008 Plenum News 2008 (enhanced) Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec 2007 (enhanced) Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec 2006 (enhanced) Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec 2005 (enhanced) Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Entire Year (minimal, early formats) 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 You can write Comments or read the KeelyNet discussion list. Feel free to subscribe. Be aware in case any of these links don't respond, most will be available through the Wayback Machine, simply cut and paste the link to recall the 'lost' information. 05/30/08 - Researchers make breakthrough in renewable energy materials "We have grown the world's first titanium oxide single crystals with large amounts of reactive surfaces, something that was predicted as almost impossible," Max Lu told Xinhua. "Titania nano-crystals are promising materials for cost-effective solar cells, hydrogen production from splitting water, and solar decontamination of pollutants," he said. He said what his team has done was to make such materials "easy and cheap." Talking about the application of the highly efficient miniature crystals, Lu said it wasn't just renewable energy where this research could be applied. "They are also fantastic for purifying air and water," he said," One could paint these crystals on to a window or a wall to purify the air in a room." - Source 05/30/08 - Wallpaper Speakers Could Become A Reality Johns Hopkins materials scientist Michaely Yu and his team claim to have invented a material which could allow for piezoelectic sound devices to be placed in areas previously thought to be too challenging. The invention provides for a resin polymer which possesses piezoelectric properties usually found only in very heavy, brittle materials. If the early findings hold up, the flexible material and could be used to produce a coating which could create speakers embedded into wallpaper or even speakers that could be folded in two. By adding silicone rubber to that material, Yu and colleagues have made it possible to separately control the material's piezoelectric mechanical properties. - Source 05/30/08 - Preventing an arms race in space Can weapons be banned from outer space? Or will the Niagara current of defense contractor greed, imperial hubris, and inadequate politics carry the destructiveness of war into the "fourth battlefield" of the very cosmos? That is the question that has been asked at the United Nations Conference on Disarmament in Geneva for the last six years. But not by Washington. How many Americans know that the nation refusing to discuss a treaty aimed at preventing an arms race in outer space is their own? Indeed, the United States, in various Pentagon documents published during the Bush administration, is explicit in aiming to put weapons in space - lasers, directed energy weapons, kinetic kill vehicles. The U.S. Space Command, in its "Vision for 2020," plans for " counterspace operations." The already deployed missile defense system is a first step toward an anti-satellite capability, giving the Pentagon control of the "high frontier." The American Academy of Arts and Sciences recently published "Russian and Chinese Responses to U.S. Military Plans in Space," a stark look at where the American project is taking the world. The academy was instrumental half a century ago in creating the arms control regime that enabled the Cold War to end nonviolently. Now it warns that "U.S. space weaponization plans would have potentially disastrous effects on international security and the peaceful uses of space." - Source 05/30/08 - UFO: an Undeniably Fading Obsession The vast majority of UFO spotters, as revealed in the MoD files, are not fantasists, but ordinary people who thought they saw something extraordinary in the sky. The spacecraft tend to come in familiar forms, with saucer and cigar shapes the perennial favourites. Coloured lights are also popular. The British X-Files contain more then 7,000 separate sightings, 150 files in all, of which just eight have been released so far. For the last decade UFO sightings have steadily declined. The British Flying Saucer Bureau closed in 2003. The number of UFOs dipped with the invention of the colour television and plunged with the advent of the internet. Perhaps in an complex and uncertain society, people have more practical concerns. The decline in UFO sightings may reflect a healthy scepticism, but a world without extraterrestrials would be drab indeed. The British X-Files reveal a people alert to the sky, imaginative, eccentric, slightly embarrassed and above all inquisitive. Perhaps this new proof of our former fascination with the mysteries of space will rekindle the curiosity. - Source 05/30/08 - Teen inventor plans to unveil hybrid engine With rising gas prices becoming a big concern, Santana High School senior Josh Wesolowski plans to unveil an invention he hopes will hold an answer to the energy riddle. The contraption, constructed from an old lawn-mower engine, is a “hybrid” engine that runs on four different types of fuel: gasoline, propane, methanol and hydrogen. “I built this engine to simply prove a point that it's not difficult to run any engine on many different fuels,” Wesolowski said, noting that anything flammable can be burned in an internal combustion engine. Wesolowski has dubbed his creation the alternative-fuel engine. The machine is simplistic in appearance but performs a unique function - alternating between four very different fuel sources with the flip of a switch, all while the motor is running. Canisters mounted on each side supply the small engine with the fuels through homemade intakes, built with ordinary plumbing valves. The machine is started with unleaded gas, switched to run on methanol, propane and, finally, hydrogen before being shut off. Gas is used first because methanol, an alcoholic substance similar to ethanol, lacks the punch needed to heat the engine for a full ignition. - Source 05/30/08 - Promising clean energy system still years away With Gov. Charlie Crist and St. Petersburg Mayor Rick Baker in attendance, Progress Energy Florida and the University of South Florida showed off their latest invention: the Sustainable Electric Energy Delivery System, or SEEDS. Think of it like a bigger, better battery. It could make renewables like wind and solar more reliable by unchaining them from the weather by storing the energy they generate. SEEDS uses a mix of sulfuric acid and vanadium, a naturally occurring metal. The demonstration system at Albert Whitted Park uses solar panels to feed electricity into a two-sided tank system containing an electrolyte solution. One side has a positive charge and the other a negative charge. Electrodes collect the energy to be stored or delivered. Progress Energy Florida billed it as a building block toward "smart" grids that links conventional large power plants, conservation management, and home energy systems. Like many energy innovations, this one remains years away from the market. - Source 05/30/08 - Maltese Fuel-Free Generator Dr Joseph Muscat, one of the candidates in the Labour leadership election, on Thursday visited the workshop of a group of inventors in Gozo, whose latest environment friendly invention has not only won them an EU award, but also shows that the creativity of Maltese contributes to innovation. An invention by Gozo Enterprises Ltd was recently awarded the prestigious ‘Energy Global’ Award, in Brussels. Dr Muscat viewed the invention, a fuel-free electricity generating machine, and observed that this is yet another proof that Malta can use its creativity to solve problems which we will be facing in coming years. - Source 05/30/08 - Tucsonian engineering success with energy-efficient invention 18-year-old home-schooler Parker Owan attended the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair in Atlanta with two students from Catalina Foothills High School earlier this month. He took second place in the electrical and mechanical category and was awarded $8,000 in scholarships for his invention: a vertical axis wind turbine. The invention was constructed with intentions of finding a way to conserve energy for the household, Owan said. The project took about a year to complete. Taking into account that few wind machines constructed in the city are adaptable to changing wind speeds, Owan designed his turbine to accommodate fluctuations. "My build takes advantage of the power available in the wind at all speeds and it can fit on top of the house," he said. "It basically changes the orientation of the blades to maximize the efficiency. - Source 05/30/08 - the 'Blue Energy Hoax' The President has been chided for apparently being taken in by what experts are calling the "Blue Energy" hoax. Blue Energy was the work of a Joko Suprapto, who claimed to have created fuel from water. Joko, who has been labeled a charlatan by some observers, managed to secure a meeting with President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, who was eager to pursue the Blue Energy project. Some scientists and lawmakers have since dismissed the so-called invention as a hoax, saying the President was deceived by Joko, who never published articles about his claimed Blue Energy in scientific journals. The presidential office has never issued a statement about the issue, although lawmakers and scientists have urged the government to explain the mystery behind Joko's brief disappearance and what has happened with his invention. - Source 05/30/08 - High Prices Lead to Gas Theft What do Americans do when faced with higher prices? Most of them simply cut back on their driving; AAA reports a decrease of 4.3% in traffic which equates to 11 billion fewer miles. Other Americans find it easier to step down from their high horses and resort to crime. Reports have come in for truck-jackings for the fuel rather than the vehicle. Gas stations report increased cases of "drive-offs" where patrons simply fill-up and drive away without paying. And the siphoning crimes of the 70s are prevalent, but in a new way. Instead of siphoning with a hose, the high clearance of SUVs allow thieves to simply drill into the fuel tank or cut the fuel lines. Across the Atlantic, UK truckers have taken to angry protest by intentionally congesting highways over fuel costs equivalent to $11.50 a gallon. - Source 05/30/08 - Create your own solar energy at home Energy independence is not some far-off dream: High quality solar technology exists here and now. The initial investment cost is still high, but as more and more folks purchase solar collection equipment it will become less expensive. During the last decade we have had the opportunity to install several solar energy systems. The first one that we contracted cost the homeowner over $110,000 (after rebates). Today that same system would run about $30,000 and will last for 40 years or more. Calculating life expectancy against installation cost, and amortizing the cost on a monthly basis, today's average solar system will run its owner about $62 a month. If you use that $62 a month to charge an electric car, you can replace both your gas bill and your electric bill, an obvious savings. If you add solar the next time you replace your roof, your home will be one of the most sought-after in the neighborhood. And its value will skyrocket. A solar system and a swimming pool now cost about the same, but a swimming pool will only improve the cost of your home by a few thousand dollars. There are companies that supply and install solar panels on top of your roof and those that offer solar collectors that are an integral part of your roof shingle system. Both are a sensible alternatives. - Source 05/30/08 - Darpa's New Medical Treatment: Putty When bombs shatter bones with compound fractures, it can take multiple surgeries and lots of rehab to set things right. So Darpa, the Pentagon's premiere research shop, wants to "develop a dynamic putty-like material" that can be packed around a shattered bone, support the body while the patient heals -- and bio-degrade, once it's all over. - Source 05/30/08 - Mars scientists ponder polygon mystery Scientists working with images from the Mars Phoenix mission are baffled by an unexpected difference between what they thought they would see and what Phoenix is now showing them. Polygons on Earth tend to be big, measuring 15 to 20 metres across. On Mars, based on the best available knowledge of conditions in the northern plains, Michael Mellon calculates that the polygons should be, on average, 5 metres across. They are not. "It has certainly got our brains turning," says Mellon. - Source 05/30/08 - BMW says solar roof panels could cut fuel bills Future car models from German maker BMW could be equipped with roof-mounted solar panels aimed at saving fuel and cutting pollutants. The energy from the sun would be used to top up the car's battery or else pre-warm liquids in the engine to make cold starts less wearing on mechanical parts and also more fuel-efficient. A square metre of solar panelling is sufficient to generate enough electrical power to run or charge up onboard systems such as navigation devices and cell phones. It could also be used to pre-warm air-conditioning systems. - Source 05/30/08 - Meat Wagons New York City is working on a plan to deploy a special ambulance to collect the bodies of people who have died suddenly from heart attacks, accidents and other emergencies and try to preserve their organs. If the "rapid-organ-recovery ambulance" succeeds, officials would like to expand the unique pilot program citywide with a fleet of ambulances and eventually duplicate it in other cities. Once all hope for resuscitation was gone, and as long as no family members objected, the victims' bodies would be transferred to the organ ambulance team, even if the victims' willingness to be organ donors was unclear. The crew could then perform measures on the body to prevent the organs from deteriorating, including chest compressions with an automated device and pumping oxygen into the lungs through a tracheal tube to keep blood and oxygen flowing. The crew might also administer the blood-thinning drug heparin to prevent clots while speeding to Bellevue. At the hospital, doctors could take additional steps, such as inserting a plastic tube known as a cannula into an artery, usually in the groin, to infuse the body with fluids to cool and preserve the organs. Organ bank workers would then assess whether the person was a suitable donor, determine whether they had an organ donor card or were listed on an organ donor registry, and try to locate a family member to give consent. - Source 05/30/08 - Wal-Mart puts the squeeze on food costs The retailer is using its clout with vendors to hold onto its everyday low prices. "When our grocery suppliers bring price increases, we don't just accept them," says Pamela Kohn, Wal-Mart's general merchandise manager for perishables. To be sure, Wal-Mart (WMT, Fortune 500) isn't the only retailer working to cut fat from the food chain, but as the largest grocer - Wal-Mart's food and consumables revenue is nearly $100 billion - it has a disproportionate amount of leverage. Here's how the retailer is throwing its weight around. Shrink the Goods. Cutout the Middlemen. Go Locovore. - Source 05/30/08 - Workers shifting to 4-day week to save gasoline The reason is simple: rising gas prices and a desire to retain good workers. Regular gasoline averages $3.94 a gallon in the United States, up 33 cents in the past month and 88 cents since the beginning of the year, the Energy Information Administration said this week. The federal government has offered four-day workweeks to eligible employees for years as part of a flexible work program that also includes telecommuting. But the surge in gasoline prices is pushing more private employers as well as local governments to offer a four-day week as a perk that eliminates two commutes a week. "By allowing employees to work four 10-hour days it will save them 20 percent on their commute costs and ease the financial pinch of filling up their cars," said L. Brooks Patterson, who last week proposed the compressed week for county workers. Gasoline prices have begun altering U.S. commutes in many ways, a survey released on Thursday showed. Some 44 percent of respondents said they have changed the way they commute -- doing things such as sharing a ride or driving a more fuel-efficient car -- or are working from home or looking for a closer job in order to reduce gasoline costs, according to staffing services company Robert Half International. That's up from 34 percent two years ago. On New York's Long Island, Suffolk County legislator Wayne Horsley also has proposed employees have the option of working four 10-hour shifts, rather than five eight-hour shifts, saying it would save 461 barrels of oil in a 120-day pilot project. "This is a gasoline-driven proposition and we're looking to change people's long term philosophies of life," Horsley said. The program, termed Operation Sunshine, will cut gasoline costs for workers who drive an average round trip of 32 miles to work. It also aims to cut the county's energy bill by having fewer employees in the office at a time, Horsley said. - Source 05/28/08 - Turning to water to save fuel Franky Chahyadi's motorbike used to travel between 30 and 35 kilometers on one liter of premium fuel. But since he started using an electrolyzer, a liter of premium fuel can keep his motorbike going for 50 to 55 kilometers. And it's not just his motorbike; his Mercedes C18 is also performing more economically. Before, a liter of fuel was just enough to travel five kilometers, but with an electrolyzer, his Mercedes travels nine. In 2006, after undertaking numerous tests, Joko found a simple way to separate the hydrogen and oxygen in water and channel the hydrogen to the engine. This can save between 70 and 100 percent of fuel used in motor vehicles. The shape of the device is quite simple. A coil is wrapped around a plastic soy sauce bottle and is used to transmit an electric current beneath the bottle. The coil is connected to the battery. A pipe is attached to the top of the bottle to connect the engine to the carburetor. "When the engine is running, it will automatically produce hydrogen and this causes an explosion in the engine," Joko said. "The chemical formula for water is H2O. If this is subjected to an electric current, it will produce H2 and O2," Joko said. About five seconds after the electric current, gas bubbles out of the water. After the gas has been channeled to the trial engine, it explodes and can drive the crankshaft five meters or more. "This is just from using one piston. If we use three pistons to drive the crankshaft, it can break," Joko said. He chose a transparent soy sauce bottle because it was cheap, easy to find and safe. "The transparency can help us check the water's condition and whether or not it is still clear," Joko said. In order to produce good hydrogen, the water should be neutral or rainwater, and it only needs to be changed once a month. The use of tap water can cause problems because it includes other substances that inhibit the production of hydrogen. Joko installed the electrolyzer in his car. Joko said burning hydrogen was good and its octane rating reached 130. This compares with the rating of premium fuel, which is only in the 80s, and Pertamax, with a rating of 94. With the electrolyzer, the burning of fuel is more efficient and the power of the engine is stronger, he said. He said the more efficient burning decreases carbon emissions. Oil use also becomes more economical. It is cleaner because it partly emits water in place of carbon. "Consequently, water will always come out of vehicles with electrolyzers. When the engine is used for the first time in the morning, the system expels water," Joko said. To replace the raw materials used for installation in a motorcycle, the customer is charged Rp 75,000 (US$8) for motorbikes and Rp 150,000 for cars. "This is not about profit. The money being charged is only used to buy the components," said Joko, adding more than 1,000 vehicles have used his invention. Since he has no commercial interest, Joko said he did not want to patent his invention. He hopes people will make the device themselves since its construction is simple and the materials easy to find. Joko is further innovating in trying to develop an engine that uses water as its fuel. He has changed the working mechanisms of a lawn mower engine so the machine can only use exploding hydrogen and not fuel. "Using 10 soy sauce bottles each containing 0.5 liters of water, the lawn mower engine keeps running," he said. "I want to try this on my motorcycle just using water." Joko believes the fuel crisis will be solved with the creation of a water-powered engine. - Source 05/28/08 - With the money we spent on the Iraq war -- what else could we do? We could have sent a colony of over 500 astronauts to Mars, provided modern nuclear power to the USA and shut down its coal plants, built modern cities for 600,000,000 Chinese people to live in, and so on... For $6Tn we could buy a lot of juice - a quarter of our global civilization's energy budget would go carbon-neutral at a stroke. (Yes, we just solved our carbon dioxide emissions problem by switching to a nuclear economy.) This probably isn't the ideal way of dealing with our environmental problems, and it's a naive treatment of the costs (has anyone done a proper treatment of the economic implications of shifting the planet over to a nuclear economy, say to the same extent as France?) but it's thought-provoking. Finally, there's all the other little stuff we could solve by pointing $513Bn at it, never mind $6000Bn. Eliminating childhood diseases in South-East Asia? Piffle - Bill and Melinda Gates are trying to do that out of their pocket lint. Build first-world grade housing in shiny new cities for 600 million Chinese peasants, nearly a tenth of the planetary population? Yes, this budget will cover that. What else? Yes, I'm asking you: what would you do with the cost of the Iraq war (take your pick: $513Bn or $6000Bn) in your budget? Colonise Mars? Solve our carbon emission problem and fix global warming? House half a billion people? Or something else ...? (And what isn't going to happen now, because we pissed it all away on the desert sands?) (via boingboing.net) - Source 05/28/08 - Local inventor making cheaper gas from coal? As pump prices approach $4.00, a Bowling Green inventor says he's created a machine that could save you money someday. Albert Calderon says he's made a machine that helps turn coal into cheaper gas. The president of Calderon Energy Co. spent 30 years coming up with the new technology with help from his team. The patented idea is getting national attention as several big companies examine the invention. Calderon claims it can reduce America's dependence on foreign oil, and lower our fuel prices. "We can make this the equivalent of 25 dollars per barrel of oil, which will come out about $1.10 gasoline at the pump," He told NBC 24 during a demonstration in his lab. / 6,911,058 - June 28, 2005 - A method for producing clean energy from coal by feeding the coal in a reactor which is sealed to the atmosphere and moving the coal in the reactor while injecting oxygen to combust a portion of the coal in a substoichiometric mode to devolatilize the coal and yield a pressurized hydrogen rich raw gas which contains coal-derived cancer causing distillates and hydrocarbons together with a hot char. The distillates and the hydrocarbons are cracked to result in a cracked gas of essentially 2H.sub.2 and 1CO which after desulfurization becomes an ideal synthesis gas that can be synthesized to a liquid fuel for heating and transportation as an alternate to petroleum. - Source 05/28/08 - Fold a Protein for the Future FoldIt is a game designed to teach you how to fold proteins. While it’s designed as a game, the purpose is serious. Finding the correct protein configuration offers solutions for curing many diseases. The right protein can lock onto molecules and viruses that are causing the problem, enabling them to be removed. Think of it as fitting the pieces in a jigsaw puzzle, which in the case of proteins involves hundreds of thousands of pieces. FoldIt starts with three-dimensional models of known proteins and asks you to try to twist them into the optimum shape for attaching to other molecules. This may sound like a job for cellular biologists but because it’s designed as a game, you can get pretty good at it in about 15 minutes. Joy was soon folding proteins as if they had just come out of the drier, eventually refining one that had more than 8,000 possible shapes. A project called Rosetta@Home taps into idle PCs to calculate all possible protein shapes. There are 200,000 volunteers in the Rostta@home project, but so far, they haven't been enough. The mathematical problem is so huge that all the computers in the world could take centuries to solve it. “People, who have intuition, might be able to home in on the right answer much more quickly, “ Baker says. FoldIt.com is funded by DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency), Intel, Adobe, Microsoft, the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and Nvidia. (via http://www.oncomp.com/) - Source 05/28/08 - Wind power could make Norway "Europe's battery" Norway could become "Europe's battery" by developing huge sea-based wind parks costing up to $44 billion by 2025, Norway's Oil and Energy Minister said on Monday. Sufficient wind parks -- totaling 5,000 to 8,000 megawatts installed capacity -- would cost between 100 billion Norwegian and 220 billion Norwegian crowns ($43.89 billion) assuming prices of 20-28 million crowns per installed megawatt. The energy would be equivalent to up to about eight nuclear power plants. Norway pumps about 2.2 million barrels of oil per day -- $44 billion represents the value of about half a year's output. - Source 05/28/08 - Tiny video $99 camera mounts to R/C planes, skateboards, etc. This 1 oz. video camera, meant for R/C planes, could be used for a number of fun projects. 3" x 1-1/2" x 1/2" (camera only), 1 oz. V.2 changes include: larger resolution, LCD display, rotating lens, longer battery life, and a thermal activated motion detector. Video camera includes audio, still photos, a voice recorder, USB drive, and a Webcam. Unit is small enough to mount on just about any model FlyCamOne2 micro video cameraairplane, small parkflyers, RC cars, trains, skate boards, or even a kite. Can be remotely activated using an additional servo. Videos are recorded with a resolution of 640x480 for clear playback, complete with sound, and 1280x1024 pixels for still photos. Camera lens rotates 90 degrees so you can take photos or video from multiple angles. Built-in rechargeable 200 mAh Li-Ion battery that charges via the USB port on your computer in about 1 to 1-1/2 hours. (via boingboing.net) - Source 05/28/08 - Avalanche Effect Demonstrated In Solar Cells "Researchers at TU Delft (Netherlands) and the FOM (Foundation for Fundamental Research on Matter) have found irrefutable proof that the so-called avalanche effect by electrons occurs in specific semiconducting crystals of nanometer dimensions. This physical effect could pave the way for cheap, high-output solar cells. Solar cells currently have relatively low output, typically 15%, and high manufacturing costs. One possible improvement could derive from a new type of solar cell made of semiconducting nanocrystals and could theoretically lead to a maximum output of 44%, with the added benefit of reducing manufacturing costs. In conventional solar cells, one photon can release precisely one electron. However, in some semiconducting nanocrystals, one photon can release two or three electrons, hence the term 'avalanche effect.' This effect was first measured by researchers at the Los Alamos National Laboratories in 2004, and since then the scientific world had raised doubts about the value of these measurements. This current research does in fact demonstrate that the avalanche effect can occur." - Source 05/28/08 - Nigeria: Waste-to-Energy - Engineer Launches Machine An engineer, Mr. Audu Guga, yesterday in Abuja launched a motorised briquette machine capable of turning agricultural and wood wastes into energy. "The machine will meet the energy needs of targeted population, mitigating the hazards of de-forestation, enhanced efficient utilisation of raw materials and improve on environmental cleanliness," he said. Guga said the machine, which would cost about N350,000, was designed to convert wood and agricultural wastes into useful materials for the production of energy. The principal scientific officer said the machine was built on a four piston cylinder platform and driven by two gear reducer electric motor. Guga said a loaded test of the machine had shown that 12.75kg of mixed waste materials produced 12.00kg of briquettes in 15 minutes. "This gave a production rate of 48kg per hour and production efficiency of 94 per cent," he said. He said the briquettes produced by the machine performed better than those of the manually operated machine in terms of shatter index and heating characteristics. - Source 05/28/08 - Singapore Firm Claims Patent Breach By Virtually All Websites "A Singapore firm, VueStar has threatened to sue websites that use pictures or graphics to link to another page, claiming it owns the patent for a technology used by millions around the world. The company is also planning to take on giants like Microsoft and Google. It is a battle that could, at least in theory, upend the Internet. The firm has been sending out invoices to Singapore companies since last week asking them to pay up." - Source 05/28/08 - Right To Die card Its backers say it is a practical way of implementing the Mental Capacity Act, which came into force in 2007. The act allows adults to draw up "advance directives" stating what sort of treatment they don't want should they lose capacity. They build on the principle of "living wills" but, crucially, mean that doctors are legally bound to abide by a patient's wish to refuse life-sustaining treatment. Carrying the card alerts anyone who finds it that the patient has made decisions about treatment, and there is a detailed statement to be found with named relatives or friends and, ideally, their GP. - Source 05/28/08 - Time to do something about oil It should be clear that the recent rise in oil prices is not driven by fundamentals. Economists differ about the price elasticity of oil, but the lowest plausible estimates for short-term price elasticity are around 10%, with medium-term elasticity being much higher. Thus if oil legend T Boone Pickens is right that oil supplies are currently 85 million barrels per day and oil demand is 87 million, that is a supply shortfall of 2.4%, which at a 10% elasticity should produce a price increase of 24%, not 60%. The principal influence behind the huge rise in oil prices has been speculation, whether by the international oil companies, by hedge funds deprived of easy pickings in the housing and equities markets, or by the oil suppliers themselves, drunk with the glory of their new-found wealth. If we do nothing, but continue to focus on housing, consumer inflation and the NBA playoffs, oil prices will continue rising. This will have only a modest short-term effect, but a highly damaging effect in the medium term, as the recession-producing tendency of high oil prices works its malign magic on the long-suffering world economy. Operation Iraqi Freedom has been a smashing success, and only appalling Wilsonian wimpiness in the US government has prevented the United States from taking full advantage of it. Iraq's known oil reserves have been increased by about 100 billion barrels since the invasion... The problem is that the US did not secure itself a proper royalty on the new oil finds (even 10% would have been worthwhile - $1.1 trillion over the next few decades.) Nor did it ensure, by setting up a privatized oil company and a trust fund for the Iraqi people diverting oil revenues from the Iraqi government, that the new oil finds would be exploited in an efficient manner and the supplies directed properly into the world oil market. Any future invasion of an oil-producing country should avoid these two mistakes and thus make itself self-financing. For those who feel that invasion-for-oil is altogether too Bismarckian in its implications, there are other alternatives. The most effective would be to use the interest-rate weapon, reversing the damage caused by the cuts since September and ideally going a little further, to fight the resulting consumer price inflation. - Source 05/28/08 - Military Medical Research in Regeneration Lizards are known for their uncanny ability to regenerate lost body parts from a substance called nAG which stimulates stem cells. Studies discovered the process involved fooling the stem cells into believing the limb was in an "earlier state of time" thus requiring development and growth. People have tried to induce regeneration in humans for years with successful instances occurring under the most rare and unique conditions. For example, a man who severed his fingertip in the prop of a model airplane actually regrew the tip after wrapping it in a pig's bladder. Dr. Stephen Badylak, a regeneration expert at the University of Pittsburgh, indicates that regrowth of fingertips is actually common in children under two years old. The Pentagon is sponsoring new research into the process to help wounded veterans. Current tests involve using "pixie dust", a pig extract, to stimulate the host's stem cells into growing the missing limb back over a scaffold. The process has worked before in regenerating animal organs. - Source 05/28/08 - Dropped your phone in Water? I can help It's very common to hear people around you getting their gadgets soaked in water (normally is into the toilet bowl), and it's even worst when the damage is so bad that it's beyond repair. By the way, most company's warranty do not cover water damages, which makes the matter even worst. Here's a temporary way to help you revive your expensive gadget after a nice bath.. "Power off the device if it's not off already and try to completely cover the device in a bowl of dry rice. Rice being a natural dessicant will help absorb the excess moisture. Let it dry for at least 24 hours and DO NOT try to change the device. If your device has a removeable battery, dry it separately to speed up the whole drying process." I've heard of rice's capabilities of absorbing moisture, in fact, it's used by professionals when they're restoring artworks which contacted water in some way. However, I've never thought of using it when things get wet. - Source 05/28/08 - Lorry fuel protest to bring London to a halt One group of around 90 hauliers left the Medway services on the A2 in Kent on a three-hour journey into the capital, with horns blaring and to the applause of motorists. Around 150 lorries left Essex for London and about 100 were travelling in from Bedfordshire as well as many other hauliers from all around the UK. More than 1,000 vehicles are expected to converge on the capital demanding a rebate on duty, fearing hundreds of small hauliers could be forced to close by rising diesel prices. The demonstration comes as Gordon Brown faces increased pressure to shelve a 2p increase in petrol duty and calls for a rethink over a planned hike in road tax. The Government faces the prospect of a damaging backbench rebellion after figures released to the Daily Telegraph showed that nearly 18 million motorists will suffer from above-inflation increases in Vehicle Excise Duty (VED). - Source 05/28/08 - Nomadic Shelters Temporary housing or shelters have been the base for ancient nomadic cultures - these days a renaisance is occuring with the current lifestyle and growing desire to go back to nature and live more closely to it. So many ancient native shelters experience a renewal and rediscovery, but also relatively new developments such as geodesic domes or general dome for energy efficiency have been invented. - Source 05/28/08 - Dirty Little Secret Of Inkjet Printers What is undeniably true: * All inkjet printers perform self-cleaning * They do this without being prompted, and probably more than most people realise * The only way they can do it is to squirt ink through the print heads * That ink has to go somewhere... - Source 05/28/08 - Dutch Build the First Solar-Powered Speedboat w/video The Czeers MK1 is a 10-meter vessel covered in photovoltaic cells that is capable of hitting speeds of up to 30 knots (55.5 km/ph to you non-nautical folks out there). While there are certainly faster boats on the water, those tend to use obscene amounts of fuel. The solar-powered Czeers MK1 is naturally going to be a lot quieter than its gas guzzling cousins, which would make it great for sneaking up over fish (though there is limited space to put them if you catch them. I would like to see a similar model with little bit more space for passengers, even if it did mean sacrificing some speed. Speedboats are so limited in what they are able to do, but if this had a little extra space, it could do so much more. - Source 05/26/08 - Fuel-saving find West Fargo inventor Ernie Brookins has produced a hydraulic transmission that can power vehicles without the engine running full time. Now he’s looking for investors willing to fund full-scale production of his prototype. Brookins believes his invention could potentially save drivers 50 percent in fuel costs. Here’s how it works: Brookins’ hybrid drive system captures, compresses, and stores “wasted” drive-train energy produced when a vehicle’s engine is running. The compressed air pushes hydraulic fluid through a piston-driven torque converter capable of propelling a vehicle at highway speeds without the engine running, he says. Once fully developed, an embedded computer system will automatically switch the vehicle’s power source back and forth from engine to hybrid drive transmission. “The engine will have to run about 50 percent of the time,” Brookins said. “If we went out on the road, I could maintain 60 miles per hour with the engine turned off,” Brookins said. “We can put it on anything. This is designed for a grain truck hauling 40,000 pounds,” he said, while displaying a similar prototype in his West Fargo shop. “We’re going to target vehicles using millions of gallons of gas.” Likely targets are school buses, delivery trucks, semis, postal vehicles, even train locomotives: “Anything that uses gas or diesel (fuel) for power,” Brookins said. The invention can “make an immediate impact on the fuel crisis.” Brookins said the invention can be available for commercial markets within six months of having investors and other funding sources that can provide the $250,000 needed to mass produce it. “It does seem to me like it’s sort of a breakthrough invention,” Johnson said. “His challenge is breaking into the industry. It’s going to take a fair amount of capital. He needs someone to partner up and put some money into this.” Brookins said he can produce 10 to 15 units a day with three full-time employees. He would eventually consider selling the business to any U.S. company that could produce 100,000 units per year. “Then we could make an impact on the fuel crisis,” he said. “The market is 1 million per year.” - Source 05/26/08 - Thinking small could pay off big Carbon nanotubes have been dubbed, quaintly, "nanotube forests." Each individual nanotube acts like a tiny spring, and Livermore thinks that if you combine billions of them, they could do things that no steel spring could achieve. "It is well known that you can store energy in the deformation of a spring," said Livermore. "The main challenge with storing energy in springs is most don't store a lot of energy per unit of weight or volume. Carbon nanotubes are great because they can stretch incredibly far without breaking." The nanotubes work like expansion springs - pull them and they stretch, release them and they pop back to their original shape, releasing energy. Think of them as tiny Slinkies. One possibility is a high-end mechanical watch that might only need winding once a month. Buyers of high-end mechanical timepieces appreciate new technology as it is applied to the centuries-old art of clock making. Livermore said another potential application would be a regenerative braking device for bicycles, in which mechanical energy is captured during braking, and can then be used to provide extra power for getting over hills. Systems currently on the market convert the mechanical energy to electricity, and then use the electricity to power a motor. But whenever energy is converted from one form to another, some is lost. Capturing mechanical energy - the energy of movement - and reusing it in the same state could make the device more efficient. She is also thinking of ways in which the nanotube springs could replace some kind of batteries. Batteries tend to lose their charges over time, and stop working after a certain number of recharges. They don't work well when it's too hot or too cold. Theoretically, the nanotube springs can retain their energy indefinitely and work anywhere. - Source 05/26/08 - Warren Buffett Sees “Long, Deep” U.S. Recession The United States is already in a recession and it will be longer as well as deeper than many people expect, U.S. investor Warren Buffett said in an interview published in German magazine Der Spiegel on Saturday. Buffett also renewed his criticism of derivatives trading. “It’s not right that hundreds of thousands of jobs are being eliminated, that entire industrial sectors in the real economy are being wiped out by financial bets even though the sectors are actually in good health.” Buffett complained about the lack of effective controls. “That’s the problem,” he said. “You can’t steer it, you can’t regulate it anymore. You can’t get the genie back in the bottle.” - Source 05/26/08 - Former coal mines as new Geothermal Energy Source Former coal mines in Cape Breton that are flooded with water warmed by the heat of the earth are being seen as a possible source of geothermal energy to heat schools or hospitals. The Cape Breton Development Corp. has been consulting with Cape Breton University about the possibility of capturing the heat from the water, which can rise to 15 C. Collin Harker, a business consultant working with the corporation known as Devco, said the geothermal energy can be captured by bringing mine water to the surface to be run through a heat pump. "They are very common," he said. "Air conditioners run on heat pumps. That will take the heat out of the water and transfer it into . . . the material going through the building." It may also be possible to tap into geothermal energy by immersing heat-capturing technology in the water. Johnstone noted mine water is being used to heat a building belonging to Ropak Can Am Ltd., a manufacturer of plastic packaging products, in Springhill. "If you get to a certain level of efficiency in terms of the components you string together to pull the water out, exchange the heat and then utilize the heat, you can actually get to a status of being a renewable energy," he said. - Source 05/26/08 - Our energy firms have too much power Allan Asher, chief executive of Energywatch, launched a two-hour tirade against the firms when he was summoned to speak to MPs this week. The simple truth of the matter is that we are getting an extremely bad deal from the energy companies. Britain is almost unique in Europe in that our gas and electricity suppliers have been privatised and deregulated. This should have translated into competition between firms and low prices. The truth is very different. Just a week ago, the European Commission published a set of tables revealing retail prices across Europe. It makes for shocking reading. It shows that our electricity prices are the fourth highest and our gas prices are the 10th highest. When you consider most of the other countries in the tables have old-fashioned, state-run energy firms which have no impetus to keep costs low, it's little short of a scandal. Our energy companies are blaming soaring global energy prices for the ever-increasing cost of heating and lighting our homes, but that's not a sufficient explanation. Remember that 75 per cent of the gas we use in our homes comes from our own North Sea fields. That's gas we own and gas that isn't part of a wider, global market. As for electricity, 40 per cent of what we use comes from gas-fired power stations. How did we get to the stage where the average household bill has gone up from £662 in 2005 to £1,048 today? The answer is very simple - we have succumbed to gas prices that are tied to insane global oil prices for little purpose other than to make billions for the gas producers. Not only that but Britain's big six energy suppliers have become bloated, secretive firms which have no incentive to keep costs low. They are now free to operate like a comfortable oligopoly - the domination of the market by a handful of firms - under little pressure to keep prices low. - Source 05/26/08 - Survivalists Prepare for Energy Crisis Convinced the planet’s oil supply is dwindling and the world’s economies are heading for a crash, some people around the country are moving onto homesteads, learning to live off their land, conserving fuel and, in some cases, stocking up on guns they expect to use to defend themselves and their supplies from desperate crowds of people who didn’t prepare. The exact number of people taking such steps is impossible to determine, but anecdotal evidence suggests that the movement has been gaining momentum in the last few years. These energy survivalists are not leading some sort of green revolution meant to save the planet. Many of them believe it is too late for that, seeing signs in soaring fuel and food prices and a faltering US economy, and are largely focused on saving themselves. Some are doing it quietly, giving few details of their preparations - afraid that revealing such information as the location of their supplies will endanger themselves. They envision a future in which the nation’s cities will be filled with hungry, desperate refugees forced to go looking for food, shelter and water. “There’s going to be things that happen when people can’t get things that they need for themselves and their families,” said Lynn-Marie, who believes cities could see a rise in violence as early as 2012. - Source 05/26/08 - Miracle Water Scam "I saw this guy offering miracle water for free and I thought maybe I'd give it a try," Gurney said. Josie Gurney was just one of the people who were victims of charismatic evangelical minister Peter Popoff's fraud scheme. The California faith healer has made millions from sick people. Gurney, who suffers from fibromyalgia, believed that he could somehow channel God's energy and make her better. The bottle arrived in the mail four days later. She followed the instructions to the letter, including the request to send $14 to Popoff Ministries. "Next week I got another letter, that he's got more stuff for me to do. It's all these rituals, pieces of paper you have to put in the corners of your bedroom, or there's other things you put under your pillow, drink this sea salt from the Dead Sea, all kinds of things." This time the demand was for $20. Not long after that she was diagnosed with some serious spinal problems, and her desperation for a cure grew. The letters kept coming. "The letters are so intense, they're so demanding. And he does a lot of scare tactics with Satan -- 'God is not going to be happy with you.'" Then she got the letter demanding $1,000, or whatever she could afford. The guy's still on TV, but he should be in prison. - Source 05/26/08 - 15 Billion ($15,000,000,000.00) of U.S. Funds in Iraq unaccounted for The Pentagon cannot account for nearly 15 billion dollars in payments for goods and services in Iraq, according to an internal audit which members of Congress blasted Friday as a "shocking" accountability failure...as if the other 483 billion that is "accounted for" is going to a worthy cause to begin with... - Source 05/26/08 - New Robot Walks Like A Human Researcher Daan Hobbelen of TU Delft (The Netherlands) has developed a new, highly-advanced walking robot: Flame. This type of research, for which Hobbelen will receive his PhD on Friday 30 May, is important as it provides insight into how people walk. This can in turn help people with walking difficulties through improved diagnoses, training and rehabilitation equipment. TU Delft is a pioneer of the other method used for constructing walking robots, which examines the way humans walk. This is really very similar to falling forward in a controlled fashion. Adopting this method replaces the cautious, rigid way in which robots walk with the more fluid, energy-efficient movement used by humans. PhD student Daan Hobbelen has demonstrated for the first time that a robot can be both energy-efficient and highly stable. His breakthrough came in inventing a suitable method for measuring the stability of the way people walk for the first time. This is remarkable, as ‘falling forward’ is traditionally viewed as an unstable movement. Next he built a new robot with which he was able to demonstrate the improved performance: Flame. Flame contains seven motors, an organ of balance and various algorithms which ensure its high level of stability. For instance, the robot can apply the information provided by its organ of balance to place its feet slightly further apart in order to prevent a potential fall - Source 05/26/08 - Arata-Zhang LENR Demonstration (Cold Fusion) Against a monumental backdrop of bad publicity for cold fusion since 1989, researchers in Japan on May 22 demonstrated the production of excess heat and helium-4, the results of an historic low-energy nuclear reaction experiment. The mastermind behind the demonstration is Yoshiaki Arata, a highly respected physicist in Japan who has been the recipent of Japan's highest award, the Order of Cultural Merit, and is the first person to have performed a thermonuclear fusion experiment showing large amounts of d-d reactions in Japan. A lecture by Arata preceded the demonstration before a live audience in Arata Hall (named in his honor) at the Joining and Welding Research Institute at Osaka University. The demonstration took place in the Osaka University Advanced Science & Innovation Center with the help of Arata’s associate, professor Yue Chang Zhang of Shianghai Jiotong University. Professor Akito Takahashi of Osaka University was an eyewitness to the demonstration. "Arata and Zhang demonstrated very successfully the generation of continuous excess energy (heat) from ZrO2-nano-Pd sample powders under D2 gas charging and generation of helium-4," Takahashi wrote. "The demonstrated live data looked just like data they reported in their published papers (J. High Temp. Soc. Jpn, Feb. and March issues, 2008). This demonstration showed that the method is highly reproducible." - Source 05/26/08 - Portable Helicopters That Actually Fly w/video Here's a new one: a portable helicopter that can be folded up and transported inside a cylinder. Don't let its compact appearance fool you -- the KA-56 boasts a 40hp air-cooled rotary engine capable of reaching a maximum speed of 68MPH. It weighs in at 485-pounds and has a 93-mile range. / GEN H-4 is the world's smallest co-axial helicopter. It features four GEN125 engines that produce 40hp @ 6800-7500rpm and a shock absorbent aluminum frame. Weighing 155-pounds, it has a maximum cruising speed of 55MPH. Unfortunately, it will set you back a hefty $35,000. - Source 05/26/08 - Scientists develop jumping robot Scientists have built a jumping robot inspired by the grasshopper that can leap 27 times its body length. Swarms of the locust-like drones could one day be used to explore remote areas of the Earth or other planets, say the researchers. The device, which looks like the workings of a watch perched on two long feet, weighs just seven grams, but it can jump 1.4 metres - 10 times further for its size and weight than any other robot. - Source 05/26/08 - Audio ads beam message for your ears only The technology works by beaming waves of hypersonic sound at a pitch that can't be detected by the human ear. However, when those sound waves strike an object, such as a human body, they suddenly become audible in the immediate area of the object -- allowing personalized marketing that can target one person in a crowd of hundreds. It's also being used in grocery stores in France and in some museums, and could soon be turning traditional advertising on its ear here in Canada too, said Ken Hardy, a marketing professor at the University of Western Ontario. "You step into the spotlight of sound and if you step out, just a foot or so away, you won't hear anything," he told CTV's Canada AM in a recent interview. "It's this ability to cast the sound in a tight little circle that is so novel and so effective." "I don't think it's an invasion of privacy but I do think people might react badly until they get used to it," Hardy said. "I'm not sure everybody wants to hear it so I think as a direct marketing technique it's something that needs experimentation." A talking pop machine that quietly urges passersby to drink Coke, might be a little creepy, Hardy admitted. - Source 05/26/08 - Giant Floating Windmills To Launch Next Year "StatoilHydro is building the world's first full-scale floating wind turbine, Hywind, and testing it over a two-year period offshore of Karmøy, Norway. The company is investing approximately $80 million. Planned startup is in the fall of 2009. The project combines existing technology in innovative ways. A 2.3-MW wind turbine is attached to the top of a so-called Spar-buoy, a solution familiar from production platforms and offshore loading buoys. A model 3 meters tall has already been tested successfully in a wave simulator. The goal of the pilot is to qualify the technology and reduce costs to a level that will mean that floating wind turbines can compete with other energy sources." - Source 05/24/08 - HyperMiling to save on Gas Costs I saw a segment on the news about using techniques collectively referred to as HyperMiling, so had to go check out the HyperMiling page. In the demonstration the woman driver, under the tutelage of her instructor, at times exceeded 100mpg but wound up with a more realistic 40-60mpg depending on traffic and road conditions. The coolest part of it was the miles per gallon meter so you get a more or less realtime update of how you are doing. I note they provide a link to buy this for about $160.00 on their page but I’m sure there are other sites which sell equivalents. It would probably pay for itself in a matter of weeks of driving by how much you save on gas by using the tips they give you for HyperMiling. - Source 05/24/08 - Dennis Lee again with the PICC and HAFC - Caveat Emptor Reader Norm sent me a gas saving URL to check out. It is connected with scamster Dennis Lee so despite all the glowing rhetoric, be very careful before buying into the claims and hyper-inflated prices. There are many hydrogen assist devices that are much cheaper. A quote from the best comments page I could find about them; "The website does not list the price of the HAFC, and you have to ask for a quote. It costs $1045. Other electrolysers, which also do nothing beneficial, cost a fraction of this but are also overpriced: most grade school science teachers can build an electrolyser from a mayonnaise jar, a couple strips of metal and a battery. But even at $5.00 or $2.00, these devices are of no use: the energy to drive the process comes from the car's alternator, which is driven by the car's engine. In a perfect world, the energy used to split the water would be regained when you burn it, but this is not a perfect world. 75% efficiency in splitting the water would be very high efficiency. It burns in the engine at about 25% peak (and usually lower) efficiency. So the system operates at a large net loss. But because little hydrogen is generated, the loss is not enough to notice -- and the placebo effect often works well with these products. You paid over $1000 and are convinced it works, so you are not too careful in measuring actual mileage." / "Dennis is a highly skilled scammer -- perhaps the best at his trade. The very notion that you must first buy the absurdly expensive electrolysis system to be ready for the PICC when it becomes available is the same technique he has used to bilk dealers and investors with his perpetual motion free energy generator: sign up now (before it can be shown that my miracle works -- or, more obviously does not work.)" / "The Hummingbird Motor and Sundance Generator scam is his most famous, in which a generator supplies the current to run a motor, which runs the generator... He holds large gatherings in stadiums, and sells dealerships, future rights to buy the product, etc, etc. A dealer quoted in the linked article says they are 1/3 of the way to their goal of 1.6 million people in their buyers' club, (at $1,000 each). 500,000 x $1,000 = half a billion. (Let's hope that figure is not correct.) Each of the buyers' club members has the right to rope in 10 friends at $1,000 each. The dollar amount quickly becomes staggering -- all without selling a single actual product." / "Of course your questions have no answers, because there is no PICC. The PICC is the lure to get you to by the HAFC -- and once you have done so, then you can be added to the gullible customer list for future scams." - Source 05/24/08 - Invention - 120% Efficient Drive An electric motor that produces about 120% more kinetic watts than a conventional motor of the same value has been developed and could soon be available on the commercial market. Prototype developer Zhaan Jordaan reports that the concept behind the energy efficient drive, which was presented to an independent electrical engineer for testing, is to use 12 volts of DC power supply with 7,5 applied ampere (A). This could enable a drive to produce 288 W of mechanical power on a Dynamometer. Jordaan adds that this is achieved using no fuel on the motor. This could equate to a drive unit that is 300% more efficient then a conventional. In 2003, Jordaan set about experimenting with permanent magnets to build such a machine. The traditional belief is that 12 V of dc coupled with 7,5 A, will result in 90 W of electricity, at 90% efficiency, which equates to 81 W. Jordaan says that one is able to calculate that if a big enough machine is coupled to a 12 V battery and an alternator, it is possible to produce more electrical watts than is used by the device and have surplus amperage to keep the battery fully laden. Jordaan reports that during testing, the prototype was coupled to a large enough alternator that was capable of generating 120 A of current. The magnetic drive unit used 64 A delivering 2 200 W, which is more than enough to drive the alternator. This left a surplus of 56 A. With this one could drive a 900-W alternating current inverter which would use 49 A and still have a reserve of 7 A which was sufficient to keep the battery fully charged at all times. He adds that although the prototype has not been used on any projects, the foreseeable future is positive. - Source 05/24/08 - Roasting Energy Crops Improves Output A process used to roast coffee beans could give Britain's biomass a power boost, increasing the energy content of some of the UK's leading energy crops by up to 20 percent, according to new research carried out by engineers from the University of Leeds. The researchers at the University of Leeds examined the combustion behavior of crops grown specifically for energy creation when put through a mild thermal process called “torrefaction” - more usually associated with coffee production. Torrefaction is increasingly seen as a desirable treatment for biomass because it creates a solid product which is easier to store, transport and mill than raw biomass. The study examined the energy crops willow, canary grass and agricultural residue wheat straw to see what happened when they went through the torrefaction process and how they behaved at a range of temperatures when they were heated to create an energy-enhanced fuel. Results showed that the treated materials needed less time and energy to heat to burning point, and also that they offered increased energy yields upon burning. Willow emerged as having the most favorable properties, in that it retained more of its mass in the torrefaction process and also performed best in terms of its energy yield. As an example, willow was shown to have an 86 percent energy yield, compared with 77 percent for wheat straw and 78 percent for reed canary grass. - Source 05/24/08 - Inventor: liquid boosts mileage, reduces pollution A southern Oregon inventor claims he has developed a way to not only save you money at the pump but also reduce air pollution. "We've come up with a solution to get all of the fuel to burn efficiently," said the inventor, Bob Kurko. "If you get all of the fuel burning, you're not going to have emissions." He said it changes the way gasoline is used in the engine, making it burn 100 percent efficiently. Kurko said your car would actually act as an air cleaner. When the air from the outside is pulled in through the air intake system, through the filter and then mixed in the engine with the gasoline and the fuel catalyst, what's burned and comes out of your tail pipe is actually cleaner than the air that went in to your engine. Some of the vehicles - including Hummers and large two-and-a-half ton trucks - saw fuel efficiency increase 45 percent and emissions drop 98 percent. KATU reporter Thom Jensen tested the catalyst in his own car. First he ran his family's sport utility vehicle on regular gasoline. After burning through a tank of fuel, his vehicle's onboard computer showed an average gas mileage of 18.2 mpg. Then he filled up again and added a quart of the E3 catalyst and ran the SUV under his usual driving conditions. The computer showed he was getting almost 22 mpg. The actual materials used in the catalyst have not been made public. The reporter tested his 2004 Volvo at Morgan Automotive in southeast Portland on a four-gas analyzer. It ran super clean before the additive, with hydrocarbons at just 8 ppm (parts per million) and carbon monoxide at zero - which is clean enough to pass the strictest emissions requirements in the U.S. With the fuel additive, there were no hydrocarbons (pictured at right), which is not unheard of but not seen often, according to those at the shop. To learn more about the company and its product, Click here. - Source 05/24/08 - Drunken Astronomers Arrange for Possible Alien Contact in 2015 One transmission was made in 1983 by a pair of drunken Japanese astronomers, Hisashi Hirabayashi and Masaki Morimoto. Under the influence, the astronomers transmitted a message to the Altair system simply because it's close proximity would allow a "quick" response if alien life existed there. Assuming an immediate turnaround upon reception, the aliens could respond with a similarly drunken "cheers" that would arrive on Earth in 2015. Or they might decide Earth's best and brightest are drunks and that we are easy to colonize. - Source 05/24/08 - More-Powerful Fuel Cells A cheap polymer material increases the power output of methanol fuel cells by 50 percent. The energy density of a methanol fuel cell "compares to the best high-energy-density batteries," says Robert Savinell, a chemical engineer at Case Western Reserve University, in Cleveland. The energy density of methanol fuel cells could also be an advantage in portable consumer electronic devices such as laptops and iPods. But commercialization of methanol fuel cells has been limited because of their price: they require a thick internal membrane made of an expensive polymer. And even with this expensive material, they use fuel inefficiently. Methanol fuel cells have two compartments separated by a membrane. On one side, methanol is stripped of protons and electrons. The protons are carried through the membrane to the other compartment, where they are combined with oxygen to form water. The electrons, which can't cross the membrane, are forced into an external current that can be used to power electronic devices. Because water is being created inside the fuel cell, the membrane is wet. Methanol, which is very soluble in water, is absorbed by conventional fuel-cell membranes and can cross over to the other side. This wastes fuel and makes the cathode, the oxidizing end of the cell, work harder. Paula Hammond, a chemical engineer at MIT, has made a fuel-cell membrane out of layers of polymers whose electrochemical properties can be precisely tuned to prevent fuel waste. - Source 05/24/08 - MIT Technology Review: Oil Left in the Ground Even with record-high oil prices, about two-thirds of the oil in known oil fields is being left in the ground. That's because existing technologies that could extract far more oil--as much as about 75 percent of the oil in some oil fields--aren't being widely used, according to experts in the petroleum industry. - Source 05/24/08 - Hydraulic Hybrid Cars: No Batteries Required Hydraulic hybrids conceptually resemble their electric hybrid cousins. Only in this case, energy storage takes place not in a battery but in high-pressure hydraulic accumulators usually charged in excess of 3,000 psi. The best of these accumulators have power densities of roughly 500 kW/kg, according to Jim O’Brien, founder and chief technology officer for Hybra Drive Systems, a start-up focusing on the development of hydraulic power trains. Design concepts for hydraulic hybrids vary, but typically the car’s diesel or gas engine powers a hydraulic pump motor, which charges that high-pressure accumulator. The accumulator, in turn, drives one or more additional pump motors connected to the wheels. A second lower pressure accumulator typically completes the hydraulic circuit. Depending on the design, there may be one pump motor to drive a pair of wheels through a differential or one pump motor per wheel for an all-wheel-drive version with independent torque control. During braking, the pump motors on the wheels reverse themselves, re-charging the accumulator and capturing energy that would otherwise be lost to heat. The hydraulic hybrids now under development can communicate with modern engines and do have some electronic controls. Yet in their purest form, they don’t really need any electronics to function. Hybra Drive, for example, has shoehorned a prototype hydraulic power train into a 1968 Volkswagen Beetle. “The only electric thing on that car is the spark plug,” says O’Brien. Hydra-Drive, too, has drastically increased mileage of an Humvee for the military and an H1 Hummer that it has retrofitted with a hydraulic hybrid power train as part of a joint development agreement with Gates Corp. O’Brien says the Humvee’s mileage, for example, leapt from around 10 to 23 mpg. In terms of driving performance, hydraulic hybrids have something else going for them - the potential to leverage their high-power-density energy storage capabilities for short-term bursts of power that far outstrip the engine’s nominal power. How much power? O’Brien says Hybra Drive’s Hummer H1 conversion uses a 190 hp diesel engine yet can offer short bursts of power up to 600 hp. / Hydraulic hybrids store energy in the form of pressurized fluid (which can be used without power conversion). Hydraulic hybrids also offer several significant advantages as compared to electric hybrids. A component of HHPT, the variable displacement gear pump/motor, has become a hit in the marketplace in its own right. It’s a quick-to-market, incremental improvement replacement product. The simplicity of its design makes it easier and less costly than existing technology (i.e., vane and piston pumps) to manufacture and repair. Its smaller size and lighter weight design make it easier to package, a real benefit in an industry where consumers are demanding more payload capacity and better efficiency. - Source 05/24/08 - Diesel Automobiles Clean Up for an Encore The diesel engine has always been known for outstanding fuel efficiency, with better mileage (by 25 percent to 40 percent) than gasoline. But the kerosenelike fuel and the engines that burn it were dirty, noisy, dawdling and even deadly, linked to increased risk of cancer and respiratory disease. That has all changed, in part because of cleaner-burning fuel - its 2006 rollout had been mandated in 2000 by the Clinton administration - that has 97 percent less of the sulfur responsible for diesel engines’ sooty particulates. Advances like turbocharging and high-pressure fuel injection have transformed diesel cars from soot-belching slowpokes with a telltale clickety-clack sound to smooth, tidy and powerful machines that many Americans would have a hard time distinguishing from gasoline models. With technical and environmental hurdles overcome - and facing tougher mileage standards that call for a 35 m.p.g. average by 2020 - automakers are rushing in with clean-diesel cars. - Source 05/24/08 - Panspermia - Humans Actually Are from a Distant Planet It all sounds far-fetched, but new research suggests microbes can survive an asteroid impact big enough so send them into space, making panspermia - the idea that we're all really aliens at heart - a real possibility. Previous experiments have shown that microbes can survive in the punishing cold of space. Their ability to hide out in a rock's interior, safe from a vacuum is well-documented too. Scientists involved in this research sprinkleding test rocks with bacteria known to live inside stone, some cyanobacteria, and a dash of lichen onto them. All three lifeforms survived the high-speed collision, suggesting they could be floating through outer space even now, waiting for a chance encounter with distant planet to plant the seeds of a whole new 'alien' biosphere. - Source 05/24/08 - 100 Explosions on the Moon Not so long ago, anyone claiming to see flashes of light on the Moon would be viewed with deep suspicion by professional astronomers. Such reports were filed under "L" … for lunatic. Not anymore. Over the past two and a half years, NASA astronomers have observed the Moon flashing at them not just once but one hundred times. "They're explosions caused by meteoroids hitting the Moon," explains Bill Cooke, head of NASA's Meteoroid Environment Office at the Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC). "A typical blast is about as powerful as a few hundred pounds of TNT and can be photographed easily using a backyard telescope." A common question, says Cooke, is "how can something explode on the Moon? There's no oxygen up there." These explosions don't require oxygen or combustion. Meteoroids hit the moon with tremendous kinetic energy, traveling 30,000 mph or faster. "At that speed, even a pebble can blast a crater several feet wide. The impact heats up rocks and soil on the lunar surface hot enough to glow like molten lava--hence the flash." - Source 05/24/08 - Gas prices drive farmer to switch to mules High gas prices have driven a Warren County farmer and his sons to hitch a tractor rake to a pair of mules to gather hay from their fields. T.R. Raymond bought Dolly and Molly at the Dixon mule sale last year. Son Danny Raymond trained them and also modified the tractor rake so the mules could pull it. T.R. Raymond says the mules are slower than a petroleum-powered tractor, but there are benefits. "This fuel's so high, you can't afford it," he said. "We can feed these mules cheaper than we can buy fuel. That's the truth." - Source 05/24/08 - Xbox aLive - Smashing vs Stepping, which is better Excercise? Compared with the Wii Fit cartoony characters, the Xbox-ercise aLive program will take advantage of the Xbox 360’s more powerful graphic capabilities to render more realistic fitness instructors. Also, like most comparable games between the two systems, Xbox-ercise aLive will feature more violence. “Dance and yoga are fun, but violent actions are what get people in shape,” said Xbox-ercise aLive’s marketing director Todd Belham. “The Wii Fit stuff is for wimps. You burn a lot more calories smashing the controller into someone’s skull than stepping on and off the Wii Fit pad.” The system works best with two or more players, but antisocial individuals can get in shape as well by bashing the controller against a couch or an inflatable companion. The Xbox-ercise aLive subscription-based fitness program will have four tiers available to consumers: Bronze, Silver, Gold and Platinum. These will range in price from $200 to $2000 a year, and can be purchased starting in June from the Xbox Live Marketplace. - Source 05/24/08 - Mapping Lunar Gravity Maria Zuber is the principal investigator of the Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory - "GRAIL" for short. It's a new NASA mission slated for launch in 2011 that will probe the moon's quirky gravity field. Data from GRAIL will help scientists understand forces at play beneath the lunar surface and learn how the moon, Earth and other terrestrial planets evolved. Here's how it works: GRAIL will fly twin spacecraft, one behind the other, around the moon for several months. All the while, a microwave ranging system will precisely measure the distance between the two satellites. By watching that distance expand and contract as the two satellites fly over the lunar surface, researchers can map the moon's underlying gravity field1. Scientists have long known that the moon's gravity field is strangely uneven and tugs on satellites in complex ways. Without course corrections, orbiters end their missions nose down in the moondust! In fact, all five of NASA's Lunar Orbiters (1966-1972), four Soviet Luna probes (1959-1965), two Apollo sub-satellites (1970-1971) and Japan's Hiten spacecraft (1993) suffered this fate. The source of the gravitational quirkiness is a number of huge mascons (short for "mass concentrations") buried under the surfaces of lunar maria or "seas." Formed by colossal asteroid impacts billions of years ago, mascons make the moon the most gravitationally lumpy major body in the solar system. The anomaly is so great-half a percent-that it actually would be measurable to astronauts on the lunar surface. A plumb bob held at the edge of a mascon would hang about a third of a degree off vertical, pointing toward the central mass. Moreover, an astronaut in full spacesuit and life-support gear whose lunar weight was exactly 50 pounds at the edge of the mascon would weigh 50 pounds and 4 ounces when standing in the mascon's center. To minimize the effects of mascons, satellite orbits have to be carefully chosen. - Source 05/24/08 - Cats May Reduce Risk Of Childhood Allergies And Asthma Symptoms Cat ownership may have a protective effect against the development of asthma symptoms in young children at age five. The study, published by the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, found that children with cats in the home were more likely to have made allergy-related antibodies to cats. At three years of age, children who had made antibodies to cats early in life were more likely to have wheeze, a respiratory symptom associated with asthma. However, by age five, the same children who had grown up with a cat were then found to be less likely to have wheeze. - Source 05/22/08 - Controlling America's Rising Gas Prices Despite the rapidly rising gas prices, Americans still enjoy some of the cheapest fuel prices in the world. Americans continue to complain and point fingers while demanding "somebody do something" about the prices. Once the price of gas is sliced up, there are only so many options available to reducing it. One option is to increase the supply to meet demand as proposed by Shell Oil's president John Hofmeister. Another avenue of price relief, which has become virally popular to consumers via the Internet is a suspension of the federal gas tax. One of the root causes of the increased oil price is a run away commodities market on the trading floors. At the moment, the price for a barrel of oil is not actually being driven by the demand to put gasoline into a vehicle, rather it's driven by commodities speculators creating a demand for barrel options. Earlier this year, it was shown the price of oil was pushed over $100 by a single trader seeking notoriety. The same principle is driving commodities prices more aggressively now, "The guys who screwed up the mortgage markets are bringing their awesome skill sets to bear on physical commodity markets." - Source 05/22/08 - Take water and potash, add electricity and get - a mystery From 05/18/2003, whatever happened? - British researchers believe that they have made a groundbreaking scientific discovery after apparently managing to "create" energy from hydrogen atoms. In results independently verified at Bristol University, a team from Gardner Watts - an environmental technology company - show a "thermal energy cell" which appears to produce hundreds of times more energy than that put into it. If the findings are correct and can be reproduced on a commercial scale, the thermal energy cell could become a feature of every home, heating water for a fraction of the cost and cutting fuel bills by at least 90 per cent. The makers of the cell, which passes an electric current through a liquid between two electrodes, admit that they cannot explain precisely how the invention works. "What we are saying is that the device seems to tap into another, previously unrecognised source of energy." The cell is the product of research into the fundamental properties of hydrogen, the most common element in the universe. Hydrogen can exist in a so-called metastable state that harbours a potential source of extra energy. [Quantum] theory suggests that if electricity were passed into a mixture of water and a chemical catalyst, the extra energy would be released in the form of heat. After some experimentation, the team found that a small amount of electricity passed through a mixture of water and potassium carbonate - potash - released an astonishing amount of energy. "It generates a lot of heat in a very small volume," said Christopher Eccles, the chief scientist at Gardner Watts. The findings of the Gardner Watts team were tested by Dr Jason Riley of Bristol University, who found energy gains of between three and 26 times what had been put in. - Source 05/22/08 - Using Rosemary while Cooking Meat to Block Cancer Rosemary, a member of the mint family and a popular seasoning on its own, also has benefits as a cancer prevention agent. Apply it to hamburgers and it can break up the potentially cancer-causing compounds that can form when the meat is cooked. J. Scott Smith found out about rosemary’s strength against the compounds while researching ways to reduce them as part of a long-term Food Safety Consortium project at Kansas State University. Smith, a KSU food science professor, has been looking into the carcinogenic compounds known as HCAs (heterocyclic amines). “Put a little bit on the surface,” Smith advised grillers. “Rosemary extracts shouldn’t have much of an aroma to them. Most people don’t want a rosemary-flavored burger. So if you get the extract you don’t really know it’s there.” Smith’s findings began with research into commercial rosemary extracts’ effect on stopping HCAs from forming in cooked beef patties. His research group found that the HCAs were reduced in levels ranging from 30 to 100 percent. Although lower temperatures and shorter cooking times can reduce the risk of HCA formation, those alternatives have their own problems. Lower temperatures can affect the taste adversely, Smith explained, noting that commercial steak houses cook at temperatures above 400 degrees F. “Some use real high temperatures quick on the surface, then they pull it out and put it in an oven to finish it,” he said. The better way may be to use rosemary extracts so temperatures can be still be kept high. Rosemary’s antioxidant content makes this method possible thanks to the presence of phenolic compounds. Those compounds - rosmarinic acid, carnosol and carnosic acid - block the HCAs before they can form during heating. - Source 05/22/08 - PDF to Word Converter Does What It Sounds Like Windows only: Freeware application Some PDF to Word Converter takes your PDFs and-as the name implies-converts them to Microsoft Word documents. It's always been a cinch to print Word documents as PDFs, but going the other way around is generally more difficult. Many online tools can handle PDF-to-DOC conversions, but most of us don't want to upload our sensitive docs to the web for third-party conversion, so desktop tools are preferable. We've featured one other PDF-to-Word converter in the past, but Some PDF to Word Converter requires no registration, has more options, and seems to perform better. If you'd like different PDF conversions, check the download page for PDF-to-HTML or text converters. (via lifehacker.com) - Source 05/22/08 - 10 Genius Inventions We're Still Waiting For Sonic Showers, Augmented Reality, Life Simulator, Acoustic Cloaking Shell, Legged Robot, Nontangling cable, Insect Force Field, Megatracking system, Kid OnStar and Auto Memory. Check the link for details. - Source 05/22/08 - Spray said to turn people to pushovers Re­search­ers have iden­ti­fied brain cen­ters acti­vated by be­tray­al of trust-and a way to keep them quiet. A spray of a hor­mone, ox­y­to­cin, makes peo­ple keep trust­ing even some­one who has be­trayed them, the scientists ex­plained. They presented the findings not as a trick for, say, cheat­ing spouses to keep their part­ners coop­erative, but as an in­sight into the mind with possible cli­ni­cal value. The in­ves­ti­ga­tors asked vol­un­teers to play a “trust game” in which they con­tri­but­ed mon­ey to a hu­man trus­tee, who would ei­ther in­vest it and re­turn the prof­it­s-or be­tray them and keep it all. Some play­ers al­so re­ceived a na­sal spray con­tain­ing the brain chem­i­cal and hor­mon ox­y­to­cin, found in pre­vi­ous stud­ies to make peo­ple more trust­ing. The re­search­ers found that stiffed play­ers who had re­ceived ox­y­to­cin went on trust­ing their treach­er­ous part­ners. Play­ers who had re­ceived an in­ac­tive spray in­stead of ox­y­to­cin did not. Ox­y­to­cin was al­so found to re­duce ac­ti­vity in two brain re­gions: the amyg­da­la, which pro­cesses fear, dan­ger and pos­sibly risk of so­cial be­tray­al; and an ar­ea of the stria­tum, part of the cir­cuit­ry that guides and ad­justs fu­ture be­hav­ior based on re­ward feed­back. - Source 05/22/08 - As oil soars, Japan's plan makes sense When oil prices spiked before, in the 1970s, the country experienced an “oil shock” that temporarily crippled the economy and sent nervous consumers rushing to the market for essentials. That isn't happening this time, even with oil prices hitting new highs close to $130 (U.S.) a barrel yesterday. Part of the reason is Japan's remarkable success at reducing its dependence on oil. The U.S., the world's biggest net importer of oil, brings in about 13 million barrels a day, up from about six million in 1973. China, the third largest importer, just behind Japan, has seen imports grow to 7.8 million barrels a day as of last year, up from 4.2 million in 1997, a rise of 86 per cent. A shortage of oil to run its military machine was one motive behind Japan's attack on the Western powers in East Asia in the Second World War. An oil embargo was choking off the supplies needed to maintain and expand its Asian imperial conquests. Japan was reminded anew of its dependence on foreign energy when the Arab oil embargo of 1973 sent prices soaring, making Japan's economy shrink for the first time since the end of the war. Japan came to realize that its economic life hung on a slender, 12,000-kilometre thread - the distance tankers had to travel from the oil fields of the Middle East to Japanese ports. Thus began a three-decade-long national effort to become less reliant on oil. Despite the public's extreme sensitivity about nuclear energy after the trauma of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the government invested heavily in nuclear, building a network that today includes 55 reactors and generates 30 per cent of its electricity and 11 per cent of total energy requirements. That makes Japan the third-largest producer of nuclear energy after the United States and France. Japan also shifted away from oil to natural gas, which is available from less distant and more reliable suppliers such as Brunei and Indonesia. Natural gas provides about 15 per cent of Japan's energy needs, up from 2.7 per cent in 1975. Oil provides about 46 per cent, down from 71 per cent. Coal accounts for about 22 per cent, up from 18 per cent, and other sources provide the remainder. Conservation and improved energy efficiency has also played a role. Japanese cars have improved their average mileage by 30 per cent over the past decade. - Source 05/22/08 - Carbon Nanotubes Could Be Toxic New research shows that carbon nanotubes are shaped like asbestos and can encourage tumor growth, but further investigation is needed to determine whether they pose risks in humans, according to a report published Tuesday. "This is of considerable importance, because research and business communities continue to invest heavily in carbon nanotubes for a wide range of products under the assumption that they are no more hazardous than graphite," the researchers wrote. "Our results suggest the need for further research and great caution before introducing such products into the market if long-term harm is to be avoided." The mice developed symptoms in their chest cavities after nanotubes were injected near their lungs. The latest research suggests that carbon nanotubes, with structure and length similar to asbestos fibers, could be toxic. However, researchers aren't sure whether nanotubes are likely to be inhaled and persist inside the body. Asbestos persists in the body after inhalation and can lead to lung cancer. - Source 05/22/08 - Clean fuel from dirty garbage? To Waste Management, which operates the landfill, this is more than just a mountain of garbage. Pipes tunnelled deep into the mound extract gas from the rotting waste and send it to a plant that turns it into electricity. Apart from the huge-wheeled compactor driving over garbage on its surface, it looks like an ordinary hillside. And it doesn't even smell. Yet it produces enough energy to power 2,500 homes in Southern California. Rubbish, trash, whatever you call it, the 1.6 billion tonnes of stuff the world throws away each year - 250 kilograms per person - is being touted as a big potential source of clean energy. Around the world, landfills where municipal waste is collected and buried are one of the biggest producers of methane, a gas whose greenhouse effect is 21 times worse than carbon dioxide. If instead that gas is collected and burned to generate electricity, proponents say the resulting emissions of carbon dioxide are less harmful to the environment than the original methane. Biogas, another name for methane produced from waste, manure or other organic matter, is most developed in Europe, where Germany has 70 per cent of the global market. In Britain, landfill gas makes up a quarter of the country's renewable energy, giving electricity to some 900,000 homes. - Source 05/22/08 - Wind Turbine Windfall? Although power generation via wind turbines is more popular in Europe than in the United States, it appears to be gaining steam in the States as an alternative energy source. That will lead to business opportunities for U.S. shops that have the capability to machine the very large components that comprise modern wind turbines. The Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC) reports that more than 20 gigawatts of wind power capacity were installed worldwide in 2007, led by the United States, Spain and China. This represents a 31- percent increase compared with 2006, lifting the total global capacity to more than 94 gigawatts. According to the GWEC, the United States installed more than 5 gigawatts of wind power capacity in 2007, bringing its total installed capacity to more than 16.8 gigawatts (a 45-percent increase from 2006). As a result, the United States now ranks second in the world behind Germany's 22.3 gigawatts of installed capacity- for the moment, anyway. The GWEC estimates that the United States will surpass Germany and become the leader of wind energy production by the end of 2009. - Source 05/22/08 - The coal industry's ace in the hole The coal industry is planning to replace oil by turning coal into liquid fuels and into feedstocks for the chemical industry. Of course they are also planning to burn ever-more coal to produce electricity. If these plans materialise, green chemistry and renewable solar energy will both be sidelined for the rest of this century. There’s one major problem with the coal industry’s plans, and that’s carbon dioxide, the most important global warming gas. Therefore, the coal industry’s plans all hinge on the development of “clean coal” - a clever name for an untested idea, burying billions or trillions of tons of liquid, pressurised carbon dioxide in the ground, hoping it will stay there forever. A very powerful consensus indeed: the OECD, the G8, and most importantly the US Department of Energy all concluding that the best way to avert global warming is to process more coal, not less, and bury the resulting CO2 in the ground, hoping it will stay there forever, essentially passing the largest problem we’ve ever created on to our children to solve. This coming July 7-9, the G8 nations will meet in Hokkaido, Japan and will announce their conclusion - more than five years in the making - that the “urgent deployment” of carbon burial CCS technology is essential. To save the world from catastrophic global warming, “clean coal” is the answer, they will say. - Source 05/22/08 - Powering Villages from Rice Husks Two students from the University of Virginia's Darden School of Business recently started a business that supplies electricity to rural villages in India by gasifying the rice husks that are a waste product of rice milling. So far, two rice husk generators are providing power to about 10,000 rural Indians, but the business plan calls for a rapid e