My Batman...

...Just saying!

Has Science Been Misleading Us?

I was messing around today on Youtube, and came across one of the many videos purporting to show an example of a perpetual motion machine. What's a perpetual motion machine you ask? It's supposed to be a machine, usually mechanical in nature that once set into motion, does stop and generates more energy than it requires to stay in motion. Science, and shows like Mythbusters has been debunking these perpetual motion machines for years. The hope is that someday someone will come up with a machine that generates more electricity than it consumes, thereby giving the world abundant, free, or really cheap energy.

My thought on this subject is, has science been misleading us into not asking the right questions? Why does a machine have to be a "perpetual" motion machine to give us benefits? Why couldn't someone just invent a machine that once set into motion might just run on it's own inertia for say a month or two, generating electricity until it finally winds down and needs to be started up once again? That's how an old fashioned spring-wound clock operates. You wind up the spring and the tension on the spring keeps the hands moving for days or weeks at a time, depending on the size of the spring.

Let's say you had to use an electric powered motor to start a large flywheel turning and after an hour you turn off the motor and the flywheel keeps turning through it's own inertia for a month through a system of cleverly balanced weights. That flywheel in turn spins a large alternator that generates electricity. As long as you're generating more electricity than it took to get the flywheel going in the first place, I would see that as being a great scenario without it having to be perpetual. Maybe we need to stop thinking that something has to run on it's own inertia forever and just find a way to harness what I'll term, the "temporary motion machine".

Disaster preparedness, or not?

In the aftermath of superstorm Sandy, it's become apparent that the United States needs to seriously start investing (i.e. spending money) on reinforcing the infrastructure of our country. Nearly a week after the storm hit the East coast and there are still millions of customers without power, the distribution of fuel is spotty at best and citizens are feeling the frustrations of general chaos.  LINK

For instance, after every major disaster it seems there is always a lack of fuel distribution. I know it was that way for us here in the Mid-west after a major wind-storm earlier this year. Most gas stations, although they had gasoline, had no power and therefore couldn't pump it. The same is now happening on the East coast. Why can't the government require fuel suppliers (i.e. gas stations) to all have back-up power systems, I mean, it's not like they don't have fuel to run generators! Every quarter for the last several years, all the major oil companies have been reporting record profits, why not make them put some of those profits to good use. They (the oil companies) always claim that they don't actually run the gas stations, that they're mostly all independents. Who cares?! Even if it's true, the oil companies wouldn't exist if it weren't for the gas stations that deliver their product to the consumers. So in my opinion, it would be in their best interest to see that the gas stations are open and operating after a major crisis.

The time that it's taking to get power restored to customers on the East coast also hi-lights the need for our power distribution grid to be over-hauled. We need redundancies built into the system so that power can be restored more quickly, and it's apparent that if consumers had more access to solar and wind energy alternatives, many people wouldn't have to wait for public utilities to be brought back online.

This Tuesday could be a deciding factor in what will happen after the next major disaster. Will we elect a Republican government that wants to sit back and say we like thing just the way they are, or will we elect a Democratic government that will move forward on improving the infra-structure of the country so that we can face the daunting problems that nature throws at us?

Star Wars taken over by the Walt Disney Empire!

Yes folks, George Lucas has not only sold out, he's sold out lock, stock and barrel and in a big way. Today, Disney announced they would be buying lucasfilm, along with the rights to all the Star Wars franchise including merchandising and games for the sum of $4.05 billion dollars in a cash and stock deal which will make George Lucas one of the major stockholders in Walt Disney. I imagine the Star Wars fanbase is going a little berserk at the moment, picturing Mickey Mouse wielding a lightsaber!  LOL, I guess he is already as you can see in the photo above. I added the thought bubble above George myself, as he really doesn't look all that happy in it.

The only good thing to come out of this as I can see is that Disney has announced that they will be releasing an Episode 7 in 2015. As far as I knew, George Lucas had still been claiming that there would be no more movies in the Star Wars franchise.

Of course, one has to wonder if this is really Disney taking over Lucasfilm, or is this really George Lucas taking over Walt Disney? After all, he ends up a major stockholder in the Walt Disney Co. and is saying that he will remain a "creative consultant" for the Star Wars franchise. Perhaps George Lucas has a little bit of the Emperor in him, and this is a stealth take-over of the Republic!

Stay tuned and we'll see just how this all falls out!

Curiosity discovers ancient streambed on Mars!

Well, it seems the Mars rover, Curiosity, has already started turning up new finds on Mars. NASA has announced today that the rover has discovered an ancient streambed that definitely would have been filled with flowing water that was anywhere from ankle deep to hip deep. The mission specialists say that the worn, rounded appearance of the stones in the streambed indicate that the stones were moved and rounded by flowing water that had to have lasted for years consistently. So this is not just a case of a small amount of melted water from time to time.

Curiosity is on it's way to an area near the edge of the crater it is in to do it's science thing, but the scientists at NASA say that this find is like "insurance" that they're going to find evidence of hospitable conditions on Mars for life at one time!

Here's a LINK to the original story at Astrobiology Magazine.