Here are today's must-reads:
1. The End of Courtship?" http://pjblack.me/Xa8GiQ
Women in their 20s these days are lucky to get a last-minute text to tag along. Raised in the age of so-called “hookup culture,” millennials — who are reaching an age where they are starting to think about settling down — are subverting the rules of courtship.
Instead of dinner-and-a-movie, which seems as obsolete as a rotary phone, they rendezvous over phone texts, Facebook posts, instant messages and other “non-dates” that are leaving a generation confused about how to land a boyfriend or girlfriend.
“The new date is ‘hanging out,’ ” said Denise Hewett, 24, an associate television producer in Manhattan, who is currently developing a show about this frustrating new romantic landscape. As one male friend recently told her: “I don’t like to take girls out. I like to have them join in on what I’m doing — going to an event, a concert.”
2. The End of the University as We Know It:
In fifty years, if not much sooner, half of the roughly 4,500 colleges and universities now operating in the United States will have ceased to exist. The technology driving this change is already at work, and nothing can stop it. The future looks like this: Access to college-level education will be free for everyone; the residential college campus will become largely obsolete; tens of thousands of professors will lose their jobs; the bachelor’s degree will become increasingly irrelevant; and ten years from now Harvard will enroll ten million students.
3. How the Legal System Failed Aaron Swartz--and Us:
Defenders of the prosecution seem to think that anyone charged with a felony must somehow deserve punishment. That idea can only be sustained without actual exposure to the legal system. Yes, most of the time prosecutors do chase actual wrongdoers, but today our criminal laws are so expansive that most people of any vigor and spirit can be found to violate them in some way. Basically, under American law, anyone interesting is a felon. The prosecutors, not the law, decide who deserves punishment.
Today, prosecutors feel they have license to treat leakers of information like crime lords or terrorists. In an age when our frontiers are digital, the criminal system threatens something intangible but incredibly valuable. It threatens youthful vigor, difference in outlook, the freedom to break some rules and not be condemned or ruined for the rest of your life. Swartz was a passionate eccentric who could have been one of the great innovators and creators of our future. Now we will never know.
And the most-read link I tweeted today was:
- "10 Reasons Why 2013 Will Be The Year You Quit Your Job" http://feedly.com/k/11qkJ25
These are some of the other things I've been tweeting about today:
- "Google ordered to reveal identity of anonymous bloggers in Australian defamation suit" http://pjblack.me/XanXjE #lwb480
- a very unfair, negative reaction from andrew sullivan: "Jodie Foster Stops Lying" http://pjblack.me/10vXTXR
- a good piece from tim wu (@superwuster): "How the Legal System Failed Aaron Swartz--and Us" http://pjblack.me/X9O9uJ
- "Twitter can help people lose weight" http://pjblack.me/10uYF7m
- "Porn Industry Uses Free Speech to Fight California's Condom Law" http://pjblack.me/X7tBTC
- "First NZ three-strikes copyright case to be heard" http://pjblack.me/10tE6s4 #lwb486
- "We the People: Is the Death Star Petition a model for legislative change in Australia?" http://pjblack.me/10tCZIO #auslaw #auspol
- "In Defence Of Compulsory Voting" http://pjblack.me/X7p4Ay #auspol #lwb242
- "Jodie Foster Kicks Open the Closet Door - What It Means for Gays in Hollywood" http://sco.lt/5jVf73
- "Tributes flow for former CAPA president John Nowakowski" http://pjblack.me/Xa9c0f
- this is a good list - i love "hush" and "once more with feeling": "The 5 Best ‘Buffy The Vampire Slayer’ Episodes" http://pjblack.me/X6Z3S1
- has hookup culture killed the date?: "The End of Courtship?" http://pjblack.me/Xa8GiQ
- "uNu iPhone 5 Battery Case Doubles Your Battery Life" http://pjblack.me/10t6H0w
- i was very sad to hear today of the tragic and premature death of @janek85: "Vale John Nowakowski" http://pjblack.me/Xa7njU
- peter is not in the top ten but mo, bertie and gus are?: "The top baby names of 2013" http://pjblack.me/Xa568k
- there is something to this: "Never mind iPhone 6 and iPads next, in 2013 it's all about iOS 7 and iCloud" http://pjblack.me/X6Kyxt
- this seems to be a common trend: "After 199 Checkins, 41 Photos, And 18 Badges I Quit Foursquare – Here's Why" http://pjblack.me/X6Im9b
- maybe i need this: "Gym Shamer Shames You Into Going To The Gym" http://pjblack.me/10t3PRe
- i am loving the new digg: "New Digg owners claim the 'Digg effect is back', user base doubled in 5 months" http://pjblack.me/X6IdCB
- "Justice Thomas speaks" http://pjblack.me/10vyr4D
- "Inside the Wild, Wacky, Profitable World of Boing Boing" http://pjblack.me/VXXDd1
- "'Drinking Mirror' app aims to show how alcohol ages you" http://pjblack.me/VYJkFh
- "Public Influence: The Immortalization of an Anonymous Death" http://pjblack.me/VXNAol
- "Visionary voting reform ... if it works in your favour" says mungo maccallum http://pjblack.me/10vnJLy #lwb242 #auspol
- links to the stories i discussed on @612brisbane this morning http://pjblack.me/10tHzH4
- "Aussie avalanche in MBA competition" http://pjblack.me/X9yZWc #highered #qut
- "Online Pick-Up Artists Have Infiltrated Snapchat" http://pjblack.me/VSg0me
- "10 Reasons Why 2013 Will Be The Year You Quit Your Job" http://feedly.com/k/11qkJ25
- "Newsweek unveils animated cover. But what if its old issues were animated too?" http://pjblack.me/X5b2zn
- desktop search is down: "Google's Core Business Is In The Middle Of A Fundamental Shift" http://pjblack.me/VWvhQz
- "Wikipedia launches travel site Wikivoyage on January 15" http://pjblack.me/VXNTQ3
- "Innovation pessimism: Has the ideas machine broken down?" http://pjblack.me/V1FYWq
- "A Quiet Killer: Why Video Games Are So Addictive" http://pjblack.me/X4fvCh
- "The End of the University as We Know It" http://pjblack.me/VT5A3k #highered
- "Clarence Thomas Breaks Half-Decade Silence During SCOTUS Arguments" http://pjblack.me/10uRMmC
Follow me on Twitter @peterjblack.
And you can get my latest links anytime on my Rebelmouse social media front page.
