Ed Dowding

Month: November 2010

Working hours? They are just so last season. | Forum For The Future

Do we need to be in the office nine ’til five? Or at all for that matter? It’s this sort of questioning that brought success to the Brazilian company Semco, whose CEO Ricardo Semler cut out offices, management, job titles and business plans altogether, in favour of the employee’s freedom to do their job on ...

The best and safest thing is to keep a balance in your life

The best and safest thing is to keep a balance in your life, acknowledge the great powers around us and in us. If you can do that, and live that way, you are really a wise man. Euripides

Convenience will kill you.

YouTube – PLASTIC STATE OF MIND – Black Friday Parody.

Vision 2050. From here to there.

Zoom.it – Image foTF.

Why are you here?

FARM:shop

A wonderful approach to urban farming as Something & Son ask the question, “How much food can we grow in this shop?” Quite a lot it turns out. – ‘Aquaponic’ micro fish farming – High tech Indoor allotment – Rooftop chicken coop – Polytunnel It all looks rather cool. I must go visit. If you ...

Eric Cantona joins in calling for economic change

The clever chap has pointed out that taking to the streets is a less effective means of protest than just triggering a run on the banks, which will highlight the systemic flaws in the financial model. Now there’s the argument to be made that this is a bit irresponsible, but when facing down a far ...

Funniest ever 'Lost' sign

Lost Sign Of The Day | someecards.com.

Self-Repair Manifesto

Self-Repair Manifesto – iFixit.

Is this evidence that we can see the future?

Extraordinary claims don’t come much more extraordinary than this: events that haven’t yet happened can influence our behaviour. It describes a series of experiments involving more than 1000 student volunteers. In most of the tests, Bem took well-studied psychological phenomena and simply reversed the sequence, so that the event generally interpreted via Is this evidence ...

Contentious post about tuition fees

Are people being denied loans to pay for tuition feed? Is it actually IMPOSSIBLE for people to go to university, or just expensive for them to? When I went to university I found many people who didn’t really want to be there, gained little from the experience, were only really doing it because it was ...

'Global Warming' may still be a problem

“I was a bit surprised by our findings, because I, along with the rest of my colleagues, thought that the process of fixing climate change ended soon after [2007 rock concert] Live Earth,” CGD assistant director George Oliver told reporters. “But it turns out that the things needed to stop it, like substantive energy legislation, ...

Wealth creators, or concentrations of power?

A few highlights from an article about reclaiming the commons: In practice it is impossible for the modern state to maintain an independent control over the decisions of big business. When the state extends its control over big business, big business moves in to control the state. It is vital here to distinguish between capitalist ...

Facebook relationship data

Neat graph. Facebook shows why you might get dumped before Xmas | Technically Incorrect – CNET News.

YouTube – RSA Animate – Drive: The surprising truth about what motivates us

It’s just occurred to me that people may not have seen this. Remedy that right now, please. RSA Animate – Drive: The surprising truth about what motivates us.

Transparent, conductive, energy-generating plastic film

UPTON, NY — Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory and Los Alamos National Laboratory have fabricated transparent thin films capable of absorbing light and generating electric charge over a relatively large area. The material, described in the journal Chemistry of Materials, could be used to develop transparent solar panels or ...

How do we get the right answer?

Are there any models of deliberative democracy which mandate required goals? Eg “Here are some scientific parameters we need to operate in. Coming up with a solution which puts us outside these parameters at any time in the future is an unacceptable answer.” Is there a model which supports this ‘undemocratic’ democacy?

8 rules or managing the commons

Clearly defined boundaries (effective exclusion of external unentitled parties); Rules regarding the appropriation and provision of common resources are adapted to local conditions; Collective-choice arrangements allow most resource appropriators to participate in the decision-making process; Effective monitoring by monitors who are part of or accountable to the appropriators; There is a scale of graduated sanctions ...

One final paragraph of advice.

One final paragraph of advice: do not burn yourselves out. Be as I am — a reluctant enthusiast… a part-time crusader, a half-hearted fanatic. Save the other half of yourselves and your lives for pleasure and adventure. It is not enough to fight for the land; it is even more important to enjoy it. While ...

What’s Mine is Yours – Collaborative consumption

Collaborative Consumption describes the rapid explosion in traditional sharing, bartering, lending, trading, renting, gifting, and swapping redefined through technology and peer communities. What’s Mine Is Yours: The Rise of Collaborative Consumption by Rachel Botsman and Roo Rogers charts this movement. WHAT’S MINE IS YOURS