Friday, November 30, 2012

it's the Long Emergency... gently coming into view.. spreading everywhere soon...

The global oil predicament, climate change, and other shocks to the system, with implications for how we will live in the decades ahead.
James Howard Kunstler The Long Emergency: Surviving the End of Oil, Climate Change, and Other Converging Catastrophes of the Twenty-First Century
Greeks turn to the forests for fuel as winter nears | World news | The Guardian: "Greeks turn to the forests for fuel as winter nears
As austerity tightens its grip, many of the middle class find themselves in a desperate struggle to make ends meet"

Climate change is happening now – a carbon price must followThe extreme weather events of 2012 are what we have been warning of for 25 years, but the answer is plain to see - James Hansen




Thursday, November 29, 2012

We live in interesting (Media) times...

It's a very tough line between "press freedom" (see how some of the daft tabloids like to define "public interest") and ensuring powerful publications are held to account when they do "bad things" (it's sad their readers apparently don't boycott them - whatever they do).

There will be lots of arguing about "statutory underpinning" so that any regulator will have some teeth (e.g. currently Desmond's papers walked away from the PCC - showing how easy it is to just ignore it).

However.. today's piece by Emily Bell provides great context:
"Lord Justice Leveson more than once referred to the internet as "the elephant in the room". Leveson is in fact more like the tea hut in the elephant sanctuary by that measure. The scope of the work puts him in self-imposed isolation from what is happening in the wider world of information." 
http://m.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/nov/28/leveson-irrelevant-21st-century-journalism


Friday, November 16, 2012

If I vote for you - you won't win!

It seems I'm keeping up my near 100% record of never voting for a wining candidate in any election (Vince Cable in Twickers is the exception which proves the rule).
Impressive 13.3% turnout - way to go people!


Julia MulliganNorth Yorkshire PCC election: Julia Mulligan winsConservative Julia Mulligan has been elected as North Yorkshire's first police and crime commissioner (PCC).
Mrs Mulligan, a former local councillor and school governor, beat Labour's Ruth Potter by 47,885 votes to 34,328 votes.
The result comes after a low turnout, with figures showing just 13.3% of the electorate went to the polls. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-york-north-yorkshire-20349102


Monday, October 01, 2012

Guardian's: 50 months to save the world – interactive





 Interesting looking resource:
"The world has 50 months to go before the dice become loaded against us in terms of keeping under a 2C temperature rise. We asked Guardian readers and public figures what they would do to lead us out of this climate predicament. From mass protest to pensions to personal carbon targets, here are their suggestions "
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/interactive/2012/oct/01/50-months-climate-interactive
50 months Rob HopkinsI've read a couple, Rob Hopkins (Transition Towns Project) is as always sane, balanced and serious. He's a hero - kind of like a Tim Berners-Lee in that he has quietly created a movement/model which can be adopted/adapted golobally. Wouldn't it be great if it caught on like the WWW.

"The question here is "what should we do differently?" The answer is: pretty much just about everything. Nationally and internationally, while the scale and pace of climate change are accelerating, meaningful responses are dwindling. Part of our collective paralysis comes from the fact that we struggle to imagine a world with less energy, less consumerism, less annual GDP growth. What will it look like, sound like, feel like? Does it inevitably mean that you should start seeking out your cave on Dartmoor as we speak, and developing a taste for slugs? Of course not."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2012/oct/01/50-months-rob-hopkins




Digging David Byrne and St. Vincent: Love This Giant

http://lovethisgiant.com/

I've been enjoying new David Byrne project Love This Giant - his collaberation with St. Vincent.


More info here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Love_This_Giant

I agree with this: "a skewed and funky instant classic."
The Independent's Andy Gill[21] and Simmy Richman[22] consider the brass instrumentation the greatest strength of the album with the latter declaring the work "a skewed and funky instant classic."
 Worth checking out. I've been listening on the great (yet audio quality challenged) Rdio.

Friday, August 31, 2012

Second Test

David BowieDavid Robert Jones, known by his stage name David Bowie, is an English musician, actor, record producer and arranger. Wikipedia

Test Post


David BowieDavid Robert Jones, known by his stage name David Bowie, is an English musician, actor, record producer and arranger. Wikipedia

Thursday, August 30, 2012

Took Charlie and some of his friends to see Brave today.
Great fun - better than any of us had expected - well worth a watch.
Lovely short beforehand too.

Wednesday, August 01, 2012

Test Post on Blogger

Hoping this gets auto posted to G+