Archive for August, 2010

More on Tiger Mike

Monday, August 9th, 2010

While researching the validity of Friday’s Tiger Oil Memos, I stumbled onto further information about the main character, Tiger Mike.

The story begins with Frederick Gilmer Bonfils, a scandal-steeped publisher who made the Denver Post a major newspaper, and who reportedly once took hush-money to stop reporting on the Teapot Dome oil scandal. When he passed away in 1933, his daughter Helen took over the paper. She later married George Somnes1. Somnes died in 1956, but by the end of the 50s and at the ripe old age of 69, Helen married her former-chauffeur, 28-year-old Edward “Tiger Mike” Davis.

After the nearly-inevitable divorce, Tiger Mike suddenly had the means to dabble in oil. He purchased drilling rigs and was later bought out, making him richer. Eventually, he drilled 49 dry holes (possibly not all in a row), and went broke, at least for a time.

Tiger Mike’s trail goes fairly dark, except for his memos slowly spreading around the world, and eventually landing online. He finally popped back up in 2008, when he helped broker a $684 million dollar deal between Denver-based Delta Petroleum and Las Vegas billionaire Kirk Kerkorian. By then, Tiger Mike was known as “an oil and gas veteran living in Las Vegas” and had sold properties to Delta in 2003. As part of this 2008 sale, Tiger Mike received 263,158 shares in Delta as a “finder’s fee”, worth around $6 million dollars.

And the newspaper which reported on that 2008 sale? The Bonfils’ own Denver Post.

Footnotes:

  1. Somnes is reported to have looked like a twin of Helen’s father, which is not at all disturbing or creepy. ↩︎

The Tiger Oil Memos ∞

Friday, August 6th, 2010

Letters of Note was previously linked back in April, and it remains a great site. Most of the letters are thought-provoking, or touching, and occasionally they’re amusing.

The Tiger Oil Memos, however, are simply incredible in their own right. Tiger Oil CEO Edward ‘Tiger Mike’ Davis sent the linked memos to his employees over the course over several years. May you never have a boss like Tiger Mike.

One of my favorite bits was this:

No one will ride in our vehicles other than company employees…What I am trying to say is no hitchhikers or free rides for family members or non-employees. They will be terminated if caught.

When read as written, Tiger Mike seems to be indicating that any non-employees found in company vehicles will be killed. It’s probable that even he wasn’t that crazy, but one never knows.

I’m Surprised ∞

Thursday, August 5th, 2010

I’m not terribly surprised to learn that Glenn Beck enjoyed a tweet posted by a group of White Nationalists (read: White Supremacists (read: racist idiots)).

Glenn Beck's Favs

I am surprised to learn that Glenn Beck, or the person who runs his Twitter account, was dumb enough to mark such a tweet as a favorite, though. Apparently, he didn’t know that favorites on Twitter are visible to anyone who cares to look.

Ya Know, For Commuters ∞

Wednesday, August 4th, 2010

Commutapult is a prospective surface-to-air-to-surface commuting system. Operating between the congestion on the ground and the altitudes of commercial air travel, Commutapult will send you wherever you need to go around Seattle, and soon, the world.

How Commutapult works

The Commutapult site includes a helpful FAQ, with useful information like this:

Q: Can I time travel back to high school using Commutapult™?
A: No. Get over it. She’s still not going to like you.

View their full site to get a peek at the commuter transport method of the future, today.

I Have Some Questions…

Tuesday, August 3rd, 2010

A science briefing from the FDA is linking Evamist, a hot-flash-suppressing hormone spray for menopausal women, to abnormal breast growth in children.

…the drug agency has received eight reports of abnormal breast development in boys and girls ages 3 to 5 who had contact with women using it.

Those poor children. Those poor, voluptuous children.

Pets have also been affected.

Ok, what the hell?! There needs to be a line somewhere, beyond which the FDA will recall your product. “Accidental busty pets” seems like a good point for that line.

Monkeys Hate Flying Squirrels ∞

Monday, August 2nd, 2010

The linked article’s headline reads:

Monkeys Hate Flying Squirrels, Report Monkey-Annoyance Experts

It’s very early, but it’s probably safe to declare this the best headline of the day. The sub-head gets even better.

Japanese macaques will completely flip out when presented with flying squirrels, a new study in monkey-antagonism has found. The research could pave the way for advanced methods of enraging monkeys.

So now you’ve learned at least three things:

  1. Macaques hate flying squirrels.

  2. There are “monkey-annoyance experts”, who work on “monkey-antagonism”.

  3. Our current methods of angering monkeys are simply not sufficient. Someone, perhaps just the reporter but perhaps the scientists, is looking for newer, more effective ways of enraging monkeys.

The article also includes a monkey crowd reaction video from 2006. At that time, scientists were just beginning to work on weaponizing the flying squirrel. When the inevitable Monkey Wars come, we’ll be glad they did.

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