Good sports

A friend passed along this inspiring story of sportswomanship. I'll let it speak for itself.

http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/24392612/from/ET/

PORTLAND, Ore. - With two runners on base and a strike against her, Sara Tucholsky of Western Oregon University uncorked her best swing and did something she had never done, in high school or college. Her first home run cleared the center-field fence.

But it appeared to be the shortest of dreams come true when she missed first base, started back to tag it and collapsed with a knee injury.

She crawled back to first but could do no more. The first-base coach said she would be called out if her teammates tried to help her. Or, the umpire said, a pinch runner could be called in, and the homer would count as a single.

Then, members of the Central Washington University softball team stunned spectators by carrying Tucholsky around the bases Saturday so the three-run homer would count — an act that contributed to their own elimination from the playoffs.

Doing work that is disconnected from your own heart

A friend passed along this patent application for an outsourcing assessment methodology from Bank of America. From the patent text:

A typical American employee demands a high salary, good benefits, a good work environment, vacation time, and other job-related perks such as reimbursement for higher education. These job-related perks are expensive and may not be cost-effective for the business entity. A business entity is forced to commit significant resources to employ an American work force and may often find that the demands of American employees far exceed the allotted budget.

B of A's methodology will allow companies to select countries where workers will work for a low salary, without benefits, in a poor work environment, without vacation or training. It is worth noting that all the inventors on this patent are American.

I am finding this quite puzzling, and also sad.

The Rise of the Rest

Newsweek ran an interesting article called The Rise of the Rest. It is an upbeat look at how the world is moving away from having a single superpower-- a situation that was always unstable, of course.

The post-American world is naturally an unsettling prospect for Americans, but it should not be. This will not be a world defined by the decline of America but rather the rise of everyone else. It is the result of a series of positive trends that have been progressing over the last 20 years.

[The author then debunks a number of potential objections to the phrase "positive trends"...] It turns out that we'll probably survive just fine as the rest of the world grows in prosperity and power:

Per capita, it turns out, the United States trains more engineers than either of the Asian giants [China and India].

But America's hidden secret is that most of these engineers are immigrants. Foreign students and immigrants account for almost 50 percent of all science researchers in the country. In 2006 they received 40 percent of all PhDs. By 2010, 75 percent of all science PhDs in this country will be awarded to foreign students. When these graduates settle in the country, they create economic opportunity. Half of all Silicon Valley start-ups have one founder who is an immigrant or first generation American. The potential for a new burst of American productivity depends not on our education system or R&D spending, but on our immigration policies. If these people are allowed and encouraged to stay, then innovation will happen here. If they leave, they'll take it with them.

More broadly, this is America's great—and potentially insurmountable—strength. It remains the most open, flexible society in the world, able to absorb other people, cultures, ideas, goods, and services. The country thrives on the hunger and energy of poor immigrants. Faced with the new technologies of foreign companies, or growing markets overseas, it adapts and adjusts. When you compare this dynamism with the closed and hierarchical nations that were once superpowers, you sense that the United States is different and may not fall into the trap of becoming rich, and fat, and lazy.

American society can adapt to this new world. But can the American government?...

Yes, it's true. Our greatest weakness is likely to be the slow adaptation of those in Washington, D.C.

But like the author, I see the "demotion" of the US from Leader of the World as a potentially positive shift. It would allow us to change our values from an unending quest to stay on top to a more gentle and cooperative role. That was a shift we couldn't make when the rest of the world was still agreeing that we are "#1". As they change their attitude, we are freed.

There are models for peacefully relinquishing power, by the way. The dismantling of the British Empire was largely peaceful, at least compared to other examples from history. We'd do well to step down gracefully.

Vote in Dell's ReGeneration Green Computing contest

Recently, Dell solicited entries for its "Green Computing Technology Design Contest" and got 180 responses. A panel of experts has already narrowed the field down to five, all of whom received $10,000. Now the public can vote to choose the top finalist, who will receive an additional $15,000.

Entrants were encouraged to consider all aspects of sustainability, including materials, logistics, power use, end-of-life, and even the service model.

Details of the contest and a description of the five final entries is here.

I invite folks to vote for a finalist (by May 7)! Some of the entries really seem to "get it," including multiple dimensions of sustainability in their designs. Sure, they're all concept models, far from finished products. I find it encouraging that such things can even be envisioned in fairly complete form.

A better mousetrap

There is a hole in the wall behind my refrigerator. I think it was made by the previous owners of the house because they ran water lines there for the water-spout-enabled fridge they bought. Anyway, I didn't think about it much until I looked over from my computer one fine day in February and saw.... a mouse. In the middle of my kitchen floor. Believe it or not, I caught this mouse with nothing more than a paper bag. It scooted out of the kitchen to the hall closet, and when I got it to emerge, I strategically put the bag in its path, and it ran inside. Donning garden gloves, I carried the bag to the local creek and let the little terrified guy (or gal) go free. I told it to watch out for cats!

I wasn't really sure what would transpire from that, so I didn't do anything. And then a couple weeks ago, I caught movement out of the corner of my eye -- a little black mouse was slinking from the space behind the fridge to the space under the oven. Hmmmmm.

This one was much more timid, and hence impossible to catch in a bag. (Proving once again why we have a natural tendency toward fear, caution, and suspicion -- these mental qualities are evolutionarily valuable, even though they don't apply as much now as they did in the savannah). So I ordered a Smart Humane Mousetrap, which catches the mouse live.

It's a brilliant design. The mouse catches itself via a lever that springs the box closed. The bait is placed between two panels of a plastic lift-off door so that when you lift it open, the mouse must eat its way out. In this way, you avoid contact with the mouse, and the mouse gets the fuel it needs to survive out in the wild.

So I've had a relationship with this little black mouse for a while, as I worked to catch it in the trap. And consequently, I learned a few things about humans too. At first, I followed the directions to bait the trap exactly, placing the bait (bread with peanut butter) between the plastic panels. But this takes some effort, so after a couple days I got lazy and just put a little piece of bread inside the trap.

At first nothing much happened - the bread remained, the trap was unsprung. It got to be routine to check the trap, replace the rock-hard bread, and reset the trap. Sometimes I tried a bit of granola or cereal instead. Then one day I noticed that the bread was gone! But no mouse! Clever fellow. Or maybe it was a giant spider taking the bait?

When it happened a second time, I decided I was the problem. The directions did say to set the trap very lightly, and I wasn't sure how lightly I was setting it. With some experimentation, I found that I could set it like a hair-trigger, sometimes springing it just trying to set it down. I also went back to putting the bait behind the window, so the mouse would have to spend a little more time in the trap figuring out that the bait was not accessible.

Nothing happened the first night. In the early afternoon, I got the idea of weighting the level arm with a few pennies to make it even more sensitively triggered. As I typed on the computer at 2 pm, the trap sprung.

Yes! A little black mouse was inside!

I immediately felt the fear of the trapped mouse. And I felt sorry that I had put the bait behind the window because it meant that the mouse didn't even get a reward for venturing into the trap. In the future, I will bait the trap inside.

I put the whole trap in a paper bag and walked again to the creek. I got out the trap and set it on the ground. The mouse and I made eye contact. I apologized for scaring him. I reflected on the fact that mice can carry diseases, so that it was really better not to have him in my kitchen. And about the fact that not everyone would use a live trap, so if a neighbor had noticed him, he might have been killed in a deadly trap. Yes, there are cats out here, but there are cats in my neighborhood too.

I opened the box at one end. The prison door was gone. But the mouse did not go out. It stayed huddled at the other end, staring at me. Freedom was fully available in that moment, but the mouse did not get up and walk out the door. How similar it is for us.

Finally the moment shifted, and the mouse shot out and over a small ledge in two big bounds. May you be well, mouse.

(And just to be sure, I am baiting the trap again...)

Streaming video

This YouTube video shows some amazing footage of the Vulcan Project by Kevin Gurney at Purdue University. (More on The Energy Blog at http://thefraserdomain.typepad.com/energy/2008/04/study-develops.html).

I was struck by just how much CO2 is coming from the Eastern US compared even to high-emission places like the Bay Area and Los Angeles. My guess is that it is related to:

• More extreme weather (more heating needed in winter, and more cooling in summer)
  
• Higher population density
  
• More factories/industry
  
• Less efficient buildings???
  
• Less environmentally conscious behavior???

Check out where the gases stream off over the ocean also. In the east, they go toward the North Atlantic. I know I've read about how these are affecting the usual pattern of the Gulf Stream. In the west, they head downward toward Baja California. And there's a hot spot.... pretty close to New Orleans in the Gulf. Hmmmmmm.

I'd love to see this worldwide.

Oil, gold, and blood

I recently visited some friends in Lubbock TX, which is on a high, cold, windswept plain. The town of 200,000 consists mostly of strip malls and fast food joints, and does not even have recycling. The surrounding countryside is devoted to traditional cotton farming and livestock. The very picture of unsustainability, and yet beautiful in a rugged way. Just 100 miles away is the Palo Duro Canyon, second largest in the US (to the Grand Canyon) - where we went for a truly stunning Easter hike.

The other highlight of the trip was visiting the Permian Basin Petroleum Museum (in Midland - hometown of George W Bush). This huge oilfield supplies oil to many US states, including California. The musuem was a combination of fairly technical information on petroleum engineering and historical/cultural information about how the oil industry reshaped life in that region. I really got a sense of how much human ingenuity and perseverance were needed to extract this stuff from the Earth and pipe it all over the country. And how oil was a major transformative force in this poor, rural area that otherwise scratches out a living from dusty soil. There was a propoganda-like movie about the current challenges of the petroleum industry - fewer big oil fields, lower-quality oil, etc - calling on young people to help join the battle to scour the Earth for more of it. "We must not fail," it concluded ominously.

It was both chilling and deeply moving. I had never felt a particular emotional connection to oil, except in sort of a derisive intellectual way when expressing frustration with our thirst for it. I can understand the analogies to gold, and to blood, much better now.

Kim is talking about... cage fighting???

Yes, that's right. Cage fighting. And specifically, a form of professional fighting that is rising in popularity, called "MMA" - mixed martial arts. This is Western-style fighting that is grounded in an Asian martial arts background, along with the mental discipline and philosophy of martial arts.

My connection to this is through my tai chi and qi gong teacher Chris Shelton, who is American, but has 20 years' experience in these Chinese practices. He is also an excellent Chinese doctor skilled in medical qi gong therapy. About a year ago, he was given the opportunity to enter the MMA world, both as a participant and as a doctor to the fighters. He trains with Cung Le, a well-known MMA fighter.

Why would Chris take this opportunity? Why tread the path of staged fights in a cage - apparently the ultimate in boneheaded brutality and the American celebration of violence? Precisely because he wants to transform some of this energy. Chris has noticed that Americans think tai chi means "old people in the park." In reality, this Asian practice works with incredibly powerful energy and has the potential to improve the practitioner's health and spiritual depth. The mental discipline of most martial arts would be a beneficial substitute to the mindless, reactionary violence often seen in young fighters. Instead of turning away from our interest in violence, Chris is turning toward it, trying to increase interest in tai chi and other martial arts so that more young people will take this rigorous training and improve their mental state.

In one sense, I can respect that. I have decided that despite the violence and disrespect inherent in Western capitalist business, I will enter that world and bring a new energy to it. It is the area where my work is. And Chris' work is with the "fighter" mindset among young people.

To my heart, this is a really challenging area. Kicking and punching another life form are grounds to make me feel ill. Incredibly, some folks enjoy it. Chris works in what is literally a battle zone. That takes strength of character-- which I know Chris possesses because I've studied with him for several years. I wish him well in his work. The world will indeed be better when more young people learn tai chi.

This YouTube video is about a fight in San Jose between Cung Le and Frank Shamrock. It's a pre-fight interview at Cung's gym, and includes some footage of my teacher Chris performing medical qi gong after the workout (to rebalance Cung's energy). Check it out. My experience with Chinese medicine is that it works.

(Incidentally, Cung Le won the fight. You probably already knew that if you're an MMA fan. I had to do a Google search to find it).

Adam Werbach

Adam Werbach is the former President of the Sierra Club (a station he achieved at the age of 23) who now works on Wal-Mart's environmental initiatives. This is a speech he gave to the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco in December, 2004:

Is Environmentalism Dead?

It's quite long, but worth reading carefully. It is clear that Adam's mind had already turned away from traditional activism toward "radical" solutions such as engaging Corporate America in environmental programs. He stresses interdependence over the extreme factionalism that characterizes the political sphere. Ironically, he is now finding the private sector far more amenable to such ideas. Maybe it's time to re-examine some of our often unquestioned assumptions about "how things are."

If I had to choose one line to encapsulate the speech, it might be this one:

It's easy enough to deconstruct the concept of the "environment": if humans are part of the environment, then how can some human problems be "environmental" and others not?

Right. The system is all linked together. The good news is that in an interconnected system, you can really start helping anywhere, and it will eventually filter to help everywhere.

Werbach has gotten a lot of criticism for his decision to work for Wal-Mart, most of it coming from his old friends, colleagues, and clients. (For example, see this Fast Company article entitled "Working with the Enemy.") But after reading this speech, and attending BGI for 2 years, I think Werbach is far more visionary than most political activists. He outgrew the Sierra Club, even by the age of 30. He is willing to wrestle with very challenging issues that are far from black-and-white, and is never willing to simplify his thinking just to make it more comfortable for other people. Best of all, he doesn't just think and talk about it -- he is willing to go out and experience the things he wants to learn about. Ten years with the Sierra Club, and now a few years with Wal-Mart... he's actually tasted the things he talks about.

I feel confident that Werbach's complexity is leading in a good direction, and look forward to his continued development. One of my favorite inspirations comes to mind (attributed to Einstein): "I wouldn't give a fig for the simplicity on this side of complexity, but I would give my life for the simplicity on the other side of complexity."