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The increasingly inaccurately-named blog of journalist and futurist Chris Taylor. Either the most sporadically brilliant amateur blog, the most brilliantly amateur sporadic blog, or the most amateur sporadic brilliance on the Web since 2001.
Oh My God, the RSS Feed Actually Works!
Daily Blah FAQ
Who are you?
I'm the newly-appointed Future editor at Business 2.0 and the former San Francisco correspondent for Time Magazine.
Wow, so does this mean everything you write reflects Time Inc's opinion? Or do you perhaps have some sort of standard disclaimer to the effect that it doesn't?
Naturally, the opinions contained in this blog are not those of my employers. In fact, some opinions may be the polar opposite of my employers. Some may be the same, for all I know. Hey, it's not like I ask my employers their opinions about everything in the news, okay? Let's just say that if this were a Venn diagram with one circle marked "my opinions" and the other one marked "my employers' opinions", there would doubtless be some overlap. But neither I nor my employers are able to pinpoint exactly where that overlap is.
What is this Daily Blah thing?
An experiment for a column I wrote about blogging back in December 2001. All these years later, I haven't been able to kick the habit.
Do you write any other blogs, by chance? Could that have something to do with the fact that Daily Blah isn't always Daily?
Yes -- the Future Boy blog for Business 2.0. And yes. If you want true, editorially-mandated daily coverage from me, that's probably the best place to look.
Mister, you talk funny. Are you one of them furrners?
Why yes I am, as it happens. I was born, raised and educated in Great Britain. I've been living in the U.S. since 1996 and identify as British.
I say, old chap, you forgot the "u" in "colour."
No I didn't. I may identify as British, but I am also an American journalist writing for an American audience about mostly American issues. These two different sides of me are a constant source of tension. Nevertheless, Daily Blah will adhere to American English grammar and spelling.
Praise for Daily Blah:
"It is fun to watch the author's navel-gazing joy." - Sunday Times (UK)
"It's really funny and informative." - Dave Eggers, author
"The Blah is becoming a daily destination for me." - Richard Marsh, Playwright
"I like it, and I don't." - Fiona Hogg, Teacher
"Better than Xanax." - Lessley Andersen, journalist
"Dude, lay off the crack pipe." - Souris Hong-Porretta, gamesmith
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Daily Blah for... Monday, April 28, 2008
The Road to Ecotopia
A thought-provoking set of articles and essays in Forbes on one of my favorite topics: Modern Utopias. The first, Ecotopia, is required reading, a great little piece of reporting on one of those under-the-radar trends. The others you can take or leave. From Ecotopia:
The academics and organizations who track "intentional communities" today--a tricky task, given that some don't want to be found--say the U.S. and other Western countries have been experiencing a wave of community-forming since the mid 1990s. Saving the planet has replaced godly fervor and free love as the driving emotional force.
Fantastic! Lead me to these Edens where you can hold your head up high and say you're really doing something about global warming. (thanks to the Internet, now you can work a regular knowledge job from whereever you are, phone in ear, laptop to hand, at the same time as you bring in the harvest.)
Only one problem -- this website, the Fellowship of Intentional Community's tracking portal, supposedly the best way to get to your local Ecotopia. It's a poorly-designed mish-mash of self-promotional materials, with a confusing directory. I found 200 Ecotopias in California, in this unhelpful close-typed list. How about a search by zip code? And while we're at it, where is the online community? Wither user comments and ratings on each community? Seems to me, Ecotopia could use more than a little Web 2.0.
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