Diary Archives - Nathan Nelson

Can crisis be the catalyst we need to fix our food system?

October 17, 2026

Hundreds of small chopped salad ingredients arranged in a grid on a wooden surface, including vegetables, olives, eggs, and cheese

Over 180 organisations, academics, farmers and community food leaders have written an open letter to Prime Minister Andy Burnham voicing the concern that “the UK is complacent and unprepared for the food emergencies we know are coming”. The letter demands a range of actions from the inclusion of food in the National Risk Register to …

Make your Gmail more private

June 5, 2026June 5, 2026

Proton, the Swiss encrypted and privacy-aware email service, now lets you read and reply to your Gmail emails from within Proton. If you’re looking to wean yourself off Gmail, or just curious about trying an alternative, this could be a good place to start: anyone you reply to will still receive your messages as Gmail, …

Settled

May 17, 2026May 16, 2026

A person reclines in a chair, bathed in the glow of a television set, with a lit lamp behind them — captured in black and white in an old Maxell advert. The scene suggests they're being pushed back in their chair by the sound.

We’ve moved a lot, over the years. A lot. I don’t think I’ve been settled in one place for more than a few years since I left home. It’s been the same for H as a forces child. You develop rituals that tell you when you’ve settled in. Maybe it’s the last of the packing …

Balloons

May 14, 2026May 6, 2026

A black and white photograph, apparently from the early 20th century, showing a person sitting at a desk writing, wearing a large padded helmet that completely encases their head. The helmet has small goggles over the eyes and a breathing apparatus over the mouth, connected by a tube to a gas cylinder on the left. A desk clock, telephone, and other office items are visible on the desk.

…results suggest that people do flit from one task to another more frequently than they did in previous decades, and that this switching is often detrimental to performance. But there is little evidence that the brain’s fundamental ability to concentrate has been impaired. This suggests that if we can shut down the distractions of our …