links for 2010-02-08

The internet in Xinjiang opens up a little bit… but as a constrained, whitelisted network. Is this the shape of things to come? Or specific to one of the more restive corners of China?

Interesting overview of Economist Sam Bowles on the need for American economic theory to consider inequality and build strategies that lessen it, otherwise we'll waste money on sectors of the economy which essentially exist to maintain economically unfair structures

What does a webchat service that randomly pairs you with other individuals tell you about the Internet? Or humanity as a whole? A cautionary tale, perhaps, about trying to engineer a very simple form of serendipity

Aleks Krotoski is presenting a history of the Internet that worries about the implications of technologies that allow us to "become our demographic" rather than differentiate ourselves as individuals. Some interesting quotes in this short description on insularity and extremism.