Do a good deed: cheer at a marathon

If you want to make a lot of people feel better, here’s a very easy way to do it. All you need is a nearby marathon.

Go down to where the race is. Get yourself a coffee or tea. Then as the runners come by, cheer them on.Tell them they’re looking good, they’re doing great, hang in there, tell them about upcoming downhills, cheer, clap, yell woohoo. Whatever works for you. The best runners will appreciate you just being there. The rest will be rejuvenated by your encouagement.

I went down today to the Toronto marathon yesterday and in a short time made a few dozen people smile. Having run a few myself, I know how great it is for people to turn out and do that.

Everyone in a marathon is struggling to do their best in the face of great difficulty. Even the best of runners. Your encouragment is greatly appreciated. You can make a dozen people feel better in the time it takes you to finish your tea.

Tom Ford and Karl Lagerfeld talk shop

Time has a fascinating interview with Tom Ford and Karl Lagerfeld talking mostly about …Ford and his clothes. Lagerfeld is very generous with his praise of Ford. Ford also praises Lagerfeld, but really, he doesn’t need it: Karl is in a league of his own.

It’s interesting to hear them talk about the thinking that goes into their design. You might think mens wear is simply a matter of adjusting the number of buttons on a suit, but they are evolving the way men dress.

See Behind the Seams: Tom Ford and Karl Lagerfeld Talk Shop – America: Conquerer of the Global Menswear Market – TIME for the interview transcript. I would recommend you scroll down and watch the conversation between them: it’s good.

Obama – People Get Ready

I was reading about 100,000 people turning out in St. Louis today to see Barack Obama. For some reason, the song “People Get Ready” came to mind. When I went on YouTube, it seems that I am not the only one who associates this song with Obama: there were a number of photo montages of him with this song.

It’s a beautiful song, and there are many great versions of it on YouTube. Al Green, U2, Jeff Beck, Ziggy Marley…they all do it well. But this one, with an older Curtis Mayfield, backed up by Taylor Dane, is my favourite.

The U.S. Presidential election is coming soon. People get ready. There’s a train a coming.

Why you are great

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”

— Marianne Williamson

P.S. In the film, Akeelah and the Bee, this quote is attributed incorrectly to Nelson Mandela.  Regardless the source, it is a great idea.

The Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation Dinner

The Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation Dinner is quite an event.  At this year’s event, both John McCain and Barrack Obama showed up for the white tie event (as opposed to black tie). While Obama was good, McCain was great.

If McCain was more like this during the campaign, he would be doing better:

What is the difference between white tie and black tie? For that, you should check out Whit Stilman’s Metropolitan, a little-seen-but-great-film.

Good “cheap” Bordeaux at the LCBO this month

One of the Wines of the Month at the LCBO in Ontario is CHÂTEAU D’ARGADENS 2004.

Paul Gregutt of The Seattle Times says:

‘ It’s a joy to find a wellmade, affordable bottle of Bordeaux, from a classic vintage, at a modest price. Granted, this won’t bump the Mouton off the table, but at roughly 2 percent of the cost, it delivers fine flavors of red currant and cranberry, spice and truffle. It’s supple and bright, and soundly made at just 13 percent alcohol.’

It has a nice nose and a good finish. Well worth it for $18.95. Folks (like me) used to the stuff under $10 should treat themselves to this. It’s perfect for those upcoming winter nights.

Jones Soda also innovates with myJones

Jones Soda not only has great beverages, but a great way of packaging them.

Case in point — pun intended — is myJones.com. You can get a case of Jones with your own selected labels. They also provide some, like these lolcats. For fans of Jones, it could be a great present for them.

See myJones: Customize and personalize your Jones Soda for weddings, graduations, parties, events, birthdays….

The Metropolitan Opera innovates again


It is ironic that an opera house seems more innovative than many in the pop recording industry: “then” is more advanced than “now”. The latest thing they are going to do is Offer Performances on the Web. According to the NYTimes.com:

‘In the Metropolitan Opera’s relentless quest to exploit all media, the company next Wednesday will start making many video and audio broadcasts available for Internet streaming on demand.

Met Player, as the service is called, will be available through the Met’s Web site, metopera.org. At its inauguration, on the 125th anniversary of the Met’s first show, users will be able to choose from 13 high-definition video performances, 37 standard video recordings and 120 audio broadcasts dating to 1937. The company said it planned to add performances regularly, drawing on its vast historical archives and its continuing high-definition broadcasts.’

The player looks good, but the proof will be in the sound. The Met has a sterling reputation; I am optimistic it will be good.

How systemic changes improve societies


I believe that better way to improve societies is through systemic changes. Providing everyone access to clean drinking water reduces disease. Improving lighting through a city reduces crime. Providing free education and libraries increases literacy.

I said the better way because there will still be disease, crime and illiteracy, but you greatly reduce this ills if you do this simple (but not necessarily easy) things.

I thought of this when I watched Bill Clinton speaking at this TED conference (See here). He talks about the approach they took to driving down the cost of drugs for HIV/AIDS. What I like about it is that it is a systematic approach they took: improve the supply chain, change the business model, be economical in the best sense of the term. The result is more medicine for more people which results in people living longer and better lives.

It is a common wish that everyone should live longer and better lives. But in going from the wish to the fulfillment, people can get tangled up in ideology, philosophy, and all sorts of things that don’t promote the very thing they want.

Applying systematic changes will often get us 80% of the way from wish to fulfillment. 100% might be best, but 80% is much better than 0%. And that’s why I believe that better way to improve societies is through systemic changes.

I can’t recommend the TED site highly enough.

Who are the most polite people in the world?

New Yorkers, of course!

Having been to New York a number of times, I would say that while New Yorkers can be gruff, I have found them to be some of the most well mannered citizens that I have met. I wasn’t surprised to see that they came out on top.

As someone who lives in Toronto, I was also happy to see us come in third.

The article appeared in the Canadian edition of Reader’s Digest, which may be why there is more of a Canadian angle to the story. But it is global, and it is worth reading.

See How Polite Are We?

(Pointer from andrewSullivan.com)

Obama takes political campaigning to a whole new (virtual) level

According this article in GigaOM, Obama Is campaigning within games:

‘Last week we noted unconfirmed sightings of an “Obama for President” billboard in the Xbox 360 racing game Burnout Paradise. Today we’re able to report that it is, in fact, an official advertisement placed by the senator’s campaign team.’

What’s a laundry list?

It’s a long list of items, typically used as a comment in regards to someone asking for many things (e.g., “he’s got a laundry list of things he wants fixed on his car”). And where might it have come from? Well, from something like this:

Back in the day when men wore “hose”, not “socks”, and “underdrawers”. Bras were still “under-vests”, I think. Fascinating.
Found here

The challenge of managing the billions of photos of flickr


A good article here on the challenge of imposing some form of guidelines on the millions of people who use flickr. It’s as difficult as you can imagine, but Heather Champ, flickr’s Director of Community, and her team do as good as job as is possible.

Heather has always been on the vanguard on what is happening with the Web and a good photographer: it’s no surprise to see her in this role. Plus she is a good “Canadian girl”: perfect in the role of peacekeeper.

Great person, good article. For more, visit Nasty as they wanna be? Policing Flickr.com

Paul Krugman Wins the Nobel Prize for Economics


Paul Krugman could be the first blogger to win a Nobel Prize! Well, he does much more than blog, of course, but his blog is good to read generally, and very useful to read especially in this time of economic crisis. Hats of to him FTW. 🙂

See Paul Krugman Wins Nobel for Economics – NYTimes.com

(Photo Fred R. Conrad/NYT)

Update, the time blog, The Curious Capitalist, has a good rundown on why Krugman won here

The decapitator strikes fear in the hearts of ads everywhere


Ok, that’s very dramatic, but then so is the work of the decapitator, such as this modified SatC ad.

You can see more of the work here: Flickr: the decapitator’s Photostream. It’s gruesome, but brilliant.

P.S. At first glance I thought the work is misogynistic — there are lots of decapitated women — but there are also headless men, muppets and bees too.  And you might think it is gruesome, but no more than cartoon violence.

Found via http://www.moltn.com/blog/)

What happened to Iceland, and what happens next

BusinessWeek has a rundown of what is happening to Iceland in the global financial meltdown, and what might be happening next, including it doing a deal with Russia for capital. I am not sure if this deal will go through or not. If it did, I expect Russia will make some challenging moves into this founding NATO country.  Meanwhile, Iceland could become an economic basket case.

One line that struck me was “Iceland’s once-proud banking sector”: it doesn’t appear to me that they did anything they should have been proud of.

See The Stunning Collapse of Iceland – BusinessWeek for more details.

Zara thrives by being smart

This article, Zara Thrives by Breaking All the Rules in BusinessWeek, talks about how Zara is succeeding by doing things differently. However, the fallacy is saying there are “rules”. The “rules” are how other people do it. What Zara has done is seen the weaknesses in those rules and done things differently. Zara knows that the sum is what matters, not the parts. So even if parts of its manufacturing could be made cheaper, it would add additional costs down the line. That’s smart. And that’s why they are thriving.

Of course, unlike some of their competitors, they know what to make that will sell. You can have the best supply chain in the world, but if you are delivering something people don’t want, you are dead. Zara knows what people want, and they can adjust quickly when they make a mistake. Not only that, but Zara has lots of ideas, unlike some of their competitors. They seem to produce way more styles than other clothing manufacturers, making it more likely you will find something you want. That’s also very smart.

The Great Stephen Fry and I


I have been a fan of Stephen Fry for a very long time: I’ve enjoyed his films (“Wilde”, “Peter’s Friends”), his TV shows (“Jeeves and Wooster”, “Pocoyo”) and his writing (the book “Paperweight” and his blog, “Paper Cuts”). He’s done much more than that of course. He’s a great artist.

Besides being a great artist — he would modestly disagree with that — he is also very computer literate.  I have seen him speak on some of the most arcane topics with the ease of someone reading a children’s bedtime story.

When I found out he was on twitter, I thought: I had to follow him. What surprised me is that he is trying to follow everyone back! I thought this was impressive: most famous (and no-so-famous) people on twitter do it mostly to broadcast as opposed to listen.

If you are on twitter, you can follow him here: Twitter / stephenfry

Better still, use that Google thingy and find the many things that he has done and go and seek them out. You’ll be glad you did.

Marvin Gaye – I Heard It Through The Grapevine (A capella)!

There are lots of people on YouTube, great people, who can sing “I Heard It Through the Grapevine”. (Besides the incomparable Gladys Knight and the Pips). Go listen to them. Then come back, and hear Marvin Gaye sing it a capella. It’s astounding. Watch as he leaves huge gaps in the song for the instrumentals: you can hear the band in the silence. I love when Gladys Knight sings this song, but I think Marvin does it best.

If someone said that if I wore that frilly shirt I could sing this good, I would wear that shirt everyday.

Sign of the Times

The U.S. national debt clock used to show all amounts starting with a “$” (like the $86017 above). Because the amount of debt in the U.S. exceeded the clock’s ability to display it, they “fixed” it by making what used to be a “$” into a “1”, so it now reads “10149…” instead of “$10149…”.

(AP Photo/Kathy Willens) from The National Debt Clock is shown near Times Square in New York, … – Yahoo! News Photos

It’s Jessica Ketola! And her backup band!…the Police?

Seriously, this is a great story.

According to the YouTube page and other sources, Sting was so impressed
by her in the soundcheck, he invited her to sing with him on stage. Was she any good? See the video and you’ll see.

Very impressive of Sting to offer, and very impressive she took him up on it.

(Found on the always great kottke.org…you can get more here too)

Iceland takes the financial meltdown hard

How hard? Well, according to this story, The party’s over for Iceland, the island that tried to buy the world from The Observer

‘Iceland is on the brink of collapse. Inflation and interest rates are raging upwards. The krona, Iceland’s currency, is in freefall and is rated just above those of Zimbabwe and Turkmenistan. One of the country’s three independent banks has been nationalised, another is asking customers for money, and the discredited government and officials from the central bank have been huddled behind closed doors for three days with still no sign of a plan. International banks won’t send any more money and supplies of foreign currency are running out.

… On Friday the queues at the banks were huge, as people moved savings into the most secure accounts. Yesterday people were buying up supplies of olive oil and pasta after a supermarket spokesman announced on Friday night that they had no means of paying the foreign currency advances needed to import more foodstuffs.’

That hard. Reading the article, I wonder how the people of Iceland are going to be able to get out of the situation. Not only that, but are other countries going to be in the same situation, countries you might not expected to be so overdrawn.

Rahier: where to get great cake in Toronto

It’s my 25th anniversary of working at IBM today, and a good friend of suggested I should celebrate with cake. (A fine idea, I thought). If you need cake, and you live anywhere near Toronto, I highly recommend you go to Rahier. I have been eating their cake and cookies for years, and it is consistently wonderful. One of my favourite things is a chocolate tart which manages to have three types of chocolate in a delicious crust. But really, any thing you get there will be delicious. For more details, see:

Rahier Patisserie, Toronto (french pastries) 1586 Bayview Avenue