Sunday, November 20, 2011

First off, Dutch windmills. Electric ones.

They suck. Out of the customers pockets.
The 36 turbines -- each one the height of a 30-storey building -- produce enough electricity to meet the needs of more than 100,000 households each year.

But five years later the green future looks a long way off. Faced with the need to cut its budget deficit, the Dutch government says offshore wind power is too expensive and that it cannot afford to subsidize the entire cost of 18 cents per kilowatt hour -- some 4.5 billion euros last year.

The government now plans to transfer the financial burden to households and industrial consumers in order to secure the funds for wind power and try to attract private sector investment.
...
But the new billing system will reap only a third of what was previously available to the industry in subsidies -- the government forecasts 1.5 billion euros every year -- while the pricing scale of the investment plan makes it more likely that interested parties will choose less expensive technologies than wind
.
I would point out that the consumers of this boutique electricity were already paying extra for it in their taxes; what the government used to subsidize this mess. Now, since I doubt their taxes will go down, their rates are going up so they'll be paying TWICE for the same boutique power: more on their actual electric bill, and still paying the taxes used to subsidize it before. Wonderful, isn't it?



Second, odd things sometimes turn up when you dig:
Construction workers near Rostock made an unusual discovery Thursday, when they unearthed half of a Soviet World War II-era tank with skeletal remains inside. Experts believe the other half of the tank is buried across the street.
...
Inside the rusted tank, a bomb disposal team identified shells, hand grenades and rifle ammunition, said Fred Tribanek, a team member. Tribanek said the ammo was live but would not be dangerous if it remained within the tank.
An AP shell of some kind that blew the turret off? No telling for now, maybe not ever depending on how bad the weathering is.


Third, What caliber for snoopy drones?


To borrow from Insty: I might start believing AGW is both real and a threat when the bastards wanting to use it to take over our lives start acting like THEY believe it's both real and a threat.


I did not know that: you can get surgical instruments(All instruments are stainless steel. Not Sterile & NOT FOR MEDICAL USE.) and suture sets at Amazon; just on the general preparedness idea, I need to get someone to give me a people-sewing lesson. Also, they have some of the Best Reviews Ever, including
I have chased my pets for hours to get to test this suture kit but their having nothing to do with it. I don't have any younger siblings to test it on because they have all moved away, possibly for safety reasons. Finally I can't get my hands to stop shaking so I can make a deep enough laceration (Ten dollar word for CUT) that will require suturing (STITCHES). So, I'll have to get back to you after the Trick-or-treaters start bugging me.


Done for now, folks; after the last couple of days I'm beat. Enough that this has been sitting here for about two hours 'cause I forgot to hit 'publish'. Good night

12 comments:

Kevin Baker said...

What caliber for snoopy drones? Why .50BMG of course!

Phelps said...

For the drones, I'm thinking #4 buck. They are not likely to be very armored at all, for weight reasons. Lots of quarter inch BBs rattling around in that plastic fairing should do the trick.

And you can get autoclaved surgical instruments from the veterinary section, or probably easier, from your local feed lot.

Phelps said...

Oh, and for the people sewing lesson, I would say watch youtube, and practice the way the people doing it for a living do -- on chicken breasts.

Then you can eat your work.

Phelps said...

Oh, and you can get staplers just as cheap as teh suture sets, and they are much harder to screw up. Just make sure you get a staple remover, too. Just saying.

Firehand said...

Ok, what for drones that doesn't leave me wondering "Where's that big-ass piece of copper coming down, I wonder..."

Didn't think of staplers. And chicken? Really? Damn.

Phelps said...

Supermarket chickens. The ones on styrofoam trays.

Don't go running out into the barnyard with a bowie knife.

Firehand said...

Picky, picky. And I knew where some roam in the front yard a couple of miles from here...

Phelps said...

I was mainly just thinking of the logistics of trying to suture a chicken what doesn't want to be sutured. If you want to practice on particularly fresh chicken, be my guest, but the sort of restraints you are training yourself to put on the wounded will probably be counter-productive in a grid-down situation.

Carl said...

Here is a cheap and easy way to learn suturing: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GGtb5L4j9yA&feature=related I learned suture technique from youtube and you can get vet sutures cheap on Amazon. In SHTF if I need a stitch, I don't care if the suture kit was intended to be used on an animal, I just want it done!

og said...

I thought I posted this before, but maybe the comment didn't take.

Get some hamhocks at the butcher, cut them, and stitch the cuts back up.

Anonymous said...

Also on the suture thing. In the Army we actually practiced suturing on grapefruit peels then moved up to chickens. A few times we sutured shelled shrimp. The Doc said the shelled shrimp were similar in consistency to actual human skin whereas the chicken unless fresh killed too hard.

Firehand said...

Hamhocks... there's another one. And if you're clean in practice, you can eat the mistakes