Monday, August 20, 2012
Reading
If we want to improve education in the UK, why not do what we know actually works? – TIM WORSTALL Telegraph Blogs
Nothing Jerry Pournelle hasn't long spotted (he puts this recommendation on his blog) but Worstall puts it well. I find his columns normally worth it.
"Or as PJ O’Rourke once pointed out (and my own early experience confirmed) anyone who has ever dated an Education major knows what the problem in teaching is: it’s not an occupation attracting the clever.
What’s really remarkable about this empirical evidence is that the three things that seem to be important are the three things that would and do produce fits of the vapours in our educational experts and the teaching unions. But maybe it’s just a result of that third problem: they’re really not all that bright."
---------------------------------------
Windmill induced fluctuations in the grid are worrying Germany.
But fortunately our glorious We Eck has no such worries, the laws of physics applying differently here.
"The rolling mill's highly sensitive monitor stopped production so abruptly that the aluminium belts snagged. They hit the machines and destroyed a piece of the mill. The reason: The voltage off the electricity grid weakened for just a millisecond.
Workers had to free half-finished aluminium rolls from the machines, and several hours passed before they could be restarted. The damage to the machines cost some €10,000 ($12,300).
In the following three weeks, the voltage weakened at the Hamburg factory two more times, each time for a fraction of second
-----------------------------------
Via Bishop Hill - evidence given to Parliament & undisputed by them, that windmills mixed with combined gas turbines actually produce more CO2 than ordinary gas, which doesn't have to be so flexible if it isn't working as "back up" to windmills and is thus more efficient.
--------------------------------------
Again via Bishop Hill - rather long but the bottom line - the BBC claimed their opinions on catastrophic warming were formed by discussions with "leading scientists".
They continue to maintain this and it must thus be classed as the very highest standard of honesty to which the BBC ever aspire. On the other hand there is a lot of evidence that this is a total lie & they only asked ecofascist activists.
The BBC could prove themselves honest, or dishonest at any time by answering a Freedom of Information inquiry on the subject but have always refused to.
4 years of attempts to make them do so have finally been dismissed.
-----------------------------------
Jo Nova on how the various warmist and "environmentalist" scare predictions compare with subsequent reality. Obviously the governments, media and ecofascists have been wrong on virtually all points.
More Scots in fuel poverty than in any other UK region
Herald Scotland Fortunately every Holyrood politician who isn't personally wholly corrupt has publicly acknowledged this is their fault. Unfortunately there is no single Holyrood politician who is not personally wholly corrupt. ------------------------------- UK Can Run Power Grid for 500 Years On Current Waste Plutonium Stores see above item ------------------------------- Cost of energy bills have increased 140% in 8 years. ----------------------------- Wikipedia article on Land value Tax. Considering Wikipedia's generally reactionary big state stance they are surprisingly unable to find any downside of a tax the world's government (except Singapore) refuse to use. -------------------------------- And finally noblesse oblige requires us gentlemen to charitably help lesbians reform.
Poor things.
HT Steve Sailer.
Nothing Jerry Pournelle hasn't long spotted (he puts this recommendation on his blog) but Worstall puts it well. I find his columns normally worth it.
"Or as PJ O’Rourke once pointed out (and my own early experience confirmed) anyone who has ever dated an Education major knows what the problem in teaching is: it’s not an occupation attracting the clever.
What’s really remarkable about this empirical evidence is that the three things that seem to be important are the three things that would and do produce fits of the vapours in our educational experts and the teaching unions. But maybe it’s just a result of that third problem: they’re really not all that bright."
---------------------------------------
Windmill induced fluctuations in the grid are worrying Germany.
But fortunately our glorious We Eck has no such worries, the laws of physics applying differently here.
"The rolling mill's highly sensitive monitor stopped production so abruptly that the aluminium belts snagged. They hit the machines and destroyed a piece of the mill. The reason: The voltage off the electricity grid weakened for just a millisecond.
Workers had to free half-finished aluminium rolls from the machines, and several hours passed before they could be restarted. The damage to the machines cost some €10,000 ($12,300).
In the following three weeks, the voltage weakened at the Hamburg factory two more times, each time for a fraction of second
-----------------------------------
Via Bishop Hill - evidence given to Parliament & undisputed by them, that windmills mixed with combined gas turbines actually produce more CO2 than ordinary gas, which doesn't have to be so flexible if it isn't working as "back up" to windmills and is thus more efficient.
[A]s wind rarely produces more than 25% of its faceplate capacity it needs 75% backup - which due to the necessity of fast response times needs OCGT generation (CCGT can respond quickly but the heat-exchanger systems upon which their increased efficiency relies, cannot - so CCGT behaves like OCGT under these circumstances). CCGT produces 0.4 tonnes of CO2 per MWh, OCGT produces 0.6 tonnes. Thus 0.6 tonnes x 75% = 0.45 tonnes. Conclusion: Wind + OCGT backup produces more 0.05 tonnes of CO2 per MWh than continuous CCGT.
--------------------------------------
Again via Bishop Hill - rather long but the bottom line - the BBC claimed their opinions on catastrophic warming were formed by discussions with "leading scientists".
They continue to maintain this and it must thus be classed as the very highest standard of honesty to which the BBC ever aspire. On the other hand there is a lot of evidence that this is a total lie & they only asked ecofascist activists.
The BBC could prove themselves honest, or dishonest at any time by answering a Freedom of Information inquiry on the subject but have always refused to.
4 years of attempts to make them do so have finally been dismissed.
-----------------------------------
Jo Nova on how the various warmist and "environmentalist" scare predictions compare with subsequent reality. Obviously the governments, media and ecofascists have been wrong on virtually all points.
The data presented here is impeccably sourced, very relevant, publicly available, and from our best instruments. Yet it never appears in the mainstream media – have you ever seen anything like any of the figures here in the mainstream media? That alone tells you that the “debate” is about politics and power, and not about science or truth
This is an unusual political issue, because there is a right and a wrong answer and everyone will know what it is eventually. People are going ahead and emitting CO2 anyway, so we are doing the experiment: either the world heats up by several degrees by 2050 or so, or it doesn’t.
Notice that the skeptics agree with the government climate scientists about the direct effect of CO2; they just disagree just about the feedbacks. The climate debate is all about the feedbacks; everything else is merely a sideshow. Yet hardly anyone knows that.--------------------------------
More Scots in fuel poverty than in any other UK region
Herald Scotland Fortunately every Holyrood politician who isn't personally wholly corrupt has publicly acknowledged this is their fault. Unfortunately there is no single Holyrood politician who is not personally wholly corrupt. ------------------------------- UK Can Run Power Grid for 500 Years On Current Waste Plutonium Stores see above item ------------------------------- Cost of energy bills have increased 140% in 8 years. ----------------------------- Wikipedia article on Land value Tax. Considering Wikipedia's generally reactionary big state stance they are surprisingly unable to find any downside of a tax the world's government (except Singapore) refuse to use. -------------------------------- And finally noblesse oblige requires us gentlemen to charitably help lesbians reform.
At first I was overwhelmed, and a little depressed, about how many of my lesbian clients and friends were rarely -- if ever -- having sex with their partners. But when I started doing research on this subject, I found reason to hope. There's some evidence that a minority (maybe 20 percent) of long-term lesbian partners sustain sexual intimacy after 10 or 20 or more years together.
Poor things.
HT Steve Sailer.
Labels: eco-fascism, nuclear, Reading
