Anti-social media. When social goes wrong and anonymous isn't

Get back under your fucking bridge.

In some parts of the internet there is a prevailing atmosphere of nasty. Have a look at the less salubrious areas of Facebook, twitter or in the comments section of any news organisation and you’ll get the measure of the beast. Highly misogynistic, racist, bulling, territorial, hate filled garbage. It’s unpleasant to stumble into accidentally, like something nasty you scrape off your shoe into the gutter on a hot summer day, it’s a lot scarier, threatening and horrible if directed at you, like the nastiness on your shoe is replaced with an industrial scale muck spreader on auto-feed. 

Clever investment, cool stuff and why bigger isn't better

I use this when I want to get out of doing the dishes.

There are times when one despairs of sensible investment in the UK. The talk of throwing over £40 billion into HS2 and the ongoing debate as to the best location for airport expansion in South East England can easily lead one to think that all politicians are obsessed with big dumb investments and value posturing in front of vast steel and concrete white elephants above prosperity and opportunity for all. Then you read about some under reported but very clever investments HMG has made in UK high tech industries. Like the £36m various bodies like the office of the Mayor of London and SE development agencies put into Inmarsat ( read more here http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-23380147 ) or the £60m HMG Treasury put into the SABRE engine ( more here http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-23332592 ) which are two or three orders of magnitude smaller than the grand gestures proposed for UK transport infrastructure, but have the potential to deliver vast benefits for the UK in terms of wealth, opportunity and advancement.

Zen and the art of Zombie special operations.

A PhD in Operation Market Garden? That'll do nicely

My name is Ed Fowler; I am a long term computer game addict. There I’ve said it. Not exactly controversial to those that know me but it’s still a strong statement of position. It’s not a harmless vice, It’s not without real world effects as well. For example during a blissful three months “gardening leave” when the dot-com bubble collapsed I had an extended period of doing bugger all at home. I could have used the time to up-skill, learn a language, get fit or actually do some gardening.  I spent it getting Zen-good at Return to Castle Wolfenstein. An admirable investment in total pointlessness I'm sure you’ll agree.