Progress, I guess

At my glamorous day job, I receive a ton of e-mail from PR firms. They pitch articles, send over news items, and announce events and new product launches. Sometimes, they enclose pictures, which is always nice; I can’t remember the last time I actually had to go to the “scanner pantry” to digitize a photo or chart.

Wading through this stuff and still being able to put out a magazine requires some heavy-duty triage. I’ve developed some techniques for clearing out a ton of these items and saving the ones that look interesting or come from firms that I know are going to give me a call two days later to ask me if I read their e-mail (note to PR staff: this is one of the most irritating things you can do).

On Monday, I received an announcement about a laboratory informatics group’s upcoming software user conference in Dubai. It contained the following image from a past event:

“How progressive!” I thought. “They’re letting a ninja attend their conference!”