Travel Tips

This past year has been a bit tumultuous. While adjusting to all the changes in my life, I have tried to travel as much as possible...Europe, South America, the Carribbean, North America...

I will try to post as many recommendations from my personal adventures to help others in the future and to remind myself...I hope to return to each of these places someday.

Recomendaciones coming soon...

Recomendations in Salou, Spain

La Tagliatella - the best pasta I have eaten in all of Spain! The portions are quite large. I recommend splitting a meal. The prices are very reasonable and the pasta is homemade. If you go to Salou, DO NOT miss out on this amazing tastespud experience! Do not waste space in your stomach eating their pizza. They have two locations: Murillo, 6-10 Salou 977351999 and Av. Pau Casals, 55 La Pineda - Platja 977373018.

How to Recover from the Current Economic Crisis

I´m a fan of Richard C. Koo - very smart man.

I highly recommend spending some time watching his podcast and processing all the insightful information.

http://csis.org/events/all?filter0=Richard+Koo

Happy Watching!!

Wal-Mart, Healthcare, and the U.S. Government

I just read an article by Wayne F. Cascio of the University of Colorado “Decency Means More than “Always Low Prices”: A Comparison of Costco to Wal-Mart’s Sam’s Club” and it is one of the most biased, poorly written articles with misinformation I have ever read. The two key problems are that the size of Wal-Mart and Costco are quite different and that the conclusions drawn are of little substantial basis. He is comparing Sam’s Club to Costco but uses data and incidents that have occurred at Wal-Mart which is a completely different kind of retail operation.

As a former Wal-Mart employee, I definitely hold some animosity towards them. As an Assistant Manager, you work hard, long hours for little pay or respect. It was definitely not the right work environment for me but let’s it least be objective with our judgments. And let’s try to see the whole picture. Is it even right to be outraged by the lack of healthcare and support Wal-Mart offers its employees? Let’s think for a moment and look at the big picture. Whose responsibility really is it?

Why should a company be responsible for healthcare and not the government? The article implies that Wal-Mart, the second largest employer in the United States (after the government), has a social responsibility to have healthcare for all of its employees. Let’s take a step back, why can we not make the link that maybe the government has a social responsibility to take care of its citizens? The key issue is not Wal-Mart. It’s society. It’s the United States government’s lack of responsibility, not Wal-Mart’s.

For example, many of the friendly door greeters that you see as you enter Wal-Mart are actually retired people that should be….RETIRED. They should be out enjoying life, spending time with their grandchildren, and relaxing after spending the majority of their lives working hard. Why do they go to Wal-Mart and start working again? Because Wal-Mart offers a healthcare plan and is willing to hire retirees. U.S. citizens that weren’t lucky enough to work for a company with retirement benefits are forced to find a job that can help them. The cost of medicine is so high and they cannot afford it without a private insurance plan. There is no other option for them. Whose fault is that? It’s the fault of the current healthcare system of the U.S. government and the people that aren’t trying to change it.

Now that healthcare reform is more than just a hot topic, I found it appropriate to actually write down my opinion and express it with others. I hope Obama’s team is able to make change happen! I would love to hear your thoughts – dissent and support- in order to address weak points and strengthen my viewpoint. I’m hoping to refine this document and add more facts and others perspectives in order to submit it to my local paper. Who knows? It just might get published.

I support Dr. Howard Dean!

Some Energy Saving Tips

We have had a week long Energy Conference hosted by IE that was incredible! Here are a few things I learned to try and reduce your energy consumption:

Install motion sensored lighting in your hallways, closets, and bathrooms.

Don't brake or accelerate quickly when driving.

Unplug your cell phone charger when you're not using it.

Eat less meat. It takes a lot of energy to raise an animal for us to eat (i.e. more than the energy expended to grow a carrot).

Also, buy your meat from a local butcher or a place that sells meat from local farms instead of large supermarkets. This reduces the ill effects of transporting meat and often times packaging.

Support propositions in your cities to invest in more public transportation.

Buy an electric car.

Install a rain water harvesting system for non-drinking water uses (watering the lawn, etc).

A company in New Zealand recently designed a small machine (about the size of a dishwasher) to put in your home that will make all the energy you need for your home without the use of traditional energy sources. They're being manufactured in Spain. Check out the website http://www.whispergen.org/

GE has already built a zero emission house in California! If you are about to construct a home, find out what features you can have built into your home.

Build your home that maximizes the natural resources. For example in hot Southern Spain, the houses are constructed with long hallways and other architectural tricks to allow wind to flow throughout the house and natrually cool it. And all the floors are made of marble.

Apostando por la reducción de CO₂ con la generación de CO₂nciencia.

Iceland is doing some pretty amazing things with hydrogen.

France is run with about 70% nuclear power.

An amazing speaker if you're looking for one is Profesor Ralph E H Sims. He's working for International Energy Agency out of Paris. http://www.iea.org/

Check out the article "The Power and the Glory, A special report on energy" from the June 21, 2008 issue of The Economist for some really interesting things that are going on!

Recommended Movies:

Who Killed the Electric Car?
The End of Suburbia
Blood and Oil

Looking for tips to use less gas, oil, and electricity

The director of the movie Blood and Oil was one of the speakers at our conference yesterday at IE. I am ashamed and shocked by the behavior of our government. Let's stop taking advantage of oil rich countries and just start using less! If each of us makes an effort to decrease our usage by just a bit, we can collectively lower the demand and thus lower the pressure Washington feels to FIGHT for these resources that aren't ours. So, I'm looking for tips. Let me know!