 Top eleven sci-fi movies
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- The Fifth Element
- Avatar
- The Matrix
- Aliens
- Bladerunner
- Terminator 2
- I, Robot
- Star Trek (the reboot)
- 2001
- Star Wars
- Back to the future
- Honourable mentions: Deja Vu, Oblivion, Edge of Tommorrow, Cowboys and Aliens, Terminator, Alien, Alien Resurrection, Silent Running
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Top eleven zombie/mutant/virus/witch movies |
- Resident Evil
- Zombieland
- Zombieland Double Tap
- Resident Evil 2
- Van Helsing
- I am legend
- Shaun of the Dead
- Hanzel and Gretel - Witch Hunter
- From Dusk till Dawn
- What we do in the shadows
- 28 days later
- Honourable mentions: 28 weeks later
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Top eleven words |
- Serendipty
- Paradigm
- Juxtaposition
- Narrative
- Symbiotic
- Dreich
- Autumnal
- Ethereal
- Deja vu
- Synergy
- Karma
- Honourable mentions: Kangaroo; Enigmatic; Metaphor
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Top eleven songs |
- Orinoco Flow - Enya
- Sugar Sugar - the Archies
- Aquarius - The 5th Dimension
- 500 Miles - The Proclaimers
- Shining Happy People - REM
- Missing - EBTG
- Praise you - Fatboy Slim version
- Bitter Sweet Symphony - The Verve
- Bad Romance - Lady Gaga
- Good Vibrations - The Beachboys
- Common People - the Pulp
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Top eleven great sayings |
- The more you do, the more you are
- Sieze the day
- All journeys start with the first step
- Actions speak louder than words
- Everything is hard before it is easy
- The only person you can change is yourself.
- What goes around comes around
- Life wasn't meant to be easy
- That which doesn't kill you, makes a great story
- Whatever you dream you can do, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it. Begin it now.
- If you don't have a shed by the time you are 35, then you have failed in life
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Top eleven pet hates
(Things that are objectively unreasonable and should not be allowed) |
- Shag pile carpets
- Frills, on anything
- Faffing
- People not playing with a straight bat
- Cruise ships that are bigger that the small quaint coastal towns they visit
- Cinamon buns
- Chipboard (in furniture)
- Populist amoral politicians
- People not appreciating how fortunate they are (compared to those who are not)
- Suburban sprawl
- Right wing chat show hosts/shock jocks
- Honourable mentions: Anything Linda would ban when she becomes world president (obviously); Conspiracy theorists with a book/lecture tour to promote;
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Top eleven things Linda would ban when she becomes world president
(Things that Linda thinks are just wrong) |
- Buskers with amplifiers
- Leaf blowers
- Patio heaters
- Boris Johnson, most Tory MP's and the entire US Republican Congress
- Letting foreigners buy property
- Second homes/Holiday homes
- Shock jocks
- Twitter, Instagram and Tiktok - because it extends the reach of stupid people
- Smart phones (nothing wrong with a coal fired Nokia 0.0001)
- People who want to mess with the BBC
- Computers
- Honourable mentions: Antique iron collections (and especially mine)
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Top eleven things I don't understand
(Things I struggle with, and suspect most people don't understand either) |
- How does gravity work?
- Why do women support Trump ?
- How can all the world stock markets be higher now than was predicted to be BEFORE the COVID crisis?
- Does an ideal society exist? What might it look like?
- Is there a workable alternative to capitalism?
- What's outside the universe?
- You are born, you survive, you reproduce and then you die. Is that it?
- Quantum mechanics. How can Schrodingers cat be alive and dead at the same time? I mean, really.
- How does electricity actually really work (and I'm an Electrical Engineer)
- How do societies function properly given they are made up of so many antisocial, selfish and/or dysfunctional people?
- Why do so many people believe in conspiracy theories?
- Honourable mentions: Why Australia is in the Eurovision song contest (and Israel for that matter); "Everybody was Kung Fu fighting". How? Who was doing all the work then?
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Top eleven important truisms
(Things that are obvious and true, that I think we have forgotten about) |
- A single nuclear explosion on any major city will still be beyond catastrophic See (Nuclear Weapons)
- Democracy only makes sense if everyone votes - with care and diligence
- We still need to make and sell things and provide services, so we have enough money to buy things and consume services
- Just because someone posts something on social media doesn't make it true. Or that it's right that they do so
- If COVID had the mortality rate of Bird Flu (H5N1), then over half the worlds population would have died
- If we make the planet unlivable we will have no where to live
- Conspiracy theories are normally promoted by people who stand to make money out of conspiracy theories
- An aging population means we will have more people to support, with fewer people to help support them.
- Criticising the Israel state doesn't automatically mean you are being antisemitic
- People who argue an election was stolen probably have something to lose from not being in power, or something to gain from taking this view
- Transgender rights are important, but so are (biological) womens' rights.
- Honourable mentions: An alternative explanation to a shadowy world mastermind/cabal pulling the strings of governments to control the world for nefarious means - is probably, simply, the combined effect of individual and corporate greed, government incompetence, and 8 billion people all fighting over limited and degrading world resources.
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Top eleven megatrends
(Trends that will shape our future and that we need to plan for now) |
- Climate change - it will get hotter
- Increasing geopolitical conflict
- Population growth
- Increased competition for natural resources
- Development and use of AI
- Environmential degregation
- Aging populations
- Technolological change
- Urbanisation
- Connectivity/social media
- Mass migration/refugees (thru conflict and climate change)
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Top eleven good life checklist
(Tests to confirm you are living a good life. You have/are ...
)
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- Meaningful friendships.
- Good physical health
- Financial stability
- Personal growth
- Environmentally aware living (i.e. not fucking up the planet)
- Meaningful work (if you are working)
- Being nice to people (treating others as you would like to be treated)
- A sense of purpose
- Hobbies and interests
- Attention to mental well being
- Putting back into society
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Top eleven good life tips
(Good life checklist translated into top tips) |
- Put effort into your friendships
- Go for lots of walks (or cycle rides, or climbs..)
- Think global, act local
- Connect/reconnect with nature
- Simplify everything
- Have dinner parties
- Have more camp fires, and BBQ's
- Build your own music playlists
- Interact in real life (not via social media).
- Don't underestimate the importance of gossip and rumour over a red wine with friends in a bustling and atmospheric Italian restaurant
- Patronise those nice small cosy independent pubs that have a dog curled up in front of a coal fire
- Honourable mentions: Declutter; Think about, and act for, the less fortunate; Live in the moment; Be guided by Leunig and Gary Larson wisdom and humour; Read (paper) books; Don't obsess over money; Fight materialism; Go (internet) dark; Don't doom scroll; Don't forget to put the bins out (Linda's contribution); Don't procrasinate (thanks Linda, again); Sleep more; Let bad things wash over;
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Top eleven dinner party conversation topics
(Conversations about things that impact us all and, about which, we really should be talking) |
- How should we support Ukraine?
- And Taiwan?
- What should we (citizens) be doing about climate change?
- What is the right role for AI?
- Have people forgotten about the dangers of WMD?
- What basic rights do humans have, really?
- Is democracy broken, and is there an alternative?
- What obligations do we have - as a citizen? And as a country?
- How should society measure happiness?
- Where do we draw the line with capitalism?;
- What functions should the state provide?
- Honourable mentions: Illegal refugees - welcome (and encourage human traffickers) or deter (and be inhumane)?;How should we manage an aging population?; Are international flights OK (because they fuck up the planet, and all that)?; Is JK Rowling right (in the trans debate)?; Should euthanasia be legal?; Does nuclear power have a role in the 21st century; Should we ban foreigners from owning property?; Should one be allowed to invest in property?; Should one ban second homes, or holiday homes?; Should we ban more onshore windfarms (because they fuckup the countryside, and it would be much better for the planet if people just turned down the heating and put on a jumper)?; Does one have a right to drive a car by oneself (e.g. an inefficient use of precious resources)?
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Top eleven ideas to save the world
(Ideas that start with the old Greenpeace slogan 'Think global act local', and go from there.) |
- Think carefully about how you vote.
- Influence by what you buy (or don't buy)
- Be informed and think critically.
- Champion capitalism with a human and environmental face
- Reduce, reuse, recycle
- Use sustainable resources
- Use renewable energy
- Eat less meat
- Be less material
- Drive and fly less
- Turn down the thermostat and wear a jumper
- Honourable mentions: Buy local and support local community; Live close to work; Pick up rubbish; Support charities; Think about food miles
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Top eleven ideas to save Britain
(All the above, plus...) |
- Reduce the number of politicians, and pay them a decent wage. Get some good people in.
- Ban second homes and stop people buying homes as investments
- Stop foreigners from owning property
- Teach people to think critically
- Nationalise key UK infrastructure - water, power, transport
- Get rid of sheep and cows, and cull deer, in Britain's moors, hill lands and highlands - because they fuck-up the environment
- A re-focus on green energy
- Stop this obsession with everyone having to go to university
- Ban lobbyists (applies to all democracratic processes full stop really)
- Decouple the economy from continual population growth
- Beavers
- Honourable mentions: Provide and promote alternatives to private cars; Rethink the type of growth we want ; Promote global justice (and the good karma will come around); A constitution; Rewilding; Refocus on equality; Impose the death sentence on people that don't separate their recycling properly (Linda's suggestion)
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Top eleven global problems
(Global problem areas now that we need to work on or it will all end in tears. See (Existential Risks)
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- Not addressing climate change
- Uncontrolled population growth
- Unsustainable consumption
- Breakdown in global co-operation
- Adopting AI without working through consequences
- Failure to address the dangers of WMD
- Bad or ungoverned technology. Development and application of technology that can have bad or unintended consequences e.g. viral research, gene edititing, AI, autonomous robots/weapons
- Amoral and unaccountable multi-nationals
- Populist right wing politics
- Capitalism without a human (or environmental) face
- Social media reach (for people who shouldn't have an audience)
- Honourable mentions: Loss of local social cohesion - breakdown of societies
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Top eleven bad types of people
(People that don't help. In the old days you could be anti-social and/or self obsessed and/or a power hungry sociopath, and your area of impact was generally limited to a village or, at worst, a fiefdom. These days we are part of a global village AND we have social media) |
- Amoral populist leaders
- People that vote for amoral populist leaders
- People that still vote for amoral populist leaders even when their true colours become obvious
- People that don't vote. Or they vote but don't think carefully.
- Right wing chat show hosts
- Conspiracy theorists
- People who have a bigger presence on the internet than they should
- People with a misplaced sense of entitlement
- People who believe that a god will save the world
- Nationalists
- People that forget we don't live in a vacuum
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Top eleven existential risks
(Risks that, if realised, would be civilisation limiting. And yes, some of these risks are a bit related and the last few are outside our control and difficult to mitigate) |
- Runaway climate change
- Pandemic (a proper one)
- Nuclear War (or widespread use use of some other WMD)
- Bad AI e.g. chatGPT goes rogue
- Other bad technology e.g. deadly manmade virus escaping from the lab, nanobots out of control etc
- Human environmental damage
- Loss of natural resources
- Loss of biodiversity
- Extreme weather events
- Geo physical disasters e.g. Yellowstone Volcano, San Andreas fault, Mega tsunami
- A big meteor strike (which would be pretty suboptimal but a lot less likely than climate change)
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Top eleven nuclear weapons reality checks
(Reality checks on the dangers of nuclear weapons, about which I think we have forgotten) |
- A single nuclear explosion on a major city will completely overwhelm all state civil support structures, kill hundreds of thousands, injure many more and cause long term health, environmental and economic damage
- There are nine countries with nuclear weapons, with a total of 12,700 bombs worldwide.
- The Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombs had a yield of < 20 Kiloton. Typical submarine launched (SLMB) and ICBM bombs are between 100KT and 300KT. The biggest bomb developed ever developed was 50MT (and potentially, 100MT)
- The MAD doctrine assumes consistent, rational and clear thinking leadership at the head of each nuclear power.
- There are no nuclear arms treaties currently in place to manage, challenge and reduce the number of weapons worldwide.
- North Korea has an estimated 20-43 bombs.
- The controls to authorise and fire a nuclear bomb are designed, maintained and operated by people, and are therefore fallible
- All nuclear powers are upgrading their nuclear weapon capabilty to make them more reliable, effective and flexible and, by implication, more useable.
- Each UK nuclear deterrent submarine carries up to 16 Trident II missiles, each with up to 14 independently targetable bombs. One UK nuclear deterrent submarine, therefore, has the capability to destroy 224 major cities. Russian and US subs are bigger
- Tactical nuclear weapons, for use on the battlefield, blur the line between conventional and nuclear war, and provides an easy escalation path to full scale nuclear war using strategic ICBM's and SLBMs.
- There is little reason why rogue states or rogue organisations would not seek to develop or acquire a nuclear bomb, given the negotiating hand it gives them. Examples include North Korea (who has them), Iran (who wants them) and the fate of Libya's Gaddafi (who gave them up).
- Honourable mentions:Tactical weapon yields are still up to 20 time larger than the Hiroshima bomb; There is a lack of clarity around how Russion nuclear weapons were secured during the breakup of the USSR; Nuclear bombs are much easier to design and build with computers, modern materials and modern manaufactoring techniques; Sober and considered academic studies suggest that as few as 100-500 large nuclear bombs could in theory be enough to kill enough people, destroy enough infrastructure, cause enough environmental damage, and cause enough serious climate change (e.g. nuclear winter), to doom the human race; And then of course there are other WMD's such chemical and bio-weapons, or two or more together;
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