Monthly Archives: April 2005

Seven Useful Resources

Epidemic News: ProMED provides up-to-the-minute news on epidemics around the world. When the legacy media stop covering the Marburg outbreak in Angola because there’s nothing “exciting” new to report, this site keeps covering the story. No film, no heart-rending stories, … Continue reading

Posted in Our Culture / Ourselves | 4 Comments

Straw Dogs and Robinson Jeffers

Perhaps once a year I discover a book so remarkable that I end up highlighting passages on every page. I’m just reading one such book now, Straw Dogs, by London School of Economics professor John Gray, which I will present … Continue reading

Posted in Our Culture / Ourselves | 3 Comments

Man, Bytes, Dog, by James Gorman

(Posted from Montreal) The following essay, gently poking fun at technology, was written over twenty years ago. It is still one of the funniest pieces of work I have ever read, and the profusion of new technology in the intervening … Continue reading

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Dave Gets Stoned

I had barely finished writing and posting yesterday’s article about making time for Important things instead of just the Urgent, when something Really Urgent came up. I started passing a couple of kidney stones. Thanks to neighbour Doug I was … Continue reading

Posted in Our Culture / Ourselves | 14 Comments

What Would You Do If You Had More ‘Free’ Time?: A Quiz With No Wrong Answers

This will drive my fellow procrastinators wild, but here goes: If you had more free time you would spend it doing the following (check all that apply): Helping Others: Working with elder or handicapped neighbours, cleaning up the neighbourhood, working … Continue reading

Posted in Working Smarter | 2 Comments

Generosity is Not the Same as Charity

The Idea: The Gift Economy is built on generosity, not charity. But we live in such a complex and unnatural world that we really have to pay attention to understand the crucial difference. Do you cringe when you see those … Continue reading

Posted in Collapse Watch | 7 Comments

The Continuous Environmental Scan: Where Do You Get All Your Ideas?

The Idea: A nine-step process for setting up a Continuous Environmental Scan in your organization, or just for your own use. In their book Jumping the Curve, Imperato & Harari introduce the concept of a Continuous Environmental Scan, which is … Continue reading

Posted in Working Smarter | 4 Comments

the visitor

you are an alien from an advanced culture in a faraway galaxy visiting Earth you may not even have to visit corporeally, perhaps you just scan in visually (or using whatever sense you have that is similar to our Earth … Continue reading

Posted in Creative Works | 5 Comments

Dave’s Saturday Links – Seven Interesting Ideas

A few sites with some interesting ideas worth thinking about: Three Principles Behind All Creativity Tools: Directed Creativity suggests that all creativity tools have three underlying concepts: (1) Attention (focusing on things you normally take for granted, (2) Escape (get … Continue reading

Posted in Our Culture / Ourselves | 1 Comment

Renaturalizing Your Community

The Idea: Whether you live in the country or the city there are opportunities to renaturalize your community, and in so doing transform and enrich it ecologically, physically and psychologically. We had the great pleasure this past weekend of a … Continue reading

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