Good afternoon and happy early holidays!
With an early New Year's Resolution to take some proper time off this Christmas, today marks my wrap up of work before a couple of family-oriented weeks back in Bristol. But, before I pack up and head off in my sleigh, I'm pleased to share 5 social tips, tit-bits, treats and talking points, all of which I've come across or re-discovered over the past 2 weeks! Please enjoy!
1. What I'm giving thanks to: You! My 5 Bullet Friday friends and followers - As the year draws to a close, I am so grateful to you all for following this 5 Bullet fantasy with me throughout 2025. This fortnightly email is valuable to me - and I hope it's offers the odd smile, resonance or surprise for you. At heart, it is a chance to share thoughts and ideas outside of typical social media formats; an opportunity to pause and compose my thoughts of certain topics; and a medium to connect and exchange vibrant emails with so many of you as we pursue some of these threads and ideas. Here's to another year of 5 Bullet Friday in 2026!
2. What I'm creating: A trillion ways to die - This week's side-project has been this interactive story-telling experiment. Prompted by the incredible data collected on Fishcount into the suffering and deaths of maritime animals, I wanted to play with a more immersive way of presenting this data so it might have the impact it deserves to have. Please do read my full introduction and try out the interactive experiment here. And don't forget to let me know what you think!
3. What I'm cultivating: Positivism - A recent letter published in El País I think has it right. He says, "When you believe the future can only get worse, you end up either paralysed or finding refuge in a past you believe was better. Perhaps that's why young people are idolising Franco or voting for the far-right." Personally, I'm tired of this rhetoric that things have never been as bad as they are now. It seems to me a rather self-fulfilling prophecy and not true on so many levels. Let's stop wallowing in pity, revive our spirits and manifest the world we want to see!
4. What I'm using to reflect: Year Compass - Anyone that knows me knows I love end of year reflection and new year planning. It's a chance to reset, rethink and renew. Alongside my own tools, I strongly recommend checking out Year Compass, a downloadable resource that guides you through a thorough past year reflection and new year planning process. It's thoughtfully designed, completely free, and available in a multitude of languages.
5. What I'm in despair over: The EU's ban on meat names for plant-based food - It is an absurdity that serious political time is spent on debating such an obviously meat lobby-influenced measure. To quote from Ed Winters' This is Vegan Propaganda, "It seems peculiar that a packet of meat-free burgers would be seen as potentially confusing, whereas a carton of 'happy eggs' is perfectly acceptable." And, "[It] leads me to wonder when the EU is going to ban hot dogs for not actually containing dogs, fish fingers for not containing fingers and hamburgers for not containing ham. And what about peanut butter or coconut milk? How is it that these two items have not caused the kind of consumer 'confusion' that [they] ... claim they were trying to protect their constituents from?" Absurd.
📣 Opportunities from me and my network
💚 Help out with the Gaza Food Project. We're looking for volunteers to get us up and running.
💻 Looking for a website maintenance plan? Visit Circular Design, our non-profit web agency.
🥦 Become a Vegan Society Member for free if you’re under 26!
📖 Order your copy of Remnants of War, Migration, Love by Taha Salim.
⭐️ Know someone critically-minded? I’d love to nominate them for Aspen Rising Leaders.
That’s it for this fortnight! As ever, please let me know your thoughts and feedback – and send anything you’d like me to include in upcoming editions this way.
