Electrosensitivity is rapidly becoming one of the most common non-existent conditions as more and more people find out about it and realize it offers an excuse to be a victim and a drama queen without actually having to deal with any real persecution or hardship. In fairness, there are certainly some people who do honestly believe that they are made sick by technology. One way to tackle this might be to teach these folks about the inverse square law and explain the difference between a low frequency electromagnetic field and a microwave field, but more and more they are demanding that cell towers be shut down and the world abandon technology for their perceived benefit.

Well, I’d like to propose an alternative for these people. What if there were a place in the world where there actually were standards for RF emissions that were strictly enforced. Where cell phone towers were banned no FM radio or broadcast television stations were transmitted for miles. A place where the only radio broadcasts allowed were from a part time low-power radio AM station. Here, in this dream of the electro sensitive and nightmare for everyone in a modern society, mountain ranges block external radio signals, the power grid is heavily grounded and inspected for interference. Cordless telephones and residential wifi are allowed only at the lowest power and enforcers occasionally drive around with spectrum analyzers in case a signal gets a bit too strong.

Actually there is such a place and believe it or not it’s located right in the United States. The area is known as the “National Radio Quiet Zone.” It surrounds the Greenbank Radio Observatory and since the 1950’s has had some of the most restrictive RF emissions regulations in the world. It was chosen partially because the area is sparsely populated. The enforcement gets more and more extreme as one approaches the big radiotelescopes at Greenbank. In the immediate area around the telescope even automobiles are limited to diesel powered vehicles, which do not have the potential for interference that can come from a spark plug ignition system.

The area is also home to the Sugargrove Radio Intelligence Facility, which once was one of the major hubs of the NSA’s global monitoring system. Today it is less important as fewer point to point communications are carried by satellite than in the past and submarine cables have become the method of choice for voice and internet traffic. (That doesn’t really matter though because these days the NSA can just tap the cables by requesting an illegal wiretap under the Patriot Act and the phone companies comply.)

Here’s a little video. If you have ES, I suggest you move there and stop bothering everyone. Although I’m sure anyone with ES will find something else to complain about even in the NRQZ.

Even decades later, there are few things more spectacular than watching footage from the heyday of space exploration. Few things can illustrate the capabilities of engineering and science like watching men walk, explore and play a round of golf on the surface of the moon. The first spacewalks and the days of Gemini and Mercury are still as exciting as when they first were done and few things capture the awe of controlled energy like the launch of the mighty Saturn-5.

For most of us, these images have been limited to standard television broadcasts, with 480 interlaced lines of resolution. As awe inspiring as standard definition video of space is, the original footage was of much higher quality. Many of the films were taken on 35mm stock and some on 70mm stock. Films taken in space or on the moon were usually super-16 or occasionally 35mm. The quality of the film stock used by NASA to document space exploration was of the highest quality, with the finest grains avaliable and high quality emulsions. These original films present the details of space, the moon and liftoff at qualities any director would be proud of.

But they have always been limited, locked away in film vaults and generally scanned only to television quality. Until now. Begining June 8, a six part documentary will air on the Discovery HD channel which will be the first time many films of space exploration will be presented in their full high definition glory. If you have Discovery HD and an HDTV, I’d suggest watching it - I know I will be!

Read the rest of this entry »

Recently, the eco-stupid group Greenpeace has been making a big stink about aviation and the Co2 produced by it. They’ve been ‘peacefully’ protesting the expansion of London Heathrow Airport, by jumping the fence and making a scene on top of some aircraft. Considering that Heathrow is one of the biggest hubs in the European airline system, and that it is already prone to delays, I’m sure there are plenty of passengers who were feeling less than “peaceful” when a major security breach like this idiotic stunt occurred and likely left a lot of passengers stranded or delayed.

NOTE TO GREENPEACE:
Being arrested on an aircraft for violating a secure area, shutting down an airport and causing aggravation to thousands or more is not ‘noble’ or ‘honorable’ or ‘brave.’ The fact that people were arrested does not make them freedom fighters, it makes them attention-deprived idiots. This is not 1949 India. You’re NOT Gandhi. You are NOT Martin Luther King. You’re NOT Mandela. This is not ‘Civil Disobedience’ this is just idiotic. It’s insulting to even insinuate that the actions of Greenpeace remotely compare to those who actually have fought for justice.

Protesting Aviation CO2 is IDIOTIC:

Read the rest of this entry »

It’s certainly possible to convert an existing gasoline powered car to an electric car, although considering that it involves replacing the entire fuel and engine system, it might not really be worth the cost and effort. Hybrid cars, especially plug-in hybrids are a good transitional step toward electric vehicles, but what about all the cars already on the road? Is it necessary to give up your beloved gasoline powered wheels to get the effeciency of a hybrid gasoline/electric vehicle?

Read the rest of this entry »

“Energy therapy” encompasses a wide range of quackery based on the idea that there is some kind of ‘energy’ that flows through our bodies and needs to be rebalanced or adjusted from time to time. Some forms include “Reiki Therapy,” “Thouch Therapy,” “Acupressure” and others. These practices basically claim that there are energy imbalances in our bodies and that bad energy collects in certain areas or obstructions and imbalances occur in parts of the body. Using touch and massage these fields and energies can be rebalanced.

(Hogwash, of course)

Here are some videos:

Read the rest of this entry »

My jaw dropped when I saw a question posed to readers of a Kansas newspaper.   “Would you prefer that the Legislature pursue nuclear or coal power in Kansas?”

My god!  Someone in the media finally is coming to realize that those are the options and that wind, solar PV, solar thermal and magical stones from the Lost Civilization of Atlantis are not ever going to pan out as methods of producing grid electricity.

Four of the five people on the street asked chose nuclear over coal.   And of course, the comments on the story were mostly pretty uninformed.

A few of them:

canyon_wren (Anonymous) says…

That’s like asking whether you would rather have cancer or AIDS.

…..

geppetto (Anonymous) says…

It is a lie that we need that much energy! But that’s not the questions. I would support cleaner burning Coal. I would stay away from anything that has a half-life of at least 7,000 years.
I don’t want the next war to be against giant roaches!

……

TopJayhawk (Anonymous) says…

I gotta go coal. I just don’t really trust the whole nuke thing… I think leaving all the radioactive waste for later is worse than leaving our kids with a deficit, or dirty air.
Not that I like coal either. There just isn’t any free ride when it comes to energy.

I sometimes get some strange emails in regards to this site. I recently got one which stated the following:

I don’t know if you know much about this and I’m sure you’ll probably say I’m crazy, but the military really did test out UFO shaped aircraft a long time ago after WWII and they were secret but now there is proof it happened. They said it was just a small thing and a dead end, but nobody is sure because this was the same time that UFO’s were seen and they have not stopped being seen since.

Well, I don’t know if the author is crazy or not, but yes, the military did test out saucer shapes for aircraft at one time. The theory was that a round aircraft would be able to vector thrust from a central engine in any direction and thus have extreme maneuverability. It was also thought that the platform might be a good candidate for a vertical take off aircraft.

The time period was the 1950’s and with the Cold War raging and aircraft technology making huge advances, the military was willing to try new concepts to see how they’d work out. The jet engine, swept wings and delta wings were all less than 20 years old at the time so it’s easy to see how such a drastic design might be considered. What was determined was about what you might expect: disc shaped aircraft have no advantages and are inherently unstable and difficult to control. They’re just not a very good shape to make an aircraft. There’s only one circumstance where they will fly well, and that’s when they’re spinning like a Frisbee. Wind tunnel and small scale tests confirmed this.

Only one full sized aircraft (if you can call it that) was ever designed. The Avrocar was created by the Canadaian Avro Aircraft Ltd. The intended customer was the US and Canadian Air Forces. Two prototypes were built. It was initially given an engine which was underpowered for full take off an maneuverability. Because it had a relatively small ducted fan in the center, the engine needed to be extremely powerful and a full thrust engine was not initially avaliable. Still, the engine fitted was enough to determine the vehicle was capable of getting off the ground. However, when it rose to above a few feet of ground effect, it wobbled horribly and was nearly impossible to control.

Plans for a full fledged aircraft were scrapped and the Avrocar was next experimented with as a hovercraft-like vehicle. However, lacking the skirt of other hovercraft designs, it turned out to be horribly inefficient, loud and it blew stuff in every direction. The project, which was never a very big one to begin with, was discontinued in 1960.

And with that, the military reaffirmed with they knew all along: Round aircraft have many problems and no redeeming qualities.

Or to be more accurate “people who claim to be psychics”…

Yes, it seems the UK is just not a good place to make a living by telling people you can bring them good fortune, tell them the future or magically contact the dead and give them information from the beyond. The reason is what has been called “The New Psychic Law,” which is actually a new law, but rather the repeal of a law.

Back in 1951, an act was passed called the “Fraudulent Mediums Act.” The act targeted anyone who claimed to be a psychic or a medium and then used trickery in order to defraud the public or make themselves appear to have powers that they did not. There were only a handful of successful prosecutions under the law because the requirements were pretty strict. It was required that the self-proclaimed psychic provided a service for money and claimed to be a psychic, medium or otherwise but was in fact not really a psychic and was using trickery to make it appear that the individual were a psychic or medium.

Read the rest of this entry »

Okay, I’ve finally had it. I think that this has got to be the dumbest idea I have ever seen for a ‘natural’ power source. It’s a vehicle which is basically a hybrid/electric car with a small onboard battery system to power the vehicle’s electrical system and an electric motor attached in parallel to the drive shaft with a one-horse-power drive train that can operate to charge the electrical system or with a mechanical linkage to drive the car directly.

Notice, I did not say “one horsepower” because it’s not a one horsepower engine. Rather, it’s…. well… you just have to see the picture to understand.

Read the rest of this entry »

If there is one thing that has the honest potential to make me stop with this blog it’s the grief I get over spelling and the fact that I’ve gotten some very personal and extremely harsh comments about my spelling in the past.  It seems that it may actually be hurting the causes this site was intended to further by portraying them as being supported by bumbling idiots.

I was very dismayed to get the following e-mail today:

Subject:  Cancelling my subscription; too many spelling mistakes

I don’t think I’m going to browse Depleted Cranium anymore, but I thought you should know it’s because I can’t respect the opinion of someone who publishes so many spelling mistakes.

Good luck with the denouncing!

Unfortunately I’ve gone over this before.   First, I DO NOT have bad grammar and please don’t tell me I do, because I don’t and I am a perfect speaker and winner of several awards for speech and debate in high school.  Also I did extremely well on the written part of the SAT and we’ll leave it at that.   As far as spelling, however, this is not my strong point.   To be honest, I think it might have to do with simply never wiring my brain for spelling correctly due to undiagnosed dyslexia in my early learning career.  I’ve since grown out of it, thankyouverymuch.  (My typing is less than perfect as well.)

Now here’s the problem with proofreading and spell checking:

Read the rest of this entry »