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Starbucks' Coffee-Market Predominance

2007-05-03T23:58:00.000-05:00

New Starbucks cafes are opening in Toledo, Ohio. Today there was a long line of cars waiting at the drive thru of one new store.

There was an article in the news recently about Starbucks and the Ethiopian market. And so I looked up their website. Here in Toledo the only chain competitor is Seattle's Best Coffee - and then I went to their website and see they were bought by Starbucks in 2003.

Is Starbucks' predominance in the coffee market a good thing for coffee? I suppose it probably is... Better marketing means more coffee consumption and that helps coffee growers, as long as they make a decent profit.

Is it a good thing for cafes?

I guess other small-time cafes and roasters are still getting by, or seem to be. However, as even more Starbucks proliferate, that might change.

Though Starbucks doesn't offer live entertainment, which three coffee-serving independent cafes in Toledo both offer, as well as sandwiches and other food.

The only other specialty coffee chain stores that I know of are Peet's Coffee and Tea and Caribou Coffee.

However Peet's only operates about 136 retail stores, and Caribou Coffee 464, to Starbucks' 11,066 (as of Oct 1, 2006) in the United States and worldwide. That doesn't include the two new Starbucks which just opened in Toledo, Ohio.

I've begun drinking the cold Starbucks Frappachino coffee drinks. Reading the Starbucks annual report, these are produced and distributed with a licensing deal with Pepsi and another company.

Starbucks is now generating about $8 billion in revenues yearly,
and net income of $600 million.

Given that Starbucks really just seemed to get going in the 1990s, that's pretty amazing.

Caribou Coffee is losing money, according to Yahoo! Finance.

CO2 is bad, but what about Methane?

2007-05-01T01:52:00.000-05:00

"but methane is arguably worse, at least for world climate. Pound for pound methane traps 21 times as much heat as carbon dioxide, the most common greenhouse gas."

From, "Earth's Uncanned Crusaders: Will Sardines Save Our Skin?" NY Times, Nov 23, 2004

I was searching for something in my library's NY Times database and came across this article. Sardines evidently eat certain phytoplankton which release methane and hydrogen sulfide gas, but over-fishing of sardines has lead to more phytoplankton surviving and releasing more methane.

But I had forgotten that other pollution was more global-warming causing than CO2.

Livestock are responsible for 18 percent of greenhouse-gas emissions as measured in carbon dioxide equivalent, reports the FAO. This includes 9 percent of all CO2 emissions, 37 percent of methane, and 65 percent of nitrous oxide. Altogether, that's more than the emissions caused by transportation.

The latter two gases are particularly troubling – even though they represent far smaller concentrations in atmosphere than CO2, which remains the main global warming culprit. But methane has 23 times the global warming potential (GWP) of CO2 and nitrous oxide has 296 times the warming potential of carbon dioxide.

From Christian Science Monitor

Can We Meet the Environment and Energy Challenge?

2007-05-01T01:14:00.000-05:00

From "The Power of Green" in NY Times Magazine by Thomas Friedman

"Here are seven wedges we could chose from: “Replace 1,400 large coal-fired plants with gas-fired plants; increase the fuel economy of two billion cars from 30 to 60 miles per gallon; add twice today’s nuclear output to displace coal; drive two billion cars on ethanol, using one-sixth of the world’s cropland; increase solar power 700-fold to displace coal; cut electricity use in homes, offices and stores by 25 percent; install carbon capture and sequestration capacity at 800 large coal-fired plants.” And the other eight aren’t any easier. They include halting all cutting and burning of forests, since deforestation causes about 20 percent of the world’s annual CO2 emissions.
“There has never been a deliberate industrial project in history as big as this,” Pacala said. Through a combination of clean power technology and conservation, “we have to get rid of 175 billion tons of carbon over the next 50 years — and still keep growing. It is possible to accomplish this if we start today. But every year that we delay, the job becomes more difficult — and if we delay a decade or two, avoiding the doubling or more may well become impossible.”

I was just thinking recently that the world wasn't moving fast enough to address the need for greater energy efficiency and reducing CO2 emissions and other pollution.

It's depressing that we sort of new this was coming back in the 1970s and didn't embrace change back then - today in 2007, we might be already seeing that pay off.

But we didn't, we went the SUV and Hummer route, more gas guzzling and general energy in-efficiency.

Really, we need some major technological breakthrough that could both remove CO2 from the atmosphere as well as provide abundant pollution-free energy in a safe manner.

This whole move toward ethanol seems kind of like coming up with a pseudo-solution to our energy problems. Ethanol combustion still emits CO2. It's source may be regenerating - sugar or corn, but that seems more like just coming up with a new way of subsidizing farmers. And you would still want to build vehicles that got much better ethanol mileage than our gas-powered cars get today.

My '99 Honda accord ex gets about 25 mpg in the city, and lately I mostly drive around the city - Toledo, Ohio, a sprawling bunch of suburbs, really. And I'm surprised, if dismayed, at how quickly I rack up the miles just driving locally. Everything is so spread out and sprawled out. If only we could convert our cities to compact city centers. But it's not possible. We're stuck with sprawl.

But anyway, in 2007, it's pathetic that my car only gets 25 mpg in the city. I used to own a little honda civic in 1989 and it got 50 mpg highway. A shameful lack of technological progress, really.

Music With Lyrics You Can't Understand

2007-04-22T23:39:00.000-05:00

The other night I was at a bar and there were these punk bands playing that were really reminiscent of early 1970s or maybe 1960s punk sound. I couldn't understand a single one
of the screamed and hoarsely yelled lyrics. But the sounds of the melodic screaming and yelling certainly added something to the music.

Tonite I was listening to XM 100, a french language music station on XM Satellite radio and they were playing French hip-hop. I speak some French, but still could only catch a word here or there. But again, the incomprehensible chanting, rapping, and singing along with the music and beats still sounded cool. I also listen to latino music stations on XM even though I don't understand Spanish.

It's sort of interesting to contemplate the difference in appreciating music with lyrics you can't understand, when voice becomes just another instrument of sounds and rythm.

I remember growing up and listening to music on the radio - it was always difficult to find music, find out what artist had sung the song you'd just heard, and then often the lyrics weren't printed. Today stations like XM list the band and song title, you can find and download most music via sharing software, and you can search for most lyrics on the internet.

Of course, if the lyrics are good, then you might want to actually know what's being sung, rapped, or screamed. Maybe bands should hand out lyric sheets before they play live. But when you're listening to radio, you'll still have to go research the song if the lyrics aren't perfectly clear...

Malaria and Mosquito Eating Machines

2007-04-04T16:56:00.000-05:00

"Death by malaria is the opposite of quick and painless..."

"Each year, between 350 million and 500 million cases of malaria occur worldwide. About 1 million people die..."

- Wall Street Journal "Biting Back" 4/4/07

Why not initiate a massive campaign of using Mosquito Eaters like this Gobblin? It claims to be able to attract and kill hundreds of mosquitos per hour. Or the skeeter-eater (Mosquito Magnet)? There's also the Dragonfly.

Seems that we should consider a global effort to use such technology to reduce the mosquito population...

A Brutal Political Playing Field

2007-03-31T18:35:00.000-05:00

"There was a time when Southerners just got re-elected and re-elected over and over again. You stick around long enough, you get powerful," said former Louisiana congressman Billy Tauzin, a former Democrat who switched parties in the middle of his 24-year House career before retiring in 2004. "But it's not the old, genteel South anymore. It's a brutal political playing field now."

From "Southern clout in Congress at lowest point in 50 years," USA Today

Fine Words and Empty Deeds

2007-03-31T16:21:00.000-05:00

"Other international leaders need to demonstrate that they can act as well as talk, or else fine words and empty deeds will be the epitaph for the dwindling survivors of Darfur."

- From NY Times March 31, 2007, editorial: "Talking Darfur To Death"

Could the US Government be More Efficient?

2007-03-31T15:35:00.000-05:00

Could the US Congress be changed and modernized to work more efficiently?

The game of politics that politicians in Washington play today seems somewhat outdated. Traditions keep it stuck in old ways. Representatives give speeches on the floor to cameras, not people. The Senate and House create and pass separate bills, which have to be later reconciled in committee.

I actually don't know enough about how government works today to answer that questions, but my impression is that the governing of the federal government could be made more efficient - it might actually be able to be made in to a more entertaining game and debate, too.

The "Goracle" Al Gore Goes to Congress

2007-03-22T17:05:00.000-05:00

Some exerpts of Al Gore's testimony to the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee
March 2007 about Global Climate Change.

“This really shouldn’t be seen as a partisan issue or a political issue. It’s a moral issue.”

“The relationship between humankind and planet earth has been radically altered in a short period of time…. The common assumption is that the earth’s so big we couldn’t possibly have a lasting harmful impact on it.”

“But the most vulnerable part of the earth’s ecological system the scientists tell us is the atmosphere…We’re changing its composition… We’re putting 70 million tons every day of this global warming pollution into the atmosphere…And 25 million tons into the ocean…and that’s making the ocean more acidic.”

“This [global warming] is a challenge to our moral imagination…Because the natural tendency to think that something this big and this challenging is not real, we don’t want it to be real… we just wish it would go away. It’s not going away. We’ve got to deal with. The people… are so hopeful… that this Congress will act. I want you to know…that there’s a big change in public opinion that’s building out there.”

US Supreme Court: "Bong Hits 4 Jesus"

2007-03-19T16:16:00.000-05:00

From Reuters:

Court hears "Bong hits 4 Jesus" case

By James Vicini

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - In its first major student free-speech rights case in almost 20 years, U.S. Supreme Court justices struggled on Monday with how far schools can go in censoring students.

In a case involving a Juneau, Alaska, high school student suspended for unfurling a banner that read "Bong Hits 4 Jesus," several justices seemed wary about giving a principal too much authority at the expense of the student's right to express his views.

"It's political speech, it seems to me. I don't see what it disrupts," a skeptical Justice
David Souter said.

"And no one was smoking pot in that crowd," Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg said, referring to the group of students standing near the banner as the Winter Olympic torch relay passed by in January 2002.

The incident occurred during school hours but on a public sidewalk across from the school.

Student Joseph Frederick says the banner's language was meant to be meaningless and funny in an effort to get on television.

Principal Deborah Morse said the phrase "bong hits" referred to smoking marijuana. She suspended Frederick for 10 days because the banner advocated or promoted illegal drug use in violation of school policy.

Justice Stephen Breyer said he was struggling with the case.

A ruling for Frederick could result in students "testing limits all over the place in the high schools" while a ruling against Frederick "may really limit people's rights on free speech," Breyer said.

Kenneth Starr, the former special prosecutor who investigated former President
Bill Clinton in the Monica Lewinsky sex scandal, said Morse acted reasonably and in accord with the school's anti-drug mission.

A Bush administration lawyer, Edwin Kneedler, argued for a broad rule that public schools do not have to tolerate a message inconsistent with its basic educational mission.

"I find that a very, very disturbing argument," Justice Samuel Alito said, adding that schools could define their educational mission so broadly to suppress political speech and speech expressing fundamental student values.

Justice Anthony Kennedy asked Kneedler if the principal could have required the banner be taken down if it had said "vote Republican, vote Democrat."

Kneedler replied the principal has that authority.

Frederick's lawyer, Douglas Mertz of Juneau, said: "This is a case about free speech. It is not a case about drugs."

Mertz argued the court should not abandon its famous 1969 ruling that students do not "shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate," a decision that allowed students to wear black armbands in class to protest the Vietnam War.

But the Supreme Court's last major rulings on the issue went against the students.

The court ruled in 1986 that a student does not have a free-speech right to give a sexually suggestive speech at an assembly and in 1988 that school newspapers can be censored.

A decision in the case is expected by the end of June.

Palestinian unity government takes office

2007-03-17T17:17:00.000-05:00

From Reuters:

Palestinian unity government takes office

By Nidal al-Mughrabi 1 hour, 2 minutes ago

GAZA (Reuters) - A Palestinian unity government rejected by
Israel as a peace partner took office on Saturday, pairing Islamist Hamas and secular
Fatah in a coalition they hope can end factional violence and painful foreign sanctions.

"Today is the beginning of a new era," said Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas. "Today's events are a source of pride for the Palestinians and the Arab nation."

Palestinian lawmakers endorsed the cabinet, later sworn in by President Mahmoud Abbas of Fatah, after Haniyeh announced a platform declaring that "resistance in all its forms, including popular resistance to occupation, is a legitimate right."

Well, good news for the Palestinian internal political struggle. Now the US should swoop down and help mend relations with Israel.

GQ magazine: Impeach Dick Cheney

2007-03-17T17:02:00.000-05:00

GQ magazine calls for the impeachment of VP Dick Cheney.

Senator Chuck Hagel Opposed to Iraq Occupation - in GQ, Esquire

2007-03-17T16:40:00.000-05:00

Senator Chuck Hagel of Nebraska, Republican, Vietnam veteran, is opposed to the 'surge' and the U.S. occupation of Iraq, according to an article in Esquire and an interview in GQ magazine.

Senator Hagel in Esquire, April 2007:

"Congress abdicated its oversight responsibility... The Press abdicated its responsibility...Terror was on the minds of everyone and nobody questioned anything [about the reasons for going to war in Iraq]."

"You can impeach him [President Bush], and before this is over, you might see calls for his impeachment."

In GQ March 2007, "What do you think the affect of the surge will be?"

"More American lives lost. Billions of dollars going into this hole. It will erode our standing in the Middle East and the world..."

Movie: Never Die Alone

2007-03-15T22:24:00.000-05:00

Watched the movie "Never Die Alone" (2004) starring DMX (Earl Simmons), based on a book by Donald Goines (novel)... Screenplay by James Gibson.

Pretty weird movie, very mean, hateful, demented story. Very mysoginistic, hateful towards women. The lead character, who calls himself "King David" is a pretty nasty character who deals drugs and treats women badly, gets them addicted to heroin. Does this out in L.A. Then he goes back East to pay back some debt to some drug lord and ends up getting stabbed and killed and gives his belongings and some cassette tapes with his story on it to this "white guy" Paul who then writes a story about it and tries to get the local newspaper to run it. They won't because the editor says, he doesn't believe it....

Most of the story is told after "King David" gets killed as a flashback of Paul listening to the tapes of his story...

How Good is Google? And What Are You Searching?

2007-03-15T22:13:00.000-05:00

I've been displeased with web-searching results recently. Perhaps I need to start using advanced search.

Wikipedia seems to provide Google with the content needed to make search results worthwhile. I've recently been searching for some of the same things I searched for about a year ago, and the same results are coming up. Which could happen, since perhaps nothing new has been posted on the topic. However, I was surprised.

Today I was looking for a good website tutorial on Cascading Style Sheets, being a web designer. I use style sheets, but haven't memorized advanced CSS and a Google search brought up a lot of results that led me to content that wasn't what I was looking for.

Now, thanks to browser evolution and the search toolbar, I have a bunch of databases I can search from directly from my browser, Google, Yahoo, MSN, Wikipedia, Ask Jeeves, Answers.com, and others.

Nonetheless, I'd be curious to know how many readers find searching the internet frustrating. How often do you not find what you're looking for? Do you prefer Google or do you use a different search engine? What have you searched for on the internet recently?

The Seemingly Endless Pursuit of Palestinian Unity

2007-03-13T16:42:00.000-05:00

"Negotiations over a Palestinian unity government have become bogged down over who will serve as interior minister with control over security services, sources close to the talks said on Tuesday...."

- From Reuters, "Palestinian unity talks snag on key security post"

I think I've seen a variation on this headline a couple hundred times over the past few years. Maybe if the media quit reporting on Palestinian politics, they'd finally sort things out.

Now, prospective Palestinian Unity is "snagged" and "bogged down." Maybe Mel Brooks should do a movie on Palestinian politics and Palestinian-Israeli relations. Is Mel Brooks still alive? ( I guess he is... According to Wikipedia, at least, the new information source of record. ) The situation is desperate for some humor.

I recently saw a photo on the cover of the NY Times of a Palestinian throwing a stone out of a slingshot at Israeli troops. I know they've been doing this for years, but... It's symbolic of the nightmare they must live in that they're so angry due to the oppression they've endured under Israeli apartheid that they just want to throw anything at them, without much reflection about the power disparity there. A thrown stone will probably do nothing.

But what can they do that's constructive when the Israeli military is in their front yard? When their own political system suffers from internal conflicts?

The U.S. - and President Bush, in need of some positive foreign policy successes - really should move aggressively to repair the situation between the Palestinian factions, and Israel and the Palestinians. We've got the money and influence to do so.

Why So Hot in Los Angeles?

2007-03-13T02:56:00.000-05:00

Yesterday, The Angels got up to 95 degrees, and former President George Bush collapsed from heat exhaustion.

Now, why was coastal Los Angeles 95 degrees, but inland it was cooler? And San Diego was 9 degrees cooler. Seems suspicious. You would think the ocean air would keep L.A. from experiencing such heat... In early March, no less.

No virtue in acquiescense in evil - Churchill Quote

2007-03-11T21:47:00.000-05:00

"There is no virtue in a tame acquiescence in evil. To protest against cruelty and wrong, and to strive to end them, is the mark of a man."

- Winston Churchill, quoted by the AFP Story,
"Jews 'partly responsible' for their troubles: Churchill"

Bill Clinton, Rock Star

2007-02-23T13:33:00.000-05:00

Evidently life after being President means making lots of money giving speeches all over the world - kind of like being a rock star.

The Washington Post features a map of Bill's speeches. Clinton makes generally $150,000 per speech, sometimes as much as $300,000.

The Evolution of Life Expectancy

2007-02-16T14:51:00.000-05:00

If you read the obituaries, you see a pretty wide range of lifespans - some people live into their 90s, others get to stick around only through their 60s. In this modern age of the new millenium, my prejudice is that not only should most people live into their 90s but they should do so in good health. That's just what it seems, to me, that advancements in medicine and our understanding of health should have provided us... By now. But we're not there yet.

According to the U.S. Census information, Life expectancy at birth has grown since 1970 - then, men could expect to live 67 years and women 74 years.

As of 2004, on average, men can expect to live 75 years, and women 80 years.

I suppose the question would be, how many people who pursue healthy lifestyles - eat well, exercise regularly - live into their 90s?

Chili Pepper History and Food and Health

2007-02-15T23:55:00.000-05:00

"Use of Chili Peppers Goes Back 6,100 years," in the Washington Post

The abstract of the paper in the magazine Science
"Starch Fossils and the Domestication and Dispersal of Chili Peppers (Capsicum spp. L.) in the Americas"

I love food, spices, and the history of foods... I've been thinking lately, as I browse groceries, how the options for healthy foods have so grown over the past 20 years or so.

Today we know so much more about antioxidant-rich foods and healthy foods and spices, garlic to prevent cancer, turmeric to prevent cancer and Alzheimer's, omega-3 rich fish and flax seed for better mental health and a sharper mind, green tea to prevent cancer, black teas and coffee are even good for you, and there are more options to choose from... Chocolate contains antioxidants, red wine and grapes contain resveratrol. We know better about healthy fats versus bad fats, that we should eat 5 servings of fruits and vegetables per day and that certain fruits like blueberries contain potent antioxidants.

Certainly with our evolved understanding of foods and the nutrients within them, we might begin to see a broad-based increase in the quality of life, less disease, and an increase in longevity. Though I suppose there still are a significant number of people who eat junk food, the fast-food that once was considered very American is beginning to get a bad reputation.

Try Asian fast-food instead of a burger. It often gives you healthy vegetables.

Jacques Chirac Not Worried About Iran's Nuclear Program

2007-02-15T22:32:00.000-05:00

Gwen Dyer writes in "French president bucks the party line on Iran" printed in the Toledo Blade:

For more than two years all the big western powers have insisted that Iran's nuclear power program is secretly intended to produce nuclear weapons, and that the minute it gets them, it will launch them at Israel.

But last Thursday, France's President Jacques Chirac said something very different. He said that Iran would never use them first. "I would say that what is dangerous about this situation is not the fact of [Iran] having a nuclear bomb," Mr. Chirac said in reply to a journalist's question during an interview that was originally meant to be about climate change. "[Iran] having one [bomb], or perhaps a second bomb a little later, well, that's not very dangerous." Shock! Horror! Mr. Chirac is bucking the party line, which is that Iran is run by a bunch of fanatical crazies who would immediately use their new nuclear weapons against Israel.

"Where will [Iran] drop it, this bomb?" Mr. Chirac asked scornfully. "On Israel? [The missile] would not have gone 200 meters into the air before Tehran would be razed to the ground." He spoke as if deterrence would work even against Iran. As if the country were run by sane human beings who don't want their children to be burned, crushed, and vaporized by Israeli and American nuclear weapons. He's not supposed to talk like that in public.

In Mr. Chirac's view, the danger is not that Iran would be irresponsible with its nuclear weapons, but that they would lead to a general proliferation of such weapons in the Middle East. "Why wouldn't Saudi Arabia do it?" he asked. "Why wouldn't it help Egypt to do it as well? That is the real danger." But he's not supposed to say that either.

That's an excerpt from his column. Click the link above for the full column.

All this talk about Iran. There's too much hype in the Media, which you'd think by the sudden intensity of reporting on the issue, might be trying to fan the flames...

Today, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, seemingly frustrated with the media's desire to report imminent war with yet another country, said:

"For the umpteenth time, we are not looking for an excuse to go to war with Iran," Gates said. "We are not planning a war with Iran."

So, let's move on. There will be no war with Iran.

Now, back to the "war" in Iraq...

The Challenge to Power the Earth Cleanly

2007-02-13T18:52:00.000-05:00

Richard Branson recently announced with Al Gore an award of $25 million for someone or some group who can create a good means of solving the global warming problem.

John Tierney of the NY Times on his blog TierneyLab asks readers "How would you do more than combat global warming? How could it be reversed?"

The Influential and Determining Insects

2007-02-13T15:07:00.000-05:00

The bug. The mosquito, for example. The carrier of malaria, holds much of Africa's population under its dominion. Fleas carried the plague back in the middle ages. Bugs eat away at crops.

Insects are a serious global issue. Especially since Global Warming might help certain insect populations increase and migrate, transporting disease to new places.

Foreign Policy's blog has a post of a world map colored by insect infestation.

400-Year Anniversary of America - Jamestown

2007-02-12T15:03:00.000-05:00

"On May 14, 1607, the Virginia Company explorers landed on Jamestown Island, to establish the Virginia English colony on the banks of the James River 60 miles from the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay."

From "History of Jamestown" at www.apva.org/history/index.html

I was reading the book "Infamous Scribblers," by Eric Burns in Barnes & Noble and came across a part which noted that Jamestown Island had been settled in 1607 and it being 2007, realized it was exactly the 400-year anniversary of the settling of America.

According to that link, the first representative assembly in the New World convened in the Jamestown church on July 30, 1619.