Jim Ulvog – Page 51 – Outrun Change

The dark side of life…wage theft…nuclear proliferation

Yet one more illustration of why regulatory agencies need to be fully staffed – employers who rip off their employees…

A person who owns 15 hotels in North Dakota agreed to settle a federal lawsuit claiming he cheated at least 192 employees out of overtime pay and didn’t pay some of them a minimum wage. He apparently is not hurting for money since he paid up $122,871 in back wages and $61,436 in penalties a mere four days after the judgment was issued.

Continue reading “The dark side of life…wage theft…nuclear proliferation”

Second federal agent pleads guilty to stealing bitcoins from Silk Road

Two federal law enforcement officers have now entered guilty pleas to charges they stole bitcoins from the Silk Road site while they were part of the investigation of the site.

Other articles on Silk Road and the we-don’t-have-to-say-allegedly corrupt federal agents can be seen on the tag worlds far away I will never visit.

The Department of Justice announced the second agent’s plea on August 31: Former Secret Service Agent Pleads Guilty To Money Laundering And Obstruction.

DoJ said the agent pled guilty to the two felony charges brought against him: Continue reading “Second federal agent pleads guilty to stealing bitcoins from Silk Road”

Weaponized drones, military and civilian

Image of surveillance drone courtesy of DollarPhotoClub.com

A few of many articles on drones that caught my eye: precision of military drone strikes and possible weaponization of drones by law enforcement in North Dakota.

The second and third articles I’ll mention have a visible bias and agenda. Do I also have multiple biases and agendas?

You better believe I do. Read any five consecutive blog posts and you will quickly see my point of view.

The difference between those articles and this blog is that I’m not pretending to be objective.

8/27 – Wall Street Journal – Hacker Killed by Drone Was ‘Secret Weapon’ – This cyberwar stuff is going kinetic.

Continue reading “Weaponized drones, military and civilian”

More good stuff on the Bakken – 9/3

Photo of flaring at two well pad by James Ulvog

Here’s a few quick notes on interesting news that I won’t cover in a separate post:

9/2 – Amy Dalrymple at Forum News Service – Oil patch economy settling into ‘new normal’ – Looks like the Bakken is resembling a merely solid growth economy instead of an exploding economy. The growth of 2010 through 2014 was not sustainable.

The 16 hotels completed since 2010 actually have lots of vacancies. Prices are high, but you can actually find a room.

Update to status of federal charges against Keith Graves: 8/19 – Dickinson Press – Graves indicted for third time, demands evidence from state’s attorney’s office – Mr. Graves was arraigned on the third superseding indictment on 8/19, as scheduled. He entered a not guilty plea.

Continue reading “More good stuff on the Bakken – 9/3”

Two superb primers on energy

Without cheap, abundant, and reliable energy neither the construction, illumination, nor activity after dark you see here would be possible. Photo courtesy of DollarPhotoClub.com. — Without cheap, abundant, and reliable energy none of the construction, illumination, or activity after dark you see here would be possible. Photo of San Diego skyline courtesy of DollarPhotoClub.com.

I found two more in-depth discussions of energy. I’m writing this blog to help me learn what is going on around us. If you are tagging along on my learning journey, you really oughta’ check these out:

8/21 – Daniel Yergin at Wall Street Journal – The Power Revolutions /Natural gas, solar power and data-driven efficiency are making big gains, but history shows that the shift away from coal and oil won’t be fast or neat – Anything you see in print from Mr. Yergin is worth reading.

He points out that it takes an extremely long time to make any major transition in sources of energy.

Continue reading “Two superb primers on energy”

As drones proliferate, next tech leap will be countermeasures

Check out the camera on the bottom of that quadcopter. Photo courtesy of DollarPhotoClub.com

A recurring theme in the history of military arms is that a counter-measure emerges for every new technological development. Then a counter to the counter.

7/23 – Wall Street Journal – Next Step for Drones: Defending Against Them / Antidrone defense systems are a rising new business as military, aviation concerns mount.

Today’s illustration of evolving counter-measures is from the WSJ article. Small drones are starting to cause disruption, such as the presence of a couple of drones halted firefighting airplanes and helicopters at a fire near my home recently.

Continue reading “As drones proliferate, next tech leap will be countermeasures”

Bakken update – 8/28

A few articles on what’s going on in Bakken: tougher trafficking laws in effect, Williston Walmart no longer open 24 hours a day, $18 billion in state reserves, and new Williston airport moving forward.

7/8 – Bismarck Tribune – County okays windfarm near Tioga on a split vote – Landowners organized an effort to develop a wind farm which was bought by a commercial company. That effort has now led to a 75 turbine project that has been approved by County commissioners.

Continue reading “Bakken update – 8/28”

Wide open frontier, asteroid mining edition

Scientific wizards mining mineral resources from asteroids is one step to make that schedule possible. Image courtesy of DollarPhotoClub.com

As a break from the depressing daily news headlines, consider the incremental steps to figure out how to mine the abundant resources on asteroids.

7/17 – Space.com – Asteroid Mining Company’s 1st Satellite Launches from Space Station – Planetary Resources had a small satellite launched from ISS. It was a three unit cubesat measuring 30 x 10 x 10 cm or 12” x 4” x 4”. This will test a variety of systems and techniques that will be needed to mine asteroids. Pulling water and mineral off asteroids is a huge step in expanded space exploration. After this 90 day experiment is over they will launch another cubesat later this year (12” x 8” x 8”) to test the next set of techniques.

Why water?

Continue reading “Wide open frontier, asteroid mining edition”

Update on Thunder Spirit wind farm near Hettinger

Your view for the next 25 years. Photo courtesy of DollarPhotoClub.com — Your view on the farm for the next 25 years. Photo courtesy of DollarPhotoClub.com

In a sort of grand opening, the shell company that owns the Thunder Spirit wind farm invited the community to sign a turbine blade.

8/26 – Dickinson Press – Blade-signing event heralds wind farm near Hettinger – If you want to see how huge wind turbines are and why they are so deadly to birds, you gotta’ check out the photo that goes with the story. The cross-section of the blade, its width, is equal to the height of the people signing the blade.

The article quotes the Lt. Governor, Congressional representative, and county commissioner waxing philosophically how wonderful the economic impact will be from the wind farm.

Article does not contain any comment from the pair of golden eagles nesting two miles from a planned turbine. The couple did not provide any newsworthy quotes regarding the impact of the wind farm on their life expectancy.

Some other info on the Thunder Spirit slice-and-dice farm near Hettinger, North Dakota: Continue reading “Update on Thunder Spirit wind farm near Hettinger”

Open frontier, energy edition, 8/24

Two rigs on same pad. Photo by James Ulvog.

In spite of dropping prices for crude oil and turmoil in the energy markets, the long-term trend of abundant oil and gas is encouraging. The oil ‘glut’ isn’t going away, meaning we will have abundant crude for quite a while, and refracking may open the door to recovery of even more gas and oil.

7/6 – Bloomberg Business – Refracking Is the New Fracking – Graph of estimated production from shale oil guesses output will rise from about 2.2M bopd in 2012 to under 3.5M bopd now to 5.5M bopd each year from about 2018 to 2023. Then production will tail off to about 4.5M bopd from 2032 through 2040.

That is somewhere in the range of around 48 billion barrels of oil that was untouchable a decade ago. My untouchable I mean there-is-noway-we-will-ever-get-to-that-stuff untouchable. (Calc as a very rough average of 4.5M bopd x 365 days a year x 29 years {2040 less 2012}.)

It is possible refracking might come close to doubling that output.

Continue reading “Open frontier, energy edition, 8/24”

Swapping new solar farms for existing coal & nuclear plants will increase cost of electricity

Wind farm at a moment when the backup gas turbines can sit idle. Picture courtesy of DollarPhotoClub.com — Wind farm at a moment during the day when the backup gas turbines can sit idle. Picture courtesy of DollarPhotoClub.com

The forced push to replace coal and nuclear power with wind will cost consumers dearly.

8/9 – Wall Street Journal – The Price Tag For Uprooting America’s Electric Grid – A new study from the Institute for Energy Research (IER) looks at the cost of constructing new energy sources with the cost from existing sources.

This is a big deal because the EPA’s goal of transforming the power grid will require shutting down a tremendous amount of already-operating plants and replacing that power with brand-new, intermittent, renewable power. That means shutting down existing coal plants and building new wind farms.

Bottom line is we will be shutting down conventional coal that produces electricity at $38.40 per megawatt-hour (mWh) in exchange for new wind farms at an all-in cost of $112.80/mWh.

Here are the costs calculated in the study, in dollars per mWh: Continue reading “Swapping new solar farms for existing coal & nuclear plants will increase cost of electricity”

FWS: Complying with federal law would be just toooooo difficult, so guess I’ll just ignore it. Federal Judge: Guess again.

Bald eagle at Minot zoo who isn't at risk of getting chopped up by a wind turbine. Photo by James Ulvog. — Bald eagle at Minot zoo who isn’t at risk of getting chopped up by a wind turbine. Photo by James Ulvog.

Turns out that Fish and Wildlife Service can’t just let the wind industry kill off eagles for 30 years without considering the environment issues because understanding the impact would be too hard to figure out.

8/13 – Courthouse News Service – Judge Rules for Eagles Over Wind Power – The Fish and Wildlife Service decided that when it gave special dispensation to wind farms to kill off a few eagles here and there they could grant permission for 30 years instead of the 5 years currently allowed. Under current rules, after the five-year limit expires the permission would be reviewed before allowing another 5 year to off a bunch of eagles.

Continue reading “FWS: Complying with federal law would be just toooooo difficult, so guess I’ll just ignore it. Federal Judge: Guess again.”

Follow up on Zimbabwe hyperinflation – Government introduces coins for making change

ten trillion Zimbabwe dollars. Not the largest currency in circulation, but close. — Ten trillion Zimbabwe dollars. Not the largest currency in circulation, but close. Government is withdrawing them at rate of Zim$250T to US$1.

When I described This is what hyperinflation looks like, I mentioned the Zimbabwe government was withdrawing all currency from circulation. They were exchanging 250 trillion Zimbabwe paper dollars for one US dollar.

The $10 trillion bill, pictured above is worth US$0.04.

For many years US dollars and South African Rands have been used as the de facto currency. The two Rand coin is worth about $.16 so the one and two Rand coins are used for making change.

With the Rand depreciating after having been stable for a long time, there is need for another way to make change.

Continue reading “Follow up on Zimbabwe hyperinflation – Government introduces coins for making change”

50,000 wells to go in North Dakota?

50,000 more wells over the next 25 years? Drilling rig in North Dakota. Photo by Melisa Ulvog.

Guesses on the total number of wells expected to be drilled in the Bakken and Three Forks keep increasing.

8/14 – Amy Dalrymple at Oil Patch Dispatch – 10,000 Bakken wells drilled, 50,000 to go, Helms says – Try this on for size – The wells drilled to this point in Bakken field are one-sixth of the total that will eventually be drilled.

For every well in place, there are five more that will be drilled.

Continue reading “50,000 wells to go in North Dakota?”

Update on marijuana regulation – #18

I haven’t seen much news on the legalized marijuana industry lately. Maybe I’ve not been paying enough attention.

For a reminder, the reason I’m talking about this issue is my hypothesis that overregulation will severely constrain this brand new industry. This is a natural experiment on how regulation affects an industry.

6/22 – Bloomberg Business – This Survey Says That Marijuana Prices Are Crashing in Colorado – Article cites a survey by a brokerage firm providing the following estimates of recreational marijuana prices at retail: Continue reading “Update on marijuana regulation – #18”