I'm training to participate in the Lavaman triathlon in Kona, Hawaii as a member of The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society's ("LLS") Team In Training.
As many of you know, my mother passed away when I was 10 years old, after a prolongued battle with cancer. Her fight to stay alive inspires me to this day--she never gave up, and never admited defeat. I'm doing this race in her honor, and for all of those who have suffered from, or been affected by cancer.
LLS is an amazing organization--it is the world's largest voluntary health organization dedicated to funding blood cancer research. In addition to research, LLS engages in improving the quality of life of patients, and educating the public and health professionals. Since 1954, it has awarded over $680 million in research funding.
Please make a donation to support my participatation in Team in Training and help advance LLS's mission. If you'd like to make a donation in honor of someone, I'll be writing the names of any individuals my donors select on my jersey for the day of the race--just let me know. We need your support to cross the ultimate finish line - a cure.
Please check out my personal Team in Training page to stay up to date!
Friday, November 26, 2010
Wednesday, July 07, 2010
Clear Light of Morning
"Look not too long in the face of the fire, O man! Never dream with thy hand on the helm! Turn not thy back to the compass; accept the first hint of the hitching tiller; believe not the artificial fire, when its redness makes all things look ghastly. To-morrow, in the natural sun, the skies will be bright; those who glared like devils in the forking flames, the morn will show in far other, at least gentler, relief; the glorious, golden, glad sun, the only true lamp--all others but liars!"
--Herman Melville, in Moby Dick
Friday, April 23, 2010
West Coast Road Trip
Been an awesome trip so far. In brief: Kicked it in PDX with Seth for a day; went snowboarding at Mt. Hood; met up with Sarah in Corvallis and we camped at Newport on Oregon coast with Sarah; got wasted in Bend with Josiah; next to SLC & Mt. Pleasant, UT for Wasatch Academy reunion (shout-out to my high school homies!); set up a campsite in the dark and woke up surprised to find I was next to a lake; checked out Bryce Canyon, then camped at Cottonwood Canyon (best campsite ever: drove Sarah's SUV up an insane service road and found a spot a million miles from anywhere atop a huge mesa); passed through Zion on the way to Vegas and spent a day w/ my grandma; visited Death Valley (got caught in a sandstorm and saw some very rare rain); snowboarded an awesome half day at Mammoth Mountain in CA (when they started closing lifts due to the wind and low visibility we left); today we drove up through Nor Cal and OR and now I'm spending the night in Corvallis. Have covered about 3500 miles in total. Heading up to Portland tomorrow, snowboarding Hood again on Saturday, and fly back to NYC on Sunday. Pictures up soon.
Death Valley, 4/20/10
Death Valley, 4/20/10
Thursday, February 18, 2010
Be the change you wish to see
Reduce material possessions--emphasize quality over quantity. Instead of 10 shirts, have 5, instead of 3 pairs of jeans, just one that you really like. Get rid of clutter. Simplify. Less is more.
Try to use less energy. Use more energy conserving devices. Use renewably generated energy. Make sure to turn everything off once in a while!
Eat less, eat healthier.
Grow a Garden.
Build communities of like-minded people.
Be more empathic.
Be more assertive.
Sometimes . . . . just be.
It's not crazy to talk to yourself--it's only crazy when there are multiple voices.
No other person is worth sacrificing your self-confidence.
Live in another country for a year.
Really LIVE in your own country for year.
Live in a cabin in the woods for a few weeks every year.
Rock out sometimes, just by yourself.
know when to stop.
Try to use less energy. Use more energy conserving devices. Use renewably generated energy. Make sure to turn everything off once in a while!
Eat less, eat healthier.
Grow a Garden.
Build communities of like-minded people.
Be more empathic.
Be more assertive.
Sometimes . . . . just be.
It's not crazy to talk to yourself--it's only crazy when there are multiple voices.
No other person is worth sacrificing your self-confidence.
Live in another country for a year.
Really LIVE in your own country for year.
Live in a cabin in the woods for a few weeks every year.
Rock out sometimes, just by yourself.
know when to stop.
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
Obama's Energy Policy: Where's the Alternative Energy Economy?
Energy policy was a major theme of Barack Obama's campaign for president. Then-Senator Obama argued that we should promote private sector growth in sustainable energy technology, leveraging its potential to bring overseas manufacturing jobs back home and reduce dependence on foreign oil. Nonetheless, we are now in the depths (perhaps the aftermath?) of a financial crisis worse than the United States has experienced in decades, and yet a sustainable energy policy has not been made a priority. So why hasn't Obama acted on his energy prescriptions? The President and Congress must take action now to promote American competitiveness in green technology. Here's why:
The Trade Deficit
The use of Foreign Oil fuels the U.S. trade deficit. When oil is more expensive, its effects on the U.S. economy are amplified. High oil prices can cause the entire economy to contract--resulting in more expensive (and therefore less globally competitive) manufacturing, which leads to fewer jobs, and those fortunate who have jobs to be squeezed by rising prices: food, manufactured goods, transportation, electricity and heating all become more expensive. The American public (or perhaps just major media outlets) seem to have amnesia. We had record oil prices just a year and a half ago, with prices only falling in the wake of the financial crisis. But as we deplete oil reserves in easy-to-reach places, and as the world economy grows (particularly rapid in developing countries like India and China), prices will inevitably rise as demand increases and supply stabilizes and eventually dips. The problem of Peak Oil will, sooner or later, undermine every sector of the U.S. (and indeed Global) economy. Our way of life is threatened. This goes beyond widescreen TVs and Hummers. At risk is food in our supermarkets, the heat in our homes, and the very ability as to communicate and travel across distances and thereby maintain social cohesion.
The Environment
Admittedly, environmentalism has a part to play in this discussion. The ecological harm done by oil exploration on both land and water is well documented. Further, the transport of oil can also cause severe harm to marine environments. Emissions of toxins and heavy metals such as mercury, lead and sulfuric acid into the air are a constant menace to public health.
Greenhouse gases are also cited as a major disadvantage of fossil fuels. Scientists overwhelmingly agree that carbon dioxide and other byproducts of fossil fuels use are leading to dangrous man-made climate change. Yet this is not a completely uncontroversial view politically: In the face of significant scientific evidence, a strong contingent of skeptics exist, in the U.S., primarily on the right of the political spectrum. Recent events such Climategate, a scandal where emails between scientists admitting to falsifying evidence to prove anthropogenic global warming may tend to further undermine public belief in the threat of Global Warming. Regardless of your belief in Global Warming, however, it is not necessary to the environmental argument for sustainable energy--in this respect it can be decoupled from Energy policy decisions. The human, plant and animal impact of fossil fuels--not mention economic impact--provide reasons enough to more actively pursue alternative energy solutions.
Manufacturing is the Key
The decline of U.S. manufacturing has resulted in heavy job losses and an increased trade deficit. Despite developing the first silicon transistor, the United States has fallen far behind Japan, which is the leading consumer electronics producer in the world. Similarly, the American auto industry has been decimated by better and cheaper foreign imports. Textiles and light manufactured goods are now made predominantly in developing countries. Even much of our agriculture is now internationally sourced.
This is not to say that trade is bad. Indeed, global trade in services is what has allowed the United States to achieve its economic dominance. However, the growth of services is no longer keeping pace with the job loss from outsourced manufacturing work, and the trade imbalances caused by importing far more than we export have not helped things. Nor are jobs the services sector immune to global trade; from the ubiquitous outsourced tech support to outsourcing legal research and litigation document reviews, many jobs are now done in India rather than domestically. While the U.S. still dominates in financial services, the recent economic crisis brings the continuation of the trend into question.
While the United States must undoubtedly work hard to retain its comparative advantage in services sectors and seek growth there, this will not be a complete solution. Given the state of the economy, major growth in the financial sector is unlikely--it is largely saturated. In order to balance the trade deficit and restore employment levels, America has to start manufacturing again. Given concerns about the use of fossil fuels generally and foreign oil in particular, green technologies provide the most obvious path to American competitiveness.
____________
Obama would do well to remember his commitments to the Alternative Energy Economy. It's time to make an investment in America's future. We've already tried throwing billions of dollars at banks who won't even let ordinary Americans out of predatory mortgages. While the stimulus may have stabilized the economy, it's not going to fix things, and it certainly won't lead to growth. The next step must be a wave of research grants, tax benefits and educational support to ensure that the next generation of green technology is developed and manufactured in the U.S., for export across the globe.
The Trade Deficit
The use of Foreign Oil fuels the U.S. trade deficit. When oil is more expensive, its effects on the U.S. economy are amplified. High oil prices can cause the entire economy to contract--resulting in more expensive (and therefore less globally competitive) manufacturing, which leads to fewer jobs, and those fortunate who have jobs to be squeezed by rising prices: food, manufactured goods, transportation, electricity and heating all become more expensive. The American public (or perhaps just major media outlets) seem to have amnesia. We had record oil prices just a year and a half ago, with prices only falling in the wake of the financial crisis. But as we deplete oil reserves in easy-to-reach places, and as the world economy grows (particularly rapid in developing countries like India and China), prices will inevitably rise as demand increases and supply stabilizes and eventually dips. The problem of Peak Oil will, sooner or later, undermine every sector of the U.S. (and indeed Global) economy. Our way of life is threatened. This goes beyond widescreen TVs and Hummers. At risk is food in our supermarkets, the heat in our homes, and the very ability as to communicate and travel across distances and thereby maintain social cohesion.
The Environment
Admittedly, environmentalism has a part to play in this discussion. The ecological harm done by oil exploration on both land and water is well documented. Further, the transport of oil can also cause severe harm to marine environments. Emissions of toxins and heavy metals such as mercury, lead and sulfuric acid into the air are a constant menace to public health.
Greenhouse gases are also cited as a major disadvantage of fossil fuels. Scientists overwhelmingly agree that carbon dioxide and other byproducts of fossil fuels use are leading to dangrous man-made climate change. Yet this is not a completely uncontroversial view politically: In the face of significant scientific evidence, a strong contingent of skeptics exist, in the U.S., primarily on the right of the political spectrum. Recent events such Climategate, a scandal where emails between scientists admitting to falsifying evidence to prove anthropogenic global warming may tend to further undermine public belief in the threat of Global Warming. Regardless of your belief in Global Warming, however, it is not necessary to the environmental argument for sustainable energy--in this respect it can be decoupled from Energy policy decisions. The human, plant and animal impact of fossil fuels--not mention economic impact--provide reasons enough to more actively pursue alternative energy solutions.
Manufacturing is the Key
The decline of U.S. manufacturing has resulted in heavy job losses and an increased trade deficit. Despite developing the first silicon transistor, the United States has fallen far behind Japan, which is the leading consumer electronics producer in the world. Similarly, the American auto industry has been decimated by better and cheaper foreign imports. Textiles and light manufactured goods are now made predominantly in developing countries. Even much of our agriculture is now internationally sourced.
This is not to say that trade is bad. Indeed, global trade in services is what has allowed the United States to achieve its economic dominance. However, the growth of services is no longer keeping pace with the job loss from outsourced manufacturing work, and the trade imbalances caused by importing far more than we export have not helped things. Nor are jobs the services sector immune to global trade; from the ubiquitous outsourced tech support to outsourcing legal research and litigation document reviews, many jobs are now done in India rather than domestically. While the U.S. still dominates in financial services, the recent economic crisis brings the continuation of the trend into question.
While the United States must undoubtedly work hard to retain its comparative advantage in services sectors and seek growth there, this will not be a complete solution. Given the state of the economy, major growth in the financial sector is unlikely--it is largely saturated. In order to balance the trade deficit and restore employment levels, America has to start manufacturing again. Given concerns about the use of fossil fuels generally and foreign oil in particular, green technologies provide the most obvious path to American competitiveness.
____________
Obama would do well to remember his commitments to the Alternative Energy Economy. It's time to make an investment in America's future. We've already tried throwing billions of dollars at banks who won't even let ordinary Americans out of predatory mortgages. While the stimulus may have stabilized the economy, it's not going to fix things, and it certainly won't lead to growth. The next step must be a wave of research grants, tax benefits and educational support to ensure that the next generation of green technology is developed and manufactured in the U.S., for export across the globe.
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