Links 8/9/11

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The power grid pricing article shows the problems of ideology in attempting to use pricing to control demand. The obvious solution is to offer discounts for high levels of power usage over an extended period, but charge higher prices for high levels of power usage delivered on demand. It's the difference between a first class letter and express post. If you try to run a minute by minute auction, you are just going to get chaos at the post office, even it gibes well with the current economic orthodoxy.

I also seriously doubt that public libraries are obsolete, at least not until electronic technologies start catching up with paper in terms of pricing, lack of DRM, resalabiity, and so on. Books are still surprisingly expensive if you have a serious reading habit or would like to acquire one.