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[martinuzz]

Wilder's PVV, desperate to be included in government formation talks, has also added green energy to his party program. He thinks that by installing treadmills in refugee centers, half of Amsterdam can be powered. After hearing this, the left parties went nuclear. /satire

EDIT: historical fact: during WW2, the Dutch resistance movements commonly used treadmills, in the form of standard-mounted bicycles with a dynamo, to power their radios and listen to British radio.

[martinuzz]

Dutch government has decided to go protectionism. They want to add a consideration term to hostile foreign takeovers. When foreign investors try to acquire a large Dutch company through hostile takeover, the new proposed law gives the company a year respite to come up with alternatives.
Recent attempts by PPG to take over Akzo Nobel, and earlier attempts by I think it was Belgacom, to take over KPN prompted them to take this action.

[Arx]

The only differences between the all-the-same wood and canvas windmills and the all-the-same metal and carbon fiber windmills is that the latter are newer and produce useful amounts of energy.

And that the all-the-same wood and canvas windmills look nice!

[Helgoland]

Hey, the new ones do too. They're kinda the modern equivalent of 19th century railroads and steam locomotives: You could consider them a modernist atrocity destroying the picture you're accustomed to, or you could see them as symbols of innovation, progress, and bold steps towards the future.

In contrast, when I see an old-school windmill, it reminds me of the hard and gruesome times we have only recently left behind. It reminds me of more than half the population working the land just to feed everyone, of oppressive social hierarchies, of high infant mortality and death by now-trivial infections. Also it reminds me of all the damage unreflected romanticism continues to inflict every day.

You like the way the old-style windmills look? That's fine. But whenever you see one, remember that the folks who built it would've vastly preferred a modern one.

[Arx]

Oh, I realise they're worth the tradeoff. That's not what I was saying, though.

[scriver]

I don't even understand why you call them kills when they have nothing to do with meal. We just call them wind power works.

[ChairmanPoo]

We call them aerogenerators

[Frumple]

... see, if you look at those two terms, and then look at windmill, it should be somewhat obvious why no one's really bothered something entirely appropriate for their better modern use. You can say 'em, too. Windmill: One compound word, two syllables. Compare to aerogenerator, a compound word with... up to six or seven syllables, depending on intonation, or wind power works, three words, three to four (depending on how badly you slur power) syllables. Sufficiently equal functionality, less time and effort. Unsurprisingly, the superior term resists replacement.

[ChairmanPoo]

... see, if you look at those two terms, and then look at windmill, it should be somewhat obvious why no one's really bothered something entirely appropriate for their better modern use. 

Speak for yourself, peasant. My esteemed colleague and I keep a higher standard of lexicon as befitting our exalted status.

[MetalSlimeHunt]

The formal term is "wind turbine" in the industry, which does follow the naming scheme since instead of milling it turns a turbine.

[alway]

The only differences between the all-the-same wood and canvas windmills and the all-the-same metal and carbon fiber windmills is that the latter are newer and produce useful amounts of energy.

And that the all-the-same wood and canvas windmills look nice!

What if they were painted?
Cause so far as I can tell, they all need a paint/corrosion resistant layer, they're just uniform because they're utility infrastructure cranked out in large numbers and so they don't want to put custom designs on each one/over-complicate production lines. Images such as the one towards the bottom of this page: https://www.siemens.com/global/en/home/markets/wind/turbines-and-services/technology/blades.html
Show some variations with red striped tips painted on; so aside from increased manufacturing costs of a complicated paint line, it should be doable. And apparently there's even research suggesting that painting them purple could keep insects from gathering near them, reducing bird and bat death: https://cleantechnica.com/2014/11/19/painting-wind-turbines-purple-will-save-wildlife-make-opponents-angrier/

[inteuniso]

Propellers-on-a-stick are terrible aeroflugzeugwindpowerturbinegeneratormill designs.

Drag-type turbine designs, on the other hand, are totally radical jabrowszki.

EDIT: Also if we dye the canvas with graphene the drag turbines become solar panels & water condensers. If the steel holding the canvas is made with graphene it will be stainless & magnetized, meaning it will also be an induction motor.

[Helgoland]

If the steel holding the canvas is made with graphene

Huh?

[inteuniso]

If the steel holding the canvas is made with graphene

Huh?

We normally use plain carbon to make steel. If we crystallize it before we add it to the iron in the forge we're going to have better steel.

[Helgoland]

Do you have a citation for that? I doubt that the molecular structure of graphene is going to survive being dumped into molten steel.

Also 'crystallize' is not the right term - graphene isn't crystallized carbon, it's just a certain allotrope of the stuff.