Category: new!

How not to beg for money: fly in a private jet to the meeting

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.

Essential wardrobe item for men: the solid black suit

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.

With Web 2.0, everyone is a historian


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.)

How to Christmas shop this year, or, more on art interiors’s great “Festival of Smalls”

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.

And this is a small sample of the great work at art interiors. You really should check out their site.
BTW, when you do go to the site and look for this work, you will see some of it is SOLD. So! I recommend you get over there and buy the works you love online before it is too late. And if by chance you can get to the gallery, I highly recommend you do so. You can go, buy some art, then pop downstairs at Starbucks and have a gingerbread latte and enjoy your new purchase.

It is Christmas shopping at it’s finest. 🙂

How Obama continues to change things

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!”.

Comme des Garcons for H&M Collection

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).

movember: get your ‘stache on

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….

It’s time for the (15th) Annual Festival of Smalls at art interiors, Toronto


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? 🙂

So check it out.

What is happening to the old media?

According to Andrew Sullivan,

“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:

 digital media = The media.

Meanwhile, in an alternative universe….

According to the nytimes.com,

“Despite billions upon billions of dollars in losses in the financial industry, there still appear to be some people on Wall Street who are optimistic about their year-end bonuses.

An online survey conducted last month by eFinancialCareers.com, a career Web site, found that more than a third of the 1,400 people who responded said they expected to receive larger bonuses this year than they did last year. A remarkable 10 percent thought their bonuses might rise 33 percent or more.”

Try not to think about this when you are opening your fourth quarter financial statements. Better yet, take note of any firms that do give out bonuses. If one of those firms are someone you do business with, take your business elsewhere and tell them why.

Why I like the Nike Air Zoom Explosion Road Shoe


Normally I don’t buy Nike shoes. My feet are wide and I find New Balance and Saucony fit my feet better than Nike.

That said, I tried on these Nike’s while shopping for new shoes this weekend, and I really liked them. For one thing, there is little to them but good cushioning. For people with pronation problems, this would not be a good shoe, but for runners like me, it is great! For years I’ve looked around for a low cost, lightweight shoe with good cushioning, and I think these Nike’s fit the bill. I took them out for a run tonight and I thought they felt great. The ache in my knee went away, and it felt like I had nothing on my feet.

I am not sure why these don’t feel tight like previous Nike shoes. It could be because the uppers are hardly there: just some mesh and a few straps. No leather or vinyl to bind the foot.

I also had tried the Nike Lunar Trainers before, but I like these for the great price. 

Plus they look great.

You can get more information on them over at the NikeStore.

On Nicholas Carr’s “Who killed the blogosphere”

Nicholas Carr can be counted on for thought provoking commentary with regards to technology. His latest that I’ve read is Who killed the blogosphere?

While I don’t disagree with his facts, I do disagree with his slant and the notion of “killed”. I think it is not a matter of death, but of transition. What the blogosphere is undergoing is a transformation that many amateur enthusiasms experience.

It’s not all that different from a few years ago, when lots of people first started creating “home pages” during the start of the World Wide Web, a trend that eventually transitioned into….blogging! This has happened in the past too, as Carr points out, with things such as amateur radio being pushed out by professional radio.

In fact, if a new media does take off, the “pros” tend to come in and take over with better content and quality. It happened with web sites. It happened with radio, recorded music, and now blogging. (Although not always: CB radio was very popular for a time in the 1970s, and then died down without professionals taking over since the medium didn’t lend itself to that.)

What happens with blogging now? The serious bloggers like josh Marshall and Andrew Sullivan have turned it into their profession and do it regularly, just like any other writer in a different medium. Indeed, many traditional journalists, while still doing their regular work, are also blogging regularly (e.g., Paul Krugman from the nytimes.com, Joe Klein from time.com.) Many more people, like myself, will continue to use it from time to time as a way of communicating and recording their ideas and experiences.

That said, I believe the overall numbers will decrease as people lose interest in blogging or find other social media to experiment with (e.g. twitter, twitpic, tumblr). Focusing just on that, and just on blogging, and I would agree that the blogosphere is dying.

But so what? What is not dying, I believe, and what will be increasing, is people creating social media and using social computing to tell their stories and listen to others. New technologies are developing, and more will come along, to capture their interest and provide people new ways to express themselves. New technologies that are cheap, easy, and good. The amateur enthusiasm for them will spring up all over again, and people will take to those new tools, just like they took to previous social media.

People have a need to connect, to communicate, to express themselves and to record their lives. The degree to which technology weaves into people’s lives will only increase. And so the use of social computing will continue to grow, regardless of what happens to the blogosphere, or the twitterati, or whatever is the hit of the month.

That’s my two cents worth. And that’s the powerful thing about the new social media. Nicholas Carr can write an article, I can write a rebuttal, and you can find both of them on the web (perhaps using the same Google search). From there you can make up your own mind. Better yet, you can add to the debate. Anyone can. I can’t see that going away, any more than I can see the desire for education or democracy going away.

More “cheap” wines from Robert Parker…this time, Italian whites

Robert Parker is featuring Ten Italian Whites for Under $20 at BusinessWeek. I guess with the way the economy is now, there is more interest in lower cost wine. As someone who lives in Ontario, I check at lcbo.com to see if I can get them. Not all of these you can find there, but some you can.

What surprised me was that unlike the Californian wines I blogged about last time, these wines are closer in price to the American prices he lists. In fact, two wines are cheaper here than the U.S. I am not sure why that is, but it makes me think that not everything at the LCBO is more expensive than if it were purchased in the U.S. Perhaps it is just American wines and spirits.

The three you can get here in Ontario are:

  • Masi Masianco $16 vs $14.95 at the LCBO.
  • Zenato Lugana $15 vs $15.95
  • Pieropan Soave Classico $20 vs $17.80 (and 2007 vs 2006)

I’ve tried the Masi: like Parker says, it is simple but refreshing. I am really interested in the one from Pieropan, which actually is aged in oak, giving it more complexity than I might expect from a Soave.

What is love?

“Love don’t make things nice. It ruins everything. It breaks your heart. It makes things a mess. We aren’t here to make things perfect. The snowflakes are perfect. The stars are perfect. Not us. Not us! We are here to ruin ourselves and to break our hearts and love the wrong people and die.”

Interestingly, Roger Ebert (re)eviewed Moonstruck 16 years after it came out. Even now, it still holds up because of all the great talent involved. Not just the actors, but the director and especially the writer who wrote that great quote, John Patrick Shanley.

It’s good to read his review, but watching the film would be better. What could be better than to be moonstruck.

The “real” map of the United States

Paul Krugman posted an interesting map today. It’s this:

I think this resizing is important. In elections, what is more important than geographical size is the number of electoral votes. This map reflects the votes, and it reflects Obama’s victory. For more info, see the post: The decadent left, in its enclaves on the coasts – Paul Krugman – Op-Ed Columnist – New York Times Blog

How to fight off zombies

Here at SmartPeopleIKnow, we …ok…I like to keep you up to date on how to best deal with zombies. Luckily, there is an entire site dedicated to fighting off that scourge. It’s the Zombie Combat Club, featuring combat techniques, weapons, and strategies to fight the living dead.

Did you know?

“During a zombie outbreak, 98% of individuals will have to kill an undead ghoul without the use of a firearm.”

I didn’t know that either. See? You need to check this out out ASAP.

The awesomeness of foldschool


No, not “old school”….foldschool. As their about page states,

“foldschool is a collection of free cardboard furniture for kids, handmade by you. The downloadable patterns can be printed out with any printer. Follow the instructions and assemble a stable piece of furniture.”

How awesome is that? You get to do something creative with your kids and you get to recycle. And if cardboard furniture is good enough for Frank Gehry, it’s good enough for me. 🙂

The designs are free, but they do accept Paypal. After having a blast making this stuff, consider sending them some paper (money) in return.

(Thanks to the always great GeekDad blog….which, by the way, is not just for dads…..moms, uncles, aunts…all are welcome. It does help to be a geek and a dad, but it isn’t essential.)

Sentenc.es – A Disciplined Way To Deal With Email

For each of these four sites Sentenc.es two, three, four and five,  the idea is the same: cut down on the number of sentences you use in email.

It’s not as hard as you think.

State your request in one sentence, provide some background in one or two sentences if necessary, and close the email politely in one more sentence.

People will appreciate it.

All told in five.sentenc.es 🙂

Supersize me (with information about my food, that is)

If you are like me, you fool yourself sometimes into thinking that sandwich you bought for lunch or that muffin you eat on the go for breakfast is not all that bad for you. Chances are, you are wrong. However, if you had better information about the calories you were ingesting, you might choose a lighter alternative, I think.

Health Official in New York City thought so, too.

“Since last May, chain restaurants in the city have been required to list the number of calories for every item on their menus. According to a recent survey, more than 80 percent of those who saw the calorie count were “surprised,” even shocked, that an innocent-looking bran muffin could contain 470 calories and a full-fledged Big Mac attack (with soda and fries, of course) more than 1,200.”

Sounds like a great idea, right? Well, not to everyone.

“Some restaurants are suing to overturn the requirement. Many restaurants also back the LEAN Act, recently introduced in Congress. This deceptively named bill would pre-empt New York’s law, and a similar law in California, allowing restaurants to tuck calorie information at the back of the menu or in a separate brochure.”

I think this is a case of an opportunity in disguise. Smart restaurants will take advantage of such requirements to market new products to clients that help them with calories, rather than try and fool them. Everyone will be better off.

For more information, see the Editorial – 2,000 Is Really Enough in the NYTimes.com