The Wall Street Journal Links

Results of wells coming off the confidential list have been posted; see sidebar at the right.

First of all, before I get to the WSJ links: thank you, to all the readers, who have sent a number of informative comments over the past few days. Generally speaking, all relevant links get posted, though often, they are linked as updates to older posts. It may be hard to find some of those links, but I try to group as much as I can. That's why the sidebar is so useful. But the "search" application is the best way to find "stuff" on the blog. The smartest thing someone taught me two years ago was to include the permit number whenever mentioning a particular well. Searching for information on a well is best done on this site by using the permit number. With regard to comments, this is not a "discussion group"; it's a blog.

Now the WSJ links

Section M (for "mansion"): a month ago, I would have had no idea who Gerard Depardieu was, but I do now. Thanks to blogging. And now, in Section D, I see that Gerard has put his Paris left bank house up for sale, asking $65 million. Now you know why he's moving to Belgium. No link; I won't be reading the story later. [Update: Gerard gives up passport; sends angry letter to government, December 16, 2012.]

Section D ("Arena" -- movie, sports): Tarantino Tackles Slavery catches one's attention. I'm mostly interested in three things: a) critical review; b) mainstream acceptance; and, c) whether Tarantino can live up to his great soundtrack history.

Hobbit: A Middling Middle-Earth. This is the excitement, filmed in "HFR 3-D" (high film rate):

Movies have long been projected at 24 frames per second—fast enough to give the illusion of movement, but not to banish all sensation of flicker; that's why they came to be called flicks. This movie, projected at 48 frames per second, does not flicker; there's a smoothness, almost a creaminess, to the movement. At the same time, though, it feels less like a movie and more like the most elaborate video you've ever seen, a result that's more unsettling than likable. I wish I'd also seen it, for comparison's sake, in 3-D without the high frame rate, because the 3-D is effective. But there wasn't enough time to go back and see it again, and, to be honest, no burning desire to spend another two hours and 49 minutes in Middle-earth.

A couple of nice stories on museums. No links now; falling behind.

Section C: Wow, a great graphic/map of where the Wall Street jobs have gone in the past year or so. If you are actually interested in the graphic, be sure to click on it. It is said to be interactive, but that word is used loosely these days.

Section B:
Nike presses for 40-year tax deal in Oregon: lead story in the section; and that's why I like print over digital for reading the WSJ; placement puts things into perspective.

A long, long time ago I blogged about Toys 'R' Us strategy for shipping to stores for customers to pick up; now a follow-up. Taking up almost the entire front page of Section B: organizing the elves -- at Toys 'R' Us, the logistics of Christmas get more complicated. (I see the WSJ still dares to use the word "Christmas"). Initially I said it wouldn't work, and then I thought differently. It will be interesting to see how the WSJ sees it.

Build-A-Bear considers a new face.

GM amps up truck rivalry.

Rivals -- UPS and FedEx -- escalate holiday shipping war.

Several articles on Yahoo, Google, Apple, Blackberry on the last two pages; no time to link. Apple did lose a patent case.

Section A:
Headline, top story: Rice ends big amid criticism -- no link; easily found all over the net.

Page 3, and we've talked about "page 3" often: costly cancer therapy dinged. Lots of story lines in light of ObamaCare. Proton-beam therapy for prostate cancer no better than radiation.

Op-ed: it's a mad, mad, mad, mad ObamaCare:

For sheer political farce, not much can compete with ObamaCare's passage, which included slipping the bill through the Senate before dawn three Christmas eves ago. But the madcap dash to get ready for the entitlement's October 2013 start-up date is a pretty close second.

The size and complexity of the Affordable Care Act meant that its implementation was never going to easy. But behind the scenes, even states that support or might support the Affordable Care Act are frustrated about the Health and Human Services Department's special combination of rigidity and ineptitude.

To take one example, for the better part of a year states and groups like the bipartisan National Governors Association and the National Association of Medicaid Directors have been begging HHS merely for information about how they're required to make ObamaCare work in practice. There was radio silence from Washington, with time running out. Louisiana and other states even took to filing Freedom of Information Act requests, which are still pending.

This is going to be an unprecedented mess: the execution of ObamaCare. I think the biggest problem for the "family CEO" will be navigating the "federal exchange," a website that will be absolutely lacking of the information needed to make an appointment. My understanding, based at looking at the state exchange that Massachusetts has posted, is simply "information" but no "help in getting anything done." The "federal exchange" must be up and running in 10 months; something tells me that isn't going to happen. But we'll see. Maybe I will be pleasantly surprise. In the meantime, I've updated my end-of-life instructions.

And finally, the end of the line:

The End of the Line, The Traveling Wilburys
I have to admit: I really do miss George Harrison. 'Nuf said.