For the first time in about 15 years I'm about to read Neuromancer by William Gibson. I know without reading the first line that is burned into my brain like a brand:

"The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel."

What an opening line.

William Gibson's books have all had merit, but the Sprawl series of books had an effect on me in a way that the later books didn't.  I've not read them in a long time but I've found myself thinking about them lately.  It's time to read them once again.

At kiwifoo (which was a truly amazing weekend) Dan Randow kept asking me what  one should do to prepare for a power down.  The truth is, I don't really know, but after much discussion we came up with the following four items, none of which is a bad idea no matter what happens:

1. Make things
2. Get to know your neighbours
3. Grow food
4. Teach

In today's Telegraph an article entitled "How long before the lights go out?" appeared, but mostly it talks about sourcing Natural Gas from multiple origins.

On The Oil Drum today an article entitied "World Oil Capacity to Peak in 2010 Says Petrobras CEO".  

It stuns me that industry, government and media can be so far apart on our energy situation.

I came across this article about how Burger King's sales are down since the world's economy started on its down-leg a couple of years ago.  The article's main point is that while McDonalds is still going great guns and increasing sales Burger King's demographic is impacted to a higher degree by the downturn. 

What really struck me is the infographic about halfway down the menu.  People really go to fast food outlets 12 times a month?

I find that stunning.  Katrien and I probably don't go to a fast food outlet once a quarter!

It's been a while since I last updated the styling on the blog, and I thought, why not eh?

I'm a fan of newspapers, and the newspaper experience.  You won't get good writing here, but you will get slightly off-kilter headlines (if you're using a webkit-based browser) and serif fonts!

Watching today's interview with Tony Blair I was struck when he said that humans are insignificant by a realization: I find this a scary point of view. 

If we're insignificant, nothing we do matters.  Everything is caused by others. We're responsible for very little.  I'm sorry, but that just isn't the way I see things.

We might not be significant on a universal scale, but we sure as hell are significant on this planet, and to each other.  Life is fragile and while not "miraculous" it certainly is tenuous, wondrous, and fantastic; perhaps if we started seeing it that way we might take better care of it.

I've seen a number of comments and articles recently talking about living more sustainably.  Please note, there is no such thing as more sustainable.  It either is sustainable, or it isn't. 

Thank you.

In 2007 Mark Tovey and I led a discussion about "the future" at BarCamp in Ottawa - we talked about a lot of problems and solutions, and one of the topics was peak oil.  I found the experience somewhat depressing, because so few people - even really smart people - seemed to understand the issue, or be able to see the problem, and I remained quiet on the topic again for a couple of years, until recently at BitNorth.

I see the ramping up of articles being published by the Guardian as great news.

My only critique of the articles would be that the full scale of the problem is not being presented - the fact that agriculture produces 1 calorie by using 10, the issues of the export land model, and the fact the only sustainable rate of oil consumption is that which is constantly reducing to name but a few.  I was beginning to lose faith that anybody would take notice until after long, long after the peak. The data suggests we might be at there now and I hope the signals will start to be noticed.

We're possibly at the point in human development where gravity once again takes hold and we begin the long arc back down to Earth; if we're not there yet, then wait a couple of years.  

I've just come back from bitnorth where I gave a talk called "Halfway through the Oil Age", focusing mainly on Peak Oil and the impact on Agriculture. It was once again, a great experience; Alistair and his team did a fantastic job of organizing it, and looking after all of us while we were there.

By luck rather than judgement, or possibly because more and more people are looking at the world around them and seeing that we need to change the way we live, there seemed to be a real thread of sustainability running through the discussions.  From a talk on how the Electric Car is really just a unicorn, to how televisions and automobiles are really just insignificant & ephemeral blips in the greater scheme of human existance.

On that thought I just wanted to write about how much I appreciate PBS, and specifically pbs.org.  Their video streaming of shows like Nova, The American Experience, Nature, and Frontline means that the only thing I use a television for these days is live sport, and the sooner I can find a mechanism to have that delivered reliably and decently over the internet I can happily disconnect the satellite receiver for good.

The trees are now definitely in full flight to fall.  All the deciduous tree's leaves are bursting into red flames seemingly overnight.  I've been pretty much away for the last couple of weeks and the difference is palpable.

Naturally that also means colder days however means that I need something for my feet, and Hudson (dog) seems to have developed the idea that when I put stuff on my feet he is going for a walk.  So putting socks on is now a chore because you have to deal with an over-excited dog.

Oh well.