We love Twitter because it loves us

I swear, I’m not going to post anything about Twitter for a long time after this. But what Nancy Scola has to say is just too spot-on not to link. I can’t do it justice with a quote, and it’s brief, so just read it for yourself.
My headline is not strictly accurate. The truth is […]

Twitter…sigh

@jeffnolan:

My relationship with twitter is like that of a wife beater. I stay because next week will be different.
One the one hand, the recent quiet due to frequent downtime and feature revocation has been welcome. I almost stand a chance of catching up on what everyone is up to. On the other hand, the desertions […]

Sometimes it takes so little to delight me

photo.jpg

Originally uploaded by photomatt.

Nailed by The Bard

MIRANDA
O, wonder!
How many goodly creatures are there here!
How beauteous mankind is! O brave new world,
That has such people in’t!
PROSPERO
‘Tis new to thee.

Quote of the day

@hotdogsladies (aka Merlin Mann of 43 Folders fame):
“Social Media” has become sad shorthand for people who think airlines, hucksters, and Rails programs have the capacity for human friendship.

Back at Qik HQ

Back at Qik HQ

Originally uploaded by dynamist.

I cannot believe what a difference the California sunshine makes to my moods and energy levels. Work trips are always draining, because you’re rushing from one meeting or event to another, grabbing food* where you can, and trying to get proper sleep while also filling every available waking hour […]

President Bush gets a Qik demo

…on the same day as TMZ, no less! Sadly, the Secret Service wasn’t keen on Congressman John Culbertson making the demo public (you can keep videos private on Qik), but the demo to TMZ happened while Culbertson was walking from an appropriations committee meeting to his office. I quite liked the shot, inside the offices, […]

Dr. Helen Evans: Who cares for the NHS?

Helen is a friend as well as a 20+ year veteran of Britain’s nationalized health service. She’s also the director of Nurses for Reform, and has now published a book that covers her study of what leading opinion-formers in the UK really think of the NHS. You can download the book here, and I will […]

Good times

Photo by Frederic Guerino

Originally uploaded by dynamist.

When the only pictures I post from New York are taken in bars, parks, and delis, it’s hard to believe I’m here for work, isn’t it? (More here.)

Snapshot of a Saturday

Hanging out in the West Village on Saturday

Originally uploaded by dynamist.

We’ve been really fortunate with the weather in New York this week. I was expecting the worst sort of humidity, the kind that is all too well known to those who are dumb enough to go to New York and Paris in the summer (that […]

Me and Rupert Jee

Me and Rupert Jee at the Hello Deli, NYC

Originally uploaded by dynamist.

If you knew me when I was a teenager, you no doubt recall my obsession with the comedy of David Letterman. Much of my sleep deprivation during those years was a direct result of staying up to catch Letterman at 12.30. My friend Nikki […]

This is why I didn’t get to New York until 2AM

I’ve been here since the wee hours of Wednesday morning, though I should have arrived on Tuesday night. What was the hold-up? Oh, just some drunk woman smoking in her seat and then assaulting a flight attendant. The inbound flight from JFK was diverted to Denver, where the woman was arrested, before finally making its […]

She’s a PhD in “I told you so,” you’ve a knighthood in “I’m not listening”

They’re so uncool and have horrific political views, but I do love the Beautiful South. It’s very good music to clean house to, which I swear is a compliment.

The difference between society and the state

Adriana:
People don’t seem to differentiate between the state and society - two separate realms that relate to the individual in fundamentally different ways. The state is political and the society, well, social. One of the features of communism (or any totalitarianism) is the explicit aim to politicise the social. In such systems, everything is political […]