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Letters: The iCloud, green versus green

Marketplace Staff Jun 8, 2011
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Letters: The iCloud, green versus green

Marketplace Staff Jun 8, 2011
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Tess Vigeland: Another Wednesday is upon us, and so time to check the inbox.

Last week, we looked at the conflicts that arise between renewable energy activists and conservationists, what happens when a new wind farm might harm fragile ecosystems.

Janine Blaeloch directs the Western Lands Project, a Seattle-based nonprofit, and she says the green versus green debate is a false one.

Janine Blaeloch: The true irony is that the Environmental Protection Agency has identified millions of acres of degraded or contaminated lands suitable for renewable energy development, and there is also a vast potential for distributed solar generation in the built environment — parking lots, commercial and residential rooftops and everywhere one can imagine.

Our story this week about Steve Jobs’ unveiling of Apple’s new iCloud, which lets you store music and other data online and sync among your devices, drew a response from Ryan Ver Berkmoes of Portland, Ore. He didn’t think we made a big enough deal of it.

Ryan Ver Berkmoes: Today’s announcements could change the next 10 years of computing in the same fundamental way the iPod changed everything during the past decade when it was introduced 10 years ago. It’s a huge deal, and suggesting Apple might be off its game because of Jobs’ illness shows you missed the entire story.

And our segment on how marketers track shoppers’ eye movements to see what draws their attention got the attention of Peggy Kocoras of Wheelwright, Mass. She says she often has other things on her mind while browsing grocery aisles.

Peggy Kocoras: I’ll stare, unseeing, at a product or hold one in my hand while I’m making computations in my head or thinking about whether I really would use or eat this product. I might even be trying to remember whether I fed the cat before I left home. Studies like this aren’t just creepy; they can be downright wrong.

If you’ve been wandering the supermarket aisles, thinking about a story you heard on Marketplace, please write to us. And please, don’t forget to feed the cat.

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