If you want to get past the current headlines in the mass media, look for what the business and financial world are looking at. They are concerned with details, and they follow a story for a long time. Two of the most common outlets are the Wall Street Journal and the Economist magazine. There are many others out there, but it takes time to sift through them and determine what their agenda is, and they all have agendas. News outlets are a business after all. Figure out who they cater to, who their audience is and you will know more about their position. Then read every article critically. Pick out the facts from the opinions and conjecture. Follow up those facts in other sources. Look for local papers, or papers that cater to people from the area you are interested in, they will have more details and provide more depth. Try this site to find local reporting around the world: Newspaper Map

As has been pointed out, the hard part is finding sources actually reporting on the story you are interested in when it is not a headline. And headlines pass and forgotten quickly.

Agree. If this were a real threat I'd expect gold and oil to be going up. Maybe it's because mid-east wars are getting old, but oil and gold are down -- at least they're down today. Relative to 10 years ago they're both way up but there's no panic to buy them today.

I'm still where I was on my first post -- not going to happen -- and I could still be wrong because the one thing the past few years have taught me is that people lie. Generally, the market does not lie and will normally get it right.

+1 on "The Economist". Just like any publication, they have a worldview that is the lens of their perception and commentary.

With shortwave, you can get on non-commercial traffic, that is to say not broadcast radio in the commercial sense, but real operational traffic. You can tune into regular traffic in theater, and occasionally even the more mundane military traffic. You won't get any good tactical info, but there's still plenty of general data comms to give a quick heads up, if you know what to look for.

You do have to study the airwaves a bit to glean what makes for good listening and what is propaganda or pure commercial traffic. But shortwave can be pretty handy, and not terribly expensive, and if the internet goes down or gets filtered, there will still be HF signals a plenty bouncing around the globe.

You can listen in to SW radio over the Internet using a free download application called SDR-radio by accessing a network of connected SDR radios.

http://www.sdr-radio.com/



I also use a Funcube Pro+ USB dongle radio on a notebook PC as SDR-radio Ver 2.0 is now compatible with the Funcube.

http://www.funcubedongle.com/

These devices are all part of an off grid BOB SIGINT/Communications bag.

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