7 stories to read this weekend

Om Malik — Sat, 20 Oct 2012 07:00:26 +0000

After a long and quite enjoyable week in Amsterdam, which involved a lot of walking in the rain and taking a bunch of photos of the lovely Dutch city, I am back with my recommended readings for this weekend. I have tired to be quite diverse this week, in an attempt to compensate for not sending an email last week.

The Supersonic Man: There is a lot of talk about space jumper Felix Baumgartner. Here is a profile from two years ago that will take you into his mind and make sense of his madness.
Out of the wild: Where will the next pandemic come from? And can we stop it? PopSci asks some tough questions about the increasing incidence of diseases jumping from wild animals to humans and having terrible consequences. The article is an adaption from David Quammen’s new book, Spillover.
Reign of the techno-nanny: Jathan Sadowski’s argues that apps are like techno-nannies and essentially we are becoming too reliant on them. And not all of it is a good thing. It is a great, thoughtful and well argued essay.
How to see the future: Graphic novel creator Warren Ellis shares ways to see the future. It is a fun read if you have an open mind.
Life of a salesman: Eli Saslow follows the family arc of Frank Firetti, a swimming pool salesman and uses it to outline the changing dynamic of America and re-definition of success.
The woman who took the fall for JP Morgan Chase: Ina Drew that is. The New York Times tells her story.
Did AOL just come up with a new visual language for email with Alto? Fast Company thinks so. Now I need to try it out for myself.

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Joss Whedon ‘Actively Pursuing’ Web Content — After Avengers

Liz Shannon Miller — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 22:47:12 +0000

Joss Whedon didn’t quite give the assembled masses at San Diego Comic-Con 2010 an answer as to the question of whether or not we can expect a Dr. Horrible sequel anytime in the near future. But while he’s now officially directing the Marvel superhero flick The Avengers, he responded to the question “Have you considered doing a subscription-based web series where you can do whatever you want?” by saying “Absolutely.”

Whedon then went on to clarify that “I’ve been thinking about it and thinking about it, building out all these different models where you can do that sort of thing. Which lead to not actually doing it.”

But yesterday during a conversation between Whedon and J.J. Abrams, Whedon said that he had been collaborating with comics writer Warren Ellis on an “Internet movie” called Wastelanders, according to Collider. Avengers has put that project on hold, but Whedon said today that he is “actively pursuing it.”

“It’s something I’ll hopefully be able to get back to. It’s part of the way entertainment has got to be worked out,” he said. He added that whatever his next project might be, it wouldn’t be network television after his most recent TV series, Dollhouse, got canceled.

There was a tiny bit of Dr. Horrible-related news — someone asked if Dr. Horrible songs would ever be available for Rock Band any time soon. In response, Whedon said that he was approached, but “it never happened.” However, after thousands of fans cheered at the possibility, he promised to look into it.

Also, Whedon was asked who his favorite actor was by an audience member. His response? “Nathan Fillion.” Turns out, it was Nathan Fillion (who starred in Dr. Horrible, in case you’re new here) who asked the question.

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7 stories to read this weekend

Joss Whedon ‘Actively Pursuing’ Web Content — After Avengers