Minority Opinion by Gino Ruggeri

• I have always detested the word meme, and not just because it was coined by Richard Dawkins, though that certainly helps”

  One of many gems in this great article on the ‘Meme Generation’. Dunno why I picked that quote in particular, given it’s just subjective snide humor, but really, the rest of the article is a fantastic observation into the culture of memes, media and meta-humour. Recommended.

• Here’s another good one – on the frequent fliers who flew too much
• From an former employee, this provides a great dissection and history of Amazon’s low margins business strategy
• A wonderful deconstruction of “first world problems” condescending attitude
• Studies show that ‘Moral Realism’ may lead to better moral behavior
• From the writers perspective: How much should ebooks cost?
• Great title: The Pope’s Dove of Peace attacked by Seagull of Irony
• What’s the price of copyright crime in New Zealand? Only $617
• Oh man, the original artwork for all 12 Watchmen covers will soon be up for auction
• I have zero knowledge about the film, but I love the design of Young and Wild‘s end credits
• Cleaning work at Rome’s Colosseum has turned up 2000 year old graffiti
• North Korea is now properly on Google Maps and here 4 interesting ‘must-sees’; Informative, though zero external links to the actual maps/locations. I’m really starting to despise this trend of closed system hyperlinks on blogs. (update: this one‘s at least links out with it’s list and be sure to check out the awesome user reviews)

• Rolling Stone has a Q&A with David Cross on ‘Arrested Development’
• This elaborates on the politics of The Dark Knight movies
• This’ll make you feel old: For incoming college freshmen, Kurt Cobain has always been dead
• And this, nostalgically older: The need to upgrade computers is coming to a halt
• On business/hiring: The Bozo Event Horizon
• The Googler whose job was to Browse the worst of the internet
• How one NASA scientist’s family Switched over to Martian Time
• Photos from August 22, 1969: The Beatles’ final photo shoot
• And a time capsule was opened and the 25 year-old predictions by some sci-fi writers about ‘what life would be like in 2012’ are read. Some points are fairly on-the-mark, but a few are also depressingly way off.