Often times (too often) work is only about work. Work work work work work! 🙂 It might seem like a good idea to short sighted bosses, but it’s likely that almost all of your staff will get burned out, and certainly all of your staff will not perform their best. Breaks from work, even small ones, are good. Breaks that make you smile and enjoy yourself are even better.

This is a nice example of such a break here:

I wondered if Obama and his sports gear in the White House were an affectation, a prop for photographers. But I think, instead, that he uses them as tools to shake up and lighten up the office, so his people will work at their best. Smart boss.

See more such images here. From the Official White House Photostream’s photostream on flickr.com.

Over the past year, I have had to get a new passport, a new driver’s licence, and mail a parcel.  In each case I have had to deal with public servants. And in each case, I have had the expectation that the service would be slow and disorganized. What I have found instead is the opposite, with each office being highly organized and fast. The driver’s license took about 10 minutes, with most of that me filling out a form. The passport took less than 30 minutes. For the parcel, I arrived at the post office just before 8 a.m., and at 8, the employee opened the door and dispatched my parcel in a few minutes.

Just now I phoned about getting a new Ontario health card. It took a few minutes to get someone to speak to, but when they did talk to me, they were informed, polite, provided me with everything I needed to know, and then booked an appointment at the office at a time of my choosing so that I can be in and out in a few minutes.

There are many public servants in Ontario as well as Ottawa. I am sure you can find a few bad ones, just like you can at any organization. However, despite expecting the opposite, most of the public servants I have been working with lately have been great to work with. 

YouTube: Persepolis

I mean, it’s comfortable and all, but no doubt after a few days, the guests will start having nightmares about being a Happy Meal and say their goodbyes. 🙂

the mogg blogg: Oh No You Didn’t!

This is Laleh Seddigh. When you think of Iranian women, you likely think: race car drivers, yes? 🙂 No, I didn’t either. That’s why you should check out this blog post at The Daily Dish By Andrew Sullivan. He has the lowdown on Laleh Seddigh, for starters. Saying “she’s cool” is an understatement. And if you like that,  he also has a number of posts titled “Outing Iran” whereby he talks about aspects of Iran that get past our Western stereotypes of Iran and what it means to be an Iranian. Well worth reading.

I found a LOLCats photo that perfectly explains Morgan Stanley’s recent moves (see blog post below this one). Simply replace “Bugsy” with “Morgan Stanley” and it all makes sense…

Image from LOLcats ‘n’ Funny Pictures of Cats – I Can Has Cheezburger?

That’s what Bloomberg.com says they are going to do. Why they are able to do this after the recent months is beyond me. Perhaps someone can explain why it isn’t criminally insane. Someone needs to look into this now.

In the meantime, I think this just about captures it:

(Image from icanhascheezburger.com/)

For most people, this IBM press release from the IBM Press room – 2009-06-30 IBM Research and European Union Provide Software Developers with Performance Gains and Faster Time-To-Market – United States that states that…

“IBM (NYSE: IBM) today announced the public availability of Milepost GCC, the world’s first open source machine learning compiler. The compiler intelligently optimizes applications, translating directly into shorter software development times and bigger performance gains.”

…would be something that would provoke yawns or shrugs.

Yet, it could make a big impact on alot of things you do on a computer:

“For example, when a company wants to develop a new mobile phone, it normally takes application developers many months to get their software running at an acceptable level of performance. Milepost GCC can reduce the amount of time it takes to reach that level by a factor of 10.”

Sometimes it is the boring yet important changes that occur that have a big impact. Not only is the technology speeding up development of new technology — which affects us all — but it is being distributed in a way that many people can get access to it. Good stuff!

N.B. I personally find it very exciting, but that’s me! 🙂 Also, I work for IBM, but I think this would be viewed as important regardless of where you work.

By Bing. Bing sings it so well. (He looks great in that sharp double breasted number, too)

One of my favourite songs.

YouTube – Bing Crosby – Moonlight Becomes You

One of the results of the current garbage strike in Toronto is people stating that the strike shows you how much garbage we needlessly produce. Now it may sound like wordplay, but consumers rarely “produce” garbage. Consumers do throw out garbage. And if you consider that they fill up a bag, then that is a form of production (albeit a very weak one).

The problem with that is it gets companies off the hook, and I think that’s wrong. Really, the ones producing garbage are companies. Companies that sell their products with poor packaging choices cause the production of garbage. I would prefer as little, if any, packaging for the goods I purchase. And of the packaging I do get, why can’t I get it in a form I can recycle? That’s simple: companies don’t want to lose a competitive advantage with what they consider inferior packaging. And there are few penalties for them to produce goods this way. Likewise for the companies that distribute these products.

If a grocer sells me individual fruit and I use a plastic bag to carry them home and then throw away the bag, I am producing garbage. If a shoe store sells me shoes in a recyclable box and I throw it in the trash, I am producing garbage. But for alot of goods, I don’t have that choice. I could not buy them. A better option would be have as little packaging as possible, and of the packaging I do have,  I should be able to reuse or recycle it. 

Cities & The Dead

What makes Argia different from other cities is that it has earth instead of air. The streets are completely filled with dirt, clay packs the rooms to the ceiling, on every stair another stairway is set in negative, over the roofs of the houses hang layers of rocky terrain like skies with clouds. We do not know if the inhabitants can move about the city, widening the worm tunnels and the crevices where roots twist: the dampness destroys people’s bodies, and they have scant strength; everyone is better off remaining still, prone; anyway, it is dark.

From up here, nothing of Argia can be sen; some say “It’s down below there,” and we can only believe them. The place is deserted. At night, putting your ear to the ground, you can sometimes hear a door slam.

The news has been relatively subdued coming out of Iran. But things are not over. This article, Leading Clerics Defy Ayatollah on Disputed Iran Election in NYTimes.com, shows that while the conflict may not be as dramatic in the streets, it is playing out elsewhere.

….what do ads like this say?

Over at the site  Retro Comedy are more such ads that show how our views and values have changed over time.

See Retro Comedy: The 15 Creepiest Vintage Ads Of All Time,

This recipes has coffee AND bacon in it. And smoked cheese! It’s practically nature’s most perfect food! Ok ok…but it is still one delicious looking burger.  Plus, you could use that rub for lots of things besides burgers.  For all the details, see Coffee-Rubbed Cheeseburgers with Texas Barbecue Sauce Photo at Epicurious.com.

And check out epicurious.com in general. It has alot of really good recipes that manage to be fairly easy but with good combinations of flavous.

Really! There is a sensor of some sort in Beijing that is measuring the quality of the air in that city and broadcasting the information via Twitter. (BeijingAir (BeijingAir) on Twitter)

In some ways, this is a set back from a webcam. But in other ways, it is better, because now someone could take this data and do some analysis of it over time, or do a mashup with it.

I expect we’ll see more things like this soon.

Canada is famous for its comedians, and Rick Moranis and Dave Thomas as well as the rest of the SCTV crew are up there with the best. One of the bits they used to do on SCTV was portray these two “Canadians”, Bob and Doug McKenzie. in a segment called “The Great White North”. According to wikipedia:

“The Great White North” (originally known as “Kanadian Korner”) was a panel show that played upon Canadian stereotypes. Bob and Doug, two dimwitted beer-swilling brothers wearing heavy winter clothing and toques, would comment on various elements of Canadian life and culture, frequently employing the interjection “Eh?” and derisively calling each other a “hoser.” Among the topics discussed were snow routes, the Canadian-built robot arm on the Space Shuttle, the inappropriateness of bedtime stories about dog fights, flat tires, and “why there aren’t enough parking spaces at take-out doughnut shops.”

The sketch was conceived when SCTV moved to the CBC television network. Each episode to be broadcast on that network was two minutes longer than those syndicated to the United States. The CBC network heads asked the show’s producers to add specifically and identifiably Canadian content for those two minutes. Rick Moranis and Dave Thomas thought that this was a ridiculous request, since the show had been taped in Canada, with a mostly Canadian cast and crew, for two years. The request inspired them to create a parody that would incorporate every aspect of the humorous stereotype of Canadians.

The segments were videotaped at the end of a day’s shooting, with just Thomas and Moranis and a single camera operator. The sketches were for the most part improvised on the set, and after doing several such ad-libbed bits, they would then select the best ones for use on the program.

The whole “CBC/Canadian content” request is a very Canadian thing, too. 🙂 But in a way, I’m glad: the result was some very good comedy.

For folks who have never seen this, here’s a taste of the show:

Beauty, eh?

You may think it’s silly, but according to Gizmodo, this baby can reach speeds of 45 mph! Not bad for a shopping cart! Sure, the suspension is lacking (nonexistent), and the centre of gravity is high, but hey, these are details. Go check out this blog post to see a video of this roadster in action. It’s cool.

Gizmodo – MIT Students Build a Speedy Go-Kart Out of a Shopping Cart – Lolriokart

The Couch brand is everywhere (no doubt alot of that counterfeit) and looks like it is making forays into a younger market with this Poppy line. Lots of glam, causal bags and shoes that will no doubt be a big hit. I expect to see these cropping up near Abercrombie & Fitch stores as well as appearing in Coach stores generally. For more on this, see Coach – Poppy

Anyone around the age of 25 might be interested in this blog post: 25 And Over from the blog Tomato Nation. It has lots of practical advice on what you should leave behind. Not all of this applies to all 25 year olds, of course: some of you might be insulted that someone presumes that this applies to you (for example, Learn to walk in heels or Drinking until you throw up is no longer properly a point of pride). Other things likely will apply to most people at that age (e.g. Take care of yourself or Know How). It’s a good article, and worth a read.

However, I would like to offer some looking forward advice and perspective. You may not know this, but you are entering (or in) a time of your life when you have the most independence and freedom you will have, ever. You are healthier and stronger than anyone a generation later than you is. You have financial independence. You have no dependents. You can take care of yourself. You can do practically anything you want to do, anytime you want.

Sure, you have your troubles. And sure, you could have more money. And for some of you, some of those things may not be true. But for alot of you, they are. And if they are, I would encourage you to take advantage of this time. It will be shorter than you think. Enjoy it while you can.

(Flickr image from clevercupcakes’ photostream)

Warning: if you love fish, don’t read this article on the NYTimes.com site while hungry. The thought of it will have you rushing out for fish.

Even with all that butter, a fish poached like this will still be relatively lean. Not to mention delicious. And better still, it is simple to prepare and simple to clean up afterwards.

The other thing interesting about this article is that is clearly proves that the way to a woman’s heart is through her stomach. 🙂

Andrew Sullivan has the full speech that Obama gave today to mark the 40th anniversary of Stonewall. While it is a very good speech, and it shows you the longer term perspective of Obama, I thought this passage was great and it reminds me of what Martin Luther King used to complain about:

“It’s not for me to tell you to be patient, any more than it was for others to counsel patience to African Americans who were petitioning for equal rights a half century ago.”

…it depends on where in the world you are. Certainly in many parts of the world it is. But not the only one. Check out this World Map of Social Networks from  Vincos Blog

As you can see, in other parts of the world like Brazil and China and India (very big places all), Facebook is secondary to other players.

Incidentally, I came across this map/blog via the blog The Daily Dish | By Andrew Sullivan, who had a link to this post World Map of Social Network Dominance on FlowingData that ended up linking to this blog.

When I think of technology and how it affects my life, my thoughts tend to go to the higher end stuff. But to note something Paul Krugman ponts out here on his blog (Bar mitvah – Paul Krugman Blog – NYTimes.com), it’s very likely the low end stuff that makes the most of a difference in our lives. After all, we take these technologies and others — fridges, canned and frozen food, paper — for granted, but it is the stuff we would be lost without if we didn’t have it. I would gladly take my Amana fridge over my Blackberry anyday.

The Sony Walkman is 30 years old. I still recall seeing my first Walkman. I was amazed at how good the sound quality was and yet how small it was. It was revolutionary to me.

There was another revolution, too. A social one. There was alot of talk at the time about how people were tuning out the world even as they were moving through it. It was not seen as a positive development.

All that has changed now, and how this technology is perceived now is very different than it was back then. To see how different, I recommend reading this article on the BBC web site. They asked a 13 year old to give up his iPod for a Walkman and to report back his experiences. It’s a good read: BBC NEWS | UK | Magazine | Giving up my iPod for a Walkman

According to the WSJ.com,

“The Iranian regime has developed, with the assistance of European telecommunications companies, one of the world’s most sophisticated mechanisms for controlling and censoring the Internet, allowing it to examine the content of individual online communications on a massive scale.

Interviews with technology experts in Iran and outside the country say Iranian efforts at monitoring Internet information go well beyond blocking access to Web sites or severing Internet connections.

Instead, in confronting the political turmoil that has consumed the country this past week, the Iranian government appears to be engaging in a practice often called deep packet inspection, which enables authorities to not only block communication but to monitor it to gather information about individuals, as well as alter it for disinformation purposes, according to these experts.

The monitoring capability was provided, at least in part, by a joint venture of Siemens AG, the German conglomerate, and Nokia Corp., the Finnish cellphone company, in the second half of 2008, Ben Roome, a spokesman for the joint venture, confirmed.”

This is signifigant beyond the Iran. As all our communications become digital, it becomes possible for everything we do to be tracked and monitored by any government. And that is possible because all communications on the Internet goes through centralized hubs at major ISPs.

We need to have communications as distributed as possible. We need a new Internet.

In the meantime, check out: Iran’s Web Spying Aided By Western Technology – WSJ.com

I am an instant fan of this song from the Noisettes.

The video and the band has such great style, too. As I was listening to it (and looking at the Karmann Ghia car), I thought: this reminds me of girl groups of the 50s and 60s. If you are not familiar with them, check out the Ronettes, the Shangri-las and others — including my favourites, Martha and the Vandellas — in this medley here:

The 1970s are popping up alot this week, it seems. Besides MJ and Farrah, there is this film clip from the new Ice Age movie (Ice Age 3: Dawn of the Dinosaurs) that features the hit classic “You’ll Never Find Another Love Like Mine” from the great Lou Rawls.

When I was growing up in the 70s, there was a morning radio show that I swear played this song every morning before school for…I dunno….months, at least. (Along with an advertisement for chainsaws, so now, when I recall going to school, I think of Lou Rawls and chainsaws).  That aside, it IS a great song. And if you want to see it done by Mr. Rawls himself, it’s here:

Very 70s — the song is from 1976 — but Lou Rawls is smooth in any decade.

Of the many things being written about Michael Jackson, this one caught my attention. According to this CrunchGear post:

“some of the equipment he used was so creative as to warrant a patent”

If you go here, Michael Jackson, king of pop and.. inventor?, you can get the details, including a link to the patent (with his name on it). Also,  you can see an embedded video with showing the patent in action. Very cool.

I learned about popular culture in the 1970s. I hadn’t thought of it too much until this week. Too much of 70s culture was bad, and shows like “That 70s Show” reminded and reinforced that for me. I was very glad when the 70s pop culture gave way to 80s pop culture.

But with the passing of Michael Jackson and Farrah Fawcett, and the release of new tapes from Richard Nixon, it all came back again this week. I recalled having a T shirt with Farrah Fawcett on it when I was a kid. (Hey, so did everyone else! 🙂 ) And of course I had seen the Jackson 5 many times on TV.

I pulled up some videos of the Jackson 5 on YouTube and found this:

It may seem strange and funny, but since colour TV was still fairly new back then, and special effect were pretty limited (Star Trek wasn’t just phony looking because of budgetary reasons), this may have been seen as pretty cutting edge. And Carol Burnett and other variety shows — and there were lots back then — would likely have had big budgets.

Whatever you think of all that, one thing I can’t help but notice is that Michael Jackson has always been a great dancer. Great performer, period. As were the Jackson 5. When all is said and done, and all the trappings of the 70s are put aside, they were great.

And if you are hankering for more 70s goodness after that, here are the Jackson 5 on Cher’s show, doing a medley of their hits. (Medleys were HUGE on variety shows.) For this, the only special effect is those tuxedoes.

How hard is it to write a novel? I suspect it is difficult, but this blog post, Why New Novelists Are Kinda Old, or, Hey, Publishing is Slow shows why it is really difficult to write a novel at all, never mind a good one. (Found via a tweet from Tim O’Reilly)

Reading this, I can’t help but think of what is one of my favourite Monty Python’s sketches: Novel Writing with Thomas Hardy. It is just so wonderfully absurd.

An exerpt from my favourite book, Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino:

Trading Cities 4

In Ersilia, to establish the relationships that sustain the city’s life, the inhabitants stretch strings from the corners of the houses, white or black or gray or black-and-white according to whether they mark a relationdhip of blood, of trade, authority, agency. When the strings become so numerous that you can no longer pass among them, the inhabitants leave: the houses are dismantled; only the strings and their supports remain.

From a mountainside, camping with their household goods, Ersilia’s refugees look at the labyrinth of taut strings and poles that rise in the plain. That is the city of Ersilia still, and they are nothing.

They rebuild Ersilia elsewhere. They weave a similar pattern of strings which they would like to be more complex and at the same time more regular than the other. Then they abandon it and take themselves and their houses still farther away.

Thus, when traveling in the territory of Ersilia, you come upon the ruins of abandoned cities, without the walls which do not last, without the bones of the dead which the wind rolls away: spiderwebs of intricate relationships seeking a form.

The protests against the elections in Iran are occurring in many places and many ways. One way protesters in Iran are trying to get their messages out to the world is via the Internet, while those against the protesters are trying to shut this down. To bypass this, Iranians are using proxy servers around the world. Where around the world? Well…everywhere. The good folks at the Renesys Blog have put together this great post (The Proxy Fight for Iranian Democracy) that not only explains how this works, but gives you visualizations (such as the one I am linked to above) showing where Iranians are going to communicate. It’s a great article, although it helps to be a “techie” to appreciate it.

It’s visualizations like this that remind me that, while we live in the visible world, there is an invisible world of computer networks and radio waves and  air traffic paths and other such constructs that we are only vaguely aware of and yet we are often highly dependent upon.

No one does remakes like the Muppets. And who better to sing “Yellow” by Coldplay than Beaker! Enjoy.

More tapes with the “thoughts” of Richard Nixon have been released. (Tapes Reveal Nixon’s View of Abortion – NYTimes.com) Including this astonishing quote:

“There are times when an abortion is necessary. I know that. When you have a black and a white,” he told an aide, before adding: “Or a rape.”

There is extensive coverage of Iran over at this site: The Field: Al Giordano Reports the United States
But one thing that caught my eye is this cartoon, which is very true:

Roger Ebert really really really dislikes Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. Which is bad for him, since he had to sit through it. But good for us, because we get to read a wonderfully scathing review of the film! Go read it: it’s fun!

As for me, I am going to be taking my seven year old, and he will likely he will love it. That will be good enough for me. And that will good enough for Michael Bay and the folks who made this film, because we will be bringing in alot of money as a result. So don’t feel too bad for people getting reviews like this: they’re doing ok. 🙂

(P.S. Thanks to Victor for pointing this out!)

Don’t you hate it when the church on your street is converted into a place that is catering parties for Oscar de la Renta’s 2009 Resort Wear show? Ok, perhaps that doesn’t happen quite that way to your and your neighborhood, but it has happened to some residents of Park Avenue in Manhattan.

I must say I felt some sympathy for the Park Avenue Residents (who are in a) Fight (with a) Caterer Over Events at a Church Hall. Sure they are very wealthy, but the well off want to have some say over how their neighborhood goes as anyone else (if not more so). What surprised me is that they are having to fight so hard and such an uphill battle to win this case.

It’s an interesting story. The NYTimes.com has the details.

I want to link to a stunning photo of the recent events in Iran. If it disappears from this blog, go to this link to see it. (In fact, go see the picture regardless. I had to shrink it here, and that doesn’t do it justice.)

What impressed me in this photo is what is transpiring in the moment it was taken. In the foreground, four men are attacking a man on the ground. The four men are big men. They have clubs. It’s very likely they are organized. Perhaps they are the Baseej/Basij.

In the moment that it is being taken, the men are about to be attacked by women in the background. These women are not armed. They are dressed in traditional  — or at least non-Western — clothing. They do not look to be students or a mob. But they appear to be outraged by this attack, and they are counterattacking the men despite the risk of doing so.

There are many great photos of what is happening in Iran. But I thought this one was particularly strong. If I were a great painter, I would want to paint this scene.

See Iran’s Disputed Election – The Big Picture – Boston.com. It is great to see all the amateur photos and videos on the Internet. And it is not right to compare them to these pictures. They serve a different purpose.  But in terms of journalistic photography on other MSM web sites, nothing compares to The Big Picture.

What do workers employed by some Chinese companies in Africa and China have in common? According to this article, Job Conditions Worsen in Areas of China, Experts Say – NYTimes.com and this one: The dark underside of Chinese building boom in Africa – The Globe and Mail, it’s bad working conditions. And why are working conditions bad? The same reason as always: it is cheaper to have people work under bad conditions, and if you are an employer indifferent to the lives of others, than you stand to profit from bad working conditions.

China and Chinese companies need to raise their standards. In the short term the worker will suffer, but in the longer term, China will.

I was just finishing up my run tonight when I was struck by a car. I did what I usually do, which is run up Yonge St., cross Castlefield Ave. and then stop just around the entrance to the parking lot at the end of the street.  I do that mainly because I don’t want to get swiped by a car pulling in.

Instead, just as I stopped, in an instance I was struck while walking on the sidewalk and knocked to the ground, scrapping up my knee and shin and banging up my upper right leg. I turned my head and saw this big white car and for a split second I thought it was going to keep going and really run me over. But it stopped and two young guys got out.

At first I was really angry. I was yelling at them: what are you doing? I’m on the sidewalk?! And then it was a bit weird, because I asked them who was driving and I got different answers.

I got up and was going to go home. But they were calling 911 and I thought: what if I am in shock and some injury I don’t know about affects me later? (I was thinking of Natasha Richardson here.) As it was, in a few minutes the fire trucks came and they checked me out. Then the police came. Then the paramedics.

The paramedics said my blood pressure was high, but other than the scrapes, I seemed ok. They were going to drive me home, but because the police officer wanted to talk to me, I went home with him.

It turned out that a young woman was a beginner drive and she shouldn’t be driving unless she is without someone older (I think), and the guys she was with wasn’t. They are going to get charged for that.

As for me, I eventually got home and checked out my leg. I think it’s going to be pretty bruised tomorrow. Right now it is starting to bruise and it is swollen, and my leg is scratched up. But nothing seems broken, and I was lucky not to bang my head or anything.

I feel sorry for the the young people in the car, but it really bothers me getting struck on the sidewalk. Actually, what bothers me about this more than getting hit is that I am always so concerned about the kids getting hit by a car. You see, when I was a kid, I was run over while I was crossing a busy street by a car going too fast. I can remember getting slammed to the pavement and going unconscious. It was me and my cousin. The young guy who hit us said it was our fault and they were going to take us to the police and put us in jail, so we ran away, not knowing any better.

I was also lightly struck by a car when I was in college. I was crossing in front of this little old lady, and she was stopped, and I thought: ok, she is waiting for me to go. But as soon as I was in front of her, she started going, and I was knocked onto her hood. It was very minor, but being on her hood, I could see she had glaucoma so bad, her one eye — the one I thought she saw me with — was white!

So you can see why I am paranoid about cars. And why I am usually careful with myself and especially my kids around cars. I just didn’t expect to be struck from behind by one while walking on the sidewalk on the street where I live.