The U.S. government has a detailed and technical system for determining a famine. But conditions in South Sudan make it extremely difficult to assess just how dire the situation is.

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Facebook has found a better connection for advertisers and mobile users, particularly in emerging markets and out-of-range locations.

Advertisers can now target their Facebook ads based on how strong someone's phone signal is when they visit the social network. That means advertisers can limit data-heavy ads like video to people on strong 4G connections and run light-bandwidth text ads for those on 2G connections.

Facebook's new cell-signal targeting works across all of the company's ad units, including auto-play video ads where those are available, and in conjunction with all other targeting options. Advertisers can also use the option to target ads across Facebook's mobile network of third-party apps, a spokeswoman said.

Continue reading at AdAge.com

From The Kitchn → 3 Common Mistakes People Make When Brewing French Press Coffee

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Last week, I wrote a post featuring 10 restaurant interiors to inspire your kitchen renovation. The first one, the gorgeous bar area from Atlanta's King + Duke restaurant, featured a marble-clad bar with a thick wood counter. To get the look at home, I suggested modern wood cabinets and a marble countertop, or a thick wood countertop paired with a marble backsplash. But even as I wrote the words, I hesitated. Marble and wood in a kitchen? Would that I actually look good? Well, after a little 'research' (thanks, Pinterest!) I am happy to report: yes. Marble and wood in the kitchen is a thing, and it is fantastic.

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i haven’t yet been nominated for the ice bucket challenge, and i can’t figure out if that means i’ve got great friends or just have no friends.

It’s time to have a little talk about Duane Reade.

For the longest time, something has been nagging me about the prices at Duane Reade. It’s almost like everything is more expensive than it should be, but not too expensive that you’ll really take the time to think about shopping somewhere else.

Then, a few months ago, after my local mom-and-pop pharmacy went out of business, I started shopping at the local Duane Reade, and I became more and more convinced I was being charged higher prices for products I could buy cheaper at the rival CVS literally one block away (Duane Reade, incidentally, is owned by Walgreens). I decided to do a test to see if I was nuts, or if Duane Reade is in fact more expensive than other New York City drugstores.

First, I chose nine typical drug store items at random for comparison:

• Shampoo: Head & Shoulders 2-in-1 line – 14.02 oz container
• Medicine: Tylenol Extra Strength Caplets – 100 pack
• Toothpaste: Arm & Hammer AdvanceWhite – 6 oz
• Toilet Paper: Scott 1000-sheet 4-roll pack
• Laundry Detergent: Tide Original 1.47l bottle
• Deodorant: Old Spice Red Zone 3.0 oz
• Contact Solution: Opti-Free Replenish – 2 Pack
• Cereal: Frosted Flakes – 15oz box
• Candy: Snickers bar – standard size

For stores, I chose two Duane Reades in the Williamsburg/Greenpoint area that had rival drug stores within a few blocks:

• Duane Reade at 164 Kent Ave, compared with CVS at 27 North 6th Street (one block apart);
• Duane Reade at 893 Manhattan Ave, compared with CVS at 859 Manhattan Ave (one block apart), and Rite Aid at 783 Manhattan Ave (3.5 blocks away)

I also included the Duane Reade at Bedford Ave just to see how it stacked up against the rest, though it has no immediate competition and prices would presumably be higher.

Finally, if a store was having a sale on any of the products (which they all did intermittently), I ignored the sale price in favor of the normal store price, since sales are obviously temporary and cannot be relied upon. Here’s how it all stacked up:

Kent Ave
Duane Reade: $7.49
CVS: $6.29

Manhattan Ave
Duane Reade: $7.49
CVS: $6.29
Rite Aid: $6.59

Bedford Ave
Duane Reade: $7.49

……

Kent Ave
Duane Reade: $10.99
CVS: $9.99

Manhattan Ave
Duane Reade: $10.99
CVS: $9.99
Rite Aid: $10.49

Bedford Ave
Duane Reade: $10.99

……

Kent Ave
Duane Reade: $5.79
CVS: $4.99

Manhattan Ave
Duane Reade: $5.29
Rite Aid: $5.29
CVS: $4.99

Bedford Ave
Duane Reade: $5.79

……

Kent Ave
Duane Reade: $5.99
CVS: $4.69

Manhattan Ave
Duane Reade: $5.99
CVS: $4.69
Rite Aid: $4.99

Bedford Ave
Duane Reade: $5.99

……

Kent Ave
Duane Reade: $11.99
CVS: $10.49

Manhattan Ave
Duane Reade: $11.99
CVS: $8.99
Rite Aid: $10.29

Bedford Ave
Duane Reade: $11.99

……

Kent Ave
Duane Reade: $6.79
CVS: $5.79

Manhattan Ave
Duane Reade: $6.49
CVS: $5.49
Rite Aid: $5.49

Bedford Ave
Duane Reade: $6.79

……

Kent Ave
Duane Reade: $21.99
CVS: $18.99

Manhattan Ave
Duane Reade: $21.99
CVS: $18.99
Rite Aid: $18.99

Bedford Ave
Duane Reade: $21.99

……

Kent Ave
CVS: $6.29
Duane Reade: $5.99

Manhattan Ave
Duane Reade: $5.99
CVS: $5.99
Rite Aid: $5.29

Bedford Ave
Duane Reade: $5.99

……

Kent Ave
Duane Reade: $1.39
CVS: $1.19

Manhattan Ave
Duane Reade: $1.39
CVS: $1.19
Rite Aid: $1.15

Bedford Ave
Duane Reade: $1.39

……

And if you were to buy all nine products at each drug store?

GRAND TOTALS

Kent Ave
Duane Reade: $78.41
CVS: $68.71

Manhattan Ave
Duane Reade: $77.61
CVS: $66.61
Rite Aid: $68.57

Bedford Ave
Duane Reade: $78.49

In nearly every case, Duane Reade had the most expensive standard pricing.

Now let’s talk about sales. Duane Reade was also the drug store offering the most sales on the products above. But it was weird. Sometimes, the sale price beat the competition – the shampoo above was marked down to $5.49/bottle, for example, and deodorant marked down to $4.79.

But other times, the sale price was still more expensive than at competing stores – contact solution was “on sale” for $19.99, but that was still more expensive than the regular $18.99 price found literally everywhere else. Other times, they’d advertise something like toilet paper as a “Great Deal,” at a price ($5.99) that was nonetheless way higher than the competition.

Regardless, the with sales prices included in the final tally, the Duane Reade totals were still in the low $70 range – still more expensive, and that’s not even factoring in the sales at rival stores.

Final Conclusion

In short, it seems that Duane Reade charges the shit out of you at normal price, then uses occasional sales to give you the sense that you’re actually getting deals. Whereas rivals CVS and Rite Aid don’t have as many items on sale, but keep prices at a much lower every day standard, which ultimately seems to work out much better for the consumer.

Glad to know that I’m not completely nuts (well, besides the fact that I took the time to do this ridiculous study). Obviously, this was limited to just a few locations in Brooklyn – feel free to share your own experiences.

-SCOUT

   

Twitch, a streaming site for live gameplay, has seen exponential growth since its launch. It was announced yesterday that Amazon would acquire the service for $970 million. Earlier reports hinted Twitch might be bought by YouTube for $1 billion.

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$1 million price tags aren't all that uncommon these days, especially in certain states. Zillow rounded up the ten states where seven-figure homes are near 10% of the housing market. Topping the list at over 11% is Hawaii, followed by California at 10.6%.

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Once cottages for 19th century salt mine workers, the Salt House Inn opened as a refuge for those escaping from their own version of the salt mines in the city to the beach town of Provincetown, Massachusetts. The project was a collaboration between hotel industry innovator David Bowd and interior designer Kevin O’Shea, who purchased the property in May 2011. David, originally from the English village of Salt, which partly inspired the Inn’s name, has been in the hotel business for 30 years. Kevin studied interior architecture at RISD and then began a career in hotel design and opened his own interior design studio, Kevin O’Shea Designs in 2009. Kevin and David had been vacationing in Provincetown for the last few years and noticed a void for a stylish, yet affordable place to stay. And opening an inn in their favorite vacation destination seemed like the perfect collaboration for a couple who has their hands in the hotel industry. Kevin designed every inch of the inn, from the largest room right down to the privacy signs that hang on the door. The result is a hotel that evokes the feeling of a breezy beach cottage and perfectly captures the history and charm of this seaside destination located at the tip of Cape Cod. -Amy

Image above: “The long shingle style building dates back to the 1850s and was once cottages for salt mine workers,” says interior designer and hotel owner Kevin O’Shea.

Image above: “The components that make up our rooms are very simple, but the details have been carefully considered, for example the glass shades on the wall sconces are different in each room.”

Image above: “The Loft is our premium suite and is very popular with people celebrating special occasions, especially honeymoons. This space was never part of the inn before the renovations, rather it was the bedroom of the owner’s quarters, we felt it was too spectacular to not be part of the guest experience so with some reconfiguring we were able to add onto the guestroom side of the inn.”

See more of the Salt House Inn after the jump!

(more…)

Sometimes a truth is so self-evident that you can't present an impartial case for both sides. So I'm just going to say it: sugar has no business in cornbread. To know why, you need to dig deep into the history of corn. Read More

Bike commuting sometimes feels like you need eyes in the back of your head. Backtracker is a radar-based bike light that wants to be your extra eyeballs. The light on the back flashes more frequently as cars get closer, while a handlebar mount alerts you to the nearness.

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I've never tasted castor oil, but it sounds like a horrible, horrible thing that has tormented many a child growing up. I prefer my castor oil used for other things, thank you very much. Here are a selection of somewhat random but interesting ways to put it to good use at home.

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infinite hatting

Bow down, b*tches, because it doesn't get any better than that!!

Beyonce was a pretty obvious choice for the Michael Jackson Vanguard Award at the 2014 MTV VMAs considering she runs the world!

Well Queen Bey also had the honors of shutting things down at the Fabulous Forum, but she didn't just put on your average, typical performance. She made the most of her time and performed a medley of HER ENTIRE ALBUM!

Beyzus played all of her new hits, including Haunted, Partition, Rocket, and each was more FLAWLESS than the last! Seriously, we weren't joking when we said she did the whole album!

And can we just take a moment to talk about how precious her tribute to baby Blue Ivy Cater was?? Oh, and the fact that she and Jay Z presented momma Yonce with her award??

Shut it down, Bey! SHUT. IT. DOWN!!!!!

Relive the amazing performance (above)!

We believe that Blue Ivy put it best....

"We have been and are actively suspending accounts as we discover them related to this graphic imagery."

In a tweet sent out shortly after 4 a.m. on Wednesday morning, Twitter CEO Dick Costolo said that accounts caught posting grisly images related to the execution of journalist James Foley would be suspended. This is the right thing to do.

Read Full Story

The French often say, “There’s no need to leave France – we have everything here!” While it’s easy to brush it off as chauvinism, it’s true — for a country that could fit inside of Texas, there is a huge diversity of climates and terrains in one, single country. You can find everything in l’hexagone, from the windy shores of Brittany (where we’ve huddled around the fireplace, wearing sweaters in Augusts of yore), to the sunny south, where beaches are clogged with tourists and the few locals that choose to stay in town, to bask in the abundant sun of the Mediterranean.

After living in France for a while, I sometimes get the feeling that the country never gets a break on the summer weather. While it can be gorgeous, we were told that the day after we left Paris, the weather turned grey and cool. And while we had some nice days during our two weeks of travel, we hit quite a bit of uncooperative weather ourselves, that always seemed to be creeping up on us.

Being from San Francisco, I never look at forecasts and simply plan for everything. And anything. (And you’ll see that in spite of my best efforts with photo editing software, I was unable to add in sunshine to the shots.)

Since we were mostly éponging (sponging) off friends, by staying with them as we traveled, I had to brush up on my morning small-talk skills. I’m hopelessly terrible at responding to enthusiastic greetings of “Good morning!!” or “Hi! How did you sleep?” first thing in the morning.

It doesn’t help that Romain is so talkative first thing in the morning that I often check his back, to see if I can take the batteries out. I need at least thirty minutes, minimum, to adjust to the new day – preferably without any commentary.

Continue Reading Our Tour de France...

CEO Elon Musk's response: "Rockets are tricky."

A SpaceX rocket detonated Friday, shortly after the test vehicle launched from McGregor, Texas.

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An advertising company you probably haven't heard of crunched the numbers.

We all know that ads are the lifeblood of the Internet. Annoying? Sure. You'd be hard-pressed, though, to find anyone who didn't understand that they were a necessary evil.

Read Full Story

The Future Will Be Charged to Your Credit Card

Shopping Made Psychic

The New York Times

In a survey on what he terms "predictive shopping," Harvard Law professor Cass Sustein found that 41% of people would "enroll in a program in which the seller sent you books that it knew you would purchase, and billed your credit card." That number went down to 29% if the company didn't ask for your consent first.

But what if the products and services were different, like a sensor that knew you were almost out of dish detergent? Without consent, were people willing to have a company charge their account and send them more detergent? Most people (61%) weren't. But the results were a bit more interesting when Sustein did a similar survey among university students. While most still weren't into being charged automatically for books they might like, "69% approved of automatic purchases by the home monitor, even without consent." The professor posits that "among younger people, enthusiasm is growing for predictive shopping, especially for routine goods where shopping is an annoyance and a distraction."

---

It's Not the Bus

Which Mode of Travel Provides the Happiest Commute?

CityLab

While the results from a recent McGill University study aren't especially surprising — and consist of a McGill-specific survey sample — they do add credence to what many people already know in their commuting heart of hearts: That walking, biking, or taking a commuter train to work is much more satisfying than driving or taking the subway or bus. My significant other, for example, loves biking to work because it's both enjoyable and on his own timeline — he pretty much always knows when he's going to arrive at work, which diminishes his extreme dislike of idling in traffic for no apparent reason (I don't mind it as much because of my interest in singing loudly, and poorly, in the car). And a long train ride can allow for reading or doing work, making the time more productive.

But there were some surprises: Bus riders and cyclists — both of whom travel about 22 minutes to work — had very different levels of satisfaction. So, time spent commuting isn't necessarily a consistent predictor of happiness. And, in the end, "people expressed more happiness with their commute when the mode they took was the mode they wanted to take."

---

Step Up, Employers

It's Not a Skills Gap: U.S. Workers are Overqualified, Undertrained

Businessweek

Add this research from Peter Cappelli to the ongoing debate about the skills gap. According to the Wharton professor, and explained by Businessweek's Matthew Philips, much of the problem lies in how we do (or don't) train employees. Back in 1979, for example, young American workers received 2.5 weeks of training per year; by 1991, only 17% of employees said they received any formal training within the year. And by 2011, a mere 21% of Americans had received any training within the past five years. The prevailing argument is that companies no longer train their employees because it's a bad investment (top talent will end up leaving anyway), and because they're relying on internships to teach young workers. But Cappelli says that "the fear of having a competitor reap the rewards of your investment are overblown" — to the detriment of both companies and workers. In the end, says Philips, "the problem may not be the skills workers ostensibly lack. It may be that employers' expectations are out of whack."

---

Yes

Can a Robot Be Too Nice?

Boston Globe

As robots and algorithms become more and more central to pretty much everything we do, the question of how humans and robots interact becomes more and more important (I mean, just look at the robot bellhop). Leon Neyfakh does a great job of rounding up all the ways researchers are trying to nail down what types of robot personalities people respond to, and in what circumstances. When it comes to robot nurses, for example, people prefer an outgoing and assertive personality. However, people were not at all confident in the protective abilities of extraverted security guard robots. So the future is looking more and more like a place where "it's not enough for a machine to have an agreeable personality — it needs to have the right personality." And as researchers aim to figure out what these personalities are and how they might change depending on the circumstances (yes, it's conceivable that one robot personality could migrate between all the devices you use throughout the day), Neyfakh observes what always seems to be the bottom line when we talk about robots and their human pals: "What the ideal machine personalities turn out to be may expose needs and prejudices we're not even aware we have."

---

From Sentiment to Success

Why Uber Just Hired Obama's Campaign Guru

Wired

Uber's great and all, except for one tiny problem: A lot of countries around the world think its business model is illegal. It's through this lens that the company's recent hire makes brilliant sense: David Plouffe, President Obama's 2008 campaign manager. Plouffe, as Wired's Marcus Wohlsen writes, was instrumental in "turning sentiment into success" six years ago. Plouffe engineered this through data — collecting it among potential voters and then micro-targeting based on the intelligence the campaign gathered. Uber, of course, gathers similar real-time data – data that could be used in a grassroots sort of way: Uber devotees who may not be aware of the company's regulatory problems can be recruited with specific messages to sign petitions and lobby their government representatives. Wohlsen puts this challenge nicely: "To survive, Uber is now about more than rides. It's about turning out the base."

---

BONUS BITS

You Aren't What You Wear

Yoga Poseurs: Athletic Gear Soars, Outpacing Sport Itself (Wall Street Journal)
This Pair of Bionic Pants Is a Chair That You Wear (Gizmodo)
Oh, This Bracelet? It's Just My Wearable Device Charger (Mashable)

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A reader named Philippa has informed me that the arrondissement system that divides the city is a fairly new element of city geography:

The organization of Paris into its 20 arrondissements, spiralling out from the Ile de la Cité, seems so well established that you may be surprised to learn that the arrangement is only 150 years old. Today’s arrondissements date from exactly January 1, 1860. On that day, the city was restructured and 11 surrounding villages or communes were annexed: Auteuil, Passy, Les Batignolles, Montmartre, La Chapelle, La Villette, Belleville, Charonne, Bercy, Vaugirard, and Grenelle, along with some bits and pieces of territory that fell within the Enceinte de Thiers. Today, some of these areas retain faint traces of their bucolic past –a few winding roads, some country houses now hemmed in by urban development, glimpses of trees that were once part of orchards and are now marooned in courtyards. But in 1860, they instantly became “urban” and had to leave behind their rural roots. If you want to understand more about this watershed in Paris’s history, go to an exhibit called “1860: Agrandir Paris: 150 ans des vingt arrondissements parisiens” at the Galerie des Bibliothèques, 22 rue Malher, 4th arrondissement (2 September to 24 October, 2010), which commemorates the reorganization and annexation of 1860.

>Click here to read more about how the city used to be divided by church parishes–and how one arrondissement was almost named Brutus.

The post Carving up the City appeared first on .

Everything on the market a little too cookie cutter for you? Well, you can buy this 1860s concrete military fort off the coast of England for £500,000. Besides the cool factor, the commute to central London is only 50 minutes.

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Retro Numbers by Budi Satria Kwan

Previous On the Wall print

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A Four-Year Old Reviews Famous Restuarant The French Laundry

If you love architecture, there are just certain buildings that are worth the extra effort to see in person; photos just don't do them justice. These ten must-see structures are scattered across the country and vary in age and purpose. Some have famous names attached, some are more about their historical significance but all are worth the trip.

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piggyazalea:

sharkeisha:

a lot of people are STILL asking me how Iggy Azalea is racist and homophobic so i’m just going to make a proper post 

in addition to all of this she also calls herself a “slave master” at 0:06 in this video

the amount of notes on this post

learning that iggy is a racist mess is like learning that mayonnaise doesn’t do well when it’s out in the sun.

oh cool, I mean, wasn’t planning on caring about that, but good to remember to just stay away I guess.

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As you stare at the grocery aisle of jellies, jams, and conserves, do you know what defines one jar from another? Let's get into the nitty-gritty. Read More

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I'm cutting out early (again) this week to head up to the Catskills to meet my dad and step-mom for some good old-fashioned camping! Ever since our vacation in Napa and Jackson Hole, I've been craving to be around some nature again. Hiking, kayaking, swimming, and hanging out by the campfire. It sounds so idyllic no?  

••••••••••
I'm pretty certain Al has lost several hours to this. 

An interesting article I read while in San Francisco.

If we were staying in the city this weekend, we'd go to this.

Chrissy Tiegen's Piperlime Picks

My kind of 30 under 30.

And my kind of Top 10.

A fun quiz. I got Mediterranean (?)

This exists.

New favorite tumblr.

A new take on yoga. Now there's some serious balance! (I would totally injure myself doing this.)

Glad I found a guy who knows this.

Couldn't agree more. Comte for all!

Love the bold patterns and colors in this home.

10 things about my girl Emily Post (more EmPo inspiration here, here, here, and here).

Speaking of etiquette, YES to this.

So many Royals related things - This poor kid, this back flip, this cool Korean, this great article, and THIS cover.  You can bet that Al's head is basically exploding.

Enough baseball. LOOK AT THIS CORN! Making this ASAP.

Fascinating piece on Kim K.

I have a feeling this will become my latest lip obsession.

••••••••••

Whew! If that doesn't keep you busy while I'm camping then I don't know what will. Wish me luck! Off to the land of the s'mores!