SmartLinks From Our Readers

Below, we have some links recommended by our readers. Feel free to send other good bits our way. The more we give, the more we get. Just click here to send:

• Sean Penn reads an excerpt from Bob Dylan’s autobiography, Chronicles, here. (Or check out the full audiobook version.)
• Jared Diamond, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Guns, Germs, and Steel and Collapse speaks at The Long Now Foundation about why civilizations have historically endured or failed. Two important factors include how they managed their natural resources and dealt with climate change. Does this ring any bells? Get the lecture here: (iTunes – Feed – MP3s)
• Ayn Rand’s Literature of Capitalism. A piece in The New York Times explores Atlas Shrugged and its impact on Alan Greenspan.
• Interview with Hal Varian, Chief Economist at Google (and UC Berkeley Professor), who talks (iTunes - Feed – MP3 – Web Site) about the internet as an “engine for democracy.”
• Appearing in The New York Review of Books, this piece, entitled Citizen Gore, takes a look a Al Gore’s new book, The Assault on Reason, and how Gore, being freed up from politics, has been remarkably able to prod the conscience of the nation. For some, however, it’s not enough. Hence the recent “Draft Al Gore” campaign that has gotten underway.
• Check out the Voodoo Music Festival coming up on October 26, 27 & 28 in New Orleans. The lineup of artists includes Rage Against The Machine, Common, Tiesto, The Smashing Pumpkins, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, M.I.A., Ben Harper, Wilco and more. To win passes to the show and some travel money, you can enter a contest here.

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