By the end of the day tomorrow one of these 4 birds will hold the #WorldCupOfBirds aloft.
πΉπ³ The Cream-colored Courser.
π°π· The Oriental Magpie.
π¦πΊ The Laughing Kookaburra.
π§πͺ The Common Kestrel.
Which one will it be?
Let's find out.
πΉπ³
In flight, the Cream-coloured Courser has jet-black upper primaries and underwings.
This is the last thing that the Andean Condor and the Golden Eagle saw in this tournament, as two of the world's most impressive raptors saw defeat at the hands of this diminutive wader.
π°π·
I would not have picked the Oriental Magpie as a semi-finalist, but then again I am not one of the smartest birds on the planet.
I'm starting to get the feeling this bird knows *exactly* how the game works.
Related to the last tweet, the 6 year-old just tested positive for COVID.
2022, folks.
2022.
We've both been a little sick. He had a night of coughing two days back, hopefully that was the peak of it and we'll have a smooth ride to testing out.
My PCR was negative but I'm definitely under the weather.
Worth saying that as a family we've had many negative LFT tests over the last few days. I think these things are helpful but false negatives are for reals my friends.
It's the first Monday of the year, so I'm going to try to conjure some things into reality for this strange and alliteratively new year:
1. Living in Data was translated last year into Mandarin for the Taiwan version. I'd love to see it in Spanish and Japanese and ?
2. Still on Living in Data, the paperback comes out from Picador on May 3rd. We didn't get a tonne of mainstream reviews of the hardcover... I'm hoping we can rustle some more up for this release.
If you want a review copy, please let me know!
3. I'm working on a new book project, about birds and counting: specifically how the premise of 'nature as inventory' mediates our relationship with wildlife.
If you're a researcher who's involved in interesting work counting π¦π¦π¦, I want to know about it!
I had a new therapist in the spring of 2020. He wasn't a perfect fit, but I was making progress & feeling better than I had for the previous months. In our last meeting in early March, I told him I was having trouble trusting any kind of stability.
"What if it all falls apart?"
He sent me a text message the next day saying he had a fever. He thought he might have COVID. He did. He was the first person I knew to get the virus.
By the time NYC shut down I was already in quarantine.
I've written publicly before about my mental health struggles. I have severe depression & anxiety, which I manage with medication, meditation, and a lot of support from family and friends.
This already tenuous safety net has been pulled every which way over the last 21 months.
Here are a few book pairings for you to consider if you're ordering Living in Data in the next two weeks. Because the only thing better than a new book is two new books!
And the only thing better than two new books?
(You get the point!)
1. If you want to use Living in Data as an on-ramp into deeper discussions about AI & ethics, and about how data systems are entangled with labour, resource extraction and capital accumulation, may I recommend @katecrawford's AI Atlas:
2. If you're determined to re-wire the way you think about data and the ways you work with it, @laurenfklein and @kanarinka's Data Feminism will give your brain a hard reboot into a more justice-oriented data frame of mind.