Links for July 31st through August 6th

This entry was published at least two years ago (originally posted on August 6, 2008). Since that time the information may have become outdated or my beliefs may have changed (in general, assume a more open and liberal current viewpoint). A fuller disclaimer is available.

Sometime between July 31st and August 6th, I thought this stuff was interesting. You might think so too!

  • Trading Places: The demographic inversion of the American city.: In the past three decades, Chicago has undergone changes that are routinely described as gentrification, but are in fact more complicated and more profound than the process that term suggests. A better description would be "demographic inversion." Chicago is gradually coming to resemble a traditional European city–Vienna or Paris in the nineteenth century, or, for that matter, Paris today. The poor and the newcomers are living on the outskirts. The people who live near the center–some of them black or Hispanic but most of them white–are those who can afford to do so.
  • The ORIGINAL Illustrated Catalog Of ACME Products: ACME is a worldwide leader of many manufactured goods. From its humble beginnings providing corks and flypaper to bug collectors to its heyday in the American Southwest supplying a certain coyote…ACME has set the standard for excellence.
  • Canada bus passenger stabs, decapitates seat mate: A traveler aboard a Greyhound bus repeatedly stabbed and then decapitated his seat mate, pausing during the savage attack in central Canada to display the head to passengers who had fled in horror, witnesses and officials said Thursday.
  • EW Previews Star Trek Comic Con Posters – With First Cast Photos: The first official images of Kirk (Chris Pine), Spock (Zachary Quinto), Uhura (Zoë Saldana), and Nero (Eric Bana). By the way, look closely at the eyes. (Yes, I'm two weeks behind. But wow does Quinto look perfect for Spock!)
  • Ballantine Books to Publish Book Inspired by the Webcomic Garfield Minus Garfield: The full-color book format will give readers the experience of having both the original and doctored Garfield strips together on the same page for comparison. (Jim Davis gets a lot of cool points in my book for allowing this to happen.)