Here’s a vertical axis wind turbine called “Harmony” whose uniqueness, according to its inventor, is that its operator can open or close to cover more or less area. He erroneously believes that “for every wind speed, there is an optimum degree to which it needs to be open.” 
No. The more it’s open, the more area / wind flux you’re tapping into (see diagram at right), and the more power you will generate at any given wind speed.
My colleague, aeroponics expert Rafael Quezada, writes about the meme here, “In 2019, for the most part, the picture was bleak; but for all the overwhelmingly bad news, there were also some really powerful and momentous moments of action and progress that are worth remembering.”
Yes indeed. In particular, it was a decade in which science developed a far greater understanding of exactly what’s happening with the Earth’s climate, and drove all but the lunatic fringe out of the climate denial business. Now this garbage comes exclusively from crooked politicians who lie about what they believe and a few anti-science zealots. (more…)
Let’s begin with an explanation of the photo here; it was taken in Florida, a state where more than half of all children lives in or near poverty.
The Trump administration claims that its decision to take food stamps away from nearly 700,000 Americans will save $8 billion over five years. (more…)
Here’s an opinion piece on Australia’s struggles with climate-fueled eco-destruction from local novelist Australia today is ground zero for the climate catastrophe. Its glorious Great Barrier Reef is dying, its world-heritage rain forests are burning, its giant kelp forests have largely vanished, numerous towns have run out of water or are about to, and now the vast continent is burning on a scale never before seen. (more…)
If you read what the atheist intellectuals / secular humanists of our time (principally Christopher Hitchens, Sam Harris, Richard Dawkins and Daniel Dennit) say about religion, you learn why they think the entire subject needs to disappear from our society entirely.
As indicated in the meme here, however, American journalist Christopher Hedges sees it differently, and doesn’t he make a great point? As fervently as one wishes to deny the existence of God, wouldn’t it be great if a couple of billion people started living according to the teachings of Christ?
There is not a single thing that a progressive could wish for that is not part of the direction that Jesus gave us as to the way we live our lives: peace, compassion, inclusion, helping the less fortunate, caring for the world around us, nada.
Most people improve in character with age; they gain wisdom, become more honest, more generous and less hostile. Most are able to look at their lives in grander terms, and some come to see humankind as a whole, struggling to succeed. Perhaps this is especially true of those who have enjoyed extreme levels of power, whose choices have affected billions of lives; they seem to have some interesting ideas to offer as they reach the end. (more…)
Getting back to work after the New Year’s holiday, I needed a good laugh. This got the job done nicely.
That’s part of the beauty of cell phones; there are now more than five billion amateur photo-comedians.
My friend Paul Scott has been active in the environmental movement and the push for electric transportation since long before he co-founded Plug-In America with Chelsea Sexton in 2005. Accompanying his video here, he writes: Wanted to share a sliver of nature’s beauty with you all. It’s 2020 and we have a lot of work to do. I want to remind you to look for beauty when and where you can.
The reason I wanted to share this is to dispel the myth that environmentalists are too angry at their foes to enjoy the beauty of the world. Paul and I go back to 2009 where I moderated a panel of experts on alternative fuels, and my subsequent on-camera interview he gave me for the 2GreenEnergy Video Report in 2010. He’s incredibly vivacious, a prince of a human being.
Of all locations on the surface of the Earth, Australia is among the most vulnerable to the ravages of climate change, according to scientific reports.
Moreover, the intensity of the current fire season validates scientists’ predictions: Australia’s bush fires will become more frequent and more intense as climate change worsens. (more…)
There are dozens of different conjectures as to the cause of this retrograde era in the U.S. where white people seem to be doing things as despicable as anything they had done in the past.
To be sure, there’s nothing new about racial hatred and violence in this country; in fact, it could be argued that the exploitation of people of color is the actual brick and mortar, the real substance on which the American Empire was built: (more…)
