<http://platosbeard.org/archives/295>
[A quick note: I wish I could easily embed links to the original
articles in this post, rather than having to post a link to my blog
entry, like above. The problem is that I am cutting and pasting from
my blog entry, and that does not preserve links. I have some ideas in
mind to solve this issue.]
===== US tops world Connectivity Scorecard despite broadband ills
When it comes to using information technology well, people power is as
important as wires, chips, and radio signals. That’s one of the
assumptions driving the new Connectivity Scorecard benchmark put
together by Leonard Waverman of the London Business School. Waverman
found that the US takes the worldwide lead on "connectivity" when
measured in this way, but subpar broadband infrastructure holds the
country back.
===== Tipped over: social influence "tipping point" theory debunked
Clive Thompson has been getting some well-deserved attention for his
recent Fast Company piece, in which Columbia University sociologist
Duncan Watts explodes the hierarchical theory of social influence and
trend propagation popularized by Malcolm Gladwell in the bestselling
book The Tipping Point.
===== AlterNet: The Great Indian Gender Divide
[B]eneath the spectacular "India Shining" story lurks an area of
darkness — the unequal status of its women, who constitute more than
half its demographic. The latest official document to highlight this
inequity is the 2007 Gender-Gap Index Report by the World Economic
Forum (WEF); it places India at the bottom of the global pyramid.
===== Magistrate judge suggests sanctions against RIAA lawyers
The RIAA’s habit of roping numerous unrelated defendants into a single
"John Doe" lawsuit has drawn the attention of a federal magistrate—and
not in a good way. In the case of Arista v. Does 1-27, a lawsuit
targeting students at the University of Maine, Magistrate Judge
Margaret J. Kravchuk suggests that the court look into imposing Rule
11 sanctions on the RIAA’s legal team.
===== BBC | US economic growth drops sharply
The US Department of Commerce says the economy grew at an annual rate
of just 0.6% from October to December.
In the previous three months, between July and September, the economy
was growing at annual rate of 4.9%.
===== Calculated Risk: Homeownership Rate: Cliff Diving [via Krugman
Blog]
The homeownership rate has plunged back to the levels of the summer of
2001.
===== The future is bright: Mozilla revenues up 26 percent, Google
deal is gold
Mozilla published financial statements earlier this week showing that
the organization made $66.8 million in revenue for 2006, a 26 percent
increase from 2005. That’s some strong growth, and it shows that
Mozilla has the potential for long-term fiscal sustainability.
===== Looking Anew at Campaign Cash and Elected Judges - NYT
In nearly half of the cases they reviewed, over a 14-year period ended
in 2006, a litigant or lawyer had contributed to at least one justice,
sometimes recently and sometimes long before. On average, justices
voted in favor of their contributors 65 percent of the time, and two
of the justices did so 80 percent of the time.
===== BBC | FBI investigates sub-prime crisis
The FBI is investigating 14 companies embroiled in the sub-prime
mortgage crisis as part of a crackdown on improper lending.
