Link Loving 24.05.11

• Do women’s networks still help in the corporate world? Peggy Drexler.
• Can European leaders handle the truth? Paul Krugman.
• Joy Cushman on how to learn and improve following failure.
• Whatever you feel compelled to do, don’t. Tony Schwartz.
• We aren’t as moral as we think. Daniel Honan.
• Tell your story – the good and the bad, advises Michael Hyatt.
• Where are all the climate refugees? The Carbon Brief.
• The ultimate media watchdog. Media Lens.
• The future of energy? I like. EnergyBank.

Only A Song

Lord knows we all feel like this sometimes.

I wouldn’t make a sound if I wasn’t so angry.
I wouldn’t be run’n if it wasn’t so far to go.
I wouldn’t keep on if there wasn’t something worth keepin’.
I want to believe that this mountain can be moved.
But this is only a song, it can’t change the world.

Link Loving 23.05.11

• Honeybees and inter-generational justice. Lucy Stone.
• The National Trust wants you to become a farmer. MyFarm.
• Rentalship is the new ownership. David Rowan. (Is it though? Maybe I’m just not with the times.)
• Imagine a jail where dangerous inmates awaiting trial live 24 to a room and fight each other under a violent gladiatorial code. Welcome to Miami. Louis Theroux.
• The upside of irrationality. Dan Ariely.
• Can Tim Pawlenty not read a teleprompter?
• Great youth sustainability training event in Devon later this summer. Planetary Leaders.
• David Plouffe is back at the campaign reigns in the White House – and it’s showing. Nancy Scola.

YouTube Democracy

Since the live broadcast of election coverage in ’08, YouTube (read: Google) has been building an increasing number of ways for the public to engage with politics through their site. The latest is YouTube’s Town Hall channel – an “online platform for members of Congress to debate and discuss the most important issues of the day”.

You pick an issue: health care, education, Afghanistan – and find pre-recorded videos on the topic from House Members and Senators from both sides of the isle. The trick being – you don’t know which party they’re from until after you’ve chosen which one of the two options you like most.

Nice.

Link Loving 22.05.11

• Founder of the World Economic Forum Klaus Schwab has a challenge for global corporations.
• Seven principles for a fair society.
• With a 21.3 percent unemployment rate, Spanish youth want their own Tahrir Square. As does Moldova. Joshua Keating.

‘Consumers Of Public Services’

If you call the Department of Health, you’ll hear the automated voice at the other end of the phone talk about ‘our consumers’.

Newsflash: We are not consumers. We are citizens.

Kthxbai

Link Loving 21.05.11

• Is there something about being a leader of the family-values party that makes you want to go out and commit adultery? Very funny. Gail Collins.
• Ariel Schwartz on the secrets behind Google’s push into renewable energy.
• The Oxford English Dictionary reveals that Winston Churchill was the first recipient of an ‘OMG’. The Atlantic.
• Stuff White Brits Like.
• Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg hosts the Progressive Governance Conference.
• Thor Halvorssen on how PR mercenaries and their dictator masters are euphemising countries engaging in human rights abuses.
• How to become a morning person. Tracey Marks.
• Stuff Expat Aid Workers Like.

What The Frack Is Going On?

Wonderful video explaining fracking. Dangerously catchy tune too.

Link Loving 20.05.11

• Seth Godin on the future of public libraries. Good vision.
• Despite all the chatter, as a society, we are not actually all that interested in happiness. Penelope Trunk.
• A mid-life affair with anti-depressants. Paulina Porizkova.
• Bill O’Reilly takes on Jon Stewart re a rapper’s White House appearance. Good debate prep.
• The best spoof political website ever.
• Elections in Italy – a blow to Berlusconi. The Economist.
• The Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s Project ReDesign hits Oxford.
• Have we all ended up like Richard Nixon?
• Obama’s energy plan isn’t working. David Roberts.

Ocean Acidification

A wonderful short film about ocean acidification from the boys at Nice & Serious. Love the science graphic layered over the talking heads (starts at 3 minutes in).

Second half reveals some interesting dynamics in the policy creation process.