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  • Posted by Notperfect 10 years, 11 months ago
    They will stop at nothing, but that spirit I have known still permeates in people who defy what these devils have become. I have read and listened to many here in the Gulch and know it will take more than BHO, Boehnor, Reid, Pelosi, McCain and their Jackboot thugs to destroy that spirit. This spirit is what brought many to this country to seek freedom from the likes of those few in D.C. Their ignorance is embarrassing and Mrs. Engelbrecht is true to that spirit and so are WE. I am John Galt!
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  • Posted by Robbie53024 10 years, 11 months ago in reply to this comment.
    That was probably it.

    You really need to get clued in on my sense of humor. The key is the winky emoticon.
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  • Posted by $ jbrenner 10 years, 11 months ago in reply to this comment.
    I only read about that in AS.
    I haven't heard of something like that in real life.
    That's really out of my league. I am not John Galt.
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  • Posted by Robbie53024 10 years, 11 months ago in reply to this comment.
    Somewhere I heard about a power generator that pulls static electricity out of the atmosphere. Maybe you can check into that? ;-)
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  • Posted by $ jbrenner 10 years, 11 months ago in reply to this comment.
    Glad to help. I have been on just about every side of the energy business. I will adapt such energy conversion based on one or more sources as needed. I'll handle the future energy supply needs for Atlantis or its citizenry, if no one superior to me puts me out of business.
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  • Posted by Herb7734 10 years, 11 months ago in reply to this comment.
    That takes care of that. Thanks JB for a really fascinating look into a situation I never contemplated before.
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  • Posted by $ jbrenner 10 years, 11 months ago in reply to this comment.
    If you are in need of power on that permanent a basis, I will have founded a real Atlantis, and you will pay me handsomely for my power services.
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  • Posted by $ jbrenner 10 years, 11 months ago in reply to this comment.
    If you are looking at that temporary a power source, even I would look at a gas generator.
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  • Posted by Herb7734 10 years, 11 months ago in reply to this comment.
    Most interesting. I never stop learning. Many parallels to the experiences encountered by myself and others.
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  • Posted by Robbie53024 10 years, 11 months ago in reply to this comment.
    I wouldn't position it as a substitute, but rather as an emergency alternate. I suffered through the great east coast blackout back in '03. Lived just on the fringe of the developed area and the farming area NW of Detroit. There were quite a few farmers who could have used an alternate source of power - most were totally dependent on the grid, not even backup diesel generators. And in longer length outages, even diesel would get to be in short supply.
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  • Posted by $ jbrenner 10 years, 11 months ago in reply to this comment.
    Actually I start teaching a Petroleum Refining class next week, but I will take my fair share of naps. The initial costs are not outrageous, but not trivial either. For industrial users, our technology was a break even business, unless you made chemicals from the waste.
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  • Posted by $ jbrenner 10 years, 11 months ago in reply to this comment.
    That being said, I think we could restart this to sell only to fellow Atlantis citizens. Like Galt's motor, this technology will fade into oblivion as far as the outside world is considered. But I think that we could do this for the right price for those who would appreciate it, much like those who smoked the cigarettes with the sign of the dollar. The reason that I say "I think we could do this" is that I haven't kept in touch with Albin Czernichowski recently. He's 78 now, if still alive. Albin invented GlidArc (like Mr. Fusion). To me, he is John Galt.
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  • Posted by $ jbrenner 10 years, 11 months ago in reply to this comment.
    1) The profitability of converting a variety of plant and animal wastes to energy or fuel is zero (not negative, but not positive either). Using something like Mr. Fusion to convert wastes into chemicals could make 20% profit.

    2) When Obama came into power and biofuels lost favor, clients with whom I was willing to trade my hard work for their absolving themselves of environmentalist guilt left for solar along with Obama.

    3) We had put two years of work into getting to where we needed to be technically, financially, and from a mass production standpoint. When Obama got elected, we just couldn't financially continue, so we sold our business and shrugged. All of us had recently read AS.

    4) The profitability of the company was highly sensitive to natural gas prices. When natural gas drops below $5, my company couldn't make money. It dropped down to just above $3. Now it's at around $4.50, but hasn't been above $5 since BHO took office. North Dakota helped put us out of business. More power to them!
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  • Posted by Herb7734 10 years, 11 months ago in reply to this comment.
    Seems a shame that a product such as you describe is not on the market revolutionizing the energy situation. I hold a few patents, but technology moved so fast that they were obsolete a few years after the patents were issued. I'm just not a tech guy.
    I'm feeling a little dumbfounded as to why you didn't continue with your invention. You probably have a dozen reasons why, just as I have a dozen reasons as to why I closed my Camera shop/photo studio.. In my case, I went into a new and more satisfying venture. Then, I finally got too old and infirm to keep going. as a result, I go on the internet and bitch up a storm, or amuse and elucidate myself and others.
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  • Posted by Robbie53024 10 years, 11 months ago in reply to this comment.
    If I can have an alternate power supply based on waste products from things that I would just send to the garbage heap, then it would seem to be a win-win. Of course, would depend on the initial costs.

    Besides, what else do you have to do over the summer - 'cept nap?
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  • Posted by Robbie53024 10 years, 11 months ago
    And they say that Nixon abused the powers of the presidency. He was a piker compared to this crew.
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  • Posted by Robbie53024 10 years, 11 months ago in reply to this comment.
    Seemingly it doesn't even have to be the dead or move-outs, as the study by NC showed, tens of thousands have registered in multiple states - that's not merely people moving and not getting old registrations expunged, that's intentional registration in multiple districts.
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  • Posted by $ jbrenner 10 years, 11 months ago in reply to this comment.
    Rich or Herb, if you would like a Mr. Fusion plus what goes around that, for the right price, I am sure that I can arrange that. Look for the word "GlidArc" in this thread to find out more details.
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  • Posted by $ jbrenner 10 years, 11 months ago in reply to this comment.
    Actually I do have something similar to the universal motor! One of my former business partners designed something he called GlidArc that is very much like the Mr. Fusion from the Back to the Future movies. We can feed in just about any hydrocarbon waste and convert it into a mixture of CO and H2 called syngas, from which we can make fuels, energy, or preferably chemicals. I made the feed prepurification system and was in charge of the syngas to something else part of the company. When it became apparent that BHO would become president and that solar would replace biofuels as the environmentally-friendly energy of choice, we sold our company (Florida Syngas) to Topline Energy Systems and shrugged. I went back to my Florida Tech professor duties only instead of doing that plus having a company.
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