Technology

Most people know my feelings about politicians and social media. Either be good at it or go home. Trevor Mallard is just cringe-worthy, and then you have Judith Collins who has actually grasped the concept of Twitter.

It is no use senior advisors whinging about activities of politicians on Twitter when paid party consultants attend caucus and implore MPs to “engage” with voters via Twitter. Bitching about their screw ups or sledging or even poor messaging is pointless when you are the ones who set the cat amongst the pigeons in the first place.

This post at The Telegraph properly explains Twitter and politicians.

I shudder to think what would have happened if we had been armed with Twitter. Politically, the micro-blogging site has become a weapon of mass destruction. Where Alastair Campbell complained about the drumbeat of the 24-hour news channels, Mr Cameron must contend with the minute-by-minute verdict of social media, where his performances and policies are scrutinised, judged and discarded instantly.  Read more »

Griff Rhys Jones isn’t laughing about a solar farm coming his way.

The actor and comedian Griff Rhys Jones has criticised plans to build a £20 million solar farm in the countryside near his home as “cack-handed and opportunistic”.

Mr Rhys Jones said that the scheme, which would be Britain’s largest solar farm and power between 4,500 and 5,400 homes, was part of a “mad series” of schemes by the Government and accused ministers of “riding roughshod” over localism.

Plans for the 94-acre site in Suffolk have been submitted to Babergh District Council and are under discussion by its planning committee. Hive Energy, the company behind the scheme, said it would help meet the Government’s targets on renewable energy and produce the equivalent power of 12 wind farms.  Read more »

David Farrar just loves wind power…he thinks the awful pylons and turbines blotting the landscape, howling up excessive noise and smashing birds to a pulp is cool.

There are many faults, fallacies, and failures with wind power, ones the advocates refuse to discuss:

The claim: Wind Power is free.

Wind power is not free. All natural energy resources such as coal, wind and sun appear “free” – no one has to incur costs to create them. But turning a “free” resource into usable electricity costs money for collecting, generating and distributing that energy. To consumers and tax payers, the real cost of wind power is very high, no matter how well it is hidden by politicians.

The claim: Wind power is reliable.

Wind power is not reliable. No one can make the wind blow when the energy is needed – in fact, wind farms produce, on average, less than 30% of their nameplate capacity, often at times of lower demand.  Read more »

Looks like the message is getting through, Phil the Greek and his grand-so Harry have got with the program.

Prince Harry has voiced concerns about the visual impact of wind farms during his tour of America.

His comments came as he attended a reception in Denver on Friday night and his views are apparently shared by his father the Prince of Wales.   Read more »

Jasons Travel Media has created a wee self-serving campaign “Travellers still love print”

Included in their social media campaign is a 12 second time-lapse video that is on their campaign website, www.loveprint.co.nz  that shows a Jasons Brochure stand at Auckland Airport being stripped of print media by enthusiastic travellers over a two and a half hour time period.

But it appears it was FAKED.  Read more »

Not sure if this is the right way to go, but it is only bourbon whiskey and not scotch so only Americans are harmed. Still, isn’t it amazing what we can dream up?

When it comes to bourbon, Tom Lix doesn’t believe in age discrimination. Most bourbons might age in the barrel for eight to 12 years or more, but Lix figures his are ready to drink in less than a week.

Lix makes Cleveland Whiskey, a new brand of bourbon that exemplifies two major trends in American whiskey-making today: the desire to speed up the process and the effort to establish a local identity.  Read more »

The guy behind the 3D printed AR is set to announce more plans for 3D printed gun parts…with up to 16 printed parts…a complete pistol.

The project is progressing very quickly now.

Defense Distributed, the pending non-profit that plans to make 3D-printed weaponry available for anyone with such a printer, will release the blueprints for a fully-working plastic firearm next week.

The handgun, seen by Forbes, uses 16 printed parts that are clipped together and can be fitted with interchangeable barrels to fire different-caliber rounds. The only non-printed part needed to fire is a simple nail, which acts as the firing pin.

Final testing for the firearm is still ongoing by the group’s founder Cody Wilson, who said that the plans should be online next week. The Liberator is printed from ABS plastic using a Dimension SST printer from Stratasys – although that company has already refused Defense Distributed the use of one of its printers.

“Everyone talks about the 3D printing revolution,” Wilson said. “Well, what did you think would happen when everyone has the means of production? I’m interested to see what the potential for this tool really is. Can it print a gun?”

Wilson is a legally certified firearms manufacturer after getting clearance in March, and in order to make the Liberator legal the group has added a six-ounce chunk of steel so that it can be picked up by metal detectors – a requirement for weaponry in the US under the 1988 Undetectable Firearms Act.

Uhmmm, the barrel is steel…they don’t work so flash without a barrel. Predictably the politicians are making stupid statements.  Read more »

Labour and The Greens are telling us that the solution in California is the one to look at. Except earlier I blogged about how fragile it is with planning for rolling blackouts.

Now we can look at why their power is cheap…simple economics.

Changes in California’s market have attracted lots of new generation; the state expects to have 44% more generating capacity than it needs next year. Grid officials say they expect the surplus to fall to 20% by 2022, though it will remain high for about a decade.

However, the surplus generating capacity doesn’t guarantee steady power flow. Even though California has a lot of plants, it doesn’t have the right mix: Many of the solar and wind sources added in recent years have actually made the system more fragile, because they provide power intermittently.

So once again the Labour and Green parties have lied about the solution. They have simply looked at California, seen they have a state control of the market and assumed that is the underlying reason for cheap power. Wrong. Simple economics is the underlying reason, and 10 years of enforcing building of extra capacity so much so that they now have 44% more capacity than is needed.  Read more »

I have been getting emails why I didn’t immediately cover the bombing in Boston and leap on the bandwagon of grief porn.

There are a couple of reasons. The first one was that I was busy. Then there was the confusing and in some cases outright wrong reporting, and lastly…some of the photos that are out there are just shocking. I had people at the office claiming variously that dozens were dead, then  just some, before settling on three, that they had arrested a Saudi national and he was under guard at a hospital. Then as I watched over the last few days at the witch-hunt unfolding for people who are innocent I am kind of relieved I didn’t jump on the band-wagon.

Slate has an article about the splatter porn and breaking news that I think people should read. It explains why breaking news is broken.

Next, pull out your phone, delete your Twitter app, shut off your email, and perhaps cancel your service plan. Unplug your PC.

Now go outside and take a walk for an hour or two. Maybe find a park and sit on a bench, reading an old novel. Winter is just half a year away—have you started cleaning out your rain gutters? This might be a good time to start. Whatever you do, remember to stay hydrated. Have a sensible dinner. Get a good night’s rest. In the morning, don’t rush out of bed. Take in the birdsong. Brew a pot of coffee.  Read more »

Hippes can suffer. The evidence is mounting of the great success of fracking and the astonishing failure of hippie power projects:

Enter the Apollo Alliance, which is a project of the George Soros-funded Tides Foundation. Apollo forged a new labor/environmentalist that would both limit fossil fuel use and spend billions promoting green energy.

Since renamed the BlueGreen Alliance, the group launched with a report calling for $500 billion in spending to create a “New Apollo Program” for the U.S. economy. It included federal subsidies for green car companies and solar firms, cash to make existing buildings energy-efficient, new power line construction and billions for new mass transit systems.

The New Apollo Program called for a cap-and-trade plan designed to drive energy producers away from fossil fuels and toward renewable energy like solar, wind and biomass. Apollo promised these new initiatives would create 5 million new jobs.

The Obama campaign fully embraced the Apollo vision, producing its own New Energy for America document that largely mirrored the Apollo report. The only real difference was that Obama’s plan created 5 million new green economy jobs for just $150 billion.  Read more »