Tuesday, June 26, 2012

Record-setting 2012 Warmth!!!

I found this interesting. We have been having record-setting high temps...leading some to say "See, I told you so! Global warming is real!"  Funny thing is, I have never denied that it appears that the world is getting warmer. I just don't believe that we humans are affecting it that much. Either side of the debate can use this to support their case, so I make no claims either way.


Record-setting 2012 warmth largely confined to North America, western Europe | Ars Technica:
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Friday, June 8, 2012

How YOU Can 'Stick It To The Man'!

You may or may not have ever had thoughts of getting one over on the government...other than whatever deductions you can take on your taxes. There are many ways that you can 'Stick It" as evidenced by the list described by the CNI Blog.

 I picked my favorite ones to discuss here. I didn't invent the ideas I cover below, but I believe in them.


Save your money instead of spending it.
     If you don't spend your money, you don't have to pay taxes on it again. If you don't spend your money, you have it available in case of emergencies. If you don't spend you money, you have a resource that can enable you to purchase something if a great deal suddenly pops up. (yeah, I know, kinda like a Yogi statement.)

Pay cash for your car. 
     This one also deals with not spending your money, just that it may not be as obvious. If you pay cash for your car, you are buying what you can afford to spend. You don't have to worry if you suddenly lose your job or illness or disaster hits your family leaving you unable to pay a car note. You also don't have to worry about the extra money that you have to pay for the privilege of using a bank or finance association (interest).

Become self employed.  
     There is no better way to stick it to the man if the man happens to be your boss or the company that you work for. Tired of watching them make wrong decisions? Tired them killing innovation? Tired of short-sighted management practices? Start your own business and show them how it should be done!

Learn how to follow the rules.  
     By learning to follow the rules, you learn what the rules are. By knowing what the rules are, you know how far you can push the envelope. These days, it seems that the only way to succeed is by pushing the envelope further than most people are willing to go, while still staying within the rules.

Don't get on the government dole. 
     This one is PARAMOUNT! If you are existing on government money, then you have no freedom to do what you want. They want for you to think you have freedom, but the whole while, they restrict what you can do, where, & when you can do it. Plus, there is a certain satisfaction in knowing that you did it on your own!

Code Name Insight: 10 Ways to 'Stick It To The Man':

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Sunday, June 3, 2012

RFID Tracking in the Oilfield

RFID tracking has lots of uses in lots of places these days. A Norwegian firm is bringing a drillpipe tracking solution to market for commercial use in the oilfield. The technology was developed as part of a Joint Industry Project with ENI, Statoil, and ConocoPhillips.

For those of you who aren't sure what this means or what this is about, here are some key terms and ideas:


Drillpipe - this is the term used for the pipe that drilling rigs use to drill wellbores. multiple "joints" of drillpipe are connected together by threaded ends to create the drillstring. This conveys the bottom hole assembly (BHA) down the wellbore to drill the rock.
 
Drillstring fatigue - Since drillstring lengths can be upwards of 40,000 feet long, the combined weight of all of the drill pipe and the BHA can be many thousands of pounds. Running the drillstring in and out of the wellbore stretches the metal in the drillpipe and weakens it, causing drillstring fatigue.

Drillpipe is normally rented or owned by drilling contrators such as Transocean, Ensco, Stena, or Maersk. Manual tracking of this drillpipe activity gives an idea of how many times and how much stress lots of drillpipe may have been under, but is not always accurate.

With RFID tracking, companies will be able to implement "Cradle to Grave" tracking of individual joints of drillpipe, thus enabling better predictability of drillstring fatigue, since they will know exactly how many times each joint of drillpipe has been run and exactly how much strain it has been under.

You can read the original article from Rigzone at the link below.
Most land wells in "Shale Plays" are drilled to depths of 8,000 - 12,000 feet.

Wells drilled on land, inland waters, or the outer continental shelf can be upwards of 20,000 feet deep.

Wells drilled in the deepwater arena regularly are 20,000 - 30,000 feet deep, with some approaching 40,000 feet and some upcoming wells are planned for 50,000 feet. That's almost 10 miles!

CNI Blog: Links to "Subversive" ideas that are common sense!

These should be no-brainers, but since most of the country has been brainwashed into keeping up with the "Joneses", everyone just keeps on doing stupid stuff.


Code Name Insight: Link Round Up: The Subversive Edition:

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