July 2009

This is my last day working in the UK office, and the last chance to introduce myself. I'm Reto from the Swiss Greenpeace office, where I work as a web editor. Here, I've had the pleasure to work with the UK web team during July.

This month has been an impressive experience: living and working in a really big city like London for the first time is quite different from living in Switzerland. In terms of population, Switzerland is as big as London. Luckily, the London office is located in a nice neighbourhood with good pubs and restaurants nearby, so I've really enjoyed it.

When Hewlett Packhard staff arriving for work at the company's California HQ checked their phone messages yesterday morning, they found a recorded message from Star Trek's Captain James T Kirk waiting for them. Actor William Shatner urged them to question their boss, Mark Hurd, about the reasons why HP recently reneged on its promise to phase out dangerous toxic substances from its computers by 2009.

If you're missing Flight Of The Conchords after the recent series finished, this video might help ease the pain. Our colleagues in New Zealand have recruited Rhys Darby - otherwise know as Murray the hapless manager - to their Sign On campaign, creating pressure for deep emissions cuts from the NZ government, and Rhys has written a little poem to mark the occasion.

Nick from the office in Auckland says they're keen to hear from New Zealanders based overseas as well, so if that's you head on over to the website and, erm, sign on.

Whaling activist Junuchi Sato of the Tokyo Two descibes his experiences at the hands of the Japanese criminal justice system...

While Japan's criminal justice system may look OK from a distance, once you get close enough to smell and taste it for yourself, it becomes repulsively clear just how curdled and rotten it is.