Cattle on the hilltop
This piece is written in response to a video by Gareth Wyn Jones.
I'm not so unlike you, Gareth. I keep kye on this windy hilltop in Scotland. The alchemy of the grasses and the kye turns sunlight and rain into high quality protein. But is it efficient? And is it the best use of the land?
Rape, grouse, and the pathology of power
I got into a foolish Twitter dispute last night, and ended up saying something I fundamentally think to be true. People will say, and with good reason, 'oh, Simon's gone off on one again. He's mad, you know'. And, of course, it's true. I am insane. A really frustrating consequence of that is that sometimes my judgement is seriously wonky. But it also means I can say thing that other people are too sensible to say. Let's explore this idea.
Firstly, to roll back a little, I do not believe that anyone is irredeemable. 'Evil' is not a word that should be applied to people. And, I believe, usually, people who do evil things do so because evil has been done to them.
The Ranger's sword hilt
My blog posts are often somewhat geeky, but this one may just be the most bizarrely geeky ever.
Consider the Dungeons and Dragons character class, the Ranger. The class is (in my opinion) essentially based on Aragorn of the Dunedain from the Lord of the Rings. The ranger is an often solitary wanderer of wilderness areas, away from inhabited areas for weeks at a time. Therefore, everything which the Ranger carries must be strictly necessary; they will have to make compromises to keep their entire pack light enough to manage. The ranger is skilled at observation and tracking, but also at concealment and at moving quietly. Consequently, when faced with potential opponents they cannot beat, the ranger will probably remain in concealment and avoid conflict. The potential opponents in the wilderness are likely, in any case, also to be travelling light; the chances of meeting a heavily armoured opponent are slim.
Pathmaking
NOTE: this essay is called 'pathmaking', not 'pathfinding', because 'pathfinding' has a very specific meaning/usage in game design which is only part of what I want to talk about here.
Stages in creating routes between locations
Common Home Plan Buildings: Critique
These are detailed notes from my reading of Chapter 2, 'Buildings', of Common Weal's The Common Home Plan. I should start by saying I strongly deprecate publishing documents like this as PDF, it is such a bad format for any critical purpose! Also note that the PDF linked above from the website has slightly different page numbering from the printed version — in my notes, I have used the page numbers from the printed version.
The first point to make I generally agree with this document. Where I haven't commented, assume I'm in agreement! What follows ia mainly nit-picking.
"As soon as the Common Home Plan is agreed, all new houses must be ready for district heating — unless they are 'Energy Neutral' so require no net heating" — P 31