3D printing in the buff

  

When 3D printing costs drop further, early generations of 3D printed items and prototypes can be expected to rise significantly. Is anyone worried about the extra pollution this will cause and are any governments planning for this?

The economics of 3D printing will probably allow a step-change in consumer choice (size, colour, texture, shape etc) compared to the present. The costs of providing such choice are only the time taken to tweak the printing programme code slightly.

3D printing strengthens the ‘be here now’/instant gratification expectations of consumers. Is this a good thing?

As the 3D printing age matures, how quickly will we phase out words like distribute, shipping, forklift, lorry, pallet, warehouse and grow?

How long before we start 3D printing foodstuffs instead of growing them? When that happens, what will happen to all the farmland out there?

Bright lights, big city

  

Big cities show survival of the fittest in action.

The fittest don’t have to be fittest in body. Just fittest in mind.

If you come to the Big City naïve, stubborn, vain, or showing poor judgement,

The city will smile its grim smile, encircle you and slowly but surely take wealth and hope off you.

 

If you come to the Big City with a survivor’s mentality, hungry to learn, hungry to succeed,

The city will take you under its wing. As one of its own.

 

Does this make the Big City harsh and cruel?

Or a good judge of character, with judgements made at big-city speed.

 

Big cities house the most charities and some of the grandest public structures,

Big cities are where the congregation of high talent assemble,

Where the future of humanity is discussed, agreed and governed from.

Big cities are indeed the bright lights.

Politicians and supermodels (2)

We have models and a more amazing version of them – super-models. We have bugs and super-bugs. Normal size and super-size. When it comes to politicians, perhaps no one talks about super-politicians, because politicians struggle to fit into the normal category of beauty or contribution.

Richmond park in London – the place where deer and squirrels graze freely, sunbathe in the buff and roam everywhere. The place where people plan ahead to visit, pay for food, wear ‘sensible clothes’ and deliberately confine themselves to man-made paths!

Do the bubbles in the alcohol we drink, become the little hot-air balloons that lift our spirits?

Supermodels and politicians…

Politicians have a catalogue of excuses the way supermodels have a catalogue of poses.

 

Do all bad memories eventually become good actions?

 

You know you’re in London when…

every minute, you hear a plane coming in to land,

every 2 minutes, you hear a police siren in the distance,

every 30 minutes, you overhear two people arguing,

and only every 120 minutes, do you hear the sound of laughter.

Thinking rich and talking cheap

 

If we could turn all the words written about London’s housing crisis into bricks, the crisis would have been solved decades ago.

The richest in society can carelessly mislay a few zeros off their net personal wealth and still not break a sweat.

Social Comment (again)

Mirror – less about skin-deep feedback. More a way of looking into your conscience.

We get told technology will save us, but how come every time another teenager gets stabbed in the middle of the day in a crowded part of London, the CCTV is too blurry, the police alert so slow, the punishment so low tech and the education that might solve the problem at source, so low tech for the user? We have 3D printers that can print out all kinds of building materials yet we have a massive housing shortage. Why can’t these two things be joined up? We have electric and hybrid cars. We have pollution-absorbing man-made materials and air vents. But central London has streets with incredibly levels of air pollution. Why can’t technology be deployed on this yesterday?

Reading between the lines, when you’re not even on the same page…

      

In the dead of the city night, the people out walking are those running out of time, or those running out of hope. Watch out for the people carrying both burdens.

Resisting change in the workplace versus upskilling is the difference between treading water and swimming to safety.

Insight includes seeing a professional presentation, when you already have the personal connection with the presenter.

Gregory Porter sang about water under bridges that have already burned. Is that the state of UK politics at present (fading memories of the stream of wreckage caused by the Scottish referendum, the UK general election first-past-the-post system and the MP expenses scandal)?

Devolution piled high

The UK post-election Tory government wants to push more decision-making powers onto English city mayors and their city or regional councils. Meanwhile the EU parliament takes more decision-making power away from Westminster each year. And the SNP will ensure Scotland gets greater devolution of decision making from Westminster in the future as well. Qu: After the EU referendum, if the UK stays in the EU club, will we then need a House of Commons at all? And if the need for the House of Commons reduces, how about abolishing the House of Lords at the same time?

On a related note, did the Tory’s ever look at creating a set of States and a ‘one House’ federal government, instead of devolving powers to the cities and regions.

Firstly the boundaries of the UK States/Cantons could be set to make them of roughly equal population size (based on an updated set of electoral boundaries). This will be more democratic than devolving powers to a set of city majors of areas of uneven population size.

Secondly, Britain could borrow the best of the Swiss system, with regular local referendums and a relatively weak federal, one house government. Since the population of each State would be a similar size to the current populations of Wales and Northern Ireland, a number of States could be created for London and about two for Scotland. All of the States could then provide per capita proportionate funding to run a federal government structure of modest size and budget to manage relationships with the EU and other countries on behalf of the UK States. Net result: the annual costs to run much of Westminster government (including the entire House of Lords) , all of the Welsh Assembly and all of the Scottish Parliament could be given to the NHS system.

That’s one referendum worth holding. My question: Would the overall cost of government be less and would democracy be strengthened by such a change?

Post-election Busy-ness as usual

    

During the UK general election there was a lot of talk about the pain and unfairness of austerity cuts and the need for welfare-to-work changes to balance the books. Two elephants in the room were worker productivity and housing supply.

Whether you’re a Tory supporter or not, there’s little viable future in getting more UK people into minimum wage jobs to cut the welfare bill, when they cannot meet a rise in the cost of living, their future job is threatened by automation and most of their net wage goes on housing costs. Not to mention higher unemployment elsewhere in Europe encouraging foreign workers to migrate to the UK seeking UK minimum wage jobs.

How about diverting the £100B from Trident to education investment to upskill the current workforce instead?

Help your friends and family to save the World

    

The old saying that ‘charity begins at home’ could be usefully extended to ‘charity begins in your circle of friends and family’. Helping your friends and family is simply paying forward the benefits and advantages you have received in your own life. It doesn’t have to have a religious context, or be shouted about from the rooftops.

If there are only ‘six degrees of separation’ to another person on the Planet, perhaps the best pathway to help the World, may well be the ‘rippling outwards’ from the circles of all of our F&F. To elaborate, caring is stronger when the personal connection is stronger. This isn’t about replacing charities and philanthropy, But about widening the definition of such things. After all, charitable activity can be effective, even when the entity concerned isn’t listed on the Charity Commission website. Altruistic acts also occur, because they define us as a higher order species.

Altruism and welfare improvement can sit comfortably outside a commercial relationship. Or outside a charitable organisation with the trappings of a commercial organisation; complete with its KPIs, budgets, organisational hierarchies, stakeholder relationship management and endless committees… Perhaps in a nation where too many people expect the State to solve their own problems, the family connections are real relationships to work on.