Apr 9
In a church in Port Elgin a lady is saying her daily prayers.
Dear Lord,
This has been a tough two years.
You have taken my favourite actor Patrick Swayze.
My favourite actress Elizabeth Taylor.
My favourite singer Whitney Houston.
My favourite news broadcaster Mike Wallace.
And now my favourite tv host Dick Clark.
So, I just wanted you to know that my favourite politician is Dalton McGuinty, and my favourite labour leader is Ken Lewenza.
Amen.
From an Australian newspaper
RIDDLE OF THE GLACIERS — Ice Retreating, Geologists Still Puzzled
One of the riddles which is puzzling geologists all over the world is the continuous retreat of the ice glaciers. Does this phenomenon indicate that the sun is getting hotter, as some astronomers believe or is it dependent up comparatively unimportant changes in the earth’s atmosphere?
Considerations such as these were discussed by Professor R. Speight, formerly professor of geology at Canterbury College, Christchurch, New Zealand and now curator of the Canterbury Museum, in his presidential address to the geology section of the Science Congress today. His subject was “Some Aspects of Glaciation in New Zealand.”
The steady retreat of the glaciers in New Zealand, he said, had been observed during the last 70 years. Photographs taken in 1896 and 1933 showed that several glaciershad retreated distances varying from 100 yards to half a mile in 40 years.
WORLD WIDE PHENOMENON
The phenomenon, however, was world-wide. Equally impressive records were obtainable from Switzerland, Scandinavia, Iceland and the United States. Attempts had been made to reconcile these observations with the Bruckner cycle of climate change every 36 years, Professor Speight said, but so many discrepancies occurred that in his opinion, precise synchronization with that period could not be accepted.
In Alaska, glaciers had been retreating from 100 to 200 years, the average rate of recession being about 50 feet a year. The Antarctic ice-sheet also showed signs of recent retreat.
“In fact” said Professor Speight, ‘no case is recorded of a region of the world in which there are present signs of an advance. This is quite apart from the general retreat since the Pleistocene age and may be merely a pausing phase. It’s precise significance can only be determined by continued observation.”
Frank McDonald — Irish Times — April 9, 2012
THE OIREACHTAS is to consider in detail shortly a Bill, tabled by Labour Senator John Kelly, that would impose restrictions on the location of wind turbines near people’s homes.
Under the Bill, which has received support from all sides in the Seanad, smaller turbines would have to be placed more than 500 metres from a residence while larger turbines of 50m-150m would have to be a minimum of 1km to 2km away.
Monday, April 9, 2012 — Pittsburgh Tribune
A Nevada “demonstration program” in which electric utilities provide ratepayer-funded rebates for wind turbines’ installation demonstrates wind power’s unreliability and inefficiency — yet again.
The Las Vegas Sun reports the Nevada Public Utilities Commission didn’t heed calls a year ago for the rebate program to require proof of sufficient wind for such turbines. It sided with utility NV Energy, which contended such standards were premature.
That helped make the results of NV Energy’s $46 million wind rebate program to date utterly predictable — and predictably appalling.
Reno, for example, got more than $150,000 in ratepayer-funded rebates for installing $460,000 worth of turbines — and saved a mere $2,800 on its energy bills. The head of Reno’s renewable energy program says turbine makers misled the city about available wind and how much power its turbines would generate.
He wants the Nevada PUC to make proof of electricity generation a turbine rebate requirement. NV Energy, burnishing a “green” image with ratepayers’ money, instead wants a 10-mph average wind speed standard — based on suspect wind-speed models.
It all demonstrates — yet again — that unreliable, inefficient wind power defies sense both economic and common.
