CSS Blog Network
The professors and researchers at the Center for Comparative and International Studies (CIS), an have just started a blog, PoliSciZurich.
From PoliSciZurich:
“Our goal is to engage in a fresh exchange on research, teaching, and the academic profession by exploiting what makes political science in Zurich distinctive, namely a strongly research-oriented and international profile in a European location.”
Welcome to the blogosphere. Make yourselves at home!
When the boss isn’t looking and we have a few minutes to spare, we check out the latest international relations video podcasts. Here are some currently on our YouTube playlists:
Any more suggestions?
In the same vein as our list of interesting international relations actors on Facebook, we put together a list of interesting audio sources for you to explore (again, in random order).
1. Council on Foreign Relations Podcasts
2. London School of Economics Public Lectures and Events Podcasts
3. UCLA Burkle Center for International Relations Podcasts
4. World Radio Switzerland Podcasts on International Relations
5. The Economist Audio and Video
7. C-SPAN Radio
8. New York Times World View Podcast
9. BBC Radio From Our Own Correspondent Series
10. World Politics Review Podcasts
Some, like C-SPAN, provide a live stream of congressional events, speeches and hearings (often on foreign affairs); others offer insights into current affairs drawn from expert interviews, while the Economist, for example, provides audio summaries of their Special Reports and a weekly podcast outlining the key events to look out for in the days ahead. The London School of Economics and the UCLA Burkle Center for International Relations provide audio and video files of speeches and public lectures held at the schools on a wide variety of topics and often by high profile speakers.
And remember that we can also be found on the audio airwaves – enjoy ISN podcasts at home or on the go!
Any other podcasters that deserve a mention?
Those among you who are interested in the origin of words may already know the etymology of “serendipity.” The word is based on an ancient tale called “The Three Princes of Serendip” and describes an accidental and fortunate discovery of something unexpected.
Serendipitous discoveries take place because of how things are ordered and because of the search tools and practices we employ. At the ISN we are also concerned with the order of things. We classify our content by using about 3000 keywords on international relations and security. With this concern in mind, on Wednesday in our weekly editorial meeting we discussed a recent NY Times article by Damon Darlin on the loss of serendipity in the digital age. According to Darlin, because of the internet tools in place today we have “lost the fortunate discovery of something we never knew we wanted to find.”
So we wondered: Does indexing information really remove the element of surprise?
I believe this is not the case. Indexed information in any encyclopedia is a beautiful opportunity for serendipity. To support my argument I will cite Jorge Luis Borges, who, in his “Investigation of the Word” (in Selected Non-Fictions) talks about the “alphabetical disorder” of dictionaries. What a beautiful opportunity of finding words with very different meanings next to each other just because they share the same initial letters!
First it was TV, then it was video games, now Twitter? Are these things really contributing to the decay of the human psyche, our morality and our ability to concentrate? Or is this just paranoid blame-seeking, intent on vilifying the entire spectrum of modern day tools part of our everyday life?
The ISN blog presents two viewpoints- mine and that of my co-worker Cristina Viehmann. Let the debate begin!