Kevin White

Leave it to hamsters to dominate Valentine’s Day and get all frisky over Italian food. Watch as these rodent casanovas eat tiny spaghetti and meatballs, take a ride in a miniature gondola, and make out (just kidding, but we bet they got down…

The post Watch Tiny Hamsters Go On a Tiny Date and Eat Tiny Spaghetti appeared first on First We Feast.

Spending time with your sweetheart is lovely, but the best part of Valentine’s Day is the chocolate. At least, it can be. Working with chocolate can be tricky, so we’ve compiled a few tips (and an easy step-by-step recipe) from head chef Francisco Migoya that will make creating homemade chocolates a little easier—no tempering necessary.

Add a little bit of oil, such as olive or canola, to melted chocolate. This will prevent the chocolate from developing unsightly streaks if you’re not tempering it. The fat from the oil will destabilize the polymorphous fat crystals found in cocoa butter, preventing the crystals from arranging themselves. It’s the same principle used in chocolate-dipped ice cream cones, where the chocolate is mixed with coconut oil, and works beautifully to make chocolate-dipped strawberries.

Water and chocolate are not friends, however a tiny bit of water can be a huge boon to manipulating chocolate to work in your favor. Sugar is hygroscopic, meaning it is attracted to moisture and easily binds to water molecules. The sugars in chocolate are no different. When a few drops of water are added to the chocolate, the sugar will want to bind to the water, no matter how little is added. The reaction causes the chocolate to thicken, making it pipe-able.

You need only a small amount of water (think drops, not teaspoons) to thicken chocolate, and this technique works with any type of chocolate. The amount of water you add will vary depending on the viscosity of the chocolate you’re using, so it’s best to start by mixing just one or two drops into the melted chocolate, and then adjust to the desired thickness. To demonstrate, chef Migoya created dark-chocolate pops, covered in dehydrated strawberries.

First, assemble the pop sticks on a flat surface, such as clear plexiglass or a sheet pan, that is lined with an acetate sheet or parchment paper.

 

Next, add a few drops of water to the melted dark chocolate.

 

Transfer the thickened chocolate to a pastry bag. We used a round pastry tip, though any shape could be used to create desired effects.

 

Pipe the chocolate from one end of the stick to the other, overlapping to create a free-form chocolate latticework.

 

Once all of the chocolate is piped onto the sticks, add a topping for extra flavor and a punch of color. We used dehydrated strawberries, inspired by the classic combination. Immediately transfer the finished chocolate pops to a refrigerator until you’re ready to serve them. Refrigerating your chocolate will prevent sugar bloom, which creates a white powdery look on the surface of the chocolate.

 

If you’re still craving more, chef Migoya shared more sweet tips with chef Jamie Gwen. Stay tuned to our blog for even more heartbreakingly good chocolate later this week.

 

Averill Curdy

Biography
More poems by this author

Title Fight

Photograph by Andy Skillen, National Geographic Your Shot

Late afternoon was when we happened upon a large pride of lions resting on a dam wall in Phinda, South Africa, writes Your Shot member Andy Skillen of his encounter at the private game reserve in KwaZulu-Natal Province. Although the adults had not yet decided to stir for their evening activities, two of the cubs took it upon themselves to get some sparring practice in and fought a wide-ranging bout for around half an hour, burning off all that excess adolescent energy.

Skillen's picture was recently featured in Your Shot's Daily Dozen.

This photo was submitted to Your Shot, our storytelling community where members can take part in photo assignments, get expert feedback, be published, and more. Join now &raquo

Here’s a look at just some of the best images taken by Globe photographers last month including the coverage of winter storms, a new governor taking office and the Patriots playoff run to the Super Bowl. -- By Lloyd Young

Noah Bicchieri, 29, and his dog, Caruso, walked through deep snow between houses on Plum Island. (Jessica Rinaldi/Globe Staff)

No word on how many parsecs this Falcon makes the Kessel Run in, probably more than 12. Given how much fun this 18-mph home-made Millennium Falcon drone is to watch, we won't hold it against it. This, of course, is a quadcopter that drops the usual F...

When his son Kai was four years old, Peterborough, Ontario-based father Keith Anderson got an arm tattoo of one of the boy’s drawings. Every year since then, Anderson has had another of Kai’s drawings tattooed on his right arm (save the drawing for Kai’s ninth year, which the boy vetoed on artistic grounds). Recently Kai–now 11–has even done some of the tattoo work on his father’s arm. You can see Anderson’s tattoos–which range from a daisy to a seahorse–in this heartwarming portrait series by photographer Chance Faulkner. Anderson told Faulkner that the tattoos will continue as long as Kai is interested in the project.

photos by Chance Faulkner

via Bored Panda

Trunk Show

Photograph by Ashwati Vipin, National Geographic Your Shot

Ive had a keen interest in wildlife from the time I was a little kid feeding the neighborhood elephant lots of bananas and plums at my grandma's place in Haridwar, India, writes Your Shot member Ashwati Vipin, who captured this tussling pair at the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust in Nairobi National Park, Kenya. The trust rescues and rehabilitates orphaned elephants and rhinos. [They] held a short event where they brought out their resident elephants and discussed their history, feeding habits, and the state of elephant conservation. Meanwhile, the elephants went about playing and feeding. I knew I could not miss this opportunity to photograph [these two].

This photo was submitted to Your Shot. Check out the new and improved website, where you can share photos, take part in assignments, lend your voice to stories, and connect with fellow photographers from around the globe.

archatlas:

Christoph Niemann

Happy Bear‘s got all of the answers.

lazynbored:

oncesomething:

innercityforestfire:

pr1nceshawn:

7 Signs You’re Becoming an Adult…

I’m getting there…

Scarily accurate

Hella accurate!

I’m not afraid of The Youths but the rest, absolutely.

In Myanmar, around 120,000 people live in the Naga Self-Administered Zone in Sagaing Division where they survive mainly by subsistence farming and hunting. Cultural practices are changing - for example, younger men now wear trousers rather than traditional loincloths - although many Naga communities remain impoverished and inaccessible by road. The Naga speak dozens of languages and many of those in Myanmar use Burmese as a lingua franca.

A man who claims to be 100 years old wears a hat adorned with wild boar tusks in Donhe township in the Naga Self-Administered Zone in northwest Myanmar Dec. 30. Naga men traditionally wore animal parts such as tusks and tiger teeth, although the practice is less common now and younger men usually do so only for festivals. (Soe Zeya Tun/Reuters)

In what has become a fledgling tradition — started in 2010 at the suggestion of Modern Art Notes writer Tyler Green — major museums from the two regions of the U.S. competing in this years Superbowl have engaged in an art loan wager.

Each museum wagers a three month loan of a major artwork from its collection to the other museum on the outcome of the game. Ideally the works are chosen not only to be of comparable stature, but to be in some way related to the region represented by the museum and the football team.

This year, the Seattle Art Museum put up Albert Bierstadt’s Puget Sound on the Pacific Coast (above, top, with detail; high-resoluton file on Wikimedia Commons); and the Clark Institute in Williamstown, Massachusetts countered with Winslow Homer’s West Point, Prout’s Neck (above, bottom two; high-resolution file on Wikimedia Commons).

So we have a pair of superb coastal landscapes, one of the Pacific Northwest, the other of the Atlantic Northeast.

We know who won, of course, and the Bierstadt will be traveling to Williamstown for a three-month loan later this year. Hopefully, both museums come out winners, as the friendly competition is meant to take advantage of the Superbowl media hype to point a bit of public attention to the fine art collections in both cities.

For more, see the before the game article on Art News, and my previous posts on past events (below).

There are many reasons to love Bob’s Burgers, not least of which is the ever-entertaining cast of daily-special burgers that appear on the show. One enterprising Tumblr user even documents every single one with a screencap as the episode airs. Photo: Fox But no…

The post An Illustrated Bob’s Burgers Cookbook is Coming appeared first on First We Feast.

How did we get to a place in America where chicken taco is a “food truck” flavor? Frito-Lay, we’ve already deemed Lay’s the “complimentary USA Today in front of your hotel room” of potato chips—but the new Pringles “Kickin’ Chicken Taco” Food Truck Flavor…

The post Pringles Releases New ‘Food Truck Flavor’: Kickin’ Chicken Taco appeared first on First We Feast.

Mercer’s, a family-owned creamery and dairy in Boonville, New York, has made a hybrid of two of our favorite things to consume: wine and ice cream. This isn’t just wine-flavored ice cream: The dessert is 5% alcohol by volume, which means…

The post A New York Dairy is Making Wine Ice Cream appeared first on First We Feast.

Originally one of the world’s first health resorts, the Dead Sea in Israel has a far from healthy future as its water levels continue to decline. In fact, it has been estimated that since the 1950s the water levels have dropped about 130 feet. The dangerously low level has been attributed to an imbalance between the amount of incoming and outgoing water. Known also as the Sea of Salt, separating Israel to the west and Jordan to the east, the lake’s surface and shores are 1407 feet below the level making it earth’s lowest elevation on land. The problem of the annual declining rate is due largely to the reduction of inflowing of water from the Jordan River. This has been attributed to the increased current consumption of water within the Jordan River water and irrigation drainage basin. Water resources in the region are scarce and affect Israel, the West Bank, Lebanon, Syria and Jordan that are located within and bordering the basin. The sea is called ‘dead’ because its high salinity prevents aquatic organisms such as fish and aquatic plants from living in it. -- By European Pressphoto Agency

An abandoned tourist Boat shipwreck lying at the Dead Sea coastal resort near Ein Gedi, Israel. According to media reports, the Dead Sea water level is dropping with an average of 3 feet per year since the first water level measurements in 1927. (Abir Sultan/EPA)

Snow Fall

Photograph by Stefano Unterthiner, National Geographic

Late winter snow cascades down the rocky slopes of Valsavarenche valley in Italys Gran Paradiso National Park. Ruinous avalanches are rare in Gran Paradiso, but in 2008 one destroyed several houses in two park villages.

See more pictures from the February 2015 feature story Paradise Found.

The Federal Reserve once again left interest rates unchanged at a range of zero to a quarter of a percentage point, postponing a return to what it calls normal rates and reiterating that “it can be patient” in deciding when to begin raising rates.

The Federal Reserve’s open market committee added that once it begins to raise rates, which most analysts expect will take place around the middle of the year, “economic conditions may, for some time” result in interest rates “below levels the Committee views as normal in the longer run.”

The central bank said that information since its December meeting suggested that “economic activity has been expanding at a solid pace,” more confident sounding than the December statement that pointed to a "moderate pace." It cited strong job gains and lower unemployment rate, a rise in household spending, and increases in business investment. It said that a recovery in the housing sector, however, “remains slow.”

John Canally, an investment strategist and economist for LPL Financial, said that "they see, thus far, only positive spillover from drop in oil prices on economy" in household spending "and no negative" effects, as capital spending remained strong.

Despite a quickening in the rate of economic growth in late 2014, the economy has recently shown signs that it might not sustain that pace, analysts say. Moreover, inflation remains below the central bank’s 2 percent target and unemployment still hovers above the level Fed officials hope to achieve.

The Federal Reserve did not use the phrase "considerable time" to describe how long it would wait before raising rates, but in December Fed chairman Janet Yellen said that being patient meant the central bank would probably wait two meetings, or about six months, before taking action.

Stock and bond markets dropped late in the day despite the lack of movement in the Fed's statement.

The Federal Reserve said that inflation had been low and was “anticipated to decline further in the near term” because of sinking oil prices, but it said that it expected inflation to rise “gradually” toward 2 percent over “the medium term” as the labor market improves and the “transitory effects of lower energy prices and other factors dissipate.” It said that as a result of falling oil prices, inflation had "declined further" below the Fed's target.

Although it did not mention recent events in Europe, the Fed added "international developments" to the list of items it will weigh when trying to decide whether to raise rates. Many analysts believe that Europe’s economic weakness and the European Central Bank’s new program of buying assets would complicate the Federal Reserve’s decision about raising rates without undercutting policy efforts across the Atlantic.

"In Fed-speak, they introduced a variable, which they don’t do very often," said Mark Zandi, chief economist and co-founder of Moody’s Economy.com. "It's a very rare event." Zandi said the "strategic insertion" was "a small change but a very meaningful one" and that it would give the Federal Reserve "more flexibility" in deciding when they will raise rates.

The Fed said in a press release that it was continuing to balance its two mandates, to keep inflation and unemployment rates low. It said that it “continues to see the risks to the outlook for economic activity and the labor market as nearly balanced.”

 

Hi....

You I hope you get this. Just after I was totally convinced there were few men left in this world, here I finally see one take action into his own hands.

And I won't lie to you, I liked it a lot and it was incredibly hot.

I was the girl in a corporate skirt, a skirt that was rather high, waiting at a bus stop and periodically checking my phone. I had seen you earlier walking around and truth be told, I didn't give you much thought. But don't read into that. I have the red storm in town this week and my job has been stressing me out a bit.

As I waited, suddenly I saw a man run up to an older woman sitting nearby, do a ninja-like cartwheel, and then grab her purse. She screamed and this is when you took note. You were walking right past me at this point and threw your coffee at the ground and tossed me your messenger bag.

'Not again,' you said. 'Not in my house, naw uh, no way.'

Following this decree you then ran after the man and yelled at him to stop.

'STOP ASSHOLE RIGHT NOW!'

And surprisingly, he did. Although he had a black mask on, he turned around and I could tell he stared you down. And lo and behold, he then started running towards you and yelling incoherently. You had paused by this point and remained in place, doing a few shadow kicks and punches to dissuade him as much as you could.

And finally, the moment I was waiting for; the conclusion. With him running toward you, you maneuvered yourself to execute a roundhouse kick, which if executed perfectly, would have kicked his head off completely. Trust me. I am from Cleveland and that's how it works.

As the moment of impact neared, I was hoping you would try to kick his head toward me. And then use that as an opening to ask for my number... So I kept close watch, believe you me.

'Suck on this criminal!' You said when twisting and readying your body to take him out. But unfortunately your foot hit a parking meter and he was able to just beat the shit out of you since he had the upper hand on the first move. He literally just kicked your ass, then took your wallet, and for some reason took your pants off as a form of psychological punishment.

You laid there in just a white button down and underpants and cried until the police showed up and put a blanket on you and gave you tea.

But I think it's cool that you at least tried to do something. And for that you get a date with me. My name is Tiffany. I have a cat, some ambiguous student loan debt, and I drive a Kia. Let's get some sushi and talk about society together.

Hope to hear from you....


Tiff

P.S. To make sure it's you, tell me where this went down. Be specific.

Spiritual Revival

Photograph by Paul Nicklen, National Geographic

Best friends Haa Keaulana, at right, and Maili Makana dive under a wave on their way to a surfing spot near their hometown of Makaha on Oahu, Hawaii. Like generations before them, they visit these waters almost every day to refresh both body and spirit.

See more pictures from the February 2015 feature story Pure Hawaiian.

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Here’s a small comic about something that’s important to me. I grew up in Canada, and for years now, Canadian scientists have faced great pressure to stay quiet on environmental and other issues. This is no good for the beautiful country I love.

Two to Tonga

Photograph by Fabrice Guerin, National Geographic Your Shot

This day the sea was clear and quiet, writes Your Shot member Fabrice Guerin, who captured this picture of a humpback whale and calf off the South Pacific island of Tonga. The baby played for a few moments, and before joining the depths of the ocean, rubbed its mother as if to [give her] a hug.

Guerins picture recently appeared in Your Shots Daily Dozen.

This photo was submitted to Your Shot. Check out the new and improved website, where you can share photos, take part in assignments, lend your voice to stories, and connect with fellow photographers from around the globe.

Argument — much like karaoke and online shopping — is at its best when done with friends and a drink. And so, here’s “Bar Fights With Walt,” a column devoted to solving the only questions that truly matter: the dumb arguments about life and pop culture developed and hashed out in barroom rants. We’ll use data and research to take these arguments to their logical statistical conclusion. If you’d like to submit a question or conundrum, corner the author at one of his typical haunts and pick a fight.

After an evening at Grassroots Tavern, some friends and I got into a heated argument about “Love Actually,” which I contend is a good movie (see this Ben Dreyfuss essay for more on that). This eventually became a slightly less heated argument about which movies make people cry. The consensus was that everyone has at least one movie that gets them. The lone dissenter was my friend Alex Kaufman, who claimed he had never cried during a movie. After we listed approximately half the films on IMDb, he eventually recanted, saying that “Saving Private Ryan” had, at points, briefly broken his steely resolve. This leads us to this week’s question:

What movies make people cry the most?

I asked SurveyMonkey Audience, which conducts polls for us from time to time, to ask people what films — if any — had ever made them cry, or at least made them choke up a bit. Respondents could volunteer up to five films.

About 92 percent of the 665 respondents said a movie had made them cry. The dry-eyed 8 percent were asked whether a movie had ever at least gotten them misty-eyed or choked up. A little more than half of them conceded that yes, they had been close to crying before. Call this the “Alex Kaufman Group.”

Still, this leaves us with 4 percent of respondents — about 1 in 25 — who have never been moved even close to tears by any film. Such stoic souls are rare, but they do exist.

Here are the biggest tear-jerker films, with the number of times they were mentioned. In total, 596 films were mentioned 2,615 times.

But men and women don’t tear up at the same films. Looking at films with more than five mentions, there are several that stick out.

“Field of Dreams,” “Rudy,” “Brian’s Song” and “We Were Soldiers” were the most likely to be listed by men rather than women. On the other end of the spectrum, “Beaches,” “P.S. I Love You,” “Steel Magnolias” and “A Walk To Remember” skewed heavily female.

I also asked about the relative tear-jerker-ness of different genres. It’s somewhat interesting to zero in on the 523 respondents for whom we have gender data.

Finally, I inquired about television shows and novels to see whether those were any more likely to cry.

Only 29 percent of male respondents admitted they had ever been brought to tears by a novel, which probably means our civilization is in desperate need for more books about World War II. What’s more, 61 percent of dudes said they have never been brought to tears by a television show or miniseries.

A final note of a personal nature: To the single respondent who listed “Jurassic Park” as a film that has brought them to tears, I need you to contact me as soon as possible. I’m pretty sure you’re my soulmate.

More than 6 feet of lake-effect snow was dumped in the Buffalo, N.Y., area over the last few days with reports of more on the way. Storms closed a 100-mile plus section of the New York State Thruway, and the US National Guard has been called in to help dig out. -- By Lloyd Young

A man digs out his driveway in Depew, N.Y., on Nov. 19. The Buffalo area found itself buried under as much as 5½ feet of snow Wednesday, with another lake-effect storm expected to bring 2 to 3 more feet by late Thursday. (Derek Gee/The Buffalo News via Associated Press)