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A Label That Has Regained Its Luster

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From left, John Kieselhorst, Dave Schiff and Scott Prindle, founders of Made. | Photo Credit: Benjamin Rasmussen for The New York Times

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By ALEX WILLIAMS
September 14, 2012
REMEMBER the Chrysler K-car? Dave Schiff, a founder of Made Collection, a new flash-sale site that sells only American-made goods, hopes not. 
When he was coming of age in the early ’80s, the phrase “Buy American” was epitomized by Chrysler’s boxy, style-challenged sedan, marketed as a star-spangled rebuke to the sleek imports of the day. In Mr. Schiff’s view, you bought one to satisfy a patriotic duty, not a sense of style. “ ‘Made in the U.S.A.’ came with baggage,” he said.

Times have changed. Even as the “Made in the U.S.A.” label has grown scarce, thanks to the offshore manufacturing in apparel and other industries, it has acquired cachet as a signifier of old-school craftsmanship, even luxury.

The movement has come far enough that Mr. Schiff, a former advertising executive from Miami, believed the time was right to start a Gilt-like shopping site for the Americana set, selling items like shuttle-loom jeans, lace baby dolls and a 19th-century-style baseball made of leather sourced from a Chicago tannery.

“The old ‘Buy American’ is get something lousy and pay more,” said Mr. Schiff, 45. Now “it’s a premium product.”

Style bloggers were among the early adopters. “ ‘Made in U.S.A.’ has gone through a rebranding of sorts,” said Michael Williams, whose popular men’s style blog, A Continuous Lean, has become an online clubhouse for devotees of American-made heritage labels like Red Wing Shoes and Filson.

But the embrace of domestic goods has also moved beyond scruffy D.J. types in Brooklyn who plunk down $275 for a pair of hand-sewn dungarees sewn from Cone denim from the company’s White Oak plant in North Carolina. The adherents now include “urban creatives, high-net-worth individuals, locavores, liberals, conservatives,” said Mr. Williams, who also represents some of these heritage brands as a marketing consultant.

In other words, Americana chic has gone mainstream. Just visit the nearest mall. Club Monaco unveiled a Made in the USA collection last year, in collaboration with Mr. Williams. J. Crew cashes in on Americana chic by selling domestically manufactured Alden shoes, Levi’s Vintage Clothing jeans and Billykirk leather goods. Joseph Abboud’s home page trumpets its collections as “Made in the New America.”

The newfound pride also extends to American cities and smaller communities. Made in Brooklyn is a phenomenon so self-aware, there are stores like By Brooklyn that specialize in products made in the borough. Similarly, an old shoe-polish brand called Shinola has recently been revived to make upscale watches, bicycles and other crafted goods in Detroit and is being promoted as “Made in Detroit.”

And in a survey last year of 1,300 affluent shoppers by Unity Marketing, a Pennsylvania-based consulting and marketing group, respondents ranked the United States first (higher than Italy or France) in perceived manufacturing quality of luxury goods.

Indeed, the “Made in the U.S.A.” label has become chic in the eyes of well-heeled consumers not just in the United States, but also in Asia, said Paulette Garafalo, the president for international, wholesale and manufacturing at Brooks Brothers, which has increased production of shirts, suits and neckwear at its three American factories to meet growing demand. “People want the credibility of an American brand,” she said.

The flight of American factory jobs has even become a heated issue in the presidential race, with President Obama and Mitt Romney trading jabs over being the “Outsourcer in Chief,” to use Mr. Romney’s phrase.

But while American-made goods are now fashionable, few have been willing to stake their professional future on it quite like Mr. Schiff. A former advertising executive at Crispin Porter + Bogusky in Miami, who oversaw the introduction of Coke Zero, he left the firm in April to start Made with two other veterans from the agency, Scott Prindle and John Kieselhorst.

In a sense, they started two companies, which are based in Boulder, Colo.: Made Collection, the flash-sale site, and Made Movement, an advertising agency that represents companies that manufacture only in America. (“If Apple came to us, we’d have to turn them down,” Mr. Schiff said.)

Unlike the typical Buy American sites, which feature crude graphics and a low-budget hodgepodge of pliers and rain boots, Made Collection has the slick yet earthy look of a Madewell campaign. Edie Ure, a former designer for Ralph Lauren and Anthropologie, serves as the site’s curator, and she gives special consideration to design-forward wares that would not be out of place in a Monocle magazine gift guide.

Recent flash-sale items included a knot-back black swimsuit from Cala Ossidiana, a swimwear company based in New York. It sells for $295 and, according to a graphic accompanying each item, supports six American workers. For those with humbler tastes, there was an O.C.E. Hickory work shirt, produced by inmates in the Oregon correctional system as part of its job-training program, for $26.99.

The company grew out of Mr. Schiff’s conviction that a manufacturing revival was crucial to a lasting economic recovery.

Made now counts 26 employees, and with a minimum of publicity, its site has 10,000 members. The ad agency has signed seven clients, including Emeco chairs, a Pennsylvania-based design company whose product sells at Design Within Reach, and New Belgium Brewing, based in Fort Collins, Colo., which brews Fat Tire ale.

Mr. Schiff practices what he preaches. For a recent lunch at the Ace Hotel in Manhattan, he wore Levi’s premium shuttle-loom 501s made in Los Angeles. His tattooed arms poked out of a blue checked shirt by the boutique design house 8.15 August Fifteenth, made in New York City, which he spruced up with a seersucker bow tie by Gitman Bros., made in North Carolina. The only smudge on the stars-and-stripes tableau was his pair of Vans sneakers made in China.

“I would say most days, I’m at about 75 percent,” he said, referring to how much of his outfit is American made. He never wants to become a fanatic, however. “If you become obsessive about it,” he added, “it’s an imposition versus a choice.”

Source: New York Times

A version of this article appeared in print on September 16, 2012, on page ST16 of t
he Ne
w York edition with the headline: A Label That Has Regained Its Luster. 

Outsourcing May Cause High Unemployment and Manufacturing Decline

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Outsourcing May Cause High Unemployment and Manufacturing Decline

All American Clothing Co., proud corporate members of The Made in America Movement, announces a new warning label that raises awareness of the consequences of outsourcing and buying foreign-made items in the United States. Read more

Advanced Solar CPV Manufacturing Plant to Open in NC this Month

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SEPTEMBER 17, 2012 
BY ANDREW BURGER 
Semprius is readying the opening of its first manufacturing facility later this month in Henderson, North Carolina. With backing and support from the Obama Administration, the DOE, and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) in Golden, Colorado, Semprius has developed the world’s most efficient solar PV cells. Its concentrating photovoltaic (CPV) technology is capable of converting 33.9% of the energy in sunlight to usable electricity, according to the parties involved.
Management initially expects to produce five to six megawatts (MW) worth of its leading-edge CPV modules per year at the Henderson, NC plant. That could over time expand to as much as 35 MW and employ as many as 250 people in doing so, according to a Bloomberg News report.

Swimming Against the TideSemprius is opening its CPV plant amidst a general backdrop of solar energy market and industry turmoil, manufacturing plant slowdowns, shutdowns, and layoffs — both in the US and other other major solar-producing countries, including Germany and China. Management and its investors believe that the combination of high-efficiency and low-cost production will prove the company viable in a fiercely competitive global solar PV market that governments around the world have targeted as a low-carbon, green economy growth engine.

“Semprius’ modules are the most efficient in the world and ‘very price competitive’ with rivals such as First Solar Inc. (FSLR) and SunPower Corp. (SPWR), among others,” Bloomberg quoted Semprius CEO Joe Carr as saying. “In very high brightness areas where we do our best work, we’re highly competitive.” Carr declined to discuss cost details.
Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne and Siemens AG — both of whom have taken equity stakes in the emerging solar CPV manufacturer — are two of its initial customers. Semprius has raised $40 million from investors over the past 15 months, Bloomberg reports. Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne and Siemens together own 16% of the company.

A SunShot CPV Manufacturer Ready to Go Commercial
Semprius received initial seed funding from the DOE under President Obama’s “SunShot Incubator” program, refining and proving its technology with NREL in Golden. NREL validated Semprius’ tiny, dot-sized CPV cells as having an energy conversion efficiency of 41% at a concentration of 1,000 suns.

In its search for a location to build a manufacturing plant to commercialize its CPV cells and modules, Semprius landed in Henderson, NC. Construction of its 50,000-square-foot plant began earlier this year, with the state government and local agencies contributing $7.9 million towards construction.
About the diameter of a dot made by a ballpoint pen, Semprius’s solar photovoltaic (PV) cells are triple-junction cells made of gallium arsenide. Low-cost lenses concentrate sunlight 1,100 times onto the cells. Their tiny size reduces module cost, as they take up only 1/1000th of the entire solar module area. It also enables a high density of cells per module, which better distributes unwanted heat across the entire solar module solar area. That eliminates the need for heat dissipation hardware, such as heat fins, further reducing production costs.

Semprius’ patented micro-transfer printing process allows thousands of its concentrated solar PV cells (CPV) to be transferred from a growth substrate to a semiconductor wafer or other form factor. It’s a continuous, massive parallel process that runs continuously and allows the growth substrate to be used repeatedly, which cuts costs dramatically, according to NREL and Semprius.

U.S. to File W.T.O. Case Against China Over Cars

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Workers assemble cars at Beijing Automotive Group factory in Zhuzhou China. | Photo Creidt: Wangwei-CHINATOPIX via Associated Press

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By KEITH BRADSHER
September 16, 2012
The Obama administration plans to file a broad trade case at the World Trade Organization in Geneva on Monday accusing China of unfairly subsidizing its exports of autos and auto parts, a senior administration official said late Sunday, in a move with clear political implications for the presidential elections less than two months away. 
The W.T.O. case accuses China of providing at least $1 billion worth of subsidies from 2009 to 2011 for exports of autos and auto parts. While China exports virtually no fully assembled cars to the United States, it has rapidly expanded exports to developing countries, and those exports compete to some extent with cars exported or designed in the United States.

President Obama plans to announce the move on Monday during a visit to Ohio, one of the most important of the battleground states and a place where the president is trying to capitalize on his bailout of the auto industry. A poll by NBC News, The Wall Street Journal and Marist College last week showed Mr. Obama building a significant lead in Ohio.

The upper Midwestern states have emerged as a key battleground in the presidential election, particularly Ohio, which has rivaled Florida in recent presidential elections as the most hard-fought state of all. Ohio is also the hub of the American auto parts industry, which has suffered heavily from job losses that have coincided with surging imports of auto parts from China.

Auto parts employment in the United States has dropped by about one-half from 2001 to 2010, as imports from China grew nearly sevenfold over the same period, according to data provided by the senior official, who insisted on anonymity citing an administration policy banning on-the-record comments on a new policy before an official announcement is made. Auto parts manufacturers directly employ 54,200 people in Ohio, and when suppliers like steel makers are included, the auto industry accounts for 850,000 jobs in the state, or 12.4 percent of total employment there.

But auto industry experts debate the extent to which those imports have been directly responsible for the closing of factories and for cutbacks at other plants, as ever-increasing automation has also played some role. The slowing of the American auto market since 2008 has had an effect as well, although auto sales have begun to recover in recent months.

Mitt Romney, the Republican presidential nominee, has repeatedly accused the Obama administration of not doing enough to challenge China on trade and currency policies. But the timing of the administration case, coming so soon before the elections, makes it likely that the Chinese government will accuse President Obama of playing politics — an accusation already made by Chinese officials, particularly those with close ties to affected industries, in connection with recent trade cases involving solar panels.

Asked whether the trade cases against China were timed for political impact, the senior administration official replied by e-mail that “President Obama has prioritized enforcement of Americans’ rights in the global trading system from day one, and this administration has a consistent record of action to support American jobs.”

The press office at China’s commerce ministry had no comment when told by telephone on Monday morning of the planned trade case, asking for a fax of questions, which did not yield an immediate reply. Chinese officials have denied in general that they subsidize exports.

Chinese exports have surged particularly in the past year, as the Chinese economy has slowed sharply, leaving particularly the domestic Chinese automakers with huge inventories of unsold cars that they are seeking to sell overseas.

Speakers repeatedly mentioned during the Democratic convention the federal government bailout for the Detroit auto industry three years ago, following a perception that the bailout will prove politically advantageous in key states. By contrast, speakers during the Republican convention generally avoided the subject.

The administration also plans to take further legal steps on Monday in a W.T.O. case already pending against China over its imposition of steep anti-dumping duties last winter against more than 80 percent of American car exports to China. That case, described by people in China as largely the result of factional rivalries in Beijing that produced a need to take a strong stand against the United States, has begun to shift the focus of trade tensions between the United States and China toward the automotive sector.

The administration has been mulling a possible W.T.O case against China in the auto sector since at least last winter, and has been encouraged by unions to do so, particularly the United Steel Workers.​

Source: New York TimesA version of this article appeared in print on September 17, 2012, on page B3 of the New York edition with the headline: U.S. to File W.T.O. Case Against China Over Cars. 

Agribusinesses Owning Natural/Organic Brands Betray Customers: Fund Attack on GMO Labeling Proposal in California

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CORNUCOPIA, WI: Proposition 37, a citizen’s initiative on the ballot on November 6 in California, would mandate clear labeling of genetically engineered (GE) ingredients on food packages. It has become a battleground pitting consumer and farmer advocates against multi-billion-dollar agribusiness corporations.
Recent polling indicates almost 70% of citizens support informational labeling. And a flood of new contributions to fight the measure has rolled in from the biotechnology industry and food manufacturers, totaling over $23 million, according to the California Secretary of State. This dwarfs the approximately $3 million contributed by proponents of GE labeling.

“Consumers might be surprised to find out that brands hiding under ‘natural’ façades are in fact owned by multi-billion-dollar corporations that are contributing bushel baskets of cash to defeating Proposition 37,” says Charlotte Vallaeys, Director of Farm and Food Policy at The Cornucopia Institute.

Mandatory labeling of genetically engineered food in California is viewed as a watershed event by many industry observers, as many companies will find it logistically or economically difficult to produce foods with labels identifying GE for California while producing a different product line of foods for the rest of the country.

“Just as we’ve observed in Europe, where labeling of food containing genetically modified organisms (GMOs) is mandatory, we fully expect that when given a choice, consumers will choose organic or non-GMO products,” said Mark A. Kastel, Codirector of Wisconsin-based Cornucopia. “And the industrial food lobby is fully cognizant of this—that’s why they’re fighting like hell against this grassroots effort.”

To make it easier for shoppers to identify and support organic brands whose corporate owners support Proposition 37, and avoid buying brands owned by companies that financially contributed to opposing the “Right to Know” campaign, The Cornucopia Institute has developed a guide for consumers.

“If the food and biotech industries are so proud of their pervasive genetically manipulated crops, why are they so afraid, and so desperately opposed to labeling it?” asked Arran Stephens, founder of Nature’s Path, North America’s largest certified organic cereal and granola brand with manufacturing plants in the US and Canada.

Besides Nature’s Path, those who have contributed in support of Proposition 37 include venerable organic manufacturers such as Dr. Bronner’s, Nutiva and Lundberg rice.  These companies are all independently-owned businesses that avoid GMOs and are committed to supporting organic agriculture.

“Food companies are required by law to label ‘contains peanuts’ if included in their product.  People deserve the same for GMOs.  Our customers want to know if any product contains GMOs,” says John Roulac, founder and CEO of Nutiva, an organic food company.

On the other side, joining Monsanto and the giant food lobby group Grocery Manufacturers of America (GMA) in donating money to the effort to defeat the ballot initiative, are multi-billion-dollar, multi-national companies including General Mills, Dean Foods, Kellogg and Pepsico.  These companies own brands that are misrepresented to consumers as independent, value-driven businesses.

Biotechnology corporations and corporate agribusinesses have collectively donated millions of dollars to defeat Proposition 37.  Monsanto alone has donated $4.2 million, while food giants Pepsico and Coca Cola have each donated more than $1 million.

“Consumers are increasingly interested in ‘voting with their forks,’ and many want to support companies that share their values,” says Vallaeys.  “But consumers may not realize that many organic and ‘natural’ brands are owned by the very same corporations that are spending hundreds of thousands of dollars each, or even millions, in an effort to scuttle Proposition 37 in California,” she adds.

For example, Kashi is owned by Kellogg, which has contributed $612,000 to defeating Proposition 37.  Last year, The Cornucopia Institute published a study, Cereal Crimes, which revealed that the popular, “natural” Kashi GoLean cereal brand, unbeknownst to its customers, contains genetically engineered ingredients.

In what The Cornucopia Institute characterizes as “creating a façade,” nowhere on the Kashi website or packaging is it disclosed that the company is owned by Kellogg, rather than the “small band of passionate people” featured on the Kashi website.

Another example is Silk soymilk, which carries the “Non-GMO Project Verified” seal on its products but is owned by the nation’s largest dairy, Dean Foods, which has contributed $253,000 to the effort to kill Prop.  37.   Dean Foods also owns the Horizon Organic brand.  Both Silk and Horizon profess to consumers that the brands oppose GMOs.

“Talk is cheap,” adds Vallaeys.  “Consumers should not only know whether there are GMOs in their food, but also whether their hard-earned dollars are supporting companies that then turn around and invest those profits in the effort to sell-out their right to know.”

The Cornucopia Institute, which developed the funding guide, stresses that the organization is not against corporate involvement in organics.

“We welcome corporate involvement in the organic food industry, but only when the parent company subscribes to the values that the organic food movement is based on,” says Kastel.  “We have a problem with the duplicity of corporations that hide under a ‘holier-than-thou’ marketing brand and then undermine the very values of the organic movement.”

“For example, when Kellogg donates money to the Organic Trade Association, the Kashi brand appears on the OTA website.  But when the same company donates to the effort to defeat Proposition 37, Kellogg will do everything in its power to make sure that its Kashi customers, who seek wholesome and natural foods, do not associate the Kashi brand with a corporate contributor to the effort to kill Proposition 37,” adds Kastel.

The same is true for the R.W. Knudsen and Santa Cruz Organic brands, owned by Smucker, and the Cascadian Farm, Larabar and Muir Glen brands, owned by General Mills.  These corporate brand owners have donated $387,000 and $520,000, respectively, to defeating Proposition 37.

By using Cornucopia’s Proposition 37 funding guide, consumers can invest their food dollars in organic and non-GMO companies that are truly committed to supporting sustainable agriculture.

“Hiding the truth about our food is pervasive, unethical, and only done for money,” says Michael Potter, CEO of Eden Foods, an organic food manufacturer that financially contributed to support Proposition 37.  “Let this [Prop. 37] be the beginning of an end to it.”

In terms of businesses supporting Proposition 37, Dr. Joseph Mercola, of drmercola.com, has contributed $800,000.  The committee supporting Proposition 37 has also raised hundreds of thousands of dollars from individual citizens.  The Organic Consumers Association (OCA) has been a key funding and organizing driver of the GMO labeling effort.

Many of the seemingly duplicitous companies that are contributing to defeat Proposition 37 are also some of the largest member-donors to the Organic Trade Association (OTA), the trade-lobby group for the organic industry.  The OTA has long been criticized by public interest groups for its efforts to weaken the organic law and standards.

On the Board of Directors of the Organic Trade Association sit Julia Sabin (Smucker) and Kelly Shea (Dean Foods), both working for corporations that have contributed to the committee opposing Proposition 37.

“The Organic Trade Association lists brands as major donors, like Kashi, R.W. Knudsen, Cascadian Farm (General Mills) and others that are owned by corporations that financially contribute to defeating Proposition 37,” says Cornucopia’s Kastel.  “The OTA is in large part run by and funded by some of the same companies that are in bed with the biotechnology industry and its destructive agricultural practices.”

‘Entrepreneurial Nation’: How Made in America is Returning

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by Uttara Choudhury 
Sep 12, 2012 
New York: Ro Khanna, a former deputy assistant secretary of commerce in the White House and Congressional aspirant, thinks “Made in America” is making a comeback. In the 1970s, America’s manufacturing jobs in the steel, textile, electronics and car industries relocated first to Latin America and then to Asia. But the tide is turning, says Khanna’s new book Entrepreneurial Nation published by McGraw-Hill. 
Khanna, 36, practices technology law at Wilson Sonsini, a Silicon Valley law firm, and teaches economics at Stanford. His book is like a tour of the best of American manufacturing and lingers on the Silicon Valley model of entrepreneurism that he praises as a kind of recombinant DNA of talent.

Khanna argues that innovation of the kind found in Silicon Valley can continue to bolster US manufacturing and give it several advantages over countries like China, India, Korea and Brazil.

Khanna drills down one fact: Some of the world’s best products and biggest innovations are still being developed by Apple, Google and countless other US aerospace, defense and medical companies. High labour and productivity costs that gutted US manufacturing over the past decade have begun to alter. America’s advantage in productivity and technology is starting to weigh in its favour once again. As a result, new factories are coming up all over the country.

The book is on trend as manufacturing jobs are coming back to the US. Dow Chemical, Sauder Woodworking and GF AgieCharmilles have all brought overseas production back to the US in the past three years. Caterpillar is building a $120 million plant to make giant earthmovers in Texas, including some models that were previously built in Japan. French airliner, Airbus, has committed to building its first factory on US soil.

Master Lock, in Milwaukee, landed a visit from President Barack Obama after bringing manufacturing jobs back from China. Whirlpool is now building a new $200 million plant in Tennessee rather than sending the 1,500 jobs overseas.

“Against all odds, our nation held the global lead over China in manufacturing output until 2009. What’s extraordinary is that our aggregate output remains competitive with China’s, even though the sector constitutes only 10 percent of our economy compared to nearly 40 percent of theirs,” says the book.

“We are a global leader, in part, because our labour productivity (the value that a worker produces annually) is more than six times as large as China’s or India’s and significantly larger than Japan’s or Germany’s. Strong productivity has enabled the United States to increase its manufacturing output over the past 30 years to a greater extent than any other developed nation, more than doubling in size,” adds the book.

Khanna cites the story of Keith Busse, the CEO of a Midwestern company, Steel Dynamics, which makes rails, an occupation people thought was dead in America. He points out that due to labour efficiency and innovation Busse’s company thrives although he pays his people well: $30 an hour plus medical and other benefits.

Entrepreneurial Nation points out that manufactures in America get the job done by “really listening” to their clients. Khanna talks about how a fourth-generation business, the Globe Manufacturing Company, customised its firefighting suits to beat foreign competitors. Similarly, Vitamix worked with clients like Starbucks to produce a superior coffee blender. In the Bay Area, Khanna says, electric car firm Tesla, in Fremont, is “an example of how we can be innovative and creative.”

Khanna also lays out an agenda for keeping the “Made in America” label strong by suggesting tax reform. He says Congress should offer tax credits or five-year tax holidays for manufacturers to set up or expand factories in the US, with revenue exempt from corporate taxes “for a limited period.”

“Maybe Ro Khanna is not yet the Democrats’ answer to Paul Ryan. But you cannot read this book without concluding he has claimed a spot on the national stage as a man of ideas,” saidMercury News while reviewing Khanna’s book.

Source: FirstPost

ABOUT RO KHANNA 

Ro Khanna was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1976, America’sbicentennial year.  He now lives in Fremont, California and has been involved in his local community for years. He developed a passion for public service from his family. His parents immigrated to this country to pursue the American dream. His father came to the University of Michigan to study engineering and still spends his Saturdays cheering for the Wolverines. His mother, a former substitute school teacher, raised him to believe that anything is possible in America. Ro’s commitment to service is rooted in his belief that the American dream that inspired his family should also inspire future generations. 

Check out his Economic Growth Agenda.  Stay connect and follow his efforts on Facebook.

10 Ways to Rejuvenate Your Brain While You Work

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Photo Credit | iStock

 

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Going to Africa–literally or figuratively–refreshes your brain, which helps you be alert, and propels you forward.
In his last column,  Geil Browning wrote about how I lead groups of volunteers to work with the Kenyan Children Foundation in Africa, and how we all return home exhausted but with our brains refreshed and renewed. We take a break from our usual ways of thinking, and open our minds to new ideas and experiences. But you don’t have to travel thousands of miles from home to recharge your brain.

As an entrepreneur, you probably work upwards of 60 hours a week. Forbes interviewed 20 entrepreneurs about their work habits, and found they worked an average of 60 to more than 100 hours per week. Most noted that weekdays were not much different than weekends, and that personal time off did not exist at all. One responded, “the concept of ‘work’ disappears–it is just what we do.”

As anyone who has crammed for an exam can tell you, usually the number of hours we work without interruption is inversely proportionate to how much we accomplish. So how do these entrepreneurs manage to work so many hours without suffering from brain fatigue?

Well, first of all, it is because they truly love being an entrepreneur and are passionate about their enterprise. But, I believe, part of the answer is that they wear so many hats. They never get stuck doing the same kind of work for too long.

Here are some more brain-based tips that can work wonders and could be what helps propel entrepreneurs forward:

1. Buy a good office chair, or get a standing desk. 
Focal Upright Furniture has a brand new chair and desk combination on the market. Invented by Martin Keen, of Keen shoes fame, it uses a position between sitting and standing, and allows lots of movement as you work. It also helps those who use it remain attentive.

2. Do not multi-task.
John Medina, author of Brain Rules, tells us the brain cannot multi-task, period. What it does do is switch back and forth between tasks very quickly. Someone whose attention is interrupted not only takes 50% longer to accomplish a task, but also makes up to 50% more errors. A study in The New England Journal of Medicine found that people who talk on the cell phone while driving are four times more likely to have an accident because it isn’t possible to devote your full attention to both driving and talking sy the same time. Hands-free calling offerd no advantage. What’s the lesson to take away? Focus on one task at a time and you’ll accomplish each better and faster–without killing anybody.

3. Use all your senses.
Work is more entertaining for your brain–and therefore makes you more alert–when you engage as many of your senses as possible. Use colored paper and pens. Experiment with peppermint, lemon, or cinnamon aromatherapy. Try playing background music.

4. Don’t make too many decisions in one day.
It sounds farfetched, but if you go shopping in the morning, then negotiate yourself out of eating a cookie at lunch, and finally try to decide between two job offers that afternoon, you might choose the wrong job because you didn’t eat the cookie, according to Scientific American. Making choices depletes your reserves of executive function, or “the mental system involved in abstract thinking, planning, and focusing on one thing instead of another.” This can adversely affect decisions you make later.

5. Take a quick break every 20 minutes.
A study in the journal Cognition reveals that people can maintain their focus or “vigilance” much longer when their brains are given something else to think about every 20 minutes. That’s the time when thinking becomes less efficient. This trick is called “momentary deactivation.” If your mind isn’t as sharp after a long period of work, it may not be completely fatigued. It just needs to focus on something else to refresh the specific neural network you’ve been using.

6. Work with your own circadian rhythms. 
Are you an early bird or a night owl? Do you fade every afternoon or is that when you are strongest? Don’t schedule an important meeting at a time when you will be operating on one cylinder. And don’t waste your peak work time at a doctor’s appointment.

7. Relax for 10 minutes every 90 minutes.
When you’re awake, your brain cycles from higher alertness (busy beta waves) to lower alertness (alpha waves) every 90 minutes. At that point you become less able to focus, think clearly, or see the big picture. You know the signals: you feel restless, hungry, and sleepy, and reach for a coffee. Herbert Benson of Harvard, author of The Relaxation Response, recommends working to the point where you stop feeling productive and start feeling stressed. At that moment, disengage. Meditate, do a relaxation exercise, pet a furry animal, go for a quick jog, take a hot shower, pick up your knitting, practice the piano, or look at paintings. Allowing your brain to go into a state of relaxation, daydreaming, and meditating will reset your alertness.

8. Take power naps.
Researchers have found the human ability to learn declines as the day wears on. But an afternoon power na increases scores on memory tests by 20%.

9. Experience nature–preferably real, but fake will do.
A walk in the park, a glance out the window at the trees, or even a view of nature photographs engages a different kind of attention than your normal work routine. According to a study titled “The Cognitive Benefits of Interacting with Nature,” nature engages our involuntary attention. We hear a bird song, feel a breeze, or notice the clouds moving across the sky in a manner known as effortless attention. We can concentrate much better after we have spent some time in a natural environment, or paid “effortless attention.” Walking around a city block doesn’t count, since that requires vigilance and directed attention, and does not give your brain a break.

10. Take a vacation.
One CEO recommends mountain biking because it forces you to stop thinking about the office and to instead concentrate on staying alive. You probably feel that you can’t possibly get away, but ultimately it will make you a better leader for your company.

Going to Africa–literally or figuratively–refreshes your brain, which allows you to be productive longer, and t
o tack
le more issues. Whether you need to review your budget, approve a new marketing initiative, or hire new people, you’ll have the new perspective and alert brain you need to be your best.

Source: INC.

9/11 Anniversary 2012: New York Ceremony Held For September 11

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By JENNIFER PELTZ 
09/11/12 08:09 AM ET  
NEW YORK — America gathered again Tuesday to mark the 11th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks with familiar ceremony, but also a sense that it’s time to move forward after a decade of remembrance. 
As in past years, thousands were expected to gather at the World Trade Center site in New York, the Pentagon and Shanksville, Pa., to read the names of nearly 3,000 victims killed in the worst terror attack in U.S. history. President Barack Obama was to attend the Pentagon memorial, and Vice President Joe Biden was to speak in Pennsylvania.

But many felt that last year’s 10th anniversary was an emotional turning point for public mourning of the attacks. For the first time, elected officials weren’t speaking at the ceremony, which often allowed them a solemn turn in the spotlight, but raised questions about the public and private Sept. 11.

“I feel much more relaxed” this year, said Jane Pollicino, who came to ground zero Tuesday morning to remember her husband, who was killed at the trade center. “After the ninth anniversary, that next day, you started building up to the 10th year. This feels a lot different, in that regard. It’s another anniversary that we can commemorate in a calmer way, without that 10-year pressure.”

Commuters rushed out of the subway and fewer police barricades were in place than in past years in the lower Manhattan neighborhood surrounding ground zero. But blocks from the site, Ron Patiro needed to consult with security guards about where he could walk his two dogs. “It’s still a military zone,” he said.

Families had a mixed reaction to the changing ceremony, keeping politicians away from the microphone in New York for the first time.

For Charles G. Wolf, it’s a fitting transition.

“We’ve gone past that deep, collective public grief,” says Wolf, whose wife, Katherine, was killed at the trade center. “And the fact that the politicians will not be involved, to me, makes it more intimate, for the families. … That’s the way that it can be now.”

But Pollicino said it’s important that politicians still attend the ceremony.

“There’s something missing if they’re not here at all,” she said. “Now, all of a sudden, it’s `for the families.’ This happened to our country – it didn’t happen only to me.”

Political leaders still are welcome to attend the ground zero ceremony, and they are expected at the other commemorations, as well.

President Obama and first lady Michelle Obama plan to attend the Pentagon ceremony and visit wounded soldiers at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. Biden and Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar are expected to speak at the Flight 93 National Memorial near Shanksville, at the site where the hijacked United Airlines plane went down.

Officeholders from the mayor to presidents have been heard at the New York ceremony, reading texts ranging from parts of the Declaration of Independence and the Gettysburg Address to poems by John Donne and Langston Hughes.

For former New York Gov. George Pataki, this year’s change ends a 10-year experience that was deeply personal, even as it reflected his political role. He was governor at the time of the attacks.

“As the names are read out, I just listen and have great memories of people who I knew very well who were on that list of names. It was very emotional,” Pataki reflected by phone last week. Among his friends who were killed was Neil Levin, the executive director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.

But Pataki supports the decision not to have government figures speak.

“It’s time to take the next step, which is simply to continue to pay tribute,” Pataki said.

The National Sept. 11 Memorial and Museum – led by Mayor Michael Bloomberg as its board chairman – announced in July that this year’s ceremony would include only relatives reading victims’ names.

The point, memorial President Joe Daniels said, was “honoring the victims and their families in a way free of politics” in an election year.

Some victims’ relatives and commentators praised the decision. “It is time” to extricate Sept. 11 from politics, the Boston Globe wrote in an editorial.

But others said keeping politicians off the rostrum smacked of … politics.

The move came amid friction between the memorial foundation and the governors of New York and New Jersey over financing for the museum – friction that abruptly subsided Monday, when Bloomberg and New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced an agreement that paves the way for finishing the $700 million project “as soon as practicable.”

Before the deal, Cuomo, a Democrat, and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, a Republican, had signaled their displeasure by calling on federal officials to give the memorial a financial and technical hand. Some victims’ relatives saw the no-politicians anniversary ceremony as retaliation.

“Banning the governors of New York and New Jersey from speaking is the ultimate political decision,” said one relatives’ group, led by retired Deputy Fire Chief Jim Riches. His firefighter son and namesake was killed responding to the burning World Trade Center.

Spokesmen for Christie and Cuomo said the governors were fine with the memorial organizers’ decision.

Of course, it’s difficult to remember 9/11 without remembering its impact on the nation’s political narrative.

After all, “9/11 has defined politics in America” since 2001, said Costas Panagopoulos, a Fordham University political science professor. “At the end of the day, 9/11 was a public tragedy that affected the nation as a whole.”

Source: Huffington Post
Follow Jennifer Peltz on Twitter: @jennpeltz

Associated Press writer Verena Dobnik contributed to this report.

Western Cattlemen Sue WTO & USA

in /by

By PHILIP A. JANQUART  
Thursday, September 06, 2012 

DENVER (CN) – Western ranchers sued the World Trade Organization in Federal Court, challenging its power to rule, as it did, that the U.S. Country of Origin Labeling Act discriminates against foreign meat. 
Made in the USA Foundation, the Ranchers-Cattlemen Action Legal Fund, United Stockgrowers Association, and Melonhead (a meat and vegetable distributor), sued the WTO, the United States and the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

     The U.S. Country of Origin Labeling Act, aka COOL, requires all fresh produce, meat, chicken and fish to be labeled to reveal its country of origin.

     The COOL Act, signed in 2002, led Canada and Mexico to file complaints with the WTO. Three WTO representatives, from Portugal, Pakistan and Switzerland, found that COOL violated the Uruguay Round of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, and “imposes discriminatory burdens on meat imported from Canada and Mexico,” according to the complaint.

     The WTO’s Appellate Body affirmed the decision, finding that COOL, “particularly in regard to the muscle cut meat labels, is inconsistent with Article 2.1 of the TBT Agreement [Technical Barriers to Trade Agreement] because it accords less favorable treatment to imported livestock than to like domestic stock.”

     The cattlemen-plaintiffs object.

     “The Country of Origin Labeling Act is not a barrier to trade of any kind,” the complaint states. “It was passed to give consumers information about where agricultural products came from. Consumers could choose not to buy raspberries from Guatemala because of a bacterial problem there, or could refuse to buy Canadian beef because of a Mad Cow disease problem there.”

     Citing an unidentified “recent opinion poll,” the plaintiffs claim that 93 percent of U.S. consumers support the COOL Act.

     The cattlemen also claim that the Uruguay Round Agreement, signed into law by President Clinton in 1994, states that U.S. law prevails in any trade conflict between the U.S. and other countries.

     They claims that Section 102(a)(1) of the Uruguay Round states: “No provision of any of the Uruguay Round Agreement, nor the application of any such provision to any person or circumstance, that is inconsistent with any law of the United States shall have effect.”

     The complaint continues: “The ruling by the WTO Appellate Body that declares COOL is a violation of the TBT Agreement, which was executed pursuant to, or under the auspices of, the Uruguay Round Agreement, and that attempts to intimidate the U.S. into modifying COOL to conform to the WTO’s interpretation of the TBT Agreement is inconsistent with the U.S. COOL law. Under Section 102(a)(1), U.S. law prevails over the ruling of the WTO Appellate Body because of the conflict.”

     The cattlemen claim that their members will be harmed by the WTO’s actions.

     “Plaintiff R-CALF USA and its members are harmed by any dilution of the country of origin law and do not want their domestic meat confused by the consumer with meat from Canada and Mexico,” the complaint states.

     “Plaintiff Melonhead LLC is harmed by any weakening of country of origin legislation because it does not want Mexican and Canadian meat to be lumped together with meat from the United States. Melonhead’s customers desire U.S.-born, raised and processed beef and do no want confusion with Mexican and Canadian beef.”

     The cattlemen ask the court to declare that the WTO ruling has no authority to override U.S. law and that its “decision concerning the Country of Origin Labeling Act is void in the United States and throughout the world.”

     They also want the court to order Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack to do his “legal duty” to enforce COOL and to order U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk to cease and desist from negotiating with Canada and Mexico an amended and “watered-down” version of the Act.

     Both Vilsack and Kirk are named as defendants. The cattlemen claim Vilsack and Kirk have no “legal right to amend or contravene this law by regulations or negotiations.”

     The beef industry is represented by Joel Joseph, of Los Angeles.  

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