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:
- Skynet Ascendant – Locus Online. “Cory Doctorow thinks that the science fiction we write says more about the now in which we live, than about the future we might inhabit. He makes a good case that our current fear of robots and automation isn’t about machines taking our jobs, but the mechanistic, dispassionate tendencies of corporations.” (Alistair for Hugh).
- The Perfect Man – Oxford American. “Think you’re good at video games? Think again. This fascinating article looks at the reigning champion of arcade games, and how he thinks about each game. It’s a weird, quirky, and slightly nostalgic legacy.” (Alistair for Mitch).
- Kitchen gadgets review: the Egg Master – a horrifying, unholy affair – The Guardian. “Likely the best kitchen gadget review you’ll ever read (and, watch the video).” (Hugh for Alistair). <– video is below.
- The Really Big One – The New Yorker. “It turns out that on average, every 243 years there is a massive earthquake off the coast of the Pacific Northwest. The last time we had one was 315 years ago. We are due for another one. It won’t be pretty.” (Hugh for Mitch).
- Forget Tiny Houses–It’s Time for Tiny Artist Studios – The Atlantic’s Citylab. “I have been following the whole tiny house movement for a long, long time. There is something very, very romantic to me about building one of these as a place to read, write and think. Nothing fancy. In fact, the total opposite. Minimal and sparse. My buddy, Ann Handley, did it. She built a tiny house. I text her (maybe too frequently) about how jealous I am, and to send me pictures. She loves it. Lately, I’ve been designing a room in my home to replicate this. It’s not its own house, but it is a sparse and rustic place to dream. The desk actually arrived yesterday. So, now that I it? Yup, I still want a space outside of the home (and no, my office does not count!). If you thought a tiny house might be cool, a tiny artist studio sounds like fun too!” (Mitch for Alistair).
- Book to Screen panel at San Diego Comic-Con 2015. “It’s bad enough that I get FOMO every year that San Diego Comic-Con rolls out. The myriad of YouTube videos doesn’t help. It just makes me want to go more. This past week Ernest Cline (author of the fantastic sci-fi book, Ready Player One) published his latest book, Armada. I’m devouring it. When that happens, I tend to hop over to YouTube and watch interviews and whatever else has been posted about a book and the author. This panel from San Diego’s Comic-Con popped up. It’s awesome. On this panel (moderated by Cline), Melissa de la Cruz (author of Witches of East End, Lifetime show by the same name), Andy Weir (author of The Martian, a Ridley Scott-directed adaptation will be released later this year), Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck (as James S. A. Corey, author of Leviathan Wakes, on which the upcoming Syfy show The Expanse is based), Lev Grossman (author of The Magicians, soon to be a Syfy show), and Christina Hobbs and Lauren Billings (as Christina Lauren, author of Beautiful Bastard, which has been optioned by Constantin Film) discuss how their creations are coming to life on screen.” (Mitch for Hugh).
Feel free to share these links and add your picks on Twitter, Facebook, in the comments below or wherever you play.