Change the Margins

PlayPump

Interesting piece on  PlayPump, which allows kids to play on a merry-go-rounds and pump water for villages at the same time. There are a number of issues tied up in this, ranging from child-labor to band-aid solutions to the concept of "play" time and what that really means. But it's also an example of thinking outside the box to find solutions, which is why I post it here.

For more discussion, check out the following:

Frontline Story

Leading Questions blogpost

OpenOffice - .79"

This just in from Nic Duquette, who saw one of the pieces on Margins out this week.

"OpenOffice.org comes with default margins of 0.79" on each side. I believe it's the very distant number-two office suite."

I have not tried OpenOffice.org yet (I've got my hands full dealing with the recent switch I made from PC to Mac!), so I can't advise on how well the software works. But given the software's progressive nature, it sounds like it's definitely worth checking it out for those of you undeclared software peeps.

Courant Post-ings II

So stoked! Two fantastic articles came out this week about Margins! So far no bump in traffic from the Courant piece, but I'm hoping that people will curl up with their papers in their jammies over brunch and catch up on reading during the holiday weekend.

The Washington Post 
"The Small-Margin Movement", by Eviana Hartman, can be found here. The piece has an election year slant - very appropriate for a Washington paper. If you want to forward the article to others (please do!), here's the actual link:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/
14/AR2008021403284.html?sub=new

You do have to sign in to read the article, but registration is free.

The Hartford Courant
"One Tiny Change Could Save Thousands of Trees" by Joann Klimkiewicz takes a look at the thrifty roots of the Margins campaign, as well as the campaign's goals. You can read it here.

To pass it along:
http://www.courant.com/features/lifestyle/hc-margins0214.
artfeb14,0,7335664.story

Courant Post-ings

The past few weeks have been very encouraging, as the Margins campaign continues to make its way out into the world. I was recently contacted by the Washington Post and the Hartford Courant about doing pieces on Margins.

Both pieces were supposed to come out this week. Not sure what's up yet with the Post, but many thanks to my friend Craig and his stepmom. She lives in Connecticut and found the article in the Courant (it's not online). She's sending me a copy and I'll post it as soon as I receive it.

I'm a little nervous about the pieces. I'm used to being the interviewER, not the interviewEE...hopefully, I said a few things that were either mildly coherent or entertaining and don't make me sound like a jackass.

I'm also curious to see the impact of print press vs. online press on the campaign. Over the past several months, every time there's been a mention of Margins online somewhere, the petition and site traffic have gotten a bump. I'm wondering if the same will hold true for print. If it's not as simple as clicking on a hyperlink to find out more about the campaign, will people actually make the extra effort to do so?

Candidates' Environmental Policies

You stayed up late.
You watched the map change from blue to red to purple to yellow back to purple back to yellow.
And this morning, at least for the Dems, nothing is much clearer, other than the fact that we have two fantastic candidate choices (and I'm not talking about John, Mitt or Mike).

GRIST has done a great job of summarizing the candidates' environmental policies, complete with interviews and audio bytes.
-Click here for the article.
-Click here for a chart that breaks it all down.