] The basic shape is simple - in any system sorted by rank,
] the value for the Nth position will be 1/N. For whatever
] is being ranked -- income, links, traffic -- the value of
] second place will be half that of first place, and tenth
] place will be one-tenth of first place. (There are other,
] more complex formulae that make the slope more or less
] extreme, but they all relate to this curve.) We've seen
] this shape in many systems. What've we've been lacking,
] until recently, is a theory to go with these observed
] patterns.

This same pattern is present in the MemeStreams community.

Several weeks ago, I posted up some of Rattle's proof of concept work (http://www.memestreams.net/visual.html) in this area. Since that time, he's been working on code to produce detailed statistics and enable visual navigation of the social network present on MemeStreams. Its cool. You are all going to love it. :)

Shirky: Power Laws, Weblogs, and Inequality

] Because the basic Moneo card is anonymous, there are no
] privacy or identity theft concerns. But if an owner loses
] his or her smart card, the cash that's stored onboard can
] be used by whoever finds it -- which is why there's a
] $107 storage limit.

Anonymous Digital Cash... The storage limit assists with the law enforcement concern without creating a privacy problem (but I wonder if its secure). I really like the system visa deployed in Atlanta. I could buy food and ride marta without dealing with tokens and cash (Marta tokens are really annoying). It was nice. Too bad it flopped.

CNN.com - Cashless society gets mixed reviews - Feb. 8, 2003

] Passengers asked to remove their shoes will get free
] socks
]
] ASSOCIATED PRESS
] BLOUNTVILLE, Tenn., Feb. 7

Tennessee airport socks it to you

] This section would terminate all state law enforcement
] consent decrees before Sept. 11, 2001, not related to
] racial profiling or other civil rights violations, that
] limit such agencies from gathering information about
] individuals and organizations. The authors of this
] statute claim that these consent orders, which were
] passed as a result of police spying abuses, could impede
] current terrorism investigations. It would also place
] substantial restrictions on future court injunctions.

Patriot Act ][ - The Empire Strikes Again.

Justice Dept. Drafts Sweeping Expansion of Anti-Terrorism Act

This is very good. Tony Blair is asked many of the questions that one might ask him about this Iraq situation, and is taken to task, and he defends his position. Both good critical journalism and well handled by Blair as well. However, its an hour and a half long. Be prepared.

[IP] British Prime Minister Tony Blair cross-examined on the BBC

] Federal scientists are looking for evidence that a bolt
] of electricity in the upper atmosphere might have doomed
] the space shuttle Columbia as it streaked over
] California, The Chronicle has learned.

Cosmic bolt probed in shuttle disaster / Scientists poring over 'infrasonic' sound waves

] The U.S. government Friday raised the national threat
] level to "orange," indicating a "high risk of terrorist
] attacks."

CNN.com - Ashcroft, Ridge, Mueller announce threat level increase - Feb. 7, 2003

] Feb. 6, 2003, 2230 hrs, PST, (FTW) - A story is sweeping
] the world tonight and it says a great deal about those
] who are forcing the world into a war it does not want. The
] famed dossier presented by British Prime Minister Tony Blair
] to his Parliament was plagiarized from two articles and a
] September 2002 research paper submitted by a graduate
] student. Worse, the Iraq described by the graduate student
] is not the Iraq of 2003 but the Iraq of 1991.

This is a very interesting story. From what I can tell, the central claim is accurate. Britain plagiarized large sections of the student's report in their report. The students report was compiled from open sources (the intelligence kind not the computer kind :). The link here is a good one, because it provides both reports. You can do your own comparisons.

I'm not sure what to make of this politically. I'd like to see what other people on MemeStreams have to say.

The link here makes the claim that the student's report is about the Iraq of 1991. That certainly would be a smoking gun, but it doesn't appear to be accurate. The student's report mentions that there are very few open sources on Iraq. A large number of documents were release in 1991, and these are used as one of the reference sources for the article, but there are many other reference sources, the majority of which are relatively recent.

Furthermore, Britain ought to be using open sources, and one could imagine that they are careful to keep open source intel and closed source intel separate, and for a public report they would rely completely upon open sources. So one can imagine how this text might have crept into their report. It doesn't mean the information in the student's analysis is bad.

On the other hand, it does appear that the author of the British report took some amount of journalistic liberty with the student's words in an attempt to make things sound more dramatic. Furthermore, Britain should have attributed their sources. Both of these things are certainly dishonest. Whether or not they amount to a smoking gun on the war issue, I'm just not sure. What do YOU think?

Britain's Intelligence Dossier on Iraq was Plagiarized from a Grad Student

These folks linked me as well... Another Blog directory...

Blogger Links - Blog Links - Weblog Directory - Web Links

] ...a new site bringing you a collection of categorised blogs
] from around the world.

These people linked me and then asked me to link them back, so I am doing so. They are a blog directory. If you search for MemeStreams on this site and then click through it you'll increase my ranking. :)

BLOGWISE is...