Live well

Every Wednesday I share five things I liked and think you might like too. Here are this week’s five things…

1. The new series of Black Mirror on Netflix is excellent and quite sinister at times. It might just make you rethink how you use the internet and technology!
    
2. I really enjoyed Jon Ronson's new short book The Elephant In The Room. It's a quick read on the Trump campaign, conspiracy-theorist-extraordinaire Alex Jones and the alt-right. I'm a big fan of Jon Ronson's writing. If you haven't read The Psychopath Test already, I'd recommend that too.
    
3. Words of wisdom from Steve Jobs via (one of my favourite places on the internet) Brain Pickings. His thoughts on creativity and the cross-pollination of ideas are worth reflecting on.
    
4. "For as long as we've been keeping records, human beings have been on alert for the differences that divide us. Then we fixate on those differences, amplifying them, ascribing all sorts of irrelevant behaviors to them. Until, the next thing you know, we start referring to, 'those people.'" Differences by Seth Godin.
    
5. A fun perspective on AI and robotics. I particularly like the Robert Heinlein quote towards the end — What can people do better than machines? The view from 1951.

That's all for this week. If you liked this, check out my previous Five Things posts or sign up to receive future posts in your inbox.

About to hit the road

Here are the five things I thought were worth sharing this week: 

1. What is music? — A cool video and interview with Jad Abumrad (host of the brilliant Radiolab podcast) on sound and music.
    
2. NASA just succeeded at the hardest thing they've ever done — Getting the Juno spacecraft into orbit around Jupiter. National Geographic shared this animation showing the manoeuvre used to achieve this feat. I love all things Space, so thought this was rather cool!
    
3. Ever looked out into the night sky and thought "Where is everybody?". If your answer is "yes", check out this article on the Fermi Paradox by (my new favourite website) Wait But Why. The Fermi Paradox tries to explain "the apparent contradiction between the lack of evidence and high probability estimates for the existence of extraterrestrial civilisations" (thanks Wikipedia). It's nerdy and a pretty long read, but for the curious amongst you, well worth the time.
    
4. Anki (a robotics & AI company) just announced Cozmo. It's smart (and emotional) toy robot and I really want one! I'm fairly minimalist so not one for just buying random junk, but Cozmo looks pretty awesome.
    
5. This is mainly going to be of interest to drummers, but even if you aren't one it's still an interesting read and has some good pictures too — History Of The Drum Set.

That's all for this week. If you liked this, check out my previous Five Things posts or sign up to receive future posts straight to your inbox. Enjoy!