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Brewing a recipe for collaborative success
Coors has found that embracing the human element can short circuit organizational drag. Add information literacy skills and the five disciplines of learning organizations to the mix and you have a recipe for success.
COLLABORATE, SHARE, co-operate and work together to increase performance. That's the mantra, but does it really work? According to Larry O'Brien, Research Director for Process Industries, the ARC Advisory Group first introduced "Collaborative Manufacturing Management" around the year 2000 and "Real-time Performance Management" about three years ago.
We've been talking about ways to improve productivity using process automation systems for more than thirty years, and the gains have been impressive. Where they reach the wall, however, has always been at the level of actually changing the way people in the process industries work.
Although some large companies have taken on the challenge, it would seem that there has been little real movement toward adopting collaboration as a management style. What conditions must exist for companies to capitalize on the collective abilities of their knowledge workers? What unmovable force is it that causes organizational drag? Drag is an organization's natural resistance to change. Awkward organizational structures, ineffective processes, internal politics, contradictory information and disorganization are the biggest sources of organizational drag.
Consider the significance of Information Literacy to an organization's ability to readily adopt change and remain competitive in the current "knowledge based" economy. Information literacy is a person's ability to search for, find, evaluate, use and share information from a variety of sources. These sources include the myriad communications, books, databases, the Internet and everything else gushing from the proverbial "information fire hose" from which we sip each day.
Peter Senge wrote about "learning organizations," where people continually learn how to learn together, in his book The Fifth Discipline. Fifteen years later we don't seem to have made much progress, even though the tools to do it all exist.
The two concepts—information literacy and learning organizations—used in harmony can help process companies develop the "change workers" needed to create a real advantage. Change workers are knowledge workers who embrace the constant of change as a way of life and exploit it as a real competitive advantage for their organizations. In other words, they expect change and use it instead of fearing or resisting it.
Knowledge workers can become frustrated when their inability to find, evaluate, use and share information effectively causes them to make poor decisions. It is often not the lack of information that creates this frustration, but rather the vast amount of contradictory information. This type of poor decision-making costs organizations money in the way of missed opportunities, lost time and, in some cases, legal liability. Consider this the human equivalent of tuning a PID loop. You have little or no chance of hitting your target value if the feedback you receive is conflicting. Often, decisions are made out of personal or departmental consideration because employees have limited knowledge of the bigger picture and limited power to act on new information or change their current course. Many do not know how to get critical new information into the hands of those who possess the authority to act upon it. This disconnection creates an environment where people are hesitant to change the status quo, making it a large contributor to organizational drag.
Manufacturing process analyst and guru Eli Goldratt said years ago that if you ask and incentivize people to do insane things, they will do insane things that often have the opposite effect from what was intended. If you ask them to do things that work, they'll do that too.
People often take the path of least resistance when they lack the tools to communicate effectively or defend new ideas. This skill deficiency can result in the creation of mindless "worker-bee" type employees who become incapable or unwilling to create new knowledge from the data they gather and use on a daily basis. Instead, they become focused on carrying out the tactical portion of their mission and lose sight of any strategic vision. They comply with policy and follow instructions they know to be counter productive because they are not remunerated for new ideas, but rather reprimanded for taking risks and making mistakes.
Florence Mostaccero, Vice President of Technical Services & Business Process Development for MolsonCoors (Golden, Colo.) says, "Coors encourages its employees to embrace and accept change through multiple approaches. First of all we paint the picture that describes the value and need for the change." Mostaccero goes on to say, "We set up and describe 'the burning platform' or the 'why.' We then do detailed stakeholder analyses to find out what the change means to the affected individuals and thus can address what's in it for them. Leadership at Coors then helps to set up the recognition and rewards systems to motivate their employees to move and adjust in the direction that is needed to win in the beer business." Mostaccero says that by using these simple change management techniques, leadership can move people through the change effectively, and keep engagement high through the process. In their experience, Mostaccero says, "Coors has found that people in general just want to understand 'why,' 'how it impacts me,' and be rewarded to move in the direction that's needed. If these areas are addressed up front before change is sprung on the individuals, the results can be very good."
The key point is that the management leadership at Coors is doing the change management first. Too many times in the process industries, process automation professionals who aren't completely supported by management have tried to exercise change management skills to attempt to use what they know will improve the performance of the plant. If management isn't willing to back the play, eventually the drag factors will slow the change process to a crawl, and then a dead stop.
Information Literacy is a relatively new concept to the process automation environment. Many experienced and valuable employees seem ill equipped to navigate the vast amounts of information available to them. Instead of making decisions based on the entire stream of data, they often rely on an antiquated accounting model. They follow hard and fast rules and fail to look any farther than what the current budget allows because their corporate environment has made them risk-averse. The experience and knowledge of these employees could be better leveraged if they improved their information literacy skills. Moreover, their full value to the organization may best be realized when they are encouraged to think and act systematically.
Mostaccero shares that while Coors does not have a regimented formal suggestion system, with their World Class Operations (WCO) rollout, the teams are engaged and motivated to bring forth their ideas to drive better results. Their results and improved processes are scorecarded and trended to help drive improvement in their operating areas' results and are reviewed and visible on their WCO scorecards.
The process automation world is changing so rapidly that the ability to learn new concepts, create new knowledge, and see new opportunity has become a principal skill set required for success.
Organizations that foster an environment in which their employees are encouraged to develop and use these skills will have a distinct advantage over their competitors. It is this type of environment that can bring about significant reduction in the organizational drag associated with implementing new initiatives.
Add information literacy skills to Peter Senge's five disciplines of learning organizations and you have a recipe for collaborative success:
Personal Mastery
Personal Mastery is the discipline of personal growth and learning. It is people's ability to continually expand their capacity to create the results they truly seek.
Mental Models
Mental Models refers to continually surfacing, testing and improving our internal pictures and concepts of how the world works. These are the unwritten "rules" to which we conform our thoughts and patterns of behavior, often without even knowing we are doing so.
Shared Vision
Shared Vision is creating a shared picture of the mutual future we seek to create. This is a collaborative process in which management shares, explains, exchanges and reevaluates ideas regarding direction and focus until harmony is reached regarding the future of the organization. This is far different from the top-down approach implemented by many organizations where visionis a mandate. Coors seems to have done a pretty good job with their painting-a-picture approach here.
Team Learning
Team Learning is aligning and developing the capacity for a team of individuals to create the results its members truly desire by tapping into the potential for many minds to be more intelligent than one. This is perhaps the most important discipline for the collaborative process. Please, leave your egos at the door, folks. Mostaccero says, "Coors promotes an atmosphere of open dialogue and idea sharing, supported by a multi-faceted recognition initiative that encourages idea generation and sharing." This development of real team mentality is key.
Systems Thinking
Systems Thinking is developing a conceptual framework and a body of knowledge and tools to help businesses see patterns and underlying connections between events more clearly. In short, this is the discipline of seeing the bigger picture. This relates directly to Mostaccero's statement that people just want to know why, and how it impacts me. Reverse that statement and you get to the heart of systems thinking. How does what I do affect everything else?
Nothing New
These are not new ideas. You've heard or seen at least one of these theories expressed in one way or another. There is a genuine quantifiable advantage beyond the touchy-feely connotation associated with these thoughts. We cannot simply dismiss these concepts as HR propaganda.
Used in harmony with information literacy skills, these disciplines can provide an effective way to culturally mitigate organizational drag by removing the largest of the stumbling blocks. Reducing organizational drag starts long before any new technology reaches the implementation phase. Larry O'Brien points out, "To have success with these methodologies, the manufacturer will certainly need to change processes and work practices. The human side of collaboration is the key."
Conversely, information literacy does have a set of potential pitfalls:
- Reinventing the wheel, a failure to realize two problems are actually the same. This results in an overlap of efforts to solve the dilemma twice rather than using existing information. This could be related to the common "not invented here" mentality in some engineering driven companies.
- Overcomplicated decision making when the investigators are so intent on solving a big problem that they end up making the problem even bigger. This concept can be related to scope creep, which is endemic to both enterprise IT and process IT projects.
- Reduced privacy and security is a potential negative outcome related to information stewardship. Failure to safeguard or properly dispose of unneeded information could result in information falling into the wrong hands…think of hacking the plant control system or even homeland security issues.
- Analysis paralysis is a potential pitfall and perhaps the worst-case scenario for information literacy. The individual or group becomes so mired in the details and potential outcomes that they fail to make any decision whatsoever. As one might suspect, this creates significant organizational drag.
Oftentimes, organizations fall into a sort of groupthink mentality. The only information they accept as valid is that which corresponds to their preconceived notions. Information theorist Christopher Burns relates the concept of living in an "infobubble," an organizational bubble where all of the information used to make decisions is coming from inside the organization. Burns says there are three barriers information must cross to get through the infobubble: language, concept and truth. The concept barrier is very difficult to cross because information may be "contrary to the concepts that we hold about the world." He goes on to say, "Information that is against self interest is the most difficult of all information to handle."
A person's ability to use information literacy skills to overcome these biases and filters is paramount to his or her success in mastering the discipline of mental models. The importance of mental models as they relate to learning organizations cannot be overstated. MIT learning researcher Daniel Kim said, "The mental models in individual's heads are where a vast majority of an organization's knowledge (both know-how, and know-why) rests."
The importance of a person's ability to create and challenge those mental models with valid, relevant information is crucial to organization health and success. "As mental models are made explicit and actively shared, the base of shared meaning in an organization expands, and the organization's capacity for effective coordinated action increases," Kim wrote. This coordinated action is vital to the success of the learning organization. Informal leaders carry a great deal of the burden for this cultural phenomenon. What knowledge workers hold as "true" doesn't always come from above, but from the person next to them.
Florence Mostaccero says, "Informal leaders at Coors are extremely important in the acceptance of our 'people before technology' culture. We call these people our 'torch carriers.' In our World Class Operations rollout, we have spent the time through training and informal support of the implementation teams to gain their hearts and minds around changing the way we do our work utilizing world-class best practices. These people are the advocates for the changes we need to make and they look for ways and processes to make themselves and others in operations better than the best in manufacturing. With world-class processes, we can achieve world-class results, and the technologies will then give us the competitive edge."
Information literacy is becoming a part of mainstream thought in the process industries, out of necessity. The growing body of knowledge will eventually become so large that no one will be able to function effectively in any aspect of their job without possessing these skills. Not only will these skills be vital to our own success, but to the mutual success of all with whom we associate. Partners will demand these skills as a means of creating strong alliances. To lack the ability to appropriately use, share or safeguard information is already a business faux pas. In the future, it will become a serious liability.
Organizations are more than the people from which they are constructed. A learning organization is interplay between people, the relationships they build, and the knowledge they create together. No expert systems or asset management software can replace the human ability to see new connections. Only by developing and supporting an environment in which these relationships are encouraged, will organizations best capture collective knowledge and reduce the organizational drag that has plagued manufacturing in the process industries for so long.
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Talks on a long-term contract between Gerald Henderson and the Charlotte Bobcats have stalled and the team is now exploring sign-and-trade options for the restricted free-agent wing, Yahoo! Sports reported Wednesday night.
Yahoo! reported that the Bobcats are talking with multiple teams, though no specific teams were mentioned.
PHOTOS: SN's Top 20 NBA free agents
Henderson, 25, just completed his fourth pro season, all with the Bobcats. The Duke product averaged a career-high 15.5 points as he alternated between shooting guard and small forward. His 3-point shooting jumped dramatically to a career-best 33.0 percent.
Also Wednesday, the Charlotte Observer reported that the team waived forward Tyrus Thomas under the NBA's amnesty provision. The $18 million owed Thomas over the next two seasons will no longer count toward the team's cap. The Bobcats also officially signed free-agent center Al Jefferson and first-round draft pick Cody Zeller.

subset: commoncrawl


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Our Web site provides access to a wide array of databases and other resources. Here are some options you may not have already discovered:
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Our CODA database can host your research papers and other data on our server in a perpetually maintained and discoverable archive. We can be the answer to NIH and NSF proposal requests for data management and retention plans. Caltech librarians adhere to archiving standards and we can be your trusted partner with a long-term perspective regarding planning and storage solutions.
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Faculty members and librarians are concerned over the cost of scholarly journals, the barriers to access created by the ever-increasing costs, and the extent to which scholarly information should be more-or-less freely available as a public good. Learn more at Scholarly Communication and at For Authors.
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Do you want students to use scholarly sources and produce higher quality research? Could your students use an overview of information resources related to their subject area? Caltech Librarians can tailor instruction according to your students' needs.
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Place books on reserve through Adopt a Text; access to Adopt a Text is thru access.caltech. When choosing a reserve type, please note that closed reserves are shelved behind the circulation desk whereas open reserves are available only at SFL and are located on shelves near the computers on the first floor. Personal copies, items on reserve for multiple classes and high use materials are recommended for closed reserves.
Recommend Materials for Purchase
Librarians will purchase books, e-books, journals, CDs, and other material for the Library collection in support of your classes. You can request trials of databases and we can provide demonstrations and training. Send email to library AT caltech.edu or contact us.
Getting ready to publish? SPARC, Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition, offers some valuable advice on Author Rights.
Caltech Library Services page For Authors has more.
Timothy K. Armstrong, a copyright specialist at the University of Cincinnati College of Law, has written a paper on publication agreements for authors.
Librarians will provide research assistance by email, phone, or in person. Each librarian liaison has subject expertise to meet your information needs.
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Adding to Oil Stocks in the Recent Swoon
In light of the market's recent broad based selloff, energy offers some very attractive entry points, based on the strength and stability of its businesses, attractive and growing dividends and low valuations.
The recent escalation of tensions in Israel and Gaza highlights the very tenuous environment in the Mideast. We think geopolitical issues will continue to pop up and will push oil prices toward the higher end of their trading range, providing the group a tailwind....541 more words left in this article. To read them, just click below and try Real Money FREE for 14 days.
There's no substitute for a trading floor to get great ideas, so Jim Cramer created a better one at Real Money and blogs there exclusively. We then added legendary hedge fund manager, Doug Kass, with his exclusive Daily Diary and best investing ideas. Staffed with more than 4 dozen investing pros, money managers, journalists and analysts, Real Money Pro gives you a flood of opinions, analysis and actionable trading advice found nowhere else, and allows you to interact directly with each expert.
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Searching for outing ideas that are more exciting than visiting the same old rooftop bar that everyone else goes to? Look no further!
11 Things You Do That Make Him Crazy — and Not in a Good Way
Searching for outdoor ideas that are more exciting than visiting the same old rooftop bar that everyone else goes to? Look no further!More
Head to NYC to try out the city's newly launched bike-sharing program, CitiBike. Sign up for a one-day pass ($9.95 plus tax) or a seven-day pass ($25 plus tax) that allows you to unlock a bike from any of the 600 locations, ride it for 30 minutes, and then return it to any station. "Rousing physical activity may boost adrenaline, a hormone that is associated with attraction," says Bela Gandhi, president of Smart Dating Academy, a consulting firm that provides dating advice.
Feeling a little scared can make your heart pound, and amp up the romance when you instinctually squeeze your partner's hand, or fling yourself into his arms, says Elana Averbach, a Cleveland-based dating coach at KickStartLove. That's more than enough to prompt a trip to Cedar Point amusement park in Sandusky, Ohio. There, you'll find the brand new Gatekeeper "wing" roller coaster; riders lie on their stomachs to the left and right of the track. It's the longest (4,164 feet) and has the longest drop (164 feet) of any wing coaster in the world.
6 Funny Ways Guys Ask for Attention


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What a smooth turnaround by Artest
All-Star focuses his fire on winning
By Shira Springer, Globe Staff, 2/15/2004
LOS ANGELES -- The scene surrounding Ron Artest is hard to reconcile with what you know about the player. Last season, the small forward earned a reputation as volatile for attacking perimeter players and television monitors with equal fury. But now, he sits at a corner locker, the center of attention among a gathering of reporters. He answers questions with an almost childlike earnestness. He smiles sweetly when asked about playing in his first All-Star Game.
You think this must be an aberration, a rare instance when Artest appears charming and likable. But a very similar scene takes place a couple of days later when the 2004 All-Stars meet the media Friday afternoon and Artest entertains with stories about working on his shooting in Greece. Then, yesterday at an otherwise dull Eastern Conference practice, Artest engages the fans by tossing balls into the bleachers and asking for passes back, which he promptly tries to convert into crowd-pleasing dunks.
This is not a new, kinder, gentler Artest. It is simply the Artest few could see through all the technicals, suspensions, fines, and emotional outbursts.
Early in his career, when Artest played for Chicago, he said he would someday be an All-Star. The pronouncement met with equal parts skepticism and derision. Last year, Artest was in the running for a spot as a reserve on the Eastern squad, but his temper, not his defense, drew the most attention. This season, with his competitive aggression under control and the Pacers atop the conference in large part because of his play, Artest is right where he predicted he would be.
''The best thing about being in the All-Star Game is that it means [the Pacers] are heading in the right direction,'' said Artest. ''I have more experience and realize that last year we gave up an opportunity [losing in the first round of the playoffs to the Celtics].
''I'm playing better and I've learned I can still be effective and stay under control. It took a couple of first-round exits to understand that. All the stuff that was going on wasn't working, so I had to find another way.''
There may be no greater testament to how much an under-control Artest means to Indiana than the team's decision to name him a captain. The players and coaching staff sensed Artest was ready for the responsibility and deserving of the title. Artest assumed the captaincy before the Pacers played the Hawks Jan. 19, joining Reggie Miller and Jermaine O'Neal as official team leaders. But coach Rick Carlisle did not announce the addition until the start of All-Star weekend.
''This year, [Artest] wants people to see the type of things that he does on the court rather than people looking and watching for the things he did off the court,'' said O'Neal. ''This year, he's played under control. He's an All-Star this year, and it's well-deserved. He has an opportunity to be an elite player in this league, and I think he's definitely on the right track right now.
''We don't have to watch and look over our shoulder and see what he's doing [this year]. We don't have to police him. We know that we can go out and handle our own business and worry about what we have to do individually and as a team. It's all about basketball, and that's what's most important to him this year. He doesn't care about all the other stuff off the court. He cares more about what we do on the court and about us winning.''
At the root of all the sound and fury from Artest last season was his ultracompetitiveness. The best example of that came when the Pacers suffered a disappointing loss against the Wizards, with Artest playing poorly against his boyhood idol, Michael Jordan. After the game, Artest vented his frustrations by smashing a framed photograph of himself that hung in a corridor outside the Indiana locker room. A one-game suspension caused Artest to miss a contest against the Celtics. With his competitive energies properly channeled, Artest has become not only an All-Star but also a strong candidate for Defensive Player of the Year. No one frustrates Paul Pierce quite like Artest.
Artest will stop at nothing to contain Pierce, even going so far as to try and pull down Pierce's shorts in a game earlier this season. Artest ranks among the league leaders in steals with 2.06 per game, while also averaging 18.1 points per game and 5.3 rebounds.
''Long before I got here, Ron had made the statement that this year was going to be different,'' said Carlisle. ''He had been the center of a lot of turbulent situations last year. He lost untold hundreds or thousands of dollars for suspension fines and fines for broken equipment. He was, quite frankly, tired of spending money on things that were unrelated to basketball. He has kept his word and made this year about basketball and about winning. The reason he's an All-Star is because our team is doing well, and one of the major reasons our team is doing well is because of Ron Artest.
''But I'm just impressed with how kind a person he is, how generous he is as a guy. He's a little bit of a puzzle because he has that personality off the court, and on the court he's as tenacious as anybody you're ever going to play against, maybe that's ever played the game. That's one of the things that makes him special. He's a soft-spoken family man off the court. And on the court, he's a cold-blooded killer. He wants to beat you and he wants to keep you from scoring points and he's going to do everything he can to make that happen.''


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*This applies to unaddressed mail sent to 199 Stormont St. Unaddressed mail sent to the College business address (163 Stormont St) will be opened to determine the department to which it should be directed.
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CHICO -- Children ran around, stopping to do cartwheels and spin glow sticks, as they anticipated Chico's 23rd annual Parade of Lights downtown on Saturday night.
The parade, a tradition since 1988, started at 7:30 p.m. and showcased more than 43 floats.
As the first float came down Main Street, children blew into whistles and clapped enthusiastically, pausing only to talk to neighboring gazers and pick up candy.
Most floats had various lights and upbeat music as they rolled by, keeping the crowd dancing, but many missed the theme of the night, "The Chico Experience."
Most notably, Chico State's Greek floats seemed to be aimed at United States landmarks rather than the local theme. One float (containing Sigma Kappa, Kappa Alpha Psi, Phi Delta Theta, Delta Xi Phi and Kappa Sigma) had the intention of honoring Honolulu, yet had the words "Remember Pearl Harbor" strung across the side in lights as bikini-clad co-eds danced atop in grass skirts.
Other entries, like Chico Fire, Emergency Service Support Unit and Deputy Fire Chief kept it simple with tried-and-true parade favorites. Enloe's FlightCare dressed up a car to look like a helicopter, while old fire trucks and police cars honked horns.
Precision Auto Repair aimed to win with its classic car updated with lighted exhaust fumes and a loud, revved-up engine inciting a crowd member to yell, "Did you see that?!"
Children seemed to be the central audience of the night, as the crowd was made up mostly of families.
A group of small children, ages 3 to 8, sat on the edge of the sidewalk in front of Jack's Restaurant and giggled as G-Ride Pedi Cab's entry passed by, complete with Mike G's beloved dog, Lil' G, in tow.
As he pedaled by blasting LMFAO's "Sexy and I Know it," the children sang along to the song, wiggling in their seated position.
Other notable floats included "Oliver in Chico," California Regional Theater's entry, which had child actors atop a large float, singing memorable songs from the show and Cash 4 Junk's entry, which had the rock band "Furlough Fridays" performing live on the float.
Beta Fun in the Sun also had a float favored by the crowd containing dancing members in white T-shirts, doing tricks with what looked like lighted yo-yo's and a DJ on the back spinning techno tunes.
The clear winner of the kid vote, based on crowd response, belonged to Azad's Martial Arts.
As the children performed karate in the streets, Daphne, 7, of Little Chico Creek Elementary School, exclaimed, "That is my favoritist!"


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Going Green With Fuel Use Optimization
Model Predictive Control Optimizes Boiler Operation and Cuts Required Manual Operator Intervention While Ensuring Regulatory Compliance
By Luther Kemp
Minnesota Power provides electricity to a 26,000 square mile service area in northeastern Minnesota. It supplies electric power to 16 municipalities, and it provides power and co-generated steam to local industries such as paper mills. It generates electric power with coal, gas, biomass and wind—but the company's major emphasis in recent years has been to increase our use of renewable energy sources such as biomass.
Burning biomass with other fuels such as coal requires a multi-fuel boiler. Operating a multi-fuel boiler can be difficult, particularly in cogeneration (cogen) applications with varying steam demands. Biomass fuel availability is variable and subject to frequent interruption, and Btu content of the fuel varies significantly and quickly. Process steam loads fluctuate, sometimes suddenly. Controlling a multi-fuel boiler in a cogen application is several orders of magnitude more difficult than running a unit with a single fossil fuel.
A highly skilled operator can operate such a facility by watching video cameras focused on the bed and flame and by observing the on-screen outputs of steam flow, pressure, temperature and excess oxygen sensors, along with other process variables.
He or she continuously tweaks the boiler control setpoints in response to changes in the combustion process and other process variables. At times, it's as challenging as driving a car through a snowstorm, and it always requires constant attention. While Minnesota Power has highly skilled operators, this semi-manual mode of operation isn't the optimal way to run a major power and steam-generating unit.
Updating Controls in Duluth
Our M.L. Hibbard Renewable Energy Center power plant in Duluth, Minn., (Figure 1) has a multi-fuel traveling grate boiler that burns both wood waste and coal. The boiler generates steam that feeds two condensing turbines that provide power to the grid and supply steam to the New Page Paper Mill. The plant is working to be able to burn 665,000 tons of biomass per year and 13,000 tons of coal to produce 3,600,000 klb of steam to generate 220,000 mWh of power and supply process steam to the New Page Paper Mill.
The boilers, when owned by the City of Duluth, were primarily used for steam generation for the paper mill and generated electricity only when excess steam was available. Over time, ownership of the boilers was transferred to Minnesota Power, and legislation was enacted that mandated power facilities generate a substantial amount of their power from renewable sources.
We wanted the facility to maximize generation while maintaining the load to the paper mill and to do so in an optimal fashion under automatic control. Although it was a multi-fuel plant, the control system as it was implemented wouldn't support substantially increasing the amount of biofuel without excessive intervention and attention from our operators. It also wouldn't permit us to prioritize the amount of power generated from the plant.
Although the overall plant was controlled by a modern Emerson Process Management DeltaV control system (www.emersonprocess.com/), much of the plant had older control equipment with limited capability. The two boilers were converted to burn wood residue and coal in 1986 and 1987 and have been running virtually unchanged ever since.
Manual intervention by our operators was often required as steam demand varied, as fuel quality varied, and as other conditions changed. The excess oxygen control was inoperative, and at times we had to manage process swings using natural gas as a supplemental fuel because the control system couldn't react fast enough with coal or wood fuel. Boiler warm-up was a cumbersome process that required multiple operators, and the variability between operating shifts was excessive.
In 2010, we decided to upgrade the boiler and its controls. We were planning to burn more wood waste to meet increasing regulatory requirements, and we had to supply steam to the New Page paper mill. The New Page mill would consume about 40% of the steam produced,
As is typical when supplying utilities to an industrial process, we have no control over demand. The mill can increase or decrease its steam demand nearly instantaneously by wide margins, thereby upsetting boiler and steam turbine operations.
Another concern was related to biomass regulations. At the time we began the upgrade project, we did not know what the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) or the State of Minnesota would eventually pass in terms of legislation regulating the use of alternate fuels. Therefore, the control system would have to accommodate virtually any mix of wood and coal fuel.
These new developments meant we could no longer count on controlling the boiler with frequent manual intervention. We wanted to achieve maximum steam production from wood, savings in emissions and faster response to upsets. We also wanted to reduce operational problems such excessive ash carryover that was causing a need for frequent boiler cleaning.
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Active Directory
Silver Award:
NetPro RestoreADmin 1.0
NetPro continues its winning streak in SearchWin2000.com's Active Directory category for Products of the Year. Judges awarded Silver to NetPro's RestoreADmin 1.0, a product that enables administrators to perform easy online restores and create and schedule centralized backups to help drive user productivity and reduce downtime. In addition, it snaps in to Microsoft's Users and Computers console, eliminating the need to learn a third-party interface.
The key function of RestoreADmin involves the recovery of deleted objects. The software lists all deleted objects in a selected naming context or across an entire forest using Recycle Bin integration. It makes data recovery quick and easy and allows your DC to remain online. It also works in conjunction with NetPro's ChangeAuditor by sending administrators immediate notification of all deleted objects within the Active Directory environment.
RestoreADmin also monitors existing objects that have been altered rather than deleted, so you can erase any unwanted changes and roll back each object to its original state. The feature reduces the time it takes to recover from malicious or unintended deletions without scripts or manual effort.
Administrators use RestoreADmin to recover a variety of objects, including users, groups, contacts, computers, OUs, associated attributes and group memberships. You can even recover security descriptors and passwords by yourself.
Pricing: NetPro Computing Inc.'s RestoreADmin 1.0 is priced at $1.50 per user.


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So, time for me to sit down and actually learn some of this URL rewriting stuff that I havent actually bothered to learn yet. :rolleyes::D
I'm trying to do this, but just getting a 404 error;
Options +FollowSymLinks
RewriteEngine on
RewriteBase /spamable/
RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} !id=(.*)$ [NC]
RewriteRule ^(.*)\\.flv$ index.php?id=$1 [L]
the idea is to make a directory in which i can call any file name (ending in .flv) and push it invisibly to index.php, so i can throw some junk data out.
What's the RewriteBase supposed to be doing? If you're not familiar with it, it's supposed to "undo" mod_alias redirections so mod_rewrite can work on the URIs so, in this case, it looks like you're DocumentRoot is in the example.com/spamable// directory.
Then, what's the RewriteCond supposed to do? You're not using it and /spamable//{whatever}.flv should never have a query string.
That looks more like a "venus fly trap" sort of code (not suitable for index.php but a handle_spam.php script). Nice but it will cost you some bandwidth (and, hopefully, keep your hackers amused for a while).
Well, this is what i ended up with by following examples on the internets
The idea is this.Whatever URL comes in in the form of http://internal.domain/spamable/(anything).flv, i want to actually respond with data, without sending a redirect. The reason for doing it is an internal project needs to be able to call out for a theoretically infinite number of unique filenames (1.flv, 2.flv, etc etc etc) and not get served a 404, or 30X, but a 200.
the content itself is unimportant (not a valid FLV), just that -some- data is sent back in a 200 message. (The test here is of an intermediary streaming server, that will be HTTP-GET'ing content from this directory as a remote source)
Noone ever taught you to check your sources?
You might benefit from reading the mod_rewrite tutorial linked in my signature as it contains explanations and sample code. It's helped may members and should help you, too.
When it failed, yup. S'why I came here
Read it; it was actually missing a step (my httpd.conf file included both <Directory /> and <Directory /var/www/html> (docroot), which both set AllowOverride to None; your tutorial changes the /, but didnt mention the docroot one, so i didnt go looking for it at first).
This also meant i needed a RewriteBase directive in my htaccess - otherwise i'd get URLs out in the form http://internal.domain/var/www/html/index.php , which of course failed.
As a Mentor, you only came to SP when someone else's code failed? ;( Oh, well.
Hmmm, I've never seen a 'nix httpd.conf with a <Directory> pointing to the server root so that would be an obvious error ... but on whose part? Thank you for that feedback, though!
RewriteBase has nothing to do with your server's file structure. Its intent is to undo a mod_alias redirection so mod_rewrite can work on the URI. WP misuses it to enable their code to reside in a subdirectory but that's another issue. If it works for WP, I'd not "fix it" but I would never use RewriteBase otherwise.
Finally, when you get URLS like domain/server_path/to/file rather than domain/path/to/file, that's indicative of a problem with the server which can (only?) be cleared by restarting Apache. I have no information on the error causing this sort of redirection except that it's obviously wrong.
My habit is to try the immediate thing, and then seek help. shrug When you've got a deadline, things have to get done.
All i can say is that it was in the default HTTPD package install with the RHEL 6.2 image I was cloning for a virtual.
This isnt a WP installation.
Possibly related to the Directory definition for /server_path/to/ in httpd.conf?
Hi SL!
Yeah, I try to get everything done to a deadline (my taxes are always submitted on the due date - I LOATHE doing taxes).
Okay, weird configuration of your RedHat installation. They must have a reason for that but I can't guess what it must be.
WP has nothing to do with RewriteBase except for the only valid use I've seen for using it (IMHO).
No, Apache is "smart enough" to keep the server file structure separate from a domain's DocumentRoot (which must be defined to Apache in terms of the server's file structure). I have yet to figure out why the server path gets inserted into a URL (this should NEVER happen) so, for me, a restart is the only way out of that box.
Back to your original problem: Did
RewriteRule ^spamable/([^/]+)\\.flv$ index.php?id=$1 [L]
work for you as you needed?
DKAll i can say is that it was in the default HTTPD package install with the RHEL 6.2 image I was cloning for a virtual.
Possibly related to the Directory definition for /server_path/to/ in httpd.conf?[/QUOTE]
I needed a RewriteBase to circumnavigate the odd server-path-injection bit, and a slight rewrite to the rule (adding the spamable/ directory to the redirected url), but yes, this now works
GREAT! :Partier: If it works, don't fix it!


text:
SANTA CRUZ -- Harbor leaders threw the switch on a festively decorated Walton Lighthouse Friday night as part of a new holiday lighting tradition.
The lighthouse lit up at dusk and coincided with a holiday party to celebrate it at the O'Neill Sea Odyssey building at 2222 E. Cliff Drive.
"It's a great start to the holidays and it's something great for our community," said Dan Haifley, executive director of O'Neill Sea Odyssey. "We hope it will become a tradition for the Seabright and Live Oak neighborhoods."
The inaugural lighthouse lighting marked the night before the Lighted Boat Parade, which features decorated boats cruising through the Santa Cruz Small Craft Harbor. The parade will take place at 5:30 p.m. Saturday regardless of rain.
A party to celebrate the inaugural lighting was held at the O'Neill Sea Odyssey building.
O'Neill Sea Odyssey advisory board member Bill Simpkins and board member Jim Thoits conceived the new lighting event. Both men raised money to fund the lighthouse's construction.
Since 1996, the O'Neill Sea Odyssey has taken students on a 65-foot catamaran from the harbor to teach them about marine habitats and the coastal environment.
Follow Sentinel reporter Stephen Baxter on Twitter at Twitter.com/sbaxter_sc


text:
View of a cemetery after the Great Salem Fire
View of a cemetery after the Great Salem Fire
Title provided by cataloger
Salem, MA, 01970
View from outside a cemetery shos headstones and what appears to be a household chair.;The Great Salem Fire started at 1:37 PM on June 25, 1914 at the Korn Leather Factory located at 57 Boston Street. Fire departments from the following cities and towns responded to the alarms: Peabody, Lynn, Beverly, Swampscott, Marblehead, Boston, Chelsea, Wakefield, Danvers, Reading, Stoneham, Newburyport, Revere, Lawrence, Malden, Gloucester, Manchester, Medford, Hingham, Somerville, Winchester. In 1914, Salem's population was approximately, 48,000. The city covered 5100 acres and had 5826 buildings with a total valuation of $37,250,000. By the time it was through, "the conflagration [had] burned 253 acres, 1,376 buildings, the territory covered being 1 1/2 miles long by 1/2 mile wide the entire loss probably being much in excess of $15,000,000.00 the insureance loss paid $11,744,000.00, people homeless almost 20,000 and out of work, about 10,000." In the aftermath of the fire, Salem created a rebuilding commission charged with developing new building code and city planning regulations.
Fires -- Massachusetts -- Salem -- Pictorial works.
Salem (Massachusetts) -- History -- Pictorial works.
Collection :
Tags :
Citation :
"View of a cemetery after the Great Salem Fire," in NOBLE Digital Heritage, Item #8406, http://heritage.noblenet.org/items/show/8406 (accessed September 26, 2017).


text:
The Visio team is here at SharePoint Conference (SPC) 2012, and we're looking forward to having an exciting and fun-filled time in sunny Las Vegas. A major theme of SPC 2012 is our new release of Office–including SharePoint, Project, and Visio–and we've got a full agenda of topics to cover.
The Visio team will be participating in a few different ways:
- We've got a few sessions covering the new Visio and improvements in Visio Services:
- What's new in Visio and Visio Services 2013
- Building a Market Trends dashboard using Visio Services in SharePoint 2013
- CRM BI and Workflow tracking with Microsoft Visio
- How Malik Management is using Visio for High-End Business Process Consulting Services
- Developing Advanced BI Visualizations with Visio & SharePoint in Office 365 with Azure data integration
- Developing SharePoint Workflows with SharePoint Designer 2013 and Visio Professional 2013
- Embed a data connected Visio diagram in SharePoint 2013
- We have a booth staffed with Visio experts that you can come and chat with at any time the Expo is open.
- And we'll have a table at Ask The Experts (ATE) where you can ask technical questions about the product.
- Ask the Experts is on Wednesday from 6 PM.
Don't worry if you couldn't make the conference-we'll make our sessions available for streaming once the conference is over. We'll update this blog with more information about how to access recorded sessions when we have it.
For more information about SPC 2012, please visit http://www.mssharepointconference.com. The site includes a session list and much more information about events and activities during the week.


text:
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Guillain-Barre (gee-YAH-buh-RAY) syndrome is a rare disorder in which your body's immune system attacks your nerves. Weakness and tingling in your extremities are usually the first symptoms.
These sensations can quickly spread, eventually paralyzing your whole body. In its most severe form Guillain-Barre syndrome is a medical emergency. Most people with the condition must be hospitalized to receive treatment.
The exact cause of Guillain-Barre syndrome is unknown. But it is often preceded by an infectious illness such as a respiratory infection or the stomach flu.
There's no known cure for Guillain-Barre syndrome, but several treatments can ease symptoms and reduce the duration of the illness. Most people recover from Guillain-Barre syndrome, though some may experience lingering effects from it, such as weakness, numbness or fatigue.
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text:
Maryland Park Runs "Slave For A Day" Promotion
The Hampton National Historic Park in Maryland, takes Black History Month very seriously. So much so that they refuse to contain the celebration to its scheduled 28 days in February, and observe Black history "every month." In accordance with their tradition, the park has decided to allow visitors to be a "Slave for a Day" on July 8.
Park ranger and event organizer Angela Roberts-Burton—a Black woman—thought the promotion would be a good learning experience for those yearning to be treated like slaves. "By no means am I trying to, or are we the Park Service, trying to assimilate the atrocities that slave African-Americans endured," she said. "This is just a glimpse of the hard work, being out in the heat and sun."
According to an announcement which has since been re-worded on their website, this is the "first time ever" that the park has tried the slave-inspired excursion, which allows patrons to "carry buckets of water with a yoke on your shoulders!"
Roberts-Burton claims to have received 50 emails complaining about the exclamation points and wording used in the advertisement.
Anthony Fugett, vice president of a local chapter of the NAACP, defended the plan, but blasted the execution. "The event was well-intentioned, but the name may have been inappropriate, and I'm glad to see they changed it," he said. "I don't see it as a menacing event at all. Slavery is a part of the history of the country and the state of Maryland. The one thing we don't want is for our history to be missed, and sometimes it's good to get a perspective of a day in the life of a slave."
With a background that includes extensive studying of the "African-diaspora" and a master's degree from Howard University, Roberts-Burton created a Facebook page to defend herself, noting that the "people who are complaining about this are people who don't even come here."
For now the event is still scheduled to take place, but given the response to Adida's "slave shackle" sneakers, a college educated woman like Roberts-Burton should have expected the backlash.
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Photo: Themes in American History


text:
Singing Bowl Accessories
Item #: RBSMFPCI
The Roosebeck Microfiber Polishing Cloth is a superior, innovative, chemical free, hypoallergenic cloth for polishing your instruments. One strand is 100 times thinner than the thickness of human hair, and is made of polyester 80% and nylon(polyamide) 20%. Microfiber is preferred for its very lightweight, super absorbency, and rapid drying properties. It has a soft and delicate powder-like touch. It is approximately 11" x 11" square.
$3.80 3.90
Item #: SGBC
Singing Bowl Cushion. A perfect ring shaped cushion on which to rest your singing bowl. The SGBC has an approximate inside diameter of 3.25" and an outside diameter of 5.25" and a thickness of 1". Color and cloth style may vary.
$6.00 6.30
Item #: SGBCD
Singing Bowl Cushion. A perfect square shaped thin cushion on which to rest your singing bowl for display or while you play. The approximate size is 9.75" X 9.75"
$10.00 10.50
Item #: SGBTD
Solid wood beater with real suede leather for singing bowl.
$14.20 14.90


text:
Ask an Eye Doctor and Get an Answer ASAP
Hi. I'm online and happy to answer your question today.
I just tripped and gave myself a black eye.
Is your vision affected at all?
It sounds like you have a small subconjunctival hemorrhage from your glasses frame smacking your eye.
In the vast majority of cases, sub conjunctival hemorrhage is nothing to worry about. It is usually not a sign of any serious condition but rather is just a small broken blood vessel in the conjunctiva that looks much worse than it really is.No treatment is necessary. Think of a subconjunctival hemorrhage as a bruise. The reason it looks so red (some people say it looks like a piece of raw meat) is that the skin on your eye is very thin so the underlying blood shows through easily. On your arm, for instance, a bruise looks blue/purple because the overlying skin is thick, blocking the red color of the blood.Like a bruise elsewhere a subconjunctival hemorrhage will slowly go away over the course of a couple of weeks. It may spread around the globe some and change colors as it clears. This is nothing to be concerned about.
I think you will be OK.
Thank you so much. Happy 4th.
You too!
And, now, the obligatory word from our sponsors: :o)
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text:
Ok another dumb topic from the dumbass Mischo someone will say but wait...
So I didn't had i-net connection for 4 days. Today I finally succeeded to find the provider guys in their office with a bottle o' vodka and we had this conversation:
I: "Hell, why?!" They: "Well we turned off your connection because you've not paid your bill!" I: "Ok, so should i come and pay it?" They: "No you have 10 days more... we'll turn it on right away!"
Personaly I don't have a comment for that since i'm getting pretty used to such stuff.. besides it's only two years till emigration....
so ? didn't you pay your bill ?
looks like he 'forgot' to.
yeah man... i "forget" to pay many of my bills, too
heh, hehe.. i sure don't. i just wait for the first letter that tells me "now you have 10 days left".
oh, and, btw, yes, it's quite normal to get plugged off if you forgot to pay something. happens here with cellphones all the time. the fun is.. how do you call them then, to tell them "hey, you suckers, i'm just about to pay my bill, wtf why did you turned off my cellphone?!?!?".
how do you tell that if the cellphone is what you have to use for it?
Are you guys sorta nuts?! I never had to pay my bill cause "i have more 10 days of usage untill the bill-pay-day.". But the guys simply ignored that fact and plugged me off...
They shouldn't have disconnected you. They suck. Shake your stick at them..
well... shoot them if they close your internet connection again..
well... shoot them if they close your internet connection again.. [snapback]9007[/snapback]
Yep, that's the worst advice I've heard in a while...
why ? probably where he comes from it's the way to settle things (texas ???). do you have to be so cultural insensitive ? :lol:
i was just trying to make my statement a little more wide to the global world. here in lil Denmark i would personally rape the persons first and take anything that's worth selling and then cut their head of with an axe!...
Anubis: Wtf! Did you really think i came from the state of texas?!? :wtf: I better rethink my apperance to the outside world! (You didn't mean it?! did you?)
here in lil Denmark i would personally rape the persons first and take anything that's worth selling and then cut their head of with an axe!
hehe... yeah, i heard that your country is big in death metall music
Did you really think i came from the state of texas?!?
actually no. it was solely the "first shoot, then asks questions (if at all)" attitude of yours that gave me the impression. considering your last post though i come to the conclusion that you come from arkansas
but seriously... thanks for warning me ! i thought about moving up to the north some day but i guess i will have to reconsider this
texas-like statment :
Y3Ah!!!`1 H3aVy / D3AtH M3taL!!!
I'm glad to see so much young entusiasts ready to fight for their connections!
'Our blood for T1'
ahh well.. we are still jesus freaks here. there aren't many black metalists here. move to norvay if you want satanism as primary and only religion
but who wouldn't like to kill the director of the isp?
Henning Dyremose
Wrong my friend! We're actually pretty normal . Think about it for a sec. We discuss the stuff without hiding anything and we're having fun. If that's not normal, what is?
yeah, laying your true intentions open to your foes is indeed crazy !!! muahaha, they are after me... i know it ! sorry... too much doom3


text:
Solar Power
Quick Facts
- Solar power accounted for less than 0.2 percent of energy generation in the United States in 2011. Solar power also accounted for 0.5 percent of global electricity demand in 2011.
- Total global solar energy generation capacity averaged 40 percent annual growth from 2000 (1.5 GW) to 2011 (69.8 GW). Solar is the fastest growing source of renewable electricity in the world and in the United States, but it is starting from a small base.
- The average cost per installed watt (system costs including electrical grid connection and other equipment needed for installation) of solar photovoltaics in the United States has dropped from over $7.50/watt in 2009 to $4.44/watt in 2012. In 2011 alone, cost per installed watt declined 17.4 percent.
- Future challenges for solar include grid integration and storage of power for later use, as well as achieving cost reductions for non-panel equipment, financing, and installation
Solar power harnesses the sun's energy to produce electricity. Solar energy resources are massive and widespread, and they can be harnessed anywhere that receives sunlight. The amount of solar radiation, also known as insolation, reaching the earth's surface every hour is more than all the energy currently consumed by all human activities annually.[1] A number of factors, including geographic location, time of day, and current weather conditions, all affect the amount of energy that can be harnessed for electricity production or heating purposes (see Figure 1).
Although solar energy is abundantly available, it is also variable and intermittent. Solar power cannot generate electricity at night without storage mechanisms, and is less effective in overcast or cloudy conditions. For this reason, solar power is often used in conjunction with baseload generation from coal, natural gas, nuclear, and hydro sources of power that can provide reserve generation in times of intermittency.[2]
The two main solar technologies for electricity generation are solar photovoltaics (PV), which use semiconductor materials to convert sunlight into electricity, and concentrating solar power (CSP), which concentrates sunlight on a fluid to produce steam and drive a turbine to produce electricity. CSP is a subset of solar thermal energy, which also encompasses water heaters, driers, cookers, and other applications of solar heating.
Solar power accounted for less than 0.2 percent of energy generation in the United States in 2011.[3] Solar power also accounted for 0.5 percent of global electricity demand in 2011.[4]
Figure 1: Average Daily Solar Resource for South-facing PV Panels with Latitude Tilt
|Source: National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), "Photovoltaic Solar Resource of the United States" From Dynamic Maps, GIS data, and Analysis Tools, accessed August 3, 2012. http://www.nrel.gov/gis/solar.html
Note: This map shows annual average daily total solar resources. The insolation values represent the resource available to a photovoltaic panel oriented and tilted to maximize capture of solar energy. This map displays an annual average; maps for individual months reflect the seasonal variation associated with solar energy.
Solar photovoltaic (PV)
Solar PV is the term used to designate generation that uses the photoelectric effect to produce electricity. Globally, solar PV accounted for 69.8 GW of installed capacity at the end of 2011, and its capacity is expected to increase by about 29.9 GW in 2012.[5] Photovoltaics use semiconductor materials—most frequently silicon but also cadmium telluride and copper indium gallium selenide—to convert sunlight directly into electricity. PV installations can vary substantially in size and are usually divided into three sizes – residential-, commercial-, and utility-scale. The modular nature of solar PV makes it well-suited for distributed generation (small-scale installations close to where the electricity will be used, such as on the roof of a house or business). Concentrated PV, not to be confused with concentrating solar power (defined below), can also be used as utility-scale power plants, known as "solar farms" or "solar plants."
Wafer photovoltaics
PV modules are produced by slicing ingots into wafers, most of which are silicon-based. These wafers are then electrically connected and packaged into modules, which can then be assembled into arrays. Today's silicon-based modules have a conversion efficiency of about 13-20 percent (meaning they convert up to 20 percent of the energy they receive from the sun into electricity) though these efficiencies are improving.[6]
Thin-film photovoltaics
Thin-film technologies use very thin layers (only a few microns) of semiconductor material to make PV cells. Though thin-film PV absorbs more light than silicon wafers, thin-film PV is less efficient at converting light into electricity than traditional PV, and thus needs more surface area to produce a given amount of power. Most thin film efficiencies range between 6 and 11 percent, while silicon-wafer efficiencies are between 15 and 20 percent.[7]
However, thin-film PV cells require significantly less material to manufacture (approximately 5 percent of the material required to make a traditional PV cell). Thin film PV cells are commonly manufactured from lower-grade silicon or non-silicon materials such as CIGS (copper-indium-gallium-diselenide) and CdTe (cadmium telluride), which have lower costs compared to silicon-based PVs.[8] The use of less expensive materials or reductions in the amount of material needed brings down costs for thin-film PVs as opposed to silicon-wafer PV. Moreover, thin-film PV can be integrated into buildings or consumer products, for example, by layering them seamlessly onto roof tiles.
Next-generation photovoltaics
Researchers are developing next-generation materials as well as new methods for producing PVs to increase conversion efficiency and lower production costs. Many of these technologies, for example organic solar cells, are not dependent on rare earth minerals; thin film PV modules, on the other hand, are commonly made from rare earths such as tellurium, gallium, and indium.[9] Concentrating PV, not be confused with Concentrating Solar Power (CSP)–using lenses or mirrors to concentrate sunlight onto special PV materials—may prove to be a lower-cost solar power option. Nano-scale materials, such as carbon nanotubes, could also yield breakthrough applications for PV materials.[10] Others believe they can achieve low-cost solar electricity via the use of organic materials, bioengineering, and streamlined manufacturing processes.[11]
Concentrating solar power (CSP) / Solar Thermal
Globally, CSP accounted for 1.76 GW of installed capacity at the end of 2011.[12] Unlike PV, which converts sunlight directly into electricity, CSP uses the sun's thermal energy to produce electricity. CSP is mainly a utility-scale application of solar power that uses arrays of mirrors to focus sunlight on a fluid to produce steam to spin an electricity-generating turbine. Because coal and gas-fired power plants also generate steam to spin turbines, solar thermal can potentially be integrated with these plants. CSP systems require a significant amount of area and ideal solar conditions.
CSP, similar to solar PV, has difficulty generating electricity when the sun is not shining. However, working fluids in CSP systems, such as molten salt, give up their heat slowly and can continue to produce steam and therefore electricity for several hours even without direct sunshine. In July 2011, a 19.9 MW CSP plant in Spain became the first utility-scale solar installation to generate electricity for 24 hours straight, using molten salt for energy storage.[13]
CSP technologies include parabolic trough, linear Fresnel reflectors, power towers, and Stirling thermal systems. Parabolic trough, which uses parabolic mirrors to focus light onto a linear pipe, is the most popular CSP technology and accounts for over 90 percent of CSP.[14] Other solar thermal applications outside of electricity generation, known as low-temperature or medium-temperature collectors, include HVAC system designs, solar water heating (e.g., hot water heaters for swimming pools) and cooking. Solar water heating accounted for 172.4 thermal GW in 2009; China accounted for 58.9 percent of this capacity.[15] The U.S. solar water heating industry is growing at 6 percent annually in the United States and has significant potential to expand.[16]
Solar power capacity is expressed as Watt-peak (Wp), which is the amount of power generated by a solar panel at standard testing conditions (STC). Standard testing conditions denote 25 degrees Celsius and an irradiance (or insolation at a specific moment in time) of 1000 watts per meter squared, approximating the sun at noon on a clear day in spring or autumn in the continental United States.[17] For PV, Wp incorporates the absorption efficiency of sunlight into the individual cells as well as the conversion efficiency from solar to electricity. However, because of nighttime, weather conditions, and other issues, the capacity factor of solar PV is around 25 percent, meaning average actual electrical generation over the course of a day is only a quarter of Wp.
Environmental Benefit / Emission Reduction Potential
Electricity produced using solar energy emits no greenhouse gases (GHGs) or other pollutants. As with any electricity-generating resource, the production of the PV systems themselves requires energy that may come from sources that emit GHGs and other pollutants. Since solar PV systems have no emissions once in operation, an average traditional PV system will need to operate for an average of four years to recover the energy and emissions associated with its manufacturing. A thin-film system currently requires three years. Technological improvements are anticipated to bring these timeframes down to one or two years. Thus, a residential PV system that can meet half of average household electricity needs is estimated to avoid 100 tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) over a 30-year lifetime.[18]
It is highly uncertain how quickly and to what extent solar will grow into the future. The IEA envisions a scenario in which nearly one-third of the world's electricity supply could be from solar by 2060 given improved efficiency and a price on carbon, but all else equal. Carbon dioxide emissions from the world's energy sector would fall from 30 gigatons in 2011 to 3 gigatons.[19] The European Photovoltaic Industry Association estimates that global cumulative solar PV capacity will be between 208 GW and 343 GW by 2016, corresponding to roughly three to five percent of global electricity demand. This percentage is similar to the current solar share of electricity generation in countries with the most solar generation.[20]
For PV, panel prices are usually denoted as cost per Wp. Costs are also sometimes expressed as cost per installed watt, which includes the price of the DC-AC inverter, connection to the grid, and more. All costs besides the module itself are known as balance-of-system costs. Thus, the addition of balance-of-system costs to the cost of the solar module equals the installed watt costs.
The cost of solar PV has fallen substantially over the last few decades, and especially over the past few years. CSP price declines have also been substantial, but not as sharp as PV price declines. The weighted average cost of PV systems across residential, commercial, and utility-scale installations declined from $10.80 dollars per installed watt in 1998 to just above $7.50 per installed watt in 2007.[21] By Q2 2012, costs have fallen to $4.44 per installed watt.[22] The bulk of these discounts is from diminishing module costs, although the root cause of these diminishing costs is unclear; for individual silicon wafer panels, the average selling price dropped from $1.85/watt to $0.97/watt in 2011 alone, nearly a 50 percent price decline.[23] Diminishing module costs have been driven by a variety of factors including vertical integration, scale efficiencies, overproduction of polysilicon (the key raw material in solar), subsidies, and more.[24],[25] In contrast, when the technology was first developed in the 1950s, solar PV cells cost $300 per watt.[26] Although solar PV prices are forecasted to continue to decline, the magnitude and pace of these price declines are uncertain.
CSP prices have also declined but not kept pace with PV price declines, leading to a shift from planned CSP power plants being converted to PV in 2011, including projects by Tessera Solar, Solar Millenium, and Google/Brightsource.[27] To illustrate this shift, CSP in 2008 accounted for about ten times as much installed capacity as solar PV in the United States; in 2011, solar PV accounted for 1.6 as much capacity as CSP.[28] While a rebound in CSP development may eventually come about, PV continues to remain more cost-effective than CSP while equally satisfying various state mandates such as renewable portfolio standards (RPS). However, compared to PV, CSP offers more developed storage potential as well as integration with conventional turbines normally fueled by fossil fuel combustion.
PV project costs may not decrease as quickly in the U.S. as they have in the past two years, and several market factors could affect the prices of PV modules. Low prices on solar panels in 2011 were in part caused by oversupply from Chinese solar manufacturers, which made up 47.8 percent of global solar cell market share in 2012,[29] but U.S. anti-dumping tariffs of thirty percent may soon be imposed on Chinese solar manufacturers. Moreover, cash grants from the U.S. Department of Treasury, which reimbursed solar developers up to thirty percent of project costs, expired in December 2011 and will affect both PV and CSP project development after 2012.[30] Project developers in the U.S. can now only claim tax credits (Investment Tax Credit) instead of upfront cash grants after 2011, which is a barrier to project development because many solar developers do not have a sufficiently large tax appetite, and developers may need upfront cash to finance the project. The Investment Tax Credit itself, which gives a tax credit for 30 percent of any commercial and residential system, is slated to expire at the end of 2016. Although the magnitude of the effects of these events is uncertain, balance-of-system costs, which now comprise more than half of the installed cost of PV systems (solar modules only comprise 35-40 percent of costs), may present opportunities for further price declines.
Solar generation still remains more expensive than other forms of electricity generation in many areas, but solar power may become comparable or even cheaper than conventional electricity in certain regions in the next few years. A study in late 2011 showed that the levelized cost of a thin film PV system ranges from 10 to 14 cents per kilowatt-hour (kWh) for a utility-scale solar power plant, while home and medium-scale solar installations cost between 12 and 30 cents per kWh.[31] These costs, however, depend on a number of assumptions and are highly sensitive to the inclusion of various tax incentives for solar power, especially the Federal Investment Tax Credit.
Solar prices are forecasted to continue to decline. GTM Research forecasts that the average selling price of silicon modules will fall from about $0.97 per watt to $0.61 per watt by 2015.[32] The U.S. Department of Energy SunShot Initiative aims to reduce PV costs to $1/installed Wp by 2020, which would translate to 6 cents per kWh.[33] These price reductions would allow solar to comprise 14 percent of U.S. electricity consumption by 2030, and 27 percent by 2050. Such shares of generation would lead to 8 percent (181 MMT CO2) and 28 percent (760 MMT CO2) reduction in U.S. CO2 emissions in 2030 and 2050 respectively.[34]
Table 1: Solar Technologies at a Glance (as of early 2012)
Solar PV Price
$4.44/installed watt[35]
U.S. Solar PV installed capacity
Global Solar PV installed capacity
CSP (parabolic trough) price
$5.79/installed watt[38]
U.S. CSP installed capacity
Global CSP installed capacity
Obstacles to Further Development and Deployment of Solar Power
Electricity generated from solar power remains more expensive than other forms of electricity in many places. Moreover, in recent years, the supply of rare earth minerals commonly used for PV manufacturing has become constrained. China supplies 97 percent of the world's rare earth minerals and has enacted production and export quotas,[41] driving higher the price of rare earth minerals. The uncertain future of the supply of rare earths is a risk to the U.S. PV manufacturing industry,[42] but efforts are underway to develop a domestic supply of rare earth minerals as well as the use of solar technologies that do not use supply-constrained materials.[43] For the time being, rare earth supply has met the growth of solar in demand, and has not been a limiting factor in the price declines of solar power.
Solar power, especially solar PV, is constrained by intermittency issues because of weather factors and the fact that daylight hours are limited. CSP storage technologies are being developed to alleviate intermittency problems, although integrated storage remains costly. Solar power is also constrained by the uneven geographic distribution of solar resources, which ultimately encumbers integration with the larger electric grid. To achieve its full potential, solar power will rely on a variety of advanced enabling technologies such as demand response and improvements in energy storage. Energy storage technologies would allow electricity generated during peak production hours (i.e., on bright, sunny days) to be stored for use during periods of lower or no generation. The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) has published a series of studies examining whether intermittent renewable including solar are capable of providing up to 80 percent of electricity demand.[44]
Solar power, specifically utility-scale PV and CSP, is also held back by a lack of transmission infrastructure (necessary to access solar resources in remote areas, such as deserts, and transport the electricity to end users). These areas often have the highest potential for solar generation.
However, solar technologies offer a number of opportunities for "on-site" or "distributed generation" applications in which energy is produced at the point of consumption, including rooftop PV arrays and building-integrated photovoltaic (BIPV) systems. Such systems, known as local PV, can make solar power more cost competitive by avoiding costs associated with transmission and distribution. However, technical problems in regulating the local grid must be solved before local PV reaches its full potential.
Policy Options to Help Promote Solar Power
Price on carbon
A price on carbon, (e.g. under a carbon tax or GHG cap-and-trade program) would raise the cost of coal and natural gas generation, making solar more cost competitive in more parts of the country, especially as technological advancements continue to bring down the cost of solar power.
Renewable portfolio standards
A renewable portfolio standard (or an alternative energy portfolio standard) requires that a certain percentage or absolute amount of a utility's power plant capacity or generation or sales come from renewable or alternative sources by a given date. As of July 2012, 31 U.S. states and the District of Columbia had adopted a mandatory RPS or AEPS and an additional seven states had set renewable energy goals. Renewable portfolio standards encourage investment in new renewable generation and can guarantee a market for this generation. States and jurisdictions can further encourage investment in specific resources, such as solar power, by including a carve-out or set-aside in an RPS, as is the case in the District of Columbia and 12 states (all of which mandate that a given percentage of their renewable energy requirements be met through new solar generation).
Development of new transmission infrastructure
Policies that promote the buildout of new electricity transmission lines (such as the streamlining of transmission siting procedures) allow access to these resources, thereby providing additional incentives for utilities to invest in them. Lack of transmission can also be addressed by instead incentivizing distributed electricity generation using solar PV, rather than focusing on large, utility-scale systems.
Feed-in tariffs and other financial incentives
Feed-in tariffs (FiTs)promote the deployment of solar power or other renewable electricity generation by guaranteeing electricity generators a fixed price for electricity produced from particular resources (e.g. solar), usually enough above the retail price for electricity to cover the costs of the generation and also provide the generator a profit. Typically, utilities are required to purchase this electricity at the specified price and then spread the additional costs across the utility bills of its customers. This fixed price is usually guaranteed for some specified period of time. (Germany, one of the most high-profile examples of a country employing feed-in tariffs, guarantees the fixed rate for 20 years.) These policies might also direct electrical grid operators to give priority to electricity produced from solar power or other renewables. Federal financial incentives include the Investment Tax Credit, which is valid until 2016, and the payment in lieu of tax credits (PILOT), which expired in 2011.
Other financial incentives to promote solar power can include tax incentives or credits, net metering, and loan programs. These incentives can be offered to utilities or to individual customers installing their own power systems.
Growth in solar power has relied heavily on policy and financial incentives, but price declines may make solar development profitable on its own. Europe had more than 51 GW of installed capacity in 2011, primarily because of FiTs and other incentives. In comparison, the United States only had 4.4 GW and China had 3.1 GW. Solar power in both countries is forecasted to grow quickly.[45]
Related C2ES Resources
- Wind and Solar Electricity: Challenges and Opportunities, 2009.
- Race to the Top: The Expanding Role of U.S. State Renewable Portfolio Standards, 2006.
- Net Metering State Map, 2012.
- Renewable & Alternative Energy Portfolio Standard Map, 2012.
- Clean Energy Standards: State and Federal Policy Options and Implications, 2011,
- Clean Energy Markets Jobs and Opportunities, 2011.
Further Reading / Additional Resources
U.S. Department of Energy, Sunshot Vision Study, 2012 http://www1.eere.energy.gov/solar/pdfs/47927.pdf
International Energy Agency (IEA): Solar Heating and Cooling Programme, Solar Heat Worldwide: Markets and Contribution to the Energy Supply 2009, 2011 http://www.iea-shc.org/statistics/SolarHeatWorldwide/index.html
International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), Renewable Energy Technologies: Cost Analysis Series Volume 1: Power Sector, Issue 2/5 Concentrating Solar Power, 2012 http://www.irena.org/DocumentDownloads/Publications/RE_Technologies_Cost_Analysis-CSP.pdf
Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) and Greentech Media Research, U.S. Solar Market Insight Report: 2011 Year-in-Review, 2012 http://www.slideshare.net/SEIA/us-solar-market-insight-report
European Photovoltaic Industry Association (EPIA), Global Market Outlook for Photovoltaics Until 2016, 2012 http://files.epia.org/files/Global-Market-Outlook-2016.pdf
International Energy Agency (IEA), Energy Technology Perspectives 2012: Scenarios and Strategies to 2050, 2010 http://www.iea.org/etp/
U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)
- Tracking the Sun: The Installed Cost of Photovoltaics in the U.S. from 1998-2009, by R. Wiser, G. Barbose, and C. Peterman, 2010 http://eetd.lbl.gov/ea/ems/reports/lbnl-4121e.pdf.
- National Renewable Energy Laboratory. Solar PV Manufacturing Cost Model Group: Installed Solar PV System Prices. February 2011. http://arpa-e.energy.gov/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=2WF9d-ukumA%3D&tabid=408
- Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy. U.S. State Clean Energy Data Book. October 2010. http://www.nrel.gov/docs/fy11osti/48212.pdf
U.S. Energy Information Administration. Annual Energy Outlook, Renewables. http://www.eia.gov/forecasts/aeo/data.cfm?filter=renewable#renewable
International Energy Agency. Technology Roadmap: Solar Photovoltaic Energy. 2010 http://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/energy/technology-roadmap-solar-photovoltaic-energy_9789264088047-en;jsessionid=7tgn15975dltb.delta
International Energy Agency. Technology Roadmap: Concentrating Solar Power. 2010 http://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/energy/technology-roadmap-concentrating-solar-power_9789264088139-en;jsessionid=7tgn15975dltb.delta
International Energy Agency Solar Power and Chemical Energy Systems (SolarPACE). http://www.solarpaces.org/Library/AnnualReports/annualreports.htm
[1] Lewis, S. and D. Nocera. "Powering the Planet: Chemical Challenges in Solar Energy Utilization." August 2006. http://www.pnas.org/content/103/43/15729.abstract
[2] Massachusetts Institute of Technology Energy Initiative. The Future of the Electric Grid Chapter 3: Integration of Variable Energy Resources. Cambridge, MA: MIT, 2011. http://web.mit.edu/mitei/research/studies/documents/electric-grid-2011/Electric_Grid_3_Integration_of_Variable_Energy_Resources.pdf
[3] EIA. Table 1.3 Primary Energy Consumption by Source. May 2012. http://www.eia.gov/totalenergy/data/monthly/pdf/sec1_7.pdf.
[4] European Photovoltaic Industry Association (EPIA). Global Market Outlook for Photovoltaics Until 2016. May 2012. http://files.epia.org/files/Global-Market-Outlook-2016.pdf
[5] Ibid.
[6] International Energy Agency (IEA). Renewable Energy Division. Technology Roadmap Solar Photovoltaic Energy. Paris:OECD/IEA, 2010. Web 01 Mar. 2012. http://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/energy/technology-roadmap-solar-photovoltaic-energy_9789264088047-en;jsessionid=7tgn15975dltb.delta
[7] Quantum Solar Power. "A Comparison of PV Technologies." Accessed July 19, 2012.
[8] Ibid.
[9] U.S. Department of Energy (U.S. DOE). Critical Materials Strategy. December 2010. http://energy.gov/sites/prod/files/edg/news/documents/criticalmaterialsstrategy.pdf
[10] Chandler, D. "All-carbon solar cell harnesses infrared light.." MITnews, 2010. Accessed 21 Jun 2012. http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2012/infrared-photovoltaic-0621.html
[12] Reve (Revista Eolica y del Vehiculo Electrico)."Global capacity of concentrated solar power rose to 1,760 MW." 19 June 2012. http://www.evwind.es/noticias.php?id_not=19243
[13] Torresol Energy. Gemasolar plant description. Accessed August 2012. http://www.torresolenergy.com/TORRESOL/gemasolar-plant/en
[14] Sawin, L. and E. Martinot. "Renewables Bounced Back in 2010, Finds Ren21 Global Report." Renewable Energy World Magazine. 29 Septmember 2011. http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/news/article/2011/09/renewables-bounced-back-in-2010-finds-ren21-global-report
[15] Weiss, W. and F. Mauthner. Solar Heat Worldwide: Markets and Contribution to the Energy Supply 2009, Edition 2011. Gleisdorf, Austria: AEE Institute for Sustainable Technologies, May 2011. http://www.iea-shc.org/statistics/SolarHeatWorldwide/index.html
[16] Trabish, H. K. "Solar Hot Water at Intersolar: Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed." Greentech Media, 11 July 2012. Accessed August 2012. http://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/solar-hot-water-at-intersolar-something-old-something-new-something-borrowe/
[17] IMTSolar. "Standard Test Conditions (STC) in the Photovoltaic (PV) Industry." Accessed August 2012. http://www.imtsolar.com/public/files/IMT%20Solar_STC%20for%20PV%20APP%20NOTE.pdf
[18] U.S. Department of Energy National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL). "PV FAQs." December 2004. http://www.nrel.gov/docs/fy05osti/37322.pdf
[19] International Energy Agency. "Topic: Solar (PV and CSP)." Accessed August 2012. http://www.iea.org/topics/solarpvandcsp/
[21] Barbose, G., N. Darghouth, R. Wiser, and J. Steel. Tracking the Sun IV: A Historical Summary of the Installed Costs of Photovoltaics in the United States from 1998 to 2010. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Report No. LNL-5047e, 2011. http://eetd.lbl.gov/ea/ems/reports/lbnl-5047e.pdf
[22] U.S. Solar Energy Industry Association (SEIA) and GTM Research. U.S. Solar Market Insight: Q2 2012. SEIA, July 2012 http://www.seia.org/cs/research/SolarInsight
[23] U.S. Solar Energy Industry Association (SEIA) and GTM Research. U.S. Solar Market Insight: 2011 Year-in-Review. SEIA, January 2012 http://www.seia.org/cs/research/SolarInsight
[24] Barbose, et al., 2011.
[25] Panzica, B. "Solar Pricing's Rapid Decline." Energy & Capital, 26 September 2011. Accessed August 2012. http://www.energyandcapital.com/articles/solar-pricings-rapid-decline/1778
[26] Shepherd, William. Energy Studies. London: Imperial College Press, 2003.
[27] Barber, D.A. "Are PVs Pricing-out CSP Projects in the U.S.?" EnergyTrend TrendForce, 8 September 2011. Accessed August 2012. http://pv.energytrend.com/PV_Pricingout_CSP_09082011
[28] U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA). Annual Energy Outlook 2011. Table 120. Accessed August 2011. http://www.eia.gov/oiaf/aeo/tablebrowser/#release=AEO2011&subject=0-AEO2011&table=67-AEO2011®ion=3-0&cases=ref2011-d020911a
[29] Mufson, S. "China's growing share of the solar market comes at a price." The Washington Post, 16 December 2011. Accessed August 2012. http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/chinas-growing-share-of-solar-market-comes-at-a-price/2011/11/21/gIQAhPRWyO_story.html
[30] SEIA, January 2012.
[31] Branker, K., M. Pathak, and J. Pearce. "A Review of Solar Photovoltaic Levelized Cost of Electricity" Renewable & Sustainable Energy Reviews, 2011: pp. 4470-4482. http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2006631
[32] Greentech Media Staff. "When will the pain subside? GTM Forecasts 21GW of PV Module Capacity to Retire by 2015." Greentech Media, 5 July 2012. Accessed August 3012. http://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/When-Will-the-Pain-Subside-GTM-Forecasts-21GW-of-PV-Module-Capacity-to-Ret/
[33] U.S. DOE. SunShot Initiative Website: About. U.S. DOE. Accessed August 11, 2011.
[34] U.S. Department of Energy. Sunshot Vision Study. U.S. DOE: 2012. http://www1.eere.energy.gov/solar/sunshot/vision_study.html
[35] SEIA, July 2012
[36] Ibid.
[37] Ibid.
[38] International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA). Renewable Energy Technologies Cost Analysis Series: Concentrating Solar Power. IRENA: June 2012. http://www.irena.org/DocumentDownloads/Publications/RE_Technologies_Cost_Analysis-CSP.pdf
[39] U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA). Annual Energy Outlook 2012. Table 120. Accessed August 2012. http://www.eia.gov/oiaf/aeo/tablebrowser/#release=AEO2011&subject=0-AEO2011&table=67-AEO2011®ion=3-0&cases=ref2011-d020911a
[40] U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA). Annual Energy Outlook 2012. Table 120. Accessed August 2012. http://www.eia.gov/oiaf/aeo/tablebrowser/#release=AEO2011&subject=0-AEO2011&table=67-AEO2011®ion=3-0&cases=ref2011-d020911a
[41] Stanway, D. and R. Lian. "China Minmetals calls for rare earth production suspension". Reuters: 3 August 2011. Accessed August 2011. http://www.reuters.com/assets/print?aid=USTRE77219A20110803
[42] Finley, B. "China's control of rare-earth metals poses risk to U.S. solar future." Denver Post. January 16, 2011. Accessed August 2011. http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_17108810
[43] Scott, J. "Rare Earth Prices Double in Two Weeks as China Seeks to Increase Control." Bloomberg: 17 June 2011. Accessed August 2011. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-06-17/rare-earth-prices-double-on-china-industrial-minerals.html
[44] NREL. Renewable Electricity Futures Study (RE Futures). NREL, 2010. Accessed August 2012. http://www.nrel.gov/analysis/re_futures/


text:
CINCINNATI (AP) -- Gov. John Kasich told educators in southwest Ohio on Friday his new school-funding plan is not about politics but making sure every child in the state has an equal opportunity to compete and succeed.
A day after he unveiled his plan, Kasich told educational leaders who gathered at Taft Information Technology High School in Cincinnati that past political decisions have resulted in funding disparities. He said playing politics with resources designed to help children learn and succeed is "flat out wrong" and current financial disparities between districts must be corrected.
"When you may have $700 behind one child and $14,000 behind another one, that's not an acceptable goal," Kasich said.
Kasich's proposal would bring all schools up to the tax base level of a district with $250,000 in property value per student to ease wide disparities in millage revenues from local levies.
The Republican governor's $15.1 billion, two-year plan boosts K-12 spending by $1.2 billion over the current budget cycle on Thursday. It also establishes a $300 million fund to pay for competitive innovation and efficiency grants among other proposals.
Kasich has guaranteed no funding cuts for the next two years but the exact repercussions of the plan beyond that remain unclear -- particularly for districts that may have to wean themselves off state funding that will move elsewhere.
Some changes will have to be made to funding guarantees, Kasich said, particularly in the minds of legislators who don't want to see their schools get less money. Changing guarantees this time around "would have created chaos in the schools," he said, but the current system isn't sustainable.
The governor's discussion Friday also included comments from a panel of school superintendents that included Mary Ronan, superintendent of Cincinnati Public Schools. Ronan said she was especially impressed with the money for pre-school and funding for all-day kindergarten, "so we can get our youngsters off to a great start."
Ronan and John Marschhausen, superintendent of the Loveland City School District near Cincinnati, said there was a lot of relief among districts when they learned that no district would see immediate cuts. Kasich drew applause Friday when he referred to that part of the plan.
Christopher Burrows, superintendent of Georgetown Exempted Village Schools in rural Brown County liked much of what he heard, especially the part about money to pay for innovation that he has long wanted to pursue. But he said superintendents will have to meet with legislators to communicate what they like and don't like about the plan.
Despite the overall positive reaction Friday, some concerns linger.
Andrew Benson, executive director of Ohio Education Matters, said he is concerned that funding isn't linked to performance and expressed reservations whether the funding proposed can raise achievement.
"With this plan, it seems like you are equalizing, but at the end of the day you are not connecting it to what you want to achieve," said Benson, whose organization is a policy think tank that focuses on school funding and other Ohio issues.
Even those expressing more enthusiasm said they are still awaiting the release next week of information on how much each district will receive under the plan.
The debate over the plan that will affect Ohio's 613 school districts and 353 charter schools is expected to continue for months.


text:
GDB 74: They just don't get it in the Grand Canyon State
March 26 2009 04:53PM
We all know what's at stake tonight. We clearly need to win this game, and, oh yeah, every subsequent game between now and game seven of the Stanley Cup Final (am I deluded enough to think we'll make it there? No. But I AM drunk enough). If we can't beat Gretzky's mongrels, then we're royal screwed. I could take losing to the Wings. We weren't supposed to beat them anyway. And though the Oilers seem to be in the habit (sometimes) of winning games they have no business winning, then uh, surely tonight... Frick, we CAN'T lose.
But the Coyotes are in a pretty rough spot, as one Robin Brownlee pointed out today. Man, if I could buy four tickets, and a pile of nachos with that metamucil-consistency cheese on it for $70, I'd buy EIGHT tickets and TWO orders of those sick, sick nachos. The problem with those dried out mummy husks down in Phoenix is that they don't get it. They never did. Here's what they're all about down in Phoenix:
- Plastic surgery
- Golf
- Shuffleboard
- Bus tours of the Grand Canyon
- Air conditioning
- Getting old
- Eventually dying
You know what's not in that list? HOCKEY.
So while the Oilers lay down a five-alarm beating on the hapless Coyotes tonight and Wayne Gretzky ages before our very eyes, I want you to consider that in a way we're lucky. Not because we have to drop $200 a seat to go to a game and an additional down-payment-on-a-house-sized wad of dough just to drink ourselves into a stupor at RX1. But because we're in this thing, still, against all odds. It gives me and Wanye a reason to wake up in the morning. This isn't just about hockey... OK it is.
What's my point? I've forgotten. But to steal the hilarious thunder of some of our commenters, I think my point is this: "GAME DAY!!*"
*send Smokin' Ray Burnt a quarter in the mail.
March 27 2009, 12:31PM
Chris wrote:
When the Oilers marched into Chicago and took two points: I felt like that was the moment they came out and declaired, "We are a playoff team…" Last night they took it back. Every single other team in the north west has posted at least one 100pt season in the last five or six years. Every single other team in the north west has opened a playoff series at home… In the last 5 years the Oilers have made the playoffs ONCE… as the eigth seed (Thanks to Vancouver tanking)… The Oilers haven't hosted a home playoff opener since the early 90's and haven't posted a 100 or more points in the regular season since 1986. I'm sick of all the excuses. I'm sick of hearing things like, "The first 5 years under Lowe don't count because the Oilers lacked the financial rescourcesd to compete…"; or "Injuries…blah…blah"; or "Pronger left us….blah…blah." Fact is, the Oilers have fallen into a culture of losing. This culture of losing is about 17 years old; starting with those horrible back to back 26 and 27 win seasons… Every other team in the NHL that has a culture of losing has their own reasons and excuses… But that doesn't change the bottom line. The Oilers simply aren't good enough; they haven't been good enough for the better part of twenty years; and there isn't a lot of help on the way… Based on the lack of hustle I saw last night; especially after Roli was pulled; It sure looks like there is a high comfort level with losing… Where is the fight?
Well maybe we can lose some more and hope the new owner has some balls to do something. But I agree with everyword, I'm sick of the horse crap and constant excuse making and lying to the fans. I'm sick of losing, I'm sick of settling for mediocre and I'm sick of not having any good to great players. This summer will tell if i'm hanging up my Oiler fandom for good or not, I can't continue to support this culture of losing anymore, I just can't take it anymore.