Does caffeine lead to cocaine use? Obviously not. But what would happen if caffeine was outlawed? Naturally, a black market would emerge. Drug gangs, which are highly skilled at operating outside of the law, and have pre-existing distribution channels, would begin...
Results for "Availability"
Electricity – Reliability, Availability & Redundancy
Intermittent sources of power production such as wind, solar, and bio-gas are frequently criticized as being too intermittent and unreliable to be of value to the electrical grid. The argument is often put forward that every megawatt or wind energy capacity has to be backed up with another megawatt of production capacity somewhere else on the grid so power is available 7-24.
On one level, that criticism ignores that the direct variable operating cost of wind and solar energy is nearly zero unlike thermal energy plants like gas, coal or nuclear which must pay for fuel to produce energy.
Etam: Energy Wise, How Do You Even Describe 2024
Huh. Look at that. It’s been ten years since I started writing about energy. Not that that particular trivia interests anyone, why would it, however it is interesting to look back at the impetus for writing and how that has changed. Ten years ago, as I worked in a...
Cold Weather Exposes Downsides of Heat Pumps, EVs and More
The very motivated Climate Emergency crusaders and politicians have an ambitious list of the things they wish to implement (along with those they want to ban). Foremost among their favourites are alternative energy sources, such as wind and solar along with batteries...
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Canadian Property Rights Index 2023
A Snapshot of Property Rights Protection in Canada After 10 years
Alberta Politics and Empty Promises of Health-care Solutions
The writ has been dropped and Albertans are off to the polls on May 29. That leaves just four weeks for political leaders and voters to sort out what is arguably the most divisive, yet significant, issue for this election - health care. On Day 2, NDP leader Rachel...
A Cultural History of Education Part 6
Part 6 of 6 : Something Needs to be Done
What Will Become of Cities?
Brownstone Institute
Canada’s Property Rights Slipping Behind Global Competitors
Property rights protections deliver prosperity and good jobs for all Canadians.
Panama Canal Drying Up Woes Could Have Benefited Canadian LNG – If Only We Had Any
There’s a disturbance in the force of global shipping, as if a major transit point started slipping away. There’s a very serious problem occurring a few thousand miles to the south of us, one that Canada could have taken tremendous advantage of, if only we had built...
Return Of The Roman Censor
How Governments Plan to Police Public Morals
Etam: Voters Will Need to Decide If Our Energy System Remains Affordable and Reliable, or Descends Into Chaos
Nassim Taleb, if you’ve never read his stuff, is an odd and fascinating character; a writer with towering intellect, vast wealth, and an odd sort of humanistic humility, yet at the same time he provides a reliably volcanic reaction to pomposity or ineptitude....
Solving the Global Housing Crisis
The worldwide lack of affordable housing can only be resolved politically. The global housing crisis across the high-income world, particularly in the Anglosphere, represents perhaps the single biggest challenge to the future of the middle class. From the...
Etam: Net Zero 2050?
Serious goal-setting seems like a very good way to torment oneself, creating a new reason out of thin air. My New Year’s resolution is to avoid setting goals. Type A is not my type. But maybe it’s time to turn over a new leaf. I’ve decided I don’t want to be a...
Alberta Politics and Empty Promises of Health-care Solutions
The writ has been dropped and Albertans are off to the polls on May 29. That leaves just four weeks for political leaders and voters to sort out what is arguably the most divisive, yet significant, issue for this election - health care. On Day 2, NDP leader Rachel...