Merk answers your intraweb questions.

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Fluffyumpkins
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Re: Merk answers your intraweb questions.

Post by Fluffyumpkins » Wed Jun 01, 2011 9:59 am

NPR had a story this morning about a High School that will be using a wind turbine to power daily operations. You claim that wind energy is inefficient, and I'd like to elaborate. In the form of a question; why is wind energy inefficient?

As a follow-up, did I use ; correctly in the above sentence?

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Re: Merk answers your intraweb questions.

Post by Merk » Wed Jun 01, 2011 10:52 am

Some sources:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wind_power#Economics

http://www.eia.gov/oiaf/archive/ieo06/s ... opics.html

http://www.wind-energy-the-facts.org/en ... eneration/
Cost per unit of energy produced was estimated in 2006 to be comparable to the cost of new generating capacity in the US for coal and natural gas: wind cost was estimated at $55.80 per MW·h, coal at $53.10/MW·h and natural gas at $52.50.
Comparably, wind energy cost $2 more per megawatt than coal or natural gas which may or may not be significant depending on how you view things. However, this doesn't take into account the opportunity cost of the land it takes to build a wind farm. Once a wind farm is built the surrounding area can only be used for farmland. Cities, forests, waterparks, and whatever else you love is forever banned from being built there. Above all else, the fact that the government is subsidizing wind power is a dead giveaway for its inefficiency compared to other energy sources. Farmers receive on average $4,000 per turbine on their land as compensation which furthers wind energy's cost.

Now, I'm not saying wind power is bad or anything and that finding and utilizing renewable energy isn't important. My argument is that, compared to conventional power sources, wind energy costs more and produces less and is therefore inefficient. Obviously in regard to the power's fuel source (coal vs. wind), the wind turbine is infinitely better. In a perfect world where scarcity doesn't exist I would be all for wind power, but as it is you will be hard pressed to confidently say that wind power is efficient.

Do you have a link to the NPR article? I would be surprised if the school wasn't receiving some sort of compensation.
Fluffyumpkins wrote:You claim that wind energy is inefficient, and I'd like to elaborate. In the form of a question; why is wind energy inefficient?
Grammatically this is a mess. The comma in the first sentence is unnecessary while the "In the form of a question;" is also unneeded. I generally use semicolons to conjoin two small sentences of the same subject matter. For example, "I love Matthew; he is my brother" would be an appropriate use of a semicolon as both of these sentences, while technically grammatically sound, are more aesthetically pleasing with a semicolon in between them.
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Re: Merk answers your intraweb questions.

Post by Fluffyumpkins » Wed Jun 01, 2011 11:20 am

Merk wrote:Some sources:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wind_power#Economics

http://www.eia.gov/oiaf/archive/ieo06/s ... opics.html

http://www.wind-energy-the-facts.org/en ... eneration/
Cost per unit of energy produced was estimated in 2006 to be comparable to the cost of new generating capacity in the US for coal and natural gas: wind cost was estimated at $55.80 per MW·h, coal at $53.10/MW·h and natural gas at $52.50.
Comparably, wind energy cost $2 more per megawatt than coal or natural gas which may or may not be significant depending on how you view things. However, this doesn't take into account the opportunity cost of the land it takes to build a wind farm. Once a wind farm is built the surrounding area can only be used for farmland. Cities, forests, waterparks, and whatever else you love is forever banned from being built there. Above all else, the fact that the government is subsidizing wind power is a dead giveaway for its inefficiency compared to other energy sources. Farmers receive on average $4,000 per turbine on their land as compensation which furthers wind energy's cost.

Now, I'm not saying wind power is bad or anything and that finding and utilizing renewable energy isn't important. My argument is that, compared to conventional power sources, wind energy costs more and produces less and is therefore inefficient. Obviously in regard to the power's fuel source (coal vs. wind), the wind turbine is infinitely better. In a perfect world where scarcity doesn't exist I would be all for wind power, but as it is you will be hard pressed to confidently say that wind power is efficient.

Do you have a link to the NPR article? I would be surprised if the school wasn't receiving some sort of compensation.
I looked for the article, but turned up zilch. I could probably listen to the podcast of Morning Edition, but I don't really have the time. To your point, I have no doubt the government compensated the shit out of the school.

My guess is future wind turbines will become more efficient, especially if manufacturing costs go down. I suppose if you don't factor in scarcity, the windmill is less efficient. Business will always take what's cheap now rather than consider longevity. Unless, of course, they use it as a marketing gimmick.
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Re: Merk answers your intraweb questions.

Post by Merk » Wed Jun 01, 2011 11:24 am

lol what the hell is that picture?
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Re: Merk answers your intraweb questions.

Post by Riot » Wed Jun 01, 2011 3:53 pm

What movie should I show to my classes of mostly good-natured but a bit stir-crazy 12 and 13 year olds on the last day of my Language Arts class? It has to be rated G or PG and it should probably be something that is new-ish or at least something that's of high enough interest to keep them all entertained for a 90 minute block.
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Re: Merk answers your intraweb questions.

Post by Merk » Wed Jun 01, 2011 4:05 pm

Tron or one of the Star Wars movies.

Kids love lasers and shit.

Just don't show them anime.
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Re: Merk answers your intraweb questions.

Post by Riot » Wed Jun 01, 2011 5:25 pm

I already showed a class Star Wars when we studied the Hero's Journey. I am thinking something Pixar-ish maybe.... That seems relatively safe. Or some quirky 90s kids comedy. Maybe I should bust out Good Burger.
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Re: Merk answers your intraweb questions.

Post by SoDeepPolaris » Wed Jun 01, 2011 11:03 pm

The Lottery.
I really love CS:GO's 64 tick servers.

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Re: Merk answers your intraweb questions.

Post by chocobojoe » Thu Jun 02, 2011 1:26 am

If you only have a 90 minute block try to pick something that's only about 80 minutes long. If I was 13 and watching an interesting movie in class only to not see the last 10 minutes or so it would piss me off.

Napoleon Dynamite is only 82 minutes.

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Re: Merk answers your intraweb questions.

Post by Fluffyumpkins » Thu Jun 02, 2011 8:17 am

I have no idea what kids watch these days. Just go to the IMDB top 100 and pick something.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0374020/

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Re: Merk answers your intraweb questions.

Post by Merk » Mon Jun 06, 2011 9:54 am

Hey Riot, what did you end up picking?
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Re: Merk answers your intraweb questions.

Post by Riot » Mon Jun 06, 2011 3:51 pm

Wall-E. They just did a short speech/project where they had to invent a product that would change the future, and they read an article about someone in Africa building a windmill to power his village with nothing but trash he collected. The point of the article was to keep imagination alive in a world where technology makes us all lazier and less imaginative. I'm just following it up with Wall-E since it's about the same sort of thing, it's a new, popular movie, and it's pretty good overall anyways.
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Re: Merk answers your intraweb questions.

Post by Merk » Mon Jun 06, 2011 3:54 pm

I wish you were my teacher
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Re: Merk answers your intraweb questions.

Post by Merk » Tue Jun 21, 2011 12:22 pm

Again, I will happily field any questions about anything that any of you may have.
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Re: Merk answers your intraweb questions.

Post by Riot » Tue Jun 21, 2011 12:43 pm

Would you french kiss Ricky Ortiz at EVO if it gave you an opportunity to play Daigo in the game of your choice?

What do you think of my friend's band? I've been listening to their album some lately and it's pretty good. I helped them shoot a music video for a telecom class.

http://jipjop.bandcamp.com/track/plutos ... anet-to-me Check out that song, Access, and Anne Frankly.
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