w/ Jim Field
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Officials with Google and MidAmerican Energy have announced an agreement for MidAmerican Energy to supply Google’s Council Bluffs data center with up to 407 megawatts of wind-sourced energy. The wind power will come from several wind projects that are part of MidAmerican Energy’s Wind VIII program, an initiative under which MidAmerican Energy will bring 1,050 megawatts of new Iowa wind power online by the end of 2015. Officials say the agreement fully supplies the first phase of Google’s facilities in Council Bluffs with 100% renewable wind energy, bundled with and tracked by renewable energy certificates, and will allow additional phases to be supplied with wind-sourced energy as the company grows in Iowa.
Google has been working with MidAmerican Energy to procure additional renewable resources since the construction of Google’s data center in Iowa in 2007, and when MidAmerican Energy filed for approval for Wind VIII it had companies like Google in mind as customers. The agreement represents Google’s sixth and largest renewable energy purchase to date, bringing the total amount of renewable energy Google has contracted for to over one gigawatt (1,000 megawatts).
Jim Field talks about some tips for those spring DIY projects around the house.
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(Here’s a great recipe to utilize all those leftover hard-cooked eggs from Easter. Serve with fresh asparagus for a real springtime meal.)
Stuffed Eggs:
Sauce:
Slice eggs in half lengthwise; remove yolks and set whites aside. In a bowl, mash yolks with a fork. Add sour cream, mustard and salt; mix well. Evenly fill the egg whites; set aside. In a saucepan, saute onion in butter until tender. Add soup and sour cream; mix well. Pour half into an ungreased 11 x 7 inch baking pan. Arrange stuffed eggs over the sauce. Spoon remaining sauce on top. Sprinkle with cheese and paprika. Cover and refrigerate overnight. Remove from the refrigerator 30 minutes before baking. Bake, uncovered, at 350 degrees for 25 to 30 minutes or until heated through. Serve immediately. YIELD: 6 servings.
(Lorraine Bylsma, Eustis, Florida)
Treynor Cardinal Boys Relays
CLICK HERE for complete results!
Ace Nelson Relays @ Denison
Girls:
Ace Nelson Girls scoring 4.21.14
Boys:
The (Podcast) Freese-Notis weather forecast for the KJAN listening area, and weather information for Atlantic.
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GIRLS GOLF:
Valley West Des Moines Girls Classic played at Willow Creek in Des Moines.
Brooke Fletcher, Atlantic finished 3rd (40-36-76); champion Jasmine Wyzgowski, Waukee, 73
Other Atlantic scores:
ALSO:
BOYS GOLF:
GIRLS SOCCER:
BOYS SOCCER:
GIRLS TENNIS:
BOYS TENNIS:
Farmers are use technology such as G-P-S and weather reports these days to save time and money and increase crop yields, and many are being asked to share their data collected from that technology. The sharing issue has raised many worries about security and privacy. The American Farm Bureau Federation recently met with officials from six, large “agricultural technology” companies to discuss those concerns. Mary Kay Thatcher, Senior Director of Congressional Relations for the federation, says the new question is whether to share all the different data for agronomists to sift through and to help improve efficiency.
“If you’re a farmer you don’t want to have to go in and read a data privacy policy from John Deere, because that’s the kind of equipment you have, and a different one from Monsanto because that’s the kind of seed that you put in, and a different one from Precision Planting because that’s the actual technology that you use — and try to figure out what’s going on there. We’d like to try and get some of these definitions and terms standardized,” Thatcher says. Farmers want to know exactly how their data will be used and who will have access to it. Thatcher says the vast majority of the 60 companies that offer “ag tech” services say they will make the details anonymous.
“Usually it means I’ll remove the name if I have the Social Security number, if I have an address, a phone number etcetera. But lots of time they are not removing the G-P-S locations — because it’s the G-P-S locations that say ‘put more fertilizer on this part of the field’,” she explains. The problem is, those G-P-S coordinates are a big key to other information. “If you’ve got the G-P-S coordinates, you pretty much know who I am and what farm I’m farming on,” Thatcher says.
There are questions about who gets to see all the aggregated information. For example, could the U-S E-P-A identify farmers who idle their equipment for what it considers too long to be good for air quality? Or could a seed dealer learn how planting is going for local farmers and use that information to compete in their own fields? Or could investment banks and traders use it to make a lot of money on commodities markets?
(Radio Iowa)