Skeptic Project

Abstract: It's long but good. A basic compile of Justintempler work within Kush's blog on Douglas Mallette's Cybernated Farm Systems, and Omega Volksgarden.

I know Justintempler had covered the exposing of Douglas Mallette's Omega Volksgarden scam really good in James Kush blog he made called "Zeitgeist "NASA Scientist" Douglas Mallette and "Cybernated Farm Systems" Exposed"; However not many read the subposts Justintempler made in the comment section about Omega Volksgarden that blow the whole concept out of the water in terms of practical. The fact Douglas Mallette would go with such a farming concept is mind blowing let alone try to make people think he made it.

Much appreciation towards Justintempler for doing the research and the leg work on finding this out as well as presenting in a way that is easily digestible for the readers (hopefully I'm giving credit to the right people, if not contact me). What Justintempler wrote sort of compounded even more so how much of a fraud Douglas Mallete as well as it's a direct reflection upon what the Zeitgeist Movement is all about.

To Justintempler: If you want to add things to this thread, just get a hold of me or add things to the blog post on Kush's blog and I'll make sure it gets posted up in this thread.

To Douglas Mallete: You're welcome to respond to this thread through your facebook account anytime (I'll make sure what you say gets quoted word for word in this thread) or join the Skeptic Project site to make a rebuttal to the facts. I would highly recommend you respond to these facts, however your free not to as well.

Cybernated Farm Systems Link:

Facebook site
http://www.facebook.com/CybernatedFarmSystems
Facebook page
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Douglas-Mallette/126597571796


Check out other big money scams involving TVP, TZM and affiliates.

The Venus Project Needs $300,000 to write Jaque Fresco Biography!
http://conspiracies.skepticproject.com/forum/5513/the-venus-project-needs-300000-to-write-jaque-fresco-biogr/

The Venus Projects $100,000 Big Budget Movie Scam Prediction.
http://conspiracies.skepticproject.com/forum/5349/the-venus-projects-100000-big-budget-movie-scam-prediction/

Douglas Mallette needs *pause* 1 million dollars, Muhahahaha!
http://conspiracies.skepticproject.com/forum/5455/douglas-mallette-needs-pause-1-million-dollars-muhahahaha/

Below I have the blog post of what Justintempler wrote along with the relevant sub posts he wrote in the comment section below. In case anybody thinks (like I original did) that what Douglas is doing with his Cybernated Farm Systems is a good idea, may think otherwise after reading this as well as question Douglas intellect/NASA qualification/engineering background (eventually I'll post a Justintempler debunk on Douglas Mallete credentials). This SP topic is great for linking to individuals who think Douglas Mallete's Cybernated Farm Systems is a great idea or show even more how much of a fraud Douglas is.


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Zeitgeist "NASA Scientist" Douglas Mallette and "Cybernated Farm Systems" Exposed
http://zeitgeistmovements.wordpress.com/2012/01/16/zeitgeist-nasa-scientist-douglas-mallette-and-cybernated-farm-systems-exposed/


Blog post by Justintempler about Douglas Mallete's cybernated Farm Systems. Posted on January 16, 2012.

I laughed at the pic of his Omega Volksgarden ( http://omegagarden.com/ ) with its 3 lonely grow cubes sitting sideways next to a window with no grow light.

The Omega Garden makes more than one version of their hydroponic Ferris wheel. The fact that he bought the Volksgarden "tinker toy" version proves he's clueless (www.omegagarden.com/product). If this guy was really serious about starting a company around the concept (or even began to understand what he was doing) he would have bought a commercial model:



There's nothing cybernated or sustainable about the concept of having a Ferris wheel that dunks your plants, that have been inserted into individual non renewable Rockwool cubes around an artificial light source, in a solution tank every few minutes. The Ferris wheel concept came about as a way to efficiently grow marijuana away from the prying eyes of law enforcement. A visit to any one of the numerous marijuana growing sites will reveal the true purpose of what systems like the one that Doug bought are used for.



Remember the marijuana crop is valued in dollars per GRAM so this stealth method of growing marijuana makes sense. Food crops are valued in dollars per POUND or cents per gram. So while growing marijuana using an Omega Garden can be considered efficient, growing food using the same method is not. Until we start paying $30 for a few grams of tomatoes, there are far more efficient ways of growing food crops hydroponically.




The fact that you "can" grow food (although very inefficiently) is used by the companies as a marketing gimmick so they can push these products (and sometimes even get free advertising) in a media that would otherwise reject the articles or advertisement.
(You can't very well get free full page articles in Popular Science about the latest and best marijuana growing system now can you?)

The fact that Doug bought the marketing gimmick hook line and sinker leaves the following options

Doug is:
a. naive
b, deluded
c. ignorant
d. con man
e. all of the above

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The rest of posts below are by Justintempler and are located in the comment section of the blog.


First post in blog comment section by Justintempler on January 16, 2012 at 9:57 pm

I kind of hijacked a thread that Kush devoted to information I provided.
I'm going to bring it back on topic and finish out the examination of Doug's business plan.

I applied some basic math to Doug's plan. Let's see how much fail his plan to grow food using his "Cybernated" system really is.....

We'll do a very rough calculation using lettuce, which OmegaGarden's website suggests as a viable crop for Doug's Volksgarden.

Major equipment costs:
The unit he "bought" for his "research" is the following unit:
https://www.omegagarden.com/index.php?content_id=175&product_id=1
Omega Volksgarden cost $2595.00

The unit does not include a light,
Doug says he wants to use the following unit which will save him on his electricity costs:
http://www.hydrogrowled.com/%2F504W-Penetrator-Vertical-LED-Grow-Light-P62.aspx
That will cost another $1500.00

So just for the (as Doug calls it) "Growth Chamber" and light Doug has spent $4,095.00 dollars.
Of course Doug isn't spending his own money, he's relying on investors and donations....

For our electricity costs...
The light Doug chose, although called a 504 watt unit, actually consumes 420 watts of electricity.
Assume a 6 week grow cycle for 60 lettuce plants with 18 hours of light per day.
We're using an 18 hour a day light cycle to maximize growth for each crop.
Our goal is to quickly grow as much food as possible, (remember we're trying to combat world hunger!)
6 weeks x 7 days a week x 18 hours a day = 756 hours x .420 kwh (420 watts) = 317.52 kwh x $ 0.15 kwh = $47.62 electricity cost for 60 heads of lettuce.
Good thing Doug spent the extra money and got the efficient LED light instead of going with a a 1000 watt HPS lamp, his electricty costs would have been more than double.

That $47.62 divided by 60 works out to $0.79 (just for the cost of electricity) per head of lettuce

Growing medium...
The Volksgarden requires the use of 3×3 growing medium into which each individual plant must be inserted.
This common product is known as a Rockwool cube and is a standard and a very popular item in the hydroponic industry.
They are similar to the florists foam that flower arangements come in.
These cubes are required by the Omega for each and every plant.
They are NOT reusable NOR are they recyclable. (So much for sustainability huh?)
http://www.hydroasis.com/hy/productdetail.aspx?id=168&product=rockwool-grow-block-3-x-3-x-4-inches-with-hole

The cost of the Rockwool growing cubes $1.09 for each plant

Before we go any further notice ....

After we've spent $4,095.00 for equipment
The cost of the electricty $0.79 per plant
The cost of the growing cube $1.09 per plant
$0.79 + $1.09 = $1.88 per plant

How much does ahead of Lettuce cost $1.50? $2.00?

We still have: the cost of the seeds, the plant food, water reservoir, timers, pH testing equipment.
Not included is the building, rent, climate control (heating/cooling) insurance and his time.
Neither have we included the shipping costs of the incoming supplies.
And last but not least: the cost of packaging, refrigeration and transport of the finished produce.

As should be readily apparent by now, Douglas Mallette hasn't even done the basic math.
There's nothing sustainable or even remotely feasible in his business plan.
Cybernated Farm Systems plan to grow food with an Omega Garden style growing system is a failure before Doug even attempts to grow one plant.

The problem is of course Doug is basing his plans solely on the marketing hype that is being fed to him by the people at Omega Garden
So much for Zeitard talk about critical thinking, having their eyes opened (being "Awakened") and all that talk about the scienctific method, huh?

Now on the other hand...
If Doug wants to grow marijuana that sells for about $7.00(?) per GRAM, instead of $1.50-$2.00 heads of lettuce, then he "might" have a workable future as a hydroponic marijuana grower.

Second Post by Justintempler on January 18, 2012 at 1:48 am

Here's another fine example of how much on a non-engineer Doug is......

http://thezeitgeistmovementblog.wordpress.com/tag/douglas-mallette/
"Each facility would grow 12 of the most healthy and popular vegetables, enough to feed 1,000 people per crop. After plenty of research, there is a good consensus on what those are: Spinach, Green Peas, Red Leaf Lettuce, Garlic, Onions, Carrots, Brocolli, Brussel Sprouts, Cauliflower, Tomatoes, Red Peppers and Green Peppers."

Remember he's growing these in an Omega Garden type system that uses a 3 inch x 3 inch x 4 inch Rockwool cube as the growing media.
The Rockwool cube takes the place of soil, this is where the roots grow.
The Rockwool cube also acts like a wet piece of Styrofoam that holds on to the water along with the dissolved plant food to feed the plant as it grows.

Garlic, Onions, and Carrots are root crops. The edible part of the plant grows underground.

Now picture an onion bulb growing inside of a 3 inch x 3 inch x 4 inch cube.
Keep in mind, it can't fill the whole cube (there would be no way for the plant to feed itself as it grows.)
Just how big do you think our onion bulbs can grow?

The same problem goes with the carrots and the garlic. The edible part of the plant that we harvest (plus the media required to feed it as it grows) has to be smaller than size of the "container" it is growing in.

This is the kind of planning someone claiming to be an engineer has done after spending well over a year doing "research". His CFS plans are full of idiotic mistakes and oversights like this.

With him growing food the only thing the sustainability movement can look forward to is sustained starvation.

(Bonus question: How many jawbreaker size onions will Doug have to grow to feed 1,000 people?)

Third Post by Justintempler on January 19, 2012 at 12:04 pm

At the heart of Doug's plan is the Rockwool cube. It's what makes it possible to grow plants upside down in a rotating Ferris wheel. Without the Rockwool cube his system wouldn't work.

Although Rockwool is similar to Volcanic rock it's a totally man made material. It is made by taking chalk and rock and heating them to THREE THOUSAND DEGREES FAHRENHEIT. (If you are concerned about energy efficiency think about that for a second) It is then "spun" like cotton candy and cooled and compressed into blocks. This is the same way building insulation and the other mineral wool are made. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mineral_wool.

Because it is an inert man made mineral substance it is not biodegradable. So for every plant that Doug grows there will be a 3 inch x 3 inch x 4 inch piece of Rockwool that will be taking up space in your local neighborhood landfill. And of course Doug wants to make this a standard way to grow food so the net effect of Doug's plan is he will create large landfills full of non-biodegradable Rockwool cubes that will sit there indefinitely for hundreds or thousands of years.

There are health concerns with the handling of Rockwool cubes. While there is nothing wrong with plants grown in Rockwool, It is the material ITSELF that we are concerned with. The dust from it is an irritant to the eyes, skin and lungs in the same way that asbestos or fiberglass is. While there is not any real evidence that rockwool causes cancer, the Environmental Protection Agency lists it as a "Group 2B" material, which means it is "possibly carcinogenic to humans". Rockwool is safe to use, it's just the dust created by physical deterioration of the product (especially the used product) that we are concerned with.

Rockwool is an alkaline material which means that it requires either chemicals to neutralize the pH or adjustments to the nutrient solution to lower the pH down to a level that your plants will need to grow.

Somewhere in Doug's plans is talk about combining aquaponics with his Omega Garden systems. I'm guessing in his thought process he thinks since aquaponics is organic he'll use the nutrients from aquaponics to feed his plants. It doesn't work that way. To cut to the chase, fish poop clogs Rockwool cubes. If you are going to use aquaponics you can't use Rockwool cubes. Aquaponics requires the use of gravel or gravel beds where bacteria and micro-organisms can break down the fish excrement into a source of plant food.

Doug doesn't even understand the difference between organic and non-organic. He wants to create a hermetically sealed building. I assume it is to eliminate insects and pests so he can eliminate the need for "chemicals" and pesticides and then he includes fish and fish excrement that require bacteria and micro-organisms (that's why we call it organic) that will introduce the need for chemicals and pesticides.

So for every Douglas Mallette CFS facility "Mr Sustainability" will have to include a foundry with a blast furnace to make his Rockwool cubes, a landfill site to dispose of his Rockwool cubes, and a chemical plant to process fish excrement into plant food that won't clog his Rockwool cubes.

It's sad that people look up to people like Doug when they spread their ignorance to the next generation and then wonder why the world is so screwed up.

Groups like The Zeitgeist Movement and The Venus Project that look up to people like Doug, don't solve world problems they perpetuate them.

Fourth Post by Justintempler on January 22, 2012 at 2:34 pm

Planned Obsolescence?

The Zeitgeist Movement and The Venus Project love to talk about "planned obsolescence" so if you think it would be a no brainer that Douglas Mallette would chose the most advanced Omega Garden model. Think again!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=02Uz95UGhRg

The Omega Garden Carousel was introduced way back in 2007
It is made from stainless steel and consists of 6 - 300 plant modules for a total of 1800 plants.

So what does our so called "engineer" who preaches about planned obsolescence do?
He designs his model around the consumer hobbyist version made out of molded plastic that holds only 80 plants maximum.
So instead of having one motor that rotates the Ferris wheel(s), one pump for the nutrient solution, one nutrient reservoir..
We need 22.5 as many motors to rotate the assemblies, we need 22.5 as many pumps, 22.5 as many nutrient reservoirs, 22.5 times as many bearings etc etc....
Instead of having one failure point, Douglas builds his system with 22.5 times as many failure points and designs it using inferior materials.
When Doug does experience a component failure in the middle of a cluster, replacing that failed component will involve disrupting the growth cycle of all the plants in the cluster.

Does this sound like a system being designed by a person who is concerned with planned obsolescence? or an engineer for that matter?

If an engineer was designing buildings that grew 16,000 plants, he isn't going to design it around plastic hobby grade components. Given the choice between stainless steel and molded plastic, he's going to choose stainless steel. He is going to design it with the fewest number of failure points and he will design it so when there is a failure, replacement of that component will be done in a fast and efficient manner.

The Omega Garden Carousel came out in 2007.
The reason it hasn't caught on for food production is because it is too inefficient at growing food.
The reason the Carousel version hasn't caught on for growing marijuana is because it grows too much marijuana to be used legally.
What we're left with is the inferior and downsized version with the purpose of serving the underground marijuana dispensary market.

Here's a quote from Omega Garden's marketing blog written back in 2008.
Their choice of words should be obvious to all but the most naive persons:

"For the small businesses out there that need a high amount of a SPECIAL HERB this system is PERFECT! Using a controlled environment adjust the climate to grow plants SCARCE in your area! "

http://blog.omegagarden.info/2008/09/02/introduction.aspx
.
The other thing a person with any critical thinking skills has to ask himself is:...
If this is such a cutting edge technology and it's such a great system for growing food, why are the only REAL pictures or videos in existence only showcasing the companies' own 2007 prototype demonstration? Since then all we've seen is a steady stream of Photoshop and computer generated images. That's 4+ years of sales and not a single video or real life photo of commercial scale food growing?

If you spend 10 seconds looking at the picture of the 4 carousel stacks from their blog site, it should be obvious that only one stack is real and other 3 have been cloned. The only place these Omega Garden food factories exist are in fantasy land.

Fifth post by Justintempler by January 24, 2012 at 8:32 pm

https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=explorer&chrome=true&srcid=1EqxwAVsmBOPv_lstrqeDn7lZd1RZY-KyXtxUJoWNCynhK2IwDVgZdwFe3Hw5&hl=en_US&pli=1

Before Doug has grown one single plant and had a chance to test his improvised low power light so he can figure out how many solar panels, windmills and baterries he will need, He has miraculously already figured out his cost structure and knows what his cost to produce food will be.

"...the problem is unfortunately a lot of people aren't educated enough to have logic and reason..." Douglas Mallette

Sixth post by Justintempler on February 9, 2012 at 6:48 am

Our favorite snake oil salesman turned E-begger's 1st Scandinavian lecture:

I couldn't get past the part where he lies about the buildings he's going to build. He makes it sound like a done deal he's got the plans finalized and ready to go when the reality is he has yet to grow his 1st hydroponic plant.

Youtube video deleted
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nOj1E1SR5Tg

Seventh Post by Justintempler on March 31, 2012 at 8:36 am

"and arguments such as cybernated hydroponic gardens are only good for growing pot is not actually true."

Here's a Volksgarden growing pot


Here's the link to Omega's own website growing food:
http://www.omegagarden.com/index.php?content_id=1522


A 5 year old study performed by 5 8th graders growing basil.

"The students have successfully grown food. Furthermore, they have produced 1 pound of basil per week and sold this to a nearby store at a cost of $10 per half pound. They expect the harvest quantities to increase exponentially as the students become more experienced gardeners and plant more densely. Overall, the first season of growing with an Omega Garden has been a success.

For the time being, the experiment will continue and a new team of Omega Garden urban farming 8th graders will take control next fall. Check back for news!""

Let's see if you can do the math. 1 pound of basil @ $10.00 per half pound = $20.00 worth of Basil a week.
Now subtract the cost of the Rockwool grow cubes,
and the cost of the electricity
after having spent $2,600 for the Volksgarden
and $???.?? for the light fixture
and the nutrients...etc etc.

If you think it's "good" at growing food, you need to have your head examined.

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Quote from CyborgJesus

"- Facility Cost: $2.2 million (includes 5 year maintenance and training program)
- 10 Facilities on lot equaling $22 million
- People Served: 16,000
- One Time Cost Per Person Served: $1375.00
- Facility Minimal Operational Lifespan: 30 years
- Individual Cost: $45.83 annually, or $3.82 a month

As per a 2011 United States Department of Agriculture report, "We also found that, in
2008, an adult on a 2,000-calorie diet could satisfy recommendations for vegetable and
fruit consumption in the 2010 Dietary Guidelines for Americans (amounts and variety) at
an average price of $2 to $2.50 per day, or approximately 50 cents per edible cup
equivalent." -- http://www.ers.usda.gov/Publications/EIB71/EIB71.pdf

Using the lower estimate of $2 per day, that equates to $730 annually, almost 16 times
the annual cost for a person receiving food from a CFS facility"

What kind is bizarro math is that?

@CyborgJesus I'm not sure either. Where did you get that information from though?

A TZM member in the Cybernated Farm Systems group has told Douglas Mallete about the "CFS (Cybernated Farm Systems) Douglas Mallette: Examined" topic on James Kush blog (TZM member post on posted on 4/24/2012). So There is very obvious confirmation that Douglas Mallete knows about the blog but as to if he will respond to Kush's blog topic or in that the TZMer who asks Douglas thoughts on James Kush blog is uncertain. If you review previous comments by other members of the CFS FB group Douglas has from what I've seen responded to those comments within a few hours of there post. My guess is Douglas will probably not respond even though in my opinion he probably should respond as I would if put into the same position because the blog pretty thoroughly destroys not only Douglas project but also his credibility and credentials; However Douglas is free not to as well.

Comment found on CFS page on FB
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Douglas-Mallette/126597571796



First comment on CFS FB page by TZM member

Clay Parker: What do you think about this? http://zeitgeistmovements.wordpress.com/

Second comment on CFS FB page by TZM member

Clay Parker I didn't make it, not do I agree with it. Just found it interesting and thought you would, too, considering you're the main subject of it.

James Kush blog topic "CFS (Cybernated Farm Systems) Douglas Mallette: Examined"
http://zeitgeistmovements.wordpress.com/2012/04/21/cfs-cybernated-farm-systems-douglas-mallette-examined/


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On a side note: I think I will coin a new term towards individuals or groups that use the scientific method/critical thinking to debunk CT's and scam artists. The term academic troll/s are applied to groups or individuals that use the scientific method/critical thinking to debunk conspiracy theorist/scam artists. The main motivation for a academic troll is to in-cooperate the scientific method/critical thinking in there comment in a attempt to show the individual participating in non-rational thinking (fringe thinking) the absurdity in there fringe belief system, to show onlookers how flawed there fringe thinking is, to poke fun at there fringe belief, because academic trolls can, or out of boredom.

Who can be a academic troll? Basically anybody. This would include people with PHD's or credentials in general. It only takes rationality/science based comment towards a fringe thinker/crank. Any topic set on debunking fringe thinking based on logic and science will fall under the troll category of a academic troll.

Some groups that fall under academic troll category are the Skeptic Project, James Randi Educational Foundation, The Skeptic Society, Skeptic Friends Network, etc....

I'm having some problems with Doug's strange calculation of cost per cup of product. We don't know how much the facility is able to produce, so the comparison is just strange. At 4-5 cups a day, serving 16,000 people would require 64,000-80,000c of product each day; at a standard serving size of 85g that's about 5t of vegetable produced each day. We all know that's bunk.

It gets a bit more interesting, though: What is Doug trying to achieve anyway? One cup of vegetable contains <50 calories, so you're not going to build a healthy diet on vegetables alone. Not surprisingly, the 2010 Dietary Guidelines he quoted in his doc provide a chart of the full diet in the Appendices I've linked, scroll down to pages 20-23.

Let's assume pot fairies fix the vegetable/fruit part of the equation, where is a starving population going to find the remaining grains, proteins and oils?

Quote from Agent Matt

According to the PDF that CJ linked from Google Docs, Mallette is *still* claiming to be a former engineer for NASA.

He knows this isn't true, but he still claims it.

I probably have done more work than Douglas with contributing to projects that are putting things in outer-space but I've never have said I work for NASA or even with NASA nor did I ever think that. When I worked for the government building drones a few years back, I also worked on projects involving satellites. Therefore if Douglas works or is affiliated with NASA therefore I work for and or am affiliated with NASA as well. Well hey skeptic project members you have your own NASA engineer now.

The way Douglas claims he worked with or for NASA is like saying there was this hobo on the side of the road that watched satellites and space shuttles shoot off into space. This hobo makes a claim he helped the shuttles and satellites not crash by merely watching them therefore he works for NASA as well. So how obscure can we get before a person can no longer claim to work for NASA directly or indirectly?

Realistically it's clear to me just looking over CFS project that Douglas is in no way involved with NASA let alone is a engineer. Douglas likes star wars, likes outer space, likes moonbases, and clearly has a creative imagination; but that doesn't add up to being a NASA engineer nor a engineer in itself.

Nobody's going to fund this thing whether he worked for NASA or not.

If he's out for funding, the average pitch he's competing with will have a CEO with extensive executive experience who's been on half a dozen boards and launched a few companies. Nobody's going to get an NGO funded with an MBA and perfect GMAT scores, unless they keep their name out of the pitch and focus completely on the advisory board. Doug doesn't do this, mentioning his position three times in a tiny document, and there's nobody else on the project. Fat chance.

His only available audience are TZMers and other naïve tech-optimists.

If you're looking for something else Zeitgeisters might latch on to, check this: http://robrhinehart.com/?p=298

No more eating, just drink something containing all essential nutrients. #science #notreally