Philippe Matthews Show Guru Advice, Author Reviews, Tech Reviews, Entertainment News

How groundbreaking, genre-bending collage artist Marco Brambilla traded the Hollywood filmmaking machine for artistic freedom and found himself feted by the pop culture he satirizes.

The recent rise in food prices is just the first warning sign that the way we produce food may not be working so well. There are some important changes that need to be made to continue to feed a growing population. Your local grocery store may be stocked with foods from around the world, but make no mistake: Our food system is starting to fail

The reviews for HP's TouchPad are in, and we have a consensus: It mimics the iPad well but is not yet a proper replacement; WebOS is sexy but not yet perfect or fully mature; the TouchPad is a solid but late entry to the tablet market; and where are the apps? This last point is most important. Only a day after reviewers skewered HP for offering just 300 TouchPad apps at launch, Apple hit 100,000 apps on the iPad

A new campaign to install toilets in the developing world rests not on aid, but on using marketing to convince villagers that bad sanitation is a problem they need to work together to fix.

"IT STARTED OUT as a joke," says chef Kevin O'Connell of the $175 burger he serves at New York's Wall Street Burger Shoppe, a retro diner better known for $5 sandwiches than gourmet offerings. Created purely in an attempt to one-up the $150 double-truffle patty served at Daniel Boulud's db Bistro Moderne, O'Connell's burger--the Richard Nouveau--boasts 10 ounces of Kobe beef, foie gras, exotic mushrooms, cave-aged Gruyère, and fresh truffles packed in a brioche bun. O'Connell added one more exorbitant topping: gold.

Google in legal hot water, Big names (Apple! Microsoft! Sony!) buy big Nortel patents, Facebook battles another would-be owner, RIM's highly public executive brawl. This, and other bits of news from your Fast Company editors, with updates all day. Google Broke Wiretap Laws?

Known for her blunt leadership style, Bartz also makes a deep impression online, according to digital footprint tracker PeekYou. Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz has huge digital feet

Recently, I had the pleasure of speaking with Navman Wireless’s Vice President, Renaat Ver Eecke . What Renaat said about how he led his company to success sounded very similar to Adrian Slywotzky’s hassle map . Below, Renaat describes how market research led to big success for Navman Wireless.

A big chunk of change dropped into the mobile payments company’s lap this week when Kleiner Perkins signed on as an investor. Square's COO, Keith Rabois, tells us where the dough will go.

U.S.

A new study using genes from the DNA-testing service made new discoveries about Parkinson's. Now the company is poised to continue groundbreaking genetic research, at a pace much faster than traditional research. Google-backed genotyping service 23andMe is a novelty for many people: spit in a tube, send it to the company, pay $99 and find out what diseases you're genetically prone to and whether you have any long-lost relatives who also use the service.

"The idea of 'checking in' has resonated with a generation of users," says Josh Williams, CEO of Gowalla, "but at the same time it's one-dimensional and is going to evolve a lot over the next year." When it comes to mobile location apps, I am little skeptical, very intimidated and completely uneducated in how to use them.

An Oscar-winning producer talks about his interest in moviemaking, medicine, and scaleable (storytelling) design. Nearly 8 of out 10 Americans are willing to pay up to $100 for a medical device that monitors their vital signs, according to an IBM study that tracks trends in the use of mobile devices in health care. Fewer than 10% of respondents are paying out-of-pocket charges for such devices today, but more than one-third expect to do so within the next two years.

There are now 100,000 iPad apps, a new look for Gmail, the mysterious Hamptons ATM millionaire, and more.

It’s not that America has lost its ability to innovate.