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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Science

The words at left are a sickening reminder that there are still many millions of American idiots who believe that Dr. Anthony Fauci and the rest of the U.S. medical establishment lied to them about COVID-19.  After 50 years of faithful service to the American  people, they think he made a U-turn and embarked on a mission to destroy the U.S. economy.  Makes sense, right?

I guess they believe that Fauci’s counterpart in France lied to the French, his counterpart in Japan lied to the Japanese, etc.

I know plenty of dogs with far greater intelligence than this.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Science

Some nations care about their future, and others simply don’t.  That’s the only message that can possibly be taken away from what Denmark does to educate its young people.

Here in the United States, we have rich people getting richer, and everybody else suffering in ignorance and dead-end jobs.

In a matter of a couple of decades, there will be virtually zero new American doctors or other people of science.  That’s because, while we’re very happy to teach our kids how to weld, grow crops, pay their rent and balance their checkbooks, this comes at the expense of higher math, biology, chemistry, physics, and engineering.

 

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

This photoshop of Mount Rushmore depicts some of our nation’s fathers in a kind of embarrassed disbelief as to what’s happened to our country.  Of course there’s no way to know exactly how they would react to this criminal insanity, but I would suggest they would be goddamned mad.  

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

There is a distinct irony about celebrating the Fourth of July right now, insofar as the United States came into existence purely as a rejection of a king with absolute power over the people.

Energy Analyst Robert Rapier makes essentially the same observation: Independence Day commemorates our founding decision to break away from the rule of a tyrannical king. It’s worth remembering that this country was built on the rejection of unchecked power, of loyalty to a single man over the rule of law.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

I had to laugh at the ad here, as it speaks to our nation’s division between those who support and oppose the president.

Yes, there is an entire range of voters who correctly regard Trump as a sociopathic criminal: doctors, artists, humanitarians, social workers, college professors, scientists, and the like.  But it’s hard to imagine a class of humanity that insists more adamantly on the removal of the president than people who wear Mahler t-shirts.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Climate Change

The meme here speaks to many Americans’ thinking and behavior with respect to climate change mitigation.  We simply tend not to embrace the needs of other human beings.

There must be a reason that our approach to this subject is so radically different than, say, that of the Scandinavians.  It’s true that our culture has a kind of rugged individualism embedded in it, which could make us more susceptible to Big Oil’s propaganda.

In any case, it’s a tragedy.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Wind Energy

These people advertise:  Energy from wind, generated right where you need it – that’s our SkyWind NG. The first independently tested micro wind turbine is efficient, quiet and Made in Germany.

If you don’t care how much you pay for electricity, and you think small/micro wind turbines are a good look, please jump right in.  But by my calculations, you’ll need to live another 100 years, probably closer to 150, to see your investment pay for itself.
After a short period of time on the market in the early 21st Century, small wind has been gone for more than a decade due to a few unavoidable facts:
1) The power from wind is a function of the square of the radius of the blades, and it’s a function of the cube of wind velocity, meaning that the best conditions are high above the ground.
2) To deal with this, manufacturers need to cut costs, making their systems inexpensive and thus prone to maintenance issues. You want something spinning constantly for years, without falling apart, and you want to make it cheap?  What the industry learned:  Good luck with that.  
I can only add that if you think that this is the “first independently tested micro wind turbine,” and that these people are honest, you’re a serious fool.
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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Science

While there’s no clear answer here, the preponderance of scientific minds through the ages have been and continue to be pessimistic, for the precise reason that Newton asserted at left.

It’s entirely possible that humankind, with its blend of greed, cruelty, and rank insanity, will always find a way to blunt efforts to deal with things like nuclear weapons proliferation, epidemic diseases, and environmental collapse.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Sustainability

I’ve noticed this all my life: mean people tend to have physical issues that make them appear older that their actual ages.  It’s as if their meanness exerts a contorting force on their bodies, faces, hairlines, etc.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Sustainability

At left are the words of Italian Marxist philosopher, linguist, journalist, writer, and politician Antonio Francesco Gramsci.

Without doubt, there has never been a time, at least since the 1930s, that featured a more horrific set of world leaders.

Whether or not “a new world struggles to be born” is anyone’s guess.

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