You may have heard via the tub-thumping beat of the fashion bongo drums that we are living in the era of the earring. The "awesome earring" no less, according to the Guardian fashion pages.
The newspaper declares - in a manner no doubt geared to bring us out in a blotchy rash of non-conformity - that it is no longer just about what is between your ears that counts but what you wear on them.
It continues: "Being alive in 2018 and not going earring shopping would be like living in New York in the 20's and never going out dancing. Or living above Carnaby Street in the 60's but keeping the curtains drawn and moaning about the racket. Or living through the 00's without spending your entire salary in Topshop.
"You don't get to choose what golden age you live in, you just have to join in with what you get. Which right now means wearing awesome earrings while you discuss Netflix in the 40-minute street food queue for your vegan bowl lunch."
This reporter's thoughts are, either the Guardian is over-emphasising the cultural significance of the earring or we are having a rum deal of it this decade.
Similarly dissatisfied with his lot, it appears, is Tim Berners-Lee, who has been in the papers this week moaning about the World Wide Web. Who is he to complain you ask, whilst juggling your multiple Twitter, Facebook, Snap Chat and Instagram accounts across three phones, a laptop, an iPad and a tamagotchi.
Well Mr Berners-Lee is the man who invented it. He is a modern day Dr Frankenstein if you like, surveying his monster, who has got up from the operating table and is currently wrecking the workshop.
Mr Berners-Lee's main concern about the Internet is the domination of a number of large technological firms over it. He is talking about the likes of Facebook, Google and Twitter who he believes hold the concentration of power in their hands.
He calls for more controls over these Internet giants to stem the tide of conspiracy theories which are stoking social tensions, and allowing criminals to steal troves of personal data.
'Dr Frankenstein' continues that the World Wide Web - which, it is no coincidence, celebrates its 29th anniversary this year - was once a rich selection of blogs and websites, which have now been compressed under the weight of power of a few dominant platforms.
Nothing further demonstrates the relentless garbage shovelling power of the Internet than the story this week of Kate Middleton's fingers. The rumour that all of Kate's fingers were the same length admittedly began in a two-page special in the paper edition of The Sun but it was this information filtering onto the Internet that led to the story going viral.
The garbage element of this story comes in at the point the reader turns his or her attention to the photos accompanying it to find that they do not illustrate, as planned, Kate's identical in length digits, but what looks to the naked eye like a normally proportioned hand.
What was the average social media user meant to think - that Kate was the modern day version of Henry VIII's second wife Anne Boleyn, who had to deal with the daily muck spreading of her courtiers over the rumour she had a sixth finger on one hand and therefore was a witch? The paintings which showed her with the regular five fingers had been charitably doctored, they claimed.
Maybe Kate could do with a pair of "awesome earrings" to act as a diversion. This reporter suggests a currently on-trend pair of mismatched ones, which should take any kind of perceived difference away from her fingers and up to her earlobes instead - like these guys from Jacquemus. One earring is a bright yellow lemon and the other is a silver spiral.
And this look is very easy to recreate at home out of the hundreds of single earrings you have amassed over the years out of fully grown pairs. Take a snap of them for Facebook, Twitter and Instagram otherwise it will be like they were never there.
The newspaper declares - in a manner no doubt geared to bring us out in a blotchy rash of non-conformity - that it is no longer just about what is between your ears that counts but what you wear on them.
It continues: "Being alive in 2018 and not going earring shopping would be like living in New York in the 20's and never going out dancing. Or living above Carnaby Street in the 60's but keeping the curtains drawn and moaning about the racket. Or living through the 00's without spending your entire salary in Topshop.
"You don't get to choose what golden age you live in, you just have to join in with what you get. Which right now means wearing awesome earrings while you discuss Netflix in the 40-minute street food queue for your vegan bowl lunch."
This reporter's thoughts are, either the Guardian is over-emphasising the cultural significance of the earring or we are having a rum deal of it this decade.
Similarly dissatisfied with his lot, it appears, is Tim Berners-Lee, who has been in the papers this week moaning about the World Wide Web. Who is he to complain you ask, whilst juggling your multiple Twitter, Facebook, Snap Chat and Instagram accounts across three phones, a laptop, an iPad and a tamagotchi.
Well Mr Berners-Lee is the man who invented it. He is a modern day Dr Frankenstein if you like, surveying his monster, who has got up from the operating table and is currently wrecking the workshop.
Mr Berners-Lee's main concern about the Internet is the domination of a number of large technological firms over it. He is talking about the likes of Facebook, Google and Twitter who he believes hold the concentration of power in their hands.
He calls for more controls over these Internet giants to stem the tide of conspiracy theories which are stoking social tensions, and allowing criminals to steal troves of personal data.
'Dr Frankenstein' continues that the World Wide Web - which, it is no coincidence, celebrates its 29th anniversary this year - was once a rich selection of blogs and websites, which have now been compressed under the weight of power of a few dominant platforms.
Nothing further demonstrates the relentless garbage shovelling power of the Internet than the story this week of Kate Middleton's fingers. The rumour that all of Kate's fingers were the same length admittedly began in a two-page special in the paper edition of The Sun but it was this information filtering onto the Internet that led to the story going viral.
The garbage element of this story comes in at the point the reader turns his or her attention to the photos accompanying it to find that they do not illustrate, as planned, Kate's identical in length digits, but what looks to the naked eye like a normally proportioned hand.
What was the average social media user meant to think - that Kate was the modern day version of Henry VIII's second wife Anne Boleyn, who had to deal with the daily muck spreading of her courtiers over the rumour she had a sixth finger on one hand and therefore was a witch? The paintings which showed her with the regular five fingers had been charitably doctored, they claimed.
Maybe Kate could do with a pair of "awesome earrings" to act as a diversion. This reporter suggests a currently on-trend pair of mismatched ones, which should take any kind of perceived difference away from her fingers and up to her earlobes instead - like these guys from Jacquemus. One earring is a bright yellow lemon and the other is a silver spiral.
And this look is very easy to recreate at home out of the hundreds of single earrings you have amassed over the years out of fully grown pairs. Take a snap of them for Facebook, Twitter and Instagram otherwise it will be like they were never there.
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