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Articles by Ron Sparks
Opinion | The fox is guarding the hen house in Montgomery
In his recent defense of Alabama’s watered-down fuel inspection system, Rick Pate, the current commissioner of agriculture and industries, and Bart Fletcher, the lobbyist for gas stations, told consumers that gas pumps are tested, certified and carefully monitored.
America needs food security, not foreign mystery meat
When 300,000 tons of foreign beef has gotten the green light to flood American grocery stores, it’s not just a trade decision — it’s a direct hit on the safety of our food supply and the survival of our rural communities. Let me be clear.
America needs food security, not foreign mystery meat
When 300,000 tons of foreign beef has gotten the green light to flood American grocery stores, it’s not just a trade decision — it’s a direct hit on the safety of our food supply and the survival of our rural communities. Let me be clear.
America needs food security, not foreign mystery meat
When 300,000 tons of foreign beef has gotten the green light to flood American grocery stores, it’s not just a trade decision — it’s a direct hit on the safety of our food supply and the survival of our rural communities. Let me be clear.
Catherine Rampell (@crampell.bsky.social)
This is a heavily interactive web application, and JavaScript is required. Simple HTML interfaces are possible, but that is not what this is. Learn more about Bluesky at bsky.social and atproto.com.
Op-Ed: America needs food security, not foreign mystery meat
Op-Ed: America needs food security, not foreign mystery meat When 300,000 tons of foreign beef has gotten the green light to flood American grocery stores, it’s not just a trade decision — it’s a direct hit on the safety of our food supply and the survival of our rural communities. Let me be clear.
Opinion | America needs food security, not foreign mystery meat
When 300,000 tons of foreign beef gets the green light to flood American grocery stores, it’s more than a trade decision—it’s a direct hit on the safety of our food supply and the survival of our rural communities. Let me be clear.
Opinion | Protecting communities requires comprehensive planning
Alabama is at a crossroads. Across the country, data centers – the massive digital engines powering artificial intelligence, cloud computing and modern business – are reshaping local economies. Now they’re arriving here – from Huntsville to Montgomery, and to rural counties throughout the state that have never seen billion-dollar tech investment. Some state leaders see these projects as a revenue and jobs generator that represent an economic transformational opportunity for Alabama’s future.
Data centers requires comprehensive planning
Alabama is at a crossroads. Across the country, data centers - the massive digital engines powering artificial intelligence, cloud computing, and modern business - are reshaping local economies. Now they’re arriving here - from Huntsville to Montgomery, and to rural counties throughout the state that have never seen billion-dollar tech investment. Some state leaders see these projects as a revenue and jobs generator that represent an economic transformational opportunity for Alabama’s future.
Collaborate - Creating a Shared Understanding is Always Worth the Effort.
The more abstract and new a concept is, the more effort it takes to have a shared understanding with others. When people collaborate if you skip the step of defining terms, you may find everyone in a room nodding their heads, thinking they are talking about the same thing — when in fact, they are not. Design work often starts by creating a shared understanding with a team of people. Thought Exercise: Picture a mailbox in your mind. Pause and think of one for 3 seconds.
Magic - Aha moments of insight are more likely when we are resting our brain rather than focusing.
Photo by Milan Seitler on Unsplash There is a myth that artists can do some magic that others can not. But what appears as magic is a gap in understanding; we don’t see how a thing happens, so it must be magic. The real trick is working day in day out to make progress, have a strategy to do creative work, and put it into the world when we don’t feel like it. I hunt for these aha moments of design magic by gathering all my information on a topic, then going on a long walk, letting everything simmer.
When You Change Your Process, You Change What You Make.
Photo by Gregory Hayes on Unsplash Coffee roasting is all about the process. I roast coffee as a hobby on a 1kg gas roaster; it’s a shrunk-down commercial-style machine. I’ve roasted about 300lbs of coffee at this point. On every roast, I track my process with a roasting profile. A roasting profile is a picture of what happens during a roast, the temperature, the gas, the airflow. The roasting profile captures all the variables that change the taste.
Forever - I wonder how often we make the mistake of designing and building as if our creations will last forever.
Photo by Chris Sarsgard on Unsplash This morning, I watched the river move at a walking pace, sauntering within the channel that cuts through town. The river has been doing some version of this for over 100,000 years. Long before countries and kings and dictators. 80,000 years ago, the Deschutes River in Bend, Oregon, flowed around Pilot Butte’s east side; lava forced the river into its current path a mile to the west of the butte.
Brainstorm - Creative Collaboration Embraces Misunderstanding.
Part of the creative collaboration process is misinterpretation. Photo by Sam Moqadam on Unsplash Collaboration in the creative space has some magic to it, not because communication is perfect but because a set of people embrace that it is imperfect. In the gaps of interpretation, people look for a new way to see their work, and new ideas emerge. When people work together to find new ideas, we call it brainstorming.
Working In The Unknown: The Artist Skill That Innovators Need
The ability to do great work in the face of the unknown is one of the essential skills creative leaders, product makers, and forward thinkers must master. We need the artist’s skill of working in the unknown as we push on technology to make new products, companies, and ideas a reality. The artist mindset is one of doing work in the face of uncertainty. The process of art exemplifies the challenge of doing what’s not been done, breaking rules and curious pioneering.
Should Customers Have A Right To Knowledge About Themselves?
As product makers and creative leaders, we use data all the time. It informs what we build and how we interact with customers. Yet, imagine if your doctor acted like Facebook. You visit the doctor where they take your blood sample and run some tests. You’re told your resting blood sugar level is 178. This is data. You don’t know what means.
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