I skim those entries, looking for the unusual. Like this in the September 2011 issue from a classmate in France:

I’m now preparing for my next show in the famous Théatre des Deux Anes in Paris, well known for its shows of chansonniers for ages. I do not sing, but under the name of Jean du Frout, I write fables which are told by various actors, including myself, and after the fable, a piano improvises on well-known themes related directly or humorously to the fable. Now you can laugh, as have done many spectators of the show in the past three years…We have a house in Brittany where we spend about ten days a month. ‘Frout’ means a tiny stream. I wanted a name related to the famous 18th-century French fabulist, Jean de La Fontaine, but with all due respect, the fountain had to be much smaller. This explains Frout.

Or this:

[We] traveled to the Ecuadorian mountains and rain forest in January, had three sessions with a shaman, and spent five days at an ecolodge and learning from the Achuar people, among other highlights. In May [we] did a week of bareboat sailing in Canouan and the Grenadines on a 40-foot Moorings monohull, and that has become [our] new favorite sailing destination! Two weeks later [we] were in Lima, Peru, producing a 2½-day workshop for 36 young indigenous leaders from 11 countries across Latin America and 11 participants from Peru, sponsored by Chirapaq, a Peru-based indigenous empowerment organization.

And I got a write-up in the class of 1968′s notes:

How many of us get a chance to start a new career at 67? The irrepressible Steve Cotler has just published a children’s book, and he’s zooming around, entertaining and educating kids in schools and libraries from coast to coast. His middle-grades novel, Cheesie Mack Is Not a Genius or Anything, the first in a series from Random House, is narrated by the (also) irrepressible Ronald “Cheesie” Mack, an 11-year-old from Gloucester, MA. Adventurous, outrageous, smart, curious, and funny, Cheesie sounds a lot like someone we knew in Section D (third row, center section, if I recall correctly). Appropriate for ages 8-12, Steve’s book is getting rave reviews and is in bookstores and available electronically. The second in Steve’s series, Cheesie Mack Is Cool in a Duel, comes out in June. For a copy autographed by the author, or to arrange an author event at your grandkid’s school, contact Steve.

During the past decade, Steve has also reconnected with the Summer Science Program he attended when he was 16. SSP is a summer residence program in which gifted high-school students complete challenging, hands-on research projects in celestial mechanics. Steve writes: “In 1997, I found a magic bean from SSP’s beanstalk deep in my memories and gave a talk to the future scientists at the 39th annual summer session about connecting creativity to technology. I resolved to rejuvenate and expand what had become one of the longest-lived but terminally tired science enrichment programs in the world. Replanting the magic bean, I became chmn. of an alumni-operated nonprofit that took over SSP, expanded to two campuses, built an endowment, and reconnected with its 2,000-plus alumni. I suspect my work at SSP will live and thrive long after I don’t.”

SSP summer programs are now located on two campuses: New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology in Socorro and Westmont College in Santa Barbara, CA. SSP appears to be a fairly high-powered operation; the 72 students enrolled in SSP 2011 were selected from 1,054 applicants and will come from 22 states and 14 countries overseas. Our politicians talk about job creation, but think for a moment about what that means in today’s international economy. More than half of the tech startups in this country over the last two decades, including a number of very successful companies, have been created by young tech graduates from overseas. Tech rules, and it’s just beginning. If we were as smart as the overseas kids at SSP, we’d be offering them and their families citizenship instead of making them leave as soon as their student visas expired. Ditto the overseas tech grads at our top universities, whom we expel on graduation. The ship is leaving the dock. We need to get aboard before we get left behind.

We’re not all Wall Streeters!

©2012 Steve Cotler's Irrepressibly True Tales. All Rights Reserved.

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 over 500 points. The more things change, the more they stay the same.

Sigh…

©2012 Steve Cotler's Irrepressibly True Tales. All Rights Reserved.

There is a website devoted to answering this question: Charity Navigator.

Calling itself “America’s premier independent charity evaluator,” (and I suspect it is), Charity Navigator “works to advance a more efficient and responsive philanthropic marketplace by evaluating the financial health of over 5,500 of America’s largest charities.”

The non-profit, funded primarily by NY philanthropists, was used by more than four million donors in 2009.

Charity Navigator is extremely easy to use. Just search for the charity you are considering. The metric I find most informative is Fundraising Expenses. This measures the percentage of all expenses that goes to fundraising.

Charity Navigator does not claim to evaluate the effectiveness of the non-profit’s programs. In fact, as Don Griesmann explains in his Non-Profit Blog:

They measure NPOs basically on previous Form 990s, a troubled, unclear and mistake prone IRS annual report. Not even CPAs agree what goes into certain financial parts of the 990 – what are administrative expenses, what are program expenses, what are fundraising expenses? Where are the issues of effectiveness, evaluation, outcomes, impact, results, change, morality, integrity and ethics in Charity Navigator’s ratings?

Griesmann makes a good point. You should carefully choose the cause you wish to support, using Charity Navigator as just one of the data points in your decision.

The website will, however, be very effective in helping you say no to the telephone solicitors from “worthy” non-profits like these (embarrassingly astronomical fundraising expenses in parentheses):

Deputy Sheriffs’ Fraternal Organization—Indianapolis (70.3%)
Children’s Cancer Fund Of America—Powell, TN (50.8%)
The Association for Firefighters & Paramedics—Santa Ana, CA (88.1%)
The Committee for Missing Children—Lawrenceville, GA (86.5%)

Staggering numbers! Only the telemarketer wins when you support a “charity” like those featured above…one that spends  half to almost all of what you donate on solicitation.

©2012 Steve Cotler's Irrepressibly True Tales. All Rights Reserved.

“We sample more than 200 olive oils a year and conduct rigorous chemical analysis through independent labs,” NAOOA president Bob Bauer explained. “We’re finding that less than 10 percent of the oils tested have any problems and they, in total, typically represent less than 1 percent of the market.”

The UC Davis report was summarized in an Associated Press story that was reprinted in dozens of newspapers and copied onto hundreds of blogs without, in almost all cases, any amplification or investigation. The blogs (I checked 30) did not list the brands tested (see below) or link to the UC Davis paper, thus making them sensational rather than informational.

UC Davis is a prestigious university with exemplary credentials in agricultural sciences. But as with many such research projects, the study was underwritten by parties with vested interests in the outcome (Corto Olive, California Olive Ranch, and the California Olive Oil Council). In a telephone interview, Dan Flynn, executive director of the UC Davis Olive Center, explained that the funders “had no involvement in selecting the samples, how they were tested, or how the results were reported. UC Davis has a century-long record of integrity.” Had the results been reversed, he stated, “We would have issued the paper just the same.”

Whom should you trust? Which EVOO do you buy?

Super Mammoth Olives... judge their size by noting that this is a one liter jar

But since Extra Virgin is the term the industry uses, it better be above reproach.

Nineteen brands (14 imported, 5 California) were assayed at UC Davis and the Australian Oils Research Laboratory, a government research center and testing laboratory in New South Wales certified by the International Olive Council.

Only one of the imported brands, Costco’s Kirkland Organic, had all samples meet the IOC/USDA Extra Virgin Olive Oil sensory standards (olfactory, gustatory, tactile/kinaesthetic) compared with four out of five California oils. The brands, with the fraction that passed, are listed below:

Imported
0/3 Bertolli
0/3 Carapelli
1/3 Colavita
1/3 Filippo Berio
2/3 Great Value 100%
3/3 Kirkland Organic
0/3 Mazola
0/3 Mezzetta
1/3 Newman’s Own Organics
0/3 Pompeian
1/3 Rachael Ray
1/3 Safeway Select
2/3 Star
1/3 Whole Food 365 100% Italian

California
1/2 Bariani
2/2 California Olive Ranch (study funder)
2/2 Corto Olive (study funder)
2/2 Lucero Ascolano
2/2 McEvoy Ranch Organic

In a blog post announcing that its products passed the UC Davis tests, California Olive Ranch wrote:

Part of the reason bogus EVOO can be sold in this country is because there are no federal standards governing quality. The USDA recently adopted standards meant to ensure the bottle of extra virgin olive oil you buy at the store is genuine and not some fake EVOO. The new federal standards, however, are voluntary.

According to the NAOOA, 99% of all olive oil purchased in the U.S. is imported. If California olive oil is actually higher in quality overall, there is much to be gained by pushing for tougher regulation. Until voluntary becomes mandatory, however, the claims and counterclaims will be momentary news…and the products, high-quality and bogus, will stay on the shelves.

*     *     *     *     *

Note: I was puzzled by the olive oil tasting term fusty. I know what a fusty old codger is, but taste…? The best definition I could find was an off flavor due to olives fermenting in piles while in storage, awaiting pressing. Another site opined: hard to describe … somewhat like Justice Potter Stewart’s definition of pornography: “I know it when I see it.”

Suggestion: Whatever olive oil you buy, choose a colored bottle. Light can cause oxidation.

©2012 Steve Cotler's Irrepressibly True Tales. All Rights Reserved.

A week ago, New York Times reporter James Glanz wrote that Altarock Energy “has removed its drill rig and informed federal officials that the government project will be abandoned.” Only one day before this report, the controversial Basel, Switzerland, project that was supposed to lead the EGS technology parade was also abandoned.

Obama’s Department of Energy was a financial sponsor of the AltaRock venture. Google and others had invested. Yet AltaRock’s website makes no mention of this major corporate setback.

There will be more news, I suspect.

My earlier posts are:

Enhanced Geothermal Energy and Man-Made Earthquakes—7/2/09
Enhanced Geothermal Energy and Man-Made Earthquakes (Part 2)—7/16/09
Enhanced Geothermal Energy Project Halted in The Geysers—9/3/09
Is the Production of Geothermal Energy in The Geysers a “Public Nuisance”?—9/27/09

©2012 Steve Cotler's Irrepressibly True Tales. All Rights Reserved.

Account Protector from American Express helps during many of life’s ups and downs by canceling the minimum monthly payment, up to $500 each month of the eligible event term, if you experience a covered event.

American Express offers its Account Protection for just 85¢ per $100 of your monthly statement balance. Maybe Account Protection is just what you need.

American Express lists 14 “covered events”…also referred to as “life events.” They are, with maximum number of months of coverage in brackets:

hospitalization [1]
marriage [2]
purchase of a new home [2]
relocation of more than 150 miles [2]
starting college [2]
divorce [2]
birth of a child [2]
adoption of a child [2]
death of a spouse [2]
call to active military duty [2]
leave of absence [3]
involuntary unemployment [24]
long-term disability [24]
death [all debt canceled]

At 85¢/month, this kind of “insurance” sounds cheap, but it’s not a good deal…except for American Express.

Here’s a simple example that shows how costly this protection is. Let’s say you have an unpaid balance of $1,000. Your Account Protector fee would be $8.50/mo (85¢ x $1000/$100). But your benefit, which equals your minimum monthly payment (2.5% of your account balance), is only $25.00. That means that in just three months you will have paid slightly more in fees than the benefit that comes from one month of protection. And American Express’s fine print states that you are eligible for no more than two life event benefits in any 12-month period and only one life event benefit in any two-month period. So if this year’s two life events each yield, say, two-month benefits, you would have paid $102 (12 x $8.50) and received benefits of just $100 (4 x $25). You could have saved $2 by doing nothing.

Looked at in another way, Account Protector adds 10.2% (85¢/$100 x 12) to your nominal credit card interest rate, which on some cards may already be more than 18% per year (American Express is one of the lowest at 13.24%).

Only if your employment is terminated (and here you must apply and qualify for state unemployment benefits and register with a recognized employment agency) or you suffer long-term disability (doctor’s report required) does Account Protector pay off.

Even death may not make it worthwhile. Under existing law, when an individual dies, credit card debt becomes a debt of the estate, and if there are no assets to pay the credit card company, the card company can’t legally force someone else to pay.

How do financial institutions get away with selling snake oil masquerading as insurance? First, credit card issuers are an oligopoly with minimal competition (there is no “public option”). Second, Account Protector and its competitors’ similar services (almost every other credit card issuer offers a something like it) are never referred to as insurance. For that reason, they is not regulated by state insurance commissions; they slide into your email or mail box as one of the many fine services financial institutions offer to their customers.

Account Protector is a high-profit item for American Express. Avoid.

Speaking about insurance non-insurance, in case you’ve forgotten, credit default swaps, so named to hide their true nature as insurance policies, were the arcane, unregulated, black-mustachioed, villainous non-insurance instruments that allegedly murdered Bear Stearns, Lehman Brothers, AIG, and Merrill Lynch.

©2012 Steve Cotler's Irrepressibly True Tales. All Rights Reserved.

HBS women -- 1963

One thing hasn’t changed, however: business managers are still viewed as grasping, self-interested, and greedy. Think Madoff, AIG, Enron, almost all the Wall Street firms, and Name-A-Bank. Few think that businessmen would honestly affirm, “My purpose is to serve the greater good.”

Yet this year, a couple of Harvard MBA students decided to do something about their image—to say “My purpose is to serve the greater good”—and to get others to say the same. They created an oath with a goal of getting 100 Harvard MBAs to sign on.

They greatly exceeded that goal; nearly 500, over half of the class, took the pledge.

The MBA Oath:

As a manager, my purpose is to serve the greater good by bringing people and resources together to create value that no single individual can create alone. Therefore I will seek a course that enhances the value my enterprise can create for society over the long term. I recognize my decisions can have far-reaching consequences that affect the well-being of individuals inside and outside my enterprise, today and in the future. As I reconcile the interests of different constituencies, I will face choices that are not easy for me and others.

Therefore I promise:

• I will act with utmost integrity and pursue my work in an ethical manner.
• I will safeguard the interests of my shareholders, co-workers, customers and the society in which we operate.
• I will manage my enterprise in good faith, guarding against decisions and behavior that advance my own narrow ambitions but harm the enterprise and the societies it serves.
• I will understand and uphold, both in letter and in spirit, the laws and contracts governing my own conduct and that of my enterprise.
• I will take responsibility for my actions, and I will represent the performance and risks of my enterprise accurately and honestly.
• I will develop both myself and other managers under my supervision so that the profession continues to grow and contribute to the well-being of society.
• I will strive to create sustainable economic, social, and environmental prosperity worldwide.
• I will be accountable to my peers and they will be accountable to me for living by this oath.

This oath I make freely, and upon my honor.

Word spread, and students at other business school students opened chapters and signed the oath. In June, BusinessWeek wrote about the phenomenon, “Harvard’s MBA Oath Goes Viral.”

Doctors take the Hippocratic Oath. It is ceremonial, but the license required before the practice of medicine is real and essential. Business management requires no such license. Will taking the MBA Oath make a difference? I suspect not…unless teeth appear.

But what if Harvard and other business schools decided that ethical behavior was not only a subject to study, but also a requirement for their MBA degree, with taking this Oath mandatory? In that case, if any MBAs were subsequently guilty (as ascertained by a non-judicial, university-run tribunal) of breaking their oaths, their MBA degrees would be revoked.

Would it matter to Madoffs, Lays, and the like? Probably not, but it could create a different climate within the graduate schools, one that might have a positive influence on all but the most venal.

What a dreamer I am.

©2012 Steve Cotler's Irrepressibly True Tales. All Rights Reserved.

In a formal complaint and petition addressed to the Board of Supervisors of Lake and Sonoma Counties for “Remedy of Ongoing Public Nuisance from Geothermal Earthquakes Caused by Operations of Calpine Corp./Geysers Power Company, LLC at The Geysers,” ASCA specifically cited a September 5 magnitude 2.8 earthquake as the latest of more than a thousand magnitude 2.0 or higher temblors epicentered within five miles of Anderson Springs since 2000. These, ASCA contends, constitute an ongoing public nuisance. [A link to the complaint will be posted here when it goes online.]

According to the complaint, “Most residents of Anderson Springs were awakened by the jolt and noise of this earthquake; many were frightened and had difficulty going back to sleep.  Over the following 10 minutes, residents were disturbed by the rumblings & noise of numerous smaller earthquakes, most of which did not register on the USGS seismic network.” The September 5 earthquake was “epicentered next to Calpine’s MLM Wellpad by Castle Rock Springs, 1 mile from Anderson Springs (1,300 feet from the closest residence), and at a shallow depth of 1.6 miles (consistent with man-made, geothermal earthquakes).”

ASCA’s cover letter states:

There is now a significant body of qualified, independent scientific evidence about induced seismicity, along with extensive public comments, documentation, and media coverage, demonstrating the extent of problems for residents and their property.  It has become clear that most of these earthquakes are caused by geothermal development activities, and the instrumentation is now adequate to pinpoint their exact location and quantify resulting ground-shaking in Anderson Springs.

Although the impacted communities are primarily in Lake County, Calpine’s operations causing geothermal earthquakes occur both within Lake and Sonoma Counties and are permitted by their respective County planning/community development departments.  We recognize the importance of geothermal power production; we are not against geothermal energy, nor are we seeking to halt geothermal operations.  However, the wastewater disposal needs of Lake and Sonoma Counties, along with the business interests and profit motivations of Calpine Corporation, are being served at the expense of our small community and its residents.

California Civil Code Section 3480 defines a public nuisance as “one which affects at the same time an entire community or neighborhood, or any considerable number of persons, although the extent of the annoyance or damage inflicted upon individuals may be unequal.” Complaints of public nuisance most often reference local concerns such as excessive noise, overflowing trash, or neighborhood blights such as drug selling. To file such a complaint against a major corporation involved in an activity as important as energy generation pits a gnat (ASCA) against an elephant (Calpine).

Calpine could try to defend itself by:

•  casting the temblors as insignificant annoyances that cause little or no damage
•  contending that residents knew about the problem when they moved in
•  demonstrating that the earthquakes had been ongoing for a many years without complaint

Since Calpine supplies a huge amount of energy to Northern California and ASCA has not documented any earthquake-related injuries and no incidents of dramatic property damage, the public nuisance complaint could get treated as a minor attack on an important corporate presence. And if Calpine pays significant taxes to the county governments (undetermined as of this writing), officials may be under tremendous financial pressure to find for the revenue producer over the NIMBY complainants.

ASCA has been researching induced earthquakes for a long time. Its chart of the number of earthquakes with magnitude greater than 2.0 shows a dramatic increase over the last several decades.

In addition, ASCA’s three-year survey (2002-04) indicates annoyances that may add up to a public nuisance:

•  85% of Anderson Springs residents reported that they or members of their family had been “woken up in the middle of the night by earthquakes.”

•  66% reported that smaller household objects (e.g., pictures, clocks, planted pots, knickknacks, etc.) had been moved or disturbed.

•  56% reported problems with doors/windows not closing properly due to earthquakes.

•  54% reported that “the earthquakes affect[ed] me or members of my family emotionally.”

Jeffrey Gospe, president of the ASCA, emailed me on September 24, “We are confident that the California Civil Code and its case history support our community’s rights to abatement of this public nuisance, and we hope that Lake/Sonoma Counties and Calpine will be proactive about remedying the situation without the necessity of court proceedings.”

Two previous posts (Part 1 and Part 2) described the EGS project that AltaRock had undertaken in The Geysers, a geologically active formation in California’s Mayacamas Mountains of Lake and Sonoma Counties. The Geysers is the world’s most productive geothermal field. A third post noted the halting of that project.

With energy such a prominent public and governmental concern, it is surprising that local news coverage of AltaRock, ASCA, Calpine, etc., has been almost non-existent. The Santa Rosa Press Democrat is MIA. Only the weekly Lake County News and the New York Times (which owns the Press Democrat) track this story with any consistency.

©2012 Steve Cotler's Irrepressibly True Tales. All Rights Reserved.

From an AltaRock Energy press release dated September 2, 2009:

AltaRock Energy Inc. has encountered a number of physical difficulties in the drilling of well E-7, the first well planned as part of its engineered geothermal systems (EGS) demonstration project in the Geysers, resulting from geologic anomalies particular to the formation underlying this well location.

Two previous posts (Part 1 and Part 2) described the EGS project that AltaRock had undertaken in The Geysers, a geologically active formation in the Mayacamas Mountains of Lake County, CA.

Problems with the drilling, executed by Nabors Industries under contract from AltaRock, were made public on August 19 in the New York Times:

[T]he project has been delayed because the bit on a giant rig, meant to drill more than two miles underground, has struggled to pierce surface rock formations, [anonymous federal] scientists said. The bit has snapped off at least once and become repeatedly fouled in a shallow formation called cap rock, and the drillers have twice been forced to pull it out and essentially start the hole over again.

The Times and Reuters also noted that AltaRock, in addition to the DOE commitment, has raised $30 million in venture capital from investors  such as Google and the investment firms Khosla Ventures, Advanced Technology Ventures, Vulcan Capital, and Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers.

Further review of AltaRock’s drilling had been requested by Anderson Springs Community Alliance (ASCA), a group of citizens concerned about the increase in local earthquakes since large-scale water injection began in the late 90’s. Anderson Springs is just a few miles from AltaRock’s drill site. ASCA president Jeffrey Gospe, a resident of Santa Rosa and Anderson Springs, said that federal regulators disclosed that once the AltaRock/Nabors rig got stuck for a third time after only 800 feet of new drilling, AltaRock halted the project and released the rig. He guessed that AltaRock had been spending about $100,000 per day, and had already gone through $12-14 million of their capital. “I think there’s now a 50% chance that AltaRock will pull out of the Geysers completely and move to Nevada or elsewhere, someplace that doesn’t have such a high level of seismicity.”

In July, in response to such concerns about engendering large earthquakes, the Department of Energy and the Bureau of Land Management forbade AltaRock to fracture rock until completion of a study comparing the potential for engendering large earthquakes in The Geysers with the experience of a similar EGS project near Basel, Switzerland, that did create a 3.2 quake in 2006. After that event, the Basel project was shut down. The DOE/BLM report, according to Gospe, is expected to support AltaRock’s claim that mitigation of earthquakes is practicable., but with AltaRock’s cessation of drilling, the study may now be less important. The real question, Gospe said, is, “Can you really believe that AltaRock can do this with no seismic effect, if they can’t do the easiest part of the project? They could not even complete the drilling phase in an area where wells 8,000 feet deep are routine.”

*     *     *     *     *

Note: EGS is a acronym for “Enhanced Geothermal Systems” and “Engineered Geothermal Systems,” both of which refer to the same technology.

*     *     *     *     *

Addendum 9/10/09:

Prompted by John Stewart’s comment below, I changed the opening to this post. It used to read (incorrectly):

Late in 2008, Barack Obama’s Department of Energy, led by Nobel laureate Steven Chu, committed $6.25…

Here is the relevant information from DOE:

AltaRock Energy Inc. and Northern California Power Agency, University of Utah, Texas A&M University, Science Applications International Corporation, Temple University (Seattle, WA): to use an innovative stimulation process to create an EGS reservoir that will drill below the permeable zone, stimulate in the contained zone with infrastructure in place, and increase power production (up to $6,014,351)

©2012 Steve Cotler's Irrepressibly True Tales. All Rights Reserved.

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

-

-

Cell phone photo: Anonymous, July 2009. Look closely. A man lies supine upon the statue.

©2012 Steve Cotler's Irrepressibly True Tales. All Rights Reserved.