That old phrase "what you don't know CAN hurt you" couldn't be truer in this day and age. With the advent of the internet in the 90s, what I call 'The World's Biggest Library' opened its doors to anyone with a dial-up connection.
It allows today to connect with primary sources at the click of a mouse button. Research reports that were formerly hidden away in the halls of institutes or behind an expensive paywall, were now available to almost anyone with an interest in the subject.
Despite this bountiful cornucopia of intellectual riches, I find that vacant stares of complete incomprehension greet me whenever I engage in public about current events, and what I call "walking around knowledge."
These I refer to as the basic information everyone should have if you simply walk up to them and ask. Example: there are actually Americans out there who not only can't name the states on a blank map of the country, but also have no idea how many US states there are and are puzzled as to why I'd expect them to know that!
Tallest mountain in the world? No clue. No idea who their congressman or senator is, and no desire to find out. They've heard of the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, and that's it. Apparently there are no other large bodies of water around the globe worth knowing about.
Some Sources
I love learning about new things and expanding my mental inventory on a daily basis. You never know when that little factoid might be the one that will save a life or help someone make it through tough times.
This is why I keep an open mind when it comes to the sources I choose in order to remain connected to the latest in what's going on out there. In this post I'll share a few of them.
- Yahoo News (and finance)
Believe it or not, I still check Yahoo News on a daily basis. One of the reasons why I continue to use this legacy website is that you can often access articles that are behind a paywall at the source site.
I'm assuming that Yahoo has an agreement with these sources as a way of sharing ad revenue and demographic data in return for the usage of the articles.
So the next time you wanna check out that interesting Wall Street Journal piece which ends up behind a paywall, simply do what I do, and search the article title on Yahoo to see if its been republished there.
I've save a lot of Simoleans that way over the years, and have gained access to stories that I'd otherwise never be able to read.
- Drudgereport
Is one of the first sites I hit every day. They have a tendency of breaking major news stories before anyone else. Do yourself a favor and bookmark them for future reference.
- Axis States
I'm a firm believer in the concept of "know your enemy." If we're enemies, I wanna know where you are, what you're thinking, and what you're planning. Only a fool would allow himself to have blinders on when it comes to knowing the enemy well enough to prepare a robust defense and a pulverizing offense.
So I check in on websites such as RT, TASS and Sputnik. This helps to keep me abreast of what the worlds largest nuclear power is thinking (and you thought it was the US? nope!). Global Times and Xinhua, provide a similar function for China, a country we will likely one day be at war with over Taiwan.
The Korean Friendship Association is a friendly portal to news about the Supreme Leader of North Korea, events around the country, as well as Pyongyang FM live radio (you know you wanna tune in!).
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs runs an English-language website publishing official news relating to North Korea and its (limited) interactions with the rest of the world (note they refer to the leader as "Respected Comrade Kim Jong Un" ).
Don't forget the Maritime Administration of DPR Korea. Who wouldn't want to read about the Ceremony of Paektusan Hero Youth Shock Brigade’s Departure for the Rehabilitation Sites in North Phyongan Province, right?
They also offer a general DPRK Portal Site which only worked for a few minutes for me before throwing up a Service Unavailable page (YMMV).
The Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran, also hosts its own English-language website, which offers a surprisingly different take on world news than we have here in the west. Imagine that!
And last (but not least) are the Venezuela Government Website which along with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Venezuela, were both unreachable at the time of the writing of this article (I wonder why? :) I was able to reach a USAID site covering humanitarian assistance for Venezuela, so there's that.
The point is to realize the vital importance of knowing your enemy, and the only way to do that, is to monitor what they're saying and planning.
- Travel Warnings
The U.S. Department of State, publishes an updated list of Travel Advisories which will come in handy for your next trip.
They're broken down into 4 levels for each country, from "Level 1: Exercise Normal Precautions" (Some current examples: Croatia, Austria, and Andorra - (a country many people don't even know exists)), to "Level 4: Do Not Travel" (Some current examples: Belarus, Haiti, and Samoa).
You'll be as surprised as I was to learn that one of my favorite countries Greenland (of all places) has a current travel advisory of "Level 2: Exercise Increased Caution", due to climate and lack of emergency services (Don't you worry though. That'll all be fixed when Trump makes them a US territory ;)
This is just a tiny dancer sample of some of the information sources I use to help fill up my "information bank" each and every day. Grow your mind and don't ever let anyone tell you what to think. Your mind is your own. Keep it watered.