Wind energy is one of the modern energy source.
It does not harmful to the environment and has a great potential. But having in mind all positive features there are still a lot of negative arguments against wind farms. Let us dispel the most common of them.

Myth number 1. Windmills are extremely dangerous for birds.

Birds relatively often collide with turbines, but is does not make significant threat comparing with other technical structures. According to the statistics from 2 to 8 birds die per turbine annually. For comparison, 60 millions birds die every year colliding with vehicles, about 98 millions in collisions with buildings. But, not doubt, special attention must be given to the placement of wind turbines. They should not be located along the birds migration paths.

Myth number 2. Wind turbines are very noisy.

Average noise level generated by largest wind turbines today is about 45 dB(decibels). While the background sound in your home is usually about 50 dB. Impressive, isn’t it? According to the last researches of the AWEA ( American Wind Energy Association ), at a distance about 1000 feet from modern wind farm noise is comparable with a noise from kitchen refrigerator.

Myth number 3. Wind turbines can destroy environment.

As it was mentioned above, placement of the wind turbines needs much attention. It must be located far away from National Parks and Forest lands, State Parks etc. The preferable place to locate wind turbines are existing communication towers and transmission lines etc.

Myth number 4. Large wind turbines are unattractive.

A recent study of the public attitudes towards wind energy has found that about 77% of participants think that wind turbines are elegant structures. And wind farm can make the landscape more interesting.

Myth number 5. Tourism is negatively affected by Wind turbines.

It is not true. And more often tourists note a positive influence of the large turbines to the view of the place where they are located. According to the BWEA ( British Wind Energy Association ) 9 from 10 tourists are interested to visit wind farms if they are located on the way. Thousands of people visit wind farms annually. That makes them popular attractions along with historical and scenic points of interest.

6. Data storage devices can be destroyed by magnets.

This statement came from the time of wide usage of floppy disks. They are really magnets sensitive. But do you know anybody who uses floppy disks nowadays? All modern data storages such as hard drives, USB flash cards, CD discs can not be affected by magnets. In fact, they can, but only by the very powerful magnets that are used in different laboratories. And there is no reason to worry about any magnet at your home.

7. CD/DVD discs can last forever.

Some discs manufactures claim their product can live up to 100 years. But these terms can be achieved only following several strong conditions:
- use of best materials;
- absence of errors during writing process;
- ideal storage conditions;
But these items above are seldom fulfilled. Data of the terms of CD/DVD discs living are very differ between the manufactures and researchers. The only advice I can give is, if some data are critical for you, you better make second copy every 2-3 years. Also store discs away from dust and sunlight heat.

8. Wireless networks are unsafe.

This myth tells you that wireless networks can be easy hacked. The most secure method to work on computer is do not connect to the Internet and other networks, don’t plug any external device and better do not run any executable files. But we all know this is a paranoia. In fact, any wireless connection is less secure than a wired one. But if you will use strong encryption level it can be secure much like a wired network. Nowadays all common wireless devices support one of the encryption protocols: WEP, WPA and WPA2. You can use one of them to feel your self safely. WPA2 is considered the most secure among others.

9. Installed antivirus software guarantees your protection.

Of course, antivirus must be installed on any computer, especially if it is connected to the Internet. But its availability does not automatically protect your PC. Every PC vulnerable to the new viruses, trojans, malware. Because antivirus need to be updated to catch them. And it can take up to 1 day for the software company to come up with the updates. Generally, antivirus without updates is effective much like no antivirus at all against new viruses. So it is very important to keep your antivirus software updated.

10. Gaming is only a destructive evil.

Possibly, it can be true if gaming becomes a life style. And no doubt a lot of teenagers spend much more time playing computer games than playing sport games. However, pro-gamers earn a good fees for the win. Besides, gaming can be a good relaxing and de-stressing feature. Also, last researches prove gaming is very useful for surgeons, they help fingers be more flexible.

11. My emails are safe because they require username and password.

Using username/passwords for webpages and email clients software ( like Outlook ) is not the same. Webpages that ask for authentication are almost always SSL encrypted. It means that data transfered between your computer and server can not be decoded by the hacker. It is not always true for email text you send. Malefactor from your network can catch your ‘travelling’ emails.