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, PressBooks, Media Hacks) and I decided that every week or so the three of us are going to share one link for one another (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:

• A Tale Of Two Countries: The Growing Divide Between Silicon Valley And Unemployed America – TechCrunch. "The tech bubble (yes, we’re in one) is driving insane, multi-million-dollar ‘acqhires’ where companies buy startups solely for their talent. Startups have catered lunches. Signing bonuses are common. If you’re a technical worker with chops in the Bay Area, you’d be forgiven for thinking that the US economy is fine. Is this just a consequence of increased productivity from those who know how to put tech to work? Or is it a collapse of the social contract?" (Alistair for Hugh).
• Lessons Learned from The President’s Tweet – Expert Labs. "If the medium is the message, then a flat, open medium leads to a lot more analysis. The White House held a town hall using Twitter, and the folks at Expert Labs did a great job of digging into it. Here’s what they found…" (Alistair for Mitch).
• Russia plans $65bn tunnel to America – The Sunday Times. "What is it about tunnels that’s so… romantic? How crazy does it sound to have a tunnel between Siberia and Alaska? That would mean that you could get on a train in Halifax (or Florida), and ride the train all the way to London." (Hugh for Alistair).
• Graeme Hamilton: Quebec seeks special status for select journalists – National Post. "From the Department of Terrible Ideas, Quebec floats the notion that only ‘certified’ journalists should… well it’s not quite clear what privileges they should get – maybe better access to politicians? But in any case, journalism, apparently, needs protection, and the best way to ensure that is to make sure that bloggers and other unwashed don’t get to have a Professional Journalist card without meeting certain ‘criteria.’" (Hugh for Mitch). *I agree Hugh, and I Blogged about it here: One Step Forward And Fifty Steps Back For Bloggers (And Society).
• Steve Jobs’s Patents – The New York Times. "I’m still shook up by the news that Apple CEO, Steve Jobs, signed his letter of resignation this week (more on that here: Steve). While wishing him nothing but good health, this interactive feature is one of the best ways to understand the impact that Jobs has – not only on technology, but on the world at large. Some companies would probably scoff at a mere 313 Apple patents that lists Jobs as one of the inventors, but take a look-see at this. It’s not hard to see how the name ‘Jobs’ will be right up there with Newton and Bell in the grand scheme of things… and yes, I realize the implications of that statement, but it’s true." (Mitch for Alistair).
• Local Library Lends Out Humans As ‘Living Books’ – PSFK. "We get all hot and bothered about what happens when books become digital. One of the hardest adjustments to this new reality is (and has been) what happens to libraries? There has been a lot of discourse online about this and I’ve sat through many fascinating conversations about the future of the library at events like O’Reilly’s Tools of Change for Publishing conference. Most of the conversation is about making libraries destinations for people to share information, etc… This article made me both laugh and think. Imagine this: a library that lends out people as ‘living books’! If that doesn’t make you click, I’m not sure what will?" (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.