What Should I be Reading?
Quick question to the august readership:
What should I be reading? Not in terms of books, I’m buried there, but periodicals, e-zines and blogs? We all can get in a rut with what we read and the topics we look at; I am no exception.
Nominate any suggestions in the comments section, if you have the time.
May 3rd, 2010 at 7:47 am
Foreign military journals in the Anglophone world – i.e Pointer (Singapore), and the Canadian and Australian military journals have been a recent interest. It is interesting seeing how they view the same (or differing) security challenges.
May 3rd, 2010 at 8:52 am
To AE’s suggestion I would add Pragati. I’ve lamented before on how we place strategic blinders on ourselves by ignoring foreign publications published in English. Pragati and the forementioned Pointer are a good place to start. I also have a fondness for the Asia Times Online, but some folks I respect think their content is more rumors than fact.
May 3rd, 2010 at 9:21 am
Quick follow up: I looked at my blog roll, and here are a few of the blogs/journals I have found most valuable, intellectually stimulating, or otherwise mind opening:
For Grand Strategy/Futuristics-
Sublime Oblivion – A sharp writer who spills his ink on everything from technological singularities, ecological ‘collapse’, and trends in warfare. Also a hack for Putin and the UR, but I generally don’t read his Russia stuff.
Grand Strategy: The View From Oregon – I prepped this one at the Stage recently, but in case if you do not check my blog as often as I do (^_~ ), here is what I wrote: "the author of this blog writes with the "intention to view geopolitics through the prism of ideas." To this end he is remarkably successful, and his blog is a whirlwind journey through history, strategic thought, and philosophy. If you do not mind large doses of theory intermixed with analysis, I recommend giving Grand Strategy a read."
Science Policy-
The New Atlantist – Simply the best magazine out there for science policy, IMHO. But on the intellectual side, but their best essays make up for it.
Dot Earth – The NYT blog on climate and ecological issues. Andy Revkin, the author, does a good job of sifting through the chaff and publishing important stories. DE is certainly not to the right, but whenever the folks at Climate Progress want to pick on the media for being to friendly to skeptics, Andy Revkin is their punching bag.
The Left-
Democracy Journal – Democracy Journal is a thought leader among leftist magazines. It is not usually acknowledged as such, but I notice that many of the liberal ideas floated in the last few years (many of them of merit) can be traced back here.
The Right –
The League of Ordinary Gentleman. This is where all the conservatives who dislike the GOP and the Tea Party hang out. It is not uncommon for these folks to write brilliant blog posts every once in a while. Like this one.
And that is ’bout it. For the most part these are the more intellectual-ish stuff on my blog role, but seem to do a fair job of keeping track of the harder stuff anyway.
May 3rd, 2010 at 11:14 am
Vivek Wadhwa’s essays on entrepreneurship at TechCrunch and BusinessWeek. @vwadhwa is the best way to keep up with his latest posts. http://techcrunch.com/author/tcvivek/ http://www.businessweek.com/bios/Vivek_Wadhwa.htm
May 3rd, 2010 at 11:20 am
this feed: http://www.kurzweilai.net/news/rss/
May 3rd, 2010 at 12:47 pm
Absolutely read Salute Guy. Also, shameless self-promotion: read Automatic Ballpoint too.
I’m also a big fan of Secure Nation.
May 3rd, 2010 at 3:10 pm
Um, do you want some links to art websites? Urban Sketchers and linesandcolors are my two regulars, but that is just the tip of the iceberg. From there the world opens up and opens up….
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Also, the NYT Artblog.
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I’m perfectly serious: it piggy-backs on some of your previous postings and links. Intellectual "play" is important in generating new ideas. The stuff presented here is so outside my normal realm of reading and thinking (and sometimes it hurts my feeble little brain, to be honest) that it has helped open me up to many new ideas even within my own sphere. But maybe you already peruse such sites?
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– Madhu
May 3rd, 2010 at 5:52 pm
The Internet is a giant conspiracy by your anti-library to remain unread. Ignore its siren call.
May 3rd, 2010 at 6:31 pm
That’s why I suggested the artblogs, Joseph Fouche 🙂 Sometimes I need to look at pictures. Too many words messes up my brain or something.
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– Madhu
May 3rd, 2010 at 10:45 pm
Are you reading al-Sahwa? Some great analysis there.
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I also like The Monkey Cage and On Violence.
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(You can delete the previous attempt at commenting. Bloody html!)
May 4th, 2010 at 3:59 am
Many thanks gents – these are quality suggestions which I am bookmarking. Already took a look at Automatic Ballpoint ( self-promotion is allowed Graham), Pragati and The New Atlantist. Am working my way through the rest tonight.
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"The Internet is a giant conspiracy by your anti-library to remain unread. Ignore its siren call."
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Ha! Very true, JF. I am trying to discipline myself to divide my time and also do the Newt Gingrich trick of always carrying around a book. I keep feeding the Antilibrary with new purchases, so my efforts are in vain.
May 4th, 2010 at 1:50 pm
Madhu, Thanks for the recommendation of the NYT Artblog. I agree, with so many words, sometimes we all need to look at pictures.
May 4th, 2010 at 6:50 pm
Tom Ricks’ blog, Daniel Drezner’s, Brad DeLong’s, Kottke.org, Edge of the American West, Schneier on Security, Mark Kleiman, Lawyers Guns & Money, Coming Anarchy… no doubt there are some other worthwhile blogs out there.
May 4th, 2010 at 8:32 pm
For reasons of gender diversity, I recommend "The Thinking Housewife."
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http://www.thinkinghousewife.com/wp/
May 4th, 2010 at 9:05 pm
As an after thought, if it pictures you want to see, I very much recommend the Botson Herald’s The Big Picture which has amazed me time and time again with the photos they have captured. It should be on everybody’s blog roll, IMHO.
May 6th, 2010 at 11:23 am
Your RSS feed is not work in my browser (google chrome) how can I sort it?
May 6th, 2010 at 12:54 pm
I’ve always enjoyed http://io9.com/. There’s some quite interesting things on there, as well as a few ‘lighter note’ stories.
Basically if you fancy reading some tech/futurism its well worth a look.
May 7th, 2010 at 4:36 am
Hi Carroll – Google Chrome is problematic with WordPress. I can’t post with it – this is the first I have heard about a problem with RSS, I will check it out. Thx!