vanderwal.net

In Our Time Loses Melvyn Bragg

I woke a bit early this morning, and as one does when not quite ready to get up and embrace the day, I talked to the lady in the can to play an episode of In Our Time. The episode was preempted with a notification that Melvyn Bragg had retired so there would be an episode from the catalog.

I had completely missed that Bragg had retired on September 3rd. He was doing a lot of wonderful interviews the last few years that I’ve really enjoyed. As I had read them I was impressed how he just kept going and going with In Our Time. Bragg presided over and lead discussion and inquiry into each week’s subject for more than 1,000 episodes.

I got hooked on Bragg and his good interviewing method on The Southbank Show (it was broadcast on Bravo not long after each episode came out). I was pleased to find he had a radio show (In Our Time) and finally sorted out how to listen somewhere between 2001 and 2003, but listening wasn’t easy to do on a regular nor consistent basis.

In Our Time has been an utter gem of an offering as its half hour to hour of in depth and intelligent conversation around a specific subject. Bragg would bring in three academics (usually) with deep expertise on the subject having solid in depth conversations about the subject, while keeping the depth of the discussion to a level it is accessible to non-academic audiences.

I always learned something from each episode I listened to and they give me a better foothold to learn more. I also often look into who the people were that were part of the discussion for deeper dives into their works.

I feel a great sense of gratitude to Melvyn Bragg for all the enjoyment, discovery, and learning his leading In Our Time has brought me. There have been times where I will listen and have no idea what the subject is nor fits into anything I remotely know and in 30 minutes to an hour I have a relatively decent foothold to explore more, it not a solid understanding. I know of little else out like this.

I hope the BBC keeps In Our Time going as it is a real treasure. It won’t be the same without Melvyn Bragg, but it would a complete shame to lose something of this great quality and capability to provide a wonderful way to learn as a great value to civilization.

If you are new to In Our Time the BBC site is a good place to start, as is Braggoscope by Matt Webb who has built a great way to navigate all the episodes of In Out Time.

Second Person Bird Carnival

Sophia took on the September 2025 IndieWeb Carnival with the topic second person birds. I had some different takes, but settled into one…

Growing up on the US West Coast there were two birds I knew of birds that I had never seen, thanks to sports teams. Cardinals and Orioles are the two that stood out. We had robins, scrub jays, woodpeckers, and a multitude of other birds, but there were no orioles nor cardinals.

Moving east for grad school I saw my first oriole, which I found was more rare than I figured. But, cardinals are more abundant.

A few years back I found the Merlin Bird ID app and its ability to recognize bird songs. I hear many different bird calls and songs regularly. During the pandemic lockdown there became even more birds signing and calling out. Merlin helped me find out what my favorite discernible songs were. One I regularly heard and enjoyed, particularly in the morning on walks is the cardinal.

As we started coming out of lockdown I took my son to a workout with his trainer. The training sessions were outside and to fit in to the outside environment he asked, not what music, but what bird song he should play on the speakers. My son didn’t have any idea and he looked to me and I knew exactly what I would want another (second person) to play, the cardinal bird song (go ahead and go listen).

Getting the summary Complexity Lenses - An Overview Out

I finally got a “simple” overview post out and posted today to my Personal InfoCloud site - Complexity Lenses – An Overview – Personal InfoCloud.

This post isn’t really long. It is a short version of a few elevator pitches about my Complexity Lenses / Social Lenses. Today there are more than 90 Lenses (actually just shy of 100) and each have elements that are beneath them and many elements have components under them. My full outline in Outlining Software For Pros - OmniOutliner - The Omni Group has more than 1,500 nodes between the parents (lenses) and children combined.

Getting this boiled down to a few paragraphs is a bit of a chore, to get at a high level explanation why the Complexity Lenses are used to tease apart complex environments to see more clearly through the fog of complexity (and even help make a dent to find something to hold onto in times of chaos). Every attempt to tease this out and whittle it down turned into something I didn’t like. These also turned into something more dense than I wanted.

Breaking it down to sentences

Today I looked at the task item for the Overview on my list and then clicked to look at the current state of the draft (or more like multiple drafts) and decided to take a different route. I took the core sentences and put them into a box in an Obsidian Canvas and honed each sentence a bit. I had about 10 sentences and moved the boxes around to get an order. I put lines between the sentence boxes that would be a paragraph.

I then looked at what I had and started asking the editor’s questions: “What are the Lenses”; “What is the value to people using them”; and down the line was “What is the background”. I didn’t have the first answer to the first question at the top. This helped change my structure, which helped keep things relatively tight (for me). I then realized I had a gap in the middle around what are traits of people who use the Lenses and have success with them look like, so I pulled that in.

I had a set piece around “seeing through the fog of complexity” that often helps start the Complexity Lens portion of a talk, so I added that in. The final paragraph became a mixture of other summarizations I’ve used across the years and edited that down.

Wrapping it and Posting

With this in Obsidian Canvas I copied each sentence back into my draft and wiped the initial variations of drafts I had been trying to bludgeon for months. I did a quick read through and another light edit. Then I moved it into Personal InfoCloud and posted it.

I’m may tweak it a little in coming weeks. But, this post will likely be pinned to the top on the Personal InfoCloud, so I can regularly refer to it. This referring and pointing capability is something I haven’t been able to do and I’m happy to have it now.

Swan Song's AR Design and Creation

I have a serious soft spot for the movie Swan Song (which stars Mahershala Ali and Glenn Close that is set in the near future in the Pacific Northwest. I was a fan of its soft and deep thought invoking exploration of life and replication, but also its near future view of technology. While others have been excited by the Minority Report’s manic augmented reality (AR) interface, the design and use of near future AR as part of work and personal life was really good. To say I was fascinated, may be putting it lightly. Swan Song (2021 Benjamin Cleary film) - Wikipedia was released in 2021 and Apple had yet to have announce Apple Vision Pro with its visionOS and really good graphics and workable interface. The visual and interaction design of what the main character (Cameron) worked in was incredibly good. Once Apple Vision Pro was out it felt like Cameron’s interfaces and interactions were part of the future road map.

The Design Studio Behind the Digital Interfaces and Interaction Design

Being that Swan Song movie was part of Apple Studios - Wikipedia I was believing Apple had a part in the creation of the user interfaces and interaction design of the AR in the movie. But, poking around in Vimeo I stumbled on the design reel for Swan Song - Territory Studio, so I finally found the studio that created the AR and digital design elements in the film.

Territory Studio’s Design Overview

Territory Studio’s page for the high level design overview of what they created for Swan Song is really good. I had been feeling like Swan Song’s design and AR team were more closely tied to Apple as their AR interaction design is very much like Apple’s sensibilities, with a more muted palette from a calm future. A lot of things that are in Apple Vision Pro’s user interface and interaction design patterns seem to have been hinted at, if not felt like they were previewed in Swan Song. But, I’m not so sure of the connection or how specious it may be.

The Territory Studio page has highlights of their visual / virtual design language, personal UIs, home office AR, AR home gaming, speculative hardware, smart watch UIs, and virtual mimoji. I really would love an even deeper dive, as this is much of the virtual interactive world I’ve been waiting for, and been hoping to see come to life for years prior to the film.

There is a whole lot in Swan Song that I loved from the time it was released, which was a couple years or so ahead of Apple Vision Pro being released. The headset-less AR and interaction design is one piece. But, I also was deeply taken by the whole story, cinematography, and feelings the film evoked, but also the keep thinking and consideration it evoked.

Swan Song Demo Video from Territory Studio

The show real from Territory’s work on Swan Song is in Vimeo: Swan Song Breakdown Reel - Vimeo

James’ Gravity Button

Thinking about James’ gravity button, which I find to be fun.

It was in part was inspired by my gravity story about the time I was working in San Francisco and the bottom of a file box I was carrying gave out. Rather than picking up the files and papers, I turned to my desk and picked up the phone and called the property management office for our office to ask them to, “Turn down the gravity as it seems a bit too strong.” I then went and picked up the files and papers and put them back in the box, which I had reinforced the bottom with packing tape.

Gravity could (/ should?) be a controllable element much like a thermostat does with temperature. Right?