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.