I have a stack of books I am working my way through this summer, and they are all written by friends. I think this is pretty remarkable actually. From the top down, here is what’s on my reading table: Finding the Sweet Spot by Dave Pollard. This one just arrived this evening, although I read a proof that Dave sent along. It’s typical of his writing, and will be a familiar tome for regular readers of his blog, How To Save The World. The book outlines a path for creating a life of sustainable work and enterprise using …
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I awoke this morning and read two scary articles courtesy of the terror of my RSS feeder. First, Dave Pollard counted down the order in which his domino theory of outright planetary collapse may unfold. Then, I read Andrew Simms article on why we only have 100 months left before reaching the tipping point for runaway climate change. Neither of these scenarios are unfamiliar me, but something about waking up this morning and reading them straight off got my attention. I started thinking about what to do and started reflecting on some of the things that I …
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In a post on reviewing academic articles, I was really struck by the way academics deal with surprises. Yes, I regularly check (some) references. If the author of a (history) paper I am refereeing makes a surprising claim – e.g., something that if true I might reasonably be expected to have encountered before, not just something I know FA about – I almost instinctively check to see what his/her source is, and if it’s something I have readily to hand, may actually go to the text to see if it supports what the author concluded. Usually it does, and I’ve …
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The Next Starbucks is an article in Architect Magazine that has several architects envision the coffee shp of the future. There are some interesting designs here, but my favourite has to be the last one, in which the designers think first about the social nature of the coffee shop and come up with some old patterns for community use: Merging the concept of the flexible, shared workspace with that of communal dining creates a new “third place,” a community kitchen. Anchored by a 60-foot-long wooden harvest table, a kit of parts serving different functions can be freely arranged wherever the …
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Robert Paterson in an article about the future of public radio and the use of technology: In my 2 years of work with stations it is now clear to me that technology is not the barrier to the New Media Reality that we have to reach. There are a number of barriers – none of which are mentioned in the release. A very high barrier is cultural – a 2.0 world cannot be trained for – it has to be lived. There has to be enough people on staff who are digital natives. It is people that will make the …