by Cora Bledsoe

I was browsing my daily reader stuff and I came across this post from the Consumerist.

We’ve been talking a lot more around our team about finding ways to be more green and this happens to fit right in. It seems that Macy’s has decided to switch to biodegradable packing peanuts.

Another company also down with the green movement is Whole Foods. Of course, it fits right in with their culture. They’ve opted to stop using plastic bags altogether and are instead only using paper bags.

Check out this story about it on WashingtonPost.com.

The other day a friend of mine offered me a special deal on buying a new Chrysler car or truck. (Of course, the Viper, Challenger, Wrangler 4 Door and Grand Cherokee SRT8 are excluded, and I really can't blame Chrysler for doing that.) I really appreciate being included in this offer, and just might take them up on it.

But, a couple of things have come to mind. First, I must like the hybrid or flex-fuel options on any car or truck I choose. My car is five years old, so it has lots of life left. I'm not going to trade my 35 mpg small car for a Charger, as much as I want one.

The bigger question, though, is in the $2.99 gas deal. At first glance, this sounds really cool. The folks at Freakonomics, however, are casting a bit of doubt on the value of this offer. Clearly they didn't have my gas bills when I was commuting to work every day. So, let's do a little math, and then I’d love to hear your opinion.

Aside from writing, I have little to no artistic talent. I can't draw to save my soul and I never really enjoyed art class for that particular reason. However, had I encountered an elephant in my art class, I might have paid more attention.

I found an article in USA Today and subsequently started some Googling on the whole "elephant artist" topic. Not only are they painting a lot, they're painting well.

Turns out, elephants have been showing off their artistic talents for years. Check out this YouTube video of an elephant who does a self-portrait. The video is about 8 minutes long, but totally worth it. Listen to the crowd reaction as they realize what the elephant is painting. The video has captured some 5 million+ views.

The paintings are sold to fund zoos and other conservation efforts. Depending on the animal's popularity or how clear the image is, the paintings can be sold from $25 up to thousands and thousands of dollars. You can also buy paintings by sea lions or chimpanzees. One noted chimp artist, Congo, had his paintings sell 3 years ago for more than $25,000. Maybe I should have paid attention in art class.

Picture this: a bustling mass of nearly 40,000 people at a Tigers game – each one touching railings, seats, wiping away nacho cheese from their mouth, sneezing and dumping drinks down your arm. Ew.

That aside, I *adore* the Tigers, Comerica Park and the whole Tiger game experience. I’ve been to 4 games so far this season and I'm going again tonight to see them stomp the Red Sox (fingers crossed!). I love the game, the crowd, the food and every minute detail associated with attending games. Well, except for the hygiene factor. Oh, and parking. What a pain!

While the city of Detroit's parking woes are a little bit more difficult to solve, Comerica Park has installed contraptions to thwart the excessive germs from fellow fans. Enter Sani-Post! (see lovely photo of said Sani-Post and myself). It's a nifty little kiosk that dispenses antibacterial hand sanitizer without even having to touch anything. It's also an extra bit of ad space for other local businesses. Love multi-tasking.

When I saw it at the last game, I thought it a small, easy addition for any major venue, but a great step for all the people who attend events like Tigers games. A little bit of DIFF, perhaps?

By Jen Romanowski

This afternoon I ran across a post on Twitter that talked about this year's Webby Awards. Being the internet geek that I am, I decided to cruise on over to the Webby Awards website to take a look at this year's Webby Awards winners.

Talk about some amazing websites. There were a number of websites that I knew of and have admired myself.  But there were also websites that I’ve never heard of.  Because we are in the financial industry, I decided to check out some sites that sounded like they might give me some great ideas.

My exploration took me to kiva.org, which won the Webby People's Voice Award for Charitable Organizations.  According to Kiva's about page, their mission is "to connect people through lending for the sake of alleviating poverty."  In other words, this website allows people to loan money to small businesses in developing countries so that the people borrowing can work hard to make something for themselves.

Many of the loan amounts are under a thousand dollars.  And you can lend in $25 increments, so it's your choice if you want to lend a little or a lot.  For each loan there is a percentage tally that shows how much money has been raised for that particular loan.  There is also a journal that will show updates about the loans and the entrepreneurs that are repaying it.

Recently I have heard more and more about social lending, but this social lending network has a socially responsible heart behind it which makes it "The DIFF."