Jim Ulvog – Page 46 – Outrun Change

Diverging opinions on the U.S. bill to allow asteroid mining.

Image of asteroid courtesy of DollarPhotoClub.com

I previously mentioned the U.S. House and Senate had passed a bill which would allow private mining of asteroids. Ownership of the asteroids wouldn’t be allowed but a company extracting resources from asteroids would have lawful property rights to the material.

The law was signed – 11/26 – Space Daily – Pres. Obama signs bill recognizing asteroid resource property rights into law – The President signed the bill to allow companies to have ownership interest in resources mined from asteroids. Ownership of asteroids is not allowed, but what you mine you own.

Now for a completely different perspective:

11/27 – Gbenga Oduntan at Space Daily – Who owns space? US asteroid-mining act is dangerous and potentially illegal – Author asserts that activity in space “requires international regulation” which means the US Congress has no authority except to ratify international treaties.

Continue reading “Diverging opinions on the U.S. bill to allow asteroid mining.”

Update on the wide open frontier of technology – 12/3

A few recent articles that fascinate me. Amazing things engineers can do. Pondering the lack of discretion from red-light revenue generators. Air Force use of civilians to pilot drones flying in combat zones.

10/20 – Link from Behind The Black – What the engineering wizards can figure out amazes this office-living accountant. Check out the huge machine that puts an entire bridge section in place.

Well, since I saw the video, the account has been closed. What it showed was a huge machine that advanced it self to the next pylon and pulled over the gap an entire bridge section and put it in place.

11/20 – Tymshft – Can robots issue citations? More importantly, can people issue citations? –

Continue reading “Update on the wide open frontier of technology – 12/3”

Update on marijuana regulation – use of pesticides in Colorado – #22

My hypothesis is that state legalization of recreational marijuana sales is a giant natural experiment to test whether heavy-handed state regulation will constrict a newly legalized industry.

My interest in this topic is limited to watching how regulation slows economic development. Recreational marijuana is a new enough and small enough industry that we can actually watch the impact of regulation. Here are a few articles on recent news I have noticed:

10/4 – Denver Post at The Cannabist – Deep dive: Why Colorado has struggled to regulate pot pesticides – Article points out the EPA has provided no guidance on what pesticides are safe on marijuana.

According to the article, this left state regulators and the marijuana industry arguing about what pesticides are allowed and what is banned. Multiple comments indicated regulators wanted more restrictions and industry wanted very light restrictions.

The article follows the typical arguments you would expect for any industry that is regulated by the state or federal government. See if the following sounds like the same story as in dozens of other industries:

Continue reading “Update on marijuana regulation – use of pesticides in Colorado – #22”

Ban on crew camps in Williston moving forward with possible compromise. Maybe.

The Williston city commissioners have moved forward with their plan to shut down man camps and throw housing business to the hotels and apartments in town.

11/24 – Amy Dalrymple at Oil Patch Dispatch – Compromise possible for Williston crew camps – On 11/24 the commissioners held their ‘second reading’ and voted 3-2 to eliminate all crew camps within the city and their one-mile extraterritorial reach. That means all man camps they can touch will have to be closed by June 30, 2016.

Oil companies say they need temporary housing for workers that cycle in to the area for short or unknown lengths of time.

The mayor indicates there might be some room for some sort of compromise.

Continue reading “Ban on crew camps in Williston moving forward with possible compromise. Maybe.”

More great news on the open frontier of space exploration

CRS6 launch. Photo by SpaceX. Used with permission.

Blue Origin launch. Photo courtesy of Blue Origin. Used with permission.

Two follow ups on the previous post about the great news last week on space exploration. Competition in bragging rights heats up. Guesses on the cost for the successful launch of a commercial satellite by Japan.

11/24 – Space.com – Billionaire Battle: Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk Square Off on Reusable-Rocket Test – The competition and bragging rights is definitely heating up. It looks to me like making the brags very narrow in scope means they can all be true.

Let’s walk through the brags in the article.

Continue reading “More great news on the open frontier of space exploration”

Do you really want to give up your freedom and become a serf?

What could possibly go wrong with giving a leader the power to fix all our problems? There is a great chance said leader will use that power to force people to fix things. You could wind up being told in microscopic detail every single thing you can do.

That would merely cost you your freedom and make you a serf.

In musical terms, that might be called, oh, perhaps something like Serfdom USA:

[youtube=https://youtu.be/JoDcM0bH8AY]

Continue reading “Do you really want to give up your freedom and become a serf?”

Mali and Central African Republic update – 11/30

Map of Mali. Image courtesy of DollarPhotoClub.com

A few articles I’ve seen on Mali and Central African Republic:

(Update: Oops. Title of post corrected. I dropped an “n”.)

11/28 – AP at Bismarck Tribune – Mortar attack on UN base in North Mali kills three, injures 20 – An estimated six mortar rounds were fired at a UN base in Kidal, killing two UN peacekeepers and 1 contractor, with 20 people injured. The two soldiers were from Guinea.

Kidal is in the far northeast corner on the above map. The terrorist attack earlier in the month took place in the capital, Bamako, which is in the far southwest corner of the country.

Article reports the government has arrested two suspects allegedly involved in the November 20 hotel attack.

Central African Republic outline inset into a map of Africa over a white background. Image courtesy of DollarPhotoClub.com

11/29 – Bismarck Tribune – The Latest: Pope welcomed to Central African Republic – Continue reading “Mali and Central African Republic update – 11/30”

Update on the oversupply of oil

Ras Tanura oil terminal, Saudi Arabia. Photo courtesy of DollarPhotoClub.com

More completely wild guesses after comments yesterday on Saudi plans.

On one hand…

11/24 – Reuters at Bakken.com – Saudi Arabia says ready to work with others to stabilize oil market – Article says the Saudi cabinet is making comments indicating their willing to work with OPEC and non-OPEC oil producers to stabilize prices.

Next meeting of OPEC is on December 4.

On the other hand…

Continue reading “Update on the oversupply of oil”

Time to cross the Atlantic – 500 year history

Replica of a state-of-the-art warship in the 1800s. That is how you could get across the ocean quickly back then. Photo of San Diego Maritime Museum by James Ulvog. — Replica of a state-of-the-art warship in the 1800s. For a couple hundred years, this is the technology you would use to get across the ocean. Photo from San Diego Maritime Museum by James Ulvog.

For a thumbnail overview of the radical reduction in time it takes to travel long distances over the last 500 years, look at the time to cross the Atlantic Ocean from Europe to America, provided by Robert Bryce in his book Smaller Faster Lighter Denser Cheaper: How Innovation Keeps Proving the Catastrophists Wrong.

Update – Another post on transatlantic crossings on October 1, 2018: Cost and time to cross the Atlantic has dropped by more than 90% in the last 500 years.

He points out at location 1582 of the Kindle edition: Continue reading “Time to cross the Atlantic – 500 year history”

Update on the oversupply of oil; Saudi plans

15 wells on one pad with room for another 15 wells. Drilling rig in background. Goal of OPEC is to shut down those wells. Photo by James Ulvog. — Fifteen wells on one pad (15!) with room for another 15 wells. Drilling rig in background. Goal of OPEC is to shut down those wells. Photo by James Ulvog.

Doesn’t look like Saudi Arabia will be cutting back production anytime soon. Seems they want to keep crude prices low. Drillers are responding creatively to the price pressure.

10/2 – Bloomberg at Calgary Herald – Drillers taking it slow on shale wells in bid to squeeze out more oil – Drillers are intentionally slowing down initial output of shale wells. That is called choking back. Apparently this has the effect of keeping more frac sand in the ground instead of being flushed out with the high initial flow of oil. Article says drillers choking back are seeing higher total recoveries from their wells than other drillers.

In addition to increasing production, this defers some production to later, when prices are expected to be higher.

This also means that initial production amounts (IP) are not necessarily an indicator of the estimated ultimate production (EUP).

In addition, this suggests total production from Bakken and Eagle Ford won’t be dropping as quickly as you would expect by the drop in drilling rigs.

Finally, you can file this in the category of human ingenuity always increases production. Also, file this under Peak Oil Is Still Wrong.

11/8 – Financial Times – Saudi Arabia will not stop pumping to boost oil prices – Links to the paper indicate Saudi Arabia has no intentions of dropping their production. They intend to keep prices on the worldwide market very low.

Continue reading “Update on the oversupply of oil; Saudi plans”

The dramatically improved efficiency of dramatically increased amount of travel in America over 40 years

The workhorse 737, along with all other commercial jets, have improved their efficiency tremendously over the last 40 years. Photo courtesy of DollarPhotoClub.com — The workhorse 737, along with all other commercial jets, has seen improved efficiency over the last 40 years. Photo courtesy of DollarPhotoClub.com

Robert Bryce dives deep into the astounding technological and economic advances of the last 200 years as he ponders Smaller Faster Lighter Denser Cheaper: How Innovation Keeps Proving the Catastrophists Wrong.

Yet one more reason the neo-Malthusians are wrong in predicting imminent collapse, according to Mr Bryce is

..that we are wringing more and more value out of the energy that we consume.

Consider that in Continue reading “The dramatically improved efficiency of dramatically increased amount of travel in America over 40 years”

Delightful news on the wide open frontier of private space exploration shows why I am so optimistic about the future

Recovered first stage, which landed a mere 4 1/2 feet from where planned. Photo courtesy of Blue Origin. Used with permission. — Recovered first stage, which landed a mere 4 1/2 feet away from planned impact point. Photo courtesy of Blue Origin. Used with permission.

Lots of fun news in the past week about the wide open frontier of space exploration. Three huge developments are:

SpaceX landed a contract for a manned flight,
Blue Origin successfully recovered a first stage, and
Japan successfully launched a commercial satellite.

What I describe in this post is the reason I am so wildly optimistic about the future. The astounding progress here stands in stark contrast to the foolishness and ridiculousness we see dominate the news every hour of every day.

The absolute best news:

11/24 – New York Post – The new space race is a private-sector affair – Editorial celebrates Blue Origin successfully recovering a first stage, SpaceX has already flown several resupply missions to the International Space Station, and Boeing & Virgin Galactic are also in the game.

The more competitors, the better.

First stages can be recovered after launch:

Continue reading “Delightful news on the wide open frontier of private space exploration shows why I am so optimistic about the future”

Megapads in Bakken

One thing that struck me during my September 2015 visit to Williston is the number of well pads with lots of pumps. Two years ago I was impressed by two or four pumps on one site. This trip, I noticed a lot of pads with 6 working pumps and lots of pads that were far too large for the one or two pumps in place. Obviously there are plans to put more wells on each of those pads.

The most amazing sight for me was a pad with 15 wells. Yes, 15. There are three in a row on the west side of the pad, six in a middle row, and six more in a row on the east. Will have several more shots of the site included in this post. The pad is at the end of a private road so all the pictures I have were taken from the nearby public roads.

Continue reading “Megapads in Bakken”

Fines for killing eagles are a (trivial) cost of doing business

The fine for one on these monstrosities…

…taking out one of those critters…

..is trivially small.

(photos courtesty of DollarPhotoClub.com)

Yet another slice-and-dice operation is moving toward approval in North Dakota. Interesting tidbits in the middle of articles about the project point out the infinitesimal fines for killing a bald or golden eagle. Conversation in two articles helps me understand why the potential fines for offing eagles aren’t stopping any wind turbine projects.

Why will the possible fines not stop any wind farm?

The cost is trivial, and that is assuming you even get caught and assuming you get prosecuted and assuming you actually get convicted.

11/18 – Bismarck Tribune – Rolette County wind farm approved – ND Public Service Commission approved the Rolette Power Development LLC to construct up to 59 slice-and-dicers with theoretical capacity of 100 MW at estimated cost of $175M. That is about $1.75M per turbine and an average 1.7MW per tower.

Continue reading “Fines for killing eagles are a (trivial) cost of doing business”

Author: Jim Ulvog