A recent NY Times OpEd by Nicholas Kristof observes that:  “Just as Communists managed to destroy Communism, capitalists are discrediting capitalism.” 

“A Pew Research Center poll in December found that only 50 percent of Americans reacted positively to the term capitalism, while 40 percent reacted negatively.  Among Americans ages 18 to 29, more had a negative view of capitalism than a positive view, the survey found.  Those young Americans actually viewed socialism more positively than capitalism.  In other words, America’s grasping capitalists are turning young Americans into socialists.”

Kristof’s OpEd references a very interesting survey by Edelman, a global public relations firm which has been publishing an annual Trust Barometer for over ten years.  Their 2011 Trust Barometer notes that “Trust Plunges in the United States While Resilient across the Globe.” 

“Trust in business saw a two-point global increase, surging in Brazil, rising in Germany, and holding steady in China and India.  The United States was the outlier, as trust dropped across all institutions - business, government, NGOs, and media.  U.S. trust in business fell by eight points to 46 percent - placing the world’s largest economic power within five points of last-place Russia - and decreased in government by six points to 40 percent, putting the U.S. among the bottom four countries with the least trust in government.  In the Trust composite score, an average of a country’s trust in all four institutions, the U.S. also fell to fourth from the bottom, while three years ago, it was in the top four.”

Over the last few weeks we have heard the term vulture capitalism used in national public debates, not by members of the Occupy Wall Street movement, but by arch-conservative politicians.  Are we seeing the emergence of a New Populism where the people, - whether the Tea Party on the right or Occupy Wall Street on the left, - are rising up against the elites, - the rich and powerful who have gotten the US into such a mess?

If I may borrow Winston Churchill’s famous quote about democracy:  “Capitalism is the worst form of economic system except for all those others that have been tried from time to time.”  And, just like democratically elected politicians are often the ones giving democracy its biggest black eyes, capitalists, - business executives and financiers as well as politicians, - are often the ones most responsible for the sharp decrease in trust in business and govenrment that is so discrediting capitalism.

What is the essence of capitalism?  To some, capitalism implies minimal government regulation, few social services, and very low taxes.  I believe that such extreme forms of laissez-faire capitalism are as bad as extreme forms of state capitalism or communism.

Adam Smith, the 18th century Scottish philosopher, is generally considered the father of free market, free trade capitalism.  His most famous work, The Wealth of Nations, published in 1776, is regarded as the first modern work of economics.  He is also well known for his famous metaphor of the invisible hand - “the free market, while appearing chaotic and unrestrained, is actually guided to produce the right results by this so-called invisible hand.”

He believed that our actions are guided by self-interest.  But, Smith, a deeply religious man, also believed that our actions are guided by sympathy, the human ability to have strong feelings of concern for another person with no regard for financial returns.  His second major work, The Theory of Moral Sentiments being with the following assertion: 

“How selfish soever man may be supposed, there are evidently some principles in his nature, which interest him in the fortunes of others, and render their happiness necessary to him, though he derives nothing from it, except the pleasure of seeing it.”

In an excellent 2009 Financial Times opinion piece, Adam Smith’s Market Never Stood Alone, Harvard economics professor and 1998 Nobel Prize winner Amartya Sen invokes Adam Smith as he considers the future of capitalism after the financial crisis:

“What exactly is capitalism?,” he asks.  “The standard definition seems to take reliance on markets for economic transactions as a necessary qualification for an economy to be seen as capitalist.  In a similar way, dependence on the profit motive, and on individual entitlements based on private ownership, are seen as archetypal features of capitalism.  However, if these are necessary requirements, are the economic systems we currently have, for example, in Europe and America, genuinely capitalist?  All the affluent countries in the world – those in Europe, as well as the US, Canada, Japan, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Australia and others – have depended for some time on transactions that occur largely outside the markets, such as unemployment benefits, public pensions and other features of social security, and the public provision of school education and healthcare.”

Professor Sen observes that in affluent countries, where it has been most successful, capitalism is pragmatic, not ideologically pure, and that this pragmatism goes back to the days of Adam Smith.

“It is often overlooked that Smith did not take the pure market mechanism to be a free-standing performer of excellence, nor did he take the profit motive to be all that is needed . . . People seek trade because of self-interest - nothing more is needed, as Smith discussed in a statement that has been quoted again and again explaining why bakers, brewers, butchers and consumers seek trade.  However an economy needs other values and commitments such as mutual trust and confidence to work efficiently.”

As I was researching what respected business leaders have to say about capitalism, I came across the writings and speeches of Walter Wriston, chairman and CEO of Citibank from 1967 to 1984, and widely regarded as one of the most influential bankers of his generation.  In his 1986 book, Risk and Other Four-Letter Words, Wriston writes:

“ . . . it is necessary to recall that there are still only two basic models of human organization: the authoritarian in its many guises, and the democratic.  In its simplest terms: power from the top down or the bottom up.  That thread of political evolution is inextricably linked with economic theory and practice in the nations of the world.

“ . . .The political concepts we imported from England happily coincided with the economic ideas of Adam Smith and together they provided the basis for the remarkable growth of the American nation in the nineteenth century.  By coincidence, Smith's Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations was published in Scotland in the same year as our Declaration of Independence was proclaimed in Philadelphia.”

“ . . . He viewed the dawn of the Industrial Age and grasped its potentials while the conventional wisdom of his era was still wedded to restrictive mercantile principles.  Smith sensed, long before others, that free markets could unlock a torrent of economic expansion leading to a better life for all, in stark contrast to the static mercantilist partnership of state and business that set limits for products, production, prices, and profits and distributed the benefits to a favored few.  Though a devoutly religious man, Adam Smith was a pragmatist who had few illusions about his fellow man's altruistic instincts.  His opinion of businessmen was particularly realistic, . . .”

“The truth is that the Father of Capitalism did not have a high opinion of capitalists.  What he understood was that multitudes of human beings pursuing their own best interest will ultimately produce a sort of common denominator from which we all have a chance of getting the best available deal at the moment. This state of affairs also has a way of liberating a great deal of human energy, directing it toward finding better or cheaper ways of doing things.  He also understood that the diffusion of power, both political and economic, could and would create the conditions for human freedom and economic innovation.  All power, no matter how derived, either from the bottom up or the top down, can be arbitrary.  Only in the multiplicity of power is there safety.”

Capitalism, like democracy, works best when approached from a pragmatic, balanced point of view.  On one side is the fierce competition and self-interest inherent in open, free markets.  On the other is the mutual trust and sympathy found in well functioning, stable societies.  When the proper checks and balances are in place, things work relatively smoothly.  When ideology becomes prominent, whether from the right or the left, we get the sharp decrease in trust that we now see all around us, and which makes it so hard to get anything done.  Let us hope that, as in previous such tumultous periods, our economic and political systems will self-adjust and rescue capitalism from the excesses that have so damaged its reputation in recent years.

U.S. Oil Fields Stage “Great Revival,” But No Easing Gas Prices The United States has long been seen as a nation in its twilight as an oil producer, facing a relentless decline that began when President Richard Nixon was in the White House. He and every president since pledged to halt the U.S. slide into greater dependence on foreign oil, but the trend seemed irreversible—until now. Forty-one years later, U.S. oil production is on the rise.

..."A 'great revival' in U.S. oil production is taking shape," said Jim Burkhard, managing director of the energy consultancy IHS Cambridge Energy Research Associates in testimony last month before a U.S. Senate committee. The resurgence provides the United States a welcome measure of energy security at a time of global economic uncertainty and geopolitical risk, he said.

Yet the U.S. government's own energy analysts and many experts see a limit to this new gusher. The technological advances that have driven the revival—high-volume hydraulic fracturing combined with horizontal drilling—can only squeeze so much more crude out of the U.S. landscape, they say. Projections are that U.S. oil production will never again reach the lofty heights of the 1960s, even without environmental concerns slowing development or hampering industry with new costs.

Oil Declines From Highest Level in Three Weeks as Greek Bailout Held Back Oil dropped from a three-week high as euro-area finance ministers refused to approve a rescue package for Greece, boosting concern that the European debt crisis will reduce fuel demand.

Futures fell 1.2 percent after Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker, chairman of the group of euro-area finance chiefs, said yesterday that Greece won’t get financial aid until it implements an austerity plan. The International Energy Agency also cut its 2012 global oil demand forecast for a sixth month, citing a “darkening” economic outlook.

US natgas rigs at 28-month low, prices squeeze profits NEW YORK (Reuters) - The number of rigs drilling for natural gas in the United States fell last week to the lowest level in 28 months as producers continued a rapid cut in activity in the face of ultra-low prices.

The gas rig count fell for the fifth straight week, by 25 to 720, completing the biggest two-week drop in three months, according to data from Houston-based oil services firm Baker Hughes on Friday.

Low Natural-Gas Prices Hold Back Power Plant Development-AEP CEO NEW YORK – Low U.S. natural-gas prices have made it tough for developers to build new power plants in competitive electricity markets, which could affect the electric grid, the chief executive of American Electric Power Co. said Friday.

‘Masked men’ battle Saudi troops, 1 dies RIYADH: One person was killed and three wounded when security forces exchanged gunfire with “masked men” in Saudi Arabia’s oil-rich east, the official SPA news agency reported yesterday. Activists and witnesses said the casualties came when security forces opened fire on a Shiite demonstration in the Qatif district of the kingdom’s Eastern Province.

Gazprom's Empire at the End of the Earth The Russian energy giant has a lot riding on the success of a massive new gas field 250 miles above the Arctic Circle. So does Vladimir Putin and the Kremlin.

Russia resumes Novorossiisk oil loadings-Transneft (Reuters) - Russia resumed crude oil exports URL-E on Friday night from the Black Sea port of Novorossiisk, crippled by the worst weather for the past 10 years, a spokesman for Transneft said on Saturday.

Nigeria Probes Possible Fraud Over $12.6 Billion Subsidies Nigeria’s parliament is probing whether fraudulent practices by government agencies fueled a fivefold rise in spending on gasoline subsidies in the past three years, said the head of the investigating committee.

Nigerian president's state votes amid tight security YENAGOA, Nigeria (Reuters) - Nigerians voted amid tight security in a governorship election on Saturday in President Goodluck Jonathan's restive and oil-rich home state of Bayelsa, where last week militants attacked a major oil pipeline.

Gunmen assassinate Syrian army general in Damascus BEIRUT (AP) – Gunmen assassinated an army general in Damascus on Saturday in the first killing of a high ranking military officer in the Syrian capital since the uprising against President Bashar Assad's regime began in March, the state-run news agency said.

OSG Says Oil-Tanker Pool Will Halt Trading in Iran After Europe Sanctions Overseas Shipholding Group Inc., the largest U.S. crude-tanker owner, said the pool in which its ships operate will no longer go to Iran after the European Union agreed to an embargo on oil from the Persian Gulf nation.

Analysis: Sanctions on Iran underscore delicate situation INTERNATIONAL sanctions targeting Iran’s oil exports are inflicting economic pain but may well fail to force Tehran to compromise on its nuclear ambitions and may make it more intransigent.

The measures could also boomerang by driving up oil prices, hitting the jittery global economy, analysts say.

U.S. Attack on Iran ‘Suicide,’ Would Spark Reprisal, Russian Envoy Says A U.S. attack on Iran would be “suicide” that would prompt retaliation, said Mahmoud-Reza Sajjadi, the Persian Gulf country’s ambassador to Russia,

“Iran has very good access to the whole world to carry out strikes against America,” he told reporters in Moscow today, adding that no pre-emptive strike is planned.

Petrobras struggles to hit investment, output goals (Reuters) - Petrobras cut investment in 2011 for the first time in eight years as Brazil's state-run energy company struggled to buy the equipment, technology and services needed to carry out a $225 billion (142 billion pound) expansion plan and exploit one of the world's most promising offshore oil frontiers.

China Welcome to Boost Investment in Canadian Oil Industry, Oliver Says Canadian Natural Resource Minister Joe Oliver said he’s assuring Chinese officials that the nation is welcome to expand investments in Canada’s oil industry.

Canada doesn’t have sufficient capital to fully develop its oil reserves, Oliver said in an interview, adding the key factor in government approval will be whether investments are being made for “commercial” purposes.

The Next American Oil Boom? Decline rates.

Seriously.

There are not very many people outside the “Peak Oil” crowd who care — heck, even know — what “decline rates” are.

Indonesia plans unprocessed metal export ban in 2014 JAKARTA: Indonesia will ban exports of some unprocessed metals from 2014 and could revoke the export licences of firms that violate the ban, the energy ministry said in a regulation that was posted on its website on Friday but later disappeared. Minerals covered by the ban, which has been widely discussed, include copper, gold, silver, nickel, tin, bauxite and zinc. Coal will be regulated separately.

US Ambassador: No One Wants to Harm Beautiful Bulgaria The Ambassador was critical to Chevron, saying they arrived in Bulgaria somewhat unprepared and failed to offer enough information on shale gas to Bulgarians.

"No one wants to harm the environment and Bulgaria is an extremely beautiful country. In any way, the company does not have intentions to begin exploring shale gas before 2015 – we are talking about a future period," the diplomat told the host.

Keystone backers try to hitch ride on Senate highway bill WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republican senators who back the Keystone XL pipeline plan to file an amendment that would attach the project to highway funding legislation on Monday, another step in their quest to overturn President Barack Obama's decision to put the project on hold.

Ohio petroleum producers decry call for penalties COLUMBUS -- Ohio petroleum producers are pushing back against a call by the state attorney general to increase environmental penalties and chemical reporting requirements on the drilling industry.

Republican Attorney General Mike DeWine has recommended three changes that he says will bring Ohio in line with other drilling states and allow effective enforcement against violators.

US urges for openness at Gulf oil spill trial NEW ORLEANS -- The federal government's lead lawyer in an upcoming trial over fault in the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill urged judges on Friday to make public sensitive business documents and testimony.

Don’t let BP fines paid for spill disappear into federal black hole Well, BP’s bill is coming due and almost nine of 10 Floridians think the oil company’s fines should go to the states that suffered the greatest harm from the spill. Sen. Bill Nelson thinks that’s just common sense. Sen. Marco Rubio agrees.

But a huge chunk of BP’s penalties are dangerously close to disappearing into the black hole of the federal treasury instead of coming back to Florida.

A Confused Nuclear Cleanup IITATE, Japan — As 500 workers in hazmat suits and respirator masks fanned out to decontaminate this village 20 miles from the ravaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear reactors, their confusion was apparent.

“Dig five centimeters or 10 centimeters deep here?” a site supervisor asked his colleagues, pointing to a patch of radioactive topsoil to be removed. He then gestured across the village square toward the community center. “Isn’t that going to be demolished? Shall we decontaminate it or not?”

A day laborer wiping down windows at an abandoned school nearby shrugged at the work crew’s haphazard approach. “We are all amateurs,” he said. “Nobody really knows how to clean up radiation.”

Thousands march against nuclear power in Japan TOKYO (AP) – Thousands of Japanese people marched against nuclear power Saturday, amid growing worries about the restarting of reactors idled after the March 11 meltdown disaster in northeastern Japan.

Tokyo Electric Asks Lenders for Loans of 1 Trillion Yen, Nikkei Reports Tokyo Electric Power Co. and the Japanese government’s nuclear disaster rescue fund asked lenders for about 1 trillion yen ($12.9 billion) in loans, the Nikkei newspaper reported.

The Nuclear Damage Liability Facilitation Fund is asking for the loans to be advanced with no collateral or repayment guarantees from the government, the Nikkei said, without providing the source of the information.

Nuclear Power vs. Natural Gas When critics say nuclear power is risky, they often mean the risk of an accident. But people in the nuclear industry say that the bigger threat is natural gas.

Energy Loan Oversight Is Needed, Audit Finds WASHINGTON — The Department of Energy’s loan guarantee program for alternative energy projects, which produced the ill-fated loan to the solar panel maker Solyndra, needs more rigorous financial oversight and stricter performance standards for recipients to reduce the chance of future defaults, according to an audit conducted by the White House and released Friday.

Energy Loans a Safer Bet for U.S. Than Congress Anticipated, Review Shows Potential losses from U.S. energy loan programs are likely to be less than projected by the White House and Congress, according to an independent analysis that Democrats said validated support for clean-energy innovation.

The Military Is Hoping To Save A Bunch Of Money And Lives With This New Hardware It's estimated that one U.S. Marine is killed for every 50 convoys of gasoline the U.S. brings into a war zone.

Construction permit delay may reverse sale of large solar project to Exelon NEW YORK — First Solar is warning that a construction delay threatens to undo its sale of a large solar project planned for Los Angeles County to power producer Exelon Corp.

The company said in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday that it has been unable to resolve a construction permit issue. That is blocking the distribution of funds from a federal loan guarantee to help pay for the construction of the project.

Wind Tower Makers in U.S. Hurt by Chinese Imports, Panel Finds U.S. makers of wind towers such as Broadwind Energy Inc. (BWEN) are being harmed by cheaper imports from China and Vietnam, a trade panel ruled in the first step toward imposing tariffs on the shipments.

A123 Advances on Deal to Supply Battery-Storage Systems in U.K. A123 Systems Inc., a Waltham, Massachusetts-based maker of batteries for electric cars and utilities, rose after announcing a contract to supply power- storage systems to a U.K. grid operator.

Three Gorges Dam to work at full capacity in May YICHANG (Xinhua) -- The Three Gorges Dam, the world's largest hydropower project, will work at full capacity by the end of May, when the last two power units will become operational, Chen Fei, general manager of the China Three Gorges Corporation, said Saturday.

My Decade of Being "Peak Oil Aware" It's been a long haul since then. I'm no longer married, for instance. Some of what I thought would happen came to pass. Most of it did not... or has not yet anyways. You don't change civilization on a dime, even though that's what I wanted to have happen when I dove into the sustainability movement and became heavily involved with renewable energy, edible landscaping, and all things local. I figured out a while back that the problem isn't peak oil, or global climate disruption, or peak anything else. And it isn't us. Humanity isn't inherently evil.

There are plenty more fish in the sea These are among 50 stories cited by the Prince of Wales’s latest campaign. Launched almost unnoticed (except by The Daily Telegraph) last week, it aims – like so many before it – to save the world’s rapidly diminishing fisheries. But, unlike others, it focuses on the positive, showing what fishermen are already doing to turn things round, and demonstrating that – in his words – managing fisheries sustainably is “actually more profitable than perennially succumbing to the temptation of maximising short term income”.

E.P.A. Is Sued Over Delays in Soot Standards Eleven states sued the Environmental Protection Agency on Friday over its delays in tightening air quality standards involving soot.

The world’s losing its workers. How will we compete? The world is on the threshold of what might be called “peak people.” The world’s supply of working-age people will soon be shrinking, causing a shift from surplus to scarcity. As with “peak oil” theories – which hold that declining petroleum supplies will trigger global economic instability – the claims of the doomsayers are too hyperbolic and hysterical. These are not existential threats but rather policy challenges. That said, they’re very big policy challenges.

2°C warming goal now ‘optimistic’, say French scientists PARIS — French scientists unveiling new estimates for global warming said on Thursday the 2°C goal enshrined by the United Nations was “the most optimistic” scenario left for greenhouse-gas emissions.

SONG FOR ANDREE GEULEN
My neighbor Bill Pederson, who spends winters in Arizona, sends along this video made in celebration of a remarkable woman's 90th birthday.

During World War II, Andree Geulen joined an underground group in Belgium to rescue Jews from the Gestapo. For more than two years she took in Jewish children and hid them in Christian homes and monasteries under assumed identities.

Throughout the war, she kept track of the children, keeping a secret record of their original names and other details about them in a diary. At the end of the war, she returned as many as she could to their surviving relatives. Some say she saved 3,000 children. Here is the song and more of the story.

In 1989, Andrée Geulen was recognized at the Israeli Holocaust memorial, Yad Vashem, as a Righteous Among the Nations. There, at a special ceremony in 2007, she was awarded honorary citizenship of the State of Israel. You can read more about Ms. Geulen's work and life at the Yad Vashem website.

PLAY ROCK, PAPER, SCISSORS AGAINST A COMPUTER
It says at The New York Times, that “computers mimic human reasoning by building on simple rules and statistical averages.” So the paper created an interactive game of Rock, Paper, Scissors to play online.

It comes in two modes - novice, and veteran in which the computer uses its database of 200,000 previous games. I tried novice and still lost nine out of ten games. You can try it here.

SENSATIONAL PORTRAITS OF OUR PRIMATE COUSINS

Can you stand it? So human and so not human all at once. A hat tip to Carol Wasteneys for sending the link to this page at the Daily Mail with a more gorgeous primate portraits from the Frankfurt Zoo by German photographer, Volker Gutgesell.

A DAY MADE OF GLASS - 2ND GENERATION
Most of the glass on smart phones and tablets is specialized to do amazing things. This video shows what this glass - or new generations of it - will do for us in the future. It is astronishing, but most of us reading this blog are unlikely to live long enough to see it in real life.

Not to mention that I question some of its usefulness. Nevertheless, it is a wonder to watch.

There is another version of this video, longer at 11:30 minutes, explaining it all.

REPUBLICANS STILL BELIEVE OBAMA IS NOT AMERICAN BORN
Now you would think that when President Barack Obama called Donald Trump's bluff and released his long-form birth certificate, that would be the end of the birther phenomenon. Not so.

Last year, a survey of Republicans asked if Obama was born in the United States. After the release of the birth certificate, the number of those agreeing jumped from 30 percent to 47 percent – still shameful but an increase.

In January this year, the question was asked again of Republicans. This time 27 percent agreed. Huh?

The chart is too small to reproduce for this post. You can see it and read more here.

MEET A BLACK PERSON
This is an old prank from 2006, but I had not seen it and it's pretty funny. The prank collective, ImprovEverywhere, put comedian Colton Dunn in an empty hot chocolate kiosk at the foot of a mountain in Aspen to greet people as they came down from the slopes. Take a look. (Hat tip to Nikki)

WAYS TO RE-USE OLD BOOKS
Carol from CO alerted me to these photos of ways people have found to use old books they aren't going to read anymore. I think the library counters are perfect (originally from here).

And this one (originally from here) sure does save on cleaning up pine or fir needles after the season.

The Two Butterflies blog has collected a whole lot more images of new/odd/interesting uses for old books.

NIGEL FOTHERINGTON CYBORG
That's what a British company, CNFX Workshop, named this little bundle of electronic joy and it is so real - or will be when it gets its skin - that it creeps me out. See what you think:

The Gajitz website, where I found this video, says the animatronic baby

KITTY/KID WRESTLING MATCH
After that animatronic baby, I think a real, live, human one is in order. According to the date on this video, it's 11 years old but age has not diminished the fun at all.

Interesting Stuff is a weekly listing of short takes and links to web items that have caught my attention; some related to aging and some not, some useful and others just for fun.

You are all encouraged to submit items for inclusion. Just click “Contact” in the upper left corner of any Time Goes By page to send them. I'm sorry that I probably won't have time to acknowledge receipt and there is no guarantee of publication. But when I do include them, you will be credited and I will link to your blog if you have one.

The 54th Annual Grammy Awards, unofficially subtitled the 2012 Adele Lovefest, is happening this Sunday. To promote it, the Recording Academy and TBWA\Chiat\Day in Los Angeles did these lovely little (mostly) animated promos, themed "We are music," featuring Foo Fighters, Bon Iver, Skrillex…and, oh look, Adele. This is the fifth consecutive year that TBWA\Chiat\Day and the Recording Academy have partnered on the Grammy marketing campaign. Three more spots, and a comprehensive look at the whole campaign, after the jump.

Ushering in the new year at the Smoking Deaths billboard above Santa Monica Boulevard in West L.A. has become a somewhat morbid yet surprisingly meaningful tradition. Each year, just before midnight on Jan. 1, locals gather to watch as the numbers, which tally the nation's annual smoking-related deaths, are manually reset to zero. Onlookers aren't necessarily drawn by personal ties to smoking or cancer. A mixture of curiosity, camaraderie and community compel most to make the scene. Gideon Brower, in an affecting piece in the L.A. Times, describes the scene this past New Year's Eve: "About 30 celebrants … watched as the huge counter on the billboard slowly turned from 420,127 to six brightly lit zeros, and then to one zero. Some people cheered. The mood was light. Even the sign seemed to join the party: For this brief moment, there was not one smoking death in America. And then, inevitably, the counter turned over. One death. Then two. Then three. After that, people walked home or drove away. … By the time I left, the death toll was up to 18." The West L.A. gathering is infinitely more intimate, poignant and real than the the bombastic, mass-media-driven ball drop in Times Square. The life-and-death nature of the sign's message seems especially in tune to the trials, terrors and hard-won triumphs of daily existence. In the 60 seconds or so before the Smoking Deaths billboard begins its countdown anew, onlookers collectively exhale, sharing a renewed determination to press on. Photo by Gideon Brower.

The 10 most-read AdFreak posts from the past seven days:
1. Old Milwaukee Airs Will Ferrell Super Bowl Ad in Nebraska
2. Super Bowl Backlash: The Five Most Debated Commercials
3. Falling Man on 'Mad Men' Posters Gets Some Visitors
4. Grainy Footage Reveals Draftfcb's Unorthodox Training Methods
5. OK Go Smacks 1,157 Instruments with a Chevy Sonic
6. Was This the Best Movie Poster of 2011?
7. James Franco Tries Advertising, Directs Spots for Seven Jeans
8. Courtney Stodden Stars in Worst Ad of 2012 So Far
9. Doritos Pays Double to 'Crash the Super Bowl' Winners
10. Jack in the Box: If You Love Bacon, Why Don't You Marry It?

Southbay is a lifestyle magazine serving one of the most culturally, economically, and ethnically diverse areas in the United States.

The current issue features Lee Clow of TBWA\Chiat\Day on the cover and inside contains profiles of Clow, Paolucci Communication, Team One and Margaret Keene and Chris Adams, co-executive creative directors at Saatchi/LA.

Both Margaret and Chris have young families, and Saatchi’s emphasis on a prioritization of life appealed to them. “It’s the concept that everyone matters … that everyone’s ideas matter. All the shops in the South Bay agree with that,” says Margaret of the local ad agency culture.

Chris adds, “It’s that culture of creativity meeting commerce that exists in Southern California in a way that it doesn’t exist in other places. The difference between Madison Avenue and Southern California agencies: You can still do really breakthrough creative. You can do really amazing things. You can get results for clients. You don’t have to take yourself so seriously. You don’t have to have the pressure and the conflict to get things done and do amazing work.

I know it’s a lifestyle magazine, but the description above of how Saatchi/LA values the right things in life sounds more like a Hollywood scrpit. I’m not saying it’s not real, just that it sounds like a story that’s been touched up, or “had some work done” in the local parlance.

You just finished reading Don't Stress Dude, It's Just A $20 Mil. Account On The Line! Consider leaving a comment!

The National Endowment for the Arts just announced that on Monday, President Obama will award actor Al Pacino, artist Will Barnet, poet Rita Dove, arts philanthropist Emily Rauh Pulitzer, sculptor Martin Puryear, singer-songwriter Mel Tillis, and pianist Andre Watts National Medals of Arts. I have to say, given the current political environment, I’d kind of love to hear Obama and Pacino talk about Pacino’s turn as Roy Cohn, Sen. Joe McCarthy’s henchman, in Angels in America.

At the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) yesterday, Rep. Steve King (R-IA) asked the crowd, “What is happening to our liberty?,” before launching into a long-winded story about how he took back his freedom by replacing the energy-efficient “curlicue bulbs” at the Capitol with “good Edison light bulbs.” At some point during his anecdote, King even went so far as to compare the Capitol Hill janitors who replaced his incandescent bulbs with energy-efficient ones to “East German communist secret police, describing them as “Nancy [Pelosi]‘s Stasi troops.”

So I got this green bag right here. And I filled it up with the black market light bulbs. And I brought them back to my office here in the Capitol. Whenever I need to put a bulb in the lamp, I reach in this green bag and I screw it in there and smile. A little bit of my liberty back. A little bit of our freedom back. And I want to challenge you to do the same thing. Bring back some of that liberty, some of that freedom.

Following his attack on energy-efficient light bulbs, Rep. King took on the water-saving showerhead in his shower, before bringing his tirade to a close with the declaration, “I want my liberty back!”

Watch it:

The new light bulb efficiency standards have faced strong opposition from members of the GOP, who consider the rules not only a ban on light bulbs, but as another example of unneccessary federal regulation. Environmentalists and energy-efficiency business groups disagree and are quick to point out that the standards do not ban incandescent light bulbs, but requires them to be more efficient. Despite the GOP’s best efforts to pass measures that would block funding for the standards’ enforcement, The Energy Department rules went into effect at the beginning of the year.

– Fatima Najiy

It’s Friday, so it’s time for some Mixed Links!

Trying to figure out what to do for Valentine’s Day? Or is V-Day not really your thing? Either way, you need to check out what Generosity Day is all about. Instead of forging V-Day connections with one person via chocolate, candlelight and a card, the people behind this project want to forge G-Day connections with as many people as possible – including complete strangers – by saying YES to every opportunity to be nice, help out, or delight with generosity. I’ll be doing this not only in my personal life, but professionally too — watch for a blog post on the 14th.

TechSoup Global has launched its 3rd Annual Digital Storytelling Challenge. During the one-month challenge, TechSoup Global will host a series of interactive events including Twitter Chats, live webinars, and trainings designed to help nonprofits produce a one-minute video or five-picture Flickr slideshow that tells the story of its organization. Get in on this great training!

The DoGooder Nonprofit Video Awards program is now taking submissions for its annual video contest. The awards are completely free to enter and open to any eligible nonprofit organization in the U.S., U.K, Canada and Australia. There are categories for different size organizations and submissions are open until February 29th.

The Nonprofit Blog Carnival is taking submissions for the February edition. Marc Pitman will be hosting and wants to know “How Do Your Take Care of Yourself?” Write your blog post and submit it to Marc by February 27th. January’s edition of the carnival is up on Nancy Schwartz’s blog. Last month’s theme was You Can Make Dreams Come True.

I recently published a post for NTEN called “Keeping Them Coming Back for More: Your Communications Arcs.” Learn how to structure your communications to keep your supporters interested and tuned in.

If you are interested in learning more about Google+, check out Nonprofit Toolbox: Google+

For more on nonprofit communications, marketing and fundraising, check out our webinar training schedule.

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For Pass Holders – March 7: Creating Awesome Content: Ideas for Nonprofit Writers

FREE – March 20: Making the Ask: How to Ask So People Give, Volunteer and More

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Sen. Roy Blunt (R-MO)

But Republicans and some conservative Catholic groups are not satisfied with the accommodation and hope to use their false claim of “religious persecution” to deny women access to preventive health services. Despite Obama’s decision to shield nonprofit religious institutions from offering birth control benefits, next week Sen. Roy Blunt (R-MO) is expected to offer an amendment that would permit any employer or insurance plan to exclude any health service, no matter how essential, from coverage if they morally object to it:

(6) RESPECTING RIGHTS OF CONSCIENCE WITH REGARD TO SPECIFIC ITEMS OR SERVICES —

“(A) FOR HEALTH PLANS. — A health plan shall not be considered to have failed to provide the essential health benefits package described in subsection (a) (or preventive health services described in section 2713 of the Public Health Services Act), to fail to be a qualified health plan, or to fail to fulfill any other requirement under this title on the basis that it declines to provide coverage of specific items or services because —

“(i) providing coverage (or, in the case of a sponsor of a group health plan, paying for coverage) of such specific items or services is contrary to the religious beliefs or moral convictions of the sponsor, issuer, or other entity offering the plan; or

“(ii) such coverage (in the case of individual coverage) is contrary to the religious beliefs or moral convictions of the purchaser or beneficiary of the coverage.

Under the measure, an insurer or an employer would be able to claim a moral or religious objection to covering HIV/AIDS screenings, Type 2 Diabetes treatments, cancer tests or anything else they deem inappropriate or the result of an “unhealthy” or “immoral” lifestyle. Similarly, a health plan could refuse to cover mental health care on the grounds that the plan believes that psychiatric problems should be treated with prayer.

Individuals too can opt out of coverage if it is contrary to their religious or moral beliefs, radically undermining “the basic principle of insurance, which involves pooling the risks for all possible medical needs of all enrollees.” As the National Women’s Law Center explains, Blunt’s language is vague enough that “insurers may be able to sell plans that do not cover services required by the new health care law to an entire market because one individual objects, so all consumers in a market lose their right to coverage of the full range of critical health services.” As a result, a man “purchasing an insurance plan offered to women and men could object to maternity coverage, so the plan would not have to cover it, even though such coverage is required as part of the essential health benefits.”

Read the full amendment here.

Romney plays up conservatism at CPAC; Obama lays out contraception compromise; McIntyre won’t run for governor in North Carolina; and Rep. Spencer Bachus faces an insider-trading probe.

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This morning the Idaho Senate State Affairs Committee voted 7-2 to reject a bill that would have added non-discrimination protections based on sexual orientation and gender identity to the Idaho Human Rights Act. Activists had called on legislators to “Add The Words,” but they voted to not even print the bill, which meant there was no opportunity to hear testimony. Because there was not even any debate, the bill died without any spoken support except from its sponsor.

In a speech this afternoon at the Conservative Political Action Conference, GOP presidential candidate Newt Gingrich announced that Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R) is designing legislation for him on “Tenth Amendment implementation.” Perry, of course, believes that Social Security and Medicare violate the Tenth Amendment. Watch Gingrich’s announcement:

At the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington, DC, Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich repeated his call for the elimination of the Environmental Protection Agency, blaming it for killing jobs and lacking “common sense.” He later called for the elimination of the Department of Energy, which manages the nation’s nuclear power, weaponry, and waste, and is leading America’s investment in clean technology.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Hundreds of protesters, chanting “We are the 99 percent” and waving signs decrying corporate tax dodging and other issues, marched in front of the Marriott Wardman hotel in Woodley Park, the site of the annual Conservative Political Action Conference, this afternoon.

Occupy CPAC, as protesters dubbed it, featured a giant inflatable “corporate fat cat,” and four protesters were dressed in blue and white baseball uniforms (resembling those of the Los Angeles Dodgers) that read “Tax Dodgers,” a reference to presidential candidate Mitt Romney. For more than a half hour, the protesters chanted and marched outside the hotel.

View pictures of the protest:

Many of the conference’s attendees ventured out of the hotel to watch the protests, and as protesters chanted “We are the 99 percent!” one attendee screamed back, “No, you are the bottom one percent!” Others stood around laughing, while one looked to another attendee and said, “G–damn Occupiers. F–k those guys. This is America.”

As a group of protesters attempted to move up the hotel’s driveway toward the entrance, police blocked them and threatened them with arrest for violating public property rights. At that point, members of the media covering CPAC who had gone outside to cover the protest were also forced back into the hotel with threats of arrest. According to one organizer affiliated with the march, roughly 500 protesters participated in the march.

The Pentagon announcement easing the ban on women serving in combat led Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum to express his concerns that missions could be put in jeopardy “because of other types of emotions that are involved.”

But today, Santorum attempted to clarify his seemingly sexist statement in an interview with ABC News:

RICK SANTORUM: I was talking about men’s emotional issues, not women. That’s something I’ve talked about repeatedly. [...] Men in our culture are focused on if a woman is in trouble, obviously, to react to try to help to protect and care for that person. That is something that is built in culturally. So my concern is that being in combat in that situation, instead of being focused on the mission, they might be more concerned about protecting a woman in a vulnerable position.

Watch it:

Having put to rest the allegation that he was suggesting women were emotionally unfit to serve in combat — and instead having argued that men are emotionally unfit to serve alongside women — Santorum went on to emphasize that he has no problem putting women’s lives in danger.

Blogger Jennifer Rubin describes her interview with Santorum:

He says, “It’s not a matter of putting women in dangerous roles.” He tell[s] me, for example, that women are fully capable of “flying small planes.”

So it seems that for Santorum, it’s okay for women to fly the puddle jumpers but save the heavy bombers for the men. While Rubin goes on to commend Santorum for his fearlessness in “refusing to censor his views” and possibly “provoking the ire of women,” his views on women in the military may pose a challenge for his campaign which finds itself in the media spotlight after primary victories in Missouri, Minnesota and Colorado.

In the past 24 hours, Santorum: accused Obama of helping Iran acquire nuclear weapons; suggested that male soldiers are incapable of controlling their emotions around female comrades in combat; and said women are better suited to “flying small planes.”

(image) I don’t have Siri yet – I’m still using my “old” iPhone 4. But I do have my hands on a new (unboxed) Nexus, which has Google Voice Actions on it, and I’m sure at some point I’ll get a iPhone 4GS. So this post isn’t written from experience as much as it’s pure speculation, or as I like to call it, Thinking Out Loud.

But driving into work yesterday I realized how useful voice search is going to be to me, once I’ve got it installed. Stuck in traffic, I tried searching for alternate routes, and it struck me how much easier it’d be to just say “give me alternate routes.” That got me thinking about all manner of things – many of which are now possible – “Text my wife I’ll be late,” “Email my assistant and ask her to print the files for my 11 am meeting,” “Find me a good liquor store within a mile of here,” (I’ve actually done that one using Siri on my way to a friend’s house last weekend).

I’ve written about this before, of course (see Texting Is Stupid, for one example from over three years ago), and I predicted in 2011 that voice was going to be a game changer. It clearly is, but now my question is this: What’s the business model?

I hate to pick on Google, but it’s worth asking the question, given how it dominates mobile search: What happens to the AdWords business model when a large percentage of mobile searches are done using voice? Given we don’t look at our screens while using voice commands (pretty much the whole point, no?), how will Google make money from voice search?

It’s an interesting question, but not for Apple – Apple doesn’t make money through search ads, so it can give voice search away for free, and use it as a benefit of buying and using the hardware device (which is where Apple makes its coin, after all). And from what I can tell, Apple uses Yahoo, Wolfram, Yelp and others to populate Siri’s search answers, not Google. I’m sure there’s a direct reason for that: Google probably wanted some kind of fee from Apple, and I’m guessing Apple had little interest in paying. (I also don’t know if Apple is paying Yahoo, Wolfram or Yelp, if any of you do, please let me know…)

Now, Google does have one model in market that could translate to money in voice search – what it calls “Click to Call.” This is the ability for businesses to integrate direct phone calling into their mobile ads. I don’t know if that model is integreated into Voice Actions, but I’d be surprised if it didn’t show up soon (I can imagine Google’s version of Siri asking “Would you like to call this business now?”). And while that should prove a decent revenue stream, it won’t cover the majority of voice searches. And Google isn’t a company that likes to give away search without a monetization strategy.

What do you think such a strategy might be? Could we even imagine the return of “paid inclusion” – where voice search results are returned based on who pays to be part of the results? Sounds far fetched, but at the right scale, it could work.

I’ve not done much thinking about this, but I bet some of you have. What do you say?