Prawn Flavoured Beef

Funny radio spoof about food additives, made in the eighties and starring Stephen Fry.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b007jmm8/Delve_Special_Series_2_Food_for_Thought/

Christianity and Islam

More TV links! Even if you have a hard time taking Boris 'Granny Butter' Johnson seriously, this programme about the age-old clash of civilisations sounds undeniably interesting. Very topical too. The relationship beset with conflict was established in the era following the fall of the Roman Empire, which is where Boris begins the programme.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00fy48j/After_Rome_Holy_War_and_Conquest_Episode_1/

Soap Nuts

I've just started using these as a 'natural' alternative to detergents, on the basis that without hours of research and a degree in chemistry, I just don't know what most commercial products contain. I like to know for what I'm giving up my money. Soap nuts are also really cheap, compostable and don't come in a burdensome plastic bottle.

The 'nut' itself is actually the shell of a drupe fruit that grow on the sapindus shrub in tropical and warm temperate climates. I think I'm right in saying that the word saponification, which is the conversion of fat or oil into soap, has it's derivation in this botanical name. When the sticky shell is exposed to water it surprisingly produces a unscented lather, which works to lift dirt. Just place them in a cotton bag inside the drum and add a couple of drops of essential oil to the conditioner drawer for fragrance. Although I haven't yet tried to wash anything particularly soiled with the help of soap nuts, I doubt I'll be reverting to the usual dubious powders and liquids. You lose supermarket.



Recently I've been anxious that I may be falling victim to the trend of green marketing, but I am adamant that I make my purchasing decisions based on my own personal set of standards, they may or may not coincide with those advocated by environmentalists. One must take a dialectical approach to all situations.

Paying the Piper

This is an inventively named Radio 4 broadcast ruminating on the effects on capitalism caused by the mighty credit crunch. Which is a pandemic of late capitalism. As you might expect, there is more than a mention of Marx.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00fm5s4/b00fm5l6/Analysis_Paying_The_Piper/

Given that capitalism is a linear system and we live on a finite planet*, how could Francis Fukuyama have seriously suggested that capitalism is the final form of society? I can only assume that he saw it not as a sustained form, but as a vehicle for the extinction of the human race. Does human history conclude with the end of human struggle (a Hegelian position) or the end of humans?

*I borrowed this nice and simple reduction from Annie Leonard, in the much viewed Story of Stuff.

Einstein and Eddington

An entertaining period drama chronicling the acceptance into the scientific world of Einstein's General Theory of Relativity. Previously, I didn't realise quite how much opposition Einstein faced; his untimely German nationality and a strong resistance from obstinate proponents of Newton's theory of gravity both served to deny him success. Neither did I realise that he was such a ladies' man!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00ft62c/b00ft61z/Einstein_and_Eddington/

Eddington was the English astronomer who risked the ignominious accusation of treachery to advocate Einstein's ideas. Here's a photograph of the real E and E, embroiled in a heated discussion about what they had for breakfast.



Einstein's theorisation on time being different for everyone makes my head spin. The limits to my intelligence prevent me from comprehending the curves in space, and how they my make my minute differ from yours.

Buy Nothing Day

It thrills me to think ponder would happen to the economy if everybody did this. Stop being a well-behaved consumer for a day!



The first thing I ever read by William Morris was a quotation (quote?) in a themed address book my parents have owned ever since I can remember. Have nothing in your house that you consider to be neither beautiful or useful. I like to use this to gauge whether or not to buy something.

http://www.buynothingday.co.uk/

Gentleman's Relish

Classic British Workwear

Old Town Clothing

Fleet Foxes Live Set

They were on the Bob Harris show the Saturday past. They make beautiful music with a hints of Gregorian chanting and the Beach Boys.



Click here for a pop-out window. The set is about an hour in.

Wonky Fruit & Veg

Earlier this month the EU repealed rules which require fruit and vegetables sold in our shops and markets to be of uniform size and shape. It this the end to decades of silly bureaucracy? Does this also mean that produce will be harder to package and therefore sold loose? This bodes well.



This BBC article has the list of fruit and veg. I'd be interested to access the actual EU regulations online.

Medlar Tree

Along with the quince tree, in fact to a greater degree, the medlar is one of those elusive, romantic fruit bearers, once quite common but now so obscure that finding one would be quite a task. The fruit which it produces is most unusual in that it requires to be blet before it can be eaten, meaning that it's at its sweet sticky best when on the verge of being a putrid pulp. As if that weren't enough to dissuade the potential picker, the thing quite plainly resembles a cat's bottom. Needless to say I covet this greatly, and will certainly be planting one in my garden. When I get a garden that is.



Shakespeare dots his work with mentions of the medlar...

Now will he sit under a medlar tree,
And wish his mistress were that kind of fruit
As maids call medlars, when they laugh alone.
O Romeo, that she were, O that she were
An open-arse and thou a pop'rin pear!

Cameron Carpenter

What an astounding organist!

Screenwipe

Charlie Brooker is back! In the first episode he discusses television in the current economic climate, with special mention to Dickensian dicking machines and infuriating little piss-weasels.

Deborah Bowness

...designs wonderful scenery wallpapers. My favourite is the fake bookshelf.

Patti Smith

...is a woman I look up to.

In art and dream may you proceed with abandon. In life may you proceed with balance and stealth.

'Dream of Life' was one of my favourite festival films.

Matt Saunders

Bloody marvellous new animation from my chum.


A conversation from Matt Saunders on Vimeo.

Christopher Kane Mini Dresses

Something medieval about these.

Ecofeminism

Is it time for a global matriarchy? Elements of eco-feminism fascinate me (particularly the notion of women's bodies as an exploitable resource), but the discriminatory power implied is surely a danger to prospects of gender equality.

"Historically [man, woman and nature] have been unequally valorized. In particular, the interests of male dominated societies have been served by managing women's bodies as a 'natural resource.' That meant positioning the female sex 'somewhere between' men and nature in the order of things." Ariel Salleh, Austrian sociologist and eco-feminist.

LIFF: Flow, Mermaid

Flow, a film about the growing problems with the global water supply. One reason put forward by the World Development Movement to care about water shortages in developing countries is that of concern for the welfare of women. For many women in places like Africa, it is incumbent upon them to fetch water for the family's daily needs. This prevents them from being in education or work. If you care about women's rights, water deprivation is a key issue!

Russian film Mermaid, by director Anna Melikian. A wonderful kind of beautiful.

LIFF: Winstanley, Chomsky and Co

Both such worthwhile viewings.

Winstanley In the 1600's, after the English civil war, there came about bands of people who aspired to live in rural egalitarianism, what we might recognise as socialism. These were common people, sowing common land, led by dissident protestant Gerrard Winstanley. It may have been unsuccessful at the time, but leaves a legacy, however little known, to inspire generations. I say we celebrate the diggers and their ideas...

...that we may work in righteousness, and lay the foundation of making the earth a common treasury for all, both rich and poor.



Chomsky & Co served to introduce me properly to the man who is, as the New York Times put it, arguably the greatest living intellectual. It turns out, as I had expected, that Noam Chomsky talks a lot of sense. One of the most galvanising sentiments, and I think it was put forward by Normand Baillargeon, was the notion that even if we as individuals are unsettled by what understand of the world, we are unlikely to do anything about it, because we are all sat in front of our television sets, in our own homes, alone. Without opportunity for discussion with our fellow man, our thoughts of unrest remain nebulous, unvocalised and perhaps even quashed by our own introvert selves. I propose, and I use a phrase of Chomsky's own coining, that we maintain intellectual self-defence, but only be careful not to allow our cynical mistrust to cost us valuable alliances.

I want to read some of Chomsky's politically focused books, but he has been such a prolific author I hardly know where to start! If any Chomsky fans are reading then do advise.

Human Evolutionary Future

Humanity may split into two sub-species in 100,000 years' time...evolutionary theorist Oliver Curry of the London School of Economics expects a genetic upper class and a dim-witted underclass to emerge. Read the BBC report.

If this is true, and commonly accepted, what chance does the human race ever being an egalitarian one?

LIFF: Drifter, Out of Time

Two films which particularly spoke to me today:

Drifter. A transient life on the road provides room for insight. As do crazy people.

Out of Time. This film was ever so moving. Oh, how I mourn for that period of time before my own, when local shops dominated the marketplace. Death to the supermarkets!!!



I leant my scarf to a girl in the cinema today. It was a human moment, somehow breaking the illusion that all there exists in that blackened space is the other world on the screen.

The Credit Crunch

The BBC explains it all in a 5 part series. Watch just how the improvident suffer.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00f9s3y

Plastic Soup

"A rubbish dump twice the size of the United States has been discovered floating in the Pacific Ocean."

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-512424/Rubbish-dump-floating-Pacific-Ocean-twice-size-America.html

This isn't what I got out of bed to hear :(

Plant More Trees Tshirt

I saw someone on the street wearing one of these t shirts and I rather like it. It is made by organic company Tippitappi. Only thing is that they American, and I think that it is rather unethical to have a t shirt travel 4,000 miles to get to me. Boo.

Third World Statistics

A talk by Professor Hans Rosling, on the TED website. I would like to see free data available for all!

The End of Poverty

Once again, reminding me of one of the first posts I ever made, Leeds International Film Festival is upon us, with a catalogue full of films I plan to go and see.

I made a start tonight, with a film from Oxfam: The End of Poverty? I went keeping in mind that perhaps the bias of the people behind the film would hinder its objectivity. However, I was pleased to say that I was presented with a greatly informed account of the events that have led up to the current, torrid global situation. I feel much less ignorant for it, and more able to speculate on the worsening future.


http://www.theendofpoverty.com/

Nurturing Creativity

Sir Ken Robinson, of who I know very little, talks inspiringly about the development of creativity within the confines of an education system. He closes by concluding that in order to succeed in stabilising our global environment, we need to develop a 'human ecology', one which would be adopted and taught to children from their inception in school. This would mean re-thinking the fundamental values that are instilled, moving away from the traditional preparatory training for employment and ultimate acquisition of wealth, and concentrating on enriching the mind.

The Ecological Credit Crunch

The Guardian comments on a recent WWF report, which predicts that we are consuming as if our planet were twice as large.

Rudolf Beaufay's Shop

Second-hand tweed for the sartorially discerning gentlemen in Hamburg.


http://www.rudolf-beaufays.de/