Join a tribe in Fiji!
 Ever wanted to live on an island rather than watching it on Survivor every week? Here's your chance. TribeWanted.com is looking for 5,000 adventurers to join their "tribe" on a remote Fijian island. The goal is to create a sustainable, ecological community both online and on Adventure Island, an actual island in Fiji. By joining the tribe you effectively buy a "timeshare" on the island based on 3 membership levels -- prices are $220/$440/$660, which includes membership for 1-3 years, and a 1/2/3 week stay on the island including all meals and accomodations. Membership means you are a voting member on all decisions made as the community is built, even when you're not on the island. You can even nominate yourself to be one of the 12 tribal leaders, if you're so inclined. The tribe is limited to a total of 5,000 members, and no more than 100 people will be allowed on the island at any one time. Check out the website for details -- this idea has great potential for any adventurer!
 
Learn Out Loud
 Check out Learn Out Loud, a huge new directory of learning podcasts. There are over 10,000 educational MP3 downloads, podcasts, and DVD videos, as well as free audio books, lectures, speeches, language learning podcasts, etc. The sister site, Teach Out Loud, allows you to publish your own content as a podcast, and either sell it or offer it for free.
TUT's Adventure Club
 Launched in 1989 by 2 brothers and their cool mom, the TUT Website believes that everyone's special, that every life is meaningful, and that we're all here to learn that dreams really do come true. They also believe that "thoughts become things", and that imagination is the gift that can bring love, health, abundance and happiness into our lives. The site features all kinds of inspirational products, but our favorite offering is the daily "Notes from the Universe" email, which you can get by taking their adventurer oath. We're constantly surprised by the content of these emails, which have an uncanny ability to say just the thing you need to hear on a given day.
Your treadmill may power the world
 Think how many millions of people go to the gym every day and expend energy pushing, pulling, climbing, and running in place. What if we could harness that energy to actually power the city? The Notions of Expenditure project is a request for proposals to re-design exercise equipment to generate and store energy; and/or retrofit gyms to function as local power sources linked to the grid. Perhaps inspired by the children's merry-go-rounds in South Africa that also pump water, there are other researchers working to generate energy from the use of swings, teetertotters, and merry-go-rounds, which may one day turn our playgrounds into generators.
Not everyone that disagrees with you is an idiot
 Check out the Red Blue Project, a website response to the increasingly bitter and polarized public discourse in this country. Watch their commercials on hot topics like abortion, gay marriage, and gun control, with the tagline "Not everyone that disagrees with you is an idiot." As their mission states, "If you treat your opponent with disrespect it's only human nature for them to treat you the same way. And then the heels dig in further and the stereotypes become more deeply ingrained and pretty soon what may have started as an intelligent discussion becomes a shouting match." Great links to intelligent discussions on voting smart, being passionate while keeping an open mind, and the pitfalls of partisan thinking.
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