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This Saturday, the BBC's BBC More or Less radio show will be running a chat with host Tim Harford (Tim Harford!) and I on the story of the pocket calculator. It'll be available here after the broadcast: bbc.co.uk/programmes/w3c…. If you have a listen, let me know what you think!

Entirely had enough of the people driving on West Mids roads putting everyone else at risk in their tonnes of metal. We report on it every day - the latest person killed for having the temerity to cross the road. I think it is time we start calling it out much, much, better.

Tomorrow is PODCAST DAY! Alan Alda chats with author Keith Houston about an aspect of communication we rarely think about - the wild world of punctuation! 👉 bit.ly/3tR21Gs After production costs, all proceeds of Clear+Vivid go to The Alda Center.🗣️💙 (Shady Characters)

This, by kate wagner, is magnificent: web.archive.org/web/2024030117….

I guested on Alan Alda's Clear + Vivid podcast recently, on the subjects of punctuation and counting: …r-vivid-with-alan-alda.simplecast.com/episodes/keith…. What a treat, and what an honour! Have a listen and let me know what you think.

Sometimes I get in the mood for some non-fiction and Shady Characters by Keith Houston is just the thing 😊 and yes, my favourite symbol is the ampersand &❤️

#bikesatpollingstations

Democracy Club mySociety TheyWorkForYou Cycling Edinburgh edi.bike | weekly news digest @SpokesPorty Edinburgh Reporter The Edinburgh Minute Critical Mass Edinburgh InfraSisters @magnatom Sally Hinchcliffe @edfoc Dave Walker Cycling UK Cycling Scotland Keith Irving John Robson Safe Cycling South Edinburgh Pedal On Parliament ScottishLabourPress The SNP Scottish Lib Dems Scottish Greens #GeneralElection2024 #GE2024 🙋‍♀️Don't forget to post your🚲#BikesAtPollingStations photos!! .. and, of course, remember to vote! 🙋‍♀️Vote for #saferstreets, active & sustainable transport and an end to the #culturewars weaponising of transport

Now up, Miscellany № 102, in which I report on an exhibition of books at Harvard (now finished), a bookshop in St Andrews (now closed), and some novel bookbinding techniques (now obsolete): shadycharacters.co.uk/2024/07/miscel…. Yes, this one took me longer than I had anticipated. Enjoy!

Happy #worldemojiday to those who celebrate! 🎉 I've written a lot on emoji over the years (here's a representative essay: shadycharacters.co.uk/2020/12/emoji-…), but I'll be publishing a book, FACE WITH TEARS OF JOY (shadycharacters.co.uk/books/face-wit…), in the near-ish future. Watch this space for news!

Goodreads Just finished 5-star microhistory read: Empire of the Sum by Keith Houston. I loved it. Talking with people about their first calculators. What we had in school. Whose dad made us try to learn with an 🧮! 😹 a.co/d/e7UzQ3S

Now up, Miscellany № 103! In which we learn that crows can count (out loud!); microchips are as cheap as chips; and the calculator lives again (if you own an iPad): shadycharacters.co.uk/2024/08/miscel…. (image by Michael Holley.)

🎄🧑‍🎄🎄 To follow the calculator advent calendar I ran last year (shadycharacters.co.uk/series/2023-ad…), I'm planning an emoji advent calendar for this coming December and I need your help! What's your favourite emoji? Which would you like to learn more about? Let me know! 🎄🧑‍🎄🎄

It's national punctuation day! Only, uh, the NPD website seems to have gone dark: nationalpunctuationday.com. But we at Shady Characters do not yield to unpaid domain fees, and punctuation is to be celebrated every day of the year!

Get your annual punctuation journey started today by diving into the Contents (shadycharacters.co.uk/contents/), and let us know: what's your favourite mark of punctuation?

Bombs, books and generative AI! A new post at Shady Characters, and one that takes a look at how this AI malarkey intersects with a rather older information technology: shadycharacters.co.uk/2024/11/bombs-….

It's time to move on from X/Twitter! Thank you to everyone who has followed me over the years, but I won't be updating this account any longer. You can now find me on Mastodon (mstdn.social/@orkneydullard), Bluesky (bsky.app/profile/keithh…) or Facebook (facebook.com/OrkneyDullard/).