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Stigmergy and signalling
Stigmergy is defined as a method of communication in emergent systems in which the individual parts of the system communicate with one another by modifying their local environment. My Digital Tool Factory project has been evolving in that direction lately and it occurred to me that the internet is evolving that way too.
In the political blogsphere one can draw conclusions about an author from the use of the phrases “The fall of the Soviet Union” vs. “The fall of Communism”. In the corporate realm the use of feathered graphics is a good indicator of the age of the designer and the focus of the company.
Food for thought.
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A new addition to the Blogroll
Everyone welcome Pacific Empire, from way over in New Zealand.
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Wednesday link roundup
- An interesting post on autism and vaccines
- This post from EconLog
Back in 1980, State correctional facilities had 9 violent criminals for every drug offender. By 2003, that ratio was 2.6:1.
- DOD Braces for a fight with Pelosi
Pentagon officials are bracing for a fight with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) over her desire to allow lawmakers’ adult children to tag along on taxpayer-funded travel for free.
Pelosi wants them to be able to fill the role of lawmakers’ spouses when the latter are unable to make a trip because of health issues or work commitments.
The shameful part is that they can say all that with a straight face. “Fill the role of Lawmaker’s spouses”, ridiculous.
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Ever more Ron Paul
A good performance by Dr Paul on the Colbert Report – Colbert did raise some of his less popular positions, which Paul endorsed with some gusto. Curiously no one has mentioned that he was the Libertarian Party nominee in 1988.
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Ron Paul on the Colbert Report tonight
It should be an interesting matchup. We’ll see if they touch on any of the unpopular things Paul adamantly believes in like abortion, the Gold Standard and his thoughts on the United Nations.
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Affirmation
Yesterday I went to the lovely and prestigious offices of Green Media Works and got a lovely jolt of purpose and enthusiasm.
Working at home there’s no good way to tell if you’re a heroic entrepreneur writing your name upon history or some loser typing frantically in a messy office. To go out and mingle like minded people in a tremendous psychic push for the former.
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A good crowd
As usual, I did the open mic last night. Unusually, there was a good and enthusiastic crowd, probably the best I’ve ever had. I happened to be in fine voice last night too, which helped. A good time was had by all.
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Signs of progress
Atlanta police have virtually stopped seeking search warrants for drugs following the November shooting of an elderly woman and dropped — at least temporarily — the forced-entry tactics that led to her death, court records show.
In the six months since Kathryn Johnston died in a botched police raid, Atlanta narcotics officers have not sought a single “no-knock” search warrant, court records show. They served at least 25 no-knock warrants during a comparable six-month period a year earlier.
Reason has prevailed, at least temporarily.
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Cool site of the day
The Strange Maps blog – check out this one which juxtaposes foreign counties with US states in terms of GDP. The Tennessee-Saudi Arabia bit is surprising.
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Monday link roundup
- Popular Science has a predictions market
- Global Warming makes you fat! Really! Or so say the environmentalists. For some reason we treat a virgin birth as a matter of faith, but the weather in thirty years is a scientific fact.
- Safari is now available on Windows, I’m not sure why.
- An-arrgh-chy – The economics of Pirates. HT: ZenPundit