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From now on instead of posting links to interesting things individually as I find them I'll wait until I get half a dozen or so and then post them together in a digest like this.
Every day I spend 2 to 3 hours reading, watching and researching. During this time I see hundreds of interesting things. Here are some of the best. Enjoy!
Free!
Chris Anderson, editor of Wired Magazine, author of The Long Tail and perhaps the most far-sighted man in Silicon Valley, has a new book due out soon. Everything that goes digital eventually goes free. Find out why $0.00 is the future of business.
Microsoft tries to convince people Vista doesn't suck
Apple's Mac and PC ads are starting to bite and Windows Vista is still a colossal flop and embarrassment 18 months after its launch. In response, Microsoft has conducted an 'experiment' in which people who don't like Vista are shown a secret new version of Windows which they instantly fall in love with. Turns out it was Vista all along! The people in this video are real, but are clearly computer noobs. Watch the video and see what you think. To me it seems equivalent to responding to someone who has read a bad review of a car by showing them a sales brochure for the same car. The actual virtues of the car itself don't come into it because the person has never driven it. I'd love to see Microsoft try this experiment with someone who has actually used a computer before.
What makes people gay?
That's what John Barrowman sets out to find in this BBC documentary. Barrowman, the Scottish star of Doctor Who spinoff Torchwood, married his boyfriend last year. In the documentary, filmed in America, John challenges scientists to explain why he's gay. With the help of friends, family, psychologists and geneticists, he asks whether nature or nurture determine what we are. The Making of Me was the highest rating program on UK television when it aired this week. BBC have made it available online but only for UK viewers. Those with Bit Torrent clients will find a link to a working torrent file here.
China cleans up its air for Olympics
And this is the result! Beijing has a scale by which air pollution is measured. 100 is considered not great, 200 is bad and has been recorded many times in the last decade. Sometimes it even gets to 500. This picture, taken last week after anti-smog measures had been introduced, rates 113. No wonder the athletes are concerned.
Crazy right-wing nuts hijack public debate
Ever heard of the Overton Window? That's the name given to the idea that debate about an issue takes place within a certain range of views, focussing on mainstream beliefs with crazier fringe opinions at the edges. The idea of 'moving the Overton Window' is that by putting the crazy ideas out into the public arena more often, they become closer to the mainstream. Progressives say this is the technique that FOX news and other far right-wing voices use to hijack the political agenda. No need to back up what you're saying, just say it loud enough and often enough and people will consider your ideas normal and the other guy's ideas even crazier and more extreme. This blog looks at how this happens in Australian politics and media.
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