Month: December 2021

  • TWTW in 2021

    TWTW in 2021

    We made it! 2021 was a journey for all of us – even if you stayed in one place, hunkered down, as events of the world swirled around you.  For the final post of the year I dug into the click data for all the TWTW posts and newsletter issues to bring you the annual…

  • The week that was

    The week that was

    3,837 people accused of witchcraft may be pardoned posthumously centuries after the fact under a new bill put forward in the Scottish parliament. A global study of the plastic-degrading potential of bacteria found that one in four organisms analysed carried an enzyme that could naturally digest plastic. The Sami, indigenous people of Northern Norway, famously…

  • The week that was

    The week that was

    The US is imposing new sanctions on Chinese biotech and surveillance companies involved in the biometric surveillance and tracking of Uyghur Muslims. The Iranian government vowed to impose sanctions against American entities and individuals involved in police brutality against Black people. Everybody was reading Renay Mandel Corren’s obituary. Cracks appeared in Meta’s “warm and fuzzy” depiction…

  • The week that was

    The week that was

    A Beijing University shared that Chinese authorities successfully controlled the weather with extensive cloud-seeding operations prior ceremonies commemorating the founding of the Communist Party to “ensure clear skies and low air pollution.” A Brooklyn neighborhood is at peace again after the source of the high-pitched ‘chirp’ was tracked down to a resident who set up…

  • NYC Restaurant Streeteries

    NYC Restaurant Streeteries

    Back in March, I wrote a post for the SmartNews intranet explaining to my colleagues in Japan the temporary sheds you see on the street outside of restaurants. In San Francisco they were called parklets, here in NYC they are called streeteries. They were built so restaurants could comply with Covid restrictions on indoor dining.…

  • The week that was

    The week that was

    America’s deadly love-affair with guns was in the news again as a 15-year old took a pistol gifted by his parents to school and shot up his classmates. I normally avoid curating violence but the river of avoidable tragedy was just too much to bear: A 71-year old Pennsylvania hunter was shot in the head…