[Rockitz]

The water cycle is real and yet it is a perpetual motion machine. There are definitely situations in nature which can be taken advantage of to generate something from what would appear to be nothing- gradients of gravity, electric field, magnetic field, etc. I'm definitely a believer in thermodynamics, but many systems are presumed to be closed or isolated which are not, because all of the sources of energy transfer to the system have not been considered.

[freebilly]

The water cycle is real and yet it is a perpetual motion machine. There are definitely situations in nature which can be taken advantage of to generate something from what would appear to be nothing- gradients of gravity, electric field, magnetic field, etc. I'm definitely a believer in thermodynamics, but many systems are presumed to be closed or isolated which are not, because all of the sources of energy transfer to the system have not been considered.

Nope, you can't generate something from nothing (unless you're God). There are a lot of smart (and unscrupulous) rats out there that have preyed on people's ignorance about the laws of physics to line their own pockets with Perpetual Motion Machines based on magnets, anti-gravity devices, water cycles, windmills. Every one of these items have turned out to be hoaxes.