Cosmic Energy

On Friday 8th June I picked up a pair of Americans, one of whom wanted to book me for an airport run at 6.30 on Saturday morning. Never one to turn down a nice airport run, I agreed. Next morning she's coming out of her hotel laden with suitcases, and gets into the car. She's a slightly spaced-out Californian blonde, middle-aged, very attractive, and very intelligent, and I ask her if she was in Dublin for long.
-I was here for...ah.... quite a while...on a Science Project.
She talks like her mind is elsewhere, which it turns out it probably is.
-Oh yeah, what was the project?
-Well, an Irish guy has invented... something, and if it....works, it'll be pretty big, but it's pretty...far out so there was a whole lot of us from...ah...all over the world....meeting here to evaluate a......test for the invention to see if it 'll work.
At this point my mind is clicking and whirring as I search my archives, and ...yes, bingo
-Let me guess. It was an energy project...
-Yes.
-And it was about free energy...
Yes.
-And if it works it'll mean that we have to rewrite the Laws of Thermodynamics...
-That's right. STEORN. How did you know about that?
She sounds amazed, but it's hard to tell because she says everything like she's amazed. I'd read stuff about Steorn, this Irish company which claims to have found an energy source from Magnetic Field resonance, in which the return is greater than unity, which basically means that it releases more energy than it uses to work, with output between 285% and 400% and it has put patents on the various components of the machine as it can't put patents on the entire machine because you can't put a patent on a device that violates established physical and scientific principles. You can read about it :
here

Now this is pretty wild stuff because the First Law of Thermodynamics says you can't create energy from nothing, you can only transform it from one type of energy into another, and usually, in fact always, with an energy loss, and an increase in entropy, ie disorder.
Now I'm postulating: The second Law of Thermodynamics says that the entropy of a closed system increases with time, ie as time passes energy gradually dissipates evenly across the Universe. If this machine can do what Steorn says, then that would qualify as a decrease in entropy, which defies the second law, but what I really like is that if you reverse timeflow, the second law of Thermodynamics is preserved, so perhaps here's a time machine! Now THAT's cool!
Anyway, I'm thinking all this to myself as I'm driving and we're chatting. She can't and doesn't tell me much because it's all secret stuff at this stage and very sensitive, but she's curious about how I know about Steorn, and I tell her about my interest in science through my background, and how my father was involved in cosmic ray research on the Pique du Midi in the Pyrennees in the 1950's, and how he turned his back on it all to get into applied science and technology, specifically sustainable technology, and it turns out she's into this kind of alternative stuff too, so she's fairly open-minded, and then I tell her that I didn't go into science but into music. So at that point she gives me her card, which is actually a postcard, saying that she does media also. I look at the card, and Richard Feynmann is on the front (Feynmann was a theoretical physicist with an empirical approach, and an absolute genius. Goole him if you don't know). Actually it's an ad for Feynmann lectures on DVD, produced by her company, "sound photosynthesis". It turns out she worked with Feynmann at Caltech...At this stage we're at the 'port, so we part, and I promise to check out her website and I tell her to checkout mine which will be on the email I send her, and says she will, and that's that.
The thing is, I've never met anybody with such positive energy radiating from her. Visit the website
here
to see what else she's into. It's pretty...ah...out there.

Curious...

Coming back from the airport on the old Swords road as I don't use the Kesh. Hoping I'll pick up a fare on the way back to the city. Just through the lights at the boundary of the airport property and there's an airport police car, lights flashing, pulled over. Doors open, two officers drag a pretty but very angry blonde in pink tracksuit out of the car, manhandle her over to the kerb, open the boot, and throw her bags onto the pavement. I drive by, observing all. In my rearview mirror I see them leave, lights still flashing, and I see her putting out her hand trying to get a passing taxi. It's already booked.
Fair enough. I turn around, drive past her, do a u-turn, and pull in, getting out to open the boot for her bags. She's furious.
I put the bags in, and they're heavy. One of them even has a "heavy" tag. She's in the back seat, I'm in the front, -Ballymun, she says. -Sure. Are you alright? I ask. She looks at me. -It's not funny, she says. -I never said it was funny, I say; -I saw what happened and I'm just asking if you're alright.
-I asked you to take me to Ballymun. I didn't ask you to talk to me. I don't want to talk to you. Just take me to Ballymun.
-Fine, whereabouts in Ballymun?
-I'll show you.
-Can you give me the address?
-I said, I'll show you. Weren't you listening to me?
-
So as we get to the lights on the junction with the Old Airport Road and I swing right, she says -Why aren't you going through Santry?
-Because you didn't tell me you wanted me to go through Santry. It's all the same to me. It doesn't make any difference. It's more or less the same distance.
-It makes a difference to me, she says.
-Fine. Would you like me to go back and go through Santry?
-No. I told you I don't want to talk to you.
I've had enough, at this stage.
-Listen, I say, You told me to keep quiet, I kept quiet. Then you asked me why I wasn't going through Santry, and I answered you, and now you're telling me to keep quiet again. You are the rudest person I've ever had in this car. I didn't have to turn around and pick you up, but I saw you were in difficulty and I wanted to help, and right now I'm sorry that I picked you up. I wish I hadn't. I'll drive you to Ballymun.
There's silence. In the mirror I see her stonyfaced staring out the passenger door window. We come into Ballymun and I start to slow, waiting for her to tell me where she wants me to take her. We roll on, no information is forthcoming.
-Where would you like me to go?
-I said, I'll show you. Didn't you hear me? Next right.
She's left it till the last minute to tell me, and I've to get across two lanes of traffic. I say nothing. We swing the right and then she says -left here, but it's too late, and I have to stop and reverse in order to take the left. I still say nothing.
-Stop here, she says, and I do. I tell her the fare and ask, as I always do, -Do you want the receipt?
She looks at me icily. -Is this a joke?
-No, it's not a joke. My meter prints receipts. I'm asking you if you want the recipt. Do you want the recipt?
- No. She gives me the fare.
We get out of the car, I open the boot and put her bags on the ground, turn, get back into the car, wheel it around, and as I drive out of the cul de sac I see her struggling with her keys at the door.