Need to Know is a short roundup of key blog posts that shouldn’t be missed on your cruise through the blogosphere. The number of links in the roundup may vary but if you find it here you can trust that it’s must-read material.
The Captain’s Journal | Body Armor
There have been recent calls from members of the Senate for investigations into claims that Pinnacle’s Dragon Skin armor is better than the currently deployed body armor. Response from the Army was swift and direct. This article covers some recent history of body armor and the current “dust-up” in the media and Senate, and briefly examines claims and counter-claims. A way forward is recommended for final disposition of the issues surrounding body armor.
Blackfive | Anti-War BS
My buddy Don came up from Chi-Town on a Yamaha motorcycle as big as a truck and we rolled out to the show to see how the left would honor those who today was for. They had anti-war BS and every flavor of agit-prop, but not a single solitary moment in 2 1/2 hours mentioned the sacrifices of all the men and women since 1776 who made it possible for them to whine, and whine they did. I filmed most of it and it was drivel. If anyone has a single moment where our war dead were honored in this I will recant, ‘cuz I didn’t hear any, and that chafed my cones.
The D-Ring | The State of DoD PR
I would say that the military is good at marketing and advertising and lousy at public relations and branding. Unfortunately, in an age where media consumers have the power, having a strong brand and good public relations seem much more important than being able to market and advertise.
Austin Bay | Death of the Anchorman
I suspect a new, more centralizing media groupings will emerge on the net. I see signs of it — pajamasmedia for example. The successful emergers will merge with adaptive major media. Charlie Gibson may well be reading news on YouTube 7.0 (whatever that will be). But he will be a “niche anchor” competing with other reporting sources. More bloggers will become local investigative reporters. The politicians are already escaping the Beltway press corps — perhaps Mr. Powers has missed that because he still (over) relies on ABC TV news.
Homeland Security Watch | Terror database
The University of Maryland’s National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (START) made its terrorism attack database publicly available. It provides a unique service for understanding the big picture, but other uses may include adding depth to the challenge of understanding risk in the context of terrorism threats. With content covering about 80,000 incidents between 1970 and 2004 (details on the period through 2007 forthcoming), it provides one of the few data sources for risk analysis of this scope and detail. Intentional attacks disallow a conventional approach to gauging risk because data points (incidents) are the result of adaptive causes (perpetrators).
Michelle Malkin | Northwest Airlines Flight 327
This weekend, dogged Washington Times reporter Audrey Hudson previewed a Department of Homeland Security Inspector General’s report on the handling–and mishandling–of Flight 327. Longtime readers will remember this incident as an airline security object lesson on the need for passengers to say something when they see something. Thirteen Middle Eastern men aroused the suspicion of federal air marshals, flight crew, and passengers with disruptive, red-flag behavior at takeoff and landing. Freelance writer Annie Jacobsen was on the flight in June 2004 and bravely blew the whistle on security lapses and bureaucratic incompetence.
Thomas P.M. Barnett | Religion in China
In Blueprint for Action, one of my end-of-book future projections spoke about how we’ll all be surprised at how religious China has become over the next couple of decades. This is not a bold prediction, but a logical one. The suppression of faith in China was profound under Mao. Now people get some money and get past the basic needs and they begin to hunger for things a bit higher up Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, including ways to order their thinking about life and especially the future.
IWitnessViews | Old media silliness
Mega Doppler. HD Doppler. Doppler 2000 Plus. And my personal favorite: FoxRad Storm Seeker (with storm-penetrating power, no less). In their quest to be the severe weather kings, the local TV stations are marketing their Doppler radars with amusing–and annoying–results.
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