Bakken Oil Reserve

I did some poking around for more information on the huge oil reserve I noted here. There is information at Wikipedia and also from this promoter of oil futures as investments. From these reports I learned the reserve is estimated to be as much as 10 times the size of Alaska's North Slope Reserve.

However, the real issue is how much oil can be recovered from the Bakken reserve. Due to the geology of the rock the oil is in, recovery estimates range down to as low as 1 percent. A lot of oil, but not enough to end imports.

I'll be waiting for "environmentalists" to start painting North Dakota as a pristine wilderness, more fragile than even the Alaskan Wildlife Refuge. That will be one really tough sell, eh.

Bo Ryan - Liberal Fascist

I am now seeing everything in terms of Jonah Goldberg's book, even NCAA basketball.

When I read the following at This Just In, it clicked that Bo Ryan basketball is fascist basketball. His focus is on the team, not the individual; and he doesn't focus his recruiting on finding superstars. His team also plays a physical style some might liken to street-thug fascists. This really jumped out at me when the article quoted the B-ball coach from La Follette High School promoting the Ryan system. How appropriate.

When Ryan’s Platteville teams were dominant, the respect for his tactics rose quickly, and high school coaches from all over the state flocked to watch his practices. Ryan did not have the best talent in the world, but he implemented a system that worked for his players and hammered fundamentals through endless drills. NCAA officials would marvel at his players’ practicing rudimentary tasks like chest passes during the postseason.

“We used to joke that our kids didn’t look the greatest getting off the bus, but they just executed,” said University Wisconsin-Platteville Athletic Director Mark Molesworth, who had to turn down several offers for tickets to the court dedication game.

Now it seems almost the entire state is running Ryan’s so-called swing offense, which is predicated on patience, precision and teamwork.

“The thing about the swing offense is that a lot of high school teams are starting to run it, and it’s almost like a feeder system,” said Reggie Williams, the coach at Madison’s La Follette High School, where the Badgers senior Michael Flowers played. “You have to be a cerebral player and you don’t have to be great one-on-one.”

I take some solice from UW's loss to Davidson when I look at the Badgers in these terms. A victory of the individual (Davidson star Stephen Curry) over the State (Bo's autonotrons) is something any free-market proponent can cheer.

On the other hand, Davidison out-played Wisconsin as a team, because they have better athletes playing as a team. Getting back to the linked article, if Ryan wants to advance his Badgers past the Sweet 16 with any regularity, he will need to upgrade his talent. That isn't going to happen by concentrating his recruiting in and around Wisconsin.

Cover or Original: Take Me to the River

My take on the Vodkapundit's meme, finding cover versions of songs as good, or better, than the originals.



A)





or B)





Cast your preference in comments.

Kegger!

Jump to the 4:00 mark for high production value content.



These kids are pretty awesome. Nothing stronger than root beer.

H/T - Jim Stingl. Really, I mean it. Jim Stingl.

Woohooo!!!!

Bad news for the Saudis.

America is sitting on top of a super massive 200 billion barrel Oil Field that could potentially make America Energy Independent and until now has largely gone unnoticed. Thanks to new technology the Bakken Formation in North Dakota could boost America’s Oil reserves by an incredible 10 times, giving western economies the trump card against OPEC’s short squeeze on oil supply and making Iranian and Venezuelan threats of disrupted supply irrelevant.

In the next 30 days the USGS (U.S. Geological Survey) will release a new report giving an accurate resource assessment of the Bakken Oil Formation that covers North Dakota and portions of South Dakota and Montana. With new horizontal drilling technology it is believed that from 175 to 500 billion barrels of recoverable oil are held in this 200,000 square mile reserve that was initially discovered in 1951. The USGS did an initial study back in 1999 that estimated 400 billion recoverable barrels were present but with prices bottoming out at $10 a barrel back then the report was dismissed because of the higher cost of horizontal drilling techniques that would be needed, estimated at $20-$40 a barrel.

Watch oil prices start heading to $40/barrel after the report is released.



H/T - Planet Gore

I Took Five

My god, look at those white guys swing. They're almost like an alien life form. The Dave Brubeck Quartet - Take Five.

I had my day off today. Now it is back to 12-hour days, six per week starting tomorrow. Overtime pay is a beautiful thing.

Dateline Madison

In an unprecedented midnight court session, the Wisconsin Supreme Court met overnight and ruled on the applicability of Wisconsin Statute 11.38(1). In a 4 to 3 ruling, the Court found that the statute, which forbids, absolutely, and without reserve, any corporate contributions to any candidate for office in the State of Wisconsin is not applicable to sitting Wisconsin Supreme Court Justices with last names beginning with the letters "B" or "C."

Asked to comment, Wisconsin Judicial Campaign Integrity Committee leader Thomas Hastings said, "Nothing to see here. Please move along."

Elsewhere, in a surprise move, WEAC, the Wisconsin Education Association Council, announced they will relocate their headquarters from Madison to Scottsdale, AZ. Citing Wisconsin's high taxes and poor business climate, a WEAC spokesperson also noted that the move will put the headquarters nearer to the majority of retired WEAC members and in an area with a pool of better educated workers. The spokesperson also noted that "the weather simply bites here, and we couldn't take it anymore."

H/T - Dad29

Turnblow

A very interesting statistical analysis of Derrick Turnbow's performance as a reliever at Beyond the Box Score.

Last year Turnbow had a BPIP of 0.94 - giving up less than a base per inning - and had a predicted ERA of 2.07, his real ERA wound up at 4.63, a difference of 2.56. With such a relatively low BPIP I looked into his WHIP numbers, regularly 1.32, with men on, and sure enough found an answer. It seems that Turnbow was a shutdown reliever, until someone get on base, then his WHIP rose to 1.80.

Simple enough to manage a reliever like this, just pull him when a man is on base. And do not dare put Turnbow in to "save" another pitcher's mistakes.

The instincts of the fans were correct. As soon as Turnbow gets behind in the pitch count, I cringe. I feel it is inevitable that he is going to collapse. Not I have statistics that back up my gut.

The Bottom Line: Derrick Turnbow deserves the blame for runs scored when the bases are empty. But Manager Ned Yost gets all the blame for runs scored on Derrick with men on base.

Real jazz

A cut above the stuff I put up yesterday.

Why the outrage, Senator?

2. Your date and place of birth and/or those of your minor child or children

Roger L. Simon put up a list of passport application requirements. The only thing that may raise an eyebrow on the list is this.

Senator Obama, have you followed in your father's footsteps here? What is on that line of your application?

Enjoy this Weather Report

Twelve and one-quarter inches of fresh snow. Has it stopped yet?

UPDATE: No, it is still coming down. 13-1/2 inches at 9:00 p.m.

Not even a flake of snow North of Hwy 42 on my trip down I-43. I just missed getting rear-ended by a commercial truck, but the guy who pulled in behind me didn't. That would have made a crappy 125-mile drive home even worse.

Hats off to the Milwaukee County snowplow dispatcher for sending a plow to clear the shoulder for a tow truck near Brown Deer Road. I began to fear being stuck in a Dane County-like blizzard back-up. But with the plows help, the wrecker got through and promptly cleared a spun-out SUV. Feel free to blame Scott Walker.

The most amazing things I may have ever seen

Click here.

Typical white person

Oops. Average White Band.

I can't wait to try this myself

Amazing stuff. Show this to an engineer and shwang - instant wood.



H/T - J-Walk Blog & my friend Greg who emailed the link.

Obama's Grandma. Scott Huggins.

I can no more disown him than I can disown the black community. I can no more disown him than I can my white grandmother - a woman who helped raise me, a woman who sacrificed again and again for me, a woman who loves me as much as she loves anything in this world, but a woman who once confessed her fear of black men who passed by her on the street ...

Tragically, Scott Huggins did not hear Obama's grandmother's one year ago on this date. He may have stopped elsewhere to fill his tank on March 21.

Shattering the dream

Before Obama's race speech*, the controversy was about the content of the words, soul, and character of Rev. Jeremiah Wright and Senator Obama. The color of Rev. Wright's skin and his racial background were never an issue in any of the commentary that I heard and read on this subject.

Senator Obama turned that on its head. He lectured Americans for over half an hour, making excuses for Rev. Wright, distancing himself from his Pastor, and pointing a finger at me.

I do not accept Senator Obama's blame for Rev. Wright's statements and racist attitudes. Nor do I accept blame for Senator Obama's racism. I also reject Obama's lies, condescension, and excuses.

It is tragic that after the sacrifices of the many Americans who fought for the civil rights of African-Americans in the 1950's and 60's, that both Barrack Obama and his spiritual leader have rejected Dr. King's words from two score and five years ago.

"I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character."

Senator Obama read these words. Give up your racist attitudes and reject your racist spiritual leader. Then write a new speech.


*I Googled it. The fastest way to find the transcript was to include the words "race speech."

7 Sins - Corporatism

This is too easy, I just wait a couple days and another of The Seven Leftie Sins is in the news. Daily Takes reported yesterday about efforts by Madison leftists (excuse the redundancy) trying to silence or marginalize Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce, the major lobbyist for business in the state. Corporations are here to be taxed to fund the progressives' pet programs. Otherwise they can go away.

Examples
Jim Doyle - Killing Wisconsin business, one job at a time
"Help defend our jobs from corporate America."
Hatred of Walmart
"Don’t go into corporate America. You know, become teachers. Work for the community. Be social workers ..."

This will get you shunned
"I stopped shopping at the Willy Street Coop, their prices are not competitive with Walmart."
"I interview with GE tomorrow."

Secular-Progressive Exemption
Becoming part of big business is ignored if it is done by leftie leaders. Hillary on the Walmart board. Gore becomes filthy rich due to his insider ties to Google and Apple. Bill cashing in with speeches to corporations worldwide.

Irish Music

The Saw Doctors




See them August 16 & 17 at Irish Fest.

EATAPETA Day

Eat a Tasty Animal for PETA Day. Details are here.



Yummo.

Career ending move?

I think ol' Larry the Cable Guy just jumped the shark. Thin isn't funny. Part of the Cable Guy's charm, and many of his jokes, had to do with him being kind of chubby.

I can also do without the Fat Larry before picture while watching the news at 08:00. If you have the stomach for it, the video is in the sidebar here.

Chickens roosting

Get ready for $5 a pound chicken.

Pilgrim's Pride makes no secret of why they are closing this chicken processing facility. They're doing it to drive up chicken prices.

Why? Because they cannot afford to sell chicken with the current supply-demand relationship due to high corn prices.

PITTSBURG, Texas, March 12 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Pilgrim's Pride Corporation (NYSE: PPC), today announced it will close a chicken processing complex and six of its 13 distribution centers in the United States in response to the crisis facing the U.S. chicken industry from soaring feed-ingredient costs resulting from corn-based ethanol production. These actions are part of a plan to curtail losses amid record-high costs for corn, soybean meal and other feed ingredients and an oversupply of chicken in the United States. The closings, which are expected to begin immediately and will be completed by June, will result in the elimination of approximately 1,100 jobs. Additionally, the Company announced that it is in the process of reviewing other production facilities for potential mix changes, closure and/or consolidation in response to current negative industry fundamentals.

[ ... ]

"Our Company and industry are struggling to cope with unprecedented increases in feed-ingredient costs this year due largely to the U.S. government's ill-advised policy of providing generous federal subsidies to corn-based ethanol blenders," said Clint Rivers, president and chief executive officer. "The cost burden is already enormous, and it's growing even larger. Based on current commodity futures markets, our company's total costs for corn and soybean meal to feed our flocks in fiscal 2008 would be more than $1.3 billion higher than what they were two years ago."

[ ... ]

Mr. Rivers added: "While the decision to close a facility is always very difficult, we believe the actions we are announcing today are absolutely necessary to help bring supply and demand into better balance. That portion of the demand for our products that exists solely at pricing levels below the cost of production is no longer a demand that this industry can continue to supply."

The unintended consequences of corn-based ethanol strikes again.

And again ... at the current $5/bushel, ethanol production costs $1.80/gallon for only the corn. When corn hits $9 a bushel this summer, that goes up to $3.20 per gallon for raw materials. Begging the question, what is driving $4.00 per gallon gasoline - crude oil or corn prices?

H/T - Belling

7 Sins - Patriotism

Thanks to the Reverend Wright, Patriotism is first to be featured. Patriotic is the last thing a Progressive wants to be called. America is wrong - by definition. Just ask Noam.

Examples
"The U.S. of KKK A."
"The first time in my adult life ..."
Attacks on military recruiters
"G** D*** America"
Code Pink

This will get you shunned
"No, I really do support the troops."
"I don't agree with anything he says or does, but President Bush was elected fairly and I support his office."
"Hoorah! I just enlisted in the United States Marines."

Secular-Progressive Exemption
A wink and a nod to any leftie politician trying to appeal to moderate voters. You are forgiven, we know you are only trying to get those hick's votes. "John Kerry, reporting for duty" is a prime example.

7 Sins

I heard these new sins on Monday's Fox & Friends and first thought they came from a left wing political group. Polluting the environment, excessive wealth, creating poverty didn't sound like they came from the Vatican. So I figured this was a list of no-nos from the secular-progressives.

When I finally heard the new seven sins purportedly came from the Vatican, I started my own mental list of what actions would cause someone in Madison to be socially shunned - The Seven Leftie Sins. Obesity, tobacco use, non-diversity started my list. Then I thought of the laws that Doyle has bottled up - concealed carry, voter ID, death penalty. When I was done I had a lot more than seven sins, so I grouped them into seven general categories that any liberal fascist should appreciate.

The Seven Leftie Sins

• Conspicuous consumption
• Pollution
• Christianity
• Corporatism
• Self determination
• Judgmentalism
• Patriotism

When complete, I also realized that for each sin, secular-progressive leaders are exempt from compliance in certain circumstances.

I'll explain my thoughts behind these, including the Clinton-Gore-Obama exemptions, in future posts.

No way.

Too gross to post. But if Mark Steyn can do it, I will too.

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) - Deputies say a woman in western Kansas became stuck on her boyfriend's toilet after sitting on it for two years.

Read the rest here, if you dare. It gets much worse.

Please, please, please ...

Let Spitzer's pal, 7-Diamond Jim Doyle, be Client #10.

Don't believe everything you see on the internet

HT - Texas Hold 'Em

WSM Smoke Day IV

May 24, 2008 - My place.

My Smoke Day III posts are here.

Shark Jumping

Belling jumps the shark.

It was sad to listen to this pitiful performance. A once relevant commentator wailing over an affront to his perceived self importance. He spent 45 minutes of airtime pointing out that the 'most incompetent' PR person in the world does not return his calls.

Free airtime two days in a row discussing an event at this PR person's institution. Who's incompetent now?

March Madness - How to Win

USA Today Weekend had these rules for winning your office pool in last weeks edition.

Rule #1: Don't sweat the office hoops fanatic (he never wins)

Rule #2: Pick one school you've never heard of

Rule #3: When picking an ultimate winner, go with the favorites

Rule #4: When all else fails, pick your favorite mascot

They are full of crap. Here are my rules, good for winning 2 of last 3 pools I played, even without following college ball all season.

Rule #1: Rock, Paper, Scissors. When in doubt - SEC beats ACC. ACC beats Big East. Big East beats SEC.

Rule #2: Upsets are for saps. USA Todays' Rule #2 is asinine. There will be upsets, but you won't pick them. Never, ever, pick anything bigger than a 10 seed over a 7. That rule holds all the way to the final four - 4 over 1 is ok, 6 over 2 is not.

Rule #3: The Big 10 will blow it in the end. Not 100% foolproof, but damned effective when in a pool with a bunch of Cheesehead homers. The odds of that 11th seed Big Ten also-ran going to the final four are nil, but enough of these dopes will pick it to put them out of the money.

Those Hollywood progressives

Performing in blackface was a theatrical convention used by many entertainers at the beginning of the 20th century, having its origin in the minstrel show. Al Jolson was the most famous performer to use blackface and thus is sometimes used as an example of whites propagating racial stereotypes in film. However, Jolson's blackface characters were always the star performers, as opposed to simple minstrel singers. Since leading black performers were unheard of at that time, either on stage or in movies, his blackface character would not actually be considered a stereotype.

"Since leading black performers were unheard of at that time ... "

Ah, how things have changed in America.

HT - James T.

UPDATED:

Hollywood dream presidential candidate.



A Hollywood liberal's dream, the self-satisfaction of voting for a person of color, with none of the guilt of voting for an African-American.

Deconstructed 4-Block

Why I will win the nomination

Barrack

• More elected delegates
• More votes nationally
  
• More states won
• Hope
• Change
• Our turn/our time

Hillary

• More battleground states won
• Momentum
• Obama - NAFTA/Rezko/Other new dirt
• Obama super-delegate buyer's remorse
• Inevitable

Why I can't win the general election

Barrack

• Rezko
• Michelle
• Most liberal U.S. Senator
• Empty suit
• Jimmy Carter redux
  

Hillary

• Tax returns
• Bill
• Blacks leave when nomination stolen
• Bill's pardon records
  
• She's Hillary

"They're like herpes but worse, cuz they talk."

Spoken like a true Bears fan

Who said it?

It's a bittersweet time as we celebrate one of the NFL's greatest all-time players.

What part of Favre retiring is sweet?

Michelle Obama - Islamophobe

Michelle Obama, who often has decried "the fear bomb'' that opponents have used against her husband for his middle name -- Barack Hussein Obama -- said in Canton, Ohio, today that it is happening again and shows why it's so important that he wins election as president.

"They threw in the obvious, ultimate fear bomb," Obama said today of her husband's 2004 Senate race. "We're even hearing [that] now. … 'When all else fails, be afraid of his name, and what that could stand for, because it's different.'"

The senator's wife said that rivals use innuendo to play on fears. "Just as they're saying it now," she said.

Would anyone but an Islamophobe be concerned with that middle name? Michelle must believe in her heart that the name is the fear bomb. I haven't heard it from anyone else.

Come on Michelle, celebrate diversity.

The Obama mole strikes again

Who is this supposed to appeal to?

The Clinton campaign cannot be this racist. Or this stupid.

The original discussion is at Althouse.

Ethanol - Crunching some numbers

Replacing just 10 percent of the nation's gasoline with ethanol requires an area three times the size of Texas for the process to be self-sustaining

I previously addressed some dubious efficiency claims being made by ethanol proponents here and looked at the economics and sustainability of ethanol production here. This post takes a look at the analysis of energy use in ethanol production presented in The Futility of Ethanol essay.

1. Production of ethanol using fossil fuels. The following analysis is presented in The Futility of Ethanol.

Crunching the numbers above, converting just 10% of our gasoline to ethanol will require 14 billion gallons of ethanol, 5.014 billion NEW bushels and 34.4 million NEW acres of Corn, an increase of 48% over our 5 year historical average, requiring an area the size of North Carolina and producing 24 million tons of byproduct.

Remember that little number, the 1.52 GGE. One way to interpret the GGE that the addition of 10% ethanol will result in a 3.4% increase in total gasoline consumption ((0.52/1.52) x 10% =3.4%). Another way is to assume that we must produce 52% more ethanol than the gasoline that it replaces. Now we're talking about 21.3 billion gallons, 7.62 billion NEW bushels and 52.3 million NEW acres, an increase of 76% over our 5 year historical average, or area the size of Kansas and 36.5 million tons of DDG.

This analysis is premised on ethanol replacing 10% of the energy of gasoline to make E10. That is not correct, it replaces 10% of the gas by volume, but not energy. E10 has a Gallon Gas Equivalent (GGE) of 1.035; hence for E10, 140 billion gallons times 1.035 equals 145 billion gallons of E10 to be equivalent to the nation's gasoline use. With 10% of E10 being ethanol, 14.5 billion gallons of ethanol are needed to convert the nation to E10.

Dividing 14.5 billion by 2.8 gallons per corn bushel, results in 5.2 billion bushels of corn. With 145.8 bushels per acre, 35.5 million acres are needed to produce the corn to replace 10% of the United States gasoline used as motor fuels when powered by fossil fuels. Somewhat less than the 52 million acres in the above analysis, but still a big number.

2. Production of ethanol using ethanol. From my previous post.

A 1.06 energy ratio means that you need to use 16.7 gallons of ethanol to produce 17.7 gallons of the product, a net gain of one gallon of ethanol. This can be justified from an energy perspective, but it doesn’t make any sense from a business standpoint. There is too much risk and too large of an investment for that small return.

Likewise, you would have to grow 16.7 acres of corn, for a net gain of ethanol equal to the yield from only one acre.

In order to create the energy and corn to produce 1 gallon of ethanol for use as a motor fuel, 17.7 gallons of ethanol must be produced. Therefore, 16.7 times 35.5 million acres, or more than 590 million acres, of corn must be grown to convert 10% of current gasoline to ethanol.

That's 920,000 square miles or an area more than three times the size of Texas! Converting that large of an area solely to ethanol production is not agriculturally sustainable. Especially for only 10% of the U.S. gasoline needs.

The E25 requirement being proposed in the Wisconsin Legislature shows the ignorance of the proponents, as it requires an area 3.5 times the size of Alaska if implemented nationwide and fueled by ethanol. That is approximately 80% of the contiguous United States.

Words to live by

No evidence of recurrent lymphadenopathy nor metastatic disease.

Opening act for TMBG

Oppenheimer