This is the email I received as a follow up to inform us about the full roundup of the day …

Hey bloggers,

You did it!

Yesterday you and bloggers in 155 countries across six continents wrote about a single issue that impacts us all, and turned Blog Action Day 2009 into one of the largest social change events ever held on the web.

Your participation helped change the conversation and showed the power of the web to connect people across the world who despite their varied backgrounds have one shared desire: to make a difference. According to blogpulse, we increased the number of posts about climate change on a given day by 500%, and CNN wrote a great article covering the excitement and diversity of today’s event across the web and around the world.

A full recap is up on our blog, and here are some highlights:

We hit 31,000 total trackable blog posts, and our current estimate is that together we reached at least 17.9 million people yesterday. We just exceeded 13,000 registered bloggers on the site and are working to get all of you who posted but haven’t yet registered into the final count.

We had at least three major world governments as active participants in this year’s event. United Kingdom Prime Minister Gordon Brown posted the first Blog Action Day entry in Britain at the stroke of midnight on the 15th, which was followed by Foreign Minister David Milliband and many others from the UK stationed around the world. The PSOE governing party of Spain hosted a bloggers event focused on climate change and transformed their website for the day to promote Blog Action Day. And late in the day, President Barack Obama’s White House blog joined in become part of the global movement of bloggers shaking the web.

Of course, well-known bloggers were a big presence yesterday as well:

* The Official Google Blog gave a green tour of the company’s campus;
* Mashable asked what you’re doing to reverse climate change;
* The Unofficial Apple Weblog suggested “Five apps to help save the world”;
* Treehugger gave us two simple things that could, by themselves, stop climate change;
* Global Voices posted a roundup of bloggers from around the world writing in many languages;
* Gadling spent the whole day posting about green travel;
* BlogHer covered the road to the next international climate negotations in Copehagen.

There are many more, and we encourage you to check out the Featured Posts on the blogactionday.org homepage for a longer list of some of the world’s largest blogs.

Many of our nonprofit partners, leading organizations from around the world, were also actively involved in making the event a success:

* TckTckTck released a beautiful and touching new video;
* Greenpeace bloggers from around the world joined in;
* World Wildlife Fund featured Blog Action Day on their international climate blog;
* Oxfam helped emphasize the human side of the climate crisis;
* 1Sky wrote about the front lines of political activism in the US;
* The Nature Conservancy helped us understand the science of climate change;
* NRDC’s Switchboard bloggers wrote informative posts all day;
* Consequence wrote a whole series of posts on youth climate leadership.

You should all feel proud of this remarkable collective effort. And it doesn’t have to end today. For many, we hope this serves as an entry point into the broader movement to address the issue of climate change. There are a number of ways and some amazing organizations through which you can continue to remain involved, and we encourage you to check out our Take Action section to learn more.

We will continue providing updates and information about the success of today’s event and ongoing opportunities for involvement–including the the October 24th International Day of Climate Action organized by our friends at 350.org–here in the weeks ahead, and we hope you’ll stay with us.

Thank you so much,

Robin Beck
Lead Organizer
Blog Action Day 2009

Something to be proud of

It is true that starting a blog is not that hard, but the maintenance needs a passion for writing and some spare time on your hands to keep in touch with your friends and readers … I admit that I have been under-performing lately … I just don’t know how time flies … I start my day in the morning and one thing after the other … poof … it is time to go home … how crazy is that??

I have enjoyed my two years of blogging and the most important advantage … besides speaking my mind of course … is meeting all those great people that I miss dearly and haven’t seen in a long time … I am glad that November is coming to an end because it was a crazy month by all means … so many things have happened and now it is time to cool down with December and its Eid, Christmas and holidays …

To all my friends and readers … I love you very very very much and I miss you all

Thank you for keeping up with me

Now please take the poll and send your feedback …

It goes like this:

In 1903, Mary Anderson invented the windshield wipers.
Cleaning Up With Automobile Patents

In an era when women were not even acknowledged in some countries as “persons” and still didn’t have the vote, they managed to get their foot in the door of what is now considered a male domain – that of the automobile.

Way back in 1903, Mary Anderson invented windshield wipers, before Henry Ford ever put a Model T on the road. That’s because Mary had been on a streetcar in New York, and noticed how the driver had to lean out to clean the windows when it was raining. So she created a lever-operated arm that would scrape back and forth across the glass on the outside, while the operator remained dry inside the car. It was a success, and by 1916, all cars would be using the new fangled things to sweep aside the showers. The first automatic windshield wipers were the brainchild of Charlotte Bridgewood, president of her own manufacturing company. Unfortunately, the roller-based gear was not a success but it opened the door for other inventors.

Women took the automobile industry for quite a ride, including Helen Blair Bartlett, a geologist who invented new insulations for spark plugs. Marion Donovan, better known for inventing plastic baby pants to cover cloth diapers, was the first one to install a gimbaled boat ring in her car to hold cups.

And they were just the Jill-Come-Latelys. Because in 1871, Augusta M. Rodgers received a patent for a car heater. [Source]

Now isn’t that refreshing? Can you imagine your car without windshield wipers? or without a heater for that matter? I would confidently say that these were two great additions to an already wonderful creation of human creativity and innovation …

However; this brings something to mind; why don’t we see such great inventions these days? or are we now so used to technology that we don’t notice anymore? Are we lost among all those microchips, computers, software, car brands and blenders that a new comer does not make a bang as its ancestors used to? OR are we just out of good ideas?

What do you think?

The question is however; is this wise?

When emotions get in the way of a professional relationship, the outcome can never be predicted and the reason is that emotions trigger reactions we can never expect and this might hurt both the business and personal relationships you share. If your conflict comes from business related matters, you might not forgive your friend for not favoring you and cutting you some slack and if the conflict is personal, you will start picking on each other at work which will affect both your works and might affect the atmosphere you share at the workplace altogether.

I am not saying that coworkers can never become friends but there is a missing ingredient in such a relationship and that ingredient is moderation and balance. If you know how to be moderate and balanced in the way you feel towards your friend and you know how to separate your professional life from your private life, you might actually get a shot at this. The other important ingredient is for your friend to understand this and be able to do the same, because this is a two way street and as they say; it takes two to make it or break it and you can never work a relationship on his own; a relationship no matter what type, needs a lot of work from all parties involved to maintain and grow it.

In my experience working in different companies and with a wide variety of people, friendship and business do not mix without consequences, and that is why they call it: conflict of interest. In our human nature, we are more likely to practice nepotism and without even noticing that we are doing so. We tend to make us excuses to our friends even if we know that they do not deserve that and sometimes, we might forgive them for mistakes that if done by someone else, they would never get the same feedback or treatment, and the problem is that the more special treatment you show, the more they will demand out of you which eventually leads to a disaster, because then the mistake gets magnified tens of times and the way back is too steep and difficult to walk.

I found out that being friends in the same workplace makes disappointments hurt much worse and reactions become emotional and uncalculated, so the chances are higher that you will end up losing this friend and maybe even consider quitting your job because you cannot handle dealing with this person on daily basis and not being able to talk to them like you used to do. I also found out that if you leave your job at one point, your relationship with your friends become stronger because you do not have to worry about the conflict of interest any more and your friend is just your friend which gives you more freedom to talk and most importantly, your work is not a talking material any more and it is not getting in the way of growing this friendship or nurturing it.

My advice to all of you out there; be careful of this dangerous mixture because the consequences are severe and if you have any doubt in your mind that you both cannot be objective enough to work through this relationship, chances are you are right and you should keep things in a clear perspective so that not to regret later. Life can surprise us and sometimes shock us with things that come from those who are closer to us the most and that’s when it hurts bad and might change your views about friends for good.

So, can coworkers be friends?

I say: probably but not likely!