Is it a "hallowed dream" or a "hollow dream" that the solution to the energy crisis in right around the Franken-corner?
http://www.otherpower.com/hamster.html Guess you noticed that-one is apropos for the season and another version of trick-or-treat, but just imagine a GM mod to skippy with about 400 ft-lbs of torque ;-) BTW, in one of the vagaries of converting fern-pronunciation into spelling, "Samhain" is pronounced as "sow-en"... it is the Celtic predecessor to you-know-what. Younger Vo's may not realize that not long ago, in the '50s-60s, there was real concern in the USA on a national level, that this night was being taken over by thugs and anarchists and might evolve into something really horrific. Many of this year's less-threatening neighborhood-kid participants will be dressed-up as a certain freakish character, which is a product of human inventiveness, fostered upon an evolutionary "medium." Which brings up the literary point that Mary Shelley's famous novel is probably the most misunderstood piece in all of fiction. Her scientist, Victor Frankenstein, claimed "benevolent" intentions; and she even subtitled her novel "The Modern Prometheus." Vic's biggest problem was arrogance, but that puts him in good company with 99% of all scientists, most of whom are able, these days, to thinly disguise it a little better than in the past. From there on, as far as Franky is concerned, Hollywood takes over... but now with genetic engineering, we may be poised to bring some life back into the idea of a useful manufactured life-form - not so much as a human replacement (not now, at least) but in simpler guise as an advanced energy source. According to Greek myth, Prometheus stole "fire" from the gods. As punishment, he was chained to a rock, where an eagle each day plucked at his liver. This says more about the sad state of Greek theology than about human arrogance. Haughty Prometheus sought fire for good reasons, however: human betterment - one must surmise, and that should not be at odds with any modern concept of ID. Anyway, the modern manifestation of this arrogant-scientist stealing-secrets is proceeding on many fronts, despite protests from those who think we should not tamper with life-forces. We already have options of harvesting either hydrogen or fuel-alcohols from genetically modified single-celled life. These fuels could be converted in a fuel cell for electricity. But why not dispense with the need for the fuel cell? We know many life forms can convert carbos directly into electric charge - isn't that the next Franken-step in the natural progression of playing-god - harvesting the charge directly rather than reforming carbos? Halloween actually has some of its origins in the Catholic Church attempting to co-opt a pagan holiday (if you can't beat'em, join 'em)- and now this "holiday" has evolved into a Franken-form of "All Saints Day." Celtic myth, in contrast, says that on Samhain the disembodied spirits of all those who had died throughout the preceding year, and failed to be reincarnated, would come back in search of living bodies to "possess". It was believed to be their only hope for the afterlife. The Celts believed all laws of space and time were suspended during this one interface in time, allowing the spirit world to intermingle with the living for a few hours at the end of harvest on Oct 31. This is an interesting starting point for a revised mythology. And since this Irish have always been able to tolerate eels as an energy (food) resource, it might be re-worked somehow into future avenue for bio-technology. Already genes from "Electrophorus electricus" (aka the electric eel) have been genetically modified with mutants and place in plants for certain purposes, not involving electricity per se. The protein kinases and acetylcholinesterase pathways which nature has perfected over billions of years in the electric eel and other species is an asset - even if we put them into another simpler life-form for the express purpose of creating electric charge - which is after all kind of the reverse of the way old Victor got his protoge motivated. Wouldn't it be nice to power the house and maybe the car with grass clipping put into a computer-controlled bio-reactor, and with nothing else to worry about. On a lighter note, I am clearly not an agent provocateur for the AAEEP, you know, the Association For The Advancement Of Electric Eel Power. What this is about is putting those modified genes into Alga or some-such (talk about tight-fitting genes) OK. Now that the enegy-problem has been solved ... what to provide the trick-or-treaters? Exhausted hamsters? Jones Credits: Yes hamsters are just one more instance of bio-engineering progress - following this bit of brilliant insight from a very odd newsgroup, by one zooby - who should be a frequent vo-poster: "Since the domestication of the hamster and similar creatures who demonstrate a proclivity for running in wheels that go nowhere and do nothing, mankind has dreamed of the day technology would evolve to the degree that this wasted energy could be tapped and turned into a useful source of power." Engineer DanF, staffmember of the Otherpower.com organization, has succeeded in isolating and overcoming all the final hurdles that have been standing in the way of utilization of this important power source, and created a means for his stalwart hamster, Skippy, to generate electricity. The primary problem has always been that hamsters don't turn their wheels at fast enough revolutions per minute to operate conventional alternators or generators. DanF's breakthrough was in the design of a special low-RPM alternator which overcomes the inherent slowness of the hamster by greatly increasing the number of North and South poles that pass the stationary coils per revolution. In this way Skippy has been enabled to generate current at a pressure of two volts! Skippy now effortlessly lights two red LEDs without breaking a sweat. Advanced tests have shown that he is able to light as many as six LEDs with no apparent trouble. ---------------- Now just wait (weight) untill we get skippy tipping the scales at a couple of tons - tha's what I'm talkin' about... I think that the transition to GM hamster power is a forgone conclusion. OTOH in the event of some oversight, will power outages sweep the nations if freed hamsters revert to their savage nature and run wild in the streets, attacking the ankles of their former taskmasters. Not since Thomas Edison's concerted attack on Alternating Current, when he falsely claimed that with AC everyone would be getting electrocuted, have I seen such dastardly propaganda. The facts: Hamsters are noramlly cute and furry and friendly. There is just no downside to hamster power except GM, so forget the mods and go natural... Coming soon: Patent #4,699,216.7 Electric Hamster Prod for increased power output from your Hamster Generator System. Second Law arguments may apply in some states. OTOH...few will use the hamster prod once they realise it takes more energy to operate once than you can get out of a hamster in a week, and electric eels can do it for a fraction of the carbos. Sure, there's alot of power available from the average electric eel, but they're not cute, and you can't pet them. They require expensive, massive water-filled containment facilities. Electric eel power will just lead to more big, price-controling, centralized utility companies since people won't want to keep them in their homes. With electric eel power, every side is a down side unless we removed the genes... and the is tantamount to porno - no? Enuf already, I got the seasonal Franken-laugh (or gimace) in. Let's get back to more normal irrationality for a while.
