Man Arrested for Barking at Dog :.

Have you ever heard of those relocation services that assist people with picking a new place to live? I wonder if any of them have search categories for Fewest Cops or Cities with a Low Incidence of Mad Pig Disease:

When a Palo Alto police dog barked at Richard Dillon, the Menlo Park man barked back.

Dillon's actions didn't amuse Palo Alto police, who cited him on a misdemeanor charge of taunting a police dog. On Tuesday, Dillon pleaded not guilty in Santa Clara County court.

Now Dillon hopes to go to trial, because he thinks the charge is "ridiculous," said his attorney, Donald Tasto.

More: Ex-LA Police Officer Sentenced to Prison for On-Duty Rapes

More: Police Chief Kills Self, Hurts Wife
posted by Kevin at 7:45 AM

Free State Project Makes National News :.

The Free State Project might sound good at first, but be careful. Individual freedom, rah rah rah! But Libertarians also want corporations to operate without having to conform to any laws at all. So, if corporation X decides to dump mercury and cyanide into a river, fine. What laws do Libertarians advocate against such behavior? * Can you hear the crickets chirping and pins dropping? *

I've been poking around the Free State Project site lately---someone involuntarily added me to their listserv months ago---and I don't quite know what to make of the movement. Minarchy (a system with minimal laws) seems to be the goal, which is admirable, but I would hope that the laws that do exist are concerned with maximizing individual freedom while minimizing corporate freedom. One might think that this type of analysis is a bit like splitting hairs, considering the nightmarish state of affairs at the moment. Wouldn't anything approaching what the Free State Project advocates be better than what we're living under now?

Not necessarily!

Things can get worse, and that should be kept in mind when examining something like the Free State Project. A choice between living under a corporate warlord or living under a government warlord is not a choice. And since we know that the warlord instinct comes out, no matter what system is in operation, the laws that are allowed to exist must address the tendency toward oligarchy, plutocracy, autocracy, etc. Specifically, the nature of corporate power must be dealt with, or these guys will wind up creating a playground for evil. Indeed, the movement just might contain anarcho capitalists who are seeking to create a corporate-anything-goes zone.

Jason Sorens, the guy who started the FSP, has a PhD in Political Science from Yale. Sorens flings a great deal of rhetoric that sounds good at first, but parse it closely and look what falls out onto the floor:

Free States would attract labor and capital from inefficient interventionist states, creating constituencies for free trade and capital mobility and encouraging interventionist states to slim down. Free States would thus have a positive long-run impact on free trade and economic globalization (which is by all means to be distinguished from political "globalism").

That is from a Sorens essay entitled, "The Foreign-Policy Implications of a Free State."

Sorens' wife, Mary, had this to say on her website:

"I am working on a ten-month bank merger project, and Jason will be finished with his Ph.D. this May."

Hmm. Bank mergers. That's interesting. And then out comes the Bible:

"Christianity has come a long way in my life - through difficult childhood days, exhilarating youth, and everyday adulthood. It's been there through a major depression, and now I find it on the other side. As my life continues, I know now more than ever what it is to have a faith and love for Jesus. It's the kind of faith I would never shove down anyone's throat (though I may have in past years). But if you want to know, it means everything to me."

There is lots of talk of Jesus and praying and Christianity on her site. I have nothing against Christians, as long as they're not hypocrites. Just keep in mind, the most dangerous and powerful maniacs (Bush, Ashcroft, et al) talk a lot about Jesus, praying and Christianity. I don't think the majority of FSP members have any intention of creating a Crypto Jesus Freak Corporate Paradise. All I'm saying is: Keep your eyes on the ball, gentlemen. The guy behind the Free State Project has a PhD from Yale, likes the idea of economic globalization and is married to a woman involved with bank mergers. She also freely references Jesus and Christianity...

Exercise extreme caution:

Limited-government advocates have their eyes on Idaho. Or Montana. Or New Hampshire.

All are among 10 lightly populated states known for small-government politics that could end up being a Libertarian utopia.

A movement called the Free State Project has registered some 3,100 people who would help choose a "candidate" state and move there in hopes of canceling laws against drugs, prostitution, guns and other individual liberties, while privatizing current state functions such as schools.
posted by Kevin at 4:51 AM

Criticizing Israel: Not Allowed :.

Israel, one of the worst violators of human rights on the planet, receives more foreign aid from U.S. taxpayers than any other state:

A new law being proposed by Republican senators will serve prohibit criticism of Israel on American college campuses.

The police-state-style "thought control" legislation is to be introduced by third-ranking Republican member of the U.S. Senate, conservative Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania.

His so-called "ideological diversity" legislation suggests cutting federal funding for American colleges and universities if those institutions are found to be permitting professors, students and student organizations to openly criticize Israel, which Santorum considers to be an act of "anti-Semitism."

Under the bill to be introduced by Santorum, the federal funding formula under Title IX of the Higher Education Act will include "ideological diversity" as well as sexual equality in education as a perquisite for federal funding, reveals Michael Collins Piper of the American Free Press on April 21.
posted by Kevin at 4:28 AM

BMW Looking at Naudin's BingoFuel Reactor

I recently proposed an idea for a Photovoltaic BingoFuel Hybrid Car (a car that runs on water and sunlight). Today, someone at BMW (possibly in Munich or Frankfurt) typed "Bingo fuel Naudin" into Google.de and found my site because of the references to Naudin's work. Here is the hit:

Thu Apr 24 03 at 12:58:56 AM N cryptogon.com Go : www.google.de/search?hl=de&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=Bingo+fuel+Naudin&meta= 192.109.190.88 vproxy01.bmwgroup.com Mozilla/4.72[de]C-CCK-MCD(WinNT;U) 1024x768 16 M colors

Now, why should we note that someone at BMW is interested in Naudin's work? As you may or may not know, BMW is probably the world's leading organization when it comes to hydrogen fueled vehicles. BMW's hydrogen powered prototypes are extremely advanced and perform as well as their gasoline based equivalents. Can the BMW production-ready prototypes run on BingoFuel (also known as Aquafuel�, Aqualene�, Magnegas�, TrueFuel�, and Carbo-hydrogen�)?

My guess is: Probably.

Why run on BingoFuel rather than pure hydrogen?

The BingoFuel process produces more hydrogen per unit of energy input than standard electrolysis. This may not be correct. At this stage, I think it would be more correct to say that the BingoFuel process produces more useable fuel per unit of energy input than standard electrolysis. Also, it might be easier to store pressurized BingoFuel than pure hydrogen. Hydrogen is extremely difficult to store.
posted by Kevin at 9:09 AM

DNA Samples from Everyone! :.

Everyone should be DNA fingerprinted to help tackle crime and enhance personal security, the British inventor of the modern forensic technique suggested Wednesday.

Professor Sir Alec Jeffreys, of the department of genetics at the University of Leicester, said existing criminal DNA databases were too small to catch criminal suspects.

"At the moment, we have a criminal DNA database of about 2 million profiles in the U.K.," he told reporters as scientists met at Britain's top scientific body, the Royal Society, to celebrate the discovery of DNA 50 years ago.

"The real problem in a typical crime is that even if you get DNA from a crime scene, you can't pick up a suspect because they don't have a record, so one possibility is to extend the database to include the entire population."

Jeffreys said he would feel "very uncomfortable" if such a database were run by the police.
posted by Kevin at 8:05 AM

Nuclear Weapons and Taxpayer Rape :.

Hey, nobody said nuclear armageddon was cheap!

Los Alamos' current grapefruit-sized plutonium core, weighing 3 to 4 kilograms, took $350 million to make. Another $1.2 billion will be needed between now and 2007 to test that one and manufacture the rest of the Los Alamos pits that will be made in the next four years.
posted by Kevin at 8:00 AM

Left to Die with a Robot :.

Pretty soon, a robot named Wakamaru may become a fixture in the homes of elderly Japanese who have no one else to look after them.

The robot, which recently wheeled around to greet guests at the Embedded Systems Conference, is still in development. But it has the potential to replace a human caretaker in Japan where robotic technology is embraced and the graying of the population has left many young people wondering who will care for their parents.

also...

At $8,300, Wakamaru would be considered a steal in a country increasingly saddled by health-care costs and social security payments, Tilton said.

"For a permanent robot that doesn�t have to be replaced and doesn't require wages, that is pretty cheap," he said.

"Obviously, if this completely replaces human companionship, that would be sad," Tilton added. "But maybe that is a step up from television that keeps a lot of Americans company."
posted by Kevin at 7:49 AM

Anyone Going to Be in New Haven, Connecticut on May 24th? :.

Why not drop by the Tomb and meet the new members of The Order of Death?

If tradition holds, last Thursday, the 10th of April was tap night at the secret society at Yale University.

Barbara Bush, daughter of President George W Bush is currently a junior at Yale and would be considered a legacy tap. She would follow her father, grandfather and great-grandfather as a member of the exclusive and secretive club. There are also many other uncles and cousins that are members. She would be the first female member from the Bush clan, at least that we know about. Bones is in a "dark" period and doesn't release its membership list to the public and stopped the practice of announcing its members in the school's annual in 1971. Females became members in 1991 after a confrontation that had older members locking-out the offending parties from the almost 150 year-old clubhouse, affectionately known as the "Tomb."

So, inquiring minds wish to know; did Barbara Bush get "tapped" and accept a membership in America's most powerful secret society?

And if tradition continues to hold, there will be a "social" on Thursday, May 24th, 2003 at the Tomb for the 15 new members to get acquainted. Members only are invited. And the guest list is on a need-to-know basis.
posted by Kevin at 6:57 PM

The One Who Pays the Piper Calls the Tune :.

People who smoke crack shouldn't criticize their dealers:

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, a branch of the U.S. Department of Defense, recently cut the remaining funding for a $2.125 million Penn research project designed to investigate and perfect a new and more secure computer operating system.

The project began in August 2001 and was terminated last week. Project manager Theo de Raadt, an independent programmer unaffiliated with the University, claimed that the project was canceled because he was vocal about his political views.

"I made some anti-war comments in the Toronto Globe and Mail about two and a half weeks ago," de Raadt said. Penn Computer Science Professor and operating system openBSD researcher Jonathan "Smith "called me [a few days later] and told me to shut up and not talk about things like that."

Four days after de Raadt says he was told to keep quiet about his political opinions, funding for the project was cut.

Smith did not return calls for comment.

De Raadt was reasonably certain that his comments led to the funding cuts, and he was shocked by Smith's statements.

"A tenured professor was telling me not to exercise my freedom of speech," he told The Associated Press last week.
posted by Kevin at 9:34 AM

Thermal Depolymerization: You Better Be Sitting Down for This One :.

Make sure to read this incredible article all the way through to the bottom of the page! Read it carefully. Note the recurring themes: petroleum paradigm firmly in force, no shift to clean fuels, elites control all means of production, technology allows oil companies to generate new revenue streams from their toxic waste, etc. etc. And the same types of benevolent folks who brought the world to the brink of oblivion---commodity traders, former CIA directors, venture capitalists, etc.---will now be saving us with this great new technology.

What exactly is the technology? Well, they parked that first large scale plant right next to a slaughterhouse. Somehow, I knew it was coming down to this. I just knew it. Somewhere, deep down, unconsciously, in my cells, I knew this was where it was all headed:

If a 175-pound man fell into one end, he would come out the other end as 38 pounds of oil, 7 pounds of gas, and 7 pounds of minerals, as well as 123 pounds of sterilized water.

Just so we're clear: Guys like Dick Cheney are now in control of a technology that is capable of rendering human beings into petroleum products. * PAUSE *

Let that sink in.

You may think I'm kidding. You may think I've gone totally off my rocker and that this is all a joke. Let's try it again:

Guys like Bush, who's grandfather was involved with the financing of Adolf Hitler, are now in control of a technology that is capable of rendering human beings into petroleum products.

"Oh, but that would never happen," you say to yourself. Oh no. These guys care so much about all of us. The same guys that just liberated untold numbers of people in Iraq and who lock up over 2 million Americans? The same people funding research into autonomous, self aware terminator robots, nanotechnology and freakish genetics experiments? Would those guys ever consider rendering humans for fuel?

Ein Volk. Ein Reich. Ein Fuhrer. Ein Gas.

If any of the Presidential candidates use that, I want some kickbacks!

I'll conclude this lovely entry with one more pleasant thought:

Man is building the machines in His image. At least they won't have to worry about a fuel source when they decide to turn on us. In a nanosecond of AI clarity, the calculations could be completed. Production rates, schedules, quotas, yields. The machines probably won't think twice about the intangibles, like loss of life and devastation. I mean, why would they? Their Creator never seemed to bother Himself too much with those issues.
posted by Kevin at 9:17 AM

Council on Foreign Relations Drivel :.

For those of you who don't know, the Council on Foreign Relations is the public fa�ade of the political and economic elites who run THE show. I used to read the CFR rag Foreign Affairs regularly, as part of my indoctrination at a major university. Of course, by "rag" I mean that Foreign Affairs is the most respected and influential journal of International Relations in academic, government and policy formulation circles. Needless to say, I stopped parsing Foreign Affairs' nonsense long ago, but it's good to revisit how totally ridiculous things are in officialdom every once in a while.

The following was sent in by TR:

I was in a masochistic frame of mind so I decided to read "The Rise of Ethics in Foreign Policy: Reaching a Values Consensus" in the latest issue of Foreign Affairs.

From the article: "Humanitarian intervention, meanwhile, is perhaps the most dramatic example of the new power of morality in international affairs. The notion that states could invade the sovereign territory of other states to stop massive bloodshed (call it genocide or ethnic cleansing or whatever) was inconceivable until the 1990s."

Translation: The American public was not gullible enough before the 1990s for the U.S. to use "Humanitarian Intervention" as the pretext for imperialistic aggression. What a coincidence that in the early 1990s the Soviet Union collapsed and with it the excuse for "massive bloodshed."

From the article: "The UN approved interventions in Bosnia and Somalia. Nato took military action in Kosovo. And the Organization of American States blessed the U.S.-led intervention in Haiti. What is more, the international community was quite prepared to intervene militarily in Rwanda had the Clinton administration not prevented it. Just think of it: states endorsing the principle that morality trumps sovereignty."

"Just think of it:" Clinton sending cruise missiles to blow up an aspirin factory with untold civilian casualties on a hunch that it "might" be producing chemical weapons, when a few years earlier, the U.S. was shipping chemical weapons to Iraq. I guess "Morality trumps sovereignty" only when national leaders aren't playing with a full deck.

From the article: "But leaders around the world understand today that they cannot take American money, beg American protection, and consistently escape the acknowledgment of American values."

I suppose the "American values" the authors are referring to justify the murder of civilians with bulldozers and the launching of missile strikes into urban areas. That must be why Israel, the state that receives the most U.S. foreign aid, "cannot take American money, beg American protection, and consistently escape the acknowledgment of American values."

We have passed from an era in which ideals were always flatly opposed to self-interests into an era in which tension remains between the two, but the stark juxtaposition of the past has largely subsided. Now, ideals and self-interests are both generally considered necessary ingredients of the national interest. For all the old and new policy problems this entails, Americans and most of the world are better off.

Herald the dawn of the new era! The U.S. is now able to justify its atrocities and imperialistic aggression by claiming the moral high-ground. The people have finally been duped beyond all ability to think critically about their own government. The swindle is complete!

More: Operation JUST BECAUSE We Say So

This is Kevin writing again, by the way.

Back in 1995, I wrote a paper on Operation Just Cause, the illegal, unilateral invasion of Panama by the U.S. Rather than post the entire paper (it's a tedious read, even for freaks), I'll post just a couple of tidbits from my research on that project. Note the similarities between Just Cause and Iraqi Freedom:

Questions of ethics, morality, justice and related normative principals, likewise, will be part of the calculation. In a more benign international environment, where no state can threaten the survival of the U.S., these normative considerations will become important policy determinants. In light of this, the following guidelines are proposed: One, in addition to countering a threat to an identifiable interest, the use of force should foster some larger normative purpose. Two, the state or group against which military for is directed must be seen as acting outside the bounds of acceptable international behavior. Three, the use of force has to conform to the legal principals of proportionality and discrimination. Four, following military action, the U.S. must implement a post-conflict policy that contributes to a positive consolidation of the situation, promoting stability and development.

Source: Shultz, Richard, H., Jr., "The Post-Conflict Use of Military Forces: Lessons from Panama, 1989-91," The Journal of Strategic Studies, V. 16, #2, June 1993, p. 145.

From the conclusion of my paper:

The U.S. had to devise a way to depict to the world that its unilateral, full-scale invasion of the sovereign state of Panama was something other than the final, violent stage of the familiar self-help philosophy of a superpower. Indeed, the U.S. was faced with the daunting task of having to convince much of the world that its action was not overtly illegal under international law. The legality issue, however, was sidestepped by the U.S. Instead, overtures declaring high moral principals, amounting to little more than rhetoric for newspaper headlines, were substituted in lieu of a genuine legal basis for intervention in Panama.

Sound familiar? Substitute "Panama" with "Iraq" and, *poof* there you have it.
posted by Kevin at 5:36 AM

Biodiesel Article in New York Times :. (requires free registration)

"I wouldn't do this to a $30,000 car unless I was confident that it would work."

With that, John Lin, owner of a Los Angeles fast-food franchise, opened the door of an opulent white Ford Excursion.

Powered by a seven-liter turbo-diesel engine that delivers just 13 miles a gallon, this oversize S.U.V. seemed the quintessential environmentalist's target. Yet soon, Mr. Lin will be paying less to fuel it than he would pay if he owned a Toyota Prius, which supplements gasoline with electricity. As an added benefit, he will sharply reduce the pollution.

More: Greasel Conversions

Research Credit: TL
posted by Kevin at 8:30 AM

Photovoltaic BingoFuel Hybrid Car

Establishment science is a byproduct of dominant political and economic interests. (Some people don't like to hear that.) So, what kind of energy systems will emerge under a political and economic order that has been controlled, at least for the last 100 years, by corrupt oil money? Wide adoption of viable alternative energy systems would completely subvert the dominant paradigm (the U.S. imposed global economic and political order) and depose long established elites.

The only way that any paradigm breaking technologies will emerge is if we (average people) build them ourselves. This work must be carried out by the non experts among us, the laymen and the backyard tinkerers because the alleged "scientists" are too busy maintaining the status quo on the road to oblivion.

To wit:

I recently came up with an idea that might allow for the creation of a vehicle that burns no non renewable hydrocarbons (gasoline) and in fact runs on solar power and water.

"Whuuuh?" you ask. Forget about what "CAN'T" happen for a few minutes and keep reading!

!WARNING! I have done NO research on actually building this prototype. In fact, I have no experience at all with high voltage electrical systems, generators, explosive gasses or internal combustion engines. Actually attempting to execute the following ideas may be very dangerous.

And if I had the money, I'd be out right now trying to do this. ;)

Let's get down to it:

Hybrid gasoline-electric cars use both conventional gas burning and electrical engines. If you want to know more about how hybrid cars work, see howstuffworks.com for an excellent summary. Hopefully, someone out there has a pioneering spirit, a full workshop and access to, and ability to modify, a Toyota Prius or Honda Insight.

In my opinion, the primary problem with hybrid gas-electric cars is that THEY STILL BURN GASOLINE. My idea is primarily concerned with eliminating the need to use any gasoline at all (or any other filthy, proprietary fuel) in a vehicle that is, for all intents and purposes, extremely well engineered and efficient.

The question then becomes: What type of fuel would the vehicle's internal combustion engine burn?

Behold, JL Naudin's Bingo Fuel Reactor.

Passing current through carbon electrodes immersed in ORDINARY TAP WATER produces gas that can power conventional internal combustion engines. See Naudin's incredible demonstration in which he powers a 5 kilowatt Honda generator directly with the gas from his BingoFuel Reactor. Ok, class, pay attention: Look at the specification for the type of fuel required to run that Honda generator. It's supposed to run on automotive unleaded gasoline (minimum 86 pump octane). Yep, that's the same automotive unleaded gasoline that you put in your car, or in those Honda and Toyota hybrids.

Obviously, to get that gas out of the water, current must be passed through the carbon electrical array.

To all of you people out there shaking your heads, mumbling, "This is 11th grade chemistry class electrolysis, this takes too much power," stick with me.

Look at what Naudin says about the BingoFuel system vs. electrolysis:

It is interesting to notice that in this test of a 1 cell BingoFuel Reactor, the current used is 81.6 Amperes (see Test#1). With a same value of current used in a 1 cell electrolyser the volume of the of H2 is 36 liters per hour (at 20�C). There is 46% of H2 in the synthetic gas generated by the BingoFuel Reactor, so it produces about 83 liters per hour of H2. The BingoFuel Reactor produces 2.3 times more H2 gas than a common electrolyser.

The fuel mixture produced by the BingoFuel Reactor is about 1080 liters per hour, a common 1 cell electrolyser produces about 54 liters per hour (at 20�C) of mixture of H2 and O2, so the BingoFuel Reactor produces 20 times more of fuel mixture than a common electrolyser.

WOW!

So where is the electricity going to come from to make the lovely explosive gas to burn in the internal combustion engine!?

The BingoFuel system in my theoretical car would be powered by the battery bank (stock or modified) in the vehicle. And don't forget all of that top facing real estate on the vehicle itself, just begging to be covered with a photovoltaic (solar cell) skin! I think one could easily expect to get 150-200 watts out of a well integrated solar skin on a vehicle in full sunlight. (Gross guesstimate.) While this isn't enough power to run the electric engine on the vehicle by any stretch, it would definitely make a great re-charge system for the on-board battery array.

Additionally, if the vehicle was parked in direct sunlight and the batteries were completely full, the solar power could be easily re-directed to the BingoFuel Reactor to generate immediately useable gas for the internal combustion engine. Of course, this would require some type of BingoFuel tank and compressor system which may add more weight, etc. and become a dangerous explosive hazard. Perhaps the existing automobile grade tanks for compressed natural gas might provide inspiration for the design of a safe BingoFuel tank.

The vehicle should also be equipped with a conventional electric car recharge coupler so owners may plug the vehicle into public utility or home based solar electric systems for a complete recharge.

Would the hybrid's gas engine run unmodified on BingoFuel like the Honda generator? Now that's probably the most interesting question of them all at this stage. If that was the case, I think the next questions revolve around engineering particulars and the potential range that the vehicle might have. The range issue would depend on several factors that would require experimentation. Perhaps there is someone out there with enough of an engineering background to infer some guesstimates based on Naudin's preliminary data. Note also that commercial versions of Naudin's system exist under brand names such as Aquafuel�, Aqualene�, Magnegas�, TrueFuel�, Carbo-hydrogen�....

The technology to make this car real exists NOW. TODAY. A presentable prototype of the photovoltaic BingoFuel hybrid car could probably be built from off the shelf components and a modified hybrid gas-electric car. Could it be done for $100,000? Probably. Could it be done for much less? Maybe. While seamless integration of the photovoltaic skin into the vehicle's paneling system would require extensive engineering, flexible solar panels might serve well for proof of concept and rapid prototypes (or personal vehicle modifications).

The proof of concept might be possible for next to nothing. At the minimum, someone needs to build a BingoFuel system, connect that thing to a small automobile or motorcycle engine and fire it up! Any high school in the U.S. has the ability to do this! Physics club, meet the boys and girls in the auto shop.

I like this idea because, once the details are worked out, this is within reach of individuals. If there are any people reading this who want to fund research into this idea, I know folks who could carry out the engineering. If someone takes this idea and somehow makes millions, I don't care! I don't want anything from it (even though I am dirt poor). Just do it! Try it, at least. You see, it doesn't matter if someone tries to lock this down, anyone could whip up their own version! Perhaps conversion kits or services could make the process of de-gassing hybrids extremely easy. Maybe people will build entirely new and clean cars. Who knows!? This is a rare optimistic moment on Cryptogon, so let me bask in it! You know, they always say that things seem darkest just before the light. Well, look at that ball of plasma in Naudin's BingoFuel reactor!

How does the prospect of never paying for gasoline again grab ya? Think of the costs this way:

Gasoline-electric hybrid car: $20,000
Roll your own BingoFuel system: $1,000
Solar panels: $1,000
Being able to see the look on Cheney's face as you zoom past his Secret Organ Bank in your car that requires no gasoline?

Priceless.

If you want to start a revolution, this is the way to do it. A vehicle like this would do more to threaten the Dark Armies of Cheney, et al. than just about anything else that I can think of. De-funding these guys is the only way to defeat them. Marching in the streets won't accomplish anything. And anyone who tries to go the violent route against this system will instantly join the ranks of Al Quaeda. The folks at home watching TV will beg for the cops and military to save them from the terrorists. But what would the Them do if we just stopped showing up to the gas station? Think about it. And then start tinkering.

If there is anyone in Southern California who would like to work on this and needs an extra set of hands, I would be happy to help out in any way I can.

More: Naudin's BingoFuel Reactor and Honda Generator Runs Closed Loop! :.

This is incredible:

Closed loop test procedure :
The gasoline fuel tank has been removed during this test.

1) The BFR is powered with the power grid,
2) the 5hp engine is started with the gaz produced with the BFR,
3) the BFR is quickly disconnected from the power grid and connected to the output of the power generator...

The plasma energy is lower during the closed loop operation than with the power grid energy. The power is just enough to maintain the self-running. The engine is only able to run about 2 minutes because of the carbon rods consumption and manual tuning requirement. A new version of the BingoFuel Reactor is under development, this version ( v2.0 ) will be able to run for a long time without tuning and adjustment...

The loop is closed : while the 5 hp engine is powered with the gas produced by BingoFuel Reactor, the BFR is powered by the power generator...

More: New Hybrids for 2004 :.

On Wednesday, Ford and Toyota announced new fuel-efficient hybrid vehicles that also reduce the amount of harmful pollutants.

At the 2003 New York International Automobile Show, hybrid car pioneer Toyota introduced an upgrade of the Prius hybrid while Ford introduced an SUV that even Greens may tolerate.

Hybrid cars complement an internal combustion engine with an electric motor that is used at lower speeds and to help with acceleration. By turning off the engine when stopped and relying instead on a battery-powered motor, hybrid cars can substantially increase fuel-efficiency.
posted by Kevin at 6:52 AM

The Toppling Of Saddam Statue: An Eyewitness Report :.

Rent-A-Crowd:

Well, there certainly was some jubilation, but I certainly wouldn't go along with that presented by television. The one that I've seen a lot of since I've been back is the toppling of the statue of Saddam and I can hardly believe it was the same one that I saw, because it happened at only about 300m from where I was and it was a very small crowd. The rest of the square was almost empty, and when we inquired as to where the crowd came from, it was from Saddam City. In other words, it was a rent-a-crowd. Now, that piece of television has been played over and over again, but I've seen nothing of the pieces of television, for example, what happened in Mosul the other day, where the Americans opened fire on a crowd killing 10 and injuring 100 when it became anti-American. So I think the scenes of jubilation have to be balanced against the other side of the picture.

More: Statue Toppling a Scripted U.S. PSYOP? :.

April 6th: Iraqi National Congress founder, Ahmed Chalabi is flown into the southern Iraqi city of Nasiriyah by the Pentagon. Chalabi, along with 700 fighters of his "Free Iraqi Forces" are airlifted aboard four massive C17 military transport planes. Chalabi and the INC are Washington favorites to head the new Iraqi government. A photograph is taken of Chalabi and members of his Free Iraqi Forces militia as they arrive in Nasiriyah.

April 9th: One of the "most memorable images of the war" is created when U.S. troops pull down the statue of Saddam Hussein in Fardus Square. Oddly enough... a photograph is taken of a man who bears an uncanny resemblance to one of Chalabi's militia members... he is near Fardus Square to greet the Marines. How many members of the pro-American Free Iraqi Forces were in and around Fardus Square as the statue of Saddam came tumbling down?

The up close action video of the statue being destroyed is broadcast around the world as proof of a massive uprising. Still photos grabbed off of Reuters show a long-shot view of Fardus Square... it's empty save for the U.S. Marines, the International Press, and a small handful of Iraqis. There are no more than 200 people in the square at best. The Marines have the square sealed off and guarded by tanks. A U.S. mechanized vehicle is used to pull the statue of Saddam from it's base. The entire event is being hailed as an equivalent of the Berlin Wall falling... but even a quick glance of the long-shot photo shows something more akin to a carefully constructed media event tailored for the television cameras.
posted by Kevin at 4:27 AM

Israel to Use Flechette Shells :.

Israel's Supreme Court has given the army the green light to use controversial flechette tanks shells which spray thousands of darts over hundreds of metres, ripping apart anyone in the killing zone.

Physicians for Human Rights, an Israeli advocacy group, said the use of such shells was in contravention of the Geneva Convention covering the rules of warfare and should be banned.
posted by Kevin at 4:24 AM

Business as Usual

TR sent in the following:

In a secret closed door deal, which "angered" members of Congress, Bechtel was awarded $680 million dollars to accomplish the saintly, humanitarian endeavor of rebuilding the country we just destroyed. Of course, that huge contract is a drop in the bucket compared to Halliburton's $7 billion dollar deal. Welcome to the USSR, comrade! [Reference to the former Soviet Union's ridiculous and corrupt command economy.]

http://money.cnn.com/2003/04/17/news/companies/war_bechtel/index.htm

American Airlines PHBs give themselves raises and bonuses while employees take pay cuts to prevent the airline from going bankrupt.

http://money.cnn.com/2003/04/18/news/companies/amr_friday/index.htm

Hmmm, Bechtel gets a $680 million contract and two U.S. Army sergeants trip over $650 million in cash in Iraq?! I don't even want to think about this too much. My head hurts.
posted by Kevin at 12:38 AM