Ed Dowding

Category: Society

“The Great Feast” – TEDxOxbridge

This is the transcript from my talk at TEDxOxbridge last weekend. —————–   If you a have a phone, take it out and hold it up. This device makes us magicians: At any time, from any where, we can know almost ANYTHING that is known to mankind. Ok – hands down. But what is truly ...

Accept what you can not change, change what you can not accept.

By all means, follow the advice of the Desiderata and “accept what you can not change”, but only so that you have energy and sanity left to change what you can not accept.

At-a-glance: Queen’ Speech 2013

You’re only allowed to stay if you were on the guest list we wrote 18 years ago. You are to clean up after your dog. You will work harder, longer, and when you die you’ll be able to know exactly how your privatised hospital is failing. We acknowledge that prison is a crap solution, so ...

Petition fatigue: in defence of clicktivism.

Every. Single. Day. Every single day there’s another damned petition to sign. Is it about anything sensible or reasonable? No. It’s about trying to prevent only the most stupid / villainous / malicious / self-serving people from doing the most ludicrous and outrageously stupid things they could ever possibly dream up to do. It makes ...

Blame the poor rich.

14 big trends to watch in 2013

http://radar.oreilly.com/2012/12/14-trends-for-2013.html

The world is on track for disaster. Who wants to buy a farm?

Written by MIT researchers for an international think tank, the Club of Rome, the study used computers to model several possible future scenarios. The business-as-usual scenario estimated that if human beings continued to consume more than nature was capable of providing, global economic collapse and precipitous population decline could occur by 2030. However, the study ...

The social tipping point is 8%

Someone told me recently that the tipping point for lasting social change is 8%. I don’t know where they got that number from but it seems believable. Especially if there’s no reason to resist the change. (A quick google turned up affirmation, so let’s go with it.) So if it’s true, this report from Germany ...

Manifestos for life

Posters in the Hub Westminster with typographical design by Robert Reed. Source: This is Reed

Simple Critical Infrastructure Maps

Simple Critical Infrastructure Maps

Building on allotments

@SaveFarmTerrace tweeted me yesterday: @eddowding Our mayor wants to sell our fab beautiful allotments in Watford UK to developers to build more houses on. Pls follow and rt us! — Sara jane trebar (@SaveFarmTerrace) December 26, 2012 So I’ve written a letter to the Mayor. Right now the comment is held in moderation so I’m ...

Apologising to Wonga

For the ‘personal growth’ diaries: —- Dear xxxx I was having a chat with xxxx today who brought it to my attention that I’d been a little rude to you during the mentors evening, ripping on you as hard as I did about your decision to work with Wonga. I apologise unreservedly for making you ...

Dark Skies

This is cool. I didn’t know this even existed! Exmoor National Park has been designated the first International Dark Sky Reserve in Europe! A view of the stars is a view of our natural heritage and a spectacular quality of Exmoor’s night time landscape. Dark night skies are a declining resource, threatened by development and ...

Staples To Offer 3D Printing Services

This is a big (albeit totally expected) deal. Sit up and pay attention if you aren’t already. As Chris Anderson (Mr TED talks / Wired) recently said: 3D printing is going to be bigger than the internet. Mcor and Staples announced today a deal in which Mcor will supply their paper-based 3D printers to Staples ...

Humanity has never faced such a bigger series of challenges….Just start

On Global Entrepreneurship Week: A bit about Ed and Sustaination He likes to solve problems and finds the 21st century a very exciting time to be alive since there are lots of big problems to solve. Food is the biggest which joins all the others together, and that’s why he started Sustaination. Before this he co-created the ...

Why climate change doesn’t spark moral outrage, and how it could

http://pocket.co/sdtCQ

The safety of an abusive relationship

“To break a law which conscience tells you is unjust is, in reality, to express the highest respect for the law. Speaking out against injustice is a profoundly political act. The best people in history put themselves on the line.”

21 hour work week

It just makes a lot of sense, k? via Permaculture Magazine

Public spending by UK government department

Open this one – the embed below is too small, sorry. Public spending by UK government department: an interactive guide

Declaration of the 99%

Stupid hippies out there protesting don’t know what they want and I’m not sure how sleeping in a tent does anything anyway I mean that’s basically camping isn’t it? No, you’ve just got to go with the flow and look after number one, that’s what I say. I mean just look at this summary list ...