Six Links Worthy Of Your Attention #19

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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, Rednod, GigaOM, Human 2.0, the author of Complete Web Monitoring and Managing Bandwidth: Deploying QOS in Enterprise Networks), Hugh McGuire (The Book Oven, LibriVox, iambik, Media Hacks) and I decided that every week or so the three of us are going to share one link for each other (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:

  1. A guide to the misguided criticism of the Stewart/Colbert rally – TBD. "I’m going to provide a couple of political links this week, because of the extraordinary rally that began as a post on Reddit and made its way to Washington, D.C. This piece by Ryan Kearney is an interesting look at what happens when the pundits are satirical, and the satirists tell too much truth. With both sides of the U.S. political divide calling for Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert to cancel their rally, it’s clear too-serious pundits don’t know what to make of the event. A furore over centrism? Shock and awe over common sense? It’s a great read, with lines like ‘just who does Jon Stewart think he is?’ and ‘is this the best the liberals can do?’ (Alistair for Mitch).
  2. Noam Chomsky Has ‘Never Seen Anything Like This’ – Orwell’s Dream. "Now for the flip side. Noam Chomsky has a bleak take on the state of affairs in the U.S. He doesn’t take sides, and he doesn’t let anyone off easily: ‘I don’t bother writing about Fox News,’ he says. ‘It is too easy. What I talk about are the liberal intellectuals, the ones who portray themselves and perceive themselves as challenging power, as courageous, as standing up for truth and justice.’ Ouch. Reading these two links, back to back, and thinking about the rally that’s happening in D.C., is an interesting exercise in modern politics." (Alistair for Hugh).
  3. Chinese May Have Fastest Supercomputer, Nvidia Says – Bloomberg. "China’s emergence as a global financial superpower has been extraordinary in the past decade, and will continue to shape our lives in ways we don’t expect in the coming decades. But to date China hasn’t been known – at least in the West – for cutting edge innovation (this may be perception more than a reality, I don’t know). But this is one of the first major technology stories I’ve seen that suggests that China is about to start flexing its innovation muscles. They’ve built, apparently, a supercomputer that set a ‘performance record of 2.507 petaflops, or more than 2 quadrillion calculations per second.’ That’s a lot more petaflops than I’m used to seeing. We live in interesting times." (Hugh for Alistair).
  4. The Universal Mind of Bill Evans – The Office of Frank Chimero. "Designer Frank Chimero posts some great old interviews with jazz pianist Bill Evans, talking about craft and creativity. Style, substance, simplicity, and truth. ‘It’s better to do something simple if it’s real.’" (Hugh for Mitch).
  5. Macrowikinomics Murmuration – YouTube. "I’m falling madly and deeply in love with the latest book from Don Tapscott and Anthony D. Williams titled, Macrowikinomics. While it’s the follow-up to their best-selling book, Wikinomics, I like how Macrowikinomics looks at institutions beyond business to identify the changes that technology and Social Media are causing in our world. If they made this video as a book trailer, it certainly did catch my attention. It really is beautiful to watch." (Mitch for Alistair).
  6. Flowchart: Understanding the Web, for Fans of Charles Dickens – Fast Company. "I’ll be honest here: I didn’t event look at this article (let alone read it). I saw the headline and thought to myself, ‘if this was not written for Hugh McGuire, I don’t know what was!’ You’ve got classic literature, the Internet and an infographic. How could it not be perfect for Hugh McGuire? All that’s missing is a rugby reference!" (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.

10 comments

  1. My share is a strange one this week. Okay, maybe not strange exactly, but different for sure.
    Here’s the link:
    http://cometbranding.com/blog/lebron-nike-v-public-opinion/
    It’s a blog post from my friends at Comet Branding in Milwaukee that highlights the attempt of a huge multinational company and brand to influence public opinion.
    I am not really a big basketball fan so I don’t know exactly what his “situation” was, but I can tell you that it definitely has to do with his personal brand. And I can tell you that I realize that there will likely be several instances in my life where our company of brands and my personal brand will be in need of excessive transparency to get through a “situation”.
    If you have time to watch the video, 93 seconds, I found it to be an interesting exercise to put myself and in his “situation” and wonder what exactly I might do.

  2. The concept of a personal brand and a corporate brand is becoming a much hotter issue as the rise of the personal brands continue to be much more public and visible than they were before Social Media. Thanks for always sharing, Joe.

  3. Regarding Chomsky and Orwell’s dream… those in power may have an obscured view of the truth, but so may those without any. The difference is, one has the means to implement policy, the other is limited.

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