Utopian visions and Tesla’s capitalization
One of the striking things I’ve noticed is that Tesla enthusiasts are rarely ‘car guys’. My definition of a car guy is a person who would immediately recognize the random digits 3-5-1 as the cubic displacement of a Ford V-8 engine (or 350 for GM fans). These are...
Macro-energetics and the fallacy of composition
Richard Koo argues that the real reason to study macroeconomics is to be able to identify so-called fallacy-of-composition problems. This is the phenomenon of the right behaviour at the individual level leading to a less favourable outcome at the collective level. One...
Rutsky’s aesthetics and road taxes
Some of the responses to the proposed road tax caught my attention. The Victorian and South Australian Governments recently announced a tax for electric and zero-emissions vehicles. The Federal Fuel excise was originally intended to fund roads and currently raises...
How should we think about a hydrogen economy?
EcoGeneration have published an article by Josh Floyd and myself titled 'How should we think about a hydrogen economy?' We were asked to write a piece setting out the possibilities and hurdles of hydrogen, and to link it in with our recent book. The full April edition...
Thinking about rates of change
There seems to be an evolutionary advantage to being able to spot small changes in the natural world. For example, the Australian amateur astronomer Bob Evans has such an incredible knack for spotting minute changes in the night sky that he holds the record for visual...