Sunshocked

A dinner date last night turned unexpectedly into a discussion of how (or if) non-profits can be held accountable for their achievements to the same degree as for-profit ventures. I woke up wanting to do some more research and get a little deeper.

To be completely honest, there are some concepts in here that could likely go back into the oven for some more baking… but I think I may be on to something.

Near the end of the trailer for “Epic Movie”, opening soon, someone (who is not Sacha Baron Cohen) dressed in Borat’s green super-thong looks at the camera and says, “Niiice.” What he means by this is, in fact, “This movie is a new milestone in anti-artistic, self-referential garbage.”

US automakers gave themselves a big pat on the back this week at the LA Auto Show. Mostly, they were just making promises to catch up with technologies that we’ve been getting from Asian automakers for years now. Meanwhile, Toyota has an operational new plant manufacturing their Tundra and it’s in Texas. So what does “buying American” mean these days?

I should be happy about people adapting their buying habits to incorporate solutions to the world’s problems. If you’re going to buy an iPod Nano, why shouldn’t you get the red one for the same price and help fight AIDS in Africa, right? Still, the whole thing puts a really bad taste in my mouth.

We get the word “bedlam” from the world’s oldest psychiatric hospital, St. Mary Bethelem in London. Founded in 1247, treatment long consisted of shackling the mentally ill to the walls and letting them scream. Seven hundred fifty years later, a lot of businesses are finding success by making a place for noise and chaos.

Just the other day, I was having a discussion with a friend over whether she was anti-capitalist or post-capitalist. The latest issue of Adbusters comes to the rescue with a feature by Peter Barnes, author of Capitalism 3.0: A Guide to Reclaiming the Commons. His use of a software metaphor for a social institution had me at hello.