Tuck Business & Society Conference

Last week, amidst the coldest weather I’ve endured since Haerbin (-23 degrees!) Tuck hosted speakers from across the U.S. for its leading graduate student-run annual conference on sustainability and responsible business.

Thanks to our panel managers’ keen eyes for talent, and the moderation of our professors-in-residence, discussions were kept “pithy, provocative, and particular” – not to mention humorous.

But, while most panelists yeah-sayed in reply to this year’s theme (“Is Capitalism Sustainable?”) what really struck me were two recurring points raised throughout the conference:

1) Capitalism fails to effectively deal with externalities and long term horizons; and – perhaps more importantly

2) People value consumption, not efficiency.

Either one of these notions is a discussion unto itself but the second point is of specific interest and – having worked for a company that promotes efficiency – concern. As our GEM (General Accounting for Managers) professor instructs us that ‘pushing out the PPF’ (Production Possibilities Frontier – aka “the hill of happiness”) is always better I can’t help but wonder: is it?

Every time technological advances have increased energy efficiency, for example, increased consumption has pushed energy use back out to its original level or beyond. But can we continually increase our consumption without consequence?

I think, quite clearly, the answer is no. So where do we go from here?

Double Secret Probation Rope Swing

Double Secret Probation Rope Swing, originally uploaded by harryalverson.

Once upon a time, when the local river wasn’t frozen over, a few brave (read: foolish) Tuckies trekked into the woods and goaded each other to dangerous heights on a rickety platform…

What to Believe?

On the heels of the CNN reported ‘Cardboard-in-Beijing-Buns’ story, a new headline appears:

China reporter held over cardboard-in-buns story

So, is Beijing pulling a cover-up here, or is the story really fabricated? And, since this is a time of “intense international scrutiny” for China regarding food-related scandals will this reporter be unduly executed… I mean punished?

A Water Crisis You Say?

According to a the Harvard Business Review (Scorched Earth, June 2007):

“International standards define a serious water shortage as the availability of 2,000 cubic meters or less of water per capita per year; 1,000 cubic meters per year is considered the minimum for existence. Currently in Northern China – which stretches from Shanghai to Beijing and contains nearly 40% of China’s total population – the average amount of available water is only 1,100 cubic meters per capita per year, and the water table for the entire region is dropping precipitously.”

I have an idea that might help: stop hosing down the damn trees!

It’s been humid and pouring rain for the last few weeks and yet… someone on city council feels that spraying high powered jets of water into the air is a good idea. Please allow this photo and video to elaborate on a particularly wasteful, sonically atrocious, likely toxic and generally ludicrous Shanghainese activity.

We assume it’s a pesticide dispersal system of sorts. The same truck has been patrolling up and down the French Concession neighborhood for several days warning off pedestrians with fairground tunes and leaving a soaked path of mystery in its wake.

Start the Presses – China’s Internet Less Bad (before 2010 no less)

Perhaps there’s a visiting dignitary, a shift in national policy, an intense WTO wrangling session in process or maybe someone in the Great Firewall is just playing for trix… whatever the cause, Wikipedia works today and that makes it a good day.

Better yet, the wordpress.com blogging platform also works, allowing me to bring you this exciting news from my sorely neglected internet home, which has sat in digital jail for most of the last two years. Huzzah.

And, in keeping with the theme of good triumphing over the annoying, Germany has chosen not to allow Tom Cruise to film at one of its military bases on the basis of his being a Scientologist. So says the NYTimes: “The German government has long been at odds with Scientology, which it does not regard as a religion but as a dangerous sect.” (okay, okay, this is old hat and may yet be resolved… but leave me my dreams)

In other news, China continues to make outlandish claims that it will solve all the mysteries of operating a harmonious society by 2010. If I had a dollar for every goal to be accomplished by that date…

One Number to Rule them All… now by Google

Just a quick note… the super cool site GrandCentral.com, a lust-worthy online centralized phone forwarding service (and so much more…), has just been acquired by Google.

Being back in the US, I was finally able to procure myself a much wanted account (you can’t register from an overseas IP) but while I love the features I have so far been hesitant to pass on the number due to a worry that, while cool, the site wouldn’t be around long.

Worry no more. It’s not convenient to change your telephone number but switching to, or at least phasing in, GrandCentral is now worth the hassle for all it’s amazing features and its new Google-backed future reliability.

Among it’s awesome abilities: simultaneous or scheduled ring-through to your home, cell or work phones; online accessible voicemail that will notify you by text message or email; personalized incoming ring tones for your callers; ability to listen in on voice messages as they are recorded or even take the call in the middle if you want; and, not to mention, one phone number… forever… for all phones.

Oh yes, and it’s free!

www.grandcentral.com

Back in the U.S.S.A.

 

Hello World. It’s been a long Net-absence but I’m back in the US for a lavish second time in as many months, and this time for a proper holiday. Lindsay’s wedding to be precise, which simultaneously affords one week of wonderful life on Cape Cod along with a yoyo’d international group of childhood friends. It stands to be an excellent time all around.

The trip over was a hellish 28-hour odyssey starting with a delay in Shanghai and then thunderstorms upon arrival in Chicago. The delay turned into a partial blessing since I ended up arriving before my sister and Louise who had departed before me on a parallel United flight (I took AA). They arrived amidst the worst of the storms and were grounded for two hours at nearby Rochester. All of our ensuing connections were cancelled and we didn’t get to Logan Airport until 3am, 7 hours after we were supposed to be on the Cape (… still a two hour drive away). Lily didn’t make it out to DC until the next morning and “slept” on a baggage carousel.

On the upside, the car rental lady took pity on us and we drove down in muscle car style with a bright red Mustang. Would’ve made my friend Steve proud. But on the further downside, our first day was wasted since we pulled up my driveway just after daybreak and collapsed into bed until 4pm. Naturally, I’m now wide awake when I should be face down in my pillows.

A good time to blog I say. So, thusly back in a land where my favoritest sites WordPress.com and Flickr are not blocked, what do you suppose I might ramble on about (aside from my travels)?

Rats and cucarachas of course! I thought I’d briefly relate a recent ‘life in China’ story and refer you to an interesting blog posted by my friend Kaying regarding the intersection of globalization and unconscious racism in The Netherlands. You are referred.

And now the insects:

On my way to meet Lily and Liz at the Pudong Oriental Pearl Tower (yes indeedy, that’s two sister (√) and no parents (X) who have visited me in the Middle Kingdom) I walked through one of People’s Square’s many snaking exit tunnels.

Upon entry, at the first landing, I noticed a crowd of people gathered in a semi circle against one wall. Now, this typically means one of three things: there is an accident and everybody has stopped to stare (but not help), there is a fight and everybody has stopped to stare (but not intervene), or there is someone selling something very interesting.

I had happened upon the later. Draped across the ground was a printed poster depicting text I could only partially decipher and pictures of six common household pests: mice, rats, cockroaches, centipedes (see my recent Hangzhou pictures for reference), snakes, and spiders.

The sales-pitch that accompanied this unusual sign clarified all in an inhumane but extremely effective manner:

For 10rmb a piece, the vendor appeared to be turning a brisk sales of small heart shaped night-light that glowed blue when plugged into his portable generator. Six feet from the vendor was a rather large gerbil in a rather small cage spasming in awful fits corresponding to the plug and unplug.

Vendor:

“Does it work? See for yourself!” ZAP! [gerbil spasms] [Sale]

“Rats, Cockroaches, sure… it keeps them all away, just look!” ZAP! [gerbil runs to other side of cage, slams into the bars, falls on its back and spasms] [Another sale]

I know this kind of thing must be outlawed in most developed countries but it was a very convincing demonstration. Perhaps I’ve been living in this country too long, or maybe it was the two inch roach that I discovered on my towel after a shower last week but I almost found myself reaching for my wallet. Almost.

Gingerbread Shanghai

Safe travels Lou! See you in three weeks…

Love Harry

Part of the Collective Weel

I’ve been using Flickr for about a year now and I’m really quite pleased. I’ll quibble that they don’t show titles or descriptions when you view a slideshow, but aside from that it’s a wonderful platform from which to store and share my shots and sometimes, just sometimes, even people I don’t know wander into my small domain (protected under a free, Attribution-ShareAlike Creative Commons License) and brighten my day with unexpected praise or sometimes something stranger.

Today is one of those days.

No, today was not a day when I discovered a porn maven had favorited pictures of my sisters and girlfriend (a true story, that person is now blocked from my account), and today was not a day that I found a shot posted up on a local Shanghai city-blog (also true)

Rather, it seems the shot I took here, at my grandparent’s house in Yarmouth Port, Cape Cod, was spotted by a contributor to Wikimedia Commons (his profile indicates age 31, from Israel) and used to illustrate an enyclopedia entry for flowering Bluemink (Ageratum Houstonianum). Lovely.

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:Ageratum_houstonianum_(alverson).jpg

In other news, I recently cleaned our 5-gallon water dispenser. I’ve heard horror stories about cloudy water and ensuing food poisoning. We weren’t quite at that phase but it seemed time after a year of use and, indeed, a strange film of orange substance had collected on the internal holding chamber. Naturally, I thought it would be exceedingly wise to doubly disinfect by flushing the system with a bit of alcohol. Tequila to be precise. See, not wanting to waste the spirits we actually drink, I chose to sacrifice our neglected bottle of José Cuervo Silver. Unfortunately, every glass of water since then has carried a hint of Mexico. ¡Qué lástima! Ah well, on the upside our coffee now has more of a kick.

Huashan Video

I shot this using Lauren’s digital camera from the gusty top of Huashan’s “Plank Path”. I’ve never posted a video before, so bear with the quality. Hope you enjoy!

(Incidentally, I tried to do this using YouTube, but couldn’t get the clip to upload, so I ended up going with Google Video. Nice to have options)