Author: smartpeopleiknow

Scene of the day

From Washington yesterday, as described here

Henry M. Paulson Jr., literally bent down on one knee as he pleaded with Nancy Pelosi, the House Speaker, not to “blow it up” by withdrawing her party’s support for the package over what Ms. Pelosi derided as a Republican betrayal.

“I didn’t know you were Catholic,” Ms. Pelosi said, a wry reference to Mr. Paulson’s kneeling, according to someone who observed the exchange. She went on: “It’s not me blowing this up, it’s the Republicans.”

Mr. Paulson sighed. “I know. I know.”

McDonald’s Hamburgers: they keep going and going ….

Take a look at these two burgers:

One of them was made in 2008 and the other was made in….1996. Yes, 12 years ago.

Can you tell which one is which? I couldn’t either. But if you go here, 12-Year Old McDonald’s Hamburger, Still Looking Good | A Hamburger Today, you can find out the details.

Amazing. To say the least!

(Found via kottke.org)

Using RSS as alerts

Some smart organizations, like the Toronto Transit Commission, are using TTC RSS Feeds as ways of notifying clients quickly if there is a disruption of service or there is some other information you want to get to people.

These alerts don’t have to be a news of a problem: it could be good news. Either way, it is a good way to let people know quickly about something.

The Brilliance of Francis Bacon

The nytimes.com has a fine slide show highlighting some of the Francis Bacon show at the Tate Britain.

I can understand how people can get put off by the misery and horror portrayed in Bacon’s work. However, infusing all that is something that I love about him and it is worth hanging in there and looking for. It’s the same thing I love about Mark Rothko, and that’s the ability of the artist to use colour. While it helps to be able to see more of the artist’s work, just flipping through this slide show gives you a glimpse into the vividness of his palette and the remarkable colour composition of his work.

In many of Bacon’s paintings, a single incandescent light bulb appears. It is a light that he captures very well in his paintings. There is both the flatness and brightness of incandescent light that would otherwise be boring were it not in these paintings.

You can see the slideshow here and as always (it seems) there is an accompanying article.

 

On appreciation and the importance of showing it

I believe that we underestimate the positive affect our kindness and appreciation has on people. We believe it won’t make a difference, that the effort to do so will be unappreciated, or that it doesn’t matter.

Last week I used the City of Toronto’s web site to enroll my children on some skiing and swimming programs that the City provides. What I used to have to do — really — was get up at 4:30 or 5 a.m. and walk over to the community center and line up until 7 a.m. with many other people. I had to do this twice a year: September and January. Standing outside in Toronto in January at 5:30 or 6 in the morning to try and get your daughter in karate is the definition of ‘no fun’. However, the people from the city who ran it were very good, getting there at 6, giving out placeholder numbers to people, and letting them in before 7 just so people could stay warm. At 7, people would take turns working with staff to use the IT system the city has for registering. For high demand choices, you had to get to the system by 7:20, because they filled up immediately (once I tried to register my daughter in karate this way: it was filled by 7:10).

There were two other choices: a phone system (overloaded and not easy for me to use I found) and a web based system. The web based system was HAMMERED at 7 a.m. The first time I tried it a few years ago, it took me over an hour to get in. Needless to say, I went back to the 5 a.m. line up.

However, over the years of trying it, I have seen the web based system improve greatly, and I got in quickly this year (7:05), even though I am sure it still gets massive amount of load at exactly 7 a.m.

I was so impressed, I sent an email to the Mayor’s office (the office of the Mayor of Toronto is fantastic with answering email, usually answering within the hour and with specific responses to my email). I told them how impressed I was with the improvements they have made over time. (And after having stood in the freezing cold at 5 a.m., you appreciate it!). Not only were they appreciative, but they forwarded the email to others within the city, and they were all very appreciative as well. In fact, I was surprised how appreciative they were in the emails they sent back to me.

And so I thought I would write this, partially as a reminder to myself to be more appreciative (it’s a never ending journey and I am sure I have along way to go still). Partially to remind others. And partially to tell people — particularly the IT people I work with — that people do appreciate the work you do to make things better, even if they don’t always say so.

How this financial crisis is already setting Americans up for the next one

According to this posting, Why Pensions May be More Vulnerable – Swampland – TIME, there is a potential that out of all this work being done to fix the current financial meltdown, in the future it might be

.. easier for pension funds to invest larger stakes in riskier hedge funds and financial institutions, relaxing the fiduciary duties that usually come with investing in people’s retirement. This was a controversial provision that even the White House and Senate Republicans were leery of – Dems mostly opposed it – but House Republicans were adamant in seeing it included in the bill. In fact the original language of these provisions – introduced as an amendment in committee by Representatives John “Randy” Kuhl a New York Republican and Rob Andrews, a New Jersey Democrat** – called for even greater changes to the system: allowing pension funds to hold up to 50% stakes in hedge funds and financial institutions*. Just a thought, but when Congress gets down to reasserting more regulation on the markets, this might be something they want to look at.

So in a few years from now, when there is another meltdown, instead of (or in addition to) wiping out people’s mortgages, it will wipe out their pension funds as well.

People in the U.S. should be very very worried.

From the ridiculous to the sublime, musically, and places in between

Checking out music on the Transbuddha web site the other night, I came across this!

Yes, not only is Jesus your friend, apparently he is also a Mountie. Okie-dokie, then. That’s the ridiculous. (And likely a comedy sketch, but still….)

As I was listening to it, I thought, hmmm…that sounds like Ranking Full Stop from the English Beat. Of course it’s also on YouTube.

While there are some differences, it is very similar! So, first song, very bad. But it got me listening to something better. And checking out that, I started thinking of their good cover of the classic Smokey Robinson and the Miracles song, Tears of a Clown. So I looked it up, and I came across this:

So, from the ridiculous to the sublime in a few minutes.

As a aside, I thought: man, the Miracles were a pretty subdued group of dancers. I did a check on the Pips, the Temptations and even the Jackson 5, and while all those groups were looser than Smokey’s backups, they were still more focused on singing and not so much on (lipsynching and) dancing.

I also think Justin Timberlake stole this look for his “Lovestoned/I think she knows” video. You can see it here:

Shop at Goodwill from the comfort of your sofa

If you like shopping at thrift shops, but either can’t get to one or don’t feeling like going to one, you now have an alternative at shopgoodwill.com.

They have a wide array of items, from iPods to religious items, and everything in between. It is an auction style site, and the items are AS-IS, but it seems to be well designed and it even gives you information about payment and shipping.

Worth a look, for sure!

Elegy

The 12 year son of someone I have known for along time died on the weekend. The funeral was today.

Perhaps Paul Simon is right, that “sometimes even music / cannot substitute for tears”. But sometimes music can express what words can’t. And from the limited amount of music I know these days, I thought of this:

The 2008 MacArthur Fellows – or $500,000 — No Strings Attached

Today the MacArthur Foundation…

“… named 25 new MacArthur Fellows for 2008. This past week, the recipients learned in a single phone call from the Foundation that they will each receive $500,000 in “no strings attached” support over the next five years.”

I have heard of this in the past and typically associated these grants
with artists. While there are many artists included as Fellows, there
are other people from other professions, such as Will Allen (pictured here) who is an “urban Farmer transforming the cultivation, production, and delivery of healthy foods to underserved, urban populations through a novel synthesis of low-cost farming technologies”. Will, like many of the people on this list, are deserving recipients of the awards. And while there are no strings attached, I believe there doesn’t need to be, because people like Will Allen will continue to do what they do, regardless if someone gives them $500 or $500,000. But the latter amount is better, and the MacArthur Foundation is to be commended for the work they do.

Go see the list of Fellows at the link above. It is inspiring.

Reminder: The Metropolitan Opera’s Opening Gala is happening tonight in NYC and…everywhere else!

For people in Manhattan, you may have tickets to The Metropolitan Opera’s Opening Night Gala

However, the great thing is that even if you don’t, or if you live in a different city, you may still have a chance to see it. It is playing on big screens all across North America (if not the world). It’s 270 minutes of glorious opera, so sit back and enjoy.

Show time is 6:30 pm (Eastern Time).

Click on the link for more details.

The best ad ever? Leave Nothing, by Michael Mann

I love TV ads. I used to be teased because I would mute TV shows and put the sound on for good ads.

Unlike TV shows, ads have alot to do in just 30 seconds, and they have to do it flawlessly. Directed well, they are 30 seconds films. One particular 30 second film, Leave Nothing by Michael Mann, is my favourite. I even prefer it to the 1984 Apple ad by Ridley Scott, which I have admired since….1984!

Leave Nothing is brilliant. For U.S. football fans, there is the amazing spectacle of Shawn Merriman mowing down players in the first part– including a spectacular hit midway– before knocking the ball over to Steven Jackson who heroically drives the ball home for the touchdown (and even that is well done, since you end up visualize the TD: it’s not shown). And the amazing computer generated graphics that allow the players and the weather to switch seamlessly is wonderful. Mann holds this all together and what’s more manages to shoot Merriman and Jackson in this seamless tracking shot in which they are all over place (just watch Merriman as he weaves back and forth across the field).

However, one thing about this that I think is brilliant may not seem obvious at first. And that is the sound. Watch it without the sound, and then with the sound, and you will hear how well the sound underlines everything.  You can hear the rain pelting down, the snow squalls, the smashing of equipment and the grunts and breathing of the players. The score – apparently from The Last of the Mohicans (another Mann film) — starts imperceptibly and then swells up to the last few seconds of the ad, before the words “Leave Nothing” flash on screen and then all you hear is the wind.

It’s a masterpiece. And it’s half a minute long.

Michael Mann, if you don’t know, directed such great work as “The Jericho Mile”, “Thief”, “Ali”, “Collateral” and “Miami Vice”. And he directed this.

If you want to know more about the making of this, go here http://blog.theavclub.tv/post/nike-leave-nothing

And of course, now you want to see it! You can see it the Nike ad “Leave Nothing” @ Transbuddha.

Francis Bacon and the representation of grief


Enough blogging about money. Instead, I want to point out a great post in Looking Around – Art – Architecture – TIME on a new show at the Tate Britain museum. It’s a retrospective of one of favourite artists, Francis Bacon. While it his fifth retrospective, it is apparently a great one.

But I think this one passage is an interesting one, especially in light of the attention that artists like Jeff Koons and Damien Hirst have been getting lately

“To see this many Bacons gathered together reminded me again how rare it is to see new art that attempts, much less achieves, a genuine tragic dimension. Irony you can find in any gallery these days, also low comedy, puerile cool and industrial strength enigma. But in a time that has its share of tragedy — have you noticed? — where is the art that even tries to strike an equivalent note. What we have almost no language for anymore, at least not in art, is acute pain.”

While Hirst draws on Bacon, you get no sense of any great depth of emotion that Bacon has. He has dark representations without the feeling.

Instead of “I have nothing to say and I am saying it”, it is more “I have nothing to feel and I am painting that”.

Traders have missed the revolution that has occurred in the stock market

Reading this, Markets Soar, but New Rules Upset Traders – NYTimes.com, it appears to me that the people who are complaining about what has occurred this week (e.g., restriction on short selling) have missed what has happened. Someone needs to tell them: you have messed up too badly; the rules have changed;  you are no longer in control.

And people can argue all they want for this change and that change, but after hastily making an enormous commitment to keep things alive in U.S. and global financial markets, the U.S. government likely has more important things to worry about than whether or not trading software can handle the new rules or

Some quotes:

  • “Some of my clients are literally closing their books and going on their vacation for two weeks — they can’t operate in this environment” (That might help.)
  • “turning a football game into badminton.” (Actually, its more like a bloodbath than a football game, but either way, badminton is preferable.)
  • “If you took the week off … you didn’t miss anything.” (uh…yeah, sure, pal, business as usual, things are back to normal. 🙂 )

Things may have calmed down, but going into next week, there is no more “normal”. That burned to the ground last week.

Oil returns to $100 per barrel, or why it is all relative

After the meltdown on Wall Street this week, the news that Oil Prices Return to $100 Territory seems like a ho-hum announcement in relation to that. The high price of oil is still significant, and likely will have at least as big an impact on the world economy as the meltdown, but it can’t compete with the sheer terror of seeing the global financial market seize up to the point that the U.S. government needs to swoop in and buy up hugh chunks of the financial market in a fire sale.

Open Source Genetics

Can a wiki cure cancer? Can a crowds hack genetic disease? Over at the blog, Bits, they are speculating why “Google co-founder Sergey Brin on Thursday disclosed that he carried a genetic mutation that gave him a higher-than-average risk of contracting Parkinson’s disease.” Their speculation is that Brin might be thinking that it…

“…could be useful to have one’s DNA code open to the public, where it could follow a sort of open-source model. If his data was public, he said, doctors — or anyone who was interested — could look at his results and make suggestions about how he should handle them, offering treatment suggestions if it showed he might be susceptible to a disease.”

That would assume that there is information that is decentralized and unshared, which of course, is a category that the DNA of individuals falls into.

But would people share their DNA? I think they would, for the same reason that they share so much on the Internet now: the risk is very low and the reward is not insignificant.

It is only a small posting, but the post, Why Sergey Brin May Have Disclosed His Risk for Parkinson’s at Bits Blog on the NYTimes.com is interesting.

More things to keep the financial crisis in perspective

When do you think this cover is from? 2008? Nope, 1972. The quote that goes with it?

“The nation is not running out of money so much as it has misallocated its resources so badly that it now faces a staggering bill for the public services that citizens have a right to expect. Tax and governmental reforms can and must apportion that bill more fairly; to the extent that the taxpayers’ revolt is a protest against inequity, it is only too justified.”

From Time Covers Wall Street – Photo Essays – TIME

Good blogs: Looking Around – Art – Architecture – TIME

There are so many good blogs these days, it impossible to keep up with them all. The nytimes.com has more than a dozen, all of them filled with lots of great material.

TIME has it’s share, too, including one by Richard Lacayo called Looking Around, that covers art and architecture.  Worth adding to your bookmarks or feed reader if you are interested in those subjects. And unlike me, his posts on people like Damien Hirst are based on actually talking to the artist. So there’s that… 🙂

He highlighted something sad. Namely, the damage done to the Farnsworth House, a work of Mies Van der Rohe. Too bad Mies didn’t put it on stilts: it’s been hit with seven big floods since it was built. 😦 Not good.

(photo actually from the site The New Modernist).

On why I find the current worldwide financial crisis fascinating

It seems every hour news is coming out in reaction to the financial
devistation that is occurring. It appears to be just the U.S., but the
effect will be felt worldwide. It is similar to the World Wars of the
20th century, in that, while they were initially European wars, they
soon were fought across the world.

And the financial crisis is as significant as the world wars, I
believe. No one is saying that yet, but in time, they will. And while
it may not be as terrible as the Great Crash and the Great Depression,
it will be very tough on Americans for some time to come. Because all
of this money that is going to used to bailout the banks is money that
will not be bailing out the people with failing mortgages and failing
savings.

For more detail, see Vast Bailout by U.S. Proposed in Bid to Stem Financial Crisis – NYTimes.com

P.S. See the people in this photo by Brendan Hoffman of the New York Times? They don’t know what is going to happen either, although they have to act like they do. That’s Nancy Pelosi speaking with Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson on the far left and Ben Bernanke, the Federal Reserve chairman and apparently an expert on the Great Depression, on the far right. I have no doubt that Bernanke has history in mind with everything he does.

So you are ready to retire and run a vineyard in France? Here’s your chance

If that sounds appealing, check out this page: O’Vineyards Winemaker Associates – Buy a vineyard in the south of France

You are responsible for doing your own “due diligence”, of course, not me. 🙂

But yes, it does sound appealing to me, and yes, it is certainly something to dream about as you spend two hours in some boring-as-watching-paint-dry meeting you may be in sometime today!

If you are a conservative investor, read this


If you are a conservative investor, you may have a significant investment in money market funds. If you do, you may have been shocked  by what has been happening with them over the last few days. While money market funds are much lower in risk than other funds, there is always a risk when it comes to money, even if you lock it up in a safety deposit box or tuck it under your mattress (then the risk is inflation).

If you are worried, I recommend you read this article: Your Money – Money Market Funds Enter a World of Risk.

It’s a good article, and there are some reassuring things you can read and consider.

Finally, remember: there is always a risk. If you are a conservative investor, you simply want to minimize that risk and still profit from the money you do have. Money market funds are still a good way to do that.

(Photo of an old vault door from Daniel Leininger’s photostream on flickr)

The 15 Cars with the Best Gas Mileage

If you are thinking of buying, leasing, or even (like me) renting a new car, the question that will come to mind is: is it good on gas? And if you want the answer to what is best with gas, see this: The 15 Cars with the Best Gas Mileage from BusinessWeek.

While some are dead obvious (Toyota Prius), others surprised me (Ford Escape Hybrid). See for yourself, at businessweek.com.

Oprah goes on to become more powerful

Oprah appears to be going from the being the most powerful woman in American media to the most influencial woman on the planet. And why not? She has a universal appeal that transcends cultural barriers. And she has the means – her TV show – to reach people all over the planet.

For people who think Oprah is too mainstream for their liking, I’d like to point out this one key quote in this article,  Saudi Women Find an Unlikely Role Model – Oprah,

“In a country where the sexes are rigorously separated, where topics like sex and race are rarely discussed openly and where a strict code of public morality is enforced by religious police called hai’a, Ms. Winfrey provides many young Saudi women with new ways of thinking about the way local taboos affect their lives — as well as about a variety of issues including childhood sexual abuse and coping with marital strife — without striking them, or Saudi Arabia’s ruling authorities, as subversive.”

And that may be the most subversive thing about Oprah. It certainly allows her to be highly influential.

You can do 100 pushups

For people who like a fitness challenge, there is always the marathon. However, if for whatever reason that doesn’t appeal to you, the folks at the site one hundred push ups have a strength challenge for you (I think you can guess).

They have a clean, straighforward site and an easy to follow program that is challenging but achievable.

They make a good case for the program too. Check it out.

P.S. Interestingly, they just tweaked the program. I think this will make it even better. C’mon! Wouldn’t you like to be able to do 100 pushups? With this site, it’s possible.

The financial crisis gets worse…

…based on this story of a $12B money market fund (Putnam Prime Money Market Fund) closing up. As the Washington Post says,

“The Putnam action is likely to increase concern among investors about the safety of investments in money-market funds, traditionally viewed as basically comparable to bank accounts. Investors pulled an estimated $80 billion from money-market funds yesterday, according to Crane Data, which tracks the industry.”

People in risker investments expect and are told to expert downturns. People with money market funds do not. As well, if money market funds are in taking a hit, no type of investment is safe.

More here.

The Ghost Map: a book on a 19th century to help us in the 21st

Not only is this book good, but there is a very good web site for it here: The Ghost Map by Steven Johnson.

It is a book of many subjects and many ideas conveyed along with a strong narrative. I’d highly recommend it, just for that.

The ideas are not idle, however: though set in 19th century London, I kept thinking about the listeria outbreak and the SARS epidemic the whole time I was reading it. I also thought of a recent comment by an expert on cancer who spoke of how our current approaches many not be right to deal with cancer. This reminded me of the experts in this book who struggle to deal with cholera without any of the ideas of disease that we have. Perhaps in 20 or more years, people will look back and see how we struggled with dealing with cancer. To them it will be a disease that is  will be as straightforward to deal with, just like we deal with cholera.

If you get an opportunity, pick up the book. At the very least, check out the web site. Either way, you’ll get lots of good ideas that will get your thinking.

The history of California Chardonnay and why you drink what you drink

Slate magazine uses the topic of a new film, Bottle Shock, to go over the history of California chardonnay. It is ironic that after beating the French at their own game, California chardonnay evolved away from that taste and towards the oaky, buttery, non-acidic wine that most people love, save the author of this piece (and those of the ABC crowd: anything but chardonnay).

As for me, I think there is a time and place for everything, and there are times when I like that rich taste of those wines. But I like to go with the ABC crowd too and find other varietals and other styles to try, whether it is Viogniers, Reislings, or Chenin Blancs, to name a few (though I tend to avoid Pinot Grigio).

See the article here: The last great California chardonnays. – By Mike Steinberger – Slate Magazine