Six Links Worthy Of Your Attention #210

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 Secret to Getting Top-Secret Secrets – Medium. "It was the most secretive of times; it was the leakiest of times. In a post-Snowden era, whistleblowers are all the rage. But some activists walk in through the proverbial front door, using Freedom of Information requests to gain access to what happens behind closed doors. Sometimes, not getting an answer is more revealing than getting one. Here’s a look at just how porous–and bureaucratic–government secrecy has become." (Alistair for Hugh).
• Spit here: can Cue’s $199 lab-in-a-box keep you healthy? – The Verge. "I spent the past weekend surrounded by smart people. Between the launch of hardware accelerator Highway1‘s new crop of startups and the unbridled curiosity of Foo Camp‘s attendees, it was a weird miasma of FOMO and Impostor Syndrome. Everywhere I looked, the future we were promised was busy being launched. Two companies grabbed my attention more than most: a $600 diagnostic tool that can identify markers for around 30 diseases from a single drop of blood, and a home-testing device called Cue that promises to do for microbes what the Fitbit does for steps. Cue’s fascinating not only because it allows self-diagnosis, but because of what it might portend. I find that when someone says ‘can,’ the interesting story is in ‘must.’ So when Cue’s inventors say, ‘you can find out if you have the flu in just a few minutes,’ I immediately envision a school trip for my daughter in which the waiver says, ‘parents must provide a flu swab not more than 12 hours prior to departure.’ And with Apple including Healthkit in iOS8, we’re about to see a huge spike in digital medicine. Maybe smartphones can fix healthcare where politicians have failed. Interesting times, indeed." (Alistair for Mitch).
• How to Write 225 Words Per Minute With a Pen – The Atlantic. "Shorthand is an incredible innovation that sits atop written language: it’s used to speed up and compress the process of taking written notes. Here’s how it works." (Hugh for Alistair).
• The Skills of Leonardo da Vinci – Letters of Note. "This smells a bit like a hoax, but the source seems legit. Anyway, if it’s time to revamp your CV, maybe Leonardo Da Vinci‘s might give you some inspriation: ‘7. Also, should the need arise, I will make cannon, mortar and light ordinance of very beautiful and functional design that are quite out of the ordinary.’" (Hugh for Mitch).
• This Internet Millionaire Has a New Deal For You – D Magazine. "This is a fascinating story about the guy behind Woot.com and what he’s up to next. That’s not really true. The real story here is all about his encounter with Amazon‘s Jeff Bezos. Amazon acquired Woot for over $100 million back in 2010. I like octopus." (Mitch for Alistair).
• Why not even exercise will undo the harm of sitting all day–and what you can do about it – Quartz. "I wish I could lie and tell you that I am writing this from my ergonomic, Feng Shui, home office at my standing desk that also has a treadmill on it, so that I can, walk and improve my posture while I work. I know, that seems like a very west coast/Silicon Valley thing to be doing these days. The truth is that I’m in my jammies and slouched over this keyboard while sitting on a couch that is probably not doing my posture any good. Ugh. My buddy, Nilofer Merchant, had a breakout TED talk all about how sitting is the new cancer. It has close to 1.5 million views. I even have this nifty little computer stand that allows me to turn my office desk into a standing desk. That lasted about a month. I sit too much. I know that. I read this article and it depressed me. We shouldn’t be sitting all day… so, what are we going to do about it?" (Mitch for Hugh).   

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