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You are visitor # since January 1, 2003. October 2005 Plenum News 2005 (enhanced) Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Entire Year (minimal, early formats) 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 You can write Comments or read the KeelyNet discussion list. Feel free to subscribe. Be aware in case any of these links don't respond, most will be available through the Wayback Machine, simply cut and paste the link to recall the 'lost' information. 10/31/05 - Wind farms expected to grow off Texas coast Wind turbines supplying energy to homes and businesses will one day line Texas' 376-mile coastline if the state's Land Office Commissioner Jerry Patterson has his way. The turbines will stand about 10 miles offshore, enough to preserve the treasured view but close enough to make coastal wind power an affordable energy alternative still missing in the United States, he said. Wind energy is not a new concept. About 1 percent of electricity in the United States in generated by wind farms, primarily in the Midwest and West. This year, new onshore projects in states such as California, Texas and New York are expected to help power 700,000 homes. But the offshore turbines remain unproven at least in the United States. Meanwhile, United Kingdom and Scandinavian countries have operated coastal farms the last several years. Last week he announced plans to lease 11,000 acres in the Gulf of Mexico to a Louisiana energy contractor who will build 50 turbines designed to power about 40,000 homes. "We have other sites in mind from Brownsville to the Louisiana border," Patterson said. "We hope to make more announcements within the next 12 months." Peter Hartley, economics professor at Rice University in Houston, says upfront costs for coastal wind farms are higher than those for onshore wind farms. He said other risks include not having enough wind during peak times, thus leading to a blackout, and keeping turbines stable against tropical storm or hurricane winds in the Gulf. "I think solar energy is a much more likely long-term energy source," Hartley said. "Still, the nice thing about wind is the fuel costs are about zero and the operational costs are low." 10/31/05 - Alternate ways to keep warm this winter Typically, people buy all types of weatherstripping, door sweeps, insulation and sealants to get by for the winter. People are investing a bit more as heating bills continue the upward trend. 1) Pellet stoves burn cleaner than wood stoves and can be installed in more spaces because of their venting options. "Anytime you use the furnace to heat the whole house, you'll never cut your bill in half," Thomas said. "But, if you're using an alternative heating source, like pellets or wood, you could. You can have a nice piece of furniture and a high-efficiency stove." The stoves cost between $500 and $3,000. 2) Programmable thermostats allow residents to set temperatures, such as keeping the temperatures lower while they're gone or while they're sleeping. Programmable thermostats usually start at $25. They are thought to save home heating bills by as much as 10 percent each year. Other items include window and door weatherizing kits; foam insulation kits for light switches and wall sockets; rooftop turbines, which are attic vents that slow down air flow out of the attic; and the Wind Jammer, a removable clear weatherstripping that applies to all the cracks around windows. 3) Simply maintaining the home furnace also can help on the annual bills; by installing a new furnace, homeowners can save hundreds. The most common problem with newer furnaces, Hitchcock said, are dirty sensors and filters. Dirty sensors will prevent thermostats from turning the furnace on. Clogged filters can cause the furnace to overheat. Something could be said for installing a more energy-efficient furnace. "The older furnaces have an efficiency level of 45 percent," Hitchcock said. "Those would dump 45 cents out of every dollar you spend up the chimney. Nowadays, high-efficiency furnaces bring that down to 7 cents for every dollar." A new furnace would cost about $2,000; a high-efficiency furnace would cost $3,000, Hitchcock said. 10/31/05 - Democrats blast oil subsidies House Republicans recently pushed through legislation that would give more federal subsidies to the oil industry instead of trying to help consumers cope with sharply higher energy prices, the top Democrat on the House Commerce Committee said Saturday. Rep. John Dingell of Michigan said Congress should focus on Democratic proposals to punish gasoline profiteering, invest in new energy technology, and encourage more energy efficiency. "What was the Republican answer to the hurricanes? More subsidies to the oil industry," Dingell said, referring to the bill's sponsors who said the help was needed because of damage to refineries from recent Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Less than three months ago, the president signed into law a Republican-written energy bill giving $14.5 billion in tax breaks and incentives to the energy industry. Republicans calling for controls - Long an ally of the energy industry, senior Republican lawmakers reversed direction during the past week and began calling for possible new controls on oil companies. Their change in views came the same week that Exxon Mobil reported a $9.9 billion quarterly profit and other major oil companies also saw big increases. 10/31/05 - Chinese scientists claim to find the cause of Leukemia The group found that leukemia is caused by the human gene PTPN11, encoding Shp2, and their discovery has drawn wide attention from the world medical circles. Leukemia, or blood cancer, is a common but destructive malignant tumor in human hemopoietic system. The incidence of leukemia is the highest among tumor diseases among the youth. According to Dr. Xu Rongzhen with the Department of Hematology of the hospital, the research group analyzed leukemia patient cell samples, leukemia cell systems of multiple types of people as well as the PTPN11 sequence in the blood cells of normal people. They also studied the expression of Shp2 tyrosine phosphatase and their function system. They found PTPN11, encoding Shp2, shows abnormal distribution and over-expression in leukemia cells. In normal blood cells, Shp2 protein is in cytoplasm, but in leukemia cells, that are elevated in large number into the inside plasma membrane and nucleolus. 10/31/05 - China taking the lead in pollution The steady barrage of statistics trumpeting China's rise is often greeted elsewhere as if the figures were torpedoes and the rest of the world a sinking ship. Economic growth tops 9 percent! Textile exports jump 500 percent! Military spending up! Manufacturing up! The numbers inflame the exaggerated perception that China is methodically inhaling jobs and resources and, in the process, inhaling the rest of the planet. Chinese official, Zhang Lijun, warned that pollution levels here could more than quadruple within 15 years if the country does not curb its rapid growth in energy consumption and automobile use. China is already the world's second-biggest producer of greenhouse gas emissions and is expected to surpass the United States as the biggest. Roughly a third of China is exposed to acid rain. A recent study by a Chinese research institute found that 400,000 people die prematurely every year in China from diseases linked to air pollution. For the Chinese government, the question is how to change the country's booming economy without crippling it. Violent riots have erupted in the countryside over contaminated water, stunted crops and mounting health woes. In a handful of villages, farmers have stormed chemical factories to stop the dumping of filthy water. Roughly 70 percent of China's rivers and lakes are polluted. In cities, people drink bottled water; in the countryside, most people are too poor to pay for bottled water, so they boil polluted water or simply drink it. Public anger is also rising in cities. In some, air pollution is so thick that on the worst days doctors advise, impractically, against going outside. 10/31/05 - K.I.S.S. - The secret of impressive writing (In case you've been living in a cave, KISS means 'keep it simple stupid', this is a great observation as I get junked up emails all the time and see it all over websites, very annoying! - JWD) Writers who use long words needlessly and choose complicated font styles are seen as less intelligent than those who stick with basic vocabulary and plain text, according to new research from the Princeton University in New Jersey, to be published in the next edition of Applied Cognitive Psychology. This implies that efforts to impress readers by using florid font styles and searching through a thesaurus may have the opposite effect. "It's important to point out that this research is not about problems with using long words but about using long words needlessly," said study author Daniel Oppenheimer. "Anything that makes a text hard to read and understand, such as unnecessarily long words or complicated fonts, will lower readers' evaluations of the text and its author." "The continuing popularity amongst students of using big words and attractive font styles may be due to the fact that they may not realise these techniques could backfire," Oppenheimer noted. "One thing seems certain: write as simply and plainly as possible and it's more likely you'll be thought of as intelligent." 10/31/05 - Kozi homes for $10,000 Cape Town, South Africa-based n'Kozi Homes has come up with a home design that mixes Buckminster Fuller and local materials. The dome homes are designed to be compatible with a variety of environmentally-sustainable utilities, from waterless toilets to solar power. The costs are remarkably low, too: a ready-to-live house, 33 meters square, complete with plumbing and power, would run about $10,000. Our provisional patent design is based on one of the Platonic Solids, namely the Icosahedron. A complete Icosahedron is structured with 20 equilateral triangles. By removing (truncating) the lower five triangles, a format remains with a five sided floor surface on which a geodesic domed structure can be built which provides more strength, floor surface area and volume than any other known design - utilizing the geodesic principle of "doing more with less." The equilateral triangles from which the structures are assembled are simple to manufacture and erect, and the finished product provides a strong, energy efficient and well insulated environment. 10/31/05 - Brain implants to control blood pressure UK researchers have shown for the first time that stimulating a certain part of the brain with implanted electrodes can influence arterial blood pressure in a predictable way in patients. Short bursts of electrical stimulation were applied in an area in the midbrain called the periaqueductal grey matter (PAG) in 15 awake patients. The patients had already had the deep brain electrodes fitted as a treatment for chronic pain. The stimulation lowered blood pressure in patients who had the electrodes near the front (or ventral) part of the PAG. In patients where the electrodes were near the back (or dorsal) part, blood pressure could be increased. Blood pressure changes and "freezing" responses have been produced in cats, and stimulating the PAG of rats elicits a “defence” response. Green speculates that the PAG may be involved in control of the cardiovascular system and the "fight-or-flight" survival responses - of which changes in blood pressure could be one part. The team stimulated the patients’ brains for periods of about 5 minutes at a frequency of 10 Hertz, followed by a 3-minute recovery period. The electrode was about 1.2 millimetres in diameter with four “contact points” at its end. These points are 1 mm apart and a current flows between them when switched on, Green explained to New Scientist. The researchers saw that the systolic blood pressure dropped by an average of 14.2 millimetres of mercury (mmHg) - or 13.9% - in seven patients, in whom the ventral PAG had been stimulated. In six patients, systolic blood pressure shot up by an average of 16.7 mmHg (16.4%), after the dorsal PAG was stimulated. 10/30/05 - Water to Fuel, patented, tested I have built an electrolysis cell that separates water molecules of hydrogen and oxygen which is suitable for powering an internal combustion engine. This cell is placed in a car and all you have to do is fill it with water. This fuel gives 20% more horsepower than gasoline and runs pollution-free, so not only is this a cheap fuel, but it also does not pollute the air we breathe. I have built seven prototypes that have worked. I have run six different engines on them; the biggest being a 1958 Volkswagon (1200 cc). I know that it is possible to run a car or build a unit for a house to make gas and electricity from water and still be pollution-free. A unit for a car would cost about $1,500.00, and one for a house about $3,500.00, but the benefit would be no lines at gas stations or a bill every month, because of the nature of the unit. United States Patent 4,344,831 - Weber - August 17, 1982 - Apparatus for the generation of gaseous fuel - Abstract - A method and apparatus for the generation of a gaseous hydrogen or hydrogen and oxygen mixture for use as a fuel. The apparatus includes an electrolytic tank having means for circulating and cooling the electrolyte solution therein, gas removal means and a source of electric power communicating with the electrolyte solution. The method is characterized by dissociation of the aqueous portion of the electrolyte solution and maintaining the temperature of the electrolyte below 150.degree. F. 10/30/05 - Super Efficient Far Infrared Halogen heater $199 Infrared Heater Does NOT Burn Oxygen in the room. Heater emits 91.7% of the energy it's uses. The halogen tubes will reduce the energy bill to half with Halogen FIR Radiant Energy. More economical and effective compared to conventional electric heaters. Far Infrared Energy radiates heat and allows the body to absorb the heat deeply, activating a unique beneficial wave form and vibration. Far Infrared Heat has been scientifically tested showing that the FIR wavelength of between 8 - 25 microns emitted by the halogen tubes prove to be Optimum Energy Readily Absorbable By the Human Body! # Kills Bacteria # Eliminates Smell And Odor # Regenerates Cells # Eliminates Mildew # Eliminates Fungi # Promotes Circulation The heater will not easily catch fire if accidental contact with paper or other materials and therefore the chance of fire hazard is substantially reduced. 10/30/05 - First Soy Fuel Facility opened Fuel marketers typically combine soy additives with diesel or heating oil in tanker trucks by "sloshing" them together. The new facility does the work more efficiently and spares marketers from having to buy and store soy fuels, which are also known as biodiesel. The injection facility is located at a large fuel terminal owned by Petroleum Products Corp. a few miles southeast of Harrisburg, and lets tanker-truck drivers choose the exact percentage blend of biodiesel, up to 20 percent. Currently, there are about 45 plants in the country that produce the biodiesel from soybean oil, mostly in the Midwest, and many more are planned, according to the National Biodiesel Board. Gerhart and fuel marketers say biodiesel costs about $1 per gallon more than pure petroleum products, but a federal tax credit makes the price competitive. They say they hope biodiesel will become cheaper than petroleum as more producers come on line. 10/30/05 - Thermoacoustic Stirling Engine of the Future The Stirling cycle describes a phenomenon where a confined volume of gas expands at high pressure and contracts at low pressure. In the conventional Stirling engine, a fixed amount of helium is compressed in a cool chamber and then transferred to a chamber heated by an external burner. As the gas expands it drives a piston that delivers energy. When it cools it returns to the colder chamber and the cycle begins again. The thermoacoustic Stirling heat engines developed by the LANL scientists work by creating intense acoustic energy that can be used directly in acoustically powered refrigerators or to generate electricity. The power production process is environmentally friendly and up to 30 percent efficient while typical internal combustion engines are 25 to 40 percent efficient. Because the thermoacoustic Stirling heat engine contains no moving parts and is constructed of common materials, it requires little or no maintenance, can be manufactured inexpensively, and is expected to have many future uses. "Small low-cost engines like this could be used in homes for cogeneration, for instance. That is, they could be used to generate electricity while at the same time producing heat to warm the home or for hot-water heating," said Los Alamos Researcher Greg Swift. 10/30/05 - Resonant Macrosonic Synthesis Scientists have long known that sound is composed of pulsing waves of energy, but it was considered useless as a power source because at high levels sound waves distort into shock waves. An example is the way sound distorts on a stereo or radio speakers when turned up too loud. But Lucas discovered that by sending sound waves through empty containers of various shapes, the shock waves were eliminated. "Once you've done that," he says, "you can add all the energy, create all the pressure, and deliver all the power that you want." Lucas calls his invention Resonant Macrosonic Synthesis -- RMS. The beauty of a sound-wave compressor is that it would do what a compressor does, but without the moving parts required in conventional piston technology. Macrosonix researchers say they also hope to use sound to create clean electric power generators, replacing any number of machines with the technology of an empty cavity. Lucas and his colleagues at MacroSonix have created sound waves with 1,600 times more energy per unit volume than any previous human-made sound wave. The sound waves are created and sustained in a closed, horn-shaped "resonator" (cross-section shown). Created in the large main compartment of the resonator, the sound waves can convert low-pressure gas from the suction chamber (lower-right hand compartment) into high-pressure gas exiting the discharge chamber on the upper right. During a single "acoustic cycle" (which lasts 2 thousandths of a second in the process shown), the sound wave oscillates between high and low pressures in certain regions of the main chamber. 10/30/05 - Orchestrating Financial Collapse using Oil price hikes This is from David Icke's email list. (Thanks to Ken & Rosemary! - JWD) I was an eye witness to what I am going to relate and there are a good many others who could come forward if only they will. In 2000, I worked in the Gulf of Mexico for two different OSV companies that provided support services to the "oil patch". The two companies did very different work for the oil companies so I got to get an eye full. Nearly all of the new wells in the gulf are immediately capped off and forgotten about. I saw well after well brought in only to see them capped off and left. I asked a couple of petroleum engineers what exactly was going on and I was told by both (they worked for different companies) that there was no intention of bringing that oil to market until the "price was right". When they are ready and want it they know right where to go get it. Oil platforms are designed to offer almost no wind resistance and the majority of platforms are at least 120 feet above the water level. They are built so well that several of them have suffered direct hits by watercraft of all sizes with little harm. They were damaged but they were far from destroyed. Anyone who has seen how fast an oil tanker can move in open water will tell you that they don't dawdle around. Most of them can move around 30-40 knots. For all of the kiddies that are waiting for their draft notices I would say don't bother, I don't think that there will be a draft. They won't need one. Since the all volunteer military came into being recruitment has always had an inverse relationship to the economy. The better the economy the harder it is to get recruits. We're facing a winter season in North America that may see heating costs equal to a family's house payment. If our weather is being controlled expect it to be a bad one. With $100 dollar a barrel oil on the horizon and the ensuing loss of jobs because of energy costs the military will be one of the only places a young man or woman will be able to eat on a regular basis and keep a roof over their heads. The neocons need cannon fodder for their war machine and lo and behold mysterious market forces drop it on their doorstep. 10/30/05 - 'Livin in the USA' I think that a lot of people are carrying around in their heads, unarticulated and even in some cases unnoticed, a sense that the wheels are coming off the trolley and the trolley off the tracks. That in some deep and fundamental way things have broken down and can't be fixed, or won't be fixed any time soon. That our pollsters are preoccupied with "right track" and "wrong track" but missing the number of people who think the answer to "How are things going in America?" is "Off the tracks and hurtling forward, toward an unknown destination." There is a sense of unreality in our courts so deep that they think they can seize grandma's house to build a strip mall; our media institutions imploding--the spectacle of a great American newspaper, the New York Times, hurtling off its own tracks, as did CBS. Do you have confidence in the CIA? The FBI? I didn't think so. I suspect that history, including great historical novelists of the future, will look back and see that many of our elites simply decided to enjoy their lives while they waited for the next chapter of trouble. And that they consciously, or unconsciously, took grim comfort in this thought: I got mine. Which is what the separate peace comes down to, "I got mine, you get yours." 10/30/05 - Copying Nature Copying the ideas of others is usually frowned upon, but when it comes to the work of Mother Nature, scientists are finding they can use nature as a template. An interdisciplinary group of scientists and engineers at the Georgia Institute of Technology recently formed the Center for Biologically Inspired Design (CBID) with the goal of capitalizing on the rich source of design solutions present in biological processes. The researchers believe nature can inspire design and engineering solutions that are efficient, practical and sustainable and thus have the potential to greatly enhance new technologies, materials and processes. "We wanted to see how nature does things like gathering and transporting energy, and then see if we can translate those processes for human applications," Yen said. "Georgia Tech is a great place to do this kind of research. It provides engineers who want to apply their expertise with biologists a new way to design solutions to problems." 10/29/05 - DIY Jetbike! (Just too cool not to post! - JWD) YSR-50's are generally powered by a 50cc 2 stroke engine made by Yamaha. They are rock solid, and quite fast. They have one definite advantage over imported pocket bikes however. They are STREET LEGAL! Smaller than a standard street bike and larger than a pocket bike it comes with a 50cc engine and is street legal. The gas turbine is being constructed from a Cummins ST-50 usually found in large trucks. The documentation is pretty thorough and covers the build from the beginning. It’s still in progress, the exhaust and pumps still need to be mounted, possibly a starter too. The ECU will be a Basic Stamp II. See, you don’t need to be Jay Leno or have 150K to have your own jet bike. Homebuilt Gas Turbine FAQ 10/29/05 - Oil industry under fire as it posts billions in profits Reaction to major oil producers' staggering profits ranges from rage at the pumps to calls for profits to be reinvested in exploration, alternative-energy research or simply returned somehow to the public. Exxon Mobile Corp., the world's largest publicly traded oil company, said Thursday that it earned an industry record $9.9 billion in this year's third quarter, $4.2 billion, or 74 percent, more than it earned a year earlier. Other companies have reported similar results. The oil companies assert that their profits are no larger than other businesses and that they just look big because it is a big business. The soaring oil companies' profits prompted U.S. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist on Thursday to call for hearings with oil companies on high energy costs. Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard also has called on Congress to look into the oil industry profits, particularly in light of the tax breaks the industry was awarded in the recently passed energy bill. "The energy bill has billions of dollars in benefits for oil companies, and they show their gratitude to consumers by cranking prices through the roof," Goddard said. "There is evidence that they caused the supply problems by earlier closing refineries," said David Cowley of the AAA. Economists blame high fuel costs for rising inflation and declining consumer spending. 10/29/05 - Gene found in Black Death survivors stops HIV The bubonic plague is caused by a bacterium called Yersinia pestis and is characterized by chills, fever, vomiting, diarrhea, and the formation of black boils in the armpits, neck, and groin. Though the disease was originally called the "Great Mortality" and the "Great Pestilence," the name "Black Death" was eventually adopted because of these black boils, which derive their color from dried blood under the skin caused by internal bleeding. In certain cases the bacterium spreads to the victims' lungs, causing them to fill with frothy, bloody liquid. This derivation of the disease is called pneumonic plague, and can quickly spread from person to person through the air. It is almost always lethal. Local Eyam lore tells befuddling stories of plague survivors who had close contact with the bacterium but never caught the disease. Elizabeth Hancock buried six children and her husband in a week, but never became ill. The village gravedigger handled hundreds of plague-ravaged corpses, but survived as well. Could these people have somehow been immune to the Black Death? Dr. Stephen O'Brien's work with HIV and the mutated form of the gene CCR5, called "delta 32," led him to Eyam. In 1996, research showed that delta 32 prevents HIV from entering human cells and infecting the body. O'Brien thought this principle could be applied to the plague bacteria, which affects the body in a similar manner. To determine whether the Eyam plague survivors may have carried delta 32, O'Brien tested the DNA of their modern-day descendents. What he found out was startling. 10/29/05 - Radio Frequency Lighting The General Electric scientist holds an ordinary electric bulb in his hands and makes it shine mysteriously without any wires to provide the ordinary electric circuit. Secret of the trick is a high-frequency radio transmitter hidden below the ring at the bottom of the picture. The radio energy given off is picked up by the antenna system composed of the scientist's arms and body, which form a loop. 10/29/05 - GaN helps scientists generate hydrogen from water A research group based in a Tokyo university has succeeded to produce hydrogen using a Gallium Nitride (GaN) device as a photocatalyst, which scientists believe could lead to a process that extracts hydrogen directly from water using only solar energy. "We confirmed that nitride semiconductor can produce hydrogen from water," said Kazuhiro Ohkawa, associate professor of Tokyo University. He noted that a light-emitting semiconductor absorbs the same wavelength light that it emits. Relying on the same characteristics for photocatalysis reaction, the group succeeded to extract hydrogen by just exposing light on the nitride film dipped in water. In its research, scientists grew thin films of GaN and InGaN on sapphire substrates, then used a Xenon lamp to expose light on the nitride films. The nitride film and a platinum electrode in water are connected with a 1-volt power source. While the photocatalysis theoretically do not require any power, Ohkawa said, "We apply the small voltage as a tap to urge the reaction." Once exposed to light, oxygen generates at the nitride electrode and hydrogen generates at the platinum electrode. The conversion efficiency is 0.5 percent for the GaN film and 0.7 percent for the InGaN film. The experimental system using a 50-millimeter diameter GaN film produces several milliliters of hydrogen per hour. Doping Indium in GaN enables the nitride semiconductor to emit longer wavelength lights. If high quality InGaN film can be fabricated, the photocatalyst can utilize the wider frequency range of sunlight. Research team scientists expect to raise conversion efficiency to 10 percent in three years. By using a solar battery for longer wavelength light, Ohkawa expects efficiency to reach 40 percent. 10/29/05 - Hospital in a Box for remote areas Fits into a Land Rover and can be taken hundreds of miles into remote locations, almost anywhere in the world. FOR people living in remote areas of the developing world, the nearest hospital can be hundreds of miles away, making access to even the most basic of surgery impossible. But if the people can't come to the hospital, why not take the operating theatre to them? That's the thinking behind a solar-powered "hospital in a box", which can fit in the back of a Land Rover and has been designed to allow a team of three surgeons to carry out life-saving operations almost anywhere in the world. The system, developed by a team of doctors and technicians from the UK's National Health Service, comprises two small boxes that unfold to provide an operating table, equipment holder, lighting, anaesthesia and monitors, plus a plastic tent to provide a clean environment for surgery. 10/29/05 - Retroreflector for sea rescues (I've always been fascinated with phase conjugation type retro reflectors so the use of them to scan miles at a time is simply brilliant! - JWD) Gerald Falbel's patent was filed to help search for downed military pilots, it can be used equally well for finding shipwrecked sailors or airline passengers in life-rafts. The downed pilot wears a helmet that carries a large glass hemisphere, similar to a camera fisheye lens, on the top. This sits over a reflector, which catches light from every direction and reflects it back in the direction it came from - much like a cats-eye road marker. A spotter plane flying high over the rescue area - at about 10,000 feet - sweeps a laser beam across the water, say East to West. It then rapidly retraces the beam's path, before starting a new sweep slightly to the North. Each sweep takes just 1 second, meaning a path tens of miles long can be scanned in just a few minutes. If the beam hits a cats-eye helmet it bounces straight back, to be registered by a camera sensor and recorded as a hit. Although there will inevitably be false reflections, from stones or water glints, they will not show up from the same place on a retraced beam sweep, so can be safely ignored. The laser is also pulsed to help the sensor distinguish a genuine hit from reflected sunlight - sunlight has no pulses. 10/29/05 - Moonpower One of these days, in the not so terribly distant future, when you turn on a light you may be getting moonlight. How will it work? There's a new blueprint for using the lunar surface to generate moon power. Scientists have studied the surface and decided that moon dust could be perfect to produce power. With heat, it could become miles of solar panels. "The surface of the moon is made of crystals and you can use microwaves or other low-grade power sources to fuse these crystals into a surface which when coated with silicon, which is also available on the moon, you can generate power," said Boeing strategist Paul Eckert. That power could be used on the moon or beamed back for use in earth's own power grid. 10/28/05 - People eating genetically modified food may have rat-short lifespan It is generally believed that rats, cockroaches and cyanobacteria can survive any biological catastrophe. But recently, researchers have once again stated that there is a delayed action poison which can slowly kill even enduring rodents. Experimental rats were given food containing genetically modified components. The rats survived during the experiment but their conduct seriously changed: they became nervous, anxious and even aggressive for no reason at all. The researcher discovered abnormal pathologic changes in the liver and testicles of the rats. This is important that descendants of the experimental rats fed with GMF had really terrible problems. Alien components turned out to be lethal for little rats. Generally, all rats of one litter survive. But over 55 percent of experimental rats' babies were born dead or died soon after they came to the world. At that, their death was really agonizing, they were found with their intestines swollen. Other new-born rats had really weak health. At the same time, mothers did not reveal their motherly instinct actively. Experiments reveal that transgenes are very poisonous for descendants and are in fact a delayed action biological weapon. 10/28/05 - ExxonMobil happy with gouged prices, no alternative energy investments ExxonMobil, which stunned Americans on Thursday by reporting nearly $10 billion in profit for the third quarter, says it has no plans to invest any of those earnings in developing alternative or renewable energy - something other oil companies do. Neither will Exxon significantly step up how much money it puts into finding oil or refining it into gasoline, which could help ease tight supplies that have driven oil and gasoline prices to records this year. Exxon's investment for those activities will total about $18 billion this year, roughly what was planned and similar to what Exxon has invested in exploration and refining in past years, Gardner says. ExxonMobil earned $7.9 billion for all of 1999. Data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration show that the 20 big energy companies it tracks, together, earned $1.6 billion in the fourth quarter of 2001, and together earned less than $10 billion in several other quarters in 2001 and 2002. Exxon notes it boosted the energy efficiency of its own refineries and chemical plants more than 3% last year vs. 2003, and is investing $100 million over 10 years in a Stanford University project to find energy sources not yet being considered. Exxon's huge profits and its reluctance to use them for alternative energy development are unlikely to win much applause from motorists weary of $3 gas. 10/28/05 - Task force urges £20m grants for green fuel boilers Boilers that burn wood, straw and sewage sludge instead of coal, oil and gas could reduce Britain's carbon dioxide emissions by 3m tonnes a year, experts said yesterday. The government's biomass taskforce criticised ministers' approach to the technology and, in a new report, urged them to release up to £20m a year as grants to help schools, hospitals, local authorities and companies pay for boilers and combined heat and power plants that run on green fuels. Central heating and hot water systems account for more than a third of energy consumption in the UK, yet just 1% of this demand is met by renewable sources. The biomass taskforce, set up by the government a year ago, says this could increase to 3% by 2010 and 7% by 2015. Exploited properly, existing biomass sources could bring carbon savings equivalent to the pollution produced by 3.25m cars. The report said about 1m hectares of land could be available to grow energy crops, yielding about 8m tonnes of biomass fuel; up to 4.5m tonnes of waste wood could also be used. With some 50,000 buildings, it says the public sector is ideally placed to convert to biomass-generated heat. 10/28/05 - Examiners: Accounting at NASA still a mess NASA's finances are such a jumbled mess that lawmakers fear the agen-cy's $100 billion moon-Mars venture might spark massive cost overruns such as those that plagued the international space station for years. Auditors from two agencies on Thursday testified that NASA has made little progress in accounting for how it spends taxpayer money. NASA still can't balance its own checkbook. NASA relies too heavily on outside contractors for accounting numbers, leaving room for fraud and abuse and making it difficult to monitor them. NASA's failings could spell trouble for its plans to return to the moon by 2018 and begin planning a manned exploration of Mars, auditors said. Just a few years ago, NASA's accounting woes led to a surprise $4.5 billion cost overrun on the space station, noted the GAO's Allen Li. 10/28/05 - Geeks guide to working out If you can believe this, many Geeks are in bad shape. Many of you geeks might have this little voice in the backs of your heads saying you should be working out, but it is promptly silenced by the din of a good game of Half-Life or your blasting MP3's. However, should you decide to listen to that voice, as I did, here's a listing of the things I have found to be most important to my ongoing endeavor. I've been working out consistently now for over 6 months, so something's going right. I feel obliged to point out that you can still get great results without a giant time investment in the cardio part of your workout. I saw a study recently at www.fitnessonline.com where women did just 2 minutes of warmup and 8 minutes of cardio (at 70% or better of their target heart rate) along with a light weight training routine for three days a week. On average, they lost 3 pounds of fat, and gained two pounds of muscle in just 2 months. Mind you, that's not just 3 pounds, but 3 pounds of fat. They noticed a definite decrease in their cellulite, as well. Not that I have much cellulite; I'm just saying. It doesn't take much to make a big difference. Saige advises geeks who want to get in shape should look into Dance Dance Revolution, which forces you to jump around a lot. I personally think that going to the arcade for your daily workout is a bit expensive, not to mention yucky. People don't come to the arcade so they can be around people who smell like they've been working out, even though that's what tends to happen anyway. However, I think a few free DDR machines in workout facilities (instead of treadmills, which are probably just as expensive) would be awesome!. In fact, if they could make all fitness equipment into video game machines, you'd probably see a sharp decline in teenage obesity. 10/28/05 - Pumping energy from the Aether/ZPE When an arc has been struck between a welding machine typically using 20-100 amperes of direct-current electricity at 20-60 volts and the aluminum stock, one notices the sudden jerking motion of the power supply wires connecting the hand-piece to the transformer. This phenomena can be explained either by using the Ampère force, in that case another part of the equipment must also move in opposite direction to counterbalance the momentum of the wires, or by the generation of a stimulated force applied to the center of mass of the equipment. Deyo duplicates this phenomena by hanging a loop of 0.08 mm diameter wire across the laboratory room, each end of a portion of the wire was fixed to the walls. A car battery was used to supply the high-current to the test wire. When the power was applied to this experimental setting, the portion of the wire which drooped between the two anchor posts deflected toward one wall for a given polarity and toward the other wall when the polarity of the battery is reversed. In either case, as the circuit was closed, the wire deflection was momentarily exaggerated before coming to rest slightly off its unenergized position. Deyo also tested the interaction of the Earth's magnetic field with the magnetic field of the wire by hanging four loops from the ceiling, each loop faced a direction of the compass. Whenever, he applied power to the system, the loops would all deflect equally either toward or away from the center of the loop arrangement as shown in Fig.5. 10/28/05 - Japanese firm develops technology to transmit movie in 0.5 seconds A Japanese company has developed technology to transmit a two-hour movie in 0.5 seconds, the world's fastest speed achieved with fibre-optic cables in the field, it said Thursday. Kansai Electric used fibre-optic cables on power-transmitting steel towers to achieve the speed of one terabit per second, which is more than 100 times faster than inter-city data transmissions currently in use, a spokesman said. 10/28/05 - GM hires Russian nuclear scientists to develop new auto technology (I think this is a super smart move by GM and watch GM stock in future as radical new technologies are revealed from Russian researchers! - JWD) A new research and design center is planned for Moscow which will focus on the development of batteries, fuel cells, hybrid and electronic controls. "The government encourages US companies to do business there and to fully utilize the scientific talents there," GM spokeswoman Angele Shaw told AFP. "They have a vast talent pool." GM is looking to take advantage of US and European Union programs that provide financial incentives to Russian scientists to develop peaceful projects, including automobile propulsion systems. "About three years ago we began to explore the possibility of conducting research in the former Soviet Union," Alan Taub, executive director of science at GM's research and development laboratories said in a statement. "In a very short time, working with universities, academies and scientific institutes, we saw world class results in key technologies." 10/28/05 - Force Multiplying Engine This invention lies in the use of an ecological engine which works on the principle of the power ratio, and in such a way that it is powered at start-up by a 1 kW electric motor, and then uses the principle of power ratio to drive a series of hydraulic high-pressure pumps which exert pressure on oil in a common tank and drive an hydraulic engine which powers the reduction gear and then the wheels of the vehicle. To date, the principle of the use of power ratio to drive a 5 kW generator, which will have an output of 100 kW electricity, has been unknown. The essence of this invention lies in fact that high-pressure pumps of certain capacity and construction do not consume a great deal of energy, while the pressure produced can be used for obtaining high power on small surfaces.The ecological hydraulic engine is executed in such a way that it works on the principle of power relation (the pulse defeating of pressure in the tank across the high- pressure pumps and it is powered by a 1 kW electric motor (but it may also be powered by even less power), supplied from the battery arrangement for the first driving, which accumulates energy in the tank by system of high-pressure pumps, and as a medium it uses hydro-oil (or some other kind of pressure medium), under the pressure of 300 bars (recommendable), and in this way collected energy is transmitted, with the help of hydroengines, on the car wheels or on some other kind of propulsion machine, while its small part is used for filling of batteries with the help of alternator. This kind of engine may work without any kind of fuel or battery, because it can produce energy for itself and it can serve as a non-limited source of energy. The power gained on the shaft of hydroengine may be used as it is needed. PATENT is classified in REPUBLIC OF CROATIA state patent office - Class: 381-03/94-01/3695 - Number: P940977A Drazen Pavicin - HR-21224 Slatina - Croatia - e-mail: netmedia@st.tel.hr Bill Beaty contacted him via email back in 1998 and the inventor wrote that he has built and patented a self running hydraulic engine and that he would be pleased to show it to me of anyone else that is interested. This guy claims that his engine self runs after an initial startup, requiring no fuel. 10/28/05 - Mirrors to help Alps villagers see the light The residents of an Austrian village in the shadow of the Tyrol mountain range hope to beat the winter blues with dozens of giant mirrors. They have backed a scheme to use the computer-controlled reflectors to bounce the rays of the sun around the mountains overlooking Rattenberg and on to their main street. Whereas countries such as Slovenia market themselves as the "sunny side of the Alps", many communities are denied sunshine from November to February because they are on the wrong side of a mountain. They are being called the "valleys of despond". Rattenberg's 460 inhabitants have unusually high rates of seasonal depression, according to Peter Erhard, the local doctor. He said that more of his patients were reporting sleeplessness, sadness, lethargy and poor self-esteem during winter. The mirrors - or heliostats - can bounce rays to a target. The plan is to build a bank of 30 solar reflectors in the neighbouring village of Kramsach, 500m away on the sunny side of the Stadtberg mountain. The mirrors tilt so they can track the sun's position. The rays are sent through gaps in the mountains to a second bank of 30 mirrors in Rattenberg. The reflected sunshine will not be enough to bathe the whole village but it can create 10 hot spots: chosen streets and historical facades, many of which date back to the 15th century. Depressed locals will be able to go on to the high street to tank up with sunlight. The mirrors will cost about E2million ($3.2 million), funded by the EU and the regional authorities, and should be operating by the first half of 2007. 10/28/05 - "Quote of the Year" - "You know the world is going crazy when the best rapper is a white guy, the best golfer is a black guy, the tallest guy in the NBA is Chinese, the Swiss hold the America's Cup, France is accusing the U.S. of arrogance, Germany doesn't want to go to war, and the three most powerful men in America are named Bush, Dick, and Colon." (Thanks Jack in Irving, TX) 10/28/05 - Burning water as fuel (Thanks Stuart for the headsup on this. - JWD) Under the right conditions water itself can be made to burn (i.e.without using the energy input required for electrolysis). And in its subsequent recombination into water, it produces a heat and light of such intensity, that it can sublimate fire brick. Which is why I note with interest that a new "water based fuel" invention has appeared on the block at BiosFuel. In it, the inventor frequently emphasizes that his invention is " . . . a water based fuel " (rather than the conventional electrolysis inferred on the web site). He also talks of the "entrainment" of hydrogen in the water. Water will burn under the right conditions, and with the right "catalyst". This invention may or may not use similar techniques. Or it may be a new method of conditioning water that somehow "entrains" additional hydrogen? 10/27/05 - Iranian student invents rainmaking technique Iranian inventor Reza Kahuli was awarded as world's four best inventors by the British Inventors Society (BIS). He is known for 16 inventions in various domains, the most important of which is the new method he has invented for cloud impregnation. His invention was officially registered in the provincial capital city of Tabriz in mid-winter of 2005 and was approved by the scientific panel of Tabriz University. It was also presented at the 6th Kharazmi Youth Festival. Reducing the duration of rainfall from 45 to 15 minutes, decreasing the expenses of relevant operations, increasing the soil content of nitrate, optimizing the farms productivity, development of technology and its export to the world are among the special features of the method using the nitric oxide gas to impregnate clouds. New idea for modification of the weather, Cheaper and Faster than other methods; Useful for countries which don't have enough water for agriculture. Reza Kahouli & Hadi Kahouli Fannavaran, No. 86, Velayat Bul., Dadghostari Quarter, Sahand Quarter, Tabriz, Iran Tel:+98 411 381 6380 or +98 914 323 1480 Email:r.kahouli@gmail.com 10/27/05 - Former Naval Physicist: Government Can Control Hurricanes/Former Vet "Made it Rain" During Vietnam War Livingston, now 77, has a master's degree in cloud physics from the Naval Weapons Center and Navy Post Graduate School in California, a degree he later used in the battlefields. According to a recent report "He seeded clouds and dramatically increased rainfall in his theater of war, creating impassably muddy roads, slowing down the Vietnamese and Korean troops, and saving lives and entire towns from occupation." He now works with scientists and pilots at Weather Modification Inc., in Fargo, N.D. His research of hurricane control has been confirmed by the Stanford Research Institute. He has personally flown on 265 missions into the eyes of hurricanes and has gone on record as "most disgusted" with Hurricane Katrina because he knows that the storm itself could have been minimized. Livingston revealed that to reduce or redirect a category 4 hurricane would not be that difficult: "A hurricane is made up of energy sails and each of those sails adds to the ferocity of it. It was proven in 1974 by an international project that these energy sails exist and that they are the reason that hurricanes can develop and grow to move and cause damages. So there's no reason to attack the hurricane in total but just to fly in to the right front quadrant primarily relative to the direction the storm is moving in and seed those energy sails that are converging and making the rain and wind velocity increase in the front part of a hurricane," Livingston asserted. During the Vietnam war the goal for Livingston and his colleagues was to actually strengthen adverse weather, to inflate and exacerbate the monsoon season in order that the Vietnamese get bogged down. So not only is prevention possible, but also creation of harsh weather conditions. Cloud seeding is the process of spreading either dry ice (or more commonly, silver iodide AEROSOLS) into the upper part of clouds to try to stimulate the precipitation process and form rain. Since most rainfall starts through the growth of ice crystals from super-cooled cloud droplets (droplets colder than the freezing point, 32 deg. F) in the upper parts of clouds, the silver iodide particles are meant to encourage the growth of new ice particles. 10/27/05 - Easing pain (Thanks to Robin in Australia for the headsup on this. - JWD) A new machine claiming to cure pain by charging body cells has received glowing reviews from patients, who say their pain has all but gone. For two years Valerie Lee had barely been able to walk as she suffered from fibromyalgia, a crippling form of rheumatism. "I was in constant pain throughout my entire body, the worst was in my legs and feet," she said. She said her pain was cured when she discovered electro regenesis, a new machine that treats pain by delivering an ultra low electrical current through the body."It works by charging up the cells, energising the cells and a fully energised cell is able to do its job far more effectively," Dr Stubbs said. "And if you're energising the healing cells, the body can heal itself far more effectively," he said. "What we've found when we treat people is the healing is permanent and when we stop the treatment process the pain doesn't come back again". 10/27/05 - Wal-Mart Shifts from Petroleum to Corn based packaging The biggest news of the Oct. 17 - 19 event was made when Wal-Mart executive Matt Kistler announced that the retail giant, which is also America's largest grocery seller, is beginning to switch from petroleum-based to corn-based plastic packaging. The first substitution, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported, starting Nov. 1, involves 114 million clear-plastic clamshell containers used annually by the retailer for cut fruit and herbs. "With this change to packaging made from corn, we will save the equivalent of 800,000 gallons of gasoline and reduce more than 11 million pounds of greenhouse gas emissions," said Kistler. "This is a way to make a change, positive for the environment and for business," he said at the Sustainable Packaging Forum. 10/27/05 - Injecting concrete to 'cure' back problems A few weeks ago, Mervyn, who has osteoporosis, broke his back. He suffered a vertebrae fracture which is usually untreatable. Most people with this injury have to simply lie in bed for up to four months and wait for it to heal. But now there's new hope for people like Mervyn Mason. He was given having the latest cutting edge treatment, where cement is injected into his broken spine. Yes, cement similar to that used in footpaths. The cement restores the strength of the vertebrae. Mervyn has already received the treatment for another fracture he suffered, and couldn't believe the results. "It's an absolute miracle for the treatment to be immediately effective to reduce pain and fracture," Mervyn said. "It's quite amazing to feel it can be done immediately." "A needle is passed through the skin and into the body of the vertebral bone," Dr Clark explained. "We then mix up some cement to the consistency of toothpaste and inject it into the bone." "It smells a little like the glue in the old aeroplane kits" What this does it restores the bone's hardness and stops the motion in the fracture and relieves the pain." The procedure is called vertebroplasty. The cement is slowly squeezed into the fracture while Dr Clark monitors it through an x-ray on a TV screen. "As we inject the glue we watch it filling the bone and make sure it doesn't go anywhere we don't want it to go," Dr Clark said. Mervyn received about a teaspoonful of cement injected into his fractured vertebrae. It set in about five minutes, and it was hoped that within the hour, his mind-bending pain would be gone, while his fragile spine would once again be supportive. 10/27/05 - 'Smogmobile nitrogen car costs 3.8 vs 6.8 cents per mile for gasoline/electric The smogmobile is powered by energy from pressure built up when super-cooled liquid nitrogen is heated by ambient air and converts to a gas. The nitrogen gas turns an air motor, which propels the car, then exits the tailpipe. Since the atmosphere already is 78 percent nitrogen, the environmental effect of driving smogmobiles - even millions of them - would be virtually undetectable, Hertzberg says. To make liquid nitrogen, Hertzberg explains, a plant would simply run air through a large refrigeration system and collect the liquid nitrogen as it condenses. In the process, pollutants such as carbon dioxide also are removed from the air and could be disposed of in a benign manner. the UW group was the first to develop a heat exchanger system that prevents frost build-up from impeding the conversion process. The smogmobile's heat exchanger pulls liquid nitrogen from an insulated fuel tank through a series of aluminum tubing coils and specially designed pipes. Engine exhaust and outside air are circulated around the coils and pipes to gradually warm up the nitrogen from a minus-320 F liquid to an ambient-temperature gas. The conversion from liquid to gas expands the volume of the nitrogen 700 times, building sufficient pressure to turn an air motor much like pressure from burning gasoline drives an internal combustion engine. Using a 100-gallon tank would to match the average range for gas-powered vehicles of 250 miles between fill-ups. As large as the 100-gallon tank sounds, Williams said it would still weigh less than the batteries used in electric cars. Assuming an 8-cent-per-gallon price for mass produced liquid nitrogen, they predict the smogmobile would cost 3.8 cents per mile to drive. This compares favorably with the 6.2-cent-per-mile cost of operating gas-powered vehicles and electric cars (including the cost of battery replacement every two to three years). 10/26/05 - Buckypaper revisited - stronger than steel and harder than diamonds (I am reposting this because now there is this photo showing the structure and form. I wonder about the rigidity of it since it says 'hard as diamonds', does that mean the paper is an unbendable panel? - JWD) A Florida State University research group (FAC2T) is developing real-world applications for Buckypaper, a material that is 10 times lighter than steel and 250 times stronger - but also highly conductive of heat and electricity. Buckypaper is made from carbon nanotubes - amazingly strong fibers about 1/50,000th the diameter of a human hair that were first developed in the early 1990s. Buckypaper owes its name to Buckminsterfullerene, or Carbon 60 - a type of carbon molecule. If the researchers are successful in making Buckypaper hold a charge it would be more energy-efficient, lighter, and would allow for a more uniform level of brightness than current CRT and LCD technology. 10/26/05 - Contest for Money Saving Tips Looking to save money? Shower with your dog, live in a tent and confiscate your husband's credit cards. The competition, run by a nationwide chain of bargain stores, asked contestants for their best tips for saving money. The prize is worth more than $35,000. The winner is to be announced Saturday. One embittered contestant advised: "Do not give money to your wife. Do not give money to your wife. Do not give money to your wife. Get the hint!" Another recommended that penny-pinchers cut their own hair - noting that the damage to their appearance also would cut down on costly social obligations. 10/26/05 - Half-MW Solar Tracking System Installed in New Jersey Just over a half-MW worth of solar PV trackers have been completed at a Johnson & Johnson facility in New Jersey. The Johnson & Johnson Consumer Companies facility this week announced its new solar power system, consisting of ground-mounted panels that move during the day to follow the sun across the sky. The 505 kW solar tracking system is the largest and highest-output ground-mounted solar system east of the Mississippi, according to developers. Covering just under three acres, the PowerLight PowerTracker sun tracking system maximizes the sun's available energy by capturing 20 percent more daylight than fixed arrays, as the tracker follows the sun from early morning to late afternoon. Over its 30-year operating life, it is expected to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by an estimated 7,000 tons -- the equivalent of removing almost 1,400 cars from New Jersey's roadways. 10/26/05 - Russians working on reusable space ferry Russia, Europe, and Japan may jointly develop a crewed spacecraft called Kliper to ferry as many as six astronauts to and from the International Space Station. The spacecraft could launch as early as 2010 - just as NASA retires its space shuttles. That timing coincides with NASA's plan to retire its space shuttle fleet in 2010. "The fact that the shuttle is retiring means there needs to be a human crew transportation system in place," Thirkettle told New Scientist. NASA is developing a shuttle replacement called the Crew Exploration Vehicle, which it hopes to launch by 2014, but has said it does not want international governmental cooperation on the project. Kliper is also being designed to operate completely autonomously, without the need for pilot control. "It's got to be capable of automatic flight," Thirkettle says. Some on the team hope Kliper would be able to travel to the Moon... "It could well be that Kliper is a truck that goes backwards and forwards to low-Earth orbit and a different system takes you to the Moon," he says. 10/26/05 - NASA Scraps Plan to Wrap Hanger in Solar Panels NASA said Monday the panels would not generate enough energy to justify the $40 million cost of installing them. NASA had hoped the panels would generate power for thousands of homes near Moffett Field in Mountain View. The agency was investigating how to use historic Hangar One, a 200-foot-high structure, which was sealed several years ago by the Environmental Protection Agency amid concerns about asbestos and other chemical contamination. One idea to save the hangar was to erect a space museum inside with photovoltaic panels outside. The U.S. Navy, which is charged with the hangar's cleanup, estimated the repaneling costs at more than $40 million, compared with $16 million to demolish it. San Diego-based Sempra Energy, the only company to bid on the project, said the plan was not financially feasible. The company submitted a new proposal to NASA to put solar panels instead on an adjacent parking garage. 10/26/05 - Could platinum mining spur Moon development? Wingo makes an ingenious case for finding platinum group metals (PGMs) on or near the lunar surface, in the form of debris from asteroid impacts. While conventional wisdom has argued that impacts of large asteroids would vaporize most of the impactor, modern computer modeling has shown that a significant fraction of an asteroid impacting the Earth would survive in some form. In fact, some major sources of PGMs on Earth, such as Sudbury in Canada and sites in South Africa, have been linked to asteroid impacts. The Moon’s lower gravity would mean slower impacts, making it more likely that significant portions of asteroids could survive. PGMs mined from those impacts could meet the fuel-cell needs of the Earth for centuries; the mining process would, in turn, also generate other metals like iron and nickel that could be used for settlements on the Moon and beyond. The United States is heavily dependent on imports of platinum, with over 90% of its annual demand coming from overseas, primarily Russia and South Africa. At the end of September 2005, the London Fix price for platinum was above $930 per troy ounce, and there appears little reason to believe that price will fall dramatically given platinum’s industrial usefulness and its desirability for jewelry and related purposes. 10/26/05 - Designing Energy for a Changing Climate RED asks a rare question: "Can we make energy interesting?" Readers vote on their top ten policy recommendations, most of which alone blow away any 'Top 10' list I've ever seen. Redesigning Energy Policy details RED's concepts for empowering homeowners, and includes Personal Carbon Allowances, a '1 million roof' campaign for investing in solar or green roofs, and a whole set of systems that would support the creation and maintenance of urban decentralized energy in the UK. They've even designed gorgeous energy-use statements for households. Top 10 Policy policy recommendations - 1. Home energy production - 2. Personal carbon allowance - 3. 1 million roofs (solar, grass, wind) - 4. Home Energy Information (monitoring energy production/usage) - 5. Power Pension (credits for free energy on retirement) - 6. Energy retrofits as a mortgage condition - 7. Energy collaboratives - 8. Promotion of domestic HOUSECOs (Household Environmental Service Companies) - 9. Home Energy Trading Scheme (HETS) - 10. Deep Support Service (advice, purchase, installation, auditing and investment). 10/26/05 - Aussie wave to energy plant powers up WOLLONGONG is riding the crest of a wave after Energetech Australia achieved a world first off Port Kembla yesterday by generating alternative energy and fresh water from the sea. In 2m seas the wave machine, which was christened Uiscebeatha (meaning water of life) the night before, performed beyond expectations, according to Energetech project manager Emil De Graaff. 10/26/05 - Simple remote control effect for Humans A special headset was placed on my cranium by my hosts during a recent demonstration at an NTT research center. It sent a very low voltage electric current from the back of my ears through my head - either from left to right or right to left, depending on which way the joystick on a remote-control was moved. I found the experience unnerving and exhausting: I sought to step straight ahead but kept careening from side to side. Those alternating currents literally threw me off. The technology is called galvanic vestibular stimulation - essentially, electricity messes with the delicate nerves inside the ear that help maintain balance. I felt a mysterious, irresistible urge to start walking to the right whenever the researcher turned the switch to the right. I was convinced - mistakenly - that this was the only way to maintain my balance. There's no proven-beyond-a-doubt explanation yet as to why people start veering when electricity hits their ear. But NTT researchers say they were able to make a person walk along a route in the shape of a giant pretzel using this technique. The very low level of electricity required for the effect is unlikely to cause any health damage, Collins said. Still, NTT required me to sign a consent form, saying I was trying the device at my own risk. "This would be the most logical situation for a nonlethal weapon that presumably would make your opponent dizzy," he said via e-mail. "If you find just the right frequency, energy, duration of application, you would hope to find something that doesn't permanently injure someone but would allow you to make someone temporarily off-balance." Indeed, a small defense contractor in Texas, Invocon Inc., is exploring whether precisely tuned electromagnetic pulses could be safely fired into people's ears to temporarily subdue them. If you're determined to fight the suggestive orders from the electric currents by clinging to a fence or just lying on your back, you simply won't move. 10/26/05 - Dumping broken PCs in Africa Basically, used computer equipment sent from the U.S. to developing countries is often useless, creating environmental problems in areas of the world already racked with poverty and disease. The report focused on Nigeria in western Africa but said the situation is similar in many parts of the developing world. In Lagos, the Nigerian capital, about 400,000 used computers arrive every month but as many as 75 percent are beyond repair, according to the report. And, like many poor nations, Nigeria lacks the infrastructure to accomodate the electronics recycling necessary. The average PC monitor contains about 8 lbs. of lead, not to mention plastics infused with flame retardants and other dangerous chemicals. If the BAN's report convinces enough people of the PC problem, philanthropic organizations will be justified taking steps to make sure developing areas get machines that actually work. A continent already blighted and suffering from the inattention of the West hardly needs a toxic dump of our obsolete technology. 10/26/05 - Tips to speed up Adobe Acrobat Reader (I prefer Foxit which is free to download. - JWD) I finally got around to upgrading to the Adobe Acrobat Reader version 7.0 (which was released about a week ago). It's amazingly fast compared to 6.0. I highly recommend to all of you on Windows XP or Windows 2000 to upgrade to this newer version. It's really fast. Seriously. It's fast. I used to dread clicking on PDF links (I even installed the Target Alert plugin to warn me) because it would take 10-20 seconds to start the reader and load even the smallest PDF documents. With version 7, it's instantaneous. If you decide to follow my lead and upgrade to this version, here are some notes that should make your experience even better. 10/26/05 - In search of the never landing Airplane An airplane that never needs to land might sound impossible, but it is closer to reality now that a small solar-powered plane completed a two-day flight fueled only by energy from the sun. Dubbed the "SoLong," the craft built by the AC Propulsion company stores solar energy in a lithium-ion battery pack during the day to keep it flying at night. The company incorporated lightweight Sanyo high-capacity Li Ion batteries into an energy-efficient craft made of composite materials, weighing only 28 pounds with a wingspan of slightly more than 15 feet. Along its wing are 76 Sunpower solar cells that could produce 225 watts of power, while the craft required only 95 watts for level flight. SoLong took off at 4:08 PM, Wednesday, June 1 from the sun-baked runway at Desert Center Airport just east of Eagle Mountain in California's Colorado desert. It remained aloft until Friday when it skidded to a stop at 4:24 PM after 48 hours and 16 minutes in the air. During that time it had fully recharged its batteries during the day and then flown through the night on battery power. Twice. Nothing, save the flagging energy of its pilots on the ground, kept the SoLong from flying for another two days, or ten, or a whole month says the company. With a charge-discharge cycle efficiency over 95%, the Li-ion batteries do not squander the bounty from the solar cells, and at 220 Wh/kg, the Sanyo cells pack a lot of energy without much weight. Still, the battery makes up 44% of the aircraft's total weight. To make up for the inevitable weight of the batteries, the rest of the aircraft is as light and efficient as possible. The six servos that move the control surfaces use special electronics that were developed for this mission by AC Propulsion to reduce power consumption and to extend durability. 10/25/05 - Israeli car makes its own fuel A unique system that can produce Hydrogen inside a car using common metals such as Magnesium and Aluminum was developed by an Israeli company. The system solves all of the obstacles associated with the manufacturing, transporting and storing of hydrogen to be used in cars. a different solution has been developed by an Israeli company called Engineuity. Amnon Yogev, one of the two founders of Engineuity, and a retired Professor of the Weizmann Institute, suggested a method for producing a continuous flow of Hydrogen and steam under full pressure inside a car. This method could also be used for producing hydrogen for fuel cells and other applications requiring hydrogen and/or steam. The Hydrogen car Engineuity is working on will use metals such as Magnesium or Aluminum which will come in the form of a long coil. The gas tank in conventional vehicles will be replaced by a device called a Metal-Steam combustor that will separate Hydrogen out of heated water. The basic idea behind the technology is relatively simple: the tip of the metal coil is inserted into the Metal-Steam combustor together with water where it will be heated to very high temperatures. The metal atoms will bond to the Oxygen from the water, creating metal oxide. As a result, the Hydrogen molecules are free, and will be sent into the engine alongside the steam. The solid waste product of the process, in the form of metal oxide, will later be collected in the fuel station and recycled for further use by the metal industry. Refuelling the car based on this technology will also be remarkably simple. The vehicle will contain a mechanism for rolling the metal wire into a coil during the process of fuelling and the spent metal oxide, which was produced in the previous phase, will be collected from the car by vacuum suction. 10/25/05 - Laundromats raise prices due to high energy costs Natural gas, propane and electricity prices continue their march to new heights, and with those higher prices come higher utility bills for retail laundry centers -- much, much higher. Some are raising wash prices in small increments, while others are adjusting dryer cycles, giving not the national average eight minutes per 25 cents but rather anywhere from five to seven minutes. (Or setting the start price at 50 cents.) "The Catch-22 is that ours is really an industry that serves a segment of the population that can really least afford price increases," said Patti Andresen-Shew, a spokeswoman for Alliance Laundry Holdings LLC, owner of the well-known Laundromat brand SpeedQueen. Alliance's customers, like many in the industry, are switching to more energy-efficient machines that use less hot water and give greater control over the length and the temperature of cycles. With other energy-intensive pursuits like driving or home heating, people can sometimes cut back to keep their costs down. But with a sweaty T-shirt or a stained pair of pants, there really is no option. "Really what we're providing is a basic public health service," the Coin Laundry Association's Wallace said. "The fact of the matter is, dirty laundry has to be done. It's not something that can be rationed or put off until energy prices come down." 10/25/05 - Changing your Brainwaves to Chill Hyper-competitive South Koreans have been using a light and sound machine to help them relax and focus on their studies-but the jury’s still out on the science of the device. The MC Square is not a hip-hop act, but a small Walkman-sized control unit that runs sequences of flickering lights and rhythmic pulsating sounds out to LED-installed goggles and stereo headphones in combinations that allegedly change brainwaves, helping you to screen out distracting thoughts and ace that big test. Confident in their claims, the manufacturer has commissioned two reputable U.S. universities, Penn Medicine and Thomas Jefferson University, to run studies on the device. 10/25/05 - Wesleyan student unveils car that runs on alternative fuel At an environmental forum Wednesday, a Wesleyan student answered a city initiative with her own clean energy invention: a car that runs on vegetable oil. The Denver native has hand-crafted an engine that turns used cooking oil into effective transportation. She gets the vegetable oil from Typhoon restaurant on Main Street, where friendly staff collect a supply for her after a week’s worth of noodles and egg rolls pass through. She pours it into a 65-gallon tank in her vehicle -- a 15-passenger short bus. Goldhamer said the car still needs a bit of diesel fuel -- enough to run the engine until the vegetable oil is hot enough to move smoothly through tubes and be used as fuel. It only takes about five minutes of diesel usage, she said, until the van is up and running. But Goldhamer says her work has only begun. "I’m trying to start a bio-diesel co-op for other people who have diesel cars," said Goldham. She said she already has a processor that turns used cooking oil into bio-diesel, a fuel source that can be used in any regular diesel engine. The processor is bike-powered, she said. 10/25/05 - A bit paranoid? Find out what the FBI has on you Fill out the Privacy Act request sheet and list your names and aliases, date and place of birth, social security number, former addresses and other information that helps them figure out that you’re you. Make sure to sign and notarize your request before sending it in. You may have to pay a small fee to cover duplication costs. Download FOIA Request form (PDF) 10/25/05 - ALL power comes from the Sun All of the energy consumed in the world is drawn from stored sunlight. Coal, petroleum and natural gas are the fossilized remains of plants that soaked up stellar rays millions of years ago. When fossil fuels are burned to make heat to boil water to spin generators to make electricity, the power of the ancient illumination is released. Unfortunately, so are the carbon and other air pollution. Connecticut, which relies primarily on combustion to generate electricity, will soon see solar panels, geothermal systems, fuel cells, and other new energy technologies, energy experts say. Burning is the cheapest way to unlock large amounts of captured sun. However, it's also the dirtiest. And when fossil fuels' hidden costs in human health and environmental damage become clearer, the higher price of alternative power will seem more reasonable, environmentalists believe. Currently electricity generated in gas-fired plants costs about 31/2 to 4 cents per kilowatt-hour. Wind power costs about 51/2 to 71/2 cents, and solar about 25 to 35 cents. Our choice, basically, is between using old or recent sunlight. 10/25/05 - Controls 'threaten' new farm projects TIGHTER technical controls on wind farms in South Australia place $1 billion worth of projects in jeopardy, according to the state's largest renewable energy investor. Michael Vawser, the chief executive of Wind Prospect, said the new licensing rules were Australia's toughest, and increased the cost of building wind farms by up to 5 per cent -- favouring current fossil fuel generators. The new stringent standards will be imposed on all future wind farms, but legal advice found existing wind and coal-powered generators could not be forced to comply. ESCOSA chairman Patrick Walsh said wind farms had to meet national rules governing the interconnected electricity network covering four states. This included meeting automatic access standards and other technical requirements guaranteeing voltage control. He said ESCOSA's options included suspending approval for two years while national standards were developed. Instead, ESCOSA chose to implement new licence conditions "which would do the things that we understand will be incorporated into amendments in national electricity rules". 10/25/05 - Europeans developing a promising fuel cell European researchers have reported progress on a fuel cell that generates electricity through a living enzyme rather than a synthetic material, raising the potential for smaller and cheaper power supplies. The fuel cell uses hydrogenases which have a natural ability to make electrical power from hydrogen even in the presence of oxygen, Armstrong said. That allows the creation of a fuel cell in which the hydrogen and oxygen are together in a single container, without a synthetic membrane to guide the reaction, he said. "It's a proof of concept that you can run a hydrogen-oxygen fuel cell without a membrane," Armstrong said of his findings, published Monday by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. A fuel cell generates power by combining hydrogen and oxygen to produce energy and water. The efficiency and lack of polluting emissions from fuel cells have companies and researchers examining a variety of applications, including power for batteries, automobiles and office buildings. 10/25/05 - First biogas train makes maiden voyage in Sweden The world's first train to run on biogas, a renewable energy source made up of organic waste, made its maiden voyage in Sweden, a country that has high hopes for biofuels. Consisting of a single carriage that seats about 60 passengers, the vehicle consists of a converted old Fiat train whose diesel engines have been replaced by two Volvo gas engines. "Communities can build their own production and this helps create jobs," he said. Biogas is made up of shredded plant materials and animal waste, which are then mixed with water in a tank. Once the waste has decomposed, a gas is formed that can be stored and used as fuel. The train is equipped with 11 canisters containing enough gas to run for 600 kilometers (375 miles) before needing a refill, and can reach a maximum speed of 130 kilometers (80 miles) per hour. 10/25/05 - Creating energy from the farm Dan Eastman is a senior vice president of business development for a Golden, Colo., company that sells equipment to convert animal waste into methane. He oversees its Wisconsin operations. Microgy Cogeneration Systems Inc., a company Eastman helped create, sells and operates anaerobic methane digesters and electricity generation equipment that an increasing number of farmers and rural electric cooperatives are finding to be good investments. Microgy's digesters operate on cow and swine manure. The methane, or biogas, produced is used to fire generators at farmsteads or can be sold to gas companies. A liquid residue resulting from the process is used as organic fertilizer. A solid byproduct of the digester is used for animal bedding. Microgy's small electric power and biogas production plants are part of a developing trend to set up distributed generation facilities in rural America, said Eastman. Microgy is banking on its digesters becoming more common than wind-power farms that are cropping up in rural America. In addition to the high cost of energy, making alternatives like methane digesters more cost effective, the demand among dairy farmers to increase herd sizes is causing environmental regulators to push the use of methane digesters. 10/24/05 - Serrano EM Space Drive patented and tested On October 5, 2000, the Hector Serrano's patent WO 00/58623 " Propulsion device and method employing electric fields for producing thrust " has been granted. This patent is very close to the Aymmetrical Capacitor Thruster ( ACT ) patented by the NASA ( patent US 6,317,310 , granted on Nov 2001 ) that I have already tested successfully in Nov 18, 2001. These two devices use the Biefeld-Brown Effect for producing a thrust Vs the surrounding medium ( this effect was discovered by Townsend Brown in 1928 in his Gravitator, see the GB Patent N°300311 filed on Nov 15, 1928 "A method of and an apparatus or machine for producing force or motion" from T.Townsend Brown ). "The device (10) employing field propulsion can propel itself without exhausting any matter in the opposite direction of vehicle motion, it can propel itself without being exposed to the environment (16) through which it is moving." When the HV power supply is switched on, the Field Propulsion Thruster v1.0 is rapidly set in motion. The voltage used is 27 KV DC @ 480 uA. The turn speed observed is low. This is due to the low dielectric constant difference producing a weak non-linearity between the two dielectrics used in this experiment ( K=2.53 for the Polyfoam XPS and and K = 1 for the Air ). 10/24/05 - Methanol Fuel Cell Their little fuel cell was producing electric power with no moving parts, no noise, no heat buildup and no pollution. High school chemistry students are taught how electricity can be used to separate water into hydrogen and oxygen. Fuel cells are the reverse of that process, creating electricity as hydrogen and oxygen atoms combine to produce water. In the case of Lewis' model, a plastic vial attached to the top supplies a mixture of water and methanol, while near the bottom a spigot drains the excess water. The water in the vial is a carrier for the methanol. The drain water was created. Inside the cell, a membrane coated on both sides with catalyst separates a chamber into one side for liquid and the other side for gases where hydrogen atoms combine with the oxygen in air to form water. This special membrane allows hydrogen and oxygen to pass through as ions, described as atoms that leave an electron behind. Fuel cells utilize hydrogen, and it turns out that methanol is an ideal carrier for hydrogen, Lewis said. It is a liquid that can be handled by pipelines, tank trucks and pumps at filling stations. About 2.5 billion gallons of methanol is made each year in the United States. Most of it is made in the Houston area from natural gas. It currently costs about 40 cents per gallon. The average motorist most likely sees methyl alcohol in windshield washer fluid, which is as much as 50 percent methanol depending upon climate. Youngsters encounter methanol in model airplane fuel, which is about 95 percent methanol with a little castor oil added for lubrication. In addition to natural gas, methanol can be made from coal and theoretically could be made from seaweed, "farmed" near the Equator. The chemistry is proven, Halpert and Prakash said. Now it is up to engineers to make it work. The fuel cells will need to be wired in series, in "stacks," to provide enough current to move an automobile. But their output is relatively high, 25 watts to a maximum of 50 watts, from each 4- by 6-inch piece of membrane. Prototype cells have already been run intermittently for more than 3,000 hours, the equivalent of 150,000 miles without loss of performance, Halpert said. The fuel cell converts more than 34 percent of the theoretical energy in fuel into usable power. This is twice the efficiency of existing gasoline engines, according to the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. 10/24/05 - 85% Methanol + 15% Gasoline to run your car In 1978, the California Energy Commission (CEC) began experimenting with alternative fuel vehicles by testing blends of methanol in Honda Civics. In the mid-1980s, California's continuing efforts to encourage the development of alternative fuel vehicle technology led to the introduction of the methanol Flexible Fuel Vehicle (FFV). The FFV runs on either methanol or gasoline, or any combination of the two fuels. Operating primarily on "M-85" - a blend of 85% methanol and 15% gasoline - the FFV provides the flexibility to refuel with gasoline in areas where methanol may be unavailable. More than 15,000 methanol FFVs built by major automakers were sold, with the majority operating in California. To support these vehicles, the CEC reached agreements with ARCO, Chevron, Exxon, Mobil, Shell, Texaco and Ultramar (Beacon) in building a network of sixty M-85 fueling stations across the state. (in 1998) At the pump, methanol prices range from about 88¢ to $1.10 per gallon of methanol. Since methanol has roughly half the energy content of a gallon of gasoline, the actual cost to the consumer is closer to $1.50 per gallon. With the close of the 1998 model year, the Ford Motor Company discontinued its production of methanol Taurus FFVs. 10/24/05 - FEDEX van tests highly successful using Methanol Through the "CleanFleet" program, five alternative fuels were tested in 84 panel vans, including 20 Ford vans fueled with "M-85" -- a blend of 85% methanol and 15% gasoline. The Ford vehicles were gasoline vans modified as flexible fuel vehicles, capable of operating on any mixture of methanol and gasoline -- from 85% methanol to 100% gasoline. The M-85 vans were fueled from a 4,000-gallon, above-ground, vaulted tank installed at the FedEx facility in Santa Ana. Since methanol is a liquid fuel similar to gasoline, no modifications had to be made to the vehicle garage and maintenance facilities. The methanol vans performed extremely well, with the highest vehicle availability and driver use, and the lowest number of repair order days per 100 service days of the alternative fuels demonstrated. When drivers were asked if they were able to meet their regular schedule with the alternative fuel vehicles, fully 96% said yes to M-85, the strongest positive response. In fact, more than half of the M-85 drivers said they would consider driving a methanol vehicle for their personal car. The driving range of the M-85 vans was 57% of the gasoline vans or 173 miles -- the furthest driving range of the alternative fuels demonstrated and compatible with urban fleet operations. Estimated costs for a fleet of 50 M-85 vans in 1996 ranged from 38.3 to 44.7 cents per mile, depending on the price of methanol. Today, methanol is selling at or below the lower baseline price. 10/24/05 - 2005 Tips on Buying Methanol in bulk Methanol can be bought through several types of distributors, as it is sold for several different uses. The price can vary from $2 a gallon to $4 a gallon. Methanol is made from natural gas and the price fluctuates with the price of natural gas. It is sold either 'by the gallon' (ie bring your own gas cans) or by the drum- 15, 30, or 55 gallon drums. For test batches, we often use yellow bottle Heet brand gas line antifreeze (99% methanol) from auto parts stores. But for anything larger than a liter, you'll need to find a better supply. To find methanol suppliers, I usually dig into the yellow pages and search several categories: 1. Automotive racing- the easiest place to find methanol is usually through auto race tracks, racing engine builders, or performance shops. This is usually categorised in several different ways in the yellow pages- performance, auto, racing, racetracks. These sources are likely to sell it 'by the gallon' although that is not always the case. Some racetracks are seasonal. 2. Petroleum distributors- methanol is also an alternative fuel and is used in some applications as a fuel additive. I've had good luck finding it by calling bulk petroleum distributors. They are likely to carry it year-round, but are likely to sell only full drums. Yellow pages: petroleum, fuel, or gasoline, wholesale or bulk. If they don't carry it they may know who does. 10/24/05 - ZevCat Air Cars (This MDI group has been at it quite awhile yet I don't see their cars in the news or for sale after several years of claims, lots of fluff, media hype and prototypes for soliciting investors, but no cars for sale. - JWD) The first piston takes in ambient air and compresses it to approximately 300psi and 200 degrees F. in the compression chamber during the first cycle of the engine. When the pistons pause, a small amount of compressed air from the tanks is released into the expansion chamber to create a low pressured, low temperature volume of about 140psi. Shortly before the valve to the exhaust cylinder is opened, a high-speed shutte connects the compression and expansion chambers. This sudden pressure and temperature difference between the two chambers creates pressure waves in the expansion chamber, thereby producing work in the exhaust chamber that drives the piston to power the engine. The air tanks for storing the compressed air are located underneath the vehicle. They are constructed of reinforced carbon fiber with a thermoplastic liner. Each tank can hold 3,180 feet (the the 3rd) of air at a pressure of up to 4,300psi. When connected to a special compressor station, the tanks can be recharged within 3-4 minutes. They can also be recharged using the on-board compressor within 3-4 hours after connecting to a standard power outlet. A detailed explanation of the Zevat airmotor is provided in their patent 6,334,435. 10/24/05 - Gas powered MicroTurbine for power generation (This could easily be powered with hydrogen! - JWD) The Capstone MicroTurbine system is suitable for applications ranging from remote locations to city centers, delivering clean, high quality power from a wide variety of fuels, with superior safety and emissions. It offers the best value for clean and reliable small-scale power production. The generator uses a two pole rotor on the same shaft as the gas turbine. The unit is air-cooled by gas turbine inlet air. Features including maintenance-free air bearings, the lowest emissions of any non-catalyzed fossil fuel combustion, and digital power conversion combine to produce the optimal small-scale generator. Systems are available for operation on diverse gaseous fuels, including natural gas, propane, and also bio-gas with energy content as low as 350 BTU/cf. A sour gas option is available that can tolerate up to 7% hydrogen sulfide (H2S) in the fuel stream. Liquid fuel versions include kerosene and diesel #2. 10/24/05 - Cheap cooling using Evaporated Air (When I was growing up in Texas, evaporative cooling was what we used and it could keep the entire house cool. Nowadays most people use refrigerated air which is drier but costs a fortune to run! - JWD) We Can End Your Heat Problem For Less Than a Dollar a Day! Tired of Hot, Unbearable Working Conditions? STRONGER DEODORANT IS NOT THE ANSWER!!! The Port-A-Cool, evaporative coolers are perfect for warehouses, shops, garages, manufactuers, subcontractors, sports teams (Yes, these evaporative coolers are great for outdoors, too!), fire departments, nurseries, hangars, schools, flea markets, restaurants, car dealerships, laundries, dry cleaners, and for any other business or organization suffering from low productivity, and employees/customer discomfort irritation and bad attitudes because of heat problems. Evaporative coolers that work like portable air conditioners WITHOUT THE EXPENSE! With this amazing technology, you can lower temperatures by 18° - 30°. These are not conventional air conditioners, they are evaporative coolers that are amazingly affordable to purchase and to run. Operates on pennies a day. Completely portable. No installation. No venting necessary. No drains. Uses regular household electricity. Cools up to 17,000 cubic feet per minute. Enviromentally safe. Easy to operate. Virtually maintenance free. 10/24/05 - Make favicons online from any image Would you like to display your own icon on the browser address bar when visitors view or bookmark your web page? Now it's easy to create icons for your web pages with FavIcon from Pics. Simply select a picture, logo or other graphic (of any size/resolution) for the "Source Image" and click "Generate FavIcon.ico" 10/24/05 - Buckypaper stronger & lighter than steel Working with a material 10 times lighter than steel - but 250 times stronger - would be a dream come true for any engineer. If this material also had amazing properties that made it highly conductive of heat and electricity, it would start to sound like something out of a science fiction novel. "Buckypaper," has shown promise in a variety of applications, including the development of aerospace structures, the production of more-effective body armor and armored vehicles, and the construction of next-generation computer displays. Buckypaper is made from carbon nanotubes - amazingly strong fibers about 1/50,000th the diameter of a human hair that were first developed in the early 1990s. Buckypaper owes its name to Buckminsterfullerene, or Carbon 60 - a type of carbon molecule whose powerful atomic bonds make it twice as hard as a diamond. 10/24/05 - Vacuum balloons for flight? Objects which float in a fluid, such as a ship in water or a balloon in air, do so because they are are subject to an upward force ('the upthrust') equal to the weight of fluid displaced. A balloon floats if its average density is less than that of the volume of air which it displaces. Typical balloons use hot air or a light gas such as helium to reduce their average density. Their upthrust is equal to the weight of the air their volume displaces, less the combined weight of the balloon skin plus the light gas they contain. Hot air balloons work because the density of hot air is less than that of surrounding unheated air. Balloons typically have flexible skins, although rigid skins are also possible. If the gas within the skin was replaced by a vacuum, the upthrust would be at a maximum, but the skin would have to be rigid enough to withstand the pressure of the external air without collapsing. That is the basis of the Vacuum Balloon. 10/24/05 - England - Councils could seize empty homes for use by poor/unhoused people Houses left empty by owners for more than a year could be seized and leased by local authorities under new plans. Empty dwelling management orders would allow councils to seize, renovate and lease a property for up to seven years, before returning it to its owner. The plans are expected to become law in April next year. It emerged last week that almost 700,000 homes are empty in England, of which 280,000 have been deserted for more than 12 months. The government hopes to fill 25,000 empty homes by 2010. "The objective is to persuade owners in these circumstances to pass the responsibility for bringing the property back into housing use to the local authority." 10/24/05 - Starving polar bears terrorise Siberian locals "Twenty-six bears left their ice field last week and are roaming about, apparently looking for food, in remote areas of the Nizhnekolymsky region," a regional ministerial spokesman Alexei Khlybov told AFP by phone. "They often walk around yurts (tents) and houses belonging to reindeer hunters and farmers," he added. Experts say this kind of group displacement from an ice field is extremely unusual. The Arctic polar bear population of between 22,000 and 27,000 is under threat, finding it increasingly difficult to locate food as the ice sheets melt due to rising temperatures. The specialists will try to find out why the bears have left the ice field and decide whether an evacuation of the local population is necessary. 10/24/05 - End User License Gems The End User License Agreement. You probably have grown accustomed to clicking through on these when installing new software, so accustomed that you don't even read them anymore. Well, we have and here are some of our favourites. We also present them with simultaneous plain English translations. Samples - 1) [you] may not without Microsoft's prior written approval disclose to any third party the results of any benchmark test. 2) Apple reserves the right, at any time and from time to time, to update, revise, supplement, and otherwise modify this Agreement and to impose new or additional rules, policies, terms, or conditions on your use of the Service. 3) You acknowledge and agree that in order to protect the integrity of certain third party content, Pinnacle and/or its licensors may provide for Software security related updates that will be automatically downloaded and installed on your computer. 4) You agree, if purchasing by credit card or charge card, that you permanently and irrevocably waive any and all right to cause a "chargeback" (that is, a disputed, reversed or contested charge) against this purchase for any reason whatsoever against Company or other reseller of this license,...and more... 10/23/05 - Geodesic Quonset: Inexpensive, Easy DIY Shelter It’s great for connecting domes, standalone as an emergency shelter, garage, or greenhouse. We built one recently, with a length of 60', a width of 15', and a pre-sidewall height of 7.5'. Less than 100 man hours to build, and a materials cost of less than $500 (plastic sheathing) , it’s extremely strong and functional. We built this structure using new 1?x6? green lumber (1?x4? was originally specified), but since all the pieces are less than 4' in length, waste/scrap or recycled lumber would be ideal. All the pieces were screwed together using a power screwdriver and 3? wood screws, 5 to a connection. 10/23/05 - DIY Conversion of your gas vehicle to electric Conversion of a Honda CRX to run on DC motor, then improved to run on an AC motor. On the following pages I will describe the process of converting a gasoline car to electric one. More precisely, upgrading (because it is already electric) but since every single component is doing to be replaced, it's almost like starting from scratch. Empty engine compartment, new battery boxes, etc. What you will find is detailed steps taken toward my goal and technical details actually useful to someone who wants to use my experience. Anticipating usual questions, wherever possible, I will provide information on the supplier or the hardware or the service I used, and the cost. For impatient, you can browse through the raw collection of all the images on this site here. 10/23/05 - Discover What the World Thinks About the U.S. Christian Science Monitor, July 14, United States: 'A glimpse of how foreigners feel about the only superpower.' 10/23/05 - Power Cogeneration using a Stirling Engine This system comprises two parts, one for generating and storing electricity, the other for recovering and storing heat. Electricity is generated by attaching a 4kW AC alternator to the ST-5. The engine has been sized to provide up to 3.5 kW of electricity, enough to take the surge loads of induction motors used in washing machines and other domestic appliances. One option would be to run the engine for 4 to 6 hours a day, during which period high and intermediate draw appliances - washing machine, freezers and power tools - can be used. At the same time, a bank of batteries can be charged to provide electricity for domestic lighting and other small load equipment when the engine is not operating. A bank of 4 deep-cycle, extra heavy duty batteries, interfacing with the alternator through a commercially available battery charger should be sufficient. When deciding upon the type and number of batteries needed, the rule of thumb is that the battery bank should store about twice as many amp hours as will be used between recharging. With the tremendous advancements in battery technology, it is now possible to get batteries capable of holding charges of over 600 amp hours. The life on these batteries is extremely long, with constant, uninterrupted service of 20 years recorded by some users. It is recommended that 6 or 12 volt batteries with charging capacities of 400 amp hours or more be used; 8 volt batteries are not recommended, as there could be problems finding matching inverters and other compatible equipment. 10/23/05 - Renewable energy still may be too expensive The simple fact is, alternative energy in all its forms is not yet competitive on the price front for everyday users. It only works, even advocates for environmentally friendly energy say, with the help of government subsidies or good corporate citizens who are willing to pay a premium so they can market themselves as being "green." Standard & Poor's, the rating agency, last week issued a report saying most alternative sources of energy continue to rely on government-related subsidies to be economical and will be difficult to expand without such help. Tina Vital, an S&P senior equity analyst, said tax incentives in the recently enacted Energy Policy Act of 2005 are providing a short-term boost to some renewable energy projects, including wind. But she said that boost may be too small to finance long-term options to oil and gas. Other experts, however, say solar power is too expensive at this point to even seriously consider. "Certainly wind is the most promising because the technology has advanced the furthest and the prices have come down a lot over the last 20, 10 and even five years," Mr. Hangar added. Mr. Halley, of Community Energy, said wind turbines have become more efficient and their costs have dropped about 80 percent since 1980 to about four to eight cents per kilowatt hour today, vs. about 38 cents to 40 cents 25 years ago. 10/23/05 - Water Motor A unique Micro-Hydro device that uses the power of a falling stream to power stationary devices like saws, mills and generators. “Most of the common machines used in workshops, industry, and farms are driven by motors of only 0.5 - 5 horsepower. The Watermotor will produce this amount of power at an extremely low cost and with a minimum of ecological disruption.” That’s right - cheap electricity, lower cost than solar panels for example. A few of the nice features of this unit is that it doesn’t require a great volume of water, so the traditional dam does not need to be constructed, reducing cost, complexity, and ecological impact. It’s also designed to be locally serviced, and locally produced, enabling 3rd world villages to not only have low cost power, but a local industry. These units are typically built/owned at the village level as a benefit to all. The model 90 has a 90mm (3.5?) Turgo turbine wheel and can use 4 water jets of up to 12.7 mm (1/2?) in diameter. Because it is smaller in diameter this wheel will turn at higher revolutions than the model 150 at the same water pressure. The model 150 has a 150 mm (6?) Turgo wheel and uses 4 jets of up to 7/8? (22.2 mm) diameter. This is three times the volume of water as a 1/2? jet, therefore producing three times as much power with the same incoming pressure. 10/23/05 - Waterpower 101 The power available from a stream is determined by the head and flow of water on the particular site. This power is harnessed by constructing a dam or diverting the flow in such a way that all the fall occurs in one place. Where it is not practical to construct a channel, the water may be piped and the head of water is exploited as a high velocity jet driving an ‘Impulse Turbine’. The power available is a function of the fall (head) and flow so building a large waterwheel on a low fall will only increase the cost and reduce the shaft speed but not increase the power. Water wheels are limited to sites with a head of less than 10 meters. They are aesthetically pleasing and have good performance under low water conditions. Unfortunately, due to their size, they are both costly to build and install, largely because of the gearing required to increase the shaft speed, typically from 10 to 1500 rpm. The use of low speed generators does not help since it is the low speed end of the drive which is the expensive part. Water turbines, on the other hand, are able to make use of a very wide range of head, from less than a metre to many hundreds of metres. 10/23/05 - Making fuel from manure The production of natural gas (CH4) occurs everywhere in nature - in swamps, bogs, coal mines, land fills and in the guts of warm blooded mammals. In fact, it occurs anyplace where organic matter is present and air is excluded. It is this same vapor gas that the utility companies market. Made by nature and deposited in the ground over eons of time, the chemical formula is one part carbon to four parts hydrogen (CH4). To produce your own biogas, all the process requires are three simple conditions: (1) a tank that excludes air, (2) a constant, even temperature of 95 to 100 degrees F, (3) a gentle stirring action. All three of these conditions mimic the conditions that are within the gut of every warm blooded animal, including people: air is excluded, basic metabolism keeps body temperature constant and even throughout the animal, a mixing action occurs by means of the simple movement of food through gut which we call peristalsis. It is the process of digestion. Some of the food is converted into energy and building material for the cells of the animal - including people - and some of it passes completely through the alimentary canal. Are we familiar with the definition of the alimentary canal? Webster’s dictionary defines it thus: “The tubular passage that extends from mouth to anus and functions in digestion and absorption of food and elimination of residual waste.” It is this same “tubular passage” that we mimic when we build a tank for producing natural gas, which we call a digester. 10/22/05 - Climate change hits Dutch windmills WINDMILLS, one of the Netherlands' trademarks, may go idle because of less wind as a result of climate change, Dutch scientists predict. "We said that 10-15 years ago and what we see in the observations is that the climate is warming but the number of storms is actually decreasing," said Klein Tank, who leads a team making climate scenarios for the Netherlands. The traditional windy climate of northwestern Europe has spurred a rapid growth in windmills, mainly in the Netherlands and Germany, to provide alternative energy. Dutch windmills, however, saw declining energy production in the past decade because of less wind, Mr Klein Tank said. 10/22/05 - Italy presents solar-energy train Italy has unveiled Europe's first solar-power train, according to Italian News Agency ANSA on Thursday. The solar panels on the train's roof do not drive it but provide energy for its air conditioning, illumination and safety systems. The CEO of Italian train company Trenitalia, Roberto Testore, said it was "looking with interest to the solar power sector, with a view to producing vehicles on an industrial scale." Solar panels are already used to provide a portion of train power in Japan. A miniature railway in Wales is wholly powered by solar energy. 10/22/05 -