Dave

Certain brands polarise opinions and play on this to increase their profile, the best example being Marmite. Other brands and products simply end up down a cul-de-sac where they are talking to the converts and the rest of the world seems perfectly happy to leave them to it. A little like the Star Trek franchise, having boldy gone where it had in the sixties, it limped on to a series of geriatric powered movies in the 1980s before entrusting the helm of the Enterprise to bluff Yorkshireman Patrick Stewart. The spin offs went into hyperspace and everyone except the die hard trekkies lost interest.

Until Stardate 2009, when Lost creater JJ Abrams reignites the franchise. The new film is exactly what was needed to make Star Trek relevant and contemporary. Instead of pushing further into the future, the new film goes back to the start, strips away the preconceptions and begins to build the story afresh, imagining the young crew and their first meeting, and wrapping it all around the best action in a movie so far this year. I could say something poor like - ‘boldy go and see it’ - but I won’t.

Oliver James’s thesis on where we all went wrong has been around since 2007, but its subject matter has taken a far greater significance in the last 6 months – in the face of economic meltdown, spiralling rates of anxiety and some pretty damning reports of UK society at large. Which is why it’s worth a read, or a re-read – because if you want some thought provoking stuff on how we got into the economic mess and emotionally dislocated societies, that we’re in today, then this is a good place to start

Whilst we’re not
a.    not qualified psychologists to comment on the methodology and observations,   
and
b.    not in unanimous agreement with all his points of view, that can descend into rants

This is a fascinating insight into mindset that is ‘affluenza’, those who have affluenza, the type of cultures it thrives in, and some lessons on where in the world it’s not and why.

James finishes his thesis with some ideas of how to rid ourselves of affluenza – which gives some great food for thought on a changing world for marketers out there..

James finishes his thesis with some ideas of how to rid ourselves of affluenza – offering great food for thought for anyone in the marketing industry.  After all, if we can see where it all went a bit wrong, then it’s much easier to sort it out…

At the end of last year, Intelligent Life wrote that we’re living in an age of ‘mass intelligence’
and the appearance of websites like arts and letters daily would add to the evidence that we are.
Well worth a look for suitably high-minded point of view on today, and great links to global news and opinion.

http://www.aldaily.com/

The optimist’s view of a changing world

Whilst we at Dave are a pretty optimistic lot anyway, even we’ve found the never-ending bad news stories hard going. That’s why we’re recommending The Optimist
It may sometimes err on the side of twee, but it makes a good, good-news start to the day… 
Add it to your favourites now:  http://www.optimistworld.com/

The School of Life

Where do you go to answer the big questions? Like, what’s the meaning of life? Why are relationships so complicated? How do you create a work, life balance? Welcome to the School of Life, where you can learn good ideas for everyday living.

These interesting thinkers from the world of art, acting and academia explore and expand your mind, body and spirit with subjects ranging from philosophy to literature and psychology to the visual arts.
In these times of uncertainty and change, it seems essential that we all evolve our knowledge on how to live a better life. Let’s get enlightened.

School of life bloghttp://www.theschooloflife.com

Linefeed is graphic designer Michael Bojkowski's website. Not only a blog, it is also a gathering of all the social networks he subscribes to in one place – 30 in total! – consequently establishing an online persona through all his entries.

So what do we know about him? He's a rodent-looking avatar who wakes up listening to OMD's "souvenir" at 6am, hates remakes and spent a week-long eating soup back in January. They way forward to establish a profile within the cyber community.