one little piggy, two little piggies, three...

I've long been interested in food production and the processes we're using as a culture both modern and traditional. Due to the predicted global food crisis that everyone is predicting things like urban and hydroponic farming are now hot topics. To be honest I'm not sure what the answer is, but I'm confident we'll figure it out as a society.

A friend of mine emailed me an article from Defpoints, which asks where do we stand as a nation in terms of food production now and then compares the productivity to the value. Below are the diagrams from that article. They are a bit dated being from 1997, but I think they are probably still pretty accurate in theory.

[Crops - acres per square mile by county, 1997]

[Animals - per square mile by county, 1997]

[Value - dollars per square mile by county, 1997]

At first glance there seems to be a lot of white space leftover on these diagrams. So curiosity got the best of me and I went through the exercise of layering all the images in Photoshop to produce a composite image. I quickly came to the conclusion that unless we want to begin "mountain farming" I think we're using our resources fairly well. I'm sure this doesn't take into count efficiency, but it's still amazing that we're actively using most of the land available to us in this Country.  The composite image I created is below.

[composite of crops and animals]

subaru love

    

You may have noticed Subaru's ad campaign launched this summer, which shows short stories of how Subaru owners "love" their cars. Subaru America describes the ads with the following statement:

"I love my Subaru" is one of the most-used phrases we hear from Subaru drivers about our brand. That's why our new marketing campaign created by our agency of record, Carmichael Lynch, is based on the strong emotional bonds Subaru owners develop with their vehicles.

By focusing on the love Subaru owners have for their car, Subaru challenges non-owners: "Do you love your car?"

As a Subaru owner myself, I'd have to agree completely with the above sentiments. Whenever someone asks me about my car the first words out of my mouth are always "I love my Subaru." I thought that the feeling would begin to wear off as time pasted, but I honestly love it just as much today as I did when I bought it a few years back. In fact many of my friends would attest to the fact that I'm a bit overprotective and OCD about my car, which is a complete 180 from any other car I've ever owned.

All that aside, in regards to the new ad campaign it makes me wonder... if I didn't own a Subaru already would I want to buy one because of this campaign? Well I'm not sure. Prior to being dragged to the Subaru dealership by my Dad who is also a Subaru owner I had always thought that Subaru's were a bit uninspiring. What I realized quickly was that I didn't know what I was talking about. The test drive in particular sold me.

I think Subaru isn't far from the truth with the Love concept, but better than any marketing campaign what it has going for it most is word of mouth promotion from owners. That's something you simply can not have without producing a high quality product. Especially in the world we live in today where there are ENDLESS options making brand loyalty a thing of the past.

To prove my point here are the chain of events leading up to my purchase of a Subaru:

1. My Dad bought an outback after his good friend recommended he check it out. His friend is also a Subaru owner might I add. 

2. When I was thinking of getting a new car my Dad insisted that I go test drive a Subaru since he was so happy with his outback.

3. I ended up purchasing a Legacy. (There was no contest...)

4. A year after purchasing my car I insisted that one of my friends who was looking to buy a car go test drive a Subaru, which lead to her buying a Forester.

Coincidence? Maybe, but I don't think so. A happy customer is always you're best form of promotion. And that's priceless.

If you haven't seen the Subaru Love Campaign it's your lucky day. They compiled them all for you at Subaru America.

the air car

Motor Development International (MDI) may have a solution for breaking the world's dependence on oil! And the answer is...drum roll please...The Compressed Air Car!

Models like the CityCAT can hit up to 68 mph with a range of 125 miles. They can be made into a hybrid as well to extend the range.  The best part is that it costs only around $2.00 to fill up with compressed air! (it holds 340 liters of air) Coming in at an estimated cost of around $13,000 it's also affordable.

These cars are ZERO emission! In fact air motors generally release cleaner air than they intake due to the air filter. Cars that are actually purifying the air? What a concept. And unlike fuel cells or electric cars they don't have batteries, which means they are more easily recyclable.

      

[proposed models of the Air Car under-development]

The only catch is they are tiny! They actually make the smart car seem large. So don't count on seeing them any time in the United States because I doubt they would pass safety requirements. They actually sort of remind me of those Fisher Price Power Wheels for kids.

They go into production this year in India.

More information can be found on MDI's website: http://www.mdi.lu/

zippers

While researching CurtainWall Systems made by YKK AP for my current project I accidentally went to their main website and was pleasantly surprised to find that YKK not only makes CurtainWall, but are also the zipper monopoly of the world. I'm sure you've looked down at your coat zipper or the zipper on your jeans and noticed the emblazoned YKK letters.

Wanting to know more I checked out the Wikipedia entry for the YKK Group and this is what I found out:

The initials YKK stands for Yoshida Kōgyō Kabushiki-kaisha (吉田工業株式会社) and the original company was established in 1934.

It's made up of a group of Japanese manufacturing companies. They are best known for zippers (they are the world's largest producers) but they also make fasteners, architectural products, and machinery.

Zippers!