How to eat better

Never

1. No butter.
2. No cake
3. No sugar
4. No deep fried foods
5. No ice-cream
6. No packaged foods (incl ready meals and Twinkies)
7. No MSG
8. No soda
9. No potato chips
10. No fast food
11. No cookies
12. No carbonated drinks
13. No lard, ghee
14. No salt in restaurant food (add your own)




Meh

1. Cheese - twice a week max
2. Red meat - once a week (lean cut, organic)
3. Fish (3 times a week - grilled, wild)
4. Milk (as little as possible)
5. Tofu - once a week
6. Bread - twice a week
7. White rice - twice a week
8. Sandwiches - twice a week
9. Unsalted table crackers - if you're sick
10. Freshly pressed juice, unsweetened (3 times a week)
11. Miso soup (once a week)
12. Pasta (HALF a portion, once a week)
13. Wine (once a week - share with friends or family)
14. Sunflower/canola oil - stir fry only
15. Multivitamin - 3 times a week - if you need it


Yes

1. Yoghurt (natural, low fat, unsweetened)
2. Broccoli - steamed
3. Sweet potato - steamed
4. Avocado
5. Quinoa
6. Brown rice
7. Lentils
8. Banana OR papaya OR melon OR watermelon OR kiwi (at least once a day)
9. All other fruit - whenever possible
10. Sauerkraut
11. Tempeh (stir-fried)
12. Spinach (fresh)
13. Almonds (raw)
14. Oatmeal
15. Apple Cider Vinegar (one teaspoon every night)
16. Dark green leafy vegetables (steamed or stir fried, every other day)
17. Blueberries, blackberries
18. Pure red grape juice
19. Pure cranberry juice (3 times a week)
20. Water
21. Olive Oil (in salad)
22. Walnuts (raw)
23. Watermelon seeds (raw)
24. Alfalfa sprouts
25. Aubergine
26. Zucchini
27. Pumpkin
28. Fresh ginger
29. Ginseng - twice a week

hello california

Hello again,
Pastel green leaves
Powder blue cloudless skies
Free parking, vast choices
Sparse restaurants, cheap fuel
Jetskis pulled by an SUV
Blond boarders tanned
Leaves circling in the hollows of wind
A sea of bikes yet no sidewalks
Invites, Evites, soundbites, obedient dogs
I see you


Hello again,
Spanish voices
Throaty engine basslines
Tweeting seagulls and wispy currents
Slow train and long klaxon
VC talk and Apple chatter
I hear you

Hello again,
Chilly nights, sweet western fragrance
Lily blooms and asphalt melt
Refried beans and classic coffee
Quiet woods and startup engines
I feel you

I'm home.

Coercion: choose one

1.Coercion: People have no choice but to accept it.
2.Tradition: Alternatives have never occurred to people.
3.Apathy: People don’t care one way or another.
4.Pragmatic acquiescence: People know it’s not ideal, but it seems like fate.
5.Instrumental acceptance: It’s not satisfactory, but it gives people some long-term benefit.
6.Normative agreement: People believe it is the right thing to do in the circumstances.
7.Ideal normative agreement: People believe it is the ideal outcome.


- David Held, Political Theory in the Modern State (1989)

Taxis in Singapore

Taxis in Singapore are usually blue or yellow in colour, and are run by about 7 companies. The most popular one is Comfort Delcro and Citycab.

The government does not permit driver-owned taxis. Instead, drivers lease their cabs from one of the cab companies.

Rent of a taxi is S$130 a day (US$100 a day). To break even, each taxi must carry at least 40 passengers a day. The taxi is usually in use for about 20 hours a day, and occasionally 24.

The predominant taxi models are:

Toyota Crown (3.0 litre, diesel)
Hyundai Sonata

There are also a few Mercedes Benz, Chevrolet and Nissan Cedric taxis in use.

The taxi of choice used to be the Nissan Cedric, which gave favour to Toyota's trusty Crown for reliability reasons. Recently, the Hyundai Sonata burst onto the scene as the cab of choice because of its cheap automatic transmission. You don't want to be caught in rush hour traffic on the AYE with a manual transmission.

Taxi drivers usually work in pairs, and do a shift each (day or night). Some "crazy" taxi drivers do not have a partner, and regularly drive over 12 hours a day, 7 days a week.

The government mandates that all taxis be replaced after 5 years' service.
Typically, a taxi will run 600 kilometers (400 miles) every day. Most taxis on the roads of Singapore are about 3 years old, with over 600,000 kilometers on the clock (that's 400,000 miles). One three-year-old Toyota Crown had 845,000 km (600,000 miles) on the clock. And it felt new. All drivers swore that they had not replaced their engines even once.

Taxis are always serviced every month. That's a full government-mandated service, not just an oil change. Taxi drivers don't like this service, because it's half a shift of lost revenue.

Singapore taxis burn about 4200 US Gallons (17,500 litres) of fuel a year.
Having said that, taxis in Singapore are cheap. Much cheaper than they are in the US, or Europe. A trip from Changi airport to downtown (about 12 miles) will not set you back more than $S25 - that's about US$19. Compare that with $55 from SFO to San Francisco, a similar distance. Fares are strictly metered, and the meters are inspected by the government. A taxi driver may not charge for extras that he isn't entitled to. Extras include the rush hour, booking by phone (convenience charge of $2.50), weekends, late nights and ERP fees.

Most of my friends in Singapore have gotten by without the use of a car. In metropolitan and residential areas, a cab is a maximum of 7 minutes away if you book one by phone. The automated phone service delivers a taxi to your location, based on driver availability in the region, and even remembers your name an call location based on caller ID. It works well, except on Sunday mornings, when everyone goes to church.

What I noticed is that many senior "uncle" drivers seemed to be in the older, more traditional Toyota Crown cabs with manual transmission. They seem to have the same opinions about life in Singapore, and all agree that they are forced to work very hard to compensate for the high cost of living. Driving a taxi is something they do because they have to, not out of choice. They speak deferently of the government, though remind me that as a tourist, I am unaware of the harsh realities that Singapore society bestows on its elders with few savings.

In my next post, I'll explore some innovations from the Singapore MRT (subway system) and I'll show you how it's possible to organize a system for mass comfort, mass transit, and mass throughput.

Experts need to assume more risk

Noreena Hertz presented an excellent Ted talk on what the consequence is of trusting "experts".

A few interesting points:

1. It has been shown that decision-making centres in the brain are "switched off" when experts are being listened to

2. Experts are not infallible. Yet there is a growing market of trust in experts (that's why law, medicine, financial advice or any profession with specialized knowledge are growing industries)

3. Actively manage dissent. Welcome dissent and recognize the value of disagreement

4. Democratize expertise, for example, as Miss Hertz suggests, using Prediction Markets, like Best Buy does.





I was previously involved in a startup company that supplied technology similar to that used by Best Buy in "democratizing" expertise to make key decisions. The theory was: a shipping clerk is sometimes party to very key information ("the word on the street") that certain VPs might not be - a method of him contributing this information and this information being aggregated would lead to more reliable forecasts.

While I am equally afraid as Miss Hertz is of putting trust in experts, I would like to suggest an additional factor that might improve one's risk in putting trust in experts: how much skin do they have in the game?

I have benefited from the best medical advice in my life from my very own father, who, knowing I was sick, made it a point to call me on the other side of the world and never stopped asking questions, in a desperate bid to eliminate conditions that he was aware of. The questions continued months after, sometimes years after I was healed. And then I realized why: I was his son, and he had a big stake in my health.

Malpractice insurance, legal indemnity, "past performance is not an indicator of future performance" and a general "I'll give it my best shot, but I don't promise anything" have made it all too easy for professionals to become complacent. I have never heard of a young University graduate fearing going to Law school for the consequences of him sending an innocent man to death row or a doctor fearing becoming a doctor because the consequences of a misdiagnosis would be on his conscience.

My point is that incentives have become increasingly skewed, but the expert titles increasingly valuable (which means that demand for experts has consistently outstripped supply). People have consequently become a lot more trusting and are willing to trade risk for money that they pay the experts. It should be the other way round!

Next time you choose a professional, don't look at his academic, business or other qualifications as hard as you look at his references. When had this person failed, and how did he treat that failure? Does this person actively seek to earn your trust, by demonstrating that a loss for you will be a loss for her? Will this person care about the consequences of the advice he gives, much like Noreena Hertz cared about the consequences of her father drinking a large amount of water?

Will the austerity plan create jobs?

Yes it will.

Having lived ten years in the United States, I have tired of hearing the same old speech that is designed to promote fear. Marilyn Manson explained the reasons why very eloquently in the Michael Moore film "Bowling for Columbine".

At last, a President that looks ahead to the future! A true entrepreneur, who encourages risk, innovation, with (wait for it) even less resources than before, in return for a great reward.

The State of the Union speech signals the end to spending taxpayers' money to "boost the economy." To my chagrin, and that of my fellow Americans, I've seen my money go up in smoke. Unemployment is flirting dangerously with the headline 10% number, and new investment is now going to Singapore and so are the jobs (mine too). Only last summer, I found it exceptionally hard to hire a Ruby on Rails developer in Singapore, but now that's changing...

Anyway, back to my country: with signals come expectations. If expectations are met, credibility follows. A credible commitment to reduce public debt would spur investment and therefore job creation. And, create more long term investment if our bondholders found the value of their bonds stabilizing.

Mr Obama, thank you. I aspire to be an entrepreneur like yourself.

Alam Kasenally

Ipod Touch and belonging

On my return from Singapore, I met my friend RJ on Ramona Street in Palo Alto. RJ is about 65, and was sporting a black knitted ski cap, a dark green windbreaker, jeans, two T shirts and thick boots. We sat down to talk.

When he asked me for the launch date for my "website" (as he called my startup) and I told him, he said he'd write it down in his Ipod Touch, which he brought out from his winter coat, and deftly entered into iCal. He next showed me photos of the family he once had and also an app or two I hadn't seen.

RJ is homeless and has been so for 6 years. When he's collected enough money from his pension, he'll move to Italy, where he'll join his aunt in Tuscany in her two bedroom appartment. I hope RJ makes it to Italy. That's where he was born, and that's where he belongs.

The story of how he acquired the iPod Touch is even more fascinating. One evening, in Cupertino, a lady approached him on the street and asked "Sir, if you could have anything you wanted, what would you ask for for Christmas?"

RJ thought long and hard, and finally said "an iPod Touch". The reasons why, he said, were that he could own it without a monthly fee, and make outgoing calls for free using Google Voice (or for a fixed monthly fee using Skype). Receiving calls was a little bit of a (surmountable) challenge. He could also check and send email (he sported both Gmail and Yahoo email addresses, but said that he preferred Gmail.

The mysterious benefactor disappeared and appeared at the same time the next day brandishing an Apple carrier bag, containing the iPod Touch in question. "Happy Christmas, Sir!" she smiled. He never saw her again.

"You see," said RJ, "People like that restore my faith in the goodness of humanity... I used to have friends, plenty of friends. But once I became homeless, I suddenly didn't. Therefore Skype and Google Voice work fine for me. Forget receiving calls, I mean, who's going to call a guy like me anyway?"

As I drove home that wintry evening in my heated car, i thought of the veracity of RJ's claim that this generous gift had changed his life. How it had given him the opportunity to look for jobs, the opportunity to exist as a digital citizen of the world, connected to each and everybody, to know about the history of Singapore (which he explained to me in fine detail - the only thing he couldn't remember was Lee Kwan Yew's name), to know that Jerry Brown had been elected as governor of California (I had been absent during the election, but equally connected, so had no excuse).

And slowly, I began to smile. My friend did belong.

Do you need to keep your people happy?

In today's yesterday's FT Jonathan Moules explores ways that small companies, startups in particular, can keep people happy.

Mr Moules discusses various ways startups attempt to retain employees, and makes it clear that money, being an extrinsic motivator, doesn't work. To know why, watch this humorous exposé based on the work of Dan Pink.

We get free coffee!

Having come to Silicon Valley and survived two booms and two busts, I've witnessed (and enjoyed) many attempts to make employees feel a sense of community, camaraderie and belonging, as tools for higher retention. These attempts have included:

Unlimited Frappucinos
Company ski trips to Tahoe
Friday beer bashes
All-hands meetings, where the CEO has been in a dunk-tank
Free lunches (who said there was no such thing)
Free massages
Free concierge service
"Free" car (haha the taxman smiled all the way to the treasury with that!)

All of these incentives have more or less been extrinsic ones, and like Mr Pink predicts, have become old. Perks like these get taken for granted, and treated like rights, then abused, ignored and even criticized.

Mr Moules describes the experience of meeting the Queen (a customer of one of his case companies) as an experience that is not likely to be forgotten, hence making the case for unique experiences being likely to encourage intrinsic motivation.

What I've learned

In the last six months, I've learned four things, which might seem rather obvious but are in fact often overlooked during the hiring process.

1. The motivation to perform, excel and stay needs to come from within, and this needs to be demonstrated by the potential candidate. Does the candidate believe that the cause you, as a founder, are working for, is bigger than herself and yourself? Don't let your love for a candidate cloud your vision and assume that she has this motivation. Put her to the test during her probationary period (yes, pay well for this probationary period!)

2. Hire slowly, fire quickly. Enough said.

3. Empower your team by giving them ownership over the entire company. Only then will they understand and be able to feel their importance. Give them a little bit of trust, then, if they pass the test, a little more. See how they react when they are given unexpected responsibility (eg, when you're on a flight or you're sick). Is it "not their problem" and do they do nothing? Or do they try hard to avoid potential problems, and represent the company with pride just like you would?

4. Learn what your candidates passions and dreams in life are. And, if this candidate is passionate about your company, make sure that being with your company will allow this candidate's passions to flourish. Only then will the employee be truly happy. While it might not be your responsibility as a founder to provide a venue for candidates to develop their passions, if your company happens to be a vehicle, you'll see much of the passion transformed into love for your own company.

Although I made many friends at Liberate Technologies, I often wondered what I was doing working for a company that made software for TV when I didn't even have a TV of my own :)

Love

What's paradoxical about love and religion is that there is more published work about these two topics than about anything else: novels, self-help books, literary analyses, plays, comedies, sacred texts, manuals, poems, translations, blog posts, magazines, tweets. And yet, these are the two topics where no matter how much you read, you won't be further enlightened.

So, you may read all the books and blogposts you want trying to understand what love is. But when you experience love, you'll know that it's love, even if you hadn't read those books.

The same goes for hiring.

When you have the right candidate who is right for your company, you'll just know. And, like in a marriage, if you have to try hard to retain her, you're with the wrong employee.

Drink this for me! Or, I'll create that for us

I think there are two types of cult:

The ones led by people (exemplified by someone who came from Indiana) who make their followers drink spiked Kool Aid in the name of faith.

Those (exemplified by a leader who comes from Finland) whose members brew their own version of Kool Aid, also in the name of faith.

When I read this excellent essay on how to hire like you're hiring for a cult, I'd love to think the author was talking about the latter type of cult :)

Survival Skills that Should Be Taught At Elementary School

1. How to cook 10 meals.
2. How to swim
3. How to manage money
4. How to be an entrepreneur
5. How to understand the news

Why:
1. Thank you Jamie Oliver.


"We, the adults of the last four generations have blessed our children with a lifespan shorter than those of their own parents."
It's time to do something about that.

2. In 2004, nine people in the US alone drowned every day.
Needlessly.

3. Parents are more comfortable talking to their kids about sex than money. Money is taboo. And putting a credit card in the hands of today's University Graduate is like putting a Ferrari in the hands of a 10 year old.

4. Being an entrepreneur is a mindset. That nothing is out of your control. This is a survival skill in itself.

5. The news has a direct impact on all children, yet kids are protecting themselves from it. Rightly so, for they are becoming immune to the marketing messages behind the sponsors

Watch "Bowling for Columbine" and look for Marilyn Manson's interview. And then you'll know why.

It's time for change. And the time is now.

Why make billions when we can make... millions?

Here are the largest numbers I have been able to imagine at various ages:

Age 5: "OK class, I want you to count down from 100" (Mrs Millner)
Age 6: "There are tens of thousands of people in America. It is one of the biggest countries in the World" (Mrs Lardner)
Age 7: "I've got millions of stickers at home" (Norman Benezra)
Age 8: "A Rolls Royce is what millionaires drive" (my mother)
Age 9: "China has one thousand million people, it will soon be a superpower. The World has four thousand million people" (my grandfather)
Age 10: "A billion is a million million, but in America they call a thousand million a "billion" (my grandfather)
1990: "The Savings and Loans crisis is likely to cost the American taxpayer over $100 billion" (Time Magazine)
1998: It's called "Google". I think it means 10 to the power of 24 or something (Alberto)
1999: Yahoo! is bigger than British Airways! (Poster at LHR December 1999 - YHOO market cap at $120bn)
1999: Dot Com billionaires
2008: The Zimbabwe government is now circulating a Z$ 100 trillion bank note
2009: "What if I had a Googol pennies?" (Ria - age 5)
"Well, you know your school, you could buy that with all that money"
"Really!?"
"And I'll ask you for a job!"
"Why?"

2009: The healthcare plan is estimated as costing $800 billion, bringing the total US debt to over $10 trillion... (Reuters)

Will we have Clean Energy Trillionaires?
or
Nanotech Googlites?

I believe

That people are good
That heart disease can be reversed
That we have much to learn from children
That sunrise is an auspicious gift
That laughter is the best medicine
That the financially poor have as much to give
That a smile is a priceless gift
That cynics live in the present
That there’s nothing that you can do that can’t be done
That love never dies: it is kept alive by a pilot flame

What is mankind's greatest achievement?

Flight

Something's not right...

While protecting the residents of Afghanistan against terrorists whose only aim was to conduct suicide missions to the United States and terrorize innocent Afghanis along the way, we happened to stumble upon $1 trillion worth of Lithium. What hope for the people of Afghanistan! This could put an end to all their suffering!

Chick Magnet

Tino: That's one Chick Magnet of a car your brother has!
Anje: Yeah, I was just about to say that!
Mateo (4): Hey, what's a chick magnet? [ Mateo's favorite movie is Pixar's "Cars", and his favorite character in it happens to be "Chick Hicks"]
Me: Ask your father!
Anje (to the rescue): It's a car that both girls and boys can share


Life doesn't get much better than this...

Not Hip Enough

Wanting to understand the current wave of affection (or rather affliction) for the new Hipster culture, I decided to do some reading and also talk to some friends who're self-pronounced hipsters (or otherwise in denial).

What I noticed is that "hipsters" reject the pressures of modern consumerism, sometimes resorting to inconvencience (unconsciously or otherwise) to make a statement on their sophistication.

Furthermore, they are disillusioned by the advertising culture (why so many work for Google and Ad Networks up in the City, I don't know :), can explain the difference between Mitt Romney and Pete Wilson, have an understanding of fine art, are good at mental arithmetic, are good at improv, can tell the difference between a '94 and '96 wine, can move large planets out of orbit and can whoop my a** at sports. Except for, of course, my favorite sport: sleeping.

I've also been introduced to the Hipster toolkit:

- Karman Ghia
- 1984 IBM PC Keyboard
- Hemp shirts and
- Gaulois cigarettes in shirt pocket
- Vans sneakers
- A degree from Oberlin College
- Distinctive glasses that don't really have any optical power
- Loyalty card at an organic sushi restaurant (where they don't use Carbon Monoxide to keep the Toro bright red)
- MUNI pass
and finally:
- Esoteric iTunes playlist


I am no biking expert, but I wouldn't want to bike in San Carlos on a fixed-gear bike. Though a fixed gear bike is cool in its simplicity and design, it's just not made for hills.

I almost jumped out of my skin when one of my best friend accused me of having hipster aspirations:

- Old car
- iPhone 2G
- Bike rather than drive
- Vegetarian
- Grungy clothes

I can safely protest that my current image is all out of necessity, and let's face it, I'll never be cool enough!

(Written on Caltrain Northbound in a Mac OS X terminal using "vi". There. I'm no hipster)

surprise call

Had a very interesting conversation with the CEO of a French company considering the US market to launch his products. Chatted in depth about Twitter, Foursquare and Social Networking in the US. One of those mornings where you learn a lot even before your morning coffee... I love being able to listen to and share ideas with people across the World!

Happiness? There's no app for that

One of my favourite parts of the week is my drive to SFO with Tino. During this drive, we've discussed topics as diverse as Tiger Woods, literature, family, public policy, art, and of course technology.

On our last drive, we decided to talk about the iPad, and what a killer app might be. Tino believes that as well as a content consumption, and light content creation device, it might be a killer communication device in the future.

Tino discussed his and Lucy's experiences with Skype. I was intrigued to know that Lucy was put off with Skype very early in her experience. The very unusual symptom of her husband seeming to have "hiccups" while saying something crucially important from Washington DC was enough for her to want to forego a free connection and resort to the trusty telephone. A trusted, expensive-to-use technology with limitations (hiss, faintness, echo) that are well known and accepted to her.

As an early user of VOIP (I'm talking Speak Freely, a command-line VOIP utility that was first run on Unix, then ported to the PC in 1995), I can testify to her frustration. I remember shipping my brother in Mauritius 3.5" floppy discs with the speak freely program on it (downloading 1.2M over modem would have taken him all day and cost hundreds of dollars, at that time), then going through countless "can you hear me" test calls. At which point, my father said "Let's just call him" (for $2/minute). I noticed, too, that my father would still call me for $2 a minute rather than use skype, when there was something important to say. He was, no doubt, trying to save himself from the indignity of hiccups as well.

Skype has made massive improvements, but is still hiccuppy, an artifact more of compression, transmission, lag and the whole mechanism of shipping your packetised voice across country, then re-assembling those packets.

Having tried Dragon Dictate products on the iPad and iPhone, I can empathise with the frustration that causes a new user to abandon a product, no matter how technologically advanced.

Premise: Dragon dictate will free your hands and allow you to input your text faster than with your keyboard!
Facts: At the very best, if you babysit the dictation device, you'll get decent throughput, and if you don't, you might SMS your best friend that you're drinking with his wife, rather than an invitation for drinks at the Y.
To me: Dragon Dictate is a toy. I would prefer to suffer the inconveniences of stopping my car to type an SMS than the mental anguish of dealing with handsfree dictation on the go.

Which led us to talk about what might make Skype easier. Tino, I think found the holy grail, when he said that the conscious act of starting Skype, waiting for a connection to the server, then locating the contact, calling them if they were available, was enough to put many people off.

Here, I'm inclined to think: do people want apps? Or do they want to do things? Apple took a big bet that people don't want programs behind a start menu, super high configurability. They just want to DO things - hence apps.

Do users want a simple command and control experience? Could "Call Tino", issued as a voice command, which would ring either his Blackberry or skype account, WITHOUT even launching Skype, be what might compensate a new Skype user for the uncertainty of a jittery connection? Are apps a thing of the past?

I think that no-apps are a thing of the future.

Much like, when you pick up the phone and dial a number, you are oblivious to the exchanges in between you and the other subscriber, or even that the other subscriber might be on a mobile or satellite phone, or even in another country! At the dawn of the telephone age, placing a phone call required knowledge of the other person's exchange, and manual intervention by an operator. Now, the distances, technology and complexity in between are taken for granted. Because placing a call is so easy. (And almost too easy. I've been woken up by "pocket calls" from friends in other countries in the middle of the night way too many times. That's what you get for having a name that starts with "A".)

My vision of the future is:

"Call Dad for his birthday at 1100 his time and remind me half an hour before"
"Send this document to Rosemary, emphasising the executive summary"
"I'm unreachable until Asia is online again"
"When my boss approves my vacation, let my parents and wife know, and confirm the booking for the hotel and the cruise"

Computers have come a long way. But they are still forcing us to think and act the way they do. They need not.

The Strangest Meeting

All I can say about the meeting is:

I thought that only in movies did female secret service agents:

- Resemble Sandra Bullock
- Wear thick-framed spectacles
- Carry two Blackberries
- Wear black
- Put others under oath

That's all I can say.

Strangest phone call

On Monday evening, while I writhed in bed with dehydration, I got a call from a 619 number. San Diego, I remembered. Might be Arlene, might be Bruce, might be James. Anyway, they can wait.

When I returned the call, I found out that the call was for a reference. For someone that had worked for me in the past. But the most interesting things were:

The interviewer wanted to interview me in PERSON
The interviewer had flown to the Bay Area from San Diego just to interview me
The interviewer could not tell me what job this was for
The interviewer could not tell me the name of the candidate
The interviewer did not know where Redwood Shores was
The interviewer told me she would stay in the SF Bay Area until I was ready to meet her.

I'm meeting her in 1 hour in Palo Alto. I'm nervous...

do Antz have lungs?

I recently had the privilege of watching about 20 minutes of Dreamworks' "Antz" with Yasin on my way back from Palo Alto.

Two things:

The "chewing gum" scene was amazing - I always wondered what an ant went through stuck to the bottom of a piece of chewing gum which in turn was stuck to the bottom of a Reebok sneaker.

I almost dropped my iPhone when I saw the female ant lead (voiced by Sharon Stone) attempt Mouth to Mouth resuscitation on "Z", the renegade soldier mouthed, I mean voiced, by Woody Allen.

Huh?

I always thought that ants breathed using passive diffusion through tracheoles in their abdomens (which were clearly not visible in the animation). So forcing air down an ant's gullet isn't likely to result in any resuscitation as the ant has no lungs!

But maybe four year olds are not supposed to know that?
Or that Antz have lungs and ants don't?
Or maybe snogging Woody Allen was in Sharon Stone's contract?

I forgot to ask Yasin whether these ants carried cellphones, like Scooby Doo's digitally remastered friends do, way before cellphones were invented (in the 1970s).

What will they think of next?