Recently updated blogs

I was driving to Birmingham - that’s Birmingham in the middle of England, not in Alabama. I stopped for a rest, got some bad coffee, clicked up Facebook on my phone. A post from Lindsay Hutton: RIP Scott Cornish. My first thought was that this was not possible, but that was wrong, because with Scott anything was possible. I was swept up in a jumble of thoughts and emotions. One …

[Taken From Tunwéya‘s notebooks:] The time we spent in the Modron outpost has proven extremely valuable, and – while I still need to review some of the information provided by The Historian in order to bring it up to something like publication standard, I think it is fair to say that the expedition was ultimately a success. (Memo: rather pleasant to be able to say something has been a success …

As leadership, Q+A serves several important functions. The first, obviously, is to answer questions people have. No matter how well we communicate (and let’s be honest, how well do we really communicate?) there will always be questions that haven’t been addressed. Often there are questions you never even imagined. Q+A is an escape hatch as a leader for not being perfect. The second is to cultivate a culture of engagement. …

In my last post, I debunked the myth of the "reserve pool" of British workers. In this post, I discuss three more labour force myths that refuse to die: the myth of the "tide of unskilled immigration"the myth of the falling participation rate, and the myth of the "workless yoof". There's also an update about my charity walk in the Lake District last Saturday, and a couple of pics. Read …

For the reading enthusiasts and father figures in your life.

I noticed recently that I was having trouble moving around in less. I could arrow up and down, but that took a lot of work. I could hit space to go a whole screen down, but unlike in a web browser, shift-space also scrolls down. How could I scroll up a screen? On some terminals, Page Up and Page Down work, but not in others. It's a confusing mess. So, …

Photographing a total solar eclipse is a special experience. On April 8, 2024, my friend Kevin and I set out to capture the eclipse from Perryville Regional Airport in Missouri. This was my second time seeing a total solar eclipse, and it was even better than I expected. Previously I had been in North Carolina and only saw a sliver of the sky from the woods. For this experience since …

Read / Listened: Taming Big Techification? The European Digital Markets Act Digital Markets Act The EU has no homegrown Big Tech companies of its own

Several major technology companies provide cloud AI services, offering a range of tools and platforms for developing, deploying, and managing AI applications. Here are some of the most popular vendors of cloud AI.

Adding Google Web search to FirefoxRecently I read this blog post which highlights some bad practices by Google and also provides a way to make the new web search results tab the default search provider for Vivaldi browser.In that post, the author lists some fixes for other browsers. In this post I'm gonna show another way to fix it for Firefox, a solution that doesn't rely on external websites or …

I spent the best 5 weeks of my life solo traveling across Ghana to learn about Ghanaian food, culture and history. In this post, I will give a detailed breakdown of my trip to Ghana, focusing on northern Ghana (Northern Region, Savannah Region, Upper East Region). I will be including transport, accommodation and activities at each location with details about guides and everything I did to have a fantastic time …

Yesterday (June 2nd 2024) we lost one of our great sporting heroes. Of course I’m talking about Rob Burrow CBE who played scrum-half for Leeds Rhinos. He was the tender age of 41. He lost his life to Motor Neurone Disease, a cruel and devastating disease affecting up to 5000 adults in the UK at any one time. Rob fought an incredible battle with MND right up to the end. …

Some notes on freedom of speech TL; DR – To unlock the promise of freedom of speech, we need to pair it with the duty to be constructive. Without thoughtfulness, we have a less free, less flourishing life and world. Freedom of speech has been on my mind recently for two reasons. In Sweden and Denmark last year, people burnt copies of the Holy Qu’ran. The most prominent Qu’ran burning …

The Dragon in the Sea The Santaroga Barrier Frank Herbert About a year ago my brother lent me an old copy of Frank Herbert's first novel, The Dragon in the Sea, and I hadn't got around to reading it, but after watching the second of the new Dune films I decided that rather than join the rest of the nerds re-reading the Dune series, I'd investigate some of his other …

All words written by Tom, the latest owner of a TSG.For the guitar enthusiast, it is a good time to be alive. There are plenty of talented luthiers nowadays, and this healthy emulation drives them to keep pushing the envelope of guitar building.This will be my first custom built guitar, so the excitement is paramount after a wait of almost 2 yearsFor the guitar enthusiast, it is a good time …