David Byrne has a good review of Errol Morris’s new film, Standard Operating Procedure. (David Byrne Journal: 05.03.2008: Objective Truth)

I initially was disappointed by the film, since I thought it was going to be shattering in what it revealed. I hoped it would be like Morris’s “The Thin Blue Line”. As it was, the story it told through the voices of those involved didn’t appear new or interesting. However, as I thought about it afterwards, and I considered some of the ideas that Morris has been writing about, I began to think that that wasn’t the only point of the documentary. For the documentary is also a study of the question: what does photography signify? It is a question that Morris doesn’t answer so much as explore. It’s the study of this question that makes the film interesting, more so than the (hi)story of American involvement in Abu Ghraib.

It reminded me of the reviews I read about W.G. Sebald’s book, “On the Natural History of Destruction”. Many of the harshest critics of the book appeared to take it to task solely as a work of history. But Sebald is first and foremost an artist, and in this work, as in his fiction, he is exploring ideas and themes almost independent to the (hi)story at hand. To criticize him solely on his historical qualities is to miss much of the point of the writing. Likewise, to watch Morris’s film and criticize him as if he is Seymour Hersh is to also miss much of the point of his filmmaking.

Ok, The wiggles may not fit in with your idea of “artists”, but regardless of your tastes, this is a cool idea. See:

iGoogle Artist Themes

P.S. Of course, some folks may not be too crazy about Jeff Koons either, but hey, there is something for everyone!

Have you sometimes received an email and it seems to come from XXX@donotreply.com? Want to know what happens to the email if you DO reply? Simple. Check out:Do Not Reply

(Thanks Jean-Francois for the tip!)

If you paste a long URL into twitter.com AND you don’t exceed 140
characters, twitter will automatically turn the URL into a tinyurl.

More good stuff from twitter!

The globeandmail.com: has a list of what they think are the Top 10 BlackBerry apps

I think it is a good list, although not all apps will run on all BlackBerries (as I have discovered, having an older one)

Kevin Kelly , in his blog, The Technium talks about how spammers are using artificial intelligence to defeat captcha, the hard-to-read letters you are sometimes asked to fill in when doing an online transaction.

Harder captchas could be devised, but then people may not be able to solve them, either. You could show three pictures of flowers and have someone type in “Flowers”, but eventually computers will recognize this. Even subtler forms of recognition will eventually be defeated.

We may end up with the V-K machines in Blade Runner after all.

Not if I read this article properly. If Bernanke is still urging such big measures, he must believe it is going to get worse. But read it and decide for yourself: Bernanke: Foreclosure woes require action - May. 5, 2008

I could tell you what twistori is, but it is quick and best if you just go check it out. (Especially you twitter fans).

It’s fascinating, and one more example of why twitter rocks!

Over at (kottke.org) is a really good review on Jared Diamond’s New Yorker article on vengeance. What struck me was this quote from Vengeance:

“Diamond argues that the New Guineans’ everyday open embrace of such a strong emotion is not necessarily a bad thing and that modern society can circumvent people’s need for vengeance, resulting in feelings of dissatisfaction that can create unbalanced emotional lives.”

At first I read that and for a moment thought: yes, vengeance could be good. Then the moment passed. I thought of Shakespeare instead. I thought of Romeo and Juliet and how much unhappiness and suffering come about as a result of vengeance. Vengeance appears to be seeking justice, but its partiality prevents it from being seen that way. What is necessary is for justice to occur, not vengeance. Vengeance is the justice of the gutter. Our culture and civilization is about getting above that, for everyone’s sake. Even the sake of those who, like the relative of Jared Diamond, lost so much.

There’s a great story on cnn.com today about the effects and use of Twitter. From the lede:

“James Karl Buck helped free himself from an Egyptian jail with a one-word blog post from his cell phone.

Buck, a graduate student from the University of California-Berkeley, was in Mahalla, Egypt, covering an anti-government protest when he and his translator Mohammed Maree were arrested April 10.

On his way to the police station, Buck took out his cell phone and sent a message to his friends and contacts using the micro-blogging site Twitter.

The message only had one word. “Arrested.”

Within seconds, colleagues in the United States and his blogger-friends in Egypt — the same ones who had taught him the tool only a week earlier — were alerted he was being held.”

It’s a great story, and a great come back to those who think Twitter is about nothing more than endless versions of “whazzup”.

I found this out from the Vespa Canada this is a good thing all around.

I’ve been reading a number of recent news stories about recent problems with food –and especially, rice –shortages. This lead me to this fascinating article in the New York Times that gave a new (to me) perspective on the problem. I didn’t realize how much rice that Australia produces. To give you an idea, there is a story about:

“The Deniliquin mill, the largest rice mill in the Southern Hemisphere, once processed enough grain to meet the needs of 20 million people around the world. But six long years of drought have taken a toll, reducing Australia’s rice crop by 98 percent and leading to the mothballing of the mill last December.”

And drought is only one factor in the loss of rice. See this article for much more: A Drought in Australia, a Global Shortage of Rice

Well worth reading.

A rather scathing article on Slate regarding Microsoft’s positioning on XP and Vista. I don’t necessarily agree with it, but it IS funny. See:

http://www.slate.com/id/2189162/#suicidemarketing

Sadly, it still exists. From the globeandmail.com:

“Former slave Adidjatou Mani Koraou, 24, poses with her baby Friday outside a court in Niamey. In a historic first, she is suing the government of Niger for failing to implement its anti-slavery laws, rekindling a row between the authorities, who deny the practice still exists, and activists, who say that Niger is home to some 800,000 slaves. Ms. Koraou was sold to a Tuareg slave trader when she was 12 for the equivalent of $543 Canadian and then sold to be the fifth wife of a traditional healer in central Niger, said Ilguilas Weila, who heads Timidria, Niger’s only local anti-slavery group.”

Over at the Health blog of the New York Times is a write up of an “art exhibit” in London showing Faces of Life and Death.

It is both remarkable and common. While the faces and the comments of the people are not unexpected, the overall effect of the photographs and the quotations are. You have to see it.

The photo is from Walter Schels/Wellcome Collection and shows one woman just before and just after she dies.

The nytimes.com has a great article on exercise, heart rates, and heart rate monitors here: The Flutter Over Heart Rate - New York Times

I am glad I read it. I have always been embarrassed about my heart rate when I run, because it gets really high. The formula of 220 - my age gives me too low a rate. In marathons I like to get it around 180, and in 5-10K I can crank it up to 200! But I always thought people would see it and say: whoa, that’s crazy! Or you are out of shape. So I kept it a secret! But when I read the article, I thought: ok, there is a wide range of possible rates, then.

I have a HRM from Polar, it’s basic (like the one above), but that’s enough to help keep me focused. If I feel tired, I will tend to slow down, and sometimes I don’t want to. The HRM helps there. But in a race, it does the opposite: it helps me keep my pace. It’s too easy to go too fast in a marathon or a half. The HRM monitor keeps me in control.

Well at lest two things. One, there is the greatness of that band singing that song. And two, for those of you who miss 45s and those of you who have never seen a 45, here is your chance!

Actually, seeing 45s made me think that the process of manually playing music has an effect on how you listen to music. Then, finding music, selecting it, putting it on, putting it away…all those steps to listen to a song made you think about what yo uwere going to listen to. There was deliberation. Now there are so many songs at my fingertips, and I can easily pull them up…it changes the way I listen to music.

Rich people are often the first to know!

Complex Blog » Gucci & LV’s Designer Gas Masks

(Tip from andrew sullivan)

I came across this trailer and was struck by how slow paced and detailed it was compared to trailers nowadays. It’s hard to imagine this was a good trailer, but it must have been, to help lure people into the theatre.

I also thought: where is the voice of the GUY who does all the trailers now? It does seem like most movie trailers now are done by the same person. It is certainly a different voice than this one.

Check out the original trailer for Star Wars and see. (Also, notice the title font for Star Wars is different).

While these guidelines are for Yahoo! Mail, they can be useful for anyone. Highly recommended

I received an unintentionally funny email today, telling me I won a two million euro prize. Woo hoo! I thought. Actually, the first thing I thought was: this is an obvious scam. But how do such scams work? Well, if you go here:

How Do Scams Work (Fake lottery winning notifications, Advance Fee Frauds, Etc)

you will get a better idea.

(Thanks to my friend Norbert for the tip)

over at lifehacker.com is a post on Free classical music downloads

What is good is not just the posting, but all the other URLs mentioned. There are lots of sources there! Well worth a look

There is a fascinating article on how Chile Tried to Find the Right Software for Socialism in the New York Times. Quote:

“When military forces loyal to Gen. Augusto Pinochet staged a coup here in September 1973, they made a surprising discovery. Salvador Allende’s Socialist government had quietly embarked on a novel experiment to manage Chile’s economy using a clunky mainframe computer and a network of telex machines.  The project, called Cybersyn, was the brainchild of A. Stafford Beer, a visionary Briton who employed his “cybernetic” concepts to help Mr. Allende find an alternative to the planned economies of Cuba and the Soviet Union. After the coup it became the subject of intense military scrutiny.”

I have always been a big fan of Beer since I read his great book Designing Freedom: Stafford Beer (chapters.indigo.ca)
which was part of the Massey Lectures. It’s a very small book, based on the lectures he gave, but it is packed with thought provoking ideas that may just be coming into play with Web 2.0 and social networking technology. Perhaps we need to go back and look at his work again.

See the article at the nytimes.com. Then get his book from Indigo…for under $5, no less! (And try the other books in the Massey Lectures series…there is alot of brilliance in a number of small books.)

(Photo: Joao Pina for The New York Times)

I am a big fan of iPods. I have four: the original Shuffle, the new Shuffle, a Nano, and the Touch. I love them all, but I especially love the new Touch. While it has alot of great features, what has surprised me is how useful the wireless feature is. I expected only to be able to use this at home, but I have found that there is free wireless almost everywhere, if you go looking for it. And the Touch makes it easy to find. As a result, I am able to surf the web via Safari, watch YouTube videos, and check my email from many places. It’s great, especially since in Canada, you cannot officially get an iPhone. I am wondering if I need it!

Find out more about this here: Apple - iPod touch - Features - Wireless

The nytimes.com has a great article on how it is possible to create great meals from low cost ingredients. It’s a great story, and there is a slide show with links to rhe recipe and the article.

The slide show is here: Dining on a Dime fromThe New York Times in the Dining & Wine section

The article is here: How to Survive in New York on 99 Cents

And here’s the recipe for what is pictured above, namely Almond Nougat Parfait With Orange Coulis

(Photo: Evan Sung for The New York Times)

Over at Food Down the Road is a great Seasonal Food Chart that highlights when certain foods are seasonal in Ontario. I was surprised at how many foods are local and seasonal for longer periods of time than I thought.

If you are interested in the 100 Mile Diet or things like that, you will want to see this chart.

(image of Ontario Apples from www.applejournal.com)

This activity, which has raised an interesting debate in the U.S. — do a web search on “Comcast” — now appears to be in Canada, too, according to the CBC. The CBC itself has an article on it, ISPs limit access to CBC download, users say in which they say:

“One user received a notice that it could take 2½ hours to download, while another was quoted 11 hours. The bottleneck is occurring because ISPs such as Rogers and Bell limit the amount of bandwidth allocated for file-swapping on BitTorrent. The controversial practice, called traffic shaping, is meant to stop illegal downloading through BitTorrent. But it also slows the times on legal downloads such as Canada’s Next Great Prime Minister.”

I expect this to be a much discussed topic all over the world.

The very wise Zen Habits has a great list for anyone who is a parent and who finds life stressful sometimes (or most of the time). Try even some of the things on the list, and based on my experience, you will naturally find yourself become a better parent. For the whole list, and lots of great advice, see 25 Ways to Simplify Your Life with Kids | Zen Habits

You can buy alot of books and magazines on parenting, or you can start with this list. I would go with the list first.

One of the great things about blogging is coming into contact with great people you would never get to meet ordinarily.

I wrote about a piece in the nytimes.com and I credited Andrew M Daddio. He wrote me a nice email back asking if I could include his web address. I will do that, but I would also like to highlight his web site. He has great photographs over there you really should see. So go to www.amdaddio.com and check them out.

The old expression “be careful what you wish for” appears to be coming true for China. It wanted to Olympics and is getting everything that comes with it.

For example at the globeandmail.com is this article on how a Protest disrupts Olympic flame-lighting ceremony:

“Two men carrying the flag of a free-press group ran onto the field of the stadium in Ancient Olympia during Monday’s flame-lighting ceremony for the Beijing Olympics, evading massive security aimed at preventing such disruptions in the wake of China’s crackdown in Tibet.”

This may be just the start.

Alexander Kjerulf has a great blog with lots of great insights and thought provoking postings on how to work. I think this one is long overdue: Top 5 reasons why “The customer is Always Right” is wrong

You can find lots more like this over at his Chief Happiness Officer web site.

Don’t believe me? See this globeandmail.com article: Bacon with benefits

“…Prairie Orchard Farms, a small research and marketing firm in rural Manitoba, has won two prestigious awards for doing just that.”

And people say there is no such thing as progress!

This song is incredibly catchy, but wonderfully smart, too. I have listened to it many times all ready.

You can get it here: Amazon.com: Get Your Head Around It (Cd): MP3 Downloads: Headlights

Thanks to tuneage.com!

Really. You have to see it. (Thanks to Seth Godin)

As someone who from time to time gives demonstrations of technology, I dread something going wrong in front of an audience. So it is nice to see it happens to even the best of us, namely Mr. Jobs. Don’t believe me? Watch this.

If you love tiny houses, then the Tiny House Blog has lots of great information on them.

I have had several discussions with the co-workers on the problems of email. In many cases there is a strong dislike of email. Whenever I think of the problems of email, I think back to before email. I thought this again when I read this article on the nytimes.com. The author of this article, The Office Phone Call Was Music to the Ears in the New York Times says:

“The waning of the office phone call is one of those cultural declines that few people are likely to lament.”

After which, she proceeds to lament it. When I thought of it, I was glad it was gone. I have been using email since the 1983, and for along time I used both. (Now I rarely use my phone.) Communicating via telephone was slow and time wasting. If there was important information, you had to write it down. Until answering machines came along, you often couldn’t even leave a message for someone. Some people were masters of missing your phone call.

Email is much better than this. You can send a message to one or a million people if you want. You can send it any time of the day, and the person will get it