Terry Etam

Every time I wander into the deep dark murky world of the electrical system, I am reminded of how complicated it is and how little I understand it. The physical movement of the electrons is complicated enough, but that’s “just engineering” - the part bound by certain laws of physics that are well enough understood. The big complexity comes from the planning, the forecasting, the regulatory process, all amid changing regulatory regimes. Here in Alberta, as the AESO (Alberta Electrical System [Read more]

The BBC - British Broadcasting Corporation - as a news source is, ostensibly, a paragon of quality, delivered relentlessly with appropriately unadorned bland precision, a bastion for everything that clings to yesterday’s buttoned-down factuality and traditions with the dogged and soggy enthusiasm of a rainy day. The Beeb sits there like a rock, born in grey, designed to be neither swayed nor impressed with cultural piffle. It has its own Royal Charter, the constitutional basis for the BBC. Per [Read more]

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. When those two are combined, he goes full nuclear (from his book Antifragile: “Risk management as practiced is the study of an event taking place in the future, and only some economists and other lunatics can claim - against experience - to [Read more]

Growing up on a farm, an initial mechanical obsession of mine was tractors (don’t laugh until you’ve tried one - think you feel unassailable in a 4x4 F-150? You have no idea), quickly followed by cars. They are so central to everything, and represent freedom, in a sense. The auto industry has been a passion ever since, my head hopelessly stuffed with useless trivia that only gearheads appreciate. There have been painful episodes along the way, including watching beloved automakers at times make [Read more]

Sheesh, what’s with all the drama? The news is full of bad-news stories about doom and gloom; can’t everyone see we just need to roll up our sleeves and get to work? Most of this stuff isn’t even all that hard! We can solve the world’s obesity/health problem in a matter of months. Start by closing all fast food chains immediately. Ban all kinds of fattening food like chocolate, or anything deep fried. Ration sugar.  Coke and slurpees and ice cream and pie - all illegal. We can solve the [Read more]

Recently, thanks to a YouTube-fiend friend, I was introduced to a new genius. Ordinarily, I’d reserve that qualification for someone that agrees with me lock, stock and barrel. But my capacity for self-delusion doesn’t stretch quite that far, and sometimes one runs across people that just see the world better, if differently; they just have better vision, and are better able to condense the madness swirling around us (not just energy, everything). It is fun to have beliefs challenged by such [Read more]

There’s positive energy out there, and there’s negative energy, and life is better wrapped in one rather than the other. I get it. I’ve absorbed the cliches and motivational posters; stay away from toxicity and life goes much easier. The energy world has for a very long time been on the right side of the ledger; there is an incredible amount of positive energy development. On the existing oil/gas side, this has mostly always been so - it’s a fantastic, dynamic, entrepreneurial business, and [Read more]