Christopher.kantos

The Bagel Store in Brooklyn has been making rainbow bagels for 20 years. They serve them filled with cotton candy and rainbow-sprinkle-cake-flavored cream cheese.

At least 100,000 people became stranded at the Guangzhou Railway Station southern China. They were trying to get a jump on Chinese New Year, which starts next week. The image above is a small portion of a photo that will send a chill down the spine of agoraphobics.

Over 100k passengers trapped in Guangzhou Railway Station on Mon, due to train delays in #SpringFestival travel rush pic.twitter.com/DcajMP3oAq

— People's Daily,China (@PDChina) February 2, 2016

From The Guardian:

Aerial photographs published by one website showed a crush of bodies snaking towards the train station through metal barricades. About 176,000 passengers had been due to pass through the station on Monday alone.

“There are too many people and it is too crowded,” one stranded passenger, who was not named, told state broadcaster CCTV.

Somehow, this woman seems to be spinning both clockwise and counter-clockwise simultaneously. This is worse than the spinning ballerina. Anyone know who did this? Randomly found it on Facebook and couldn't trace the source back...

Tags: optical illusions

The Passport Index ranks passports according to their "power", defined around how many countries will let you in without a visa. British and American passports share the top spot. Meanwhile, a South Sudanese or Palestinian passport wouldn't get you into a candy store.

Visa Free Score
Passports accumulate points for each visa free country that their holders can visit without a visa, or they can obtain a visa on arrival.

Passport Power Rank
Passports are ranked based on their Visa Free Score. The higher the Visa Free Score, the better the Passport Power Rank.

Methodology
The country list is based on the 193 UN member countries and 6 territories (Macao, Kosovo, etc.) for a total of 199. Territories annexed to other countries such as Norfolk Island, French Polynesia, etc. are excluded. Data is based on research from publicly available sources, as well as information shared by government agencies.

The best part of the site is the page where you can sort the passport cover images by color.

Boston Police Sergeant Edwin Guzman's lawyer says that it's not really a big deal that he sent a photo of his penis to the sixteen-year-old daughter of a friend, because "You can’t tell me someone her age has never seen a picture of a penis on the Internet." (more…)

“We all need the D. Even me!” Yes we do, honey. Yes we do.

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https://youtu.be/KY43Vytro60

If you're a cop in Oregon, I guess the way to get promoted is to rear end your unmarked patrol car into a motorcycle and then violently kick the nonresistant rider with enough force to break his collarbone. It'll cost taxpayers $180,000 to settle the lawsuit against you, but that not your problem!

Coming as a surprise to no one who’s seen the original Star Wars trilogy, yesterday the Consumer Product Safety Commission issued a recall for a Darth Vader infant bodysuit that poses a potential choking hazard. Obviously.

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Ivealreadyreddit, who's working in Thailand, posted this picture of a tropical centipede cradling her newly hatched babies. Dawwww. (more…)

via http://www.tumblr.com/dashboard/23/48272290017

Neglected public payphones in New York City are being turned into "GuyFi" stations: a place where one can rub one out for the sake of "stress relief." Annalee Newitz reports on the wank booths from a company named "Hot Octopus"…

The company reported that at least 100 men used the booth on its opening day last week. Of course, public masturbation is illegal—and a rep from Hot Octopuss told Mashable, "We may be insinuating that these booths could be used in whichever way anyone would like to 'self soothe,' [but] the brand is not actively encouraging people to masturbate in public as that is an illegal offense." No word on how fast the Internet connection was, or whether there would be any efforts to help women "self soothe" at a rate equal to men in the workplace.

An armed society is a polite society.

In NYC, pay phones become free Wi-Fi hotspots—and masturbation stations

University of Tokyo food hacker Hiromi Nakamura is developing an electrified fork that zaps your taste buds with low current to make food taste saltier, without using so much salt. Sounds kinda like licking a battery, only not quite as bitter. (Munchies)

Pete Wells’s review of the famed restaurant inspired comments from readers about their experience there and complaints about income disparity.

In 2009, Indian women sent pink underwear to Shri Ram Sene, a right-wing, conservative Hindu organization that had promoted street-violence against women who were perceived as "immodest." (more…)

This is pretty awesome: A picture of the original Star Trek model, along with the men who assembled it, taken in December, 1964.

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Through a forest, no less.

topolatry
n. excessive reverence for a place

Of the million or so Japanese who visit Paris each year, about 12 have to be repatriated due to “Paris syndrome,” a transient psychological disorder brought on when the mundane reality of the city clashes with their romanticized expectations.

The syndrome was first diagnosed by Hiroaki Ota, a Japanese psychiatrist working in France. Symptoms include delusional states, hallucinations, feelings of persecution, and anxiety.

“Fragile travellers can lose their bearings,” psychologist Hervé Benhamou told Le Journal du Dimanche. “When the idea they have of the country meets the reality of what they discover, it can provoke a crisis.”

(A. Viala et al., “Les japonais en voyage pathologique à Paris : un modèle original de prise en charge transculturelle,” Nervure 5 (2004): 31–34.)

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A couple of days ago I posted a video of a raccoon that dipped a block of cotton candy in water and became confused when it dissolved instantly. What I didn't know is that the video was part of a longer video that shows that the raccoon learned on the third time not to dip cotton candy in water.

I like massages. Who doesn't? But what if you could get a massage while you worked? Stood up or sat down anywhere. In your home, the office, or in the car? That's the premise of the AiraWear, a massage vest that embeds into (at the moment) a zip-up h...

Adrian Peterson doesn’t want redemption for whipping his child with a tree branch, but Sports Illustrated is delivering it to him anyway. Greg Bishop’s profile of the running back, published Tuesday, doesn’t hand out the redemption directly—it can’t, because Peterson is fine with what he did to his child— so instead it doles it out by implication. Here’s A.P. visiting a child dying of cancer; here’s A.P. being nice to his own son; here’s A.P. giving a motivational pep talk to one of his teammates. Tough guy to not like, right?

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On our recent trip to Minnesota, we ate wild rice every chance we could get, savoring the chewy texture and rich, nutty flavor of this Great Lakes specialty. Some of our most memorable meals were the meat-free, wild rice burgers served at restaurants like Fitger's Brewhouse, Black Woods, and Grandma's in Duluth. Although these popular eateries keep their recipes a closely guarded secret, we managed to come up with a remarkably satisfying version of our own, and it's sure to please vegetarians and omnivores alike.

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There are burgers, and then there are burgers. Those amazingly flavorful, juicy burgers that leave a lasting impression. After some serious research, Business Insider tracked down the best burger in every state.

Did your favorite burger joint make the list?

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The fact that The Comedy Wildlife Awards exists just made my day.

(Via Katie)

Founded in Southern California, Iron & Resin makes some great clothing and accessories by hand in their home state. Their stores offer far more than that. Located just across from...

Visit Uncrate for the full post.

A South End restaurant that closed earlier this year only to reopen last month is closing once again--and a local restaurant group that owns the property is opening a new dining spot within the space.

According to multiple sources, Merrill & Co. on Appleton Street is shutting down at the end of this month, and Boston Nightlife Ventures--which owns the building, according to a note from Wink & Nod next door--will be opening a restaurant at the site. 451 Marketing tells us that Akinto will be the dining spot that opens in the Merrill space; Akinto is currently a Southeast Asian-influenced popup within Wink & Nod that is run by Chef Patrick Enage, who will also be behind the brick-and-mortar version when it opens (possibly in the early summer of 2016).

Merrill & Co. first closed in June after being in business for a bit more than a year, with a new spot called Ipswich Custom opening in the space in October; that restaurant shut down last month and Merrill & Co. returned, this time as a "Truck and Mortar" concept that was a collaboration between the Bina Group and Stock Pot Malden.

Boston Nightlife Ventures currently runs such places as Griddler's, The Tap Trailhouse, and Wink & Nod, with three other new spots--Southern Kin Cookhouse and Bar in Somerville's Assembly Row along with Certified Meatball Company and Little Owl Tavern (both of which are in as-of-yet undisclosed locations)--also on the way as well. The website for BNV is at http://boston-nightlife-ventures.com/

[Earlier Articles]
Ipswich Custom in Boston's South End Closes; Merrill and Co. Back in Space
Ipswich Custom Opens in Former Merrill and Co. Space in Boston's South End
Merrill and Co. in Boston's South End Is Closing

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[Related article from our sister site (Boston's Hidden Restaurants): Slideshow--Twelve Food Items from Asian Restaurants in the Boston Area]

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In 1981, Harvard law professor Roger Fisher, director of the Harvard Negotiation Project, published a thought experiment in the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists: what if the codes to launch nuclear war were kept inside the chest-cavity of a young volunteer, and the President would have to hack them out of this young man's chest before he could commence armageddon? (more…)

The subreddit r/CucumbersScaringCats is dedicated entirely to the proposition that cats are scared of cucumbers, and to providing video evidence in support of that proposition. (more…)

Crafty and eccentric YouTube musician Andrew Huang enjoys performing classical compositions on weird objects.

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