False Positives

On CBC’s Toronto morning program Metro Morning they have restaurant reviews that are a little different: good eats, cheap, and not your usual tucker : Beyond Burgers (and the archive). Beyond Burgers is Must Listen, Must Eat Radio.

Happily they also post the information summaries for current and past reviews at the above link(s), and include mp3 podcasts of the segments - one restaurant per segments. There are many places we have yet to visit, but I can add my highest personal recommendations for two places that journalist Catherine Jheon (CJ) has mentioned:

1) Black Camel - 4 Crescent Road (at Rosedale Subway stop across from Ramsden Park) Gmap; Open Monday to Friday from 7:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.; (416) 929-7518

It’s hard to spot, as its only sign is a small Black Camel on white. It specializes in home-style slow roasts like slow roasted black angus Bisket. Yummy. The have only a very few tables in side. (Perhaps they will put some seats outside now that the nicer weather is here?) The sandwiches go for $6 - very good value considering the high quality ingredients. (mp3 podcast) (and Joanne Kates likes it too!

2) Lahore Tikka House - 1365 Gerrard Street East on the south side, east of Greenwood. (416) 406-1668 GMap

Pakistani foods like paneer , chicken tikka, lamb kebabs and nan. Very tasty large serverings, and friendly. (mp3 podcast )

Send your tummy and taste buds on a gastronomic world tour without leaving Toronto/Food

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Boing Boing’s geek goddess Xeni Jardin comments on Baby, you are, like, so kawaii, Anime-inspired cosmetics for creating a “supercute” look. (Kawaii (kah-wah-ee) means Cute or Super Cute). Often used on its own when observing a situation or character having any distinct level of cuteness. (think “Hello Kitty”) A less common, secondary meaning is “cherished, beloved.” See Takashi Murakami and Superflat for more), and images a Sailor Moon makeover reality programming show hosted by four gender-ambiguous cosplay co-hosts!

If you want to go beyond the use of Anime style art for cosmetics (Style.com, the May 2005 Wired Magazine had a piece in their “Japanese schoolgirl watch” section on contact lenses to give you that gigantic monochromatic pupil look.

In one of those “It’s a small web” moments, Bunny in crouching cliche hidden stereotype wants to introduce Gwen Stefani to its own asian group. My money’s on Bunny.

update: let’s carry on the Anime theme :Photos: Tokyo Anime Fair 2005

Update May 30th: Now in Helen

Under Asian/medicine gone weird/Living Art/Comics.

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Our elderly neighbor, James Douglas Munson - known as Doug - passed away this morning. His wife, Nellie, called me at 6. As soon as I saw him, I called 911 and then gave CPR until they showed up a few minutes later, but it was too late.

Doug was always telling me stories about a Toronto he grow up in ( that does not exist anymore; a place of goose eggs, and chelsea buns ), stories of working at Canada Post (canada’s postal service), the cottage up in the area of the mansfield ski resort, and Family. He was very welcoming to Elicia and me. He loved his flower garden and tomato plants - which caused me some anxiety because I didn’t want to disappoint him. I am lucky to have had Doug as a Friend and a Neighbor. I will miss him, and he will be greatly missed by all that knew him. My condolences to the family.

Here is the notice from the Family (any mistakes are mine, to be posted in the toronto star:

James Douglas “Doug” Munson passed away unexpectedly at home on Friday April 29th 2005 at the age of 76.

Beloved husband of Nellie for 50 Years. Much loved father of Ann, Jim, Ellen; grandfather of Chris, Karen, Nicholas, Michelle, Cheyenne, Samuel, and great grandfather of Brody, Emma, Cole and Zander. Dear brother of Betty, June, Shirley, Ron and the late Dorothy, Ted, Bill and Marjorie.

Friends may call at the Turner & Porter York Chapel 2357 Bloor Street West (GMap ; at Windermere east of the Jane subway), on Tuesday May 3rd 2005 from 9:30 am, until a Service to celebrate Doug’s life in the Chapel at 11:00 am.

In Doug’s memory, donations may be made to the Parkinson Foundation of Canada.

category:Toronto

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Then We’ll Map Berlin (Toronto)…to paraphase Leonard Cohen Song

We Make Money not Art (I think I might have to change my name to “I make Nothing, and even less Money”…)has a story : A Street History in Semacode:

a digital graffiti project installed along the route of the former 3rd Avenue elevated train line throughout Lower Manhattan. This train line was part of a religious boundary called an eruv for the immigrant Polish Chasidic Jewish community in the first half of the 20th century.

SemaCodes being the same thing as QR Codes

Then I remembered seeing this story : We’ll Map Manhattan in the NYT’s, about a suggestion to to make a literary map of Manhattan — not of its authors’ haunts but those of their characters.

Ok, what about combining the 2 approaches. Take your City - say London - with SemaCode or QR Code stickes which takes you to the entry about Sherlock Holmes did X (in Novel Y) here, and also in the “Real World” this historical event happened across the road. All allowing the Literary, and historical, to overlay on the day to day world.

This could also be combined with - or replace to some degree - the PDA Tour guide

QRCode/Tech

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Via The Torontoist we have Toronto writer Gina Mallet’s book: Last Chance to Eat: The Fate of Taste in a Fast Food World, published in 2004 and garnering rave reviews in North America and Britain.

Where has all the good food gone, and what is the fate of food in the world? In the last fifty years ‘food’ has become associated with ‘bad’, with diets and the focus on weight and food nutritional value overcoming the prior focus on food affection. In Last Chance To Eat: The Fate Of Taste In A Fast Food World, Gina Mallet covers the history and problems of five popular foods: eggs, cheese, beef, vegetables and fish. Individual chapters narrow the focus to a cultural examination of the evolution of dishes around each of these ingredients–and changing perceptions about their health and value.

Perhaps it will answer 2 urgent questions : a) When and Why did English food get a rap for being crap? (It can be very very good) b) Is Jamie Oliver the bees knees?

Also, Toronto Foodie web site Gremolata (no RSS Feed. Bad!!) has an good length interview with Gina Malle.

Under:Food

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‘The Age of Engagement’ is the theme of the online advertising conference AD:TECH, taking place now - April 25-27 - in San Francisco.

Morgan Stanley’s Mary Meeker: (Yes that Mary Meeker!) have put up the presentation ( leads to 50 Page, ~6 Mb PDF file ) “More than ever, on-going interaction between brands and consumers is required if advertisers are to stay relevant and provide value.”

AD:Tech have also put up a “blog” at www.adtechblog.com, plus PodCast’s, found via Colin’s Corner.

More commentary from the “Blog-o-sphere” via technorati.com

Categorized Under advertising/ADTECH

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Via PockyBot, home of the New “Doulbe Ebola Mocha” and “Extreme Aids Expresso”, comming soon to a corner near you…

(this is not a demonstration of my poor photoshopping skills) And for the record, I like my Humour like my Coffee : Black, Sweet, and Twisted.

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Via dilbert or local jpg

Yeah, I’ve had emails like that, usually from outlook…..the dreaded winmail.dat file

Under:Humour

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Via we make money not art and Engadet comes ColorCode - apparently a success in South Korea, and are about to be introduced in Japan - which seems like more of a tinyurl.com for cellphones, developed by ColorZip Media.

Although the colour may make it more visible, appealing, I think the fact it is only a tinyurl like link to one companies server, and requiring the connection to the server for any functional make it less value add, and more proprietary lock in.

More info on QR Code, plus I’ve blogged about QR (two-dimension quick response codes), starting a year ago, in TokyoArtBeat and QR codes; One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, BarCode Fish…; Camera Phones Link World to Web; and Camera-phone barcode reader

April 26th Update: Gizmodo has a cute piece on someone doing creating a QR Code using white and dark chocolate as explained in qrcodeblog, a blog in QR codes. Plus RFID in Japan describes an attempt to encode a QR Code message on Bento using Nori (toasted seaweed) and rice: “Nori for the age of information technology”??

Categorized under: Cameraphone/QRCode/Tech

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Getting Space Exploration Right by Robert Zubrin, is a detailed critical analysis of NASA, the politics of Space planning, and the current Space Plan - post shuttle - with suggestion on how to it better. It’s a long-ish but rewarding read.

related stuff: the Russian are way ahead in building the next Crew Exploration Vehicle (CEV) with their successor to the Soyuz, called Kliper (or sometimes “Clipper”?) (see from 2005: The Russians Are Coming, and New Russian Spacecraft On Show In France In June) is a six-crew reusable space capsule, weighing 14.5 tonnes (twice a big as a Soyuz), and being developed by RKK Energiya.

additional info : http://www.russianspaceweb.com/kliper.html;
http://www.astronautix.com/craft/kliper.htm;
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kliper

Also of note is that Roskosmos, the Russian space agency, signed a long-term agreement with the European Space Agency to allow Russia to establish Soyuz rocket-launch facilities at ESA’s spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana. This will allow them to lift bigger cargoes to more useful orbits.

The Russian and ESA are well ahead of building (or re-building) the infrastructure of dependable LOE access, and beyond.

May 4th update : some more details of Lockheed Martin proposed CEV shuttle replacement in (via futurismic.com) Popular Mechanics and Space.com, which looks to be at least doable, although worries remain valid.

here’s the wikipedia entry on the Crew Exploration Vehicle

Categorized under: Space

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