Ed Dowding

Looking for a happy, well paid job? Become a gardener

1 acre of land = £43,000 income per year for about 30 days work.. Every time they harvested anything from their modest 1600 square foot (150 square metre) garden, they recorded it and compiled these figures into a spreadsheet and came up with an amazing 834 lb (380kg) of total harvest. From this they computed ...

Kim Stanley Robinson on BldgBlog

It seems Kim Stanley Robinson and I are in accord. The more we can live in keeping with our evolutionary history, the happier we are likely to be. Simple pleasures which put us in “the zone”, mind and body working in harmony, within our comfort zone, but occasionally brushing up against the edges to keep ...

AC Grayling

I love  AC Grayling’s incredibly clear articulation. Try to create meaning and purpose in one’s individual existance, always remembering that that are as many individual meanings and purposes as there are people who pursue them. Try to life a life of flourishing and achievement and learning and good relationships. It’s not complex stuff, I’m sure ...

Efficient & Affordable Wood House Made From Shipping Pallets

via http://www.inhabitat.com/2010/04/02/pallet-haus-an-efficient-affordable-modular-house/

Turn an old plastic bottle into a 50W lightbulb

Fill a plastic bottle with water, add a small amount of bleach to keep it clean, stick a film canister over the cap to stop it corroding in the UV, stick it in your roof, and hey presto an everlasting prismatic 50W lightbulb! httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_zMAWztZ6TI via http://www.inhabitat.com/2010/04/02/sundolier-robot-pumps-sunlight-indoors-for-powerful-daylighting/ and Slashdot

Shel Silverstein

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1TZCP6OqRlE

10 steps to ideas that win

MAKE IT RELEVANT. Identify a broad social trend that aligns with your core competencies and the values of your culture. MAKE IT STICK. With that trend, identify your customer and find something that they really need and can become integrated into their lifestyle. MAKE IT WASY TO ADOPT. Enhance an existing behvaiour rather than try ...

The UK's renewable energy is a national shame

Here’s some figures for renewable power generation in 2006: 62.9% – Austria 48.7% – Sweden 29.9% – Portugal 17.1% – Slovak Republic 19.2% – Romania 17% – Denmark 12.4% – France 4.6% – UK In November 2009, Spain generated 53% of its demand from wind alone last week (it was a bit windy). So if ...

James Murdoch vs Reason

Murdoch is like a redneck with an AK-47 shooting wildly into a herd of BBC elephants. “These slow good for nothing beasts! Stomp all the grass for my cattle! HAHAHA!! BANG! BANG!! Take that, Dumbo!” But that’s all just opinions and metaphor. Numbers, let’s look at numbers. These put some perspective to Murdoch’s power grab. ...

How Different Groups Spend Their Day

How Different Groups Spend Their Day – Interactive Graphic – NYTimes.com. Source: http://blog.alexkelleher.com/2009/08/10/an-average-day/

You have such freedoms! Exercise them!

Lexicon of cooperation

I’ve just been revising a contract we use for websites we build and so having to deal with one of my pet annoyances. I don’t like contracts. They’re boring, stop me doing the fun stuff of work, and seem to spend more time building walls than bridges. The point is that you’re working together, surely? ...

Green Revolution in India Wilts as Subsidies Backfire

In the 1970s, India dramatically increased food production, finally allowing this giant country to feed itself. But government efforts to continue that miracle by encouraging farmers to use fertilizers have backfired, forcing the country to expand its reliance on imported food. India has been providing farmers with heavily subsidized fertilizer for more than three decades. ...

Ethical bottled water is an oxymoron

‘How Bad For The Environment Can Throwing Away One Plastic Bottle Be?’ 30 Million People Wonder All agreed that disposing of what would eventually amount to 50 tons of thermoplastic polymer resin wasn’t the end of the world. “It’s not like I don’t care, because I do, and most of the time I don’t even ...

A farm for the future

I finally got around to watching A Farm for the Future (available on Google Video) a few nights ago, and found it to be a great introduction to the concepts of permaculture. Key things to realise (some not from the programme): Current methods of farming will not continue to feed you during your lifetime. We ...

Nation Realizes Money Just A Symbolic, Mutually Shared Illusion

If only… As news of the nation’s collectively held delusion spread, the economy ground to a halt, with dumbfounded citizens everywhere walking out on their jobs as they contemplated the little green drawings of buildings and dead white men they once used to measure their adequacy and importance as human beings. Care of The Onion

What do we call ourselves?

A question from The Blended Lifestyle if we move away from a materialistic life, what is the name for the kind of life we enter into? I don’t like ‘de-materialised’ (so what is it then?), ‘simple’ (it’s not simple), or ‘spiritual’ (problematic term). So I am missing a word. Do you have any ideas? There’s ...

Do you have unused land in London? Get free money!

A share of £75,000 is now up for grabs for London’s green-fingered community groups. The cash is available as part of the Capital Growth scheme, supported by the Mayor of London and managed by London Food Link, which encourages Londoners to grow their own food in under-used areas of the capital. People can apply online ...

Extra Ethical

via United Diversity

Two ideas for storing soup

When you make a big vat of soup – and with root veg being so cheap at this time of year you’d be crazy not to – you can freeze the remainder so you’re not eating leek and potato or carrot and parsnip every day. It makes sense to freeze in one- or two-person portions, ...