The Story Of Stuff

In the morning I usually have some strawberry yogurt poured over some delectable British strawberries (buy local! woo!). While I eat, I head over to Huffington Post or CNN to watch any recent, pertinent videos. This keeps my brain occupied for the 8 minutes it usually takes me to devour said strawberries and yogurt.

Well, a few mornings ago I came across this AMAZING 20-minute short documentary about where "stuff" comes from. That is, how everything you own came to be, and what happens to it when you're done with it. The creator spent TEN YEARS researching everything from raw material extraction right through to landfill dumping. Now, I knew it wasn't the most pleasant tale, but I had no idea just how bad it is - from destroying the Earth to building products that are MADE to break so you have to buy a new one to incinerating trash and poisoning the air.

Before you call me a conspiracy theory cynic take the time to watch and see the truth in it all. More importantly, note that not a single person/company/government official has come forward to attack her research claims. In fact, most of her facts and figures come from Right-Wing or Government sources. All I can say is: STOP SHOPPING SO MUCH! WE'RE KILLING THE EARTH, & WE ONLY GET ONE!

Dems In Good Shape

So it appears the Democrats are in fairly good shape. Still, never let up!


A few links to more on this:

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2009/01/28/new-analysis-suggests-growing-democratic-edge/

http://www.gallup.com/poll/113947/Democrats-2008-Advantage-Party-Largest.aspx

Lefty Pride

In celebration of my left-handed super friend Carly's wedding (for which I am traveling from London to LA), I decided to do several things:

1. Post a ridiculously embarrassing photo of her (that highlights her left-handed-ness)
2. Post a gorgeous photo of her (because she's gorgeous)
3. Post the top lefty facts from my "left-fact-a-day calendar" that she gave me.


See as how #1 and #2 were accomplished above, here are those facts:

A. Twisted wire jewelery from Roman times suggests about 10% was made by left-handers, indicating that perhaps this is a "natural" proportion.

B. Experts say the brains of left-handed people develop more freely in utero, allowing the organization to stray more from the standard design. That makes left-handers' brains less predictable than right-handers'. (Obviously true)

C. Kermit the Frog is left-handed, just like his creator, Jim Henso. In fact, all of the banjo playing in the movie is left-handed and most of the other Muppets are lefties as well.

D. A recent British study found that left-handers are significantly better than right-handers at remembering images that involve direction, such as which way the queen is facing on an English pound. This is why lefties are better at using maps.

E. International concert pianist Christopher Seed uses a piano that was built in reverse! He debuted the piece to a standing ovation at the Queen Elizabeth Hall in London.

Amazing Lefties:

Albert Einstein
Benjamin Franklin
Leonardo Da Vinci
Alexander Hamilton
Barack Obama
Bill Clinton
George H.W. Bush
Ronald Reagan
Jimmy Carter
Oprah
Jean-Paul Gaultier
Shirley MacLaine
Carol Burnett
Edward R. Murrow
Greg Louganis (Olympic Diver)
Dorothy Hamill
Bruce Jenner
Mark Spitz (Greatest swimmer that ever lived)
Jim Henson
Sarah Hughes (Olympian)
Frakie Valli
James Brown
Matt Groening (Creator of the Simpsons)
Bart Simpson (courtesy of Matt Groening
Simon Bolivar (who liberated Bolivia, Columbia, Columbia, Ecuardor, Peru & Venezuela from Spanish control)
Carly Slusser

Just to name a few...

Love you Carly!

--

Kyle Taylor

Economic Models In Terms Of Cows

I thought this was amazing!

Economic Models explained with Cows - 2008 update

SOCIALISM
You have 2 cows.
You give one to your neighbor.

COMMUNISM
You have 2 cows.
The State takes both and gives you some milk.

FASCISM
You have 2 cows.
The State takes both and sells you some milk.

NAZISM
You have 2 cows.
The State takes both and shoots you.

BUREAUCRATISM
You have 2 cows.
The State takes both, shoots one, milks the other, and then throws the milk away...

TRADITIONAL CAPITALISM
You have two cows.
You sell one and buy a bull.
Your herd multiplies, and the economy grows.
You sell them and retire on the income.

SURREALISM
You have two giraffes.
The government requires you to take harmonica lessons

AN AMERICAN CORPORATION
You have two cows.
You sell one, and force the other to produce the milk of four cows.
Later, you hire a consultant to analyse why the cow has dropped dead.

ENRON VENTURE CAPITALISM
You have two cows.
You sell three of them to your publicly listed company, using letters of credit opened by your brother-in-law at the bank, then execute a debt/equity swap with an associated general offer so that you get all four cows back, with a tax exemption for five cows.
The milk rights of the six cows are transferred via an intermediary to a Cayman Island Company secretly owned by the majority shareholder who sells the rights to all seven cows back to your listed company.
The annual report says the company owns eight cows, with an option on one more.
You sell one cow to buy a new president of the United States, leaving you with nine cows.
No balance sheet provided with the release.
The public then buys your bull.

A FRENCH CORPORATION
You have two cows.
You go on strike, organise a riot, and block the roads, because you want three cows.

A JAPANESE CORPORATION
You have two cows.
You redesign them so they are one-tenth the size of an ordinary cow and produce twenty times the milk.
You then create a clever cow cartoon image called 'Cowkimon' and market it worldwide.

A GERMAN CORPORATION
You have two cows.
You re-engineer them so they live for 100 years, eat once a month, and milk themselves.

AN ITALIAN CORPORATION
You have two cows, but you don't know where they are.
You decide to have lunch.

A RUSSIAN CORPORATION
You have two cows.
You count them and learn you have five cows.
You count them again and learn you have 42 cows.
You count them again and learn you have 2 cows.
You stop counting cows and open another bottle of vodka.

A SWISS CORPORATION
You have 5000 cows. None of them belong to you.
You charge the owners for storing them.

A CHINESE CORPORATION
You have two cows.
You have 300 people milking them.
You claim that you have full employment, and high bovine productivity.
You arrest the newsman who reported the real situation.

AN INDIAN CORPORATION
You have two cows.
You worship them.

A BRITISH CORPORATION
You have two cows.
Both are mad.

AN IRAQI CORPORATION
Everyone thinks you have lots of cows.
You tell them that you have none.
No-one believes you, so they bomb the **** out of you and invade your country.
You still have no cows, but at least now you are part of Democracy....

AN AUSTRALIAN CORPORATION
You have two cows.
Business seems pretty good.
You close the office and go for a few beers to celebrate.

A NEW ZEALAND CORPORATION
You have two cows.
The one on the left looks very attractive.

What's On The Web

Just a few things around the web over the past few weeks that I've enjoyed! The first two are the big "group dances" that have taken the world by storm. Possibly a reaction to our over-mediated obsession with the internet that has left us craving real human contact? The third is a link to Susan Boyle singing on Britain's Got Talent. If you haven't seen it, you should. Finally, an interesting article on "my generation" that is about 2 years behind the amazing work we did at Ashoka's Youth Venture. Come on world, keep up!

T-Mobile:


Sound of Music:


More T-Mobile:


Susan Boyle On TV:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9lp0IWv8QZY

Article on Young People:
http://www.usatoday.com/news/sharing/2009-04-13-millenial_N.htm

More Shivering


Since the last one was so wildly successful, I decided to do another. This is just after my 82-minute swim last weekend. I’m totally delirious. So funny!

--

Kyle Taylor

Dover Weekend Three: The Stacey and Kyle Show

After an exhausting weekend for John (driving back and forth to Dover TWICE in two days as well as feeding and caring for me) it was agreed that the role of “#1 Supporter” might best be shared by a larger group of folks. Fortunately, I have incredible friends who all volunteered to spend a weekend helping me put my leg through my pants post-swim! The first lucky contestant was Stacey. An speech and language therapist by trade, Stacey and I met at the Laos/Cambodia border last August while enduring a 14-hour bus ride with no air conditioning and no windows. That is, she is a trooper.




Because she’s a real person (as opposed to a student), she has “things.” Thankfully, one of those things was a car. Not quite sure what to expect, she waited with trepidation for me to complete my first of two swims on Saturday. Fortunately, it was the same routine as last weekend - one hour, go away for an hour and come back for another hour. The shivering was about the norm, though I do think it took Stacey by surprise. “Oh my gosh, you really shake, don’t you?” Still, she was phenomenal - pouring cocoa, cheering me on, carrying my towel down to the water...just great!


Sunday’s swim, however, was quite the experience. We were supposed to do two hours or “as long as you can last.” Basically, a max-out swim at peek effort/stamina/ability to be as cold as possible without dying. I lasted 82 minutes, which was longer than some and not as long as others. Why did I come in? To begin with, conditions were miserable. It was windy and raining. Waves were literally CRASHING out at sea. The swells were at least 3 feet, which meant there was quite a bobbing situation. Basically, it was ROUGH. I came in, however, because I could no longer figure out what time it was. That is, I knew I got in the water at 9:55am on my watch and I knew that two hours would be 11:55am. I floated there staring at the current time, 11:17am, but could not for the life of me figure out how long I had been in or how much longer I was supposed to stay in. It felt similar to my post-Dengue, unable to think stage of existence. Unable to compute basic time math I thought to myself, “I should probably get out of the water.” Upon surfacing the grease guy swooped me up and slid on my flip flops while patting me on the back and shouting, “great job! Great job! You knew your body. You knew it was time. Well done!”




I was so confused. Stacey basically carried me to my clothes and within minutes she and the other Channel “Mom” were putting on my shirt and sweatshirt, sticking their arms up the legs of my pants and pulling my feet through and patting me top to bottom asking me simple questions that seemed a little bit difficult at the time. Fortunately, I was fairly cognitive. We raced to the car, where I sipped some cocoa and filmed another rather entertaining video (see tomorrow’s blog) to keep everyone abreast of this whole experience.






The swims aside, we had a lovely weekend trekking along the White Cliffs, wandering through endless fields of rapeseed, stopping off in the tiniest of English villages and dining in genuine country pubs. Oh, and we stayed in the most adorable B&B I’ve ever seen - The Maison Deau. So while the swimming itself is excruciating, the weekly escape from London is a welcome addition to my routine. Plus, the English countryside is DIVINE. Perfect. Wonderful. Just like you’d imagine it in a fairy tale. Onward to week four!






--

Kyle Taylor