Julia J.

The best professional reviews of top restaurants - Michelin, the venerable European restaurant guide, has recently come under considerable criticism for being elitist, snobby, and just plain wrong. Much of this criticism was directed at its first guides to America and Japan. I cannot vouch for its Japanese guide (although my Japanese friends do not believe European Michelin critics sufficiently appreciate the intricacies of Japanese food, which I could believe) but I have found its US guide to be excellent.

Not everyone likes critical reviews - Zagat and Yelp have become quite popular. But I find those guides to be too noisy. It's hard to tell which reviews you can trust (even when aggregated). But I do feel like I can trust Michelin. My primary experience has been in the South of France, New York and San Francisco, but all the 1 and 2 star restaurants I have been to have been amazing experiences. I would highly recommend the Michelin Guide to anyone who is serious about dining out (it's a great gift idea too =)

The Daily Beast is hit or miss - Former Vanity Fair and New Yorker editor Tina Brown started Daily Beast, a somewhat self-indulgent collection of original articles and syndicated work which calls itself, "..a speedy, smart edit of the web from the merciless point of view of what interests the editors."

Some of the articles are great. Funny original work like this article on David Gergen. Also, Tina Brown has called in such heavy-weights as the always brilliant Michael Kinsley. But for every excellent author, Tina Brown throws in a Randi Zuckerberg, the sister of the founder of Facebook, who is a poor writer and doesn't seem to have much to say of any importance.

So while I might be inclined to follow individual authors, I cannot find a compelling reason to keep coming back to the site. I just don't know what it's for.

Does Fox News make the world worse off...? - I think it might. The argument for Fox News could be:

(1) it's entertaining
(2) it provides balance to an overly liberal news media

And those points are fair. But I would still suggest Fox News might still make the world worse off. The troubling bit for me is that Fox News presents political opinion as "news." I think poltical opinion is fine but really needs to be presented as such, so viewers are not confused. This is also done to some extent in the NY Times, or even on NPR, but I believe the biasis in their reporting is much less than what is seen on Fox News. The American people deserve better news coverage than what Fox News offers.

My favorite movie community - I used to have Netflix, and one of my favorite features was Netflix.com where I could write little movie reviews and share them with my friends. But I got too busy and canceled my Netflix account, so I nowhere to write reviews. Then I got spammed by one of my friends on Facebook by some app called Flixster. But I'm a sucker for movies, so I clicked on it, and now I'm hooked. All my movie addicted friends joined too, and now we all share reviews and pictures. It's great. I also like their movie quizzes. My only complaint is that I waste way too much time on this...I think I need help!

Political insight or liberal gobbly gook? - I can't tell whether Markos Moulitsas Zuniga's blog is actually filled with insightful analysis of political news or if it's just another partisan rant attempting to gain viewership by saying what people on the far left want to hear. Thoughts?

A side note: I was not particularly impressed with Markos's in interviews: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CLzvw45eZUA

Max Richter composes beautiful music..er, ring tones - Obnoxious ring tones have sadly become a part of life. Max Richter aims to change all that. Here on his site you can listen to music composed specifically for your cell phone ring tone. The surprising bit is, it's really good.

On the website you can view postcard images while you listen to each ring tone - the combination is beautiful and evocative. These ring tones are already on sale in Europe, but are not available in North America until September 23rd.

It's an amazing thing when a utilitarian object as a cellular phone becomes a medium for real art. Let's hope we see more of this.

Paris Review for author interviews and young poets - Made famous by its famous founders (including George Plympton) and its fabulous author interviews: http://www.theparisreview.com/literature.php the Paris Review remains a great literary magazine and source for fresh new writing from people you have never heard of.

The website offers an amazing "audio" section: http://www.theparisreview.com/audio.php

More about the magazine here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paris_Review

Sad but beautiful pictures of geeks in costume - Land of the Free - Steve Schofield is a great photographer, and he shows it in his collection entitled "Land of the Free"
http://www.steveschofield.co.uk/gallery_lotf.html

There is a beauty and a sadness in his pictures ...people looking for themselves...filled with loneliness....a portrait of an America that lacks community and purpose.

A community like no other - My mom used to take me to Rainbow Gatherings when I was a kid, and I loved them. But looking back, they were kind of wild. In this counter-culture gathering in the wilderness (the location always changes) you will find friendly and unusual people. Families, computer programmers, stoned hippies (sometimes naked), wild dancing, and much much more. The Rainbow Gatherings are NOT for everyone, but if you are an unusual person looking for other unusual people, you should check it out.

Wish you could be reading a book instead of working in your cube? - Now you can - and without your boss knowing! Read At Work is an amazing website that simulates windows and powerpoint presentations. The cool thing is, the powerpoints are all classic short stories, poems, novels! So when you're reading Emily $#*!inson your boss will think you're working on that marketing presentation.

Beautiful and worth your time - Jamie Livingston, a photographer in New York, took a single Polaroid picture each day of his life from the age of 22 in 1979 until the day of his death in 1997, aged 51, from cancer. Some pictures capture his engagement, birthdays. But others are simple. Playing music with friends. Napping. Laughing.

The site is a story of a life. Picture by picture and moment by moment. The quality of the Polaroids evokes sadness and beauty. Jamie's life was beautiful. And you realize how similar his life was to your own.

The internet is an immature medium. Filled with utility but lacking in art and emotion. This simple website has both.

http://photooftheday.hughcrawford.com/

Calculate your carbon footprint and buy green gadgets - You input how much you drive, fly and spend on energy and then calculate how much CO2 you emit (I emit 50,000 lbs! - eek). It's really interesting to think about. This number also omits thing like how much stuff I buy (bottled water, food, plastic anything, etc.) but it is still scary. The site also allows you to buy carbon offsets that go towards environmentally friendly projects. It's a neat idea, but how do I know my carbon offsets are going to be put to efficient use?

There are also a bunch of neat "green" products that are great gift ideas. My favorite is the solar powered device recharger that works with cell phones, iPods, etc.: http://www.terrapass.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=USBCELL-AA2&Store_Code=TerraPass

Everyone still loves Google, but for how long? - I have loved Google since 1999. Google was friendly, well-meaning, and they had a great search product. However, more recently, Google has seemed more and more like a normal, big company. And with each new product they roll out, I feel like Google would like to take over another little part of my life. And to top it off, Google search has not really gotten much better for the past several years. Now, for health, blogs, news, and other topics, I find Google to be inferior to more specific vertical search engines. Unless Google proves me wrong in the near future, I will be looking to diversify my web service consumption elsewhere. Yahoo, anyone?

Depressing and funny t-shirts and gift ideas - Finally -- a site that tells it like it is and puts it on t-shirts, calendars and other great depressingly funny gift ideas. My favorites include the "more people have read this shirt that your blog" t-shirt: http://despair.com/viewall1.html

I also enjoy the failure poster:
http://despair.com/fail24x30pri.html

Good social network for books - Goodreads is a simple way for you to keep track of books you've read, share them with friends, and find new books to read. You can review books, see what your friends are reading and even meet new people based on book interests (if that's your thing). The site's not spectacular, but it gets the job done.