Tony K's Blog

Some of you know that I have a second blog. It's in the links on this page and is called Emotions for Engineers . I have not made my identity in that blog public, but decided to for a variety of reasons. Go take a look. That is all.

We have put our San Ramon home for sale. The kids are out of he house (but still on the payroll). We decided that 2776 square feet of house and 10,000 square feet of yard with a pool is just a bit more than we want to deal with. So we're moving to Oakland. We'll be near Kathleen's work, I'll have a reverse commute, we'll be close to the city, have no yard, and only 1700 square feet to take care of. IT feels good. Here's our house for sale at 51 Sage Circle in San Ramon. Our new place is at Pacific Cannery Lofts . Next stage of life. It's exciting.

Disclaimer: I have worked in the oil industry 30 years. I started with Western Geophysical, moved to Texaco, and now work for Chevron. I have no specific knowledge of BP, the Macondo well, or Ecuador. The views expressed on this blog are my own personal views and do not necessarily represent those of my employer. I am not defending BP. It looks like here were several errors in human judgment leading up to the blowout. These errors were probably caused by people who did not understand their fields well enough to really understand the riskiness of what they were doing, and whose judgment was tainted by pressures to cut costs. BP seems to have had a really defective culture (See Bob Lewis' column on cost cutting and risk) ( see also this article from Fortune magazine ) during the regime of Lord Browne (who racked up record numbers by taking greater and greater risks). Tony Hayward was apparently in the process of turning that around. Sadly, he was not able to turn it around fast en...

I will call people who believe in anthropogenic global warming (AGW), warmists, those who are less certain, denialists. I hope it insults both sides equally. My BS degree is in earth science. I work for an oil company. I believe in the scientific method. I believe that government has a legitimate role to play in society. I am not a Neanderthal. I have biases. Some may think that because I work for an oil company, I desperately want to see the warmists fail. Look, I'm too close to retirement for anything that happens now to have an effect on my personal earnings or career, so I don't think that comes into play. And by the way, I live on this planet. If humans are doing something to damage the planet, I want it to stop. I want us to take action to fix and reverse the harm. I may be retiring within fifteen years, but I hope to live a lot longer than that, and I want my kids to inherit a good place. I have read a lot about the science, politics, and economics of the CO2/glob...

Obama Health Care Plan Summarized by Andrew Tobias If You Have Health Insurance, the President’s Plan: Prevents insurance companies from dropping you when you get sick. Caps out-of-pocket expenses so you don’t go broke when you do get sick. Eliminates charges for preventive care like mammograms, flu shots and diabetes tests. Eliminates the “donut-hole” gap in coverage for prescription drugs. If You Don’t Have Insurance, the President's Plan: Makes it available even if you have a pre-existing condition. Creates a new insurance marketplace – the Exchange – so you can compare plans and buy insurance at “group rates.” Helps low-income citizens pay for it. Offers new, low-cost coverage through a national “high risk” pool to protect people with preexisting conditions from financial ruin until the new Exchange is created. For All Americans, the President’s Plan: Won’t add a dime to the deficit and is paid fo...

Here is a visual version of the health care reform as a flowchart. Good finally some clarity on at least the mechanics of the darn thing. Click on the chart to go to the original post.

There is an unspoken undercurrent in the health care debate and it really bothers me. "If someone is poor or simply unhealthy due to misfortune they should die." That is the core of the arguments against health care reform in the US. Oh sure, the arguments look like anti-communism or anti-socialism, but at their base this is that argument. I don't want to argue about whether that value is "right." It's really a case of individual choice and what each person thinks is right. I do think however that that is where the discussion should be--about real values. The entire purpose of insurance is to "spread risk." People take on a certain, small expense in order to avoid an uncertain, but potentially much greater expense. In the health care system in the United States, if you happen to work for a large company that has a fair amount of clout, you get health care. It may not be cheap, and it may not cover everything, but you will be protected from the big ...