Links I have liked in the new year, pasted straight from the sites where I scraped the titles:

• ephemeral profiles (cuz losing passwords is common amongst teens)

• Black Tie Optional (hint: naked parties)

• The Simpsonzu

• WHAT ARE YOU OPTIMISTIC ABOUT? WHY?
• OPEN SECRETS: Enron, intelligence, and the perils of too much information.

• Freakonomics: The Gift-Card Economy (excellent verbage: "the dead-weight loss of Christmas")

Also dudes, I saw "The Queen" (trailer, imdb) on the airplane Sunday, and it was excellent. I don't think I would have ever thought to see it, but it was recommended to me, so I donned the cheese airline headphones and really, really enjoyed a film about the British Monarchy, change, stoicism, grief, privacy and public life. Bunches of stars and upward-pointing thumbs for that one, particularly since it was so unexpected.

Mike Wilson, Sharing Water in the Desert

Cameron invited Kelly and I to join him at the Scottsdale Center for the Arts last night for a special screening of the film "Crossing Arizona" (official site, trailer, imdb, and a review from Sundance). The film is a documentary that sets out to examine most of the major perspectives on illegal border crossings and immigration from Mexico to Arizona, and in that regard, the film is a success. The film is not a stylized, sensationalized, sweeping, Michael Moore-type editorial -- it is a sensitive and very human documentary that follows people, usually one by one, around southern Arizona as they do the things they do. Perhaps most importantly, the film does not seek to solve the problem or end the debate, but instead to offer perspective and encourage dialog. I encourage you all to see the film.

At the end of the film, one of the directors, the producer, and one of the people featured in the film, Mike Wilson of the Tohono O’odham Nation, all shared their time and fielded some questions from the audience. It was a very different sort of Wednesday evening for me, and I enjoyed the time to think about what is a complex, troubling and difficult issue.

That Kottke dude is still pretty damned good.

• Erik Blevin's Kick Ass Movie Pitches: 12 pitches, one for each month of the year, from a Staples employee. They're great.
  
• Steve Wynn put his elbow through a Picasso that he had just sold for $139 million to hedge fund billionaire Stephen Cohen. Read a first hand account of the event from Nora Ephron.
• The human species may split in two: "The descendants of the genetic upper class would be tall, slim, healthy, attractive, intelligent, and creative and a far cry from the "underclass" humans who would have evolved into dim-witted, ugly, squat goblin-like creatures." Whoa.

• Scarlett Johanssen is rumored to be recording an album of Tom Waits covers. If you want to hear her sing now, you can check out the mp3 stereogum dug up of Scarlett singing Gershwin's "Summertime".
  
• The Sustainable Dance Club: the floor generates energy as people dance, the toilets are flushed with collected rainwater, and the walls change colors based on the temperature in the room (video at YouTube). This came in through the Springwise newsletter, and Cam called my attention to it.
• The Franklin Mint: in 2000, these guys sold a billion dollars worth of this shit.

"This is the 'Godfather II' of tasteless prank films."

According to the The San Francisco Chronicle.

Things I have collected during some travels around the w-w-w recently:

• Good Magazine: "Our mission is to stimulate the culture of good by creating dialogue around things that matter." Wow. That's pretty awesome. The subscription to the magazine is $20, but all $20 goes to a nonprofit of your choice. So... subscribe! I did. The magazine was founded by a 26 year old named Ben Goldhirsh. The premiere issue is on newsstands now.
  
• The Departed. DiCaprio, Damon, Wahlberg and... wait for it... Jack Nicholson. Bam! That looks good enough to put on the calendar right now.
• Yahoo! Finance launched new charts that are much better than Google's new charts. So there! And, in other Yahoo! News, the stock tumbled 11% today after the company warned that advertising spending from certain sectors is slowing faster than anticipated. Bummer.
• The new Vox homepage sucks. Nobody likes it. I don't want to see first what strangers are doing. And the gimmicky little rotating thing? Is that a feature looking for a purpose? Bring me my neighborhood, my friends, and s-s-s-somethin' from the comments, you hard chargers.
  
• This is pretty f-ed up... "Slimming photos with HP digital cameras" [via Daring Fireball]
  More... "They say cameras add ten pounds, but HP digital cameras can help reverse that effect. The slimming feature, available on select HP digital camera models, is a subtle effect that can instantly trim off pounds from the subjects in your photos!"
• Joe pointed out these Flickr MiniCards. Personal cards are cool, I'm telling you, and good looking personal cards made with photos you have captured is really cool. First ten free if you're a flickr pro member. You know, that crack cocaine business model.
• And some of teh funny at Threadless: "I'd give my left arm to play drums for Def Leppard". Scotty, Pauly, Joe? One of you has to rock that shirt.