JoNova
A science presenter, writer, speaker & former TV host; author of The Skeptic's Handbook (over 200,000 copies distributed & available in 15 languages).
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Statistics
Idiocy increases daily.
30
Succinctly put.
30
Yes, succinctly put. And I’m a steam locomotive fan from the days when I watched them go by as a kid and wanted nothing as much as I wanted to sit up in that cab, blow the whistle and run that train. But alas, they are a thing of the past except for the few lovingly kept running on various tourist railroads and by several mainline railroads for the historical value.
Thankfully something from the past can survive to remind us of where we came from. But green and carbon neutral?
Sometimes I wish we could have them back, smoke, noise, smell and all that went with them. They were just plain a lot more fun than diesel power. Put that in your pipe and smoke it Mr. Gore.
61
They just scared the shit out of me. sheer terror as one roared into a station when I was a kid, thats my memory of steam locos.
30
On the other hand, it was one of several thibgs that left in me an indelible yearning for powerful and big creations. I would feckin love it if someone…the Chinese I guess being the only people with sufficient technology and eff-off attitude…actually built and launched one of those Dyson Orion nuclear juggarnauts. Hundred nuclear explosions a minute propulsion, hundred thousand tons to orbit!
20
Works better for 4 million tons to orbit. Use thermonuclear charges.
10
No need to fear them as an adult. They literally built and supplied the world we inherited from them.
They’re a time machine now. When your train pulls out of the Durango Colorado station heading for Silverton you start climbing up the Animas River Gorge (“Rio de las Animas Perdidas”, “River of Lost Souls, as the Spanish named it) and you’re suddenly in the world of over 100 years ago. The last part of the trip is on a rock ledge cut out of the side of the cliff with the river way below you. It’s quite an experience.
If you want a different vacation I heartily recommend it. Bring a camera! You’ll find The Durango & Silverton Railroad here.
View of the last few miles approaching Silverton.
10
I’m heading to Colorado… shall definitely check it out!
20
Slider,
If you intend to ride you’ll need to make reservations way ahead. It’s very popular and at least the summertime trains are sold out a lot of the time. It’s so much in demand that they run two trains a day. So plan in advance.
Enjoy!
10
Thanks, yes, I went up them Rockies a few times in 1973. By car. I wont be going back to the USA though now. Too much TSA.
00
Yes I grew up in grain country in the Red River Valley.
We used to sacrifice a copper coin to the great huffing puffing monster by putting it on the track when the train was at the station
When she rolled out pulling about six dozen full grain cars, that little coin was about the size of a fried egg, and about a thin as a hair.
I can still remember the smell of hard coal cinders mixed with the creosote in the ties on the track.
That’s when all the men were wise, all the women were strong, and all of we kids were above average.
40
Rod,
My grandfather used to do the same thing. After the train went through we’d search around for that penny or what was left of it. I wish I had kept one just to remind me of my grandfather.
I suspect that if you tried something like that today you’d be arrested as a terrorist. Times change.
If you stood next to a locomotive when it was sitting idle you could not only hear the hissing steam and the fire roaring in the firebox but you could feel it. They almost seemed alive.
10
I used to travel in a steam train to boarding school. 350km/200miles. We had to wind up the windows when we came to a tunnel as the smoke would fill the carriage otherwise. Magnificent engines to stand next to as they hissed steam and heat. As kids we would stand on one side of the bridge and wait for an engine to go under then we’d race to the other side a catch the plume of smoke as it emerged from the other side. Exciting era the steam era.
20
I won’t forget the steam trains passing the bottom of the paddock at 3:30am during my unfortunate brush with the military as we were being thrashed about in the freezing dark of the morning … how I wished I was the stoker on that train, far from the exhaustion and pain of the abusive ‘training’. The glimpse of the warm coal fire in the furnace as it choofed along.
20
Streetcred,
The heat’s nice on a cold freezing day. But when it’s hot it’s another matter. At usual boiler pressures the boiling point of water runs around 375 F (191 C). In the cab you’re working just inches from that boiler and the firebox which will be even hotter. Locomotive crews wear heavy gloves and clothing for a good reason, they need protection from the heat — being in the cab on a hot day is like being in hell. And on any day you can’t touch anything in front of you without the gloves.
I’ve been in the cab several times to get pictures and was always glad to get out of there again. In spite of a boy’s dream of being the engineer the working conditions are terrible.
00
Now youve scared the shit out of me again…aaaargh!!!!
00
And I would still jump at the chance to sit on the right-hand side of the cab and run that train, even if for no more than 5 minutes. But it certainly takes a different breed of men to handle those conditions.
00
All you have to do is ride behind the locomotive and enjoy the trip.
We’ll both leave the cab to the young guys who can handle it more easily. 🙂
00
Didn’t know you could get a steam powered Gulfstream, which would be Big Als locomotive of choice, after Air Force 2 of course.
00
I thought Big Al was a steam locomotive. After all, he’s been blowing smoke for years.
00
Also on the theme of similar green idiocy is wind power. At the Telegraph James Delingpole reports:
Taking the train to Machynlleth on Friday I looked out of the window slack-jawed at the magnificence of mid-Wales’s The-Shire-like hill country.. and the question I kept asking myself is: “How could anyone who really cares about our natural heritage possibly want to destroy this with wind turbines?”
Under current government plans, 800 turbines – some over 400 feet tall – are to be built in mid-Wales, with another 100 miles worth of pylons to be built across Montgomeryshire and into Shropshire in order to connect their expensive, intermittent, unreliable electricity with the national grid. This is going to cost a minimum of £2 billion. Yet, for about one fifth of that cost you can build a gas fired power station capable of producing nearly three times as much power – without blighting the countryside for miles around and without draining the pockets of the poor, put-upon energy user with unnecessary green tariffs.
170
We managed to leave “mid-Wales’s The-Shire-like hill country” (with some regret) shortly after it got nuked by Chernobyl. I had helped to build a few wind turbines there. Plenty of locations where there is ALWAYS air movement, so a bit surprising that it has taken this long for the subsidy farmers to move in. Our turbines were vertical shaft, low voltage, not exceeding 3m in height, yet difficult to maintain beyond the assaults of 2 – 3 winters. 122m tall? LOL. Downside though – not so vulnerable to shotgun blasts.
21
I like the follow up article
20
Apparently the people of Australia feel their Prime Minister looks a little emaciated and are responding by providing her with food. Such a kind people! Always looking out for others.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/australasia/video-australian-prime-minister-julia-gillard-hit-with-salami-sandwich-at-canberra-school-8637718.html
60
Now I understand why people try to smuggle food into the country. Was it a Tuscan salami?
30
If it was Sicilian salami, it would have been an offal she couldn’t refuse.
80
That make her an offal PM?
60
[snip]
The shot was reasonably on target, considering that she was moving, but it failed to allow for the wind of verbal hot air that creates a vortex around most politicians.
70
Red dwarfs do funny things to the space-time continuum.
70
That is very true; and a factor I had not considered.
But, on reflection, I still think it was a political vortex. If you look carefully at the sandwich, you can observe it spinning to the left.
40
Probably just a waste of a good sandwich.
20
She doesn’t look like she’s hungry; just a sandwich short of a picnic.
30
What a pity someone didn’t send their youngster to school with a dozen rotten eggs.
20
Here’s the Weekend starter for 10 points. http://wattsupwiththat.com/2013/06/08/by-the-numbers-having-the-courage-to-do-nothing/
The essay is produced as a conclusion, with no supporting data. I’ve asked for the rationale.
30
The reference has been updated to include the full paper. Interesting reading.
10
Steven Goddard reported yesterday that it was -104°F (-75°c) in Antarctica: http://stevengoddard.wordpress.com/2013/06/07/feels-like-146f/
But with the wind chill it felt like -146°f (-99°f). So you could say that it felt like the world record for cold was being broken, as that record is -129°f (-89°c) set circa 1983. I tend to like to follow Goddard’s reporting of these Antarctic temperatures, rooting for the world record cold, which may be a long shot, but consider that it’s already -104°f now and it’s not even officially winter. The world record for cold may be broken this season. Keep an eye on it!
And it’s of more significance than just a spectator’s curiosity. Because the world record for hot was set way back a century ago in 1913: 134°f (56.7°c) in Death Valley, California. If we had actually been in a century of runaway warming as the warmist’s manipulated urban-biased ground data suggests, it stands to reason that the world record hot temperature should have been broken many times over, but no. And now, the cold record is from 1983. Cold is winning, and further, I understand that in U.S. states and across the globe, the strong tendency is for records for cold temperatures to be set in later years than hot temp records. This is clearly inconsistent with the suspicious data, or should I say “data.”
60
Yes Eric, but you must understand that global warming leads to climate change and extreme weather events are to be expected…..
31
I am in mid North Carolina. Ten years ago (2004) we had 17 days over 90F and two reaching 98F. This year we have yet to reach 90F and last night I needed a blanket….AGAIN. (66F low last night)
Farmers in my area did not plant corn until a couple weeks ago because the ground was just too cold. (need 55F) normally it is planted in April.
As of April 28, USDA estimates only 5% of the U.S. corn crop is planted. The five-year average for this time is 31%. In my area the last week of April had lows in the 40s and even the 30s.
U.S. farmers had yet to plant 9 percent of corn crops in the main growing areas as of June 2, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said. Last year, planting was complete by that time….
Plants don’t lie about the temperature….
70
But plants do lie about temperature. The hockey stick, Yamal, and The Decline, remember?
Or rather, plants can neither lie nor tell the truth about temperature, they are just trying to get along and mind their own growing business and if someone else comes along and cuts them open to measure the plant’s growth rings as some sort of reliable temperature gauge and a portent of doom then that’s not the poor plant’s fault.
In the middle ages the witches would cut open a rat and check the arrangement of entrails for omens of doom. The only difference with Dendroclimatology is that the tree continues to live after the core is taken. It’s an improvement… kindof.
32
The problem is cherry-picking the cores. (Now there’s a good book title.)
20
um, it’s the pits. 🙂
10
Actually the ‘Witch’ cutting open the rat could probably tell if it was diseased and a plague was about to start, however marmots were used in Mongolia.
(Amazing the stuff you learn that sticks in the memory)
More on the subject: http://asianhistory.about.com/od/asianenvironmentalhistory/p/Black-Death-In-Asia-Bubonic-Plague.htm
20
That’s absolutely fascinating. I must follow that up.
00
An interesting forum on the ABC Science Show on Radio National about Climate Change. I have my doubts about the so called experts and although the show asks the question “whether we can have a non political discussion about it”. It seems very political to me bit I might be a little biased because of my reasoning but here is the link for those who are interested.
http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/scienceshow/climate-science3a–beyond-party-politics/4734858
What a waste of time with Matthew England indiscriminately tossing around the “D” word. Shameless !!
50
The presenter lines them up like coconuts in a shy for England to knock them down, with no one there from the informed side of the debate to call him out on his erroneous & misleading responses. It’s all about the presentation and having noone around to disagree. Denying debate, and being an apologist for the alarmism.
60
Disgusting – why didn’t he invite Matt Ridley to put his own case against the panel, they could have easily had him online from the UK – that would have been a balanced debate!
20
The things our politicians get up to!
.
It’s that time of year when the bilderbergers meet.
Richard North, at eureferendum, has a summary:
“The thing is, if you want to get worked up about the New World Order, there is plenty to go at.
And for a conspiracy of world bankers try the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision where dangerous forces are truly at work.”
.
egad.
30
Swiss lawyers blast secretive US bank deal
“A secretive deal between Bern and Washington over Swiss banks’ alleged complicity in tax evasion by Americans is “deeply worrying,” according to the new head of the Swiss Bar Association.”
10
In order to ‘run’ the 21st century and indeed, to flourish in it, we require a cheap and plentiful supply of electricity. Why would anyone in politics actually seek to constrain this? Surely, it’s a political no-brainer?
I ask myself whether there is a more compelling motive that requires Juliar for example to gamble on political suicide executing a volte-face over the implementation of a carbon tax in Australia?
Seriously, are these global pollies privy to knowledge the rest of us are missing or are they all on IQ lowering pills?
And in the spirit of OT weekend, recent MSM comments appear to be ushering in a new age. Apparently, journalists and MSM media no longer see themselves as ‘reporters’ but as individuals who ‘open the conversation’. Critical journalism it seems, lies in the sole province of the internet, which of course may be readily monitored, recorded and tracked.
In the light of the recent NSA-Verizon phone records collection (not to mention the possibility of a sanctioned extension to GCSB power to spy on citizens in NZ or the supposed monitoring of email accounts that Google purportedly undertakes), the comment one recurrently hears on the MSM is ‘if you’ve nothing to hide, you’ve nothing to fear’.
While the sheeple sleep, the rest of us disappear. When was history no longer taught? Oh I know, when iconic T-shirts and posters of Mao Tse-tung became de rigueur.
40
Sorry, but I’m a bit confused as to why this is even “news”.
.
Way back in 1987 it was exposed that Australia, the USA, the United Kingdom and New Zealand has agreed to spy on their own, and each others citizens, including the recording of all phone calls, and share the information.
.
The agreement was under a larger framework known as “The UKUSA Pact”. The Australian HQ for it was a huge, fortress-like building laughably claimed to be a “local telephone exchange”. It is now more honestly officially called the “Deakin Defence Offices” – see link –
http://goo.gl/maps/FUdGC
.
As well as telecommunications tagging and monitoring, this is where all your record cross-matching occurs between the ATO, Centrelink, State Births Deaths and Marriages, Vehicle Rego, Land Titles, and so forth, as well as private banking info.
.
Planning for this started back under the post-Menzies Liberal Govt and continued through the Whitlam Labor years. Construction was during the time of the Fraser Liberal Govt, and it became fully operational about the same time as the Hawke-Keating Govt came to power. It has continued to “do its thing” through the Howard Liberal Govt, and the Rudd-Gillard Govts.
.
All that is new in this “news” out of America, is that they now include internet monitoring – well, who’d a thunk it !! Fancy that. Grubmints that started monitoring and cross-matching every conceivable electronic record on you over a quarter of a century ago, have updated their methodology to include new technology advances !!
.
Those wascally wabbits.
————————–
Originally posted at Catallaxy
40
They can’t accept the fact that they were wrong.
It gets compounded for them as well, because it would be an admission that the morons who voted for them were wrong as well.
They’re all just hoping it will go away. I say don’t let it. Make sure they’re accountable even if it is just an example to others. of course, if tehy publicly admit they were wrong – just as they claimed they were right, then that would be another story.
Unless they recant, then let them have it, I say.
30
Just when you think you’ve seen the worst along comes this load of nonsense that is truly frightening.
http://bishophill.squarespace.com/blog/2013/6/6/marshalling-the-most-bizarre-arguments.html#comments
This fool is the president of the American Meteorlogical Society and has worked at NASA GISS as a climate scientist.
He calls us climate zombies, yet apparently he can’t even understand simple maths. How can such a fool be allowed to pedal this idiotic rubbish?
He’s either a liar or a fool, take your pick.
50
Neither. He is a spin merchant, pure and simple. Unfortunately he terrible scriptwriters.
But as one of the commentators on Bishop Hill pointed out, this was a presentation to a convention of welded-on warmists.
30
The Swan/Gillard/Labor budget has been blown out of the water in just 3 weeks.
http://blogs.news.com.au/heraldsun/andrewbolt/index.php/heraldsun/comments/swans_budget_blown_just_one_month_later/#commentsmore
Swan’s head of treasury now admits that they knew well before budget night that this would be the case but chose to ignore it.
Amazing if you or I were selling an item a month ago for $100 and yet we knew its true value was only $70 we would be seen as dishonest.
Perhaps not a good analogy but why is this deceptive sale of the OZ budget any different? Afterall we have the head of Swan’s department admitting this deception under oath.
30
Neville #9, I really hate to say this, but do they really care? I mean, having clearly said ‘no’ to a carbon tax pre-election and then done a 180deg turn, is anything subsequently that seems important? Chosing to lay one’s head on the electoral block and facing political death, there isn’t anything else left to fear. It’s probably exhilarating, say and do what you like.
If the sheeple forget and forgive, the only remaining cause of death will be laughter.
10
As the crims say, “after the first one, the rest are free”.
00
Another one about to hit the dust?
MP Yeo seems to have been suckered by the Sunday Times and his future looks mighty grim
http://order-order.com/2013/06/08/sunday-sleaze-tim-yeo-stung-by-sunday-times-offered-to-sell-legislation-and-access-7000-a-day/
Link from a recent post by AC1 on bishophill.
20
I think Google Chrome is shite.
20
No it is not!
It is extremely good at what it is intended to do.
Which is to faithfully record exactly what pages, on which sites, you visit. and how long you stay there, and how you “progress” to the next site, etc.
Conspiracy, anyone?
20
Lew is watching you Rereke….
10
Everybody is watching me – that is the point of all “free” web browsers. Where do people think that Firefox, et al, get their income from?
I don’t personally care. As a researcher, I go to lots of different types of sites in any given day – it makes for a lot of noise.
So if somebody is monitoring my activity, and can figure what my personal interests are, then good luck to them.
On the other hand, if you spend most of your time looking at babes in bikinis on Harley’s, then you are extremely unlikely to be presented with adverts showing pictures of cute kittens playing around the flower vase,
20
I don’t know, Rereke, where DO you think Mozilla gets its income?
Because it all comes from Google search click-through royalties if the public information about them can be believed. I think Mozilla was founded with good intent in the early days. Their recent tripling of revenue from GOOG looks like an attempt to get Mozilla hooked on Google sugar and lead them into temptation.
The fact John Lilly left Mozilla and joined Greylock smells bad because of some other projects Greylock is behind, but aside from that I can’t find any major dirt on Lilly. Equally I can’t find any spy-related dirt on John Kovacs.
If “LEO co-operation” isn’t at the helm level another option is that spyware could be added by tech heads to the browser between the open source code checkout and the final compiled installer, but it seems much less likely that this could be kept secret for longer than the NSA wiretap device in Google’s NOC that was revealed by the Washington Post and confirmed by the national intelligence director this week.
So it’s not really about the browser, it’s about the web server, the back room data deals, the aggregators like ChoicePoint, and the USA government intercept devices in between them all.
I guess the only safe browsing option in your view is to buy a copy of Opera and use it via an anonymizer proxy?
00
There is definitely something weird going on with Firefox…. after a few hours its always happily ticking along…. only consuming 1.6Gb of RAM!!!!!!
00
“LEO co-operation” …What, we are being run by people in Low Earth Orbit…its worse than I thought!!!!!!!!!
00
That’s why Adblocker is so useful 😉
10
For a while I was getting (on Windows IE I might add Rereke) hordes of ads for Muslim dating sites.
I am not Muslim.
Track back to figure out how that happened if you want a realisation to make you smile, such is the immense idiocy of “intelligent” software.
00
Just try Firefox…. then you will know what true shite is.
13
Oh lookie… the Firefox fanboys gave me some thumbs down!!…. but of course they are not game enough to try arguing anything in its favour.
11
I use all the big three, plus have used Opera and others. Basically, they all have their followers, they are all decried by some, and, ultimately, they are ALL shite!
Sshite is the leitmotifof the 21st Century innit!
00
Antarctic sea ice has increased by 400,000 sq km more than long term average in the last week.
It looks like we will exceed last year’s record ice maximum by a large margin.
http://arctic.atmos.uiuc.edu/cryosphere/IMAGES/seaice.anomaly.antarctic.png
http://nsidc.org/data/seaice_index/images/daily_images/S_timeseries.png
And almost all of the increase is directly south of WA.
http://wattsupwiththat.com/reference-pages/sea-ice-page/
Expect a chilly winter folks.
30
Just saw this group attempting to cross the Antarctic in winter.
Called “The Coldest Journey”
The reason on the science page is:
Regardless of their reasons, this will be just about an impossible feat, and if they do make it, it will be exceptional in surviving extremes. They set out on 21st March 2013 and have given themselves to 21st September 2013 to traverse some 3,800 kilometers from Crown Bay to Cape Crozier.
This is the link to the live map of the trek, and it seems they are way behind schedule.
They ARE raising of lot of money for charity, and I wish them luck. This looks like being one of the coldest Antarctic winters on record.
00
7 June: RenewEconomy: Giles Parkinson: ARENA pulls funding from Australia’s largest solar project
The plug has been pulled from what would have been the largest stand-alone solar installation in Australia after the Australian Renewable Energy Agency decided to terminate the funding deed for the $230 million Whyalla Solar Oasis project because of repeated delays.
Solar Oasis, which proposed to build a 40MW solar thermal plant using “big dish” technology originally developed at the Australian National University, was relying on a $60 million grant that was administered by ARENA, and awarded in 2009 under the Renewable Energy Development Program.
ARENA, which last year promised to review funding for projects which had made little progress, said the funding deed for Solar Oasis was terminated because of the failure of the project backers to meet the conditions precedent…
However, the Solar Oasis consortium involved in the project said it was stunned by the decision, which was made two weeks ago. The owner of the technology, Wizard Power, has since been placed in administration…
This is not the first major project to fall victim of the grants funding process, which some have accused of being cumbersome. The $1.2 billion 250MW Solar Dawn solar thermal project in Queensland failed to seal finance and had its Solar Flagship funding pulled, and the solar PV component of that program also had to be re-tendered. The nearly created Clean Energy Finance Corporation focuses on loans rather than grants.
Solar Oasis was one of a handful of large projects using new technologies chosen from more than 60 applicants that were awarded $335 million in grants by the REDP program, which was criticised by the Federal Auditor General in a report last year…
However, Ratch Australia is proposing to use a solar thermal element in the proposed replacement of the Collinsville solar thermal station in Queensland, and Alinta Energy is contemplating several different solar thermal technologies for the possible replacement of the coal fired power station in Port Augusta.
http://reneweconomy.com.au/2013/arena-pulls-funding-from-australias-largest-solar-project-18443
with Whyalla out, why does the Murdoch’s Advertiser give space to this nonsense promoting Solar Thermal at Port Augusta?
6 June: Adelaide Advertiser: Dan Spencer: Let’s power ahead with solar options
(Dan Spencer is the Australian Youth Climate Coalition’s Repower Port Augusta campaigner and the 2012 Bob Brown Young Environmentalist of the Year.)
Polling released in the past few days by Essential Research made this divide clear. Among under-35s, 52 per cent of people support carbon pricing and only 25 per cent oppose it…
This election, young people can provide a moral voice highlighting the need for long-term thinking on climate and critical investment in our future…
***More than 70 per cent support building a solar thermal plant in Port Augusta.
On September 14, young people will be looking to our leaders to step up and take serious action on renewables funding and climate change…
http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/opinion/dan-spencer-lets-power-ahead-with-solar-options/story-e6freabc-1226658923174
reminder:
5 Dec 2012: Australian: Young Australians more concerned about the economy than climate
FORGET the environment, it’s the economy, stupid. Young Australians have dumped the environment from the top of their concerns and replaced it with the economy.
Mission Australia’s national Youth Survey found concern about the environment _ considered to be the leading issue for the previous two years (37 per cent last year and 38 per cent in 2010) _ fell to 17.5 per cent…
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/economics/young-australians-more-concerned-about-the-economy-than-climate/story-e6frg926-1226530049092
00
TonyfromOz – any comment?
Australia on track to meet renewable goal – data
BEIJING, June 7 (Reuters Point Carbon) – Australia generated more than 13 percent of its electricity from renewable sources in 2012, data from the nation’s Clean Energy Council showed, as the nation invested A$4.2 billion ($4 bln) in clean energy sources over the year…
http://www.pointcarbon.com/news/1.2406829?&ref=searchlist
Number of new CDM projects slumps to 7-yr low: U.N. agency
LONDON, June 7 (Reuters Point Carbon) – The number of new projects seeking permission to produce U.N. carbon credits by cutting emissions in poorer nations hit a seven year low in May, according to data from a United Nations research agency, further evidence that carbon finance is drying up…
http://www.pointcarbon.com/news/1.2407024?&ref=searchlist
00
Why yes pat, I do indeed have a comment.
More than five years ago, when I started out doing this, renewables were going to take over the World, and here when I say renewables, I mean the two of choice, wind power and solar power, because hydro was not even included in that renewable mix, because hydro was, well, environmentally unfriendly.
So, this humungous construction of renewables was started.
Now, five plus years later, and hey, surprise surprise, renewables, despite monumental and exponential construction have actually failed to make a dent.
So now, hydro is included in that list of renewables, because it’s the only way they can get that total for renewables into double figure percentages, because those other two still stumble along at around 2% in total, on a Worldwide basis.
For that Australian total, Wind comes in at around 3%, rooftop solar around 1%, commercial solar, blink, and Hydro, (most of it now 40+ years old) makes up nearly all of the rest.
Look at the U.S. with its huge construction of wind plants to the point that they now have 62,000MW of Nameplate Capacity. That’s the equivalent of 31 large scale coal fired power plants. So, with that in place, how many large scale coal fired plants have closed in the last 5+ years.
Not ONE.
62,000MW of Nameplate Capacity, and yet the total supplied power in the US from wind comes in at 3.5% of all power consumption.
That same 62,000MW of existing coal fired power delivers almost four times as much power per year as all that Wind Power.
The only reason Worldwide renewable power percentage is so high is because of the huge hydro construction program in China, providing 23% of all China’s power requirements.
Worldwide, hydro supplies almost 17% of all electrical power consumed, with the total from all renewables coming in at 19%, so removing hydro, you can see that wind and solar, (and the rest of all renewables) barely makes 2%.
Renewable Power, the new goto term when trying to explain the word ‘dud’.
Tony.
80
Keep in mind how they keep telling us that solar power is the way of the future.
The U.S. has ramped up solar power considerably in the last 5 years, and well, I suppose they can actually afford it.
Over those last 5+ years, Solar power has in fact increased by a factor of 6 in the U.S. to the stage now where solar supplies a truly amazingly huge 0.18% of all the power they consume in the U.S. and it’s only cost, well, many Billions.
The total output power from every commercial solar plant in the U.S. is delivered from just ONE large scale coal fired plant every 140 days.
Wind has also ramped up considerably, increased by a factor of 2.5 in those same 5+ years, supplying 1.9% of total U.S. power in 2008, to be now supplying 3.5% of total power.
Tony.
30
German electricity output up 1.9 pct in Q1, CO2 emissions likely up
LONDON, June 7 (Reuters Point Carbon) – Germany’s electricity production rose 1.9 percent in the first three months of the year with coal-fired plants generating 5.6 percent more power year-on-year, preliminary data on Friday showed, suggesting higher carbon dioxide emissions in the EU’s top emitting nation…
http://www.pointcarbon.com/news/1.2407343?&ref=searchlist
Germany in new push against EU car emissions plan-draft
BRUSSELS, June 7 (Reuters) – Germany has put forward a fresh proposal on regulating carbon dioxide limits for cars sold in the European Union, which campaigners say is a last-ditch attempt to dilute a new emissions law…
http://www.pointcarbon.com/news/reutersnews/1.2407042?&ref=searchlist
00
First, thanks to janama for bringing this to my notice in the earlier Thread.
Again, I’ll link to the article that he did, because I want you to look at the diagram on that page to show you how an ordinary journalist misconstrues what he thinks he sees, and doesn’t bother to find out what it really is indicating, because, had he bothered to actually check, one of those parameters on that chart is an actual indicator to what it really means.
NSW Load Requirement
Now, look at that diagram mid page. There’s three lots of information shown there, and under the image is a legend of four things shown.
Note the light blue shaded part, and refer that to the legend below the image, and I’ve capitalised the most relevant part ….. NSW AVAILABLE generation. Ignore the dark blue part, because that’s what NSW can get from Qld and Victoria, if needed.
Now, note specifically the load curve, the brown line shown there, and the left side Y axis shows the total in MW, starting at Midnight at 8000MW, dropping to 7,000MW at around 3.30AM. (and hey, notice that’s 7000MW while everybody is asleep in bed, so the State is still consuming around half the total PEAK power while everybody sleeps) It rises to the daily Peak of 14,000MW at around 3.30PM, (hey, when everyone is at work) and then eases off back to Midnight. This is a typical Summer load curve, and no matter how many times uninformed people say that electricity consumption habits are changing, Summer load curves will ALWAYS look like this, and again, note the capitalisation of that word always.
Now note the light blue shaded area and the legend for it. (AVAILABLE generation)
See again the load curve. At a little above the midnight start point, that is what is ACTUALLY available ….. AT THAT TIME, with just all those large scale coal fired plants running. The amount available always has to be at a level above what is actually being consumed.
Then as the day proceeds, and power consumption rises, other smaller plants are brought on line so that actual power available is always greater than what is being consumed. Those plants, some of them, will only be required for four to six hours or so, some more and some less.
THAT is why the price spikes, (legend on the right hand Y axis in dollars/MWH) and note the price spike peak, from around 1PM to 4PM and then it drops.
This is because those smaller plants have higher, and some much higher running costs, hence they are required only as needed.
That cost line on the graph, that yellow line, is what is paid as the spot price for electricity, as each of those smaller plants come on line, adding to the overall cost.
That immediately shows how the author of this article knows little of what that image is actually saying.
The light blue shaded area is always higher than the daily Peak. There will be times when some of those smaller plants cannot be called upon, and in fact when some of those large scale coal fired plants have one unit closed for maintenance, and at times like this, then that dark blue shaded area comes into play, when NSW gets some of its power from Qld and Vic.
Now, while you see a price spike up beyond $150/MWH, the average price paid for the hours of peak consumption (7AM until 10PM) for NSW on this day was a higher amount than usual, in fact the highest for that Month, around $77/MWH, which is around $20/MWH higher than the average for that Month. That is because more of those smaller more expensive plants were called upon to supply power when it was most needed.
Note also that for the area under the load curve dip point, and again from 4PM onwards as power consumption eases, and those smaller expensive plants go back offline. All of that power is supplied from coal fired power sources, and look at the price, $55/MWH.
This average on that one day of $77/MWH is an expensive price to pay for electricity. However, it has nothing to do with coal fired power being expensive, as this is those other plants called on to top up the grid when most needed, and they are the expensive plants to operate.
Now, for some perspective, this ONE day (Jan182013) shows a price spike to $77/MWH, from a major coal fired power sourced State.
For Sth Australia, (reliant on wind power and with itrs coal fired plant closed since the end of Summer) last month, (May) S.A. paid higher than that NSW price on 23 of the 31 days, and in fact the average for the Month was $120/MWH, with one day beyond $460/MWH, almost 6 times higher than for this NSW spike.
Power consumption and from that, generation, is a difficult thing to explain correctly, and people will see this article and again call for the closure of coal fired plants, because they have no real idea what they actually do provide, and uninformed articles like this one will have people pointing at them indicating proof, when it’s actually a farrago of uninformed misinformation.
Oh, incidentally, on that same day in NSW. wind power provided around 1.4% of the State’s consumption.
Tony.
50
Tony – I’m not sure if you noticed but the website is a renewable energy site hence the deception!
00
Tony – may I suggest you go back to that site and read the comments section and then give them all a serve based on the article you just posted here. These guys are trying present renewables as a cheaper, more reliable alternative!
10
I thought AC was Tesla and Westinghouse’s winner over Edison’s DC for longer distance transmission? Now I read this on ABB’s web site:
Murraylink – the worlds longest underground power link
It’s a DC power cable 180km long carrying 160kV.
They hint part of the reason for choosing it is easier legalities on laying the cable. But if you look at ABB’s web site they actually mention other much longer DC cable runs that they’ve done elsewhere in the world, including 2000km in China.
DC eh? Bizarre.
Topic relevance: it’s the interconnect between the slovenly S.A. windmills and the vigorous Victorian furnaces.
10
Not bizarre at all. I’m sure Tony will point out the good engineering reasons for running high voltage interconnects as DC. We can now convert DC back to AC fairly easily with solid state electronics.
00
it’s all about the money:
7 June: Business Spectator: Peter Castellas: Where’s the world going on carbon trading?
(Peter Castellas is CEO of the Carbon Market Institute, an independent membership-based not-for-profit organisation)
Over 2000 visitors from more than 100 countries attended the Carbon Expo in Barcelona last week. Carbon Market Institute CEO Peter Castellas reports on some of the key takeaways for Australia.
Due to the apparent structural weakness in the EU ETS impacting on confidence in the European market, many carbon market participants have been closely watching developments in Australia. Some are weighing up the possibility of establishing operations in Australia. However, the political uncertainty regarding the future of the scheme is impacting that commitment…
It was clear that many international delegates hoped that whatever the election result, that there be some forward momentum in the development of the Australian carbon market, in part to give confidence to other markets that are developing…
Although a robust price on carbon is a key global response to avert dangerous climate change, it is not the only response. Markets are stronger if they are part of a broader suite of financial efforts. This includes innovation of new climate funds and financial instruments, technology innovation and deployment and economic and industry policies that will lead to a transformation to a low carbon economy.
A low carbon growth model will be the new global norm, and it can be enabled by markets as a price on carbon can stimulate investment in low carbon technologies…
Price certainty can be impacted through overlapping policies measures such as renewable energy subsidies.
Many carbon abatement projects require large upfront capital and projects need a revenue stream. Carbon pricing provides an avoided cost, not a revenue stream. The private sector investment needs to be de-risked and one way is through some price sharing between public and private funding…
The practical experience in the evolution of the Australian market positions Australia with a potential leadership role in the lead up to 2015 and beyond, if we desire it. There is a key seat at the negotiating table if we want it.
If we have the political will and ambition we can open up significant commercial opportunities for Australia’s carbon market professionals, investors and clean technology companies as the trend to a low carbon economy continues. apace.http://www.businessspectator.com.au/article/2013/6/7/carbon-markets/wheres-world-going-carbon-trading
7 pages: Carbon Market Institute Member Directory
http://www.carbonmarketinstitute.org/directory#member-results-outer
00
how cost-effective is this?
6 June: ABC Rural: Matt Brann: Caltex fires up to buy Indigenous carbon credits
An Indigenous fire abatement project in the Northern Territory has just sold over $517,000 worth of carbon credits to oil refiner Caltex Australia…
Indigenous Land Corporation (ILC)operations manager Shaun Ansell says over the last two years the fire project has generated 25,884 credits, which have been sold to Caltex for more than $20 each…
***”Everyone’s incredibly pleased and probably a little bit relieved that we’ve been able to pull this off.
“Because it’s a new thing, a new industry, it’s a new market, and to actually navigate it and have the money in the bank so to speak, is a great achievement.”…
***Mr Ansell says it’s a “one-off” purchase by Caltex, but the ILC is hopeful of continuing the relationship.
“There’s great uncertainty in the carbon market, as there are in a lot of markets, so they (Caltex) don’t want to rush into a situation where they might be locked into an uncertain environment.
“The fact we’ve been able to do this on a small scale, we’re only 1,800 square kilometres, shows other landholders that this can be viable and there is an opportunity.”
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-06-06/caltex-carbon-credits/4736858
00
Well it is unthreaded,
I hear Bradd Pitts production company is working on a feature film similar to moneyball on the comprehensively evidenced history of IBMs involvement in the holocaust.
Now I read Mr Blacks book back in 2001, and it is now very clear to me that the evidence presented is irrefutable. IBM and the other companies involved need to man up and publicly accept responsibility for their actions.
The claim they lost control of their subsidiary during the war is, imo, completely dispelled with the evidence in Edwin Blacks book
10
MadJak,
Is IBM (or any company for that matter) the same entity is was eighty years ago?
The system was originally designed for the US census, and then used (in peace time) for the German census, and by other countries.
We can judge them now, with the benefit of hindsight, for the purposes they put the Hollerith cards to. But in the 1930’s, outside of the Gestapo, who knew the extent and purpose?
I read IBM and the Holocaust when it first came out, and I found it deeply disturbing. No only for what happened, but also because I have worked for IBM during my career. But I submit that the only similarity between IBM in the 1930’s and ’40s, and the IBM of today, is the name.
Companies are like grandfathers axe: “It is a very good axe. Over the years it has served us well, and it has only needed three new heads and eight new handles”.
Should I feel responsible, and guilty, for things that occurred before I was even born? This happened eighty years ago. Is anybody who worked for IBM in a position of authority during this period still alive. I think not.
41
Rereke,
It would be wrong for anyone to blame any of IBMs existing employees for the IBM company’s actions, however, it is completely wrong for any company to not be held to account for it’s actions – particularly in the case of IBM. The stats clearly show how much more efficient the Hollerith technology and it’s supporting partner were in the identification and persecution of millions of people.
They decided to hide it, and by not fronting up and accepting responsibility for what was done in the past, they are, in fact condoning their actions.
In that sense, todays IBM is exactly the same company as the company that had IBM employees servicing Hollerith machines on a monthly basis at the concentration camps.
It is worth considering that the Japanese companies who made weaponry for the Japanese army were held to account. Publicly.
00
Nah, I share Rereke’s ambivalence on this one. What’s the point of dredging up this old news now?
An almost perfect analogy is the K-Rudd apology on behalf of the stolen generations. I thought Sorry Day was a croc tear fest of embarrassingly immense proportions, a vehicle for K-Rudd self-glorification, more embarrassing even than the fact of the child kidnapping and the White Australia Policy itself (but good riddance to it). K-Rudd wasn’t a part of that scene, he can’t speak on behalf of anyone who signed off on it or carried it out, and the apology has no value if it is just figurative or ex officio. I’d even say it was divisive for K-Rudd to do it and calculated to be so.
Now you want some IBM bigwig to turn on the croc tears and have an International Sorry Day? It’s the same thing. Totally meaningless.
As a lesson from history about Fascism it’s fine, but that lesson is already out there. It could only distract from the present. There are presently plenty of companies collaborating with governments to prop up horrible regimes abroad and dare I say grease the skids to a homegrown tyranny too.
Why should we dredge up examples from 70 years ago when we have ongoing examples, some which could actually be stopped?
00
Andrew
It all makes sense if you think about the power one can exercise over people by making them feel guilty. It is something borrowed from religion by the Fabians and Club of Rome.
Now at last the NT has Chief Minister in Adam Giles who understands the situation. The ‘stolen generations’ meme is itself a croc. Andrew Bolt continues to challenge anyone to come up with the names of ten people that were in fact ‘stolen’ and to date no-one has. For the most part, Aboriginal children taken from their parents was not only for their own good, but with the consent of the parents and in most cases at the request of the parents. If you research the work of Bess Price (NT politician) and Dallas at the blog ‘Black Steam Train’ you begin to get the gist of this story.
The ‘sorry day’ drama was, as you say, for the edification of the made-for-TV Rudd, as well as the imposition of a guilt trip on white Australia. As is the case with the poor all over the world, the intent of the authorities is to NOT address the problem.
20
Rod,
Thank you for the tipoff about Dallas and Price. I am finding their tales an eye-opener.
Or rather, a brain opener.
For a while now I had realised there was a rather stark choice faced by Aborigines, it was difficult to wear two hats, to be traditional in a foreign culture. But between Dallas and Mrs Price it begins to fill in my mental blindspots with their Other point of view.
Us whiteys are made to feel bad about suggesting that some might claim Aboriginality for a reason less honourable than cultural preservation or ancestral pride. Hearing from Dallas that this actually happens and “real” blackfellas can’t stand it either is a relief.
00
Andrew
It’s a similar situation with many aboriginal cultures , I’m afraid.
The North American Indians in Canada have many similar issues. While there are sufficient wide open spaces that a few can live the life of their ancestors (and for the most part that is a grim fight for survival, thousands are adversely afflicted with the slavery of Whitey’s generosity. Regular handouts lead to no self esteem, alcohol, drugs, and domestic violence. On the other hand so much depends on the individual. There are also thousands that have pulled themselves out of the muck of the reservations to assimilate with Europeans and it is these individuals that compete and prosper. It takes heaps of intestinal fortitude to achieve when, often these individuals have been raised in squalor. Years ago, because I had to interface with Indian bands on behalf of a vertically integrated oil and gas company, I attended ‘moose school’ for a month (living with a nomadic band in Northern BC) It is very humbling to accept the hospitality of these people, who, by our standards, have nothing. But in the big picture, one could say they have everything. They have the freedom to pit themselves against a hostile environment and survive.
00
Sorry Rereke and Andrew, I must completely disagree with your stance.
The analogy of the axe works for a family business, but it doesn’t for a large shareholder driven enterprise such as IBM.
The people have a right to know what happened and to be able to challenge any individual or organisation who continues to refuse to acknowledge or accept responsibility for their actions.
Otherwise the lesson is “It’s OK to be grossly unethical if you can hide the fact for long enough”. This is a stupid precedent to set. It encourages further unethical actions by them and others.
Customers of IBM should be aware of the countries entire history and if they choose to discriminate based on this, then that should be their choice. It’s called consequences.
00
Why does it surprise anyone that the models are wrong, when they are not based on valid physics?
(1) The Second Law of Thermodynamics must apply to a “system” in the strict sense of the word as used by physicists.
(2) If a system has anything more than a single component, then all components must form an interdependent set. (See Wikipedia “system”)
(3) Radiation from a small cool region in the atmosphere to a warmer region of the surface is a complete system, and any reverse flow of energy, (which could happen much later and be by non-radiative processes or radiative ones, or a mixture) is not an interdependent component. You cannot consider the two components as belonging to the one system.
(4) Hence the Second Law applies to the radiation from cold to hot, and so it cannot transfer any thermal energy.
(5) Now the IPCC authors claim that the Sun could only heat the Earth’s surface to about 255K, and so they looked for a reason which would explain the extra 33 degrees.
(6) But they completely overlooked the fact that gravity causes a temperature gradient to evolve spontaneously at the molecular level, quite independently of any upward convection or prior warming of the surface or cooling near the tropopause.
(7) Because they overlooked the gravity effect (which is virtually a direct corollary of the Second Law of Thermodynamics – as explained in my paper) they made the biggest mistake that “science” has ever seen, and they assumed back radiation could violate the Second Law.
52
The paper referred to is in the PROM menu at Principia Scientific International here.
10
Hi Doug I’ve have been reading articles at PSI for about 3 months. What you guys say ! makes more sense than your given credit for.
The second law of thermodynamics is explain very well,and even someone like myself who is the average person down the street with no qualifications in science understands it, and I’m surprised other can’t!
I’ve tried to post some comments from PSI at Andrew Bolts blog, and for some reason they are rejected.
I can understand the frustration you and your colleges must be feeling.
00
Sorry typo colleagues.
Cheers Rob
00
Your comments would not have been rejected due to its contents. Over 90% of comments on Bolts blog don’t see light of day due to problems with lack of moderators.
Comments are moderated 9am to 5pm only and even then if the lone moderator is on lunch or smoko break, nothing gets published.
00
I’m a huge fan of Andrew as he brings balance to the rubbish from the left !
I totally agree that not many comments make it on his blog, as for the lack of moderators.
I’ve tried to post a few comments about PSI ,the last posted at 4am in the morning for tips for the day. 70 comments made it through that day, comments before and after. I’m not blaming Andrew but when Mr J and Robert from Cronulla don’t have problems, it’s a bit disappointing.
00
If the ABC was Relevant ( Part 57)
[Scene: A trendy city bar. BRYAN enters, so as to engage in a commercial transaction with the bartender, JOHN.]
John: Look what the cat dragged in…
Bryan: Who, me?
John: (Dryly) Nah, the bloke behind you.
Bryan: You’re rather rude.
John: And you’re dumb. What about it?
Bryan: You seem to have taken an instant dislike to me.
John: Think of all that time I’ve saved…
Bryan: I only wanted a drink…
John: Don’t reckon you can afford it.
Bryan: Why not?
John: Your clothes. Granddad die did he?
Bryan: I only bought these last week…
John: The Goodwill Store, I suppose?
Bryan: I’m financially solvent, I can assure you…
John: Cash up front, pal. Suppose you want to see a wine list?
Bryan: Yes, please.
John: (To back of shop.) Eh, Tony! This loser thinks he can read!
Bryan: I only wanted a drink…
John: Then stop wasting my time and try asking for one, dipstick. Man’s not a mind reader.
Bryan: Very well. A bowl of warm rice wine, my good man.
John: Don’t sell that stuff.
Bryan: Of course you do! The sign out the front – it says Japanese Wine Bar.
John: Sorry, Einstein. We don’t sell Japanese wine. This is a Sarcy Bar.
40
.
Rumour on the Hill is that JuLIAR is about to get the chop.
And here on the ABC.
40
Tim was explaining to Julia last night that when you die you get reincarnated but must come back as a different creature.
Julia said, she would like to come back as a cow.
Tim said, you’ve obviously not been listening.
60
MV
It’s a bit like a crooked real estate agent tarting up a dodgy house by changing the facade. New facade or not, the foundations are shot and it’s riddled with termites.
I hope the punters aren’t dumb enough to buy it.
Cheers,
Speedy
40
Tim Matheison:
ROFLMAO!! A mate of mine used to say that whenever we were too drunk to be allowed into a nightclub.
40
Old Punch joke:
Snobbish couple: They had the gall to say they had no vacancies, so we told them who we were.
Listener: And who were you?
30
Backslider
Best he can hope for in 97 day’s time is:
Almost as though he thought intimate relations with Julia was an exclusive club…
Cheers,
Speedy
20
What a horrible, horrible thought!…. you just put me off my lunch.
20
The ALP is an Equal Opportunity Backstabber and offers endless opportunities for promotion!
Might be the only job they’ve created this year.
40
MV
I see over at the Bolter that Kevin’s “triumphant return’ was more than a little scripted. A busload of Rent-a-Crowd to provide the smiling faces for the backdrop – and to keep the real voters away from the chosen one…
Cheers,
Speedy
40
I have been thinking about whether the Thought Freedom Party should be registered at the next election. This would be a a party who platform would be primarily based on freedom of thought-
– Freedom to disbelieve the AGW mantra.
– Freedom to believe the AGW mantra.
– Freedom to be a misogynist nutjob
– Freedom to not be a misogynist nutjob
– Freedom to be a racist or sexist or homophobic
– Freedom to not be a racist or sexist or homophobic
– Freedom to think what you like.
(you can continue this list for hours, note the constraints below)
All laws that relate to prosecution of citizens for their thoughts (e.g. sexism) to be immediately repealed. All laws constraining employer prejudices (thoughts) to be repealed. e.g. If an employer wishes to employ only black Lithuanian homosexual dwarfs, then there would be no law to stop this (although the market place might do so).
Laws to protect the individual from threat or the doing of physical harm to be strengthened. Intimidation is out. Physical violence is out.
The AGW scam has resulted in government telling us what we should (are allowed) to believe (think). Ignore the evidence, ignore the science, ignore what you observe – just do what we tell you and think what we tell you.
Parallels with the soviet world of 1920’s are realistic. If I toe the pardy line and become a “climate scientist” then I get a much larger ration card than those other “free trader” peasants.
My Sunday rant. Things need to change.
10
Rumours seem to be going around that Labor will dump Gillard as PM before the election. (Googling “labor to dump gillard” will find you links, but I might as well provide one to Bolt.
For my part, Gillard is my preferred PM. I want the Australian public to have the chance to pass judgment on her and her government at the election. If Labor’s “faceless men” take this opportunity out of our hands, then I hope they will at least have the good grace to call an election sooner than Septermber 14.
30
Seeing that we’re frayed again this weekend, I’d like to draw your attention to Google’s Gullible Executive Chairman.
Peter Principle in action?
I’ve encountered a number of “chief executives” who seem to have gotten to their position by Machiavellian actions or through dumb luck; because they had NO IDEA about their company’s products and/or what it takes to make it. Although the tendency is for the larger corporations to attract such “stars”, SME are also vulnerable to being driven by such self-convinced experts.
20
When we were taken over by very large USA firm, we had the dubious pleasure of an address by their CEO.
As we filed out, I asked one of the factory workers what he thought. The response was “Snake oil merchant”.
In the next few years I realised that their technical innovation was 20 years behind a smallish australian firm one fiftieth their size. Their computer system was … well at one stage I complained that it was out of the early 1970’s and was rebuked by the head of the computer section who said that it was out of the early 1960’s. (Clue, both of us are long gone).
Our people who went to the USA came back appalled by their backwardness. It was all “pennywise, pound foolish”.
As for their personnel practices, they belonged to a Victorian era mill manager.
I’ve been long gone, and so have just about everybody else who worked there. Even without contacts or published figures I can say that turnover is down over 60% minimum. Oh yes, american knowhow is wonderful –sarc/
40
depends Graeme what area you are in – as you are into computer technology check out this 46″ I-Pad.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gWF8i1LMxbw&feature=share
10
Thanks, impressive but no sale.
Can’t see any point carrying that around to access the internet.
What I was complaining about then, was having to type numbers to access screen after screen to get to information; e.g. it took 17 keystrokes to get to the current cost of a raw material (which you had to write down). Then you were dumped back to the start. When you are trying to cost a formula with 12-17 R.M’s it gets a bit tedious.
The work around was to print out a formula report. This was built in for a 9 pin impact printer 36 inch wide paper only, so you got multiple pages. Once you had assembled these with sticky tape and scissors work was much faster. It might seem incredible but when you are trying to do 20-30 formulas a day it was much cheaper, although wasteful on paper.
10
sounds like you had crappy software, what I posted was hi tech, it wasn’t a Samsung it was unique, US developed technology that you were putting down. That’s all.
10
I had a similar revelation towards the end of the 1980’s when I first went back to visit Germany and got an insight into the actual deployment of leading edge technology; which was in the trade press. Large companies were about 20 years behind the leading edge in terms of putting the technology to work effectively, to give themselves a competitive edge. Although those on the “shop floor” were champing at the bit, management levels move with glacial speeds.
I’m not surprised that SME in Germany have taken over much of the low-level making of stuff and innovation, shipping it to the big boys to that they can throw it together into a box to call “theirs”. Those SME work on slim margins due to the risk of investing in equipment and R&D. Eventually, the insistence of their customers to licence “second source” results in financial failure of the SME as they cannot fully reap the benefit of their costs.
The actual innovators tend not to be the big corporations with publically-traded shares, but the little guys where the owners and mangers have an intimate knowledge of product and processes. They are not driven by profit at any cost, but by having a competitive product that they think they can sell. It’s nothing to do with the share price or machinations to pump up corporate image, etc. in order to trade shares at a higher price.
00
Our favourites, The Club of Rome made another announcement of impending doom:
Yes. They’re serious.
The chemist, Ugo Bardi gives a dire warning:
It may surprise Bardi that we’ve always had uncontrollable climate change.
120
Given the “success” of their previous predictions, this is wonderful news!
Many years of fossil fuel available and no effect on the climate from their use.
60
It looks like the UK Govt. has come up with a new way to define insanity
http://www.bishop-hill.net/blog/2013/6/9/the-last-minute-amendment.html
60
When I was in school back in the early Pleistocene I was taught that greenhouses worked because glass allowed most of the shorter wave radiation through which would heat the contents with the production of long wave radiation which could not penetrate the glass thus raising the temperature. No mention was made of convection.
Back then commercial greenhouses actually were made of glass, now they are usually not, too expensive, too heavy and too fragile. Since I don’t think the favoured polycarbonates affect long wave radiation much how does a commercial greenhouse work? Stopping loss by convection is the main factor is it not?
If one of you physics/engineering types can explain the commercial greenhouse heating for me in a little more detail I’d appreciate it.
10
Any greenhouse, glass or otherwise, works by stopping convection to the outside. Hence the ventilators near the top which can be opened when the greenhouse gets too warm.
This has been known since 1900, if not sooner.
Glass will transmit quite a bit of infrared, hence feeling warmth from the sun when behind glass e.g in car. See also those films and coatings marketed to “stop heat loss”. Also glass fibre is used with at least one IR band, but that is a special composition which is more transparent to IR than normal window glass.
10
The AGW Greenhouse Effect is built on fake fisics, real world physics manipulated by sleights of hand to promote the AGW concept which claims that “greenhouse gases backradiate heat, longwave infrared, from the upwelling heat of the Earth”. It is pushing the idea of radiation so has to eliminate all mention of heat transfer by convection.
This is a complicated scam full of magicians’ tricks altering real world physics.
To this end they have eliminated the direct longwave infrared heat from the Sun so they can use all real world measurements of downwelling longwave infrared to pretend this comes from “backradiation from the atmosphere by greenhouse gases”.
They have done this by firstly making the claim that no direct longwave infrared heat reaches the Earth’s surface and secondly by giving the properties of longwave infrared, which is heat, to visible light, claiming it is visible light, shortwaves, which heat the Earth.
There are two versions of why there is no direct longwave infrared heat from the Sun in their GHE energy budget (KT97 and ilk).
The first is that “there is an invisible barrier like the glass of a greenhouse preventing the longwave infrared from the Sun at top of atmosphere (TOA), and the second “that the Sun produces insignificant amounts of longwave infrared”.
Neither version proponents see any absurdity in this claim because they have been brainwashed into believing the heat we feel from the Sun is from visible light, the AGWScienceFiction meme “shortwave in longwave out”.
The second version has taken the “planckian curve” and estimated the temperature of the Sun from the thin 300 mile wide atmosphere of visible light around the Sun, and come up with 6,000°C.
So they don’t miss the real heat from the millions of degrees hot Star which is our Sun which is transferred by the electromagnetic wavelenths of heat, longwave infrared.
To this end, to promote the AGW narrative, they have also eliminated convection, they have done this by removing the atmosphere completely and changing it to empty space populated by the artificial constructs “ideal gas” which have no mass, no volume, no attraction etc., in other words they have created a completely different atmosphere of empty space around the Earth just as they have created a completely different Sun and swapped the properties of light and heat.
This is an enormous science fraud introduced into the education system so the general population wouldn’t see the tricks they use in their “backradiation from greenhouse gas warming”.
00
MYRRH
Very clear, thankyou.
I should point out that our very own David Suzuki explained this with regard to cars anyway about 25 years ago. The great man spake thusly…
“It has been known since the last century that carbon-bearing compounds are transparent to sunlight but opaque to infra-red. In other words, sunlight passes through carbon-containing air whereas infra-red heat rays tend to be reflected by the carbon.
We are familiar with this effect in a car that has sat in the sun. The interior becomes hot because the carbon in the glass keeps the heat in.”
So there you go!
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What you can do when you aren’t concerned about burning natural gas and can use it for your own benefit.
http://www.waterworld.com/articles/2013/04/dubai-opens-uaes-largest-desalination-plant.html
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I’m looking for a position as an assistant to a (preferably 20 or so female) Marine Biologist currently initiating a grant request to undertake a 12 month study into the effects of climate change on the Hawaiian Feather Duster Worm. A 1.5 Million dollar grant would be an effective entry level to evince my interest. Yes sir, I can scuba, scuba – wooga all night long.
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try RSVP australia.
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Their Nest Error was not their last
A big energy Corporation masquerading as poor little wind energy guys trying to help make our Province greener by hacking down big old Cottonwoods in Haldimand County and destroying an active eagle nest to “save” the birds has made their next bad move….
http://www.local2.ca/ssm/viewarticle.php?id=11500
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All that Anthony Watts’ experiment, and Roy Spencer’s yet-to-be-done experiment demonstrate is the well known fact that radiation from a cooler body can slow that portion of the rate of cooling by a warmer body which is itself by radiation. Non-radiative cooling is not slowed.
The frosted glass in Watts’ experiment is far cooler than the filament, so the temperature gradient is steep between it and the filament. Back radiation makes a small change in that gradient and the glass (an intermediate point on the temperature plot) ends up a few degrees warmer, but the filament may not be warmer at all. So what! (I hadn’t read the experiment in detail when I wrote the initial comment. I laughed when I did read it, as it is so primitive, and the deductions made are just so incorrect.)
Not only do I know that radiative cooling is slowed, but I also know how it slows that component of cooling which is by radiation without its energy being converted to thermal energy, and I have explained this in many comments on many climate blogs. The last paragraph of Section 5 of my “Radiated Energy” paper published over a year ago in March 2012 reads …
“In fairness, there would be a slight slowing of the rate of cooling when the temperatures approach each other, because of the way in which the area between the Planck curves reduces. But this only applies to radiation, so evaporation and diffusion could easily compensate and it does not mean energy is added to the surface or the atmosphere.”
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Yes Doug that experiment went very well for PSI.
The climate is agreeing with the slayers
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A cloudy night destroys your theories Doug.
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No it doesn’t – my rebuttal of what you claim is in 20 pages in my paper. You need a paradigm shift in your thinking.
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No, I do not. Your explanations on this point defy all logic, reason and observation.
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WOW. government actually pulling out of a ‘green energy” project due to a lack of finance support to meet the handout obligations. amazing news! perhaps its due to the forthcoming election?
http://newsmedia.aua.alcoa.com/Media/2013/201306/201306jun%2011/00198120463.pdf
hmmm…
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Rod – Moose School – obviously, this was a unique experience – no CBC, no sociologists, no eco-NGOs, no lawyers – how did you manage that?
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