Please note that this is my old blog, to My New Blog is available at https://www.vanirsystems.com/blog

This blog is kept here for archival reasons as it has a lot of interesting old posts that I am sure people would find useful

I was wondering about the , and wondered what their religions were. So I zipped up some SPARQL queries to run against DBpedia, they aren? perfect (i.e. they don? capture all of the presidents due to mislabeling and me not being too bothered about the answers), but it provides some answers.

The Democrats:

SELECT ?PresidentName ?ReligionName
WHERE
{
?president
dbpprop:party <https://dbpedia.org/resource/Democratic_Party_%28United_States%29>;
dbpprop:order dbpedia:President_of_the_United_States;
<https://dbpedia.org/ontology/religion> ?Religion;
rdfs:label ?PresidentName.
FILTER (lang(?PresidentName) = "" || langMatches(lang(?PresidentName), "en")).
?Religion rdfs:label ?ReligionName.
FILTER (lang(?ReligionName) = "" || langMatches(lang(?ReligionName), "en"))
} ORDER BY ?ReligionName

Which the answer is viewable “Democratic Presidents Religions”

The Republicans

SELECT ?PresidentName ?ReligionName
WHERE
{
?president
dbpprop:party <https://dbpedia.org/resource/Republican_Party_%28United_States%29>;
dbpprop:order dbpedia:President_of_the_United_States;
<https://dbpedia.org/ontology/religion> ?Religion;
rdfs:label ?PresidentName.
FILTER (lang(?PresidentName) = "" || langMatches(lang(?PresidentName), "en")).
?Religion rdfs:label ?ReligionName.
FILTER (lang(?ReligionName) = "" || langMatches(lang(?ReligionName), "en"))
} ORDER BY ?Religion

Which the answer is available directly here: “Republican Presidents religions”

Please note

  • It doesn? return all presidents of the parties
  • It does use the DBPedia SPARQL engine (powered by OpenLink Virtuoso)
  • It does use some shortcuts (i.e. not defining PREFIXs and the FROM clause), as the DBPedia SPARQL engine provides these nice shortcuts.
Personal, random @ 13 November 2008, “No Comments”

I?e just taken this shot out of my window:

Scene from Whiteladies Road, Bristol

It? a bit blurry because my digital camera is getting old now (it? a 2 Megapixel Nikon Coolpix 2500). It was taken from my flat on Whiteladies Road, Clifton, Bristol, England.

Now, who said that Bristol isn? a lovely place to live! Look it? so beautiful!

Personal, random @ 01 August 2008, “No Comments”

Just wanted to say “Happy August 2008″ to everyone, lots of things to look forward to (e.g. Computer Weekly Award results, going to Greenbelt…. and in September: Beki? and my “2 years together”, the Bristol Knowledge Unconference and starting the MSc) and lots of things to reflect on.

It? gone 2am, and I? going to bed in a minute… it? so warm and humid here in Bristol tonight!

Quite a random blog post… but hey I feel like I should now and then :-)

A bit of light Semantic Web humour:

funny picturesPowered by icanhascheezburger.com

The short term, medium term and long term futures of the World Wide Web have been brought to my attention recently, and I really want to take a step back from any influences which come from the communities from which I am in.

I think I can see where we are going, and the technologies which are emerging seem like we will be heading in that direction. BUT I have some questions for us all to ponder while trying not to be influenced by the crowd:

  1. Is this direction that users really want? If not, then what do they want?
  2. Do developers, entrepreneurs and visionaries actually understand what users want… or is it just guess work or developed because they think it? cool?
  3. Do users, developers, entrepreneurs and visionaries understand how far we actually are in our current trajectory?
  4. What will a user have to understand when we reach our target, and will it really be worth it?
  5. What about society? What is the Web doing to society (aka in real life how has society changed because of the Web (if at all)?)? How has society changed the Web since its creation?
  6. What about technology? How many things have failed because the Web is (seen as) “bigger and better” or “the only way to go”? Do we really want interconnected devices, are we actually writing something which could be akin to the knowledge base for the Borg?

These are very crucial questions for all those who deal with developing/evolving the Web further, and we don? think about them very often from a non-influenced point of view do we?

Question 5 above is the one that is on the tip of my mind today, if we didn? have the technology we do today then would we be:

  • Healthier? (people will need to move about less, there would be less office jobs and more manual work)
  • More intelligent? (not intelligence as in “knowledge”, but intelligence as in problem solving, life skills, adaptability… people wouldn? use wikipedia or google to find something out, nor use any website to calculate an answer to a problem)
  • More social? (real life social… many of us who “work the Web” don? really get out much… many work from home. What happened to the office?)
  • Happier? (healthier, more intelligent and more social… of course you?e going to be more happy!)

On a more negative side would we:

  • not have such a broad knowledge base for our exploitation? (for example, people go on wikipedia or search google for more information on a subject… which could come from anywhere in the world)
  • not have such a broad range of interests or even friends? (for example, thanks to the online communities of which I am a member I could go to various places in the world and be greeted by someone who I have never met in real life before but have met through web-based communications (and this is from a variety of interests))

One thing, which I think is very low in UK society at the moment (but something which I and many have gained from the advancement of Web Technology) is Religion and Spirituality. Since I started playing with the Web many many moons ago I wasn? particularly interested in religion or spirituality. Thanks to the Web I have found out all kinds of things (and I?e even been to some events) including Paganism, Greek Philosophy, Tarot, Buddhism, Yoga, Kabbalah, Rosicrucianism, Gnosticism, Sufism, Meditation, Reiki, Freemasonry and Christianity…. all of which have made me grow in spirituality and something which I probably wouldn? have gained without the Web. However, I still feel that Religion/Spirituality is missing from the modern world, for instance:

  • Less people are going to Church (or other place of worship),
  • More and more people are becoming anti-religious activists (extremists who follow people like Richard Dawkins),
  • More people are intolerant of other peoples beliefs/faiths (aka religious conservative/fundamentalists)
  • There are less religion/spirituality programmes on the major TV channels and Radio stations

This is one area of which the Web hasn? really had any impact on…. and I think it might be because technology has taken over so much that people are experiencing less “me time”.

Hmmmmm. I?e digressed a little from my original topic. I ask that you please seriously think about the questions at the start of this blog post, feel free to comment if you wish to say anything, or email if you would like to talk in confidence.

Thank you,

Daniel

Completely unrelated technological question which popped into my head:

  • Do you think a teleporter (like on Star Trek) would make you feel travel sick?

Answers on a postcard…. or even better using the comment box.

Just a quick note to all the Americans… Happy Independence Day!

Don? just celebrate, but also think about some of the wonderful people who contributed to the independence:

  • George Washington
  • Benjamin Franklin
  • Joseph Hewes
  • William Ellery
  • and the many others…

Have a good day.

From Daniel

(in Bristol, part of England)

Don? consider me weird…

Yes I have started reading a Deepak Chopra book (“The Third Jesus”) in my (very little) spare time… mainly to read when I am not at the conference next week, and during my week off the week after. Plus I?e just bought the newest album by Kula Shaker “Strangefolk“.

Seriously I? not weird, honestly… maybe a tiny bit hippie ;-)

Anyways… back to work, and listening to Kula Shaker

Something quite amazing is going on, it goes beyond the goodness of any religion or creed, and I saw it in action today in Oxford City Centre.

Its the Free Hugs Campaign, which is a campaign where people out of pure selfless kindness offer hugs (aka cuddles) as a method of support to anyone who approaches. Its truly amazing, as the hugs benefit not only the participants but also the onlookers, who will smile or laugh. Its not only adds support, but its increases happiness. Its a great form of altruism.

Its great because its completely non-religious, but morally altruistic… it does also fulfill so many religious teachings of loving and caring for everybody. I might take part in the future, as its definitely worthwhile.
I am amazed, and very very happy that this movement is happening… maybe there is hope for humanity after all.

Document Web Links

  • The (International) Free Hugs Campaign