At Home: A Short History of Private Life

Bill Bryson tells the story of life by describing his hallway

Bryson’s new book is a masterful balance of scale. He uses the layout and history of his small house – a former parsonage – in England as the framework for a story about why we live the way we do. Whether writing about the gifted amateurs who created some of the most enduring habitation-building techniques or the quaint sociology that allowed village parsons to live well – until they couldn’t – follows the tradition of Bryson’s best quirky, observation-based writing.

The Wave – In Pursuit of the Rogues, Freaks and Giants of the Ocean

Surfers and scientists chase giant waves - great read - no, really

Susan Casey’s subtitle could be about the mysterious giant waves that have wreaked havoc on unsuspecting ships and over-confident surfers, or about those surfers and the equally-obsessed scientists who actively seek out the unpredictable monster swells. I don’t know and I don’t care. This is a compelling narrative that mixes history, science, global surf-culture and manic behavior into an adrenalin-rush of a book.

Note to Pres - the EV jobs are in the network

To really reap the benefit of electric vehicles, we need infrastructure, not just battery manufacturing.

It's great that Pres Obama is highlighting the benefits of getting more electric vehicles on American roads, but to reap the real sustained benefits - lower imports of oil for transportation and reduced carbon emissions - and create significant numbers of jobs, we need to build the infrastructure. Broad adoption of mass-produced EVs and plug-in hybrids will depend on two things - the vehicles have to be accepted as 'real' mass market cars, and someone will have to build the ecosystem - home and network charging, and a cellphone-like value package, so that owing and operating an EV is easy and at least comparable in cost to a gasoline power vehicle.

Curve update 2010

Return to Prosperity, Arthur Laffer - Entertaining take on cap-and-trade, cash-for-clunkers by Regan-era economics guru

Summer help in the TX heat

Reliant Energy assistance for seniors and others in need http://tinyurl.com/2awjung

Simple, cheap energy savings

Reliant Energy customer home energy audit covered by Jeff Ehling Houston ABC 13 http://tinyurl.com/23zjm4x

The Billionaire's Vinegar

GQ writer on wine, Jefferson, 1990's style conspicuous consumption, self-reinvention and the perils of obsession - great read

Benjamin Wallace brings together history, fraud, people with more money than sense and some really colorful characters and looks into the briefly fascinating world of really old wine enthusiasts. Detailing what looks - in hindsight - almost farcical - heated bidding for bottles of uncertain provenance as trophies, Wallace blends Jefferson's bring French wine to the young America