What's New, April 10, 2009

WHAT’S NEW   Robert L. Park   Friday, 10 Apr 09   Washington, DC

1.  DATELINE: A NEW WRINKLE ON THE HYDROGEN-FUEL SCAM. 
Last Sunday, NBC Dateline exposed the Hydro Assist Fuel Cell, sold by 
Dennis Lee, as a scam.  It seemed like such a simple idea: powered by the 
alternator, the HAFC decomposes water into hydrogen and oxygen and adds a 
whiff of hydrogen into the combustion mixture, supposedly extending the 
mileage you get. There are two small problems: it takes more energy to 
decompose water than you get from combustion of the hydrogen, and Dennis 
Lee is notorious for his scams. The hydrogen fuel scam has been fooling the 
scientifically ignorant, including George W. Bush and former congressman 
Robert Walker, for at least 40 years. This time, however, Lee was up 
against tough Dateline investigators aided by the indefatigable Eric Krieg 
of the Philadelphia Association for Critical Thinking, and a cameo 
appearance by Bob Park.  Lee got clobbered.  I think.

2. DENNIS LEE: TOP DOG OF THE PERPETUAL SCAM.
In July of 1997, I was invited to go with an NBC Dateline camera crew to 
cover a demonstration of a perpetual motion machine in Hackensack, NJ. You 
don't get a chance to do that everyday.  "Put one in your home and you will 
never have to pay another electric bill," an ad in the Wall Street Journal 
said. But Lee doesn't sell perpetual motion machines; he sells dealerships 
for perpetual motion machines. The machine turned out to be the Gamgee Zero-
motor, invented in 1880 by John Gamgee who managed to sell it to the Navy; 
it didn't work then either http://bobpark.org/WN97/wn071897.html .  The 
idea is to use a liquid that boils at room temperature to drive a piston, 
thereby extracting energy from the ambient.  Gamgee tried ammonia, but only 
confirmed the Second Law of Thermodynamics.   Lee solved that by using 
carbon dioxide, which is liquid only under pressure.  Thus the machine 
actually ran on compressed carbon dioxide; not quite perpetually, but long 
enough for a demonstration.  NBC decided it was too technical for the 
Dateline audience and it was never used.  Two years later, I was a 
consultant for ABC Good Morning America at a Lee demonstration in Columbus, 
Ohio.  He now had a perpetual-motion machine that used permanent magnets 
(the 1870 Paine machine).  By the time he got to Spokane in 2002 it 
was “the principle of counter rotation.”  Only the scam was perpetual.

3.  CRIME AND PUNISHMENT: WILL IT BE ANY DIFFERENT THIS TIME? 
I was hired as a consultant by the Atty. Gen. of the state of Washington to 
prepare an affidavit on Lee’s scams.  Based on my affidavit, a state court 
granted a summary judgment barring Lee from doing business in Washington.  
In 2003, I did the same for the Atty. Gen. of Maine.  Lee is also barred 
from doing business in Kentucky.  That leaves 47 states to go before he 
moves to Canada.  Each state is willing to let him screw people somewhere 
else.  I hear the Federal Trade Commission may be interested, but Lee is 
not Bernie Madoff.  Robbing retired couples who hope to extend their meager 
retirement income doesn’t put Lee in a Manhattan penthouse, but he may be, 
well, perpetual.

4. POPULATION: ARE THEY SURE THEY HAVE THE THEORY RIGHT?	
Demographic experts warn that population decline in Russia could have 
serious economic consequences.  It’s the same growth-is-good bull shit that 
always comes from the Chamber of Commerce.  Russia's neighbors, Norway, 
Finland and Sweden, have the highest standards of living in the world and 
small populations.  Afghanistan, on the other hand, which is not exactly a 
tourist Mecca, has a fertility rate above 7, the highest in the world. 

THE UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND.
Opinions are the author's and not necessarily shared by the
University of Maryland, but they should be.
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