Ed Dowding

Watch the video. Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow! Enough said.

People doing wonderful things with data always gives me a little excitement. The Snake Oil? graphic from Information is Beautiful made me very happy indeed. Useful and beautiful.

£3m Community energy fund divesting funds

British Gas is committed to distributing £3m via the energyshare fund to community renewable projects over the next 3 years. energyshare really wants to hear from all types of communities across Britain. A registered community group can apply for up to £100,000, and all they ask is that projects:

• have the objective of  saving or generating energy locally

• are supported by their local community

• will benefit the local community and have a tangible and lasting impact.

• some aspect of the project is realistically achievable within one year

• will inspire even more community renewable projects

http://www.energyshare.com/fund/about-applying/

Solar powered transparent TV

http://inhabitat.com/samsung-unveils-solar-powered-zero-energy-transparent-tv/

Spanish town reintroduces peseta to boost economy

A small town in northern Spain has decided to reintroduce the old Spanish currency – the peseta – alongside the euro to give the local economy a lift. The hard times have seen thousands of businesses close and more than two million jobs go.

It is an attempt to get cash registers ringing – and help lift the town out of a long and painful economic slump. Shopkeepers were sceptical at first, but they now say the scheme is a great success. One man visited the local hardware store this week with a 10,000-peseta note he had found at home, and had no idea what to do with. He is now the happy owner of a sandwich toaster.

Can you design a better energy than the Government?

Probably. But you have to reduce emissions by 80% by 2050 to comply with the international agreements. Give it a go on this beautiful site.

Open Gov. the movie

A short documentary made by Delib about the US government’s Open Government initiative, featuring interviews with a whole host of insiders and commentators.”Understand that mistakes will be made, and be flexible and understanding about that… real time government … government as platform…”

Larger households generate less per-capita waste

Yes it’s completely obvious, but it’s nice to have it in graph form, since it adds weight to my frequent imploring to friends that we go live in together in a resource, time, and cost efficient group.

The Cooperative Group seizes the moment

The Co-operative Group launched a radical plan to boost membership to 20 million in ten years, inject cash into community enterprise and build a more sustainable economy.

The ambitious strategy includes pledges to deploy £1bn green energy finance, invest £11m into community enterprise and £20m into an international loan development fund, create 200 co-op schools and launch a £30m apprenticeship academy. Additionally, the group will roll out a fair trade programme in the next three years.

 

 

My MP strives for growth, quite possibly by selling your medical data to the pharmaceutical industry:

The Department of Health should examine how to unlock the value of the UK’s goldmine of patient data – the holy grail of modern biomedical research worth billions to the Pharma industry.

He’s also keen to invest in road and rail rather than the far more sensible and worthwhile renewable energy infrastructure which would lower our costs and give opportunity to be industrial leaders in green-tech design and production.

I would add siding-scale regulation to his request that we

scrap the endless form filling, set clear simple rules with random checks, heavy penalties for those who don’t comply, and watch business comply. It works with TV licenses; why not try it for Health and Safety?

And agree wholeheartedly with his conclusion that

We in Government don’t have to start the businesses, just create the conditions for entrepreneurs in the private – and public – sector, who will gladly do it for us.

However since the Government is responsible for creating and shaping those conditions, they also implicitly shape the response of the private sector. It would thus be useful if he could be more explicit in the goals he hopes the Governments conditions will help us reach. At the very least he should define what he means by ‘growth’, since it does seem to form the crux of his vision.

Do you know what your MP is striving for?