Matthew’s Blog

After the umpteen time of seeing an “inspi(RED)” tee shirt I decided to go look into what it was all about.  At first I assumed it was a Best Buy thing considering it seemed that everyone I met that worked there was wearing one only to find out that that it was actually a Gap thing.  So I went off looking at The Gap to find the answer and was impressed not only by the project but the scope of it.  They have partnered with the world’s most iconic brands (Hallmark, Apple, Gap, Dell) to produce (RED) products.

From the (RED) website

(RED) was created by Bono and Bobby Shriver, Chairman of DATA to raise awareness and money for The Global Fund by teaming up with the world’s most iconic brands to produce (PRODUCT)RED branded products. A percentage of each (PRODUCT)RED product sold is given to The Global Fund. The money helps women and children affected by HIV/AIDS in Africa.

All funds generated by sales of (PRODUCT) RED products (aka (RED) money) will support Global Fund-financed programs that positively impact the lives of women and children affected by HIV/AIDS in Africa. (RED) money provides access to education, nutrition, counseling, medical services, and the two pills a day they need to help stay alive. This includes programs in countries such as Rwanda, which has a proven track record and ambitious targets. For example, in the past two years, Rwanda has increased the number of people receiving treatments for HIV/AIDS ten-fold.

Be inspi(RED), be uncenso(RED), be ado(RED), be chee(RED).

At long last, after nearly seven years of waiting, I have successfully secured the domain name conversationcircles.com - the more logical domain for a website dedicated to learning about conversation circles.  I even confused myself when verbally sharing the link with people.  Now I no longer have to worry.  Both links will take you there.

In honor of the new domain, I have updated the website, migrated it to a Wordpress architecture, and moved servers to obtain faster service.

Check it out and if you’ve never taken a look at my first video on conversation circles - watch it there!

http://www.conversationcircles.com
or
http://www.conversationcircle.com

Here is a great logical discussion of Global Climate Change and whether to act on it or not.

Last year I wrote about Paul Hawken and his presentation at the Bioneer Conference. I just found a video feed on QuantumShift.tv that gets to some of the heart of the speech, how all these movements (environmental, social justice, indigenous rights, bioneering . . .) all are really under the umbrella of one enormous cultural movement shift.

I just stumbled upon this unusual site called http://www.freerice.com/

The site provides an opportunity to help the hungry and covertly to expand your vocabulary.  For every word you correctly identify 10 grains of rice are donated.  Each time you get a word wrong it tells you the correct answer and lowers the difficulty.  As you get more write the difficulty goes up.

So for all those wordsmith social activists this is the site for you.

A new internet friend  of mine Peep Laja, an Estonian who found himself in the United Arab Emerates and is now galavanting around the world creating interesting websites.  The latest is for all the catlovers out there.  Catpert!  http://www.catpert.com

In my last post I talked about Malcolm Cohan and his coming to Minnesota.  I also said he was re-editing some of his earlier works.  Well today he just released one of the them.  It’s awesome.   It speaks to what he’s up to.

I just love the backdrop this round.