Tuesday, July 15, 2014

Ten blogs that may interest you

I have been carrying out an experiment on my public Facebook page. All these things take time to maintain, and I had serious doubts about value. So decided to pay $77 to FB to promote the page (FB for advertise) for a week. So far, I have added 17 likes for 987 people reached.

I still don’t know if the page is worthwhile, but it is interesting in0000100058 regard to FB metrics!

Most of my regular readers know my favourite blogs, so I do try to mix things around. Given that I have some new people on FB and will be cross-posting there, I thought that I would re-focus on some of my favourites in this post.

But before going on, discussion on Monday Morning Forum – what do you like, dislike about Australian architecture? is just getting underway. This is what kvd reckoned was a real Queenslander as compared to what I put up. What do you think? What do you most like/hate about modern architecture?

AC’s blog remains one of my favourites. She has just been in Florence. This is one of her stories from that trip: They have time. I have to say that her descriptions of Florentine men make me feel quite inadequate!

Ramana is an Indian blogger from Pune. His usually gentle tales make for good reading. You will find his blog here.

The Lowy Institute blog is, I think, Australia’s best foreign policy blog. Its not a complicated blog. I read it all the time because it keeps me in touch with international issues and especially those in Australia’s immediate environment. 

Australian Policy On-line is a very good site for keeping in touch with the latest research and analysis bearing on the development of public policy in Australia. This is one place to go if you wish to break yourself from the the one-line sound bites so loved by the Australian political leadership on all sides.

The History Blog is an eclectic blog featuring in popular form some of the latest historical research from around the world. Would you drink this? -  200-year-old seltzer water bottle found on shipwreck. Staying with history, Christopher Moore’s History News provides a constant short introduction to Canadian history, my own blog New England’s History provides an introduction to Australia’s New England region, while Legal History is as the name says if with a very US focus.  

Turning to Australian politics, Club Troppo is the grand-daddy of left centre blogs, although posting has become more irregular over recent months. By contrast, the right-Libertarian blog Catallaxy Files has maintained its regularity, although the posts are also very short. The best reporting on the latest Australian opinion polls continues to come from The Poll Bludger, a Crikey blog.

Well, that’s ten blogs excluding my own, I think, therefore, that I might leave this post there.  

4 comments:

Rummuser said...

Thank you Jim.

Jim Belshaw said...

I need to come back to this link, kvd. I found it very odd.

Anonymous said...

That's an interesting reaction Jim.

I also found his post on Canada and war - in particular a brief discussion on the "Vimy Myth" remarkably similar to our own ANZAC legend.

But then he was discussing the difference between perceptions of 'peacekeeper' and 'warrior' soldiers, and how and who formed those ideas, and for whose benefit.

kvd

Jim Belshaw said...

Hi kvd. I will read the piece properly later today. I have bookmarked the blog. For that, my thanks.

I find the similarities and differences between Canada and Australia interesting. As a broad generalisation, Canada is to the left of Australia on the left-right political spectrum, but the right is more right! Its a remarkably complicated country compared to Australia.

It's interesting, too, the way that politics in the UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand sometimes mirrors each other. From the 1970s, Canada really dropped out of Australian consciousness, put aside as part of a past that was perceived as no longer relevant. Now it seems to be coming back.

I haven't yet put up the Monday Forum post. Yes, I know that its Tuesday, but the Sunday Essay actually didn't go up until Monday; I am running behind. Maybe something on Canada?