Malcolm Gladwell, author of "The Tipping Point", and "Blink", wrote this article for the New Yorker back in 2004:

http://www.gladwell.com/2004/2004_01_12_a_suv.html

As is usually the case with Malcolm's writing, his perspective on the SUV phenomenon is unique, informative, and entertaining.   

Database technology is amazing.  Most people don't realize that databases are the core of all good Web applications, including the one you are currently viewing.  The power that a database can provide is incredible, just ask Google.

So the list of the top ten databases in the world is an interesting reflection on our society, I think.

Link

The $2.5 billion in new development (starting in 2000) here in GR is getting some national attention.  Land Development Today (PDF) explains that one of our driving forces is environmental stewardship.  In fact, the Grand Rapids metro area has more LEED certified buildings per capita than any other location in the United States. 

Grand Rapids is a leader in green buildings. The United States Green Building Council estimates that metro Grand Rapids now has more square footage per capita under LEED certification than any other city in the United States. The area boasts many LEED firsts, including the first transit center,the first YMCA, the first church, and thefirst municipal building in Michigan.This trend has been promoted by local businesses, government, and schools. Local philanthropist Peter Wege(Steelcase heir), a longtime environmentalist and conservationist, recognized the value of green buildings and has made LEED certification a requirement for many of the building projects he has supported. As a result, buildings such as the new Art Museum are being built to qualify for LEED certification. The region has also begun to realize that sustainability can lead to economic development. Mayor George Heartwell has been a strong supporter of sustainability. Last year, he joined more than 150 other mayors in signing the US Mayor’s Climate Protection Agreement.

From "The Revitalization of Grand Rapids", Land Development Today (November/December 2006)

I was lucky enough to hear David Gottfied speak at the Herman Miller Environment conference this summer.  David was one of the founders of the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), and he helped start the LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification standard.

Why is the Grand Rapids metro area so green?  Conservative and green don't usually go together, and yet we lead the nation in green building.  That is remarkable, and it should serve as a warning to the forces who would like to see the sustainability movement identified with a bunch of tree humping hippies.

In fact, much of the angel startup money flowing to cutting edge technology companies today is focused on sustainability.  Green is the new thing, with many of the internet visionaries of yesterday betting the farm on green technology startups.  Grand Rapids is obviously in a great position to take advantage of this national global trend.

Was Gerald Ford one of our first leaders to advocate for sustainability?  From the Ford presidential library Website, here are some of the proposals he submitted to congress:

• Stimulate effective conservation, including revitalization of our railroads and the expansion of our urban transportation systems;
• Develop more and cleaner energy from our vast coal resources;
• Create a new national Energy Independence Authority to stimulate vital energy investment;
• And accelerate development of technology to capture energy from the sun and the earth for this and future generations.

Of course he was responding to the threat posed by middle east oil cartels forcing gas prices through the roof.  At the time his solutions seemed like the right approach, especially for the long term health of the country.  Sadly we didn't choose to make these goals a priority, but it's not too late.

RiverTown Crossings has decided to ban city buses from their property.  From the GR Press article:

"RiverTown General Manager Randy Zimmerman said the move was prompted by 'several violent incidents' he blamed on bus passengers."

As Chris Knape points out,  this is a holiday slap in the face for the poor and handicapped passengers who depend on this transportation.

Feel free to send RiverTown an email to express your opinion.

These folks want to ban trans fats.  I understand the immediacy of the situation, we are facing an epidemic of obesity and heart disease in America.  But I'm not convinced that we should ban hydrogenated oils.

This is actually a little more complicated than you might think.  The process of creating trans fats causes the removal of Omega 3 from fatty acids.  Susan Allport points out that it could be this lack of Omega 3 that is truly the problem.  She agrees that trans fats are bad -- but the real culprit in her eyes is the lack of Omega 3 relative to Omega 6.  She points out that you could give up trans fats completely and still not be healthy, if you did not get your Omega 3s.

Susan also makes a good point about fish oil:  It is the Omega 3 in fish that makes them such healthy meals for we fish eaters.  Even beef could be high in Omega 3 if those cows were eating the right stuff!

Studies are now revealing the importance of Omega-3 fatty acids in maintaining brain chemistry and mental health.

"For the clinician in charge of the US study, Joseph Hibbeln, the results of his trial are not a miracle, but simply what you might predict if you understand the biochemistry of the brain and the biophysics of the brain cell membrane. His hypothesis is that modern industrialised diets may be changing the very architecture and functioning of the brain.

We are suffering, he believes, from widespread diseases of deficiency. Just as vitamin C deficiency causes scurvy, deficiency in the essential fats the brain needs and the nutrients needed to metabolise those fats is causing of a host of mental problems from depression to aggression. Not all experts agree, but if he is right, the consequences are as serious as they could be. The pandemic of violence in western societies may be related to what we eat or fail to eat. Junk food may not only be making us sick, but mad and bad too."

The recent jump in autism cases is reason for concern, especially if these trends continue.  A just released study by Cornell University (Waldman, et al) reveals a significant correlation between autism rates and young children who watched TV frequently.

Previously, vaccines were a leading suspect, but numerous studies have failed to show any definitive link between autism and vaccines. 

Gregg Easterbrook of Slate Magazine points out that further study is needed to clarify the link between autism and television:

"Research has shown that autistic children exhibit abnormal activity in the visual-processing areas of their brains, and these areas are actively developing in the first three years of life. Whether excessive viewing of brightly colored two-dimensional screen images can cause visual-processing abnormalities is unknown. The Cornell study makes no attempt to propose how television might trigger autism; it only seeks to demonstrate a relationship. But Waldman notes that large amounts of money are being spent to search for a cause of autism that is genetic or toxin-based and believes researchers should now turn to scrutinizing a television link."

I've added Sudoku to this Website (located in the right column near the bottom).  Also, here are some good tips on how to solve these puzzles without going completely insane.

Hat tip to Dan Woolston on this one.

Here are the questions that we are planning to ask of our panelists at the GlimaWest Blog Event:

1. When does blogging make sense for marketing purposes and how does blogging integrate with a marketing campaign?
2. When using blogging for business purposes, what is the return on investment?  What is the investment?  What is the return?
3. Does blogging reveal "news" that is not available from traditional for-profit news channels?
4. What are some of the challenges and rewards of establishing a personal blog for self-promotion and idea expression?
5. Should companies have a policy specific to blogging like many do for email, intellectual property and other business risks?  And are there technologies for managing offensive blog content just like email tools?
6. What is the most effective way to find and be kept up to date on blogs that match your personal or professional interests?
7. When is it better to create a blog from scratch versus using a system or community like blogger.com or typepad.com?
8. Is blog commentary essential?  How does it enhance the experience for the blogger, commenter, or passive reader?
9. How is it typically that blog readers identify themselves as sales leads?
10. Blogging has traditionally been text based.  What about photos or video? What about embedding content from other sites?  What about commentary doing the same?  When do these enhancements make sense?
11. Is blogging functionality converging with others such as social networking?
12. Should glimaWest establish a blog?

I love these types of discussions and I can't wait to get started.  Feel free to comment on any ideas or questions that you would like to see discussed, or comment on the questions already listed.

Supposedly Microsoft has started an investigation to determine how these supposedly private internal training videos were leaked to the Internet.

Apparently Ricky Gervais (The Office - British version) and Stephen Merchant (his writing partner) made these videos back in 2003 with funding from MS.  These videos should be required material for all aspiring young IT executives.

This free software will let you save any YouTube video to your iTunes/iPod.  Simply paste in the URL of the video and iTube does the rest.  Thank you Mr. Benjamin Strahs!

iTube

Update:  It occurred to me after I posted this that some of you might not be familiar with YouTube.   According to a July 16 announcement, 100 million video clips are viewed daily on YouTube, with an additional 65,000 new videos uploaded per 24 hours. The site has almost 20 million visitors each month, according to Nielsen/NetRatings.  YouTube is an example of how the internet is nibbling away at the fabric of popular media, including traditional forms of video delivery such as television and DVD formats.

I will be moderating an event about blogs and blogging, hosted by glimaWest.  Our intention is to discuss blogs as a means of promoting business and political messages.  We have asked for participation from several local bloggers, and we are getting some very interesting panelists lined up.  A blogger from the Granholm for Governor campaign blog may be a participant.  Also, bloggers from the Media Mouse and The Local Area Watch blogs have shown interest and may be among the panelists.

I'll post more information here as it becomes available.  My most excellent employer, Blue Sphere, will be sponsoring this event.  We have yet to decide on a venue (it will be somewhere in the Grand Rapids area), but the panel discussion is scheduled to start at 6:30pm on September 28th.

Stephen Colbert has coined yet another word that will soon become a part of your vocabulary:  Wikiality.  Earlier this year he turned heads with is addition of "Truthiness" to the global lexicon.

In my humble opinion there is a degree of truthiness in Stephen's definition of wikiality.  We are indeed entering a new phase of consensus building via Blogs, Wikis (in particular Wikipedia), and the Web in general.  And it's a democratic process for the most part, although those individuals who are less inclined to participate in this revolution have become somewhat marginalized.

Dinner table arguements can have some sense of finality now that we can consult a medium which allows for consensus and majority views to bubble to the top of the endless chatter.  I would submit that the very fabric of our democracy and cultural decision making processes may be forever changed as these systems mature.

There is something very humbling about exposing your beliefs and values to the criticism and review that is built in to these consensus building systems.  Your ideas are quickly challenged and you are forced to defend them or face the consequences.  And if you lose interest, there is always someone there to fill the void and possibly render your ideas obsolete.  So the end product, or consensus, typcially ends up being dominated by those who are most engaged, persistent, and convincing in their particular area of expertise. Welcome to the age of wikiality.