| Tuesday, March
8, 2005 Got the wind up...
Subject: Anti-wind farm report dismissed
Dear Dr Pournelle,
I bet this story will not get much media coverage (it
hasn't so far):
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/4300723.stm
Best wishes, Simon Woodworth.
Anti-wind farm report dismissed
A report from the world's biggest wind power producer
denouncing wind farms as too expensive and inefficient has been widely
dismissed in the UK.
Money would be better spent targeting energy
efficiency to combat greenhouse gases, the German Energy Agency said.
It comes as UK wind power grows at the fastest rate in
the world, with the government aiming generate 10% of energy from renewable
sources by 2010.
A government spokeswoman said the UK was in a
different position to Germany.
'Wind penalty'
The report by the German government-backed agency says
it will cost Germany 1.1bn euro (£700 million) to link its wind farms to the
national grid - which it must do if it is to reach its target of 20% of
energy coming from renewable sources by 2015.
With more than 15,000 turbines, the nation has the
most wind farms in the world.
But, says the report, almost the same cuts in carbon
dioxide emissions - at nothing like the cost of wind power - can be achieved
by installing modern filters at existing fossil-fuel power plants. <snip>
For what may not be entirely rational
reasons, I have always disliked wind farms. I love the old farm
waterpump windmills -- we had one for the stock watering trough at our
farm in Tennessee when I was growing up, and it Just Worked. We didn't
care when the water was pumped as long as enough was pumped, and it was
easy enough to rig a level gauge that would turn off the pump when the
trough filled. Saved gasoline (we didn't have electricity) which was
rationed, and saved having a field hand -- or me -- having to pump the
water manually, because there was usually enough wind in a 24 hour
period to fill the trough.
But I find the wind farms on the road to
Phoenix, and out by Mojave, and near Livermore to be ugly, and they kill a
lot of birds, apparently. And at one time a mill took about as much energy
to produce as it would generate in a year or two but I gather that is no
longer the case.
As a distributed form of energy generation
where the energy is used near where it is generated windmills make sense,
but to cover whole sections of land with them seems wasteful. As I said, I
may not be entirely rational here.
Subject: Wind farms
Jerry
Wind Farm: A white elephant surrounded by dead birds
Regards John Edwards
I have to say that's close to my
thinking...
=========
Subject: DEMOCRACY
http://atimes01.atimes.com/atimes/Front_Page/GC08Aa02.html
I have to take exception to this article. First,
anyone can make a 'projection', but if we have to wait until 2050 to find
out if it is true, well, people have short memories.
Second, population decrease, or slow growth, is a
trait of industrialized societies, which are not necessarily democratic.
Third, how much of this is due to birth rate and how
much is due to emmigration? The former soviet republics have had their
economies ground up like hamburger, which is why they failed. Now that the
damage is done, the restrictive emmigration policies are lifted and people
escape to where things are better.
Brice Yokem
Rousseau famously said that population
statistics were a measure of the happiness of a populace. Edmund Burke had a
somewhat different notion. One thing: the US, which is apparently a
democracy, can't reproduce fast enough to keep the population stable. It's
only immigration that keeps us from having a dwindling populace. Why? Are
our people unhappy?
===
Subject: What Iraq's checkpoints are like
From The Christian Science Monitor, perhaps we need to
think about the human factors of the common case (just someone out for a
drive, not a bomb, etc) in how we set them up?
"As an American journalist here, I have been through
many checkpoints and have come close to being shot at several times myself.
I look vaguely Middle Eastern, which perhaps makes my checkpoint experience
a little closer to that of the typical Iraqi. Here's what it's like."
http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0307/p01s04-woiq.html?s=u
Ronald Pottol
-- Plato seems wrong to me today.
That airport road is particularly
frightening.
==========
TEMPLE U goes
Satanist?
Subject: Temple University Sued for Hauling Christian
Student to Psychiatric Ward
Dr. Pournelle,
I think you will find this interesting. The trial is
just getting underway.
Ron Mullane
http://www.academia.org/campus_reports/2001/february_2001_5.html
Temple University Sued for Hauling Christian
Student to Psychiatric Ward Lawsuit: Administrators Banned Protest of
Sacreligious Play Then Assaulted Student
by Dan Flynn
Eighty years ago the Soviet Union developed a
novel method of dealing with dissenters: it labeled them insane and
committed them to mental institutions. A Temple University student contends
that his school resorted to these very tactics in response to his objections
to a school-sponsored performance of a play that depicts Jesus as a
promiscuous homosexual.
Michael Marcavage filed suit against Temple
University in December 2000 for a an incident in which he alleges that
University officials censored an event he had organized, roughed him up, and
involuntarily committed him to the psychiatric ward of the school's
hospital. His only offense, he claims, was to organize an event to counter a
play that mocks Christianity.
The civil rights suit was filed in the U.S.
District Court in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania and contends that the
plaintiff's First, Fourth, and Fourteenth Amendment rights were violated.
The defendants in the suit are Temple University, its vice president for
operations, William Bergman, and its managing director of campus safety
services, Carl Bittenbender. Attorneys for the plaintiff include lawyers for
the American Family Association's Center for Law and Policy.
The controversy began in the fall semester of
1999 when Marcavage learned that the play Corpus Christi would be staged on
campus. The play, which generated a great deal of controversy when it ran on
Broadway in 1998, portrays Jesus as a homosexual who indiscriminately beds
his disciples. As a Christian, Marcavage decided to protest the play, which
he considers blasphemous.
"It was very upsetting that my classmates would
be mocking who I believe to be God," the then Temple University junior
asserted.
Marcavage had nearly 1,000 fliers posted around
the Philadelphia campus and announced that a demonstration would be held.
Marcavage recalls that subsequent conversations with school officials
convinced him that a protest would be counterproductive.
"I didn't want to bring negative attention to
this play or to this university," Marcavage maintains. "Rather, I chose to
use this as an opportunity to show students who the real Jesus is." Showing
his peers "who the real Jesus is" included organizing a counter-event to
Corpus Christi, instead of a protest. The prospective counter-event was to
consist of gospel singers, speakers, and the presentation of a Biblically
based play about the life of Christ called Final Destiny. This pro-Christian
play would be performed by members of the Temple University chapter of
Campus Crusade for Christ..
Although Corpus Christi was performed without
incident , school administrators blocked Final Destiny and the accompanying
speakers and gospel singers.
Marcavage contends that University officials
initially agreed to provide a stage for the Christian group's event, but
then retracted their promise at the 11th hour. When Marcavage offered to
foot the bill for the program, school officials informed him that they would
not allow him to hold his event.
During a contentious meeting on November 2,
1999-less than a week before the planned event was to take place-Temple vice
president William Bergman called Marcavage into his office to inform him
that the university was not permitting him to hold his program. Following a
discussion, a disgusted Marcavage retreated to the restroom, threw water on
his face, and asked God for direction about what to do next. God, however,
had little to do with what then happened. A bizarre series of events
transpired that ended with Marcavage-a dean's list student who had served as
a White House intern with a security clearance in 1998-being detained in a
psychiatric ward.
Marcavage's suit states that Temple Vice
President "[William] Bergman pounded on the [bathroom] door and demanded
that [Marcavage] come out." Marcavage then opened the door and was
physically forced by Bergman to return to his office. "Once back in
Bergman's office," the suit details, "Bergman, suddenly and without warning,
pushed [Marcavage] down into a chair. Alarmed and afraid by Bergman's use of
force, [Marcavage] told Bergman he wanted to leave. Bergman said no."
Marcavage then asked to use the phone, a request that was also rebuffed.
Realizing that these officials had no right to keep him against his will,
Marcavage attempted to leave. The legal brief reports that the "Plaintiff
then arose from the chair and was tripped to the floor by Bergman. As
Plaintiff raised himself off the floor, he was forced onto a couch and held
down by Bergman and Bittenbender. Plaintiff's repeated pleas to be released
were refused."
Uniformed Temple Police then arrived and were
ordered to handcuff Marcavage, who "was then carried out of the building and
placed into a police car." The police refused to divulge to the student why
he was being arrested or where he was going. "Shortly thereafter, Plaintiff
was taken to the Emergency Crisis Center at Temple University Hospital
against his will." The Christian student was then held in the psychiatric
ward for more than three hours. Doctors examining him concluded that nothing
was wrong with him and finally released him at 3:15 p.m.
Bill Bergman disputes the charges. "We treat
everyone fairly at Temple," the Temple vice president explained. "We
vehemently deny the allegations." Although he refused to elaborate further,
Bergman pointed to the American Family Association's involvement in the suit
as evidence that it lacks credibility. When asked if he also contested the
assertion that school officials had Marcavage committed to Temple University
Hospital, Bergman repeated his denial. Documents from the hospital, however,
contradict Bergman's account. Bergman's deputy, Carl Bittenbender, did in
fact sign the paperwork to have the then 20-year-old junior placed in the
hospital against his will.
In signing the form to have Mr. Marcavage
involuntarily committed, Carl Bittenbender checked-off boxes claiming that
the Dean's List student had "inflicted or attempted to inflict serious
bodily harm on another" and had "attempted suicide and that there is
reasonable probability of suicide unless adequate treatment is afforded."
These claims made by Bittenbender are at odds
with his own handwritten statement, however, which only noted his opinion
that Maracavage exhibited "irrational," "agitated," and "confrontational"
behavior. There is nothing about Marcavage hurting or threatening anyone.
Nor is there mention of Mr. Bittenbender witnessing a suicide attempt.
Bittenbender only claims that Marcavage locked himself in the bathroom. "I
felt that he was going to hurt himself" and "may be suicidal," was his
characterization of events. Yet, Bittenbender's subjective claims that he
"felt" that the broadcast journalism major might be a danger to himself or
that he "may" be in a suicidal state are quite different from claiming that
the patient being committed had "attempted suicide" and "inflicted or
attempted to inflict serious bodily harm on another."
This contradiction may prove to be the
University's undoing in court. Above the boxes that Bittenbender checked on
the form is a warning in bold capital letters: "Any person who provides any
false information on purpose...may be subject to criminal prosecution and
may face criminal penalties including conviction of a misdemeanor." The suit
alleges that Bittenbender did just what the form warned him not to do.
Marcavage, who has no history of mental illness
and shows no outward signs of being anything but a normal student, displayed
no bodily evidence of any suicide attempt. No complaint was filed claiming
that Marcavage attempted to harm any specific person. Nor is it clear how
Bergman or Bittenbender could deduce how a suicide attempt or any mental
breakdown was taking place on the other side of a locked bathroom door.
The mental status exam conducted by doctors at
the hospital told a different story than the boxes checked off by Carl
Bittenbender. The two doctors who examined Marcavage cleared him of any
mental health problem. Although the examining doctor noted that Marcavage
was "Tense" and "Sad," the evaluation described the 20-year-old junior as
"Calm," "Cooperative," "Coherent," "Healthy," and "Mild." The examining
physician noted that there were "no apparent grounds" for holding Marcavage
and released him at 3:15 p.m., ending the ordeal that began more than five
hours earlier in William Bergman's office.
Marcavage contends that administrators at the
public institution had mocked his religion prior to the controversy. Some
were aghast that anyone would object to Corpus Christi. When Bittenbernder
asked Marcavage what he planned to do if it rained during his proposed
counter-event, Bergman answered, "They believe God is on their side." Both
men erupted in laughter. The suit contends that anti-Christian bigotry
served as the motivation for their actions.
While Marcavage claims that one official acting
in a personal capacity acknowledged that mistakes were made and expressed
regret, he has been unable to rectify the injustice that occurred to him.
When he attempted to file a police report against his alleged abductors,
campus police informed him that Bittenbender was their boss and that they
couldn't do anything about the complaint. They refused to file a report.
As its name implies, Temple was founded as a
religious institution. "It saddens me that Temple University has been
constantly trying to forget its past," Marcavage notes. "The University's
attitude toward Christians is poor. They even attempted to tear down their
own temple." Despite his troubles, Marcavage continues to attend Temple. He
is scheduled to graduate this spring.
"What had gotten Michael a ticket to the
psychiatric ward was his religious beliefs and opposition to a play,"
proposed attorney Michael Fahling. "How utterly chilling it is that
something like this could happen at a major university by top-level
officials."
Congress shall make no law respecting an
establishment of religion, nor prohibiting the free exercise thereof.
And Pennsylvania was founded to protect crazy dissenters like Quakers, so
the state constitution will have something to say. But the experts always
know best. They have the credentials. And the police power.
Temple was a great University at one time.
Mourn.
Of course it's a scientific truth that all
Christians are irrational and that's close to nuts to begin with.
"Tense" and "sad": if some goons had
hauled me away to the psycho ward I would probably have been a lot worse
than tense and sad. Is one permitted self defense when being kidnapped?
Turn the other cheek. Obey the powers that
be.
Perhaps these University goons are
fortunate that they chose a Christian and not a Sikh or Moslem as their
victim.
====
Subject: Cato on Martha
http://www.cato.org/research/articles/reynolds-040309.html
Martha's Mistrial: The Insider Trading Accusation Came
from a Cowardly Press Leak from a Congressional Committee
Regards,
Steve Erbach Neenah, WI
P.S., I'm reading "The Mote in God's Eye" to my wife,
14-year-old son, and 6-year-old daughter. My wife, Janet, has done a fair
amount of crocheting lately. While I've been reading "Mote" she crocheted a
Siberian tiger that has been named Admiral Kutuzov as a tribute to your
novel.
Fixed her wagon. Pretending she was a
citizen. Of course they never indicted her for insider trading because she
wasn't an insider.
============
Subject: Global Warming or?
Dr. Pournelle,
Here are a pair of articles from the Space.com website
that appear very interesting. The first raises the question of how heating
may have caused the breakup of West Antarctic ice sheets:
Antarctic Ice Shelf Retreats Happened Before
http://www.terradaily.com/news/antarctic-05c.html
"'We know that rising air temperatures can break up
ice shelves but there has been a suspicion for some time that the role of
the ocean may have been underestimated. This is some of the first evidence
that a shift in ocean currents can actually destroy ice shelves. In this
case it's possible that a preceding warm period may have primed the ice
shelf to disintegrate when the ocean currents shifted."
Water, water, water everywhere... where is this in the
climate models? Ocean currents? Who would have thunk?
Secondly, another article of even more far reaching
scope:
Scientists Discover Why The North Pole Is Frozen
http://www.terradaily.com/news/arctic-05d.html
"A sudden fall in average world temperatures 2.7
million years ago caused the Arctic Ocean to freeze and Europe and North
America to become covered in ice. The reason seems obvious: the cold
temperatures caused ice to build up."
and:
"According to the research, the most important change
during the period was a 7ºC (13ºF) increase in the difference between summer
and winter temperatures within just a few centuries.
The summers became warmer and the winters cooler,
causing more water to evaporate from the sea into the atmosphere during the
summer. The air became more humid and snowfall increased. When Winter set
in, the sharp decrease in temperatures enabled ice to build up.
But what brought about this difference in
temperatures? The researchers are the first to find evidence showing that
this was caused by the stratification of ocean water, due to an increase in
freshwater. This means that water mixed less than previously, forming layers
of different densities in different strata and at different depths.
When spring came, the layers closest to the surface
began to heat up. Since the water did not mix, the temperature of those
layers continued to rise, and increasing amounts of water evaporated. During
the summer months, this effect intensified, as higher temperatures increase
stratification; in winter, however, the water began mixing again, and
temperatures dropped more than in previous years."
Short time scales again. The significance of oceans
again ... water in the air... where in the climate models is this? How do
they figure water evaporation from something as large as the oceans? And how
to factor in differing salinities and currents?
Food for thought, not irrational "fix the CO2"
knee-jerking. On the other hand, I am also hopeful the "fix the CO2
Knee-jerking" is causing the environmentalists to reconsider their position
on nuclear power.
-- Oliver Richter
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