Topics John joined

• • why many people limit their potential to being a drone

  They left 19th and early 20th century Scotland and spread around the world...

  They left 19th and early 20th century Scotland and spread around the world...

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• • new features for Yabb..

  I would like... Space for some personal profiling A personal tag cloud Somewhere/way to share stuff (links etc) New thoughts on a further…  more

  I would like...

  Space for some personal profiling
  A personal tag cloud
  Somewhere/way to share stuff (links etc)

  New thoughts on a further drive by: could I have the texting option on Skype as an alternative to calling/call requesting - I use it a lot and because it's asymmetric I find it useful.

  I'd also be interested in dated additions as to when people added their ha'pennyworth to the conversation. Not quite sure why; I guess because it gives me a sense of timeliness.

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• • Rugby World Cup

  how boring is this now we don't really stand a chance?

  how boring is this now we don't really stand a chance?

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• • user-generated content

  what are the best ways to filter between the good, the bad and the ugly?

  what are the best ways to filter between the good, the bad and the ugly?

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• • Foot and mouth - what's wrong with injections?

  Everyone else does, so why are we being wet about it?

  Everyone else does, so why are we being wet about it?

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• • Web 2.0 - what can/should it give us?

  There were lots of Web 1.0 plays, and in retrospect, some of the winners - Amazon, Ebay, social network sites etc - were…  more

  There were lots of Web 1.0 plays, and in retrospect, some of the winners - Amazon, Ebay, social network sites etc - were obvious as were some of the losers (clothes you can't try on or easily return?).

  What - beyond social networking - might, should or could Web 2.0 throw up?

  Any predictions?

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• • books

  Any recommendations?

  Any recommendations?

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• • What do we want from social networking?

  Connectivity, ease of use, control (especially on the time it can suck), privacy... but what's missing? What do we hunger for? What do…  more

  Connectivity, ease of use, control (especially on the time it can suck), privacy... but what's missing? What do we hunger for? What do we want to be able to do that we can't already?

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• • Dogs or cats?

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• • Autism ("Engineer's Disease") = Extreme male brain = adaptive?

  http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/6989247.stm

  http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/6989247.stm

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• • The Digital Revolution

  I think the nearest equivalent to the digital revolution we are experiencing is the period approximately between 1780-1820 in terms of the degree…  more

  I think the nearest equivalent to the digital revolution we are experiencing is the period approximately between 1780-1820 in terms of the degree of change (wealth creation, industrialisation, communications, transport, social mobility) and the amount of new ideas (The Rights of Man, the Rights of Woman, Mungo Park exploring Africa, philosophical ideas about freedom, liberty etc).

  I also don't think society can experience constant change forever i.e. the revolutionary changes bed down in time and then play out.

  Which means we only have a few years to define the next few decades...

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• • The Tories under Cameron

  Electoral disaster waiting to happen?

  Electoral disaster waiting to happen?

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• • house price crash

  will it happen? if so, by how much?

  will it happen? if so, by how much?

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• • Damien Hirst

  Fashionable rubbish?

  Fashionable rubbish?

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• • Islamism in Britain

  Complex. I've read a lot, and come from an ecumenically-sensitive background... and yet, and yet... when I read that up to 200,000 British…  more

  Complex. I've read a lot, and come from an ecumenically-sensitive background... and yet, and yet... when I read that up to 200,000 British Muslims think the 7/7 bombings (no warnings, remember, unlike most IRA bombs) justified, and read of 'mainstream' Islamic ideas about women, gays, Jews etc. I start to wonder. But this problem isn't going away. So what can be done? What ought to be done?

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• • My password hell

  The bloody things keep proliferating - any ideas on how to deal with it? (Must be at least 6 letters and include one…  more

  The bloody things keep proliferating - any ideas on how to deal with it?

  (Must be at least 6 letters and include one numeral and not use any symbols)

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• • Jews & Muslims

  Ramadan and the Jewish New Year (and the Ethiopian Orthodox Christian) millennium and, presumably, something astronomical) all begin on the same night... two…  more

  Ramadan and the Jewish New Year (and the Ethiopian Orthodox Christian) millennium and, presumably, something astronomical) all begin on the same night... two religions with a lot in common and yet... some people argue that Islam is death-focussed and Judaism life-focussed. Are they reconcilable?

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• • Obituary inflation

  I've noticed recently that a kind of hysteria has attached itself to obits. So after a minor regional radio DJ dies in a…  more

  I've noticed recently that a kind of hysteria has attached itself to obits. So after a minor regional radio DJ dies in a car crash, we're told "radio will never be the same again"

  Is this a post-Diana phenom? What can be done? A website showing particularly egregious examples?

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• • Death Watch International

  Global internet driven grassroots anti-capital punishment campaign, launch in London October 9 2007. Contact John Pollock for invites if you're interested September 12:…  more

  Global internet driven grassroots anti-capital punishment campaign, launch in London October 9 2007. Contact John Pollock for invites if you're interested

  September 12: Daryl Holton, 45, American murderer, first man executed by electric chair in Tennessee in 47 years

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• • Global food fight

  I'm currently writing a profile of Norman Borlaug (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Borlaug), Nobel Peace Prize winner and founder of the Green Revolution. He says: we…  more

  I'm currently writing a profile of Norman Borlaug (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Borlaug), Nobel Peace Prize winner and founder of the Green Revolution.

  He says: we need science and technology (including GMOs) to feed the growing number of hungry mouths.

  His critics say 'chemicals and fertilisers and GMOs are evil and should be banned.'

  Who goes hungry? Who should?

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• • Most environmentalists are evil

  "Most men are bad" (Bias of Priene, Greek philosopher, one of the Seven Sages, 570BCE) Environmentalists tend to prefer the green to the…  more

  "Most men are bad" (Bias of Priene, Greek philosopher, one of the Seven Sages, 570BCE)

  Environmentalists tend to prefer the green to the brown i.e. poor brown people far away.

  Their so-called "solutions" are a disaster for third world development - most of the tens of millions of deaths from malaria in the last few decades in Africa can be blamed on their obsession with chemical pesticides...

  Their arguments are often fraudulent and deceptive.

  Economics is the way to go viz. Bjorn Lomborg (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bj%C3%B8rn_Lomborg)

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• • Aid - poor people in rich countries giving money to rich people in poor countries?

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• • Led Zep reunion gig

  Are they "Picasso of heavy rock"? Will the gig be worth going to? How much are the tickets going to be?

  Are they "Picasso of heavy rock"?

  Will the gig be worth going to?

  How much are the tickets going to be?

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• • When should we bomb Iran?

  Nuclear weapons in the hands of a genocidal theocracy with a bronze age mind set? Can't be good, can it... and sanctions won't…  more

  Nuclear weapons in the hands of a genocidal theocracy with a bronze age mind set? Can't be good, can it... and sanctions won't make the grade.

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• • Hillary or Obama?

  With the Republicans looking like a meltdown, do we want the first woman president or the first black president? Don't too many people…  more

  With the Republicans looking like a meltdown, do we want the first woman president or the first black president?

  Don't too many people hate Hillary to make her unelectable?

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• • Boris or Ken?

  I've met both and rather liked both - but has Ken had too long? Is likening a Jewish reporter to a 'concentration camp…  more

  I've met both and rather liked both - but has Ken had too long?

  Is likening a Jewish reporter to a 'concentration camp guard' while more or less simultaneously officially inviting (i.e. on behalf of London) a man who wants gays and Jews dead not simply repulsive?

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• • The McCanns: Guilty as sin?

  Is it too easy to see this jingoistically as poor Portugese policing? They look innocent on lots of criteria - educated, devout Catholics,…  more

  Is it too easy to see this jingoistically as poor Portugese policing? They look innocent on lots of criteria - educated, devout Catholics, medical professionals, middle class, well off... but Madeleine's hairs under the upholstery in the boot?

  To DNA or not to DNA?

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• • isn't autumn the best time of year?

  No I hate it... though I fear this may be a gendered response? I mourn the loss of summer, gird my loins for…  more

  No I hate it... though I fear this may be a gendered response? I mourn the loss of summer, gird my loins for the horror of winter, close in on the dark, the wet, the rain. See pretty leaves (basically toxin-dyed) as poor recompense...

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• • are countries like the UK addicted to the income of foreign students?

  Good point Richard... where would you recommend someone go now?

  Good point Richard... where would you recommend someone go now?

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• • Why are people bad at predicting their intended behaviour vs their actual behaviour?

  There are a variety of biases and more general problems (e.g. I predict now for a future "I" that will be a different…  more

  There are a variety of biases and more general problems (e.g. I predict now for a future "I" that will be a different person).

  Best book I know on this is "Stumbling On Happiness"

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• • design patterns for social software

  The critical underpinning for design lies in the "social" element - the social psychology that we, as social animals, bring to all our…  more

  The critical underpinning for design lies in the "social" element - the social psychology that we, as social animals, bring to all our interactions.

  Good design should therefore reflect good social behaviour: honest, friendly, accessible, useful, engaging, rewarding, enjoyable, courtesy etc. etc.

  Good design for social software will reflect the embedded or implicit assumptions we bring to, and seek in, social activity.

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• • What type of person will get the most benefit from using yabb?

  People who have something of interest to share: thinkers, academics, journalists, entrepreneurs, experts, communicators, idlers, visionaries, politicos, monomaniacs, the fool on the hill.…  more

  People who have something of interest to share: thinkers, academics, journalists, entrepreneurs, experts, communicators, idlers, visionaries, politicos, monomaniacs, the fool on the hill.

  People with very particular interests hunting up fellow souls (the co-minded).

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