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Articles by John Britton
The Uncanny Valley and the Rising Power of Anti-AI Sentiment
Recent survey data show a wide gap between public and expert views of AI. In Pew's 2025 survey, 76% of AI experts said AI would benefit them personally, while only 24% of the U.S. public said the same. The public was much more likely to say AI would harm them than benefit them. Negative public sentiment also appears to be growing. In March 2026, Quinnipiac found that 55% of Americans thought AI would do more harm than good in their day-to-day lives, up from 44% in April 2025.
396 Northgate Ave, Daly City, CA 94015, US
Operating Expenses Recurring costs required to maintain and manage a rental property, including property taxes, insurance, maintenance, repairs, utilities (if paid by the owner), property management fees, and other day-to-day expenses. Calculation: Insurance + Property Taxes + Property Management + Repairs & Maintenance + Capital Expenditures + HOA Fees
Acting is an ancient tool of connection we can all play with
It’s a paradox of our age that we have never been more connected, nor ever more alone. We live in a time of unparalleled interaction, communicating instantly with people across the world, with intimate insight into other people’s lives. Yet we feel increasingly disconnected from ourselves, each other and the world. In the midst of so much connectivity, we are living through an epidemic of loneliness and social isolation. ‘Loneliness’ and ‘social isolation’ are different.
Fixing your oxygen mask
John Britton · Follow 2 min read · -- Do your own first — but don’t stop there. ‘In the event of an emergency, put your own mask on first….’ You know the story. Remember the second half of it though: ‘…….before you help others’. Not ‘instead of helping others’. ‘Put your own mask on first’ is not about being self-centred. It’s a call to service. In times of catastrophe stay healthy — not as an act of hyper-individualism, but as an act of community. Healthy, we can help others back to health.
Distraction
John Britton · Follow 2 min read · -- It’s just information illustration by author Distraction: We live in distracted times. It’s a curse. It makes us scattered, unfocused, spread-too-thin. It deprives us of the joy of getting lost in something: a book, conversation, landscape, creativity. You can learn to focus better. I write about this in my book ‘Presence’. But before you ’force’ yourself to focus, observe your distraction. It can have different causes. Sometimes distraction is habitual.
Problems Are Not Always Problems
By John Britton Trying to solve them won't always solve them. Photo of author. Photographer not known. Directing a show is a complex journey. Each production is unique. Yet there are recurrent stages. Most frequent - getting stuck: standing in a room of people looking to me for guidance and inspiration, feeling dried up, stale, repetitive and dull.
Finding The Third Way
I was talking to someone the other day - a free call with a 30-something performer who felt deeply dispirited and wanted to talk. Like many of us, she's struggling to find her way. Life is really tough for a lot of people right now. She lives in a country that's struggling more than most. She said she felt she only really had two options. One was to fit in with the system - accepting its corruption, doing things that appalled her, living - in every way - at odds with who she wants to be.
Adaptation or Revolution? Surviving Inhuman Systems.
Adapt to 'the system'/drop out of the system?
The Most Toxic Thought
By John Britton Like a virus, it infects everything Photo by https://unsplash.com/@andrewtneel on Unsplash It's the most toxic thought of all. It underlies much unhappiness, self-sabotage, violence, anger, deceit, and so many other of the world's ills. It's a thought none of us are born with, but most of us learn. It takes many forms, but at foundation it's simple this:
I Talk to My Car
I Talk to My Car He makes me a better person These are the places my friend Cody takes me. I talk to my car. Doing so makes me a better person. I also talk to my cooker, paintbrushes and washing machine. Sometimes I talk to the gravel on the drive, but I admit I worry the neighbours might hear. My relationship with things I talk to is real.
Listen to your Grandmother!
(just don’t believe what she says) I call it your ‘Grandma’s Voice’. (It could just as easily be a grandfather I guess, or an aunt or uncle. It’s the figure who sits on the step of a small Greek village and dispenses wisdom to younger people — whether that wisdom is welcome or not.
Inner Work
Part 2 of a 14-part introduction to Self-With-Others Most approaches to personal or professional development focus on one area of our lived experience. Much personal development focuses on changing our inner world — how we think, feel, use our body etc. Much Professional Development deals with how we connect and forge relationships. Organisational or political perspectives deal with changing the way systems operate. Self-With-Others deals with all three.
Uptake and 4-week quit rates from an opt-out co-located smoking cessation service delivered alongside community-based low-dose computed tomography screening within the Yorkshire Lung Screening Trial
Introduction Low-dose computed tomography (LDCT) screening for lung cancer has been shown to reduce lung cancer-specific mortality in two large, randomised trials [1, 2], and implementation of screening is currently underway in many high- and middle-income countries [3]. Of those people responding to an invitation for lung cancer screening and subsequently eligible, between 30% and 50% are currently smoking [4, 5].
The Interconnected Self
We’re living a myth. Reality is much deeper than we’re told…. From very early in life we’re taught to live a lie. I call it the myth of The Isolated Self. We’re taught to believe we’re separate from other people, nature, the world, even from those closest to us. Writer Charles Eisenstein calls it ‘the myth of separation’. Like all myths, it contains some truth. We’re all different. We see the world through unique eyes and can only partly understand everything that exists outside of us.
Spring Arrives Suddenly
But ‘sudden’ takes time. Spring arrives suddenly. I walk the wild of my garden, amid young trees that one day will be a forest if left enough alone. They’re beech trees. The deep brown leaves of last year cling on through the winter, clothing them in memories. Overnight, the buds of new growth explode in my eye. New replaces old. The future manifests into the present. That’s what spring is. The life-force. The triumph of resilience over entropy.
The miracle of being left alone.
The miracle of being left alone. We heal combining support and neglect See that small mark? It’s almost nothing. I’d miss it if I wasn’t looking. Two days ago it was the focus of everything. Through that small hole a tube was inserted into my heart. As I lay beneath a huge camera which revealed the deepest workings of my physical being, my…
I can see my heart beating
In the heart of a medical procedure, there’s calm and awe. Yesterday I had an angiogram. It’s a strange procedure. A tube is stuck into the vein in the wrist, pushed up the arm and across the chest. It connects with the heart. A large, white, sci-fi looking camera/x-ray manouvres across my chest — remotely controlled. There’s a large TV screen to my left dotted with numbers, pulsating dots of light and — most importantly — a live feed of what the camera is picking up in my heart.
Death stalks the corridors here
Death stalks the corridors here A hospital is not a place to get healthy. Photo by Marcelo Leal on Unsplash An old fella died in the night. Closed behind his curtains, as I was closed behind mine, he muttered and groaned in the small hours and, woken by his noise, I muttered about him in my mind. I resented him.
When healthcare isn’t healthy
When healthcare isn’t healthy Unexpectedly I find myself in hospital. Some tests yesterday made someone worried about something, so here I am. The unexpected has barged its way into the room and smashed my routine, plans and habit. It makes me think about joined-up thinking. Systems.
Seasons of the mind
There are deep rhythms. We too have seasons. Let’s listen. For many years I travelled continually. I was away from home for months on end. Often I’d be packing suitcases for a new trip before unpacking from the one just finished. I saw many wonderous things and worked with extraordinary and beautiful people. I saw the world. But I lost contact with the earth. However common flight and travel has become, it’s not normal.
Facing horror, take action.
As you and I go about our day, a population deprived of fundamental rights for decades shelter from carpet bombing. Women, children, men, desperately hunt for food and water to survive the day. Children without parents howl in bombed-out buildings they once called home. Bodies, wracked with pain, drift out of consciousness, beneath tons of rubble, listening for rescue that will not come. Men holding white flags, trying to protect their family, are shot in cold blood by snipers.
‘Self’ is a (convenient) fiction
How can we live authentically, when we’re each such a tiny part of a vast universe? How do we combine self-care and individual fulfillment, with social engagement and ethical, altruistic life-choices? How can we align our needs, desires and obligations without exploiting others or the earth? We start, so often, to answer questions like these with ‘I’. How might that change if we gave up our obsession with ‘I’ and, instead, thought from the perspective of ‘I-with’…?
A Path Through The Mountains: Adaptability as Our Wisest Guide
A Path Through The Mountains: Adaptability as Our Wisest Guide There’s an old story I sometimes tell. It’s from one of the many Buddhist traditions. It goes like this: Some students go to their Master, and say: ‘You’re a fraud! We don’t want to study with you anymore!’ The Master smiled softly and stroked his beard (for this story comes from a time when Masters were men with long, grey beards). ‘Why do you say so?’ he replied. ‘You say one thing to one of us, the opposite to another.
10 Commandments for Engaging Online in a Fractured World
#4 Don’t have arguments you don’t intend to have If you say ‘It’s wrong to carpet-bomb civilians’ and someone replies ‘Israel is a small country surrounded by hostile neighbours’, you’re being invited to defend something you didn’t say. Such responses are often an attempt to change the basis of the conversation. Take it as tacit admission by the other person that you’re right. Rather than admit that, they try to distract you into an argument they’re more comfortable with. Don’t let them.
‘Authentic’ is ‘word of the year’
Merriam-Webster explains its choice of ‘authentic’ as word of the year is interesting: This is the context in which the choice was made: ‘A high-volume lookup most years, ‘authentic’ saw a substantial increase in 2023, driven by stories and conversations about AI, celebrity culture, identity, and social media.’ They give an overview of current definitions: ‘Authentic has a number of meanings including “not false or imitation,” a synonym of real and actual; and also “true to one’s own...
3 Question To Help You Run Effective Collaborations
3 Question To Help You Run Effective Collaborations There’s two concepts in Systems Theory that are really useful if you want to build effective teams and collaborations. A ‘system’ is a network of relationships created when different elements work together. A forest is a system — various trees, plants, fungi, insects, animals, birds, minerals and much more interconnect to create the system we call ‘Forest’.
Healing from Privilege
On Wedseday 13th, I’m co-hosting a webinar with my friend and colleague Sorrel Pindar. It’s called: ‘Embrace & Belong: Get Free of Anxiety & the Pain of Childhood Separation’. We’re going to explore strategies for moving beyond a sense of disconnection, isolation and anxiety. Sorrel and I both trace these feelings back to having been sent to Boarding School at a young age.
Breaking the Binary
Keep away from fake people!!! I’ve seen that around a bit lately. One of those AI ‘friends’ you rent by the month through an app to chat and flirt with? Everyone I know is real. Sometimes they do things I don’t like. Sometimes their behaviour seems inauthentic to me. Sometimes I block people online because I can’t bear how they turn up for the world. I wonder whether most of the problems of the world come from our habit of splitting things into binaries. Binary — an either/or way of seeing the world.
A very small thing (you are).
I'm awesome. So are you. So are we all. Each human, an awesome miracle. Each a fragment of an awesome world in an awesome universe. Awe - breathless, transcendent wonder in the face of something beyond our capacity to grasp. Me. You. The bird singing on a branch outside. Every breath and thought. I'm thinking about awe after listening to a podcast with Dacher Keltner - part of the Templeton Ideas podcast series from The Templeton Foundation.
FOMO or EATTIC?
I'm in a bookshop. I live in a remote part of Ireland, so don't often get to a bookshop these days, let alone one as wonderful as this one in Cork. There's shelf upon shelf of secondhand paperbacks. Chance finds, alternate visions, shocking possibilities. This is a paradise. I run my eyes along a shelf. The first title doesn't grab me. Next book, something about the spine's colour puts me off. I pull the a third book from the shelf, but the tag line on the cover feels over-familiar, and I slip it back.
“Stopping the start”-new tobacco control measures for England
Sanjay Agrawal, consultant in respiratory and intensive care medicine1, John Britton, emeritus professor of epidemiology2 1University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trusts, Leicester, UK 2University of Nottingham, Nottingham, UK Correspondence to: S Agrawal sanjay.agrawal{at}uhl-tr.nhs.uk Bold proposals will prohibit sale of cigarettes to anyone born in or after 2009 On 4 October 2023 the UK prime minister, Rishi Sunak, announced his intention to introduce legislation ensuring that from 1 January...
Moving the higher education delivery debate forward in Wales
While there is diversity in the models used to deliver higher education across Wales, one model remains overwhelmingly dominant – the three-year, full-time undergraduate honours degree. Other forms of undergraduate provision do exist, like foundation years, HNDs, and part-time options, but the opportunities are more limited in scope. Not all providers offer the same breadth of choice either.
The song of unborn birds.
+++ As I hooked it on its usual branch, the lid fell off. The cheaply-made feeder dropped to the ground. The seed scattered. It doesn't matter very much. Birds eat seed from the ground as happily as from a feeder. If the family of rats got a little more than normal, so be it. Not a big deal. I stood back and enjoyed my daily dose of awe. A dozen species, flitting through the branches, watching cautiously, dashing in, eating, escaping to chew, digest and sing.
Was the implementation of standardised tobacco packaging legislation in England associated with changes in smoking prevalence? A segmented regression analysis between 2006 and 2019
Statistical analysis We initially plotted aggregated monthly trends in current smoking prevalence in the general population and in the subgroups defined by sex, age and socioeconomic status using weighted STS data from November 2006 to December 2019 to illustrate overall prevalence trends for the population in England.15 We compared smoking prevalence during the year the policy was implemented with the year before using a t-test to have a simple estimate of difference in prevalence before and...
Contemporary perspectives on the ecological impacts of invasive freshwater fishes
1 INTRODUCTION In recent decades, human activities have resulted in substantial declines in biodiversity, especially in freshwater fishes (Tickner et al., 2020). The causal factors in freshwater fish diversity decline include flow alteration, pollution, habitat degradation, overexploitation and invasive species (Dudgeon et al., 2006; Tickner et al., 2020).
New Zealand’s bold new tobacco control programme
Intended for healthcare professionals Toggle navigation The BMJ logo Toggle top menu News & Views New Zealand’s bold new...
Quantifying audio visual alcohol imagery in popular Indian films: a content analysis
Quantifying audio visual alcohol imagery in popular Indian films: a content analysis Rohith Bhagawath1, Muralidhar M Kulkarni1, John Britton2, Jo Cranwell3, Monika Arora4,5, Gaurang P Nazar4,5, Somya Mullapudi1, Veena G Kamath1 1 Community Medicine, Kasturba Medical College, Manipal Academy of Higher Education, Manipal, Karnataka, India 2 Division of Epidemiology and Public Health, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, UK 3 Tobacco Control Research Group, Department for Health, University of...
Characterising vaping products in the UK: An analysis of Tobacco Products Directive notification data
Research Report John Britton UK Centre for Tobacco and Alcohol Studies, Division of Epidemiology and Public Health, University of Nottingham, Clinical Sciences Building, Nottingham City Hospital, Nottingham, NG5 1PB SPECTRUM Consortium Search for more papers by this author Tessa Langley Corresponding Author tessa.langley@nottingham.ac.uk orcid.org/0000-0001-9560-1148 UK Centre for Tobacco and Alcohol Studies, Division of Epidemiology and Public Health, University of Nottingham, Clinical...
Cigarette brand diversity and price changes during the implementation of plain packaging in the United Kingdom
Abstract Background and aim Plain packaging of cigarettes appeared in the United Kingdom in July 2016 and was ubiquitous by May 2017. The change coincided with another legislative change, raising the minimum pack size from 10 to 20 cigarettes. Laws imposing plain packaging on cigarette packs remove another promotional route from tobacco companies, but the effect of such laws on brand diversity, pricing and sales volume is unknown.
A rational approach to e-cigarettes: challenging ERS policy on tobacco harm reduction
John Britton, Jacob George, Linda Bauld, Sanjay Agrawal, John Moxham, Deborah Arnott, Ann McNeill, Nicholas S.
The effect of tobacco and alcohol consumption on poverty in the UK
Research Report John Britton UK Centre for Tobacco and Alcohol Studies, Division of Epidemiology and Public Health, University of Nottingham, Clinical Sciences Building, Nottingham City Hospital, Nottingham, NG5 1PB SPECTRUM Consortium Search for more papers by this author Tessa Langley Corresponding Author E-mail address: tessa.langley@nottingham.ac.uk https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9560-1148 UK Centre for Tobacco and Alcohol Studies, Division of Epidemiology and Public Health, University of...
Effect of UK plain tobacco packaging and minimum pack size legislation on tobacco and nicotine product switching behaviour
Introduction In 2016 the United Kingdom (UK) government implemented legislation requiring all tobacco products to be sold in plain packs containing a minimum of 20 cigarettes or 30 g of roll‐your‐own (RYO) tobacco [1].
Growing Need for Resilience-Focused Security Approaches Revealed by Absolute Survey at RSA Conference 2020
To find out where security and IT leaders are focusing their security investments, strategies, and resources with the ever-increasing number of users and endpoints (including desktops, laptops, and mobile devices) accessing corporate networks, we conducted a survey of this year’s RSA Conference attendees.
The need for an evidence-based and rational debate on e-cigarettes
The latest evidence from the USA indicates that the outbreak of acute lung injury is strongly linked to the vaping of contaminated illicit marijuana products. 2 US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Outbreak of lung injury associated with the use of e-cigarette, or vaping, products.
A rational approach to e-cigarettes - challenging ERS policy on tobacco harm reduction
Extract The respiratory community is united in its desire to reduce and eliminate the harm caused by tobacco smoking, which is at present on course to kill one billion people in the 21st century. The stated policy of the European Respiratory Society is to strive “constantly to promote strong and evidence-based policies to reduce the burden of tobacco related diseases”.
New Year, New Cybersecurity Goals
Industry executives and experts share their predictions for 2020. Read them in this 12th annual VMblog.com series exclusive. By John Britton, Director of Product Marketing at endpoint security and resilience firm Absolute While the cybersecurity landscape may look daunting as the new year progresses, organizations should focus on building the proper strategies for protecting our valuable data and mitigating the endpoint security risks that 2020 promises to bring.
Vitamin E acetate is not present in licit e‐cigarette products available on the UK market
Data Notes John Britton UK Centre for Tobacco and Alcohol Studies, Division of Epidemiology and Public Health, University of Nottingham, Nottingham City Hospital, Nottingham, NG5 1PB UK Shaping Public hEalth poliCies To Reduce IneqUalities and harM (SPECTRUM), London, UK Search for more papers by this author Tessa Langley Corresponding Author E-mail address: tessa.langley@nottingham.ac.uk https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9560-1148 UK Centre for Tobacco and Alcohol Studies, Division of Epidemiology...
Quantifying tobacco and alcohol imagery in Netflix and Amazon Prime instant video original programming accessed from the UK: a content analysis
Quantifying tobacco and alcohol imagery in Netflix and Amazon Prime instant video original programming accessed from the UK: a content analysis Alexander B Barker, Jordan Smith, Abby Hunter, John Britton, Rachael L Murray UK Centre for Tobacco and Alcohol Studies, Division of Epidemiology and Public Health, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, UK Correspondence to Dr Alexander B Barker; alexander.barker{at}nottingham.ac.uk Abstract Objectives Exposure to tobacco and alcohol content in...
Public Health England’s capture by the alcohol industry
As in many rich countries, public health in the United Kingdom is blighted by harms caused by consumption of unhealthy commodities such as tobacco, alcohol, and foods high in fat, sugar, or salt.1 In England, responsibility for tackling these problems lies with Public Health England (PHE), an executive branch of the Department for Health and Social Care.2 It is a challenging task: consumption of these commodities is driven by powerful transnational companies3 with a history of cooperation in...
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