One Man's Notes

I have a courtesy car while my own car is in the coach works. But, oh sweet happiness, much to my surprise, it has CarPlay. Once you’ve had CarPlay, there’s no going back.


This is awesome.

A couple of months ago, researchers found a huge area of ancient seaweed off the Cornish coast. What’s the significance of 900 rugby pitches of maerl? It could be a valuable blue carbon store:

Blue carbon is carbon that is captured and stored in marine habitats, and is considered by some scientists to be vital in helping balance climate change.


Day 17: transcendence, suggested by Drew, aka @drewbelf. #mbapr

A misty sunrise over Shoreham Beach.

A rare image of my long-gone fencing days. I’m the one on the right.

Two fencers fencing foil in the grounds of Dollar Academy, Scotland, in the late 1980s.

The political problems around TikTok will only get worse if it keeps behaving like this.


Don’t think about this!


Advice to make sure you never create anything.

I feel very seen by this post from @havn.


AI is speedrunning the financial boom and bust cycle says John Naughton, in The Observer.


📷 #mbApr Day 15: small, suggested by James, aka @jmanes.

A makeshift bird figurine with stick legs and a rock body, resting on a wooden surface.


Micro adventures at one of our local nature reserves: an afternoon at RSPB Pulborough Brooks.

Birds and trees and bluebells.

A dunnock at RSPB Pulborough Brooks.

A sobering find in my Mum’s negatives. This is the original Old Bridge in Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina, taken in 1989. The bridge was destroyed in the Croat-Bosniak war four years later. The bridge there now is a recreation.

The original Old Bridge in Mostar, taken in 1989.

Just found and followed @duncanhart and @ton, thanks to this conversation about micro.blog over at Euan Semple’s blog.


Started reading: The Best British Travel Writing of the 21st Century by Jessica Vincent 📚


OK, why did nobody warn me that Inside Out is such a harrowing watch for a parent?


Cetacean Corner. Videos of our watery mammal friends. Not for the easily offended.


Starbucks quietly pretends it never fell for the NFT hype.

I think that bubble is well and truly burst now.


It’s really hard to find a theme for most of the big blogging platforms that supports the old-style “all of the last few posts on the homepage” approach to blogging.

They all seem to assume that every post will have a title, a lead image, and that people will click through to read everything.

I’m glad micro.blog still supports that approach.


I’m having one of those days where good news in the journalism/tech/publishing space is remarkably hard to find.


OK, the experiment is done. Let’s just shut down the internet now:

The “Young Indian Method” is a term that has been circulating among TikTok and YouTube hustler bros for the last year or so, and there are now various content influencers who use the term as an explanation for how they are able to make tons of money off of the back of low-wage workers in developing countries.

Source: 404 Media


Is Elon Musk getting bored of X/Twitter?

With a bold prediction that Xitter will change hands by year end…


The tale of the credulous publishers and the AI Pied Piper: a cautionary fairy tale for grown-ups everywhere.


The Burnside, Dollar, Scotland, early 1989.

The Burnside, Dollar in 1989, looking North to the OchilsThe Burnside, Dollar, looking south in 1989.


Can young audiences be recaptured by broadcast from social video?

Betteridge’s Law applies…


AI is going down great at SXSW:

“The incredibly pro-AI sizzle reel today at SXSW being loudly booed and told to fuck off by roughly a thousand people in the Paramount was heartwarming,” RogerEbert.com editor Brian Tallerico tweeted. “Read the room, people.”


A quick round-up of #podcasting news, initially gathered for our MA Podcasting students, but now shared to everyone.