I am very grateful to this second week's shift of guest bloggers, who have written about so many issues in such diverse ways. (For thanks to the first week's crew, click here. My gratitude extends beyond a single week!) Xujun Eberlein has presented an extraordinary historical and personal drama in five installments, with links to them all here. Bruce Holmes, who has devoted his career to managing "Sputnik moment"-style technological advances, has examined how the process does and doesn't work -- what it meant for Lewis and Clark, what it might mean futuristic transportation options. Chuck Spinney, who now mostly lives on a small sailboat in the Mediterranean but has spent his career analyzing America's strategic weaknesses and strengths, has itemized many of those. And Andrew Sprung, a professional analyst of communications and rhetoric, has talked about the connection between John Kennedy's famous tropes and our current consciousness and prospects, plus our ability to "learn" from history. Each has done more items than I am linking to here; I am grateful for them all.
Now, time for the new crew! We've had a full and complete measure of policy examinations in recent weeks. There could be a somewhat different tone and emphasis this week. Please welcome:
Lizzy Bennett, who is the online marketing manager for the Timbuk2 bag company in San Francisco. Timbuk2 is interesting not just for its design and products but also for its manufacturing strategy: it does its largely made-to-order production right in San Francisco (video here), rather than on the other side of the Pacific. Lizzy is in the middle of various worlds -- style-conscious start-ups, social media and blog-based marketing, young San Francisco -- I am interested in but obviously not part of. She is from Santa Barbara and is a former college athlete (Stanford tennis team) and a mountain climber, as part of the 3 Peaks 3 Weeks challenge.