Response to Consultation ‘Land Reform in a Net Zero Nation’
(submitted Tuesday 13th September 2022)
Simon Brooke, Standingstone Farm, Auchencairn, 11th July 2022
Introduction
The Heist and After
Extending Act 2 of Cyberpunk 2077
It's an axiom of this essay and the essays in this sub-collection that Cyberpunk 2077 is a flawed masterpiece. It's further an axiom that a major reason that it is flawed is that the actual story was rushed, and that what was delivered is unfinished and substantially less than the original vision. I personally believe these two things, although the first more strongly than the second; but unless you provisionally accept them these essays will not make much sense to you.
Manifesto for a good society
This essay grows out of a quite minor Twitter thread, which is here.
Scotland now provides period products for free, to everyone who needs them.
That's an incredibly powerful thing. The fact that Scotland does it — the fact that Scotland is the first nation in the world to do it — makes me proud to be Scots. It is a seed from which the good society can grow.
Modular electric farm traction
Currently, farm tractors almost all burn diesel, and (with very few exceptions) burn fossil fuel. To reduce the carbon cost of farming, either electric or hydrogen powered tractors are necessary. This document considers electric power.
Battery weight, and modularity
The Storm
I did not expect the storm of the night of Friday 26th November to be exceptionally severe. I was aware that there was going to be a storm, and aware that the wind was expected to peak at a strength which rates as 'violent storm' on the Beaufort Scale. But such events are not actually that rare here. I made some preparations — I did close the cattle shed doors, for example, and fully fastened down the last new panel on the north side of the roof.
I thought of moving the stack of panels for the south side of the roof, that had not yet been installed, into the wood for safekeeping, but it would have been a lot of work and I very fortunately did not do it.