Turn information into meaningful encounters For the last few nights, my 5-year old has asked for the same story. Rumpelstiltskin. If you don’t know it, a young lady is offered to the king for marriage under the pretense that she can weave straw into gold. Given a pile of straw and a deadline of the…

Trace is a ballistics term. It is the bright missiles you see in night firing on the news. The tracer is there to show the soldier where the spray is going and whether it is on target. I have multiple sclerosis. There is nothing wrong with me. I am trace. My MS is a phenomenon of industrialisation, not an inherent medical weakness. I’m a canary. I’m sensitive. In the year 1990, I turned fourteen. I remember seeing a television commercial for Kentucky Fried Chicken. Glistening chucks of…

The Poetry of Alt Text Did you know some blind people have stronger visual functions than sighted people? How is that possible? Vision doesn’t rely on eyes Visual function is not located in the eyes it’s in the occipital lobe in the rear of the brain. The eyes are the camera to capture the information through light onto the rods…

Why the stakes are so high for religious anti-vaxxers Jill* (not her real name) is adamant. She will not be vaccinated. Why? She is a Christian and believes we are now at the end of our civilisation. The vaccine, as she sees it, is the mark of the beast. Jill was brave enough to spell it out for me…

How to spin a mishap into an opportunity to drive loyalty — I put my steaming soy flat white on the desk the other morning. Opened my email. Started crawling through, deleting the daily junk. Yawn. There was one from the company. I opened and skimmed through the announcement from some department with which I was fairly unfamiliar. I scrolled down to…

According to the WHO, mental health disorders affect one in four people. It’s not surprising that the resounding crisis in mental health has also seen an emergence of mental health apps. There are over 315,000 mental health (or mHealth) apps currently available. What are mHealth Apps? Apps are small programs that can be accessed…

Around the world, patient demand is pushing doctors into the digital revolution. But not without some complications. Differences in consumer and practitioner perceptions A comparative survey of how consumers and physicians viewed new technology, including smartphones, genetic testing, privacy, and patient-accessible electronic health records, found that consumers and health professionals differed significantly in their views of…

Social media echo chambers have put the US in a dense fog. Now the 2020 election puts it on the brink of civil war. How do we unravel the mess? The closeness of the 2020 US election, and the level of vitriol, is unsurprising. Think about why. Never in history…

Philosophical breadcrumbs for my children about what is important in life. — Life is confusing, heartbreaking, and beautiful. My job as your parent is to give you unconditional love. And boundaries. You will make your own choices, but these are breadcrumbs to help guide your way. For what it’s worth, this is what I think is important. Always be honest with yourself It’s going to happen that…