I am a free woman September 29, 2006
Posted by CamdenKiwi in : Being Freelance , 2 commentsMy current contract finished today and so I am once again either carrying out intense marketing and business development activity, or being an unemployed bum, depending on your view of things. Tomorrow, I’m off to France for a week, but after that there’s a very good chance there will be a lot more blogging going on around here.
I’ve decided that this time I will take a few months to see if i can develop my work in a rather different way, with 4-5 clients in any given year rather than one long project. I’ve been revamping the website, putting together lists of prospects and setting up meetings for when I’m back in early October, so I don’t expect to spend a lot of time loafing around in cafes. Probably.
But for this afternoon, I’m sitting in a cafe in Brighton, waiting for some friends to join me in an hour or so, finishing off a little paperwork and watching the world go by. It’s a good life.
Children of Men September 26, 2006
Posted by CamdenKiwi in : London, Reviews , 1 comment so farI’m having a busy couple of weeks and sadly this blog has suffered a little as I concentrate on setting up the marketing effort for a change to my business, finish off my current contract and prepare for a wedding and short holiday in France. I did manage to find time to get to the cinema on Saturday evening, and saw the deeply disturbing distopia, Children of Men.
Set in the near future, in an instantly recognisable but considerably grimmer (and grimier) London, no babies have been born for 18 years. Society is slowly collapsing in despair, as cults thrive and a group of terrorist / activists try to stir up ‘the uprising’. A Minister has taken over Battersea Power Station and turned it into a private apartment while outside the Clean Air Act has clearly been repealed.
In the midst of all this Our Hero, played by Clive Owen, survives a nearby bombing and is kidnapped by the ‘terrorist’ organisation supposedly responsible. Its leader is his long-lost partner, and she has a mission for him - to take a young woman to meet a boat on the south coast.
Violence is gritty and realistic in the way that British movies portray it - when someone’s head is smashed with a brick, you can almost feel it. The squalor of the concentration camp on the coast filled with illegal immigrants is palpable. The contrast between the urban scenes and the clean, green and pleasant countryside, perhaps recovering as the number of people dwindles, cries out ‘England’.
The star is the setting, the scene that embodies the themes of dispair and decay. And although the plot presents hope, it is faint and unlikely.
This is not a movie to see if you want to be cheered up, or to relax. But it is probably one of the best movies I’ve seen this year, and highly recommended.
Appeals to me September 25, 2006
Posted by CamdenKiwi in : Miscellany , 1 comment so farA few blokes playing around with treadmills and a very poppy song. Not great art, but greatly amusing.
An Inconvenient Truth September 18, 2006
Posted by CamdenKiwi in : Environment , 5 commentsAl Gore’s movie has made it to the UK, and it is essential viewing. If you’re already a committed environmentalist, you may not learn many new facts, but his clear, wryly humourous way of describing the situation is an important lesson in how to communicate the problems we face. If you’re not sure, or perhaps even a climate sceptic then please, go and see it. At the least, it will give you food for thought, and Al Gore is an entertaining speaker.
I remember as a child seeing the film ‘Atomic Cafe’ in a cold church hall, sponsors by the NZ precursor to the Greens, the Values Party, and being terrified. These days, I’m perhaps a little less sensitive and a lot more familiar with the arguements, but in some ways this film is just as terrifying and will hopefully cause people to rethink what they, and the institutions that dominate our society, are doing.
If you’re still a sceptic, or find yourself talking to one, I’ve added a site to the blogroll which will be of interest. A Few Thinks Illconsidered looks at the many and various arguements against global warming and demolishes them. One of the most important statistics Gore trots out is that from the review in Science of 928 papers in the literature not a single one disagreed with the statement from the Interdisciplinary Panel on Climate Change that
“Human activities … are modifying the concentration of atmospheric
constituents … that absorb or scatter radiant energy. … [M]ost of
the observed warming over the last 50 years is likely to have been due
to the increase in greenhouse gas concentrations”. He had a contrasting statistic, which I’d not seen before, of a similar survey in the popular press which showed 53% of articles sceptical.
Another good site, which is always happy to take reasonable comments
and questions, is RealClimate, a conglomeration of climate change
scientists trying to explain the problem. Its not always easy, and rarely comes in a simple soundbite, but does host very good debate.
We’ve have to start understanding the science. Question it, of course. Check the motives of those who present it, definitely, but make sure you understand it and, if you remain a sceptic, are doing so with a valid, reasoned arguement. This is too important to leave to those who will listen to soundbites.
Technorati Tags: an inconvenient truth, climate science
Sheep Poo Paper September 15, 2006
Posted by CamdenKiwi in : Environment, Investing , add a commentNo, its not for wiping their woolly backsides. That would be silly. In fact, its a nice wee eco-friendly business.
Because sheep don’t digest the long cellulose fibres in grass very well, most of it passes through and, once sterilised, makes a rather good base for paper. Yes, its in Wales (though it wouldn’t surprise me if there was something similar in the Waikato, NZ).
Technorati Tags: sheep poo paper, business, green
Free Toxic Waste at Euston
Posted by CamdenKiwi in : Environment , 1 comment so farIt’s amazing how many freebies you can pick up if you travel through two London mainline stations each morning, and are so inclined. In the last few weeks, I’ve been given Coke Zero (diet coke for boys, and just as full of carcinogens), a travelcard holder with a picture from the new musical Wicked, a free umbrella with a paper and a bottle of some sort of fruity water stuff that was actually quite nice. If the giveaway looks useful or interesting, I’ll take it, but don’t have time to look too closely in the rush of the commuter crowd. This morning, I accidently acquired a couple of potentially explosive bottles of noxious chemicals, courtesy of Unilever.
They’re Sure spray on deoderant. Does anyone still use sprayon? Would you really want to use something that said ‘Extremely Flammable’, ‘No smoking during or shortly after use’, ‘Do not spray near eyes or face’. Do underarms count as ‘near eyes or face’. Why take the risk, and the environmental harm, when rollons exist?
So now I have two little bottles of toxic waste. I’m tempted to send them back to Unilever, with an invoice for the carbon offsets.
Technorati Tags: Unilever
Prep, by Curtis Sittenfeld September 14, 2006
Posted by CamdenKiwi in : Reviews , add a commentStrangely reminiscent of the school stories I read as a child, this is not Malory Towers, by a very long way. Our heroine, Lee Fiora, desperately wants to rise above her mundane existance, and wins a scholarship to an exclusive boarding school. She has the intelligence to deal with it, just, but never entirely develops the maturity to cope without losing her personal integrity, although we are left hoping that she will.
The school is an intense environment of petty intrigues, cliques, rituals and odd traditions which serve to bind the community of privileged youngsters. Its a very detailed book, drawing you in to the richly-drawn characters, absorbing and unputdownable. Anyone who has ever been to high school will recognise something here.
Perhaps buying carbon offsets does help September 8, 2006
Posted by CamdenKiwi in : Environment , 2 commentsJames, of High Above Ealing, asked about carbon offsetting in a comment on my previous post, and is planning to use this to reduce the impact of his 3 return trips in six years. As I’ve made 3 return trips in the last six months, I am very impressed at his restraint. The simple answer to the question though is that I don’t know any good carbon offsetting companies, although a quick google reveals a few options.
The longer answer is that I’m not convinced this is the best way to deal with the situation. To me, being green and reducing my impact on the planet is very much about mindfulness, and being aware of the impact of my own actions. Offset schemes seem to me to be a way of trying to buy oneself out of the harm done, particularly when they’re attached to ticket buying sites on, for instance, ba.com.
Looking at BA’s scheme, I’m bemused. Will £13.30 worth of investment in renewable energy really offset a return flight to Johannesburg? That’s less than 5% of a fairly cheap fare there. If so, why are we worrying? Somehow, it doesn’t seem quite right. Maybe its just BAs marketing though, and we should look to other carbon offset companies. I used Climate Care’s calculator to determine that a return flight to Jo’burg would generate 2.62 tonnes of CO2, and could be offset by a £ 19.66 donation. This was similar to driving 9000 miles a year with a petrol engine. It still seems remarkably cheap, although rather more than the BA price.
Is all this sense of impending doom really caused by something that could be offset by so little? My six flights in the last year, plus use of gas and electricity at home, could be offset by £37, less than the cost of dinner for two in my local Italian.
So, I thought I’d do the maths and I was astounded by the results. I was extremely sceptical, and took a look at one Climate Care project was funding 9800 energy efficient lamps in schools to replace the old-fashioned incandescent lamps which use more electricity. Assuming nothing goes wrong (people taking the nice new lightbulbs, replacing the old ones, and then selling the old ones to their mates), how could £19.66 worth of energy efficient lamps ever save 2.62 tonnes of CO2? These lightbulbs use about 70-80% of the electricity of the older ones, have a life of about 10 years and can be bought for about 69p from energy savers direct. Assuming wastage and some overhead, lets say 10 bulbs make it through 10 years of use.
A little googling to figure out that the conversion from kilowatt hours to kilograms of CO2 revealed that a simple factor of 0.592 would do it for ‘general’ electricity generation, and this is what I found. 10 bulbs, used for 10 years, four hours a day will save an amazing 7 tonnes of CO2. That’s rather more than the amount generated by the trip to South Africa.
| low energy | normal | |
| number of bulbs | 10 | 10 |
| Wattage of bulbs | 20 | 100 |
| multiply and divide by 1000 for kiloWatts |
0.2 | 1 |
| hours / 10 years | 14600 | 14600 |
| kW-hrs | 2920 | 14600 |
| divide by 0.594 to get kg of CO2 |
1734 | 8672 |
| in tonnes | 2 | 9 |
| saving in tonnes of CO2 | 7 |
There are other issues to consider - offsetting extravagant use in the UK by charitable work in developing countries fails to recognise that we are one of the worst polluters on the planet. Are there really enough opportunities of this kind to absorb more than a fraction of the CO2 we generate? If we think we can just export our CO2 emissions in this way, will we ever actually reduce them?
I’d appreciate it if someone would check my numbers and assumptions, and tell me if I’ve got this right. Its doesn’t seem to be as blatantly bad as I’d thought, and would be worth doing.
Technorati Tags: carbon offsets, CO2
Tomorrow, I’m not going to Naples September 7, 2006
Posted by CamdenKiwi in : Environment, Travel , 5 commentsFlying is my biggest contribution to global warning, and I’ve decided to give it up. This isn’t entirely due to CO2 guilt, but the recent misery induced by the war on moisturiser has tipped me over the edge. Three or four days a week, I work at my main client’s offices near Gatwick, and walk through the departures area, wrestling through the queues of people waiting to start their holidays and business trips with tiny carryon bags, and it isn’t getting any better.
I try to minimise my impact and, with a small flat, rare use of central heating and no car, flying is my main contribution to carbon-induced climate change, but no more.
When I booked the weekend in Pisa, I also booked tickets to Naples, but they are now cancelled. My next holiday will be to Paris, on Eurostar.
It is very sad. I love travelling, and I’ve worked in the travel industry for most of the last ten years. However, the time has come to change.
Technorati Tags: global warming, reduce impact
Visual Quickstart Guide to Wordpress 2 - Maria Langer and Miraz Jordan September 2, 2006
Posted by CamdenKiwi in : Blogging, Reviews , comments closedWay back in February, when I’d only been blogging a few weeks, I was rather chuffed to be approached by the authors of this book and asked if I’d mind them using my blog as an example. Now, many months later, its appeared and there is Camden Lady (the older, wordpress.com version of this blog) right there in the introduction.
I was absolutely amazed when one of the authors, Miraz Jordan, turned out to be a friend of my mother. Sometimes its a very small planet indeed.
Maria kindly sent me a copy a couple of weeks ago, and I’m pleased to find that there’s still a lot to learn about Wordpress. My next project is to convert my business site to run under Wordpress, and chapters in here on customising themes and useful plugins will help a lot with that. Maria’s already done it with her sites, so I’ll be following the hints on her blog as well.
The book is useful for beginners as well as those who have a little more experience, for those with some technical knowledge and those who are setting up in Wordpress.com and don’t ever want to do more than use a browser and fill in forms. It’s very clearly written and, unlike many guides to software packages, is a reasonable 294 pages.
If you’re new to wordpress, or wanted to build your knowledge further, this book is so much easier than wading through pages of blogs and websites. It’s highly recommended.
EDIT Sept 2007 - I’m getting really tired of all the spam comments on this post, so I’ve closed the comments. Nasty little spammy people - a viral pox on all your servers!
