Precisely.

A nuanced, passionate, comprehensively-researched, fairly incredible piece on urban roadway remediation and systemic flow from John Tolva. Frankly, I'm still absorbing the full richness of it, but even a third of the way through I can tell you this is kind of a jackpot link.

Via Metafilter: "Carl Zimmer explores the implications of network design versus evolution, suggesting that a more modular architecture in bacteria leads to a rugged (i.e. robust) system that does not "crash" like a computer."

Resilience, interconnectedness, "private affluence and public squalor," the wealth of nations and of networks: it's all in there.

Sounds amazing. Via Nova. (Can I reiterate, though, how much I loathe the academic restricted-access model? I've never seen any system that so badly undermines the free exchange and dialogue it claims to support.)