Grim Planet

Moving house…

// June 23rd, 2009 // No Comments » // Uncategorized

I’m switching hosts and domains, so excuse a bit of erratic blog behaviour…

Threads of Change – A Greenpeace T-shirt Exhibition

// June 5th, 2009 // No Comments » // Environment

Coming Soon: GM Rice

// May 27th, 2009 // No Comments » // Environment, Food

An important Public Service Announcement from your Government and The Biotech Industry (represented here by chemical giant Bayer) pronouncing the benefits of genetically modified rice strain – LL62. Barely tried and tested this GM Rice is coming to your dinner plate nevertheless.

http://www.youtube.com/v/dsxFZ0rUCoM&hl

http://www.greenpeace.org/rice

Tokyo Two trial strengthens, not weakens, whales campaign

// May 20th, 2009 // No Comments » // Environment, News

The Sydney Morning Herald is running a piece on the trial of Junichi Sato and Toru Suzuki, two Greenpeace activists who are currently on trial for exposing an embezzlement ring within the Japanese Government sponsored whaling programme.

Last year the two were arrested and Greenpeace Japan’s offices raided by upwards of 70 police officers and done so under the intense glare of a frenzied domestic media who had been tipped off well in advance (the two saw reports of their impending arrest on television the night before). This had the intention of tarring and feathering Junichi, Toru, and Greenpeace in a very public way while ensuring that social judgments about guilt were made long before any trial.
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Make Your Own PSP Wallpapers

// May 18th, 2009 // No Comments » // Entertainment, Gaming, Technology

While I don’t really play games all that much these days, I do tend to whip out the PSP when I’m sitting on a plane or laying awake in a train sleeper cabin.

I also like to switch the background image every now and then, but I really couldn’t be bothered sifting through hoards of shoddy designs, or mountains of performance car shots to get the occasional bit of jewelled eye candy typical PSP wallpaper sites offer.

Usually I prefer using my own photos or something interesting i’ve saved from random surfing, and I reckon there are plenty of you that would rather use your Flickr images, or some titillating ex-girlfriend snaps currently squirreled away on a storage drive.

Sure it’s easy enough to Photoshop something up (probably a preferable course for that last example before), however, if you like using transparent underlays for the PSP’s icons then this can be fiddley.

So, with this and the popularity of my last few PSP wallpaper posts in mind, I convinced my brother to code up a wallpaper-creation tool that enables one to create snappy backgrounds in a few clicks.

Sure, there’s a million and one PSP wallpaper sites out there, but all their content is created by a small number of users. With PSP Wallpaperer, anyone can upload or grab an image off the web, crop it, add underlay bars for the icons (or don’t if you like clean images) and save it for posterity.

It takes like, 60 seconds. Seriously. Click here to give it a try. Just bear in mind that only JPGs are supported at the point.

UPDATE – October 21 2008: So there’s been a few changes here and there now. The overlays and design have now been updated a bit, and everything seems to be running well.

UPDATE – May 19, 2009: We’ve relaunched the site, added a bunch of new features and moved it to its own domain, check it out and let us know what you think.

If you run into any errors or quirks, let us know by posting here.

France’s Nuclear Success

// April 1st, 2009 // No Comments » // Environment, Humour

This just in. Encouraging, considering France is the poster child for nucelar energy.

At least, encouraging for renewables.

In other news, France has been caught out spying on Greenpeace again. Do people never learn?

Greenpeace Reaction: EDF spies on Greenpeace: nuclear energy prompts
espionage

Paris, 31 March 2008 — Today, the French media revealed that the largely state owned French electricity company EDF has been spying on Greenpeace France. Two senior EDF officials have been indicted in French court. Greenpeace France is disgusted by the revelation and is seeking legal advice to further challenge EDF’s underhand tactics.

This is yet another example of nuclear industry’s inability to participate in an open democratic debate. Instead it applies cold war tactics against Greenpeace, an environmental organisation.

Greenpeace strongly condemns as scandalous EDF’s espionage and invasion of privacy. “EDF’s spying practices are a symptom of the secrecy inherent to nuclear energy. As has been demonstrated over and over again, democracy and the nuclear industry do not mix” says Dr. Rianne Teule, Greenpeace International nuclear campaigner.

With the support of President Sarkozy, EDF, the company that operates all nuclear reactors in France, is aggressively marketing nuclear technology worldwide. However, a spread in nuclear power means decreasing transparency in the energy debate.

“Greenpeace is a non-violent environmental organization,” said Pascal Husting, director of Greenpeace France. “The fact that we are being treated like terrorists because we dare to question nuclear energy shows just how frightened the nuclear industry is of transparency and a democratic debate.”

“Forged in the furnace of the cold war, nuclear power is inextricably part of the military nuclear industry, the two are inseparable. Governments and electricity companies around the world should reject EDF and Sarkozy’s pro-nuclear overtures and offers of this dangerous and anti-democratic technology. Instead, they should embrace an energy revolution based on renewable energy technologies and energy efficiency. Technologies that will genuinely enhance our energy security and help to avert catastrophic climate change,” concluded Husting.

Japanese Photoblog

// March 29th, 2009 // No Comments » // Travel

I picked up an absolutely lovely Canon 40D SLR the other week, and have been doing the photoblog thing on flickr a bit lately when I’ve had time. I only have two lenses at the moment, that cute little Canon 50mm f1.8, and a crazy-wide Sigma 10-20mm.

Anyway, gear aside there is so much to snap here in Tokyo I don’t know where to start. I haven’t gone for any night shots yet as I haven’t got a tripod with me, but as spring is coming on you can’t miss the cherry blossoms.

In Tokyo with the Tokyo Two

// March 22nd, 2009 // No Comments » // Animals, Environment, Politics, Travel

It’s been quite a hectic month. I’m in Tokyo at the moment helping out with the trial of the Tokyo Two – Junichi Sato and Toru Suzuki, who were arrested for exposing an embezzlement ring within the Japanese whaling fleet.

The trial is still going, here’s a short piece on the story so far:


Whaling on Trial from Greenpeace on Vimeo.

While whaling is of course at the very core of the case, it is also bringing a host of human rights issues to the fore with the treatment of Junichi and Toru, as well as questions surrounding the role of NGO’s in Japanese society and government corruption. More on this late.

Existensialists and board games

// February 14th, 2009 // No Comments » // Humour, Philosophy

Calvin and Hobbes eerily sums up the financial crisis

// February 12th, 2009 // No Comments » // Money

Fifteen years ago…

Privatise the profits, socialise the losses.