Rainy Monday Morning Links

Ottawa or Portland, Oregon? Over the last month, I couldn't tell you the difference.

Reading: Buda's Wagon: A Brief History of the Car Bomb and The Black Swan.
John Robb at Global Guerillas leads you to a nice introductory article on swarm theory. Actually, just go to his site and read the last YEAR'S worth of posts. I'm plowing through his amazing book on the evolution of open-source insurgencies for the second time, and it's both informative and an enjoyable read.

The single dumbest editorial I've read in ages. They're doing a thing on Open-Source media, over there at WIRED, too. Listen, what people like Tony Long and Andrew Keen seem to be completely missing is that the open-source information revolution is not being driven by the MySpace Amateurs -- they may as well type "dirty fucking hippies" (h/t Atrios) -- but by other professionals who are seeking more access and volunteering their expertise. These people act as the "knowledge nodes" around which the sheer manpower of interested volunteers can coalesce.

I particularly like how both men dig in on journalism as their test case. So when I read Christy Hardin Smith -- former prosecutor with years of experience -- during the Libby trial, fully knowing her political proclivities, I'm getting worse insight than the major metropolitan newspapers who often reprint White House press releases uncritically, without ever informing their readers of their own political agendas? Worse insight than from a major news show where the host is often friends with the politician he's supposed to be "grilling"? Bullshit. Bloggers at Talking Points Memo uncovered the DoJ attorney firings scandal, and were openly mocked by Time's Richard Cohen while they were developing it. That scandal as led to seven resignations, Congressional hearings, and may well cripple this White House. Yes, they're much worse journalists than Judy "WMD" Miller. Prats.

If it's teachable, it's learnable. A keen mind, a solid understanding of the scientific method and a bit of anger is far more valuable than you may at first imagine.

An interview with William Gibson on how sci fi is really about the present, not predicting the future.

I'm really a bit in love with the storyline Randy's got going over at the webcomic Something Positive. Davan's tracking down the man he's named after, a friend of his grandfather's -- and it turns out the man was a famous underground comic-porn artist in the 40's. That's a genuinely original storyline you'd never see on television.

Currently looking at, for another 4GW article: Sanctuary, with the writer's blog here.

For the pros, Craig Mazin discusses community building (or lack thereof) on a web forum for screenwriters, and the weirdness of the WGA elections.

Denis McGrath writes about the new Canadian content laws, which I really need to understand if I'm going to work up here. They're a bit ... obtuse. I actually had an easier time setting up a meeting with Sky Television in England than I've had nailing down which human to talk to up here, and from friends working right now I understand the insane CBC tradition of having accounting guys making creative decisions has not abated. But onward.

We continue to fund-raise. Info here.

Hmm, I wonder if Warren Ellis is actually contagious, because I feel like having a smoke and crawling back into bed, and I don't even smoke.