Spreadin' Love

I just returned from dragging Ian around to IKEA (and, yes, the picnic table would NOT fit in the back of the Toyota) and to Fairway for shrimp and spices (a dinner that was supposed to be served ON the picnic table tonight). We're beat, so just some quick links of things buzzing around in the Internets.

Malcolm Gladwell reviews Chris Anderson's Free: The Future of a Radical Price.

Ezra Klein writes, "Last month I sat down with Pollan, who consulted on "Food, Inc.," and Robert Kenner, who directed it. "The way farm policy gets made in this town is within a very tight group of people," Pollan said. "Industry, committees on the Hill, the USDA, and very little input from us."" My inner grad student is shouting,"Hugh Heclo! Iron Triangle!"

New York State politics are in serious mess right now. The Senate can't pass major legislation, so the Mayor lost control over the schools in Manhattan. Ugh. The worse-than-useless NYC Board of Education comes back to life. I have to do a corruption in state capitals post soon. 

One of my listservs is ranting about Twitter. One guy is complaining that he doesn't want to read what people are eating for dinner. He only wants links to research. OK, Boring McBoring. It is mildly annoying that a sociologist isn't interested in people's ordinary lives and that a media expert isn't interested in how people truly use social media.

Comments

[Jacob Christensen]

(and, yes, the picnic table would NOT fit in the back of the Toyota)

Hint: Swedes either drive Volvos or rent a trailer ;-)

[carosgram]

I live in NYS and we have become the picture in the dictionary next to 'disfunctional'. So embarrassing!

[lmc]

I live in NYS (residence) and in CA (school), and honestly, I think it's because people couldn't let CA have all the fun/attention.

Although this might make finally establishing residency in California less of a mental block for me....

[bj]

The free stuff is intriguing. I was at Canon web site the other day (the camera/printer folk), and they have a mind-boggling set of free craft projects there.

Mind boggling, as in paper models of Angkor Wat, available for free, to print out and construct yourself. I would love that business model to work -- for it to be worthwhile for the artists to produce the work, make it available to me for free, and for Canon to pay them. Not sure whether it does. Do the artists work for free? Do they hope that the exposure will result in positive business for them? Does Canon pay the artists? If so, does the business they generate at the site result in greater sales of Canon products?

I'm a dedicated Canon camera purchaser, and the web site does increase the probability that my next printer will be a Canon model, rather than HP (HP also offers paper crafting for free, but it doesn't work as well -- it has bugs on my computer because they've tried to make it more interactive and web based). The success depends on Canon making good printers.

[Amy P]

HP has adorable Chinese Zodiac paper crafts--my husband has done a bunch of them with the kids. Remember, they're not exactly free--you're using your materials to print onto your shiny paper (ideally using HP stuff) and then using your time to make the crafts. So HP is creating goodwill while expending minimal resources.