Some of you may be aware that I’m working on an online dating site. If you’re not, it’s a new kind of online dating site that’s excitingly different from all other online dating sites, and will hopefully be up and running by the end of the year, depending on what kinds of investment I can arrange.

In the meantime, I’d be very interested to hear about people’s experiences with online dating. Have you ever tried it? How did it work out? Are you still doing it? If you’re single and you’ve never tried it, what puts you off? What would you need to know about a dating site to feel good about using it?

I’m planning to set up a dedicated forum for discussing these kinds of questions, but I thought I’d get started here.

One more question, or meta-question… when you meet someone for the first time (whether on a date or for any other reason) and you’re trying to get to know them, what questions do you ask? Is there a question you could ask that would divide people you’d like to know from people you wouldn’t? OK, that’s two questions.

I’ve always been in two minds about the Kyoto Protocol.  On one hand, it’s a pathetic document whose provisions are hopelessly inadequate to deal with climate change.  On the other hand, even a half-arsed effort can be a starting point if you keep working on it.  Unfortunately, the world’s politicians seem by and large to have treated it not as the first step on a long journey, but rather as an impossible dream that they deserve special brownie points just for talking about.  It might have worked, but it’s much too late now.  The methane hydrates are collapsing, and we can no longer go back by the easy route of reducing CO2 emissions alone.

Thus, Plan B.   We have to get the greenhouse gases back out of the atmosphere.  It’ll be expensive and pretty much the most dangerous thing humanity has ever done, but that’s where we are now.