If you ever go to Edinburgh and find yourself in one of its countless excellent pubs, you may want to strike up a conversation with one of the grave looking, old guys at the bar drinking pints. If so, you will want to be able to hold a conversation while also not making a fannyContinue reading “Travel: A Survival Guide to Edinburgh Slang and Scots Words”
Tag Archives: communication skills
Top Ten Greatest Old Man Insults
Put the kettle on and start eating some water crackers with lard on them. Just to get in the mood for this one… Nincompoop: Is said to come from the Latin legal and medical term Non Compos Mentis meaning ‘not of sound mind’. This evolved into nincompoop meaning a stupid or dumb person. Flibbertigibbet: A flightyContinue reading “Top Ten Greatest Old Man Insults”
FYI: The descent down the AI rabbit hole has now commenced
The following developments in AI have meant that we are on the verge of a very slippery slope indeed for fake news and the attendant chaos, disorder and conflict that this generates in the world.
Retro TV Channels from the 70’s, 80’s and 90’s are on the internet for all posterity
Want something a little bit different for your next party? Here’s a novel idea for entertaining guests. A modern browser version of vintage TV channels featuring soaps, ads, comedy, drama, music and even news from particular decades! Find it here The only requirement is that you use a PC for this app rather than a touchscreenContinue reading “Retro TV Channels from the 70’s, 80’s and 90’s are on the internet for all posterity”
Book Review: The Domesticated Brain by Bruce Hood
This is a riveting read from one of the leading lights of modern psychology, Bruce Hood of the University of Bristol. The book’s main premise is that 20,000 years ago our brains were 10% larger than what they are today. And that the reason for this is primarily the influence of social practices, culture andContinue reading “Book Review: The Domesticated Brain by Bruce Hood”
Tech: A quaint visual voyage through the internet in 1996
Found in the David Rumsey Map Collection online, this poster entitled Ínternet Road Map from the magazine PC Computing dates from the quaint year of internet history, 1996. Back when I was a teen and when ‘surfing the web’ was something only geeks and introverts did, and therefore which I did with fervour using someContinue reading “Tech: A quaint visual voyage through the internet in 1996”
Postconscious: a web experiment
POSTCONSCIOUS is a web experiment by Andrew McCarthy that extracts random posts from Twitter, and reads them aloud using Speech Cloud text-to-speech. The app uses a cute and kitsch reverb effects and a retro typeface called Space Mono. What results is a strange echo-chamber of vaguely familiar and yet alien sounding voices coming out ofContinue reading “Postconscious: a web experiment”
Every Picture Tells A Story: Future Computers On Our Wrists (1981)
They were bang on the money there… Source: Imgur.
Matchbloc: Czechoslovakian matchbox art from the mid 20th century
The design and aesthetic of Eastern Europe was really beautiful. Product labels and film posters of the mid-20th Century, like these fruit box labels of Australia are optimistic, bright and speak volumes about the artistry of the people who made them. The modernist and colourful aesthetic is incredibly timeless. Subject matter for posters and product labelsContinue reading “Matchbloc: Czechoslovakian matchbox art from the mid 20th century”
Mysterious Rongorongo Glyphs from Easter Island
A collection of 24 sacred wooden objects from Easter Island bear Rongorongo inscriptions, a system of glyphs that was discovered in the 19th Century and is still a mystery to historians. Numerous attempts at decyphering the proto-writing have been unsuccessful. These pieces of wood (a lot of it driftwood) are weathered, burned and damaged andContinue reading “Mysterious Rongorongo Glyphs from Easter Island”