After a long and quite enjoyable week in Amsterdam, which involved a lot of walking in the rain and taking a bunch of photos of the lovely Dutch city, I am back with my recommended readings for this weekend. I have tired to be quite diverse this week, in an attempt to compensate for not sending an email last week.
- The Supersonic Man: There is a lot of talk about space jumper Felix Baumgartner. Here is a profile from two years ago that will take you into his mind and make sense of his madness.
- Out of the wild: Where will the next pandemic come from? And can we stop it? PopSci asks some tough questions about the increasing incidence of diseases jumping from wild animals to humans and having terrible consequences. The article is an adaption from David Quammen’s new book, Spillover.
- Reign of the techno-nanny: Jathan Sadowski’s argues that apps are like techno-nannies and essentially we are becoming too reliant on them. And not all of it is a good thing. It is a great, thoughtful and well argued essay.
- How to see the future: Graphic novel creator Warren Ellis shares ways to see the future. It is a fun read if you have an open mind.
- Life of a salesman: Eli Saslow follows the family arc of Frank Firetti, a swimming pool salesman and uses it to outline the changing dynamic of America and re-definition of success.
- The woman who took the fall for JP Morgan Chase: Ina Drew that is. The New York Times tells her story.
- Did AOL just come up with a new visual language for email with Alto? Fast Company thinks so. Now I need to try it out for myself.
