Ed Dowding

Category: Society

Gaming for a better world.

It’s all just a game, really, this whole life business. We’re in it for a good time, to be fulfilled, amused, creative, challenged, active, careful, and much more. In games we often perform better if the pressure is off. So too in life. Relaxing into it and knowing that one way or another it’s pretty ...

Time to use those ‘insurance files’ on Rupert Murdoch?

Julian Assange Says He Has ‘Insurance Files’ on Rupert Murdoch. If he does, now seems like a good time to use them: The BBC have just revealed that Ofcom thinks there are big problems with Murdoch’s BSkyB power grab. Their report says the Competition Commission needs to be involved. But Jeremy Hunt is refusing to ...

Round of good things this week

A rather lovely looking place called Old Hall Community which is looking for residents and volunteers, and a sustainability centre based at Llanfyllin Workhouse. A few interesting things in citizen reporting and community action: Help Me Investigate is a place where you can collaborate with other people to investigate things. Who’s Lobbying answers questions for ...

Change the System, Not the Climate

I came across a marvellous speech as part of a course I’m doing on the Commons. Every now and then in history, the human race takes a collective step forward in its evolution. Such a time is upon us now. […] From the perspective of the environmental movement, I see two problems that hinder us in ...

Mottainai

Mottainai  is a Japanese term meaning “a sense of regret concerning waste when the intrinsic value of an object or resource is not properly utilized.” The expression “Mottainai!” can be uttered alone as an exclamation when something useful, such as food or time, is wasted. In addition to its primary sense of “wasteful,” the word ...

Don't do anything that isn't play

“For instance, on the planet Earth, man had always assumed that he was more intelligent than dolphins because he had achieved so much – the wheel, New York, wars and so on – whilst all the dolphins had ever done was muck about in the water having a good time. But conversely, the dolphins had ...

World War III – And so it begins…

I remember my geography teacher saying that the next world war would be about water. There have been a few issues already, but as Egypt rejects Nile water agreement I think we can probably see this a key moment in history. Switzerland, which has the largest reserves of fresh water, must be getting nervous. And it ...

Haiti is no big deal.

Latest estimates suggest that 200,000 people died in the Haiti earthquake, 7 days ago. The world population increases by 200,000 people in just 1 day. So on the plus side, we’re still up 1,200,000 people in the past week. On the downside, of those newcomers 200,000 will be malnourished 400,000 won’t have access to a ...

Middle class virtue

I love this graph. WOT = Well Off, Thoughtful LIL = Low Income Lifestyle Basically it says “Yes, you may recycle and think you’re green and lovely and one of the people who should survive The Great Reckoning, but actually you’re about 3 times more environmentally impactful than that fat TV watching pikey you feel ...

Swiss minarets – a defence, not an attack

So the Swiss have voted to ban building of minarets. This is not an architectural decision. They have planning laws and have already used them, which is why there only 4 minarets in Switzerland at the time of writing. Neither is this intrinsically about racism or anti Islam. The religion is perfectly well protected and ...

Peak Everything

Economist “Did you know?” 2009

YouTube – Economist “Did you know?”.

Divorce Rates

Proof that older = wiser: Age at marriage for those who divorce in America: Age Women Men Under 20 years old 27.6% 11.7% 20 to 24 years old 36.6% 38.8% 25 to 29 years old 16.4% 22.3% 30 to 34 years old 8.5% 11.6% 35 to 39 years old 5.1% 6.5% However, proof that we ...

The World According to Monsanto

I’ve just been watching ‘The World According to Monsanto’. It’s pretty compelling stuff. As one of the contributors says, “Seed is more powerful than bombs, more powerful than guns” and given that, you’d have thought that we’d be a little more careful about what we do it. 70% of the food in the USA contains ...

Quantum Biofeedback – giving Reiki scientific credibility

A company in Ontario has developed an Electro Physiological Frequency Xrroid (EPFX) which aims to.. well, they put it best, so: Simply put, the EPFX / SCIO is a high-tech complementary biofeedback device that assists health practitioners find stress and energetic imbalances occurring within humans and animals. […] During testing, the EPFX device resonates with ...

What Would Jesus Buy

Investing In Lawsuits Beats the Street

There’s a company investing law suits and getting at 20% return. Whilst that’s quite a good idea in a way (it allows people to fight against those with bigger budgets) it’s also a sure sign that the system is broken. Here’s a proposed solution from a reader on Slashdot: Abolish legally binding precedent. The accepted ...

TED is coming local!

It you don’t already know the amazing phenomenon that is the TED event (Technology, Education, Design) you’re in for a two treats. Firstly TED ranks up there with Skype as one of the best things to happen for communication of ideas across the world. Secondly, it’s supporting local events, too. What happens at a TEDx ...

Susan Boyle: the organic carrot of entertainment

A friend was recently saying he was “puzzled by this Susan Boyle thing. Why all the hoo ha? She can sing but is not young and attractive? It’s just patronising.” On the one hand it is patronising. The look on Piers Morgans face had prejudiced moron written all over it. And what he said at ...

Journalism, not newspapers

I’ve written about the quality of journalism before (and I thought I’d had a specific post about free newspapers, too, but I can’t seem to find it*), but much of it is summed up in this article by Clay Shirky (via Richard Livsey): Society doesn’t need newspapers. What we need is journalism. Too right. He ...