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: 

• Bad Sex In Fiction Awards: The Connoisseur’s Compendium – Nothing In The Rule Book. “Sometimes good authors write awful things. This compendium of (probably NSFW) winners for the Bad Sex in Fiction Award has some doozies. Some metaphors should never happen: ‘punching smoothly in and out of her like a sewing machine,’ or ‘like a spoon scraping the inside of a soft-boiled egg.'” (Alistair for Hugh).
• The Movie Set That Ate Itself – GQ. “This is a crazy tale of deranged film production that borders on nation-building and cult worship. Like, some filmmakers go for authenticity — but few of them change the size of the plumbing to recreate a particular toilet-flushing sound.” (Alistair for Mitch).
• Why bad ideas refuse to die – The Guardian. “Did you know that different parts of your tongue sense different tastes? Sweetness on the tip, saltiness on the sides, and bitter at the back? Well if you know that, you are wrong. Why do bad ideas, and errors of fact, persist?” (Hugh for Alistair).
• When the Robots Rise – The National Interest. “A meaty look at the complex economic and social problems likely to arise from our increasing move to automation. I’m not sure that I agree with the author’s conclusions, but regardless we have some massive changes to our society on the horizon, and now is the time to start thinking seriously about how we should approach them.” (Hugh for Mitch).
• Martian Colonists Could Be Genetically Engineered for Democracy – Nautilus. “Somewhere in a lab, right now, scientists are toying with something called Gene Drive. They’re doing this now to get rid of the mosquitos that are carrying the Zika virus. Well, if the science is sound, why not use it to suppress or augment other stuff that we can find in our genes and DNA? You know, stuff like the desire to be a better democratic citizen…” (Mitch for Alistair).
• Confessor. Feminist. Adult. What the Hell Happened to Howard Stern? – The New York Times. “Two of the media celebrities that I most admire in terms of their prowess at conducting interviews/conversations are Charlie Rose and Howard Stern. Everyone gets Stern wrong. Everyone. If you have ever spent any time listening to his in-depth celebrity interviews, it is a masterclass for everyone who has to have a conversation in the real world (be it over coffee or if you’re trying to create a compelling podcast). He has an intuitive instinct that weaves the conversation in a very dramatic way. The end result is something we all want: candour and honesty, in a world of press releases and Instagram photos. This article does a good job of explaining just how great of a storyteller he is.” (Mitch for Hugh).

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