Posts by: Mary Nitschke
When I think of resiliency, I think of the Giant Sequoia trees in California. Not the California Redwoods, which grow on the coast of the State.
The Giant Sequoias only exist in a narrow 260-mile stretch of the state. It is the only place in the world that these prehistoric trees grow.
A […]
Full disclosure. When I think about “I, Robot,” my mind goes to the Will Smith action movie from the early 2000s where robots take over the world. It’s scary stuff that makes you want to climb into a bunker with an abacus.
Yet, the actual source material, Isaac Asimov’s collection of short stories, […]
I keep hearing talk about the new normal. Like those two words actually belong side by side. Do they coexist? Absolutely. Do they describe our future? In my mind, you have to have one or the other; and I vote for new—change. We should reach for something better. Oftentimes, new can simply mean […]
I grew up in unincorporated Fresno, California (the part of Fresno that Fresno didn’t want). It was rural. We were on well water and grew crops. The barn was built in 1912 and the house in 1913. We modernized the house and eventually added a pool.
We didn’t have a lot of money […]
Have you ever watched a Godzilla movie? Just when you think Godzilla is on the ropes and going down, dying, he gets up stronger and more powerful and angrier. Recycling is kind of like that. For those of you who thought recycling was going down, it was going to die when China closed […]
The World Wide Web has changed everything. Today, those Americans not online have shrunk to less than one-tenth of the nation’s total population, from 48 percent in 2000, according to Pew Research. For our residents, the internet is integral to daily functions including communications, purchases, transportation, logistics, and everything else.
For […]
In 1985, the Robert Zemeckis’ blockbuster success, Back to the Future, landed in theaters. The movie thrilled audiences with its nostalgic view of the past (1950s) and its futuristic predictions of the future, like 24-hour-a-day news stations. This might sound twisted, but I love the moment when Biff repeatedly thwaps George McFly on the […]
A friend of mine and I were chatting about on-site energy generation and what to do when the seasons change. Specifically, solar pool heating.
“I turn my system off in the winter,” he said. As we are in California and our climate is very mild, I was surprised.
“Why? What kind of system do […]
The phrase “where the rubber meets the road” is all about proof of power, the combination of horsepower and torque. It is taking things from a theoretical, purely mathematical application to a practical experience. It is about making the connection and demonstrating results.
The first step to understanding how to control your utility expenses […]
When I started in ancillary services more than a decade ago, the discussion regarding utility management focused primarily on Ratio Utility Billing System (RUBS). While RUBS is still a significant part of utility management (people do conserve and recycle when they have skin in the game), there has been a shift—managing utilities now encompass […]
