It’s been ages since I’ve written here. Combination of factors – partly because I’ve been busy with work and other things (more on that in a second), but also because I’ve not really had a clear idea what I wanted Synapse Chronicles to be.

A lot of my writing energy (and any spare time) has been going into the Zumio blog, particularly given the convergence of my personal and professional interests. Any small notes and pointers have ended up on my Delicious feed (and there have been issues with the Delicious re-publishing process I setup to get those on the blog) or Twitter. And with Fuzu now finished up, I’ve not really had much to talk about even on the music front.

Over the weekend, however, I realised that I’ve been doing a lot of thinking and exploring – especially about my career direction – but I’ve really missed the opportunity to talk about it. I’ve felt compelled to write about only fully formed thoughts on the Zumio blog, and that mentality has carried over to here.

So, I’ve updated the tagline now to read “Thoughts loading… Processing…” to reboot my own conception of what this blog is about in the hope that small conceptual shift will loosen the writing process and allow me the mental space I need to write a bit more freely about what’s going on.

I’m certainly not promising anything, but let’s see how that goes…

• Nau Pop-Up Shop Is Serious About Sustainability – One of my fave sustainably-minded companies, Nau, opens its first retail store since it scaled back operations – and in typically high-sustainability style…
• John Quiggen: Privatisation debunked – Economist John Quiggen debunks the Queensland Government's arguments for privatisation.
• The Big Green Idea – The British Council have launched a $10,000 grant for a "big green idea".
• Emissions trading: Auctioning permits vs giving them away – David Jeffery answers one of my questions about giving away permits to high-polluters as part of the emissions trading scheme. While it seems my hypothesis is incorrect about the lack of incentive for polluters to act, giving the permits away is still a bad thing…
• Climate (and other) change – Awesome post by Duncan at Digital Eskimo for Blog Action Day – says everything that I wanted to so, just more eloquently…

These links come from my Delicious feed.

• Facing Climate Change – Benjamin Drummond / Sara Joy Steele – Fitting that I came across this on Blog Action Day. Recently supported by Nau's Grant 4 Change programme.
• SourceMap – Visualizing Supply Chains – "Sourcemap is a platform for researching, optimizing and sharing the supply chains behind a number of everyday products."
• How to Design for a Post-Consumption Economy – GreenerDesign.com – "There is incredible economic opportunity if we learn to reframe problems, seize opportunities and design solutions by looking beyond the consumption-oriented economic model." (via @pennyhagen)
• Here's One Good Climate Idea, Kevin – Economist Eric Knight writes on feed in tariffs and how they can spur investment in a low-carbon economy.
• Is VW's Electric E-Up The Beetle of the 21st Century? – Seems the market is betting on electric cars as the post-petroleum option of choice – some more details of VW's concept.

These links come from my Delicious feed.

• New Birth for Australia's Eco Label – Details about the recent restructuring of GECA, the environmental standards/labeling organisation.
• Ultracapacitor Buses – Interesting collection of technologies for powering buses using electricity.
• Recurrent, ProLogis team up for 4.8 MW of rooftop solar in Spain – Clever: leasing roofspace across Spain to support solar energy generation. Interesting that the US company's move overseas is due in part to faltering domestic support for solar. Will be great to see more of these kind of initiatives rolling out in coming years.
• why i am not afraid to take your money, by amanda fucking palmer – Amanda Palmer on the "backlash" from asking for money as an artist. Amen…
• Nissan expects initial orders for its LEAF electric vehicle to top 20,0000 units – Nissan looks on track to deliver the LEAF soon – check out the video for what looks like a production prototype in action.
• Want to know why Australia (Adelaide) is out of water? This is why. – Document with simple visualisations outlining why water consumption for key agricultural crops in Australia is a significant cause of river flow problems and suggesting that water is underpriced (a position that I agree with given my understanding of things).

These links come from my Delicious feed.

• Why we don't ride in the door zone – Sydney Cyclist – When I'm riding I often ride in the traffic lane rather than the bike lane to avoid car doors (many of the lanes in Sydney are placed right next to parked cars). This video explains why…
• Surface Area Required To Solar Power The World – Interesting visualisation of the land mass required to provide for all our power using solar technology. While solar is not the answer (and has scalability issues esp. due to resource use/efficiency) it does present an intriguing perspective.
• Introducing About NSW – maps, census visualisations, cross search – Seb Chan, Dan MacKinlay and Renae Mason talk about About NSW – an innovative project out of the Powerhouse Museum. A number of my friends/colleagues worked on this project and it's definitely worth checking out!
• Eco houses snap together using Lego-style blocks – Eco-friendly "Lego-style" bricks for DIY home builders… too cool. (via @pennyhagen)
• yikebike – Self-described as an "electric mini-farthing" – looks fascinating…
• Snow Leopard saves millions of kilowatt hours of electricity? – ComputerWorld crunches the numbers to work out how much energy Snow Leopard (Apple's new operating system) will save compared to the previous version.
• The great give-away: Allocating permits under an emissions trading scheme – David Jeffery on a recent study that suggest the government's plan to give away permits actually results in a profit for affected industries.

These links come from my Delicious feed.

• GreenXchange: Sustainable Innovation Meets the Creative Commons – This is an awesome initiative with great potential – a partnering of Nike and Creative Commons among others to open up sustainability inventions for businesses and researchers to further develop and use.
• Why Doesn't Green = Better? – Joel Makower nails it – this is what I was aiming for with Arketype and I think it is the key to us achieving broader uptake of sustainable products…
• Better Place Australia – Get Involved – I'm really excited by this concept after seeing Shai Agassi's (the founder) speach at TED. Happy to see it might be coming to Oz…

These links come from my Delicious feed.

• Ross Gittins – "It's gamesmanship, and we all lose" – "If [Kevin Rudd's] latest compromise fails, it will be because of an impasse between those decrying the scheme as too tough and those objecting it isn't tough enough. Such a failure of will reflects no credit on any political party or interest group involved. All the political parties are playing games for their own short-term advantage."
• NSW Switches Its Brain Off – NSW continues to lead the way in stupid, short-sighted decisions. Can we, like, sack the entire government and opposition and start again?
• Unleashed: The numbers prove Turnbull wrong – "The federal opposition is calling for the re-introduction of Temporary Protection Visas (TPVs) to deter people from risking the dangerous journey to Australia in unseaworthy vessels in the hope of seeking asylum. The protection of life is a worthy aim indeed. But Mr Turnbull has got it wrong."
• The Crisis of Credit Visualized – Excellent visualisation of how the credit crisis came about using info-graphics.

These links come from my Delicious feed.

• Unleashed: Web of secrecy – Mark Pesce on the ACMA blacklist leak this week.
• Willie Smits restores a rainforest – An inspiring example of clever thinking, local engagement and ecological intelligence to regenerate and revitalise a community and gorilla habitat in Indonesia.
• The illusion of clean coal – "The private sector, however, is reluctant to fork out not just because of the upfront cost of power plants, but also because, tonne for tonne, CCS looks like an expensive way of cutting carbon. The cost of it may fall, but probably not by much, given the familiarity of the technologies it uses." Yet more evidence that "clean coal" is a pipe dream. How 'bout we follow the market and invest public funds where the private funds are going?
• Choice ATM Watch – The folks at Choice Magazine are watching the banks to see what charges they are clobbering ATM users with. Leave a comment on the site with your experience…
• Designer baby row over US clinic – I love Gattaca (the movie), in part because of its "just in the future" predictions around genetic selection and how that might impact society. Seems we'll be grappling with those questions soon…
• Getting Priorities Right – Humorous anecdote suggesting how to get your life priorities right. [hat tip @rosshill]

These links come from my Delicious feed.

• NT Intervention: Let’s Try That In Sydney – Fascinating thought experiment by a New Matilda contributor. Turns out the author lives in my apartment complex! (I saw the “Alcohol prohibited” sign on his balcony…)
• ethipedia – Truly Sustainable Business Practices – This is something I was thinking Choice Magazine could do for the Australian market, but never quite got around to expressing it. A site that "crowd-sources" data to test ethical business claims to help highlight greenwashers.
• Obama to Limit Executive Pay to $500,000 a Year Under New Rules – "President Barack Obama will announce tomorrow that he’s imposing a cap of $500,000 on the compensation of top executives at companies that receive federal rescue funds, an administration official said." About. Bloody. Time….
• Israel’s use of white phosphorus confirmed – "Amnesty International delegates visiting the Gaza Strip found indisputable evidence of widespread use of white phosphorus in densely populated residential areas in Gaza City and in the north. … Such extensive use of this weapon in Gaza's densely populated residential neighbourhoods is inherently indiscriminate. Its repeated use in this manner, despite evidence of its indiscriminate effects and its toll on civilians, is a war crime,"
• Rudd hampers police child-protection efforts – "$2.8 million, which the Howard government allocated to expand the Australian Federal Police’s Online Child Sexual Exploitation Team (OCSET), was instead used by Rudd to help create Conroy’s $44.5 million Rabbit-Proof Firewall. … Without that money, OCSET simply doesn’t have the staff to investigate all of the suspected pedophiles it already knows about."

These links come from my Delicious feed.

My friends Sonny and Biddy who are We Buy Your Kids have an exhibition along with Greedy Hen on at China Heights at the moment. Details below:

Details are:

China Heights – Opening Fri 6 Feb
Upstairs 257 Crown Street, Darlinghurst