So how big is the oil spill anyway?

[Telarus]

Pakini Nui Wind Farm, South Point, Hawaii

[Adios]

Oh...  Holy hell.

I can't be the only person here who thinks wind farms are pretty.

No I agree they are pretty.

But only when you're driving past them on a dike or field or something.

I dunno if you ever saw one up close, but those fuckers are HUGE. Well there's several different types here, and the most popular one is gigantic. I once saw one that was being constructed or maintenanced and the triple rotor blade thing was on the ground next to the road. Only then did I realize how enormous they actually are.

The point is, if you live next to one, having a huge white thing rotating in the corner of your eye all the time* when you look/are outside. I can totally imagine it would get on my nerves in a very real but somewhat hard to pinpoint sort of way.

*I once heard that if there's no wind some models are rotated by a motor because it's better for the structure if they don't stand still too long. But there's a lot of conflicting stuff about windmills out there.



Oh, this other time, we were driving back to the city at night, passing a whole field of these things. Imagine this: A dark orangey sky (because of nearby city and of course greenhouses light pollution), looming black objects sticking out into the sky, and red lights on them (for the planes) flashing on and off. It was totally like a scene from the Matrix

Just the 3 blades fill a flatbed tractor trailer.

[Elder Iptuous]

The blades we get going down I20 towards west TX are freaking huge.  they go down the road one blade at a time, and the flatbeds aren't big enough for them.  they have the truck with some wheels on the front, and then they have some wheels strapped to the rear end of the blade, with the blade supporting itself for the length of it.  they're at least as long as a double trailer rig...

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

The blades we get going down I20 towards west TX are freaking huge.  they go down the road one blade at a time, and the flatbeds aren't big enough for them.  they have the truck with some wheels on the front, and then they have some wheels strapped to the rear end of the blade, with the blade supporting itself for the length of it.  they're at least as long as a double trailer rig...

Likewise here, holy shit; the new ones are fantastically huge, like some legendary creature. I can't imagine how they assemble them.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

This is a good pic of one of our newer wind farms; there's a road with a pickup truck on it for size comparison.



These are much bigger than the wind turbines I remember 15 years ago or so. I've never been near one of the newer ones.

[Sir Squid Diddimus]

I would so rather see that, than this:


They actually built really expensive neighborhoods around this thing. And like a whole community with a town center and shit. It's kind of disgusting. I don't want to look out my window at that thing belching smoke out of it's holes 24 hrs a day

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

Yeah, wind turbines are pretty cool. They remind me that I live in the future!

[Jenne]

The pic I showed of the ones out in the So. Cali desert doesn't do it justice, either.  When you drive in and amongst them, you feel so insignificant.  It's like walking onto another planet or a scifi movie set.

[Adios]

Yeah, wind turbines are pretty cool. They remind me that I live in the future!

Well if we continue to use the wind up so foolishly we will run out one day and have to import wind from the middle east.

[Elder Iptuous]

I would so rather see that, than this:


They actually built really expensive neighborhoods around this thing. And like a whole community with a town center and shit. It's kind of disgusting. I don't want to look out my window at that thing belching smoke out of it's holes 24 hrs a day

smoke?
it's just steam, right?
i've always thought the cooling towers are kind of elegant looking.

[Kai]

I love wind turbines. And photovoltaics. Much less damage to ecosystems than mining and burning fuels.

Once you get a turbine set up, it lasts as long as you maintain it. Free energy, people.

[Jenne]

We have the big boobs of San Onofre out here:



Featured in one of Leslie Nielson's movies, I think.

[Kai]

I would so rather see that, than this:


They actually built really expensive neighborhoods around this thing. And like a whole community with a town center and shit. It's kind of disgusting. I don't want to look out my window at that thing belching smoke out of it's holes 24 hrs a day

smoke?
it's just steam, right?
i've always thought the cooling towers are kind of elegant looking.

Yeah, it's steam, and actually quite safe given the safeguards on nuclear reactors these days.

The problems are: Incredibly expensive, and dangerous waste products you can't put anywhere.

[Elder Iptuous]

We have the big boobs of San Onofre out here:
Featured in one of Leslie Nielson's movies, I think.

yeah, those aren't as pretty...

Yeah, it's steam, and actually quite safe given the safeguards on nuclear reactors these days.
The problems are: Incredibly expensive, and dangerous waste products you can't put anywhere.

that's why we need a space elevator; so we can get the rods up there, and just toss them into the sun.

[Doktor Howl]

I would so rather see that, than this:


They actually built really expensive neighborhoods around this thing. And like a whole community with a town center and shit. It's kind of disgusting. I don't want to look out my window at that thing belching smoke out of it's holes 24 hrs a day

smoke?
it's just steam, right?
i've always thought the cooling towers are kind of elegant looking.

Yeah, it's steam, and actually quite safe given the safeguards on nuclear reactors these days.

The problems are: Incredibly expensive, and dangerous waste products you can't put anywhere.

Sure you can put them somewhere.  I have a foolproof solution for this.