The following, in Shonnie Brown’s “Neighbors” column, appeared in The Healdsburg Tribune, our local weekly, on February 9, 2012. [Most of the images were not in the original.] * * * * * Ann, born and raised in Casper, Wyoming, has the dubious distinction of attending high school with both Dick and Lynne Cheney and [...]
Category Archives: Business/Economics
Steve Cotler in Harvard Business School Alumni Bulletin
September 26, 2011 – 9:26 pm
For fairly obvious reasons, Harvard Business School keeps very good track of and contact with its alumni. One of the best things they do is their magazine, HBS Alumni Bulletin. Some of the articles are interesting, okay, uh-huh, but the real reason alumni turn this mag’s pages is the Class Notes. Every class that still [...]
The Market Falls–Then and Now
August 5, 2011 – 4:13 pm
I glance at the headline of an old newspaper that had been used to insulate one of the old log cabins that make up the museum in Frisco, CO. “Bankers Blame Tax Laws for Securities Drop” (The Denver Post…November 7, 1937). The Great Depression had been ongoing for over eight years. Yesterday the Dow fell [...]
Evaluating Charities
December 12, 2010 – 12:12 am
Now, as at the end of every calendar year, we are besieged by charities asking for support. Incoming mail brims with urgent and passionate pleas. Your phone will ring at dinner time. Even with a “Do Not Call” prohibition installed on your phone number, you can still expect calls from non-profits you have previously supported [...]
Is It Really Extra Virgin Olive Oil?
July 18, 2010 – 12:50 am
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
