Linkology: The Best of the Internet for 4/23/10

This week’s fresh, dolphin-safe bounty of fine web treasures:

Here’s a TED talk of skeptic James Randi denouncing psychic fraud and irrational beliefs.  Lots of snake oil out there, even with knowing what we know.

Facebook made massive announcements at this year’s f8 conference.  Nutshell: they’re going to own the web and make the entire thing social, and the behavioral data they’ll get in return will be tremendous.  Google looks to be getting flanked on social search.  Robert Scoble has the best breakdown/analysis of what Facebook announced this week.

The NFL draft, decoded.  Matt Taibbi slams one out of the park (and in the process, forgives interloping sports metaphors).

What’s the best way to win ultra-endurance events?  By becoming truly insane for a while.

Being fat is bad for your brain. Who needs this?

Riveting interview with Ed Catmull, President of Pixar.  Best quip, on the dilemma of firing creative geniuses: “[At Pixar] there is very high tolerance for eccentricity, very creative, and to the point where some are strange… but there are a small number of people who are socially dysfunctional [and] very creative – we get rid of them. If we don’t have a healthy group then it isn’t going to work.”

Apple has another tremendous quarter.  Interesting note: iPhone represents 40% of its business.  Here are more granular financials if you want them [PDF link].

Why you need books in your home. In short, kids who grow up around books generally do better in school than kids who don’t.

Adam DeGraff is back, this time doing AC/DC’s ‘Back in Black’ on dueling fiddles.  Amazing.

Finally, the WSJ has an interesting bit on the decline of successful young scientists.  If left uninterrupted, this trend doesn’t lend itself to innovation.

Have a good weekend, everyone.

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