More Traveling Thoughts

The visit to Dalry today was fairly short, but I was thinking of stopping at Blackcraig Wind Farm Site to take a photo, yet though I drove past it twice, I saw no signs of activity, save only that the nearest house (with a big “Ban the Big Wind Turbines” sign) has been sold. Nothing at all to show where it was, though I was driving along the bottom border, and so maybe next time I’ll try the top. There were only some belted Galloways grazed uncaring to my curious glance. If the site had been up (it will hold 23 turbines at 3.0 MW apiece) today then the power meters would have been spinning. While it was beautiful looking out, when you stepped out the wind was, in local parlance “brisk.” (Though it may well be back to snow by the end of the week). And, for those nerds among us, I did stop by James Clerk Maxwell’s grave, which is in Parton, just south of New Galloway on the bottom of the map.

Maxwell's grave at Parton.


Reading the European press gives a little different viewpoint, than that picked up from the Midwest; I had been impressed by the idea of Chancellor Merkel in Germany to subsidize the purchase of new cars. Basically the government will give an incentive to those trading in cars more than nine years old, both incentivizing the economy and reducing carbon dioxide emissions. But now the Aotomotive Distribution Federation in the UK has come out against the idea. It seems that because most cars in the UK are imported, the policy (which is being viewed favorably by the government) won’t help British manufacturers, but will rather hurt the distributors, that are currently kept employed repairing the old clunkers. Except that, talking to one of my dealer friends, folks aren’t doing more than the absolute minimum to keep their cars on the road at the moment. And so far the idea has not caught on in the States. Even though, in Germany, it seems to be a great success already with sales up 21%. The incentive is a 2,500 euro payment. There are also some in the States that would be strongly opposed.

Oh, I see that there is another claim to do cold fusion, I think I’ll stop there, for tonight.

We should be back on schedule by the weekend.