Many links this month - it's been an informative time for me!

Is 85% of US Critical Infrastructure In Private Hands?; society, security, politics; The comments here are fairly good, but it's the basic question that's interesting. Should critical infrastructure be in private hands? If so, how do we ensure that it's secure without constraining business? THis one question raises many more, and I don't really have any easy answers.

How to stop procrastinating by making any kind of work interesting; productivity, lifehacks; This works better than many other solutions I've tried. Just do it, and don't care about the quality. Quality can come later...

FLOSS and linguistic diversity; language, open source; I've been doing quite a bit of documentation and training at work, so this resonates. Fortunately I don't have to get my work translated, but this reminds me that decent documentation solves more problems than you'd think...

How We Live Now: Reimagining Spaces with Matrix Feminist Design Co-operative; exhibitions, culture, architecture; An interesting small exhibition at The Barbican Arts Centre. It reminded me that I need to check my assumptions when designing my solutions.

New tunnel starts digging under south London; infrastructure, engineering; There's a huge tunnel being dug to carry power cables. Because these need to be inspected and maintained, it'll be big enough to walk through. Another reminder that a city is more than what you can see on the surface...

1990: LambdaMOO; gaming, history, culture; An interesting tale of a very old internet text-based game, its technological development, and is highs and lows. This reminds me of Monochrome (which I really should log in to!), but is different enough to be interesting.

Thomas Becket and Magna Carta; history, law, religion; A devotee of Thomas Becket was instrumental in the recognition of the Magna Carta - a curious connection that I had no idea about.

The Way Forward (Network Rail Wayfinding Signage And Rail Alphabet 2, Part 1); typography, design, infrastructure; An interesting review of signage on the UK train networks, and how it's selected. Part 2 is here.

You’re Not Rational; pyschology, transport; An interesting read on the psychology of public transport, and how we're not necessarily understanding people's relationship with it.

Writing from the Age of the Gods; Japan, history, nationalism, culture, writing; An urge to define national history pushed people towards fake ancient scripts. I don't think I'll ever understand nationalism...

Could the pantograph make a return to London’s buses?; public transport, infrastructure; I've been converted to trolleybusses in recent years, but it seems that they really don't need a pantograph for much of their route - which could be very useful. Also the 358 route runs near me, so I might get to ride one of these if they do get put into the fleet!

Full Employment, Capitalism - And Beyond; economics, politics; Is full employment desireable? What issues might it create? Are they really that bad, or do they just threaten traditional power structures?

Laguna del Maule (volcano); geology; Did you know that there's a volcano in South America which is currently undergoing swelling and might erupt? Also, the planet is trying to kill us, and just works on a very slow timescale...

Manchester Victoria’s Telpher; transport, history; I didn't even know what a telpher was. But this is a very interesting solution to the problem of moving large goods and luggage around a train station.

See you in July!