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:

• How Long Is A Piece Of String? – Horizon. "From the BBC‘s Horizon, a trippy answer to an apparently simple question. Alan Davies gets complicated responses that question the fabric of the universe from… a length of string? (and if that isn’t blowing your mind enough, follow it with a chaser of the most psychedelic images in science, a far-out collection of images from Discover Magazine shows that there’s plenty of beauty in math, noses, crystals, and more)." (Alistair for Hugh).
• Emotion and Music – McGill University. "From our own McGill University, here’s a study of how music affects us. Researchers hooked subjects to a functional MRI, then looked at their response to tunes. It lists the ones that induced chills; also cited are other studies that show what provokes intense reactions and emotions. You could look at this as a playlist; or maybe as an incredibly cynical way to produce that next hit single." (Alistair for Mitch).
• Seven ways to think like the web – Jon Udell. "The wonderful Jon Udell outlines some fundamental principles of webbiness that, no matter your interests or business, you ought to reflect on – to see if you are doing the Web ‘right.’" (Hugh for Alistair).
• The Age Of Persuasion – CBC. "One of the best show’s on the radio anywhere in the world – and I listen to stuff from all over – is The Age of Persuasion, the CBC Radio show about advertising and marketing, hosted by Terry O’Reilly, award-winning ad-man and radio nut. Age of Persuasion has been on for years, but never has it been available as a podcast. Until now… as of January 2011. Highly recommended listening for just about anyone. Mitch probably listens to this show every week already, so he’ll likely know it’s a podcast now. But still it’s my link for the week." (Hugh for Mitch).
• We need a serious critique of net activism – The Guardian. "The Web is now regarded as the place where all activism comes together. Look no further than the media and communications coming out of Egypt this week. Some of the big thinkers (people like Malcolm Gladwell, Jay Rosen, Jeff Jarvis and Clay Shirky) all have differing perspectives on the efficacy of online activism in terms of true effect on creating change. In this piece, Boing Boing founder, author and new media expert, Cory Doctorow, reviews the book, The Net Delusion – The Dark Side of Internet Freedom, by Evgeny Morozov. This extensive piece does a lot more than dismantle the ideas brought forward in The Net Delusion, it acts as an amazing primer for what the Web can (and can’t) do in terms of bringing people together and getting them to affect change in our world." (Mitch for Alistair).
• Marshall McLuhan Speaks. "This is another reason to love the Internet. Someone, somewhere aggregated some classic video clips of media visionary, Marshall McLuhan, speaking, being interviewed, etc… and organized by theme. It’s a truly amazing collection of intellect and insight that you would never be able to find in another media channel like print, TV or radio. I was especially taken with the video clip entitled, My Reading Habits, where McLuhan claims he only reads the right-hand side pages of non-fiction books. This is a treasure of media insights. And, if this isn’t enough, check out another online project about McLuhan called, From Marshall And Me." (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.