by Laura Sjoberg | 13 Sep 2009 | Featured
I didn't get my local newspaper in Blacksburg, and usually use national sources (the New York Times and Wall Street Journal online, mostly) to get my news. Its been awhile, actually, since I've gotten a "local" newspaper (actually, I think, since the Pensacola News Journal where I grew up) and even longer since I've had to rely on it for news ... I don't have the APSA excuse for not blogging (for the first time in my career, I didn't go)....
by Charli Carpenter | 12 Sep 2009 |
Tantalized by Eric Randolph's glowing review, I watched The Hurt Locker this past week. I can see what Eric means by the film being almost in its own genre - a film about the everyday work of soldiering during an occupation, with no grand narrative about the rightness or wrongness of the war. But in my view, that is it's own grand narrative: a study in what soldiering is becoming, and the implications for soldiers and for society. So I viewed...
by Bill Petti | 12 Sep 2009 | Featured
In a recent report, Garnter proposes that as corporations try to benefit from the growth of social media they will come to rely more and more on employees with formal, advanced training in the social sciences.Gartner Vice President Kathy Harris discusses in some detail four areas of jobs needed in the near future. Though she never really uses the words "social networks" the implication is that most companies aren't really geared toward taking...
by Drew Conway | 11 Sep 2009 |
It is an appropriately gloomy day here in Manhattan, as the city and the country remembers the horror of September 11th, 2001 and attempts to continue to collectively heal. For me, part of that healing process has been trying to understand what happened, and more importantly, how to prevent it from ever happening again. Over the past eight years many others have been moved to investigate and analyze these events, which has lead to a plethora of...
by Charli Carpenter | 9 Sep 2009 |
Joshua Keating at Foreign Policy asks whether North Korea's release of a dam, whose water ended up killing 6 South Koreans Sunday, constituted a "water attack" on the South. I see this as another example of apologies - or lack thereof - making a crucial difference in diplomatic constructions of what an incident "is." Who knows whether this was intentional or what the motivation. North Korea's refusal to apologize will send a message of cruel...
by Charli Carpenter | 9 Sep 2009 |
Courtesy of Wild Ammo.
by Charli Carpenter | 7 Sep 2009 |
The Associated Press has sparked a controversy by publishing these graphic photos of Marine Lance Corporal Joshua Bernard's death in Afghanistan, against the wishes of his parents and the Pentagon.Forgetting the fact that we never seem too concerned about representations of dismembered or dying people from other countries, let's review the two key issues in the debate:1) Should the DoD be bullying the press into sitting on war photos that...
by Charli Carpenter | 4 Sep 2009 |
The Journal of Information Technology and Politics is offering free online access to its current Special Issue of Politics and Web 2.0, put together by Andrew Chadwick, just for the week of APSA. Here's the table of contents: "Guest Editor's Introduction“The Internet and Politics in Flux”Andrew ChadwickResearch Papers“Realizing the Social Internet? Online Social Networking Meets Offline Civic Engagement”- Josh Pasek; eian more; Daniel...
by Charli Carpenter | 4 Sep 2009 |
What can I say? It's APSA Conference Week and blogging is sluggish. Therefore:
by Charli Carpenter | 31 Aug 2009 |
Last week's issue of the Economist included a glowing discussion of successful nation-building in the former Yugoslavia: Almost 20 years after political bonds were severed by war, day-to-day links between companies, professions and individuals are quietly being restored. This huge shift in the daily life of the western Balkans is happening without fanfare. Few people have even noticed it. Those within the sphere take it for granted. Those...
by Charli Carpenter | 30 Aug 2009 |
World leaders who recently met with him are being notified.
by Bill Petti | 29 Aug 2009 |
I am usually a fan of Charles Blow's work, but his latest op-ed seems to me a bit sloppy.Blow claims that one reason Democrats, and President Obama in particular, may be having trouble convincing the country to sign on to large-scale health care reform is due to the public's overall lack of trust in the government. This is a completely plausible hypothesis and one that I agree with, as the numbers regarding trust are incredibly low right now...