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 →
Sociotechnical transitions for beginners; of speed, stability and mixing it up
What’s a sociotechnical transition? Why should you care? What does history teach us? Why might it be a false teacher? All good questions and they received good (though sometimes, by necessity provisional) answers yesterday as Dr Florian Kern of University of Sussex spoke on ‘Governing Low Carbon Transitions’ (see foot of this post for the... Continue Reading →
Technology as fetish? South Australia and the Social Economy.
A rather interesting event today, high above the mean streets of Adelaide. What place might “technology” (we will come back to the scare quotes) have in helping Adelaide (and South Australia more generally) cope with the slings and arrows of deindustrialisation and globalisation? The event was organised by the Dunstan Foundation (named for the last... Continue Reading →
Weil’s disease – or ‘the internet is eating my brain’
When I was in Australia, I ended up with a smartphone (the handset was as cheap as the cheapest non-smart model, so I thought 'why not?'). There were two consequences a) I met up with someone who I'd have otherwise missed because I was able to check email on the move b) I freaked the... Continue Reading →
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