Dreams*(?) and Development

​A three part dream that happened this morning before I woke up to take out the trash and recycling with post-slumber commentary:
1. I'm in a new [or maybe rather more appropriately capitalized, New] Detroit neighborhood restaurant/cafe watching a s​kit​/presentation akin to Goldilocks and the three bears between the owners and employees during its preliminary grand opening.

Goldilocks, a young ​caucasian girl, pours and presents a big bowl of hot chocolate as she narrates the origins of the cafe and what it values ​in balancing its business aspirations ​as part of the community. She sweetly closes her story punctuating it with a casual "that'll be $40 bucks, hun." For the bowl of hot chocolate as the punchline to the community and up-and coming city entrepreneurship story.

The customer (not identifiable to the audience/nor heard) implicitly complies and requests for something additional to which the matron of the cafe quickly gathers the other local employees, gets on the phone and discusses in Zulu or some other language heard in South Africa with all the staff huddled around, before she confidently hangs up the phone to declare to the imaginary customer: "I have good news, you're eligible for an additional $0.30 per hour sitting fee too!"

We (the audience) laugh and ​as I turn away ​I ​​start figuring out how to make a sliding scale menu cost structure for non-locals and locals that can accommodate more people with less outrageous prices while still accounting for the higher I come demographic who wouldn't hesitate to buy a $40 bowl of hot cocoa (or in real life, pay more than $40 for a hair cut).

2. My dream transitions to sitting at the counter of another cafe/diner that bears a less monied air to it: imagine a classic 1950s hamburger joint  converted into a general diner/cafe that hadn't been updated since the 50's that's in a Downriver (low-income labor town) community like River Rouge or Wyandotte. It's now under the ownership and operation of an immigrant Indian woman and she's working to serve us friends as her guests before it officially opens.

I ask if there's any local favorite juice available as she opens and closes a basic household refrigerator that's nestled on the wall facing the counter and register. "All I have for drinks is in that fridge." And I note that A box of wine was the only fruit beverage available. A classmate from second grade, Vijay [Vijay!? What are you doung here in my subconscious bro? Still got that cool San Jose Sharks winter coat too], smiles and sarcastically proclaims "Ecorse' s finest!" And gestures with a culinary kiss to the air. I laugh [his sense of himor is still on point].

I'm now outside the restaurant with my friend Onyx, pouring two glasses from that boxed wine as we "celebrate" "Ecorse's finest" -- and the fact that we both witnessed French hosts serve us boxed wine [yes, in real waking life during our time as guests in southern France while performing on tour]. Onyx smiles agreeing with that tone of voice you get at the end of sharing a memory in the way a fire burns down to smoldering coals, and mentions that "having some music from the 90s playing would be great right now." I mention if WiFi is available we might be able to pull something up and quietly ponder what kind of music could constitute the best of the 90s.

3. My dream transitions again and I'm inside a neighborhood salon+barbershop where one of my former employers, Mrs. Michele Loveberry --who in real life owned a salon while briefly leading a non-profit-- is working with a customer already after promptly arriving at 6:00am on one side while a barber works with someone else toward the front on the other side of the room. My friend Jemeer and another guy tells me how important barbershops are for the community (true, and we've had a conversation like this in waking life before) as well.

Post-Slumber Commentary

So here's what I think we can learn (or at least be reminded of) from the dream above among other things: 

1) there's a point when a well-grounded and intentional price policy becomes outrageous to the average person and yet entirely acceptable for a new target audience--I.e. the $40 haircut yuppie or in the case of my dream, the gentrified who pays $40 for a ridiculously large bowl of hot chocolate.

Speaking with my friend Ulysses, this is exactly how countries like Finland operate--

2) The $0.30 per hour sitting fee sounds like something (a terrible something) that a crowded New York or San Francisco kind of city actually would do, except they'd charge you even more for just being there. For [dystopic neoliberal urbanization/gentrification​/colonialism​] comedic purposes, $0.30 is ​"​reasonable​"​--just small enough to be petty, but the real offense comes from its mere existence​ ​​and audacity to charge people for their mere existence​.

3) I still work even in my dreams to figure out things like equitable cost strategies and price points.

4) Zulu (though I don't know the language well) and South Africa are a very interesting parallel--in waking life I met a journalist who focused on apartheid and how similar patterns manifest in Detroit last year. For those unfamiliar with the city, Detroit is approximately 83% black, ~89% "minority", and highly segregated as a city still. The economic development patterns also tend to reflect this too with most investment underway in majority white downtown core financial and cultural districts. Meanwhile, most of the neighborhoods remain overlooked unless they're ripe for ["market"] exploitation [or straight-up exploitation in itself] according to the downtown administration and deep pocket developers.

5) There's an interesting contradiction to connecting boxed wine with the expression "Ecorse's finest" --the river that makes "downriver" communities was called the Rouge River by the French settlers (and still called that today by residents) because of all the grapes that would grow in the region. It's hard to say what the soil and air quality would be for growing grapes for wine there today as it's somewhat an industrial labor town now, but if we of the region were to begin making wine there again, I wouldn't be surprised if boxed wine would the way to start as the expertise, "market audience", and taste palate for most people in southeast Michigan would probably take time to develop before we skip ahead to fine wines. Alcoholism in Michigan is a major problem, and it happens to be, at least during some point within the past 5 years, among one of the most common Google searches in our state.

6) The Salon/Barber Shop dream builds directly from a conversation I had last night realizing how continuity for employing and owning a business in Detroit remains by the person, and often ends at the entrepreneur rather than continuing with the team/a community to support the training and workers beyond the founder. I also think the gender roles (one side salon, another side barber) is something to note though I haven't got much insight for it beyond observation. Mrs. Loveberry's mother opened and owned a historic salon business, one of the first in Detroit, and the legacy of her entrepreneurship remains under celebrated except for those who may have known her directly or through the family stories like my friend Jemeer and Mrs. Loveberry. Mrs. Loveberry recently retired and left the state. 

I now realize she was part of the 93% businesses in Detroit that are black, and of them, 90% are/were run with 1-4 employees. The continuity between owner to new generations differs from places in Japan or even Vietnam where businesses survived for centuries--even surviving colonialism and world wars--with artisans and other people who continue the line and legacy.

In my waking life, I know/know of an interesting cross section of the cosmetic industry. I also connected [albeit briefly] with someone from outside Detroit focused on using barber shops as places to address mental health in the black community. They all have important elements, and the opportunity to convene and discuss how workforce development + business ownership advances in the city's neighborhoods is important and feasible to implement with someone like Chase Cantrell of Building Community Value and the folks who put on Hair Wars.


References

Toward the end of this sketch, Trevor Noah speaks in Zulu--deep in the comment section of the original clip on youtube someone gave a translation:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pwT-2KdK894

The Chumbawamba Case Study

In the 90s, a British band called Chumbawamba suddenly became a hit in the U.S. (and probably worldwide, too) with a song called "Tubthumping", in which the energetic chorus "I get knocked down, but I get up again, and you'll never ever keep me down." becomes the soundtrack to the lives of youth as countless shows and radio stations play it on repeat.

Yet when you listen to the rest of their album, pointed and political statements fill the songs with themes that would be relevant to a lot of politically active people even today. I still recall hearing a recorded sample from one of the tracks with someone asking in testy tones: "what about free speech!?" and some bizzare training audio for washing out the brains of a cow, likely a suggestive nod to brainwashing in media.

Which brings me to wonder: of all the people who bought their album, how many actually listened to the rest of the album and its content?

So I looked up the band not too long ago and found they disbanded around 2014 to focus on -- guess what? -- their activism.





Most people in the U.S. are inclined to write the band off as a one-hit wonder, and the commercial stations and media spheres that surrounded its sudden popularity certainly made it so--but it seems like it answers a question I and many others tend to ponder:
At what point can the reach of your platform, storytelling, or media outweigh the need for impact?

If we consider Chumbawamba's commercial radio and record store (at that point, cassettes and CDs where the primary medium) success, their story might point us to an answer:
Some people were certainly switched on by the band when they realized how "music could be a political tool" (as one youtube user comments), but the novelty effect of becoming an overplayed hit on the radiowaves sometimes overshadows the genuine message and story of the group by the time it reaches certain audiences.

Coach, Consultant, Buzzwords and Being Genuine

This post is actually so that I can host an image online that will be used elsewhere (for this event and its subsequent series of workshops for applying vision, mission, systems/habits techniques and strategy into your life).

That said, it's certainly been an interesting experience working with someone whose immediate focus comes from very personal contexts in coaching, and writing from an international personal development point of view. I also think it's neat that our portrait photos are a kind of counterpoint/complement to one another: Bere's is black and white/grayscale, mine's in color. We're both looking more or less to the right.

Today my biggest learning point comes from trying to reconcile a traditional "focus on making and selling" approach to doing an event with the "bring everyone to the table and build together" orientation I've focused on as of the past 5-7 years. Bere has a very good tendency for keeping immediate focus on "first things first", and while I'm mindful of the same, we balance each other out pretty well.

Also, Happy New Year! (Gregorian and Lunar alike!), more to come.

Maybe we'll see you there?
workyoulovecoach.com/live-event

Existentialism in Marketing continued: case in point!

This morning, Morning Edition did a piece on allowing customers to customize their products--everything from M&Ms to sneakers and coats:

http://www.npr.org/2012/12/20/167676601/custom-orders-build-retailers-brand-loyalty

I think it's a good case for Richard Sennet's principle of participation for meaningful craftsmanship (ergo the title of his book "The Craftsman") as a means to making a "consumer experience"--in other words (my own), existentialism in marketing.

In fewer (albeit, less mature) words: called it!

That said, it's odd to hear young people speak about their product choices:

"Students really love showing off, and kids love showing off who they are," Stewart says. "And ... me spreading the word about how I designed these shoes led to all my friends wanting to design their own." -Lindsay Stewart, a senior at Holy Innocents' Episcopal School in Atlanta

There's certainly more to expression and a student's identity than Ms. Stewart's view, but you've got to admit she'd make for a great PR rep.

Existentialism in Marketing

[Note:  I keep starting things that make me think I'm supposed to cover all of my thoughts about whatever I write.  Since I stopped using wordpress, I have no idea how long these posts run and have yet to check the word count.  I might expand this post later as it ties into essays and research I've worked on before, apologies in advance if it ends abruptly.]

I'm integrating many facets of what I do into one place.  In my quest for examples of interesting people who do a disparate array of things and had personal websites that brought them all together, I wound up finding the following phrase "sell and experience, not a product".  The concept was probably coined by someone famous or at least famous within marketing circles--I'll let others point to the source for now.  The idea however is interesting--even marketers (presumably good marketers), some of the greatest product pushers of all-time, look for truth and meaning in what they purvey.  I don't think I'm off-mark to say "selling an experience" plugs into the essence of existentialism.  Experience is irreplaceable and particular to one's perception and circumstances (which are subjective enough to present real challenges to anyone attempting to replicate them).  Yet the bigger question for me is this: how much can one intrinsically and extrinsically integrate into what they do?

Here's where outreach and marketing overlap in my opinion--and why I believe outreach is the superior concept to marketing, though with all due respect to marketers, I believe both are still important and useful.  Both operate on transdisciplinary principles of design--particularly through communication.

{continued after the jump}

Glass, class, consumption ethics and cash

Among things I never imagined doing, making jewelry in college ranks high on the list.

The course was actually a natural science class that's open to the community as a workshop too. We learned about the chemistry and physics that go into near-alchemy glass phenomena. In addition to the physics and chemical reactions behind glass working, I learned fundamental techniques for crafting glass beads last semester. By the end of the endeavor, I realized I was working with serious materials that could place me alongside competent and professional jewelers (indeed, at least one of the people in the lab, Katherine*[spelling?], is a full-time artist and jeweler).

Many of our glass rods came from exotic and esteemed places like the Murano district of Italy and China (perhaps exotic for those not numbed by globalization). Our instructor taught workshops at the University of Toledo's glass museum, and I worked with 22 karat gold leaf, sterling silver, and stainless steel.

The glass gets its color based on its chemical contents, and sold as glass rods. Heavy metals (things you don't want to ingest a lot of like lead, etc.) are frequently used as opacifiers (to make the glass less transparent). History holds that some antique yellow glass vases would glow in the dark because of the uranium in them (I hear from other classes and conferences that uranium ore is yellow too). When we work with a "cobalt blue" rod, it appears cobalt blue especially because the rod of glass contains a fair amount of cobalt silicate or cobalt (II) aluminate. I'm guessing that it's a radioactively stable isotope of cobalt. For beads with lead content, I now tend to seal beads with clear glass in case any potential health concerns do manifest.

The blue striping on the beads/pendant
is "cobalt blue" (contains cobalt). The
pendant is suspended with sterling
silver, the crimps for the clasps 
are sterling silver as well, and
the beads are threaded with
stainless steel cable. 

Enough back story: At the end of the semester, I came to enjoy working with glass, made some nice things (turtles!), was required to make a necklace for the final project, was left with a bundle of glass rods, and invited to join the summer workshop and Southeast Michigan Glass Bead Maker's Guild.

As much as I enjoy glasswork, a few concerns arise.

1) As a class, we use about 5 tanks of acetylene (a natural gas) in one semester for our torches.

2) Globally, gold contributes to over 90% of mine production, and I suspect the precious metals and steel we used were not from recycled.
(Here's the No Dirty Gold report I sourced that statistic from)

3) I definitely won't use a lot of the glass for myself, but if it's worth it for someone I'm very glad to make it. However, I refuse to craft kitsch.

Disclaimer: In some ways, I dislike getting into classical conservation issues like recycling and the accelerated anthropocentric climate crisis. They tend to boil down to basic education and responsibility, and people get pigeonholed as a very different kind of person known as an "environmentalist". Recycling and climate change tend to miss a bigger picture in the scheme of life: we all have responsibilities that cannot be delegated to specialists. You don't delegate your day-to-day responsibilities to a professional ethicist. Likewise, there are basic things that everyone can/should do that are not to be left for someone else to clean up after. Responsible environmental actions are a necessity in everyone's life, the difference comes from the degree of insight, scale, and influence we knowingly interact with. You can go to an environmental scientist for insight, but don't forget about the learned perspectives of everyone else in society.

1) Back to point 1 about natural gas consumption:

The first point probably has a stereotypical and common set of reasons for an environmental science major to be worried. Anthropocentric greenhouse gas combustion, natural gas consumption, which ties back to extraction (increased demand for fuel can add to impetus for fracking in the Great Lakes region [I'll acknowledge natural gas as an enticing transition fuel, but when we get to the science of risk, impacts, and industry response, it's very challenging to justify considering the proximity of these operations to our local drinking water supply]).

2) The second point really makes it meaningful for me--I've met people face to face, shook hands and embraced people who underwent (some continue to undergo) environmental injustices in Appalachia due to mountain top removal coal mining. Contrary to what most people would assume, they were still potentially willing to mine coal in other ways even at the risk of black lung disease. They weren't willing to see their fruits and neighbors die from toxic water or silicosis.

3) Furthermore, people can only wear so much jewelry at a time, assuming that they'd even want to (I for one, barely wear a watch, and do so for practical purposes). Again, I refuse to craft kitsch--it's frequently devoid of substance and rarely authentically communicates one's intentional assertions of self-agency.

I find beauty through intrinsic and extrinsic circumstance of an event or entity--when both are there, it's magic. Simple, complex, mysterious all at once. Glass as a medium captures this. The art is visual and for the creator, kinesthetic as well. I recall a [paraphrased] quote from a master Murano glass maker (sorry, I don't recall his name, he's in an early video about the history of glass making in 1960s): 

 "glass is the only medium I know that can be hard, yet fragile and malleable all at the same time". 

I'd take it further and apply it as a fair symbol of the human spirit too. It's origins are inorganic (in a chemistry sense) yet natural and artificial (in that it is frequently created with human intention) too.

A process such as glass work on a small scale is intricate, introspective, and takes more time and effort than the finished outcome may suggest (realizing a cat's eye marble is probably made by hand still surprises me). But as a process, it is fleeting and enrichment is particular only to the individual engaged in its creation. If I'm dissatisfied with the intrinsic nature of what I've made, I'm presented with a few challenges. Can I imbue substantial extrinsic meaning into what I've done? This then becomes a tenuous endeavor akin to marketing what we don't really need. At the same time, I'm looking to pay off tuition and attain more stable living conditions.

Curious to know the context of glass bead making among fine jewelers, I started looking around. I found several jewelers pricing two-bead earrings around $60-$80 a pair, and that necklaces can easily reach $800 or more. Considering the potential time, effort, energy and materials it takes to make glass, this actually makes sense.

That's right, we (you the reader and I) now enter the domain of "what's it really worth" we now ponder if a balance can ever exist between the priceless value of experiences and stories, the worth of the intrinsic materials, and whether the experience modifies the value of a material item. Indeed, there exist companies which drive so much into developing a "culture" and identity around their products, that their value is appreciated for the story.  Surely the existence of an active customer fan-forum can be considered a milestone of success in enterprise. In the bead industry, see trollbeads.  For parallels in consumer technology, I'll merely mention "apple"; video games: "halo".

Perhaps the greater creation behind these individual trinkets comes from the creation of a dynamic, living entity: the "community" which sustains meaning through the extrinsic discussion, exhibition, criticism, and occasional exaltation for particular items, artifacts, and ideas.  The strength of any community belongs to the domain of invaluable relationships.

While capitalism and money may be myriad topics fraught with issue for deeply contemplative and compassionate comprehension, I'm convinced that the lifeblood of these systems amounts to a beguilingly simple notion: trust.  I suspect most economists consider the value of our currencies, even an individual or institution's faith in a good, service, or market resilience rely upon trust for arbitrary interest rates and belief in economic dogma.  Yet the injustices inherent to both of these systems tend to violate the very basis of my conjecture for money and capitalism!

We must be looking at a wicked problem in its most worthy sense...  [A wicked problem is a special kind of problem for complex systems thinkers.  The link goes to previous posts that discuss or at least tangentially mention wicked problems with useful external links for more specific characterizations of wicked problems.]

Ahhh, beautiful...resume!

I recently applied for a campus job as a lab proctor.  Even though it probably didn't require much (entry level, high school degree, computer skills, good disposition for friendly service* [*that last one is actually a scalable quality--for an ethical individual it demands as much as you can put forth and, in my opinion, can make a huge difference ]), I decided to explore some new ideas with my resume.

It worked so well, I got an interview before I even finished writing the resume!  Actually, a miraculous set of coincidences and other events resulted in getting an interview date set up as I was still typing the resume--a story worth telling in itself--but I digress.  I hastily incorporated these ideas into my #1 resume (for longer-term employment prospects in corporate sustainability consulting) and the image above captures the outcome.

There are four new(ish) things I feel somewhat successful in implementing/addressing with this new edition of resume:

1. Can you make your name more memorable?  This part was inspired by Rachel Dearborn's wonderful resume--a real eye opener in so many ways for me.
2. How can you organize your information better?  I'll attribute this to a friend, Sarai Richter, whose resume utilized a two column layout (it almost blew my mind when I first saw it--"You can use the page like that!?!  Wonderful!").
3. Can people check out what you've done?  This is my own innovation--perhaps other people have done it elsewhere, and credit to them, but I came across this on my own.
4. Serif/Sans Serif font use.  Huh?  I've got Palatino Linotype and Calibri (or maybe Shruti, I don't remember which I chose for this) in the same document.  Sans serif fonts tend to be associated with futuristic things, and seem to read more quickly.  In a way, it reminds me of handwriting:  people who write in ALL CAPITAL LETTERS TEND TO GET THINGS DONE WITH A STEADFAST, BLUDGEONING STYlE, while those with all lower case characters tend to have a more subtle approach. Yet those who do BOTH seem likely to mix it up in moderation.

New pardigms for walkability--the 2007(?) Saturn Ion commercial revisited

WHOA! A friend suggested "walkpooling" for school children in the Dearborn Sustainability Master Plan, and I then remembered this 2007 Saturn Ion commercial where all the kids and a bus driver were walking on the street sans the bus (at 0:39 seconds):

Watching it again with a new paradigm for walkability in cities, a better understanding of infrastructure and sustainability, I can't help but think that it's a bit ironic and hope that it's a bit prophetic too.  You may ask, "Ironic?"  Think about it, this commercial came from a car company--even though I owned a Saturn and loved it--much of our road infrastructure and city planning (especially for those living in Michigan--even more so for those in Southeast Michigan) was designed around car transportation by the push of the Automotive industry.

Feel free to converse with me in person about the gritty details, I think a lot of people in the Automotive sector are trying to do the right thing at this time (though it may be a bit late) and don't want to unfairly characterize the efforts of the people who are doing good by giving the darker aspects of the company's (GM's) history here).  That said, James Kettering (of GM and also Kettering University's namesake) had a big role to play in shaping a worldview for consumerism, and I suspect not being able to afford a new car over other things has a lot to do with the skew of hyper-consumerism in the economy.

That said the same time it's an outstanding teaching tool for grasping how much attention and space is devoted to vehicles rather than people.  That's the beauty of this Saturn commercial.

It reveals how we approach the way we travel, and where we go to do the things that make up our lives.




It's not always apparent, but when we look at how cities scale their roadways, it tends to be done with respect to making it convenient for a car rather than the people in the city.  In my end of Michigan, there's a fair number of people scraping by to get to work via car, even I commute over a hundred miles almost on a weekly basis for school and work.  That brings a big question based on a plausible what if:  What if we couldn't take this kind of long-distance transit system for granted (say, gas is too costly)?  How can we make the immediate locality--the place we live in--more vibrant and economically resilient?

The Saturn Ion commercial captures an intrinsic truth about human travel so well that years later even without the company's existence we can look at it as an opportunity to rethink walkability and livable communities. In case you were wondering, this is one of those rare "blew my mind with a new paradigm" moments.

Talkin' 'bout my generation--it's going to be thirsty

I've been hearing about "Generation Y Michigan" on the radio recently and saw this posted on facebook.

Michigan Radio:

The first Generation Y Michigan story airs tomorrow during Morning Edition (5-9a) & All Things Considered 4-6:30p.) As we work on more pieces in the series, we wondered what questions you have about Michigan's "brain drain"?

You might be picking up some negative vibes about Michigan right now, and it's easy to see where a lot of it comes from. Unfortunately, I was feeling it from some of the promo for this series, and the responses were equally pessimistic (or at least, they could be depressing). Here's one of them:

I'm sorry but i'm leaving again the moment I have the chance. I've been all over the country and never, ever seen poverty like this. In over three dozen close family and friends I see on a regular basis I know seven people total with jobs. Three of those are part time underpaid positions.

There's no future here. That's why we're leaving.

Ack! Please do not forsake the state! When it comes to Brain Drain, the Bruce Lee allegory about an empty cup comes to mind. You can't fill your cup with anything else until it is empty. Michigan may be emptying, but we're entering the best time for leaders and learners to rejuvenate its systems. Here's my response:

I respectfully disagree: There is future in Michigan, but leadership among its people will determine whether it's going to brighten or languish. There's a lot of raw opportunity despite the fact that (or maybe because) the economic and political climate may slow us down.

That said, there's a myriad of reasons that people need to leave, but there are just as many for people to return or stay.

Think about Detroit; its capacity and momentum for recovery are diminished by brain drain, uncoordinated leadership, and weakened communities to name a few. We'll see similar results if the state is forsaken altogether.

The questions: Pick anything the state has certainly been failing at or can substantially improve. Then ask how can we bring people together to process these opportunities in ways that are socially, economically, AND ecologically sound? There's no shortage of work to do, but find out how value in those three areas is recognized so that we can quickly communicate the benefits of Michigan's situation to current and future talent.

As I was writing the reply, I realized the problem almost boils down to a marketing piece. Do the research, build your community, and communicate the value. Assess, tweak/terminate, and sustain.

But, the solution also has lots to do with leadership that considers more than government systems or America's most talented.

There are three audiences I can think of:
the dedicated (people staying within the state)
the maybes (recapturing those who briefly left)
and the not yets (attracting new folks)

Right now, it's about working with the dedicated people who stay.

Bring out their best, share with them what you know, learn what you can from one another. You'll explore with them, develop a community, and empower them to do the same for others.

Here's where I think the roads are bumpy:

Anyone can tell people what the problems are, and maybe even how to solve them. Your challenge is to pass on the best of what gets you excited about the problems and solutions. This is what inspires people to want to learn and do more. You're sharing the value in what you see for the circumstances around you and the community. To make it relevant, you have to address the triple bottom line of sustainability: people, profit, and planet. Eventually, you'll attract outsiders who seek silver lining (or maybe delicious water from a Great Lakes sub-watershed) in whatever state you're in.

Oh, since the story can't be listened to on the radio right now, in the mean time I'd like to recommend that you listen to The Who's song about my generation as you wait.

Albatross can sleep while flying!

Did you know that an albatross can sleep while flying? I first read about this from a weak advertisement as I browsed through a magazine and then researched it on the internet to confirm that the fact was true. Indeed it is; furthermore, I learned that the albatross is a rather large bird (that spends almost all of its life at sea or in the air). How large? Some, like the wandering albatross, have been reported with wingspans of up to eleven feet (11') long!

My first reaction was to wonder how, and the next was to dream about the sensation of sustained flight without using anything but the wind. My guess was that the bird stays aloft on major trade winds or they utilize some sort of phenomena in air that is near the ocean surface. I still don't know exactly, but this site from students(?) at Wake Forest University shows how an albatross can glide without having to flap their wings using just the current of the wind. This process is called dynamic soaring, and there's a short animation that depicts how it works on the link provided.

Furthermore, these birds live a potentially long life, as I have read they can live past 50 years of age. However, what most often threatens their lifespan today is a method of fishing such as "longlining" (using thousands of baited hooks trailing off of long lines behind a boat or set between buoys) can snag an albatross that goes for the bait and drown it or a hook may get fed to its chicks if it successfully removes the and gill nets; it can get to be a problem, and the Kiwi Conservation club in New Zealand, asks for people to write the Minister of Fisheries to request for better conservation and fishing policy.

I've become fascinated with the albatross since reading that tidbit, and I realize as I type that the advertisement did direct my interest to learn more about the bird rather than their product (something to do with software, though I doubt I needed it anyhow). If a company is going to put a fascinating fact up such as "albatross can sleep while flying," I would expect that whatever follows should be at the least equally interesting or significant. Not "they don't see where they're going" in big print and then somewhere at the bottom of the page write what their company has to offer. Or maybe follow up with something like "albatross can sleep while flying, and some pilots can too, but they know where they'll end up if they do".

Anyhow, I wonder what the albatross dream about when they sleep aloft.