Usually Carl is the one with the interesting energy posts, most of which are about the doom and gloom that is going to befall us here in the US since we, in general, are not creating any new plants, nor upgrading our transmission system. I should start off by saying that I am no expert in this field, just a reporter on events.The line will be above ground, and as part of the approval, the PSC [Public Service Commission] required the use of shorter poles near the UW Arboretum, required a crossing to the north side of the Beltline near High Point Road, and alternate pole designs and additional landscaping near the Odana Hills Golf Course to minimize the line's visual impact.
This is usually a family blog, but I couldn't resist taking a photo of this sign in the storage room.
The venue was outside, and it was a glorious evening. I thanked a bunch of the bikers for hosting the event.
They had a bar set up outside serving beer and other refreshments to the crowd.
It was a small crowd, I would guess 500 at the most. A bunch of military were there so that was cool too.
Our guy won in convincing fashion. 
Player 1: Craig Counsell
I swear to god I would rather have hard nosed, gritty player like Counsell that hustles every play than a showboat like Soriano who strikes out all the time and doesn't try his hardest - offense be damned. And look at that salary difference! Nice value, Cubs.
I am going to the Brewer game today, hope Craig is in the lineup. He is my favorite player in the big leagues right now.
Finally - here is something odd. A "fish hotel". I saw this near a bridge and down by the waterline and had no idea of what it was. A guy seemed to be "sweeping" the water near the edge. I looked online and it provides sanctuary for fish - here is a link to an interesting web site describing the function, which apparently has been going on for several years, since this site references 2006.
Texas oil billionaire T. Boone Pickens has called off plans to build the world's biggest wind farm in the Texas Panhandle, the Wall Street Journal said.
Pickens said the wind farm project was scuttled partly because of the lack of adequate transmission lines to carry the electricity from remote locations to cities, according to the paper.
The oil tycoon had hoped to build new transmission lines but could not secure financing, the paper said.
Quality health care and low costs are luring lots of U.S. professionals
Researching rates in Seattle, she found that nurses run $25 an hour. In Panama City, where she has lived since 2007, they cost $25 a day.
At various times I have written about the "science" of project management, which claims vast increases in productivity and its new roots (mainly from the 1950's) but in fact compares unfavorably against many historical projects, such as this post on a railway built in Skagway, Alaska in a rapid fashion in a brutal climate over 100 years ago. This isn't to say that project management isn't important, or that it shouldn't be viewed as a critical skill set, but just to say that a proper historical perspective shows that project management has been around forever in various guises, even without mumbo-jumbo technical jargon created expressly for the field.Companies want specific industry or technical experience rather than project management experience, which surprises me.Let's think about this astonishing statement, for a minute. When a company is hiring a candidate for projects, and they have multiple candidates to choose from (which is pretty much the norm with today's economy), why WOULDN'T they look for someone from their industry (say, energy), with a specific technical capability (perhaps engineering), along with project management experience.
This is the pour of the LaBatts vs. Miller Lite. Almost all of the beers I have been tasting pour like this, then within about 30 seconds lose their head.
No matter, I remembered that I had bought Carl some Miller Lite in the plastic bottle as a reward for completing his quarter marathon here in Madison. I still had some left that I was using up as brat hot tubs. Whew!
My taste buds were still in shock after this tasting, so I took a few minutes to regroup and then did a tasting of Miller Lite vs. Bud Light. I knew that moldy stank would prove to be Bud Light's undoing, and Miller Lite gets the highly desired photo with me as our second representative in the final four. Lite will face Milwaukee's Best Ice in the semifinal.
Two more regions to go before the semifinals.
We might be surprised, but we won't be surprised we're surprisedBusinesses are often surprised by changes to the environment, even while they tout their ability to master the situation. One company I used to work with had a joint venture with CISCO in the dot.com era - at the time CISCO was touting their advanced financial capabilities, their ability to close the books a few days after quarter end, and most importantly their supply chain mastery that allowed them to accurately forecast demand. Almost immediately after that period of boasting, CISCO had a big inventory write down since they built too far ahead of demand and had to scrap the unsold goods and materials.
Proposition 1A was defeated, leaving the state's finances in a precarious state as far as balance of payments, although the state faced a huge budget gap in any case.These tax increases are estimated to raise $10 billion, with the extensions from Proposition 1A generating a further $6 billion. California has been struggling to close a $40 billion budget gap between desired spending and expected revenues in its $92 billion 2009-10 budget.
The main culprit is the recession, which caused a 34 percent plunge in personal income tax revenue during the first five months of the year.California now has an "A" rating on their debt, lowest in the nation, per this Reuters article. The state has $57 billion in bonds outstanding, and one way that they may pay bills in the short term is to go into the bond reserves for debt, which is likely to reduce their debt rating further (particularly for those issues), which also increases their long term interest rate burden since they will need to raise rates to raise the same amount of debt. Per the article, the debt rating agencies (Moody's and S&P) are on an alert for a "multi-notch" downgrade, if these events occur.
