Attention Deficit [364]

Greetings from Paris...

Je suis tellement heureux de vous voir mes très chers voyageurs !

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#TheAction

The writing never stops. Though not so much on ‘the book’ this last week. After I typed up both my Swiss journals, a cold knocked me for six. Now I’m in Paris and have mostly been in class.

I’m working here at Grenoble Ecole de Managementat at the invitation of James Barisic. I have taught on the Advanced Masters in Digital Strategy a few times now. It’s getting to be a highlight of the year. (There, I have jinxed it.)

It’s a great learning environment.

Focusing on a six step story building workflow… Ideation, storyboarding, content creation, building, revising and sharing, the students have been honing their narrative building and content creation skills. It’s a luxury to be able to workshop over a few days. Tiring, rewarding and an in-depth learning experience for us all.

I have collated some of their work in this Mastodon post. Why Mastodon? why not. It might be we start to spend more time there if Elon breaks Twitter. ;-)

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#ThePictures

This is clearly not a photo of the Eiffel Tower lit up at night because that would be illegal for me to share.

I made this with MidJourney because the illuminated Eiffe Tower is protected by French copyright law. Or at least the light ‘performance’ is. Eiffel held the copyright for the tower, till 1993, 70 years after his death. Only then could the likeness and design of the tower enter public domain. Now you see models and pictures for sale all over the place. A smaller replica was built perfectly legally in Las Vegas in 1999.

Tourists can take photos and videos of copyrighted buildings for personal use, but as this weekly email forms a part of my income I’d better not risk sharing an image of the lit tower. Even if I can’t see a commercial benefit to me.

As Pierre Bideau installed the lights on the Eiffel Tower in 1985 I’d have to wait till 2055 till the illuminated sculpture becomes public domain. To insure my creation is not confused with the original I’d best name it. Or you can do so in the comments if you like. Please note that ‘AI-full Towey McTowface’ is taken.

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Been trying to watch Succession.

The trailer is pretty good and the ratings are amazing but with no likeable characters for the first five episodes I found it hard to keep at it. The writing is brilliant and I know I’m in a minority, but I feel I’d like to watch less this kind of thing right now. If you like watching a massively privileged dysfunctional family tear itself apart in increasingly sinister ways then this is for you. Personally I think I’m in the mood for something less bitter and twisted.

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#TheWords

Do you have a library card? If so LibbyApp.com might be just the thing for you. I forgot who shared me this but thanks. Great resource.

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Isn’t it about time the world, abandoned the unstated but powerful hegemony that exists around the imperial languages of centuries past?

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#TheSound

Here is the podcast I recorded when I got to Paris.

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Hunting the Darknet Dealers from BBC File on 4.

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#TheConsumed

When remembered, I’ve logged where I have been eating with Swarm.

The first thing I ate on entering Paris was a grilled corncob from a guy cooking in a shopping trolley. He only took cash and the few coins I had with me were not enough. He told me it was not an issue, still served me and took my change. About half of what he asked. It tasted all the better because of his kindness. I’m eating far more meat here as that is what this area mostly offers. The best meals so far have been an amazing Raman and a Thai Red curry. I have eaten baguette every day and although it’s irresistible I’m looking forward to taking a break from all bread.

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#TheThings

For me, being able to take a penknife across an international border is not just a little win, it feels like civilised behaviour.

And just the fact that sentence sounds iffy annoys me. On the continent it’s common to see multi tools and opinels attached to belts. People sit on benches hacking chunks of bread and cheese for lunch.

I wondered if I was able to take my tiny keyring Swiss Mini Champ on the Eurostar. Their website detailed the banned objects adding the blade limit on non-locking folding knives was 7.5cm. Checking my old faithful Swiss Army Traveller in my bedside table I found the blade to be 65mm along its edge and 70mm to the body. I stuck it in my bag comfortable in the knowledge I was now equipped for a bread wine and cheese feast in my hotel room. (Check the top right photo in the above image). I normally manage with my tiny keyring knife and a screw top bottle. But with this tool to hand I have had to all of the wines in France. Instead of whittling at the cheese and tearing open a beef tomato I can now slice, dice and uncork with confidence. That’s what I call civilised.

Of course when I arrived to my room It was a fully kitted out apartment with a full kitchen. I still used my knife though. It’s all a part of my arrival ritual ;-)

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If you google ‘glasses for dyslexia’ all kinds of things comes up. A lot of what surfaces appears to use OCR to do the reading for you. I have it on good authority though that Lexilens make smart glasses that really do help the dyslexic read.

Research suggests that one of the causes of dyslexia is having eyes so similar to each other that there is no dominant eye. James (the one I’m working with) managed to convince some skeptical opticians that this tech would work for his son and got him a pair. They paired the glasses with an app and one lens began to strobe in such a way James’s son could suddenly read fluently. He is both amazed and impressed with how much these glasses have helped his son. They are not cheap mind. 400 euros a pair. But for some they will no doubt feel like magic.

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It’s hard to get four big bikes on the back of a car. I’m using this thought to justify getting another Brompton. I’ve been trawling Ebay but there is little that comes up for what to me seems a reasonable price. They really do hold their money and in some cases go up in price.

If money was no object I’d pick up the new Titanium Brompton. But I had only seen it from afar so while in London I popped into see a demo of it. In the hope I could find something about it that I didn’t like.

It didn’t work. If anything I want one even more. It’s so crazy light. I don’t think it could have been reinvented any better. I know how capable the Brompton is as a form of transport because I have one. And I have been happy carrying it upstairs, in and out of buildings and whenever a carry is preferred to a ride. But the act of lifting the titanium version astounded me. If I could pack all I needed into a small backpack a new kind of hybrid adventure could be had. The ability to take a bike on all public and private transport. to carry it long distance if needed and to always have it within reach. Inside and out. My existing Brompton goes a long way to doing this but the extra 4kg in weight makes more of a difference than you think.

No idea how long I’d need to save up for one of these. I’ve never seen one on sale. They appear to be waiting list only and go fast. Perhaps by the time I’m ready to buy they will come with the option of an 18” wheel. I think we are ready for that.

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Living in a village and having to occasionally navigate unlit tracks and roads at night means I have a few head torches at my disposal. But in my opinion there is one head torch to rule them all. The Petzl 900 Swift RL.

What’s not so great about it? The price. It’s £80. I bought mine from Go Outdoors while there was a sale on, but it still stung. There is no red light for map reading while preserving night vision. It’s not fully waterproof. It’s a little bulky to accommodate the heatsink.

So why is this so much better than a £10 head touch? It’s bright and it’s light. 900 lumens and only 100g. It also uses a replaceable lithium ion battery charged with USB with a charge indicator telling you when it’s full or getting low. It has a sensor measuring surrounding brightness so it can automatically adjust to your environment. Another feature is that it tilts both up and down making it easy to use on your head or round your neck. It’s the most comfortable head torch I have worn and although not waterproof I have used it in torrential rain so it works for me. Here is an amazon affiliate link should I have managed to convince you of its awesome-ness.

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#TheThanks

Thanks go to Adam from Bold Content Video who has become one of the paying subscribers that pay $5/month to get all the content I share into this feed. If like him you are able, please upgrade to support my endeavours — as sporadic and eclectic as they are. Or if you prefer you might like to buy me a coffee or send a tip via PayPal. Either way… Thank you for reading.

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#TheWeb

• Artists are getting bored of instagram.

• The Secret Number. A short story.

• Have you added yourself to the Documentally community map?

• The Twitter Musk deal is back on. Here are some predictions on how it might go.

• The Consensus search engine is interesting. It says it ‘uses AI to instantly extract, aggregate, and distill findings directly from scientific research’. That may be so but it also digs up some old disproven theories. It might need to get better to deliver the latest and greatest research.

• As well as the AI act we may soon have the AI Liability Directive making creators of AI tech liable for any harm their tech might cause.

• This is my Mastodon profile should you like to connect there.

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#TheEnd

Thanks for reading. I’ll be back in the UK this weekend and although back to full-time writing I’ll be on stand by for any project you might need me for in.

I’ll miss Paris.

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“In this modern world where activity is stressed almost to the point of mania, quietness as a childhood need is too often overlooked. Yet a child's need for quietness is the same today as it has always been--it may even be greater--for quietness is an essential part of all awareness. In quiet times and sleepy times a child can dwell in thoughts of his own, and in songs and stories of his own.” ~ Margaret Wise Brown

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Accept the struggle,

See you out there.

Over…