A river that needs crossing political and tech blogs – On the political side, there is arrogance and ignorance, on the geek side there is naivety and over- complexity
My videos are on these two youtube channels visionontv 3,832,876 views and undercurrents 22,689,976 views
Published Date 8/23/13 12:29 PM
Photo: Katherine Stanley
(DRAFT)
My experience at the camp was over all positive, and came away feeling that fracking is a completely winnable campaign.
I went to the camp to spend a week making media about the people, issues and organising of the #fracking protest camp. In stead of this media/video making, which am very good at I spent 10 days living on the camp trying to sought out many core issues.
* the dysfunctional camp meetings
* the draining camp fractions/dynamics/power struggles
* the tech tent
I will start with the tech tent, when i arrived the camp had no working solar power and all battery were charged (by grid electricity – fossil fuel) offside and driven in by car each day. No care was taken for the effective life of the battery’s so they were disintegrating rapidly by being excessively discharged each day. With 12v battery’s it is much more efficient (and safer) to run the camp on native 12v then use fragile/inefficient and potently dangerous 240v inverters as was happening.
The tech space was being ripped apart and trashed (by persons unknown) every night, leading to the problem that nothing permanent could be built or sustained, this lead to all the competent people leaving this core space. Each day new equipment would arrive and by the next day it would be broken, the solution was to then order more new equipment, the tech spending was spiralling out of control.
When equipment was ordered it was always the wrong type because of the politics/opacity of shopping – this was very damaging as it lead to more equipment failer and the strong possibility of electrical fire. This repeating power politics and unspoken agenda’s was the root of many issues.
I spent much of my 10 days on this problem, and by the end of the time we were charging all legal/camp/media/visiter phones on 12v solar power and had finally ordered the equipment to run the wider camp on solar power.
This was on order when I left:
Core permanent power for the tech tent
100w 12v x2 semi-flexible solar panels permanently affixt to the roof of the south facing tent
water/shock profer controller x2
strong water prof connectors
heavy duty cabling
Then we had politics – Experimental event charging (this was a political choice rather than technical)
1x250w 24v glass facing solar panel
Voltage regulating Controllers to bring this huge 24v panel (20KG metal and glass) down to the 12v needed
This experiment system saves around 50 in cost but is a HUGE problem as its heavey and frigile if it is mixed up with our 12v set-up as this will lead to equipment failer and possibly fires.
The camp is in a permanent state of chaos with out some one in the space to mediate this chaos, and at time the will not be, then this experimental system has to be (at a minimum) installed/looked after in a physically separate space to the core stable power set-up.
Is saveing a small amount of money worth adding to this chaos?
Because of camp politics this essential equipment was not ordered.
GOOD CAR “cigarette lighter” connector banks x2 (branded)
6x double 5v USB car adapters (branded)
3x laptop 12v power supply’s with tips (branded)
A river that needs crossing political and tech blogs – On the political side, there is arrogance and ignorance, on the geek side there is naivety and over- complexity
My videos are on these two youtube channels visionontv 3,832,876 views and undercurrents 22,689,976 views
Published Date 8/15/13 4:42 PM
(DRAFT)
40 years of one of the most active and largest non-organisation’s in the world. A modern working example of traditional nomadic life an sustainable example the world can be different.
Its important NOT to get caught up in talk about the big picture of what a Rainbow Gathering is, as its a Rainbow of many colouers, a gathering of the tribes, each brings its own myths, traditions and sadly sometimes “rules”. The man (and it uselessly is a man) dressed in “sacred robes” proclaiming this or that is rainbow, should be acknowledged by a sigh, it’s human to smile and walk away to get a cup of tea, taking the person next to you as well. That’s the rainbow way they have facilitated a rainbow connection 😉
Rainbow is a traditional society.
This is an important statement, because a rainbow gathering only happens if we come together motivated by the myths of Rainbow and enact the traditions of Rainbow. Its a misguide not to do this otherwise its just another festival, not a Rainbow Gathering.
It is “Babylon” energy to ask “how can we do this better”, instead you should ask “how dose the Rainbow do this”. The is a Rainbow humility here, a touching the earth. The gatherings have good working traditions that cover almost every thing that happens at a Gathering. And they are traditions built and tested though time and experience – they are what makes a Rainbow Gathering.
New “ideas/newways” destroy traditional society’s all around the world. In traditional society good change is slow and organic. This new/improved rainbow “Babylon” energy is surging through the European gatherings the last few years. Its is probably a USA issue as well.
An example of this
At the European gathering in Greece (2013) The gathering was “organised” by a group in darkness, it become the empty home of invisible individuals that make things happen. Were the Rainbow way is in the light of visible circles, transparency and foculisers not organisers.
The gathering happened but for some it had a emptiness, an example of the outcome of this was the poisoning of the water supply for the local village by the kitchen builders – many people could see what was happening but darkness surrounding manifesting the kitchen meant nobody could stop this from happening.
The solution to solve this is not by “improvements” but by remembering/honourer the Rainbow spirit manifested in its myths (care for nature and peoples) and its tradition, don’t build gray water pits/compasing near water supply’s.
How to solve this “new/improved/organising – Babylon” energy is to call a circle for kitchen, magic hat, water etc. the “invisible/shadow” individuals will likely not come into this light. This circle will generate ideas, connections and trust. The shadow/invisible individuals will likely come directly to you (the one who called the circle) as an individual (in the shadow’s) – give them feedback and invite them to the next circle. When they come then their role can THEN be passed into the light. The power of circles is lost if not used so a hart song circle on water, wood kitchen etc. Might help to nurture this circle power before trying to fix the shadow workers. And as the gathering is just a big circle the spread of light will brining a grater shine to the whole rainbow.
The myth of care and the tradition of circles and openness sole most problems, have a shiny Rainbow and see you in the kitchen.
A river that needs crossing political and tech blogs – On the political side, there is arrogance and ignorance, on the geek side there is naivety and over- complexity
My videos are on these two youtube channels visionontv 3,832,876 views and undercurrents 22,689,976 views
A river that needs crossing political and tech blogs – On the political side, there is arrogance and ignorance, on the geek side there is naivety and over- complexity
My videos are on these two youtube channels visionontv 3,832,876 views and undercurrents 22,689,976 views
Published Date 8/3/13 10:21 PM
Buying the boat off Alan johnston was a good expirence, he was a big help with fixing the boat up to get past the BSS test. I ended up staying up on site for 4 days working on the boat.
Will be converting this to a Solar powered and mobile Open Media Hub over the next few months.
Work done:
Removed central seating partitions
Removed half of the seat belts
Presser washed the boat inside
Moved the fuel tank to the back of the boat to facilitate external fuelling (this is a BSS issue)
Fixed peg locks to hatches and doors and a padlock to back door.
plugged holes in roof from removed equipment.
Made 6x tyear fenders with rope fittings (Alan donated a selection of fenders as well)
Rope for morning up.
Todo:
Put in external fuelling
Angle grind/remove top bouncey bulge
wood ceiling and floor panels
Prep and paint inside
Add LED lighting
External solar panels
battery box and battery’s for solar set-up
wiring and charge controllers
Published Date 8/3/13 9:32 PM
Should I get 2x50w panels – one of each side of the bout or 1 x 100w panel for the roof – am reluctant to put panels on the roof as its usable space – the curving sides of the boat would be better space to use? Link
For battery’s can just buy cheap leasher battery’s (good for ballast and have the space)
Or try something better http://www.ev-power.eu/LiFePO4-w-PCM-6V-12V/LiFePO4-Battery-Pack-12V-17Ah-PCM.html
With the lead acid battery’s you can only use 1/3 of the power with out damaging the battery’s and they are only good for less than 500 cycles or so… but they would work and are cheap – cauld try something better latter.
The charge controlling is complex as the side facing panels will mean one is putting out more power than the other… agen – just cheap controller(s) or go for an expensive http://www.ebay.com/gds/Why-MPPT-PV-Solar-Charge-Controllers-Are-Important/10000000176770209/g.html
Some examples link
What cables to use, size, UV protection etc. Link
Published Date 7/2/13 8:50 PM
This is 3-4 video reports in one. I made them for FSTV a US satellite station and show the wide spectrum of demonstrating post Genoa. I think the is still one report missing will post it when I find it.
My thinking then as now is to show the tredtional events, walking from A-B in a radical way, but to concentrate more on the fring more alternative party and protest movement.
Brussels 2001 – December 13th, saw possibly the largest ever demonstration of trade union strength across Europe. Well over 100,000 people marched through the capital of the ‘Europe of Profit’ under the slogan, “Europe: it’s us!”
This film covers the wider demonstrations on that day.
Made by http://hamishcampbell.com
http://www.undercurrents.org
http://visionon.tv
Published Date 7/1/13 8:12 PM
Charging is easy with USB and 12v something like this will work fine (its worth paying a little bit more than the cheapest as they can be a fire hazard) Agen its toss a coin for something like this to work with a apple device. (click on the images for amazon links)
Your boat needs a car power plug, most should come with one, if your boat doesn’t you can just crocodile clip on on you Battery.
It would be a bodge, but would work.