Drink it for fucking breakfast.

[The Johnny]

This rant will be yoinked for the eventual PALIN 2012 campaign.

because let's not fuck around - we want apocalypse, and we want it now!

Yeah, when are we gonna get on that?

Gee, i thought we were in the middle of it.

[Golden Applesauce]

When oil is done...

Coal would be their answer.

Which is as i understand, very much more polluting.

I was under the impression that coal would be used up before oil.  I know most of the coal mines in North America are pretty much tapped out, and the ones that are left are the ones that are really hard to extract coal from.

The future (I predict) will be energy from sugarcane- and canola- derived fuels, transitioning into stuff like jatropha and algae.  (Algae is a long way off, though,) complemented by wind turbines and deserts full of penis engines.  Hydroelectric is also very efficient - you get 1 power plant by sacrificing 1 river (until the whole thing silts up, and you have neither a functioning power plant nor a functioning river.)

[Jenne]

Some research guy in the field of global warming posited that the earth is being warmed up by all those turbines.  That they are increasing the temperature by fractions with all their turning in the wind.

I found that highly amusing.

[Salty]

Some research guy in the field of global warming posited that the earth is being warmed up by all those turbines.  That they are increasing the temperature by fractions with all their turning in the wind.

I found that highly amusing.

That is awesome.
Do you have a source on that? I'd love to have the details.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

Some research guy in the field of global warming posited that the earth is being warmed up by all those turbines.  That they are increasing the temperature by fractions with all their turning in the wind.

I found that highly amusing.

What part of conservation of energy does this research guy have a problem with?

[Salty]

When oil is done...

Coal would be their answer.

Which is as i understand, very much more polluting.

I was under the impression that coal would be used up before oil.  I know most of the coal mines in North America are pretty much tapped out, and the ones that are left are the ones that are really hard to extract coal from.

The future (I predict) will be energy from sugarcane- and canola- derived fuels, transitioning into stuff like jatropha and algae.  (Algae is a long way off, though,) complemented by wind turbines and deserts full of penis engines.  Hydroelectric is also very efficient - you get 1 power plant by sacrificing 1 river (until the whole thing silts up, and you have neither a functioning power plant nor a functioning river.)

I saw this: hxxp://www.zotloeterer.com/our_company/water_vortex_engineering/water_vortex_power_plant.php

recently, though I can't say whether it would be practical. But we definitely would have to start thinking about small, independent, locally run, unique power supplies, and this would be a pretty good place to start in certain communities. Even if we do use nukes, a broadly applicable source, we still wouldn't have the reach we have now.

[Jenne]

Some research guy in the field of global warming posited that the earth is being warmed up by all those turbines.  That they are increasing the temperature by fractions with all their turning in the wind.

I found that highly amusing.

What part of conservation of energy does this research guy have a problem with?

It wasn't that, it was the fact that the machines themselves contribute overall to global warming.  Fractionally, but still.  I can't remember where I heard it (might have been Ira Flatow's Science Friday earlier last month), but it tickled my funny bone in the irony sector at the time.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

Some research guy in the field of global warming posited that the earth is being warmed up by all those turbines.  That they are increasing the temperature by fractions with all their turning in the wind.

I found that highly amusing.

What part of conservation of energy does this research guy have a problem with?

It wasn't that, it was the fact that the machines themselves contribute overall to global warming.  Fractionally, but still.  I can't remember where I heard it (might have been Ira Flatow's Science Friday earlier last month), but it tickled my funny bone in the irony sector at the time.

So which oil company is funding his research?

[Jenne]

Some research guy in the field of global warming posited that the earth is being warmed up by all those turbines.  That they are increasing the temperature by fractions with all their turning in the wind.

I found that highly amusing.

What part of conservation of energy does this research guy have a problem with?

It wasn't that, it was the fact that the machines themselves contribute overall to global warming.  Fractionally, but still.  I can't remember where I heard it (might have been Ira Flatow's Science Friday earlier last month), but it tickled my funny bone in the irony sector at the time.

So which oil company is funding his research?

Yeah yeah, I know.  Geez, I thought it was FUNNAY.  I mean, come on, it can't increase it as much as all those sheep and cows farting depletes the ozone, or the coal mines and oil rigs...but here the panacea to all ills is POSSIBLY found, and it still does something everyone abhors (everyone who believes global warming's real, that is, there's some flat-earth-type-mindsets out there still...many of them...most of them listen to Rush and Glenn).

[Triple Zero]

and they also "pollute the horizon"

and kill birds or something ... what exactly possesses birds to fly straight into a gigantic relatively slow moving white thing is beyond me, however. has anyone ever seen one of the three-bladed wind mills on the ground (for construction or repair I guess), they are seriously fucking enormous. you tend to judge the size wrong cause they're on a stick high up in the sky. but even then it's not like they occupy a significant portion of the airspace so, IMO, dumb fucking birds.

[Kai]

and they also "pollute the horizon"

and kill birds or something ... what exactly possesses birds to fly straight into a gigantic relatively slow moving white thing is beyond me, however. has anyone ever seen one of the three-bladed wind mills on the ground (for construction or repair I guess), they are seriously fucking enormous. you tend to judge the size wrong cause they're on a stick high up in the sky. but even then it's not like they occupy a significant portion of the airspace so, IMO, dumb fucking birds.

Tomorrow, an alien race is going to start dropping these big machines on the planet. They stomp around rather heavily, collecting free carbon in the atmosphere for their material creation in outer space. Of course, some humans get smashed with these big machines stomping around, some houses get crushed, a little bit of city destruction here and there. Its not like they occupy a significant portion of the planet, and they're HUGE, you can see them coming miles away. Pretty dumb fucking humans, to walk right into those, they should know exactly to get the hell out of the way the first time they fucking see them, even if they don't give off much light in the visible spectrum.

[Triple Zero]

Fucking aliens!!


So they're placing these windmills on top of birds nests? Why? I mean, it's not that much of a problem when we build other kinds of structures like buildings and houses and such.

And what kind of frequencies of light do birds see then? I'd expect they at least share part of their frequency range with us (no idea if it's on the high or low end though), some overlap, and given that the colour white is basically all over the human visible spectrum, they should be able to see it, no?

[Kai]

Fucking aliens!!


So they're placing these windmills on top of birds nests? Why? I mean, it's not that much of a problem when we build other kinds of structures like buildings and houses and such.

And what kind of frequencies of light do birds see then? I'd expect they at least share part of their frequency range with us (no idea if it's on the high or low end though), some overlap, and given that the colour white is basically all over the human visible spectrum, they should be able to see it, no?

Actually, Its a problem no matter what structure you use. Birds get killed in large numbers by high structures every year, whether skyscrapers or electric grids. Mostly migratory birds and raptors, not birds that fly close to the ground. Think waterfowl that migrate north/south with the seasons, or birds of prey that ride thermals high up. Bats have even more difficulty than birds actually. Whereas birds can maybe see and avoid the arms, bat echolocation is more or less useless. There was a big wind farm ready to go up in central wisconsin, but it was shot down because of its proximity to this large bat colony.

I was mostly just trolling you. On the other hand, I get tired of the "stupid [insert critter here] deserves to die if it can't alter its behavior around our ultra new technological objects of environmental interference" argument.

On the other other hand, theres always gonna be some effects on wildlife from human constructions. And I hate to say it, but utilitarianism is sometimes the best option.

[Golden Applesauce]

Some research guy in the field of global warming posited that the earth is being warmed up by all those turbines.  That they are increasing the temperature by fractions with all their turning in the wind.

I found that highly amusing.

Well, yeah, but so does everything.  You can't transfer energy without giving off heat.  The heat sources on earth (other than geothermals, possibly) aren't really significant enough to affect global climate - it's the waste gases that change the way the Sun's rays get reflected and absorbed.  And since the Sun is such a ridiculous power source (judged by the terrestrial scale) even tiny tiny fractions of that have huge impacts on the planet.

[Template]

Fucking aliens!!


So they're placing these windmills on top of birds nests? Why? I mean, it's not that much of a problem when we build other kinds of structures like buildings and houses and such.

And what kind of frequencies of light do birds see then? I'd expect they at least share part of their frequency range with us (no idea if it's on the high or low end though), some overlap, and given that the colour white is basically all over the human visible spectrum, they should be able to see it, no?

It's like crossing a busy freeway, or a shrapnel explosion--it's not that you will get hit, but that someone likely will, eventually.  The average number in a year can be estimated.