Walk, Jog, Run

A pretty good outline from Southern Energy Management of how a small or mid-sized enterprise can start to build a better footprint. Look inward, then look up and downstream. Also, be patient.

Extending the Triple Bottom Line to Create a Sustainable Supply Chain

An interesting perspective on the animal husbandry debate

Eating less meat could save 45,000 lives a year, experts claim | The Guardian

Vegetarianism is often cited as a dietary option which would drastically reduce CO2-equivalent emissions, and as an option to feed more people and provide better access to clean potable water worldwide (rather than using it for water-intensive factory ranching). Now, here's a study--albeit from biased sources--that suggests even eating less meat could save tens of thousands of lives annually just in the UK.

A key point mentioned in the article is the consumption of processed meats (and subsequent overconsumption of sodium). Still, it doesn't make a distinction between responsibly raised versus factory farmed animals, perhaps because the nutritional difference is negligible. That said, it might make for an interesting conversation.

Late, but interesting

I wonder where all the naysayers are who thought Apple could never achieve 3m ipad unit sales. I'd love to know how much salt is needed to eat one's words.

Apple's 3rd-quarter results.

Three on sustainability

They're maybe not as related as I generally like my aggregated links to be, but I need to clear out my backlog of links I've been meaning to share.

First (and oldest), a post on how the prices of PV are falling, but why it still doesn't make much sense despite the falling prices (hint: it largely has to do with the other associated costs).

Second, a piece on Walmart's decision to source with a more local/regional focus. The gist: assuming they stick to their word, we may have a battle on our hands of Homeric proportions.

Third, UNC's Morrison Residence Hall receives top billing in the EPA's first-ever National Building Competition. This link is particularly important to me, since Morrison's energy-efficiency initiatives were made possible by the Renewable Energy Special Projects Committee, a student-run group established to manage the $4/student/semester fee passed by the Green Energy referendum. Full disclosure: I was one of the key people involved with the referendum, and an initial appointee to the committee once it was formed. The time I spent working with a handful of other dedicated students is still one of the most gratifying periods of my life, especially in the success borne of our efforts. This award, then, is the proverbial icing on the cake.

Now, I'll try to stop glowing and get back to you with more links forthwith.

World-Class Education

Back from Vegas, and officially exhausted. Vegas is interesting, though kind of overstimulating in the lights and sound department. Yesterday, I rented a car so I could drive out to the middle of the desert and get some silence (what I ended up getting was desert, plus an extra-special return drive through an impressively diabolical-looking desert storm).

...but I digress.

Here's a great shout-out to two of the major local universities, a top-50 ranking among the world's best educational institutions. TBJ links you there, but you can see the expanded list here.

News from the front lines

Ok, so it's been a while.

Look, I'm sorry.

I know sorry's not all that special, but really, it's not you, I promise.

I mean, if it makes it any better, here's what I've been up to:

: studying for midterms (I have two today, and they're high-stress)
: getting reamed in logistics and project management (the two midterms)
: working on my supply chain practicum
: taking second place in a national case competition (in Louisville, KY)
: performing my duties for my graduate assistantship (exam proctoring, research, basically taking an extra course in order to give feedback from the student perspective)
: trying to arrange site visits and guest speakers for Net Impact Jenkins
: getting glowing feedback on the case competition I authored over the summer (thank goodness it wasn't a failure or bad quality)
: trying to find a new housemate to replace the last other founding member of Maplewood
: taking care of my dog, Chandramukhi (Mukhi, for short)
: preparing for travel to Las Vegas and Ann Arbor for conferences, to DC for pleasure, and NYC for business (sort-of)
: preparing to officiate two weddings (one this month, one next year)

...and I'm sure I'm leaving stuff out.

Still, I have lots of goodies for you that I need to catch up on.

Here's one at random, a collection of photos of what $1 worth of food actually looks like.

really neat portable wi-fi hotspot

if I didn't have several housemates and 2700sf to think about, I'd ditch the cable internet in favor of this thing.

reposting from a friend

Why unisex bathrooms are a civil right.

Haven't checked my reader since August, but once I catch up, I may have some things to share. Whoa, school. Whoa.

Keep it classy

I'll probably post more sporadically from here on out, as school has started again. This semester will be trial by fire, since I'm taking 100% concentration classes, and will be doing major project work. Still, I'll try to post things as I come across them.

On that note, I thought this report was interesting. Ultimately, it posits that landfilling may have a lower carbon footprint than recycling in some situations. I'm a realist, and I don't necessarily assume this isn't true. Still, I'd be interested to see the actual Life Cycle Analyses and determine what factors were included (or, perhaps more telling, whether any factors were excluded).

Back to life, back to reality

I realize I forgot to explain my short posting hiatus in advance. I spent a week down in Florida with a close friend. Included in the week were stop-offs in Myrtle Beach, Charleston, St. Augustine, and Beaufort (the SC one, pronounced BYOO-fert). Highlights of the week:
: a week of great hair (oh, sand and salt water, what excellent hair product you are)
: manatee cove (my first in-person manatees! at least a dozen of them making their Darth Vader noises.)
: a pre-storm rainbow (whaaaa?)
: too many dolphins to count
: a kitten chasing a bug
: midday naps every single day
: delicious black tip shark kebabs
: the best grouper sandwich I've had (fresh, local seafood, yum.)
: watching the meteor shower through a gap in the palms while lying on the grass
: water glinting like diamonds
: assembling bookshelves (yes, I found this exciting. yes, I am so like my dad.)
: exaggeration and fable-telling galore!
: going to the beach for sunrise, only to be surprise witness to a space launch
: no, seriously, I watched a vessel leave Earth's atmosphere. its smoke trail glinted gold in the rising sun. I was in the Atlantic Ocean, waves splashing against me, surrounded by surfers lying on boards and watching. yes, you may now commence eating your heart out.
: happening across the elusive suburban Central Florida gay in the wild
: souvenir shopping for my house family
: so many different types of mango!
: the smallest church in America
: the nicest convenience store operator in Florida, by far. with the most strangely gay-friendly souvenir selection, and a wealth of amazingly fabulous tacky souvenirs
: a stop-off for a psychic reading from a spiritual advisor
: time with my bestie, duh!

Anyway, speaking of amusing internet video reviews:

Canon 7D vs. Barbie Video Girl from Brandon Bloch on Vimeo.

(yeah, I know. I made that segue up completely.)

brighten your day

This popped up in my reader, and I opened it during a break from working. It made my day brighter, so I thought I'd share.

yin and yang

Well, with good news, there is generally bad (and vice versa).

To that tune, a debacle in an Indiana hospital in which a transwoman was denied medical care mars the reputation of medical professionals. I'm glad that--for once--it's not in the Deep South.

Also, not only did California's Prop 8 get overturned yesterday in California's supreme court (in a stunning decision based on multiple findings of fact, beginning on page 54), it also inspired Lady Gaga. Rejoice, all ye!

Also, my school will be paid for this year, as I'm officially a Graduate Assistant. Huzzah!

Avast, there be pirates in these here waters!

This is by far one of the coolest (if not necessarily all that useful) things I have ever, ever seen. I wonder how one might pirate a vinyl inclusive of both sides (without having to make two separate vinyls), and whether it would be possible to repair scratches on the pirated copy.

They can't take that away from me

Noooo! Yet another thing scientists have taken away from me. First the Brontosaurus, then Pluto as a planet, and now the Triceratops?!

I don't know if I can handle this. My childhood is slowly crumbling around me, like so many stale cookies. Maybe I'll just refuse to believe it.

Cooking, naturally

Some of the tweeps I follow signed up for this cooking class from Central Carolina Community College, which is how I caught wind of it. It sounds like a pretty neat concept. I wonder how much of the program will be split toward cooking technique versus nutrition versus actual menu planning (generally its own course in culinary school, but still...).

[EDIT: Clearly, I should read more. There's a basic breakdown of the course structure here, though it's not specific about the time commitments for each segment. That'll teach me to post before exploring thoroughly.]

What color is Triple Bottom Line sustainability?

A thought-provoking question from Joel Makower of GreenBiz.com. Just what color is the Triple Bottom Line? "Green" seems inappropriate, but is "blue"--as is suggested at one point--too loaded with political baggage? Is there a better term for folks concerned with the 3 P's (People, Planet, Performance/Profit)?

I'll be interested to see what emerges in the common lexicon.

green apparel supply chain

WSJ recently posted an interesting article on an effort by 100 major apparel manufacturers to track the footprint of your footwear (and other wearables). You should check it out here, and be sure to click the tab for the diagram demonstrating the footprint of a pair of Levi's. It's really eye-opening how much of the environmental footprint actually occurs after purchase, with washing and drying.

As an aside, I was raised to use cold-water wash for everything except a bleach load of whites. Do other people actually use warm or hot for everything? It's not even a good thing to use for preservation of colors, folks. I promise, things get just as clean in cold water.

An open letter to hotels

(hotel name removed to protect the guilty)

Dear Every Hotel I've Ever Stayed In:

Can we talk? I know you claim that you want to help the environment and save resources by reusing towels. That's technically fair, since not washing things means you're not expending the water, electricity, and chemicals to wash and dry those things. Still, I'm going to call bullshit.

Yep. I said it. Your "environmental" claims are a sham, and not the ornamental pillow covering kind, either. I've seen this placard pop up in any number of hotels in the US and internationally. It's fine, and I usually reuse my towels anyway. Still, if you *really* cared about the environment, I'd have seen ONE hotel EVER with recycle bins in the rooms. ONE. EVER. I have not yet encountered this elusive hotel (even in eco-friendly areas), though I hear claims that they exist. Maybe there's one in Shangri-La, and it's staffed by unicorns and happy-faced gnomes.

I mean, it's not like it's much more labor intensive (if at all), and the tipping fees for recyclables are generally cheaper than tipping fees for landfill dumpsters. It's kind of a common sense thing, really.

More than that, you'd also make some effort to have more energy-efficient lighting, and every hotel room I walked into wouldn't be approximately 62 degrees in the summer or 86 degrees in the winter. Seriously. It's downright frigid.

You wouldn't keep your rooms supplied with individually-wrapped disposable nightmares, and you'd have water-efficient shower heads and low-flow toilets, and sink aerators (which I think you might occasionally have, so bravo). And why are none of the appliances in my room Energy-Star? Don't you know you can get tax breaks for Energy-Star compliance?

Anyway, there's a laundry list of other opportunities for you to improve, but for Pete's sake, these are seriously the ones that should be universal.

Anyway, I hope we can work things out.

Sincerely,

Stacie

I love the smell of old books

but this is pretty stinkin' awesome.

A few links on sustainability

On the proliferation of green ratings and accreditations, and why they're important despite being confusing. Working for a non-profit that specializes in triple bottom line certifications for small businesses and non-profits, I found this one pretty interesting.

A side-by-side comparison of the Global Reporting Initiative and the Climate Disclosure Project. Sustainability reporting standards can be confusing.

An expose on the waterless urinal, and why it hasn't caught on everywhere.

I often assume other people are familiar with the Life Cycle Analysis, and I'm often quite wrong. Here's 10 thoughts on LCAs.

"I think our problem is going to be: Are six acres enough?"

Fantastic news from out of Cleveland, with land-use management tactics that should be applied in every urban municipality.

Supply chain, manufacturing, and China

Why one 3PL thinks manufacturing has experienced, and will continue to experience, migration to China.

I think the comment at the bottom of the page is particularly interesting. As Chinese labor strikes, demanding better wages and more just working conditions, and as rent and shipping increase in cost, I wonder how whether more and more manufacturing will come back to the U.S. What will happen if this occurs? Will we face shortages of land and infrastructure? Will we face issues of lost skills in the workforce? According to a recent NYT article, signs point to yes.

At the very least, I should have an interesting career to look forward to as a supply chain professional.

The long-term effects of sleep deprivation

This explains quite a bit about my undergraduate years.

In less creepy news...

A discussion on how sustainability and energy efficiency are ultimately at odds. While I disagree that energy efficiency does nothing for the environment (the first goal of an individual or organization should always be to reduce), I do agree that the overarching goal should be a move to clean energy.

On that note, a solar plane just completed a history-making 24-hour flight. While this isn't going to revolutionize air travel tomorrow, it points to pretty awesome future potential.

And now, a final note on how the quality and sustainability movements converge. I've sort of hinted at this territory before with logistics quality, and HBR published a nice article on this in April (it's worth checking out), but it bears repeating.

"Uncanny" is perhaps an understatement

A Canadian filmmaker has replaced his eye with a video camera. I'm kind of creeped out that I think it's awesome. So, so awesome. And yet, a shining example of what exactly roboticists mean when they discuss the "Uncanny Valley."

*shudder*

Paper Life Cycles

CSRwire has published a press release for a new paper life cycle tool. Hopefully, this will be a useful tool for individuals and businesses hoping to go green with their paper, but not necessarily sure how to.

The actual site for The Paper Life Cycle.

This week (or month) in energy

Architecture lust! This drool-inducing new building from the US Department of Energy is to be the largest energy-neutral in the US.

Neat. Forthcoming "nutrition" labels on lighting are pretty useful, informative, and just cool in a totally geeky way.

A quick bit from the place where I'm doing my fellowship on conducting energy audits.

Starting in fall or spring, Durham Tech will be offering cleantech classes. Eventually, this will turn into a certificate program, for people who aren't already electricians. I'm pretty excited; hopefully it's cheaper than the program at NC State.

Happy 4th of July

In its honor, an ode to what makes me love my country, and what makes me miss it while I'm gone--diversity.

In that vein, I'd like to share a brief post on English acquisition by foreign-born individuals. Pretty concise.

As one who has traveled through more than a couple of countries, openly as an American, it really grinds my gear to hear Americans scoff "Learn to speak English!" Generally, they'll say this of people who a) already speak English, but with a noticeable accent, b) can't understand their own dialectic English, or c) look brown.

Having traveled in other countries, I've found almost every region outside th U.S. to be quite encouraging of foreigners (especially Americans) who try to speak their native tongues. In Spanish-speaking countries, every person is a Spanish teacher. What's more, they'll laugh *with* you, rather than sneering about your choppy textbook grammar.

Moreover, having worked alongside a number of immigrants (especially Spanish-speakers and Asians), I can tell you that most of them are trying hard to learn English, but may have limited time (2 or more jobs) or resources (frequently minimum wage) to take formal classes. Often, they learn English from their children.

I find it somewhat ironic that in a nation characterized by its diversity, we can be so uptight about our language. This wrongheaded notion of a great "melting pot" leads to a devaluation of what makes our nation truly impressive--that so many cultures can coexist, pretty much as one.

Anyway, this graph is a nice exposition on why ignorant people shouldn't make assumptions about people's ability to speak English or efforts toward learning it.

Durham cares

No, not the (quite neat) charity, which matches individuals interested in volunteering with charities and non-profits based on skill/interest matching.

Rather, I'm referring to a pride-swelling summation from former DCVB-head Reyn Bowmann on the state of giving-through-volunteerism in Durham. As far as personal volunteerism is concerned, Durham is close to the top of the state in percent of citizens actively volunteering (33.3% to Asheville's 36.5%), but the tops in average number of volunteer hours per person (an impressive 49.4 hours averaged per person, versus the national average of 34.4 and North Carolina average of 30.6).

See the original (national) report here.

Capital Q

Last post of the day, I promise. Well, okay, I don't promise, but I'll cross my fingers on your behalf.

I sometimes get a little annoyed at the LGB community for forgetting the T's and us Q's. Q's--generally accepted as "Queer," sometimes stated as "Questioning"--don't really fit in the fairly binary boxes of L, G, or B. Likewise with T's, but as an outsider, I don't feel qualified to speak on their behalf today.

Anyway, that's really just a side rant.

In Queer news, I wanted to share a couple of links here.

First, a post from Offbeat Bride on the crossroads between heteronormative expectations and Queer identity in the wedding planning process. As a Queer female who married a Queer male, and who was pronounced married by Luke Skywalker in front of an abandoned building while dressed as Mr. and Ms. Pac Man, I totally get this. My partner and I wanted to break from the normative politics of a traditional wedding. Mostly, though, we wanted to have fun.

Still, we were pressured into paying for catering rather than having a pot luck or going Dutch, guilted into sending paper invites by expectations of some attendees, and instructed to have a gift registry (we hadn't wanted gifts, but figured we could have the option of charitable donations). Moreover, as the wedding got closer, the stress of planning a "real" wedding started to hit. This wedding was supposed to be fun, like having a party; why had that changed?

Anyway, it's worth a read, and made me think a lot about Queer identity and the way it can be hard to reconcile with the institution of marriage. Which we already knew, but despite our feelings on marriage--and especially on the lack of marriage rights for all--US immigration laws wouldn't acknowledge our partnership without a certificate. So, anyway, we figured we'd make a big old Queer spectacle of it and try to preserve our own values while still honoring the commitment asked of us.

Bit I digress...

The second link is just a pretty awesome link someone shared with me about an international Queer film festival in Mumbai, Maharashtra, India. I really appreciate the way foreign films tend to deal with LGBTQ issues more intricately, and with less stereotyping, and I'm excited to see how many of these films I can find on Netflix and online.

Learn Chinese

That's what I'm thinking I'll need to do in order to work in cleantech. This isn't meant as a derogatory statement, since I've been incredibly impressed by China's sustainability efforts. Still, cleantech is shaping up to be the Millenials' Cold War.

Case in point, China, who five years ago wasn't even on the figurative map of wind producers, just jumped past Germany to the number two spot. Now at 25.9 gigawatts of installed capacity--DOUBLE its installed capacity in 2008--China stands poised to give the US--at just over 35 gigawatts--a run for its money.

Coupled with this April 2010 article from The Economist on the emergence of developing countries as innovation centers (rather than mere production centers), we could be looking at an impending shakedown and restructuring of the global economy.

...and now, in green news

The webinar mentioned in my previous post, plus a few more from GreenBiz.com

First up, a piece on IBM's fairly aggressive energy and waste reduction efforts. Pretty impressive, on the whole. Once again, business is proving that sustainable practices can be profitable.

Second, a pretty interesting piece on some changes at Ford Motor Co. Namely, that they're using more soy foam in car production, with especial interest in compostable foam. Pretty neat stuff, and it indicates to me they ought to have started in this direction a long dang time ago.

Finally, a piece from Interface, Inc--a really progressive carpet manufacturer whose aim is to go zero-waste over time--on 10 tips for making sustainability a core value in your organization. Much of it has already been said, but I like having things in tidy lists.

Carbon Management as an issue of competitive advantage

Wow... just, wow. I had the privilege of listening to an excellent webinar hosted by GreenBiz.com focusing on what they call The Resource Optimization Imperative. Representatives from PricewaterhouseCoopers and Hara discussed how effective environmental management is becoming a make or break issue for businesses' competitive advantage.

Honestly, there wasn't necessarily anything truly revolutionary in the webinar, but it was full of practical examples, and reinforcement of my passion: sustainability along the supply chain.

I'll post the link to the recap if the email includes permission to do so.

a brief digression on food

Considering that my first-ever personal blog was centered on food and cooking, I spend remarkably little time here on discussing food. So I give you a brief synopsis of one of the highlights of my weekend.

At the Durham Farmer's Market, they held the second annual Chef's Challenge, in which three local chefs were asked to create a dish based on a secret ingredient announced that morning. This year's secret ingredient? Squash. The contenders? Justin Rakes from Four Square, Billy Cotter from Toast, and Dave Alworth from Guglhupf.

Chef Rakes gave us some sort of shredded zucchini dish (I missed the first round), that was good, but seemed very incomplete, flavor-wise.

Chef Cotter prepared a puree of squash and red pepper, among other things, topped with little roulades of grilled zucchini squash stuffed with homemade ricotta, served with some sort of squash, tomato, and onion salad (I missed the description on this one, too, but it was an herby, vinegary little salad that was bright and tart). This, as with all of Billy Cotter's creations, was delicious. I have said before and will say again: that ricotta is a religious experience.

Chef Alworth presented a dish of squash and two-cheese (local goat and farmer's, I think) ravioli topped with "corn maque choux" (not sure why the "corn" epithet, since it's traditional), and I'm drawing a blank on what the sauce was.

Alworth gets major props for creating ravioli in 1.5 hours under an outdoor tent, and the entry was fantastic, but in the end, Billy Cotter took home the trophy. Having sampled all three, I understood why. The man sure knows how to play to an ingredient's strengths!

Judges Elizabeth Shestak of The Durham News, Lex Alexander of 3Cups fame (and former owner of Wellspring Grocery, which was bought out by Whole Foods in the late 1990s), and famous foodie Andrea Weigl of the N&O presided over the competition, with Frank Stasio of NPR fame acting as emcee.

All in all, another event that makes me love Durham. Congrats to Billy Cotter, and many thanks to all competing chefs.

interesting news

Proposed new food guidelines are more focused on less.

As the blog's author notes, there'd need to be some major changes in policies, but here's one blogger crossing my fingers.

Sustainability as Savior

Apparently, sustainable business isn't just a passing fad. In fact, 93 percent of CEOs from 766 businesses surveyed said they think sustainability will be key to their future success, and 81 percent have incorporated it into daily operations in some form, a la Newsweek.

While I think that sustainability as a concept still isn't well understood by many in business, they're starting to catch on that strategic efforts to lessen environmental impact and improve communities can be, well, strategic.

wait, what?

So Chinese LGBT activists are picking up/ramping up the good fight. Which is, obviously, good. But one thing I found just fascinating was this snippet:

Li’s research in cities suggests about 91% of people are happy to work with gay colleagues – a higher rate than in US surveys – and that 30% back gay marriage.

the times, they are a-changin'

In sustainability news, HBR brings yet another report on how businesses are going to have to shape up or ship out on the sustainability issue, this time because of the ginormous disparity of values between current CEOs and the replacement crop.

Interesting times, these.

a step in the right direction

Filed under "it's about doggone time," the Department of Labor is preparing to extend FMLA rights to LGBTQ employees.

Maybe I live in a bubble, or maybe it's because I have so many LGBTQ loved ones, but I can't understand why, in 2010, there are so many loud, angry voices trying to dehumanize and deny the queer community. Here's hoping for a sea change in the next few years.

sister values

The more I read this list of tips to improve supply chain visibility from the Global Transportation Management newsletter, the more I think transparency and sustainability (along all 3BL dimensions) are analogues for one another. Really, they go hand in hand.

We'll take a few points and compare:

1. Accommodate Multiple Fulfillment Models.
Visibility solutions need to be highly configurable to accommodate all of the various fulfillment models in operation across the enterprise. [...] Supply chain visibility solutions that are flexible enough to accommodate multiple fulfillment models allow benefits to accrue across the enterprise and not within a specific product line or operational model.

Like supply chain fulfillment, sustainability is definitely not a one-size-fits-all model. It requires flexibility, meeting businesses' unique needs, and adapting to differing demands across industries, geographies, and business sizes.

2. Create an ‘Information Hub’.
Visibility solutions not only extend processes outside the four walls, but must integrate and aggregate key information from within the four walls of the enterprise. The ‘Information Hub’ creates a one-stop-shop for key order, shipment, and inventory information from all internal ERP, TMS, WMS and other inventory planning systems.

Having a central location for all data surrounding business-related activities helps not only track and manage a business's social and environmental footprint, but also aids in continuity in the event of turnover or promotion.

And we'll cherry-pick through the rest, but I think all points are pertinent.

3. Don’t Assume Data Quality.
Aberdeen Research recently conducted a survey and discovered that only 16% of Visibility implementations have data quality above 91%.

Always try for better data. If your data are corrupt, noisy, or just incomplete, you may be missing a big part of the picture regarding your business's impact.

6. Push Visibility Back to Origin

This should go without saying. Informational linkages back to the source mean easier, more complete tracking of your impact, especially if these informational linkages are high quality and automated.

7. Finally Manage Trading Partners with Scorecards.
The by-product of operational Visibility is a rich repository of supply chain data that can be aggregated across the enterprise and with all trading partners year after year after year.

Once you aggregate data on yourself and on your suppliers, you should aim to evaluate your suppliers with a well-defined scorecard at least once a year. If suppliers fail to meet sustainability goals, and if they can't be pressured to meet them, it's a big ocean out there, and rapidly increasing in size.

8. Track Landed Costs Along the Chain.
Aberdeen reports that companies that implement visibility are twice as likely to reduce total landed costs over the past two years.

This should go without saying. If you know what the impact of your business is along its chain and at each stage, then you can manage and improve it.


Again, I think the case could be made for any of the ten tips, but these are the most obvious ways in which visibility and sustainability are really complementary values.

making up for lost blogging

Okay, I'll post this and shut up for a while.

RSA animations are pretty great. They're ultimately 10-minute talks by subject matter experts with white board visualization to accompany the talk. This one by Barbara Ehrenreich seemed interesting to me, but maybe that's because I'm not a naturally sunny person, and eye-bulging optimism makes my face muscles hurt.

Thoughts?

...and one on Wal Mart

Despite the fact that I still can't bring myself to set foot in a Wal Mart without my gag reflex acting up (yeah, I know, I'm such a stereotype), I'm pretty routinely amazed by some of their new initiatives. Case in point, their new move to promote local agriculture.

If a store as big as Wal Mart can promote local, diversified agriculture, it could really shift the balance of power in agronomics.

Gazing into the crystal ball

I've become slightly obsessed with this little map from Forbes.com visualizing where, in 2008, people were moving to and from.

Most telling are the Los Angeles, Detroit, and (I'm sure somehow) Seattle areas.

More BP fun, and then some Alabama love... sort of.

In he spirit of the Great Gulf Debacle, Green Energy Reporter posted the top five BP "eco-friendly" ads. While I was a longtime fan of BP's solar efforts, when Tony Hayward stepped in, he kind of shot that all to hell and has been gradually reducing their efforts for three years. Maybe that will change now.

Now, on to Alabama.

*sigh*

Alabama's just not content to stay in Mississippi's and South Carolina's embarrassing shadows. Nope, we've got to represent with the crazy!

This guy clearly has a first-grade understanding of history and civics, and just comes off as a total nutter. The sad bit is that I'm sure many folks will vote for him.

The Great Gulf Debacle

I'm not going to get into a detailed opinion of the events that have taken place since mid-April, but I will voice my agreement over this bit of the whole mess--that a criminal investigation while the spill is still happening is making things worse, not better. I recommend a read for a much more detailed understanding of the argument, but here's a snippet:

"[I]magine being a hospital physician who discovers he is under criminal investigation for causing a situation—hard-to-control hemorrhaging or sepsis, perhaps—in which he is still desperately trying to save the patient. Suddenly, every decision—whether in treatment, testing, or diagnosis—would be haunted by possibly increasing the likelihood of going to prison after the episode is over."

Dis Orientation

I've just completed orientation for my summer fellowship. For those not familiar, I'm working with a non-profit that consults with small businesses and non-profits on Triple Bottom Line sustainability and how to improve their performance on the different dimensions of people, planet, and performance.

It was a long orientation, with a significant time investment (generally 9am to 9pm every day), but it was pretty superior, as orientations go.

Obviously, whenever you get together with a new group of people there are always ice breakers involved. Most of the time these are painful and contrived, but I actually think these folks did a decent job of keeping it casual and organic.

One question I appreciated quite well was thus: If you could change one and only one behavior of everyone around you, what would it be?

There were some great responses on composting, eliminating disposable water bottles, educating, and more. By the time it got to my turn, I was worried I'd have nothing left.

Still, having spent so much of my life in school buildings and windowless dungeons offices, I've been thinking a lot about how much harm our architecture is doing us.

In the end, I suggested that I'd like for people to better understand how our environment (both ecological and social) affects us mentally, physically, and spiritually, and how our use and/or abuse of it can harm or help us as individuals and as communities.

The purported reason school buildings all look like prisons is because windows are a distraction from learning. I have to say, though, that natural lighting helps keep the soul from being deadened by its surroundings. Plate glass windows in each classroom with sun tubes and exposure to outdoor and to constructive social time would do wonders for most kids (and adults in offices, for that matter).

Anyway, that's just been on my mind a bit, and I figured I ought to post an update on my silence while I'm waiting in this (naturally lit, open) office for a meeting.

Work is a distraction from life.

Sorry for the hiatus. Work has been keeping me busy, and I'm now in formal orientation (go figure), which will last over a week, and will be the first time I'll have missed watching the National Spelling Bee in years.

Anyway, just to condense things down to a list, for simplicity's sake, I've been sitting on the following links:


1. Supply chain management becomes much more important during economic recovery. Booyeah for my career choice!

2. On God and gays. A look at the hypocrisy of religious anti-gay sentiment.

3. Carbon counters may change the future of accounting for sustainability.

4. More on immigration. El Paso, Texas, as a model city. Not despite its immigrants, but *because* of them.

5. Food porn.

[EDIT: Also, happy to be blogging again on the day when BP plugged the oil leak!]

Losing the race

While I bristle at the conclusion that regulation is the silver bullet and that federal standards will force innovation, this is a pretty telling comparison of energy investments in the Southeast US.

Finally, reason

The top 10 myths about immigration, most of which I have to repeatedly explain to people. From an economic perspective, immigration (even "illegal" immigration) is beneficial to the US economy.

The Productivity Myth

...it's exactly that.

Personally, I always strive for greater and greater efficiency, but at some point, I know it comes at a cost.

clearing out my reader

and sharing some neat links in the process. Something for everybody!

1. What is the world's most recycled product? You may be surprised.

2. An article about the wheels of change a-turnin' in China, and the Communist government's endgame set in motion.

3. Beautifully designed, naturally-inspired zipties. In concept, anyway.

4. EXPLOSIONS IN PANORAMA! A 360-rotatable panoramic video of the demolition of the old Texas Stadium.

5. Nature at its finest. It reminds one that the word 'awe' is meant to invoke both amazement and fear.

6. I WANT TO GO TO THERE. Smashing recyclable bottles for sport.

documentaries galore!

First, congratulations to Full Frame Documentary Film Festival for getting a nod in the 50 noteworthy film festivals, with the ranks of Sundance, Outfest, Cannes, and Berlin. We love you, FF!

Second, a short documentary about the dying art of billboard/sign painting. Absolutely stunning. Link via OK Great.

UP THERE from The Ritual Project on Vimeo.

Finally, part one of an eight-part opus to Detroit's decay. I've never been, but I have a mixture of sadness at how things have turned out for Detroit and deep love for the concentration of abandoned buildings.

the new white flight

...revived urbanism and urbano-centric corporate structures. While this makes me personally happy (environmentally, socially, psychologically, and commercially, I tend to be biased toward dense urbanism), I cringe to think of the debates that will arise if this proves to be a megatrend rather than a passing fad.

Debate on gentrification, followed by debate on child safety and family values in 3... 2... 1...

more political than I usually prefer to get

...which is ironic, considering my undergraduate education.

1. A handy map of states in which it's legal to marry your first cousin. Note that in general, these states don't overlap with states where you can legally marry your same-sex partner. I think it's clear to see these states have their priorities fixed.

2. An article on why we should worry more about America becoming a kleptocracy than a commie regime. While I wouldn't necessarily go as far as calling this country a kleptocracy, I'd say greed and misinformation are definitely two of our greatest national threats.

3. Bill Moyers on Net Neutrality.

4. For feel-good value, a friend shared this with me. Ay, ayayay! Canta, no llores!

Illegal Education

It's interesting that, despite the general trend of the long arc of history to bend toward justice (forgive me, Dr. King, for butchering your beautiful words), how generally xenophobic we're becoming. Take, for instance, this missive I received on international export laws and how they apply to international students. My international classmates are already having an incredibly difficult time finding internships in the US. It's not that the process of sponsoring an intern is that complicated, and it's not that it's expensive. Someone explained to me--in a more approving way than I'd have mustered--that it's because they use internships as funnels for employment, and to hire a non-citizen for a position, you have to prove that there was no qualified US citizen that you could have hired instead.

Frankly, I'm a fan of US citizens being employed, but I think it's pretty malicious to lure students here with scholarships and the promise of world-class educations, educate them with US resources, then refuse to hire them. Ultimately it hurts the US most, by choking out talented knowledge workers, and by wasting resources on a person who'll eventually be forced to leave the country for work (thus never paying back into the tax base). Even factoring out all moral arguments, it's fiscally irresponsible to treat international students and applicants that way.

Add to that, international students will probably no longer set foot in Arizona, since they can be stopped and detained until the Feds can prove their legal status on the basis of an assumption by a state or local police officer. Nope, no racial profiling going on there!

good news on the economic front

Magic 8-ball says "A tentative yes."

Megatrends lead the Decepticons to victory

(I can't help it--Megatrend in my head evokes all sorts of "Megatron" linkages)

Anyway, that's a really pitiful excuse for an intro to an article that's both well-written and highly specific on the need for businesses to not only acknowledge sustainability, but to incorporate it into their core missions. The Sustainability Imperative, from the hallowed HBR, posits not only a roadmap forward, but also a few key strategies (at least half of which are not advisable to take). But, in the end, this is what says it all:

In this new world, the sustainability strategy imperative will be systematized and integrated into the day-to-day practices of firms of all sizes in all industries. Like the IT and quality megatrends, sustainability will touch every function, every business line, every employee. On the way to this future, firms with a clear vision and the execution capabilities to navigate the megatrend will come out ahead. Those that don’t will be left by the wayside.

always vigilant

A handy guide to facial hair and its relative level of trustworthiness.

truer words

An article from The Economist on the importance of planning for "black swans"--extreme unexpected case disruptions, particularly those affecting one's supply chain and operations.

more Durham love

with a tremendous--and blasé--aside about Carrboro. Much love for the Neal family, but aren't there plenty of restaurants in Durham to write an article (about Durham, named after Durham) that's focused on Durham?

From the NY Times.

I heart Durham

Seen on a light pole on a street in my neighborhood.

<3

incomplete at best

A somewhat disappointing slideshow from HBR on the wage gap. In the end, it's not all that lucid or convincing.

a loss to the business community

R.I.P. CK Prahalad

in the money

60% energy savings each year from switching to LEDs. I mean, SSL didn't take long to achieve returns above overhead.

sustainability and innovation

This post from the former head of the Durham Convention & Visitors Bureau got me to thinking.

The problem with the sustainability movement in general for so long has been that people dissociate sustainability from innovation as two separate things. The thing is, they're not separate. The first windmills? Innovative. Solar panels? Ditto. Bloom boxes? Holy WOW, innovative. PLA and PHA vegetable-based "plastics"? See what I'm getting at here? The separation of sustainability from innovation is a diminutive act, and steals from the credibility of the movement. Conservation is about using less, yes, but about using less through innovative thought and creative action.

.......

So. nerdy.

Han Solo in carbonite. Envisioned as soap.

WANT.

seems a bit obvious

but, sometimes HR departments seem to miss the obvious.

How to make HR relevant.

HBR ideacast about how to create a customized HR experience.

in brief

wedding, trip, case competition, projects, hellish allergies.

This explains a lot.

moreover

My inner poli sci geek still enjoys fivethirtyeight for its interesting breakdowns.

It's driving me out of my mind; that's why it's hard for me to find

(apologies to Bel Biv Devoe)

Have been in a bit of a whirlwind couple of weeks, what with homework, strategy games, case competition things, and planning a hugely major event, but I give you this thoughtful video from Durham-based Cree, Inc. Makers of quite impressive LED lighting.



I wonder how it affects the payback period when you factor in the effects of incandescent on heating and cooling. Also, I wonder how you'd quantify the additional carbon emissions and footprint reduction.

a letter to the internet, in the shadow of Health Care Reform

Dear Internet (Blogosphere, especially):

I'm not sure how to feel about this whole Health Care Reform thing. I mean, the progressive in me thinks that a step forward is a good step, but the humanist in me thinks it's kind of hollow without at least a public option. Then there's the businessperson who's, well... kind of miffed that it doesn't include any substantial efforts to actually curb costs in a meaningful way.

Look, I know I'm supposed to feel violently one way or another (that's how everyone else seems to be responding), but I'm just sort of... torn.

Then there's all this attention being given to the pundits and politicians, and how this will affect their careers. Frankly, they have insurance coverage for life that's pretty pimp, and they're pretty much guaranteed a job even if they don't get re-elected (someone somewhere is always looking for a big mouth) and so I don't really see how it matters one way or another to them. ...But to me?

Internet, I think you're ignoring me. You're feeding me all these stories, and they're contradictory, and angry or defensive, and it doesn't even seem like you're being sincere or thoughtful about it. Like, maybe just some thoughtful, levelheaded discussion would help our relationship a lot.

I want to work it out. Like Al Green said, let's stay together.

Please?

<3,

-SLN-

hmm

I think we may have a good example of what one of my professors likes to call a No Shit hypothesis. High Fructose Corn Syrup actually does have negative effects. Amazing how long it took to get conclusive evidence, given that long-term studies require... oh... long terms to study.

spring type break!

Hiatus!!'d!

people respond to incentives

(^probably not good for public health costs)
Rush Limbaugh threatened to leave the US if health reform passes. c'mon, folks! this ought to be incentive enough to figure out health care reform! an aside, I've got two bits of news for Mr. Limbaugh:

1. All industrialized nations except the US (including Costa Rica!) provide health care for their citizens, and even many developing countries.

2. Free health care = free pills, man! You ought to be lobbying *hard* for universal.

US jobs and investments

The ever-geeky FiveThirtyEight gives us a wonderful rundown of what's happening with manufacturing in the US. It seems US manufacturing is actually increasing, but jobs are disappearing due to advances in productivity. I can definitely buy this, given the insane level of automation and technology integration many industries are working with.

Also, he concludes with some suggestions about what should be done to ensure competitiveness (including things like floating the yuan), but one of the more interesting ideas is this:

Secondly, there have been calls for a US industrial policy -- that is, for Washington to essentially "pick winners and losers" by promoting some industries that they feel have a high probability of success. Asian countries have been doing this for years with remarkable success and it is a policy which we clearly need to copy. I'm a big promoter of nano-technology, alternative energy and stem cell research, but those are just my choices. There are plenty others out there that would also make sense.

Maybe Washington is listening?

I may have nightmares now.

Watch as a tree branch that has fallen on power lines screeches, gradually glows, and bursts into flame. A reminder to stay the hell away from power lines.

on the top of your game

Just learned that my program of study ranked in the top 20 nationally for supply chain management. The full details are here.

This isn't a big shocker, given the quality of my SCM professors. They literally wrote (or co-wrote) two of the leading books in the field. Anyway, congrats to my fairly young program on gaining some recognition. Hopefully it will spill over in the form of employment momentum.

on the future of energy

Recently I spoke with someone who works over the renewable energy division of a large utility provider. Based on blogs and industry-related articles, it's sometimes a concern that renewable energy is just a sort of fad that will pass. My gut says otherwise, but it's as though folks in the industry don't want to get too optimistic about the chances that cleantech will stick around this time.

With that said, here are some things that make me think cleantech (and, nastily, I include fusion/fission, and biomass) will have some sticking power this time around.

Exhibit A:
My bank, in Texas, is buying carbon offsets from a wind provider. It's a bank geared toward military service members, who are fairly skeptical--at best--about environmental issues.

Exhibit B:
Intel is placing itself at the fore of cleantech VC investments, along with seasoned energy VC firms like Khosla and Braemar. A company built on the high-tech industry sees not only merit in cleantech, but also profit potential.

Exhibit C:
This Bloom Box is only one of so many really cool technologies I've spied in the pipeline. Other really great prospects include edge-collecting solar which is 2x as efficient and 1/4 as expensive as traditional PV, non-traditional wind capture systems, advancements in nuclear, and Thorium-powered nuclear reactors, but that's only scratching the surface. I still think, though, that the future of energy belongs to the one who can create an efficient, clean, cost-effective way to store energy that has been collected from cleantech. Also, the one who figures out a way to reduce the overall footprint of a global supply chain.

I'm workin' on it, folks. ;)

Win-Win is a sort of dangerous term

I had a professor who argued that there's no such thing as win-win in conflict negotiations. In her opinion, if neither party is compromising even slightly, then there wasn't an actual conflict to begin with. As a political scientist by education, I tend to agree. It's the basic Prisoner's Dilemma: the only way to win 100% is if the other party loses 100%. The 'win-win' most folks refer to is, in reality, Nash equilibrium, which is a situation where you optimize both parties' outcomes by compromising slightly in order to avoid getting totally screwed over. Else they're referring to synergy, which is a misapplication of the term. (Synergy is creating something greater than the sum of its parts, whereas Nash equilibrium is effectively creating something less than the sum of its parts.)

With that said, though, I'm going to clunkily segue into this story about Don't Ask Don't Tell.

The amazing Ian sends this article, and adds:

Everybody wins!

* The military generals seem not to have a problem with it.

* Evidence of similar equality in other Western armies (like the UK) suggests that the ranks will be against it in general, but that tends to melt away when it actually happens.

* Lieberman gets to run with it, giving him a chance to reestablish his liberal credentials (he took a huge hit in Connecticut over the HCR mess), whilst also making it somewhat more palatable to pick off a Republican or two.

* The public is now in favour of repealing DADT. Even Dick Cheney thinks it's time!

* It's the White House's idea to give it to Lieberman, so if it gets through, they get a big slice of the credit.

* And homosexual soldiers get to serve openly. Obviously, the most important winners :)

Here's crossing our fingers it gets passed quickly and smoothly. If it does, I think it does basically end up being an excellent example of 'win-win' synergy, as the military gets back an incredible number of mission critical members, and gays get to serve openly without fear of retribution for their private lifestyles. I'd like to add that in this case a 14-year-old conflict actually does exist as well.

On the other hand, the opposition then send articles like this one, which is ominously titled "Troops oppose repeal of 'don't ask'." Meanwhile, if you actually read the article, nearly 80% are fine with repealing the policy. How should we expect this policy to change when those who oppose the repeal of DADT think that 19% opposition from a traditionally wildly conservative organization is considered broad enough to blanketly apply to the majority of service members?

The Life of the Mind

This is a sort of extension of the discussion in my previous post about education. In this instance, a grad school professor of English talks about the lies surrounding the benefits of graduate school in the humanities. In a nutshell: the career prospects suck unless you're already well connected. There's no such thing as a meritocracy (or, not nearly to the degree it's suggested). Professors are self-justifying about this and care not whether their students end up with minimum-wage jobs.

This, to me, sounds a lot closer to reality than the doe-eyed essay about how majoring in something you just super-love will automatically bring happiness and rainbows to your life, job reality be damned!

Again, this is not to say that I'm against the arts and humanities. I was almost an English major myself, and I have friends who work in publishing, or are accomplished artists. I just think that given the volume of English majors in the world, there aren't enough jobs in the field to carry them. Aspiring English majors should be told this, and told of possible related majors and fields that would satisfy their lust for language while giving them more concrete job prospects. Diffuse the students to improve prospects for everyone.

one last amalgam of links

1.

(future poli sci majors, many illustrious housing options await you!)
Stop Asking Me My Major
Stanford Poli Sci grad complains that people asking what practical use a degree has only causes stress, isn't productive. As a poli sci undergrad myself, I can't help but say that yes, there's value to all degrees, but it would be nice if there were more guidance on career trajectory in high school and college. I *loved* my poli sci courses, but I didn't realize poli sci majors were expected to a) go to law school, b) get PhD'd in poli sci and teach, c) work as an unpaid lackey for some sleazy politician's campaign, or d) bag groceries. English majors may get into med school, but not without med school in mind, or there's no way they'd have all the prerequisite courses and grades. Also, someone from the comments (a liberal arts career counselor) posted this juicy nugget as evidence that liberal arts degrees are useful. My takeaway: further evidence that liberal arts degrees without PhDs land you a job serving tables. Another eyebrow-raiser: the author's friend ditched 'high-paying' medicine for a more populist engineering degree. Wait, what?

2.

Free is Not a Marketing Tool
A thought-provoking article that I think is ultimately a bit foolishly idealistic. While it's true that giving things away for free doesn't always--or even generally--create loyal customers, it can be an invaluable marketing tool in some instances. And it definitely shouldn't be discounted as a tool for startups and creative-class workers to generate interest in what they're selling. Suggesting that "free" as a marketing tool is somehow wrong is also pretty offensive to small businesses and self-employed workers relying on buzz and word of mouth. There's an aphorism in economics: you can't make money off something that's public knowledge. Which is to say, you can't create long-term competitive advantage when everyone's doing the same thing. To argue with this is to argue with the foundation of a capitalist system of exchange, which I won't do in this forum.

3.

The mole was a fake?*
30 Awesome Rare Celeb Photos
I'm particularly struck by #9.
*(I may be the last person on earth to know it, but it was news to me.)

4.

1930s Atlas Lust!
*drool* ...except, page 95 disturbs me. A lot.

The sin of omission...

This is just pathetically sad.

I thought we were a decade into the 21st century. What's the deal, folks? The LGBTQ community is a legitimate population, with measurable purchasing habits and demographic information, and even has representatives holding public office. Even if I don't understand or agree with people's feelings against same-sex marriage, I sort of get it, you know? But thinking that it ought to be okay to openly discriminate against people because you disapprove of them personally? Just wrong.

Oh, wait. I shouldn't be surprised, coming from this guy. What surprises me more is that there are enough people like him to have elected him.

Yes, despite everything, maybe I'm more of an optimist than I get credit for.

I'm tired of these motherf'in fat people on this motherf'in plane

I know I'm a bit behind the curve to weigh in on this story (zing!), but the whole Kevin Smith being kicked off a SWA flight for being too fat thing has the blogosphere in a tizzy, bickering back and forth about whether he's a whiny fat bastard or justifiably enraged. Being a "passenger of size" myself, I tend toward the latter opinion.

In that spirit, I'll share my two favorite articles to come out of this mess. This Kate Harding article on Salon has been, in my opinion, one of the most coherent expressions of what it's like to both fly while fat and hear some of the hateful things said about Smith in the wake of this. Following that, I really appreciated this insight on Fatshionista.

I think others have covered the issue more eloquently than I could, so I'll forgo my own story. I'll say, though, that as a fat person, I wish I were enraged like Mr. Smith rather than profoundly humiliated whenever my size gets called into question.

an excellent opportunity

for MBAs with an interest in consulting, or for nonprofits in need of some business help.

The Micro Consulting for NC program offers (volunteer) North Carolina MBAs and needy nonprofits the opportunity to connect for some business consulting interchange.

Do not adjust your TV set

We control the horizontal.

We control the vertical.

We control your heart.

[ UPDATE: (in best attempt at He-Man voice) By the power of Google, I HAVE THE POWER! ]

Can't you see I'm white and nerdy?

Thought I'd share a few design-centric things that made me happy over the past couple of days in my cruisings of the internet (not necessarily in any particular order). It's nice to see such quant-based representation. Yay, numbers nerds!

1.


The State of the Internet - lovely visuals to demonstrate what's up with the internet, who's using it, how often, and how. Things learned from this:
(a) It's important to think about where data come from, since this visual repeatedly switches from a US to global data set
(b) The arrow for Netherlands should point to Netherlands, not Denmark. It really erodes your credibility
(c) Pick your visual carefully. People see pie charts and assume all things should go on one pie chart, forgetting that not all things are mutually exclusive

2.


We feel fine. - nice set of visuals from a several years' worth of phrase-mining on blogs. The project has sought any mention in blogs of "I feel" or "I'm feeling" phrases, aggregated them (at a rate of 15-20k per diem), and apparently--as a whole--the blogosphere feels fine.

3.


Annual Reports are Awesome. - a collection of stunning print items combining two of my favorite things to nerd out about--design and finance. I'm so glad OKgreat understands the lustful appreciation some of us have for both design and numbers.

4.


Design--nature trumps humanity. - Brainless slime molds manage to replicate the work of hundreds of engineers, nearly replicating the layout of the Tokyo rail system in a matter of hours.

5.

(apologies to Avatar Pocahontas for using an image from the movie)
Colors of the Wind? - An LED array attached to mini wind turbines helps visualize wind patterns. Seems like it could be tremendously useful for plotting out wind farms or alternative wind capture devices.

6.


Physical Color Picker - the coolest concepts will never see the light of day. *sigh*

I wish they hadn't asked

and I wish these results weren't so telling.

Add yet another reason I think both parties are out of touch. What on earth could cause so-called "progressives" to display such a wide discrepancy between results? Wider, even, than conservatives. Just unbelievable.

(link via @maddow)

Building trust by shutting down communications

Iran says it's shutting down gmail in favor of an in-house developed email. The government says it's to foster trust and to develop its own tech infrastructure.

...suuure. Let me know how that goes, fellas.

(link via DET)

Yes we can.

really satisfying message of the day, from my Mom's old friend, who's a school crossing guard. apparently, she went to work and this had been anonymously posted.


look closer...

thanks for the reminder.

thoughts for when I ought to be studying for my finance exam

Sea change beginning? I hope so. (link courtesy of Awesome Ian)

Hideously disturbing. Sometimes wish there were some way to control who reproduced and/or raised kids that was more effective than DSS/CPS.

Really rather hilarious (and, I suppose, also practical) patent issuance. Please check out the images. You'll be so happy you did.

Via Make, a really awesome mini-documentary about how vinyl records are made.

Now, I go to sleep. Two hours too late. Stupid mid-evening nap.

Little boxes on the hillside, little boxes made of ticky tacky.

I thought this concept was pretty cool, and sort of sexy in a bizarre, house-is-only-slightly-bigger-than-you sort of way. I heard it suggested as useful for disaster relief efforts. I gotta say, I'm sure people with no homes would kill for one of these right now.

Trust in me, in all you do. Have the faith I have in you.

I must admit I half-chuckled to myself as I imagined my housemate reading this post.

On the list of banks ranked by level of consumer trust, my bank takes the top spot in insurance, and is close at its own heels in banking.

There's a lot to be said for a bank that aims to please. I suppose it's able to cut its costs a bit by stabilizing its membership based on certain demographics, but my bank consistently offers top-notch customer service, competitive pricing, standard plan features that other banks and insurers consider premium (or don't even offer), and an overall fantastic customer experience.

Bank of America? Not surprisingly, not even on the list. That's a bank suffering a serious crisis in customer confidence--haven't heard a single member lately who's really happy to be a member of that bank.

Worm food.

So tonight my housemate and I assembled a pretty quick & dirty vermicompost bin. I'm pretty excited about this, especially since they took away the compost bin from the apartments next door as they began the renovations. I'm looking forward to a healthy, bountiful garden this year (dangit!), and I'm hoping the little red wigglers can help me out in that respect. All that remains is to buy the actual worms (though our garden may turn some up over the next day or so).

The nice thing about vermicompost bins is that, in addition to requiring less maintenance and processing time, worm bins are less smelly, despite the fact that you're basically turning the contents into worm poop. In fact, the only time it smells is if you're doing something wrong, so it makes a great built-in alarm bell. In the end, the worm "castings" are one of the richest, safest forms of fertilizer, and they're pH neutral (like water!).

Anyway, there are any number of ways to build a vermicompost bin, but the simplest worm composter involves taking an opaque 18-gallon rubber tub with lid, drilling holes along the top and bottom of the bin, and throwing in some damp newspaper, a couple handfuls of soil, some leaf litter, and cardboard, then placing it over a drain tray and covering it. This is what we did, and it took all of 5 minutes from start to finish. I know it's rather nerdy, but I'm eagerly awaiting a vibrant worm bin.

On that note, I leave you with what is by now a classic youtube viral: the disgusting sewer worms under Cameron Village in Raleigh, NC.

R-E-C-Y-C-L-E, find out what it means to me

Sometimes I worry myself. I often find it difficult to motivate myself to crack a textbook (even in classes I enjoy), but I spent hours on end reading articles about how paper is recycled and issues faced in the recovered paper pulp industry for a case competition. Literal hours. Can we call it Applied Supply Chain and get academic credit for it? No? Damn.

(p.s., I'm still reading them, even though our application was turned in yesterday.)

Sociopolitical Networking, or Congress 2.0

This is a ridiculously nerdy and fascinating look at the evolution of the two major parties in Congress over time. It's interesting to visualize the phenomena, and how rare the real moderates can be. It also makes it that much more clear how impressive President Obama's meeting with the Republican members of Congress really was, and why something like that will probably get him demonized by both sides in the end.

It's a shame, the polarized state of politics, with its blind-deaf-dumb sloganeering party-lines-only existence. Alas, in a democracy, this is vox populi in its purest, most unfortunate form.

Yesterday's News (literally)

Defense Secretarry Gates and Joint Chiefs' chaiman Mullen came out (pun not intended, but I like it) in support of repealing Don't Ask Don't Tell. In an "it's about dadgum time" moment, the pair announced that repealing it was "the right thing to do" and that the Pentagon is working on a plan to transition to the new gay military.

In his twitter feed later, Mullen added:

Stand by what I said: Allowing homosexuals to serve openly is the right thing to do. Comes down to integrity.

I couldn't agree more.

The depressing news on antidepressants

is that, apparently, they're no more effective than placebos.

As one who has both experienced depression and known many people who sought treatment for (or otherwise fought) depression, I'm hesitant to believe the figures. The idea is that, in this study, people believed they were getting either antidepressant or placebo, right? So the results led the scientists to believe that antidepressants are only effective because people believe them to be.

On the other hand, there are only two major studies to have concluded this, and their research may not even have a statistically significant sample size.

One thing I agree on is that medication shouldn't be the first or only course of treatment. All treatment should be accompanied by ongoing therapy of some sort. The problem then becomes: how do we get mental health treatment for all who need it? Insurance plans, for those lucky enough to even be insured, often have incomplete to basically-no coverage of mental health care. Moreover, some employers stigmatize mental health care such that it's better to struggle with it internally than get treated and be ineligible for employment.

What's wrong with this picture?

all the young dudes

Recent news stories on two makers in the news.

Texting Underground can save lives and caves
I love the idea that digital messaging is something that can advance us; it's been getting a lot of flak lately, along with social networking and web 2.0. [side rant: Resistance is futile, my friends; take advantage of the benefits of social media before they become completely commoditized.]

The boy who paints like an old master
While I have my own views on old masters, this kid is an interesting study. It's sort of amusing/nauseating, though, how often his parents refute that he's being pushed into painting. Like, a) either he really is being pushed into it, and/or b) our news media try too hard to imply it such that it needs to be something repeated endlessly.

Now, on old masters, Kieron is quoted as not wanting to end up like Picasso, but rather more like Monet or Seago. Which is fine, really. The problem is how so many people mock modern art, mock abstract expressionism, mock cubism or surrealism or dadaism. I used to be among these, but I've come to hold these things dear to me.

For one thing, most of the folks who mock these forms of art haven't the slightest clue what Picasso was even trying to do (trying to revolutionize the concept of perspective in a completely different artistic language than what had been established). Second, many of these same folks couldn't distinguish a Monet from a Manet from a van Gogh... in fact, I'd lay wager that if you step into a room and asked people to identify a Monet from a lineup of paintings, fewer people could than if you asked people to identify a Picasso (unless you were a bastard and threw in one of 16-year-old Picasso's hyperrealistic paintings). Even fewer, a Seago.

The truth is, representing reality isn't all that unique. Sure, you can be a standout like Velazquez or Titian or El Greco, or you can be one of the lump of semi-indistinguishable impressionists, but creating your own interpretation of reality is so different from artist to artist. You can almost always tell a Miro from a Picasso from a Kandinsky from, well, you get the picture. This isn't to imply that there's no merit to strict representations of reality, but rather that one should take care before suggesting that a 3rd-grader could create better art than some of these abstract artists. It's all personal preference--folks who like classic paintings want beauty they can see; folks who prefer modern or abstract art want beauty they can feel.

Then there are the tightrope walkers. The Munchs, or the de Goyas (one of my personal favorites), or the Kahlos, or the Riveras. Then there's even the Warhols, who take ubiquitous imagery and feed it back to you to the nth degree, in hyperbolically popularized form.

Anyway, I won't talk about paying 1000GBP for a chalk drawing by a kid, and you don't talk about how Kandinsky is just a bunch of color and shapes on canvas. And we definitely won't start on classical ballet vs. contemporary.

Anyway, next time you try to write off someone's art because it doesn't look like anything, stop looking with your eyes. I leave you with a favorite quote from Picasso on language. Turns out, Picasso did a lot of really incredible things playing around with language (I'll be eternally grateful to the Nasher and their exhibit "Picasso and the Allure of Language" for opening my eyes to this):

If I begin correcting the mistakes you speak of according to rules with no relation to me, I will lose my identity to grammar I have not incorporated. I prefer to create myself as I see fit than to bend my words to rules that don't belong to me.
--Pablo Picasso, 1946