Musings

I like a Winter Morning

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I like waking up warm, under the covers in a cold room. When the kids were younger, I had to leap out of bed at the alarm, and walk the dogs, and make breakfasts, and pack lunches, and get the kids out the door, like a paratrooper sergeant shouting “Go!. Go!,Go!”. Now a can lie in bed and revel in the warmth, and let WCPE (Great Classical Music 24 hours a day) ease me awake. Today, for the first day of winter, the Waltz of the Snowflakes at 5:30 was as good a background for a joyful awakening as one could hope for.

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The view from 400 miles, and 100 years away

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As I walked the dog to the store this morning, I thought of the different way we know things today. The sky was clear, but I could tell. The air was cool, but I could tell. I didn’t need to hear the announcers from the weather service. I wondered how I knew. And I pondered what it would have been like to know, a hundred years ago, with no way to tell whether it would affect me and my life...

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Privacy Rights, Operational Data, and the US Government

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Several readers have written me that privacy has no place in US Law, and was only discovered as an emanation from a penumbra (in Justice Douglas’s words). I think that this is a profound misreading of the constitution, arising from an awful ruling in a good cause in the 1870’s. The Slaughterhouse Case created a framework that profoundly limited the privileges of citizenship, gutting a key component of the 14th amendment, and by implication, eliminating the 9th amendment from any real meaning.

The 9th amendment, the shortest and simplest of the bill of rights...

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Idle Thoughts on Smart Grids

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Musings from the GridWise Architectural Council, Orlando, 2010

After a week at the AHR show, and meeting with ASHRAE, and sitting in on B2G (Building to Grid) summit, I was back in the building zone as I sat in on day one of the GWAC meeting. The GridWise Architectural Council (GWAC) is a voluntary organization of people concerned with the future of energy. The Department of Energy sponsors meetings of the GWAC, a commitment that keeps the group in meeting rooms, coffee, and pastry...

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