What Is Art For?

An interesting piece about art, copyright, and fostering innovation....and it mentions Burning Man, Thoreau, and Bruce Cockburn in the same article....Sweet. Enjoy, Beckmania!

What is Art For?

Farmer In Chief

A somewhat lengthy but very interesting article on why revamping the food industry should be at or near the top of the national agenda....It's by Michael Pollan (Omnivore's Dilemma), so it's very well written and quite balanced. The fun part comes when he starts suggesting the First Family manage its own garden on the South Lawn of the White House as a symbolic gesture! Enjoy. Beckmania

Farmer In Chief

Green Tech Capitalism

Great NYT piece on the Kleiner Perkins investments in green technologies....Enjoy. Beckmania.

Capitalism To The Rescue

Reversal of Fortune

Joseph Stieglitz, former head of the World Bank, shares his thoughts on the current financial crisis. Interesting reading.....enjoy! Beckmania

Reversal Of Fortune

Political Lies Don't Matter

A fascinating, if not somewhat depressing, piece regarding the effectiveness of outright lies on the campaign trail. Incredible. Explains a lot though....Enjoy. Beckmania.

Liar's Poker

Making Sense Of It All

Here is a good, easy to read, summary of the absolute insanity that has hit Wall Street in the past few weeks/months. Wowsers.

How Financial Madness Overtook Wall Street

Ambient Awareness

This is a long but fascinating piece on the phenomenon of 'ambient awareness' that tools like Twitter and Facebook's Status and News Feed features provide. At first blush, the thought of hearing about someone's daily minutiae seems inane, but many users attest to the fact that it provides an interesting way to stay up to date with many people in a very low touch way. It's a fascinating new possibility for expanding your 'Dunbar number', and expanding the potential of your weak ties, a well documented source of useful connections.....Enjoy! Beckmania.

Brave New World of Digital Intimacy