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RECOMMENDED READING

An unusually high quality selection – any of them in a normal week would merit consideration for the “top billing!” designation. An embarrassment of riches!

The actual winner of the title is Art Hutchinson of Mapping Strategy, for intellectual firepower on a topic that is generally misunderstood:

Top Billing! Art Hutchinson – “What Can and Cannot Be Predicted (and Thoughts On Telling the Difference)” (Hat tip to Wiggins at OSD )

Swedish Meatballs Confidential -“Perception Management Fur Alles – Dones, Doings and To-Do’s“

John Robb – “UNLEASHING THE DOGS OF WAR“

Dave Schuler – “Gripes About Public Discourse“

Fabius Maximus – “News from the Front: America’s military has mastered 4GW!Part II of a Series“

Dave Davison – “Paul Saffo – Mapping the Cone of Uncertainty “

Steve DeAngelis – “America Remains in the Broadband Slow Lane” and “WiMAX and the Evernet“

Ross Mayfield – “Decoupling Decision Rights and Decentralization“

Dr. Chet Richards and Maj. Don Vandergriff – “Summary Report
2007 Boyd Conference“

Garr Reynolds – “The creativity imperative: nurturing what is our nature“

I also endorse the video clip of thought leader Tony Buzan, featured by Garr ( Dan of tdaxp, Don Vandergriff, if you happen to read this, you two in particular should view the segment)

RECOMMENDED VIEWING

A little change of pace.

Dr. Thomas P.M. Barnett at TED (TED videos are usually outstanding – someday I’ll have to finagle an invite to TED). Tom’s presentation skills have really been honed in the sense of taking insider mil-issues and getting the concepts across to a lay audience, slick and fast, on their level, without oversimplifying. It’s an artful trick that takes considerable practice to master, much less make look easy.Conversations With History, featuring Christopher Hitchens.

Hitchens is always an erudite interview, this is no exception.

On a lighthearted note, some pedagogy from the masters of slapstick. ;o)

HOUSEKEEPING

My PC problems continue apace after the second system crash in as many weeks. It’s up and running again but the question is for how long ? It’s the oldest computer in the house and has worked well for the most part but it may be time to start saving all my files and scanning for the next generation of home electronics. The laptop is cool to take to work, not so cool to hunch over for an hour writing blog posts.

As I was reloading lost programs and apps last night, I fiddled with the SpringWidget in the margin to add some new RSS feeds to my own( Tom and The Small Wars Council). I’ll round it out in a few days with a mil-theory circle of bloggers and sites. Once I’m done, readers who really enjoy this genre can simply copy the embed code and stick it on their own pages (it goes into blogs, myspace, xanga -whatever) or modify it as they wish.

If you are, unlike myself, genuinely computer-crafty, you might wish to look at Grazr’s capabilities first, as this app migt suit your needs better. Critt, who was an early adapter of OPML, can do some amazing things with a grazr.

The blogroll needs updating, pruning and featuring of new additions.

Much to do. Much to do….

A TIMELINE FOR 5GW THEORY

Props to Curtis for his altruistic act of blogospheric historiography in creating an online 5GW Timeline. It will be highly useful to know exactly who said what/when before writing any more 5GW posts. Thanks, Curtis!

Dreaming 5GW is on a roll lately. Check out Shane Deichman’s “xGW Evolution: Purely Reactionary” and Subadei’s “Hammes 5GW Redux:Via Phil” ( original post by Phil at Pacific Empire is here, plus Phil’s previous ““Fourth-generation warfare expert to speak in Wellington on Monday”).

Great work, gentlemen.