Dave Pollard's environmental philosophy, creative works, business papers and essays.

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	May 7, 2003

TO VISITORS FROM DAVID GURTEEN'S KNOWLEDGE LETTER I'd like to thank David Gurteen for mentioning me in his e-newsletter, as over 200 of his readers have visited as a result. I'd appreciate your comments on my weblog or any of its articles. For Knowledge Letter readers who are unfamiliar with 'blogs', you can reply in two ways: by clicking on the 'Comments' button beneath this or any post, or by clicking on the envelope icon in bottom left to send me an e-mail. Welcome! 11:14:33 PM  trackback []  comment []

DANGEROUS MEME #1: TRIBALISM WORKS From Daniel Quinn, Beyond Civilization: If you note that hive life works well for bees, that troop life works well for baboons, or that pack life works well for wolves, you won't be challenged. But if you note that tribal life* works well for humans, don't be surprised if you're attacked with almost hysterical ferocity. Your attackers will never berate you for what you've said but rather for things they think you've said: that tribal life is idyllic or perfect or noble. It doesn't matter that you didn't say these things. Tribal life is not in fact idyllic or perfect or noble. But wherever it's found intact, it's found to be working well - as well as the life of geese or raccoons or lizards - with the result that the members of the tribe are not generally enraged, rebellious, desperate, stressed-out borderline psychotics being torn apart by crime, hatred and violence. What anthropologists find is that tribal people, far from being nobler, sweeter or wiser than us, are as capable of being mean, unkind, short-sighted, selfish, insensitive, stubborn and short-tempered. The tribal culture doesn't turn people into saints. It enables ordinary people to make a living together with a minimum of stress, year after year, generation after generation. {*Definition: A tribe is a self-organized, self-selected non-hierarchical group, each member of which contributes importantly to the group's ability to make a living and takes responsibility for the welfare of the whole tribe. It is not the same as a commune, and does not entail or preclude co-habitation.) 11:02:44 PM  trackback []  comment []

THREE USEFUL TOOLS FOR YOUR BLOG LOCATOR: WHERE IN THE WORLD ARE YOU? In the process of putting together the Salon blog popularity lists , and trying to identify what country and state each blogger was from, I came across GeoURL, a new tool that lets you indicate where you are (rather than where your ISP is), and find other bloggers near you. Here's what my GeoURL Neighbours List looks like. If you want one for yourself, sign up here . The sign-up also helps you find your precise latitude and longitude, useful if, like me, and several other Salon bloggers, you're a stargazer. CALCULATOR: THE REAL COST OF WAR Here's another little tool you can put in your blog to track the up-to-the-minute cost of the Iraq war . Its far more useful feature, however, is a precise calculation of how much of the cost must be borne by each municipality's taxpayers, and what could have been done, in health, education, energy and services, with the money that was squandered. That's the real cost of the war. TRACER: TRACKBACK'S COMING TO RADIO USERLAND In my Salon blog user survey I asked whether people wanted a Trackback feature (essentially like a little beacon you can plant in someone else's blog to notify you when something there changes). Everyone who knew what it was wanted it. It's coming, and will operate just like the Moveable Type Trackback feature. Read all about what it is, when it's coming, and how it will work, here . 8:06:05 AM  trackback []  comment []

© Copyright 2004 Dave Pollard. Last update: 19/02/2004; 2:44:26 PM.