James Stewart

When I asked Google AI about winter fauna in the UK. Clever ole internet

Finished in 3 days I reckon

I am Robohiker! — testing the exoskeleton that promises to take hikers further, faster Wearing the Hypershell, the Welsh mountains are like a walk in the park — but is it cheating?

My bit in today's FT on robo-legs, testing exoskeleton tech in Wales with a little help from ai and Edmund Hillary www.ft.com/content/825e...

I bought the insurance policy an hour ago. This doesn't bode well

Not 💯 sure of the target market but anything that enables people to into scenery like this has to be A Good Thing

Walking on flats felt a bit marionette, as if someone was pulling your legs up. But they are almost revelatory on steep ascents - when I turned off the motor it felt like someone was pulling my legs back

Funny old job, this. I spent yesterday playing Robocop on a Welsh mountain to test a new exoskeleton from Hypershell. Carbon fibre & titanium, motors to lift legs, ai tech to sense terrain. E-biking for your legs basically. (Image legs not mine obvs)

Had a request for a review of an airport carpark a few months ago. My car was still where I'd parked it so, um 5 stars?

Mass hallucinations: In search of the rogue AI reporters How a pitch about warring London chicken shops led Steve Dinneen on a journey from Chicago to Kenya in search of a rogue AI reporter

This story is such a wild ride.

On a side note, it slightly narks that AI has properly done for the em dash www.cityam.com/mass-halluci...

From a PR: "We’d be delighted to explore a collaboration with you – offering a 7-night luxury stay in exchange for editorial content that captures the unique atmosphere of the resort that aligns with your creative vision"

Travel journalism has certainly changed since I got into this game

Tourists with cameras are now as bad as the trophy hunters Video of safari vehicles blocking wildebeest in Tanzania has prompted outrage. It’s about time, says Chris Haslam

Safari was a tourism problem. In my jeep at Sri Lanka's Yala a visitor was reduced to tears by 15-20 jeeps jostling for position around a lone honey bear. Is this really what we want from tourism. The wildlife certainly doesn't want it
www.thetimes.com/travel/inspi...

Standard reaction from readers

‘The trick to puffin snorkelling is nonchalance’: Britain’s most exciting wildlife experience Our writer headed to Skomer Island in Pembrokeshire, the ‘Welsh Galapagos’, to experience the biggest puffin count on record

I've done many silly things in this job: slept on a glorified campbed off a Welsh cliff or attempted a ski-jump and backflip (I didn't ski). Wearing a plastic puffin on my head was a first though.

Worth a click, this one, if only for the cracking little video
www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/desti...

My inbox is a binfire

This is not a rant at PR. My point is that useful releases stand little chance of being seen among this amount of dross so things of genuine interest frequently get missed. At the risk of sounding like a dick, the PR industry needs to get its house in order if it wants to thrive

The volume of junk press releases I get now is insane; asking if I'm doing music kit round-ups, releases on mini-fans or just now charcoal-free hookahs. I write about travel.

Most is digital marketing – untargeted spray + pray – and the c.100 emails I get a day are nothing compared to editors 1/2

Slow handclap for the Times' strategists, trashing the paper's brand for a pathetic hit-job and a few extra clicks.

Readers BTL are furious at being taken for fools

Has that changed in recent decades or was it always the case? Triple lock means state pensions have kept pace with inflation. Do other nations offer the same perks for pensioners: free travel, no NI payments etc? Genuine Qs

Rachel Reeves to restore UK winter fuel payments to most pensioners Chancellor’s U-turn means about 2mn pensioners will lose annual subsidy of up to £300

If comments BTL from FT readers are any guide, Rachel Reeves, having pissed off pensioners has now royally pissed off workers. Everyone is pissed off. Slow handclap.

Also if pensioners can’t afford to lose £200pa WFA it suggests they badly failed to plan for retirement? www.ft.com/content/bdf3...

“A Busy, Busy Day at the Airport”

By @rubenbolling.bsky.social, after Richard Scarry.

Genius.

Click in.

What I learnt about Englishness in this bafflingly undervalued region Forget the Cotswolds — further west is equally lovely Herefordshire, untroubled by coach tours and overtourism. A new ebike tour shows off its best bits

They say travel broadens the mind but it's interesting how the best pieces for engagement are on destinations that readers already know: 153 comments and counting for my bit on Monday about Herefordshire www.thetimes.com/travel/desti...

That said, it probably helped that I was there before the madness of July-August

What intrigued me most on my visit was how everyone – recent arrival or old-timer – talked about the island with a sense of wonder. As if they couldn't quite believe it was real

In search of utopia on Denmark’s sunshine island Every June, the country’s political elite quit Copenhagen to ‘listen and reflect’ on the dreamy island of Bornholm — and it’s a treat for holidaymakers too

My bit in the FT this weekend about Bornholm, which for an islophile like me felt pretty close to paradise www.ft.com/content/4edf...

Just went on X for the first time in... well, a long time.

Anyway. Jesus. What a shitshow that place is

A short message to every hotel that moans it never gets any coverage: perhaps provide a media contact on the website?

Thanks for reading

This is such a basic fail of good journalism. There's a massive opp for the BBC to claim the role of trusted source among partial media and AI slop, yet News keeps doing shit like this. See Chris Mason's silly "You've sold out fishing" y'day or plans to create an AI dept offering personalised news

Now THIS is how you do a hotel swimming pool