Coyote Gulch

Saturday, June 25, 2005

Oil Shale in 10 Years
Howling At A Waning Moon: "Oil shale could produce within a decade, congressman says." Guess what? Any water they'll be using for processing, mining and people will come from the Colorado River Basin. Maybe that's where Denver Water should sell their extra.
Category: Colorado Water
9:57:49 PM

Userland Problems
My hosting service Userland.com is having server problems today. I haven't been able to upstream. If you're reading this the problems are going away. I guess it'll be a good day to drive around with the top down and enjoy the Denver summer.
12:28:23 PM

MS RSS Extensions
Dave Winer: "To be fair to Microsoft, if these enhancements weren't so odd, in the way they give elements dual roles depending on their context, and by putting standard RSS 2.0 elements in new contexts where they mean something other than what they mean in their current context, I would encourage people to stand back and let it go. As I said in the session yesterday, 'this is what movement looks like.' But I think Microsoft ought to read the feedback carefully, in Phil's post and what shows up elsewhere, and come up with a simpler way to do what they want to do. I think it's quite possible to do that."
"When these discussions started, on April 23, I first tried to understand their objectives, and then made a recommendation, and when it was clear they wanted to go another way, I decided to wait until the public announcement to look at the expression of their idea. Based on a quick look, in its current form I don't think I will write feeds that generate the extensions or write code that processes them."
10:10:46 AM

Immigration
Iraqi students want their government to set a timetable for multi-national troop withdrawal.
Colorado Luis: "Three immigration policies." Mr. Toro lays out the theories, Close the Border, Cheap Labor Conservatives, and The Equality Crowd.
Western Democrat: "More than 20 rural groups, including the American Corn Growers Association and the National Farmers Union, are united against Bush's social security agenda. What's the matter with Kansas, indeed."
Category: 2008 Presidential Election
10:07:11 AM

Agile Watering
Cortez Journal: "A process to suggest to farmers and irrigators when might be the best time to water crops is being tested at the Colorado State University Agricultural Research Station in Yellow Jacket. The central premise of irrigation scheduling consists of applying the right amount of water at the right time, according to CSU research station manager Mark Stack. The method determines when and how much water to apply in order to meet crop demand."
I wonder if they call it "Just In Time Water" or perhaps, "Agile Watering."
The Cortez Journal is also running an education piece on the subject of lightning.
Category: Colorado Water
9:50:10 AM

ProComp?
Douglas Bruce claims that ProComp (the new tax for Denver Public Schools) violates TABOR, according to Peter Blake in his column in today's Rocky Mountain News [June 25, 2005, "Blake: Much on Nov. ballot violates TABOR, its author says"]. From the article, "Gearing a tax increase to inflation is bad public policy, as Vincent Carroll suggested in his On Point column Tuesday. You never know when inflation will start to run out of control. But it is also in flagrant violation of the Taxpayer's Bill of Rights, according to its author. They were describing a referendum on the Denver ballot this fall which would fund the 'ProComp' pay plan for teachers with a $25 million increase in property taxes the first year. The bonus money, to be increased annually by the inflation rate, would go to Denver teachers who volunteer for tough schools, get the most out of their students or teach the most difficult courses."
Greeley Tribune: "Whether you are a University of Northern Colorado student, a parent of a public school student or a Weld County resident who commutes to work, officials have some reasons why you should vote for Referendum C and Referendum D in November." Thanks to the Colorado Pols: for the link.
Category: Denver November 2005 Election
9:05:45 AM

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