The Four Horsemen: Richard Dawkins, Daniel Dennett, Sam Harris, and Christopher Hitchens. Here is the second hour. (Via Justin Blanton.) 
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comments (View)Jerry Brito
Impulsively redesigning since 1999.
Magazine rack at Cuban-owned discount store in Miami. comments (View)
comments (View)Seeing the Future in NPR’s Custom News Podcast
National Public Radio has introduced a nifty little feature that lets you create your own custom podcast of NPR content on topics that interest you. Type in Obama or Madonna or whatever, and you can sign up for a stream of NPR clips that match your keywords that can be downloaded to your computer, smartphone, iPod or Zune. comments (View)
comments (View)At Home with John Cleese. What a delightful human being. comments (View)
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I wonder if Malcolm Gladwell, Thomas Friedman, and Cliff Clavin ever meet to split a case of Heineken and just make shit up for a few hours.
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On the Crispy on the Outside podcast today we talked about not eating. Specifically, we talked to Sam MacDonald, author of the new book, The Urban Hermit: A Memoir, in which he explains how he lost 160 pounds in about a year eating only 800 calories a day. The interesting thing is that Sam never meant to lose weight. He had gotten himself in a financial mess, owed a lot of money, and so he massively cut back on food and beer. Weight loss was an unintended side-benefit of his crazy scheme.
Also on the show is Ray Lehmann, a journalist who does intend to lose weight, but instead might find himself in a financial mess himself. He recently made a $60,000 bet to lose 60 pounds in 90 days. Talk about motivation: If he doesn’t make it, he’ll find himself in the poorhouse. You can track Ray’s progress on his blog or on YouTube.
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List of common misconceptions - Wikipedia
An earthworm does not become two worms when cut in half. George Washington did not have wooden teeth. (Hat tip John Henke.) comments (View)
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Washington’s libertarian activists and think tankers are still trying to wrap their brains around the new reality. Today you can sort them into two rough categories. There are the Bargainers, the ones who believe they can do business with President Barack Obama. And there are the Battlers, the ones who believe Obama can-and should-be impeded while the Republican Party is rebuilt into a genuinely liberty-minded organization.
Open for questions, but answers not so much
The Obama transition team made a big deal about the “Open For Questions” feature on its Change.gov website. Essentially users could submit questions and fellow citizens would vote those questions up or down using a Digg-like mechanism. The top questions would be answered by the team. Real citizen engagement and direct democratic participation yadda yadda.
Today the team released its first round of answers and it leaves a lot to be desired. Here is the fourth most popular question (with 5,376 votes in favor) and the team’s full answer:
Q: “Will you lift the ban on Stem Cell research in your first 100 days in office?” James_M, Nashville, TN
A: President-elect Obama is a strong supporter of Federal funding for responsible stem cell research and he has pledged to reverse President Bush’s restrictions.
Wow. The question was pretty direct, but all they could muster was an artless dodge. Citizen engagement is a two-way street. No amount of wizbang technology is going to manufacture transparency unless both sides are forthcoming. Even if the team didn’t want to commit to anything within the first 100 days, they could have just been honest and said that. “While we can’t promise anything within 100 days because we have other priorities, we believe that…” But no, given an opportunity to show off change, they chose to go old-school.
The one-sentence answer to the top question from users was this: “A: President-elect Obama is not in favor of the legalization of marijuana.” How about treating us like adults and maybe giving us a little context for that position. Given that this is the most requested question on the site, you think they would have given it more attention than a sentence. Unless, of course, they don’t buy into the idea of a wisdom of the crowd, in which case they shouldn’t be bothering with these social media tools.
So, this is all to say that I plan to submit a question of my own in the next round: Are you going to take the “Open for Questions” project seriously and respond to our questions thoughtfully, or are you going to continue to give us short, half-hearted answers?
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“If you have four words on your sign, perhaps you could copy edit them.”—danrothschild comments (View)
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The latest episode of In Conversation, my weekly podcast with Cord Blomquist, was six months in the making. Here it is. We’re also looking for guests on future shows, so drop a comment if you’re interested.
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Lobbying Is Democracy in Action
Great column by Robert Samuelson in today’s Post. I couldn’t agree more with his thoughts on special interests. We are the special interests. Must read.
The only way to eliminate lobbying and special interests is to eliminate government. The more powerful government becomes, the more lobbying there will be. So, paradoxically, Obama’s ambitions for more expansive government will promote special pleading.
comments (View)I recently spoke at the Cato Institute on the topic of online government transparency. This is just my presentation. You can see the other panelists’ presentations and the Q&A session here in (ironically closed and proprietary) RealMedia format. comments (View)
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