First we got the erotic novel

Clay Shirky makes a fine point in reply to those who hate the seeming narcissism of Facebook, photo sharing & vapid personal opinion blogs:

"Look, we got erotic novels, first crack out of the box, once we had printing presses. It took a century and a half for the Royal Society to start publishing the first scientific journal in English. So even with the sacred printing press, the first things you get serve the basest human urges. But the presence of the erotic novels did not prevent us from pressing the printing presses into the service of the scientific revolution. And so I think every bit of time spent fretting about the fact that people have base desires which they will use this medium to satisfy is a waste of time – because that's been true of every medium ever launched." Guardian

BTW well done the Guardian for making a plugin that specifically makes it easier to share its journalism on the internet. Murdoch beware.