Rockwall Texas

 The "rock wall" found there has raised a question: Is it natural or man-made? The answer doesn't seem quite satisfying.

Why not? Because it appears to be along straight lines that line up with the seasons. Strong indication of man-made, but the results say natural. Not quite satisfied with that answer...

What Elon Musk Just Said "Changes Everything"

Brief comment:

It is a rather over-used phrase there. Does it really "change everything"? You decide!

Something of value, which can be overlooked

 The system will tell you that you cannot do this. You may be told that you cannot, or should not. If you do it, and others find out; they will try to take it from you. But it isn't gold. It's better than gold. It's freedom.

What the hay?

 

  Here's a repost from the main blog.

  I'd forgotten about it until I watched several videos today.

  Here's that video that reminded me of a series of posts written over a decade ago.

  The point is that people took what was a nuisance and turned it into a resource.

  Perhaps a lesson can be learned from it, eh?

The original post follows:


This truck, which was hauling hay, gave me an idea for a post. It made me wonder if raising hay for biochar and methanol would be worth it.

The process would be as follows:  after collecting the hay, pyrolyze it into syngas and biochar.  Using the syngas, synthesize methanol.  Ship the methanol to the final end purchasing site where it is reformed into hydrogen for fuel cells.

The biochar would be used for improving soils and could also serve as a carbon sink.  Since the entire process doesn't use fossil fuels, it is actually carbon negative.  Some of the carbon goes into the soil, the rest is recycled back into the atmosphere where it can be harvested again some day.

You would obtain the necessary platinum from mining asteroids. If the price of platinum can be brought down low enough, the final end result could be a cleaner source of energy at a reduced cost. How could you lose?

How much fuel could you get out of this much hay?

Update:

Only three posts in this series, but I wrote extensively on the subject of using seaweed in the Dead Zone of Gulf of Mexico to clean it up and make biofuel out of it.

Part 2
Part 3

Many of the posts for this could be found in the category labels that are at the end of this post or others in the first two parts may give leads to finding more reading.

What can you get from watching this video?

 

  Do you get a headache?   Do you get bored?   Or do you become fascinated???

  To me, this is fascinating.

  In what way?

  Something that he said reminded me of a concept in physics called "interference"...  In physics, waves can interfere with each other, thus canceling each other out. Now if I am right, his demonstration of his toothless gears is also demonstrating that basic concept in physics.

  Wave interference is the physics concept that was used in a theory about why cold fusion works.  Hence, in a Bose-Einstein condensate, the wave interference results not in gamma rays, but in infra-red waves.  In other words, heat.

  The next problem with that theory is with temperature. A Bose-Einstein condensate occurs a near absolute zero.  How could that be possible at temperatures near room temperature?

  There was an explanation for that too.  Don't recall it right now, though.  It would take some further research.

  All of this is fascinating because of what is possible, but it gets overlooked because it doesn't fit preconceived attitudes.  In other words, "there is no one more blind, than one who refuses to see".

  Fascinating, yes? No?

  What do you think?  Or would you rather not think, and just check your brain in at the door?

Thorium molten salt reactor

 

Real product, real solution, right now.

The inventors of this do not want to sell the reactors. They want to see the heat energy they get from it.

The vision there is to make chemicals with it.  Like ammonia.

The way ammonia is made now requires so-called fossil fuels.

Didn't I once write about nuclear ammonia?

Making activated carbon

2/18/26:

This is a great blog. It really is. It is very un-appreciated, I can tell you that.

If I put all these ideas, and condensed them into a a single plan, then that would really be something.

But would people actually do any of that?

It doesn't matter. I could make money, but it wouldn't work because people wouldn't do any of it.

People want their free lunches.

That's the problem.

Life has gotten so easy that these people think that that's the only way for everything to be, and when it isn't, they get upset.

If it's worthwhile, it probably isn't going to be easy.

People need to be motivated.

They're not. But evil never needs motivation. That's another problem.



3/27/19:

From charcoal.

This could be useful in water purification.

What about it-- How SpaceX will build their moonbase

 Moon base Alpha, eh? Did SpaceX rip off this name, or is it an original name?

Small trencher for geothermal concept?

2/17/26:

To build a trench now would be well beyond me. Back in 2019, maybe I could've done it.

I'm afraid that ship has sailed.  But I still like the idea.

8/13/19:

Comment:

This might be somewhat useful, but I am not so sure.  It only goes down to 18".

Off-grid post, 4-9-22

2/16/26:

Things have changed. Not much work on this lately, nor is there likely to be. It's the new normal.

4/9/22:

 

There are a lot of orders that are coming in for this latest step in the solar panel project. While I am waiting on those, the part that holds it up to the sun has got to be built. So that is what I am doing now.

Evidently, the carpentry skills still have a lot to be desired. I think I know what it takes to get a structure to stand up in the wind around here. Let us hope so, anyway. The structure in place has stood up for several years. There have been cases when I built something that did not hold up for long.

Part of that is that I go pretty cheap. Only what gets me by. To do this in a better way would take more materials, more machinery, and so forth. All of that costs money. Another reason is that I am not that careful. It usually looks like a "Mr. Haney" job ( Green Acres character on sixties sitcom).

At least I am not selling my services to anybody. I don't think they'd be happy. Somebody might not be happy, anyway. Number One would say that it looks "low rent". Okay. I can accept that. I'm not building it to sell it. Everything he makes is made for profit. Not me.

One of these days, he may tell me to take it down because it is so ugly. So far he has put up with it. He is very patient in that way. lol.

One thing that would not be good is if this thing fell down in the wind. So I need to get at least that much right.

I'm hoping to get this much done before the panels arrive. But if not, it is no big deal. It was a long time before I got this one up. Two more is going to give three times the number of watt hours per day potential. Plenty enough to run my swamper. There may be enough to try cooking with my egg cooker. It only takes 300 watts to operate. Given my way, I might be able to cook a lot of things with this little gizmo.

I really do "small-ball" everything. It is like the 1979-80 Houston Astros Baseball team. They won with "small ball". That team probably holds the record for the fewest home runs for a team in Major League history. Small ball is okay, you can win with that. I hope to. I like winning. I hate losing. It may seem otherwise, but I don't like to lose.