This "Variable Speed" transmission is A JOKE!!! It is an overly complex but mechanically identical version of the Prius hybrid synergy drive planet and sun gear arrangement where an electric motor (AKA the generator) and the gas engine combine to produce a clutchless, constant mesh transmission that is infinitely variable and reversible. A real CVT would require ONE gas engine, no second electric motor/generator and use a simple effortless position lever that determines the direction and gear ratio of the transmission. That is NOT what Steve has built. He's made a Rube Goldberg contraption to fool the mechanically unsophisticated into thinking there is an invention here... Real CVT's exist in tractors, Honda has one in a motor cycle (see the wikipedia article on CVT's) and some diesel trucks have CVT's on their alternators. All of these use variable angle swash plates and hydraulic pistons or for low torque applications like the truck alternator, a ratcheting gear assembly. It annoys me when people get taken in. If you want a real mechanical puzzel to ponder, look up the Torsen Differential. That is a masterpiece of brilliant invention and engineering and is used on very large trucks). Simbuddha

I have to agree with QuestionsNotAnswers as most smart sociopaths are excellent actors. But when the obvious choice is X and yet they choose Y, over and over, it becomes clear that either they are bought and owned by special interests (read a corrupt international corporation, yes there are many good ones too) and have no allegiance our nation, or they are sociopaths and the two might just be shades of grey.

It is their track record that exposes them. Trouble is the american public just accepts this and has no clear way to unify and express outrage and demand that people acting against our collective and the nations best interest, but in their own interest or the interest of their master (a corporation), should be ejected from public service and government influence. Ultimately our system (governance and capitalism) needs to produce an immune system to sociopathic behaviour. I find it amazing that people watch Fox and trust many other rediculous information sources which are there to ensure the american public are misinformed and brainwashed and accept living like a bunch of corn feed cattle in tight pens, being manipulated and programmed to think and feel in ways they would not normally.

Big Brother is alive and well and if "they" achieve their goal of "a new world order" of sociopathic design, we all ought to realize we will be looking forward to an extended century of suffering and chaos. From my perspective, the anti-christ isn't one person, it is a broad collective of people at various levels of government and in corporations who act in ways that destroy and undermine our rights, our nation and our future. The manipulation is that we are led to believe it (the anti-christ) is one person, external to ourselves, when in fact it is up to us whether we are part of "it" or not...

I'd agree if I thought the sociopaths actually knew how to fix the problems or could direct others to do so. But being a sociopath does not imbue the person with great problem solving skills or technical knowledge.

The article referenced makes many lame points and is clearly biased, but it does bring up some points worth considering.

For example: if we let them create too many UNRECOVERABLE events, we may not survive and go the way of the dinosaur. I think one crazy idea is high pressure corbon dioxide gas sequestration underground of massive amounts of CO2. Nice legacy to leave our children... Imagine if an earthquake could release a giant (hundreds of square miles) kill zone of Carbon Dioxide gas from this "underground tank". Worse imagine we lose double digits of square miles of the amazon daily, and allow the desertification of the south american continent. Even worse, we poison and change the ecosystem of the oceans and kill the ocean biosphere. Both of these are already well proven to be underway. Imagine we reduce our plant bio-diversity (Monsanto crop seed patents and genetic engineering control) and there is a major disease that kills off our farming production of say corn and wheat. Plant diseases and pests like monoculture crops and adapt to pesticides and herbacides (that poison us, our sea life and the water supply too).

So what if all of these combine and that leads to a rapid fall off in natures O2 production over just a few years. We could be living on a planet like plant "Space Ball" (of the movie Spaceballs), where the leader cracks open a can of fresh air...

Some problems combined might be too big, so do we just let a confluence of bad policy and profitability decisions that have global and survival risks go forward without government intervention? Where is government of the people, by the people, for the people represented in this?

This is more like "of the corporation run by sociopaths, for corporations run by sociopaths, by political puppets controlled by sociopaths.

Hmm, sounds like Bush and Cheney?

How can Obama resist the sociopath power elite and serve "the people" ?

So I worry from time to time, what to do?

It took me a long time to figure out why things are going to hell. Then I read http://www.youmeworks.com/sociopaths.html and it all made sense. Sociopaths seek power and winning without conscience and this is why banking and wall street leaders are where they are, because they've changed the system of laws to favor themselves. Like terminators, they don't feel remorse or care if their actions hurt other people. These people are now a large proportion of our international corporate leadership. Until our system collapses, they will stay in power, even though they are the reason for our suffering and downfall as a nation. Not sure what there is to do about the situation except have people come to recognize sociopaths for what they are, broken people who should never be allowed to hold power. From the web site the 12 clues to recognizing a sociopath HOW TO KNOW The big question is, of course, how can you know whether someone is a sociopath or not? It is a difficult question and even experts on the subject can be fooled. If you suspect that someone close to you is a sociopath, I suggest you read both of the books I mentioned and think hard about it. Compare that person to the other people in your life. Ask yourself these questions: 1. Do you often feel used by the person? 2. Have you often felt that he (or she) doesn't care about you? 3. Does he lie and deceive you? 4. Does he tend to make contradictory statements? 5. Does he tend to take from you and not give back much? 6. Does he often appeal to pity? Does he seem to try to make you feel sorry for him? 7. Does he try to make you feel guilty? 8. Do you sometimes feel he is taking advantage of your good nature? 9. Does he seem easily bored and need constant stimulation? 10. Does he use a lot of flattery? Does he interact with you in a way that makes you feel flattered even if he says nothing overtly complimentary? 11. Does he make you feel worried? Does he do it obviously or more cleverly and sneakily? 12. Does he give you the impression you owe him? 13. Does he chronically fail to take responsibility for harming others? Does he blame everyone and everything but himself? Tags: evil, Hitler, anti-christ, sociopath,

I agree that parents and teachers are responsible for holding students accountable and encouraging them to learn and accomplish, but I question public education (and private schools) goals for their students learning. It seems to me that public school curriculum is designed to bore the crap out of young people and make their heads hurt so that they drop out, stay dumbed down, ready to take on faith, answers they should determine themselves. This results in a large population of "worker bees" that are manipulable due to their disinterest in actual knowing, and lacking of critical analysis skills to problem solve in the real world.

When public school "gets back to basics" by teaching each subject in a sterile and unrelated way to the world at large, it is boring. Young people are naturally interested in how math, english and science are interwoven, not how they exist in isolation. I also am very sad that programming is not something every young person has some mastery at by the time they graduate high school. I blame programming langauge designers for completely failing to provide an adequate programming ecosystem for introductory youth programming. The languages that are avaialble are toys, such as Logo and Squeak. The last great "real" interactive programming languages were BASIC on machines like the Apple II and APL (Ken Iverson) on mainframes and PC's. Unfortunately, modern implementations of these languages are uber complex professional tools that are innappropriate for introductory programming.

But I wandered off topic. What I rant about is how children barely understand the modern world they exist in. They may know how to do basic math and write a formulaic essay, but they have no idea how dozens of natural, man made and life critical systems we all depend on work. Kids get to play photo realistic games of war that require no knowledge or real skill, yet have no way to explore the life cycle of ponds, streams, rivers and oceans as a living simulation that they can nurture or pollute. To young people today, the world is a black box they barely have any interest in understanding, because school is about paper and pencil math drill books, and boring science and history textbooks that are dead, 3rd hand knowledge. If we let kids also learn experientially, through educational simulations that let them experience the systems and interact with them, young people will emerge from school with a broad experiential knowledge of biological and mechanical systems, electronics and power systems, farming, water supply, housing, transportation, political processes, family system and interpersonal dynamics, business operation and management, etc. I wish that all young people graduating from high school would have basic insight into the systemic processes of our world. They would make our population informed voters. What we have instead are people who are in blind allegiance to political parties that don't really know or care about the issues either, and just want to be in control.

I lead the development of two IBM classroom math education products many years ago that gave me a glimpse of where thing might have gone.

I still have a dream,

SimBuddha