Wednesday, April 30, 2008
Monday, April 28, 2008
Sunday, April 27, 2008
Saturday, April 26, 2008
Friday, April 25, 2008
Thursday, April 24, 2008
Saturday, April 19, 2008
Friday, April 18, 2008
Wednesday, April 16, 2008
Tuesday, April 15, 2008
Monday, April 14, 2008
Word of the Year? Lagom: Swedish for Just Enough
The other day we were taking votes on an alternative to the word 'green', which is taking a bit of an over-use pounding of late. Well, seems our Scandinavian brethren had such a word all along. Lagom is Swedish for 'just enough', or an appropriate perfection. Hence the phrase, lagom är bäst (Lagom is best) = 'enough is as good as a feast.'
It is a word that was picked at the start of the year by US trend-spotter Faith Popcorn and her BrainReserve market research company when making their forecasts for 2008. "We see notions of "minimalism" and "sustainability" taking on significant currency, as even Americans reject hyper-consumption as not just excessive, but actually damaging to themselves, others and to the planet."
Brain Reserve continue, "... we'll see a basic shift in the identity/mentality of people, as they make the transition from "consumer" to "citizen"—recognizing that every act of consumption has cost and consequence beyond the transaction, and that every transaction is a "vote" in favor of the offering entity, and against the options not chosen. To compete, Companies are going to have to weave "goodness" as a fundamental intent into their corporate culture."
In Australia, Bernard Salt, a social researcher with KPMG, is quoted as suggesting that the Catholic Church's recent decision to add polluting the environment and excessive wealth to the list of the original seven deadly sins was a reflection of the trend. He calls the trend the rise of "the new consumer morality".
The same article references Barry Urquhart, of retail analysts Marketing Focus, who believes the trend is the natural evolution of the rise in corporate social responsibility over the past five years, saying, "I think companies that don't embrace it will be at a competitive disadvantage."
TreeHugger would itself be an indication of these trends. In not yet four full years we've climbed from obscurity to the heady heights of often being ranked in the top 20 of a staggering 75 million web blogs. There does seem to be a thirst for 'just enough.'
And what is enough? You can read one take on that here, inspired by Your Money or Your Life.
::BrainReserve, as mentioned in The Australian.
Sunday, April 13, 2008
Renewable Energy Global Status Report
---------- Forwarded message ----------
While dense reading, the below report is the best I've seen in describing
what is going on around the world re various renewable energy sources
compared to in the US. What was most surprising to me is that China is
doing more in the renewable energy area than the US!
http://www.ren21.net/pdf/RE2007_Global_Status_Report.pdf
While dense reading, the below report is the best I've seen in describing
what is going on around the world re various renewable energy sources
compared to in the US. What was most surprising to me is that China is
doing more in the renewable energy area than the US!
http://www.ren21.net/pdf/RE2007_Global_Status_Report.pdf
Saturday, April 12, 2008
Friday, April 11, 2008
Thursday, April 10, 2008
Tuesday, April 8, 2008
Monday, April 7, 2008
Saturday, April 5, 2008
Tesla
"Nikola Tesla was not in this for the money. He wanted to give the world free energy. If we are to implement free energy in the tradition of Nikola Tesla, then we need to replicate not only his science but his humanity."
-- Sterling D. Allan (ExtraOrdinary Technology conference; July 31, 2005)
-- Sterling D. Allan (ExtraOrdinary Technology conference; July 31, 2005)
Friday, April 4, 2008
Thursday, April 3, 2008
Wednesday, April 2, 2008
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