Wind Tree
According to AI: Netherlands has introduced the “Wind Tree,” a vertical structure covered with hundreds of small, leaf-shaped turbines that generate electricity from even minimal wind. Unlike conventional wind turbines, these trees blend seamlessly into urban or park landscapes while producing renewable energy.
Every few months since I got into the renewable energy business 16 years ago, I’ve seen artists’ rendering of this idea. I agree that it’s attractive to the eye and to the imagination. I also think it would make a fabulous science project.
Yet it has no practical value. Bazillions of tiny moving parts that generate incredibly small electric currents can’t possibly make sense in the real world.
Regarding Trump’s competence, I suppose that if you want the United States to look like Turkey, Hungary, Russia, China, or any of the other totalitarian states, you have to admit that Trump is super-competent. His will is unaffected by any group of people in government, e.g., congress and the Supreme Court. Most important, it’s unaffected by our nation’s Constitution.
There’s a story behind the piece below, Chopin’s “Heroic” Polonaise, performed by Vladimir Horowitz, the pianist most people deem Chopin’s pre-eminent interpreter.
Some of us are looking for a single, simple statement to encapsulate what is going so wrong in America today, and perhaps it relates to what Aristotle says at left here.
Many of us have seen the illustration here, where a solar PV array is put into a geosynchronous orbit, and sends microwave energy to a collector on earth.
The other day, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth made a speech before the nation’s highest-ranking generals and admirals, which was regarded at best as a waste of time, at worst as a slap across the face to the men and women who have risen, over many decades, to the very top command posts in our armed forces.
Here’s a clever meme about what, exactly, is antifa. Those (like me) who find it funny do so because “antifa” means nothing more than “anti-fascist,” i.e. opposed to fascism. I may be a Philadephia Phillies fan, but that hardly means that I’m a member of an established group of people with likeminded beliefs, that is prone to violence.
Liz Cheney is one of the very few Republicans of integrity in the U.S. Congress today.
Whenever I run across nonsense like this, I’m reminded of the two school administrators I met recently, and this subject arose.
Our civilization has lost one of its giants with the passing of Dr. Jane Goodall.
