Thanks to Wilmington’s Cinematique, one of the few possibilities around NC to catch films that aren’t hyped by the major distribution channels, I had the chance to watch Food, Inc. last night. I’ve watched the fun documentary Super Size Me and read some of Eric Schlosser’s (Fast Food Nation) and Michael Pollan’s (Omnivore’s Dilemma) writing, so I’ve already been researching what I consume a lot more than in the past. Despite some overlap, the film is very enjoyable and informative. It also brings up some new issues such as bully tactics used by larger corporations such as Monsanto as well as questionable practices with both genetics and pesticides involved in our food-supply production. I would recommend that anyone who has not seen this documentary seek out a chance to screen it and then talk about it with others!  For more information, visit the documentary’s website, which has some good ideas and links for follow-up and action. Here are some other follow-up links concerning Monsanto and also the safety of one of their products.

This color would look good on my 220D.

By good fortune, I recently made my fourth visit to Europe in the past year or two, with recent trips to Austria, France, and Spain.  My official reason for travel was to attend The IEEE International Conference on Automatic Face and Gesture Recognition and help lead a panel discussion for a special session on the effects of aging on the human face — and how that affects recognition, synthetic age-progression, and other technologies.  (I’ll write more on my recent research later).  Even while working, though, I always attempt to spend a little time exploring the area, and Amsterdam was well worth it.  

I’ll eschew discussion of some of the things for which Amsterdam is famous in favor of mentioning what I found to be the delightful aspects of the city.  In fact, as I’ve found in my recent travels, this visit in some ways made me lament returning to several aspects of our American culture — mostly the hurried, dollar-driven lifestyle that is so prevalent today.  (I feel that unchecked capitalism, taking our good fortune for granted, and an overabundant dose of greed has stolen much value from our modern American life; and our mismatched priorities have caused us to focus so much on so little). Not that Europe is perfect, of course, but there are many things that are admirable very enjoyable in the traditional, old-world lifestyle.

Amsterdam is a beautiful city in many ways with a variety of architecture and an impressive span of structural history.  There does not seem to be one or two iconic locations, perhaps, as in many other well-known cities, but there is a never-ending maze of streets with old, crooked buildings overlooking canals that keep the city from drowning.  In these canals are a variety of boats, including those to entertain visitors, those for recreation (with a good smattering of antique wooden craft), and those to serve the live-aboards (for which I have a certain affinity, of course).  About every third block, mixed with the cobblestone row-houses, restaurants, and shops is a nice little cafe where Illy or Lavazza may be enjoyed.  

Next to these cafes and canals, are one of the most admirable aspects of Amsterdam — the ubiquitous bicycle lanes.  The bicycle lanes are well used, too.  Well-dressed and fit, attractive people move along their way without ever turning a key other than to unlock their bike. Rather than parking lots, there are hundreds of nice-looking, old Dutch-style bicycles chained to anything that will take them.  I rented a bicycle while I was there from Bike City.  The guys at the shop are great, the bike was lots of fun, and I had an excellent time biking to the conference from my hotel down near RAI and also exploring the city before and after meetings.  There are of course the highlights of the Van Gogh Museum and other great museums as well as the Anna Frank house that tells an intriguing and sad story, but the city by itself warrants a visit and lots of exploring apart from the typical.  While there, I’d recommend trying some wonderful Indonesian food at Sama Sebo.  As with any country and people, there have been good and bad moments, but the long history with Indonesia has certainly helped create some of the best food in Amsterdam. Take a look at my Flickr photostream for some more images from Amsterdam.