About Me
This is the user page for
Parmesan. Other than a hard and somewhat expensive
Italian
cheese, I am also a published researcher and commentator in the field of environmental management in universities. I write for
The ENDS Report, the world's first environmental business and policy journal.
I have an MSc in Environmental Impact Assessment, Auditing and Management Systems from the
University of East Anglia and a BSc in Environmental Biology and Environmental Management from the
University of York. I also hold a certificate in Environmental Management Systems Implementation and am an Associate Member of the
Institute of Environmental Management and Assessment.
I am located in
Sanderstead,
Croydon,
Surrey, where I grew up, just within the southern boundary of
Greater London,
England. I would like to point out that England is not to be used interchangeably with the term United Kingdom. This is partly because I am half
Welsh. I enjoy
Rugby Union but not the ridiculous macho culture that goes with it. I like
Real Ale but I'm not averse to a good glass of
red wine - Domaine de Valras 2005 is a particular recommendation - or some Belgian beers.
Bad grammar annoys me almost as much as vandalism and absurdly POV edits. I am
vegetarian. Some of my photographs may be seen on my
Flickr page. Politically, I am a technocentric, economically pragmatic socially
liberal
green. Through sheer common sense and the appliance of science, I am an
atheist. I rescued the infamous "York Folklore" from the old
University of York Physics Department 486 PC known as Kipper. It is now safely housed
here (This appears to be an etymological milestone in the meaning of 'safely housed'). I edited, contributed and tidied-up many pages prior to becoming a registered Wikipedia contributor in October 2005.
Previous Work
I researched and wrote
"Going Green" for the major student campaigning organisation
People and Planet in late 2003, and contributed to the current version produced in 2006. This forms the basis of a rather successful campaign to improve the environmental performance of British higher education.
I authored
"Environmental Management Systems in Universities" for the
Environmental Association for Universities and Colleges and delivered a
presentation at their annual conference in 2004.
In the summer of 2005 I was involved in promoting commercial
quantum cryptography equipment and worked on a successful franchise bid for a train company, Go Ahead.
What I'm Doing
I have done a lot of work on
Wilson's School, which now makes for some interesting reading (although I do say myself...), plus reverting vandalism, giving due warning, welcoming newcomers and requesting blocks. I seem to have adopted
Loose Women for some random reason, as it gets a lot of weird vandalism from either a) the usual suspects or b) hardline misogynists. Oddly enough, I used to live only a few hundred metres from where
Loose Women was filmed in Norwich.
Interests
Science, Technology, Ecology, Environmental Management, Cycling, Linguistics, Mythology, History, Computing, Strategy Games, Alternative Music.
Fields of knowledge
Environmental Impact Assessment,
Environmental Management Systems particularly in universities,
Strategic Environmental Assessment,
Pedantry, and environmental issues in general.
Why the name?
I had a nasty reaction to a prescription painkiller in 2004. I turned bright pink, inflated like a balloon and a lot of my hair fell out. Guess what my skin looked like! Fortunately, I recovered after a few months and it had no lasting effects. Well, so far...
Photography
In response to an
image request, I scanned and uploaded my photograph
[1]
of the
Kamzík TV Tower,
Bratislava,
Slovakia in November 2005. I was visiting my girlfriend fiancée who was teaching English there.
I also added a photograph
[2] of St Thomas Abbey, Brno, in the Czech Republic, where
Gregor Mendel conducted the first research into what we now call
genetics.
This
photograph of mute swans is mine too.
Selected Contributions
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Licensing rights granted to Wikimedia Foundation
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copyleft license that it chooses, provided it maintains the free and open spirit of the
GFDL. This permission acknowledges that future licensing needs of the Wikimedia projects may need adapting in unforeseen fashions to facilitate other uses, formats, and locations. It is given for as long as this banner remains.
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