Lindsaycdavison

Diagnosing the Home Alone burglars' injuries: A professional weighs in:

This is fantastic.

OG Streep

Why LA will always be worse than NYC…

scarlett jo hanson

A recent episode of This American Life explored the theme of Doppelgangers, and by far the most sensational segment hinged on a report that pig rectum was being sold as imitation calamari. A reporter for the show, Ben Calhoun, got a tip about a farmer "with some standing in the pork industry" who is in charge of "a pork producing operation that spans several states." One fine day this farmer was visiting a pork processing plant in Oklahoma, and noticed boxes stacked on the floor labeled "artificial calamari." Asked what that meant, the plant's manager, his friend, replied, "Bung. It's hog rectum." For clarity, Calhoun adds, "Rectum that would be sliced into rings, deep fried, and boom, there you have it." [ more › ]

Have you heard of this pretentious art collection known as Museum?

The founders—Alex Kalman (son of Maira and Tibor Kalman) and Josh and Benny Safdie (their great uncle is architect Moshe Safdie)—are displaying everyday objects from around the world, each of which has a story attached. You can read the stories in the pamphlet—presumably available when Museum is open Friday through Sunday—or call a toll-free number, press the object’s code, and listen (the instructions, objects, and codes are visible 24/7 through plexiglass panels in the door). The mission statement explains the philosophy: “The space intends to show respect for the everyday, and displays the often overlooked beauty of real life. There is always beauty and magic in the plebian.”

If you've ever wondered how "they" get escalators up to the tops of skyscrapers, well, you've got a very wide-ranging curiosity. That's not a backhanded compliment, it's just that we always figured that when you need a skyscraper near the top of a tall building, you just build it up there. But when it comes to the still-under-construction 4 WTC tower, they get their pre-fab escalators delivered by crane. [ more › ]

If this is your idea of a board game…

…you really, really need to take a trip to one of my all-time favorite stores in New York City, The Compleat Strategist – the perfect place to find a completely original gift for that special someone on your list:

Seriously, if game night at your house involves Monopoly and Sorry, it will literally be a mind-blowing experience as you step through the door and come upon shelf after shelf…

…stocked literally from floor to ceiling…

…with board games…

…and board games…

…and still more board games…

…and more board games…

…that you never, ever knew existed:

See, while most Americans know board games to be the same old titles Hasbro and Mattel have been putting for decades, an entire world of new and imaginative games has been flourishing well under the radar, much of it coming from Europe.

Best of all, there’s something for everyone. Have a son or daughter into war-themed games? There are PLENTY of war-based board games, historical or otherwise, that will take you well beyond Risk and Stratego:

Got a niece or nephew into the scary stuff? Ditto the horror genre, from vampires to haunted houses to zombies:

From knights to astronauts, you could pick a genre, walk into The Compleat Strategist, and find a dozen games that fit your interest:

Of course, if you’re looking for your run-of-the-mill Twister or Trivial Pursuit, they’re also for sale, though you’ll have to go to the back of the store to find them:

What a few suggestions? Here are my favorite games you’ve probably never played. Most are available at the Compleat Strategist, but are strangely missing from their website.

1) Pirate’s Cove (not avail. at Compleat Strategist)

This. Is. The. Best. Game. EVER.

You and your friends are pirates in the Caribbean, fighting to be the most infamous buccaneers on the high seas. On each turn, you sail to islands to loot and pillage – but if a fellow pirate happens to choose the same island, you must fight it out to claim your booty. Improve your pirate ship, bury treasure, fight to the death – it’s all here in Pirate’s Cove.

The rules take a bit to digest, but after a round or two, I have yet to find a new player who doesn’t consider this one of the most fun board game experiences they’ve come across. Trust me – you will love Pirate’s Cove.

Amazon: $47

2) Ticket To Ride

You and your fellow players are turn-of-the-century railroad barons, seeking to create railroad lines linking the biggest cities in America. However, many of your desired routes overlap, and herein lies the challenge. For example, as you’re just about to connect Boston to Los Angeles, a rival baron suddenly swoops in and nabs the precious Salt Lake City to Las Vegas connection, requiring you to make a hasty detour before the game ends.

Unlike Pirate’s Cove, Ticket To Ride takes about five seconds to pick-up, yet offers unexpected possibilities with each new game. Highly recommended for players of all ages.

3) Carcassonne – Big Box Set

Set in medieval times, your goal in Carcassonne is to build the largest cities, fields and roads while warding off intrusion by fellow players. Included expansions introduce inns and cathedrals, abbeys and manors, and even dragons. By the end, you’ll have a sudden desire to book a trip for historic Europe.

Carcassonne is the game that made me realize there was something else in the world beyond Clue. I was living in Italy during college when a German roommate showed up with this and hooked me for life. Highly recommended.

4) Forbidden Island

You and your friends are on an Indiana Jones-style adventuring expedition, setting out for the mysterious Forbidden Island to recover four precious treasures before it sinks. This isn’t a competitive game – you’re all on the same team, and you either recover the four treasures, escape via helicopter and win – or, the island sinks and you all go down with it.

Forbidden Island is the first cooperative board game I’ve ever come across, and it’s amazing how the dynamic changes as you argue over what the best move is for the group to take, rather than duke it out for a single winner. For this reason, I’ve heard that it makes a great family game.

5) Gloom

Gloom is set in a wonderful world of Edward Gorey-like depression and morbidity. Each player controls a macabre family, and the goal is to make them have the most miserable lives possible before finally killing them off. At the end of the game, the player with the most depressed family wins – but rival players can counteract the negativity by bestowing acts of kindness and happiness on opponents.

A card game, Gloom works best when you go beyond the card text and invent your own ideas of happiness and gloom.

Nearly all of these games can be found at the Compleat Strategist, located at 11 East 33rd Street, between Fifth & Madison in the shadow of the Empire State Building (at full retail price, FYI). Like a good bookstore, you could easily spend an hour shuffling through the games, and maybe discover a great way to pass a rainy Saturday.

If you come across a good game, definitely let me know!

-SCOUT

"You agree that a business or other entity may pay us to display your username, likeness, photos (along with any associated metadata), and/or actions you take, in connection with paid or sponsored content or promotions, without any compensation to you.":

jhermann:

jennydeluxe:

From Instagram’s recently updated Terms of Service.

Also: “We may not always identify paid services, sponsored content, or commercial communications as such.”

PS: There’s no way to opt out of any of this, other than to quit using Instagram.

oh cool

All my mirror shots and food photos are going to make for great ad campaigns! 

just please never let me forget about ben roethlisberger wearing this fedora.

bobbyfinger:

There’s a clip of a little boy being held by his mother while calmly describing the school shooting he lived through. He says he saw the bullets. He says his teacher pulled him inside the room. He said the noises sounded like someone was “kicking the door.” He says all of this without crying or shaking or discussing how scared he was. Maybe because he wasn’t! Maybe because his teacher made him feel safe! And maybe, in addition to a “national discussion” (whatever that means) about gun control, we throw in a conversation or two about how teachers are underpaid and undervalued and overworked and overlooked.

Or maybe we all just shut up for a while.

Just because you can hear someone’s name on the news and then you can search it on Facebook does not mean that is the same person. 

This weekend, I spent the loveliest day visiting the Vancouver Christmas Market for the first time with my parents.  It's an outdoor German Christmas market that takes place in the Queen Elizabeth Theatre Plaza, and is lined with small cosy wooden huts where you can buy delicious winter-perfect food and find artisanal gifts for the season.  This market is much smaller than most of its counterparts back in Europe, but I loved the intimate feel of it.  
We strolled around, warmed ourselves up with delicious mulled wine served in special Christmas Market mugs, ooh'ed and aah'ed over the German-crafted wooden nutcrackers and toys, marvelled at the beautiful Polish-made enamel baubles and eggs, and treated ourselves to some yummy raclette and Bavarian sausage sandwiches.  A perfect Christmas Market day by any standards!

New from Psybucks.

At last, the untold true story that, for generations, Hollywood has been too afraid to tell: a movie about the history of soy sauce. Kikkoman soy sauce. What's that, you say? Why see a short film about the stuff you slosh on a no. 8 from Vanessa's when you can watch Seth Rogen go on a road trip with Barbara Streisand? We have to agree, but it turns out at least that the Kikkomans have a fairly illustrious history. [ more › ]

Future tomorrow upcoming to be determined.

latenightjimmy:

Jimmy, Mariah Carey and The Roots singing “All I want for Christmas Is You” with classroom musical instruments. Enough said. 

I’m reblogging this because I just noticed ?uestlove is playing the spoons with his hairpick.

Carla Bruni-Sarkozy’s stupidity has reached a level that even I have never fathomed. (And that’s saying a lot considering my country birthed such idiots as the screechy Sarah Palin, the gay-man-marrying Michelle Bachman, and general vagina-hating-rape-loving senators of the Republican Party.)

At first glance, this quote from Vogue (which C B-S “guest edited”) sounds like an insanely dumb gaffe. Like if you’d gone to Vogue‘s interview, and accidentally sharted on their silk, Louis XV chaise due to a night of heavy drinking and bad mexican food.

You don’t need to be a feminist in my generation. There are pioneers who paved the way. I’m not at all a militant feminist. On the other hand, I’m a bourgeoise.

– Queen of the Morons

We don’t need feminists? Admitting being bourge like it’s some kind of badge of honor? Unfortunately for Lala, it doesn’t end there. REFRESHER COURSE! What’s a feminist, kids? Wikipedia says: ”an advocate or supporter of the rights and equality of women”

And, just so we all are clear, what’s a bourgeoise? Dictionary.com says…

1. a member of the middle class.
2. a person whose political, economic, and social opinions are believed to be determined mainly by concern for property values and conventional respectability.
3. a shopkeeper or merchant.

Call me crazy, but from the quote above and my vague knowledge of her social status, Carla may very well be confused about what she is or isn’t. She’s essentially announced above that she is a poverty-conscious upper-middle-classite (and/or shopkeeper??) who doesn’t support the rights and equality of women.

Le sigh.

>more

The holiday windows are up at Printemps, and they’re amazing. Paris on Demand has a full gallery of pictures. Wow.

After a now-3-month hiatus from my beloved cheeseland, France, I was beginning to get unconquerable cravings for the scrumptious, sticky, smelly stuff.  The ever-so-wise Oscar Wilde himself said, "The only way to get rid of temptation is to yield to it" - so I decided that the only plausible solution, whilst I was on the other side of the world, was to pay a visit to Les Amis du Fromage, Vancouver's premier cheese shop.


Visiting Les Amis du Fromage is like stumbling onto a piece of Paris in Vancouver.  Run by the mother & daughter team of Alice & Allison Spurrell, it has been voted as the city's Best Cheese Shop and Top Food Supplier to restaurants for several years in a row.


With two locations in Kitsilano and East Vancouver, Les Amis not only offers my usual favourites from France but also stocks cheeses from England, Switzerland, Spain, Italy and other smaller regions.  What's more is that, out of the total of c.500 cheeses on offer, around 150 are from across Canada itself.   

This means that I was able to find my cherished comte, st-marcellin, and roquefort, as well as pick up some chèvre frais from the small BC-based producer, Happy Days Goat Dairy (which was excellent, by the way!).  Much to my surprise, I also spotted some excellent stiltons from Neal's Yard Dairy (one of my favourite cheese shops and producers back in London) and some more exotic finds from the Netherlands and Denmark.


Aside from cheese, the shop also imports other specialty foods such as accompanying crackers & biscuits, single varietal extra virgin olive oils, artisanal vinegars, and select charcuterie.  For the true cheese lovers, there is also an extensive range of equipment available, such as cheese knives of all types, fondue pots, and even raclette machines.


Altogether, it was such a lovely experience to visit the Kitsilano outlet.  It was like finding my piece of Parisian paradise right here in Vancouver.  I also walked away with a nice bag of different types of cheeses (both French and Canadian), although I'm afraid to say that none of them lasted too long.  :)

**
Do you have a favourite French cheese shop where you live (whether in or outside of Paris)?  If so, please share the recommendation!  It's always good to know where the good cheese shops are wherever I travel.  :)  By the way, within Paris, my favourite cheese shop is Laurent Dubois in the 15e.

--

Les Amis du Fromage (Kitsilano)
1752 West 2nd Avenue
Vancouver, BC
Tel: +1 604 732 4218

Les Amis du Fromage (East Vancouver)
843 East Hastings Street
Vancouver, BC
Tel: +1 604 253 4218

ryanhatesthis:

buzzfeed:

gofwd:

A Japanese company is currently developing a pedometer for dogs. Which is cool and adorable!

Dog tech is the best tech.

Dog apps.

I can’t think of any piece of data in the entire world that is more inconsequential than how many steps a dog takes.

No actually, maybe the reading of the battery charge on a dog pedometer. That might be one.

If i think of any more, ill keep you guys posted!

“Sometimes life is like the salt, you know? You know how we put the salt on the food and it brings out the flavor? Well the times where we think ‘Ah, life is so good’ — the times that we have fun and enjoy ourselves — those are the times that we get from the salt. The salt is the hard times, the difficult things we face. Soon you will taste the good things.”

- Sometimes the best conversations of our day take place with the guys that run our corner bodega. 

Oh, Friday, I thought you'd never come. Last week's three day week totally had me outta whack. So outta whack that I started talking weekend plans (brunch + Christmas tree + dog park) with Al on MONDAY.
Reward yourself for making it to Friday with these internet finds. ----- This choked me up hard. Kindness is such a beautiful and inspiring thing. No?
Couldn't tear my eyes away from the screen reading about this wedding. Beautiful.  Relaxed.  And 3D glasses!
Speaking of weddings, a great article written by a wedding photographer as he catches up with his former brides and grooms. A seriously beautiful and insightful piece.  (Thanks Tyler for sharing!)
And now to lighten things up, I was dying at this. Totally changes the feel of the show, huh?
And finally, THIS IS HAPPENING. ----- Wishing you a festive and homey weekend! xoxo, K
P.S.  Christmas List App!  Why didn't I think of that?
{image source}

Telling your story —and telling it well — is key to developing your digital brand in a competitive work world. But for some professions, crafting this narrative can raise ethical questions. In this past weekend's New York Times Magazine, Lori Gottlieb takes us into the world of branding consultants for psychotherapists, who help practitioners in the fledgling field tailor their brands to capitalize on niche markets and needs. Tweeting and Facebooking is encouraged, to both familiarize potential patients with their therapist and to be readily available across platforms. And since (according to one study) "Thirty percent fewer patients received psychological interventions in 2008 than they did 11 years earlier," a targeted message can mean career stability.

But does this openness undermine the proven tenets of psychotherapy (including the importance of being a bit of a blank slate that patients unconsciously project their feelings onto)? And does it create an unsolvable tension for the profession? "If we give modern consumers the efficiency and convenience they want," explains Gottlieb, "we also have to silence our nagging sense that we may be pandering to our patients rather than helping them. "Will we do therapy in 140 characters or less, or will we stick to our beliefs but get a second job to put food on the table?"

THE HEALING POWER OF A PHOTOGRAPH

Fighting Cancer With Cell Phones (CNN)

Cervical cancer is a devastating disease anywhere. But in Africa, more than 50,000 women die from it each year, and 80% of the cases are detected late. But a new initiative is looking to spot cancer early — with cell phone cameras. The plan is to send small number of health care workers into remote areas of Tanzania to photograph a woman's cervix during a health screening. The photographs will then be texted to specialists who can make a diagnosis and order treatment almost immediately.

A FIELD GUIDE TO FACIAL HAIR

The Beards of Silicon Valley (Wired)

For males in America’s high-tech hotbed, a beard is essential to success. But not just any beard. You must carefully grow your facial hair to suit your role in the business ecosystem. If you’re a Unix administrator, a full beard is necessary. Mustaches are for legal analysts. Long sideburns are for tech support. Illustrator Kelsey Dake takes you on a tour of the phenotypes. -Andrew O'Connell

BONUS BITS:

Not Nearly As Much As Four Calling Birds

How Much is a Partridge in a Pear Tree? (Christian Science Monitor)
Why Are Hotel Rooms So Expensive? (Slate)
From Russia With PR (ProPublica)

“Gangnam Style,” the viral hit from Korean pop-star Psy, has replaced Justin Bieber’s “Baby” (really?) as the most watched YouTube video of all time, with some 840 million views and counting. And the lauds and milestones keep coming. Psy also finds himself near the top of the Billboard charts, which according to Jason Diamond at the New Republic, is the real surprising news here.

Up until recently, Billboard didn’t factor YouTube views into its ranking methodology, relying solely on radio plays and paid purchases — but now, in an effort to keep pace with the viral times, Billboard is factoring in “mere listens” too. Some people in the industry aren’t happy about it, but the move makes complete sense. Some would say it’s long overdue. By tracking “listens” on YouTube, Billboard is finally taking heed of the ways people experience music these days.

A COMMON TRAGEDY

Beware the Tiny Daily Decisions That Chip Away at Quality (Advertising Age)

“Can we just change the ad’s headline a bit? Can we just change the copy a tad?” Sound familiar? It’s called justing — and it can be a problem. Even though each change may seem like a minor and insignificant revision, when a once-brilliant idea is covered with the fingerprints of many people seeking to “improve” it, its integrity and impact can suffer, writes Curt Hanke. The piece serves as reminder of how a “tyranny of small decisions” can lead to an unintended negative outcome. Remember: Discipline and rigor are important when making tiny decisions, and they can help us stay true to our ultimate vision.
—Andy O'Connell

BLAME IT ON THE BENJAMINS

Employees Say Scrap The Holiday Party... Sort of (CNN Money)

Work Christmas parties are like ugly sweaters from Mom. Sure, it’s the thought that counts… but why waste the effort? We’d prefer cash instead. In fact, according to a recent Glassdoor survey, 73% of employees would trade the small talk and the bacon-wrapped scallops — free booze, too — for a cash bonus. Just some food for thought. But a note to the powers that be: If cash isn’t a likely option, don’t cancel the party. We’ll make do.

BONUS BITS:

The Superstar Effect

Why the World's First Billion-Dollar Athlete Is Just a Few Years Away (The Atlantic)
Will the Supreme Court Kill Used Bookstores? (Reason)
Best Business Books of 2012 (Strategy and Business)

Is there anyone like Nassim Taleb? The author famous for The Black Swan is a bit of a black swan himself — an unexpected phenomenon arising from the collision of several arcane disciplines and varied experiences to startle us and alter our expectations forever after. He writes as if he were the illegitimate spawn of David Hume and Rev. Bayes, with some DNA mixed in from Norbert Weiner and Laurence Sterne. His ideas are novel, but backed up by a huge store of history and scholarship.

His newest book, Antifragile, is a philosophical tract about the design and evolution of structures as applied to human (and some non-human) institutions. In it, Taleb takes on the whole school of what he calls the Harvard/Kremlin persuasion-top-down planners (he calls them fragilistas) who propose and advocate policies that try, with awful unintended consequences, to decrease the fragility of things rather than to make them "anitfragile."

It's an admittedly awkward word, but that's because it is easiest to understand first what it does not describe. It refers to something that is unbreakable, yes, but not because it is impervious to assault. Something that is antifragile, Taleb explains, actually grows and flourishes because it is stressed and then allowed to order itself in response. Antifragility allows an entity not merely to withstand all the black swans coming its way but to absorb their forceful volatility and emerge only stronger. Fragile things have their real opposite not in durable things, Taleb says, but in "things that gain from disorder." In the many charts he has produced contrasting fragile and antifragile things, "robust" appears as an intermediate category between the two.

In some ways this is a Hayekian argument. Although it is far better written and far more worldly in its assumptions, it is "small c" conservative all the same. But Taleb has bigger game than Keynes and his followers in his crosshairs. He is really asserting a point of view that aligns him with Seneca, Montaigne, Hume and other "reasonable" thinkers, and against the pure "rationalizers" that descended from Aristotle through Descartes. (But please don't let any of this put you off. You'll enjoy and benefit from the book whether this philosophical long-game engages you or not.)

Can I say whether he is right at every turn? Certainly, I am unqualified to evaluate Taleb's use of statistics and probability (few are, to judge from the long list of technical papers on his CV) and even if I had the right education for it, I couldn't manage a full defense in the space of a blog post. To his credit he invites responses and publishes in other places the technical appendices that back up his assertions.

What I can say confidently is that Taleb is writing original stuff—not only within the management space but for readers of any literature—and that you will learn more about more things from this book and be challenged in more ways than by any other book you have read this year. Trust me on this.

Taleb can write so originally in part because he has such a different background than the typical authors of these sorts of books. He isn't involved in academia except at the peripheral level and he left big-company-land many years ago. Neither is he a journalist under pressure to publish. He has the money and motivation to just think and read and talk to people he wants to and tell us what he has learnt. This seems to be all he wants to do.

His originality probably owes as much to his being a born contrarian. He likes to be clear about who and what he loves and hates. He seems, for example, to really like Brooklyn, given how often he uses Brooklyn-type characters and locutions to make his points. I do, too- —and would agree that Brooklyn is as good a place as Singapore to make the case for antifragility. In the "hate" category fall economists, traders, pundits of all kinds, central planners—and a little more generally, people from Harvard. (Apologies to my hosts here!) I have the powerful sense that he welcomes all comers.

However he comes by it, Taleb's level of originality is astoundingly rare. Just reflect for a moment: How many books have you read that took you into new territory, not only in their conception but in the ideas at their hearts and the worldly experiences of their authors? Hundreds if not thousands of management books have been published in the past few years, but as someone who reads far too many of them, I can't think of five that have deserved that description.

Taleb actually has something new to say that is worth pondering. And in a world where large-scale, unpredictable events are the norm, pondering it is important. You can count on chaos, and work to make your organization antifragile. Or you can keep planning for the probable. If you choose the latter course, then brace yourself for the next black swan — and pray that it isn't your swan song.