When it comes to racial justice, how do we transform demonstrations of support into real and meaningful change? With intellectual rigour and razor-sharp wit, Emma Dabiri cuts through the haze of online discourse to offer clear advice. This was a refreshing and necessary book to read. Refreshing because so much of the discourse on race is driven by the USA's cultural hegemony - whereas this book is rooted firmly in Ireland and the UK. While it does cover some of the US experience, it isn't…
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We live at a time when billions have access to unbelievably powerful technology. The most extraordinary tool that has been invented in the last century, the smartphone, is forcing radical changes in the way we live and work - and unlike previous technologies it is in the hands of just about everyone. Coupled with the rise of social media, this has ushered in a new era of deeply personal technology, where individuals now have the ability to work, create and communicate on their own terms,…
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This is a Bad Book. It is probably the most profoundly disturbing book I've read about the misuse of personal data. Not because it exposes the horrors of algorithmic harassment and discrimination, but because it joyfully revels in them. The book's central thesis is that slurping up personal data, without explicit permission, and using that information to target people is a good thing. While books like The Age of Surveillance Capitalism and Privacy is Power are deep, scholarly works which…
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1794, London: Camille and Al are desperately hunting Olympe's kidnapper. From the glamorous excesses of the Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens to the city's seedy underbelly, they are caught in a dangerous game of lies and deceit. And a terrible new enemy lies in wait with designs more monstrous than they could ever imagine... Can Camille play on to the end or will she be forced to show her hand? This is the fast-paced sequel to Dangerous Remedy (Battalion of the Dead, Book 1). We pick up mere…
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This is the extraordinary untold story of the Y-Service, a secret even more closely guarded than Bletchley Park. The Y-Service was the code for the chain of wireless intercept stations around Britain and all over the world. Hundreds of wireless operators, many of them who were civilians, listened to German, Italian and Japanese radio networks and meticulously logged everything they heard. Some messages were then used tactically but most were sent on to Station X – Bletchley Park – where the…
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This is a delightful collection of short stories. It starts with a scholarly introduction to the history of Black Sci-Fi. And, for once, Black isn't just limited to mean "African American". We get a panoply of authors - both modern and historic. Some of the historic stories - especially W. E. B. Du Bois' The Comet - are wonderful. A hundred year old sci-fi that is still as relevant today as it was then Others, are less so. Some of the stories are framed as "proto-science-fiction" - but…
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Short week! Monday was a bank holiday (mostly recovering from my mate Pete's wedding) and Friday was off to EMF Camp. But, I managed to get some work done! LIKE AND SUBSCRIBE! And the accompanying blog post NHS Majority of my time spend on helping run a design sprint for improving some NHS processes with Data Science. At my dark moments, I wonder if we can ever break free of the inefficiencies of paper and fax. Standards Submitted a request to The European Multi Stakeholder Platform…
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