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I was shopping in Sainsbury's today, something I try not to do, but I was out on my bike and I was running out of spinach options for my rather-good-if-I-say-so-myself Spinach and Chick Pea curry. Anyway I was in Sainsbury's and if I do buy organic it tends to be on the leafy veg.

So you can picture the scene, I alight on the spinach department and no they're not sold out, in fact there were two varieties! The first described as Organic Spinach and the second Organic Baby Leaf Spinach, which both looked the same to me. Never having been one for making a quick decision I was examining the two packets looking for divine guidance, when you could say it came!

Alright I might be exaggerating slightly, but I noticed the 'Organic Spinach' was from Langmead Farms (as I happens they have a website showing afore mentioned spinach - which they describe as 'baby leaf', hence my confusion) in West Sussex. Whereas the little baby leaf blighters are produced in the USA! Now as you know I've got no problem with the USA, in fact I've just put the phone down on my friend Bill from Iowa. I didn't regale him with my vegetable woes, I certainly wouldn't have wanted him to get the idea I had something against US spinach per se, which I don't. But I do have an objection with flying vegetables half-way around the globe when the very same thing is available down the road.

Seriously though what's it all about? How can supermarkets justify flying fruit and vegetables thousands of miles especially when we produce the same in UK? So you'll be pleased to know I've written this very day to the 'Customer Services Department' at Sainsbury's and I await their unsatisfactory explanation. I'll let you know what they say.

Keep your peckers up and enjoy your weekend - Wildberry

 

I remember writing about this some time ago but the subject of plastic bags, a bit like the bags themselves, won't go away. Although we now consume an estimated 8bn (that's 8,000,000,000!) plastic bags in the UK each year the Government refuses to do anything about it. There is a bill currently going through the Scottish Parliament which if it's adopted will impose a 10p levy on each carrier bag in Scotland.

A number of countries including Ireland, Denmark and Switzerland have gone for the interim option of charging a bag tax. The tax of 15cents in Ireland has reduced their annual bag consumption of 1.2bn bags by 95%. Others countries and some Indian states have banned plastic bags altogether. Taiwan in an incredibly foresighted move has banned not only plastic bags but also disposable plates, cups and cutlery.

Part of Australia's Say No to Plastic Bags campaign

I think it's time we stopped fannying around in the UK and either slap a decent tax on the bags or ban them altogether. Lots of retailers now sell alternative canvas or cloth bags. At home we have a few heavy canvas bags we bought from Oxfam many years ago and they're still going strong. Once you get into the habit of taking a couple of bags with you when you go shopping there's no problem.

There was an interesting article in yesterdays Guardian prompted by the Scottish Bill which you can read here.
 

Now look you've got me all wound up! - Wildberry

 

The owners of Luton Airport announced yesterday they are planning for a three fold increase in passenger numbers up to 2030. The plans include a new runway, new aircraft stands and new terminals. With the current expansion at Heathrow, the proposed expansion at Stansted and now this proposed expansion at Luton the South of England is embarking on an unprecedented airport expansion. At a time when the effects of Climate Change are becoming more evident by the day we should be encouraging the reduction in air traffic not its increase. You can read the BBC news story here. There are more links to campaigns against airport expansion in the Transport section.

The BBC now has a good guide to campaigning against airport expansion on its website here.
 

Chris Cotton

I've only heard a couple of tracks from this album, but what I've heard I really like and lets be honest it's worth buying just for the artwork.

You can download a sample track from the album by going to Chris Cotton's website here.

Keep your feet on the ground - Wildberry

 

I've been reading about the French group known as Les Degonfles (The Deflators). Who with their little widgets go around letting down the tyres of SUVs (without damaging them), giving their owners time to reflect on their environmental irresponsibility. I don't know where I stand on this one. I can certainly understand their frustration and their need to do something about the increasing number of gas-guzzling 4x4's on our streets. But whether that justifies letting down their tyres? I don't know maybe I'm getting a little sensible in my old age. You can read the Los Angeles Times report about it here.

Let me know how you feel about this. Are their actions justified?

Keep the air clean - Wildberry

There is an interesting Politics Test you can take here. It's designed for American citizens, but most of the questions are fairly international.

As you can see it's got me fairly well right!
 

You are a Social Liberal (75% permissive) and an... Economic Liberal (18% permissive) You are best described as a: Socialist Link: The Politics Test on Ok Cupid Also: The OkCupid Dating Persona Test

Thanks very much to Simple Girl for the link. If you have time have a read of her journal she has many of the same concerns I do and she listens to Whole Wheat Radio, the choice of all right thinking individuals.

Have a happy laid-back weekend - Wildberry

 

If you're in London on Wednesday 2 November then please think about going to the Mass Lobby for Trade Justice in Westminster being organised by Make Poverty History and the Trade Justice Movement. All the details can be found on the Trade Justice Movement website.

Alaskan Musician Steve Durr

thanks to Whole Wheat Radio for the picture

This follows on from my post yesterday about the delights of new music. On that theme I've been listening to a fantastic interview with the musician Steve Durr (which you can download for free from Whole Wheat Radio - here). The interview recalls the life of Steve and his family when his father removed them from the comfortable life as a New York State Professor to live in the Alaskan bush. All this happened during the post- McCarthy period in the late 50s in the USA. It's a fascinating story and one recounted in more detail in Bob Durr's book - The Coldman Cometh which I'm just about to read. Steve doesn't seem to have his own website, but you can get his CD's via CD Baby.

One of the great pleasures in life has to be the excitement that comes with the  discovery of new music. When you're in your teens and twenties new music has to be exactly that, the latest releases, your life beats to the calendar of single and album releases from your favourite bands. Then at some undefined point, towards your mid or late twenties, you suddenly realize that there is a seemly bottomless pit of 'new' music, all those albums that sneaked out without you noticing or even were recorded before you were born.

I supposed if I were born into one of those houses where classical music were the order of the day, then things might have been different. There the majority of the cannon would have always been the music of the past. Remember, these were the days before Classic FM and 'The Best Classical Album in the Word Ever', classical music was on Radio 3 and that was for squares. But in our house Radio 2 was King and I grew up to the hits of the 60s and the 70s. So as a teenager needing to be different from my parents BBC Radio 1 was my homeland, I grew up with Blondie and the Clash. But now I've discovered the delights of new-old music. Take for example Neil Young, I new nothing about Neil Young until I was in my 30s, can you believe it! Now I think he's fantastic and I know there are Neil Young albums out there I've never heard. I'm just saving them up for a rainy musical day as it were.

I great place to discover new-new music and new-old music is our good friends over at Whole Wheat Radio. Still plugging away, still playing great independent artists 24 hours-a-day, mainly folk but there's lots of other stuff there too.

Another couple of internet stations well worth checking out are Hober (playing a mix of folk and new country) and Grassy Hill Radio (more folk, but all good and all free). Many of these small internet stations run purely on the good grace of their listeners, so if you do spend anytime there, please think about sending them a few dollars.

Here's to the music - Wildberry

One of the best things about being on holiday is time, just time to do the things you want to do, time to think, time to read and just time to be. I find there's never enough time to be. While I was on holiday The Guardian launched their new Berliner format, which I had time to read and I really like, but that's another story.

As I think part of the re-launch they now have an Ethical Consumer section in their G2 magazine on Tuesdays. Many of the articles are now on line. Articles include Leo Hickman's 'Is it OK ...' section, this week asking 'Is it OK to use a patio heater'. The short answer is NO, but Leo puts it much more humorously and more informatively than that. You can read his article and others here.
 

John Peel

Tomorrow is John Peel day on the BBC, there are documentaries, sessions, tributes clips check it all out here. A good soul.


Tread lightly - Wildberry
 

For the third in our intermittent series - I have to admit this is more of a great download than a great website. But what a download! and free!

Where to start - well Open Office is basically everything you might get from Microsoft Office but for free! Not the 'I know someone who has a copy of you can borrow' free or 'I have a copy I bought while backpacking around India' free. But genuinely 100% here it is take it away, register if you want no charge, at all, free!

I can imagine your sitting there somewhat sceptical by now. So where does it come from? Well it's a long story but basically the whole project is backed-up by Sun Microsystems, I'm guessing to poke one-in-the-eye to Microsoft. There are pages of history on the website, if you're interested look here.

Their Mission Statement is 'To create, as a community, the leading international office suite that will run on all major platforms and provide access to all functionality and data through open-component based APIs and an XML-based file format.'

So what's it like? - Well to be honest it's excellent. I can't say I've used every feature of every programme, but I've had a good fiddle, and I haven't found any problems so far. I'm a big fan of Excel and OpenOffice Calc is very similar, it seems to have all the functions you could ever hope for.

Included in the package are Calc the spreadsheet, Writer (word processor), Impress (like PowerPoint), Draw far better than Paint or Photo Editor, Base (data base). There is also Math which I haven't got my head around but it seems to help you work your way through complicated mathematical problems.

The whole system is definitely a work in progress. They give you the option to download the fully tested 1.1.5 (stable) version or the 2.0 (still under test) version. I've downloaded the 2.0 version and I've not come across any bugs at all.

If you're looking for an alternative to Outlook or Outlook Express OpenOffice don't offer one but they have a links to both Mozilla and KMail both of which are recommended though I've not tried them.

As always if you have experience of any of the above please let me know and I'll post your findings.

Go on give it a go, you'll be surprised - Wildberry

Artists Open Studios

Without this sounding too much like 'what's on in Kent' I did go to the Artists Open Studios this weekend open as part of the Canterbury Festival. It's fascinating to see where local artist live, work and what they're getting up to. They're open for the next two weekends so go to the Canterbury Festival site for all the details. There are also studios open in Canterbury and Herne Bay.

Wildberry-on-sea.