I just came across this:
An eco-chic bag won’ t stop bulging landfill sites
And as I had a ready retort: it will if it is made out of reused materials (Vac:Sac anyone?), I saw a Junkk.com promo at hand.
Thing is, even though the associated eco-worrier panel has a thingie that says 'Post a Comment', I can't seem to locate how, via my Mac or any PC.
Any ideas?
I'd write to them, but as these 'ladies who do green' are on a fairly narrow path - I must have written a score of times to point out that there are others in addition to Freecycle, all equally free and hence worth mentioning (like our JunkkYard... oh, maybe that's why).
Consumer resistance? I’m all for it
It depends where you look, or are looking from
'...cost me less than £100. It doesn’t have a brand and I don’t know
(or care) who made it... But it doesn’t have to be an expensive
thing of beauty.'
You have a slightly different view to me of 'doesn't have to be expensive'.
However I laud your consumer resistance.
You may pop over a few blogs to a colleague who you may enjoy
debating these pressing issues with.
She is not so sure about buying an eco-bag as a fashion or green
choice. I was moved to point out that many very nice things are now
made (often helping the makers) out of reused materials, and look
nice taboot.
But such things can still be reassuringly priced to get into you gels'
zone of interest.
Bless.
Thursday, March 08, 2007
Careful what you wish for
Channel 4 wants to turn your television into a tip
'Should they locate the parts for, and then manage to assemble a working PC , internet connection and power supply (why not? I saw it done on McGyver), they could do worse than log on to Junkk.com daily to see what they can make and how to make it.
And of course share their own innovations with/for others.
That way we can not just anaylse how we live, but improve it too.
A plan?'
'Should they locate the parts for, and then manage to assemble a working PC , internet connection and power supply (why not? I saw it done on McGyver), they could do worse than log on to Junkk.com daily to see what they can make and how to make it.
And of course share their own innovations with/for others.
That way we can not just anaylse how we live, but improve it too.
A plan?'
The door was opened a crack...
Pathetic MPs fail to test newspapers over ethics
There's a headline I thought I'd never see: MPs, newspapers and ethics all in the same sentence, when they are mutually exclusive, jointly and severally.
At least there was 'pathetic' and 'fail to test'.
I am currently running a test with our national broadcaster, who I co-fund with 59,999,999 (or so) others, and which is in fact responsible to us, but seemingly totally unaccountable for their fine-backed, mandatory-fee-supported media monopoly across all broadcast and some print categories.
Having just listened to a radio talk show create the stage, and then go on to provoke a bar-room brawl first over UK/US relations and then, for good measure, the vehicles 'we' feel should be 'banned' (stirred up with to taste - very bad taste - rants by z-list celebrities), I have popped off the latest in a series of complaints.
I'm guessing two weeks before one of the legions of fob-off-and-forget munchkins gets back with a form 'We had a look/listen. No, there wasn't a problem in our view. If there was we don't care. And anyway, what are you going to do about it? But we do appreciate your feedback and will bear it in mind. Don't bother arguing or asking to go higher because the system doesn't allow for that... for obvious reasons'.
Guardian - Kicking the habit
Celebrities are checking into rehab like there's no tomorrow. Why can't they just buy a self-help book like the rest of us?
Not sure, but I do believe the purchase of self-help books, unless conducted, Britney Hair-styly, does not get you top slot on the nation's broadcaster, or indeed an 'any PR is...' mention here, paying quite a few remora.. sorry.. reporter's, salaries en route .
There's a headline I thought I'd never see: MPs, newspapers and ethics all in the same sentence, when they are mutually exclusive, jointly and severally.
At least there was 'pathetic' and 'fail to test'.
I am currently running a test with our national broadcaster, who I co-fund with 59,999,999 (or so) others, and which is in fact responsible to us, but seemingly totally unaccountable for their fine-backed, mandatory-fee-supported media monopoly across all broadcast and some print categories.
Having just listened to a radio talk show create the stage, and then go on to provoke a bar-room brawl first over UK/US relations and then, for good measure, the vehicles 'we' feel should be 'banned' (stirred up with to taste - very bad taste - rants by z-list celebrities), I have popped off the latest in a series of complaints.
I'm guessing two weeks before one of the legions of fob-off-and-forget munchkins gets back with a form 'We had a look/listen. No, there wasn't a problem in our view. If there was we don't care. And anyway, what are you going to do about it? But we do appreciate your feedback and will bear it in mind. Don't bother arguing or asking to go higher because the system doesn't allow for that... for obvious reasons'.
Guardian - Kicking the habit
Celebrities are checking into rehab like there's no tomorrow. Why can't they just buy a self-help book like the rest of us?
Not sure, but I do believe the purchase of self-help books, unless conducted, Britney Hair-styly, does not get you top slot on the nation's broadcaster, or indeed an 'any PR is...' mention here, paying quite a few remora.. sorry.. reporter's, salaries en route .
Nothing like a nice bit of PR support for the media
The final frontier for travel insurance
You may also wish to include cover for flight delays in case any Guardian readers (and reporters) who don't see the irony of supporting rich folk having a Kodak moment atop a column of greenhouse gasses, whilst thinking Greenpeace chaining themselves to a Land Rover production line was a neat idea, suddenly see the value of single standards.
You may also wish to include cover for flight delays in case any Guardian readers (and reporters) who don't see the irony of supporting rich folk having a Kodak moment atop a column of greenhouse gasses, whilst thinking Greenpeace chaining themselves to a Land Rover production line was a neat idea, suddenly see the value of single standards.
You know where I am going with this, of course
To: BBC West Midlands
I just caught a piece on Breakfast News about a new, non-polluting delivery truck that is 'responsible for no CO2 emissions'.
This is fantastic.
Is there any more information on this, and how it does it?
I just caught a piece on Breakfast News about a new, non-polluting delivery truck that is 'responsible for no CO2 emissions'.
This is fantastic.
Is there any more information on this, and how it does it?
...Or, as more than a minor issue, the Environment?
The Big Question: Would transatlantic 'open skies' be good for UK airlines and passengers?
Just askin', 's all. I think it should be in the headline.
Indy - Letters: Open skies
Just askin', 's all. I think it should be in the headline.
Indy - Letters: Open skies
Tough with words. Tough on the causes of words. Or just 'tough'?
Miliband to make new emissions pledge
Don't you just love a good Pledge? One simply swipe and a manky bit of dead wood can be made to look and smell nice... for a wee while, until it wears off.
"David Miliband, the Environment Secretary, will try to restore Britain's place as world leader in the battle against climate change next week, with undertakings to cut the country's carbon output by the year 2020."
"He will promise..."
"That way, he hopes to get the UK back on track.."
Repeat after me, 'The Gloucester Old Spot now leaving Terminal 3, again....
"Tony Blair will fly to Brussels today..." Sorry. Not fair. Just... in context, it scanned amusingly.
"The initiative has been applauded by the former US vice president Al Gore, co-author of a film on climate change, and by Mr Miliband." And where, exactly, did that come from? Is Al 'flying in' too? What is this? The Axis of mutual backslappers?
Times - Britain puts climate change on UN agenda - Way-hay! It's on an agenda!
Don't you just love a good Pledge? One simply swipe and a manky bit of dead wood can be made to look and smell nice... for a wee while, until it wears off.
"David Miliband, the Environment Secretary, will try to restore Britain's place as world leader in the battle against climate change next week, with undertakings to cut the country's carbon output by the year 2020."
"He will promise..."
"That way, he hopes to get the UK back on track.."
Repeat after me, 'The Gloucester Old Spot now leaving Terminal 3, again....
"Tony Blair will fly to Brussels today..." Sorry. Not fair. Just... in context, it scanned amusingly.
"The initiative has been applauded by the former US vice president Al Gore, co-author of a film on climate change, and by Mr Miliband." And where, exactly, did that come from? Is Al 'flying in' too? What is this? The Axis of mutual backslappers?
Times - Britain puts climate change on UN agenda - Way-hay! It's on an agenda!
Wednesday, March 07, 2007
Just made for a Pol's Porkie!
‘Do as I say, not as I do’ is Barroso’s green message
Thing is, if you stick yourself on the pedestal of telling folk what to
do, you really need to figure that a) it's not such a bad idea to do it
yourself, and b) try to have been doing it at least a while or c) at
least before so telling, and d)really don't go to near anything that
might smack of 'imposing'.
Failure to do one or indeed all lends you to being labelled
a) hypocrite ( “This is an opportunity for European leaders to match
intentions with deeds, to turn words into actions.”... Bless), b) a total
plonker and c) totally undeserving of your authority, salary and
pension by , well everyone, really.
Including any colleagues whose last vestiges of credibility
and authority you have just evaporated in the eyes of a cynical
world media and utterly frustrated voting, cash-cow-no-longer,
public.
And frankly, whacking a fir in the firmament is not much better if we
are trying to offset the problem within the 10 year window indicated
by the IPCC. While it looks good to ones mates in the City, the things
don't grow that fast and not all schemes even work on a viable
EnviROI basis anyway.
Meanwhile, those figures are interesting. May I ask if they are for
urban use (as favoured by those in power who don't get out much),
an average cycle or for country/motorway travel?
I just ask because from my country home to anywhere with 2 hrs by
Fiat Panda seemed to me a better bet than Prius. It's hard to see how
a higher capacity petrol engine in the latter, lugging a big, unused
battery, would deliver better emissions performance.
And if so, may I presume this is just the first in further attempts to get
all of 'us' to conform to an ideal that works in the corridors of
'power', and really has little to making the world better for our kids.
ps: while toe-rag is not a bad moniker for the beast (I believe used,
with some irony in smoke-black form by a 'Have you cut your 20%?'
TV commercial not so long ago, I do concern myself that the noble
tribespersons may not fancy the spelling used here.
Thing is, if you stick yourself on the pedestal of telling folk what to
do, you really need to figure that a) it's not such a bad idea to do it
yourself, and b) try to have been doing it at least a while or c) at
least before so telling, and d)really don't go to near anything that
might smack of 'imposing'.
Failure to do one or indeed all lends you to being labelled
a) hypocrite ( “This is an opportunity for European leaders to match
intentions with deeds, to turn words into actions.”... Bless), b) a total
plonker and c) totally undeserving of your authority, salary and
pension by , well everyone, really.
Including any colleagues whose last vestiges of credibility
and authority you have just evaporated in the eyes of a cynical
world media and utterly frustrated voting, cash-cow-no-longer,
public.
And frankly, whacking a fir in the firmament is not much better if we
are trying to offset the problem within the 10 year window indicated
by the IPCC. While it looks good to ones mates in the City, the things
don't grow that fast and not all schemes even work on a viable
EnviROI basis anyway.
Meanwhile, those figures are interesting. May I ask if they are for
urban use (as favoured by those in power who don't get out much),
an average cycle or for country/motorway travel?
I just ask because from my country home to anywhere with 2 hrs by
Fiat Panda seemed to me a better bet than Prius. It's hard to see how
a higher capacity petrol engine in the latter, lugging a big, unused
battery, would deliver better emissions performance.
And if so, may I presume this is just the first in further attempts to get
all of 'us' to conform to an ideal that works in the corridors of
'power', and really has little to making the world better for our kids.
ps: while toe-rag is not a bad moniker for the beast (I believe used,
with some irony in smoke-black form by a 'Have you cut your 20%?'
TV commercial not so long ago, I do concern myself that the noble
tribespersons may not fancy the spelling used here.
Tuesday, March 06, 2007
The journey of a thousand steps...
Want to save the planet? It’s your little changes that mean the most
Agreed.
And to all the other reader who sees this and feels enough to get motivated to do something at home and peronal...ly re:warding, try re:use at junkk.com.
That way you can save the planet, and some time, and some money.
Kinda win-win. Which is nice. If rare.
Agreed.
And to all the other reader who sees this and feels enough to get motivated to do something at home and peronal...ly re:warding, try re:use at junkk.com.
That way you can save the planet, and some time, and some money.
Kinda win-win. Which is nice. If rare.
Speaks for itself, unspeakably
Plane beats train on cost and speed as discount fares prove elusive
You know what we need... another 'initiative'. With a charge on it.
That'll help.
You know what we need... another 'initiative'. With a charge on it.
That'll help.
Divide and Fools
This is going to the BBC right now.
Following an interesting and touching piece on Alzheimer's (ironic, since I only heard it having had to drive to Gloucester to collect the card I left in the chip 'n pin doo-dad on Sunday. Oddly Sainsbury's have no policy on letting you, or your bank know. They just keep it a while and then bin it), the Jeremy Vine show descended into the worst example of the sorry state of ratings-driven media I have ever heard.
I think this will be cited as one of the nails in the coffins of our public broadcaster being accorded any credence as an objective news organisation, and certainly raises questions as to why it is allowed a fine-supported, non-opt-out monopoly to collect funds to create and broadcast such trash.
First up we get a 'piece' 'inspired' by some Yuppie Hooray with contacts in PR, who makes a kids' level version of Why the US Is Lovely, condensing several decades into a few tens of seconds of 'what if?' nonsense. Maybe it got 1/4M 'hits' on YouTube. So what? But it was enough to get him in to boost his ad banner rates by sticking him up against some bonkers ex-Guardianista US-phobic who could barely string a sentence together, let alone allowing any form of reasoned debate get in the way of her single-minded prejudices. Then it gets thrown open to 'us', the listening public, so after the break for music we get a bunch of raving pro and antis selected especially by researchers to vent their ill-informed spleens over a completely staged, specious premise. And so it spirals down...
That was bad enough. Then, in the era of discredited phones-ins, to follow we have an 0900 'vote' to see which vehicles should be banned, with another set of twofers from each extreme venting spleens and spewing half-considered, factually irresponsible bile at each other, and us, as Mr. Vine and his producers wet themselves over their soaring ratings.
What public service was served by any of this claptrap? And with this complaint how do I get past the low-level munchkins in the 'file and fob-off' department who will a) sit on this for a week, b) claim they have looked into it thoroughly, then c) find no issue to answer so d) they won't.
This is not a valid process of sincere self-improvement, from a public-service and public-funded entity that has done little lately beyond losing the plot.
I demand to be put in coherent contact with some form of decision maker who can explain these decisions from a position of responsibility and accountability.
The world's a bad enough place without our national broadcaster dividing us all in warring camps for cheap media points. It must be stopped before it is too late. Or... I want my money back.
9 April - It took a while (doesn't it always?) but they have come back as, of course, they have to. What do you think? A fair reply? one deserving of file & forget?
Thank you for your e-mail regarding 'Jeremy Vine' transmitted on the 6
March 2007.
Firstly, please accept our apologies for the delay in replying. We know
our correspondents appreciate a quick response and we are sorry you have
had to wait on this occasion.
I understand you have some concerns about the above programme.
I must explain that this was a week-long poll giving the British Public the
chance to select the vehicle they would most like to vote off our roads, if
they could.
It is hoped the programme team can raise the findings of this poll on the 9
March edition [I got this a month later] with those in Government who make/influence transport policy.
Ultimate aim to tackle some big, important questions about road traffic and
the positive measures that could be taken by those in power to alleviate
the anger that so many road users feel: i.e.: How can speed limits be
enforced? Should there be compulsory road tests for cyclists and
horse-riders? Who should pay for the upkeep of the roads and how should
that tax be collected? Does the driving test need to change or be repeated?
Nevertheless, I appreciate you may continue to have some concerns about the
two items you have specified as a whole. Please be assured that I have
registered your complaint and concerns on the daily log, this is an
internal document which will be made available to the 'Jeremy Vine'
production team as well as the senior management of the BBC.
May I take this opportunity to thank you again for taking time to contact
the BBC.
Regards
Katherine Tsang
BBC Information
__________________________________________
The BBC Trust wants to know what's important to you about your BBC. Want to
help it set the BBC's strategic priorities? To get involved just click on
http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbctrust.
Following an interesting and touching piece on Alzheimer's (ironic, since I only heard it having had to drive to Gloucester to collect the card I left in the chip 'n pin doo-dad on Sunday. Oddly Sainsbury's have no policy on letting you, or your bank know. They just keep it a while and then bin it), the Jeremy Vine show descended into the worst example of the sorry state of ratings-driven media I have ever heard.
I think this will be cited as one of the nails in the coffins of our public broadcaster being accorded any credence as an objective news organisation, and certainly raises questions as to why it is allowed a fine-supported, non-opt-out monopoly to collect funds to create and broadcast such trash.
First up we get a 'piece' 'inspired' by some Yuppie Hooray with contacts in PR, who makes a kids' level version of Why the US Is Lovely, condensing several decades into a few tens of seconds of 'what if?' nonsense. Maybe it got 1/4M 'hits' on YouTube. So what? But it was enough to get him in to boost his ad banner rates by sticking him up against some bonkers ex-Guardianista US-phobic who could barely string a sentence together, let alone allowing any form of reasoned debate get in the way of her single-minded prejudices. Then it gets thrown open to 'us', the listening public, so after the break for music we get a bunch of raving pro and antis selected especially by researchers to vent their ill-informed spleens over a completely staged, specious premise. And so it spirals down...
That was bad enough. Then, in the era of discredited phones-ins, to follow we have an 0900 'vote' to see which vehicles should be banned, with another set of twofers from each extreme venting spleens and spewing half-considered, factually irresponsible bile at each other, and us, as Mr. Vine and his producers wet themselves over their soaring ratings.
What public service was served by any of this claptrap? And with this complaint how do I get past the low-level munchkins in the 'file and fob-off' department who will a) sit on this for a week, b) claim they have looked into it thoroughly, then c) find no issue to answer so d) they won't.
This is not a valid process of sincere self-improvement, from a public-service and public-funded entity that has done little lately beyond losing the plot.
I demand to be put in coherent contact with some form of decision maker who can explain these decisions from a position of responsibility and accountability.
The world's a bad enough place without our national broadcaster dividing us all in warring camps for cheap media points. It must be stopped before it is too late. Or... I want my money back.
9 April - It took a while (doesn't it always?) but they have come back as, of course, they have to. What do you think? A fair reply? one deserving of file & forget?
Thank you for your e-mail regarding 'Jeremy Vine' transmitted on the 6
March 2007.
Firstly, please accept our apologies for the delay in replying. We know
our correspondents appreciate a quick response and we are sorry you have
had to wait on this occasion.
I understand you have some concerns about the above programme.
I must explain that this was a week-long poll giving the British Public the
chance to select the vehicle they would most like to vote off our roads, if
they could.
It is hoped the programme team can raise the findings of this poll on the 9
March edition [I got this a month later] with those in Government who make/influence transport policy.
Ultimate aim to tackle some big, important questions about road traffic and
the positive measures that could be taken by those in power to alleviate
the anger that so many road users feel: i.e.: How can speed limits be
enforced? Should there be compulsory road tests for cyclists and
horse-riders? Who should pay for the upkeep of the roads and how should
that tax be collected? Does the driving test need to change or be repeated?
Nevertheless, I appreciate you may continue to have some concerns about the
two items you have specified as a whole. Please be assured that I have
registered your complaint and concerns on the daily log, this is an
internal document which will be made available to the 'Jeremy Vine'
production team as well as the senior management of the BBC.
May I take this opportunity to thank you again for taking time to contact
the BBC.
Regards
Katherine Tsang
BBC Information
__________________________________________
The BBC Trust wants to know what's important to you about your BBC. Want to
help it set the BBC's strategic priorities? To get involved just click on
http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbctrust.
What ever floats their boat. Which it will, eventually
I just glanced this:
Scientists from 63 countries to investigate polar melting
And without reading it, I just pray it will not involve hordes of them going up to snowy bits in planes and copters to figure out why it's all melting.
Scientists from 63 countries to investigate polar melting
And without reading it, I just pray it will not involve hordes of them going up to snowy bits in planes and copters to figure out why it's all melting.
Carb-con gestion?
They keep popping up, don't they?
'Carbon allowance' plan for drivers
Motorists could find themselves facing a ceiling on the amount of carbon they are allowed to emit...
This would be 'motorists' where, doing what exactly and when?
I look forward to how they spin this one. Can't be any worse than the road pricing effort.... can it?
Indy - Miliband: 'Time for a green industrial revolution'
Times - 'Make car drivers pay for their pollution'
'Carbon allowance' plan for drivers
Motorists could find themselves facing a ceiling on the amount of carbon they are allowed to emit...
This would be 'motorists' where, doing what exactly and when?
I look forward to how they spin this one. Can't be any worse than the road pricing effort.... can it?
Indy - Miliband: 'Time for a green industrial revolution'
Times - 'Make car drivers pay for their pollution'
Patents and le absurd?
We, the Patent Office
In a month's time I'm off to Geneva as part of the UK stand at an International Invention Expo.
I will have in my clutches a small prototype of a big idea that I hope will a) save planet and b) make dosh, not necessarily in that order.
For either to happen, and for there to be a happy ending on b), I have ventured into the mysterious world of Patent applications, assessments and agents and god knows what.
So far it has been like a stag night in 70's SoHo, looking for the naked ladies in strip clubs but going through endless velvet red curtains and being relived of cash at every turn with a promise that 'soon you will be there'. About halfway you know you have been conned, but are too far in to not keep on going.
So I know diddly squat about this process.
However, in the great 'protection of your idea' scheme of things, is such an open season on its intimate details wise, or even desirable?
BusinessWeek - Inside Nathan Myhrvold's Mysterious New Idea Machine
Times - Patents 2.0 comes to Britain
In a month's time I'm off to Geneva as part of the UK stand at an International Invention Expo.
I will have in my clutches a small prototype of a big idea that I hope will a) save planet and b) make dosh, not necessarily in that order.
For either to happen, and for there to be a happy ending on b), I have ventured into the mysterious world of Patent applications, assessments and agents and god knows what.
So far it has been like a stag night in 70's SoHo, looking for the naked ladies in strip clubs but going through endless velvet red curtains and being relived of cash at every turn with a promise that 'soon you will be there'. About halfway you know you have been conned, but are too far in to not keep on going.
So I know diddly squat about this process.
However, in the great 'protection of your idea' scheme of things, is such an open season on its intimate details wise, or even desirable?
BusinessWeek - Inside Nathan Myhrvold's Mysterious New Idea Machine
Times - Patents 2.0 comes to Britain
Dragon's Breath
Tel Blog - Some issues remain untouchable
I think I read elsewhere that China has decided enough's enough and the whole corruption thing must stop now. So that's OK then.
As I flit from blog to blog looking at trendy liberals knock spots off each other as to just how much Fairtrade latte you can fit in a Prius' trunk, I read this and have to wonder if the world really has a chance in hell.
BBC - Global impact of Asia's pollution
I think I read elsewhere that China has decided enough's enough and the whole corruption thing must stop now. So that's OK then.
As I flit from blog to blog looking at trendy liberals knock spots off each other as to just how much Fairtrade latte you can fit in a Prius' trunk, I read this and have to wonder if the world really has a chance in hell.
BBC - Global impact of Asia's pollution
Open to what... exactly?
Is it just me, or could one wish that journos from one side of a paper actually ponder what those at another my be writing about, and attempt to cover all the issues?
BA fears ill wind may blow from 'open skies'
BA fears ill wind may blow from 'open skies'
George of the Rumble
Another from Grist - Turn Up the Heat
Makes you proud to be a Brit, eh?
For every two Beckhams, we have a Monbiot. So at that rate... we're toast. Celebs. And anti-celeb celebs. Can live with 'em, can't... er... no that's about it. And I guess that applies to me too, as an anti-anti-celeb (as I can often 'wonder' in places such as this just how sincere some are themselves or, if sincere, effective on a planetary scale as opposed to on a nice little personal earner basis).
So thank you for this link.
It's so odd. By any measure I trawl the e-pages of the UK media a bit more than most (who needs to get a life?) and until this moment I had no inkling such a thing existed, even courtesy of our George's usual hunting grounds, which I read daily and have done for a few years.
Well worth a gander.
I wonder what other people think of it? I'll have to declare an interest, I had/have something similar in mind, called Pol's Porkies, which stands for POLitician's PORky Pies, which is Cockney slang for lies. But I soon extended it to anyone in the public eye who said one thing and did another. Even better if the former was high-profile and the other low rent.
http://junkk.blogspot.com/2007/01/gloucester-old-spot-now-departing.html
Now I have registered it, but have yet to build it. So it's a might miffing when GM crops (geddit?) up and it turns out he has beaten me to the punch.
Popping over the parapet, and with glasses tinted green with envy, I have had a scope and do feel moved to cock a critical eyebrow, as I am wont.
First and foremost, and with no book in the offing... yet... I am always a tad suspicious of anything that is associated with a sales effort. Somehow it seems to weaken the purity of the concept.
Next, and purely subjectively, though with a few decades as a designer under my belt, it all comes off as a bit placard waving graphically, typographically and in copy terms. I thought I'd arrived at a Marxist rallying point to march on Westminster - to protest the price of non-Fairtrade lattes en route through Islington.
This, and the style makes me almost sympathetic to Chris, Richard and our Tel, etc. 'George' is watching you! Which makes 'George' Big Brother, which makes him...?
I also note, and Grist readers will hopefully appreciate this, a distinct lack of humour here. Hard to empathise with very much, frankly.
Which in one way is a pity, because having read his home page mantra I can't disagree with it at all. But in another it is good, because I think, immodestly, I can do a lot better. Mainly by not doing much at all. I intend Polsporkies.info to be of the people, by the people for the people, in much the same way as Junkk.com is. Frustratingly, he has also similar version to my TushTissue (for highlighting 'papering over' jobbies, rather than 'dealing withs') and even NewsFlip, as in the bird, but also as 'flip' commentary, highlighting news that is so superficial as to muddy already murky waters.
But for these I intend to just create the system, probably tabular (said, done, date, attribution, date, etc) make it as user content manged as I can. Then retire immediately having lit the fuse. I very much see it as a factual grid with a only a little moderation to ensure factual accuracy, minimal law suits and perhaps scope to inject a bit of fun to keep things bubbling.
And when I collect my award from Nelson Mandela (it's in there on his site - if you are going to drop a name, his is well worth it), I will worry very much how I detour from my global book tour to do it with out looking down the barrel of my own gun through the hole in my foot. Glad to see he is not all talk though (the actions being...?)
Because there does seem to be a new breed of Green elite whose jobs require them to buzz about (legitimately, by some logic) telling other folk that they should not have jobs that require them to buzz about. This, on occasion, has seen the odd mention of the phrase 'double standard' and even the H word being levelled back. With some justification I may add. And which does weaken the foundations of certain pedestals. And as I have opined before, a fallen idol can do more damage crashing down, and undo a lot of good they may have achieved whilst evangelising.
Fortunately I don't tell folk how to behave. I just ask questions, share information and try to lead by as best an example as I can.
It's less stressful.
Uh-oh... incoming!!!
Makes you proud to be a Brit, eh?
For every two Beckhams, we have a Monbiot. So at that rate... we're toast. Celebs. And anti-celeb celebs. Can live with 'em, can't... er... no that's about it. And I guess that applies to me too, as an anti-anti-celeb (as I can often 'wonder' in places such as this just how sincere some are themselves or, if sincere, effective on a planetary scale as opposed to on a nice little personal earner basis).
So thank you for this link.
It's so odd. By any measure I trawl the e-pages of the UK media a bit more than most (who needs to get a life?) and until this moment I had no inkling such a thing existed, even courtesy of our George's usual hunting grounds, which I read daily and have done for a few years.
Well worth a gander.
I wonder what other people think of it? I'll have to declare an interest, I had/have something similar in mind, called Pol's Porkies, which stands for POLitician's PORky Pies, which is Cockney slang for lies. But I soon extended it to anyone in the public eye who said one thing and did another. Even better if the former was high-profile and the other low rent.
http://junkk.blogspot.com/2007/01/gloucester-old-spot-now-departing.html
Now I have registered it, but have yet to build it. So it's a might miffing when GM crops (geddit?) up and it turns out he has beaten me to the punch.
Popping over the parapet, and with glasses tinted green with envy, I have had a scope and do feel moved to cock a critical eyebrow, as I am wont.
First and foremost, and with no book in the offing... yet... I am always a tad suspicious of anything that is associated with a sales effort. Somehow it seems to weaken the purity of the concept.
Next, and purely subjectively, though with a few decades as a designer under my belt, it all comes off as a bit placard waving graphically, typographically and in copy terms. I thought I'd arrived at a Marxist rallying point to march on Westminster - to protest the price of non-Fairtrade lattes en route through Islington.
This, and the style makes me almost sympathetic to Chris, Richard and our Tel, etc. 'George' is watching you! Which makes 'George' Big Brother, which makes him...?
I also note, and Grist readers will hopefully appreciate this, a distinct lack of humour here. Hard to empathise with very much, frankly.
Which in one way is a pity, because having read his home page mantra I can't disagree with it at all. But in another it is good, because I think, immodestly, I can do a lot better. Mainly by not doing much at all. I intend Polsporkies.info to be of the people, by the people for the people, in much the same way as Junkk.com is. Frustratingly, he has also similar version to my TushTissue (for highlighting 'papering over' jobbies, rather than 'dealing withs') and even NewsFlip, as in the bird, but also as 'flip' commentary, highlighting news that is so superficial as to muddy already murky waters.
But for these I intend to just create the system, probably tabular (said, done, date, attribution, date, etc) make it as user content manged as I can. Then retire immediately having lit the fuse. I very much see it as a factual grid with a only a little moderation to ensure factual accuracy, minimal law suits and perhaps scope to inject a bit of fun to keep things bubbling.
And when I collect my award from Nelson Mandela (it's in there on his site - if you are going to drop a name, his is well worth it), I will worry very much how I detour from my global book tour to do it with out looking down the barrel of my own gun through the hole in my foot. Glad to see he is not all talk though (the actions being...?)
Because there does seem to be a new breed of Green elite whose jobs require them to buzz about (legitimately, by some logic) telling other folk that they should not have jobs that require them to buzz about. This, on occasion, has seen the odd mention of the phrase 'double standard' and even the H word being levelled back. With some justification I may add. And which does weaken the foundations of certain pedestals. And as I have opined before, a fallen idol can do more damage crashing down, and undo a lot of good they may have achieved whilst evangelising.
Fortunately I don't tell folk how to behave. I just ask questions, share information and try to lead by as best an example as I can.
It's less stressful.
Uh-oh... incoming!!!
Monday, March 05, 2007
With all due apologies to Pastor Niemoller..
'First there was the Hybrid, but I do not drive urbanally much, so I did not consider.
Then there was the LPG, but I do not trust Gordon Brown on fuel taxes, so I did not consider.
Then I thought of electric, but it wouldn't get me to the nearest fuel station, much less anywhere else. So I did not consider
And finally, just when I thought bio-diesel was the way to go, there was no sodding thing left to stick in the tank that will do. And the whole thing seemed way beyond consideration any more.'
The Big Green Fuel Lie - no guys, don't hold back, say how you really feel.
Indy - Letters
The more I read, the less I know.
I guess I'll just stick with my trusty Volvo while longer. Just to be safe rather than sorry.
If all else fails, there is always Shank's Pony. I don't get out much anyway:(
Indy - Leading article: A switch to biofuels will not save the planet
ADDENDUM on Grist to a nice comment:
No problem at all , biodiversivist! It's all good, free information exchange, with a few extra Adwords points all round as icing.
And as we're on a roll, or in this case dessert analogy, I can only agree with you and hope you are right.
Shame that the best processes just seem to take their own sweet time, and the quick fixes and those with vested interests is making and shouting about them tend to get in the way en route.
Then there was the LPG, but I do not trust Gordon Brown on fuel taxes, so I did not consider.
Then I thought of electric, but it wouldn't get me to the nearest fuel station, much less anywhere else. So I did not consider
And finally, just when I thought bio-diesel was the way to go, there was no sodding thing left to stick in the tank that will do. And the whole thing seemed way beyond consideration any more.'
The Big Green Fuel Lie - no guys, don't hold back, say how you really feel.
Indy - Letters
The more I read, the less I know.
I guess I'll just stick with my trusty Volvo while longer. Just to be safe rather than sorry.
If all else fails, there is always Shank's Pony. I don't get out much anyway:(
Indy - Leading article: A switch to biofuels will not save the planet
ADDENDUM on Grist to a nice comment:
No problem at all , biodiversivist! It's all good, free information exchange, with a few extra Adwords points all round as icing.
And as we're on a roll, or in this case dessert analogy, I can only agree with you and hope you are right.
Shame that the best processes just seem to take their own sweet time, and the quick fixes and those with vested interests is making and shouting about them tend to get in the way en route.
Ming, er... the... erhttp://www2.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gif
Just watched the Friday Newsnight
Not impressed.
'Is it just me, or is the structure of the site and posting system all a bit odd at the 'mo?
May explain the massive number of posts, I guess.
Just watched my PC download, in a very staccato manner (a function of other site issues perhaps?).
Re: Unwitting discrimination
I have never really understood what the definition(s) of racism is/are, and adding institutional on to it just seems to muddy already murky waters.
Still a lot of folk are making nice careers out the whole thing.
I can only wonder how one can really address something 'unwitting', as surely by definition it is not done on purpose and is almost impossible to 'correct' without highly legitimate accusations of undue influence. And by being a whole lot more sinister than the rather quaint 'positive discrimination', which seems to mean strong-arming a result to suit un-demo or meritocratic agendas that often seem held outside the public's voting wishes.
Ms. Abbott was singularly unconvincing and uncharacteristically tongue-tied and inept when trying to explain away some rather key questions on why one sector alone was performing so poorly. In fact a tack was quickly changed almost mid-sentence, and hence maybe the piece should have been re-labelled, 'institutional class-in-London-ism' instead?
The original title could have held true had the 'wealth of qualitative evidence which suggests that black pupils are disciplined more frequently, more harshly, and for less serious misbehaviour than other pupils" - and that such a differential approach is likely to be unwitting on the part of the teachers' made it on air, but I don't recall any being mentioned. Maybe the qualitative evidence referred to was Ms. Abbott's alone? In which case it made for an interesting insight into journalism today.
Re: Lib Dem poll
Ming, er, who the heck put him in charge? I'm off to a Lib Dem 'do' soon as part of a mission to figure who in my county gets my vote as our MP is standing down.
His performance in this would have been enough to make the odds of my support pretty dim, but the more recently unveiled discussions on pacts with Mr. Brown are, if true, enough to strike that flickering light.
Looking forward to Panorama tonight, though.'
ADDENDUM:
Fixed, is it?
I just tried to post what I wrote a few days ago (see below) and got this:
Comment Submission Error
Your comment submission failed for the following reasons:
In an effort to curb malicious comment posting by abusive users, I've enabled a feature that requires a weblog commenter to wait a short amount of time before being able to post again. Please try to post your comment again in a short while. Thanks for your patience.
Return to the original entry
Or maybe 'a feature that requires a weblog commenter to wait a short amount of time before being able to post again' is what is meant by 'fixing'?
Not impressed.
'Is it just me, or is the structure of the site and posting system all a bit odd at the 'mo?
May explain the massive number of posts, I guess.
Just watched my PC download, in a very staccato manner (a function of other site issues perhaps?).
Re: Unwitting discrimination
I have never really understood what the definition(s) of racism is/are, and adding institutional on to it just seems to muddy already murky waters.
Still a lot of folk are making nice careers out the whole thing.
I can only wonder how one can really address something 'unwitting', as surely by definition it is not done on purpose and is almost impossible to 'correct' without highly legitimate accusations of undue influence. And by being a whole lot more sinister than the rather quaint 'positive discrimination', which seems to mean strong-arming a result to suit un-demo or meritocratic agendas that often seem held outside the public's voting wishes.
Ms. Abbott was singularly unconvincing and uncharacteristically tongue-tied and inept when trying to explain away some rather key questions on why one sector alone was performing so poorly. In fact a tack was quickly changed almost mid-sentence, and hence maybe the piece should have been re-labelled, 'institutional class-in-London-ism' instead?
The original title could have held true had the 'wealth of qualitative evidence which suggests that black pupils are disciplined more frequently, more harshly, and for less serious misbehaviour than other pupils" - and that such a differential approach is likely to be unwitting on the part of the teachers' made it on air, but I don't recall any being mentioned. Maybe the qualitative evidence referred to was Ms. Abbott's alone? In which case it made for an interesting insight into journalism today.
Re: Lib Dem poll
Ming, er, who the heck put him in charge? I'm off to a Lib Dem 'do' soon as part of a mission to figure who in my county gets my vote as our MP is standing down.
His performance in this would have been enough to make the odds of my support pretty dim, but the more recently unveiled discussions on pacts with Mr. Brown are, if true, enough to strike that flickering light.
Looking forward to Panorama tonight, though.'
ADDENDUM:
Fixed, is it?
I just tried to post what I wrote a few days ago (see below) and got this:
Comment Submission Error
Your comment submission failed for the following reasons:
In an effort to curb malicious comment posting by abusive users, I've enabled a feature that requires a weblog commenter to wait a short amount of time before being able to post again. Please try to post your comment again in a short while. Thanks for your patience.
Return to the original entry
Or maybe 'a feature that requires a weblog commenter to wait a short amount of time before being able to post again' is what is meant by 'fixing'?
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