Michael Giberson Alexis Madrigal, writing for WIRED’s This Day in Tech on June 3, gives us, “Power Flows Long Distance.” 1889: The first long-distance transmission of electricity takes place, linking a powerhouse at Willamette Falls to a string of lights in Portland, Oregon, 14 miles to the west. The power lines stretching from the hydroelectric …
Long Distance Electric Power Transmission in 1889 Read More »
Michael Giberson After a severe thunderstorm pelted The Village, Oklahoma with “golf ball- to grapefruit-size hail,” leaving almost all of the 5000 or so homes in the town in need of roof and other repairs, the city council voted to increase the cost of a building permit from $110 to $150. A couple of folks …
Is a Post-disaster Building Permit Fee Increase an Example of Price Gouging? Read More »
Michael Giberson The New York Times Magazine has a feature article on the Ajax soccer development program – they recruit players as young as 7 years old and train them to 19 years if the player is good enough to be kept with the program. Like the development programs of other soccer teams, Ajax begun …
Michael Giberson At Constructive Economics, Abe Othman discusses a purported manipulation attempt in Intrade’s Health Care Reform bill market. The nut of the story is that early on March 17th a trader apparently poured a bit of money into the market, briefly driving the price from around 60 down to 35. After a few hours …
When Will Manipulation of Public Prediction Markets Begin to Work? Read More »
Michael Giberson The New York Times ran an editorial on the election of Rand Paul called the “Limits of Libertarianism.” I haven’t been paying much attention to Paul’s campaign or related politics, so don’t comment on Paul’s views or the Times response to them. But I have to draw attention to for the purpose of publicly ridiculing …
Government, Slavery, Jim Crow, The New York Times Read More »
Michael Giberson The Isolated Plant magazine published “A letter from a New York Correspondent,” in their August 1909 edition: Mr. Editor: From the viewpoint of one of the “common people,” the recent issues of your magazine have been striking fire with every telling blow… The following incident is mentioned as a bit of local history. …
Cogeneration Vs. Monopoly Electric Utility Service, Circa 1909 Read More »
Michael Giberson News headlines say, “Orlando wants to prevent gas price gouging,” though the practice Orlando politicians want to stop isn’t price gouging, per se. Rather, the target of the proposal is gasoline retailers near Orlando International Airport who charge substantially higher gasoline prices than neighboring stations. The proposal would require gasoline stations near the …
Orlando Wants to Discourage High Gas Prices Near the Airport Read More »
Michael Giberson Even before the current oil spill into the Gulf of Mexico it was well understood that drilling offshore sometimes results in spills. The current oil spill in the news has brought the idea of spills to the attention of many, many more people, people who don’t usually think too much about these things. …
Oil Spills, Movie Stars, Robot Unicorns and Regulation Read More »
Michael Giberson Texas did it again, it achieved it’s target for new renewable power generation capacity years ahead of schedule. And so, of course, as it becomes increasingly obvious that the Texas Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) is essentially irrelevant to growth in wind power, the Texas RPS is increasingly held up as a success and model …
Michael Giberson At the Freakonomics blog, James McWilliams offers a review of sorts of Robert Bryce’s new book Power Hungry: The Myths of “Green” Energy and the Real Fuels of the Future. McWilliams reports that the book is “a sustained attack on our irrational infatuation with wind and solar power.” Part of Bryce’s “sustained attack” …
Per Capita Energy Consumption Has Declined in the United States Read More »
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