Ed Dowding

Tag: goodbreaks

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 ...

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 ...

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, ...

Our first few days at Coueillas

Time flies, it really does. Today is Saturday. We arrived here on Wednesday night. And this is the first time I’ve had my computer out to write something. In part, this is because we don’t have internet yet, despite our best attempts. And in many ways, what a relief. It has allowed us to get ...

2010: The year we make compost.

It’s probably time for an update on the details. So often the day to day things change and we forget to mention them. Or for various reasons we don’t mention them until they’ve become an ingrained part of our lives, so we forget to relay them as news, and civility / humility / fear of ...

Good.is' most popular infographics of 2009

http://www.good.is/post/transparency-good-s-most-popular-infographics-of-2009/

Go out and look at the stars tonight

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 ...

What happened to the Biosphere?

This is what happened to the Biosphere. A great metaphor (is it a metaphor if it’s so literal?) of what happens to a neglected Earth.

Quantitive psychology

I’m so glad we live in an age where people are doing large scale psychology studies, trying to discern the facts about our behaviour which our perceptions mask. This has fed into the mainstream thanks to books like Nudge and Freakonomics, and is being used politically to great effect (viz Obama). (There are fears that ...

What do we do now?

I’ve been thinking for a while what we do when Copenhagen fails. And then I waited to see if it actually did. And it did, so no surprise there. But no points for calling it correctly, either. I’ve been thinking about what I’d like to get involved in, and here’s my criteria: It must amplify ...

Things are looking good for GoodBreaks

Adventure Travel Trade Association tour operators, which together serve roughly two million customers annually,  reported that travelers are showing increased interest in the following: Custom itineraries: 84% (i.e., 84% of operators reported an increased interest) Shorter duration trips: 73% Closer-to-home, shorter haul trips: 55% Activity based adventures: 79% Cultural-interaction adventures: 70% Volunteering within travel: 40% ...

Luxury hotels get into voluntourism

Since the [Ritz-Carlton] launched its “Give Back Getaways” in April 2008, more than 2,000 vacationers have signed up in dozens of locations around the globe. Sue Stephenson, vice president of the company’s “Community Footprints” initiative, says the half-day programs range from assisting local food banks to participating in music therapy for disabled kids. Source: Time ...

Abandoned towns

Hmmm maybe we should go claim one? http://weburbanist.com/2008/10/19/ghost-town-abandoned-city-examples-images/