Thoughts in Random Patterns

NY Times: Observatory - Why Prince William Sound Isn’t Free of Oil From Exxon Valdez

Twenty years after the Exxon Valdez supertanker spilled nearly 11 million gallons of crude oil into Prince William Sound in southern Alaska, everything is pristine and natural again, right?

Not exactly.

A study in 2004 estimated that perhaps 25,000 gallons of oil remained along the sound’s gravel beaches and was degrading very slowly. So that raised a question for researchers: Why, despite one of the largest environmental cleanups in history, has some oil persisted?

Michel C. Boufadel, an environmental engineer at Temple University, and a colleague, Hailong Li, have provided an answer. In a paper in Nature Geoscience, they report that the oil has become trapped in a zone of low permeability below the beach surface.

“We could only answer this question by understanding the movement of water within these beaches,” Dr. Boufadel said.

Field measurements showed that the beaches have two layers — a top one, a few inches to a few feet thick, that is roughly a thousand times as permeable as the layer below. The composition of the two is not very different, Dr. Boufadel said, but it is quite likely that compaction due to tidal forces has made the lower one less permeable.

Dr. Boufadel said oil floating on the water remained in the upper layer until changes in the water table allowed it to drip slowly into the lower layer, where it remains.

“In the lower layer there’s not enough motion and not enough oxygen for the oil to degrade,” he said.

But the oil can be released when otters or other creatures dig into the beaches. Even in their field studies, Dr. Boufadel said, when they would dig into deeper sediments, “the whole place would smell of oil.”

One possibility for cleaning up the trapped oil, Dr. Boufadel said, would be to inject chemicals into the lower layer that would promote biodegradation.

By HENRY FOUNTAIN

Published: January 18, 2010

via www.nytimes.com

The Top Ten VC Blogs (New And Improved)

Every so often, venture capitalist Larry Cheng puts out a list of the top VC blogs. Previously, he ranked the blogs by how many subscribers they have on Google Reader. But now he’s changed his methodology and is ranking them by average monthly unique visitors, based on Compete data. He just came out with his new global ranking for the fourth quarter of 2009. Below are the top ten blogs from that list.

via www.techcrunch.com

In the Times

I love reading the Sunday New York Times as ink printed on paper rather than my daily online reading, but the article about venture capital and new technologies that includes quotes from and a fun photo of Brad doesn't appear in the paper version of the paper until tomorrow. 

You can read it online here, and then go pick up your paper copy tomorrow like I will.

Inbox Zero

I just spent 2 hours sorting my email inbox down from 1066 emails so that I can start the working year off on Monday morning with some idea of what I have to do.  Inbox Zero doesn't mean that I don't have any email to deal with; it means that I have put each email in an appropriate sub-folder that I can schedule time on my calendar to work on.  I have 225 items in my To Do folder and 345 in my Correspondence folder, which is a lot more manageable than over a thousand unsorted items.  I'm going to try to be more responsive and organized about email in 2010.  Wish me luck!

The Year in Review

Or, where did it go?

Or, here are some of the big things in 2009 I meant to blog about, but didn't.  Good intentions pave the road to somewhere?!?

All the way back in May I went to Tanzania and Kenya for two weeks with The Nature Conservancy, which was my second trip to Africa, but won't be my last.  I am grateful for the opportunity to be involved with such an excellent organization and provide some capacity building support to their partners there.

Also in May, my Mom moved to Colorado into a retirement community near me, her grandchildren Morgan and Drew, and my sister Martha.  Sister Wendy moved back to Anchorage, Alaska in June after 10 years in Colorado, so we're holding steady on the family headcount here.  I'm looking forward to having Mom as my date for all kinds of cultural events in the years to come.  Brad can avoid ballet, museums, and symphony henceforth.

I retreated for almost an entire summer of writing at Keystone, which was wonderfully productive and peaceful.  I did manage to blog about that.

I have continued knitting like a fiend this fall.  I made a baby blanket for the adorable Rollie Cohen in blue:

Then I worked for a long time on a scarf for my amazing personal assistant, Kelli.  This is a complicated Diamond Brocade pattern using a beautiful hand-painted 100% alpaca yarn called High Country Vineyard from Lonesome Stone Yarn in Granby, Colorado stocked at the massive and excellent Shuttles, Spindles and Skeins in Boulder. 

I was very happy with how this project turned out, and was delighted to make a gift for Kelli worthy of her generous spirit and hard work.

A person new in my life in 2009 that I'm extra grateful for is Colette from Room to Room who has been working with me to organize my life.  It has been amazing to open the last boxes of college papers and throw away anything I don't want anymore.  I'm learning that just because something is useful, that doesn't mean it's useful to me.  I look forward to removing more clutter from my physical world and implementing systems that allow me to focus my time on what I really care about. Thanks, Colette.

One of the areas that I'm spending more energy on and really enjoying is the philanthropic work I do through the Anchor Point Fund, particularly the Anchor Point Internships in Global Leadership at Wellesley College.  I have thoroughly enjoyed working with Joanne Murray, the director of both the Center for Work and Service and the Madeleine Korbel Albright Institute for Global Affairs which has its inaugural program in January 2010.  I look forward to continuing to shape the vision of what global leadership means in the 21st century with Joanne.

We funded four internships in Africa during the summer and will do so again in 2010, and many years to come, with the interns presenting their experiential learning results at the Tanner Conference in the fall.

Here is a photo of 3 of the 4 Anchor Point Interns and me in the spring of 2009:

And a different set of 3 of the 4 interns and me in November 2009, along with Salwa Muhammad ('06), Assistant Director of  Internships & Service Learning at the Center for Work and Service: 

 

We each ordered the gorgeous lobster at our celebratory dinner at Blue Ginger Restaurant:

I am deeply honored to have been elected to the board of trustees at Wellesley College and look forward to learning how to be an effective trustee and serving the College during my tenure.

In 2010 I'm thinking of reviving some other dormant skills since the knitting has been so satisfying.  My viola gathers dust in its case and I think I'm going to try to find a way to bring viola back into my life.

We'll be going to Alaska for the month of July, and we love company.  If you're considering a trip to Alaska, come stay with us in Homer.

I'm not making any specific New Year's Resolutions, but I will continue to try to do more blogging.  I have enjoyed tweeting on Twitter, but I think I do have some thoughts that take more than 140 characters to express.  I'll post them here.

Best wishes to all for a healthy and happy 2010!