Wind Power Is Cheapest Energy, EU Analysis Finds

There's an interesting article in The Guardian that doesn't seem to be getting much play here in the States. It seems that a study was done on the cheapest way to generate power and guess what wins. Onshore wind farms. Here's a quote from the piece...

"The paper, which was written for the European commission by the Ecofys consultancy, suggests that the Conservative party plan of restricting new onshore windfarms will mean blocking out the cheapest source of energy when environmental and health facts are taken into consideration. It has been suggested the Tory plan could be done through a cap on onshore wind turbines’ output, lower subsidies or tighter planning restrictions."

The report says that for every megawatt hour of electricity generated, onshore wind costs roughly $137, compared to gas and coal which can cost up to around $209 and $297 per megawatt hour. Nuclear power, offshore wind and solar energy are all comparably inexpensive generators, at roughly $160 per megawatt hour.

Now, I guess the political battle will heat up as this could mean that traditional energy industries will be seen as less and less cost effective.

Not that it will make any difference to our Congress.

Fun Time! 480 Star Wars Fans Made This Shot-for-Shot Remake Of The Empire Strikes Back!

Schooling The World

If you wanted to change an ancient culture in a generation, how would you do it? You would change the way it educates its children.

New Evidence Lost Civilizations Really Existed

I have often wondered why man has existed on Earth for perhaps a half million years and we've only risen to be a highly technological civilization in the last two hundred.

Here is an interesting article that gives some background on research being done that points to the strong possibility that humans developed high civilization tens of thousands of years ago and it was wiped out, leaving the remainder of humanity the long task of rebuilding.

A few intriguing quotes from the article,,,,,

'"Everything we’ve been taught about the origins of civilization may be wrong. Old stories about Atlantis and other great lost civilizations of prehistory, long dismissed as myths by archaeologists, look set to be proved true.'~ Danny Natawidjaja, PhD, senior geologist with the Research Centre for Geotechnology at the Indonesian Institute of Sciences."

"Since 2011, Dr. Natawidjaja and his team have worked on a geological survey site in Indonesia about 100 miles from the city of Bandung."

"What Natawidjaja discovered at Gunung Padang was astounding. The hill was actually not a natural hill but a 300-ft high step-pyramid. And what’s even more controversial is that the structure was much older than anyone imagined. Natawidjaja radiocarbon dated the terrace structures at around 500 to 1,500 BC, similar to previous estimates. He also used tubular drills to bring up cores of earth and stone from various depths underneath the surface megaliths. As the drills dug deeper, Natawidjaja continued to discover that the columnar basalt structures extended far beneath the surface and yielded much older dates. At depths of 90 feet and more, the material was found to be 20,000 BC to 22,000 BC years old. Using radiocarbon dating, Natawidjaja and his team proved that man-made megalithic structures and hence a prehistoric human civilization existed well into the Ice Age."

And if you have two and a half hours to spare, here is a video that talks about the man-made structures of the southern coast of Japan, that have been submerged for at least ten-thousand years.

Travel Photo of the Week

Santiago, Chile

Huge Timber Frame Barn Raising In Canada

3D Printed Fungus Foods

This is a whole new take on grow-your-own food! Dutch designer Chloé Rutzerveld has modified a desktop 3D printer to print bite size morsels of food made from multiple ingredients that has living edible plants growing from them.

Her project, called Edible Growth, prints a biscuit that starts with a base created from dried fruits or vegetables, nuts or a gelatinous paste made from algae. The base material is saturated with micro-organisms: varieties of yeast, bacteria, fungi, seeds and sprouts. The yeasts and bacteria are live cultures and alter the base in both flavor and texture and offers probiotic benefits. It whole thing then takes about five days to be ready to eat.

I have no idea why people are trying to use current technology to "synthesize" substitutes for the foods we are already accustomed to, when there is a whole new landscape of choices open to us that emerging technologies can provide.

The result looks very interesting and reports say it tastes pretty good. For more information click HERE.

Mind-Controlled Prosthetics Are Ready For Real Life

For more information click HERE.

Fun Time! The Physics Of Space Battles!

The Strati Is The World's First 3D Printed Car