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MySpace's story is an almost stereotypical coming-of-age tale for Internet start-ups, a modern-day bildungsroman of social networking. The idea was birthed in the seedy underworld of the Internet by the same folks who brought you such innovations as spam, the pop-up ad and spyware. The site itself was a rip-off, a hastily thrown-together clone of its predecessor Friendster. Both sites missed the heyday of the Web bubble, but there's something to be said for persistence and a good idea, and MySpace quickly grew far beyond anyone's expectations. (See TIME...
...area where the detail could stand to be bolstered is in MySpace's plans going forward. Though Angwin makes the case that MySpace and Facebook are fundamentally different sites, the latter is currently in the ascendant - so much so that a book devoted to MySpace's origins seems almost dated. Angwin doesn't leave the reader with a clear picture of how the site will continue to grow, but this may be out of the author's control. Perhaps MySpace isn't quite sure about that either...
...least, they were. The economic crisis has hit world trade hard. Ports throughout the world are dramatically less busy than they were just a few months ago; air traffic is way down. Exports from Japan were almost 50% less in February compared with the same month in 2008; China's exports were down 26% in February. The World Trade Organization is predicting global trade will shrink by 9% this year, the steepest annual decline since World War II. This contraction is not only deep, it is also a latter-day rarity: global trade has increased continuously year after year since...
...Zimbabwe is facing its worst economic crisis since independence almost three decades ago. On top of its abandoned, worthless currency, the once prosperous agricultural economy is bankrupt. The country's new Finance Minister, Tendai Biti, announced on Wednesday that Harare has a monthly expenditure of about $100 million but can raise only $20 million a month. The government estimates that an average family of five requires about $550 a month, far more than what most people earn. (See pictures of Zimbabweans voting...
Cell phones and GPS's are a no-no, trips to the countryside without permission are almost always forbidden, with the occasional but rare exception. Most journalists are shepherded by a guide wherever they go, which is usually to view monuments of Kim Jong il and his deceased dad. They are told to shy away from asking citizens political questions. While residents of Pyongyang are less afraid to interact with foreigners than, say, a decade ago, they "won't speak to journalists without permission," says Lankov. Even at the joint South and North Korean industrial complex at Kaesong, just north...