2025-11-21 17:01:05
Thanks to the little energy-related facts I get in communications from my electricity supplier, I learned the Kentucky Coal Mining museum has been solar powered since 2017 in what seems like the Scooby Doo double-take of the century.
"It is a little ironic…"
Brandon Robinson, communications director, Interview with WYMT
2025-11-21 06:07:52
I set out on the first of November with noble intentions to share a learning every day. I'd been doing well, my statistics for November were looking like a nice solid block of colour!
But then life happened. Work got busy, home got busy. I was tired and wracking my brains for something I had learned I could share and suddenly it wasn't fun anymore. I was looking for a topic to write about for the sake of an arbitrary self-imposed schedule. I was trying to create content (derogatory).
There's a part of my brain that very much likes the neatness and the patterns and the achievement. There's also the part of my brain that abhors "line must go up" mentality — the pursuit of forward momentum at the cost of everything else.
The unstoppable force hit the immovable object this week and I think I'm done.
Not with writing, not with blogging, not with learning; just with deadlines.
2025-11-18 05:58:50
One thing I always tell people at work (apart from "it depends") is “the closer you get to launch, the less you know”.
This is becoming very apparent at work this week as we start to spec a new product for a client. Unpicking everything that was demonstrated in the pitch and writing requirements, and assumptions — of which there are a few.
As a product nears deployment, the amount of information needed for it to be a success increases exponentially; designers need more answers than strategists, developers need more answers than designers, testers and IT have sooooo many questions.
For this reason, we have to have fuzzier and fuzzier estimates the further out from now we get.
I learned today this is called the Cone of Uncertainty! Developed for the chemical industry in the 1950s, the Cone of Uncertainty (or funnel cone) shows the ideal path but flanked by ever widening "possible" paths.
You will have, undoubtedly, seen this on weather maps showing predicted hurricane trajectories. Very narrow at one end where we can pinpoint the hurricane's actual position now ("known knowns") but more bulbous and indistinct later on as the "known unknowns" begin to affect the trajectory.
So, too, our project plans must allow a degree of flex as we near launch and discover myriad "unknown unknowns" that couldn't have been predicted but must be dealt with urgently.
2025-11-17 04:22:59
Courtesy of Katherine via Nic Chan's "People & Blogs" interview, I learned about intentionally blank pages.
Having read a book or two in my time, I've seen these blank pages; usually a quirk of the way books are bound in bundles of evenly numbered pages that doesn't always align exactly to the number of printed/written pages.
This is a print-only phenomenon — digital books and websites don't have those printing constraints. But, in memory of those pages being lost to the endless march of technology, the "This Page Left Intentionally Blank" Project is calling on us, the webmasters of personal sites, to add an intentionally blank page to our websites.
You can find mine at /blank. What a lovely idea.
2025-11-17 03:45:24
I went for a walk this week; took the dog out early doors, pre-dawn. I thought it was a bit blowy. When I got home my wife informed me there's a yellow weather warning for a named storm coming in.
Storm Claudia took out some trees, cars, and houses. We escaped the worst of it; the bins were thrown around and fence panels dislodged. I had to drag one out of the road at near midnight to prevent accidents.
Visited the new Havas Village Manchester offices this week. They are currently rather sterile and corporate but, hopefully, some personality will get injected once we're are in and "being creative". The weirdest thing, though, is I can see my old house from my new desk…
I threw a roll of film through my replacement Minolta SRT303 and posted it to Photo Hippo for development and scanning. The mirror return mechanism is a little sticky which wasn't mentioned in the listing! It shouldn't affect the final images though, it just creates a bit of an annoying distraction while shooting. Hopefully, it'll not be an issue until I can get it lubricated.
I am now pretty convinced there are two tawny owls; one in the big tree by the field at the end of the village and one in the copse by the cemetery. Although, with a top speed of 80kph (50mph) and near-silent flight, one could have easily beaten me.
The hour is come but not the man
Susan Cooper, "Greenwitch"
2025-11-16 04:08:43
I was skimming through a children's book on demolition today (kids love construction vehicles) and read about the crew hosing the site down to make it less dusty.
So, what's all that about then?
Many of the materials buildings are made of produce particulates when crushed; concrete, stone, wood.
These particulates are hazardous for several reasons. In large quantities they can hinder vision, be harmful to wildlife, and be difficult to clean up. In smaller quantities, they can cause respiratory problems for workers and clog machinery.
Water mixes with the dust in the air and the weight of the liquid pulls the harmful dust down to the floor when it causes less damage and is easier to clean up meaning work can conclude quicker.