The Power of Stupidity

Serendipia(?) ^ | June 1996 | Giancarlo Livraghi

[Lady Jag]

I don't know the jargon and I'm not critical of your efforts. Someday it's going to work, I suppose. For not being a scientist or engineer, I know an awful lot about the research and how futile and costly it's been.

I'm getting on in years but I have a good memory and an interest in current events. And I have seen history and money-burning repeat itself over and over like Groundhog Day. In the past, nobody wanted to share research and could get away with it sneaking federal funding. Now, with computers, it's pretty much just a case piranha schooling of the biggest names with the biggest MBAs getting money (the hell with results). Funding is the only objective, and the big ones get it. Research is no fun anymore and I'm glad I don't do it. Gnar.

[NicknamedBob]

These system innovations cry out for backyard entrepreneurship.

It isn't that complicated, and the guy who cracks the problem is gonna make a bundle.

If, pulling out all the stops, we make vehicles very efficient, many of them will not use any fuel at all, being driven ten miles to a parking lot, sitting all day in the sun, and then being driven fifteen miles home.

[VadeRetro]

The conventional wisdom would say, "No, we've tried that, and it didn't work."

Yes, but there's a reason why it didn't work. I say it's a wash because, while the expansion of liquid water to steam generates gas pressure, the quenching action of converting the liquid to steam steals from the heat and thus the gas pressure you got from burning the gasoline. You've already liberated the energy, you're just making it do more work inside the cylinder.

Yes, with the engines we have now, even after you let the pressure off, there's still residual energy in the exhaust. All we do with it now is warm the passenger compartment in winter and dissipate the excess with the radiator. There might be something you can do with that, but it's hard to see just what.

[Lady Jag]

And whoever the clever asshole is who figures it out, is forced to sign all rights over to some big company that will make a fortune. It's fun to play but you can barely make a living at it. It's not like it used to be.

[NicknamedBob]

"... forced to sign all rights over to some big company that will make a fortune. It's fun to play but you can barely make a living at it."

You sound a little turmoiled. Been hanging out on the wrong threads?

The resources available to the backyard inventor today are awesome in comparison to what went before. Communications, drafting programs, search engines, and component availabilities are all stunning in their scope.

Automobile parts and inventive tinkerers are also widely available, and the need is apparent. Why would the vacuum that Nature abhors not be filled?

Financing? Didja ever hear of the baby boom? All kinds of people are retiring now, and they are in the full vigor of their mental and social life. They will want to make contributions for the future, for their grandchildren, and for the fun of it.

I am confident.

[Lady Jag]

I've been married to R&D for 40 years and know cellar dwellers and Fortune 500 employees all over the US and part of the world. Hubby has way over 100 patents and we have worked with many different types of enterprises. I can be good.

[Doctor Stochastic]

1. chemical reaction in the water 2. direct heat transfer through a heating element 3. microwave or other radiant energy input

Convection

[ForGod'sSake]

This thread has sortof taken a turn, where's Rube when you need him???

And no Forrest Gump fans either???

[NicknamedBob]

Let's get back to being stupid!


I’ll Do It Myself!

Some things that you just have to do, you have to do yourself,
Like working on a ladder, or putting up a shelf.
Oh, you can try to find someone, but in the end you’ll see,
If someone’s gonna screw things up, it might as well be me!

‘Cause I can move a ladder, and I can climb on it,
And then I can go down again, for things that I forgit.
I used to do my painting, dipping brushes in a bucket,
After I tired of all the climbs, the next trip up I tuck it.

I took the paint can up with me, but then I couldn’t put it down,
That’s why that corner of the carpet is a matching shade of brown.
And after all my troubles using hammers and those nails,
I figured out that screws will give support that never fails.

That’s why when I needed something put up good and tight,
I bought a box of screws so I could do it all just right.
So last night I held up the thing and grabbed the screws I’d got....

Who is this guy Phillips? ...And what happened to the slot?


NicknamedBob . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . April 12, 2005

[ForGod'sSake]

Very good.

[NicknamedBob]

Thanks!

Being "stupid" in a creative way is not as easy as one might think. Comedians like Jeff Foxworthy work a lot harder than they make it seem.

"If your fingers move when you talk, you might be a FReeper!"

[Alamo-Girl]

Thanks for the ping!

[ForGod'sSake]

"If your fingers move when you talk, you might be a FReeper!"

Heh. Another gem.

[Darksheare]

"If life hands you raspberries, steal its pants. That way you have its raspberries and its pants."

And on this odd, and late, note I am heading off to bed.
;-)

[King Prout]

It's not stupid, it's advanced...

[Dead Corpse]

100 patents? And you guys aren't hanging out with Bill Gates?

Who is John Galt?

[NicknamedBob]

"... you guys aren't hanging out with Bill Gates?"

She said they made lots of money -- for other people.

I was asking her how I could become rich. She didn't know either.

[Lady Jag]

No Bill Gates. Sorry, it was late, I was tired and thought that was Freepmail.

[Lady Jag]

I was asking her how I could become rich. She didn't know either.

Once they figured out how to take your money, they learned how to steal your intellectual property. Now, not only do you have to be smart, you have to be lucky.

[r9etb]

At the risk of unintentional exposure, I confess that the word "stupid," as used in this article, brings a smile to my face. It is a very amusing-sounding word.