The Mast Brothers from The Scout on Vimeo.

The Mast Brothers from The Scout on Vimeo.

I like what they say in the video:

As opposed to the goal being consistency and mass distribution, we are looking for – in a way – an inconsistent product so your taste buds are not only enjoying the sensuality of it, but your brain is also learning while you eat it.

Here are a couple of dreams:

A California Avocado Story from Evolution Multimedia on Vimeo.

A California Avocado Story from Evolution Multimedia on Vimeo (via WhiteonRice)

(via Manuka Health Honey from New Zealand)

So, starting today, I’m going to clearly delineate my interests by my projects and other interests. It’s still all on one blog – but separate by categories for those only interested in one of the subjects.

There is now a category for my “Honey Project”, “Tutoring Company”, “Sales and Marketing, Startup Operations”, and “All Other.”

Click here to view the embedded video.

Here’s how to make one yourself.

In the last several weeks, there’ve been two that have been eating up most of my free time: tutoring and honey.

My tutoring company, No Excuses Tutoring, has had an unexpected bump in activity recently. I had several web leads that came in, and as a result I found 3 more students to tutor this semester. Which meant that I had to go out and find/vet/interview tutors for them, and in general become more serious about the company. This of course is great news, and my next challenge is making the website better. Easier to find on Google, easier to navigate and more focused in terms of what the company is and why it exists.

The other project, has been to help a local beekeeper sell honey to new, and hopefully more upscale, markets. The first thing we did is re-label the honey. In order to differentiate honey from all of the other honey options out there, we decided to tell a story of what makes the this honey special. Through the new label of Grampa’s Gourmet we can tell the story of a multi-generational beekeeper based in a unique location (San Luis Valley) – and attract a higher price as a result. I’ve been busy building the website, and looking for partnerships with other companies to sell the honey.

There are many reasons why someone would want to be a vegetarian, and I don’t necessarily want to have that discussion here, but I’ve been thinking about it long enough that it’s time to actually try it.

This is kind of a big deal to me, as I never thought that I would even ever try it. I grew up eating meat everyday (like most people, I think). But my wife is vegetarian, and so are some close friends. And living in Boulder (voted #7, on America’s Best Vegetarian-Friendly Small Cities) for 6 years certainly helped erase some of the stigma.

So, all and all I am pretty excited about it.

Professor Rosling uses data to tell a compelling story about the state of the world today, how we got here and where we’re going. He’s spoken at TED 5 times now, the latest one at TEDIndia in which he graphs global economic growth since 1858 and predicts the exact date that India and China will outstrip the US.

Links to the Videos:

• Nov 2009 Hans Rosling: Asia’s rise — how and when
• Aug 2009 Hans Rosling: Let my dataset change your mindset
• May 2009 Hans Rosling on HIV: New facts and stunning data visuals
• Jun 2007 Hans Rosling’s new insights on poverty
• Jun 2006 Hans Rosling shows the best stats you’ve ever seen

Professor Rosling made the charts freely available to the public through his company called Gapminder. Google has since bought Gapminder, and made the tool available as part of the graphing capabilities in the Google Spreadsheets.

My interest with SCPNA was driven by a desire to get involved with local issues, and to contribute more directly to the challenges facing this city – to be involved more directly than a being just an observer (or worse, ignore the issues entirely). I started by attending a few the local political meetups (see here, and here), but couldn’t see myself working for those causes (I found the views to be too extreme for my comfort). So I decided to take less partisan approach and get involved with SCPNA.

What I found was a neighborhood that’s changing rapidly, both in terms of commerce (The Bluebird district is booming with new businesses) and demographics (new high rise condos doubling the neighborhood density, new low income housing complex being built). On the neighborhood’s agenda were things like how to accommodate parking for all of the new businesses/residents. How to manage the noise from the concert goers singing into the night, and the constant crime/disturbances from being next to Colfax Ave. It seemed like a great place to get involved in the community.

But after a year of going to the meetings and talking to the association members, I found that the association itself was represented by a very small number of residents who’ve lived here for a long time, and seemed more concerned with old feuds amongst themselves, than the actual business of the neighborhood association. It doesn’t help that the association has essentially no power to do anything – other than take votes on resolutions with no consequences, and write letters to the city officials.

Perhaps the biggest disappointment of the entire experience was that the vast majority of the people who live in the neighborhood don’t care less about what we were doing – and wanted nothing to do with it. The organization and its work simply didn’t seem to matter to anyone, except to the organization itself.

The best part of volunteering at SCPNA was meeting all of the neighbors, and learning more about the neighborhood -it’s history, it’s struggles, etc. The worst part was the pervasive feeling that all of the hard work of deliberating, writing and communicating was for nothing.

Confusion vs Information

via FlowData, via Indexed Blog.

Excel works well for most quick tasks – but how cool would it be to be able to create interactive, colorful charts that breathe life into rows and rows of data?

And speaking of  FlowingData, they have nice beginner’s guides to get started:

What Visualization Tool/Software Should You Use? – Getting Started

40 Essential Tools and Resources to Visualize Data