Very cool ...

A matrix giving the traffic volumes between origin and destination in a network has tremendously potential utility for network capacity planning and management.

Unfortunately, traffic matrices are generally unavailable in large operational IP networks. On the other hand, link load measurements are readily available in IP networks.

In this paper, we propose a new method for practical and rapid inference of traffic matrices in IP networks from link load measurements, augmented by readily available network and routing configuration information.

We apply and validate the method by computing backbone-router to backbone-router traffic matrices on a large operational tier-1 IP network -- a problem an order of magnitude larger than any other comparable method has tackled. The results show that the method is remarkably fast and accurate, delivering the traffic matrix in under five seconds.

Fast Accurate Computation of Large-Scale IP Traffic Matrices from Link Loads

This volume is devoted to the applications of techniques from statistical physics to the characterization and modeling of complex networks. The first two parts of the book concern theory and modeling of networks, the last two parts survey applications to a wide variety of natural and artificial networks. The tutorial reviews that form this book are aimed at students and newcomers to the field, and will also constitute a modern and comprehensive reference for experts. To this aim, all contributions have been carefully peer-reviewed not only for scientific content but also for self-consistency and readability.

An online version of this book is available. Abstracts are freely available; full text is by subscription only.

Complex Networks

How can our world best avoid committing ecological suicide?

Jared Diamond's new book is coming out at the end of the year. Publishers Weekly gave it a "starred review."

Brilliant, illuminating, and immensely absorbing, a fascinating comparative study of societies that have, sometimes fatally, undermined their own ecological foundations.

Diamond examines storied examples of human economic and social collapse, and even extinction. He explores patterns ... that lead inexorably to vicious circles ...

He finds today's global, technologically advanced civilization very far from solving the problems that plagued primitive, isolated communities in the remote past.

Diamond is a brilliant expositor of everything from anthropology to zoology, providing a lucid background of scientific lore to support a stimulating, incisive historical account of these many declines and falls. Readers will find his book an enthralling, and disturbing, reminder of the indissoluble links that bind humans to nature.

Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed

An affluence in America far outstrips our need, and a rampant greed spawns the addictions of consumer culture -- food, money, and technology.

Publishers Weekly wrote: The indictment of American society offered here is familiar. What's more idiosyncratic and compelling is the author's grounding his treatise in political economy as well as in neuropsychiatry, primatology and genetics.

Whybrow's analysis of the contemporary rat race is acute.

American Mania: When More Is Not Enough

Original, controversial, and deeply insightful, God in the Machine illuminates the exciting and little-understood new terrain that lies at the intersection of technology and religion, science and faith.

God In The Machine: What Robots Teach Us About Humanity And God

The fate of the agency is no minor matter to intelligence professionals who have spent their careers trying to serve both presidents and the nation; all know that these two masters are often at odds. There is no easy way to reconcile these divided loyalties. But there are good reasons for trying to understand what has now brought the stresses to the breaking point.

This article will leave you enraged or in tears or both. Whether your emotion is directed at the author, or at the President, or at the CIA, or at Saddam, or at bin Laden, or elsewhere ... well, that depends on your politics.

This is not breaking news, but you may find it heartbreaking. If you follow this area closely, then few to none of the individual facts presented here will come as a surprise to you. However, Thomas Powers has selected and organized them into a powerful essay in support of his thesis. While Powers clearly comes across as Blue, I find that his analysis on this particular topic is closely aligned to that of George Friedman, who is said to be Red.

When experts from across the spectrum agree on a thesis like this, I fear that we are getting very close to the truth of the matter.

I am still a bit conflicted as to whether this gets a Gold Star, but for now I am giving it one.

Gold Star.

Secret Intelligence and the 'War on Terror'

On "Chinatown," the singing is raggedy and breathy, the instruments gently strummed or stroked; like whispered intimacies, these elements cast a conversational spell. Their performances beckon the listener even more into the material, as a fiery hearth might draw strangers together on a cold night.

(Excerpts from All Music Guide)

The Be Good Tanyas

Defying expectations and reinvigorating music are what the brothers do best -- and this album proves it yet again. Push The Button will be released on January 25, 2005.

The single is available now on ITMS. It's also available for free (albeit only at 64 kbps) at The Chemical Brothers web site. (You have to enable pop-ups to use the site.)

Chemical Brothers - 'Galvanize' Single, 'Push The Button' Album

Danny The Dog is a film about the power of love, the terrifying realities of man's capacity for violence, and the wonder of music.

Massive Attack: Danny The Dog

A government with the zeal to control both information and culture has received what it calls a mandate.

Bono's New Casualty