ARTS, LITERATURE, SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY - TABLE OF CONTENTS

 

UNDERSTANDING OUR CULTURE AND OURSELVES · Writing Better . Conversation, Language, Narrative & Story-Telling · The Arts · Science & Health . Our Culture . Being Human (Psychology etc.) · Miscellany updated Jan. 1, 2007 Writing Better On Writing: The 39 Steps  (February, 2003) Frederick Barthelme's brilliant and hilarious advice for writers Writing Better (March, 2003) eight tips for clearer, more concise non-fiction writing Advice on Writing (June, 2003) Barthelme on writing realistic dialogue, and on good editing The Social Life of Paper (July, 2003) TS Eliot edited by Pound, and why it needed paper Journalism 101 (August, 2003) ten rules for good essay writing Writing Funny (September, 2003) what makes something humorous Speech, Speech (September, 2003) seven elements of a great speech Elmore Leonard's Karen Sisco (October, 2003) hints on writing, and a great new show Poetic Prose (October, 2003) superb writing samples from Fred Barthelme and Paul Robison Orwell on Writing (November, 2003) a labour of less than love The Most Important Books of 2003 (December, 2003) nine worldview-changing works The Poetry of Ice & Snow (February, 2004) six great poets in the blogosphere The Writings of T. Coraghessan Boyle (February, 2004) Publishing Your Own Book (March, 2004)  the ins and outs and options of self-publishing Bird by Bird (August, 2004) Anne Lamott's wise advice for writers Dogs of Babel and Elroy Nights (October, 2004) wonderful new fiction from Carolyn Parkhurst and Fred Barthelme The Writer-Reader Contract (October, 2004) what each side expects and what each side provides The Romance Novel: Literature of Liberation? (February, 2005) an industry where women help other women to succeed, personally and in business, on their own terms Man, Bytes, Dog, by James Gorman (April 29, 2005) #1127 - a 20 year old spoof on technology is still hugely funny On Writing and Teaching Better, and the Colonization of Language (May 9, 2005) #1139 - Derrick Jensen says don't be boring and teach on-to-one The Essential Oscar Wilde (May 28, 2005) #1161 - A score of brilliant quotes from Wilde Encouraging the Young (Jan. 9, 2006) #1400 - Margaret Atwood's new collection of essays on writing, growing up and life The Greatest Passage Ever Written (March 1, 2006) #1452 - My favourite passages, and lots more from readers Just Lovely Writing (April 1, 2006) #1484 - Three remarkable examples of poetry and prose A Scientific Romance (April 12, 2006) #1495 - Ronald Wright's time travel novel is really about global warming Thinking About Poetry (April 18, 2006) #1500 - Jack Gilbert's poetry, dissecting TS Eliot, and the advice of ee cummings For Sale: Baby Shoes. Never Worn. (Oct. 27, 2006) #1687 - A 6-word story contest Conversation, Language, Narrative & Story-Telling Beware: Stories are Subversive (May, 2003) how carefully crafted stories achieve subliminal behaviour change Is the Internet Making Us Anti-Social? (June, 2003) when we start scanning people like we do URLs The Truth About Stories and Our Story (December, 2003) Thomas King explains that stories are all we are, the essence of our culture, and what that means Why Are Our Stories Always About Struggle (April, 2004)  no adversity, no story? A Story is Like a Gift (April, 2004)  the 5 qualities of a good story, and what they impart to the audience That's Not What I Meant (April, 2004)  truths about conversations, and how little we really communicate Comma, Period (May, 2004) what our punctuation rules tell us about our language and culture, and punctuation's dubious future The Knowledge Consultant as Story-Gatherer (July, 2004)  Dave Snowden explains that good business stories are discovered, not invented, and shows how to tell them The Power and Danger of Metaphor (September, 2004)  how rhetoric obfuscates the truth The Truth About Frames and Drug Costs (October, 2004)  stories are the best way to reframe discussions and solve major problems Stories Left & Right (November, 2004)  scripts and frames for stories of various genres, liberal vs conservative The Elements of a Good Story (November, 2004)  the key components, and a ramble on the author's struggle with his novel Telling a Story - With PowerPoint?  (March, 2005)  a new book suggests trading in bullet points for engaging narrative I Don't Think You Get My Point: The 5 Hurdles to Effective Communication (June 20, 2005) #1185 - "The biggest problem with communication is the illusion that it has occurred." Polite Conversation (June 24, 2005) #1190 - An unintended lack of politeness and courtesy seems to characterize most conversations Powerful Presentations (July 4, 2005) #1200 - Tips for great speeches, stories and presentations Ten Steps to a Great Interview (July 5, 2005) #1201 10 Steps to Better Story-Telling (Oct. 6, 2005) #1295 - Practice, honesty and suitability lead the list Language and the 'Otherness' of the Environment (Oct. 26, 2005) #1319 - To get around the limitations of language, use demonstration, the arts and creative linguistics to spread the message How to Unconference (May 2, 2006) #1514 - Seven steps to a self-managed event built around conversation with whom you want about what you want Re-Learning to Listen (June 8, 2006) #1551 - Ten ways to practice listening skills As Long As You Believe It (June 18, 2006) #1562 - Know your stuff, focus on what's really important, really novel or really interesting, and only speak on subjects you care about to audiences you care about What Words Once Meant (July 7, 2006) #1581 - The original etymology of words tells us a lot about our culture and our language Ten Steps to Great Conversations (Sept. 7, 2006) #1636 - And ten reasons people converse "Your Graphic Caught My Attention" (Sept. 18, 2006) #1647 - How visualizations get people's attention; how else could we do this? The Power, and Weakness, of Stories (Nov. 5, 2006) #1693 - They're remarkably effective, but they run the risk that the information will be lost in the entertainment Effective Presentations -- More Than One Way to Impress an Audience (Nov. 15, 2006) #1697 - Ten techniques for those who are not natural presenters

The Arts But Is It Art? (March, 2003) what is and isn't art, and why it's important Five Radical Design Principles (May, 2003) most design is incremental; this is definitely not Why is there No Good Porn? (June, 2003) three reasons, mostly cultural Ten Strange & Wonderful Films (July, 2003) romantic and quirky Stand Still & Look Until You Really See (October, 2003) drawing on the right side of the brain And I'm Left to Conclude There's No Human Answer Near (November, 2003) the music of Bruce Cockburn and the art of Alex Colville Gaping Void (November, 2003) the words & pictures of Hugh MacLeod Favourite Photoblogs (November, 2003) the online artistry of eight photographers Artists Extraordinaire (February, 2004) the work of Chris Ware & Bruno Bozzetto Just for Fun (March, 2004) the art of Mok E-Den & Davezilla, and great classical music online The Great Canadian Song Contest 76 nominees (March, 2004) and the best 15 (May, 2004) four judges vote for the Best Canadian Song of all time (it has to refer at least peripherally to Canada) Favourite Online Radio Stations (May, 2004) Internet Radio has come a long way The Scrapbooking Phenomenon (June, 2004) the photo journal as art form The Aesthetics of Music (September, 2004) trying to understand why animals don't respond to it, and why humans do The Technology in 'The Incredibles' (November, 2004) it raises the possibility of everyone being able to make their own movies How the 'Free' Market Ruins the Entertainment Industry (February, 2005) a lesson in how a bad economic system breeds mediocrity House MD (April, 2005) the best-written television series since Sports Night The Philosophy of Loren Eiseley, in Verse (Dec. 16, 2005) #1375 - My conversion of some of his most moving passages to poetic form Music to My Ears: Melody, Memory and Mathematics (April 21, 2006) #1503 - How software tries to predict what music we'll like, and why it usually fails Romances: More Than Meets the Eye (June 5, 2006) #1548 - Mysogyny in the film industry, and why men don't appreciate stories about small, intimate accomplishments Miniature Truths and the Embracing and Rejection of Complexity (July 14, 2006) #1589 - Art as miniature truth, and while children are born artists, as adults in this terrible world we have to abandon the truth to preserve our sanity and order Comfort Music (July 24, 2006) #1597 - Four kinds of music for dealing with stress, and some examples of each Conflicting Pleasures: Intense vs Sustained, Distilled vs Contextualized (August 24, 2006) #1621 - Wow vs mmmm moments in film, and some of cinema's finest scenes

Science & Health Demon in the Freezer (February, 2003) precis of the startling book on the history of viruses, bacteria and prions Too Good to be True, Yet (April 2003) hydrogen fuel cells Is SARS Darwinian? (April 2003) can we expect more plagues as a result of human overpopulation? Science Shorts (February 2004) animal communication, learning from nature, and erasable paper Winter World (February, 2004) how animals instinctively survive the winter, per Bernd Heinrich New, Deadly, Easily Spread: the Avian Flu (February, 2005) history of a disease, and the futility of fighting it without reforming human behaviour and reducing population The Geese of Beaver Bog (March, 2005) lessons from Bernd Heinrich's latest book Dave Gets Stoned (April 28, 2005) #1126 - we can't expect people living in daily anguish to help us save the world The Wisdom of Patients (and the Right to Self-Treatment) (May 6, 2005) #1136 - Healthcare needs to let patients manage their own health, and share info with other patients 'Skeptical Environmentalists' and the Passion for Junk Science (May 29, 2005) #1162 - How the 'science' behind 'skeptical environmentalists' denial of global warming can be traced to a typo, the rantings of an architect, and the conspiracy theories of Lyndon Larouche Making 'Sense' of Health Care Costs and Other Complex Challenges (May 31, 2005) #1164 - When does the pursuit of 'best practices' make sense, and when do we need to apply less precise but more effective approaches instead? Increased Bird Aggressiveness: Is There Something Ominous Going On? (June 17, 2005) #1182 The Purpose of Life (July 3, 2005) #1199 - The task of regulating Earth's temperature is such a massive and constantly-challenging job that it takes all of us, working together, to succeed at it Hygiene Hysteria (July 29, 2005) #1225 - Some common sense approaches to staying well Consumer Reports' Best Medical Info Website List (August 5, 2005) #1234 Reforming Health Care (Sept. 11, 2005) #1270 - Paying people to be healthy won't work; innovation in prevention, self-treatment and self-diagnosis, addiction therapy and exercise could Making Healthcare Work: Principles, Rules, Actions (Oct. 14, 2005) #1303 - Canadian Mike Rachlis proposes specific, practical, innovative improvements to deal with eight critical health stress-points Preparing for the Flu Pandemic (Oct. 23, 2005) #1316 - What governments and individuals should be doing Health, Education, and Learned Helplessness (Feb. 17, 2006) #1440 - Our utter reliance on others for our education and our health is unwarranted, dangerous, and expensive The Elephant in the Hospital Room (and the Courtroom) (March 3, 2006) #1454 - When will we acknowledge the fact that most illness is neither genetic nor microbial, but caused by man-made poisons? Patient-Centred, Patient-Controlled Health Care: How the System Should Work (Sept. 17, 2006) #1646 - It's time to admit that when it comes to our health, the 'market' doesn't work Self-Experimentation: What the Numbers Say (Sept. 25, 2006) #1654 - My correlations to date suggest what produces well-being in a UC sufferer, and what makes no difference at all Dave's Unconventional Theories (Oct. 6, 2006) #1666 - Why heat makes us creative, fatigues feels good, we eat bad food, smart people procrastinate, teen pregnancy's dropping, tar sands make us sick, and some AIDS victims don't have HIV Talking To Children About Death (Oct. 11, 2006) #1671 - Not easy, but these 10 ideas can help Our Culture On Dreams, Pain & Sex: Darwin Wins Again  (May, 2003) all three phenomena advance survival of the species When is Suicide 'Justified'? (May, 2003) a rant against preaching, projecting and generalizing on this subject Evolution, Cognition & Ideology (May, 2003) some contemporary thinking on these three subjects Ten Things That Don't Make Sense (June, 2003) things that haven't worked for a long time, but which haven't been fixed It's What I Do (August, 2003) what we do for a living defines who we are Seven Deadly Sins (August, 2003) things we can and can't forgive in ourselves and in others Questions the Internet Doesn't Answer (October, 2003) the cause of cruelty and megalomania, and other unanswered questions about human nature Organized Religion, Organized Crime (October, 2003) the scourge of 'big religion' Are You a Closet Canadian? (December, 2003) a survey of diverging cultures - Canada vs US Metamorphosis (December, 2003) The importance of integrity, and how it starts with personal responsibility The End of Work (January, 2004) How a guaranteed annual income could make everyone's life better Malcolm Gladwell on SUVs and Learned Helplessness (January, 2004) how we learn to fear small dangers we cannot control and ignore big ones we can Your Place at the Table (February 2004) how table shape & seating affects social interaction and reflects social position We Are Each Our Own Culture (February, 2004) how we are each much more unique and alone than we might imagine Living Outside Ourselves (February, 2004) remembering who we were until our culture made us like everyone else Why Are Our Stories Always About Struggle (April, 2004)  no adversity, no story? Your Law (April, 2004)  some of the brightest minds of our time pen some 'laws' for today