October 29, 2008

ivy.covered.

Brands in a League of Their Own
by Barry Silverstein, BrandChannel.com, October 27, 2008 issue

The Ivies are renowned for their history, reputation, quality, and selectivity. While average consumers may not be able to name every one of the eight “Ivy League” schools, they know exactly the type of institution to which the term refers. (For the record, the schools are, in alphabetical order, Brown, Columbia, Cornell, Dartmouth, Harvard, Penn, Princeton, and Yale.)

The Ivy League is a collection of schools along the east coast of the United States that are among the country’s oldest. They are also at the pinnacle of the competitive admissions scale. While “Ivy” refers to the plant that adorns the buildings on some of the campuses, the famous label actually resulted from the fact that these schools competed with each other in the same athletic conference. A sports writer coined the term “Ivy League” in the 1930s, and it remained as the name associated with the schools. Only years later did these competitors think of themselves truly as a collective force.

From a branding perspective, cooperation turned out to be a strategically wise move. Over the years, Ivy League has taken on a meaning far beyond its original intention. Now the term connotes an exceptional education, prestige, and business connections that virtually guarantee career success. While other colleges and universities may be of equal or even better quality, they can never achieve the perceived status of the Ivy League. To demonstrate the point, Stanford University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), two outstanding universities in their own right, are sometimes referred to as the “Ivy Plus” schools.

But the brand image is not always positive. The Ivy League is perceived by some to smack of elitism. That perception would not be entirely erroneous. Malcolm Gladwell wrote in The New Yorker in 2005 that Ivy League admission directors “are in the luxury-brand-management business, and ‘The Chosen,’ in the end, is a testament to just how well the brand managers in Cambridge, New Haven, and Princeton have done their job in the past seventy-five years.”

A 2007 BusinessWeek article entitled “The Dangerous Wealth of the Ivy League” reports that “… the wealth gap between the Ivies and everyone else has never been wider. The $5.7 billion in investment gains generated by Harvard’s endowment for the year ended June 30 exceeded the total endowment assets of all but six U.S. universities…” . . .

While the eight schools are privileged to be part of the Ivy League, each must also pay close to attention to its individual brand. Sometimes that brand may need refurbishing, as was the case with Cornell. Several years ago, a group of students became concerned about the university’s “country cousin” status in the Ivy League. According to an article in The New York Times (“Cornell’s Worried Image Makers Wrap Themselves in Ivy,” April 22, 2006), the students felt Cornell was underappreciated. They formed a committee, “making it their mission to press the university into marketing and branding itself more aggressively.”

The result of the student push was the abandonment of the university’s modern logo—the word CORNELL in contemporary type on a red background—in favor of using the traditional school crest. “The committee also persuaded the bookstore to stock a line of vintage hats and sweatshirts that decidedly emphasize Cornell’s Ivy League roots,” said the Times article. The university’s website was revamped to be “more traditional and more elegant.” As one student put it, the image committee confirmed that “we are an Ivy League school, and it’s O.K. to be an Ivy League school.” . . .

~ Full aricle here

October 17, 2008

how many canaries in the mine do we need?

Report: Arctic temperatures at record highs
By Randolph E. Schmid, Associated Press Science Writer, via USA Today, October 16, 2008

Autumn temperatures in the Arctic are at record levels, the Arctic Ocean is getting warmer and less salty as sea ice melts, and reindeer herds appear to be declining, researchers reported Thursday.

"Obviously, the planet is interconnected, so what happens in the Arctic does matter" to the rest of the world, Jackie Richter-Menge of the Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory in Hanover, N.H., said in releasing the third annual Arctic Report Card.

The report, compiled by 46 scientists from 10 countries, looks at a variety of conditions in the Arctic.

The region has long been expected to be among the first areas to show impacts from global warming, which the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change says is largely a result of human activities adding carbon dioxide and other gases to the atmosphere.

"Changes in the Arctic show a domino effect from multiple causes more clearly than in other regions," said James Overland, an oceanographer at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory in Seattle. "It's a sensitive system and often reflects changes in relatively fast and dramatic ways."

For example, autumn air temperatures in the Arctic are at a record 9 degrees above normal.

The report noted that 2007 was the warmest year on record the Arctic, leading to a record loss of sea ice. This year's sea ice melt was second only to 2007. . . .

~ Full story here

October 14, 2008

how to vote with your wallet

Bulls, Bears, Donkeys and Elephants
By Tommy McCall, The New York Times, October 14, 2008

Since 1929, Republicans and Democrats have each controlled the presidency for nearly 40 years. So which party has been better for American pocketbooks and capitalism as a whole? Well, here’s an experiment: imagine that during these years you had to invest exclusively under either Democratic or Republican administrations. How would you have fared?

As of Friday [10/10/2008], a $10,000 investment in the S.& P. stock market index* would have grown to $11,733 if invested under Republican presidents only, although that would be $51,211 if we exclude Herbert Hoover’s presidency during the Great Depression. Invested under Democratic presidents only, $10,000 would have grown to $300,671 at a compound rate of 8.9 percent over nearly 40 years.





click on image to enlarge

~ copyright The New York Times 2008

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October 12, 2008

the self

Those who dwell on and long for sense-pleasure
Are born in a world of separateness.

But let them realize they are the Self
And all separateness will fall away.


~ Mundaka Upanishad

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October 2, 2008

the politics of destruction

Amazon forest destruction speeding up, officials say
Associated Press via CNN, October 2, 2008

RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil -- The Amazon is being deforested more than three times as fast as last year, Brazilian officials said Monday, acknowledging a sharp reversal after three years of declines in the deforestation rate.

Brazil's Environment Minister Carlos Minc said upcoming nationwide elections are partly to blame, with mayors in the Amazon region turning a blind eye to illegal logging in hopes of gaining votes locally.

Non-government environmentalists blame the global spike in food prices for encouraging soy farmers and cattle ranchers to clear land for crops and grazing.

Elections no doubt play a part, but "the tendency of deforestation rising is deeply related to the fact that food prices are going up," said Paulo Adario, who coordinates Greenpeace's Amazon campaign.

"When you have elections, the appetite of authorities to enforce laws is reduced," Adario said. "But the federal government has to step in and do its job." . . .

~ Complete story here