Caithness Coso Funding Corp. (the “Company”) announced the pricing terms of its previously announced tender offers and consent solicitations for any and all of its outstanding $90,000,000 original principal amount of 6.263% Subordinated Secured Notes due 2014 (CUSIP Nos. 128017AK6 and U12295AD0) (the “2014 Notes”) and its $375,000,000 original principal amount of 5.489% Senior Secured Bonds due 2019 (CUSIP Nos. 128017AG5 and U12295AC2) (the “2019 Bonds” and, together with the 2014 Notes, the “Notes”). The tender offers and the related consent solicitations are subject to the terms and conditions set forth in the Company’s Offer to Purchase and Consent Solicitation Statement, dated September 18, 2007, and the accompanying Consent and Letter of Transmittal
(together, the “Offer Documents”).
This deal continues to drag on, but the release shows that progress is being made. The Coso Geothermal plants make up the bulk of the generation assets in the ArcLight Renewco deal and this needed to be sorted out clearly – particularly with respect to the operating agreements in place with the US Government for those assets.
It’s already been posted at TechCrunch and LaughingSquid – so, ME TOO! But, I have to say, I laughed my ass off watching it. So in case you don’t tune into those “other” channels, here’s your chance to laugh too. Hat’s off to Matt Hempey, clearly a geeky Weird Al Yankovic in-waiting…Uh, Matt, I’d watch out for Billy Joel and/or his record company – unless of course you’ve gotten the rights. This video is going super-critical-viral!
Now that I’ve got your attention (and, oh by the way, it’s got my attention too…) Let’s talk about how this works. I’m extremely leery of the whole “make money fast” on the internet stream of activities. This one is a little different.
Serial entrepreneur John Chow is the successful founder and operator of The Tech Zone (TTZ), TTZ Media Network, and a host of other activities. His part-time gig is blogging at John Chow dot com; a site focused on this subject:
John Chow dot com is a blog that helps you make money.
This guy has been around for a long time and I’ve come across his site many times, but for the first time, I’ve decided to pay a little bit of attention to what he’s doing. Why? Because in November, 2007 he documents income of $27,240.83 against expenses of $556.62 – a profit of $26,684.21. He also documents his growth from $352.94 in the first month of monetization (September, 2006) to its present lofty state. This begs the question, “how does he do it?”
After reading through a bunch of his material I conclude that this mix of activities in the right amounts at the right times have led to his success:
Predisposed readership – Based on his earlier work at TTZ, he has a set of people who would read his blog. That’s better than starting from zero and allowed a faster ramp than could happen for someone without this “in”
Experimentation – It’s pretty clear he’s tried over 130 different monetization techniques for his blog and has tumbled to a set that work well for his audience. It’s also clear that he’s pushed the envelope on each of these techniques (for instance, irritating Google greatly.)
Single message – John Chow dot com helps you make money. That’s the blog’s tag line, it’s simple, it’s clear, and it works.
Multiple harvest – By my count, John has 8 direct monetization streams and at least 3 indirect (not reported) monetization streams.
Transparency – There’s nothing subtle about what John is doing, and he’s sharing real data with his readers. That is rare in this time of protecting Google’s AdSense performance due to terms of service.
So what does this all mean? I’m not quite sure. But one thing is crystal clear, this blog is not being monetized effectively. I haven’t experimented enough with monetization techniques, John has inspired me to do more as AdSense isn’t what one would call lucrative on its own. Scanners like me have a hard time being interested in any one subject, consequently, I write about many different subjects that interest me. I’m considering writing them all centrally like I do now then setting up separate venues that focus on each subject.
I’m a pretty transparent guy: November, 2007 this blog made $40.41 on 95,958 page impressions from 59,170 visits and 39,477 unique visitors. If I could muster 50% of John’s $0.08/page harvest number, the earnings from this blog would have been $3,838.32 – that’s $3,797.91 delta. And that’s money I’m not interested in leaving on the table so to speak. Expect periodic updates as to how the monetization is going, and expect to see some changes as the experiments are undertaken. If you are interested in advertising on this site, drop me a line.
Someone sent me a link to this picture, presumably scanned from a book (sorry, I don’t have the source reference, if you know it, please post a comment referencing it so proper attribution may be assigned.) It’s a small version, to see it in its glorious detail, click the image and a new window will open with the large detailed image.
I love images like this that convey interesting information in multiple dimensions concurrently – ultimately, like the works of architecture depicted, they are art. One of the fascinating things to note is that the Great Pyramid (460 f/140 m) was completed in approximately 2650 BCE and held the record as the world’s tallest structure for nearly 3,800 years until eclipsed by a series of cathedrals in Europe starting in 1311 with Lincoln Cathedral’s Spire in England at (525 f/160 m.)
Modern buildings and depictions thereof are less interesting, though recently the Burj Dubai (under construction) looks to be another large step forward breaking through the ~500 m barrier aiming for a > 800 m completion height. Note the size of the Great Pyramid relative to the newest structures in the image below.
The unthinkable has happened, the #’s 1 & 2 teams lost this weekend, Missouri and West Virginia spit the bit allowing Ohio State and ???? to meet for the national championship in New Orleans this January. I’ll provide my prediction of who it will be as well as wrapping up the other BCS bowls below. As a consequence of this weekend’s games, Tim Tebow of Florida will win the Heisman trophy in a landslide. I think Dennis Dixon should have won, just look at what happened to Oregon without him… Hawaii pull out a win over Washington to head to the BCS.
OSU Opponent Watch
Youngstown State (7-4) – Season complete.
Akron (4-8) – Season complete.
Washington (4-8) – Played Hawaii away, lost 28-35. Conclusion: Expected Loss.
Northwestern (6-6) – Season complete.
Minnesota (1-11) – Season complete.
Purdue (7-5) – Season complete. Next: Bowl TBD.
Kent State (3-9) – Season complete.
Michigan State (7-5) – Season complete. Next: Bowl TBD.
Penn State (8-4) – Season complete. Next: Alamo Bowl 12/29/07.
Wisconsin (9-3) – Season complete. Next: Outback Bowl 1/1/08.
Illinois (9-3) – Season complete. Next: Bowl TBD.
Michigan (8-4) – Season complete. Next: Bowl TBD.
Buckeye opponent’s records after the 13th week, 73-71. Ohio State is playing in the championship game. Illinois could move up to the Rose Bowl as a replacement for the Buckeyes, but Georgia is a more likely selection particularly with the Hawaii win.
Quick Hits from Around College Football
Hawaii is the lone perfect team left having come from behind to nip Washington. Florida International ruined its perfect zero win season beating North Texas to go on a 1 game win streak.
Projected BCS Top 5: Ohio State, LSU, Oklahoma, Virginia Tech, and Kansas. This is how it will shake out, but Oklahoma is the best 2 loss team and deserves the shot at the title.
Games of the week? Oregon State beat Oregon 38-31 in 2 OTs.
Mismatch of the week? Army sunk Navy 38-3.
My Special Top 12 rankings: (Why Top 12? That’s where you need to be to get into BCS contention.)
Ohio State – Season complete.
Kansas – Season complete.
Oklahoma – Beat Missouri.
USC – Beat UCLA.
Georgia – Season complete.
Virginia Tech – Beat Boston College.
Illinois – Season complete.
Arizona State – Beat Arizona.
Wisconsin – Season complete.
LSU – Beat Tennessee.
West Virginia – Lost to Pittsburgh.
Hawaii – Beat Washington.
My Special Bottom 5 rankings: (Why bottom 5? If you finish there you should be relegated to I-AA)
Florida International – 1-11 Beat North Texas.
Idaho – 1-11. Season complete.
Southern Methodist – 1-11 Season complete.
Mississippi – 3-9 Season complete.
Minnesota – 1-11 Season complete.
This is what the BCS Bowl matchups ought to be:
Rose Bowl – USC vs. Illinois
Sugar Bowl – LSU vs. Hawaii
Orange Bowl – Virginia Tech vs. West Virginia
Fiesta Bowl – Kansas vs. Georgia
Rose Bowl – Ohio State vs. Oklahoma
This is what the BCS Bowl matchups will likely be:
Rose Bowl – USC vs. Illinois
Sugar Bowl – Georgia vs. Hawaii
Orange Bowl – Virginia Tech vs. West Virginia
Fiesta Bowl – Oklahoma vs. Arizona State
Rose Bowl – Ohio State vs. LSU
In the coming weeks I’ll post a Conference Strength Report and Bowl Preview.
