A writer is a professional spinner of lies. His job: to lay out the truth on a bed of magnificent lies so it is visible… »
Reports on Research
Message from Mars 3
A negative inflection will make a disproportionately stronger impact on the receiver than the verbal content. So the dancer who feeds back “You are rushing me” – which, on its own, is not bad – is likely to do more damage if s/he delivers that in the wrong tone of voice. The last part of… »
Message from Mars 2
Productive communication produces a supportive climate where meaningful and problem-orientated exchanges can take place, and sets the stage for more of the same. Ditto, negative communication. It encourages a defensive climate, leading to more of counterproductive communication and conflict. Tips for the athlete? Five actionable points stand… »
Message from Mars
One of the burning regrets in my life is that I do not speak fluent Venusian. The nuances of the language have eluded me despite my best efforts, and I am slowly beginning to accept that I will never fully comprehend it. I have also realised the average Venusian has little knowledge of the language… »
Why Haruki Murakami lies. Why he writes
A writer is a professional spinner of lies. His job: to lay out the truth on a bed of magnificent lies so it is visible to the world. In many cases it is impossible to grasp the truth in its original form — which is why we try to grab its tail by luring truth… »
The end of childhood
Bhima, our hero, is installed in the palace of Hastinapur, ready to take on the many hardships that life, and the Kauravas, are about to throw at him. It has taken 100-plus tweets to get him this far, and along the journey, epicretold has acquired 1,405… »
Death by research
And this in the name of research — seriously, what’s wrong with these kids? This is the story: technology student builds concrete canoe, goes out to test in dangerous river,… »
Field notes on epicretold
Good news is, this need not ‘work’ to make this work; I need not have a 1,000 followers hanging on to my every tweet (though that would be nice). As someone said to me the other day, the pleasure is in the process… The 5 Ws, H of an attempt at tweeting the… »
Dr Sprint
PhD by publication, I fear, kills the romance of research. The destination is too near, the path too flat and straight to produce anything but ‘normal science’. This is a collation of short-term efforts, a series of sprints — which, though a valid demonstration of academic sportsmanship, invovles a different kind of… »
Why do research?
Thirty-two research staff crowded around a conference table late one afternoon to apply their combined intellectual might to a foundational question: why do we undertake research? Do we do it for others? Or do we do it for… »
