"Welcome to Earth: meet the leaders" - There is an interesting post on Metafilter linking to an email proportedly written by New York Newsday journalist (and sort-of blogger) Laurie Garrett, candidly describing her experience attending the recent World Economic Forum in Davos. The email was personal and not meant for publication but ended up being forwarded around and posted on discussion lists. Was the email real? Mefites tore it apart, finding inaccuracies here and there, but I thought the missive rang true given what I know about How Things Work. And there was some good discussion. Things became interesting when Garrett wrote Mefite Beagle indicating that the email was from her, but was not meant for public discussion. She also chastised the Metafilter community: "Do you actually believe, as you type your random thoughts in such Internet settings, that you are participating in Civilization? In Democracy? In changing your world?" While I cannot disagree with any admonition to participate more fully in the world around us, it's pretty clear we're hearing the sound a priviliaged journalist's ego makes when it crashes to the ground.