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Anti Social-Media

(not “anti-social media”) How I Use The Internet Now tl;dr: I’m going back to using RSS feeds to curate my own experience of the web and here’s why (and how) jump straight to the tools section The Ancient World (Wide Web) I got online in 1993, like a second-wave immigrant. I never used Usenet or… Continue reading Anti Social-Media

You Don’t Want An Aristocracy

I’ve been thinking about meritocracy, lately. It’s extremely hard to separate out the inbuilt advantages of the financially and genetically lucky, in any society, and give everyone a level playing field. But we should at least admit that some people start half-way to the finish line, if we think a meritocracy is worth striving for.… Continue reading You Don’t Want An Aristocracy

Not you, too, baseball?!

I am so angry about this. Have I begun harassing the baseball commissioner, Rob Manfred at: 1271 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020? Yes. Here’s what I wrote: As a new season ticket holder this year I am appalled at your decision to scrub diversity from your website. You say it’s to comply with… Continue reading Not you, too, baseball?!

What happened in Paris…

Here’s what just happened at the Olympic Games in Paris: 19 days of competition 329 events 10,500+ athletes 37 new world records But what do you actually remember? Simone Biles overcoming the ‘twisties’, coming back stronger than ever, then dropping to one knee to salute the teammate who beat her to the gold. Steve “Clark Kent” Nedoroscik soling the Rubik’s cube then taking off his glasses and executing a near-perfect pommel horse routine. Tom Daly crocheting medal holders for his fellow…

A major cow-tastrophe

I was scrolling through my email, looking for things to delete, when I saw an email from a business friend.
Out of loyalty, I opened it.
The email was full of great, life-changing information.
Sadly, what she wrote in the FIRST LINE guaranteed that almost no one would read it.
What did she do wrong? And how can you avoid it? I’m glad you asked.
I made you a video to explain, so that your emails won’t end up unread and in the trash.
it will also explain why there’s a cow in the title of this…

Behind the scenes: Batch-writing emails

How many emails can you write in a day?”
The question shouldn’t have surprised me.
I’m a creative writer and I help people with email marketing, after all.
But I hadn’t really examined my own email-writing practice.
So I’m doing the experiment now.
How many emails can I write today, on a day I have set aside for batch-writing?
I’ll let you know…​
I know this, though: writing goes much faster when you know what you want to say.
If I’m writing a scene for a novel and I don’t know what I…

AI and cats…and you

A well-used bike rack outside an unassuming red-brick office building in Hanover, Germany is the only clue that the structure is full of students.
Even less obvious is that something strange is going on inside, with Artificial Intelligence…and cats.
The building is Hannover’s University of Veterinary Medicine and they’ve been working with researchers in israel to develop a machine learning algorithm to ‘read’ the cat’s facial expressions and assess their level of pain.
Any good vet will tell…