Links, Links, Links! 14th April 2013

Well it's that time of week again! Let me share with you some of the interesting pieces of the internet that have recently caught my eye...  

Trip down memory lane: The Iraq War told in headlines over the last 10 years.

Are you moving from Google Reader? Want to know how to make the switch seamlessly to Feedly? Worry no longer.

52 reasons why you should date an aid worker (tongue in cheek and all...)

A great collection of FREE apps from LinkedIn on making your work life more productive.

LinkedIn also has some great tips on becoming a better leader...

A heart breaking but very human look at the effects of the Syrian conflict: Refugees talk about the "most important thing" they took with them when they fled their homes.

 Tamara, 20, in Adiyaman camp in Turkey. The most important thing she was able to bring with her is her diploma, which she holds. With it she will be able to continue her education in Turkey.

Ah, it pin points an issue that has been niggling in the back of my mind: The problem with 'First World Problems'

To blithely relegate trivial matters as ‘first world problems’ not only dismisses the very real issues that some first world residents face on a daily basis, it also prevents a mutual understanding between the West and the developing world because sometimes both 'worlds' experience the same problems; First world problems can also be third world problems.

Considering my current employment, this was a really interesting report to come across on FIFO and DIDO workers.

A recently completed study by researchers from the University of Ballarat provides insight into some of the issues raised by The House of Representatives Standing Committee on Regional Australia’s inquiry into fly-in, fly-out (FIFO) and drive-in, drive-out (DIDO) workforce practices in regional Australia.

...

In relation to the mental health of study participants, 50 per cent reported moderate to high levels of depression symptoms, 45 per cent reported moderate to high levels of anxiety symptoms, and 45 per cent reported experiencing moderate to high levels of loneliness when on-site, indicating that these are critical issues for some FIFO workers.

What a way to wrap it up.  This kid, well I can't imagine how motivational he will be when he's grown up? Gee, mashallah. Hope he channels it into something useful, I can only imagine how far he will go then! Kudos to supportive parents I imagine as well.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=l-gQLqv9f4o

Links, Links, Links! 6th April 2013

  Hello all! How are we this week? I’ve been flat chat at work doing the oil and gas thing, while also working on getting a few things moving on the Youth Without Borders side and writing a whole bunch of different articles… anyhow, enough about me! Let us look at interesting things on the net recently…

Daily Dishonest posters…I had to chuckle.

But that's the thing about racism: it goes way beyond bad intentions. The most insidious racism is just so ingrained it's involuntary.

Waleed Aly’s brilliant piece on ‘The Curse of Australia’s Silent Pervasive Racism’.

This one is pretty cool: Miracles of Engineering in Peru: Drinking Water Out of a Billboard!

“Each generator captures the air humidity and from there it goes to a reverse osmosis system. Each tank stores about 5.28 gallons of water. These 5 generators purify the vital liquid and its total is gathered in one tank,” said one of UTEC’s engineers involved in the project.  The billboard has already produced about 2,496.42 gallons of drinking water in a 3 month period, an amount that equals the water consumption of hundreds of families per month.”

An interesting piece by the Australian Government’s ‘Resilient Communities’ initiative on ‘advice to young Muslim Australians’.  I don’t enjoy motherhood advisory statements, but this was rather good.

And, don’t wait for someone to come and take you by the hand. Don’t wait for the leaders and Imams. They have their hands full. You must initiate the process.

You must lead the way.

There is a perception among many of us that it is fine to be an Indian Muslim, Pakistani Muslim, Algerian Muslim, and Palestinian Muslim. And so on. But, for some reason, there is a false perception that it is not fine to be an Australian Muslim. The ‘Australian’ part is seen by some as ‘kufr’ (unbelief). Don’t be fooled by this simplistic and false understanding.

Don’t be afraid to say you are a Muslim and an Australian. Don’t be afraid to say that you are an Australian Muslim.

An interesting and informative perspective: How to move beyond youth tokenism into real engagement.

A good round up on what is happening in North Korea and why the general analysis is maybe looking at the wrong audience.

My piece for Future Challenges on women in the workforce, and why there is more to it than just numbers.

Why volunteering in orphanages sometimes does more harm than good. This is part of the ‘well intentioned but misguided’ mindset my father and I share about a lot of aid work…

Again on the ‘well intentioned but misguided’ note, a piece on WhyDev that really resonated (and challenged me in equal parts) on Why making the world better does not make necessarily make YOU better’.

It sounds harsh, but it has to be said. It’s important to understand that doing good things does not make you good. It is important to understand that good people can and frequently do do bad things. Not all good doers (confession: I positively loathe the term “do gooder”) are nice. You need to enter the aid world understanding that you will have to work and deal and maybe even share quarters with some truly nasty individuals. You need to understand that you, too, may do things that are not nice, things that you’re not particularly proud of. And you need to understand that this is nothing at all about your competence as a humanitarian. Being deeply committed to reducing the amount of injustice in the world, and expending great amounts of energy and personal resource towards that end in no way precludes you from treating your staff unjustly. It’s the opposite of “but he/she/they mean(s) well…” argument, all too frequently used to justify everything from poor individual performance to ridiculously reasoned startup NGOs.

On a totally different note, looking for some crazy cool (modest) fashion inspiration? Oh, check this out. I couldn’t get past the first jacket…

Thank you, Mr Sartorialist.

Links, Links, Links! March 17th 2013

It’s been a big week and these links have been sitting ‘to be published’ for a while now – hope you enjoy nonetheless!  The photo above is of the UNAOC Youth Forum that I had the honour of being a part of…

How was your week?  If you’re not sure yet…take some time to think while reading these awesome pieces!

‎"Though there is inevitably a focus on the constant tug-of-war between work and life for women, I don't think our feminist dream is a simple binary equation. Maybe it would be better if we had a more nuanced view, of a triple bottom line - professional, personal and public."
Nicola Roxon
Former Attorney General

A fascinating and very Godin-like interview with the one and only, Seth Godin. Worth the read.  I particularly enjoyed this line:

Do you believe in “writer’s block”? If so, how do you avoid it?

This is a fancy term for fear. I avoid it by not getting it. Because I write like I talk and I don’t get talker’s block.

I keep coming back to this article on making this year count.

All that stuff's nice — but entirely besides the point. Of life. For the simple, timeless truth is: You'll never find the rapture of accomplishment in mere conquest, the incandescence of happiness in mere possession, or the searing wholeness of meaning in mere desire. You can find them only — only — in the exploration of the fullness of human possibility.

Jack Donaghy from 30 Rock and some words of wisdom…

What is going on with our PM and the Western Sydney Roadshow?

A heartfelt piece by a good friend of mine about her time at the moment in Afghanistan and our asylum seeker policy.

Are you a political influencer, or want to be? Check out this new tool also being started by a friend, BiPolitico. 

I disagree with this analysis of the demise of Google Reader. I think I will write something about it. It’s something that I am not looking forward to indeed…

Something a little light hearted – 27 signs you were raised by immigrant parents. Too many of these made me laugh…because it’s true :)

Links, Links, Links! 19th February 2013

On whitewashing in Hollywood…

In other words, only white people can stand in for the human race as whole.

No act of sexism is too small to ignore: a good piece about changing cultures.  The interesting link here can be made with changing of any cultures; as the author says, there is no point in half draining the toxic swamp.

Do jerks deserve free speech?

An arresting article on South Korean women who have had plastic surgery.  Apparently, they see it just like putting on makeup…what an interesting cultural difference.

An amazing piece by an young Asian-American lady, who found her niche when she always thought she was an outlier… beautiful personal essay: Outsider / Insider.  Also from Rookie Mag, a beautiful piece about losing your original culture when you are brought up in a different country.

Stop and realise…these are our good old days.  We are living them now! How exciting is that?

The difference between being alone, and lonely.

A reflective piece on being an expatriate and what it is like when you come home. Leaving Australia for good.

From a more technical point of view, how will this non conventional gas boom affect US economics and politics and the rest of the world?

Enjoy your week!

Illuminating Links! 9th February 2013

Isn’t this an interesting article? Written about the Internet…in 1995!

Hillary Clinton is extremely popular right now.  Will she be the first female candidate for US presidency? What do you think about her policies?

A terrible, but instructive look at celebrity altruism in Africa – which celebrities “own” which nations?

An interesting Freakonomics experiment: Have a question? Let Freakonomics flip the coin for you!

Thinking of volunteering abroad? 5 expectations to avoid!

Jeremy Fernandez, a TV presenter, has an experience with racism and asks, why do people want to still vent their hate in 2013?

A little science on paying off your sleep debt!

From the Harvard Business Review: Now that it is February, it is time to think about the year in earnest. The question is, do you want to have a year that matters?

These are some very misguided international aid ideas…

Muslim fashion finds its flow! There are a fair few fashion ladies in the Muslim world getting amongst it, here is just one example.

For something a little random, here are funny pictures of animals.

On a lighter note as well, which was your favourite superbowl ad this year?

Lastly, a lovely tune heard on the radio recently. A little strange, but an amazing sound.

*Click images for source.

Links, Links, Links – 4th February 2013

 

This is pretty cool – Lego that can talk to Apple and Android products!

 

 

This NSW corruption story is turning out to be a big one…

Illustration: Rocco Fazzari

The belief that stars are born not made is demonstrated by the portrayal of genius in the media and popular entertainment. Higher achievers such as Mozart and Michelangelo are shown in plays and movies as having prodigious abilities from their earliest years, their talent the result of possession of some mysterious in-built gift. The role of studying and working at mastering anything – art, craft, intellectual pursuits or sport – is glossed over or ignored.

The Conversation on our obsession with natural talent and whether that is harming our students.

 The WSJ on the concept of “The Guerrilla Myth".  Very America Centric but interesting points.

Unconventional wars are our most pressing national security concern. They're also the most ancient form of war in the world. Max Boot on the lessons of insurgency we seem unable to learn.

Creating Links is offering a Cert IV in Community Culture…check it out here! 

Perhaps in future, spy training and learning spy tradecraft should be part of the journalist school curriculum?

On a slightly different note:

The truth is that there will be a million people in your life who actually don’t love you, whose dismissal of your feelings or tendency to ignore what you want are rooted in genuine apathy. They are everywhere, and make navigating our emotional lives even more complicated. But there are also many people who do love us, and who want to show us, but just may not be able to do it in the way we most want to hear. And it’s important to distinguish between the two, to look at the things people are actively doing for us and take account of the things we’re lucky to have in them. Because we are lucky to have love — in any of its forms — and no way of saying “I love you” should be forgotten about.

The Thought Catalogue on The Different Types of Love.

Zakia Baig’s story… Giving Australian’s an opportunity to share their story with the Prime Minister through the SBS program 'My Community Matters’: A great story about an Afghanistani Hazara woman doing fabulous things for her community here in Australia.

The importance of a deepening of our relationship with China cannot be overstated.  Australia releases it’s National Security Statement.  In between the lines is a distinct push and pull between our traditional roles as America’s allies, and the reality of our demographics.

Join me and the Dalai Lama at the Young Minds Conference!

A little shout out for a very cool event that I have the honour of being a part of!

I will be joining His Holiness the Dalai Lama on Day 1 of the conference at 9.45am in a forum named  How do we grow a good person?  

Firstly, I would love to hear your thoughts on the topic - how do you think we grow a good person?

Also, just because I am so excited about the event, I thought I would share some of these details with you - and hopefully see you there!

***

Featuring special guest His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Young Minds 2013 is an exciting forum exploring the vital issues facing our youth today. Be engaged and motivated by a summit of 40+ leading thinkers.

15% DISCOUNT FOR MY READERS! Given I am presenting, my contacts are entitled to a 15% discount off the full conference fees. Register online using promotion code PJFS or call (02) 8719 5118 and mention my name. Save up to $565 off the full gold pass fee!

50% DISCOUNT FOR YOUNG PEOPLE UNDER 21!

***

HIGHLIGHTS INCLUDE:

• Spend a full morning session with one of the world’s most revered spiritual leaders, His Holiness the Dalai Lama. Explore how to grow a good person with leading educators and childhood advocates including Reggio Children visionary Carla Rinaldi.

• Hear an insightful exploration of the impact of mindsets on learning and achievement with motivation expert Carol Dweck, and discover how to encourage our children’s natural curiosity with pioneering researcher Todd Kashdan.

• Acclaimed parenting expert Wendy Mogel explains why a skinned knee is a blessing in disguise, and leading Slow Movement proponent Carl Honoré asks whether we’re micromanaging our children.

• Explore the challenges facing teachers, parents and young people in achieving “digital wisdom” with tech savvy educator Marc Prensky, and Australia’s most popular blogger Mia Freedman.

• Be inspired by Young Australian of the Year Marita Cheng who built a global organisation supporting technical education for girls and myself =).

• Be moved and uplifted by the courage and determination shown by champion Paralympic swimmer Matthew Cowdrey and by mental health advocate Bronte O’Brien.

• Be entertained by humourist and well-known media personality Gretel Killeen as she explores how to be your true, imperfect self and by spoken word poet Bravo Child.

40+ SPEAKERS    1000+ DELEGATES

www.youngminds.org.au

Links, Links, Links - 20th January 2012

  It’s that time of the week! Here are a bunch of interesting links to things on this internet this week…

Let's start with a surprisingly frank talk by a supermodel on the power of image...

TO CALL Aaron Swartz gifted would be to miss the point. As far as the internet was concerned, he was the gift.  The Economist remembers Aaron Swartz.

Obama’s move on gun control – will this be the time “real” change is made in this area?  (I still believe that the argument for focusing on gun control is slightly misguided as surely mass shootings are an indication of a greater ill in the society?)

What is happening in Mali? French troops deployed…

Another question on the internet and privacy generally posed by this article: Is your data really your data?

So why have the Boeing Dreamliners been grounded?  It's all in those lithium batteries...

An interesting article on “10 simple body language tips for the workplace”.  I find these sorts of articles interesting.  Do they always work? Perhaps not, but it’s food for thought.

The Washington Academy of Science is doing something really cool – giving science seals of approval to mystery books!  Now you can know whether the book you are reading is scientifically accurate…

Is the “peak oil” concept a irrelevant or is it a case of oil execs trying to keep the share price up?

Great article by a mate on the deeper reasons behind why there is such an outcry this time over the Indian woman’s rape.

Well, we’ve known this for a while but now Cambridge has dug up proof: There is more to intelligence than just your IQ!

A great article about a man who delved into the underbelly of the internet; Chasing the Cicada: Exploring the Darkest Corridors of the Internet.  Follow the thought process of someone who undertook the process: Clevecode

I caved and joined Reddit (there goes all the productivity in my life…).  Found an intriguing comment string by people who have gotten shot…Worth a random peruse.

It was my worst moment, recorded for posterity's sake. What does it feel like? It felt like a cut. A deep, white cut. It felt like all my memories and my personality and what I was or would be were draining out of a hole I couldn't plug.

Also, don’t forget what was published on this blog recently, including a review of Adam Parr’s “The Art of War”, and the question of whether pay imbalance is because women take the lower paying jobs.

10 Bites of Inspiration: Life and Hope

I am a little bit of a sucker for well put together quotes and pieces of literature that encapsulate a sentiment on life.  Here are some quotes, bites, words of wisdom that have provided some food for thought and encouragement for me in the past.  I hope you enjoy!**

1.

“Hope has a cost. Hope is not comfortable or easy. Hope requires personal risk. It is not about the right attitude. Hope is not about peace of mind. Hope is action. Hope is doing something. The more futile, the more useless, the more irrelevant and incomprehensible an act of rebellion is, the vaster and more potent hope becomes. Hope never makes sense. Hope is weak, unorganized and absurd. Hope, which is always nonviolent, exposes in its powerlessness, the lies, fraud and coercion employed by the state. Hope knows that an injustice visited on our neighbor is an injustice visited on all of us. Hope posits that people are drawn to the good by the good. This is the secret of hope's power. Hope demands for others what we demand for ourselves. Hope does not separate us from them. Hope sees in our enemy our own face.

CHRIS HEDGES

2.

“The bad news: there is no key to the universe. The good news: it was never locked.”

SWAMI BEYONDANANDA

3.

“If you look at history, even recent history, you see that there is indeed progress...Over time, the cycle is clearly, generally upwards. And it doesn't happen by laws of nature. And it doesn't happen by social laws . . . It happens as a result of hard work by dedicated people who are willing to look at problems honestly, to look at them without illusions, and to go to work chipping away at them, with no guarantee of success - in fact, with a need for a rather high tolerance for failure along the way, and plenty of disappointments.”

NOAM CHOMSKY

4.

“People often say motivation doesn’t last. Neither does bathing—that’s why we recommend it daily”

ZIG ZIGLAR

5.

“Expect the best. Prepare for the worst. Capitalize on what comes.”

ZIG ZIGLAR

6.

“Your problem is how you are going to spend this one and precious life you have been issued. Whether you're going to spend it trying to look good and creating the illusion that you have power over circumstances, or whether you are going to taste it, enjoy it and find out the truth about who you are.”

ANNE LAMOTT

7.

“There is so much about my fate that I cannot control, but other things do fall under the jurisdiction. I can decide how I spend my time, whom I interact with, whom I share my body and life and money and energy with. I can select what I can read and eat and study. I can choose how I’m going to regard unfortunate circumstances in my life-whether I will see them as curses or opportunities. I can choose my words and the tone of voice in which I speak to others. And most of all, I can choose my thoughts.”

ELIZABETH GILBERT

8.

”Remember that everyone you meet is afraid of something, loves something, and has lost something.”

H. JACKSON BROWN JR.

9.

"Always go with the choice that scares you the most, because that’s the one that is going to require the most from you"

CAROLINE MYSS

10.

“Try not to become a man of success, but rather try to become a man of value.”

ALBERT EINSTEIN 

  -- **Some of these photos are unsourced as I have saved them without their origin…if you know the source or would like the photo to be accredited, please let me know!

4 Videos: 2012 Revisited

I am a sucker for video compilations.  Here are my favourite four video compilations of the year that 2012 was…enjoy!

Zeitgeist 2012: What the world searched for in 2012, made by Google

DJ Earworm does amazing mashups of the year’s top 25 Billboard hits. 

A great filmography. Very US/Hollywood centric but evokes great feelings nonetheless.

What brought us together, 2012…

Do you have any favourites?

10 Useful, Brain Sharpening Websites for 2013!

 

Since finishing school and university, I have found that I miss the formal learning side of those years.  Luckily though, I have access to the internet, and with that a plethora of interesting tools; courses, podcasts and interesting articles to keep the brain busy and working.

1. The Conversation

The Conversation is an independent source of analysis, commentary and news from the university and research sector viewed by 550,000 readers each month. Our team of professional editors work with more than 3,600 registered academics and researchers from 240 institutions.

I get the daily newsletter in my inbox every morning and it is a fabulous bit of e-kit, with often plenty of thought provoking discussion and perspectives to keep my mental juices flowing.

2. The Economist Easily my favourite weekly magazine, it also has a robust online counterpart with good articles, forums for discussion and lively debates galore.  Oh, and it isn’t just about economics.

3. TED If you haven’t discovered TED, you haven’t truly lived on the internet.

4. Khan Academy Videos on everything and anything. Fabulous, and very informative…and many mates at uni used this to learn their courses.

5. Vocabulary.com A fun way to learn new words, and very comprehensive! I have an issue with retaining all the new words I learn, but adding something to the vocab every week is probably a way to go.

Vocabulary.com is the easiest, most intelligent way to improve your vocabulary. It combines an adaptive learning system (The Challenge) with the world’s fastest dictionary (The Dictionary) so that you can more quickly and more efficiently learn words.

6. NPR Podcasts An amazing resource for the richest plethora of podcasts imaginable.  Good ones include How to do everything, Stuff you missed in History Class and Freakonomics Radio.

7. Sociological Images They say: Sociological Images is designed to encourage all kinds of people to exercise and develop their sociological imagination by presenting brief sociological discussions of compelling and timely imagery that spans the breadth of sociological inquiry. I say: This is the whole “critical thinking” part of English class I loved.

8. Sporacle Mentally stimulating procrastination through quizzes!

9. MIT’s open courseware As MIT are so awesome, they let you access all their knowledge. For free. You can download the study material, the lectures, the videos and learn it all yourself.  Go!

10. Coursera.org

We are a social entrepreneurship company that partners with the top universities in the world to offer courses online for anyone to take, for free. We envision a future where the top universities are educating not only thousands of students, but millions. Our technology enables the best professors to teach tens or hundreds of thousands of students.

Through this, we hope to give everyone access to the world-class education that has so far been available only to a select few. We want to empower people with education that will improve their lives, the lives of their families, and the communities they live in.

This website is gold.  Fabulous resource for anything…I’ve signed up to a few courses that begin in January so I am looking forward to it!

So there are some tools that can keep the little grey cells stimulated…what about you? Do you find anything particularly useful?

Links, Links, Links - 31st December 2013

So the year didn’t end.  However, what does the trend of “end of the world” myths tell us about our psyche?  The Conversation investigates.

A great article on the trend of young, white, male men and their role in… well, it seems that is the stereotype for mass shooters.  I wonder how the discussion would change if the shooters were religious or coloured? Why is it in those cases, the motives are related to the background, culture or beliefs but in the case of white, young male shooters it is seen as a one off tragedy? Ah, the perils of living as the ‘Other’.

A great article on how to build professional networks: Little Gifts…

A critical analysis of the critically acclaimed series, Homeland…

Homeland intends its liberal viewers to experience some discomfort about Carrie’s domestic spying, but it also knows that guilt intensifies the pleasure we take in things that are bad for us. If Homeland were the anti-24 that it claims to be, it would finally have to deny its viewers this pleasure: Carrie would, in fact, be deranged and wrong. But she’s never wrong, because the current logic of liberal politics dictates that although paranoia may be deranged, it must also be correct.

It was interesting reading this article on marriage and settling.  Marriage in Islam is seen as extremely important to someone’s Iman, or belief – in fact, it is “half one’s Iman”, and as such the structure around marriage is a little different.  In the West however, marriage is sold as "happily ever after” and all about “your one true love…”.  This article challenges that, and interestingly in doing so, reflects sentiments I have been exposed to in the more traditional Islamic/cultural circles…

It sounds obvious now, but I didn’t fully appreciate back then that what makes for a good marriage isn’t necessarily what makes for a good romantic relationship. Once you’re married, it’s not about whom you want to go on vacation with; it’s about whom you want to run a household with. Marriage isn’t a passion-fest; it’s more like a partnership formed to run a very small, mundane, and often boring nonprofit business. And I mean this in a good way.

On the topic of implicit racism or perhaps ingrained bias… Are you racist without knowing it? Find out more!