“Amateur comes from the Latin verb amare, “to love.””

Professional Things

Gave a presentation on AI for Good at Brasenose College to Oxford undergrads and graduate students (the same presenation I gave in Reading back in December).

Pointing at things.

Pretty good engagement, and decent attendance. Lots of students with skills and interests that would be well aligned for the domain, but who don’t know much about what jobs exist it in the space.

Ended up passing on contacts to some interested students after the talk.

Also spent some time this month writing a report for the German Federal Ministry for Digital Transformation and Government Modernisation (BMDS) on Rules as Code, after they reached out looking for input on implmenting Rules as Code in Germany (or Law as Code, as they call it). It turns out that my G7 policy paper on the topic has got some traction, including this article which refers to me as one of the “heaviest hitters in the Rules as Code space”, which I find amusing.

Assessment of German legislation most suitable for Rules as Code.

Student AGF projects also kicking off and will be running for approximately six weeks.

Canary Islands + Diving in Ocean

Travelled to the Canary Islands with some friends for a long weekend holiday (given that mid-February flights from Birmingham were £40).

Arriving in Tenerife.

Driving in Tenerife.

I also managed to go diving for the first time, after convincing a Tenerife BSAC centre to do an open water lesson with me in the short time I was there (after a massive storm). Even though I had to focus on Ocean Diver Training lessons (regulator recovery, buddy rescues), it was an amazing experience. On my second dive, I got to plan a route including a decompression stop.

Despite trying, I did not see a turtle.

Shrimping Business

I unforunately have terrible news, one of my three pet shrimp died. This is apparently fairly common when introducing neocaridinia to new tanks, as they are very sensitive to parameter changes.

A mistake.

Learning from my mistakes, I’ve now acquired more equiment to make my aquarium more sustainable. I now test parameters (ammonia, nitrates, nitrites, chlorine, total hardness, and carbonate) regularly, have an airstone, and have bought two new ammonia-absorbing plants.

The water is quite hard and alkaline, but its what these guys are used to since they come from a local aquarium (also apparently neocaridinia tend to prefer parameterts in this direction).

Other shrimp are still healthy and loving life.

Other Life

Our house art wall is coming along nicely.

Went to London to pickup a bike for my flatmate’s birthday.