This week’s editorial musings from magpie’s nest<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Tonight’s busy<\/mark><\/strong> Lots of good things happening today (thursday): Candice Lin\u2019s installation opens at the Jameel<\/strong><\/a>, there\u2019s an open mike night at the Fridge<\/strong><\/a> (spot Dubai\u2019s next big thing?) and a PowerPointless<\/strong><\/a> at the Courtyard (always very funny), and we\u2019re midway through the current Laughter Factory tour<\/strong><\/a> \u2013 it’s Abu Dhabi tonight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Look ahead<\/mark><\/strong> The Jameel\u2019s Creative Career Days<\/strong><\/a> is back, a useful intro to careers in the creative sphere for kids, students and parents. The reinivented Sophie Ellis-Bextor<\/strong><\/a> should deliver a fun evening at Dubai Opera. The exceptional (and exceptionally scary) Woman in Black<\/strong><\/a> is well worth booking; LA Dance Project is bringing its much-garlanded Romeo & Juliet Suite<\/strong><\/a> to Dubai; and in November there\u2019s Martin Garrix<\/strong><\/a> at the Atlantis and Lang Lang<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0(with Disney) at the Etihad Arena.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Trim the top of Google<\/mark><\/strong> You may have noticed that the first few results from a Google search are usually ads and AI-based irrelevancies. Seems it\u2019s possible to avoid them and get straight to the good stuff; just add &udm=14<\/strong> to your search, so “how do you clean a fabric sofa &udm=14” and Google will (usually) omit content known to be AI-generated or advert-heavy<\/p>\n\n\n\n Pay-monthly rentals<\/mark><\/strong> A property rental and management business called Keyper<\/strong><\/a> has launched a Rent Now Pay Later (RNPL) Marketplace for Dubai; it gives tenants the option to pay their rent in 12 monthly instalments (via a credit card) \u2013 no need to fund a hefty year-up-front prepayment. Hooray!\u00a0Currently there are just over a thousand properties listed, ranging from AED 3,500 pm (studio in International City) to AED 257,834 (four bed villa in Jumeriah Islands). Browse here<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Draw ahead<\/mark><\/strong> Canva surveyed more than 3,700 business leaders from 12 countries (which didn\u2019t include the UAE, as it happens) for its Visual Economy Report 2024<\/strong><\/a> (link here<\/strong><\/a>). We\u2019re going to be looking at this in some detail, but the headline seems to be that a whopping 82% of them have used AI-powered tools to produce visual content in the past year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n More predictably, given that it\u2019s Canva who ran the survey, 77% said communicating visually has increased business performance in one way or another (basically accelerating content creation, more engagement, and\/or better collaboration).<\/p>\n\n\n\n The report itself is a decent enough advertisement for Canva, too, though some might prefer a simple downloadable non-interactive non-animated PDF. They\u2019d be well antwacky, of course.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A game for the weekend <\/mark><\/strong>Which came first of the two factoid images? Find out here<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n Brainache remedy<\/mark><\/strong> We asked which six-letter girl\u2019s name would begin this list: ——, had, inland, ran, man,\u00a0pain<\/strong>. It’s Olivia<\/strong>; these are all words than can have another letter added to the front to make a country (and the sequence is alphabetical).<\/p>\n\n\n\n Things we didn\u2019t know, no.94<\/mark><\/strong> On average, 23% of the world\u2019s households don\u2019t separate their waste into recyclables and compostables, says the Lloyd\u2019s Register Foundation World Risk Poll<\/strong><\/a> (part of the Gallup World Poll). We\u2019re particularly bad, with 53% of UAE households binning their waste without separating it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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