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Sicko: Towards universal health care...

Watched Michael Moore's latest movie Sicko about the US health care system and how its primarily managed by private health care organizations like Kaiser Permanente, Humana and so forth. It was really interesting to see the comparison to countries with national health care systems like France and the UK. Also, it was kind of scary to be reminded that the health care system here is pretty odd - I myself have taken to avoiding regular dental check-ups because its so hard to find an affordable health care plan that covers dental expenses for graduate students - my teeth haven't fallen out yet and this year I caved and shelled out $800+ for a check-up and some fillings. Maybe I should move to Canada...

Anyways, I highly recommend the movie if you like Moore's style :) It's also a timely and interesting documentary to watch given that health care is one of the main issues that comes up in Obama and Clinton debates.

Food security: Drought. Rice. Unrest.

At first bet, food and security don't seem to belong in the same sentence but...climate change is slowly causing disruptions to the global food supply, resulting in national security concerns. The NYTimes has cool article on how a 6 year drought in Australia is causing havoc with rice prices, and subsequent unrest in countries dependent on rice exports for their staples.

Looks like environmental concerns, and subsequent effects on food/water supplies will to continue to creep into international affairs - for example the article mentions how the use of crops like corn for biofuels is contentious because its pushing up food prices, with developing countries being mostly affected by these price increases. This affects policies on renewable energies, etc.

Reminds me of a recent Colbert Report on how potential water shortages may cause future political unrest. So food/water, climate change and security may be keywords in many discussions to come...arguably with developing countries suffering the most from shortages and price hikes.

An addition: South African trade union workers are marching against rising food prices...

NY Times, Cell phones and global poverty...

The NY Times has finally caught on that cell phones are a good platform for communication and connectivity in developing countries...

The title of the article is "Can the cell phone help end global poverty?" which seems like an overstatement... but it's a fairly nice article on an anthropologist from Nokia who does user research in Africa and other developing parts of the world...his mission is to harvest information on people, their cell phone needs and subsequently inform the design of Nokia cell phones...they must be doing a good job because I'm a total Nokia junkie :)

Thumbs up for thumbs up

Another addition to my brunch list which may be my new favorite place - just came from Thumbs Up Diner on Edgewood road - had an absolutely delicious salmon and cream cheese omelette -the portions are insanely big and the prices are good $6-$10 for a huge breakfast - I highly recommend it, but get there early or you're in for a 30 minute wait or longer (as with most brunch places in the ATL).

Jungle Fever

Jill pointed me to Jungle Disk - a cool back up tool - its only $20 for the software and it uses Amazon's S3 storage service. You can configure automatic backups and worry less about hard drives failing and losing precious data...oh my precious...

I've been burned enough times with bad disc drives to fall in love with this solution. Ok, so now I'm locked into the business model and will be paying my monthly fee for storing important documents but at least now I can feel "safer" that its accessible from anywhere on the web and that I'm ok even if my external hard drive/laptop/etc fails.

A small price to pay in my mind...along with my annual flickr bill amongst other things...aah such is life :)

Loafing Creatively in the ATL

Movie, Arts and Theatre:
1. Shakespeare's tavern - go for a meal and a play downtown
(http://www.shakespearetavern.com/)
2. The High Museum - its free on the first Saturday of the month for Fulton county residents
-also has symphony concerts on Thursdays where you can get student tickets and jazz nights on Fridays. Also, occasionally shows movies.
3. Martinis and Imax at Fernbank - really cool atrium here with big dinosaur bones, didn't get to watch a show 'cause they were sold out when I went but I'll be back

4. Midtown Art Cinema for more arty films

5. Tara for more arty films

6. The Plaza on Ponce - old school theater, nice retro way to catch a flick

Coffee Shops:
1. Octane on Marietta street (my-out-of-office office, great sandwiches, excellent vibe, good music)
2. Inman Perk - nice coffee shop in Inman park
3. Dr bombay in candler park - cute tiny coffee shop with lots of second hand books for sale for cheap, no wifi though if I recall correctly
4. Java vino on north highland road

5. The Bake Shop on Peachtree and 8th

Music venues:
1. The Earl in East Atlanta
2. Smithe's old bar on Monroe
3. Northside Tavern on Howell Mill for Blues
4. Vinyl/The Loft/Center Stage - smaller intimate venues
5. Tabernacle - watched a few good shows here, nice seating arrangement makes it easy to see bands
6. Masquerade on ponce de leon
7. Variety playhouse in little 5 points

Decent Bars/Pubs:
1. The Highlander (next to Apres Diem)
2. Corner Tavern in Little 5 points
3. The Independent (has poker on Sundays and pool tables)
4. The Spotted Dog on North Avenue
5. Cypress street on 6th street in midtown
6. The local on ponce de leon
7. Righteous room on Ponce de leon
8. Gilberts - standard pub on 10th street - has music, bar and the food is not bad

Nicer bars:
1. Tap on Peachtreet and 14th street - very nice upmarket pub
2. The Graveyard in East Atlanta - has couches, pool tables, nice vibe
3. Brickstore in Decatur - best selection of imported beers
4. Atkins park in highlands
5. Top flr - hidden slice of cool down on the end of Myrtle Street in Midtown, next to Papi's - had a pizza with duck on it that was really tasty, this is a little pricer food wise but the food is worth it, good spot for easy drinks
6. P'Cheen (on highland avenue) - nice swanky but laid back bar in highland with some outside seating
7. The Porter in little 5 points, rivals Brickstore for the beer menu

8. Bookhouse on ponce - nice, place for drinks

Breweries:
1. Sweetwater brewery - great place to hang out in over summer :), sometimes have live music, buy a glass and have 4-5 beers
2. Gordon Biersch (on peachtree in midtown) - nice small brewery - I love their hefeweizen or however you spell it - tasty!!!

Clubs and Dancing:
1. Sutra - hip hop club on Crescent street in Midtown
2. Halo - nice bar/club hidden away on 6th street
3. MJQ - excellent underground club on ponce

4. El Bar - good for dancing but can get crowded
5. Noni's on Edgewood

6. SoundTable on Edgewood

Hikes:
1. Blood mountain, near Dahlonega is cool, 7 mi loop trail
2. Neels Gap, not as interesting as blood mountain, on appalachian trail
3. Tallulah gorge - nice to hike but need to get there early to get one of the limited permits, better to do in summer I'm told because of wading in water
4. Amicolola falls - nice water falls
5. Desoto falls - too short for me and not such a sight to see
6. Stone Mountain - 30-40 min walk up if I recall correctly

Feed me Seymour

Here's my growing list of places to eat in Atlanta:

Cheap Eats:
1. Canton House - Check out for affordable and tasty dim sum on Buford highway. Its a ways from Midtown but worth the drive. Service is friendly and quick.
2. Eats - on Ponce de leon for cheap, big portions, pasta/meat and sides
3. Ru Sans on Monroe - for cheap sushi, there's also one in Little 5 points

Brunch spots:
1. Flying Biscuit on 10th and Piedmont - my all time favourite for brunch/lunch or dinner - I love their oatmeal pancakes and biscuits
2. Ria's Bluebird cafe (http://riasbluebird.com/) - another great Sunday morning brunch spot
3. Gato Bizco in Candler park (opposite Flying biscuit) - another great brunch spot
4. Radial - on dekalb ave - good decent brunches
5. West Egg Cafe - howell mill road.
6. Thumbs up diner on Edgewood - excellent omelettes and now my new favorite place, good prices for huge tasty portions - what more can a grad student ask for?
7. Cafe 458 - a volunteer based service - all the servers and cooks are volunteers and proceeds from weekend brunch go towards helping homeless people become self-sufficient - tasty brunches too
8. My favorite place in ATL for brunch at the moment - Sun in My Belly (http://www.suninmybelly.com/)

Asian:
1. Spoon on Marietta Road is not too bad for Thai
2. Surin of Thailand in virginia highlands

Desserts:
1. Apres Diem - great atmosphere for doing drinks/dinner/or dessert (on Monroe)
2. Cafe Intermezzo (http://www.cafeintermezzo.com/) - dessert heaven

Italian:
1. Fritte - had good pizza here
2. Pasta di Pulchinella - cute place tucked away on Peachtree Walk - had a decent lunch here, I'd say its comparable to Figo at least for lunch and the prices were not too bad
3. Figo on Howell Mill, good healthy portions for a decent price, and quick service if you want a bite fast

Cuban:
1. Kool Korner - 349 14th Street, Atlanta, GA, 30318 - for great cuban sandwiches [This has closed down]
2. Las Palmeros - 368 5th street in Midtown - great affordable cuban place hidden away
3. Papis - on Myrtle Street in Midtown, good sandwiches

Tapas:
1. Sweet Devil moon - nice tapas place with live music on Piedmont, near 10th street, $3 tapas on Mon/Tue [this has closed down]
2. Fuego on Crescent street

Mexican:
1. Rosa Mexican at Atlantic station - my favourite mexican place
2. Nuevo Laredo Cantina - also really nice mexican place
3. anywhere on buford
4. Pozole - cute place in highlands

Burgers and pub fare:
1. Vortex on Peachtree Street and 8th
2. Atkins park in Virginia highlands

3. Flip on Howell Mill

Cupcakes:
1. Belly in virginia highlands

Indian/Pakistan
1. Panahar - excellent, intimate, byob place, great service and food
2. Madras Saravana Bhavan - excellent vegetarian in decatur
3. Bhojanic in Decatur - very tasty food
4. Choppati - cheap indian

Greek:
1. Taverna Plaka - expensive tapas like greek place, also with bellydancing, food was good

Mediterranean:
1. Ali Baba Mediterranean delights - cool gyro/pita place next to Variety playhouse in little 5 points

Lebanese:
1. Nicolas - has belly dancing and atmosphere, food is not the best

24 Hours and Organic:
1. R Thomas on Peachtree street - good for brunch/lunch/dinner, not too cheap but has organic food and freshly squeezed fruit juices

More upmarket:

1. Shauns on Edgewood

Play on...

I've discovered two cool music stations, one just yesterday and the other a while ago.

For a mix of indie and electronic beats, check out:
http://somafm.com/

For indie music and a host of other music, check out:
http://kexp.org

This station is great for indie music fans, they're always playing new and fresh sounds.

Both sites have playlists updating in real time so you can see the track you're listening to :)