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Articles by Juliet Blackburn
Why Women Grow by Alice Vincent: book review
Why Women Grow is delightfully written by journalist Alice Vincent, a woman analysing and charting her own ’growing’ into motherhood. During the Covid lockdown, she decides to contact women who are known to garden and enquire into their passions and motivations for the soil. Vincent also takes an interest in their life histories in addition to the reasons behind the creation of their gardens. She asks them to meet her in a space of their choosing where she interviews them.
What environmental legacy for our grandchildren?
Sir Dieter Helm is an Oxford economist specialising in climate change. Consequently, he has written a great many books about the climate crisis and also about Natural Capital – valuing what our planet provides us with to live on and with. He has been chair of the UK Natural Capital Committee and has given advice to many governments, regulators and companies about energy and climate.
Experiencing a wheelchair for the first time
If you become disabled (temporarily or otherwise), you might have to consider getting a wheelchair. You will need a wheelchair certainly if you have something wrong with your legs or feet. You might be OK with walking sticks or crutches, but a wheelchair means that you can move about more comfortably. If you can borrow a wheelchair, so much the better, but if you need to buy one, then the first decision is whether to buy an electric one or a lighter folding one.
Switching your bank account
We have been urged by many financial experts – including Martin Lewis on TV – to “switch”. This doesn’t mean only bank accounts, but also electricity and gas suppliers and insurance. Switching is quite a good thing for consumers to do because it keeps firms doing what they ought to do – namely supplying good services at a competitive price. However, doing good for other consumers might involve trouble and hassle for the individual.
Morning in Jenin
Although this book is classified as fiction, it gives a sense of the recent history of Palestine from the point of view of the Palestinians. It is particularly relevant to the current Gaza situation and I think that everyone should read it. Rather like in the Vietnam war, the West is being fed an Israeli and American viewpoint and this needs correcting. The book deals with the period from 1940 until 2002. We should ask the question “why are Palestinians still living in refugee camps since 1948”?
Review of “The Glass Wall” by Goran Baba Ali
The Glass Wall is about a fictional Western Country who build a massive mirror wall to protect them from immigrants and create a desert outside the wall. A lone African survives when his boat capsizes and he manages to walk for several days in the desert before he arrives at the glass wall. The author himself must have experienced the physical and mental suffering that he describes.
Food and Farming
“Ravenous” by Henry Dimbleby (with Jemima Lewis) This book on food and farming is suggesting ways in which we can solve the problems of Climate Change and the burgeoning cost of the NHS. The thesis is that what we eat makes us ill, and that changing our farming methods could help to alleviate global warming. Industrial farming practices and ultra-processed foods both need to be transformed.
How farming can save Britain’s countryside – Kent Bylines
Share EmailTwitterFacebook Although Jake Fiennes worked for a period for the Knepp estate – famous for ‘rewilding’ – this is more about ‘Regenerative Farming’. The idea is that farming can be profitable and also maintain the wildlife and the soil for generations to come. The book is dedicated “for those with mud on their boots and calluses on their hands”. Jake is currently Head of Conservation for the 25,000 acre [10,100 hectare] farming at the Holkham Estate in Norfolk.
Chip Wars - Kent Bylines
Share EmailTwitterFacebook This book by Chris Miller is not about French Fries, but about computer chips (integrated circuits). It is a fascinating history of their development and how it relates to current affairs. We are just beginning to realise how critical they are in the war in Ukraine – as if we didn’t realise it when there was a chip shortage after COVID struck. They have become critical and strategic and particularly because Taiwan produces almost all of the world’s advanced micro-chips.
Computerised cars – Kent Bylines
A computer on wheels As some people say, a car is now a computer on wheels. Tesla cars in particular have massive TV screens on the front dashboard. Not only that, some cars have video cameras too. You only need to get into your car and you can have most of the facilities that you get with your smartphone, but you can only use your phone in ‘handsfree mode’ when driving.
Stupid software - Kent Bylines
It is not actually the software that is stupid - it just does what it is told to do. It is usually the algorithm that is at fault - that is what the software is programmed to do. When writing software, it is quite difficult to think what people might want, years into the future.
Can solar panels help achieve net zero? – Kent Bylines
Since the UK is trying to reach net zero carbon by 2050, we will need plenty more electricity generation from solar panels. Clearly there will not be enough land for large wind farms, as these are not allowed on prime agricultural land, above grade 3b.
The Song of the Cell – Siddhartha Mukherjee – Kent Bylines
Share EmailTwitterFacebook The Song of the Cell is a wonderful book by a medical scientist which makes “life” and the science of the human body so much clearer to the general public. The author has written several books along these lines, the most famous of which is “The Emperor of All Maladies”, which is about cancer. In The Song of the Cell, the author demystifies cell biology in all aspects of how cells work and what they are made of.
The Lost Rainforests of Britain, a book review – Kent Bylines
Share EmailTwitterFacebook Book by Guy Shrubsole While we have been lecturing the Brazilians about the loss of the Amazon rainforest, we have lost most of our own temperate rainforest and now we have only 3% of it left. Temperate rainforest is just as effective at soaking up carbon dioxide as tropical forest. Therefore, we should be looking at our own environment first, before blaming others for losing their forests.
Breath by James Nestor – Kent Bylines
Share EmailTwitterFacebook Book review by Juliet Blackburn Although Breath was published in paperback in 2020, I am calling it one of the most relevant books of 2022. It is about our health. To some extent, it harks back to the 1970s when people in sandals travelled to India and Nepal to learn about Eastern meditation and religions. Now more scientific evidence has accumulated which proves that these techniques actually work.
Moneyland - Kent Bylines
Why thieves and crooks now rule the world & how to take it back I came to this book somewhat indirectly, having first been alerted to the ownership in the UK of large tracts of land and expensive property by companies registered in Tax Havens. What really surprised me was the role of UK as “Moneyland”, a “laundromat” for dirty money: money which has been stolen by leaders from the ordinary people of corrupt countries.
Red Sauce, Brown Sauce – a review – Kent Bylines
Felicity Cloake, a food writer for the Guardian, has just produced this book, Red Sauce, Brown Sauce. To do this, she ate nearly 50 breakfasts and cycled nearly 2, 400 kilometres. Since this project was planned during the COVID pandemic, she found it impossible to investigate all of the manufacturers of the breakfast products that she was tasting. In spite of this, it makes entertaining reading from both geographical and culinary viewpoints.
Using less water – Kent Bylines
Share EmailTwitterFacebook Writing this in the midst of a heat wave seems all too relevant. I have been wondering for some time how it is that with all the new housing proposed for South East England that everyone will have enough water. It just seems impossible – unless we plan more seriously. Clearly water needs to be recycled and we have enough problems already with sewage in our rivers.
“Dead Zones: Where the Wild Things Were” – Kent Bylines
This book might put you off your food. Certainly I have become more of a vegetarian since reading it. The thesis is that modern farming entails clearing forests in order to grow crops to feed animals and us. Highlights of the book are about soya and palm oil plantations where tropical forests are cleared – doing much damage to jaguars, birds and orangutans. It is not entirely about land-based farming, but also farming prawns and shrimps in the sea and using fishmeal to feed to battery chickens.
How to achieve a Circular Economy – Kent Bylines
We are never going to get anywhere near the Circular Economy the way we are dealing with our rubbish in the UK at present. We need to recycle almost everything and ensure that nothing goes into landfill or into the sea. There have been various scandals about British rubbish being exported to poorer countries. What does that do for the planet, as it is still dangerous for people and bad for the environment?
Garden pests 2 - Kent Bylines
More garden pests The way to tell if your plants are being eaten by slugs and snails is to look for mucus around and on the plant. Slugs and snails are much more active in wet weather and can completely demolish a small plant in one night. There are several ways to deal with slugs. Share EmailTwitterFacebook How to get rid of slugs The most obvious way is to ensure that they have no place to live and not be seen.
Garden Pests – animals and birds – Kent Bylines
Share EmailTwitterFacebook The bigger the animal, the more it can eat of your precious plants. Deer are the most dangerous and they are rapidly increasing in number in the South of England. I have heard people complain that all their roses have been eaten and this is a tragedy. If you have a fully enclosed town garden, you may not see them, but out in the countryside you need to enclose your growing area with two-metre high deer fencing.
For The Good Of The World – Kent Bylines
A C Grayling addressing demonstrators at Downing Street Photo by Nico Kerr by A C Grayling We Need World Agreement Share EmailTwitterFacebook No single country can solve the problem of the Climate Emergency, technological challenges (including weapons development) and medical issues such as COVID. The gist of Professor Grayling’s book is that we need world agreement in order to meet the current challenges facing our planet. In other words, It is no good if countries disagree with each other.
Review of “The Great Re-Think: A 21st Century Renaissance” – Kent Bylines
by Colin Tudge Colin Tudge speaking at the Oxford Food Symposium in 2017. Photo by Andrew Davidson, CC BY-SA 4.0 Share EmailTwitterFacebook This book is by a former farming correspondent for the New Scientist. He is also the founder of the Oxford Real Farming conference and the College for Real Farming. However, the book is not just about agriculture, but ranges far more widely in relation to our global problems of Climate Change.
Fungi - Kent Bylines
Mycelium – photo by Rob Hille Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 A Review of “Entangled Life” by Merlin Sheldrake Share EmailTwitterFacebook It is extraordinary that fungi are in our bodies and in the soil beneath our feet, yet we have no idea of what they actually do. Just as important is their potential to solve some of our knotty problems connected with the climate crisis. This is one of the most important books of the 21st century.
“Living With Artificial Intelligence” – the Reith Lectures 2021 – Kent Bylines
A loose replica of HAL 9000 on exhibit at the Carnegie Science Center. Photo by Photojunkie; Public Domain An Overview of the Lectures, “Living with Artificial Intelligence” Share EmailTwitterFacebook The series “Living with Artificial Intelligence” is divided into four lectures. In the first Professor Stuart Russell discusses what in general Artificial Intelligence (AI) is, and what it does. The second lecture deals with military matters and warfare. For obvious reasons this is the most alarming.
Electrifying Our Railways – Kent Bylines
Class 395 ‘Javelin’ at Ashford International – photo by TheFrog001, Creative Commons Zero, Public Domain Dedication Share EmailTwitterFacebook Our railway network needs to be electrified if the UK is to meet its net-zero carbon pledges. Rail has a carbon advantage over road haulage – producing 76% less carbon even when using diesel trains. This really means electrifying the whole network. The map shows where the railway is already using electricity in Britain.
Tidal Power - Kent Bylines
Tidal energy project, Strangford Lough – photo by Aubrey Dale, used under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generating Electricity From the Sea Share EmailTwitterFacebook Britain is an Island, so why don’t we generate electricity from the sea? We now have plenty of solar and wind power generation in the UK. That may seem great, but the problem is that no electricity is generated if there is neither sun nor wind.
Have Cancer: Can’t Travel – No Insurance! – Kent Bylines
Travel insurance vending machines in Japan; Mark Yang – CC BY-SA 2.0 Good to Go (Unless You Have Cancer) Share EmailTwitterFacebook Most people over 70 are likely to face difficulty in getting insurance if they want to travel. If you have cancer, you can’t find Insurance to cover it. It is either refused (because of an out-of-date medical questionnaire) or quoted at an exorbitant rate. The dodge used to be to get the insurance free if you paid for a premium bank account.
Why I drink plant milks, not dairy – Kent Bylines
Non dairy plant milks: pros and cons Share EmailTwitterFacebook I have been drinking plant milk since 2012 when I was diagnosed with breast cancer. One of the reasons why I drink plant milks is that dairy farming compels cows to lactate almost continuously. Thus the milk has additional growth factors and hormones in it. If you have cancer, the last thing you need is extra growth factors. Several other reasons to drink plant milks There are several other reasons not to drink cow’s milk.
Travel book: World Sailing Adventures – Kent Bylines
Harbour in Croatia taken by Blackburn family Share EmailTwitterFacebook For those who like world sailing and travel, ‘A Scotsman’s Odyssey’ by Ian G. MacPherson is great fun and an excellent read: and even more interesting if you have visited those same places from the seaward side. Since the book covers four decades of his boating adventures, the photos are in black and white – which is a slight pity. Otherwise I bemoan the lack of maps or charts so that you cannot see exactly where he went.
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