Cris Prystay discusses the growing use of the Singapore Math curriculum in US schools.
Dunkin Donuts vs. Starbucks: Will Speed Win?
John Moore summarizes Dunkin Donuts’ strategy to take on starbucks: sell latte’s faster (time from order to delivery) and cheaper than Starbucks.
Wisconsin Agri-Business: South American Competition
Larry Rohter takes us to Brazil where he explores the world’s new breadbasket.
Sometime over the next decade or so, Brazil, which Secretary of State Colin L. Powell described as “an agricultural superpower” during a visit in October, hopes to pass the United States as the world’s largest agricultural producer. But the trend is far broader and can be felt also in parts of Argentina, Bolivia, Paraguay and Uruguay, with a deep impact on the region’s economy and environment. And it has spurred a debate that has mainly focused on expansion into areas where the Amazon rainforest is thought to be jeopardized.
“There has been a silent revolution in the countryside” since the 1990’s, Brazil’s minister of agriculture, Roberto Rodrigues, said in an interview in the capital, Bras?lia. The past four or five years in particular, he said, have been “characterized by spectacular growth and a huge increase in demand” abroad for foodstuffs, which has given Brazil “the capacity to compete with anyone.”
1906 San Francisco Aerial Photographs
Chicago’s George R. Lawrence used his captive airship to take aerial photographs of San Francisco just after the 1906 earthquake. Take a look at these fascinating photographs here. More on Lawrence.
Madison WiFi RFP
The State of Wisconsin Department of Administration Friday issued this RFP:
REQUEST FOR PROPOSAL (RFP) For CITYWIDE WIFI ACCESS And DESIGN, INSTALL, OPERATE, MANAGE, MAINTAIN AND MARKET A COMMON WIRELESS ACCESS SYSTEM (CWAS) for DANE COUNTY REGIONAL AIRPORT [654K PDF]
I’ll post some comments after I’ve had a chance to review the document. Let’s hope this flies in a citizen friendly way (rather than the recent anti-citizen legislation that was passed in Pennsylvania).
It’s due January 10th, 2005. I wonder what the odds are on a SBC win (SBC is the incumbent, all powerful local telco. Local player TDS perhaps has a shot, along with others).
Esme Vos has already posted comments on the RFP. Via Glenn Fleishman
David Bernhardt: Clear Thinking on the Role of Sports in Society
David Bernhardt offers some rather clear thinking on sports & society, in light of the recent Detroit NBA fight, steroids and the NHL strike:
What are our expectations of these athletes and our own son and daughters? Hopefully, it is to watch them compete, have fun and perform to the best of their natural ability. When society begins to focus on winning at all costs, we see where the fun leaves the sport, performance enhancement cheating begins and frustration of continual expectation boil over in an unexpected violence. In addition, the rapid firing of college coaches from an upstanding university where the student-athletes were students first and athletes second, makes one again question the values of the institutions of higher learning.
Broadband/Telecom: Pennsylvania: Companies ahead of Citizens Interests
Something for local officials to consider as they attempt to deploy pervasive wireless internet (2 way) across Dane County. Scott Bradner sees Pennsylvania Democrat Governor Ed Rendell’s signature of a law that requires cities to ask permission from telco’s before deploying their own networks as an ugly indicator of things to come. Via David Isenberg.
Hybrid Cars; “Bait and Switch”?
Allen Bukoff on the great hype behind hybrid cars. Hybrids have a great reputation now, but Bukoff says that the piper will be paid when the batteries must be replaced when the cars are out of warranty (and their used car value will plunge).
Hanauma Bay
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Click to view larger photos. Learn more about Hanauma Bay here.
Politics & Money
Governor Doyle’s recently announced plans to spend hundreds of millions of dollars on biotech initiatives evidently faces a small problem – the money must be found. Paul Gores digs in.
I think the state should focus on basically two things:
- True broadband (2 way at 100mbps plus speeds – 100X today’s dsl/cable modems)
- Simplify the taxes/paperwork for small businesses.