Week Links

Build Something Cool in 48 Hours: Attendees at the Friends of [Tim] O’Reilly emerging technologies camp learned about a process that is kind of like an anarchic version of Open Space. A group of people agree to meet in one unencumbered, well-equipped space for 48 hours and just create, towards a very general goal. No overarching process like in Open Space, though, and you are welcome to spend the entire time just working by yourself. The idea grew out of the Ad Lib Game Development Society, where the goal is generally an idea for a game that all participants contribute to. Via Kathy Sierra at Creating Passionate Users.

NAFTA Plus and the End of Canadian Sovereignty: Reader David Parkinson points us to this chilling report from the Americas Program of the International Relations Center (a US-based think tank) about secret back-room dealings between advisors to Bush, Canadian PM Paul Martin and Mexican President Vincente Fox to create something informally called ‘NAFTA Plus’. The proposal, which is backed by a coalition of business leaders, right-wing academics and conservative think tanks in all three countries, apparently had the support of all three leaders. It is at an advanced stage, and goes far beyond the proposals for customs and currency union that were bandied about a decade ago — the ‘deep integration’ in the proposal essentially eliminates national sovereignty entirely, including control over each nation’s scarce natural resources, domestic security, national policy-setting, and social, financial and environmental regulation. Unlike the EC, which no single country can dominate, NAFTA Plus essentially annexes Canada (and Mexico, though with some strings attached) to the US. It is the revitalization of the plan to create a single, US-dominated North American state that was pushed by the traitorous and disgraced Mulroney administration in Canada. I guess we should be grateful that Bush’s arrogance in the softwood lumber dispute has so inflamed Martin and most Canadians that this horrific plan will hopefully never see the light of day.

The next three items are all via reader Dale Asberry:

Iraq: The Unseen War: Startling photos from Salon.com on what’s really happening in Iraq.

We Will Not Be Silenced: A moving video about the need to speak truth to power.

New Orleans Blogger Live: The Interdictor blog has been reporting live from the heart of New Orleans with unvarnished truth about what’s really happening there since the start. Check out the photos (tons of fires) and the live cams as well. As I read and watched I kept hearing Eliot’s words “This is how the world ends…” Riveting. This is what CNN should be doing. This is the future of media.

(I had hoped to write something as well about Bernd Heinrich’s wonderful article in the Aug.26 NYT about anthropomorphism entitled Talk to the Animals, reviewing the new documentary film March of the Penguins. However, it appears the NYT has now found a way to defeat the valuable NYT Link Generator, and Google has rolled over and suppressed its archives of NYT articles as well, so bloggers who want to write about what we read in the NYT now have to force our readers to pay $4 to read a week-old movie review! — Disgraceful. So much for respect for fellow journalists. If you know of a way to get around this shit, the original article reference is www.nytimes.com/2005/08/26/opinion/26heinrich.html — let’s find another workaround for this money-grubbing.)