Akhil Reed Amar notes in his great book America’s Constitution: A Biography that the anti-Fedralists were concerned that the House of Representatives would have too few members.

These “men of little faith” feared that members of an overly select House would become targets for bribery and corruption, whether at the hands of a dishonest president, a wealthy manipulator, or a foreign power. If even a handful of congressmen turned out to be crooked, the intrigues of such a junto might carry the day in a small assembly. A larger assembly would have been that much harder to bribe. (p. 78)

That got me thinking. Why not double or even triple the size of the House? We would feel more in touch with our representatives, and perhaps they would behave more like a smart mob and less like professional tools.

I dunno. Could be a really stupid idea. And I have no idea how it could actually be implemented, since it would require passing traversing portal through which no one emerges uncorrupted: Redistricting. But there you have it… [Tags: politics smart_mobs congress akhil_reed_amar ]

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I’ve been going through laptop mice like a cat goes through mice. The cords fray where they join the USB plug. But my latest cheap laptop mouse has lasted for months because I applied some preemptive Goop — the viscous glue you can use to fill in a worn sneaker sole — at the join. Works like a charm. Plus, it makes it look like you just sneezed on your mouse, useful for keeping the person next to you on the plane curled up in the far side of his seat. [Tags: tips goop mice]

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Alternet’s got videos of O’Reilly on Colbert and Colbert on O’Reilly. [Tags: humor stephen_colbert bill_oreilly television comedy]

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From John Palfrey’s blog:

This press release is actually big news. Google, Microsoft, Yahoo!, and Vodafone have been working very hard — alongside academics and NGOs — to produce a set of common principles guiding company behavior when faced with laws, regulations and policies that interfere with the achievement of human rights. There is an enormous amount of work to be done, but the process is headed in exactly the right direction…

As JP explains, the question is whether we should have laws (reintroduced recently) forbidding multinationals from complying with foreign laws that violate human rights or a code of conduct. JP’s opinion:

If an industry code of conduct were to emerge that has real bite to it, and where NGOs and investors and academics are on hand to ensure that signatory companies live up to it, the results could be far better. And over time, it might well make sense to redact the global industry agreement into law or a treaty to ensure that it is enforceable, evolves over time, and has true public oversight.

The code of conduct, developed behind closed doors, is now going public for discussion, with an impressive list of high-integrity groups involved.

This is a fascinating and crucial issue that we have to resolve if we are to continue living together in close quarters. [Tags: ethics john_palfrey berkman globalism]

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Lee Rainie and John Horrigan of the Pew Internet & American Life Project have released a report on a study of the Net’s role in the 2006 elections. Here’s the summary:

Twice as many Americans used the internet as their primary source of news about the 2006 campaign compared with the most recent mid-term election in 2002.

Some 15% of all American adults say the internet was the place where they got most of their campaign news during the election, up from 7% in the mid-term election of 2002.

A post-election survey shows that the 2006 race also produced a notable class of online political activists. Some 23% of those who used the internet for political purposes – the people we call campaign internet users – actually created or forwarded online original political commentary or politically-related videos.

The full report adds a lot of context to this, of course. For example, 31% of Americans gathered info about the races online and talked about the elections via email. And for those under 36 who have broadband, 35% said the Internet was their main source of information about the races. And Republicans and Democrats were equally likely to rely on the Net for campaign news…

Fascinating study, as we’ve come to expect from Pew. [Tags: politics pew ]

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Chris Anderson at his Long Tail blog has a perfect example of the power of the miscellaneous. Zappos organizes its massive warehouse of shoes by just putting shoes wherever there’s room. Now that we have them new-fangled computer-a-bobs, Zappos can find each pair by looking up their UPC. As Chris says, “No single trip is optimized, but the system as a whole works as a minimum-effort machine.”

The comments to the post are great, also.

(Chris has been saying nice things about Everything Is Miscellaneous ever since my publisher sent him a blurber’s draft. Thank you, Chris.)

[Tags: everything_is_miscellaneous warehouse inventory zappos chris_anderson long_tail ]

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My blog, like your blog, has been trawled by some suspiciously large nets. For example, yesterday I received an invitation to join the Global Petroleum Club, which is not a customer consortium or for hobbyists, but is for “oil, gas and energy professionals.” Since I am strictly an amateur, I will be declining the offer, with thanks.

A couple of messages down, I was invited to the Bathing Cultural Carnival 2007 in China. The message notes: “Cultural centers in various activities: bathing, sauna experience Museum, the Museum SPA life, health Museum springs, foot care settings health Museum, the Museum bathroom Fashion.” I’m afraid I’m not going to be live-blogging that one. [Tags: everything_is_miscellaneous humor]

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Amsterdam 17 January 2007 – On Friday 26 January 2007 at 20.00 the exhibition ‘The Girlfriend Experience’ by Martin Butler will open at Mediamatic in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Martin Butler presents four human avatars to play with. Using Skype you can log in at home with your character of choice. Direct the avatar, explore the space and challenge him or her. The avatars of The Girlfriend Experience will be available every Wednesday, Thursday and Friday from 20:00- 23:00. They can also be observed live in the Analog Villa, the Mediamatic Exhibition space, at the ground floor of the Post CS building in Amsterdam.

The rampant growth of online avatar communities such as Second Life and World of Warcraft has enabled the creation of a personal online social and economic existence. Simultaneously this triggers inherent questions about this existence, as it questions what the consequences will be for first life, or reality.

When you use virtual avatars you can do as you please. In The Girlfriend Experience you will have to get to know each other first. Player and avatar explore what they can do for each other and how far the avatar wants to go to execute specific desires. It is ambiguous who is really controlling the situation. You have ten minutes to figure out what you can do with your avatar. After that, your time is up and another player can take your place.

More here. (Thanks to Hylton Joliffe for the link.) [Tags: avatars art games everything_is_miscellaneous ]

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On Feb. 24, The Berkman Center, MIT Comparative Media Studies and the Information society Project at Yale Law are holding a one-day conference called Beyond Broadcast: From Participatory Culture to Participatory Democracy. The keynote will be by the estimable Henry Jenkins. Registration is $50, which includes lunch and an evening “reception” (which usually means the beer is free). There’s a $50 discount for students… [Tags: broadcast media conferences berkman]

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Me v. Crowd is the memoirs of a 2020 presidential candidate who ran against a wiki, and lost. [Tags: politics humor wikis ]

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