I just wanted to see it again in print...

Could Gordon Brown save the Earth from climate change?

If only to see the words 'Gordon Brown' in the same sentence with 'save'.

At least it has my favourite qualifier to kick off.

Hearts & Minds

... and how not to win them (again... and again..)

Binmen refused to collect bin three inches out of position

'Management will be taking steps to ensure this never happens again.'

Now, call me cynical, but what's the betting...

Oh, Blogger

They say the most valued 'customer' is one who complains.

Well, there's one step up from that: one who writes in to help.

From Dave at Solarventi:

Don’t know what the cause might be, but Junkk.blogspot is fine with firefox, but now seems to freeze on any attempt I make to open it using internet explorer. Maybe some of the new bits and bobs you have added in are not compatible with IE? If so, it will radically reduce your readership as 95%+ of the planet’s www users are still using IE. It does the same on two machines here, one running XP and one running Win2000. Might be worth asking someone else using IE to try?

Well, I recently added some 'add this' scripts that may have been the cause, and they are now gone.

I then tried my Mac on IE. It worked...sort of. No freezing, but the page layout was all over the show, and the typeface seems to have defaulted to some 'all caps' job. It's fine on Safari and FireFox.

Readable, but not optimal on IE then.

Now tried two PCs on IE and...phew, it works fine.

With luck it was those new scripts.

Otherwise I'd have been left with asking Blogger to help with IE. Not a prospect to relish:)

QUOTE OF THE DAY - So it must be true

Climate change is shrinking sheep

On the brighter side.... smaller sheep: less methane? Ain't evolution wunnerful?

"But it's too early to say if, in 100 years, we will have chihuahuas herding pocket-sized sheep."

However, on past and present evidence, I am prepared to bet there may be an attempt.

The law vs. the environment.

Often not a happy balance.

As with 'the economy' and the environment.

With my dear old Mum now ensconced, if not yet very happily, in her new nursing home, I have found myself still diverted with the consequences and fallout, and look to be a while yet.

One major aspect is the funding of her care which, thanks to her being over the £23,000 assets (inc. property value. The temptation to flog the cottage and buy a Ferrari is hard to resist in this new 'tax the saver to pay the squanderer' world) limit, is pretty much all in our court.

Hence, to help contribute to the fees, we have opted to rent out the cottage, and I am currently in full renovation mode. Oddly satisfying, if sweaty, these last few days.

One thing that has made it easier, but also inspired the blog, is that the place is totally empty. This is because, unlike the last time I was a slumlord (over two decades ago) the rules have changed a lot. And now, even though they were all there, and we have no need, or space, here, it is simply not worth going 'fully furnished'. All the electricals need annual certification, and all furniture (probably just that with material components, such as chairs and beds) need to be kitemarked. Hence it's simpler, and cheaper, to clear the joint.

I can see the reasons, and merits (even the gas check, the energy cert, electric cert... etc... which all add up to a pretty penny already. I think, after agent's fees, we'll see our first income November), but part of me does feel a pang that all this totally useful kit is now going to have to be disposed of. At long last the main house has exhausted its ability to absorb 'stuff'. Equally, the poor old tenants will need to buy, and transport when they move, a full house load.

Pity.

Going too far. Literally as well as figuratively.

Sometimes, I think the 'green' media rather lose the plot.

What's the carbon cost of the online reaction to Michael Jackson's death?

When they are not being, possibly, total hypocrites (and a tad insensitive).

Maybe the BBC could get on the case?

I think Newsnight's Ethical Man has a colleague well placed...

Next time, Jacko, try to die in London*

Bless.

I know it was just a question. But the irony of online eco-breast beating about the online costs of 'stuff' being reported was rather rich.

And yes, I see the irony of me adding to this still further. But I think there are areas that, just possibly, set back the notion of sensible environmental progress.

*The further irony of which publicaion has penned this is also not lost on me.

How to stop getting wet feet?

According to an eyebrow raising piece (I'm unsure if it was meant to be amusing) from the Telegraph, 'happiness lessons', and 'more outdoor education', are but two of the ways we can help to 'save the planet'.

Hmmmmm. Anyone care to explain just how that is going to help those unfortunate enough to inhabit what may well become 'waterworld' territory?

Something to bear in mind when targets get mentioned in certain quarters

And at certain odd, rare, times....

Why did the government dump its green building regulations plan?

I often disagree with Mr. Monbiot*, but he does raise a worthy question here.

Maybe one for Ed Miliband, who was out and about recently.

*Especially on matters of 'tis/t'isn't climate change. When he comes up with stuff like this, it steer well clear as it really can only end up in tears... and no winners.

Phones of the charge brigade

Sorry, I just liked that headline.

I felt this was good news:

A standard phone charger? About time too

At least I think it is. Part of me suspects the actual enviROI may not work out as hoped.

At least we're not last:)

Britain's green shame

Actually this story, and the comments that accompany it, seem to illustrate the rather yawning gaps between what is actually meant by 'green', what is done to 'be' it and, perhaps most significantly in terms of targets and subsidies, why.

Especially at a major political level. I for one have never been able to grasp how it is possible to have economic growth without 'consequences'. Hence the solution seems to have been to say one thing, do another and hope no one will notice. Trouble is, when they do, trust is blown and things tend to get a lot worse.

Not a great way to run a country. IMHO.

COMPETITION - Doing the Right Thing

WHEN:This week
WHAT: Classic FM - Doing the Right Thing
WHAT... MORE?: See the website
HOW MUCH: Free
URL: http://promo.classicfm.co.uk/contests/2009/m_s/index.php
COMMENTS: A bit of green PR. Can't hurt. I'll be plugging Junkk!

Head 2 head with Mr. Ed

Post your questions for the energy and climate change minister Ed Miliband

They have their flaws these efforts (esp. what gets chosen to be answered...Michael Jackson's passing???!), but can still be enlightening. I did note this:

Q - Have you read David MacKay's book Sustainable Energy - without the hot air? How will you ensure arithmetic is at the heart of energy policy given it doesn't seem to have been up to now?

Ed Miliband: MacKay's a smart guy. His book is by my bedside and my permanent secretary keeps telling me I have to finish it!

Actual answer seems to be.. 'No, I haven't read it and I just do what other folk tell me'

Explains a lot.

No excuses

I just happen to like the song.

And this now allows me listen to it whenever I want. And the emotive imagery is effective.

Michael Jackson's biggest selling UK single wasn't Thriller or Billie Jean — but a song about the environment

A major talent with a troubled life. Worth acknowledging the contribution, but the flaws cannot be ignored. Especially those of a 24/7 media-dominated world that has lost ALL perspective. This did not warrant a news blackout in the UK on any other topic.

I must get back to writing again with the missus. But our protest stuff was not wanted so much back then. Now...? For now there's always Junkk.

Plus ca change

After my Monthus Suckius on personal matters, I am starting to get my head around getting various ongoing projects back on track.

For Junkk.com there is the reuse competition, which I had left woefully to its own devices.

There are still not that many entries, but a few more have come in, and one is, frankly, excellent. And it only just came in.

Hence I have asked for and got permission for another extension of a month from the Guardian's organisers. And will try and promote it more.

In complement, and with luck soon, we will also be improving the Junkk.com website with a few new features, added at the same time as trying to sort out some persistent glitches. Frustratingly, these latter seem to pop up without warning, rhyme or reason and are as hard to cure as they are impossible to predict.

And to share all this I will try and get the next newsletter out early July, and will be using a new improved creation system from dotmailer to do so.

And I will also be be trying to relight the fire under RE:tie. The international patents are well underway, so a major sales push is needed.

But as money is now really tight, I have to be even more careful, and ruthless.

A few days ago I mentioned a post that highlighted a website called quirky.

It looks fun. But so do many others. The trick is to try and guess the ROI on this potential avenue to....what?... more PR?...investors? ...an audience? It looks cute and slick, and that's the danger of the internet. There might only be six people using or viewing it.

Oh, blog off!

Or... how not to mess with your blog.

I'll let this set the scene as it is pertinent: quirky-social-product-development

I came here specifically to post to you, and was going to apologise for being O/T as the thread more appropriate to my intended comment (follows below) - the green gadget one - is no longer so enabled with this spiffy new system.

However, I think I can kick off by still being being relevant.

As an international Gold Medal-winning, multi-awarded, all-the-PR-you-can't-pay-the-bills-with-yet inventor of an eco packaging design, I gave quirky a gander.

Sadly, as most of us are, they are in competition with a horde of others, and I have lost count of the number that will charge one 'just' $99 for an intro to some folk they might know who might help.

Which may explain the lack of decent entries? I'd be hard pressed to see it as worth it, especially as my design is for mass marketing and really won't fit the model. I am seeking to licence about a billion a day. And moving from design to prototype to short-run moulds to full-blown seems a stretch at first glance.

However, the value of the PR and market research may tip the balance, especially if the founders have some IT scores on the board that gets PR from IT types like you. Reflected glory and all.

Now, on to the reason for seeking you out. Not easy as you and some other valued (to me) colleagues don't seem to be quite as valued (by the head honchos) in this spiffy revamp, and took a bit of locating under all the politico, sporty & opinion big guns who I will now be sparing my blood pressure by mostly passing on in future.

Just wanted to say that where I used to surf, skim & select all in the main scrolling version, I no longer have the time to do what the system demands and cherry pick, but will make a note of checking back here specifically as the odds of a green post are good. Maybe not as often as I did,but there you go.

A real pity, as I have found worthy enviro posts in odd places across many of the blogs, but will have to forgo most as there really is not enough time.

Seems an odd way to drive viewing figures, but there you go.

What this does not do is fully address the horror of what these clowns have done to a system that seemed to work pretty well, and by not being broke as far as I could see, didn't need fixing.

For those that don't know, all the blogs went up chronologically in a massive scrolling page, broken up by 'back' & 'next' breaks. Hence you could see exactly what was new simply by starting at the top and working back to where you left off last. If it was of no interest (such as sport) you skipped by. But there was usually a headline, subhead, picture and first para to scope to see if it was worth delving further.

No they expect me to check a few score specific thread channels..in case there might be a new or interesting piece? Numpties. Just waiting for a page to load takes 30". Multiply that by the number of channels and there's my tea breaks gone before I see anything.

And I am not sure I am alone in not thinking this has been a real advance.

But at least I got a blog out of it. Though I will miss the odd green avenue I stumbled across, often from non-tech or green authors.

And as we try and make this blog and Junkk.com better, boy, do I have some great examples of what not to do!

A new look

Welcome to the new Telegraph blogs

Thank you for your feedback

Some of the ostrich/'hear no evil' monkey responses from the Telegraph's great and good puts one more in mind of the current Government. And such as 'listening' and 'responding' to minor stuff and ignoring dirty great elephants in the room. Which is odd, as this is just what they seem to mock them for.

I can live with a light grey type. I have no time to devote to scores of separate threads. Which one are they now 'urgently looking at'?

Addendum 1 -

Of course, one constant drip from the 'professional', 'quality', paid, establishment media is that you can't trust what Bloggers write. If they say so: Press Association and Big Media Fail to Double Source

I can't afford the resources of these guys. But I do have a well-primed eyebrow and tend to slap a few caveats in if the sources are dubious, such as the Government, the BBC, any press spokesperson, 'scientists', quangos, charities, 'research', 'polls'....

Addendum 2 -

Just scoping the Indy. Their 'system' is called Live Journal, and it sucks too. Just looking at some major stories and they have no comments. This seems unlikely. So it's not just my Mac OS and Safari browser then. I wrote to the web, IT and editors to tell them, but no reply. They really are an insular bunch who don't take well to customer feedback.

Guardian - Telegraph relaunches blogs, now powered by WordPress

RE:view - Which? does packaging

The July '09 Which Magazine is a bit of a greenie bumper edition.

I have already mentioned two other topics covered, but just as recent additions to the CATEGORY sections they complemented (see recent CARBON TRADING and PLASTIC BAGS Labels).

However, there is one main one they have tackled which, for obvious reasons, piqued my interest: PACKAGING, with a piece called 'Don't keep it under wraps'.

So, what was of note?

The first thing is that it concentrated pretty much on supermarkets and own labels. Therefore the big brands escaped investigation. You will not find Heinz or P&G or Unilever there, and that's a lot of plastic (which, at the end of the day, was the near exclusive focus).

What was interesting was when they got into 'like-for-like' comparisons on weight which, bearing in mind the constant reminders I have been getting from WRAP for donkeys on the joys and successes of lightweighting with the Courthauld Cabals , struck a few chords.

Try good old Plan A M&S bacon slice packs a stonking 40% more than Sainsbury's, and explained away as 'within expected variations'. Such airy ways with numbers might explain a few things in the boardroom of late! Or try Morrisons Cheddar slices at 86% more than 'eco-evil' Tescos.

Thing is, such specific samples and examples really don't address the overall main issue, and the piece acknowledges this and merely ends up repeating what we know and bang on about, seemingly to very deaf ears, as quangos, councils, government and big business all point at each other in tut-tutting at how tricky it is to deal with all this due to the huge variations in rules, regs and waste disposal systems.

And, often, it seems that those who often like to claim how green they are can often... slip. Don't know about you, but this latest Waitrose ad looks to me more like a plastics' packaging showcase.

What we do at Junkk can't help mitigate much either, as we are mainly here to advocate reuse. But every little bit helps:) There was a feature on a chap who Which? had asked to keep what he couldn't recycle... for a week. Well, try 5 years, and counting, as I have! I am struggling on most of these trays too, but when you have a stack 100 high of identical ones, you do start to think big. So I am getting glimmers. They are plastic, so they are invincible to weather. And they are black, so they absorb heat. You'll see where I am going. Just my luck when they all end up on biodegradables, which initially might seem a solution, but then one needs to ponder, as I have before, on what organics biodegrade to. Not easy, this being green and not just looking it.

But, for now, if anyone else has some ideas of their own, don't forget the Junkk.com plastics reuse competition.

Return fair?

Newsnight's 'Ethical Man' has enjoyed a high profile journey of late.

And I have followed, not always approvingly.

Now his latest has come to an end: Looking back over an action-packed odyssey

Sadly, I feel we are again in an area of the best messengers for the message, as this frank if perhaps not wise introductory justification from his plane seat* would suggest :

'... to be honest, I have had enough... I know it's a cop out'. Ain't flying great (well, in most ways) when others pay (especially if it's for the family, too... ask the DG). There's also the small matter of *'Doing this 6500 mile trip around America without flying' So, basically, it has all just been a bit of show for a show that has green more as a theme. Hmn. Inspiring. But I have enjoyed the bits without the agenda bolted on, especially anything that reduces practically, improves efficiencies and minimises waste. These, and those who create them, are who I hold out real hope for.

His last series ended after a year with him dropping most things mainly because, as far as I could judge, on a personal basis he didn't find it much fun and, fortunately for him, professionally there was no need to keep on doing it as the cameras were now off.

Not sure things will work out too well if the rest of the population being treated to programmes of this nature adopt the same attitude.

Not very social networking

If you take a gander over to the RHS Nav Bar of the blog (or here), you'll see a few social networks I've hooked into.

Especially following the competition, not that I have actually had a chance to do anything about it all yet, with a 'Here's One I RE:made Earlier' Group on FaceBook.

What you don't see is the MySpace equivalent.

I tried... hard... but it didn't seem to work. So I gave up. Plus I was getting a lot of friend requests on my personal from nice ladies in Eastern Europe.

So I guess I erred FaceBookwards.

A pity, but this might explain why it's headed this way:

MySpace to axe two-thirds of global workforce

I won't ditch it, but in a world of priorities, and time poverty, you go where the biggest bang for the buck is.

COMPETITION - Finish Diamond Standard Innovation Challenge

WHEN: Deadline July 16
WHAT: Finish Diamond Standard Innovation Challenge
WHAT... MORE?: From the site:

The challenge Looking for your ideas for an innovative product to make life easier in the kitchen. The Challenge is being led by world-renowned chef and culinary innovator, Heston Blumenthal, who – as in his role as head judge - will decide the winner along with an expert panel. The Prize You could win a £10,000 cash prize courtesy of Finish and see your very own kitchen innovation produced by Lakeland – in total a package worth an estimated £50,000. You’ll work with Lakeland to develop the design and help bring your innovation to market, receive royalties from future sales, and you’ll benefit from extensive business support and publicity. Ten finalists will be invited to attend a judging event in London in August 2009, where you’ll pitch your design to the judging panel. Four runners up will receive £1,000 worth of Lakeland vouchers and a year’s supply of Finish Quantum dishwasher tablets. Judges Alongside Heston, the judges include Dr Paul Pankhurst, the CEO and Chairman of British Design Innovation; Rosie Nagra, Finish Marketing Manager; and Wendy Miranda, Customer Ambassador of Lakeland. HOW MUCH: FREE!!!
URL: http://www.finish.co.uk/competition_start.php
COMMENTS: OK, this is not, at first blush, that eco.... but it could be! I for one am thinking of sending in 'RE:tie' for them to chew on. Not a hope in heck of winning, but it can't hurt to get on the radar. Then there is simply bending one's mind around other eco-notions that could apply kitchen-wide.

I have not gone through the t&cs in detail as yet, so be cautious. Not quite sure what 'a total package worth...' means, and the royalties on sales might need the Dragon's Den treatment before signing.

As to the enviROI's of washing in the sink vs. Dishwashers, and using chemicals that end up in the waste stream... another story (worthy of a Prof's Poser soon. And it looks like I had already been pondering).

For now... any publicity be good publicity.

IDEA - Cup stack holder

After a nightmare period with site glitches, it's great to see another really nice, simple idea up there that we can add to the competition (which I am thinking of extending for another month as I have really done zippy to help promote during June so far thanks to being so distracted on personal stuff).

Good job there are other judges who will vote 'blind' (I am there as casting), but this is in with a chance as far as I am concerned, especially as the entrant is a 'tween': Cup stack holder