Above, a brace of British Army issue pistols – old (right) and new (left).
Today, in the Northern Hemisphere, is the Winter Solstice. In the Southern Hemisphere, it is the Summer Solstice.
Whatever politicians do or don’t do, the above will not change. King Canute attempted to demonstrate similar to his courtiers – and duly got his feet wet in the process!
If one proceeds to the shoreline in present day Essex one will doubtless spot the numerous wind turbines decorating the seascape like candles decorating a rather large cake which for some reason the cook has covered with blue-green-grey icing! With little bits of white icing here and there.
The most excellent and learned Doctor Richard North in his blog-post today (https://www.turbulenttimes.co.uk/news/corona/politics-a-christmas-without-the-science/) again reports to his readers upon the premeditated idiocies of those cretins currently forming the Queen’s government!
I have been flogging these particular dead horses now for so long that I have become thoroughly bored with it!
Human beings make assumptions. Unconsciously. Our brains do this automatically all the time! If they did not we would all be blind! This because the brain automatically interprets and interpolates where necessary the data from the optic nerves so we can – for us living on the Costa Sten – avoid walking off the cliff when walking the cost path!
One of the conscious assumptions we may make is that the ministers forming Her Majesty’s Government be they Conservative or Labour are at least reasonably competent and imbued with an adequate amount of common sense.
However this assumption has been repeatedly proved false – many times!
It beggars belief that any adult who is mentally capable of managing his/her own affairs could purposefully set about a programme of capital investment to power the UK’s National Grid using wind turbines (for whatever reason) WITHOUT ensuring there was 100% backup available.
This may be engineering science but by no stretch of the imagination can it be regarded as quantum physics!
It seems one has to spell it out in the most basic form for the Buffoon!
If one embarks upon building a “wind farm” – be it onshore or offshore – to provide electricity to the grid there are TWO parts to it. These are the wind turbines and then there are the backup diesel generators.
It is perfectly simple! So simple that even the leader of the Liberal Democrats should be able to grasp it!
It is this: A wind turbine rated at say 5MW will have a backup diesel generator rated at 5MW. If the wind blows at the optimum speed and generates the full output the diesel generator remains off. If the wind turbine is producing less – say 3MW – the diesel generator is turned on to make up the 2MW required output. That way there is NO NEED for the National Grid to suffer unplanned shortages!
Why diesel and not gas turbine? We hear you ask Dear Reader.
This can be answered by any Royal Navy Engineering Officer! Since one is not available, I will supply the answer:
Gas turbines such as those that power most of the world’s combat warships are at their most economical when they are running at maximum output. When not running flat out but say providing the ship’s commander with enough power for Half Ahead, the fuel consumption is atrocious!
Given that naval staffs do not wish to have their warships proceed flat out all the time they have instructed their naval architects to come up with a practical sea going solution. There are numerous.
The latest is to have the warships equipped with a mix of gas turbines and diesel generators to supply power to a number of electric traction motors that turn the shafts to move the warship.
Gas turbines are quieter than diesels and as such come in highly useful when hunting a submarine or to avoid being torpedoed by one! Diesels are however more economical when not running flat out. Thus warships such as the Royal Navy’s brace of fleet carriers have the happy mix and match combination the First Sea Lord desires!
Of course, at this point the demented moron who leads the Lib-Dems will be jumping up and down shouting, “CO2! CO2! What about CO2!” This because this idiot thinks that CO2 causes a problem for Planet Earth! It does NOT of course!
However, in a charitable effort to prevent this idiot from bursting a blood vessel, we will point out that diesel engines can run perfectly well on a fuel called bio-diesel. Bio-diesel comes in various grades such as B10 and B100. B10 is where 10% of the fuel is made from plants with 90% coming out of the ground. B100 is where all the fuel comes from plants. The important thing to note that insofar as bio-diesel operation is concerned the performance of the diesel engine is EXACTLY THE SAME whether it is running on B10 or B100!
Therefore, if the idiot persists in demanding that no fossil fuel is used to provide electricity it simply means that the diesel generators will be supplied with B100.
Now we come to the issue of supplying the B100.
The most efficient – by a country mile – or for the idiot, a rural kilometre – is the sugar cane plant. Plants grown by taking CO2 from the atmosphere, converting it to oxygen and via sunlight and water, grow.
Now the idiot keeps jumping up and down shouting “We must sequestrate as much CO2 as possible to preserve the planet!” This of course is a stupidly wrong statement, but no matter, the idiot persists in making it and as a duly elected MP must be listened to!
Therefore IF the idiot wants to sequestrate as much CO2 as possible then the go for plant is the sugar cane! This would mean large areas of the Amazonian rainforest would have to be chopped down and replaced with sugar cane. You see, an acre of sugar cane sequestrates many times as much CO2 as untouched Amazonian rainforest.
At this point the British Gazette is in agreement with such as Friends of the Earth! This because to destroy an acre of untouched Amazonian rainforest is an act of environmental idiocy because such an acre will likely contain all manner of life forms – little ones like fungi and insects – that are unknown to science and with plants could provide raw material of tremendous value. IF the area is destroyed to provide fuel – which can be drawn out of the ground – humanity is destroying possible solutions to tremendous problems.
The commons sense way out of this lunacy is to embark on a programme of building coal powered generating stations of the latest and most efficient design. Steam technology is a mature technology and reliable and cost effective.
But alas, this will NOT happen!
Why?
Because the cretins in power think CO2 is a problem!
UNTIL the situation gets so bad that the people rebel and throw out these cretins – via a General Election – NOTHING WILL CHANGE!
As for COVID-19?
We are all going to be playing Russian Roulette! The Omicron variant is either as severe in it’s effects as the Delta variant or it is not. We will find out in a month’s time by the body count!
Happy Christmas!