Other that "unsightly" (which is a matter of opinion—beauty is a beauty does) and noisy (soft swooshing sounds, perhaps?), I keep hearing those who are opposed to wind farms saying that windmills are dangerous to birds. Well, now. . . .

If you do a little math and calculate the amount of air-space swept by the windmill vanes compared to the volume of the sky in general that is available to be used by flying birds, that, in itself, is pretty revealing. Then, calculating the amount of time that a flying bird would be occupying the disk of space swept out by the vanes and its chance of getting through that disk without actually getting whopped by a vane, that cuts the probabilities down even further. Not to mention that even in a high wind (which may keep birds grounded) the vanes don't turn so fast the that birds can't see them. Damned small chance of wind farms being dangerous to birds.

And an additional thought. If some children insist on playing in traffic, over a period of time, those children will be weeded out before they have a chance to breed, and what you have left are children who are smart enough to know that it's not a good idea to play in traffic. In addition to providing electrical power, wind farms may result in weeding out the more stupid birds.

But, in the light of Hitchcock's movie, The Birds, do we really want smarter birds?

Random thoughts on a slow day.

Don Firth

P. S.   I recall someone once saying, "We'll have solar power when, and only when, someone figures out a way to run a sunbeam through a meter."