This weekend’s NY Times had an interesting article on “human flesh searching,” a rather graphic term used to characterize the phenomenon where a large group of people works together to identify, locate and punish people who have committed online infractions (ranging from posting dissenting views on bulletin boards to having done rather appalling things in the physical world). See http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/07/magazine/07Human-t.html

Will engender interesting reflections on both the power of the crowd, and the power of the mob.