These have been floating around the web for a few days, and they're good. So check out the following articles:
Stigmergy and the World-Wide Web:
Why do memes spread so easily on the web? Why is Google's PageRank algorithm so successful? Why do Neighborhoods form? Why does communicating through a weblog work at all? What is stigmergy?
Stigmergy, a term coined by French biologist Pierre-Paul Grasse is interaction through the environment.
And now finally we get the point. The whole point of this is the connection between the web and stigmergy. The World-Wide Web is the first stimeric communication medium for humans.
The telephone and email don't count as stigmeric communication since they are only readable by the people on either end of the phone call, or the e-mail. In order for an environment to support stigmeric communciation the messages must be readable by everyone. Radio and TV don't count since they are a read-only medium as far as most people are concerned. In order for an environment to support sitgmery everyone has to be able to not only read it but to be able to write into it also.
FastCompany.com: What Should I Do With My Life:
Instead of focusing on what's next, let's get back to what's first. The previous era of business was defined by the question, Where's the opportunity? I'm convinced that business success in the future starts with the question, What should I do with my life? Yes, that's right. The most obvious and universal question on our plates as human beings is the most urgent and pragmatic approach to sustainable success in our organizations.
Your calling isn't something you inherently "know," some kind of destiny. Far from it. Almost all of the people I interviewed found their calling after great difficulty. They had made mistakes before getting it right. For instance, the catfish farmer used to be an investment banker, the truck driver had been an entertainment lawyer, a chef had been an academic, and the police officer was a Harvard MBA. Everyone discovered latent talents that weren't in their skill sets at age 25.
Most of us don't get epiphanies. We only get a whisper -- a faint urge. That's it. That's the call. It's up to you to do the work of discovery, to connect it to an answer. Of course, there's never a single right answer. At some point, it feels right enough that you choose, and the energy formerly spent casting about is now devoted to making your choice fruitful.
Finally! A clear explanation of multiple dispatch. Is this the same as "multi-method dispatch", or "multi-methods"? Yep, I think so. Woo.
Scott: Good Going Amazon.
This has given me "fuzzy" enough feelings that I'm probably going to place the huge order I've been planning to make at Amazon 
Great interview with Kenneth Branagh (Gilderoy Lockhart in Harry Potter Chamber of Secrets).
Were you a fan of the books before?
I was very admiring of the apparent simplicity with which JK Rowling writes about a world of great detail and complexity. Apart from great storytelling she creates characters who fit beautifully into the already complicated patter of a detailed series of books that she has mapped out right to the end of the series. I am in awe of the way she marshals all this material and of the cosmology of magic that she has newly minted. If you read around the subject, every name has an etymology that is completely consistent with the world she has created. It's remarkable work. She takes kids seriously and deals with issues such as race, politics and power struggles that are presented with sophistication but still inside a rollicking good read. Her contemporary themes are lightly done and engage the audience. Her confidence that she is taking the audience with her allows her to be more ambitious so that the tone darkens as the books continue and she is prepared to frighten her readers more. As you read all the books, it's fascinating to see her meet the challenge of taking a young audience through their own adolescence as well as Harry Potter's while still creating books that appeal to a new generation of 10-year olds. When I read the first book, Dickens came to mind. Her construction, the moral tone, the gallery of characters make her a modern parallel to Dickens.
Unfortunately, I think I'm doing something slightly innovative with how I handle the views in my CMS. I want to have "nested" views. Every example of a "view" in a model 2 MVC web application I've seen is very tied to the specific application being created. Unfortunately, this doesn't allow you to reuse the "higher-level components" of your site while filling things in the cracks. One page has to do everything. Sure, you can include a "header.jsp", "footer.jsp", etc., but that's not what I want. I want to say "here's my global template", and then for all requests under this URL, I want this section to be filled in by "this", whatever "this" is. It's template inheritance it is.
Gotta figure out the best way to specify it though...
Monday, January 6, 2003
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The Elegant Universe
Well I have finally found the crazyguy that preaches useless nonsencein A...
Joseph Baxter: Jan 7, 11:07pm