Richard Munson – författare

The blackout of 2003 illuminated just how dependent America is on electricity. It was not just that some 50 million people in eight states and Ontario were cut off from their televisions, microwaves, ATMs, and email. Without the electrical juice to keep their sockets alive, factory managers were forced to close production lines, city managers shut down water deliveries, grocery store clerks watched their frozen inventory slowly melt away. Economists estimated that the blackout cost Americans $5 billion even as energy analysts were predicting that a similar blackout could happen again. The catastrophe forced us to marvel at the unusual ability of sub-microscopic particles to move like waves inside a wire and cause bulbs to glow. It highlighted the complex requirements for managing the massive generators, transformers, transmission lines, and switch boxes needed to tap and deliver flowing electrons. It encouraged us to recognize the profound impact of electricity on all aspects of commerce and culture.Such events as the blackout, the Enron debacle, and the California brownouts also reveal the cracks in a 100-year-old industry structure that have been building ever since Thomas Edison, George Westinghouse, and their contemporaries first managed to harness electricity and make it available to the masses, and tycoons, such as Sam Insull and George Norris, began to concentrate financial control and political influence. From Edison to Enron traces the controversial history of this $210 billion industry—the nation's largest—showcasing the key individuals, technological innovations, corporate machinations, and political battles that have been waged over its domination. Munson maintains that today's technological and regulatory infrastructure, as a function of its history, is a relic that has long outlived its usefulness; he points out that two-thirds of the fuel burned to generate electricity is lost, that Americans pay roughly $100 billion too much each year for heat and power, and that environmentally unfriendly generators are the nation's largest polluters. Meanwhile, innovations in technology and business models are being blocked by entrenched monopolies. Ultimately, Munson argues that current policies and practices, including those favored by the Bush Administration, are preventing entrepreneurs from producing more efficient, healthy, and sustainable power supplies. Moreover, he presents an agenda for business and policy reforms that will stimulate economic development in the United States and around the world.

The blackout of 2003 illuminated just how dependent America is on electricity. It was not just that some 50 million people in eight states and Ontario were cut off from their televisions, microwaves, ATMs, and email. Without the electrical juice to keep their sockets alive, factory managers were forced to close production lines, city managers shut down water deliveries, grocery store clerks watched their frozen inventory slowly melt away. Economists estimated that the blackout cost Americans $5 billion even as energy analysts were predicting that a similar blackout could happen again. The catastrophe forced us to marvel at the unusual ability of sub-microscopic particles to move like waves inside a wire and cause bulbs to glow. It highlighted the complex requirements for managing the massive generators, transformers, transmission lines, and switch boxes needed to tap and deliver flowing electrons. It encouraged us to recognize the profound impact of electricity on all aspects of commerce and culture.Such events as the blackout, the Enron debacle, and the California brownouts also reveal the cracks in a 100-year-old industry structure that have been building ever since Thomas Edison, George Westinghouse, and their contemporaries first managed to harness electricity and make it available to the masses, and tycoons, such as Sam Insull and George Norris, began to concentrate financial control and political influence. From Edison to Enron traces the controversial history of this $210 billion industry—the nation's largest—showcasing the key individuals, technological innovations, corporate machinations, and political battles that have been waged over its domination. Munson maintains that today's technological and regulatory infrastructure, as a function of its history, is a relic that has long outlived its usefulness; he points out that two-thirds of the fuel burned to generate electricity is lost, that Americans pay roughly $100 billion too much each year for heat and power, and that environmentally unfriendly generators are the nation's largest polluters. Meanwhile, innovations in technology and business models are being blocked by entrenched monopolies. Ultimately, Munson argues that current policies and practices, including those favored by the Bush Administration, are preventing entrepreneurs from producing more efficient, healthy, and sustainable power supplies. Moreover, he presents an agenda for business and policy reforms that will stimulate economic development in the United States and around the world.

Nikola Tesla, a Serbian-American, invented the radio, the induction motor, the neon lamp and the remote control. His breakthrough came in alternating current, which pitted him against Thomas Edison’s direct current empire and bitter patent battles ensued. But Tesla’s technology was superior and he prevailed. He had no business sense, could not capitalise on this success and his most advanced ideas were unrecognised for decades.Tesla’s personal life was magnificently bizarre. Strikingly handsome, he was germophobic and never shook hands. He required nine napkins when he sat down to dinner. In later years he ate only white food and conversed with the pigeons in Bryant Park. This authoritative and highly readable biography takes account of all phases of this remarkable life.

Benjamin Franklin was one of the preeminent scientists of his time. Driven by curiosity, he conducted cutting-edge research on electricity, heat, ocean currents, weather patterns, chemical bonds, and plants. But today, Franklin is remembered more for his political prowess and diplomatic achievements than his scientific creativity.In Ingenious, Richard Munson recovers this vital part of Franklin’s story, reveals his modern relevance and offers a compelling portrait of a shrewd experimenter, clever innovator and visionary physicist whose fame opened doors to negotiate French support and funding for American independence. Munson’s riveting narrative explores how science underpins Franklin’s entire story—from tradesman to inventor to nation-founder.

Education Incorporated identifies ways education and business can work together to build a strong economy. While recognizing that schools and companies have different roles to play in the public arena, the focus is on what happens when their interests overlap. Describing formal and informal programs already underway, the book suggests specific actions to use existing resources and talents cooperatively. It also shows what government can do to promote collaborations between these sectors. Specific papers discuss ways in which education can find new uses for its buildings and resources, develop and expand training services to develop workforce potential, make use of research capacity and faculty expertise for business applications, and create flexible funding strategies to support their services to business and industry.

Benjamin Franklin was one of the preeminent scientists of his time. Driven by curiosity, he conducted cutting-edge research on electricity, heat, ocean currents, weather patterns, chemical bonds and plants. But today, Franklin is remembered more for his political prowess and diplomatic achievements than his scientific creativity.In this incisive and rich account of Benjamin Franklin’s life and career, Richard Munson recovers this vital part of Franklin’s story, reveals his modern relevance and offers a compelling portrait of a shrewd experimenter, clever innovator and visionary physicist whose fame opened doors to negotiate French support and funding for American independence. Munson’s riveting narrative explores how science underpins Franklin’s entire story—from tradesman to inventor to nation-founder—and argues that Franklin’s political life cannot be understood without giving proper credit to his scientific accomplishments.

An investigation into the corruption of the electric industry and its role in polluting our planet.Electric utilities have faced a few scandals over the past century or so, but corruption is growing as the power industry’s conventional business model is falling apart. Modern technologies challenge their monopoly mindsets and outmoded generators. Threatened utilities, in turn, gun for taxpayer- and ratepayer-funded subsidies, which they increasingly seek through fraud-filled, underhanded schemes. Corruption, however, can be challenged. In Power Corrupts: Cleaning Up America’s Biggest Industry, Richard Munson reports on blocked bailouts and options for increased transparency and ethics by exploring well-known scandals that have dominated headlines about the energy sector. Munson highlights how power corruption proliferates, enabling outmoded generators to waste money, spew unnecessary pollution, and block clean-energy innovations.Legal cases profiled include Chuck Jones of FirstEnergy, Anne Pramaggiore of Commonwealth Energy, and more.How did we get here? While reviewing the history of utility regulation, Munson argues misconduct is on the rise because modern technologies threaten power monopolies’ reliance on large nuclear and coal units. As solar and wind costs fall, power monopolies use bribes to survive. Customers and citizens are paying not only for the electricity they use but also the taxes that pay to regulate, subsidize, and investigate utility companies. They should demand more power. Power Corrupts calls for competition and transparency, serving as an essential primer for readers interested in the dark history of the electric industry.

Imagine eating a burger grown in a laboratory, a strawberry picked by a robot, or a pastry created with a 3-D printer. Youwould never taste the difference, but these technologies might just save your health and the planet’s. Today, landmarkadvances in computing, engineering, and medicine are driving solutions to the biggest problems created by industrializedfood.Tech to Table introduces readers to twenty-five of the most creative entrepreneurs advancing these solutions. They comefrom various places and professions, identities and backgrounds. But they share an outsider’s perspective and anidealistic, sometimes aggressive, ambition to rethink the food system.Reinvention is desperately needed. Under Big Ag, pollution, climate change, animal cruelty, hunger, and obesity havefestered, and despite decades of effort, organic farming accounts for less than one percent of US croplands. Entrepreneurs represent a new path, one where disruptive technology helps people and the environment. These innovations includesupplements to lower the methane in cattle belches, drones that monitor irrigation levels in crops, urban warehouses thatgrow produce year-round, and more.The pace and breadth of change is astonishing, as investors pump billions of dollars into ag-innovation. Startups areattracting capital and building markets, with the potential to upend conventional agribusiness’s stranglehold on the foodsystem. Not every invention will prosper long-term, but each marks a fundamental change in our approach to feeding agrowing population—sustainably.A revolution in how we grow and eat food is brewing. Munson’s deftly crafted profiles offer a fascinating preview of thecoming future of food.