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:
- The Weird, Recursive "Mad Men" Ads – The New Yorker. "Since Mad Men is about advertising, and since its stars like Jon Hamm and Christina Hendricks are celebrities in their own right, the ads have become a little meta. Okay, more than a little: tone and tenor borrows from a bygone age, blurring the line between show and ad. Who needs product placements when the pitchmen are doing the pitching?" (Alistair for Hugh).
- Where Don Draper ends, D.B. Cooper begins – Medium. "I haven’t watched much Man Men, so this could be a horrible spoiler. I really want to spend a week consuming them, uninterrupted; my undergrad focused on advertising and my uncle was a larger-than-life ad man in the South Pacific. If this speculation isn’t how the show ends, then I really want them to create an alternate ending. It’s so symmetrical, so perfect, that if Lindsey Green‘s conclusion of the show is mere coincidence, something is fundamentally wrong with the universe." (Alistair for Mitch).
- First-ever human head transplant is now possible, says neuroscientist – Quartz. "This week’s links are not for the faint of heart. I have a cousin who got a full lung/heart transplant, which is astounding and terrifying to me. But here’s something… well I don’t even know where to start. The title to this story says it all." (Hugh for Alistair).
- A short film about the monkey head transplant experiment of the 1960s – io9. "The astounding article above is a bit ‘disappointing’… in that the science discussed seems to be theoretical, and not tested. But, if you can stomach it, take a look at this short documentary about Dr. Robert White (referenced in the above article) and his (successful) experiments doing monkey head transplants. In 1970. Don’t watch this if you are squeamish. Even if you aren’t squeamish, be careful watching this." (Hugh for Mitch).
- First Human-Made Object To Travel Beyond Our Solar System – PSFK. "I’m not sure if it’s because I watch too much Star Wars and Star Trek, but I would have thought that we have already had satellites and probes peek past our solar system. We have not. This explains why I probably should have stayed in school, instead of watching Star Wars, reading comic books and playing video games. We’re so used to seeing things like warp speed and more on our favorite science fiction shows, that we forget how little we actually know about space and what is beyond our solar system. The cool news is this: we’re about to find out." (Mitch for Alistair).
- How the Hum of a Coffee Shop Can Boost Creativity – The New York Times. "How inspired are you to create from the corner coffee shop? It’s a cultural thing, isn’t it? Sitting there, sipping a cafe au lait, staring at the glow from the screen as patrons chat, mingle and co-work. The hum of the coffee machines and people’s conversations can be inspiring… or, do they distract you? Well, it turns out that there is some research that demonstrates how hard it is to be creative when it’s quiet and how hard it is to be creative when it’s too loud. Its turns out that that there is a goldilocks theory for your creativity as well. Enter Coffitivity. Perhaps this ambient coffee shop sound generator will boost your productivity?" (Mitch for Hugh).
Now it’s your turn: in the comment section below pick one thing that you saw this week that inspired you and share it.