Sustainability is everywhere these days. Just browse through the ads in Architectural Record and you'll be amazed how every single building materials producer finds something green in their product - no matter how energy intensive it was to produce. There is also an onslaught of "sustainability" events around us. Earth Day had just passed when I received a conference announcement flyer that mentioned three "sustainable" conferences on one page:

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Do you think anyone would pay $200 for an umbrella?

Apparently it is possible. As an Aeroplan customer (Air Canada's air miles program), I get my monthly statements featuring my number of collected miles (not as high as I would like them to be) and a few options on how to redeem those. Beyond flights, Air Canada offers other goodies at a lower mileage cost. So in the last statement, it offered a Calloway Golf umbrella for the amazing sum of 5000 miles.

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These are some impressions from the graduate commencement 2007 at UMass. I am just showing a very small portion of the ceremonies (which were extensive, well organized and beautifully ceremonious) - look for more pictures of the festivities to appear soon on the UMass site.

Protests during the 2007 UMass Graduate Commencement

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Here's one to watch: Iberia just announced their spring fares to Europe. Why is that so newsworthy? Well, it's the way they did it. And that will change.

It always frustrated me that airlines here in the US post their fares as "one-way based on round-trip purchase". What a deceptive practice this is! They might as well say "multiply by two to get the full price". The consumer is not offered the actual amount that has to come out of their pocket, no matter if they only want to take one leg or both legs of the journey.

But back to Iberia...

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Welcome to my new website! It is bigger, better, cooler and a bit bolder. In case you are surprised - I moved from the .de domain to a .net domain (and I am running it on WordPress). That happened for various reasons. In any case, old .de links will redirect to the newer links and you may still keep using them, if you like. My email is the same for both. Please excuse any loose ends while I am transitioning the site.

Have fun browsing!