Month: March 2013

The frontier is open in education – recorded lectures

There are rapid changes in the format of delivery of education. I’ve not had anywhere near enough time to comment on them in this blog.

One area I have pondered is taking a recorded lecture and turning it into a course. A while back I finished listening to The American Civil War, by Prof. Gary Gallagher from Great Courses. Had a lot of fun listening to the CDs. Learned a lot.

I commented on this idea here.

As I finished this series, I thought again how this and similar courses would be a great way to create a college-level course. Continue reading “The frontier is open in education – recorded lectures”

Private resupply spaceship arrives at Space Station on resupply run #2

The space frontier is open.

Today a Dragon capsule from SpaceX arrived at the International Space Station delivering 1,300 pounds of supplies and experiments.

A glitch in a valve or pressure line delayed arrival while the engineers figured out a solution.

The capsule will remain docked with the space station for a month before bringing back a load of material to earth.

Space.com points out SpaceX Dragon Capsule Glitch (and Recovery) Shows Why Spaceflight Is Hard.

The article expands at length on the lede: Continue reading “Private resupply spaceship arrives at Space Station on resupply run #2”

Cost and time savings from pad drilling

I’m sure there is data around for how much pad drilling improves operations, but I’ve not seen a specific report like this.

The concept is that drilling multiple wells from one pad makes everything easier. The drillers don’t have to disassemble all the drilling equipment and can instead just side-step the rig. I discussed that in my post here. You can see a video of a rig side-stepping here.

Million Dollar Way has multiple posts over recent months talking about 6, 8, or 12 wells on one pad.

Eagle Ford Shale provides some hard numbers from one specific company:  Pioneer Natural Resource Expanding Use of Pad Drilling in 2013. Check this out:

Continue reading “Cost and time savings from pad drilling”

The frontier is open, education department – stuff learned vs. time spent

One territory in the open frontier of the education world is the idea of assessing knowledge acquired instead of counting time spent in chairs.

Two articles last week point to the possibilities, both from Via Meadia:

College Too Expensive? Try the $5,000 degree – Second sentence of the post:

Continue reading “The frontier is open, education department – stuff learned vs. time spent”

Your smartphone could be a hostile spy in your office

There are a few downsides of the astounding technology we have today.

A team from a Navy research office has announced a malware application that can use your phone to create a 3-D image of your office. Such a program could you be used to steal information from your office. For example, bank account numbers visible on checks, info on broker statements, info on your computer screens or calendars. Could also be used to figure out what nice stuff is in your den or living room. 

This isn’t a concept paper or theoretical discussion.  It is software that is in existence today and has been successfully tested.

Continue reading “Your smartphone could be a hostile spy in your office”

And you thought I was being too optimistic – Study forecasts natural gas production in U.S. will increase for another 30 years before hitting plateau

The Wall Street Journal describes a new study which suggests Gas Boom Projected to Grow for Decades.

The study starts with detailed look at actual production in the Barnett Shale field. It concludes that production in the US is going to increase for decades. The article’ lede:

Continue reading “And you thought I was being too optimistic – Study forecasts natural gas production in U.S. will increase for another 30 years before hitting plateau”