[Variety]
TV viewers' average age hits 50. Median age is outside the 18-49 demographic.

[Guardian.co.uk]
We love independent filmmakers and musicians, and celebrate their maverick spirit, so why don't we want independent writers?

[Times.co.uk]
Critics choose their most-loathed books.

[FoodVu]
The Top 100 Food Blogs.

[Psychology Today]
George Carlin's last interview.

[AFP]
Sir Salman Rushdie.

[Entertainment Weekly]
The 100 best reads from 1983 to 2008 (have a large grain of salt handy).

[Inventor Spot]
Best. Snow globes. Ever.

[Talaria Enterprises]
A museum store for the culturally-inspired mind.

[Miller-McCune]
Once people hit 70, their ability to evaluate candidates declines. As the population continues to age, could this be a problem? In order to be able to hold your representatives accountable, you have to be able to cast a vote that represents your preference as an interest. If you fail to do that consistently, you are not in a position to hold your representatives accountable. As the population ages, it may be harder for people to determine the correct vote and hold their representatives accountable.

[SF Signal]
Who are tomorrow's big SF stars?

[boston.com]
Many top-selling writers, such as John Grisham and Mary Higgins Clark, have turned out at least one book annually for years. Now some writers are beginning to grumble about the pressure, and some are refusing to comply.

[Telegraph.co.uk]
People with higher IQs are less likely to believe in God, according to a new study.

[Publishers Weekly]
The production of traditional books rose 1% in 2007, to 276,649 new titles and editions, but the output of on-demand, short run and unclassified titles soared from 21,936 in 2006 to 134,773 last year, according to preliminary figures released Wednesday by R.R. Bowker. The combination of the two categories results in a 39% increase in output to 411,422.

[AbeBooks]
What can you find in a book (besides words)?

[Visual Thesaurus]
An interactive tool that allows you to discover the connections between words in a visually captivating display. Word maps let you search for just the right word and then explore related concepts, revealing the way words and meanings relate to each other (try-before-you-buy version only, unfortunately).

[freebase]
An open database of the world’s information. Built by the community and for the community, it's free for anyone to query, contribute to, build applications on top of, or integrate into their websites.

[IEEE Spectrum]
Vernor Vinge on signs of the Singularity.

[COSMOS Magazine]
Within a few decades, we might reasonably expect to have extended life to 150 years or more—the first human to live to 1,000 may have already been born. Which raises the question: does death give meaning to our lives? Where do we go from here?

[The New York Times]
The average mother of a child under 15 spends more on fast food every year than on books, music, movies and video games combined.

[Prospect]
In one corner are the preachers of mental and moral decline; in the other the high priests of innovation and life 2.0. In between are the ever-increasing legions of gamers, busily buying and playing while nonsense is talked over their heads.