utterly vaccuous.

Caught a headline, on yahoo, out the corner of my "Tina McIntyre funeral" part of me went who is that and why is the funeral news.

Turns out to be an article about the filming of a soap characters funeral and that the actors were laughing,

Thats' news?

dolf said:

I have a small wind farm and a solar farm near my house.
there are some pretty big offshore wind farms here. putting them offshore protects bats, which seem to be the only serious casualties.
other than that, I've not heard of any body count. not even as local gossip.

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On a small scale it all 'seems' to work. It's when you scale it up to really viable commercial production scales that the shite hits the fan. (pun intended)

We are losing large birds, especially birds of prey, and bats at a prodigious rate over here at these large facilities. The very large solar array in Nevada is frying birds out of the air as they fly overhead. And both are highly subsidized at the taxpayers expense.

Both technologies are promising and worth long term pursuit, but we have to rethink the implementation and in particular the legal barricades that have been erected to protect the entrenched energy producers.

Ishmael

A bull called Moonriver has been cleared of manslaughter in Nottingham.

RedAllan said:

Caught a headline, on yahoo, out the corner of my "Tina McIntyre funeral" part of me went who is that and why is the funeral news.

Turns out to be an article about the filming of a soap characters funeral and that the actors were laughing,

Thats' news?

Click to expand...

laughing at an imaginary death? the horror!

Fata Morgana said:

A bull called Moonriver has been cleared of manslaughter in Nottingham.

Click to expand...

Probably a friend of the sheriff.

Ishmael

Lawyers for the band One Direction plan to sue a condom maker for copyright infringement for their new brand of condom, One Erection.

Wings said:

WE didn't abandon it, communities are fighting so hard to get them approved but amazingly when you can't get approval because it would harm a trade with big money (aka fossil fuels) you will never win. Unless you can afford the bribes, excuse me, to LOBBY then you won't win.

Our very own president has stumped for wind farms, talking about harnessing a power that wouldn't affect our ecosystem and yet the most vocal opponents are those (RW) politicians who are lining their pockets with lobbyist money.

Wind farms create their own jet streams, on a smaller scale, and keep the birds from flying into them. But nice try.

The biggest threat to birds these days, besides poisoned water and food sources are cats.

Why aren't we harnessing solar power? That doesn't affect the birds.

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Put your thinking cap on. Long ago the oil companies bought up all the viable energy assets, and pay the government to throttle the markets with restrictive rules. Oil, coal, nuclear, shale, wind, solar, same-o, same-o.

dolf said:

I have a small wind farm and a solar farm near my house.
there are some pretty big offshore wind farms here. putting them offshore protects bats, which seem to be the only serious casualties.
other than that, I've not heard of any body count. not even as local gossip.

Click to expand...

In the right weather conditions I can see four off-shore wind farms from my house, and two more that are being built now.

In the wrong weather conditions I can't see any.

California drought: Plan would reverse aqueduct flow to send water back to farms

By Garance Burke, Associated Press

SAN FRANCISCO -- Water has flowed from Northern California's snow-capped peaks to the south's parched cities ever since the California Aqueduct was built in the 1960s. Now, amid one of the worst droughts in history, state officials are considering an audacious plan to send some of the water back uphill.

State water engineers say using pumps to reverse the flow of the aqueduct would be a first in a drought. It would also be a complex engineering challenge, requiring millions of dollars to defy gravity.

Still, water agencies in the desperately dry farmlands around Bakersfield say the investment is worth it to keep grapevines, pistachios and pomegranate trees alive. Agencies as far north as the San Francisco Bay Area are talking about a similar project.

"There is no place on planet Earth where an aqueduct is designed to go backwards," said Geoff Shaw, an engineer with the state Department of Water Resources who is reviewing the proposal. "But they have a need for water in a place where they can't fulfill it, and this is their plan to fix it."

The plan the department is evaluating was drawn up by five of the local agencies, or districts, that sell irrigation water to farmers. They would bear the cost of the project, which they have estimated at $1.5 million to $9.5 million.

They hope to get approval from the state in June and start pushing the water uphill later in the summer.

Long celebrated as an engineering marvel, the California Aqueduct is a 420-mile system of open canals and massive pipelines that serves millions of Californians, including those in the state's biggest population centers: the San Francisco Bay Area, Los Angeles and San Diego.

Under the plan, water districts would be allowed to pump into the aqueduct the emergency supplies of water they store in underground reservoirs in Kern County, about two hours north of Los Angeles. That banked water and other extra supplies would raise the level of water within a small, closed section of the aqueduct.

Then, pumps powered by diesel engines would push the water over locks and back upstream, against the southward pull of gravity. Farmers upstream could then pump the water out to their fields.

All together, the districts want to move 30,000 acre-feet of water along a 33-mile stretch between Bakersfield and Kettleman City. An acre-foot is enough water to cover an acre to a depth of one foot.

Even if water is pumped upstream, some will still flow south, so no customers downstream will be harmed, state officials said.

The water districts came up with the idea after a bleak February forecast showed the Sierra Nevada snowpack was so thin that those who depend on the state system would get no water delivered this year.

A rash of spring storms improved the picture, but only slightly. Districts will now receive 5 percent of the water they would get in a normal year, and the supply won't arrive until September.

"Our crops need some amount of water just to keep alive," said Dale Melville, manager-engineer of the Fresno-based Dudley Ridge Water District, one of the agencies proposing the project.

The flow has been reversed only once before -- in 1983, when heavy rains forced state officials to operate emergency pumps to send floodwaters northward, Shaw said.

Water agencies in the San Francisco Bay Area want to take part in a similar project that would push water along a 70-mile stretch.

"This is a year where you really have to look at every single possible way to move water around to where it's needed," said Joan Maher, operations manager for the Santa Clara Valley Water District.

As the project awaits final approval, water districts are already ordering pumps and making arrangements to get diesel engines.

Nearly half the water Dudley Ridge hopes to receive would irrigate the orchards of Paramount Farms, owned by Los Angeles billionaires Stewart and Lynda Resnick, who produce POM Wonderful pomegranate juice and Wonderful pistachios.

If it doesn't rain much next winter, the districts might seek to continue pumping the water backward in years to come, Melville said.

"Ideally we would hope it's a one-time thing," he said, "but it would be worthwhile to have this as an insurance policy."

Poachers take chunks from California redwoods, put majestic trees at risk

By Jack Hannah, CNN



(CNN) -- Tree poaching conjures up the lawless Amazon jungle, but America's magnificent redwood forests now face a piecemeal but steady assault by poachers too, California officials say.

Thieves are cutting massive chunks from the base of the champion trees, which are the tallest on Earth and are up to 2,000 years old. While state officials say the damage is far from any Amazonian deforestation, they do rank the desecration alongside elephant tusk poaching.

Under the cloak of darkness, bandits are poaching the burl from the old-growth redwoods in Redwood National and State Parks in California, and that lumpy feature from the tree base is then sold for thousands of dollars to make furniture, bowls and even souvenirs, officials say.

"We've seen a peaked increase (of theft and damage)," says Candace Tinkler, chief of interpretation and education at the park. "Unfortunately I feel that it's more than we can keep track of."

Tinkler compares the theft to elephants being killed for their ivory tusks. She has been with the parks for three years and has noticed a spike in thefts during her tenure, she said.

"The distribution goes beyond what we could have imagined. There's a black market for this stuff, and it goes well beyond California borders," she said Tuesday.

What makes the poaching so distressing is that the burls are crucial to the survival of the redwoods, whose towering forests block out the sun and draw tourists worldwide.

When a burl cutting occurs, a lot of the bark is damaged or removed, and that bark is critical to protecting the redwoods from insect infestation and fire because the material is flame-resistant, Tinkler said.

"When you take away the burl and leave an open scar, it's similar to me having a major cut on my leg and I left it exposed," Tinkler explained. "Now I'm exposed to other infections."

To combat the poachers, officials at Redwood National and State Parks in northern California have closed an eight-mile drive through the forests at night.

The California Department of Parks and Recreation said smaller pieces of poached burl can sell for hundreds of dollars, and the larger chunks can fetch thousands. Taking the burls from a state park is a crime, and their size determines whether the crime is a misdemeanor or felony, the Humboldt County district attorney's office said.

The burls provide unique and beautiful patterns for coffee tables and bar counter tops, and smaller pieces can be used for knife handles.

But such a defacement of a forest distresses rangers.

Redwoods are on many 'bucket lists'

The Redwood National and State Parks comprises 133,000 acres of forest, coastlines, prairies, rivers and streams. Approximately 40,000 acres are old-growth forest and are a big draw for international visitors who consider a drive through the park a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

Ranger Mike Poole, who works in the public information office at the park, receives numerous calls every week asking about the redwoods, located along the California coast north of San Francisco.

"One of the things I hear a lot is 'seeing the redwoods is on my bucket list,'" Poole said.

That's why protecting and preserving these behemoth beauties is a mission that rangers take very seriously at the park, which the United Nations labels a World Heritage site.

"We're one of those places that we have around the world that everyone thinks is precious enough, important enough, rare enough, that we need to protect it for the future," Tinkler said. "It's not just a crime against us as Americans... it's a crime to everyone."

Naughtius Maximus said:

Poachers take chunks from California redwoods, put majestic trees at risk

By Jack Hannah, CNN

(CNN) -- Tree poaching conjures up the lawless Amazon jungle, but America's magnificent redwood forests now face a piecemeal but steady assault by poachers too, California officials say.

Thieves are cutting massive chunks from the base of the champion trees, which are the tallest on Earth and are up to 2,000 years old. While state officials say the damage is far from any Amazonian deforestation, they do rank the desecration alongside elephant tusk poaching.

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That's so awful.

Ishmael said:

Wind power is turning out to be an environmental disaster in its own right. Even the Europeans, who bought in early and big time, are backing away from it.

Ishmael

Click to expand...

Those air spills can get ugly.

Lorilei said:

That's so awful.

Click to expand...

Someone needs to be hung by their balls.

I've not read the news today, but yesterday...

Truly horrible parts in bold.



"It was almost the most awkward of rendezvous.

James Packer's ex Erica Baxter flew into Sydney from Los Angeles on Thursday morning, narrowly avoiding her former husband's rumoured love interest, Miranda Kerr.

Baxter, 36, who divorced the billionaire casino baron last year, is now based in the United States and has barely been seen in her home country since the split.

Carrying one of the couple's children on her hip, Baxter passed photographers wordlessly as she exited the airport just before 7am.

A few minutes later Kerr arrived at the same airport to leave the country, wearing a beaded jacket and dark glasses.

She has been in Australia less than a week with her son Flynn, and is believed to have spent time with family and caught up with friends.

Kerr has denied she is dating Packer, saying she is not interested in a relationship following her split from movie star Orlando Bloom last year.

Neither women has commented on Packer's bizarre curbside punch up with his long-time friend David Gyngell outside his Bondi Beach on Sunday.

One of the photographers who captured the angry brawl told Fairfax Media he had been hoping to catch a photograph of Packer arriving home - instead he got the two business heavyweights trading punches and wrestling on the ground.

The images were bought by News Corporation Australia for close to $250,000."

The big news here is that a 12 year old girl was abducted and raped yesterday.
And an 18 year old was sexually assaulted on a bus in the middle of the day, and no-one on the bus got up to help/stop it.

Fucked up times.

Naughtius Maximus said:

Poachers take chunks from California redwoods, put majestic trees at risk

By Jack Hannah, CNN

(CNN) -- Tree poaching conjures up the lawless Amazon jungle, but America's magnificent redwood forests now face a piecemeal but steady assault by poachers too, California officials say.Thieves are cutting massive chunks from the base of the champion trees ."

Click to expand...

Nothing surprises me anymore. Some people would steal the stink off of S**t if they thought they could get money for it.

Ishmael said:

Wind power is turning out to be an environmental disaster in its own right. Even the Europeans, who bought in early and big time, are backing away from it.

Ishmael

Click to expand...

Environmental disaster?

You high?

double bubble

Skiddles2014 said:

Environmental disaster?

You high?

Click to expand...

Let's not confuse him with logic.

Ishmael said:

Wind power is turning out to be an environmental disaster in its own right. Even the Europeans, who bought in early and big time, are backing away from it.

Ishmael

Click to expand...

On my recent road-trip back to Tassie, my son and I camped right next to a huge windfarm on the mainland for about 18 hrs.
We did not see a single bird fly close to the blades. Not one.
In fact, it looked to us like they were avoiding the area.

Later that night, we saw bats getting flattened by flying into the blades. But given that bat numbers here are at record numbers, the 17 dead bats we counted are just a miniscule amount.

Oh..... and I've heard about the headaches, etc, that people claim to get from windfarms..... but both of us slept like the dead! No problems at all.
And just so we're clear, the nearest house to this windfarm is over 2km away.

My guess is, the reason countries are slowing down on windfarms is that they don't produce the expected output after you factor in the cost.

I assumed this thread was about Luke....

Speaking of vacuous, how do those 300$ Dyson fans work, anyway?

Do bats fly into them?

Are birds sucked in?

Or just consumers?

The President is here, which explains all the damned traffic. That and the NFL Draft.

Yesterday, there was a mountain lion in the city of Mountain View, which was pretty cool.

Weather. Always. ALWAYS the freakin weather. On the news, with strangers on the street, residents in the home, coworkers on the stairs. The only reprieve is the cute young guy who hands me my coffee in the morning. He never talks about the weather and has lovely teeth. I feel all cougar-ish when I'm standing there waiting and we're exchanging pleasantries and I'm trying not to be obvious as I stare at the really yummy celtic tattoo that winds its way up towards his bicep.

But no weather chat with him thank god.

In other stupid news, a guy went back to jail because he busted in on his ex-wife's date with a guy she met online.

Fascinating.