There is little controversy when discussing the need for more renewable energy sources in the United States’ energy mix, with emphasis on solar and wind power. The controversy begins when it comes to deciding where the physical infrastructure for these energy sources will be placed.
This has led to the (somewhat derogatory) term “NIMBY,” which stands for “Not in my Back Yard.” It describes people who may be enthusiastic about the prospect of the renewable energy industry but do not want its associated physical infrastructure in a place where it will affect the appearance of their properties.
An unfortunate consequence of renewable energy developers being pushed to put more and more wind farms on the grid is that they have become a bit overzealous. Plans and permits are issued quickly and residents who will live nearby these windmill farms ultimately complain. Not all complain, just a few.
This makes it extremely important to get feedback from residents who live near proposed wind and solar farms before beginning any planning on the placement of windmills or solar panels begins. Since we are installing infrastructure that will likely be in place for decades, these windmills and solar power plants will not just be infrastructure – they will be neighbors. It is important to get along with your neighbors, especially when you are trying to improve the public perception of renewable energy nationwide.
If a windmill needs to take a slight performance hit in order to not make a serious impact on the appearance of the landscape, then that is a fair compromise. Saving an unnecessary fight with local residents in exchange for a slight drop in efficiency is not really a drop in efficiency.
Having comprehensive public participation would probably be of more importance in the northeastern states, where population density is much higher than in areas such as the midwest and the southwest. More people would be affected by a new windmill in rural Vermont than in rural Illinois simply because the states are smaller and there is a higher overall population density in Vermont.
If you ever find yourself faced with a “NIMBY,” get them all together and tell them where to put the windmill. They will figure it out.
I realize that this bit of sage wisdom a little late in coming from me, but it must be said. If there is something you do not want others to know or see, do not put it on the internet. It is especially risky to put personal information and incriminating media on a site owned and operated by an “amoral, Asperger’s-like entrepreneur,” as Jason Calacanis described him.
Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s founder and CEO, has developed a reputation as of late for not caring about others’ privacy. Examples would be Facebook’s new, cryptic privacy settings that automatically expose all of your information to the world or attempting to screw over its number-one game developer, Zynga, the creator of Farmville.
If there is one lesson to be learned by end users from all of this, it is to always watch what you put on the web, regardless of how secure or sophisticated the service in question might seem. There are certain details of your life that you would not want to get out into the open and the best way to ensure your private information remains to private is to never share it on the web.
For example, I am comfortable sharing the location where I live. There are nearly 2 million people living in the Indianapolis metropolitan area and it is unlikely that anyone could find me and threaten my personal safety. I imagine it will give someone reading it an idea about my background and who I am, which is a primary goal of social media. I do not share my AIM screen name, mailing address, email address, or phone number anywhere, as these are pieces of personal information that I would not feel comfortable strangers having. Also, Facebook’s ads hook into profile information and target ads appropriately. I do not like to think about who else sees that data. Therefore, I do not share anything vital.
There will always be people like Mark Zuckerberg out there and it is important to guard what you share online very carefully. It can be very easy and satisfying to fill out all those fields, but it could come around to bite you in the end. Show restraint and do not share too much about yourself on the web.
There is a debate growing over the rights of Internet users and network neutrality. Users, on one hand, are demanding that the Internet be completely free and open, without any regulation or traffic throttling. Internet service providers (ISPs), on the other hand, contend that the web has never been totally free and that a certain amount of interference is necessary to ensure all users get a decent web experience.
The reason that this issue has become more important is that more and more of the Internet’s traffic is being shifted to cellular data networks, which are much less robust. European cellular carrier Vodaphone routinely shapes Internet traffic in response to users using too much bandwidth on its network.
The director of Spanish carrier Telefónica’s European regulatory policy, Robert Mourik insists that they are not looking at content when they restrict traffic. Mourik stressed that they are only trying to manage network traffic so that everyone gets a good web experience and not censor anyone.
If I were to throw in my own opinion, I would say that this is an excellent reason for cellular carriers to build out their physical infrastructure so that it can handle the rapidly increasing amount of mobile data traffic. With better hardware and more towers, it may become less necessary to modify Internet traffic in this way.
Source: NY Times
Patrick Proctor was here 