"For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple and wrong." H.L. Mencken

"The reason men oppose progress is not that they hate progress, but that they love inertia." Elbert Hubbard

"Expensive advertising courts us with hints and images. The ordinary kind merely says, Buy." Mason Cooley

Today's image: Hey Tina! by konderminator. Fun shot. Thanks for sharing.

"If the news is that important, it will find me."

“There are lots of times where I’ll read an interesting story online and send the U.R.L. to 10 friends,” said Lauren Wolfe, 25, the president of College Democrats of America. “I’d rather read an e-mail from a friend with an attached story than search through a newspaper to find the story.”

In one sense, this social filter is simply a technological version of the oldest tool in politics: word of mouth. Jane Buckingham, the founder of the Intelligence Group, a market research company, said the “social media generation” was comfortable being in constant communication with others, so recommendations from friends or text messages from a campaign — information that is shared, but not sought — were perceived as natural.

Ms. Buckingham recalled conducting a focus group where one of her subjects, a college student, said, “If the news is that important, it will find me.”

Read the entire story by Timesman Brian Stelter - Finding Political News Online, the Young Pass It On - here. Kudos, Brian. Well done.

The lesson seems clear. Your assets must be digital. Those digital assets must be discoverable. Assets must be export friendly, content clear to receivers (headline driven permalinks, etc). Further, we can make the reasonable argument that the so-called news cycle has imploded. We are living in the moment, a world of news in what is practically real-time. Every story being in some stage of developing. Increasingly, your main page is less and less relevant, no longer the most prized asset. Related discussion: Jeff Jarvis, Terry Heaton.

Bonus: The Twenty-Five Most Valuable Blogs. Thanks to 24/7 Wall St. Nick's Gawker Media #1 w/$150 mil, Arianna's Huff #3 w/$70 mil, Drudge is tied at #8, w/$10 mil. All are guess-timated back of the envelope "values."

Firefox 3, the final edition: ships in June. Beta 4 is working fine here.

Now, someone really is watching you: Google turns on YouTube stats. Tracy Chan has the inside here. Bravos to the Googlers.

Fred Wilson: is teaching your kids about george carlin considered good parenting? it is in my book Fred's Twitter is chased via Quotably here.

Congrats & cheers: Matt McAlister London bound, joins the Guardian.