Step 1: Generation Electricity is generated from various sources. Step 2: Step-up transformer Voltage is increased to push the electricity over long distances. Step 3: Transmission power lines Lines carry electricity over long distances. Step 4: Transmission substation Voltage is lowered so electricity can travel across the local system. Step 5: Distribution substation Voltage is… Continue reading.
Southwest Airlines could have added $350 million to its bottom line, said Roy Spence, an Austin, Texas-based advertising whiz who came up with his client’s well-known “bags fly free” slogan. But that would have violated Southwest’s fundamental purpose — to make airfares more accessible to travelers. By staying true to its purpose, Southwest actually brought… Continue reading.
by Emma Metz Indiana’s Youth Leadership Council Representative (Note to readers: This is an edited version of the speech Emma Metz presented after being selected to represent Indiana on the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association’s Youth Leadership Council during last June’s Youth Tour.) “Here we mark the price of freedom” are the words etched on… Continue reading.
(Note to readers: This commentary was first published in the September 2011 issue of Electric Consumer.) Where the Ohio River flows along the southern toes of Indiana, the scenic countryside and the small towns make the bright lights of New York City seem a million miles away. Yet, whenever I visit my hometown of Tell City,… Continue reading.
When George William Norris was 10 and had spent a hard day working on his family’s farm in northwest Ohio, his mother called him over to help plant a tree. Both of them were glistening with sweat. “Mother, why do you work so hard?,” he asked. “You won’t even see this tree in fruition.” She… Continue reading.
On the way home from work recently, I heard a news report about scientists from Japan, the United States and Russia working on a mammoth experiment. Literally. Within six years, these scientists plan to take DNA from the carcass of a 10,000-year-old baby woolly mammoth found frozen in Siberian permafrost, slip it into the egg… Continue reading.
(Note to readers: This is an edited version of the speech Nick Hebert presented after being selected to represent Indiana on the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association’s Youth Leadership Council during last June’s Youth Tour. Nick was runner-up in the YLC speech competition.) As a naive second grader, moving from my childhood home in Dallas,… Continue reading.
This month, Electric Consumer presents the winning works of our annual student art contest. It’s part of our commitment to the community, one of the co-op principles. In the 13 years we’ve held this contest, I’ve had a chance to meet many of our winning artists. Besides being talented artistically, most of these students have been… Continue reading.
Early in the classic film “Gone with the Wind,” before the Civil War blows their world away, Scarlett O’Hara’s father says to her: “Do you mean to tell me, Katie Scarlett O’Hara, … that land doesn’t mean anything to you? Why, land is the only thing in the world worth workin’ for, worth fightin’ for,… Continue reading.
When I was 12 or 13, back in the mid-1970s, the dog-day afternoons this time of summer would really start dragging. Figuring it was way too hot and humid to run around outside, a couple neighborhood buddies and I would first watch TV. But reruns of “Gilligan’s Island,” on the only channel not showing soap… Continue reading.
(This commentary originally appeared in the February 2009 issue of Electric Consumer.) My wife and I came across a nifty booklet called “Lincoln the Hoosier” at an antique shop a few years ago. Its subtitle: “A restatement of some facts that too many folks seem to have forgotten.” At only 4-by-6-inches and 44 pages, the… Continue reading.
Every autumn, memories of my glory days as a high school cross country runner come jogging back. But with them always comes a dull nagging pain right about now. Early November is when the state cross country meet is held. My two appearances in the state meet in 1978 and 1979 left me disappointed and… Continue reading.
(This commentary originally appeared in the February 2008 issue of Electric Consumer.) Abraham Lincoln was many things to many people … the greatest president, the Great Emancipator, savior of the Union, Honest Abe, a martyr to freedom. Poet Walt Whitman pined, “O Captain, My Captain” upon his death. Some go as far as to see… Continue reading.
