Thursday, October 01, 2009
Afternoon linkage
The largest wind power farm in the world has opened in the United States. Bizarrely, the press release says that it is twice the size of Dusseldorf, Germany, which is not a point of comparison that necessarily would have lept to mind.
Root bridges:
Imagine having the patience to wait for a bridge to grow from dense jungle roots. Deep in northeastern India, one of the wettest places on Earth, hundred foot long bridges are carefully grown from Rubber Tree roots.
The pictures are very cool, right out of a Peter Jackson movie set. But not.
Is thriftiness "out" again?
Gun control as a First Amendment problem.
Two Americas: This year, 47% of households will pay no federal income tax. No wonder increasing taxes on those who already pay them has become so popular.
Is new medical technology actually a big driver of health care cost increases? Maybe not.
8 Comments:
By 
, at
Thu Oct 01, 05:33:00 PM:
Dusseldorf is evidently the home office of E.ON, the company that operates the wind farm and issued the press release.
By Brian Schmidt, at
Thu Oct 01, 06:26:00 PM:
Cool bridges - would love to see them in person some day.
By , at
Fri Oct 02, 12:07:00 AM:
Whoops, there goes another rubber tree plant.
By 
TOF, at
Fri Oct 02, 09:44:00 AM:
Yeah. That root bridge application could easily apply to New Jersey -- but there'd still be someone to pay off to get the job done.
By , at
Fri Oct 02, 02:01:00 PM:
OT, but the Senate seemingly has figured out a way to get ObamaCare passed, perhaps even including the full-blown government takeover being euphemistically called "the public option". After that bill gets passed will come kneecap-and-trade, followed by breadlines and poverty. It'll be a very sad day for America when this little piece of gamesmanship is completed.
By , at
Fri Oct 02, 02:50:00 PM:
Another interesting OT link. Are the French becoming out-and-out derisive towards Obama? Unbelievable.
By , at
Fri Oct 02, 04:08:00 PM:
If you live in New Jersey, you just have to check this essay out. Want to know what the percentage growth has been in your town's real estate taxes since 2000? The link is embedded right there, courtesy of Gannett. Want to know how much your Police Chief makes? It's there too. Ugly news, but we might as well face up to it.
My town, Princeton Borough, has seen real estate taxes go up by 79% over that period on average, against aggregate inflation of 29%. Houston, we have a problem.
By , at
Fri Oct 02, 07:37:00 PM:
Driving on Interstate 20 east towards Dallas, you come around a curve and suddenly the southern half of the wind farm comes into view, after seeing all the towers on the northern half a few miles before that.
There's also a huge wind farm on a mesa about 10 miles to the southeast of this site. The problem is the same as it is in the northeast -- while there's a huge area to generate the power, nobody in the big urban areas where the power is needed want those big high-voltage lines near their backyards. Until they figure out that one, wind farms will only make money as long as the federal tax breaks and subsidies hold out.
