Not all battles are fought with a sword
Last week I finally finished The Kite Runner, and definitely enjoyed it. Parts of the novel are extremely powerful, and it nicely raises important questions of diversity. You could easily transplant many of the issues from Afghanistan to, for example, the American south and get something not unlike To kill a mockingbird.
Via a Kuro5shin article, I just ran across an article on Wired.com entitled “The Long Tail” that says some really nice things about the impact of digital media on its sales and distribution.
The short version is that there’s at least some reason to hope that the vanishing distribution costs can break the stranglehold of Big Media with its emphasis on the big hits. At some level it’s all stuff I’ve heard (or even said) before, but it’s a nice analysis with more actual evidence and support than me just ranting.
If you haven’t thought about or read about these issues, you probably should, and these are nice places to start.