Link Loving 14.01.11

• The protests in Tunis prove effective, but leave 13 people dead
• What you really ought not to reveal on Facebook
• Proof that being human is more important than following corporate protocol
• Big oil companies are worried that they can’t attract bright graduates anymore. Boohoo.
• One of the Ratcliffe defendants speaks out about the collapse of the trial
• A map of London according to support for different football teams? Why not.
• More than 200 miners at a coal mine in southern Kyrgyzstan have begun a hunger strike to protest the replacement of the mining company’s director
• ‘I love charts, because charts rule’ – the new ‘best video ever’

Creative Protest – The Björk Way

It’s been a week since Björk launched her three-day karaoke marathon protest against the takeover of an energy firm that would effectively sell-off one of Iceland’s main natural resources. According to AFP, Bjork was joined by “the captain of the Icelandic handball team, a 70-year-old environmental campaigner and… the comedian-turned-mayor of Iceland’s capital Reykjavik.”

I love Iceland. (And not just for it’s Eurovision entries.)

Link Loving 13.01.11

• Malcolm Gladwell tells us to embrace chaos
• The evolution of alphabets – the human mind is awesome
• The earthquakes of 2010, and a reminder that the death toll in Haiti was down not by the scale of the Earth’s unleashed fury, but by overcrowding in poor urban areas and lax or poorly enforced building codes
• Do we have Ahmadinejad all wrong?
• Some more predictions for 2011, this time from Lawrence Haddad, Director of the Institute of Development Studies
• And if you missed Obama’s speech yesterday, here it is in full glory. (And ignore the cheering. It’s a Southern thing.)
• A wonderful presentation from George Marshall summerising the psychology of climate change

Have You Played Debtris?

Link Loving 12.01.11

• BP gets ass-kicked, NY Times covers the story
• If you’re good at spotting trends, go work for Trend Watcher in London.
• Fantastic illustrations – especially the one of Gandhi from Moscow
• Anna Collins travels from Mexico into Guatemala and muses on the idea of a national border
• The genius that is Dawn Foster’s humour is released onto the world with her new blog ‘Ask Dawn’
• Andy Field has some predictions for 2011 – and he’ll probably be proved right
• Awkward photos of Ed Miliband. Cruel and hilarious.

Spotting The Frames In Tuscon

If you’ve followed the Sarah Palin/Tuscon Shooting debacle, you’ll be aware of the importance that hate speech plays as a legitimising factor for violence and oppression. Joe Brewer at Cognitive Policy Works has identified some frames being deployed in the media – listed below. As he rightly says, the unfolding media coverage offers a rare opportunity to watch political framing in action.  The highly contentious event is already being framed in a manner that conceals systemic causes – namely the lack of restrictions on gun ownership in the US and the violent anti-Democrat language used by the Tea Party.

When you next read an article or watch a news report, look out for the following;

• The “Lone Shooter” Frame

Emphasis will be on individual actions, ignoring cultural patterns that influenced the event like the militant imagery of Tea Party leaders and Fox News personalities.

• The “Crazy Gunman” Frame

Effort will be made to reduce this complex event to the explanation that the shooter was insane, disregarding the anti-government sentiments that fueled him to action.

• The “Both Sides Equal” Frame

Media coverage will presume violent rhetoric is equal on the left and right, ignoring how leftist individuals target single people (e.g. Bush hater) while right-wing individuals target groups (e.g. liberals, Jews).  Also the scale of violent imagery is disproportionately on the right side.

• The “We’re All Sorry” Frame

Spokespeople on the right who have fueled violent rhetoric (e.g Sarah Palin, Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh) will publicly condemn violent actions while continuing to promote negative views of entire classes of people.  This behavior will not be present among liberals.

Link Loving – 11.01.11

• How eating at home could save your life – great article on HuffPo
• A great (solutions focused!) climate movie for 2011 –  Carbon Nation
• I like it when George Clooney gets indignant and a little cranky – The Globe & Mail
• Give your strategy the McKinsey treatment
• If I was a student – I’d apply to this Google Public Policy Fellowship right now
• I won’t be going into Belorussian politics if I ever have children

Guess What I Wear For A Hat?

I’ve been quoting this adorable video all holiday.