Tuesday, July 31, 2007- - -
 Gotta love it!*
@12:51 PM
Monday, July 30, 2007- - -
Hmmmm...
I wonder if Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group has 40 members on its board of directors??
@9:13 AM
Saturday, July 28, 2007- - -
Temporary taxes aren't
Here's an interesting article on the Abandoned Mine Lands program. As the article states, the AML program started as a "fee" imposed on coal mines to pay for cleanup of abandoned mines. Wyoming certified several years ago that it had cleaned up all its abandoned mines and has been using the AML funds as mad money ever since. But in all this wrangling over the AML funds the one thing that's never suggested is that, if the abandoned mines have been cleaned up and the purpose of the "fee" fulfilled, why should the mines continue to be dinged for this money?
@7:21 AM
Tuesday, July 24, 2007- - -
A dubious enterprise
Here's an interesting article on growth and housing in Wyoming. On one hand, I agree that Wyoming's population will probably increase at a faster rate than the straight line projections we see at the Census Bureau -- when the state's population has increased by 5000 between 1983 and 2006, a straight projection is pretty darn flat -- but I haven't much faith in our state and local governments' abilities to plan for population growth.
My lack of faith is bolstered by all the really nice streets and utilities stretching through the sagebrush up in Manderson and such places. "If you build it they will come" didn't quite work as planned for some of the past state-sponsored infrastructure projects. Likewise, they pushed Worland a few years back to build a "business park", another set of streets and utilities out in the sagebrush, except they wanted to build it out in the Duck Swamp. Wanna buy some nice swamp land in Wyoming? Fortunately, the citizens of Washakie County didn't think you would, what with all the commercial retail and industrial real estate already sitting empty around the county, and refused to fund the scheme.
I tend to side with the 'let the market take its course' side on this and I think they're wrong to suggest that no one will build 'affordable' housing. "Slum Lord" is still a pretty well-paid position. Also, the cited sources of population growth -- the energy boom and boomer retirees -- aren't a population I'd think would be looking for cheap apartments. The energy boomers are boomers, they're gone the minute the boom goes bust, on down the road to the next boom town. We've seen that in Rock Springs, where entire housing tracts were sitting empty when we left in 1987. right now we're finding that it's very difficult to find a place in an RV park because all the energy workers have them filled up. They're not interested in buying a house, they want something temporary and hassle-free. Building housing for them is a risky business too. Some of those tract homes in Rock Springs were meant to sell for around $85 thousand back in 1980. By 1985 you could pick one up for $40 thousand and there were darn few buyers at that price. Lots of people lost their shorts when the boomers started walking away from their mortgages.
We're also seeing retirees and refugees from the city moving into Worland. They're not so much looking for affordable housing as they are looking for a house they can afford to pay the taxes on. The retirees own a home back east they bought 30 years ago for forty grand. Now that home is valued at half a million and they can't afford to pay the taxes on it out of their retirement savings. They're not looking for a rent-subsidized apartment, they're looking for a nice house someplace where property taxes are low. That's us.
These folks mean well and they do some good -- we did get a WCDA-backed loan when we bought this house -- but they're not bankers, they're not business people, and they're backing their schemes with other people's money. Of course the private sector is "... going to build where they're going to make the most money at the least risk." But that doesn't mean the state should step in to build where they can make less money at higher risk. That's just crazy talk, and all too common.
@8:34 AM
Monday, July 23, 2007- - -
 Pretty darn scenic!
Here's a shot I took a couple weeks ago looking west near the crest of the Going to the Sun Highway in Glacier National Park. A classic U-shaped glacial valley. It's hard to imagine that valley filled with ice.
@1:48 PM
 Ten Sleep Falls
We've been hiking all over the western US, but for some reason we've not done much hiking here in our own backyard in the last few years. That's too bad, because there's plenty of scenic spots an easy day trip from the house.
We've resolved to remedy this situation. Ten Sleep Falls is an easy mile-and-a-half off a good gravel road on the west flank of the Big Horns. And it's cool up there in the mountains!
@9:15 AM
A few more rules for Evil Overlords*..
101. Under no circumstances will my Evil Overlord costume contain any article of spandex and, as tempting as it might be, I will eschew the bare midriff look. I intend to be an Evil Overlord for a long time and I won't have my minions laughing at me when middle-aged spread inevitably follows from my debaucheries.
102. I shall endeavor to remember that orcs, storm troopers and, yes, even flying monkeys are unreliable henchmen. Whenever possible I shall employ lawyers, accountants, and stockbrokers in my schemes. They're not as glamorous, but they're just as evil and they get the job done.
@9:07 AM
Sunday, July 22, 2007- - -
And you wonder why gasoline is $3 a gallon?
In 2005 the federal government sold Shell Oil $44 million of offshore leases in the Beaufort Sea, off the north coast of Alaska. This February the federal Minerals Management Service approved Shell's offshore exploration plan to drill as many as 12 exploratory wells on 12 tracts over three years, including four exploration wells this summer. Shell has begun their drilling program, with all the logistics expenses involved in moving a mass of men and equipment to a remote area. Now the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has ordered Shell Oil to stop its exploratory drilling program at least until a hearing in August. Opponents contend that the Minerals Management Service approved Shell's plan without fully considering that a large spill would harm marine mammals, including bowhead and beluga whales. They say polar bears could also be harmed, and they question whether cleaning up a sizable spill would even be possible in the icy waters. [Sigh] They forgot the penguins. Seems to me that the time to hash this out was before the leases were sold, but that never seems to be the way it happens. Sell the mineral leases? No problem. Approve the plans of development? No problem. Actually let the oil company that bought the leases in good faith develop the leases they've paid for? Well, that could be a problem.
Asshats.
@8:06 AM
Saturday, July 21, 2007- - -
A twisted tale..
You would think that distruction of evidence would be taken pretty seriously by the justice system. You'd be wrong.
@8:15 AM
"Mouse may get reprieve"
Or perhaps it will only be a short stay of execution before we round 'em all up & ship 'em to the cat food factory. No trouble at all figuring out which side of the argument the leadline writer at the Casper Star falls on, hmm? Be that as it may, I wholeheartedly agree that decisions relating to wildlife management should be made with the best possible science and that decisions made behind closed doors tend to be suspect.
In that light, it's too bad the US Fish & Wildlife Service wasn't so concerned for the science when they reintroduced wolves into Yellowstone without first studying the wolves that they admit they knew were already there. Faced with the choice between starting a new multi-million dollar reintroduction program and grabbing the accolades of urban wildlife lovers, or protecting what may have been a very rare subspecies of wolf, they chose the bucks and accolades. In so doing they may well have directly caused the extinction of a species far more rare than their precious mouse, but I'm not holding my breath until they revisit that decision. (And it's too late now, we'll never know the nature of those wolves because they chose to throw science out the window when it suited their purposes.)
Perhaps this sort of thing is inevitable: The USFWS is a big bureaucracy. It's not a question of whether politics will trump science, but rather whose politics will trump science.
@7:26 AM
Thursday, July 19, 2007- - -
 I've been remiss..
I took a slew of photos on our recent trip through Montana to see the father figure, but wasn't able to post them at the time due to a shakey EVDO connection in Kalispell. I've finally gotten the photos downloaded from the camera and prepped a few for posting.
This one, of Lewis & Clark Caverns outside Three Forks, came out particularly well. The caverns are managed by the State of Montana and they've been upgrading the lighting systems. Part of the cave still has the old incandescent lights, but they're putting in new handrails with LEDs built in, and various other sophisticated lighting that really brings out the colors of the formations. There's a striking difference between the old and new lighting and it's worth a visit just to see that. This photo doesn't do justice to the incredibly colorful formations.
Lewis & Clark is a fairly small cavern, but it's one of the best I've seen as far as the quantity and variety of the formations to be seen. It takes about two hours to tour the cave and it costs $10 per person. Best of all, it's about 55 degrees in the cave, which sounds mighty nice right about now.
@7:17 AM
 Things that make you say Hmmmm...
I'm more than a bit late to this party, but I've just received this infamous email from an aunt, pretty much word for word identical to Snopes' version. The topic is the Moslem "Religion of Peace" demonstration in London on February 3, 2006, and the theme of the demonstration was apparently "death to the infidels". A truly swell bunch of guys.
What strikes me about the photos -- and this may have been discussed at the time for all I know -- is that all the signs being carried were apparently written by the same person with the same big black marker. Given the origins and social class of many European Moslems, I've got to wonder how many of them can speak English, much less read and write it. Some pretty vile sentiments regardless, but I'm hoping someone traced those signs back to their producer.
@7:01 AM
Friday, July 13, 2007- - -
Denial: It's not just a river in Egypt
Professors sleeping with their students is fiction, eh? Don't tempt me to name names.
This is one of those curious blind spots that we humans suffer. I've seen several instances where professors were dismissed when their "sex for grades" operations became known. I also know several of their former colleagues who still maintain that all those girls must have been lying, they simply can't believe that of him. Surely, they would have seen something! All the while the students were amazed that the prof's behavior was so blatant. How did he get away with it so long?
To be fair, it's certainly not entirely denial -- students see a different side of professors than do their colleagues, while grad students see a bit of both sides. The new grad student is often shocked, Shocked! by the nastiness of departmental infighting (faculty infighting is so nasty precisely because the stakes are so low!). The faculty see a colleague who's all brilliance, sweetness, and light (so long as he's on their side in the faculty melee), while the grad students see a complete ditz who hasn't mastered the subject he's teaching, an evil petty tyrant, happy to use them to further his career, or perhaps a great mind unappreciated. All of this, of course, is basic human nature. In the office we see the guy who's nasty to the secretaries and a suck-up to the boss for what he is, but for some reason this sort of two-faced behavior isn't so obvious in academia.
Ah well, I think a reality show about academia could be a big hit if it were written by someone like Jeff Goldstein, but I think many academics would find it terribly unrealistic.
@7:39 AM
Thursday, July 12, 2007- - -
Aaaarghhh!!
Fresh Frisch at Protein Wisdom and Jeff G. is taking some time off to deal with it. Stop on by and offer your words of encouragement!
@9:16 AM
Those hidden satanic messages..
Glad to see someone besides me remembers when Al and Tipper were prudes of the first order. I've got to wonder how Johnny Russel's, "Red Neck, White Socks, And Blue Ribbon Beer" missed their list. Wrong genre I suppose.
Ps. Is it just my imagination, or are the comments at Reason.com becoming more illiterate by the day?
@7:18 AM
Free State Wyoming!
How interesting. Here's an article that appeared a few days back in the Casper Star telling us about the Free State Wyoming movement. I always thought that Wyoming was a better choice for the Free State Project than New Hampshire. Of course, if I didn't believe that I wouldn't have moved here. Guess I should strap on a "sidewinder"* and make them feel at home..
*Actually never seen a sidewinder in Wyoming, most of ours are the common Prairie rattlers but nevertheless I'm pretty sure I wouldn't want to strap one on. The Free Staters will fit right in here in Wyoming, but sometimes I wonder about the writers and editors of the Casper Star.
@6:30 AM
Tuesday, July 10, 2007- - -
Things that may you say Hmmmm..
If I were one of the big-name bloggers, capable of starting a buzz, I probably wouldn't mention this, but remember the Flypaper Theory? Drawing terrorists to Iraq so we could fight them there rather than having them direct their efforts toward the US and Europe?
Now I don't know if any such strategy was ever enacted, but suppose it was. What would be required for the Flypaper to work? For starters, your average Joe Shoebomber may not be the sharpest tool in the box, but the financiers and leaders of the terrorists aren't complete idiots. Those leaders must believe that they can win a great victory against the hated West by forcing us to withdraw from Iraq in shame. Only if they believe that will they commit their forces and finances to Iraq.
If the leaders of the terrorists were watching only what we're doing in Iraq -- the "surge", our increased rapport with the Iraqi people, the increasing effectiveness of the Iraqi army, our successes in rounding up terrorists, and all such -- they might hold back or attack elsewhere (when you're overmatched you don't generally attack into your opponent's strength). But they're also watching what's happening here in the US and throughout Europe, where opinions are leaning toward withdrawal from Iraq sooner rather than later. Much has been made of the fact that this tide of opinion gives the terrorists hope and encourages them to ever greater efforts in Iraq.
But.. that only helps the terrorists if we actually do withdraw. So long as we don't withdraw, the calls for withdrawal don't help the terrorists. Rather, they provide the stink that attracts the flys. From that point of view, folks like those at the NY Times may be idiots, but they're useful idiots.
@9:13 AM
Saturday, July 07, 2007- - -
Happy Birthday!
7/7/07, the seventh day of the seventh month of the seventh year of the century is supposed to be a particularly lucky day and it certainly was for science fiction affectionados. Today is the 100th birthday of Robert A. Heinlein. I think I'll celebrate by reading Harsh Mistress, my favorite of his novels.
@8:28 AM
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