Another idea.

I was watching "Waterworld" the other night. I'm rather enamored with the Mariner's trimaran (boat). I like the vertical axis wind turbine (VAWT) on the mast. But, just how would you do that?

Here's my thought.

You make something like a cross between a Darrieus turbine and a Gorlov Helical Turbine. In short, one of those twisted, multi-blade, egg-beater-looking turbines. Mount it with the central axis on the mast.

O.k. That leaves you with no way to put sails up. The blades will sweep into the area occupied by the main sail and any jib you may have.

Unless, of course, you build the blades of flexible material. Make the upper hub able to lower down the mast, bowing the blades outward into the wind, or rise up the mast, pulling the blades in flat, against the mast. This would give you a way to completely stow the blades, for those times when you want to use sails. It would also give you a way take the turbine out of the wind in gusty conditions, when the sudden gusts could overstress the mast or capsize the boat.

O.k. So, why would you WANT one of these on your boat? Well, if the bottom hub has a generator in it, it would provide a significant amount electricity when your sails are stowed and you are sitting at anchor/in port, etc. That would be a considerable amount MORE electricity than you'd get with a traditional wind turbine, mounted elsewhere on the hull.

I can imagine a boat with a couple "auxiliary/maneouvering screws" powered by electricity, with some batteries. Charge up the batteries while you're sitting at anchor, and use stored electricity to move in/out of port.

Depending on the efficiency of the whole system, and the swept area of the turbine, you might even be able to run the turbine and have it feed power to the screws for regular propulsion, if you are going to be changing course frequently and don't want to fight with the sails.

I'd be interested in hearing the thoughts of others, on this idea.

I had an idea, this last week.

We went on vacation, recently. While in Seattle, WA and Vancouver, BC, we saw plenty of electric busses. They have long poles on the back which hold up electric contacts, which connect with overhead catenaries (conductive, electrical wires) to provide current. Plenty of people complain about what an eyesore those cables are. Additionally, since the busses can only go where the wires go, the routes are kinda limited. It's a bit like a cross between electrically-driven light rail and traditional bus service. The electric busses can only go where the catenaries go, but they don't have the added expense of building rails.

So, what if you could make a bus which only occasionally needed connectivity to recharge?

The bus drives around on normal city streets. Occasionally, it pulls into a bus stop and, while passengers are loading and unloading, it puts a contact up or down, connects with electrical power and rapidly recharges. I could see two ways to do this:

1. the bus has a pantograph on the roof, which extends up to an overhead catenary, which is only found at select bus stops
2. the bus puts a "foot" down onto the ground, which sits on top of a inductive charging device (like the "paddles" used on the EV-1, only much larger); this transfers a significant amount of current, even when wet, without the possibility of electrocution, so it can be built into the road

There would be a limited number of charging points, so there would still be some limitations on routes, but not nearly as much as a bus which needed a constant electrical supply. Minimal eyesores, as well. The latter could be built into the road, keeping the overheard area completely clear.

Various companies are working with ways to make high-charge-rate (and high-discharge-rate) batteries, and there are always supercapacitors, but I'm thinking of running a pump to build up hydraulic pressure, then run the bus as a hydraulic hybrid. If you could get enough hydraulic capacity to cover 5 miles of level ground, you could hit quite a few stops without needing much more infrastructure than a traditional, diesel-powered bus. And yet, you wouldn't have the pollution of the diesel-powered bus. Instead of waiting on new technologies which are still under development or under limited production (the aforementioned batteries and supercaps), hydraulic hybrid systems tend to use off-the-shelf parts.

This idea could be extended further to light-rail systems. Since steel wheels on steel rails have less rolling resistance than rubber tires on pavement, a given amount of hydraulic storage would go further in a light-rail system. Also, since the vehicles tend to be larger, they would (presumably) have more room for hydraulic storage.

For either bus or light-rail, the pantograph would seem to be the better idea. If you want either vehicle to be able to recharge without stopping, you could put in a short distance of electric catenary (say 1/4 mile) and the vehicle could contact it while in motion. You don't have to be stopped to use that system, unlike the inductive charger.

Imagine a hydraulic hybrid bus, without an actual engine on board. It would have an electrically-powered pump, but the electricity would come from outside sources.

I'd like to see that happen.

There are many like it, but this one is mine.

Montag Weatherwire
04 December in the year of our Lord, 2007

Snow is falling in Arlington, VA NOW! Hurry, get on the METRO, get to your cars, drive on the sidewalks, run over trash cans, BUY ALL OF THE MILK, BREAD AND TOILET PAPER THAT YOU CAN!

Then abandon your vehicles in the most disruptive locations possible, like major intersections!

This has been a public service of Guy Montag, humanitarian.

How friggin dare anyone out there make fun of Hillary after all she has been through. She lost her free house, she went through an impeachment. She has one friggin kid. Her husband turned out to be a user, a cheater, and now shes going through a political battle. All you people care about is..... readers and making money off of her. SHE'S A HUMAN! What you don't realize is that Hillary is making you all this money and all you do is write a bunch of crap about her. She hasn't performed on stage in days. Her song is called "give me more" for a reason because all you people want is MORE MORE MORE MORE MORE. LEAVE HER ALONE! You are lucky she even performed for you BASTARDS! LEEEAVE HILLARY ALLLLLONE!.....Please. Paris Hilton talked about professionalism and said if Hillary was a professional she would've pulled it off no matter what. Speaking of professionalism, when is it professional to publically bash someone who is going through a hard time? Leave Hillary Alone Please.... Leave Hillary Clinton alone...right now! I mean it. Anyone that has a problem with her you deal with me, beacuse she is not well right now. leave her alone!

Original here.

Today is the 44th anniversary of the event that inspired the Seinfeld episodes featuring Keith Hernandez.

An interesting article on what might have happened to the Iraqi WMD program and the Syrian connection.

Vida Gym Ron Paul Shirt - m4m - 30 (Downtown)

Check it out before the posts die.

I am certainly one to pick on the Paulaholics, but this is just too much and too stupid.

Hat tip to Wonkette.

So, the Honorable Mrs. Clinton has been "swiftboated"? In my book, it means that a liar has been brought to-rights, but okay.

She also serially flip-flopped on the same ILLEGAL immigrant issue .5 dozen times in a few days? She was for it, before she was against it THREE TIMES?

Her underlings put on notice the next questioner, Wolf Blitzer, not to "pull a Russert"?

Mrs. Clinton is the Honerable John Kerry, in pants.
QED

Excellent post. Just click through, no one quote does the whole thing justice.

Ron Paul spent the same amount of time in Vietnam as did George Bush.

Too much background to get into on this, but the letter should stand on it's own. A chick I went out with a couple of times, who went from a Euro Hawk to surrender monkey on a dime. Names have been deleted to protect the monkey.

I am doing fine, same as I was last I wrote.

Hope you work out that house thing and whatever else you have going on.

Perhaps those of us who take the world seriously will stop the attacks on civilization before the insurgents are at the gates of Vienna again, in spite of those who find it to be an inconvenience to their sensibilities.

Good luck to you and please send my love and appreciation to your daughter who is serving all of humanity in the most noble effort of our lives.

The DC metrorail crisis on 6 NOV 2007 was a stark reminder on how Nature is fighting back on human encroachment into her territory.

Nature made a valiant attempt at stopping the US Military Industrial Establishment by closing the Pentagon metrorail station through a primitive use of smoke. Yes, simple smoke, from the leaves of trees that were scattered across the electrified tracks in a coordinated effort with the wind.

Not since the assassinations of Senator Sonny Bono and a Kennedy in 1998 have we seen Nature express her displeasure at the violation of her most private regions as we have seen lately.

Even in a stump speech, Senator Hillary Clinton has noted the Assassination by Nature of millions in retaliation of the theft of oil from Mother Nature's most private areas.

Who does Nature have in her sights next? Greenpiece? NATO? London? It is anybody's guess as Nature is the most secretive of foes to annoy. One can not waterboard or drug nature into revealing her next attack, one can only wait and hope to survive.

Update 11 NOV 2007: Looks like someone else came up with this phrase a few days before my post.

Just saw this is "green week" or something and thought of the ultimate Segway modification: replace batteries with a Honda generator for the "ultimate" hybrid. Burn ethenol in it if you want!

Via The Corner at The National Review Online:

Refighting the Pacific War? [Mark Krikorian]

Gen. Paul Tibbets, pilot of the Enola Gay, that dropped the bomb on Hiroshima, has died. He "had requested that there be no funeral or headstone, fearing it would give his detractors a place to protest." Detractors? Protest? He helped win the war and -- oh, by the way -- saved hundreds of thousands, maybe millions, of lives (both American and Japanese), but the left-wingers couldn't stand the fact that he wasn't a self-hater like them. Because, as he said, "I sleep clearly every night." You go on sleeping clearly, general.

Too bad he didn't go to law school, because I'd rather have a man like Tibbets on the Supreme Court rather than Justice John Paul Stevens, who recently told an interviewer that he was "troubled" by the fact there was "so little apparent deliberation or humanitarian consideration" before deciding to kill Adm. Yamamoto in 1943 -- the head of the Japanese navy and architect of the Pearl Harbor attack. Humanitarian consideration? We're supposed to wring our hands before killing an enemy commander, on a warplane, in the middle of a war? I don't follow closely the sophistries of the Supreme Court, but if this is the quality of the man's reasoning, no wonder we're in such trouble.

11/01 11:21 PM