JonStarbuck.co.uk

[Article stolen directly from Bob Park's Whats New and rewritten a fair bit too]

Dec 2009 - From San Francisco to Maine there is a campaign to require cancer warning labels on cell phones… Newsflash: Fact, cell/mobile phone radiation doesn’t cause cancer!

Cancer causing agents break chemical bonds, they damage DNA creating mutant strands of DNA which lead to cancer.

Microwave photons emitted by cell/mobile telephones do not have anything like enough energy to break chemical bonds, they would each need to be millions of times more energetic to come close. This fact is not open to debate, it is a fact.

In 1989, Paul Brodeur, a staff writer for the New Yorker newspaper and not a scientist, claimed in a series of sensational articles that electromagnetic-fields from power lines cause childhood leukemia. Electromagnetic-fields from power lines are many magnitudes less energetic than cell/mobile phone energy, really very puny and a very-very long way from being energetic enough to break chemical bonds, damage DNA and cause cancer.

Brodeur, however, is no scientist, he understood none of this. When virtually every scientist in the world agreed that it was impossible and he was wrong Brodeur took their unanimity as proof of a massive cover-up.

Other anti-science know-nothings followed Brodeur’s lead, shifting their attack from electromagnetic-fields from power lines to cell/mobile phone radiation.

Cell/mobile phones have since spread to almost the entire population and yet there is no corresponding increase in brain cancer, none whatsoever.

Case closed.

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1. CELL PHONES: KEEP YOUR HEAD OUT OF THE MICROWAVE OVEN.
Several readers admonished me for my unqualified assertion in last week’s
WN that “cell phone radiation does not cause cancer.” They point out that
microwave photons may not eject photoelectrons but they do excite molecular
vibrations (heat). That’s why your microwave oven has a safety interlock on
the door. So does the miniscule energy deposited by the cell phone cook
your brain? No! Rapid blood circulation keeps the brain temperature at
that of the blood, which is regulated by the hypothalamus at the base of
the brain. Thermoregulation is a high priority for the brain. That’s why
marathoners run hard for more than two hours, often hatless beneath a
midday summer sun, yet their rise in blood temperature is about that of a
mild fever.

2. WARNINGS: MAINE LEGISLATURE AGREES TO TAKE UP CELL-PHONE WARNING LABELS.
State Rep. Andrea Boland (D) is pushing for the state to become the first
to require cell phone makers to put warnings on packaging like those on
cigarettes. The bill was filed in October but is on a fast track. It’s
considered “emergency legislation” because there are 900,000 cell phones in
the state. Rep. Bolden’s concern was based on a 2006 study in Sweden
showing a correlation between brain tumors and heavy cell phone use.
However, a Danish study that came out in December found that the rates of
brain cancer in Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden had remained stable
from 1974 two 2003. Such studies are possible in Scandinavia where record-
keeping is an obsession. If the effect is real, the frequency of brain
cancers should have turned up sharply in 2000. An estimated 277 million
people use cell phones in the US. I doubt if such a label would reduce that
number significantly. Scientific truth becomes something to be negotiated.

3. THERE’S HOPE: IF YOU’RE A DEMENTED MOUSE WITH A CELL PHONE.
A study by the Florida Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center found that cell
phone radiation protected the memories of mice genetically altered to get
Alzheimer’s disease. The study was led by Prof. Gary Arendash who
previously found that coffee could protect against Alzheimer’s. Hmm, I
can’t remember if I’ve had my Coffee. If exposure to microwaves is started
when the Alzheimer’s mice are young adults, before signs of memory
impairment are apparent, their cognitive ability is protected. The mice had
been genetically altered to develop beta-amyloid plaques characteristic of
Alzheimer’s as they aged.

I have been blogging about HHO for years now. One of the tools I use to try to explain to people that this “technology” does not work is that if it did work then it would have been investigated by a university somewhere, however because any scientist with any idea of their subject can see that this “technology” is preposterous claptrap, that it cannot possibly work, no scientist or university will touch it.

In all the years I have been following “hydrogen-hybrids” I have never seen any proof whatsoever that it works… and the reason that I have never seen any proof is because it does not work.

That is until now… Read the rest of this entry »

Follow the instructions in this book and run a very serous risk of being poisoned, blinded, burned and even killed!

I loved Joshua Tickell’s book “From the Fryer to the Fuel Tank”, indeed back in about 2000 it it not an exaggeration to say that it did nothing short of change my life.

However as time has passed research has been done and methods perfected which make Joshua’s book extraordinarily dated. Even though Joshua has had several opportunities the rework the book it still contains, among other things, plans for a DIY biodiesel processor which expose the user a very serous risk of being poisoned, blinded, burned and even killed!

It is time From the Fryer to the Fuel Tank was either rewritten or removed from sale, it is dangerous!

Back in 2007 I and my friend Gavin set out to write an up to date book on running diesel engines on biofuels, biodiesel and vegetable oil.

The giant publishing house McGraw -Hill liked our pitch and bought our book. Run Your Diesel Vehicle on Biofuels was published in October 2008.

I am very proud of our book, it was an enormous undertaking and we both worked very hard to make it the best, most complete, most accurate, friendly and readable book on DIY biofuels, biodiesel and SWO on the market.

Buy this book, it is much better, much more accurate and much more up to date.

Nevertheless one year on our book is not selling half as well as Joshua’s one. Despite it being ten-years-old and ten-years-out-of-date, people still seem to prefer to buy Joshua’s book…. with something like ten-times as many people buying his book on Amazon.com… over ours.

If you are one of the folks who has bought a copy of my book then thank you! We would appreciate you taking the time to review it for us… preferably favourably, but not necessarily… even just a few lines is going to be very helpful.

Either send the review directly to us, or go on line and review it at www.amazon.co.uk or www.amazon.com (depending on whether you are a US or UK coustomer, they don’t seem able to integrate these things) or at one of the thousands of other places you could review a book on diesel engines and biofuels.

Search the Bolton Evening News for Hydrocharger and you will find several articles parroting the virtues of this company… a company who are known to be selling a product that does not work. It would seem in the desperate fight to fill column-inches reporters at the paper have totally failed to investigate any of the outrageous claims made by this company and just printed their lies verbatim.

Samantha and Neil Prendergast of Hydrocharger are also responsible for WaterMotive Ltd and Water4GasUK and Tranztec UK, three more UK based HHO scams. Neil and Sam Prendergast were also the founders of “Water Fuel Expert“, an old USA based HHO scam. I wonder if there are any more I have missed?

Of course I have pointed this out to the Bolton Evening News, I have sent them several emails and made a couple of phone calls, I have even had assurances from some that my “allegations” were “being investigated”. But months later the four articles are there on line for anyone to read.

And, most mind-numbing of all, is Hydrocharger’s nomination for the award of “Start-up Business of the Year”!! See Bolton and Bury Business Awards and Business Bolton for more on this scary prospect.

I can only assume that either The Bolton Evening News are in on the scam, which I doubt, or they are spineless and can’t admit they are wrong and are hoping I will go away or shut up and stop pointing out how dumb they are being.

The four offending articles are:

• Fuel saver is way ahead
• Couple’s hopes for fuel-saver
• This year’s finalists
• Trade mission bids to foster links with India

James Higgins, Assistant Editor, assured me he was looking into the matter, as did Wes Wright. Nevertheless the articles are still on the paper’s website and Hydrocharger are still listed as being short-listed as possible winners for “Start-up Business of the Year”.

Does failing to act, given the information I have supplied, make these people complicit in the scam? I’m not sure.

James Higgins said:

We will not be removing anything from our website until we have proof to the contrary of what the people behind Hydrocharger claim. As you can probably imagine, we need to research this issue properly. We cannot simply take claims made in a couple odd internet articles to be gospel. That woudl be bad journalism.

… which is retarded to say the least! They printed several articles based on no proof whatsoever, having done no research, and are suggesting that they won’t remove the articles until they see proof to say that the claims are wrong (that would be science backwards). What is worse journalism; printing rubbish without checking your facts or refusing to remove it when it is pointed out to you?

Other people contacted are Ian Savage ian.savage@theboltonnews.co.uk and Andrew Mosley amosley@theboltonnews.co.uk .

Some toast yesterday

[For immediate release - 29th November 2009]

A new Better Butter has been developed by Jon Starbuck, a British inventor, published author and entrepreneur.

Jon claims that this new Better Butter, when applied to toast, improves the toast’s “fill factor” by up to 10% (when compared to ordinary butter on toast) and yet contains no perceivable extra calories.

“This helps bridge the hunger gap”, said Mr. Starbuck, “between late-morning and lunch while eating 10% less breakfast”.

Read the rest of this entry »

UKC endorse, award and invest in pseudo-science!
The University of Kent at Canterbury (my old university where I studies Physics for four years) and a whole load of Kent local government and other public bodies have been taken in by some pseudo-science so completely that they have endorsed it, awarded it £20,000 of public money and invested in the company!!

I can’t believe it, but it is true… and so depressing as well…

Oil-drum.co.uk / save-fuel.co.uk won the “Kent Innovation Challenge 2008” despite their being no proof whatsoever that the product they sell works (in fact it cannot work).

Oil Drum Limited were asked to give a two minute presentation and were the grilled by a Dragon’s Den style panel who were, I presume, looking for a product which was green, saved carbon, was innovative, used the phrase “renewable energy” in the presentation… Oil Drum Limited may have ticked all the boxes the panel were looking for but it would have been nice if they had thought to check if the product actually worked while they were at it…

Here is the link to an article from the UKC Media team. You can also find out loads more about the prize, where the money came from, who the judges were and so on from the video on the Sittingbourne Enterprise Hub website, the £20,000 prize money came from the South East England Development Agency (SEEDA) (so it is public, taxpayer’s, money). Read the rest of this entry »

Samantha and Neil Prendergast of Hydrocharger are also responsible for WaterMotive Ltd and Water4GasUK and Tranztec UK, three more UK based HHO scams. Neil and Sam Prendergast were also the founders of “Water Fuel Expert“, an old USA based HHO scam. I wonder if there are any more I have missed? Read the rest of this entry »

The ADE651, it can spot bombs or narcotics or people or heartbeats or… whatever else you are looking for… even things you are not looking for… through brick walls… from aeroplanes… up to a kilometre away…  honest!

The device contains no power source whatsoever, it is just a technical looking divining rod. Apparently, to work properly, it relies entirely on the operator being calm and well rested and well trained, then the hand held telescopic antenna will swivel round and point at whatever you are looking for, and even some things you are not.

Does this sound like nonsense to you? Of course it is nonsense!

Unfortunately, like so many scams, the device has an army of “true believes”; people who, for one reason or another, are so invested in the product that logic and reason don’t apply, their belief is based entirely on faith and/or anecdotal evidence.  These people are not necessarily the uneducated or the desperate, in fact they can even be the same people who have control of millions of dollars of a countries’ military spending…

… and…the Iraqi military has just spent at least $24 million on fifteen-hundred of these!

From here this sounds quite funny, but if I were relying on these devices to keep me from terrorist attack I’d probably not be laughing.

What ATSC's web site looked like before they took it off line (image from: whois.domaintools.com)

The product: http://www.ade651.com/ade651in.html

This web-site claims that the “exclusive distributor” is Kaplaz Security Professionals LTD of Prosec Building, Serrail Street, Baabda, Lebanon
www.prosec.com

However the New York Times says the following company sold them to Iraq:

The suppler: ATSC-Ltd (site permanently unavailable).
Registered to: ATSC LTD, Jim McCormick.
Phone: +44-2071930282 (they never answer their phone)
Address: Dairy House Yard, Cary Road, Sparkford, Yeovil, BA22 7LH

This address looks like a private house opposite a farm, but Google Maps is a bit confused as it also says the Haynes International Motor Museum. Whatever is there it is not ATSC, it is either an old address or completely bogus.

More info on the device:

From the New York Times:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/04/world/middleeast/04sensors.html

And Gizmo.com
http://gizmodo.com/5396888/the-bomb+sniffing-gadget-thats-definitely-not-saving-iraq

http://sniffexquestions.blogspot.com/

http://atscllc.en.ecplaza.net/

http://www.skeptics.org.uk/forum/showthread.php?p=47058

Another Joseph W. Newman style scam: http://www.magnets4energy.com/ has appeared, there is a new one just about every month. Read the rest of this entry »

My “twin” sister (she is not really my sister but we are both the same age, to the day) is about to have a baby and I’m dead excited. She is due any day now, on a full-moon. Apparently having a baby on a full moon if very common, extra staff are drafted in to maternity wards, just ask any baby-related professional, babies are born more frequently on a full moon.

“Nonsense!” is my immediate gut response… however, partly because I am a pedant but mainly because I am actually very intrigued by the idea, I have looked into the full-moon-baby-boom phenomenon.

You see, while I don’t buy the moon’s gravitational pull on the baby/mother idea one bit, women’s menstrual cycle cycles every month and so does the moon, so while there may not be a relationship, maybe there is something interesting in it.  After all,  it is a common idea actually held by many health professionals, midwives and obstetricians… so there has to be some truth in it, right?

Well humans are notoriously good at finding patterns where there are none, in fact our brains are hard wired to do this, it is one way we try to make sense of a bewilderingly complicated world and data overload from our senses. Humans are notoriously fallible, even the history of science is littered with examples of scientist using their intuition, rather than the data, and discovering amazing things which later turned out to be completely untrue.

Well this full-moon-baby-boom thing should be very easy to check; it does not require complicated, and maybe not so easy to understand experiments, it is a very simple matter of collecting some statistics; how many babies were born when and what was the phase of the moon at the time, then just draw a graph of the number of babies born over time, compare this to the moon’s cycle and look to see if there is a correlation.

As I suspected this has been done before, several times in fact. For example the article below cites five separate studies all of which came up with a negative; I am sorry to say there is no measurable correlation between the phase of the moon and the human birth rate.

http://bayblab.blogspot.com/2007/09/fact-or-fiction-full-moon-baby-boom.html

And this is an excellent article about other supposed moon/human phenomenon:

http://skepdic.com/fullmoon.html