Reader Tips

For the artistic bent of the reader. The Mona Lisa with a nailgun.

http://www.break.com/index/nail-gun-art.html

For the "we don't need no stinkin' giant fans" file;

Wind Energy's Ghosts
By Andrew Walden

"The ghosts of Kamaoa are not alone in warning us. Five other abandoned wind sites dot the Hawaiian Isles -- but it is in California where the impact of past mandates and subsidies is felt most strongly. Thousands of abandoned wind turbines littered the landscape of wind energy's California "big three" locations -- Altamont Pass, Tehachapi, and San Gorgonio -- considered among the world's best wind sites."

http://www.americanthinker.com/2010/02/wind_energys_ghosts_1.html

Oscar Peterson; notes of liquid gold.

For those of us who criticize mercilessly, and justly, the various media, when they screw up, a tip of the hat to Global's (is it 24/7) for it's program about the boxer Shaun O'Sullivan and his fall from grace, and the subsequent aid of boxer Dale Walters, a fellow called Ed Lee and the columnist Damian Inwood in bringing him to BC and with the grace of Vanoc, (seeing the injustice of his not being able to carry the torch in Belleville) allowing him to run it for 300 meters here. We shared in his glory; we owed him that much, at the very least.

Hey, I'm on Romney's side on this one, just stumbled across this - on an AC flight from YVR

http://www.bostonherald.com/news/politics/view.bg?articleid=1233166

Bernie,

That is Andrew Walden's view. There are TWO sides to every argument. Check this, the other side, then decide...

[Quote]..
It might be useful to keep up with the massive growth of windpower. A technology which is being run by the largest utilities and built by the biggest energy companies, including Areva, GE, and the like:

[www.awea.org]

As one can see from these tables, wind power growth is massive and increasing every year.

China alone installed 13 GW capacity last year. There are some useful points in the article, but complaining about 1980s turbines is a bit like complaining the Wright brothers' plane was useless because it could not carry much of anything any distance more than a few miles.

In fact there are still functioning wind turbines from the 1980s working just fine. If you think politics is the issue, I know someone about as right-wing as they come who owns 25 turbines installed in CA in the 80s. They are functioning just fine today.

However, since then the technology of windpower has increased exponentially. Much like the PC. Now they are run by software, are much larger, can turn to the wind and function at different wind speeds, etc. They are technological marvels.

They can be built for specific areas and functions, like cold weather (the ones that failed in Minn. are old, used wind turbines. -- Wind turbines are functioning just fine in Antarctica).

In the US, Texas is the leader in wind turbines. If it were a separate nation, it would be sixth in the world in windpower. Iowa currently gets over 15% of its electricity from windpower.

That windpower works is already proven. It requires some artistry and creativity to handle, but it works.

Denmark does receive over 20% of its electricity from windpower. Yes, they share electricity with neighboring countries, but so does the US, which produces a surplus of electricity.

Canada supplies electricity to the northern US. Despite importing natural gas. As a whole the US exports natural gas from local areas like Texas to Mexico.

As regards Denmark, it is an oil and gas exporter, so they could choose to be energy independent on fossil fuels for a few years ...[/Qoute] ''(350 word limit)

Two sides to every coin.

TRUE,

Stinkin' giant fans do kill birds, however,

Ever heard of chemical companies, insecticides, or aerial spraying??

DDT almost killed off eagles once... eh?

oops
T. Boone Pickens’ decision to build a “Wind Farm” shows why the Wind
Production Tax Credit (PTC) should NOT be extended
Right now, wind industry lobbyists are pushing the US Congress to extend the highly lucrative
wind “Production Tax Credit” (PTC) – an action that could shift another $3 billion in tax burden
from “wind farm” owners to ordinary taxpayers.
A recent decision by Texas oil billionaire, T. Boon Pickens, reported by Reuters on April 18,
2008, shows why the Congress should end the wind Production Tax Credit.
According to the Reuters story,ii Pickens expects “…to turn at least a 25 per cent return” on his
plan to spend $10 billion to build the world’s biggest “wind farm,” consisting of 2,700 turbines
and totaling 4,000 megawatts of generating capacity.....

Transferring hundreds of millions of dollars annually from the pockets of ordinary taxpayers
and electric customers to a few large corporations that own “wind farms”-- or that buy tax
credits from wind farm owners who cannot use them. These include US firms such as the
FPL Group that apparently has been able to escape paying any federal income tax in some
years despite large profits, as well as several Wall Street and foreign-owned firms (e.g.,
Iberdrola, Shell, BP, Babcock & Brown) that wish to reduce the federal corporate income tax
that they would otherwise have to pay on profits from other operations.

Read the whole thing at
http://www.nysenergyplan.com/presentations/National%20Wind%20Watch,%20Inc.%20T%20Boone%20Pickens%20Attachment.pdf

More oops!
"Your tax dollars from the $787 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) have begun to flow freely to “renewable energy facilities” in Texas. The stimulus bill tagged at least $110 billion for “clean” energy projects.

The Penescal Wind Farm in Sarita, TX (near Corpus Christi) recently received a $114 million stimulus grant. Penescal Developers will use the money to double the size of the facility. Under the program in Section 1602 of ARRA, the federal government will rebate 30 percent of the construction cost. The subsidy also includes accelerated depreciation to reduce taxes.

Wind farms already are heavily subsidized, without which there would be few if any on the ground. When federal subsidies lapsed in 2000, 2002, and 2004, wind farm development ceased. According to the U.S. Energy Information Agency, total federal subsidies for electric generation from wind in 2008 were $22.37 per megawatt hour, compared to 25 cents for natural gas."

http://www.texaspolicy.com/commentaries_single.php?report_id=2821

Tony (TG)
You are just so full of it!

"Denmark is just dependent enough on wind power that when the wind is not blowing right they must import electricity. In 2000 they imported more electricity than they exported. And added to the Danish electric bill are the subsidies that support the private companies building the wind towers. Danish electricity costs for the consumer are the highest in Europe. [Click here for a detailed and well referenced examination by Vic Mason and the Danish Society of Windmill Neighbors, and here for a follow-up paper by Mason.]"
http://www.aweo.org/ProblemWithWind.html

"The “Gone with the Wind” sting operation, started in 2007, netted 11 others who were charged but were not arrested. Italian police told Financial Times that the fraud charges are related to obtaining millions of dollars in public subsidies to construct wind farms that never worked. Police confiscated seven wind farms with 185 turbines in Sicily linked to IVPC, according to the article.

The anti-fraud team also is investigating IVPC’s sales of wind farms to foreign companies, and already has sent requests for documentation to five companies located in the Netherlands and Spain, as well as IVPC’s Italian affiliates in Ireland and the UK, according to the article.

Fraud appears to be an emerging problem in the nascent clean energy sector. Most recently, two clean energy auditors — SGS UK and DNV — were accused of not properly auditing projects in carbon trading markets."
http://www.environmentalleader.com/2009/11/17/mafia-tied-to-wind-fraud-in-italy/

(thanks U)

"Photonic fence

Remember when you thought a can of RAID was hi-tech? It’s the 21st century already and the modern way to zap bugs is the photonic fence. A photonic fence is nothing but a fancy name for shooting down mosquitos with a laser beam driven by closed loop fire control system. According to Intellectual Ventures, “malaria is both preventable and curable”. The mosquito is the disease. Meet the cure.

The root idea, funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation, was to see if there was a way to use lasers to destroy parasites. If a the wavelength could be tuned to the parasite’s characteristic vulnerability … well you’ve watched enough science fiction to know what’s coming next. The resarchers wanted to zap malaria parasites inside the bloodstream."

http://pajamasmedia.com/richardfernandez/2010/02/15/photonic-fence/#comments

"17. Walt:

The danger is, this might get into the wrong hands. Like mine.

The buzz is a photonic fence
Will zap and kill the buzzers
It gets his aunts and uncles too
And all his little cuzzers

Oh little buzzer how you fly
To see you makes me happy
Cuz with my laser you will die
It really is quite zappy

It’s late at night, I’m sound asleep
When near my ear a buzzing
My laser flares my wife recoils
I say it isn’t nuzzing

Out by the trees a flitting shape
It’s getting late at night
Was that a skeet or firefly
I just shot out his light

Is that my neighbor by the fence
I aimed and hit him low
I told the judge I saw him buzz
But he didn’t let me go"

T Boone Pickens was trying to sell wind mills to Canada when a few things didn't go his way. First he wanted California to legislate electric cars an enormous subsidy. Then it dawned on him he needed access to the grid and no one would build it for him. The man made his coin dismantling companies and selling off the profitable parts. He would not be in air power if he wasn't getting paid for it.

Liberal “P”: prorogue.

Liberals P on democracy.
…-

“Premier McGuinty has already announced he’ll prorogue the legislature within the next two weeks and return with a throne speech and budget in March.”

Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2010/02/16/ontario-legislature-returns.html#ixzz0fhbN038M

http://www.bluelikeyou.com/2010/02/15/the-debate-is-not-over/#comment-75057

DDT almost killed off eagles once... eh?
~TG

No...it didn't, eh.
But it did almost save 100,000,000 lives until the ancestors of AGW believers had it banned because they believed the scam that DDT was killing eagles.

The gene pool just keeps getting shallower.

O'narcissist's Bootees: O's seat booted by O's Own.

"there does seem to be a failure in basic strategy."

It's O'Grim.
...-

"Ryan Grim: Democrats In "Whatever Works" Mode Willing To Turn Against Obama In 2010 Election

HuffPost's Senior Congressional Correspondent Ryan Grim appeared on MSNBC Monday to talk about Democratic candidates willing to turn against President Obama in the upcoming midterm elections.

Grim explained that congress is in a "whatever works" mode and incumbents are willing to campaign against the president it if doing so means keeping their seats.

MSNBC's Tamryn Hall noted that criticism of Democratic National Committee Chairman Tim Kaine is mounting as high-profile Democrats decided, one after another, not to run for re-election. Grim said that "there does seem to be a failure in basic strategy."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/huff-tv/ryan-grim-democrats-in-wh_b_463173.html

*
islamofest in hogtown...

"He described 9/11 as a 'planned demolition' run by Americans,
and the Toronto 18 bomb plot, which led to convictions and guilty
pleas, as a 'police frame-up' over 'nothing of significance'."

*

Anti-whalers charged by Japanese:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100216/ap_on_re_as/as_antarctica_whaling

Tg: that DDT was a problem for birds is debatable. But for the moment let's say what you say is true. Then by that logic windfarms should be shutdown immediately in order to save the birds (and bats)

Also your claim that china is building 13 giga watts of wind power generation seems far-fetched. Please provide backup for that statment. The three gorges dam only generates 22 GW(via wiki).

If you are a bad, sex maniac teacher in NY, not to worry, just sit around play cards, shoot the bull, or just sit and stare, you get up to $95,000 a year thanks to your union.
Can't be fired, won't quit.

"Teachers in trouble spending years in 'rubber room' limbo that costs $65M "

Read more:

http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/education/2008/05/04/2008-05-04_teachers_in_trouble_spending_years_in_ru.html

Oz- So, what was killing off all the hawks, eagles, falcons, etc., if it wasn't DDT?

I worked in the boonies, during that time, and the pest(gophers, mice, etc.) population was out of control. Once the predatory birds made a comeback, the pest population dropped, dramatically.

If DDT had saved 100,000,000 lives, where would they be living right now? Over here, with a huge pest population?

There are never perfect solutions to human problems. We thought we could control pests with chemicals. We were wrong. Natural predators keep a better balance than any chemical. We have to quit worrying about people in God forsaken countries, who can't think for themselves.

the point is ,Tony Guitar.
They cant make it on their own dime.

They need subsidies to build and they need subsidies to run. And when the subsidies run out , they move on looking not for wind or markets but more subsidies.

I call scam.

Zamboni wins the gold for ice care... VANOC is calling in the old reliable, propane buring brute .

Looks like the anti-AGW Olympia machine may be good for the environment, but spilling all that hot water melted and rutted the ice...

We saw the delapidated wind farms in Hawaii in 2002.

Will be touring the ones in southern Calif the next few days. Will try and get some pictures to Kate.

TG has been smoking and mirroring here for too long.

Spoke too soon.. Looks like Zamboni is electric... Oops...

NorthernLight - beat me to it!

Specifically, the electric ice resurfacers were not up to the job

I think it's emblematic of the whole "green makes me feel good world" - a false world, where the current green tech doesn't deliver the goods satisfactorily.

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/100/story/85351.html?storylink=omni_popular

Only in Canada, eh? Frikkin' typical. I just watched a CTV on-line Olympic interview with, get this, an Official Crowd Animator! Seriously, the dude gets paid to rant and cheer, dance around and start waves. Canada is so paranoid that the world will not see enthusiastic hockey fans that we hire them.

The downhills are canceled due to snow today so they are scrambling to fill airtime so there will probably be a lot of reruns or filler interviews with janitors or snow shovellers.

regarding wind power subsidies, I have had an entry on my electricity bill, IIRC, ever since the cost overruns and down time of the nuke plants in Ontario
were widely made public, that goes by (quoting now) "debt retirement".

"a subsidy by any other name" etc etc, and "a scam by any other name" etc etc.

You are right about the debt retirement charge, but that money is in part paying for Mo Strong's purchase of Costa Rican rain forest, (he was chairman of Ontario Hydro if you recall) and a government that stopped and started the project several times. The cost was incurred by really really bad management by both OH and the government, not by any inherent flaw in the technology.

Under health and safety law for construction you often see the phrase "competent worker", i.e., to prevent accidents construction workers have to know what they are doing. Unfortunately there is no such requirement for managers.

dp, the ban on DDT has been lifted.
It has been admitted as a mistake.

I agree that small predators are the best way to control pests.
No case has ever been made that DDT killed predators.

Where would the 100,000,000 that didn't die from malaria and dengue fever live?
They would live where they were born.

Your are against them immigrating here?
Me too.

Ian Plimer:

“I fingered Jones for fraud on pp. 481-482 in my book Heaven and Earth. If investigative journalists had not been advocates for the climate industry, they would have followed my lead and scooped the world. They didn’t because they were too busy trying to frighten us.”
…-

“Climategate: A Defiance of Arrogant Political Power

The average voter has had enough: no more being force-fed scenarios defying that rare commodity called common sense.

The people are speaking. We are seeing a defiance of bureaucrats, officials, government propaganda, and funded climate catastrophe researchers. A scary scientific paradigm of human-induced climate change is collapsing because the cake has been over iced. The average voter has had enough of being talked down to by arrogant scientists with vested interests who present scenarios that defy that rare commodity called common sense.

It was only a short time ago that climate rationalists were told they were factually wrong, that their skepticism was evil, their views were akin to Holocaust denial, and that they should be tried for crimes against humanity. However, Climategate emails show that the coterie of two dozen leading climate comrades shared this skepticism in private — yet denounced skeptics in public. Various cap-and-trade systems have been shown to be an extra tax, which may end up being distributed by the sticky fingers of the UN.

Even more disturbingly, Climategate emails show two decades of systematic willful fraud. Since then, there has been the farce of Copenhagen, which the UK Taxpayers’ Alliance found cost the GDP of Malawi. (If such funds were used to provide electricity and potable water to Malawians, then this would have been a demonstration of true environmentalism.)

The allotted 10-minute speaking time for President Hugo Chavez became a one-hour rant against capitalism. He received a standing ovation. This is what Copenhagen was about.” (more)

http://pajamasmedia.com/blog/climategate-a-defiance-of-arrogant-political-power/?singlepage=true

http://www.bluelikeyou.com/2010/02/15/the-debate-is-not-over/#comment-75069

"Trump Wants Gore's Nobel Peace Prize Stripped"

http://www.thefoxnation.com/donald-trump/2010/02/15/trump-wants-gores-nobel-peace-prize-stripped

Oz- Yes, but, if it wasn't DDT, what was it that almost killed off the birds of prey? I'm not trying to be contrary, I just want to hear some other theories. Was there ever a total ban of DDT, in countries that have high numbers of Malaria deaths?

I'm glad there are so many in agreement over the questionable value of our immigration policy. In reality, is there anything we, as ordinary citizens can do about it? The conservatives are pro-immigration, because their base wants cheap labour. The liberals are pro-immigration because they want to expand their voting block. The NPD..., wait, they aren't worth mentioning.

Conservative Minister Prentice buys indulgences/guilt relief from the AGW Fraudsters.

Did you vote Conservative for AGW Fraud?

Down with AGW/UN/IPCC Fraud.
…-

“Ottawa to offset Olympic emissions

Rock stars do it. Movie stars too. And now the Canadian government is jumping on the “carbon footprint” bandwagon, funding greenhouse gas emission reductions to offset its environmental impact in support of the Olympic and Paralympic Games.

Environment Minister Jim Prentice announced today that Ottawa will spend $150,000 on activities to offset the estimated 7,600 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions created by federal bureaucrats working on the Olympics.

“Canada is proud to be the first host country in history to help offset the greenhouse gas emissions of its Olympic Games,” Mr. Prentice said in a statement.”

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/blogs/bureau-blog/ottawa-to-offset-olympic-emissions/article1469956/

http://www.bluelikeyou.com/2010/02/16/poor-mr-iffy-cant-get-no-respect/#comment-75080

Liberal Windmill McGuinty wants More AGW Fraud from you.

Down with AGW Fraudulent “green programs”.
…-

“Ontario wants Ottawa to fund green programs

CBC.ca – ‎35 minutes ago‎

Ontario wants Ottawa to use the federal budget to help fund green energy projects like solar panels.

(Canadian Press) Ontario is asking the federal Conservative government to use next month’s budget to fund green energy projects in the province.”

http://www.bluelikeyou.com/2010/02/16/poor-mr-iffy-cant-get-no-respect/#comment-75081

dp- I disagree with your assumption that the Conservatives consider immigration as cheap labour. They have focused on skilled labour not unskilled and have stopped the Liberal practice of allowing all members of a family to join the immigrant.

Immigration happens to be a fact of a gradual globalization as more peoples move into the industrial economy. Naturally the less developed economies export people to the more developed. It wouldn't make any logical sense the other way around.

However, the new country has to reject multiculturalism and insist on integration and acceptance of the new country's mode of life. As noted, Australia is doing that and Harper's new Immigration policy does the same.

dp at 1:47;
This might help you out.

" Professor Edwards reviews how bald eagles died of non-DDT causes. In Alaska, 128,000 were shot for bounty payments between 1917 and 1956. Between 1960 and 1965, 76 bald eagles found dead were autopsied: 46 had been shot or trapped; 7 had died of impact injuries from flying into buildings or towers. Between 1965 and 1980, shootings, trappings, electrocutions, and impact injuries chiefly accounted for their deaths.

Although some birds declined before DDT, they became much more abundant during the years of greatest DDT-use. But facts have not impeded the endless repetition of Carson's bird myth."

http://spectator.org/archives/2005/02/25/ddt-fraud-and-tragedy/1

Just "Bing" (or Google) "DDT kills birds fraud" There's tons of relevant stuff on this hoax and how many died because of it

Hi Kate
A couple of months ago Jack Layton announced his support for an 80% reduction in carbon dioxide and that led me to consider what my quality of life would be under those conditions.
I would like to issue a challenge to your readers, as the best qualified to cut through BS, to produce a carbon budget that meets Jack's criteria and outlines what such a civilization would look like. What choices would we have to make and what would be outside our budget. Basic survival involves breathing and the production of C02, a typical car manfacture involves xx tons,
could I afford a car? Some basic ground rules: No exaggerations, verifyable documented calculations only: NO ALARMIST GOREISMS
Any interest out there?

Recently I had to order a custom part milled.
An all-Indian company claimed they were experienced in that are, charged ridiculous amount of money and produced essentially a piece of junk.

It took me a longest while to find an all-Canadian manufacturer who wasn't bankrupt in the phone book, but they demonstrated stellar work ethics, did research and explained the mistakes made by the Indians. They quoted less and went ahead only when we were absolutely sure that the result would be satisfactory.

So much for skilled labour. Quit importing people, make our own!

"They have focused on skilled labour not unskilled and have stopped the Liberal practice of allowing all members of a family to join the immigrant."

Nothing says that they are not looking for cheap labour just because they are looking for skilled labour.

When I worked in construction the government was fast tracking "skilled workers" for contractors because the contractors complained that they had to pay us too much and it made them uncompetitive. The question then is uncompetitive compared to who? If all people in Canada are paying Canadians they are all n an equal footing. I'm OK now, I have a good job and make good money, but Canadian young people and recent college grads are not only competing against each other for jobs they are competing against the whole world. Employers complain that they can't find experienced workers, so the government lets them import people, thus bypassing all the recently graduated Canadians who will never get a chance to get experience. It drives me nuts to here immigrants complain and leftards complain on their behalf that immigrants don't get a fair shake in the Canadian job market. There are plenty of well educated under employed Canadians looking for decent jobs as well.

G,

Thanks for the links. Very informative. I am better educated now.

If the item had been all pro windpower, its very likely I would have taken the opposite argument.

Unlike many experts here, I DON'T know it all..yet.

Seriously, half the fun here is getting great info from some very smart bloggers.

Personally, wind farms do have many strikes against them. I'm not too impressed with the space they demand and the wildlife damage they do.

Single P/fans for on site or cabin use seems reasonable, but fields and transmission lines look like poor efficiency.

The modern ideal is that we should all have our own power plant. No transformers and power lines, except to commerce and industry.

Not unusual to buy a furnace or heat exchanger. One could use a power module with today's tech if the home used microwave, gas stove, gas clothes dryer, gas hot water heater.

Cal 2,

Your point about subsidies is certainly true.

The subsidies for modern nuclear is high as well, yet unlike windfarms, are logical.

I read somewhere that the power density per dollar invested for, [New Modern] nuclear is a million times better than old tech like hydro, coal, natural gas etc.

Headlines*: AGW Fraud.

"'Iffy' Ignatieff ignores gobal warming fraud, demands discredited cap-and-trade system"

"Conoco, BP, Caterpillar smell coffee, leave cap-and-trade lobbying Climate Action Partnership"

"Voice of people rising in defiance of bureaucrats, propaganda, and funded climate catastrophiacs"

"climategate: Jones attempt at rehabilitating reputation fails on shoals of documented fraud"

*Headlines:

http://www.newswatchcanada.ca/

I guess it is time to off-seat Jim Prentice.

Well maz2 @ 1:08....that's the last time I go to the mop and pail.They actually had some comments that WERE NOT bashing PMSH,etc,and they let them through! I am so disappointed.Guess I'll have to put the Dawg back in bookmarks.

We don't need to open up an old argument about circumcision -- a procedure I hotly defend -- however, I want this latest research into the prevention of the spread of HIV, especially in Africa (but it would work here too), noted:

http://www.healthzone.ca/health/yourhealth/men%27shealth/article/766013--ring-to-take-sting-out-of-circumcision

"The most powerful force against AIDS in Africa may be circumcision ... The Chinese-developed device, the ShangRing, has been tested in a small study in Kenya and a larger test is set for later this year. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation will invest about $4 million (U.S.) into studying the device. ... Kim Dickson, an AIDS expert at the World Health Organization, said mass circumcision could prevent about 4 million adult HIV infections between 2009 and 2025."

A snip in time saves nine ...?

And just for our arteries,today in 1909,the founder of the "Golden Arches",Richard McDonald was born.What this has to do with circumcision,I have no idea.

Hi everyone just noticed a headline on NewsReal Blog,Control Freaks Want To Dominate The Internet,thought you might want to check it out.I cant help but wonder after the great job you did on climategate if we all make a royal stink about this starting now.Could we beat back this invasion of free speach.Where do you think this is going and where do you think it could possibly end.

well, I'm confused again.

conservatism and the right wing is all about deregulation and minimal gov't meddling.

so how does SDA square the latest decision out of jim flatulence's office, the one about piling more restrictions and conditions on the housing mkt? the ones set to kick in full force in April. google it.

hmmmm ??? I'm waiting !!!!

"Where do you think this is going and where do you think it could possibly end.

Posted by: mikeg at February 16, 2010 5:41 PM "

Just ask Chinese users,if you can get through to one, where it is going. As to the ending, I see Internet CHRC's stomping on any white person's use of....why is my screen fading in and out? And who's at the door?

curious_george...I myself CAN'T square it. The POS from my riding isn't getting my vote next time.We don't need any more CINO's in this damn country.And nobody give me the "minority" government line.That's just AM/FM static....all mirrors and f&*king magic.