Six Links Worthy Of Your Attention #205

By Mitch Joel.

Is there one link, story, picture or thought that you saw online this week that you think somebody you know must see?

My friends: Alistair Croll (BitCurrent, Year One Labs, GigaOM, Human 2.0, Solve For Interesting, the author of Complete Web Monitoring, Managing Bandwidth: Deploying QOS in Enterprise Networks and Lean Analytics), Hugh McGuire(PressBooks, LibriVox, iambik and co-author of Book: A Futurist’s Manifesto) and I decided that every week the three of us are going to share one link for one another (for a total of six links) that each individual feels the other person “must see”.

Check out these six links that we’re recommending to one another:

• United States Of Secrets – Frontline. “How did America’s security apparatus move from a constitution of liberties to a monitored society?Frontline‘s two-hour look at the slippery slope that took us to a surveillance state is fascinating, and surprisingly candid. ‘What we’re doing is awful, and I think highly effective.’ This is the first of a two-part series — and thankfully- available outside the US.” (Alistair for Hugh).
• Why Don’t We All Have Cancer? – Vsauce. “F cancer, right? Well, asVsauce explains in their usual hyper-kinetic way, cancer is pretty complex. And the main reason we don’t all have it is that we’re dying all the time. A great nine-minute look at a subject that touches us all.” (Alistair for Mitch).
• Don’t Diss Cheap Smartphones. They’re About to Change Everything – Wired. “What happens when powerful networked computers get put into the hands of millions/billions of people who might not even have access to regular electricity? We’re about to find out, and it will be transformative – for ‘us’ as well as ‘them.'” (Hugh for Alistair).
• Sarah Millican: Twitter was a pin to my excitable Bafta balloon – RadioTimes. “The headline to this essay should be: ‘Don’t be an a-hole.’ Female comedian is nominated for British Academy of Film and Television award. Buys a dress at a discount store (because she’s a struggling comedian, not a gazillionaire), attends the event, gets photographed on the red carpet. Wins the award. Is thrilled!… Logs on to Twitter to find herself torn apart by thousands of jerks for having a bad dress and not being as skinny as Kate Moss. Here is her response.” (Hugh for Mitch).
• Scientists discover how to turn light into matter after 80-year quest – Imperial College London. “What people don’t often think about when they think of science (or ‘if’ they think of science), is this: what we commonly held as deep facts and beliefs are – more often than not – eventually rebuked or changed in science. Yes… in science. The world is flat, right? Close to one hundred years ago, someone said that light could be turned into matter. It was thought to be scientifically impossible. Well, guess what? And, once again, we’re all left thinking the same thing: if that fact was actually fiction, what else do we hold as ‘facts’ in today’s world that will prove to be wrong in the next short while? If science and technology has anything to do with it, it looks like we’ll be seeing a whole lot more of factbusting going on.” (Mitch for Alistair).
• Google exec’s tantrum becomes Twitterverse plaything – New York Post. “I was once booked to speak at a paid event, and when I showed up there were only two people there. Two. I thought it was a mistake. Why would any event book and pay a speaker if only two people are going to show up? It was also a little embarrassing, as you can imagine. It turns out that this event was always a tradeshow, and they were trying to introduce the concept of a conference as well. but they did a terrible job at promoting it, so the vast majority of attendees didn’t even know that it was going on. I felt bad for the organizers and I scrambled to make the event less about me speaking to an audience and more about helping them to solve some problems. #iamgoogle. Do a search for this hashtag… it’s pretty harsh (and hilarious). Speaking (or having a senior position at a cool company, likeGoogle) has an interesting way of inflating one’s ego. Life is filled with moments that can give an individual a big head. Suck it up? Grin and bear it? Have some humility? Sometimes, it’s just hard. This is one of those cases, but it played out online (of course) and it has taken on a life of its own. Sadly.” (Mitch for Hugh).

Feel free to share these links and add your picks on Twitter, Facebook, in the comments below or wherever you play.