Archive for April, 2015

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Thursday, April 30th, 2015

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Wednesday, April 29th, 2015

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Tuesday, April 28th, 2015

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Prisere LLC Has a New Website

Monday, April 27th, 2015

Thanks to the efforts of Joanna Gammel, a graduate of the prestigious Rhode Island School of Design, Prisere LLC has a new website. I have already received a number of questions about the photographs that appear in the site. They are original creations. I took the background page photographs. They are meant to convey the prisere stage of the ecosystem, showing a sustainable phase of development. So I included the photographs of the redwood trees that I took at Yosemite National Park, while working with the local CERT (Community Emergency Response Team); photographs of irises and the water pond at Monet’s Garden at Giverny (my visit there will be the topic of a future blog posting); a photograph of the Garden of the Gods taken at Colorado Springs when I was there working with the local small business development center; and other pictures of disaster resilience work done in recent years that illustrate the theme of sustainability.  Stefan generously shared his photograph of the Lower Manhattan skyline with the newly built World Trade Center. The site also includes links to our social media platforms. There is a lot more work to be done, but this is a good start. I welcome your feedback, which will be helpful as we build out our online presence. And let me extend my thanks once more to the incredible people at the Rhode Island School of Design, who introduced me to Joanna and helped to make this happen.

Music for Relief

Sunday, April 26th, 2015
Linkin Park Supports Disaster Relief

Linkin Park Supports Disaster Relief

Music for Relief was founded by the band Linkin Park in response to the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami. Since it began work in 2005, Music for Relief has raised over $7 million for survivors of  disasters including Hurricane Katrina, China’s Wenchuan earthquake, a cholera outbreak in Zimbabwe, earthquakes in Haiti and Japan in 2010, and Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines. MFR has organized benefit concerts, online auctions, and events with multi-platinum musicians and celebrities to help rebuild and donate supplies to people in need. What is particularly impressive about their efforts are that (1) they are raising awareness and funds for the long-term rather than responding on an ad hoc basis to individual disasters; (2) they are supporting organizations such as Oxfam that have shown to be operationally effective, rather than diverting funds to the costs of building new means of delivering aid; and (3) they are working for proactive measures to reduce disaster risk, as Music for Relief has planted over one million trees to help reduce climate change (and the disaster impacts associated with rising temperatures).

United Nations Secretary-General Ban-Ki Moon welcomed Linkin Park to the UN headquarters in New York and expressed appreciation for the band’s work in raising awareness and funds for disaster relief in Haiti after that country was struck by a powerful earthquake. I have a guitar in my office signed by Linkin Park from their Carnivores tour as I find it inspiring. As the UN Secretary-General pointed out, the Linkin Park video that was seen by more than nine million people made a powerful contribution to the relief efforts in Haiti. So if you are not familiar with Music for Relief, check it out.

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Saturday, April 25th, 2015

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Friday, April 24th, 2015

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Thursday, April 23rd, 2015

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Wednesday, April 22nd, 2015

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Tuesday, April 21st, 2015

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