Thumper Club Forum
Club House => Chatter => Topic started by: guest7 on March 14, 2011, 08:30:33 PM
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See this LINK (http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/upload/2011/03/i_hope_these_people_arent_your/GodBlessAmerica.php)
It's a collection of Facebook entries from US users, all saying that the recent earthquake was payback for Pearl Harbour.
It really saddens me that this sort of stupidity exists :(
GC
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I have never been to Japan but have great respect for the people They have values that the rest of the worl could do with using. They are in general polite nice people and this tragedy is terrible. Makes me think why build a power station so close to a fault line though
Ken
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Makes you think when people start babbling on about nuclear as a clean eco source of power.
The world is full of wankers, some nations seem to have a greater proportion of vocal ones unfortunately.
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It's all that 'free speech' ethos, and they are enforcing it on the rest of the world.
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These are just the current world empires proles (look at the spelling). Their world is pro-wrestling, daytime TV and enough doughnuts to keep them pliable and willing to send people out to grab more than their share. They'd be shouting U-S-A regardless.
My reading of the performance of the atomic power plant is the exact opposite to Steffans. This plant withstood a disaster a factor of ten higher than it was designed for and has so far put out the equivalent polution to each person within 20 miles having a CT scan. Compare this to the effects of burning down an oil refinery and they won't be very different to your health. Oil refinery fires simply don't have the scare factor, no one mentions agent orange and napalm (both oil based) but the press do so love pictures of Hiroshima. Half the population think a melt down is going to involve a mushroom cloud and the atmosphere catching fire. It would of course make more sense to build both the nuclear power plants and oil refinerys off the fault lines and supply the power remotely, but who'd want to rely on getting all their power from lunatics who might decide to turn it off (Like the Russians might do with our gas).
Andy
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I expect nothing less from the americans
I have no doubt there are perfectly sane, nice, thoughtful normal people in america.....just not many
in the 2 years i worked there i found them overbearing, thick, bigoted and thoughtless, and had absolutely no knowledge or interest of anyone or anywhere outside the wonderful U S of A.
i could rant for pages, but it's all been said, and it IS all very sad.
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Can't face the link! I suspect a rant event! :-X :-X
As for fuel, economy, etc, etc, etc, pass me the Elswick Hopper for transport.
As for the 'Big Society', get a grip, the world is a finite resource and we've outgrown it. Euthanasia and sterilisation are your only logical rationale.
See, I shouldn't have even have opened this tonight. Pigeon post rather than these 'Cyclops'!
Morose Bill.
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I expect nothing less from the americans
I have no doubt there are perfectly sane, nice, thoughtful normal people in america.....just not many
in the 2 years i worked there i found them overbearing, thick, bigoted and thoughtless, and had absolutely no knowledge or interest of anyone or anywhere outside the wonderful U S of A.
i could rant for pages, but it's all been said, and it IS all very sad.
Those "Merkins :o" have obviously improved since I was there a few years back. I worked with a couple of decent ones but they had been travelling for a couple of years and believed in the World outswide America.
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"Makes you think when people start babbling on about nuclear as a clean Eco source of power."
Trouble is with this statement it joins the, no coal powered stations due to pollution, no gas as running out and is expensive. Wind and natural resources as inefficient, inconsistent and supposedly expensive.
NIMBY rules all planning applications
They also want less hydrocarbon fueled vehicles and to use electricity to power transportation.
Any one have any idea how to square these views so that we can heat and light our homes and travel to work!!!
What we really need is a joined up plan incorporating all the available technology to create a long term plan. Not knee jerk reactions and 20 years in the planning schemes which are obsolete before they are built.
ooopppps I think this is becoming a rant. ??? ??? ??? ???
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Like Bill I couldn't face reading it as I can guess what it's probably like. In my experience most ordinary people, regardless of Nationality, colour, race, religion or creed are pretty decent but sadly they all also have their share of Ar5eholes. The Americans sadly seem to have more than their fair share. In my other hobbies I post on a number of American based websites and without exception the response to the tragedies in Japan have been nothing but horror and sadness - some are even organising fund raising to try and help. You can only hope that the people who post this sort of crap are the moronic minority. :(
Regarding renewable energy, I think that wave power needs to have more research done as it would seem to be the potential source of (relatively) cheap clean and permanent energy. This link was posted on one of the other forums I visit and it is a very innovative idea.
[ Invalid YouTube link ]
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"Makes you think when people start babbling on about nuclear as a clean Eco source of power."
Trouble is with this statement it joins the, no coal powered stations due to pollution, no gas as running out and is expensive. Wind and natural resources as inefficient, inconsistent and supposedly expensive.
Hydro power is the way to go.
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Yes I'm all for more research in hydro power.
The problem I see is that if we get it to work and it is cheap it will be opposed as against wildlife, ways of life or in a place of national importance or beauty (NIMBY).
The true answer is a combination of different ways all with their own advantages and disadvantages.
We also need to be implementing new ways of producing power now not in 10 years when our existing power stations are due to start being decommissioned.
I always remember an old plumber who fitted a central heating system to my dads house years ago. He said there is no such thing as cheap heating.
beeman
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And let's not forget that we don't just have to address to power production, the biggest chance of making a change in our consumption is to find ways of reducing the power we need.
A classic example is the low-energy light bulb. My house now demands, in total, something like 250watt for lighting. A few years ago that would have been the energy demand for two rooms.
Also, heating will never be cheap (as Beeman pointed out), so why waste it by having a poorly insulated home? Less loss means less input is required (unless, like Mrs Onepot, you think the surface of the sun is a bit chilly).
GC
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And let's not forget that we don't just have to address to power production, the biggest chance of making a change in our consumption is to find ways of reducing the power we need.
A classic example is the low-energy light bulb. My house now demands, in total, something like 250watt for lighting. A few years ago that would have been the energy demand for two rooms.
Also, heating will never be cheap (as Beeman pointed out), so why waste it by having a poorly insulated home? Less lose means less input is required (unless, like Mrs Onepot, you think the surface of the sun is a bit chilly).
GC
And give up riding motorcycles,
GC I commend you on that one, I couldn't stop. :D
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Tidal power is the avenue it surprises me we haven't embraced more, predictable years into the future and we have a good tidal range here (5 metres plus on springs, get your cheap gags here..)
As to Bills dream bike.. did you mean this;
(http://t2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTGo-5rP_zZnM7iJnVZlMoPVnX3P8pLLvnysI0V4jcgYbHKEeN1DA)
or this?;
(http://t3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQfzw7SOHatiliCQpWkql_xNrN0H6D_oI_ex7dvixoU4hFKXUef)
You do know a man with one of these in the shed if the petroil is getting a little pricey...
(http://t2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTfDju4PKs_KCVjBoRqzTcCYuGOh5ORu58zt_mqmFuCmJ4Ui-dhfw)
;) ;D
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Hey Smudge, are you psychic or what. A bloke in work, just this week gave me a Spanish 33cc engine and fitting kit for a pushbike. I have just fitted new main bearings and will try and fit it to the front wheel (a la velosolex) of my Schwinn cruiser in the next couple of weeks.
Look mum no front teeth
Dave
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Lol, I just wish you didn't need to wear a motorcycle helmet with them ::)
Does this mean sub 50cc engines and suits for the Dragon next year... :D :D
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And let's not forget that we don't just have to address to power production, the biggest chance of making a change in our consumption is to find ways of reducing the power we need.
A classic example is the low-energy light bulb. My house now demands, in total, something like 250watt for lighting. A few years ago that would have been the energy demand for two rooms.
Also, heating will never be cheap (as Beeman pointed out), so why waste it by having a poorly insulated home? Less loss means less input is required (unless, like Mrs Onepot, you think the surface of the sun is a bit chilly).
GC
i was going to post, but you said pretty much what i would have said. im a heating engineer by trade, but it still amazes me that i look at houses where they will be prepared to spend a couple of grand on a heating upgrade, but not a couple of hundred on keeping all that expensive heat inside the place!!
there isnt a single solution to the energy debate, it has to be a large number of small solutions depending on local environment, im a big fan of hydro, but on smaller local scales, you dont get the transmission losses when the plant is in the back garden, i like the micro hydro at newmills in derbyshire, its in the remains of a victorian watr powered cotton mill, and uses an archimedes screw to generate power, it also works on very low water level differences and flows, theres only 6 foot or so difference between top and bottom of the unit. as well as this theres solar thermal, pv, wind tidal and wave as well as large scale offshore wind. the irony of all this in view of the developments in japan is that had the renewables industry had the same financial governmnet support and subsidy that the nuclear induistry has had this past 50 years, then we might not be needing to have this debate, and nuclear power plants could be mentioned in the same kind of 'what were we thinking' arguments as asbestos and thalidomide.
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Asbestos is simply obsolete, we can make fibres with same properties and none of the risks of natural ones. Thalidomide is coming back as a treatment for leprosy and some cancers, it's just another drug that pregnant women should avoid. It's not the technology, it's how we use it. The asbestos legislation of the 1960's was based on the "Radium Girls" scandal of the 1920's. We haven't stopped using Radium where appropriate just because bad managers had their unaware staff carry the stuff in buckets. Likewise, the insane Windscale style aircooled reactors and Soviet "Piles" of the 1950's look insane to modern designers.
The Daily Mail would soon want those central heating systems banned anyway. I can see the headline now "Escape of Superheated Hydrogen Dioxide scares plumber". :-\
Andy