Holiday Pause
I hope you and yours had a good holiday, and I wish you and yours a happy and wonderful new year.
There are a few items in the queue I want to write about, including:
A video chat at
as part of one of her classes. I enjoyed this, and hopefully didn’t cause Asha to lose subscribers.Appearing on the Information Professional Association’s The Cognitive Crucible podcast with my co-author Chris Paul where we discussed our article The Irony Of Misinformation: USIA Myths Block Enduring Solutions. Again, another useful discussion will hopefully help foster a more informed discussion around our challenges.
Commenting on the recent Gates Forum event that asked, “what concrete actions can the United States take to reimagine its strategic communications capabilities in an era of resurgent great power competition?” This event commissioned original background papers packaged under the heading, “Reputational Security: The Imperative to Reinvest in America’s Strategic Communications Capabilities.” I haven’t seen or heard of any notes or comments, let alone video or merely audio of this event, but I do want to share some reactions to the background packet.
Though I did share the links to the video and podcast above, I want to include additional context and commentary based on (generally offline) conversations following each event in dedicated posts. These will come after the new year, so you and I have that to look forward to.
On a personal note, I’m writing this on the train back to Zürich, returning from three days in Milan (an easy 3.5-hour train). My brother-in-law’s family flew in before Christmas to spend the holiday with us. We hoped for snow for their visit and were excited when the snow did fall before they arrived. This light snow made for nice pictures on the trails, whether on the gravel bike or running with my dog.
However, unlike parts of the US, we lost our snow before they arrived a week ago when higher temps and rain moved in. Regardless of the season, though, it’s beautiful where we live. I’m lucky I don’t need to load the bike or the dog into the car or a train: I go right out of the door for this.
So, after eating, shopping, and seeing inside and the top of the Duomo, we’re headed home. The brother-in-law, his wife, and three kids (the oldest is ten) leave Saturday evening back to their reality in the US.
I’ll return to my reality on January 2, though don’t expect a note from me until later. I have PhD’ing to do before. Here’s to hoping 2023 will be better than 2022!
PS
The picture for this note is me carrying the Christmas tree from the lot to home, probably the last time I’ll ever do that since we leave Switzerland in July.