Compared to other social networking sites and applications, Twitter’s product is fairly simple. Twitter is functionally similar to text messaging in that an individual post is limited to a small number of characters and as such, the information you send out in a ‘tweet’ has to be short and to the point. The limit on character count is set at 140.

Partially because of its simplicity, though, Twitter is one of the easiest ways to build a community around your company and your product, and allows companies to communicate and share content quickly among networks. Many companies use Twitter as a means of interacting with their customer base, so instead of simply posting your own content, consider also sharing or ‘retweeting’ posts that come from your followers and even interacting directly with them.

On Twitter, you choose a username which is signified by the @ symbol. For example, our username on Twitter is @WaFed. You can track who is referencing you in tweets or who is reaching out to you using this ‘handle.’ If people are seeking out answers to customer service questions or other prompts about your business, you should feel comfortable replying to them over Twitter and building a connection with them.

Keep an eye out for trends and ‘hash tags’ that are relevant to your brand and feel free to add your individual take as you see fit. A hash tag is when a pound symbol (#) is put in front of a word or string of words and becomes a hyperlink to other tweets using the same hash tag.

In addition, if you choose to use Twitter as part of your business’ promotional plan, remember to be nimble and adaptive as these technologies continue to develop and change. With just a little creativity, you may be able to put your business in front of this evolving social trend.

Published Originally on the Washington Federal Bank Blog

1. Do Not Eat After You Feel Full

When you feel full, your body is sending you a message that it has had enough food. Continuing to eat can lead to fatigue, a decrease in productivity and an increase in body fat. Eat slowly, chewing your food for at least 20-30 seconds. Doing so will allow your body to fill up gradually, instead of all at once.

2. Avoid Serious Snacking

Snacking adds more calories daily than you may be aware, and since we normally snack more idly than we eat meals, the portions can tend to be more haphazard and harder to control. It’s okay to eat small amounts of healthy foods in between meals. But try to avoid sitting on the couch with a bag of chips.

3. Use a Smaller Plate

We learned from our parents at an early age that it is rude to leave food on your plate, and a lot of us are still programmed to instinctively eat until there is nothing left. Many times we eat even beyond when we feel full. If you eat from a smaller plate, there is less area to fill up with food at the beginning of a meal and, therefore, less food for you to consume.

4. At a Restaurant, Consider an Appetizer as an Entree

Appetizers, salads and soups are usually smaller in size and volume when compared to entrees. Be sure that the dish you are ordering maintains a nutritional balance, as many appetizers fail to include fruits or vegetables. If you wish to order an entree, ask your server if it could be possible to have half of the meal served to you and half boxed to take home. Many restaurants offer “half-size” or “lunch-size” portions that are smaller, better alternatives to the full serving.

5. Maintain a Regular Eating Schedule

Eating meals on a regular schedule will allow you to better control the systems though which your body craves food. It is equally important to avoid skipping meals or delaying them as your body will then tend to grow hungrier if its schedule becomes confused. That’s creates a real opportunity to overeat. .

It’s important to make sure that you are eating the right amount of food for your specific lifestyle and body type, and this can vary dramatically. Be aware of your daily food intake and you should be able to maintain a healthy diet. Striking the right balance will allow you to live a better, longer life.

Published Originally on the Johnston Health Blog

Mesothelioma is most commonly found in people who worked directly with asbestos. Usually, this means miners, shipbuilders, factory workers and construction workers. Nevertheless, Zevon’s story is one that reminds us that many people succumb to mesothelioma, asbestosis and other asbestos related diseases without any direct or sustained contact to asbestos materials.

In many ways the dangers of second-hand asbestos exposure are not unlike the dangers of second-hand smoke, which is banned in public spaces in 27 states. When processed, individual asbestos fibers are often only visible with a microscope. These fibers, which when inhaled damage the lining of one’s lungs over the course of several decades, are easily transported through the air or even on clothing worn in a location where asbestos was used. As a result, exposure to family members, neighbors and other acquaintances of asbestos workers can easily occur. Occasionally, in places where asbestos production and processing was a major industry, such as Libby, Montana, second-hand asbestos can represent a massive issue.

Zevon, who sung about asbestos use in factories in his 1987 song “The Factory,” likely was exposed at a relatively young age. While he went about his life, the asbestos slowly developed into an ultimately terminal case of mesothelioma. It can often take 10-40 years from the initial asbestos exposure for symptoms of mesothelioma to show.

Zevon wrote, recorded and produced his last album, “The Wind,” in the year between his diagnosis and his eventual death. It was released just two weeks before he died. That album, largely inspired by his fight against his disease, went on to win several Grammy Awards, but also is an allegory for the stark realities faced by victims of asbestos.

Preventing tragedies like the death of Warren Zevon is only possible if asbestos is banned.

Published originally on Ban Asbestos Now.

Modeled after the popular Passport to Your National Parks marketing program, the Pennsylvania Parks and Forests Foundation, a nonprofit that supports the state parks and state forests, began selling its version, the Pennsylvania State Parks and State Forests Passport, in August.

The booklet, which costs $10, is available through the mail, and the foundation plans to make it available through its website soon. At 135 pages, it includes maps, a history of the state park and forest system, a brief description and memorable feature of each state park and forest and also additional resources online.

“Our first run is of 1,000 books, but we hope that we will soon be printing more,” foundation president Marci Mowery said. “With an average of 35 million visitors a year to our state parks, we anticipate a strong interest.”

Similar programs exist in Maine and Virginia. According to Mowery, the goal of the state passport program is to promote healthy activity and awareness of Pennsylvania’s state park and forest systems.

“This program offers something for everyone,” she said, “whether you love trail hiking, paddling, driving tours, dramatic vistas, rock climbing, solitude, campgrounds, birding or hang gliding, our state parks and forests have points of interest second to none.”

Passport owners will be able to track their visits to public lands by initialing or stamping their booklets, much like in the national parks program. The Pennsylvania Passport is intended to guide people to the state parks and forests, but it is also designed to break down interest areas and challenge users to complete each area and receive some form of recognition for their accomplishments.

The development of the Pennsylvania State Parks and State Forests Passport was funded by a grant from Chesapeake Energy.

Published originally in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

This is a Journalism master’s thesis, written in partial fulfillment of the degree of Master of Arts from Stanford University.

Jimmy Nied has lived in Pittsburgh his whole life, and his restaurant, Nied’s Hotel, located at the corner of 55th and Butler Streets in the east-end neighborhood of Lawrenceville, has been there just about as long as he has. This unassuming property, adorned with neon lights advertising its ‘famous fish sandwich,’ is a relic of what this neighborhood once was — gritty, industrial and working class.

Entering Nied’s Hotel is a glimpse into local history — a living and breathing icon of what this city once was. Dimly lit even in the middle of the day, this bar, and its owner, have seen the neighborhood, and the region as a whole, change from a bustling industrial center through a crippling recession to a thriving artistic community.

The former Heppenstall Steel factory, once employer to more than 1,000 neighborhood residents still stands about 10 blocks from Nied’s Hotel. It closed more than three decades ago, but the history of the plant still pervades the neighborhood that was built to support it. “What is going on here really is a re-branding of the whole neighborhood,” Nied said. “That is one of the hardest things to do,” he added.

As Lawrenceville has started to gentrify, Nied’s Hotel has become a bit of an anomaly. Nied’s newer competitors are catering to a different kind of customer. Many of these newer restaurants feature organic and locally sourced ingredients while Nied’s Hotel throws pretense to the wayside in favor of classic deep-fried goodness.

It might seem that Nied and his customers, many who appear to have stuck with Lawrenceville through the hard times, would hold animosity towards redevelopment, but Nied, often referred to as the “unofficial Mayor of Lawrenceville,” could not be happier with the way this neighborhood has turned around. “I think this is great,” he said.

In a region that is even now recovering from the loss of the steel industry, the neighborhood of Lawrenceville is developing into the hub of the city’s creative scene with artists and musicians of all stripes moving into its relatively low-cost housing and studio spaces.

As trains loaded with coal roll endlessly down the banks of the Allegheny River, this distinct demographic shift is changing the character of this working class community. It was not long ago that Lawrenceville was a hub of prostitution and other crimes. But now it’s emblematic, some say, of something akin to the kind of creative revolutions that have popped up across the country from Williamsburg Brooklyn, to San Francisco’s Mission District to Austin, Texas.

Certainly there are shades of run-of-the-mill gentrification occurring in Lawrenceville.  But evaluated through the context of urban studies theorist, Richard Florida’s ‘Creative Class’ theory, it becomes clear that something more is developing in Lawrenceville and it’s emblematic of a sea change in the flavor of Western Pennsylvania.

What is a ‘Creative Class’

In his 2002 book, The Rise of the Creative Class, which he wrote while a professor at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Florida argues that the key to economic growth lies not just in ability to attract the creative people, but to translate that underlying advantage into creative outcomes in the form of new ideas, new high-tech businesses, and regional growth with low barriers to entry for creative workers. The result, Florida contends, is regional growth – through something he calls a “mega-region.”

Florida’s theory centers on what he terms the ‘Creativity Index,’ in which four key demographic and economic factors can define the potential for a significant development of a so-called creative class. These factors include the percentage of the workforce that can be defined as “creative,” innovation measured by patents per capita, size of the high tech industry as measured by the Milken Institute’s Tech Pole Index, and diversity, which Florida measures using a so-called Gay Index. Florida believes tolerance is a good indicator for a region’s openness to different kinds of people.

In 2002, the San Francisco Bay Area ranked the highest metropolis with a population over 1 million on this Creativity Index with a score of 1057. Memphis, Tenn.  ranked lowest with little more than half of San Francisco’s score.

The factors that lead to the development of destinations for creative people are more complex. But in Lawrenceville and Pittsburgh as a whole, the environment for a creative class has improved significantly since 2002, at least by Florida’s measuring sticks.

For starters there’s the decided shift in the demographics of the neighborhood. Nied said, “The demographics seem to be getting younger — or, I’m getting older — or both.”

Over the last half century, Pittsburgh’s shrinking population has been well documented. Census data shows that the city’s population peaked in 1950 with over 676,000 residents. In 2010, the city’s population measured just 305,704.

The same census statistics show that Pittsburgh’s half century of population losses may be starting to moderate with the most recent census showing a population drop over 10 years at about 8.5 percent, the lowest level since Pittsburgh last showed population gains in the 1950 census.

In Lawrenceville, the population has gotten younger as a result of several factors. Certainly there are many new people moving into the neighborhood lured by its low real estate prices and expanding business opportunities, but the deaths of many elderly residents also has contributed to the shift.

Named for the early American naval hero James Lawrence, the community of Lawrenceville was established in 1814 by William Barclay Foster, the father of famed 19th Century composer Stephen Foster who penned several popular songs including ‘Camptown Races’ and ‘Oh! Susanna’ before his untimely death in 1864 at the age of 37. Stephen Foster is buried in the Allegheny Cemetery in Lawrenceville, which was incorporated as a borough in 1834 and annexed by the city of Pittsburgh in 1868.

Census statistics from the year 2000 show Lawrenceville area residents having a median age of approximately 42 years, higher than the citywide median of 35.5 years. Approximately 17.4 percent of the population in Lawrenceville fell into the age range or 20-34 year-olds. The most recent census showed the city getting younger with a median age drop to 33.2 years in 2010. Pittsburgh also grew by 22.1 percent between 2000 and 2010, adding about 8,000 more residents in their early 20s.

At that same time, Pittsburgh continued to be rated among the most livable cities in the United States with a high quality of life, relatively low rates of crime, first-rate cultural institutions and health care systems.

However, jobs appealing to young people were not in high supply and much of the civic accolades were being marketed to people looking to settle and start a family. The demographic shift in Lawrenceville has not specifically been led by young people but a burgeoning artistic community drawn to its central location and low rent, which is what makes the redevelopment of the city unique among similar cities such as Cleveland, Buffalo or Cincinnati.

The arrival of the artists

From the context of Florida’s theory, Pittsburgh has seen marked improvement in all four of the criteria Florida uses to calculate the Creative Index.

The climate for creative people is significantly better. A walk down the revitalized Butler Street in Lawrenceville reveals unique galleries and shops alongside new and innovative restaurants and coffee houses, and, while national chains dominate other commercial thoroughfares within the city, Lawrenceville remains decidedly quirky and independent.

Visual artist Tom Mosser lives and works in Lawrenceville. Mosser was drawn to the area he says for its central location within the city. “I needed a bigger space,” he said. Mosser noted that his studio in the Blackbird building on Butler Street is significantly less expensive to rent in comparison to other spaces in other cities.

Mosser, who portrayed the Pittsburgh Pirates mascot for eight seasons, is often commissioned to produce artwork relating to sports. His art adorns the walls of both the Amway Center in Orlando, Fla. and the Prudential Center in Newark, N.J. as well as local galleries and private collections. He gained notoriety for using both hands when he paints and thus developing two unique styles of painting which he has termed the “LOOPtechnique” and “Ambidextrous Impressionism.”

“There is really a creative class developing here in Lawrenceville,” said musician Greg Dutton. The profile of the creative and artistic scene within the city has recently been bolstered by the emergence of a new generation of nationally prominent artists and musicians such as Wiz Khalifa, Mac Miller and Girl Talk. Dutton noted, “One of the great things about Wiz and Girl Talk coming out of Pittsburgh is they kind of champion the city they’re from, which is nice because so few people are coming out of Pittsburgh that the couple who do wear it on their sleeve. Maybe, in some small way, it brings notoriety to the music scene here.”

He added, “I think the other great thing about it is that those are two people who have really broken into the mainstream but they’re not top 40 acts the way that like Christina Aguilera is. Where they’re coming from there is a sense that they developed through a scene, which then ties back to the local music scene.”

These performers differentiated themselves from their predecessors by staying in Pittsburgh after achieving fame and using new tools such as social media to sustain a following. Dutton is the principal songwriter in the indie pop-folk band Lohio, which is based in Lawrenceville.

Innovation and technological growth

Pittsburgh, which once had among the highest rates of patents per capita in the early 20th Century, also is returning to its former glory as an innovation capital as evidence by strong high-tech growth. As the barriers for entry into business lower in an increasingly mobile economy, graduates of local universities who might have once opted to move to New York or San Francisco to develop products are now opting to stay in town.

The expansion of local medical centers such as Allegheny General Hospital and the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center has fed this growth with a burgeoning biotechnology industry that is creating several innovative and potentially lifesaving technologies.

The growth of mobile platforms has also served to bolster local innovation with several popular technologies being invented in Pittsburgh including YinzCam, which allows sports teams to combine various media assets and provide fans with engaging in-game experiences on their own smartphones.

Moreover, as different industries have taken hold in Western Pennsylvania and the economy has stabilized, the environment for creative people has changed dramatically. Pittsburgh’s economy is now dominated by health care and education with a growing high tech sector and Pittsburgh developed into a greater regional hub for venture capital.

The availability of jobs has increased as well. Steven Pedigo, Director of Research and Communities for Florida’s think tank, the Creative Class Group, said, “The city now collaborates more than ever before with the universities, and that has led to technology companies to set up more in the city. Now, Google, for example, has one of its largest campuses located in Pittsburgh. So, there’s some opportunity there that had not been there before quite frankly because Pittsburgh weathered the recession so well.”

Google’s Pittsburgh office, with roughly 150 employees, just recently moved from being an office with two staffers at Carnegie Mellon to a former Nabisco bakery a few miles away as an anchor of a new development called Bakery Square.

In Lawrenceville, the new Children’s Hospital has brought substantial economic development along with it.

Vice President of Operations at Children’s Hospital, Eric Hess said, “It was very important for Children’s Hospital to locate in the city.” In regards to Lawrenceville, Hess added, “It’s a vibrant growing community. It’s been a pleasure to jump into in the middle of their growth.”

Hess believes the impact of the hospital, which moved from the Oakland neighborhood, home to both the University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University, to Lawrenceville in 2009, has been gradual. “Our biggest impact is just bringing awareness to Lawrenceville. We see over a million kids a year, so you’re bringing moms and dads from every spot on the map to this neighborhood,” Hess said, adding, “I think its going to wake even more people up to the fact that there’s some cool places to eat, there are some great places to shop. It’s just a neat place to be.”

Nied noted, “There’s a trickle down progression from Children’s Hospital. Their remote parking lot is close to my business and I seem to be getting some spin-off from that location.  I continue to see new people who rubber neck when they’re in here. He added, “We’re really not in a location that has a lot of foot traffic and so new people coming in is definitely influenced by the new image of Lawrenceville.”

Diversity, tolerance and development

But perhaps the most intriguing and significant demographic change in this city that treats its sports heroes like gods is ever increasing acceptance of its homosexual community. In a recent article published by LGBT interest magazine The Advocate, Pittsburgh was ranked the 5th gayest city in America in a survey citing a number of factors including number of gay friendly religious congregations and officiates for gay marriages.

To some extent this change for Lawrenceville and Pittsburgh has been organic, but several community groups, including the Lawrenceville Corporation and Lawrenceville United, and even the city government have been quick to cajole the further development of this new sense of community in Lawrenceville and the city as a whole.

Sarah Dieleman Perry, Program Officer with Pittsburgh Partnership for Neighborhood Development said, “Lawrenceville United is moving to be more comprehensive and more collaborative, both within Lawrenceville and with other neighborhoods in the East End. Their partnership with Lawrenceville Corporation is a model of sharing programs and staffing, and they’re even talking about co-locating in the future.”

Perry noted, “LU is not trying to do it all but rather work on developing strong partnerships with a variety of neighborhood leaders such as the Boys and Girls’ Club or green-related nonprofits such as Tree Pittsburgh, Grow Pittsburgh or TreeVitalize to implement the community’s vision, which includes activities for youth, outreach to Somali Bantu refugees, strategies for elderly aging out of their homes, landlord training and building green spaces.” Enthusiastically, Perry added, “I can’t say enough great things about this team. And that fact that both LC and LU have leaders and staffs in their 20s and 30s speaks well to the future of Pittsburgh’s community development scene.”

The Lawrenceville Corporation and Lawrenceville United, two non-profit community development organizations, have led a coordinated effort to cultivate this Creative Class within the community. Mosser said, “We bought a house that’s on 48th Street. It’s part of a five row house development program that the Lawrenceville Corporation and Botero Development are involved with. He added, “These old dilapidated row houses that were crack houses back in the day are now going to be nice homes.”

The Pittsburgh Partnership for Neighborhood Development has invested $2 million into Lawrenceville in the last 10 years. Perry noted, “With our assistance, these organizations have hired professional staff, accessed board training, upgraded technological capacity, and expanded the community newspaper. Lawrenceville’s transformation could not have been possible without strong organizations to lead the way.”

Florida noted at the time he wrote his book that despite the fact that Western Pennsylvania possesses many of the trappings that set a foundation for the cultivation of a creative class, the region lacked what members of the Creative Class actually are looking for in a home. According to Florida that includes, “Abundant high-quality amenities and experiences, an openness to diversity of all kinds, and above all else the opportunity to validate their identities as creative people.”

Creative community development follows

Pedigo, who completed a graduate degree under Florida at Carnegie Mellon, noted that since he left Pittsburgh in 2005, the conditions necessary for the cultivation of a creative class have improved significantly. He said, “The economy of Pittsburgh has changed a lot over the past 10 years, and I think in terms of the environment for creative workers, Pittsburgh has weathered the economic recession fairly well and it’s a strong university center. It sort of creates an atmosphere where it’s been insular to the downturn and because of that it has been able to continue to grow and Pittsburgh is still kind of remaking itself.”

Pedigo said that specifically in Lawrenceville are many of the things that members of the creative class look for in a neighborhood. He said, “These were areas that really revitalized by urban pioneers — these are artist folks who are drawn because these are affordable places and they open up galleries and there is a sort of swarming effect.” He added, “I think what the challenge for Lawrenceville is the same challenge that a lot of other neighborhoods across the country are facing, and that is that these creative types can be priced out. As the swarming effect increases, real estate prices are bound to increase as well.”

Perry noted, “Young creative types have more patience for transitional neighborhoods, and are excited to be part of the revitalization process and younger people don’t have the issues about safety and schools that families have.” She added, “For those reasons, the ‘Creative Class’ is a big part of the redevelopment. I wouldn’t necessarily say they’re leading it, but it’s really spurred on the recent transformation of Butler St. In these neighborhoods, creative energy has been focused on investing in buildings to turn empty, scary places into lofts, cafes, studios and small businesses. These efforts, combined with attention to public safety and other quality of life issues such as high-quality schools, will continue to transform urban neighborhoods. “

Florida argues that creative community development differs from more traditional gentrification because it can lead to more significant economic gains for what he terms mega-regions, a larger spread out area that extending beyond traditional municipal boundaries with significant economic and cultural links, which he believes are rapidly replacing more traditional cities.

Questions remain over whether the revitalization of the Lawrenceville community will persist, but Perry believes that given a broader regional context, Lawrenceville is really here to stay. She said, “I see Lawrenceville as a part of a larger geographical region — not the 10 counties or even the city of Pittsburgh — rather the East End neighborhoods. These neighborhoods are all in the midst of a transformation, and the success of one or two, such as East Liberty and Lawrenceville, is positively affecting all. If folks in the East End can figure out the school issue so that families will want to move to/remain in the area once their kids hit school age, there’s nothing stopping the East End from becoming the top place to live. It’s already quite a popular place to shop, eat, worship and work.”

James Gray, chef and owner of Dozen Bake Shop said, “When we moved in the house across the street still had one of the last remaining prostitutes in the neighborhood still actively working.” Gray, who originally is from Chicago, founded his bakery in 2006 in Squirrel Hill to much acclaim and media coverage. The Lawrenceville location opened in 2008 and is now the headquarters of the company.

Gray moved to Lawrenceville to be a part of the neighborhood’s transformation. He said, “I have a philosophy behind how I do business and coming into an up-in-coming neighborhood was part of that. I wanted to help spur development and excitement in a community that hadn’t seen that in a long time.”

And Nied remains optimistic about the direction of the neighborhood. At one point, he said he would receive telephone calls from customers asking whether it was safe to come to his restaurant. “We don’t get those calls anymore,” he said.

Palo Alto-based electric car manufacturer Tesla is working alongside Japanese electronics giant Panasonic Corporation (NYSE: PC) to develop battery technologies that extend the 245-mile-per-charge range of its Roadster model. The Model S, which the company plans to debut next year, may travel as much as 300 miles-per-charge.

Consumer confidence in electric vehicles is often hurt by the limitations of the car batteries, and many close to the industry understand that there are a lot of misconceptions when it comes to the battery life issue.

“One of the reasons people hesitate to get an electric car is this perception that its going to run out of juice somewhere and leave them stranded by the side of the road,” Jerry Pohorsky, president of the Silicon Valley chapter of the Electric Auto Association, said. “To a certain extent, that is a real consideration. You can drive these things to the point where they wont go any more.”

Tesla’s batteries are statistically the most powerful among commercially available electric cars. Further innovation in the quality of electric vehicle batteries has the potential to make the electric vehicle category more viable in the marketplace.

“Battery development is the driving force behind the EV movement,” said Camille Ricketts, Tesla’s communications manager.

Tesla supplies electric vehicle components to other automotive companies, including Toyota Motor Corp. (NYSE: TM) and Daimler AG (DDAIF.PK).

The Tesla Roadster Model’s design was inspired by the Lotus Elise, which averages 210 miles on a single tank of gasoline. Typically, cars can travel between 300 and 400 miles on a tank of gas.

Hypothetically, Bay Area drivers of the Model S will be able to drive as far away as Reno, N.V. or Santa Barbara on a single charge — something that would have been considered science fiction when the first generation of production electric vehicles was introduced in the mid 1990s.

Released in 1996, the General Motors Co. (NYSE: GM) EV1 lasted between 60 and 100 miles on a single charge.

Even the recently released Nissan Motors Co. (TYO: 7201) Leaf has similar limitations, with an estimated battery life of just 100 miles.

Kurt Kelty, director of battery technology for Tesla Motors, said, “Our battery pack has 56 kilowatt hours of energy. Other EVs on the market have about 20 or 24 kilowatt hours.”

“The Roadster battery pack is over 120 watt hours per kilogram,” he added. “That’s where our engineering strength comes in. We use a high energy density cell, and we pack it densely while also maintaining a high level of safety, reliability and long life.”

The emphasis at Tesla is to focus on what they term “energy density,” essentially a measure of the amount of energy stored per kilogram of battery mass. At its headquarters in Palo Alto, Tesla claims to maintain one of the most advanced battery development labs in the world.

Specifically, Tesla is developing technology that will allow consumers to easily replace used batteries with ones holding a full charge. The company plans to implement this innovation in the Model S sedan.

Despite the increased innovation in the field, driving down the costs of the batteries remains the greatest challenge.

Haresh Kamath, project manager in the energy utilization program area at the Palo Alto based Electric Power Research Institute, said, “The main challenge with electric vehicle batteries today is their cost. It is a very large part of the difference in cost between an electric vehicle and a conventional internal combustion vehicle.”

Tesla plans to release three different versions of the Model S sedan based mostly on battery life. The basic Model S with have a battery designed to run 160 miles on a single charge. It will cost $49,900 after a $7,500 federal tax credit.

The second battery option will have a 230-mile range, but will add about $10,000 to the price. The Model S with 300-mile range should cost around $20,000 more than the basic version.

Ricketts, however, emphasized the importance of investment in battery technology. “Investing heavily in research and development, Tesla is proving that major breakthroughs are happening quickly,” she said.

Kamath said, “There are a number of manufacturers that are in the electric vehicle space, as well as in the electric vehicle battery space. While Chinese manufacturers are present, there are also Japanese, Korean, German, and U.S. manufacturers that have competing battery technologies.”

“Lithium ion battery production is not very labor intensive,” Kamath added. “Competition is typically not driven by labor costs.”

Ricketts reports that new buyers are encouraged to charge their cars each evening using a standard power outlet in their garages. She said, “Most of our Roadster owners find that they never even come close to depleting the battery. Charging is really just a matter of ‘topping up’ continuously.”

Pohorsky said, “For the San Francisco Bay area, you can get from San Jose to San Francisco and back on one charge for a car that’s got a decent amount of battery in it. People need to sit down and really think about how much they normally drive in a single day, and that is surprisingly low.”

Concerns also persist over the impact increased electric car usage will have on local energy grids. Kamath addressed this, saying, “While utilities do have to examine the effect of electric vehicle adoption on their distribution networks and may have to accelerate upgrades to their capacity in some places, at present, our analyses show that local power systems can accommodate the expansion of electric car adoption without much difficulty.”

He added, “The additional power drawn by electric vehicles is relatively small compared to the capacity of the grid, and a great deal of the charging is expected to occur at off-peak times, like the night time.”

A 2008 episode of the British television program Top Gear was particularly damaging to Tesla’s battery life reputation. In the episode, host Jeremy Clarkson is shown racing the Roadster against a similar gas-powered sports car when the battery is purported to have died, a claim that was eventually shown to be false.

At the time, officials at Tesla noted that the battery never dropped below 20 percent capacity while filming that particular sequence, despite what viewers were led to believe.

Clarkson, who initially praised the car, said in the episode, “If it does run out, it’s not a quick job to charge it up again. To fill the tank on a normal car, it takes a couple of minutes. To fully recharge the batteries on this from a normal 13 amp socket like this takes 16 hours. So to get from here to the top of Scotland would take more than three days.”

Ricketts noted that Tesla’s customers are often less concerned with the car’s battery life. She said, “With a range of 245 miles, the Roadster doesn’t worry many people. In fact, the range is often cited as a reason for buying the car.”

This has not stopped the company from employing some higher profile strategies to emphasize that Tesla drivers have similar capabilities as drivers of gas powered vehicles. Ricketts said, “We have also made high-profile roadtrips in the Roadster — from California to Detroit for the International Auto Show, for example — to show that distance driving is possible in an EV.”

Tesla is hopeful that its technology will further the popularity of electric vehicles. “With longer ranges being achieved by EVs, and more successful distance tests being run, the public is starting to see how practical driving electric can be,” Ricketts said.

Published originally on Peninsula Press and SFGate.com.

California’s coastal plants, San Onofre, in San Diego County, and Diablo Canyon, in San Luis Obispo County, are built to withstand ground accelerations worse than those that ravaged Japan. But questions remain about how they would stand up to a tsunami.

“The Japanese Fukushima site had a double hit — an earthquake larger than had been anticipated and a tsunami larger than had been anticipated,” said Burton Richter, a Nobel Laureate in physics and a professor at Stanford University.

“The earthquake was not the problem,” he added. “The tsunami was. In Japan, the earthquake engineering was superb, but the tsunami protection was not adequate. Their sea wall was not high enough to protect the site from flooding, and it was the flooding that knocked out the emergency core cooling system.”

Still, Richter said California residents have no reason to be concerned. “The reactors here are different, and their location differs too.”

The two California plants are located several hundred miles south of the Bay Area. The map below gives the approximate locations of California’s major fault lines.

View Nuclear Power in California with Major Fault Lines in a larger map

The 26-year-old Diablo Canyon nuclear plant sits on a bluff 85 feet above sea level, while the 42-year-old San Onofre facility is located 50 feet above sea level, with a 30-foot tsunami wall for added protection.

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission requires that all nuclear facilities be able to withstand the most severe natural phenomena historically reported in their regions.

The San Onofre facility, for instance, is built to survive a ground acceleration of up to 0.67 meters-per-second-squared, otherwise known as g-force. Experts estimate that the earthquake in Japan caused a ground acceleration somewhere between 0.25 and 0.35 meters-per-second-squared, in comparison.

Maps of California’s geology show that it differs from Japan’s. In California, few faults exist offshore, which lowers the risk of a catastrophic wave the size of the one that hit the Japanese coast.

Nuclear energy proponents say nuclear facilities provide one of the cleanest forms of energy available, but the risk of catastrophe remains high, and scientists are yet to develop succinct protocols for safe disposal of waste.

Critics of nuclear power remain skeptical that the energy plants are as safe as their operators claim.

“In our state, our vulnerability increases as we learn of more and more new fault zones off our coast,” said Rochelle Becker, executive director of the Alliance for Nuclear Responsibility.

Becker emphasizes that Diablo Canyon is located within about 3 miles of four active faults, while San Onofre sits in an area where tsunamis and coastal erosion could be a concern.

Pacific Gas and Electric, which operates the Diablo Canyon facility, said that its tsunami wall is robust; but Japanese authorities made similar claims before the wall that protects the Fukushima Daiichi plant fell.

Still, Richter claims that nuclear power plants are a relatively safe means of generating electricity.

“All energy systems are dangerous, and nuclear power is one of the least dangerous,” he said. “People are more frightened of a single large event than they are of a series of small events that lead to more death and destruction.”

Published originally on Peninsula Press and SFGate.com. Joshua Adam Hicks contributed to this report.

While several factors contribute to this sharp decline, the farmers are quick to point their fingers at the relatively recent popularity of artificial Christmas trees.

Santa Clara County statistics show that tree growers now sell only 15% of trees they sold in the early 1990s.

Farmers sold 64,000 trees in 1994, worth an estimated $1.6 million all together. By 2009, these farmers were selling less than 9,000 trees each Christmas season, harvests that were valued at $404,200.

While artificial trees have existed for decades, the availability of cheaper, artificial models made abroad has fundamentally changed the industry. Trying to adapt, today tree farmers in the Santa Cruz Mountains are marketing the experience of allowing customers to cut down their own trees as much as selling the actual product.

Christmas tree farming is by no means the largest agricultural industry in Santa Clara County. But in the hills overlooking Los Gatos, about two dozen farms are growing conifers serving a predominately local market.

Jim Beck owns and operates one of them called Patchen California, located south of Los Gatos. His is one of the larger farms, and he said, “The one issue that has impacted the business over the years is the influx of plastic trees from China, and that’s a slow, a gradual deterioration of the marketplace.”

According to statistics published by the National Christmas Tree Association, a trade association representing tree growers, 85 percent of the artificial Christmas trees sold in the United States are imported from China.

Studies sponsored by the growers’ organization show that nationwide, real trees remain a popular option for consumers, with 28.2 million sold in 2009. However, since 2003, the number of artificial trees sold annually has increased from 9.6 million to 11.7 million.

Jami Warner, executive director of the American Christmas Tree Association, which represents the artificial tree industry, wrote in an email, “A trend we have seen developing over the past few years is the purchase of both a real and an artificial Christmas tree. Both types of trees have their advantages. Real trees smell great, of course, and there will always be consumers whose Christmas traditions include a real tree. Artificial trees, most of which come pre-lit now, can be set up and enjoyed within minutes and are easy to take down and store for next Christmas.”

Warner’s organization, which officially claims to represent both the artificial and real tree industries, reports that artificial tree sales have been growing at a rate of about 7.5 percent annually for the past five years.

The farmers attribute the increasing popularity of the artificial trees to a perceived misunderstanding on the crop’s environmental sustainability. Hans Johsens, who owns the Lone Star Tree Farm outside Los Gatos, said, “Environmental responsibility is another big issue these days, and one that addresses the fake trees. Our trees have no carbon footprint, or even a negative carbon footprint.”

Not surprisingly, each side conveniently ignores parts of its own environmental costs.

Those who advocate on behalf of the artificial tree industry point out that because artificial trees can be used year after year, they are more environmentally sustainable. According to a study commissioned by the artificial tree group, “The most significant contribution to global warming came from fossil fuel consumption in transportation of real Christmas trees from tree farms and lots to consumer homes.”

Often driving to choose-and-cut farms, like those outside Los Gatos, requires even greater amounts of gasoline consumption than going to retailers closer to home.

Johsens, speaking specifically about his business model, noted, “There is no fuel burned in getting our cut-your-own trees to our farms, which is a big issue with pre-cut trees trucked down from Oregon and Washington and an even bigger issue with fake trees which are primarily imported from China and shipped here.”

However, the study by the artificial tree group showed, “Driving out to a tree farm and cutting down a tree is the worst environmental choice you can make when buying a Christmas tree,” adding: “it’s substantially better for the environment to buy a tree from a local retailer rather than to drive out to a farm, due to the incremental fossil fuel consumed.”

Like many of his fellow Christmas tree growers, Johsens encourages his customers to leave several branches on the stump, which keeps the tree from dying. Johsens said, “We culture a new tree from those branches that will be ready to be cut again in a shorter period of time than if we planted new seedlings every year.” This can shed two or three years from the time it takes for new trees to grow from seed.

Johsens added, “Its not as if you are going out there and cutting down a 1,000 year old redwood to make a house out of it.”

Greg Lahann, who owns Four Winds Christmas Trees also outside Los Gatos, said, “It is much better for the environment to get a local renewable fresh tree that converts CO2 to oxygen, than to pull that plastic, Chinese made ‘tree’ out of the attic.”

Real trees are also seen as a fire hazard. The artificial tree group notes, “When showcasing a live tree in your home, the combination of tree dryness, electrical malfunction with lights and poorly located heating sources can make for a deadly combination.”

Johsens believes that it is in fact the other way around. “Fake trees are far, far more susceptible to fire danger than a real tree that has been properly cared for and watered,” he said. “Fake trees are far more dangerous in this aspect as when the fake tree is burned, highly toxic gasses are emitted as a result.”

Despite the steep decline in the area’s Christmas tree growing industry area, Santa Clara’s Division of Agriculture reports that the county’s larger agriculture industry is stable. Michelle Thom, Deputy Agricultural Commissioner in Santa Clara County, wrote in an email, “Our overall agricultural industry has been holding steady over the last few years.”

She added, “There are natural fluctuations with the value of certain crops, and we don’t track specific reasons why a certain crop will fluctuate over time. There are just too many variables that affect the market.”

The area’s earliest Christmas tree farms were established in the late 30s and early 40s, and the industry boomed in the 1960s as local communities expanded — increasing the need for trees. The population has continued to swell, increasing 18 percent since 1990, but now the industry is in decline.

The farms outside of Los Gatos are small — few are larger than 30 acres — and independently owned and operated. They usually sell the trees from Thanksgiving through Christmas. Customers drive up to the hills to cut down their own Christmas tree as opposed to buying one pre-cut from a different tree seller closer to home.

Despite such a high concentration of farms in such a small area, the farmers say they don’t really compete with each other. Johsens said, “We do share a good camaraderie with our fellow Christmas tree farmers, both here in our community and as an industry, and farmers locally will happily direct a customer to a neighboring farm in order to ensure customer satisfaction.”

As it turns out, the corridor surrounding California Highway 17, which connects Los Gatos and Santa Cruz, represents one of the few places in the region where Christmas trees can be grown successfully. Lahann said, “At about 2,500 feet altitude, we are at a good elevation for Douglas Fir which is native to the area and the most popularly grown tree here.” He added, “I would guess overall that 75 percent of the Christmas trees grown in this area are Douglas Fir.”

Matt Beauregard, an Agricultural Biologist with Santa Clara County, said, “Operating a Christmas tree farm on their large property allows the property owner to qualify for the Williamson Act, which helps greatly reduce property taxes for properties who qualify by use of property in agricultural activity such as a Christmas tree farm.”

Beck noted that most other agricultural areas in the Bay Area are not nearly as well suited for Christmas tree production.

“If you look at the Bay Area, there is very little going on in the East Bay because those hills are so dry and barren,” he said. “You would have to irrigate if you wanted to raise trees over there, and that is not practical By far the most popular” area “is the Highway 17 corridor.”

While much has changed for the Christmas tree industry in the hills above Los Gatos, the farmers claim to be seeing some signs of growth. Lahann said, “My guess is that ‘choose-and cut’-trees are becoming more popular because in a tough economy, people are tending to celebrate Christmas in a less extravagant and more family friendly way.”

“While it’s certainly more labor intensive than setting up a Chinese-made artificial tree,” he added, “Spending half a day with the kids hiking through the woods looking for the perfect tree that you cut yourself is a great way to do that.”

Published originally on Peninsula Press and SFGate.com.

Speaking in front of a full house in Stanford University’s Bechtel International Center on Tuesday, Guericke discussed the founding of LinkedIn and what has led to the company’s success in a talk titled ‘The LinkedIn Story: Becoming a Go-To in a Crowded Marked.’ Theresa Lina Stevens of the Stanford Technology Ventures Program moderated the event as part of Stanford Entrepreneurship Week.

Guericke, an alumnus of Stanford, served as LinkedIn’s Vice President of Marketing from its founding until 2006, and much of the conversation centered around the viral nature of web-based marketing as opposed to more traditional styles like direct to consumer advertising. Guericke said, “I think the new marketing is much more quantitative because now, if you can track it, it becomes much more of a science.” He added, “On the web, the little improvements make a big difference.”

According to Guericke, one of the greatest hurdles when his company started out was expanding beyond a limited Silicon Valley network.

“Sometimes I would come into the office and wonder where are we growing today because our users are our marketing department,” he said.

Establishing small networks in cities around the country and the world proved key to the eventual success of LinkedIn. Guericke said that because LinkedIn caters to users who are less interested in the social aspects of the site, the growth of the property was slower than other social networks. Today, LinkedIn claims over 90 million members in over 200 different countries and territories worldwide.

Guericke commented that one of the first places LinkedIn saw broad success internationally was in Iceland.

“I think I am responsible for the early explosion of LinkedIn in Iceland because I know this guy, he’s a very accomplished entrepreneur and very connected to music and fashion and all kinds of things,” Guericke said. “I noticed, after I invited him, Iceland started to boom.”

He added, “It’s kind of a small country and I think they only have like six last names in Iceland, so they are very connected there.”

Garnering media attention was also a difficult task for the fledgling social networking site which was founded just after the dot com bust. As Guericke explained, “In 2003, the only reporters who were left were the ones that thought the dot com was a bunch of hooey because the people who got excited about the dot com were laid off.”

He noted, “These were really cranky people, and they said,’your business model is going to be subscription premium membership, and do you know The Wall Street Journal — they tried it for two years, and they just canceled it.’”

In 2010, LinkedIn turned a profit, earning $1.85 million.

Nearly a decade from the time that Guericke, joined by Reid Hoffman, Allen Blue, Jean-Luc Vaillant and Eric Ly, founded the site in Santa Monica, the company, now based in Mountain View, is poised to be the first major social network to go public, which will happen later this year.

Guericke no longer works in an executive capacity for LinkedIn; He maintains a relationship with the site as advisor to their attempts to expand in Germany.

Published originally on Peninsula Press and SFGate.com.

Doctors’ groups are intent on one specific political goal, lowering the costs and possible awards in medical malpractice liability lawsuits. Fighting against them have been well-organized lawyers’ groups, advocating for maintaining the current rules.

Eshoo, like many of her colleagues in Washington, is often conflicted when it comes to particularly contentious issues and caught in the crossfire of powerful and wealthy organizations that wish to gain influence through campaign contributions.

Views on this issue generally split along party lines. Republicans generally advocate for the doctors, while Democrats side with the lawyers. And despite large amounts of spending by the doctors’ groups over the last few decades, little has changed at the federal level.

But since President Obama gave this year’s State of the Union Address, it appears that the political polarization that has defined this issue may be changing.

“Health insurance reform will slow these rising costs [of health care], which is part of why nonpartisan economists have said that repealing the healthcare law would add a quarter of a trillion dollars to our deficit,” Obama said. He added, “Still, I’m willing to look at other ideas to bring down costs, including one that Republicans suggested last year: medical-malpractice reform to rein in frivolous lawsuits.”

Congresswoman Eshoo said she is willing to consider what she believes is in the best interests of her constituents. In an email, she wrote, “I support changes to our medical liability system that will lower healthcare costs, protect patients, and allow physicians to continue practicing good medicine without the constant threat of lawsuits.” She noted, “In the health care reform bill, I supported funding for states to develop medical malpractice reforms designed to keep frivolous lawsuits out of court.”

It took the new Republican-controlled House of Representatives less than three weeks to introduce a bill calling for the restructuring of rules on medical liability lawsuits. Republicans say H.R. 5, the Help Efficient, Accessible, Low Cost, Timely Healthcare Act of 2011, offers comprehensive change to the system, which doctors groups have claimed costs taxpayers billions annually.

If enacted, the bill, would limit attorney compensation and allow for periodic payment of future damages in some cases. It would also establish a rule that would make each party in a lawsuit liable only for the damages of that party. It would shorten the statute of limitations to three years after the proof of injury date.

Eshoo, who has not spoken publicly regarding the bill, has received over $500,000 from healthcare professionals and over $400,000 from lawyers and law firms over her career in congress. Last year, she was elected to a tenth term in the house.

But in the email, Eshoo did voice concerns on this proposed law. “This legislation misses the mark. Instead of incenting best practices and following the recommendations of numerous experts who’ve weighed in on this issue over the years, this bill imposes arbitrary caps on patient damage awards, regardless of how egregious the mistake. I think we can and should do much better.”

The bill remains in committee.

Among Eshoo’s most prolific donors through her career in congress are the American Medical Association, which represents doctors, and the American Association for Justice, which represents trial lawyers.

However, Eshoo wrote, “I have voted against issues that some contributors support and vice versa. In 28 years of public service, my reputation has been one of doing what’s best for all my constituents, not just some.” Eshoo’s voting record in Congress shows that she voted with her Democratic colleagues 99 percent of the time in the last congressional session.

Common Cause, a nonpartisan citizens’ advocacy group, fights for the limitation of campaign contributions that will affect policy. The organization’s website notes, “The problem is not so much the amount we spend on political campaigns as it is who pays for them, what they get in return, and how that affects public policy and spending priorities.”

The website goes on to say, “The sense that members of Congress are ruled by their large campaign donors is reinforced by the amount of time members spend fundraising. A recent study pegged this amount at 34 percent, or more than a third of their time. Fundraising pressure continues to mount on lawmakers.”

In the lead up to the 2010 healthcare reform act, Eshoo’s campaign received donations from doctors’ groups representing several specialties including dermatology, neurology, oncology and orthopaedic surgery. Many of these groups hoped that the interest of doctors could be served by the legislation, which ultimately passed without any new provisions regarding the rules on medical liability lawsuits.

Former president of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgery, Dr. Stuart Weinstein said, “The costs of health care are really driven up by defensive medicine, where physicians order tests to assure themselves that they haven’t missed something. The number one lawsuit is for ‘failure to diagnose.’ You, as a physician, can’t afford to miss anything.”

Weinstein currently chairs the political action committee for the academy. He claimed that financial burden on the American health care system that can be attributed to medical malpractice litigation has been estimated to be between $50 billion and $650 billion annually. The American Medical Association estimates that the defensive medicine adds between $84 billion and $151 billion annually to the costs of healthcare.

Nevertheless, these groups are quick to point out that their political aspirations go beyond just adjusting medical liability law.

Allison Sit, spokeswoman for the American Academy of Dermatology wrote in an email, “There are a number of issues that impact our members and patients, including health system reform, physician payment, medical liability, research funding, workforce, and many others.” In both 2008 and 2009, the political action committee of the American Academy of Dermatology gave Eshoo $1,000.

Echoing Sit, Weinstein, whose organization donated $2,000 to Eshoo in both 2008 and 2009, said, “We make contributions to members of Congress who support our issues and realize the importance of this issue as well as others. It’s important as far as the ability to have our voice heard. We think it’s a very important aspect of American political life.”

The American Association for Justice, the leading organization representing trial lawyers, is ardently opposed to what it believes is an attempt by doctors to dodge responsibility in the event of an error. In a press release, American Association for Justice President Gibson Vance said, “Eliminating legal accountability destroys any incentive to focus on the real problem – preventable medical errors and patient safety.”

The lawyers group believes medical errors account for nearly 100,000 deaths annually. By their estimates, medical malpractice is the sixth leading cause of death in the United States each year. The organization’s political action committee has donated $68,500 to congresswoman Eshoo over the course of her congressional career.

In a document published by the association in 2009, the group argues, “The accountability promoted by the civil justice system is the engine of patient safety. No other mechanism or proposed alternative encourages accountability as effectively as the civil justice system.” Contrary to the beliefs of the medical associations, the American Association for Justice believes that changing the laws in regards to medical liability will drive up healthcare costs.

While some states, including California, have addressed medical liability at a local level, doctors’ groups believe that national legislation is the only way to truly solve the perceived problem. Weinstein said, “There have been some successes at the state level, but, because the state level often falls under a constitutional net, we feel very strongly that we should tread at the federal level.

“President Obama has said this is a problem,” he added. “The question is, will the Democratic Party realize that this is an issue and address it.”

Published originally on Peninsula Press and SFGate.com.