Sunday New York Times - May 25

Because I find it one of the most enjoyable activities of my week and because I always find a surplus of articles to blog about, I am starting a new routine today. Each Sunday, I plan to post a highlights list from the day's New York Times. I find this paper to be the most interesting collection of articles and features I get my hands on each week and I regularly spend several hours reading it on a lazy Sunday afternoon. Don't strictly hold me to this routine, as there will likely be missed weeks and Monday posts, but do check out these articles if you're at all interested in what fascinates me. 

Sunday, May 25th

Exposed, by Emily Gould - Blogging is still so new to us that we don't yet fully understand the dangers and potential hazardous outcomes of exposing ourselves to anyone who cares to take notice. Gould chronicles her learning experiences during a prolific blogging life.

Flipping Out, by Rob Walker - Walker's Consumed column in the Sunday Magazine is consistently one of my favorite columns in the Sunday Times. It's basically a column about consumer habits. This week he examines the powerful role convenience plays in what we collectively desire from consumer products, viewed through the lens of a cheap camcorder.

The Snare of Privelage, by Elisabeth Bumiller - Elitism is frowned upon when we think about our presidential candidates, but why? Don't we want the best and brightest to lead our country?

Global Dreams for a Wireless Web, by John Markoff - Martin Varsavsky is trying to cover the world with wireless internet access by letting users piggyback off other users. But he is encountering some resistance to his big idea. 

Resistance is Futile, by Seth Schiesel - The rise of the mastermind behind Mario, Donkey Kong, Zelda and the Wii. 

Web Site Puts Focus on Fix in Sports Bets, by Joe Drape - As if professional sports needed any more scandals, it seems likely that more contests are fixed than we realize.

Starting Salaries but New York Tastes, by Cara Buckley - How do you survive in New York City on a starting salary?

Note: You'll have to register and login to see these articles, bit 1. it's worth it; and 2. you'll only have to login once - it stores your login info seemingly forever.

Movie Review: Ironman

On an impulse I went to see Ironman this afternoon. I have been wanting to see it before it left the theaters, so I dropped in the recently reopened Marina Theatre for the 1:15 PM showing. 

I know that superhero movies are not for everyone, but I really liked it. I thought it was funny, had pretty good action, and a great story. I was really hooked by the technology and how amazing these gadgets are that Tony Stark (the lead character) created. 

I thought that Robert Downey Jr. was perfect for the role of Tony Stark. He has that understated delivery of his lines that make him seem cocky and likable at the same time. 

I'm not much of a critic, but I do recommend Ironman, so if you haven't yet seen it, check it out. 

New blog additions

Why blog about restaurants and music in two places, when Yelp and Last.fm will bring them here for me?

Check out the new additions to the blog - Yelp and Last.fm embedded feeds in the right hand panel towards the bottom. 

The Yelp feed will show you my recent restaurant reviews and give you easy access to them to see where I'm eating and what I think. This is pretty mandatory for me in San Francisco since I have discovered that a foodie in Boston is a fast-food eater in San Francisco. I need to get up to speed quickly.

The Last.fm feed will show you what music I am listening to. I have a bad habit of getting obsessed with a song or band and playing them constantly until I tire of the music. So, don't be surprised to see that I'm listening to a lot of the same music over and over. Right now, I'm on a Gavin DeGraw kick after his new album dropped about 2 weeks ago.

Archaeology is cool again!

Well, I'm probably the only person in America blogging about this, and I felt someone needed to turn some attention towards a movie that many people on the East Coast have just sat down to watch as I write this. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull opens nationwide at 12:01 AM Thursday morning. 

I briefly considered going to the premiere tonight (and tickets were still available on Tuesday morning), but then I remembered that I am 27 years old and have a real job and wanting to vicariously be a dashing, adventurous archaeologist is not a valid excuse for being a waste of space all day tomorrow.  

Early reviews (NY Times, Rotten Tomatoes, Roger Ebert) are moderately positive and it is clear that this movie is going to make a boatload of money, especially over this Memorial Day weekend. I won't be seeing the movie until late next week, so I'll do my best to patiently wait until then.

P.S. I'm watching the American Idol finale right now and they just brought some terrible singer back from the auditions and he's singing and all of a sudden the USC song girls and the band march onto the stage. I'd rather they shamelessly promote Fox movies and TV shows than show this total unentertaining randomness. Just give us the results already!

Beer Menus - please come to SF!!

I discovered a new website unveiled a few weeks ago in New York City. The site catalogs all the beer served in bars and restaurants in NYC and allows the user to find bars that serve their favorite beers or find out what beers certain bars or restaurants serve. So, if you are craving a pint of Allagash White, like I often am, you can discover that it is available in 12 bars in Manhattan, at prices ranging from $5 to $9(!) for a 12 oz bottle or $7 for a pint on draft. There's also a GoogleMap showing the locations of the bars. Curiously enough, Schlitz is only available in two bars - and I though NYC has some class! 

The press coverage around this has been funny:

Wired - Finally, a Website for Something that Matters: Finding a Good Beer

CNET News.com - BeerMenus.com, where have you been all my life?

According to the New York Post, the two brothers who started this have gotten plenty of free beers as they have traveled around Manhattan signing up bars and restaurants. I am officially offering my services should these guys want to expand to San Francisco. Please!?!?

The Whale Hunt

Most of you may not know that one of my casual interests is scientific visualization and exploring new ways to display quantitative and complex information. To me this kind of work is a poignant intersection of science and art and I believe that technology gives us some amazing tools to display information in visually appealing and approachable ways to lots of people. I had some great opportunities to do this in my old job and in many ways this interest lead me into the educational technology field.

So, when the 12th Webby Awards were announced last week, I was not at all surprised to see the work of Jonathan Harris recognized yet again. To quote his own bio, Harris's work revolves around "designing systems to explore and explain the human world." (Go here to listen to Harris describe his work.) I guarantee that you will be amazed at the work he has done and my particular favorite has been his Phylotaxis site.

That is, it was my favorite, until today when I explored his Webby Award winning site, The Whale Hunt. A big part of Harris' work has been linking vast quantities of data to a powerful interface for viewing that data. So, rather than pull the data from some outside source, Harris decided to create the data himself by taking thousands of pictures (one every 5 minutes for 7 days) during an expedition to Alaska to join an Eskimo whale hunt. The challenge was to design an interface that told a human story in a deeper way that just viewing the images. So, Harris considered the way we view images and how an interface governs that in order to mimic the experience of living the story. One example (which is astonishingly simple yet simply genius) is to speed up the display of the slide show during periods of the expedition when Harris was experiencing stress or excitement. I encourage you to explore the site. As you do, try to think about how difficult it can be to display complex information and the challenges (and advantages) of doing this online and with technology.

If you're really interested in this topic, check out the work of Edward Tufte, who has written some clever books and essays about displaying quantitative information. His work has applications not only in science, but also in business, education, and art. In particular check out his essay on PowerPoint.

A Saturday night feast

Check out my recent post on the Gastrofabulous blog (to which I contribute to occasionally). I made a great meal last night.

My first new bed

You would think that at 27 years of age, I would have bought my first bed long ago. But alas, with my new apartment in SF, this is the first time that I have had the space and the need to buy a brand new  queen size bed. I have been suffering for three weeks, sleeping on an air mattress in a sleeping bag. Needless to say, I have been yawning everything day after several bad nights of sleep. 

But that all changed yesterday when my bed (ordered from Macy's two weeks ago) finally arrived. I didn't know the least thing about shopping for mattresses, so I spent a lot of time lying on them in the stores. I finally chose a Simmons Beautyrest - maybe you've seen those commercials where they drop a bowling ball on a mattress with bowling pins set up and the pins don't fall over - well that's what I got. And combined with brand new 600 thread count sheets, 2 new pillows and a new mattress pad, last night was a very comfortable and restful night of sleep.