Robert Paterson's Weblog

Wiki Night at the Commons Tonight

Want to know how Wiki's work and how to use them?
Alex O'Neill will teach us at 6pm tonight at the Commons - 224 Queen Street

This is an open meeting so if you are interested in either Wikis or the Commons please drop by

Business & the Natural Step - My Fall Course at UPEI

Here is the link to my next course at UPEI this fall. The Course material opens as follows:

The Natural Step – Reconciling the Economy and the Planet

“The most promising faith for the future might be based on the realization that the entire universe is a system related by common laws and that it makes no sense to impose our dreams and desires on nature without taking them into account”
“Flow”, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

Introduction – Seeing our problems through a different lens
This course is about hope. It is about how each of us can take steps to shift the mindset that supports our view of the human economy so that business can become an agent of environmental regeneration and renewal.

You will learn about a set of principles called “The Natural Step”. Originally developed in Sweden, The Natural Step is now a global movement. Its value is that The Natural Step is inclusive. It does not preach nor does it tell you what to do. It asks you to look more deeply at how you interact with the planet leaving you to decide how to take your own steps to make your own life and the life systems of the planet better.

While simple, the Natural Step requires you to use a different lens or perspective which may be hard at first. It is like seeing the two women in this picture for the first time. You may struggle for a while to see the other woman, but once you see her you always will.

Why is having a new perspective important?

Few of us deny that we are in the midst of a growing environmental crisis. The 1990’s have been the warmest decade in recorded history. The wild fishery is under threat. Western agriculture is in economic and environmental turmoil. Supplies of fresh water are reaching their limits. Ice caps are melting. But just as our situation is becoming so obvious, we cannot agree on a solution.

The apparent success of our mindset about resources and business, has reinforced our assumptions that humanity has “Progressed” beyond the confines of the laws and processes of nature. Our “Progress” model has triumphantly overwhelmed cultures that maintained a connection to nature and has proved them “Wrong”. So when we sit down at Kyoto to discuss the environment, the debate is framed as a choice is between jobs or the planet. The protagonists each see the other as the “enemy”. The result is that we are trapped in conflict. Each side blames the other  and we muddle on, hoping that somehow “technology” will come up with the answer.

The Natural Step offers you a new lens to see yourself and the planet. By shifting your perspective, it will take your focus from the leaves of the trees, where disagreement is inevitable, to the roots where we can all find a common cause. Not only will it help you find this new common ground but The Natural Step provides you with a related set of diagnostic tools to help you make better decisions.

Our course will expose you not only to the theory but also to a number of case studies that will show how it has been applied.

How to Podcast form Typepad

Well blow me down - I ask the Guys at Typepad for some help and ONE Day later this is on their site!

More comment on CBC

From Alan

...... Are we starving an elephant in a foolish attempt to make it a fox or are we actually witnessing the glorious changing course to a better new horizon. I get the sense neither - I sense that we are watching another wave of management consultancy in action, short-term thinking and no big idea at the end of it. Propping of one sort or another by any other name. Drifting.

From Craig on CBC and Alan

Al was up early and was musing about the CBC lock out. His comments are reflective and show some insight into a changing media landscape. The absence of the CBC has been, for me, much like the absence of hockey. Yawn, no real concern to me.

Oh, for sure my old habits have changed. I no longer hear Karen Mair over coffee (and I miss her) and I no longer nod off to nap in front of the TV watching the local edition of Canada Now. This was the limit of my exposure to CBC. The radio is on during the day at my home, to give the canine occupants a voice to listen to, but they have been uncomplaining regarding the changes.

For some time now, I have not depended on the CBC for any meaningful information and have relied on other sources for entertainment. Using the term entertainment in the same sentence as CBC seems oxymoronic. For entertainment I look and listen elsewhere.

As I know some of the good people who work (or have worked) at the CBC, I have long suspected that the programming quality, unsettled moral and weird decisions flow from the top and have nothing to do with the dedicated and hardworking people who toil on the front line. I want to love the CBC; it seems like the Canadian thing to do - but I just can’t. They started to lose me a long time ago, and now my listening and viewing habits have changed. I don’t think they will get me back.

I wonder if I am alone.

CBC Unplugged - A Site where CBC Reporters will be Podcasting

Thanks to Peter a link to CBC Unplugged where CBC Staffers plan to Podcast. They start with a show from Fredericton taking about their side of the lock out

Maybe there is a silver lining here - When the lockout is over CBC staffers will have embraced the new technology and will transform CBC into more of a community organization.

What will that mean? Who knows?

More on the Future of CBC

Here is a great article (thanks Harold) on where the CBC should go - full tilt into openess and community after the lock out.

Among the components that comprise the mandate of the CBC are the need to reach from the most densely populated urban areas all the way to the remote Arctic wilderness - from sea to sea to sea throughout this vast land, as they say. There is the need to promote, preserve and protect Canadian culture, and to help define that often undefinable and inexpressible notion to ourselves. And certainly, CBC tells us our own stories, from Roch Carrier's classic icon, The Sweater, to Colm Feore's portrayal of Pierre Elliott Trudeau. And where else would Tommy Douglas be recognized as The Greatest Canadian?

But under conditions of instantaneous communication, consumers of culture become producers of culture, and collaborative producers at that. This suggests that for the CBC to fulfil its mandate of promoting and preserving Canadian culture, it should become the vehicle through which we tell our stories to ourselves. As I describe in far greater detail, "the [dominant] cultural artefacts of our time are experiential in nature and create a unique form of narrative by which we are telling our stories to ourselves."

When CBC reopens for business, it should, like the BBC, open its archives and make its footage available to Canadians (and others citizens of the global village) for the express purpose of remixing and remaking our stories. It should foster participatory culture, whereby Canadian's stories, made and told by ordinary Canadians, are made available throughout the land - from sea to sea to sea - as well as throughout the world, since contemporary Canadian culture is inherently métissage:

More from me and a few folks next week as we set up an experiment in such a way

Love - A New Disease - Thank God the Drug Companies have a Drug to Cure It

Doctors from the University of Allopath have announced that Love is a disease. It is characterized by abnormal heart rhythms, sweating, impaired brain function, incoherent speech patterns and loss of sleep, among other signs. Thanks to this pioneering work from researchers sponsored by the leading drug firm Pferck, researchers have learned that love is a common biochemical disorder affecting both men and women of all ages.

Fortunately, it is treatable with prescription drugs. A new drug, Miserexa, combines beta blockers and antidepressants to alleviate the symptoms of Love. This drug slows the heart and helps patients feel detached from reality, counteracting the unhealthy neediness of Love.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the new drug this week. In a press conference, chief FDA drug approval scientist Dr. B. Fuddle said, "We are declaring war on Love, and doing everything in our power to eradicate Love from the world."

The market for Miserexa is expected to reach six billion dollars annually. "Love has reached epidemic proportions," explained a public relations representative of Pferk. "If we do not act immediately to thwart the spread of this disease, Love will run rampant, and we will be facing an epidemic of Love in the world."

If you need to know more about this disease and how Miserexa can help you follow this link

If you can think of any conditions that could be restated as a disease call the guys at your friendly global Pharma company.

What would owning a car be like if it was made by a drug company?

I found this on one of Robin's favorite sites, Dr Joseph Mercola

15 Ways the Auto Industry Would Change if it Operated Like Drug Companies

Automobile By Mike Adams, The Health Ranger

What would happen if you had to buy your car from a company that operated in the same way as the pharmaceutical industries? Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, came up with 15 unsettling changes that would occur.

Cost
Your car would cost $4.5 million, a 30,000 percent markup over cost. The same car would be available in Canada or Mexico for less than $5,000.

Dealing with Competition
Meanwhile, automakers would be lobbying Congress to outlaw bicycles and airplanes, just as the drug companies try to do with herbs and nutritional supplements.

All auto imports would be banned. If you drove a Toyota down from Canada, you would be arrested.

Car dealers would be bribed with money, free vacations, free food, and free cars by automobile sales representatives to push certain cars.

Safety
Cars with no seatbelts, airbags, crumple zones, or other safety systems would be declared perfectly safe by the FDA, which would instead focus on the dangers of bicycles.

Driver's ed programs would be cancelled nationwide, and people would be encouraged to buy new cars rather than repair damaged ones or avoid accidents in the first place.

Safety tests showing that cars were dangerous would be buried, and scientists who produced such results would be prevented from ever conducting car safety tests ever again.

After being sued by customers injured in the cars with no safety systems, automakers would further lobby Congress to pass laws protecting car companies against class-action lawsuits.

Any federally mandated warnings about car safety problems would be printed in small type on a tiny label hidden under the driver's seat.

Driving certain cars would cause side effects like loss of sex drive or full-body muscle pain.

Advertising
Car companies would heavily promote new models each year, which would be no different from the ones they were selling 30 years ago.

Car companies would invent reasons for you to buy a dozen or more cars.

Automobile advertising would be filled with pictures of happy, healthy, energetic drivers, but the cars would break down constantly, fail to perform as promised, and quickly stop working.

Cars would be sold to you with extra features like a sunroof, air conditioning, or a navigational system, but when the car arrived none of these features would be included, just as drug companies exaggerate the "multiple health benefits" of their products.

No guesses as to why Robin thinks highly of Dr Mercola

CBC - A Podcast Alternative? - Needed a few good men and women podcasters

I hate being in the CBC desert and miss good talk radio

I am drowning in work this week but here is a plan for next week if the lock out continues.

I will set up a Typepad site as a CBC Alternative. I am less than neophyte so I will start with text in the hope that I can stimulate you to join me as podcasters or fellow text contributors. How Typepad works is that you need to send me an email to enable me to let you become a contributor.

If you would like to join me in this - please email me at robatrenewdotcom. Tell me a bit about your self and what you would like to focus on.

I envisage some areas such as:

• Editorials on local, Canadian and World events
• Politics - local, national and International news and commentary
• A visual art review section on movies, theatre etc
• A music section reviewing what is going on at the end of the summer
• A local news section - what is going on in your neighborhood the BBC covers the world better than we will be able to
• Sports local, Canadian and International - now this is an area where I have less than no competence - Alan???
• Food and Drink (beer Alan)
• Gossip - now we will have to be a bit careful here
• Travel - the end of summer and looking ahead to winter!!!!
• Fashion - another blank for me

I am sure I have left out all sorts of good stuff - help me here.

I also see lots of links back to your sites and to related content. This is not the CBC - nor is it a substitute but maybe it is an easy start to a community news service. The lock out maybe has just provided us with the catalytic moment to begin. Who knows where this may go?

Podcast Test 2 - even more silly than 1

Just trying!