Loren Coleman of cryptomundo has just released pictures that are allegedly of a hitherto unknown species of primate.
The inference is that these photographs prove the existence of the creature known as Bigfoot, or Sasquatch.
The body is currently being frozen and kept under armed guard somewhere in North Georgia in the USA.
Matthew Whitton and Rick Dyer, who both lead Bigfoot tracking expeditions, claim that they found the body in woods in northern Georgia.
If DNA testing proves the body to be genuine, as opposed to the hoax that I believe, then it will quite possibly be the find of the century.
(Quite how you prove Bigfoot’s existence with DNA when there are no comparison samples I don’t know!)
The body is said to exhibit characteristics much more human-like than other primates and has a footprint of around 17″ in addition to fingers that extend to as much as 11″.
Do you believe that this body will prove the existence of Bigfoot once and for all, or is this just another publicity-seeking hoax?
(One of the men involved with Whitton and Dyer is Tom Biscardi who has been involved in a Bigfoot hoax before).
Maybe a press conference, scheduled for tomorrow, will reveal the truth..
If it’s real, I will eat humble pie but, for now, I absolutely do not believe that this body will be proven to be genuine.
I don’t think that Bigfoot exists, but I’d love to be proven wrong.
By rights, the above image is pretty meaningless and pointless, wouldn’t you agree?
However, I have many friends amongst the Digg community.
Now I’m not calling them lazy, but a lot of them respond to ‘Shouts’ by digging just about any post put before them, often without even visiting the page.
So, the point of this little social experiment is to find out how many of them blindly Digg this postÂ
Who’s the more foolish? The fool, or the fool who follows him?
After writing my post about Mary Kay, some of the feedback I have received about the products is that they are too expensive.
I thought, perhaps, that this had something to do with the multi level marketing style distribution model, though it now seems like there may be another answer -
Could it be that some women find Mary Kay to be too expensive simply because they are applying far too much make-up?
Do products distributed via the networking business model cost more?
Multi Level Marketing (MLM) does not have a fixed date of birth.
The concept actually evolved over a period of time prior to World War II.
The first true MLM company was believed to have been Nutrilite who are now a subsidiary of Amway.
CHILDHOOD
During the formative years of multi level marketing, in 1949, Rich DeVos and Jay Van Andel became Nutrilite distributors.
Over the following 10 years or so they grew Nutrilite into a large and profitable organisation that spanned America.
However, at the end of the 1950s, they ran into what would become a common problem for network marketing companies -
ADOLESENCE
Nutrilite consisted of 2 distinct entities - the manufacturing side and the marketing team.
As is the case in many businesses, both traditional and MLM, the marketing arm was making the bulk of the profits.
This led to disagreements between the manufacturing and marketing departments which ultimately caused DeVos’s and Van Andel’s distribution network to rapidly decline, due to lack of product and a resulting lack of sales income.
When resolving the differences between the two arms proved to be impossible, they then decided to break away and create a product of their own in order to have something to sell to what was left of their dwindling network.
MARRIAGE
In 1959 Rich DeVos and Jay Van Andel formed the Amway Corporation.
Less than 10 years later they bought Nutrilite, and Amway went on to become the biggest MLM company in the world.
Success, of course, breeds imitators, and Amway was soon attracting many of those.
Within a few years there were a large number of other MLM companies jumping onto the bandwagon.
The early successes of network marketing also led to other imitators who realised there were other ways to profit from the model.
For some, the seductively dark side of multi level marketing proved to be the quick and easy way to making fast, and less than legal, profits -
THE ERRANT CHILD
Whatever I may think of MLM companies they do, on paper at least, tend to have a strong set of rules which determine how their distributors can deal with potential customers and recruits.
This means that, for anyone playing by the rules, it is almost impossible to take advantage of people through this type of business model.
However, it didn’t take long for sharp operators to realise that they could circumvent these restrictions by inventing a counterfeit version of MLM.
Their illegal and unethical system was based upon an old scam created by Charles Ponzi in the late 1920s -’the Ponzi Scheme’.
These pseudo-MLMs, based on Ponzi’s unworkable model, appeared to operate just like a proper MLM, but allowed those behind them to fleece anyone who, like them, was looking to make easy money without working.
Thus was born the Pyramid Scheme.
DIVORCE
With the concept of multi level marketing being so closely linked, wrongly or rightly, to pyramid schemes these days, you may be surprised to learn that it was actually the MLM companies that first lobbied government authorities to have pyramid schemes designated as being illegal.
Pyramid schemes were soon outlawed but that certainly hasn’t stopped them from continuing.
Clever people will always find loopholes in the legislation that will allow them to operate a pyramid scheme under the guise of reputable network marketing.
Whilst not all MLM companies fit into this view, many do see product sales as an inconvenience required to make their pyramid scheme appear to be legal.
DEATH
With the advent of the internet, one of network marketing’s main advantages - distributing products to people in remote areas - has been evaporated.
Savvy businessmen will, and are, I’m sure, re-inventing multi level marketing into a business model that can survive this technological competition.
However, I am of the opinion that MLM, in it’s original form, has had it’s day.
If so, then running your car on water is NOT the solution you are looking for.
Rising Oil Prices
One side effect of the global warming scam is the fact that taxation and prices are on the rise.
Both of these factors have had a huge impact upon the price of gas.
This, in turn, has led to manufacturers and amateurs alike trying to find alternative power sources as well as ways of increasing mileages for existing vehicles.
Not to be outdone, the less than honest, aka scam artists, have also got in on the act.
If you search the internet for ways of saving on your gas bill, or for alternatives to gas, then you will be met with all sorts of crazy schemes and devices.
Most of these are simply designed to part you from your cash.
One of the more ‘popular’ improve your mileage per gallon scams centres around the premise that water can be converted into gas.
Apparently, or so the claims suggest, you can connect one of these ‘fuel cells’ to your car’s electrical system, fill it with free water and then run a pipe to your car’s air intake.
In theory, mixing equal amounts of water and gas would then cut your motoring costs by 50%.
Running Your Car On Water Sounds Amazing
Yes, it sounds amazing.
So good in fact that I would predict that one of these schemes will win the Nobel Peace Prize (stranger things have happened).
The reality, however, is that if something sounds too good to be true then… you know.
How Does The Water / Gas Scam Allegedly Work?
Here’s how the water and gas combo purportedly works -
The ‘fuel cell’ that you are supposed to add to your car is a simple electrolysis device that is designed to split water into two parts hydrogen and one part oxygen.
This in itself is hardly innovative as such devices have been in existence for a great many years.
The theory continues along the lines of recombining the gasses generated through electrolysis, via combustion, in order to release energy.
Such a process does, undoubtedly work - energy would indeed be released via this process.
However, the laws of physics must always be obeyed.
These laws make it quite clear that the resulting amount of energy after recombining the atoms through combustion cannot exceed the level of energy that was required to separate them in the first place.
Physics Scuppers The Water For Gas Claims Even Further
Humans, and the things we make, are not perfect.
Therefore, during the process of electrolysis and combustion, there will be ‘leakages’ in the system, meaning that the energy produced by this hydrogen will actually be significantly less than the amount of energy required to create it.
Inconveniently for those behind such water to gas scams, this means that fuel consumption may actually increase if you buy their kits or follow their instructions.
Side Effects
Naturally, the car you drive was designed to burn gasoline and not hydrogen.
Therefore, it should be no surprise to learn that your car was not designed for burning hydrogen which gets much hotter than gas.
Your car’s engine has not been designed to cope with that heat level for sustained periods of time and so the likelihood of damage occurring is greatly increased.
The parts most susceptible to such heat damage are likely to be those that are extremely hard or costly to service or replace, such as valves and pistons.
Unless you are a skilled mechanic then the increase in maintenance costs on your vehicle would most likely negate more than the savings you would gain through converting water to gas.
The Water To Gas Scams Continue Regardless
Even though the laws of physics debunk the possibility of water for gas scams being anything other than a con, those behind the ruses continue unabated.
Scientific evidence is replaced by anonymous customer testimonials, affiliate links and enviro-friendly sales pitches as they continue to peddle their $2,000 conversion kits, or do it yourself $97 ebooks.
If the most brilliant scientific minds in history cannot break the laws of thermodynamics then why would anyone believe that some random website owner or garage mechanic can?
Obviously the answer to that is greed.
Too many people get suckered into scams because their greed and desire to get something cheap or for nothing blinds them to reality.
Buy Gas Not Water
If you are concerned by the rising cost of gas, or feeling the pinch of increasing fuel costs then the best suggestion is to use what you have sensibly.
If you have $2000 set aside for a water to gas conversion, or just the $97 required for an ebook, then you will likely get more miles to the gallon if you simply spent that money on gas instead!
Thursday, August 14, 2008
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