I don’t think anyone is unaware of what cancer is and how serious it is. Awareness is one thing: how one deals with it is different matter. As this video from the Lance Armstrong Foundation shows, sometimes the way one deals with it, unfortunately, is with silence, or by stigmatizing those affected by the disease:

One way to combat this is to know more about cancer. There are lots of ways to do this. One way that I do this is by following people who are dealing with the disease and blogging about it. One such person is a fabulous actor, Lisa Ray, who has starred in one of my favourite films, “Water”. Her blog is here. Another person is a lovely woman from the U.K. named Tracey who is dealing with two cancers.

I am sure there are many others writing about their experiences with cancer (Tracey has links to a number of people on her blog). I encourage you, if you want to know more about the disease and how people are dealing with it, to read their blogs.

Thank you.

It’s fashion week in NYC this week. But really, New York is 52 weeks of fashion every year. If you are heading there, there are (seemingly) endless places to go. However, if you are smart/frugal, consider the places mentioned in this blog post from the Frugal Traveler Blog – NYTimes.com: Bargains Abound for the Frugal Fashionista. You can find yourself some great clothes at a great price.

Be smart. Look smart.

Great collection: fits somewhere in between casual and dressy, at least on the men’s wear side of it. I especially like this. See the slide show here.

P.S. You can see all of their collections here. The image on the left is from the Fall-Winter 2009 set.

According to this UNICEF Press centre, global child mortality continues to drop:

UNICEF today released new figures that show the rate of deaths of children under five years of age continued to decline in 2008.

The data shows a 28 per cent decline in the under-five mortality rate, from 90 deaths per 1000 live births in 1990, to 65 deaths per 1000 live births in 2008. According to these estimates, the absolute number of child deaths in 2008 declined to an estimated 8.8 million from 12.5 million in 1990, the base line year for the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

Lots of good progress. It goes without saying that there is still much more to be done. Still, good news should never be sniffed at.

The whole press release is worth reading.

If you are like me, you like a cafe that allows you to hookup to the Internet while you have a nice cup of joe. BlogTO let’s you know the best places to go in the city with this great article featuring The Best Cafes for Free WiFi in Toronto. And even if you feel like leaving your laptop at home and taking a book or a newspaper with you instead, you would do well to check out some of these fine cafes.

Consider checking out the site: Haven in Paris. I can’t promise you they will be cheap, but they do have a range of sizes and locations, and even if you don’t do much more than window shop, it can be fun to do. I mean, you could do alot worse than have an apartment at Place des Vosges to hang out. Some rentals can be as short as a week. Go see. (Oh, there’s also places in Provence and Tuscany too.)

(Found via the blog Cup of Jo).

According to FlowingData:

“…a comprehensive view of flight delays, but here’s the part I found most interesting. This is a view of flight cancellations. The more red a rectangle is, the higher the percentage of cancellations

So following 9/11 there were actually fewer cancellations (and delays). My best bet is that this was because there were so few people flying after that event.”

Thanks to the contrarian blog for this.

…is this video of How Not to Demolish a Building from Gizmodo:

Whatever screw ups and mishaps you may be responsible for this week, at least you can say: I didn’t do anything THIS bad.

James Fallows picks apart a recent interview with Paul Wolfowitz. Wolfowitz was never formally prosecuted for his role in the U.S. invasion of Iraq, but like Robert McNamara, he will  not be able to escape it. It will haunt him, just like McNamara’s role in Vietnam haunted him. This is as it should be. As consequences go, it is actually minor, though the actors in both cases many not see it that way.

Fallows is always good. See Festival of updates #5: Wolfowitz and Iraq – James Fallows for more on this story.

It is a woman, but it’s not Nancy Pelosi. Instead, it’s likely this person:

Olympia Jean Snowe, Representative from Maine.

Kudos to the Venice Film Festival (La Biennale di Venezia) for recognizing John Lasseter and the directors of Disney•Pixar –Brad Bird, Peter Docter, Andrew Stanton, and Lee Unkrich– with the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement of the 66th Venice International Film Festival. Better still, they had George Lucas present the award. It’s a lifetime achievement award, and given the great work consistently produced by Disney•Pixar over the year’s, it is well deserved.

I also like because it supports in some part what I wrote about Brad Bird being an auteur.

In reviewing the new ‘Melrose Place’, Gina Bellafante writes:

“Much of the acting is marginally improved since the days when Andrew Shue, playing the doltish writer Billy Campbell, approached each scene as if the script demanded that he look like a 6-year-old told that he wasn’t getting a puppy for his birthday.”

One way to do it would be to keep a simple board like this!

There’s alot to be said for having a short todo list and getting two things done well. (Ok, I might aim for three, but still…:))

I have a small blackboard like this (from IKEA, I think). I might have to paint it up like this. (Cheapo white boards from dollar stores like Dollarama would also work).

There’s alot of great stuff over at decor addict. Check it out.

Great song, great video.

From the most excellent blog, oliveloaf design.

Would you like to eat at the best restaurant in the world? Good luck! The author of this, Dinner at El Bulli: The Greatest Restaurant in the World – The Amateur Gourmet, spent 5 years trying to get a reservation. According to this, 2 million people each year try to get one of the few thousand openings. Your chances are “slim” and “none”.

Before you give up on wondering what a 30 course meal is like at El Bulli, click on the link above. It is chock full of video, photos and other details on the meal savoured there. Even if you aren’t a gourmet or a gourmand, you’ll enjoy it.

Here’s one of the many videos of the experience. Bon appetit!

Nat “King” Cole
Hoagy Carmichael
“Stardust”

In a time of e-books and other digital technology, it’s important not to lose sight of the greatness of books themselves. I came across this article by Alice Hoffman (here at NPR.org) that reminded me of that greatness, and the greatness of this book in particular. I read it ages ago, but the story and the language and imagery stuck with me and likely you too, if you have read it. If you haven’t, I recommend you add it to your short list.

See Alice Hoffman’s article for her story and an exerpt from it.

If you crave Polaroid film stock, but thought it was impossible to get it anymore, than Urban Outfitters is the site you want to check out. Specifically, this section of their site: UrbanOutfitters.com > Apartment  What’s New > Impossible Project. If you want some, I can’t promise you it will be cheap and plentiful and easy, but it will be possible. But, as they used to say: supplies are limited so act now.

For anyone like myself who has lots of recipes and struggles to deal with them, consider this: Organizing Your Recipes: 8 Foolproof Methods. As for me, I am going towards getting rid of all but my favourite cookbooks. All the magazines and ho-hum cookbooks have been ripped up and the good recipes extracted. The remaining cookbooks are those that inspire me in one way or another.

P.S. Consider getting your recipes directly from sites like Real Simple or Marthastewart.com or Chatelaine or Canadian Living.

Deep Fried Butter?! I don’t know what else to say.

(Found via andrewSullivan.com)

Based on the post in the Official Gmail Blog on today’s Gmail issue, it appears that Google had a classic case of cascading server failure. Lots of companies with high web traffic volumes will have essentially many servers doing essentially the same thing in parallel. For example, rather than have 1 server trying to handle 100% of the traffic, they will have 5 servers each handling 20% of the traffic. You do this for a number of reasons, with one of the key reasons being that 1 server can’t handle 100% of the traffic. However, 5 can. The question is, can 4 handle it? Or 3? Or 2? IT people — like myself — ask themselves this, and try to manage it so that even if 1 or more servers go down, the remaining servers can handle the load. (For example, I once read of a stock exchange that ran their multiple servers at no more than 20% capacity, just to handle variable load or failure.)

The cascading server failure problem occurs when the servers suffer the simultaneous problem of failing servers and too much load. If you have 5 servers available and very busy and one goes down, the other servers can get too busy and also go down. Eventually they all can fall like dominoes. And getting them up is difficult because no sooner do you get one up than it can get swamped with traffic and go down again. Not much fun for the IT people, or the poor frustrated users.

You may think it is a cafe or a coffee shop such as Starbucks. True, they are plentiful, but as the blog 52Books points out, they might be less than clean and have other off putting problems.  52Books goes on to recommend bookstores, which I think is a fine suggestion. But for the best place to find a washroom, I recommend big hotels. Big hotels will often have easy to access washrooms in the lobby, and they will be well kept up and well supplied. Futhermore, there are always lots of people coming and going in hotels, making it difficult for anyone working there to pay you more than a second glance. Simply pause, look at your watch or mobile device as if you are expecting someone, then make your way to the nearby lavatory. And if you feel guilty about taking advantages of their services, you can always go have an overpriced drink at their bar. There, now you are square. 🙂

…consider taking a look at this: How to setup a telecommuting Mac for $300. Even PC users or advanced Mac users could get some worthwhile tips.

One of my favourite hotels is Morgans. It’s in a great location in NYC. When I stayed there, I was on a floor that had an exit onto the roof that provided a superb view of the Empire State Building. That alone was worth staying there.

The other reason to stay there is the wonderful decor due to the great Andrée Putman. Here’s an example of her work at the hotel:

And according to Dezeen blog, a version of the chair you see on the left is now available in aluminum:

Striking! Years ago I had a chance to buy an Andrée Putman rug and passed on it. I still regret that. Perhaps you and I should be smart and get this chair. Go to the Dezeen link for more info.

I am always very impressed when people can transform very ordinary objects into something anything but ordinary. This amazing sculpture is made with the common staple. Fantastic.

From one of my favourite blogs, oliveloaf design. Go see her blog for more photos and details.

I mostly agree with the approach put forward by the teacher in this article in the NYTimes (The Future of Reading – ‘Reading Workshop’ Approach Lets Students Pick the Books).

I think the important thing is to first get kids to read, and then secondly get them to read books that teach them how to read better. Reading stale classics from the Canon will discourage reading. But kids should also be challenged to read more than what they like.

In High School I read and loved all of the Shakespeare plays that I had to read. But the list of those plays that we read was very short. And if I had decided to read King Lear instead of Romeo and Juliet, or Henry V instead of Julius Caesar, would that have been a bad thing? Same with poetry, short stories, etc.

With the coming of digital books and other means of accessing the classics, it would be better if kids had more freedom to pick what they want to read, with the teachers providing them guidance as to what they are reading and why it is relevant.

I am off on vacation, but I wanted to post this series of very smart ideas in one smart video. Kudos to Element Skateboards for running with this. Check it out.

Plus it has a great track over it (from the Postal Service).

YouTube – Claim it!

From 52Books

I had rather be shut up in a very modest cottage with my books, my family and a few old friends, dining on simple bacon, and letting the world roll on as it liked, than to occupy the most splendid post, which any human power can give.
— Thomas Jefferson

Sounds vaguely ominous, yes? In fact, it is a title of a great looking book, containing essays and articles by writers talking about dining solo.

Here’s what the author says:

“Dinner alone is one of life’s pleasures. Certainly cooking for oneself reveals man at his weirdest. People lie when you ask them what they eat when they are alone. A salad, they tell you. But when you persist, they confess to peanut butter and bacon sandwiches deep fried and eaten with hot sauce, or spaghetti with butter and grape jam.” —Laurie Colwin, “Alone in the Kitchen with an Eggplant”

Sounds like the perfect thing to eat with eggplant parmigiana. 🙂 Actually I confess that the thing I like to make when I am eating alone is steak frites with a rich glass of red wine, followed by some good dark chocolate. Or an omelet and a green salad and a glass of white.

Found at the great blog, A CUP OF JO

And now for something completely different! According to BBC NEWS:

The Royal Opera House is to stage an opera created through social networking site Twitter. Members of the public have been invited to submit their “tweets” online – messages of up to 140 characters – which will form the new libretto.

The first scene of the as-yet-untitled work has already been completed and features a man who has been kidnapped by a group of birds.

Now for some, this is a great way of engaging more people in Opera (assuming the libretto comes out well). For others, they may say: well, the libretto doesn’t count for much anyway! Either way you look at it, it promises to be a novel and innovative way of connecting opera with…well, everyone.

Go to the BBC article for more info.

James Fallows has alot of good things to say about many things, including the recent debate about health care in the U.S. In this post,
On why I can’t get in to see my doctor, he quotes a writer from Nova Scotia, Parker Donham, who wrote:

I live in a tiny Nova Scotia community, about 45 minutes from the nearest small city. When I want to see my “good-but-normal” doctor (the same one I’ve had for 35 years), I don’t make an appointment. I call and ask what hours he will be in the office that day, then show up at a time convenient for me. I bring The Atlantic to read for the 10-20 minutes it takes to see him.

As we watch Americans debate the future of their health care system, it’s galling for Canadians to hear opponents of reform demonize our single-payer system with discredited tales of health care denied. I am in good health, and enjoy excellent medical care. A close relative whose serious congenital heart condition leads to frequent, sometimes grave emergencies and occasional surgical interventions likewise receives superb care.

I emphasized the line in bold because I feel exactly the same way. After a recent accident, I phoned up to see my doctor (who is in Toronto) for a checkup. It wasn’t an emergency, so it took me a few days to see her. (Somedays I have gotten in on the same day, but she is busy, so it usually takes me a day or two. And by the way, I have a harder time getting a haircut appointment or a plumber.) I had to get an X-ray and an ultrasound. I literally walked out the door to the office building 1 minute away and put my name down for both. They said the wait would be an hour. I went and had lunch and then got it done. I was called by the nurse with the results in two days. Total cost for all this care: $0.

Can our health care system be better? Certainly. I don’t think there is a country in the world that would not say that. But the nonsense and propaganda I read about our health care system by some American writers amounts to lying. I don’t see how that helps the debate in the U.S. or the health of Americans.

On many blogs, people are having great fun mocking this criticism of How House Bill Runs Over Grandma:

People such as scientist Stephen Hawking wouldn’t have a chance in the U.K., where the National Health Service would say the life of this brilliant man, because of his physical handicaps, is essentially worthless.

What is ridiculous about this comment is that Hawking lives in the U.K. Perhaps the N.H.S. just has caught up with him yet? 🙂

There are lots of valid ways to criticize the upcoming House Bill in terms of costs, conflicts of interest, quality of service, etc. But if you include stuff like this, the rest of your arguments quickly lose their credibility. And of course, the whole “death panel” concept is equally ridiculous.

Good fiction is open to interpretation. Great fiction inspires interpretation.

I did not think obituaries could also inspire such things, until I read this one in the  NYTimes.com. It starts:

Marie-Dennett McDill loved the Carlyle Hotel.

She stayed there whenever she was in New York, and adored the regular entertainers like Bobby Short and Eartha Kitt at the Café Carlyle, and the pianist Loston Harris in the lively Bemelmans Bar. She loved the uniformed elevator men and bellmen and the family of longtime staff. She loved that Central Park was only a short block away.

So when Mrs. McDill, who grew up in society in Washington and was enjoying an outdoors life in South Woodstock, Vt., learned she had terminal cancer this summer, her family immediately booked her a suite on the eighth floor for an open-ended stay, but one they sadly knew would not be open-ended enough.

The entire obituary reads like a synopsis of an great fictional story, but it is true. I’ve read it a number of times, and everytime that I have, I have reflected upon it in different ways.

Try reading it, then reading again some time later.