MGx - Musings, Essays & Ballads

In 1943 US Intelligence learned that a fast, maneuverable German jet was being produced in the Messerschmitt factories that would deliver a crushing advantage over allied forces during World War II. Racing against time, Lockheed Martin engineers bunkered down in Burbank, CA to produce the first production jet fighter, the P-80.
Lead by Clarence “Kelly” […]

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Recognizing the importance of addressing the climate change crisis and reducing dependence upon foreign oil and gas, the US Department of Energy (USDOE) has launched an aggressive program aiming to meet 20% of America’s energy needs via wind by 2030. In conjunction with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and the American Wind Energy […]

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Energy creation is relatively simple in theory. Rare earth high gauss magnets spin past copper coils along a magnetically permeable stator core and electromotive force (EMF) is the result. While there are a myriad of technical details that optimize this effect nothing more complicates the production of energy today than the geopolitical climate […]

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This past week heralded a stunning example of the dangers of designing an economic policy dependent upon outside resources. Just three days after Governor Kulongoski inaugurated the new $20M airport terminal and delivered a $624,000 check to build an air traffic control tower, Horizon Air announced they will cut service to Coos County.
One of […]

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In the wake of the horrific flooding in Iowa and the Midwest commodities traders are predicting a sharp increase in food prices across the nation. The floods, made worse by collapsed levees, devastated millions of acres of crops in an already shortened growing season but that is not the main reason for food price […]

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This has been a very exciting day for me as a major component of the V-LIM, my wind turbine arrived today at the fabrication site in Coos Bay. Just off the truck from Blaine, WA this annulus is the rotor or will be when we add a few important things like magnets and fan […]

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All week I have been flooded with reports that the official cause of the 2003 electrical blackout was not, as reported, untrimmed trees and overheated transmission lines. The largest blackout in US history, more than 9,300 square miles, may have been caused by Chinese hackers gaining access to networks controlling the electrical grid. […]

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Folk singer Janet Bates and wildlife photographer Steven Holt combine song and imagery.

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Rural America grows the food, harvests the timber and produces the power essential to the survival of urban America. Factory farms work fields as far as the eye can see drawing water from the surrounding settlements and forests. Power plants are sited on once pristine environments while forested mountainsides are cut away to […]

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For months I have been receiving news alerts about the failures and foibles of Eskom, SAs national electricity provider and the daily rolling blackouts. Now it seems, SA may be without power for as much as two weeks straight as the plants and grid shut down for maintenance.
Something we have heard from several specialists […]

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Years ago I read The Pinball Effect: How Renaissance Water Gardens Made the Carburetor Possible, by James Burke, about the origins and evolution of innovation and invention. Burke chronicles the unlikely connections that led from a wet clothesline in France to the permanent wave, which in turn spurred concentration on the borax mines of […]

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In 1992 electricity began to be viewed less as an essential service and more as a commodity when deregulation was enacted with the passage of the Energy Policy Act. Previously, public and investor owned utilities controlled power generation, transmission and distribution within a set region. The Energy Policy Act, however, allowed for the […]

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New York City is looking at installing small CHP generators to meet ever expanding energy demands. New transmission lines average a million dollars a mile, however, in cities like New York and Chicago the cost can reach $10M per mile. Localized power is less wasteful and better on the environment even when talking […]

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Being the inventor of a low profile, high efficiency wind turbine it pains me to have to dispel the myth that centralized renewable energy such as wind and wave reduces carbon emissions. Large amounts of power produced in one location then transmitted via high voltage lines many miles then stepped down to the lower […]

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One of our presidential candidates, whose name I shall not mention because it triggers google ads featuring him, asserts that the transcendent issue of our time is radical Islamic extremism. Somewhere in a cave connected to a dialysis machine is a tall thin Arab wringing his hands and avowing that the transcendent issue of […]

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