Monthly Archives: June 2005

The Factor of Four: Preparing Yourself for Economic Meltdown

Posted on June 21, 2005 by Dave Pollard

The cover story of this month’s Atlantic is editor James Fallows’ Countdown to a Meltdown, a look at the implications of reckless Bush-Greenspan economic policies for the next generation. The only thing that isn’t entirely credible to any student of … Continue reading →

Posted in How the World Really Works | 7 Comments

I Don’t Think You Get My Point: The 5 Hurdles to Effective Communication

Posted on June 20, 2005 by Dave Pollard

“The biggest problem with communication is the illusion that it has occurred.” — George Bernard Shaw If Shaw is right, what can we do about it? We spend over half of our working life, and a considerable portion of all … Continue reading →

Posted in Our Culture / Ourselves | 5 Comments

What Should Your Corporate Policy Be On Blogs?

Posted on June 19, 2005 by Dave Pollard

Many corporations, prodded by magazines like BusinessWeek talking up blogs as an important and enduring phenomenon, and by cases where companies have been embarrassed by employee blogs and responded by firing the employee, have been rushing to decide what, if … Continue reading →

Posted in Using Weblogs and Technology, Working Smarter | 2 Comments

Finds of the Week

Posted on June 18, 2005 by Dave Pollard

What Makes a Group Collaborative?: We need a few hundred more responses to this survey before we can derive some meaningful results. If you have a few moments, please participate. Thanks! Young People Changing the World: A group of young … Continue reading →

Posted in Our Culture / Ourselves | 2 Comments

Increased Bird Aggressiveness: Is There Something Ominous Going On?

Posted on June 17, 2005 by Dave Pollard

Perhaps it’s just because I’m paying closer attention, but in the past few months I have observed an alarming number of instances of groups of small birds savagely and relentlessly pursuing and attacking larger birds. The first time I noticed … Continue reading →

Posted in Collapse Watch | 19 Comments

Rescuing Social Networking

Posted on June 16, 2005 by Dave Pollard

Recent reports of the demise of Social Networking Applications (SNAs), voted “technology of the year” by Business 2.0 just two years ago, are increasing. Most recently C|Net’s Molly Wood reported on Five Reasons Social Networking Doesn’t Work. While LinkedIn and … Continue reading →

Posted in Using Weblogs and Technology | 4 Comments

How Bloggers Can Help Defeat Anti-Intellectualism

Posted on June 15, 2005 by Dave Pollard

In this era of anti-intellectualism and learned helplessness, the media, and we in the alternative media, have a responsibility to inform and engage the public on matters that are important and on vanguard thinking about these matters, even if they’re … Continue reading →

Posted in Our Culture / Ourselves | 10 Comments

Four Ideas for Getting Great Little-Known Blogs Discovered

Posted on June 14, 2005 by Dave Pollard

Most bloggers are part of the Long Tail, the 600-foot long gap in the chart above that collectively gets 80% of the roughly 700,000 hours of total blogosphere readership each day, but which individually get miniscule attention. What if you … Continue reading →

Posted in Using Weblogs and Technology | 22 Comments

The Importance of Place

Posted on June 13, 2005 by Dave Pollard

Place, the place we call home, the place we belong to, defines us. When we have lost our sense of place, we have lost our soul. Last Christmas I wrote a piece about homelessness, and suggested that the homeless and … Continue reading →

Posted in Collapse Watch | 9 Comments

Fighting Factory Farms

Posted on June 12, 2005 by Dave Pollard

Several readers were sufficiently shocked by the picture and story of what goes on in Western factory farms to ask “What can we do about it?” Here are some thoughts, and a bunch of useful links to more information: Become … Continue reading →

Posted in How the World Really Works | 8 Comments