Links for the Week – May 13/06

Environment

Plan B 2.0 for Earth: They’re coming fast and furious these days. This plan is from Lester Brown, and is available entirely on-line. Like Amory Lovins’, this book is extremely optimistic and fails to appreciate how complex systems works and why they cannot and do not change quickly, even when someone has a great plan. Well researched, though, and his heart’s in the right place. Thanks to Dale Asberry for the link.

Migrating Birds Not Cause of Poultry Flu: More evidence, via the NYT of the insanity of wild bird slaughter as a means of delaying the inevitable flu pandemic. The real culprits are still the same, though no one wants to admit it: Illegal trafficking in poultry, unhygienic farm practices, overcrowded ‘factory farms’, and lack of diversity in farmed animals. Money dictates that all four practices will continue and increase, with the inevitable and disastrous consequences. And now most people have been conned by Big Pharma to believe Tamiflu and other silver-bullet drugs will be able to protect them and stave off pandemic.

Stop Old-Growth Forest Clear-Cutting in Northern Ontario: Another petition, this time for Canadians. Not sure what good these petitions do — have they ever really worked? More info on the subject at RAN.

Fritjof Capra on Sustainability: Two interesting interviews by Irish permaculturist Rob at Transition Culture (great blog BTW). Part 1. Part 2. He gets that it’s all about grassroots community building, and appreciates that what’s preventing us is lack of widespread knowledge and political will. He’s a lot more optimistic than I am that communication and “political change” will fix that. Thanks to deconsumption for the link.

US Politics

Dear Mr President: Video of a great new anti-war song from Pink. You may have heard that a girl in Florida was prohibited from singing this song in a school concert recently. Thanks to Cyndy for the link.

Business & Technology

Five Keys to Effective Presentations: Carmine Gallo at BusinessWeek tells us how Steve Jobs does it: Stress the benefits, practice a lot, visualizations not bullet-points, speak passionately, and have a novel, memorable closing. Thanks to Kathy Sierra for the link.

Canadian Music Creators Oppose DRM: Canadian artists are calling a spade a spade, to the great discomfort of the music oligopoly. DRM and lawsuits against customers are not only ineffective and insulting, they say, they are designed to increase profits for the oligopoly that stands between the artists and their fans, not for the benefit of the artists. In Canada, the Supreme Court has ruled that file-sharing is completely legal, and that the oligopoly’s arrangement with the government (by which they are paid the proceeds of a special Canadian tax on blank recording media) already compensates them for copying. The oligopoly is now trying to renege on this agreement, of course, since they never envisioned the innovation of file-sharing software and other peer-to-peer technologies.

Google’s Humbling New Trends Tool: Here in the echo chamber of the blogosphere, we tend to think the memes we originate, pick up on and amplify are getting through to large numbers of people, at least those online. The latest Google tool, Google Trends throws cold water on this conceit. Some of the most popular blog memes, like The Wisdom of Crowds, corporatism, and the Two-Income Trap, and some of the ideas and concepts we have been trying to increase knowledge and awareness of, like Intentional Communities and the Gift Economy, according to Google, “do not have enough search volume to show graphs”. Ouch. Meanwhile, type in the name of the most obscure celebrity, or sexual term, and you’ll see what people are reallylooking for online. We’ve still got a long way to go.