Many thanks to Graham for sending me a link to this. Enjoy!

(Three posts in one day… and it’s the hottest day of the year!)

It’s June already! After a very hot bank holiday weekend with the first proper days of summer we’re loving living in our new house. There’s still lots to do (stairs, kitchen, hearth for fire) but most of that is on hold while we enjoy the garden.  Yesterday everyone spent the day swimming in the pond.

I’ve just uploaded a few more photos if you’re interested… Ruth has done a great job getting the veg garden going - ably assisted by Fionnuala and Isaac.

The excellent Global Issues website has a very good summary of the Financial Crisis - with video link to comdey by Brember, Bird and Fortune.

Using pumped storage power stations for Ireland’s wind resources looks like a really good idea. The Spirit of Ireland website has the details.

According to them, all we need is about 2,500 3MW wind turbines (covering about 1% of land area) and 2 large pumped storage hydro systems to cover all Ireland’s current electricity requirements. Not bad if you ask me! I hope they get the momentum to inspire the government into doing something.

[Edit: Justin Mason has a more detailed discussion with some good links.]

Apparently this is only going to be up for a few days - so make time now to watch the fantastic SFA…

looking forward to seeing them at the Sea Sessions festival.

a bit of green custard in the face…

The excellent Global Issues website has a long article on the financial crisis. Here’s a summary:

This update includes notes and a chart on how much the global financial crisis has cost, in context. For example, plummeting stock markets have wiped out 33% of the value of companies, $14.5 trillion. Taxpayers will be bailing out their banks and financial institutions with large amounts of money. US taxpayers alone will spend some $9.7 trillion in bailout packages and plans. The UK and other European countries have also spent some $2 trillion on rescues and bailout packages. These values are staggering. Such money has been made readily available, yet could have wiped out developing world debt (much of it unjust debt) many times over, though arguing for the small amount of debt relief that has been delivered has required enormous energy. The bailouts also dwarf world military spending, which itself is quite high. The US package almost covers the total value of US home mortgages, though mortgage payers are not the ones being bailed out.

You can read the full report here:

Global Financial Crisis 2008 — Global Issues.

Just down the road from us in Ballydehob lives Colin Campbell. He has done some wonderful work. Here’s a great video of him in 2005 succinctly predicting the financial crisis. Of course it comes as no surprise to me that even though we are now in the midst of it, mainstream commentators seem to have no clue as to the real causes.

obama has ordered the first air strikes in afghanistan. reports say 18 people killed - mostly civilians. the strikes were carried out by predator drones (pictured):

These unmanned aircraft are remote controlled by men sitting far away:

whilst i’m sure that the new US administration will be an improvement over the previous one - i still wouldn’t want to mess with this kind of air supremacy! and lets not forget that afghanistan did nothing to warrant being invaded apart from having the misfortune of being the place where the US thinks Osama bin Laden is…