DM on my mind

Google's Places marking shops as Closed but they're still Open... a one-sided discussion

2011-09-06T14:51:00.005-04:00

From today's New York Times: In recent months, many perfectly healthy businesses across the country have expired according to Google Places, and fixing the error has often been difficult. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/06/technology/closed-in-error-on-google-places-merchants-seek-fixes.html?_r=1

Shams like these are fairly easy to do.

From the Times article: "If enough users click it, the business is labeled “reportedly closed” and later, pending a review by Google, “permanently closed.” Google was tight-lipped about its review methods and would not discuss them."

Besides, with Google it's often the community that monitors itself. Crowd-sourcing. You can correct errors and self-promote as far as Google will allow; and they allow quite a bit. And that's the point of crowd-sourcing. I like Google for this reason, and I clearly have no problem using Google services as I'm writing on their blog tool, right now!

Plenty of online and "bricks-and-mortar" businesses have used a variety of Google services, and other non-Google services online (Facebook, Twitter, Yelp!, etc.) to establish, promote and maintain their brand for strategic advancement against competition.

In the spirit of Google Places -- having the public notify Places that a shop has closed, when in fact it has, is quite a good process for large-scale implementation like Google Places. No single person or department at Google could ever monitor the world that Google Places covers. It's not scalable and not necessary. Let the local public tell the machine that a place is closed, so that others who use that machine know too. Great! But what if that system is sometimes abused. We learned that Yelp! had a similar problem of users writing fake reviews. Who is responsible for setting "right" such a "wrong"? Who slaps the wrist (or sues) the offending person or people who did the act?

On eLance.com, for example, there are ALWAYS postings of paid jobs for people to write SEO targeted copy for (in my opinion, unethical and unscrupulous) site owners who want to pull as much Google traffic to their site and get unwitting web surfers to click on their paid links. Or my favorite: write our company's blog for us and make sure to write it SEO keyword heavy -- and we'll pay you almost nothing for the effort. (The other unscrupulous, or maybe just lazy, employers are college students who post to hire someone to write their college papers. That's a separate issue but I object to that very strongly.)

Many companies have their own Social Media departments, I've found that much of that work is outsourced or done by freelancers. (Great, more jobs!) These employers hire people to write blog posts or go on to targeted message boards or targeted competitor sites and then talk up and link to their postings, articles, products, etc. Basically, using (or abusing) the Google system for their own benefit. In fact, it's called "reputation management." I imagine that being said, more often than not, with a wink and a nudge.

These employers I've described on eLance, for example, are not doing anything illegal per se. At least I don't believe it's illegal. (I could be very wrong.)

Many of them are located outside the US. I know almost zero about what's acceptable in India, Indonesia, Malaysia and other places that have made such postings on eLance. I believe this kind of job posting was popular on Amazon's Mechanical Turk, too. In fact, people in the US may say, "Well, if someone knows how to abuse the Google system for their own profit, why not? And the eLance employers are at least paying someone to freelance that work for them, so that's good." (I disagree with this but I'm thinking of a counter argument that one could make.)

For Google, a user who clicks that a shop is closed when it is not and does so out of malice may go against their brand value of "Do no evil". But then, is it "evil"?

Does eLance monitor all the job postings by "employers" to see if the jobs are ethical? Besides, who is going to determine if a job is ethical with something like "reputation management." I honestly don't know. Even though there are a TON of reputable employers on eLance, for example, and they pay fairly for sensible freelance work, but I stopped looking for jobs there after I had enough of filtering through what people wanted to pay for.

Snake oil salesmen aren't new and aren't going away anytime soon. (I'm in NO way saying that eLance or Google or Yelp! or Amazon or companies with Social Media departments are snake oil salesmen, they are platforms, however, that such "salesmen" can use to promote their own agendas.)

JCPenney is the famous example of using Google search results know-how to abuse Google's own search results system. Paying sites to put up a JCP link on their site, so that JC Penney had more referral links than their competitors. Increasing their chances of being the #1 link on someone's Google search result for just about any product that JC Penney sells. Cheating? Yes.

Can the crowds be trusted to be fair?

I don't think Google thinks it can be fully. That's why they have had a verification process to check if a shop is really closed or not. Plus, they're about to change this verification process "in the coming days" to accommodate dealing with this Places problem. I'm really curious to know what Google is going to actually do about it. (I'm certain I'll never find out since they'd have to share an internal process.)

So back to my point: This behavior online and in "real life" is at best libel, or at least, just plain bullying and rude. This is why maintaining a company's brand and reputation can be a full-time job as much as marketing, promotion, strategy, and the day-to-day running of it.

Could, or really SHOULD, this problem have been anticipated by Google?
Or maybe, better question, is this good Customer Service on the part of Google? Is Google effectively addressing the problems of its Customers? In this case the wronged business owners.
And by that token, is everyone who uses Google a Customer of Google? (or just the ones with Gmail accounts, or just the ones who pay?)
In this example, who is responsible? Google and/or the people who mischievously mark businesses as closed?

To be fair, I believe that Google DID anticipate such a situation which is why they had the original vetting process so that, presumably, only a responsible human working on behalf of Google could mark a business as "permanently closed". For the size and scope of Google's customer base (I'm assuming every person who uses Google is a "customer" for the sake of this discussion), that they address the problems of their customers by having and presumably monitoring message boards and creating detailed and extensive FAQs. These wronged business owners did use and have a means of correction; they had a voice. Frustrated and tedious as that was, there was some solution.

In my view, both Google and the people who did the mischievous markings were responsible. Google for incorrectly or ineffectively marking open businesses as "permanently closed" and the mischievous people for abusing the system. Google has taken its responsibility, and by words has promised to make improvements. Only those who were wronged can say if the improvements are effective. Only a customer can tell a company if the company has been delivered on its promise.

I'd love to know what others think. (On your own now, don't pay someone to write a reply for you.)

The ongoing saga of (almost) identity theft

2011-09-05T11:10:00.000-04:00

Earlier this year, someone stole my identity, or at least my social security number, address and name. And this person and tried to open some lines of credit in my name. Gratefully, these lines of credit were not opened (phew) but the credit inquiries were posted to my credit report. Since there was a breach of personal information from an ex-employer, that ex-employer had paid for everyone affected to have 3 years of a credit monitoring service. It was this service that alerted me to the problem.

I then received three formally-written letters from three different companies stating that the credit line I requested was not opened without further information from me. It was Best Buy/HSBC, Zales/Citibank, and T-Mobile. I immediately called the phone number provided on each of these letters and stated it wasn't me but someone else and what can I do to make sure the accounts are not opened AND remove (what I later learned to call it) fraudulent credit inquiry from my credit report.

Well, from each of them I was told sincerely they were very sorry and they wrote whatever notes they needed to make sure the accounts were not going to be opened and alerted their respective credit bureaus to put an initial fraud alert on my account. Citibank even helped me with the process of putting an full fraud alert on my account that would last 10 years and then I put my phone number on the alert on my credit report so that the credit bureaus would have to call me before opening any line of credit -- even if it was me.

Great, I figured this is straight forward and I don't have to worry.

A few months later, I noticed that the credit inquiries were still on my report. So I called each of the companies again, they each told me that they were very sorry and I needed to send a letter to them (as it was only in writing that I could make such a request) to have them remove the fraudulent inquiry from my credit report. They each gave me the address to send it to, told me what to write, and that should be that.

It is now nine months after the initial fraudulent activity was posted to my credit report and this is still not resolved.

In the meantime, I had called Equifax and TransUnion. Both told me that I could not have the inquiries removed but the companies that had posted them must do it. I explained that I'd called and written to each of the three companies and they each assured me they'd done their job to alert Equifax and/or TransUnion about it. Both credit bureaus apologized but they wouldn't be able to help me. Equifax's rep from a call center in India even tried to upsell me on putting a freeze on my account for a monthly fee.

I WAS FURIOUS.

Having worked in Customer Service on the phone for three years and then for about a year online, I can tell you I've had my share of being yelled at. I can also tell you I've many times gone WAY above and beyond for a customer that was in my position: unhappy, frustrated and having met only dead ends after being given inaccurate information by other reps.

Only the reps at T-Mobile were helpful and they sent me a letter stating they DID alert the credit bureau and it can take the bureau a few months to remove the inquiry. I'm still waiting, but at least I know they did what they said.

I'm still receiving written letters from Zales and Best Buy's line of credit telling me that either:
A. There is no open line of credit account with my name on it from them (duh)
B. There is no way to remove a credit inquiry from a credit report (ignoring the fact that it was fraudulent, in which case there is a way to remove the inquiry)
C. Thank you, we're sorry, can you send us more information.

I've now written SIX letters to each of those companies and in their response letters neither has acknowledged the actual problem I've clearly and simply stated in each letter. I even made sure to keep the letters formal, factual and only half a page with 12 point type in case the person reading it has a short attention span.

Honestly, if my identity had been breached and accounts had been open it would have been an absolute nightmare compared to this, given the lack of effective and responsible responses I've gotten from these companies. Canned customer service letters are not effective nor responsible nor polite when dealing with something of this nature. ESPECIALLY if the canned reply is not addressing the problem.

It's like a game where the real rules are hidden and only the tenacious win. I'm pretty tenacious but even my resolve is waning.

I'll post an update in the future if it is resolved. But this is an example of very poor customer service, service design and a faulted bureaucratic process, indeed.

Luxury Brand: Europe vs China. Is there even a competition?

2011-08-30T14:41:00.003-04:00

I'm no fortune teller but I have a feeling that a shift and change is afoot in the geographic home to luxury goods. Currently, that home is Europe and has been for quite some time [http://www.eurocham.com.hk/about-eubip/88-chinas-investment-in-european-luxury-buyer-beware.html]. The biggest group of buyers (in dollars/yen/pounds/euro) is currently the Chinese.

I read a recent interview in the Financial Times with Diego Della Valle, the head of Tod's (Milan). [http://www.ft.com/cms/s/84721c1c-c33f-11e0-9109-00144feabdc0.html] I found two points most interesting: FIrst, his belief that a luxury brand will have to maintain, what he called "the dream touch." A balance between a brand's products being exclusive and yet popular. Second, his belief that for the foreseeable future the Chinese will want "Made in Italy" and shun "Made in China".

Here's the excerpt:
With all this talk of Asian resurgence, does he consider that the “Made in Italy” label will retain its lustre? “Yes,” he replies unhesitatingly. “Because it is still the maximum guarantee of high quality for products such as ours. Like the French for perfume, the Swiss for watches. The Chinese do not want to buy ‘Made in China’.” But the Chinese will surely learn, if they haven’t already, how to make things equally well? “But we have the hundreds, the thousands, of family firms, micro-enterprises, almost a Renaissance model, that guarantee that quality. That’s not easy to copy.”

At first I was blown away at how naive this statement is, especially given some of the other things he said that were rather insightful. The undying belief and pride that luxury-good brands from high-end, family-owned Italian businesses could not be replaced by an emerging Chinese luxury-brand of equally high-end materials, style and exclusivity. That, perhaps, the Chinese are not capable of such competition. That Italians have a solid and experienced network of suppliers, designers, and craftsmen/women to design, produce, market and sell (with that balance of exclusivity and popularity in hand) -- that this is not easy to copy. Perhaps not easy, but it can be copied. If nothing else, the Chinese factories that produce US and European technology and apparel goods have proved they're darn good at copying.

The luxury market, however, is not the place to sell copies. Although Canal Street vendors in New York City have fairly good imitations on the black/intellectual-property-infringed market. The real buyers in any luxury market, a copy will just not do. So what's to stop a Chinese luxury-goods company from doing the same? Establishing a high-end model? Is it the lack of intellectual property statutes in China or the fact that European brands just have more cache?

(Truthfully, I know very little about the fashion industry. In fact, as a regular reader of the Financial Times it may be my only exposure to high-end brand names and products at all. I'm definitely not the typical FT reader and do not own any luxury brand goods. Though, of course, I aspire to as someone in the middle class is supposed to.)

The only high-end Chinese brand I know of is "Shanghai Tang". So, I went looking for an article about them and their head of company's view [http://www.cnn.com/2010/BUSINESS/03/30/china.fashion.luxury/index.html ]. What I found was what I expected to find, a similar set of statements that basically promote the pride that Chinese have in their own Chinese brands and that luxury goods can be produced, designed and bought with cache with "Made in China" on the label.

However, I found the interview devoid of any substantial statements about strategy or brand values. Although this was a CNN interview not meant to be in-depth about any point, unlike the Financial Times interview which is "Lunch With the FT" column and is meant to be a meaningful conversation with substance. So it is a bit unfair to compare. The CNN inteview with the Shanghai Tang CEO had weak sound bites meant to promote that Shanghai Tang has Chinese pride and the future is all about China: "But today everybody produce in China. Simply because you can get quality in China the same way you can get quality in the Western World."

Will a Chinese label be able to establish and maintain that "dream touch"?

Both interviews referenced the Japanese market of 20 years ago as being the predecessor of the Chinese market today. Delle Valle (CEO Tod's) mentioned that unlike the US and Japanese slow embrace of luxury goods over years that started with the wealthy and then the middle class, that the Chinese market is more of an explosion of both the wealthy and middle class at once. The development of embracing and buying luxury goods is different.

From what little I know about China today, I think everything is different about this "explosion" of wealth. I think the Europeans are going to need to stick even more strongly to their brand vision and values and maintain brand across everything they do, while simultaneously looking over their shoulders for a stream of Chinese luxury brands who will be able to really compete with them.

Like with any brand that is selling something, the appeal to one's emotions is often paramount. Just look at luxury hotel chain: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/29/business/media/ads-for-luxury-collection-hotels-appeal-to-emotion-advertising.html?_r=1&smid=tw-nytimestravel&seid=auto Promoting the "personal touches", the little details, that separate a hotel from a room with a bed to an experience. The luxury market, no matter where and no matter for what, the quality and differentiation is crucial.

Tod's understands that and we'll see how well Shanghai Tang (or any other yet-to-come high-end Chinese brand) understands that, too.

Part 1: Delta Airlines new campaign - sincere care or wishful thinking?

2010-12-09T13:14:00.001-05:00

I've been a frequent traveler for years for both business and family vacations, and as such I have some pretty definite opinions about certain airlines in addition to a keen awareness of how each airline promotes its personality. Additionally, in my past I worked in a few industries in customer service for over three years, plus client relations and project management for over ten.

Recently, I’ve taken notice of the new Delta ad campaign that features black and white photos with their red logo and a short sentence that is meant to engender you to have warm feelings to them as an airline. It’s referred to as the “Keep Climbing” campaign. (http://www.brandweek.com/bw/content_display/news-and-features/direct/e3i5d86cb3297fb74c52dbe40bb9b48a15d)

Two of these subway ads that stick out in my mind are, "The red coats are back" (which reminds me of the British troops during the Revolution, not customer service reps from Delta) and "Sleep is not a perk", but apparently free check-in luggage is a perk. I’ll get to this next time.

I should disclose that three years ago I swore off flying Delta ever again, unless there was no option to fly another airline. I had an absolute disaster experience with their airport staff, call centers in the US and India and general over-exposure to their lost luggage processes when they lost my checked bag, and then a very botched layover experience in Atlanta a year later. The first experience was bad enough that they forced me to check a carry-on bag because the flight was full, and then it was never scanned; found three weeks later after I had re-purchased all the items in my suitcase. The second Delta experience swore me off ever connecting in Atlanta on any airline if I could help it since the Delta and Atlanta airport staff were so rude and dismissive. Honestly, I’ve had my bags lost by American Airlines a few times during work travel, but the way I was treated by Delta turned me off to them entirely.

For me, Delta lost my respect. It went from a decent airline with a solid brand I wanted to trust and that flew a lot of places I wanted to go, to a commodity airline that I avoided at all costs.

Most recently, my sister bought a ticket on Delta to fly to a college friend’s wedding. Three days before her flight, she fell sick with a really bad bacterial infection and was immediately put on antibiotics. Had she flown she would have certainly gotten a good portion of the flight’s passengers sick and many people at the wedding. So she cancelled her ticket by calling Delta. They charged her a $150 rebooking fee, on a $225 ticket. She was given a confirmation number, so she could use the remaining credit on another flight in the future. She would have to call Delta to use that credit, to book her next flight. I tried to see if they charge you a fee for calling to make a flight reservation, like other airlines do, but I couldn’t find a definitive answer one way or another.

Either way, a $20 fee to book a flight using Delta’s phone reservation system or not, it is certainly an exorbitant “rebooking” fee, especially on such an otherwise cheap ticket. Now, I well realize it is of no concern to Delta why someone is cancelling using their ticket but $150 is steep. If they really have “the customer’s back” you’d figure they would charge you a percentage of your ticket as the cancellation fee -- something more variable to match the scale of the original ticket price. Even then, I was just appalled by taking nearly 67% of the original ticket price as a “rebooking fee.”

This reminded me of the cancellation fees that cell phone companies employ. My favorite at the moment is my $350 fee with AT&T if I leave them before the 2 year contract is up. But that’s another story.

Back to the topic at hand, Delta’s branded messages and the resonation of truth behind the messages. What I like about the campaign is that it is visually coherent and consistent in its content. The message is clear and the message is singular. Any good brand message needs to be both clear and singular. Focus, focus, focus.

A wonderful, customer-service focused, but non-airline branded message is Avis’ “We Try Harder”. First used in 1963, Avis launched this campaign to gain car rental business against the giant, Hertz. Avis turned a one year profit of $1.2 million after launching “We Try Harder”, and their marketshare of 11% in 1962 increased to 35% by 1966. http://www.avis.com.cy/We_try_harder.html Having used this slogan for over 40 years, it’s not only served Avis well but has become a well-recognized message with the public.

Delta’s promise of being nicer to you than any other airline, if true, will definitely affect all their customers.The only problem with going the “we love our customers” route is if the entire company can’t deliver, the promise sounds insincere to the public and is a waste of time and money.

musings over new york city life

2008-05-22T14:06:00.003-04:00

I've started to do research a book I'm planning to write. Not a very committed statement, but true. And through my interviews, which are about new yorkers, I realize more and more that I don't want to leave Manhattan. In particular I don't want to leave the East Village. I have known this to be true for, well, since I moved in. In comparison I got a pretty good deal on my studio, which both my husband and I now live in. It's not great, but it's good. The only major complaint is when the plumbing in the building has some problem, which is every few months. None of it stops the world, so we get on.

I have, what I think is, a usual relationship with the city. I love it. Like it was a person you're dating or some such. Something to be proud of and desire. So I get a little indignant and a lot frustrated when I realize, not that far in the future, I'm going to have to leave the city and go to somewhere else. If we're going to have a kid, and likely we will within the year, we need more space. Well, we don't NEED more space but that would be nice. Half our stuff is in storage, even though every Spring and Fall (when we actually get those seasons for more than a few days anymore), we do a purge of our stuff.

We're both a little bit pack-rat like and so stuff accumulates. Even though we love a homey yet minimal design style, we have piles of stuff in places.

Anyway, we like some of our stuff so we keep it. But we can't afford the city, and the extra Manhattan city tax every year is just the punch in the stomach that makes me wish I was in Queens or Brooklyn. Most of our friends are still in Manhattan, or at least that's where we all hang out. So until they all leave, which few are starting to, we'll be resistant to move. Me in particular.

I keep asking myself, who are these people that can afford the rent in my neighborhood for 2 bedrooms, or any of those apartments that are more than $3k/month? Forget the multimillion dollar pads that I can't even imagine visiting let alone renting or owning. In my neighborhood, even when a 2bdrm exists, it's crazy expensive. To myself I ask them, what do you do? How much do you get paid? (And should I be doing that instead?)

I can only think that they make a considerable amount more than we do or are more comfortable living with debt than we are.

Either way, I feel shafted. I feel like my love and dedication to the city should reward me in some way. It's totally irrational, but in my weakest moments that's what I think. And then I suppose when the real, immediate need for a 2 bedroom is in my face, my priorities will change and I'll be more receptive to making concessions on location.

But for right now, I like that I'm here. Minca is across the street and I can't find a better noodle place in the city so far -- at least for me. Trust me, I've tried a LOT of noodles.

So here's to living well and environmentally-friendly my favorite neighborhood for as long as I can!

ux team of one, i wish it was me

2008-05-09T17:41:00.001-04:00

How to be a UX Team Of One

From: ugleah, 3 weeks ago

| View | Upload your own

How to Be a UX Team of One was presented by Leah Buley at the 2008 IA Summit in Miami, Florida.

It shows techniques for generative design that can be used by solo user experience practitioners.

SlideShare Link

New York City Congestion Charge

2008-04-09T11:28:00.002-04:00

So it seems that although New York City wants to charge money to dissuade traffic in midtown, the state legislature thinks otherwise. I'll bet it has as much to do with timing of this proposal as it does with NYS's fear of losing business or money or something that isn't people's health.

Here's an excerpt from an email from the Mayor's office:

""Today is a sad day for New Yorkers and a sad day for New York City. Not only won't we see the realization of a plan that would have cut traffic, spurred our economy, reduced pollution and improved public health, we will also lose out on nearly $500 million annually for mass transit improvements and $354 million in immediate federal funds."

results of earth hour 08

2008-04-02T21:40:00.004-04:00

Well after reading through the Google News headlines for results of March 29th Earth Hour it looks like there were reductions in energy use but that it is also a little too early to tell what the dip was and any environmental benefit. A bonus of the lights going out in some Canadian cities was that it left the night sky a bit less "polluted" with city lights. Richmond Hill's Observatory benefited. I can't imagine how clear the night sky would have been if my own New York City could follow suit. I have a hard time imagining the bureaucratic wrangling that it would take to turn the lights off of Times Square. But what a statement, eh? At least we passed Congestion Pricing today. I got the email notification from the City earlier today. Nice!

Now, go plant a tree: http://www.milliontreesnyc.org/html/involved/month.shtml
If only I could figure out what open jobs they have at PLANYC. They might not want me but I definitely want to be involved. Trying to find the postings on nyc.gov is a bit, um, difficult. This is why I want to do more with information design/communication + environment. Make it personal, get it in the correct context for each audience. Redesign the interface so you can find what you are looking for.

I could go on... but I'm tired.

Earth Hour, wonder what will happen

2008-03-29T11:07:00.004-04:00

If you don't know already, Earth Hour this year is tonight, March 29 from 20:00 - 21:00 local time. I'm, of course, going to participate and turn off all our lights. What's most interesting to me are two things:
1. The metrics of how many participated ( much CO2 and energy was saved) and how they'll compare it across time zones.
2. how many babies will be born 10 months from tonight because of this.

If you haven't heard, or want to know what's up, check it out here: http://www9.earthhourus.org/

On another interesting note, is something I read from Google's EarthHour homepage today.
I had believed (or wanted to believe) blog post months about how if you just chance the color of the screen background from white to black (they used Google w/ black background -- Blackle-- as the example) that the monitor would use slightly less energy and therefore be less energy taxing/environmentally friendlier. Well, on Google's Earth Hour page explains it doesn't matter what color the screen background is. That's good for visual design since I have Accessibility questions about the contrast being high enough.

Grab a drink, turn off the lights. There's plenty of ways to entertain yourself for an hour in the "dark."

being pregnant and true sustainability

2008-03-20T14:31:00.004-04:00

I wrote this in a notebook February7 before I knew for certain that I was about 4 weeks pregnant. Even though my life has changed in this short amount of time, I still think it holds true and so I'm putting this out there. Basically, if we all took as good care of each other and the planet as many of us care for ourselves, things would be better.

Deep breath. Here goes...

The more I think about being pregnant, the more I believe there is a direct analogy for understanding sustainability. Sustainability is, in business, the means/way by which you are able to produce your product/service/whatever without negatively impacting the environment, others environment, the welfare of the people who work for you, the welfare of those who buy from you, who supply you. Ideally, not creating any waste and still creating a financial -- if not also ecological and social -- profit. Yes, I believe this is the Triple Bottom Line.

Sustainability is NOT the same as simply environmentally-friendly, -responsible, eco-friendly, "green" or social responsibility. It is all of these things and more. It is the full life cycle. More sucinctly: "Sustainability is the development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs." This definition was created in 1987 at the World Commission on Environment and Development (the Brundtland Commission).

So, let's just say that if you're in business and are sustainable, then you expect your business to sustain for 500 years in the future. You make plans and take actions to support that 500 year vision.

So how does this relate to pregnancy?

In a way it does. Whether intentionally or unintentionally pregnant -- and assuming the woman plans to take the pregnancy to full term (so no "planned" termination) -- her actions directly affect her life and the building life of another.

What she eats, drinks, does, breathes, consumes, puts on, etc. The vitamins she takes, creams she puts on, clothes she wears, garbage and waste she creates... it all affects the budding life's health and then afterwards.

Sometimes Nature steps in and the baby never arrives. But that wasn't planned. It was an uncontrollable effect. Similarly, sustainability in business, even the best intentions can be thwarted by Nature. However, in both cases direct action in an unsustainable way will guarantee long lasting negative effects. If not delayed negative effects in the case of plastic degrading in a landfill or, worse, in the oceans and re-entering the food supply as "food" for fish. For the pregnancy it will invariably result in the health of the baby that becomes a child and then adult. There is a consequence.

For example on the pregnancy argument, if a woman spends her entire pregnancy drinking beers and eating Twinkies or, say, doing some H -- as her main source of energy -- it is likely, although not guaranteed, her infant will be ill or have developmental problems. Now, given the plenitude of genes and natural development of a fetus, the same could happen to a woman who only eats healthily and exercises regularly. Like I wrote earlier, sometimes Nature intervenes in the development and the development stops.

Of course, this is where my analogy breaks down and I get close to insulting someone who has suffered a miscarriage or has opted for in vitro or other methods. But that's certainly not my point.

Comparing Nature, society, and finances to the natural process of pregnancy... well, there are genetic and business connections that I could make if I stretch this out really thinly. So I won't.

I guess what this comes down to is being a bit afraid and a lot aware of my daily choices now having a direct and visible affect on another person's existence. Where before, I believed this but I'll be able to see the effect on another person and before it was just measuring my "carbon footprint" and seeing how much trash I throw out.

Negative Ions, a well-designed solution to feeling better at home?

2008-01-06T12:06:00.000-05:00

Around mid-September 2007, I posted an entry on my blog about how you can do your home up with clay plaster. That the ions that clay has are the same as what humans are accustomed to when living in nature.

Since I posted this blog entry I haven't tried the clay plaster; I haven't left my studio apartment in New York. So there hasn't been a home for me to try this on.

I more recently read in the Science Times section of the New York Times that mentioned humans like being in environments that have negative ions. So you feel better with clay plaster than others because of this fact. I also realized from the New York Times article that negative ions are why I prefer to leave the windows open instead of using the air conditioner (except when it's insanely hot) and put on more clothes than use the heat. I always would get, what I called as a kid, air conditioner headaches. Maybe it was just the lack of negative ions.

Perhaps all a well-designed home needs is to make more use of what humans have evolved from, the natural world. We're all star stuff after all ;)

Here's the section of the article from "Seasonal Affective Disorder" and the link to the article from Dec 18, 2007:

"It may sound suspiciously close to snake oil, but the newest promising therapy for SAD is negative air ionization. Dr. Terman found it serendipitously when he used a negative ion generator as a placebo control for bright light, only to discover that high-flow negative ions had positive effects on mood.

Heated and air-conditioned environments are low in negative ion content. Humid places, forests and the shore are loaded with them. It makes you wonder whether there is something, after all, to those tales about the mistral and all those hot dry winds, full of bad positive ions, that supposedly drive people mad."

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/18/health/18mind.html

Design is the Cause of and Solution to all the world's problems

2007-12-10T12:38:00.000-05:00

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/ff2d7118-a39f-11dc-b229-0000779fd2ac.html?nclick_check=1

Recently there was a small news piece in the Financial Times that mentioned how Netflix has earned the ire of the USPS's auditor because the return envelopes' closing/sticky edge is too soft. So it means that the USPS has to hand-sort all of those Netflix envelopes that are used to return the discs to Netflix. The original envelope that gets the disc to the customer has a stiff enough "leading edge" but not the return envelope. Apparently the "leading edge" is not using a good design. Plus it'll cost Netflix an additional 17 cents per envelope to get DVDs back from customers. This increase would negate 2/3rds of Netflix's profit.

Netflix designers, hopefully, are working on a way to stiffen the edges. So with better-informed parameters and good design strategy, Netflix is going to remedy the problem that bad design created.

Gooooooooooooo Design!

California to sue US Government over emissions

2007-11-06T11:29:00.000-05:00

Another interesting article from the FT, "California vows to sue over emissions" from a story in April 2007 that outlined how Gov. Schwarzenegger was going to proceed, and then a new statement by California's governor -- reported on 22nd of October "California set to sue over emissions".

Apparently back in April 2007, Gov. Schwarzenegger told the US government that he was going to sue them if they didn't let the EPA grant a waiver over greenhouse gas emissions. Essentially the state of California wants to take more strident action against greenhouse gas emissions and do it faster than the US federal government is ready to set standards up to California's. Apparently the request for this EPA waiver was originally sent to the US government two years ago, so in 2005.

During 2006, California passed legislation that commits the state to a 25% cut in greenhouse gas emissions by 2020.

I'm usually against lawsuits. By and large, so many of them that make it to the press seem to be frivolous or at the very least selfish. This is something I can get behind.

Recycling is not THE answer if you look at the problem holistically

2007-10-28T13:23:00.000-04:00

"Recycling is not the answer" by Martin Gibson from Envirowise. If there was ever someone who was talking about the virtues of Design Management and just didn't call it by its name, is Mr. Gibson here. I spent the time reading this article, and feeling very inspired that someone outside of the circles I know about really gets DM and doesn't even (maybe) know what it's called!

Here are some of my favorite parts:

"...so-called 'triple bottom line' -- profit, planet and people -- is needed for businesses to survive and thrive in the longer term."

"...addressing the 'planet' or environmental side of sustainability is good for the profit line -- the economics are obvious: reducing resource use, water consumption or energy use will reduce expenditure..."

"Envirowise found that 52 per cent of SMEs surveyed reported evidence of growing environmental awareness amongst their clients over the past year...Some ten per cent are anticipating an increased demand for information... while 11 per cent have altered their business strategy as a result."

"The greenwash backlash is almost upon us. The gap between rhetoric and action on climate change..."

"Prevention is after all better than cure...looking at the processes and inputs rather than fixing the output."

"Looking at the design of a product: looking at the supply chain that provides the components of that product; looking at the packaging of a product' these all may seem obvious areas to investigate, but are often overlooked, or explored in isolation and not holistically."

"Key to this whole life cycle approach is changing behaviour and the way people approach problems. People in business should ask themselves" 'How can I use the least material and energy to give the customer what they want?'"

Effective Communication is a key to Design Management

2007-10-28T13:11:00.000-04:00

In fact it was two of our classes at Pratt: Communication.

How many people do you work with who write emails that are frustrating for their lack of clarity, especially when that person is in a senior position to you and is giving you direction on delivering something to him/her? Or a subordinate who you've asked a yes/no question to and gives you a 5 minute reply doesn't answer you at all, and in fact only confuses you as to what she/he is on about? How often do you read or hear someone say something that misses the point or is just an onslaught of words, and makes you wonder if there is a point at all?

It's bad design. What you say, how you say it and what you mean is part of a larger 'design'. Mostly I think that if you express yourself poorly you either don't have the verbal or written skills to execute on your idea or your ideas don' t have clarity. Either way, it's trouble -- even for sustainability reports.

"Climate change must feature in trading statements" by Sarah Murray (FT) makes some salient points about communication and how it's key to not only sustainability reports but communicating a vision and a mission -- especially when it comes to change.

"...at SustainAbility, a consultancy whose work includes brokering relations between internal corporate groups as well as between investors and companies."

"...one of the reasons companies have trouble convincing investors of the merits of their sustainability strategies is that their sustainability staff are not communicating effectively with the investor relations department... sustainability professionals often come into the corporate world from the non-profit sector... but no grasp of finance."

So it doesn't matter if you're talking about a sustainability mission, vision, change, report, or how your weekend was... "'Most people... say they don't understand each other -- and that's part of the reason why internally that hasn't been progressed quicker."

Always #1: Know your audience

PS How many of you wonder if I'm being paid by the Financial Times to quote and refer to their articles? It's just they're a brilliant paper. One day, and probably not too far in the future, I'm going to get a subscription to every paper I can, read them, and make my own selections. Until then I'm going to subscribe to "The Week".

Packaging material clogs up landfills

2007-10-28T12:45:00.000-04:00

There isn't anything new here, it's just another reminder that package designers have a lot of responsibility and ultimately a lot of sway in the world's health.

"The greenest of plastic bottles grow in fields" by Ross Tieman, Financial Times.

Some quotes to give you an idea of the article:

"...like Wal-Mart, has broadcast a goal of reducing packaging by five per cent."
"A British government study concluded that used packaging accounted for 18 per cent of the contents of a typical household bin, by weight and volume. In 2004, Britons threw away 171kg of packaging per person..."

"'Packaging enables a lot of resource conservation in the supply chain.' That is why, he [Anders Linde] says, 'strategically, we need to look at the whole supply chain. To look at packaging in isolation makes no sense." (Lucky for me this is a huge part of Design Management. Looking at the entire life cycle. Because, when you really look at it all, Recycling is not the answer.)

"But PLA [a proprietary plastic produced in Nebraska by Natureworks] is no miracle solution. Naturally Iowa says it takes 60-100 days to break down its milk bottles in a heated commercial composting facility. Put one in your home compost bin, says Sainsbury's Mr Lendram, and 'it will still be there when you move.'"

"Plastics are the biggest challenge. Rejecting PLA, it [Sainsbury's] is working with suppliers to re-package own-brand goods in materials that break down naturally. One is NatureFlex, a transparent cellulose film made by...Innovia Films"

"Another supplier is Italy's Novamont, which offers a more opaque bioplastic, Materi Bi, derived from maize, which can form bags, foam trays, or even drinking cups. Plantic Technologies, of Australia... offers a maize-based resin that can be injection-moulded and used for film."

My question then becomes, what is the triple-bottomline cost of raising maize to produce packaging. What is it when we look to essentially a food to make packaging. Is it better or worse than plastic? I'm guessing that it's better. I just worry about the cost of food rising for the sake of things like biodiesel (which actually I love) and bottled water (which I have a guilty pleasure of and buy for convenience while traveling).

However, I'm more in favor of making any packaging biodegradable over toxic, even if it means using plant/food-based materials. The push, I imagine, is to get people to buy locally and fresh so that packaging isn't as much of a problem. So that you buy what you need. I think I'm treading on Slow Food Movement water now...

The greenhouse gases your food produces

2007-10-28T12:32:00.000-04:00

Ok, so it's not that your food per se produces greenhouse gases, it's more that within food production (the entire life cycle) greenhouse gases are produced. "Food footprints coming soon to a label near you" by Fiona Harvey, Financial Times.

I think it's really great and still frustrating that once again the UK and/or EU is so far ahead of the US. I guess it's true that if you come from a place with limited natural resources like the EU vs. US you (aka Europeans) are more aware of the end of those resources and more protective of making them last longer. One of my grad school groups came up with this idea of eco-aware labels for food and non-food products. We argued our way out of it as something to present to class because of the lack of a central, respected body that would come up with the baseline that all products, companies, methods would be measured against. To keep track of what was produced in terms of CO2 from each farmer, chemist, company, factory, printer, packer, shipper, store, rubbish/garbage removal. Not to mention any of the byproducts, waste, energy, etc to make each phase of the lifecycle happen... It all seemed too daunting a challenge for us to think through and still have a solution at the end that came up with a reputable and meaningful label to inform consumers. And then, after all of that, would it make a meaningful difference to a consumer's decision to buy one product vs. another -- or just another way for a company to create a marketable advantage and yet something else that can be manipulated for profit sans principle.

It seemed to us too difficult and unsupported back in 2004, maybe the world really is changing...

Segments I liked in the article:
"Companies have to scrutinise factors such as their electricity usage, their transport, heating, their use of materials, and any greenhouse gases produced by chemical processes in their manufacturing."

"...BSI British Standards to develop a single standard to measure the 'embodied' greenhouse gas emissions from products and services, which should make it easier for other companies to apply the same methods."

Furthering my point, in the article "Food chain is complex" by Sarah Murray, Financial Times (of course) explains that, "'Establishing one standard, credible way of measuring a product's carbon content will empower consumers to make informed decisions as well as driving businesses to invest in lowering the carbon content of their products,' said Tom Delay, the Carbon Trust's chief executive."

This is true, and then the article touches on another point we came across in 2004, "At the same time, agriculture is responsible for pollution in the form of run-off of chemical fertilisers. Since less than half the nitrogen applies to crops in fertiliser is actually use, the rest leaches into soil and rivers... But there are tough trade-offs for farmers..."

Developing and implementing (and then keeping to) sustainable practices in agriculture is a far bigger deal than what may amount to cursory involvement in food packaging labels. It's a start which I can support. I support the change in opinions based on what's really happening, the whole way through, and getting back to what our ancestors knew. They knew the food they consumed because they made it, they knew all about it and where it all came from and experienced. We should to. What's difficult, and nearly impossible without some international, standardized system (and who wants that?), is being able to keep track. Knowing all the direct and indirect details is probably futile, and it's not what's important to a consumer. What's important now is changing buying behaviors so that what is supported is "good" on as many levels as possible.

The common man/woman may only care insofar as it is affecting him/her directly. Make it personal and someone will care. Adam Werbach is totally right, and I don't care if he is working directly, indirectly or not at all with Wal-Mart. He's right, he's right, he's right!

(I love it when someone in a significant position says something I've thought for years. Makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. )

Shop 'green' with local advice from Brooklyn

2007-10-28T12:29:00.000-04:00

http://www.shopbcue.org/

The Brooklyn Center for Urban Environment (BCUE) has an online 'hub' that gives you listings for eco-friendly companies and/or products, plus the reason(s) why you should shop or buy from each.

I think the site has a long way to go, and it's a great start.

China as leader for alternative fuel-based vehicles?

2007-10-15T13:04:00.000-04:00

It hadn't occurred to me until I read a book review the book Zoom in The Financial Times about China and its burgeoning relationship to cars, and therefore fuel, would be a driver for what that future means.

"Because China has no invested heavily in petrol stations or other infrastructure for conventional cars, it could become a leader in plug-in or hydrogen fuel cell cars. China is a big enough market to sway future global technology." And an interesting take-away for Americans here is, whatever the US wants may or may not matter. China is such an economic force that their country may set the international standards. So what China deems as important, significant, innovative, worthwhile -- that may be the way forward. No matter what Wall Street wants from the potential for a corn ethanol commodity on the stock market or Brazil and sugar ethanol.

"Another new element is the influence of first movers, such as Toyota, on new technology. Thanks to market clout and early investments in hybrid cars, it has captured most of that small but growing market, and forced competitors, such as GM, to license the technology or scramble to develop their own." Toyota made that move primarily becuase they thought the entire US auto industry and buying habits were going to drastically change, starting with California. passed (and then rolled-back) it's Electric Car/Clean Air Act requirements in the early 90s.

Here's to watching an interesting future in personal vehicles and their fuels.

identifying bad design: cutting time vs. knowledge

2007-10-04T16:18:00.000-04:00

"There is, of course, a difference between cutting corners and efficiency. I’m all for efficiency-promoting tools like TextExpander, Skitch, and even Peel. But these are time-saving tools rather than knowledge-cutting tools. There’s a big difference. If we keep looking for ways to cut corners in the things should be learning and practicing, what will we be left with?"

http://bobulate.com/2007/10/04/the-rise-of-cutting-corners/

Design Management: The Cox Report (UK)

2007-10-01T16:25:00.001-04:00

Creativity needs to be skilfully managed, not simply embraced. What is required isn’t just a readiness to consider new ideas but the ability to recognise and assess their potential, to decide which to back and to put them into effect.

From the Cox Report's section called Raising Awareness and Changing Behaviour http://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk./media/1/2/coxreview-chap4rasingawareness.pdf

I appreciate and agree that creativity needs to be skillfully managed (as well as embraced). And in the report it gets to the point that it's about design management style 'management' to move that forward. He refers to DM as "managing creativity" throughout the report. It's not the term I'd choose but it'll do, it makes the point well enough.

A useful travel tool from NWA

2007-10-01T14:49:00.000-04:00

http://nwa.innosked.com/(S(ggbmlsaxihwcgauaxrph5t45))/Default.aspx?show=MAP

Northwest Airline's destination map is actually really helpful. I was surprised that it was more than just a JPG, PDF or Flash version of their flights with the little semi-circle lines from one hub to another. If you click on one, it becomes your starting airport (and you can set it for the session as where all flight plans begin) and then the 2nd click is where you want to go. You can then see how many connections (if any) it would take and where the connection(s) would be (which airport, that is.)

I'm surprised, and pleasantly so, therefore I'm impressed. Nice job NWA!

Is this the right path to alternate fuel? Ethanol, food prices, fuel, energy, commodities trading... I think not

2007-09-30T18:51:00.000-04:00

My personal view on ethanol is that it's a handy way to add something to the commodities markets so that first-world nations can trade on corn and it's backed by the US government with money. Have we as a planet screwed ourselves out of food sources in order to cut our CO2 emissions and run our cars? Perhaps.

Everyone has an opinion about this. I've selected 4 sources that I think make a good argument or at least have a point-of-view that is fairly balanced in its representation. You be the judge of what you think.

http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/07_40/b4052052.htm?chan=search
Big Oil's Stall on Ethanol from BusinessWeek 1-Oct-07 (apparently, written in the future but published in the past ;) )

" A more moderate conclusion comes from a recent study by the University of California at Davis, which last year received a $25 million grant from Chevron to study biofuels. It said the energy used to produce ethanol is about even with what it generates and that cleaner emissions would be offset by the loss of pasture and rainforest to corn-growing. Only a small part of the research backed by the grant will involve ethanol, says Billy Sanders, UC Davis' research director. The primary focus will be developing alternative processes and feedstocks for biofuel that is not ethanol.

Infrastructure problems are behind much of the oil companies' resistance to E85. It adds "too much complexity and cost," says Shell spokesperson Anne Bryan Peebles, since it requires separate pumps, trucks, and storage tanks. Any mix with more than 10% ethanol may cause corrosion and other problems in existing pipelines."

http://www.wired.com/science/planetearth/magazine/15-10/ff_plant
One Molecule Could Cure Our Addition to Oil from Wired magazine 24-Sep-07

There's just one catch: No one has yet figured out how to generate energy from plant matter at a competitive price. The result is that no car on the road today uses a drop of cellulosic ethanol.

Today's cellulases are the enzyme equivalent of vacuum tubes: clunky, slow, and expensive. Now, flush with cash, scientists and companies are racing to develop the cellulosic transistor. Some researchers are trying to build the ultimate microbe in the lab, one that could combine the two key steps of the process. Others are using "directed evolution" and genetic engineering to improve the enzyme-producing microorganisms currently in use. Still others are combing the globe in search of new and better bugs. It's bio-construction versus bio-tinkering versus bio-prospecting, all with the single goal of creating the perfect enzyme cocktail.

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/9d2dffc2-6e62-11dc-b818-0000779fd2ac.html
Go Back to Basics Before you Buy Commodities from the Financial Times 29-Sep-07

Take the drastic shifts in the grain market wrought first by the demand for corn to make ethanol and then by the drought in Australia. Farmers switched from wheat to corn, contracting the supply of the former. Then the drought further constricted wheat supply.

The result: wheat futures have doubled over the past six months, while corn futures have declined. But you would have needed to do a lot of homework to see this coming.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/29/world/29food.html?hp
As Prices Soar, US Food Aid Buys Less from the New York Times 29-Sep-07

Corn prices have fallen in recent months, but are still far higher than they were a year ago. Demand for ethanol has also indirectly driven the rising price of soybeans, as land that had been planted with soybeans shifted to corn. And wheat prices have skyrocketed, in large part because drought hurt production in Australia, a major producer, economists say.

The higher food prices have not only reduced the amount of American food aid for the hungry, but are also making it harder for the poorest people to buy food for themselves, economists and advocates for the hungry say.

Biodiesel vs. Ethanol, why biodiesel is the way to go
http://money.cnn.com/2007/09/25/technology/biodieselboom.biz2/index.htm
Biodiesel Boom Heading Towards Wall Street from Business 2.0 magazine 26-sep-07

These days biodiesel isn't just good for the environment - it's good for the bottom line. The U.S. market for the combustible stuff has more than doubled every year since 2004 and will hit $1 billion this year. The number of retail pumps nationwide has grown from 350 in 2005 to more than 1,000 today. A couple of biodiesel IPOs are in the offing - and opportunities abound...

Biodiesel is 30 percent more fuel-efficient than gasoline, which in turn is 30 percent more efficient than ethanol. And while most ethanol produced in the United States comes from a single feedstock - corn - biodiesel has many sources: the oil of seed plants, such as soy and canola, french-fry grease and animal fat. That means the market can weather a price increase in any one raw material. Solazyme, a South San Francisco biotech firm, has even started making biodiesel from genetically modified algae.

For those of you also trying to figure out what to do next with your professional life

2007-09-25T16:34:00.001-04:00

There's a good article from Harvard Business Review (of course): How to Stay Stuck in the Wrong Career from their December 2002 issue

A good quote:
"You’re ready to chuck it all and start afresh. Just make sure you don’t listen to the usual advice about changing careers...

Everyone knows a story about a smart and talented businessperson who has lost his or her passion for work, who no longer looks forward to going to the office yet remains stuck without a visible way out. Most everyone knows a story, too, about a person who ditched a 20-year career to pursue something completely different—the lawyer who gave it all up to become a writer or the auditor who quit her accounting firm to start her own toy company—and is the happier for it."

And this is the part that really spoke to me:
"

When I consider the experiences of these people and dozens of others I have studied over the past few years, there can be no doubt: Despite the rhetoric, a true change of direction is very hard to swing. This isn’t because managers or professionals are typically unwilling to change; on the contrary, many make serious attempts to reinvent themselves, devoting large amounts of time and energy to the process at great professional and personal risk. But despite heroic efforts, they remain stuck in the wrong careers, not living up to their potential and sacrificing professional fulfillment.

Many academics and career counselors observe this inertia and conclude that the problem lies in basic human motives: We fear change, lack readiness, are unwilling to make sacrifices, sabotage ourselves. My in-depth research (see the sidebar “Studying Career Change” for an explanation of my methods) leads me to a different conclusion: People most often fail because they go about it all wrong. Indeed, the conventional wisdom on how to change careers is in fact a prescription for how to stay put. The problem lies in our methods, not our motives."

non-stick gum: good design for the planet and your body or gimmick?

2007-09-24T17:54:00.000-04:00

http://www.revolymer.com/

It's a non-sticky gum. Helps to keep our cities' sidewalks from the black circles known as 'gum on the sidewalk'. Dissolves in a few months (rain water does it) after it ends up on the ground, apparently tastes pretty good, and won't kill you!

And for those of you playing at home, you won't be the least surprised that it's from a bunch of researchers in the UK. Another reason to be an anglophile. This time we're talking Wales!

If you live on a coastline of the US

2007-09-24T13:20:00.000-04:00

This is really something: Research and a visual representation of how high the water will come in to various coast areas of the US. I'm not sure if this is what Al Gore shows in the movie An Inconvenient Truth or based on similar data. As a current Manhattanite, I'm really sad that my apartment would be underwater if sea levels rise 5m. Most of my neighborhood would be gone, and I can't help but think that it is unnecessary. I'm sure Hawaiians will be more distressed about Honolulu mostly going under, although maybe they won't. "Real" Hawaii isn't in Honolulu anymore, although there are a ton of historic sites.

Then there's my other favorite continental US city, San Francisco, which will also be affected with less than 2 meters rise, while only 1meter sea rise, we lose most of New Orleans, which would be more than a shame -- it would redefine so much of what is an American city. The midwest, which coastal residents mock with pride, could be the centers of what defines American city life.

I guess this gives new (or reinforced) meaning to "head for the hills!"

I begin to wonder cultural, social, economic and political impacts such a dramatic shift in environment and political boundaries means for the US and other countries. Particularly when a country's major cities are the worst hit; cities that are the center of a country's commerce and cultural identity.

Like with so many other future-predicting environmental work, this could be hysterical. I'm going to guess that it's not entirely. It's the way I feel about religion. Maybe I'm wrong, maybe it's all a human-ego farce, but if I'm wrong I don't want to end up in hell so I'll at least listen to what is going on.

I think it's time to add The World Without Us by Alan Weisman to my reading list

LEED buildings, all hype and no substance?

2007-09-24T11:47:00.000-04:00

I recently read this article about LEED Certification in Fast Company in issue #119

Bank of America's One Bryant Park is made an example of here. I don't think the quote's facts are accurate with regard to energy consumption and glass for the building. The building has the ability to heat and cool itself using run-off and gray water. Let's see how much it pulls from the local ConEd grids before we start throwing stones, eh?

What I do agree with in the article is that the LEED point system is a bit flawed and that points don't' consider the building's geographic and environmental location, among other things.

LEED is not perfect, but it's not broken from Environmental Design + Construction is a good piece to put LEED into perspective. I have respect for Rob Watson, and think that his awareness of LEED's current limitations as a 'good' certification can be improved, as well as requiring increased resource reuse/savings for each building to hit baseline. And yet, having something as comprehensive and achievable (and publicly recognizable) as LEED is a great starting point and better than nothing. After speaking with an architect or two I understand better that designing smart buildings could do more to save on resource use and improve indoor health than relying strictly on LEED.

All in all, Americans love to win awards -- especially when they are silver, gold or platinum named (or colored). We're competitive, so this is a great segue to a next stage in environmental health and rewarding excellence in architecture and construction.

In the next 5 years, we'll have to do better than nothing. In the meantime, keep moving forward!

P.S. here's another publication I enjoy as a layman (er, laywoman) who is a fan of architecture and interior design and have no formal background in either: Green Source magazine from McGraw-Hill Construction

P.P.S. check out information about the Architecture 2030 initiative for where the future of sustainable architecture is hopefully going: http://www.architecture2030.org/

Nerds will rescue the earth...

2007-09-23T11:52:00.000-04:00

I'm a huge fan of Clive Thompson's articles in Wired. As you can tell from these 3 most recent postings to this blog, I was enjoying the previous issue of Wired magazine a lot.

Clive Thompson Explains Why We Can Count on Geeks to Rescue the Earth

The article is for the most part, centered around the fact that nerds can handle imagining and dealing with large numbers. Something most non-nerds don't quite fathom or at least don't on a regular basis.

My comment on this topic (not Mr. Thompson's) is that I've known less than a handful of people with Aspergers in my life. I can assure you in addition to being good at a bunch of things like having a memory of facts that doesn't deteriorate with age, they are good with numbers. Depending on the individual and the severity of aspergers, don't expect them to be particularly social or emotional. And I think if one is going to deal with human catastrophe, and needs to focus on large numbers to do it well, then not being overly emotional can only be a boon.

Hence, my favorite (for many reasons) quote from the piece is thus: "What we need are more Bill Gateses — people with Aspergian focus, with a direct sensual ability to understand what a million means. They've got to be able to envision every angel on the head of a pin. Because when it comes to stopping the mass tragedies of today's world, we're going to need every one of them." (Wired, issue 15.09)

UK terrorism trial judge making it hard to keep a straight face

2007-09-23T11:40:00.000-04:00

UK Terrorism-Trial Judge Gets Lesson on Internet

Another article from Wired magazine, again issue 15.09

For those of you who don't know, the British court system is often thought of as stodgy and out-of-touch with the modern world. Judges and barristers wear wigs as part of required attire in court. Well, this comment from the trial judge makes me wonder just how out of touch parts they are.

"...Openshaw [trial judge] cut in, asking the prosecutor whether al-Ansar [online forum] was 'itself a Web site.' Not quite, Ellison [prosecutor] responded... 'The trouble is, I don't understand the language,' the judge said. 'Can I help?' Ellison offered. answered Openshaw, 'I do not really understand what a Web site is.'"

Good god, man. was he so ignorant as to have never used the internet in the past 10 years or just never bothered to understand it. This type of question leads many, including me, to wonder if he was genuine or just being obstructionist. I'm going with the former. What was even more hilarious was the before in British legal history there were judges who said "What are the Beatles?" and "What is a McDonald's?"

What's more, I wonder if Yunis Tsouli (the accused) got a fair trial after all.

I wonder if they are paid, perhaps, too much money or work too many hours or, better yet, live in opulence or too-posh digs whereby they miss, entirely, the rest of the world. As I understand it, the US legal system is based on English Common Law. Dear god, I hope we have judges who say less laughable things. And, yes, I know, we aren't immune to that embarrassment either.

Interesting reads on the mind

2007-09-23T11:27:00.000-04:00

A book I'm going to read (after the two that I'm reading now) is going to be The Stuff of Thought by Steven Pinker.

Wired magazine has an interesting review on Pinker's book which came out this September. The book covers more than this, and what I'm interested in is the fact that cursing may be something from a primordial part of our brains. It comes out of my mouth so naturally at times, and when frustrated or angry are the words of choice. They are satisfying. So that Pinker proposes that swearing was the first form of language. "He points to the fact that brain-damaged patients who lose the power of articulate speech often retain the ability to curse like a sailor. 'Since swearing involves clearly more ancient parts of the brain," Pinker says, "it could be a missing link between animal vocalization and human language.'" (Wired, Issue 15.09)

A completely different style of book review by The Financial Times newspaper on The Stuff of Thought (review by David Crystal). This review pulls out the overarching purpose of the book that is nuances in semantics and therefore the corresponding nuances in meaning. (I wonder if finally, there will be time when people realize one can not be objective, even a newspaper reporter, when one is forced to use language. More often than not, one's choice of words exposes one's opinion. Perhaps that is a different book and day: the choices with the written word and the objective press.)

Either way, I'm interested in the design of the human mind especially when related to language so it's going on my Amazon.com wishlist for when I'm ready for a new book.

Another book, again reviewed by Wired (same issue, 15.09) Is a British authored one entitled "The Book of General Ignorance". Revaling the world's biggeset misconceptions, which according to the review includes that Centipedes dno't have 100 legs and Alexander Graham Bell didn't invent the telephone. I knew both of these things, and want to know more. (I personally think that Alexander Graham Bell and Thomas Alva Edison were opportunistic bastards (see why I'd like The Stuff of Thought?) who didn't invent anything but had a keen business mind for taking advantage of a time and someone else's clever developments. Neither have my respect, both seem to be given adulation in history classes as men more important than they are.) Again this book is going on my wishlist, too.

web design and coding

2007-09-21T15:56:00.001-04:00

This is possibly the most accurate and funny pie chart to the kind of work I've been involved with past 6 years.

parody on carbon offset, being carbon neutral

2007-09-21T09:47:00.000-04:00

http://www.cheatneutral.com/
I probably like this too much because I'm an Anglophile and I just find so much of British humour clever and funny and, therefore, worth knowing about. It's a nice spin on being carbon neutral... really nice end to the video.

PS If anyone knows where I can get a copy of the season of Bang! Bang! (Reeves and Mortimer) for US DVD players, please please please let me know.

PPS In case you are wondering on my stance on carbon offsetting. I agree with these two lads. Just stop bad practices. Use good design to improve your process and carbon 'footprint'. Make the easiest (lowest hanging fruit) changes first. On a personal level (not necessarily big business) here's a good place to start getting ideas: http://www.idealbite.com/tiplibrary/

visual learners probably like heat maps

2007-09-21T09:26:00.001-04:00

I'm a fan of heat maps and other visualizations of data... since we're looking for a new place, this one is helpful:
http://www.trulia.com/home_prices/New_York/Brooklyn-heat_map/

Ideaplay

2007-09-20T16:56:00.000-04:00

I'm not sure if this is available only in the UK, but at the very least it appears to be only available to schools, universities and offices. (of course that won't stop me from contacting my beloved Design Council to see if i can get myself a license or copy.)

http://www.designcouncil.org.uk/en/About-Design/Resources-for-design-teachers-and-students/Ideaplay/Ideaplay-for-schools/

Truthfully, it maybe be something that DM students already know quite well: that design can impact life and lifestyles well or badly. I think this would be great for design students to do before they leave undergrad, and business students to do before they leave undergrad or grad level degrees. Lord knows there's a lack (although improving) business -minded knowing by design graduates and a complete lack (again improving) of appreciation and awareness of design (big D design) by business graduates.

Ideaplay is an interactive design innovation kit for young entrepreneurs, developed by design consultancy Engine and the Design Council. Ideaplay aims to sharpen and refine entrepreneurial skills, improve teamwork and develop students’ understanding of the value of design by looking for design opportunities in everyday scenarios.

* The challenge is simple - follow the experiences of the characters across the storyboard, identify their unmet needs and then propose and develop new products and services
* Learn about the key part that design processes play in entrepreneurship and innovation
* Learn how to use these processes to help identify, enrich and pitch ideas
http://www.ideaplay.org.uk/

Natural Clay plaster for interior

2007-09-19T11:29:00.000-04:00

I read this in a recent e-newsletter from Global Green USA. The good folks rebuilding New Orleans in a more sustainable methods. I'll probably get smacked on the wrist for posting their e-newsletter here, but maybe not. I'm not trying to steal their thunder or copywrite, just want to get people talking about it and to know more the lazy-man's way --aka answer my blog post for me.

I'm wondering if anyone has used this type of plaster in his/her home or has an opinion on it, especially on the bit about the charge humans are accustomed to being around in nature. I wonder if I would know I was experiencing it consciously or if I would just 'feel better'. I like that it's renewable, non-toxic and low-energy usage to create.

Green Product of the Month
Natural Clay Plaster

Natural clay or earth based plaster for interior finishes including walls, ceilings, and bathrooms are natural, renewable, and non-toxic materials. The manufacturing process requires low energy usage. Plaster walls help to regulate temperature and sound within a home or office. In addition, natural lay or earth based plaster does not attract dust.

It is compatible with the "breathable" construction recommended for both historic and new buildings. Surrounding your interior environments with clay plasters, or paints, that produce Negative Ions will not only help neutralize the electromagnetic effect created by computers, appliances and synthetic plastics, but also will help eliminate static charge on walls and floors. Not only do your walls stay clean, but by using clay surface materials you are helping to filter air of pollen and dander. You surround yourself with the ''charge Humans are accustomed to when living in nature."

Negative ions are believed to produce biochemical reactions that increase levels of the mood chemical serotonin, helping to alleviate depression, relieve stress, and boost our daytime energy. Normal Ion count in fresh country air is 2,000 to 4,000 negative Ions per cubic centimeter (about the size of a sugar cube). At Yosemite Falls, you'll experience over 100,000 negative Ions per cubic centimeter. On the other hand, the level is far below 600 per cubic centimeter in an office with computers.

considering motherhood, new york, and being environmentally responsible (but not neurotic)

2007-09-16T09:49:00.000-04:00

Here's one for the personal files... having just gotten married last year at city hall and our church wedding this past summer, we're talking through starting a family. So, here's the things we are mulling over, most of which I'm concerned with: money and space, location, health and environmental quality of life, and noise.

Space: Simply put, we're going to have to move. We live in a studio in the East Village and if we bring another person (or any single thing more) into this apartment we're going to lose our minds. We need more space. We need more space where there is a door that we can close to a bedroom. We have two doors now, the one into the apartment and the one into the bathroom. If our family expands, we really want to have another door. And that brings me to the next point.

Money: We have no cash for a downpayment on anything. The economic and market conditions are not good for people in our financial position to buy something anyway. Interest rates are too high for us to be able to keep up with, and as I said we don't have any cash anyway. Prices in new york are so high right now and vacancy levels in Manhattan are around .5% to .8% That means almost nothing is available and it's all expensive. Every new construction/development is luxury in our neighborhood. And the few environmentally-responsibly architected buildings in the city are so completely out of our price range its frustrating. So we want to move into a place that has enough space, only one of our paychecks can afford (in case i decide i want to raise my own child for the first years of his/her life (blasphemy!), and dammit I want to keep shopping at Whole Foods in Union Square and the farmer's markets. I have such a love affair with Whole Foods (The layout, the products, the design, the food, the principles/beliefs, the wind power supply, etc). I actually think about how it's more expensive (sometimes) to do all my shopping at Whole Foods vs. how happy it makes me and so I secretly make that a requirement when pricing apartments. In fact, I've decided that becuase I believe so strongly in not using chlorine to bleach toilet paper, paper towels, flour (baking/cooking), paper products of any kind -- that I simply can NOT buy normal/cheaper toilet paper.

I must have Seventh Generation toilet paper and paper towels. I believe in the research they've done to prove the eco-value of their products. I must have ecover or Seventh Gen dish washing liquid. I must use 100% post-consumer, non-chlorine paper for my printer. I must be able to have all the extra money (even if it's not THAT much more) to keep these things in my life because I believe it is better. There isn't anything -- except reliable and credible research over a period of at least 5-10 years -- is going to sway me otherwise. And I must be able to have wind-powered energy supply from ConEd or another energy company. Now that I have it, I don't want to go back.

I'm not even going to buy my children baby food, organic or processed. They're getting fresh veg and fruits, and I'll mash them up in a food processor or by hand. I loath sugar derivatives in food. I'm known to buy plenty of products for my husband (like pop tarts) that are probably slowly poisoning his body -- but that's my personal line between being responsible and being neurotic. Sometimes the joy that something brings is okay in my mind vs. the environmental or social impact. Luckily, Pop Tarts aren't cigarettes. Don't even get me started on that in my home. I can't and don't want to control other people's personal habits, just don't come in my home with that one.

So where was I?

Location: I want to stay in New York City. Be that in Manhattan, Brooklyn or Queens (the Bronx and Staten Island aren't our thing). I spent most of my life in New Jersey and I'm not going back unless there is no alternative. I crossed the river, I'll go visit my family, I'm not living there... unless we start thinking about public school systems and then I'm likely to begrudgingly go back. I'd love to stay in our neighborhood, anywhere between West and East villages. And of course with all the luxury developments going on what's a couple (who needs to spend less than they make so they can save up to own something one day) to do? We've decided we're not going to spend as much as we can afford, otherwise we never get out of the renting race. I know we'll end up somewhere far away (subway-wise) from where we are now. I'll miss having Minca across the street (eco-friendly or not I LOVE MINCA. Ramen noodles rock my world!). I'll miss my favorite NYC pizza and fresh pasta at Luzzo, which is a few blocks away. There are 6 movie theaters within walking distance of our apartment, and Union Square a short bus ride (or 20 minute walk) away.

I'm a downtown girl. I sometimes wish I could plead with the NYC gods to make it 'not so.' Alas it is, and if I'm going to be someone's mom I should at least be a good one. And by good, I think that means making family most important. I'm working on figuring out a way to make ramen noodles and a healthy baby live on the same block. Is that asking too much? Do I sound too much like someone who has never had a child? Probably, but that's who I am now.

I'm going to jump ahead to noise now...

Noise: Anyone familiar with the East Village, or Manhattan, will be thinking: how can noise be something you care so much about -- you live in one of the nosiest-at-night places. True. I did score my studio on a street that is one-way, with a school on one side and low-income housing on the other. So the street doesn't have traffic that goes through. Our street is, therefore, a lot quieter than others above and below us. There are 3 bars and any drunk person who has ever walked past our building and spoken, yelled, sang, barfed, yodeled, became violent, had a fight, or did anything louder than a normal-office speaking voice. I heard you. You woke me up, and I half-asleep plotted violent ways to end you. My favorite are the car alarms.

Let me tell you car owners who park on the street overnight this: (a) if your car alarm goes off no one will call the police for you, mostly it's someone too drunk to stand up who set it off or a garbage truck going by in the morning, and (b) be in a place that is near enough so you can turn it off. The most torturous night of sleep I've had due to a car alarm was the night someone's was parked in front of my apartment building, it went off for 28 seconds every hour. I know this because it went off every hour and I could count it. I plotted so much violence against this person that when they appeared in the morning I considered throwing things at her. My neighbor across the street must have been equally livid since he came out of the building, yelling at her and telling her what her car was going all night. She told him to f-bomb off and he was a lying gay man. Insert your own derogatives and curses as she did. See? Not nice AND no one cared to steal her car, we just wanted it to stop making noise.

Otherwise, we're really lucky. My building is by-and-large quite. My neighbor likes to play his electric guitar badly but will stop around 10pm. Sometimes it's until 11pm, but whatever.

I guess I really am part of gentrified East Village life. I should probably not have the audacity to look for quite in this place. I do. I will. It's how people think, and I do a lot of that.

So in terms of moving, we're never going to live near Times Square, Columbus Circle, any of the tunnels, or anywhere on Broadway.

This brings me to quality of life...

Quality of life (environmental and health): Unless you have no other choice or the activity and noise makes you happy, I find it hard to stomach the idea of living (especially street-view) on a major through-way in the city. I love that so many of the busses along the UES or UWS are electric-powered. Quieter, less CO2 emissions, and lower to the ground so you don't have to jump up to get on there (I'm a bit short) and they don't have to make that noise when the bus lowers and raises by air-power. I don't particularly love the UES or UWS, but again I'm a downtown girl. I love vising up there, but it doesn't strike me as a place I want to spend so much of my time. (I work in midtown and I can assure you it's not a place I want to spend so much of my time. I did, however, discover a great new-to-me lunch spot called Kafi Roll on 39th Street at 6th Ave (a little in on 39th from the northeast corner, orange flag sign) Excellent roti filled with veg or non-veg. Like an Indian 'burrito'.)

Back to the point. I would rather live on the back-facing part of a building (especially if there was grass or a tree or two behind it) than street-side. I'm done with hearing every drunken conversation from the 2nd floor here. I also have a lot of allergies, or reactions like allergies, which is just exacerbated by living in a city. (We went to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico to do some consulting work for a month and I felt great. We came back and I realized how polluted cities are, even the 'cleaner' ones.)

And yet we both want to stay in New York City for now, so we will.

Stay tuned for the wearing down of all of my 'wants' into a single 'need' and how this all pans out...

our girl, nathalie's project in the news!

2007-09-07T16:00:00.000-04:00

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/05/arts/television/05game.html?_r=1&ref=arts&oref=slogin

A Global Vision From the New Man at EA Sports
By SETH SCHIESEL

EA Sports is one of the most powerful, lucrative brands in the video game business. That’s not enough for Peter Moore.

Two months ago Mr. Moore stunned the game world with the announcement that he would step down as head of Microsoft’s games operation to be president of the sports division at Electronic Arts, the No. 1 game publisher. He started his new job yesterday, and today in a presentation to journalists at the company’s headquarters in Redwood City, Calif., he is to share his vision for moving EA Sports beyond video games to a global sports and entertainment enterprise.

“There is a great opportunity to take EA Sports and turn it into a general sports brand that can compete not only with Take-Two and Konami and the other usual suspects in the video game world,” he said in a telephone interview on Monday, but also “to look at ourselves in a different way and compete with the likes of Nike and ESPN to win the hearts and minds of a very desirable demographic group, which is the 14-to-34-year-old male worldwide.

“That could mean broadcast sports, sports camps, the ability to license consumer products around the EA Sports brand,” he continued. “That means technology that brings sports to life for coaches, players and television viewers, and it means services online for sports fans to connect with one another.”

Ben Schachter, an Internet and video game analyst at UBS Securities, agreed that Mr. Moore’s big challenge was to find different ways to compete for the time and eyeballs of young men.

“They have certainly been successful in areas like football, but the big question going forward is whether they can actually grow the user base and get these young male consumers to buy more EA Sports products,” Mr. Schachter said. “They are competing not only against nonsports video games but also the MySpaces and Facebooks of the world, and they need to find new ways to bring in those potential customers.”

The company’s cornerstones — Madden football, FIFA soccer and Tiger Woods golf games — continue to sell millions of copies each year, but both Electronic Arts and its sports operation have grown sluggishly, if at all, in recent years. John Riccitiello, who took over as Electronic Arts’ chief executive in spring, has pledged to reinvigorate the company and seems to have brought in Mr. Moore as one of his prime agents of change.

“It may sound like heresy, but I’m not here to just sell more Maddens and more FIFAs,” Mr. Moore said. “Protecting our base is very important, but I didn’t come here to just maintain the status quo and build the business 5 to 7 percent a year.”

In particular, Mr. Moore said, there could be an opportunity for Electronic Arts to set up a global news and social networking service for sports fans.

“As a sports fan, for the information I have to collate every morning, I have to go to 8 to 10 to 13 different sites just to hit my favorite bookmarks,” he said. “Yahoo has a lot, and ESPN too, but ESPN is very North American. I think we have an opportunity to aggregate information and bring it to life with video technologies.”

In general, he said he would push his operation to develop more online products and to pay more attention to the PC, which is the dominant gaming system in Asia outside of Japan, especially in China and South Korea.

The overall concept, Mr. Moore said, is to focus on opportunities to use technology and the EA Sports brand to connect sports fans. As an example of his intended direction, he said he planned to unveil today EA Sports GameShow, a live online trivia game to be made available free for PCs this fall.

In GameShow, which will be advertising-supported, players will log in to compete in live trivia contests, both individually and as part of teams. Mr. Moore said if the initial game was a success, it could potentially move to the online services associated with major game consoles like Microsoft’s Xbox 360 and Sony’s PlayStation 3.

“We continue to talk a good game about online, but we as publishers have not taken full advantage of that opportunity,” he said. “In some ways GameShow is a pilot for what we hope to be a much more substantial online presence going forward.”

Mr. Moore’s background may be particularly suited to the challenge he has set himself. Before working in the games business at Microsoft and as president of Sega of America, he was a senior marketing executive at Reebok and president of the United States operation of Patrick, a French sportswear company.

“If we look at this connected world we’re entering, sports is a sort of social and cultural glue that reaches across the globe,” he said. “There is an opportunity for EA Sports to evolve beyond a games brand to become a true global sports and entertainment brand, and I think we can compete there.”

future of the notebook: interlocking notebooks

2007-09-06T15:56:00.000-04:00

http://starthereny.com/product.php

Click on Shop, and watch the flash demo on how it works. Nice design!

newspapers: print vs. online

2007-09-04T09:51:00.000-04:00

I'm still a huge fan of the printed word. I get my Financial Times delivered daily and they keep trying to get me to read it online, and I just don't want to. It's more convenient to read on the train, I can rip out and circle/underline articles I want to keep or reference later, and the ft.com is there if I want to email someone an article. I still prefer to read on paper and not online.

http://radar.oreilly.com/archives/2007/08/news_pages.html

There is an image created that "tracks the front page of latimes.com from 1996 through 2006, illustrating how quickly online presence can evolve. Note how the page structure and hierarchy have changed as images (yellow) and advertising (orange) have gradually become integrated with editorial content (blue)."

and it's not that much of a farce, it's mostly true

2007-08-22T17:04:00.000-04:00

...and makes me question my rationale for going back into agency world.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KpqwrEdlo4s

enjoy!

sort of, kind of, myself... blah blah blah at the office

2007-08-21T16:30:00.000-04:00

I'm not sure how many of you have noticed this in the workplace and then on TV (and perhaps catching yourself doing it). Instead of using "um" as filler... and before I launch into this diatribe completely, don't use UM. Just don't. Say nothing instead of um. It makes you sound nervous and sometimes (depending on how often you say it in a certain amount of time) incompetent. No one needs to do that to him or herself.

Ok, so "sort of". I noticed this earlier this year on the Today show (NBC) where the hosts like Matt Lauer or Ann (I forget her last name) say "sort of" and then I noticed a LOT of their guests would use sort of.

I started a new job in June and noticed the entire office is infected with the sort-of disease. Statements like, "[Name] could you sort of compile those list of deliverables for me and kind of, you know, send it to the group?" or "What we're sort of trying to accomplish here is, sort of like more innovative spin on the existing project, and sort of trying to keep it within certain parameters."

I'm not kidding. These aren't made up examples.

I went to a meeting where inside of the first hour, which was a presentation to a room full of clients, the main speaker said "sort of" 157 times. By the end of the presentation, all staff members from my company said "sort of" 427 times and "kind of" a mere 204 times. If I had the time and wasn't trying to pay attention, I'd have counted how many real words were used also. I'm sure it was far more real words than filler, but you get the point.

Once you notice people saying "sort of" or "kind of" you can't turn it off. You'll notice that most people are using what I like to call 'socially accepted white noise filler'. Everyone is in silent agreement that they won't notice this and we all do it.

I've caught myself doing this a number of times. The longer I work here, the more I start to sound like them and it's driving me up a wall.

If you catch others doing it or yourself, please let me know how you deal. If I've just pointed it out to you and now you can't tune it out. I'm sorry. Welcome to my world.

PS one other thing I've noticed, and I'm less certain this is grammar-suicide... the use of "myself" in place of using "me" or "I". I believe this increasing use of "myself" is to cover those who don't know when to use "me" or "I" -- which often tends to be people that use "I" when they should use "me" because they think it makes them sound more sophisticated. If you know what you should say or should hear, then you (like me) just think the other person is a wanker.

Most recent example is "name, name, and myself will attend the session." I'm pretty darn sure it should be "name, name, and I will attend." Or it could go "Will you invite name and me?"

I know people really want to say "Will you invite name and I?" but you need a direct object. I is a subject, me is a direct object for these examples.

STOP HURTING MY EARS AND HAVE SOME VERBAL SELF RESPECT.

*sigh* okay, I feel better now.

The above was typed in here on 21-Aug-07, and today is 28-Oct-07. I've been thinking about it almost daily (still) for a year or two at least, and have decided to comment it in writing twice.

I've begun to wonder what we're all so afraid of. What happened to English-speaking peoples, in particular Americans. Although I've heard it when I went to Toronto and I'm sure there are plenty of Canadians who think that Toronto is too closely 'related' to the States anyway. And I've heard British celebs on US and UK TV say it, too.)

Why can't we just say what we mean? Or is it that we don't mean anything? Why do we couch anything that is an opinion or statement with a weak pretext like 'sort of' or 'kind of'. Are we afraid the government is going to hear us and come get us; deport us from our own country? Are we afraid of being sued for saying something incorrect, scandalous or irresponsible? What is it? I know it's something. This is too pervasive to be nothing, and yet seems to be happening without questioning why.

There's something in the fabric of American culture, I'm guessing it's American, that is showing up in this way. Have we lost our self-confidence? Is it the wars in Afghanistan, Iraq (potentially Iran)? Is it the weakening ties the US has with other world nations? Is it our lack of buying power when compared to China and India? Is it our reduced voice in the UN? Is it our weak dollar? Our potentially re-rivalry with Russia? Or is it that we just talk too much and really have nothing meaningful to say, so we say lots of filler for the sake of hearing our own voices?

I don't know exactly so I'll keep mulling this over. In the meantime this filler language which is accepted as okay plus the warming of the fall and winter seasons in New York is worrying me daily.

European eco-design

2007-08-17T17:14:00.000-04:00

From Core77's latest e-newsletter:

European market forces such as Ecodesign, consumer choices and ecolabels are beginning to change the practice of design at the most fundamental levels. It is no more just a matter of a greener product or choosing a less toxic component or material. It requires an understanding of the entire production process, distribution and marketing system on a global scale, and the way that systems are being redesigned to meet these criteria. These trends also imply sea changes in the way businesses are organized and the way they function...

Ecolabel is the first piece of design change that the posting covers.

From me: and isn't that what Design Management is about? understanding the entire lifecycle of something -- in this case, product.

wind energy, oil rigs -- another eco-friendly solution to energy consumption

2007-08-17T14:25:00.000-04:00

Now this is forward thinking and good big D design. Convert unused oil platforms off the coast of Texas to wind energy.

Again from Wired's February 2007 issue in an article titled, "Inherit the Wind".

Use what you have, change it for a different end result and maintain/take advantage of a core function. Great idea and better execution.

Now if people would get off the 'NIMBY' problem of thinking wind power is ugly. I can't tell you how joyous I felt when we got to Maui two weeks ago for our honeymoon and the island winds pushed back the clouds from West Maui and I saw the wind towers on the mountainside. How lovely and joyful. (If you had the same view of wind energy that I did, you'd probably welcome any wind-based energy contraption as well. I mean who gets excited about these things and isn't in the field?) Even if you're not all ga-ga over 'green' energy, it's not that ugly. It's a streamlined windmill. And it's sure prettier than smog, dang it!

underwater logging... green solution to a paper problem?

2007-08-17T14:10:00.000-04:00

I read an article in Wired about underwater logging in reservoirs. It's in the February 2007 issue of Wired, article called Reservoir Logs.

I found it a clever solution to eco-friendly paper supplies and interesting in its technology and design/vision. I'm not sure that it's one of those things that can be called the solution or a solution per se.

Here's a bit from an e-newsletter from Rainforest Alliance:

"Mother Nature never intended for trees to be underwater," explains Christopher Godsall, president and CEO of Triton Logging. But trees -- perhaps as many as 300 million worldwide -- are submerged in reservoirs and Triton has come up with an innovative, eco-friendly method for harvesting them.

Triton has been recovering Douglas fir, lodgepole pine, hemlock and other species that have been preserved by cold water and turning a profit without damaging the surrounding environment. Key to his efforts is the Sawfish, an underwater logging machine invented by the company. Operated by remote control, the Sawfish attaches inflatable air bags to the trees, then cuts them underwater with an electric chain saw. The air bags float the logs to the water's surface, where they are loaded onto barges.

The Rainforest Alliance has certified Triton's milled wood under our SmartWood Rediscovered program, which recognizes environmentally sounds practices for the recovery, recycling and reuse of wood products. The eco-friendly logging method doesn't emit carbon dioxide the way that conventional logging does, doesn't pollute the water and leaves the lake floor undisturbed.

It's all about the process... green cards

2007-08-17T12:12:00.000-04:00

Far be it from me to critize any government office. Lord knows that without forms and proper documentation no one could CYA or, better, do anything to help the citizens.

For anyone who has applied for a green card, he or she can tell you stories of various levels of aggravation and complication. It's a trying process. It takes a long time. It's also necessary on some level because without it there wouldn't be any valid way of making sure each visa recipient was indeed worthy of holding it. There are a lot of dodgy lawyers out there who probably make a ton off of the bureaucracy or at least most people's fear of dealing with a government bureaucracy. There are a ton of good immigration lawyers who make a stressful process less-so for their clients. We went with the latter kind of law office. And even then, there are a number of forms that aren't particularly well-designed and create problems just as much as they allow progress.

What I'm writing about is the design of the process. Since it really is 'all about the process' the process could be better designed. Of course when you are going to improve a form, you must consider the related forms, process, people, offices, resources, money, time, effort, political motives, personal needs, stakeholders, leaders, managers, staff, etc. A form is often the end result of a long 'family' -- and therefore the physical representation of the quality or state of that 'family', or the design of that 'family.' And by design I don't mean what it looks like. I'm talking about big D design, sustainable design. Making plans, consideration and excuting and follow up on those plans, strategies to make sure that people, planet, profit are all well considered AND visually appealing, of course.

The example I'm going to share is my husband's greencard. We were elated when after being married for just over a year, he received a letter stating he was approved. So the other night, when it arrived, he was very excited, relieved and hopeful upon opening the letter. Of course, this was all confirmed he checked his name (often mis-spelled) and then dashed when he saw they messed up his birth date.

They didn't just switch the date or put the wrong day in, they turned a now 28-year-old married man, whose photo is on the card, into a one year old. They had his birth date as the end of July, last July. He was born in mid-August, and not last year.

Of course the likely excuse is that they have a TON of visa backlog and with varying political pressure to hold off and then to push ahead, people inside of a hectic process with not-quite-good-enough forms are doing what they can. Again the forms and process are a reflection of each's designed 'family'. So the family is going through some tough times.

What's more, and to be expected, is that there is a form he needs to fill out. And of course there is documentation he needs to provide to prove that the mistake is theirs not his. So all parties recognize a 28-year-old married man is not a year old. Let's do another form. The form is going to be filled out by the aforementioned lawyer's office because the amount of time and aggravation one can spend with Homeland Security is potentially astonishing.

As many have said before, often the design of the process can reward those who do not abide by its rules. Because this is just one of many examples, large and small, of how you are not rewarded by following the process. I can assure you on all of his forms that the birth date is correct. I can bet that what happens at the end of this is that it was just a simple human mistake (again a piece of the process behind the larger design) and it will be fixed.

I just wonder how long it'll take and how much longer he has to wait to be able to work for any employer he wants, just like I can. It's one of the benefits of having a green card vs. an H1b visa. H1b you are beholden to the sponsor/employer and they to you (in a sense), green card you get the freedom to move around. H1b visas are great and I am grateful for them. They are, as the greencard is, part of a larger poorly designed process that has an extreme amount of pressure to improve and, likely, a lot of dysfunctional 'family members' that impede evolutionary change in its design.

The balance is between necessary CYA and accountability, and levels of frustration on all sides. Perhaps this was worse in the past. I often wonder as a new version of a form comes out if it improves what it wanted to improve and didn't make a bigger mess where one didn't exist before.

N.B. Sustainability for me means good design-- in the big D design sense. It can be simply broken down into the 3Ps: People, Planet, Profit (or whatever order you like to put them in). Essentially it's sustainability in the longevity of success (in as many ways as can be measured). I don't find immigration in the US a sustainable process. I do believe it will be improved because I'm a "Pollyanna" and if I don't have that potentially false hope, it'll be too aggravating and disappointing to realize just how much my representative government -- as a whole -- doesn't care about those who give them the power.

Solar power evolved: harness the heat, get more power

2007-07-25T12:42:00.000-04:00

This is a brilliant idea: the evolution of solar power. I read this and thought, duh, of course! there's more heat than light and the science behind it makes more sense as to why this is the better way to go. I'm sure there are alternate thoughts on this point, and I'll keep an eye out for those as well.

New York Times' article called "In the Desert, Harnessing the Power of the Sun by Capturing Heat Instead of Light" printed 17 July 2007 by Matthew L. Wald

Bayer's change management

2007-07-25T12:32:00.000-04:00

I have to say, one of the most influential phrases ever uttered to me was "it's all about the process." From a grad-school instructor who was often talking about change management, organizational development and business management. At the time I thought he was full of it, but in the past few years since I heard it, I've realized he's absolutely correct and right-on. Thanks, Richard.

There was an interesting article it the Financial Times about Bayer's CEO and their past years of change management. I have a strange interest in pharma after working on a group project that featured Pfizer, Roche, Schering, and others. (One of my teammates worked for Roche at the time.)

Here are some of the segments I found most interesting:

"Communicating the board's thinking and winning over the workforce was a longer process, in spite of his reputation as a down-to-earth character." {Key here is that clear, consistent, and meaningful communication is the difference between something being successfully understood and being just more words in the corporate sphere.}

"A new, compact, four-floor organizational 'nerve center' has meant most people who are needed for big decisions are within shouting distance." {I liked this name instead of war room since I think the military culture in the US is too entrenched (see? see?) in US business and business thinking.}

"'I think we were driving at the limit over the past few years. A lot of things had to be shouldered by the same people,' says Mr Wenning. 'But we never gave up anything we wanted to do.'" {I thought this was a nice point about how if you are in a significant role within a company and you care about what happens you are in the position to deal with more than most and if you are smart about it and the conditions are right, it can work out for the best. You just may be more worn than others. It's the passion, hopefully, that gets you through.}

Ecofriendly version of Google search

2007-07-24T10:15:00.000-04:00

This is exceptional because of how a single change can make such a potentially large impact.

When your screen is white - an empty word page, or the Google page, your computer consumes 74 watts, and when it’s black it consumes only 59 watts.

Mark Ontkush wrote an article about the energy saving that would be achieved if Google had a black screen, taking in account the huge number of page views. According to his calculations, 750 mWh per year would be saved. That’s the kWh per year that 1,000 average US refrigerators would use. Ok, so it’s not an enormous amount to stave off global warming, but it’s significant just by doing something small like changing the color. (Of course in the world of graphic or visual design, changing a color isn’t small.)

In a response to this article Google created a black version of its search engine, called BLACKLE, with the exact same functions as the white version but with a lower energy consumption. Check it out !

http://www.blackle.com/

P.S. Bank of America is a key sponsor of the NYC campaign from City Hall, GreeNYC http://www.nyc.gov/html/planyc2030/html/greenyc/greenyc.shtml, which promotes suggestions to fulfill its tagline: “Small Steps, Big Strides”. GE and ConEd are the other two corporate sponsors.

great design interface for politics

2007-07-23T14:27:00.001-04:00

This undecided interface made me want to be Canadian for a few minutes while I did it. How nicely organized and concise. I not only understood the issues but each party's stand on each. Brilliant! (I'm just wondering how to make this fun interaction WCAG or Section 508 compliant.)

"Undecided" is (what their creators at themovement.info) refer to as:

A product which provides new tools for making decisions through comparative analysis, seeking to provide an alternate model for voter participation through online networks. Voters inform party policy, and parties present platforms to potential supporters. Each of the major parties are allowed to put forward a limited number of issues. These issues then make up the core criteria of The Undecided. The parties are required to take a stance on each issue, which affords side-by-side comparison for undecided voters.

What I really dig about this is its unbiased approach to choosing a political platform - sorta working in reverse like one of those personality tests you find in Cosmo (I don't read Cosmo - just sayin'). And not unlike one of those tests, you learn some pretty shocking things about yourself, politically speaking.

Apart from its obvious agenda, the UI is also really clean and simple – surprisingly fun to navigate. Check it out: http://www.theundecided.ca/

Good communication, product and customer service design

2007-07-23T14:06:00.000-04:00

This was from a post from a co-worker, so not mine. I thought this was such great stuff that I wanted to share it:

Today I came home to find an unexpected package sitting on my front porch. It was a small box from Samuel Adams Brewing Company. Inside the box was a note, a small booklet, and 2 glasses designed to maximize the enjoyment of their beer. The glasses were sent to me free of charge from Sam Adams for being a subscriber to Beer Advocate magazine. The glasses were designed by Jim Koch, Brewmaster at Sam Adams, along with several several beer and wine critics. The goal was to design a glass to enhance the flavor of the beer, just like different wine glasses enhance the flavor of different wines. The end result was glass with a unique shape designed to highlight malty beers and bring out the aroma of hops.

Unfortunately, I didn’t have any Boston Lager in the house, but I did have some Sam Adams Summer Ale. The glass did seem a bit small, but it held a 12oz bottle perfectly, with the head stopping at the rim. The bottom of the glass has a very thin circle etched into it, which released a slow stream of bubbles. The walls are very thin, similar to those on wine glasses. The beer seemed to swirl into the larger bulge as you drank it, releasing a nice hoppy aroma. The beers head was also retained longer than it does in typical pint glass. The beer did seem to finish smoother using this glass when compared to a bottle.

Does the glass actually help one enjoy the taste of the beer? It depends on who you ask. In countries known for their beer (Belgian, Ireland, Germany, etc), the answer is yes. In the US, most bars don’t take the time to serve the beer as the brewer intended. Beer Advocate has a breakdown of what type of glass should be used for what types of beer at http://beeradvocate.com/beer/101/glassware.php.

As a home brewer, and a beer lover, its great to see an American brewery trying to stick out from the crowd. The booklet was designed very well, explaining the features of the glass. The glasses lived up to the hype, and gave me a reason to sit down and enjoy a Sam Adams. Hopefully other brewers will pay close attention to what Sam Adams and other Craft brewers are doing to revive the American beer industry.

Steve Jobs' advice for giving a good pitch

2007-07-23T14:04:00.000-04:00

I still think our training in Pratt's Design Management prepared us all for making excellent pitches. Here's a view being circulated online:

http://www.businessweek.com/smallbiz/content/jul2007/sb2007076_474371.htm

Here’s a quick five-step deconstruct of Steve Job’s January 2007 MacWorld presentation / pitch (where he introduced the iPhone for the first time) ...

From Business Week:

1. Build Tension

A good novelist doesn't lay out the entire plot and conclusion on the first page of the book. He builds up to it. Jobs begins his presentation by reviewing the "revolutionary" products Apple has introduced. According to Jobs, "every once in a while a revolutionary product comes along that changes everything…Apple has been fortunate to introduce a few things into the world." Jobs continues by describing the 1984 launch of the Macintosh as an event that "changed the entire computer industry." The same goes for the introduction of the first iPod in 2001, a product that he says "changed the entire music industry."

After laying the groundwork, Jobs builds up to the new device by teasing the audience: "Today, we are introducing three revolutionary products. The first is a wide-screen iPod with touch controls. The second is a revolutionary new mobile phone. And the third is a breakthrough Internet communications device." Jobs continues to build tension. He repeats the three devices several times then says, "Are you getting it? These are not three separate devices. This is one device…today Apple is going to reinvent the phone!" The crowd goes wild.

Jobs conducts a presentation like a symphony, with ebbs and flows, buildups and climaxes. It leaves his listeners wildly excited. The takeaway? Build up to something unexpected in your presentations.

2. Stick to One Theme Per Slide

A brilliant designer once told me that effective presentation slides only have one message per slide. One slide, one key point. When Jobs introduced the "three revolutionary products" in the description above, he didn't show one slide with three devices. When he spoke about each feature (a widescreen iPod, a mobile phone, and an Internet communicator), a slide would appear with an image of each feature.

Jobs also makes the slides highly visual. At no place in his presentation does the audience see slides with bullet points or mind-numbing data. An image is all he needs. The simplicity of the slides keeps the audience's attention on the speaker, where it should be. Images are memorable, and more important, can complement the speaker. Too much text on a slide distracts from the speaker's words. Prepare slides that are visually stimulating and focused on one key point.

3. Add Pizzazz to Your Delivery

Jobs modulates his vocal delivery to build up the excitement. When he opens his presentation by describing the revolutionary products Apple created in the past, his volume is low and he speaks slowly, almost in a reverential tone. His volume continues to build until his line, "Today Apple is going to reinvent the phone." Be an electrifying speaker by varying the speed at which you speak and by raising and lowering your voice at the appropriate times.

4. Practice

Jobs makes presentations look effortless because he takes nothing for granted. Jobs is known to rehearse demonstrations for hours prior to launch events. I can name many high-profile chief executives who decide to wing it. It shows. It always amazes me that many business leaders spend tens of thousands of dollars on designing presentations, but next to no time actually rehearsing. I usually get the call after the speaker bombs. Don't lose your audience. Rehearse a presentation out loud until you've nailed it.

5. Be Honest and Show Enthusiasm

If you believe that your particular product or service will change the world, then say so. Have fun with the content. During the iPhone launch, Jobs uses many adjectives to describe the new product, including "remarkable," "revolutionary," and "cool." He jokes that the touch-screen features of the phone "work like magic…and boy have we patented it."

I think speakers are so afraid of over-hyping a product that they go to the opposite extreme and make their presentations boring. If you're passionate about a product, service, or company, let your listeners know. Give yourself permission to loosen up, have fun, and express your enthusiasm!

Map your own way with Google

2007-07-23T13:52:00.000-04:00

Google Maps now allows you to drag and drop points of your route to override the default and redraw the route from new waypoints. While planning our wedding and putting a map (that my graphic designer husband created on his own in Illustrator based on directions we got from Google Maps) I would have LOVED this feature about 7 months ago! There is a video demo of the feature here:
http://maps.google.com/help/maps/directions/index.html#utm_campaign=en&utm_source=en-mapshpp-na-us-google&utm_medium=mapshpp

I haven't had a chance to play with this yet, but I encourage you to go have a look. It's especially good, most likely, for people who live in or near big cities where the default directions aren't bad but don't 'know' about local traffic patterns and can often send you into or across toll roads to go half a mile. Try to send someone from Fort Lee, NJ to Hoboken, NJ and not have your directions send you across the George Washington Bridge and then back through the Lincoln Tunnel. It's happened to me in the past, and I can't tell you what a bad idea that route would be.

Design Degrees: Masters vs. PhD

2007-07-16T09:26:00.000-04:00

http://www.aiga.org/content.cfm/is-there-a-doctor-of-design-in-the-house

debating the value(s) of a masters vs PhD degree and then also that a degree in design, especially big D design is a professional degree (like Design Management's MPS from Pratt). So it's less about the academic than the professional application. I'm not sure how I feel about this assessment. I think she's right that PhD is more about having an ultimate question that needs to be answered and so much more in-depth research in many more fields and perspectives is required. For me the question is: does that alone make you a better 'big D' design professional or academic?

Here's another viewpoint from my all-favorite Design Council: http://www.designcouncil.org.uk/en/Live-Issues/How-can-we-make-sure-designers-have-the-right-skills/

I like the comment that :
Too many designers forget that the focus of design is not self expression...' because as we all know that would be art, not design.

Does anyone who has applied their Masters or PhD degree at work (or to start a new business) feel that having one versus the other makes a difference in practice?

the perfect burger must wait

2007-07-14T22:17:00.000-04:00

I love going to Shake Shack. Sometimes the almost hour-long wait makes me question my sanity, and yet it helps make me even hungrier and therefore the food and drink even more enjoyable. I secretly think that this helps with the success of their business.

So in my usual excitement, I got a group of friends to go with me tonight to Shake Shack for dinner. We waited on line for about 40 minutes and got to have one of those beeper things each a s we waited for them to get our food ready. It was an improvement (experience) instead of waiting around the order window for them to call the number on our receipt. Anyway, the friend that went before me got her food about 5 minutes after we sat down. Then 15 minutes later the friend just after me got hers. Then another few minutes and the other 4 friends got their meals. So I go up and ask about my order. It's almost ready but the shake isn't ready. So I go back to the table and wait.

I wait for another 5-10 minutes. So I've been waiting patiently for my food for over an hour all in all. I finally get my little beeper go off and get my food. The guy behind the counter who I asked about my food minutes before says "Guess you've been waiting a long time for your order, eh?" I just smiled and said "Well, yes, it's been a while."

I sit down and start on my Shack Burger (yummy!) and it's not quite hot. The cheese fries are a little cold and the cheese is just a yummy blob -- neither of which are hot. Just about warm. The thing that I had to wait for the longest, it turns out, was my Arnold Palmer. I discovered this drink two summers ago and haven't looked back. Half iced tea and half lemonade. YUMMY and refreshing.

So will I never go back to Shake Shack? Of course I'll go back. Will I talk smack about their wait times. Probably. But I was expectedly hungry and so it was super tasty even though it was late. And like I knew before I got on line. Waiting will only make it taste better -- and it's true.

I have to say, if the staff weren't so friendly I'd be more resentful of waiting. (I've worked in Customer Service for 3 years and at supermarkets in various positions for another 3 during high school. So my expectations of what someone in a service position can and can't do or be like is pretty high and also tolerant. I know what it's like to deal with the public and that's why I haven't done much of it since 1998.)

getting married and giving something 'green' as a favor

2007-07-14T22:09:00.000-04:00

I wanted to give our wedding guests something special as a thank you. Keep it in line with my environmentally responsible values and something that represented good design as the way to an eco-friendly product. I did some research when we first started planning our wedding and decided that between his love of coffee and my strong belief that coffee beans are great product to do organic, fair traded, and compostable end-product. I started reading up on Rainforest Alliance certified coffee and that led me to Good Coffee Online.

I have to say that one of the only stress-free things about wedding plans was getting coffee from goodcoffeeonline.com
I dealt with Gary there for about 6 months over email. He helped me figure out what blend and to make a personalized message on the 2.5oz bags we'd be putting at everyone's place at the tables. It was completely enjoyable to deal with the company and they made it as easy for me as possible. I don't think they make a lot of money from doing an event like this and believe that they enjoy getting people to enjoy good coffee that makes a difference as much as I do.

If you want to give something different to your wedding (or any event) guests, go for it. Give Gary and his team a call (or email).

I'm so grateful to them for making this one less thing for me to fret about, and as it's 2 weeks to go, the fretting is increasingly almost daily.

EU sets the way for product and environmental laws and guidelines

2007-07-14T10:52:00.001-04:00

"Standard Bearer: How the EU exports its laws" http://www.ft.com/cms/s/6e721ba2-2e7d-11dc-821c-0000779fd2ac.html

I don't care who sets the standards as long as the standards adopted by most of the world are better and sensible than what came before it. And as much as I make comments that Brussels/EC are anal and narrow-minded, sometimes that turns out to be a very good thing. I just wish the US would follow -- and maybe Gov. Schwartzenegger is right. Don't wait for the federal government, do it yourself. And good design is the way forward, laws or no laws.

Sections of note:
"finding it increasingly hard to escape the clutches of the Brussels regulatory machine: "The relative impact of EU regulation on US public policy and US business has been dramatically enhanced. Even if a country does not adopt the [European] standards, the firms that export to the EU do. And since most firms do export to the EU, they have adopted the EU's more stringent standards.""

"Compared with other jurisdictions, the EU's rules tend to be stricter, especially where product safety, consumer protection and environmental and health requirements are concerned."

"the global impact of three recent EU laws on chemicals, electronic waste and hazardous substances: "The EU is increasingly replacing the United States as the defacto setter of globalproduct standards and the centre of much global regulatory standard setting is shifting from Washington DC to Brussels."Japan, for example, has copied a whole batch of EU environmental laws..."

"Immediate EU neighbours such as Switzerland and Norway as well as countries in eastern Europe, the Balkans and North Africa are committed to keeping their regulatory regimes as close as possible to the EU approach to ease trade. Countries hoping to join the 27 must in any case incorporate the Union's rules and regulations down to the very last line."

"But the key factor is having the highest standard. Global companies develop products for the global market and that means they have to follow the highest standard - which today tends to be European."

Carmakers:
"This means European automotive groups such as Volkswagen or Renault can export their vehicles to Japan, India or China without having to remodel their cars or seek the approval of foreign safety authorities. Their US rivals, meanwhile, are often forced to invest in additional tests and costly tweaks to their models before they can be shipped abroad."

"They all know that Brussels is slowly but steadily emerging as the regulatory capital of the world. As much as some loathe it, it is a trend that business leaders and policymakers from Tokyo to Washington feel they cannot afford to ignore."

English candy bars rule! (Yes, really, they do)

2007-07-14T10:43:00.000-04:00

I completely agree with this article.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/11/dining/11cand.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
"The World's Best Candybars, English of course"

I never thought that Hershey's was good, it was just chocolate. My first trip to England and my first candy bar there made me realize what I had been missing. And oh, how completely exciting and fun it was to look a the candies and chocolates on their storeshelves, how totally different and more interesting!

I was thinking, THIS is what Cadbury's is supposed to taste like? What the hell is with that crap they give us at home? And then, and THEN I had hot chocolate in Paris that blew my mind, and friends gave me chocolates from Germany and Switzerland. But the candy bars from the UK do totally and completely rule!

I'm just grateful that between Carry On Tea & Sympathy and Myers of Keswick (shops both in the West Village, in what should be re-named "Little Britain") are nearby.

Carlos Slim is #1

2007-07-14T10:02:00.001-04:00

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/99651f0a-2c23-11dc-b498-000b5df10621.html

What I find most interesting about Carlos Slim is his name. Yes, ha ha he's not slim. But what kind of last name is that? He's Mexican of Lebanese immigrants. But is Slim a Lebanese last name?

What I find most interesting about the article is that his rise to financial dominance is because of his desire for power. And just like the Beatles said 'can't buy me love', and maybe for my point here it would have been better to say 'can't buy me health.' Now Mr. Slim is a widower and may be suffering from heart-related health problems. Maybe that's why he's looking to be more generous with his financial fortune and not give up his monopoly.

As I see it: He earned loads of cash because he wanted more power, not money. Power begat money and now his health is possibly waning, which money may help fix but can't guarantee. Does he not care so much for the money as long as he keeps the power to make him feel alive? So he donates because it's not the money that he values.

From a story I heard, 'As long as I put my two feet on the floor in the morning, it's a good day.' I wonder if Mr. Slim would feel the same way.

a history lover ponders this future

2007-07-14T09:25:00.000-04:00

"Liberal Catholics in Turmoil Over Return of Latin Mass"
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/c95daa8a-2c21-11dc-b498-000b5df10621.html

I love to know about history. Really, I like to know why things are the way they are and inevitably going back far enough in history and comparing different parts of the world's experiences gives you some reasonable answer.

I don't know a ton about Vatican II or why it was a good or bad idea. I have heard over the years from my family that it was when the church tried to be modern and a lot of the stalwart traditions of the Catholic mass were changed. I've been to a traditional mass in Latin. It was much more enjoyable than the ones in English. I even like the ones in Italian or Spanish. Any language where I understand less makes something very familiar to me seem more interesting. I'm not much for the priests' sermons. Most of them really do play on the you-must-feel-guilty-and-repent -- and the few that are worthwhile seem to be from priests who are in demand and don't stay long as a single parish.

I'm a bad Catholic. My family and my husband's family are very good Catholics. They go to mass, they pray, they believe (really) in the holy trinity, they think that everyone has the right to practice their own religion (or none), they believe in God, and the Mexican side even confess regularly. I'm my cousin's daughter's godmother. I've been to mass about 10 times in the last two years. I believe that having a church around the corner from my apartment that I've been to twice gives me no excuse for not going. It's right there.

I'm a bad Catholic because I'm a hypocrite.

I, like most humans, enjoy a routine and therefore find something 'safe' in tradition. I like the idea of mass. I like the idea of reading the bible and cross referencing it with other historical documents. I have a problem with the church. Well, truthfully I have a problem with being told what to think about big concepts. I completely disagree, like most Catholics, that the bible should be taken literally. I'm not a fundamentalist and if anyone wants to believe that the men of the Old Testament really lived to 900 years, then go ahead. I'll still think you're a bit nuts and you'll still think I'm a harlot. I, therefore, think that some of what got translated into English is probably a bit off and if it's not. I don't want to have anything to do with a Latin mass that states there's anything wrong with Jews or being of the Jewish faith. I'll let those who know argue that point out (see the article's main position of why "Liberal Catholics" are having a problem with the conservative Pope's decision to allow Latin mass again.)

I'll tell you what I do know: I'm a hypocrite. I really cringe inside every time I think about it. I think the church is antiquated and an interesting political machine in the middle ages (my favorite time in history). I don't go to mass, I don't confess regularly, I actively disagree with statements by the Pope (well this one more than the last, John Paul II was a great people person so I would at least listen), and I have a very hard time with the concept of the holy trinity and immaculate conception. So i don't have faith, because that's what faith is. It's believing in something you can't prove. Or at least that's my take on what faith is.

But I do believe in god. Maybe it's for fear of not believing and then when I die I'll be wrong. Or that believing in it makes me feel less like a speck on the planet which is barely a spec in the known universe. But I want my children to be baptized in a Catholic church. I want them to go to holy communion and get their confirmation. This is where I'm a hypocrite and a traditionalist. I don't want to have much to do with the church, yet I'm getting married in it in two weeks. I don't feel that our civil wedding last year has the same authority or validity as the church wedding will in two weeks. I love my husband and so getting married twice is okay even if the planning is driving me up a wall.

Thing is I want the church wedding. I want my children to go to mass and learn about our families' religion. And yet I want to have nothing to do with it on a daily basis. Hardly the model for any child who I expect to take it seriously. And that's the thing about it for me. I don't expect them to take it all in very seriously. I want them to know what religious traditions they come from. If they want to go and convert to another religion, then we can figure that out when it comes up. I'm a huge fan of Buddhism. We visited a Buddhist temple in Seoul and watched my Thai friend do prayers. She was welcome because she is Buddhist even if she isn't a Korean Buddhist. So not anyone can participate, plus it's really complicated motion if you don't know what they're doing. And that made me think: Do Catholics let in anyone? Not always.

I agree with the Church of England and Lutherans on this point. Invite everyone, God is a benevolent entity, and we're not too sure about the Pope making decisions for us all. I even think that the Muslims make more sense than the Catholics sometimes. But like every religion, it depends on who you're talking to and what their take on the 'party line' is. I might just know some level-headed people to discuss these things with...

I don't even know what to make of this 'perfidis ludaeis'. Even if it "only" means 'anti-faith' that's still pretty insulting. So they have a different faith than Catholics, does that mean that Jewish faith isn't valid? This may be a good time to have not failed out of Latin classes. Maybe I'd understand the context in which those two words showed up. More importantly, does anyone think that the Jews feel that Catholics have a more valid religion than they do? No, of course now. So why would it work the other way around. Catholics and Jews are like two fighting brothers. We're not going to agree, let's just not try to piss each other off.

I was in Salt Lake City last year. I think that Mormons are a little odd. I, however, don't think my family's religion is better or worse than theirs. And I believe that I would find talking to a Mormon about their practices and faith would be terribly interesting. I'll bet my finding them odd is because I don't understand. Or maybe not. I've been watching "Big Love" to get some insight and I know it's just drama.

To finish this explanation: I wanted to be Jewish around the time I was 13. It's fairly easy to figure out why, that's when all my Jewish classmates were having bar mitzvah and bat mitzvah. Who doesn't want a party the size of a wedding when you're 13? I went to two temples and sat through two services. I was impressed. I liked that most of it was in Hebrew and my friends were up there trying to remember their 'lines.' I should have avoided the bagel with lox at that time. I didn't become a fan of that until MUCH later.

There was something vaguely familiar about Judiasm and it took me a little moment before I realized their Torahs are the Old Testament. Plus their torahs are old and historic artifacts, which I love. And I have a problem with believing some dude was the son of god, too. So I felt a bond there. I'm just not waiting for the messiah to come. Maybe he's already showed up, maybe they have come and gone many times, or maybe it's not coming. I don't know and more importantly I don't care, so I'm not going to engage anyone in conversation about it. I'll just piss someone off by my own ignorance and that's hardly the way to have a day.

No matter what's going on, I'm a hypocrite and trying to deal with that. Really figure out why I want all these important moments to be validated by an entity I claim I don't respect. If my grandparents were still alive (and I wish they were most days) they would probably be disappointed in me. Still love and accept me but be disappointed that I don't share their beliefs which were really so very important to them. I think they'd like my husband though, he's a much better Catholic than I am.

Will travel for food... steamed buns in China, yummy.

2007-07-14T08:56:00.000-04:00

"Steamed Buns on the Bund" http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/64ee3e42-2c22-11dc-b498-000b5df10621.html

I haven' t yet had the chance or true inclination to travel to China until last week. (See article for why)

Let me think about my travels to Asia at all. I've always wanted to go to Japan (still haven't) for their noodles, city lights, high-speed trains, cultural differences and to experience the Tokyo subway. Oh and to see Hokkaido (I'm a sucker for all novels by Murakami and "A Wild Sheep Chase" just got me really curious about Japan's northern island of Hokkaido. I wanted to go to South Korea and had the chance, and excuse, to spend the money in January for a very close friend's wedding in Seoul. I want to go to Thailand to see why they love their king so much and get myself an 'i love the king' yellow tshirt. I've even wanted to go to India, see what all the fuss is about, check out some ancient architecture, and of course the food. So my travels to Asia have been only one and my dreams of it have been many.

I once went with two friends on the Chunnel from London to Paris to get the best hot chocolate in Paris, based only on one of the two's recommendation that it was. She was right. It was incredible. It was about 8 hours in one of the most beautiful cities I've ever seen, and I saw it on one of the most rainy days ever. So we ran through the Louve, and then straight to Cafe Angelique. The hot chocolate was the best I've ever had. I didn't get to see the Eiffel Tower since it was covered by fog and gray sky. I remember the food. I will always travel for food.

When we were in Florence last summer, our last day there before heading to Pesaro I found a sandwich shop that made the tastiest sandwiches because they used regionally-grown extra virgin olive oil that tasted like something. I bought a bottle of one whose flavor I loved and used it protectively over the past year. I enjoyed every smell and feeling from that bottle.

I also really have a thing for two pastas that I was able to find in Pesaro and not in New York. They're not THAT unusual and yet, I saved the label and bags they came in and would bring them with me to Italian shops in the city. No luck. I'm so very grateful my lovely friend from Pesaro is going to bring me two bags when she comes to visit in a week or two. I'm very excited about the pasta. Light, eggy, like air. You wouldn't drown it in some heavy sauce. The most lighly seasoned and freshly chopped tomato. Simple, simple, simple. That's what Italian food means to me. Something tastes like something, don't hide it. Match it with other tastes and make them all shine better.

I've also been to Wagamama on Lexington St in London about 10 times. I went five times once during a week long trip to London. Yes, I love Japanese style noodles in soup. I feel like I have to pace myself, but I could really eat them several times a week (if not more often). I also love a particular fish and chip shop in an town just outside of Ilford (East London/Essex). I know how to get there by car from a stop in Ilford on the 123 bus. I've had fish and chips in New York at A Salt and Battery a bunch of times. It's the closest to the stuff from 'home.' But it's the travel there that makes the experience of the food better. I really love British food. They really do know how to do a nice dinner. Toad in the Hole and Spotted dick, yorkshire pudding and roasted, well, everything. It's the place I learned to enjoy vegetables and that cooking with onion was a pleasure. (I come from a very Italian family and it took me living in England for a year to come to love onions and garlic, go figure.)

Now, back to my original point, I will travel for food. And if food will travel to me, that's good too. It's why I live in New York City. I don't enjoy working too many hours or the subway in the summer, but it's a foodies' city and I love it here.

When I was a kid, Big Bird from Sesame Street either went to China or made friends with a little Chinese girl. Either way, I learned how to say 'hello' (nee-how) and saw the Great Wall of China and got interested. I must have been about six. More recently, I've read loads about how advanced China is in some urban planning, cutting edge design, and how totally environmentally destructive Bejing is, poor quality (food, products -- recent export fiascos) and how very soon there will be more English speakers in China than in the US. But this article made me want to go. It was about a lovely experience with food.

soccer, futbol, David Beckham and the US

2007-07-14T08:49:00.000-04:00

Why Beckham Must Woo America's Soccer Moms"
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/6e21c0c4-2c22-11dc-b498-000b5df10621.html

Yes, I know, another article I note from the Financial Times. I can't help it. It's a more enjoyable read than the Wall Street Journal and satisfies my anglophile need to know a non-US perspective on world events.

I really liked this commentary article for two reasons: (1) It explains pretty well why plenty of people in the US watch lots of non-US soccer (aka futbol) and not US soccer, and (2) why hiring David Beckham for LA Galaxy is probably misguided. Beckham is no Pele, and even Pele couldn't get the States to want to watch the game after he stopped playing for the Cosmos.

I also really enjoy the anonomous nod to my (and others) support of the game on a world level. Calling in 'sick' when the World Cup or Champions League matches are mid-week and at some ungodly hour for someone in NYC to be watching TV if that same person expects to be ready for a 9am meeting at work.

Here are excerpts of the article I thought were poignant:

"The game has thrived as a pastime for kids such as Stone precisely because there is no big soccer in America. The soccer moms are glad that it is not a big professional sport such as basketball or American football. Many Americans are fed up with their professional sports, whose stars do lousy and unethical things such as shooting their limousine drivers."

"He [David Beckham] will find that impossible, because soccer is already on the map in America. The US has a strong soccer culture. It is simply different from any other country's soccer culture, and will remain different in spite of Beckham."

"Today more American kids under 12 play soccer than baseball, American football and ice hockey combined. Admittedly, they rarely watch it. By the lake, Stone said that in spite of playing the game all his childhood, he could never have named five professional players. In fact, he hadn't even been conscious of the professional game's existence. His was a very American suburban story. "It became a standing joke", writes David Wangerin in his book Soccer in a Football World, "that the reason so many Americans played soccer was that it enabled them to avoid watching it"."

"Many of America's ethnic groups follow foreign soccer. So does what Stone called the game's "geek cult following", a growing American demographic that bunks off work in mid-afternoon to watch Champions League matches. During World Cups, even some suburbanites switch on. Nearly 17m Americans saw last year's World Cup final, 4m more than watched an average game in the NBA finals and almost as many as saw the average World Series baseball game in 2006."

Dude, turn off your power strips when you're out and save money!

2007-07-10T11:08:00.001-04:00

I'm serious, try this at home!

Plug all your computer, printer, lights, cable box, wireless router, stereo, DVD player, TV, etc in one or two power strips. You know, the stuff you don't have on when you're not home and the stuff that you don't need to have on while you're out.

Then before you leave your house/apartment each day turn off the power strip. (You will, of course, have to turn it back on when you come home, and your cable TV and router may take a minute or two to start up. But if you can hold back the addiction a few minutes, your wallet will be heavier each month because of it.)

When you're not using them UNPLUG your microwave, coffee maker, toaster, and other SmALL kitchen appliances (don't turn off your oven or refrigerator, please). Or just turn off the powerstrip in your kitchen (if you have a place big enough that you have a kitchen), where all the little appliances are plugged in.

Unplug your hair dryer, curling iron, straightener, electric toothbrush, etc. Even unplug your A/C when you're not at home.

I did this just for shits and giggles for a month after my friend, Jee, told me a friend of hers did it but she wasn't sure she was going to try it. When i got my next bill I had reduced it by $17 (which my average bill is about $30). So I kept doing it. Then I switched from traditional energy to ConEd Solutions (a blend of various environmentally friendly options) which was a few cents per KwH higher than traditional energy supply. And my bill was still lower year-on-year monthly comparisons. THEN! THEN! After a year of this, I recently switched to wind-energy only (again through ConEd) and I'm still lower year-on-year monthly spending on electricity and gas than I was.

So now I'm all happy that I'm saving money and using only wind-powered electricity (assuming all the informational packets from ConEd are truthful, and I hope they are). Hooray for me and my self-righteous saving of my money and environmental guilt. You should try it yourself.

If it doesn't work as part of your daily routine, then try it the next time you take a vacation. Going away for the weekend? week? two weeks? a month (lucky you!)? Try it. You won't be there to know the difference and when your bill comes the following month, you will absolutely see a lower $$ due.

Here's some more reading about it from Ideal Bite. (I get the daily biter newsletters.)
"Turning it off" and using motion sensors to save energy and money, too. Article is called "Is clapping the easiest way to turn on the lights?"

NB This all assumes that you have your electricity priced by actual readings. If your home or building is billed by estimates, then you won't see a difference the next month. If you can, get your local energy company to take actual monthly readings. No sense overpaying (which you will) based on estimates if you can avoid it. Some buildings it's not possible to get actual readings, and sometimes they'll let you do your own readings over the phone with them if YOU can get to your meter. I could go on, but I won't.

InterSections design conference (Oct 2007) UK

2007-07-10T10:44:00.000-04:00

InterSections design conference "Design know-how for a new era"
in Newcastle (UK) October 25-26 2007

http://www.intersections07.com/

Tim Brown (IDEO), Peter Saville (once of Factory Records), Deyan Sudjic (orig editor of Blueprint magazine), Iain Ellewood (head of strategy at Interbrand), Allan Chochinov (partner at Core77), and of course loads more. It will, as usual, be laden with product and industrial designers. Design as a business discipline still hasn't picked up -- so I'll settle for design as product and graphic design if I must.

My all-time favorite, Design Council, is one of the sponsors. If you're in the UK during this weekend and you get to go. Let me know what happened. (Please and thank you.)

NYC Kwik-e Mart (The Simpsons, you know)

2007-07-10T10:38:00.000-04:00

If you don't know already, there's a Kwik-e Mart in Times Square (42nd St b/w 8th & 9th Aves). If you work around midtown like I do (ugh!) it's probably worth a visit. I know I want to visit.

I'd love to say I've been, since it's only about 5 blocks from my office, but I almost never get out of the office during the day. I wonder what the lack of sunlight is doing to my health -- in particular my mental health!

Want some more? How about all of The Simpson's movie marketing. And if you haven't made your own avatar, what kind of person are you?! Go, now! Make a Simpson's avatar of yourself. Do it, do it, do it!

Save energy, say no to neckties!

2007-07-10T10:27:00.000-04:00

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/c51e9b56-2d79-11dc-939b-0000779fd2ac.html

The was recently a surprisingly unsurprising comment from those in Brussels about a way to cut carbon emissions in the EU. European Commission is known for being anal and ultra-detail oriented when it comes to the EU... Anyone remember their famous list of measurements on what qualifies for a "button mushroom" sold in RU member states? Probably not, good for you.

They want to encourage (or force) offices to have a casual business attire policy to discourage the use of neckties, so that offices can raise the temperature of their A/C therefore use less energy during summer months and therefore create less carbon emissions.

Of course the EC offices don't intend to have the same policy apply to their offices, but who knows maybe they'll join their own bandwagon.

I'm not sure what I think about business casual for all offices. I'm a bit of a traditionalist, I prefer man in an office with a tie or jacket on. (Women, too!) I think dressing more formally naturally creates a work environment of stuffy professionalism. If, however, dropping the social and business custom of the necktie means less energy use during the summer -- I'm in favor of it. I suppose the necktie (a distant descendant of the napkin/bib anyway) could be replaced with something else fashionable... like saving money on your energy bills!

Patron, social networking, branding

2007-07-10T10:25:00.000-04:00

The community is an extension of the brand's "Simply Perfect" global, integrated marketing campaign. Members are encouraged to "ID" their Patrón bottles by entering the handwritten numbers on their bottles of tequila to find out the history of that specific bottle, such as the field in Jalisco, Mexico, where the agave was grown and the year it was harvested, distilled and bottled--a way of deepening the connection between consumers and the brand.

Members are also encouraged to contribute their stories related to a variety of topics: drinks, cars, food, technology, music, and more.

http://patronsocialclub.com/

There’s not too much content on the site now but it’s a pretty cool idea. It reminds me of a site that was out a few years ago where you typed in the number on your dollar bill and you could see the "travel history" of the bill if others had done the same. Clearly it was all community-based and not something that was tapped in to the US Treasury since the bills don't have RFID otherwise they'd be tracked and no one needs that.

One-click award. I love the Japanese

2007-07-04T12:54:00.000-04:00

http://www.1-click.jp/

I just get a giggle every time I play this. I don't really know why. Maybe it's because I'm a big fan of Japanese humor and design. Make sure to right-click at one point when they're running around.

marketers, banner ads, the future of?

2007-07-03T16:52:00.000-04:00

Marketers Seek a Banner-Blindness Cure - WSJ.com

I think they're missing the point. It's not something that needs a cure, it's something that people are blocking on because it has been and continues to be a lot of crap. More often than not, something that you don't want and just collects your personal information (cookies) for the marketers own use.

Did anyone else experience on Yahoo! mail the 10-day auction for something about American Express and NBC? All I know is that the damn banner ad was in Flash, took over the top half of my browser screen for a few, precious seconds to get my attention with what felt like 50 times during two days. I didn't want it, I couldn't tell it to stop, and I inadvertently clicked on it twice. It opened a new window which I promptly closed and was annoyed to have to do. Forget reading it or being enticed to find out more.

It's not a blindness it's a purposeful avoidance of having your time wasted and cookies put on your machine.

tagged articles for your enjoyment

2007-07-03T15:44:00.001-04:00

Want something to read? check out what I've bothered to note as interesting:

http://del.icio.us/network/teagurl327

An example of change management (what not to do)

2007-07-03T12:02:00.000-04:00

Order to cut prices empties shelves in Harare
In the face of crisis, you have many options. The one most people tend to take is to pull in the reigns REALLY HARD in an attempt to stop more change from happening. What often happens, depending on how hard you pull and at what point. Here's an example of what not to do, even in the face of absurd inflation...

The death of print to come? Maybe it's just an education.

2007-07-03T10:15:00.000-04:00

Sweet and Loman: Annalee Newitz on “The future of paper”
http://printisdeadblog.com/2007/07/02/sweet-and-loman-annalee-newitz-on-the-future-of-paper%e2%80%9d/

Digital Journalism, Paper Packaging http://radar.oreilly.com/archives/2007/07/digital_journal.html

Full disclosure, I read the first few sentences and then skimmed the rest. I'm probably not talking to all the points and therefore proving myself out as a reliable source. Continue readings (or skimming) if you can be bothered.

See the thing about all of no more books, newspapers or printed materials is that I just don't believe it to happen anytime in the next few centuries or at all. (Unless there is a technology that people are so comfortable with and it changes cultural and social behaviors that printed materials are so passe as to not even be necessary for official invitations).

Here's why: Education is still based on paper. So as long as we're teaching each generation by using paper, it's going to be the media preferred by the general public. I'm not even talking about just the US, I mean everywhere. Now, I realize my point is assuming the replacement is digital or a digital equivalent for paper. This may be a bad and wrong assumption, I may be very wrong. That's fine, I'm not in the business of prediction. What I do still think is that paper isn't going to die. Maybe tree-based paper will go away based on resources and energy and environmental trends. "Paper" will only go away when we as a species don't prefer to learn by it and don't a deep association with something tangible. I think it's a human trait to enjoy touching and looking at print on paper or a paper-like material. It's also an attractive Luddite-ish tendency I have to prefer having something that doesn't require a battery.

I also think that print designers, writers, printers, etc are (of course) differently disciplined than those of the web. I have a great respect for people who pull off great design in print. It's a strange bias to have as a web person (although I started my path as an English major, so there you go I guess.)

Print designers can't take it back from the world. They can cancel an order, they can do a reprint. A mistake is a mistake that has a permanent mark. How many of you have gotten a frantic call that there's a typo on a website and rushed off to fix it? Boom, done. Of course if the server crashed or there's a fatal flaw, it's got a bigger history and the web remembers.

Maybe it's my penchant for the printed word. I don't completely agree with the Internet is dumbing us down however I do agree that it's a push toward skimming a LOT (hello RSS feeds!) and only focusing interest on key points. It's the long tail, I suppose.

There are many bloggers, writers, commentators who work in the internet-only world had to work in print publishing they'd do it differently. Better? Perhaps. Many come from a print background, so perhaps I'm too harsh.

I've worked in publishing three times with a cumulative time of 8 years: once as a writer and editor (3 years), once in customer service (2 years), and once in media/interactive working with editors (3 years). I have to say, the respect I have for a good writer, editor and designer (and a good printer) is because of the diligence they have on their final product. This is not to say that anything produced for online consumption or experience is any less, it's just different. The respect of the greater US public is far less for online than print. People get print, it's easier to say that it'll take X amount of time, money and talent. You get balked at for doing digital if you properly assess how much time, money, effort, talent it takes.

People in certain spheres are consumed by what web 2.0 is going to do for education and what the "millenials" are learning. What most of them don't get is that it's all about efficiency. A smart leader once told me that and he's damn right. Students (since probably the beginning of time) have done whatever is most efficient. Students are people and people do whatever is efficient to get to spend more time on what they enjoy. For example, not doing the before class
is more efficient than doing it after. Why? Because reading it before is reading it out of context. A good professor puts the learning into context. So reading (or rather skimming, since that's more efficient) after class is more efficient. If at all, since not reading might be the most efficient, depending on the grading/course structure.

I'm not making my point as eloquently as I would like. I'll get it together eventually and repost.

If I could have dinner with anyone...

2007-07-02T16:38:00.000-04:00

Well since Arthur Miller is deceased, I'd have to say Beatice K Otto is at the top of the list -- with a close second by Margaret Bruce. (Margaret Bruce is a leader in Design Management and co-author of one of my favorite books on DM, "Design in Business")

Beatrice K. Otto on Design Council's website. Ms. Otto not only covers my favorite topic at my favorite organization in the whole world, but well, actually that's it. Favorite topic, favorite organization -- therefore I'm a fan. I've never met Ms. Otto and so believe that having dinner with such a person would be stimulating conversation and hopefully in London at Wagamama on Lexington St in SoHo. My first and still favorite location.

(Yes, I'm an anglophile and absolutely in love with Wagamama. When I lived and travelled to Brighton (1998-1999) and London (1997-2001), Wagamama was only in the UK and one in Ireland (I think). Now it's spreading like the most delicious of trends. Finally there is Wagamama in Boston, but when will it come to my home of NYC?! Hopefully soon.)

If you want to know anything about good "big D" design believe that it's probably on the Design Council's website.

SPOCK.com the people search engine or something more?

2007-07-02T16:35:00.000-04:00

http://omouse.vox.com/library/post/spock-prosperous-people-search.html

I don't know that I want to be found, but if someone wants to find you, they will. Another new thing coming from the internet.

wanna get a PhD in Sustainable Studies?

2007-07-02T16:31:00.000-04:00

please pass this on to interested researchers postdoc, 2 year position at Lund University
in Sustainability studies : http://www.lucsus.lu.se/html/postdoc.aspx

if architects had to work like web designers

2007-07-02T16:26:00.000-04:00

http://www.scottmanning.com/archives/000455.php

A blast from the past and still completely relevant

GreeNYC and Bank of America

2007-07-02T16:11:00.000-04:00

Bank of America doesn't win any of the sustainability awards from Financial Times [http://search.ft.com/ftArticle?queryText=sustainable%20banking&y=0&aje=true&x=0&id=070607000738 ] , but looks like they are continuing their green push (after One Bryant Park building, sponsoring Planet Earth series, etc)

Anyone around Manhattan bus stops in the past week (and on busses) might have noticed the new ads. It’s recognizable with the little gray/green birdie on it and the tagline “small steps, big strides.”

http://www.nycvisit.com/content/index.cfm?pagePkey=1958

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and Deputy Mayor for Economic Development and Rebuilding Daniel L. Doctoroff today announced GreeNYC, an integrated marketing and advertising campaign that is the consumer education component of PlaNYC. The initiative, consisting of television, radio, print, online and outdoor advertisements supported by Bank of America, is designed to educate, engage and mobilize all New Yorkers on the simple steps they can take to reduce pollution and greenhouse gases, and to create a greener, greater New York City.

Here’s more about the plan itself, GreeNYC:
http://www.nyc.gov/html/planyc2030/html/greenyc/greenyc.shtml