QuoteDisplay MoreWhat if you could harvest the energy of a moving vehicle to continue to power it? That is the question asked by students of this technical high school college in Oaxaca, Mexico, one year ago.
It resulted in this prototype motorcycle called R-Walker created by 17-year-old Victor Garcia.
(SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) ECOMOTORBIKE DESIGNER, VICTOR GARCIA, SAYING:
“The project is a prototype that generates its own
energy as it goes along: As it goes faster and covers longer distances,
it generates more energy. In that way, you don’t have to charge the
battery every 6-8 hours.”
Garcia calls the process “auto-sustainability.”
It’s based on the principle of converting energy through speed
and distance travelled; the engine becomes self-sustaining, generating
more than 2,000 revolutions per minute.
A battery is used to spark ignition, and afterwards without
using any combustion the vehicle can carry up to 110 kilograms and
travel at more than 60 kilometers per hour.
Co-designer Raul Grajales said R-Walker could bring huge savings for motorcycle users, as well as the environment.
(SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) ECOMOTORBIKE CO-DESIGNER, RAUL GRAJALES, SAYING:
“With this, we have reduced the use of 200 batteries a
day and seventy percent of pollution, because it does not contaminate
and has zero emissions and we use one battery every 5-10 years.”
They built the eco-friendly motorbike from recycled materials,
bringing its final price tag to around $200 – a comparatively small sum
when considering its potential benefits.
Sterling Allen about this video:
QuoteDisplay MoreWhat is the most amazing about this story is how widely it is being
circulated in the mainstream, because it was produced by Reuters.
As of the posting of this page, there are 353 pages on the web that have reprinted the text of Reuters story (video below).
A Google search
for the first string in the video description, with quotation marks,
gives 8,540 results. "Mexican students in Oaxaca City design a motorbike
that runs on its own generated energy, without using any combustion.
They say their prototype model is a breakthrough invention for
eco-friendly motorbikes."
If I had published a video with the same content, none of those
entities would have picked it up. Yet we usually give more evidence and
explanation for what we publish than Reuters did. Their explanation is
more unbelievable than most of what we publish.
It goes to show that most people are in "just follow the prophet"
mentality. Those in "authority" can be believed, no matter what. "If
Reuters says it, then it must be true, and we can reprint without
scrutiny." Those in the "fringe" can be disregarded, no matter what.
There is no such thing as screening something based on its merits alone.
People don't think for themselves.
Here's the Reuter's text.
It reads like something out Rube Goldberg, yet people gobble it up as
fact and reprint it. At least we try to identify what plug in the
wheelwork of nature something is getting its energy from. They don't
give any indication of testing that has been done, either. I'm not
saying I think this is bogus, I'm just saying that our reporting is
usually much better than what Reuters gives here. I find this
astonishing.
I think that he is absolutely right about this.
