Not only does trove have great wallpaper, they also have a nice way of showing it. Check them out here

If you are concerned about this, go this web site.

For more information, click on Canadian Food Inspection Agency – Index of Food Recalls

Or better yet, if you have an RSS feed reader, you can add their feeds by going here and get updates as they occur.

This feed for all Food recalls and allergy alerts is: http://active.inspection.gc.ca/eng/util/newrsse.asp?cid=40

You might think this woman is looking at a portrait of herself

but it is actually a mirror. If you were to stand in front of it, it would resemble you. There’s more on it at the very interesting oliveloaf design blog, including a fascinating video showing how it works.

If you are following the upcoming U.S. presidential elections and you are interested in how it is going to turn out, consider going to this site, FiveThirtyEight.com: Electoral Projections Done Right.

The name comes from the “number of electors in the electoral college” and it has the mission of accumulating and analyzing “polling and political data in way that is informed, accurate and attractive. Most narrowly, to give you the best possible objective assessment of the likely outcome of upcoming elections.”

I’ve seen a number of other sites reference it, and I can see why. It can put lots of numbers at your fingertips. So if you want to join the punditocracy :), or you are trying to cut through all the chatter to get a better sense of how the election will turn out, pay it a visit.

Sometimes greatness in sport is shown with dominance. Usain Bolt and Michael Phelps are examples of that at this year’s Beijing Olympics. Another way to show greatness is dealing with adversity. Paula Radcliffe demonstrated that amply in the women’s mararthon event, though I felt she didn’t get enough credit for that.

Adam van Koeverden also gave a good example of dealing with adversity in bounching back from his “shocking eighth in the 1,000 metres” race to go on and win the silver in the 500 metre race. It must have been difficult to get over the shock of losing like that. But he did, and in the long run, it may make him a greater athlete in the years to come.

So hats off to him. And for more on the story, you can read Christie Blatchford’s article in the globeandmail.com: Van Koeverden rebounds for silver.

Great stuff all ’round.

(Linked photo above from: Shaun Best/Reuters)

No, I don’t know either, but if you check out this: The Diver’s View – Interactive Feature – NYTimes.com, then you will get a better sense.

Thanks to kottke.org for this. Like he said, it’s awesome!

“Meetings are indispensable when you don’t want to do anything.” – John Kenneth Galbraith

Speaking of the Kindle, you can get newspapers delivered to your Kindle wirelessly. Alot of newspapers as delivered this way. See Amazon.com: The Kindle Store for more details.

As for me, I am not sure everyone will want to pay for newspaper delivery when they can browse the sites for free. But there will likely be many readers who will want to read the paper in a way that is different than using a computer. Personally I am betting that eventually computer monitors will be as big as desks or drawing tables and then people will read those.

(We used to tip our delivery boy when I was a kid. I’m not sure if you have to tip your wireless router for delivering it. 🙂 )

Not just for everyone, the Black Card (actually the Centurion Card) is truly a card for the well off (like John McCain and many Hollywood celebs, too). Wikipedia has a run down on it. And of course, there is a blog on it too!

Ok, not really. But this site: Deliver me from Swedish furniture has an interesting concept. For example, this is the Bjernny (type in “bernie” when you go to the site and you will see why.)

People who like IKEA will like the site. And those who are less than excited about IKEA will also like the site!

Christie Blatchford has a thoughtful article — not a blog post –outlining her thoughts on blogging and journalism:

globeandmail.com: I’m not blogging this, mark my words

It’s worth reading, because Blatchford is a good journalist and a good writer. I think her comments on blogging are comparable with comments people used to make about typewriters and computers. There are benefits to traditional ways of writing, but the traditional is being swept away by the new. Conservatives, in the best sense of the word, need to remind people what could be lost, and how important it is to conserve at least the essential goodness of the traditional way of doing things.

Over at the EFF web site is an excellent commentary by Hugh D’Andrade on the Kindle. While some (Steve Jobs, for example) have not put much stock in it, it appears it has traction. Moreover, Hugh makes a good argument for digital books.

I still like books myself, but I find myself increasing trying to have all my media in digital form. While I am not crazy about the Kindle, I think better digital book readers will come along to drive adoption.

I highly recommend this article: What If the Kindle Succeeds? at the Electronic Frontier Foundation website..

(Image from wikipedia)

Interesting. This could be good for HMV as it becomes more of a communications and media company and less of a music company. See this article, reportonbusiness.com: HMV to sell Bell cellphones

Look at Usain Bolt’s expression here:

He is overflowing with emotion. As well he should be!

What I love about the Olympics is obvious from looking at the great slide shows that the nytimes.com puts together. The thing that I love is the human drama of it. The Olympics is packed with it. You see joy, despair, pain, excitement, disappointment, happiness, anger….it’s all there in the faces of the athletes competing. And so much of it. You can’t get that from most other events. But with the Olympics, you get a wealth of that. And that’s just one of the reasons that I think the Olympics is great.

Check out the slide shows at nytimes.com. They are superb. You can find them here

Winner’s Spotlight, Aug. 20 – The New York Times > Sports > Slide Show > Slide 7 of 8

The very fast Roqaya Al-Gassra of Bahrain won her 200 meter heat today.

Photo: Gero Breloer/European Pressphoto Agency and the nytimes.com

Wonderbra, or their ad agency, has an taken a innovative approach to draw attention to their product. It’s this:

It’s a billboard/photograph made of many women of all shapes, sizes, and backgrounds in their…well, the same thing wonderbra sells. 🙂

The same technique could be applied to anything, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see this used for other ads as well.
More details on the campaign can be found here at 3MakeStuff Blog on World’s greatest collage?

If that is the kind of feast that gets you excited, then you want to check out the blog, i heart photograph.

Lots of great artists represented there, and a wide range of work from the whimsical to the very serious.

…see this man:

To be more specific, read/view his blog, The Sartorialist. It’s superb.

When I saw these photographs, I was impressed by how the artist is able to take basic settings and make them capture my imagination. A clothes closet like this, for example. I had one of these, and I found it dreary. Augusta Wood makes it a work of art. See here for more great work.

gadgettastic.com has a rundown of Victorinox’s latest addition. Ofcourse there is Swiss Army knife with a USB! They’ve been around since the 128 MB days! 🙂

Fortune has a nice assortment of interesting applications you can run on your iPhone, Blackberry…even for devices that use Google’s Android. Some are pretty far advanced (the BioWallet), and others are very practical (the one for Zipcar, depicted above). There will be a flood of these applications coming out. For now, here are 10 10 cool tools for your mobile phone to get you going.

The blog Unclutterer has lots of great advice on simplifying and improving your life. I like this tip on dealing with the problem of:

Work life creeping into personal life? Try a battery-only weekend

This is especially good advice in the summer. If you do feel the need to work on the weekend, going battery-only will help you focus on getting the essentials done. And once they are done, go for a walk, see a movie, talk with friends, read that stack of books piling up on the shelf/next to your bed.

P.S. That goes for Blackberries and iPhones too. 🙂

For those of you excited about the Beijing Olympics and are interested in having a recording of the highlights of it, NBC tells me that they are “offering a DVD of the Olympics Opening Ceremonies and it is available for purchase on their website www.nbcdvd.com. Other DVDs available include “2008 Beijing General Highlight DVD” and “Michael Phelps: Greatest Olympic Champion…The Inside Story”.

NBC continues to impress me with its innovation, hardwork and success. And not just me: see this article in the NYTimes.com: A Surprise Winner at the Olympic Games in Beijing – NBC

I would argue that it shouldn’t come as a surprise. It’s a good article nonetheless.

This is a great blog for anyone trying to lose or maintain their weight while working full-time in an office (always a challenge). While it is focused on office workers, it has lots of value for people regardless of where they work. See:
The Office Diet

What is RedBubble about? I took this from the “About” page:

• a place to share the illustrations you create at night,
• a forum to seek feedback on the story you’re writing,
• a creative antidote to the day job,
• lunch break entertainment,
• a gallery to inspire,
• a marketplace to buy and sell unique works of art and,
• a place to be inspired by like–minded people.

What I also like is their approach to artistry. They

believe that everyone’s an artist. We think creative expression and communication should be encouraged and celebrated.

If you are an established artist, RedBubble looks like a great place to get people to see and even buy your work. And if you are not established — heck, if you are not sure you are an artist, but often feel the need to create — then RedBubble could be the place to allow you to make that happen.

So go on, click this button!

Nicholas Kristof has an interesting article on how he tried to applied to stage a protest during the Olympic Games in Beijing. I am not sure that Chinese citizens would have as easy a go of it as he did, although he acknowledges this.

I’d like to believe what he says in the end, that China will ” become more open and less repressive — not because of the government’s kindness but because of the people’s insistence.” This will be good for the people of China and China itself.

For more on the story, see this.

(flickr photo courtest of Thomas Hawk’s photostream)

Over at NBC‘s Olympics site, they have the U.S. listed ahead of China (65 vs 61) medals.

While here, at this Chinese news site they have China listed ahead of the U.S. with 35 vs 19 gold medals.

In response to the article TIME has on Why Africa Is Still Starving, a number of questions came to mind:

1) Is Africa still starving? All of Africa, or just a part of it? The article mentions Ethiopia, Somalia and Kenya. While these are signifigant parts of Africa, they are not all of Africa, and I don’t think all of Africa is starving. A more accurate title might have been “Why Northeast Africa is Still Starving”.

2) Is aid from the west a key contributor to the problem? Reading the article, it seems that way to me. However, this article on the Economist.com indicates something else: “too many people eking out a living on too little land, depending on rains that can never be relied on”. At least in Ethiopia. Somalia and Kenya are not mentioned in the Economist article.

3) Are all three countries having the same problems? And are Uganda or the Sudan — nearby neighbors — having the same problems?

It is a good article. It is good to search for and read other sources and to think critically about the situation, too.

(Map linked to is on economist.com’s web site and is associated with the article mentioned)

As can be seen by their headline, Spray-On Condoms: Still a Hard Sell, they clearly do!

P.S. I expect to see this product coming to a Ben Stiller/Adam Sandler very soon.

P.S.S. Nice packaging! 🙂

Jewish World Watch is involved in a number of humanitarian efforts. These are all important, but one that caught my attention was the Solar Cooker Project. By using a very simply designed technology (the solar cooker, pictured above) not only are the women of Darfur can reduce their need for firewood, but they are also less likely to suffer violence as they leave the camp.

I hope the violence ends soon. I also hope this technology continues to be used. It seems like a wise use of “green” technology.

I would encourage you to go to the site here and find out more information as well as how you can help.

P.S. I found out about it on the TIME web site. The video they use is very similar to the one at the JWW site, but for some reason, the voiceover is different. The video at TIME is good, but the JWW site has much more information.

While Michael Phelps is achieving great things at the Beijing Olympics, so is Milorad Cavic. Winning a silver medal in an Olympic event is a great thing in itself. Almost beating Phelps at his prime is even greater.

However, what also impresses me about Cavic is his sportsmanship. It is a virtue too undervalued. It can be associated with losing, and is sometimes faked. However, I think Cavic is a winner who showed true, great sportsmanship. His reponse to Phelps just barely beating him is very impressive. To see what I mean, go to the official site of Milorad Cavic and see.

He’s a great guy. May he continue to do well. And may other emulate him both for his athletic abilities and for his sportsmanship

Over at the excellent tumblelog, What I learned today, is a list of the 14 Ways Starbucks Has Tried to Revitalize its Brand, including:

1. Better coffee
2. Worse coffee (it’s true!)
…
7. Ditch(ing) the music label
…
14.myStackbucksIdea

It’s a nice, succinct list of all the things Starbucks is doing to revitalize. Good for them

While many of the videos from the 80s seem…well, so 80s.. this one has always seemed timeless to me. It’s quite a simple video, but the water and the motion and the minimal setting make it captivating. I also wondered what it must have been like to be so cold — see their breath — and yet so soaking wet.

Great band, great name, great song. Enjoy Heaven (how could you not?):

CNN has striking footage of Turkish journalists being shot while recently covering the outbreak of war in Georgia.

Turkish journalists attacked in Georgia – CNN.com

It’s a terrible reminder of how dangerous war coverage is for journalists. It also never fails to amaze me how quickly and awfully things can turn out in such places.

If you like LOL Cats, you will like LOL Bush. And even if you have NEVER heard of LOL Cats, check out:

LOL Bush: The president at the Olympics

Thanks to guardian.co.uk