If you want to work out how tall a wind turbine is at a distance, you can use simple proportion:
If I hold my thumb at arm’s length, it’s about a metre from my eye. The tallest a turbine would appear from shore would be equivalent to the height of the top joint of my thumb. That’s pretty small.
Author: scruss
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Thumbs up for Offshore Wind!
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maybe a bit too much octave chorus
In line with the recent misuse of paulstretch, here’s my contribution to the genre: Zzyzx-stretch-sample. I don’t think you’d recognize the original – it’s Zzyzx from Billy Faier’s Banjo album.
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My comments on the “Renewable Energy Approval Requirements for Off-shore Wind Facilities”
Dear Mr Duffey
EBR Registry Number: 011-0089
Renewable Energy Approval Requirements for Off-shore Wind Facilities – An Overview of the Proposed ApproachI would like to propose that the mandatory 5km shoreline exclusion be removed entirely, for the following reasons:
1 Drinking Water Source Setbacks
While the “Technical Rules: Assessment Reportâ€1 of the Clean Water Act 2006 is cited as a major reason for the 5km shoreline setback, the assessment report itself provides for no greater setback than 1000m from a water intake in a Great Lake. It is suggested that this one kilometre setback be maintained for existing and planned intakes, but should not be applied as a blanket distance for all development. To force a larger setback than the Act allows is to discriminate against wind energy and the industry.2 Lake Bathymetry
Taking the particular case of Lake Ontario near Toronto, the water depth at 5km from shore is typically2 40-70m. This is far greater than is practical, and would require massive and costly foundations.
3 Noise
The proposed shoreline exclusion unscientifically precludes any project coming closer to shore. As your document states that noise guidelines for offshore projects are in development, setbacks derived from these guidelines should be allowed. The document should also clarify that the 5km shoreline exclusion is typically larger than the setback required by the Noise Guidelines for Wind Farms3, as at a recent MOE session on Low Frequency Noise Measurement4, representatives of “The Society for Wind Vigilance†stated that 5km was now the setback recommended by the MOE for all wind projects.4 Positive Visual Enhancement
Wind energy is the most visual form of electrical generation, and it is a subjective matter as to whether the turbines are ugly or beautiful. The major shoreline constraint cited by the Ohio Department of Natural Resources is due to “aesthetic hindranceâ€5, yet the Great Lakes Wind Energy Center’s Final Feasibility Report6 wishes to site their pilot turbine as close to shore for “the highest iconic valueâ€. Copenhagen, the capital city of Denmark, has an arc of wind turbines in the bay approximately 3km from the shore, and less than 5km from the Amalienborg Palace. By placing these turbines close to the city, they have made a statement of their commitment to sustainability, and avoided rows of pylons, which few (if any) could call anything but ugly.I would hope that you would take my comments into account.
Yours sincerely,
Stewart C. Russell, P.Eng.
References:
4 12th August – 2300 Yonge St – 9:30-11:30am.
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To view Ubuntu Remote Desktop under OS X …
… you need to set a password — even a trivial one — on the Ubuntu Remote Desktop settings. OS X won’t connect to your remote desktop if you don’t set a password.
That is all.
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Please Be Kind | Colleen and Paul
I like this album a lot. Colleen and Paul have been working together for years (I saw ’em as Jack and Ginger in 2006), and this music needs to be heard!
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Offshore Wind: much of Copenhagen is within 5km of offshore wind turbines
There’s a bit of a stooshie going on in Ontario renewables circles about a proposed 5km minimum shoreline setback for offshore wind turbines in the Great Lakes. This pretty much kills most projects through infrastructure costs — deep lake foundations are expensive, as is submarine cable. Please express your opposition.
I’ve flown over Middelgrunden, and found it to be an icon in Copenhagen’s harbour. With some freehand tracing in Google Earth and some minor GIS skills (hey, I’m learning), here’s how much of Copenhagen is within 5km of the turbines:
That looks like quite a lot; lots of homes and tourist attractions, and not just the harbour. If you want a closer look, here’s the buffer in KML format: Middelgrunden-5km.kml.
I’m trying to find the location of the turbine 500m from shore at Hooksiel, but maybe it’s a bit new for Google Earth imagery. Fixed that for me:
File: BARD Hooksiel 5km buffer.kml -
Summer Heat Bugs
mobugs (m4v video)
Summer bugs by the crick at the Martha Lafite Thompson Nature Sanctuary.
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banjo restoration project
(image links to photo gallery)Just picked up an interesting project banjo. It’s an 18 fret Geo. C. Dobson spunover rim model. It’s been through the wars a bit, but I think it’s salvageable:
- Someone though it would be a great idea to reshape the peghead, somewhat inexpertly, with a rasp.
- The dowel stick isn’t fitted correctly.
- Friction tuners were pressed directly over the (rather nice) taper peg holes. I think I’ll replace ’em with Pegheds.
- The fifth string tuner hole and pip are a disaster.
But if I manage to look that good at 120+ years old, I’m not going to complain.
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tall flower
I think I may have inadvertently grown a triffid.
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worst. turbine. sheltering. EVAR!!
Walking on the Town of Kansas bridge, I saw this:
Its purpose appeared to rotate the white plastic barrels, which were mounted on eccentric and squeaky bearings. The little wind turbines are stuck right behind the solar panels, so they get little, if any, wind.
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trams of old kansas city
Spotted this tiny section of disused tracks at Wornall & Mill streets
Kansas City used to have a huge streetcar system – you could ride out to Independence and Lee’s Summit. There’s a great map of the 1920s system here: David Rumsey Historical Map Collection: Gallup’s map of greater Kansas City and suburbs. Now, there’s nothing.
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FREE ART
Mark Dougherty says:
Cal Schenkel, who did so many great Zappa/Mothers album covers, and some Beefheart as well, is giving away lots of his artwork. Just send him a dollar to cover the shipping and he'll send you...who knows what? Here is his link: http://ralf.com/
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Harvey, Arnie and me
I have little in common with Messrs. Keitel and Schwarzenegger — except that we’re all an exact number of thousands of days old today. So that means I’m still messing around with the 1000 Day Birthday Calculator concept. I scraped Wikipedia’s dates entries, did some classy modulo arithmetic, and (give or take some Julian/Gregorian calendar changes, which I didn’t) it’s also the following folks’ birthdays: Maria Eleonora of Brandenburg (1599), Ottavio Piccolomini (1599), Giovanni Alfonso Borelli (1608), Christian Goldbach (1690), Theophilus Cibber (1703), Franz Moritz Graf von Lacy (1725), Gilbert Stuart (1755), Mirza Ghalib (1796), Peter Ernst von Lasaulx (1805), Albéric Magnard (1865), Carl Nielsen (1865), Princess Henriette, Duchess of Vendôme and Alençon (1870), Lee DeForest (1873), Maximilian von Weichs (1881), Olev Siinmaa (1881), Sara Teasdale (1884), Geoffrey Fisher (1887), León de Greiff (1895), Walter O’Malley (1903), Arsenio Lacson (1911), Jean Ritchie (1922), Lucian Freud (1922), Bengt Lindström (1925), Hank Thompson (music) (1925), Shoista Mullodzhanova (1925), Agnès Varda (1928), Pro Hart (1928), Dominic Chianese (1931), Harvey Keitel (1939), Hildrun Claus (1939), James Loewen (1942), Sarah Brady (1942), Keith Emerson (1944), Patrice Chéreau (1944), Arnold Schwarzenegger (1947), Jonathan Mann (1947), William Atherton (1947), Peter Jurasik (1950), Steve Ferrone (1950), Desi Arnaz, Jr. (1953), Linda Hayden (1953), Richard Legendre (1953), Tonya Lee Williams (1958), Pascal Olmeta (1961), Thurl Bailey (1961), Pernell Whitaker (1964), Ginger Fish (1966), Maria Canals Barrera (1966), Puri Jagannadh (1966), Sissel Kyrkjebø (1969), Alexander Kapranos (1972), Matt Belisle (1980), Ashley Hansen (1983), Chris Roberson (American football) (1983), Sarah Poewe (1983), Alison Pill (1985), Klara Ósk ElÃasdóttir (1985) and Mara Lopez (1991).
If I’d had any free time, I would’ve had a web app for you to work out who shares a 1000 day birthday with you. But if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got a whole day to be 15000 …
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what NBC sounds like in canada
This is what NBC sounds like in Canada. I guess it’s okay to have a message, but no need to get all Yankee Hotel Foxtrot about it. I snipped off the obnoxious taco ads; NBC is so ad-infested that they have to wedge them in their videos.
I was trying to watch a Molly Lewis video, but it failed. Guess they forgot the WW in the web …
