Friday, May 24, 2013

A War of Two Teslas

There is a book on the market which bears a title I find hilariously brilliant.  The book by Ryan Dobson is called "Be Intollerant, Because Some Things Are Just Stupid" is a Christian based rhetoric on Western society's descent away from that strange commodity called "Common Sense".

I have not read the book nor is this post intended to comment for either side of it.  I just find it refreshing whenever someone with passion pursues what they are inspired by.  However there are rules of etiquette I like to see when I hear of such opinion blaring horn honking.  Today's post (which incidentally, coincides with my birthday... Yay me!) is in response to an online sparing episode that seems to be heating up between two of my favorite web based Alternative Energy Science inspirations, Peswiki and ZeroFossilFuels.

For those of you who love to tinker like I do, and perhaps even dream one day of actually inventing something new, then you'll understand why these two sources are so much fun to follow.  Both could be members of the Tesla Institute of Nerdy Geniuses (TING for short... and yes, I just made that up now) as both have a focus on the fringe science that our establishment professors refuse to talk about. They both have unique approaches and inspire me with the urge to go play in my shop and continue working on thought experiments, pondering puzzling problems, and construction of (hopefully) working prototypes. 


The problem it seems is that one side (ZeroFossilFuels) has accused the other of not following the same rules of integrity by which he himself so tightly abides.  Zero has railed the accusation that Peswiki actually assists scam artists by not debunking stories before they are reported.  The other side (Stirling Allen of Peswiki) has responded in apparent shock questioning "I thought we were friends?!?!"

I really like both pages, but I find they really serve two different flavors of this topic and since Zero is now openly soliciting support for his arguments through a micro-survey on his blog (which didn't provide me nearly enough space to articulate even an abbreviated segment of my thoughts - likely due to my overly aggressive use of adjectives), I decided to weigh in with my own opinion in a deeper fashion here.  Zero's big accusation is that Stirling is being irresponsible in his coverage, suggesting that Stirling is actually assisting scam artists by not properly researching the subjects before he reports on them.  As a subscriber of both pages - Peswiki specifically here, is set up to report on new energy news as it comes out and since Stirling runs the page himself, I can totally understand that he would become swamped at times by the stream of stories.  He simply cannot perform the due dilligence for each story  and still continue to update such a page in the timely manner with which he has accustomed his readers.  He reports them as he finds out about them. With that said, the understood casualty here is that the reader is now required to think for himself and decide if he believes the claim made by the muse or not.  

With Stirling's pages, I become inspired to shoot off and think about different concepts until I can put together something unique.  His page is almost more of a brainstorming inspirator than anything else and for that I LOVE Peswiki.  In fairness too, Peswiki does keep a page dedicated to warn readers of known scams and on it you will find examples of some companies who were actually covered in stories by Stirling at some point.  On top of this, he does pose very blunt questions to his subject guests and will often state that the story owner refused to respond or provide any adequate rebuttal.  I find this a wave of transparent honesty and I appreciate it. 

On the other hand, we have ZeroFossilFuels... a man who has captured my imagination by allowing me to live vicariously through his many experiments and projects, that I have actually wanted to create or perform myself but never got around to.  Zero is a fantastically thorough, articulate and an obviously educated man who shares his experimenting shop time, with his YouTube viewers through a collection now larger than 330 plus videos.  Here is his channel if you're interested. Zero captured my interest almost 7 years ago when I watched him working on HHO Generators intended on improving mileage on cars and lawnmowers.  Since then he has videos that cover various science and Tesla conferences, Air rifle performance improvement, Muller motor replication, bowl shaped electromagnets, post Armageddon gardening techniques, workshop construction, rocket stoves and even chainsaw fun after a winter storm - just to name a few!  To say his channel is prolific would be an understatement.  I have laughed with him as he bares his raw emotion through various rants, and condoled his occasional failures, offering hopefully helpful suggestions for troubleshooting or changing strategies.  This channel is interactive and you will find him quite responsive.


I was disappointed when I discovered my two favs were in a family feud.  While I do agree with Zero that we have to be responsible and not lead people down a scammer's snare, I also love Stirling's approach at Peswiki and don't want him to sacrifice the volume of stories for a more conventional and conservative approach to reporting them that would result in less inspiration.  After all, I like the trust that Stirling places in me by expecting me to think for myself and not get suckered in by some of the very topics he covers.  To do this, I rely on that seemingly disappearing commodity I mentioned at the beginning... Common Sense.  We can't get something from nothing... (unless we first discover what nobody else has yet found... but that's a rabbit trail for another day) so if it claims to, then either something is new, or someone has dreamed up a different way to present that old tasty snake oil again.  Stirling lets me decide for myself which it is... and Zero shows me whether it works or not in real life.  

I love both these guys and wish they would embrace their differences as complimentary elements of invention's inspiration.  Please restore your friendship and continue playing to your strengths.  I will continue to follow both of these men of action!