Wow! I was impressed by Dr. Li's discovery of the adhesive (I've repeated the part about the mussels over and over - so great), but this, too, sounds like a game changer. Hey City Club - how about hosting Dr. Li? Hey Portland Magazine, here's someone I'd want to have at a dinner party. Hey OSU - congrats to you (we know discovery takes a village). And Dr. Li, nicely done. How do we help you take another leap?

Harley Shaiken would be a good choice for Secretary of Labor. He is fair-minded, well-respected, and (most importantly) has the intellectual heft to join the Economic Team (it would be a real tragedy if the Labor Secretary were not on the Economic Team). He needs a qualified deputy to carry the water on the cardcheck rule (especially if that is an early agenda item), so that he can engage on major crisis and transformation issues (like the credit market's impact on work, jobs, even college access; making an energy/transport jobs agenda real on the ground (in communities); and helping people, firms, and communities understand and navigate the kinds of (structural) economic shifts that have been long in coming and jarring in impact. These are serious issues that demand the attention of serious people.

Indeed, what grand (and necessary) experiment. In the spirit of "we are the leaders we've been waiting for", I would hope that these conversations are as much about what we can do as citizens, workers, bosses, parents, community members, etc. as about our expectations for the incoming administration and federal government. We need good government as a partner. We don't expect miracles, but we're happy to help make a few.