Last post then off to school...

People keep asking me where I've learned what I've learned. I don't tend to think I'm that knowledgeable yet... at least I'm nowhere near what I'm capable of and where I should be. Lack of discipline, family, and political obligations keep me too busy to do the intellectual leg work I'd like to do.

But if you like what I have to say I can give you a few recommendations
1. Read often and broadly

2. Read quality blogs (where I've gotten all of my economics for the most part)

3. Read different newspapers from different political perspectives. Most importantly the New York Times since it sets the national media agenda and is the newspaper for movers and shakers in the world. You want to know what they are reading and thinking. Secondly the wall-street journal. I'm sorry to see the decline since Murdock... and they've had some loses because of it. But the WSJ is a great news source. The opinion page is a joke... but the news is par excellance--the reason being if you are going to make good financial decisions you need to know whats actually going on with as little spin as possible. Also Financial Times is a good read as well... NPR in the mornings... when I do watch the news on tv its Jim Leher on PBS. And online news I get at Democracy Now probably THE BEST news source out there. But its so reality based that it sounds as if a news report from mars...

4. COntact people you come across authors, teachers, and other nonprofessional intellectuals you might come across. Stay networked.. ask questions

5. The back of the book... where are the sources and citations go... thats where you learn to leap from...

thats about it. A little tip from me to you. Please feel free to throw out your own in the comments page.

--------------
Jim Nichols
A Speculative Fiction
www.JimNichols4.com

another youtube IWW

IWW Documentary...

China: Is political reform possible?

Dean Baker... Taming the giant corporation

unequal democracy

background on Israeli-Palestinian Crisis

Council on Foregin Relations releases Interactive Guide on Israeli-Palestinian Conflict.

CFR.org Launches Web's Most Authoritative, Interactive Guide on the Israeli-Palestinian Crisis
CFR.org Interactive Guide on the Israeli-Palestinian Crisis
CFR has produced a new online multimedia feature, Crisis Guide: The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict. Using a comprehensive array of audio, video, imagery, and text, the guide offers an in-depth look at the history of the conflict and its geopolitical repercussions. The guide, narrated by veteran journalist Michael Goldfarb, includes:

A historical video overview of the conflict
A timeline of the complex and often contested history of the conflict
An interactive map illustrating the territorial disputes central to the conflict, written and narrated by CFR Fellow Steven A. Cook
A survey of diplomatic efforts throughout the decades aimed at settlement of the dispute, including audio analysis by Daniel C. Kurtzer, a Princeton scholar of Mideast studies and former U.S. ambassador to Egypt and Israel
A chapter summarizing the roles and interests of parties to the conflict, including Israel and the Palestinian Authority, countries (including the United States, Egypt, and Britain), diplomatic actors (including the United Nations and the Arab League), as well as other non-state actors (including Hamas and Fatah)
A chapter offering links to more than thirty documents and treaties, as well as maps, timelines, and further research and analysis from CFR and other institutions

philosophy lecture online...

European Thought and Culture in the 20th Century

Dean Baker -- The Basics of Good Economics

A psychologist and a Philosopher walk into a internet cafe...

Paul Bloom & Joshua Knobe on Bloggingheads.tv

Science Saturday: Morality and Religion
Is morality hardwired into us? (11:41)
Could we learn truly arbitrary moral rules? (05:04)
The big booming voice inside you that says God exists (12:12)
The mind-body dualism of children (10:07)
Do you need to have a body to get pissed off? (09:01)
The morality of killing gods and robots (06:46)

Morning Meditation goes live...

Part of my struggles is with structure and discipline. I work to improve this by setting a goal of getting up every morning, walking 3 miles, and then reading a short morning meditation. Something to keep my focus on how I can keep from getting dragged down into vapid consumerism, rage at all the struggles of the world. When you indulge, or cannot always relate to your fellow man in respect--you are just as much a part of the problem.

I don't always follow through--which means I have to always work to keep focused on this goal. But as a part of this. I hope to do my best at posting my meditations on youtube. For one to keep my feet to the fire, and also to share some very good writers and thinkers with the rest of the world.

Its still uploading... so give it time...

Talk by Naomi Wolf - The End of America

American Freedom Campaign

great blogginghead post

Philosopher Joshua Knobe of University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill on Experimental Philosophy. Very good...

Lecture on Global Poverty...

Here is a link to the audio for a lecture from Ecnomist Brad Delong

Here are the slides he passed along from it.

Overheads for Global Poverty Lecture:

http://delong.typepad.com/delongslides/2008/01/the-world-in--1.html
http://delong.typepad.com/delongslides/2008/01/the-world-in-19.html
http://delong.typepad.com/delongslides/2008/01/global-poverty.html
http://delong.typepad.com/delongslides/2008/01/greg-clark-mala.html
http://delong.typepad.com/delongslides/2008/01/greg-clark-engl.html
http://delong.typepad.com/delongslides/2008/01/adam-smith-vani.html
http://delong.typepad.com/delongslides/2008/01/fertility-rates.html
http://delong.typepad.com/delongslides/2008/01/infant-and-chil.html
http://delong.typepad.com/delongslides/2008/01/telephone-use.html

Conversations With History: J. Bradford DeLong

Started watching Delong's morning coffee on Why Should Economists Study Economic History? and ended up on youtube watching this interesting interview.

listening to right now...

From Brad Delong... Are There Moral and Political Consequences of Economic Prosperity? (Audio)

[I'm adding a new tag: online education... to help keep up with solid and substantial items on the web that someone can get a solid education from...]