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“Classes” are the the “castes” of democracy. Put it this way: democracy is a “wiki-caste” system by which we categorize and define each other collectively in economic, racial and other various terms. The result is a social hierarchy that we can claim is not a caste system because it lacks formal designation or enforcement.

A single quote of this essay, no matter how brilliant, is no where near the brilliance of the whole. A must read. (and bookmark the entire site while you are there).

GAP says the denim is “Japanese” which I suspect to mean Japanese inspired, but made in China. Not that it really matters in this care, nor do I care. This was an experiment. Besides, those French jeans are made in Macao and cost $140. The point was: “Were the $300 jeans I am buying that much better? Could a $54 pair from a huge chain wear-in and look good?” I brought the jeans home, tried them on and then proceeded to wear them everyday for about 11 months straight. Those GAP jeans wore in amazingly.

I own a pair of these and can second this assessment. These are my favorite pair.

You can’t automate great curation. The Industrial Revolution automated production, and the technological age automated just about everything else in our lives. But factories and technology can’t automate creativity, imagination and instinct. If you want to make yourself irreplaceable, start getting creative.

Nice piece on the responsibility we all have to be great curators. (thx MiGrant)

If you want to provoke discussion, logic and detail are not your friends. Instead, don’t worry about loose ends and half-expressed ideas – just keep the audience’s interest and provide colour, and let them fill in the gaps later. Make sure your audience is not sure what’s coming next, not sure if they quite understood what they just heard. That’s what makes for good entertainment. It’s the First Rule of Big Ideas: tell stories and think by analogy.

Extremely well written editorial on the nature of storytelling, analogy, and augmentation. Also, Clay Shirky. (thx Al3x)

Here’s how it works: Issue Zero begins May 7th. We’ll unveil a theme and you’ll have 24 hours to produce and submit your work. We’ll take the next 24 to snip, mash and gild it. The end results will be a shiny website and a beautiful glossy paper magazine, delivered right to your old-fashioned mailbox. We promise it will be insane. Better yet, it might even work.

Brilliant and fascinating idea from Heather Champ and Derek Powazeck. I’m a big fan of magazines and have a special place in my heart for these two.

Finally found the time to read this. Excellent summation of the history and current state of the modern eBook battle.

My takeaway: The publishers are inherently doomed because they have no idea who their customer is.

What I believe in.

This article starts out as a somewhat sensational look at the gay superhero fetish scene in NYC. It then, after the first few paragraphs, goes on to look at the intersection, similarities, and growing inclusion of GLBT and comic culture. 

I understand the need to lead with the sensational to get folks past the headline and to read further. That said, this is almost like two separate and loosely connected pieces with one far more interesting, topical, and important than the other.

Mark Twain as literary critic as gleaned from the margins of the countless books in his personal collection that he feverishly critiqued and often corrected.

I have always said that the mark of a good writer is a good reader an, by this account, Mark Twain was one of the best.

Fascinating stuff. (thx Shawn Blanc)