Utopia, you are standing in it!

Delivering a thumping, grinding, mechanical cacophony, industrial wind turbines drive neighbours nuts. But, as a recent study from Flinders University in South Australia has found, there’s a reason why wind turbine noise is so much worse after dark.

The pulsing, thumping nature of wind turbine noise – which relates to blades passing the tower – is referred to as ‘amplitude modulation’ (AM). And it’s the peaks and troughs in sound pressure levels that makes living with wind turbine noise a daily misery for thousands around the world.

But changes in humidity, temperature, atmospheric pressure, wind speed and direction all have a part to play in how the wind industry’s victims get to experience AM in the range of other unnatural noises generated by these things.

Over the last four years, Dr Kristy Hansen and her PhD candidate Duc Phuc Nguyen have been researching the complex nature of the noise from…

Thomas Sowell is a great economist, but his expertise extends to other fields of study. Everything from history to education.

But he’s also famous for being a great communicator, with dozens of well-known quotes.

I use one of them on my rotating banner because it succinctly summarizes why the left has to rely on emotional appeals rather than rigorous evidence.

For purposes of today’s column, I want to cite one of his other quotes, this one dealing with the fact that tradeoffs are an inevitable reality.

Simply stated, if you want more of one thing, you have to accept less of another thing.

And this has important implications for regulatory policy – especially about the value of cost-benefit analysis.

Let’s look at two examples.

First, here’s the abstract from a study by Jordan Nickerson from MIT and David Solomon from Boston College.

Since 1977, U.S. states have…

At Christmas 1085, William ordered the compilation of a survey of the landholdings held by himself and by his vassals throughout his kingdom, organised by counties. It resulted in a work now known as the Domesday Book. The listing for each county gives the holdings of each landholder, grouped by owners. The listings describe the holding, who owned the land before the Conquest, its value, what the tax assessment was, and usually the number of peasants, ploughs, and any other resources the holding had. Towns were listed separately.

All the English counties south of the River Tees and River Ribble are included, and the whole work seems to have been mostly completed by August 1, 1086, when the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle records that William received the results and that all the chief magnates swore the Salisbury Oath, a renewal of their oaths of allegiance. William’s exact motivation in ordering the survey…

Today marks the 80th anniversary of the start of the siege of Leningrad.

The Siege of Leningrad was one of the deadliest and most destructive sieges in the history of the world – quite possibly the deadliest ever. It would last for 872 days, and there would be more than a million Soviet civilian casualties, plus another million Soviet military casualties and half a million German casualties.

The effect of the siege on the city was devastating . Food shortages were chronic, deaths from starvation, disease and cold were constant and cannibalism occurred throughout the years of the siege. The number of deaths in Leningrad was the single largest loss of life ever known in a modern city.

The Soviets managed to break the siege on 18 January 1943 by opening a narrow land corridor, but it would not be fully lifted until 27 January 1944 when they managed to…

‘[Dr Livingstone] left an obligation on the civilised nations of Europe and America, as the shepherds of the world, to extend their care and protection over the oppressed races of Africa.’
(Henry Morton Stanley in his obituary of Livingstone published in the Graphic magazine, 1873)

Expeditions covered in the second half of the book

• Stanley’s expedition to find Livingstone, 1871 to 1872
• Livingstone’s final expedition, 1872 to 1873
• Stanley’s great expedition across Africa from East to West, 1874 to 1879
• Stanley working for King Leopold II of Belgium, 1879 to 1885
• The Emin Pasha Relief Expedition, 1886 to 1889

This is the third version of the meeting between Welsh workhouse boy-turned-American journalist Henry Morton Stanley and famous Scottish missionary and explorer Dr David Livingstone which I have read, and arguably the most effective.

This is because, in the preceding chapter (chapter 18) Jeal had given a clear and vivid description…

Next week MPs debate the Dissolution and Calling of Parliament Bill, which seeks to repeal the Fixed-term Parliaments Act (FTPA) and revive the former prerogative power of dissolution. Meg Russell, Gavin Phillipson and Petra Schleiter, all of whom gave evidence to the parliamentary committees considering FTPA repeal, argue that the government’s bill is flawed. It seeks to keep the courts out of dissolution decisions, but risks drawing them in, and risks politicising the role of the monarch. Removing the House of Commons power over when a general election is held, and returning it to the Prime Minister, would be a retrograde step.

On 13 September, MPs debate the remaining stages of the government’s Dissolution and Calling of Parliament Bill, which seeks to repeal the Fixed-term Parliaments Act 2011 (FTPA) and revive the former prerogative power of dissolution. Three parliamentary committees have considered FTPA repeal, to which all of…

In previous post, I left off concluding that the displacement of nuclear by natural gas will increase emissions. This based on the notion that displacing a low emission power source by one with a higher emissions will logically result in more emissions.

The big question is of course by how much? Not all nuclear capacity will be replaced by natural gas and solar and wind capacity will increase. To summarize, this is the change that is proposed:

• Solar/PV: from 4787.56 MW now to 11 GWp by 2030
• Wind
  • Offshore wind: from 2,254.4 MWp now to 4,000 GWp by 2030
  • Onshore wind: from 2,578.809 MWp now to 3,500 GWp by 2030
• Natural gas: from 5,300 MW now to 5,600 MW
• Nuclear: from 6,000 MW now to 0 MW.

Although the needed capacity of dispatchable power decreases very slowly compared the rapidly increasing peak production, the total amount of electricity produced by…

Elizabeth I(September 7, 1533–March 24, 1603)wasQueen of EnglandandIrelandfrom November 17, 1558 until her death in 1603. Sometimes calledthe Virgin Queen,GlorianaorGood Queen Bess, Elizabeth was the last of the five monarchs of theHouse of Tudor.

Elizabeth was the daughter ofHenry VIIIandAnne Boleyn, his second wife, who was executed when Elizabeth was 2 1/2 years old. Anne’s marriage to Henry VIII was annulled, and Elizabeth was declared illegitimate. Her half-brotherEdward VIruled until his death in 1553, bequeathing the crown toLady Jane Greyand ignoring the claims of his two half-sisters, theRoman CatholicMaryand the younger Elizabeth, in spite ofstatute law to the contrary.

Edward’s will was set aside which did not have the consent of Parliament. Mary became queen, thwarting the attempted usurping of the crown by John Dudley, 1st Duke of NorthumberlandKG(1504– 1553) who unsuccessfully tried to installLady Jane Grey on the throne.

During Mary’s reign, Elizabeth…