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Author: Bryant

Emerging behavior

Gary Wolf is doing a piece on the Dean campaign and coming up with some fairly interesting stuff. He’s writing a post-facto manifesto in an attempt to capture the magic. I particularly like “You’re not a leader; you’re a place.” Of course, Dean is a leader — that’s in part a clever bit of spin to keep people from thinking of the campaign as a cult of personality. But there’s a nugget of truth to it as well. Community-building on the Internet requires a seed figure for a leader. It also requires that seed figure to make the place comfortable. Good mailing lists have a list mom.

Hm. I think he’s missing the “push” element of the campaign as well. In order for Dean to succeed, he needs to push his message out to non-connected people via his Internet community, which is why you see a lot of exhortations to put up posters and hand out fliers and so on. It’s a vital part of the Internet campaign.

(Via BoingBoing.)

Theatrikx

On the topic of Unknown Armies writeups, here’s Unknown Armies: Kansas, another UA blog. As I understand it, their game is being played via the blog, which is an interesting idea. I’m really curious about the mechanics behind the curtain.

Anyhow, the writing is promising, and it’s set in Kansas.

Big fat untruths

Or possibly the Saudi/Pakistan nuke story is completely untrue.

We can still invade, though.

Hm. On further thought… why would Israeli intelligence want to spread that story? The implications are unpleasant. Not that I’m saying I don’t think Israeli intelligence would do that, it’s just worrisome. Weren’t we supposed to be stabilizing the Middle East?

Danger climbing

I’m not sure what I think about Pakistan providing nukes to Saudi Arabia, other than that I can’t be sure if the article is even accurate. One anonymous source is a thin reed.

You could claim that this is the result of recent Israeli saber-rattling, but really, it’s not. It’d be more accurate to claim that a nuclear Israel will inevitably encourage other Middle Eastern countries to get the bomb.

And, of course, a US-occupied Iraq changes the balance of power in the Middle East. This sort of thing is an inevitable consequence. It’s not clear that it’s an unacceptable consequence; Saudi Arabia with nukes is hardly the end of the world. But this move certainly shouldn’t be unexpected.

Oh, snap

This post is pretty much for Patrick. Others may be amused as well.

Chapter 11 of Dan Simmons’ new book, Hard Freeze, starts like this:

“How’s the book?” asked Kurtz. He squinted at the title. “Isn’t that the same guy you were reading twelve years ago, before I got sent away?”

“Yeah. His detective fought in the Korean War, which makes the old fart in his late sixties at least, but he still kicks ass. A new book comes out every year, if not sooner.”

“Good, huh?”

“Not anymore,” said Arlene. “The P.I.’s got a girlfriend who’s a real bitch. An arrogant piece of work. And she’s got a dog.”

“So?”

“A dog who eats on the table and sleeps in their bed. And the P.I. loves them both to bits.”

“Then why do you keep reading them?”

“I keep hoping the P.I. will wake up and cap both the girlfriend and that ratty dog,” said Arlene.

Monday Mashup #14: Red Sox

The fourteenth Monday Mashup revolves around the Boston Red Sox. (Yeah, you can take a week off if you’re staring at your screen in horror.) They’re generally a talented team of players but are always struck down before they reach the peak of their profession by a dire curse — which always leaves them strong enough to come back and make another try next year. In my book, professional sports is a popular form of entertainment, so let’s mash those Dirt Dogs up.