Muenchhausen: MUENCHHAUSEN, Nov. 3, 2011

MUENCHHAUSEN
AN ELECTRONIC NEWSLETTER ABOUT ENVIRONMENT,
RENEWABLE RESOURCE TECHNOLOGY,
AND RELATED TOPICS
By BOOTSTRAP PRESS, INC.
BETHESDA, MD
JJGREENBARON(at)VERIZON.NET
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NOVEMBER 3, 2011
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WELCOME!
The Green Baron (TGB) welcomes one and all who take the time to read Muenchhausen. He aims to “tell it like it is” as much as possible, and avoid advocacy and ideological positions. There are enough of those to go around in other publications. The Green Baron also welcomes comments from anyone who may read Muenchhausen. Please send comments to the e-mail address above.

GREEN TECH DEFAULT--AGAIN?
Stephentown, NY is a village to the east of Albany, along New York State Route 43, and not fro from the Massachusetts state line. There, a Massachusetts-based company, Beacon Energy (Tyngsboro), obtained a loan guarantee from the US Department of Energy (DOE) to the tune of $43 million to construct an energy storage plant. The storage would be based on the principle of storing energy on an advanced type of flywheel. This flywheel would store electrical energy until is is needed on the electric grid (1). Unlike Solyndra, the California firm that received a DOE-guaranteed loan of $535 million, Beacon is said to have some long-term contracts that could generate revenue that in turn could be used to pay back some or all of the loans, even if Beacon did declare bankruptcy. Bear in mind that the US government is the first-in-line creditor.

The Beacon plant reputedly can store about 20 megawatts (MW) of power at ant given time. This is about 2% of the output of a nuclear reactor. Essentially, the flywheel works by suspending a large carbon cylinder between two magnets in a vacuum-sealed tube. When the grid has excess power, the devices are spun. They require some electricity to get them spinning and, thanks to the magnets and vacuum, remain in motion with relatively little energy loss (although, if TGB may be forgiven some facetiousness it does not come near to being the Holy Grail of perpetual motion). When the grid needs extra power, the spinning cylinders are used to generate it.

Although flywheels have long been discussed and tried as means to store energy, it is only recently that advanced flywheel systems have come into at least experimental use. Hopefully, they will develop into a plausible means of storing energy, particularly from renewable sources such as wind ans solar, which are diffuse, hard to concentrate (with current technology), and often intermittent (depending on location).

In the case of Beacon, the firm could possibly generate sufficient revenue to repay the federally guaranteed loan. However, even if DOE (and the lenders involved) ultimately are saved harmless or nearly so, one can expect substantial increases in opposition to future federal guarantees for loans related to so-called green energy or green technology.

The corporate headquarters of Beacon Power are located in Tyngsboro, MA, which is just off US Route 3, the old road that leads from around Cambridge, MA to Nashua, NH, and beyond. They are not very far from the Merrimac River.

Flywheel system schematic (2).

BOSNIA

"We are well aware of our environmental problems and they are large, Prime Minister Nikola Spirić of Bosnia-Hercegovina, a part of the former nation of Yugoslavia, told TGB during a press conference at the National Press Club, Washington, DC, Sept. 26, 2011. Bosnia is blessed with resources for hydroelectric power, Spirić noted, "but we currently use only 13% of it. Still, we are one of the smaller emitters of carbon dioxide." He added that he expects large projects, including those of environmental protection to be implemented eventually, "but first, we need institutionalized building of our country. Bear in mind," said Spirić, "that we are still bearing the costs of many years of turmoil," referring to the Bosnian conflicts of the 1990s.

Bosnia highlands. Potentially rich in hydroelectric power.

THE KALON TRIPA
In the Tibetan language, "Kalon Tripa" means Prime Minister, and TGB was privileged to attend a press conference and question-and-answer session by Kalon Tripa Lobsang Sangay of the government-in-exile of Tibet, currently headquartered in Dharamsala, India. It is only recently that Tibetan governance came to be by a Prime Minister and cabinet; previously, the Dalai Lama was the supreme ruler. But the current, or Fourteenth Dalai Lama devolved temporal power to the elected Prime Minister--in this case, Sangay--and holds on to spiritual leadership.

Perhaps not saying it in so many words, Sangay gave a principal reason why the People's Republic of China (PRC) is so anxious to hold onto Tibet, in addition to its normal view of not giving any non-Han Chinese peoples some sort of autonomy within its realm. (Note that Hong Kong and Macao, although now parts of the PRC, are recognized as self-governing within the PRC. Taiwan might also attain that status, if and when--more likely when--the PRC takes over Taiwan.) Bear in mind that local people in Xinjiang and Tibet are not Han Chinese. Most in Xinjiang are Uighurs, a Turkic ethnicity; indeed, Xinjiang sometimes is known as Chinese Turkestan. Tibetans, in the PRC's view, hold the same "inferior" status.

Ethnicity, however, is not the only reason why the PRC wants to retain Tibet and is populating it with Han Chinese as rapidly as possible. Tibet, apparently possesses considerable mineral wealth. Moreover, Tibet is rich in water resources; many of the great rivers of China, and especially Southeast Asia and India rise on Tibetan territory. Sangay told the press conference, held at the National Press Club Nov. 2, that the PRC is now building railroads into Tibet and moving heavy equipment in for large-scale industrial and residential development. Environmental degradation does not seem to be an object.

Tibetan PM Lobsang Sangay. Chinese development in Tibet proceeding apace.

AMANITA SPP.
One should never, repeat, never harvest wild mushrooms unless one is truly expert in the field, knows what he/she is doing, and still has a comprehensive mushroom field book on his/her person.

A cautionary tale: After a series of heavy rains in September 2011, several people, including two men in Northern Virginia, were severely poisoned after eating mushrooms that proliferated in their backyards. These mushrooms were highly toxic, as are all species of the genus Amanita, save one, which is A. caesaria or Caesar's amanita. And even that one nonpoisonous species so closely resembles the "bad guys" that only the topmost expert in mushrooms should even consider seeking it, and even that person should think twice before harvesting it. In any event, the men had to be rushed to Georgetown University Hospital.

Mushrooms such as toxic Amanita spp.contain a poison that essentially destroys the liver, thus killing the patient. But, as Paracelsus (3) put it, "It is the dose that makes the poison." A small dose of Amanita toxin might not kill the patient outright, but should almost certainly weaken his/her liver. Some severely poisoned patients have been known to be rescued through liver transplants, but that procedure is very expensive, assuming that it works in the first place.

However, in this case, the two men seemed to have been cured by substantial doses of a drug made from a liver-aiding dietary supplement known as milk thistle (4). Others in a similar situation might not be so lucky, and bear in mind that the formulation of this supplement-drug was experimental. Moral: Leave mushroom hunting to the acknowledged expert, and even then, be extra cautious.