The mystical keepers of the Isonomia calendar have kept the admin team busy this month: a special alignment of weekends has granted August the rare distinction of being a five Friday month, and we have ceremonially marked each one with an accompanying blog. As if that weren’t sufficient, in the Isonomia equivalent of a leap day we were granted a special bonus midweek Pickles article. Together with the admin desk’s divination of July’s stats, that made August an auspicious month of seven publications in all. Heavens above!
If you happen to have missed the glittering delights of the Perseid meteorite shower last month, comfort yourself with the thought that it’s not too late to spot Isonomia’s shooting stars of August.
Our most read piece this month in fact originated in July, as readers flocked to find out more about the craziness of paving over your garden. However, this did not translate into another month at the top for its author, Chris Sherrington, who perhaps found it difficult to keep up with the Joneses in August.
The month’s most read man was Peter Jones, through the admirable device of publishing two articles in August. First he recounted Eric Pickles’ adventures in silly season; Eric spent July and August speaking out on a number of issues, but not always wisely consistently, claims Peter. Then he reprised his role as a veridical David to the fallacious Goliath he sees in the Daily Mail. Had Lord de Mauley suddenly announced that all weekly bin collection were to be axed and families made to separate rubbish into five containers? Erm, no. Peter argued that the Mail’s article that reported this claim was a major misinterpretation of a fairly bland speech by the Defra minister, and has taken the issue to the Press Complaints Commission.
The third (and unrelated) Jones contribution was from Isonomia debutant Paul who examined the effects of the implementation of residual squeeze policies, and the possible merits of the much maligned rubbish sack.
Continuing the surname doubling, Francis Vergunst (the brother of prestigious Most Hits in a Month title holder Thomas) also made his debut, telling us how turning vegetarian may be the single most environmentally significant change in behaviour that one can make.
Isonomia also continued our mission to bring you information on waste from around the world this month. First we were off to sunny Malta in the company of Adrian Gibbs and then to the steppes and mountains of the Stans with Natasha Sim and Martin Steiner. Both pieces offered a glimpse of the waste management challenges facing different parts of the globe, wrestling with their infrastructure legacy the difficulty of changing established practice.
It’s not only our authors who’ve had a lot to say, as this month we’ve had more reader comments than ever before. Offering a platform for a variety of opinions and generating debate is what we’re all about, so thank you to everyone who commented. If anyone reading has been vexed or vivified by something we published, we’d like to offer you the opportunity to respond, whether in our comments section or with an article of your own. We try to provide an informed but accessible viewpoint on a wide range of environment issues, so whether it’s climate change or commingled collection that’s on your mind, please do get in touch.
It’s easy to shift from visitor to commentator to author, and we’re always glad to hear from you. Whether you’re from York or New York, Kent or Gent, with your help we will create a space where thoughts on topics from across the environment sector can be expressed and explored, enabling communication and cross fertilisation of ideas.
The line-up for September is already looking stellar: we have a couple of pieces looking at quality issues, one on the future of RDF composition and another on the ongoing commingled and kerbside sort debate. We will be taking a ride on the British railway system, but will we be allowed to bring our bikes? – Harriet Parke will be asking ‘if not, why not?’; and we will be returning to the Stans, this time for a look at waste treatment.
As if a simple blog wasn’t enough, you can now follow us by subscribing to our Paper.Li site, where you can see Isonomia’s articles, and other interesting material, gathered together in a newspaper format. And now you can keep track of our articles via our Facebook page. We tweet about each new article, and of course at the top right of each page you can still subscribe to have each article e-mailed to you.
Search term of the month
Of course, many of our readers arrive courtesy of search engines. The range of questions and ideas that brings people to Isonomia is always interesting, and we thought we might bring you a few examples in what may be an occasional feature of the admin update.
In joint second place this month we have two attempts to use the site as a telephone directory:
“peter jones obe biffa where does he live” and “where is eric pickles main residence located”.
Unfortunately, these visitors may not have got exactly what they were looking for.
But the clear winner for August raises a concern about the health effects of our site:
“isonomia can cause eye problem”
Come to think of it, most of the admin team do wear glasses…
Keep enjoying the site!
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