Monthly Archives: February 2004

THE POETRY OF ICE AND SNOW

Lately I’ve been re-reading TS Eliot’s Four Quartets, surely one of the finest works of the 20th century, and started looking at some blogs that include original poetry. Here’s a sampling of some poetry I’ve found that I especially like. … Continue reading

Posted in Our Culture / Ourselves | 6 Comments

CORPORATIONS VS. PEOPLE — A SPLIT DECISION

Three more recent articles feature corporations acting in their own self-interest, and against the interests of their employees and customers. Two of the articles are about offshoring — where the corporations seem destined to ‘win’, and workers worldwide will lose: … Continue reading

Posted in How the World Really Works | 13 Comments

THE BEST GAME IN THE WORLD

I‘ve always been a game player — cards, pool, board games, and outdoor games and sports. For me, it’s not about competition, or winning. It’s about playing. The attributes of the best games are: Simplicity — I don’t want to … Continue reading

Posted in Our Culture / Ourselves | 14 Comments

PERSONAL CONTENT MANAGEMENT: AN EXPLORATION

In a recent post I advocated almost a complete replacement of existing knowledge management systems and intranets with a three-tiered set of simple, intuitive tools consisting of: Personal content management tools — to help people organize their personal information (and … Continue reading

Posted in Working Smarter | 9 Comments

WINTER WORLD

Winter World, the latest book by Bernd Heinrich, whose books Mind of the Raven and Why We Run I’ve reviewed before, is not as ambitious nor as eye-opening as his previous works, which focused on animal intelligence, endurance and sensitivity. … Continue reading

Posted in Collapse Watch, Our Culture / Ourselves | 2 Comments

WE ARE EACH OUR OWN CULTURE

As I was reading Edward Hall’s The Hidden Dimension I began to realize how staggeringly differently each of us perceives the world. Hall speaks mostly about differences in perception between six different human ‘cultures’ — the Germans, French, British, Americans, … Continue reading

Posted in Our Culture / Ourselves | 13 Comments

VITAL SIGNS

I‘ve been a reader of the Worldwatch Institute’s annual State of the World report for many years. I just discovered that, in between, they publish a report called Vital Signs: Trends That Are Shaping Our Future. The latest edition has … Continue reading

Posted in Collapse Watch | 3 Comments

REPLACING PAPER

For the second time in a month, we have a new innovation designed to replace paper. Two weeks ago I wrote about Toshiba’s new erasable paper. And yesterday, the Washington Post described the steps several organizations, led by Xerox spinoff … Continue reading

Posted in Our Culture / Ourselves | 2 Comments

THE OIL WE EAT

An article by Richard Manning entitled ‘The Oil We Eat’ in the February Harper’s Magazine (not available online) bolsters the case I made in my post earlier today about the connection between overpopulation, biodegradation, pollution, war, violence, mental illness, loss … Continue reading

Posted in Collapse Watch | 3 Comments

MORE UNPALATABLE THOUGHTS ON OVERPOPULATION

In The Hidden Dimension, his dated (1969) but thoroughly researched breakthrough study of the field of proxemics, Edward Hall provides lots of food for thought for environmentalists and architects. Proxemics is the study of space (here on Earth not out … Continue reading

Posted in Collapse Watch | 5 Comments