Adam Clare

A Free Energy Future?

Here’s a documentary that aired in 1995 that looks at the feasibility of free energy. Energy from water is brought up a few times. It is very optimistic about the idea of free energy and I’m hoping that one day we get free energy that doesn’t damage the environment.

Most people scoff at the idea of free energy but it wasn’t that long ago that people scoffed at the thought of using water to power machines (steam trains for example) and oil to power more machines (smog machines for example). That being said there is some questionable science in the vide, but we can dream can’t we?

From the movies description at Google Video:
“In the opening stages Arthur C. Clarke explained how there were four stages in the way scientists react to the development of anything of a revolutionary nature. “Free energy” was now working its way through these four stages of reaction, which were:

a: “It’s nonsense,” b: “It is not important,” c: “I always said it was a good idea,” and d: “I thought of it first.””

Microsoft Has Green Potential, Linux Currently Green

Over at the geek-news site Slashdot there recently was a post about how Microsoft can save energy by changing some minor code. Slashdot readers also had a neat discussion regarding power consumption and computers. The community (not surprisingly) concludes that Linux is just as good – if not better – than Windows at conserving energy.

“The author figures that the upgrade would affect 100 million computers and that the power cost savings could hit $7 billion per year. CO2 emissions would be cut by 45 million tons. But what about the impact on computing?”

Colon Cancer Cells Identified

This is groovy that two teams of scientist who worked independently reached the same basic conclusion. Also, they found the cell type that contributes to colon cancer which will make looking for a cure easier.

“Two groups, working independently, showed that a subpopulation of CD133+ cells within the tumor, representing just a small fraction of the overall cancer mass, behave as cancer-initiating cells, with the ability to maintain themselves in culture in an undifferentiated state, initiate tumor growth after xenotransplantation in mice, and differentiate into cancers that are phenotypically indistinguishable from the original human tumor.”

Canadians Want to be Taxed

The idea of the carbon tax is gaining momentum here in Canada, which is great to see. Unfortunately the federal government is so out of touch with reality that it doesn’t realize that Canadians want to protect the planet. The environment minister, Rona Ambrose, is continually receiving criticism from all Canadians.

Canadians are vocalizing their concerns that Prime Minister Stephen Harper is embarrassing Canada.

Now here’s the purely good news:

“Most Canadians — including a majority of Albertans — believe the federal government should levy a tax on carbon-based energy sources, according to a new poll.

Surprisingly, the country’s top oil, gas and coal producing regions — Alberta, British Columbia and Atlantic Canada — showed the most support for a carbon tax.”

Yes, this may have to do with a lack of outdoor hockey rinks starting to trouble people.

I’m not even going to attempt to hide the fact that I despise Harper.

China Hearts Wikipedia

Ever since the Chinese government uncensored Wikipedia, people in China have been visiting the site in droves. Explosive growth of the site’s content is a great sign for freedom in China.

“Activity on nonprofit Wikimedia Foundation’s Chinese Wikipedia site has skyrocketed since its release, which Internet users in China first started reporting on Nov. 10. Since then, the number of new users registering to contribute to the site has exceeded 1,200 a day, up from an average of 300 to 400 prior to the unblocking. The number of new articles posted daily has increased 75% from the week before, with the total now surpassing 100,000, according to the foundation.”