Taking issue with the argument that, after decentralisation, control is embodied within the protocols of networks, Harry Halpin gives a historical account of the all-too-human actors vying for power over the net. Not technical standards but immaterial aristocrats rule cyberspace and their seats of power are vulnerable to revolutionary attack

The Maoist party - former guerrillas CPN(M) - have won a clear majority in last week's elections. But what changes will this mean for Nepal's workers and peasants?

The result so far is for the 240-seats first-past-the-post vote for the Constituent Assembly. Results for the decisive 335-seat proportional representation part of the Assembly will take longer, but the Maoists are expected to do well in this too.

Is the convergence of art and sport under the pressure of pseudo-participatory spectacle undermining the utopian potential of both? Benedict Seymour goes back to the future to recover the new kind of activity which, in different ways, informs them still

We Are Bad's invectives against sport as class-cleansing and social engineering have been appearing on and around the fence of the London Olympic site over the past couple of months. Mute presents the first in a series of specially commissioned posters, made available here in hi-res for home printing

We would like to announce the release of BASTA!, a special Russian-only issue of the art/theory/activism newspaper Chto Delat? (What Is to Be Done?), which is produced by an eponymous workgroup of artists, philosophers, writers, and activists from Saint Petersburg, Moscow, and Nizhny Novgorod. The new number addresses such pressing issues as the fight against racism and facism, the new Russian labor movement, the resistance to runaway “development” in Petersburg, the prospects for student self-governance and revolt, the potential for critical practice amongst academics and contemporary artists, the attack on The European University in St. Petersburg, and Alain Badiou’s aborted visit to Moscow. Authors include Artemy Magun, Kirill Medvedev, Dmitry Vilensky, Dmitry Vorobyev, Alexander Bikbov, and Oleg Aronson. The number also features a centerfold map of Petersburg documenting the numerous racist attacks and demolitions of historic buildings that have occurred in the city over the past five years.

If relational aesthetics and open source were always commercial, can the musical score provide a way of thinking through different relationships between creativity and code? The return to improvisation in 'livecoding' draws parallels with experimental practices developed by maverick musicians, programmers and educators from Sun Ra, The Art Ensemble of Chicago and the Scratch Orchestra to Seymour Papert. Simon Yuill argues that these 'distributive practices' are worth extending today*

If its corporate context increasingly undermines art's critical status, the titling of a recent exhibition at Bloomberg – No, Future – suggests that the relationship between art and business may have already 'peaked', says Peter Suchin

Loren Goldner will be giving a talk on the subject of the Korean working class at Housmans bookstore in Kings Cross, London at 6pm on Saturday 19th of January.

More details: http://www.metamute.org/en/Three-Talks-by-Loren-Goldner

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