luckymatthew - Tumblr blog

[luckymatthew]

My good friend, Eddy, has entered a photo competition.  I'm so happy for him, working towards making his dreams come true.  Check out his work and enjoy!

[luckymatthew]

My friends often comment on my sometimes extreme kindness and approach to waitstaff and retail workers. I always respond that it's easy to be empathetic because I paid my way through school as a waiter. This could be a cost-effective way to develop empathy, make the roads safer, and create jobs (a whole industry around teaching biking would evolve). Exceptions need to be worked out for those with genuine disabilities, but else wise.... Should Bike Lessons be Required to Get a Driver's License? (Poll)

[luckymatthew]

Regulatory Issues: A Fight in Idaho

According to this CBS report, a fight is a-brewin' at the OK Corral, erm....at least in Boise Idaho.  At issue are several major points of contention:

who owns the RECs ("Renewable Energy Credits") accompanying renewables production:  the utility or the developer?

must utilities purchase from renewables operators during times of low demand? 

have renewables developers abused PURPA to set unreasonably high prices?  

With quotes like this:  

"Where the government requires an owner to suffer a permanent physical invasion of their property... it must provide just compensation," 

in the initial filings, you know it's gonna be a juicy battle!

http://cbsn.ws/MdNY1f

[luckymatthew]

Great article on how to start using some of the deluge of information and new technology that is coming to market

New metrics for customer service? | Intelligent Utility http://www.intelligentutility.com/magazine/article/269709/new-metrics-customer-service (via Instapaper )

[luckymatthew]

A few of my favorite things: Public transit and smart grid all in one place!

Future Prospects for Mass Transit Energy Storage in New York City http://www.energypulse.net/centers/article/article_display.cfm?a_id=2550 (via Instapaper )

[luckymatthew]

Olympia Snowe, Diane Feinstein and Jeff Bingaman introduced legislation to spur the adoption of energy saving technology in the marketplace. 

Though tax credits are a viable tool, they often times are held up to political winds and don't necessarily have the same market transformation power that increased efficiency standards have, or even the same level of accountability as a rebate program.   All of that said, it's good to see some positive energy efficiency news coming out of Washington, DC. 

[luckymatthew]

That's the economic invisibility of nature. That can't keep going on, because economic incentives and disincentives are very powerful. Economics has become the currency of policy.

Pavan Sukhdev presents a compelling case for the importance of developing mechanisms to account for ecosystem services.  

In TED tradition, he poses thought-provoking questions and presents some very illuminating first steps which some groups are taking to make things better.

www.teebweb.org www.trucost.com www.gistindia.com

http://www.ted.com/talks/pavan_sukhdev_what_s_the_price_of_nature.html

[luckymatthew]

Being Smart about Urban Revitalization

This is truly exciting, cutting edge stuff:  Kansas City is using grid modernization as part of its urban redevelopment.  In today's "Intelligent Utility Daily", there is a lead article on how Kansas City Power & Light (KCP&L) leveraging needed grid modernization by integrating it with larger economic revitalization.  

Congratulations, KCP&L for implementing a visionary idea and really taking a holistic approach to improving your grid and your community at the same time!

[luckymatthew]

What a beautiful interpretation of a New York classic.  One weekend soon I will go on a pilgrimage to see this beauty in person. 

[luckymatthew]

Platform As A Service (PaaS) - Benefits for All

In the early 2000s, when Outlook became available as a hosted service, I worried about my job security.  What I quickly discovered was that by outsourcing the function we could provide higher levels of service for lower costs and focus on solving more interesting and valuable problems for our clients.  

Anthony Kosner, a contributor at Forbes Magazine, has an interesting article this week on the growth of "Platform as a Service" in which he explores the recent rapid growth and predicts even greater growth. And yes...the same lessons of outsourced basic IT functions apply:  

”One of the biggest advantages of the cloud is also one of the most overlooked: the ability to accelerate innovation. By moving to the cloud model, you can scale back investment in non-differentiating IT infrastructure and instead focus on exploring big, new ideas that lead to better products, services and business results.” 

--John Dillon, CEO of Engineyard

With some beautiful graphics bringing the data of increasing mobile app development to life and the rationale that companies want to focus not on the nuts and bolts of running servers and networks, he makes a compelling case for the inevitability of this trend.  

Even a brief perusal of new product offerings  and acquisitions and announcements from some of the largest software companies in the world shows that it must happen.  

[luckymatthew]

This page is part of the US Energy Information Agency’s site and gives really brief and usable articles with quick and interesting statistics. 

[luckymatthew]

"Absence is to love what wind is to fire; it extinguishes the small, it rekindles the great." ~Comte DeBussy-Rabutin

not fact-checked.  from a friend's facebook page. 

[luckymatthew]

Interdisciplinary Approaches to the Environment

On Tuesday I attended the "Sviva 2050" conference at the Hilton Hotel in Tel Aviv. It was really great. The theme of the conference was an interdisciplinary approach and the organizers did a really great job of looking at all issues from a Social, Economic and Environmental perspective.  

Bernard Lietaer gave a talk titled "Monetary Innovations for an Age of Systemic Collapse".  In plain English, he offered a methodology that would allow local governments (cities, counties, states, small countries) to create a local currency to solve local problems.  He showed very interesting actual examples of projects which have been implemented, and proposed approaches for creating a parallel system on a large scale for industrial users.  

I found the idea thrilling because it basically allows a locality to "print" its own money with manageable inflation risk and the currency is created to "utilize unused resources to meet unmet needs".  In a case study he showed from Flanders, the city used their own currency to help residents in a poor neighborhood rent garden plots, and provide cleaning services within their neighborhood, gain better access to public transit, etc...Energy Efficiency improvements, by and large, are often labor intensive affairs.  I can imagine how local currencies could be put to use in implementing these and allow local governments to safely leverage their national governments limited resources. 

I am really looking forward to reading his new book, New Money for a New World, I just downloaded it on my Kindle.  You should, too!.  

[luckymatthew]

Next week I'll be travelling to the Middle East to visit with friends and colleagues.  While there, I'll be attending the "Environment 2050" conference being sponsored by Tel Aviv University.  

It is being hosted at the Hilton with international speakers, so I assume (and hope) that there will be translation services.  At the very least, it appears there will be a few English speakers presenting.  Based on my experience when I lived in Israel, these are usually pretty good conferences...

[luckymatthew]

"My, what big infrastructure you have." Lovely chic, visionary world. The artists weren't that far off, but that doesn't mean that happened across the continet and How the world of 1950 looked in 1925: infographic Airships above you, cars below ground; clean pedestrianised streets, beautiful elegant high-rise living… how exotic the far-off year of 1950 must have seemed to readers of Popular Science Monthly in 1925, when the infographic below was published. Rediscovered by the wonderful Retronaut (Slogan: “the past is a foreign country. This is your passport”) it probably says more about 1925 than it does about 1950. Fascinating!

PopTech 

[luckymatthew]

Last night, I went to a really great event put on by the Canadian consulate and Pace University.  As I was preparing to write about it, I thought: “Why not tell people about the events BEFORE you go so they can join you?”  

The answer?  Because I hadn’t thought of it.  With that in mind, come join me and listen to boiler genius Henry Gifford discuss “Our Boilers, Ourselves”.  

Learn more about the event (and RSVP) here:  http://bit.ly/zj78bI

Look forward to seeing you there!