Posted on 03/08/2010 9:25:50 PM PST by JLS
Zamboni make the ice resurfacing carts that are a familiar sight at any hockey game, and also at any number of Winter Olympics Turin, Salt Lake, Nagano and way back into the past. But the company has been frosted out at Vancouver. Instead, the ice resurfacing is being done by what are called electric Zambonis. Zamboni is a bit like Hoover and Aspirin - its become a generic term and it turns out the electric Zambonis are not Zambonis at all, but manufactured by a company called Olympia that landed the contract because the Vancouver organizers were determined that 2010 should be the Green Olympics.
In the mens 500-meter speed-skating at Richmond, all three of Olympias electric Zambonis brought on to smooth out the ice failed. If anything, they made the ruts and bumps worse. It looked like one of those Obama-stimulus scarified repaving jobs out there. Those of us who do a little backwoods skating on North Country ponds and lakes know the damage you can do to yourself hitting a ridge even at low speed. So you dont want to run into one at 40 miles per hour. The cameras and microphones caught furious coaches from the Netherlands to China expressing their disgust to officials at the amateurishness of the Vancouver organizers. The event was delayed, and the American skater Shani Davis eventually withdrew, not wanting to jeopardize his chances of a Gold in the thousand meters by taking a spill on the 500 meters scarified ice. You train for years, you build your entire life to this one moment, and then the politically correct eco-gimmick screws you over. Officials attempted to reassure coaches and skaters that a non-electric Zamboni would be flown in from Calgary to prevent further delays.
(Excerpt) Read more at steynonline.com ...
Vapor barriers should be installed with fear and trembling. What happens depends on the particular climate and building, but it’s often nothing good. “Absolute” vapor barriers like foil and poly sheeting are much more likely to cause problems.
Don’t get me wrong. Tight, well-insulated, well-ventilated structures are always best.
What causes problems is changing one or two elements and not working thru how they will affect everything else. Change one part of any system and it can affect other parts, often in unpredictable ways.
I’ve seen beautiful century-old victorian homes that had been neglected for decades but despite this were still structurally sound begin to literally rot away within two years of being refurbished, insulated and caulked.
Mark Steyn is brilliant. He’s also one of the funniest people I’ve ever read or heard. He has a wonderful sense of the ridiculous that he uses to pour cold water over the leftists’ ideas.
The best possible proof of your assertion is Green Mountain Energy -- a Texas wind energy firm founded by the Wyly Brothers.
Green Mountain Energy runs a windfarm or two out in West Texas, which feed into the grid. Since Texas is a deregulated state, Green Mountain thus has the right to sell energy to any customer in the state.
Since "green" is "good", Green Mountain's rates are the highest in the state. Nonetheless, the enviro-conscious sign up to pay a higher utility bill -- because it's good for Mother Earth (and their own self-esteem).
Green Mountain has been so successful that, in fact, they sell more electricity than they generate.
Where does this additional electricity come from? They buy it from conventional power producers -- at its wholesale cost. Then, they sell it at their inflated "green" cost.
In my opinion, this makes the Wyly Brothers "smart operators". But what does it make their customers...???
It’s like the Prius buyers who poison the environment with their batteries.
Like Wile E. Coyote who can never catch the Roadrunner?
“What causes problems is changing one or two elements and not working thru how they will affect everything else.”
There was a class action lawsuit some years back about a kind of “stucco” that supposedly could be applied to your home sealing everything and never need painting. Unfortunately nothing “breathed” and there were many problems when applied to homes in damp climates.
Illustrating (once again) that one size does not fit all and that cetralization and top down decision making is bound to fail or as Thomas Sowell says: experts don’t have as much information as all the rest of us.
I’d also have to ask how the heck they managed to get themselves in this middleman position. Why couldn’t I just create a virtual entity that generates no electricity and be a middleman too? I could even make it sound nice by saying 5% of the proceeds are donated to breast cancer research (or whatever).
You've got to put something into the grid before you sell anything out of it.
There are several producers who built just a single power plant so they could compete in the entire Texas market.
Bizarre. I wheel in my Coleman generator and there I am.
What you're (probably) talking about is EIFS (Exterior Insulation and Finishing System).
Its story is complicated. It was developed in Europe for refinishing masonry buildings and then brought to the US and installed over frame buildings, a classic example of changing one element in a system without thinking thru the possible consequences.
In its original form it tended to cause major problems if not installed absolutely perfectly, which of course it seldom was.
The newer versions, which have a drainable air space between the stucco and the sheathing, take these factors into account and actually work beautifully. But of course the whole idea has been tainted by the problems caused by the original problems.
Yes. I think that is what it was. And I do think it illustrates my point which is that while something worked well in some conditions universal application may not be a good idea.
Thanks for reminder I’d forgotten what it was called.
Let’s not let the communists ruin another good color.
First they stole blue, now green.
Green is good when measured in Greenbacks.
Otherwise it is simply a euphemism for red, communist red.
Of course, I agree with your implication about Green Mtn's customers. More proof that P. T. Barnum was correct.
Shh. This is also why free trade is “green,” but don’t tell the Ludites on the left or those here for that matter. It is always “greenest” to make things the most efficient way, ie the way that uses up the fewest resources. That is one thing that free trade promotes.
Actually...it is the Free Traders that are heavily whacked into the Green scheme. Al Gore, the biggest Global Warming hoaxster....is also a Free Trader (he was the point man to pass NAFTA in the 90’s)
Just about all your Global Warming kooks are Free Traders. It is no coincidence that Globalism (Free Trade) and Global Warming all belong to the same Global agenda. And both are pushed and monitored by the United Nations
You Free Traders are the ones subsidizing the Global Warming kooks. Do away with Free Trade/Globalism....and the Global Warming hoax loses its funding. Liberal Free Trader Globalists and Global Warming kooks are cut from the same cloth
Sorry but nut jobs are all over the place. A few warmist nut jobs like Gore sometimes give lip service to free trade, but the hard core nuts in the warmist movements are anti corporation, anti free trade nuts too. There are a few anti free trade nuts here who claim not to be warmists, but my view is a nut is a nut is a nut, scratch one and you might find a truther, you might find an anti capitalist, you might find anti protectionists, but they are all cut from the same cloth.
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