Knowledge & Life: The Temple Of Wind

This post is coming to you directly from my grandparent's cottage in the middle of nowhere. The Internet is so slow that I have to wait for the text I write to appear on the screen. It is quite extraodinary how such slow internet connections still exist, in a world as technoligically advanced as our own. But to more important matters... I recently picked up a polish science mag to experience their views on today's science.  I was not surprised to see that they as BBC Focus before them also believe in false promises of scientific endevours. I shall translate as best I can. Also forgive my spelling errors, there is no spellcheck on this computer and no author finds all his mistakes. I shall try to show you these childish scientific promises one by one. 

Wind. Earth. Sea. Sun. All of these are interconnected forces of nature that make our world turn around. Without them there would be no life. We depend upon them. They serve us and we them. I plan to make a series of posts about these powers. Today I shall start with wind...

"By the year 2020 one fifth of the electrical energy consumed by euro citizens will come from renewable sources"

How wonderful and lovely does this sound now doesn't it? Of course if we follow our recent history of energy consumption (first decade of the 21st century) we realize that this plan is doomed to fail. Not only are we increasing our renewable energy too slowly, we are also increasing our fossil fuel consumption far too much.

However, back to wind energy. You have probably already seen those bright white turbines that are scattered throughout the countryside. Although many people think of them as nuisances I quite like the look of them while driving through the monotonously green rural areas. Well nowadays these wind farms are also present at sea. Norway it seems has big plans for these turbines as they seek to build as many of them as they can across their vast and quite windy coastline. A good idea one might say. But let's take a closer look. Wind turbines have so far proven to be very costly ventures both due to the building cost and their low power output. Well from where do these funds come from? From the cheap source of oil located in the Norwegian sea. They even say this in the article. How do they hope to achieve green energies if they still depend on the old ones? It's another paradox.

If the Norwegian plan  comes to fruition (very unlikely but possible, governments still give big funding to such projects so anything may happen) the total amount of power that Norway will benefit from amounts to: 329Mw.
Enough to power 120 thousand households. That may seem much in Norway but not in countries like the U.S. where 120,000 households is a small city. Whatever way you put it, wind energy will not be the ultimate power source that will be present in the future. It will be somewhere in the shadows outshined by nuclear and fossil fuel power. No miracles, just simple reality.

http://www.wiz.pl/main.php?go=1&op=3&id=76

BBC Focus: The "Would-be" Future Investigated

So, I'm back again (finally...) to writing, after another long delay which I cannot properly explain. But let's not dwell on the past, which is kind of ironic since this post will be about a magazine that was published a year ago. Whilst reading this mag again after a year, I noticed that not a single announced invention ( such as an universal charger compatible for all types of phones) was available commercially nowadays. This strikes as one more proof that after the great boom in technologies (20th century: internet, television etc.), our civilization has become stagnant, too enveloped in developing known devices instead of thinking outside the box. 

Who needs a new and revised version of an iPhone for the 4th time? (http://www.apple.com/iphone/) Who will pay the extra 200 dollars for a slightly larger screen, a better video camera and graphics? The impulsive buyer that's who. Those who spend money on the "newest" devices with only fashion in their minds who will throw these electronics away as soon as a more flashier model was available. I have tried through my whole life not to become one of these people. Never have I bought a product on its official release date. Even if a product becomes obsolete in its primary functions (which is happening quite regularly in the 21st Century), I always try to find a secondary use for it.  I admit that I did buy an iPod Touch as soon as it came out. I do however mark this as an exception. For me the iPod Touch is one of the greatest inventions in the last decade even if it is a commercialized product with a very high retail price. However it is of the utmost importance that this is regarded as an exception. Most of the laptops and hand-helds being released nowadays are almost and I stress the word almost exact copies those available a month or year ago. Large companies and multi-nationals have been quite effective for some time in promoting their products through various advertising techniques which attract the higher income consumers very easily.

Further on I read something that amazes me still : 

"Work has begun on Spaceport America, the world's first purpose-built commercial spaceport. The facility is being built in the New Mexico desert and work is due to be completed in 18 months time"

 It was hard for me to believe thiswas actually true a year ago but I accepted it blindly. And now, it's been 12 months and I have not heard, seen or read a single word about this proposed spaceport. Just to be clear, I read a lot of different news magazines so I am sure that I did not miss it.

One of my favorites however must be the solar powered airplane: 

"A team of european engineers are taking a completely different approach to aircraft pollution by designing a plane that can fly day and night using only solar power"

 The idea was very positive and full of merits. While reading I wished them all the best luck. It also said that in 2010 the first test flight would be conducted. Another bit of news that probably slipped the papers.

From where do all these projects come and to where do they go after being announced? Most likely they get cancelled because of financial problems or the magazine itself may be reporting a project that is still in its planning stages unaware that some readers such as myself will remember the edition a year later. All in all I have discovered a valuable piece of information from this magazine. Do not trust every single article in every single science review. You do however have to trust my view on science.

www.bbcfocusmagazine.com