Why is YouTube great? Because you can find Little Richard & Tom Jones rippin’ up Rip it up here:

And if that isn’t great enough, here they are doing Good Golly Miss Molly

Little Richard is working!!!

Awesome.

And in this article, Telling Friends Where You Are (or Not) in the NYTimes.com, you can get a good introduction to what they are and who the major players are. You should expect to see alot of development in this area: here’s your chance, if you are not already familiar with them, to get an idea what the fuss is all about.

If you have seen photos of the civil rights battles in the U.S. in the 1960s, then you likely know the photographs of Charles Moore. The Lens Blog at the NYTimes.com has a write up of him and some of his photos, but what you really want to do is go here. At that site you will see many of the powerful photographs that he took of that era. That site is called Powerful Days, but it could equally be called Powerful Photographs.

Recognize this?

This is just one of Moore’s photos. You want to see the rest.

I thought “The Green Zone” was terrifically enjoyable. So I am somewhat surprised to see it getting mixed reviews and doing poorly at the box office. It does try to be a political thriller, but if you go for the politics, you will be disappointed. If you go for the thrills, you are in for a treat.

It doesn’t help that the director, Paul Greengrass, directed both the Bourne films as well as “United 93”. It is much closer to the Bourne films, and everything from the use of Matt Damon to, well, this trailer, YouTube – ‘Green Zone’ Trailer, reinforces that. If you liked the Bourne films, or action/adventure films generally, then see the film. If you want the story of the early days of the Iraq war, then you likely want something else.

It’s interesting that a few reviews and commentary referred to The Hurt Locker as being a more realistic portrayal than this. I’ve read at a number of sites that The Hurt Locker isn’t very realistic either. What The Hurt Locker does do well, though, is portray the situation in Iraq using almost a documentary approach to filmmaking. Plus The Hurt Locker removals all the politics from the war. Green Zone, on the other hand, is filmed with more of an action film approach to moving making, and it is very political. Perhaps that’s why it comes across as less realistic. I believe neither film is realistic, but both of them are entertaining and worth seeing.

In Green Zone the press, Special Forces and the government are the antagonists, while the CIA and the military are the protagonists. I thought that was interesting.

Anyway, here’s the trailer for Green Zone.

A.O. Scott from the NYTimes.com has a great review of ‘Aliens’ and what makes it great. I think it is a great film in itself, and if you loved “Avatar”, you should watch or rewatch ‘Aliens’ to see how the two play off of each other. For that matter, watching this clip, I was reminded how much the cinematography reminded me of “Blade Runner”. That in itself is interesting, since the director of that film, Ridley Scott,  also directed the first “Alien”.

In this part of the world it is going to be cool and rainy these next few weeks. Perfect weather to watch all three of those films!

Are you having problems with your older dishwasher? Mine was not getting my dishes clean, and I think it has to do with the soap cup not opening properly. I decided to switch to a brand the comes as a solid square and contains three types of detergent (that I am guessing dissolves at various times), and since then my dishes have come out sparkingly clean.

P.S. I’ve blogged about dishwashers before, but I was hesitant to do so again, thinking: what a boring topic. Then I saw that this was a trending topic:  When a Cap Full of Soap Is Not a Good Thing in the NYTimes.com. Clearly people love stories about dishwashers! I decided to add my two cents. 🙂

I wrote before about how influential you are: more so than I think you suspect. This post, The Spread of Goodness from The Frontal Cortex, supportsd my belief with the backing of some experiments.

I’d argue that you don’t just influence via social networks, though: I think one’s presence and appearance and how you interact with strangers can be just as influential. (I especially thought this yesterday when I saw a car go out of it’s not to splash me with a big puddle on the road. That as very considerate and I appreciated the driver’s effort.)

This is a great set of portraits of artists associated with / from the 1980s. I like this one of John Lurie, but there is everyone here from Cindy Sherman to Robert Mapplethorpe to Jean-Michel Basquiat.

This chart is getting alot of publicity on blogs that I read:

But as this post points out, Why a [U.S.] Big Mac costs less than a salad : Contrarian, it is “chart junk”. Specifically, why is a pyramid used? At best it should be a bar. But using a pyramid, you can overemphasize subsidies to meat and dairy and visually distort the actual subsidy. That isn’t to deny that meat and daily don’t get alot of subsidies. But there should be no need to change the chart to represent that.

I would also argue that a salad in Burger King — where I eat salads — does not cost more than a Whopper (roughly equivalent to a Big Mac). So I don’t know if the comparison holds. A salad in a restaurant other than a fast food restaurant will cost more than a Big Mac. But that has to do with alot more than meat and dairy subsidies.

That all said, I think it would be ideal if people ate more vegetables.

This: Featured Recipe: Spare Ribs With Olives, Lemon and Rosemary – Bitten Blog – NYTimes.com, is delicious. It seems quintessentially Mediterranean to me, with lemons, olives, and garlic. It’s simple to make, but the result is sophisticated. It’s the kind of recipe that you make over and over again.

I agree with Mark Bittman: you want to use good olives, as well as good olive oil. When I made it, I used a combination of the black oil-cured olives and the big and fat calamata olives.  Use your favourite, as long as they are fresh and tasty. I used dried rosemary — rosemary dries well — and I went with a teaspoon of chili flakes (use more if you like more heat). I also used water instead of wine: the flavour from the lemon is quite strong and most wines may be overpowered. That said, a wine that would compliment the lemon could provide a very rich sauce. I drank a richer, golden chardonnay with this dish to counterbalance the acid from the lemon. A good reisling or a Soave or even a fuller rose might go well with it. For that matter, a really good cold glass of water would be a perfect accompaniment.

Another thing I did was substitute some of the ribs with smaller pieces of chicken. I am glad I did this. The combination of chicken and ribs on my plate made the dish even better. I had chicken legs, but I think the next time I would go with chicken thighs (because they are smaller and richer in flavour). The chicken is thoroughly infused with the flavour of the sauce: the left over chicken would make a superb sandwich or a great addition to a salad with a lemon or creamy dressing. Plus I think the chicken adds to the wonderful sauce that results. If you wanted a real stew, you could poach some fish or shellfish towards the end of cooking and end up with a paella-like dish. But part of the charm of this dish is its simplicity, so less may be more.

I also took some of the liquid, added some water, and used it as the base for some couscous that I had along side the meat. I would recommend you make the couscous on the dry side: there was lots of sauce at the end of cooking the ribs and chicken, and a drier couscous could soak that up. That said, I think a nice bowl of rice or even bread would be a great way to use up all that lemony good sauce.

Needless to say, I recommend you make this. Another great thing about this recipe is that come spring or fall, or anytime in between, this will be a good dish to prepare and enjoy.

(Great shot of olives from jurvetson’s photostream on flickr.com).

Regardless of who the leading official is and what the scandal is, one way of a leader spinning it in their favour is to take a number of approaches at the same time. One approach is to aggressive attack the accusers, to go on the offensive, rather than be on the defensive. Another approach is to dilute your accusers attack by attempting to minimize it with big numbers and a broader perspective. (As in,  “it is terrible that that incident occurred, but we dealt with thousands of other incidents successfully”).

That was what I thought when I read this: Vatican Sees Campaign Against the Pope in the NYTimes.com

I also thought this: parties that engage in such activities are usually in bigger trouble than we know (yet).

Now, that does not mean the Pope is in trouble. But it is starting to look like it.

She & Him give “You Really Got a Hold on Me” a soft indie/C&W spin on the classic, “You Really Got a Hold on Me” here:

And I must say I like this version. That said, I like this version best. 🙂

Smokey can do no wrong.

As media becomes increasingly digital, it’s becomes very difficult to have scarcity when it comes to artistic creations. And without that scarcity, the amount creators and producers can charge for their work is limited. Which leads me to the story of this play in the NYTimes.com: ‘The Demons’ – 12-Hour Play, and Endless Bragging Rights. Notice how the play is discribed:

“Every theater season has its must-must-must-see show, the snob hit that separates the true sophisticates (at least in their own minds) from the cultural chaff. New York will have a doozy of a contender this July: a 12-hour production of a grim Dostoyevsky novel that will be performed only twice, in Italian (with English supertitles), in a warehouse on Governors Island, reachable only after a ferry trip and a 20-minute walk.”

The lack of shows, the length of the play, the location of the play, the language of the play: all of it points to a degree of scarcity. This is not the Metropolitan Opera, broadcasting to the world and over big screens in public places. This is a play that will be very difficult to get to and get through. That is part of it’s charm, at least for a certain audience. And for that, they will be able to charge top dollar, I believe.

Then consider this: Yum Printable Home Cooked Meal Gift Coupon by empapers on Etsy.  It looks like this:

You just print it and give it to the person who could use a well cooked meal (e.g., students, people moving or renovating, folks having a difficult time, parents of new borns, and every day people you love to spend time with!). Of course you have to spend a few more bucks on the food, but hey, even a simple meal given freely and generously should be appreciated by good family and friends. All you needed before was the invite…now you have it.

What do you get if you use the work of Vermeer as the basis for a photo essay set in Vietnam? If you go to jan banning‘s web site, you will see. Banning has taken the composition and other aspects of famous Vermeer painting and set his Vietnamese subject matter to it. I recommend you go see the site for that, but really, he has some other great photo essays as well, including one on Bureaucrats and another on the survivors of force labour on the Burma and Sumatra railways.

All the photographs are well done, and the essays are strong. I’d include a sample here, but it’s all locked down in Flash.

Easy! Throw the output of my Yahoo Pipe: Toronto Grocery Deals from Toronto on the Cheap into your RSS reader. The URL is http://pipes.yahoo.com/bernie_michalik/weeklytorontogrocerydeals and is extracted from the feed of the excellent web site, Toronto on the Cheap.

From the great blog, Iconic Photos, here is a photo of Adlai Stevenson in the 1950s:

And this one is over 50 years later:

Coincidence?

It seems odd to state that Michelangelo is declining, since it is relative to the ascent of Caravaggio, at least according to this article in the NYTmes.com. It’s also not true that Caravaggio has suddenly come out of nowhere. But it is interesting to see how a certain fatigue has likely set in when it comes to Michelangelo and how likely it is that Caravaggio is the beneficiary of that.

I have always thought it fascinating how the reputation and interest in artists waxes and wanes over time. This is an opportunity to see one develop.

(A photo of one of Caravaggio’s works from Virginia Della Rosa’s photostream on flickr.com)

I like how this story in Advertising Age starts:

“Last week, a client told me that they don’t allow employees to access YouTube at work. “Do your employees carry cellphones?” I asked. The answer was yes, of course. Well then, most of them already have access to YouTube – right in their pockets.”

Very true. And so I would add this additional reason to the five very good reasons listed in the article:

• Providing social networks to employees can be a competitive advantage to employers. You can attractive people more easily if they know you allow employees to use social networks and your employees will spend less time accessing them on things like their cell phones and therefore be more productive.

Check out the article in Advertising Age, especially if you are blocking or considering block social networks at your work location.

This clonal mojave yucca:

According to wikipedia, such plants originate from one single ancestor, so one plant can essentially clone itself and live on and on. (Clonal colonies are fascinating in themselves.)

Rachel Sussman has a portfolio of the oldest living things, such as the yucca pictured here and may other things, including 2000 year old trees and much more. Well worth checking out. (Found via Swiss Miss).

That President Obama has appointed Edward Tufte “to the independent panel that advises the Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board (i.e., the team of inspectors general who track how stimulus funds are spent)” may not seem like a big deal. But if they listen to him, it could make a big difference in how organizations communicate in general. That may seem like hyperbole, but many companies and organizations looked at how Obama ran his election campaign in 2008 and the tools and technologies and approaches he used, and made that a model for how they themselves should use these things. With any luck, the work Tufte does could be another model for people to use. Here’s hoping!

For more on this, see this good post: How Legendary Information Designer Edward Tufte Can Help Obama Govern from The Gaggle Blog at Newsweek.com.

There are a few artists: Bonnie Raitt, Joni Mitchell, Elvis Costello, among others, who can write and sing love songs that someone other than teens can associate with. There’s a complexity to their music and the relationships that they sing about. I think of them as love songs for grownups. There’s nothing wrong with love songs aimed at teens: it’s just not something I can relate to. But songs like this, Sheryl Crow’ s My Favorite Mistake, I can relate to. Here it is:

Can be seen here:

It’s an automated dashboard displayed on a Sumsung 460UXN-2 for the team at Panic to glance at for the latest and greatest info on their work and things related to it (like transit information!). This post describes all the information on the screen, as well as how they went about building it. Anyone who works on IT projects should consider building one of these.

Two good things:

1. a very substantial write up of Joanna Newsom in the NYTimes.com
2. a number of tracks of her music, including “Sprout and the Bean”

I am a big believer in the Couch Potato investment approach, and I highly recommend it everyone who finds money a) useful to have b) boring to think about. Now there is an ethical investment option. You can find out more about both here: The Ethical Couch Potato « Canadian Couch Potato.

If you want to aggressively manage your investments, then this is not for you. For everyone else, I highly recommend it.

It happens to the best of people, like John C. Dvorak.

If it does, don’t panic. Go to twitter, click on “Settings” on the top right of the page and look for “Password”. Go in there and change your password to something more difficult. Also, see “Connections”? Go in there and revoke any applications you don’t recognize or want.

You can find more tips here and here.

According to the site, English Russia,

In the end of 2009 the Uzbekistan Agency on Press and Information has initiated a criminal proceeding against a talented documentarian photographer and the first camerawoman in the country – Umida Akhmedova. She was charged with the “slander and outrage against the Uzbek people” in her photos. She is threatened to be sentenced to 2-3 years of correctional works or to 6 months imprisonment.

This is a shame: her photographs appear to be anything but slanderous and outrageous. Here’s a great shot of an old woman

and another of a young girl

There’s more at the English Russia site (as well as all sorts of fascinating stories from that side of the world).

If you liked the great job that was done in reanimating a scene from the Matrix, then you will love this video, The Force Unleashed. Equally well done.

As a side note, there is a site Bricks in Motion that looks to bring together Lego animators. Here’s hoping the result is more great legomation.

This article, Using a three-folder system to keep e-mail under control in Unclutterer is a good approach to simplying the time it takes to process email. I use this approach and have been for some time. Before I used to try and file my email in different folders, but it just took too much time and it didn’t help me much in locating lost emails. Having less folders is better.

However, before you file it, ask yourself: can I delete this? If you can, do it. That will save you even more time, now and in the future.

I think this explains itself: Israeli Raid Canceled After Facebook Leak from The Lede Blog on NYTimes.com.

Awesome. The author of this blog, in an attempt to better understand women, decided to watch 30 Chick Flicks in 30 Days and write about the experiment. As he says:

“How far would you go to understand the opposite sex?

That question has helped to fuel the idea behind this site, “30 Chick Flicks in 30 Days: One Guy’s Exploration of Romance Through Movies Loved by Women”.

First, you should know that I’m that “guy” exploring these films. Second, my name is Nick. I’m a husband, and have been for seven years. Third, no one put me up to this. And fourth, I’m not some professional film critic. I live in a small town in southern Oklahoma. I work in communications.

This little experiment will begin Friday, Jan. 15, 2010, and conclude on Saturday, Feb. 13, 2010—the day before Valentine’s Day. That’s 30-straight days; 30-straight chick flicks.”

I think there could be a book or movie here. Certainly it’s a good looking blog. Go see. C’mon….you know you are intrigued.  🙂

There’s a good article here talking about how JP Morgan thinks China has a huge labor problem. The article is worth reading, but a chart says a thousand words, so here it is:

Clearly labour costs are rising greatly. But is it a problem? That depends. It’s not like Chinese wages were high to begin with: if you are a Chinese worker, this is not a “problem” at all, at least in the short term. In the longer term, though, it will create some interesting dynamics both in China and outside when it comes to labour and capital worldwide.

Found at Andrew Sullivan’s site.

This is the teux deux web site: What deux yeux have teux deux teuxday? It’s associated with Swiss Miss, as you can see.

Now check out this site: TeuxDeux Clone

Can you see much of a difference (other than the word “Clone” appearing?). Nope, me either. But if you hadn’t heard of the original, you might overlook the clone part (“clone” being a fancy way of saying “rip-off”, I guess.) I’d like to think there is a good reason for ripping off the original site, but I can’t think of one right now.

Sad.

Now if you think the site is a great idea, then go to the original.

In this Funny or Die.com video (made by Ron Howard, no less), we see Will Ferrell, Chevy Chase, Ron Howard, Jim Carrey, Fred Armisen, Darrell Hammond, Dan Aykroyd, and Dana Carvey team up in one video, all playing the U.S. Presidents they did so well. It’s like a Beatles reunion! Well, not quite, but it is still remarkable (and funny, too). It’s for a good cause, but even the most rapacious of bankers will enjoy this video.

Great stuff.

There are all kinds of great thing you can get at 20×200, include great art for $20. Check it out. (Found via Swiss Miss).

It could end up with bad things being downloaded and run on your Windows PC. See Lifehacker if you want the details. In general, if a web site asks you to do something unusual, pass on it until you do some investigation.

With so many coffee shops offering cappuccinos and other old world coffees, it’s hard to imagine that once only places like Seb’s Cappuccino would have been selling them. The great thing is that places like Seb’s still exist and still offer great cappuccinos, according to BlogTO. So head over and enjoy. (The canolis look amazing too).