Monthly Archives: October 2007

SAS Business Lounge at Heathrow

Posted October 31, 2007 by Chris

what a pleasure an airport lounge can be. its simplicity and variety of spaces true to ‘scan-design’ form. free wireless with great bandwidth [at 0600] and furniture that is both functional and comfortable. this is the way a lounge should really be.

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good scenario site

Posted October 30, 2007 by Chris

http://www.millennium-project.org/

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another wow site for maps from nasa!

Posted October 30, 2007 by Chris

http://neo.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/Search.html

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really cool cartograms

Posted October 30, 2007 by Chris

these are awesome maps and representations of data!

http://maps.maplecroft.com/

some of the best that i have seen….

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science on a sphere

Posted October 30, 2007 by Chris

http://sos.noaa.gov/index.html

wow!

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what a mom would say in a day

Posted October 30, 2007 by Chris

this is a must watch for anyone who has kids or is thinking about it……she gets it sooo right!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WsSuvUveUWo

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UN Environment Report

Posted October 29, 2007 by Chris

a good resource fo rus to take a look at

http://www.unep.org/geo/geo4/media/

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Future of Water

Posted October 29, 2007 by Chris

This is a really interesting article which was passed on to me from a participant at the Outlook Event in Washington. It is worth a read.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/21/magazine/21water-t.html?_r=1&incamp=article_popular&oref=slogin&adxnnlx=1193412783-V5RHRZd5hDkLDap1s6qrLw&pagewanted=all

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OUTLOOK 2008. Executive Conference. Wash DC

Posted October 25, 2007 by Chris

a day of discussions about the year ahead for the construction industry. the speakers were:

David Wyss, Chief Economist, Standard & Poor, who was awesome. he gave a very stark overview of the housing market and its impact in the US. he anticipates that the housing market will bottom out over the next year [maybe] and then not recover.

CHL made a new talk on future trends around STEEP.

Then, Howard Mager, Sr VP, McGraw Hil, opened a panel with a group of manufacturers.

Mark Johnson, Whirlpool. [http://www.whirlpool.com/home.jsp]

now using sketch-up to create a repository of product. one worry is that as we head into a tougher economy our products could be commoditized. his concern is that free-trade will be challenged by new president. this guy likes to throw numbers around without any real understanding of the context. he needs to get a passport and take a trip around the world.

Susan Kennedy, Sloan Valve Co [http://www.sloanvalve.com/]

they purchase renewable credits to cover their energy costs. biggest challenge will be cost of metals and global competition

Brad Haeberle, VP Siemens Buildig Technologies [https://www.buildingtechnologies.siemens.com/]

great opportunities for new wireless. biggest challenge is to get skilled labour. a good marketing person.

John Mothersole talked about materials pricing. he feels that there will be a 2% rise in overall price. he continued to give a bunch of numbers about the coming year. he believes that prieces will be fairly steady due to overall glob al demand icreasig. he also points ot that non-residential markets will look good.

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Meeting with National Geographic Society. Wash DC

Posted October 25, 2007 by Chris

spent the afternoon being shuttled from one group to another within the National Geogrpahic Society here in Washington DC. This was all courtesy of Susan Reeves who is in Charge of Missions and Special projects an di met at PopTech. I met with really great folks who deeply believe in the new mission of helping to enhance pubil literacy on the state of the globes natural treasures. it was a great afternoon.

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Capital Hilton. Washington DC

Posted October 24, 2007 by Chris

arrived at 0200 after a very long delay on the flight from Chicago. the security guard at the entrance simply pointed to the right. not a word of welcome. got to the desk and had to yell ‘anybody here?’ after waiting for about three or four minutes. [which is an eternity at 0200!]. my ears were still compacted from the decent – a gift from the cold i developed while in Maine at Poptech – so i could not here the gentleman very well. niceties done. room? smoking was reserved. he asked if i wanted the smoking room. of course not, it is in my HiltonHonors profile? yes it is in your profile. i don’t know why a smoking room was reserved for you. well, we don’t have any more non-smoking rooms. oh really? well, there is one. ok, thanks. well, you can move to a different one tomorrow, we are all sold out tonight. no thanks. room is ok. view to nothing, really. just to office buildings with their lights on at 0250 in the morning. no wonder the country has used up all its oil. the desk is too high for a laptop. the chair has arms that would be considered wonderfully worn if this was a retirement home. the bathroom has a hook in the shower where i can hang my shirts to unwrinkle which is clever. instead of the standard coffeemaker there is a direct in the dual mug coffeemate that is pretty cool as well. wireless seems to work ok……

But, Hilton has really a lot of work to do….. do they not use their data for those who are frequent travelers? why should we bother to give them the marketing database if they don’t have the courtesy to use the data for their guests? or, perhaps it is really ONLY a marketing ploy. in any case, they certainly need to try harder. this is the second bad experience.

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Access to Minds. Monitor.

Posted October 24, 2007 by Chris

spent the last 36 hours with a group of really amazing people. they are all part of what is called the Monitor Network [http://www.themonitornetworks.com/]. this group can be found at [http://www.monitortalent.com/]. it was really great to connect with Ethan Zuckerman [http://ethanzuckerman.com/] whose blog [http://www.ethanzuckerman.com/blog/] is really a must read!

i also met

sherry turkle [http://web.mit.edu/sturkle/www/] who was incredibly insightful.

Margo Strom – who helps us look at the past in new ways

Jim Bower – who seems to question everything in a good way

John Kao – who just finished a book on Innovation in America…soon to be a must read for everyone!

Dean Esserman – police chief from Rhode Island who believes the future lies in our streets

Stewart Brand – who sits back and listens alot

Paul van Riper – retired Maine Corps general who is incredibly wise and UNDERSTANDS complexity.

it is really wonderful to be in a room where everyone else is smarter!

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