Archive for June, 2017

If an inventor falls, do we blame gravity?

Saturday, June 3rd, 2017

On February 24, 2017 another energy inventor died of a hemorrhagic stroke. He had been on hypertension medication, but stopped when he couldn’t afford it. He was only 53 years old.

Everyone has personal tragedies. Losing his wife to a drunk driver, his mother contracting diabetes and gangrene caused him to bury himself in his work. He created an electronic method to stop gangrene and saved his mother’s foot. Yet no level of ingenuity could stop the insanity of a drunk driver.

A personality conflict in the workplace ended his former high paying, classified government job, despite 17 years of accolades for high performance and creativity in an extremely technical environment.

As we’ve heard way too many times before, most all of his good ideas went to the grave with him. Paranoid that someone would steal his ideas, he seldom did off-site backup of anything. He never expected to have a stroke within feet of those who would grab his prototypes and computer. Characters who did not even inform friends of his passing for 2 weeks. Law enforcement knew nothing of what to look for. The coroner and sheriff report stated no evidence of foul play.

In the ugly world of R&D, there is NO venture capital to cover any expenses until something is shown working and marketable. Wages for R&D time and materials just don’t exist. Survival 2-27-2009 033money for food, housing or medication are a joke to those with the money to do something.

YouTube is full of videos showing promising ideas,  but no capital showing up from any source to allow an experimenter to put full time effort into proper research. Hobbies, after a daMtr5-9-2012expSm125y job, always seem to remain hobbies. Nothing ever completes.

Compounding this particular inventor’s obstacles, was that he used to work in a very classified environment. What did he work with or learn there that could be restructured into a consumer item, but not violate his security clearance? That was his perpetual challenge. He saw massive money spent on super weapons, but none on something to get people’s tasks done better.

3-8-2009 024Crowdfunding entered the scene in 2012. Yet thus far, even it only gets the attention of money once something is shown working. The countless hours of R&D to get to that stage are still not addressed, except in pet projects of the corporate world.

Steve Jobs wanted the Smart Phone to happen. He authorized the necessary million$ to make it happen. Government grants are supposed to encourage R&D, but only go to the politician’s pet supporters. Seldom ever are they directed to the true potential of an idea.

Who is to blame? Is it just the hardship of life? Is it normal resistance like gravity? Or is it a debt based economic system that demands immediate performance and payments on schedule or the banker takes everything as “collateral?” It is the latter.

R&D happens with personal money. That is where the phrase “don’t quit your day job” is exemplified. The inventor knows the potential of what he’s working on, but explaining it to anyone, well there aren’t enough hours in the day.

And what if the day job doesn’t even cover survival? What if technology eliminated the career one trained for, but no longer obtains a living wage? Minimum wage in Los Angeles will not qualify a person for a one bedroom apartment. Short sighted business people refuse the call for a $15/hour minimum wage, pointing out most businesses cannot afford to pay it. So is it the fault of the business manager, or is the system blaming the wrong people? Why can’t consumers afford the slightly higher prices to justify $15/hour to anyone diligent enough to show up for work daily and do what is asked? Trickle down economics never worked. Bankers and taxes strangle the flow at mid-stream.

As technology forces shifts, menial work is no longer just for teenagers. Responsible adults are often forced to take jobs far less than their abilities. But their adult responsibilities continue.

How much does the business owner have to pay the bank for flooring inventory, maintaining facilities, advertising, insurance, utilities along with a living wage to diligent employees? Is CAPITAL affordable? Banks print the money to loan. But employees have to learn skills and show integrity on the job to get the product to a satisfied customer.

Enter Bitcoin. A nerd project we all laughed at in 2010, when it cost 10,000 Bitcoins to buy one pizza worth $25 USD. But it is not just an electronic currency. It has other factors quickly being accepted on an international scale. When South Korea thought North Korea was about to bomb them in May 2017, Bitcoin jumped from $2,000 each to $4,000 overnight, then pulled back to $2,000 when word reached around the world of the sudden demand at that location. It recovered quickly and continued.

I don’t dare give the name of the inventor I speak of. His former “day job” classified work continues to carry a threat to anyone discussing it. I’ll just mention the coincidence of his initials being a nice way to reference Bitcoin. Bc.

Bitcoins are stated to 8 decimal places. The last 4 digits presently amount to about $24 USD, even with Bitcoin trading at $2,400 each.

I am now starting a Bitcoin coffee cup and asking for loose change from your Bitcoin wallet. It goes to a wallet that helps energy inventors. That is all I can promise. No 501c3 has been set up. This is not a deduction on your taxes. That takes attorneys and CPA’s who get more than the project is intended for. Whoever gets it, uses it as a gift or simple income. All I ask is please dump the last 3 or 4 digits of loose change into the Bitcoin cup, the next time you are poking around your e-wallet. If you got any value from any of the stories and information posted at commutefaster.com/Energy2.html , I hope it would be worth a few Bitcoin cents to you to keep efforts moving forward.

One public item the inventor did tell me he worked on while with a government contractor, was enabling the image collection on the Hubble Telescope to deliver consistent pixels. He was the engineer responsible for the data oversampling circuitry used. Anyone who has seen the spectacular images from the Hubble can thank him for adding that feature.

And one not-so public bit of trivia that gave us an odd common ground. We both had uncles on Tinian Island in August of 1945.  One machined the last part for Little Boy.  The other wired Fat Man. Those family members were paid quite well for their technology skills. But our sides of the families wanted to get clean energy to everyone.

Only Jesus Christ has shown power over death. We can only trust in Him for eternity, as Bc did.

RIP old friend, maybe now you can chat with Tesla as you often speculated.

Ken Rasmussen

6/2/2017