Dean Kamen  , he of Segway fame,  hey every genius has his own personal transporter story to fall back on Sir Clive Sinclair in the UK  is as well known for his failures as his successes.  ( He   sold more personal computers in the UK than all of the other companies combined) Segway doesn't appear to be a failure but  I have to see that I've yet to see one in active use and it's not like there's a shortage of disposable income in the Valley, oh wait, that's it. No one wants to toast at 7mph:)

Anyway  the point is what  Dean Kamen  turning his mind towards  is an area I have a great deal of interest in the  generating power and clean water without a large infrastructure. After all some people just want to be left alone, most people can't bear to leave each other alone and we call that the two party system:)  but I digress   Most of his breakthroughs have been in areas that  have broad implications for the quality of life issues  such as dialysis , irrigation, wheelchair alternatives that can tackle stairs amongst other things.    He's now looking at reviving a 19th century design  to produce about 1kw of power from a device that works of anything that burns, including cow dung.    Add to that a system that cleans  water and  what we have here is , OMG a capitalist that's helping people .. quick quick hide the children, that's not meant to happen:)     I'm being sarcastic since a free market system ( which I would love to see occur one of these days)  tends to do this kind of thing.