The Cheerful Insanity of Me

So, over the past couple of weeks a whole load of politicians have spent time having petty arguments about who's responsibility it is to cut emissions rather than accepting their own responsibilities to cut their own.

Upshot of which we have another document that basically says there is a problem and something needs to be done about it, without implementing any real actions to do anything meaningful (and certainly nothing legally binding, so they couldn't back out when the economics don't work out in their favour). The only real compromise seems to be from the developing countries forced into doing so for their own survival as they get hit sooner by the serious impacts of climate change. To top it all off, it wasn't even approved, only ratified.

It may be a "historic first step", but if the steps are all going to be this small, we're going to have to make a lot of them and very quickly. Rather than doing anything to tackle the issue at hand we've opted for the dragging our feet in a global "lets cut emissions, you go first" strategy.

Why did it end up like this?

We live in a system focused on promoting ones own profit rather than sharing resources equally between those that need them. However much the politicians wanted to put in place measures to address climate change, they couldn't do it at the risk of damaging their economic position.

And so we've done another loop of the climate change policy cycle. There will be more protests, more political talks, more academics researching the issues and a million other things that won't mean a thing without being acted on, but at this rate no real action will be taken until it's far too late.

The capitalist system has failed us all, whether your rich or poor, over the past 2 weeks, but we'll still worship it's feet in our millions because that's what we do.

"Only when the last tree has died and the last river been poisoned and the last fish been caught will we realise we cannot eat money."

Today's foe_tips, offers the following piece of advice for helping to tackle climate change:

Have a Clothes Swap Party!

Presumably, they don't quite mean it in the way that springs to mind...

Oh, and 75

There are days when I feel just like this:

Excursion into the Mountains
by Franz Kafka (translated by Willa and Edwin Muir)

"I don't know," I cried without being heard, "I do not know. If nobody comes, then nobody comes. I've done nobody any harm, nobody's done me any harm, but nobody will help me. A pack of nobodies. Yet that isn't all true. Only, that nobody helps me - a pack of nobodies would be rather fine, on the other hand. I'd love to go on an excursion - why not? - with a pack of nobodies. Into the mountains, of course, where else? How these nobodies jostle each other, all these lifted arms linked together, these numberless feet treading so close! Of course they are all in dress suits. We go so gaily, the wind blows through us and the gaps in our company. Our throats swell and are free in the mountains. It's a wonder that we don't burst into song."

My book of Kafka's short stories may be taking me a while to read, but their are little gems like this that make it so worth it!

Now, where can I find a pack of nobodies? An excursion into the mountains sound so much more fun then this marking.

It appears twitter is a lot older than it seems:



(via @SciNewsBlog)

So, I finding it a scary thought that someone might actually want to vote for Boris Johnson tomorrow. A man who, let's face it, actively goes out of his way to appear a complete idiot.

However, an email from the Guardian today has found an even scarier thought, with this quote from Joan Ryan, MP for Enfield North:

"All the way though we've been warning people 'Boris isn't wearing any clothes' and only now are voters coming to us and saying, 'oh my goddddd, he's not wearing any clothes... and it's disgussssting'".

So, thanks to the Joan Ryan and the Guardian, I've now got an image of Boris Johnson naked in my head. I don't want it, so I thought I'd share it. Isn't it a lovely thought?

...What do you mean "no"?

Given the choice of voting for him or seeing him naked, I would like to say I'd martyr myself for the sake of the population of London, but I'm not sure I could face seeing it.

Luckily I don't have to, so tomorrow I can enjoy both not voting for him and not seeing him naked.

"Everyone's producing cookbooks now, except the scientologists, but even they're planning one"

Eduord Cointreau at a seminar on Cookbooks and wine books yesterday.

I don't normally bother with meme's, but this film one seems fun, so here's IMDB quotes from the first 15 films I could think of. Comment if you recognise any of them.

( Quotes )