A Collection of Links from the Road

Here's what I'm reading in the Des Moines, Chicago and La Guardia airports:

Kidney Swaps Seen as Way To Ease Donor Shortage
There are nearly 75,000 patients in the U.S. awaiting kidney transplants. To move more people off the wait list, surgeons are trying to expand a complex new practice, kidney-swapping, that has helped a small but growing number of people like Robyn Brandon.

Networking Your Way To a Triple-Word Score Scrabble addict Rachel Zylstra is playing five games at once. For her move in one of them, she's just plunked down a seven-letter bingo, the word "SAINTED," for 74 points. The game is taking place over the Internet against her friend Gretchen. "She's a good friend," says Ms. Zylstra, a 27-year-old executive assistant in New York. "I know she can handle it."

Why Silicon Valley Is Rethinking The Cubicle Office
Intel Corp. is often credited, or blamed, for popularizing the office cubicle. Now it is joining some prominent Silicon Valley peers in reconsidering the concept.
The chip maker, emulating experiments at companies such as Cisco Systems Inc. and Hewlett-Packard Co., is planning tests in three U.S. locations of new office layouts. Plans include tables where several users can plop down with laptop computers, multiworker desks, and lounge-like settings with armchairs -- all a far cry from the mazelike grid of tall gray cubicles in most Intel buildings.

Pfizer-Doctors Web Pact May Get Looks
A new Pfizer Inc. partnership with a doctors' Web site could attract fresh attention to how drug companies interact with physicians.
The New York pharmaceuticals maker will announce a partnership today with Sermo Inc., a social-networking site for licensed physicians. Facing financial pressures as some of its best-selling products lose patent protection, Pfizer is looking for more-efficient ways to reach the doctors who prescribe its medicines. Under the arrangement, Pfizer-affiliated doctors will be able to talk candidly with the site's 31,000 members, potentially giving the company insights into prescribing patterns and a way to show doctors data on its drugs.

P.&G., the Pioneer of Mixing Soap and Drama, Adds a Web Installment

In a City Far, Far Away From Hollywood, the YouTube Tales of a Lesser Vader

Unilever Shuns Stereotypes of Women (Unless Talking to Men)

Video Chat Service Aims to Follow YouTube’s Path

LinkedIn Plans to Open Up in a Closed Sort of Way

Google Gives Some Hints About Social Network Plan

Celebrities Off Guard? ‘TMZ’ Is a Hit

1,200 Marketers Can’t Be Wrong: The Future Is in Consumer Behavior

Clear the Bookshelf and Fill It Up Again, All Online