Knowledge ProblemCommentary on Economics, Information and Human ActionAnother Technical Comment- October 31, 2007 Lynne Kiesling The RSS feeds seem to be ... sticky. I had a couple of them come through successfully late this morning, but the past couple of posts have not shown up, and it's been more than an hour. What giveshttp://www.knowledgeproblem.com/archives/002270.html House Renovation: Have We Got Concrete- October 31, 2007 Lynne Kiesling Over the past several years, some kind readers have inquired after the state of our home. Here's the backstory: three years ago we bought a neglected 1924 Craftsman home in Chicago. We did some preliminary work (air conditioning, plaster, refinished wood), but then spent three years living in the place and working with architects to decide how we wanted to renovate it. Construction started in mid-September, and should end by mid-March. Here's what the back of the house looked...http://www.knowledgeproblem.com/archives/002269.html More Sugar Lobbying; Will It Ever End- October 31, 2007 Lynne Kiesling Today's New York Times has an editorial on the sugar lobby, and the apparent unwillingness of the members of Congress to do anything constructive to constrain their special interest self-aggrandizement. A couple of weeks ago the Times ran a story on the sugar industry's attempts to construct a political hedge for their profits by pushing Congress to implement policies subsidizing the use of sugar in ethanol production. As this editorial notes, NAFTA's long-suffering provision...http://www.knowledgeproblem.com/archives/002268.html Smart Money on Enernoc and Comverge- October 31, 2007 Lynne Kiesling A bit of shameless self-promotion ... this Smart Money article on Enernoc and Comverge includes a (fairly anodyne) quote from me about how demand response can enhance electric power network reliability. This concept of a "virtual power plant" is just a fancy way of saying that both electricity retailers (utilities is the old-fashioned word) and customers themselves can use energy management technology and services, particularly in response to price signals but also in response...http://www.knowledgeproblem.com/archives/002267.html Technical Update- October 31, 2007 Lynne Kiesling I think that I've just updated the RSS 2.0 template to send full posts out on the RSS feed. Testing, testing ... I've also updated the RSS 1.0 template, and I've reset Feedburner so that it uses the RSS 2.0 feed. Anything you think I'm missing Please let me know. It's interesting; when I initially started this site 5 years ago (!!), RSS feeds were in their extreme infancy, and portable devices and readers were not widespread. So when I first set up RSS feeds I set it with...http://www.knowledgeproblem.com/archives/002266.html Prediction markets or insider trading could reveal information hidden from upper management- October 30, 2007 Michael Giberson Larry Ribstein suggests that at least some of Boeings troubles with the 787 might have been avoided if either insider trading was permitted in Boeings stock or the company was operating internal prediction markets focused on project completion. The quotes that Ribstein draws from the Wall Street Journal article on Boeing highlight two problems one with project management, and the other with senior managements lack of information about the problem. From the WSJ: Boeing...http://www.knowledgeproblem.com/archives/002265.html New Fashion Read- October 30, 2007 Lynne Kiesling Sitting in the Manchester, NH airport, coming home from a way cool conference on new frontiers in emergent order research ... the brain is too full to think of anything along those lines for a post! But courtesy of The Manolo,, I've found a new fashion read: The Thoughtful Dresser, by writer Linda Grant. I love one of her tag lines: Because you can't have depths without surfaces. Brilliant. Evocative. I can't wait to read more. She's got a post on how many pairs of shoes a man.http://www.knowledgeproblem.com/archives/002264.html Economists do not understand the opposition to congestion pricing- October 29, 2007 Michael Giberson A few recent news articles on congestion has Peter Klein at Organization and Markets asking, "Why the Resistance to Pricing" When the quantity demanded exceeds the quantity supplied causing shortages, delays, congestion, misallocation the solution is to raise the price. Every freshman economics student knows this. Why, then, are regulators, industry groups, and consumer representatives so often opposed to rationing by the price mechanism Klein offers two examples, the...http://www.knowledgeproblem.com/archives/002263.html Reason In DC- October 26, 2007 Lynne Kiesling If you are attending Reason In DC on Saturday, I'll see you there! Won't be there today, though. Tomorrow Ron Bailey, Fred Smith and I will discuss carbon policy. Should be a stimulating discussion ...http://www.knowledgeproblem.com/archives/002262.html How Important Will Plug-In Hybrids Be- October 26, 2007 Lynne Kiesling To answer my own question: dunno. But the technology has a lot of promise. The Wikipedia entry on plug-in hybrid vehicles" is a thorough and well-cited background on the technology and its potential. In particular, of course, I am interested in the vehicle's intersection with the electric power network: PHEVs and fully electric cars may allow for more efficient use of existing electric production capacity, much of which sits idle as operating reserve most of the time. This...http://www.knowledgeproblem.com/archives/002261.html |