Random stuff from Sheldon

Do we really want to create a worse digital divide?

2012-01-10T11:44:00.002-06:00

This week, Thomas Friedman authored a column in the New Your Times Opinion Pages that seems to call for institutionalizing a digital divide:

Ultra high speed Internet for the 5% who live in "university towns"
Stop worrying about the 5% of the country in rural areas
Implies "average" Internet for everyone else.

A friend--Ann Treacy--just took him on the the Twin Cities Daily Planet. It's a great read.

One of the best on-line donation promotions I've seen

2011-11-15T17:30:00.001-06:00

In Minnesota we have something every November called Give-to-the-Max day. (Here is a link to Give-to-the-Max-Day). (I think there are a few other places that have similar events.) While it gets a lot of donations, it also results in A LOT of donation request emails in the few days before GttMD. So, nonprofits need to come up with creative ways to fight through the clutter to get to potential donors. Here is the most creative on-line donation event I've seen (and it's from an organization in my n'hood)

From: The Playwrights' Center
Subject: Countdown to #NEWPLAY LIVE!

Join us online tomorrow, Nov. 16, for #NEWPLAY LIVE – a Playwrights’ Center project for Give to the Max Day!

From 8:30 am - 10 pm (CST) tomorrow, nine talented Playwrights’ Center writers will tag-team to write a new play LIVE online. You will see every line, word, and keystroke as it’s written. But best of all, when you contribute to the Playwrights’ Center on GiveMN.org tomorrow – starting at midnight – you will also have the opportunity to contribute to the play! Depending on the level of your contribution, you can submit a word, prop, line of dialogue, a character and more – and then watch as the writers work your “play element” into the story – no matter how absurd.

Log on tomorrow to have a whole lot of fun while supporting one of the best new play development organizations in the country. And help spread the word!

• CLICK HERE to learn more about #NEWPLAY LIVE and watch the play unfold online.

• CLICK HERE to visit our secure GiveMN.org fundraising page, where you can make your donation on Nov. 16 and receive the link to contribute your new play element!

And here is the 2nd best (another theater organization in my n'hood):

Hi Seward, I'd like give a little promotion for Bedlam Theatre's Give to the Max Day festivities.

As Bedlam's Development Associate, I will be placed in a cage for 24 hours of programming happening in the Bedlam Community Design Center in the Ivy Arts Building live video streamed from our website at Bedlamtheatre.org.

Additionally we will be going on a community bike ride to visit some of our friends in the Seward neighborhood going down the Franklin Avenue from around 11:00AM to noon with our livestream feed and hear about the great things they're doing. If you'd like to come with us on the bike ride, meet up with us at 9:45 at our address at 2712 E. 27th St. email wemakeit@bedlamtheatre.org let us know you're coming.

Come by and check out what's going on. We'd greatly appreciate your support.
http://givemn.razoo.com/story/Bedlam-Theatre

The best "your order has been shipped" email EVER

2011-06-14T12:19:00.003-05:00

Humor works!!! Below is the email I just received regarding two CDs I ordered on Sunday. (yes, I still get CDs--don't trust that new-fangled MP3 stuff.)
.......................

sheldon-

Thanks for your order with CD Baby!

(1) Pamyua: Caught In The Act
(1) Pamyua: Verses

Your CDs have been gently taken from our CD Baby shelves with sterilized contamination-free gloves and placed onto a satin pillow.
A team of 50 employees inspected your CDs and polished them to make sure they were in the best possible condition before mailing.
Our world-renowned packing specialist lit a local artisan candle and a hush fell over the crowd as he put your CDs into the finest gold-lined box that money can buy.
We all had a wonderful celebration afterwards and the whole party marched down the street to the post office where the entire town of Portland waved "Bon Voyage!" to your package, on its way to you, in our private CD Baby jet on this day, June 14, 2011.
We hope you had a wonderful time shopping at CD Baby. In commemoration, we have placed your picture on our wall as "Customer of the Year." We're all exhausted but can't wait for you to come back to CDBABY.COM!!

Thank you, thank you, thank you!
Sigh...
We miss you already. We'll be right here at http://cdbaby.com/, patiently awaiting your return.
--
CD Baby
The little store with the best new independent music.

Avoiding the database project from hell

2011-02-22T18:09:00.004-06:00

I'm facilitating a session at the 2011 Minnesota Nonprofit Technology and Communications Conference titled " Avoiding the database project from hell." Here is a link to my summary handout:

My comments to a Net Neutrality hearing for the FCC

2011-02-22T17:49:00.002-06:00

Late last summer I presented testimony below at a meeting on the Future of the Internet. It is still relevant. The meeting included two FCC Commissioners, US Senator Al Franken and Minnesota Secretary of State Mark Richie and Free Press CEO Josh Silver. You can find details of the meeting, including video from The UpTake in the Twin Cities Daily Planet here. Another good article, "Communities of color may have most to lose if net neutrality goes" was also in the Daily Planet.

Testimony of Sheldon Mains, August 19, 2010, South High School, Minneapolis, MN:

Commissioners, welcome to Minneapolis. My name is Sheldon Mains. Although I am the president of my neighborhood association in Minneapolis and chair of the board of the Twin Cities Media Alliance. I am here representing myself. I live in the Seward Neighborhood of Minneapolis.

My work with the Internet started in 1992 when I started working to establish an Internet service to meet the needs of nonprofit organizations in Minnesota. That service started operations in 1994 and provided email, web, FTP and gopher services to nonprofits and provided classes to help nonprofits and artists learn to use the Internet. The service had to shut down a few years latter because of pressure from local cable TV provider.

I’d like to tell a short story:

In January 2009 my neighborhood was the site of a triple murder at a store owned by Somali immigrants.

The next morning the “neighborhood leaders” (including myself) met to decide on a response. We had no good ideas. Then someone sent an email to our neighborhood discussion forum suggesting that we hold a vigil that night. The leaders’ response was: “Wow, what a great idea.” We got the word out through email, local blogs, Facebook, Twitter, local websites and face-to-face organizing. We ended up with over 800 people outside in 20 degree below zero weather. That vigil was one reason that the Somali community cooperated with the police. With that cooperation this crime was solved in less than a week.

The vigil would not have happened with an open Internet.
First, Our small community could not afford to pay for the “premium delivery service” some providers now want to charge.
Second, without home access, that one great idea would not have reached the people who could make it happen.
This raises a number of important issues:
The FCC needs to reestablish its authority to regulate the corporations that sell Internet service at a healthy profit. Remember, the Internet was invented and developed using our tax dollars. The Internet is not the property of the large telecommunications firms; it is ours.
We need to insure real competition: Most residential consumers have at most two choices for Internet service. This is not real competition. Even three or four competitors is not real competition. In economics terms its an "oligopoly"—not really any more meaningful competition than a monopoly. This so-called competition will not solve any problems that could be caused by not having strong net neutrality regulation.
We need strong Net Neutrality regulations that apply to all of the Internet: Net Neutrality has to apply to the whole Internet, including networks that the industry may call by other names but serve the same function. Anything less than that will result in telecommunications companies under-investing in the Internet.
Finally, we do need to improve access. If more people had access in their homes—especially many of our immigrant neighbors who have to rely on a computer lab for access—that vigil would have been even more successful.

I urge the FCC to do its job—Protect the public interest.

Thank you

More VOTE FOR ME campaings

2010-12-15T13:20:00.002-06:00

I really like when companies decide to make donations to nonprofit organizations in their communities. That happens a lot, especially in the holiday season. Thank you all.

But (you knew this was coming), I'm getting really tired of the "vote for your favorite charity/project and we'll give the winner some money" schemes (yes, this is my second rant on this topic)

This only rewards the organizations that can get a lot of people to vote for them by going to a web-site or sending a twitter message. Not the best way to decide which project or organization is best (or even good).
This rewards nonprofits for straying from their mission--the most fun, sexiest, most "creative" project gets the money. Not the one that best fulfills the organization's mission.
This distracts organizations from asking individuals for money (This is why I kind of liked the Give to the max day project of GiveMN.org--it rewarded organizations for actually getting individual monetary donations.)

(I promise my next post will be something positive--not another rant)

What are they thinking? (Foundation category)

2010-09-30T15:54:00.003-05:00

I just got an email about a grant being made available to a small group of organizations.
It requires:

Partnering with at least one other nonprofit organization (from a short list of types of orgs)
Leads to the engagement of underrepresented communities. (Initiatives that involve two or more underrepresented constituencies will be given greater priority.)
Organize participants around issues important to them
Contribute to achievement of goals for the betterment of the neighborhood
Have a "WOW factor."

Application deadline is in 16 days.

And the lucky recipients get to do this with a maximum grant of $2,500! (yes only two zeros)

I know good things are suppose to come in small packages but this seems a little extreme.

This Land is Your Land

2010-07-15T15:42:00.003-05:00

While camping on the North Shore of Lake Superior this week, we went for a hike down Beaver River. Walking down the river to the shore of Lake Superior, we came upon a sign that reminded me of a verse of Guthrie's song This Land is Your Land:

This land was made for you and me.

As I was walking, now they tried to stop me.
They put up a sign that said private property.
On the back side, it didn't say nothing.
So it must be that sign was made for you and me.

The power of a radical thought: How for-profit businesses can learn from nonprofits

2010-06-30T12:11:00.006-05:00

A couple of weeks ago I got an advanced copy of a new management book to review. This is kind of surprising because I haven’t read any management books for years. Years ago I got really tired of the management theories du jour phenomenon --that over-all guiding principal that some "great" corporate CEO used to run some huge company. (In a lot of cases, a couple years after the "guru" left, the company was in shambles.) There seemed to be a new great idea that would solve all management problems at least every eleven months.

This book is a little different. Zilch does have a central theme--doing more with less. I wouldn't call it a management theory. It is more a state of mind.

What is more unique about Zilch is that, after years of hearing that non-for-profit organizations need to be run more like a business, its author--Nancy Lublin--has the gall to propose that for-profit businesses can learn a lot from not-for-profit businesses. She then proves it in about 240 fun pages (if you don’t like slightly snarky humor about management you probably won’t find it fun).

Lublin provides practical advice on how to get the most out of your employees, your customers, your board, your brand and your stories. All at extremely low cost. These are proven techniques from the not-for-profit world--where doing things at low cost is the norm every day—not just in a recession.

Some of the advice is pretty common sense (but I’ve seen a lot of managers with NO common sense). For example:

Money isn’t the only way to motivate your employees. Lublin uses managing volunteers as an example (from my experience, not an easy task).
Be shockingly transparent about why someone is promoted. You loose the impact of the promotion on other employees if they have to guess the reason for the promotion.
Hire passion, not experience. You can’t create passion but the passionate will “make it their business” to learn what they need to know.
All your board members should be passionate about your products. Here’s an interesting question: Do the board members of most major corporations even use the products of the corporation?
Treat your customers as allies, not as the enemy. This line needs to be followed by that famous quote “Duh.”
Be honest with your customers, employees, shareholders (stakeholders)--They can immediately recognize PR hype.

Regarding financial reporting, Lublin's advice is a little vicious: “Live as if you lived in a glass house.” She notes that many corporations complain about all the reporting now required by the Sarbanes-Oxley regulation. Her response to the complaints:

Well, boohoo….Transparency has always been a way of life for not-for profits. We’re required, through iRS Form 990 to provide the public with a comprehensive view of our financial information. …. All our expenses are public—all of them! You can find out what we spend on postage and shipping, on travel to conferences….the works.

Lublin gets radical with her suggestions for boards of directors—based on how the best not-for-profit boards operate (She does note that there are many not-for-profit boards that don’t live up to her expectations.). She first notes that from a legal perspective, the duties of the board of a for-profit business are not all that different than the duties of the board of a not-for-profit business. They both have a “duty of care” and a “duty of loyalty.” (see page 118 of Zilch for more details). So, examples of what for-profit boards can learn from not-for-profit boards:

Don’t compensate board members. On not-for-profit boards, board members are usually not compensated, but they are expected to give cash to the organization.
“Create explicate guidelines for board members. Clear conflict of interest guidelines are an obvious need. Many nonprofits also have a formal position description that defines the tasks of board members—just like you would have a position description for any employee.
Don’t put the CEO on the board. You can really blow the checks and balances a board provides if the CEO is on the board.
Meet in the Field. Get your board members out of the board room to see your operations and meet your employees.
Encourage the board to communicate directly with staff. This is even radical for many not-for-profit organizations but, done right, it can help the board get great insights.
Require board members to love your purpose. Every organization has a purpose—and this isn't just the bottom line. Think about Google—one of their major purposes is “to index the world.” Board members need to buy-in to that purpose.

So, buy the book.

Followers are Important

2010-04-01T21:36:00.001-05:00

Nancy Lublin has another great column in Fast Company: "Let's Hear If for the Little Guys"

She notes that we are obsessed with leaders. But for every successful leader there are a bunch of followers who actually make the leader's vision a reality. We need to value the do-ers. We need to reward the do-ers.

Curmudgeonly view of vote-for-me contests

2010-04-01T20:22:00.007-05:00

Beth Kanter has a whole series of posts on Beth's Blog about vote-for-me funding contests ( http://beth.typepad.com/beths_blog/2010/03/are-proxy-vote-for-me-tactics.html). I'm not going to try to conduct a detailed analysis of the good and evil of these contests here. Beth has done a great job of providing both sides. I'm just going to be a curmudgeon and raise some of my concerns.

Large organizations have a much better chance of winning--for all the obvious reasons. But are the large organizations the most innovative, or doing the most important work, or the most efficient?
The rich get richer. Target Store's program that allows people to designate a school to get the rewards from their Target credit card results in most of the money going to schools in wealthy communities because people in wealth communities will spend more than people in poor communities. For vote-for-me funding, organizations that have lots of supporters, clients or audiences who have home computers and who have time to spend on surfing the web will get more votes.
Vote-for-me contests divert the attention of nonprofit organizations from their mission and long-term, sustainable fund raising to special promotions that do little for their long-term health. Contests that only count contributions (preferably number of contributions, not size of contributions) at least have a chance of building long-term donors.
Vote-for-me promote a culture of scarcity--everyone going after the same pot of money. There is usually no attempt to expand the pool of money.
Vote-for-me contests promote competition, not collaboration. For years government, for profit corporations and foundations have been telling nonprofits to collaborate more. Vote-for-me provides a strong incentive to not collaborate.

When should it be a for-profit; When should it be a nonprofit

2010-03-02T11:17:00.004-06:00

This is a little dangerous. I'm going to recommend a specific podcast I just heard--not dangerous. Dangerous is recommending the whole series.

First, the individual podcast:
A presentation (and question and answer session) by Priya Haji , the CEO of World of Good at a Stanford University social entrepreneurship class. You can find the podcast here.

What is so interesting is that World of Good is a for profit company and a separate non-profit corporation. Haji really thought about and explains why each was created. Near the end is a great explanation of when it makes sense to have a for-profit company and when it makes sense to have a nonprofit organization.

Now the dangerous part:
Based on that one podcast (and the first 5 minutes of another podcast I'm listen to and the list of other episodes), I'm going to recommend the whole Social Innovations Conversations series. You can find the series here.

The series is also available at the ITunes Store.

Humor and the TSA

2010-02-02T13:49:00.004-06:00

Maybe it has something to do with Milwaukee--A cold midwestern city in the shadow of Chicago. Maybe it has something to do with Milwaukee's favorite beverage. For whatever reason, the TSA staff at MKE seems to have a sense of humor. I only have two cases of something humorous to cite--but that is two more than I have ever experienced with TSA at any airport.

First case:

As you leave the security area, you are confronted with two large, official airport signs over the area where you tie your shoes, re-pack your laptop and put your belt back on:

"Recombobulation Area."

EVERYONE stops to take a picture of the signs. (Also, TSA staff suggests that they are going to start charging for pictures of the sign.)

Second case:

Siting waiting for our plane, we hear:

This is an official TSA announcment. Will the person whose pants are falling down please return to the Security area in Concourse C to retrieve his or her belt.

Nonprofits and Foundations

2010-01-28T10:42:00.004-06:00

This blog post is just to point out two very good columns on the relationships between nonprofit organizations and foundations--from the nonprofit perspective. [Gee, I really hope some foundation folks read this.]

We Really Need to Talk

First, in the February issue of Fast Company (yes that entrepreneurship and "new economy" magazine has some good nonprofit stuff in it.) Nancy Lublin has a great column that is "an open letter to her powerful 'friends' at foundations." (You can see the whole column here.) She lists a few things her "friends" need to stop doing "which would vastly improve our relationship."

Stop thinking you know everything
Stop mistaking marketing for overhead--and stop hating overhead"
Stop funding redundancy
Stop thinking that newer is better.

In return, Nancy promises "to stop calling 'for advice' or 'just to check in' when that's never the point of the conversation. We both know what I really want: your check."

I urge you to read the whole column. Some great things to think about for foundation staff and for nonprofit staff.

Unreachable Stars

If you subscribe to the Nonprofit Quarterly, check out the last page of the current issue (Winter 2009). There is a great column on a current trend in the foundation world to adopt broad reaching goals like "Ending poverty in ten years and changing the face of philanthropy" (that's just a paraphrase but if you've worked with many foundations, you've run into that kind of goal). The column by Phil Antrhop starts with the lyrics of The Impossible Dream from Man of LaMancha.

The column points out that many of these broad foundation goals plan on achieving them in 10 years. It further notes that all the board members at the foundation and most of the management at the foundation will have left long before the 10 years are up. Where's the accountability in that set-up?

I really wanted to include a link to the article but it is behind a pay-wall. So the Nonprofit Quarterly wants to impact the nonprofit world but puts their material behind a pay-wall. Isn't that a little counter productive?

Getting Home

2009-12-15T12:22:00.004-06:00

Short summary:

Four airports
Went through immigration control four times (Argentina exit, Chile entry and exit--without leaving the airport, US entry)
Customs twice (including an extensive check in Chile by the Agricultural Department)
Stood in 16 lines
Actually slept fairly well on red-eye from Santiago--was really tired.
Seven hour scheduled wait in Miami--but the flight was on time in spite of blizzard (Plane left Detroit before the blizzard hit that city)

Miscellaneous thoughts on trip:

It was an amazing trip
If I have to pick one highlight it would be the penguins--over a million penguins, seven species, surprisingly different behaviors. As one naturalist said, some penguin species are on speed, others are on quaaludes.
It was odd watching Neil Armstrong standing in line with the rest of us.
What species penguin is the open source mascot? (only geeks will understand this)
There are really 18 species of penguin--17 biological species plus Opus
From Ralf--the staff photographer for Lindblad--the more pixels you burn (pictures you take), the lower the cost of every picture on this trip.
This kind of trip is all about organizing the details and flexibility and Lindblad is expert at that. Major plan changes on this trip happened four times (you have to expect that with a three week trip to Antarctica) and everything went smoothly.
Got home to temperatures 20 degrees F BELOW the coldest we saw in Antarctica--we did go south for warmer weather--like Minnesotans typically do in winter.

The last day at sea: Neil Armstrong, Global Warming

2009-12-15T12:21:00.001-06:00

Our last day at sea:

Got up late--9 AM--just in time to hear Neil Armstrong’s second presentation. He is obviously very tired about.
A second presentation by Neil Armstrong about exploration. About the first attempt to reach the north pole by air. Great presentation but he clearly is tired about talking about the moon (as anyone would be in his unique situation).
A presentation on logistics--have our luggage outside our door by 6:30 AM for transfer to the airport (a charter flight to Santiago)
A 90 minute presentation plus a half hour discussion on climate change. One of the naturalists gave a very science based presentation on the evidence for climate change and the evidence that is is caused by us. During the discussion period, a number of people who did believe the premise that humans are causing significant climate change raised specific questions about some very minor parts of his talk (e.g. the Nobel Prize for Al Gore, that a number of the companies that support climate change legislation have a vested economic interest in the legislation). A couple people commented that reducing the use of fossil based energy sources would not only reduce climate change but improve the efficiency of the US economy, reduce the US dependency on foreign energy supplies, and improve our security--the argument was that we should not require agreement on reasons when we can agree on the action for different reasons.

Oceanities

2009-12-15T12:19:00.001-06:00

The executive director and two staff from Oceanities were on the ship for the whole voyage. Oceanities is a nonprofit organization that is conducting a multi-year biological site inventories at a variety of critical environmental sites around the Antarctica Peninsula. Oceanities is a small, independent research organization funded by foundations, individual contributions and the National Science Foundation. They are the only non-governmental research organization operating in Antarctica. More information about Oceanities is at their website at http://www.oceanites.org.

It’s been great having the Oceanities researchers onboard. Ron, the executive director gave one talk on their research that was very interesting. But more important, when they are not counting penguins and doing photo documentation of sites, they act as additional naturalists--very knowledgeable naturalists. (Lindblad/National Geographic provides logistics support by allowing the Oceanities researchers to use their cruises to access the sites.)

Some major points from Ron’s talk:

The Antarctic Peninsula warming 5 times faster than the average over the whole earth
Adelie and chinstrap penguin populations are rapidly dropping in the Antarctic Peninsula as the area warms. Since they rely on sea ice, as the area warms their range is shrinking as it moves south.
The gentoo Penguin population in the Antarctic Peninsula area is increasing. Since gentoo penguins’ food supply is in warmer water, their range is moving south as the climate warms.

Birds (but not penguins), tea and biscits, rats (not) and more penguins. Sunday, December 6

2009-12-07T20:36:00.007-06:00

The morning landing is on the privately owned Carcass Island. (It was named after Lord and Lady Carcass. If I remember what one of the naturalists said correctly, they provided some funding for a 18th century research and survey expedition. What a bad name to be stuck with. It is owned by a sheep ranching family. But int he last few years, the bottom has fallen out of the wool industry (it can now cost more to sheer a sheep than you can get for the wool). The family now makes their living from landing fees for tourists (paid for by Lindblad). They have three things that get cruises to stop at their island--one really cool and two that are kind of just nice additions:

The most important reason is that the island has surprisingly remained rat-free. This means that it still has a great population of the many ground nesting birds--especially the song-bird varieties. It’s kind of surprising that the island has remained rat free because the family doesn’t require cruse ships to take any special precautions when landing. For some reason, for all the years that sheep, feed and supplies has been landed on the island, no rats have been hitchhikers. The birding on this island is amazing!
They’ve built a large restroom facility. This is the first place we’ve visited (other than Port Stanley) that has had restroom facilities.
They serve tea, biscuits (cookies) and cakes to the people who land. The variety of cookies is amazing.

One plentiful bird was the a local thrush that looks had behaves exactly like the North American robin (at least a faded robin--no red breast). It is in fact very closely related.

That afternoon, we visit New Island, the western most of the Falkland Islands. Again, a privately owned island, much of it was used for grazing sheep--the tussuc grass has been replaced by a European grazing grass.

We land in a sheltered natural harbor and then hike across a narrow point to the northwestern side. On the hike, we see numerous kelp and upland geese. They have thrived since the sheep were removed--the love the grassy areas. The area we hiked to had been fenced off while sheep were here (to keep them from falling off a high cliff into the ocean.so there is still plenty of tussuc grass. The area below the clifts and along the edge are filled with nesting black browed albatross, Blue-eyed shags (a cormorant) and rock-hopper penguins. We hang out there for over two hours. Lots of “pixels are burned.”

The rock-hopper penguins are the smallest penguin--only about 16 inches tall and are related to the macaroni penguin. They seem to be able to hop up about 12 inches and down about 18 inches. It is amazing watching them move around. They are the first penguin we see that makes a more traditional nest--out of mud, grass and guano.

The albatross makes a rather high pedestal nest out of mud, grass and guano. There seem to be the clumsiest birds when landing--most times falling over in the process. To take off, they walk to the edge of the cliff, wait for a gust of wind and jump.

The blue-eyed cormorants have amazing blue eyes a beautiful blue-black feathers and bright orange tufts of feathers around their beak.

The Lindblad staff managed to make the last day on-shore a great climax.

Albatross, Rock Hoppers, Changeable weather. Saturday, December 5

2009-12-07T20:32:00.003-06:00

This morning we’re at Steeple Jason Island. It is one of the chain of Jason chain of islands stretching 40 miles northeast of the main Falkland Islands. It is owned by a nonprofit that is starting to restore it. It is usually not included in cruises--even by Lindblad because of the difficult landing conditions. However, today the wind is right for a reasonable landing. We hike about two kilometers up a ridge. When we get over the ridge, we are treated to the world’s largest black-browed albatross colony, containing about 157,000 breading pairs (over 300,000 birds). The colony is over three miles long along the rocky beach. The number in the air is amazing. A few of us make our way through the tussuc grass mounds down to the edge of the colony. We end up right under the flight path of the albatross.

Nesting among the albatross are rock-hopper penguins. These are the smallest of the penguins we’ve seen. The lichens are amazing--orange, brown, red, green. Some really cool green lichen that forms ribbons.

At lunch we are at the same table as Melissa--one of the people from Oceanities. Her real job is working for Rathyon’s Antarctic Services division. They have the contract with the National Science Foundation to provide all the logistical support and manage the three US research stations on Antarctica as well as the two research ships. Melissa’s job there is project manager for research projects that work away from the three bases in tent camps. She takes vacation and leave to work with Oceanities in Antarctica. She gave us a feeling for the complexity of getting materials to the Antarctic bases for research.

That afternoon we land at Saunder’s Island. Landing was easy but as we walk toward the rock-hopper colony the wind picks up. Sand is blowing across the beach. I’d guess it was about 40 miles per hour. Then it gets cloudy and we’re in a driving sleet. The sleet lasts only about 10 minutes and the sun comes out. Wind is still strong but the sleet at least stopped the sand from blowing. Just another case of the weather changing very quickly and very often in the Falklands.

At sea, Port Stanley, Falkland Islands, Friday, December 4

2009-12-07T20:31:00.003-06:00

After the morning at sea, we tie up to the industrial dock at Port Stanley at 1:30. We take the “two hour tour” option. Kind of looks like a retired Crockidle Dundee with a very dry British humor. “We don’t have a lot to show you in Stanley, so we have to show you everything.” Some interesting things about Port Stanley:

The capital and largest city in the Falklands--about 2500 population (total of about 3000 in all of the Falklands).
Much of the peat on the island is in common ownership--families have specific plots and can harvest peat for heating.
Peat is kind of soggy pre-coal. You have to let it dry before burning it.
No indigenous trees. But imported trees in Stanley and at the settlements ("settlements" appear to be the Falkland term for central buildings on a ranch.)
One garden had numerous gnomes. Gnomes show up at the post office with notes saying, please put me in the garden with my fellow gnomes. Our guide referred to it as the Port Stanley botanical garden.
The Falklands earn enough from fishing licenses to be self supporting except for defense.
As a self governing “overseas territory of the UK", they control most everything except foreign affairs and defense--both controlled by the UK government in London.
Most people in the Falklands work for the government.
A fair number of new houses--financed by the fisheries income.
Many houses and buildings brightly colored with brightly colored metal roofs. This really looks great against the landscape of the Falklands.

The weather changes by the minute here. Sleet followed by sunny skies, followed by stiff winds followed by calm, followed by a driving downpour, followed by sunny skies (in a period of four hours.

After the tour, we do some gift shopping in downtown Stanley with some on foot sight seeing. We end by going into the Global Tavern Pub. It appears half the ship also decided to stop at this pub.

As soon as we get onboard, we head off to tomorrow’s landing--in the far northwest of the Falkland Islands.

Photography tips from the Photography Department

2009-12-04T08:20:00.000-06:00

It turns out that all of Lindblad’s trips to Antarctica include photography experts who are there to help the guests. It has been great asking both Flip Nicklin (the National Geographic photographer on board) and Ralf Hopkins (the Lindblad staff photographer on our trip) for advice and help. Besides the one-on-one help they provide, Ralph did a session in the lounge on Ten Tips to Improve Your Images. Here are some tips I really liked:

Seeing the light: think about the direction of light (for example, sometimes it works great to have back-light or side-light. Sometimes light is too harsh. Sometimes there is too much contrast. Sometimes using fill-flash will help. “Find the best light and shot what’s in it.” For back-light, sometimes have the sun in the picture--just shoot at a high f-stop and pinch the sun with mountains or trees or rocks. Side-light can set up great reflections (e.g. the light in an animal’s eye.
Choose the Right Lens. A murphy’s rule in photography: “No matter what lens you have on your camera for a specific situation, it is always the wrong lens.”
Look for Color: “Vivid and saturated colors make your images pop.
Show motion: Experiment with slow shutter speeds (e.g. 1/8 second for flowing water). Pan with moving objects--hopefully the object will be clear and the background will show a blur.

(From Ralph Lee Hopkins, RalphLeeHopkins.com)

At sea to the Falklands Wednesday, December 2, Thursday December 3.

2009-12-02T12:38:00.003-06:00

At 1 AM a passenger is transferred aboard from another company’s cruise ship. He had broken his hip and we will be the fastest way to get him to a hospital in the Falklands (since that is our next stop). Our doctor does an evaluation and we end up leaving immediately for the Falklands to get him to the hospital as soon as possible (we had planed on one more stop on South Georgia this morning). According to the expedition leader, they have platted a course to avoid the worse weather--going between two weather systems.

We head to the northwest end of South Georgia and take a course west-south-west. We have a 40 knot (45 MPH) wind on our starboard with hugh ocean swells. I put on a sea-sickness transdermal patch at about 4 AM. Bev and I skip breakfast and sleep in--it is great to be able to sleep in and not miss anything.

Because of the rough seas--ten to twelve foot swells--we don’t have the typical buffet for lunch. The wait staff brings us our food.

Staff organizes an Antarctic/South Georgia Jeopardy game. We both pass

Thursday is more rough sees. I don’t feel bad about having to wear the sea-sickness patch--staff members are getting sea sick.

History day on South Georgia. Tuesday, December 1.

2009-12-02T12:37:00.004-06:00

We start in Stromness Harbour--a whaling site that was in operation until the mid 1960s. It is also where Shackleton’s 36 hour hike from the other side of South Georgia finally ended. From here he got a steam powered whaler to go around South Georgia to pick up the men he left on the other side of the island. Since it was getting to be winter in Antarctica, it took him four tries to finally get to the men he left on Elephant Island.

South Georgia government prohibits approaching closer than 200 meters (2 football fields) to the old whaling station because the strong winds can pick off pieces of sheet metal from the old buildings and send them flying. (It seems to be an example of a little overly cautious British Government.) We get fairly close to the old station by zodiac. It has been taken over by fur and elephant seeds and sea birds. We then land and hike back from the beach for more nature. We have to land on a beach with lots of breeding fur seals. The keep the tourists in line and the fur seals in their place, they have set kayaks up to provide a corridor up the beach to an area where the fur seals are less numerous.

During lunch we head to Grytviken--again on the open sea during lunch but today isn’t as bad as Monday. The Norwegians started whaling at Grytviken in 1904 and it changed ownership a number of times--ending with a two year lease to a Japanese company that was trying to develop a market for frozen whale meat. They were not successful because most of the whales had already been killed. This is also where Sir Ernest Shackleton died of a massive heat attack at the start of an expedition he launched in the 1920s. He is grave is here and we visit it and toast him with a shot of rum. Steve (the naturalist who also specializes in history) gives Shackleton a great tribute. The passenger who is the trumpet player played Bramhs (spelling?) Lullaby at gravesite. I thought that was a strange choice but we learn at the wrap-up that it is the same song that was played on banjo by one of Shackleton’s crew at Shackleton’s funeral. There are a number of people on this trip who came specifically because they are Shackleton history buffs so this is a very significant stop for them.

The museum here includes a lot of information on Shackleton (including a recreation of the 23 foot lifeboat he used to sail sail the 800 miles from Elephant Island to here), information on whaling history and natural history. It also includes history of the Falkland war (Argentina invaded South Georgia and occupied the research station, government offices and old whaling station for about two weeks.) It is a really good small museum in the middle of nowhere. Much of this whaling station has

been torn down for safety but we are allowed to walk around the remaining buildings (which have been stabilized). Whaling ended here in 1965.

In the last few years of whaling they seem to have made use of much of the animal (not just the blubber for oil). Some of the pictures are pretty gruesome. It turns out that if you ate margarine in the 1950s or early 1960s, you were eating hydrogenated whale oil.

Evening wrap-up: Some great stories about the Shackleton expedition but the highlight is a presentation by the staff from the South Georgia government and the British Antarctic Research facility. Some interesting random facts:

To reduce their carbon footprint, the government/research station has re-commissioned an old hydro electric dam built by the Norwegians years ago. It now produces enough power for the research facility, government offices and museum--about 300 kilowatts. They just started using it a month ago so they haven’t used it through the winter but expect it to work year around--totally eliminating the need for diesel fuel for heating and electricity.
There is concern that the amount of krill in the ocean around South Georgia significantly dropped last year. The drop was caused by a shift in the location of the Antarctic Convergence (where the warm and cold oceans meet) to south of South Georgia. This resulted in warmer, less nutrient rich waters around the island. With the reduction in food, there has been a reduction in fur seals breading and the Gentoo penguins on South Georgia failed to raise chicks last year. This looks like a temporary situation, the Antarctic Convergence has moved back north and the penguins are mating this year. However, with climate change it may be happening more often than in the past.
The government actively manages the fishery to the territorial limit of 200 miles around South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands. Commercial fishing licenses fund the enforcement that includes observers on all the fishing ships. They actively control the catch and the methods (e.g. bottom trawling is strictly prohibited). The South Georgia tooth fish (also known as Patagonian tooth fish, Antarctica sea bass and Chilean sea bass is certified by the Marine Stewardship Council as a sustainable, well regulated fishery (check for the marine council logo).

Hiking, rain, moss. Monday November 30

2009-12-02T12:36:00.001-06:00

We are at Molke Harbour in Royal Bay--specifically because it is sheltered from strong northerly winds. But it is a wet, kind of miserable morning. Zodiac ride to shore in a 20 MPH wind (about 42 degrees F) with a drizzle and very cloudy skies. As we hike away from the beach, the wind calms down and the drizzle almost stops. Two reindeer herds, one with a large buck standing watch. We hike up a small river that is fed by melting snow. It’s surprising how far up the river the elephant seal weaners have come--especially considering that they can not lift themselves up on their flippers; they move more like maggots. The river isn’t very deep and the bed is about full of fist size and larger rough rocks. Moving down the river to get back to the sea must be really hard on the skin on their bellies.

There is a great variety of mosses and lichens on the hills.

During lunch it is very rough--the bow is pounding into the sea and spray is going as high as the bridge. A lot of people don’t finish their lunches and disappear into their cabins. Luckily, I had taken the sea-sickness medicine about a hour before we left the relative calm of Molke Harbor. But after a light lunch I also lay down in the cabin for a quick nap. That seems to be one of the best ways to avoid sea-sickness--just sleep through rough seas.

We get to Jason Harbor--again chosen mainly for being sheltered from the northerly wind. Bev decides to keep napping. We have to wind our way through the fur seal males--keeping our distance from all of them. It is a strange landscape--tussuc grass mounds that have been grazed very short by the reindeer with standing water between them. You have to step from one mound to the next to make your way back to higher ground. More reindeer, some Antarctic Terns that are unhappy with us, some molting king penguins standing in a middle green grass.

Macaronies, life and death and glaciers. Sunday, November 29

2009-11-30T12:37:00.002-06:00

This morning we see macaroni penguins from the zodiac. For a few reasons (including breeding fur seals on the beach--very nasty, territorial males--we can not land on the beach. Penguin species count is at six. The zodiac cruise includes checking out a few other coves along the coast with fantastic rock formations. They look like something out of a fantasy novel.

We do land on a different beach in Cooper Bay and find a dead elephant seal being pecked at by skuas and giant petrals. The giant petrals really have the vulture niche in South Georgia. They even have same behaviors--charging with out stretched wings, tail in a vertical posture, getting their whole head into the carcass.

One of the king penguin chicks seems to be desperate for food. Keeps going up to anything (including people and tripods) begging for food. We take a hike up a snow field looking for albatross nests. No nests but a great walk.

The afternoon is a zodiac cruise up the very narrow Larson Harbor. This is a scenery excursion, not wildlife. It was amazing. Later, the ship cruises up Drygalski Fjord to the tidewater glacier at its head. To leave, the captain uses the bow and stern thrusters to pivot the ship.

In the wrap-up before dinner under-water videos from the ROV--some cool, strange things live on the floor of the ocean here. Also a song by one naturalist about krill--”All you need is krill.” (think Beatles)

West side of South Georgia, one million. Saturday, November 28.

2009-11-30T12:32:00.004-06:00

Our first stop is at Gold Harbor on South Georgia. Staff had offered a landing before sunrise at 5:00AM (for the photographers who are looking for that “magic light”) but it was cloudy and raining. Rain stopped and we were on the beach by nine. Elephant seals, fur seals and king penguins. Lots of king penguins. The noise from the adults and the chicks were amazing. There were the creches of brown fluffy chicks making songbird like calls--waiting for mom or dad to come back and regurgitate a meal. The sailors who first saw them referred to them as “the okum boys” because they looked like the rope and tar caulk called okum that was used to fill cracks in ships. They look like a sea of brown with a black and white and orange adult scattered among them. I think I shout 400 pictures before I just put the camera away and just watched. The penguins (adults and chicks will walk to about two feet from you. If you sit down by a wiener seal (the young elephant seals) it is not unlikely they will come over and try to nurse you boot or your knee.

“The Government of South Georgia” is serious about enforcing the regulations for tourists. This site is has video surveillance from a number of points of view to insure tour groups stay out of restricted areas (sensitive animal habitats)

Much of the land beyond the beach is covered by tussoc grass. It is a challenge to walk through. Bev did and climbed a ridge to see a albatross nest with chicks. (She still needed binoculars).

Oceanites doesn’t count king penguins (not in their study plan) but Ron notes that they would be very hard to count. While the brush tail penguins (chinstrap, Adelie and gentoo penguins) all mate at the same time and the chicks leave the nest before winter, kings are on a 18 month breading cycle. Many times you will find single molting penguins, chicks, and pairs incubating an egg, all at the same colony.

In the afternoon we head to St. Andrews Bay. Elephant seals, fur seals, king penguins and reindeer. No tussoc grass at this location (the reindeer graze to the ground. We head off to the south following a naturalist. Go up a ridge and look down on the largest colony we’ve seen. Over 400,000 king penguins. The largest colony of kings on South Georgia. We have now seen over one million penguins.

While I’m writing this in the ship library, I’m watching four snowy-sheath-bills out the window. White birds about the size of a pigeon, a face sort of like a chicken and at first glance appear rather dumb and clumsy. But they are checking everything out. Pulling on wires, pecking at latches, tugging at straps (all on top of the enclosed life boats). They also are very coordinated--just saw one land while going backwards.

snowy sheath bill.

At sea, bio-sanitizing and South Georgia Island. November 27.

2009-11-30T12:31:00.001-06:00

After breakfast we all attend a required briefing on South Georgia. South Georgia is part of the United Kingdom and administered from government offices in the Falklands. We see a video by “The Government of South Georgia” (that seams kind of a strange term since the only people who live here are the staff of two small U.K. research stations). The basic message is “we are really serious about not bringing in any more exotic plants or animals and we are really serious about protecting the wildlife.” It also has some safety warnings, like “stay away from fur seals!” (punctuated by a picture of a person’s hand after being bitten--you can see pieces of finger bones.) Exotic species currently on South Georgia include a beetle, reindeer (introduced by the whaling industry to provide fresh meat), dandelions, and the Norway rat. Since the birds on South Georgia evolved with no land predator, they have started to eradicate the Norway rat.

After seeing the video, we are all required to go through bio-sanitizing. This includes have all our outerwear inspected--and camera bags and pockets vacuumed out. They pay particular attention to checking for seeds stuck in Velcro. (This is our second bio sanitizing--our first was before we set foot on any antarctic island.) As with Antarctica, we step in a disinfectant before leaving the ship and when returning from the ship.

To kill the time, another naturalist talk--an introduction to South Georgia. Did you know the South Georgia Pintail is a vampire duck? It will eat the blood from the wounds on seals.

Our first stop on South Georgia is the caves at the inlet to King Haakon Bay where Shackleton first landed when they reached South Georgia. We then head into the bay and take the zodiacs ashore at Peggotty Bluff--the final stop for Shackleton’s long boat and where he and two crew headed across the island (over a mountain range and glaciers) to find help at a whaling station on the other side.

Onshore the first thing you notice is that there are green plants (besides algae and lichen). The second thing is elephant seals. The pups that have just been weaned (“weaners”) are really cute with hugh black eyes. The adults are really ugly. We walk up a stream of glacier melt water. There is an alluvial plane of the rock powder created by the glacier as it slides down the mountain. It looks like a small version of the alluvial planes you see in the Japer park area in Canada. There are a couple giant giant petrels(birds) fighting over the remains of a dead seal--petrels fill the vulture niche at South Georgia.

There are about a dozen king penguins molting by the beech. The first king penguins we’ve seen.

Back on the ship, “the photography department” (Ron and Flip) have invited anyone with a laptop to create a three minute slide show sampling what they’ve shot so far. Some really impressive photography. Some really cool ideas I’m going to steal. We just didn’t seem to have the time to put a slide show together.

Oceanites also announces the winner of “how may penguins have we seen so far” contest. The winner was only 32,000 penguins off. So far, we have seen over 402,000 penguins (I was way off--I guessed 15,000)

224,000 Adelies,
18,000 gentoo,
160,000 chinstrap.

At sea, a little rock’n and roll’n, More talks, Thursday, November 26 (U.S. Thanksgiving Day)

2009-11-27T05:45:00.000-06:00

We are at sea all day today, headed for South Georgia Island--on the open ocean. More naturalist/staff talks to keep us out of trouble.

The first talk of the day was about the Shackleton Expedition in the early 1900s. More talk about ships getting caught in ice, ships being crushed by ice. Shackleton had taken the long-boats from his ship, his crew pulled them across the surface ice, launched them and got to Elephant Island. This is the island we spent much of yesterday trying to get through the pack ice to see.

The second talk was about plate tectonics. The talk started by noting that a 17th century Anglican bishop had calculated the exact date God created the earth--on a Saturday, 4004 BC, at sunset. (A couple sarcastic notes--would god work on the Jewish Sabbath? at sunset where? He calculated it using the bible and “other sources.” That the extreme fundamentalists pin their belief of a “young earth” on a calculation made in the 17th century Anglican bishop is beyond me. (The talk then explained plate tectonics and how Antarctica ended up at the southern pole and why it has been stuck there.)

Next talk is 10 tips for improving travel photography with Rolf Hopkins (the Lindblad staff photographer on board). If I get around to it, I’ll write a post specifically about his talk. As a teaser, two bonus tips are:

“If you want to take better photos, stand in front of better stuff.”

“Find the best light and shoot what’s in it.”

Happy Thanksgiving Day in the U.S. Dinner options included a traditional turkey dinner. I had the grilled salmon.

Trying to get to Elephant Island, Wednesday, November 25

2009-11-25T19:38:00.001-06:00

We were woken up be things falling off shelves. The sea is getting rougher.

We’re trying to get to Elephant Island--where Shackleton’s crew overwintered The island is surrounded by pack ice. Spent the morning moving around trying to find an opening in the ice, through the fog.

We came up on two humpback whales, followed them for a while. After the captain turned back to finding a way through the ice, the whales stayed with us for about 20 minutes more. The sonar indicates a concentration of just below the surface. The whales were eating without have to go deep

Just announced--the pack ice is too extensive. It is a mix of surface ice (OK kind of ice) glacier ice (you really don’t want to hit with a ship), multi year ice (also a no-no). We can not find a way in that would also guarantee us a way out. So we are abandoning our attempt to get to Elephant Island.

On our way to the South Orkneys, the bridge spots five fin whales-the second largest of the baleen whales. Spend about half an hour watching them, the are doing very shallow dives.

Tonight, the first showing of a new Lindblad movie, “Counting Penguins.” It is about Oceanites, the only non-governmental research group working in Antarctica. More about Oceanities in a future post.

Late update. We are skipping the South Orkneys--today’s ice report shows even more ice around the South Orkneys than around Elephant Island. So we will get an extra day on South Georgia. You have to be flexible when on a Lindblad trip. They take advantages of changing conditions with quite a few changes in plans.

Walking on ice--this is a big deal?? Dumb human tricks. Traveling north Tuesday, November 24

2009-11-25T19:36:00.002-06:00

Another chance to walk on sea ice. I decide--big deal, walking on ice. It turns out there were seals on the ice and it was warm. Oh well, i got spent a relaxing morning on-board.

The other activity this morning was another polar plunge. Since the law that requires Minnesotans to play “hardy Minnesotan” anytime they are out of state only requires one polar plunge per trip, I again stay on board. Turns out is was much warmer and much more pleasant that the first one. But it was still a polar plunge!

After crashing into the ice again for a marketing shot (we left the photographer on the ice), we head north, destination Elephant Island sometime tomorrow.
We cruise by an emperor penguin siting on broken sea ice with five Adelie penguins. The ship
does a U-turn and slowly creeps up on the penguins. Most of the passengers put on parkas and head for the bow--in a stiff wind driven snow. Didn’t get too close, and the emperor never stood up. It is clearly much bigger than the Adelie penguinsThe ship backs away and turns back on coarse.

We have three talks by staff in late morning and afternoon. One about the ice and climate of Antarctica. One on the history of Antarctica discovery, starting with the ancient Greek predictions of a southern continent. [Interesting note of strange symmetry--the Arctic is an ocean surrounded by continents and the Antarctic is a content surrounded by ocean.]

The last talk is a quick history of whale photography by Flip Nicklin the National Geographic photographer who is on the cruise. Flip IS the history of whale photography.
His father owned one of the first dive shops in Southern California and was given an underwater still camera and underwater 16 millimeter film camera. He shot the first underwater still pictures and film of a whale in the early 1960s.
Flipp has done 19 feature photography articles for National Geographic, 17 on whales and dolphins.
He was involved in the early whale research that used photography of flippers, fins and flukes to identify and track individuals.
He photographed the first hydrophone research of whale song. [Interesting note: Whales were first protected in 1966 but National Geographic did the first whale story that didn’t treat whales as an economic commodity until 1971.]
When doing whale work, he assumes he works on site 100 days, actually gets on or in the water 70 of those days and that all the useful pictures come from just four days.

There seems to be a preoccupation on this ship with ships being destroyed by ice. There are a number of books about the Titanic, the Lusitania and Shackleton in the library, books about the Titanic and the Lusitania and a Shackleton DVD for sale in the gift shop. During the recap tonight, naturalists tell us about how “growler” ice warned sailors of icebergs nearby and read first-hand stories of sailing ships being crushed by icebergs.

Rounding the tip of the Peninsula, Antarctic Sound and Weddell Sea. Monday, November 23

2009-11-25T19:35:00.002-06:00

We’ve been sailing northeast all night and this morning are rounding the northwestern tip of the Antarctic Peninsula. Heading through the Antarctic Sound we go between a very large tabular ice burgs. (Tabular as in “Table”) These are huge, flat pieces of ice shelf. Many are bigger than multiple city blocks. Standing on top of the deck above the bridge, you can just barely see over the top of them--That makes them 23 meters high (about 75 feet)--that’s above the water, over 200 meters (over 2 football fields) is below the water. There is no comparison to the broken sea ice (about 2 meters thick) or Ice burgs we’ve been going through.

The tabular ice burgs are big pieces of the Antarctic ice shelves that have broken off. An ice shelf is formed when a land glacier slides out into a protected sea or bay and starts floating instead of breaking off near land. This forms and ice shelf. The tabular ice we’re seeing are from the Larsen, Ronne and Flichner ice shelves. A normal ice burg is formed when a glacier breaks off (calves) at the sea edge. Broken sea ice is the remnants of a section of the sea that froze (think lake ice).

[Note: this is the life, writing this while headed to Elephant Island, having a mocha, listening to Victor play Girshwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue.”]

We land at Brown Bluffs--a landing on the continent that includes Adelie and gentoo penguins. Lots of Adelie penguins here. Selected a rock as close to the 15‘ limit as possible with as little guano as possible and sat and watched penguins for half an hour. Took a few pictures but mainly watched. Watched penguins adjusting their eggs, watched penguin pairs greet each other, watched penguin sex, watch penguins build nests with small rocks, watched penguins steal rocks from their neighbors nests.

Back on the ship and we head into the Erebus and Terror Gulf of the Weddell Sea. Actually quite calm (the gulf is really named after two British “bomb” ships that had been converted to research vessels). We are the first non-icebreaker in the Weddell Sea this season. We end up with the ship stuck bow first into fast ice (on purpose) for the night. See our first emperor penguin of the trip (we weren’t planning on seeing any, they are just leaving their nesting area quite a bit south of us.). You can make out it’s markings in the birding scope. Our fifth penguin species (including the Galapagos Penguin). Only 12 to go.

Today we heard a talk by Ron Naveen. the founder and Executive Director of Oceanites. He and two of his staff are on board doing penguin censuses at each of our stops. I think Ocenites deserves their own blog post.

More penguins, some Antarctic history and the continent. Sunday, November 22

2009-11-24T07:01:00.003-06:00

They’ve split the passengers into 4 groups with only three on shore at a time (to follow the Antarctic Treaty guideline of only 100 tourists on land at a time). Today for the landing we were in the group that started with a zodiac cruise among the Icebergs. It’s a cloudy gray day so the Icebergs aren’t the fantasic blue color but are some fantastic shapes.

We next head to a Gentoo penguin colony on Pleneau Island. (I think I may be getting a little tired of penguins!.) I decide sit and watch the penguins hopping in and out of the water. Fascinating. Bev decides to stay a little longer and I take a zodiac back to the ship. Of course that’s when a Leopard Seal swims up and starts checking out penguins for lunch. According to Bev, the penguins immediately move away from the beach--rapidly. [Sarcastic note to Apple--how about naming the next operating system and updates after seals?]

In the afternoon we head to Port Lockroy. This was an anchorage used by explorers and whalers. In World War II, the British built a small outpost on the very small Goudier Island that was part of a secret British project to monitor German shipping movements during World War II. Seven people would overwinter here. After the war, the base was used for civilian science until 1964. It is considered a historic Antarctic site and has recently been restored by the United Kingdom Antarctic Heritage Trust as a museum and Gift Shop (They accept Pounds Sterling, US Dollars, Euros, MasterCard and VISA).

Four people staff the station during the summer tourist season. They live in rather primitive conditions--not unlike the conditions the crews when the station was operating. (Although they do get to shower on board cruise ships they are invited aboard.) They are also limited to a very small Island that also has lots of penguins--and therefore lots of penguin guano--I wouldn’t want to be hear in February after a summer of nesting penguins.

We also visit Neko Harbor for a landing after dinner. Up until now, all of our landings have been on islands in the Antarctic Peninsula archipelago (Geologically and geographically part of the continent). This landing however is on the Antarctic mainland. If we wanted to, and were equipped for it, we could walk from her to the South Pole (It would be the long way of getting there).

Back on board and there’s a pick-up jam session with the ship’s staff pianist (Victor) and a passenger who brought his Baritone trumpet on the trip.

Lemaire Channel, Booth Island, Sailing South, Saturday, November 21

2009-11-23T06:18:00.002-06:00

7:00 AM, we cruse through the Lemaire Channel. Very narrow, very tall snow-covered mountains on both sides, bergy bits, brash ice, broken sea ice, growler Ice in the sea (There seems to be a variety of names for different kinds of ice in water).

At the south end of the channel, we stop at Booth Island--one of only a few places where all three species of brush-tale penguins breed in the same ares--Chinstraps, Adelie and Gentoo Penguins. This time I just sat down on a rock and watched the penguins--ended up with one about 2 feet from me.

We also kayaked here. It was a very calm bay but with lots of small chunks of ice. We were warned not to get too close to any chunks of ice over about 3 feet tall (anything you can not see the top of). (Some are over 20 feet tall.) Large chunks of ice can break off or the ice could roll over--either of which would not be good for a close by small kayak. The kayaks are inflatable--which means they are extremely stable. They wouldn’t be good in any wind since they sit very high in the water.

In the afternoon we started “sailing south” to see “how far we can get.” We stopped about 9:00 PM at 65 degrees 45.255 minutes south latitude and 64 degrees 34.6 minutes west longitude. The ice just was too thick to go futher--about a degree short of the Antarctic Circle. Spent time until about 11 PM there taking pictures in really cool lighting.

The recap concentrated on Orkas--we saw two pods of them today. One for an extended period. Interesting fact: Orkas are tool using animals. They have been documented (including by Lindblad nature staff) creating waves to break=up sea Ice and wash seals on the Ice into the sea. First they create upwellings by swimming vertically to break-up the ice and to separate the pieces of ice. Then three to four swuim fast toward the piece of ice with the seal on it to create a large wave to wash the seal off the ice. They are using water as a tool to get at the seals. They have even been documented practicing the techniques and teaching the techniques to calves.

Dorian Bay and Palmer Station. Friday, November 20.

2009-11-21T19:26:00.006-06:00

7:00 wake up call. In the zodiac to go ashore by 8:15. Step off the ship into the zodiac with horizontal sleet and snow in your face. 28 degrees F, wind gusting at 30 to 45 MPH. We’ve had great weather until now--actually overdressed for our outings yesterday. Today, that isn’t a worry.

Dorian Bay has a Adelie penguin colony, a former small British station (now a “refuge hut) and a Argentinian “refuge hut”. The Argentinian “refuge hut” has a large Argentinian flag painted on it’s side. The “refuge huts” seem to be the way nations with claims to Antarctica (put in “abeyance” by the Antarctic Treaty 50 years ago) to “tweak” the noses of nations with competing claims (the British and Argentinean claims overlap).If you knelt down on the snow or laid on the snow you could avoid most of the wind and just watch the penguins. Best way to describe the difference in the behavior of Chinstrap Penguins and Adelie Penguins was provided by one of Steve--one of Lindblad’s staff naturalists on board: “Chinstraps are on speed; Adelies are on quaaludes.”

By the afternoon, we have reached Arthur Harbor to visit the Adelie penguin colony on Torgersen Island and Palmer Station, the smallest of three U.S. Antarctic Program research stations in Antarctica.

Torgersen Adelie colony: More time to just watch the behaviors. This time in pleasant weather--32 degrees and almost no wind. Also, five sleeping Elephant seals. The elephant seals open their eyes, stretch their flippers, scratch, and go back to sleep. This is also the site of a 30 year research project to determine of well-mannered tourists have any impact on penguin colonies. Half of the island is totally off limits to tourists and any other researchers. So far, the research has shown no impact. Just to my eye--clearly not a scientific study, the penguins are so busy dealing with their breading that they totally ignore the dumb tourists.

Palmer Station: ( http://pal.lternet.edu/) Only twelve cruises are allowed to tour Palmer Station each summer and they have invited our cruise to tour (not surprising--more on that later). Before we go to Palmer Station, the Palmer Area Director and

Palmer Science Director come on board and explain what they do. The very short version:

Palmer Station is a place to conduct scientific research. A lot of earth science and biology research is conducted there. The station is funded by the National Science Foundation and researchers apply to conduct research and are chosen through a peer review process.

After the tour, there is a coffee and brownie reception in th

e Palmer staff dining area. Talking with one of the scientists, we express some interest in his research and are immediately invited to tour his lab. Really cool. They have developed “gli

ders” for remote sensing.
These are small semi-autonomous vehicles that can carry sensors and send back data. (for example measuring water temperature and Oxygen content at various depths over a 100 mile section of ocean.) They are about six foot long, one foot in diameter cylinders with short central fins and a control tail. They are powered by “a bunch” of standard high output D cell batteries. When the glider surfaces, it uses the antenna at the top of it’s tail to call home using the Iridium satellite phone system, downloads data and location (it uses the GPS satellites to determine location) and uploads its next set of instructions.Much of the staff of the Palmer Station is invited onboard for drinks and dinner and to attend the evening lecture. It’s not surprising that Lindbland/National Geographic has such great relationship with Palmer.

Daily Wrap-up: We get a short presentation by the nature staff (I’m just going to call them that--even though they include expertise in geography, history, geology, meteorology and climate) summarizing what we’ve done and seen in the last two days and adding some perspective. This one included some video they had taken earlier in the day using the Remote Operating Vehicle they have on board. Great video of the Antarctic Ocean floor from one site we visited--with all kinds of strange creatures.

Neil Armstrong: Did I mention that we were cruising with Neil Armstrong? After dinner he gave a presentation on “Random Thoughts on Discovery” about the importance of discovery and tying the Apollo program to the James Cook’s voyages of exploration and the early explorers of Antarctica. Fantastic talk--from notes with NO powerpoint crutch.
The staff at Palmer Station were really excited that he toured their station--they even staged a staff photo with him. The ship stayed at anchor to allow them to stay on board for Armstrong’s talk.

Deception Island in the South Shetland Islands. Thursday, November 19

2009-11-21T19:14:00.012-06:00

(There seems to have been a standard naming convention for island groups in the Antarctic: “South [Name of a North Atlantic island group]”)

Our first stop is Baily Head--a large rock headland next to a long, straight black gravel (not sand) beach. The beach is directly exposed to the open ocean so landings here can be rough. For us it was easy, they just beached the zodiac and we climbed out.

Chinstrap Penguins everywhere. almost 100,000 chinstrap penguins. Squads of penguins going into the ocean. Squads of penguins coming out of the ocean. A constant coming and going of penguins. It is sensory overload. (But at least not olfactory overload--the guano smell isn’t as bad advertised). You don’t worry about steeping in Penguin guano, you just step in it--it is everywhere.

Nesting (moving small rocks to make a nest on the ground), courtship, mating behavior are all happening. Some pairs already have two eggs. Nests (a bunch of small rocks on the ground) are in tightly packed clusters--a nesting penguin will only defend its territory as far as it can reach without getting off the nest. The tightly packed nests help the penguins defend against gull-likeSkua. The Skua is a predatory bird that takes eggs and chicks.

In the afternoon we sail into the sunken caldera of this active volcano. Fast ice (ice still connected to the shore) still covers about a third of the caldera--we plow right into it--about two ship links and stop. Looks like about 18” thick ice. They put out the gang-plank test the ice, and let the passengers walk out of the ship for some hot chocolate on the ice. This is a unique experience for some of the passengers.

We then go to an area near the shore where the water is warmer. We're invited to take a polar plunge. So I did. It was cold

From Latitude 65:44

2009-11-21T19:13:00.001-06:00

This post is out of order because we just reached our furthest south point and I wanted to get a blog post out from Latitude 65 degrees; 44 minutes--less than 1 degree from the Antarctic Circle. The Ice just got too thick. The ship has the highest "Ice Class" possible for a cruise ship but it isn't an Ice Breaker (and the captain didn't want to repeat the Russian experience.) More tech details will be added later.

Getting to Antarctica Part 3, Wednesday:

2009-11-18T19:59:00.007-06:00

Even on this full day of just traversing the Drake Passage (it is 500 miles from the tip of Tierra del Fuego to the Antarctic Peninsula) they keep you busy.

We had four briefings during the day:

First, an introduction of the naturalist staff--They are a bunch of very social biology, climate, geology and ecology geeks. Most of them seem to have a fun, dry sense of humor.
Next was a briefing on Sea Birds of Antarctica: Bev loved it. It was a little too much information for me (most of the briefings are options).
Next, Digital Photograph: I thought it would be rather basic. But while it covered the basics, the staff photographer went into more detail than I expected and covered more topics than I expected (e.g. Raw/JPEG/TIFF formats, Histograms, color spread settings, filters, tripods). He really did a great job explaining things. For the first time I think I session with the staff photographers.
Last briefing of the day was mandatory Antarctic landing procedures: First, the woman in charge of the zodiacs explained how to get into and out of the zodiacs. Next, expedition leader went through IAATO (International Association Antarctica Tour Operations) and the Atlantic Treaty Nations requirements. These include:

Preventing the introduction of non-native species,
Protection of fresh water.
Don’t approach wildlife closer than 5 meters (15 feet). But it is OK if you are just sitting there and a penguin comes up to check you out.
Do not feed, touch or handle wildlife.
Wildlife has the right of way-- if they are crossing your path, stop and wait until they pass.

Crossing 60 degrees South Latitude

2009-11-18T19:59:00.006-06:00

Tonight we are crossing 60 degrees south latitude. I'm not sure how good the Internet access will be tomorrow, so it may be quite a while until I update the blog.

Getting to Antarctica Part 2 Tuesday: On the National Geographic Explore

2009-11-18T19:57:00.002-06:00

We’ve been on five Lindblad/National Geographic ships. Our reaction to this one is wow--much fancier than their other ships. It is also much bigger--Also, the one reason we were a little hesitant of this trip is that it is a much is much larger--144 passengers maximum versus 60 to 90 passengers on other LIndblad ships.The other ships are a lot more “cozy.” However, they seem to be keeping the same naturalist to passenger ration: about 1 to 15. Will see tomorrow how efficient they are getting people to land (another of our concerns about a larger ship)

The N.G. Explorer is a lot newer than their other ships--it is a refitted Northern Norwegian Ferry--the interior was gutted and re-done about two years ago. We spent some time exploring the ship. It has a lot more space for every function

It is a little confusing figuring out where things are: they really need to have floor plans of the ship in the three stairwells.

Meeting a lot of the other passengers. The design these cruises so you do. When we say we’re from Minnesota, the most common comment is about Garrison Keillor(Spelling?)--which is kind of disgusting. The only other common comment about MN is: “Well, you know how to dress for this weather.”

We had our first required briefing--instructions for what to do if you hear the emergency signal--Grab your warm coat, required medicine and your life preserver and meet in the lounge. Basically the same briefing as on every Lindblad ship--only modified to address specifics of this ship.

The official blog from Lindblad

2009-11-18T19:56:00.000-06:00

You can following the official version of the trip, check the “Daily Expedition Logs at http://www.expedition.com. Search for National Geographic Explorer

Getting to Antarctic Part 1

2009-11-18T12:50:00.003-06:00

[Note to readers: Pictures will be added when we get back. Also, updates to the blog may be intermittent--Satellite Internet connection will be very “iffy” at the high southern latitudes]

Four days to get the the ship, 36 hours on the ship leaving the Beagle Channel and crossing the Drake package.

Saturday, Getting to Miami. We did plan on an extra day in Miami--just in case the plane from from Minneapolis was late or they lost our luggage. (And to just have a day on Miami Beach.)

Sunday, Getting to Santiago de Chile. Slept sleep in then wandered Miami Beach. Got to MIA at 4 PM for an 8:30 PM flight to Santiago. This is our red-eye flight of the trip. The flight confirmed on of my theories: Sleeping on a red-eye flight is a joke.
We get to Santiago, go to the hotel and crash.

Monday, Santiago de Chile. Got to the hotel at about 8 AM. Checked in. Got to our room and slept. 2:30 to 5:00--A very quick tour of Santiago. Only got out of bus twice--At the Presidential palace, and the Pre Columbian Museum.

Chile is having their national elections this December. Political signs everywhere!. Since Pinochet’s 17 year dictatorship, Chile is back to a democracy--with presidential terms limited to one four year term.

The Pre-Columbian museum has a great collection of native artifacts stretching over thousands of years from native civilizations stretching from Mexico to Chile. The only problem is that I really want to sleep more.

Back to the hotel, slept an hour, then the welcome dinner.

Met two researchers from Oceanites, a nonprofit research organization that specializes in counting penguins. The do a census of some of the penguin species at sample sites. They will have three researchers on board for this trip. According to them, any time we land where there are penguins, they will be running through penguin rookeries counting penguins.They will offer a briefing on their research sometime during the trip.

City Planning note: The main freeway through Santiago is mainly below the surface. In many places there is a linear park on top. In some places the river is on top. (not a big river but a VERY fast river.) What a great way to minimize the impact of a six-lane freeway.

Tuesday, to Tierra del Fuego and the ship. Wake-up at 5:00, quick breakfast, then to the airport for a charter flight to Ushuaia, Argentina. Tried again to sleep on the plane.

Bus ride through to outskirts of Ushuaia. Ushuaia’s population is about 50,000. Has some manufacturing but the largest employers are government (it is the capital of the provence) and tourism.

We Drive through Tera del Fuego national park and stop at the end of the road. Literally the end of the road. Argentina Highway 3 is the Trans=American Highway. So this is the end of a highway that starts in Alaska.

While Tierra del Fuego seems to have s climate similar to SE Alaska the Flora and Fauna are very different. No large mammals, the major species seems to be the Canadian Beaver--introduced as an attempt to start a fur industry around 1950. The industry didn’t work but the Beavers love it. No conifers. But a number of varieties of “False Birch” trees that are extremely slow growing.

We board a catamaran (motorized, not sail) for lunch and a ride through the Beagle Channel and back to Ushuaia to board our ship. The channel is named for the ship Charles Darwin was on. (The main reason for the catamaran trip was to give the ship crew time to clean the ship and get ready for us--the passengers from the previous trip just got off the ship thas morning.)

Twin Cities Media Alliance Fall Forum

2009-11-07T10:01:00.007-06:00

Title: Networking And The New Media Landscape: Reporting News, Building Community, Making Money

Sponsor: Twin Cities Media Alliance/ Twin Cities Daily Planet

Location: Minneapolis Central Library

Attendance: about 85--from across the political/ideological landscape

Twitter tag: #TCMA09

Keynote: The Twin Cities Media Ecosystem by Matt Thompson of Knight Foundation:

Three stages of media in the Twin Cities:

The Niche Media phase--lots of publications--from an early 20th century publication on grain milling that had correspondents in London and New York to a lot of papers written in the languages of the many new immigrants.
The Mass Media--the multiple daily newspapers that were in the Twin Cities merge into just two--one on the East side (St. Paul) and one on the West side (Minneapolis). National news is concentrated in a few "voices" (e.g. Walter Cronkite)
The Networked Media--Cross feeds--new curators--individuals select the sources we believe and share them, information is connected to other informations, sources connect to each other, news aggregation sites connect to each other, We have to talk about

Local media has to stop talking about the information we provide and start talking about the value we provide (this was really brought home to be during a site visit to TCMA by a local foundation last week).

First Panel (Reporting the News) Take Away:

Everyone is getting into news aggregation--from hyper local neighborhood sites to Minnesota Public Radio and WCCO TV (Local CBS). TC Daily Planet, while it was an early aggregator of community news (both ethnic and geographic communities), will be competing with more aggregators in the near future.

Keynote 2: Bruce Schneier, "Blogging, New Media and the Generation Gap"

Five key works for new media

Be Interesting--every page, every sentence, every article
Be Entertaining--it is no accident that many young people get their news from John Stewart. Rush Limbaugh knows he is an entertaining.
Be Engaging--(I would say "Be Community") people want to talk to each other. Communities can be geographical, topical. Community can be more important than news
Be available--there has to be an easy way to get to older content.
Be agile--you don't know what the new device or new platform will be tomorrow or next week. You don't know how new generations will use the Internet How the young will use the Internet will not just be different, it will be incomprehensible.

Bruce recommends checking out book "Free" by Kris (Sp???) Anderson (I wonder if I can literally check it out since this is happening in a library.)

In response to a question: "Net Neutrality can not fail. If it fails legally, there will be enough work arounds that it will eventually succeed. It is an important fight. It if fails, we will see a major set-back with a bunch of old media companies using the law to hand on to an old model. People fighting it will have a lot of technical tools--they just won't have the law on their side."

Second Panel (Building Community) Take Aways:

Building community is a lot of work (hey, it was actually acknowledged!)
While a couple years ago, no one site will be the "one site" for any specific community.

Third Panel (the hardest to get speakers to fill) "Making Money" Take Aways

www.bringmethenews.com is a for profit news site. (at least they hope to be profitable). No banner ads--rely on sponsored content. My question--Isn't sponsored content just another way to say "long form ad"
L3C funding model for funding=Low Profit Limited Liability Corporation. Primary aim is to further a social purpose. They are designed to attract capital to benefit the community. Good source for information--Americans for Community Development.
From the Uptake: "If anyone tells you they have funding and business models for media figured out--don't believe them."

Lunch--Nonprofit Mission and Excellence Awards

2009-11-06T14:16:00.002-06:00

Nonprofit Excellence--large organization

Simpson Housing Services

Julie Manworren (ED of Simpson) “No man, woman or child should experience homelessness. We can end homelessness.”

Nonprofit Excellence--small organization

Dakota Woodlands (shelter for homeless families in a Twin Cities suburb).

Reyne Branchaud-Linsk (ED) “It is important to continue to help families after they find housing of their own.”

Responsive Philanthropy Nonprofit Mission Award

Carl and Eloise Pohlad Family Foundation

(The foundation actually increased their grants to nonprofits to help in the recession.)

A number of members of the family accepted the award.

Innovation Nonprofit Mission Award

CaringBridge

Advocacy Nonprofit Mission Award

National Alliance on Mental Illness of Minnesota

“Sometimes the best way to serve our clients is to teach them to advocate for themselves.”

Anti-Racism Initiative Nonprofit Mission Award

Clayton Jackson McGhie Memorial

Nonprofit Standards

2009-11-06T11:46:00.003-06:00

Charities Review Council’s New Accountability Standards (7:45 AM)

First, a conference session starting at 7:45 AM? I think this only happens at nonprofit conferences.

Minnesota has this unique organization--the Charities Review Council that sets standards for nonprofit organizations. The organization has been around since the 1940s. They have a new set of accountability standards that was presented at this session. Overall headings include: Public Disclosure, Governance, Financial Activity, and Fundraising (a total of 27 separate standards. The most interesting part of the session was the question/discussion section. Being a shameless agitator, I raised my hand first:

The public disclosure section is all about transparency. My major problem with this section (overall it is a great section) is that it doesn’t require nonprofits to be proactive about communication. It is all passive (“Make the information available to the public’). There is no discussion about working to engage the community.

The data privacy standard only addresses donor privacy. It should also address client data privacy.

My major complaints are about the "Use of Funds" section in the standards on Financial Activity. (Really, about the percent of administrative cost that is allowed.):

First, it is better than it was. The text addresses the reality that administrative costs are important and valuable and that not all nonprofits will be the same.
It requires an explanation if the organization claims administrative costs of under 10%. This at least re-inforces the fact that not all administrative cost is bad.
It also allows a three year average of administrative costs. While this helps for major infrastructure projects like implementing a new database, it may not be enough. A three year average doesn't allow much for ongoing investment in non-capital infrastructure. However, it still sets percentage standards.
My major complaint is that the percentages don't work for a lot of organizations. For example, small nonprofits that rely on volunteers to provide services and have limited staff who manage the organization and coordinate the volunteers will have a high percentage of administrative costs--simply because its program costs are low (I actually kind of did a rant on this topic) (go here for a longer rant and a link to a great article from Fast Company about this)

Thoughts from the Minnesota Nonprofit and Foundation Conference

2009-11-06T11:35:00.004-06:00

(This is going to be a series of shorter posts)

This conference is a day and a half--jointly put on by the Minnesota Council of Nonprofits and the Minnesota Council of Foundations.

Title: Transforming our Work: from Challenging Times to Hopeful Futures (The title seems to follow the standard nonprofit conference model” three words, colon, four to six words.) http://www.transformingourwork.org/

Attendance: 1800 nonprofit professionals, foundation staff persons, board members of foundations and nonprofits, and quite a few consultants (like me--looking for projects)

Facility:

St. Paul River Center convention center. Great layout, Great location. I found reasonably priced parking only a block away (RiverCenter municipal ramp across the street is OVER priced). But, no wifi on conference floor. YOu have to go downstairs to coffee shop to get wifi. What is this, 1990???

General Thoughts:

The organizers are allowing a lot of time for networking--that’s what I come to conferences for.
First sessions on Friday are at 7:45. AGGG. No private sector conference would start THAT early!
There is NO resource room where participants can leave literature for other attendees to pick up (this is usually a great source of material to plagiarize from--opps, I mean learn from.
Great networking--meeting a lot of old friends and new people. Ran out of business cards on the Thursday afternoon.
Wish there were more people from local foundations and at least some people from national foundations so they could learn a little about the real world of running a nonprofit and dealing with their requirements.
Really wish some government funders of nonprofits (e.g. counties that provide funding for human service nonprofits) were here to learn.

San Francisco--two short days

2009-09-23T22:55:00.010-05:00

Day one in SF--After getting some

more sleep (after getting the LARGE van exchanged for a car); went to THE tourist destination: Fisherman’s Wharf and Ghirardelli Square. Crowds, shops, street performers, crowds, sea lions, crowds, expensive parking.

Day two in SF--Mass Transit to the California Academy of Science in Golden Gate Park. BART from the end of the line to City Center, transfer to Muni street-car (light rail) N-Judah line. This

Muni line runs under Market Street and then through another tunnel on its way to the south side of Golden Gate Park. Total travel time about 1.5 hours (it would have been faster by car but not as interesting).

California Academy of Science is in a brand new building. Inside is very industrial with a very cold/hard feel. The exhibits were great. Started with the aquarium, went through the Africa hall, the Galapagos and climate change exhibits--all great. The Rainforest was the best. Didn’t have time for the planetarium. Did get up to see the green roof--they had a docent explaining it (That is something the Minneapolis Central Library should do--maybe at least once a week tours of the green roof.) I was kind of expecting fore physics and technology. Except for the planetarium, this science museum clearly focuses on biology and does it extremely well.

On the way back, we went up to the

surface when we got off the Muni at City Center, walked around Civic Center (clearly influenced by the City Beautiful movement), walked along the Tenderloin part of Market street to Powell, had some coffee and people watched (the lines for the Powell Street Cable Car were amazing--looked like all tourists--I wonder if SF natives ever take it as transit). BART back to the hotel.

Traveling is a hassle--SFO Version,

2009-09-23T22:50:00.003-05:00

The flight to San Francisco when fine. In fact, SunCountry seems to have more room between rows than NorthWest and pretty comfortable seats. The flight was about half full so we also had the middle seat free. Landed early--about 11 PM.

The hassle came at the rental car. Took AirTrain from SFO terminal to their rental car facility. We had pre-registered online so we should have been able to walk right up to a car and drive off. Walked into the garage as the online instructions and directed. There were NO cars. NONE. (Remember that ad about just going to the lot and picking the car you want--It doesn't work when there are NO cars.) Went back to the counter. One person was still there.

Now the fun began. The counter person had us go through the registration procedure all over and told us to go out to the National part of the garage and there would be a short wait.

Got out to the garage. the attendant said they were bringing up cars one at a time. after about 45 minutes, they directed the people were were in front of us in the line to take the last VIP car that was in the garage. After another 15 minutes, the attendant said there were no more cars. If we wanted to, we could drive one of the 10 passenger vans to our hotel and return it in the morning for a car. Since we were only about five miles way, we took it.

Got to the hotel and the key cards didn’t work--back down to the desk for new cards.

Went back to Alamo about 6 hours latter (7 AM) and complained to a manager--got about a 25% reduction on our rate (a little over $100). This was also the first time anyone at Alamo or National said “I’m sorry” or explained what happened (a big conference had come in over the weekend and they rented more cars than they should have.)

Travel plusses:

Plane left early and got in early
Plain seats were comfortable
Baggage showed up at baggage claim fast
Hotel was close
Two people at National finally said “I’m sorry” the next morning
Saved over $100 on the car rental

Travel minuses:

Red-eye flight
Trying to sleep on the plane (although this plane was more comfortable than the Egypt Air flight to Cairo)
No car in garage
Had to go through rental car registration twice
No one at Alamo or National were honest when we got there (they clearly knew there were no cars available when we got their--wasted an hour of our time). No one at Alamo or National Car Rental said “I’m sorry.”
Key card (minor)
Had to go back to SFO at 7 AM instead of sleeping after a red-eye flight

Why you should care about broadband and Net Neutrality

2009-08-26T12:08:00.004-05:00

NTEN asked me to write an article on why nonprofit techies and leaders should be interested in the pending decisions and debates at the local, state and federal levels regarding Internet access. The thousand word article is on NTEN's blog. (Note, they came up with the title--"Save the Internet, Save the World."

The "Admin" line item in Nonrprofit budgets

2009-07-31T16:02:00.003-05:00

I seem to be in a rut of no origional posts--just references to interesting things I've found. Well, here is another one.

Nancy Lubkin has another great column in Fast Company in the July issue: "Why Overhead Isn't Evil in the Non-Profit World."

She takes on all those online "giving guides" nonprofit management "guidelines" and foundation biases that say "Overhead is bad. You need to spend at least 88% of your money on programs." A couple great pieces from her column:

"Let's take an example from the for-profit world, which isn't so squeamish about overhead. According to Apple's Q4 2008 report, 78% of its expenses were sales, general, and administrative -- the corporate equivalent of overhead. Seventy-eight percent! Yet nobody flinches. Keep spending, Steve Jobs! Your products rock!"

and

"Stop obsessing about overhead. You can't assess an organization on one statistic. Instead, focus on effectiveness. That's a harder story to tell and a trickier thing to measure. But that effort is what everyone ultimately wants -- a good investment."

Please read her column!

Very different city website

2009-07-27T16:05:00.003-05:00

The city of Westminster in the UK has unveiled a new website--"Google simple". Just a few tabs, a big search box, a mapping function, a calendar, and a short list of topics. Totally contrary to the Attention Deficit inducing website design that is now typical. Check it out at http://www.westminster.gov.uk/

Deloitte doesn't seem to value collaboration when "helping" nonprofits.

2009-07-26T14:39:00.003-05:00

We've been hearing for years from foundations and corporations that nonprofits need to collaborate. But when Deloitte decided to start offering workshops for nonprofits in the Twin Cities on planning, taxes, finances and fundraising, they seem to have decided not to collaborate. The full article on MinnPost byScott Russell is here.

There are great organizations already providing help in these areas in Minnesota--The Minnesota Council of Nonprofits, The Nonprofits Assistance Fund, and MAP for Nonprofits to name three. But Deloitte didn't contact them--didn't consider collaboration--didn't ask for advice.

Also, I'm always a little cautious when for profit consultancies that specilize in for profit businesses offer help to nonprofits. See my post on For-Profit Managers in the Nonprofit World and this column from Fast Company.

10 Disruptive Technologies You Need to Think About

2009-07-01T21:21:00.002-05:00

From Gartner via Holly Ross at NTEN "10 Disruptive Technologies You Need to Think About." No comment is necessary. It says it all.

Proposed High Voltage Transmission Line along a Greenway

2009-06-24T16:32:00.007-05:00

Background
Our local electric utility, Xcel Energy, has proposed two new substations and a double-circuit high- voltage transmission line along the Midtown Greenway in Minneapolis. Xcel claims that this is the best/only way to increase the system capacity to meet the power needs of the area. (In recent years there has been significant development in the area with expansion of the Wells Fargo mortgage service center, expansion of two hospitals and a major office/retail/residential mixed-use redevelopment of an old Sears regional distribution center and store.

In Minnesota, this line will need the approval of the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission. In fact, state law gives the City of Minneapolis no say in this project--only the PUC has any authority. Xcel has filed a request with the PUC and the public process started last week with a public meeting. This week, the first meeting of the Public Advisory Task Force for the project happens (I am the representative from my neighborhood on that task force.)

At last week's public meeting, I provided the following testimony (well, it was close to what is below, I presented from notes, not from a written document--so this is based on those notes:

My Public Comments

Introduction:
My name is Sheldon Mains, I have lived in the Seward Neighborhood for 30 years and am the Seward Neighborhood Group Representative on the Public Advisory Task Force. These comments however are only mine. They have not been approved by the SNG board.

Over twenty years ago, I worked in the transmission line routing program when it was housed in the old Minnesota Environmental Quality Board. However, the staff assigned to this project were not involved with this program when I worked there. I did work with Deborah Pile, the person who is the assigned Public Advisory when I was in a different job in a different agency.

Public Adviser:
I'm going to take this opportunity to introduce Deborah Pile. As Public Advisor, it is her job to help the public be involved in this process. This process involves a lot of rules and procedures so she can be of great help (but can not provide "legal advice.) In short, it is her job to help the public fight (or support) this project. Contact her at Deborah.Pile@state.mn.us or 651-297-2375.

First routing project in a dense urban area:
The law and the rules for this state function were written assuming routing mainly over agricultural, forest and undeveloped land. There are rules and parts of the law that specifically deal with agricultural land, mining land and tourism. There is nothing that specifically deals with densely developed urban land.

This is the first VERY urban route the power line routing program has dealt with. You are going to have to be creative in applying the rules.

You have already done so in setting up the advisory task force—the rules call for at least one town board member—no town boards in Mpls but there are City recognized neighborhood groups—which you did include—thank you.

A few other places where creativity will be required:
Under Minnesota Statutes Section 216E.03 DESIGNATING SITES AND ROUTES
(5) analysis of the direct and indirect economic impact of proposed sites and routes including, but not limited to, productive agricultural land lost or impaired;

There is no agricultural land on this route. However, you will need to consider the direct and indirect economic impact on potential development along this route.

Minnesota Rules 7849.5930 PROHIBITED ROUTES Subp. 2. Parks and natural areas.
No high voltage transmission line may be routed through state or national parks or state scientific and natural areas unless the transmission line would not materially damage or impair the purpose for which the area was designated and no feasible and prudent alternative exists. Economic considerations alone do not justify use of these areas for a high voltage transmission line.

There are no state parks in Minneapolis. But the Midtown Greenway is a recreational and open space that serves an area of the state where there is limited recreational and open space. In fact, I would guess that if you added up the public use of ten average state parks in Minnesota, it would not come close to equaling the use of the Midtown Greenway. In fact, with the limited open space in this area of Minneapolis the PUC should require that XCEL pay the full cost for the replacement of any open space it uses.

Consideration of Alternatives:
MN Rules 7849.5920 FACTORS EXCLUDED.
When the Public Utilities Commission has issued a Certificate of Need for a large electric power generating plant or a high voltage transmission line or placed a high voltage transmission line on the certified HVTL list maintained by the commission, questions of need, including size, type, and timing, questions of alternative system configurations, and questions of voltage shall not be factors considered by the commission in deciding whether to issue a permit for a proposed facility.

This rule is clearly to avoid re-hashing need and alternative ways of providing for that need when there has been a Certificate of Need issued since those issues are dealt with in that process. This rule clearly only applies "When the Public Utilities Commission has issued a Certificate of Need..." There has been no Certificate of Need and none is required. Therefore, this rule does not apply and you are allowed to consider alternative ways of providing for the need and to review what the need really is.

Because of the above rule, and since it appears that the alternative routes down residential streets are not real alternatives (Xcel has not been able to provide an example of where they have place high voltage transmission lines down residential streets), you need to consider more alternatives.

A need for transmission capacity or distribution capacity?
It is clear that the power supply system for this area of Minneapolis needs to be improved. One thing that should be considered is whether the need for improved power supply in the project area is due to a need for more transmission or a need for improved distribution and more substation capacity). Back when I was working for the Minnesota Environmental Quality Program, I remember NSP (Xcel's previous name) proposing a transmission line from Minnesota to Eau Claire Wisconsin to improve the power supply in Western Wisconsin. It turned out in that project that much of the problem was caused by inadequate distribution, not inadequate transmission. Xcel never built that line and there doesn't seem to be a power shortage currently in Western Wisconsin.

Besides considering the character of the need, I propose that one alternative that is considered is what I call the One Substation Alternative:

One new substation along the existing HVTL.
Improved distribution from that substation and other substations serving the area. Remember, much of the distribution in this area is over sixty years old
Replace old equipment and add capacity in existing substations that serve this area.

Who pays for undergrounding:
In rural Minnesota, when transmission lines follow survey lines or existing rights of way, it can cost more than going straight across an agricultural area. This specifically benefits only the farmers whose property is crossed but all rate payers for that power company pay for that additional cost. When the Benton County to Milaca line (I think in the early 1980s) was routed around the developed core of Milaca, all rate payers paid for it.

If it is decided that undergroundiing the best option here, all rate payers in the state should pay for it, not just the rate payers in the local area (as Xcel has proposed).

Thank you for your time

Minneapolis Public Works Department: Blame the pedestrian and promote cars

2009-06-01T17:59:00.004-05:00

Last week there was a small neighborhood meeting with staff from Minneapolis Public Works about pedestrian safety at one location in Seward Neighborhood in Minneapolis.

It seems that the Public Works department has the same analysis of any pedestrian safety situation:

We can't make cars wait too long at an intersection.
We don't mark crosswalks unless it is at an intersection where the cars are already forced to stop by a traffic light or stop sign because:

Drivers ignore the crosswalks.
Drivers ignore the state law that requires them to stop for pedestrians at marked (or unmarked) crosswalks.
We don't want to give pedestrians a false sense of security.

In short, it seems they are saying that they don't care that the drivers are the ones causing the unsafe conditions and that pedestrians should only cross at traffic lights or stop signs (no matter how far out of the way they are.

Nonprofit Tech Conference Keynotes: Social Media, Failure and Intellectual Property

2009-06-01T16:55:00.006-05:00

[This happened over a month ago but the videos were just put online]

The two keynotes at this year's Nonprofit Technology Conference in San Francisco were great but very different. They were total different styles and tackled totally different topics. (Judge for yourself, the videos are at www.nten.org ( hard to find--here is the direct link: http://nten.org/blog/2009/05/27/theyre-finally-here-video-09ntc-plenaries )

Clay Shirky, the author of Here Comes Everybody, was a typical keynote speaker--well known, the author of a new and popular book, and very energetic. He also was the kind of speaker that works great for an opening keynote--he established some broad themes for the conference.

The first half of his presentation was all about social media. (It was vaguely familiar from various videos of Shirky on the Web.) The basic premise was (paraphrased) "the world of organizing without organizations" and "don't worry about loosing control of your brand--you've already lost control." This overall topic was well covered in the conference.
The second half of his talk was on failing inteligently. This is one of my favorate topics--that you can learn alot from trying something and failing at it if you are honest about the analysis. This wasn't discussed much at the conference. That is a shame since many foundations (the funding source of a lot of nonprofits) don't want to hear about failures--they want the final reports to be glowing--they want to pretend everything that they fund is a success. Very few foundations like receiving final reports that say: "The project didn't work; this is why it didn't work; this is what we learned." (The McKnight Foundation here in Minneapolis is one of the few that are interested in this type of report from grantees).

The Tuesday Keynote was by Eben Moglen. He is a Professor of Law at Columbia Law School and the founding director of the Software Freedom Law Center. He hasn't written a new and popular book, he isn't well known (even in the nonprofit technology community) and his speaking style was what you'd expect from a boring law professor. But he ended up forcing everyone to ask themselves really hard questions.

When he started talking i felt a general sigh in the room that seemed to say "this is going to put me to sleep." People kept talking, people were checking their email on their laptops, people were thumbing through the conference programs trying to figure out what breakout session to go to. As Moglen droned on, people started picking up on what he was saying:

Proprietary software stifles innovation and the economy,
The whole concept of "intellectual property rights" is wrong,
We need new systems to compensate creativity.

About half way through his talk, the room was silent--everyone was paying attention. He attacked some sacred cows. He came into a conference that was sponsored primarily by large software companies and challenged their right to existence. The response to his ideas was mixed--some conference attendees loved them, some hated them--but everyone seemed to agree that he was forcing people to think about really hard questions.

The Stimulus Package, Nonprofits and Broadband

2009-05-18T11:57:00.002-05:00

The live blog by Jana Byington-Smith from the session I moderated at the Nonprofit Technology Conference on:

"The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (The Obama Stimulus Package) and Nonprofits" (Mainly about broadband) [Yes I know it is a ridiculously long title]

is here

More Broadband Stimulus Info

2009-05-05T20:34:00.003-05:00

This is about a month old but still looks useful. Stimulus money for broadband development. From Internetnews.com: How to Get Broadband Stimulus Cash
The government is handing out billions of dollars, but obtaining a piece of it won't be easy.

Local Twitter Day May 1

2009-04-26T15:56:00.003-05:00

A friend of mine (Steve Clift) is promoting an interesting project: Local Day. The basic idea is to use your postal code as a hash tag (e.g. #55406) and find other twiterers near you. More details at http://e-democracy.org/tweetlocal

From E-Democracy:

Take the #LocalDay Pledge Now to Spread the Word, by tweeting:

On May 1 join me on #LocalDay and find your neighbors using your Postal/Zip Codel

Stimulus Package, Broadband and Nonprofits. Some Resources

2009-04-26T00:00:00.004-05:00

Tomorrow morning I'm hosting a session at the Nonprofit Technology Conference on the Stimulus Package, broadband and nonprofits. It is going to be a group sourcing session--I don't know much about it. No one seems to have all the answers--but if we share our knowledge, we may be able to figure it out.

So here are some resources:

American Library Association
Top ten things you can do now…To get broadband stimulus funding for your libray
http://www.ala.org/ala/aboutala/offices/wo/woissues/washfunding/fedfund/Broadband%20Top%20Ten.pdf

7.2 Billion for Broadband
http://www.ala.org/ala/aboutala/offices/wo/woissues/washfunding/fedfund/arra101pgs/broadband.cfm

Baller Herbst Law Group
Basic links
http://baller.com/economic_stimulus.html

Opportunities for Federal Grants, Loans and Other Support for Broadband
http://baller.com/pdfs/Baller_Herbst_Stimulus_2-19-09.pdf

Additional Broadband Funding Opportunities
http://baller.com/pdfs/BHLG_More_ARRA_03-30-09.pdf

Knight Center of Digital Excellence
Center of Digital Excellence Stimulus Center
http://www.knightcenter.org/stimuluscenter.html

US Government Recovery Act Sites (added 4/28 -- suggested at NTC)
Central Recovery.gov site
http://www.recovery.gov/

Agency Recovery Act Sites
http://www.recovery.gov/?q=content/agencies

NTIA (National Telecommunications and Informatino Administration--Department of Commerce)
http://www.ntia.doc.gov/recovery/index.html

Department of Agriculture (RUS-Rural Utilities Service)
http://www.usda.gov/wps/portal/!ut/p/_s.7_0_A/7_0_1OB?navid=ARRA_PLANS&parentnav=USDA_ARRA&navtype=RT

National Public Lightpath
News on Broadband Stimulus (see right side bar)
http://www.publiclightpath.org/

Minnesota Broadband Coalition
http://www.mnbroadbandcoalition.com

Internet for Everyone
http://www.internetforeveryone.org/

Fieldstone Alliance (General—non broadband—stimulus information)
Want Stimulus Money? Act Fast!
http://www.fieldstonealliance.org/client/tools_you_can_use/04-08-09_access_stimulus_money.cfm?disccode=TOOL040809&repvendid=335

Blandin Foundation, Minnesota
Live at the speed of light: a broadband vision for Minnesota
http://broadband.blandinfoundation.org/_uls/resources/Vision_Statement_FINAL_0228.pdf

Broadband Initiative
http://broadband.blandinfoundation.org/

Blandin on Broadband Blog
http://blandinonbroadband.org/

Blandin calls for stimulus funding partners
http://blandinonbroadband.org/2009/04/22/blandin-calls-for-stimulus-funding-partners/

Minneapolis Wi-Fi Community Benefits Agreement--Quick Summary

2009-04-25T23:18:00.007-05:00

While traditionally Community Benefits Agreements have been used for real estate developments where developers have promised specific benefits to a community in exchange for support of specific zoning changes, Minneapolis used a CBA to specify the specific community benefits a private contractor would provide in exchange for a contract that made the City of Minneapolis the anchor tenant for a privately build, owned and maintained city-wide wi-fi system.

Brief History
The community benefits agreement was first proposed by Minneapolis Digital Inclusion Coalition--a loose group formed by the Alliance for Metropolitan Stability (using funding from the Minneapolis Foundation. In response to this group, the City of Minneapolis formed a Digital Inclusion Task Force that recommended specific items for the Community Benefits Agreements. To many people's surprise, the Mayor and City Council agreed to a Community Beneifts Agreement and made it a part of the contract.

Major Provisions
From the City of Minneapolis website, the major provision of the CBA are:

USI Wireless will provide $500,000 to create a “digital inclusion fund” that will be used to promote affordable Internet access, low-cost hardware, local content and training. In addition, US Internet will direct a minimum of five percent of the network’s net profits to a digital inclusion fund for ongoing digital inclusion efforts. In total, it is expected that about $11 million will go into the digital inclusion fund over the 10-year term of the contract.
Free limited-time service will be available in some public locations, such as parks and plazas in Minneapolis.
A free “walled garden” level of wireless service – Minneapolis Civic Garden – is now available to people throughout the city for important neighborhood, government, and community services information.
Designated community technology centers will receive free wireless access.

By far the most important benefit is the provisoin of five precent of the network's net profits to a digital inclusion fund. That fund is aministered by the Minneapolis Foundation (an independent community foundation) with the help of a Digitial Inclusion Advisor Board. That board is primarily citizens from the community (one member is a City Council member and one member is a representative of the system owner). This money goes directly from the contractor/owner to the Minneapolis Foundation. It does not go through the city or city council. The almost $400,000 in grants the fund has made are listed here.

The Obama Stimulus Package, Broadband, Minnesota and Leadership

2009-04-21T12:48:00.004-05:00

The Blandin Foundation just hosted a gathering of people interested in making sure Minnesota gets it share of the Obama Stimulus Package money devoted to getting people broadband Internet service.(More detail on the broadband portion of the package here)

Six major take-aways from the meeting:

No one knows the exact process the federal governement will use to distribute the money but much of it (around $4 billion to $5 billion) will be by competitive grants.
These grant applications will be complex and will likely reward collaborations and partnerships.
To write an effective applications, organizations need to get started now--especially get started forming the colaborations and partnerships
Collaborations and partnerships take up-front resources. Because of the economy and state of Minnesota cuts in funding to cities, schools and health care, no one has the up-front money to devote to creating the partnerships.
Ideally, Minnesota state government should step up and be a leader in creating the partnerships.
With the current Minnesota Governor, don't expect any leadership. Minnesota's current governor really believes government can not do anything well and should do nothing. He has been actively making this true for the last six years.

More detail about the meeting on Blandin's Blandin on Broadband blog.

Greenhouse gas reduction grant application causing more greenhouse gasses.

2009-04-20T16:36:00.003-05:00

I just submitted a proposal in response to the Minneapolis Request-for-proposals for ideas to reduce greenhouse gases on the neighborhood level.

The proposal did not allow electronic submission and required:

Six copies of:

A cover Page
A six page application form (the maximum but I challenge anyone to answer all their questions in less than 6 pages)
Attachments (in our case, 4 letters of support from partners)

Plus, one copy each of:

An organization chart (1 page)
List of board members (1 page)
Audit (11 pages)
Annual report (we didn't have one but assume a minimum of 4 pages)

A total of 83 sheets of paper. I had to drive downtown to drop off by 4 PM (I don't know anyone who submits grant applications early-- and saw three other neighborhood groups dropping off grant applications).

Think of all the paper, all the electricity for copiers and all the gas for driving downtown that could have been saved if we all could have submitted the greenhouse gas reduction applications via email.

BTW, this was for a maximum of $10,000 for a six month program. I've submitted shorter applications for multi-year grants of over $100,000. I'm not going to start on how much time the City is forcing it's neighborhood groups to waste on applications like this.

Minneapolis 2nd Ward. Green and DFL

2009-04-18T12:56:00.004-05:00

I just came back from the Minneapolis 2nd Ward DFL (Democratic-Farmer-Labor; what the Democratic party is called in Minnesota) endorsing convention.

For the first time since the 60's, there was no one running for the DFL endorsement for City Council in the 2nd ward. The only reason I can see for this is a little complex:

The current Council Member for the ward only Green Party member of the city council.
Neither the Minnesota Green Party or the Minnesota DFL party allows for the endorsement of a member of another party or the endorsement of the same candidate by two parties. He fits the ward well.
The 2nd ward is probably the most liberal part of a liberal city.
The current council member does a very good job with everything from consituent services to mirroring the values of the ward.

So, what does a political party do when a member of an oposition party is well liked by its members? In this case, it first passes a motion of no endorsement that prohibits the party central committee from endorsing anyone before the election. This also was done in a way that strictly followed party rules. It then passes a resolution that is a close as possible to an endoresement without being an endorsement:

WHEREAS, Council Member Cam Gordon has done an excellent job serving Minneapolis’s Second Ward, and

WHEREAS, Cam Gordon has represented us in a manner consistent with the progressive values of the Democrats of the Second Ward, and

WHEREAS, the rules of our party do not allow for an endorsement of anyone who is a member of another political party, therefore

BE IT RESOLVED that the Democrats of the Second Ward do not endorse anyone for 2nd Ward Council Member, but do support the re-election of Cam Gordon to the Minneapolis City Council in 2009.

Both the motion and the resolution passed by around 90%.

Trash, Litter

2009-04-16T22:14:00.006-05:00

Last overall comment on Egypt trip (I'm finally done with getting my blog posts done--trip ended over two weeks ago!).

There have been a lot of stories about the problem with the very low cost plastic bags used in markets and small shops around the world. From our experience in Egypt, they really are a problem. Those plastic bags from shops are everywhere. Up against the pyramids, along fences, in parking lots, along the sidewalks in all the towns and cities, along the railroad to Alexandria, along the desert highway back from Alexandria, at Abu Simbel, in the Nile. Everywhere!

JFK's Terminal 4

2009-04-10T15:10:00.005-05:00

What a rotten design for a new airport terminal.

First the good news. The customs and immigration area is very well designed. Lots of capacity. Easy to figure out where to go next. Great signs (but you really don't need the signs--it's obvious where to go).

When you leave customs, you need to find where to check in for your connecting flight. There are no visual clues. When you come out, all you see is the doors to the outside for ground transportation. A sign says "Connecting Flights" and points through a small door to the left. There are a series of airline desks with baggage check-in scales. We get in line for NWA/KLM. When we get to the desk, we're told, "No, this is not the right place. This is only for reporting lost or damaged luggage. You need to go upstairs to level 4."

We finally find the escalators (continuing through the "damaged baggage" room, out a door, we discover the back side of the escalators. We take them up one level (with our baggage in tow). Finally see a sign that says Level 2. Finally find the next flight of escalators (behind us). Repeat on level 3.

We get up to level 4. Rows and rows of airline check-in desks. There are 4 aisles and we are in the middle. No signs for which airline is which directiton. We get lucky and guess the right direction and find a set of NWA/KLM counters. We stand in line for 20 minutes. When we get to the desk we are told, "No, this these are the counters for the flight to Amsterdam. It says so on the electronic sign above me." We point out that there is NOTHING on the electronic sign. Response. "Oh, sorry. You need to go down to those counters."

We go there and, WOW, very short line, we're told we are in the right line and get checked in. Go to another line to turn in our baggage (the TSA baggage scanning machines are out in the middle of the area--they didn't make it so the airline can just put them on the conveyor behind the counter.)

We go downstairs to the central area where all the food places are. Check our flight on the board--it's on time. Check the security line--it's long so we decide to get in it. ten minute line to check your boarding pass--another 10 minute line to go through the scanners. We get to the concorse. Only two food places on the boarding side of security. One a cart with oriental food that looks like it has been in the steam table for hours. One with pre-wrapped sandwiches.

Our flight is listed for departure at 5:30 from the same gate as the Egypt Air flight to Cairo is listed for departure at 6:10. The Egypt Air plane is at the gate. Checking the web with my cell phone, our plane shows a delay--until 7:20. Monitors in terminal still say 5:30.

In short, whoever designed this terminal should be forced to fly through it on every trip he or she takes.

The Pyramides of Giza

2009-04-06T19:01:00.007-05:00

Wow.

Ok, a little more detail.

First some perspective: The pharaohs in the 26th Dynasty (around 600 BC) wanted to recreate the traditions of the early pharaohs so they did some archeology at the Step Pyramid (built a few miles away and before the Giza pyramids. The Step Pyramid was already 2000 years old. The Step Pyramid was built as a series of steps. Smooth sided pyramids came later.

The Great Pyramid at Giza statistics:

over 2 million blocks used to construct it
built around 25ooBC
when built, it was 485 feet high.
tallest building in the world until the 19th century (that make it the tallest building on earth for over 40 centuries.)
it and the second pyramid were faced with polished white limestone (you can still see some of it at the base) that reflected the sun. (The third pyramid at Giza was faced with red [pictures to come this afternoon] Wow. Ok, a little more detail. First some perspective: The pharaohs in the 26th Dynasty (around 600 BC) wanted to recreate the traditions of the early pharaohs so they did some archeology at the Step Pyramid (built a few miles away and before the Giza pyramids. The Step Pyramid was already 2000 years old. The Step Pyramid was built as a series of steps. Smooth sided pyramids came later. The Great Pyramid at Giza statistics: <ul><li>over 2 million blocks used to construct it</li><li>built around 25ooBC </li><li>when built, it was 485 feet high.</li><li>tallest building in the world until the 19th century (that make it the tallest building on earth for over 40 centuries.)</li><li>it and the second pyramid were faced with polished white limestone (you can still see some of it at the base) that reflected the sun. (The third pyramid at Giza was faced with red granite--from Aswan)</li><li>current theory is that it was built in about 20 years without using slaves.</li><li>the Giza plateau is an outcropping of bedrock.</li><li>the bedrock was leveled for construction (to within 1/2 inch over the 13 acre base</li><li>the four sides are 756 feet long, plus or minus 2 inches (note to my friend Dave the Surveyor--how does this compare with current surveying technology?) </li></ul>The Sphinx was carved out of bedrock. Either about 2500BC or earlier than 5000 BC depending on the theory. The typical annual Nile flood came within a few yards of it. s feet. The city of Cairo comes right up to the edge of the Giza plateau. (There is a building for lease about a block from the Sphinx.) We did go to the "Sound and Light Show" at Giza--Coordinated colored lights on the pyramids and sphinx and some "cheese, historically inaccurate" narration. ("Cheese, historically inaccurate" is a quote from a 16 year old who was on our tour with her parents. She was a real ancient Egypt expert and this comment about the Sound and Light Show seems very appropriate.) I think they did update it once a few years ago. It now includes outline images drawn by a green laser. But it was fun to attend. (James Bond fans will remember the opening fight sequence in The Spy Who Loved Me--1977--Roger Moore as 007 appears to take place during the Sound and Light Show. The actually fight was shot in Karnak temple in Luxor.)granite--from Aswan)
current theory is that it was built in about 20 years without using slaves.
the Giza plateau is an outcropping of bedrock.
the bedrock was leveled for construction (to within 1/2 inch over the 13 acre base
the four sides are 756 feet long, plus or minus 2 inches (note to my friend Dave the Surveyor--how does this compare with current surveying technology?)

Random thoughts:
The Sphinx was carved out of bedrock. Either about 2500BC or earlier than 5000 BC depending on the theory. The typical annual Nile flood came within a few yards of it.

The crowds going to the small area next the the sphinx are kind of intense.

The city of Cairo comes right up to the edge of the Giza plateau. (There is a building for lease about a block from the Sphinx.)

There is this odd building next to the Great Pyramid. The surprise is that it houses a "sun boat." The sun boat was for the pharaoh to use on his trip to heaven. It was found disassembled in a pit in the limestone next to the pyramid. They put it back together (it had marks on the boards identifying were they went (the equivalent of "insert tab a into slot b"). The only things new in the reconstruction are one oar and the ropes.

We did go to the "Sound and Light Show" at Giza--Coordinated colored lights on the pyramids and sphinx and some "cheese, historically inaccurate" narration. ("Cheese, historically inaccurate" is a quote from a 16 year old who was on our tour with her parents. She was a real ancient Egypt expert and this comment about the Sound and Light Show seems very appropriate.) I think they did update it once a few years ago. It now includes outline images drawn by a green laser. But it was fun to attend. (James Bond fans will remember the opening fight sequence in The Spy Who Loved Me--1977--Roger Moore as 007 appears to take place during the Sound and Light Show. The actually fight was shot in Karnak temple in Luxor.)

Valley of the Kings

2009-04-06T17:37:00.009-05:00

The kings (Pharaohs) in Wast (Thebes/Luxor) around 1500 BC decided that publicizing their tombs and the riches in their tombs with large temples just made it easier for grave robbers. They decided to hide their tombs in undergound chambers in a desert valley on the west side of the Nile. (It didn't work).

The Valley of the Kings is breathtaking landscape. Totally barren desert--not one plant visible. Limestone outcropings and limestone gravel under foot (no, not sand). The valley was chosen because the ridge above it looks like a Pyramid.

Luxor/Thebes/Wast

2009-04-06T16:51:00.006-05:00

Wast (Thebes to Greeks, Luxor now) was the center of the Middle and New kingdoms (2000 BC to about 600BC). Because it was the center of Egypt for so long, it has lots of history.

Karnak Temple is massive--built over a 1300 year period, over 100 acres. Lots of restoration has happened, lots is still going on.

Luxor temple: Contrary to the architecture of Las Vegas, the temple of Luxor has no pyramids. Had a chance to talk to an archialogist from Chicago House (Univeristy of Chicago) working on some restoration. He has been working on it for three years had has been able to see noticable deterioration of the temple over that short time. It is mainly caused by irrigation of sourounding farm land. This has raised the water table--the water is absorbed by the sandstone blocks that are the temple's main structure--the water causes deteriation to the carving. He said the good news is that a de-watering system has been installed at both Luxor and Karnak to lower the water table and this seems to be helping.

Another temple (on the west side of the river--Luxor is on the east bank) is Harshepsut. This temple (built around 14oo BC is very different than the others--a series of raising plazas with colonades. It looks more Greek than Egyptian but it was built around 1500 years before Alexander came to Egypt. It is actually patterned on a temple built around 2000 BC in the same area.

Archiological work on this temple is being done by the Polish-Egyptian Acrchaeological Mission-- The Egyptian government and Warsaw University. It seams that at every site, there is archaeology work being done. Always with the Egyption Department of Antiquities and a foreign partner.

It

River Traffic

2009-04-06T10:21:00.005-05:00

There is virtually no industrial river traffic. Every once in a while we pass a small motorized barge. One hauling sugar cane plants, two carrying petroleum. No significant movement of agricultural goods. Ghada (our guide) says that the Nile isn't used for industrial shipping (she says because it is too slow). I'm guessing there are two more important reasons.

There isn't that much bulk to ship. The arable land in the upper Nile is limited to a very narrow strip along the Nile (you can see the desert beyond while cruising down the Nile.
Egypt had the first railroad in Africa and it runs along the Nile.

We go through a small lock going downstream--smaller than the smallest locks on the Mississippi.

Cruising the Nile

2009-04-06T10:14:00.005-05:00

Don't expect to be the only ship cruising the Nile. This is a big part of the tourist business in Egypt. At Edfu, tour ships were docked three to five deep along the whole length of the wharf. (You disembark by going through the central lobby of the ship(s) between you and the warf. Each ship has between 50 and 200 passengers.

Our Guide/Tour

2009-04-06T09:51:00.003-05:00

We decided to use the package tour method of seeing Egypt:

We don't know the langage
We were lazy--we didn't want to spend a few months learning Egypt history before going (we did read a couple books--but that was just skimming the surface)
We've found that going to museums in places where English is not the primary language, you miss a lot unless you have a guide.
We got a good deal on the tour
We've gone on four other tours with this company (Lindblad) are have been very pleased.

For the 28 tourists on this trip, there are two guides--so each group is only 14 people. They do have really good guides. Ghada, the guide we've spent most of our time with, has studied Egyptology all her life. In fact, in the few minutes she had off one day on the cruise, she was reading a just published study on some recent research.

This type of tour must have been really hard to manage before cell phones. I think Ghada spends half her life on her cell phone make last minute changes, and checking on arraingments, changing meal times because we're running early or late.....

Edfu

2009-04-04T20:49:00.010-05:00

Another day, another Temple. Edfu Temple is said to be the "best-preserved monument of the ancient world. It is another temple to Horus--the Falcon god. It was built in the New Kingdom (around 250 BC but covered with Nile silt and Sahara sand for almost 2000 years. It still has the stone roof on the temple so you get a great feeling for how it felt when it was built.

Like at all the tourist attractions, they site is set up so you exit through the tourist market (just like museums do it with gift shops). In Egypt it is a bunch of independent merchants, all selling tourist stuff. They each rent a stall.

Aswan, Granite, Temples

2009-04-03T09:19:00.010-05:00

Aswan is the source of the granite used in all the ancient Egyptian temples. (It's about a two hour flight between Aswan and Cairo--which gives you an idea of the distance the large blocks were transported). We visited a quarry for pink granite--really beautiful stone. Ancient Egyptians started quarrying an obelisk and quit when they found flaws in the rock.

Quarrying was done by knocking small pieces of granite off to get a larger (or very large) block free. They also made holes and packed it with dry wood, then used water to make the wood expand.

Visited the Temple of Philae in Aswan--it was on an island that was partially flooded by the first (British) Aswan dam. It was moved to a higher Island.
Cruising down the Nile you notice a haze on the horizon. This seems to be a combination of blowing sand and pollution.On our way down the Nile (to the north), we stopped at Kom Obou--a temple dedicated to two gods--Haroeris and Sobek.

Stopped at security

2009-04-01T17:45:00.003-05:00

When you are carrying six power supplies (for three cameras, two cell phones, an Ipod), an extension cord to plug them all in, a security cable and a network cable in the same bag you have all your sunscreen in, I guess you have to expect to have the baggage searched. Ours was the only bag that had a special had search in our group of 29 tourists at Luxor Airport. (I've noticed that the suitcase with all that stuff in tends to be searched by TSA about 50 % of the time.)

Facebook in Cairo

2009-04-01T17:35:00.005-05:00

Picked up a copy of the Herald Tribune (NYT's global edition) at the hotel before leaving for Alexandria. In the second section (the local section for Egypt) two interesting articles:

A new ancient tomb was found that is from the Old Kindom (thousands of years old)
Dateline Cairo: A group of Arab bloggers is using Facebook to compose an open letter to Obama. Letter will go public on March 25. (Same article in Middle East Times)

Internet Access in Egypt

2009-03-31T16:18:00.003-05:00

Interent access for tourists in Egypt can be summarized as expensive. The only exception was our first hotel in Cairo where I found an unsecured wifi that I could access from the hotel room.

The ship we cruised the Nile on for 4 days had access for about $11.00 for each 30 minutes. If the ship was moving the access was intermittent and rather slow. If the ship was docked, the access was rather slow but stable.

The Cairo hotel we stayed in when we were at the pyramids (it was less than a mile from the pyramids had wired Internet in the rooms. It cost about $ .90 per minute. It was a deal if you used a lot--only about $35 maximum for any one 24 hour period.

So, I'm getting my blog done at home.

Found out that only about 5% of Egyptians have Internet access of any kind (To help put this in persective, about 50% of the population live in rural areas.) I did see a couple Internet Cafes while we were driving.

Upper Nile (March 23)

2009-03-31T15:48:00.008-05:00

The Cairo International Airport terminal for our charter flight to Abu Simbel and Aswan is chaotic. Lines start for security then turn in to a mass crowd all trying to get through. This terminal for domestic travel really needs to be expanded. We walk out and board a bus for a three minute ride to our plane.

Taking off over Cairo you can see the smog. We quickly get to the Eastern Desert. (Between Nile and the Red Sea). We are flying to the east of the Nile. We cross one paved road headed east—it must be one of the five roads that connect the upper Nile to the Red Sea. (The lower Nile is the delta—from slightly south of Cairo too the Mediterranean Sea. Everything else is the Upper Nile.) There is nothing down there. No plants. All sand and rock. There are some large canyons that are totally dry. It is hard to imagine water cutting them (Cairo gets rain about 6 days a yea (from the little rain we got in Alexandria, a day with rain seems to be defined as any day with even a trace of rain).

Flying over Lake Nasser lets you see how big the reservoir is behind the Aswan High Dam.

After about 2 hours we land at Abu Simbel; take a bus the 300 yards to the terminal; board a bus for the 10 minute ride to the Abu Simbel temple of Ramses II; balk down a hill; have our mouths drop open.
Abu Simbel
The temple is huge. The facade is over 100 feet high with four colossal statues of Ramses II. A little bit to the right is the temple Ramses II built to honor hiss favorite wife—Nefertari (which has more statues of Ramses than Nefertari). That is was built in the 13th century BCE is amazing. That the whole thing was moved to save it from flooding from the Aswan High Dam is also amazing. (If you look closely, you can see the saw cuts where the cut the temple into large blocks to move—but in most cases you have to look very closely.) One interesting addition was made when they moved it. There are very subtle slits in the ceiling next to the walls in some places—for fresh air that is forced in to reduce the humidity caused by all the tourists breathing and sweating.

Aswan
We fly to Aswan International Airport (about ½ hour). Get off the plane and onto a bus for a 500 foot ride to the terminal (I'm beginning to realize this is the system used at all Egypt airports.).

Aswan is no longer a small town—about 1 million population. Population growth is because of the Aswan High Dam. The dam provides ¼ of the electricity for Egypt and that cheap energy has resulted in a lot of industry around Aswan. Not much air pollution and very light traffic. It seems to have a much more laid back personality than Cairo.

More about the Bus ride back to Cairo (March 21)

2009-03-31T13:24:00.005-05:00

We did have some excitement with the bus loosing power—could only get into 2nd gear. It took about an hour to fix at the 2nd mechanic. All of this (we were driving at a top speed of about 30 MPH for over an hour to get to a mechanic) took about 3 hours.

We did stop of a Coptic Christian monastery in the desert. It dated from the 4th century.

Bibliotheca Alexandria

2009-03-31T13:19:00.004-05:00

The historic Bibliotheca Alexandria was founded in the 3rd century BCE. It was the largest library in the ancient world. (Any ships landing at Alexandria were required to turn over all scrolls to the librarians—a copy was made and given to the ship—the library kept the original.

The new Bibliotheca Alexandria was finished in 2002 with the help of a number of nations and UNESCO. It seems to be a great library building—designed to function as a library. It includes an antiquities museum, a science museum, a planetarium, and a small art museum—this seems to follow the functions of the ancient Bibliottheca Alexandria. (Now it's the only library with a Planetarium--hopefully we'll succeed in getting the Minnesota Planetarium added to the Minneapolis Central Library as planned.) It has a 2000-seat reading room on seven tiered levels, and space for 8 million hard copy volumes. (currently the collection is quite small-- 800 thousand volumes). It has the copy of the Internet Archive, lots of computer terminals and an instant publishing service.

It is not a “Free Public Library” like US libraries. Everyone needs to pay a fee to enter (Annual fee for Egyptians is about $12 per year (less for students, children and retired persons), about $65 per year for non-Egyptians.

Alexandria (March 19-20)

2009-03-31T13:04:00.002-05:00

There really isn't a lot of History to see in Alexandria. Very little Greek and Roman is left. We did go into Roman catacombs and a Roman Amphitheater. The catacomes are a series of tunnels, shafts and rooms mined out of sandstone where Romans had been buried. The art carved into the walls was a strange mix of influences from ancient Egyptian, Greek and Roman. In includes art of the mummification process--that gets it wrong.

The Alexandria National Museum includes sections on the Pharaohic periods (Old, Middle and New), the Coptic and the Muslim periods. A great, relatively small museum. It includes some of the treasures found off the coast near where the Ancient Alexandria Lighthouse was.

Alexandria is the second largest city in Egypt--about 2 million people. Traffic is not quite as bad as Cairo but still chaotic. It is a beautiful setting on the Mediterranean. It is the largest industrial port in Egypt (which we didn't see).

Had a chance to walk around the downtown shopping district. It is a series of small shops. We seem to at first be in the shoe section--shop after shop selling shoes. We then get into the cell phone section--again, shop after shop selling cell phones. Did pass two appliance stores--they have a much greater variety of colors for major appliances--bright red, blue and yellow are options. Otherwise, selection looks similar to US (except it seems to be on the smaller size end--no mammoth refrigerators, only apartment size clothes washers.

Nile Delta March 19-21

2009-03-31T12:31:00.001-05:00

Train to Alexandria:
Mini van to the main Cairo railroad station. Busy place—even on a national holiday. All the trains look very worn on the outside. Inside of our train (first class) is in great shape.

Riding through Cairo on the train we notice all the buildings look worn on the outside. We're guessing the heat, sun and sand are hard on the exterior of things here. Lots of satellite dishes on every high rise. According to our guide, everyone in the building has their own

Train goes through the agricultural Nile delta. The agriculture seems to be all done by had and is very intense. Only walking paths (if any paths) between fields. All work seems to be done by hand. Land is very flat and only a couple feet above the level of the river. Large irrigation canal parallels the railroad for a while. Lots of small gas powered pumps getting water to the fields. Lots of small irrigation canals.
The train is nonstop to Alexandria. Has the right-of-way. Its speed seems to be faster than the autos on the 4 lane divided motorway that parallels it most of the way. We go a little slower through towns and when we get into Alexandria—sometimes slowing to a crawl in Alexandria. Two and a half hours to Alexandria (about 220 kilometers.)

Bus Back to Cairo:
On the bus ride back to Cairo, we took the desert road—a four lane divided highway. Agriculture here is by irrigation from wells. It isn't as intense as in the delta—the land just isn't as fertile. It is mainly sand. We actually see tractors--the work isn't done by hand here. Here the irrigation seems to be primarily by large moving sprinkler system (the kind you see in Western Minnesota and the other prairie states).

See our first pigeon houses. Silo like structures with lots of holes and a curved top. Used to raise pigeons for food.

Delta from the air (update):
It is clear when we leave Cairo for home. Flying over the delta we see a maze of irrigation canals. Very green landscape. It does look like about 10 percent of the delta is taken by small, medium and large towns/cities. According to our guide, one of the problems Egypt is facing is that the increasing urbanization of Egypt is taking very good farm land out of production.

Cairo

2009-03-31T09:36:00.005-05:00

Traffic:
Cairo has a population or 18 million (Egypt's population is about 85 million). Downtown streets could probably handle a population of 5 million max. Nonstop traffic from about 7:30 AM to 9 PM. There are a lot of traffic circles and most of downtown is no left turn from two way streets—you just go past the street you want to turn on by a couple blocks and make a U turn. Some motorways and flyovers downtown. Some of the flyovers rise up from narrow streets (2 lane) and you end up three stories up looking in apartments that are 10 feet away (think Chicago L but with cars).

Purple Haze:
While we are in Cairo, a constant haze of smog. Industry, cars (lots of cars stuck in traffic), and dust from the desert all contribute to it. It is obvious that this pollution is hard on the buildings—the all look dirty. Most of the surfaces that were shiny are not shiny.

Mosques:
Our first morning the tour included two historic mosques:

Mohammed Ali Mosque (1840 AD) is inside Al-Qalla (The Cidadel). Al Qalaa was founded in 1176 AD by Muslim commander Salah ad-Din (Saladin—the commander who defeated Richard the Lion Hearted in the Crusades). The Mohammed Ali Mosque was an Albanian Mercenary commander who won control in a three way contest and started the industrialization of Egypt. The mosque is beautiful but in need of significant restoration (which seems to have started). It is also called the Mosque of the five domes and is on a relatively high hill on the edge of the city. Looking out over the city, we are told that on a clear day you can see the pyramids. Today is NOT clear--a purple haze over the city.
Mosque of Ibn Tulun (AD 876) is the oldest mosque in Cairo. Much simpler design, less ornate. It has a simple beauty that is more powerful than the much larger and more ornate Mohammed Ali Mosque.

Khan El Kahili Market:
Lunch at a restaurant in the Khan El Khalili market. After lunch we look for souvenirs in the market. The plan is to just look around and get some prices. Bev decides she likes two stone cats. Negotiation on price starts at 1600 Egyptian Pounds for one. Merchant immediately comes down to 1200. Bev counters with 120 Pounds. I say it is way more than we want to spend. He comes down to 600 for one. I start to leave the shop. Before I'm out the door it is 600 for two cats. After about 10 minutes of this, we walk out of the shop with two cats for 300 Pounds.

When we get on the bus I ask the guide where the bombing was a month ago. She points to the coffee shops I just walked in front of. All visible damage has already been repaired. Considering the lack of maintenance on everything else—from streets and sidewalks to buildings (both public and private buildings), this quick repair is amazing—and a sign of how important the tourist industry is to Egypt.

Egypt Museum:
No pictures allowed in the Egypt museum. We go through two security check points. The museum has an amazing amount of stuff displayed—in a very haphazard way. Not a lot of organization or descriptions. Every kind of museum case is used—and many artifacts are not protected at all. It seems more a warehouse than museum. Some stone pieces outside are actually stored behind the air conditioning units, leaning against the building. It reminds me of scenes in the Indiana Jones movies. (They are building a new, larger museum that is scheduled for completion in 2010--nearer the Piramyds of Giza. If it is anything near the quality of the Biblioteca Alexandria or the Luxor museum, it will be wonderful.

In comparing the art of the major periods of ancient Egypt. (Old, Middle and New Kingdoms), what is striking is the different style between the old and new. The art of the Old Kingdom seems much more refined, much more detailed. Where they were aiming at realism, it is much more realistic. The art of the New Kingdom seems much more interested in covering the art with gold. It all seems much rougher.

Cairo City:
Cairo could be a beautiful city. It is called the City of 1000 minarets. It has the Nile. Most of the modern buildings (which is by far most of the buildings) are basic concrete apartment blocks of office towers. They all look like they are from the 1960s Soviet period. Some streets have green center boulevards but they are un-kept. Lots of trash/litter. Lots of buildings where the plaster/stucco on the outside is falling off. Lots of advertising—on everything.

Blogger in Egypt

2009-03-22T10:45:00.000-05:00

Took a while to figure this out. When I went to my blogger website, the navigation at the top was all in Arabic. It took a while to figure out which link to click to log it. I don't read Arabic and since Arabic is read right to left, the links are in different places. Luckily, once I got to the dashboard, everything was in English.

Now having problems with the StarOffice "Send to Weblog" feature--freezing and crashing StarOffice.

Arriving in Cairo Wednesday, March 18

2009-03-22T10:36:00.002-05:00

Got to Cairo after a 10 hour red-eye flight from JFK. Except for trying to sleep (Trying to sleep in economy class on a plane should be classified as torture.) , flying on Egypt Air was great: More space between rows of seats, comfortable seats, hot towels to refesh before breakfast, two real meals (they even served steamed fish that was not over cooked or cold) and a snack.Bus from plane to terminal for customs. Getting through customs was very fast.

The cab ride from the airport to our hotel in downtown Cairo was interesting. Bumper to bumper traffic. Very few traffic lights and the ones there were seemed to be ignored. On our side of the road, there were three stripped traffic lanes (no shoulder) but there were five lanes of traffic (lane stripes tend too be ignored. You have to be fearless to drive here.

We were going to send a few hours on our own exploring Cairo—decided to take a quick nap—woke up five hours later—no time for sight-seeing. I went out for a short walk along the Nile (hotel is on the Nile). A lot of permanently moored large boats turned into tourist restaurants.

It turns out that pedestrians have to be fearless also—in crossing the street. Pedestrians effectively do not have the right of way. You have to find a small gap in traffic and start crossing—a lane at a time—stopping between lanes if needed. At least drivers don't aim at pedestrians or speed up. So, at least it's better than NYC.

Ice Shanties by Artists

2009-03-15T22:07:00.001-05:00

I've uploaded a new slide show. Check the left sidebar. Ice fishing shanties created by artists. Medicine Lake, MN (just west of Minneapolis) in February, 2009.

What is new about a "Smart Power Grid"

2009-03-10T15:16:00.000-05:00

What is all this talk about a "Smart Grid" for electric energy supply? There seems to be a lot of hype about how this will greatly increase energy supply or efficiency. From what I've read, the "Smart Grid" seems to be more of a PR term than a radical change. In fact, I don't see anything radical or new about it. From the Washington Post (March 10, 2009; Page A01):

"One gizmo allows you to run the dishwasher when electricity is cheapest. Another decides when to fire up the water heater if you plan on a 6 a.m. shower. "

I remember technology to do run high energy appliances in the off-peak hours in the 1980s. A utility in NW Minnesota had a system in the 80's that would allow them to switch customers between electric heat had automated wood burning furnaces.

"Another routes solar energy from a rooftop panel to a battery in your garage and the wiring in your house. ..."

Any solar energy system that includes batteries does this now.

"The power grid itself can react to trouble, rerouting juice from a healthy part of the system or isolating itself to prevent a larger meltdown..."

Power grids already do this.

What the "Smart Grid" seems to be is more of an on-going improvement of existing system rather than a radical change of technology. I wonder how much of this is an attempt by the electric utility industry to get federal money to do the ongoing maintenance and improvement that they should have been doing all along.

Maybe all we can expect from most major media now is just repeating industry press releases. Many of the reporters who had specialized in energy and the environment have been laid-off or reassigned. General assignment reporters just don't have any knowledge of the history of the issues.

Random stuff: Nonprofit database projects

2009-03-06T14:24:00.002-06:00

Unless you're contemplating a database project--or are in the middle of one, this post is going to be kind of boring or esoteric. But I've seen way too many failed nonprofit database project to ignore. Below is my abbreviated step-by step guide for nonprofit database project. (At the bottom of this post is a link to a longer version.) This post is aimed at nonprofit organizations but probably also applies to for-profit and government organizations.

While you really need to do EVERYTHING right to have a successful database implementation, here are the basics.

Picking a database:

If at all possible, DO NOT decide on a totally custom database. DO NOT start from scratch. Use an existing product that is somewhat customizable. Don't hire a firm or and individual to create one from scratch. If you decide on a custom database, you will pay. You will pay in time, money, success and usability.
Pick a database that meets your organization's needs. Look at a number of options. Do not just pick one because it is low cost or because your executive director knows someone or because someone else uses it. This means starting by determining your needs and your wants. (Don't forget to specify reporting needs.
Get a demonstration with some of the potential day to day users in the room.
Don't pick a database because it "looks nice."
Don't pick a database because "everyone else uses it." (But do consider the benefits of having other users to call for help/suggestion/moral support.
Check vendor references. Check vendor references. Check vendor references.

Implementation

The contract needs to include deliverable, the payments need to be tied to deliverable, and the needs to be a time-line.
Assign an internal project manager and give them enough time to manage the project.
Document all meetings and phone calls with the vendor. Share this with the vendor.
Your overall budget needs to include:
- Cost of the vendor contract--set up and annual fees
- Your costs of data conversion
- An internal project manager (maybe part time, maybe full time
- Cost of training your staff (both the cost of the training and to cost of their time
- Cost of time your staff takes to get proficient with the database.

More Resources:

MS Word document: Nonprofit Project Management

Techsoup database articles:

The Minnesota Chapter of the Project Management Institute (Project Management Coaching)

Basecamp (team project management tool)

The "Give Us Your Membership List" business plan

2009-03-04T10:50:00.001-06:00

Is it my imagination or are there a lot more companies that are offering "shop for charity" programs? These programs typically ask a nonprofit to link to an online shopping site and promote the shopping site to their members. In return, the nonprofit will get a small percentage of each sale.

There are a few questions any nonprofit should ask before agreeing to participate in this type of promotion.

The basic questions include:

Is the website you are linking to offering fair prices and providing quality service.
Is the website free of viruses?
Are transactions secure?

Probably more important:

Does sending people to this website fit your mission. For example, if you are a neighborhood group trying to build a viable community, does it make sense for you to send customers to an online store for things they could buy in your neighborhood?
What happens if your constituents or members have a bad experience on the site? What happens if you got the wrong answers to the first three questions?
Does the income you receive justify distracting your website visitors with this link? Could this promotion reduce the number of people who click on your "donate now" button?

And, since I'm not a lawyer, I haven't even asked any of the legal questions. Just make sure you consult a good nonprofit lawyer who knows 501.c.3 tax law before you agree.

Slightly related to this is a column in this month's Fast Company: Do Something: Jurassic Park Syndrome by Nancy Lublin (I really look forward to her columns). She talks about some trends ins cause marketing.

Note: I owe the term "Give Us Your Membership List" business plan to Tim Mills Groninger. He coined it a few years ago during a National Nonprofit Technology Conference (link to this years NTC) .

The

2009-03-04T10:50:00.000-06:00

Kitchen Table Budget Principles for Minnesota

2009-01-29T10:25:00.000-06:00

An interesting budgeting idea from the Minnesota Budget Project (of the Minnesota Council of Nonprofits) and Organizing Apprenticeship Project:

The state government has forecast a shortfall of $4.8 billion for the next biennium, July 2009 to June 2011. In the next few months, state policymakers will decide how to balance the budget.

We are all facing tough economic times. The unemployment rate is nearly 7 percent, and may well climb higher. Paychecks are downsizing. The value of our stocks and retirement portfolios is evaporating. Each night, tens of thousands of us are being turned away from shelters. Thousands of our homes have been lost to predatory sub-prime lending. Rent is rising. Food prices are going up. Bellies are growling with hunger. Thousands are without health care. College tuition is moving out of reach for more and more of us.

During these tough times, many of us are sitting down with our families around kitchen tables, talking about how we are going to make it through this downturn. We are figuring out what we can cut back on and what we can’t, trying to decide what is necessary.

More at http://www.mncn.org/bp/kitchenbudget.pdf

Another interesting take on the inauguration

2009-01-28T17:27:00.000-06:00

Sam Singh (was ED of Michigan Nonprofit Association) is traveling around the world. He was in a small town in South Africa for Obama's inauguration. Here is his observations:
Singh around the World. And here are some more of his observations

Open Letter to Republicans

2009-01-28T09:23:00.000-06:00

Dear Gov. Pawlenty, Republicans in the MN Legislature, and Republicans in the US Congress.

We've tried tax cuts to stimulate the economy.

Most recently, in the spring of 2008, we had the Bush tax rebate to stimulate the economy. It didn't work! Everyone agrees it didn't work. Please quite asking for more tax cuts in the Obama stimulous package. Your complaints are a distraction at best.

In Minnesota, we had the Ventura/Pawlenty tax cuts about eight years ago. It didn't work! Minnesota's economy has tanked since then. Once you could count on Minnesota's economy out performing the national average and all the other rust belt states. No more. Once we had great public schools. No more. Once we had a quality highway system. No more (try driving I-35 south of Owatonna for an example--or, remember that bridge?). Since that tax cut, we've had one state budget disaster after another. Governor Pawlenty, please fix the Minnesota tax system. restore those poorly considered tax cuts.

Sincerely,

a taxpayer

Really kewl technology

2009-01-26T13:14:00.000-06:00

A 1.5 mega-pixel panoramic picture of the inauguration. By photographer David Bergman. You can zoom into President Bush to check his expression. You can check out the people looking out the windows of the Capitol. Have your kid try to find someone picking their nose.

Full screen with controls at Gigapan here.
Details on how David Bergman did it here.
I found this thanks to David Brauer's blog on MinnPost.com

For-profit managers in the nonprofit world

2009-01-21T09:18:00.001-06:00

We're in a recession--a really bad recession. That means there will be a bunch of managers from the for-profit world deciding to "make a life change" or "do something meaningful." They want to work for (in some cases only volunteer for) nonprofit organizations. They want to show nonprofits how to be highly efficient organizations. They want to fix the management of nonprofits. They want to fix our failing social infrastructure. (They want to pad their resume with what they expect to be an easy win.)

It is my prediction that we are going to see a number of very good nonprofit organizations run into the ground by these for-profit geniuses. The nonprofit world is different.

Most employees work for the love of their jobs--not for high salaries (although getting paid what they are worth would be a welcome change).
Try managing volunteers if you want a challenge.
You think investors and banks are hard to deal with? Try working with corporate and family foundations as well as banks and large private donors (we do probably share the same horror stories about government contracts/funding).
There are dual bottom lines--the financial side and the mission side.
Financial accounting standards and tax laws are different (not better or worse--just different)
You probably can't raise your fees--your clients usually have no money. (and in the case of theaters and museums--do you really want to price out the people who can't afford it?).
We all work long hours for little pay (and no bonuses) (and no personal assistant or free gym memberships)
We don't worship MBAs. We don't even worship people with masters degrees in nonprofit management--but they at least know something about the industry.

I'm not going to go on because I just saw a great article about this in main stream (well, sort of) business magazine--Fast Company. Nancy Lablin of Dress for Success and Do Something has a great column--"No Vacancy: Job-seeking refugees from the for-profit world shouldn't go running to the not-for-profit sector." (And she isn't quite as cynical as I am)

Obama's inauguration

2009-01-20T16:03:00.000-06:00

There is way too much to say about Obama's inauguration and a lot of people have said it better than I can. So here are some links to analysis and commentary I found interesting:

One man's reaction to President Obama's speech By Eric Black, Published Tue, Jan 20 2009 2:13 pm, www.MinnPost.com

A couple excerpts:

....Mentioning Muslims and Hindus is a small act of courage. But what other recent president-elect or presidential candidate would have gone out of his way to acknowledge the agnostics and atheists?....

There wasn't a lot of trash talk about the mistakes of his predecessor. Obama thanks former President Bush for his service and his graciousness during the transition. But the digs were there, delivered with understatement. What else could it mean to restore science to its rightful place,...

Obama’s hard words by Scott Rosenberg's in Scott Rosenberg's wordyard

...In telling us to it was time to “put away childish things,” he may have been referring to the bitter divisions of the past decade, the political squabbling that has diverted so much precious energy and time...

Right now, I’m left with the picture of Malia, the president’s older daughter, pulling out her own digital camera to take a picture right as the TV camera was trained on her. It was a little pointer to the future, a gesture for a new generation that will be taking charge of its media in ways we can’t yet imagine....

Rural Broadband Hearing

2009-01-02T13:57:00.000-06:00

On December 29, 2008, US Senator for Minnesota Amy Klobuchar held a hearing on the need for better better rural access to broadband. This blog entry is going to be my (somewhat random) thoughts that were sparked by the hearing. If you want details about the hearing itself, go to the great summary by Ann Treacy on the Blandin on Broadband blog.

The audience was a round up of all the usual suspects:

Telcom industry lobbyists, consultants and association folks;
People working for Blandin Foundation's broadband project;
Members of the MN Ultra High-Speed Broadband Taskforce;
Reporters;
An employee of the FCC who happened to be in town on vacation (but she usually works on Digitial TV issues);
At least one librarian.

There were a few members of the public in attendance.

Senator Klobuchar's opening comments included her desire that the Obama economic stimulous package include incentives/funding for expanding rural broadband. She noted how the US had dropped behind other developed counties in broadband access and that Minnesota had dropped to 44th out of the 50 states in Internet access speed. She compared the need for funding to the Rural Electrification Administration in the depression of the 1930s.

The panel presenting testimony (organized by Klobuchar staff) had the type of people you'd expect considering the goal of pointing out the need for rural access to broadband:

A rural state senator;
A school technology director (for a largely rural district);
a manager of a rural telephone cooperative;
A manager for a (primarily rural) health provider;
A small town/rural economic development director;
A person who works with Blandin Foundation.

The one surprise was the president of the Communications Workers of America (CWA) (the union that mainly respresents Qwest workers).

All the rural panelsits talked about the need for broadband access. They had the typical examples and the typical horror stories. It seemed like everyone thought just getting access to broadband would solve the problem. There was little or no discussion about the need for access to hardware and software for the low income residents. There was no talk about the need to help people learn that there are reasons they want to be on broadband. There was no talk about the need to have content that was meaningful for all their residents (most seemed to be only considering the middle class in their analaysis).

The presentation by the rural telephone coop manager (West Central Telephone) was interesting. He talked about providing fiber to the home in his rural area--that they were able to do it because:

Federal loans for rural telecomunications provided relatively low cost finance;
They were a monopoly--that no one else wants to serve the low density area they serve;
They are owned by their clients;
Because they only grow if the economy of their service area grows.

They are using units that combine small solar and wind generation equipment to power the electronics needed to run a fiber system across such a large area.

The president of the CWA seemed to mainly parrot the basic line of Qwest: That competion in telecommunications is bad. He was even going back to ancient (in telecom terms) history of the 1954 decision by the FCC that ATT could not provide cable service. I wasn't surprised this, to me, CWA has always seemed to be a captive of the telephone companies (ATT, Northwestern Bell, US West, and Qwest in our area).

No one brought up the issue that the economic self interest of telecommunicaitons companies depends on their size and total service areas.

West Central Telephone for example is willing to invest in their area because they will only grow if the economy of their service area grows.
A municipal owned telecom provider (privately or cooperatively owned) will similarly invest in providing broadband service to their community because that is the only way they will grow.
Qwest will not invest in broadband in rural areas or small towns because they view their growth comming from the metropolitan areas they serve (and even in those areas, they seem more interested in milking the investments made 30 to 50 years ago than in making new investments.

The one interesting idea that was presented (besides the rural telephone cooperative example) was the idea of one highspeed broadband connection to the home, regulated as a common carrier with different companies providing different (and competing) applications over the same wire.

At the beginning of the public comment period, Rick King, the chair of the MN Ultra High-Speed Broadband Taskforce made some good but generic comments about the need for broadband service across the state. He mentioned that the final report of the taskforce will be available in the fall of 2009.

Why is it taking the taskforce until fall 2009 to come out with their recommendations. They started meeting on August 15, 2008. Even for a government task force, that seems to be like a long time! Especially considering that it would be great to have a report for this legislative session and for the new Obama administration. MN state government--always a step behind.

I didn't stay for the rest of the public comment period (my parking meter was expiring) but based on Ann's blog post, nothing exciting happened.

Gulf of Panama and half of the Panama Canal

2008-12-11T18:02:00.001-06:00

Thursday and Friday, December 4 and 5

UPDATE: For some great pictures of the trip, one of our shipmates on the cruse, Mike Nelson, just posted some of his great pictures at http://tinyurl.com/a5f9tc.

Just realized, there are only two more full days on the ship--and that except for one excursion to an island in Gatun Lake in the Panama Canal, no more hiking.

Today, our only excursion off the ship today is a zodiac ride around an Island looking for brown footed boobies (birds), blue footed boobies, brown pelicans, and magnificent frigate birds. Saw some common brown pelicans, a lot of brown footed boobies-including nests built on the rocks with chicks, and even more frigate birds--some males with the big read neck pouch.

When we head to the canal we're told" the rest of the day's schedule will be determined by the Panama Canal Administration (they control when we get to enter the canal).

Panama Canal
Juxtaposition of going through the Panama Canal after over a week of intense exposure to nature is a little shocking. You can consider the Panama Canal as the high tech of the early 20th Century. It was cutting edge when it was built.

While the current canal was built to tame nature, this canal succeeded where the French failed because it worked with nature a lot more than the French attempt. The French had attempted to build a canal at sea level--cutting straight through the The Isthmus of Panama. The French also hadn't considered what to do with the major river that crossed the path of their canal. The US plan used locks to raise the canal 83 feet above sea level and used the water from the river (yes they damned it) as a major part of the canal and for operating the locks.

Since I live on the Mississippi, about two miles from three different sets of locks, I didn't think I'd be that interested in going through the Panama Canal. I was wrong--it was fascinating. The locks are smaller than the Soo Locks between Lake Superior and Lake Huron but when you are going through them, the appear huge. We were in a relative small ship. Freighters that are "Panamax" size only have about 2 feet on either side.

While we were going north (toward the Atlantic), in one set of locks we passed a Russian military ship. It turned out that it was the first Russian military ship to use the Panama Canal.

About halfway through the canal, we stopped for the morning at the Smithsonian's Tropical Research Insitute on an Island in the middle of Lake Gatun. We split into three groups and walked through the rainforest (up and down hills) with guides from the Insitute. Our guide was doing research on bullit ants. So we learned a lot about ants.

Tomorrow morning we take the bus from Colon to Panama City and fly back to Miami.

Isla Coiba National Park in Panama

2008-12-11T17:54:00.001-06:00

Wednesday, December 3

6:40: Into the Zodiac to head to a ranger station at Isla Coiba National Park. Some people for bird watching (including Bev) and some for the early morning stretching with the wellness staff person on board. After dropping off the 2 zodiacs, the ship heads down the coast about 20 minutes to a smaller island.

I took the stretching option. Beginning stretching with a yoga basis. Did learn some new stretches. After stretching, we all head over to the other side of peninsula to check out "Tito"--the large crocodile. One of the station staff station trows the crock a raw chicken leg. Big crock!

We see a couple sea turtles heading back to the ship. After breakfast back on the ship we head to a small island--snorkeling, laying on the beach, kayaking. Lots of pretty fish: a variety of damsel fish and puffer fish varieties, reef shark, a bunch I don't know. No starfish.

We take the option to kayak back to the ranger station for lunch (about a 40 minute paddle. We get there before the ship.

Our next leg is the longest leg of the cruise. We set sail after everyone is back on board. We take sort detail in the middle of the afternoon to follow some Humpback whales. We then are under power until about 11 AM the next day when we bet to a couple islands in the gulf of Panama.

During the afternoon, one of the Panamanian naturalists who seems to know a lot of the history of the area offers a 45 minute lecture on the history of Panama (mainly concentrating on the Panama Canal. According to him, the citizens of are very proud of the canal. The passed a referendum to expand the canal. The expansion is being paid for by increased tolls. (A standard size for international cargo ships is "Panamax"--the maximum sized ship that can go through the canal. They are building the expansion to fit the standard now used in a lot of ports (most dimentions are about 160% of Panamax--leanght, width and draft.

Costa Rica Coast Day 3

2008-12-08T14:26:00.001-06:00

Tuesday, December 2
One of those busy days on a Lindblad cruise--actually busier than most. Today at Golfo Dulce, Rio Rincon and Casa Qrquideas.

6:30 We left on zodiacs to a bird walk on the shore--along a road serving the little settlement.
7:45 Back on bard for breakfast.
8:30 Briefing on Kayaking safety in the lounge
9:00 Load into Kayaks from the fantail of the ship.
Great kayaking in a mangrove forest along the coast. We tried going up a river but with all the rain, the current was just too strong. We could have done it but would have been exhausted.
11:30 Briefing on snorkeling safety, than a talk on Costa Rica history that I slept through.
Lunch.
Tour of Casa Orqideas botanical gardens (I to the time to take a LONG nap. Bev said it was the best tropical garden she had seen.

Tonight we sail for about 12 hours to Panama. Took my Dramamine before bed.

Costa Rica Coast Day 2

2008-12-08T14:22:00.001-06:00

Monday, December 1 (wrote Dec 3)

I'm way behind in blogging. This is day 4 on the ship and I'm only getting to day 2 of the Costa Rica coast.

Day 2 was warm and sunny. For the morning I took the "long" trail option and Bev took the bird watching/short hike. We are in the Caletas Reserve and Corcovado National Park on the Osa Peninsula.

What you see depends to some extent on the naturalist you are with--but more just on chance. We hiked up a stream in the coastal rain forest. The plant life is amazing. But one difference we notice is that there are not as many epiphytes on the trees here as there were in the Monteverde cloud forest. We did not see many birds but did see a Blue Morpho. A big, brilliant blue butterfly. The blue does not come from pigments--it oms from the structure of the wing refracting the light. Bev's group watched a pair of Macaws and a lot of other birds.

In the afternoon we took the waterfall walk--about 2 1/2 miles including fording a stream to a great waterfall. We than swam in the pool at the base of the waterfall--typical tropical picture.

Hiking boots were soaking wet after crossing the stream. Dried them in the engine room--mine took 2 days.