Arguing the point, IV

The commonplace/everdayization of utopia

Arguing the point, III

Permaculture, terraforming Mars, planetary design and space colonies.

Arguing the point, I – II

I’ve been feeling argumentative on the Internet, on social media to be precise. Perhaps that’s just the temper of the socials under current conditions just as rage is the temper of roads under current conditions. Now I’m trying to salvage the energy I expended in the void, by concentrating here in a story with 4 […]

On Staying Alert

Didn’t sleep well last night. There was the heat of course and mozzie bites, the annual adjustment to Summer – I could blame it on the seasons. Even that was tinged with disquiet though. A few days ago it was reported that East Anglia has received just 6% of the average May rainfall, making it, […]

Rally Round the Flag

“He said not ‘Thou shalt not be tempested, thou shalt not be travailed, thou shalt not be dis-eased’; but he said, ‘Thou shalt not be overcome.”― Julian of Norwich, Revelations of Divine Love Everybody sees a different rainbow. There’s no rainbow there. What we think we see there is a product of a relationship of […]

Mimimum Cultural Continuity

I started working from home full time on Wednesday 11th March, fifty days ago, so I’m past quarantine or even cinquantine now. I normally work from home two days a week anyway, so I had structures in place and a pattern. I feel lucky to still be getting paid. My partner was due to start […]

SolarPunk and the Keytar

I’m in this Solarpunk group on Facebook. At least once a month, there’s a post about whether nuclear power has a place in solarpunk. If I get involved I always say the same thing that nuclear power is neither solar nor punk, it’s AtomState. I went on about this on Twitter last year (lightly edited […]

Under Conditions of Uncertainty

These are confusing times of deep uncertainty. The future is difficult to perceive, the natural world has long been in peril and the global political scene has grown increasingly divisive. Many of us are at home all day and seek information and understanding from online sources. Voices which offer forms of certainty, that make claim […]

Redesigning Work

The following article was submitted to Permaculture Works, the journal of the UK Permaculture Association in January 2020. You can download a fully referenced version here [pdf] We are in a crisis of work. A survey of the UK reveals that despite record levels of employment, wages have stagnated for a decade, millions live in […]

Process of Reflection

There’s a few more days left before I return to work, a few more days to reflect and plan ahead. The last post reviewed the year just gone but didn’t really have too much rumination on what any of it might have meant. I’m currently 42 hours into a 72-hour fast and past the hunger […]