Here’s news of a large, 400MW solar project in the center part of Australia. Great to see sheep as part of the equation; who doesn’t love this docile and picturesque animal?
But one wonders about the legitimacy of all this, as virtually no one lives within 500 miles of southwest Queensland, and, for obvious reasons, it’s good to have the generation very close to the load.
Does the meme here seem possible? After all, the candles will heat the clay pot, which will radiate heat into the room.
Let’s examine this for a second. First, note that neither the clay pot nor the bricks add power; all you really have here is four candles, at 80 Watts apiece, or 320 Watts. Moreover, some of that power is delivered as light, rather than heat.
Imagine warming up a cold room with a hair drier, which is 1500 Watts.
I have a confession to make. Sure, I want Trump removed as soon as possible, so as to minimize the damage to our planet, to our social structures, and to the billions of people who are suffering as a result of his presence. But a teensy-weensy bit of me wants to see what happens when Trump is no longer president, and refuses to transfer power peacefully. (more…)
Speaking in COVID-spiking Wisconsin last week, Trump told the crowd, “Wisconsin, I have a plan for you that will crush the virus flat.”
The place went bananas. His adoring fans, grinning at one another: “”Isn’t it great?? The president has a plan for us!” (more…)
It’s probable that fascism, in which a strongman takes control over a country and its people, has been around in one form another since the beginnings of organized society +/- 10,000 years ago.
Given the imperfect nature of the human animal, it’s possible that there is no permanent remedy; no way to prevent its return. (more…)
This isn’t the only joke we encounter about the mental state of the undecided voter in the coming U.S. presidential election.
From American humorist David Sedaris: (more…)
I find it very hard to believe that Camus (author of the profoundly existential and nihilistic short novel “The Stranger”) said this. It is, of course, reminiscent of Pascal, four centuries earlier, known for his “wager,” i.e., that a rational person should live as though God exists and seek to believe in God. If God does not actually exist, such a person will have only a finite loss (some pleasures, luxury, etc.), whereas if God does exist, he stands to receive infinite gains and avoid infinite losses. (more…)
When the Trump administration is viewed in the cold light of history, which one(s) of its atrocities will be best remembered? Because of its import to the nation and its democracy as a whole, it’s a good bet that the number one abomination will be the assault on rule of law, i.e., how Trump assembled a team of henchmen, chiefly Bill Barr, to rig the entirety of the U.S. Justice Department in the president’s favor, an entirely unprecedented feat in our nation’s past. (more…)
The concept of an energy transition came up briefly in the latter of the two presidential debates, where Biden suggested that he supported the phasing out of fossil fuels. When he pointed out that fossil fuels pollute, Trump tried to make it appear that this was somehow in dispute, and that any attempt to separate the United States from Big Oil was tantamount to communism. (more…)
IMO, Trump did fairly well in last night’s debate, insofar as he appeared to be in control of his faculties; I think we can agree that he seemed less blatantly unhinged and sociopathic than he did last time.
The problem, really, is that almost everything he says is false, and Biden doesn’t gain anything by pinning him down. Is Biden a puppet of China? Of course not, but how much time and energy needs to go into that refutation? (more…)
