Timmy the Tooth

Dear Icelandic Phallological Museum,

While I am no stranger to the pleasures of gawking awkwardly at the male member, I must say: what the fuck? Do we really need an entire museum full of dicks? I mean, I got your dick museum right here, Iceland. It’s called online dating.

But I’ll play along with your phallological shtick (or shall I say “rod”). I’m a bit intrigued by your founder, who seems to have stumbled into the field of phallology. (You know, he just fell into hundreds of dicks “by accident.”) According to your website, the museum’s founder began his collection after being given a pizzle and a few whale penises as a joke. I totally understand this progression. One minute some guy gives you a whale penis, the next you’re the proud owner of a dick museum. Seen it a million times. Even the most innocent interest in male genitalia is a downward spiral. Just a few years ago, a man came up to me with some fried bull testicles. Come on, he said, just take a little taste. Don’t be a pussy. After a few weeks, I’d lost my job, my friends, my home. I spent my afternoons huddled outside of the local Spay and Neuter Clinic hoping for a payload. Come on, Doc, Momma needs some Rottweiler balls! I shudder at the memory. At least your founder was able to channel his genital addiction into a positive avenue with so many social benefits. As you note on the website, “it is finally possible for individuals to undertake serious study into the field of phallology in an organized, scientific fashion. “ Phew! Finally! For a moment there, I thought I’d have to keep doing all of my serious study on Pornhub.

In addition to an extensive exhibition of male genitalia, the museum also displays “about 350 artistic oddments and practical utensils related to the museum s chosen theme.” Practical penis utensils? Like, Martha Stewart’s “Genital Inspirations” line of cookware? I mean, every time I plan a fancy dinner party, I’m always sure to set out the Dick Sporks and Semen Ladles. Or perhaps you are referencing such pieces as the “Trey [sic?] for Schnapps,” which is featured proudly on your website. While the tray’s penis-shaped handle is quite impressive, I find the entire piece a bit clichéd. I mean, Schnapps and cocks? Come on, Iceland, that was so last weekend.

The real reason for my letter, however, is to ask the most obvious question: where all the vulvas at? For a country with one of the smallest gender gaps, something seems suspect. Where’s the bronze cast of Susan B. Anthony’s vagina, which doubles as a ballot box? Where’s the giant Vagina Maze for children, which incorporates a really awesome slide and a mediocre ball pit (Look, Mom, I’m balls deep!)? And where in the hell is the Megan Trainor song about body image issues? I understand the logistics of obtaining vaginal specimens is a bit more extensive than lopping off a dick, but amazing things are being done with rubber and silicone. For $29.95, you can purchase Clone-a-Pussy, which will mold to the shape of vaginas big and small (as seen on Jersey Shore, another global authority on dicks and dickheads). I can personally attest to the accuracy of these molds. A few weeks before Christmas, my friends and I made a drunken pact to exchange molds of our vaginas in lieu of presents. Not only did I mold my vagina for my friends, but I had the genius idea to cast ceramic bowls from that mold. Well, Christmas came, and my “friends” just gave me a bunch of bullshit presents like Amazon gift cards and chocolates and shit. No rubber vaginas to be had, which made me feel all self-conscious, so I had to pretend like I didn’t get them anything for the holiday. I probably seemed like an asshole, but sometimes you’ve just got to say, “Aw, man, I totally forgot it was Christmas,” instead of saying “Aw, man, I got you this awesome bowl in the shape of my inverted vagina so you can feel awkward while eating hummus. Get the extra garlic kind. It’ll be just like real life.” My disappointing Christmas experience aside, these vagina molds could be just what your museum needs to close the blatant gender disparity. You could display molds from hundreds of mammals—rats and jaguars and giraffes. You could make a riveting documentary about molding a jaguar’s vagina. Maybe one of your cameramen will die tragically during the jaguar’s struggle. Maybe this tragic death will make for great cinema. Maybe you’ll win an award at Sundance, and countless visitors will flock to your museum. The opportunities are endless. The way I see it, you’re only achieving half of your genital potential. Think outside the box. Or, in this case, think inside the banana box.

If a room filled with silicone vaginas seems too much for your phallological tastes, at least consider allowing women a Breast and Teat Wing. Think of the possibilities there. The mammoth milk gland of a sperm whale. The little nubbins of Capuchin monkeys. A Conduct-Your-Own-Mammogram Exhibit. And there’s commercial potential, as well. Chocolate milk. Rocky Road ice cream. Cappuccinos served in dick-shaped glasses. You can even create your own lingo like any quality, modern-day coffee house. I’ll take a double-shot Ron Jeremy Latte with extra Bukkake. It’s just like ordering a drink at Starbucks: I’m not sure exactly what it means, but it sounds delicious.

While I’m hopeful that you will incorporate more female-inspired exhibits in your penis museum, I also have a premonition that you will continue to ignore society’s better half. I can already imagine how my proposed Breast and Teat Wing will progress with your board of trustees. After a “budget evaluation,” the Breast and Teat Wing will be renamed the Breast Wing, which will be renamed Hooters, which will offer “Women’s Wednesday: All You Can Eat Roast Beef! (Men Eat Free!).” At the very least, please serve the beef in those fancy vagina bowls I made for my lame friends. That way, every bloated customer will be forced to navigate labial folds and clitoral hoods whilst cutting through the medium-rare delights. And when they sop up the bloody remains of beef, their buttery rolls will reveal the ceramic wink of my whispering eye. Come on, Iceland. It’s the least you can do for women’s lib.

Sincerely,
Eliese Goldbach

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The recent polling surge by Donald Trump has launched a thousand stories about Trump’s “unprecedented campaign.” But it’s nothing all that unusual: Similar surges occurred for almost every Republican candidate four years ago, including Herman Cain, Michele Bachmann, Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich (twice).

History’s lesson isn’t necessarily that Trump’s candidacy will go bust tomorrow, however. There are plenty of examples of fringe or factional candidates who held on to their support for much longer than the month or two that Cain and Bachmann did. Sometimes, they did well enough in Iowa or New Hampshire, or even won them. Pat Buchanan claimed New Hampshire in 1996, for instance, while Mike Huckabee won Iowa in 2008. Steve Forbes took 30 percent of the Iowa vote in 2000.

The lesson, rather, is that Trump’s campaign will fail by one means or another. Like Cain, Bachmann and Gingrich, Buchanan, Huckabee and Forbes came nowhere close to winning the Republican nomination.

If you want absurd specificity, I recently estimated Trump’s chance of becoming the GOP nominee at 2 percent. How did I get there? By considering the gantlet he’ll face over the next 11 months — Donald Trump’s Six Stages of Doom:

Stage 1: Free-for-all

When it happens: This is the stage we’re in now; it will continue through the next couple of months.
Potential threat to Trump: Increased attention to other GOP candidates.

One of the occupational hazards for those of us who write about politics for a living is a kind of time dilation. If you’re charged with filing several campaign stories a week, then two or three weeks can seem like an eternity.

But most Americans have other things on their minds right now. Paying the bills. Finally taking that vacation. Baseball. They’re not really paying a lot of attention to the campaign. Based on historical patterns of Google search traffic, the level of public interest in the primary campaign right now is less than one-tenth as high as it will be later in the cycle.

This is why it’s absurd to focus on how Trump’s polling is changing from day to day. When Trump made his idiotic comments about John McCain’s military service a few weeks ago, there were a few news outlets like the New York Post who suggested it might bring about his immediate demise. We were skeptical of that conclusion at FiveThirtyEight. For a variety of reasons, Trump isn’t affected much by negative media coverage — it may even help him. But a lack of media coverage might be a different story.

If, like most Americans, you’ve been paying only passing attention to the GOP campaign, then pretty much the only candidate you’ll have been hearing about is Trump. According to data compiled by the Media Research Center, Trump has received more network news coverage than Jeb Bush, Scott Walker and Marco Rubio combined. So if a pollster calls you and rattles off 17 names, and there are six or seven candidates you like well enough, which name might you mention when asked for your first choice? Possibly Trump, since his name will be top-of-mind. There’s a near-perfect correlation, in fact⁵⁵ between how much news coverage a candidate has received and where they rank in recent national polls:

The causality here is murky. Do candidates receive more news coverage because they’re polling well? Or do they poll well because they receive more news coverage? Undoubtedly, there’s some of both, which creates the possibility of a feedback loop.

But the circuit could be broken once there’s some news about another candidate. Every Republican on stage will have the opportunity to make news in the debate tonight, for instance. It’s possible we’ll still be talking about the Trump surge in a few weeks, but it’s also possible that we’ll be contemplating the Ben Carson or Ted Cruz or Chris Christie surge instead.

Stage 2: Heightened scrutiny

When it happens: Mid-November or thereabouts, as voters up their level of attention to the campaign
Potential threat to Trump: Polling support doesn’t translate to likely, more-informed voters.

In the general election, Labor Day is the traditional benchmark when there’s a substantial acceleration of public interest in the campaign. I’m not sure there’s quite the same demarcation in the primaries, but, in my experience, the timbre of the race will have changed by Thanksgiving or so. Voters, especially in the early voting states, will be doing less “window shopping” and instead will be thinking about who they might cast a ballot for. The polls will change too, starting to home in on what they deem to be “likely voters.” There’s some evidence that Trump is over-performing among “low-information voters.” By November, their ranks will decrease: They’ll either have become more informed, or they’ll be screened out by pollsters because they aren’t likely to vote.

Stage 3: Iowa and New Hampshire

When it happens: Feb. 1 and Feb. 9, based on the provisional calendar.
Potential threat to Trump: Middling performance in one or both states, either in an absolute sense or relative to polls.

Eventually, we’ll have some real votes to test the polls against. The odds are that the polls will be pretty far off in the first few states; they’re historically not very accurate in primaries and caucuses. One reason for this, perhaps the principal one, is because turnout is hard to predict. Trump has built some semblance of an organization in Iowa (he has less of one in New Hampshire), but it probably won’t be the best in the state at persuading voters to turn out.

Despite the relatively poor track record of polls in Iowa and New Hampshire, however, they have a major influence on how the results are interpreted by the press. Historically, the candidates who get the most favorable media coverage and receive the biggest “bounces” out of Iowa and New Hampshire are not those who perform the best in an absolute sense but instead those who beat the media’s expectations. It’s possible that Trump will master expectations management between now and Iowa, but, given his tendency to trumpet every favorable poll, he could also set himself up for a fall. A Trump who finishes in third place with 14 percent of the vote in Iowa won’t have much to brag about.

Stage 4: Winnowing

When it happens: mid-February through mid-March
Potential threat to Trump: Other candidates drop out, and remaining ones surpass Trump.

But some candidates with parallels to Trump have done perfectly well in Iowa and New Hampshire. In fact, there’s been about one such Republican, on average, in every contested election cycle. Below, I’ve listed past Republican candidates who (i) had less than 5 percent of the party’s endorsement points as of the date of the Iowa caucuses, meaning they had very little support from the party establishment, but (ii) won at least 20 percent of the vote in Iowa anyway. There are six of these candidates, ranging from rabble-rousers like Buchanan to religious-right candidates like Huckabee, to another self-funded billionaire in Forbes.

The problem is that they didn’t go very far from there, winning an average of just 14 percent of the popular vote across all the remaining primary and caucus states that year. Even a candidate who did a little better than that, retaining 25 or 30 percent of the vote, would soon be bypassed as the rest of the field consolidated down to one or two other establishment-backed alternatives. This is especially likely to be a problem for Trump. Contrary to what you may have read elsewhere, he’s actually not all that popular among Republicans. His favorability ratings among Republicans have improved since before he declared himself a candidate⁵⁶ but remain in the bottom half of the GOP field and well below the standard of candidates who have been nominated in the past.

We’ll handle the final two stages together:

Stage 5: Delegate accumulation

When it happens: mid-March through final primaries in June
Potential threats to Trump: Poor organization in caucus states, poor understanding of delegate rules, no support from superdelegates.

Stage 6: Endgame

When it happens: June through Republican National Convention, July 18-21
Potential threat to Trump: The Republican Party does everything in its power to deny him the nomination.

If Trump makes it past Stage 4, we’ll have to consider his campaign successful, up to a point. He’ll have gotten further than any similar candidate has in the past. But he’d still be a long way from winning the nomination, and the final two stages might be his hardest yet.

The Republican Party’s delegate selection rules are straightforward in some states but byzantine in others, especially in caucus states where delegates are sometimes not formally pledged to the candidate who apparently earned their support on election night. Furthermore, about 7 percent of delegates to the RNC are party leaders — what Democrats would call “superdelegates” — who are usually not bound by the results of the popular vote in their states at all.

This introduces a little bit of slack into the system. It works in favor of establishment-backed candidates, or those who have an intricate understanding of the delegate rules. And it works against candidates like Trump.

Regular FiveThirtyEight readers will be familiar with “The Party Decides” paradigm of the nomination process. It posits that the nominee represents the consensus choice of influential members of the party, and that rank-and-file voters serve mostly to vet and validate the candidates in the event of a close call.

Much of the party’s influence consists of what you might call “soft power,” the ability to influence outcomes by persuasion rather than coercion. But the party also has some “hard power”: It literally makes the rules. It can rule against candidates it doesn’t like in the event of delegate-counting disputes. It can probably even change the rules midstream. There isn’t a lot of precedent to worry about violating, since it’s been 40 years since Republicans came close to a brokered convention.

If Trump made it this far, the Republican Party would go to extraordinary lengths to avoid nominating him. In “The Party Decides” view, parties are basically looking for two things from their nominees: They want them to be reliable (meaning, they can be counted on to enact the Republican agenda once in office), and they want them to be electable (meaning, they can win in November). It’s hard to think of a candidate who does worse on those two measures than Trump. He’s exceptionally unpopular among independent voters. But he also has a checkered political past that includes once having supported abortion rights and universal health care. For the Republican Party, he’s the worst of all possible worlds.

So, how do I wind up with that 2 percent estimate of Trump’s nomination chances? It’s what you get⁵⁷ if you assume he has a 50 percent chance of surviving each subsequent stage of the gantlet.⁵⁸ Tonight’s debate could prove to be the beginning of the end for Trump, or he could remain a factor for months to come. But he’s almost certainly doomed, sooner or later.

Check out our live coverage of the first Republican debate.

By Tim Todd, High on Believing Ooga-Chaka Ooga-Ooga Ooga-Chaka Ooga-Ooga Ooga-Chaka Ooga-Ooga Ooga-Chaka Ooga-Ooga Ooga-Chaka Ooga-Ooga - Hooked on a Feeling, Blue Swede I started 7amkickoff in...

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Want a lighter cheesecake? Fold in meringue. This crustless cheesecake is easy to make and won't weigh you down. Read More

Earlier this week, President Obama announced a plan to reduce toxic emissions from coal-burning power plants.  The purpose of the EPA’s Clean Power Plan  is to reduce greenhouse gases that contribute to climate change.

But from the standpoint of food politics, the new rules do something really important.  They will force coal-burning power plants to further reduce emissions of mercury.

In 2005, the EPA promulgated a rule to control mercury emissions from fossil fuel-fired power plants under section 111(d): the Clean Air Mercury Rule (CAMR). The EPA established a nationwide cap-and-trade program that took effect in two phases: In 2010, the cap was set at 38 tons per year, and in 2018, the cap was lowered to 15 tons per year. The EPA expected, on the basis of modeling, that sources would achieve the second phase, 15-ton per year cap cost-effectively by choosing among a set of measures that included shifting generation to lower-emitting units.

Mercury from coal-burning power plants is the largest human-induced source of methymercury in the fish food chain, accounting for 40% of the amount that gets into oceans (most of the rest comes from underseas volcanos).  Mercury is converted to toxic methylmercury in seawater, and the toxin moves up the fish food chain as bigger fish eat smaller fish.  Methylmercury does very bad things to the nervous system of the growing fetus (recall the mass poisonings in Minamata, Japan in the 1950s and the shocking photos of the victims). 

Fish advisories

Large, predatory fish have the most methymercury and should not be eaten in large amounts, or at all by pregnant women.

Fish advisories expect pregnant women to know the kinds of fish they can and cannot eat, and how much.  This is not easy.

Wouldn’t it be better to prevent mercury from getting into seawater in the first place?

I like to use eliminating methylmercury as an example of why public health (“upstream”) approaches work better than personal responsibility (“downstream”) approaches.

An exceptionally clear example is how to avoid toxic levels of methylmercury in fish.   We can teach pregnant women to recognize which fish are high in methylmercury and hope this works well enough so they will avoid buying such fish (personal responsibility) or we could–as a society–require coal-burning power plants to scrub their emissions so mercury doesn’t get into ocean or lake waters in the first place (public health).

That’s what this rule does.

For explanations of how the Clean Power Plan will work, see the Union of Concerned Scientists’ review.

Vox.com explains:

The basics of the Clean Power Plan are fairly simple. The EPA is giving each state an individualized goal for reducing emissions from their electric power plants. States can then decide for themselves how to get there…. Power plant emissions have already dropped 15 percent between 2005 and 2013, thanks to a brutal recession, cheap natural gas pushing out coal, the rise of wind power, and improved efficiency. So with this new plan, EPA is expecting a further 20 percent cut in power-plant emissions from 2013 levels by 2030.

For what Obama stands to gain from this rule, see the New York Times.

But hold the celebration.  Politico Pro Energy reports that Republicans in Congress view the rule as a key component of the administration’s “war on coal” and will try to block it or sue to stop it.   The Supreme Court says that the EPA has the authority to issue this rule, but “Challengers are expected to argue that the rule is invalid because it exceeds EPA’s authority, contradicts a Clean Air Act provision meant to avoid duplicative rules, and violates the 5th and 10th Amendments to the Constitution.”   And, of course, a post-Obama president could undo the whole thing, as it is an executive branch action, not a law passed by Congress.

Yesterday’s New York Times had a front-page story on how coal lobbyists and corporate lawyers started organizing more than a year ago to fight this plan.

An important ally in the effort was the American Legislative Exchange Council, or ALEC, a conservative advocacy group that pushes policy through state legislatures. Typically, the council’s committees of corporate members will craft a model bill designed to push through policies it supports, such as rolling back environmental regulations.

The Clean Power Plan deserves massive support.

This may be a climate-change plan, but it is also a critically important public health measure.

Anyone who likes eating fish should do everything possible to support this measure.

[ By Steph in Art & Installation & Sound. ]

This steel labyrinth looks like something left behind after the production of a dystopian film, its irregular grid of steel rising and falling onto the concrete surface outside Belgium’s C-mine art center. Designed by Gijs Van Vaerenbergh, the maze is an immersive experience in what the artist sees as architecture in its essential form: “a composition of walls that define spaces.” Made of 186 tons of metal, the installation features vertical surfaces towering over 49 feet in the air to properly disorient visitors.

Entering the maze, you pass through a series of geometric doorways cut into the steel, including a sphere, a cylinder and a cone. Depending on where you are in the maze, these cut-outs might offer a tiny glimpse of what’s on the other side of a wall, or open to reveal a succession of similar cut-outs passing all the way through the installation.

The steel, and how it is cut and arranged, offers a unique architectural visual that changes according to your perspective, shifting from abstract lines into distinct geometries and sometimes creating optical illusions that make you uncertain whether you’re looking at a two-dimensional or three-dimensional surface.

A nearby installation of antique mine shafts offers a different way to experience the maze: from above. You can pass through it as an active participant, and then view it as a whole, taking in its complexities from a more detached bird’s eye view.

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[ By WebUrbanist in Abandoned Places & Architecture. ]

Reportedly inspired by a divine message, the architect of this poultry-shaped church initially set out to create a place of worship in the form of a giant dove, but the locals quickly dubbed his creation the Chicken Church (Gereja Ayam in the regional language).

Indeed, despite the best intentions to craft it otherwise, it is impossible not to see a domestic egg-laying bird when looking at this open-beaked architectural creature.

In a remote Indonesian forest, this creation of Daniel Alamsjah was once a place of prayer as well as a rehabilitation center for children and drug addicts, but finishing the building proved too costly and the place closed down over a decade ago.

Covered in graffiti and crumbling at a structural level, the Chicken Church is likely not long for this world. For now, though, travelers (sometimes with romantic partners) can be found inside at times, cooped up away from prying eyes, but eventually the building will doubtless be either demolished or perhaps simply collapse on its own (story via Colossal and images via uzone.id, Punthuk Setumbu and Alek Kurniawan).

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[ By WebUrbanist in Abandoned Places & Architecture. ]

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Most Americans live in a state where medical marijuana, in some form, is legal. But all marijuana isn’t the same. Different plants have different chemical compositions, and different compositions are better at treating different diseases.

Enter Chris Hudalla. Hudalla studies cannabis to help home growers treat seizures, multiple sclerosis, migraines and other illnesses. The latest film in ESPN Films and FiveThirtyEight’s series “The Collectors” is “Cannabis Chemist,” directed by Jamie Schutz.

[ By Steph in Art & Photography & Video. ]

No matter how far and often you might wander around your city, there’s one way you most likely never get to experience it: from above. Approached from directly overhead, the bird’s-eye-view renders virtually any urban scene unrecognizable, reducing landscaped streets and towering skyscrapers to mere shapes within an abstract composition, as if it’s a work of art. And perhaps, for some urban planners, it is. Thanks to photographer Jeffrey Milstein, we can all appreciate New York City and Los Angeles from a new perspective.

Captured from a helicopter both at night and during daylight, Milstein’s aerial imagery of these two iconic American cities presents entire neighborhoods as tapestries of geometric shapes. New York’s Stuyvesant Town looks like a bunch of crosses embedded in greenery, and the Statue of Liberty is strikingly jewel-like on its island. 

 

Some of LA’s most posh neighborhoods are unsurprisingly picturesque from above, laid out in their carefully-arranged grids and often centered upon parks. In comparison, the shots of downtown look downright bleak, sort of like you’re looking at a circuit board rather than a full-scale city. The photographs are on display now at New York’s Benrubi Gallery and LA’s Kopeikin Gallery.

If looking at the pictures gives you vertigo, good, says Milstein. That’s the effect he’s going for. “That’s exactly what I want. To get a visceral reaction from it,” he told City Lab. 

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Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain dismisses Roy Keane claim that Arsenal squad is as vain a bunch of players as he can remember

[ By Steph in Design & Products & Packaging. ]

Most of the tools we use have looked the same for decades, if not centuries, but that doesn’t mean they’re optimized to be as useful, convenient and durable as they can be. These clever tweaks on conventional tool designs can be incredibly simple, like adding a ledge to scissor handles for cutting straight lines, or unexpectedly innovative, like an illuminated glove that makes it easy to light whatever you’re working on while freeing up your hand.

Locking Aperture Wrench

The aperture wrench eliminates the storage issues and guesswork associated with having an entire set of wrenches, with an aperture based on that of a camera lens. The metal blades of the aperture close around any given nut and automatically lock into place for perfect custom sizing and a secure fit.

Hoyo Drill

“You could almost keep your drill on the dinner table,” says the designer about the looks of the Hoyo, a sleek black-and-white power drill. In addition to ‘looking like a race car,’ the Hoyo has an optional stabilizer to ensure that you always enter a surface perfectly straight, dial presets to adjust the power depending on the material you’re drilling, and a built-in level.

Ruler Compass

Conventional compasses typically have to be used in conjunction with rulers when you want to draw a circle of a very specific size. This one features a radius display that tells you the size of your circle as you move the leg of the compass

Portable Lighting Tool

Ultra-portable and easy to recharge either with an outlet or an included mini solar panel, the H9 Portable Lighting Tool is a silicone sheath that wraps around your hand to provide up-close illumination for whatever job you’re trying to complete. You can direct the light exactly where it needs to be, but don’t have to sacrifice the utility of your hand.

Tool Pen by mininch

Carrying a set of screwdrivers becomes as simple as carrying a pen with the Tool Pen, a lightweight, compact and ultra-sleek multitool solution with 18 bits. Six can fit inside the tool without making it heavy, and it comes in a variety of metallic finishes.

Next Page - Click Below to Read More:
Tools That Rule 13 Ways To Work Smarter Not Harder

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England and Sunderland footballer Adam Johnson will face trial on child sex charges in February 2016.

Rio Ferdinand has urged John Stones to snub Chelsea and join Manchester United, calling anyone who advised him otherwise 'a lunatic'.

[ By WebUrbanist in Art & Installation & Sound. ]

Designed to be suspended below Chicago’s elevated rail system, hovering above cars and pedestrians, this 5,000-tube neon lighting installation aims to bring bright colors to drab railway tracks, using illumination to bridge the dark gap formed by overhead infrastructure.

A set of elevated rails forming a rounded rectangle in the heart of the city, the Chicago Loop defines the downtown experience. Physically, visually and audibly, this nexus of sometimes-subway lines creates a circuit of transit over and under which vast numbers of people travel each and every day. Despite its centrality and functionality, the Loop has little presence in terms of the city’s public image, at least it until The Wabash Lights came along.

The main aim is to activate this shady pseudo-circular zone, turning it from an ignored void into a enjoyed space. The first phase of the project has already been successfully funded on Kickstarter and the next step will be a limited-scale test implementation of the technology. The lights are highly programmable and infinitely customizable, able to cycle through sets of colors and form complex patterns.

It is hard to avoid drawing a comparison with another highly-visible and quite popular neon project in Chicago, namely: the neon light tunnel (Sky’s the Limit by Michael Hayden) connecting Concourses B and C at Terminal 1 in the O’Hare International Aiport, “a mile-long kinetic light sculpture composed of 466 neon tubes [reflected from above by] 23,600 square feet of mirror.”

The duo behind the idea, Seth Unger and Jack C. Newell, are well-suited to the endeavor, with backgrounds in design, branding and creative strategy on the one hand, filmmaking and public art on the other. Together, they are looking to involve citizens from start to finish, looking to them for feedback as well as funding.

More on the project from its creators, using “LED light tubes to transform an iconic piece of Chicago infrastructure into a canvas for a dynamic, interactive experience, serving as a catalyst for a re-energized Wabash Avenue. Working with the Chicago Transit Authority, Chicago Department of Transportation, and City Government, we have received approval to install a small section of lights on the Wabash Ave tracks to troubleshoot design, interactivity, and test how vibration from the “L”, temperature changes, and the wear and tear of the city affect our hardware.” (Hat tip to Chris B and James B).

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[ By Steph in Destinations & Sights & Travel. ]

Dangle thousands of feet above the bottom of a canyon, take in the Pacific Ocean from a human nest, view the Northern Lights from a transparent igloo or spend the night in a giant purple sperm. These incredibly creative (and sometimes terrifying) campers, tents and other open-air accommodations are far from your typical hotel experience.

Urban Campsite: 6 Whimsical Capsules

The ‘Urban Campsite’ in Amsterdam is an ‘art-sleep experience’ inviting guests to stay in 14 sculptural mobile camping pods on the beach, ranging from a sailboat-like modern white loft with spherical portholes to a lounge and sleep space built under a trampoline. The pods are all clustered together on the sand plains of Ijburg beside a communal kitchen and ‘tribal toilet tower.’ Some of the creations are more solid and permanent than others, like the wooden icosahedron structure by Boomhuttenfest or the bizarre bottle-shaped ‘Val Ross’ by MUD projects. A shrink-wrap house with a pallet stoop explores the value of waste materials, while the ‘Bedbug’ sits on adjustable legs to adapt to various urban camping environments. The pods can be booked on Air BNB.

Hanging Tree Beds in Bavaria

The Waldseilgarten resort in the mountains of Pfronten, Germany requires you to be just a wee bit adventurous with a series of tent platforms perched on cliffs or dangling from trees. All guests receive rope climbing training before spending the night, especially since you’ll have to do some climbing in the dark if you have to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night. The tree platforms offer relatively easy access to the ground, but the cliff platforms can be up to 6,562 feet above the valley floor.

Transparent Igloo for Viewing the Northern Lights

Maintain an uninterrupted view of the Northern Lights from the transparent ceiling of your igloo in Finland. The Kakslauttanen Hotel & Igloo Village boasts 40 igloos for two, each temperature-controlled and equipped with its own sauna. The complex is located near the Urho Kekkonen National Park, which has some of the Arctic Circle’s most impressive views of the Aurora Borealis.

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Creative Camping 16 Out There Open Air Accommodations

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[ By Steph in Destinations & Sights & Travel. ]

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Louis van Gaal has warned Phil Jones and Chris Smalling that they face a fight for one central defender’s position...

In Cartagena, ceviche is all over the place. You'll find shops that specialize in it in the old colonial city. You'll find them in the new downtown. You'll find it on the roof of fancy hotels. You'll find it in beachside shacks. Heck, you'll even find it directly on the water. Jump on one of the charter boats that shuttles you out to the Islas de Rosarios for a day on the beach or snorkeling and odds are that you'll make a brief pit stop next to a two-man canoe selling lobster ceviche. Read More

Creamy, twangy buttermilk has long been a favorite in fried chicken and all kinds of rich desserts. But its refreshingly sour flavor and milky consistency adapt well to lighter, brighter uses beyond those standards. We asked a panel of pro chefs from around the country for ideas on how to use it morning, noon, and night. Read More

Having worked for several years as the ticket taker at New York’s Cinema Village, Young Ma has seen all sorts of films come through the three-screen theater. He’s seen sparsely attended independent projects screen for one night only, and he’s seen “The Interview” draw lines around the block when Cinema Village was one of the few theaters willing to brush aside hackers’ threats and show the film. But “United Passions” left a unique impression on him. The distributors of the film about the origins of FIFA, which was reportedly made for somewhere around $27 million, booked the big theater — about 150 seats — and the film was shown four times a day for a week, starting on Friday, June 5.

“To be honest with you, nobody came,” Ma said. “I don’t think people cared.” Ma’s not quite right: People came — but hardly any. The Hollywood Reporter revealed that the film made $140 in its opening weekend at Cinema Village, meaning that, on average, every screening of the film had an audience of about one paying customer.⁴⁴ I attempted to calculate interest in the film nationally, and it appears that “United Passions” packed the lowest rate of butts in the seats per screening for any film in the past 20 years.

The math isn’t complicated so much as it is shrouded in blind spots. Here’s what we know: The movie made $918 — total — in its opening weekend … and maybe nothing after that. All the reporting and most of the databases⁴⁵ show it finishing with that figure. Most movies make 70 percent of their sales during the weekend,⁴⁶ which would make the real tally for “United Passions” slightly more than $1,310 if it followed that pattern.

But even if we give the movie the benefit of the doubt and assume it made $1,310, it still opened in way more theaters than the other movies that grossed this little.

The Numbers (tagline: “Where Data and the Movie Business Meet”) has collected the domestic gross box office of every film it could get data on for the past 20 years and adjusted the numbers for inflation. Of the 10,257 films in its list, “United Passions” comes in 10,181st. None of the 76 films that grossed less than “United Passions” opened in more than five theaters. “United Passions” screened in 10. After reaching out to some theater operators and investigating movie listings, I found that those theaters were showing the film between four and five times per day for an entire week. So if we assume that the national average was 4.5 screenings per location per day, it would mean that “United Passions” earned roughly $4.20 per showing in the U.S.⁴⁷ The lowest-grossing domestic release of all time, “Zyzzyx Rd,” took in about $5.10 per showing.⁴⁸ As long as “United Passions” screened more than 3.67 times per location, on average, it was even less attended than “Zyzzyx Rd.”

While most big-budget movies open to hundreds of screens, smaller films often experiment with a platform release, in which a movie tests the waters in major cities before expanding nationwide. Screen Media, the domestic distributor for “United Passions,” picked theaters that are consistent with that model, although 10 screens is a bigger rollout than most indies opt for. The business model for these types of releases varies widely, from a revenue split to a “four wall” deal in which the distributor basically rents the theater and keeps the receipts. It’s unclear what Screen Media did — after initially saying that he’d call me back, Screen Media’s vice president of business affairs, David Fannon, stopped responding to emails and calls.

“I’ve never gotten so many calls about such a small movie in my career,” said Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst for Rentrak, a real-time television and movie measurment service. Although the Hollywood Reporter referenced Rentrak as the source of its box-office numbers, Dergarabedian wouldn’t confirm them without permission from Screen Media. He did point out that the movie was simultaneously released as a video on demand, which may have hurt turnout. Because Screen Media hasn’t officially approved of the release of those VOD numbers, either, we don’t know. The movie did perform better — if not well — overseas, grossing roughly $178,000, according to Dergarabedian.

For many, the press’s full-pitch coverage of the extraordinarily low American box-office results was just the final helping of schadenfreude to pile onto this doomed movie and its subject, FIFA, the world governing body of soccer. The historical drama covers the evolution of the organization through the perspective of its leaders as they give earnest speeches and attempt to expand their reach for the good of the game. In the London Evening Standard, Des Kelly called the film “a sugar-coated pile of manure.” Tim Roth — who played FIFA’s now-disgraced president, Sepp Blatter, in the film — told the German newspaper Die Welt, “This is a role that will have my father turning in his grave.” The only star of the film who showed up for its screening at the Cannes Film Festival was Gerard Depardieu. Perhaps that’s because the artistic director of the film festival said that he only screened the film after Depardieu badgered him into it and that the film was never eligible for the Palme d’Or because it lacked the quality to be an official selection.

Then, on May 27 — just over a week before “United Passions” was to debut in U.S. theaters — FIFA officials were indicted on federal corruption charges right before the start of the organization’s annual conference. On June 2, Blatter announced his resignation. Three days later, the movie opened.

One theater owner noted the remarkable timing when discussing the film’s performance at his venue. “Anyone that has even a minor awareness could sense that something was going on,” said Greg Laemmle, president and CEO of Laemmle Theatres, which includes Los Angeles’s NoHo7, where the film was shown for a week. “But arrangements had been made months before.”

Dergarabedian, however, thinks that, if anything, the news around the scandal should have helped ticket sales. “‘United Passions’ was put in an unbelievable spotlight,” he said. “There was free publicity.” But because there was no discernable marketing push surrounding the news — perhaps because FIFA itself reportedly funded more than 75 percent of the film and had no interest in further embarrassing itself — the movie wasn’t able to take advantage.

The NoHo7 ended up being the top-grossing theater in America for “United Passions,” drawing in a reported $249 during its opening weekend. Laemmle chuckled and told me that he’d heard that his theater had come out on top. He said that sports films have a hard time drawing in audiences accustomed to consuming content on television but that he still felt there was a market for similar movies. “Under the right circumstances,” he said, “we’ll show something about the pioneering Rooney and Mara families in the formation of the NFL.” At the very least, it should be able to attract multiple moviegoers at a time.

Walt Hickey and Hannah Fingerhut contributed reporting for this article.

Manuel Pellegrini was pleased with Raheem Sterling's Manchester City debut against Roma and believes the former Liverpool attacker will add a new dimension to his side. Mario Balotelli risked the wrath of Liverpool fans by tweeting a supportive message to former teammate Raheem Sterling after his debut goal for Manchester City. Sterling, who left Anfield for City in a £49 million deal last week after an acrimonious transfer saga, struck inside the first three minutes of a preseason friendly against Roma in Australia. Liverpool supporters were angered by some of Sterling's conduct in the months preceding the move and Balotelli, a former City player, risked inflaming...

[ By Steph in Architecture & Cities & Urbanism. ]

At just six feet wide, this incredibly narrow residence inserted into an alley in dense urban Tokyo is the latest example of Japanese architects thinking way outside the box when it comes to building new housing. The city is so developed, there’s almost no land left to build anything new, so they tend to get incredibly creative with even the oddest-shaped plots.

The four-story house by YUUA Architects and Associates extends about 36 feet into a former alley between two older buildings, and while the street-facing facade features floor-to-ceiling windows to maximize daylight and views, intimate spaces like bedrooms, bathrooms and main living areas are tucked into the back for privacy.

The minimalist interior design scheme includes floating platforms at various levels for a sense of openness, some of them made of metal mesh to let as much light pass through the house as possible. While such tiny residences are often kept bright white to create an illusion of extra space, YUUA makes an unusual choice with dark-painted walls.

There’s a semi-sunken basement for storage, and the first floor features a study area facing the street and a bedroom in the back. The third floor is comprised of an open-plan kitchen, living room and dining area, while the uppermost floor contains a bathroom, bedroom and terrace. Considering it’s only about as wide as an average adult male is tall, the house looks surprisingly livable.

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[ By Steph in Architecture & Cities & Urbanism. ]

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Former Stoke City goalkeeper Peter Fox admitted putting Deep Heat in the "sensitive places" of young footballers, a court hears.

Everton manager Roberto Martinez hails Tim Howard's penalty save as his side defeated Stoke City in penalties, 5-4, after regulation ends, 0-0. SINGAPORE -- Everton are ready to meet the challenge of facing Arsenal's stars in Saturday's Barclays Asia Trophy final in Singapore, manager Roberto Martinez says. Arsenal are set to field a lineup featuring several big-name players, with new goalkeeper Petr Cech in line to make his debut for the Gunners following his summer move from Chelsea. But Martinez insists that his players are aiming to cause an upset as they prepare for the new Premier League campaign. "This is the preseason, the main purpose...

Take all your ideas of what chicken and waffles should be—all of your reluctance to mess with the soulful original—and toss it all. Now open your mind to this insane concoction that combines the fried chicken classic with nachos and tamales, adding green chili and corn to the waffles and topping them with guacamole, salsa roja, and ancho-honey bacon. Read More

[ By Steph in Art & Sculpture & Craft. ]

Do these fleshy works of art manipulating human body parts into unnatural shapes make you uncomfortable? That’s probably just what the artist was going for. It’s difficult for us, as humans, to look upon images of our own flesh with emotional detachment, seeing it as we would the meat of other animals, or even as an organic medium for art and architecture. Don’t worry – most of these are not made of actual humans, but rather silicone, polymer clay and wax. Read on for a tent modeled on human intestines, a pillow made of human skin and the world’s grossest pair of stiletto heels.

Jonathan Payne

Jonathan Payne calls these deeply repulsive sculptures ‘FLESHLETTES,’ and that name says a lot. They’re basically lumps of human viscera, teeth, eyes and hair put together into little miniature packages. You probably never wanted to see a nipple with teeth, but here one is, nonetheless.

Andrea Hasler

A tent made of flesh, a giant lump of what looks like human fat serenely overlooking a cliff, and a series of disgusting handbags are among the organic works of Swiss artist Andrea Hasler, who aims to humanize objects with ‘emotional surfaces.’ The tent was modeled upon human intestines and is made of polystyrene and wax as well as leather and real blood.

Felix Deac

Romanian artist Felix Deac creates amorphous blobs of flesh replete with veins, moles, wrinkles and hair. While some might look like deformed human body parts, most are just abstract shapes reminiscent of nightmarish tumors that have taken on a life of their own.

Patricia Piccinini

Patricia Piccinini’s work is so shockingly realistic, photographs of it are often passed around the internet as clickbait, with people wondering ‘what the heck am I looking at?’ The controversial Australian artist creates sculptures of fantastical creatures with extremely human-like skin and hair.

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Art Made Flesh 35 Sculptures Rendered In Human Skin Hair

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[ By Steph in Art & Sculpture & Craft. ]

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