Many of the policy initiatives from Bill Clinton's administration were originally hatched in the Democratic Leadership Council and the Progressive Policy Institute. Barack Obama appears to be relying heavily on the Center for American Progress for his ideas, so if you're wondering what he might do on immigration, energy, education and the like, CAP is a good place to start. The only fresh ideas coming from the right these days are at Newt's think tank, American Solutions.
There's no end of discussion about the world's problems. The Copenhagen Consensus has attempted to go a few steps beyond rhetoric by prioritizing those problems based on our ability to implement cost effective solutions.
For news and information about events occuring here in Minnesota, I'm increasingly turning to MinnPost for substantive reporting and analysis. For a national political fix, I turn to Politico. For a global tech fix, I go to Wired News.
Major League Baseball has the finest site in all of professional sports.
I've found author websites to be surprisingly disappointing. An exception is Dan Simmons of Hyperion fame, who periodically posts messages to his fans, and even has an ongoing series on 'Writing Well.' Neil Gaiman also regularly contributes to a blog on his site.
Candy for your brain can be found at the TED Conference site. I had the privilege of attending TED 11 in 2001. Great interviews and news shows can also be downloaded from Minnesota Public Radio. And of course, no conversation about brain candy would be complete without mentioning the finest interviewer on TV today, Charlie Rose.
The federal government is sitting on a wealth of information that can be found here. When I play around on the CIA's website, I feel as though I'm being watched. Same with DARPA.
Wondering where Grandma's flight is at this very moment? Check USA Today's Flight Tracker.
The ultimate site for criticism (constructive, of course) of books, movies, TV, DVD, etc. is Metacritic. Rain Taxi is a wonderful local journal featuring reviews of high quality but little known books.
Want to see great works of art but don't have time to travel to New York City? The Museum of Modern Art now provides web access to a substantial portion of its collection. The New York Public Library's Digital Gallery is also worth a visit.
NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory provides tours of the Universe free of charge, oxygen included.
Think the $750 billion Wall Street bailout and $900 billion economic stimulus plan is going to cost us? Check out how much debt we owe as a nation here. The Concord Coalition is also a great resource on all issues related to the federal budget, the deficit and debt.
|
|