The Shape of Water (2017) *

Straining at its fantastical and metaphorical ambitions, this film never comes together even on its own terms unless you are a "hopeless romantic" or just into aquatic bestiality. Also it uses the decapitation of a cat as a punch line. Not funny.

Elvis Costello's New Year's Resolution - Rolling Stone

He's also writing new, non-theatrical songs but he hasn't committed to making a new album out of them yet. "Making a record is a much more difficult thing than it used to be, because people have to persuade themselves it's worth slapping down the greenbacks to get the songs onto tape or some recorded medium," he says. "Most people get their music these days in some sort of subscription service, so all the songwriter wants to do is suggest what order to listen to the songs in for the best effect. Beyond that, people usually make their own choices."

Minimal carbs, lots of fat, incredible dieting results – but no science - The Globe and Mail

All human diets before agriculture were effectively carbohydrate-poor, and many, particularly in northern latitudes, were fat-rich. And until the industrial revolution, virtually all human diets were absent the highly refined grains and sugars that the LCHF philosophy specifies as the primary causes of obesity and type 2 diabetes.

As early as 1825, French culinary expert Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin, whose The Physiology of Taste is among the most famous books ever written about food, was arguing that carbohydrates cause obesity. In the 1860s, the LCHF diet became widely known as a Banting diet, after British undertaker William Banting, who wrote the first bestselling diet book based on his LCHF conversion experience. Variations on LCHF then spread from England to the European continent, embraced by German medical authorities as the most effective diets for reversing obesity.

By the early 1950s, physicians from some of the best medical schools in the world – Harvard, Stanford and Columbia, for instance – were publishing articles in the academic literature advocating for LCHF diets to treat obesity, advising obese patients to eat "as much as [they] like" of meat, fish, fowl, eggs, animal fats, cheese and green vegetables, while avoiding all carbohydrate-rich foods and beverages, particularly "all sweets." This is what Hilde Bruch, the leading mid-20th-century authority on pediatric obesity, believed. It's what Benjamin Spock taught in six editions and almost 50 million copies of Baby and Child Care, the bible of child-rearing from the 1950s onward. "Rich desserts," Dr. Spock wrote, and "the amount of plain, starchy foods (cereals, breads, potatoes) taken is what determines, in the case of most people, how much [weight] they gain or lose."

Facebook Can Now Find Your Face, Even When It's Not Tagged | WIRED

Facebook’s head of privacy, Rob Sherman, positions the new photo-notification feature as giving people more control over their image online. “We’ve thought about this as a really empowering feature,” he says. “There may be photos that exist that you don’t know about.” Informing you of their existence is also good for Facebook: more notifications flying around means more activity from users and more ad impressions. More people tagging themselves in photos adds more data to Facebook’s cache, helping to power the lucrative ad-targeting business that keeps the company afloat.

Once Facebook identifies you in a photo, it will display a notification that leads to a new Photo Review dialog. There you can choose to tag yourself in the image, message the user who posted an image, inform Facebook that the face isn’t you, or report an image for breaching the site’s rules.

Sounds like a nice feature, but I would like to know more about what Facebook does behind the scenes with those identified images. Sure, you can choose not to be tagged on the poster's photo, but you are always tagged in the database.

Okja (2017) **

Technically impressive anti-meat polemic is way too long and repetitive, but any flick that pairs an action sequence with this song deserves a break.

Wonder Wheel (2017) ***

Woody still shows he can direct a film with some gorgeous images and colors, and actresses with Kate Winslet giving an award worthy performance. Gets to the heart of the matter (like most of his films) and doesn't flinch.

The Disaster Artist (2017) ****

Actor James Franco bails out director James Franco with a mesmerizing performance as the enigmatic lead in this movie about making a bad movie. Great fun.

The Big Sick (2017) ***

The rom-com formula gets an upgrade that skirts the edges of cliché but never succumbs. Sweet and heartfelt with some terrific supporting performances.

The Smithereens - House We Used To Live In - YouTube

Requiescat in pace, lead singer, band leader Pat DiNizio. Great band.

The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected) (2017) **

Not as sharp or incisive as we've come to expect from Baumbach and it's hard to care about these characters. Kind of a waste of a very good cast.

Silence (2016) **

Well made but far too long. Or not long enough. May have played better as a 6 part limited television series. Still, resonant and thought provoking examination of faith.

Lady Bird (2017) ****

Stellar cast, terrific screenplay, thoughtful, subtle direction. The coming-of-age film to end all coming-of-age films.