Y'all Hear About This? No? Didn't Think So...

It never ceases to amaze me what is kept out of our public consciousness. With a few words from a gatekeeper, real news is kept out of the mainstream and left on the periphery for us "crackpots" to latch on to and look like, well, crackpots.

Anyway, it turns out that a guy has figured out how to power things with saltwater:

Can water fuel world?
Man looking for cancer cure hopes to solve energy crisis
Posted: May 30, 2007
5:00 p.m. Eastern
By Joe Kovacs
© 2007 WorldNetDaily.com

Is the solution to America's energy needs as simple as a trip to the beach?

The idea is a fascinating one as a Florida man searching for a cancer cure may have stumbled onto a virtually limitless source of energy: salt water.

John Kanzius, 63, is a broadcast engineer who formerly owned several TV and radio stations, before retiring in Sanibel Island, Fla.

Five years ago, he was diagnosed with a severe form of leukemia, and began a quest to find a kinder, gentler way to treat the disease compared to harsh chemotherapy.

In October 2003, he had an epiphany: kill cancer with radio waves. He then devised a machine that emits radio waves in an attempt to slay cancerous cells, while leaving healthy cells unharmed.

His experiments in fighting cancer have become so successful, one physician was quoted as saying, "We could be getting close to grabbing the Holy Grail."

But in the midst of his experiments as he was trying to take salt out of water, Kanzius discovered his machine could do what some may have thought was impossible: turning water into fuel.

"On our way to try to do desalinization, we came up with something that burns, and it looks in this case that salt water perhaps could be used as a fuel to replace the carbon footsteps that we've been using all these years, i.e., fossil fuels," Kanzius said.

If it's for real, the possible ramifications of the discovery are almost mind-boggling, as cars could be fueled by salt water instead of gasoline, hydroelectric plants could be built along the shore, and homes could be heated without worrying about supplies of oil.

"It doesn't have to be ocean salt water," Kanzius said. "It burns just as well when we add salt to tap water."

Kanzius has partnered with Charles Rutkowski, general manager of Industrial Sales and Manufacturing, a Millcreek, Pa., company that builds the radio-wave generators.

"I've done this [burning experiment] countless times and it still amazes me," Rutkowski told the Erie Times-News. "Here we are paying $3 a gallon for gas, and this is a device that seems to turn salt water into an alternative fuel."

Kanzius has been told it's actually hydrogen that's burning, as his machine generates enough heat to break down the chemical bond between hydrogen and oxygen that makes up water.

"I have never heard of such a thing," Alice Deckert, Ph.D., chairwoman of Allegheny College's chemistry department, told the Times-News. "There doesn't seem to be enough energy in radio waves to break the chemical bonds and cause that kind of reaction."

Thus far, Kanzius' work has not received extensive national publicity, but has been featured on several local television news programs, including WPBF-TV in West Palm Beach, Fla., WSEE-TV in Erie, Pa., and WKYC-TV in Cleveland.

"We discovered that if you use a piece of paper towel as a wick, it lights every single time and you can start it and stop it at will by turning the radio waves on and off," Kanzius told the Times-News as he watched a test tube of salt water burn.

"And look, the paper itself doesn't burn," he added. "Well, it burns but the paper is not consumed."

Kanzius said he hasn't decided whether to share his fuel discovery with government or private business, though he'd prefer a federal grant to develop it.

"I'm afraid that if I join up with some big energy company, they will say it doesn't work and shelve it, even if it does work," Kanzius told the paper.

Online skeptics are throwing cold water on the idea, saying the laws of science pose some problems:

# "It takes more electricity to split the water into hydrogen and oxygen than you get back in energy by burning the hydrogen and oxygen to recreate water and get the heat. So there is no new 'source' of power, since you are just converting electricity into a lesser amount of energy. You could get more heat energy out of electricity by running it through a blow dryer and THAT is not considered a 'new' energy source."

# "Basic chemistry: the amount of energy required to free the hydrogen from the oxygen in H2O is more than the energy released when the hydrogen and oxygen recombine and burn. The flame is clearly the color of ionized sodium from the salt. Whatever the actual specific explanation, which they don't bother to approach in the video, water and salt don't burn without puting more energy into the reaction than you get out. Turning a lot of radio energy into a little heat and light is no breakthrough."

# "Using RF energy, or any other energy to first break down the hydrogen and oxygen water molecule into its constituent H2 and O2 molecules, and then burning the products is old technology. ... However, if the RF H2O cracking method can be developed such that it is a superior way over current methods used to produce H2, which can subsequently be used in H2 fuel-cell automobiles for example, then THAT might be of value as well."

"Virtually limitless" might be an overstatement, but this sort of thing would, at least, tide us over on our oil comsumption until those high and mighty corporations release the free energy devices they've purchased from inventors (Note where, at the end of third paragraph where the poster talks about corporations buying his inventions and what he's used the money for), or some other inventor is brave enough to stand up to the government and corporations and release a device independantly... of course, if this mythical inventor tried to do that, he'd end up like this guy, probably. Or, we'd never hear about it....

Too many gatekeepers with an agenda, I tells ya.

Blatant Warnings Will Go Unnoticed

A headline from this morning's MSN.com homepage got my attention:

Dean weakens over Mexico, eyes oil fields

Winds drop to 85 mph after hitting coast, but storm could grow again

Associated Press

FELIPE CARRILLO PUERTO, Mexico - Hurricane Dean slammed into the Caribbean coast of Mexico on Tuesday as a roaring Category 5 hurricane, the most intense Atlantic storm to make landfall in two decades. It lashed remote Mayan villages as it raced across the Yucatan Peninsula to the heart of Mexico’s oil industry.

Nuclear plant hit by storm
By 1 p.m. ET, Dean had weakened to a Category 1 hurricane with winds of 85 mph. It was about 45 miles southeast of Campeche and was moving west at 18 mph, according to the National Hurricane Center.

Dean’s path takes it directly through the Cantarell oil field, Mexico’s most productive, with dozens of oil rigs and three major ports. All were shut down just ahead of the storm, resulting in a production loss of 2.7 million barrels of oil and 2.6 billion cubic feet of natural gas a day. The path also veers toward Mexico’s only nuclear plant, where a state official said 2,000 buses were brought in to evacuate personnel if necessary.

The Laguna Verde nuclear plant, which is more than 20 years old and has endured other severe weather with no problems, implemented emergency procedures and remains online, said Estefano Conde, spokesman for Mexico’s Federal Electricity Commission. “I can assure you that everything is well taken care of,” he said.

Therefore, even though Hurricane Dean might not ever touch the nuclear power plant or the oil fields, expect your energy bills to increase this fall, probably exponentially more than normal with winter weather.

Since we have control of all that Iraqi oil, why aren't our energy costs going down? I know it's been asked before, but does anyone have an answer?

Pagans & Homer: This Ain't No Odyssey

In what has to be at once the most brilliant and most baffling marketing strategy ever, advertisers for the "film" The Simpson's Movie, have taken an ages-old chalk drawing in the rolling hills of England and updated it with the visage of Homer Simpson.

From The Sun:

PAGANS have pledged to perform “rain magic” to wash away cartoon character Homer Simpson who was painted next to their famous fertility symbol - the Cerne Abbas giant.

The 17th century chalk outline of the naked, sexually aroused, club-wielding giant is believed by many to be a symbol of ancient spirituality.

Many couples also believe the 180ft giant, which is carved in the hillside above Cerne Abbas, Dorset, is an aid to fertility.

A giant 180ft Homer Simpson brandishing a doughnut was painted next to the well-endowed figure today in a publicity stunt to promote The Simpsons Movie released later this month.

It has been painted with water-based biodegradable paint which will wash away as soon as it rains.

Ann Bryn-Evans, joint Wessex district manager for The Pagan Federation, said: “It’s very disrespectful and not at all aesthetically pleasing.

“We were hoping for some dry weather but I think I have changed my mind. We’ll be doing some rain magic to bring the rain and wash it away.”

She added: “I’m amazed they got permission to do something so ridiculous. It’s an area of scientific interest.”

She also expressed fears that the painting of Homer, from the animated television series The Simpsons, would cause a mess as it washed away.

During the Second World War, he was disguised to prevent the Germans from using him as an aerial landmark.

Since then he has always been visible, receiving regular grass trimming and a full re-chalking every 25 years.

A few things strike me about the whole thing: one, how did the movie studio get permission to put up something like that? I mean, really look at it. It appears as though Homer Simpson is playing ringtoss with a donut and an ancient dude's penis. Two, since it's pretty obvious that the movie studio did get permission, who was the idiot who approved it? This thing's frickin' OBSCENE. Third, who the hell are these people who are "outraged" that a "pagan fertility symbol" has been degraded? Seriously people. Do you think that ancient people didn't have a sense of humor? That they didn't razz each other? That this huge chalk drawing wasn't a joke on Aethelred over the hill, who had a small penis and was kind of a wuss? Seriously. Just look at the frickin' thing! It has got to be a joke... the same kind of joke that we see on water towers in today's era... you know, "Joe blows goats" spray painted on an overpass, complete with crude drawings to illustrate. Fer crap's sake. I mean, look up "pagan" in the dictionary! The word "pagan" comes from a Latin word that merely means "non-Christian or Jew." It isn't a religious descriptor. You can be pagan and not subscribe to any religion.

Dufii.

ARRRR! iPatch!!!

On July 31st, Apple Computers released 48 patches for its OSX, most of them related to the iPhone, specifically, security patches for the iPhone.

For a company that built its reputation on a seemingly low risk of being able to be hacked or get viruses, 48 patches for your software seems extreme. For that many problems to be getting fixed at once, you'd just about have to bet that some of the issues have been around for a while, piling up. Then, Apple releases iPhone, problems erupt, and suddenly, here's all the code to fix your OSX. Bah.

Elitists.

The Tangled Web Grows...

A virtually unnoticed news item from July 17, 2007 circulated through small groups of bloggers to not much notice. It was the same old story of hackers getting into government computers, including a database mainframe for the Department of Transportation. The full story appears below from the Reuters wires; the original story as I saw it on Yahoo! has been removed:

Hackers steal U.S. government, corporate data from PCs
By Jim Finkle
Tue Jul 17, 7:22 PM ET


BOSTON (Reuters) - Hackers stole information from the U.S. Department of Transportation and several U.S. companies by seducing employees with fake job-listings on advertisements and e-mail, a computer security firm said.

The victims include consulting firm Booz Allen, computer services company Unisys Corp, computer maker Hewlett- Packard Co and satellite network provider Hughes Network Systems, a unit of Hughes Communications Inc, said Mel Morris, chief executive of British Internet security provider Prevx Ltd.

Of the list, only Unisys acknowledged that viruses had been detected and removed from two PCs, saying no information had been leaked. A Department of Transportation spokeswoman said the agency could not find any indication of a breach and a spokeswoman for Hughes said she was unaware of any breaches.

The other parties either declined comment or did not respond to requests for comment.

Prevx said the malware it identified uses a program named NTOS.exe that probes PCs for confidential data, then sends it to a Web site hosted on Yahoo Inc. That site's owner is likely unaware it is being used by hackers, Morris said.

He believes the hackers have set up several "sister" Web sites that are collecting similar data from other squadrons of malware. It was not clear whether the hackers used any information stolen from more than 1,000 PCs.

The hackers only targeted a limited group of computers, which kept traffic down and allowed them to stay under the radar of security police, who tend to identify threats when activity reaches a certain level.

"What is most worrying is that this particular sample of malware wasn't recognized by existing antivirus software. It was able to slip through enterprise defenses," said Yankee Group security analyst Andrew Jaquith, who learned of the breach from Morris.

Security experts say such crimes occur frequently because hackers have access to software that allows them to build undetectable malware that security firms are unable to fight.

In this case, the malware had not been flagged as dangerous, although security firms put out updates identifying it as such on Monday night after Prevx sounded the alarm.

"The sophistication is really far out there. There is no way security companies are going to catch up," said Rick Wesson, chief executive of Support Intelligence, a San Francisco firm that helps companies and government agencies detect and fight attacks on their computer systems.

Wesson said his company is monitoring three other campaigns that are currently ongoing, but declined to discuss them, saying that could hamper counter-intelligence efforts.

WAKE-UP CALL

Many large organizations -- including government agencies -- do not use all the bells and whistles in their security software, security experts say.

For example, organizations can choose to only let employees run programs on a list of safe software, but most take the opposite approach, banning programs listed as dangerous.

Also, sensitive information on PCs is rarely encrypted. Doing so makes stolen information useless to hackers, but requires extra work by employees who access the data.

A researcher with a large security firm said the attack disclosed by Prevx is "a wake-up call."

"We try to strike a balance between usability and protection. It's a delicate balance. But organizations need to lean more toward the protection side than the usability side," said the researcher who declined to be identified.

What is unusual about the case publicized by Prevx, security experts say, is that the firm named the victims.

Prevx CEO Morris said he did so to bring attention to vulnerabilities in security systems protecting sensitive government data.

Hackers use security tools to help them determine whether their malware will be able to get past corporate and government defenses. For example, a Web site called virustotal.com lets users upload files to see if they are safe. Hackers use it to see if their malware will make it past security systems.

Morris said he had downloaded the data from the Web site used by the hackers and provided it to investigators from the FBI's Law Enforcement Online, or LEO, program.

An FBI spokesman declined comment.

(Additional reporting by Eric Auchard in San Francisco, John Crawley in Washington, Georgina Prodhan in Frankfurt.)

Considering the fairly recent admission by the government regarding the theft of a laptop belonging to the Department of Veteran's Affairs that contained the personal information of millions of veterans, at first, this article seemed like little more than a report on our government's continued carelessness with data in this Age of Information.

Belch.com says:

So what kind of information would be important within the DoT that hackers would want access to? Probably configuration information for the network so the attacker can gain wider access- but more importantly, access to security information about highways, bridges, railways, trucking and other critical infrastructure information.

But, then, a scant 15 days later, a bridge in Minnesota collapses. Coincidence? Maybe. But we'd all be delusional to simply write it off as such, especially considering that bridge plans were on the DOT database. And what is the FBI doing? Busting a Chinese software pirate, OF COURSE!

Once again, the web of deception and distraction grows and is revealed to us, and most of us simply don't notice. We're so distracted by what they want us to see that we can't see what's right there.