November 3, 2009
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The U.S. expects its largest-ever soybean crop this year: 3.2 billion bushels, enough to make 77 pounds of tofu for each person on the planet. Still, that might not be adequate, given rising demand for meat -- and thus animal feed -- in the developing world, plus new and increasing interest in using soybeans and other oilseeds for biofuels. But we've only got so much farmland, a predicament that will be a hot topic in New Orleans. "If you give more space to corn, you have to take space from soybeans. If you give more space to soybeans, it has to take from another crop," says Soyatech CEO Chris Erickson. "It's sort of like pushing your finger into a balloon. Somewhere else is going to bubble up." -- STEPHANIE SCHOMER
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 03
Grow
Soya and Oilseed Summit 2009
New Orleans
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November 3, 2009
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"If we solve search," Google cofounder Larry Page told a class at Stanford in 2002, "that means you can answer any question. Which means you can do basically anything." Googled tells the story of the search rocket's relentless ambition and how it has upended every corner of the media business. Auletta creates an engrossing narrative from this clash between Google's engineering mind-set and old media's grip on the buggy whip of the status quo. Although Google appears indomitable, he identifies several potential Achilles' heels, from naïveté to arrogance to a chaotic management structure. And from the company's myriad initiatives, he hints that the most important to watch is whether Google can successfully monetize YouTube. If it can do so, then, as CEO Eric Schmidt says, "that's the creation of the equivalent of the CBS network in the 1950s." If not, we may remember it as the company's MySpace moment. -- DAVID LIDSKY
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 03
Read
Googled
By Ken Auletta
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November 3, 2009
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On the 291st birthday of John Montagu, fourth Earl of Sandwich, we honor the classic combo named after the British aristocrat who, according to legend, ordered a piece of meat tucked between two pieces of bread. Others soon requested "the same as Sandwich," spawning what is now a $22.7-billion-and-growing business in the U.S. We do wonder whether Montagu would feel comfortable eating at the sector's undisputed giant, Subway, which has nearly 22,000 locations and some $10 billion in annual sales. Maybe we should name Jared the new Earl of Sandwich. -- ZACHARY WILSON
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 03
Munch
Sandwich Day
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November 2, 2009
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Incoming! Every year, the gypsy moth, zebra mussel, and other invaders do more than $130 billion in damage to U.S. agriculture, forests, rangelands, and fisheries. Worldwide, that figure soars past $1 trillion. "Part of the problem," says University of Tennessee ecology professor Daniel Simberloff, who will give a keynote address in Fuzhou, "is that, at most meetings, people tend to focus on what [the invaders] are doing, not how we can deal with them." Case in point: While much ado has been made about New York grappling with Asian long-horned beetles, which have been devouring trees since 1996, Chicago -- which was infested two years later -- has wholly eradicated the bugs by rigorously monitoring the spread and quarantining wood from infected areas. At this first-ever congress, Simberloff plans to share similar success stories in an attempt to shift the focus. "There's no silver bullet," he says, "but there are possible solutions." -- DAN MACSAI
MONDAY, NOVEMBER 02
Exterminate
International Congress on Biological Invasions
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October 29, 2009
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"For 18 months, unemployment has been spreading poverty and acute suffering through industrial and agricultural areas alike. Timidity and disingenuousness have marked the course of the administration at a time when heroic courage and bold frankness were necessary. No one yet knows when the present economic disaster will be brought to an end." -- From The Nation, 1931
Thursday, October 29
Repeat
80th anniversary of the 1929 stock market crash
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October 27, 2009
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The United States accounts for just 4% of the world's population, but it produces 25% of greenhouse-gas emissions. Not smart. Deforestation (see World Forestry Congress, October 18) isn't one of our big problems, but energy use is. That's why power players will gather at this forum to discuss how to improve, both economically and environmentally, the way we distribute electricity. Outages and interruptions to the current electric grid cost us $150 billion per year. And even small changes could bring big-time payoffs. According to the Department of Energy, if our grid were just 5% more efficient, the energy savings would be equal to taking 53 million cars off the road. -- SS
tue, october 27
Conserve
Smart Grid America Forum
Austin
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October 26, 2009
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The hiring rate today is at just 3% -- meaning only 3% of jobs in any given month are new, the lowest since the government started tracking this stat in 2000 -- and unemployment is at quarter-century highs. But the HR people of America will have you know that they aren't any less busy. Rather, we're told there's been a shift in emphasis both in their work and at their yearly convention: Retention has replaced recruitment atop the agenda. That's interesting, since most people we know aren't job hopping right now, and the creaky economy is proving to be a decent retention "program." Which makes us wonder whether the jobs those HR folks are trying to retain are their own. -- ACL
mon, october 26
Talent Management Summit
Chicago
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October 26, 2009
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If there's one upside to the soaring cost of health care in the U.S., it's that Americans are improving their knowledge of world geography. In 2007, 750,000 U.S. patients traveled abroad for cut-price care; by 2015, Deloitte Consulting estimates, that number will rise to more than 13 million. Top medical-tourism destinations include India and Thailand, where a heart bypass costs $11,000, less than 10% of the average U.S. fee. At this international medical meeting, 2,000 insurers, clinicians, and travel agents will be discussing how to win your diseased dollars. Anyone know the Hindi word for hemorrhoids? -- TB
mon, october 26
Heal
World Medical Tourism and Global Health Congress
Los Angeles
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October 22, 2009
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Microsoft's Windows 7 OS is to Vista as:
a) a lightly bruised peach is to a rotten one.
b) a fresh coat of paint is to a clunker.
c) a nonevent is to an epic fail.
d) all of the above. -- DL
thu, october 22
Upgrade
Windows 7 on sale
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October 18, 2009
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Seems impossible, but it's true: Until April, the U.S. Army did not have mobile-Internet capability. This is particularly ludicrous since the Department of Defense's budget for military communications this year is $23.7 billion. (For a rough comparison, that's a couple billion more than the annual revenue of T-Mobile U.S.A., the nation's fourth-largest cell carrier.) This year's military communications conference will showcase new software that gives soldiers access to email, video, and other data while they're on the go; it could be rolled out Army-wide by late 2010. As Milcom spokeswoman Fran Jacques says, "[The troops] should have as much technology as you and I." -- Anne C. Lee
sun, october 18
Communicate
Milcom 2009
Boston
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