Tropophilia

Hey folks– as you may have noticed, I’ve been on a bit of a hiatus recently.  That’s primarily the result of not staying in the same state for more than a few days over the past two weeks…my travel schedule continues to be hectic, but with Jarred pursuing his manifest destiny out West, I’ll try to keep the blog fresh this week.

I’m way behind the blogosphere, but here are a few links to kick things off on Monday morning…nothing about Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac because, let’s be honest, we don’t actually know what those entities are supposed to do:

• For those who are interested, here’s the Harvard Business Review post-mortem on Starbucks’ troubles.  Hint: it’s exactly what you think, namely too many stores and trying to sell too much crap that had nothing to do with coffee (like John Mayer).

• A great intro to online giving markets for those who are interested in micro-philanthropy:

eBay disintermediated shopping. Napster initially did the same for music and Wikipedia for information [...] What paradigm shifting changes has the Internet brought to the slowest sector of them all, the philanthropic sector?  The answer might be online giving markets.

These organizations can be loosely defined as web-based, informational and transactional platforms that help donors and volunteers more easily identify and then contribute to or volunteer at high performing nonprofits, social projects or needy individuals.  They empower pre-vetted organizations to access a wide and diverse base of primarily individual contributors and volunteers.

[...] The fact that it is taking the philanthropic sector a decade longer than the private sector to identify and support this inevitable and emergent trend is quite disheartening and one of the main reasons why the smartest and brightest young professionals leave the sector (let’s not only blame salaries) [...]

• From TreeHugger:

[Y]ou knew it, but…in case you needed more proof: “A direct comparison of drinking water from the tap with unrefrigerated bottled water shows an environmental impact of tap water which is less than one percent of that of bottled water. Even when refrigerated and carbonated, the environmental impact of tap water is approximately only one fourth of that of bottled water.

• If you like Krispy Kreme doughnuts AND bacon cheeseburgers…you’ll still probably experience nausea seeing the two together at the Google cafeteria in NYC.  Careful Jarred, Krispy Kreme and bacon cannot be combined safely…

• Did anyone get a new iPhone?  If so, did you also get a date?

• Finally, I told you all that I decided to give Jarred a Something from the Something Store for his birthday.  Knowing Jarred as well as the magic elves at the Something Store do, they sent him skeet shooting glasses (true story: a sticker on the lenses says “great for night driving!”).  As my gift to you, here’s photo evidence: