12th July 2014

1) A look at the Wall St Journal’s predictions for the future …. from 1989.The really interesting things are the one’s they got wrong. 

…and a 30-year history of the future: Nicholas Negroponte’s #TED talk from TED 2014. 

2) From Trendwatching – The Most Bang on Trend Innovations from the first half of 2014. 

3) The World Cup Final is on Sunday but we already know who won the World Cup – Adidas. ‘Argentina, sponsored by Adidas AG, triumphed on penalty kicks in Sao Paulo to eliminate a Dutch side outfitted by Nike Inc. of the U.S. In the final, it will face fellow Adidas-backed team Germany, which defeated Nike-supported Brazil 7-1 on July 8. The Herzogenaurach, Germany-based company also outfitted the Spanish team that won the last World Cup in 2010’. 

4) The $ 1 Billion that Facebook paid for Instagram may have actually been really good value – ‘The photo-sharing social media service has a fast-growing, hyper-engaged user base that advertisers love. Now it just needs to figure out how to make money for corporate parent Facebook’. 

5) Beautiful. High-flying highlights from the International Drone Photography Awards. 

6) Forget the Shortest Route Across a City; This New Algorithm Finds the Most Beautiful 

7) The best Grand Depart ever? For years I have been watching the Tour De France and ( especially ) from the aerial shots , you really appreciate what a beautiful country France is. Watching the aerial shots of the Yorkshire Dales at the weekend , it struck me just how beautiful the UK can be as well. Here is the video that persuaded Tour De France organisers to start this years race in Leeds. 

..and how selfies are ruining The Tour. 

8) From @alandebotton : ‘Of course one should read Plato’s 36 books, but if you have only 4 minutes, here is a shortcut’. 

9) Love this – Music Streaming Keeps Growing, But Vinyl Isn’t Going Anywhere. 

10) Great piece of advertising from First Direct – A platypus walks into a bar…..