Links: A Call to Farms, meaningless involvement, Doodle for Google, Obama on internet transparency and LINKS

David Barrie writes this wonderful post about alternative US Midwestern culture, social media, government and social inclusion.

A Call to Farms is one of the best books I’ve read so far this year. It’s a series of essays linked to a journey that a group of people took in 2008 through Illinois and Wisconsin in search of the Radical Midwest: places, people, community groups, artists, social activists who offer alternatives to “business as usual” in the land of corn and greed. (You’ll find the project blog here; and the Midwest Draft Flickr pool here.”

Is Local Always Better? asks Rob Greenland, as he considers the Conservative’s new take on Local Government:

“If a decision is taken in a way that makes it difficult for you to have a meaningful involvement, it doesn’t matter whether that decision is taken 2 miles or 200 miles from your house.  I think a more fundamental rethink of how we make decisions about local priorities is required.   I don’t have the solution, but a celebrity mayor and a few more bureaucrats moving in down the road won’t solve things on their own.”

My earlier quick thinking was the proposals are not local enough.

Google Doodle

Doodle for Google: Above Dan Rowe’s take on his community in Cornwall:

G: A surfer on a wave. O: The cornish flag. O: An ice cream. G: King Arthur’s sword in the stone. L: A cornish tin mine chimney. E: A man eating a traditional cornish pasty”

Hat tip Steel&Stevens and Lauren.

Watch this (courtesy of Paul Canning)

[youtube]o5t8GdxFYBU[/youtube]

and always remember what Billt says.