Spotlight on the Electric Grid: Ted Koppel's LIGHTS OUT, Plus Cyberflanerie

LIGHTS OUT

With the catastrophe in Puerto Rico in the news, I am surprised not to have seen more mentions in the media and the blogosphere of Ted Koppel's LIGHTS OUT. The subtitle of Koppel's book of 2015 is A Cyberattack, a Nation Unprepared, Surviving the Aftermath-- but when the grid goes down, it goes down, whether from a cyberattack or, in the case of Puerto Rico, from back-to-back major hurricanes.

We've all experienced a storm that leaves us for a few hours or even a few days without electricity. (As for me, I live in Mexico City where my barrio's transformer regularly crashes, especially in the summer rainy season. And a couple of times over the past couple of years the transformer just exploded, quién sabe porqué. So I keep flashlights charged and plenty of candles and matches handy-- which I rarely need for long. The Comisión Federal de Electricidad guys always show up, and they always manage to get it working again.)

But the grid going down for weeks or months, that is entirely different magnitude of problem. The most recent reports are that this may be the case in Puerto Rico for as many as six months. In his 2015 LIGHTS OUT Koppel spells out exactly what is now unfolding and likely to continue unfolding in such a circumstance. It is grim but important reading.


++++

CYBERFLANERIE

Sundry items on my radar over the past week:

* Margaret Randall, "The Role of Small Presses in Fortifying Literature"
I came across this one when I was Googling up a certain small press in Texas... why? That would be another post... P.S. My post that mentions Randall's pioneer literary magazine, El Corno Emplumado. See also my longform essay on the Mexican literary landscape and the power of the book, "Disptach from the Sister Republic or, Papelito Habla"


* David Allen's GTD Podcasts
GTD (Getting Things Done) is a methodology at once simple, powerful, and, for those who want to / are prepared to recognize it, based on something profoundly metaphysical. (Whoa! No, I have nothing to do with his church!) Anyway, for those who might be interested, the way I use GTD-- certainly not the only way to do it-- is with a Filofax, oodles of PostIts, and individual files for upcoming events and travel in a free-standing stand at-hand, right behind my desk. These GTD podcasts were a lifesaver of a refresher for me this week; I have been in the crazy-making midst of moving house, and not for the first time this year.
P.S. "Why I am a Mega Fan of the Filofax Personal Organizer"


* Alice Friedemann's Groovy-Goofy Cracker Video

CLICK HERE TO WATCH THIS GROOVY-GOOFY VIDEO

Because I have been contemplating interstate highways and trucks... and oil... (as those of you follow this blog well know, I am, after all, writing a book about Far West Texas) I have belatedly come upon the work of Alice Friedemann. I have never met her, but perchance, my grandfather, chemist Frank R. Mayo (1908-1987), would have known her grandfather, geologist Francis Pettijohn (1904-1999); they were of the same generation, both spent time at the University of Chicago in the late 1920s... although, who knows? I have yet to read Alice's book, When the Trucks Stop Running: Energy and the Future of Transportation, but I shall... I am anxious to read it because I found her interview with James Howard Kunstler worth listening to thrice. I shall also try her cracker recipe, looks yums. In the video she also talks about her book, Crunch!

> Your comments are always welcome. Write to me here.

Daniel Yergin's THE PRIZE, etc.

Blood Over Salt in Borderlands Texas: 

Q & A with Paul Cool, Author of SALT WARRIORS

Book review:

BITTER WATERS: THE STRUGGLES OF THE PECOS RIVER

by Patrick Dearen