Six Links Worthy Of Your Attention #33

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, Year One Labs, 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:

• Ten Games That Make You Think About Life – Casual Girl Gamer. "With tools making it easier for a single person to build a game, and games an increasingly integrated part of our culture, it’s only natural that game designers use them to explore philosophical themes. This collection from Casual Girl Gamer lists ten of the best. They’re sometimes poetic, sometimes disturbing, and sometimes curious, but all worth a glance. Best of all, many are free and playable in a browser." (Alistair for Hugh).
• Toilet Paper Orientation – Wikipedia. "I came across this via Reddit. It never occurred to me that there could be so much discussion around something this mundane. But apparently it’s the subject of much contention, with warring factions arguing their cases and a detailed Wikipedia page. That we disagree so passionately about something with no right answer is an object lesson for everyone from counselors to hostage negotiators. Or maybe I’m reading too much into a roll of paper." (Alistair for Mitch).
• Iceland Shows Ireland Did ‘Wrong Things’ Saving Banks – Bloomberg. "A couple of years into the financial crisis, and very little (if anything) has changed in the financial systems that brought the crisis on. Instead of facing the consequences of years of risky, reckless lending and ballooning debt in the financial system, the banks and bankers the world over were protected by their governments. Generally, governments guaranteed all the bad loans that banks had made to each other. So when Bank #1 owed Bank #2 more money than it could afford, the government stepped in and paid off Bank #2. All the banks were happy, and are making huge profits once again. There were a couple of bumpy years, but by and large there was nothing in the way of dire consequences for bankers and the banking system. The taxpayers, on the other hand, are saddled with the bill, and employment and the real economy continues to languish. Was there another road? Iceland went another direction, and told all the banks: ‘sorry, you shouldn’t have made such risky loans.’ It seems to be working." (Hugh for Alistair).
• Peaked Performance – The Boston Globe. "Remember when it seemed like sports and athletes just got better and better every year? Up until 1980 or so, improvements in diet, training techniques, equipment, psychology meant that records kept falling, especially in track & field, where external factors are less important (team dynamics etc). Then things started to plateau. And we are now, it seems, at the limits of what the human body can do. The records don’t fall much these days. What does it mean for our conception of elite athletics, of the human race in general, if, by and large, the best we can do is aim to equal the record?" (Hugh for Mitch).
• Is Facebook A Bubble? – Fast Company. "As Facebook continues to grow and become an ever-more important part of our day to day lives, their valuation continues to rocket. Many remember the dot com bust that happened several years ago and are looking at recent events (Groupon turning down Google‘s offer of acquisition for six billion dollars, etc…) as key indicators that we’re quickly heading into (or are in the middle of) Internet Bubble 2.0. According to this Fast Company article, ‘Bloomberg reports that a poll of global investors reveals that 69% of them think that Facebook is overvalued. Just 10% thought it was ‘properly valued’ (and 4% thought it undervalued), while 17% had ‘no idea.’ Is Facebook really worth over fifty billion dollars?" (Mitch for Alistair).
• Where Are the Women in Wikipedia? – The New York Times. "It’s an interesting question… and one I don’t understand/have an answer for. In this interactive feature of The New York Times, seven women and one man dissect the reasons (and you too can play along at home). Is it because women communicate differently from men? Are open platforms not all that ‘open’ in the end? Are women easier to ‘give in’ in an online confrontation? Do the trolls keep the women at bay? Are women more anti-social than men? Is Wikipedia more about power than gender? Or, do women just desperately need to avoid nerds at all costs?" (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.