Freyburg

…at least in the States. Though I really couldn’t care less….I get most of my TV viewing off torrents anyway, so it isn’t like I’ll actually notice.

Apparently so, according to the NYT.

is the irritating subtitle that a pile of different books have tossed about for the last decade or so. The Guardian has a nice little rip on the over-the-top claims that Irishmen, cod, and salt have hacked the planet.

The NY Press has a Friedman-centric “Get Your War On” take-off, as well as a pretty funny review/slag of “The World is Flat.”

from the BBC. Uh-oh.

Like many arts degree holding pseudo-intellectuals, I did my time in a independent bookstore. While my experiences weren’t that bad, this acrticle makes the fairly valid point that the differences between big-box book marts and indie stores aren’t as wide as you’d think.

There’s a good article in the Globe and Mail today about what Google’s up to, and what changes it might bring not only to the Internet but the wider world.

I haven’t read “The World is Flat” yet, but this review makes me want to pick it up. Friedman’s previous globalization magnum opus, “The Lexus and the Olive Tree,” was a little more balanced about the benefits and perils of globalization than most lefties would like to admit. Friedman does have an unhealthy love for metaphorical howlers, like referring to golobalization as an operating system, but in doing so he does cut a pretty complicated system down into something understandable.

Something Awful has a great line-up of Japanized movie posters. Let’s Kiosk!

Foreign Affairs has a long but very good article about how the United States is falling way behind the rest of the world in broadband innovation, thanks to (surprise, surprise) the Bush administration.