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Electric cars are all the rage suddenly, though very few people are driving them--and, despite the Government's recent announcement of grants of up to £5,000 for purchasers, the prospects of electrifying private transport still remain fairly distant.  This is a complex challenge, requiring multi-dimensional strategies, as we discussed in our recent Evergreen session on the theme at the 2009 Skoll World Forum.  I took the images of the Juice Point in Berkeley Square when Charmian and I went to see Herta von Stiegel a week or so ago.  Eye also caught by bird sculpture in the Square Gardens.... more >

Gingko goes to ground at 2BP
Past cutting may have future

Have always loved ginkgo trees--and cycle past several on my way through Grosvenor Square on my way to 2 Bloomsbury Place.  Sometimes take in leaves as they change through the seasons, but a few days back I took a twig--and we put it in a glass of water, with a touch of sugar, where it seemed to flourish.  Rather than having it develop a sweet tooth, I asked Sam to release the poor thing into the herbaceous border, in the hope that it might just strike root.  Her photo above suggests that it was feeling a bit woozy as it struggled to find its feet, but who knows?  A symbol, perhaps, of our constant struggle to make sense of this universe of ours--and of all the tides, current and eddies into which we find ourselves drawn.... more >

Bloody Fig
Numbed skull

Managed to deeply scratch my head on a fig tree, recently pruned and so sharp-edged, as I dragged fresh compost I had dug out of the heap this morning. The thing is so full that it's blowing out one of the railway sleepers used to make its walls.  So action is overdue, if only I could work out how to do it without scalping myself.   ... more >

10 Belgrave Square
£100 million, anyone?

Interesting to see 10 Belgrave Square, where I worked in the Earthlife days of the mid-1980s, on sale for an extraordinary £100 million--in the midst of the downturn.  How much can change over 25 years! Recently, Elaine also spotted a flat for sale in my grandmother Isabel's old house at 4 Lennox Gardens in Knightsbridge. But I suppose there comes a time when you live in a city for pushing 40 years when you have lived in, worked in or visited a sufficient number of places to have an ongoing sense of déjà something.... more >

Quanta of Solace
Bond, Bruges and The Stones

In an era where TV seems to be doing its very best to prove the old adage, X channels and nothing on, we have been resorting to watching DVDs: Quantum of Solace, where the addition of an 'e' turns a Green into a villain, In Bruges, which seemed to lose a bit of momentum, but then took off towards the end, and Shine a Light, Scorsese's film of The Stones in concert, where the highlight--for me at least--was the duet between Jagger and Christina Aguilar.... more >

Soddynomics
Another long-dead economist with interesting ideas

An interesting New York Times op-ed on the work of British economist Frederick Soddy on ecological economics can be found here.  Peter Kinder sent the link to John Fullerton, who came in to see us at Bloomsbury Place this week, and myself.  Would be wonderful if the twenty-first century could embrace this sort of uncommon sense.... more >

Battle of Britain lives on in my eyes
Perspex canopy clues to future of cataract surgery

The Times today tells the story of how eye injuries suffered by Battle of Britain pilots, when fragments of their Perspex canopies embedded themselves in their eyes proved surprisingly inert, gave Sir Harold Ridley the idea of implanting plastic lenses in replacement of cataract-clouded lenses.  As a recent beneficiary of this technology, I can only say another thank you to all those involved.... more >

Nexus view of my Facebook friends
Ramifications

Here is the Nexus mapping of my Facebook friends, which I find quite fascinating:... more >

Close Encounter by the Serpentine
As the heron flies