Anyone wondering what to do about the situation in Afghanistan should consider what Sen. John Kerry, (D-Mass.) said at the Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on Afghanistan today. Specifically,

“First it will be the Afghans that will ultimately win or lose the struggle against the Taliban.” The United States is in a “race against time” in a region “suspicious of foreign troops.” Recognize “the decentralized nature” of Afghan politics and society. Be flexible. “What works in Mazar-e-Sharif … is very different from what works in Kandahar.” Be “humble about our ability to bring large-scale change.” Put Afghanistan in a regional context. “Permeable borders are straddled by clans, ethnic groups and militants and what happens in one country can have profound implications for what happens in others.”

People may not like ot disagree with Kerry, but I think what he states is accurate. for more on this, see The Washington Independent » Kerry: ‘Set Realistic Goals’ in Afghanistan

Yup. Not just for cats anymore. All you smart people could use some silliness and a laugh as much as anyone…

Anyone who has owned a dog knows this face. 🙂 For more goofiness, see Loldogs, Dogs ‘n’ Puppy Dog Pictures – I Has A Hotdog!

…can be see in this head on collision between the 1959 Chevrolet Bel Air Vs. 2009 Chevrolet Malibu.

I love the look of the ’59 Malibu, but after this I wouldn’t be caught dead driving one. Actually, if I was driving one, I could be caught dead in it. For this test, it was estimated that the driver of the Bel Air would suffer some injuries, while the driver of the Bel Air in this crash would die right away.

Thanks to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety for the video.

Reading this article, Tales From Lehman’s Crypt – NYTimes.com, I was really impressed by how the employees interviewed took little or no responsibility for what happened at Lehman Brothers. Indeed, some of them insisted that it was the regulators job to stop them from doing the damage they did.

In the near term, after the political battle over health care has settled done, there will be a battle over regulation of the financial industry in the U.S. During that battle, there will be people who will say that strict regulation isn’t necessary, while others will insist it is essential. Having this article in mind will be useful while you listen to that debate.

(Image from http://www.broadcastnow.co.uk)

Bento lunches for kids are hot now. If you think your kids would like this:

Then head on over to The Goodbyn™ lunchbox site and you can buy one.

I don’t have anything to add on the whole Kanye West story. I do want to comment on this, though: ABC’s Moran removes tweet with Obama swipe at Kanye – Michael Calderone – POLITICO.com.

Even though the tweets were removed, they were still available as of last night via Google’s caching. (And to be fair to Michael Calderone, he does acknowledge that.) Anyone who thinks they can post things on the Internet and then by deleting them not have anyone see them is in for a surprise. Ask Terry Moran.

Dealing with all the disposable waste that we produce is an important way of being green.  Any way you can eliminate purchasing something you immediately have to toss is a good thing.

I think what we need to tackle as well is things manufactured to be obsolete. One of these things is lightbulbs. Fortunately, there is good news on that front, according to the blog, Inhabitat. According to this post, Panasonic’s New LED Bulbs Shine for 19 Years:

Despite lasting longer and being more efficient than both incandescent and CFL bulbs, LEDs haven’t caught on because of their sky-high prices. But now Panasonic wants to bring LEDs to the mainstream — at least in Japan — with a 60-watt household bulb that the company claims can last up to 19 years, or 40 times longer than incandescent bulbs.

Not only are they long lasting, but they are LED. This is a good thing.

…then I highly suggest you visit Sunshine+Design. You’ll be glad you did.

Apparently Bernie Madoff’s NYC Penthouse apartment is up for sale. This is one of the rooms:

To which I say: is that it?! Disappointing. I would have thought that if you are going to plunder people of as much as he did, he would have much nicer digs. But apparently not. It’s not terrible, mind you, but it is lacking in the opulence of Louis XIV or even Donald Trump. 😉

If you are so inclined, you can see more here

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.