52 Weeks to Make the World a Better Place: Week 36 - Grow your own

You don't need an acre of land in the deepest rural setting in order to grow your own produce - anything from a suburban garden to a city windowsill will do! Obviously, more space means more options, but it's the whole activity that counts. I needn't emphasise that you should approach the project organically - this will put you in touch with Nature in the most natural (!) way, and bring a special satisfaction when (if? - dispel those doubts!) your crop is ready. For an ordinary garden, set aside as much space as you're comfortable with and begin with your favourite vegetables. Do a little research and choose varieties for flavour rather than bulk. And herbs: these are the ideal crop for that windowsill, as well as a small patch in the garden, close to the kitchen. However small you start, once the bug bites, you'll probably want to expand - go for it, and the ripple effects will be surprising: greater attunement to Nature; acquisition of new skills and knowledge; better tasting food; fewer food-miles clocked up; and a general improvement in personal well-being. And did I mention it's more economical? Now that's what I call a bargain!

52 Weeks to Make the World a Better Place: Week 35 - Walk more

Having a car doesn't mean that you're compelled to use it every time you leave the house: for those short trips (e.g. to the village shop), why not walk for a change, if the weather's OK? It cuts down on the atmospheric pollution (short journies are the worst) and gives you some vital exercise for free. Much better than doing some boring repetitive task in a poncy 'gym'!

Winning Words 1

Number 1 in an occasional series taking a wryly-amused view of word-related blunders. Click on the title to find the web-page that first inspired.

Word/phrase/acronym: safety hazards

Category: oxymoron

My interpretation: a phrase whose true meaning will eventually be much-discussed by future historians (sorry!). Though not intended as such in the article, this will refer to the increased anxiety experienced by state-nannied citizens through over-exposure to:

a) signage for every possible low-probability "hazard" e.g. foodstuff labelling: "may have been produced in a factory where workers have thought about nuts"

b) harrowing advertising campaigns showing rare, though possible, results from activities carrying an inherent risk e.g. smoking, driving, eating, sleeping...

Latest fractal: Visions of Hell

More Apo experimentation with the 'fan' variation - a kind of Old Testament image of Satan's lair, all fire, heat, screaming souls and sharp black shafts of pain... we've come a long way, but there's yet a way to go ;-)

52 Weeks to Make the World a Better Place: Week 34 - Don't treat technology as fashion

There's a tendency today to treat technology as disposable: we change mobile 'phones like clothing; we buy new kitchen equipment every time we redecorate; and we upgrade the PC by simply buying new. Yet it takes huge amounts of resource to produce this kind of technology. And loads more to dispose of our discarded items properly - that or environmental stress from not bothering. Consider technological purchases carefully: will you ever really use all those new features on the next-generation mobile 'phones? Choose kitchen equipment that'll fit well with a variety of styles and colour schemes. And think about upgrading the PC piecemeal, only replacing the parts that are truly letting the side down. Having more disposable income isn't a licence to squander resource: remember there's more than just financial cost.

52 Weeks to Make the World a Better Place: Week 33 - Stop buying branded 'sportswear'

Most people are aware the dubious business practices of the brand giants in this area: sweatshop labour; huge incentives for the 'stars' that advertise; inflated prices; and the kind of aggressive marketing that traps young people who can ill afford the gear into wearing it. OK, maybe some companies are cleaning up their acts, but in buying the stuff, you're just perpetuating the notion that its cool, that you're just like everyone else. These companies are already rich enough: you want to advertise their brand whilst paying to wear it? Stop buying branded 'sportswear' - just do it!

Website update

General: The major change should by now be obvious: a completely new navigation menu. Whilst the old one was perfectly functional and I liked the context-sensitive side navigation, it did look rather dated. Hence it's a new javascript-driven menu constructed using the excellent CoffeeCup DHTML Menu Builder, and this has enabled (indeed forced) me to finally break free from Microsoft Front Page. This has now highlighted a shed-load of little inconsistencies caused by using a WYSIWYG editor without studying the code: stretched images; unwanted fixed heights for table elements; misuse of spaces in the name attributes of anchor tags; and others, I'm sure, besides. These are gradually getting fixed to improve both form and functionality of the whole site.

Books: new Poem of the Month.

Drink: I received an e-mail from the webmaster of a rather good absinthe site (see below), so I'm tying the Drink of the Month in with this: La Fée Verte absinthe, with 4 original recipes.

Food: Picnic time (again!) for Recipe of the Month - a collection put together for one we enjoyed just recently.

Fractals: new Fractal of the Month, plus a new set of previews in the 'mini-gallery' as a taster of my latest work at deviantART.

Freeware: new program reviews, the founder of the feast (well, menu!), CoffeeCup DHTML Menu Builder plus the excellent image management software Picasa. And I've begun the process of improving the external links here by adding a standard button for visiting the devloper's website. In adding these, all links have been checked for both validity and current software status - non-freeware has been removed.

Garden: new Garden Tip and a further chapter in the major new project, 'A Year at Padley Wood' - this month, it's High Summer.

Links: this month, Spotlight on (usually a site new to me, but could be an old favourite):

Comprehensive historical coverage of all things absinthe with an opportunity to purchase the associated paraphernalia.

Latest fractal: Breakout

You're out, but they're after you... broken shafts of searchlights scan the grainy night... a hint of red for danger, yet pockets of dark exist: stick to these, you may yet be free!

Made with Apophysis, this has hints of cubism, even vorticism, in its broken planes and shattered structure.

52 Weeks to Make the World a Better Place: Week 32 - Go organic

Everybody knows by now that modern farming methods that rely on heavy use of chemicals are bad both for the environment and long-term human health. But how many people actually do anything other than complain about it? The simplest way to turn the tide is to begin switching to organically-produced foods. It doesn't have to be all-or-nothing, just start with a few key items: vegetables, especially carrots and salad crops - they taste so much better too; grain-based foods, such as breakfast cereals and bread - these should form a fair proportion of a healthy diet, so it's well worth targeting them; and soya-based foods as organic means GM-free and soya is a favourite crop for GM experiments. For those wanting to go further, there's a growing range of foods beginning to appear on supermarket shelves. But perhaps the best way, if you're lucky to have such things available, are box deliveries of vegetables or pick-your-own farms - they ensure that the grower gets a fair price, and you get them cheaper!