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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June 21, 2015
June 21, 2015
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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.
NEW YORK FLOOD FORECAST (1)
Earlier this year, TGB learned via e-mail that an old friend of his (acquaintance dating back to September 1942) would be visiting New York City (he lives in Antwerp, Belgium). When he arrived, I expressed my concern that he could enter the city and get around at all, given the inundation of Manhattan and surrounding boroughs, given the 2008 forecast. He replied that if there was flooding and its attendant problems in New York--at least in Manhattan--he saw no evidence of such a phenomenon. What he told TGB was confirmed on June 20 by a member of TGB's Congregation who likewise saw and could find no evidence of such flooding. Both informed TGB that life in New York appeared normal--as normal as it could ever be in that city--and that traveling throughout the city presented no problem.
Is it possible that the forecast, broadcast on June 12, 2008, was erroneous?
This Manhattan flood did occur--Hurricane Donna Sept. 12, 1960. (2)
But this one receded. The New York flood forecast in June 2008 (1) was supposed to be permanent, as a result of a major rise in sea level.
ONION-GARLIC TO FIGHT MRSA?
Actually, it might, according to a document written during perhaps the 10th century, most likely 100 years before the Norman Conquest of Angleland (England) in 1066. It is a formula or recipe for a salve to relieve eye infections, and is found in Bald's Leechbook, written in Anglo-Saxon minuscules (3). Dr. Christina Lee of the University of Nottingham translated the manuscript from ancient Anglo-Saxon into modern English.
What flabbergasted medical researchers was that the onion-garlic potion, made according to the old-time instructions, was observed to destroy, almost completely, colonies of MRSA. What is MRSA? That is methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, a cause of many human ills, that resists methicillin, a beta-lactam-class antibiotic. Were some 10th-century doctors on to something that we missed during our modern medical research?
10th-century medical text. Doesn't look much like modern English, eh?
WOOD FOR EUROPE POWER?
A thought for the months to come: In some countries in Europe, nuclear power, considered politically unpalatable, is planned to be phased out. Coal is equally unacceptable because of its perceived carbon footprint and the general desire to discontinue use of all fossil fuels as this century progresses. So one possibility now is the use of wood chips, and these are being obtained through the decimation of some forests in US states such as Georgia. TGB will elaborate on this project in the future.
Suffice it to remind us, however, that wood has quite the carbon footprint. It is a polymer that consists of many substances, but mainly glucose--yes, glucose, for what is cellulose but polymerized glucose?--and lignins, which, among other elements, contain sulfur. Cellulose is a polymeric variant of starch. Seems like there is plenty of carbon for a footprint, not to mention the congeners. With that, for now, TGB wishes any who may read this posting, MERRY SUMMER!
Structure of lignin (4)
Structures of starch and cellulose (5).
REFERENCES
1. Whitlock, S. FLASHBACK: ABC's '08 Prediction: NYC Under Water from Climate Change by June 2015, http://newsbusters.org/blogs/scott-whitlock/2015/06/12/flashback-abcs-08-prediction-nyc-under-water-climate-change-june
2. http://www.davidmixner.com/weather-extremes/page/8/
3. https://frontview.wordpress.com/2015/04/01/onion-and-garlic-eye-remedy-kills-mrsa/
4. "Wood". https://en.wikipedia.org/?title=Wood
5. http://staff.jccc.net/pdecell/biochemistry/carbohyd.html.
