Author: Matt Rutherford
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Travel: Someone stole a day
It’s a funny thing, my plane took off from Vancouver on Tuesday night – flew for fifteen hours, and I touched down in Sydney on Thursday morning. Someone stole a day.
The International Date Line is a strange thing, an arbitrary line where one side is Monday and the other is Tuesday. I looked it up.
It’s not straight. I’ll say so, it’s so crooked, it stole a day from me.
If you look it up, you’ll see it wiggles its way through the middle of the Pacific Ocean, dodging island groups and wending its way from pole to pole. I’d imagine it is quite carefully managed, it’s OK to have two nations separated by a day, but I’m sure you wouldn’t want your bathroom on Thursday and your kitchen in Friday, you’d never know when the sell-by date of anything was.
As my flight made its way to Sydney, I tried to work out if there was any advantage, any hack I could use to make the date change more advantageous.
However, I did all that thinking on Wednesday – and now it’s been stolen.
Signal from Noise – Tuesday
I’m still travelling, so here are some interesting links I’ve been reading in Toronto…
- Remember Deep Impact? It nearly happened at the weekend… and we didn’t even know. #armageddon #asteroid
- FOCUS! Ten ways to stay focused. #productivity #focus
- Whatever happened to the $100 laptop for education? Here’s how it didn’t pan out. #tech #education
- A UK parliament report on ethical AI – seems important at the moment as people question the edges of technology. #ai #parliament
Signal from Noise – Monday
Curating the web, the best links of the day. Sent from Toronto, whilst travelling.
- Boycotting Turbotax – interesting angle for tax season #taxseason
- Alexa is an amazing boon for blind people. Seems obvious, but a great innovation. #ia #intelligentassistants #accessibility
- Zero point One percent better every day – how productivity gains should be made. #productivity
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Seen: A Quiet Place
This is a review of the film ‘A Quiet Place’ directed by and starring John Krasinski alongside Emily Blunt. None of my reviews contain spoilers and only broad comments on the plot of a film.
A trip to the cinema to see A Quiet Place, the local Oden providing popcorn and pop along with this very unusual movie.
A Quiet Place tells the story of a family that is forced to stay silent to avoid the attention of alien predators in a post-apocalyptic America. The story opens with a defining moment for the family and then continues about a year later as they deal with the aftermath and try to live a normal life.
There isn’t much ‘normal’ going on here, with sign language, CCTV surveillance and elaborate contraptions to maintain a running silence. The aliens, seen a few times are terrifying in their appearance and their speed, as they react to sound with frightening consequences.
It’s an unusual film, with very little spoken dialogue, although some sections with subtitles and a very sparse soundtrack. Your focus is drawn almost entirely to the visuals which are really well made. The leads are truly excellent, with an understandable chemistry in some of the more intense scenes.
The story is kept taut, with a constant feeling of suspense – and there is one scene that kept me physically anxious for a good few minutes. The finale is excellent as well.
Support acting from the kids in the family is really good, and they contribute really well to the overall story.
Great movie – you really need to see this.
Overall. 9/10. IMDb
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Sunday Six Pack #11
Time to relax, pour yourself a coffee and enjoy the Sunday Six Pack, all killer, no filler, just six of the best links curated from a week of reading. Previous editions here.
- Londons prettiest bookshops, a beautiful list of places that I could spend a long time and lot of money – this is now a bucket list.
- The Facebook Liberation Army – a list of #deletefacebook related posts – some interesting reads. Related – Facebook’s problem is not in the US – GDPR connected.
- I’m always fascinated by the secret codes that people use to do their jobs – this article about the markings on container ships that tell stories about the industry. Really interesting.
- World press photo of the year winners – incredible photography
- Excellent outtake from Alien Resurrection as Sigourney Weaver gets nothing but net.
Compiled whilst listening to : RM Hubbert / Cockcrow
The Sunday Six Pack - great reading from across the web, curated for Sunday enjoyment Click To Tweet
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