Follow-ups

Given my interest in the social construction of scientific knowledge, I've been meaning to follow up on the Bogdanov Affair - and in the few weeks since I've been paying attention, it's been renamed the Baez Hoax! Still, some of the best discussion I've found is on Google's sci.physics.research newsgroup - including comments by Alan Sokal. And who knew that these folks were so witty?!

As someone who knows nothing about theoretical physics, I stare blankly at their proofs, but love that these equations appear within people's responses. It's like they suddenly start speaking another language ;) But I don't really need to understand in order to appreciate a certain aesthetics - and I'd love to see what a wicked collage artist could do with bits and pieces of these posts...

Also: Howard Rheingold discusses Smart Mobs on The WELL. (via peterme)