Ron Meritt’s Pollution Free Motor really could be quite exciting if it works out to be practical and economically viable. However I suspect that if he goes ahead with his plan to auction the concept, patents and all on eBay it may end up languishing for ever in the bottom drawer of some oil company executive’s family vault. ‘The bids will be for the one-time technology transfer fee that includes pending patents, trade secrets, a fully functional prototype engine, and…

I don’t know. Is Brainwash Shampoo just for those with dirty minds? Or does it genuinely – as it says on the box – ‘increase the flow of oxygen to the brain, Improving Memory, Concentration and Mental Focus, and allowing you to feel more confident and be more productive?’ Answers on a pink loofer to….

The Conversation Catcher is the latest in discreet surveillance devices. Just lurk around the nearest office corridor with this doozy, point it at your boss and hear everything he’s saying from up to 120 feet away. Capture important information like… ‘What on earth is that muppet Jones doing pointing that naff green space gun at me, he’s really got to go you know.’ A bargin’ at �7.95. [Thanks David!]

Ho hum, another day another search engine. Kazazz (hmmm, is z the new 21st century letter?) But actually this puppy has some interesting features. No really, don’t snigger! Anyway, first is an Ask Anything bulletin board attached so users can ask general questions of the community. Second is instant translate from every result (unlike Google), and thirdly, a Quick Preview. Sadly, however, no cache.

Back in February Carol from WePod emailed me to let me know about their new audio conversion service, which is basically a UK version of RipDigital. You supply the CDs they do the conversion. I wrote back and gently suggested that they think about creating a web site first before sending out PR releases. And now they have. Priced at �1 a converted CD with a minimum of 100 CDs. Is there really a long term market for this kind…

The Korean made Ilkone i800 is being billed as the world’s first Islamic mobile phone. Not only can it point devotees towards Mecca from over 5000 cities worldwide, but it also contains the complete text of the Holy Quoran (with English translations and a search engine) and an Islamic Hijra calendar. It also sports a Yamaha sound chip that can play the Islamic Azan call to prayer up to five times a day, but interestingly has no camera on-board which…

For some strange reason Adtec of Japan has developed and launched the AD-SDPS [Babel] range of waterproof SD memory cards. It doesn’t say whether they’re guaranteed to any depth though, so maybe they should only be used in the bath.

The Qi car [Babel] is weird beyond weirdness. If I understand correctly, it is a design based on a Japanese toy, which has been converted into a real live electric city commuter runabout. Max speed 50 kph, max range 80kms and an 8 hour charge time. Oh and you have to wear a little blue pointy hat and red slippers when driving it (just joking, Big Ears!) More here. [Japanese]

Nutch. ‘Nutch is a nascent effort to implement an open-source web search engine.’ Nothing to see at the moment, but who knows?

Just bought a new DVD player/recorder? Worrying about what to do with your old scrap VCR? Well Greek electrical engineer Basil Dimitropoulos reckons that he has the perfect solution – use it to produce power. More specifically he believes that by recording a sawtooth wave onto a magnetic VHS video cassette he can generate around 12V of DC using special playback heads. ‘Although all the commercially available VHS tapes (5 �m coating thickness) are suitable to my project, the Panasonic…

The Saint Virtual USB Key is a security device with a difference. It creates ‘private’ partitions which disappear from the computer immediately the key is removed. No key, no data. That means that you can let everyone play around on the family PC, and stay happy in the knowledge that nobody can tamper with your delicate IRS negotiations correspondence and suchlike.

Aviation anoraks should probably run, not walk, down to Earls Court in London next week to attend the UK’s first indoor air show, Fly! Big news is that there will be a flight simulator section featuring amongst other things a British Airways Boing 737 simulator, where visitors can take off and land with full instruction from a BA crew. A friend of mine once let me try out a real full sized 747 simulator once, and it was beyond fun,…

Ferrety reader Lindsay N. writes in to warn about the Goraks.com matrix sales system which the Ferret covered a while ago. Interesting. ‘So I put in the $30 for the supposed PS2….after a few months, yes, a few months I “cycled” the list….From what I read, goraks would contact me with in 48 hours of cycling….funny thing, I cycled April 4 and it’s now April 7…no word and no reply to my e-mails..for those who may consider it, I say…

There are some great new collaborative music recommendation tools appearing online. Witness Webjay.org which lets you easily and quickly create playlists from music found on the web. Voil�, instant playlist web pages of MP3 music tracks in various genres. Fabulous. See also Songbuddy which does the same kind of thing. [Via Hublog] ‘Webjay has a tool specifically designed for people who blog links to songs. For people surfing your blog, it is a drag to have to click on each…