Democracy Player

"Want to see the future of Net video? Download the open source Democracy Player"
Wired Magazine, May 2006

Stop squinting at tiny web video. Instead, download and watch all the best internet TV shows in one powerful application: any video RSS feed, video podcast, video blog, or BitTorrent file. Fullscreen, high resolution, 100% free and open source. New channels arrive daily in the built-in Channel Guide.

Gentle Ben

Time magazine profiles new fed chair Ben Bernanke...

"The shift is about more than clearer communication and punch lines. What's really at stake is a plan to make the Fed a more transparent and accessible institution. When Bernanke first showed up at the Fed as a governor in 2002, he started eating in the cafeteria, much to the surprise of younger economists, who weren't used to governors joining them for lunch and talking shop. When he returned as chairman in February after an eight-month stint as head of the President's Council of Economic Advisers, he resumed his lunchtime habits, not locking himself away in the Fed's private dining rooms. He plays pickup basketball at the Fed gym, posted his minivan for sale on the Fed's electronic bulletin board and showed up at the Fed's July 4 barbecue with his wife, who teaches Spanish, and one of his two children, home from college for the summer."

A strategy for resolving the conflict in Lebanon

Former U.S. Ambassador Martin Indyk in today's Financial Times:

"Condoleezza Rice, US secretary of state, will visit the Middle East this week, raising hopes of an American initiative to end the Lebanese-Israeli imbroglio. On the surface, a surprising consensus is forming about the necessary elements of that initiative: a comprehensive ceasefire; the Lebanese government’s authority extended to southern Lebanon; an effective international force to help the Lebanese army keep peace on the border with Israel and prevent Hizbollah’s rearming; a return to the 1949 Israel-Lebanon armistice agreement with a joint border demarcation committee to deal with outstanding territorial disputes; prisoner exchange negotiations between the Israeli and Lebanese governments; an international fund for reconstructing Lebanon; and implementation of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1559 on disbanding and disarming all militias.

Most of these elements were outlined in the Group of Eight communiqué and statements by the Lebanese and Israeli prime ministers. It would not take much US diplomatic muscle to secure agreement among these parties. Missing from this framework, however, is any way to get Hizbollah – instigator of the crisis – to accept it. Hizbollah has been bloodied but not yet bowed. Why should it agree to cede its suzerainty in southern Lebanon as the precursor to its disarmament?"

Fight Club

Robin Wright of the Washington Post reports:

"Israel, with U.S. support, intends to resist calls for a cease-fire and continue a longer-term strategy of punishing Hezbollah, which is likely to include several weeks of precision bombing in Lebanon, according to senior Israeli and U.S. officials.

"For the United States, the broader goal is to strangle the axis of Hezbollah, Hamas, Syria and Iran, which the Bush administration believes is pooling resources to change the strategic playing field in the Middle East, U.S. officials say.

"Whatever the outrage on the Arab streets, Washington believes it has strong behind-the-scenes support among key Arab leaders also nervous about the populist militants -- with a tacit agreement that the timing is right to strike."

Go Bloogle!

Google plans to open an advertising center in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

[photo courtesy of AP]

Calls for an Explanation

Robert Wright interviews John Polkinghorne on the anthropic principle on Slate's Meaning of Life TV. (The video's two and a half minutes long.)

Here are some of the other offerings:

"John Maynard Smith, one of the great figures in modern evolutionary biology, died in April of 2004. He was a scientist who tackled very big questions and yet maintained his intellectual humility--appreciating, for example, how mysterious is the very existence of human consciousness. He was also a scientist who anticipated his own death with impressive equanimity.

Is mysticism an enemy of rationalism? Omid Safi, speaking from a Muslim point of view, says no. (If you're wondering how a Muslim got to be an authority on mysticism: Don't forget about the Muslims known as Sufis).

Is consciousness a mystery--so mysterious as to suggest some higher purpose in the universe? Yes and no, says psychologist Steven Pinker (who more definitively solves the mystery of his hair).

Why are the world's religions sometimes at each other's throats? Huston Smith, who wrote the book on them, has an answer, and it's inspiring yet depressing."

Lost in America

New America Foundation fellow, Douglas McGray:

Speak two languages and you’re bilingual. Speak one? You must be American. So goes the old joke. But globalization means that students can no longer remain blissfully unaware. Can Americans open the classroom door, or will today’s youth be unprepared to lead tomorrow’s world?"

in the May Foreign Policy.

take a look at this

I went to see the Outwin Boochever 2006 Portrait Competition with my girlfriend this past Sunday.

It was amazing. They received over 4000 entries from each of the fifty states. Needless to say, the 51 finalists were outstanding. The works here are the first prize winner Sam and the Perfect World by
David Lenz and My Father in the Living Room of Our 10th House by James Seward.

The National Potrait Gallery and Smithsonian American Art Museum just reopened as The Reynolds Center.

Check it out.