On July 14, the UC Davis Olive Center, part of that school’s College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, released a paper reporting that 69% of randomly selected imported Extra Virgin Olive Oil (EVOO) brands had “defective flavors such as rancid, fusty, and musty” and “did not meet international and US standards.” This compares to a [...]
Category Archives: Business/Economics
AltaRock Abandons Geothermal Energy Project at The Geysers
December 18, 2009 – 12:15 am
Since July, I have been studying and following the progress of a technology called Enhanced Geothermal Systems (EGS) as it has been tested by Sausalito-based AltaRock Energy at The Geysers, an active geothermal field just 12 air miles from my home in Northern California.
A week ago, New York Times reporter James Glanz wrote that Altarock [...]
Credit Card “Insurance”–Big Profits/Small Benefits
October 18, 2009 – 9:14 am
An early credit card — 1963
Let’s say you owe money on your American Express card, and you’re worried about unpredictable events that might negatively impact your ability to pay that debt. Then a flyer arrives from American Express offering you their Account Protector.
Account Protector from American Express helps during many of life’s ups and downs [...]
MBA Oath — “My purpose is to serve the greater good”
September 29, 2009 – 2:15 pm
Within my college circle, a career in business was not an admirable path. When I revealed to my friends that I intended to seek an MBA from Harvard Business School, for the next several meals I became invisible. No one spoke to me. I had died, and they referred to me in the past.
HBS women [...]
Is the Production of Geothermal Energy in The Geysers a “Public Nuisance”?
September 27, 2009 – 10:21 am
Calpine in The Geysers
On September 15, less than a fortnight after AltaRock Energy halted its geothermal drilling in The Geysers, the Anderson Springs Community Alliance (ASCA), a small but formidable opponent of the AltaRock project, fired another salvo: this time charging the area’s main producer of geothermal energy with a public nuisance.
In a formal complaint [...]
Enhanced Geothermal Energy Project Halted in The Geysers
September 3, 2009 – 8:37 pm
Electricity generation in The Geysers
Late in 2008, George Bush’s Department of Energy committed $6 million to Sausalito-based AltaRock Energy (as part of a consortium…see addendum below) for energy production using Enhanced Geothermal Systems (EGS). EGS technology works by by injecting water down a deep well into hot rock, fracturing the rock and creating steam which [...]
On the Bull’s Back
July 31, 2009 – 7:16 am
America, in skin and shorts, sleeps
on Wall Street’s back
the beast
appetite and direction, ignores
flies
It is five a.m. and raining
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Cell phone photo: Anonymous, July 2009. Look closely. A man lies supine upon the statue.
Go Sue Yourself!
July 23, 2009 – 10:12 am
Perhaps based upon a well-known, anatomically difficult, consensual act, Wells Fargo has sued itself in a Florida foreclosure case reported upon by foxbusiness.com last week:
“Wells Fargo holds the first and second mortgages on a condominium….As holder of the first, Wells Fargo is suing all other lien holders, including the holder of the second, which is [...]
Enhanced Geothermal Energy and Man-Made Earthquakes (Part 2)
July 16, 2009 – 9:30 am
As described in a previous post, Sausalito-based AltaRock Energy is drilling a Lake County test well aimed at producing energy by utilizing a technology called Enhanced Geothermal Systems (EGS). AltaRock’s project is on federal land leased by the Northern California Power Agency (NCPA) on a ridge just above the community of Anderson Springs, CA. According [...]
“Keynesian” Capitalism Bumper Sticker De-Attributed
July 12, 2009 – 5:31 am
During the research for my previous post, I came across a bumper sticker that attributed the quotation in question to John Maynard Keynes. When I informed the purveyor that the quotation was not from Keynes’s oeuvre, they replied:
Well, that is sad. It seems that making things up has been a major accomplishment of the electronic [...]
