Comments on: My fame has Tanked http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2008/02/29/my-fame-has-tanked/ I am an astronomer, writer, and skeptic. I likes reality the way it is, and I aims to keep it that way. My real name is Phil Plait, and I run the Bad Astronomy blog. Mon, 09 Nov 2009 05:41:47 -0600 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 hourly 1 By: kkjayne http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2008/02/29/my-fame-has-tanked/comment-page-1/#comment-73515 kkjayne Fri, 07 Mar 2008 21:46:43 +0000 http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2008/02/29/my-fame-has-tanked/#comment-73515 If they showed me the picture I'd know who you were... wouldn't catch me in a bikini though :D If they showed me the picture I’d know who you were… wouldn’t catch me in a bikini though :D

]]> By: DexX http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2008/02/29/my-fame-has-tanked/comment-page-1/#comment-73514 DexX Tue, 04 Mar 2008 06:31:25 +0000 http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2008/02/29/my-fame-has-tanked/#comment-73514 Dr Karl is a god, and if I possessed a uterus I would be working hard to have his babies. Dr Karl is a god, and if I possessed a uterus I would be working hard to have his babies.

]]> By: COX! http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2008/02/29/my-fame-has-tanked/comment-page-1/#comment-73513 COX! Tue, 04 Mar 2008 01:01:37 +0000 http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2008/02/29/my-fame-has-tanked/#comment-73513 There there buddy. I still love you. We also just missed Sydney mardi gras, it was a prime publicity spot! If you're ever around this way, you may not be able to score a free hotel room to trash but I have a fold out bed and a trashable dwelling you're more than welcome to! :D Stay Sharp There there buddy. I still love you.

We also just missed Sydney mardi gras, it was a prime publicity spot!

If you’re ever around this way, you may not be able to score a free hotel room to trash but I have a fold out bed and a trashable dwelling you’re more than welcome to! :D

Stay Sharp

]]> By: Buzz Parsec http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2008/02/29/my-fame-has-tanked/comment-page-1/#comment-73512 Buzz Parsec Sun, 02 Mar 2008 23:36:18 +0000 http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2008/02/29/my-fame-has-tanked/#comment-73512 David - I think you are either misunderstanding or misrepresenting what BA and the Berkeley guy were saying about wind power. It wasn't wind *power* but wind *farms* that seemed to be the issue. Apparently the Berkeley guy thinks the transmission loses from wind farms is too great for them to be economically viable, but point-of-use wind generators are another thing entirely. I disagree with this, at least in many circumstances. The local wind project I am most familiar with is the Cape Wind project to put several hundred windmills in Nantucket sound, off the south coast of Cape Cod. The wind farm would generate about 2/3 to 3/4 of the power currently used on Cape Cod. Most of the current power there is generated by a (coal, I think, but it may be oil) fired generator at the north end of the Cape Cod Canal, at the west end (base or shoulder if you think of the Cape as a flexed arm.) The wind farm would be closer to most of the Cape then the current generator, so the transmission losses should be significantly less. (Cape Cod is about 90 miles long, so the average place on the Cape would be 45 miles from the coal plant, but only 25 miles from the wind farm.) These distances may be too short to matter, the Berkeley guy may have been considering cases where the wind farms are hundreds of miles from the users, and traditional power plants are located right near them. This may be true for many locations but is quite wrong for many others. If wind power was only viable in a handful of locations in the world, it might be true that there wouldn't be enough economies of scale to make building wind generators, towers, turbine blades, the electronics needed to control them, train builders to put them up and maintenance people to maintain them, and so on would all be too expensive, but there are hundreds if not thousands of potential sites, and a market for thousands of towers, so this should be an issue. David – I think you are either misunderstanding or misrepresenting what BA and the Berkeley guy were saying about wind power. It wasn’t wind *power* but wind *farms* that seemed to be the issue. Apparently the Berkeley guy thinks the transmission loses from wind farms is too great for them to be economically viable, but point-of-use wind generators are another thing entirely.

I disagree with this, at least in many circumstances. The local wind project I am most familiar with is the Cape Wind project to put several hundred windmills in Nantucket sound, off the south coast of Cape Cod. The wind farm would generate about 2/3 to 3/4 of the power currently used on Cape Cod. Most of the current power there is generated by a (coal, I think, but it may be oil) fired generator at the north end of the Cape Cod Canal, at the west end (base or shoulder if you think of the Cape as a flexed arm.) The wind farm would be closer to most of the Cape then the current generator, so the transmission losses should be significantly less. (Cape Cod is about 90 miles long,
so the average place on the Cape would be 45 miles from the coal plant, but only 25 miles from the wind farm.)

These distances may be too short to matter, the Berkeley guy may have been considering cases where the wind farms are hundreds of miles from the users, and traditional power plants are located right near them. This may be true for many locations but is quite wrong for many others. If wind power was only viable in a handful of locations in the world, it might be true that there wouldn’t be enough economies of scale to make building wind generators, towers, turbine blades, the electronics needed to control them, train builders to put them up and maintenance people to maintain them, and so on would all be too expensive, but there are hundreds if not thousands of potential sites, and a market for thousands of towers, so this should be an issue.

]]> By: Kylie Sturgess http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2008/02/29/my-fame-has-tanked/comment-page-1/#comment-73511 Kylie Sturgess Sun, 02 Mar 2008 02:55:22 +0000 http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2008/02/29/my-fame-has-tanked/#comment-73511 Ah Phil. There was a wide range of nationalities interviewed. But you did get their attention though. Or maybe that was the bikini I was wearing that you couldn't see off camera... never mind. Maybe for the next vox pop I do for The TANK Vodcast... :) Ah Phil. There was a wide range of nationalities interviewed. But you did get their attention though.
Or maybe that was the bikini I was wearing that you couldn’t see off camera… never mind. Maybe for the next vox pop I do for The TANK Vodcast… :)

]]> By: Richard Saunders http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2008/02/29/my-fame-has-tanked/comment-page-1/#comment-73510 Richard Saunders Sat, 01 Mar 2008 23:49:57 +0000 http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2008/02/29/my-fame-has-tanked/#comment-73510 I think of Phil as a world leader! Well, he should be anyway. I think of Phil as a world leader! Well, he should be anyway.

]]> By: Lars Bruchmann http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2008/02/29/my-fame-has-tanked/comment-page-1/#comment-73509 Lars Bruchmann Sat, 01 Mar 2008 15:54:02 +0000 http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2008/02/29/my-fame-has-tanked/#comment-73509 Maybe all of us science geeks down under weren't at the beach? We were probably sitting in basements behind our computers or something! LOL. If I were on a beach surrounded by hot Aussie babes in bikinis I'd pretend not do know a darned thing about astronomy! I luv ya Phil but I need all the help I can get in that department. PS, any smart, pretty women feel free to write me!! ;) Maybe all of us science geeks down under weren’t at the beach? We were probably sitting in basements behind our computers or something! LOL. If I were on a beach surrounded by hot Aussie babes in bikinis I’d pretend not do know a darned thing about astronomy! I luv ya Phil but I need all the help I can get in that department. PS, any smart, pretty women feel free to write me!! ;)

]]>