Green In Politics + Business = Good Environment

San Francisco mayor Gavin Newsom talks with Dana Goodyear on what it means to be green in politics and in the world, from 'Stories from the Near Future,' at the 2008 New Yorker Conference @ http://www.newyorker.com/online/video/conference/2008/newsom

Useful link:
www.sfgov.org/mayor

Very inspiring. We need more leaders like Gavin Newsom, really.

Beauty + Geek

I found Erik De Nijs, designer of the Keyboard Pants very interesting, in fact, I liked it. http://blog.wired.com/sterling/2008/06/erik-de-nijs-yo.html
http://www.flickr.com/photos/brucesterling/sets/72157605496145298

Useful links:
www.hku.nl
www.oooms.nl

Design + Science

PAX Scientific’s elegant Lily impeller was featured in the Design and the Elastic Mind exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art, in New York City (Feb 24 - May 12, 2008). The exhibition highlighted examples of successful translation of disruptive innovation into usable objects and explored the relationship between design and science. http://www.paxscientific.com/news.html#MoMa

Useful links:
www.moma.org
www.paxscientific.com
www.jayharman.com

Random Thoughts

One of the great tragedies of life is that when we really need advice, we're unlikely to listen to it. When we are young and clueless, people give us the benefit of their wisdom, and we sneeze at it. Later, when we finally see that what we do not know exceeds that which we do, we're already too calcified in our opinions to heed the answers that are blowing in the wind. Thus we go our own way, sometimes staying on the right road, sometimes toddling off merrily into the ditch.

- Stanley Bing

How true!

Bad Painting — Good Art

Bad Painting — good art, exhibit opened @ Vienna's Museum of Modern Art (MUMOK) on 6 June, 2008 - 12 October 2008. What's interesting is the artist's methodology: They challenge their medium by using a range of incorrect, bad or ugly approaches in order to attack and criticize it by its own means.

Useful link:
www.mumok.at

Weegee

(via Wiki) Weegee was the pseudonym of Arthur Fellig an American photographer and photojournalist, known for his stark black and white street photography.

Useful links:
www.icp.org/weegee
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/06/07/arts/weegee.php
www.imamuseum.org

He will take his camera and ride off in search of new evidence that his city, even in her most drunken and disorderly and pathetic moments, is beautiful.
- William McCleery in Naked City

Brilliant collections!

Ecologically Responsible Jewelry

I found GreenKarat interesting because they create original earrings, rings and necklaces out of 100 percent postconsumer recycled gold.

Useful link:
www.greenkarat.com

Diamond Buying Experience

Jay Greene profiles Mark Vadon, Blue Nile's executive chairman and co-founder @ http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/08_23/b4087039014145.htm

Useful link:
www.bluenile.com

A Splendid Exchange

A Splendid Exchange: How Trade Shaped the World by William J. Bernstein is fascinating story about human nature and character + covers history of trade from prehistoric to modern times. A great book. I liked it.

Useful link:
www.efficientfrontier.com

Neighbors are more useful alive than dead.
- William J. Bernstein

Indie Filmmakers

John Tozzi writes about Indie filmmakers who are using the Internet to get their stories in front of people who want to hear them, foregoing the conventional path of shopping their films to a distributor @ http://www.businessweek.com/smallbiz/content/jun2008/sb2008065_226261.htm?chan=top+news_top+news+index_news+%2B+analysis

Useful links:
www.filmcommunity.com
www.withoutabox.com
www.bside.com
www.cineticmedia.com

BusinessWeek staff writer John Tozzi's narrated slide show was brilliant. I liked it.
Thanks John.

Brand Heaven/Hell

(via Bruce Nussbaum/Businessweek) David Armano's illo of the steps to Brand Heaven--and Brand Hell was brilliant. Great visuals. I liked it.

Bob Dylan: The Drawn Blank Series

Bob Dylan: The Drawn Blank Series by Frank Zollner + Ingrid Mossinger + Kerstin Dreschel is a wonderful catalogue of the works of this great artist.

Useful links:
www.bobdylan.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cTeYYenRTFA

Art Boom + Insurers

Nazanin Lankarani writes about fine art and collectible insurer, AXA Art Insurance + other viewpoints @ http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/05/30/arts/rcartaxa.php

Useful link:
www.axa-art.com

Business Of Green

According to The International Energy Agency, the amount it will cost to go green is $45 trillion. The agency thinks the answer might lie in a global treaty, persuading member nations of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change to lower emissions. I don't think it's that easy. With the prices of gas and oil reaching record levels, energy entrepreneurs will have to think differently. We need to completely transform the way we produce and use energy.

Useful links:
www.iea.org
http://unfccc.int
http://ec.europa.eu
www.cera.com
www.ecfr.eu

Random Thoughts

The U.S. middle class jewelry buyer is toast -- he doesn't have the money. He is living off pay checks.

- Martin Rapaport

Diamond Market Update

Mark Boston writes about the state of the diamond industry @ http://hgoldie.blogspot.com/2008/06/unintended-consequences.html

Useful link:
www.hgoldie.com

Jewelry Industry Update

I found Nicholas White's analysis on the state of the large and mid-sized jewerly chains @ http://www.glgroup.com/News/Large-and-Mid-Sized-Jewelry-Chains-Lose-as-the-Industry-Consolidates.-25340.html
interesting and insightful. The industry is definitely consolidating; I think the winners are specialized small jewelry chains who know their customers.

The Uncertain Art

The Uncertain Art: Thoughts on a Life in Medicine by Sherwin B. Nuland is an insightful book on a doctor's practice (expertise, luck, good judgment) and life. There is much to be learned and there are events that can’t be explained by current scientific knowledge, and perhaps never will be.

Life is short, and the Art so long; the occasion fleeting; experience fallacious; and judgment difficult. The physician must not only be prepared to do what is right himself, but also to make the patient, the attendants, and the externals, cooperate.
– Hippocrates, c. 400 B.C.E.

Random Thoughts

Like cans of fruit in the great supermarket of business, we all have a shelf life… a sell-by date that is stamped somewhere, possibly on the tops of our cans, I don’t know. When that date arrives, it’s time for us to go. It’s business. It’s not personal.

- Stanley Bing

How true!

The Appeal Of Opera In Modern Culture

Peter Gelb's talk with Alex Ross about the appeal of opera in modern culture at the 2008 New Yorker Conference @ http://www.newyorker.com/online/video/conference/2008/gelb was brilliant. I thoroughly enjoyed it.