From TED, Tim Berners-Lee on the next Web of open, linked data (and more). A brief history of brevity (but more than 140 characters): Is Twitter nasty, brutish and way too short or part of a literate tradition of concision? All the dark secrets of university life are known to insiders who subscribe to AcademoList — Scott McLemee reports, you decide. Pitchforks and Pistols: The right’s distortions of the facts are not all harmless talk — for some, their disaffection has hardened into something dark and dangerous. An article on John Hope Franklin, scholar and witness. From Vanity Fair, drawing on his own Ivy League ties, former member and whistle-blower Alex Shoumatoff investigates the ultra-exclusive Bohemian Club, 2,500 of America’s richest, most conservative men, including Henry Kissinger, George H. W. Bush, and a passel of Bechtels, Basses, and Rockefellers (and more); and Rush Limbaugh's ever more outrageous attacks have everyone debating whether he’s the GOP’s de facto leader, while the party shapes its ideology to fit his needs. From VQR, Pat Joseph on the Ass’s Dilemma: Can man engineer the climate? A leading political scientist finds that intolerance of opposing political views is stronger among people with the strongest religious views. A review of Death Benefits: How Losing a Parent Can Change an Adult's Life — For the Better by Jeanne Safer.
