The Drink Tank 285 (2011).pdf

This coming month is packed. The things for WorldCon are ramping up (I’VE GOT SO MUCH TO DO!!!!!)

and there’s Westercon. I’ve been putting up Westerconversation with folks who have been to them before and

I’ve been workign on getting the Lounge ready (though really, it pretty much sets itself up) and it’s going to be a

good ol’ time.

Westercon is a favorite con of mine, and I know it’s in decline, but having a mid-summer gathering is

something I enjoy. Fourth of July Weekend is a good time to gather with a bunch of con-folk and just party. I had

an amazing time at the 2007 Westercon at the Escher Marriott in San Mateo. While I know there were all sorts of

problems, but it was such fun, was the birthplace of the Fanzine Lounge as we out here now know it and one of

the most fun conventions I’ve ever been to. The 2008 Westercon in Vegas had a lot of problems, was ultra-small,

but at the same time I had an absolute blast doing it. It also featured a personal top moment of Bill Mills playing

Rocket Man for an audience of two in the Rotunda and I was one of the two. It was also the time that Linda gave

blood, was in sight of the open door of the Fanzine Lounge and I almost passed out.

I didn’t do the 2009 Westercon in Phoenix, nor the 2010 in LA, but I heard that folks had a good time.

Of couse, a San Jose Westercon is a good thing and the location couldn’t be better as far as I’m concerned.

I did the Dining Guide, which was a hard-ish task because there are so many places for folks to dine. For my

money, Tandoori Oven right across the street with worth multiple trips, and I plan on at least two. There’s OJ’s,

Original Joe’s, which is a place I’ve loved since I was a kid. There’s a new Pho place a couple of blocks up that is

so new I didn’t get to add it ot the Guide. It’s pretty tasty and the cost is good. I’ll be driving in almost every day

because I’ve gotta save money for WorldCon.

And I’m psyched for WorldCon.

I got my program schedule and I’m on some

interesting panels. There’s one about Online Fandom

and Fans Loving to Hate It. I’m not sure I agree with

that statement, but I’m sure it’ll be well-attended

because it’s got Teresa Neilsen Hayden and John

Scalzi on it. That always makes for a good turnout.

The second panel is one that I’m sure will

be at least a little controversial. It’s about the Best

SemiProzine and Fanzine Hugos. It’s Steven Segal of

Weird Tales, Neil Clarke of Clarkesworld and Dave

Hartwell of being Dave Hartwell. fame. We need an-

other faned on that panel.

There’s a panel on Casino Gambling that

has Connie Willis on it. I’ve got a couple of Fanzine

panels, a big Match Game, which happens after the

Hugo ceremonies. If a miracle happens and I win

one, it’ll be the most entertaining edition ever be-

cause i”ll be an emotional wreck the entire time!

The ﬁnal one is about the Hugo for Best Re-

lated Work. It’s got Michael Swanwick on it, which

is good as he’s won at least one of them in the past,

and so has Farah Mendelsohn.. Steven Segal, Amy

Thomson and Claire are all also on the panel. TO

me, this that’s an all-star panel that I just happen to

be hanging around on!

So, this issue’s got some Taral Wayne and a

look at a great Czech ﬁlm from the 1950s! THere’s

LoCs and, as has become habit... A Mo Starkey cov-

er! Let’s go!

Fan Noir – Blog 3

1 June 2011, words

People who complain about wind farms make me angry. To listen to them bitch, you’d think a windmill

was a rusting, creaky contraption that chopped up birds and bats, leaving bloody, mangled remains strewn on

the ground like so many meat-acorns around the trunk of a sacriﬁcial oak. If that wasn’t enough, they claim that

windmills spread a mysterious inﬂuence over the country like the wail of damned souls – withering crops, engen-

dering unexplained maladies in livestock, souring toothpaste in the tube and causing schoolchildren to fail their

ABCs.

The fact is, wind farms have been running successfully in many parts of the world for decades – one enor-

mous example, that I was astonished to see for myself, lies along the highway east of San Francisco. It astonished

me because I saw it way back in the 1990s. There marched mile after mile of giant turbines, turning silently in

the desert wastes, and I knew this to be the look of the future. Another case in point is the North Sea. Many of

the countries that share the coastline of that windy body of salt water have built offshore wind farms, including

Great Britain, Germany, Denmark and The Netherlands. Clearly wind farms work. Nor are they prohibitively

expensive.

Yet, after more than 20 years of proven use, this free resource is nowhere nearly as exploited as you

might expect. Canada in particular seems to be dragging its heels. But, then, that’s hardly surprising. Since the

replacement of a Liberal government with a Conservative one, some years ago, Canada has dragged its heels

over many things, reverting from a progressive voice in global affairs to a mugwump nation, determined to bury

its head in the tarsands and pursue oil-business as usual.

It is singularly ironic that, of all provinces in Canada, Alberta seems to be most interested in wind power,

since it is Alberta that is most dedicated to keeping oil the mainspring of the nation’s economy – at the expense

of industry, transport, and exports. Meanwhile, the province that would most beneﬁt by a lower-cost energy-

regime is Ontario, but the province seems barely conscious of the advantages of wind power. Ontario does

produce about a Gigawatt of green energy from a half-dozen wind farms, but that’s only a drop in the bucket

compared to Ontario’s thirty-Terrawatt needs. The provincial government perennially promises more Green

Power, but nothing happens. More studies are needed. Another target date is set, comfortably far in the future.

Why?

I ﬁgure that part of the blame can be apportioned to those people who complain – the NIMBYs.

They come in various colours. One hue of NIMBY are the naturalists, who object to the number of birds

that would die when they ﬂy into moving blades. I’m not insensitive to this issue, but at the same time I’m callous

enough to feel that the death of a few extra crows and starlings is a small price to pay for a working air condi-

tioner when it’s 92 in my apartment, and I can’t get up for a glass of water without breaking out in sweat. Yes, all

things have a right to live, but sparrows don’t write Shakespeare or build the Chrysler Building. Also, there are

an awful lot of sparrows in the world, for every one of us.

It’s not as if there were no solution to the problem either. I’ve read that sound makers can be built into

the blades that would warn birds and bats of danger ahead, best to go around. LED’s along the blade edge might

do the job just as well, and consume about as much power as a single Christmas tree. If neither of these ideas

prove to be 100% effective, then there are legions of little old ladies who enjoy taking in small, injured creatures

to look after... It lets them to feel superior to other people.

There is an “experimental” wind turbine not too far from where I live, on the Canadian National Exhibi-

tion grounds. To tell the truth, I’ve never seen dead or injured birds at the base of it.

The other main objection to wind farming is that the moving blades create a sound that only some people

seem to be able to hear. They claim that these infra-sounds are below the threshold of conscious awareness,

and cause them headaches or other illnesses. As well, these sounds also appear to lie below any level that can

be detected by sensitive scientiﬁc instruments – so far as I know, none have ever been recorded. This in spite of

our ability to capture the radio crepitations of a Voyager spacecraft, billions of miles away, sending a signal weaker

than your cell phone’s.

In fact, even if such infra-sounds are being produced, it begs the question of how anyone living a half-mile

away could possibly hear them. Isn’t the wind produc-

ing exactly the same sort of infra-sounds while blowing

through every tree, every wire fence and every power line

between turbine and ear? I doubt very much that anyone

living more than a few hundred yards from a wind farm

would hear anything, even if each windmill were running

a metal lathe and engraving old water heaters with David

Suzuki’s personal phone number. At best, it’s a case where

a quarter-mile distance should be kept between wind

farms and where people live. Hardly a difﬁcult condition

to meet.

There is, ﬁnally, the aesthetic argument.

The nay-sayer objects to regiments of steel and

concrete towers whose mechanistic spinning blades ob-

scure the horizon. Let’s be honest... how many of us have

an ideal view of the horizon to begin with? I see a few

hands out there, but not many. As it happens, I’m one of

those with my hand up. I have a superlative view from my

balcony of a wide stretch of Lake Ontario that takes in

the Niagara Peninsula from Toronto’s West End almost to

Niagara Falls. And Lake Ontario is a prime location for an

offshore wind farm. If anyone had a stake in the view, it’s

me. I have no objection, though. For one thing, at a half-

mile distance, a wind farm would hardly be an eyesore. The

windmills would be no more objectionable than a distant

lake freighter or the usual swarm of sailboats that dance

on the chop all summer. Judging from my view of a 30-

story tower on the other shore of Humber Bay – about

a half mile away – a windmill would appear no larger than the end of my pinky at arm’s length. More often than

not, the lake is a little misty, as well, and whatever lies on the horizon is a dim grey, ghost.

What is it, then, that bothers the NIMBY about the modern windmill? They’ve been building windmills in

The Netherlands since at least the 17th century, to provide the muscle to mill grain and pump the North Sea off

prime farmland. Those windmills are national treasures now, an attraction to tourists, and in many cases are still

pumping the land dry. Who in their right mind would complain? The answer seems to be that modern windmills

are modern. It would be alright if they were built 300 years ago, in an antiquated style, and most of them had long

since disappeared. But a modern windmill is ugly, utilitarian, inspired by the needs of a consumerist society.

The Dutch have a word for it – kletspraat. I believe that means bullshit... though the Babylon translator

page gives “claptrap,” “rubbish” and “nonsense.”

It would be hard to imagine a more elegant and beautiful shape than a modern windmill. Next to one,

the 17th century model resembles an overly ornate beer stein. The design of most modern mills consists of a

slender, swooping pillar of dazzling white, atop of which petal-like blades open out like a ﬂower. What could be

more compatible with Mother Nature than a giant ﬂower? Of course, many windmills aren’t meant to be seen

close-up, and when planted far out into Lake Ontario may be somewhat less attractive. A straight concrete or

steel pillar will sufﬁce. From half a mile, who will notice it hasn’t been painted in a while. Nothing but the slim

stalk and slowly turning blades in the distance will ever be seen.

Nor did the 17th century Dutch regard their windmills as anything but utilitarian and commercial. They

didn’t build them to admire, but to create farmland on which they intended to grow tulips – tulips that they

didn’t intend to admire either, but to sell on the speculative market and become stinking rich in the process.

Meanwhile, at the other end of Toronto, is the Leslie Street Spit. It runs for about a mile, completely

blocking the view of the Lake. It was made by dumping garbage, and for many years was a skeletal ﬁnger of land,

pointing out at nothing. The dumping road is long closed, and the spit has probably grown over with Poplar and

Cottonwood brush by now, and the entire length has been made into a bird sanctuary. It’s called an “urban”

wilderness. Talk about eyesores... but if there were any complaints, they were ignored.

So why is it that the NIMBYS just can’t see the beauty, the elegance, the dignity of a wind farm? Why do

they stand in the way of such a progressive technology? Maybe it has nothing to do with them, really, but with

the Powers That Be, who choose which complaints to listen to, and which to ignore.

They can’t see the beauty of the wind, because they have oil in their eyes!

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