Recommended Reading

MountainRunnerPushing Humpty Dumpty: the rebuilding of State

Agree with Matt. State needs rebuilding, not a paint job.

Coming AnarchyThe Party’s Over

Curzon on Japan’s election which has ended in a stunning landslide for the opposition.

Ralph Peters – Trapping Ourselves in Afghanistan and Losing Focus on the Essential Mission

Peters takes a break from his recent batshit insane televised meltdown to offer a cogent but ultimately flawed critique.

USNI Blog (FFry) – ‘Rescued’ Cargo Ship ARCTIC SEA Hijacked by the Russian Navy?

Weird.

SWJ Blog (Adam Elkus)Complexity, Defense Policy, and Epistemological Failure

Senor Elkus, en fuego.

/MessageThe War On Flow, 2009: Why Studies About Multitasking Are Missing The Point (Hat tip Jessica Margolin)

Nice. It’s the yardstick, stupid. Shrewd dude.

Eide Neurolearning Blog – Positive Psychology Hits the Classroom

We will be hearing more about positive educational psychology due to an obscure (to the public) Federal education mandate known as RtI.

The New York Times (Motoko Rich) – The Future of Reading A New Assignment: Pick Books You Like  (Hat tip Eddie)

As with many things, what is needed here is not either-or, but the sweet spot of “both”.

Scientific American –  The Mysterious Downfall of the Neandertals

What happened to the “h”? SCIAM now requires a subscription to view content so this will probably my last link to them – enjoy your walled garden guys, as your online traffic devolves to about 20 % of your print subscribers.

That’s it.

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  1. Roy Lofquist:

    Dear Zen,

    Glad I read this. I was starting to form a slightly negative view of Adm. Mullen.

    I believe there is a far more fundamental problem with our communications effort. We are trying to talk to Martians. The Afghans are a tribal society that is living in the eighth century. I don’t think that anyone who has not grown up in that culture is functionally fluent in Pashtun or Urdu. Kinda like my G.I. Turkish – cac para agabey? (how much?).

    Back during the Russia/Georgia set-to there was a noticeable influx of Russians in the comments threads of many blogs. They were easy to spot. The idioms were bollixed. Adm. Mullen seems to get it right – actions, not words. He notes the cottage industry of the "communicators".  They really don’t get it but they’re edumacated – their professors told them so.

    Regards,

    Roy

  2. Cheryl Rofer:

    Wikipedia explains the loss of the "h" in Neandertal. Although I thought that the name of the valley was Neander, the adjective Neanderthal/Neandertal.

  3. Cheryl Rofer:

    Whoops! Link to Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neandertal

  4. A.E.:

    Thx for shoutout!