11.27.06 | Ethanol is all the rage. We’re being told that ethanol will reduce greenhouse gas emissions and cut our nations dependence on foreign oil. The Bush administration has been promoting ethanol as the renewable, homegrown alternative to gasoline since the 2005 State of the Union Address. Earlier this month Bill Clinton and Al Gore stumped in California for a $4 billion tax to fund research for alternative energy vehicles and bio-fuels. General Motors has spent barrels of cash on its marketing campaign, “Live green, go yellow,” referring to the corn from which most U.S. ethanol is made.

Right now automakers are hard at work pushing their 2007 flexible-fuel vehicles (FFVs), which are designed to run on either gasoline or E85 – a blend of 85% ethanol and 15% gasoline. According to a recent Harris Interactive survey of vehicle owners more than half of them were interested in purchasing a flexible-fuel vehicle (FFV) mostly for reduced dependency on petroleum and improved fuel economy.

9.18.06 | The Mohawk Group’s New York City showroom was completely packed with people wielding auction paddles and glasses of wine as the stage was set for what would be a thrilling night of designers putting themselves up for auction to benefit the Interior Designers for Legislation in New York (IDLNY).

9.4.06 | The institutions and values of Greece in the fifth century B.C. rested on the conviction that every citizen should be as fully involved in politics as possible. Pericles, that towering figure in the history of democracy and consummate statesman, said, “We do not say that someone who is apathetic about politics is minding his own business. We say that that person has no business in Athens whatsoever.”