The source of this week’s post about the utility of the future is this Utility Dive article about Pacific Gas and Electric’s proposed incentives for electric vehicles. The article made me think of this: liberals think big business is evil and conservatives think big government is evil. Both are right to a large extent. Oooh. In my opinion, libertarians are most correct fearing crony capitalism as the unholy alliance between big government and big business. A primary role of government is to ensure citizens are protected from fraud, embezzlement, collusion, and the seven deadly sins. Hens and little people are…
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This year was a blowout for tomato production at the Ihnen household. Enough tomatoes were planted such that if a tomato plague blighted the Ihnen ranch, wiping out 90% of the crop, there would still be plenty for onsite production. What to do? We visited the People’s Food Coop in La Crosse where we buy nearly all our produce. Cherry tomatoes are selling for $1.80 per pint, and locally grown tomatoes are going for $3.00 per pound. This is great! Clearly, our crop as shown, represents a nice down payment toward an advanced degree for our K-9s. We loaded all…
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Last week I attended the Association of Energy Services Professionals (AESP) national conference in Orlando at the Disney World Hilton. Thankfully, it wasn’t actually in the park – hey, I don’t know man. I would otherwise not go within 2-3 states of a crowded black hole for cash like that. The conference expo hall “infrastructure”, including booth structure consisting of pipe framing and curtain dividers, chairs, tables, power and other things is outsourced to a company that travels from venue to venue like carnies. For a couple thousand dollars or whatever, the exhibit space is all you get. A $30…
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