The first International Day of Yoga was held on June 21 and India set a record for the largest yoga demonstration in a single venue. Many other countries participated in the holiday recognized by the United Nations. -- By Leanne Burden Seidel

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, center, sits on a mat as he performs yoga along with thousands of Indians on Rajpath, in New Delhi, India, June 21. With nearly 36,000 in attendance, the yoga gathering set a record for the world's largest to mark the first International Yoga Day. (Saurabh Das/Associated Press)

(photo by vininnarella)

scienceshenanigans:

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Take a seat, ramen burger and phuck off, phumplings, because the Sushi Burrito is the newest Asian-fusion-mashup monstrosity to launch into our mouth holes. Chef Chris Jaeckle, who's doing highbrow Venetian in Union Square, debuts this new creation at his quick service Japanese spot Uma Temakeria, which has already devoted itself to the art of the hand roll. But this being a world of Crozels and Baissants, Jaeckle and the team are bumping up the rice component and slapping on a Mexican theme, creating a Chipotle-esque gut bomb filled with raw fish instead of seasoned meats. [ more › ]

Everything you need to know to successfully navigate NYC's premier barbecue event, happening next weekend.

Table Of Contents (all h2's added automatically)

The Big Apple Barbecue Block Party (BABBP), the annual summer meat smoking and eating frenzy, is less than two weeks away. The charity event benefiting the Madison Square Park Conservatory takes place on the weekend of June 13 and 14 from 11 a.m. until 6 p.m. in and around Madison Square Park. Now in its thirteenth year, the event is one of the city's biggest celebrations of real wood and charcoal smoked barbecue, and as always promises to bring in pit masters and styles from across the city and the nation. Though originally established by Danny Meyer's Union Square Hospitality Group, the BABBP is now managed by an Austin, TX based event company and celebrity chef Tim Love, who will be cooking at this year's event.

The BABBP takes place in Madison Avenue from 23rd Street to 27th Street and along 26th Street between Madison and Fifth Avenues, and all those blocks will be closed off to vehicles for the weekend. The event is free to attend, and food is sold by the plate ($9-$12 each, complete menu below) that typically contains a portion of meat or a meat sandwich and a side item or two. Dessert and beverages, including alcohol within designated areas such as the beer garden, are also available, and both cash and credit cards are accepted. Neighboring restaurant Eleven Madison Park will once again be offering bourbon and live blues, with a chance to get your hands on some Pappy Van Winkle. Inside Madison Square Park, a lineup of seminars and live bands also provide entertainment between rounds of meat.

The individual pits line the streets where attendees wait in line, with large colored flags marking the end of the line. Be warned that with an estimated 125,000 visitors over the course of the weekend, lines can get rather long, especially for some of the more popular pits. It's best to come armed with a game plan, so look out for the official BABBP map of the pit layout, which will be announced June 10. It will be available online, but copies will also be in plentiful supply throughout the event.

Regional Styles

One of the defining aspects of the BABBP is that it brings various regional barbecue styles to NYC. Here are the different forms represented at this year's event. If you're going, you should try at least one type of each of these:

North Carolina

Within North Carolina there are two distinct styles of barbecue. In the eastern part of the state, whole hog barbecue dominates. Hogs are smoked whole and then the entire carcass is chopped and mixed with a blend of vinegar, pepper flakes, and other spices. This style is represented at this year's event by Sam Jones of the Skylight Inn. The other style found in NC is called the Lexington or Western Lexington style, and focuses on pork shoulder. It is not represented at the BABBP.

Texas

Beef is king in Texas, and this style of barbecue principally focuses on beef brisket and sausage. Sauce is not a significant factor in Texas barbecue (although it certainly exists there). Instead, the meat is generally rubbed with only salt and pepper and smoked over post oak wood, making it one of the most primal forms of barbecue. Texas is usually one of the best represented styles at the BABBP and this year is no exception. Long time participants Salt Lick from Driftwood, TX will once again be serving brisket and sausage. Meanwhile, Tim Love, who owns the Woodshed Smokehouse in Fort Worth, TX (amongst numerous restaurants) will be bucking stereotype and cooking lamb brisket. But the big news this year is that Wayne Mueller of Louie Mueller Barbecue from Taylor, TX will be cooking for the first time at the BABBP (further details below). The Texas style is also represented locally by both Hill Country and Dinosaur Bar-B-Que, both of whom will be serving beef brisket.

Tennessee

As in much of the South, pork is the most popular meat in Tennessee barbecue. Memphis is known for ribs above any other cut. Despite hailing from St. Louis, MO, Pappy's Smoke House unabashedly bills itself as Memphis style barbecue, as does the Memphis Smokehouse, which hails from Horn Lake, MS. Both will be serving Memphis style ribs this year. The more rural areas to the east of Memphis tend to focus more on whole hog barbecue, and this style is expressed by longtime BABBP participant Pat Martin of Martin's Bar-B-Cue Joint from Nashville.

Alabama

Although not a popularly recognized form, one could argue that a style can indeed be defined by a single establishment, at least when Chris Lilly is your pitmaster. Big Bob Gibson's dates back to 1925 and is renowned for both its mayonnaise-based white barbecue sauce and for its pulled pork.

NYC

While there isn't a true NYC style per se – most of the city-bred participants are cooking other styles of barbecue – we are beginning to see unique variations of barbecue emerge in local pits. Notably, Bill Durney at Hometown Barbecue will be cooking Jamaican jerk baby back ribs at this year's event, drawing on traditions of the Brooklyn neighborhoods he grew up in.

Top Picks

With 17 pits at the BABBP you will have a lot of ground to cover if you want to hit each spot. At $9 - $12 per portion you are looking at spending as much as $204 to sample everything, not including beverages. It probably helps to break up the feat over the course of two days. Alternatively, think about enlisting some friends to line up at different pits simultaneously. If your appetite isn't quite that ambitious and you want to narrow down the list, here are five must-try pits:

Skylight Inn, pitmaster Samuel Jones (Ayden, NC)

Martin’s Bar-B-Que Joint, pitmaster Patrick Martin (Nashville, TN)

17th Street Bar & Grill, pitmaster Mike Mills (Murphysboro, IL)

Louie Mueller Barbecue, pitmaster Wayne Mueller (Taylor, TX)

Big Bob Gibson Bar-B-Q, pitmaster Chris Lilly (Decatur, AL)

Logistics

Getting There

If you're driving, know that parking can be scarce in the immediate vicinity of the park, especially since Madison Avenue and the cross streets running from 23rd through 26th street and Park Avenue are all closed. However, Madison Square Park is well served by subways, with the 23rd Street stop of the 4,5,6,N,R trains all next door and the 1,2,3, A,B,C lines only a short walk away.

The Elements

The event is held entirely outdoors and there is not a lot of shade outside of the park, so bringing a hat or an umbrella is advisable. While there are beverages available for purchase, bringing your own water bottle is the best way to remain hydrated, especially as the lines can be daunting in length. If you plan on consuming alcohol make sure to bring proper ID, and be sure to keep all booze in the designated areas. NYC laws apply throughout the event. Wet wipes and antacid will also come in handy.

VIP Passes

The lower tier Fast Pass that sold for $125 has been eliminated this year, leaving only the BigPiggin' VIP Pass, which costs a whopping $284.75 per day (including service charge). This includes unlimited barbecue without the need to stand in line, plus all sorts of other niceties, like access to the hospitality tent where there's a catered buffet, open bar, and perhaps most importantly, air conditioned bathrooms. If this all sounds worth the cost, passes are still available online.

The Menu and Roster

You've likely seen what looks like cottages atop the building that houses Kiehl's on the northeast corner of Third Avenue and 13th Street… now the penthouse home up there is for sale.

Here is the listing via Corcoran:

Own an iconic penthouse, featured in a number of publications for its unique rooftop cottages perched atop this historic boutique pre-war condominium. Penthouse 4CD is a breathtaking light-filled 1,972sf three bedroom, three bath duplex with four wood-burning fireplaces and two private garden terraces totaling 795sf.

This loft-like home features soaring 11’8” ceilings, exquisitely restored exposed brick, pristine hardwood oak floors, and carefully crafted carpentry throughout. Spanning nearly forty feet, with bright South and West exposures, the corner living and dining room are separated by a magnificent brick archway and bookended by two gracious wood-burning fireplaces.

An open kitchen features stainless steel appliances including Miele dishwasher and Wolf range, along with a dramatic Thermador vented range hood. Hand-painted Victorian-era aluminum casted balusters line the staircase leading up to the stunning master bedroom suite.

Enter this second level through the spectacular solarium, sun-flooded during the days and great for stargazing at night through its numerous skylights. This well-designed suite is complete with a spa-like master bath featuring a deep-soaking tub and separate steam shower, a windowed study/dressing area, and corner fireplace. The two spacious terraces flank the second level, the larger featuring an outdoor wood-burning fireplace, retractable awning, and four exposures with views of the Empire State Building. There is also a new irrigation system in place.

Price: $4.4 million.

And here are a few more photos via Corcoran…

Get your act together, red cabbage.

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Subway ridership is at record highs and the MTA needs billions of dollars to keep the wheels on and the condoms off, but Albany could give two cheap-suited shits. Who will devise a capital budget for the busiest transit system in the world? A fucking tree frog? In this spirit of Doing More With Less, the MTA is trying to speed up train times by tearing apart our most sacred subterranean marriage. "Please stand clear," say goodbye to "of the closing doors, please." [ more › ]

The manhunt for the two convicted murderers who escaped from an upstate prison last weekend is continuing today, with officials focusing on the five mile area around the Clinton Correctional in Dannemora. Despite reports yesterday that dogs had picked up the scent of the two men—Richard Matt and David Sweat—near the prison (and that they may have separated), police are basically in the same befuddled boat they have been in since the dramatic escape. [ more › ]

The Gosford Anglican Church wins again.

The Gosford Anglican Church is an Australian church renowned for its social commentary signage.

This sign, put up on last year's Melbourne Cup day, quickly went viral – but this wasn't an isolated incident.

imgur.com

In fact, the church has had its fair share of great signs.

Facebook: anggos

And now, at the beginning of the Muslim month of Ramadan, the church is knocking great social commentary out of the park again.

View Video ›

Facebook: anggos

Yep, more of this please.

myreactiongifs.com

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View Entire List ›

One of the most popular free outdoor movie series in NYC is Bryant Park's, and they're now entering their 24th summer hosting the film fest. Things kick off strong on June 22nd with the 1984 classic Ghostbusters. Check out the full lineup below—no movie screening this year was released after the mid-1980s, so bring your love of nostalgia. And a blanket. And get there real early if you want a spot (these start when the sun goes down, but expect crowds to take over the lawn as early as 5 p.m.). [ more › ]

A soldier ran up to a Nun. Out of breath he asked: "Please, may I hide under your skirt I'll explain later."

The nun accepted his request.

A moment later, two Military Police ran up and asked: "Sister have you seen a soldier?"

The nun replied: "He went that way."

After the MP's ran off, the soldier crawled out under her skirt and said, 'I can't thank you enough Sister. I hope you will understand, "I don't want to go to Iraq."

The nun said: "I understand completely".

The soldier added: "I hope I am not rude, but you have a great pair of legs!"

The nun replied: "If you had looked a little higher, you would have seen a great pair of ballsI don't want to go to Iraq either."

Snow Falls

Photograph by Mark Duffy, National Geographic Your Shot

Niagara Falls takes on an otherworldly pallor when the windchill temperature plummets to minus 40 below zero in Ontario, Canada. For photographer Mark Duffy, seeing everything frozen was a beautiful sight.

This photo was submitted to the 2015 Traveler Photo Contest. Find your best travel photos and join the competition.

“Do not want”, Newly born Chameleon remains egg shaped

As part of an exhibition last December at the Maison Des Jonglages (House of Juggling) in La Courneuve, France, magician and juggler Antoine Terrieux created this series of kinetic artworks using different arrangements of hair dryers. The dryers were positioned in such a way as to create an updraft for a paper airplane to fly around, a spinning vortex of water vapor, and other unexpected configurations. Terrieux also incorporates hair dryers into his performances. (via La boite verte)

Photo on Second Avenue by Derek Berg…

Mayor de Blasio is expected to announce this week that car traffic in Central and Prospect parks will soon to be drastically cut back. Christmas? Already?! [ more › ]

Tianzi Mountains, China


Fly Geyser, Nevada, Usa


Dragonblood Trees, Socotra, Yemen


Pamukkale, Turkey


Glowworms Cave, New Zealand


Abraham Lake, Canada


Monte Roraima - Venezuela


Dallol Volcano, Ethiopia


Son Doong Cave, Vietnam


Giants Causeway In Northern Ireland

jedavu:

Unbelievable Places That Look Like They’re From Another Planet

Unbelievable Places That Look Like They’re From The Mushroom Kingdom

The New York Philharmonic is celebrating its 50th year of free summertime performances in NYC parks. The tradition started back in 1965, when Leonard Bernstein was the musical director and Seiji Ozawa was the conductor. The inaugural season, which brought live classical music to parks in four boroughs (sorry, the Bronx), featured Benny Goodman on clarinet—at least 75,000 people showed up for the debut performance in Central Park. Here's an interesting video flashback: [ more › ]

Wendy Xu

Biography
More poems by this author

Twilight in Bukhara

Photograph by Joel Koczwarski, National Geographic Your Shot

As dusk settles in the ancient city of Bukhara, a lone woman passes by an incredible ancient mosque of epic proportions, writes photographer Joel Koczwarski. Located in present-day Uzbekistan, Bukhara was once an important stop along the Silk Road.

This photo was submitted to the 2015 Traveler Photo Contest. Find your best travel photos and join the competition.

Nineties to the left, 92 in Newark. Nineties to the right, 92 at LaGuardia. Alas, no nineties in the center of the city where Central Park only reached 89 degrees yesterday afternoon. The cold front that passed through the city last night is expected to reverse direction and return as a warm front this afternoon. That might heat us up to 90 but we will most likely top off in the upper 80s. Still, the warm front's passage will bring enough heat and humidity that we can't rule out the chance of an isolated shower or thunderstorm. [ more › ]

A group has filed a lawsuit to block the construction of Barry Diller's $150 million park on the Hudson River. [ more › ]

10% of the women had sex within the first hour of their first date.
20% of the men had sex in a non-traditional place.
36% of the women favour nudity.
45% of the women prefer dark men with blue eyes.
46% of the women experienced anal sex.
70% of the women prefer sex in the morning.
80% of the men have never experienced homosexual relations.
90% of the women would like to have sex in the forest.
99% of the women have never experienced sex in the office.

Conclusion:

Statistically speaking, you have a better chance of having anal sex in the morning with a strange woman in the forest than to have sex in the office at the end of the day.

Moral:

Do not stay late in the office. Nothing good will ever come of it!

If you've saved up 175 quadrillion Zimbabwe dollars — that's 175 followed by 15 zeros — congratulations, you're now $5 richer. In fact, the government is in such a generous mood that even if you have less than that, they'll still give you $5.

That, apparently, is how you say sorry for wiping out a country's life savings.

This is the coda to Zimbabwe's monetary madness, which, at its peak in 2008, saw prices double every 25 hours. That made it the second-worst hyperinflation in history, behind only postwar Hungary. And its legacy lives on not only in the hundred-trillion-dollar banknotes still floating around but also in an economy that's smaller now than it was in 2002.

Six years since the hyperinflation ended, though, the government has decided it's finally time to retire its old currency, which made Monopoly money look unambitious, given that nobody uses it anymore. The U.S. dollar, after all, replaced it as Zimbabwe's official currency back in 2009 — that's what ended the inflation — and a handful of others, like the South African rand, have unofficially done so, as well. Zimbabwe dollars are little more than souvenirs now, and, actually, you could probably get a better price for them on eBay than the $5 the government is offering for them. That's how much it's willing to pay for up to 175 quadrillion of your old Zimbabwe dollars, but only for a limited time! It will stop buying them back on Sept. 30, at which point your Zimbabwe dollars will go from being mostly worthless to entirely so.

How did Zimbabwe get to the point where being a billionaire meant you were really dirt poor? Well, if inflation is about too much money chasing too few goods, then hyperinflation is about way too much money chasing no goods, or close enough to it. In other words, it's not enough to just print a lot of money. The economy has to fall to pieces, too. The way it usually works, actually, is that the economic collapse — which makes tax revenues also collapse — is the impetus to start printing so much money in the first place.

Zimbabwe's problems began when the Mugabe regime seized what were mostly white-owned farms to distribute to the country's majority black population. On its own, this would have made sense as a way to try to make up for at least some of the inequities of the nation's not-so-distant colonial past. But it didn't when Mugabe just doled out the land to cronies who had no idea how to run large-scale commercial farms. Agricultural exports, which were a big part of the economy, crumbled. Mugabe tried to shore up his popularity by increasing salaries for soldiers and other friends of the regime. Where did the money come from? Easy: the printing press. With tax revenues drying up, that's where all the government's money came from.

But the bigger its deficit got, the more it had to print, and the more money there was chasing what were now very few goods. Inflation soared from the merely ridiculous to absurd levels— something like 80,000,000,000 percent on a monthly basis — and the government's only response was to declare price increases illegal. This did not work. If you tell people they can only sell something for less than it costs to make, they won't make it. So price controls only create shortages in the official market, and push inflation into the black market, which is even worse than it would have been since there aren't as many things to buy.

This kind of hyperinflation not only robs people of their life savings overnight, but it also makes it impossible for them to plan for any time horizon beyond that. After all, prices were constantly going up — stores would arm employees with label-makers to update them three or four times a day — so you have to spend whatever you have as soon as you get it. But that expectation that prices would rise exponentially made them rise even more so, as the government had to print more and more money to make up for the fact that people expected it to lose its value faster and faster than before. That's how you end up with hundred-trillion-dollar bills.

Eventually, though, people won't use your worthless currency even if you tell them it's against the law to use anything else. That's what happened in 2008, a year after Zimbabwe's inflation turned into the hyper variety, when the U.S. dollar became Zimbabwe's de facto medium of exchange. The government gave in to this reality a year later, and once the country's money was something it couldn't print, the inflation ended. Until now, when the government is telling its people this:

175 quadrillion Zimbabwe dollars isn't cool. You know what's cool? $5.

Last year, we were charmed by a video of a jolly bearded man ("probably plunked here from the Andromeda Galaxy or West Coast") enthusiastically high-fiving people trying to hail cabs around the city. That man was Brooklyn-based actor and filmmaker Meir Kalmanson, who has followed up that video with his latest attempt at connecting with strangers and/or making strangers feel uncomfortable: dancing behind people (without them realizing it). [ more › ]