The Green Box

Just a quick post because I'm about to go biking. Another great idea, even though it doesn't change much about the oil industry. So maybe there's a chance they won't get bought and see their invention thrown into the garbages.

Here's the full article:

The Green Box

It is an interesting idea...if it works. Seems like it does but they are being so secretive about it I wonder if we'll ever see the light of this one day. What they are doing basically is trapping the harmful gazes into their magic "green box" before they reach the exhaust. The product can then be used to feed some algae that will in return probably emit oxygen and it seems they are able to produce some fuel as well from them.

It doesn't solve the oil problem, but still it's a step toward cleaner emissions so it may be really nice until we manage to use other energy sources.

Another great idea

Still there!

haven't updated this much since I've been kinda busy with work and summer in general, mainly doing sports and stuff. Anyway I just stumbled upon this article and I thought I should share it as it looks promising...yes...again.

Water powered engines! Of course we're talking about hydrogen powered cars, but unlike other ideas that consisted of storing the hydrogen in some fuel cell or super compressed tanks, this one generates hydrogen "on demand" directly in your car by mixing boron with water. It produces a chemical reaction violent enough that it split the molecules.

Remember your physic classes in high school where maybe your teacher mixed this kind of stuff with water and it made a loud BANG and began boiling the water? no? oh well ;) anyway it's exactly that.

http://environment.newscientist.com/channel/earth/energy-fuels/mg19125621.200

The team calculates that a car would have to carry just 18 kilograms of boron and 45 litres of water to produce 5 kilograms of hydrogen, which has the same energy content as a 40-litre tank of conventional fuel. An Israeli company has begun designing a prototype engine that works in the same way, and the Japanese company Samsung has built a prototype scooter based on a similar idea.

If you want the full lengthy explanation, have a look (at this rather ugly web page, but don't worry it's full of content anyway):

http://www.eagle.ca/~gcowan/boron_blast.html

Enjoy!

Beware guitar players!

Crap.

Just bought some new strings for my guitar as I broke the small one a week ago. I've been playing guitar for approximately 10 years and all those years I never bothered trying other strings size and brand as the one I had were just perfect for me.

Today though, I went to a music shop near where I work to pick up some brand new guitar strings and I decided to try another brand as well as smaller radius strings. I removed all the previous strings I had...installed the new ones...tuned up my guitar and then I figured. I lost the nice blues sound I had, now it sounds a lot more metallic, ready to trash!!! It's now cooler for playing power chords with a lot of distortion but playing blues solos just doesn't cut it like it used to do. The strings are so easy to bend now I don't like it that much.

Oh well, I'm gonna stick with them for a while but it sure changed the sound a lot more than I thought it would. Everything needs to be in perfect sync when you play any amplified guitar, it's hard to find the perfect sound but here's one advice...when you find it, just don't go and change stuff like I did.

The 1 liter per 100 km car

It's real! And it's a VW. It is very small though, but it appears it is "very safe" nonetheless. And no it ain't turbo compressed ;) It produces a mere 8.5 HP at 4000 RPM and 18.4 Nm of torque but considering its super low weight (640 lb !!) it shouldn't be that bad.

What's too bad though is that this article was written in 2002 and we are now in 2007... and we never got to hear back from them. Why isn't the car in production? way too costly?

And I'll leave you on this brilliant comment from a user about the car

Does it have to look like a space penis?

I guess you decide.
Here's the full article here:
http://www.canadiandriver.com/articles/gw/vw1litre.htm

Wikipedia info
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volkswagen_1-litre_car

How to produce fire from water

A guy just found out how accidentally, and this could possibly have some very serious repercussions.

Here's the whole story and I suggest you watch the video as well on the same page. Apparently, the fire is being caused by the radio frequencies that are actually splitting the Hydrogen molecules from the Oxygen in the water.

Back to basics...H20 (water) is made up of two Hydrogen and one Oxygen and the bond between those molecules are very strong if you like. As for now the problem with using Hydrogen as fuel for cars and many other stuff was that producing Hydrogen costs more energy than it was actually producing afterwards. It isn't clear if it's still the case though as this isn't indicated in this article but nonetheless it is interesting to see novel ideas towards clean energy sources.

Petrol is so last generation, and ethanol, while we're at it, is NOT a viable solution for future generations if it relies on corn production (and I'll show you why in another post later on)...so lets move on already :)

How to protest against high gas prices

Here's a nice article about what to know about gas stations. Here's another good read also.

As for protesting against prices going up, I'm trying to think about something but I'm not too sure what would work. One thing is sure though: Always use your credit card when you pay. Why should you? because it costs them money, about 2.5% of the transaction goes to Mastercard or Visa...(which also suck because you're giving more money to banks though) Unfortunatly, it doesn't cost the big oil companies most of the time as your local gas station might not be owned by them even though you see the big Shell or Exxon logo...it just means that this guy is affiliated with this company and must buy its gas from them.

If the oil companies do own gas stations it would very well be nice if everyone started using their credit card to pay for gas. I'm trying also to never fill up my tank entirely so as to make more transactions in different gas stations. As for now I limit myself to 20$, whatever the price of gas is. If it goes up, it means I fill it less... and I will probably try going lower than that as it fills approximatly half of my tank anyway. A quarter of my fuel tank may very well be acheivable. Unfortunatly, for this to have any real effect in order to piss them off would be that many people start doing it, and that they have a somewhat flat starting fee for a new transaction and that I am not sure.

Anyway, the point is to piss them off and I'm trying to see what I can do. I hope I got you in the mood also and if you have any suggestions feel free to share them, I'd be glad to try them out.

9/11 Coincidences

A quite good retrospection of many "coincidences" related to the 9/11 event. This is some must watch videos as they may open your eyes and let you start thinking logically again without accepting everything the mainstream media or the politicians tell you.

Part One
Part Two
Part Three
Part Four
Part Five
Part Six
Part Seven

I know it takes a while to watch as there is a lot of infos but it's worth it.

All your gas are belong to us!

I am so fed up with the oil industry right now... they are just making huge insane amount of profits, and growing every years, and you know what? they are growing on OUR backs. They have rose the price of gas significantly for the past years saying it is "necessary".. there are lots of tensions... the world is unsafe... blablablabla... but then, they are making HUGE profits, even greater than before.

They know that most people depends on gas. If the price rises even more, people will just pay more, but they will pay, we have not much choices and they know it quite well. They don't care. They are ravaging Alberta (Canada) right now and a lot of of other countries as well. For example have a look at this document:

Shell, use your profits to clean up your mess.

And they don't care! Our own government will even let them go past its own policies concerning greenhouse gas emission reduction. What the fuck is wrong with us?

Here's another quote from a summary about the relationship between the oil companies, the OPEC and the war in Iraq:

Since the invasion of Iraq in 2003, profits have shot up for oil companies. In 2004, the major U.S. oil companies posted record or near record profits. In 2005 profits for the five largest oil companies increased to $113 billion. In February 2006, ConocoPhillips reported a doubling of its quarterly profits from the previous year, which itself had been a company record. Shell posted a record breaking $4.48 billion in fourth-quarter earnings—and in 2005, ExxonMobil reported the largest one-year operating profit of any corporation in U.S. history.

Taken from: 25 Censored news in the media (item #17)

Want to know what kind of profits they are making? Have a look over here:
Pigs at the pump

Now... you know why I'm angry. And that is just some part of it....

A tribute to her

It's really hot over here. Been biking a lot also but tonight I took a sport break for a good cause. Here's my photoshop-ed tribute to the marvelous lady that is Monica Bellucci. Again, I started from scratch from the same picture as the previous post. I watched a few tutorials on YouTube prior to that but I still had some basic experience with this wonderful software.

So without any more words, here's my precious... my preccccciousssssss... ok you get the point ;)

Ahhhh Monica

In this era of digital media and photo/video editing I decided to play around a little with some photos and here's what came out of it. Of course it's not perfect and it looks a little silly, but it was fun to make nonetheless. I love working on Monica.... ;)

So who would like to play in Monica's hair? Me!!! So there, I did it. One more thing to cross out from my life's TO DO list ;)


I think the hardest part in this is getting the lighting / mood correct for everything. For example the destination picture had some noise in it due to my digital camera while the other one didn't. Fortunatly, the main light sources in both picture were coming from approximatly the same direction, else it would have been a lot harder to adjust it. I know the final result isn't perfect at all but that's all I could do in under an hour :/

Here are the source pictures:



Frank and Monica Bellucci, the perfect couple if you ask me. Still waiting for her phone call....she's been very busy you know...

Mike Gravel for president!

Wow, I must say I'm impressed by this guy. I've watched some of the conferences / interview / debates he did and every single time he answers questions clearly and honestly. Now how is that for a change America? Aren't you all tired of the same old crap the Bush administration has been shoving up your a** ? This may be one great president if you decide to elect him. He's not like all the other democrats out there as he just doesn't seem to be supporting them anyway ;)

Have a look at the debate for the Democrats' presidential election:



This is just a sample of how outspoken he is, search for him on YouTube or on Google as well you won't be dissapointed. He should probably have his own political party, but then he wouldn't have any chances of being elected sadly.

Here's his website: Mike Gravel For President

Let's just hope he won't get shot before the elections ;)

Chicken

Yes I'm still alive and doing well.

I've been enjoying the weather a lot around here, doing sports and going outside mainly. Oh yes... ohhhhh yessssss... it is BIKE TIME(tm) !! Oh my god. I've been doing a lot of biking since the snow started to melt and really enjoying it. To celebrate this, I decided to play chicken against a car and lose... o_O... whaaaa?

Yeah, but it wasn't planned as such ;) What happened is that I was riding my bike with over excitement and confidence, jumping everywhere and speeding around everything and all of that juvenile stuff... when a big pile of snow appeared in front of me...it just popped right in front so I had to think fast! Looking to the left, all I saw was a big brick wall so I discarded this option immediately. Swift thinking saves lives. So I then looked to the right and saw that I could jump and land in the middle of the road in the wrong lane. That was it... my only option. A quick glance up the road ahead and I could see no cars coming, yet. So I went for it. Jumped as high and as far as I could and landed it perfectly like a pro. Only then I realized... they were coming at me! A pack of plastic and steel reinforced beats, mostly cars, were heading straight for me.

I could have ran like hell, but I did not. I could have stopped and prayed, but I did not. I looked at them right in their head lights, but to my surprise they didn't seem to even blink once. They just kept going. I was outnumbered and those things weren't a fair match I guess... so I quickly looked around and saw an escape route. My only option. I had to get back on the bike track as fast as I could. There was only one problem, I had to get over the sidewalk's thick border while attempting a 45 degrees jump going a nearly 10 or maybe even 12 miles an hour.

I got my front wheel to cooperate and jumped right on the sidewalk... unfortunately... the rear wheel didn't follow. It kept struggling between the road and the sidewalk. So it hit me: "Damn... I am going to fall". And so it happened. With the force of a cyclone I was thrown on the ground right in front of a couple walking by.

They just didn't understand what happened. They looked at me with their eyes wide open, they were speechless. How could he survive such a crash were they thinking...probably. As they saw me getting back on my bike they smiled, but it wasn't an ordinary smile. I was a smile saying something along the line of "what the f*** you moron you just crashed right in front of us but it was fun seeing you crash though, thanks for the entertainment".

So I kept going...but I hadn't rode nearly 20 feet that I realized my front tire was depressurized. I had a flat tire and was 15 or 20 km from home :)

Ah what a great day it was