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Man Invents Alternative To Cooking Gas

An anonymous reader writes "Gazan resident Abed Ar-Rahman has revealed what he is claiming as an alternative to cooking gas that he developed since Israel has prevented deliveries of cooking gas to Gaza. He invented a device using chemical substances available in Gaza, which burn when mixed and brought into contact with oxygen. The first component is a metal filter that controls the interaction between 40% of the oxygen in the surrounding air, the inflammable substance and some other substances."

31 of 553 comments (clear)

  1. Alternate heat sources by pwizard2 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    What about Calcium Oxide (CaO), which yields quite a bit of heat when exposed to water?

    All you have to do to get CaO is burn limestone, which people have been doing since antiquity.

    --
    "It is a denial of justice not to stretch out a helping hand to the fallen; that is the common right of humanity."
    1. Re:Alternate heat sources by pwizard2 · · Score: 4, Interesting

      And we could use more CaO to burn more rock and then we could cook anything for free! ...

      I know you're trolling, but it doesn't work like that.

      Limestone is a very common mineral, so CaO is relatively easy to acquire. The limestone must be prepped in a kiln. Limestone turns into CaO and CO2 at about 800 degrees F, which is not too difficult since that isn't very hot. The Calcium oxide must then be stored in an airtight container until it is used or it will deteriorate over time. I've seen active CaO ignite wood all by itself, so at least 451 degrees F is being generated by the reaction. If people placed CaO into an enclosed space to contain the heat generated by the reaction (even a little temporary oven made out of brick or rock would probably work) they could cook with it.

      --
      "It is a denial of justice not to stretch out a helping hand to the fallen; that is the common right of humanity."
  2. i smell bull... by iocat · · Score: 5, Insightful
    From TFA:

    The first component is a metal filter that controls the interaction between 40% of the oxygen in the surrounding air, the inflammable substance and some other substances. He refused to reveal the exact substances used, fearing that they will not be allowed into the Gaza Strip.
    The second part of his invention is an electronic board that regulates the percentage of air and oxygen entering into the appliance, and the third component is an air pump using electrical power.
    The metal cannister could be refilled with the inflammable substance for no more than 40 NIS, which would make the home cooking device functional for up to 40 days, according to Farajallah.

    This would be neat if true -- a garbage disposal sized obvject providing 40 days of cooking gas for 40 NIS, but just reading alerts every single "perpetual motion" bullshit detector in my head -- the 40% figure, the secret ingredients, etc.

    --

    Dude, I think I can see my house from here.

    1. Re:i smell bull... by westlake · · Score: 4, Insightful
      This would be neat if true --

      I want to know how much oxygen is being consumed here, what toxins are being pumped out.

      Carbon Monoxide comes first to mind.

      I want to know what makes this unknown chemical mixture safe to use and store in the home.

      I want to know about clearances, surface temperatures. I want to know how easily you can tip this thing over. The risk of accidental burns and fires.

    2. Re:i smell bull... by RealGrouchy · · Score: 5, Funny

      This would be neat if true -- a garbage disposal sized obvject providing 40 days of cooking gas

      Another Hanukkah miracle!

      - RG>

      --
      Hey pal, this isn't a pleasantforest, so don't waste my time with pleasantries!
    3. Re:i smell bull... by Zerth · · Score: 4, Funny

      At least, this was the explaination I was given for why 40 appears everywhere in the Bible. Given that the person who told me reads it in the original, I tend to trust him when it comes to linguistic nuances.

      .

      Is it so special to be able to read shakespearean english?

      I mean, the King James isn't as easy as some of those new teenager bibles, but you can muddle through the -iths and thous with some trouble.

      < /troll >

    4. Re:i smell bull... by Flavio · · Score: 5, Insightful

      If the prevelence of 40 as a figure is what turns you off, note that semetic languages commonly use the number 40 as a non-literal figure meaning "many" and somewhere around that order of magnitude. However, translations commonly take this literally. Hence, the prevelence of "40 days" for Noah's ark, "40 years" in the desert, etc.

      Sufficiently accurate for a religious text, but not at all appropriate for a technical description.

  3. Available in Gaza by Bryansix · · Score: 5, Funny

    You know what they have a lot of in Gaza which will burn nice and hot? Solid state rocket fuel.

    1. Re:Available in Gaza by c6gunner · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Do you seriously think rocket fuel is readily available for everyone on Gaza? That everyone on Gaza fires rockets at Israelis?

      When 84% of Palestinians polled support the cold-blooded murder of unarmed Jewish students, you'll have to excuse me if I don't get much comfort from the fact that not all of them are launching rockets.

      As for the rest of your comment, you should certainly be modded "flamebait", which means I probably should be taking the time to respond to you.

      Then again, you should probably be modded "funny", since I always get a kick out of morons who run around yelling:

      "LOLz U wahtc FOX NOOZ, STFU STOOPID N00B!!!11!".

      It seems to be a good rule of thumb that the more loudly someone proclaims their disdain for FOX, the more likely they are to be a complete imbecile.

    2. Re:Available in Gaza by Shadow+of+Eternity · · Score: 3, Insightful

      The current legitimately elected government of the Palestinian people have certain clues to their motives in their charter:

      "Today it is Palestine, tomorrow it will be one country or another. The Zionist plan is limitless. After Palestine, the Zionists aspire to expand from the Nile to the Euphrates. When they will have digested the region they overtook, they will aspire to further expansion, and so on. Their plan is embodied in the "Protocols of the Elders of Zion", and their present conduct is the best proof of what we are saying." (article 32)

      "The time will not come until Muslims will fight the Jews (and kill them); until the Jews hide behind rocks and trees, which will cry: O Muslim! there is a Jew hiding behind me, come on and kill him!" (article 7)

      The palestinians have made their motives towards the jews, all jews, absolutely clear ever since they got the hell out of dodge so that the muslim nations nearby (read: just about everything else over there) could push the jews into the sea.

      --
      A bullet may have your name on it but splash damage is addressed "To whom it may concern."
    3. Re:Available in Gaza by Duhavid · · Score: 3, Insightful

      "Them". Say "some of 'them'", and you are on to something. Or do you maintain that each and every resident of Gaza all hate Israelis with all their breath? This article puts the lie to that notion, this one guy made a stove instead of a rocket.

      And Israel has a blockade where aluminum and cooking gas ( from the article ) are not allowed in or in low supply. This punishes the "live and let live" types far more than the violent militant ones, *and* gives backing to any "the Israelis hate you, see what they are doing to you?" kind of rhetoric. ( Yes, that blockade is in reaction to violence from Arabs against Israelis, but A: this will lead to hatred, not a limitation to violence and B: the violence is in reaction ( as they see it ) to the occupation of their lands ).

      --
      emt 377 emt 4
    4. Re:Available in Gaza by Duhavid · · Score: 4, Interesting

      All the reading I have done indicated to me that Hamas was elected mainly on the strength that they were not Fatah. The citizenry were tired of the corruption of Fatah, and had one real alternative open to them.

      That is not a mandate of the Hamas platform.

      --
      emt 377 emt 4
    5. Re:Available in Gaza by Keen+Anthony · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Polls are all about timing and "location location location". I could use selective polling to find that 84% of Americans polled believe we should nuke France.

      It seems the better rule of thumb is that the more loudly someone proclaims their disdain for a group of people, the more likely they are to be complete imbeciles.

    6. Re:Available in Gaza by Alpha830RulZ · · Score: 4, Insightful

      When 84% of Palestinians polled [nytimes.com] support the cold-blooded murder of unarmed Jewish students,

      While I don't defend this opinion or behavior, I wonder what a comparable survey of Israelis would reveal.

      From my vantage point, there seems to be a lot of hotheadedness and vitriol all around the region. I don't think there are a lot of clean hands to be found.

      --
      I was taught to respect my elders. The trouble is, it's getting harder and harder to find some.
    7. Re:Available in Gaza by chrb · · Score: 4, Interesting

      The poll you cite was carried out after attacks by Israel that killed 130 people in Gaza. That's 0.00025% of the Gaza population. In contrast, the 9/11 attacks killed 0.0001% of New York citizens.

      So, imagine that the 9/11 attacks had killed 2.5 times more people, and then imagine polling New Yorkers immediately after the attacks on their feelings towards the group of people who carried out the attacks. Do you think you would get a different result?

      It seems to be a good rule of thumb that the more loudly someone proclaims their disdain for FOX, the more likely they are to be a complete imbecile.

      Because Fox is known for its accurate and unbiased reporting? This is the same Fox that ran serious reports with "experts" claiming that Barack Obama is a secret Muslim.

  4. Re:Flamebait Summary by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    Flamebait for sure.

    The entire coastline of Gaza is barricaded by Israel, and has been so for a very long time. Not only that, but anything coming into or going out of Gaza, whether by land or sea, is controlled by Israel. (The only exception to this would be things smuggled back and forth via tunnels, etc., between Gaza and Egypt.

  5. Re:Flamebait Summary by Jack9 · · Score: 3, Informative

    Just because you border the sea, doesn't mean FedEx delivers. Be serious.

    It's widely known Palestine is considered slightly more than a 4th world nation.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaza (just look for the words "import materials")

    While I suffer some shame at resorting to wikipedia, no other sources are given as much credit, on /., to being impartial and correct. Neither of which, wikipedia, deserves. If you could point out somewhere this is contradicted, I would be very interested.

    --

    Often wrong but never in doubt.
    I am Jack9.
    Everyone knows me.
  6. He could have used dung as well by bogaboga · · Score: 4, Informative

    While I congratulate him for his invention, he could have used dung from the millions of sheep and camels in the region to make biogas. As a matter of fact these folks are already doing it.

    I hear waste from humans works too. The trouble with it being the stench and the potential for Hepatitis A spread.

  7. Re:Flamebait Summary by Richard_at_work · · Score: 4, Informative
    Israel regularly blockades Gaza ports, so the statement is true...

    (IsraelNN.com) The Israeli Navy Monday morning blocked a Libyan ship trying to challenge Israeli sovereignty over Gaza coastal waters by landing at Gaza with 3,000 tons of food and medicine. The Foreign Ministry confirmed that it stopped the ship around dawn and that no force was necessary. "The Navy warned the ship that it was approaching prohibited waters and it decided to turn back," Foreign Ministry spokesman Yossi Levi said.

    http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/128625

    In late August, two boats arrived in Gaza despite Israeli threats to stop them. Israeli Foreign Ministry officials said at the time that there had been a last-minute decision to let the boats through to avoid a public relations debacle at sea, and not to play into the hands of people they described as provocateurs. This time, too, Israeli officials had stated that the boat would not be allowed to reach Gaza, and that the Free Gaza trips would not become routine. Yet the boat was allowed to proceed without hindrance once again. "It was decided at the highest levels to allow them to enter," said Yigal Palmor, an Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman, without further explanation.

    http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/10/29/mideast/mideast.php

    Dignity, a small boat carrying activists, was allowed to sail into Gaza on Tuesday, less than a week after the navy stopped a Libyan cargo ship from entering the Palestinian port and after police prevented a group of Israeli Arabs from embarking for the Strip from Jaffa. Palestinian fishermen welcome... Palestinian fishermen welcome a boat carrying members of a previous activist ship, upon its arrival at Gaza port earlier this month. The boat left Cyprus on Monday night, and was organized by the Free Gaza Movement, which has successfully sailed three ships into the Strip in recent months.

    http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1228728125788

    If Israel doesn't want you moving goods into Gaza, you are going to find it very difficult to do so...

  8. WTF ISRAEL? by exhilaration · · Score: 4, Interesting

    ...he faced many difficulties in obtaining specific metals such as aluminum that are not allowed into Gaza

    1. Re:WTF ISRAEL? by mi · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I guess they're worried that they'll use that aluminum and convert a shanty town into a nuke refinery.

      Or a Quassam-rocket. One of those just killed two sisters aged 12 and 5.

      --
      In Soviet Washington the swamp drains you.
    2. Re:WTF ISRAEL? by gbulmash · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Or a Quassam-rocket. One of those just killed two sisters aged 12 and 5.

      And you might notice those girls were Palestinians. It's sort of sad, because when I saw that article, my first thought was "ha ha, you dumbass terrorists screwed up and killed your own." Then right after it I felt guilty because no child's death should be a source of laughter. I'm just so sick and damn tired of these asswipe terrorists. When they kill their own by accident, it's hard not to gloat.

    3. Re:WTF ISRAEL? by mi · · Score: 3, Insightful

      And you might notice those girls were Palestinians.

      That's the point. Had I linked to any Israeli victim of terrorism, some dumbass would've come out from somewhere to debate, that it is all Israel's own fault, that they shouldn't have built the country in "somebody else's desert", or that they should've just died in the face of opposition, etc. This way, there is no such distraction.

      Or, at least, it is much harder to make — blaming the deaths of Palestinian girls from a Palestinian-fired rocket on Zionist Entity is, of course, possible — had it not been for the occupation, there would've been no need for rockets, so there — but stretches credulity beyond most people's BS-meters. I'm sure, this explanation is being offered inside Gaza and, maybe, West Bank, but it would not work elsewhere. Or so one hopes...

      --
      In Soviet Washington the swamp drains you.
  9. How useful is this? by thePowerOfGrayskull · · Score: 3, Funny
    Unless it's appreciably easier to get aluminum than it is to get cooking gas...

    He added that he spent 3,000 Jordanian dinars developing the device, and stressed that he faced many difficulties in obtaining specific metals such as aluminum that are not allowed into Gaza.

    Oh, wait...

  10. Sounds plausable... by Sooner+Boomer · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Sounds like it might be a form of the Fischer-Tropsch process, a catalyzed chemical reaction in which synthesis gas (syngas), a mixture of carbon monoxide and hydrogen, is converted into liquid hydrocarbons of various forms. You don't have to end up with liquid products. The catalysts are the things that would be the hardest to get in the Gaza area. You need electricity to run the process, but only intermediatly, to build up the product. The Germans made a lot of progress on this during WWII when their access to petro-products was cut off, yet the demand for POL was still high. The feedstock could be almost any organic material that can be volatilized, not necessiarily syngas, but the catalysts needed and the temperatures/pressures are a booger to work out.

    --
    Chaos maximizes locally around me.
  11. Re:obvious answer by Shadow+of+Eternity · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Ok it's in poor taste admittedly but speaking as a jew even I found that hilarious.

    --
    A bullet may have your name on it but splash damage is addressed "To whom it may concern."
  12. A Brief Politically Incorrect But Truthful History by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Which came first? Jerusalem's Grand Mufti in 1948 (al-Husayni) did. While he was in prison at the time for war crimes including his collusion with Hitler, he still had enough influence to have his followers start attacking Jewish settlements and begin the Arab Israeli War when partitioning took place in Palestine. He also was a main lobbyist and negotiator for organizing the Arab countries that declared war on the new state of Israel. He is the one responsible for ordering Palestinians to leave the area for refugee camps in Gaza and the West Bank. That is even after the new Israelis recognized their rights to land and living in the area now known as Israel. The Palestinians living in the Israeli side of the partitions were guaranteed to keep all their lands and sources of income by the Israelis. The Arab leaders, including al-Husayni, started the fight and told the Palestinians to move aside while they kicked the Jews into the sea... which of course didn't happen. When they were unsuccessful, Jordan annexed the West Bank portion of the Palestinian homeland outlined in the partitioning treaty, and Egypt took the Gaza strip. And they refused to let the Palestinians stay anywhere outside the refugee camps for the longest time. In some places they were never allowed to live outside the refugee camps... never allowed to become citizens of the countries where the camps existed. Yes, Arab countries treated the Palestinians worse than the Israelis would have. The Israelis would not have done anything other than let the status quo of life as usual happen.

    And by the way, there was NO country called Palestine before annexation, and the Palestinians didn't lose anything. They were living in areas claimed by other countries and never had the status (for a couple thousand years) of citizens of a Palestinian state in all that time. Partitioning carved a space out for both sides. But no-one had to move. The choice was their own. And now they have the Gaza strip and the West Bank back. But they still want to fight for something they never had before, simply because the others there are Jews. They should grow up, get control of their emotions like a civilized people, and stop with the bullshit rocket attacks. Then there will be peace. The Israelis, like anyone being beaten by a person who can't contain their own hysteria, can only take getting hit so many times before replying in kind.

    So which came first? The Grand Mufti's thugs and prideful Arab countries were the cause of the Palestinian's grief.

  13. Re:obvious answer by wealthychef · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Yes, and America stole California from Mexico. History will not aid us in this question. The only way out is through dialog between parties who are committed to peace and freedom for all. Until that dialog begins, I think the "terrorism"/"oppression" (killing of innocents on both "sides") will continue.

    --
    Currently hooked on AMP
  14. Re:I Call Bullshit by Gerzel · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Other than the Palestinians were in fact living there and the way political events turned out where in fact removed by force.

    I didn't say it was a particularly Good argument or correct. I did say that their side did have some valid reasoning.

  15. Re:A Brief Politically Incorrect But Truthful Hist by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    If you care to read the Balfour declaration of 1917, stating that the British government "view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people", you would realize that there was indeed a land called Palestine since 1917. Go back even further, the crusades, where do you think they were headed? Read an accurate history book for a change. And let me enlighten you one last time, Winston Churchill, before the Palestine Royal Commission, said the following: "I do not agree that the dog in a manger has the final right to the manger even though he may have lain there for a very long time. I do not admit that right. I do not admit for instance, that a great wrong has been done to the Red Indians of America or the black people of Australia. I do not admit that a wrong has been done to these people by the fact that a stronger race, a higher-grade race, a more worldly wise race to put it that way, has come in and taken their place." In effect, Palestinians are the dogs in your manger, been there for 2000 years give or take. It is interesting to see how you chose to dispose of them.

  16. Re:A Brief Politically Incorrect But Truthful Hist by CAIMLAS · · Score: 4, Informative

    The irony is that most people who are classified as Palestinians have never been to Palestine and neither have their ancestors - ie they're genetically diverse and not at all a "people group".

    The "Palestine" people are mostly just Arabs from Egypt, SA, Jordan, and the other surrounding Arab countries who were slow to revert from nomadic lifestyles - basically, Arab gypsies. They were a nuisance to the Arab states, and Israel provided a seemingly convenient (in that they could use them against the Jews) place to get rid of them.

    The actual "Palestinians" are mostly integrated amongst Israelis; if it wasn't for the media's focus on the Palestinians as a group, they likely wouldn't even be identifiable as anything other than "naturalized secular Arab-Israeli" by this point.

    --
    ~/ssh slashdot.org ssh: connect to host slashdot.org port 22: too many beers