Steve Dyer

A reader writes:

I am certain someone else will win and get closer, but I just saw something familiar and wanted to at least get the city right with Oakland, CA. I see the San Francisco Ferry in the background, so I have to at least be within 5 miles of the window, right?

Give or take 9,023 miles. Another US guess:

I’m pretty sure that this week’s entry is the Port of Galveston, Texas. The combination of the cruise-ship, cranes, pick up trucks in the foreground and urban/spanish roofs lead me there.

Western Europe?

Reminds me of pictures from my mother’s cruise several years ago of the Hanseatic League ports. Hamburg looks about right, but it has blue tower cranes instead of red.

Or North Africa?

In all the years I’ve been following the contest, I’ve only known two locations correctly and never guessed because I questioned myself. I’m going with my gut – for a third time: Casablanca, Morocco. Something about it looks very familiar, although don’t even ask me where in the city the picture was taken from – I’m clueless.

Another runs through several clues:

The architecture, to me, looks so much like Amsterdam or Rotterdam, and the presence of the single sikh (?) temple in the middle wouldn’t necessarily sway that belief. However, the architecture of the white building near the water with domed corners throws me for a loop. I can understand one such example in a pic of this scope in Europe, but two in such close proximity seemed unlikely. And the deciduous trees in the foreground suggest it could not be the Middle East. I’ve not been there, so maybe they’re as plentiful as sand.

Then I think I have the temples wrong to begin with, and they’re actually Russian Orthodox. Ugh. And I searched for busy ports of course, but then realized I was assuming the port kept going for miles outside the pic. But it could be a small port. Ugh 2x.

Bottom line is I had a choice: (1) look through G-Earth for days scrolling through pics of all of Europe, Russia, and northern Middle East searching, or (2) succumb to the beckon of the 78 degree day outside.

Samsun, Turkey.

If any readers feel like they need a VFYWC support group, give this guy a call:

Lately, my guesses have fallen into two categories: (1) the guesses I have not e-mailed in to you because I was sure they were wrong, but which turned out to be correct (Bangkok; Orlando); and (2) the guesses I have e-mailed to you because I was sure they were right, but which turned out to be the most popular incorrect guess (Gibraltar; Oman). So this week I’m entering a guess I’m sure is wrong: Vancouver, Canada. Let’s see if I’m right.

Another gets closer:

Port Louis, Mauritius. I’m not sure why I thought immediately of a port city in Africa. Somewhere with a sizable Muslim population, because I do see a small masjid in the picture. It doesn’t look particularly prosperous, but there is a large cruise ship in the bay. The gantries at the port are loading or offloading a ship piled high with containers, and I rather suspect these are being imported as opposed to exported. First time participating in this contest, I really hope I’m at least somewhere in the right latitude …

Almost. Another gets on the right continent:

Penang, Malaysia. Probably wrong, but I least I guessed this week.

The following reader nails the right city and country, and he also points out the coincidental significance of today’s date:

This appears to be a northwesterly view of the Buddha Jayanthi Stupa in Colombo, Sri Lanka, also known as the Harbour Stupa, probably taken from one of the high rises along Lotus Road – 10th floor? My guess would be near the intersection of Lotus Road and York Street.

My guess for choosing this view to run this week is because Tuesday 13 May is Vesak Day in the Buddhist world, a day on which we celebrate the Buddha’s birth, awakening and passing into Nibbāna/Nirvana. This also marks the beginning of the Buddhist New Year 2558. The stupa’s construction began in 1956, the year marking the 2500th year of Buddhism.

Here are this week’s guesses as an OpenHeatMap (zoom in by double-clicking an area of interest, or drag your cursor up and down the slide):

Shown another way, a whopping 86.4% of contestants guessed correctly this week:

Another Colombo guesser:

First time participant here. The photo seems to be taken from a high vantage point somewhere on York Street. Maybe the Hilton?

Indeed it is. A regular player takes everything in:

What did we have to go on, here? A large port, but not a megaport. A reasonably prosperous-looking city. A cruise ship. In the foreground, a mosque? That prominent white building? It looks like a Buddhist temple. Eventually, looking for “Buddhist temple port” we discover that this is a picture of Colombo, Sri Lanka. The Buddhist temple is the Sambodhi Chaithya Dagoba, known as a stupa. The temple straddles Chaithya Road and was built as a landmark for ships. The photo was taken from the north side of the Hilton Colombo. Here is a view from the port looking toward the hotel – notice the Sambodhi Chaithya Dagoba in the foreground:

As to which window the photo was taken from … as always, I’ll guess. 18th floor, northwest corner.

Another uses TripAdvisor to help narrow down his guess:

One TripAdvisor contributor, who provided a view from his window, stayed on the same side of the hotel although on a slightly higher floor, and a good bit further east, so our view is from the west wing. Another Tripadvisor user’s photo from his 7th floor room, while not the same view, provides a similar angle over the trees and buildings, but I think your submitter was a bit higher. Hence, my guess of the 9th floor, far west room, looking north.

Another, like many others, focused on the cranes:

Really fun one this week. Immediately thought Denmark, but then realized it’s a little too run down. Next thought was Indonesia, but no ports checked out at first glance. I Googled “Indonesia port crane” looking for the red and white stripes, and by luck, a picture of that big pier in the middle appeared, with the white dome at left in the contest photo off to the right:

The cranes themselves are from Indonesia, but the picture is in Sri Lanka, which was my next guess as Indonesia wasn’t working out. You can see the contest building in the back center of this photo, just to the left of the cranes: The Colombo Hilton hotel.

A rookie correct guesser:

I am so excited, this is my first VFYW entry ever, despite many weekends spent pouring over Google Earth and ending up with nothing. This is also the first contest that my husband has helped with, which I am sure contributed to my success. He has worked with shipping containers for a long time and is my expert consultant on port cities.

The area has changed a lot in a few years - here is a picture from 2010 from the same hotel (although I am thinking this shot is from the east side of the hotel, and the VFYW is from the west side or center because the Panoramio picture does not show the Colombo City Hotel).

Attached is my attempt to explain: the black lines are the center and outer edges of the picture, with buildings labeled.

Another adds some historical context to the city:

At first glance, this image shows the diversity of South Asia.  A Buddhist temple, a mosque, an Islamic cultural center, colonial era buildings, commerce, and western culture (there’s TGI Fridays in the foreground) all mix together.

Yet the image is also about a rising China. Colombo’s significance as a port city took off under the Portuguese in the early 16th century and continued to be an important trading center through Dutch, British, and independent rule. Today, it is China’s turn to influence trade here. It has invested in a string of ports around the rim of the Indian ocean, including at Gwadar in Pakistan, Chittagong, Lamu in Kenya, and Kyaukpyu in Burma. The contest picture shows Colombo’s South Container Terminal on the left hand side that China invested $500 million to build.  And Colombo may soon be eclipsed by China’s reported $1 billion investment to build a new port on Sri Lanka’s south coast at Hambantota.

A former winner offers a tip for guessing windows:

Boy, you weren’t kidding when you said this week’s contest would be an easy one. Never before have I identified the correct city so quickly!

A note on methodology: As you can see, I have chosen a window in the middle. Why? Because proximity counts, and being in the middle gives me the highest probability of being close to the actual window in a case like this where I just have to guess. I’m always surprised when people choose windows on the edges, thereby minimizing their chance of being closest. Choosing the middle window this way won me contest #199 :) Thanks for another fun contest!

Many readers seemed to have had a great time this week:

Just about the easiest one so far. It was the candy-striped container cranes in that busy port that gave the game away in just a moment or two spent consulting Google image search: Colombo, Sri Lanka. We’re in the district called Fort, looking north from a low floor in the Hilton Colombo.

Out of frame to the left might have been seen the twin towers of Sri Lanka’s own World Trade Center; in the background, that intriguing white bell of a temple would have appeared even more intriguing if our photographer’s room had been on a higher floor: it’s the Sambodhi Chaithya, a Buddhist temple built high over Chaithya Road, straddling it on arches that are unhinted at in this photo. Between the temple and the Hilton is the small dome of Fort Jumma Mosque. In the foreground to the left, the yellow building lit by all that early morning sun is the Colombo City Hotel, and next door to it, Ta Da! that’s a TGI Fridays in the two-story yellow building with the red-and-white awning … my god they’re everywhere.

A reader who’s been to Colombo:

This picture was taken near the Pettah marketplace. The water is the Indian Ocean to the west of the city. The roadway in the middle of the picture goes past a colorful old department store and ends at the Grand Oriental Hotel. The Galle Face Green, a huge park along the shore, is just off the left edge of the picture:

I’ve been waiting for a long time to see if a picture from Sri Lanka would appear as the view from a reader’s window.

We actually featured Sri Lankan window views before - here, here and here. Another reader:

I’ve been lucky to visit Sri Lanka several times lately – I’m just winding up a three-year assignment in Bangalore, and Colombo is just over an hour’s flight away. It’s a beautiful and very chilled out place to visit, from the jungles, tea-covered mountains and temples inland to the beaches and historical colonial forts on the south coast. Colombo’s fun too, although last time we were there it was Sri Lankan New Year so no alcohol was available anywhere. We struggled through those three days, only to get back to Bangalore where no alcohol was available for another two days due to the Indian elections. In retrospect it was probably good for us.

A real-life contest got this reader a little sauced before playing this week:

Short entry this week as I took to the gin after my son’s little league team (which I coach) lost in extra innings in the playoffs. Father of the year. This week you’re all up in Columbo, Sri Lanka. Specifically at a Hilton on the Fuck That I Already Got My Book floor. Some weeks you just win by being awesome at Google, and I image searched candy-stripe shipping cranes against terms like Middle East and mosque and eventually, pow! Some dude’s travel blog.

Get your shirts ready already, Father’s Day is coming soon.

We are aiming to release merch by then. Last week’s victor swaggers in:

As reigning champ I probably field five queries a day about blurry auto-rickshaws. “Is it black and scarlet?” I’ve learned to interrupt, generally before the second “tuk” of “tuk tuk”. “Cause you know that means Sri Lanka, yeah?”

Guys we are, obviously, looking North-North-West from the Hilton hotel in Colombo, Sri Lanka. Guests at the Hilton can dine at any of a not-too-shabby nine (9) specialty restaurants, including the (Asian-themed?) Emperor’s Wok, then belt out some oldies in the Stella Karaoke lounge and repair tired-but-happy to their air-conditioned suite from which, if it’s Room 1714 – and I believe that is the case here – they can look out at what my research informs me is a body of water, some red cranes, and a weird white dome.

No, the only challenge here was getting a shot of the hotel’s rarely photographed north side, but thanks to my friends (and future sponsors??) at Travel-Images.com, I finally found one:

I shall see you again next week.

Wrong on the room and floor number though. Incredibly, even with more than 90 correct guesses this week, only one player got the right floor of the Hilton. Less incredible? It was Chini:

Last week’s view took ’til Monday night to track down; this one took fewer than ten minutes. So it was a weekend off. This week’s view comes from Colombo, Sri Lanka and looks north by northwest along a heading of 340.75 degrees. The picture was taken from a room on the 13th floor of the Colombo Hilton, at approximately 6:27 a.m. (local time) on the morning of April 7th, 2014:

Per the view’s submitter, the actual room number was 1322. Here is a collage of many of this week’s guesses:

Our winner this week is a longtime player with the best overall guessing record among the several readers who guessed either the 12th or 14th floor:

Wow… you sure un-dropped the hammer on this one. Googling “stupa port” for images returned four images of a guy wearing a yellow shirt selling something followed by this image [to the right]. Bingo!

This week’s view is of the Fort Colombo District and port of Fort Colombo, Sri Lanka. It was taken from the Hilton Colombo hotel, a tall rectangular blight on the otherwise stately Colombo skyline (otherwise, I’m sure the hotel is lovely). It was taken from the north side of the building, near the western end, and a bit more than halfway up. I’ll take a stab at a guess of the 12th floor.

(Archive: Text|Gallery)

It's been nearly 14 months since John Mulaney's sitcom Mulaney was first considered by NBC, and now you can finally watch the trailer, which costars Nasim Pedrad, Seaton Smith, Zack Pearlman, Martin Short, and Elliott Gould and is set to premiere on Fox this fall.

The nine-day-old giraffe Bine licks another giraffe named Andrea in Friedrichsfelde zoo in Berlin on May 9, 2014. By Stephanie Pilick/AFP/Getty Images.

The 20 Best Gene Belcher Moments From ‘Bob’s Burgers’

“We speak of the masculine and the feminine, but they are the wrong labels. It is really more a matter of poetry versus intellectualization.”
—Anais Nin, In Favor of the Sensitive Man and Other Essays

thattallnerdygirl:

-diagonalley:

miss-darling-clementine:

simplyalexandermason:

I feel like they just conspired together…

THE WINK, THE WINK IS KILLING ME.

This is so adorable!! 

laye-z:

The camera turned on by itself I am no model

fagbarbie:

when you finally get home after holding in a fart

Did you know most marine mammals are very flexible because they are made of 99% blorp? [x]

juilan:

I saw the beginning and was like “what the fuck” and then I scrolled and was like “what the fuck”

Jalees Rehman discusses the implications of human fat cells being used to repair or regenerate damaged organs and tissues:

The discovery of regenerative cells within our fat has opened up new doors. As adult stem cells, they can be converted into tissues such as bone and cartilage and might provide long-sought relief for debilitating diseases such as chronic joint pain. As stromal cells, they are able to build and regenerate blood vessels, and could provide relief for millions of patients affected by poor blood flow to their vital organs. With scientists starting to engineer organs such as the heart, lungs, pancreas and liver from scratch, they are realising that ensuring blood supply to newly engineered organs is critical. The ability of cells derived from fat to grow blood vessels might make them central players in the future of organ engineering.

Discovering the regenerative power of human fat also begs a bigger question: how much more therapeutic potential resides within our bodies, just waiting to be discovered by scientists of the future? Stem cell research and regenerative medicine are providing humankind with an unprecedented array of opportunities to realise the age-old human quest for rejuvenation and longevity. But just like our predecessors – those physicians of centuries past who rubbed patients’ limbs with the fat of the dead – we can be seduced by false hopes and hypes. Stem cell biology has had more than its share of setbacks, often because it inspires dreams and promises that outpace the capacity of the science. Yet, propelled by those dreams and gigantic aspirations, we should be able to overcome obstacles, turn our back on false science, and engineer the transformative medicine to come.

themarvjthompson:

wired:

IT’S HAPPENINGGGGGG

If Michael Bay is involved in this, we’re fucked 

A confident reader starts us off:

It is obviously somewhere near the DMZ in Daeseong-Dong.

Another is less sure:

I’ve narrowed it down to either Surabaya, Indonesia or Elmira, New York. Close call, but I’ll go with Surabaya, Johnny.

Another:

Tehran, Iran. I’d say the white buildings and the palm trees are dead giveaways. I will leave the rest of the details for your insane VFYW sleuths to figure out.

Another has Fox-colored glasses:

Benghazi. Because no matter the question, the answer is always Benghazi. (And the contest picture could actually be Benghazi…)

Or farther west?

First time entrant. I spent a year studying in Senegal and this reminds me a lot of Dakar. I’ll guess the picture was taken somewhere around the Medina district.

A family duo looks to the Middle East:

Based on the minaret featured in this week’s picture, my six year old and I are guessing Muscat, Oman.

That was actually this week’s most popular incorrect guess. Another:

The minaret in the background is a close-but-not-exact match to the principal minaret of the Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque. Several other Omani mosques bear similar designs, so it has to be that country, and probably Muscat. But I just can’t find a closer match! Along the way, though, I’ve learned a lot about Arab architecture, which is always fun. But this sole distinguishing feature is just too tough to match. I’m eager to hear more about those windowless-on-two-sides buildings that abound in this view. They’re definitely unique, but challenging to describe to a search engine.

Another nails the right country:

Hyderabad, India. Specifically, an area you might see on the flyover road from the airport. I could be wrong about this, but the minaret in the right middle ground and radio tower in left background make me a little more certain.

Another studies the scene in more detail:

Urban sprawl punctuated by palm trees, radio towers, and a lone white minaret. The minaret looks round or octagonal, with an onion dome on top, in the architectural style of many Indian/Pakistani mosques. Try as I might, I haven’t been able to narrow it down much further. The most similar minarets I found were in Jaipur, India, so I’m going with that for lack of a better idea.

Another almost has it:

Ten-second guess: this reminds me of the minarets in Northern India (vaguely reminiscent of the ones at the Taj). But this is clearly not the Taj itself, and I’ve got too many errands to run today to search. This looks a little too whitewashed to be Agra or Delhi, the first two places I might have otherwise started looking, so I’m going with the Pink City of Jaipur in Rajasthan. It’s still a big city and has its share of hazy air, perhaps a little less so because it is in the desert. Although the palm trees don’t quite fit with this city, and it troubles me that you would show a View from Bangalore the next day, but this could be an attempt to throw us off the track. To thine instincts be true. This feels like Northern India and so I’m going with that …

On the off chance that I’m close, my best memory of this part of the world is a week in the sacred city of Pushkar, about three hours away, with its masses of Hindu pilgrims, famous camel fair, and great camel trekking in the Thar desert. More monkeys, cows, and camels than cars on the inner city streets near the lake, but no alcohol, meat, or dairy in the food either. Interesting efforts to make pastry without butter.

A former winner gets the correct city and hotel:

Diabolical. Do you know how hard it is to find an image of Agra, India that doesn’t show the Taj Mahal? I knew the minaret at the center of the image was the key. A building in the lower left has a strong Greek influence, so I spent a bit of time around the Mediterranean. But focusing the search on the minaret I found an image of a similar minaret under construction in Agra. Then there came the wading through endless pictures of the Taj Mahal. From up close, from far away, crushing it between two fingers Kids In The Hall style. Everything.

Then, I found the above image. Bingo. Today’s window is from the Gateway Hotel in Agra, looking southwest, thankfully 180 degrees away from a view of the Taj Mahal.

Out of the 23 contestants this week, only a handful correctly guessed Agra and the hotel. For some context, below is a map plotting all of the entries this week (zoom in by double-clicking an area of interest, or drag your cursor up and down the slide):

Another former winner goes through her methodology:

For me, the only distinctive and potentially unique clue in the photograph was the tall, solitary minaret. Its design and decorative elements suggested the Pakistan-India-Bangladesh region, but when I couldn’t find it through various searches, I looked much more broadly. I soon realized that minarets vary incredibly, even in a single region, and for what is basically a simple architecture form. No two were the same unless part of the same mosque.

Eventually I found a 2004 photograph of a new mosque being built in Agar, India, near the “Park Plaza Hotel”. Its minaret, although still under constructed, was recognizable as that in the contest photograph. From there, I began checking hotel views in the area until finding one very similar to the contest view.

I have little confidence in my exact window guess but believe it is on the eastern side of the hotel’s southern face and on a higher floor. I compared nine photographs taken from various windows or facing the hotel exterior. The aim was to find angles that would include the shed-like building along the perimeter wall and only a limited portion of the eastern lawn and palms. The contest view also looks down on a tall tree growing to the east of the pool-lawn complex. Other features such as walkways and columns in the balcony railing helped narrow the options. It was hard to rectify the angles at which many of these shots were taken.

Thank you for the tour of minarets.

Another:

This one was one of the most difficult I’ve ever seen on the Dish.  The nondescript mosque surrounded by nondescript housing somewhere where there’s both palm trees and non-palm trees.  Very tough.  Anyways, given the smog and the fact there seems to be bathrooms in the bottom right corner of the photo with an “M” and “W” implying an English speaking country, I’m going to guess it’s somewhere in Lagos, Nigeria.  I’m sure Chini will set me straight.

Enter Chini:

Man, if this entry were a B-17 it’d be coming in for a landing more shot up than the Memphis Belle. Allergies this weekend turned me into a red-eyed, sore-throated mess that could barely speak, much less search. By Monday I was basically nowhere, not to mention sleep deprived. But sometimes a change of scenery works wonders; for me that change took place on a train crossing the Delaware. What had eluded me all weekend long suddenly appeared with a few taps on an iPhone, followed shortly thereafter by a rather loud and inappropriate exclamation. (Much to the chagrin of the twenty-something sitting next to me who nearly spilled their beer in response.) So I suppose all roads don’t lead to Rome; this one led me to Agra, India by way of Trenton, New Jersey.

This week’s view was taken from roughly the sixth floor of Agra’s Gateway Hotel. The photo looks west, southwest along a heading of 237.34 degrees. The best part is that the Taj Mahal sits exactly a mile away in the other direction. That and the number of online reviews for the hotel mean that this contest may have quite a few responses from people who’ve stayed there, as was the case with VFYW #151.

Not so, it seems. Teamwork paid off in this case:

Ouch, this one was hard. In our previous entries we had some lucky breaks, or at least we could narrow our search fairly tightly. This time we really had to log some hours on Google. After a day and half of searches and discussion we realized that several continents were still in play.

The obvious clue was the minaret in the background. Traces of that minaret’s style could be seen in many places, but my wife concluded that the closest examples were appearing on the Indian subcontinent. We focused there. I spotted a 2004 photograph of a minaret under construction in Agra that was similar to the one in the contest photograph. Hopping on Google Earth to examine Agra, I located a promising tall hotel (before I was able to find the minaret) and it had a photograph that was almost identical to the contest one …

Seen to the right. No one guessed the exact window, room or floor this week, but our winner – a regular player who has contributed some colorful entries in the past – came pretty close:

I actually forget how I found this, except that it was awesome and I impressed myself. We’re looking southwest from the Gateway Hotel in Agra, India, from a room on the less desirable side that affords no view of the Taj Mahal. We’re on the fourth floor, by my calculations, in the southeasterly wing of the building, and my bet-hedging guess – based on some worldly assumptions about the distribution of the Gateway’s 100 rooms and suites – is that we’re in Room 411. Photo of the window attached.

Nice work. From the photo’s submitter:

My husband was in India, and knowing my obsession with the View From Your Window Contest, he sent along this photo. It was taken in Agra at the Gateway Hotel, Sunday morning, March 23. It’s room 517, to be precise.

If you choose to use this for the contest, I’ll be very impressed with the winners. First off, a Google Image search of Agra, India turns up 99 pictures of the Taj Mahal for every 1 picture of something else. And secondly, there’s no street view on Google Maps. So two of my primary tools for locating these things are essentially useless.

See everyone Saturday for the next contest (which will be easier this time, promise). Meanwhile, a reader responds to last week’s contest, in which we noted that Orlando, Florida was “probably the only US location we’ve ever featured that hasn’t elicited a single contestant’s praise or fond memories”:

Like half the Midwest, my family moved to central Florida in the ’80s, and it was indeed a stark landscape. Its beauty – like much of non-beach Florida – reveals itself very slowly: sinkhole lakes, hanging moss, summer showers you could set your clock by. You need to watch out for gators as you canoe the Wekiva.

It is the South – to everyone except other Southerners, who view us as suspiciously purple. And I know it’s a sickness, but I love Florida’s reputation for weirdness. They say if you shake the United States, all the odd bits settle in Florida.

Not to get all heavy, but I’ve often thought that to live in New York, LA, Chicago or even Boston, is to see yourself, your everyday experience (or at least some version of it), continually reflected back at you in movies, TV, books and magazines. These are stories of love, crime, comedy, tragedy, of the human experience in all of its complexity and contradictions. By living in those places, you know that You exist; your story is worth telling; it is important.

In Orlando, your story will never be told. In fact, Orlando is a town built upon an industry whereby millions of people visit it in order to experience a fantasyland version of every town except Orlando. Millions visit Orlando, but almost none see it. Orlando becomes a mirror for tourists to travel long distances to recreate where they came from, but with all the sharp edges smoothed off. It may be why that Orlando often feels like nowhere, or anywhere. Why the people who move here don’t transfer their allegiance from where they came to here. If they did, their stories would no longer be worth telling or important, they would become invisible, like the people who clean your room while you go to the theme park. No locals go to those places, unless it’s to relieve tourists of their money. We live in an entirely different world from that. And it doesn’t suck.

This will be the only note you get in defense of Orlando. And now that I think about it, I may be OK with that.

But that reader isn’t alone:

I live here in Orlando and wanted to write to defend our much-maligned city. When I read, “Ordinarily I would write something interesting about the city or the structures in the picture, but we’re dealing with Orlando,” I just get annoyed.

What most people think of as “Orlando” is practically its own independent municipality, Tourist Land, many miles from where the vast majority of residents of Real Orlando live. Universal and SeaWorld are out in the tourist corridor near the convention center, 15 miles from downtown – and Disney World is its own jurisdiction! People fly into the airport in Southeast Orlando, drive straight across the southern end of the city to I-Drive or Disney World, Universal Studios or Shingle Creek, all in plowed-over citrus groves or swamp; stay their entire time out there, in an environment built almost exclusively for tourists; and then drive back to the airport when vacation’s over.

When tourists visit New York and stay in Midtown, no one assumes that the lights and tourist traps of Midtown are representative of New York City. But for some reason, people think Orlando is just strip malls of kitschy T-shirt shops and fast-food restaurants.

In Real Orlando, we have historic downtowns and housing districts with significant history that long predates the modern tourist experience. DeLand and Winter Garden are old citrus-growing towns; and Maitland dates to the Second Seminole War. Zora Neale Hurston lived in Eatonville in 1887 and a festival in her honor is still held each year. One of the quaintest little Central Florida towns, Winter Park, dates to the 1850s and has an adorable historic district on Park Avenue that has been a shopping district for locals since the 1920s.

So when I hear people put down poor little Orlando, it’s clear to me that they only know Tourist Land and not the real Orlando!

(Archive: Text|Gallery)

Somerville, Massachusetts, 3.33 pm

This is absurdity. This is art. BUT IT’S REAL. WHAT. 

Everyone click through to this video on the NYT site. 

I guess it’s a function of not following the Benghazi story as diligently as some others. But that’s no excuse. Weigel and Dickerson are must-read correctives to my take on the Ben Rhodes email, and show how this new email – though indeed foolishly withheld (the real story) – isn’t anywhere near as damning as it may sound at first blush. For two reasons: the information Rhodes was working off – via the CIA and State – was indeed that the attack was related to the inflammatory video. Dickerson:

Rhodes sent his email at 8 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 14. Nine hours earlier, the CIA had sent its first set of talking points. The very first line of the first CIA talking point read: “The currently available information suggests that the demonstrations in Benghazi were spontaneously inspired by the protests at the US Embassy in Cairo and evolved into a direct assault against the US Consulate and subsequently its annex.” (The original copies are here, released by the White House last May.) What was causing the protests in Cairo that the CIA mentions? The video.

Weigel offers this timeline, via Zeke Miller:

2:23 p.m.: The CIA’s office of general counsel adds a line about the “inspired by the protests” theory being inconclusive.

3:04 p.m.: The talking points are sent to relevant White House aides, including Ben Rhodes.

4:42 p.m.: The CIA circulates new talking points but removes a mention of al Qaida.

6:21 p.m.: The White House (Tommy Vietor, not Ben Rhodes) adds a line about the administration warning, on September 10, of social media reports calling for demonstrations.

7:39 p.m.: State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland objects to some of the language because “the penultimate point could be abused by members to beat the State Department for not paying attention to Agency warnings.”

8:09 p.m.: Ben Rhodes sends the “smoking gun” email, nine hours after the first draft of talking points from the CIA said that the attacks grew out of a demonstration.

Weigel’s conclusion:

The White House’s shifty-sounding excuse, that the “demonstration” story line came not from its spin factory but from the CIA, remains surprisingly accurate.

It was spin, not deception. There’s a big difference. And for full disclosure: I’m friends with Ben and should have known he is not the type to lie about anything. But sometimes, a relationship like that makes me be extra skeptical about stories involving friends or acquaintances. I learned that in the Bush administration. But in this case, I was over-correcting and under-informed. Apologies.

Louis C.K. took to Twitter yesterday to express his frustrations with the homework his elementary school-aged daughter is being assigned by a New York public school to prep for standardized testing. In a series of tweets, C.K. took photos of some needlessly complicated math questions and shared his disdain for standardized testing and its effect upon public education. Check out his tweets on the matter below:

My kids used to love math. Now it makes them cry. Thanks standardized testing and common core!

— Louis C.K. (@louisck) April 28, 2014

A huge amount of my third graders time is spent preparing for and answering questions like this. pic.twitter.com/WU5tEo8JRO — Louis C.K. (@louisck) April 28, 2014

This is one of my favorites. Also for third graders. Who is writig these? And why? pic.twitter.com/xUBVIxE6WU — Louis C.K. (@louisck) April 28, 2014

Look at 4 of part a. And the point isn't that it's too hard. Just read #4. Please. pic.twitter.com/5bnUlaXG5b

— Louis C.K. (@louisck) April 28, 2014

"Why night you want each picture to stand for more than 1 balloon?" Yet again I must tell my kid "don't answer it. It's a bad question"

— Louis C.K. (@louisck) April 28, 2014

Sorry. I sit with my kids as they so their HW they devour knowledge. When it's hard they step up. Their teachers are great — Louis C.K. (@louisck) April 28, 2014

But it's changed in recent years. It's all about these tests. It feels like a dark time. And nothing is going in anymore. — Louis C.K. (@louisck) April 28, 2014

It's this massive stressball that hangs over the whole school. The kids teachers trying to adapt to these badly written notions.

— Louis C.K. (@louisck) April 28, 2014

these questions btw were not written by her teacher. they were on a standardized test. written by pearson or whoever the hell

— Louis C.K. (@louisck) April 29, 2014

Okay I'm done. This is just one dumb, fat parent's POV. I'm pissed because I love NYC public schools. mice, lice and all.

— Louis C.K. (@louisck) April 29, 2014

Buzzfeed and Upworthy are about to be the butt of a bunch of gags by The Onion. According to an announcement made by Onion News Network host Jim Haggerty (played by Brad Holbrook) at New York's digital content NewFront presentations yesterday, the site is planning to launch Clickhole.com in June, which will put "content and sponsored posts side by side, with barely any distinction between them." Some items that will be featured on Clickhole.com will include, per the New York Business Journal:

• Quizzes like "Which pizza should I have for dinner tonight? (presented by Pizza Hut)"
• Uplifting personal tales in list forms: "Seven pricks that defied the odds and didn't go into finance."
• The aww factor: A video titled "What this adorable little girl says will melt your heart." (It's actually a cogent explanation of how brands monetize adorable little kids, as spoken by an adorable little kid.)
• And finally, photo slide shows with no words: "Six kinds of hay."

The Onion didn't shy away from digs at advertisers during yesterday's presentation, which was aimed at online branded content. One of the quotes featured in their videos: "Nelson Mandela, as he lay on his death bed said, 'My greatest regret is that I never generated buzz, and expanded my brand's reach through a cross-promotional digital partnership with a major lifestyle brand with strong appeal among Millennials such as Pringles, or Old Navy. I have wasted my life.'"

charmedsevenfold:

snoozlebee:

lepetitdragon:

tenaciousbee:

destroyer:

WHAT’S GOIN’ ON!

Everyone else can go home

OMFG

omg lol

best cosplay of all time

I love that the cheekbones are drawn on her face.

warning: my policy for this blog is to repost this every time it pops up on my dash

can we take a moment to appreciate the fact that every troll cosplayer in this picture is a terezi