Six Links Worthy Of Your Attention #23

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, iambik, 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. Cooking for Engineers… recipe infographics! (and interview) – Cool Infographics. "I came across the Cooking for Engineers blog a few years ago, and was immediately impressed with this unique way of documenting a complex process. Now the guys at Cool Infographics have deconstructed Michael Chu‘s approach, and published an interview with him. I’m amazed that more processes that involve the assembly of components (think books, computer systems, or surgery) haven’t adopted this approach." (Alistair for Hugh).
2. Digital Art@Google: DJ Spooky. "This hour-long video with Paul Miller is a glimpse into the mind of an artist living at the intersection of music, technology, and art. (Sidenote: his track Little Bullet influenced a generation of DJs and producers, showing that trance didn’t have to be insipid candy floss). Find an hour and listen to him talk about cargo cults, the environment, bamboo, and stop-motion photos." (Alistair for Mitch).
3. Screwed up incentives in higher education – Top Hat Monocle. "What’s wrong with university education? Lots, and you can blame it on incentives." (Hugh for Alistair).
4. Siblings Share Genes, But Rarely Personalities – NPR. "Research into why it is that siblings – who share genes and an environment when they grow up – are not much more likely than random strangers to have similar personalities." (Hugh for Mitch).
5. Binary Breakthrough – The New York Times Sunday Book Review. "The origin of the computer is one that is rarely heard or told… until now. ‘John Vincent Atanasoff, a physicist and mathematician who invented the computer largely out of frustration. Anyone who has studied calculus knows that solving differential equations is a tedious process: labor- intensive, error-prone, slow. That process grows more arduous as equations grow more complex, and by the 1930s, as Smiley recounts, the difficulty of calculation was impeding scientific advancement. In response, Atanasoff designed a machine to do what his own mind could not. ‘I did not want to search and invent,’ he confessed, ‘but sadly I turned in that direction,’ reads the article. The only thing more fascinating than reading this book review will be reading the actual book." (Mitch for Alistair).
6. Can It Text? Blog? Tweet? No. It’s a Book. – GeekDad. "Is technology making our kids stupid? Or is technology going to kill some of the most cherished things (like books) that have made us who we are? Here’s a new picture book for very young kids about books. ‘It’s a story about a tech-obsessed donkey, a book-loving monkey and a mouse. Think of it as the digital vs. paper book debate, but for kids. A few of us have written in favor of e-books or dead-tree books before, and I’m sure the debate will continue for some time. Smith, not surprisingly, comes down firmly in favor of books… well, at least compared to laptops, which is what the donkey has,’ states the Blog post. Just wait until the donkey gets his hands on an iPad and some of the Dr. Seuss apps." (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.