Dave Pollard's environmental philosophy, creative works, business papers and essays. In search of a better way to live and make a living, and a better understanding of how the world really works.
Photo taken inside the Collingwood Caves during our visit last month.
Introducing the Sunday Open Thread:
I'm learning to say no.
Recently it's become obvious to me that, with my current work contract
taking up my full time on weekdays, I can't expect to keep up with my
daily blogging and the communications that stem from it. Something's
gotta give.
So I've decided that I will stop researching and blogging articles for Sunday publication. Instead, on Sundays I'm just going to offer an open thread where readers can:
Tell me what's keeping them awake at night
Tell me what they'd like me to write about on the blog Monday to Friday (Saturday will continue to be 'links of the week' day)
Respond to any thoughts and questions I've posted to start the Open Thread
Engage in conversations with other readers
Anything else you damned well feel like doing with it
I will, most Sundays, talk briefly
about what I'm doing, and what's keeping me awake at night, and some of
the questions I'm struggling with and things I'm thinking about writing
about, to provoke the open thread conversation but not limit it.
This
will allow me to spend Sundays catching up on e-mails (as I've done
today) and/or comments on my recent blog posts (which I promise to do
on future Sundays). I've discovered that when I do that, my blog's
readership jumps. And since I was weeks behind in e-mails (and still am
weeks behind in blog comments responses), I've noticed that readership
lately has fallen off considerably. Besides, several readers have said
I write too much anyway so one fewer article a week may help them keep
up.
What's Keeping Me Awake Now:
What's
keeping me awake right now is not having anything terribly new to say
about social networking in my upcoming presentations, and still not
having any great answers on how we can create ways in this complex
world to find the people we want to work with, love, and make common
cause with. There have to be some more innovative ways to find the
'right' people!
Where I'll Be and What I'm Doing:
I'll be in San Jose at the KM World
conference next week (Oct. 31 - Nov. 2), talking about Adding Meaning
and Value to Information, and about the Future of Knowledge Management.
And I'll be in London at the Online Information conference (Nov. 29 - Dec. 2), talking about Social Networking and, at a Knowledge Cafe, about Personal Knowledge Management. Hope to see some of you there!
I'm
working on a set of principles for Knowledge Management that can be
used by organizations that have no full-time, ongoing KM function of
their own -- so in the design of websites, community spaces and other
repositories and portals, and in developing learning materials for
these resources, they can avoid some of the major KM landmines even if
they don't have a KM resource on board.
And tomorrow I'm the
host for the weekly Carnival of the Green. Stay tuned for a great
multi-authored summary of the week's news and ideas on the environment
and sustainability.
OK, the comments thread is yours. Tell me what's on your mind and, at least by next Sunday, I'll respond.
Hummingbirds flock to a hand-feeder, from Cute Overload.
Peak Oil Video: A one-hour documentary by Ronan Doyle explains our civilization's total dependence on oil and how reaching production capacity will inevitably precipitate catastrophe and decline. Thanks to Peter at Karavans for the link.
Real Story of What's Happening in Iraq: Another one-hour documentary, this one by the British Channel4, shows footage of the carnage and anarchy in Iraq that you'll never see on the Mainstream Media, and explains why you'll never see it.
Mutual Funds for Democrats: The Blue Fund lets Americans invest their money in companies that support progressive values and support Democratic Party candidates.
Olbermann on Bush's New Foreigner Indefinite Detention and Torture Without Charge Law: The MSNBC renegade identifies the new Military Commissions Act as the beginning of the end of America. Thanks to Dale Asberry for the link, and the one that follows.
The Connection Between Diet and Anti-Social Behaviour:
If it wasn't bad enough that the malnutrition caused by our poor modern
diet causes chronic physical illness (and especially auto-immune
diseases), now there's evidence that it also causes extreme
anti-social, criminal behaviour. Specifically, there is a near-perfect correlation between the ratio of Omega-6 to Omega-3 in the average diet and the murder and depression rates of people consuming that diet.
Imagining a World Without Water:
An article by Michael Specter in The New Yorker (not online but an
interview about it is) explains why our political and economic systems are causing catastrophic waste of water at an unsustainable level, and how the burden of that waste is being borne, as always, by the world's poor.
MADE IN CANADA
trust your
instincts 
