Dreaming Of A White Christmas?

We all do (dream of that white Christmas) but in the case of the predicted storm headed our way, it sounds more like a nightmare. Hundreds of people in Nebraska will not be able to get to Grandma's house for Christmas.

It's time to prepare. Depending on your circumstances and the nature of the emergency, the first important decision is whether you stay where you are or find another place to stay until electric service is restored. You should understand and plan for both possibilities. Dawson Public Power District cannot predict when service will be restored. Use common sense and available information to determine if there is an immediate danger. In any emergency, local authorities may or may not immediately be able to provide information on what is happening and what you should do.

We advise customers to have plenty of food and water on hand, extra batteries, flashlights and a portable radio. Kerosene space heaters and wood/corn/pellet burning stoves are nice but you should be extra cautious when using one in your home. Proper ventilation is very important.

One of the most important things to do is to check on friends, neighbors and family members affected by an outage to ensure they are ok. Our elderly may need to be transported to a temporary shelter or home. Cordless phones depend on electricity to work so make sure you have at least one phone that operates when you are without power. Cell phones come in handy but must be used sparingly to preserve the charge unless you are able to charge them in your car.

Keep Dawson Public Power District phone numbers handy.  Customers can call 1-800-752-8305 or 1-308-324-2386.  Listen to your local radio station for updates or follow us on Twitter and FaceBook for posted updates. 

Nebraska Farmers Using Twitter

One day late...but this is way cool.......



Visit http://tinyurl.com/y8twn5q to see the rest of America's Heartland: Episode 512. The Monsanto Company - http://www.monsanto.com and the American Farm Bureau Federation - http://www.fb.org make presentation of America's Heartland possible.

Profitable Hacking

I promote the use of Facebook and Twitter as a viable opportunity to communicate with our customers. It’s instant, its on-demand, and its free. However, users of social media need to be cautious about clicking on just any ole’ thing on their Facebook page.

It used to be that computer viruses attacked only your hard drive. Per the New York Times, ‘malicious programs are rampaging through Web sites like Facebook and Twitter, spreading themselves by taking over people’s accounts and sending out messages to all of their friends and followers.’

Take me, for instance; I have a couple hundred family or friends on my personal Facebook page. All of them have been given expressed permission to access my life. Who better to trust than the ones you’ve invited to be part of your network?

Often the victims lose control of their accounts after clicking on a link “posted” by a friend. In most cases, the perpetrators are hoping to profit from the referral fees they get for directing people to questionable e-commerce sites. (from the NYT)

Our email messages, traveling from computer to computer, are more likely to be stopped by antivirus or firewall software. On the Web, such measures offer little protection. It’s best if you exercise good judgment instead.

I’ve had a couple of my friends post a thing or two that raised my eyebrows. Because I know them, I could discern that this particular post was “just not them” despite the warm personal invite to follow the link. What doesn’t help is that the URL posted is a shortened link so you can’t tell where you’re going until its too late.

If you become the victim of one of these hackers, you can delete the post by going to your administrative side. Post a quick note right behind the offending post and tell your network that someone hacked your account. Change your password immediately.

FaceBook has recently updated its privacy options. Check your profile settings. Take advantage of the added security and be careful with your personal information.

Gwen Kautz, Customer Service Manager

Sensenbrenner to Tell Copenhagen: No Climate Laws Until "Scientific Fascism" Ends

Wisconsin Representative Sensenbrenner (ranking Republican on the House Select Committee for Energy Independence and Global Warming)  has the courage to go to Copenhagen and tell the U.N. that despite the promises President Obama is making, the United States will not pass any climate change laws until "scientific fascism' ends.  

FOXNews.com - Sensenbrenner to Tell Copenhagen: No Climate Laws Until 'Scientific Fascism' Ends

While the article itself is really good, sometimes the comments about the article provide great insight...even controversy.

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Get Ready To Roll The Dice!

It’s human nature. Until something affects you directly, you change nothing about the things you do. The problem with this approach for climate change legislation is that it will be too late to do anything about it once you figure out what a bad deal it is for your family.

We want you to know that if you don’t stop cap and trade, you WILL be affected financially. Everything that uses energy will end up costing more. Let’s face it – EVERYTHING uses energy. We can’t force you to contact your Senator but we sure wish you would.

Kiplinger reports that all told, the average cost for residential, commercial and industrial users may be 50% higher than today. In areas such as the Midwest and Southeast where coal fired power dominates, a 100% hike is likely. Motorists won’t get off easy, either. With climate change legislation, gas pump prices will be about $2 a gallon higher.

Our Congressional Budget Office (CBO) says climate change legislation would “reduce the purchasing power of the middle class and slow down the economy.” Yeah, that’s just what we need right now.

There’s been talk that doing nothing is a huge gamble. Well, I think the biggest gamble is to enact legislation based on flawed scientific data. Part of the Obama administration even admits that cap and trade will not help the economy. The left seems to be willing to gamble our future on a hypothesis that cannot be proved or recreated.

If I go to the grocery store today, and one of my favorite food products has increased in price by 50%, I don’t buy it. I find a cheaper substitute or go without. I think people are going to be hard pressed to go without electricity or gasoline.   When gasoline prices were in the $4.80 range, I only drove to and from work. 

Think about it...what changes will you have to make if electricity and gasoline prices doubled?

Gwen Kautz, Customer Service Manager
Dawson Public Power District

Is Global Warming a Snow Job?

I’ve read a few of the “stolen” emails from the scientists who purportedly tried to hide the real facts on climate change. Some reports claim the emails are taken out of context. It’s pretty hard to take statements that say “delete this email so there’s no record” out of context. Hello little red flags!

What many suspected for a long time when they couldn't replicate Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) results, and could not access the IPCC-used data, seems to be true based on the “leaked emails.”

Below is an excerpt from Climate Change Facts (one of a handful of sites that actually provides pros AND cons) and it sheds light on how facts can get distorted. Bear with me, it’s worth the read.

“Few scientists are actually involved in writing the materials, perhaps a few dozen. Usually there is one real leader, a chair or co-chair and 2 or 3 [so-called] co-chairs that are present to provide balance for the developing nations. Because of skill or language barriers they may not be greatly involved. Lead authors are usually involved in just one piece of the section or chapter. These few people…prepare the first and subsequent drafts and the Executive Summary that feeds into the “Summary For Policy Makers”, long before the draft chapters have been through national reviews. Even here, the co-chairs decide which inputs are to be accepted, or make recommendations that usually are sustained, during [mandatory] sessions. Yes, thousands of scientists review the IPCC documents, but usually [they read] only those parts that impinge on their own expertise, which is usually quite narrow.“

If you’ve ever played the childhood game called “tell-a-friend” in which one kid whispers a sentence in another kid’s ear and that kid goes to the next kid, and so on --- at the end of the game, the last kid says the sentence and finds out its nothing like the first sentence. That seems to be exactly what happens in these summary reports. And that explains why we have people who are adamant they know “the truth.”

Essentially what the policy makers read becomes vague and distorted which then becomes subject to their own interpretation or perception. It’s no wonder we’re all confused.

Gwen Kautz, Customer Service Manager
Dawson Public Power District