21C.

Issue to of the revived21C Magazine is now out. It used to be an Australian mag, but now Paul Miller is running it. Its online only at the moment, but he's been promising a print version for a while now…

Anyway loads of good stuff, including an article by my partner in 47, [sic] on Propagate, his collaboration with Shepard Fairey. The video clip doesn't seem to be working, but keep on the look out cause its impressive. And yeah, he's looking for funding to take through round through, so if you got the cash, get in touch…

[via Quadrant Crossing]

[Abstract Dynamics]

21c was a great magazine, with some good articles and interviews, i hope the tradition is maintained.

Power Laws, Political Websites, and Inequality. “Googlearchy: How a Few Heavily-Linked Sites Dominate Politics on the Web” (pdf, 300k), by Matthew Hindman and two co-authors from NEC labs, is an examination of the link structure of some 3 million politically-oriented websites.

The authors draw observations similar to those in the Power Laws, Weblogs, and Inequality piece: For each of the issues examined, most of the links are to sites in the top 20; and the median site gets a single inbound link. The power law still holds at lower resolution, when communities of discourse are split into subcommunities.

The bottom line: we should be careful not to confuse retrievability with visibility.

While I found the article a little verbose, there are interesting tidbits throughout – and a nice list of references.

(Thanks, Kushal!)
[Corante: Social Software]

This is a interesting bit of research, but I wonder whether this is because of the method google uses to rank sites?

Intellectual Property in Education. From the Web Tools Newsletter, a webliography of resources on IP. [Kairosnews - A Weblog for Discussing Rhetoric, Technology and Pedagogy]

This is a handy resource.

America the fascist.. An article in the newest Adbusters magazine asks the question – is America becoming fascist? (a condensed version of this article written by Anis Shivani Oct. 2002). In it, Shivani states that ‰¥þAmerican fascism is tapping into the perennial complaint against liberalism: that it doesn't provide an authentic sense of belonging to the majority of people. And that is a criticism difficult to dismiss out of hand. As the language of liberalism has become flat and predictable, some Americans have become more ready to accept an alternative, no matter how ridiculous, as long as it sounds vigorous and muscular.‰¥? More inside… [MetaFilter]

This is somewhat insightful, and i think that if people are willing to think about it, we stand less of a chance of proceeding down this path.

Lackawanna Case: No Choice But Guilty. Why do terror defendants plead guilty when they are not? Because of implied threats by the Government to treat them as “enemy combatants” and throw them in the dark hole if they don't. [TalkLeft: The Politics of Crime]

The choice should never be, plead guilty or disappear. The choice should be plead guilty or plead innocent, but in any case you get a fair trial.

Kerouac bobblehead. Kerouac becomes a bobblehead. From the sports promoters in Lowell, Massachusetts, to the literati, everybody thinks it's a terrific idea. “Certainly, Jack would love it,” says the executor of his estate. [MetaFilter]

this is something to add to my wish list… i have a jack kerouac poster in the server room,