Shoveled 10 Inches of Global Warming and It's Still Falling -- Tuesday Morning -- NDIC Website Seems To Be Coming Up

The NDIC website might be coming up. I was able to sign in to "Basic Services" and get the screen for "Scout Ticket," but cannot access any files. Also, the daily activity reports is only current through last Friday. Someone suggested global warming brought down the NDIC site earlier this week, although that's hard to believe, because I think the site went down late Friday night, and I didn't think the global warming storm hit until until Monday. I really don't know.

RBN Energy: rail and Canadian bitumen (dilbit); part I.

And yes, I just shoveled ten inches of heavy, wet, global warming. Then, since the streets were relatively clear, road my bike to Starbucks where I am now. It's possible that I will have to go to the on-line Wall Street Journal since it was not delivered this morning. I have never read the WSJ as a complete newspaper on-line, although I have a subscription. I prefer the hard copy.

WSJ Links

The links today were taken from my paid subscription. I assume you will need to used google reader to access the articles. Sorry. But I didn't get my print copy of the WSJ today.

Section D (Personal Journal):

Section C (Money & Investing):

• Natural-Gas Futures Touch 16-Month High on Continued Cold Weather; so much for all that talk about global warming, I guess;
• Head north after the gas rally; 

Section B (Marketplace):

• Shale gas boom alone won't propel US industry;

Still, the price of natural gas is only one factor manufacturers consider when deciding where to locate plants. Taxes, labor costs and skills, regulation and government incentives also figure into the mix. Perhaps the biggest factor is long-term demand for goods. The biggest growth in demand is still expected to be in China, India and other emerging markets. Global companies typically want to locate production near their biggest customers. 

• This can't be good: Fisker sales talks fall apart; 
• Chesapeake seeks to retire debt;
• Another one bites the dust: Suntech defaults on debt; this is why we need the president's Energy Security Fund NOW! To save these companies. Here is the list of 38 green companies/mostly solar companies that have gone bankrupt or having serious money problems. SunTech was not on that list because that list was only US DOE-backed companies. It was said that US solar companies went bankrupt because China was dumping solar panels on the US. Well, hello! SunTech is a Chinese-based solar panel company and it can't make it either. 

Suntech, based in Wuxi, China, is one of the world's largest solar-panel manufacturers, but it has been struggling under more than $2 billion of debt. Its profit has declined amid a global oversupply of solar panels and a drop in prices, as well as antidumping tariffs imposed by the U.S. government on solar equipment imported from China.

• Washington Post to start charging for website; the beginning of the death spiral; 

Section A:

• Page 3 and we've talked about page 3 before. Wow! This is really, really cool: Clearer picture of art heist:

  It has endured as one of the most perplexing mysteries in Boston and the wider art world: Who pulled off the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum heist, stealing 13 artworks worth an estimated $500 million, including rare paintings by Rembrandt, just after 1 a.m. on March 18, 1990. 

  On Monday, the 23rd anniversary of the crime, the Federal Bureau of Investigation for the first time said it believes the thieves belonged to a criminal organization based in the mid-Atlantic and New England states. The agency declined to provide further details about the suspects, citing a continuing investigation, but it said it now believes that after the theft, the stolen haul was taken to Philadelphia and Connecticut and then offered for sale in Philadelphia about 10 years ago.

  Although it doesn't know the current whereabouts of the art, the FBI believes it might still be in the Philadelphia area. So the agency will launch a publicity campaign, soliciting tips using social media and, within a few weeks, putting up digital roadside billboards in and around Philadelphia, where it believes someone may have glimpsed—or even bought—the art without knowing of the tainted origin. The museum is offering a $5 million reward for a tip leading to the recovery. The theft represents the largest property crime in U.S. history, according to the FBI.

• Playing post office: Congress is not going to let the US Postal Service end Saturday delivery;  USPS is losing $16 billion/year; cutting Saturday service would save $2 billion;