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)

• Firefighter assembles terrifying/awesome supercut of helmet footage
• NYC iPhone owner tricks thief using dating App
• ‘Oompa-Loompas’ sought over city assault
• That’s Dedication: California couple visited Disneyland every day in 2012
• Top secret tombs: the classified stealth aircraft burial grounds
• The science behind 9 big diets
• Still smarting from SOPA, Congress to shy away from copyright in 2013
• NASA mulls plan to drag asteroid into moon’s orbit
• Binary star systems make for unstable planets
• The Helical Model – animations of a vortex solar system
• PlayStation 2 manufacture ends after 12 years
• Stats show the eBook craze is slowing
• My Father’s “Eviscerated” Work – Christopher Tolkien’s first interview in ever
• Ten things on Vince Gilligan’s mind as he writes the final Breaking Bad episodes
• Quentin’s World: NYT interview with Tarantino
• From kottke: Another great Bill Murray story

Banksy gifs

• Get a bad review? Sue them… How to Piss Off a Theatre Critic
• The two-year editors battle over Sir Mix-a-Lot’s Baby Got Back page
• The Political Awakening of a Republican: ‘I Had Viewed Whole Swaths of the Country and the World as Second-Class People’
• Why wood pulp is world’s new wonder material
• A week on after the Department of Justice’s ruling and E-books are already getting cheaper
• On that here are 375 Free eBooks to download to Kindle, iPad/iPhone & Nook
• Google VP says Apple v Samsung verdict was a “wake-up call”
• From Foreign Policy: How America’s biggest corporations became cyber vigilantes
• The childhood gamer in me is pretty excited over Chris Roberts returns to space sims

And here’s a super cut of memes over the years. It’s titled ‘A Mess of Memes’, but the jury is still out on that pluralisation.

• Brain’s visual centers study finds that men and women do see things differently
• Neuroscientists successfully control the dreams of rats
• An excellent interactive infographic: How many alien civilizations exist?
• Voyager 1 is yet to find the boundary line of the Solar System
• Twenty-nine of history’s most iconic scientists in one photograph (now in color)!
• The Brooklyn bookshop saving out-of-print sci-fi, one e-book at a time
• Obama and Romney tackle 14 top science questions
• #presspushback: the lost art of fact checking returns
• From Mental_Floss: What’s the Song That Clock Chimes Play?
• How Your Cell Phone Hurts Your Relationships
• Spike Jonze’s Next Movie: A Man Falls in Love With His Phone
• Kickstarter: Charlie Kaufman’s animated feature Anomalisa
• This method is how find cat adopters online: Cat Roulette!

by Chip Zdarsky

• In 1970, a NASA director wrote this letter answering Why Explore Space?
• Worthwhile read: an unexpected meeting with the inventor of the first programmable computer
• Also, visit the very first web page from more than 20 years ago
• Reddit harasses a teen  who may have faked her own cyber-bullying
• Thirty Is Not The New Twenty: Why Your 20s Matter
• Sad news: Tig Notaro Has Breast Cancer
• The Criminalisation of Mental Illness in Black America
• A 74 year-old car buff is selling off his antique car collection, says he wasted his life and would rather have had a wife
• Meanwhile, a New York neighborhood had a proper funeral for a 1982 Honda Civic
• Swiss sheep will warn shepherds of wolf attacks by SMS
• UK Kindle eBook sales have overtaken Amazon UK print sales
• How the BBC crushed NBC and brought Olympics coverage into the future
• Editorial: So, bumbling Boris Johnson is lovable and funny? Well, have I got news for you
• Video: Olympic Stadium sings “All You Need is Love”
• Plus: 10 hours of Ping Pong

Also, here’s the trailer for Zero Dark Hour, the new film from Hurt Locker director Katherine Bigelow about the events of SEAL Team Six and the hunt for Osama Bin Laden. Slightly underwhelming, but I’m still looking forward to it.

Back in 1993, Douglas Adams recorded this soundbite for his then-publisher, retracing the origins of books and an almost prophetic description of their evolution to e-books.

Below is a submitted animation for a competition run by the Literary Platform to design a motion graphic to accompany this soundbite. Check it.