Have now been contacted 5 times about this: 2 texts from hosp, text from NHS, emails from both. The letter's been sent via Patients Know Best, the NHS app, and as a PDF attachment w conflicting info about the xray time. I got a letter by post too, but that was about an appointment in the past.

Maybe they were envisioning a sovereign ha-ha, but really couldn't use that term! en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ha-ha

But also: absolutely no recognition of the huge precarity of the current AI moment, or the fact that this is a 70-yr-old technology going through another round of the hype cycle.

Why are medical letters still so convoluted?? "..a face-to-face appointment has been arranged for 28th April at 1:00 in the afternoon with an x-ray on the day 1 hour before the appointment." Try: "an in-person appointment is booked 28 April at 1pm, with x-ray at 12pm." #ClearLanguage #Content

Did you know I've created an online course in user-centred design? It's modular, self-paced, and currently on offer at £55 until 31 March. Share it with your CEO! Or a team lead with spare training budget to use up? #UCD #DigitalTransformation #Agile #UsersFirst #UserNeeds #Design #UserResearch

Did you know I've created an online course in user-centred design? It's modular, self-paced, and currently on offer at £55 until 31 March. Share it with your CEO! Or a team lead with spare training budget to use up? #UCD #DigitalTransformation #Agile #UsersFirst #UserNeeds #Design #UserResearch

🚨'Nearly Passivhaus' is a false economy! 🚨' Read our summary of a recent Passivhaus Trust position paper that outlines the financial and performance risks associated with not fully implementing ALL eight Passivhaus principles. https://www.passivhaustrust.org.uk/news/detail/?nId=1554

Fabulous 10 Things on service level agreements for #content team requests in @lapope.bsky.social’s newsletter today!

It's just got no style... "This XML file does not appear to have any style information associated with it. The document tree is shown below. <Error> <Code>AccessDenied</Code> <Message>Access Denied</Message> </Error>" This page is the Companies House eReminder Service activation link url. 🫠

Celebrating mothers still with us and not, including adoptive and foster mums, as well as mother figures in all their other shapes and sizes, esp single parents and anyone who had to be their own mum, or who had primary responsibility for looking after siblings. 🌸🪻🌷🌻🪴☀️ #Diversity #HappyMothersDay

Spring price reductions on my modular online pathways to #UserCentredDesign and #ContentDesign this weekend! £65 each, usual price £95. cakeconsultancy.com/cake-courses 🎂 🍰 🫖 #Training #UCD #DigitalTransformation #Design #Courses

If you have a few minutes on this fine Friday, you could do worse than have a browse at the wonderful drawers photos here. They're... really nice! Ok, ok, I'm a drawers geek and only just realising it. pexels.com/search/drawer

Also now available in blog post form...

Another #content analogy! Yesterday I cleared out a drawer. Did I poke around in the drawer, taking an item out at a time, dusting it off, putting it back in?... Did I take out a few items that felt related to each other and put them back in together?... (1 of 2)

Now a little blog post 😀 🥕 🔤

#Content maintenance analogy slash metaphor coming up. I had a countertop food waste container I semi-regularly emptied into my garden compost bin. That is, when it couldn't be squashed down further. This became a problem. I alleviated it not with a bigger container... (1 of 2)

Classic Snoopy 😂

So that’s that, right? We don’t have to put up with endless drivel about how expensive it is to save the planet abd ourselves ever again? Cool.

As I've mentioned previously, I'm not a fan of the title field on #forms. It asks for unnecessary information (so fails GDPR), plus loads of companies asking for a title still haven't heard of non-binary. But the mind truly boggles why I have to provide a title for a kerbside pallet pick up... 💁🏻‍♀️

#Climate change could make nearly 20% of Colombia’s current cocoa-growing land unsuitable by 2050. But the outlook is not all negative, with higher-elevation shifts, wild #cacao and agroforestry offering #adaptation options. DOI: doi.org/10.1007/s101...

It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it.

New bird feeder! Charity shop teapot with chipped lid (£3) #birds #CottageCore

It’s not a tulip bulb!!! 🙀😖😆

Had a crème brûlée croissant this morning that changed my life ama

Backyard birding 🇨🇦 Northern Flicker (Intergrad), Balck-capped Chickadee and Common Redpoll #birds #BirdPhotography #Nature #Canada

Another Phoenix sighting ☀️🐦‍🔥

The thing is, a lot of LLM users actually think it’s capable of God-like intelligence, and that’s clear from the ways they interact with it publicly

Boilerplate email copy to UoB alumni team if other former students would like share similar views. [email protected] "As a University of Birmingham Alumni (Class of XXXX, BA Hons XXXX), I was disappointed to hear and read of Chancellor Tickell's bias against students... (1 of 2)

Education changed my Dad’s life opportunities, and as a result my own. He studied as a scholarship student at one point in his educational journey which made all the difference. He went on to teach, lecture, author academic books and become an arts correspondent.

And there’s Keith whose career went from coal miner to access course to professor of history. Adam Tickell wouldn’t have wanted either of them.

Spot on 🧵 I've seen education transform peoples lives. People this chap would gladly leave behind. People I bump into who tell me how improved their lives are since I worked with them on Access to HE courses at an FE College in Bristol.

Do you have a favourite embarrassing, unflattering, or unhinged image, gif or quote from a tech overlord? Please can you share it with me? It's for A Thing. The more cringe the better.

1980s pencil kitchen tools. www.presentandcorrect.com/products/pen... Bottle opener, tin opener, oyster shucker (?!), corkscrew. Limited stock.

1906: "Books have become the modern narcotic." Novels were compared to opium, alcohol and cigarettes and parents wanted restrictions on children being able to read them.

Unexpectedly have some availability! Let me know if you’d need content strategy, UCD coaching and training, or content design support, I’d be happy to help if and where I can.

What is the point of putting an Ai into the app where people move things around on a board, and not having it do even that? POINTLESS arrrrgh Fuck, this bubble better burst soon

Sorry I'm not more open-minded about LLMs, it's just some fucking maniacs shoveled out a bunch of useless bloatware featuring that technology, did not give me any chance to opt out, reorganized the entire economy around it, zeroed out gains made by green energy, and made it impossible to buy RAM

Why reading matters – for children, adults and communities That thirst to read is one of the most enduring gifts that books give us northeastbylines.co.uk/culture/book...

Occasional reminder that some of the original drawings from my Objects from Films series are for sale at my store: marcusmerritt.bigcartel.com/category/obj...

Researchers have developed an Ocean Equity Index to measure how fair ocean initiatives are across 12 criteria. The tool can be used by governments, companies and Indigenous or community groups, and its authors hope it gains global traction. Experts note equity remains difficult to quantify.

Thought I wasn’t getting any interaction on LinkedIn but turns out I had notifications turned off 😂

Just bought some flowers on the internet. Hope they will be good uns! Alpine mix, lupins, wildflower seeds...

Getting excited about my next trip to Germany this May! Will be visiting family and friends in Frankfurt area plus Karlsruhe and Augsburg. The Black Forest and Neuschwanstein Castle are happening too! Keen to purchase a cuckoo clock, even though it's something said family and friends disparage. 🏰🌲🌲

Bug of bugs! I seem to have been unwell since 1 January, though it fluctuates. Today I slept for 9 hours in the daytime after being very unwell overnight. Took a Covid test the other day but negative. Anyone else on this rollercoaster? The fun includes a very tickly cough.

Memorial to 72 victims of Grenfell fire to be funded by new legislation

Got a LinkedIn request from a ‘Tech Specialist’ at a ‘technology consultancy’ that “accelerates business value”. Just no. I am a user-centred practitioner, come back when user needs are your starting point, not inserting random tech.

So great meeting up with my current team in real life in Bristol! Work was done, post-its taken away, pies eaten, harbour socialising enjoyed.

So I watched the new Wuthering Heights film. Apparently the director portrayed what they interpreted from the novel at 14. That’s not how I interpreted it! All depth missing, just seemed silly.And that’s before considering Heathcliff’s race change. Most of the seminal lines weren’t in it, either.

My short courses in writing for web and content accessibility have been selling really well lately, hooray! Explore Cake user-centred design courses yourself on the website. 🍰🎂 #UCD #ContentDesign #Accessibility #Usability #WritingForWeb #Usability #UXWriting #Readability

On the way to Bristol! First time for 20 years! I remember last time there meeting a uni friend interviewing for the same British Council role as me, she was already back then exploring Passivhaus off grid living!