Danny Boy

I really haven't been very good at posting here recently have I? I'm afraid I don't really have much of an excuse beyond a distinct lack of inspiration, although I doubt that the level of posting is likely to change anytime soon.

If you're looking for a blog which does get updated regularly with interesting stuff, you could do far worse than check out DanR's new blog, intriguingly titled The Naked Lunch. Longtime readers may recall that Dan is a fellow blogger at the Peace Pipe, indeed he is the only other person to have posted there despite there ostensibly being five team members. He's written some good stuff on the G8 including a report on the protests against the meeting of the Justice and Home Ministers from the various G8 countries which took place in Sheffield last week and which we both attended.

Dan also links to PowerSwitch in another post. PowerSwitch are a group seeking to raise awareness about the issue of "peak oil" whom we met a representative from last week. They are concerned about the consequences of "Hubbert's Peak" which predicts that global oil production will increase before reaching a peak after this it will begin to decline, a decline which will continue regardless of improvements in extraction. This has already occured in the US and the North Sea, but as it begins to take hold globally it will put increasing pressures of oil prices and threaten our hugely oil dependant economies and societies. I also went to see "The End of Suburbia" which is a film about the phenomenon and its likely consequences. Although quite US-centric there is much of interest and its worth checking out if you get the chance.

If that isn't enough for you, I've just read George Monbiot's latest column in the Guardian which examines the anti-poverty strategy being pursued by Bob Geldof and Bono, warning that it may do more harm than good. Again, go check it out.