An Englishman's Castle

Cook-Off Day

2009-07-04T07:08:53Z

There are the Fires of Hades to be stoked and Scotch Bonnets to be prepared, see you later.

Friday Night is Music Night (Red Hot Edition)

2009-07-03T16:17:53Z

How those Wind Turbines keep turning

2009-07-03T15:37:38Z

Large wind turbines require a large amount of energy to operate. Other electricity plants generally use their own electricity, and the difference between the amount they generate and the amount delivered to the grid is readily determined. Wind plants, however, use electricity from the grid, which does not appear to be accounted for in their output figures. Among the wind turbine functions that use electricity are the following:... ....magnetizing the stator -- the induction generators used in most large grid-connected turbines require a "large" amount of continuous electricity from the grid to actively power the magnetic coils around the asynchronous "cage rotor" that encloses the generator shaft; at the rated wind speeds, it helps keep the rotor speed constant, and as the wind starts blowing it helps start the rotor turning (see next item); in the rated wind speeds, the stator may use power equal to 10% of the turbine's rated capacity, in slower winds possibly much more ...using the generator as a motor (to help the blades start to turn when the wind speed is low or, as many suspect, to maintain the illusion that the facility is producing electricity when it is not, particularly during important site tours) -- it seems possible that the grid-magnetized stator must work to help keep the 40-ton blade assembly spinning, along with the gears that increase the blade rpm some 50 times for the generator, not just at cut-in (or for show in even less wind) but at least some of the way up towards the full rated wind speed; it may also be spinning the blades and rotor shaft to prevent warping when there is no wind. Hat tip to an anonymous commentator who noticed the turbines by the motorway turning on a windless halcyon day.

Scotland, Green in Tooth and Claw

2009-07-03T07:06:43Z

BIRDS of prey have been brought in to scare away pigeons that have plagued the Scottish Parliament. The £44,000 contract will see seven birds tackle the problem in a two-pronged attack – but under a "no kill policy". Hawks will first flush out the pigeons from the various hidden corners of the Holyrood building in Edinburgh. Falcons flying overhead should then finish the job by frightening them away. Appropriate for the Scottish Parliament; unnatural, toothless, expensive and bloody useless.

Climate Change Causes Conehead Bushcrickets' Wings To Grow

2009-07-03T06:58:31Z

Climate change isn’t something for the future: it is already happening. The longer it goes on the easier it will be to notice these changes without having a specialist to measure it. In virtually every population that has been studied in detail, evolutionary changes have been observed. There has been a morphological change, for example, in the long-winged conehead bushcricket. Previously they could only fly for short distances, to escape predators. But because it has been getting warmer in the South of England, where they were confined, they have expanded their wings and can now fly for several hours at a time to cooler areas in the North. It would once have taken them a week to cross a field, now they can fly for several hours at a time. Shrinking sheep and now longer wings on the coneheads, what more evidence do you need to ditch your SUV. Though I must admit reading the Science article about the Coneheads it seems that the Coneheads mainly have two morphological forms, short wings and long wings. The shortarses breed faster and are more competitive but can't move around so tend to dominate established populations. The wingers thrive at the edge of populations because whilst they can't compete well with the fatties barging them out of the way in the food aisles they can fly over the horizon to new food sources. So you will always see more long winged ones on the advancing edge of a population regardless of the weather.

Grind them exceeding small

2009-07-03T06:49:07Z

Maybe columnists don’t bang on about these little miseries enough. We always worry about the big things; the fiddled expenses, the bomb plots, Jordan’s boobs, the lies that lead to wars. It’s the little things, however, that pollute our lives so much more. The receptionist at A&E, your electricity bill, the new wheelie bin, the traffic jam, the cancelled flight, the delivery that never arrives. It’s the powerlessness, always, against these shapeless systems that seem to hate us, and leave us no option but to hate them back. It’s awful. What a way to live. What a place. What bastards. Its the little things that will cause an explosion one day, not the massive incomprensible debt, the loss of freedoms etc, it will be a little old lady being victimised that will get people on the streets.

The Unforseen Consequence of Climate Change

2009-07-02T22:02:37Z

A complete list of things caused by global warming should have a cracker of a new entry... Climate change is causing a breed of wild sheep in Scotland to shrink, according to research. Now that is one I didn't know about, I'm converted to the cause...

At the Sign of the Barber's Pole

2009-07-02T06:47:01Z

Deep joy - I have at long last found a decent Barber's shop in Wiltshire. For years I have put up with an ever changing rota of feral youths in my local establishments who having passed an NVQ in holding sharp scissors in their pudgy white tattooed paws believe they are doing you a favour in randomly snipping bits of hair off. Unless you want a bleached cockatoo for a hairstyle you end up looking like Nick Griffen. But tucked away on Winchester Street, Salisbury, I found a proper Turkish barber. Not only did he cut my hair properly in silence, I had the pleasure of him scraping round my neck with a cut throat razor, (maybe that is why Nick Griffen doesn't use a Turkish Barber), and the old flaming wand was produced to singe off the hairs in and on my ears and nose. If you have never had a Turk gently blowing a flame into your ear, and balming it with unguents of the orient, you have never been properly prepared to face the rigours of the day.

Attention Please

2009-07-02T06:36:02Z

Towns and countryside blighted by 'bossy and patronising' safety signs - Telegraph The Manifesto Club, a libertarian campaign group that compiled the book from pictures sent in by members, says in many cases the signs do not warn of real dangers. And with their loud colours and hectoring tones, the book says, the notices disfigure buildings and public spaces. The Manifesto Club getting attention again, they are obviously catching the mood. I seem to remember when I walked down to the pub to see in the New Millennium that there was a strident safety notice disfiguring the countryside by the canal bridge, and when I walked back refreshed a couple of hours later it was no longer there. An excellent start to the new age I thought, but it has all been downhill since then.

ID Cards - The Sham U Turn

2009-07-02T06:21:20Z

Taking kids to the pool? Sorry, you need a card The Government is still pressing ahead with the national identity register, to which will be added the details of everyone who applies for a passport. Anyone on the register will be obliged subsequently to inform the authorities of a change of address, under pain of a £1,000 fine. In other words, if you don’t want to carry a card, that’s your choice. But we are still going to take your fingerprints, and if you don’t have a card we can march you down to the station to have you checked. If there was ever a solution in search of a problem, it is ID cards and the identity register. You know what will happen: the authorities will spend thousands of hours pursuing forgetful, peripatetic students. Meanwhile, al-Qaeda sleepers diligently settling down to lives as teaching assistants as they prepare suicide attacks will be careful to conform to all pettifogging bureaucracy. Like the Tube bombers before them, it isn’t their identities they wish to conceal, only their ambitions. ID cards voluntary? Don’t you believe it

ID database to continue to grow

2009-07-01T07:10:18Z

Labour in retreat as ID card plan is axed - Scotsman.com News THE government was accused of being "in chaos" last night after it all but abandoned its flagship identity card scheme. Not so fast - PR reports And yet Johnson is resolutely refusing to simply scrap the scheme, claiming that it would save little money to do so. That implies to me that the Identity Database, with the details of every UK resident, will still be operational and (one presumes) compulsary - although instead of relying on ‘applications for ID cards’ it will rely on consolidating data from passport applications, CRB checks and other sources. The Database will still come into being, and will still need to be populated with information about every citizen if it is to be any use at all. Given that this aspect, rather than the plastic cards themselves, was the original concern of civil liberties campaigners, the announcement that the expensive cards themselves will not be compulsory could quickly appear to be spectacularly hollow.

Beyond Doubt

2009-07-01T07:06:09Z

EU Referendum raises a Bronx cheer "Today, international action on climate change is urgent and essential. Indeed, there can no longer be any debate about the need to act, because the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), of which I am chairman, has established climate change as an unequivocal reality beyond scientific doubt." Rajendra Pachauri, today in The Guardian. Watts Up With That? reminds us that: ... the statement that the following climate metrics “are progressing faster than was expected a few years ago” ; 1. “rising sea levels” NOT TRUE; e.g. see the University of Colorado at Boulder Sea Level Change analysis. Sea level has actually flattened since 2006. 2. “the increase of heat stored in the ocean” NOT TRUE; see Update On A Comparison Of Upper Ocean Heat Content Changes With The GISS Model Predictions. Their has been no statistically significant warming of the upper ocean since 2003. 3. “shrinking Arctic sea ice” NOT TRUE; see the Northern Hemisphere Sea Ice Anomaly from the University of Illinois Cyrosphere Today website. Since 2008, the anomalies have actually decreased.

Ballsing up the Education System

2009-07-01T06:56:35Z

'Licence to teach' to be required in schools - Telegraph To keep the licence, teachers have to demonstrate that they have "up-to-date skills and learning to be effective in the classroom". Mr Balls said: "This is not a problem we are addressing, although it may be that we will discover some teachers who do not make the grade and some who aren't relicensed." He said the licence will put teachers on a par with high-status professions including doctors and solicitors. So he is claiming he is introducing a system to cure a problem that doesn't exist - I gather he doesn't like being called a liar so I'm at a loss to explain his statement. And all it means is that teachers will join the thousands of other professionals collecting CPD points from seminars, podcasts and signing in for lunch at a crappy hotel just off junction 16 of the M4. ...parents will have the right to clear information about their child's schooling, closer involvement with their child's progress through a designated personal tutor and more influence over the school. Mr Balls said he believed legal action would be a last resort. He said the first port of call for concerns would be the school's governing body followed by appeals to outside agencies. "If a parent feels that the school's governing body, the local government Ombudsmen and the Secretary of State is not delivering, then in the end there is legal redress." Is that how Mr Balls addresses the problem of poor delivery of his fruit and veg? No, he takes his money elsewhere and starts shopping down the road. Immediate, effective and simple. Cut the bloody bureaucracyand just give the parents vouchers, problem solved and billions off the budget.

Hot Air Madness

2009-07-01T06:47:06Z

Wind Observation Map - Britain shows that locally the wind speed is 2mph, and that is measured at a hilltop aerodrome (Lynham), and it is similar across the whole country. That is a feature of very hot and very cold weather, the wind doesn't blow. So none of the expensive power generating whirlygigs will be working as a million fans and air conditioning units turn on this morning. So I'm pleased to note the BBC is reporting: Wind has the power to revolutionise the UK's electricity industry, according to a study published on Wednesday. Research from analysts Poyry says that the UK can massively expand wind power by 2030 without suffering power cuts or a melt-down of the National Grid. The cost of electricity would then be determined not by consumer demand, but by how hard the wind is blowing. When it is windy power will be so cheap that other forms of generation will be unable to compete, the report says. If the wind were to drop everywhere round the UK (as happened during the January high pressure cold snap), other generators would make their money by switching on back-up fossil fuel power stations for a very short time, charging extremely high prices, it predicts. The study bases its assumptions on current levels of subsidy. It concludes that thanks to the wind subsidy through the "Renewable Obligations Certificates" issued by regulator Ofgem, electricity prices would be negative if the wind were blowing hard. The study amplifies a recent paper from National Grid itself stating that a move towards wind power would not necessitate widespread investment in expensive back-up power plants fuelled by gas or coal. This is a key finding which helps remove one of the main barriers to the advance of wind (although some will remain sceptical). But it comes with a warning. Dr Hare said: "It will cost more. There is no such thing as cheap green power - that is a myth." The authors of a report from the Royal Society this week made the same point. But politicians are still reluctant to pass on this message to the public. Madness, sheer bloody madness. I need to invest in a diesel generator.

One for sorrow, two for joy ...

2009-06-30T08:45:56Z

Why we must protect magpies | Chris Packham | The Guardian ...the Songbird Survival Trust has called all bird lovers to arms. They want a magpie cull and they are not just asking farmers or gamekeepers to lock and load; they want everyone with a garden to use their legal right to kill these birds now, in their breeding season, leaving their chicks to starve in the nest. Well, as a lifelong and passionate birder, I'm not going to be signing up for the slaughter. The trust's reasoning comes down to the same old misinformed chestnut - that evil magpies are causing the decline in smaller songbirds. It's kneejerk ornithological racism, ignorant and counterproductive. It's true that some magpies prey on the nests of smaller birds during the breeding season, but this is for perhaps three or four months of the year and only affects young birds that are easily replaced. The magpies never kill the more valuable breeding adults (unlike cats, which do so 365 days a year). No predator would thrive by dramatically reducing its own food supply... So how could the trust get it so wrong? I can only assume that this fringe group is still clinging to outdated views built on a foundation of medieval superstition. Or maybe they understand a bit about Predator Prey Cycles, silly old medieval superstitions such as Lotka-Volterra equations and refinements there of. Mr Packham should stick to gurning to the camera.