Saturday Links of the Week – May 3, 2008

Love, Conversation, Community:

Hands-on Survey of Intentional Communities: Three activists made a 7-month journey through 11 European intentional communities, to explore the question of whether intentional communities can actually make a difference or are just people running away from the ‘real’ world.

Peter Block on Engaging People in Community: Nancy White graphs (see graphic above) Peter Block’s process for finding and inspiring passion in partners in your communities. And more thoughts on convening from Block, from Holger Nauheimer’s blog:

• Leadership is about convening capacity.
• Substitute curiosity for advice.
• There are no answers. Everybody who offers you an answer wants to sell you something.
• Transformation is based on a platform of relatedness.
• Ask groups not to report their findings but what strikes them.

Aussie Intentional Community Profiled: Jindibah reveals how it has learned to achieve consensus and resolve conflicts quickly and amicably, largely by teaching members to know themselves better.

Dave Smith on YouTube: My favourite serial entrepreneur summarizes the key points in his book To Be Of Use.

Preconditions for Collective Change: Geoff Brown lists 9 factors that are needed to convert collective agreement into collective action. And he follows it up with a great round-up from some of the world’s best blogs.

Ben Zander of the Boston Philharmonic on Leadership: Interesting speech on why people would rather be members of an effective team than its ‘leader’; thanks to Jon Husband for the link.

May 10 is Pangea Day: Get together with the whole world and watch; thanks to Patti Digh for the link.

Narrative and Storytelling:

Nine Productivity Tools for Writers: Nine free apps for writers compiled by Dustin Wax; thanks to my colleague Greg Turko for the link.

Preparing for Civilization’s End:

Carbon Con: Why carbon offset schemes don’t work.

A Billion Hybrids On the Road: How we get lulled into believing we’re making a difference in CO2 emissions when we’re not.

When Governments Prevent Citizens from Suing Corporatists: The Bush regime is trying to protect its corporatist friends from liability for their atrocities against citizens and consumers by granting blanket legal indemnity for negligence and fraud, industry by industry.

A Compelling Argument for Canceling the Olympics Permanently: It’s become a political, corporate-sponsored freakshow, with money, drug use, bribery and fraud determining the winners.

Female Victims of the Cycle of Violence: Central American girls willingly suffer horrific abuse just so they can belong — to a gang of killers.

Michael Pollan Urges Us to Grow Our Own Food: The famous sustainable, responsible food champion says foods from personal ‘victory gardens’ not only taste better and save energy, money and the environment, but help us become more self-sufficient as well.

Making Everyone an Environmentalist: Alternet provides 8 reasons we will all soon be environmentalists, like it or not.

More Chinese Poisons: A blood thinner used for dialysis and other medical purposes all over the world is tainted with toxins from — guess where — China again.

Another Condemnation of the US Institutional Education System: Uncompetitive, obsolete, and sinking fast.

Climate Change: Just Do Something.

Nukes are No Answer: It’s not if, it’s when the next Chernobyl will hit. And in themeantime, taxpayers will foot the bill in subsidies and guarantees for hundreds of insanely expensive, dirty and dangerous nuclear plants.

As Arctic Melts, Land Poisons Become Water Poisons: Mercury and other toxins are entering the arctic food system through melting permafrost.

April was, Apparently, Animal Cruelty Month:

Canadian Seal Hunt 2008: Another year of carnage, carefully hidden from public view, courtesy of the Harper government.

Torturing Animals for Botox: Lots of better ways to test chemicals exist, but US regulators prefer antiquated, brutal methods.

The Cost of Factory Farms: Subsidized CAFOs (Confined Animal Feeding Operations) not only inflict horrific cruelty on animals, they cost taxpayers a fortune, and the externalized cost we’ll pay in the future is massive.

PETA Offers a Million for Humane Meat: PETA is offering a million dollar prize to anyone who can invent a way to clone meat commercially in test tubes.

Web 2.0:

Will Video Demand Collapse the Internet?: A British study suggests Web infrastructure is inadequate to support wide-spread use of video; thanks to David Jones for the link.

Thoughts for the Week: Richard Conniff suggests we stop calling what we pay for government services ‘taxes’ and start calling it ‘dues’. And David Abram explains The Ecology of Magic.