As Jarred mentioned in the previous post, I’m in DC this week at a conference. While I’ll be directing you to my guest posts all week, you can read coverage of the conference from a 19-member (including Sean, the site’s founder and blogger) blog crew on Tactical Philanthropy.
Apologies for the abbreviated links, but I need to get some sleep. So here goes:
- I have to say, I used to roll my eyes at Tom Friedman columns. Jarred is a recovering Friedman fanboy, but I was always a skeptic. Now that Tom’s moved away from predicting the pace of success in Iraq, and is focused on green industry, I find his writing much more inspired. His column on energy policy last week is a must read. Here’s an excerpt from his latest column:
[M]illions of Americans are dying to be enlisted — enlisted to fix education, enlisted to research renewable energy, enlisted to repair our infrastructure, enlisted to help others. Look at the kids lining up to join Teach for America. They want our country to matter again. They want it to be about building wealth and dignity — big profits and big purposes. When we just do one, we are less than the sum of our parts. When we do both, said [Special Olympics chairman Tim] Shriver, “no one can touch us.
- I’m very intrigued by product designations/certifications like “organic” or Energy Star and LEED. TreeHugeer writes about the newly-developed “Natural Standard” put forth by the Natural Products Association. The criteria for “Natural” products focus on materials from natural sources and manufacturing processes that avoid harsh chemicals.
For the first time in history, anybody can publish information to a worldwide audience; in the past, only those with access to mainstream media could do so. The students currently in high school and college — what I call Generation Google — will have to live with a series of information fragments about their personal lives.
In college, students often experiment as they strive to develop their own identities; they often do silly things. [...] The gossip that pervades college campuses, high schools, and many other settings doesn’t fade into obscurity — it lives on. Gone are the days of innocent experimentation, of being foolhardy without having to suffer permanent regret.
- Finally, do yourself a favor and get to the farmers market. Here’s a perfect, simple recipe to take advantage of the spring bounty.
Happy Monday.
In conjunction with his participation in the Council on Foundations’ Leadership Summit this week, Taylor is going to be guest blogging for Tactical Philanthropy. The blog’s founder, Sean Stannard-Stockton, has invited Taylor and a handful of others to post their thoughts on different seminars and presentations that they attend. We’ll be sure to include links to his posts here, as well as some excerpts.
As the conference gets ready to begin today, Taylor has introduced himself to Tactical Philanthropy’s readers and described his plans for the week:
I’m grateful for the opportunity to contribute to this excellent blog, as I’m a ‘blog junkie’ and have a great appreciation for the role of social media in spreading information and advancing our work. I’ll be attending sessions at COF focused on the intersection of philanthropy and technology; sessions with titles like “Innovation in Philanthropy,” and “Wired Philanthropy.” I also hope to attend sessions focused on improving the grantmaking process in a way that empowers grantees (without overburdening organizations with unnecessary work), and focuses foundations on strategic thinking and learning.
Check back early and often this week for more of Taylor’s thoughts.
Published by
Taylor on
April 7, 2008 in
Advertising, Business, Cooking, Design, Energy, Environment, Health, Monday Links, Philanthropy, Sociology and Sustainability.
Sorry for the delay in posting these links, folks. I’ve been traveling, and I’m just now getting back to bloggin’. Unlike some people, I’m determined to make it through the 826 unread items in my Google Reader. How about a few links?
Although common tracking systems, known as cookies, have counted a consumer’s visits to a network of sites, the new monitoring, known as “deep-packet inspection,” enables a far wider view — every Web page visited, every e-mail sent and every search entered. Every bit of data is divided into packets — like electronic envelopes — that the system can access and analyze for content
- This Nick Kristof column on racial and gender bias provides links to a number of interesting online psychological tests.
The initiative is modeled after the grand challenges formulated more than 100 years ago by mathematician David Hilbert. His list of important unsolved problems has encouraged innovation in mathematics research ever since. Similarly, the Grand Challenges in Global Health initiative aims to engage creative minds from across scientific disciplines — including those who have not traditionally taken part in global health research — to work on 14 major challenges.
- Smitten Kitchen is my new favorite food/cooking blog. This lemon blueberry yogurt cake looks amazing (due in no small part to their expert photography…and baking).
- If you’re looking to spice up an office memo, or maybe a senior thesis, try the beard font.
That should be enough for now. Sorry to fill the links with so much random stuff, but expect more *ahem* serious blogging to follow this week.
Another weekend yields to Monday. Yikes. Jarred and I have been a little distracted and preoccupied with our alma mater‘s storybook run to the Elite 8 of the NCAA tournament. While heartbreaking, a close loss to Kansas tonight means we’ll both be spending less time reading articles about how great the Wildcats are and spending more time on Tropophilia. That is, as soon as Jarred returns from Detroit. In any case, let’s start the week (as usual) with a few links:
“Algae is the best plant out there for converting sunlight to energy. It’s 100x better at creating usable energy per acre than corn [...] new and old companies are trying different strains of algae and different ways of growing them [as well as] using them to clean the flue gas coming out of power plants.”
- My dad was a hobby beekeeper for a number of years when I was a kid, and I’ve always remembered our bee colonies (and beeswax candles) fondly. As you may have read, commercial bee colonies all across the country are experiencing mysterious Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) resulting in as high as 70% die-off rates. Beyond Philanthropy identified CCD as an emerging opportunity for philanthropic dollars to make an impact, due to the importance of bees on American agriculture. Now Beyond Philanthropy highlights similar trouble among bat populations. Since bats play a crucial role in insect control–particularly disease-carrying mosquitoes–we should find the loss of 90% of colonies in the North East US to be cause for concern and philanthropic initiative.
- This may only be of interest to fellow North Carolinians, but BlueNC will be hosting a first-of-its-kind (in this state) online gubernatorial debate with the Democratic candidates. Regardless of your political persuasion, it’s good to see candidates engaging in good faith with online communities. Topics for this evening’s debate will include “Technology and its role in transforming government, including transparency and privacy issues,” as well as “The environmental economy, including water policy, energy policy and climate change.”
- Stunning (though not altogether surprising) news that China plans to build 97 new airports by 2020.
- For those of you who are now a year or more out of undergrad and are starting to realize just how poorly you fare in the kitchen, here’s a great site with lots of how-to videos to help you Start Cooking.
Thanks and check back this week for new material. And please keep those guest posts coming! We had a great submission from Christy last week, and we welcome your thoughts on change. Happy day of honesty before April Fools strikes tomorrow.
The following guest post was written by Christy Moss, a writer and fundraiser for the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at the University of Illinois. Christy is passionate about encouraging a spirit of philanthropy among her peers. Her favorite non-profits include National Public Radio, Kiva, public libraries, and Greenville College, her alma mater.
Through her show The Big Give, Oprah seeks to change the way we view giving. While most of us already agree with her pay-it-forward style of philanthropy, it is a bit more difficult to connect with contestants giving away $100,000, when $10 is all we have to give. Don’t be discouraged! I am here to help you realize that $10 is a significant start – and that giving away $10 is more like giving away $100,000 than you realize.
Forget the Numbers
“Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much.” – Helen Keller
Did you see the Easter episode of the Big Give? Contestants were challenged to give away $100,000 in 24 hours. One contestant was actually paralyzed by the amount she had to give away. And only one contestant was able to give away all $100,000. Numbers can be crippling. Whether your gift is large or small, $10 or $10,000, giving is an act of the heart, not the act of a calculator. Don’t be discouraged by starting small. You may feel your gift is insignificant, but what if everyone who made $10 gifts felt the same way? Your gift, combined with the gifts of countless others, do make a substantial difference.
Continue reading ‘Give Big: How Giving $10 Is Like Giving $100,000′
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