Highlights & Comments – 05/22/08

Since I don’t archive these Highlight notes at KeelyNet, I try to remember to post them to the KeelyNet Blog where they might still be available in future. Several items of interest as usual have been posted since the last update to this section.

Item #1 – I liked the story about Woman Helps Cops Find Men Who Stole Her Laptop as an indicator that just about anything these days can have tracking or recording devices that you wouldn’t even know about. From GPS locators to RFD to videocams, there are lots of interesting and discrete methods to protect your goodies. / There was an interesting post about HOW TO detect hidden video cameras that might be of use for those (including me) who detest snoops. / And check out this radio remote video camera at First Person R/C Plane, Almost as Good as Actually Flying.

Item #2 – Who would have thunk it? That Hybrids could pose a Health Hazard from Electromagnetic Fields?

Item #3 – Not that it’s that big a leap to figure out, but an interesting post about energy is at Energy In The Slow Lane that questions why we don’t have the devices so often claimed as miraculous discoveries.

Item #4 – Hands down, my favorite post was 75MPG Hybrid Electric Car powered by 5HP Lawnmower Engine that makes you want to get a junker compact and try this for yourself.

Item #5 – And another claim of a self-powering motor at Mehess Magnetic Motor though I found no hint of any independent replication to confirm what the site claims. At least he did build it.

Item #6 – With regard to climate weirdness Edgar Cayce prediction correct? – “Way back in the 1930s or early 1940s, Edgar Cayce said that “when the earth changes began, we would begin to lose the seasons. No longer would we have a Spring or Fall, but just go from hot to cold and cold to hot”.

An Annoying Tendency

I detest when people don’t try to help themselves. Specifically not realizing that it takes money to make money. It also takes tools to make money.

Near my house lives an older man and his wife. When I walk the 4 blocks to the plaza, they are sometimes sitting outside so we chat.

One day as I was passing by, they said hola and I stopped to chat. They asked where I was going and I told them to buy carnitas (fried pork) from El Famoso Jitomate (the famous tomato). His real name is Javier but he gets this nickname because he likes saki and when he drinks it his entire face turns bright red like a tomato.

The old man said they were very poor and had no meat in their house, that they lived mostly on beans and tortillas since they received only a tiny government retirement.

Talk about feeling horrible! Here I was talking about carnitas, fresh tortillas and cold beer. So I bought two kilos of carnitas with tortillas and gave them one kilo as I passed on the way back. They were delighted and it made me feel better for being so insensitive as to not realize how poor they were.

So about a year or so later, I passed by on my little 125cc Honda motorcycle and stopped to chat with them. The old man asked why he never saw me on my bicycle anymore. I told him it was parked in my backyard and needed new tires but had new gears. He said he wished he had a bicycle so he could take gardening jobs further from his house.

Hmm…well, I don’t use the bicycle and he SAID he would use his bicycle for jobs to make more money. Well, I’m all for that. Give a man a fish and he only begs for more, but teach him how and he becomes self-sufficient…I am a BIG FAN of that philosophy.

It made sense to me to fix my bicycle and give it to him. So I told him I’d have it repaired as a gift so he could use it for work. Finally, perhaps 3 months later, I took it over to the bike shop and had two new fat mountain bike tires put on it at a total cost of $22! Dropped it by his house and had him ride it to see if it would work for him. He said yes, he could definitely use this and thanked me. No problem, least I could do.

I was totally pissed a week later to learn from a neighbor that he’d SOLD the bicycle for quick money. I gave it to him as a TOOL to EARN MONEY, but he took the easy way out and sold it. If I knew he was going to do that, I’d have kept the bike.

Not long after, a 19 year old friend who cuts my grass and washes my truck, wanted a cellphone but couldn’t afford it. He kept on and on about it, saying he needed it for family and business. Therefore to me, it was a tool.

Just so happened I knew a bartender who had two cellphones that customers sold him and both had their chargers. I had just bought a new one so was showing it to him when he told me about the cells he had. I didn’t need one but for 150 pesos ($15) he sold me a nice used and working cellphone with power supply but without a camera which I gave to my friend. He was delighted. But one week later, he sold it for fast money.

These are the two latest annoying events like this, though it has happened several other times. My belated New Years’ Resolution, DON’T GIVE GIFTS that are intended as tools to help make income.

They come to my house and marvel at all my ‘things’. I tell them most of those ‘things’ I use to make money but they don’t seem to get the connection. Much easier to just sell them for the immediate money than to use them repeatedly to earn a more or less steady income. We come from Different Worlds!

American Strikes Oil — from a Plastic Soda Bottle?

All those plastics that could be recycled if technologies like this were funded and implemented!

“Frank Pringle, 64, is the CEO of Global Resource Corp. (GRBC), in West Berlin, New Jersey, and he has developed a patent-pending emissions-free environmentally-friendly technology that uses microwaves to pull out fuel from shale rock, tires, plastic bottles, toxic sludge from river bottoms and other pieces of junk. Actually, I’m not sure if he can get oil from a Pringles can, but he has microwaved lawn cuttings into a substance that could be refined into alcohol fuel. It sounds like he can make oil out of about anything. “The machine is a microwave emitter that extracts the petroleum and gas hidden inside everyday objects — or at least anything made with hydrocarbons, which, it turns out, is most of what’s around you.”Pringle’s machine can turn 10 tons of auto waste–tires, plastic, vinyl–into enough natural gas to produce 17 million BTUs of energy. BTUs are British Thermal Units. Beyond that, I know next to nothing about BTUs, but 17 million sounds like a lot of them.” – Source

Killing Cancer Cells Using Electrical Field

Another promising potential (pun intended) cure for cancers!

“A group of scientists headed by Yoram Palti from the Technion Institute in Israel, succeeded in killing dividing cells without harming non-dividing ones using electrical charges. It turns out that an electrical field in a small enough voltage doesn’t damage living cells. The scientists used this fact to treat a cancerous organ with an altering current (AC) electrical field. Using the AC electrical field, normal cells remain unharmed while the dividing cancerous cells are destroyed. The treatment is supposed to have very few side-effects and since it is done using external electrodes it is non invasive. The risks include seizures or cardiac arrhythmias, but since the frequency used is larger than 10kHz no such side-effects are expected to happen. Current cancer treatments that target dividing cells, such as chemotherapy or radiotherapy have the problem of killing frequently dividing normal cells like bone marrow cells. Because the bone protects the bone marrow from electrical charges, the AC electric charge will have a significantly lower affect (100 fold less!) on the bone marrow than in other treatments where the cells are not protected by the bone. Using electrical fields seems to be a promising way to cure cancer, being both effective and free of side-effects. (Thanks to Al Tejada for the headsup. – JWD)” – Source

Two High Mileage Car Reports

And they just keep coming!

Lab drives car to 100 mpg – “Scientists at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden are testing a spruced-up Toyota Prius, a plug-in hybrid sedan complete with a solar panel attached to its oval roof and a bigger battery in the trunk to supply power in lieu of the gasoline-fueled engine. The result: A spunky Prius that runs the initial 60 miles mostly on battery, adding up to a fuel mileage of 100 miles per gallon. “The stored power in the battery does a great job of displacing petroleum,” said Tony Markel, a senior engineer at NREL who has been working on the 2006 model Prius for the past two years. “For most people, their daily commute is about 30 miles, so this car would run virtually on battery and only need to be recharged at night.” – Source

A Hybrid with no Transmission…..and it gets 160 MPG too!!!” – Generally; 10-20% of a car’s power is lost through the transmission. This includes all automobiles: cars, trucks, and even hybrids. Real world numbers are gathered from the wheels (wheel horse power). So if you buy a new Nissan 350z rated from the factory at 280 horsepower…..it really is only putting down around 239 hp to the wheels…..Darn transmission! The Volvo ReCharge “packs a small electric motor in each wheel, so that no power is lost in the drivetrain.” The electric wheel motors will be powered by electro magnets and computers. The car will run on battery power for a certain number of miles before the diesel engine kicks on. And since the engine will not be connected to a transmission; the power made will be transferred more efficiently to the batteries or a fuel cell. All of this adds up to a 160 MPG car…..Hopefully this technology will reach us before our economy collapses due to skyrocketing gas prices!” – Source

Root Cause of Epilepsy Found

Wow, CO2? So that means by putting a bag over someones head when they are having an epileptic fit, they would breath the carbon dioxide back in and stop the fit? Amazing!

“Experiments in the last century found that by breathing carbon dioxide (CO²), an epileptic patient boosted acid levels in the brain and could terminate a fit, although the molecular switch for achieving this was veiled in mystery. In experiments on mice, scientists from the University of Iowa and the Veterans Affairs Iowa City Health Care System, reporting in a specialist journal, believe they have found the switch. A channel known as ASIC1a, located on the surface of brain cells, opens up in response to higher acid levels and admits charged atoms known as ions. This in turn activates other brain cells that block the seizures, the investigators believe. “We found that ASIC1a does not seem to play a role in how a seizure starts, but as the seizure continues and the pH is reduced, ASIC1a plays a role in stopping additional seizure activity,” said investigator Adam Ziemann. PH is a measure of acidity. The lower the pH index, the higher the acidity level. Among mice with ASIc1a, breathing CO² caused brain pH to drop rapidly and protect mice from lethal fits.” – Source

Microwaved Water – See What It Does To Plants

I’ve seen these types of reports before, that the molecular structure of foods and fluids are negatively altered by microwaves but these pictures really show it. On the updated website it has 1, 3, 5, 7 and 9 days so you can see the slow death. Imagine what this effect is having on our bodies?

“This is a sience fair project that my granddaughter did for 2006. In it she took filered water and divided it into two parts. The first part she heated to boiling in a pan on the stove, and the second part she heated to boiling in a microwave. Then after cooling she used the water to water two identical plants to see if there would be any difference in the growth between the normal boiled water and the water boiled in a microwave. She was thinking that the structure or energy of the water may be compromised by microwave. As it turned out, even she was amazed at the difference.” – Source

Concerned about Fuel Costs?

$4 gas by Spring? and the latest Land of $5.40 gas – Check out this $15 eBook on How to Increase Mileage and Decrease Fuel Costs – includes electrolyzer and vapor cleaner construction details and much more. – Read about it HERE

How Long Do We Have?

According to this site, the longest democracy was in Athens;

“Although it never became the norm in classical antiquity, the first great flowerings of democracy took place in the ancient Greek city of Athens. Democracy lasted there from 508 to 267 B.C., and, until the United States turns 241 years old in 2017, ancient Athens remains the longest living democracy in world history.”

That would be 775 years for Athens. The US 232 years old and has changed from its original form of a republic to a democracy.

“About the time our original thirteen states adopted their new constitution in 1787, Alexander Tyler, a Scottish history professor at the University of Edinburgh, had this to say about the fall of the Athenian Republic some 2,000 years earlier:

‘A democracy is always temporary in nature; it simply cannot exist as a permanent form of government.’

‘A democracy will continue to exist up until the time that voters discover they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury.’

From that moment on, the majority always vote for the candidates who promise the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that every democracy will finally collapse due to loose fiscal policy, which is always followed by a dictatorship.’

‘The average age of the world’s greatest civilizations from the beginning of history, has been about 200 years.’ ‘During those 200 years, those nations always progressed through the following sequence:

1. from bondage to spiritual faith;
2. from spiritual faith to great courage;
3. from courage to liberty;
4. from liberty to abundance;
5. from abundance to complacency;
6. from complacency to apathy;
7. from apathy to dependence;
8. from dependence back into bondage.’”
- Courtesy Ed Heft

Where to find TV shows on the internet

These are great for streaming while working at the computer. Love the old Andy Griffith show! Wish we could get HULU down here in Mexico!

“In the internet age, no TV show is ever gone, just a little harder to find. If you’re looking for that classic episode of My Mother the Car or Tila Tiquila’s latest mush, you’ll probably find it among this, our list of places to watch TV shows on the internet. Joost Jericho, Star Trek, Babylon 5 – Hulu (NBC and Newscorp) House, Family Guy, The Simpsons – ABC Family 7th Heaven, Gilmore Girls, Smallville – ABC Lost (all seasons), Dancing with the Stars, Ugly Betty – AOL and AOL in2TV Full episodes of hundreds of shows, including many long-gone – Disney Hannah Montana, Wizards of Waverly Place – Fancast Episodes from ‘classic’ television; MacGuyver, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, and Dragnet – Liketelevision Golden oldies: Ozzie and Harriet, The Andy Griffith Show, Beverly Hillbillies – Fox Full episodes of many Fox staples: Prison Break, American Dad, Cops – Turbonick: Nickeloden’s channel, with episodes of SpongeBob and other children’s favs – TBS A light offering of shows including Seinfeld, House of Payne, and The Bill Engvall Show – USA Full episodes of USA originals such as Monk and Psych – Cartoon Network The cable network’s cartoon lineup minus Adult Swim: where is my Robot Chicken? (at Adult Swim; thanks, William D.) – The CW Video Aliens in America, Wet ‘n Wild, and other quality fare – Looney Tunes For lovers of classic animation.” – Source

Fan of American chestnut tree says it can feed the world

This is something totally new that I’ve not seen before. Like the peanut, so many uses.

“Philip Rutter says the trees he’s growing and testing on his farm in Canton, Minn., could be a source of food, fuel and building material. Rutter has developed a hybrid chestnut that is resistant to the disease and will even grow in places like Minnesota, which is not part of the chestnut tree’s native habitat. Chestnut flour predates wheat flour by about 1,000 years and can be a major source of calories. The flour can be made into bread or pasta, and the nuts can be fed to farm animals. In fact, Food Network star Chef Mario Batali works with a supplier to get chestnut-fed pigs for his New York restaurants. Batali said the chestnut diet gives the pork an intense, woodsy flavor. The nuts themselves can be used as a fuel source. Rutter said it’s similar to the way corn is processed for ethanol. The fast-growing trees can be trimmed and the wood can be burned for heat. The rot-resistant lumber can be used for building material. Rutter wants to get the United Nations interested in planting chestnut trees in Africa. He said the crop could help fight starvation in some regions. Rutter wants to change the world one nut at a time.” – Source