Yesterday I was avoiding work in my usual way, commenting on climate blogs. (I'm about to physically remove the cable from the back of my machine - putting the internet ever so slightly further out of my reach than 'alt+tab'.)

Anyway, I was commenting on some limits to growth-related stuff (e.g. note this great oil drum article on the 'demonising of the limits to growth', especially the currently all-too-familiar phrases, 'ecoscam', 'quote' and 'out of context'). Just as I was sitting there pondering the whole issue, there was an almighty bang - scared the living bejeesus out of me. The picture included here tells the story: some poor pigeon, happily flying along, didn't know about glass. The window now has an almost perfect pigeon-print on it, even with wings at 11 and 3 o clock.

That poor pigeon nicely helped me appreciate what a very sudden, invisible termination of business-as-usual might feel like. The pigeon itself was nowhere in sight, so perhaps it flew off relatively unscratched, though it may just be dead in a neighbour's back garden.

Moral: you might not be adapted to see some of the barriers that the world may present you with. It doesn't mean they're not there.