BS: People moaning about windmills

Subject: RE: BS: People moaning about windmills
From: Don Firth
Date: 17 Mar 06 - 02:44 PM

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."

Subject: RE: BS: People moaning about windmills
From: GUEST,mg
Date: 17 Mar 06 - 02:23 PM

You go for it and everyone else who can do this please do it. It is a good idea that sooner or later every household will automatically do. mg

Subject: RE: BS: People moaning about windmills
From: Kaleea
Date: 17 Mar 06 - 01:02 PM

Next time you drive through rural USA, spend some time on the backroads, & drive past a couple of abandoned farm houses. (They are numerous as the family farms have been driven out of busines--but that's a different thread.) If you stop & look around, you may see a tumbling down barn & out buildings, & an old frame house abandoned many years ago, but if you listen, you may notice an eerie creaking sound. Look upward, & you may see the motion of a decades old open back geared steel pumping windmill on a steel tower near the old house. The windmill is still turning.

Subject: RE: BS: People moaning about windmills
From: Bert
Date: 17 Mar 06 - 12:55 PM

Wouldn't it have to turn backwards to get to the Sixties?

Oh! perhaps not - The Hollies were ahead of their time.

Subject: RE: BS: People moaning about windmills
From: Les in Chorlton
Date: 17 Mar 06 - 12:41 PM

Yes but not much. The very existance of us makes the planet different it's just a matter of how different you think is ok.

Tilting at windmills? It is always easier to be against something than for something else isn't it?

Anyway, I am off to see the Hollies where the earth will stand still somewhere in the 1960's for a bit.

Subject: RE: BS: People moaning about windmills
From: Bert
Date: 17 Mar 06 - 12:36 PM

If we generated all our power from windmills would the extra drag slow down the rotation of the earth?

Subject: RE: BS: People moaning about windmills
From: Joe Offer
Date: 17 Mar 06 - 12:29 PM

We have lots of windmill farms here in California. especially along the ridges of the coastal mountains. I understand they're dangerous for birds, though.
Most of the time, the windmills are stopped. Don't know why.
-Joe-

Subject: RE: BS: People moaning about windmills
From: Rapparee
Date: 17 Mar 06 - 11:47 AM

My grandma always said we were Dutch, not German. You wanna take on my grandma??

Subject: RE: BS: People moaning about windmills
From: Georgiansilver
Date: 17 Mar 06 - 11:32 AM

So why are you still alive Les?

Subject: RE: BS: People moaning about windmills
From: Rasener
Date: 17 Mar 06 - 10:56 AM

oye carful what you say about the Dutch, or I will set my wife upon you. Just one Dutch look from her and your dead :-)

Subject: RE: BS: People moaning about windmills
From: Strollin' Johnny
Date: 17 Mar 06 - 10:53 AM

'the little boy with his finger in the dyke' - what a picture that conjures up! LOL!

Subject: RE: BS: People moaning about windmills
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 17 Mar 06 - 10:50 AM

GS, whats the matter with you. does the class system which makes our country what it is, mean nothing?

sir nOrman is a world authority and we are lucky to have him here. behave yourself, and only speak when he says anything to you, like yes your Lordship, how very true! and cor blimey your honour you really told that Tony Blair and other stuff of an obsequious nature.

three cheers his lOrdship and the windmills and the dutch and the little boy with his finger in the dyke, and all that.

Subject: RE: BS: People moaning about windmills
From: Georgiansilver
Date: 17 Mar 06 - 10:36 AM

Those giant turbines have proved a failure in Germany and Holland inasmuch as they have not reached the output expected and are costly to maintain. O.K so we are aware of this...why are we buying them from Holland and Germany?............

Subject: RE: BS: People moaning about windmills
From: MaineDog
Date: 17 Mar 06 - 08:52 AM

Don't worry, whatever you do someone will complain about it.
And if you choose to do nothing, somebody will complain about that, too.
MD

Subject: RE: BS: People moaning about windmills
From: Rapparee
Date: 17 Mar 06 - 08:52 AM

Many windmills are going up in the US, at least in the West.

Subject: RE: BS: People moaning about windmills
From: Rt Revd Sir jOhn from Hull
Date: 17 Mar 06 - 08:34 AM

oh

Subject: RE: BS: People moaning about windmills
From: jacqui.c
Date: 17 Mar 06 - 08:32 AM

You should get plenty of gas if you eat from the Curry Ship.

Subject: BS: People moaning about windmills
From: Rt Revd Sir jOhn from Hull
Date: 17 Mar 06 - 08:25 AM

Hello,
I mean them electric windmills waht they invented.
they was going to put some near here, but all the moany people started moaning and writing to local paper etc=
"blar, blar, blar, we dont want no windmills, they are rubbish etc".

they not rubbish, they get free electricity from the wind, them people just like to moan about stuff, and electric is running out and gettingf really expensive.
anyway = i am going to build one in my garden, if anyone moans, i will tell them to get lost.

gas is getting expensive as well, so i will make my own
i'm not sure waht its made of, but i will do some research.