The Worst Mistake in the History of the Human Race

This is an interesting and very counterintuitive take on the development of agriculture in human history. Generally agriculture is seen as the technological development that saved us from a "nasty brutish and short" life of hunting and gathering. According to this article, the hunter-gatherers had a better, healthier, and higher quality of life.

Jamestowne well yields artifacts

This is cool. Relics found include a 400 year old pistol.

The Extinction of Mass Culture

This is a very good Fortune Magazine piece about "The End of the Watercooler Era." With so many choices out there there, everyone scurries to their niche and misses out on what would have been common experiences. Like me-- I've never seen "American Idol" or "24" or "Lost" or "Survivor." I used to think it was just because I was getting old, but that's only part of the story-- the bigger story is that young and old alike are splintering their attention, whether it is on cable channels or the net or home video. The "monoculture" of the network television era is over. Not that this is a bad thing....

YouTube

ForgottenRoanoke embedded a youtube video the other day so I thought I would try one. This is an early 80s music video by a band called "Friends Again." I had the song on a mix tape for many years and did not know who the band was; I googled the lyrics and finally figured it out. The song is a great piece of 80s pop with an exceptionally good lead guitarist; the video is a typical, very early low-budget mess.

The End of Authorship

This (registration required) is a critical essay by John Updike about Google Print (their library scanning project, which looks to have been renamed "Google Book Search"). It is a well written argument and is worth reading and thinking about if you are a bibliophile internet user.

The Six Sins of the Wikipedia

This is a fair, if highly critical, take on the Wikipedia, and is worth a read if you want to know how it works and what its problems are. Be sure to read the postscript, wherein the writer was attacked with a slanderous "article" after publishing his criticism, which is, again, fair.