Link tag Tuesday is a collection of webpages that I’ve been looking at this week. You can view previous Link tag Tuesdays here.

• Morning all. We’re starting off this week’s link tag with a list of the world’s 10 greenest countries. Some are unsurprising, but I was interested to see France on the list. Western Europe doesn’t strike me as an area of the world having very strong green politics, but they’re obviously doing something right! I am completely not surprised to discover that Britain is not on this list. We’re apparently on a mission to destroy green infrastructure as quickly as possible. The U.S. isn’t on there either – again, not really a surprise given their problems with climate change deniers. Canada isn’t on the list either. I don’t know if they have been in the past, but I guess their current interests in tar sands and mineral extraction mean they won’t be considered green for a while.
• Here’s a rather odd photographic study, of dogs swimming underwater. I’m not sure why you would be inspired to undertake such a study, but an L.A. photographer was, and these are the results. I have to say, most of the dogs look quite sinister, except for the bulldog (second to last photo) which looks inquisitive and a little confused.
• I have talked about my love of Monopoly on here before, and so I was very entertained to see an article titled “How to win at Monopoly and real life“. I agree with everything the article says, except I would add a further tip which is: always get the railway stations. I’m not sure how this would translate to a real life tip (always invest in utilities alongside more traditional savings and properties?), but it is a sure-fire way to get control of a portion of every side of the Monopoly board. As a bonus tip, don’t bother fretting about the most expensive property. You’ll get more income (and therefore stand more chance of winning) if you just focus on having a monopoly on each side of the board. In particular, players are statistically more likely to land on the properties following jail, and so you should focus your efforts here. In real life, this means putting any business in places where your customers are likely to be. Basically, that’s how I win at Monopoly
• The answer to that age-old question; which came first, the colour orange or the fruit orange?
• Have some ballpoint pen drawings. I think a lot of people get fascinated with these drawings because they’re made with a ballpoint pen. For me, that’s kind of irrelevant. I just love the level of detail that has gone into each drawing. That’s what makes them so life-like, and it really demonstrates the skill of the artist.
• If you’re looking for something inspirational to listen to this week, Lewis Pugh did a presentation through TED about swimming at the North Pole. I felt cold just watching the short video they made whilst in the Arctic (which is included in the middle of his presentation). In his presentation he says that for months after the swim, he couldn’t feel his hands because of the damage they’d suffered in the freezing temperatures. Crazy!
• And finally, something fun to finish with: High school fashions in 1969. These photos are brilliant (in fact, a lot of that website is worth a browse!). Mostly, I am jealous of the girls’ hair and how long it is!

Happy Tuesday!

A few months ago I came across an interesting website: http://slaveryfootprint.org/  This website calculates how many slaves you need to maintain the lifestyle you’re currently enjoying.

I spend a lot of time trying to avoid buying clothes made outside of Europe, etc., because I know that a lot of child labourers and poorly-paid workers are in Southeast Asia.  However, even I score highly on this survey.  I have relatives who buy me jewellery (I very rarely buy myself jewellery) and that’s pretty much guaranteed to have child and slave labour involved at some point.  In fact, anything that has a precious metal involved will have (because of the mining involved).

Obviously, this survey isn’t accurate.  It doesn’t take into account if you grow some of your own food, whether you buy clothes ethically, where you get your toiletries from, etc.  However, it’s an insight into just how much of an impact your life has on other human beings, and I think it’s worth having a play on the website and maybe considering some of your lifestyle choices.

My biggest downfalls are the jewellery that I own and the technology that I own.  It’s my choice to purchase the technology (as mentioned previously, I didn’t buy the jewellery) and some of the human rights issues associated with the technology are well-documented.  It’s very hard to buy ethical technology, as the big companies all use the same factories and the very similar policies, but it’s your choice as to whether you upgrade your devices every year or keep them maintained.  I used the same iPhone for three years, and only upgraded because the battery wasn’t very good.  I’ve recycled the old phone and it will get restored and sent to the third world.  It doesn’t solve the problem of slave labour, but it helps.

How many slaves do you have working for you?

That’s not a typo, for those wondering!  I think I’ve said on here before that I have very eclectic music tastes.  When I try to look for a theme in my music collection, a major thing that stands out for me is artists who write their own lyrics.  That’s not to say that everyone in my collection does (they most certainly do not!), but I really have respect for the true musicians who are writing their own stuff.

Tinie Tempah is a grime artist from London.  I’m really into grime, dub-step and rap at the moment (read preceding paragraph – eclectic tastes!).  There is a lot of good music coming out of London, and after the domination of the British charts with U.S. artists, it’s nice to see that British acts are finally breaking through with their own sound.

Tinie’s song, Written in the stars, was recently the song that the New York Giants walked out to at the Super Bowl, so I guess if Americans didn’t know about the London music scene before, they do now!  Here’s the full music video for the song (possibly my favourite on his album):

The whole album, Disc-overy, is really good.  There are no album fillers, and I really recommend checking it out if you like Written in the stars.  His second album is scheduled to come out later this year, and he will be announcing the title at the BRIT awards next week.  In the mean time, his friend and producer, Labrinth, is releasing his own album in March and I suspect that will be amazing too.  I doubt there’s anyone in the English-speaking world that hasn’t heard this song, but just in case, here’s the music video for Labrinth’s song Earthquake (featuring Tinie Tempah):

All this music makes me want to have a massive party in a field

Hi all.  I’ve been a bit absent again, sorry.  I have major writer’s block at the moment.  Anyway, I thought it would be fun to tell you about 5 TV shows that I love at the moment.

I do own a TV, but most the shows that I watch I stream through my computer.  I think when I move into my own place I won’t bother with a TV, as I rarely watch things as they air.  I don’t like the pressure of having to remember to watch something on the right night!  I’d rather watch a show at my own pace.  So, here are 5 shows that I currently love.  Tell me about your loves in the comments below!

1.  Chuck

I really love this show, and I am sad that it has been cancelled.  However, it’s had a good run, and I’m just starting season 3, so I have new episodes to watch for a while yet.  Chuck is about a computer geek (called Chuck) who accidentally becomes a spy for the U.S. government after downloading a computer file into his brain.  It’s a very funny, geeky show, and Zachary Levi (who plays Chuck) is gorgeous.  Enough said, really!

2.  New Girl

I think this is my only ‘current’ show at the moment (one that’s actually airing as I’m watching it).  It’s recently been launched in the UK, and I think it’s so funny.  I’m a huge Zooey Deschanel fan, and I’m so pleased that she’s got her own show.  Zooey plays a girl called Jess (the “new girl”), who moves into an apartment with three guys after breaking up with her boyfriend.  She is a very awkward person, and the show follows the antics of her and her new flatmates.

3.  Warehouse 13

I love sci-fi – it’s no secret!  Warehouse 13 is my current sci-fi love.  It’s about a secret warehouse run somewhat ambiguously by the U.S. Government, that collects dangerous artefacts to protect the public (and criminals who know no better).  It’s a bit like Indiana Jones, but in hourly slots, and with more awesome characters (not that Indy isn’t awesome, but there was only one of him.  Warehouse 13 has at least 4 awesome characters!).

4.  Arrested Development

This show is the oldest on my list I think.  It aired a few years ago, and starred Jason Bateman (and a young Michael Cera).  It is brilliantly funny.  There are so many subtle jokes in the show, and there are long-running jokes that you forget about and then suddenly pop up in another episode – it is very well-written.  The show follows the Bluth family, who are a wealthy family in California fallen on ‘hard’ times.  The head of the family (George Sr.) is arrested for embezzlement, fraud, tax evasion, possible minor treason, etc. and it is up to his son (Jason Bateman) to lead the family and try and rescue the family company from certain doom.  I think I’ve just made it sound quite boring, but it’s so funny.  You should take my word for it and go and watch it!  Unlike a lot of shows, it also had a good final episode.  Rumour has it that there will be a film/mini-series produced next year following the escapades of the Bluths.  I can’t wait!

5.  Pointless

Ha, I bet you didn’t expect that!  This is a weekday BBC quiz show in the UK.  It airs at 5.15pm and is hosted by Alexander Armstrong.  The quiz questions are  presented to 100 people, who give as many correct answers as they can in 30 seconds.  The point of the quiz is to answer the questions with the most obscure correct answer that you can, and the team that scores the lowest wins.  Points are awarded based on how many of the polled people gave the same answer, and if you give an incorrect answer you get 100 points.  I love quiz shows, and this is no exception.  Sometimes the questions are ridiculously hard, but other times they are quite easy (for me).  This week one of the topics was John Cusack films.  I love John Cusack, so I mentally ran through his back-catalogue and found three obscure answers that I didn’t think other people would know (Say Anything, Pushing Tin and Ice Harvest, anyone?).  Sometimes, the show is unintentionally funny because you wonder who on Earth they polled.  When asked to name Conservative Prime Ministers, more people named Maggie Thatcher than David Cameron (who is our current PM).  I bet that irked him (assuming he watches!).

What shows are you enjoying at the moment?

Link tag Tuesday is a collection of webpages that I’ve been looking at this week.  You can view previous Link tag Tuesdays here.

• The latest carnival of pen, pencil and paper is here!  Go and read it over at Office Supply Geek!
• Here’s an amusing collection of 12 very pointless flyers.  I particularly like “Have you seen these droids?”
• Sagaki Keita is a Japanese artist who creates amazingly detailed works.  Each work is a re-creation of a classic piece of art, and if you look closely you’ll see that each piece is made up of millions of tiny doodles.  Check out the Mona Lisa drawing from 2008!  Incredible.
• Here’s an interesting article on the Simple Dollar titled How to build a reading hobby (it also covers other inexpensive hobbies).  I find it odd that people might need to be ‘taught’ how to enjoy reading as a hobby, but then, like Trent, I’ve always read as a hobby.  I don’t know any different!  If you have recently found yourself staring at a pile of unread books wishing you could read them, this post might give you the nudge you read to bring regular reading back into your life.
• I love glass pens.  They are very beautiful.  I was thus very pleased to see Leigh Reyes blog post about her glass pens.  I have one glass pen – an orange one.  I might feature it on here soon!
• If you’re American and looking for a free way to manage your finances, Mr Money Mustache did a review of mint.com (I couldn’t figure out why that name looked wrong, but I’ve just noticed that Americans spell moustache differently to Brits!).
• On Recording Thoughts, the author has been discussing how many notebooks to use in everyday life.  One for everything, or one for each part of your life?  It’s a question I’ve pondered many times before.  I still don’t really have an answer, and I switch between both styles.  At the moment, I have a notebook for each part of my life.
• For Brits like me, Netflix has just launched in the UK.  I recommend doing a free trial for a month.  You can sign up on their website!  I haven’t decided whether I will actually have a paying subscription (although I notice on their site they allow cancellation over the web, which already makes me happier, given my awful experience of Lovefilm).  If you don’t really know what to watch, you have unlimited web viewing, and I recommend working your way through Arrested Development.  I love Jason Bateman, and the show is very funny.

Happy Tuesday!

Today I want to discuss my thoughts on the farming industry (don’t run away, I promise it won’t be boring or bossy!).

I think most people just assume that I eat organic food because I’m a conservationist and I like to save the world.  However, if you’re eating organic food in order to save the world, your hopes may be misplaced.  Organic farming isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.

I used to support organic farming.  When I was an undergraduate I liked the idea of my chemical-free vegetables.  However, I took a module on water quality as part of my Geology degree and slowly learnt that things aren’t as green as people think they are when it comes to organic produce.

I have two main issues with organic farming, and although the second one I’m going to discuss is the biggest, it’s partially related to point one so I will start with that.

1. Nitrates, friend or foe?

Nitrates are actually both, so that’s a trick question!  We use them as a fertiliser to keep our soils nutrient-rich (and thus grow healthy, big vegetables).  Nitrates are one of several chemicals we need to keep soils high in nutrients and thus suitable for growing crops on – when you add compost to your veg garden the principles are the same, but on a much smaller scale.

Organic farms cannot use artificial fertilisers as they’re not organic, but they still need to add fertilisers to their soils to grow their crops.  They get their nitrates from various organic sources, such as manure (cow, bird, bat, etc) and “meals” (mushed mixes of bones, blood, feathers, etc).

Farmer Non-organic across the road watches the weather forecast and waits for a good weather period to spread his fertiliser (important in the UK, probably not so important abroad where the weather is more predictable!). He mixes up his chemicals to the manufacturer’s specifications, gets on his tractor and goes out to spread.  Unless he misreads the instructions or calculates the size of his fields wrong, he has spread exactly the right amount of nitrates on his fields, which for him is cost-efficient and for the environment is good.

Farmer Organic also watches the weather forecast (heavy rain will wash all the fertiliser out of the field and is thus a waste of money and bad for the environment, as we’ll see in a moment).  He spots a gap in the weather, loads up his muck spreader with cow manure (probably from Old MacDonald next door, so it’s not travelled far) and goes off to spray his fields.  However, this time the nitrates are not calculated exactly for the crops he’s growing.  Organic fertilisers need to be digested by bacteria, so Farmer Organic can’t know in advance how much nitrate will eventually end up in his soil.

Here, science has the advantage.  Agriculture is big business, and billions has been spent on the science of fertilisers.  Farmer Non-organic may end up being better for the environment.  Why?  Whilst adding nitrates to the soil is great for growing your veg, the same thing happens if you accidentally put nitrates where you don’t want them, for example in a river.

Nitrates are not “bad” chemicals.  They are essential for plant health and are invaluable if used safely.  Farmer Organic has spread manure around his field, but isn’t sure how much nitrate has ended up in his soils.  Unfortunately, on this occasion too much nitrate has been added.  When it next rains, some of those nitrates are going to be washed into the neighbouring water course.  The plants in the river (especially algae) have suddenly just had a rush of nutrients.  They can now grow a lot quicker in response to all this new “food”, and the population size increases (sometimes known as an “algal bloom”).  Unfortunately, growing this quickly requires oxygen.  The plants use up the oxygen in the water, and that means that the is little left for other organisms in the water, like fish.  The fish start to die.  Because the algae cloud the water and stop sunlight from entering, plants deeper in the river don’t get any sunlight now, so they die too.  This is called Eutrophication.

Fish death is the worst case scenario (well, actually the worst case scenario is that this pollution goes unnoticed and the water enters the home through someone’s tap, where it can be toxic – but this is very very rare in the UK, where these things are heavily regulated).  Usually, you’ll get an artificially high population of algae and not much river life – there are examples of “green” rivers and canals across the UK where very little lives due to the dense growth of algae and surface plant life.  Farmer Non-organic’s waterways are fine though, because he knows exactly how much nitrate he put on his field and very little has ended up in the neighbouring habitats.

2. Where are you going to grow your crops?

The next issue features less chemistry but is more important, in my opinion.  Organic farming produces a lower yield than non-organic farming.  As mentioned, agriculture is big business, and we’ve spent billions researching how to feed ourselves.  Pesticides, fertilisers, farming equipment… All these things have been designed to make farming more efficient.  Removing the modern benefits of farming reduces the amount of food that we can grow.  How are you going to make sure you still produce enough food now that everyone wants to eat organic veg?  The obvious – and only – answer (since we’re avoiding man-made techniques), is to use more land for farming.  This is the only way you can make sure you produce enough food to meet demand.

Organic farming, whilst it may feature lovely serene fields with butterflies fluttering about and wild birds singing from the hedges, is no substitute for the habitat that was there previously.  We simply cannot argue that farmland is better for the environment than the woodland/wetland/grassland that was there before (in fact, that’s true of any manmade habitat, Donald Trump).

If we have to put 20% more land into organic farming just to get the same amount of food as we could get from non-organic farming, that’s a lot of habitat we’re going to have to destroy.  Personally, I’d rather keep my 20% natural habitat and continue to rely on modern agricultural science to feed our population.

Now, I want to be clear here that I am only referring to organic vegetable farming.  There are different – and more important – issues facing organic livestock farming, which mean that the decision to buy organic meat is more complex.  I support organic meat farming, but that has nothing to do with the environment and everything to do with the addition of antibiotics.

 Do you buy organic veg, and if so, what are your reasons for doing so?

After I did my review of Ray Charles a few weeks ago, I started wonder why I had a box full of CDs in the loft.  My new minimalist streak says that’s hoarding!  So, soon after, I went up in the loft and brought them down to sort through (note to self: I need to invent some kind of pulley system to make getting heavy boxes out of the loft much easier!).

Everything that I still liked (or thought I should like!), I copied back into iTunes.  Then I sorted the CDs into four piles:

• CDs I will keep (this includes OSTs and recordings of shows that I don’t want on iTunes, but do want, e.g. the Phantom of the Opera original West End recording)
• CDs to bin (CDs with scratches, CDs of dubious origin and rubbish that I don’t even know why I exchanged for money!)
• CDs to go to charity (CDs I think teenagers with no money will like, and old ladies, etc!)
• CDs to list on eBay (CD bundles, e.g. the Eels back catalogue, that I can list together and see if they sell.  What doesn’t sell will go to charity.)

Luckily, I don’t have many CDs that I want to keep, but not copy to iTunes, so it wasn’t hard to find somewhere to keep them.  I’ve actually put them on a shelf with my books.

CDs to go on eBay was a difficult category to deal with, because there were A LOT.  I’ve listed them in batches and most so far have sold.  I have the eBay iPhone app, which makes it simpler to list items.  It scans the barcode and finds the relevant item and then it’s just a few clicks to get it listed.  It’s not infallible - and quite a few of my older CDs weren’t recognised – but it does help speed up the process.

Like many Brits, I get one or two charity bags a week through my letterbox (does anyone else find it really annoying?!), so it was very easy to deal with the CDs for charity.  I just waited until I got a bag that accepted Bric-a-Brac for a charity that I liked, and then I put my CDs in there.  Easy!

The CDs to bin category is hardest to deal with, because there’s a lot of waste.  I’m keeping one CD storage column of old CDs for gardening (you can hang them and they flash to scare birds away from your crops).  According to Recycle Now (if you live in the UK, this website is brilliant for finding out where you can recycle things), I can send old CDs to places to be recycled.  After googling, I’m still clueless as to where I can actually send my CDs though.  Did you know that it’s thought it will take over 1 million years for a CD to completely decompose in a landfill.  Do not bin your CDs!!!  So for now, I have a pile of cracked CD cases and scratched CDs that need a recycling home.

I feel satisfied that I’ve done this.  I love cleaning!  I’m using the boxes the CDs were stored in to store my unused notebooks at the moment, which has freed up some shelves!  It’s win-win!

So, it’s time to announce the winner of the Field Notes memo book!  There weren’t many entries to this giveaway (8) – I’m guessing my review might have put some of you off.  I have some other giveaways planned though (including my beloved Rhodia webbie), so don’t worry if you didn’t enter or win this time!

The winner of the Field Notes book is KATE!

Kate wrote: “Interesting review. I’m using moleskine & muji notebooks, like their simple kraft paper cover design. I’d love to try Field Notes.”

Congratulations, Kate!

Please email me your delivery details, send me a message through the contact page (you’ll find my address on that page) or hit me up on Twitter.

Hope you all have an excellent week!

All my giveaways are run to standards the BBC would be proud of, but if you have any queries please message me.

Link tag Tuesday is a collection of webpages that I’ve been looking at this week.  You can view previous Link tag Tuesdays here.

• Here’s an interesting article from a palliative nurse about the five most common regrets expressed by her patients.  It’s quite sad, but insightful.  Worth a read and a think.
• The Everyday Minimalist did an article a while back on minimalist reading on the iPad.  I thought it was interesting, so I’m sharing it!  I read books on the Kindle app mostly (I have a Kindle – which I love), and I have a magazine subscription through the app Zinio.  I’m pro-digital reading!
• Here’s an interesting compilation of forced perspective photography.  It’s really interesting, and much better that the standard “holding up the leaning tower of Pisa” photo that most people indulge in!
• I haven’t been to Denmark since I was a child, but I really want to visit this installation!  Actually, I don’t just want to visit it, I want to install my own – in my house, so that every day can be a rainbow day!
• Following with my continuing obsession into new purposes for household items, here are 17 uses for vodka.  This advice is useless to anyone living in the UK thanks to our taxes* (if you can afford to waste a £20 bottle of vodka on removing soap scum then you can probably afford a £1 bottle of bleach).  However, if you live in the U.S or are Russian this might be of use!
• Here is an article that everyone should read: The myth of being born with it.  In summary, “Nobody is born with it.  If your life is lacking in any way, that’s on you. Quit believing some folks are just born with it. There is no luck, you’ve gotta make it.”
• On a similarly motivational vein, here’s a post by Sarah Wilson reflecting on a speech by Steve Jobs in his pre-rich days (the day he decided to lose that beard was a good day for tech geeks the world over).  “Everything around you that you call life was made up by people that were no smarter than you. And you can change it, you can influence it, you can build your own things that other people can use.”

Happy Tuesday!

*Although that makes me sound bitter, I’m not really opposed to alcohol taxes.  I just think maybe we should deal with the causes of alcoholism before forcing people to go bankrupt for their next fix.