This section archives articles and essays on topics that don't quite fit into the other categories on energy. They include articles on high-mileage vehicles, chain-reaction accidents, our neighbors, Tule fog, and . . . well . . . other subjects.
We’re continuing our Pandemic Peregrinations to explore our region of California. To that end we try head out most Thursdays for day trips in our Chevy Bolt. On this trip we drove to Mount Pinos in...[more]
Alan Simpson, as he likes to say, is a ‘recovering politician and lapsed economist’. You can his find stinging critiques of energy policy, the lack thereof in Britain, and British politics in general...[more]
We asked Robert for his views on petrostates, dirty governments and people who own superyachts. Brace yourselves!
I don’t remember how slide rules came up in a conversation recently. It may have been when Nancy recalled her dreaded chemistry classes in college and noted that she never learned how to use the...[more]
You can—and should--do more to help Ukraine than waving a digital flag on social media. You can stick it to Putin, weaken his war machine, and drive a stake through the heart of oil oligarchs,...[more]
In order to help civilians, the World Wind Energy Association WWEA and the Global 100% Renewable Energy Platform Global100RE, supported by Global100RE Ambassador Ruslana, are calling for donations of...
The geopolitical upheaval surrounding Ukraine are in part the result of the EU's dependence on fossil fuels and the faltering transition to renewable energy.[more]
This may be more than you want to know. I had my doubts about my upcoming surgery for a torn rotator cuff. It had been six months since I injured myself and I was beginning to think that maybe I...[more]
Preben Maegaard died 25 March 2021. He was 84. His death likely won't mean much to most North Americans. After all he wasn't a household name like reality TV stars Caitlyn Jenner or Kanye West. It...[more]
A "subsidy" is a straightforward allocation of taxpayer money by a public authority to prop up the production of a good or service by the private sector, used to offset market failures and...
Times are hard. Covid-19 stalks the land. People are out of work. Homelessness is rising. Politics is splitting the country apart. And now this![more]
The campaign for President of the United States is in full swing. We've endured two--mostly virtual--national party conventions. (Full disclosure: I didn't watch either.) And the parties have issued...[more]
The Daily Examiner, part of the Murdoch News Corp empire in New South Wales, reported my demise on 13 August.[more]
It's bad here. How bad is it? California's National Guard was called in to help area hospitals handle the flood of Covid-19 patients, reports the Bakersfield Californian.[more]
While Covid-19 cases are exploding in Kern County, there's another health crisis stealthily stalking us: Parkinson's disease.[more]
I live in Kern County, California and I have family that lives in Madison County, Indiana and Dauphin and Lancaster Counties in Pennsylvania.[more]
It may not be just the number of ICU beds but the staff needed to care for the sick that creates a Covid-19 crisis in Kern County.
Three months of a disease with an exponential growth rate is a lifetime. My oh my how things have changed. Today the front-page news in the Bakersfield Californian is that one of the two hospital...[more]
I live in Kern County, California. I was raised in Madison County, Indiana and still have family there. As the Coronavirus sweeps across the continent, my concern focuses on these two quite different...[more]
Confirmed cases in Kern County, population 900,000, reached 100 last week. Today, Monday, we reached 230 with two deaths.[more]
The time change works for me. It's now dark again at 6.00 am here in California when I head out for my morning ride. [more]
The World Wind Energy Association was formed because existing organizations were narrowly focused on the often arcane and specialized needs of the commercial wind industry. There was no organization...[more]
A decade ago Bernie Sanders was the only US Senator who understood what the Germans were doing and how we could do it here. He was the only one who would listen. I know, because I am the one who told...[more]
A decade ago Bernie Sanders was the only senator who understood what the Germans were doing and how we could do it here. He was the only one who would listen. I know, because I am the one who told...
Research by the consulting firm Wood McKenzie confirms the approximate opportunity cost of converting the US to 100% renewable energy in electricity lost to wars in the Middle East that I and Robert...[more]
We Could Have 100% Renewable Electricity If We Had Invested in Wind and Solar Instead of War in the Middle East. Yes, the United States could be generating 100% of its electricity from renewable...[more]
Yes, the United States could be generating 100% of its electricity from renewable energy if we had used the money spent on our ill-advised wars in the Middle East to build wind and solar systems, as...
On the glacial plain just north of the High Tatras Mountains that separates Poland from Slovakia is the village of Koniówka. Unlike the surrounding foothills with their ski slopes and second-home...[more]
Yep, can't make this stuff up. No one would believe you.[more]
It was the sound you noticed first, an unearthly rumble that grew louder but never quite reaching a crescendo as it neared you. Then the ground beneath your feet moved. The solid earth we stood on...[more]
We'd seen the signs before we left. For the past several months we watched the inventory disappear. Then they took out some rows of shelving, but the inventory continued to shrink. All signs we'd...[more]
Charles Keating died recently. His death marked a milestone in American political history. His crimes and those of my nephew illustrates one of the truisms in America often attributed to Al Capone....[more]
I began writing as a way to explore the world, learn something new, and make a difference. It has been that--and more. I've been more or less freelancing since the mid 1970s when I published an...[more]
On Aprill 11 and 12, 2008 teams from highschools, colleges, and universities from across the continent were scrambling in the garages at the Fontana raceway preparing their cars for the Shell's...[more]
The following is a report to family and friends form a lecture tour to Lyon in southern France. In celebration of surviving another conference venue from hell I treated myself to a fancy...[more]
The following is a report to family and friends form a lecture tour to Lyon in southern France. Ok, I am oriented now. Couldn't get my bearings yesterday, but I've got my see legs back. One...[more]
The following is a report to friends from a lecture tour to Ireland, to Carrick-on-Shannon to be specific. To a black crow it's offspring are bright Or so it goes in Irish, a form of...[more]
The following is a report to friends from a lecture tour to Ireland, to Carrick-on-Shannon to be specific. Carrick-on-Shannon may be a regional center, but it's still a village. We took...[more]
Well it was hot during much of the day but it cooled off in late afternoon when I was touring the city on the top deck of a "bus touristic". Nancy would be proud. Though I missed the walking tour...[more]
The following are note to my friends from a lecture tour to Wellington, New Zealand in the summer of 2002. No, no, no, I am not working for the CIA. But if they paid enough it might make...[more]
The following are note to my friends from a lecture tour to Wellington, New Zealand in the summer of 2002. A few weeks ago Nancy and I dined atop the Reichstag with a grand view of Berlin and...[more]
The following is a report for friends from a lecture tour to Australia in the summer of 2002. While sitting in the Adelaide airport I thought I'd try keying in some more notes from my visit...[more]
The following is a report to friends from a lecture tour to Australia and New Zealand in the summer of 2002. Travel broadens the mind, so they say. It can narrow the seat as well. Let's just...[more]
Report from the end of the earth--or just about as close as you really want to go.[more]
Lupe knocked at the door yesterday. Lupe's our postman. If anyone knows what's going on in our neighborhood, it's Lupe. Lupe was concerned that a reclusive neighbor hadn't picked up her mail, nor...[more]
You've read about those massive chain-reaction accidents. Miles of mangled vehicles on Germany's autobahn, Italy's autostrada, New Jersey's Turnpike, or California's I-5 in the San Joaquin Valley....[more]
The following is one of several reports we filed with friends while we lived in northwest Denmark. Roskilde is on the same island as Copenhagen. 97/11/22 Cold, gray, windy. That's the...[more]
