Delicious LiveJournal Links for 8-4-2009

[andrewducker]

• How Differential Gear works
  I've never really understood this - so it was fascinating to see it explained so simply!
  (tags: gears mechanics technology)
• The Bilingual Menace
  I laughed.
  (tags: funny language usa)
• Cloud
  The latest Pixar short
  (tags: video pixar funny animation)
• Call for debate on killer robots
  Cons: Killer Robots! Pros: Killer Robots!
  (tags: robots war UK)
• Would you like a zero point energy generator of your own?
  Buy Now - before the military industrial complex shut him down!!!
  (tags: EpicFail electricity science)
• Sony readies two new eBook readers
  Sadly, neither of them as large as the Kindle DX
  (tags: ebooks)
• Warning: Oil supplies are running out fast
  Latest estimates put Peak Oil in the next ten years - at the latest.
  (tags: energy oil economics future peak-oil)

Comments

[anton-p-nym.livejournal.com]

Wow, that ZPE ad just reeks of old-time Usenet crankery. I wonder what they're actually selling plans for, because they do an absolutely lousy job of giving any hint at all on how it actually works. They can quack on all they want about magnets, but since "regular" generators also use magnets that doesn't say anything.

What's the power source? What turns the armature in the generator? What's the exhaust, or waste products? You must say... the power of thermodynamics compels you!

-- Steve absolutely despises crooks like these.

[mouflonmatt.livejournal.com]

I kind of assumed that it was a spoof, until I got to the bit where they are trying to sell things. This is just one good argument that scientific literacy is essential.
I can only echo Dogbert - 'Out, out you demons of stupidity'

[dapperscavenger.livejournal.com]

Awesome video ... but ... surely it doesn't take NINE minutes to tell people what a diff lock does. *blinkblink*

[dalglir.livejournal.com]

Intriguing generator and, of course, a scam:

http://blog.mapawatt.com/2009/07/21/magniwork_perpetual_motion_scam/

Interesting reading though.

[andrewducker]

Oh, absolutely - I'm fascinated by these scams, and by people who believe in free energy from magnets in general. I file it along with companies that sell universal compression software as "people who sell impossibilities." - and it's amazing how similar the different groups are to each other.