FRAW site updates (in reverse chronological order)
July 2021
‘Radical References’ No.2, Lammas 2021:
Written three-hundred and seventy-two years ago, this prologue outlines some of Gerrard Winstanley’s key phrases and ideas. It’s about the importance of action to create change rather than ‘just talking about it’, and the unwelcome reality that too many people talking about change delays the achievement of it through direct action.
June 2021
WEIRD, Thinking Beyond Technology:
Issue No.4: “Thank you for calling UNTECH SUPPORT… we value your dependency!”, Midsummer 2021
This tortuous pathway of disengagement, ‘untechnical support’, is a process of liberation through basic re-skilling. That’s not just about learning practical skills again; it is about building confidence in a person’s own power to discern what is right for them.
May 2021
Long Walks & A/P, Part 4, Flower Moon 2021:
I have no mobile phone; I have no watch; but I have time. Many have questioned how I dare wander abroad without the technologies of time measurement and mobile communication. In this post I explain, in reply, my querying of their ‘necessity’.
‘djnz’s hackblog’, 12th May 2021:
‘Battling YouTube Bloat’: How watching videos on-line has become an exercise in affluent entitlement, and surveillance analytics, which I prefer to avoid
These days I routinely download YouTube videos rather than watching on-line. It’s to avoid the inherent bloat that’s taken over the YouTube world, and is clogging the Internet with people screaming into their webcams at full 4K. Additionally, it moderates the built-in surveillance that tracks your viewing habits.
The ‘Meta-Blog’, no.14, 7th May 2021:
‘Bright Green Lies’: A brief review of the film and its ‘deep green’ message
It’s been a year since ‘Planet of the Humans’ caused the leaders of climate campaigns to go into heated meltdown; by comparison, this film throws them an even greater challenge to try and respond to.
April 2021
Banburyshire Rambles Journal, Beltane 2021:
In one sense this is a collection of memories. Of walks which produced some of my favourite photos. As I look through the images in my collection though, I realised it described something more. A skeleton; a super-structure of places on which the essence of the local landscape sits. Its collection of ancient sites.
Click here for the ‘Banburyshire’s Ancient Sites’ collection.
‘Radical References’ No.1, Beltane 2021:
Revisiting the story of the local Leveller revolt from 372 years ago, to see how the problematic patterns of history laid down then, persist into the modern-day.
‘An Anarchist’s Cookbook’, Part 3, Sap Moon 2021:
‘The Anti-Consumerist DIY (vegan) Chocolate Cake’
An imminent birthday means I need a cake for the obligatory celebration. Do I: (a) Buy; or, (b) Bake – a cake? For me, though, there is no choice!
March 2021
The ‘Meta-Blog’, no.13, 25th March 2021:
Why is there no ‘right to food’, or to grow food in Britain?
Covid has exposed Britain’s endemic poverty, and the chaotic state of poverty-relief systems; is a possible solution, ‘food sovereignty’, being deliberately ignored?
Long Walks & A/P, Part 3, Mabon 2021:
‘Wild tea making and the revolt against the machine’
Walking, camping, and foraging, are the last ‘natural’ refuges outside technological society – the last ‘commons’ open to all irrespective of wealth; albeit one that’s always under threat.
I know I’m not alone in that position. More importantly, I know there are many more who want to ‘downshift’ into “something else” – other than where they are now – but have not the first clue how.
‘An Anarchist’s Cookbook’, Part 2, Imbolic 2021:
‘Lembas Scones, my (vegan) wayfaring snack’
In this video I show how to make a cheap and simple snack food that’s ideal for keeping well fed when travelling or working: “Lembas Scones”.
As I show, “Do-It-Yourself” is a far better option to help you live a simple, cheap and low impact lifestyle.
Long Walks & A/P, Part 2, Imbolic 2020:
My Day-Pack ‘Unpacked’; what do I carry in the big bag on my back?
So many times people passing have said to me, “what have you got in that big rucksack?” In this blog post I’ll outline what it is I carry in ‘my big pack’, and a little about why I take it.
February 2021
Long Walks & A/P, Part 1, Yule 2020:
‘An Introduction, with Musical Trees’
An introduction to my new blog – and the importance of change as a process where you are open to chance discoveries rather than just dogmatic advance planning.
‘An Anarchist’s Cookbook’, Part 1, Imbolic 2021:
My Stone Age Food Processor – making meal with ancient simplicity
What are the most important tools in your kitchen? My most important ‘tool’ is a pestle and mortar.
In this post and accompanying video: I focus a little on the issue of the costs of food; the theory behind vegan protein sources; and I prepare a meal for the family and explain the economics of that – but mostly I show the simple brilliance of using a pestle and mortar.
‘An Anarchist’s Cookbook’, Part 0, Imbolic 2021:
‘About the Blog’ – An introduction to ‘An Anarchist’s Cookbook’
For the first post of the new blog, I present the ‘About the Blog’ page:
I’m writing this rather long and detailed theoretical splurge of consciousness precisely because I don’t want to have to endlessly repeat this as part of my blog posts. Hence, unless I want to examine a small aspect in more detail, I’ll simply refer people back to paragraphs within this page.
January 2021
Ramblinactivist's videos 2021/2, 17th January 2021:
Ramblinactivist 2021/2: ‘The President’s Parting Shot’: A Reflection on Threats and Resilience
Exactly sixty years ago, President Eisenhower give his ‘farewell address’ to the American nation; known today for popularising the term “military-industrial complex” . Today though this has arguably morphed into the “military-industrial-entertainment complex”, so intermeshed have those arms of modern society become.
Ramblinactivist's videos 2021/1, 17th January 2021:
Ramblinactivist 2021/1: ‘A review of the last 30 years, and a look ahead’
In 1991 I quit my join in engineering and become a full-time eco-freak. I thought I’d last six months; a year tops till the money ran out. Well, the money’s been running out for thirty years this year, and I’m still (barely!) keepin’ on keepin’ on.
In this short review I look at some of what has been. More importantly I drop a few ideas about where I’ll be going next. Most of all, I just want to share with you the fact that we’re still here (barely!) and we have all to play for – if you’re willing to raise the lifestyle stakes *low* enough!
‘djnz’s hackblog’, 12th January 2021:
‘How did you do that’ no.1: The flaming Kelly Kettle animated GIF
I get to answer my first query with the new blog: Posted on one of my other blogs, the flaming Kelly Kettle was made in a few minutes from a small piece of video using ffmpeg – but with GIMP and pitivi you could do far more.
The ‘Meta-Blog’, no.12, 9th January 2021:
‘Seven Billion Mutant Monkeys’ playing with advanced technology… what could possibly go wrong?
When daily technological interactions reach a critical performance tipping point, the only sure route to progress is marked, “Exit”
‘djnz’s hackblog’, 7th January 2021:
First problem: The Anti-Bloat Page Design
This new blog is an experiment, using a very different approach to page design in order to minimise the ecological footprint of the page. If it works here, it can slowly be adapted for the rest of the FRAW site.
‘djnz’s hackblog’, 4th January 2021:
‘About the Blog’
OK, this is literally a bit of a hack… I need to solve a few multiple problems with as little effort as possible, and the easiest way is to create this blog. In this page I’ll explain a little as to why.
As the inaugural post to the blog I direct you to the ‘About’ page, as (in its admittedly long prose) it sums up what I’d like to achieve here.
December 2020
The ‘Meta-Blog’, no.11, 30th December 2020:
What was your ‘2020 Vision’?’
In the endless picking-over of the events of 2020, now and in the future, how many will care to inspect their past tendency to always project a rosy future irrespective of its demonstrable flaws?
The ‘Meta-Blog’, no.10, 3rd December 2020:
Retail & services are collapsing; well, it would have happened soon anyway
People are mourning the loss of their ‘normal’ life – the truth is that ‘consumerism’ is no longer a viable lifestyle, and never really was.
The ‘Meta-Blog’, no.9, 1st December 2020:
‘My Resignation’; or, ‘Long Walks & Anarcho-Primitivism’
“I am writing to inform you that as of the end of 2020, I am resigning my position with the environmental movement”
October 2020
WEIRD, Thinking Beyond Technology:
Issue no.3: ‘Britain's Energy & Climate Crisis’, Samhain 2020
A special third edition, investigating 'Britain's Energy & Climate Crisis', to demonstrate that neither side in this heated debate cares about statistical reality, or its deeper meaning.
The ‘Meta-Blog’, no.8, 6th October 2020:
Boris bullshits the greens (again); and they swallow it (again!)
Just because something sounds nice and positive doesn’t mean it actually is; and with this government, that’s seemingly guaranteed – especially where it concerns the environment. Why do highly-paid green campaigners, working for the groups who claim to represent the ‘public interest’, keep pliantly falling for the bullshit rather than calling it out?
CroughtonWatch YouTube video, October 2020:
USAF Croughton March & Rally Picture Gallery
A collection of photos of the Oxfordshire Peace Campaign’s annual march and rally outside USAF Croughton, spanning 2016 to 2019, marking the global ‘Keep Space for Peace’ week each October. Although we can’t be there this year, we mark the event this year with a look back at the past year's events, with a music and works specially created by The Oxford Sea Green Singers.
Ramblinactivist's videos 2020/2, Saturday 3rd October 2020:
“Rules Britannia, Britannia Breaks the Rules”
Recently the media have been complaining that the British Government intends to “break international law” as part of Brexit. In practise these complaints highlight the media’s historic silence when the British Government has routinely broken international law before; in particular, our involvement in foreign conflicts involving the USA and ‘Western’ interests.
August 2020
Free Range Activism Website:
Polluting The World, 2020
A short video from Ocean Rebellion on the action against The World docking in Falmouth.
WEIRD, Thinking Beyond Technology:
Issue no.2: ‘Welcome the Extinction’, Lammas 2020
The second edition, where we directly ‘welcome to extinction’ of what passes for normality, in the hope that people will move on and organise for something better.
July 2020
Banburyshire Rambles Journal, 12th July 2020:
Start again…
In the ‘year without a Spring’ I skip straight into a deep Summer’s dawn. Time to get out while the opportunity presents itself. We could all be locked down again soon! Out early for comets and sunrises, I plan a long-haul route back to backpacking.
Paul Mobbs/MEIR work archive, July 2020:
NETCU, WECTU and NPOIU: Britain’s Secretive Police Force
Returned to the website by popular demand! Over a decade ago I wrote a report on the history of protest policing, and how that changed in the follow-on from 11/9 and ‘The War on Terrorism’. The purpose wasn’t simply to highlight what was happening at that moment, but to explore how we got there in the first place – and what processes led to that state of affairs. I removed it from the web site last year; having received so many requests for copies since I have decided to put it back on-line.
May 2020
The ‘Meta-Blog’, no.7, 29th May 2020:
Thermal insulation? Yes, you can have too much of a good thing
“We just need houses to be more efficient”, I was told. That’s the problem with people who make (or is it, repeat?) simplistic statements. To make successful change within the world around us, first understand the limits to the changes that you want to enact.
The ‘Meta-Blog’, no.6, 18th May 2020:
Cooking scones with The Prodigy; or, why do climate campaigners not understand logical fallacies?
Some may not find this recipe tasteful, but then again, that’s the problem we face generally with ‘mainstream activism’ right now.
The ‘Meta-Blog’, no.5, 1st May 2020:
‘Planet of the Humans’: A (long-form) review of… the reviews.
I saw ‘Planet of the Humans’ when Michael Moore released it on YouTube: The anticipated Cat.5 storm arrived right on time.
April 2020
WEIRD, Thinking Beyond Technology:
Issue no.1: ‘The Lockdown Edition’, Beltane 2020
How do you talk about freeing ourselves from the gadgets that define our lives, when the way everyone communicates these days is defined by those gadgets?
The ‘Meta-Blog’, no.4, 16th April 2020:
“Lockdown and Liberation”: A Study in Lifestyles and Systemic Resilience.
Everyone’s moaning about the lockdown being “an end” to everything – be that lives, jobs, or civil liberties. I certainly do not feel that. I think it’s a chance for a review of ‘where we’re at’…
