- Data was transmitted across the UK electricity grid this week, a world first and a milestone on the way to a smarter and responsive grid.
- The Washington Post has a great multimedia article on cobalt mining in the Congo.
- Bill Mollison, the co-creator of permaculture, died a couple of weeks ago aged 88, and The Conversation looks at his legacy.
- I wasn’t planning to enter the UK Blog Awards this year, but I’ve had a string of notification emails this week from readers nominating the blog. So you’ve changed my mind. Thanks for the support, and I will let you know when it’s time for the public vote.
- I went to the SolarAid launch party in London, so it’s nice to see them reach the ten year mark. I can’t quite agree with the notion that “with a solar light, everything changes”, but I do agree that they are a great first step towards full energy access.
The Earthbound Report 
data was first transmitted over the grid in 1914. thought this was 2016.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broadband_over_power_lines
fixing our problems with the technology business chooses to sell us today is profitable for business but will do us little good. why not use the latest.
Sure, this isn’t a new idea as far as technologies go, but there was neither the internet nor a national grid in 1914, so this is different.
Specifically, earlier experiments were about carrying telephone signals down electric wiring. This is about data on a grid, which is trickier. Electricity jumps an air gap at sub-stations, which means there isn’t a continuous wired connection across the grid. That thwarts normal wired communications, and makes this a bit of a breakthrough.