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When I came across the meme at left, I was instantly reminded of a guy who called me from Baltimore, MD about 15 years ago, anxious for me to hunt up investors in an invention he had created.  I was having a hard time understanding the concept he was describing, and so he told me, “Think of it as a river in a box.”

“Ah! Now I get it. You have a box full of standing water. You add energy to it to get it moving, and then our extract energy from the moving water.  And you think that you can extract more energy than you put into it.”

“Yes!” he said excitedly.

I calmly told him that this violates the laws of physics, specifically the first and second laws of thermodynamics, but he wasn’t “having it.” I wished him a pleasant good night and asked him to let me know when he had built a working prototype.

I’m still hoping to hear from him again.

Hydrokinetics Gone Awry

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Metaphysics

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Here’s a very short video on the subject of metaphysics, the philosophy of being and reality.

It’s a great example of what I mean when I say that it has been a terrible last few centuries for philosophers.

In ancient times, if you wanted to know what the fundamental building blocks of the universe, you asked a philosopher, perhaps the ancient Athenian Democritus, who propounded the theory of the atom, which was, by definition, indivisible.  Now we refer this question to the realm of particle physics.

Far more recently, those who struggled to know the ultimate nature of reality asked a metaphysician.  Now, once again, we’ve put our trust in science.

I hope you’ll check out the video linked above.

Metaphysics

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Renewable Energy

Invest in Small Wind … At Your Peril

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As a PhD colleague once told me, “If you don’t care how much of pay for electricity, I’ll get you all the renewable energy you could ever ask for.”

In this case, I’d guess the average price per kwh for the typical American household would be somewhere between $5 and $10.

They want you to invest.  Have you ever asked why people with their own money at stake have abandoned these ideas 20 years ago?

Invest in Small Wind … At Your Peril

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The U.S. Civil War Didn’t Need to Happen

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At left we see why Lincoln would have done well to let the Confederacy cede from the Union.  He could have simply written a letter to Robert E. Lee stating:

Keep your slaves and your land…for now. Wait until you experience the effects of near-zero industrial and military technology development and the civilized world’s refusal to trade with you barbarians.  By the end of the 19th Century, a stiff breeze will blow you away. Maybe some future U.S. president will invade you with a troop of Boy Scouts with slingshots, or maybe a handful of banditos will ride up from Mexico.

The U.S. Civil War Didn’t Need to Happen

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