- Thanks for your votes in the UK Blog Awards – I’m through to the next round. You can see the other finalists here, and I’d particularly recommend Ben Eagle’s Thinking Country. It covers farming, conservation and soil, and it’s well worth a read.
- I’ve written about nettles in the past, and their largely forgotten potential for textiles. This week a company called Textura got in touch to say that they specialise in ramie clothing. If you’ve ever been curious about nettle clothing, take a look.
- Speaking of alternative fabrics, last year I wrote about the spider-silk jacket from North Face. Now Adidas has adopted the technology and bio-fabricated a new running shoe out of spider silk. It claims it will be their first 100% biodegradeable shoe.
- “The word ‘prosper’ literally means ‘according to our hopes’. We therefore must describe what we are hoping for and what a prosperous future looks like.” This week I’ve been reading Steven Liaros’ paper arguing for a wider definition of the circular economy, combining a variety of economic philosophies and exploring a holistic understanding of the city.
- The world’s first solar road opened in France in December. Sebastian Anthony has done some maths on it.
The Earthbound Report 
As you might guessed I don’t think much of Steven Liaros’ vision. Lots of buzzwords. He makes much that narrative is important, I guess because history and experience suggests the actual facts are against him. The freedom seems limited since given that each village will have a maximum number of residents you can’t move around.
Ricardo doesn’t seem to have filtered into his economics either.
Hmm, I think you might be taking an overly literal view of what is ultimately a thought experiment, but each to their own. I don’t agree with all of it myself, but I appreciated the effort to tie up a range of ideas into a single narrative, even if it doesn’t quite satisfy.