3-1 – American Interest – A French Exit Strategy for Mali
Check out this summary of the mess the French find themselves in: Continue reading “Mali update – 3-3-13”
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:
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:
Wouldn’t it be fun if the Bakken crude going to Delta’s refinery went into their planes flying to Williston?
Amy Dalrymple reports in Delta receives first Bakken shipment that Monroe Energy LLC, a Delta subsidiary that runs a refinery, has received their first shipment of crude from Bakken.
Is Facebook fading?
Possibly.
A Pew Research report suggests people are starting to disengage from Facebook – Coming and Going on Facebook.
A tidbit that struck me:
20% of the online adults who do not currently use Facebook say they once used the site but no longer do so.
If I read that right, one out of five people who go online and aren’t using Facebook used to be active. How’s that for a chill on your growth prospects?
Here’s a couple of things that ought to be keeping Facebook’s management and investors awake at night:
Nice photo of rigs in the Bakken
Beautiful picture of the North Dakota prairie with two active rigs in view.
Check out Million Dollar Way: Beautiful Photo of the Bakken.
Reminds me of when I lived in South Dakota. Except for the rigs, of course.
Quantitative Easing and other performance enhancing drugs
There was a big on-air confessional a while back. Something about bicycles. Here’s another interview that got overshadowed by that big one. Or perhaps it is an educational cartoon. I’m not sure.
Bernanke to Oprah: ‘I’ve Been Doping for Years’.
This cartoon gives a superb explanation in 12 minutes of a major factor about how we got into our current economic mess.
The format is an imaginary interview with the chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank, Ben Bernanke, as he confesses to long-term doping of the economy.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=orh64vypKwU]
Continue reading “Quantitative Easing and other performance enhancing drugs”
Illustration of tradeoffs in car safety
In this video, Milton Freidman explains the tradeoffs between making cars more safe versus the cost of doing so.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=faSa3r8WIU0]
The questioner, who hasn’t thought the issue through very well, illustrates the confusion on the issue. He objects to Ford designing the Pinto car to exclude a $13 part and in doing so costing 200 lives a year. The breakeven point is $200,000 per life.
Let’s look at those numbers.
Let’s stipulate those facts and numbers are correct. Don’t know if that is the case, but let’s assume so. Don’t know if that supposed memo actually exists, but let’s assume so.
That means it would have cost Ford $40,000,000 to put that part in all the 3,076,923 Pintos they built.
Dr. Freidman devastates the questioner by pointing out this is not a moral argument of principle. What the questioner is arguing is the value used. He believes the $200K number should be higher.
And that is the debate.
What value would you pick?
The new ‘49ers’ and ‘29ers’
No, there isn’t a new gold rush in California.
There is a stiff penalty to be paid for employers who have any person working more than 29 hours a week. There is also a serious penalty paid for hiring the 50th employee.
Why?
29ers
Employers with a staff person working 30 hours or more must provide health insurance to the employee or the company must pay a penalty. The insurance will cost several thousands of dollars a year. The penalty will be $2,000 if health insurance is provided.
Mali update 2-24-13
I had been thinking of not posting anything this week on Mali. Then I realized the U.S. is tip-toeing into what looks more and more like an extended guerilla war.
2-22 – Wall Street Journal – Defenders Outgunned by Islamists in Desert
Drones doing acrobatics?
Yeah. Today they can.
As Alex Tabarrok says at Marginal Revolution, Acrobatic Quadrocopters, image a micro-drone, specifically a quadrocopter, that can balance a pole, toss it in the air, and have another micro-drone catch the pole in the air.
Check out this video:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=pp89tTDxXuI#t=17s]
link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=pp89tTDxXuI#t=17s
The catching ‘copter recalculates the exact position to make the catch 50 times a second. It positions itself at the exact point so the pole will balance and right itself.
Here’s the question – how long do you think it will be until you can go to your local hobby story and buy one of these for under $200?
Movie production credits – crony capitalism at work
Just in time for the Oscars…
A post at my other blog, Freedom is Moral – Movie Production Credits – Crony Capitalism that Attracts Few Jobs.
At a combined price tag of $1.5 billion a year, state and local governments try to outbid each other to get production. The main issue is how much of a net drain those subsidies create on state and local economies. Check out the article.