This quote is brought to you at the good folks at the Foundation for a Better Life. This quote is about opportunity. Enjoy!

“Live with intention.
Walk to the edge.
Listen hard.
Practice wellness.
Play with abandon.
Laugh.
Choose with no regret.
Appreciate your friends.
Continue to learn.
Do what you love.
Live as if this is all there is.”

- Mary Anne Radmacher, author

Solar energy is not a new technology. Scientists, engineers, and businesses have been toying with it for some time now. The only problem was storing the energy as electrical storage technology did not keep pace with the ability to collect the sun’s energy. Electrical storage systems were too costly, inefficient, environmentally unsafe, or a combination of all three.

Thermal storage systems, on the other hand, are sophisticated, mature, and inexpensive technologies. (Because people want to stay warm during winter months and because they want to drink hot/warm liquids on cold days, much thought has been put into storing heat.) A few businesses are leveraging these thermal storage technologies to deliver electricity. Instead of storing electrical current from solar energy, they are storing the heat for later use. Using Sodium Sulfate, a salt, solar power companies are storing heat from the sun’s rays to generate electricity as needed (on demand). A great graphic from the New York Times illustrates how this process works after the jump.

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I previously wrote about Randy Pausch and his battle with cancer in February. If you don’t know the back story, Dr. Pausch delivered a insightful and inspirational final lecture to his students that became immensely popular. (Visit the previous post to view a video of the lecture.) Dr. Pausch was diagnosed with terminal pancreatic cancer in August of 2007.

Since that time, Randy has managed to accomplish quite a bit. He lobbied congress to increase funding for pancreatic cancer research, he wrote a book titled, “The Last Lecture”, and he made a trip to Disney World with his family. In addition, he did all of this while battling cancer.

If you would like to support Randy’s fight against pancreatic cancer, you can support or get involved with Lustgarten foundation, and/or the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network (PanCAN).

If you would like to find out more about Randy’s battle, you can read his online journal.

I have for some time now tried to think of the best way to tell those who are anti-capitalists and for a welfare state  the way I think about economic inequality.  A donor at a Microfinance conference I directed last week may have said it best - “Democracy doesn’t work very well, but it’s the best we got.”  I believe the same can be said for free-market capitalism.

I think this statement “hits it on the head”.  It would be ridiculous for anybody to argue that the welfare state or philanthropy has done as much to alleviate poverty as the private sector has.  Such an argument would result in a complete loss of credibility for the person making the argument.   It’s the best we got because it doesn’t infringe on people’s right to free agency.   This is why when it comes to social safety nets, the best we got is philanthropy.  The governments efforts to rob Paul to pay Peter will never sit well with me, while incentivizing Paul to voluntarily give to Peter does.  But that giving should be done in such a way that one day Peter is capable of giving himself.

The goal of philanthropy should be to use every principled, innovative and creative means that can devised to help disadvantaged individuals become more viable competitors in whatever economy they are found.  Every philanthropic effort should be striving to work itself out of business.  At the micro level, there should be an exit plan for each and every beneficiary of philanthropy.  A plan in which individuals leave the social safety net of the non-profit sector and enter the private sector as profitable citizens. They should become self reliant and financially independent, and ultimately become philanthropists who give of their time, money and other means.

This quote is brought to you at the good folks at the Foundation for a Better Life. This quote is about integrity. Enjoy!

“Wisdom is knowing what to do next; virtue is doing it.”

- David Starr Jordan, (1851-1931) educator, author, peace activist; exerpt from “The Philosophy of Despair”