Jackson Library

"That a 57-year-old divorced Greek immigrant would become the reigning queen of online political chat might come as a surprise to the legions of teens and twentysomethings who frequent forums on the web known as blogs. But that's exactly what Arianna Huffington did." So begins 'The Blogger', the cover story for Worth magazine December 2007. Two years ago Huffington launched a blog for political wonks; it is now one of the hottest sites on the Internet. Her Huffington Post, founded in 2005, attracts 3.5 million visitors daily. Read this fascinating interview with Huffington, at the Jackson Library periodicals display.

Japan has launched a program called “Innovation 25” with the goal to innovate Japan with an extensive long term plan extending to 2025 and beyond. In the September 17 issue of Red Herring dedicated to Japan, an article entitled Country Makeover take a look at the many initiatives the country is taking to make this work from dramatically increasing the number of foreign students at Japanese Universities to increasing investment in science and technology. The goal is to create a second wave of opening up Japan to the world.
Tomorrow evening (Thursday December 6) 4:15-5:30pm Kiyoshi Kurokawa, Science Advisor to the Cabinet of Japan will be at Stanford, as part of the Center for East Asian Studies, to speak on the topic Innovate Japan! among the topics discussed will be “Innovation 25”.

Chairman of the House Appropriations committee David Obey explains why he’s not going to approve the President's request for an additional $46 billion for the war in Iraq. Obey plans to slow down the supplemental funding until the country gets a better idea of what the future spending for the war is going to look like. Listen to this interview on NPR

The CNN -YouTube Democratic Presidential Debate on July 24 offered a new political twist – real people asking real questions. Fancy that! Except maybe the talking snowman -- but he did make a good point. The candidates were often able to hide behind their scripted answers, but you did get to see them squirm.

The debate covered the usual topics by the usual suspects. There was the occasional humor, as when two purported hillbilly-types from Tennessee came on screen. But when serious questions are asked by ordinary people, you see the passion and pain in their faces. A father who lost a son in Iraq wondered if he would lose another. Two women asked “ Would you allow us to be married …to each other?” Two brothers submitted a video of themselves feeding a parent with Alzheimer’s. This debate was different -- and I hope the difference is that some of those faces will haunt those candidates enough to make a change.