More Stories, Less Data

MikeachimThe Everyday8 Comments

 The stars we are given. The constellations we make. – Rebecca Solnit I worry about data. As everything gets faster and more hectic online, as friends and companies and apps and professional deadlines push for quicker updates & ever-more-frantic feedback, we’re pressured to publish not stories, but raw data. Stories are things made from raw data – crafted, hammered into … Read More

Hope In The Time Of Tranquility

MikeachimThe Everyday8 Comments

In February 1908, Amalgamated Press of London started printing an extraordinary series of books. Released in fortnightly parts, the Children’s Encyclopedia aimed not to cross-reference but to teach. Its 760+ articles aimed to give its pre-school readers a thorough grounding in those subjects its authors considered to be the building-blocks of middle-class culture, including history, the natural sciences, industry, mathematics, … Read More

Oh Dear: A How-To-Not Guide For ITB Berlin

MikeachimThe Everyday14 Comments

I’m handed a leaflet on Egypt. (Thanks). I pass suits, hotdogs, more suits, and enter another well-lit carpeted cavern. I’m handed a leaflet on Germany. (Uh, thanks, yes, I’m somewhat aware of the place). I thread between suits and skirts, deeply self-conscious of my hoodie and rucksack. I’m handed a leaflet on…I don’t know where, since I pop it into … Read More

Clueless (And Loving It) in Berlin

MikeachimThe Everyday18 Comments

He points at me – no, past me. A blast of German. “I..don’t speak…” “The train station is closing”. I turn around and head back out of the Alexanderplatz U-Bahn, running just far enough ahead of the advancing officials to buy a sandwich from a kiosk. I’m dimly aware I have a good walk ahead of me. How full is my … Read More