The plays of Bill will get you used to rhyme Iamb addicted to this form of verse And for the better or the worse (the worse!) Am churning lines about all stately crime. Here it is - drumroll please - They offer motherhood and apple pie They dangle gleaming technofix advances You mustn't probe too... Continue Reading →
On the rebound: two examples of how “efficiency” and “green” can be even worse than the status quo
We are told by the new priests to put our faith not in a bearded sky god (sooo 1st and 2nd millennium!) but rather in .... technology. Social problems with Bad Behaviour by the lower orders? Solution: More surveillance (and graded punishments and rewards) - problem solved! Economic problems with low productivity? Solution: More Growth,... Continue Reading →
Paleolithic emotions, medieval institutions, godlike technology – what could possibly go wrong?
The real problem of humanity is the following: We have Paleolithic emotions, medieval institutions and godlike technology. And it is terrifically dangerous. E.O. Wilson Am so in love with this quote. Yes, yes, the dangers of mystifying class relations by harkening back to our hominid ancestry. Blah blah 'it's not the anthropocene, it's the capitolocene' blah blah.... Continue Reading →
Letter in Private Eye about CCS…
They edited it down very lightly, just missing the final line "I would get out more, but the weather is so unpredictable at the moment, for reasons that elude me."
Dr Juggles and the Energy Quadrilemma
Using juggling as a metaphor for dealing not only with the energy "trilemma" - of security of supply, price and climate change, but the energy quadrilemma - all the other environmental problems too... Rough as a badger's... bottom, but you get the idea. You're allowed to a) laugh (at/with/whatever - we all need a laugh)... Continue Reading →
Scientists studiously avoid renewables policy while “digging deeper into the Technology Investment Roadmap.”
Last week leading Australian scientists and technology experts studiously avoided talking about the government’s ongoing hostility to renewables while studiously “Digging deeper into the Technology Investment Roadmap” The event, organised by the Energy Change Institute of Australian National University was useful and informative as far as it went, with Alan Finkel repeating the lines we... Continue Reading →
Technology to the rescue? #HybridWorldAdl
In 1759 the English essayist Samuel Johnson had some wise words about techno-hype. He said… “When the philosophers of the last age were first congregated into the Royal Society, great expectations were raised of the sudden progress of useful arts; the time was supposed to be near, when engines should turn by a perpetual motion, and... Continue Reading →
“Stop building coal-fired power stations” say green groups. In 1988. #auspol #climate ffs
This species. I mean, seriously. Anon, 1988. Greenhouse Switch. Australian Financial Review, 7 November, p.4 Australian governments should stop building coal-fired power stations as a start to combatting the greenhouse effect, conservation groups said yesterday. A group of 25 conservation, consumer and other community organisations said brown coal was the “dirtiest” of the fossil... Continue Reading →
Generosity and conviviality in the age of algorithmic oppression: #Manchester #odmnoble
This was a superb event. A diverse audience of somewhere between 80 and 90 attended a truly excellent event on 'algorithms of oppression' yesterday in Manchester. The event, hosted by Open Data Manchester with the support of The Federation and Manchester School of Art, was centred on a lecture and q and a with Dr Safiya... Continue Reading →
Maps, territories, landscapes and moonscapes: three brilliant guides to the transformations
It's easy to get lost, to feel lost, especially when you're diving into new literature(s). Your supervisors can do just so much (mostly tell your thesis is not up to scratch (yet), or point you in the direction of some really good literature (institutional work, much?) But for the bigger/biggest picture? Well, who has the... Continue Reading →
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