10th May 2014

1) Great piece from Alex Madrigal on the Things You Cannot Unsee (and What That Says About Your Brain). Some great ambiguous images here, including the one above.

2) ……and on the subject of alternative ways of thinking – here is an interesting perspective ( this via @neilperkin ) from Noah Brier on how Elon Musk approaches creativity – ‘I think it’s important to reason from first principles rather than by analogy. The normal way we conduct our lives is we reason by analogy. [With analogy] we are doing this because it’s like something else that was done, or it is like what other people are doing. [With first principles] you boil things down to the most fundamental truths…and then reason up from there’ . For me this makes sense, in as much as it underlines the importance of investigating a problem or brief fully. But whilst analysis is important so is analogy – the ability to draw insights from other people and places, is at the heart of the creative thinking process.

3) Many will not have heard of it , but it is due to have it’s IPO imminently –Alibaba is China’s – and by some measures, the world’s – biggest online commerce company. Its three main sites – Taobao, Tmall and Alibaba.com – have hundreds of millions of users, and host millions of merchants and businesses. Alibaba handles more business than any other e-commerce company

4) How rich is the Swede, Markus Persson – the man behind Minecraft? Very.

5) The latest U.S. Climate Report confirms what we already know. Climate change is happening and it’s effects are already severe.

6) The solution to the ageing issue? How do you reverse ageing in the muscles and brains of old mice? By giving them the blood of young mice.

7) Another great speed adjusted video from Adam Magyar. This one a slow motion recording at Seoul’s Sindorim Station, of people descending on stairs while changing from Line 1 to Line 2.

8) Interesting piece from Alain de Botton and easy introduction to The Philosophy of Nietzsche – Happy thoughts here from Friedreich – “To those human beings who are of any concern to me, I wish suffering, desolation, sickness, ill treatment, indignities, profound self-contempt, the torture of self-mistrust, and the wretchedness of the vanquished.”

9) Animated info-graphic piece on How Americans Die – the changing causes of death across the last 40 years. Shows , in particular, the impact AIDS had on young adults in the 1980′s.

10) The annual ( and 400 year old ) Japanese Baby Crying Festival. Meant to be good for their health apparently…