We yearn for frictionless, technological solutions. But people talking to people is still the way that norms and standards change

"The rage and self-loathing associated with hipsters has become more annoying, more naive, and more artificial than hipsters could ever hope to be."

Check out the "Hobo Code" page.

Kenan Malik writes that the attempt to preserve "cultural identity and authenticity" is largely an inauthentic act, one steeped in relativism and traditionalism, and more concerned with how individuals "should" act than how they actually do. Thanks to @kemp for the link.

This is fantastic. Strangers, asked to touch one another for a photograph. The photography itself is excellent, and the subjects are too. It's touching.

"Scenius is like genius, only embedded in a scene rather than in genes. Brian Eno suggested the word to convey the extreme creativity that groups, places or 'scenes' can occasionally generate."

On the "cognitive surplus" we're going through, and how interesting and valuable all this new engagement and experimentation with technology is.

It's all right to hate sports and food, but music a whole different animal. Probably a wolf, these days.

What to do if you're robbed.

Christopher Fahey on the cycles of adoption and adaptation that determine how we interact with technology and media. Maybe we'll all be okay after all.

"Throw down a challenge." The articles bullet-points the book's suggested tactics.

"These are things I find abandoned in books or stuffed on the book cart at the jail where I volunteer."

A visualization of the feelings of the web. Beautiful and moving.

Who are those people out and about between 9 and 5? Poets and web designers, trust fund babies and people between jobs.