International Women’s Day
Pick Of The Day — 8th March 2024 — On influential women, faked engagement, the algorithm, an interview with CEO Tony Stubblebine, chasing rainbows, revisiting the past, AI twins, microplastics, Samoa, AI, busy bees, useful apps, architecture, shepherd’s delight, whiffling and a leopard.
This series features some of the best of Medium, and the wider world, rumoured to exist outside of the platform. Please note that Eco has a stringent “No AI-content” policy, and will seek to actively avoid any articles we believe to have been partly or fully generated by AI.
Pick of Medium –On influential women, faked engagement, the algorithm, an interview with CEO Tony Stubblebine, and chasing rainbows.
No Fun Friday — this space is left intentionally blank out of solidarity with Medium friend RC Hammond whose account remains inexplicably suspended. RC is a great advocate for the best aspects of the Medium community, has mentored some other writers, and has been a fierce critic of AI content. He is badly missed, and his accounts will hopefully be restored soon.
(TK)
This is Rui Alves on influential women:
Adrian CDTPPW is taking on the bots and faked engagement:
David McIlroy considers the ups and downs of Medium’s mysterious algorithm:
Sebastian's Studio links to an interview with CEO Tony Stubblebine on how to succeed on Medium. The executive summary is “ be yourself”!
Robin Wilding 💎 is chasing rainbows:
Medium tip of the day — Revisit the past
The Professor of Medium says there is a wealth of material to be mined if we delve into our memory:
Outside of Medium: AI twins, microplastics, Samoa, AI and busy bees
In one of the more bizarre stories of the day, it seems that AI twins are now a thing — I could do with a twin to deal with all the grotty/boring/painful chores, to leave me time for the better things in life, like writing:
It seems as though remarkably, ingesting micro-plastics may not be good for us:
Little Samoa had a shock for the leading Democratic contender in the Presidential race:
AI threatens to increase energy demand and climate misinformation:
Scientists have been stunned by the learning behaviour of bees in a new study:
Life Hack of the day –
Anshul Kummar suggests a top ten of useful apps:
Quote of the day:
“Prose is architecture, not interior decoration.” — Ernest Hemingway, Death in the Afternoon
Joke of the Day:
(Health warning — swallow coffee before reading)
“Red sky at night: shepherd’s delight. Blue sky at night: day.”
National Days:
International Women’s Day, National Oregon Day, National Freelancers Day, International Grant Professionals Day, National Middle Name Day, National Peanut Cluster Day, Be Nasty Day, National Proof-Reading Day. (All of these are genuine! The link below provides further details, useful for some of the more obscure ones.)
Did you know?
Due to the humid and moist conditions that a sloth lives in, moss and other similar plants will sometimes grow in its hair. Sloths also have very bad eyesight. These two factors can sometimes culminate in a sloth grabbing its own arm whilst thinking it is a branch and falling to its death!
Word of the Day: whiffling
Whiffling -the behaviour of birds, especially geese, of turning upside down to lose height- the bird rapidly descends with a zig-zagging, side-slipping motion. Sometimes to whiffle, a bird flies briefly with its body turned upside down but with its neck and head twisted 180 degrees around in a normal position. The aerodynamics which usually give a bird lift during flying are thereby inverted and the bird briefly plummets toward the ground before this is quickly reversed and the bird adopts a normal flying orientation. This erratic motion resembles a falling leaf, and is used to avoid avian predators or may be used by geese to avoid a long, slow descent over an area where wildfowling is practised.
Clip of the Day: A leopard wanders in
The most surprising part of this clip is possibly that he took his eyes off his phone long enough to deal with the leopard:
As always, thank you for reading, and enjoy your day.
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Editor’s comment: It is noted that the authors featured above have not consented in advance to their inclusion — I have assumed that authors on Medium appreciate a mention and sharing of your work — but if you do not wish to be featured please let me know and apologies.