“At the Taste3 conference, chef Dan Barber(Blue Hill Farm) tells the story of a small farm in Spain that has found a humane way to produce foie gras. Raising his geese in a natural environment, farmer Eduardo Sousa embodies the kind of food production Barber believes in.”
Pretty awesome story. Makes me think about sustainability, agriculture, quality, and just doing things naturally, how things are meant to be.
If your in the Boston/Cambridge area today, there’s a pretty interesting panel discussion going on over at the Harvard GSD 5-7pm. I’ll try to be there.
“How do the new forms of connectivity enabled by the internet affect flows of power in society? Does electronic communication create new forms of self-identification, new political sensibilities, or new avenues of empowerment? Or do old hierarchies get reinforced and familiar divisions, such as those between male and female or right and left, get more firmly entrenched through new routines? How do design choices affect relationships of power, for example, by selecting who should be connected to whom and across what sorts of spaces? Drawing on studies of teenagers and professional designers, cities and the blogosphere, this distinguished panel will lead us on a fascinating journey across today’s changing public spheres. They will offer tantalizing glimpses into the democratic imaginations taking shape in cyberspace.”
I’ve mentioned the irresistibly cool Felt Rocks before, but if your craving something smaller, go grab some felt rocks on etsy or go a big box of my always favorite carpet poofs!
In an ideal world, all materials would be recyclable and everybody would recycle. The harsh reality, though, is that over 75% of water bottles, perhaps the most readily recyclable product in the world, end up in oceans or landfills. So, while it’s critically important to design for recyclability, only in the best-case scenario are the products we design actually recycled.
Enter Planet Green Bottle, with their innovative plastic additive, Reverte. Combined with PET, Reverte offers a time-delayed biodegradability that breaks down plastic even in landfill conditions. By severing the bonds of a carbon chain into pieces that are small enough to be used as food for microbes, Reverte leaves nothing but CO2 and water behind. And, most impressively, the reaction can be delayed for anywhere from 2 or 5 years, so products can live a normal shelf life without fear of spoiling, leaking, dissolving, etc., and is still fully recyclable.
While recycling will always be the Cradle-to-Cradle ideal, Reverte factors in actual, albeit unfortunate, consumer behavior by offering biodegradabilty when recyclability fails. Makes it easier to design with a conscience, offering a good temporary fix until the system encourages 100% recyclability.
Microsoft released a new video with their glimpse into the future. Most of the concepts seen are projects happening world wide and not just at Microsoft and really not that far out. Though most of the ideas are to promote the brand, it’s always good to get a refresh on the future and how technology might change our behaviors.
Oh my! I don’ think I’ll be buying packaged orange juice ever again! A must read! Shakes me up just as Supersize Me or FastFoodNation did.
Buy her book “Squeezed: What You Don’t Know About Orange Juice” here.
“IDEAS: What isn’t straightforward about orange juice?
HAMILTON: It’s a heavily processed product. It’s heavily engineered as well. In the process of pasteurizing, juice is heated and stripped of oxygen, a process called deaeration, so it doesn’t oxidize. Then it’s put in huge storage tanks where it can be kept for upwards of a year. It gets stripped of flavor-providing chemicals, which are volatile. When it’s ready for packaging, companies such as Tropicana hire flavor companies such as Firmenich to engineer flavor packs to make it taste fresh. People think not-from-concentrate is a fresher product, but it also sits in storage for quite a long time.”
Read the rest of the article at Boston.com or after the jump!
Continue Reading
Really interesting discussion if your into the future in digital mobile social networking.
“http://www.weforum.org
01.30.2009
The Next Digital Experience
Social networking applications and sophisticated mobile devices are combining elements of the real and virtual worlds, and delivering an augmented experience of reality.
How is this digital experience changing consumers and communities?
Hamid Akhavan: Chief Executive Officer, T-Mobile International, Germany
Eric K. Clemons: Professor of Operations and Information Management, The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, USA
Chad Hurley: Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer, YouTube, USA
Craig Mundie: Chief Research and Strategy Officer, Microsoft Corporation, USA
Shantanu Narayen: President and Chief Executive Officer, Adobe Systems, USA
Mark Zuckerberg: Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Facebook, USA
Moderated by
Michael Arrington, Founder and Editor, TechCrunch, USA”
I stopped by Brown Univesities EP (Entrepreneurship Program) this weekend in providence and was plesantly inspired by the 4 speakers who spoke. A few mental notes:
– Kiva.org: I learned from co-founder Matt Flannery that he worked at Tivo before, wrote down an idea a day for about a month, then quit his job to work at a donut shop, while starting up Kiva, with several people saying you can’t just loan money to outside countries legally. Anyone can be your business partner! Kiva now get over 1Million dollars in loans every 10 days! via BrownEP
– Starbucks: Ted Garcia (Ex VP). Starbucks went from having 17 stores total to 5 stores opening each day up to an astounding 16,000 stores total in about 10 years! Starbucks success comes from 3 things. Performance, People, and Luck. Starbucks success was in having a constant open dialogue with all employees, and bringing up issues when employees did not perform as needed. via BrownEP
– Mark Victor Hansen: Spend, create ideas, do ideas, only you can make something happen. Don’t wait for it to come to you. Don’t do something to make money, or save the world. Do it to make the world better. via BrownEP
– David Shrier: old school marketing techniques still work and can easily be measured in all channels. Some of the best examples are Ronco and Proactiv. Advertising money is not just to get to consumers, but also to reach largers distributions. I’m not a huge believer in older techniques, but David gave some very convincing examples. via BrownEP
” I wish you would use all means at your disposal — films! expeditions! the web! more! — to ignite public support for a global network of marine protected areas, hope spots large enough to save and restore the ocean, the blue heart of the planet.”
– Sylvia Earle
This is the TEDwish that made me promise to cut back on seafood (and sushi consumption) this year, though I’ve learned it’s better to eat smaller fish that reproduce faster from a previous lecture on ocean life as well. Also helping out will be the free release in the astonishing documentary OCEANS (youtube) by Jacques Perrin (Winged Migration) to help educate people about the ocean sometime this year.
via TEDprize
Unbelievable story! Multiple standing ovations occurred during Jose’s story and performance at TED. I’ll be helping out with this TED wish with my time this year and I just might be picking back up my violin of 15+ years experience for a bit. Come join the wish! Watch the above performance with your sound blasting!
“Jose Antonio Abreu is the charismatic founder of a youth orchestra system that has transformed thousands of kids’ lives in Venezuela. Here he shares his amazing story and unveils a TED Prize wish that could have a big impact in the US and beyond.” via TED
“Barry Schwartz makes a passionate call for “practical wisdom” as an antidote to a society gone mad with bureaucracy. He argues powerfully that rules often fail us, incentives often backfire, and practical, everyday wisdom will help rebuild our world.” via TED
Also watch his other talks here or buy his awesome book “Paradox of Choice: Why More is Less“
Dan Ariely speaks at EG about his rather mind boggling book Predictably Irrational siting examples on how we humans make some rather odd decisions based on what we see and already know. I’d highly recommend buying this book or following his work! (ps, he also spoke at TED last week)