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Picture courtesy of The Watercress Line

Ethical Junction sounds like it should be a stop on a fantastic railway journey "ALL CHANGE FOR ETHICAL JUNCTION". In fact no Ethical Junction is a directory of businesses in the UK and Ireland that meet the organisation's Ethical policy. As follows:

'The Ethical Junction only invites subscriptions from organisations whose core activities compliment our aims and who we believe operate in accordance with the following 7 principles.

actively demonstrate care for the Environment
support fair Trade practices
avoid practices causing long-term damage for sHort term gain
operate non-exploItative employment practices
Challenge all forms of discrimination
Act in a socially responsible manner
support the development of ethicaL organisations and business'

The site is run by a group of people based in Manchester through the company Stream Engine Limited. I don't know anymore about them than that (and I hate a mystery). But fair play to them I say - certainly worth a look.


Hope you had a good weekend - Wildberry

 

I've been catching up on the website of our friends at the Alliance Against Urban 4x4s. They're a very active group and there is always something new to see. In their news section there is a link to short film with members of the group on a picket in London and showing how passionate they are about this problem. You can see the film here.

Also have a look at the really ingenious Hummer Dinger website, showing all the virtues of that essential transport solution - the Hummer!

Continental Drift Animation

This isn't really apropos anything in particular, except I was looking for globe animations and I found this on a site called Discovering Fossils. They say the animation is supplied courtesy of the US Geological Survey. You can watch it over and over, it's amazing how perfectly the continents just slot together.


Have a great weekend - Wildberry

I'm pleased to see that the Art not Oil exhibition have secured some gallery space for the summer. Art Not Oil is an annual event aimed at encouraging artists to create work that explores the damage that companies like BP are doing to the planet, and the role art can play in counteracting that damage.

Art not Oil 2005 have begun life as a virtual exhibition (here), but have now secured gallery space. During August they will be at Oxford House, Bethnal Green, London www.oxfordhouse.org.uk, then between 6 Oct - 27th Nov - Sunderland and between 17 Dec and 12 March (dates TBC ) back at Edinburgh University.

For images of some of the work in the exhibition have a look at their website, there's also lots of information about their concerns about BP and further action you can take.

Wildberry.


 

There are few times when Wikipedia doesn't come up with the goods. But over the weekend I got an email from Andrew Macintosh of Suma Foods telling me about the excellent tree planting scheme they've got underway. Suma Foods are concerned about the environmental impact of their delivery vehicles. As they're a worker's co-operative they have the power to do something about it. Suma said, 'Working in conjunction with Treesponsibilty Suma will be planting over 3 thousand trees per year, that’s 2 hectares of new woodland each year in an area of West Yorkshire previously decimated by floods.'

Fair-play to Suma and all the workers there who've got off there butts to do something. But back to Crytozoology, Andrew has set-up a blog to talk about amongst other things his interest in Crytozoology, which for those like me who didn't have a clue what it is all about, is defined as:

Cryptozoology is the search for, and study of, animal life that is either new & unknown, legendary & unproven, or missing & presumed extinct.

Now in Andrew's case this seems to be werewolves that float-his-boat as it were - each to their own! You can catch Andrew's blog here.

Power to the people - Wildberry.

 

I got sent this story by our good friends at McLibel and it relates to an article that was originally in The Guardian. I've listed it in full just because it's hard to believe that McDonalds are so arrogant.

"There's this Australian rugby enthusiast, Malcolm McBratney, who is a sponsor of his local team, Brisbane Irish, which uses his nickname, McBrat, as a logo on the players' clothing. Last year he applied to register McBrat with the Australian trademark office, IP Australia, only to be opposed by our old litigious friend McDonald's, hero of the English McLibel litigation, one of the great public relations disasters of our time.

So does McDonald's Australia have its own McBrat trademark, and was it understandably objecting to someone else copying it? Well, no, but it does own a trademark called McKids, and claims (seriously) that people will be confused between the two. (Does a kid equal a brat in Australia?) But presumably McKids is an established name in the selling of clothing similar to Mr McBratney's product? Well, no. In fact, the McKids trademark hasn't been used for clothing at all; it's used for toys. Is McBratney trying to sell toys? No. So the burger people are trying to stop someone with a different name from selling something which they don't sell anyway? Yup.

One thing McDonald's may not have known when it started mixing it with McBratney is that he's a lawyer - as it happens, a specialist in intellectual property. Trademarks. And he's now taking legal action against the corporation seeking to divest it of the McKids trademark which, since it was registered in 1987, has never been used for clothing.

"What it boils down to" he muses, "is that McDonald's seems to be trying to own not only the McDonald name, but everything beginning with Mc.""

Fairtrade shoes

It's easy to ridicule the sandal-wearing vegan right-on brigade and I think I'm just about to set myself up for a bit of that, but here we go. I've just bought myself a new pair of sneakers from fairtrade supplier Fair Deal Trading. As I'm led to believe the majority of shoes on sale in the UK are made in sweat shop conditions. These shoes are supplied with details of the workers' benefits, which I don't really need, but it is good to know they are fairly traded and not propping up some third world sweat shop. As it happens they are 100% vegan - there, go for it!

Keep McSafe out there - Wildberry

 

Link to today's Guardian

There is nothing I can add, except as a Londoner this strikes at everything I hold dear and I for one, am going to make sure I spend time in the city of my birth this weekend. No one will ever take that away from me.

Be careful - Wildberry

 

Anyway, I don't want to spend anymore time talking about the negatives. The atmosphere in Edinburgh on Saturday, at least, was excellent. Over 225,000 people crowded into The Meadows, there were two stages with live music and speakers throughout the day. Our new favourite Billy Bragg was there, he sang some great songs and acted as compare with Eddie Izzard during the afternoon. So many more people than expected turned up it took us nearly an hour just to leave the park to on the 3 mile route around the city.

Once we returned from the march the majority of the us just settled on the grass to enjoy the afternoon sunshine and the music. We were buoyed up with a new optimism, we believed we could change the world to the better place we wanted it to be and I for one don't want that feeling to fade!

Keeping the hope alive - Wildberry

It's Monday evening, I've just got back from the Make Poverty History protests in Edinburgh and I'm full of it! Over the last three days I've experienced the full range of emotions - anticipation, elation, hope, exhaustion and depression!

Much more to come tomorrow, but I just wanted to check-in and say well done to everyone who protested either in person or in spirit!

Lets keep our fingers crossed - Wildberry