Forums: Smart Communications

Many of the wonderful-sounding ideas that have been tried as government policies have failed disastrously. Because so few people bother to study history, often the same ideas and policies have been tried again, either in another country or in the same country at a later time — and with the same disastrous results. One of the ideas that has proved to be almost impervious to evidence is the idea that wise and far-sighted people need to take control, and plan economic and social policies so that there will be a rational and just order, rather than chaos resulting from things...

Last month, the Public Service Commission rejected Baltimore Gas & Electric Co.'s "smart grid" proposal. From start to finish, the whole affair demonstrated everything that is wrong with Maryland's socialized electricity industry. To begin with, BGE's plan was a dud. The whole idea of "smart grid" is to inform customers how much electricity costs in real time so that they have an incentive to use less electricity during times of peak demand (usually hot summer afternoons), when electricity is expensive to generate and transmit. There are a number of ways to achieve this price signal, but BGE chose an ill-defined,...

The Director of the National Security Janet Napolitano believes her immigration policy is adding “smart” to the “tough”. First we have dispensed with the rhetoric and we’ve just gotten to work. Now for too long we heard bumper sticker slogans about being tough, but looking tough just doesn’t get the job done. We decided that we needed to add some smarts to toughness and make some changes to build a coordinated and comprehensive strategy. You can see the video here. After learning about the new national “Add Smart to the Tough” strategy on border security the folks at the...

An energy-saving trial that will shut down home appliances when peaks of demand threaten to overwhelm the network began this week. About 300 homes in Sandwell in the West Midlands have received fridge-freezers that turn themselves off when the grid is overstretched. Altogether, 3,000 homes will take part in the two-year trial, run by npower. Energy companies plan to offer grants and cheaper tariffs to encourage all households to switch to such appliances. If all homes had smart fridges, Britain’s annual emissions would fall by two million tonnes, the equivalent of taking 700,000 cars off the road or closing a...