Gladwell and Surowiecki Chat About Each Other's Books: An interesting e-mail exchange over three days on Slate has Malcolm Gladwell, author of Blink, and James Surowiecki, author of The Wisdom of Crowds, chatting about each other's books and contrasting their messages. It starts here. [Thanks to Mark Brady of Fourboros for the link]
New Developments in Solar Energy Technology: Canadian company Solar Hydrogen Energy Corporation claims
to have a revolutionary new process that uses mirrors to focus sunlight
on a chemical reactor that cleanly and efficiently separates water into
hydrogen and oxygen using a catalytic thermal water splitting process
that works at 400 degrees Celsius, not the 3,000 degrees Celsius of
previous technologies using this process. Lots of impressive sounding
scientific certifications and testimonials. Meanwhile a team at the
University of Toronto claim
to have invented a solar cell that is five times as efficient as
previous technologies at capturing solar energy, and which can be woven
into clothing which could then power your cellphone, laptop and other
portable electronics. Is there an engineer in the house who can tell us
if this is too good to be true?
Making Investors Take the Long View: GreenMoney Journal explains
three changes to accounting and disclosure that could make companies
and investors realize the folly of short-rage thinking: Internalizing
(adding in all costs created by the company, including social and
environmental costs, even if the company currently doesn't have to pay
them); Blended Value Accounting (combining financial, social and
environmental performance measures into an overall score); and Wealth
Consolidation and Concentration (the disparity of wealth and the
concentration of ownership in an industry, which leads to costly social
unrest and risky brittleness of supplies and markets). Although all
these things have a long term impact on sustainability of profits and
hence stock value, investors will only be able to factor them into
decision-making if and when this information is part of mandatory
disclosures.
Bush Tries to Spin Deficits: The NYT reports
that, in the light of the Bush administration's astronomical and
soaring trade deficits, even after a dive in the US dollar and oil
prices, Bush is saying the deficits are actually good news, and that
they're Europe's fault for not buying more American products. None of
the reputable economists are buying it, and the Europeans simply reply
that if Europe isn't buying, that means the quality, the price, or the
suitability doesn't meet market demand. You need only sit in New York
harbour and watch hundreds of tankers arriving daily from China packed
to the brim, and then heading back with the only product the Chinese
are interested in taking back from America -- its garbage and packaging
materials, to realize that this just can't go on.
The Perfect Sweetener You Can't Buy: It's a Paraguayan herb called Stevia Rebaudiana,
and in Japan it's 40% of the sweetener market. It's been around for
years, and is completely natural -- none of the risks and side-effects
and expensive processing of aspertame. It's sweeter than sugar. It's
grown in countries that could desperately use a cash crop for export
instead of cocaine. But because of intense pressure from lobby groups,
it's illegal to bring Stevia into the US. Oh, and our friends at
Monsanto have a corner on aspertame. But since we have 'free' markets
and 'free' trade, that must be just a coincidence, right?
Photo of swans is by Kevin Cameron at the visually stunning Bastish.
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