Go green by getting lazy

From Worldchanging blogger Karl Shroeder:

"There is a secret to changing your behavior. The trick is not to trust your own willpower. Instead, arrange conditions outside yourself such that the desired new behaviour is always your laziest option."

The kids these days

Creative Commons founder Larry Lessig:

"We have to recognize that kids are different from us. We watch TV, they make TV. It is technology that has made them different." (As reported by Bruno Giussani on TED Blog.)

And the wisdom to know the difference

Joel Makower summaries this month's HBR and Atlantic cover stories on how companies can manage the risks and opportunities of climate change.

Virtual worlds meet Web 2.0

More on the increasing integration of immersive virtual worlds and Web 2.0 (3pointd).

Crescent moon from Earth's orbit

Check out this recent astronomy picture of the day, as blogged by Jamais Cascio at Open the Future.

Heading for Virtual Worlds

I'm busy packing for the Virtual Worlds 2007 conference in NYC. It should be an exciting two days.

I'm a bit behind in my blog scanning, but here are some nifty articles on virtual worlds and VR that caught my eye this week:

• Information Week on the future of the web browser
  
• Linden Labs expands to Seattle and Brighton
  
• BusinessWeek reviews VR/mixed reality innovations for business
  
• The Economist on VR & gaming
  
• David Car on the plumbing and scalability of SL

Harry Potter and the FSC-certified paper

Scholastic and the Rainforest Action Network announce that the 7th and final Harry Potter book, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, will be printed on 65% FSC-certified paper.

Android dream

A beautiful networked screensaver from ElectricSheep.org.

Millenials and viral marketing

Check out AdAge for this review of a UK teen road safety campaign that gets the message, the medium and the distribution all exactly right.

Markets vs. networks vs. communities

Umair Haque has been posting recently at Bubblegeneration about the differences between markets, networks, and communities as drivers of media/web 2.0 innovation. A nice distinction.

Clean Energy Trends 2007

Joel Makower and Clean Edge have released their free report on the most important clean energy trends for 2007, including the following top five:

the traction of carbon markets

the growth of closed-loop biorefineries

the promising growth of advanced batteries

Wal-Mart's unexpected clout as a clean-energy market maker

energy utilities' growing enlightenment around renewable energy

New Raku-Raku phone targets seniors

NTT DoCoMo's new handset includes "Slow Voice" and "Clear Voice" features, as well as automatic volume adjustment.

Art & Fear

A great little book from David Bayles & Ted Orland, with immediately practical advice for art, business, and life.

Muji comes to NYC

The first Muji flagship store in the U.S. will open in the Times Tower in time for holiday 2007.

New coat of paint

As some of you might have noticed, I've started to tinker with the site design for The Conversationalist. I've retired the light-on-dark color palette, and have started to move about some of the page elements. Expect to see more changes in the coming weeks.

Feel free to send me suggestions for anything you think would make the site more useful and readable. In the meantime, a big thank you to Marimekko Chase for her help on the changes that went live last night!