This is how fast energy sources can change: from all horses but one automobile in the 1900 New York Easter Parade to all automobiles but one horse in the 1913 Easter Parade.
Source: U.S. National Archives
Tag Archives: horse
Actually, green solar power is winning
An article that dismisses without investigation the fastest growing industry in the world, solar power, after solar has become cheaper than any other energy source, is not a serious article.
Richard Smith wrote for Truthout 9 January 2014,
Green Capitalism: The God That Failed.
Sure,
there are lots of good points in there (such as we need a carbon tax,
but it’s not enough), but given that
only 90 companies account for 2/3 of GHG emissions
saying we can’t change that without crashing the world’s economy is
like saying we can’t deal with horse manure in cities in 1900 without
crashing the world’s economy, and
people did say things like that back then.
Most of the world’s oil and gas is used to produce power, so once we convert to solar and wind, we’ll have plenty of remaining petroleum for other uses such as lubrication.
Saying in 2014 that solar and wind can’t power the world is like
saying in 1994 that Continue reading
Buried under nine feet of manure: 19th century horse predictions
There is a big difference between the 19th century horse excrement
crisis and the current 21st century energy crisis,
similar as they may sound.
One was real.
The other is manufactured by the modern equivalent of stagecoach vendors.
Stephen Davies wrote for The Freeman 1 September 2004, The Great Horse-Manure Crisis of 1894,
In 1898 the first international urban-planning conference convened in New York. It was abandoned after three days, instead of the scheduled ten, because none of the delegates could see any solution to the growing crisis posed by urban horses and their output.
Continue reading
The problem did indeed seem intractable. The larger and richer that cities became, the more horses they needed to function. The more horses, the more manure. Writing in the Times of London in 1894, one writer estimated that in 50 years every street in London would be buried under nine feet of manure. Moreover, all these horses had to be stabled, which used up ever-larger areas of increasingly valuable land. And as the number of horses grew, ever-more land had to be devoted to producing hay to feed them (rather than producing food for people), and this had to be brought into cities and distributed—by horse-drawn vehicles. It seemed that urban civilization was doomed.
Georgia Power, nuclear buggy whip manufacturer
I think of Georgia Power more as like IBM when minicomputers came out. IBM built bigger mainframes. The Internet started to spread, and IBM pushed its own proprietary SNA network. (Remember SNA? I didn’t think so.) Then PCs came out, and IBM layoffs started….
Glenn Carroll wrote for Georgia Wand today, Georgia Power Stuck in a Nuclear Jam,
Everybody except for Georgia is jumping on the wind and solar bandwagon, but Georgia Power is side-lined in a nuclear jam like a horse-buggy manufacturer at the dawning of the Ford assembly line.
The white area on that map is for states that have no standards or goals for renewable energy.
Remember Georgia Power is the biggest part of its parent, The Southern Company, and the nuclear units at Plant Vogtle (operating and planned) are actually owned by another offshoot of The Southern Company. According to Southern Company’s webpage, Megawatts and Markets,
Southern Company regulated regional electric utilities serve a 120,000-square-mile territory in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, and Mississippi. Our competitive generation business extends to markets in six southeastern states.
It’s interesting how similar the Southern Company’s markets are to the states in that white southeast no-renewable-energy-portfolio area!
-jsq
I was hurt … from holding the loop stick while the pig pulled, jerked, and squealed out of pain —statement of Amanda Jordan
In this PDF of a statement of 5 May 2010 from
Amanda Jordan, she alleges inappropriate use of euthanasia,
improper boarding of horses, improper castration of a pig,
and resulting physical injury to an employee.
She asks for:
“I feel that some detailed financial, paperwork, and computer investigation should be conducted within the Lowndes County Animal Services office. Taxpayer’s dollars are spent to keep these animals of Lowndes County safe, and I’m sure if the citizens of Lowndes County were aware of some of these things they may be very hurt and disgusted with the Board of Commissioners for not making sure the right measures are being taken to do what is right for this office.”
Here is a transcription. -jsq
My Name is Amanda Jordan. From June 2005 to December 2007, I worked for the Lowndes County Board of Commissioners Office with the Animal Services Division. Linda Patelski was the director and my direct supervisor during that time. I enjoyed my job as a shelter attendant dearly. It was such a pleaser to see animals get adopted to new homes or returned to their owners if they were picked up by Animal Control officers.
As rewarding as it was, I also had other jobs that were not as pleasurable. Euthinizing animals were sometimes heartbreaking. While some animals were injured, sick, or feral, others were perfectly healthy and just needed a home. Due to the lack of space in the facility they had to be euthanized. I recall a full term pregnant female dog came into the office. Normally, this would be a reason to put a dog down due to the inability of space to house a mother dog and her puppies. Because this particular mother dog was some sort of small breed and her puppies expected to be small breed Linda Patelski (the director) decided we must keep these puppies for adoption. Even with the risk of diseases they were saved for the adoption room as other healthy dogs were put to sleep to accompany the space for the puppies. The shelter also hasContinue reading