Monthly Archives: July 2005

Can We Make the Gift Economy Work?

Posted on July 31, 2005 by Dave Pollard

Readers know I’m an advocate of the Gift (or ‘Generosity’) Economy as a replacement for the Market Economy. Where the Market Economy tends to concentrate wealth, rewards distortion and abuse by the rich and powerful, is predicated on self-interest and … Continue reading →

Posted in Preparing for Civilization's End | 3 Comments

Saturday Reading: The Top 7

Posted on July 30, 2005 by Dave Pollard

“You’ve got to find out what you love”: Steve Jobs’ convocation address at Stanford consists entirely of three stories. Read it to find out why he dropped out of college, why he was fired from Apple, how he was diagnosed … Continue reading →

Posted in Our Culture / Ourselves | 5 Comments

Hygiene Hysteria

Posted on July 29, 2005 by Dave Pollard

You can understand the current obsession with hygiene. SARS, Avian Flu, Mad Cow and other scary new communicable diseases. Advertisers terrifying us with microscopic close-ups of bacteria and viruses to hawk their latest poisons and prophylactics. Wackos putting anthrax in … Continue reading →

Posted in Our Culture / Ourselves | 1 Comment

GlobalCorp Annual Report: Management Discussion & Analysis

Posted on July 28, 2005 by Dave Pollard

What would happen if a single corporate consortium — let’s call it ‘GlobalCorp’ — achieved its ultimate goal: a ‘corner’ on every business (including the underground economy) everywhere in the world? This would be totally consistent with the mandate of … Continue reading →

Posted in How the World Really Works | 1 Comment

Message from a Mushroom

Posted on July 27, 2005 by Dave Pollard

(This meditation came to me in the moments between sleep and awakening this morning. I was not smoking any mushrooms at the time.)Good morning, Dave, and any other humans who are reading this message. It will be interesting to see … Continue reading →

Posted in Creative Works | 6 Comments

Greenwashing

Posted on July 26, 2005 by Dave Pollard

Open any progressive newspaper or magazine these days and you’re likely to see a barrage of advertisements for some of the most socially and environmentally irresponsible and destructive corporations on the planet, extolling their own virtues in carefully contrived hard-sells … Continue reading →

Posted in How the World Really Works | 6 Comments

Freakonomics and Complexity

Posted on July 25, 2005 by Dave Pollard

The best-seller Freakonomics by economist Steven Levitt and journalist Stephen Dubner never mentions the word “complexity” in its 200+ pages of entertaining correlation analysis, but at its heart it is a book about complex adaptive systems, and about the consequences … Continue reading →

Posted in Our Culture / Ourselves | 10 Comments

A New Model to Improve Social Network Mapping

Posted on July 24, 2005 by Dave Pollard

I‘ve been thinking a lot lately about communities, in the social networking, intentional community and business sense. I was struggling to come up with a model that integrates all these types of communities, and I realized that I would have … Continue reading →

Posted in Our Culture / Ourselves, Using Weblogs and Technology | 5 Comments

A Saturday Bumper Crop

Posted on July 23, 2005 by Dave Pollard

Regular readers know that Saturday is Links day here at How to Save the World, and this past week has been a busy one. I’ve tried to organize them a bit to make your bookmarking easier: Oil Industry Misdeeds: Exxpose … Continue reading →

Posted in Our Culture / Ourselves | 9 Comments

Lawn, Yawn

Posted on July 22, 2005 by Dave Pollard

Yes, I know, there’s nothing more boring than lawn care, but here’s how to do it easily and in an environmentally friendly way. Earlier this week a group of students from Caledon Countryside Alliance came to our house, thanks to … Continue reading →

Posted in Preparing for Civilization's End | 12 Comments