I’m Christian Payne. In this weekly dispatch I seek out novelty, explore the relations between things, how we share, what we share and consume, plus where we might be going. Thanks for joining in.
#TheAction
I’ve almost got a routine going. In the morning, after walking my daughter to the school bus stop, i’m off over the hills with the dog. We walk in the wind, the sun, the recent most welcome rain, as clouds sweep over our heads on fast forward. We might see sheep, cattle, deer, hares, badgers, partridge, pheasant and countless species of birds. This is the start of most days.
Then it’s back to a to do list that will never actually be done due to all the optional chores suddenly promoting themselves into priorities.
On a coffee break one day I opened a browser to take a look at what the rest of the world was doing. Two minutes later I’d had enough and headed back out to fix a fence and chop some firewood.
I'm aware that not looking at the news is a privilege. But it also feels selfish and perhaps irresponsible. You need a certain level of security to be able to disengage. For many, staying informed is essential for survival or advocacy, especially if you lack basic rights, live in danger, or your identity is directly affected by current events.
On top of this, ignorance feels rife and a functioning democracy relies on active participation. Especially in voting and public discourse, Ideally in places where the algorithms don't get in the way.
But constant exposure to sensational headlines isn’t healthy either. This week, stepping away from the feeds has felt good... a psychological relief from a sense of powerlessness.
But today I shall dip back in. As gently as possible in order to stay a little informed and of course share what I find with you.
#ThePictures
I watched The Electric State. Wish I hadn’t. It should have been a video game. Here’s my short review.
But this is the best cycling video I have seen in a long time.
#TheWords
The title of this dispatch ‘Time Gardening’ is a phrase sometimes associated with a work-life balance and comes from a more organic, reflective, approach to how you might spend your time.
I told someone on LinkedIn that I could not engage with their direct message and link as the message was 100% written with AI. (At least that’s what an AI checker told me). They responded telling me that they did use AI and asked how was I able to tell.
I responded with…
There are currently no browser plugins off-the-shelf that can automatically block suspected AI-generated text, but there are several tools that help flag and detect it. I have GPTZero, Copyleaks’ and Originality.AI.
They either have Chrome extension's or easy to use tools that flag stuff. You can go a step further with extensions like Tampermonkey and create custom scripts to label or hide flagged text.
I'm a fan of humans connecting with humans for as long as possible and the internet is way too big for me to be reading, watching or listening to AI slop.
Soon we'll all have a browser that will automatically flag potential AI generated content and save us all a lot of time. This I also hope will enable us to connect and engage with writers, poets, academics, and artists who take great pride in expressing original thought in an authentic personal voice.
But then the AI models will get smarter and offer the (possibly paid for) option to mine everything we have ever written to 'master' our style of writing and make it even harder to detect slop.
Obviously this is all stuff we could do right now but in the lead up to the Human vs AI content creation war I have talked about this in my 'human authored journal' at Documentally.net
There are other humans out there writing their own stuff. But not for much longer.
Especially if people like you keep hitting that 'Write with AI' button ;-)
(Estimates suggest that over 30% of new web content in 2024–2025 is AI-generated or AI-assisted. As this number is rapidly growing I feel the war is already lost.)
Every time you write with AI, you are teaching yourself how to write like a machine. Where’s the soul in that?
#TheSound
Check out these acoustic spying techniques.
June is almost upon us which for lovers of Audio means a month of sharing audio snippets to the hashtag #AudioMo. You can share audio anywhere online but there will certainly be a bunch of us sharing to Bluesky or Mastodon.
Just record an audio a day, and post the link using #AudioMo. Or of you have an app that can export an audio file as a video like iMovie, VRP7, Backpack Studio or the alpha version of an app made by Kosso called Blipvox you can do that.
The video limit on Bluesky is 3 mins and on Mastodon the file size has to be 99meg or smaller. Here is what a clip made with BlipVox looks like.
#TheConsumed
There’s a fourth generation ice cream parlour in Eyemouth that I have visited weekly since living here.
I’m always finding them with new flavours (I think they have over 50) and this week I had ‘Whisky Marmalade’. I’m yet to be disappointed.
Actually that’s a lie. When I asked the staff where their coffee came from they had no idea and said “Italy I think”. So true to my coffee snobbery I now get my flat white from a smaller place round the corner. It’s good coffee but I think I was just looking for a reason to defect.
Outside of this snapshot of my friend Ross possibly making a great meme, it shows him holding up a jar of Chilli Jam which he gifted me while visiting this week.
Ross made the jam from this recipe and it was bloody lovely spread on cheese on toast that were then covered in baked beans.
#TheBody
As I hit 2250 days of completing all the rings on my Apple Watch a friend told me he got rid of his Apple Watch as he was fed up of being told what to do. Which I get. But I feel like I need that nudge.
While I struggle to find any direct evidence that closing Apple Watch rings leads to a longer life, I know I feel better for it and a there is evidence to suggest that a habit of daily exercise, regular movement, and reduced sitting time are all strongly linked to improved health and longevity.
A Harvard Alumni Health Study [Lee 1995] said that men who exercised moderately (150–300 minutes of activity per week) had a 23% lower mortality rate than peers that didn’t and according to [Healy 2008], Diabetes Care, breaking up sitting time was associated with lower weight, BMI, and glucose levels resulting in lower risks of cardiovascular disease, diabetes and premature death.
There are a lot more studies out there and although not directly connected to the tech, it’s the tech that has me getting out there. It might be that my behaviour has now successfully been changed and I no longer need a device to tell me.
Obviously there are other brands of nagging watches and wrist bands available …and if you can do it all without needing to gamify… then all power to you.
#TheFound
Remember when I reported I must have ran over my sunglasses as I found them broken in the grass. Turns out mine were perfectly fine and in a little used jacket all along. Weirdly, someone else (with great taste) must have lost an identical pair a while back.
#TheThings
I have booked myself onto a course. Chainsaw Maintenance, Cross-cutting, Felling and Processing Trees. I figure it’s for the safety of me and the wood. I still don’t have a chainsaw though. Any recommendations? And wow the safety gear looks neat. If I can afford it.
We got a robot hoover as a housewarming present. We have named it Chewvacca.
The dog got used to it pretty quickly but still eyes it with suspicion every time it passes.
I didn’t really see the point until we came in from a muddy dog walk and our fur baby traipsed brown footprints through the kitchen. All I needed to do was tap the room on an app. Select mop and hoover and when I returned later to make a cuppa, the bot was sleeping/charging and the floor was spotless.
If you have a perpetually malting dog and your ground floor is all on the same level… it might be a toy worth getting. Although a mop and bucket will also do the job.
Sodium-ion technology is still developing but extremely promising for cost-effective, scalable energy storage or in fact anywhere we currently use Lithium-Ion. Plus sodium-ion batteries can charge to 80% in six minutes and are not prone to catching fire.
#TheThanks
Massive thank you to the paying subscribers who continue to support this dispatch and the adventures/experiments that make it. You know who you are. ♥️
If you are just a ‘follower’ please become a subscriber, that way we can stay connected should I switch platforms.
And if you value these words, ideas and curation, please consider an upgrade to paid…
Or if you prefer more flexibility you can do that via PayPal
#TheWeb
The atmospheric memory that feeds billions of people
AI video realism might soon be indistinguishable from the real thing
Have you added yourself to the Documentally community map?
A drug resistant bacteria likes to eat plastic. But not in a good way
This website does not exist
Have fewer ideas
Some of my other places include these… but outside of those i’m posting very little publicly. That will change in June of course as it’s #AudioMo. I do hope you will join in.
Social media is no longer social
Hyper efficient solar powered desalination system requires no extra batteries to purify groundwater
#TheEnd
Thanks for reading.
After moving to the sticks we’ve had more visitors in the last few weeks that we did over months in the last place. It will continue over the weekend but next week I plan to catch up on sleep and retreat to the wilderness.
Tonight in a rare trip to the pub, I shall be raising a glass in all your directions. Cheers!
“It’s easier to desire and pursue the attention of tens of millions of total strangers than it is to accept the love and loyalty of the people closest to us.” ~ William Gibson
Socialise.
See you out there.
Over…