Hawaiian breakfast, originally uploaded by lfincher.

Loco Moco (white rice topped with a hamburger patty, eggs, and brown gravy), pineapple, and a pineapple daiquiri.

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My new ride, originally uploaded by lfincher.

Flew over a volcano today. New career track: helicopter pilot. That's just how I roll.

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Meli Kalikimaka, originally uploaded by lfincher.

Just arrived. View from the room.

Merry Christmas, everyone.

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Russia, Kazakhstan, and Turkmenistan signed an agreement today for the construction of the Prikaspiisky natural gas pipeline along the eastern shore of the Caspian Sea, further strengthening Russia's grip on the region's oil & gas exports:

The parties plan to construct the pipeline along the Caspian coast -- 360 km on Turkmenistan's territory and about 150 km through Kazakhstan, in order to link it with the existing Central Asia-Centre pipeline on the Russia-Kazakhstan border. The new gas pipeline will increase the existing capacity to export Turkmenistan's gas to Russia by 20 billion cubic metres. Creating a Trans-Caspian pipeline system and reconstructing the Central Asia-Centre pipeline system will enable the parties to increase annual deliveries of Turkmenistan's gas to 80 billion cubic metres. The presidents of Russia, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan signed the Joint Declaration on Constructing a Trans-Caspian Gas Pipeline on 12 May 2007 at a meeting in Turkmenbashi.

Not only has Russia scored another win in the so-called "New Great Game", but the English translators for the Kremlin website have hijacked the name of the United States backed pipeline fantasy project (Trans-Caspian Pipeline) and made it their own. Well played, Russia.

Related: NYTimes - Central Asia on Front Line in Energy Battle

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Vladimir Vladimirovich, TIME's Man of the Year for 2007:

It would have been cooler if he was sitting on a barrel of oil

TIME's Person of the Year is not and never has been an honor. It is not an endorsement. It is not a popularity contest. At its best, it is a clear-eyed recognition of the world as it is and of the most powerful individuals and forces shaping that world—for better or for worse. It is ultimately about leadership—bold, earth-changing leadership. Putin is not a boy scout. He is not a democrat in any way that the West would define it. He is not a paragon of free speech. He stands, above all, for stability—stability before freedom, stability before choice, stability in a country that has hardly seen it for a hundred years. Whether he becomes more like the man for whom his grandfather prepared blinis—who himself was twice TIME's Person of the Year—or like Peter the Great, the historical figure he most admires; whether he proves to be a reformer or an autocrat who takes Russia back to an era of repression—this we will know only over the next decade. At significant cost to the principles and ideas that free nations prize, he has performed an extraordinary feat of leadership in imposing stability on a nation that has rarely known it and brought Russia back to the table of world power. For that reason, Vladimir Putin is TIME's 2007 Person of the Year.

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In exactly one week, I'll be here:

I fly back to California this Saturday, and on Tuesday my family and I will board a flight to Hawaii, where we will spend a few days on the Big Island's Kohala Coast.

This will be my third trip to Hawaii, but my first to the Big Island. I first visited Hawaii back in November 1997 (gah, was that really 10 years ago?!) on a family trip. My brother and I were under the impression that we were going to Sparta, Illinois to spend Thanksgiving with our relatives, but when we arrived at LAX my parents said "Surprise, we're going to Hawaii!" (yeah, they are pretty awesome). My little brother, ever the family man, was devastated, and replied "But...I want to go to Illinois." I very clearly remember yelling "JOHN ARE YOU SERIOUS?!" and pummeling him while we stood in line to check-in. We spent a few days on the North Shore of Oahu and then flew to Maui, where we stayed for the remainder of the week. For Thanksgiving dinner we went to a ridiculously cheesy luau (my idea) that was interrupted by heavy rain showers. In that year's Thanksgiving family photo we are soaking wet and decked out in multi-colored disposable ponchos. It's a classic.

My second trip to Hawaii was in June 2000, when my friends and I flew to Oahu a few days after our high school graduation. If I remember correctly, there were eight of us on that particular trip. I'll make a long story short and just say that while the trip definitely had its fun moments, as a whole it was pretty FUBAR and I think we were all relieved when our return flight landed at LAX so that we could go our separate ways. Some of the personalities on that trip just didn't...mesh very well. The resulting video footage of a fight over a surfboard and towels (and Ryan can attest to this) is hilarious, however.

Nevertheless, I have a feeling that this upcoming trip will be considerably better.

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One thing that bothers me is when journalists quote random bloggers, or blog entries, or whatever. To me, it's the equivalent of using Wikipedia articles as sources for your dissertation. So, I was thoroughly amused when I found out that a blog entry I wrote was quoted in a MinnPost article regarding Putin's choice of Dmitry Medvedev as his successor to the Russian presidency:

Medvedev, in fact, believes Gazprom has a bigger role in the United State's energy future — perhaps a prelude to projecting power overseas? Just last week, Medvedev spoke at Georgetown University, and according to blogger Lindsay Fincher, told his audience that "natural gas fired power plants are the only near-term solution to meet [U.S.] electricity demand due to various state regulations and bans on coal fired power plants (i.e., California)." Therefore, Medvedev said, Gazprom was refocusing on shipping liquid natural gas to the United States. He also noted that China could cut greenhouse gas emissions by switching some coal plants to Russian natural gas. (Although both coal and natural gas are fossil fuels, burning gas emits less CO².)

My own journalistic qualms aside, the problem with this particular article is that my entry was referring to ALEXANDER Medvedev, not DMITRY Medvedev. Yes, both have the same last name and hold very important positions at Gazprom, but one will remain the captain of Gazprom's hockey team while the other will take up residence in the Kremlin. Pretty big difference, and something one should certainly take notice of when writing an article on Russia's future president and his supposed foreign policy machinations.

Also, I hate being labeled as a "blogger". Dear journalists, when you quote me in the future, please use the term "Californian who holds a useless master's degree in this Russian stuff." Ya know, I'd even settle for Kremlinologist. Sounds much more important. Thanks.

Posted by Lindsay at 07:22 PM | Permalink | Comments? (2) | TrackBacks (0) |  Subscribe in a reader |

I'll be honest, as much as I love reading my Facebook newsfeed to see what group my friends joined, or the political candidate they now support, Scrabulous is really the main reason I login to Facebook every day. I found today's article on the Scrabulous server upgrade rather amusing. Must have been a slow news day at the Times.

Like most fanatical Scrabble players, devotees of Scrabulous, a Scrabble-like application on Facebook, hate to be interrupted. So players are breathing easier since an upgrade last week intended to ensure that matches load more quickly.

The improvement came in response to the booming popularity of the application, which lets Facebook members to play one another online. According to the site, Scrabulous has upwards of half a million daily users.

[...]

Jayant’s enthusiasm for the online game has not dulled his love of the face-to-face experience of the original. He recently came in first in his age group in a local Scrabble competition.

“Scrabble has a charm of its own because you’re playing with close friends or family members,” he said. “But the thing is, as in everything in the world, people don’t find time to be with their family, to find two hours to play. Most people have Scrabble in their attic gathering dust, so the application helps people play and stay connected.”

[...]

Through Scrabulous, “we have managed to reach a lot of people who have never played the game,” said Rajat, who is 26. “Some even ask us questions about how to play Scrabulous because they’re not familiar with it. Once we’ve explained it to them, they come back and say, ‘It’s a great thing and we have to buy the original version to play with our family offline.’”

Prior to playing Scrabulous on Facebook, I think I played Scrabble maybe once or twice in my life. Pathetic, I know, but when it came time to play a board game, I usually opted for Monopoly or Risk (I don't care what you think, Rian...alliances are totally acceptable).

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Yeah, these photos are over two years old (September '05) and I just got around to uploading them. I've only got 100+ more to go.

These were all taken during my last week in London, when I decided to make one more quick visit to some of the sights in the city.

Buckingham Palace, view from the backyard

As to be expected, the Queen has a ridiculously large backyard

Hanging out in the palace backyard after tea with Lizzie.

A royal swan in Round Pond, Kensington Gardens.

I didn't want to get to close to the swans as they might recognize me from previous "incidents" and maul me, or something.

Tributes to Princess Diana on the gates of Kensington Palace, her former residence

Last night in the old 'hood

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Yeah, this is real. Hawaiian tow-in surfers Garrett McNamara and Kealii Mamala catch waves generated by chunks of ice breaking off a glacier in Alaska:

More footage here.

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Flickr moblog test post, originally uploaded by lfincher.

Testing out flickr's moblog capability

[Brilliant. It actually works. Now that I can post to lindsayfincher.com via my phone, I'll never have to use my computer to actually write a post that contains any substance whatsoever. Instead, I will merely post poor quality photos from my Treo, with brief descriptions that lack proper grammar, spelling, and punctuation. Eh, kidding. This could be a fun feature to use when I'm traveling.]

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Am I the only person on this train who is not reading Love in the Time of Cholera? Oh, Charlie Wilson's War? Yeah, read that years ago.

If the Soviets had built this system, I'd be home by now...in a crowded, dilapidated apartment on the outskirts of Moscow. But still, I'd be home.

What I wouldn't give right now to be stuck in traffic on the 10, or the 5. Jesus, even the 15 would be better than this underground hell.

Green line trains every 12 minutes during rush hour? SERIOUSLY?!

The driver of this train has to be drunk right now.

These delays on the red line have filled me with so much rage that I must put up a profanity-laden status message on GChat when I finally arrive at my destination.

I really hope the volume on my iPod is sufficiently low enough so that my fellow passengers don't know I'm listening to "Baby One More Time" by Britney Spears.

Posted by Lindsay at 08:21 PM | Permalink | Comments? (5) | TrackBacks (0) |  Subscribe in a reader |

Vladimir Putin has publicly endorsed Dmitry Medvedev, the 42-year old first deputy prime minister of the Russian government and chairman of Gazprom's board of directors, as his successor to the position of Russian president. With Putin's endorsement, Medvedev is expected to easily win the upcoming presidential election scheduled for March 2008.

Clearly, this is a brilliant move by Putin. As we all know, people who choose to work in the energy industry (and in particular, natural gas) are effin' geniuses. Best of luck, Dmitry.

Posted by Lindsay at 07:42 PM | Permalink | Comments? (2) | TrackBacks (0) |  Subscribe in a reader |

Google is the greatest corporation EVER. They provide me with the best web-based e-mail on the market, a wonderful news site to keep track of my favorite topics, an awesome feed aggregator, analytical tools for this website, an online word processor, and driving directions so that I don't get lost trying to navigate this region's bizarre freeway system (still, I usually manage to make a few wrong turns and end up in, like, Pennsylvania). Sometimes, Google even deposits money into my bank account.

And now I can login to my AOL Instant Messenger account (which I haven't done in like a year) while in GMail and chat with my friends who are using either service. I will now revert to my college habit of keeping AIM and GMail on 24/7 for no real reason whatsoever, other than to support my favorite utility, PEPCO.

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This past Monday, I attended a Georgetown University panel discussion that featured Alexander Medvedev, the deputy chairman of Gazprom, the largest producer and exporter of natural gas in the world. In addition to Medvedev, the panel included an assortment of representatives from the corporate and academic realms (props to my roommate for letting me know about the event). I took down a few notes that someone might find useful:

Sarah Carey (a director of the Yukos Oil Company from 2001-2004):
- The EU suffers from "post-Ukraine crisis syndrome." Russia's actions during the "gas war" of 2006 were "heavy handed but the rationale was clear."
- Examples of overzealous Western criticism:

Vice President Cheney's Vilnius Speech: "Other actions by the Russian government have been counterproductive, and could begin to affect relations with other countries. No legitimate interest is served when oil and gas become tools of intimidation or blackmail, either by supply manipulation or attempts to monopolize transportation. And no one can justify actions that undermine the territorial integrity of a neighbor, or interfere with democratic movements."

Washington Post editorial, February 2006: "This time Putin has avoided open intervention in the campaign. Instead he triggered the gas crisis and presented his Ukrainian enemies with a choice: Swallow a mammoth midwinter price increase for the fuel Ukrainians use to heat their homes, just weeks before the election, or hand Russia a commanding long-term stake in Ukrainian energy infrastructure -- and the ability to trigger a gas supply crisis at any time."

International Herald Tribune, January 2006: "Gazprom used to sell energy cheaply to the former republics as a legacy of the old command economy. It can argue with some justification that it should charge market prices. And it is certainly entitled to object to gas destined for Ukraine being sold at a profit to other countries. At the same time, it is hard to escape the thought that the Russian government is pressuring Ukraine by using gas supplies the way Soviet leaders sometimes used tanks and soldiers."

Thane Gustafson (Professor, Georgetown University):
- With the increasing use of LNG, the natural gas industry is starting to resemble the business of producing oil
- Gazprom took the risk of building pipeline system "on spec"
- Gazprom's Marketing and Trading arm is bundling carbon credits with gas, essentially providing their customers with a "carbon neutral package"
- Looking ahead: Gazprom's conquest of the Yamal Peninsula

Tim Sutherland (CEO, Pace Global Energy Services):
- In regards to the Shtokman gas field, contrary to news reports, Gazprom hoped that a US company would prevail in the bidding process
- Russia is prepared "to fill a vacuum that is ever widening" between U.S. energy production and consumption and will be able to meet US energy needs through LNG.
- West needs to move past Reagan's mantra of "trust and verify", and simply trust.

Alexander Medvedev (Deputy Chairman of the Board of Executive Directors, Gazprom and Director-General of Gazexport):
- Gazprom is responsible for 1/4 of the world's gas exports and has been a reliable supplier for over 40 years
- In the United States, natural gas fired power plants are the only near term solution to meet electricity demand due to various state regulations and bans on coal fired power plants (ie, California)
- Part of Gazprom's refocused strategy: Shipping Russian LNG to North America
- Presenting themselves as the solution to China's greenhouse gas emissions. China could eliminate something like 400 million tons of CO2 by switching from coal to Russian-provided natural gas
- Gazprom, like any other energy company, is "in business to make money in an extremely competitive commodity market".
- Dedicated to openness and transparency; "no one wants any more Enron cases"
- There is no reason why Gazprom's contracts shouldn't be done in rubles once the currency is fully convertible. It is a reflection of the stability and strength of the Russian economy.

On a lighter note, Medvedev is also captain of the GazpromExport hockey team (a bunch of pipeline engineers playing hockey?), and ended his speech by noting that three Russians (Ovechkin, Semin, and Kozlov) currently play for the Washington Capitals and an American, Barry Smith, is head coach of the SKA St. Petersburg Russian hockey team. It is his hope, he stated, that this mutual reciprocity between the United States and Russia would be extended to energy issues as well.

Posted by Lindsay at 06:05 PM | Permalink | Comments? (2) | TrackBacks (0) |  Subscribe in a reader |

Over the past two months, we've had quite a few bullets flying around my Columbia Heights neighborhood. Just last Monday, around 6pm, I arrived home from work to the sight of 10 MPD cars cordoning off various streets. Another shooting, this time in an alley down the street from the metro station.

In an attempt to quell the violence, MPD announced that they will be spending $3 million on anti-gang initiatives and ShotSpotter, an interesting piece of technology that automatically detects gunfire and notifies police dispatchers of the location where shots were fired:

"In the past, the best information the police could hope for was a neighbor calling to say, ‘Sorry to bother you, but there may have been a shooting somewhere in my neighborhood,'" says ShotSpotter CEO James Beldock. "Our system can immediately tell them that, say, 11 rounds were fired from a car going 9 miles an hour, northbound, in front of a specific address on Main Street. In some situations, ShotSpotter could get someone on the scene within a minute. That's a level of situational knowledge police have never had."

This kind of coverage requires an array of 12 to 20 specialized sensors per square mile. Roughly the size of a medium pizza and designed to look like a rooftop fan, each sensor contains up to four small microphones. If one of these units detects a loud noise, it forwards a recording to a server at police headquarters along with three pieces of information: location, time, and general direction the sound came from. If a sound is detected by only one sensor, it's probably too quiet to be gunfire, and in any case, the system needs data from three sensors to pinpoint the location of a noise. If several sensors report an event at the same time, the server gets to work. First, the software performs an analysis to categorize the noise as gunfire, firecrackers, bottle rockets, helicopters, or other. If it determines the event was a gunshot, the program makes a simple calculation to triangulate the sound's origin to within 80 feet or less.

Other cities that have deployed ShotSpotter include Oakland, Chicago, and Baghdad.

Posted by Lindsay at 10:39 PM | Permalink | Comments? (0) | TrackBacks (0) |  Subscribe in a reader |

NYTimes reporters interviewed several Russians after they voted on Sunday's elections. Here are a few of the quotes:

“I voted for United Russia because for the last few years quality of life has improved and the country’s economy has stabilized. Without political stability, there can be no economic stability. In the presidential elections, I will probably vote for Putin: I approve of his course.” — Dmitry Sablin

“For Putin, specifically for Putin. Everyone trusts him. We see the results of his work. I’d need two hours and a bottle of whiskey to explain all that he’s done.”
— Nadezhda Aleksandrovna

“I voted for Putin because Russia has become a strong country. I lived through that nightmare of the Yeltsin era. It’s like night and day.”
— Sergei Troshin

Voted for Mr. Putin, “for our beloved,” because “he is smart and just.” “Things are not all good, but he’s trying. Pensions are paid, and I had a free eye surgery.”
— Antonina Kotova, a pensioner

For United Russia. “I am tired of instability. I do not fear a one-party system because there are enough old people to vote for Communists. And Russia has already crossed a certain line, so we are not going to have a new father of the people in this country.”
— Larisa, a doctor

“Actually, I voted for Putin, I like him and just wanted to do something nice for him.”
— Lyudmila Akekseyevna, pensioner

Wife: “My husband voted for the Communist Party and I for United Russia. My husband has a technical education, and was swayed by the Nobel Laureates, like Zhores Alfyorov, who are in the Communist Party.”

Husband: “And in the other parties, there is only junk.”

Wife: “Don’t interrupt! I have thought long about this.”

Husband: “Yes, you’re only sorry for poor Putin.”

Wife: “Of course, there are many in United Russia whom I don’t like, so if Putin wasn’t there, I wouldn’t have voted for the party.”
— Mikhail Ivanovich and his wife, who would not give her name, both pensioners

No Diebold voting machines?

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Lots of stuff going on in the Caspian littoral states during the past month.

In November, Greece and Turkey inaugurated a gas pipeline that will carry gas from Azerbaijan's Shah Deniz field (transported into Turkey via the South Caucasus Pipeline that was constructed parallel to the BTC) into Europe:

“The project is extremely significant — and fundamentally political,” said Julian Lee, a senior analyst with the Center for Global Energy Studies, a London-based research group. “It offers diversified supplies of energy to Europe without going through Russia — an objective encouraged by the United States.”

A few days later, Gazprom and Eni signed a contract to conduct a feasibility study on the "South Stream" pipeline linking Russia to Europe via the Black Sea.

The Russians are also inching closer to a final agreement with Turkmenistan on the Prikaspiisky Pipeline, which, much to the chagrin of the U.S. government, would tighten Moscow's control over Turkmenistan's vast natural gas reserves (as well as Kazakhstan's). Still, Turkmen president Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov appears to favor this arrangement with Moscow over one in which Turkmenistan would have to develop "a transparent, stable and market-oriented legal, fiscal and regulatory framework" in order to attract Western capital. LOL, Secretary Bodman.

Gazprom also agreed to pay the Turkmens a lot more for their gas, which they weren't very happy about:

Earlier this week, Gazprom’s CEO Aleksei Miller blamed the US and EU for the impending and unexpectedly large price hike, saying these Western powers have argued that Turkmenistan and other Central Asian countries could get more money for their gas if they support gas pipeline projects bypassing Russia. Lobbying for such a project boosted the bargaining power of Turkmenistan, he suggested.

The Bush Administration is trying to play catch-up in the region by appointing Thomas Pickering, a former U.S. ambassador to Russia, to a new State Department position of Senior Envoy for Russian and Caspian related issues. I dunno, seems like too little, too late.

In Kazakhstan, the Eni-led consortium continues to encounter trouble. Kazakhstan is demanding that the consortium pay $7 billion in compensation to make up for the production delays at Kashagan.

Also, BP discovered a significantly large amount of natural gas at Shah Deniz, and the China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) announced it was interested in developing assets in the Caspian, but would avoid Russia because the risks are "too high." Russia's "oil windfall" Stabilization Fund, meanwhile, will hold $158 billion by the end of this year. Part of the revenue will be spent on infrastructure improvement, pension increases, and car rims encrusted with colored Swarovski crystals.

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