Monthly Archives: May 2004

MGE Raising Rates?

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Madison Gas & Electric, which already charges us the highest rates in the state, is seeking another in their series of annual rate hikes, according to Marv Balousek.
This chart is generated by the Public Service Commission’s online rate comparison tool (December, 2003 data):


Name & ID Billing Charges Total Bill
Customer Energy PCAC FAC
3270
MADISON GAS AND ELECTRIC COMPANY		$6.80$55.38($0.59)$61.59
6260
WAUNAKEE WATER AND LIGHT COMMISSION		$6.50$34.62($0.78)$40.34
6630
WISCONSIN ELECTRIC POWER COMPANY		$5.95$44.70$4.05$54.70
6680
WISCONSIN POWER AND LIGHT		$7.00$49.55$0.00$56.55
6690
WISCONSIN PUBLIC SERVICE CORPORATION		$6.75$46.75$0.00$53.50

MGE should not get a dime more, until they agree to clean up their lobbying act (MGE was implicated in the caucus investigations for, in one case, routing money through the Kansas Democratic Party…. Wispolitics has the complaint.) I would also like to understand why their rates are so high?

Science is Not War

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Alex Tabarrok comments about a recent NY Times article by William J Broad that states we are losing our lead in sciences. Tabarrok makes some excellent points, including this quote from Thomas Jefferson:

He who receives an idea from me, receives instruction himself without lessening mine; as he who lights his taper at mine, receives light without darkening me. That ideas should freely spread from one to another over the globe, for the moral and mutual instruction of man, and improvement of his condition, seems to have been peculiarly and benevolently designed by nature, when she made them, like fire, expansible over all space, without lessening their density in any point, and like the air in which we breathe, move, and have our physical being, incapable of confinement or exclusive appropriation.

Surfers not put off by sharks

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Matt Sedensky writes about surfers & sharks (I remember discussing this issue with abalone divers when I lived in California….).

KAHANA, Hawaii ? Sam George can’t believe the audacity of surfers who seem to return to the water as soon as the blood of a shark attack dissipates ? even though he’s one of them.
“Once the blood cleared and the paramedics got off the beach, I’m as silly as the rest,” said George, San Clemente-based editor of Surfer magazine.

Osama

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Osama is well worth watching:

This stunning film, the first to be made in a post-Taliban Afghanistan and inspired by a newspaper account read by director Siddiq Barmak, recounts the efforts of a family of women to survive under an oppressive regime. To eke out a meager living, they dress up their 12-year-old girl, Osama, as a boy so she can work

Hippy Gourmet: peace, love and recipes

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Bija Gutoff writes about the technology behind San Francisco’s Hippy Gourmet:

This is not your typical celebrity-kitchen show. In fact, it?s not typical TV at all. ?The Hippy Gourmet? eschews the frantic pace of most TV programs and doesn?t measure its success by ratings alone. ?We don?t do three-second edits like MTV,? Ehrlich says. ??The Hippy Gourmet? creates a new tone for TV, one that?s about relaxing and seeing what good can be done in the world.? Beside preparing meals, the show promotes such causes as sustainable agriculture, social welfare and environmental activism.
It?s a philosophy that has earned ?The Hippy Gourmet? millions of fans on the West Coast. Now in its third season, the 30-minute show broadcasts via 24 public access cable stations from the Bay Area to Lake Tahoe. And, through talks underway with PBS and The Food Network, Ehrlich expects to soon boost his audience nationwide. He credits the show?s high visibility to the production standards enabled by his Apple tools. ?We could not have created this show without the Mac and Final Cut Pro,? states Ehrlich.