Chrisco Spins

Here’s a few things I read this week that I thought interesting enough to pass along:

1) An LA Times writer talks about her “so-called glamorous life as a foreign correspondent.”

2) In the same spirit, I regularly check in with the NY Times Baghdad Bureau’s blog. A really interesting look inside the coverage of the war.

3) A Washington Post article on a new restaurant in the process of opening. The interesting part is that it is being opened as an open-source project. Basically that means that the people bank-rolling the project are leaving all the decisions up to a group of people who have expressed interest in contributing ideas. The idea is called “crowdsourcing.”

4) Newsweek article on shifting Taliban strategy in Afghanistan.

5) Fun entry at the great web-site How Stuff Works on why eating polar bear liver can kill you.

A few things I read this week that I liked enough to pass on:

1) A quick rundown in The Economist of how Al-Qaeda will ultimately be defeated by Muslims. Here’s the short version and here’s an in-depth special report they did on Al-Qaeda that is well worth the time you spend digging into it.

2) Interesting Slate article on video game technology being used by the military. Great title also, “War is Halo.”

3) Remember the FISA law that Obama’s most vehement supporters got all worked up about him flip-flopping to support? Smart political move no doubt, but it pissed off his most lefty backers. Anyway, the ACLU has filed suit to block the measure’s implementation. Check that out and their very good primer on the FISA act in question and why they hate it.

4) Check out the winners of Smithsonian Magazine’s 5th Annual Photo Contest. Some really wonderful images.

5) A great article from the Harvard Business Review on what it takes to become an expert at anything.

Here’s a few things I read this week that I think are worth passing on. Enjoy:

1) What if John McCain and Barack Obama spent less time pandering to ill-informed and unemployed Rust Belt voters and instead based their economic appeals on the things that would get economists excited about their candidacy? What would their economic policies look like then? A New York Times article explored just that question.

2) The International Criminal Court is considering charges against Sudan’s president for crimes against humanity related to genocide in Darfur. The Economist looks at how the tradition of immunity for sitting national leaders is being reconsidered and what that might mean for the Bush Administration’s record on torture.

3) True or false: bottled water is better for you than tap? BusinessWeek lays out the pros and cons.

4) Jesse Helms died this week. That left a lot of people in the media with the task of remembering a man who many of us considered an icon of intolerance and hate. The Root summed it up nicely for us all. And Mike Luckovich put together the funniest comic/obituary that made me realize he’s just as much of a morbidly cynical bastard as the rest of us.

5) Does our almost constant interaction with the internet change the way we think? The Atlantic asks the question “Is Google Making Us Stupid”?

6) I’m sort of a space nerd. I’ll prove it by recommending the Bad Astronomy blog’s primer on Saturn’s rings. I think it’s really interesting.