One of the more fascinating themes of fiction involves "hidden
wealth" and the duplicity which is involved in controlling it. Of
course, "buried treasure" and pirated booty is the prototype for
this alluring theme - but even several of Blackbeard's chests of
Spanish doubloons is little more than 'chump change' these days,
compared to the immense value of the new wealth - an oil field,
for instance.
Today, regarding: the "hidden" part, now everybody knows about
oil - but the future will hold the same surprises for the
perceptive vision-quester (or greedy bastard). Black gold - oil -
will be supplanted by new forms of wealth in the one thing which
humans will always treasure above all else - energy. A fine novel
that explores this transition [from oil to new energy] theme is
Tony Hillerman's novel [back in the old days when he could still
write well] called: "People of Darkness".
As for the coming decade [and stranger than fiction forms of
wealth], take the national helium repository for instance - close
by a certain ranch in Crawford TX. This one is not yet
fictionalized. It was recently, very quietly, shuttled into
private hands from DoE, in what is clearly political manipulation.
There could be a trillion dollars worth of 3He "hidden" in there -
but no one is talking. And few except at the highest levels would
know for sure if a breakthrough in 3He fusion has taken place in a
so-called "black" project. Still black-gold, eh?
And then there is the Great Salt Lake, in Utah. This area in
recent US history was formerly set amidst land so worthless that
even when it was given free to any taker -only a shunned religious
cult, top-heavy with more wives than husbands, would settle there.
Nowadays, it is just possible that the salty water of this
particular lake could be extremely valuable - in the trillion
dollar range. If so, it will no doubt be labeled as a divine
blessing to the later-day descendants, like when the gulls came.
Hey they had to have some pay-back for giving up all those wives
;-)
Why so potentially valuable? In short... well, the answer is
indeed short: 18O.
It is that strange isotope of hydrogen - 18O. Almost one percent
of the unpalatable water in the Great Salt Lake water consists of
this heavy so-called "isotope" 18O. The fact that there is such an
abundance seems impossible, since 16O is one of the most stable of
all nuclei.
It has been speculated, on this forum before, that some of what is
responsible for this seeming anomaly in abundance is not due to a
primordial isotopic branching - but instead derives continuously
from the stable 16O in nature, which migrates in vapor and then in
the ionosphere becomes ozone, and then may capture and serve as a
host for the ubiquitous "solar hydrino-hydride." If there is any
of it on earth, this is one of the few possible mechanisms which
can bring it down [if that is, the bulk of it arrives charged, in
the Hy- form instead of Hy or Hy2].
This process would be predicated on a continuous flux of Hy-
intercepting earth, being shed from the solar corona, and then on
contact with ozone - displacing the k-shell electrons of high
altitude ozone, but only in a balanced pairing, which neutralizes
the charge, and giving the "appearance" of 18O - when in fact the
species is 16O with two captured hydrino-hydrides in what was
[formerly] the k-shell, and is now a much different beast.
Why is this particular species potentially important for "new
energy"?
Well ... here is a hint for those with an electrolytic cell: run a
LENR experiment using light water and nickel electrode BUT use
water enriched in 18O ;-)
That is the teaser. Perhaps the full answer will appear in a
future installment of this "hidden wealth" mystery. Perhaps it is
more later-day "gulling." And in the mean time, in homage to the
well-crafted mystery, consider the John Grisham thriller [back in
the old days when he could still write well] called: "The
Gingerbread Man". Good film version too.
A poor and unstable hobo father, Robert Duvall, soon to be
deceased, owns a few acres of salt-marsh worth practically
nothing. The trampy daughter is a little whacked herself and
starts sleeping with a slick Savannah defense lawyer (Kenneth
Branagh). Can you spell "fame-up"? Then there is the subject of
the "worthless" inheritance ... which ostensibly would not have
inspired murder, would it? Hmm, it seems that daddy's marsh
happens to contain an old walnut grove, which was planted by
former slaves for sustenance during the years of king cotton -
later abandoned. Modern consumers are too lazy to crack walnuts,
and it takes slave labor to pick them.
For those who do not yet realize yet the identity of the wealth -
black walnut is now an especially valuable hardwood - even if
nobody eats the nuts any more - and sold by the pound for high
price furniture. Every large tree is said worth $10,000 and an
acre is worth about $20 million - but it takes some digging to
realize this... old-Grisham style.
Jones
- [Vo]: Hidden Wealth Jones Beene
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