Learned this remarkably reliable technique from our guide Rodolfo in the Corcovado in Costa Rica - appropriately, on a Pacific beach lined with palm trees, the sounds of howler monkeys and scarlet macaws flying by. It works just as well in our London apartment.

Update: if you’re not on a beach and have some minimal tools you can rescue more of the water by drilling or poking through one of the three holes in the top and draining it first. Tip from Jose.

Open a coconut

I believe I first heard this on a Radiolab episode, but I can’t remember for sure. Since hearing it, I’ve reflected on it many times and can’t help but think there’s some truth in it.

For me it’s kind of why we’re just not that good at processing the scenery whizzing by from a car or train, and why cycling and walking are just about the best ways of getting around.

Alain de Botton, in The Art of Travel, has some great observations about why trains are so great for thinking, which I think has a lot to do with this - we have time to think, with a helpful intermission of the semi-connected landscape and houses passing by that we can only process for so long before we turn back to our thoughts. I love trains.

Our senses are built to take in information at human pace

Big data + Machine learning + Cloud = Informed, intelligent decisions. As a very minor example of this I have been enjoying the Dark Sky app.

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The big data equation