For folks outside the U.S., it is hard to appreciate the craziness that happens during the “Black Friday” weekend in the U.S. I am sure that even people who experience it must at least shake their head when reading the story about the Wal-Mart Employee Trampled to Death (in the NYTimes.com).
To get a sense of what it must be like, here is a snippet of the shopping frenzy here:
(No, I didn’t film or caption this…)
(Found on LolFed.com)
Honestly, the pictures alone are worth the visit. See LOLFed. Emo Bernanke, LOLTraders and Schadenfreude, Oh My
(Tip from Paul Krugman’s blog)
There’s a great review of “Everything but the Squeal,” by John Barlow Pursues in the NYTimes.com. The book tracks the author as he tries to eat every part of the pig. It’s not an easy thing to do. Fortunately, he lives in Galacia, where they know how to do this sort of thing and there are a splendid variety of pork dishes. (Ok, some are not so splendid…but there IS a wide variety.)
Vegetarians might not warm to this book, but it promises to be funny in the Bill Bryson style of writing, which could make it a great holiday read.
So…enjoy! (The book or your pork chop..or both!)
This was a great song when Tom Petty did it. John Mayer slows it up a little and makes it more poignant somehow. Give it a listen:
I got this email this morning. It looks very legitimate:
Dear Capital One Bank customer,
We recently reviewed your account, and suspect that your Capital One Online Banking account may have been accessed from an unauthorized computer. This may be due to changes in your IP address or location. Protecting the security of your account and of the Capital One Bank network is our primary concern.
We are asking you to immediately login and report any unnoticed password changes, unauthorized withdrawals or deposits, and check you account profile to make sure no changes have been made.
To protect your account please follow the instructions below:
* DO NOT SHARE YOUR PASSWORD WITH OTHER USERS
* LOG OFF AFTER USING YOUR ONLINE ACCOUNT
Please click the following link, to verify your account activity:
https://onlinebanking.capitalone.com/capitalone/login.aspx
We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause, and appreciate your assistance in helping us maintaining the integrity of the entire Capital One Bank system. Please login as soon as possible.
Thank you,
Capital One Bank Security Advisor.
Unlike alot of obvious fraud, this one looked pretty legitimate. Still, I was suspicious. So I did a little test.
I ran my mouse over the hyperlink (the “https”) part and looked at the status area at the bottom left of my screen. What I see is that the hyperlink does not go to “https://onlinebanking….” but another hyperlink (http://70-46-123-20.wpb.fdn.com/CapitalOne/index.php”) which appears to have no connection to the Capital One web site. (Plus, it is a non-secure PHP page as opposed to a secure ASP page, making it even more suspicious).
So, I marked it as spam and notified Capital One.
If you were to try to login to this fake site, they would have your userid and password and they would rip you off.
So beware.
P.S. I missed this earlier, but there was also a typo: “you account profile”. Typos are a good sign of phishing too.
A quote that often comes up in discussions during a financial crisis is “company X is too big to fail”. Companies that big are determined to be in need of assistance from the public.
Given this, I think companies should be banned from getting that big. All companies should be able to get as big as they want as long as they can fail. After that, they should divest.
They have to divest anyway, but at the worst possible time for them and the public.
An independent agency could determine what limit of companies that hit the limit and force them to sell. Failure to do so would result in jailtime for executive management.
Sharesholders could be reimbursed via dividends, who could then invest in other companies.
No one should be too big to fail.
They are both great papers, but the former has an advantage over the latter: nytimes.com recognized that I am viewing it on a mobile device and switches the page to make it readable to me. So does WSJ.com and the GlobeAndMail.com. Not to mention talkingpointsmemo.com.
I think any major news or business magazine or newspaper needs to do this ASAP or lose readers in the process.
Speaking of Sean Paul, this is my favourite version of “Get Busy”. I am not sure where this video was filmed, but this seems quintessentially Canadian to me, what with the parkas, the winter setting, the unfinished basement, the references to the furnace (!) and the split party going on (young people downstairs, older people upstairs). I love the little kid who sneaks down and gets down (before being whisked back upstairs), and I think the older man complaining about the banging on the “furnace” is priceless!
This song is hard for me to take seriously. (Maybe if I was younger I would.) Fortunately, with this mashup that incorporates a very funny Justin Timberlake, I don’t have to!
is anything by Estelle, it seems. Here she is with Sean Paul with “Come Over”
Estelle has a nice groove going here and a sweet soulful sound.
It is interesting to compare this to her American Boy video with Kanye West. There’s alot of similarities even though visually they are superficially different.
Estelle reminds me of Amy Winehouse in how she seems to be channeling much older styles of singing but making it fresh and contemporary.
Anyone who is using twitter should consider this. Andy Piper has put together a list of rules for users of twitter that I think are bang-on. I try to follow them myself, and like Andy, I tend to drop people who break them often.
Besides Andy’s blog, you should also follow him on twitter: if you do, you will learn alot. Trust me.
P.S. BTW, he works for IBM, not Moo. I just thought I should point that out. 🙂
Perhaps someone can explain why they have ANY corporate jets, given the trouble they are in. After all, if you were close to bankruptcy and people found out you had 5 sports cars, do you think just giving up 2 of them would be sufficient? I didn’t think so, either.
As I said before, these guys need to try alot harder. Or perhaps someone else should take the job who is willing to try harder.
For more details, see Think Progress » GM execs give up some private jets after embarassing hearing.
…is Coffee Drink Machines Blog. Anyone who loves coffee will enjoy the posts there, including this brilliant YouTube video of a very talented barista making illustrations:
Not only can the UC Men’s Octet sing, but they have a great sense of humour too! Look no further than:
They have lots of videos on YouTube. Check ’em out. And let’s hope they get some quality recordings out soon.
(Found at the fashionable blog, Fazed-girl who also has Tom Jones doing this!)
To see what I mean, go to the blog Aviary and see Redesigning America 2.0. To be fair, I think it is in jest. I hope! I like this idea, though:
America should be a positive experiment, always changing.
Have a blog? You have to try the Typealyzer! When I gave it this blog, it came back with this:
“The independent and problem-solving type. They are especially attuned to the demands of the moment are masters of responding to challenges that arise spontaneously. They generelly prefer to think things out for themselves and often avoid inter-personal conflicts.
The Mechanics enjoy working together with other independent and highly skilled people and often like seek fun and action both in their work and personal life. They enjoy adventure and risk such as in driving race cars or working as policemen and firefighters.”
I think that is just about right for the first part. I am not sure about the action and risk part: perhaps my blog is partially a form of wishful thinking! 🙂
Try it out! (Thanks to andrewSullivan.com for the tip)
One thing I love about my blackberry is the camera. While it is a 2 megapixel camera, the quality is only so-so. (Compared to my 6 year old Kodak digital camera that is also 2 MP and takes much better pictures). The photo quality may be so-so, but the blackberry camera has some excellent features:
Muscles are made stronger by tearing them, and that the heart is one of those muscles.
From the good people at The Poster List: Pop Art Posters!
You have walls: you need posters! So go and buy their posters: they’re hot!
It’s a simple rule of asking for money: look like you need it. Instead, today we had the spectacle – there’s no better word – of the Big Three auto CEOs flying to Washington on private jets to ask for taxpayer money (CNN.com).
Apparently they couldn’t fly on a commercial flight for “safety reasons”. I hope someone asks them about that. The bigger risk they took was coming to Washington looking like fat cats. That was “unsafe” for their companies and their careers.
I have often heard people in business deriding people in government for not being as savvy as they are. But most people in public office would have enough of a clue to figure out how bad this looks.
Businessmen and women looking for public money are going to have to try a whole lot harder. Painfully so. Starting with getting rid of the corporate jets.
You can see it here: LIFE photo archive hosted by Google. (Thanks to kottke.org for the notice!)
It could be this:
The blog, A CUP OF JO has a few details, but I would like to get some more.
Great marketing, regardless of how good the wine is! 🙂
You might want to think again. There are lots of ways that the real cost of the advice is hidden from you. For examples of how you can get tripped up, and what you should ask about, check out this post:
Ask the Mole: Beware of free financial advice – Nov. 19, 2008
(Very appropriate remake of the U.S. dollar from Simon Davison’s photostream on flickr)
When talking about Comme des Garcons at H&M, I joked that Alexander McQueen should be up next. Well, according to the blog, The New York MiNute by MiN.com, it looks like McQueen will be coming to Target instead. Check out that blog for lots of details.
If you search for Tim Gunn’s Fashion Essentials on the Web, you will find a number of things he recommends for women. To some degree, many of these things — classic white shirt, jeans, trench coat — work for men as well. But there is one thing on that list that women have had for a long time as an essential, namely the “little black dress”, that men should also have. Except it is the “solid black suit”.
I’ve read that if men are buying their first suit, they should go with a navy suit. Navy suits are great. But if I were recommending an essential piece of clothing for men, it would be a solid black suit.
A solid black suit is tremendously versatile. If you wear it with a white shirt with French cuffs and a solid coloured tie, it is the height of dressing up (save for wearing a tuxedo). If you replace the shirt and tie with a high quality T-shirt or a bold print shirt, you can wear the same suit to a gallery opening or a night club. You can wear it to weddings, funerals, and pretty well any special event in between. It travels well, doesn’t show stains or wrinkles as easily as some other suits, and if you have to pack light, you could add some light gray or beige pants and make the jacket coordinate with those slacks for extra business attire. You can even wear the jacket with the jeans if you want to mix it up.
I think solid black is more versatile than one with stripes. As for the cut of the suit, that should be one that works well for you. Since you want the suit to be versatile, the cut should be versatile as well. And get the best one you can afford, especially if you will be wearing it often.
There are lots of great articles of clothing a man should have in his wardrobe to look his best. A basic black suit should be one of those.
To see what I mean: if you want to see just how elegant such a suit can look, you can check out this post with Tim looking great as usual in a solid black suit. Meanwhile, this post on the new line of Comme des Garcons wear at H&M illustrates how to make such a suit look more casual.
There are many many artists who do great versions of this song. While I enjoy most of them, I believe Miles Davis still owns this song.
Here he is:
There is also this link: YouTube – Miles Davis – ‘Round Midnight – Complete Concert (3 of 4)
I think this is a great blog: A CUP OF JO
Among the many great things on the blog is this photo:
Which made me thing of this song:
I accidentally came across this photostream on flickr tonight: World War II. The person who posted it said that it is a…
“collection (that) belonged to my grandfather, Arthur John Strenge, who documented his experiences while serving in the United States Marine Corps from 1944 through 1946. His service took him from working as a combat engineer with the Second Marines at Betio atoll – Tarawa, through the landings at Saipan, Iwo Jima, Okinawa and finally to Nagasaki with the 28th Pioneer Battalion immediately following the atomic bomb drop.”
When the World Wide Web started, it was striking to see any historical photos online. Gradually, institutions started posting photos and other historical artifacts. With Web 2.0 we have an opportunity for people outside of institutions to post material for others to see. If this were to take off, it would be an incredible archive. Web 2.0 could bring on History 2.0. I’m looking forward to it.
(This is from the photostream of Nagasaki’s Valley of Death.)
Ok. Christmas is coming. You need gift ideas. Start here. For as little as $25 (!!), you can get someone a fantastic gift and support Canadian artists (and a fine Canadian art gallery). For example, there is a work, by Lori Doody of a purse…only $25.
Or work by my friend and very talented artist, Rebecca Cowan of lips…a perfect gift for someone you love. $100 (What’s $100 for someone you love?)
And Kelly Grace is also represented here. I have a piece by her on my wall….it’s highly evocative and I wouldn’t part with it for anything.
Finally, there is the artist, Emily Bickell, that I really love for her semi-abstract work in the $200 range.
It is Christmas shopping at it’s finest. 🙂
Of all the advice given to President-Elect Obama recently, one that struck me was that he should revisit the weekly radio address and give it in a more informal manner. While I don’t have anything against the radio, I thought he was more likely to gravitate towards the new media. Sure enough, we have this:
And even while I watched this and thought, “cool”, in the back of my mind I could imagine him chuckling and saying, “you ain’t seen nothing yet!”.
When I went to school, we would write assignments with pen and double spacing was the instruction.
Now my daughter does assignments on my laptop and the instruction is about proper font size. 🙂
Value fashionistas: rejoice! COMME des GARCONS has come to H&M. Rei Kawakubo’s innovative work has never been so affordable. So get to your local H&M and snap it up before it is too late.
H&M is to be commended for bringing the work of such designers as Lagerfeld and Kawakubo to everyone. Perhaps they can get Alexander McQueen up next.
(Image from Ask Men…they have more on the collection there).
Robert Lepage is bringing his brilliant stagecraft to the Met in New York with a production of “Faust”. I’ve seen LePage’s “Erwartung” and “Bluebeard’s Castle” and I thought they were exceptional, but he seems to be doing something really incredible with this production, as he intertwines the production with the voice and movement of the performers, so that the entire show interacts. You really want to read the article and see the video, so visit Techno-Alchemy at the Opera – Robert Lepage Brings His ‘Faust’ to the Met – NYTimes.com
I would love to see this show.
itbusiness.ca has the run down on Six free downloads to fire up your Blackberry, including an RSS reader (Viigo), Google Maps, Facebook for the Blackberry and of course, a twitter client (TwitterBerry).
I have tried the Facebook app (it came with my Blackberry) and have preferred to simply surf to the Facebook site itself. But I recommend you try them yourself. Hey, they’re free! 🙂
If you start noticing alot of men wearing moustaches in November, this could be why: Movember – Growing Moustaches in November. It sounds silly, but it is for a good cause. As the site says:
“Movember (the month formerly known as November) is a moustache growing charity event held during November each year that raises funds and awareness for men’s health.”
Now in parts of the world where men still wear moustaches, this might seem like an odd event. But in the countries listed on the site, I expect that most men don’t. Full beards, perhaps, but moustaches…likely not. Until now!
Spread the word….
As you can see, it’s time for the 15th Annual Festival of Smalls. Art Interiors has a fantastic selection of Canadian arts, and it is chock full of great art, from the many small pieces featured in this festival to excellent larger pieces as well. Even better, the women who run the gallery and the people who work there are wonderful people. How can you not go? 🙂
“The Christian Science Monitor will become a weekly; Time Inc. is going on an austerity budget; the NYT is reeling. The move to digital is inevitable. But some media giants probably won’t survive the crossing, especially if this recession endures, as it surely will.”
Sure, people were lining up for newspapers after Obama was elected, but that was more for a souvenir than to read the news.
Pretty soon, the equation will be:
Smart People I Know 
