Posting strategy

blogging-230Tomorrow there will be climate post, no risk.

In the welcome post I said I’d post as time and inclination permits, so there won’t always be a post every day. I still work outdoors on most days, so with the time available I’ll surprise myself if I average more than three a week.

In fact, however, I’ve been writing posts for the last six weeks, so at last count I think there were 17 in the bin. Back in 2012 when we were close to launch I actually published three which are still there, and I think worth a look. I might do link posts to them at some stage.

I don’t want to flood the place, so I’ll publish posts the binned posts between the new material for some weeks until the backlog is cleared. So for a while there should be daily offerings. However, I’d recommend taking a subscription, available at the foot of the page.

The posts in the bin include a bunch of Climate clippings posts, which I’ll also feed in. I used to aim for one a week. They’ll be a bit more frequent for a while and then as time and suitable material permits.

John Davidson, when he gets cracking, will do a parallel series under the rubric Climate action. There should be more from him about renewables, electric vehicles, new technologies, electricity prices and such and less from me. It will be a case of parallel play, however, and there may be some overlap. I don’t think either of us is madly territorial.

Open threads

Climate clippings and Climate action will also act as open threads on climate matters.

For tragics who would like to talk about other things I’m thinking we could have two weekend open threads, somewhat in the manner of LP. Can anyone suggest a name and an image for a Saturday Salon type post? I can only come up with boring stuff like Your say and Conversation corner. I did find, however, in my youth working as a reference librarian that boring names like Handbook of… had greater utility and were more readily remembered than snappy titles unless you can come up with something like Catch 22.

On Sunday I had in mind something like Lazy Sunday but extending it to the whole week and including information of interesting life experiences like movies or shows you’ve seen, books you’ve read, street protests and other activism, as well as what you’ve been doing in the back yard. Provisionally the title is The week that was. Again ideas of titles and images appreciated.

If we remember, each open thread will be categorised as such. So when you want to make a sundry comment go to the Open Threads link above the header and find the latest open thread.

Finally…

… this post will be filed under Blog Matters accessible under the link above the header. When I have days off, like today, I hope to spend a bit of time doing posts about features of the blog, seeking your comments and suggestions.

T

WA Senate election result

Now to work!

You can follow the WA senate election results at the AEC tally room or I think preferably at the ABC. There is seat by seat counting at Antony Green’s Election Blog.

Poll Bludger is here.

At time of writing (just after midnight EST) it seems that about 25% of the vote has been counted. It’s looking like two seats for the Liberals, one for Labor, one for the Greens, one for the Palmer United Party and the final seat a tussle between Liberal and Labor, with Liberals the more likely.

I’m not sure exactly what this means for the final balance of power in the Senate, but I think it means that Abbott will have a choice of coming to terms with Labor and the Greens, or assembling a combination of “others” which must include PUP. If anyone knows, please share.

It looks as though Scott Ludlam will be elected comfortably, which is good to see.

Update: This morning Antony Green has Labor slightly ahead for the last seat with just over half the vote counted.

For Senate composition go here.

So for the LNP it’s a choice between needing 6/8 extras or 7/8. See also my comment here.

Welcome to Climate Plus

Planet-Earth-001_200
When Larvatus Prodeo folded originally in 2012 the one option I ruled out was starting my own blog. The plain fact is that my computer skills are such that I’d never be able to create a place I’d like to live in. Then tigtog offered to help and help she did, putting up with my numbskullery and faltering comprehension.

So here we are. Welcome to Climate Plus. I’ve grown fond of the place and I hope you do too.

In Climate Plus we have a blog designed and customised by tigtog at VIVidWeb, powered by WordPress and hosted by DreamHost. It’s been in an advanced state of development since October 2012, when I put it aside to do some writing about family history. Then it was overtaken by the revival of LP.

It’s meant to be a friendly place, with simple but functional features.

As to what we might achieve here I’ll quote from Curt Stager’s book Deep Future: the next 100,000 years of life on earth:

In this new Age of Humans, our thoughts and desires have become powerful environmental forces in their own rights, and how we think and act can be as important to millions of other human (and other species) as to ourselves. The better we know and respect each other as people, the more we’re likely to learn from one another, the more likely we are to understand each other’s needs and goals, and the more likely we are to cooperate effectively for our mutual benefit. Greenhouse pollution problems will not be solved piecemeal, and there is also no way to avoid making a collective choice one way or the other. We’ll either decide to solve them as a self-aware global community or we’ll decide to suffer through them together as a disjointed mob of individuals. (Emphasis added)

We may be just talking about climate change here, but in our own sphere we are creating meaning. You never know when a sleeper may be planted that makes a real difference in the larger scene.

John Davidson joins as a foundation author who brings the practical perspective of a process engineer, not just any engineer, a process engineer experienced in setting up systems that work. You can read about him here.There may be others later.

I plan not to become victim to ‘feeding the beast’, so I’ll post as time and inclination permits. Soon my sister and her husband come from Canada to visit, when I’ll take a bit of time out. Later in July I’m joining my brother and my wife as part of a convoy driving out to Central Australia and back via Simpson’s Desert. We’ll have a satellite phone for emergencies, but that’s all.

You’ll notice that tigtog has brought across many of the posts I did at LP in recent years. In addition there’s Gillard on the world stage which I posted in February, in part as a trial. We have more in the bin which will be fed in over the coming days, so there will be plenty to chew on initially.

So welcome aboard, tell your friends and we’ll see how we go!

The image at the head of this post comes from Neal Elbaum’s collection.

As a concluding perspective I’ll post this shot of the earth from Voyager 1. In the Age of Anthropocene we have collectively become responsible for the future of our little space ship. But does the universe care? There are over 200 billion suns in the Milky Way and over 170 billion galaxies in the observable universe, some of which have over 100 trillion stars:

Earth from Voyager 1_500

What matters is that we care and we have to learn to care collectively.

For anyone who arrives early

sunrise_450

One day soon, in the middle of the night, a bright new day is going to dawn with the official birth of a new blog about climate change, sustainability, plus sundry other stuff.

Climate Plus is due to put up a welcoming post, shall we say at 12.01 am (Eastern Standard Time of course) on Sunday 6 April. Anyway with a bit of luck I’ll be there.

This is an open thread for anyone who arrives early to chat if the spirit moves them.