Best of 2015

Things discovered in 2015 that I found useful, informative, and/or inspiring. Covers books, productivity tools, podcasts, documentaries, and best parenting resource discovery of the year (how to do allowances). PRODUCTIVITY TOOLS Limefuel Blast Pro external battery pack coupled with a four-in-one multi-USB charging cable connector: Purchased for this summer’s trip to Ireland. Easily kept four teenagers’ worth of tech fully charged throughout the day without a hitch. I continue to use it daily for work-related purposes. But definitely too much (and too heavy) if all you need to do is keep a smartphone charged throughout the day. Wirecutter.com: A free […]

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Selfies as a totalitarian tool

“No totalitarian government has ever created a better tool for monitoring than the selfie.” This observation, which is so stunningly obvious that you wonder why you never thought of it, is made by Tim Sutcliffe, host of the BBC’s Start the Week podcast, during an episode that can be loosely described as maintaining privacy in the digital age. Yes, it’s a clichéd topic, but this is the BBC so the discussion is made fresh by Sutcliffe’s expert guests, who include Oxford Institute director Helen Margetts, co-author of Political Turbulence: How Social Media Shape Collective Action and financial journalist Gillian Tett, […]

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