9-14-13 Hodgepodge
Saturday, September 14, 2013
Rolling "Greenouts" in Store for Britain?
Via HBL comes a link to short and clear-cut article on
environmentalism and its effect on the ability of Great Britain to keep the
lights on:
What Britain will be left with after its surrender to the "European Union environmental laws" is a reserve electric power capacity of between 2% and 5% -- roughly half of what it is now.Predictably, customers will face steeper rates. In fact, as a cost-cutting measure, utilities will offer customers "interruptible contracts", in which power can be "cut off when it's deemed necessary".
It will lose 20% of its power plants over the next decade, and will have no coal-powered facilities, which provided 39% of the country's electricity just last year.
Weekend Reading
"One major concern about texting is the potential for speaking impulsively." -- Michael Hurd, in "Driving While 'Intexticated'" at The Delaware Wave
"One of the reasons homosexuality is such a hot-button issue is that it forces people to confront their contradictions. " -- Michael Hurd, in "The Real Reason Homosexuality Is a Hot Button Issue" at The Delaware Coast Press
"Your doctor may have to choose between following government guidelines vs. doing what's medically right for you as an individual." -- Paul Hsieh, in "How Big Medicine Will Affect Patient Care" at PJ Media
My Two Cents
I find the following, from the second Hurd piece linked above, to be a brilliant integration of philosophical principles and psychology:
Homosexuality challenges that assumption that love must be selfless. If one accepts his or her sexual proclivities, then, by definition, he or she has elevated personal fulfillment above the supposed "virtue" of self-sacrifice. This stirs up a lot of uncomfortable feelings - feelings that go beyond the boundaries of sexual orientation.I have often been puzzled by the visceral reaction homosexuality elicits from some people.
Ten Clever Organizing Tricks
I agree with the folks at Unclutterer that some of these will make you stop and ask, "Why didn't I think of that." Indeed, I feel almost stupid not to have tried the "refrigerator lazy Susan" since I already use lazy Susans in several of my cabinets only feet away.
--CAV
4 comments:
Germany too. I guess a lot of western Europe may be similar. (Though France gets a huge proportion of its power from nuclear plants.)
I'd forgotten all about Angela Merkel's knee-jerk reaction -- killing off Germany's nuclear power industry -- to Fukushima.
That's even more incredible than the story I just blogged since at least nuclear energy is a viable replacement for coal power.
Nuclear is actually a more viable replacement and is superior to coal in almost every way. (With the possible exception of the fact that nuclear will not cause a slow beneficial increase in global temperature – oh well, no power source is perfect). My evidence? In North America, the environmentalists knocked off nuclear first and are assaulting fossil fuels second, for a reason. At one point (when I was a child) they actually advocated oil and coal as better for the environment than nuclear. I remember the dinner table discussions with my father about this. Whatever works, they will attack, whatever works best, they will attack first.
I’d guess you could gauge how beneficial or efficient an energy source is by the depth of their hostility.
Know nukes!
"I’d guess you could gauge how beneficial or efficient an energy source is by the depth of their hostility. "
Considered in this light, their animus against fracking makes lots of sense.
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