iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

🇨🇦 Peter 🌏 Fairley 🇺🇸 @peter.fairley.ca · 16/09/2026

scummy upcharging ploy the @nytimes.com : pay more, or they'll subject you to repeated account verification

🇨🇦 Peter 🌏 Fairley 🇺🇸 @peter.fairley.ca · 14/09/2026

Heronemus' vision for #OTEC was grand. The former Navy Captain and nuclear sub designer imagined dozens of supersized OTEC plants tapping the Gulf Stream off Miami and powering the Eastern US. Here's his 1974 'Mark III' OTEC design, with ship at top left for scale...

Drawing for William Heronemus' 1974 Mark III OTEC plant design. Warm water sucked into the submerged pods vaporizes liquid ammonia, and the expanding gas spins turbines below to generate 400 MWs of power. Icy deep-sea water, pumped up from 4,000 feet below, condenses the gas so the cycle can repeat.

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🇨🇦 Peter 🌏 Fairley 🇺🇸 @peter.fairley.ca · 14/09/2026

That's how the Mark III was intended to work. Here's the drawing...

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🇨🇦 Peter 🌏 Fairley 🇺🇸 @peter.fairley.ca · 20/08/2026

California's ZEV program got the EV revolution rolling. President Trump's war is helping seal the deal. www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

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🇨🇦 Peter 🌏 Fairley 🇺🇸 @peter.fairley.ca · 12/08/2026

Sign-o-the-times: A win for Binface would be a vote for planetary sanity, given Nigel Farage's enmity for climate science and renewable energy www.npr.org/2026/08/10/n...

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🇨🇦 Peter 🌏 Fairley 🇺🇸 @peter.fairley.ca · 08/07/2026

The NRC is exempting new reactor projects from environmental assessments because "they normally do not result in significant environmental impacts." What could go wrong?

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🇨🇦 Peter 🌏 Fairley 🇺🇸 @peter.fairley.ca · 22/06/2026

Stay tuned to this channel because there's much more to the Captain Heronemus story and I intend to tell it all.

Captain William Heronemus on the California Academy of Sciences' Science in Action TV show in 1956.

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🇨🇦 Peter 🌏 Fairley 🇺🇸 @peter.fairley.ca · 22/06/2026

In the early 70s, when wind energy was all but forgotten, Heronemus envisioned wind 'farms' spanning the Great Plains and transecting New England’s continental shelf. His massive 'windships' sounded fanciful in 1972, but floating wind is now big business, and multirotor machines are growing.

Artists' rendition of Captain William Heronemus' windships, from a 1975 issue of National Geographic Magazine.

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🇨🇦 Peter 🌏 Fairley 🇺🇸 @peter.fairley.ca · 06/05/2026

You've probably seen a graph of IEA and EIA projections, showing how the powers-that-be repeatedly lowballed solar and wind in decades past. The IAEA's nuclear projections show the same pattern of continuous unreality, according to a German research team ... www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

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🇨🇦 Peter 🌏 Fairley 🇺🇸 @peter.fairley.ca · 23/03/2026

'Vote Peace Vote Trump' Seen in Santa Ynez, CA in January 2025, two days after Donald Trump's 2nd inauguration. His term has since brought violence to such farming communities and violent military action abroad.

Sign on the side of residential building in Santa Ynez, CA reads "Vote Peace Vote Trump". Water tower and American flag in background. PHoto taken in January 2025.

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🇨🇦 Peter 🌏 Fairley 🇺🇸 @peter.fairley.ca · 14/03/2026

On a lighter note, since it's Friday, something I found reporting that story and forgot to toss in: radar that uses line-of-sight tech to peer over the Earth's horizon by bouncing signals off the ionosphere. These days just a backup for airborne radar. I ran into this array north of Bolinas CA:

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🇨🇦 Peter 🌏 Fairley 🇺🇸 @peter.fairley.ca · 22/02/2026

Love these... @laurimyllyvirta.bsky.social, at the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air, notes that in 2025 in China “solar power output increased by 43% year-on-year, wind by 14% and nuclear 8%, helping push down coal generation by 1.9%.” And the contrasting Xinhua editorial cartoon:

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🇨🇦 Peter 🌏 Fairley 🇺🇸 @peter.fairley.ca · 01/02/2026

"To those who continue to make these sickening decisions: Go home, look in a mirror, and ask yourselves why you have gassed children." — Portland (OR) mayor Keith Wilson. FYI I got to know Keith covering his work as a progressive player in the trucking industry. He's the real deal.

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🇨🇦 Peter 🌏 Fairley 🇺🇸 @peter.fairley.ca · 26/01/2026

... We all have much to gain from strengthening the Democrats' resolve against injustice and authoritarianism. The reps below represent the softest section of the dike. They need to hear from humanity. Please join our friends in Minnesota. Make a call or two. And share this message.

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🇨🇦 Peter 🌏 Fairley 🇺🇸 @peter.fairley.ca · 26/01/2026

I asked a friend in Minneapolis what I could do, and he said: contact members of Congress, especially those House Democrats who voted for ICE. Their numbers are below. Regardless of where you are, whatever state or country ...

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🇨🇦 Peter 🌏 Fairley 🇺🇸 @peter.fairley.ca · 13/10/2025

Most of you have probably never seen what a modern power grid looks like in action. For a snapshot, check out this chart showing California's power supply yesterday. I'm happy to answer questions. (Ht Nicolas Fulghum @ember-energy.org via X)

graph showing shift in California's power supply throughout the day on October 12th. Solar dominates supply during the middle of the day, then batteries become the biggest source in the evening.

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🇨🇦 Peter 🌏 Fairley 🇺🇸 @peter.fairley.ca · 01/09/2025

UK Guardian special report: The deadly toll on journalists in the Gaza war "With foreign media barred, Palestinians have reported alone, facing the ‘most deliberate effort to kill and silence’ them" www.theguardian.com/global-devel... via @theguardian.com A partial list of the dead:

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🇨🇦 Peter 🌏 Fairley 🇺🇸 @peter.fairley.ca · 23/08/2025

Activists radicalized by indecency, spreading vibes of resistance on a California highway. Roughly 1 in 25 drivers honking in solidarity, and many raised fists and 👍s from motorcyclists. Not bad for 75mph.

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🇨🇦 Peter 🌏 Fairley 🇺🇸 @peter.fairley.ca · 14/06/2025

Port Angeles WA #NoKings event ~1,600 protesters 1 police officer Only 'good trouble'

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🇨🇦 Peter 🌏 Fairley 🇺🇸 @peter.fairley.ca · 14/06/2025

Covering #NoKings rally in Port Angeles WA. Big turnout. Big beeping from the road. The messages appear to be resonating.

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🇨🇦 Peter 🌏 Fairley 🇺🇸 @peter.fairley.ca · 09/05/2025

The idea that grid underinvestment 'caused' Spain's recent blackout recalls a theory I profiled years ago for @discovermag.bsky.social and @spectrum.ieee.org. It's a cycle: 1 Blackouts spur grid investment 2 Lack of blackouts stops grid spend 3 Allowing a blackout 4 That restarts grid investment...

picture shows headline "Raise caps on grid spend and profits after blackout, says Iberian power giant"

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🇨🇦 Peter 🌏 Fairley 🇺🇸 @peter.fairley.ca · 05/04/2025

#HandsOff brought out young and old in Santa Cruz, and sent a message around the world: Democracy and rights and freedoms are inalienable, and not for sale.

A young girl holding a protest sign that reads "Hands off our parks" at the #HandsOff rally in Santa Cruz, California on April 5, 2025

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🇨🇦 Peter 🌏 Fairley 🇺🇸 @peter.fairley.ca · 31/03/2025

My favourite of the many painted power poles in Victoria, BC ie #YYJ

a graphic of actor Bill Murray pointing and saying "you're awesome"

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🇨🇦 Peter 🌏 Fairley 🇺🇸 @peter.fairley.ca · 30/03/2025

🎵 "A three hour tour" 🎵 Mike Waltz and his wife Julia Nesheiwat joined JD and Usha Vance to stand on the ice in #Greenland for 3 hours Now, returning to our previous-scheduled program: #SignalGate www.cnn.com/2025/03/29/e...

US officials Mike Waltz and JD Vance on the ice in Greenland with their wives, trying to change the narrative in the US where everyone remains riveted by the SignalGate scandal.

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🇨🇦 Peter 🌏 Fairley 🇺🇸 @peter.fairley.ca · 30/03/2025

That sounds awful. I'm so sorry. I too am suffering. One thing that's helped restore my sense of agency is a book by @rebeccasolnit.bsky.social: Hope in the Dark. From another time, but still relevant. Solnit reminders us that activism can deliver progressive change when it's least expected.

the front cover of Rebecca Solnit's book Hope in the Dark

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🇨🇦 Peter 🌏 Fairley 🇺🇸 @peter.fairley.ca · 28/03/2025

I check the @umaine.bsky.social climate reanalyzer regularly, hoping for a sign that Earth's fever is breaking. Alas, 2025's daily temperatures remain off the charts. What's worse: climate scientists didn't see this coming. We are poking a very big bear. climatereanalyzer.org/clim/t2_dail...

Chart showing Earth's daily surface air temperature trend, by year, since 1981. So far 2025's daily temperatures are far higher than average, as were 2023 and 2024's temperatures.

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🇨🇦 Peter 🌏 Fairley 🇺🇸 @peter.fairley.ca · 18/03/2025

You can see Ira's deleted Pentagon page courtesy of @waybackmachine.bsky.social's incredible Web Archive: web.archive.org/web/20250223.... President Harry Truman thanking Ira Hayes at the White House in 1945:

A photograph of Pima Indian Ira Hayes of Iwo Jima fame meeting US President Harry Truman in 1945

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🇨🇦 Peter 🌏 Fairley 🇺🇸 @peter.fairley.ca · 10/03/2025

Shit's just getting weirder. Check out what American nerves are getting tweaked on YouTube...

TV advert for a piece of survivalist equipment stating: "Will Canada Cause a U.S. Blackout?"

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🇨🇦 Peter 🌏 Fairley 🇺🇸 @peter.fairley.ca · 10/03/2025

Je me trouve entre l'enfer et le printemps

Hikers below a majestic oak tree on Russian Ridge, south of San Francisco

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🇨🇦 Peter 🌏 Fairley 🇺🇸 @peter.fairley.ca · 22/02/2025

His name was Gennady. The power engineer was 56. According to 🇺🇦 utility DTEK a Russian shell hit Gennady's crane as his emergency crew arrived to repair a damaged power facility. Yet another of Putin's war crimes. Grids keep us alive. They should never be targeted. www.nytimes.com/2024/04/15/o...

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🇨🇦 Peter 🌏 Fairley 🇺🇸 @peter.fairley.ca · 21/02/2025

@sfpublicpress.bsky.social has a photo essay by Jason Winshell from Monday's No Kings On Presidents Day rally at the #Tesla dealership on Van Ness: www.sfpublicpress.org/tesla-become... #50501 #Elon #Musk My favourite is a good fit with today's Nazi salute du jour delivered by Steve Bannon...

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🇨🇦 Peter 🌏 Fairley 🇺🇸 @peter.fairley.ca · 11/02/2025

apparently hell Is freezing over (photo by Jon Cherry/Getty Images, care of WaPo)

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🇨🇦 Peter 🌏 Fairley 🇺🇸 @peter.fairley.ca · 25/12/2024

In other words, jets beat flapping Monarch wings on energy efficiency. Note that some of evolution's best do beat engineered flight. Such as the Wandering Albatross, which manages a whooping 2.2 kg-meters of travel per joule of energy expended.

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🇨🇦 Peter 🌏 Fairley 🇺🇸 @peter.fairley.ca · 24/12/2024

The setting sun was gorgeous. And witnessing the year's final monarchs to depart Santa Cruz for points north was poignant,with the Fed's recent proposal to list them as endangered. But my favourite sighting was these little guys...

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🇨🇦 Peter 🌏 Fairley 🇺🇸 @peter.fairley.ca · 17/10/2024

Always nice to be in print. Better still, on the cover. And it feels good to be giving beautiful and beleaguered #Taiwan some attention. @ieeespectrum.bsky.social spectrum.ieee.org/magazine/202...

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🇨🇦 Peter 🌏 Fairley 🇺🇸 @peter.fairley.ca · 09/09/2024

Sounds like you're a neighbour! I imagine PG&E originally ran that gas main up Highway 1 to serve the newer school built across the street from Hawkins, and subsequently shuttered ...

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🇨🇦 Peter 🌏 Fairley 🇺🇸 @peter.fairley.ca · 09/09/2024

Thank you Tsjisse Talsma for the trippy visual take on a potentially wonky topic ! www.instagram.com/tsjissetalsma/

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🇨🇦 Peter 🌏 Fairley 🇺🇸 @peter.fairley.ca · 24/03/2024

Putin declared "the LGBTQ movement" terrorists 3 days before Friday's attack. @nytimes.com

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🇨🇦 Peter 🌏 Fairley 🇺🇸 @peter.fairley.ca · 05/10/2023

Been wondering what the anchor for a floating turbine looks like ? See below. Wondering why you should care? Read here: spectrum.ieee.org/floating-off...

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🇨🇦 Peter 🌏 Fairley 🇺🇸 @peter.fairley.ca · 20/09/2023

Big thanks to Russell Gold and @ericagies.bsky.social for nominating me for this project. To Jason Mark at SIERRA for patient editorial shepherding. And to my many patient sources including industry veteran Will Kaul and the brilliant and tenacious (and Swedish-meatball loving) Dale Osborn.

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🇨🇦 Peter 🌏 Fairley 🇺🇸 @peter.fairley.ca · 20/09/2023

The Q now? Can grid operators like MISO, political leaders, and conservationists muster the ambition that Osborn's macrogrid vision demands? Can we embrace next-gen tech at scale to stitch the US grids together, building the national grid required to both slow and destructive climate change?

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🇨🇦 Peter 🌏 Fairley 🇺🇸 @peter.fairley.ca · 20/09/2023

In the 70s, Minnesota farmers were blasting power lines with rifles and toppling transmission towers to block grid expansion. But 20 years ago they joined enviro activists, wind developers & utilities to back grid operator MISO's innovative planning scheme, fuelling a #windpower boom.

Minnesota farmers marching to protest the CU transmission project

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