The limits to protest

A couple of weeks ago I was arguing that we should deplore the increasing isolation of our rulers and suggesting that it could be a justification for other kinds of feedback to them.

The video above (from LiveLeak) is one: former general David Petraeus, going to lecture at the City University of New York, is being pursued by a shouting mob of students protesting his involvement in the Iraq war.

How far should this go, and for how long? At what point will viewers feel that the protestors no longer represent a voiceless cohort of the population and are then acting unreasonably, or rather too self-righteously? Should the students be allowed to continue in "every class", as they threaten?

If Simon Wiesenthal could pursue Nazi war criminals without  a time limit, should others feel empowered to hound those that they consider unpunished wrongdoers?

Is "it was all a long time ago" a sufficient excuse?

UPDATE (14:15): Coincidentally (I think), The Tap blog draws our attention to George Monbiot's "Arrest Blair" campaign. The site and its wording are carefully considered, not one of those wild and amateurish efforts.

All original material is copyright of its author. Fair use permitted. Contact via comment. Unless indicated otherwise, all internet links accessed at time of writing. Nothing here should be taken as personal advice, financial or otherwise. No liability is accepted for third-party content, whether incorporated in or linked to this blog; or for unintentional error and inaccuracy.

Global toilet quiz

How are you on lavatorial recognition these days? 

Can you place a toilet’s global location with no more than a cursory glance at a single photographic clue? Are you really that well-travelled?

The linked quiz below is multiple choice so you probably won’t score zero and some answers can be guessed anyway. 

Although come to think of it, toilets are no place for guesswork are they?

http://toys.usvsth3m.com/crapper-mapper/

All original material is copyright of its author. Fair use permitted. Contact via comment. Unless indicated otherwise, all internet links accessed at time of writing. No liability is accepted for third-party content, whether incorporated in or linked to this blog; or for unintentional error and inaccuracy.

5:95

An anecdote I heard years ago concerned prisoners of war captured by the Chinese in Korea.

When a new contingent was caught, the men were taken to an initial holding facility, officers not segregated but mixed with other ranks. Then they were all carefully watched, to see who showed any signs of initiative.

Only 5 per cent demonstrated get-up-and-go; these were put into small, heavily guarded units. The rest went into large, lightly patrolled POW camps.

A small minority starts everything, and if it's tightly co-ordinated, runs everything, for good or ill. So the challenge is how give rein to the good and restrain the bad - and who is going to do this?

Many of the 5 don't understand the 95. Some, judging by their own lights, fear competition and oppress people who generally wouldn't dream of challenging them anyway. For the same reason others set up schemes, imagining that the majority can't wait to take advantage of new opportunities, and then become irritated:"Why don't they get up off their backsides and do x?" Still others understand that there is a divide, and simply despise the 95 for not being like themselves.

We hope that someone among the five per cent will lead, yet understand and value the majority. We look for someone with heart.

All original material is copyright of its author. Fair use permitted. Contact via comment.

"Western secret services connived at the Syrian gas attack" - Voltaire Network

Why so few women victims? Why were the dead children not pictured with grieving parents? How were atrocity videos made before the events allegedly occurred?

See this article by Thierry Meyssan:

http://www.voltairenet.org/article180221.html

All original material is copyright of its author. Fair use permitted. Contact via comment. Unless indicated otherwise, all internet links accessed at time of writing. Nothing here should be taken as personal advice, financial or otherwise. No liability is accepted for third-party content, whether incorporated in or linked to this blog; or for unintentional error and inaccuracy. The blog author may have, or intend to change, a personal position in any stock or other kind of investment mentioned.

Frogs In Space

Pic: Yahoo News

Poor old frog. But Classic fm asked for frog-themed titles of science fiction movies and one wit suggested "I, Ribbit".*

*For non-fans of SF: see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I,_Robot_(film)

All original material is copyright of its author. Fair use permitted. Contact via comment. Unless indicated otherwise, all internet links accessed at time of writing.

Flywheel energy storage

 Beacon Power has updated the old idea of short-term energy storage via flywheels:-

Flywheel energy storage works by accelerating a cylindrical assembly called a rotor (flywheel) to a very high speed and maintaining the energy in the system as rotational energy. The energy is converted back by slowing down the flywheel. The flywheel system itself is a kinetic, or mechanical battery, spinning at very high speeds to store energy that is instantly available when needed.

The primary use at the moment appears to be frequency regulation for electricity generation, a well-known problem with wind and solar, especially solar. As Beacon Power says:-

To ensure a functional and reliable grid, the Independent System Operators (ISOs) that operate the various regional grids must maintain their electric frequency very close to 60 hertz (Hz), or cycles per second (50 Hz in Europe and elsewhere). When the supply of electricity exactly matches the demand (or "load"), grid frequency is held at a stable level. Grid operators, therefore, seek to continuously balance electricity supply with load to maintain the proper frequency. They do this by directing about one percent of total generation capacity to increase or decrease its power output in response to frequency deviations.

Not all generators can operate reliably in such a variable way. Changing power output causes greater wear and tear on equipment, and fossil generators that perform frequency regulation incur higher operating costs due to increased fuel consumption and maintenance costs. They also suffer a significant loss in "heat rate" efficiency and produce greater quantities of CO2 and other unwanted emissions when throttling up and down to perform frequency regulation services (my emphasis).

Flywheel storage technology must add substantial frequency regulation costs to wind and solar. In the case of wind in the UK, these are costs which its proponents have so far succeeded in spreading around elsewhere.

All original material is copyright of its author. Fair use permitted. Contact via comment. Unless indicated otherwise, all internet links accessed at time of writing. Nothing here should be taken as personal advice, financial or otherwise. No liability is accepted for third-party content, whether incorporated in or linked to this blog; or for unintentional error and inaccuracy. The blog author may have, or intend to change, a personal position in any stock or other kind of investment mentioned.

EU vs UK: an email to Mr Christopher Booker at the Sunday Telegraph

Dear Mr Booker

I should be very grateful for your, or your contacts', opinions re the authority of the EU over the UK. My MP, John Hemming, emailed me (22.03.2011) to say this, and I don't know how right he is:

"The EU has no power over parliament. In fact the Lisbon Treaty included a change for a provision to leave the EU. Parliament can simply refuse to incorporate EU law and in my view should be a bit more critical.

"People also get confused between the EU and the Council of Europe."

Is this correct? And if so, isn't Parliament the problem, rather than the EU?

Yours sincerely

All original material is copyright of its author. Fair use permitted. Contact via comment. No liability is accepted for third-party content, whether incorporated in or linked to this blog; or for unintentional error and inaccuracy.