Got questions about OPALCO broadband? I do | As I See It - Journal ...

By Dan Drath

Here in the islands, we have a wonderful electric utility co-operative that has served our needs for a long time. At the moment the co-operative members are being asked to expand our co-operative into the area of telecommunications.

Through several means and over time, we have been told of the progress OPALCO is making toward achieving their broadband proposal. According to a recent article in the San Juan Journal ("OPALCO awaits consumer buyin", Jan. 30 pg. 1), OPALCO members will soon be asked to vote the proposal, up or down.

Absent from the news and reports are many details.?In the interest of gaining a fuller understanding, I ask the following questions:

?In what other communities, similar to ours, have power utilities made the transition to providing broadband communication? What was their experience? Was it successful?

?What are the development risks in the OPALCO broadband proposal? What are the financial risks?

?If the OPALCO broadband proposal is implemented, how many new OPALCO jobs will be created? How many new hires will there be? How many current jobs in the county will be eliminated?

?If 1,000 OPALCO customers paying Rock Island Technologies $35 a month leave Rock Island, that would represent a loss of income to Rock Island of $420,000 dollars a year. Does that put a local business out of business? If on-island internet service providers lose a significant part of their business, how would their service and fees to non OPALCO broadband subscribers be affected?

?How many islanders are currently served by a 10 megabit-per-second internet connection? What is the estimate for the number that will want that speed in three years?

?In addition to the OPALCO initial broadband fees, to what other initial costs are members exposed for computer hardware and software?

?Will current CenturyLink subscribers stop receiving a CenturyLink bill when they sign up for OPALCO broadband?

?If one becomes an OPALCO broadband subscriber and does not like the service, what will be the cost to leave and reconnect to the previous telephone/ISP arrangement?

?For current CenturyLink subscribers, the maintenance responsibility interface is the CenturyLink junction box mounted to the outside of their home. What and where will be the maintenance interface under the OPALCO broadband plan?

?What are the software and hardware maintenance responsibilities of an OPALCO subscriber? If I sign up for OPALCO broadband, who do I call if I have no dial tone?

?Where will the ISP Servers be located and who will maintain them?

?If I subscribe to OPALCO broadband, must my computer be on 24/7 in order to receive calls? Who do I call if I have an internet connection issue?

?If I subscribe to OPALCO broadband, will my present home answering machine still be part of my home phone operation? Will my caller ID still function? Will I be able to block certain telephone numbers?

?In what telephone directory will subscribers to OPALCO broadband appear?

?Why does not OPALCO partner with an experienced telecommunication company to reduce development risk and cost?

?OPALCO says they will go ahead ?if about half of our members show their support.? Does OPALCO mean members or members who vote? How many is ?about half??

I hope answers will come soon.

?

Source: http://www.sanjuanjournal.com/opinion/191723181.html

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Prospects Will Break Your Heart: Texas Rangers Top 10 Prospects by Jason Parks

February 19, 2013

by Jason Parks

State of the Farm: ?I give her all my love. That's all I do. And if you saw my love. You'd love her too.?

Prospect rankings primer

The Top Ten

1. SS Jurickson Profar
2. IF/OF Mike Olt
3. LHP Martin Perez
4. C Jorge Alfaro
5. SS Luis Sardinas
6. CF Lewis Brinson
7. RHP Justin Grimm
8. OF Nomar Mazara
9. 1B Ronald Guzman
10. 3B Joey Gallo

1. Jurickson Profar
Position: SS
DOB: 02/20/1993
Height/Weight: 6?0?? 165 lbs.
Bats/Throws: B/R
Drafted/Acquired: International free agent, 2009, Curacao
2012 Stats: .281/.368/.452 at Double-A Frisco (126 games); .176/.176/.471 at major-league level (9 games)
The Tools: 7 hit; 6+ arm; 6+ potential glove; 5+ power potential; 5 run

What Happened in 2012: After spending the 2011 season in Low-A, Profar jumped to the Double-A level to start 2012, and finished the year at the major-league level at the age of 19.?

Source: http://www.baseballprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=19656

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Everyone Is Saying Samsung Will Announce The Next Galaxy Phone On March 14

Steve Kovach, Business Insider

This is Samsung's current phone, the Galaxy S III.

Samsung will officially unveil its next flagship Android phone, the Galaxy S IV, at an event held somewhere in the U.S., according to multiple reports.

The news started with a tweet by?Eldar Murtazin, who has been semi-accurate with smartphone leaks in the past.

Later, SamMobile, a Samsung-focused blog that is often correct with Samsung leaks, confirmed Murtazin's date and said the event will be held in New York.

And finally The Verge says it has confirmed Samsung will announce a new device on March 14, likely the Galaxy S IV.

Not much is known about the Galaxy S IV. We haven't seen too many leaks about its design or features, but the phone is said to have a 5-inch display and a very fast processor. We rounded up more Galaxy S IV rumors right here.

Samsung is also expected to announce a new 8-inch tablet called the Galaxy Note 8.0 at the Mobile World Congress event in Barcelona at the end of the month.?

The report also comes a day before HTC is expected to announce its own flagship Android phone, likely called the HTC One, at a press event in New York.

Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/samsung-galaxy-s-iv-announcement-on-march-14-2013-2

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The Pepperdine Graphic ? Specialist expounds on Saudi society

Karen Elliott House discussed Saudi Arabia?s $500 billion in oil reserves, 40 percent young adult unemployment and emerging questions with regard to gender and religious roles in Tuesday?s Pepperdine University School of Public Policy Charles and Rosemary Licata Lecture Series.

House is a Senior Fellow at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard?s Kennedy School of Government, Pulitzer Prize winner for international reporting for coverage of the Middle East and was publisher of the Wall Street Journal from 2002 to 2006. She has also appeared on PBS, FOX, CNN and CNBC as an expert on international relations.

House spoke to graduate and undergraduate students alike about her time in Saudi Arabia. She went there with a purpose.

?When I retired from the [Wall Street] Journal in 2006, the one thing I was interested in doing with my new-found time was trying to understand Saudi society. What was the society like? How did they look at their rulers? How did they look at us??

House stated that her new book, ?On Saudi Arabia: Its People, Past Religion, Fault Line ? and Future,? focused more on the heart of Saudi society.

?Saudi Arabia is the strangest country you will never see,? she said. ?My goal was not to proscribe what Saudi Arabia ought to be like, but to try and understand what it was like.?

Beginning with the role of women in Saudi society, House said, ?She [a woman] is always in the control of some man; she cannot go to her son?s school; she cannot even see her son graduate.?

House spoke about other ideas that divide the country. ?The divisions are quite deep. In my view, it is divided by region, by religious sect, divided by gender, and people have a deep distrust of each other,? she said. ?It is more diverse than we in the west think; it is much more divided than we in the west realized and much more dependent on the government.?

In delving into the economic structure of Saudi Arabia, House talked about the vital importance oil plays in Saudi political all aspects of society. She pointed out that 90 percent of the treasury of Saudi Arabia comes from oil wealth and that Saudi Arabia has $500 billion in reserves.

House described Saudi oil, as not only an economic tool to fund subsidies and maintain economic stability for the country, but also as a political equalizer for the Saudi royal family. She said, ?Oil wealth buys, at least acquiescence, if not loyalty? for the King.

House also pointed out a crucial employment fact: ?Almost all Saudis are employed by the government,? she said, and ?90 percent of private sector employees are foreign.? These statistics, however, do not indicate a high level of employment: ?Unemployment for 20 to 24 year olds is 40 percent? and ?40 percent Saudis live on $1,000 a month,? according to House.

House described the Saudi religious environment as one in which religion is omnipresent: ?Every university, every shopping mall, every airport, has prayer rugs in the direction of Mecca properly pointed so that everyone prays in the proper times. The shopping malls close. Everyone goes to pray.?

She also summed up the relationship between religion and gender roles:

?Men obey Allah, and women obey men, and Allah is distant and men are at hand.?

However, new technologies such as the Internet and cable television have taught young Saudis to question and to communicate. This is a very new thing in Saudi Arabia, according to House.

?This newfound information, that young people and old people have access to, is eroding the credibility of the religious establishment, which is increasingly seen by religious people as doing the will of King Abdullah, not the will of Allah.?

House also discussed the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology: ?The King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, not only mixes Saudi men and women, but also infidel men and women all over the world.?

She said this move has produced backlash from many senior religious figures and fundamentalist Wahhabis (the particular form of Islam practiced in Saudi Arabia).

?When one of the 20 senior religious scholars was asked about the appropriateness of this [formation of the university] on TV. He said it was wrong, and the King fired him because the King appoints these 20 people.?

The tug of war between a monarchy that is seeking to slowly modernize the nation, people who are looking for more equality and the Wahhabi religious leaders is ever present in all aspects of daily life said House.

?[Saudis want] simply a government that is more transparent, more accountable, more rule of law, with clear rules and enforced equally,? House said. ?In a post-Arab Spring environment, government is not inclined to take things from people.?

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Follow the Graphic on Twitter: @PeppGraphic

Source: http://www.pepperdine-graphic.com/news/specialist-expounds-on-saudi-society/

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Misunderstanding coal in Europe

Every ton of emissions from American coal burned in Europe means that a ton won?t be burned in a country like China ? or even the United States ? where emissions are uncapped, Holland writes.

By Andrew Holland,?Guest blogger / February 16, 2013

Steam and smoke rise from a coal power station in Gelsenkirchen, Germany. Barring the unlikely decision to keep the coal in the ground, Holland writes, the best outcome for environmentalists is to export American coal to Germany, where emissions are capped.

Martin Meissner/AP/File

Enlarge

Europe?s Emissions Cap

Recently, there have been a spate of articles in the press saying that Europe?s increasing imports of coal undermines ?their leadership on climate and their ?green? credentials.

Skip to next paragraph Consumer Energy Report

Our mission is to provide clear, objective information about the important energy issues facing the world, address and correct misconceptions, and to actively engage readers and exchange ideas.?For more great energy coverage, visit?Consumer Energy Report.

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This shows a fundamental misunderstanding of the European?Emissions Trading Scheme?(ETS) in particular, and the nature of a market-based emissions cap (AKA cap-and-trade) system in general.

Granted, the ETS is an imperfect cap because it only covers about 45% of total emissions in the EU ? most notably it does not include emissions from home heating or automobile transportation. Importantly, though, it does cover major industrial emitters and utility-scale electricity production, which are the major users of coal.?(Read More:?Global Carbon Dioxide Emissions ? Facts and Figures)

However, the articles continually say things like this, in Friday?s?Washington Post:??Green-friendly Europe has a dirty secret: It is burning a lot more coal.??The schadenfreude exhibited in these articles is unrelated to Europe?s actual record on climate policy.

The truth is that Europe is well below their targeted emissions levels, set both in UN negotiations and in their own Brussels-based policies. They are on their way to meeting their 2020 goals of reducing emissions by 20% below 1990 levels. Partially, they are meeting these goals because reduced economic growth has resulted in reduced emissions. But ? in a parallel universe in which the euro crisis never happened and the EU had enjoyed a five year run of strong economic growth, the ETS would have ensured that they would still meet their target. That is because, for the 45% of the emissions covered by the ETS, it would be illegal to emit at a rate higher than the cap.?

Carolyn Hax: One year later, pair is still peeved about wedding that ruined birthday

Carolyn Hax: One year later, pair is still peeved about wedding that ruined birthday Dear Carolyn: Last spring we attended the wedding of my husband's best friend. When we visited the couple the year before, they threw out a couple of dates they were considering. When the fiancee mentioned the birthday date, my husband, the groom-to-be and I all said, "Oh, that's Jason's 40th." My husband and I don't know the bride very well.
So, months later I was surprised to receive a wedding... read more

?

Source: http://www.newsrt.us/news/carolyn-hax-one-year-later-pair-is-still-peeved-about-wedding-that-ruined-birthday-912532.html

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