I am a global warming (GW) cynic—not a total skeptic, nor a true believer. I am cynical because I know what motivates many of the people involved—what else, money. I know the hypocrisy of those who talk tough about others’ requirements, but renege on their own actions. And I know that this is a rich world’s problem that may be laid on the backs of the poor. In McKenzie Funk I’ve found a fellow traveler. His recently published, Windfall: The Booming Business of Global Warming is about people looking for an opportunity to profit off GW. Whether there is a…
Author: Lloyd Graff
The do-it-yourself wedding photography approach asks wedding guests to take pictures with their phone cameras or digital cameras, email them to the bride and groom and let them edit the photos for an online or printed album. Is this a better approach than the traditional wedding photographer who poses the family and walks around shooting candids, and then charges a small fortune for the finished product? Maybe a great wedding photographer can come up with a few unforgettable images which frame a memory of the historic event. But the potential of the guest photo shoot approach, if you can really…
(CNN) — Thanks to 3-D printers, dentists can today print false teeth and medical device manufacturers can print hip replacements. Such creations are useful, but not exactly sexy. Thankfully, artists are demonstrating another dimension of the technology, printing remarkable creations that wouldn’t have been possible even a decade ago. Take Tobias Klein. The German artist wanted to meld the architecture of St. Paul’s Cathedral with representations of his own body. Approximating the shape and dimensions of your own heart is a challenge, but Klein did not have to guess. He underwent a series of MRI scans, and then, with a few…
This week at Volkswagen’s plant in Chattanooga, Tenn., 1,570 workers will vote on whether to join the United Auto Workers. It’s a big deal: While the big three American carmakers are all unionized, so far the foreign companies have avoided it by locating in Southern states with strong Right to Work laws. From their perspective, unions usually just mean work stoppages, expensive benefit plans, and the inability to fire people at will. That’s what’s weird about the VW vote: The German company is campaigning for the UAW, not against it, in a kind of employer-union partnership America has seldome seen. What gives? Well, VW is kind…
Diana O’Connor, a high school music teacher in Suburban Chicago, had the best of days and the worst last February. She recounted it in an excellent column by Mary Schmich in yesterday’s Chicago Tribune. O’Connor received a letter in the mail a year ago saying she was a finalist for the prestigious Golden Apple Award, which is given to a few of the best teachers in Illinois every year. Tucked into the same batch of mail was a letter from her school stating that she had been fired from her job at Lakes Community High School in Lake Villa. The column…
The State Dept.’s Keystone XL report found that the pipeline is unlikely to significantly add to global carbon emissions. But foes say the project still may not be in the ‘national interest.’ The US State Department has concluded that the proposed Keystone XL pipeline – the 875-mile long oil link from Alberta to the US Midwest and ultimately to Gulf Coast refineries – is unlikely to add significantly to global carbon emissions. The much-anticipated finding in the final Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) on the pipeline, released Friday, thrilled energy producers and dealt a blow to environmentalists. They have long argued that the pipeline would supercharge development…
As far as long-term investments go, the renewable energy sector has a bright future Around the world, investment in renewable energy companies has fallen. According to a studyby Bloomberg, $254 billion was invested in renewable energy worldwide last year, a drop of 12 percent from 2012, which itself was a nine percent fall from a 2011 high of $318 billion. This is a rather strange development. As a group, solar companies were one of the best-performing investments of 2013. The renewable energy sector as a whole is booming, and solar capacity is growing at an immense rate. So why is investment falling? There seem to…
In Manhattan, the upscale clothing retailer Barneys will replace the bankrupt discounter Loehmann’s, whose Chelsea store closes in a few weeks. Across the country, Olive Garden and Red Lobster restaurants are struggling, while fine-dining chains like Capital Grille are thriving. And at General Electric, the increase in demand for high-end dishwashers and refrigerators dwarfs sales growth of mass-market models. As politicians and pundits in Washington continue to spar over whether economic inequality is in fact deepening, in corporate America there really is no debate at all. The post-recession reality is that the customer base for businesses that appeal to the…
This map, printed by the Merchants’ Association of New York in 1922, shows industrial activity in the city, as reported to the 1919 Census of Manufactures. The map was meant as a promotional tool—beige areas represent areas “available for industrial development”—and to boost the city’s profile in the larger business community. In the upper right-hand corner of the map, a box lists the “lines” (or types of manufactured goods) in which New York’s factories competed. In 1919, this list shows, New York produced more than 50 percent of total national output in 12 lines of manufacture, and was competitive in…
The over-under line on the length of “The Star-Spangled Banner” at the Super Bowl by opera star turned pop singer, Renee Fleming, is 2 minutes 25 seconds. It’s the Super Bowl. Everything is a hustle. Denver by two. Earlier in the week, Pete Seeger, the wonderful American folk singer, died at 94. Could you ever imagine Pete (“If I Had a Hammer,” “Where Have All the Flowers Gone”) singing “The Star-Spangled Banner” at The Meadowlands? Funny thing. I love the Super Bowl, with its $4 million a pop ads, and I love the old lefty guitar picker, Seeger. They are both my America,…