Subscribe to this blog in Radio:
E-mail this blog's author, Scott Rosenberg:  |
|
All the Sultan's Men
Read "Our Idiot Ottoman Sultan Problem," by Brad DeLong. It's about how we pick our presidents; why we seem to end up with leaders who have little experience in Washington; and how that leads to a situation in which the ignoramus president "picks his initial Grand Viziers. Other competing Vizier-candidates are jealous, and work to undermine them. The Viziers in favor flatter the Sultan, and try to strengthen their hold over him. Disasters happen. The Sultan's temper flares. A coterie around the Sultan decides that somebody has to go, and policy shifts as a new Vizier takes the reins..."
|
|
Walk right in
Sometimes good reporting is about just walking in. That's what Noah Shachtman did over at Los Alamos National Laboratory: "There are no armed guards to knock out. No sensors to deactivate. No surveillance cameras to cripple. To sneak into Los Alamos National Laboratory, the world's most important nuclear research facility, all you do is step over a few strands of rusted, calf-high barbed wire." Shachtman has more over on his blog, Defensetech.org.
|
|
|
