Links of the Week

The Real News from Iraq: Kentucky photojournalist Molly Bingham, who has risked her life several times in Iraq to get the real facts, laments the intellectual laziness, unquestioned partisanship, cultural ignorance and outright cowardice of media covering the endless quagmire of the Iraq War. Will Americans ever hear the real truth? Thanks to Jon Husband for the link.

The Real News from Afghanistan: The husband of fellow Salon Blogger Kate at Broken Windows — he’s a National Guardsman — has recently been drafted to serve in Afghanistan, and Kate’s blog is becoming a goldmine for information on this forgotten war. The image above is from this site, and shows the 12-foot-high armoured vehicles used by German peace-keeping troops in Afghanistan. Interesting contrast with what ‘support-our-troops’ Bush provides to protect US soldiers in the region.

How to Start a Conversation: The redoubtable Meg Wheatley has put some essential information from her new book Turning to One Another online. This particular link contains both new and ancient advice on how to moderate a group conversation to get the most learning from and for all participants. Thanks to another Salon blogger, Susan Hales for the link.

Trusted-Peer Review for Web Pages: German grad student Stan James has developed a software tool called Outfoxed as part of his thesis that will capture comments made by other readers on your self-maintained ‘trusted people list’, and display them when you visit those pages. Ingenious.

What Bush Really Thinks of Canada: Ignoring critics on both sides of the border, North Dakota is about to channel the entire contents of its toxic Devils Lake into the Red River, poisoning the drinking water of the people and the habitat of marine species in North Dakota, Minnesota and Manitoba. This article is an appeal to the people from Canada’s ambassador to the US in the NYT, since no one in the Bush administration will do anything.

A Blog that Critiques the Western Education System: Emily from the Strangechord blog has set up a sister blog Critical Studies of Schooling to compile information for a course in education studies she’s taking where she lives in Oregon. An excellent source of material critiquing the existing system and reviewing some of the alternatives (Waldorf, Montessori, freeschools, charter schools, unschooling etc.) If she’s missing something important, let her know — this blog could evolve into a permanent repository on the subject, which is much needed.

Two Great Examples of Business Storytelling: Reader and author Hillary Johnson tells riveting stories with important messages for business. These two are from Inc. magazine. The first explains why there is so little innovation in business today, and the second shows how much more valuable lessons from history and social collaboration are for managing a business than the usual crock about war, competitive advantage and leadership. Two great examples of how much more effective and memorable good narrative is than bullets and two-by-two matrices.