Author: smartpeopleiknow

Why critics should not review kids films

Over at the nytimes.com, is an article on the success of High School Musical: Move Over Mickey: A New Franchise at Disney – New York Times

One thing that struck me was this silly comment from their TV critic.

Virginia Heffernan, a television critic for The New York Times, wrote that although the sequel had a haphazard charm, “the movie is mediocre, and should be skipped.” But she added, “I can’t wait to buy the soundtrack and do the karaoke.”

I wonder if the critic watched the show with a preteen in attendance. It may be mediocre from an adult viewpoint, but it is simply magical to a preteen (I know).

Is Foreign Policy telling lies with charts and statistics?

Take a look at this Foreign Policy chart recently published on the “so called surge” and think about it in terms of the questions I have outlined in boxes.

Whatever one things about the surge and FP’s assessment of it, they can do better than just skewing the chart to make the case.

See: Foreign Policy on “The Failing Surge”.

P.S. If you want to see someone better than me take apart such representations, refer to Edward Tufte’s site (for example, here).

P.S.S. I found this at Andrew Sullivan’s site. He has many many good postings on the Surge and the War.

Batman could kill your kids

My son loves these toys, but when I read this, I almost fell out of my chair!

The magnets inside these dolls and accessories can fall out — undetected to parents and caregivers. These magnets can be swallowed or aspirated by young children or placed by a child in their nose or ears. When more than one magnet is swallowed, the magnets can attract to each other and cause intestinal perforation, infection or blockage, which can be fatal. Aspiration to the lungs requires immediate surgery. Magnets placed in the nose or ears can cause swelling and be difficult to remove.

From Mattel Consumer Relations Answer Center – Recall.

I think if Mattel is not careful, this Batman (and other such toys) could be fatal to Mattel as well.

A great toy: the Mozart Magic Cube

If you want to get a toy for a baby — and assuming this one isn’t coated in lead — I highly recommend this one that they currently are selling of at Toys “R” Us. It’s the Mozart Magic Cube and it:

inspires creativity and interactive play. Plays 8 Mozart compositions. Mozart Magic Cube teaches how sounds combine to form musical masterpieces. Add and subtract instruments at the touch of a button!

It’s alot of fun, regardless of whether or not you are 6 months or 600 months old. 🙂

Turning (chinese) lead into gold

From the globeandmail.com: Toys ‘R’ Us pulls vinyl bibs off North American shelves

Toys “R” Us Inc. on Friday said it was removing all vinyl baby bibs from its Toys “R” Us and Babies “R” Us stores as a precaution after two bibs made in China for one supplier showed lead levels that exceeded Toys “R” Us standards.

Anyone who can manufacture toys and show they are safe before Christmas has a golden opportunity.

Get Fuzzy

I have always had a love/hate relationship with Siamese cats. They are beautiful looking, but they aren’t exactly the friendliest, in my limited experience.

There used to be one who lived in the house across from mine, and she used to stand out in the middle of her yard until my dog would see her and chase after her. She had it timed perfectly: she could make it to a crawl space and turn around so that she could scratch my dog when he stuck his nose in the crawl space. (Cat = smart; dog…not so much).

Which leads me to my favourite Siamese cat, Bucky, from Get Fuzzy. Mean cat, great comic.

You can get it here:

Comics and Editorial Cartoons: Get Fuzzy on Yahoo! News

Edward Tufte

If you haven’t heard of Edward Tufte or have but haven’t read anything by him, I highly recommend you check out his site: Edward Tufte

The book above, The Visual Display of Quantitative Information, will change the way you look at the depiction of information. He has lots of great books, including his new one:

He also writes scathingly on Powerpoint. 🙂 See here. Unfortunately, Powerpoint marches on. Pity.

Timbaland, Jay-Z, and the construction of Pop Music

I have always been impressed by the construction of Justin Timberlake’s/Timbaland’s Sexyback. I figure a DJ could spin that song any of a thousand of ways and have people dancing to the same song for an hour. It’s really well made in that sense, which is no surprise, given the involvement of Timbaland.

I was thinking something similar tonight when listening to Rihanna/Jay-Z’s Umbrella and the massive hooks in it. (Think: “ella-ella” and anything else you can’t get out of your head after listening to it.) It too is really well constructed, which is also no surprise, given Jay-Z’s involvement. You could watch the video, but it will distract you from the very taut vocals. Check out Rhianna singing Umbrella.

ok, here’s the (so-so) video of the anything but so-so Rhianna 🙂

and here’s Sexyback

How to stay focused and easily track time while working on your computer

The Web site, The Printable CEO™, has a great tool called the Emergent Task Timer. It

  • allows you to easily capture tasks you have to do as they come up
  • easily track the time you spend on them
  • reminds you when to update your info.

Check it out at: Emergent Task Timer Online (Flash Alpha)

Or go to David Seah’s site for more productivity tips:

David Seah

The apotheosis of the Web and the denegration of TV

TV set

It is easy to justify wasting spending time with your computer (or blackberry) to access the Web compared to watching TV. With the Web, it feels like you are doing something useful: you are researching, or communicating with friends, or learning about new ideas and new technologies. Comparing this to the watching TV, it seems positively virtuous.

In fact, often times I believe people are simply wasting time on the Web. (Put your hand up if you have watched the Diet Coke/Mentos phenomenom or LOLCats). You may be like me: tired, or bored, or procrastinating, or just in the habit of sitting in front of computer. Likewise, you can be learning about things on TV, too. While there may be more opportunities to learn on the Web, there is a false dichotomy between the web and TV. YouTube has shown that, and Joost will push that concept even further. Indeed, television may have been the precursor to the web, just like telephone and telegraph were precursors to TV. It is all a continuuum, with crossovers of ideas between the various media.

Some thoughts on surfing around the Web when I knew I should be doing something better. Now go watch some TV and be a better person. 🙂

recipe for successful blogging

One of the key techniques in creating a successful blog is constant and regular updates. And the key ingredient for that is sources of content. One source can be a handful of web sites or blogs you can refer to and comment on. Another source is people who read and comment on your blog. Either way, if you have good sources of material for your blog, it gets a lot easier to do it.

the structure of parks

One of my favourite parks is the one in Toronto’s Yorkville district. It has a distinctly untraditional layout. I recall a lot of people didn’t like the layout. It didn’t conform to what they thought of as a park. That’s was one of the things I liked about it. It made me think about parks, and how even older parks are contrived. There is nothing natural about most parks: they are quite artificial. This makes them no less beautiful. But they are man made nontheless. And it is this quality, among others, that I like about the Yorkville park.

FB and photos

One thing interesting about FB is that you can start to see interesting patterns and behavoirs. Some of them are just random, but it is interesting. For example, a colleague from work and my mom recently changed their photos:

I think it is interesting that they both chose flowers and at the same time. It could be random, but I believe there is something more to it than that.

Facebook and Time

I was looking up someone on FB today, and by accident I came across someone I hadn’t seen since I worked at the Dalhousie gymnasium in the early 80s. While that is approximately 25 years ago, I still recognize her, and when I saw her photo, I remember what she used to look like, even though we were just acquaintances and I hadn’t thought about her since I left university.

Now this is not a new phenomenon. People used to leave a community and then return much later and recognize people. What is different, though, is the breadth and depth of how this can be done and how it will be done. Breadth: as more and more people join social networking sites like Facebook, you will be able to see MANY more people you haven’t seen in ages. Depth: you will be able to find out much more about them than you could in typical social settings. You can see their friends, their families, what they do, etc.

Old folks (boomers) and young folks (gen Y) at work

The nytimes.com has a story about Gen Y at work. It is obvious that it is sympathetic to the older generation. For example:

Managers tell stories of summer associates who come to meetings with midriffs exposed, baring a belly ring; of interns who walk through the halls engaged with iPods; of new hires who explain they need Fridays off because their boyfriends get Fridays off and they have a share in a beach house. Then there is the tale of the summer hire who sent a text message to a senior partner asking “Are bras required as part of the dress code?”

I am sure the Gen Y crowd could talk of

old managers wearing ties or nylons, having two hour lunches, who work overtime on projects that are irrelevent and who wear clothes that haven’t been in style in 10 years or more

Read the article: it seems to me that the boomer who wrote the article is wrong. See:

When Whippersnappers and Geezers Collide – New York Times