I recently got a new laptop, and I have to admit, I have been spending a disturbing portion of my time on the couch. I’m not a big TV watcher, so prior to acquiring my laptop, I spent the majority of my time at my desk, which I guess should be even more disturbing.
Having a laptop is great, though. I got Airport Express, so now I am wireless, and can even play music through my speakers via AirTunes. I can even take it to bed with me, do some blog reading before bed, put it on my nightstand, and then check my e-mail before I even get out of bed (“oh, a computer in bed…the porn jokes I could comment with”…don’t bother). Maybe I’ll slowly devolve from never leaving my desk, to never leaving my couch, to never leaving my bed.
I’m sure I will spend some time on my deck once, if, the weather is ever nice again. It just snowed 14 inches here in Omaha, and every time this happens it makes me wonder why people aren’t nomadic anymore. Oh, that’s right, because we have so much stuff.
AJ Kandy of “West of the Expressway” has made some perceptive observations on The Economics of Urban Sprawl. Not only do the suburbs exterminate culture, they may be an economic drain all-around. It’s great to make the decision to not buy a gas guzzler, but how about designing our lives so we drive less to begin with?
The eventual realization of these economic consequences may result in the End of Suburbia, looks like an interesting documentary, analyzing “the greatest misallocation of resources in the history of the world.” It probably won’t be coming to a theater near you, but they do encourage public screenings. Anyone up for one in Omaha?
Natural Capitalism recognizes that there are four types of capital in a functioning economy.
financial capital, consisting of cash, investments, and monetary instruments
manufactured capital, including infrastructure, machines, tools, and factories
natural capital, made up of resources, living systems, and ecosystem services
human capital, in the form of labor and intelligence, culture, and organization
“Capitalism, as practiced, is a financially profitable, nonsustainable aberration in human development. What might be called “industrial capitalism” does not fully conform to its own accounting principles. It liquidates its capital and calls it income. It neglects to assign any value to the largest stocks of capital it employs—the natural resources and living systems, as well as the social and cultural systems that are the basis of human capital.”
Amory also explains that in the first Industrial Revolution, there was a surplus of resources and a shortage of people, and that in the next Industrial Revolution, there is a surplus of people and a shortage of resources.
I have not read the book yet, but I imagine it presents even more working models of Natural Capitalism than even Amory’s lecture did. One good example was Interface Flooring (yes the same Interface Flooring that I created my first carpet tile sample rug from). When you think about it, you don’t want to own carpet. You just want to use it for awhile. Apparently Interface is now providing flooring services. They’ve developed carpets that can be re-manufactured with no waste. They install the carpet, come back every few months and replace the worn tiles (carpet doesn’t wear evenly, of course), and re-manufacture those tiles. The result is much less impact on the environment, and its even more economically efficient.
With one eye glued to your TV tonight, glue your other eye to this well-designed interactive map illustrating party distribution for the 2004 election. There are also graphics illustrating past elections, and the progression of approval ratings throughout the campaign. The graphic when you click on “electoral votes” above the map communicates very well.
Remember Scott? Renee investigated Scott a little further than I did, and discovered Scott’s blog. There are some great discussions on there about general etiquette. One particular post about the Caller ID Debate is thought and comment provoking.
I think prescriptive, laundry list, advice like this can be dangerous, however. It sort of reminds me of reading an article on “How to Get Laid” in “Maxim” or “Playboy”: -furrow your brow and try to look sensitive – act like you are listening -say “I understand” alot. The thing is that the advice Scott gives are things a considerate person would do, and following the advice (unless you memorize alot of advice) won’t necessarily make you a considerate person.
But, it all is built upon a logical framework of considerateness, and if one were to read enough of this advice, they may pick up on this logic and apply it to new situations. It seems Scott may be aware of this, though. In his “Caller ID Debate” post, he points out the offending action, and then explains why it is inconsiderate, thus assisting the reader in developing a logical framework of considerateness.
One of my readers has brought to my attention Scott, a guy who wears a name tag every day. Apparently, he started doing so as an experiment, and it has introduced him to the wonderful world of spontaneous human interaction. This name tag has become his front porch that says “Hey! Come on up and chat!” and people tend to be more friendly now that he has his name tag on.
This piqued my interest because I often lament the lack of spontaneous human contact that I blame on the increased use of the private automobile and developments such as strip malls and suburbs. This is especially pronounced in a place like Omaha. People have pushed each other so far from one another that the ice that needs breaking is getting thicker and thicker. The result, in my mind, is that instead of having sustainable social networks, people have compartmentalized their lives and now must resort to dating services to find suitable partners, and “networking events” – specifically for exchanging business cards – to establish business “relationships.” I can theorize so many other repercussions and repercussions of the repercussions that I’m afraid to get any farther into it.
Next time you are walking down the street, and by some miracle, it happens to be a street on which there is another person other than yourself walking in the opposite direction, try to make eye contact with that person. It can be disturbingly difficult. You may want to try one of Scott’s 52 ways to build your front porch.
One of my readers has brought my attention to a cartoon that is reminiscent of my previous Don’t You Read My Blog? post.
The copyright is from 2002, so I’m certainly not the first one to notice this trend. It’s funny how much someone can know about what is going on in your life without even talking to you, but rather, reading your blog.
I have noticed in looking around at desks of various people in my office, that some people, like myself, take a “Google” approach to organizing: everything is just in one big pile, and when you need something, you just sort through it and find what you need. Other people take the “Yahoo!” approach to organizing: everything is in nice, neat piles, or even filed away by project or what have you.
Don’t you hate getting a two-minute long voicemail from someone, at the end of which, they tell you their phone number so fast you don’t have time to write it down? People will like you much better if you leave your phone number both at the beginning and the end of your message. They get two chances to write it down, and if they miss it the first time around, they don’t have listen to the entire message again to get another chance.
I dedicated today’s would-be blogging time to researching and writing a comment about Typographygate, the scandal surrounding forged documents about President Bush’s service in the Texas Air National Guard.
As an “expert” I can say these documents were definitely not created with technology that would be available in an office in 1972. As you will see if you read my comment, these documents are forged very badly, so badly I wonder if they meant to make a few mistakes.
