The Green Karnyval

Upcoming Videos

2011-04-05T18:15:00.000-07:00

Urban Farming event videos coming soon, within the next week

will be linked to site from youtube

Seems like I am a spring Blogger, lol

2011-04-05T17:20:00.000-07:00

What is a Spring Time Blogger?
As A Naturalist...
New Events Site:
see Notebook
More relevant information and links to come!

Google Buzz & Google Wave are not good products to compare

2010-02-11T16:24:00.001-08:00

Scrolling through my Google Reader it would seem that while Google Buzz is creating a lot of buzz the majority of people seem to think that it is appropriate to compare the two products. I have to question then if those writers have actually even tried to imagine how one could possibly use Wave. It would just seem that they are recycling news and status update feeds and not doing a whole lot of research.

Please allow me to do some comparisons and feel free to let me know how if you think I am on the mark. Let's start with Buzz.

Google Buzz is a message update tool that integrates currently with Google Reader and Gmail.
You can embed multi-media and and include more than 140 characters of information.
you can also, via your Google Contacts, send or share privately messages to a particular group allowing one to better focus their message to a particular target audience or work group.
That is it

Now I will briefly highlight some very different functionalities of Google Wave.

Wave is a multi-media document with a URL. This can be a really long conversation (and unfortunately often is), but it can actually be any type of real-time collaborative document that can house most any type of media, widget, and includes executable JavaScript and HTML.
Contacts can be created much like web-services that interact and have functionality with the wave. This as of yet barely tapped potential is only limited to the creativity of the designer of the contact, or bot.
Google Wave is an area where designers can create Gadgets and provide services and tools within a wave that are different than the more general services added to a wave by a bot.
Another powerful feature and barely explored feature of Wave is the ability to export the wave or embed it into another website or web application.
Last feature that distinguishes Wave from Buzz is collaboration. While I can comment on someone's Buzz, comments are a far cry from being able to see someone type and edit at the same time that you are typing or editing the Wave.

I hope some of this has clarified the major differences between Wave and Buzz. They are quite different. Please feel free to share your thoughts

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Hopping on the Google Buzz Wagon

2010-02-09T13:37:00.001-08:00

Ok, seriously don’t need another status update application. But, Buzz could be different. First off I want to tell you how I use my status update applications (I have a feeling many ppl do the same) Second I want to give a run down of how I think Buzz is different, and Thirdly I would like your honest feed back.

How I use status update applications like Twitter, Facebook, and Friendfeed et al… I am a Tweetdeck user. I have multiple Twitter and Facebook accounts for the different types of posts and work that I do. With Tweetdeck I can add all of these accounts and when I have posts that are related to my personal friends I use different accounts than when I post about Environmental topics or Indiana only posts. I don’t send out spam, and I monitor closely who I really follow. I have also migrated a lot of the Mail and Document work that I do professionally and for college to the Google Verse. Google Apps has made online collaboration very easy and productive and sexy in a simple way.

Now if I can’t connect Buzz to my Tweetdeck then guess what, not going to be used often. However, there are many projects that I work on with clients and partners and we use Google Apps for work collaboration and documentation (including wave). Now already having these people in groups, within my Google Contacts, makes sending out a private update a very attractive and useful use for Google Buzz, especially since I have a lot of coworkers who are not yet comfortable working in wave, Buzz becomes an easy way for me to send project statuses, updates, or questions and get some feedback without having the information public and without having to open up Tweetdeck.

Now that is all I really have to say at this time about Google Buzz and I would appreciate your feedback on how you would use Buzz (or not) and whether or not you would (or wouldn’t) like to see Buzz integrated with your other status application services or apps.

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Football Tonight - ESPN

2010-02-07T10:15:00.000-08:00

Football Tonight - ESPN

ESPN radio: countdown to kick off http://espn.go.com/espnradio/player#/live/?callsign=ESPNRADIO

Go Colts!!!

The disrupted of Davos � BuzzMachine

2010-02-05T18:15:00.001-08:00

The disrupted of Davos � BuzzMachine

by
Jeff Jarvis

The theme of this year’s World Economic Forum meeting at Davos was “rethink, redesign, rebuild.” When a friend recited that list for me, I responded that given the institutions there, the more appropriate slogan is “replace.”

Last year when I arrived at Davos, I wondered whether we were among the problem or the solution. This year, I wondered whether we were among the future or the past. Well, actually, I don’t wonder.....

23 Responses to “The disrupted of Davos”

Teachers in Google Wave - Classroom 2.0

2010-02-02T10:59:00.000-08:00

Teachers in Google Wave - Classroom 2.0

For any one interested in Education here is a very informative Ning based education network. My actual interests lie in how they are using Wave in the Classroom and so I thought i would just pass this link along as a valuable resource to those in Education.

If any one else is using Google in the class room feel free to share with me as the http://www.indiana-gtug.org/ Google Technology Users Group is seeking interesting topics and presenters for the as of yet unannounced Feb or March Indiana GTUG Meeting.

Is Google holding true to their corporate ethical values?

2010-02-01T18:55:00.001-08:00

How Google may open up the doors of Access to Information in China. An Article examining social responsibility and corporate ethics. View the larger presentation at Prezi.com

Contents:

Google’s Philosophy

· Ten Things Google Knows to be True

· Privacy Principals

· User Experience

· Security Philosophy

Google History Facts

· From 2006 to the Present

What others have to say about Google and China

· Lisa Roner – EthicalCorp.com

· Siva Vaidhnyanathan – author of “The Googlization of Everything”

Environment and Precedent

· Business Roundtable Institute for Corporate Ethic

· The Atlantic Monthly

My Conclusion Based on the Evidence

Index of References Used

Additional Videos and Resources on the topic

Digital Inspiration

How China Censors the Internet – Video

http://www.labnol.org/internet/how-china-censors-internet-sites/8603/

All blog posts from The Official Google Blog with the label Asia

http://googleblog.blogspot.com/search/label/Asia

A new approach to China 1/12/2010 03:00:00 PM

Testimony: The Internet in China 2/15/2006 09:50:00 AM

According to Google’s Corporate Overview

Google’s Philosophy

Ten things we know to be true

1. Focus on the user and all else will follow.

2. It's best to do one thing really, really well.

3. Fast is better than slow.

4. Democracy on the web works.

5. You don't need to be at your desk to need an answer.

6. You can make money without doing evil.

7. There's always more information out there.

8. The need for information crosses all borders.

9. You can be serious without a suit.

10. Great just isn't good enough.

Privacy Principles

1. Use information to provide our users with valuable products and services.

2. Develop products that reflect strong privacy standards and practices.

3. Make the collection of personal information transparent.

4. Give users meaningful choices to protect their privacy.

5. Be a responsible steward of the information we hold.

Google User Experience

1. Focus on people – their lives, their work, their dreams.

2. Every millisecond counts.

3. Simplicity is powerful.

4. Engage beginners and attract experts.

5. Dare to innovate.

6. Design for the world.

7. Plan for today's and tomorrow's business.

8. Delight the eye without distracting the mind.

9. Be worthy of people's trust.

10. Add a human touch.

Google's Security Philosophy

· We've learned that when security is done right, it's done as a community

Google History Facts

When Google first made the decision to market its search engine to internet users in China, the idea was to have a Chinese version of the Google search engine. This would include translating all of the Google search engine components into Chinese, but not limiting any information to the average Chinese internet user. (Morrill and Keen)

When the Chinese version of Google was shut down by the Chinese government, Google decided to take a different path. In December of 2005, Google signed a deal with the Chinese government that enabled the company to establish a legal presence in China. (Morrill and Keen)

Google decided to mimic the firewall of China. Google achieved this by setting up a computer inside China and programmed it to try to access websites outside the country that were controversial. If a site was blocked by the firewall that meant that the Chinese government regarded the content as controversial and Google added it to its backlist of banned websites” (Morrill and Keen)

After finding what sites to block, Google launched its newest creation, Google China on January 27, 2006. Google China gives the average Chinese internet user the ability to search for information without being slowed down by the Chinese firewall. (Morrill and Keen)

Google differentiated this product from those of its competitors by: (1) keeping personal information outside China through Gmail, its Web-based email service, and Blogger, its personal Web-blog-hosting service; (2) disclosing the presence of general filtering to users; and (3) continuing a Chinese-language version of Google.com. (Martin)

the Google China website does not just display a message such as “page not available,” but instead displays a message that explains to the Chinese internet user that the “Information is not available due to Chinese law. (Morrill and Keen)

These attacks and the surveillance they have uncovered--combined with the attempts over the past year to further limit free speech on the web--have led us to conclude that we should review the feasibility of our business operations in China. We have decided we are no longer willing to continue censoring our results on Google.cn, and so over the next few weeks we will be discussing with the Chinese government the basis on which we could operate an unfiltered search engine within the law, if at all. We recognize that this may well mean having to shut down Google.cn, and potentially our offices in China. (Official Google Blog)

The surprise move was accompanied by a signal from Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of State, that she was preparing to throw her weight behind a campaign against China's lack of free speech. The State department said that Mrs. Clinton had met with executives from Google and Microsoft, as well as with Cisco Systems, which provides much of China's internet infrastructure, to discuss how to stop countries from "stifling" access to information. Next week the US is to launch a new technology policy to help citizens in other countries to gain access to an uncensored internet. (Moore and Foster)

What others have to say about Google and China

Now there are many conflicting views about Google surrounding it’s ethics and motives and even conflicting actions taken by Google. A week prior to Google Entering China:

Last summer when the US Department of Justice, in what it said was an effort to uphold an online pornography law, asked Microsoft, Yahoo and America Online to turn over records of millions of their users’ online searches, the companies complied.
But Google dug in its heels and made it clear it had no intention of compromising its corporate ideals or its users’ privacy. Even after a federal judge ordered in January to surrender the records, in no uncertain terms Google told its own government to take a hike.
Less than a week later, though, Google announced it was launching a censored version of its search engine in China. (Roner 2006 www.EthicalCorp.com)

The key here is that Google is threatening to pull Google.cn out of reach of the millions of elite, cosmopolitan users within the People's Republic. Most Chinese Web users use Baidu. But Google is the choice of those who travel, do business overseas, or are expats from the United States or Europe. Those people have some pull with the Chinese government. And they will want their Google.cn. (Siva - Siva Vaidhnyanathan- 2010)

Environment and Precedents

Kristen E Martin - Business Roundtable Institute for Corporate Ethics
Case BRI-1005Google China inc. (condensed)

James Keith, senior adviser for China and Mongolia in the State Department’s Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs, testified before Congress:

“China’s well-documented abuses of human rights are in violation of internationally recognized norms, stemming both from the authorities’ intolerance of dissent and the inadequacy of legal safeguards for basic freedoms. Reported abuses have included arbitrary and lengthy incommunicado detention, forced confessions, torture, and mistreatment of prisoners as well as severe restrictions on freedom of speech, the press, assembly, association, religion, privacy, worker rights, and coercive birth limitation. In 2005, China stepped up monitoring, harassment, intimidation, and arrest of journalists, Internet writers, defense lawyers, religious activists, and political dissidents.6”

Enforcement

Enforcement involves the use of both governmental censorship and self-censorship. It is known to be present in the following:

• Technology: Positioning routers at the edge of the domestic Internet

• Government law enforcement: 30,000 Internet police

• Corporations: Self-censorship of cybercafés

• Propaganda: News stories about imprisoned journalists

• Individuals: Online reporting centers encouraged “citizens to report ‘harmful’ information

• Vague yet specific approaches: Seemingly omniscient presence; definition of “harmful material” changed weekly

Backlash

To circumvent the Chinese surveillance program, tech-savvy Chinese citizens relied upon proxy servers and anonymizer programs, often located outside China. News of these technologies traveled the old-fashioned way—by word of mouth, radio, or underground newspaper. This antisurveillance movement also used the Internet to communicate important news that had been censored by other Chinese media outlets, including newspapers, radio, and television. For example, news of an AIDS epidemic in Henan Province, safety conditions in mines, poisoning of the Songhua River, and the SARS outbreak all reached a wider audience through the use of the Internet and the circumvention of Chinese filters. (Kristen E Martin Case BRI-1005)

Ben W. Heineman, Jr. - The Atlantic Monthly Jan 13 2010, 1:30PM

Two limiting cases are Nazi Germany in the 1930s and apartheid South Africa in the 1980s.

Although the history is extremely complicated, many American multi-national companies--IBM, Kodak, GE, DuPont GM, Ford--had either wholly-owned or partially owned subsidiaries operating in Germany from Hitler's take-over in 1933 to the outbreak of war in 1939. As a general matter, they continued to operate despite the impact of increasing discrimination in law and enforcement against religious groups, ethnic groups and other minorities. One plausible explanation: inaction resulted from their profitability and own weak ethical standards combined with either unawareness or indifference in pre-war America to Hitler's rising power and inhumane practices.

By contrast, many American companies in South Africa during the 1980s were publicly opposed to apartheid due, in important part, to the civil rights revolution of the 1960s in the U.S. and the broadly shared view among many corporate stakeholders that state-sanctioned racial separation and discrimination was morally wrong and commercially intolerable.(Heinman)

(After the U.S. and European governments enacted tough economic sanctions, many international companies stopped doing most business in South Africa--an important factor in apartheid's demise.)

My Conclusion Based on the Evidence

My own conclusion is this: that based on the above information, in order for Google to change China or to open doors in China they first needed to be invited in. Once they were invited in they did the responsible thing of keeping private data out of the realm of Chinese jurisdiction. Now China violated that relationship by attacking Google out of their jurisdiction so now Google has an opportunity, they can play the China game like so many companies do and so many governments, or they can take a stand and exercise their values.

It is my hopes that they hold true to their values and it is my hopes that the Chinese government will look at its attack on Google for what it is and realize the potential loss that may ensue if it does not repair the relationship between Google and China. Two things to consider are 1). it is beneficial to realize the potential of the long term relationship between Google and China and 2). Google is going nowhere and so whether the Chinese government is playing nice or not it has to play in the same playground.

Index of References Used

· Andrew Keen
The Weekly Standard - May 3, 2006
http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/012/176wtlbv.asp

· Carson Morrill
“Ethics in question: Is Google’s censoring of anti-Chinese information on its Chinese search engine ethical?”
http://www.lagrange.edu/resources/pdf/citations/2007/business/Business%20-%20Carson%20Morrill.pdf

· Kristen E Martin
Business Roundtable Institute for Corporate Ethics - Case BRI-1005 Google China, Inc. (condensed)http://www.darden.virginia.edu/corporate-ethics/pdf/Case_BRI-1005_Google_in_China_condensed.pdf

· The Official Google Blog
A new approach to China 1/12/2010 03:00:00 PM
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/01/new-approach-to-china.html

· Telegraph.co.uk
Google Threatens to Pull Out of China
by Malcolm Moore in Shanghai and Peter Foster in Beijing Published: 7:00AM GMT 13 Jan 201
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/google/6978537/Google-threatens-to-pull-out-of-China.html

· Lisa Roner
Internet Ethics – Googling for balance in China - 11 March 2006
North American Editor for EthicalCorp.com
http://www.ethicalcorp.com/content.asp?ContentID=4136

Siva Vaidhnyanathan
Google, Citing Cyber Attack, Threatens to Leave China – Jan, 2010 author of “The Googlization of Everything”
http://www.googlizationofeverything.com/2010/01/google_citing_cyber_attack_thr.php

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Google Wave Tid Bits #1 Video

2010-01-31T13:18:00.001-08:00

After Editing my Google Wave Agenda Template Tutorial due to the length of the video I was required to take out the little Tid bits or Wave Tips from the original tutorial. I have now been able to edit these Tid Bits into one video for easy viewing.

This short video goes briefly into the importance of managing your inbox folders, using the public search, and inserting an HTML gadget.

As always thanks for your time and please feel free to let me know if you would like a video tutorial to fit your circumstances or if you just have questions don’t hesitate to ask. And for those of you in Indiana feel free to drop by the SmallerIndiana Google Technology Users Group

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Playing with Prezi!

2010-01-30T19:47:00.001-08:00

So this is just awesome!! Low and behold i had to do another Power Point presentation for school next week. Boo000…. However, I found Prezi. Now this web application is just too cool. To give you a quick little run down, because you won’t understand the story otherwise, there is a story that goes through the images “The Parable of the Sadhu” then there are some discussion slides. Now just a word of caution, buckle up before you start this ride!! Please excuse the framing of the player or visit http://prezi.com/gswubvxindwa/ to see it in its true size.

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Lotusdog’s Google Wave Meeting Agenda Template Tutorial

2010-01-30T10:56:00.001-08:00

Sorry for publishing this to the wrong blog at first!

So I have completed my first Google Wave tutorial, based off of my Meeting Agenda Template that can be found on Google Wave. I will also be uploading today a “Tid Bits” video that will show a couple helpful tips that you want to keep in mind when using Google Wave, like folder organization, the public search feature and the HTML gadget.

You can find all my videos on my YouTube Channel or by visiting my “How I Use Google Wave” wave.

If you live in Indiana don’t forget to check out www.smallerindiana.com ‘s Google Wavers group, I will be hosting our 2nd online wave group meeting this evening for all those interested in discussing Google Wave and anything else Google. The beginning of the meeting will focus on Wave following with 2 break out sessions, one for Google Developers and another for Google Enthusiasts. you can request an invitation to the group’s non-public wave via wave here or you can request an invite via Google Forms here If you can’t make the meeting please feel free to drop by the Wave or ping me and leave any questions!

Hope you enjoy the show and feel free to let me know of any other tutorials regarding Wave that you would be interested in learning more about.

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OLS 440 Porject

2010-01-27T21:37:00.000-08:00

This is just a test run of embedding Google power points

Colts Baby Wave chat room

2010-01-24T13:37:00.000-08:00

You do not have iframes enabled. More Info

Google Wave and www.SmallerIndiana.com

2010-01-20T23:17:00.001-08:00

As opportunities come and go and ideas rise and fall with the waves of internet trends in new technology, what can be more exciting to a communication and team working freak like myself than the latest Google Developments. In an ever grasping quest to more efficiently work on multiple machines and on multiple projects, I have been delving steadily into the world of Google to see what they have to offer. Not only have the reliability and efficiency of Chrome, Google Docs, and Gmail improved and become easier to use than ever but, now we have been hit by the Google Wave.

Now I am the type of person that occasionally pokes my nose into Google Labs and have found many exciting Apps like Fusion Tables and the Google Social experiment but, it wasn’t until I started trying to figure out how to use Google Wave for practical purposes that I really started seeing the big picture of where Wave could go (Go! is also an interesting topic that is a little over my head but, that at first glance supports the developments and trends that I see).

So what have I been doing with Wave and what does that have to do about www.SmallerIndiana.com ? First a little background. One day I was looking for Indiana knowledge bases on Google. Couldn’t find any, no Indiana Google developer groups, no online Google groups located in Indiana, and just plain no Google enthusiast organization in Indiana. So I just had to change that. I started GoogleWavers group on www.smallerindiana.com I have done this within the SmallerIndiana social network and we have our own Wave to accompany the activities that this group does.

Now what do we do, well not a whole lot yet but, for the 2 months that we have been plugged in we have grown, people have contributed, and people are coming together to build a Google enthusiast/developer Wave community online and in the real world base within Indiana.

So if your in or near Indiana and a Google enthusiast, developer, or just plain wanting to learn more feel free to stop by our GoogleWavers Group and request an invite to our wave and join our monthly meetings. If you don’t have a Wave ID and would like one feel free to request one from Google or you can request one from me personally.

We look forward to meeting you and hearing what ideas and real world needs you have that could perhaps be solved through learning more about Google Apps.

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OLS 399 Presentation 2 parts one, two, and three

2009-12-01T11:31:00.001-08:00

Presentation Notes:

Transition notes

“It’s not the Change it is the Transition”

Agenda:

Transitions have a beginning, middle, and an end

· Losses and letting go

· Neutral zone

· Closure/ new beginning

Focusing on the behavior and keeping focus on what the people are going through allows leadership to feel and see what is really going on during transition periods and allows leaders to manage that transition effectively.

Key Points:

First: Identify the losses and learn to let go – power, status, access, office windows

From loss fear or resentment may arise, if loss is not compensated or if the loss is not changed to be viewed as an opportunity gain, then the individuals that are dealing with that loss will go through stages of grief that may hinder the organizations ability to manage the transition.

It is paramount that leaders show set an example of it being ok to “let Go” of what they have lost, if as a leader you can’t let go yourself it will be very difficult to expect your followers to do so as well.

Education, information, and reinforcement of the company vision is important.

Second: neutral zone – the middle is the neutral zone – work to be done

When the hype has subsided there is work to be done. Leaders must be seen to be working and must become the change they wish to see. Many uncertainties will be tested for leadership and the followers.

Upper management must expect and prepare for missed deadlines or quotas and must be actively involved in organizations learning process.

Those who have still not let go of the “old ways” must be identified, understood, and encouraged not singled out or become scapegoats.

· Intra-group relationships must be solidified or created if there has been a disassemblement of the old relationships.

· Provide boundaries to give strength in a time of uncertainty

· Leaders should draw on the creativity and innovation that is inherent within their organization, allowing flexibility for others to solve newly arisen problems

Third: closure/ new beginning –transitions do not stop at the end. Transitions are not a linear static process, it is dynamic and human. People have to adjust personally and uniquely to the organizational transition.

Closure does need to occur again and leaders must be aware of their followers and know if they are still dealing with any of the personal issues within the transition.

The 4 P’s

· Purpose

· Picture

· Plan

· Part

Is the purpose to the transition understood by all?

Is there a clear picture of where the organization is going and of its goals?

Is there a plan in place for people to look to for guidance during times of uncertainty?

Does everyone feel like they are part of the organization?

Agenda:

Transitions have a beginning, middle, and an end

· Losses and letting go

· Neutral zone

o Intra-group relationships

o Provide boundaries

o draw on the creativity and innovation

· Closure/ new beginning

o Purpose

o Picture

o Plan

o Part

Closing:

Finally when all this is made aware in the minds of an organization’s leaders and passed through the organization as it deals with the transition, leaders should not forget to celebrate what they and the people of their organization has gone through.

Personal Application:

The key to managing my own personal transitions that I have recently gone through are as follows:

· Organization

· Creativity

· Education

While the Purdue OLS curriculum that I have had experience with does a very good job at providing the education and creative opportunities, I feel that the Managing Transitions class missed out on an opportunity to provide a technical lesson that would improve the organization skills that we as future leaders will be expected to have.

· Organizational software

o We used 3 books

o Groove, Outlook, Visio, PDFs

o Google apps, workspaces, portals

It is my belief that OLS students should be required to learn more than how to create PowerPoint presentations and create single user papers using Word.

The creation of a class change to using a new software application could have allowed us classmates to undergo many of the transition phases and to apply what we learned in class to the transition issues of learning the new software. We would have also learned a new skill in application not just theory that we will be expected to know upon graduation.

OLS 399 Presentation 1 parts one and two

2009-12-01T11:29:00.000-08:00

You tube videos will appear here

Presentation Notes:

Global Leadership

What does it mean to be a leader?

· An influence relationship among leaders and followers who intend real changes and outcomes that reflect their shared purposed.

But what does that really mean? First some back ground.

Agenda:

· History – Past – Local, small nonmoving populations

· Present Global, large moving populations

· A breakdown of the Definition

First: 2 paradigms

· top down, stability, hero

· horizontal, crisis management, humble man

Management vs. Leadership conflict of today

First paradigm seems to imply that managers were needed to ensure that short term goals are met in an organized and predictable manner. People where seen as commodities and units to be managed. Management is understood as inflexible. This is the Old way.

Second paradigm seems to imply that there is a measure of unpredictability and that leading people (with all their human emotions) toward a long term vision and empowering them to solve short term goals is more appropriate for today’s economy. Leadership is understood to be flexible. This is the Modern Way.

· One hundred years ago the majority of people in western society just never left their county of residence, not for work and not for play. Today most statistics would tell you that the majority of Americans drive 30 -60 minutes to work easily taking them into the next county or across several. Today we can pick up a phone, boot up our computers, and travel in a digital environment across the world. This is in fact a common thing for people to conceive of, hear about, and even dream of as well as do, directly or indirectly. The best example of people’s indirect relationship to world travel is one’s trip to Wal-Mart.

Today there is an increased potential for a diversity of situations

· occur in marketplace economics

· at work

· our own communities

First paradigm – western ethnocentric and self centered

Second paradigm – recognizes cultural influences and embraces them

This requires the recognition of the Roles that are required to complete a job or task and effective leadership needs to be able fill these roles within a cultural context that is no longer guaranteed to be western.

Example:

· There are emerging leaders in “self built” housing on the outskirts of Nairobi in East Africa, Mexico City, and Sao Paulo in Brazil. In Sao Paulo and the urban area surrounding boast a population that exceeds 16 million people. The streets in these make shift neighborhoods are complete with non-government regulated markets, black market power distribution, and self organized sanitation policies and structures.

With half of the world’s population earning a dollar a day or less it is probable that the future leaders of the world will come from a more diverse background than currently existing today. An understanding of this diversity will play a great part in the “influence relationship among leaders and followers” that is within our definition of a leader.

Conflict Dynamic:

New paradigm conflict is natural and healthy, this was not always so.

Often leaders have a shared purpose but culturally different ways to achieve this purpose or reasons for having this shared purpose. In order to achieve this shared purpose compromises and understanding must occur. Leadership as opposed to management is open to these compromises and understandings.

Example:

· Everyone would like for world poverty to be alleviated. In India the Grameen Bank http://www.grameen-info.org/ has brought micro financing to the impoverished and globally ostracized. If they did not have an understanding of the socioeconomic conditions and gender roles of women in Indiana society the success would not have been possible for non-profit Grameen Bank and for the many women in rural India who are now contributing to the uplifting of many of India’s poorest people.

Agenda:

· History – Past – Local, small nonmoving populations

· Present Global, large moving populations

· A breakdown of the Definition

Conclusion:

Hopefully the definition of what it means to be a leader is clearer.

First it implies that there are human relationships involved between leaders and followers that must be understood personally and culturally.

Second it implies that for shared purposes to be achieved and thus change to be made the person(s) who understand these relationships and helps to achieve these shared purposes is using the skills of leadership.

A leader is one who effects change for the benefit of more than just him or herself, by understanding those that he or she is affecting.

Fall DLC African Naturalists, Nairobi, Cameroon

I tried to learn from them instead of having them learn from me.

If I could have changed anything in the course it would be to work into the curriculum a project with students from another country.

· There is diversity in the US, but not enough to create real conflict

· It would have also added technical skills that are lacking within the OLS curriculum

Career Rookie Online Career Fair

2009-09-29T07:57:00.000-07:00

First post since my internship at the Indiana Dunes Learning Center which has kept me busy the last few months. But man more on that later.

Unisfair's CareerRookie Online Carreer Fair is going on today September, 29th and boy is it an Epic Success! The fair on Facebook click here for registration and event info

Let me explain why because I have no idea how many people are actually attending. I think it is a sucess because it is a revolutionary way to interact on the web. Now not revolutionary in that it is a new concept, but revolutionary in the fact that they are doing the concept.

They have created a virtual campus so to speak with pavillions and booths within the pavillions for an enduser to visit based on thier needs. There is an engineering pavillion, sales pavillion, and an internship pavillion. The navigation is very intuitive and the ability for the involved companies to share themselves with you using chat, commercial type video, and flash animated information boxes works pretty good on this average machine that I have.

My only disappointment is the booths for which I can visit, my apologies, but I walked out of a career fair at Purdue University because they are only offering jobs with large comppanies who I feel do more harm than good on this planet. Companies such as Dow Chemicals, Kellogs, and Sunoco are the ones present at Unisfair's CareerRookie Online Career Fair. (disclaimer: this is only my opinion and values here which may or may not be valid or important to others, but i think they are)

Personally I want to work for Unisfair and persuade them to bring in smaller more environmentally responsible and socially responsible companies. I am also wondering why in the world are they not doing it in Silverlight! And who is. Quite personally I imagine Bono doing music concert in Africa being smoothstreamed live over the internet with all kinds of local African community groups sharing with the world their projects and the impact that U.S. decisions are indirectly or directly having on their welfare. And also sharing with the world thier success stories and innovative spirit.

Now let me share with you a quick photoshopped images of what it looks like to be in the CareerRookie Online Career Fair so you can see for yourself why you should check out Unisfair's CareerRookie Career Fair if only to see how it should be done.

As always you can follow me on Twitter, Facebook, and Friendfeed!

Three Heads Company Picnic - review

2009-06-30T13:29:00.001-07:00

First maybe I am a bit biased because I just love live music and jambands, but i just have to say that the Three Heads Company Picnic was awesome.

Unfortunately I did miss all the music that I heard was great on Friday, however I was able to show up Saturday around 6pm and have a great evening and a lovely night camping at Duh Pond. I must say I am impressed with the local Chesterton area bands that played and the other northern Indiana bands of course.

I will try and keep this short because quite frankly I am not a good enough writer to give these musicians any credit. They are bands that you have to personally just go and see!!

However I could not have asked for a better sunset than the one I enjoyed at the Three Heads Company picnic. Here is how it went. Picture great music, a nice breeze, and me chilling with a group of campers that I just met (friendly as can be they were!) and lo and behold what do I see, but one of the most amazing hacky sack circles that I personally have ever seen. Maybe I just have not seen enough circles to be a good judge, but never the less I was just amazed at the skill and fun these folks were having.

As the sun started coming down and the stages light shows started to become more interesting in the growing darkness what else could go great with the music besides … throwing some Frisbee that lights up!! Again with some very cool people (every one I met was very kuul there actually).

Another highlight of the show was the drum circles and small atmosphere which made it possible to shake hands with some very friendly band members and even drum with’em once Chester Brown finished their set. Again all I can say is very awesome picnic. I would encourage any one that can to make it a priority to come see some of these bands and others at the Little Turtle Music and Arts festival on Labor Day. Hope to see you there.

As always feel free to Follow Greenerdog on Facebook and Twitter. Thanks to those that already follow me and fill me in on their favorite Indiana places and events.

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My Father’s Day Potato Creek State Park Trip Report

2009-06-29T12:57:00.001-07:00

I can’t remember a more pleasant Father’s Day then the one that I had at Potato Creek State Park, located just east of New Liberty Indiana. No stranger to Indiana State Parks I was still just not sure what to expect before I actually got to the park. You never know by photos if the park really looks that good, you never know by maps if the park is really as big as it looks, and you never all the good stories of the park are the typical experience that one would expect.

The beginning of my trip started off superbly by actually exceeding my expectations right off the bat. The long drive into and through the beautiful south west quadrant of the park was just awesome. After spending some time out here at the Indiana Dunes I have really come to appreciate how important and just cool it is to have multiple ecosystems. Little pockets of wetlands almost bog like dot the beginning landscape as a wealth of birds fly around and as I found out later deer roam about.

Also while approaching the campground area the 3rd most common creature present reared their wheels, mountain bikers. As quickly found out while driving through the campgrounds biking is one of the most common activities found in the park. Unfortunately i was not able to investigate the horse camps or horse trail riding, as I do not have any horses, but it is quite evident that horse back riding is also a popular past time.

So let’s see if I can keep this trip from being to long, in short I was super impressed with the camping accommodations (really nice lots with trees and shade). They also had a fabulous nature center with plenty of activities for children and young adults alike.

The only regret that I had was that I was not able to spend another day there and go kayaking. They have a super friendly lake with canoes and kayaks to rent for very reasonable prices. However, I did get to spend most of the day at the beach witch was very nice and clean. I was able to build a nice sand sculpture and avoided a serious sunburn by sitting in the plentiful nearby shade trees that surround the beach area.

Following are some of my pictures that I had the pleasure of taking while I was there. I could have easily spent a another day just walking around taking pictures:

As always feel free to follow on Facebook or Twitter to stay informed on my most recent Indiana travels and other Indiana Events.

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First week at The Indiana Dunes Learning Center

2009-06-15T18:58:00.001-07:00

So I have spent this last week training and preparing for the summer camp kids that will be visiting here at The Indiana Dunes Learning Center. I get the privilege to be a camp counselor and assist the naturalists in their duties of education and development here at The Dunes.

Kids will be coming here for a week of environmental education and social development. They will get to learn lots about The Dunes and also interacting with and in nature. Creating a bond with nature and learning how to actually connect with your natural environment is probably a skill that is lacking in much of today’s society. Making the connection with the land that surrounds us is important if we expect to be able to overcome many of the environmental challenges that are facing us today. Learning how to live sustainably and learning how ecosystems are built will teach us plenty as we humans grow in population.

With that said allow me to introduce to you a couple slide shows that show off some of this beautiful park here in northern Indiana and some of the great people that I am lucky enough to be with and learn from.

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Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore Beach Water Quality Monitoring Report for June 4, 2008

2009-06-04T13:52:00.001-07:00

(Page 1 of 3)

Full Report can be viewed here

Most Recent E. coli Monitoring Results

Beach Access Locations	Date Sample Collected	E. coli Value for yesterday	Notes:
Mt. Baldy	06-03-09	20 colonies/100 ml
Central	06-03-09	46 colonies/100 ml
Lake View	06-03-09	57 colonies/100 ml
Dunbar	06-03-09	44 colonies/100 ml
Kemil	06-03-09	36 colonies/100 ml
Porter	06-03-09	40 colonies/100 ml
West Beach	06-03-09	99 colonies/100 ml

Lake Temperature: 59° F

Test Result Comments

E. coli testing on Wednesday, June 3, 2009 indicated that bacteria levels at all national lakeshore swimming waters were within the water quality standards for swimming.

The National Park Service provides this information for visitors so they may make informed decisions regarding contact with the waters of Lake Michigan within Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore. The National Park Service does not close its beach as a result of water conditions. The beach remains open and available for public use, and the public is advised to take precautions for their own safety based on water quality, weather conditions, and other relevant information.

Please note: West Beach is the only national lakeshore beach area where lifeguards are provided. For information on rip-current warnings visit the National Weather Service’s Web site: http://www.crh.noaa.gov/hazards/lot.

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Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore Beach Water Quality Monitoring Report for June 4, 2008

2009-06-04T13:47:00.001-07:00

(Page 1 of 3)

Full Report can be viewed here

Most Recent E. coli Monitoring Results

Beach Access Locations	Date Sample Collected	E. coli Value for yesterday	Notes:
Mt. Baldy	06-03-09	20 colonies/100 ml
Central	06-03-09	46 colonies/100 ml
Lake View	06-03-09	57 colonies/100 ml
Dunbar	06-03-09	44 colonies/100 ml
Kemil	06-03-09	36 colonies/100 ml
Porter	06-03-09	40 colonies/100 ml
West Beach	06-03-09	99 colonies/100 ml

Lake Temperature: 59° F

Test Result Comments

E. coli testing on Wednesday, June 3, 2009 indicated that bacteria levels at all national lakeshore swimming waters were within the water quality standards for swimming.

For more updates on subscribe to the Green Karnyval Blog
Or follow Greenerdog on Twitter and Facebook
And if you would like your news featured on the Indiana Green Feed just drop me a link to the Feed via a mail message

On Saturday, June 6,Canoe Trip with Friends of Sugar, in partnership with NICHES Land Trust

2009-05-26T18:52:00.001-07:00

On Saturday, June 6, Friends of Sugar Creek, in partnership with NICHES Land Trust, will sponsor a family-friendly float trip from the Jim Davis Bridge to Deer’s Mill.

The two sponsoring organization will rent twenty canoes, allowing the first forty participants to paddle for free. Additional canoes and/or kayaks can be rented at a discounted rate. Those wishing to use their own watercraft will be provided with free shuttle service.

The trip starts at 10 am on Sugar Creek and will last approximately 2-3 hours, depending on water conditions and paddling speed. Bring your own drinking water, snacks or light lunch, and appropriate clothing. Youth participants under age 16 need adult supervision.
Contact Matt Williams to register (deadline is May 29) or ask for more information ( matt@friendsofsugarcreek.org or 765-376-5213). A detailed schedule is posted below.

June 6 Float Trip Schedule

For those using canoes/kayaks from Clements Canoes:
Meet at Deer’s Mill by 9:15. Shuttle service will be provided to our starting point at the Jim Davis Bridge at 9:30.

For those bringing their own watercraft:
If you plan to bring your own boat(s) and would like shuttle service, please drop off your equipment at the Jim Davis Bridge by 9:00 then proceed to Deer’s Mill. This will allow you to leave your car at the take-out and catch the 9:30 shuttle. A Friends of Sugar Creek board member will watch your equipment until you arrive.

A short safety and technique demonstration will be given at 9:50.We hope to be on the water by 10:00.

Directions to Clements Outdoor Center (Deer’s Mill)
From Crawfordsville:

Google Map

Take Indiana State Road 47 South for 7 miles to Indiana State Road 234 West.
Turn right and follow 234 West for 8 miles.
Canoe office is second left after crossing Sugar Creek (1 mile past the turn-off for Shades State Park).

Directions to Jim Davis Bridge
From Crawfordsville:

Google Map

Take Indiana State Road 32 West from Crawfordsville for 6 miles.
Turn Left on 600 W. for 4 miles.

Contact Matt Williams to register (deadline is May 29) or ask for more information ( matt@friendsofsugarcreek.org or 765-376-5213).

Canoeing and Kayaking on Sugar Creek through Shades & Turkeyrun State Park, Memorial day Weekend - 2009

2009-05-26T11:29:00.001-07:00

I hope you enjoy the highlights of my trip through Shades State Park and Turkeyrun State Park. This was a fabulous Canoeing, Kayaking, and Camping trip on a super great weekend here in Indiana. I have been to the Indy 500 the last 2 years and quite frankly there is no place (other than maybe the Kankakee River in Northern Indiana) that I would have rather been this weekend.

Seeing my 7yr old son take off on a kayak for his very first time was the best part of my trip. Nothing made me prouder than seeing him run his first Sugar Creek rapid and taking some initiative; while learning how to judge the currents and make it through. His arms raised with paddle held high in excitement flowing as fast as the creek was almost too much for my joyful heart. With that note let us get to watching some footage.

If you would like me and my son to come to your campground, visit your favorite creek or river, or check out your livery and services just send me an invite via Facebook, Twitter, or email! I would be more than happy to come with my cameras, joy, and maybe even a GPS. I can even bring a GEO Cache!

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Canoeing and Kayaking on Sugar Creek through Shades & Turkeyrun State Park, Memorial day Weekend - 2009

2009-05-26T09:16:00.001-07:00

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A Greener Indiana Presents The Little Turtle Music and Arts Festival

2009-05-22T13:55:00.001-07:00

What exactly will be going on here?

Who: 5,000 to 15,000 or so of our closest friends, lovers of music and the arts, those who are environmentally conscious and those who support a grass roots approach to bettering our community, our state and our country.

What: A two day music, camping and art festival featuring a wide range of professional musical entertainment on two stages along with a focus to providing a platform for education, demonstrations, and presentations on an array of pressing environmental issues from alternative power and fuel sources, to watershed management, green legislation, the importance of reducing waste, and our ecological footprint. We would like to see a weekend long effort to reduce landfill waste through zero waste concepts like recycling and composting while providing a large platform for nonprofits, grassroots groups, education organizations, and green businesses to reach the masses and parlay the benefits of such a large gathering.

Where: Porter County, IN Fair Grounds

When: Labor Day Weekend 2009

A Greener Indiana Presents Little Turtle Music and Arts Festival

Brings revenue to the area
Helps local businesses and merchants by bringing business awareness, and an opportunity to vend at the festival
Makes the community an attractive place to live, stay, and visit
Works as an educational tool and supports education (environment, arts, music, community importance)
Provides a platform for Professional/Diverse Arts
Provides a platform for nonprofits working in sustainability, environment, and conservation.
Provides a platform for green businesses to present and solicit their products and programs.
Provides exposure to the arts and environmental stewardship for young and old
Provides social influence
Provides employment opportunity locally for the week of the event
Provides funding to sustain A Greener Indiana as an organization
Provides funding and gift donations for charitable environmental programs and projects

Main Goals of Little Turtle Music and Arts Festival\A Greener Indiana

Present the premier environmental entertainment/education event for Indiana
To gather together a large mass of citizens.
Leave No Footprint
Present the first Zero Waste Music Festival in Indiana
Builds towards being able to present an “Off-The-Grid” Indiana Festival.
Raise environmental awareness through art, education, speakers, information booths, and demonstrations of green BMPs, products, and programs.
Fund raise money to put back into local communities and the Indiana green movement.

Other Community Interactions

Farmers Market
Shakedown Street of Vendors
Provide an Eco-Village area made up of environmental nonprofits, educational groups, and grassroots initiatives.
Local Flea Market
Get unsustainable businesses involved and retrofit them to become more environmentally conscious and sustainable.
Give local artists, farmers, nonprofits, and business owners access to large numbers of new patrons to purchase their goods and services
Give participants the ability to garner new membership, supporters, and stakeholders

Direct Marketing

Space available for over 100 vendors and educators.
Over 16 slots available for demonstrations/seminars/presenters/speakers
Sponsorship tags available on banners/promo spots/merch/etc

To stay informed of this event feel free to follow Greenerdog on Twitter or Friend Feed. Of Course Joining A Greener Indiana would be a great way to stay informed and meet others before the event!!

What’s your favorite Social Site? email: Greenerdog@gmail.com

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Jack-in-the-Pulpit, Urban Permaculture

2009-05-22T06:26:00.001-07:00

Contributed by Mrs. Cara Dafforn

Jack-in-the-Pulpit root is used in alternative medicine and is edible (only after drying and cooking), it is acrid, antiseptic, diaphoretic, expectorant, irritant and stimulant. A medicinal poultice of root used for headaches and various skin diseases. Ointment used for ringworm, tetterworm and abscess. The fresh root contains high concentrations of calcium oxalate and is considered to be too dangerous and intensely acrid to use. Roasting the root after drying it 6 months removes the acridity. In this way Native Americans peeled and ground the roots to powder to make a bread, which has a flavor similar to chocolate. The roots can be cut into very thin slices and allowed to dry for several months, after which they are eaten like potato chips, crumbled to make a cereal or ground into a cocoa-flavored powder for making biscuits and cakes. A starch obtained from the roots is used as a stiffener for clothes.
Caution is advised as ingesting the fresh root can cause poisoning and even death.

The field guide to Indiana Wildflowers by Kay Yatskievych published by Indiana University Press on page 284 says this perennial herb grows in most counties of Indiana in woods and bogs.

www.easywildflowers.com
www.wildflower.org

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Jack-in-the-Pulpit, Urban Permaculture

2009-05-22T06:08:00.001-07:00

Contributed by Mrs. Cara Dafforn

The field guide to Indiana Wildflowers by Kay Yatskievych published by Indiana University Press on page 284 says this perennial herb grows in most counties of Indiana in woods and bogs.

www.easywildflowers.com
www.wildflower.org

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Upcoming www.AGreeenerIndiana.com Events

2009-05-19T12:15:00.001-07:00

To stay current with www.AGreenerIndiana.com Events follow the Greenerdog on Twitter

Lilly Global Day of Service

Time: May 20, 2009 all day
Location: Indianapolis?
Website or Map: http://www.smallerindiana.c...
Contact Info: Sarah Grain at 317.264.7555 x106
Event Type: fundraiser
Organized By: Linda Broadfoot

Mark Trela Day long workshop covering many aspects of biodynamics.

Time: May 23, 2009 from 9:30am to 3pm
Location: Terre Haute, Indiana
Street: 425 S. 16th Street
City/Town: Terre Haute
Contact Info: 812-243-7425
Event Type: biodynamic, workshop
Organized By: Mark Trela

FrogWatch USA Training Workshop

Time: May 23, 2009 from 6pm to 9pm
Location: Winterhaven Wildflowers and Native Plant Preserve
Street: 5724 S. 900 West
City/Town: Westpoint, IN 47992
Website or Map: http://winterhavenfarm.us/
Contact Info: 765-249-2298
Event Type: free, workshop, educational
Organized By: Wendell Zetterberg, Jr.

Green Drinks Bloomington - Maggie Sullivan, Director of Local Growers Guild

Time: May 27, 2009 from 5:30pm to 8pm
Location: Upland community room
Street: 11th
City/Town: Bloomington, IN
Event Type: green, drinks, -, networking
Organized By: Green Drinks Bloomington

Natural History of Wetlands Weekend

Time: May 29, 2009 to May 31, 2009
Location: Merry Lea Environmental Learning Center of Goshen College, Farmstead Site
Street: 425S
City/Town: Wolf Lake
Website or Map: http://www.goshen.edu/merry...
Contact Info: 260-799-5869
Event Type: educational
Organized By: Jennifer Schrock

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Black Gold Movie about coffee and Fair Trade in Ethiopia

2009-05-18T13:08:00.001-07:00

So I while attending a coffee tasting by the Midwest Coffee Company I was pleasantly surprised to learn about where my coffee actually comes from and it inspired me to do some research to try and learn the effect of my purchasing decision on the lives of the people who actually farm my coffee. We here in Indiana are pretty supportive of farmers and well farming is just in our culture. The values and hard work ethics are something that most of us here in Indiana can identify with which is why it was very interesting to learn of the farmers in Ethiopia and their struggles and how my coffee purchasing decisions effect them.

My research lead me to a movie Black Gold. According to IMDB Black Gold was nominated for the British Independent film award and won and was nominated for the Sundance Film Festival as well.

British Independent Film Awards

2007
Won
British Independent Film Award
Best Achievement in Production

Nominated
British Independent Film Award
Best British Documentary

Douglas Hickox Award
Nick Francis
Mark Francis

Sundance Film Festival

2006
Nominated
Grand Jury Prize
World Cinema - Documentary
Marc Francis
Nick Francis

Now I did want to do some more research and try and verify some of the statements on this film and really try to get at the story behind this movie from different angles and maybe even get some perspectives from the producers themselves. On that note the forums at Black Black gold are full of good discussion. Here is a good one from the Starbucks section of their forum.

So if you are a Fair Trade or Organic entrepreneur in Indiana feel free to send me some information on your company and its effects on the Indiana economy to greenerdog@gmail.com It is my mission to bridge the gap between consumers and producers so that we as Hoosiers begin to develop a relationship with our food and those that grow it so we can make decisions that effect our environment for the better. Feel free to follow me on Twitter as well.

Project: Zero Cool Video Explanations episodes 1-4

2009-05-18T09:20:00.001-07:00

So here are Greenerdog On-the-Go episodes 1-4 explaining my vision of the Zero Cool Project and how I for see it. If you would like to help with Project: Zero Cool drop me an email, greenerdog@gmail.com or visit the Wiser Earth Solution profile for this project.

To stay informed of Project Zero Cool click here follow Greenerdog on Twitter There will soon be a Google group created as interest for this project matures. This project is open at the present and is in the design stages. Your interest and help would be greatly appreciated, I am available by phone upon request greenerdog@gmail.com

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Project: Zero Cool Video Explanations episodes 1-4

2009-05-18T09:07:00.001-07:00

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The Strawberry Jam at Goss Family Farm in Arcadia, In

2009-05-18T06:19:00.001-07:00

This was a swell shindig at the Goss Family Farm, Mike Goss and is wife, and my deepest thanks for their hosting of this yearly event. Truth to their work they had hens and baby chicks to pet, goats, and the most friendly horse (whose name i didn’t get) roaming the yard. The Goss Family Farm is located on a creek west of arcadia, 2 hours east of Crawfordsville and about an hour north of Indianapolis. But the drive was worth it. The Goss Family Farm is part of a network of Midwest organic growers that deliver organic food to those that order it.

My son had the greatest time. He is what one might call a privileged urbanite and it was the greatest gift to me to see him running around with kids he didn’t know, enjoying the fellowship that comes from either being 7 years old or just not having all those social guards and prejudices that most of us have created by the time we are in our 30’s.

One of the things that I learned (besides the pleasures of Organic Coffee tasting from the Midwest Coffee Company) was just how much fun can come about from a card board box. See most kids get a new shiny toy that never changes and only has a couple options for it’s use, it is not usually too long before they are bored with it and the excitement of the novelty wears off. However I think the reason that kids have so much fun with card board boxes is that there is an infinite amount of uses for them (this explains the Christmas phenomenon that we are accustom to as well) and the reason that kids have so much fun on farms it that it is always changing and can be a highly interactive environment much like the environment at the Goss Family Farm at the Strawberry Jam.

following are the two pics that I did manage to get on my phone before the battery went dead, the first pic is of the awesome band that played there that day and the second is of their beautiful and most friendly horse.

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Sugar Creek Nature Park Clean Up 2009, Crawfordsville, IN

2009-05-17T15:58:00.001-07:00

The clean up of Crawfordsville, Indiana’s Sugar Creek Nature Park was a splendid way to start my morning. Though it was slightly overcast and sprinkling it was a good turn out and a lot of trash was picked up.

This being my first clean up I was really amazed at what I found. Not only was it a wake up call to how we as a community treat our environment, but I was just amazed at how much a little trash here and a little trash (Indiana waste trends) there really piles up (National waste trends). In some areas it was like we were removing topsoil when we were removing trash. Another eye opener occurred when I bent over and saw a Snickers wrapper laying and deteriorating in the soil. It was like when walking down the street we are just so overwhelmed with all of the commercial advertising and bombardment of corporate messages that when I saw the wrapper laying in the grass with plants and soil covering it up partially that it just seemed natural for a Snickers logo to be embedded in the ground we walk on. It was quite sad and it was not the only logo that stood out. With that said I would just like to share a few images with you of the clean up that was organized by the Friends of Sugar Creek, and I would urge you to get involved with your local organizations that need your help to clean up our environment. The most memorable moment that I had besides the barbeque that was donated for lunch by Hog Wild here in Crawfordsville, was seeing what happens with Styrofoam and other forms of plastics, seeing how it degrades over time. (Union of Concerned Scientists: The Consumer's Guide to Effective Environmental Choices) Because I realized that it does not really disappear but it breaks down into smaller and smaller pieces that get air borne and buried and eventually ends up in the food chain, the air we breathe, and the animals, land, and oceans from which we get all of our food.

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Aquaculture Links from A Greener Indiana

2009-05-15T16:00:00.001-07:00

Well I happened to stumble upon this very informative link list on Aquaculture while catching up on all the good news at A Greener Indiana This was posted by Terry and Patrica Kok Who are members of A Greener Indiana and members of the Aquaculture Group. Their website can be found at

http://www.faeriehillfarm.com

http://www.enasco.com/farmandranch/ProductDetail.do?sku=Z40534N
http://www.webofcreation.org/BuildingGrounds/aqua/Chap1.html
http://www.webofcreation.org/BuildingGrounds/aqua/Chap3.html
http://www.motherearthnews.com/library/1975_January_February/An_Experimental_Solar_Heated_Aquaculture_System
http://journeytoforever.org/farm_pond.html
http://www.fishfarming.com/recirc.html
http://www.cipav.org.co/lrrd/lrrd7/1/3.htm
http://www.motherearthnews.com/DIY/1975_January_February/An_Experimental_Solar_Heated_Aquaculture_System
http://www.motherearthnews.com/Green_Home_Building/1975_March_April/The_Dome_Covered_Fishpool
http://journeytoforever.org/farm_pond.html
http://www.motherearthnews.com/DIY/1975_January_February/An_Experimental_Solar_Heated_Aquaculture_System
http://www.justliners.com/epdm.htm
http://www.bestnest.com/bestnest/pond_liner_15.asp
http://www.ijra.com/
http://www.aquaranch.com/
http://aquanic.org/beginer/systems/recycle.htm
http://www.dpi.vic.gov.au/dpi/nrenfaq.nsf/FID/-A5928EA5054142ABCA256C4100126447?OpenDocument
http://www.aquaponicsjournal.com/articlegreenwater.htm
http://www.cropking.com/tilapia.shtml
http://www.aquaponicsjournal.com/articleAquaponicsGuadalajara.htm
http://www.kurtsaxon.com/foods006.htm
http://www.pond-doctor-dave.com/aquaculture-fish-farming.html
http://www.motherearthnews.com/DIY/1975-01-01/An-Experimental-Solar-Heated-Aquaculture-System.aspx
http://www.townsqr.com/snsaqua/links.htm
http://www2.luresext.edu/aquaculture/homefoodfishproductioninpond.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Integrated_Multi-trophic_Aquaculture
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aquaponics
http://aquanic.org/
http://www.backyardaquaponics.com/
http://www.michaels4gardens.com/Snails.html
http://www.applesnail.net/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_snail
http://cars.er.usgs.gov/sofla/Apple_Snail/apple_snail.html
http://badmanstropicalfish.com/profiles/profile92.html
http://www.geocities.com/siliconvalley/garage/3323/pomacea.html
http://www.spirulinasource.com/microfarms.html
http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/klu/conc/2004/00000040/00000003/00495527
http://www.infochangeindia.org/archives1.jsp?secno=10&monthname=December&year=2002&detail=T
http://www.geocities.com/PicketFence/3622/
http://www-cyanosite.bio.purdue.edu/media/table/sp.html
http://www.spirulinasource.com/movies.html
http://attra.ncat.org/attra-pub/aquaponic.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aquaponics
http://www.treehugger.com/files/2008/09/backyard-aquaponics-2.php

SO for any one that is a fan of Aquaculture I hope that you have found these helpful and can perhaps continue to share your joys in Aquaculture with the rest of us.

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Carbon Credits for the Individual? Think Box Episode

2009-05-13T20:33:00.001-07:00

So I was thinking… always a scary thing, those of you that know me know that. Now this post is more of an editorial or introspective, an exercise in thinking as it goes. The basic premise is, since there is all this hull-a-balloo about carbon credits and the pros and cons (International Carbon Credit Conference 2009), my question is this. Can an individual make a living by getting paid to consume less? A kind of environmental exchange….

So the basic underpinnings of carbon credits is that a company produces in such a manner that they gain carbon credits for being green above and beyond some measure. (I am not here to argue these measures or their effectiveness of policy mandates etc…). Then that company sells these credits to a company that is maybe becoming green or just doesn’t care, but is trying to conform to the standards that were set by some body of officials. So more or less company “B” is paying for company “A’s” carbon credits and this could be for may reasons, maybe company A is more efficient, maybe company “B” is slow to change, or who knows.

So on the individual scale now what if we could have the same type of system. See a lot of people say that they don’t have the time to shop organic, they don’t have the time to recycle, they buy fast food cause it is convenient, Styrofoam is all the restaurant had, they buy disposable drinks because they don’t like the taste of their tap water, etc… Individuals have all kinds of reasons. And I am not here to make judgment on those reasons, if you have a reason I believe it is a good one.

What I would like to say is that for some of us out there maybe, we are students, maybe we are just thrifty, maybe we are just not busy, maybe we like to read, who knows. But maybe there could be a system out there where individuals that were efficient or motivated to take on new green living strategies could get paid to live that way for a given amount of time. Maybe not in cash, maybe our car payments would be made, maybe we could journal and share our experiences, maybe our cell phone bill or house payment would be paid, maybe it could be worked out that an individual (I am thinking student well mainly because I am a student) could sell their services, could be the role models that would reshape the behavior of others in an efficient manner and on a grass roots level. Maybe it could be a concerned family as well just wanting to show others that “yes they can do it”.

See often my dilemma is that it seems all to often being green is still being a consumer, being green is just another strategy to grow the profits of a corporation. I just watched a nifty documentary (that’s what I do on my spare time) “The 11th Hour” hosted by Leonardo DiCaprio, (its a decent movie, well better than decent, it is better than my movie productions). One of the interesting things I took away from the documentary was how the biosphere is a closed system. Meaning we are not exchanging biodiversity with other planets. And that the economy is one of many subsystems of that biosphere. They pointed out that as the economy grows with it's focus on profit and externalizes the true costs of products that are consumed it does so at the expense of the other healthy contributing subsystems within the finite biosphere.

So to be green and still just being another consumer of disposable society is interesting, it is I suppose where we all start to understand our true connectedness and then hopefully we move into not just being green consumers, but actually living in a manner where we truly understand the effects of our daily decisions and make conscious choices to contribute to the biosphere not just take from it.

At least that seems to be one of the places where I am at in my struggles to give back more than i take, to make it in this world of revenue, bills, growth, but in a manner that is not just another form of consumerism. Feel free to let me know if I am crazy. Hopefully you have enjoyed This Episode of The Think Box.

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Indiana’s top 3 environmental issues according to GreenIndy.com

2009-05-12T05:36:00.001-07:00

April 22, 2009 by Indy.com Staff

1. DWINDLING OPEN SPACE, HABITATS
Indiana’s 4 percent of publicly owned land is among the lowest in the country.

2. TOXIC EMISSIONS
Indiana is third in the nation in toxic emissions, including coal ash and mercury, according to EPA data for 2007.

Carbonyls: acetaldehyde

Diisocyanates: methylenediphenyl diisocyanate ("MDI"); 2,4-toluene diisocyanate; 1,6-hexamethylene diisocyanate

Metals: arsenic; cobalt; hexavalent chromium; lead; manganese; nickel

Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons ("PAHs"): benzo (a) pyrene and other PAHs; naphthalene

VOCs: acrolein; benzene; 1,3-butadiene

4,4’-methylenedianiline ("MDA")

These are not new issues, This report is from 2000

Indiana Should Significantly Strengthen its Toxic Air Pollution Regulations March, 2000, Sierra Club Great Lakes Program Emily S. Green, Program Director
214 N. Henry Street, Suite 203; Madison, WI 53703
608-257-4994; 608-257-3513 (fax)
emily.green@sierraclub.org http://www.sierraclub.org

3. CARBON FOOTPRINT
Indiana has a per capita Carbon Score of 6, (lots of ads on this paged linked to, but its a good page) with the 14th highest resident population. Each Indiana resident produces approximately 39 Tons of Carbon Dioxide each year. Indiana has a total Carbon output state rank of #6, Indiana is the #6th highest Carbon Dioxide polluting state in the United States.

Nature Conservancy

Calculate Your Footprint

Do you agree that these are the 3 most environmentally pressing issues? If not feel free to speak up and/or send me an email. Greenerdog@gmail.com

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Highlights from the Plant Exchange hosted by the Mapleton Fall Creek Unity Group

2009-05-10T14:22:00.001-07:00

Well it would seem that the Greenerdog missed out on the excitement that was in the air of the Plant Exchange when it started at 1pm at St Richards. However there were still plenty of plants around at 2pm and there were still people having a good time and bringing in plants for the exchange when I left at 2:30.

After talking to the friendly people that put the Plant Exchange together I learned that this was the first year that the organization has put it together and they had such a good turn out that they are very much wishing to do it again. Not only did the visitors of the exchange find some new plants to add to their landscaping, but the act of sharing and the feeling of bringing plants that other people were excited to have was an added joy.

So if you didn’t get a chance to make it to the Plant Exchange saturday feel free to contact indytilth@gmail.com and let them know you would be interested in their next event.

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Green Business Networking Series event at the Columbia Club, Indianapolis

2009-05-09T05:29:00.001-07:00

The event features a distinguished panel to discuss “Business Incentives to go green in Indiana” The purpose is to educate event attendees about governmental incentives that are available on the federal, state, and local levels for energy efficiency projects; as well as automobile-related incentives: ethanol, bio fuels, and hybrids. The panel will elaborate on business strategies to reduce the carbon footprint and improve the business bottom line. Moreover, the event has dedicated two hours after the panel discussion, for participants to engage in “green networking”. Over 300 corporate leaders, business professionals, business owners, local policymakers, educators, and local media persons are expected to attend.

Indiana is getting $135.3 million in stimulus funds available for the Weatherization Assistance Program, which will result in massive hiring of contractors in HVAC, insulation and energy audit/efficiency fields. $69 million is being administered by the Indiana Office of Energy Development.

We are bringing together panel of governmental officials from Indiana office of energy, Indiana Housing & Community Development Authority (IHCDA), representatives from non profit organizations such as the Midwest Energy Efficiency Alliance and Central Indiana Clean Cities Alliance to inform local business community about available stimulus funds for Indiana weatherization and energy efficiency programs.

In particular:
- Contractors eligibility requirements and points of contact to work with IHCDA non profit partners
- Contractors eligibility requirements and points of contact to work with Indiana state for residential and commercial/government building projects
- Types of funds available for sustainable projects in 2010.

There are 2 hours of networking after the panel discussion. We expect over 200 building professional to attend this event

Event details:
Date: June 11th, 5PM-9PM
Location: Indianapolis Columbia Club
Registration fee: Early bird - $25 till May 15th; $35 online preregister; $40 at the door (includes light dinner catering).
Registration web site: http://indianagreenbusiness.eventbrite.com/

Emerald Healthy Environments, LLC
Publisher of Indiana Green Pages
Green Business Network
Lena Lucas
111 Monument Cir
Chase Bank Tower, Suite 4800
Indianapolis, IN 46204
office tel/fax 888-851-9084
cell: 317-501-0418
www.myhomegreenpages.com
www.gbn.myhomegreenpages.com

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Google Analytics Reports are back concerning the results of using Twitter and blogging to increase KS Design Website awareness on the internet.

2009-05-08T15:13:00.001-07:00

I know there has been a lot of talk on the effectiveness of using Twitter, corporate Blogging, and other Web 2.0 strategies to help raise awareness of ones website and or business. So I thought I would share with every one who is interested the results from KS Design's Google Analytics reports.

Now for some General background on KS Design. We are a web application design company that specializes in data base driven websites and web applications (C#, .NET, SQL). Now for the past 6 years there has been no active marketing campaign. We are a grass roots company that was the vision of a young technologist (Kyle Schultz) and has grown from a basement business to a home office with room for 3 persons, clients all over the US, and free lance partners spread out in the Midwest that assist with development and design when and if needed. 80-90% of all work however is done in house by Kyle Schultz himself and it has only been this last year and a half that I have been brought into the fold in order to assist Kyle Schultz with project management, customer relations, junior development talks, and strategic architectural business design.

So enough of the plug what does this have to do with the results you are about to see. Here we go. Starting in March out of sheer joy and my interest in technology I have been playing with Twitter, getting more involved with blogging on my own personal sites, our new SharePoint website, and with Smaller Indiana and now that the summer has started A Greener Indiana as well. SO what you are about to see are the Google Analytics reports of the effects that a casual hobbyist use of Twitter and Blogging technologies (i have jumped from several platforms) have had on KS Design, from the dates of March 1st (which is when I started) to present day April 8th. The results come from our KS Design website and unfortunately we do not have as of yet Google Analytics tied into our SharePoint playground, so that data is unavailable, but I think you can see that that will soon become a top priority.

Analytics_www.ksdesignservices.com_20090301-20090508_(VisitorsOverviewReport).pdf
Analytics_www.ksdesignservices.com_20090301-20090508_(TrafficSourcesReport).pdf
Analytics_www.ksdesignservices.com_20090301-20090508_(DashboardReport).pdf
Analytics_www.ksdesignservices.com_20090301-20090508_(content.ContentReport).pdf

While this is not staggering results, and as you can see recently activity has slowed as Purdue's spring semester has come to a close (finals are over) and I have begun to get more involved with environmental affairs and the Greenerdog alias that I have created for this purpose. I think you can plainly see the benefits and if you go over my blog posts and twitter feeds you will see that I am not just bombarding persons with ads, ads, and more ads, but actually trying to provide interesting content and hopefully getting better at the content that I create, one thing I need to learn and start practicing is encouraging feedback from readers. I mean my first On-the-Go videos where bad and you are only able to see the ones I posted.

So with that if you have any questions or would like to find out more about what I do and if I can help your non-profit organization or business feel free to contact me and provide me with your email and we will get to chatting. info@ksdinfusion.com

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Is Car Lane Splitting a good idea? COMMUTER CARS AND CONGESTION: THE IMPACT OF THE TANGO F ON FREEWAY PERFORMANCE CHARACTERISTICS AND PARKING CAPACITY

2009-05-08T09:25:00.001-07:00

In honor of Commuter Cars new site design I was so excited about finally getting to check the site out and then upon doing so learning how much information that they have on their site that I felt just a little obligated to share it with everyone. So here it is:

Patrick J. Balducci, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, WA. July 23, 2003

ABSTRACT
This report documents the findings of an analysis conducted by the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, exploring the impact of Commuter Car’s Tango f on roadway performance
characteristics – level of service, flow rates, and average speeds – for a hypothetical basic freeway segment and on a segment of Interstate 5 located north of Seattle, Washington. The report also examines the parking benefits associated with the Tango f, as applied to parking in
Downtown Seattle. The study presents a methodology for calculating passenger-car equivalents for the smaller vehicles and presents modifications to standard equations for estimating vehicle flow rates to account for the introduction of the Tango f into the traffic stream. The report demonstrates the impact of the Tango f on flow rates, average speeds, and levels of service as the proportion of Tango f’s in the traffic stream grows under two scenarios. First, as the Tango f is simply introduced into the traffic stream. The second alternative explores the enhanced impacts of the Tango f as a dedicated lane is built or the vehicle is granted access to
existing high occupancy vehicle (HOV) lanes or shoulders.

This is the abstract pulled from their publicly available PDF file which can be found at http://www.commutercars.com/downloads/index.html. This is just one of the many downloads they have. This particular PDF is in reference to the study done on the
”Impact of Tango on Congestion and Parking (PNNL, US DOE)”

The also have a wealth of information in their news section. I urge you to please think about the way you drive and the impact on our lives that could be had by “keeping it simple”. I know that 70% of my car is waste and extra that I don’t need and by the looks of all the other cars on the road that tootle around with only 1 driver I would assume it is the same for 90% of everyone else out there to. I believe that the concepts embodied in the Tango F and Tango T600 can change the way we think and drive.

Car specifications can be found by clicking here.

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Greenerdog On-the-Go, Green Drinks Event in Lafayette, Indiana with Lafayette Farmers Market and the Hoosier Environmental Council

2009-05-07T06:09:00.001-07:00

Well for starters any one interested in the Green Drinks Events in Lafayette I would definitely recommend you attend. Not only is it a great event to find out more information on the Hoosier Environmental Council, but the event itself is relaxed, social, and very informational.

Below you will find a 9 minute video highlight of the event as Spurlocks in Lafayette, Indiana. It does sound like every first wed. of the month there will be another Green Drinks at 6:30pm –8pm or so. If you would like to know more about the Hoosier Environmental Council please visit their website at http://www.hecweb.org The Hoosier Environmental Council’s vision I found to be inspiring to say the least and would like to share that with you here: (and to find one of their events click here)

“We aim to set a new path for Indiana, where the people of our state embrace practices and policies that dramatically reduce the footprint of industry, commerce and agriculture on the environment. Following this path, Indiana will ascend to new heights in our public health, economic well-being, and in our preservation of nature for generations to come.”

And for more information on the Lafayette Farmer’s Market visit http://lafayettefarmersmarket.com Feel free to ask Jane Ness (jness@greaterlafayettecommerce.com) any questions you may have about the Farmer’s Market.

Follow Greenerdog on Twitter so learn more about A Greener Indiana Events as they happen

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Movie review “The Corporation”, what I learned about externalities and the history of Corporations

2009-05-02T21:14:00.001-07:00

The movie “The Corporation” WINNER OF 26 INTERNATIONAL AWARDS! 10 Audience Choice Awards including the 2004 Sundance Film Festival starts out trying to define exactly what a corporation is. It spends the movie doing so not by creating a definition but by examining the effects of corporations and drawing a conclusion based on those effects. “If it looks like a horse, talks like a horse, and walks like a horse… then it must be a horse.” It does however, before chronically documenting the effects of corporations, begin with the legal definitions and the histories of how corporations have developed.

One of the things that I found most interesting was the historical aspects of how the corporation was developed and grown, from its beginnings as an organization with a charter, with clearly stated life terms and temporary goals, to an organization that began to shape policies that bestowed the rights of individuals to corporations to eventually becoming a permanent entity with the rights of individuals, but very little of the responsibilities that we as individuals have. The only responsibility it seems that is required by that of a corporation (and this is oh so present in today's economic turmoil) is the responsibility to create a profit for its shareholders.

As Indiana focuses on economic growth and creates incentives for corporations I urge my fellow Hoosiers, to bring to the attention of corporations, that they have a responsibility to the community as well as their shareholders and that their responsibilities to the shareholders should not come at an expense to Hoosiers and the world at large.

Another thing that I learned, that I had heard before, but never really made the big connection, was the economic term “externalities” ( Wikipedia):

In economics, an externality or spillover of an economic transaction is an impact on a party that is not directly involved in the transaction. In such a case, prices do not reflect the full costs or benefits in production or consumption of a product or service. A positive impact is called an external benefit, while a negative impact is called an external cost. (according to the movie what corporations do best is externalize their costs in order to increase profits) Producers and consumers in a market may either not bear all of the costs or not reap all of the benefits of the economic activity. For example, manufacturing that causes air pollution imposes costs on the whole society, while fire-proofing a home improves the fire safety of neighbors.

In a competitive market, the existence of externalities would cause either too much or too little of the good to be produced or consumed in terms of overall costs and benefits to society. If there exist external costs such as pollution, the good will be overproduced by a competitive market, as the producer does not take into account the external costs when producing the good. If there are external benefits, such as in areas of education or public safety, too little of the good would be produced by private markets as producers and buyers do not take into account the external benefits to others. Here, overall cost and benefit to society is defined as the sum of the economic benefits and costs for all parties involved.

EOEarth.org also has an interesting article and some examples and effects of “externalities” and there is a very good paper titled “Negative Externalities and Electricity Prices: Exploring the Full Social Costs of Conventional, Renewable, and Nuclear Power Sources” by Benjamin K. Sovacool PROCEEDINGS OF INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON ENERGY AND ENVIRONMENT MARCH 19-21, 2009 ISSN: 2070-3740.

A DVD boxed set with extra footage can be purchased here:

Along with the 145 minute theatrical version, the extensive two-disc set has over five hours of never-before-seen footage. Interview clips, including 165 new, are sorted by person and by topic.

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Turkey Run Group Wins Eco-Challenge For Sugar Creek Work

2009-04-30T17:36:00.001-07:00

Turkey Run science teacher Susan Seitz first contacted Friends of Sugar Creek in March with an invitation to help oversee a creek clean-up organized by her middle school students. While such requests are not uncommon, few groups display the level of ambition and motivation shown by Seitz and her class. The clean-up, performed Wednesday, March 18, at Turkey Run State Park, was only one small part of the students’ work this spring. They first conducted water testing to identify pollutants in Sugar Creek near their school. They then sent letters to 256 Indiana schools asking them to pursue similar work on their local tributaries to the Ohio and Wabash Rivers. The class also contacted State Representative Dale Grubb to fast track their protection of one and a half creek miles through the state’s Adopt-A-River program.
This group of “Eco-H2O Warriors,” in partnership with the Friends of Turkey Run, will conduct a creek clean-up throughout their adopted stretch on May 16. This event is coordinated with the
Friends of Sugar Creek cleanup held the same day in downtown Crawfordsville.

Their efforts were recognized by Lexus as part of the car company’s annual Eco-Challenge. They received a $10,000 award to fund future Sugar Creek projects. Some of the money has already been spent on laptops to help aid research and development of outreach materials. Seitz is also looking to purchase outdoor classroom materials including more notebook computers and Vernier Lab Pros with water probes. These items will be used by future students to continue the work this class started.

Ms. Seitz and her students at Turkey Run Middle School deserve recognition for their efforts and enthusiasm. They are true Friends of Sugar Creek!

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Does your service, product, or website need a review?

2009-04-30T16:59:00.001-07:00

So in response to the many views of my Monsters vs Aliens movie review with my son, I thought it would be interesting if I offered to people/organizations the ability to have other products, services, or websites reviewed on my Ernest On-the-Go episodes. So if this at all sounds interesting please read on. Or watch my Ernest On-the_Go video below.

We here at KS Design are all about design, but why not help others improve on their designs. Now I don’t proclaim to be the end all be all definitive expert on what any design should or shouldn’t be, however we here at KS Design are curious by nature and are always testing out products and services on our own. We know how easy it is to get wrapped up in your own design and forget what it is like to experience a product or service for the first time. Our feedback on this experience is what we hope will be of value to you. So I thought it would be interesting if we could help others by providing (mainly small businesses and organizations) feedback on their products or services.

Now we do not want to just add to hype and buzz for some Jane Shmoe product. We are really concerned with providing interesting and valuable feedback on products and services. Here are the types of products and services that we are interested in and passionate about, but if you don’t think you fit into these categories, by all means do not hesitate to contact us anyways.

Anything related to or that helps Indiana or Hoosiers in general, Environmental Sustainability, Technology, Children’s Education, Web Technology, Movies (mostly family friendly), Music (we like to dance or make our kids dance), Web Videos + Movies, Web Sites that pertain to the above, and Events (we live in Central Indiana remember).

Now to be clear we will not just “ReTweet” some blanket promotional jive without actually investigating claims or the product itself. And we will be clear if we receive any type of compensation or benefit. For example if we are given a free membership to a web site that is usually paid for, we will bring that up or anything that may indicate that we have some type of vested interest in the product or service.

Contact KS Design for more details: info@ksdinfusion.com just ask for Ernest!

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Sustainable Indiana Offering Plots in Crawfordsville Community Garden

2009-04-30T16:47:00.001-07:00

Sustainable Indiana, a green group based in
Montgomery County, is offering plots in a community
garden located 1 mile south from Crawfordsville
High School on State Road 47 South (next to
Golden Creek). Each plots costs $20. Visit
www.sustainableindiana.org or call Susan Smith
(765-362-0251) for more information.

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Are you interested in a job as a solar installer?

2009-04-30T08:55:00.001-07:00

The above is in reference to an article in Treehugger online magazine. I am quite aware of the economic situations of many of my fellow Hoosiers with experience in the construction field. Also quite frankly I like Solar Panels and Solar Technology. Just seems pretty weird we are so willing to drill for oil and search for oil, but we have a hard time accepting that we need to use the Solar energy that is abundant all around us.

With that said follow this link to read more on this article from www.Treehuger.com:

A Day in the Life of a Solar Installer (Updated)

by Kristin Underwood, Sacramento, CA

“So I originally wrote about my job as a solar installer almost two years ago. Since that time, I have worked on many jobs in many cities, including international sites, and I have received many emails from readers wondering how they can get a green job in the solar field. I've also read over that old article and realized that I was a baby when I wrote it and that my impressions of the field have changed. Here is an update to the article with tips on how to get a job, what to look out for and how things have changed over the years. Plus I answer commonly asked questions from the emails that I received.”

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We all live in a yellow submarine!

2009-03-31T20:43:00.001-07:00

What a lovely weekend, today is even better. Used this weekend to test out Windows Live Writer and quite frankly I think I like it. So my test for the weekend and in preparation of the upcoming MIX09 I have not done much consistent blogging in the past but the MIX09 event has given me a great opportunity to stream line the process so that I can begin.

One of the first issues at hand then is photos and videos. So I tried Flickr, not sure if I was doing correctly, but was annoyed that i had to add them one at a time. Then while that was uploading I opened up Picasa imported the images there and then made a movie and uploaded the movie to my YouTube channel, easy enough.

At this point I said “You know what, let me just put this into Sony Vegas and see what I can do real quick.” In about the time that it took to upload the pictures into Flickr I was able to make the following video with a sound track in Vegas Studio. Now I could polish this up quite a bit if I so choose, but quite frankly, I just wanted to get this video up real quick and allow my friends and family to enjoy it. So I am Happy here it is!

We all live in a yellow submarine!

2009-03-31T20:14:00.001-07:00

Better Late Than Never

2008-08-04T04:58:00.000-07:00

Ok folks got some belated news for ya today!

First let me start off with an explanation of that last video I posted. It came from our local Montgomery County 4-H Fair!! A splendid little fair with plenty of elaphant ears and tractors to boot. I helped out with the Friends of Sugar Creek Booth for most of the weekend while I let my 6 yr old son run around like a little piggy.

The musical highlight of weekend was Steve Trent and Small Town. They had a great set even though it was a little short, but that was no fault of thiers. Another slpendid performance of the weekend was skits put on by Dance by Debra, which is a wonderful dance company located in downtown Crawfordsville full of many talented youths.

Now your probably wondering about the slide show... Well see the Friends of Sugar Creek were raffling off this really great canoe as a fundraiser and as an effort to draw people in to our informational booth. Well it was early Saturday morning that I discovered just how much fun kids can have in a canoe whether it is in the water or out of it. So I decided to let the kids sit in the canoe and find out how many of them have ever held a paddle before and give them their first lesson if they have never had the opportunity to hold a paddle before. I also decided that the kids looked so cute that I could not pass up the opportunity to take a photo and create a slide show.

I also have to commend our local 4-H fair for thier plentiful and enormous recycling bins. I discoverd there is a large education gap in this recycling movement. I was very surprised to see how many people do not know what the difference between paper and plastic is or what paper and plastic is recyclable. I even had a few questions myself. Straws for example... and does a piece of palstic have to have a recyclable arrow and rating number in order to be recyclable. And what about the food factor? I think a recycling education project would be in order for our local community and that this would make a great future project for me. If any one else is interested in partaking in this type of project feel free to contact me at Lotusdog@hotmail.com or post onto My Green Karnyval Group. I have some Great ideas regarding this and so little time!!

Little video from the 4_h Fair

2008-07-23T07:04:00.000-07:00

2008-07-14T13:52:00.000-07:00

Here are a couple really handy PDFs. One for the IT savy and another for any one intereseted in The State of Green Business. If there are any other reports that your aware of and wantto see posted, regardless of which side of the green issue it is on, as long as sources are mention I will post and be glad to review.

"It’s hard to imagine a more active year in green business than 2007. Except,
perhaps, for 2006. And likely 2008, 2009, and beyond, for that matter.
Point is, every year lately seems to be a banner year when it comes to the
greening of mainstream business — another 12 months of new and substantive
corporate commitments and initiatives, technological breakthroughs, reports
and tools, partnerships and consortia, and various other achievements and
developments.
How was 2007 different? To answer that, we revisited the more than 1,000
news and feature stories that appeared on GreenBiz.com, ClimateBiz.com,
GreenerBuildings.com, and GreenerComputing.com, in pursuit of themes,
trends, and movements. We found many. Following, in no particular order, are
the top 10."
The State of Green Business 2008 © 2008 Greener World Media, Inc. (www.greenbiz.com)

"Learn to build a Green IT Action Plan by setting realistic goals and choosing projects that IT can perform autonomously. The resulting environmental benefits and cost savings help prove that more extensive projects are both feasible and necessary. Use this knowledge to promote cross-enterprise collaboration on leading green initiatives."
The Green IT Action Plan from © 1998-2008 Info-Tech Research Group

I hope these PDFs have been found ot be useful!!

Also feel free to join the Google Group of the Green Karnyval. It's a great place to share information and exchange ideas!!

This week at the Green Karnyval

2008-07-09T04:17:00.000-07:00

Last week was ofcourse the fourth of July, and boy what a weekend. I just have to give kudos to my 6 year old son who (not the environmentalist that I am) upon the last day of camping and riding his bike came across a camp site (Sugar Creek Campground) and noticed that they left all their pepsi cans just laying around the campsite. SO he came back to the site and asked for a bag, Walmart bags are apparently good for something, so that he could pick up those cans and throw them away. I was quite pround of him!! Now i don't know if it was the thought of the joy of crushing all those cans or if there were some higher altruistic motivation behind his actions, but regardless the example that i have set of picking up other peoples trash or making sure he just doesn't throw his trash around has put a picture in his mind about how to treat trash and how to treat the environment. And this carried over to a change in his behavior. If a 6 year old can pick up on this i have faith that others can too and that the upcoming generations will be more environmentally aware than ourselves if we continue to change our behaviors.

That being said i have a few links for you Karnies:
First off a great Indiana site A Greener Indiana and you may notice I already have a link to thier site on the side bar, however i would really urge you that if your in the Indiana area to really check out thier calendar.

For all you news junkies and organic freaks ( Isay that with affection ) out there here is a good site that has lots of information regarding organic food stuffs and news tailored to your local area if you so choose to search that way OrganicConsumers.org and here is the Indiana link OrganicConsumers.org

Well that's all for now, hopefully i will have a more personal update on some local canoeing that i have been enjoying later this week or earlier next week!!

Take care, think of others, and be good to the earth!!

Think Global, Act Local

2008-07-02T12:06:00.000-07:00

Today's skinny is on how to think global and act local. To be an American is to be a Consumer. Sad to say, but this is pretty much what defines us. Our measurement at large is not how many people's lives we have made better today, but it is our GDP. So that being said we have to realize that every concumer purchase is a statement and an action. What we buy makes an impact on economies and environments world wide. So when we buy something we have a choice, we can choose to buy merely out of convenience or we can choose to buy products from vendors who adhere to standards. I don't really want to get into to much detail on how hard corporate america makes it to find out where are products really come from and under what conditions they are made (that's for a later post), but I did find an interesting article that can help us become a more aware consumer.

Ecospace.cc Article
"When was the last time you checked the tag of your t-shirt to look for more than just a size or price? Do you know what your clothes are made of or who made them? The answers to these questions may surprise you, as inputs of clothing production have significant effects on the physical and social environment."
Now for another easy act of goodness that makes a global impact. I must make sure that everyone that uses Hotmail and MSN IM is aware of Microsoft's "i'm Making a Difference" options in thier mail and IM interface. Proceed to the below link to find out how in 5 minutes your emails and IMs can make small donations to worth while organizations."

MSN i'm MAKING A Difference
"Every time you use Windows Live™ Messenger or Windows Live Hotmail®, our free webmail service, Microsoft shares a portion of its advertising revenue with an organization of your choice from a list of some of the world's most effective social cause organizations."

Now for the Act Local part. I stopped by a local organizations Board Meeting with out any intention to make a large commitment, but just to see what was going on every first tuesday of the month. Low and behold I discovered that I have many skill sets that they could use. Sugar Creek is a small tributary of great recreational importance for the local and statewide community. Also to my delight I discovered that they cooperate with other county non-profits to make a significant impact on the preservation of local habitats and species that are in danger and need to be preserved.

FSC Website
"The Friends of Sugar Creek are celebrating thier 20th year!"
"The Story of Sugar Creek began over 18,000 years ago. For centuries Native Americans depended on the clear waters of the "ahsenaamisi siipiiwi" for survival. Our forefathers relied on it for food, transportation, commerce and recreation. Many species of fish, birds and wildlife still populate the creek and its adjacent lands. Now the river faces growing ecological threats from teh industrial and agricultural institutions it helped to create."

So I urge you to find a recreation you enjoy, search for an organization in your community and stop in and see what they do. If nothing else I am sure that have ideas that could be useful or just be able to lend a helping hand once in a while.

For those that doubt the potential of the future...

2008-07-01T06:02:00.000-07:00

So for those that doubt our ability to make an impact here are some videos that will highlight recent technological developments that i believe will allow for the green revolution to take place. But as with any technical revolution it still must be accompanied with a social revolution so i am urging you all to stay informed, be consious consumers, and find someway to participate no matter how small you feel your efforts are.

For those of you interested in wind power...

Now there is still hope for those who like to drive..

The scoop on solar is not as far as you think...

So here we go folks, we got plenty of energy on this planet in the form of renewable sustainable energy. But we still need to focus on the social aspect. There are habbits that need changed, bigger pictures to think about, and more importantly billions of people on this planet that don't have adaquate nutrition or survival needs. Here is an excerpt from The World Health Organization

"Nutrition is an input to and foundation for health and development. Interaction
of infection and malnutrition is well-documented. Better nutrition means stronger
immune systems, less illness and better health. Healthy children learn better.
Healthy people are stronger, are more productive and more able to create
opportunities to gradually break the cycles of both poverty and hunger in a
sustainable way. Better nutrition is a prime entry point to ending poverty and a
milestone to achieving better quality of life."

Poodwaddle.com

My Beggining

2008-06-25T06:58:00.000-07:00

So let's see, where am I starting in my new persuit... First off at home i already recycle. This is somewhat inconvenient due to our city but it is well worth it. Most of what we recycle can be set out in a seperate container and picked up, no biggie. The rest, meaning cardboard, has to be delivered to the local recycling center. Why the city can't pick up cardboard anymore I will never know. However i am quite pleased to save about one full bag of trash every week or every other week. We do have to rinse out our plastics, cans, and jars and we do have to take the labels off of these articles, but that just helps make me more oware of the trash i create and of the items i consume. I pay attention more now that i used to at how things are packaged and will generally go for the local self filtered tap water over choosing to buy yet another plastic jug or bottle. For Recycling facts from Oberlin.edu goto--->> http://www.oberlin.edu/recycle/facts.html

The main problem with the local recycling program, and please feel free to tell me about your recycling programs, is that the city really does not push it and i feel really does not educate the public on how thier contributions to the recycling program are helpping the community and environment at large.

Another simple mission that i am on is to get all of the bulbs replaced in the house with the energy saver bulbs that are all the rage. Other than the one second pause you get after you flip the switch until the light actually comes on, i have really noticed no difference in the lighting and i am quite plesed to know that i am saving energy. To see more on changing to incandescent lightbulbs goto--->> http://www.mycarbonpledge.com

Also for quite some time i have just been trying to consume less stuff. And i have been trying to learn about where my stuff comes from and if there are any alternatives to get the stuff i want from sources/vendors that are more environmentally consious. One of the first things that i learned is that it is not so easy to find out information on the companies from who you buy stuff. And to share one more thing with you here is a sweet little video to goto--->> http://www.storyofstuff.com/

Well thanks for your time and appreciate your comments. :P

The Green Purpose

2008-06-20T07:44:00.000-07:00

Greetings One and All,

I would like to start off by telling everyone the purpose of this blog. The purpose of this blog is to document my green adventures. What that means is that I will be posting what I learn as I strive to make my workplace and personal life greener. My desire is to get around to posting twice a week, sharing with others my current environmental footprint, my desired footprint, and everything I am doing to improve my footprint on this planet.

I have often felt like there just isn't much i can do that most of what happens on this planet I have no control over and that frankly i just don't have the money to make a difference. I have also had questions about where to get good information, because lets face it there is alot of information out there, some exagerated, some just uncertain, and some just hard to find and sort through.

So instead of being cought in an apathy trap and doing nothing while the world goes by I decided that "I can do something". So that's where I am going to start. I firmly believe that to change the world you must first change yourself. "Think global- act local" as they say. So please, i encourage you to join me in my adventures and hope that this blog provides some type of avenue for you yourself to "do something". I hope that I can provide reliable information from those that do the research and I hope that you the reader will not only read, but also share your thoughts, views, and opinions so that together we can make our communities healthier and our planet Greener.

The Green Karnyval

Upcoming Videos

Seems like I am a spring Blogger, lol

Google Buzz & Google Wave are not good products to compare

Hopping on the Google Buzz Wagon

Football Tonight - ESPN

The disrupted of Davos � BuzzMachine

23 Responses to “The disrupted of Davos”

Teachers in Google Wave - Classroom 2.0

Is Google holding true to their corporate ethical values?

How China Censors the Internet – Video

Siva Vaidhnyanathan Google, Citing Cyber Attack, Threatens to Leave China – Jan, 2010 author of “The Googlization of Everything” http://www.googlizationofeverything.com/2010/01/google_citing_cyber_attack_thr.php

Google Wave Tid Bits #1 Video

Playing with Prezi!

Lotusdog’s Google Wave Meeting Agenda Template Tutorial

OLS 440 Porject

Colts Baby Wave chat room

Google Wave and www.SmallerIndiana.com

OLS 399 Presentation 2 parts one, two, and three

OLS 399 Presentation 1 parts one and two

Career Rookie Online Career Fair

Three Heads Company Picnic - review

My Father’s Day Potato Creek State Park Trip Report

First week at The Indiana Dunes Learning Center

Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore Beach Water Quality Monitoring Report for June 4, 2008

Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore Beach Water Quality Monitoring Report for June 4, 2008

On Saturday, June 6,Canoe Trip with Friends of Sugar, in partnership with NICHES Land Trust

Canoeing and Kayaking on Sugar Creek through Shades & Turkeyrun State Park, Memorial day Weekend - 2009

Canoeing and Kayaking on Sugar Creek through Shades & Turkeyrun State Park, Memorial day Weekend - 2009

A Greener Indiana Presents The Little Turtle Music and Arts Festival

Jack-in-the-Pulpit, Urban Permaculture

Jack-in-the-Pulpit, Urban Permaculture

Upcoming www.AGreeenerIndiana.com Events

To stay current with www.AGreenerIndiana.com Events follow the Greenerdog on Twitter

Black Gold Movie about coffee and Fair Trade in Ethiopia

Project: Zero Cool Video Explanations episodes 1-4

Project: Zero Cool Video Explanations episodes 1-4

The Strawberry Jam at Goss Family Farm in Arcadia, In

Sugar Creek Nature Park Clean Up 2009, Crawfordsville, IN

Aquaculture Links from A Greener Indiana

Carbon Credits for the Individual? Think Box Episode

Indiana’s top 3 environmental issues according to GreenIndy.com

Highlights from the Plant Exchange hosted by the Mapleton Fall Creek Unity Group

Green Business Networking Series event at the Columbia Club, Indianapolis

Google Analytics Reports are back concerning the results of using Twitter and blogging to increase KS Design Website awareness on the internet.

Is Car Lane Splitting a good idea? COMMUTER CARS AND CONGESTION: THE IMPACT OF THE TANGO F ON FREEWAY PERFORMANCE CHARACTERISTICS AND PARKING CAPACITY

Greenerdog On-the-Go, Green Drinks Event in Lafayette, Indiana with Lafayette Farmers Market and the Hoosier Environmental Council

Movie review “The Corporation”, what I learned about externalities and the history of Corporations

Turkey Run Group Wins Eco-Challenge For Sugar Creek Work

Does your service, product, or website need a review?

Sustainable Indiana Offering Plots in Crawfordsville Community Garden

Are you interested in a job as a solar installer?

by Kristin Underwood, Sacramento, CA

We all live in a yellow submarine!

We all live in a yellow submarine!

Better Late Than Never

Little video from the 4_h Fair

This week at the Green Karnyval

Think Global, Act Local

For those that doubt the potential of the future...

My Beggining

The Green Purpose

Siva Vaidhnyanathan
Google, Citing Cyber Attack, Threatens to Leave China – Jan, 2010 author of “The Googlization of Everything”
http://www.googlizationofeverything.com/2010/01/google_citing_cyber_attack_thr.php