"Wilson: Well, maybe I was a bit harsh. I just said soccer moms are the greatest enemy of natural history. Steve: And I assumed you met the incredibly structured childhoods that kids have now. Wilson: That is correct. Of having a day’s schedule and all through areas there should be a lengthy period day after day for the full development of a child and let them turn loose and let them explore— preferably by themselves or utmost with a friend—on their own the natural environment, at least some simulation of natural environment. Let them discover things on their own and then give them the opportunity to learn about the things they had discovered. They ought to be able to mess up with the environment a little bit free to the extent of bringing home a frog and having a pet snake or something of this sort and the sensation of exploring and being in control of their own destinies for a while."

"SITUATIONAL DESIGN We design and craft unique experiences that challenge audiences to interact with concepts, narrative, and the world around them in unconventional ways. Applications include: Pervasive game design:
Games that enter your world instead of vice versa; this encompasses the field of Alternate Reality Games.
Narrative-driven marketing: Telling big stories in unexpected places and formats.
Interactive accompaniment: Taking an existing story from one medium (TV, Book, Film) to many.
Experiential marketing: Using tangible, real world interactions to expand the depth and reach of a campaign.
Event production: Creating avenues for a gathering or convention to become an adventure.
CULTURAL PHYSICS We research, deconstruct, and synthesize cultural output from a wide range of sources resulting in projects rich with references and significance for their audience. Applications include: Cultural Curation: Developing content from contemporary or historic sources that can be re-presented in a new context or juxtaposed to create new meaning.
Targeted Media Production: Developing media based on an in-depth understanding of its intended audience, site and application in order to maximize the synergy of the situation.
COMMUNITY CULTIVATION We build opportunities for audiences to become participants and interact with each other through shared experiences. Applications include: Community engagement: Creating the nucleus around which new communities form. Word of mouth expertise/Viral marketing: Ideas and stories so catchy that people can’t help but share them.
Brand augmentation: Leveraging creative assets that initiate and strengthen social relationships.
Trust building: Making opportunities for new or existing groups to re-engineer their ways of working together, challenging each other and building trust in the process."

"And finally, one last question: why are we only doing humanitarian design in Asia and Africa and not Native American reservations or rural areas, where standards of education, water and health match the very worst overseas?"

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"And scientists are discovering that even after the multitasking ends, fractured thinking and lack of focus persist. In other words, this is also your brain off computers."

"I don’t even understand how you get a bang for the buck out of a bicycle project,” Mr. LaTourette subsequently commented. “I mean, what job is going to be created by having a bike lane?"

"The village, despite its explicit intentions of diversity, has proven to be a very effective tool for ethnic and economic segregation."

"The challenge is translating open discussion among medical, nursing and pharmacy students in online forums into open discussion on the hospital floor, and in turn, into day-to-day change in health care quality. Studies have implicated poor communication in medical errors — especially between doctors of different ranks — and demonstrated the role of open communication in improving patient outcomes. As fresh observers of hospital dynamics across specialties, medical students are in an ideal position to effect change by speaking up. But patient safety experts question whether doctors, particularly those in hierarchical fields like surgery, are really ready to hear it — especially, Dr. Berwick said, from medical students, who run the risk of being labeled “troublemakers” and “naïve.” These factors suggest a pressing need for a cultural shift, one that dissolves the secrecy surrounding medical errors and allows trainees and seasoned doctors to speak openly about their mistakes and those their colleagues have made. The psychological safety of this blame-free setting can feel scarce indeed in some high-powered institutions. A classwide poll of third-year students revealed that most of us had witnessed errors by superiors or peers or had committed them ourselves — and demonstrated our striking ignorance of what to do about them."

"Lawns look great — they’re nice and green and healthy, and they’re photosynthesizing a lot of organic carbon. But the carbon-storing benefits of lawns are counteracted by fuel consumption,” says Amy Townsend-Small, Earth system science postdoctoral researcher at University of California, Irvine. Townsend-Small is the lead author of the study, which has been accepted for publication in Geophysical Research Letters, a journal of the American Geophysical Union (AGU). The research results are important to greenhouse gas legislation being negotiated, Townsend-Small says. “We need this kind of carbon accounting to help reduce global warming,” the lead author says. “The current trend is to count the carbon sinks and forget about the greenhouse gas emissions, but it clearly isn’t enough.” Turfgrass is increasingly widespread in urban areas and covers 1.9 percent of land in the continental U.S., making it the most common irrigated crop."

"work by Mark Stern, Susan Seifert, and Jeremy Nowak based on a ten-year study at the University of Pennsylvania of the catalytic role of the arts in Philadelphia and Baltimore. Three general conclusions stand out: The arts are a force for social cohesion and civic engagement. In communities with a strong cultural presence, people are much more likely to engage in civic activities beyond the arts. Community participation increases measurably and the result is more stable neighborhoods. The arts make a major difference in child welfare. To quote, “Low income block groups with high cultural participation were more than twice as likely to have very low truancy and delinquency rates.” Art is a poverty fighter. In the cycle I have already described, artists form clusters, cultural institutions are built, people gravitate to them, and the businesses follow. The businesses hire and the virtuous cycle continues. And arts jobs leverage other jobs. Buy a ticket and see a play. You see the actors on a stage. But behind those actors are administrators, designers, ushers, stagehands, costume makers, and just outside the building are parking lot attendants, cooks, and waiters."