Is Weblog Technology Here to Stay or Just Another Fad? “…perhaps undermining the hegemony of global media giants.” I like that… New York Times [thanks, Abby] Kottke’s answer: to wonder if the universe of weblogs is an emergent system:

One possible answer is that the collective act of weblogging is producing a basic form of journalism, which you might call “bottom-up journalism” or “peer-to-peer journalism”.

It works like this: individual webloggers, each acting in their own self-interest (the “simple-minded component parts” Johnson refers to), post bits of information to their weblogs.

Then the feedback loop starts. Readers and other webloggers take those initial bits of information, rework them, and feed them back into the system in the form of weblog posts, email feedback, or comments on individual weblog posts. Rinse. Repeat.

At the end of the line, in some instances, you eventually get a story that has been collectively edited by the system. Repeat this process millions of times a month with hundreds of thousands of participants, and you’ll get a few such stories a month. [thanks, David]

Report: Americans Would Be Outraged If They Understood Enron Collapse. David sent this to me, wondering quite rightly if The Onion has gone somewhere else beyond satire.

Tim Wise: The Invisible Whiteness of the Olympic Beer Riot: ‘When white folks rioted over beer at the Olympics, it was

laughed off in a “gee, don’t they have anything better to do”

way. What if blacks or latinos had done the same?’ AlterNet

Resisting Bush’s War: Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D.-OH) becomes the first member of Congress to openly repudiate Bush’s war, the “axis of evil”, etc:

“We licensed a response to those who helped bring the terror of September the Eleventh. But we the people and our elected representatives must reserve the right to measure the response, to proportion the response, to challenge the response, and to correct the response.

Because we did not authorize the invasion of Iraq.

We did not authorize the invasion of Iran.

We did not authorize the invasion of North Korea.

We did not authorize the bombing of civilians in Afghanistan.

We did not authorize permanent detainees in Guantanamo Bay.

We did not authorize the withdrawal from the Geneva Convention.

We did not authorize military tribunals suspending due process and habeas corpus.

We did not authorize assassination squads.

We did not authorize the resurrection of COINTELPRO.

We did not authorize the repeal of the Bill of Rights.

We did not authorize the revocation of the Constitution.

We did not authorize national identity cards.

We did not authorize the eye of Big Brother to peer from cameras throughout our cities.

We did not authorize an eye for an eye. Nor did we ask that the blood of innocent people, who perished on September 11, be avenged with the blood of innocent villagers in Afghanistan.

We did not authorize the administration to wage war anytime, anywhere, anyhow it pleases.

We did not authorize war without end.

We did not authorize a permanent war economy…”

AlterNet

NPR’s The Connection hosted Bruce Cockburn on Feb. 11th; the page includes a link to listen to the hour-long show in Real Audio.

‘Rumsfeld’s new press corps has been cooking up headlines for

foriegn papers, such as “Loud Explosion Heard Last Night Was Not

American Bomb; dead civilians later found to just be real sleepy.” ‘ AlterNet But, alas:

Rumsfeld Says He May Drop New Office of Influence: “Mr. Rumsfeld today reiterated comments he made last week after The New York Times reported the office’s existence and proposed activities: he said the military would not be permitted to tell lies to promote American policies or views. But he said today that the disclosures about the office’s potential activities may have doomed its credibility.” NY Times

US faces European ban over death penalty: “The United States faces possible exclusion from the Council of Europe, where it enjoys observer status, over its continued use of the death penalty, a council spokeswoman said Friday.

The comments follow a decision of the council’s Committee of Ministers on Thursday to ban the death penalty in all circumstances, including for crimes committed during war and the imminent threat of war.” United Press International

“I’ll be ever’where–wherever you look. Wherever they’s a fight so hungry people can eat, I’ll be there. Wherever they’s a cop beatin’ up a guy, I’ll be there. If Casy knowed, why, I’ll be in the way guys yell when they’re mad an’–I’ll be in the way kids laugh when they’re hungry an’ they know supper’s ready. An’ when our folks eat the stuff they raise an’ live in the houses they build–why, I’ll be there. See?” –Tom Joad, in Grapes of Wrath

Wednesday is the hundredth anniversary of the birth of John Steinbeck (Feb. 27, 1902 — Dec. 20, 1968).

In Forest Debris, the Odor of Dead Monarchs: “Walking up the steep path through what remains of the montane forest at the Rosario sanctuary, it is hard at first to notice the monarch butterflies everywhere. Then the wind shifts and the smell of rotting insect corpses hits the steady stream of tourists going by. What had seemed at first to be fallen leaves and forest debris reveals itself as a lumpy carpet of millions of butterflies that perished in the largest known die-off ever of these insects.” NY Times

Operation on Fetus’s Heart Valve Called a ‘Science Fiction’ Success. His heart was a ‘moving target the size of a grape…’ NY Times

Bin Laden Alive? Top General Thinks So: ‘Saudi-born militant Osama bin Laden may be alive despite U.S. efforts to kill or capture the al Qaeda leader, Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, said on Sunday.

“It’s possible that he is no longer alive, but I think the odds are he probably is alive,” Myers said on Fox News Sunday…

The New York Times reported on Sunday that unidentified U.S. administration officials said they have new indications that bin Laden is living along the border of Pakistan and Afghanistan.’ Reuters via Yahoo! News

Also: The Telegraph UK

reports that US and British special forces are “hunting for Osama bin Laden in the Indian state of Kashmir after intelligence reports stated that he had sought the protection of an extremist Islamic group…” The paper’s anonymous source said, ‘He knows we are not going to start bombing the area or sending in the marines, but there are lots of other things we can do and if he is alive he is definitely not safe.’

Angola Displays Body of Slain Rebel Leader Jonas Savimbi; they finally got him. What will be the next stage of this bizarre on-again-off-again 25-year civil war involving, among others, a Cuban expeditionary force fighting South Africans as Cold War proxies?