irreality

Last Thursday, a new wind farm was brought online and was quietly mentioned in USA Today.  But it’s not here in the United States – it’s in Mexico.

Spanish energy company Acciona Energia says the 6,180-acre farm should generate 250 megawatts of electricity with 167 turbines, 25 of which are already operating. The rest should be on line by the end of the year, making the project the largest of its kind in Latin America.

It will produce enough energy to power a city of 500,000 people

“If we don’t do something about this problem of climate change it probably could become — I’m sure it already is — one of the biggest threats to humanity,” said President Felipe Calderon

While the Department of Energy has claimed that wind power could generate 20% of US electricity by 2030, we’ve a long way to go.  American wind farms only generated about 1% of the entire US electricity supply in 2008.

2030 is a long way off, and may be too long for us to wait.  It is my hope that part of the massive infrastructure rebuilding that President Obama is pushing for will help push this technology further, resulting in more farms and more efficient turbines.

The Daily Mail is reporting that giant energy-guzzling Plasma flat screens are expected to be banned under legislation due to be agreed by the EU this spring.

Plasma screens have been nicknamed the ‘4×4s’ of the living room because they use up to four times as much electricity and are responsible for up to four times as much carbon dioxide as traditional cathode ray tube sets.

The most energy intensive will be phased out under the new EU standards for minimum energy performance, which will follow the voluntary withdrawal of the traditional 100watt light bulb.

The moves are part of an effort to tackle climate change by stemming the spiralling electricity consumption in households. It involves phasing out wasteful devices and introducing low-energy alternatives.

Since LCD flat screens are much more energy efficient, they are unlikely to be banned.

In the “That’s freaking cool” news department:

The University of Wisconsin-Madison and a Wausau, Wis., company have come up with a 37-inch, bullet and bomb-proof Humvee tire based on a polymeric web.

Honeycomb bullet & bomb-proof Humvee tire

Pretty awesome stuff.

The patent pending Resilient design relies on a precise pattern of six-sided cells that are arranged, like a honeycomb, in a way that best mimics the “ride feel” of pneumatic tires. The honeycomb geometry also does a great job of reducing noise levels and reducing heat generated during usage—two common problems with past applications.   …. Although the military application is the most urgent primary market, Veihl says the tire has potential for virtually any vehicle where a flat tire causes significant headaches. That includes ATVs, mining equipment, farm machinery and construction equipment. The passenger automobile industry may be on the horizon as well.

And perhaps the best part of it all – costs are expected to be about the same or less than current tires.  Delivery should be underway in 2011.

Like we didn’t see this coming

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/10/26/112912/81/554/642200
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0810/S00369.htm
http://truevote.us/
http://velvetrevolution.us/electionstrikeforce/

ES&S iVotronics touch screens have already been observed now in four completely separate States, flipping the votes, in the early voting that has taken place to date. Eye-witness reports of repeated, consistent flipping of votes (from Obama to McCain naturally) has already occurred in the States of: West Virginia, Tennessee, Missouri, and Texas that have had early voting.  Missouri, of course, is a key background State in McCain’s electoral vote math.

These are not “glitches“.
This is also not the result of just “one faulty machine”.
How about some straight-talk:

Fact: This is not a “glitch“.
Fact: This is not a one machine problem.
Fact: This is not a one State problem.
Fact: This is not a one Election problem.
Fact: This is neither a “theory”, nor speculation. It’s real.
Fact: The Democratic candidate is getting their (would be) votes systematically stolen.

So what should we do?  First off, since this seems to be happening a lot when people try to vote a straight Democratic ticket, DON’T VOTE STRAIGHT PARTY TICKET.  Take the time to select each person. If it means your vote is accurately recorded, who cares if it takes a few extra minutes.

If you personally encounter a machine doing this, the very first thing is to tell officials on site and ask them to observe the problem, and then ask politely that they remove the machine from service.  After that, velvetrevolution.us has some great suggestions:

Look for and write down the machine’s serial number

Fill out a problem report

Refuse to vote on the machine, and politely request to use another machine

Tell the other voters in line which machine to avoid!

Report the problem via election integrity hotlines, twitter, and the voter suppression wiki. Information on how to do that is here.

Call the county, city, and state election offices and report the problem.

Call reporters and tell them about the problem  Find those phone numbers here.

And if you think about it, it’s not a half bad idea.

“They need to go there more with the psychology of knowing that you are a pioneering settler and you don’t look forward to go back home again after a couple a years,” he said.

“At age 30, they are given an opportunity. If they accept, then we train them, at age 35, we send them. At age 65, who knows what advances have taken place. They can retire there, or maybe we can bring them back.”

When interviewed by AFP, America’s second man to walk on the moon asked -

“If we are going to put a few people down there and ensure their appropriate safety, would you then go through all that trouble and then bring them back immediately, after a year, a year and a half?”

Depending on planetary alignment, a trip to Mars could be anywhere between 34 million and 250 million miles.  At best, with current technology it would take around a year and a half to make a round trip, so obviously we would not be able to make a return trip right away.  But what if we didn’t have to return right away?  What if we could return 5 years later with even more people, supplies, and experiments, while we supplement the colony with unmanned flights before then?

Of course, there is no telling what would have to be done first before men could even consider staying on Mars, and with technology advancements things could be very different by the time we actually are ready send people there.

NASA is currently working out tenative plans to send a manned mission to Mars around 2030 or 2040.