act:ualise | what we think

Its good to see level headed thinking in a issue ripe with inflamed exchanges and thin on justice. Denmark and the Netherlands place the blame firmly on the automobile in accidents, unless it can be proven otherwise. The idea is simply that the person in the most dangerous vehicle has the most responsibility. That said, drink [...]

Much has been made of Iceland’s economic demise and the stepping down of the then government leadership. Their dramatic and undignified end was widely reported, the male bankers and ministers all shown leaving in a flashbulb frenzy, scurrying back to their multi-million Krona homes. What a surprise then that little to no mention is made [...]

Piers Fawkes asked on the PSFK blog recently “is buying local considered protectionist?” It’s a current question given the softening of the protectionist language in  Obama’s stimulus package bill. And the answer is, yes, it is protectionist. Any action to restrict trade between nations (whether through buy-local requirements, tariffs, quotas or whatever else) is protectionist. But [...]

My two previous posts present a worrying possible conclusion to the way we’re living and the impact that we’re having on our own social fabric and environment today. It’s always easy to criticise and find the negative in our situation, so I’ve been thinking about what we can do to improve the situation, and what [...]

Picking up on the urban migration thread, I’ve been researching what’s been driving that mass exodus from the world’s rural areas. In my travels, I came across The Story of Stuff, which I highly recommend. I love it for giving such a succinct explanation of such a huge and complex subject, for the wonderful way [...]

Have you seen 192021.org? If not, take a look. It’s an interesting, and well-presented, exposition of what it calls the “defining megatrend of the 21st century”: that by 2050 more than two-thirds of the world’s population will live in cities, up from 50% of the global population right now. And in 1900, it was only [...]

Friday’s Beijing Olympics opening ceremony seemed to herald a slew of cynical comment in the press. For example, there was this from James Donaghy in the Guardian’s Guide on Saturday August 9th: “Compelling and beautiful, [the BBC's Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett-produced trailer is] everything the Olympics is not. It seems logical now for the [...]

I’ve been musing recently on the state of feminism among women today, and it strikes me it’s in a pretty bad place. I can’t think of any other grassroots cause that is so hated and so abhorrent to so many of the people that it aims to serve. Most young women today not only feel [...]