—Peter Welch, U.S. Representative, Vermont
[thanks to Snarky Boy for catching this from the radio]
Vermont
August 3, 2011
The Human Pretzel
"I am proud to have voted against this bill but I would have been just as proud to have voted in favor of it if my vote was needed to pass something that I am against."
[thanks to Snarky Boy for catching this from the radio]
Vermont
[thanks to Snarky Boy for catching this from the radio]
Vermont
No adverse wind turbine effects within 10 km radius!
Alec Salt, a researcher at the Washington University School of Medicine who has discovered interesting things about the inner ear's response to low-frequency noise, notes at Wind Concerns Ontario that reports finding no significant ill effects of wind turbines on health or property values all appear to use an cutoff of 5 or 10 kilometers or 5 miles.
It is obvious that with such a cutoff, you are guaranteed to dilute any effect by including a vastly larger number of people and property at greater distances from the wind turbines. Salt puts some hypothetical numbers to that fact, which I here adapt.
First, let us say that a wind facility is 12.6 square kilometers in area (3,105 acres), which as a circle would have a radius of 2 km.
The area within 1 km of the facility would then be the area of a 3-km-radius circle minus 12.6 km², i.e., 15.7 km².
The area would be 37.7 km² within 2 km, 66.0 km² within 5 km, and 301.6 km² within 10 km.
If we then assume that the residential density is consistent throughout these areas, it is clear that there would be 4.2 times more families within 5 km than within 1 km of the facility, and 19.2 times more within 10 km.
Particularly with health effects, where not everyone is affected or affected to the same degree, a significant proportion of affected individuals becomes minuscule in the larger pool: If, say, 10% of the people within 1 km become ill after the wind turbines begin operating (in fact, it appears that the rate is much greater), that becomes only half of one percent of the people living within 10 km (ignoring for now anybody becoming ill farther than 1 km away).
Problem solved!
Also, as a commenter to the Wind Concerns Ontario noted, the physical effects of wind turbines fall off exponentially with distance, further ensuring a dilution to insignificance with a larger distance.
In contrast, if you compare that rate of 10% within 1 km with, say, a 1% rate farther than 2 km, it is very clear that the risk of adverse health effects is increased tenfold by living within 1 km of a wind facility compared with living greater than 2 km from it. But such studies have yet to be done.
It is obvious that with such a cutoff, you are guaranteed to dilute any effect by including a vastly larger number of people and property at greater distances from the wind turbines. Salt puts some hypothetical numbers to that fact, which I here adapt.
First, let us say that a wind facility is 12.6 square kilometers in area (3,105 acres), which as a circle would have a radius of 2 km.
The area within 1 km of the facility would then be the area of a 3-km-radius circle minus 12.6 km², i.e., 15.7 km².
The area would be 37.7 km² within 2 km, 66.0 km² within 5 km, and 301.6 km² within 10 km.
If we then assume that the residential density is consistent throughout these areas, it is clear that there would be 4.2 times more families within 5 km than within 1 km of the facility, and 19.2 times more within 10 km.
Particularly with health effects, where not everyone is affected or affected to the same degree, a significant proportion of affected individuals becomes minuscule in the larger pool: If, say, 10% of the people within 1 km become ill after the wind turbines begin operating (in fact, it appears that the rate is much greater), that becomes only half of one percent of the people living within 10 km (ignoring for now anybody becoming ill farther than 1 km away).
Problem solved!
Also, as a commenter to the Wind Concerns Ontario noted, the physical effects of wind turbines fall off exponentially with distance, further ensuring a dilution to insignificance with a larger distance.
In contrast, if you compare that rate of 10% within 1 km with, say, a 1% rate farther than 2 km, it is very clear that the risk of adverse health effects is increased tenfold by living within 1 km of a wind facility compared with living greater than 2 km from it. But such studies have yet to be done.
July 29, 2011
Goebbels is laughing
The Nazi Propaganda Minister, Dr. Joseph Goebbels, calls his boss, Adolf Hitler, by hell-o-phone.
“Mein Führer,” he exclaims excitedly. “News from the world. It seems we were on the right track, after all. Anti-Semitism is conquering Europe!”
“Good!” the Führer says, “That will be the end of the Jews!”
“Hmmm … well … not exactly, mein Führer. It looks as though we chose the wrong Semites. Our heirs, the new Nazis, are going to annihilate the Arabs and all the other Muslims in Europe.” Then, with a chuckle, “After all, there are many more Muslims than Jews to exterminate.”
“But what about the Jews?” Hitler insists.
“You won’t believe this: the new Nazis love Israel, the Jewish State - and Israel loves them!”
... The New Anti-Semitism, by Uri Avnery (click here), describes how the new fascists have made common cause with the new zionists against the other Semites, the Arabs.
“Mein Führer,” he exclaims excitedly. “News from the world. It seems we were on the right track, after all. Anti-Semitism is conquering Europe!”
“Good!” the Führer says, “That will be the end of the Jews!”
“Hmmm … well … not exactly, mein Führer. It looks as though we chose the wrong Semites. Our heirs, the new Nazis, are going to annihilate the Arabs and all the other Muslims in Europe.” Then, with a chuckle, “After all, there are many more Muslims than Jews to exterminate.”
“But what about the Jews?” Hitler insists.
“You won’t believe this: the new Nazis love Israel, the Jewish State - and Israel loves them!”
... The New Anti-Semitism, by Uri Avnery (click here), describes how the new fascists have made common cause with the new zionists against the other Semites, the Arabs.
July 26, 2011
Danish Minister compares peaceful protesters to mass murderer
The Danish Minister of Integration and Development, Søren Pind, wrote on Facebook that the activists attempting to stop the cutting down of a forest to erect giant wind turbines are like Norwegian mass murderer Anders Breivik:
Anders Breivik, of course, is the man who killed scores of people in Norway last Friday (July 22) in what he considered to be a strike against multiculturalism. Søren Pind, a member of the ruling right-wing Venstre party, is well known in Denmark for his own attitudes against multiculturalism. That well fits his obvious hatred of people who question their government's actionsculture.
Click here for the story in Danish.
Ekstremismen tager til. Flere og flere mener sig berettiget til at tage sig selv til rette. Optøjerne på Nørrebro. Kirkebesættere. Østerild. Og ekstremismens hidtil mest sataniske fjæs nu i Norge. Det er 70’erne om igen. De næste år handler om demokratiets og retsstatens klippegrund. Nok er nok. Enten er man med. Eller også imod.The Nørrebro church occupation refers to a group of rejected Iraqi asylum seekers who sought refuge in 2009 and the citizens who tried to block police from entering. Østerild refers to the citizens who for 10 days blocked the cutting down of trees in the klitplantage (dunes park) there. The Danish Nature Agency plans to clear it for the companies Vestas and Siemens to erect giant (250 m tall) "test" turbines. The blockade ended today when the number of tree-cutting machines was more than doubled and more than 50 police arrived, armed and with dogs, to clear out the activists and planning to keep guard around the clock until the first round of cutting is done.
Extremism is growing. More and more people see themselves entitled to take the law into their own hands. The riots in Nørrebro. Church occupiers. Østerild. And the most satanic extremism now in Norway. It's the 70s again. The next year is about democracy and the rule of law. Enough is enough. You are either with. Or against.
Anders Breivik, of course, is the man who killed scores of people in Norway last Friday (July 22) in what he considered to be a strike against multiculturalism. Søren Pind, a member of the ruling right-wing Venstre party, is well known in Denmark for his own attitudes against multiculturalism. That well fits his obvious hatred of people who question their government's actionsculture.
Click here for the story in Danish.
Murðer Denmark
Cartoon by Jens Hage:
"As long as it's green — it doesn't hurt!"
"Nice mounds!"
(This is about the Danish government plan to cut down the forest in the Østerild Klitplantage (dunes park) in Thy to erect giant wind turbines for a "test center". The victim is "Mother [Mor] Denmark". The title in Danish is "Mord [Murder] Danmark". Since 2002, almost no new wind capacity on land has been erected in Denmark. From left to right are: Lars Løkke Rasmussen, Prime Minister, Ditlev Engel, Vestas President and CEO, Anders Eldrup, DONG Energy CEO, and Karen Ellemann, Environment Minister.)
(Similarly, a resident of Vermont in the USA wrote in 2005 about “blasting vermont's lovely ridgelines to ram monstrous turbine assemblies into the earth” [link])
wind power, wind energy, wind turbines, environment, environmentalism
"As long as it's green — it doesn't hurt!"
"Nice mounds!"
(This is about the Danish government plan to cut down the forest in the Østerild Klitplantage (dunes park) in Thy to erect giant wind turbines for a "test center". The victim is "Mother [Mor] Denmark". The title in Danish is "Mord [Murder] Danmark". Since 2002, almost no new wind capacity on land has been erected in Denmark. From left to right are: Lars Løkke Rasmussen, Prime Minister, Ditlev Engel, Vestas President and CEO, Anders Eldrup, DONG Energy CEO, and Karen Ellemann, Environment Minister.)
(Similarly, a resident of Vermont in the USA wrote in 2005 about “blasting vermont's lovely ridgelines to ram monstrous turbine assemblies into the earth” [link])
wind power, wind energy, wind turbines, environment, environmentalism
July 20, 2011
The Bourne Trilogy
The last of the three books on which these movies were based was published in February 1990. Now, thanks to Barack Obama, everything criminal in these movies is completely legal. Even so, they are superbly made thrillers. (Thanks to my son for introducing them to me.)
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