TED Community » Peter Fox
About Me
Born 1957
Engineering degree
35 years in computing
- Location:
- United Kingdom, Witham, Essex
- Gender:
- Male
- Areas of expertise:
- PHP development, System analysis and Design
- I am:
- Brainstormer, Business adviser, Concerned citizen, Idea generator, Inventor, Performer, Web guru, Writer/Editor
- My website links:
- Vulpeculox
More About Me
I'm passionate about
Real ale and real pubs.
Pottering round the countryside on my bicycle.
Good writing.
An idea worth spreading
There are 12 Rs not just 3. (See website for details.)
Reading, wRiting, aRithmetic, Relationships, Reviewing, Responsibility,
Reflecting, Researching, Reporting, Reasoning, Remembering, Resolve
Also 12 Maturities.
Talk to me about
Poetry and English
People don't know that I'm good at
'Seeing through walls'
Comments
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A comment on Conversation: A method for the efficient settlement of multi-way debts.
A comment on Conversation: Is it possible to use gunpowder as a fuel for automobiles??
Practical: No.
You /could/ run a car by burning navel-fluff, dried Eucalyptus leaves and discarded socks.
Enjoy learning about the chemistry of air-fuel mixtures.
A comment on Conversation: Prevention training
General situational awareness is a good thing to have on the street or in a bar or in fact anywhere. Many more people get killed by cars mounting the pavement than bombs. Many more people get killed by drunken fights. Many more people get killed by steadily escalating domestic violence. Screaming headlines and hurry-up dummy scenarios lead to over-reaction, confusion and chaos. As anyone who stewards an event or manages a venue will know, panic leads to all sorts of trouble. There are numerous examples where a stampeding crowd at a stadium has trampled dozens to death.
OTOH 'on the street' concerns ought to be reported -- but how, and how (say for example) the police should respond to the caller (it's MUCH more complicated than you might think) from the genuinely concerned caller's point of view needs to be discussed and illustrated with/to the general public; who after all have hundreds of eyes and ears.
The best sort of incident is one that never becomes an incident. Somebody spots early signs and the reports to 'the authorities' are taken seriously. Just to reiterate: Violence pervades society and those that consider themselves 'Boy scout bomb-spotters' should spend a bit more time looking at people in social situations.
A comment on Conversation: Are people of faith in fact gullible?
Religion ==> Gullibility (And I would add unpleasant hegemony.)
A reply on Conversation: When to write a book?
The answer to the 'is it worth it' question is to ask some people -- then subtract something for their wish to be enthusiastic for you.
If you personally are wondering about writing then start and see what happens and get feedback from a writer's group. Until you've written a quarter of a million words you are unlikely to (a) have found your voice, (b) got rid of tropes, bad habits (c) learned the craft of keeping readers engaged. ie. You have to do the mileage to get consistent quality.
A comment on Conversation: What can we do to change education?
More on my website vulpeculox.net/12/index.htm
A reply on Conversation: What can we do to change education?
12 Rs - Essential basics
Reading
wRiting
aRithmetic
Relationships
Reviewing
Responsibility
Reflecting
Researching
Reporting
Reasoning
Remembering
Resolve
12 Maturities - Proper education
Ambition
Sociable personality
Fitness and good health
Curiosity, enthusiasm for learning and knowledge
Confidence
Stand up for principles
Develop and defend own opinions.
Artistic appreciation and accomplishment
Empathy
Excellence of Rs
Imagination and abstract thought
Temptation : Awareness and resistance. Self discipline
A comment on Conversation: What is your opinion of nanocellulose algae
A comment on Conversation: Have you ever felt your thought is not very independent ? How you solve it ?
Then be cynical. Start asking questions. Keep asking questions. After a while you discover how to scratch at received wisdom, how to recognise the signs of weakness as others seek to defend an assumed position, and build your skills at debate.
The next level is developing your own ideas and letting people scoff. OK you may be naive and need to do more research, but so long as you don't retreat into taking a position because of emotional reasons, you'll learn, be prompted to look deeper and so on. Often after a discussion you'll do research that confirms you point of view and demolishes somebody else's.
At 17 you want to 'be different'. It's the very nature of youth. Get on and read, research, argue, write... ...then be amazed at 20 how simple your ideas were three years ago.
Finally, a lot of people have had similar ideas in a thousand fields. If you find some appealing then dig deeper. You'll probably want to develop that with your own ideas. So metaphorically, 'making pizza' is not original but the way you make it with fancy toppings is a bit of experimentation... then you hack the shape... then you fold and double bake... and so on. Experiment based on older ideas is a productive way of being independent.
A reply on Conversation: Females mammals are the underpinning of written language. Sex & sexism exists in every literate culture, so why wouldn't it be in language?
Your argument is tissue-thin and you try to justify it by the syllogism:-
Some theories took a long time to gain acceptance.
My theory doesn't have scientific credibility.
Therefore my theory must be right all along.
Bill Bryson is an amusing and accessible journalist but hardly a scientific authority. Much of his etymology in Mother Tongue is tosh.
I should stick to reading books - Gosh 100! - and learning about scientific rigour. Perhaps you should make your thesis a real thesis submitted to a real professor and see just how far it falls short.)