We need to learn quickly to keep up with the massive change around us so we don't get run over. We need to outrun change.
Print copy and Nook e-book are in addition to availability for the Kindle and another half-dozen formats.
The book is an intentionally short read at about 30 pages. The print copy has 20 pages of text. Focus is to quickly describe the differences between those levels of services using three illustrations: Continue reading “Newest book on differences between audits, reviews, and compilations now available in print and for Nook”
K Kaufmann from The Desert Sun has a followup report to the article I discussed here and here. Newer report, which I just read recently, is from 11/22/13: What to do about bird deaths at solar and wind farms.
Regulatory compliance reports are summarized for the Ivanpah solar farm. Here’s the data:
The wing-toasting facility’s mortality count went up in October. Not quite the trend needed to argue solar farms aren’t hurting birds.
Continue reading “Some updates on bird fatalities at solar farms (solar #6)”
The team at University of Texas San Antonio’s Center for Community and Business Research are busy, busy, busy.
The team just released a new study: Economic Impact of Oil and Gas Activities in the West Texas Energy Consortium Study Region . This one looks at the area adjacent to and just east of the Permian Basin.
Continue reading “Impact from another field in the shadows of Permian and Eagle Ford”
Opening photo is of a feet-up bufflehead duck 25 miles from the nearest water.
Where was he? Between two rows of solar panels at the Genesis Solar farm in the California desert.
Condition? Decomposing. He is feet-up, as I said.
Cause of death? Unknown. Your guess is as good as the reporter’s.
Chris Clarke reports in ReWire on 7-17-13: Water Birds Turning Up Dead at Solar Projects in the Desert.
Steve Cichon read through a stack of local papers from the first quarter of 1991 and discovered Everything From 1991 Radio Shack Ad I Now Do With My Phone.
Compression of size
In 23 years, all of the following products fit inside a phone: Continue reading “13 items in a 1991 Radio Shack ad fit in your phone today with a 90% drop in cost to buy the capabilities”
I’m slowly catching up on the happenings in the solar industry. In my research for this series of articles, I’ve learned the Palen Solar Electric Generating System was put on hold by the California Energy Commission this past December.
If you think I’m slow on the uptake, keep in mind the purpose of this blog is to learn what’s going on around me. I may be a slow learner but I’m learning.
Joshua Hill explains at Clean Technica on 12/20/13: California Blocks Another Concentrated Solar Power Project. Continue reading “Palen solar farm on hold – solar #4”
Is it targeted federal subsidies? Breakthrough law from the Congress? Socialist industrial policy? Keynesian monetary policy? Blockbuster documentary from Hollywood that changed minds across the country? More support for college loans? A landmark special on network TV? Quantitative Easing?
No. It’s none of those things.
Barron’s is pondering the question as well: The Secret of U.S. Energy Success.
Federal subsidies have produced a substantial increase in some things. The editorial provides a partial list. Subsidies have given us…
..our national surpluses of grain, milk, unemployment, nonprofit companies, disabilities, and mortgage debt.
Those subsidies didn’t produce the massive increase in oil production in Bakken and Eagle Ford.
The best paragraph from the editorial: Continue reading “What strange, mysterious, magical force is loose that increased US production of both oil and gas by one-third in six years?”
The Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System is a huge solar farm in California near the Nevada border. It is quite visible just north of I-15 a few miles south of the border. An article at the Washington Post by Lenny Bernstein provides a lot of background on the solar farm: Solar on a grand scale: Big power plants coming online in the West.
All photos in this post are of the Ivanpah solar farm and were taken by me in October 2013. Photo above shows one tower in operation and the lake-like mirrors around it.
Since I expect to be writing about Ivanpah and other thermal solar facilities in the future, here’s some of the general background from the 1,500 word article.
Operational description
Mirrors reflect sunlight to one of three towers, which heats the tower to 1,000 degrees. The tower glows white-hot when in operation. Continue reading “Background of Ivanpah solar farm – solar #3”
That’s the extended point made by Tony Nitti in a New Years’ post at Going Concern – This Year, Resolve to Finally Decide What You Want To Be When You Grow Up in Public Accounting.
This article is cross-posted from my other blog, Attestation Update. While the focus of the article is people working in public accounting, the point applies to every single person who has a job – invest in yourself.
Don’t rely on the networking, hand-shaking, going-out-for-drinks-after-work schmoozing, and drumming up new business to get where you want. (Those things are important in public accounting and many other fields.) Although you may have to get really good at those things, the first priority is to invest in your skills and knowledge.
Oh, as expected for any Going Concern post, there is a fair amount of naughty language and word pictures. Just letting you know.
Three superb comments: Continue reading “You want to succeed in your career? Invest in yourself.”
Previous post started a discussion of the danger solar farms pose to migratory and other birds.
This pair of posts is based on an article in My Desert on 11/9/13 by K Kaufmann of The Desert Sun: Palen project raises concerns across Coachella Valley.
A few of the known fatalities
Some comments from the article referenced above –
Thermal farm damage:
Of the 34 birds reported dead or injured at Ivanpah in September, 15 had melted feathers.
Dozens of other bird carcasses, not singed but with critical injuries, have been found in recent months at two solar projects about to go online…
Continue reading “Solar farms = wing-toasters (part 2, solar #2)”
The photo is of a dead northern rough-winged swallow.
Gloved hands extend the wings. There’s something odd.
Many of the feathers are gone. With the wings spread out, all that’s visible is the torso and charred spines where the wings should be. Looks like they were cut off.
Or burned off.
What could toast the wings off a swallow?
Continue reading “Solar farms = wing-toasters (part 1, solar #1)”
Okay, I’m using a very loose definition of field. But check out the following graph of combined oil production from those five states. We’re talking production level of super-giant fields.
Graph is from Carpe Diem, Shale prosperity spreads to Wyoming, Colorado, Oklahoma, Utah, N. Mexico: Combined oil production up 56% in 3 years. Graph is used with permission of Carpe Diem.
Prof. Mark Perry calculates combined production increased Continue reading “Another major oil play to keep an eye on: The Wyoming-Colorado-Oklahoma-Utah-New-Mexico “field””
New frontiers are wide open. Here is my latest list of articles on education (articles), publishing (1) and space (3 articles) that help me sort out the massive change around us:
Education
As I turn my near-sighted, feeble gaze across history, I see education as one of several major factors that lift people groups out of the grinding dust of poverty. That is why I see the revolution in education as a wonderful thing.
1-3 – Via Meadia – Winds of Change Still Blowing Through Groves of Academe – Continue reading “More good stuff on the open frontiers — space, education, publishing- 1-20-14”
I’ve spent a large portion of the day researching and writing about solar farms. Been going through a backlog of articles saved over the last few months.
Monday Tuesday will be the start of a series. Currently have 6 posts written. (update – make that 9 posts with a couple of articles saved for future posts.) Plan to accumulate them in a page like the Peak Oil series.
You will soon see why I have already started calling solar farms wing-toasters. You might say I’m not amused.
Stay tuned.
Audit. Review. Compilation. What’s the difference? – Illustrations using a football game, buying a used car, and filling a bucket.
What’s the difference between getting an audit, review, or compilation from your CPA firm? This short, 29 page book will help you understand.
Three illustrations help explain the differences: Continue reading ““Audit. Review. Compilation. What’s the difference?” – New book now available.”