Anticipation and speculation have Odessans on pins and needles.  At this point the rumors of a new business coming to the town has raised questions for which we have no answers.  The situation may be comparable to waiting to open Christmas presents.  Will the contents of the package be a disappointment; will it exceed our highest hopes; or will it be empty?  The unwrapping will provide the answer.

 

Whatever the answer turns out to be, there should a sense of satisfaction for the people of Odessa and an uplifting of hope for the future of the town.  Over a span of two years a base for economic development has been prepared.  In less than one year it has produced a result.  This is a remarkable achievement in a climate that has not always been receptive to change.

 

The real gift in the unopened package is the knowledge that what can be done once can be repeated. 

 

 

 

I think it is a shame that we have one faction hoping that the unopened package will have a lump of coal so they can say.  I told you so!

Modessa:

 

You are correct in saying that one faction will be hoping that there will be a lump of coal in the package.  It is a sin and a shame that these pious folks who claim to be benefactors of the town and the guardians of the taxpayers pocketbooks will not support anyone or anything that they can't control.

 

Odessans have ignored this hypocrisy for a long time and subsidized the source of it to the detriment of the town.  Thank you for your reply.

The package has been opened, and today does seem like Christmas to Odessans.   The happiness of the day should not obscure the knowledge that what has been done once can be repeated.  If the citizens support economic development, and if they keep the machinery in place that made this day possible, there may be more presents to be opened.

 

I have heard that the work to bring businesses to the town is on-going.  This day of celebration was just a pause in that work.  Don't overlook the fact many  households have two wage earners.  Salaries that pay 20k to 30k will raise those families well above the current average income per household, which I understand is 40k per year.  Any business that brings a payroll to town will help the local merchants and service providers.

 

The mayor, Mike McGhee, members of the city council, past and present, and the city employees who worked to make February 18 possible have earned their paychecks.

My only reservation about this is that the products this company is saying they're going to produce are pure fiction.  It doesn't look like they have financing yet.  And their corporate structure looks questionable, at best.

Which is maybe why there were no city incentives...  No incentives because the company is bogus. 

"product spins because of the power of magnetism"?  What??  There is no such thing as overunity.  The Law of Conservation of Energy (seventh grade science) just can't be violated.  The whole home generator thing is just bogus.

Then step back and look at their entire product lineup...  Portable Emergency Rooms, Soybean based health foods, and overunity home generators..  Something not add up here other than there is no crossover between these three?

I hope it all works out..  I really do...  But this company appears to be a grab for federal stimulus and green energy money for some other purpose to me.

odessamom:

 

Thanks for your reply.  It certainly raises questions.  Will you answer some questions for me? 

      

(!) You say the company is bogus.  Will you explain what you mean by bogus?

 

(2) Overunity is a new term for me.  What does it mean?

 

(3) Will you briefly state the Law of Conservation of Energy?

 

(4) Can You suggest some "other purposes" for which this could be a grab for     

      federal or green energy money?

 

(5)  If your worst fears prove well-grounded, how will the city or the citizens be  

      damaged, other than to be embarassed?

 

(6) If you have sources of information other than yourself that lead you to doubt,

      will you name them?

 

(7) Would you agree that whether or not your fears prove to be well-grounded,

      this event is grounds for continuing the push for economic development?

 

I agree with the expression of fears and doubts to the point that we begin to take counsel of them in making our decisions.  The result will be paralysis.  I hope that you will respond, and I hope that others will offer their thoughts.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

odessamom:

 

Thanks for your reply.   It certainly raises some questuions..Will you answer them for me?

 

(1)  Will you elaborate on the meaning of bogus as you use It?

(2)  What is overunity?

(3)  Will you briefly 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(!) You say the company is bogus.  Will you explain what you mean by bogus?

Manna of Utah has an address in Florida at a UPS Store, i.e. no real office

Maglev-energy licensed the technology to Manna...  But the two's websites

are in the same datacenter, and it appears that Manna and Maglev are sharing

resources.

I think it's curious that a for-profit entity would be allowed to use a non-profit entity for their manufacturing / sales / etc.  I say bogus because they have no existing products, no sales, no customers, no offices, no employees outside of the four principles.

 

(2) Overunity is a new term for me.  What does it mean?

Putting out more energy than you take in...  Can't happen.  No closed system is perfect, it takes outside inputs of energy.  Overunity is just the fancy term for perpetual motion machine.

 

(3) Will you briefly state the Law of Conservation of Energy?

You can't get more energy out of a system than what is put into it.  Using an electric motor to drive an electric generator will always need additional power to run.  Additionally, all heat generated by the motor and generator is energy removed from the system (and not available for power generation).  Same thing with friction.

 

(4) Can You suggest some "other purposes" for which this could be a grab for     

      federal or green energy money?

There are to many possible scenarios to expound on here.  The only good one I can think of is if this is all a smokescreen to hide the identity of a real company who's wanting to produce something totally different and keep the information away from competitors for as long as possible.

 

(5)  If your worst fears prove well-grounded, how will the city or the citizens be  

      damaged, other than to be embarassed?

90 million dollar city backed bond issue?  Was in the KC Star article.  Making it more difficult to attract real businesses downstream. 

 

(6) If you have sources of information other than yourself that lead you to doubt,

      will you name them?

All data was obtained from Google, Bing, Youtube, ARIN, and other public sources.  Took less than 30 minutes to find it all.

 

(7) Would you agree that whether or not your fears prove to be well-grounded,

      this event is grounds for continuing the push for economic development?

This event is not grounds to continue economic development.  This situation only points out that significant due diligence is required when pursuing economic development.  Time and resources have been wasted on this particular event.  If and when this crashes it will make it harder, not easier to keep pushing forward.

But I do think Odessa needs to push, and push hard, to attract businesses.

Odessa needs to keep pushing for businesses to locate and thrive in Odessa.  But the businesses you go after need to be functioning businesses with adequate resources and capital available. 

Odessamom:

 

Thanks for the prompt response.  Your answers to questions one, two, three, and six provided me with information, parts of which I had not heard or read, and identified your sources .  The answers to questions two and three were a quick refresher course for my limited scientific interests and abilities.

 

The answer to question four is vague in that you don't give a detailed answer.  I can think of two other reasons than the one you provide.  It is an outright attempt to swindlle, or it is an attempt to start a business on nothing other than speculation with the hope it will be successful.

 

I believe the answer to question five may be a misunderstanding.  I think that industrial revenue bonds must be issued by a taxing entity of the state.  I assume this may be because of tax exemptions and/or tax abatement.  However, the taxing entity does not underwrite or insure the bonds in any manner and has no liability in the case of default.  That is a layman's interpretation of the law for what it is worth.

 

The answer to question seven is one on which we disagree.  If this first step proves to be a stumble, it can be a learning experience.  It can also provide the hope that the plan and structure set up for economic development can succeed by refining the process.  You write that Odessa needs to push hard to bring established businesses to town with adequate capital and resources.  By what  means other than an economic development program could the "hard push" be made?

 

We need to remind ourselves of the many businesses that thrive in America today were started on a shoestring with minimal capital and resources.  Time will tell if the first step taken yesterday was a stumble.  At least it was a step taken in the effort to put Odessa on the firm footing it deserves.  Whatever the outcome, do Odessans have any other choice than to proceed with economic development?

SycamoreBay:  You've overrated me, but thanks for your confidence.  

The patent number is 7352096.

 

Hopefully this link will take you to the page.

 

http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u =%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=7352096.PN.&OS=PN/7352096&RS=PN/7352096

I was being purposely circumspect on answer four..  Because there isn't enough information for any kind of accurate speculation.  And I wouldn't assume intentional criminal activity without a whole lot more data.

As to the bonds..  First they have to be sold.  Let's take a slight hypothetical here...  Let's say they are sold, and the company goes bust because they have no real product.  In that instance institutional investors (who are the ones that buy the bulk of these types of bonds) would end up requiring alot more due diligence on future purchases.  The city's name is on the bonds.  It would be a PR hit, and institutional investors may shy away from future bond issues if one fails spectacularly.

On number six...  I didn't provide specific URL's..  But I did read the patent, use public records from ARIN, found a couple of the principals on LinkedIn, Facebook, etc.  Found their videos on Youtube and iReport, etc.  Anyone can do this. 

On number seven I think we actually agree.  I may have worded my response poorly.  Odessa needs to be aggressive.  Odessa needs to find businesses to move here.  It doesn't make a lot of difference if they are small, or large.  The point I was trying to make is that they need to be a real business first.  Beyond incubator stage unless we're going to build a business incubator.  And that a ton of due diligence has to be done to check the viability of a business before bond authority is used.

The thing I haven't seen is verification that this generator product actually works.  Has this generator been put under load for extended periods of time?  What is the testing protocol?  Any university studies, engineering reports, etc.?  I can't find any.  And the websites for these two entities are very lacking in any kind of information.

One would think that if they do have such a generator, that they would be showing it's value, demonstrating it's viability, etc.  They do seem to have a demo system (http://www.ireport.com/docs/DOC-41455) but it doesn't show much.

odessamom:

 

Thanks for your reply.  There is a lot of conjecture whether the acquisition of this company will bring anything of value to the town, and there are broad hints that its coming may have detrimental effects.  I wonder if most of the questions being raised did not receive due consideration before a decision was made. 

 

Under the circumstances, so far they are known, how would the individual citizen have voted had the decision been his/hers to make.  There would have been yeas and nays, and I suspect there would have been a lot who would  have fudged the question, as they are doing now.

 

Unfortunately, Odessa's future has been fudged to the point that the town borders on dwindling to village status.  The situation called for a definite decision, one way or the other.  The city administration had the courage to make that decision.  That was what they were elected to do.

 

 

 

I'm 100% behind Odessamom on this. Minimal research on Manna and their product should set off the B.S. alarm for anyone with > than a high school education.  The wording and video that has been used to describe Maglev's generator sound and look an awful lot like the free energy generator videos all over youtube.
Swims like a duck, walks like a duck, quacks like a duck.... I think you know the rest.

Thanks for your reply.  I don't have the knowledge or the background in science and the poultry business to identify the generator as a duck or a turkey.  It may be both.

 

The point I would make is that I'm encouraged that an effort has been made to bring a new business to Odessa, and it has been successful to this point.  What has been done once can be repeated, and that offers hope for the future of the town.

 

If this company proves to be a pie-in--the-sky venture, I don't see how the citizens will be harmed.  The city officials may be embarassed, and that would no doubt be gratifying to some folks.  The positive fact in this acquisition is that the city officials were willing to get off their duffs and show some energy and initiative to move the town out of the doldrums.  

 

The town needs much more than a pipe-dream about a program to fix the streets that was never funded in fact or in fancy.  It was a mirage like the the 400k that was set aside in a fund to build a new city hall.  It was set so damn far aside that no one can find it as a separate fund. 

 

If some sort of business, be it a whiskey distillery or a crescent-cutting plant, isn't brought to Odessa in the near future, a new sewer plant or highway interchange won't be needed, but a crescent-cutting plant would do a thriving business.