makes you stink, makes you think

Is the online world being driven by a vocal, disruptive, opinionated minority who share what might be considered a collective world view?

Previously I’ve wondered whether certain character types are disproportionately represented in the active, online community. More recently I’ve been struck, in much of my reading, something of a “Makes you stink, makes you think" sentiment – whiffs of that haughty mantra of the confirmed, intellectual smoker type - ergo – the burden of awareness is borne only by those, of a slightly depressed character, who, self medicated on nicotine, see the world for what it is, through a cancerous haze.

In fact, I’ll go further and bet a statistically significant percentage of bloggers, either smoke, or smoked for long periods of their life.

failing to succeed....

I'm beginning to wonder whether the less than perfect technical record of Twitter isn't in fact as asset.

The whole falling over every couple of days "thing" seems to do the service little harm.

Constant talk of the fail whale "meme" keeps the brand in the consciousness of a competitive market and in many ways, the lack of stability only reinforces non corporate, home spun, local, community credentials - key brand values in a networked world.

Being way below average as a way to garner online love...

This is a rich man's recession....

In a post recessionary environment, the interests of the rich and the middle class often align, on one critical issue - inflation.

Both tacitly accept an inflationary environment on the basis that creating real value is never going to be a realistic way of jump starting a stalled economy (it rarely is in the boom years so it sure as shit ain't going to work when the power's out!).

Inflation becomes the lesser of 2 evils.

But this time things are different. For the first time, pretty much since the emergence of a middle class, they have no savings. They have less to lose in a hyper inflationary environment.

Money in the past that was squirreled away (and then partially eroded by a prolonged period of inflation) simply isn't there. Those rainy day stores our parents or grandparents might have had, have long been spent on foreign holidays, school fees and new bathrooms. Forget the pension crisis of people like me in their mid 30s. Its the near future I'm worried about!

Without savings a shift occurs. The interests of the middle class become decoupled from those of the rich. Inflation is the friend of the indebted and will be greeted as such this time, not just by the poor, but by the middle classes as well.

Frankly, the middling classes have little to lose. The school systems in the funky urban hotspots they moved to, turn out to be zoos and as unemployment rises, the crime rate ain't looking too pretty either. We're not going anywhere. We may as make the debt we're in smaller....

My prediction is by caging their demands in altruistic terms, morally insulated from the cries of feathering their own nests, we'll see middle class commentators increasingly calling for hikes in interest rates to be postponed.

Unfortunately - the rich, who at least finished this crisis off, are likely to avoid a long overdue comeuppance - they have little political mandate to counter this drive - but their money is mobile - we may well see the effects of a downturn magnified as they move what's left of their capital east.

At the very least, we must assume an inflationary environment in the west is not an impossibility now.

Bemused by the news...

So we're fighting terrorism - but we release people if there's oil up for grabs...

We send our troops, on foot, into Sanguine - but as any GCSE politics students could tell you, our commitment to the Afghan people will never outlast embedded warlords and extremists.....

The labour party talk up "efficient government" - and yet with a deficit at £180b we know our standard of living is only going 1 way....

Why is it that everything fed to me as news just seems more and more like a crock of shit

James Bond and moral ambiguity....

There didn’t used to be moral ambiguity in the 007 movies.

Bond never dilly dallied around solving side issues - if there was a nuclear bomb going off - he prevented disaster - if there was a war being started - he stopped it. He focused on the issue at hand - he didn't f**k about - he confronted an issue.

Why then, do we have a government minister in Quantum of Solace, making the excuse to M of doing business with sociopaths, "because the world's running out of oil". Go and bloody find some then you dozy, privately educated numpty - or drive a prius. You’re James Bond for gods sakes, not Magnum f**king PI.

We in the West have always been rather more practical in our support of the wrong people when it has suited us. From time to time we've had to turn a blind eye to inexcusable behaviour because a more significant issue exists we can’t be bothered to solve - African poverty, US religious extremism, climate change etc.– but James Bond....he's meant to be different.

where's the downside?

For a lot of us long lunching Europeans the debate raging about healthcare on the other side of the Atlantic all seems a little odd.

My over-riding sense is - "what have you got to lose?"

Is "socialism" really a worse scenario for the majority of you? Might being a bit more "French" actually have some upside? What is it about the system you've got, that so many of you can't do without?

Outside your healthcase system - a shattered economy, a deficit bigger than most of us can comprehend and by all measurable criteria, a falling standard of living (and well being and happiness) - it doesn't exactly add up to a well balanced, 21st century society. So why not shake things up a bit given the majority of people want it?

I mean, when there's a majority who want something, generally it should happen right? That's what democracy - the thing we in the West are so keen on spreading - is all about right?

Oh I see......

is apple's business model broken?

3 small pieces of news which have caught my attention in the last couple of days which give me a sense that apple might still have an issue long term, with their (relatively) proprietary business model.

The first is chat about flash on the iPhone. It seems bizarre that a piece of technology such as the iPhone could exist without flash - but it does - and is likely to do so for the time being. Adobe and apple don't mix - but will users vote with their feet once the allure of the iPhone's core touch technology becomes ubiquitous?

The second is Spotify's launch on the iPhone. An obvious move but one which is in direct competition with apple's existing music business model (although of course they are hardly wedded to the per track music model).

Lastly - we have today's news about google voice here.

A gazillion iPhones sold means a lot of people view apple's market position as unassailable - but it doesn't take much to destabilize a business these days - and if a sense grows within the early adopter community that apple's walled garden approach is constraining freedom of development - it won't take long for the herd to adopt android or another key mobile device as its poster child.