Chasing Dragons

Weekend Reading Roundup v. 142

This weekend in the reading roundup:

• 'The Saturday Interview: Stuart Hall' by Zoe Williams at guardian.co.uk

• 'A Condition for Pilots: 'Existential' Conflict' by Farah Stockman at boston.com

• 'Sway: Wikileaks, Universities and Soft Power' by David Mathews at timeshighereducation.co.uk

• 'The Maps We Wandered into as Kids' by Victoria Johnson at theawl.com

Have a good weekend.

Photo credit: Zach Dischner

Weekend Reading Roundup v. 141

This weekend in the reading roundup:

• 'Contributing to Public Goods: My 20 Rules for Refereeing' by Marc F. Bellemare at marcbellemare.com

• 'The Difference Between Online Knowledge and Truly Open Knowledge' by C.W. Anderson at theatlantic.com

• 'Obama Terror Drones: CIA Tactics in Pakistan Include Targeting Rescuers and Funerals' by Chris Woods and Christina Lamb at thebureauinvestigates.com

• 'Colbert v. The Court' by Dahlia Lithwick at slate.com

• 'When Art and Politics Collided in LA' by Jon Wiener at latimes.com

• 'The Liberal Arts as Guideposts in the 21st Century' by Nannerl O. Keohane at chronicle.com

Have a good weekend.

Photo credit: pcorreia

Weekend Reading Roundup v. 139

This weekend in the reading roundup:

• 'The Crash and Burn Future of Robot Warfare' by Nick Turse at guernicamag.com

• 'Five Day Gratification' by Wright Thompson at cricinfo.com (on the rhythms of test cricket in a world where speed rules)

• 'Lazy Higher Ed Journalism' by Melonie Fullick at insidehighered.com

• 'Models of Representation in Carl Schmitt' by Charles Kollmer at telospress.com

• 'The Politics of the Sweater Vest' by Vanessa Friedman at ft.com

• 'Special Forces Get Social in New Psychological Operation Plan' by Noel Shachtman at dangerroom

Enjoy!

Photo credt: mtkopone

Weekend Reading Roundup v. 136

This weekend in the reading roundup:

• 'The Social Utility of Art and Scholarship' by Clare O'Farrell at refractedinput

• 'Top 50 Multimedia Packages of 2011' by Tracy Boyer Clark at innovativeinteractivity.com

• 'What It Takes to Open a Bar in Baghdad' by Joshuah Bearman at atlantic.com (apparantly being a mercenary is a good start...)

• 'Stealth Tech, Facebook Revolutions, Shadow Wars: The Most Dangerous Year Ever' by Spencer Ackerman and Noah Shachtman at dangerroom

• 'Photographs of the Year 2011' by Homa Khaleeli, Rob Fearn, Amy Fleming, Sarah Phillips, and Paula Cocozza at guardian.co.uk

• 'The Struggle for the Open Web: Putting "Piracy" In Perspective' by David Campbell at david-campbell.org

• 'I'll Tell You Why Movie Revenue is Dropping' by Roger Ebert at rogerebert.com (hint, it's not piracy...)

Happy New Year!

Photo credit: feileacan

Weekend Reading v. 135

This weekend in the reading roundup:

• 'Airforce Drone Operators Report High Levels of Stress' by Elisabeth Bumiller at nytimes.com

• 'Against All Odds: How "Crazy" Kim Jung Il Outfoxed the World' by Howard W. French at atlantic.com

• 'Social Media in the 16th Century: How Luther Went Viral' at economist.com

• 'Smoke Screen' by Charles C. Mann at vanityfair.com

Peace on earth and goodwill to all humans.

 Photo credit: Jennifer Boyer

Weekend Reading Roundup v. 125

In this week's reading roundup:

• 'Alleged Iranian Assassination Plot Appears An FBI Sting' at therealnews.com

• 'The "Very Scary" Iranian Terror Plot' by Glenn Greenwald at salon.com

• '$7 million, 36 Hours: Special Ops Spend Big on Family Training' by Spencer Ackerman at dangerroom.com

• 'Research and the UCU Action-An Infrequently Asked Question?' by Stuart Elden at progressivegeographies.com

Have a good weekend!

Photo credit: Nick J Webb

Weekend Reading Roundup v. 124

This weekend in the reading roundup:

• 'Mopping up the Last War or Stumbling into the Next?' by Daniel Bethlehem at harvardnsj.com

• '2011 Global Study on Homicide' at unodc.org

• 'Actors' Political Views a Factor for Moviegoers, Study Finds' at foxnews.com

• 'The Opium War, by Julia Lovell' by TH Barrett at independent.co.uk

• 'US-Arab Relations and the Age of Hip-Hop Diplomacy' at boombasticelement.org

Have a good weekend!

Photo credit: jeici1

Weekend Reading Roundup v. 122

This weekend in the reading roundup:

• 'They're Watching. And They Can Bring You Down: Why The World is Scared of Hacktivists' by Joseph Menn at ft.com

• 'War Against War' by Craig Ritchie at duckrabbit.info (trigger warning for graphic images; however, an excellent exploration of the issues surrounding the contextualization of frontline war photography)

• 'Trust Issues' by Paul Collins at laphamsquarterly.org

• 'Killer Drones: When Will Our Weaponized Robots Become Autonomous?' by Clay Dillow at popsci.com

Have a good weekend!

Photo credit: Nuuuuuuuuuuul

Weekend Reading Roundup v. 121

This weekend in the reading roundup:

• 'iPads Now Helping Marines to Unleash Hell' by Mark Riffee at dangeroom

• 'War/Photography: An Interview with Simon Norfolk' by Geoff Manaugh at bldblog

• 'Ghosts in the Machine: Do Remote-Control Pilots Get Combat Stress?' by William Saletan at slate.com

• 'National Drug Threat Assessment 2011' by the National Drug Intelligence Center at the US Department of Justice [link]

Have a good weekend!

Photo credit: oceanaris

Some of the Human Costs of the 'Will to Revenge'

Revenge is barren of itself: it is the dreadful food it feeds on; its delight is murder, and its end is despair.--Friedrich Schiller

• Total number killed in the 9/11 attacks: 2819 (source)

• Estimated number of civilian deaths in the war in Afghanistan: 11,000-14,000 (source)

• Total number of Afghanistan military coalition fatalities to date: 2706 (source)

• Estimated number of civilian deaths in Iraq War: 102,416-111,937 (source)

• Total number of Iraq military coalition fatalities to date: 4792 (source)

Such a ledger of loss is both starkly overwhelming and woefully insufficient to achieving anything but a partial sense of the past decade. But it does offer a damning indictment.

RIP.

Photo credit: David Gunter