a blog about information
What I said last year The headline of my closing post last year, written on 30 December 2012, was “…and then you win….Gandhi, platforms and 2013″. In the two posts on either side of that one, I’d majored on platforms as well: On habanero dosas, platforms and makers and On platforms and sharing. I’d fairly … Continue reading “Yes, 2013 was the year of the platform. And there’s more to come in 2014”
It’s rare that you get such deliciously different synoptic views of the same event. It’s even rarer to see the same organisation express itself with such distinctive variety across multiple channels. And when the event is one of those truth-is-always-always-stranger-than-fiction candidates, it’s worth writing a post about it. Something happened in the toilet-roll aisles at … Continue reading “Batman, Robin, a Smurf, The Hoff, and an aisle of toilet rolls”
I love seeing how humour and satire and irony make their way into every form of communication, especially when the humour is manifested in an unexpected place. For some time now Amazon product reviews have been leaders in the genre, as people hijacked the space creatively and joyously. Even Wikipedia has had its day when … Continue reading “Buying Big Macs from KFC”
Every now and then something happens and you realise the world’s getting smaller, more connected, somehow overlapping in strange and wonderful ways. There I was last night, quietly putting my feet up after a satisfyingly hectic week. I’d gone out for a wedding anniversary dinner with my wife (our 29th), and we were enjoying one … Continue reading “Musing about coincidences”
For many years I have known that the world’s shortest poem was written by Ogden Nash. It was called Lines On the Antiquity of Microbes, and all it said was: Adam Had’em For many years I was wrong. Not about the poem. But about the author. Recently I discovered that there was some debate as … Continue reading “The world’s shortest poem and why it may be important”