Why do we need Fire Bowls in Water pools? Hope this trend dies

Saw this article in Barron's on great a natural/propane flame in a pool of water looks in a landscape.

You can display a fire bowl on dry land if you want, but the real drama comes when you pair it with a reflecting pool. Run a gas line underneath and the works of art will blaze on demand.

The artist even admits fire and water don't go together.

Make Your Landscape Really Hot

Fire and water usually don't mix well. "The two elements are not born together, nor do they really want to be together," says Brooklyn sculptor Elena Colombo. But with fire bowls, an increasingly popular type of landscape installation from Colombo and others, fire and water meet, mingle and mesmerize.

Could you imagine having one of these fire fountains installed now a day?

At least no green data center would install one of these.

Who is BestGreenWebHostingDeal (content farm) that is using GreenM3 content?

Curious who the content farm is that steals GreenM3 content I decided to look up who owns the BestGreenWebHostingDeal. 

Checking with Network Solutions I wanted to see who owns the BestGreenHosting url. http://www.networksolutions.com/whois-search/bestgreenwebhostingdeal.com

Registrant:
   Tannia Schrieber
   166 Springfield Ave
   Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania 19004
   United States

   Registered through: All You Can Eat Domains.com
   Domain Name: BESTGREENWEBHOSTINGDEAL.COM
      Created on: 28-Jun-10
      Expires on: 28-Jun-11
      Last Updated on: 28-Jun-10

   Administrative Contact:
      Schrieber, Tannia  tannia.schrieber@gmail.com
      166 Springfield Ave
      Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania 19004
      United States
      (267) 249-6306      Fax -- 

   Technical Contact:
      Schrieber, Tannia  tannia.schrieber@gmail.com
      166 Springfield Ave
      Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania 19004
      United States
      (267) 249-6306      Fax -- 

   Domain servers in listed order:
      NS1.LUNARIFFIC.COM
      NS2.LUNARIFFIC.COM

Next step is a cease and desist letter.  

I wonder if Tannia will repost this content on her own site? 

Example of Content Farm, stealing content from GreenM3

Google has updated search to find Content Farm, but nothing is perfect. 

The Farming of Content

What constitutes a content farm is open to debate.

A general consensus is that the label applies to websites that lift content almost entirely from other sites. However, that's also true of sites that churn out patterns of words that satisfy Google's algorithms, using search engine optimization (SEO) techniques.

Here is an example of a post I wrote yesterday that is copied by another site. 

Get your Greenpeace #unfriendcoal organic t-shirt

FRIDAY, MARCH 4, 2011 AT 12:23PM

Greenpeace has a site specific for unfriendcoal http://www.facebook.com/unfriendcoal.

When you Google Search for “greenpeace unfriendcoal t-shirt” a content farm comes up #7

Whereas my original content comes up lower.

Get your Greenpeace #unfriendcoal organic t-shirt

Greenpeace has a site specific for unfriend coal http://www.facebook.com/unfriendcoal.

I talked to Greenpeace’s Gary Cook at the suggestion of one of the Internet companies who has an environmental executive who said you should talk to Gary he is a good guy.  Gary was at the Green Grid Tech Forum and we had a good time chatting on green data centers.  I told him the story on how Matt Stansberry broke the Facebook use of PacificCorp’s coal energy source.

By Matt Stansberry, Executive Editor
29 Jan 2010 | SearchDataCenter.com

On Jan. 21, when Jonathan Heiliger, vice president of technical operations atFacebook announced the company would build its first data center, it wasn't a surprise that the Web giant located its facility in Oregon. What is surprising is that it will not avail itself of the region's famous hydroelectric power.

Gary Cook gave me T-shirt which was cool and nice of him.  I asked if I could write a blog entry.  I ran into another environmental friend who has one of the shirts too.  I asked my daughter to model the t-shirt as it looks much better on her than me.

If you want a t-shirt like these girls and mine.

Just send e-mail.

Get an Unfriend Coal campaign t-shirt:

Women's organic t-shirt or Men's organic t-shirt. Free for Facebook staff - just email us from your @fb.com address.

If you are a Facebook employee.

But, watch out Greenpeace will want a picture of you wearing the t-shirt on your Facebook page.

Evaluating Green Ratings reveals areas for improvement

Green/sustainability is a hot topic and there are now bunches of company that will rate your enterprise for being green/sustainable.  Given this is all relatively new, how good are these companies?

Here is a report prepared that rates the raters.

Rate the Raters, Phase Three

Uncovering Best Practices

22 Feb 2011 – Report

Corporate sustainability ratings are going mainstream, but how they work in practice remains somewhat of a mystery. For phase three of Rate the Raterswe conducted in-depth evaluations of 21 ratings, in an attempt to shed light on this important area. The 21 ratings we focused on were a representative sample of the 100+ ratings that we inventoried in phase two.

Our phase three work revealed numerous examples of good practice, which are detailed in our report. We are starting to see efforts to reduce the survey fatigue that companies face. A greater number of raters are soliciting feedback and direction from external experts, many through formal advisory panels. And we observe a few raters opening up their black boxes to let us in on their methodologies. Yet we found many areas in need of improvement as well, and offer a number of recommendations to raters for the future.

The above is phase three.  Here the other phases.

See phase one and phase two for further background and context.

CNET news also covers this report.

Green rating agencies fall short, report says

by Candace Lombardi

• When it comes to grading companies on their sustainability, some leading organizations fall short as far as transparency and methodology. That's according to a white paper released this week by SustainAbility.com, an organization that is both a think tank and a consulting firm for corporations looking to improve green standings and sustainability practices.

(Credit: SustainAbility.com)

SustainAbility.com issued a video Tuesday along with its report discussing how 21 of the leading eco-ratings organizations it investigated based on 13 criteria (see chart) appeared to be insufficiently evaluating the companies they target. Its partners include the United Nations Environment Programme and the Global Reporting Initiative , while its clients include Starbucks, Coca-Cola, and Shell.