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Last updated on August 8th, 2017 at 12:35 pm
French darkeneurs plan an electricity-free earth-saving experiment:
We are asked to switch off all electricity from 7.55pm until 8pm on February 1 by L’Alliance pour la Planète, a grouping of 72 environmental organisations which includes the World Wildlife Fund, Greenpeace and the Nicolas Hulot association. This is a call for a nationwide five-minute respite for the planet, and is intended to draw attention to citizens’ concern about energy consumption.
Don’t do themselves any favours with their advertising, do they? The only illumination during this period will be courtesy of French youths. Sydney folk may be annoyed; France’s five-minute Gore prayer scoops local darkening plans by more than a month.
- I wonder if the effect of this little stunt would even be measurable by the French power companies’ equipment?Posted by rinardman on 2007 01 21 at 12:01 PM • permalink
- You know France, don’t you? Lowest electricity prices in Europe and the most nuclear power plants. Holland—most expensive electricity in Europe and the most wind “power” (if you’ll forgive the oxymoron).Posted by andycanuck on 2007 01 21 at 12:11 PM • permalink
- If they left it off for five days, maybe some of the useless imbecils would freeze to death in the dark.Posted by Harry Bergeron on 2007 01 21 at 12:33 PM • permalink
- The Environmental Left – doing their bit to make the whole world look like North Korean from space.
How progressive.
Posted by rick mcginnis on 2007 01 21 at 12:37 PM • permalink
- Is that supposed to be the “Just kidding!” guy from Airplane?Posted by Spiny Norman on 2007 01 21 at 12:37 PM • permalink
- #6 rick mcginnis
Unlike rational people, they look at that image, not with pity and disgust, but with admiration, as if the “improverished repressive police state” is something to aspire to.
Posted by Spiny Norman on 2007 01 21 at 12:42 PM • permalink
- THis guy in the ad looks like a madman. Maybe he is standing in a tub of water about to give himself some homemade electric shock therapy.
Its these little stunts..“everyone turn off your lights for 5 minutes” that lets me know
I am not dealing with serious people.
Below is one of the great useless stunts of all times!
- Five minutes? Wow, how will they ever last that long? And what if some lunatic gets all risky and goes for 10?
I mean, think of the children. . .
Posted by tabitharuth on 2007 01 21 at 01:00 PM • permalink
- To think that this crowd regards itself as intellectually superior to the rest of us.
Even if everyone did shut down useage, the plant still runs and its potential remains.
The power grid of France, bieng largely nuclear, is one of the most admirable aspects of that nation.
So, if these arent “No-Nukes” types, just what are they trying to save (even though they couldnt save anything anyway no matter what the source)?
Fools.
- #7 Spiny Norman, yes, that’s him! That would be the late Stephen Stucker in one of the funniest scenes in one of the funniest movies ever. There’s a screen grab of that scene at the link.
- How many Renaults can you burn in five minutes?Posted by richard mcenroe on 2007 01 21 at 02:11 PM • permalink
- Thomas, in #12, you said:
The power grid of France, bieng largely nuclear, is one of the most admirable aspects of that nation.
There’s an error in that comment. Don’t forget, PIMF!!!! But here’s a suggested correction for future reference:
The power grid of France, bieng largely nuclear, is one of the
mostfew admirable aspects of that nation.Posted by The_Real_JeffS on 2007 01 21 at 02:40 PM • permalink
- PS:
Yes, I saw the “bieng” in #12. That’s a typo, not a mistake.
/leftie redefinition mode
Posted by The_Real_JeffS on 2007 01 21 at 02:42 PM • permalink
- I know that France has a standard of living about 2/3rds that of the US now, but in France do they have things like clocks, thermostats or Tivos that are kind of unpleasant to take offline? (You have to unplug, too, because most things pull a little current at all times.) It would take a half hour (at least) to shut down all those devices, and for five minutes? Ah, to hell with that.
Don’t they have power outages there to remind them of how crappy things are without electricity? One snowstorm we went 72 hours. Try *that*, French losers, you might miss civilization (even as you know it).
Posted by Matt in Denver on 2007 01 21 at 02:52 PM • permalink
- Only a GlobAL GOREminger can have the miniature-sized brain required to dream up this stunt.
#2
“You know France, don’t you? Lowest electricity prices in Europe and the most nuclear power plants. Holland—most expensive electricity in Europe and the most wind “power” (if you’ll forgive the oxymoron).”
Yes, and when the wind doesn’t blow fast enough, where do you think the Dutch get their power from?
If you guessed “from the nukes of France” you would be correct.
Actually the “most wind power” prize (as a percent of total power generation) is in the hands of Denmark, but the same thing happens when there’s no wind. They buy it from their neighboring countries, using conventional and nuclear. If Denmark were an isolated country (think isolated island), they would be forced to have about the same amount of conventional power generation ready (actually idling in what it’s called a “spinning reserve”) just in case the Gods of the Winds decide to take a collective break.
In absolute terms, Germany generates more wind power than any other country in the world. This is the current lineup: Germany, Spain, USA, India, Denmark, Italy, UK, China, Netherlands (Holland)…
Posted by ElectronPower on 2007 01 21 at 03:01 PM • permalink
- o/t, but I’m so totally pissed-off by the decision of the organisers of Sydney’s Big Day Out to ban the Oz flag as a “symbol of hate” I just have to mention it here.
If the commenters on this site can’t rip ‘em a new one, nobody can!Posted by Crusader-Rabbit on 2007 01 21 at 03:09 PM • permalink
- Another excuse for the French to refrain from having a clean. There must be quite a few happy French now.Posted by Andrew Ian Dodge on 2007 01 21 at 03:16 PM • permalink
Further to my astonishment that it’s snowing, is that the snow tonight will be covered in a thickish layer of ice.
Please tell me you’re not in Cincinnati, too. Because a coating of ice will make tomorrow’s drive just f%$%#ing ducky.
Posted by Rob Crawford on 2007 01 21 at 04:05 PM • permalink
- OT Good to see some at OUR ABC are finally admitting their long denied position. Now for the rest of the staff like Kerry O’Brien and comrades to do the same.Posted by curious george on 2007 01 21 at 04:13 PM • permalink
- If they were really serious about giving the planet a respite, they’d all go 5 minutes without oxygen.Posted by Jim Treacher on 2007 01 21 at 04:23 PM • permalink
- Barking mad would be an accurate description of those who conceived of this stunt.
Some Polish scientists describe them as “European Retards”.
While one is on a Frankish run, Napoleon is reputed to have said not to disturb the sleeping giant, (China). Well we nasty capitalist running dogs have, and be prepared for a deluge of chinese scientific papers pooh-poohing glowball worming in the next few years.
They have already rattled our cages but destroying one of their own weather satellites with a missile this week.
The reality is that China and India want our living standards, and if they for one instant thought that burning CO2 would really, really cause a climate disaster, they wouldn’t.
- #31 Louis
They have already rattled our cages but destroying one of their own weather satellites with a missile this week.Paul Sheehan in today’s SMH has startling info on this:- “Eleven days ago, without fanfare or comment of any kind, China ended the era of single superpower dominance by the US. It did so by shooting down one of its own satellites, a weather satellite stationed above Chinese airspace. It was destroyed by a large, medium-range ballistic missile, a KT-2, which was able to destroy a small target, about one metre square, sitting 870 kilometres above the Earth. The KT-2 has a range of more than 6000 kilometres, enough to hit any target in Asia”.
It also signals China’s capacity to target US satellites. China never fails to surprise. No wonder we’re falling over ourselves to be their friend.
- The fools!!
Les simplistes!!
80% of French electricity is generated by nuclear power plants. It will do nothing except create terrible problems for the electricity distribution system.
Posted by Wimpy Canadian on 2007 01 21 at 05:33 PM • permalink
- It is, of course, a political stunt. They’re hoping that a large proportion of the poulation will turn the lights off so they can say to the government “the people want
darknessto save the planet!”My bet is very few will turn off the lights, let alone the TV (towards the end of their favourite 7.30pm program, mind you), but there won’t be headlines about that.
- #25 They are not banning the Oz flag merely they wish to avoid “flags brandished aggressively”
Do the non-Oz flags get brandished lovingly?? How about the Ob oes and piccolos, how are they brandished?
Posted by Wimpy Canadian on 2007 01 21 at 05:44 PM • permalink
- #38 Bonmot
If the US had performed the same experiment, Sheehan (and hordes of his fellow travelers) would be denouncing the US for “weaponizing space”, but because it was the Chinese Communists, he’s gloating.
I think it’s clear which side he’s on.
Posted by Spiny Norman on 2007 01 21 at 05:54 PM • permalink
I’d hate to wind up with a bunch of brain-dead vegged out zombies that we had to take care of.
It’s France. Anybody left standing would just treat the volunteers like old folks during a heat wave.
Posted by Jim Treacher on 2007 01 21 at 06:09 PM • permalink
- It sounds like the Victorian Govt has their own plans for endarkenment.
- How far will governments take this idiocy?
Prompted by recent blackouts here in Victoria, Steve Bracks is on record as asking Victorians to consider ‘switching off’ air conditioners during hot days as a way of preserving energy.
Don’t you love that logic? Instead of working to provide more sources of energy to the public, Bracksy blames the public! Take this logic a few more steps, and we’d only be switching air conditioners off in the middle of winter, to save energy for those ‘summer months’.
Oh, and then there are the ads that try to scare Victorians into using less greenhouse gas.
- #42 Norman – I’ve always felt Sheehan to be conservative. He doesn’t adhere to a particular agenda (like lock-step group think lefty’s), he jumps around a bit with his views – but in the main, he’s conservative and in the main, I find I agree with him.
Try and get hold of his book ‘Barbarians at the Gates’ – it covers everything from left wing journalism to Muslim immigration. It should dispell any thoughts you have he is a lefty.
- I’m must be getting old. I can remember when the World Wildlife Fund had credibility and did good work. Now it is just as stunt driven as Greenpeace. Suppose hundreds of WWF and Greenpeace executives will jet into Paris for the event, spend a week in their air conditioned luxury hotels, eat, drink and be merry, and then fly out again having saved the planet.
- Correction:
I should have written “we’ll only be switching air conditioners on in the middle of winter, to save energy for those ‘summer months’.”
Also, I can’t recall what Bracks’ exact words were or the context of his statements; it was probably worded very carefully, so it would be hard to pin him down on what he said. If any of the astute Bracks-watchers out there could provide a link it would be most helpful!
- Isnt this just a sly way of increasing the birth rate?
After all isnt there usulally a spike in births following blackouts? Just what the world needs more fucking frenchmen…Posted by thefrollickingmole on 2007 01 21 at 06:47 PM • permalink
- OT, This signals the end of the world as we know it!!!Posted by thefrollickingmole on 2007 01 21 at 06:52 PM • permalink
- There is a very easy way to make this happen in France. Yell BANG very loudly and everyone will turn off all the lights and hide under their beds. 5 minutes later the country will be awash with white flags though.Posted by curious george on 2007 01 21 at 06:56 PM • permalink
- #50—Mole, I’ve got an off-topic of my own…but I don’t have a link…I LOVE this paragraph!
CHICAGO – Fantasy and reality merged into one on a blissful and snowy Sunday afternoon at Soldier Field as the Bears advanced to the Super Bowl for the first time in 21 years with a pulsating 39-14 victory over the New Orleans Saints in the NFC Championship Game.
Twenty one years ago tomorrow, our KID was born. Because I told her I had to be home for the SuperBowl so I could watch the Bears beat the Patriots (which they did…soundly). It’s been a helluva ride since then. The KID’s Daddy was a 3rd Class Petty Officer, I was a bitch…well, some things haven’t changed at all! Thanks for letting me butt in here, GO BEARS!!!
- Jacko’s back, baby! Only this time, instead of pimping the Energizers, he’s pulling the plug!Posted by Ed Driscoll on 2007 01 21 at 07:59 PM • permalink
- Ahh, just this once i wish I lived in France. At the appointed time I’d not only turn on everything with a power cord, but I’d be prepared with a powerful sub woofer and rattle the neighborhood with the most obnoxious American music I could think of.Posted by Shaky Barnes on 2007 01 21 at 08:46 PM • permalink
- China ended the era of single superpower dominance by the US.
Um, no.
The U.S., Russia, France, European Space Agency, Ukraine, Japan, Israel, and India all already have the ability to shoot down satellites with rockets. Because anybody with the ability to launch satellites with rockets has the ability to shoot them down with rockets.
You see, satellites are on predictable courses, and have little capacity for maneuver. You can easily launch a rocket to put a payload into the same orbit, and have its payload be an attack vehicle consisting of a maneuver rocket and a chunk of mass. You can then give it an on-board radar-homer (easiest), or use ground-based radar and computers (more difficult, but not impossibly so) to have it ram the satellite. Boom, you’ve killed it.
Which is why arms control won’t work, either. Any satellite that a country can launch into a specified orbit can be used as a kinetic-kill vehicle against any satellite already in that orbit. The only way to ban satellite-killers is to ban satellites.
The only thing that’s different now is that we know China’s tested its capability. That’s something that indicates they’re seriously contemplating the possibility that they may use it. But the gun was already loaded; all they’ve done is test-fire it.
Posted by Warmongering Lunatic on 2007 01 21 at 09:04 PM • permalink
- Next they’ll be turning up their noses at soap.Posted by Infidel Tiger on 2007 01 21 at 09:09 PM • permalink
- #23 Thanks for the update, ElectronPower. I’ll file that in the memory banks for future enviro-debates (as I did my original claim in #2 read at junkscience.com several years ago). Also funny about Germany as they needed French power (not often you read that phrase!) when they had their cold-freeze wave the month or so ago.Posted by andycanuck on 2007 01 21 at 09:13 PM • permalink
- Comletely O/T
I caught the Comet McNaught over the weekend. It was somwehat brighter earlier in the week but Sydney cloud cover prevented a decent view.Well, this is something else peoples. Easily seen with the naked eye, but I was able to train my telescope on it and it’s a wondrous sight. Makes the 1986 appearance of Halley’s pale into insignificance.
From Sydney, look towards the horizon and sou-sou west. You won’t confuse it with Venus – the tail would be thousands of km long. The tail is just incredible!
Fan-bloody-tastic!
- not an electrical engineer but just found this thread and have a similar question…turning it back on all at once could be brutal I imagine. But, actually, due to common energy loss due to it’s transport in a non-frictionless environment I’m thinking there’s a good chance that turning everything off for just five minutes and then turning it all back on will actually end in a total net increase of electical use. Any electrical engineers out there? 😉
- OT: Diddums….from the Age Letters to the Editor.
What happened to the right to privacy?
A FRIEND of mine was one of the 28 “persons of interest” sprayed over Melbourne’s newspapers — including The Age — on Friday (19/1) for being suspected of antisocial behaviour at the G20 rallies. That friend has since been suspended from work, unemployed until their name is cleared.
The right to privacy is another victim of this new authoritarian trend of governance that takes disproportionate measures to stifle and limit public dissent. A new situation is emerging where scapegoats are portrayed to the public as “most likely to be guilty until proven innocent”…For the author of the letter…a clue..
public dissent – okay
illegal activity – not okayIf the federal and state police have gathered enough intelligence to name them as “persons of interest”, then surely they can proceed to investigate the alleged crimes without infringing on their private lives by exposing the suspects through mass media.
They are proceeding with the investigation, hence identifying persons of interest to investigate.
Always the governments fault…good grief.
- William Watson analyses Greenie b.s. related to the French enviro turn of mind:
http://tinyurl.com/2hqzf2Posted by andycanuck on 2007 01 21 at 10:45 PM • permalink
- Also OT but a wonderful example of airlines refusing to allow a man his right to be a dickhead, er, freedom of expression.
The airlines involved are 100% correct in their response to this idiot. The only other step the airline should have taken was to place the idiot on an international no-fly list.
- O/T
I hate to potentially give this film oxygen, but the promotional picture for “Hostel 2” is disgusting and abhorrent.
Along with similar film franchise “Saw”, the Hostel films deal in “torture chic”. They would have been called snuff movies once, but society has been desensitised sufficiently to have these movies gain mainstream release. What does this image say about society?
WARNING – GRAPHIC IMAGEPosted by boxofmatches on 2007 01 21 at 11:24 PM • permalink
- rebase—what’s embarrassing is a 55 year old man running around in a t-shirt like a spotty teenager.Posted by richard mcenroe on 2007 01 21 at 11:59 PM • permalink
- Let us hope the Hostel franchise ends with this one. I don’t feel that a decent society should tolerate Hostel III etc and VI – and SAW is beyond utter garbage.
As an aside, the Australian film industry is on it’s arse, producing one shit movie after another that nobody wants to see. Yet we can come up with snuff shit like SAW and Wolf Creek that actually make money. BTW John Jarratt should be ashamed of himself being associated with such vile material.
Last week in country NSW we had an 82 year old man beheaded in his backyard. Beheaded. Every night there are stabbings, shootings.
Hmmm, I wonder why? You don’t have to be Einstein to figure a cause and effect linkage here. As our movies become more gross and more violent, so our society follows. Some would argue it’s the other way around. I think not. Most of the perpetrators of many sicko crimes got the idea from games or movies. They’re not actaully bright enough to come up with a bit of original horror of their own.
- #77 richard mcenroe
About that 55 year old bloke in that T-shirt
Looks like that’s all he brought with him to wear in OZ – he wore it for other flights
A professional troublemaker and as he’s planning to become a resident of the UK – good don’t come back I say
I’m betting he has long unwashed grey hair in a ponytail and in his luggage is another T-shirt with Make Love not War on it but he only wore the Bush one here – it doesn’t need a wash till it’s been worn for a few weeks
Posted by aussiemagpie on 2007 01 22 at 12:10 AM • permalink
- kae
sometimes I just want to tie her up…
I’m not sure where you live, but in Australia it is against the law (Criminal Code Chapter VMCMIX Paragraph VII)
The actual law says:-
“It is a crime in Australia to tie one’s mother up because she tidies your bookshelf”.There, that’s the exact wording, so I’d be careful if I was you when next you tie your mother up.
- #74 Using the Euro Personal Anal Canal Opener, Spag_oz? Forget bran—this is the baby for everybody’s Gaia-protecting, organic, night soil fertilizer needs as promoted by les culs français throughout the region.Posted by andycanuck on 2007 01 22 at 12:44 AM • permalink
- I’m hoping someone is going to make up a bottom half to the poster:
Standing in a tub of water.
Wall socket with short extension cord going up to his left hand.
Cord in cord hand going down to hair dryer immersed in same tub of water.Caption? Something along the lines of: In 5 minutes I will be carbon neutral.
- #68, rebase.
The only other step the airline should have taken was to place the idiot on an international no-fly list.
That may have happened.
Both Qantas and Virgin treat every terrorist threat as serious, and block known troublemakers from buying tickets — at least in their own names.My kids were recently delayed in departing from Coolangatta on a Virgin flight. Cause of the delay was a dickhead shouting terrorism threats as he boarded.
His name was added to the shit-list on both airlines’ computers.
- Les Dickheads will be Les MisérablesPosted by curious george on 2007 01 22 at 01:35 AM • permalink
- OT: SMH article on bloggers. Warning: Written by Antony Loewenstein. Read at your own risk. Even Tim gets a mention:
Tim Blair, one of Australia’s much-read bloggers (and self-described journalist), is equally incapable of explaining any issue without a requisite put-down, smart-arse comment or personal smear.
I’ll leave it to Tim to comment.
- Self-described journalist? WTF, Antony, you dipshit?
Writing for newspapers = Journalist
Capice?
Posted by Quentin George on 2007 01 22 at 03:15 AM • permalink
- The intersting hting about htese french greenies is that they are cleary smarter than our greenies (well, except for the advertising bit). THEY only expect
morally uprightdo-gooders to last five minutes without power. Here they dreamt up an hour. How many do people do you think will last an hour without power? Unless it is a ‘guilt high’ that the organisers are really after.
- #62
The industry term is “load step” and I’d guess it wouldn’t do their grid much good: ‘chaotic’ behaviour, etc. due to transients/harmonics, etc … serve ‘em right if they let ‘em go ahead with it.FYI the ‘tards watches prob wouldn’t sync sufficiently for an instantaneous off/on load step, but bad idea never-the-less …
- #82 – I had a system in the bookshelf. Read books upright. Unread laying down.
Don’t the words leach out?
Posted by boxofmatches on 2007 01 22 at 04:37 AM • permalink
- I have had my bookshelf re-sorted by author. Now I can’t find anything, since I usually fail to remember who wrote what. I used to be able to think of a book and simply walk over to the place where I had stuffed it last.
I also had one shelf specifically for the unread stuff. Recently, I found nearly 2 metres of unread books scattered through the bookshelves (I just count my books by the metre).
A previous girlfriend really annoyed my by going through every book and removing the book marker from each. Yes, I had read most of the books cover to cover and the book markers weren’t really needed. They were bits of torn up newspaper, receipts from bookshops and newsagencies, bits of napkin – whatever was available at the time. But each one was a special memento of that book.
Tidy women can be so heartless and cruel.
Posted by mr creosote on 2007 01 22 at 06:44 AM • permalink
- France without power- what’s new?
given how anti american the average frenchman is les greens might have more success with their darkening if they point out electricity was discovered by ben franklin and therefore some kind of yankee cultural imperialist plot
“France is like a great compass, which ever way they point to, go the complete opposite direction and you’ll be fine”.
-P. J. O’RourkePosted by eeniemeenie on 2007 01 22 at 08:20 AM • permalink
- at the Little House In The Redwoods, we shelve books more or less by subject area…that way i don’t have to remember who wrote it, i just have to remember what it is. Music is filed alphabetically, though; it’s usually easier to decide whether a book goes with science-fiction than to decide whether, say, Gram Parsons would file under “country” or “rock.”
- Bonmot,
Thanks for the info on the comet. BTW, being a solid conservative, I’m still getting used to this “the world is round” business, so would you please enlighten me: will your directions work for those of us in the northern hemisphere? Or is the comet only visible to folks down under?
Auntie KC, I was down by Soldier Field yesterday – it was fun. Poor Ray Nay is weeping into his jambalaya. Bring on the Colts!
Posted by Urbs in Horto on 2007 01 22 at 02:13 PM • permalink
- #103 Urbs
Mate, it’s our turn now. You northern hem guys had good vision of it about two weeks ago. It’s now only available down here in these latitudes and fading fast.
Each night its getting weaker as the comet accellerates away.This one is not like Halleys – it won’t be back – so if you didn’t see it this time, well….
- Bonmot,
Thanks for the update. Unfortunately, in my spot of the world, we have this annual event called “winter”, one feature of which is heavy cloud cover. For the last several weeks, all I’ve been able see up above is the underside of a cloud. I guess I missed the show. Oh well, have a good gaze – enjoy!
Posted by Urbs in Horto on 2007 01 22 at 06:20 PM • permalink
- #41 Oooops, somehow that went to the wrong posting.Posted by Wimpy Canadian on 2007 01 22 at 08:09 PM • permalink
- #50 I have stopped collecting my farts as I realise now, oh deluded me, that the global warming thing was a CON, a HOAX! I was taken in. I even became 10% lazier to save the planet.
NOT.
Posted by Wimpy Canadian on 2007 01 22 at 08:15 PM • permalink
- #55 Paco, I think you are refering to my “Rectal Evacuator”. This fine product reliably removes noxious greenhouse gasses before they enter the environment.
Remember, methane is 25 times worse than CO2.
Posted by Wimpy Canadian on 2007 01 22 at 08:22 PM • permalink
- #62 Over here, rickw.
Exactly my point in a previous post.
The transmission system would have to sustain incredible, probably disastrous, surges in voltage as the load was removed.
Posted by Wimpy Canadian on 2007 01 22 at 08:27 PM • permalink
- #69 Yojimbo, that is Tucson Arizona, right?Posted by Wimpy Canadian on 2007 01 22 at 08:32 PM • permalink
#55 Paco, I think you are refering to my “Rectal Evacuator”. This fine product reliably removes noxious greenhouse gasses before they enter the environment.
Here in California that would be Lance.
Posted by richard mcenroe on 2007 01 22 at 10:01 PM • permalink
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