While I read more online than anywhere else, I still like magazines, and subscribe to quite a few of them. Most are fairly well-known, like Prospect, Scientific American and the London Review of Books; you can find a lot of the content of these online also.
I wanted to mention a few less prominent Australian magazines which I subscribe to and find worthwhile. There’s Australian Options, published in Adelaide, Eureka Street from Melbourne and Dissent from Canberra. If you’re looking for a Christmas present for a leftish friend/relation, you could do worse than a subscription to one of these.
John Quiggin 
I used to like SciAm befor the Lomborg affair. I think they really tainted their reputation there. Michale Crichton has some interesting things to say about it…
“Worst of all was the behavior of the Scientific American, which seemed intent on proving the post-modernist point that it was all about power, not facts. The Scientific American attacked Lomborg for eleven pages, yet only came up with nine factual errors despite their assertion that the book was ‘rife with careless mistakes.’ It was a poor display featuring vicious ad hominem attacks, including comparing him to a Holocust denier. The issue was captioned: ‘Science defends itself against the Skeptical Environmentalist.’ Really. Science has to defend itself? Is this what we have come to?”
“When Lomborg asked for space to rebut his critics, he was given only a page and a half. When he said it wasn’t enough, he put the critics’ essays on his web page and answered them in detail. Scientific American threatened copyright infringement and made him take the pages down.”
“Of course, any scientist can be charged as Galileo was charged. I just never thought I’d see the Scientific American in the role of mother church.”
Crichton’s speech is worth reading by anyone with an interest in public policy. It’s at…
http://www.crichton-official.com/speeches/speeches_quote04.html
http://www.imv.dk/Default.asp?ID=233
The Danish government supports Lomborg.
I get Dissent by subscription. I thinks its a great read.
PK,
Galileo essentially was charged for speaking on a subject that wasn’t his area of expertise.
The best example of finding out exactly WHY Galileo was charged was in the first issue of Kategoria written by Kirsten Birkett.
How can you possibly omit Quadrant and the IPA Review? (Stir, stir.)
Seriously, isn’t it wise to read things that aren’t already likely to conform with what you are already doing, for at least one of two reasons:-
– in case you are wrong, either in some minor detail or in a major way (the former would help you avoid inadvertent straw men); and
– to see where others are coming from so you can address their own concerns in their own terms (i.e. with a humility that would keep you from preaching to the choir).
If neither of those apply in your case then of course you shouldn’t pay attention to people who you might not agree with, and I heartily apologise for my suggestion.
PML, I agree, but I’m too cheap/partisan to subscribe to the opposition mags* and there’s an amply supply of representative material free on the Web. That said, I might do a post giving my thoughts on which of these are worth reading and maybe paying for.
* I do subscribe to the online edition of The Economist which is on the other side of most issues from me. I also subscribe to the AFR, but I don’t suppose this counts.
I wouldn’t mind a subscription to “Dissent”. I need a good laugh.
Another birthday
Hopefully not on his way to Crooked Timber, John Quiggin recently listed the magazines etc that he subscribes to, citing Australian Options, Eureka Street, and Dissent, along with mentioning his subscription to the AFR and the online edition of The…
Lefty magazines need to lift their game
Both John Quiggin and Chris Sheil have been reflecting on the left magazines they subscribe to adn read. They mention