Snob

O presidente galego parace citados varias veces na Pokemon; para tentar arranxar o conflicto de sucesión en Santiago, coa aparición das fotos súas con Dorado ou pola súa intermediación para validar o cese do interventor e secretario de Santiago e renovar, así, un contrato con Aquagest.

In Lapland, where reindeer herds are kept as livestock, yet graze freely most of the year, a new technique is being used to reduce the number of reindeer struck by cars at night. I cannot make the Finnish Sami language article translate into English, but according to redditor og_nichander, the antlers are sprayed with a reflective material that only shows up when headlights shine on it. Therefore,  you won’t see eerie herds of antlers moving in the night -unless you are about to hit them with your car. Or you really, truly believe Santa is coming tonight.

(Imagecredit: Anne Ollila/BO)

A panda in captivity engrossed in some panda porn.

In late 2012, a young panda named Tao Tao was released into China’s Liziping Nature Reserve. Born in captivity, Tao Tao is now being billed as the first successful reintroduction of a captive-born panda in history, mostly thanks to hot, steamy panda porn that teaches them the mechanics necessary to mate in the wild

Sixty-three hundred miles, 134 interview-planning emails, and a suitcase full of panda tracking equipment brought me to southwestern China, in the Sichuan province, to speak with Dr. Huang Yan, the lead researcher and director of the country’s newest giant panda reintroduction program, which aims to successfully place captive-born pandas back into the wild. The tracking electronics I was couriering would help me to secure an interview otherwise heavily censored by the country’s Department of Forestry. Made up of GPS units and radio collars, the equipment was provided by Suzanne Braden, director of Pandas International, a Colorado-based nonprofit dedicated to supporting giant panda conservation efforts across the globe.

The World Wildlife Federation estimates that there are approximately 1,600 giant pandas left in the wild. With practically no natural predators, the pandas can blame the expansion of human settlement as a big factor in their decline. But even more to blame could be the pandas themselves. When the new reintroduction process was introduced, the media quickly dubbed it "panda boot camp," as if the pandas were misbehaving teens on Dr. Phil, the difference being that pandas are ludicrously terrible at getting pregnant, while America's teens seem to be good at nothing else.

Reintroduction has been in the works for more than 30 years but has never succeeded. Three decades and eight pandas resulted in exactly zero success stories. Six had been pulled back out of the wild due to malnutrition worries, one went missing and is now assumed to be dead, and the last, Xiang Xiang, had perhaps the most tragic ending. In 2006, the five-year-old panda—whose name translates ironically to “Lucky”—was released into the wild. Less than a year later, he was dead. No one knows what his final moments were for sure, but theories suggest he was attacked by a competing male during the highly-tense mating season. The loss of Xiang Xiang inspired the new reintroduction program.

The most recent reintroduction graduate, Tao Tao, was released in October of 2012. The following May, Suzanne Braden confirmed he was still alive, meaning it was very possible that Dr. Huang’s team had become the first to ever successfully reintroduce a captive-born panda back into the wild.

When I met with Dr. Huang at the Bifengxia Panda Center in Ya’an City in the Sichuan province, he started by explaining the difficulties in getting pandas pregnant. “Female giant pandas go into heat only once a year, in the spring, and that period only lasts for about two or three weeks.” Within that period they are only fertile for about 24 hours. While almost every human man in the world might think this makes an ideal set-up, it’s seems like a cruel joke for the pandas that need to nail every opportunity at successful procreation possible. It’s no surprise then that our black-and-white friends need a little help sealing the deal, especially when pandas in captivity traditionally have a sex drive that’s even lower than their wild counterparts. So it was that the first step of a successful reintroduction program to get the pandas laid, with technology and mankind as the ultimate wingmen.

Careful observation and hormone tests would take care of knowing the when, but at some point, natural instincts would have to take over. In short, the pandas needed to not blow their once-a-year chance at copulating. To do this, researchers tried using unorthodox techniques, including physical training exercises to help strengthen the hind, thrusting muscles of male pandas, as well as panda pornography. They even experimented with offering the pandas Viagra, which met with little to no success. In a weird role reversal, it seemed as if scientists were simply using technology and medicine made for humans on pandas, making us the lab rats for a healthier, happier, more robust panda society.

When used, the pornography was not to help pandas get in the mood, but rather, as Braden explains, “to show them how to do it." The videos themselves contained basic footage of captive pandas mating. Experts say it’s the sound that the pandas might initially respond to, the sort of low repetitive grunt you would expect from a giant teddy bear getting laid. It’s probably also worth noting that, to the outside observer, all pandas look identical, which begs the question: How turned on would you be watching a video of you fucking yourself? To add to that that, the porn has very few angles and no HD, but is admittedly better than whatever the pandas could have come up with on their own.

When Dr. Huang and his team finally manage to get a panda pregnant, it’s a big deal. The mother is quickly sent from China’s Giant Panda base at Bifengxia to Wolong, the main base for the reintroduction program. However, pregnancy is not the only qualifier to enter the reintroduction program. Dr. Huang explained, “Mothers who have experience living in the wild and those who have a successful history of rearing the cubs are the best candidates for rearing a new wild cub. If they meet those criteria, the pregnant mothers are placed in a two and a half acre wild enclosure, protected from outside, competing male pandas and any other predators with fencing.” At the moment of birth, reintroduction begins.

Panda trainers in full panda costume hold Tao Tao

When Tao Tao was born, he was immediately living in a semi-wild environment. Dr. Huang told me, “Earlier introduction was one of the primary focuses of the new program.” Second on the agenda was human interaction, or lack thereof. It was severely limited, and when trainers were required they wore full panda costumes to maintain Tao Tao’s natural fear of non-panda creatures, human or otherwise. Survival skills like foraging for food were then taught principally by Tao Tao’s own mother, who had experience living in the wild. After six months, the enclosure was expanded to more than 24 acres. Radio collars like the ones I had couriered were used to keep tabs on Tao Tao as he explored his expanded territory. Constant monitoring was critical to make sure that Tao Tao wasn’t injured and regularly moving into new areas to forage for food, a sign he was doing well.

After two years of reintroduction training, Tao Tao was deemed ready to enter the wild. With a bit of hesitation, the young panda reluctantly left his cage and entered the wild of Liziping Nature Reserve on October 11, 2012. Now more than a year after his release, Tao Tao is still doing well. He’s passed through the dangerous mating season unharmed, though some researchers point out that he has not reached full maturity, which could mean he is not perceived as a substantial threat to competing males in the area. Regardless, Tao Tao is tentatively considered by many to be the first captive-born panda ever successfully reintroduced into the wild. When I spoke to him, Dr. Huang avoided making this claim as he explained that the country’s Department of Forestry would be the official entity to release that information. A few weeks later, they did.

A Chinese news site broke the report from the State Forestry Administration, which stated, “It is believed that after surviving a cold winter, Tao Tao experienced a reintroduction to other wild pandas during the spring. The group recommends continuation of individuals into the Liziping Nature Reserve.” And that’s exactly what they did. This time, a female named Zhang Xiang, released on November 6, 2013, into the same forest where Tao Tao was released. At press time, both are doing wonderfully. Perhaps they’ll meet someday, watch a little panda porn, eat some bamboo and help save their species, one ridiculously hard to make panda cub at a time.  

The Presidential Palace in Sarajevo in flames on February 7, 2014. All Photos by Minel Abaz.

Anger erupted in the industrial Bosnian town of Tuzla two weeks ago after the closing of the Konjuh furniture factory, one of about a dozen companies that have shuttered after the government privatized many industries over the past few years. Coalitions of workers, students, retirees, and other citizens started marching, shouting-down politicians, clashing with police, and eventually trashing government buildings.

Bosnia and Herzogovina, BiH for short, has seen few economic booms in its short history. And with unemployment sitting at a staggering 44 percent for years (57 percent for young workers), disaffection has spread onto the streets.

As images of anger and police brutality emerged from Tuzla, protests began taking on momentum across the country. On February 7th, hundreds of people surrounded the Presidential Palace in the capital city of Sarajevo and set it on fire. There were similar protesters of varying sizes and intensity in front of government offices in across the country—including one in Banja Luka in Republica Sprska—notable because its Serbian population is generally considered at odds with Croats and Bosnians.

Last Saturday, Al Jazeera reported 300 protesters were injured—mostly in Sarajevo, where video surfaced of police officers pushing dozens of protesters over the ledge of an embankment to a canal.

Informal protest groups formed, including UDAR and Revolt, formed to help organize the protests and set up citizen’s councils known as plenums. Demands from these meetings are still to be determined, but most call for resignation of politicians, cuts to their salaries, and expanded funding of services for workers and the unemployed.

Several regional officials, including Sarajevo Canton’s Prime Minister, has resigned. Others have fled the country. A recent poll shows support for the uprising in the three territories at 88 percent—a surprising number considering supposed inter-ethnic tension that characterizes the divided nation since it was born out of the ashes of the multi-ethnic state of Yugoslavia.

Writing in the Guardian, Slovenian philosopher Slavoj Žižek not only sees the Bosnian Spring as potentially breaking the downward swing of the uprisings, but even imagines a Balkan rebirth of the General Tito’s slogan for the socialist Yugoslavian State—“Unity and Brotherhood.”

But are the protests really as anti-nationalist and class conscience as we might hope? Or are they merely an outlet to the rising frustration and narrowing options for BiH’s youth? I talked to Minel Abaz, a student activist and organizer from Sarajevo, to find out.

VICE: Tell us a bit about your perspective on the protests. How did they start, what were some decisive moments, and where are they heading?
Minel Abaz: They started like any other workers' protest which was held after the Bosnian war in the 90s, so no one expected it would grow to something so massive with the support of organized citizens.

And then there was the most crucial moment of all, when the government (primarily in Tuzla) sent to the workers and citizens the special units of the police which brutally attacked the protesters, which became the spark that still stirs protests in Tuzla, Sarajevo, Mostar, Zenica, and Bihać, which ended in violence, and burning of government institutions.

Now we see protests heading to more solidarity and overcoming ethnic factors in the lower class, and, I hope, to demands for more economical and social justice.

What’s the mood like in Sarajevo?
It’s been a quieter. It's been a few days since the violent confrontations, but people are still on the streets every day looking for a better life and more equal society. Some cities, like Tuzla, has already started a kind of people's government, outside of parliamentary political parties, made of workers, students, academics. They are having directly democratic plenum every day.

We are trying to do something similar in Sarajevo. The Prime minister and the entire Sarajevo Canton resigned, and it’s very important to provide an alternative to this. On February 12th, we had the first plenary session with between 500 and 1,000 people. but our demands have not yet been fully adopted.

I’ve seen videos of cops pushing protesters into a canal and government buildings on fire. Could you describe these events?
I have a friend [that was pushed over the embankment], I was with him a few hours ago. His leg is broken, but he is OK.

And yes of course i've seen buildings on fire, I was there. That was last Friday. Protests began at the president around 1 PM. Forty-five minutes later clashes with police started, and they managed to push us away from government buildings. After a while of waiting, people gathered together, and just rushed to the police. Skirmishes with the police lasted until 2:40 when protesters managed to get to get to the government building. At 2:50 the building was set to flames.

You mentioned you’re involved in antifascism. Is there a right-wing or fascist element to the protests?
I didn't see any fascists, but some patriots and nationalists were there. No one reacted to them, beacuse they were protesting like anyone else. They didn't shout any nationalist messages or something similar, only those against governement and police.

Would you describe what’s happening as a revolution?
Revolution? I don’t know. It started like that, because all the anger exploded in one day. But I think this won't be revolution, because workers and citizens are still unorganized, and still ideologically non-oriented.

Does to uprising in BiH relate to what's happening in the Ukraine? Or what happened in Turkey, Greece, Slovenia last year? Or even to what happened in the Middle East during the Arab Spring? How do you think it fits into a global context?
I wouldn't say it has to do with the protests in Ukraine, because that’s fracture between the EU and Russia. But it is related to protests and happenings in Turkey and Greece mostly, and even with protests in Slovenia and Egypt. But I would say, that protests in Bosnia are most similar to protest in Turkey, because a wide section of people—the lower class, workers, students, pensioners, war veterans—are against the injustices of the ruling paradigm. Although there are no demands yet, we see a deep stratification, social antagonisms.

As Žizek said, and as happened in Turkey—even if the protests gradually lost their intensity—there will remain a spark of hope, because people have lost all confidence in the system and the institutions of the system, and because these protests can be good opportunity for overcoming imposed, dominant ethno-national divisions, and strengthening class consciousness, and the needs of the self-organization of workers and workers' struggles.

Some commentators, including Lily Lynch and Slavoj Žižek, have excitedly noted an anti-nationalist and pro-worker character to the protest, shattering the ethnic divisions encouraged by leaders and the EU. Are these valid claims?
Yes, of course. That is the main cause of protest, a pro-worker ideal, which was recognized in other cities. As  professor Asim Mujkić noted, the uprsing began in a former industrial cities—first in Tuzla—because these areas feel the consequences of privatization.

Besides this pro-worker character of the protests, workers and other citizens are also united against police brutality, and therefore against elites who, under the guise of nationalism, are robbing and privatizing everything for 20 years.

So 20 years was that period, but now, the workers and other social categories are waking up, furiuous, and rising up against the nationalist and capitalist elite, and the entire system. 

 

The Birds Eye frozen food company is ready to roll out a new product: potatoes cut into the shapes of hashtags, asterisks, emotions, and the @ symbol. The product will be called either Mashtags or Mas#tags, depending on what works with your search engine or spellchecker. Now telling your kids to put down their phones at the dinner table will not leave them totally without a link to their electronic lives.

"The addition of Mashtags to our food range is an exciting development for Birds Eye. Social media is all about conversation and we’re confident Mashtags will resonate across various groups of people," said Pete Johnson, senior brand manager at Birds Eye.

"We’re constantly looking for ways to innovate and inspire consumers and hope that Mashtags will get people talking around the table and help to make mealtimes more enjoyable."

Mashtags is expected to be in grocery stores next month -but only in the UK. They will taste similar to Birds Eye potato waffles. -via Laughing Squid

Miranda Barbour, a 19-year-old in Pennsylvania, admitted over the weekend to murdering 22 people. The six-year killing spree started after she joined a satanic cult in Alaska, and crossed the country to North Carolina. She says she doesn’t feel any remorse, and would do it again, because the subjects deserved it, and were “bad people.”

More on that last part: With her most recent murder, she solicited Troy LaFerrara for sex on Craigslist, and upon meeting, told him she was 16, and asked him if he still wanted to have sex with her. After he said yes, Barbour—who is a molestation victim—stabbed him 20 times in her car, with the help of her new husband, who held a cord around the man’s neck. According to Barbour, “I did this to people who did bad things and didn’t deserve to be here anymore.”

She only confessed because, in her words, “I feel it is time to get all of this out.” What a relief it must be, to get those 22 murders off her chest.

Prosecutors are currently seeking the death penalty for her and her husband, and are trying to confirm how much of her story is true—so far only LaFerrara’s murder has been validated. Meanwhile, the lawyers for both defendants are attempting to get a psychiatric evaluation.

Be on the lookout for the inevitable “straight from the headlines” episode of “SVU” in a few months.

H/t ABC 7 News

Movies like “Silence of the Lambs” and “Jaws” are great exercises in spending two hours in the pervasive grip of fear and suspense. However, as great as these movies are, maybe there’s a little too much tension and these so-called masterpieces are crying out for an extra element of levity to undercut all the drama.

With that in mind, comedy and life partners Carol Hartsell and Sean Crespo recently discovered a hidden truth about filmmaking. Basically, any movie can be improved with the well-timed use of your mom’s favorite vacation jam and the world’s most chaste ode to failed infidelity, Rupert Holmes’s “Escape (The Piña Colada Song)”. 

Don’t take our word for it. The evidence clearly speaks for itself.

Sure, Steven Spielberg did an okay job with the opening sequence of “Jaws”, but after viewing this improved clip, we can all agree that the original was missing something.

The reveal at the end of “Se7en” may have been a harrowing exercise in suspense and tension, but it’s clear that the addition of Rupert Holmes’ music is what truly elevates that scene into a work of art. Note how well Morgan Freeman’s grimace syncs up with the “not into yoga” lyric.

Check out the rest of Hartsell and Crespo’s contribution to cinema at their Piña Colliding tumblr.

Here are two photos of a silkie chicken named Penny that was rescued from a laboratory hanging out with a two-legged chihuahua in a tiny wheelchair named Roo in Georgia that might help you forget, at least for a few fleeting minutes, that you’re working at a dead-end job you hate for barely enough money to live, even though your qualifications, education and ambitions far exceed literally every single humiliating task you’re required to do, and the only thing stopping you from driving your used sedan into an icy highway median and ending things once and for all is imagining the smug satisfaction and yellow-toothed smile it’d give your spindly boss when Kate in accounting tearfully delivers the news while passing around a card for your coworkers to halfheartedly sign to send your family.

So take a break from filling out mindless forms and look at these photos good and hard and maybe feel something other than quiet rage for the first time in months.

H/t Daily Mail

Sorry, due to the unusual nature of today's comic, you may just have seen a static image in your feed reader, but you can check out the full comic here!
-Randall

 

1.) You are an adult, for real. You’re getting really good at faking your sense of maturity.

2.) When people tell you something isn’t cool anymore, you give that “totally” look and agree, but it’s actually news to you.

3.) You’re suddenly a dad/uncle/”uncle” and it’s like whoa, this is awesome/fucking bizarre.

4.) You’ve taken a 2nd look at your life at least 6 times.

5.) You have more in common with older people than you do with younger people.

6.) You either have a serious job or you’re starting over because you hated your last serious job… Either that or you’ve been pushed way back for one reason or another, it’s alright though, you’re still KINDA young.

7.) It’s not that going to the bar isn’t fun, it’s a good past time at this age… But it’s usually not fun enough to be broke for X amount of days. It’s not like they don’t have liquor stores.

8.) You realize you’ll never truly understand women, they’re all different so you no longer question anything they say or do. Fuck it, we’ll never understand.

9.) When someone younger than you tells you about how they “have it all figured out” or some stupid shit like that you just roll your eyes. Yeah, never heard that before dude.

10.) You actually have nice clothes/shoes. It’s all you have. You have a nice watch. You think about what you’re gunna wear instead of just throwing on whatever.

11.) You might not know what you’re going to do with you’re future, but you sure as hell know what you’re not going to do.

12.) When people give you advice, you already know what they’re going to say.

13.) You don’t care if you missed out on something “awesome” because you know it probably wasn’t that awesome. This is mostly due to the fact that you can’t remember the last time you did something that was awesome… Maybe it was and you’re just feeling it anymore.

14.) You say “It is what it is” on a daily basis.

15.) You’re identity is carved in stone, you don’t have to think about it anymore. You know who you are now and that’s one of the good things.

1. If something is going right, keep doing it.

There is nothing worse than being with a man who has a good stroke, who is doing everything the way he should, and getting you close — only to have him switch it up at the last minute. Changing rhythms too often, getting really fast when she is clearly enjoying it slow, or not respecting how sensitive she is down there, just makes for bad sex. Period. Women are not something that needs to be pounded at like a jackhammer breaking up concrete. It’s all about finding where she’s happy, and keeping it going until she asks you to change.

2. Casual sex is not a male or female thing.

Some men enjoy hooking up. Some women enjoy hooking up. Some men don’t. Some women don’t. The thing about heterosexual casual sex is that it requires two consenting partners, one of each gender, who want the same thing at that time. And, yes, not everyone is going to be interested in going home together after a night at the bar. But it’s very unfair to act like men have the freedom to experiment and sleep around and have one-night stands, and women don’t. If you disrespect the women who sleep with you, but still expect them to get you off, there is something wrong with you.

3. People have pubes.

If you are expecting a woman to shave herself entirely, you had better be ready to do the same. It’s just really weird to insist that the person you’re with look like a 12-year-old version of themselves, and you get to walk around like a caveman. (And, by the way, aren’t we over the totally bare look yet?)

4. Sluts don’t exist.

Someone who has had more sexual partners than you are comfortable with is someone that you don’t have to sleep with. Someone who has cheated, lied, or betrayed a partner is a cheater or a liar, and also someone you don’t have to sleep with. Both of these people can be either male or female, but somehow they only end up getting called a slut when it’s a woman doing these things. If someone isn’t hurting anyone, they definitely don’t need such a harsh label. If someone is hurting someone, there are many more apt terms that don’t involve the “s” word.

5. Protection is not an inconvenience, it’s mandatory.

Don’t play dumb at the last minute like you don’t have a condom, or they itch you, or you can’t wear one for spiritual reasons, or you don’t know what a condom is. If you aren’t willing to wear protection with a new person, you aren’t willing to have sex with them.

6. Don’t expect to receive if you aren’t willing to give.

Oral sex isn’t guaranteed to anyone, but it is a great part of life. Everyone, if they want to have good oral, should find someone who enjoys performing it and is good at what they do. But even someone who is incredibly giving should be entitled to get it back if they want it. It’s very unfair, and frankly no fun, to constantly expect your partner to treat you to head if you aren’t willing to go down in return. If you think it’s gross to put your mouth on a vagina, you are not mature enough to be having sex yet.

7. Porn isn’t real.

The things you learn in porn — the hairless bodies, the insane screaming, the relentless pounding — are not real things. We understand that a lot of men are now learning their sex tactics from internet porn as they grow up (even though that is insane and weird if you think about it), but when you get with a real-life woman, it’s time to throw everything porn taught you out the window. We can always tell when a guy is imitating something he saw on YouPorn, and it’s not good.

8. Your dick alone probably isn’t good enough.

It’s not you. It’s just that most women can’t orgasm through penetration alone, and for some reason a lot of men think they have the one magic dick that’s going to erase thousands of years of biology and make regular sex good enough. But it’s not. Most women — not all, but most — need some other kind of stimulation during the act, or can’t come while being penetrated at all, and that doesn’t mean that there’s anything wrong with her. We just need to redefine what we think of as “real” or “complete” sex, because it definitely isn’t the same for both genders.

9. Big isn’t always better.

Some men really think that, because of their size, they are God’s gift to women and we should be excited to sleep with them. But this is insane, because they’re either a) slightly bigger than the average, in which case it doesn’t really make a difference or b) way too big, and regular sex causes pain, which isn’t good. In both cases, they tend to perform way worse overall because they think their package is all they need to please (but it’s not, see point 8). Yes, size matters in that women don’t really want a small one, but honestly it’s always better to take one that’s a little on the smaller side with a guy who really works it, than a big one attached to a lame, unknowledgeable guy. And besides, 99 percent of you are normal anyway, and you obsess over it way more than any woman ever has.

1. The best pizza the world has to offer.

My favorite pizza spots in NYC are as follows (and in no particular order): Serafina, Mezzaluna, Rubirosa, and Paulie Gee’s. Serafina has a MEAN “focaccia di sofia”—a crispy, thin, focaccia-like pizza with their “special ingredient” and no tomato. After many bites, I’ve gathered that the “special ingredient” includes ricotta, truffle oil, and I’m not sure what else. Mezzaluna has truly authentic Italian pizza—you can’t go wrong with any variation of a margherita pie. Rubirosa has the crispiest pizza known to man and is celebrated for sometimes swapping out marinara sauce for vodka sauce. And finally, Paulie Gee’s is your classic, home-made-style pizza, made with awesome ingredients—think hot pepper flakes, honey, spicy salami, ricotta, and love.

2. Frozen hot chocolate.

This drink can be found at Serendipity and speaks for itself. I think it was Descartes who once said “I think therefore I like frozen hot chocolate.”

3. Japanese-Jewish cuisine.

Shalom Japan just recently opened up in Williamsburg. They like to tout their restaurant not as a Japanese-Jewish cuisine fusion, but rather a place that makes dishes inspired by both Japanese and Jewish cuisines. Their sake kasu challah (pictured above) comes with cinnamon raisin butter. That is all.

4. Katz’s pastrami egg roll.

Everyone is always recommending Katz’s Deli, an East Village spot known for pastrami sandwiches, but I think it’s time we up the ante and go to RedFarm instead. A delicious and fairly new restaurant, RedFarm is perhaps best known for their take on the Katz’s pastrami sandwich, in egg roll form, called the Katz’s pastrami egg roll. And it’s beautiful.

5. Foie gras grilled cheese.

Chez Sardine is the illustrious West Village restaurant that serves this dish. The restaurant is pricey but worth it, owned by Gabriel Stulman—the owner of Fedora and Joseph Leonard as well.

6. Crif Dogs.

Bacon-wrapped hot dogs will brighten up any day. They’re also like $3-$5 each, and come with fantastic waffle fries (sometimes tater tots).

7. No. 7 Sub.

The deliciously inventive sandwiches sold here will melt your heart. They deserve extra praise for considering crushed-up potato chips to be a sandwich ingredient.

8. Red velvet doughnuts.

If red velvet doughnuts exist anywhere in the world outside of Peter Pan Donuts in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, I don’t want to hear it; they couldn’t possibly be as good. Just make sure to get there early because they sell out fast.

9. The best ramen and pork buns.

Ippudo‘s ramen and pork buns are so good it’s almost unfair. I think about these two dishes far too often.

10. Good $1 pizza.

The best $1 pizza spots in Manhattan can probably be found in the NYU area, near MacDougal street.

11. The best bagels.

H&H Bagels is the original bagel store in NYC. The Upper West Side location was my jam growing up; it has since closed, leaving one left on 81st and 2nd.

12. Great soft pretzels.

Apparently the best soft pretzels can be found at The Sigmund Pretzel Cart, though I prefer the traditional, overly-salted New York City ones.

13. Peanut butter and jelly donuts.

They’re found at Doughnut Plant, a doughnut haven located in Manhattan.

14. Roasted nuts on the street.

They’re Nuts 4 Nuts and they’re probably the only street carts in NYC that actually smell good. It’s basically just candied nuts, and they’re delicious.

15. The best banana pudding ever.

Made at Magnolia Bakery, it tastes more like a blended cake than your traditional pudding. Expect bites of actual cake, bananas, and an icing-flavor mixed within.

Su hija y yerno, y sus seis nietos y seis biznietos, le ofrecieron ayer un homenaje

• La soltería, el secreto de la longevidad según Josefa Álvarez

O verbo colgar é un dos máis utilizados na linguaxe relacionada coas novas tecnoloxías, con significados diferentes e ás veces incluso contraditorios. En orixe, colgar significaba pór algo ou alguén nunha posición elevada de modo que se sosteña sen que a parte de abaixo se apoie no chan. Unha chaqueta está colgada dunha percha; un suicida cólgase dunha soga e un funambulista colga dun aramio de aceiro.

Coa chegada do teléfono, colgar adquiriu outro significado pasado o tempo: interromper a comunicación da liña. “Colga ti, anda. Non, colga ti, sé boíño”. Ese matiz de interrupción pasou á linguaxe informática. Cando dicimos que un ordenador se colga, referímonos a que deixa de funcionar, a que o sistema se bloquea e interrompe o seu funcionamento normal.

Após a xeneralización da internet, na lingua común colgar tomou un novo significado na linguaxe informática máis relacionado co orixinario. Colgar algo (unha foto, un documento, un vídeo…) na internet significa subilo a un servidor para difundilo ou compartilo. Pousar no ar sen que as patas sosteñan no chan pasa a ser unha metáfora do hiperespazo.

Estas novas formas chegan á lingua oral galega a través do castelán e como aínda a RAG non validou estes novos usos non sabemos se acabarán por integrarse no noso vocabulario. A alternativa a ampliar o significado de colgar sería beber do portugués. Como definen eles estes novos usos?

Para falar da interrupción telefónica, o portugués utiliza o verbo desligar. Cando nos referimos a un ordenador que se colga, en portugués utilizan bloquear. E para referirnos aos documentos que colgamos na internet, a lingua portuguesa emprega colocar. “Coloquei quatro fotos no orkut”.

A día de hoxe, a influencia de colgar parece moi forte. Mais serán os falantes coas súas escollas quen decidan até que punto unha ou outra forma merece entrar no vocabulario galego. A miña opción é substituír o verbo colgar, cando corresponde, polo verbo pendurar. Pendurar está considerado sinónimo perfecto de colgar en galego cando se refire a algo ou alguén que está sen suxeición: penduramos unha chaqueta na percha e pendura o suicida na soga. Así que, sen saírmos desta liña, podemos empregalo para o acto de subir ao servidor algún documento. “Pendurei catro novas fotos no facebook”. Se aplicásemos este criterio dun xeito global, poderiamos diferenciarnos do colgar castelán e darlle máis visibilidade a un verbo moi minoritario. Ollo, para falarmos da interrupción, tanto dunha aplicación informática como da comunicación telefónica, pendurar non é válido.

 

A la salida del inmueble los ocupantes no mostraron resistencia a los agentes

Everyone says Copenhagen and Amsterdam are bike cities, but what about Marrakesh?

London-based Moroccan artist Hassan Hajjaj tapped into the bike culture of Marrakesh in his latest series of photos, Kesh Angels, on display at the Taymour Grahne Gallery in New York until March 8. Hassan’s version of Hell’s Angels comes from a personal tale: He once worked on a photo shoot in Marrakesh in the 1990s. Everything about the shoot was foreign—the photographers, the clothes, the models. Nothing was actually Moroccan. The artist’s latest shoot can be interpreted as a response to whatshould have happened back in the 1990s: A super pop North African photo shoot with everything that nods to local tradition fused with a twist – from the polka dotted abayas to the camo djellabahs. The photos here capture Moroccan girl bike gangs with smug looks, intimidating sneers, and badassness short of a rock video. They’re not “real big gangs,” of course. The girls are the artist's friends, who usually paint henna tattoos on tourists in the main square; but you still wouldn’t want to run into them in a dark alley. These girls are tough, speak up to five languages, and are full-time moms who work ten-hour days. I spoke with Hassan about bike culture in Marrakesh and his definition of badass.

VICE: How did you come up with the idea to photograph your friends this way?
Hassan Hajjaj: I've been working in this way for years now. I want to show something particular to Marrakesh, and to show that even though we have different cultures and religions; we share a lot in common as people. There is a group of women who work painting henna in this main square in Morocco that is popular with tourists. One I know was an inspiration for this series, Karima, she wears a veil and these really amazing textile abayas and djabellas and also rides a bike to work and back, she's a normal woman who works eight or ten hours a day. She speaks about four or five languages, is a housewife to two kids, [and] built her own house. 

It feels like a North African fashion shoot, did you want to honor roots with style?
I was working on a fashion magazine photo shoot in Marrakesh in the 1990s when I realized everything—all the models, the photographer, the clothes—were from the west and Morocco was simply the backdrop. From then I said it'd be great to present my people in their environment in their kind of way of dressing, and play with it on a fashion level.

What is the bike culture like in Marrakech? Generally speaking, do bike gangs even exist there? How big are motorbikes?
Marrakech is really a bike city; everyone rides them. Women, kids, old men, families, everybody. It's transportation; it's really used for work. A few of the bikes in the photos are from friends of mine we borrowed, but most are their own bikes. There are no real bike gangs. 

Are your friends often dressed this way? Are these badass, colorful outfits easy to find? 
Moroccans have a strong sense of tradition and we are a very colorful nation. But I design the outfits: These traditional Moroccan djabellas and abayas and babouche with traditional prints and knock-off brand-name fabrics from markets in London and Marrakesh. I also build the frames for the photographs using products or objects I find in markets: cans of Fanta, tins, or boxes of chicken stock. This came from when I was growing up in Morocco as many things are recycled to be re-used, and this has somehow come into my work. I wanted to use the repetition of labels in a slightly humorous context, often directly relating to something happening in the photograph, but I also wanted to create a repeated pattern in the frame to evoke the mosaics of Morocco in a modern context.

What was the goal of this shoot and what was the best moment of shooting this series?
I'm impressed with their strength and really aim to show their independence as normal. If these photos were taken in Paris or Rome I imagine I wouldn't be asked what is so unique about women’s biker culture.

If you had a bike gang who would be in it?
My gang would include women like you see in this series; women who just naturally have this strength, swagger, freedom.

See all more of the photos below:

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Falamos cos responsables desta emisora, que conta xa con once programas multilingües, con contidos culturais, científicos e tecnolóxicos, e que contan coa colaboración de colectivos externos á universidade.