The ways of interconnecting the end components are more important than the components themselves. Okay, I've said that about computers, not brains, but the principles still apply.
I can relate in that my MS "brain lesions," (those unfortunate enough to have looked at their own MRIs have seen those "white spots" [or in my case those wide, "white swaths" at the center of my brain,]) below my cortical "homuncular" representations are what are making it hard for me to walk.
Its not that there is any problem with the controlling structure in the cortex (my "homunculi" are fine,) or with the muscular structure at the the other, destination end of the nerves.
My problems lie somewhere in the middle...
This is yet another 'problem' that human ingenuity would be only floundering about making at best "uninformed wild-ass stabs' in the dark". But having MRI scans, which are by definition computer manipulatable, gives us the possibility of creating "educated quesses."
Now the first video is how to get oil in out tanks "without" having to rape anyone's dinner plate, while the second video is means to explain a remark later on. :-)
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I just had a meeting with Wizzard Media concerning monetization.
Sorry, I've tried to hold the line taught as far as trying to recruit only from makers and providers of stuff for MS but nobody else is picking up the other end of the rope.
Don't be surprised if you come to pick up the show and its got some pre-roll or insert that's just aimed at anybody out there, not just us MSers.
Its either that or I start begging you at the beginning of each show to go to the donate jar on MSBPodcast.com.
The worst thing would be that this become just another show.
While I am sure that we can come up with a future with abundance in energy by getting off of the fossil fuel path (which is improperly named "fossil" anyway. I can assure you that "Barney" never died sixty-five million years ago just to get out the nozzle and into your gas tank.)
The oil that lies miles below the surface of the earth and of the ocean, was probably formed by the same kind of process of biotic excretion that the proposed bacteria are doing. (Look at the first video accompanying this episode.)
However there is another penury we need to be concerned about. (Though it was "safe to get back in the water again"? [You know life doesn't work that way. {And neither does Hollywood :-}])
The world is running out of the so called rare earths, not because they are being thrown away, or that they are being transformed into waste products, but because there just isn't that much of them and we need more that there exists.
" ... It is, however, found as a trace element in a number of minerals and ores, the most important of which is bauxite (aluminum ore). In fact, gallium is a by-product of aluminum production. On average, there is 50 ppm (parts per million) of gallium in bauxite. Based on this average, known U.S. bauxite deposits could produce 15 million kilograms of gallium. Two million kilograms are in the Arkansas bauxite deposits alone. World bauxite resources are so large (estimated at 55 to 75 billion tons) that gallium could be retrieved from these ores for many years to come."
Guess what?
Its "years have come" and the technology that depends on gallium is becoming more popular everyday.
* gallium wets glass or porcelain, and forms a brilliant mirror when it is painted on glass
* used for doping semiconductors and producing solid-state devices such as transistors
* gallium arsenide converts electricity into coherent light
* alloying
* 90 tons of gallium (2 or 3 years of world production) is used to detect solar neutrinos by the use of the reaction: nu + 71Ga > 71Ge + e-. The rate, although very low (less than 1 interaction per day in 30 tonnes of Ga) makes gallium unique for this purpose. Two experiments are running : - GALLEX using 30 tons in the Gran Sasso underground laboratory (Italy) and SAGE with 60 tons in the Baksan laboratory in Caucasus (Russia)."
Did you get the beginning of that last point?
90 tons is 2 to 3 years of production. (Hmmm. That should be "extraction" because gallium is an element and is produced in novae and supernovae. We don't "produce" any.)
It not like we can get "Lucy and Ethel" to stop trying to eat all the chocolates and get down to work. (Sorry ... I know its gatuitous, but it was a chance to see the bit again and I couldn't pass it up. :-)
Gallium is in the group of elements known as "other metals", sandwiched between "transition elements" and "rare earths" in the periodic table, and you only recover them during the execution of some other industrial process. (Becoming a chimney sweep might again be an honorable profession since gallium is even recovered from soot. [Of course, not. {Only if you'd like to get posthumous medals. (Make that "printed certificates", [metals are just wasted on medals.])}])
Soon, they are going to get used to doing without anyway because there is simply not enough being found and not enough being recycled to keep the production lines going.
But I bet that there's going to be some humdinger of a fight over those resources too.
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