Tag Archives: operation

Monster wind farm planned in South Dakota

by Lou Bovee Posted on February 12, 2014

Monster wind farm planned in South Dakota

By

Travis S.

Well blow us over, Mount Rushmore State! Scores of landowners in South Dakota are banding together in an attempt to build a one-gigawatt wind farm, which would be spread over thousands of acres of farmland.

South Dakota is already a leader when it comes to harnessing wind energy. Nearly 500 large turbines spin over the state’s windswept landscapes, with a collective capacity of 784 megawatts of power. The Watertown Public Opinion reports on an attempt to more than double that capacity:

With over 80 landowners ready to dedicate nearly 20,000 acres to one of South Dakota’s largest wind projects, Dakota Power Community Wind is ready to begin the research phase of the operation.

“Our board has approved the purchase of [a meteorological] tower to kick off the research collection phase,” said Paul Shubeck, Dakota Power Community Wind board chairman. “We need to collect two to three years of data before construction can begin.” …

The 20,000 acres of farmland currently signed up for the project are sufficient to support a 300-megawatt windfarm, according to company officials. That would still be the largest single windfarm in South Dakota and would add nearly 50% to the state’s wind production.

Project leaders are now working to get more landowners on board. If built as envisioned, the sprawling wind farm would produce more than three times as much electricity as the natural gas–burning Deer Creek Station, which became the state’s most powerful fossil-fuel power plant when it began operating in 2012.


Source
Research phase to begin for Dakota Power Community Wind, Watertown Public Opinion

John Upton is a science fan and green news boffin who tweets, posts articles to Facebook, and blogs about ecology. He welcomes reader questions, tips, and incoherent rants: johnupton@gmail.com.

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Figure Skating Is Hopelessly Corrupt

by PEACarinzhpby Posted on February 12, 2014

Mother Jones

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Which sport is more corrupt, ski jumping or figure skating? Normally, my rule of thumb is that the higher up the world ladder you go (local vs. national vs. international) the more corrupt a sport becomes. Thus, I would have guessed that a sport in which the international federation chooses judges would be more corrupt than one in which national federations choose judges. But no! Eric Zitzewitz has compared two sports and finds just the opposite:

Ski jumping has its international federation select the judges for competitions like the Olympics, and I find that they select the least biased judges. Figure skating lets its national federations select the judges, and my research showed that they select the most biased judges.

This creates different incentives for judges. Ski jumping judges display less nationalism in lower-level competitions — it appears they keep their nationalism under wraps in less important contests to avoid missing their chance at judging the Olympics. Figure skating judges are actually more biased in the lesser contests; they may actually be more biased than they would like to be due to pressure from their federations.

It turns out that ski jumping judges are biased, but the other judges are mostly biased in the other direction, so everything ends up even. Having an American judge doesn’t help American jumpers. Figure skating is just the opposite. Not only are national judges biased, the other judges all go along. If an American judge is on the panel, American skaters get higher marks from the American judge and also get higher marks from all the other judges:

Of all these results, I am most intrigued by the contrast between the ski jumping judges undoing each other’s biases and the figure skating judges reinforcing them. When we make decisions in a group at work, we often encounter individuals with strong biases — say to hire a particular type of job candidate. When we do, we have a choice. We can act like a ski jumping judge, and resist the bias, in an effort to keep things fair. Or we can act like a figure skating judge and say “hiring this guy really seems important to Joe, I wonder what he’ll give me in return if I go along.” We have probably all seen examples of both in our lives.

There’s a small mountain of other evidence that figure skating is hopelessly corrupt, and has aggressively protected that corruption ever since the judging scandals of 1998 and 2002. Zitzewitz has the evidence if you read his entire post.

But corruption can only go so far. That 15-year-old Russian figure skater, Julia Lipnitskaia, is so good that even I could tell how good she was when she skated in the team competition. All the corruption in the world couldn’t have robbed her of the top score.

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Figure Skating Is Hopelessly Corrupt

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The Fed Chairman Wore Sensible Shoes Today

by MoseBodincktsh Posted on February 12, 2014

Mother Jones

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Elizabeth Williamson of Real Time Economics, the home for “economic insight and analysis from the Wall Street Journal,” analyzes Janet Yellen’s first appearance before Congress today:

She took her seat at 10:01 a.m., clad in a monochrome suit and sensible shoes, carrying a black vinyl binder with rainbow-colored tabs. Once chided by an uncharitable commentator for wearing the same black dress twice in a row, Ms. Yellen hadn’t bought a new suit for the occasion, her spokeswoman, Michelle Smith, confided to a reporter. “I’ll try to come up with some color for you,” she whispered.

Seriously?

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The Fed Chairman Wore Sensible Shoes Today

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Paul Ryan Votes Against the Debt Ceiling Increase

by KristinaRosenba Posted on February 11, 2014

Mother Jones

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With John Boehner finally crying uncle over the debt ceiling and dumping the whole thing on Democrats, the only suspense left was which members of the Republican leadership would suck it in and vote yes to get the bill over the finish line. Here’s the answer:

Speaker John Boehner, Majority Leader Eric Cantor, and Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy voted for the increase. House Budget Chairman Paul Ryan, on the other hand, voted against the bill.

There you go. Even Eric Cantor gritted his teeth and voted for the increase, but Paul Ryan didn’t. Kinda makes you think he might still be keeping a presidential run in the back of his mind, doesn’t it?

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Paul Ryan Votes Against the Debt Ceiling Increase

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Google Reads My Mind (And My Web Searches) Once Again

by AYZShantell Posted on February 11, 2014

Mother Jones

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I realize this is old news, just part of the modern world, etc. etc., but it still seems sort of creepy to me. A few minutes ago I got the email on the right asking, “Why are the charging cables so short?”

And you know what? That’s a good question! In fact, I was asking myself that just a few days ago. As a result, I spent a bit of time googling around for cheap USB power cables, and of course I clicked on cables of various lengths. Because, you know, those 3-foot cables really are kind of dinky.

Anyway, I know that Google knows all and sees all, but this is just a little too specific for comfort. It’s like it was reading my mind and sending advertisers my way. Which it was. And I suppose some people would consider this pretty cool. I’m getting ads not for the usual junk, but for something I’m actually interested in. And yet, it still seems a little creepy. Maybe I should start using private browsing tabs a little more often.

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Google Reads My Mind (And My Web Searches) Once Again

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Ani DiFranco Wanted to Party at a Slave Plantation. Guess What Happened?

by EllaBlocker Posted on December 30, 2013

Mother Jones

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In a banner year for non-apology apologies, singer-songwriter Ani DiFranco non-apologized this weekend for renting out an old Louisiana slave plantation to host a songwriting workshop. The event, now canceled, was billed as a “Righteous Retreat” and charged attendees $1,000 to sleep in a tent for four nights and learn about “developing one’s singular creativity” while DiFranco and her friends led jam sessions. The “captivating setting” was to be Nottoway Plantation and Resort in White Castle, Louisiana, a 64-room, 53,000-square-foot antebellum mansion and sugar plantation whose website has this to say about the plantation master:

“Considering his slaves to be valuable tools in the operation of his business, John Randolph provided the necessary care to keep them in good health. He understood the importance of hygiene in controlling the spread of illnesses and disease, so he provided a bathhouse where slaves could bathe daily if they wished…Ever the astute businessman, Randolph knew that in order to maintain a willing workforce, it was necessary to provide not only for his slaves’ basic needs for housing, food and medicine, but to also offer additional compensation and rewards when their work was especially productive… It is difficult to accurately assess the treatment of Randolph’s slaves; however, various records indicate that they were probably well treated for the time.”

The website also notes that Randolph’s “willing workforce” was comprised of 155 slaves quartered in 42 slave houses in 1860, making Nottoway “one of the largest plantations in the South, at a time when most owners possessed fewer than 20 slaves.”

On Saturday, a group of black feminists on Twitter took notice, and the hashtag #AniDiFrancoRetreatIdeas was born:

The event’s Facebook page filled up with outraged comments, some noting that the building’s current owner is a right-wing Australian billionaire who gave hundreds of thousands to help elect a prime minister who considers abortion “the easy way out,” homelessness a choice, and doesn’t want his daughters vaccinated against cervical cancer.

Yesterday, DiFranco posted an announcement to her label’s blog canceling the event, and apologizing largely by way of excusing herself from blame, chiding those who’d gotten upset, and lamenting lost opportunities for “healing the wounds of history:”

“when i agreed to do a retreat…i did not know the exact location it was to be held. when i found out it was to be held at a resort on a former plantation, I thought to myself, “whoa”, but i did not imagine or understand that the setting of a plantation would trigger such collective outrage or result in so much high velocity bitterness…i know that pain is stored in places where great social ills have occurred. i believe that people must go to those places with awareness and with compassionate energy and meditate on what has happened and absorb some of the reverberating pain with their attention and their awareness. i believe that compassionate energy is transformative and necessary for healing the wounds of history…if nottoway is simply not an acceptable place for me to go and try to do my work in the eyes of many, then let me just concede before more divisive words are spilled.”

I spent many a dorm room night with Ani on full blast on the stereo (at Bryn Mawr, the DiFranco discography was practically a major) and she’s nowhere near the likes of Richard Cohen and Paula Deen when it comes to obliviousness over history’s injustices. But is it really such a huge step from “whoa” to “no” when a brochure for Nottoway Plantation and Resort lands on your desk?

Excerpt from – 

Ani DiFranco Wanted to Party at a Slave Plantation. Guess What Happened?

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We’re Still at War: Photo of the Day for December 26, 2013

by PorterEspino Posted on December 26, 2013

Mother Jones

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A paratroopers jumps from a CASA 212, Dec. 13, 2013 during Operation Toy Drop. The number of toys for the 16th Annual Randy Oler Operation Toy Drop continues to grow as special operations forces donate throughout this week at Luzon Drop Zone, Camp Mackall, N.C. Jumping from CASA 212s and a German C-160, paratroopers earned foreign jump wings from one of nine countries’ jumpmasters participating in this year’s Toy Drop after donating a new, unwrapped toy and successfully completing a jump. Germany, Canada, Italy, Poland, Chile, Sweden, Latvia, Brazil and Netherlands jumpmasters participated this year. Hosted by the U.S. Army Civil Affairs & Psychological Operations Command (Airborne), Operation Toy Drop is the largest combined airborne operation in the world. The donated toys will be distributed to children’s homes and social service agencies in the local community. (U.S. Army photo by Staff Sgt. Amanda Smolinski/USACAPOC(A) PAO)

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We’re Still at War: Photo of the Day for December 26, 2013

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Operation Green Fence Highlights Issues with U.S. Recycling Plan

by kosiczek1910 Posted on September 16, 2013

For years, cardboard has been a highly profitable export from the U.S. to China. New regulations could change the way America approaches recycling and trash disposal. Photo: morgueFile/bosela

For years, one of America’s biggest exports to China was trash. But now, Operation Green Fence could overhaul our current recycling and trash disposal efforts. The initiative, announced in February 2013, is an effort by Chinese environmental and customs officials to be more stringent about what imported waste will be allowed into the country.

China has been a prime market for recycled raw materials for several years, and the U.S. — as well as Europe, Japan and Hong Kong — has exported scrap materials to China. In fact, it’s a highly profitable export for the U.S., which netted $10.8 billion from metal and paper scrap in 2011. Cardboard boxes and other scrap paper are particularly valuable; China lacks the abundant forest resources enjoyed by the U.S., so the Asian nation buys our cardboard and other scrap paper, then combines it with their lower-grade recycled fibers to improve the quality of their packaging materials.

With Operation Green Fence, China has announced that it will be stricter in terms of what contaminants it allows in shipments. That means any shipment of recyclables that’s found to have even a single contaminant — such as a syringe or a stowaway rodent — could be turned away. During the first three months of the initiative, about 7,600 tons of material from the U.S. was rejected, according to the International Solid Waste Association. Since the campaign began, an estimated 800,000 tons of recyclable waste total has been rejected.

Industry experts fear that this new approach will lead to increased exporting costs, and there’s also plenty of concern as to what the U.S. will do with its waste if it can’t be sent to China. With a lack of recycling centers to take the goods, some of it could end up in landfills. Cities may be forced to take a hard look at what kind of recycling is offered and/or find a way to produce less contaminated waste.

Whether the initiative continues — it was originally announced as a 10-month program that would end in November — it’s clear that America has to rethink its current mind-set toward recycling and create solutions that are no longer dependent on sending trash abroad.

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Operation Green Fence Highlights Issues with U.S. Recycling Plan

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Fracking triggered more than 100 earthquakes in Ohio

by agerere567 Posted on September 5, 2013

Fracking triggered more than 100 earthquakes in Ohio

By

Tom Wang

A single fracking wastewater well triggered 167 earthquakes in and around Youngstown, Ohio, during a single year of operation.

That’s according to a study published in the Journal of Geophysical Research by Won-Young Kim, a researcher at Columbia University. Earthquakes had never been recorded at Youngstown before 2010. Then, at the end of that year, frackers started pumping their waste from Marcellus Shale drilling projects into the 9,200-foot deep Northstar 1 injection well. Within two weeks, the area had experienced its first quake.

From January 2011 to February 2012, the area was jangled by an average of nearly 12 earthquakes every month. Many of them were imperceptible to residents, but they grew in intensity over time and ranged up to a home-rattling magnitude-3.9 temblor on the final day of 2011. That was one day after the injection well was last used for dumping waste; the Ohio Department of Natural Resources had ordered it shut down because of the escalating flurry of earthquakes. By that time, 495,622 barrels of wastewater had been crammed into it.

After the injection well fell into disuse, the string of earthquakes quickly tapered away.

Kim found that the frequency and intensity of earthquakes in the area was closely linked to the daily pressure levels in the well. He also compared the seismic profile of the region with the epicenters of each of the earthquakes and concluded they occurred either at the well or along a fault line to which it was connected.

“We conclude that the recent earthquakes in Youngstown, Ohio were induced by the fluid injection at a deep injection well due to increased pore pressure along the preexisting subsurface faults located close to the wellbore,” Kim wrote in the paper.

The discovery builds on a growing body of scientific evidence linking the use of fracking wastewater injection wells to earthquakes. That includes a string of quakes in central Oklahoma in late 2011, including the most powerful ever recorded in the state, a frightening magnitude 5.7.

John Upton is a science fan and green news boffin who tweets, posts articles to Facebook, and blogs about ecology. He welcomes reader questions, tips, and incoherent rants: johnupton@gmail.com.Find this article interesting? Donate now to support our work.Read more: Business & Technology

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Fracking triggered more than 100 earthquakes in Ohio

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The GOP’s three-step plan for being loved

by ansonsten Posted on February 15, 2013

The GOP’s three-step plan for being loved

By Philip Bump

Congressional Republicans, like middle-school English teachers, are mad that people don’t think they’re cool. In quiet moments in institutional restrooms, they look into mirrors for a bit longer than normal, hands under the faucet, leaning in. “What is it?” they wonder, eyes scanning their faces. That’s when someone else walks in. “Hey.” “Oh, hey,” the Republicans reply, eyes dropping, hands washing each other vigorously.

Like many of those unsteady educators, the GOP has decided to do something about its popularity problem. Middle-school teachers buy sports cars and new jeans. Republicans try to develop new messaging. Politico outlines the GOP’s three new rules. Let us assess them.

Rule one: Stop talking like the world is going to end. Budgetary politics is important to the GOP, but voters are going to stop voting for a party that talks about gloom and doom around the clock.

“I think that we need to make being fiscally conservative cool,” said Rep. Candice Miller (R-Mich.), chairwoman of the Administration Committee and a close ally of Majority Leader Eric Cantor.

Yes. Stop talking like the world is going to end! You know how the Republicans are always like, “Oh, man, this climate change thing could really be apocalyptic and we’re not doing anything about it,” etc., etc. Stop doing that, Republicans!

And Rep. Miller has a great idea. A great idea. Make fiscal conservatism cool! Why didn’t you guys think of that before? I mean, I know that in 2005, someone presented Cheney with “Operation: Shades” which would have put that plan into motion and he didn’t jump on it, but why didn’t you do it once he and the other guy got out of office? Honestly, if you started now, you could have fiscal conservatism lookin’ cool by April. It’s like Hawaiian shirt day at Initech. Mix it up, and you’ll get the kids’ respect.

elsie

The new-look GOP

Rule two: Stop repealing regulations no one has heard of. It’s nice to be the party of cutting red tape, Republicans say, but no one has heard of boiler MACT or utility MACT. So spending time throwing these bills on the floor is absolutely useless. Package regulation cutting together, and explain that people’s energy will be cheaper, Republicans say.

“Does anyone have any idea how this fits their family? No. No one has any idea what that is,” said Rep. James Lankford (R-Okla.), a member of leadership who is leading the agenda-crafting effort. “Just an individual bill that deals with one regulation that people can’t connect to? No more of that.”

No one knows what that is. How are people supposed to hate “boiler MACT” if they don’t know what it is, guys? You’re not going to look “cool” eradicating some Johnny Lame-o like “utility MACT.” The key is to lie about about what you want to do! Make it sound horrible and then people will be super-grateful you stabbed it to death in subcommittee.

Like boiler MACT. So this is a totally stupid proposal from the EPA to establish new limits on pollution from industrial boilers. It is hella dumb because it would only prevent 8,100 deaths a year while making super-cool big factories have to upgrade their steam-production systems.

Let’s compare these two statements. Which one is “cool”? Which one is “square”?

We are pushing to stop the EPA’s boiler MACT rule because our allies in big business don’t want to incur one-time costs simply for the greater health of the public; rather, they’d prefer to continue to externalize the costs of that pollution into children’s lungs.
Yo, the big government has this new law that will make all your stuff way more expensive and does no one any good except China. That is wack; visit GOP.com/stoptheantibusinessagenda for the D/L. (That means “details.”)

The second one is the “cool” one. That, people can “connect to.”

Rule three: Sand down the party’s rough edges. Pass education bills and immigration legislation. Stop screaming about red ink and spending too much. This one is going to be tough, since House Republicans haven’t been able to pass a bill called the Violence Against Woman Act for more than a year.

By “sand down the party’s rough edges,” Politico really means “stop being racist and sexist.” Racism and sexism are not cool.

These are all super-good ideas, even if they’re just the summaries Politico wrote based on what it heard about the GOP gathering. Imagine how great the things Republicans actually said must have been!

I would like to offer a note of caution, though, which may dampen optimism about this plan just a little bit.

Even a middle-school teacher dressed in the coolest clothes, listening to the hottest music, playing the latest video games is not going to be seen as very cool and will not be very popular if he spends his entire class period screaming at his students, trying to show each of them how stupid they are, marginalizing nearly half of them, and suggesting that a few be sent to detention indefinitely.

Oh, sorry. Fixing those sorts of things fell under “sand down the rough edges.” You’re all covered then.

Philip Bump writes about the news for Gristmill. He also uses Twitter a whole lot.

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