Strobe Talbott

to speak today

CHAPEL HILL — Strobe Talbott, president of the Brookings Institution and former deputy secretary of state under President Clinton, will discuss “Obama and the World,” an analysis of the international challenges the president is facing, how he’s coping with them and what it all means for the future of American security and foreign policy, today at UNC.

Talbott is an expert on U.S. foreign policy, with specialties on Europe, Russia, South Asia and nuclear arms control. He was founding director of the Yale Center for the Study of Globalization and assumed the presidency of the Brookings Institution in July 2002. The institution, based in Washington, D.C., is a nonprofit organization that conducts research and makes recommendations on public policy.

His talk will be at 5:30 p.m. in the FedEx Global Education Center Nelson Mandela Auditorium.

Humorist Blount

to appear Oct. 6

CHAPEL HILL — Humorist, writer and National Public Radio panelist Roy Blount Jr., who has 21 books to his credit, will deliver the free annual Thomas Wolfe Lecture at 7:30 p.m. Oct. 6 at in Carroll Hall auditorium on the UNC campus.

Blount is a panelist on the National Public Radio show “Wait, Wait ... Don’t Tell Me.” He wrote the screenplay for “Larger than Life,” featuring Bill Murray.

Blount is a former writer for The Atlanta Journal and Sports Illustrated.

For more information, call (919) 962-4283.

UNC joins

Futurity online

CHAPEL HILL — UNC is one of 35 research universities involved in a new Web project called Futurity (www.futurity.org), which was launched earlier this month.

The online research channel covers the latest discoveries in science, health, the environment and more, with stories understandable to general audiences.

To see UNC stories on Futurity, visit: http://futurity.org/tag/university-of-north-carolina-at-chapel-hill/

Contact Dan Way at dway@heraldsun.com or (919) 918-1035.