The earliest promise of the Internet has certainly been fulfilled. Those
of us with an Internet connection (not to mention an OC3) now have access
to far more information about far more topics than we are equipped to
effectively navigate or digest. The pressing challenge has now become
developing new strategies for organizing, filtering, and navigating this
massive set of information in ways which are most valuable, efficient, and
entertaining.

One such strategy is the creation of blogs, an affectionate abbreviation
for web logs, which are one of the fastest-growing new phenomena on the
Internet. Blogs are a specialized type of web page which contain short,
time-stamped postings from their author(s) on any imaginable topic,
usually laden with hyperlinks and personal commentary. Blogs are typically
driven behind the scenes by web- or desktop-based applications which make
posting to a blog quick and easy. Estimates suggest that there are up to
one million active bloggers on the Internet today.

The act of maintaining a web log is called blogging, and represents a
hybrid new media form which combines the immediacy of a news feed, the
intimacy of a diary, and the personality of an editorial. Immediacy
because the ease of blogging means that it is common for bloggers to post
many times a day, giving an up-to-the-minute feel. Intimacy because the
personal nature of blog content and commentary means that blogs have a
much more human feel than more typical, faceless news sources such as the
newspaper or nightly news. Blogging trades the hidden, questionable biases
of the mass media for the obvious, proud biases of a human being; blogs
are perhaps not more objective than other information sources, but are
certainly more honest and up-front about the particular spin on the news
they present. The exhibitionistic nature of many of those drawn to
blogging means that blog content often provides a much richer, deeper
portrait of its author than the same content would if presented in a
newspaper article, for example. For all of these reasons blogs represent
the quintessential medium for our modern attention-deficient,
instant-gratification, self-absorbed, and voyeuristic culture.

What blogs don't typically have is a large, readymade audience -- the
"mass" in "mass media" -- which is a given for mainstream media outlets
such as CNN or the New York Times. In the blogging world (or
"blogosphere", as it is coming to be known), you have to find your own
audience. Blog culture is profoundly democratic, in that a blog's
popularity is solely dependent on the quality of its content, rather than
the factors which distort the mass media sphere, such as the quantity of a
network's ad revenue or the partnerships it has with other corporations.
The central currency of the blogosphere is certainly the hyperlink; each
additional incoming link to one's work represents more potential readers
and fans. Blogs are awash with links to other blogs, and many services
track blog links as a sort of online popularity contest. The dense
interconnections between blogs also means that it is common for bloggers
to pick up and comment on stories originally appearing elsewhere. The ways
in which stories circulate and flow from blog to blog is a fascinating
study in its own right, with whirlpools for content which endlessly
circulates within a given circle, suggesting obsessive or zealous
bloggers, or cross-currents for content which helps diverse groups
understand each other.

The question that remains is whether blogging represents a legitimate media revolution, or simply a self-indulgent fad. Surely there are elements of both. In the end, blogging is becoming an increasingly powerful media force, and it is not unheard of for bloggers to break major news stories even before the major networks do (such as Matt Drudge's coverage of the Monica Lewinsky story). More and more people are turning to blogging as a means to stay informed, understand the world around them, and express their unique take on it. There are many blog portals from which to begin your exploration; try Blogdex, Eatonweb, or Blogfinder.

The new design and site architecture is being rolled out little-by-little, please bear with any temporary shortcomings. deconstructor is moving asymptotically closer to what I want it to be. Comments welcome.

Pithy Objectivist critique, weighing in at approximately 1150 pages shorter than the object of its criticism.

Spinning in the stereo tonight is the second volume of Mille Plateaux's genre-defining compilation Clicks + Cuts.

I've always had a predilection for music that sounded as if it was constructed under a microscope, and lucky for me there are labels like Mille Plateaux releasing albums like these. You have to love a label whose website has a "theory" section. Kit Clayton's contribution "Material Problem" is a stand-out track; he remains one of the best new artists of the last few years. His sound ranges from minimal electronic dub and microhouse (sorry) to full-on noise experimentation. Beautiful and even danceable. Also queued up is Rafael Toral's Violence of Discovery and Calm of Acceptance. His music is somewhat akin to Christian Fennesz's: ambient, processed electric guitar explorations with occasional pop elements shining through the fog.

On an entirely different note, my The Amalgamated Sons of Rest (Will Oldham {Bonnie "Prince" Billy}, Jason Molina {Songs:Ohia}, and Alasdair Roberts {Appendix Out}) 12" arrived in the mail yesterday, and there is not a single sample, glitch, cut, or effect to be heard anywhere. The album was recorded from September 10-12, 2001, and I was secretly hoping that 9|11's bisection of the studio session would be an overwhelming psycho-musical element or the recording, but it isn't, to my ears atleast. Nonetheless, some very good simple somber folk music here.

Computational Modeling: Opportunities for the Information and Management Sciences (looking for a link) by Steven Orla Kimbrough, Wharton professor

This paper is a broad survey of computational modeling approaches across many disciplines, and has references to many of the most seminal papers for those lean towards so-called "natural" computational techniques rather than axiomatic analysis. GECCO 2002 -- the Genetic and Evolutionary Computation COnference -- looks to be a good resource as well.

Two maps.

I received an inspiring paper this evening from U of M's Complex Systems Reading Group: The Complex Interaction of Agents and Environments: An Example in Urban Sprawl (sorry, no link currently available). They use the SWARM modeling environment to simulate urban sprawl dynamics in a "hypothetical" Detroit (accurate statistically in aggregate, but not a replica, I presume). What they find concrete evidence for is Schelling's hypothesis¹ that there can be a disconnect between micro- and macro-behavior, i.e. a group of people each acting individually in their best interests (micro-behavior) can create environments which at a macro level suit the individual's collective interests much less well. We need more of this type of research to assist urban planners in fostering built environments that are more pleasant, more ecologically sound, and more equitable.

[1] Thomas Schelling's Micromotives and Macrobehavior is a classic, published in 1978, and looking primarily at how racial segregation occurs endogenously even in populations with relatively race-neutral views. Recommended!

How did Iraq get its weapons? We sold them

Slate started a new series yesterday by Robert Wright on A Real War on Terrorism, i.e "how to do it right". Wright is the author of Nonzero: The Logic of Human Destiny, which I feel is the best current book about why the world is how it is. Wright uses as a starting point the concept of a "non zero sum game" from game theory, which is basically any situation where the fates of persons or groups are entwined with each other. I highly recommend it.

In the continuing effort to make every moral campaign an aspract of the many-tentacled War on Terrorism, the most recent anti-drug ad campaign has as its main trope the claim that buying drugs supports terrorists. In the latest issue of The New Republic, Gregg Easterbrook advances a far more plausible claim, that oil consumption is the primary way Americans support terror. I freely admit to driving (and enjoying!) a gas-guzzling (and fast!) Mustang, but don't get me wrong, I'd vote for stricter fuel efficiency standards or even a stiff gas tax in a second. Fighting terrorism is a regrettably difficult and murky prospect, but few measures should be as clear-cut and uncontroversial as stemming the flow of oil money to those who fund terror. Too bad our progress towards that end since 9|11 has been exactly.... nothing.

Stumbled across this interesting website tonight while searching for archives of Paul Krugman's articles: lying in ponds.

I'm all for promoting open, vigorous debate, but I'm not convinced that our modern two-party system is simply historical coincidence. I think one can make an argument that there are valid game-theoretic reasons a two-party system would endogenously arise given our system of government in the United States. There may also be sound ideological reasons for a two-party system, though not being a poli sci major I can't say what those are off the top of my head. :) More research necessary....

(By the way, Paul Krugman is currently listed as the #1 most partisan pundit, based on the site's "objective" measures. Surprising, I'll have to look at their methodology.)

Even though it's far from a new story, the Bush administration's brazenly untruthful string of defenses of last year's tax cuts continues to evolve. The New Republic has a brief piece covering the latest deception here. This whole, sorry episode is emblematic of the administration's fantasy that they have ushered in a post-discursive political environment, where meaningful debate is simply beside the point. I have to begrudgingly admit the skill and savvy (not to mention cynicism) required to sell a piece of logic which is so self-evidently shoddy and internally inconsistent to the American public. But "I didn't mind the $300", that's what we all say, right? I personally feel that putting the US government deep into deficit territory was a specific (though unacknowledged) goal of the tax cuts. A government that doesn't have any money can't very well spend it, or so the logic goes, thus rendering any big (activist) vs. small (conservative) government debates entirely moot. How deeply depressing that public civic discourse now owes more to marketing and public relations than ideas and debate.

More recent coverage of the ongoing tax cut rationalization by economist Paul Krugman (free registration required, or use username: cypher_punks, password: cypher_punks), who's written a book-length expose of the faulty accounting and logic undergirding the Bush tax plan.

Got back yesterday from a whirlwind Labor Day weekend trip down to Bloomington with Ranae for Bloomingtonfest. Check out the pics with my rudimentary PHP image gallery script. The artists were fantastic, I wish we could've gotten down there earlier to see more of them. Songs:Ohia was both the primary inspiration and the highlight of the trip, but June Panic, The Microphones, Okkervil River, Wolf Colonel, and Scout Niblett were all very entertaining as well. I recommend them all, check out their sites at epitonic.com for plenty of background info and free mp3s (RIAA be damned!). We had a great time, can't wait for the festival next year!