Category: 5things

Things of note for the week ending Friday 3rd July, 2015.

1. THE LOST ART OF READING
I read a post this week, entitled ‘‘Marginalia’, the ‘anti-library’, and other ways to master the lost art of reading’ – and it actually made me want to read even more.

I’ve got the Kindle app on my iPad and on my phone too but bizarrely this had made me want to purchase a hardware Kindle so that my reading isn’t constantly interrupted by incessant notifications (mono-tasking FTW, yo).

Give it a read, see how/if it inspires you to read more too.

2. FACEBOOK EXPERIMENTS(?)
This has been everywhere of late (so much so that I was very close to not including it – this list is here to show you new things, yes?) but it’s still super interesting.

After last week’s [phenomenal] decision by the US Supreme Court that same-sex marriage is a Constitutional right, Facebook profiles everywhere turned awash with rainbow colours.

Facebook itself made it possible for its users to, in just one click, create a rainbow-variant of their profile photos.

It didn’t take long for the more cynical network anthropologists to start joking about how it could be all be one big Facebook experiment.

For me, there are perhaps two schools of thought here:

FIRST: Mark Zuckerberg wears his political beliefs on his sleeve. The drive for equality and openness has been an underlying driver of all things Facebook since its inception (to its own detriment at times) and while it’s easy to dismiss it as ‘just another data test’, ‘you are the product’, etc etc – it’s not often such hidden motives are so well thought about.

Consider:

‘Hey guys! SCOTUS just announced that same-sex marriage is a constitutional right!’

‘What?! NO WAY!’

cue: campus-wide cheering

‘Guys! I’ve made this thing, look!’

*one click changes to rainbow*

‘That’s awesome – roll it out!’

We’ve seen how Facebook can get over-excited by its own inventions before. And I totally buy that this could be how it happened. It may have had the feature on the back burner for such a day or it may have even made it for PRIDE and the SCOTUS decision gave it the uber-amplification nudge that it needed. Who knows.

SECOND: With all the data collected from this service-wide (ish) photo u[date (and given all research conducted to date – see also ‘Dunbar’s Number’), you know that Facebook will absolutely be using this latest spike in mass-user profile change to further its ongoing research into networked behaviour and the effects therein.

So in answer to the question ‘Was the whole thing a social experiment or not?’ I propose the answer of ‘No it wasn’t, but the accidental data thereafter will certainly be analysed as if it was.

And why not?

In a world where slacktivism is encouraged/challenged depending on your opinion, knowing if a simple profile photo change contributed to any profound effect to the way users both interacted with its platform as well as each other, makes a very interesting white paper indeed.

Let’s just hope Facebook publishes it.

The Atlantic has more.

3. THE WALTZER KICK-STARTER
Nigel Edginton-Vigus has been capturing fairground art for over twenty years. Not just any old fairground art mind, specifically the art of the The Waltzer.

As Nigel himself explains in his Kickstarter video, the art of the Waltzer is actually quite surprising (covering everything from Will Smith to Hellraiser to Marilyn Monroe) and while the photography itself looks excellent, it’s the history of these rides that interests me the most.

‘What’s that love? You want another art book for the coffee table? Will do!’

Check it.

4. THE PRESS RELEASE IS DEAD
No, really.

I’ve known Mike Butcher for years. Editor at large of TechCrunch Europe nee UK and at the forefront of the tech / startup bleeding edge, the man has to deal with a LOT PR pitches.

And a lot of them are awful.

Mike is proposing a new system in its place.

In PR? Read this.

Ps. That smart lad Ben Matthews has gone and templated it for you too. What a ledge.

5. READ THIS
At the top of this week’s FTOF I extolled the virtures of reading.

Do me/yourself a favour and start with this heart-wrenching piece by Guardian US Correspondent, Gary Younge, ‘Farewell to America‘.

Powerful. Moving. Saddening.

It’s the best thing I’ve read all week.

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– – – Bonuses – – –

There are LOADS of bonuses this week, what will you do with all of this bonus goodness? Read it, maybe? Or just simply open in a new tab and only return to it in about a fortnight? Who knows what you’ll do. Either way, here that are:

• X-Men: Days of Future Past – The Rogue Cut is, as the name implies, a new cut of the most recent X-movie with all of the previously cut Anna Paquin footage re-edited into the film, it’s coming to Blu-ray later this month and, as is the norm for these kinds of things, the first clips are appearing online. Worth a look.
• The Greek Bailout in charts.
• Stop saying ‘just’ (try it).
• Here in the UK, we’ve been basking in MENTAL SUNSHINE all week. It’s gorgeous. If you’re enjoying the summer, then here’s the Spotify playlist you’ve been waiting for.
• These backstage Hollywood photos are lush.

Right, that’s me done.

THE WEEKEND STARTS HERE.

Things of note for the week ending Friday June 26th, 2015.

Batman: Arkham Knight is out this week and, aside from a few STUPID install issues, it’s a pretty solid game. So yeah, get it.

Right, on with the things!

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1. FACEBOOK’S NEW AD UNIT(S)
Two interesting new things from Facebook this week. First is a new 360 / interactive ad unit which, if you ignore the terrible Michael Kors example shown, could be used quite well in regards to STORY-TELLING and stuff.

Check it:

Re/code has the write up.

Moving on…

If you’ve ever heard of Lead Generation Twitter Cards (here’s a handy guide on how to set them up – you’re welcome) then you’ll know that they can be quite useful for… generating leads / email addresses etc (e.g.: if you just happen to run a semi-successful newsletter and are constantly looking for new ways to sign people up).

Well, the news is, it looks like that Facebook wants a piece of that action and is following suit with its own lead gen unit.

While this is only in test phase at the moment it’s quite good to see further parity between these two social platforms. And hey, it’s ANOTHER WAY TO TARGET YOU.

This time around, Adweek has the write up.

2. THAT RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK STORY
You’ve all heard about it. You must’ve done. You know the one I mean, right? The way that the thing that was scripted got changed on the day by another thing that was unscripted. You know?

No?

Well, here it is, direct from the director himself.

(I love this).

3. MACCY D’S MCBIKES
Say what you want about McDonald’s (secrets and everything) but sometimes they come up with some really interesting bits and bobs that are actually quite handy.

Example? This ‘McBikes’ packaging that’s just been launched in Argentina.

Super simple. Super smart.

I like.

Source.

4. SIT DOWN FOR THIS ONE
No seriously. Sit down. This might be the most amazing thing you read this week.

Ready?

I’m not kidding.

Seriously.

OK.

SCIENTIST’S HAVE DISCOVERED A NEW PART OF THE HUMAN BODY.

100% not kidding.

Why this isn’t bigger news, I don’t know.

Researchers at University of Virginia’s School of Medicine recently discovered a long-hidden system of vessels they’ve coined the “central nervous system lymphatic vessels,” which drain lymphatic fluid from the brain to the surrounding lymph nodes.

And:

This find is the neuroimmunological version of stumbling across a unicorn. Not only had the system gone undiscovered until now, but textbooks argued against its very existence. As a result, neuroimmunologists have struggled to understand the mechanisms of brain drainage and inflammation.

Still amazing.

Mind. Blown.

It’s hardly worth carrying on.

But I will.

For you, dear reader.

For you.

5. TALES OF GLASTONBURY, 1989
The weekend of the UK’s biggest festival is upon us (no, I’m not going – been a few times though – much fun, foggy memories, etc) and to celebrate, I thought I’d share this awesome photo set from Dylan Martinez of Reuters.

Photos courtesy of Reuters.

—–

Bonuses this week are as follows:

• Best original (Read: non sequel) video games from E3 (there be gold in them hills).
• The making of that Tango ad (sooooo advertising).
• Russian Space Shuttle Ruins!

See you next week.

Ps. Liked this? Tell a friend.

Apologies for the delay this week – zero dead time plus Father’s Day weekend meant there were many many other things to do before I could get to these things.

Shall we?

Things of note for the week ending Friday June 19th, 2015.

1. ZOO KEEPERS OF JURASSIC WORLD

I saw Jurassic World last week and, aside from the EPIC PRODUCT PLACEMENT throughout, it’s actually a very good summer blockbuster (and absolutely well worth seeing at the cinema).

Now that the movie is on general release, some lovely little memes are popping up, such as this lovely little one entitled ‘Zoo Keepers Posing Like Chris Pratt‘.

LOOK!

So much fun.

PS. Even my friends are getting in on the act.

PPS. There’s a cool ‘Making of’ video re the animatronics said uber sequel. That’s pretty good too.

2. VIDEO ROYALE (MORE PROOF)
When the end of the year rolls around and Marshall Manson and I have to see how many of our 2015 trend predictions came true, we’ll be able to point to the bad boy below as yet another piece of evidence to support the social media platform ‘Video Royale’.

That’s right, Twitter has rolled out Autoplay.

3. CHEAPS BY DRE

Own Beats headphones?
They saw you coming, man.

In these headphones, 30% of the weight comes from four tiny metal parts that are there for the sole purpose of adding weight. [It is] estimated that the COGS without labor or shipping is $16.89 – yet Beats is able to successfully retail these headphones for $199+. This is the power of brand.

Ouch.

4. TAXIDERMY
Ever wondered what happens at the World Taxidermy Championships?

(Yes, they’re an actual thing)

Wonder no more.

5. STEALING TIME
A guide (that I practice), by Warren Ellis.

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Bonuses this week are things that have genuinely made my jaw drop:

• The Microsoft/Minecraft Hololens demo – if you haven’t watched this yet then seriously, you should [start watching from about 2mins onwards].
• Mario Maker – Somehow this had completely slipped under my radar. Looks AMAZING.
• Body parts – blame Charles.

Until next week.

Things of note for the week ending Friday June 12th, 2015.

1. ENGINEERS IN THE MIST
Regular readers will know how much of a passion I have for the words that appear on the website social-creature (the author of said words isn’t so bad either) however, the latest post ‘Engineers in the Mist‘ covers five days of hanging out with the startup millennials of San Francisco; their loves,  lives, passions, desires, sexual habits, and more.

Example:

We wake up in a Mongolian yurt. It’s sunny and warm out here in Colfax, and we are sitting by a pool waiting for breakfast as hawks fly overhead.
–
People are talking about working at pre / post IPO companies as different career strategies; “making money off the speculation;” “upside.” People are talking about deciding whether to work at Stripe, Slack, Reddit. People are talking about strategically deciding to work at a series B company; “career scoping.”
–
This is how people talk. And oddly it already feels less grotesque than it did yesterday. We become accustomed to things. These are just the elements of their actual lives. They can’t help it any more than you or I can help the inevitable echo chambers of our lives. We are all stuck in our own myopias.

A better insight into this absurd life of the cali-culture perhaps there has never been.

Honestly, this is one of the best things I’ve ever read.

2. THE IMPOSSIBLE DREAM

Back in the day, four crazy mobile geeks used to a weekly half hour show about the most exciting things happening in mobile technology that week (seriously, it’s nuts when you think about it now).

The trio of presenters (above) were Ben Smith, yours truly, and Dan Lane. We each had our specific areas of expertise and for the latter, Dan, his thing was being a back end kinda guy. He knew, loved, and worked in the tech that went into the actual telecommunications business.

Such was the breadth and passion of Dan’s techno-know-how, he once actually tried to set up his own mobile network.

Not. Kidding.

This is his story.

3. HANNIBAL
So Hannibal is back on TV. Season 3 kicked off in the UK this week and, of course, it is AMAZING.

If you want to know why it’s so good, just go and watch it (see item 3 in FOTF #77 for my last ZOMG HANNIBAL IS AMAZING outburst) but that’s not why it’s here this week. No no.

To celebrate the return of this incredible show, some genius (also ridiculously in love with this fantastic series) over at Grantland has gone and made a mini Hannibal colouring book.

And it’s awesome.

IMAGE

The My Little Pony is a nice touch.

4. BLACKBOARDS
This is wonderful.

While undergoing renovations last week, workers at Emerson High School in Oklahoma City made a surprising discovery: when removing several old chalkboards they found an even older set of chalkboards hidden in the walls. Apparently the school didn’t remove or even bother to erase the oldest boards they replaced back in 1917, leaving various lessons and illustrations untouched for nearly a century.

I have no more to add. Just go and look at the pictures.

5. WATER TOWERS

I spent my childhood admiring the water tower in the above photo but not once did I ever stop to wonder how it work or what it was for (instead opting to create large drawn out fantasy fiction stories about how evil wizards and dragons lived therein).

Fortunately, Mental Floss have answered the question I’ve never asked:

Exactly how do Water Towers work?

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Bonuses this week are as follows:

• APPLE STUFF AND NONSENSE

Is Apple Music / Beats 1 the end of radio/Spotify? No, of course not. Is Apple Pay coming to the UK a massive deal? No, of course not. But if these things are of interest to you, then please, by all means, go and listen to the latest episode of the five star rated podcast, The Voicemail.

• MEX SHATTERED DREAMS

The actual name of this piece is called ‘shattered images’ but I prefer my title. Whatever. This is taken from the MEX newsletter (an excellent read) and covers a core 21st century issue for the clumsy and the unlucky. Give it a go.

• AMAZON STUDIOS FINDS DON QUIXOTE

Terry Gilliam is at last being given the opportunity to create the forever-unfinished cinematic work of ‘The Man Who Killed Don Quixote’. I’m including this piece of news for two reasons. One, this is great news (I love Gilliam and his work); two, if you haven’t seen it then please do seek out the documentary about his last [failed] attempt to make said film, Lost in La Mancha.

…

Right then, the weekend is here.

GO GET IT!

Things of note for the week ending Friday June 5th, 2015.

1. HAPPY FERRIS BUELLER DAY
If you’ve ever received an email from me or, better yet, we’ve ever spent any time hanging out, you know how much Mr B resonates with me.

Well, friends, it’s true: today (Friday June 5th, 2015) is a GREAT day.

2. PAM DOOVE
This is so old but it recently came up in conversation with a friend of mine recently and it’s still brilliant. Enjoy.

3. THE ORIGIN OF THE SHARED UNIVERSE
These days, the idea of films existing in a ‘shared universe’ is pretty par for the [summer blockbuster] course. While this trend has been predominantly superhero-led, the roots of this way of thinking (on-screen, at least) can be traced back quite a way. iO9 has taken a look back at some of our current cinematic cultural forebears, Stargate and Star Trek.

It’s a very good read.

4. DISCOVERING MANHATTANHENGE

‘Manhattanhenge‘ is a quasi-natural phenomenon that can probably be best described as:

A special day (that) comes twice a year, when the setting Sun aligns precisely with the Manhattan street grid, creating a radiant glow of light across Manhattan’s brick and steel canyons, simultaneously illuminating both the north and south sides of every cross street of the borough’s grid.

And it is STUNNING.

Discovered by Neil deGrasse Tyson himself, and as part of their ‘Creation Stories’ series, Fast Company has a wonderful video of exactly how this happened. NdG was 15yrs old when he first ‘discovered’ it; amazing.

5. IN SEARCH OF THE RED CROSS’ $500M IN HAITI RELIEF
Back in 2010, an earthquake of devastating proportions pretty much levelled Haiti. In a matter of days, millions of people all over the world donated to the American Red Cross. Now, five years later (and as NPR has discovered) it’s difficult to know where all the money went.

Bonuses this week are as follows:

• Do you use Hola VPN ‘for better Internet’? Yeah, uninstall that.
• I have a new phone. It’s a Sony Xperia Z3. It’s not a review unit and it wasn’t sent to me by a PR company; I bought it with my own money. Wanna know why? Listen to Episode 126 of The Voicemail and find out.
• Alastair Campbell’s words on late Charles Kennedy is a great tribute. If you haven’t read it yet, you should.

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Finally, thanks to all of you that got in touch re the above bonus section last week; it’s probably the best response I’ve had to any blog post ever. Warm words abound and I feel all gooey inside.

Lovely stuff.

Have a great weekend everybody!

Things of note for the week ending Friday May 29th, 2015.

1. GOLDFISH WHEELCHAIRS
It’s late but this is really too cute to not share.

It’s a Mashable link but I don’t care. If you’ve got a wonky goldfish you should a) do this immediately then b) maybe consider feeding it less protein.

2. USE FIREFOX? USE THIS
Seriously though, do you really use Firefox? I mean, I actually saw someone using Safari the other day (weirdo) – why you aren’t all using Chrome I don’t know. But whatever.

If you’re one of the five oddballs who read this blog and you use Firefox, then this little thing called ‘tracking protection‘ might help you load stuff infinitely faster. By infinite, I mean ‘44%’ but you get the point.

3. HOW TO MAKE A WRIGLEY’S AD
Submitted without comment.

4. SXSW – WHAT?
It’s been several weeks since SXSW interactive and, to be honest, I finished my ‘SXSW Report’ stuff ages ago. But I realised last week we hadn’t actually published it publicly. Oops.

So yeah, here it is (if you find it useful – yay! If not, well, bums).

5. THE DESIRED EFFECT
It’s the new album from Brandon Flowers and I really like it.

That is all.

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Bonuses* this week are as follows:

• Google I/O happened this week. Not sure what that is? Well imagine a big cake. This cake isn’t just any cake mind. This cake is from the future. With its myriad layers and its reflective icing, this cake grants you the power to see all things that are coming from a tiny little start up named Google. Thing is, this cake is quite big and if you ate it all in one go you’d feel bloated and fat and, well, that’s not very nice at all. What you want to do is create one perfect slice. A slice that’s thin enough to consume in one sitting, but deep enough to touch all magical layers. A slice of cake that is like the highlight of all cakes. If you managed this, it’d be like you HACKED CAKE. Or like you’d read this article of the most important things at Google I/O.  You decide. Oh, and if that’s not good enough, Stefan and I will be covering all of the Google I/O goodness on this weekend’s edition of The Voicemail.
  
• Get In The Sea is still yet to get old.
• The Verge reviewed the old Google+ Photos app thinking it was the new one. It’s a bit mean to poke fun but hey, if all your writers use iPhones, how do you expect them to know the difference between two MASSIVELY DIFFERENT Android apps?
• Did you hear? Daredevil should be called Batman.

*By the way, does anyone ever enjoy the bonuses? I mean, I throw them in there because they’re kinda left in my inbox staring at me and I figure you crazy kids might enjoy them.

If you read this on my website – LEAVE A COMMENT, if you read this as a newsletter, HIT REPLY. Either way, all feedback is welcome.

And Marek, if you liked my Crystal Maze, one has to wonder if you’d enjoy my recent purchase too…

Things of note for the week ending Friday May 22nd, 2015.

This isn’t a thing to be a big enough thing on its own but I’m super interested in what Hillary Clinton is doing with her Twitter account in the run up to the Presidential election.

Hi there! I’m Mary Jo—a mom, small business owner, and Granite Stater—and I’m taking over this Twitter account today. Welcome to Portsmouth!

— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) May 21, 2015

//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

Worth keeping an eye on.

OK, shall we?

1. MAD MAX: FURY ROAD

So yeah, I saw MAD MAX: FURY ROAD this week (Thursday) at the IMAX (obvs) in 3d (natch) and it was pretty awe-inspiring. Admittedly it should be called MAD MAX: FURIOSA ROAD or even just ‘FURIOSA: THE ONE WHERE SHE MEETS MAD MAX’.

But whatever. The film is EXCELLENT. The cast is fantastic. And the visual spectacle of it all truly is something to behold.

See it big. See it loud.

A true wonder.

2. MOBILE TECH NEWS: IN YOUR EARS
After a short hiatus at the end of 2014 and a time-zone enforced attempt at publishing monthly, the five-star rated mobile tech news podcast, The Voicemail, returns to its usual ’30mins, weekly’ schedule this weekend.

If you like a) mobile tech, b) the sound of my voice, or c) listening to two mates chew the cud about one of their favourite topics; then The Voicemail is for you.

• Subscribe via iTunes
• Subscribe via RSS

And if you’re not a mobile tech head but know someone that is, be a darl and pass it on x

3. THE CRYSTAL MAZE

Know who this man is? (sit down at the back, Rocky Horror fans) Or what the little thing in his hand stands for/means? No? Then where the hell were you during the 90s?!

If however, the the very sight of this man makes you think of the phrase ‘START THE FANS PLEASE!’ then you’ll understand just how important this awesome piece of reporting from Buzzfeed truly is.

Entitled ‘The Inside Story Of “The Crystal Maze”, The Most Epic Game Show Ever Made’ this piece is a great read for anyone who literally raced home from school to catch the utter randomness on their TVs that was The Crystal Maze.

This quote, from Richard O’Brien himself, is wonderful:

“On the first series we had five cameras, two outside the cells and three looking at the game. And the producers weren’t watching the ones outside because they were too busy seeing how the game was playing out. One of the camera operators outside said, “What are we supposed to do, Richard, are we supposed to shoot the backs of their heads?” And I said, “No, no, come over here.”

I just started talking into the camera, about anything. I was just trying to make the cameraman laugh and as soon as I saw the camera shaking on his shoulders I’d look back at the clock and say, “OK, half a minute to go.”

They didn’t know they had any of these asides until they came to edit the series together, and once they did, they realised how that worked – a quick cutaway of me saying, “They’ll never manage this”, or I’d pull out the harmonica, and unknowingly it added a complicity between me and the audience at home because I was looking straight into the camera. I never did it when the contestants were there, only when their backs were turned.”

Go read the whole thing.

4. TESTING SOCIAL DATA ACCURACY
This post, by my friend and colleague, Daniela Badalan, is a write up on the accuracy of self-reported data vs third party.

So how do you test social data accuracy and how do you decide if third party data might be a better choice to reach your audience across a social platform?

To answer those questions, we’ve done a little test of our own at Social@Neo recently to analyse the accuracy of employment data specifically – as offered by LinkedIn vs. Facebook, against a known data set.

When Daniela told me she was working on this research I was really excited (as the process and the findings are really interesting) and I said ‘You have to blog this!’ and Daniela has. So hurrah and hurrah again.

To me this is the first scratch on a much broader itch of research that could be triggered across our entire group both at a regional and global level.

Check out the methodology and findings yourself, I’m sure Daniela would love to hear from you.

5. CULTURAL BLEEDING

The headline above is taken from a piece that appeared on Vox earlier this week. We’ll come onto the specifics of the article shortly but reading it prompted me to return to a broader theme that I’ve been noodling on for a little while now; that of the influence of real world events (and the subsequent hopes and fears they bring about) on both the story telling industry (read: ‘Hollywood’) and moreover, popular culture as a whole.

After watching TRANSCENDENCE, EX_MACHINA, and AVENGERS: AGE OF ULTRON in the space of about a month, I read up on artificial intelligence (see more at item three back in FTOF #112) and, while ‘killer robots come to earth/get invented by man and then attempt to destroy the world’ isn’t exactly a new trope, the prevalence of the theme on today’s science [near]-fiction cannot be ignored.

So it was with great interest that I ‘discovered’ the article in the above image. Analysing everything from Sam Raimi’s 9/11 adjusted original SPIDER-MAN through to the destructo-porn of MAN OF STEEL, it is a well-constructed critique of our recent obsession with the superhero genre and overall probably the best thing I’ve read this week.

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Bonuses are all in the medium of Medium –

• The chokehold of calendars
• How to improve presentations
• Election night heart racing

Whatley out.

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Things of note for the week ending Friday May 15th, 2015.

Why not read these things while listening to Sia cover California Dreamin’?

Great stuff.

Shall we?

1. DIGITAL SHOREDITCH
It’s been Digital Shoreditch (#DS15) this week and as part of the (hugely successful) Ogilvy sponsorship, each of the digital heads in the Ogilvy group was tasked with submitting a talk that could possibly be given at said event. Lucky for me (and you?), mine made the cut.

The talk was entitled ‘Seriously, what now?‘ and it was pitched as a bit of a reality-check-cum-rant on the state of social trends in the industry today.

Watch the video (around 14mins of silliness) or read the slides (65 thereof), and maybe let me know what you think?

Ta.

2. GOT AN INTERVIEW COMING UP?
Here’s a double whammy of interestingness from Life Hacker. Click it, open it, bookmark it for later.

It could prove useful one day.

3. THE GALAXY-SIZED VIDEO GAME

No Man’s Sky is set to be a very exciting game indeed. Using a mixture of old and new coding techniques, a small team from Guildford has [very nearly] created a virtual world of an unbelievable size.

Even if you’re not into gaming, this New Yorker report, entitled ‘World Without End‘, is a fantastic read.

4. WHO KILLED THE INFOGRAPHIC?

I read this great article earlier this week (thanks JG) and it reminded me a lot of the social media ‘industry’ back in the late noughties. As the article goes:

5. NEW TRAILER: CRIMSON PEAK

Guillermo Del Toro’s latest film has a proper trailer and everything now and it looks ACE.

That is all.

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Your bonuses this week are as follows:

• Museum nights are on tonight and tomorrow night all across the UK. If you’re free, you should go. They’ll be back in October too. Check it.
  
• I wrote an article for The Drum (also part of the Digital Shoreditch festivities) about the state of social content in 2015 (consider it a companion piece of the talk at the top – I’d love to know what you think).
• The Guardian asked me for 700 words on Net-a-Porter’s new social commerce platform, ‘The Net Set’. I gave them 708.

Things of note for the week ending Friday May 8th, 2015.

I don’t like to apologise too much for this update going out late. The fairly loose ‘terms of service‘ do say that it’ll sometimes arrive late so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I’ve been travelling this week and genuinely got my dates mixed up. In fact, this week in general has been fairly epic. As I write this [in my moleskine] to you now, I’m somewhere over the Atlantic on my way home. I’ve just left Boston where I’ve been for some amazing work-based things and, well, aside from a minor brush with a dangerous health issue (all is fine now), this week has been ridiculously positive.

If you know me well enough, you’ll know that positivity is my thing. My blog is called ‘My Happy Place’ for a reason, y’know; I am a terminal optimist.

I mean, when you see a BACON TRUCK, how can life not be amazing? 🙂

Right then, shall?

1. SOLAR-POWERED SPACE TRAVEL

Carl Sagan once envisioned a universe where humans travelled through it in massive super-amazing solar-powered spaceships. In just over two weeks from now, a company known as The Planetary Society (co-founded by Sagan himself) has scheduled the first test flight of such a vehicle.

This is nothing short of amazing.

Baby steps forward.

But forward we go.

2. WEI VS PGA TOUR
AKA: Live-Streaming vs [live] Sports events.

The @PGATOUR is revoking my credentials for rest of season because I used @periscopeco on Monday. Feels personal. #crimedoesntfitpunishment

— Stephanie Wei (@StephanieWei) April 30, 2015

//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

Stephanie Wei is the brains (and words) behind ‘popular’ golfing blog, ‘Wei Under Par’. A couple of weeks ago, Wei posted a few video clips of one of the player’s practice rounds on Twitter’s live-streaming service, Periscope. Given the strict rules around video content rights specifically around sports events, you might be unsurprised to learn that the PGA subsequently threw the book at Wei and stripped her of her press credentials for the rest of the year.

Ouch.

There’s no case pleading ignorance on Wei’s part, alas, as a similar issue came up before at a different Tour but this time the platform of choice was Instagram. Wei got a telling off and the videos removed. Sharing unauthorised video content is a big no no. And Wei knows this.

So when it happened again, you can see why an example has been made.

The commentary since has been very interesting. On one side you’ve got a push back on the rules themselves (are they out-dated? Who do they actually apply to) and on the other you’ve got traditional sports broadcasters saying that Wei had it coming.

With Live-stream going Mainstream, this issue is going to keep coming back. Perhaps even press credentials themselves perhaps need to be reviewed, allowing for impromptu sharing such as this. For now, the industry will safe-guard its revenue first, and the favoured platforms of its fans and reporters second.

Interesting times ahead.

3. HE-MAN AND THE MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE
Did you play with He-Man when you were a kid? Remember the figures? If words like ‘Stratos’ and ‘Orko’ mean nothing to you, then please do skip onto the next item. This thing is not for you.

Still here?

Good!

The geniuses over at iO9 have just published the definitive list and ranking of He-Man action figures – AND IT IS AWESOME.

Covering Skeletor, Kobra Khan, Ram-Man, Fisto, Ninjor, Evil-Lyn,and MORE they’re all here and more.

PS. Major geek points to the first person who can email me/comment with the names of those pictured above. I’ve already given you two of them…

Go nuts.

4. JW-RELATED UPDATES
Minor excuse for an update on a few things from me:

• If you’re coming to see me speak at Digital Shoreditch please note that the timing has changed from 12:35 to 17:25 (on May 14th, btw). On a related note, if you’re yet to purchase tickets – here’s a kick-ass discount code.
• The Pebble smartwatch has changed the way I interact with my smartphone again – in a good way.
• My employer launched an FGM-awareness campaign for 28 Too Many this week. It’s hard to look at but holy hell does it land the message. You’ve been warned.

5. EMOJIS ON INSTAGRAM
Big deal. So what. If you’re a geeky face like me, you might like this deep dive into some of the data behind their usage leading up to the hashtag integration that was rolled out recently.

Good read, this.

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Bonuses this week are all video game related:

• Destiny: House of Wolves drops in a week. If you’re a player, this is a great round up video of everything you’ve got to look forward to.
• Arkham Knight is out soon, and you’re going to be able to play as Nightwing, Robin, and Catwoman. Nice.
• I’m thinking about getting a Wii U for the sole purpose of being able to play the latest version of Mario Kart. Question for you, do you have a Wii U? Do you enjoy it? What games do you have? I’m listening.

Whatley out.

Things of note for the week ending Friday May 1st, 2015.

1. WHY CAN’T WE READ ANYMORE?

My two-year old daughter, dance recital. Pink tutu. Cat ears on her head. Along with five other two-year-olds, in front of a crowd of 75 parents and grandparents, these little toddlers put on a show. You can imagine the rest. You’ve seen these videos on Youtube, maybe I have shown you my videos. The cuteness level was extreme, a moment that defines a certain kind of parental pride. My daughter didn’t even dance, she just wandered around the stage, looking at the audience with eyes as wide as a two-year old’s eyes starting at a bunch of strangers. It didn’t matter that she didn’t dance, I was so proud. I took photos, and video, with my phone.

There is so much relevance here I feel like copy and pasting the whole article word for word. You wanna talk about neuroplasticity?

Try this:

So, every new email you get gives you a little flood of dopamine. Every little flood of dopamine reinforces your brain’s memory that checking email gives a flood of dopamine. And our brains are programmed to seek out things that will give us little floods of dopamine. Further, these patterns of behaviour start creating neural pathways, so that they become unconscious habits: Work on something important, brain itch, check email, dopamine, refresh,dopamine, check Twitter, dopamine, back to work. Over and over, and each time the habit becomes more ingrained in the actual structures of our brains.

How can books compete?

This is a recurring theme [for me] at the moment. I saw the amazing neuroplasticity talk (#neurobrand) at SXSW (y’know, the one I mentioned during item number two last week) and ironically enough, it’s been playing on my mind ever since.

Neurons that fire together, wire together – right?

Email is bad.

Digital dopamine is bad.

Unplug.

…

I’ve recently signed up to Headspace (cheers Jed) maybe you should too.

Also: read the whole article quoted above.

All of it.

In one sitting.

GO.

2. STEALING FROM MH17
Jeroen Akkermans is an RTL News Correspondent for Holland. With the still-under-investigation MH17 air disaster on lockdown (dubbed ‘the biggest crime scene in the world’) Akkermans decided to do some investigation himself.

It’s unbelievable that no one, thing, or group has been held accountable for this crime.

If you know anything about the theories behind this ‘accident’ then you’ll know where the main evidence points – and reading Akkermans’ words serves only to underline them further.

‘MH17 Crash: my revealing fragments from east Ukraine‘

3. THE FUTURE OF INFLUENCE
This slideshare document, from one of London’s better looking plannery-shaped pessimists, is really on point. What does the future of influence actually look like?

There be gold in these slides.

4. MORE APPLE WATCH STUFF
This is worth reading: back in Five Things #119 I stated that The Verge had written the definitive review of the Apple Watch. I take it back.

This beats that.

Oh, and this is fun too.

5. STARS
The premise of this photo shoot is simple: ‘What would cities look like if they were lit only by the stars?’ – and the photographer, Thierry Cohen, nails it.

Beautiful.

More.

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Bonuses this week consist of three awesome videos.

• Video 1 is one man’s attempt to save a falling drone. Watch this one to the end.
• Video 2 asks the question: ‘What if Zack Snyder’s MAN OF STEEL’ was in colour?’
• Video 3 demonstrates how dangerous ‘one click’ purchase can really be.
  

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Hope you’re having a gorgeous weekend, until next time..

Whatley out.