Six Links Worthy Of Your Attention

Is there one link, story, picture or thought that you saw online this week that you think somebody you know must see?

My friends: Alistair Croll (BitCurrent, Rednod, GigaOM, Human 2.0, the author of Complete Web Monitoring and Managing Bandwidth: Deploying QOS in Enterprise Networks), Hugh McGuire (The Book Oven, LibriVox, Bite-Sized Edits, Media Hacks) and I decided that every week or so the three of us are going to share one link for each other (for a total of six links) that each individual feels the other person "must see".

Check out these six links that we’re recommending to one another:

1. How to Win the Clash of Civilizations – The Wall Street Journal. "The late Harvard political scientist, Samuel Huntington, talked about the ‘Clash of Civilizations,’ a model of global conflict that is in sharp contrast to the idealistic Western view of nations living in harmony. As this Wall Street Journal piece points out, Huntingdon’s model matches what we actually see around us, and its an inconvenient truth of global politics. I don’t like what Huntingdon has to say – I hope against hope that we can all just get along – but it’s a good, albeit hawkish, read in an era of Ground Zero politics." (Alistair for Hugh).
2. Using Menu Psychology to Entice Diners – The New York Times. "Last week, Foodie’s foodie, Tracy Lee, launched her Dishcrawl startup here in Montreal. Tracy can seduce anyone with her lascivious descriptions of how she’ll devour a colorful morsel you’d never think twice about. She knows that when it comes to food, the description’s the thing: well-placed adjectives matter more than well-chosen herbs and spices. So I’m going to set aside my shame at choosing two mainstream media pieces this week, and point you at The New York Times article on the marketing of menus." (Alistair for Mitch).
3. On Wikipedia, Cultural Patrimony, and Historiography – booktwo.org. "Alistair once said (to paraphrase): ‘Printed books should be back-up copies of the real book, which is online.’ Most people image that the book/digital shift is all going one way: books disappearing as they become bits. But the ever-brilliant James Bridle sees things differently, and creates lasting print objects out of digital ephemera, in this case every edit made to the Wikipedia article, the Iraq War, between December 2004 and November 2009. I’m not sure if the twelve-volume collection is for sale, but it is a wonderful piece of our history, our historiography, captured in one, physical, place: a book." (Hugh for Alistair).
4. The New Science of Morality – Edge. "This is a bit of a cheat, because it’s a link to a bunch of talks (video and audio) about radical advances in our understanding of how morality works, from leading psychologists, neuroscientists, philosophers. This stuff is, I think, some of the most exciting research happening today." (Hugh for Mitch).
5. A virtual counter-revolution – The Economist. "This is a long (and very important) read. We tend to forget that with all of the evolutions of the Internet it is becoming a very commercial marketplace – which was never the intent. This article looks at the changing and fragmenting world of the Internet and how it is edging ever-closer to a moment of an extreme power struggle between big corporations who are all vying for your pocketbooks. Does that sound sinister? It may very well be." (Mitch for Alistair).
6. 5 Lessons From Longshot, a Magazine Made in 48 Hours – The Atlantic. "This is one of those amazing stories of people who just love what they do. Longshot is a magazine that is created, produced and published in 48 hours by a very small core group of people with lots of volunteer help. It’s also the perfect mixture of traditional media and new media. This quote from the article sums it up best: ‘I spent 48 straight hours with a crew that ranged upwards of 50 people and included contributions from dozens more. Every single one of us cared deeply about the design and content of words on pages. We love making media and whether it’s print or digital, it’s just what we do and we’ll continue doing it.’" (Mitch for Hugh).

Now, it’s your turn: in the comment section below pick one thing that you saw this week that inspired you and share it.