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Making Local Food Work: Manchester

Wed, 07/12/2011 - 10:05 — Rob

In Manchester a variety of partner organisations are at the forefront of changes in the way food is produced and distributed in the UK. This short film highlights a little of their important work. Most of the organisations included here have been supported by Sustain (sustainweb.org/) the alliance for better food and farming in the UK, and the Making Local Food Work ( makinglocalfoodwork.co.uk ) project which helps people to take ownership of their food and where it comes from by providing advice and support to community food enterprises across England. Many thanks to Clare at Sustain, all in Manchester for their input, and Marley for the audio post.

Making Local Food Work: Manchester from Mat McD on Vimeo.

Stop Economic Growth - reform the monetary system

Fri, 18/11/2011 - 21:57 — Rob

We live on a finite planet with finite resources, and it is obvious that there are limits to growth - limits to the rate at which the global economy can grow, and consume the world's resources. We live in an era of unparalleled economic growth, and nobody seems to be doing anything to stop it, and the Earth is being eaten alive. To save the Earth, we must stop economic growth. To do this monetary reform is desperately needed, and the video and web links in this article will tell you why.

 

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Help the Greater Manchester Carbon Co-op win £100,000!

Thu, 17/11/2011 - 11:43 — Rob

The Greater Manchester Carbon Co-op have got through to the final round, and are one of just 6 projects, out of hundreds from accross the country, in the running to win a £100,000 award from the Energy Share award. Matt Fawcett, of the Carbon Co-op says, "It's a public vote so if you've got 2 minutes to vote for us that would really help out. Voting is done in rounds, so if you voted for us in the last round please do so again in this one (votes aren't carried across). Those of you who do any kind of social media type things please do spread it to you and yours as well."

Voting closes 3rd December -  click here to vote!

THRIVE: What on Earth will it take?

Wed, 05/10/2011 - 16:48 — Rob

Thrive banner Look out for THRIVE premier - 11.11.11

.. streaming live on the day: ThriveMovement.com

Internet and Evolution in Manchester Communities

Wed, 03/08/2011 - 09:34 — Rob
Nigel Stewart with Radio LAN transmitter (photo scanned from early addition of .Net magazine)

I was encouraged to move onto the Bentley House estate, more commonly known as the ‘Redbricks’, back in 1999, in order to help with the Redbricks Online community internet project that was then being rolled out. Back in the day, a visionary called Nigel Stewart had a plan to provide Manchester with high broad band internet, using short wave radio. Although he was unable to make it happen back then, MDDA, with a little help from the EU, have plans to do something very similar now, a decade later. Here is the story ..

In ‘99 some friends of mine purchased a ‘leased line’ from BT, and installed a server in a flat on the Redbricks estate. Leased lines were a pre-runner to broadband, providing a 24/7 connection, but costing a small fortune, for a comparatively small bandwidth, relative to a modern home broadband connection. Still, the plan was that by squeezing 30+ flats through a single line, it could be made cost effective. So recycled PCs were bodged together, and flats across the estate were networked with 100s of meters of blagged ethernet cable, and servers hacked up with Linux free software ...

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Support the new experimental Living Water Hydro-electric Generator at Middlewood

Thu, 26/05/2011 - 21:12 — Rob
Water vortex

Middlewood Trust is seeking support to help win some money from Energy Share to develop an innovative hydro-electric system ..

Water gives life on its journey to the sea and replenishes springs if its liquid crystal structure is treated with respect. Natural water loves to flow in vortices that cool, purify and energise its structure. As the water temperature approaches 4 deg C it becomes more dense and reduces in volume. This creates a suction vacuum to pull more water behind it making the flow increase in speed and accumulate energy. Funnelling the flow channel speeds up the water flow. When water has learnt to flow with a natural centripetal vortex, it takes on an imploded structure that has great healing properties for humans and the natural world. This imploded water has a large amount of energy that can be used sensitively to create a very effective hydro- electricity generator.

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