“They wanted to be the absolute best that there was in their field. That was really a business decision, even though it may not seem that way to a group of teenage musicians.”

Authors George Cassidy and Richard Courtney believe the Fab Four followed a classic business model on their way to success. For example, Cassidy says, in any enterprise, you have to be careful about picking your business partners. That’s what young John Lennon and Paul McCartney did when they started a band in Liverpool.
“The period between 1964 and 1966, when they were all lined up together, when they were of a common mind and a common purpose, is when they did amazing things,” says Cassidy. “When they were touring the world and released two albums a year and they made several movies, they were just able to accomplish an incredible amount in a very short period of time, when they all were in sync.”
It was part of the work ethic the four members of the group grew up with.
In “Come Together: The Business Wisdom of the Beatles,” Courtney, an entrepreneur, and Cassidy, a business writer, focus on the Beatles’ persistence and creativity in achieving their goal.
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Does the growing family have anything to learn from a growing business seeking new accommodations? We think so. This post kicks off the new home case study for Apple Computer.

The company wants to build one building that will hold 12,000 Apple employees. “There’s not a single straight piece of glass in this building,” according to Apple founder and CEO Steve Jobs. The parking will be mostly underground. Each cafe will feed 3,000 people at one sitting. The campus “energy center” would be the primary source of power and the grid would serve as a backup.
“We have a shot at building the best office building in the world,” Jobs told the Council members, “Architecture students will come here to see this.” Apple hopes to move into the campus in 2015. Additional features include:

• The circular design with a courtyard in the middle and curved glass all the way around.
• Transforming an area that’s 20% landscaping to 80% landscaping by putting most of the building’s parking underground.
• There are 3,700 trees in the area at the moment, Jobs has hired an arborist from Stanford to take the tree population up to 6,000.
• The plan is to build a four-story high building and four-story underground parking structure.
• There will be an auditorium, fitness center and some R & D buildings.
• Jobs plans a 40% increase in Apple employees going from 9,500 today to 13, 000 in 2015.
• He wants to increase the campus’ space 20% from 2.6 million to 3.1 million square feet.
• Surface parking will decrease 90% from 9,800 to 1,200 .
• The building footprint will decrease 30% from 1.4 million to 1 million.

We join the show, already in progress, with a presentation to the Cupertino, California City Council by Steve Jobs.

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In a ranking of 20 diets by U.S. News & World Report, the magazine concluded the DASH diet was best overall. The magazine’s panel of nutrition experts chose Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension for, among other things, being nutritious, easy to follow and protecting against heart disease and perhaps diabetes.
DASH is chock-full of the fruits, vegetables, high-fiber and high-protein foods that well-publicized weight-loss plans hold in high esteem.
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After thousands of cases involving robo-fraud and no shortage of judges willing to set aside the obligations of their judicial oath, one stand-up judge allows a Florida couple to foreclose on an integrity challenged bank.

There are many designs and many different types of materials used to construct storm rooms. Some features that should be common to all of them are:

• The room must not have any windows
• The room should not be constructed in a flood zone or storm surge zone
• All surfaces of the room should be able to withstand winds of up to 250 mph and wind-borne projectiles
• The room’s door should open inward to assure easy opening after the storm in the case that fallen debris blocks the door
• The room should be securely anchored to a concrete foundation to resist overturning or lifting

Some storm safe rooms will look much like a septic tank constructed of reinforced concrete. Others have walls constructed of fiberglass, carbon fiber, or Kevlar, a product used in bullet-proof vests. The fibers are bonded to structural foam, sandwiched between layers of plywood.
If you are building your safe room strictly for tornado protection, allow a minimum of five square feet per person for an anticipated wait time of two hours. If you are building to ride out a hurricane, you should allow at least 10 square feet per person as your total time in shelter could be as much as seventy two hours; maybe more if you have to wait upon rescuers to remove debris blocking your exit.
Other considerations might include allowing for ventilation and toilet facilities. A safe room’s number one function is to protect you from the storm. But don’t forget the aftermath. Your room should include a first aid kit along with any required medications, an emergency radio, batteries, flashlight, basic tools, blankets, food and lots of clean water.
Instead of throwing away or recycling soda bottles, reuse them. Bottle clean tap water before your well or municipal water supply becomes contaminated by storm water. Label these bottles with the date filled and then stockpile them in your safe room. In an age when our water supply is susceptible to numerous industrial, natural and terrorist threats, we should be storing such water bottles at every school, church, synagogue, mosque, and community center with an available closet.
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Your breast-milk is always going to be top-notch for your baby; but a poor diet may zap energy at a time in your life when energy is already something that is hard to come by. Below are a few tips for maintaining a healthy diet while breastfeeding:

• Eat when you are hungry and drink when you are thirsty – This isn’t as easy as it sounds with a new baby.
• Keep water by your nursing spot – If you tend to always sit down to nurse in the same spot during the day, keep a water bottle(and snacks) within arms reach. Nothing brings on thirst quite like nursing a new baby.
• Stick to snacks you can eat with one hand – Stock up on one-handed snacks such as apples, carrot sticks, cheese cubes, and fruit/nut bars. See if your partner can make you an easy-to-grab sandwich before they leave for work in the morning.
• Make a double batch! – When making dinner, always make a double batch so that you have lunch for the next day.
• Eat small meals – Try eating several small meals throughout the day instead of three large ones.
• Keep snacks by the bed – Keep easy to eat snacks, such as granola bars, within arms reach of your bed. Hunger strikes at all hours during those early months. Don’t forget your water bottle!
• Ignore the rules – If you want to have an omelet for lunch, go for it! Same thing goes with having leftover meatloaf for breakfast.

 
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U.S. First Lady Michelle Obama and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack unveiled a new food icon as a reminder to help consumers make healthier food choices. MyPlate is designed to encourage us to build a healthier plate at meal time. The new MyPlate icon emphasizes the fruit, vegetable, grains, protein and dairy food groups. It is an easy-to-understand visual cue that helps consumers adopt healthy eating habits.
The Guidelines messages include:
Balance Calories
• Enjoy your food, but eat less.
• Avoid oversized portions.
Foods to Increase
• Make half your plate fruits and vegetables.
• Switch to fat-free or low-fat (1%) milk.
• Make at least half your grains whole grains
Foods to Reduce
• Compare sodium (salt) in foods like soup, bread, and frozen meals, and choose foods with lower numbers.
• Drink water instead of sugary drinks.
Coupled with these tested, actionable messages will be the “how-tos” for consumer behavior change. A multi-year campaign calendar will focus on one action-prompting message at a time starting with “Make Half Your Plate Fruits and Vegetables.”
“What we have learned over the years is that consumers are bombarded by so many nutrition messages that it makes it difficult to focus on changes that are necessary to improve their diet,” said Secretary Vilsack. “This new campaign calendar will help unify the public and private sectors to coordinate efforts and highlight one desired change for consumers at a time.”
As part of this new initiative, USDA wants to see how consumers are putting MyPlate in to action by encouraging consumers to take a photo of their plates and share on Twitter with the hash-tag #MyPlate.

Nutrition, Health and Consumer Advocates Applaud the Launch of the New MyPlate Icon

Nancy Chapman, Executive Director, Soyfoods Association of North America (SANA)
“Now more than ever the 2010 Dietary Guidelines are relevant for all Americans, regardless of age, cultural preferences, or dietary needs. By creating the new food icon, USDA helps all adults and children understand what a healthy plate should look like when they sit down at the dinner table. SANA applauds the Administration for taking another huge step with this practical guidance.”
Ginny Ehrlich, CEO of the Alliance for a Healthier Generation
“In order to reverse the trend of childhood obesity in the U.S., both parents and kids need accurate, easy to understand information about what constitutes a healthy diet. First Lady Obama has done an excellent job helping parents and kids understand the importance of eating right and staying active, but many Americans still need help understanding how to plan healthy meals. We are pleased that the USDA has seized the opportunity to help consumers better understand the basics of good nutrition and hope that this new icon helps parents make healthier choices for their families.”
Wayne T. Gattinella, CEO and President of WebMD
“WebMD fully supports the USDA’s new initiatives to encourage healthy food choices for consumers. As an organization founded on the philosophy of empowering consumers with clear, actionable health information, WebMD will leverage its reach to over 90 million consumers to educate them on the USDA’s new nutrition icon and guidelines.”
James H. Hodges, President, American Meat Institute Foundation
“We are pleased that the new food icon unveiled today, just as the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2010, affirms in a clear and simple fashion that protein is a critical component of a balanced, healthy diet. Lean meat and poultry products are some the most nutrient rich foods available, are excellent sources of complete protein, iron and zinc and maintain an excellent nutrition per calorie ratio. AMI will continue to voice support for the premise that a well-balanced diet, proper portion sizes and exercise are keys to overall good health and wellness.”
Ric Jurgens, Chairman of the Board and CEO, Hy-Vee, Inc.
“As a company committed to making peoples’ lives easier, healthier and happier, we applaud the USDA and the Let’s Move! initiative for taking this important step forward in nutrition education. We will do all we can to support the icon’s success.”
Barbara Byrd Keenan, Executive Vice President for the Institute of Food Technologists
“The new Dietary Guidelines set high standards that will require a concerted effort among numerous scientific disciplines to gradually change consumer behavior. This new icon will make it easier for consumers to incorporate the dietary guidelines into their food choices, which will ultimately help improve the health of our country.”
David A. Kessler M.D., Former FDA Commissioner, Professor of Pediatrics, Epidemiology and Biostatistics, University of California, San Francisco
“The Plate is a major step forward in our nation’s efforts to promote health and prevent disease. In today’s environment, when food is on every corner, at every event, and two-thirds of the nation is overweight or obese, consumers need clear guidance on healthy eating. The Plate shows more clearly than the Pyramid what healthy eating is. The Plate and the comprehensive communications effort it represents will help reverse trends for obesity. The First Lady and Secretary Vilsack are taking an important stand for public health. The First Lady has challenged our country’s food companies to lead in our fight against obesity. The new Plate will help everyone who has accepted her challenge.”
David Kirchhoff, President and CEO of Weight Watchers International, Inc.
“We applaud the introduction of the new, common sense icon for the Dietary Guidelines, the plate. Like the 2010 Dietary Guidelines, which were released in January, the new Plate is important because it can help guide more Americans to the smart food choices that can help them reach a healthier weight. By fostering a leaner nation, we can in turn help to cut the health care costs linked to weight related illnesses, including type 2 diabetes, heart disease, stroke, high blood pressure and some types of cancer. This is an important step.”
Robb MacKie, American Bakers Association President and CEO
“ABA commends USDA, HHS, and especially First Lady Michelle Obama for developing the new healthy eating icon based on the sound science of the new dietary guidelines. Consumers are struggling to find simple, clear and easy to follow directives. The new icon is a powerful tool to help adults, parents and their children integrate healthy and sensible eating habits into their daily lives. Appropriately, grains occupy the single largest portion on the plate – a reaffirmation of enriched and whole grains as the foundation of a healthy lifestyle.”
Manuela McDonough, Program Manager, Institute of Hispanic Health at the National Council of La Raza
“NCLR welcomes the new food icon. We applaud the USDA on creating an easy-to-understand tool that will help Americans, especially Latinos, make healthier food choices.”
Shalene McNeill, PhD, RD, executive director of human nutrition research, National Cattlemen’s Beef Association
“America’s cattle farmers and ranchers are eager to help consumers use this new visual tool. We believe illustrating how to create a balanced mix of nutrition from all food groups to create a healthful plate gets back to basics. More than 90 percent of Americans are enjoying beef in their diets. Now, this straightforward visual illustrates how to build a healthful plate using protein-rich foods like lean beef.”
Marion Nestle, Professor of Nutrition, Food Studies, and Public Health, New York University
“The new plate icon makes it clear that healthy eating means lots of vegetables, fruits, and whole grains, and for that alone it is a big step forward. The plate is easy to understand. You don’t need a computer to use it. It lets you fill your plate with whatever foods you like without worrying about portion numbers. Best of all are the messages that come with it. Enjoy your food! Yes! High marks to USDA for this one.”
Dr. Elizabeth Pivonka, president and CEO of Produce for Better Health Foundation (PBH)
“This science-based government recommendation to make half your plate fruits and vegetables is a significant and positive step in the battle to fight obesity and related health issues in America. The plate icon is a simple, memorable way to show Americans the proportion of fruits and vegetables they should be eating at every meal occasion,” says Dr. Elizabeth Pivonka, president and CEO of Produce for Better Health Foundation (PBH), the nonprofit entity in partnership with CDC behind the Fruits & Veggies—More Matters® national public health initiative.”
Nancy Rice, SNS, President, School Nutrition Association
“The School Nutrition Association (SNA) welcomes USDA’s new food icon and encourages all Americans to use it as a guide for planning their meals daily, weekly and throughout the year. School nutrition professionals are thrilled to have this new resource to help students understand the importance of healthy eating and well-balanced meals. The new food icon clearly shows young people just how important eating fruits and vegetables with their school meals are to their diet, health and development. We hope that parents, teachers and all role models for children will join us in promoting the new food icon to help children gravitate to a lifetime of healthier eating habits.”
Leslie G. Sarasin, President and CEO, Food Marketing Institute
“The new USDA food graphic offers Americans a clear visual of a healthy plate representing the full spectrum of nutritious foods we all need in our diets. As FMI member companies seek to feed families and enrich lives, this new icon will serve supermarket shoppers as a vivid reminder of what to put in their shopping carts so that it will later become part of a well-balanced plate.”
David B. Schmidt, President and CEO, International Food Information Council Foundation
“We look forward to helping USDA and DHHS motivate more consumers to adopt healthful diets and lifestyles. The IFIC Foundation has been pleased to partner with these Departments on key nutrition education initiatives and we are ready to serve as a resource for government officials, health professionals, journalists and consumers who seek key insights on health, nutrition, and food safety.”
Lieutenant General Norman R. Seip, US Air Force (Ret.), member of the national nonprofit Mission: Readiness
“The USDA’s new campaign to promote better eating habits is an important step toward making sure our obesity crisis does not become a national security crisis. Currently, about one in four young adults is too overweight to join the military, and the Defense Department has told Congress that weight problems, coupled with other factors, could undermine future recruiting efforts.”
Tom Stenzel, President and CEO, United Fresh Produce Association
“The new dietary guidance icon will be a tipping point in how Americans literally visualize what they should eat. The message to ‘make half your plate fruits and vegetables’ is simple, compelling and effective. It is a breakthrough message that consumers can practice every day at every meal. The produce industry is firmly committed to working closely with USDA and others to support the new dietary guidance and help promote “make half your plate fruits and vegetables” as part of a lifetime of healthy eating. USDA’s new icon can have a dramatically positive impact on childhood nutrition as well, especially when combined with the progress we are making in placing salad bars in schools. Making half your plate fruits and vegetables complements the exciting ‘Let’s Move Salad Bars to Schools’ initiative, which supports First Lady Michelle Obama’s ‘Let’s Move!’ initiative to end childhood obesity. Combining the message to eat more produce with increased availability through school salad bars will benefit the health of millions of kids across our nation.”
Connie Tipton, President and CEO, International Dairy Foods Association
“We’re delighted that this new education tool provides a clear, visual message that milk and other dairy products are important for a nutritious diet. The dairy industry commends the USDA for highlighting how beneficial a serving of dairy at every meal can be, and for educating people about dairy’s role on the table and in the American diet.”
Josh Wachs, Chief Strategy Officer, Share Our Strength
“We applaud USDA for adopting this creative new food icon, which provides a streamlined guide to daily food choices. Share Our Strength’s Cooking Matters has brought USDA’s food icon to life for more than 74,000 low income families across the country, many of whom are at risk for hunger. The ‘plate’ reinforces our cooking-based approach to healthy eating and will continue to be an essential part of our curriculum.”
Margo G. Wootan, Nutrition Policy Director, Center for Science in the Public Interest
“While no one graphic can communicate every nuance of healthy eating, this easy-to-understand illustration will help people remember what their own plate should look like. It likely will surprise most people into recognizing that they need to eat a heck of a lot more vegetables and fruits. Most people are eating about a quarter of a plate of fruits or vegetables, not a half a plate as recommended.”

The technology in traditional “incandescent” bulbs is more than a century old. Such bulbs waste most of the electricity that feeds them, turning it into heat. The 100-watt bulb, in particular, produces so much heat that it’s used in Hasbro’s Easy-Bake Oven.
Creating good alternatives to the light bulb has been more difficult than expected, especially for the very bright 100-watt bulbs. Part of the problem is that these new bulbs have to fit into lamps and ceiling fixtures designed for older technology.
Two leading makers of lighting products are showcasing LED bulbs that are bright enough to replace energy-guzzling 100-watt light bulbs set to disappear from stores in January. LEDs are efficient, durable and produced in great quantities, but they’re still expensive. An LED bulb can contain a dozen light-emitting diodes, or tiny semiconductor chips, which cost about $1 each.
The big problem with LEDs is that although they don’t produce as much heat as incandescent bulbs, the heat they do create shortens the lifespan and reduces the efficiency of the chips. Cramming a dozen chips together in a tight bulb-shaped package that fits in today’s lamps and sockets makes the heat problem worse. The brighter the bulb, the bigger the problem.
The DoE expects a 60-watt equivalent LED bulb to cost $10 by 2015, putting them within striking range of the price of a compact fluorescent bulb. Bob Karlicek, the director of the Smart Lighting Research Center at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, N.Y., thinks that price is achievable. What’s really needed, he said, is a new approach to lighting — new fixtures and lamps that spread out the LEDs, avoiding the heat problem.
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Managing the Mautam

The predator satiation hypothesis holds that by fruiting at the same time, a plant population increases the survival rate of their seeds by flooding the area with fruit so that even if predators eat their fill, there will still be seeds left over. Certain species of bamboo, for instance, have a flowering cycle longer than the lifespan of their rodent predators. Bamboos can thus regulate animal populations by causing starvation during the period between flowering events.
The problem for humans in such a case is one of collateral damage. The entire world population of the bamboo species Melocanna Baccifera blossoms just about every 48 years. This blossoming bamboo produces fruit that has a large seed. Forest rats feed on the seeds. The rats then reproduce at an accelerated rate. Once the nocturnal rats have stripped the landscape of bamboo fruit, they devour other growing and stored crops including grains, potatoes, maize, chili, and sesame. The rodents can gnaw through the floors and walls of granaries and other storage containers. According to The Times of India, the flowering of 1958-59 caused a famine that killed as many as 15,000 people.
During the next cycle in 2008, the number of actual casualties was greatly reduced. A combination of harvesting the bamboo, shooting the rats and staging relief supplies in a timely way had the effect of mitigating starvation. There was, of course, hunger in the most remote areas. But not on the scale seen during the 1958-59 famine. The near famine conditions that did occur were largely attributed to political corruption and the for-profit seizure of relief supplies intended for potential victims of the “flowering famine.”
The areas of Northeast India (primarily in Mizoram and Manipur States) as well as regions of Burma (mainly Chin State) and Bangladesh (Hill Tracts) that normally suffer from an overpopulation of rats were, for the most part, spared the worst of it. Could it have been managed better? Sure. Are there lessons to be learned? Certainly. But warding off famine is far better than trying to locate starving individuals in the wake of it.

— by Bob Kalk

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Shaun Halbert ’s deployments to disasters led him to become concerned about the types of emergency shelters that were being provided. Realizing the importance of ventilation, shade and the capacity for the shelters to be used in transitional as well as emergency phases, he concentrated on these areas in a new design.
While attending the Shoots – Build it with Bamboo Workshop in London in October 2007, hosted by Architects for Aid, Shaun was exposed to the concept of the reciprocal frame for construction. Over the next two years, he designed and built a prototype shelter with a reciprocal roof. It has a huge weight bearing capacity, enabling the structure to be clad and also providing a much needed cooling effect for the recipients.
Having experienced the limitations in traditional tent structures after the Haiti earthquake, he modified the prototype design even further to produce what he calls the ReciproBoo Shelter Kit.
See just how quickly Shaun can frame out an emergency shelter!

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