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I've been reading a great number of articles by commentators who have expressed outrage concerning President Obama's shocking capitulation in the negotiations involving the debt ceiling bill. Despite the Democratic Party's tactic of blaming the "Tea Party terrorists" for the all cuts – no revenue, pro-billionaire legislation, a few pundits have seen through this fog to point out that Obama actually got the bill he secretly wanted all along. Glenn Greenwald presented a solid case for this theory at Salon.
Polling guru Nate Silver wrote two items on August 1, in which he analyzed the Congressional voting and demonstrated that President Obama – despite having been afforded the opportunity to include provisions in the bill to make it more economically stimulative and less onerous for those experiencing the greatest hardship from the economic crisis – decided to leave some available provisions "on the table".
Nate Silver initially made this observation:
Fiscal austerity at a time of economic distress, and on largely Republican terms, is not what Democrats thought they were getting when they elected Mr. Obama in 2008. Mr. Obama might have done more to make short-term stimulus – like further reductions to the payroll tax, which would not have violated the Republicans' ostensible goals – the price for long-term austerity.
Although it is impossible to prove one way or the other, I am not persuaded by the notion that Mr. Obama could not have delivered a better result to Democrats had he done more to stand his ground. Despite the dissent in the Republican caucus, which had originally seemed like a tactical victory for Democrats, the compromise wound up looking more like Mr. Boehner's original bill than Mr. Reid's.
Later that evening, Mr. Silver provided an analysis, which exposed Obama's abandonment of the objectives he was elected to promote:
These results seem to suggest that Mr. Obama left something on the table. That is, Mr. Obama could have shifted the deal tangibly toward the left and still gotten a bill through without too much of a problem. For instance, even if all members of the Tea Party Caucus had voted against the bill, it would still have passed 237-to-193, and that's with 95 Democrats voting against it.
Specifically, it seems likely that Mr. Obama could have gotten an extension of the payroll tax cut included in the bill, or unemployment benefits, either of which would have had a stimulative effect.
* * *
With that payroll tax cut, the deal becomes a much easier sell to Democrats – and perhaps also to swing voters, particularly given that nobody spent much time during this debate talking about jobs. Plus, it would have improved growth in 2012 and, depending on how literally you take the economic models, improved Mr. Obama's re-election chances.
As many observers have noted, the plutocracy has been able to accomplish much more with Obama in the White House, than what would have been achievable with a Republican President. This latest example of a bipartisan effort to trample "the little people" has reinforced my belief that the fake "two-party system" is a sideshow – designed to obfuscate the insidious activities of the Republi-Cratic Corporatist Party.
What follows is the transcript of an imaginary telephone conversation between President Obama and Roger Ailes of Fox News:
Obama: Hi Rodge!
Ailes: Hi Barry! Congratulations on the debt ceiling bill! Great work!
Obama: Thanks. I won't have to renew the Bush tax cuts again until after the election. That's a relief! Unfortunately, we're getting some bad polling numbers now. Problems with the base. I need you guys to lean on the "liberal" stuff a little harder. Both O'Reilly and Hannity have been doing OK on it – but I just wish they would get back to some more of the "socialist" accusations. That would really help rehabilitate my cred with my estranged base.
Ailes: The "socialist" shtick was more Beck's routine – but I'll get them on it.
Obama: I found some old pictures of myself with Bill Ayers that you guys might want to use . . .
Ailes: Ayers is sooooo 2008! We need something new. We need to get you to Syria for a meeting with Bashar al-Assad. When you shake hands with him – make sure you bow! We can get a lot of mileage here from that!
Obama: No! That will piss off too many liberals – especially the Jews. I'm trying to keep the smart people in my corner!
Ailes: OK. OK. We just really need to get you on some sort of apology tour or something. You could start traveling around to abortion clinics and promising them some federal aid . . .
Obama: Great one, Rodge! I love that!
Ailes: I'll plant some of our protesters along the way – the ones who've already been cleared by the Secret Service.
Obama: Yeah! Bring back that guy with the fake assault rifle! He was a trip!
Ailes: I have someone better. This guy has been posing as a "Tea Party activist" at "town meetings". He's a great new talent!
Obama: We could set up another "Joe the Plumber"-type of confrontation with that guy!
Ailes: Definately! I'll have my people put a script together. That story will have some legs that will carry us all the way to the election! . . . Speaking of legs – I'm getting some good numbers in on Bachmann!
Obama: How's our girl doing?
Ailes: Great! She's really gonna' kick some ass in Iowa!
Obama: I saw her on with Sean the other day. She's doing a great job! Are you guys going to start a scandal involving Mitt?
Ailes: I need to maintain plausible deniability about what Rupert's operatives are up to. You know . . .
Obama: Gotcha! 'Nuff said!
Ailes: Well, I'll let you get back to work. You must have loads of angry campaign donors trying to bend your ear right about now . . .
Obama: Yeah . . . But that's not where the real money is.
Ailes: Amen!


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1974-89 Porsche 911 Guide
What? Another 911 story? Hasn't more been written in the enthusiast press about the immortal sports coupe with the rear-mounted flat-six than about any other car? Is there anything left to say?
There certainly is. Not only does the breed continue to evolve, with the latest 991 incarnation a foot longer and eight inches broader than
the original, but perceptions of the earlier machines constantly change. Sometimes the cars themselves change, too, and they become what they were not. That's one thrust of old-
911 reappraisal. Another is the burgeoning obsession with originality, correctness and provenance in our world of classic cars, which rather goes against the trend for re-imagining old 911s. So, what happens next?
The three cars you see here are at the epicenter of the nascent seismic shift. These are the impact-bumper 911s, the cars from 1974 to 1989 whose bumpers were designed to absorb bumps at up to 5mph (front) and 3mph (rear) without damage in order to satisfy new US legislation. Behind the bumpers were hydraulic rams able to restore the bumpers to their pre-impact position, the rubber concertina covers at the sides decompressing in the process – but only
on US cars. Elsewhere, crushable steel tubes absorbed the impact, so they needed post-impact replacement even if the aluminium bumpers themselves had survived intact.
I remember the impact cars' arrival. They looked modern, clean, sleek: so much more relevant, it seemed, than the dated visage and cluttered tail of the original 911, whose design was by then a has-been look all of a decade old. That reflective red strip between the tail-lights, with PORSCHE capitalized across it in a giant logo, was an innovative bit of design later much copied by the makers of accessorized bling. And so the 911 didn't look dated any more.
Time changes the way we see things. Suddenly a familiar sight takes on a different aspect,
which is why the face of an impact 911 didn't make me think of a startled frog back in 1974 but does now. Also, when something is no longer new, what went before it no longer seems automatically less desirable. Often the opposite occurs, especially in cars, because the first versions are often the purest. They are as their creators originally intended them to be, before marketing/legislation/cost-saving/fashion corrupted them.
Which is why the really valuable 911s are the pre-impact ones, with the deeper hood flanked by horn grilles, the slender (albeit still body-colored) bumpers and the number plate set between the tail-lights. The difference is that values can be extraordinary, with a decent pre-impact 911 likely to cost at least $65,000 even as a low-power T version, and a top-notch 2.4S double that. As for 2.7RS Carreras, they would be an excellent substitute for the gold reserves that Gordon Brown sold off on our behalf.
But are the pre-impact cars actually better? Of course not. They are simply redolent of a gentler, freer age, and to eyes tired of the visual assault of brutalist, misshapen, oversized modern machinery their visual delicacy is a joy. Another powerful point in their favor is that they are immune to the negative vibes visited by some upon impact-bumper 911s, which are considered to be a symbol of what was wrong with the go-getting 1980s.
Do people really still think like that? The 1980s were three decades ago, and much has happened in between. Besides which, the impact-bumper 911 was already itself a decade old by the time the Krug was regularly popping in the City. Time to give the car a break, I think.
Meanwhile, another trend has developed. Not being considered precious in themselves, impact-bumper 911s have been recreated in the image of their elders. 'I look pretty old but I'm just backdated,' as The Who didn't quite sing. Impact 911s would shed their bumpers in favor of fiberglass-replica RS components; hoods and front wings would alter accordingly, horn grilles and other detail backdates would appear. You could go further and replace black trim with chrome and aluminum, or even make a complete RS replica. What the car then seemed to be, perhaps helped by a period number plate, became more important than what it actually was.
It's a well-trodden path. Specialist Paul Stephens, who provided the two newer cars for this feature, does it all the time. I've contemplated having it done myself. But now there's a new force at work, already well established in mainland Europe and starting to push here. The oldest impact 911s are 38 years old now, and pieces of history in their own right. They can't stay in the pre-impact shadow forever; they can't always be viewed as second-best, the 911 you buy only if you can't run to an early one.
For years the cheap eBay 911s, the tired old heaps, the cars run on a shoestring, the messed-about 'projects', have come from the impact ranks. They still seem new enough not to need complete restoration, although many actually do. That's how well they have aged: people think these cars are younger than they are, helped by the fact that to anyone but a 911 obsessive, a mid-'70s Carrera 3 looks almost identical to a 1989 Carrera 3.2. But the good ones – they're rare but they're there – are finally on the edge of stardom. They could just be the smartest 911 buys of all; easy to run, thrilling to drive and a sure investment in a way that a 964 or a 993 doesn't manage quite yet. No doubt their times will come, too.
Look at the cars here. Don't they look great? All three have, or have recently had, a $30,000 tag despite their age disparities. The 1983 SC in Hellbronze (gold to the rest of us) differs outwardly from the 1987 Baltic Blue Carrera 3.2 only in its badge and its front foglights, aftermarket on the SC, built-in on the Carrera. The India Red car, however, is a different matter. This is nearly as early an impact 911 as you'll find, registered in January 1975, and that unusual creature, a 2.7-liter 911S.
The S tag is a misnomer, really. Up to the 1973 model year, S meant the fastest (limited-run RS excepted), and the final 2.4S had a heady 190bhp. Designations changed for the 1974 model year – the first impact-bumper cars, with which came 2.7-
liter engines across the board instead of just for the RS. The 911T and E were gone, with the range now consisting of the simple 150bhp 911 (effectively the old T), 175bhp 911S (corresponding to the former E and sharing its green fan housing) and a Carrera – an impact-bumpered, series production RS with an identical 210bhp engine.
That last one kept the old-style fuel injection while the gentler versions got a new K-jetronic continuous-flow system. The Carrera also gained the new set-up when, for the 1975 model year, it became the Carrera 3 with the 3.0-liter capacity from the new Turbo and a power drop from 210 to 200bhp. Here lie the roots of the SC – but we're getting ahead of ourselves.
Unlike the Carrera, our late 911S retains the narrower rear bodywork with unflared arches. This fact, along with the chrome headlamp rims and door handles plus the bright aluminum glass surrounds, makes it an intriguing blend of early and later 911s, a transition between eras. It has the same-size tires all round, 185/70s on 15in Fuchs rims, the tail bears no spoiler, and its interior straddles eras just as the exterior does. This is a very pure-looking 911 apart from the clunky, if period, aluminum sill trims.
The dashboard has a speaker grille on its top and no vents beneath it, and the steering wheel is similarly primordial except that the spokes are filled in with a piece of safety padding. Door trims are plain, but dials are like the later cars' with red needles. There is no center console, and the gearlever's base is shrouded by a monstrously over-specified convoluted rubber gaiter.
Now, those seats. They are the first version of the 'tombstone' chairs which replaced the pre-impact models' heavier, flatter items with separate headrests. In this car the front seats' trim material is the tweed intended for 1975's Silver Anniversary editions, so it's right for the time even if this example isn't in the metallic silver that normally went with such chairs. A period option, perhaps?
I was fortunate enough to drive a very fit Carrera RS 2.7 back from the Le Mans Classic, and the memory is still fresh. That car, being a Touring version, weighed much the same as this 911S's 1075kg but had an extra 35bhp and usefully more torque at high engine speeds. Despite having narrower rear tires and slightly different suspension details, this S compares better than you might expect. It lacks the RS's ultimate sharpness but shares the surprising lightness, even at parking speeds, of the unassisted steering.
There's more. Part of the 911 'legend' as propagated in the press is the notion of the steering wheel's motion over camber changes, the gentle writhing in the hands that tells you what is happening under the tires and that Porsche wanted to eradicate for the 991. At that new car's launch we were told older 911s didn't do it. It's true; both the RS and this 911S have sublime steering feel, but neither writhes much because the relatively narrow tires don't generate those particular forces.
Lacking wide rear tires, the 911S actually feels easier to point into a corner at moderate speeds than its beefier siblings, because the back wheels develop their slip-angles sooner and there's less of a tendency to push the lightly laden nose wide. The corollary is that rear-end grip runs out sooner, so you'd better be ready for that in the wet, but up to that point this S actually feels more 'normal' than more familiar old 911s do. It rides with surprising suppleness, too – at least until the lowered front end of this example meets the bump stops.
And the engine? In 1975, Porsche was in sales doldrums after the energy crisis and was also losing interest in the ageing 911, looking ahead instead to the 924 and 928 to come. So not much development money went the 911's way, and every world market was obliged to continue with the US-optimised engines of low compression ratio and woeful fuel efficiency that had begun with the 2.4s. That said, even the RS had shared this 911S's 8.5:1 ratio, and it does make for an engine of extraordinary smoothness when revved.
The 911S actually goes very well, with much the same kick into life past 4000rpm that the RS shows, albeit without quite the ultimate fire. It's quiet and gentle at low revs, so much so that all you can really hear aft is the whine of the fan, but once roused it makes just the right sort of 911 howl. Contemporary road tests credited it with a 140mph maximum and 0-60mph in 6.5 seconds – a full second slower than the RS but still pretty lively. And, despite the lack of spoilers, it feels happily planted on a blustery, wet motorway.
To drive, then, this impact 911 feels much like its pre-impact ancestors, gives pace between that of a 2.4E and a 2.4S, and uses less fuel than either. Apart from the bumpers and seats, the character has barely changed. Yet 'backdating' this car to a pre-impact look could easily increase its value
by 50%: 'It seems ridiculous,' says selling dealer Nigel Jeffery, 'and it also seems a shame to corrupt such a nice car.' Would you? Should you?
I'll leave that question hanging while we meet the 911SC. Its engine bay looks almost identical to the 911S's apart from the red fan shroud, yet the motor is broadly that of the Carrera 3 whose arrival spelled the end of both
the original Carrera and the 911S. In the C3 the 3.0-liter unit made 200bhp, but that dropped to 180bhp for the first SCs launched for the 1978 model year, although torque stayed the same.
The Carrera 3 also bequeathed its wide-rear-arch body to the SC, a style similar to that of the old RS but subtly different in the detail of the arch lips, so the narrow-arch 911 was no more. Power rose to 188bhp for 1980, then with Porsche's renewed enthusiasm for the model line that refused to die came, for 1981, a properly high compression ratio (9.8:1) and a power increase to 204bhp. That's the spec of our SC here, with the 16in Fuchs wheels, Bilstein dampers and whale-tail rear spoiler (and matching front lip to balance the aero forces) that were part of the popular UK Sport package. Tires are 205/55 R16 front, 225/50 R16 at the rear – hence the ample back arches.
So there's a visual meatiness here that's absent from our 911S, along with black external details, discreet body-color sill covers, more prominent seat bolsters, diagonally-striped door trims, a three-spoke steering wheel and the vents and console missing from the S. There's also a bold 1980s color scheme in this cabin, mainly brown but with cream center panels in the seats. Was this the 911 pandering to the tastes of fashion? It seems wrong to me: a 911 should be a pure, functional car above such trivial concerns, and really it should be neutral black inside. Color is a distraction. I could go for the wacky distorted-check Pascha cloth option, though…
The heater controls are new for the SC, with a thermostatic control between the seats in place
of the two demisting levers and a slightly better chance of achieving the temperature and visibility you want. It's still fairly useless, though. This car's later K-Jetronic fuel injection dispenses with the hand throttle that previously sat next to those levers, relying instead after a cold start on an automatic air valve. But the first thing you notice after moving off is how different one 915 gearbox – Porsche's in-house, standard unit of the time – can feel from another. They are quite fragile and often need a rebuild, and our S's could be typically cantankerous, as could that of the RS I drove.
Not this SC's, though; freshly rebuilt, like the engine, the 915 shifts as cleanly as the best I've tried, although the looseness in the linkage will never go away completely. The lack of spring biasing from the first/second plane to the third/fourth makes the looseness more obvious because there's nothing to take up the slack, so you must remember to apply the right lateral pressure yourself. The light, cheap plastic gearknob adds to an impression of fragility that's odd to find in a Porsche, but once you're familiar with it this becomes a delightfully light, quick shift.
Of course, the floor-hinged pedals don't suit everyone (I like them), and the minor switchgear is famously random, but that stuff just goes with the 911 territory. Much more important is that the rev-counter is dead ahead and it's telling you just how eager this 911SC is. Again, there's automotive folklore here. The SC is docile, torquey, easy to drive very quickly without revving it to oblivion, but this one feels extremely keen at the upper reaches of the rev range. It's a punchier, fiercer engine than the 911S's, with a road-tested 5.7-
second 0-60mph time to make the point.
This one has stainless steel manifolds and heat exchangers (which give another 5-10bhp), so it's louder and crisper than I remember, enough so for the fan whine to be no more than overlay here. And the dynamics are different from the S's, with a much firmer ride, sharper steering with more tug and kickback, and a tail glued firmly to the road unless you really provoke it. It's less flow, more point-and-nail. And great fun with it.
Will the 3.2 Carrera feel much different? Its bigger-bore engine is up to 231bhp at the same 5900rpm; torque shows a proportionally smaller increase and peaks at a higher speed. That's why the pundits used to declare this a revvier motor without the SC's low-end energy, but it isn't really true. This engine, visually quite different from the S and SC's thanks to its revised digital injection and exposed plenum chamber, feels slightly sharper than its predecessor throughout the rev range, with particular energy at the top, but it's marginal.
Contemporary tests put its 0-60mph time at 5.3 seconds and the top speed at 152mph (up from the SC's 141), and fuel economy was significantly better. But those figures were for an early 915-
gearbox 3.2: this car has the later, heavier,
stronger G50 'box with slightly longer gearing and matched to a heavier flywheel, both of which take the edge off the extra pace potential.
The Borg-Warner synchronisers of this Getrag-built 'box put up less resistance to lever movement than their in-house Porsche predecessors, there's normal spring-biasing in the gate and the slop has gone. No question, then, that this is an easier, more forgiving change most of the time, but it can't match the speed and lightness of a perfectly-judged 915 shift should you be clever or fortunate enough to perform one. On a track you'd choose a 915; in traffic the G50 is streets ahead.
Steering, handling, ride, brakes? They are all much the same as the SC's. Interior? It's in light grey this time, calmer than the two-tone SC cabin and just about able to avoid looking irrevocably stuck in the 1980s. The steering wheel is another new design, this time with two full-width, horizontal spokes sandwiching a rectangular pad.
This 3.2 Carrera is lovely to drive, and unlike the others it hasn't been the subject of huge effort and expenditure. At 73,000 miles it feels fully fit and highly original; the downside is the knowledge that a top-end engine refreshment lurks in the future. Not so for the SC; it, and more, has been done.
Three impact-bumper 911s, the oldest almost a proper primordial 911 which just happens to wear different extremities. It's an ideal way to get the early-911 experience at a sensible price, and is eligible for historic motor sport events denied to younger 911s. Its value will always lag behind that of cars just a couple of years older, but the gap will surely close as this example's financial parity with its siblings here demonstrates, even though they're ostensibly better cars. It's on the way up.
So, too, will values rise for good SCs and Carrera 3.2s, as they become rarer and the poor examples fade out of serious contention. If a 964 or, even more so, a 993 are just too modernised for you, then the SC and 3.2 represent classic-era 911s while giving a properly powerful drive. They're durable, usable, dependable – and arguably they are easier to enjoy than that other impact-bumper 911 and past schoolboy fantasy-machine, the Turbo.
They're also affordable, especially the SC. So find a good one and buy it. While you still can.
'We've got a stack of impact bumpers and whale-tails in a container here,' says Charlie Wildredge at Paul Stephens Ltd. 'They're left over from cars that have been backdated. But we're finding it harder to do, taking apart good cars.
'We feel the impact-bumper cars will come back to life and then the backdates will themselves start to look dated. The impact cars are great value at the moment, but the market has surely bottomed out. Cars offered privately at maybe $16,000 to $23,000 look cracking value, but if you're paying top money it's important to see if there has been a top-end and gearbox rebuild unless the mileage is low.'
Paul Stephens himself also counsels caution: 'At that price they all need something. I'd say you need $32,000 as a baseline for reliability and not having to chuck cash at it. What you want is a car on which someone has already lavished a lot of money – like this gold SC, which has had $36,000 spent on it.
'As for which impact-bumper cars will rise the most, the 1974 Carreras are virtually RSs and are still undervalued – although you'll pay $130,000 for a good one. A Carrera 3 is rare and a good place to put your money. It's ironic that my first Porsche was a 911E – I couldn't afford an impact-bumper car back then!
'I can see a time when backdated cars will be forward-dated again… and we always make sure our conversions can be reversed.'
Time to take the impact-bumper plunge, then? A final note of caution comes from expert 911 bodywork restorer, and former Autofarm bodyshop manager, Robin Dalwood: 'Don't think that just because later cars are galvanized they won't be rusty. The galvanizing doesn't last for ever and these models are getting old. If an impact-bumper 911 hasn't already had new sills and kidney bowls, and maybe wings and B-pillars, it will almost certainly need them.'
Thanks to Paul Stephens (www.paul-stephens.com, +44 (0)1440 714884), Nigel Jeffery Specialist Cars (www.nigeljeffery.co.uk, +44 (0)1442 834638), and
Robin Dalwood (+44 (0)1296 655574)
Published Dec 7th, 2015

subset: commoncrawl


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Trayvon Martin And Why The Right-Wing Media Spent 16 Months Smearing A Dead Teenager
Written by Eric Boehlert
Appearing on Fox & Friends in the wake of a Florida jury found George Zimmerman not guilty of murdering Trayvon Martin, Geraldo Rivera's claim that Martin brought about his own death by dressing in a hooded sweatshirt the night of the killing was shocking, but not surprising. Echoing earlier comments he made on the program, Rivera proclaimed: "You dress like a thug, people are going to treat you like a thug."
It was shocking because the idea of a well-paid commentator going on television and blaming an unarmed teen for being shot while walking home inside a gated community because he wore a hoodie -- because he tried to look like "a thug" as Rivera put it -- is repellent.
So yes, Rivera's comments were shockingly awful and irresponsible. As was his claim that the all-female jury "would have shot and killed Trayvon Martin a lot sooner than George Zimmerman did." But his comments weren't surprising, because Fox News and too much of the right-wing media have spent the last 16 months zeroing in on the memory of a dead teenager and doing their best to denigrate it.
Apart from the far right's gleeful and disrespectful response to the not guilty verdict, there remains a separate thread of loud tastelessness that dates back to 2012 and focuses on the victim for all the wrong reasons, suggesting he somehow got what he deserved. (Or what he "sought.")
Remember the fake, menacing photo of Martin that right-wing sites passed around last year? And when The Daily Caller published tweets from the slain boy's closed Twitter account? Tweets that conservatives then used to portray the teen as a thug?
This week, Fox favorite Ten Nugent practically danced on Martin's grave, accusing the dead teenager of being a "dope smoking, racist gangsta wannabe" who was "responsible" for being shot by a volunteer neighborhood watchman on the night of February 26, 2012.
Comments by Rivera, Nugent and others were proof that a smear campaign was in full swing this week and a reminder the attacks are a continuation of the foul smears first unleashed in the wake of the killing. At the time, the attacks were an ugly attempt to justify Martin's death, to shift the blame away from the gunman, Zimmerman, and to cloud the debate about Florida's controversial Stand Your Ground law. (Rivera in 2012: "I think the hoodie is as much responsible for Trayvon Martin's death as George Zimmerman was.")
Trayvon Martin deserves better. Indeed, every victim, and particularly every victim of gun violence in America, deserves better than to have a well-funded media machine like the one led by Fox News targeting shooting victims for endless attacks on their character and on the choices, large and small, they made while alive.
There's something spectacularly misguided about wanting to turn an unarmed shooting victim, an unarmed minor, into the bad guy and blame him for walking home with Skittles and an iced tea. But that's what conservatives in the press have been doing, on and off, for nearly a year-and-a-half now.
Recall the Slate headline from March, 2012, highlighting the trend: "When in Doubt, Smear the Dead Kid."
Yet one of the puzzling questions surrounding the public saga of Martin's death has always been why the partisan, conservative political movement in America, led by its powerful media outlets, felt the need to become so deeply invested in the case, and felt so strongly about defending the shooter, as well as demeaning the victim.
I understand why civil rights leaders who traditionally lean to the left politically embraced the case, why they saw it as part of a long history of injustice for blacks, and why they urged that Zimmerman be charged with a crime. But why did GOP bloggers, pundits and talk show hosts eventually go all in with their signature brand of hate for a local crime story?
As Kevin Drum wrote at Mother Jones last year:
There's no special conservative principle at stake that says neighborhood watch captains should be able to shoot anyone who looks suspicious. There's no special conservative principle at stake that says local police forces should barely even pretend to investigate the circumstances of a shooting. There's no special conservative principle at stake that says young black men shouldn't wear hoodies.
And if you go back and look at the coverage of the Martin story as it began to unfold nationally in the winter of 2012, the conservative media, including Fox News, were especially slow to take interest in the matter. That's in part, I suspect, because there was no natural angle to pursue. As Orlando Sentinel columnist Beth Kassab wrote at the time, there was "no good way for gun proponents to spin the death of an unarmed teenager." The Martin killing didn't fit the far right's usual narrative about violence and minorities and how white America is allegedly under physical assault from Obama's violent African-American base.
At the time, National Review editor Rich Lowry even wrote a blog post headlined "Al Sharpton is right," agreeing that Zimmerman should be charged with the killing of Martin. (Lowry slammed the shooter's "stupendous errors in judgment" that fateful night.)
That same day, on March 23, President Obama answered a direct question about the controversy and said, "My main message is to the parents of Trayvon Martin. You know, if I had a son, he'd look like Trayvon." That quickly sparked a mindless right-wing media


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Par dion1 le 8 November 2008 à 23:08
The Graduates (1) (Buffalo N.Y)
aka The Question Marks (2) ref The Playboys (4)Personnel :
John Cappello
Bruce Hammond
Fred Mancuso
Jack Scorsone
The Playboys (4)
1957 - Don't Do Me Wrong / Why Do I Love You, Why Do I Care (Mercury 71228)The Graduates (1)
1959 - Ballad of A Girl And Boy / Care (Shan-Todd 0055)
1959 - What Good Is Graduation / Lonely (Corsican 0058)The Question Marks (2)
1959 - Ballad of A Girl And Boy / Concerto rock (Inst. by The Tune Rockers) (First 102)Johnny Holliday & The Graduates (1)
1963 - Goodbye My Love / Ballad Of A Boy And A Girl (Lawn 208)Biography :
In 1956, six guys decided to form a vocal group. They were frat members and high school students (mostly at Lafayette High School and Hutch Tech). Jack Scorsone, Ronald Page, Bruce,Hammond, Raymond Baunler, Harold Rogers and Anthony Mancuso called themselves The Rays. By 1957, they went to a Buffalo demo studio and recorded their one original song, Jack's "Why Do I Love You, Why Do I Care". Local DJ Frank Ward flipped when he heard it and immediately played it on the air. It got a great response so he called up somebody affiliated with Mercury Records, played it over the phone, and Mercury expressed an interest. A few days later the boys got an offer to come to New York City to record it. Two things happened as they set about recording - they learned of the already-existing Rays (soon to hit with "Silhouettes") and had to come up with a name change.
The Playboys (4)A nearby copy of Playboy magazine gave them the inspiration. And they had to come up with a B-side. Jack Scorsone sat down and wrote "Don't Do Me Wrong" off the top of his head. The group recorded it in two takes, with no chance to correct the couple bad notes that appeared! Back to Buffalo… the group was coming to grips with their whirlwind of success. In just a few short weeks they'd gone from demo to national label. Waiting for news of it they were asked to perform at a school assembly and were introduced as Recording Artists, to great adulation. And a few days later they started hearing "Why Do I Love You, Why Do I Care" on the radio.
Following the release of The Playboys' 45 membership changed and eventually settled into a lineup of Johnny Cappello, Bruce Hammond, Fred Mancuso and Jack Scorsone. They adopted a new name - The Graduates. DJs Tommy Shannon and Phil Todaro decided to issue a record on them, on their new label Shan-Todd (named for Shannon -Todaro). They'd previously hit with their first Shan-Todd release "Rockin' Crickets" by The Hot Toddys. The Graduates 1959 "Ballad of A Girl And Boy" came out as Shan-Todd 0055. Shan-Todd soon underwent a name change to Corsican Records, kept the same numbering sequence, in time for the next Graduates release ("What Good Is Graduation", also 1959).
They recorded this one at Buffalo Recording Service, scene of their first recording when The Playboys made a demo there. This time however it was a different group - John Cappello was now the lead vocalist. "Ballad of A Girl And Boy" made it on to the national Billboard Hot 100, at #74. The followup "What Good Is Graduation" did not make it onto the top charts, though it it hit the Bubbling Under The Hot 100 chart at #110. If there were local charts I'm sure these achieved Top Ten status, especially with the push the DJs behind the labels could give them. They were definitely played often on WKBW, a local station but one that reached far up and down the East Coast.
1959 - (L to R) John Cappello , Jack Scorsone, Bruce Hammond and Fred Mancuso
Whether they got properly paid for the records is anyone's guess. Standard procedure back then was that artists would recieve little royalties but could expect the make money with live appearances. Some big shows in father cities had to be cancelled when the still-young members couldn't get time off from school to travel! But the group apparently had their largest-paying show close to home, when they received the then-astronomical sum of $1500 for a show at Rochester's War Memorial Auditorium. With no real management, member Bruce Hammond handled the money and they all got paid.
With some shows, some TV appearances, nothing was breaking for them, and the group drifted apart. In 1963 a new single appeared on Lawn Records coupling "Goodbye My Love" with "Ballad Of A Boy And A Girl". Now credited to Johnny Holliday & The Graduates, apparently most of the group was not informed of its release until after the fact. "Goodbye My Love" is actually a retitled version of "What Good Is Graduation" making this single something of a reissue - merely compiling their two former A-sides.
Nothing much happened with this 1963 release, but it's then-dated sound couldn't really compete in the year 1963 with the coming invasion. That same year the Beatles 45 was released on Lawn's parent company Swan Records. An interesting and curious side-note is that many years later the group became aware of a mysterious record using their recordings. In 1959 a record was released on the First Records label, aka Another First, which contained "Ballad Of A Boy And A Girl" but now credited to The Question Marks. This seems to be an out take from the original Graduates sessions.
Johnny Cappello with the Tune RockersThe flip is also credited to The Question Marks but this is actually an out-take by The Tune Rockers ! Point of interest is that John Capello belonged to both groups, and Dick Lawrence - owner of First - had been involved in managing both groups. More interesting is the fact that the record doesn't seem to have been issued in an attempt to make a hit - the artists involved weren't informed, so there could be no promotion, and it was never distributed at all in their hometown!
https://wnyfm.wordpress.com/tag/the-playboys/Songs :
(updated by Hans-Joachim)The Playboys (4)
Don't Do Me Wrong Why Do I Love You, Why Do I CareThe Graduates (1)
Ballad of A Girl And Boy Care
What Good Is Graduation LonelyQuestion Marks (2)
Ballad Of A Girl And A Boy / Concerto Rock....
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Australian-trained doctor Huang Jiefu hits back at critics over ties to China organ harvesting
/The Australian-trained doctor under fire for his involvement in China's controversial organ transplant program has defended the practice and responded to calls for him to be stripped of honorary titles from the University of Sydney.
A group of fellow doctors have petitioned the university's vice chancellor demanding Dr Huang Jiefu's honorary professorships be revoked over what is seen as the unethical practice of removing organs from prisoners thought to have been forced into organ donation.
China's transplant program has long been condemned and sparked protests around the world because most of the life-saving kidneys, lungs and livers used come from executed prisoners.
China has announced it is preparing to phase out organ donation from condemned prisoners.
In a rare press briefing, Dr Huang, who served as China's vice minister of health for 12 years, spoke to a small group of journalists to respond to his critics, saying Chinese prisoners must agree to have their organs harvested before they die.
"Our government already has regulations related to recovering organs from death row inmates," he said. "Consent is not presumed consent - written consent from the prisoner himself or herself as well as his or her family [is needed]."
But some say approval from prisoners condemned to death is not meaningful consent.
Loading...Medical groups, the United Nations and the World Health Organisation have criticised China for structuring its transplant program around organs taken from prisoners.
As China executes as many prisoners every year as the rest of the world combined, there has been a steady supply.
Last year there were 5,846 kidney transplants in China and more than half of the organs came from prisoners. Of all liver transplants, 80 per cent came from executed prisoners.
"We call it human value," Dr Huang said. "Everybody has a weak point and a strong point. So in the human values you can say 'he's a bad man, he's not on the good side'.
"So then before he died he found his conscience and found he needed to do something to repay society. So why do you object?"
While Dr Huang, a transplant doctor who studied at the University of Sydney, says his own practice has not taken any organs from the prisons for two years, he continues to defend the policy.
"I feel that at first I respect the donor. I think that probably he committed some very severe crime," he said.
"It's not my part, it's the judicial part to deserve the death penalty. However I respect his last will. I respect the life he donated for another three people."
Doctor recalls removing dying prisoner's organs
Enver Tohti is an ethnic Uighur from far western China who fled to London after a traumatic experience while working as a surgeon in the 1990s.
He says he was forced to remove organs from an executed prisoner.
"It was really a terrible memory," he said.
"Our surgeon told us, 'wait outside that execution ground and come in as soon as you heard the gunshot', so we did.
"There was, I guess it was a prisoner who got shot. [He had] blood and mud on his face, so our chief surgeon said, 'OK, hurry up, your task is to remove his liver and two kidneys'."
Mr Tohti says the prisoner had not yet died when they removed the organs.
I have noticed that the gun wound was on his right chest, so I guess that was deliberately to make this prisoner not die immediately to allow some time for us to remove that organ when he is still alive.
"I have noticed that the gun wound was on his right chest, so I guess that was deliberately to make this prisoner not die immediately to allow some time for us to remove that organ when he is still alive," he said.
For critics of Dr Huang, it is practices like this which mean the man previously at the helm of such a system is not worthy of his association with the University of Sydney.
However, Dr Huang says many doctors at the university are prepared to back him, despite the petition campaign led by Professor Maria Fiatarone Singh.
"I can show you a statement from Sydney University Medical School. I've got strong support from there," he said.
"I couldn't make a response to strangers... it's unnecessary for me to pay attention to them because I have my values too, I don't want to waste my time to talk about that."
Professor Bruce Robinson, dean of the university's medical school and the man who authorised Dr Huang's appointment to honorary professor, has told the ABC the university supports his efforts to reform the Chinese organ transplant program.
China calls for 'understanding'
Within the international medical fraternity there are surgeons who see Dr Huang as a liver transplant champion, who has helped usher in China's new public donation system.
The donation system is crucial because - even with prison contributions - for every one patient at a hospital receiving an organ, 30 more are waiting.
But now China says its near total reliance on prisoner donations will soon come to an end.
"I have no objections to using the executed prisoners' organ donation if he or she has freely demonstrated that this is his last will," Dr Huang said.
"However it is the Chinese Government's determination to eliminate the reliance on the usage of the criminals' organs for the main source for organ donation.
"From the progress we have made, I estimate within two years we will eliminate the heavy reliance on the prisoners' organs."
However, Professor Fiatarone Singh says she remains unconvinced.
I have no objections to using the executed prisoners organ donation if he or she has freely demonstrated that this is his last will.
"I do believe that they are trying to move away from the system of using executed prisoners," she said.
"But the real point is, if something is unethical, then you don't suggest you are going to move away from it in a few years, you stop doing it now.
"By his own words, 95 to 99 per cent of the transplants were from executed prisoners, including the transplants that he did himself.
"So I don't see how you can give him an honorary professorship in the light of that knowledge."
But Dr Huang says the world needs to be understanding and give China a chance.
"Gradually we see China is changing, progress is being made," he said.
"It's a difficult journey. It's agony and sweat to realise the human value."


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As any collector of Patek Philippe watches or Shelby Cobras will tell you, when it comes to machines, it's what's inside that counts.
This is also true when it comes to the tax treatment of what's inside machines.
These days, most industrial or office machines — even dishwashers, for that matter — come bundled with embedded software. In some cases, the firmware, which typically sits on single microprocessor boards, helps the machines perform dedicated tasks more efficiently (network routers, for example). In others, embedded operating systems actually control the devices (certain computers, ATMs).
Here's where the story gets interesting for non-geeks. Most states treat capital equipment as property, and thus tax those assets at rates ranging from 1 percent to 8 percent. But in theory, a machine's embedded software — like any other intangible property — should not be subject to the levy. And in fact, a number of states currently offer an exemption from property taxes on the programs that drive capital equipment (see "Tax Code?" at the end of this article). Since sophisticated software often makes up the lion's share of a machine's overall value, experts say the tax savings can be sizable — particularly for small-to-midsize businesses. Notes Tom Cottrell, a partner at BKD LLP, a regional accounting firm based in Springfield, Mo.: "People underestimate what a significant component software is to so much new equipment."
That can be a costly oversight. Tax experts say some finance managers are simply unaware of the exemption for embedded software. Those who do know aren't always sure what monetary value to place on the programs. The problem is compounded by equipment vendors, which rarely break out the worth of firmware in a sales receipt. As Cottrell notes: "The hitch [in taking the exemption] is figuring out a way to explicitly value the software."
Hard to Figure
Managers at Indiana Ohio Heart can speak to that point. In the past year, the private physicians' practice in Indiana purchased four ultrasound devices worth $1 million. Managers at the health-care provider wanted to exempt the value of the firmware from the total price of the equipment for property-tax purposes. But the manufacturer of the machines failed to state the worth of the software on its invoice, complicating the process.
In April, however, the Indiana state legislature passed a law permitting third-party valuation of embedded software for property-tax purposes. The physicians group immediately brought in Pellegrino and Associates, a valuation specialist started by a former finance chief at a software-development company. The firm appraised the value of the software within the new ultrasound equipment, significantly reducing the price of the equipment for tax purposes. Mike Pellegrino, founder of the eponymously named valuation firm, says embedded programs make up between 20 and 50 percent of the total purchase price of an ultrasound machine, depending on the model and its features.
Consultants like Pellegrino have been busy since Indiana passed the third-party valuation law. In the past year, Pellegrino has assessed the software housed within a host of different machines, including telephone systems, networking switches, DVD-manufacturing equipment, gasoline pumps, point-of-sale terminals, printing machines — even egg sorters. Firmware is amazingly ubiquitous — Pellegrino says Caterpillar tractors are candidates for his valuation service.
Such introspection can pay off. Assuming an 8 percent property tax, a company that purchases a $2 million piece of equipment can pare $80,000 from its tax bill — not exactly small potatoes for small businesses. "You're paying $80,000 a year in property tax that you don't have to," asserts Pellegrino.
Nevertheless, a lot of companies seem willing to take the hit. Admittedly, claiming the software exemption can be a tricky business. Complications abound. Of the 21 states that permit the tax break, each has a different approach for valuing embedded software. In a number of tax jurisdictions, it's not entirely clear if a third-party appraisal is acceptable evidence of value, because no precedent has been established.
Moreover, some states exempt software applications but not operating systems. And several states follow the federal government's position on the subject: that is, they grant the exemption only if a machine's manufacturer demonstrates the embedded software value in an invoice. Says one valuation expert: "The laws are all over the place."
Can't — or Won't?
Getting manufacturers to document the value of embedded software, consultants contend, would solve many of the problems. Getting manufacturers to donate 50 percent of their net profits to Save-the-Kittens would also be swell, but, like the first scenario, it's not likely to happen anytime soon.
The reality is, many equipment makers don't want anyone — most notably, competitors — to know the value of the firmware in their products. And plenty of manufacturers don't rightly know the value of the software, or greatly undervalue it for their own tax purposes. One consultant recalls a recent conversation with a project manager at a European-based manufacturer of fuel-dispensing equipment. During the talks, the manager stated that the company values the software within its systems based on the cost of the microchip the program sits on. In other words, about a buck. Says the consultant: "That's ridiculous when you consider the $15 million development effort behind the software."
Russ Banham is a contributing editor of CFO and author of The Ford Century.


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Memory can often be elusive, and when stress or shock is engaged, the past can become mired in an impermeable darkness.
In One Last Summer by Richard Godwin, we are introduced to Rex Allen, a man who is obsessed with filming and photography. Lost in contemplation, he has only vague memories of how he came to live in a new house, with only few possessions. A living shadow, he is only brought to stark relief after meeting his beautiful neighbor, Evangeline Glass. Suddenly everything clicks for him again; the sound of the shutter becomes a loud tick, pulling him to an obsession of spying on her, and photographing her every move.
When he blackmails her into becoming his own personal model, a strange evolution begins to evolve. Evangeline begins to become someone else. A name he knows but not a face. He is searching for a past that forever haunts him. Can they both survive this strange and dangerous game of pretense?
I found myself both repelled and interested in Rex, as a person, a neighbor and yet a creep and inveterate bully. But there is also something that lies below the surface of his personality that does not quiet repel you as would be expected in such a case. Godwin has found a way to make you appreciate this character even though he seems quite creepy. He has spun an intricate tale of romance, horror and revenge in such a way that you are alternately confused, sickened and then understanding.
Godwin has spun a tale around tragedy and life, one that creates waves of concern and anger as his character delves further into his own mind to find the hidden truths. I was not sure how I felt about this novel as I found myself wrapped in the pages, it is like and yet unlike his other work, which is what I had been expecting. There is sadness and anger, romance and loss, and yet it is all spun in a package that you don't see coming.
This would be a great book for the suspense and horror aficionado, as well as those who enjoy surprise and romance. Full of diverse and strange often brooding moments, this book will keep you guessing till the very end.


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Authorities are carefully reviewing security measures for the July Fourth celebration in light of the deadly Boston Marathon bombings and disclosure that the suspects may initially have planned to target the Independence Day celebration.
The Boston Pops concert and fireworks display, summer highlights that draw an estimated 500,000 people, are among the host of upcoming public events, from college graduations to charity walks, that are prompting heightened security following the bombings.
State and local police officials would not say what specific measures might be put in place for July 4, but security specialists said they would probably include an increased police presence along the Charles River Esplanade, broader searches of bags and belongings, and tighter restrictions on movement during the event.
They are also studying security plans at other large public events, such as the New Year's Eve celebration in Times Square, to learn further ways to minimize threats.
Authorities expressed confidence that security — particularly since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks — has been sound. But a spokesman for the State Police, which spearheads security at the July event, said officials are studying ways to make large public events "even harder targets for someone to attack."
"The public should be assured that security measures include those that they see and others that they won't see," said David Procopio.
Governor Deval Patrick said Friday that the government would do "everything humanly possible" to make the concert safe, but called on the public to remain on alert.
"We're going to do everything we can, everything humanly possible, to make it as safe as possible, and we have done so ever since security was first heightened after 9/11," Patrick told reporters at Northeastern University's graduation ceremonies. "It's very important, at the same time, that people remain vigilant and be on a special level of vigilance in this coming year in the wake of the Marathon attacks."
Northeastern's commencement, held at the TD Garden, featured a strong police presence, including bomb-sniffing dogs. Guests were prohibited from bringing in large bags, and had their other bags checked upon entry.
For the Walk for Hunger on Sunday, organizers have asked the 35,000 participants not to bring large, bulky bags, and urged volunteers to look for unusual objects and suspicious behavior. More police will monitor the 20-mile route.
Ellen Parker — executive director of Project Bread, which holds the annual walk — said organizers decided to make the changes after consulting with police. After the bombings, fund-raising and registration slowed, and one school group pulled out of the event. Supporters wanted to know what plans were in place to make the race safe.
"If public safety told us that it wasn't going to happen, then we were not going to do it," she said. "But we were getting so many calls from people who said they wanted the walk to continue because the cause is so great."
In Cambridge this week, police gathered to review security plans for Sunday's MayFair, a Harvard Square festival that attracts about 7,000 people. Cambridge police also help cover several other events, including the Head of the Charles Regatta and the Cambridge Caribbean Carnival, that draw scores of spectators.
"Law enforcement is definitely looking at placing some type of access restrictions and security checks at most of these events,'' said Deputy Superintendent Jack Albert. "There will also be additional police presence."
In Boston, organizers of the city's Caribbean Carnival in late August are also planning additional measures and are meeting with police later this month, far earlier than usual, to look for potential "gray areas" in security.
"We've worked closely with state troopers and Boston police over the years,'' said Shirley Shillingford, president of the popular event. "We are looking at how we, as people in the neighborhood, can help them to do their job."
Security specialists say large outdoor events like the July Fourth celebration are inherently vulnerable to attack, soft targets that cannot be made fully secure without changing the fundamental nature of the event.
"Whenever you have a crowd of people coming together, there's a potential for bad things to happen," said Henry Willis, director of the RAND Homeland Security and Defense Center.
At the same time, major events in a single location give authorities time to bolster security.
After the Marathon bombing, spectators may well be more attuned to their surroundings, making them more likely to notice suspicious behavior, specialists say. "You can protect each other," Willis said.
Authorities echoed the call for vigilance.
"We do not want people to live in fear," Procopio said. "All we ask is that they continue to be alert to anyone or anything that doesn't look right and call 911 immediately if they do see something."
Currently, spectators must pass through one of three entrances to the lawn in front of the Hatch Shell to have their bags checked. Alcoholic beverages, glass containers, large tarps, and any sharp objects are confiscated. After 6 p.m., admission is closed due to "crowds and public safety concerns," according to the event website.
While bags are fully searched, there are no metal detectors.
Edward F. Davis, the Boston police commissioner, said Friday that after the Marathon bombings, authorities are renewing efforts to provide "the highest level of security possible."
"We're going to be there July Fourth to make people feel safe," he said. "They should not be afraid to come into the city."
As graduation season begins, colleges have also taken steps to bolster security, as Northeastern did Friday.
"I think in the current environment, it's in everyone's best interest to be careful," said Ellen de Graffenreid, a spokeswoman for Brandeis University, which will have a heightened police presence at its May 19 ceremony.
Simmons College is asking attendees not to bring large bags and not to leave any belongings unattended.
"Public venues throughout the country are increasing security in light of these events; this should not be viewed as an indication of any increased threat to the Boston area," the college said in its announcement.
Roger Cressey, security consultant and former White House counterterrorism adviser, said universities are doing their best to make guests feel safe, even if the actual threat is minimal.
"The message [colleges] must have is that we acknowledge this is a higher time of security awareness, and we are taking action," Cressey said.
Brian Ballou of the Globe staff and correspondent Katherine Landergan contributed to this report. Meghan Irons can be reached at firstname.lastname@example.com.


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At the Libraries: Getting Rid of Old Book Smell
Not sure you want that "old book smell?" I love it, but if you've got some funkier odors to deal with, here are some great tricks to get rid of them!
Librarians, are you still hanging onto your old card catalogs? Here's a creative way to turn those cards into art.
What about old newspapers? Sure, you can recycle them—or you can make an amazing nine-mile-long sculpture.
If you think you love books, then why haven't you made shoes out of them?
As a children's librarian, I might quibble with these two categories, but it's still very funny. (Via Fuse#8.)
Here's another "only in Brooklyn": the indie subway newsstand. (That was my subway stop back in the day, so I am qualified to make fun of Brooklyn, okay?)
Libraries are going to help you get health insurance!
If you're trying to save your local library from closing, maybe you could hire Rosalind Gutierrez?
So, I know you're all wondering: What are the Avett Brothers reading these days? I enjoyed Middlesex, too!
And here's some more book art I can definitely appreciate!
I recognize all of these covers! Which is your favorite version of Harriet the Spy?
Here's a nice reflection on what the library means to one guy. (Thanks to Elizabeth!)
These books could all be such great movies, but Hollywood would probably ruin them, right?
Summer reading: yes or no? I personally loved it, but then, I did grow up to be a librarian...
I just can't resist a list of books, and this is a very, very good one.
Thanks for reading, and I will see you all back here next month. I'm always happy to share any library and literary news you have, so leave suggestions in the comments!


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What exactly is an Android phone? It depends on which brand is in your pocket. Apple Inc. strictly standardizes the iPhone's software and hardware, but Android phone makers HTC, Samsung, and LG each serve up starkly different devices.
Then last year Google Inc., the creator of Android software, bought Motorola Mobility, the hardware company that invented the cellphone. At last, Google could build the definitive Android phone, a seamless blend of hardware and software.
I expected to be happily blown away by the results.
But my socks remain firmly in place after testing Google's new Moto X, which will soon be available from major US cellular carriers. It doesn't seem worthy of its $199.99 price tag. That's the same as you would pay for higher-end Android hardware like the Samsung Galaxy S4 or my beloved HTC One, but with the Moto X you get middling hardware features and a decent but unexciting design.
Most phones in this price range have quad-core processors; the Moto X gets a dual core. Its screen is smaller than other higher-end phones, and its resolution is lower. But knock $100 or so off the price, and I'd call it a keeper.
To its credit, Google hasn't stuffed it with gaudy gimmicks, like the Galaxy S4's eye-tracking technology. Instead it has delivered innovations of the best sort — the kind you may actually use.
I tested a Moto X sheathed in pearly-white plastic, not the best look for me. But Google has done an exclusive deal with AT&T Inc. to offer customized Moto X phones at no additional cost. Want one that's black in front with a red backplate? No problem. You can choose from hundreds of possible color combinations, and get the phone delivered to your home in about four days. It won't be flown in from a Chinese factory, either; Google is building the Moto X in Fort Worth.
The new phone takes Android's speech-recognition capabilities to a new level. These days, you must launch the Google Now search app before rattling off commands. The Moto X uses a new version that is active at all times. You first train the phone to recognize your voice, then activate it by saying "OK Google Now." After that you can issue a variety of voice commands. Tell it to place a call to your spouse's cellphone, look up the Red Sox score, or tell you tomorrow's weather.
You can do all this without touching the phone; you just start talking.
Even when the Moto X is asleep, it's awake. With a battery-conserving on-and-off pulse, the phone displays the time, as well as icons that alert you to incoming texts, e-mail, and voice mail messages. According to Motorola, the Moto X knows when it's in your pocket and shuts down the display completely, like a refrigerator light when the door is closed.
Motorola's Droid phones have long offered Smart Actions, an app that varies the phone's behavior depending on what the user is doing. This service has been rebranded as Motorola Access on the Moto X. When you're driving a car, Access can read incoming text messages aloud. Then you can tell the phone to send a generic reply, basically, "I'll get back to you later." Or tell Access your hours of sleep, and it will shut off the phone's ringer every night at bedtime.
The Moto X shares another slick feature with the newest Droids — a quick way to take pictures with the phone's 10-megapixel camera. The camera itself is pretty standard for smartphones, with adequate image quality that goes south quickly if you use the digital zoom feature. But what if the phone is asleep and you need to take a shot right now? With the Moto X, you just twist your wrist two or three times. The phone wakes up and activates the camera app.
Still another brainy feature, Motorola Connect, lets you access phone features through your desktop computer. Install an app in Google's Chrome browser, and you can see a log of incoming phone calls or read and reply to text messages.
These upgrades may seem less than spectacular. But taken together, we can see where Google is heading. Enough with constantly stroking screens and launching apps. Google wants Android devices with an elegant simplicity that even the iPhone can't match, phones so well-attuned to their users that we'll hardly need to touch them.
The Moto X is a bit underpowered and overpriced for my tastes, but it's a good first step.
Hiawatha Bray can be reached at firstname.lastname@example.com.


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By Antonio M. Battro, OLPC's Chief Education Officer
Jeffrey James wrote a critique of OLPC last year, proposing a balanced pattern of "sharing computers" among children (say 5 children per computer, in the US or the UK) instead of the olpc "one to one" model – one laptop per child (and per teacher). As an alternative to olpc, James proposes that "the number of students per laptop stands in roughly the same ratio as the difference in per capita incomes between the rich and the poor country" (p. 385). In his view, the OLPC idea to persuade the developing countries to exceed the standards of shared computers of developed countries seems "utterly perverse" (p. 386).
It seems that his reasoning will fail if we substitute mobile phones for laptops. We don't frequently share mobile phones, and in many poor countries their number exceeds James's predictions about ratios of income and information and communication technologies in the hands of people. It seems difficult to accept the universality of his model about "sharingâ€, because laptops, tablets and mobile phones are rapidly converging in new hybrids.
On the other side, his ideas for successful low-cost technology sharing are not clear. One of his options, for instance, is "to purchase Intel's Classmate computer at a similarly low price and let [them] be shared by as many students as is thought desirable†(p.389). In Argentina, where the Classmate has been most widely adopted, the national government is deploying some 3 million Classmates to cover the whole population of students and teachers of the secondary public schools in the country, on a one to one basis – an idea first proposed by OLPC some 5 years ago. It would be interesting to know the current state of affairs of other options he references (Simputer, NComputing, sharing multiple mice). However the quoted references are from 2006 and 2008, and 3-5 years is a long time in the digital era.
From the point of view of psychology and education, some comments about "teaching†need careful revision. First, in his paper James never speaks of the need to give laptops to the teachers, despite the significant mass of teachers in the world. On the contrary, OLPC programs start in every country by giving a laptop per teacher and providing corresponding teacher training. We know that a) "digital skills†develop in stages from the very early ages, as a second language (Battro & Denham, 2007) and b) most teachers didn't have the opportunity to early access to this new global environment in the poor and developing countries.


text: Basswood sheets are used in variety of hobbies, crafts, carving and miniature projects. Basswood sheets used extensively for school projects like bridge and tower building contests. Easily cut and shaped with basic wood tools. Basswood is perfect material for carving and staining. Basswood sheets available in wide variety of sizes, we also offer wide variety of basswood sticks, strips and blocks.


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"I'm the ultimate rock 'n' roll sideman," says former Van Halen bassist and current Chickenfoot member Michael Anthony.
"But that doesn't mean a 'sideman' isn't vital," he stresses. "I'm the kind of guy who has your back. When you want to go off and solo for ten minutes, I keep that groove going. It's an important job."
Since he first came to the public's attention in 1978 on Van Halen's revolutionary debut album, Michael Anthony has done his job better than anyone. Throughout the '70s, '80s and into the '90s, he helped lay the foundation for the Van Halen sound, providing massive yet nimble bass parts over which Eddie Van Halen could fly. "Incredible times," Anthony remembers. "Despite all the bullshit that went down in that band, I'm proud of the music we made, and always will be."
Changing lead singers - David Lee Roth, Sammy Hagar and, for a minute or two, Gary Cherone - made the Van Halen experience "something of a mind game from time to time," says Anthony. "As soon as we had a strong identity, we had to change." And Eddie Van Halen's substance abuse problems didn't help matters. "I don't want to talk smack on anyone," says Anthony, "but there were times that were, uh, difficult."
After a bittersweet 'Van Hagar' reunion in 2004, Anthony assumed the band was finished for good. So he was more than a little surprised when Van Halen announced they were hitting the road early last year with original lead singer David Lee Roth - and Eddie's son Wolfgang on bass.
"It was a blow," says Anthony. "I would have loved to have been a part of it. But at my age, you learn to roll with the punches. And you find that better things lay ahead."
Such as Chickenfoot, the supergroup he's formed with fellow Van Halen survivor Hagar, guitarist Joe Satriani and Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Chad Smith. (If you don't know about this band yet, check out Related Links and catch up.)
"Chickenfoot is phenomenal," the bassist enthuses. "I can't believe the music we're making. And wait till you hear the blazing lead guitar Joe Satriani is playing. The guy's a monster."
In the podcast below, Anthony talks candidly about his Van Halen years, times both good and crushingly bad. "A lot of these things I've never said before," he reveals. "I'm kind of a 'let it go' kind of guy." Plus, he raves about his new band, who aim to have an album out next spring. "We're gonna rock people's worlds," he says. "Just when everybody says nobody makes music like this anymore, here we come."
Part one - Anthony on playing with Chickenfoot vs Van Halen, plus the VH breakup
Download (right-click and Save As)
Part two - More about the VH breakup, the last 'Van Hagar' tour and being replaced by Wolfgang
Download (right-click and Save As)
Part three - Michael Anthony answers your questions
Download (right-click and Save As)


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- Home
- Government
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Boards & Commissions
Board of Fire & Police Commissioners
The Board of Fire and Police Commissioners is responsible of the recruitment, selection, appointment, promotion, discipline, and dismissal of full-time sworn Police Officers and Firefighter/Paramedics.
Historical Commission
The Historical Commission operates a research room, located at the Schiller Park Public Library. This room stores photographs, maps, newspaper articles, pamphlets, costumes, and other items pertaining to Schiller Park.
Library Board
The Schiller Park Public Library is an independent public body with its own Elected Board and Tax Levy.
Recreation Board
The Recreation Board reviews policies, fees, and programs that affect our public parks, water park, activity center, and recreation center.
Village Board
The Village of Schiller Park is governed by a Village President (commonly referred to as the Mayor) and a six-member Board of Trustees. The Mayor and Trustees (commonly referred to as the Village Board) are the Corporate Authorities for the Village.
Zoning, Planning, & Appeals Commission
The Zoning Board of Appeals acts as an advisory board to the Village Board regarding zoning issues, maps, and appeals.


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Contact: firstname.lastname@example.com
Website: http://universitypress.andrews.edu
A major new Bible study resource sponsored by the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists and Andrews University is scheduled for release at the 2015 General Conference session in San Antonio, Texas, according to Andrews University President Niels-Erik Andreasen.
The Andrews Bible Commentary, the church's first concise, one-volume commentary, is intended as a coordinated resource with the Andrews Study Bible, released by Andrews University Press in June 2010.
Andreasen made the announcement about the new commentary on Monday, April 15, to delegates from around the world at the annual Spring Meeting of the General Conference Executive committee, held this year in Battle Creek, Mich., in observance of the 150th anniversary of the founding of the General Conference.
The commentary project is coordinated by Andrews University Press, the world church's only regularly established academic publishing house, with funding from Andrews and the General Conference, and oversight by a Project Committee of General Conference and Andrews personnel.
Andreasen said that, like the Andrews Study Bible, the Andrews Bible Commentary is intended specifically for the general reader, as well as pastors and church elders providing basic Bible teaching in the congregation.
In making his announcement, Andreasen referred the delegates to a purpose statement for the commentary that had been approved by the Project Committee. It states that the Andrews Bible Commentary "is a concise, one-volume exposition of Scripture written by faithful scholars of the church as a companion to the Andrews Study Bible for lay readers, pastors, students, and teachers living in expectation of the Advent Hope."
"This commentary is aimed to help the person in the pew. It is written in plain language," Andreasen said. He told the delegates that the writers had been instructed to write at the same reading level that they would write an article for the Adventist Review, the general church paper of the Adventist Church. "In some parts of the world, these two volumes—the Andrews Study Bible and the Andrews Bible Commentary—will comprise the entire theological library they will have, so we are taking this assignment very seriously," he said.
Andreasen said that 60 writers, all Bible scholars from church institutions and organizations around the world, have been contracted to work on the commentary under the direction of a small editorial team. The general editor is Angel Rodriguez, former director of the Biblical Research Institute at the General Conference. The associate editors are Greg King (Old Testament), dean of the School of Religion, Southern Adventist University; Gerald Klingbeil (Old Testament), associate editor, Adventist Review/Adventist World; and John McVay (New Testament), president of Walla Walla University.
Andreasen said that some of the writers for the one-volume commentary have already completed their assignments. He assured GC President Ted Wilson that a small, printed sample of selected portions of the commentary will be available for the next full meeting of the GC executive committee at Annual Council in October, when Andreasen will give another progress report.
"We'll hold you to that," Wilson said.
Andreasen thanked Wilson for the support of the General Conference in the production of both the Study Bible and the forthcoming Commentary. He said that these publications represent one of the many ways that Andrews fulfills its responsibility to serve the world church.
Staff at Andrews University Press have noted that when it is published and released in 2015, the Andrews Bible Commentary will have about 1,800 pages of commentary and helpful articles, about three times the original content of the Andrews Study Bible.


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A 5.0.3 update is now available from the Member Area if you have registered your product. Sorry for the rapid fire update but there were a couple of issues that appeared in 5.0.2 that we wanted to resolve quickly.
- Tooltips no longer get in the way of clicks on buttons on floating panels.
- Fixed a crash that could occur when launching the brush designer from the Tool Settings panel when it was open as a popup from the Menu Bar in Docking mode.
- Fixed a potential issue at tool up time relating to canvas snap points.
- The OS X cursor now updates around the edges of references to indicate rotate and scale points.
- Clicking a reference in the Refs panel now brings its window to the front.
- Fixed a problem with the sampler working in the lower area of a canvas that is taller than it is wide - The sampler would not process when in those areas.
- Fixed artefacting and some repeated impression issues in the Custom Brush.
- Classic mode Tool and Colour picker Collapse buttons now respect Lights Out mode changes.
- Scripting now correctly records gradient fill operations.
- Added a wait indicator to Redo operations after undoing Warp.


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• ablation •
Pronunciation: ah-blay-shên • Hear it!
Part of Speech: Noun
Meaning: 1. The wearing away of exterior or peripheral material by melting, friction, or burning, as the ablation of a glacier by melting or scraping against rock or the ablation of a burning meteor streaking across the sky. 2. The surgical removal of a body part by excision or amputation.
Notes: Ablation sounds very much like two other words, oblation "an offering to a deity" and ablution "ritual washing in a religious ceremony"; be careful not to confuse them. Today's word, of course, is the action noun of the verb ablate "to remove or wear away". It has an ablative [æb-lê-tive], as the ablative effect of roads on tires.
In Play: Today's Good Word most often turns up in the halls of science: "As a rocket's nose cone reenters the Earth's atmosphere, it heats to the point that outer layers are lost to ablation." In fact, later nose cones were covered with an ablator, a layer applied just to be burned away during descent. Rock, dirt, and other materials worn away from the land by the ablation of glaciers, pile up in mounds called moraines. "Felix lived on a moraine built up from the ablation of a glacier during the last ice age."
Word History: Today's Good Word comes from Latin ablatio(n) "carrying away" from ablatus, the past participle of auferre "to carry away", based on ab "away" and ferre "take, carry". Ab comes from the same earlier stem as English off and of. The past participle of the Latin word ferre "to take, carry" is the odd ball latus "taken, carried", which was originally (to)l-at-us, with the participle suffix -at (related to the English participle suffix -ed) plus the masculine gender ending -us. So the original stem was tol-, the root of tolerare "to bear, put up with", from which English borrowed tolerate. (Before we get carried away with today's etymology, let's thank Dr. Margie Swed for suggesting today's Good Word.)
P.S. - Register for the Daily Good Word E-Mail! - You can get our daily Good Word sent directly to you via e-mail in either HTML or Text format. Go to our Registration Page to sign up today!


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Hi peeps! Yay, I am actually blogging two days in a row. Hah!
And, not only that, today, I actually have 3 cards to share with you. First up, is this fun coffee shaker card that I made for SugarPea Designs.
To make this card, I am using SPD stamps Caffeine Addict, Espresso Yourself and Watercolor Brush Strokes. Additionally I used SugarCut Dies: Stitched Flags, Coffee To Go Cup, Coffee Words. Check out SugarPea Designs Blog for some more fun inspirations.
Next, are two mini cards that I made for The Ton. I am up on The Ton blog today, so here, I'll just show you the sneak peek of both cards. To see the full cards, please check out The Ton blog and I'd love for you to leave some love there. I know, it's an extra step, but I hope the cuteness of the card will make it worth your time. :)
Well, that' all from me today, peeps. Thank you for swinging by here. Cheerio....


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On January 23, 2012, Chesapeake Energy announced that it would curtail drilling in shale gas plays in the United States. Subsequently, other operators have followed suit. While the outcome of this announcement is unclear, it is a signal that the industry is in distress. One can argue that this distress stems from a lack of discipline as market price began to decline.
After gas prices collapsed in mid-2008, U.S. operators continued to drill as if price did not matter. Many reasons were given to justify the economics of on-going activity including to hold acreage by production, to fulfil contract obligations to build new pipelines, and since well economics remained favourable at lower prices because of forward hedging. Now, with gas prices below $2.50 per thousand cubic feet (mcf), an adjustment in producer behaviour is overdue. Despite statements that shale gas is a profitable venture at low gas prices, it is now clear that the reality has imposed limits on these claims.
Also on January 23, the Energy Information Administration (EIA) released its Annual Energy Outlook 2012 (early release overview). It projects that gas supply will exceed consumption and the U.S. will become a net exporter by 2021. The agency also forecasts gas prices to remain below $5.00 per thousand cubic feet (mcf) until 2022.
In his State of the Union address on January 25, the President stated that the United States has 100 years of natural gas supply. While these events are not related, they reflect the dominant view among analysts that shale gas has fundamentally changed supply and price for the foreseeable future. The purpose of this analysis is to show that there may be an alternate perspective.
U.S. Shale Plays
The advent of shale plays provided an important new source of gas. Yet this new supply is characterized by high decline rates which means that wells must be continuously drilled to maintain supply. In 2001, the U.S. natural gas decline rate was about 23% and the annual replacement requirement was 12 Bcf/d when total consumption was 54 Bcf/d. Today, the decline rate is estimated to be 32% and increased consumption of gas means that approximately 22 Bcf/d must be replaced each year (Exhibits 1 and 2).
According to ARC Financial Research, $22 billion per quarter is needed to maintain domestic gas supply based on analysis of the 34 top U.S. publicly traded producers. Cash flow for those companies is $12 billion per quarter so there is a $10 billion quarterly cash flow deficit (Exhibit 3). The important factor here is that on a whole there are no retained earnings, and historically growth stems from retained earnings. Without retained earnings, companies must borrow money or sell assets into joint venture agreements to raise cash in order to drill.
While the continued drilling has been funded by debt, share offerings and joint venture agreements thus far, the trend is unsustainable given the steep decline in prices, despite some favourable hedges. Drilling, therefore, must decrease in order to shrink the present over-supply and so that prices can rise.
U.S. shale plays share many characteristics with the gold rushes of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Both phenomena result from extreme promotion. Anyone can join. Every participant believes that they will get rich. Great amounts of capital are destroyed as entrants try to get a position. The bonanza is exhausted sooner than most expected (Andreoli, 2011) and few profit in the end except for the vendors that serve participants.
For several years, we have been asked to believe that less is more, that more oil and gas can be produced from shale than was produced from better reservoirs over the past century. We have been told more recently that the U.S. has enough natural gas to last for 100 years. We have been presented with an improbable business model that has no barriers to entry except access to capital, that provides a source of cheap and abundant gas, and that somehow also allows for great profit. Despite three decades of experience with tight sandstone and coal-bed methane production that yielded low-margin returns and less supply than originally advertised, we are expected to believe that poorer-quality shale reservoirs will somehow provide superior returns and make the U.S. energy independent. Shale gas advocates point to the large volumes of produced gas and the participation of major oil companies in the plays as indications of success. But advocates rarely address details about profitability and they never mention failed wells.
Shale gas plays are an important and permanent part of our energy future. We need the gas because there are fewer remaining plays in the U.S. that have the potential to meet demand. A careful review of the facts, however, casts doubt on the extent to which shale plays can meet supply expectations except at much higher prices.
One Hundred Years of Natural Gas
The U.S. does not have 100 years of natural gas supply. There is a difference between resources and reserves that many outside the energy industry fail to grasp. A resource refers to the gas or oil in-place that can be produced, while a reserve must be commercially producible. The Potential Gas Committee (PGC) is the standard for resource assessments because of the objectivity and credentials of its members, and its long and reliable history. In its biennial report released in April 2011, three categories of technically recoverable resources are identified: probable, possible and speculative.
The President and many others have taken the PGC total of all three categories (2,170 trillion cubic feet (Tcf) of gas) and divided by 2010 annual consumption of 24 Tcf. This results in 90 and not 100 years of gas. Much of this total resource is in accumulations too small to be produced at any price, is inaccessible to drilling, or is too deep to recover economically.
More relevant is the Committee's probable mean resources value of 550 (Tcf) of gas (Exhibit 4).
If half of this supply becomes a reserve (225 Tcf), the U.S. has approximately 11.5 years of potential future gas supply at present consumption rates. When proved reserves of 273 Tcf are included, there is an additional 11.5 years of supply for a total of almost 23 years. It is worth noting that proved reserves include proved undeveloped reserves which may or may not be produced depending on economics, so even 23 years of supply is tenuous. If consumption increases, this supply will be exhausted in less than 23 years. Revisions to this estimate will be made and there probably is more than 23 years but based on current information, 100 years of gas is not justified.
Shale Gas Plays May Not Provide Sustainable Supply
Several of the more mature shale gas plays are either in decline or appear to be approaching peak production. Exhibit 5 shows that total Barnett Shale production is approximately 5.7 Bcf per day (Bcf/d) and cumulative gas production is more than 10 trillion cubic feet (Tcf) of gas. It also shows that production may be approaching a peak at current gas prices despite the constant addition of new wells.
The Haynesville Shale surpassed the Barnett during 2011 as the most productive gas play in North America, with present daily rates of almost 7 Bcf/d and cumulative production of 3.5 Tcf (Exhibit 6).
This play is most responsible for the current over-supply of gas with the average well producing 3.3 million cubic feet per day (Mcf/d) compared to only 0.4 Mdf/d in the Barnett. It is too early to say for sure, but the Haynesville Shale may also be approaching peak production.
The Marcellus Shale is presently producing 2.4 Bcf/d and has produced a total of about 0.8 Tcf (Exhibit 7).
In this play, production shows no sign of levelling off, as it does in the Barnett and Haynesville, and production in the Fayetteville Shale may also be approaching a peak (Exhibit 8).
The Woodford Shale is already in decline (Exhibit 9).
If some existing shale gas plays are approaching peak production after only a few years since the advent of horizontal drilling and multi-stage hydraulic fracturing, what is the basis for long-term projections of abundant gas supply?
What Publicly Available Data Indicates About Supply
Data for this analysis is from publicly available sources provided by government agencies such as the Texas Railroad Commission (TX RRC), the Louisiana Department of Natural Resources (LA DNR), the Oklahoma Corporation Commission, and the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement (BOEMRE). This data is available on web sites maintained by these agencies but is also collected and compiled for a fee by service companies, specifically IHS and HPDI (DI Desktop). All of these sources provide access to individual well, field, county, and state production.
The EIA provides valuable data on oil and gas production but not at finer than state level, and state production is only current through 2010. EIA gas production data differs somewhat from state data and from the data collected by service companies, and is generally more optimistic. The EIA uses a model to calculate gas production based on a sample of large gas producers, and then applies a correction to reconcile production with underground storage volumes.
Exhibit 10 shows the discrepancy for Texas gas production between EIA and TX RRC data.
The October 2012 difference was 1.6 Bcf/d. Although TX RRC Data indicates that Texas gas production has declined each month since March 2011, EIA reports show consistent increases. This difference is important because Texas produces 28% of U.S. gas supply (Exhibit 11). Similar differences have been noted for other major gas-producing regions. It should be noted that the EIA data in Exhibit 11 represents marketed production while the TX RRC data shows total gas production.
These accounts should have different values but also should have similar trends. The trends are similar through March 2011 but then diverge producing the present noted variance (The November difference, not shown on the graph, is 2.6 Bcf/d).
We have studied Texas production reporting and find that it is generally reliable and accurate in areas that we follow closely in our oil and gas exploration and production business. Revisions are common for the first and second most recent months of production but are not statistically significant at the state or field level. Data going back three reporting months is reliable. Studies of other major gas-producing states show similar results. Our intent to is to point out the differences between state and EIA data, and to suggest that EIA data is not particularly useful to track individual play or some state production on a current basis.
Texas, Louisiana, Wyoming, Oklahoma, Gulf of Mexico Outer Continental Shelf, and New Mexico account for roughly 75% of U.S. natural gas supply and, therefore, provide a useful proxy for total U.S gas production. Exhibits 12 through 17 show natural gas production for these regions.
All of these major gas-producing areas except Louisiana are in decline. This is largely because non-shale production is declining rapidly since little new drilling in these reservoirs in recent years has occurred. While shale production volumes and initial rates are impressive (Exhibit 18), much of this new production is merely substituting for depleting conventional gas reserves.
With the shift to more oil-prone or "liquids-rich" shale plays, many observers have suggested that associated gas production from these plays is or will be a major contributor to the present over-supply of gas. Approximately 3% of total U.S. gas supply is from shale associated gas so, while this is a factor, it is not the cause of over-supply. Details of this analysis may be found in an earlier post. Overall, U.S. natural gas production using state-level data appears to have reached an undulating plateau (Exhibit 19).
A secular shift has occurred in the U.S. domestic gas supply by drilling mostly shale formations, formerly considered source rocks too costly to develop. The tremendous number of wells drilled in the last several years has contributed to an over-supply of gas. The shale revolution did not begin because producing oil and gas from shale was a good idea but because more attractive opportunities were largely exhausted. Initial production rates from shale are high but expensive drilling and completion costs make economics challenging. The gold rush mentality taken by companies to enter shale plays has added expensive leases and new pipelines to those costs, further complicating shale gas economics.
In the decades before shale plays, the exploration and production emphasis was on discipline. Science was used to identify the most prospective areas in order to limit the amount of acreage to be acquired and its cost. Shale plays have produced a land grab business model in which hundreds of thousands of acres are acquired by each company. Unprecedented lease costs have become the norm often based on limited information and science.
Operators have indulged in over-drilling these plays for many reasons but adding reserves, holding leases and company growth are among the main factors particularly with the low cost of capital. The inevitable result has been the collapse of prices as supply exceeded demand. Most analysts forecast that the future will be much like the present, and that natural gas will be abundant and cheap for decades to come. There are, however, strong and consistent indicators that natural gas supply may be less certain than most observers believe and require a higher price to be developed economically. Natural gas demand is growing as fuel switching for electric power generation continues, and will be increased by environmental regulation in the coming years. The U.S. will shift more of its future energy needs to natural gas in many sectors of the economy. The best justification, in fact, for the land grab and over-drilling spree is expectation of higher prices. Those companies that grabbed the land and held it by production will profit greatly once the true supply and cost of shale gas is recognized.
The financial survival of all companies in this position is not, however, certain. Price matters, and there is finally some response from shale gas producers with recent announcements to curtail drilling. While price was cited as the main reason for reduced drilling, it is likely that some companies now have financial constraints. The shale gas phenomenon has been funded mostly by debt and equity offerings. At this point, further debt and share dilution are less feasible for many companies. Joint ventures have provided a way for some to prolong spending but that now seems like a less likely source of funding. Capital availability in the near term will likely be tighter than is has until now. Acquisition and consolidation may become more attractive to companies with cash as producers become more extended.
Some of the shale gas plays may be at or near peak production at least at the current price of gas and technology. All major producing areas except Louisiana are in decline. Some doubt the accuracy of public data compared with EIA data, but it seems unlikely that the trends it shows are erroneous. In any case, the data the EIA makes available does not have sufficient resolution to evaluate individual plays or state-level trends.
Intermediate-term shale well performance is poorer than assumed previously. Continuous treadmill drilling masks this issue so play decline rates are not recognized. High decline rates are, however, a salient issue meaning that and most of a shale gas well's reserve is produced in the first few years. Well life appears to be shorter than initial expectations. This means that an increasing number of wells must be drilled in order to maintain supply. Now, it appears that fewer wells may be drilled until price recovers to commercial levels. The argument for improved efficiency that cites increasing production with lower rig count is suspect. It is mostly because of the large backlog of previously drilled wells that are just now being connected to sales. This spare capacity provides a boost to supply during a period of falling gas-directed rig count.
The gold rush is over at least for now for the less commercial shale plays. The money and activity have moved to more oil-prone shale plays such as the Eagle Ford and Bakken or to higher potential gas plays such as the Marcellus. Improbable stories that great profits can be made at increasingly lower prices have intersected with reality. A painful adjustment is underway in the natural gas exploration and production industry. Fewer jobs will be created and projects may develop more slowly. This development may expose the notion of long-term natural gas abundance and cheap gas as an illusion. The good news is that this adjustment will lead to higher gas prices in a future less distant than most believe. Higher prices coupled with greater discipline in drilling will allow operators to earn a suitable return and offer the best opportunity for supply to grow to meet future needs.
By. aeberman for The Oil Drum