Exactly a week, almost to the hour, after the end of our experience chez Jimmy’s Farm, I was helping a farmer friend with a little challenge:

1. There is a field with some cows in it.
2. We have some hurdles.
3. We need to make a pen.
4. We need to herd the cows into the pen.
5. We need to select the small bull from the herd, and put it into a trailer.

The small bull (let’s call him Randy) we needed was following around a big old cow called Rita, who was the most fertile of the herd. She also had a calf. So if we focus on getting the calf into the pen (which was easy enough to build), then Rita would follow, and Randy would follow Rita.

It worked a treat. We moved nice and slowly and let them take their time, stood in the right places to funnel them suitably, and then swooped quickly to pull the hurdles together, to close the opening we’d made to let them into the pen.

So there we all are. Rita, her calf, and Randy all in the pen together. Tidy job, plenty of time left to spare.

“Are these going to be OK without a pin [to hold the hurdles together]?” I asked the very experienced farmer, who shall not be named.

“No, that’ll be fine. Come and hold the gate here whilst I drive him out.” And since the hurdles are pretty heavy, and appeared to the eye to be closed, it seemed like a reasonable assertion.

I went to do the gate. Nameless Farmer started moving the cows towards the gate. Randy turns … and bolts out of the pen the way he’d come in, straight through the unpinned hurdles.

Alas I’m contractually prevented from telling you quite how similar this was to the events of a week before, but I just wanted to salve my indefatigably tiresome ego by telling this story of how the seasoned professionals make mistakes, too.

It’s also worth mentioning, again for the sake of my ego if nothing else, that things only become problems if you don’t have the nous – or have not allowed yourself sufficient time – to rectify them.  We simply had a longer-than-expected chat, repeated what we’d done before, rounded them up, got them in the pen, pinned it, put the bull in the trailer, and were home in time for dinner.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Z2z2k4LoYQ

The only words I can think of which would fully express my disappointment would be a hex to melt all consumers of bottled water within 2 miles of a tap. Alas, I don’t know any. Maybe the benzene will get them.

Summary of Art of the Start, by Guy Kawasaki

• It operates 8 nuclear power stations in the UK
• It is the world’s largest corporate producer of toxic nuclear waste behind the US and Canada
• Its claims around “low-carbon energy” actually refer to nuclear power that has generated 1420 tonnes of high level nuclear waste that will remain a toxic threat to the environment for hundreds of years.
• Only 1% of EDF’s generation capacity in the UK comes from Renewables (Nuclear = 66%, Coal = 28%, Gas = 5%).
• EDF’s electricity generated from their coal fired power stations is responsible for over 20m tonnes of CO2 emissions.
• Over the last 6 years EDF spent a yearly average of £4.98 per customer building new green energy – this puts them in 5th place amongst the ‘Big 6′

Start with the  Darkroom event reel, and be sure, too, to check out their Projections at Kimberley.

“For instance, on the planet Earth, man had always assumed that he was more intelligent than dolphins because he had achieved so much – the wheel, New York, wars and so on – whilst all the dolphins had ever done was muck about in the water having a good time. But conversely, the dolphins had always believed that they were far more intelligent than man – for precisely the same reasons.”

Doulas Adams, The Hitch-hikers Guide to the Galaxy

Robin creates some of the most awesome visual I’ve ever seen. Check these out, and then if you have the means, hire them. Epic.

Battle of Branchage from seeper and Flat E .

ACDC Vs Iron Man 2 – Architectural Projection Mapping on Rochester Castle.

Cooperation = Shared Commitment  x  (Mutual trust + Common interest)

via  New Start

Leaders at the G20 summit in Canada agree the richest members will halve their budget deficits within three years.  (BBC News)

They beg the questions

1. Where is all that money coming from (or not going to)?
   Are they going to be creating wealth and making savings (“G20 stop being consummate consumers”), or will they just call on those countries who are in debt to them? (“G20 agree to deepen economic sorrows of the globally worst off”).
2. If they can do that, why didn’t they do it before, or not get into the situation in the first place? (“G20 agree to do their job properly at last”)
3. Why does it take agreement to make it happen? (“G20 members lack the courage to act alone, and are reassured by their cartel membership”)

All rather negative for a Monday morning, on what should be a good news story. Sorry.

Already there are a few great examples of what this data can do:

Stefan Wehrmeyer (who is looking for a job, if you have one going) has made a few great examples showing CCTV footage from along a specific route, and another showing access times using night buses.

The last few nights we’ve slept upstairs on the open deck so see stars above us, hear the river below us, and the birdsong and chirping crickets all around. It is serene, and it is beautiful. In the mornings the dawn chorus is simply huge. It’s like being awakened by the Anvil Chorus every morning, but sung by ten thousand beautiful, happy, hungry, enchanting birds.

When the sun rises over the trees, the day goes from “just about perfect beneath a loose duvet” to “amazing lying on top of a warm duvet”.

As I sit here writing this now in the cool of the evening, the bluetits are still racing to feed their young in the nest in the rafters behind me, swooping through the beams to leave the hanger with a speed and prowess to match any escaping Jedi.

In the last few days we have herded and sheared sheep,

had our weekly visit from the butcher, an archetype of French conviviality and happiness, who tosses out bones to the dogs whenever he pulls up,

drunk a homebrewed eau-de-vie made from nuts, put a roof on a barn (tip of the day, in case you didn’t know this one already: use superglue to fix cuts, especially deep ones which would otherwise require stitching. It’s great. 3 days later my ankle, which I cut to the shin about 2″ long, is in tip-top shape), seen new born lambs, ducks (update: An evil duck has eaten some of the baby ducks. Who knew ducks would do that?) , and puppies,

eaten another magnificent meal with Marie-Claude and Jojo -- fried duck this time, had a picnic at the top of the world,

www.youtube.com/watch?v=IurARyozEN4

made edlerflower cordial, learned how to bend and make animals collars from strips of ash, picked wild strawberries,

eaten some of our early peas, eaten our own strawberries, picked cherries from a neighbours tree, related tales of falling off mountains over evening pastis,

made soup, boiled the kettle, heated a room, and germinated seeds in one go,

learned how to earth up potatoes with a horse from our neighbours who do this on a field down the road in Chein Dessus,

had a barbecue with our families who came to stay, which was rather lovely,

been to whichever of our many local markets (one every day of the week, somewhere less than 25 minutes away),

leapt for joy,

and many many more wonderful experiences.

You only have to turn around or look up to be overwhelmed by the wonder of life here. Pause for even a second and you will hear birdsong, cowbells, bleating lambs, the river churning away, smell the kiwi fruit or the honeyed orange of the philadelphus, see ten thousand shades of green, savour the skills of the paysan craftsmen who worked the wood of this barn, see the balancing and distribution of energy as the clouds drift over the valley, the power of nature embodied by the mountain pushed up by Spain inching northward …

We are so lucky to be able to live this blended life wherein we can both go “to the woods to live deliberately, and suck the very marrow out of life” and still pick a rich harvest from global culture and stay in touch with all of you.

BP were just unlucky to be the first to screw up since social media and an increased awareness of the environment.

Many vow not to buy BP petrol or products again and express visceral anger towards the oil firm.

BBC News – Just how angry are people at BP?

I agree wholeheartedly with a boycott of oil products and oil use, but don’t target one company, target them all — which is to say, target your own behaviours.

We all caused this, and we should begin by recognising our role and taking responsibility for our actions.

Source: http://www.springwise.com/retail/chocolatebond/

WhipCar enables London car owners to rent out their cars while they’re not using them. There is no registration fee to use the site’s online booking system, and owners set their own prices. WhipCar notifies owners by text and email when there is an approved driver in their area who wants to use their car; both cars and drivers are screened by WhipCar before a booking is completed. Every trip, meanwhile, is fully insured through a comprehensive insurance package that temporarily replaces the owner’s existing insurance for the duration of hire. Following the end of a rental, both owners and drivers have the chance to rate each other.

Source: http://www.springwise.com/automotive/whipcar/

And finally, very similar to something we saw here in France recently where a distiller sets up in the village and locals bring barrels of fermented fruit to be turned into eau de vie, a British company has created a truck offering mobile bottling for small brewers.  It’s a full bottling service for other brewers as well, including everything from pre-production bottle washing through a range of bottle capping options, labelling and finally shrink-wrapping.

Source: http://www.springwise.com/food_beverage/tomwood/

The Vatican is planning a new initiative to reach out to atheists and agnostics in an attempt to improve the church's relationship with non-believers. Pope Benedict XVI has ordered officials to create a new foundation where atheists will be encouraged to meet and debate with some of the Catholic Church's top theologians.

via Vatican reaches out to atheists – but not you, Richard Dawkins – The Independent.

So let’s see.. according to the Kubler-Ross model, the 5 stages of grief – such as you might go through when mourning the death of your God or your power – are:

Pope prepares boozy Prozac binge for stage 4

1. Denial <– ‘The Colosseum lions will not hurt me, for I am with the Lord”, 3rd Century
2. Anger <– Inquisitions, 12th – 15th Centuries
3. Bargaining <–  Outreach programme  , 2010
4. Depression
5. Acceptance

So in a few hundred years time, expect to see a rise in alcoholism and Prozac consumption, followed by a mass cashing in when all the property is sold during stage 5.

So consequently I’m not that fussed about having a lot of it, since why would I want to be part of the problem? But within this reasoning there has always been a fear: What if all the solutions required to save ourselves are expensive? Solar panels and medicine can cost a lot of money.

The world’s leading supplier of the anti-diabetes drug insulin is withdrawing a state-of-the-art medication from Greece.

Novo Nordisk, a Danish company, objects to a government decree ordering a 25% price cut in all medicines

via BBC News – Insulin giant pulls medicine from Greece over price cut.

So Greece has run out of money and there’s now a medical crisis. This is both of projections rolled into one: 1) the vagaries of the international finance* has screwed everything up, and 2) the solution is to have more money.

But let’s take a breath, pause a moment, and consider this properly. What happens next?

1. People will do almost anything not to die, so there is a big motivational force to find a solution.
2. There are 50,000 diabetics in Greece, so there are plenty of actors to find a solution.
3. Cheaper solutions must already exist, since Greece is still very rich compared to the rest of the world (GDP: 28th out of 190 countries). And if you read again you’ll see it’s a “state-of-the-art medication” suggesting it’s more expensive that it needs to be.

So really all that needs to happen is that 50,000 Greeks need to get together, find a cheaper solution – possibly manufacturing it themselves if that’s an option, since it would also enable them to sell the product to others at marginal cost – and distribute it in a low-cost method. Crisis averted, culture of dependency diminished, community spirit enhanced, resilience increased, costs lowered. What’s not to love?

But what’s this, right at the end? It seems that this isn’t even necessary!

A spokesman for Novo Nordisk said [...] the company would make available an insulin product called glucagen, free of charge.

So it’s all worked out. Hurrah!

• Huge kudos to Novo Nordisk for being so very civilised when they didn’t need to be.
• Karma points subtracted from all the Greeks who complained because they lost a luxury product.
• Tut-tut to the BBC for taking such an negative angle on what is actually a pretty affirming and optimistic story.

* Yes, you could argue that it’s people and poor money management which has got Greece to this stage, but if you take the cause one step back this would not have happened if we had a more rational economic model, based on something real, and designed to better serve our needs.

The iPad is the Tom Cruise of technology. It looks good, does some things well, but is overpriced, unnecessary, and tries to lock you in to an unbelievably crass belief system.

The only difference between a rut and a grave are the dimensions.

Ellen Glasgow

PS. You’re going to die one day, soon. Bummer, eh?

I want to stay as close to the edge as I can without going over. Out on the edge you see all kinds of things you can’t see from the center.

All those who believe in telekinetics, raise my hand.

Like so many Americans, she was trying to construct a life that made sense from things she found in gift shops.

via Kurt Vonnegut Quotes

The Champs-Elysees, has been covered in earth and turned into a huge green space in an event staged by young French farmers.

Plants, trees and flowers were brought in by lorry overnight to transform the avenue into a long green strip.

More than a million people are expected to visit over the next two days.

The event has been organised by the French Young Farmers to showcase farm production from sheep breeding to crop growing.

The union, which represents some 55,000 farmers under the age of 35, wants to impress on the public – and the government – the efforts required to produce what goes on the table.

“It’s about re-establishing contact with the public about what our profession is and what they want from it,” William Villeneuve, president of the Jeunes Agriculteurs, said on Friday.

via BBC News – French farmers turn Champs-Elysees into huge farm.

1. Thoughts are not reality
2. Focus is important
3. Media influence your view on the world
4. People are good
5. Positive thinking is very powerful
6. Mistakes are good
7. There’s too much stuff
8. Listen to your body
9. Helping others is what counts
10. Being honest

via 10 Things I Learned From 5 Months Of Meditation

The Afghan Conflict – A Map of Possible Scenarios.

Bed Preparation

• Good structure and balanced / plentiful nutrients allow for uninterrupted growth
• First year you do it, allow 1 hour per 1m²
• Second year onwards, allow 30 mins per 1m²
• Ongoing maintenance is about 1.5 mins per 1m²

Initial Preparation

Perform a soil test

1. Soak with sprinkler for 2 days
2. Allow to dry for 2 days
3. Loosen to 12″ deep with a fork and remove weeds
4. Loosen by hand for 5 mins and leave to rest for 1 day. (If there are lots of large clods of soil, leave longer.)
5. Add sand to clay, or clay to sand, to improve the texture. Do not use more than 1″ per foot.
6. Add 1-2″ compost, depending on soil quality
7. Water for 5 mins. Rest 1 day.
8. Double dig (see fig 1.) Note this is only on the first year you prepare your bed. (Contradicts the Dowding No Dig rules!) More information at On a Limb.

Fig 1. Double digging. Dig a 12″ hole, remove soil. Dig a 24″ hole next to it, moving that soil onto your 12″ hole.

Average maximum root depth is 4ft.
A carrot or beetroot is max of about 8-10ft.

• If soil is nutrient deficient, replenish it from external sources, since compost from local plants will also be deficient as the nutrients aren’t in the cycle to start with.
• Aim for
  • 70% ‘compost’ crops: carbon + calories: potatoes, garlic, parsnips, turnips.
  • 30% ‘diet’ crops: calories + carbon: beans, peas, wheat, oats.

Compost

• Compost has two purposes:
  1. Improve soil structure
  2. Add nutrients
• Healthy soil -> healthy plants -> more resistance to disease & attacks
• You should only need to buy in in the first year, if you have weak soil, otherwise your own compost and some crop rotation should do it for you.
• Humus fixes nitrogen in the soil (negatively charged, it attracts and retains positively charged trace elements)
• Roots are surrounded by hydrogen ions, which trade ions with the humus
• Plants pull in nutrients only as required

Making a good compost

It normally takes 3-6 months to make a good compost.

• Normal soil which gives the starter micro-organisms
• Green vegetation including kitchen waste (just no meat or cooked)
• Browns such as cardboard, leaves, twigs / chipped wood

Do NOT use: anything diseased, acidic (eg eucalyptus), very tough, ivy, pernicious weeds, or cat or dog poo.
Speed up by increasing nitrogen levels, amount of air, or surface area. Turn it once during its lifetime to mix it up a little.

Green manures

Cover crops live clover, alfalfa, beans, peas, and other legumes can be grown and dug back into the soil just before maturity. This fixes nitrogen, and breaks down the soil with its roots. They decompose rapidly so you can plant 1 month after digging in.

Fertilisation

1. Build up and balance out the nutrients
2. Keep nutrients in-the-lop by composting
3. Use enough nutrients, water, and compost.

• Buy and use a soil test kit. Professional testing is better than a home kit and worth it on land you’d like to keep working on.
• “Sow thistle” and “red clover” can stimulate poor soil.
• It is worth growing some organic produce solely for compost (eg nettles), since plants need:

Seed Fertilisation

• Plant seeds as deep as they are high (ie not very)
• If there’s an eye on the bean, point it downwards
• Diagonally offset to get the maximum use of the space. This also minimising watering.
• Growing mix: 50% compost, 50% soil. Maybe some sand to break it up.
• Transplanting: be gentle, and protect from strong sun. Water it a little.
• When you plant out, bury the seedling so that its first set of ‘starter’ leaves lie beneath the soil.
• Save some seedlines to back-fill ones which don’t make it.

Watering

• Gently
• A few hours before sunset
• Think what the plant needs, eg tomatos and pumpkins will need a lot of water. Beans, less so.

Planning your garden

Ask advice and opinions from neighbours, local agricultural agents, and local nurseries.

• Which veg grow well?
• When is the main planting season?
• When are the first and last hard frosts?
• Are there any special requirements for my soil?
• Special climatic conditions? (eg hailstorms in May)? And any tips on planning for this?

Garden plan, year by year:

1. Basic. Small, easy crops.
2. Double the area, and try some harder crops.
3. Add trees, herbs, strawberries, asparagus into worked soil
   Add another area.
4. Use your acquired skills to compact your garden area (not yoiur output)
   Grow protein and fibre crops, or special interest, eg bamboo.

Ed’s note: This is different from forest / permaculture gardening, which suggests planting a little faster, since some things are going to take time to develop. First plant your fruit trees at normal intervals, then interplanting with dwarf fruits, then shrubs, then herbaceous, then roots, then ground cover, then vertical.

• Plant twice as many seedlings as required. Plant out the strongest.
• Plant both late and early varieties
• Site your beds to have 11+ hours of sun
• Draw and maintain your plans

Companion Planting

• The best way to companion plant is just to have a lot of biodiversity.
• Think about physical companions:
  • Sun / shade
  • Shallow / deep rooting
  • Fast / slow maturing
  • Vertical location of the edible portion

There are big long lists of companion plants and I’m not going to type them all out here! If you have a specific pest, look it up and you’ll find something which deals with it.

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_beneficial_weeds
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_companion_plants

General good ones are:

• Lemon balm: attracts bees, smells great
• Marjoram
• Oregano
• Nettle: tea, soup, used in oils, and good compost.
• Valerian: good for you, increasing phosphorous activity
• Chamomile: concentrates nutrients in the soil
• Dandelion: increases aromatic quality of local herbs
• Oak: concentrates calcium in its bark

Crop rotation

Rotate crops (over the years, obviously) to replenish nitrogen levels

• Heavy givers (N++)
  • Legumes
  • Peas
  • Clover
  • Alfalfa
  • Fava beans
• Light Feeders (N-)
  • Turnips
  • Sweet potatoes
  • Green peppers
• Heavy feeders (N–)
  • Corn
  • Tomatoes
  • Pumpkin
  • Lettuce
  • Cabbage

Balanced ecosystem

• For every problem, there is a reason, and a cure

Ed note: Permaculture mantra: the problem is the solution

Strong, healthy plants are the beset defence against insects. It is the soil which is likely to be at the root (ha ha!) of the problem:

• aerated?
• enough nutrients?
• enough / too much compost?
• pH correct?
• proper transplanting?
• right amount of water?
• effective weeding?
• enough sun?
• right season?

1. Use seeds from / for the local soil and climate
2. Use hardy straings
3. Companion plant
4. Crop rotate

Use predators

• Birds like moving water, bushes and trees, and plants with tasty seeds
• Frogs like ponds
• Ladybirds love aphids
• A 10% crop loss / damage is a) fair enough, really, and b) good for the crops since it keeps them keen (like pruning)
• Use barriers: copper, white tree paint
• Hand pick and don’t use pesticides
• Spraying natural sprays works. Go with aromatic for the chewers and with soapy for the suckers

Source: How to Grow More Vegetables (than you ever thought possible on less land that you can imagine)

via Is permaculture economically viable?

Iceland, Eyjafjallajökull – May 1st and 2nd, 2010

Switzerland, which has the largest reserves of fresh water, must be getting nervous. And it makes Spain’s investment in renewable energies and solar technology look even more sensible, since they’ll be able to use it for desalination and pumping.

Make no mistake, if you thought people have kicked up quite a fuss over ideologies and economics over the past century, you might wonder what they’ll do when the very staples of their lives are threatened.

This, in part, is the reason why I can see no more important purpose in the (my) world than growing food sustainably, and community building.

Update 15/05/10: Salt killing crops, driving migration in storm-hit southern Bangladesh – Worsening sea water storm surges and overuse of irrigation have left fields, wells and ponds in parts of southern Bangladesh too salty to grow crops, leading to a growing exodus of farmers from the region. Last year Singh got a ton of rice from his land. This year he may get less than a tenth of that amount. “I am very much worried how I will feed my family members this year,” he said. Thousands of farmers are becoming landless and migrating elsewhere within or outside of Bangladesh, residents said. Many farmers tell of neighbours who have left for Dhaka, Bangladesh’s capital, or for neighbouring India over the last six months to a year.

(recreated from Alain de Botton’s book of the same name)

Tip: If you get more than £200,000 per year you could probably be running things more ethically.

Hooray! Listen – you’ve heard my comment, which is one word. It’s the first time you’ve had a one word statement and it is, hooray. And I’ll repeat it.

Paddy Ashdown

BBC News – New government: Reaction in quotes.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=nCgQDjiotG0

Never doubt that a small, group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has. — Margaret Mead

www.youtube.com/watch?v=T6MhAwQ64c0

www.youtube.com/watch?v=rU-6r4zznp4

This is where I just had a melon and kiwi breakfast. Every single day we make a choice how we want to live. Every. Single. Day. We have spare beds and open arms.

EXPLAIN YOUR RELATIONSHIP WITH YOUR CO-APPLICANT.

Ali and I have been going out for about a year now. She’s lovely. Such a great friend and ally to have in this adventure. We compliment (and complement) each other well. We think alike, yet sufficiently differently to make a good team.

WHAT IS YOUR OCCUPATION?  PLEASE DESCRIBE:

I help clients make better use of the internet to perform their business. Mainly this means building websites or pointing them in the right direction; but more interestingly also means things like building web applications to do clever things and process information, and to help them adapt their business models to better suit the internet market.

I designed the application which helps London manage its emergencies, for example. That was fun.

HAVE YOU EVER BEEN FIRED?

No. But I do also ensure I only do good things for good people.

WHAT MAKES YOU THINK YOU’RE RIGHT FOR THIS PROGRAMME?  PLEASE EXPLAIN ANY  HOBBIES, EMPLOYMENT OR EXPERIENCE YOU THINK MIGHT INTEREST US.

I’d like to run a small farm, and I think you’d could have fun in the edit suite with me. There’s enough in what I say to make me sound like a public school idiot or a renaissance zen genius.

My hobbies are generally learning and thinking, perhaps whilst out for bike ride or a run.

I hold a world record for the fastest time across the Channel in a dragon boat.

WHAT DO YOU ENJOY ABOUT THE RURAL LIFE?

Birdsong. And simple chaos. It’s a beautiful complex system obeying such simple rules. It’s so elegant. Violent yet serene, hostile yet welcoming, thrifty yet abundant. I think the more we can live in the way we’ve evolved to live, the happier we will be. Living from the earth makes me happy.

WHAT DO YOU THINK WILL BE THE MOST CHALLENGING ASPECTS OF RUNNING A FARM?

Working when it’s cold and dark. I’m not so good under those conditions. But as trade-offs go, it’s pretty good. I used to cycle across London to get to work when it was cold and wet, so I’d rather be in those conditions on a farm than.. well anywhere.

IS THERE AN ASPECT OF OWNING A FARM THAT PARTICULARLY APPEALS TO YOU?

Mind and body working in harmony to accomplish the same goal. Farm life is pretty much the very definition of the experience one feels when in “the zone”. Using wisdom, judgement, and insight to do the right thing at the right time to make the biggest difference.

Of course, right now I’m pretty naive and unaware of what the “right thing” to do is, but I’ll learn.

HAVE YOU EVER LIVED ON A SMALLHOLDING OR FARM BEFORE?

No, but I grew up in the country so have been mucking out horses, wielding chainsaws, and butchering roadkill since I was about 7. I have always sought out the country life, and we are currently living in a barn in the French Pyrenees, teaching ourselves the practicalities of permaculture.

DO YOU THINK YOU WOULD BE GOOD AT THE BUSINESS SIDE OF RUNNING A FARM?  IF SO,  WHY?

I think that very much depends on the type of farm and the type of market we’re operating in; and if our goals are to maximise profits, or simply stay healthy and in business.

I’d like to think I have the wherewithal to work out a lot of it, but also the wisdom to realise there is a huge amount I know I don’t know.

IN AN IDEAL WORLD, WHAT WOULD YOU LIKE THE FARM’S CORE BUSINESS TO BE?  I.E. PIG  REARING / APPLE ORCHARDS / FREE RANGE EGGS.

In an ideal world, I’d like for there not to be a ‘core’ business. It seems to me that farms have the opportunity to be an excellent model of resilient efficiency where outputs become inputs, waste is minimised, land use optimised, and as much as possible is producing as much as possible for as much as possible of the year.

So in an ideal world, I’d like to demonstrate that permaculture can be run at a farm scale, and provide a working model for small farmers facing changing times.

WHAT ARE YOUR AMBITIONS?

Hell, I’ve rather blown my load on that previous question! My ambitions are simple: live a nice simple life, sustainably and in keeping with my ethics, and work to help others achieve the same. It strikes me as a colossal tragedy that although we have come so far and accomplished so much as a species, and have such incredible intelligence and capabilities, and yet we seem to be content to rest with the most inefficient, poorly designed systems to underpin our societies. We have a huge gap between ‘what we do’ and ‘what we know to be the smarter way’. Our whole world is permeated with unbelievably weak answers to very simple problems. It’s embarrassing.

I’d like to help tidy up.

WHOSE OR WHAT JOB WOULD YOU MOST LIKE?

I’d like to be the Chinese Premier. Imagine the difference you could make to the future of the world. HUGE. Absolutely HUGE. And because it’s not really very democratic, that better future can begin right now – no messing about, just pure action. 1.3bn people working for good. EPIC. That’s a LOT of scientists working on solar power and algae systems.

ARE YOU A VEGETARIAN OR VEGAN?

No, but I don’t eat a lot of meat. If buying meat I try to buy only from sources I trust to be local and well cherished.

HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT BEING PART OF A PROCESS WHICH INVOLVES THE SLAUGHTER OF ANIMALS FOR FOOD?

In principle, not a problem at all. I eat meat and have killed and butchered animals myself, so it’s just the same. If it’s a battery farm, for example, or the conditions are clearly not as good a they should be, then it’s very uncool. I doubt you’d be filming such conditions though, so I suspect we’re good.

IF SELECTED YOU WILL HAVE TO SPEND UP TO 6 WEEKS AWAY FROM HOME, LIVING WITH YOUR  CO-­‐APPLICANT IN A CARAVAN.  THE OTHER CONTRIBUTORS WILL ALSO BE LIVING NEARBY.  HOW  DO YOU THINK YOU WILL COPE WITH THIS?

I boarded at public school, so spent 5 years doing much the same. I suspect it will be quite good fun – living closely with other people in the past always has been.

HOW DO YOU THINK YOU WOULD COPE WITH BEING CONSTANTLY FILMED FOR UP TO 6 WEEKS?

I’m expecting it to be a little peculiar for a few days, getting slightly paranoid and then spinning out on the concept once or twice (I mean, a team of people, filming everything, for 6 weeks? What a weirdly awesome planet!) but after that I’m guessing they’ll just fade into the background.

WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU WILL FIND MOST DIFFICULT ABOUT BEING AWAY FROM HOME FOR UP TO 6 WEEKS?

Missing my own garden. I’ve lived away from home a lot, but only recently have I had a garden.

HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE YOUR CHARACTER?  HOW WOULD OTHERS DESCRIBE YOU?

Normally this is a really difficult question, but I did a Johari experiment about 18 months ago so have the answers!

I’d describe myself as competent, idealistic, ingenious, logical, trustworthy, and generally quite relaxed.

Others would add energetic, independent, spontaneous, helpful, and intelligent.

http://kevan.org/johari?view=dowding

ARE YOU A TEAM PLAYER OR DO YOU WORK BEST WORK ALONE?

That depends on the job. If it’s something for one person, I’m good on my own. If it’s a task which is better accomplished by more than one person, or made more fun to be working together, then team up.

WHAT RELEVANT TV PROGRAMMES DO YOU WATCH?

Very few. We don’t own a TV so, not much. “The Edible Gardener” is probably the only relevant thing we’ve watched of late.

We are now a 3 party country

John Humphries, Today, Radio 4

We have been a 3 party country all my life. More than that, in fact. The media has failed to represent this truth fairly and is now acting surprised like it’s not their fault that the LibDems haven’t been taken seriously.

When people are directly presented with what they say, and can compare it with the other parties on like-for-like terms, they can make their own decisions.

It turns out that you’re all a lot more reasonable and progressive than your media companies think you are.

Music muchos gracias to the overwhelmingly talented Nathaniel Slade (Licence)

A TAZ is the socio-political tactic of creating temporary spaces that elude formal structures of control – the best way to create a non-hierarchical system of social relationships is to concentrate on the present and on releasing one’s own mind from the controlling mechanisms that have been imposed on it.

Temporary Autonomous Zone, by Hakim Bey

As with most questions with only two allowed answers, the real answer is “almost certainly both, and neither.”

We have plenty of resources, if only we were to use them properly.

Whichever model we choose we have to start from where we are right now with the resources we have right now.

The long-term intention is to end up in a better future where more people are more genuinely happy, and our use of resources is indefinitely sustainable. (If at least these two conditions are not met, what’s the point, right?)

So whichever model we use will start with the same resources and end up with the same goal.

The model we choose to use will be a collection of mechanisms we design for the express purpose of getting us to our goal as quickly as possible, with as little resource waste and negative side-effects as humanly possible.

The current mechanisms we use have not been designed to help us meet these goals. The current economic model was designed to solve historic problems. It is not a model which has these common goals woven into it. It is merely a short-term historic legacy to which we should not feel beholden, and possibly do so at our peril. It is of our own invention, and we are free to discard it any time we like. Indeed, when the going gets tough (pick more or less any situation you like in which lives are at stake), people almost invariably do discard it as being incapable of solving their most pressing problems.

So as Keynes himself said, “When the facts change, I change my mind. What do you do, sir?”

I’m not suggest that I have an answer. (Though I do know that the growth / no-growth debate is a false dichotomy: what about faster? or more complex? Both of those would deliver more for less.) Some of the mechanisms we use may not even exist yet, but that is not to say that we can not plan for them. We should be – and are right now – discussing their parameters and their goals. We should consider and inform ourselves and others about what other options are available to us. Where could our inventiveness take us, if only enough people knew about it and saw that it was a better way?

I’m off to read about the Steady Sate Economy

In response to a debate on Facebook started by Daniel Tagioff talking about Why we need a world without economic growth in The Guardian

Capitalism is “the astonishing belief that the nastiest motives of the nastiest men somehow or other work for the best results in the best of all possible worlds.”

via John Maynard Keynes – Wikiquote.

http://www.guardianangelservices.co.uk

http://www.mindmyhouse.com

http://www.vagabondish.com/8-tools-travel-long-term-live-rent-free/

Via Webecoist

Note, of course, that this does not mean they’re minted, just that they get some money from them.

See also: http://www.followthemoney.eu/

1. The act itself must be good
2. The bad effect cannot be the means to good
3. You must have a good intention. The bad bit must be a side-effect.
4. Total good must be greater than total bad.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Principle_of_double_effect

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Redesign of a Government Form: $5,000 Top Prize
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http://sunlightlabs.com/contests/designforamerica/

Because humans are hard-wired for religion, it must be reformed rather than refuted to better fit the modern world.

People are genetically preprogrammed to be pious because it confers a selective advantage that enhances reproductive success.

If it were so hard-wired, it would be more universal, surely? Unless we’re suggesting it’s only hard wired in some people, an accident of parental convergence like blue eyes, or a disease like Down’s syndrome.

So what is it a factor of?

A growing body of psycho-sociological research has already overturned conventional wisdom as it uncovers the actual leading cause of popular faith: dysfunctional socioeconomic conditions [...] It has long been known that prosperity and security tend to suppress religiosity—that’s why the Bible warns against the spiritual dangers posed by material wealth [...] The U.S. has the highest financial inequality, is the only Western country without universal health coverage and scores the lowest on the Successful Societies Scale. In no other advanced democracy are cities afflicted by such high rates of murder and juvenile mortality, or are ordinary citizens subject to sudden financial ruin because of overwhelming medical bills.

So that’s that question answered. Belief in God gives the hopeless hope.

The question that remains is why is Islam doing so well? The article suggests that part of the reason is the birth rate, and quite right, too. I can think of one other (less) reasonable explanation. (It’s pretty crappy reasoning, too, but then if you’re happy with ‘God’ as an answer, you’re going to be subject to that kind of error.)

1. It’s a risk thing. People in more secure countries believe less in God and attend mainly as Christmas-Easterians. They still tend to describe themselves as Christians, though, never fully forsaking their belief. Why? You could reason that since non-believers go to hell, and obeisance comes at such low cost, that it makes sense it maintain a nominal belief so that you can survive St.Peter’s interrogation at the pearly gates.
2. But which God? If you’re going to believe in a God, which one should you believe in? There are lots to choose from. The Christian God is believed to be forgiving and all-knowing, so not only is she going to see through your pseudo-belief, she’s also going to forgive you for trying to trick her. So there’s no need to believe in this God. What about the thunder God, Thor? If we’re doing a risk assessment we should consider likelihood of occurrence: no one believes in Thor any more, so the chances are that he never really existed; following that logic, we should spend our time mitigating the risk against the religions which are most popular and most long lasting. And from that shortlist there’s only one who’s really very likely to send you to hell, and that’s Allah.
3. So if you’re going to take Pascal’s wager, go for Islam.

Anyway, it’s good to see this being talked about in the USA. The media pressure on the Pope is good to see, too. It feels like that time in the electoral cycle where journalists spill all the dirt they have on the incumbent Government forcing it to collapse. Religion has served its purpose and is now getting in the way. It’s 2010, let’s kick away the crutches and get going.

WSJ via ViewsFlow

Update 12th April:

The Successful Societies Scale came up with these very interesting graphs: