My friend and I biked over to Hip Drip Café, which is housed in EcoMotion’s car dealership on 16th and NE Sandy. We checked out these cool ZapCars which are three-wheeled electric wonders. I really liked the version with the flatbed in the back (pictured); perfect for errands around town. The saleswoman explained that the cars are registered as three-wheeled motorcycles, so their insurance is minimal (like, $200/year). More...

I went to the Illahee Lecture titled “Why We Buy” with Juliet Schur. Dr. Schur opened by humorously explaining her profession (once-economist, now sociologist): “We take the obvious and make it really really complicated.” The crowd chuckled, and she rolled into her presentation.

I won’t try to capture everything that she said in that cozy hour, but will present some of the highlights with some of my thoughts.

HIGHLIGHT: money and happiness.

There is a very weak link between money and happiness. They (social scientists, I assume) have measured happiness and have found that above an annual income of $20,000, people don’t get much happier. She stated a few reasons for this: higher levels of income are typically associated with lots of work and stress; consumerism fosters dissatisfaction; income growth erodes social factors. More...