Author: shacker

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Wind Turbines and Bird Deaths

Spinning off recent solar conversations, I became interested in the question of whether energy-generating wind turbines actually contribute measurably to bird deaths. Solar Dude had told me straight up that there were only two confirmed bird kills at Altamont Pass. Meanwhile, commentators on the right have called wind turbines “Cuisinarts of the Sky” and worse. Looking for some actual data, came up with a fairly comprehensive research piece (PDF) at Home Power Magazine.

Summary: Solar Dude lied. There had been 183 bird deaths at Altamont at the time the article was written. But Altamont is apparently unique among wind farms. Most wind farms report ZERO bird deaths. The Altamont paradox is a black eye (and merits continued research), but it is not an argument against wind power in general. Now take this in:

… automobiles are responsible for some 57 million bird deaths every year … More than 97 million birds die by flying into plate glass every year … And about 1.5 million birds die from collisions with structures (such as towers, stacks, bridges, buildings) every year. … Viewed in this context, the 183 bird deaths in the Altamont Pass over a two year period of time is a small number indeed. It will take wind turbines in the Altamont Pass 500 to 1000 years to kill as many birds as the Exxon Valdez oil spill.

Music: Gilgamesh :: Lady & Friend
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Monkeys with Keyboard Type sssssssaljm

Give an infinite number of monkeys an infinite number of typewriters, the theory goes, and they will eventually produce the works of Shakespeare. … Researchers at Plymouth University in England reported this week that primates left alone with a computer attacked the machine and failed to produce a single word.

The AP story also reports that:

Another thing they were interested in was in defecating and urinating all over the keyboard. … Eventually, monkeys Elmo, Gum, Heather, Holly, Mistletoe and Rowan produced five pages of text, composed primarily of the letter S.

Music: Pere Ubu :: My Hat
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Now Is It Webcasting?

Re: recent discussions about whether iTunes’ new streaming capabilities amount to webcasting (and whether royalties are thus due): SpyMac Music aggregates iTunes sharers under a single roof, which makes a feature Apple was careful to mark as private into a public service similar to live365. Great debate on the legality and implications in this MacSlash thread.

Very good guide / review comparing AAC and MP3 at various bitrates.

Music: Robert Wyatt :: Arauco
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FAT Arrogance

OK, so maybe it was silly of a student to think he could connect one of our HFS+ FireWire drives to a Windows machine w/1394 card. But the fact that Windows dealt with the incompatibility by overwriting the drive’s file allocation table, rendering the volume unusable on the Mac, is unconscionable.

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Toxic Chips

A BBC article on the toxicity of semiconductor manufacture says that:

… weight for weight, the average computer chip does more harm to the environment than the car. … In order to produce one memory chip that weighs two grams, the total amount of materials and fossil fuels required to make that chip is 1,400 grams. That’s 700 times the weight of the original chip…

I knew semiconductor manufacturing was very toxic, but didn’t know it was this bad. However it would be much harder to account for the amount of resources computers save via:

– telecommuting
– digital photography (analog photos also extremely toxic)
– paperless office (hah! in theory*)
– what else?

Also it’s a red herring to only compare manufacture – try comparing the impact of daily use of cars and computers.

* I’m content not to print almost anything, but long ago accepted that many people do — I work with people who print out anything longer than a paragraph so they can “actually read it.”

Music: Don Byas :: A Night In Tunisia
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Kite Aeriel Photography

When a friend recently mentioned Kite Aeriel Photography, I assumed she was talking about hang gliders with cameras, but turns out there’s a whole subculture of people who hang cameras from standard or specialized kites and shoot the earth from unusual heights and angles. I think what makes these images so stunning is that they offer a view you almost never get to see – higher than people and most buildings, but lower than than helicopters and airplanes, able to squeak into spaces aircraft can’t go, able to hover.

The equipment is cool too. Some very creative solutions – cheap cameras with rubber band mounting systems and Silly Putty timers…. other rigs cost thousands and are used for pro applications.

These 1944 bomb craters are surreal. Check one guy’s self portrait. KAP photogs even have their own magazine (talk about niche publishing).

Music: Toots and the Maytals :: Sailin’ On
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Spinning His Wheels

Had to do a double-take just now to digest a car sitting at a stoplight — its wheels spinning though the car was not moving. But it wasn’t burning rubber — spokes merely rotating around the hub with the tire planted firmly on the ground. Some specially rigged, motorized hub magic. Really does a number on your senses. Is this “a thing?”

Music: Roots Radics :: The Death Of Mr. Spock
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Power Vacuum

Update on a recent post on G4 energy draw : According to a fellow posting in a MacNN thread, the LinkSys probably consumes around 32 watts and my DSL modem around the same. The Studio Display draws 40W in use and 10 W asleep. So that’s between 60 and 95W delta between this rig and the Pentium we spot tested at the solar joint (I had mistakenly assumed that the modem and router would draw next to nothing). That means that if I could borrow the Watts Up again and hook up just the Mac, it would probably draw less power than the Pentium after all. All moot now – have decided not to move on alt.power before we buy a house.

Music: The Kinks :: Artificial Light
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Ingredients: Seaweed

For some reason I’ve had a wild hair for about two weeks to try my hand at making sushi. Tonight stopped off at Berkeley Bowl for a loaf of beer and ended up with a full pound (too much!) of sushi tuna, bamboo mat, 10 sheets of nori, white short-grain rice, wasabi powder, sesame seeds, imitation crab, avocado, and a couple bottles of my favorite Gekkeikan. Made California rolls with tuna – start with the basics.

(Click)

Although fairly simple, surprised to find out how long it took to put everything together. The rice alone took an hour to go through all its stages (came out just right though!) Didn’t eat till late, but so worth it. I’m such a sucker for sushi. Want to do this more often. I’m able to cook, just don’t do it very often. Heart’s not usually in it. Was tonight though.

Lest there be any confusion, here is the list of ingredients on the back of the seaweed package:

Ingredients: Seaweed

Music: Henry Threadgill :: Spotted Dick Is Pudding