Categories: Articles

Six Links Worthy Of Your Attention #109

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, the author of Complete Web Monitoring and Managing Bandwidth: Deploying QOS in Enterprise Networks), Hugh McGuire (The Book Oven, LibriVox, iambik, PressBooks, Media Hacks) and I decided that every week or so 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 cost of funny voices: Helium shortage sends prices soaring – The National Post. "We had my daughter’s second birthday this weekend, with the requisite balloons and party favors. Turns out that’s not very sustainable. Helium is a non-renewable resource; it tends to leak out easily, and its price has been controlled by the US strategic reserve. But that’s beginning to change, and as it turns out, Helium is good for everything from LCD screens to MRI machines. So say goodbye to talking in those funny voices." (Alistair for Hugh).
Supreme Court Upholds The Affordable Care Act (June 2012): Where should people angry with the Supreme Court’s decision on the Affordable Care Act move to? – Quora. "A decent Quora thread trying to figure out where someone who doesn’t like government-run healthcare should go. As it turns out, there aren’t many countries left that truly embrace the kind of personal freedom and libertarian policies endorsed by Tea Party members (when they aren’t driving taxpayer-funded cars, that is.)." (Alistair for Mitch).
Can GM mosquitoes rid the world of a major killer? – The Guardian. "From the ‘what could possibly go wrong’ files: Scientists are creating genetically modified mosquitoes, and releasing males into the wild. When these GM males mate with wild females, they breed offspring that die in a couple of days. The company behind this technique claims that they can reduce disease-carrying mosquito populations by 80% – saving many lives lost to malaria and dengue fever." (Hugh for Alistair).
Why I opened the ‘Bank’ of Dave – The Guardian. "A feel-good banking story for a change. One of the impacts of the global financial crisis is that credit dried up for small businesses, which has made it hard for many of them to survive – even businesses that have always paid their bills. Here’s a story of a hacker- – a guy who owns a company that sells minibuses, who found that his clients could no longer get bank financing to purchase the buses. So he started an alternate, not-for-profit ‘bank’ specifically designed to make loans to small businesses." (Hugh for Mitch).
Rethinking Architecture for a More Connected Future – Mashable. "I’m an urbanist of the highest order. I like cement, shopping malls and air conditioning. Meaning: I have no appetite for roughing it or camping. I would not survive in the post-apocalyptic world that the science fiction movies have created. With that, I’m uncovering an interest and curiosity in architecture and how cities come together. What fascinates me more are offices and workspaces in a world that is becoming ever-more urbanized but digital and mobile at the same time. I can’t help but stare in awe at pictures of the new Apple campus, while at the same time wonder if we still need infrastructures like this to sustain economies? Needless to say, we live in interesting times and I’m curious to see how design and architecture will continue to adapt to our new work realities." (Mitch for Alistair).
Marissa Mayer becomes CEO of Yahoo, and proves women cannot have it all – Penelope Trunk. "I would be lying if I said that the appointment of long-time Google leader, Marissa Mayer, taking on the role of CEO at Yahoo didn’t throw me for a loop (it did, and a big congrats to Yahoo for scoring her). Now that Mayer has taken on the role and announced that she’s pregnant, the discourse online has shifted. I appreciate where Penelope Trunk is coming from. Not as a man. Not as a woman. Not as a human being. But as a parent. People think that I travel a lot and that I’m a workaholic. The truth of the matter is that I am constantly doing everything within my very being to get home and be with my young family – as much as possible. I don’t want my kids being brought up by others (or thinking that I wasn’t around), and I agree with Trunk when she says things like: ‘Do you know what we do not celebrate? Staying home with kids. There are no official titles or pay scales. It’s disappointing to women who don’t have kids to watch another woman with a fascinating, fun career leave that career to take care of her kids. It scares the women who don’t have kids. No one aspires to be the woman who dumps a great career to step out of the spotlight.’ I realize that it’s difficult to take my opinion (because I’m a man), but I wish we put the role of parenting in a much higher regard. It is, without question, the toughest job and one we should all admire and respect a whole lot more." (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.

Mitch Joel

Mitch Joel lives at the intersection of technology, business transformation and consumer culture. He is the Executive Director of Next Era Institute, a strategic intelligence platform helping leaders understand the forces reshaping business, technology, culture and society. The Institute identifies which shifts matter, explores their wider significance and translates them into strategic direction and momentum. Mitch is also a globally recognized keynote speaker. He has delivered thousands of presentations across both B2B and B2C industries to organizations including Google, Walmart, LEGO, Shopify, Microsoft, Procter & Gamble and Unilever. Strategy Magazine has called him “one of North America’s leading visionaries.” Mitch built his career by working directly inside the waves of change that reshaped modern business. He founded and built a digital marketing agency that worked with some of the world’s largest brands and was later acquired by WPP, where he served as President of a firm operating in 25 countries with almost 3,000 employees. Mitch is the bestselling author of Six Pixels of Separation and CTRL ALT Delete, and the host of Thinking With Mitch Joel, one of the longest-running business podcasts in the world. His writing and commentary appear in outlets including Harvard Business Review, Fast Company and Inc. Magazine. He is a member of Dr. Marshall Goldsmith’s 100 Coaches and was named to the Thinkers50 Radar. Mitch also hosts Groove – The No Treble Podcast, documenting the oral history of electric bass players. Mitch is also Co-Founder of ThinkersOne, a platform that enables companies to bring personalized thought leadership from world-class experts into meetings, events and off-sites in focused 15-minute bursts.