Impossible Pork

Perhaps you have tried the meatless hamburger at Burger King and elsewhere.  I have and it isn’t all that bad … really.  So, I guess I wasn’t surprised to see the same company to introduce a plant-based pork version this month.  And, as you listen to the CEO you can see the plan for a truly diverse meatless array including chicken, fish, and on from there. Listen to David Lee, CEO, Impossible Foods.

It is fascinating to me that we have rushed into this without any long term testing to side effects.  Maybe it is because it is made from plant materials.  But, if a drug company introduced its products with this kind of reckless abandon the lawsuits when something went wrong would bankrupt the company … and perhaps rightfully so.

So, why the rush to adopt the meatless alternative?  It seems to me that it is in part due to the public opinion and advocacy group fever over having an alternative that could have a huge impact on the environment.  They all know cows and pigs and even chickens raised on grain are a huge user of water and are unsustainable as the world population grows. We also can see the consequences of doing nothing on the destruction of the Amazon.

But, my other question is whether “Impossible Pork” is kosher?  Perhaps, given it is plant-based, it should be.  But, if you call it pork and pork is specifically forbidden in the Old Testament, does that make it wrong to eat?  For that matter, a cheeseburger is not kosher either, but would an “Impossible Cheese Burger” be OK?  How can the process of declaring it kosher happen when the Rabbi in charge can’t see how it is made?

Oh, the problems of modern technology!  Oy Vey!

It ain’t over …

Well, those of you with a penchant to follow electric vehicles probably heard the recent news on two fronts.  First, several European nations, most notably Sweden, have vowed to phase out gasoline and diesel automobiles.  While vague at best and in truly questionable reasoning, it is one more example of how public officials promise things to appeal to the masses.

I am sure everyone in those countries would like big incentives to buy one, or better yet, just get one for free.  Never the less, this is extremely newsworthy because automakers are clearly listening.  But, you then have to face the vague timelines here.  Building electric vehicles for a future market is not an easy task.

Perhaps more notable was a news brief that shows Tesla is rolling out its next generation of chargers that will add 75 miles of range in just 5 minutes.  For those of you who do not speak the EV language, that is adding 25 kWh to the battery in just five minutes.  Going back now to most of you who speak electricity, that is 300 kWh an hour making each car the equivalent of a major commercial building.  Charging stations are typically 8 bays and let’s assume that they are not all at this high rate of charge … you still have 2 MW of load … typically right there in the parking lot of a mall.

Read more about it here. 

Nope … that is not going to happen easily on today’s 480 kW transformer station.

Let’s just say that the future of EVs is exciting.  Things are moving in the right direction on many fronts.  Two-wheel EVs (bikes) are certainly going to gain traction in Europe.  They already have motorbikes everywhere there.  Just take a look at our cities with the locust-plagues of two-wheel electric scooters that are popping littering the streets especially around college campuses.  Lots to talk about … lots of questions to consider.

But, rumors of the death of EVs have been greatly exaggerated.

A Telephone Milestone

I grew up and experienced the transitions in the home telephone.  There were times I had none, others when I had a “party line” which was shared by several neighbors, and finally did have a unique connection.

I remember when you picked up the phone and talked to an operator to place the calls.  Of course, I remember the rotary dial phones and thought the push-button phones were a marvelous technological advance.  All of these were wired with those spring-like cords that somehow always got kinks in them.

As I look down at my desk I still have a wired phone here in the office, but as it rings it almost instantly rings my cell phone.  So, it really doesn’t matter if I am out of the office … my cell phone rings.

Well, at the end of 2019 we passed a milestone on all this.  We have now crossed the 50% point in telephone use in this country.  Less than 50% of our homes have landlines.  According to The Atlantic, the impact on our family life is significant.  Frankly, I had not thought much about it.  Read The Atlantic article.

I am beginning to wonder what we will define as family relationships as this digital age continues to innovate.

 

Getting Something for Nothing … or very little

Have you ever gone out in a big group for a meal and, rather than asking for separate checks, all agreed to split the check.  Or maybe you simply threw $10 in a pile in the center of the table for everyone’s on-average $8 lunch.  Some at the table only had a bowl or soup or a salad.  Some had a crab salad that was priced like a dinner entrée.  Some even had an alcoholic beverage, while you had water.

You all see where this is going when applied to our utility business.  We should all pay our fair share, but expedience and time seem to make sharing an equally reasonable option.  You probably seethed a bit watching someone at the table take advantage, but … after all, you only paid $10, so you probably got over it.

We are seeing this happen today on electric rates and solar.  For some reason, after years of using a similar pricing method called net metering, the true cost for solar freeloaders is getting pretty high.  Then, as those in charge try to correct this, charging everyone at the table their fair share, they are running into brick walls. Because after all, the people getting a free ride are “doing the right thing” for the planet.

Really?  Didn’t I do the right thing by buying an electric vehicle?  The cost for my license plate went from $20 to $220 a year because I wasn’t paying my fair share of the costs to maintain the roads. And nobody protested that 10x price increase.

Why was it so easy for the State of Georgia to correct this pricing error, but when the utility tries to correct pricing, it is viewed as evil and unfair?

The Gun Control Distraction

I have to admit, I have always been fascinated by magicians.  I know it is sleight of hand, but even knowing that seems to keep me from seeing what I should be seeing.  Yes, I get that some tricks have technical underpinnings like technology-laced apparatus parts and pieces.  Obviously, the old sawing the lady in half trick had some of that.

But, the one that seems so simple is the use of distraction, most often with one hand, while the other hand is doing something essential and important to the trick, but you just don’t notice it.

By analogy, our national argument over gun control, ostensibly driven by mass shootings, may be a similar distraction.

At the same time, we are arguing over that, drone technology coupled with artificial intelligence (AI) is making huge strides … so much that the idea of using a person to pull the trigger of a conventional gun may seem archaic in a matter of another year or two.

Google the idea yourself and you will see that there is a raging debate about what to do with drone warfare.  You will also see that technology is already able to deliver the chilling outcomes of this video.

By analogy, you will see that the world leaders are trying to ban the use of these weapons.  Right. It seems we have had decades of bans on chemical weapons and yet bad guys have been and are still using them.   Check out what Wikipedia has to say.

Distractions they are.  Maybe we should be thinking more about countermeasures given bad guys don’t give up.

There is something to be learned here for our industry in cyber attacks.  Maybe the IoT is intrinsically too vulnerable without countermeasures.  For example, maybe we should be figuring out who is attacking and then launching counterattacks to wipe out their systems?