GREEDY eBay

First off - WTF! - and no I didnt read the small print.

So having never used eBay before until a couple weeks ago, I posted a couple of items for sale. They haven't sold yet, but greedy eBay have already billed me over £20.00!

OK, so maybe I assumed a level of fairness and morality that probably has no place at all in business, but still, I expected that they would only take their commissions when I actually sell the items - that fair right?

Its not the £20 that rubs me, its the sheer shisting greed of Ebay.

Just about everyone in the developed world* uses eBay as far as I can tell, surely they can make enough profit** from sellers not to have to charge those who's items don't actually sell? I mean its not as if they have to actually walk across the shop floor and pin my hastily scribbled advert to a public noticeboard in their shop window, burning calories from the physical effort and expending mental energy concentrating on not stabbing themselves in the eye with the drawing pin

I wouldn't mind if they were more blatant about it, you know, with an <H1> tag wrapped around the phrase "GREAT DEALS - we'll take your money even if you get nothing back!" - but come on! - who reads the small print these days! - agree to Ts and C's? sure, I trust you, you're successful so you can't be conning people! :p

I know, I know, expect nothing, assume nothing... blah blah ... sure, but where's the fun in that square boy!

bah! unscrupulous poo bags.

* well,  nearly... (233 million worldwide users they rekon) http://pages.ebay.co.uk/aboutebay/thecompany/companyoverview.html
** Ebays net profits are even bigger than Amazons and second only to Googles according to online trading statistics analysis.
source: http://www.wikinvest.com/stock/EBay_(EBAY)/Data/Net_Income/2010/Q1

A 'Star Trek' Future - whats possible?

How can anyone not get a little excited about the possibility of having a replicator in the kitchen, or travelling at warp speed, or having a holodeck in your house?

The more I find out about whats going on in science around the world, the more I start to see how these things will be possible, some of them, if I'm lucky within my lifetime.

I only have to think about some of the scientific breakthroughs using carbon nano tubes and the possibilities they offer to get very excited - but today as I was reading about advances in 3D Printing* (3DP), my thoughts diverted unavoidably to the possibilities of having a Star Trek style replicator at home, at least to replicate inorganic objects made of plastics, carbon fiber, titanium and so on.

Although 3d printing has been around for about 10 years, up to now using mainly thermoplastics to create one-off  prototype objects for manufacturing purposes, whats exciting is the increase in the type of materials that 3d printers can use today and the variety of stuff that can been replicated[3DP]. heres a list of materials that 3DP printers (Replicators!) can use today:

Who am I?

This is a question that I have breifly wrestled with every few years or so, as I try to keep a check on how I am changing as I grow older. I suppose its true to say, I know my weaknesses now but thats about all I know for sure about myself. All my personality and behavioural traits seem to be in constant flux, so, change my mind, I often do.

Hippocrates would have categorized me as either Sanguine, Choleric, Phlegmatic or Melancholic where as ancient philosophers and astrologers would have me as either Fire, Air, Water or Earth.

Today we have much more scientific approaches that allow for more of the complexities of the human temperament.

I took a Myers-Briggs psychometric personality test recently to find out how accurate modern methods of categorisation are and found out that I am an ENFP, which apparently means:
Extraverted (E) 50% Introverted (I) 50%
Intuitive (N) 73% Sensing (S) 27%
Feeling (F) 55% Thinking (T) 45%
Perceiving (P) 55% Judging (J) 45%


So then I googled 'ENFP' and read a few profiles of 'ENFP' personality types. Very interesting and seemingly accurate for the most part. I quite like the idea that ENFP's are rare, and '.. account for about 2–8% of the population' and can be referred to as 'Champions'[Keirney] but I do wonder, since this profile is base on questions about myself that only I answered, how accurate it reads for people who actually know me -  for example, wouldn't my work colleagues describe me differently than a family member, who would describe me differently again from close friends?

 Ive taken a couple of sentences from one of the 'ENFP' profiles I read which I think are pretty accurate: 

1. ENFP's are basically happy people. They may become unhappy when they are confined to strict schedules or mundane tasks. Consequently, ENFPs work best in situations where they have a lot of flexibility, and where they can work with people and ideas. Many go into business for themselves. They have the ability to be quite productive with little supervision, as long as they are excited about what they're doing.
2. They have a strong need to be independent, and resist being controlled or labelled. They need to maintain control over themselves, but they do not believe in controlling others. Their dislike of dependence and suppression extends to others as well as to themselves.
3. Because ENFPs live in the world of exciting possibilities, the details of everyday life are seen as trivial drudgery. They place no importance on detailed, maintenance-type tasks, and will frequently remain oblivious to these types of concerns. When they do have to perform these tasks, they do not enjoy themselves. This is a challenging area of life for most ENFPs, and can be frustrating for ENFP's family members.
4. With a dramatic flair, they share their experiences with others, hoping to reveal some universal truth or win others over in support of a cause. Attuned to possibilities, Champions scan their environment, probing the emotions, needs, and motivations of others. This sensitivity sometimes conflicts with their intense drive for personal authenticity. Spontaneous and personable, they attract others to their company (Kiersey description)

I suppose what I would like to be able to do, is write a short single sentence that sums me up perfectly. I have done it before on CVs for job purposes but that kind of description is only focused on positive traits related to one situation.

whats the point? - you  might say!

I think its about the every-man quest to find lasting happiness in life - how better to find it than to understand oneself better and be able to engineer my everyday surroundings so that I am inspired and stimulated. No more apathy, no more boredom.

I quite like the idea of looking for jobs that suit ENFP types perfectly - maybe that's the way to go.

- The quotes are mainly from here: http://www.personalitypage.com/ENFP.html

- Here is the wiki entry for an ENFP type person: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ENFP

- All about the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myers-Briggs_Type_Indicator

- Keirsey description of the Champion' http://keirsey.com/4temps/champion.asp

Vertical Farms, Hydroponics, Fire Fighting, Stupidity and Dinosaurs

The world’s population is expected to increase to 9.1 billion by 2050, according to the UN. Feeding all those people will mean increasing food production by 70%, according to the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation. But aren't we running our of space to grow food?

Scary stuff, but for every new problem we have clever scientists and visionaries looking for solutions.
Here are two potential solutions I found out about recently, to our impending food shortage:  Vertical Farms and Urban Hydroponics. Very cool stuff ind...... (agh! nearly typed 'indeed' !).

Vertical Farms grow food organically with no chemical herbicides, pesticides, or  fertilizers so if this replaces the intensive agricultural practices, the sooner the better.

Stupid bloody 'fire-fighting' humans. Yes, fire fighting - if you look at the management and future success of humanity as a business man would, you would say that we have been managing ourselves by fire-fighting, that is, dealing with problems as they come along rather than see them coming from afar and making sure we avoid them in the first place - fatal for any business in the long run. Populations got bigger, we needed to increase food production, e viola, the solution to that fire: intensive farming - genius! we put that fire out didnt we!? yes but what about the population fire? I suppose we will deal with that when its burning down the front door.

Urban Hydroponics - ..... well, this is what Peter Head, global leader of planning and sustainable development at Arup (a British engineering firm) says about it: “I wouldn't be at all surprised if we saw large retailers with greenhouses on their roofs growing produce for sale in the shop" 


So I guess that just leaves the meat, dairy and wheat side of things - maybe if all the industrially farmed land we currently use for growing veg, can be passed back to small holding farmers, maybe we start heading in a more sustainable direction? too simple. The issues are surely complicated, but doesn't it make sense that, instead of fighting  fires if we can make sustainable decisions before the fires start, and act more quickly (like we did during the war when things were desperate), perhaps we wont get so many fires burning in the first place.


Humans are undoubtedly ingenious and very good at solving problems in a short term way, but not so good it seems at organizing ourselves so that the cleverest people in our societies are the ones who make strategic decisions for the rest of us.Whats that Alexander Pope saying?  'A little knowledge is a dangerous thing' . When you think how much knowledge we[humanity] have yet to discover about our planet and universe, I'd say what we have right now is 'a little knowledge'. And a little knowledge in the hands of people who think they are clever than they really are...? I mean, why did the dinosaurs last so long? what did they know? Well obviously, they didn't exterminate themselves cos they were dumb, oh yes, that makes sense doesnt it! 

Stupid is as stupid does! 
So if it turns out [looking back] that humanity only lasts one tenth as long as the dinosaurs did because we exterminate ourselves by consuming every earthly resource and build on every last inch of land mass to accommodate our enormously successful proliferation, on paper at least you would have to surmise that as a species, the humans must have been dumber than the dinosaurs, n'es pa? We have been around now for what, about half a million years, probably less (or 20 minutes if you are a creationist), I cant really see us beating 165 million years anytime soon. 


Run Forest run!!!


Good Video about Urban Hydroponics here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tqcBCcSLDlo
Juicy article VF and UH  here:  http://www.economist.com/node/17647627