Amber

For those of you who aren’t aware, Orange is the New Black is loosely based on the real life experiences of Piper Kerman, whose memoir by the same name recounts her time in a women’s prison for drug trafficking. Catherine Cleary Wolters, who was the inspiration for the character of Alex Vause, gave a fascinating interview with Vanity Fair about her relationship with the real Piper and how much of what you see on the Netflix series is representative of the series of events that actually took place.

Apparently? Not much of it is.

For one thing, Wolters states that she and Kerman did not have sex in prison at all whatsoever, and that their meeting was in no way by chance. In fact, they actually only spent five weeks in a detention facility together — to testify against a co-conspirator in their case. They were even transferred to Chicago on the same con air, although at the time Kerman refused to even speak to Wolters:

“We were ghosts of the humans we had once been, milling about amongst hundreds of other human ghosts, shackled and chained, prodded through transport centers at gunpoint, moved through holding facilities,” says Wolters from her mother’s house in Ohio. These days, Wolters is just shy of a PhD in information technology, assurance, and security, and exhibits a flair for the philosophical.

“Praying is about the most intimate thing two people can do in some places, not sex,” Wolters says. “We made some mean dinners together, though, out of cans of cheese, corn chips, and chili, and Piper learned how to communicate effectively through a toilet—a little something you’ll never pick up at Smith.”

Additionally, Wolters, who met Kerman in Northampton, Massachusetts shortly after Kerman graduated from Smith, denies that the two women ever had a serious relationship together — and that they were both involved in illegal activities before anything romantic happened between them:

“I was not Piper’s first, and I certainly did not seduce her,” Wolters says, contrary to the show’s first episode meet-cute, which gives way to the fictional Piper’s dalliance as a cash mule.

Wolters and Kerman drank and went clubbing together. Kerman took care of Wolters’s cats when she traveled and shared in her tales of adventure, or served as a shoulder to cry on, when she returned. In her version, she and Kerman did not become romantically involved until after they had trafficked either heroin or money, for a network run by the alleged Nigerian drug kingpin Buruji Kashamu.

“When we were traveling together I started developing a crush on her. And eventually that turned into a crazy mad love affair,” Wolters says. “But that was after she had already done the deed that made her complicit.”

“We weren’t girlfriends,” Wolters adds for good measure. “We were friends with benefits . . . I was not the older sexy, glamorous lesbian who snatched her from her pristine Smith College cradle.”

The whole thing is really a fascinating read, if you’re a fan of the show or even just the thought of prison wives who apparently look like Jennifer Lawrence — I’d encourage you to head over to Vanity Fair to read the whole thing.

OITNB returns on June 6th.

Filed under: TV Tagged: LESBIANS, ORANGE IS THE NEW BLACK, prison

The home-delivery snack box trend has expanded rapidly over the last few years, to the point that you can find just about any kind of specialized box, from gluten-free to Paleo-diet-friendly. But being the snack-obsessive that I am, I was most interested in testing out the bigger and broader options, some of the best of which are reviewed here.

Most of the founders I spoke with credit savvier consumers for the proliferation of these snack-of-the-month clubs—best described as subscription-based food services that deliver a box of goodies to your door. They also point to the lack of innovation in standard grocery and convenience stores, which are more focused on the bottom line than selling unique and independent labels. And, of course, there's the internet—you can buy pretty much anything online.

So what do I look for in the perfect snack box? First and foremost, variety. I want an even mix of sweet and salty, chewy and crunchy, healthy and indulgent. On the ability to compose the contents of your own boxes, I'm torn. (Only one company on this list leaves the decision 100% in the subscriber's hands; a few allow you to rate snacks, which influence future orders.) Sure, it's nice to be able to pick out what you want. Yet part of the fun is the element of surprise and being forced to try new things. And of course, services should be convenient, giving you the ability to start and stop whenever you want.

So which ones, er, deliver? Read on the find out.

Love With Food

[Photograph courtesy Love With Food]

Founded in late 2011 by Aihui Ong, a software engineer with a passion for food, Love With Food is part snack box business, part charity. For every box ordered, the company donates a meal to a U.S. food bank, with more than 150,000 meals donated to date. The focus is on organic or all-natural goods with no artificial flavors or colors, trans fats, hydrogenated oils, or high-fructose corn syrup. The cheery red box I received was a grab bag of somewhat random single-serving items that skewed sweet—I could have used a few more salty or savory options (or even a second bag of the addictive 479 Degree black truffle-white cheddar popcorn). The dark-chocolate-covered blueberries by Emily's Chocolate and chocolate-chip biscotti from Biscotti di Suzy weren't anything special, but the individually wrapped pieces of TCHO chocolate—including Mokaccino, made with Blue Bottle Coffee—made up for it. The Back to Nature honey graham sticks were like that somewhat healthy dessert you put into your kid's lunch; for me, they hit the spot when I wanted something just a little sweet. And though I was skeptical at first of the small pouch of seasoned pitted olives ("packed loose without the juice!"), they were surprisingly good.

Based on the volume and variety, I definitely felt like I got my money's worth, and adding coupons for a few of the items was a nice touch. The box also had a card listing every snack included, along with a description (and Twitter handle of the company); this came in handy to remind me what I liked even after I'd eaten it in case I wanted to order more directly from Love With Food website. Once a quarter, Love With Food invites celebrity chefs such as Ming Tsai and Andrew Zimmern to curate boxes. Users are very active on the company's website, writing about and rating (from 1 to 5 stars) individual snacks; one item had more than 1,000 reviews.

How it works: Tasting box (from $10) includes around eight snacks; the Deluxe box (from $17) comes with 16-20 snacks. Subscribers also earn points with each box, which can be redeemed online for individual snacks they want more of (100 points = $1).

Promo: Click here to receive your first box free, with $2 shipping.

NatureBox

[Photograph courtesy NatureBox]

What sets this two-year-old snack-of-the-month company apart is that it lets you choose what you want in your own boxes. Subscribers can choose from more than 120 products that are free of high fructose corn syrup, trans fat, and artificial colors, sweeteners and flavors; filters like dietary needs and taste (such as savory, sweet, and spicy) make the website easy to navigate and fun to use. If you'd rather not decide for yourself, pre-made boxes like Picnic Season and Fall Feast are also available. Snacks come in full-size, NatureBox-branded re-sealable bags. The Pistachio Power Clusters— nut squares with almonds, cashews, and pistachios— were a crunchy treat, while the French Toast Granola (maple-flavored granola with pecans) tasted too sugary for me. I used the Cherry Berry Bonanza (dried cranberries, cherries, and blueberries) in my cereal every morning —it saved me from having to buy that week's worth of dried fruit. The box also includes a pamphlet that illustrates the serving size for each snack, which made it clear that I was eating way too many of both the Masa Crisps (mini corn chips with flax seeds) and Roasted Kettle Kernels (honey-coated toasted corn that made me never want to eat a salty corn nut again). The pamphlet also mentions ways to use them in recipes, though telling me to sprinkle dried cherries over Greek yogurt for "tart texture" or serve masa crisps with a homemade dip (without providing a recipe for said dip) wasn't that helpful.

Despite the relatively streamlined website, I couldn't figure out how to put my subscription on hold—there wasn't an easy "cancel" button on the account page—but my correspondence with customer service via email was quick and easy. And though this one is on the pricier end, you get enough snacks to last at least a few weeks (assuming you adhere to the serving sizes). Like Love With Food, NatureBox donates a meal for every box it ships—the company says it's on track to donate over 1 million this year.

How it works: The Deluxe package includes five full-size packages ($19.95/month); Happy Snacker, good for four to five people, has 10 packages ($29.95/month); and Smart Snacker, eight to 10 people, has 20 packages. ($49.95/month). Shipping is free.

Promo: 50% off first box, use code SERIOUSEATS

Mouth

[Photographs courtesy Mouth]

This company, which launched two years ago, is the most expensive option on the list—but it's also the sharpest. It all starts with the website, which really is a work of art; I challenge you to visit and not go down the rabbit hole of impeccably photographed food. The company champions what it calls "indie food"—made-in-America, small-batch goods that use mostly fair trade and organic ingredients, with cute packaging. My reusable tote bag (another bonus) came with not-too-salty potato chips from St. Louis; Brooklyn-made Butter & Scotch caramel popcorn (punched up with bourbon and lemon zest); a salty-and-sweet granola studded with dried sour cherries and pumpkin seeds by Portland, Oregon's Blackbird Food Co.; a Sweeteeth chocolate bar from Charleston, made with port wine and vanilla bean; a fiery jar of jalapeño-honey-dill pickles (complete with a mass of dill fronds in the jar) by Denver-based The Real Dill; and chewy filet mignon from Three Jerks Jerky (Venice, CA). There was not one thing I didn't like or wanted more of once it was gone (except maybe for the pickles—that was one huge jar).

Unlike the others on this list, Mouth.com is not as invested in meeting certain nutritional standards—so if you're looking for a way to only snack healthfully, this is probably not for you. The price comes out to $60 per month, so it's best for that person who is committed to supporting homegrown brands and quality goods, rather than someone who just wants the convenience of snacks delivered to their door.

How it works: Subscriptions start at three months for $180, and go up to a year for $720.

Promo: Enter SeriousEats15 for 15% off.

Nibblr

[Photograph courtesy Nibblr]

This new subscription service sends four single-serving, individually sealed boxes. I received two sweet and two salty options, with nothing over 150 calories. I could have used a second (or third) serving of the Sesa-Me & You (sesame honey almonds), but the Stuck on Flax (flax sea salt pretzel pearls) felt like they were giving me cavities while I ate them. The seasoned curry cashews were the highlight of the Oh My Thai mix, which also had raisins and toasted coconut. My favorite was actually the simplest: dried figs, dates, and apricots, a.k.a. Mediterranean Treasures, though it could have had more apricot and less fig. In general, I've never been a fan of paying more for pre-portioned anything, but if nothing else, Nibblr showed me how much dried fruit I should be eating (a lot less than I usually do). Users can go online and rate the products, from "Love it" to "No thanks." While you can't choose exactly what you get, the more you rate, the more the company will know what you like and don't like, so your box still maintains some element of surprise.

The website is simple and easy to use, but the search function didn't work that well; key terms such as "flax," "fig," and "sesame" turned up no results. When I found my way to the snacks I had received, I noticed that many of my opinions didn't match up with the overall "Love it" ratings: the pretzel pearls came in at 42% (I would have said "No thanks"), while the cashew mix ranked 21% ("Like it" for me). It made me curious what the highest-ranking snacks were—perhaps a tab the website could incorporate in the future.

How it works: Frequency is weekly, every other week, or monthly, and you can pause or cancel at any time. $5.99/box (if you order four at once, it's $5.75, and 12 at once, it's $5.50).

Promo: SERIOUSEATS for half off the first box.

Graze

[Photograph courtesy Graze]

This European transplant was founded in London in 2008 by seven friends who were "sick of chips and candy." Since launching in the U.S. at the end of 2013, Graze has already doubled its U.S. subscriber base. The format is essentially the same as Nibblr: boxes contain four individually packaged and pre-portioned snacks. Full nutritional info can be found online, though each package is labeled with a symbol that describes its health benefit, from having a serving of fruit to being a source of protein. The mixes didn't always live up to their names. Take Cookies and Cream, for example. Sure, it had somewhat cardboard-y mini chocolate cookies and white chocolate "buttons," but hazelnuts and a lot of sunflower seeds outnumbered them. Jelly Doughnut was much better: raspberry strings (best described as less sugary sour straws), raspberry-infused dried cranberries, almond slices, and Nilla wafer-like "sponge pieces." The two savory options were the straightforward black pepper pistachios (my favorite) and the too-garlic-and-onion-y Cheese Board, with "cheese cashews," baked herb bites (a.k.a. crackers), and salsa corn sticks.

Like Nibblr, the website is simple and clean-lined, though it has a lot more specific categories to search (including "flapjacks," British for oat-based granola bars). Also like Nibblr, rating your snack box is a huge part of the process and helps the company customize deliveries. According to an article on Market Watch, more than 15,000 new ratings are generated per hour. Allergic or just don't like a certain ingredient? You can "trash" everything that contains it. There's also a tab for "undiscovered foods," which indicates the snacks that you personally have not yet tried, which is a nice touch.

How it works: Boxes cost $6, including delivery. They initially come every two weeks, but you can choose to get them every four weeks or even weekly.

Promo: Enter SERIOUSSNACKS for your first box free.

About the author: Brooke Porter Katz is a Los Angeles native now living in Brooklyn. She is an associate editor at Travel + Leisure. Follow her on Twitter at @brookeporter1.

Ichiban Cafe's ramen I'm nervous to write about ramen, but we need to start the conversation because you can slurp bowls here in Howard County. Ramen is a Japanese noodle soup that has had a long-standing spot with chefs and food writers who champion favorite places and talk up both tradition and innovation.  Chicken or pork broth.  Vegetarian versions.  Add-in ingredients like pork belly or

poehlersvortex:

My idea of the perfect exercise class is this: The teacher gives us all a hug and goes, “You did it! You showed up! Let’s lie down.” We all lie down and she’s like, “How is everybody feeling?” We’re like, “Great!” And the teacher’s like, “Great!” Then we all get to leave 20 minutes early. - Amy Poehler

What the…?

How did…?

Why is…?

When she takes…?

The thing about this is…

What I mean to say is…

I think that about sums it up. This is the role Sofia Vergara should win an Emmy for.

Via Bro Bible

From Sweets

Last month, I went on a press trip to Ben & Jerry's in Vermont for two days of activities like hanging out with the staff at the company headquarters in South Burlington, creating a new flavor with the flavor gurus, visiting the St Albans dairy co-op, touring the factory in Waterbury, sampling the new Cores, and snowshoeing. Then, a storm hit, and I was stuck in a magical winter wonderland for two extra days with nothing to do but tromp around in snowshoes, look out at snow blanketed mountains, and eat apple cider doughnuts from MLC Bakeshop. It was glorious.

Between ice cream feedings, I learned a lot about Ben & Jerry's, from fun facts (there's a slide in the office!) to how seriously the company is committed to their social mission. Scroll down to read them all.

1: At the company HQ in South Burlington, Vermont, all of the interior walls are curvy (because right angles are too square, man). There's also a mock scoop shop called Scoop U that's used for franchisee training, and everything from shakes to sundaes is only $1. Near the front entrance, you can get from the upper to lower levels on a slide. The office is also dog friendly, meaning there's a cute pup every 50 feet or so (Hi, Quimby!).

2: Ben & Jerry's employees get three free pints per day, every day. On a related note, they also get a free gym membership (and there is a work-out area at the office).

[Photograph: Erin Zimmer]

3: The flavor graveyard at the Ben & Jerry's factory in Waterbury only has a fraction of the hundreds of flavors that have been retired in the company's history. Many others aren't officially declared "dead" because they may be reformulated and reintroduced. Others, like White Russian, have been resurrected (it's currently available in scoop shops). The "deceased" pints aren't actually buried in the graveyard, it's just headstones.

Ben & Jerry's factory in Waterbury, VT

4: The factory in Waterbury produces 120,000 pints a day, one flavor at a time.

5: If you take a tour of the factory, you'll get to try a flavor that's currently in the testing/development stage. For me, it was At the ChocoBanana, banana-cinnamon ice cream with brown sugar caramel swirls and milk chocolate chunks. It tasted like banana bread batter (and it was delicious).

6: The cow seen on Ben & Jerry's packages (and this van) is named Woody, after Woody Jackson, the artist who designed him in 1983.

[Photographs: Ben and Jerry's]

7: Ben & Jerry's has a team of "flavor gurus" who create all of their flavors. Gurus go on "trend trek" trips every year, where they eat their way through cities by ordering EVERY dessert at local restaurants to uncover new food trends and flavors. Yeah, that's what you'd call a dream job.

8: Unilever became the majority share-holder in 2000, but Ben & Jerry's maintains their own board of directors who are responsible for ensuring that the company sticks to its core values and three-part mission. The company also employs a full-time Activist Manager, Chris Miller, whose background includes five years directing Greenpeace's climate change campaign (he's a badass, in the best possible definition of the word).

9: The new Cores (see our review here) are the first line-up of Ben & Jerry's ice cream to be both fair trade and non-GMO. The company is committed to transitioning all of its products to non-GMO and fair trade by the end of the year.

[Photographs: Ben and Jerry's]

10: Last December, Half Baked became the top selling flavor, knocking Cherry Garcia from the throne for the first time in its history.

11: Based on customer feedback, a new formulation of Cherry Garcia (with more cherries) will be headed to grocery store shelves soon.

12: Certain retailers carry exclusive flavors, including Target (Peanut Butter World, Peanut Butter Jam Session, Rockin' Blondies, and Volun-Tiramisu), Walgreens (Truffle Trifecta), 7-Eleven (Nutty Caramel Swirl), and Walmart (Mississippi Mud Pie: January-April, Cotton Candy: May-September).

Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield (Ben's on the right) [Photograph: Wikipedia]

13: These days, Ben and Jerry say they have no authority or official responsibilities at the company. They are focusing their efforts on Stamp Stampede, an initiative that raises awareness of money's influence on the electoral process. The ultimate goal is to overturn Citizen's United.

14: Ben says he typically stands at Jerry's right side when they get photographed so that if you're looking at the photo from left to right, you see them in the right order. If you're ever unsure which one is which, I like Stephen Colbert's memory trick: "Jerry is hairy" (skip to 2:28 in the video).

About the author: Erin Jackson is a food writer and photographer who is obsessed with discovering the best eats in San Diego. You can find all of her discoveries on her San Diego food blog EJeats.com. On Twitter, she's @ErinJax

Want more of the sweet stuff? Follow us on Twitter @SeriousSweets

Billy Eichner took to the streets of New York with actor and valuable natural resource Paul Rudd in tow to ask New Yorkers maybe the most important question of our time: Would you have sex with Paul Rudd? The results were predictably hilarious. The whole thing kind of turned into a frantic, roving Good Cop/Bad Cop experiment, where the Bad Cop is a delightful tall gay Jew who calls strangers wenches at the top of his lungs, and the Good Cop just wants to hug everyone. I don’t want to tell anyone at HBO how to do their jobs or anything, but, I mean, the #TrueDetectiveSeason2 hashtag practically writes itself here.

As for the handful of people who answered “no,” even while looking deep into Paul Rudd’s puppy dog eyes, well, I think Paul Rudd himself put it best in Wet Hot American Summer…

Source: Pop Culture Brain

From Drinks

A classics spin on the Negroni [Photographs: Nick Caruana]

Like Negronis? Fan of absinthe? Try mixing them together in this classic drink.

Some cocktails have a well-known (or well-debated) history. Others just seem to appear in a book without any comment. And then there are those that give you a sense that there's a little more to the story, but you just can't seem to piece it together. The Quill is one of those drinks.

In my newer edition of Harry's ABC of Mixing Cocktails, the Quill is credited to a guy by the name of Frank C. Payne in New York. There's no date attached (although for what it's worth, the drink isn't in MacElhone's 1927 Barflies and Cocktails). After searching a number of older books, I can't find the drink mentioned anywhere else.

So I'm left with this Payne character. Who was he and what does he have to do with a drink that's essentially a Negroni, but with some absinthe added?

It turns out that Frank C. Payne was a theatrical press agent in the early 1900s, when shows that traveled on the road brought in significant income from audiences outside of the Big Apple. Unfortunately, with the rise of the movie business, interest in these traveling shows began to dwindle.

In order to help bolster these road shows (and to preserve their salaries), a bunch of press agents got together and formed a union of sorts: the TPROA: Theatrical Press Representatives of America. Our man Payne was active in this group, which happened to publish a magazine in the 1920s and 30s to promote their agenda. Its name: The Quill.

And there, the trail gets cold for me. Know more about this classic drink? Let's share over a cocktail.

The Classic:

Quill Ingredients.

On the surface the Quill is simply a Negroni with a little absinthe thrown in, but that small change really changes the dynamics of the drink.

Give it a sniff: this cocktail has the same citrusy scent as a Negroni, but with a nice herbal touch added in. The flavor is Negroni through and through, yet the absinthe is subtly there in the background, adding an herbal, anise-laced flavor that mingles with the Campari, gin, and vermouth, without overtaking the drink. It works.

To my surprise, anyone who likes Campari seems to enjoy this one—even people who aren't big on absinthe.

Get the Quill Recipe »

The Variation:

Plume.

Since adding absinthe to a Negroni is tasty, I decided to try tossing it into a few other related cocktails. Add absinthe to a Boulevardier? Do it. And it turns out that a little absinthe is also great in an Americano, Campari Spritz, and Negroni Spagliato. I took my cues from these last three, creating a sort of hybrid.

My variation, the Plume, starts with Campari and a bit of absinthe. I kept the seltzer component of the Americano and Campari Spritz, as well as the sparkling wine used in the Spagliato and Spritz. The result is bubbly and refreshing with great citrus and herb aspects and a lightly bittered flavor.

In place of traditional sweet vermouth, I went with Cocchi Rosa. This rosy liquid comes from the makers of Cocchi Americano. It's lighter and less sweet than a typical sweet vermouth, with that awesome quinine flavor of Cocchi Americano. This works great in the Plume, but you could certainly sub in a traditional sweet vermouth if you prefer.

Get the Plume Recipe »

About the author: Nick Caruana is the author of The Straight Up, where he shares his love of classic and modern cocktails, including a slight obsession with whiskey, bitters and amari. Stalk him on Twitter @The_Straight_Up, Facebook, and other social media outlets.

Recipes!

• Plume
• Quill

entertainmentweekly:

GUYS, ELEANOR & PARK IS GONNA BE A MOVIE.

AND RAINBOW ROWELL IS WRITING THE SCREENPLAY.

GUYS THIS IS ALL CAPS NEWS GUYS.

Michael Paul Smith takes photographs of classic cars that evoke feelings of nostalgia for America in the 30s, 40s, 50s, and 60s. Take a look, these are about as Pleasantville as you can get:

But as you'll discover browsing through Smith's collection, the cars he photographs are scale models. Here's the set-up for that second shot:

And here's further evidence of Smith's trickery:

No Photoshop here...all effects are done in-camera. As Smith notes, "It is the oldest trick in the special effects book: lining up a model with an appropriate background, then photographing it." (via @osteslag)

Tags: cars   Michael Paul Smith   photography

I don't know exactly what my expectations were of how lettering is painted on city streets, but this was not it. The level of precision and artistry is surprising.

Reminds me of this video of a hand-lettering master at work.

Tags: art   typography   video

When you’re named the World Series MVP after hitting something ridiculous like .999 in what many people called the twilight of your career, you’re allowed to be a little goofy when it comes to meeting someone as powerful as the leader of the free world. When the Boston Red Sox arrived at the White House to be honored by President Barack “Jay Mariotti’s Personal Assistant” Obama, Ortiz asked the President to snap a selfie with him and the team in the background, and of course he said yes. You don’t say no to the champ.

Naturally, it’s only a matter of time before this becomes the next big scandal for the White House, and I can see the headlines now: “Papi and Sloppy: Obama Takes a Selfie with Powerful Foreigner” or probably “This is My F*cking White House: David Ortiz Proves that Obama is a Guest in His Own Home.” Those are free, Fox News, but only if you tell Megyn Kelly to stop calling me when she’s drunk. It’s embarrassing.

Eleven days, thirteen hours, and thirty seconds. That’s how long it would take you to binge-watch every episode of The Simpsons. Whether those 300-some hours spent staring at your television or laptop sounds like Heaven or Hell likely depends on how much you enjoy DENTAL PLAN LISA NEEDS BRACES DENTAL PLAN LISA NEEDS BRACES, and if you have any friends or family members who will bother you during your marathon. “Ugh, can’t Grandma have her surgery next week?”

That 11 days figure was provided by tiii.me, a new website that “calculates [the] total time you’ve spent watching TV shows.” Out of curiosity, I plugged in 35 shows I’ve seen every episode of to learn how many minutes, hours, days, weeks I’ve basked in television’s warm glowing warming glow. It’s horrifying.

Which means from those shows alone, my number is:

Jesus. And that’s not even including the 40 other shows I’ve seen every episode of. I’d say I’ve wasted my life, but those 110 days could have been spent on Doctor Who alone, so I’m feeling pretty good about myself.

Via Tiii.me

People looking for love through the dating website OkCupid today might have found themselves the target of a political message instead. Firefox users have been greeted by OkCupid with a message that asks them to consider using a different browser in order to access their site, because of new Mozilla CEO Brendan Eich’s decision to donate $1,000 toward the support of California’s Proposition 8 back in 2008. Accordingly, OkCupid provided links to three other browsers that users could choose instead of Firefox, along with an explanation for this very bold request.

Further, OkCupid’s officials explained that this decision was made in order to ensure that people accessing their site did not help contribute to Eich’s success as CEO.

Background on Mr. Eich and Mozilla

In 2008, Mr. Eich supported the passage of California’s Prop 8, a statewide initiative to ban gay marriage, with a $1000 donation. Granted, his contribution is now six years in the past, and people can change. But Mr. Eich’s boilerplate statements in the time since make it seem like he has the same views now as he did then. Mozilla recently promoted him to CEO, hence the issue only now coming to our attention. His donation was known to Mozilla at the time of his promotion, and, furthermore, CEOs are rewarded based on their company’s performance. The CEO is the visionary for a company and its products. We are sad to think that any OkCupid page loads would even indirectly contribute towards the success of an individual who supported Prop 8—and who for all we know would support it again. We wish Mozilla’s institutional commitment to freedom and openness were better reflected by their choice of leadership.

The decision to appoint Eich, who was a co-founder of Mozilla, as CEO last week was first met with backlash and protest from Mozilla’s own board. Three of the company’s six board members reportedly resigned because of Eich’s 2008 donation; however, Mozilla claimed that those board members had left for different reasons. Regardless, Mozilla released an official statement on its blog on Saturday, and it explains, among other things:

Mozilla’s mission is to make the Web more open so that humanity is stronger, more inclusive and more just. This is why Mozilla supports equality for all, including marriage equality for LGBT couples. No matter who you are or who you love, everyone deserves the same rights and to be treated equally.

We realize that not everyone in our community or who uses our products will agree with this. But we have always maintained that as long as you are willing to respect others, and come together for our larger mission, you are welcome. Mozilla’s community is made up of people who have very diverse personal beliefs working on a common cause, which is a free and open internet. That is a very rare and special thing.

When OkCupid plans to take that page down for Firefox users is unknown, but seeing as this is the Internet, and people love a good protest, they’re destined to have plenty of company as this story spreads.

(Original banner via Alexander Supertramp / Shutterstock.com)

(Photos, clockwise from top left: Bar Pilar, Little Serow courtesy of The Washingtonian, Le Diplomate, Rose's Luxury)   Here's something we've been meaning to do for years (literally years) on this blog: share our favorite places to eat in Washington, D.C. Our Nation's Capital is flooded with deliciousness these days. Over the years we've gladly answered readers' questions about where they should eat when they visit D.C. Right now, despite the chill in the air, Cherry Blossom season is upon us. We've gotten a few more of these questions than usual, so we're publishing this list.  (Our list of favorite places to eat in D.C. is very District-centric. Other lists you'll read from local publications will include lots of restaurants out in the 'burbs. We don't have a car, so we rarely make it out of the city for dinner.)  Come visit the District -- we promise you won't leave hungry! To help you plan your meals while you're here, here's a list of our favorite DC restaurants, followed by other places we love:  Little Serow (Dupont Circle). It's probably our favorite restaurant in D.C. right now. It's Northern Thai food and very spicy. Absolutely delicious. Fixed menu, no substitutions, $45/person. No reservations. You'll need to be in line by 5:00 at the latest (especially on a weekend) if you want to get a table that evening. Basically you can go there, get in line, put your name in, go have a drink (or two) elsewhere, and then they'll call you when your table's ready. It's a process, but it's worth it. (Oh, also, there's no sign or anything -- it's underneath a restaurant called Komi, on 17th btw P and Q. Believe me, you'll know the line when you see it.) Bar Pilar (14th Street). We've loved this place for years. It's a bar with excellent food, but in the past few years they've completed a major expansion so they now have a dining room. We're never disappointed by their menu. It's always comforting, wonderful new American food. Brasserie Beck (Downtown). We went here the night we got engaged, and the night before we got married, and a dozen other times, too. It's Belgian food and spectacular. Supposedly this place had the East Coast's first beer sommelier. So now you know that's a thing.  Rasika (West End or Chinatown). This is the best Indian food in the city. It also happens to be high-end Indian. For years we've been going an ordering the black cod and the crispy spinach. We're in an ordering rut, but it's a delicious rut. (Reservations are a must.)   And still more.... Beau Thai (Shaw or Mt. Pleasant). Our closest friends own Beau Thai, so this isn't exactly the most unbiased recommendation. But we heartily recommend it for a D.C. Thai food experience, especially the Mt. Pleasant location. The food is excellent. And be sure to say hi to Ralph and Aschara.  Rose's Luxury (Capitol Hill) is the buzziest new place in town. We just ate there for the first time. The wait is abysmal -- you'll be lucky if it's only an hour. But the hype is worth it.   Le Diplomate (14th Street). An insanely popular new-ish French restaurant from Stephen Starr, Le Diplomate is always busy. We've been at dinner and for brunch -- the food is great and the atmosphere is bustling and fun. If you go for brunch, order the oatmeal to share.   Etto (14th Street). We had a great little meal of Italian small plates with our friend Sue when it first opened.  Mintwood Place (Adams Morgan). A great restaurant in our neighborhood (rejoice!). We're never disappointed by the dinner or brunch.  Palena Cafe (Cleveland Park). This is a beautiful little restaurant we've gone time time again for the roast chicken and burgers (there's a fancier menu, too).  2 Amy's (north of Glover Park). We think this is the best pizza in the city.  If you're visiting, D.C., you may want to try Ethiopian food (especially if you can't get it at home). D.C. has one of the largest populations of Ethiopian people outside of Africa, so we have tons of Ethiopian restaurants. It's definitely an experience worth trying. If you're unfamiliar with Ethiopian food, it's essentially a lot of spicy stews and vegetables served on a huge plate of spongy bread called injera. There are no utensils so you scoop the stews up with the injera. It's fun! The best Ethiopian places in D.C. are Dukem (U Street) and Etete (Shaw).  Any Jose Andres restaurant. You can't go wrong with choosing a Jose Andres restaurant. He's a famous chef from Spain (someone once told us he's like Emeril there) and he has a handful of restaurants in D.C. We like Zatinya (Greek mezze) and Jaleo (Spanish tapas).    Places for Cocktails and Snacks The Gibson (U Street). If you like cocktails at all, go to the Gibson. It has a speakeasy vibe (no sign on the door). We recommend making a reservation, which might sound extreme for cocktails, but it actually works well because it keeps the place from getting too crowded. There are light snacks available.  POV at the W Hotel (Downtown). This bar is frankly a bit obnoxious in a luxe/swanky sort of way. But the rooftop terrace has an amazing view of the White House and Washington Monument. The view makes the crowd tolerable, at least for one cocktail.  Kramerbooks (Dupont Circle). This is a must-visit D.C. institution. (Bonus: We got engaged here, in the bookstore, which is also where we met for our first date.) It's a terrific restaurant/bar/bookstore right off of Dupont Circle. It's open 24 hours on the weekends. The restaurant is kind of dressed up diner food but they have a lovely little bar that's fantastic for a drink (and a slice of pie, if you need a snack). Teaism (Dupont Circle, Chinatown). There are three of these little teahouses in D.C., all with some delicious Asian-inspired dishes. It's more of a lunch or snack place (we almost always order one of the bento boxes -- the salmon bento is our favorite). But Teaism's real claim to fame (and why it owns our hearts) are the salty oat cookies (available in plain or chocolate). If you leave Teaism without getting one, we will hunt you down and drag you back to get one.   Live in D.C. and have a place to add? Got a favorite dish at one of these places? Plotting a visit and have a question? Share away in the comments! 

How about a little XYZ Affair?


President Booty reporting for duty


Virginia is for lovers mmm


Raid my treasury


Ratify /this/


umff

publius-esquire:

Founding Father Pin-Ups, 2nd Ed.: Tread on Me

Apparently they were smart and sexy!

Stonewall! #gogodididonyc @TwoPlaysInRep 2 shows left! pic.twitter.com/WaXTGYX3dR

To achieve maximum people-talking-about-Louis-CK-on-Twitter, FX just released a teaser of the new season of Louie, which returns on Monday, May 5th. In it, Louis stares at the Statue of Liberty in black-and-white for 17 seconds, so it’s basically Woody Allen’s Instagram film. Also, the last episode of Louie aired September 27, 2012, which is entirely too long. Don’t leave us again.

In the days since Gwyneth Paltrow and Chris Martin made their conscious uncoupling public, Coldplay jokes and Paltrow hate have run rampant on the Internet (though I suppose that was true before they split, too). Unfortunately for Paltrow, but fortunately for Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow haters, E! Online just published some unflattering, woe-is-me comments she made a week before the break-up that have added even more GOOPy fuel to the fire. Being a millionaire is tough, you guys.

“It’s much harder for me. I feel like I set it up in a way that makes it difficult because…for me, like if I miss a school run, they are like, ‘Where were you?’ I don’t like to be the lead so I don’t [have] to work every day, you know, I have little things that I like and obviously I want it to be good and challenging and interesting and be with good people and that kind of thing.”

She added, “I think it’s different when you have an office job, because it’s routine and, you know, you can do all the stuff in the morning and then you come home in the evening. When you’re shooting a movie, they’re like, ‘We need you to go to Wisconsin for two weeks,’ and then you work 14 hours a day and that part of it is very difficult. I think to have a regular job and be a mom is not as, of course there are challenges, but it’s not like being on set.” (Via)

I won’t bother blockquoting the New York Post‘s open letter response to Paltrow’s comments, because every mother on your Facebook timeline has probably already shared it. But I will say that the second she named her child Apple, Paltrow lost the right to complain about how hard parenting is.

Via E! Online

by Jen Choi

The first time I met Bill Murray, I was 18 years old and wearing a miserable brown ensemble.

The garments belonged to my mother, and for unknown reasons I had filched them to add to my own wardrobe in New York: a chocolate, polyester blouse, light-washed jeans, and mahogany, backless loafers in the style of re-imagined Mary Janes. I had just moved to the city for college and the independent film I interned for consisted of a tidy editorial crew (Editor, Assistant Editor, and me.) Rather than cool clothes, I outfitted myself with that spirited, blind alacrity only youth affords. I was thrilled to work on a real film—in the Big Apple!—and anytime a celebrity popped by to visit our director, I feigned (poorly, I’m sure) aloofness. These icons largely ignored my existence, which I considered a common gesture in the feudal world of filmmaking: they noblemen, maintaining an understood distance, to my serfdom.

We all had crushes on our lead actor, Bill Murray (who we called by first name, naturally). “Bill might stop by today,” was a regularly quoted possibility that for months never materialized. Then one afternoon he appeared in our cutting room—very tall, sharply be-suited, his silver hair neatly combed to frame his genial face. I stood statue-still as he approached me, his arm extended.

“Hi, I’m Bill,” he said.

“I’m Jen,” I squeaked. “It’s… such a pleasure to meet you.” It was a phrase I had practiced often—one that, in our Korean family, I never grew up utilizing, but had fancied a polite, white-people-expression I ought to use more often. We shook hands for a good while.

Someone decided I should go on a fresh juice run. “Jen, do they have blood oranges?” Bill joked. “Nah, they’re probably not in season.”

I returned, giddy, and distributed the ginger/citrus/wheatgrass concoctions. Bill asked me where I was from, and wanted to know the particulars (“OK, but where exactly in southern California?”) and I was pleased he did not probe the way some strangers do (Where are you from originally, in Asia? North Korea or South?)

“I could tell you were new in town,” he said. “I noticed the Band-Aids on your feet. Are those new shoes?”

I looked down in horror. I had forgotten about the Band-Aids. My mother’s feet were smaller than mine, and with all the city-walking, the ill fit produced several unsightly blisters. They weren’t new, per se, but I said, “I guess,” and mentally crawled into a shame-cave with my mother’s ugly brown shoes.

“New to New York. New shoes. There’s a connection there,” he said. He sipped the dregs of his juice and smiled. I thought it’d be the last time I ever saw him. 

Ten years later: 4:30 a.m., Brooklyn. It was a particularly sweltering summer, but during the wee hours, that warm blanket of heat peeled back, gifting night owls like me a brief respite. I had just finished my shift slinging Prohibition-era cocktails to the score of a live New Orleans swing band. It was a decent gig to pay the bills.

Meanwhile, internally, I trudged my way through the bog of post-grad school malaise. Any high from completing my MFA had disintegrated entirely, and each morning as I closed the bar, I felt a little ridiculous changing out of my Peter Pan-collared dress, or while shutting the doors to the vintage icebox. In my normal clothes, I felt cripplingly stunted, bartending as if I was twenty-two again, this time deeper in debt and rankled by the fear of unfulfilled potential—unpleasantness only adulthood affords. I pondered these concerns while riding my bicycle down a desolate street. Suddenly, a man appeared, crossing without the right of way. He stared at his phone while walking. I slowed down, so as not to hit him. We were alone.

“Hello,” I said.

“I’m sorry,” he said, startled. “I wasn’t looking.”

“That’s OK.” And instead of letting the moment pass at that, I continued.

“We worked on a film years ago. I’m Jen,” I said, arm extended.

“Hi Jen,” he said. “I’m Bill. Bill Murray.”

We shook hands for a good while. He was still tall, his hair this time white and unruly, like some mad scientist. Though he had noticeably aged, he was as charming as I remembered. Since our last encounter, I had moved six times, earned two degrees, lived abroad once, fell in love twice, quit film. I was now 28. Funny thing, though, meeting someone again a decade later. All those years collapsed instantly; air and time flushed shut like the bellows of an accordion. I had altogether forgotten that unabashedly hopeful girl I used to be, in Band-Aids and brown shoes. But then there I was, shaking hands with Bill Murray.

I took off my helmet and Bill tussled my hair. We spoke about the film we worked on (it was special to him, to me) and his most recent project, shooting in the neighborhood. He asked me where I was from in California (“I’m so glad we got you out of there”) and what I was working on these days (“A book,” I said. “Good. Very good,” he said.”) We talked in that easy way, somewhere between acquaintances and friendly strangers. But it was getting late, so I said I ought to be on my way—truthfully, I didn’t want to ruin the moment. I doubt he remembered my brown clothes, or perhaps ever meeting me at all, but I could suddenly see that old version of myself with telescopic clarity. Our encounter revived some small part of that girl I used to be, who was eager, spirited, who wanted everything, in that way, as an adult, you begin to think is foolish.

I said, “It was such a pleasure to meet you again.”

He said, “Goodbye Jen.”

I hopped on my bike, and he insisted he give me a push. Then, I stared straight ahead into the empty street, and Bill Murray propelled me off into the dark toward home.

 

Jen Choi is a freelance writer in Brooklyn. She is currently working on a memoir.

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"He found out he’s going to have another sister."
Submitted By: Jen M.
Location: New York, United States
(via Buzzfeed)

Couple bits of Sharknado-related news:

• The release date for the sequel, Sharknado 2: The Second One (tagline: “Shark Happens”), which, as a reminder, features every D-list celebrity you can think of and is set in New York City, because shark-filled tornadoes are bi-coastal weather events now, has been pushed up to Wednesday, July 30. Please make a note in your calendars, or wherever you keep notes about sequels that appear to be trying very, very hard.
• Syfy has released the official poster for the film, which (a) you can see above, and (b) features a storm full of giant sharks destroying the Statue of Liberty after apparently carrying it into greater Manhattan from the sea. Considering the first Sharknado film ended with a Beverly Hills 90210 alum chainsawing himself and a spunky bartender out of the stomach of a Great White shark that had just torpedoed to Earth from the heavens, I suppose this course of events is actually pretty reasonable.

As for me, I’m continuing to protest this film until they bring back Nova the Bartender. Or cast Coolio as a meteorologist. Either one will do.

by Nicole Dieker

A lot of people start bands. I started my first band in junior high, with my little sister and my best friend (we wrote one song, which pretty much lifted the hook from “Penny Lane,” before we fell apart over creative differences). As an adult I actually spent some time as a performing musician, where I faced the question that nearly every musician faces at some point: Is this something I’m doing for fun? Is this a job? Is this a business?

It’s one of the hardest things to figure out, because indie musicianry is one of the hardest ways to build a career. It has all of the hazards of the freelance life plus an extraordinarily large overhead; you’ve got to ship yourself, your instruments, and your merch from city to city, with all the concordant costs of travel included. None of it is cheap; that $20 T-shirt sale is likely to result in, at most, a $5 profit, on which you have to pay federal, state, city, business, and sales tax, all before you funnel the profit back into your business and, if there’s anything left over, buy food.

That’s why I sent a note to my friend Angela Webber, whose band The Doubleclicks is not only an artistic success, headlining major events like PAX and recording music videos that get over a million views, but is also functioning as a successful business. I wanted to learn how Angela and her sister Aubrey made their band work.

Angela responded immediately: It always makes me feel a little weird to talk about business without reason, but when there is reason I am *excited* because I think about it so much.

So we started chatting over email, and she told me everything I wanted to know.

 

“We didn’t start thinking about making money until the band started costing money”

The Doubleclicks started as a way for Angela and Aubrey to play at open mics with their friends. Aubrey Webber already had years of experience performing as a cellist in Portland music ensembles, but Angela was relatively new to singing, guitar-playing, and performing. They didn’t start The Doubleclicks with the plan to become “The Doubleclicks;” they just wanted to write songs and have fun.

As Angela told me: “We didn’t start thinking about money until the band started costing us a lot of money.” The Doubleclicks had released an EP and put their songs on YouTube. They were becoming popular in the geek music community, and were getting regular requests to play at conventions and travel to other states to do shows. Angela and Aubrey didn’t have the funds to take advantage of these opportunities out of pocket, so they had to figure out a way that The Doubleclicks could pay for itself.

“For a while, the band was just funding our convention habit,” Angela explained.

 

“When I decided to quit my day job, we really had no choice but to succeed”

Around 2011, a little over a year after The Doubleclicks first started playing shows, the band began getting opportunities neither Angela nor Aubrey wanted to turn down. These were big-deal gigs, like the invitation to perform at the nerd music festival w00tstock alongside hosts Wil Wheaton, Adam Savage, and music comedy group Paul and Storm.

“We were spending A LOT of time on the band,” Angela told me.

Then she ran out of vacation days.

“When I decided to quit my day job, we really had no choice but to succeed.” Angela’s decision broke the rules, a bit; if you go check out one of those “how to start a business” books from the library, you’ll always get the advice that you should wait to quit your day job until your business earns enough to make back your salary.

On the other hand, if The Doubleclicks had waited until their business fulfilled that rule, they would not have had the time to do the work and pursue the opportunities that made their business successful.

So in 2011, Angela quit her job to manage The Doubleclicks. It turned out to be a very smart decision.

(Aubrey quit her job just this year, after fans funded it as a Kickstarter stretch goal.)

 

“We put our energy into making new things”

Of course, the majority of the questions I had were “but how do you do it?” After all, I knew exactly how expensive it was to screenprint hoodies and stay in convention hotels. So I asked Angela a pile of technical questions like “Do you go in the red to print stuff? Who pays when you travel to a convention? How much of your revenue goes towards funding business overhead?”

Here’s how Angela explained it:

• MERCH: We run pre-sales on pretty much every physical product that we produce—CDs, t-shirts, tote bags, and so on—and those pre-sales (plus margins) pay for us to get surplus to sell at shows.

• PEOPLE: We got really lucky here. Aubrey has a degree in music production and is extremely talented in that area, so we have a built-on person who can do all the most expensive things that bands have to pay for—she can record, arrange, and mix our music. She has done this for all of our songwriting projects and saves us tons of money by doing a lot of the work on our albums. That’s not helpful to other people, because you CANNOT HAVE AUBREY. SHE IS MINE.

• REVENUE: Most of the money stays inside the band account, and we basically take the minimums we need to survive right now.

• TRAVEL: We’ve gotten to the point now where we can pretty much require that out-of-state conventions pay for our travel and that is absolutely necessary. I think putting money upfront for travel in the past definitely paid off, but we always did a super careful calculation.

• MARKETING: The internet has made music so easy to access, and we strive to make this the case by putting our music everywhere people want it to be, and putting a lot of emphasis on making our websites easy to use. But marketing can also be a lot of frustration (“Why won’t this blog notice me,” “This song deserves more attention,” etc), so we are a lot happier when we just put that energy into making new things, instead of marketing old ones.

“Yes, we have enough”

That brought me to my last question. Does Angela feel like The Doubleclicks is earning “enough?” One of the worst mental cycles that business managers can get into is that feeling of always having to beat last month’s income, or wanting to hit a certain amount of revenue that just seems impossible. When fear beats enough, your business falls apart—and I want The Doubleclicks to stick around.

“Yes, we have enough,” Angela told me. “We are extremely lucky that people pay for our music at all, and that people come to our shows, and I really mean that. We have a TON of fun. Would it be nice to be super comfortable and to have my student loans paid off and to own a swanky tour van? Yes. And maybe we’ll get there. But right now we focus on the things we can fix, and that’s making more and better music.”

When she told me this, I thought: good gravy does Angela Webber have it right. Ever since I’ve known her, she has consistently floored me with her artistry, her kindness, her savvy, and her ability to make sense of what to do with her amazingly successful band.

So check out The Doubleclicks. Go say hi afterwards if you see them at a show, or if you see them at PAX East in a few weeks. And if you’re ever curious about how an indie band makes it work, this is one way that one band makes their business happen.

 

Nicole Dieker is a freelance writer and ghostwriter, and is the only member of the band Hello, The Future!

Photo Credit: Jessie Kirk

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Dear 10-Year-Old Self,

Before you ask me when you have your first kiss or if you’ll ever have a boyfriend, I need to tell you some more important stuff first. What’s more important than a first kiss, you ask? Plenty.

First of all, don’t let that kid in your class, Danny, who called you fat, make you self-consciously wear oversized sweatshirts for the next four years to hide your body. That kid is horrible and years from now he will be boring and bald and trying to get in touch with you to come to the set of the TV show you work on. No, you don’t work on Cheers. That show’s not on the air anymore. That would’ve been awesome, though.

Another thing: Say thank you, always. Gratitude is the closest thing to beauty manifested in an emotion. When you’re grateful, people are attracted to you.

Also: Make sure you appreciate Mom and Dad. Yes, they never seem to let you do anything now except read books. Once you turn 18 you’ll never get to live with them again, and you’ll live far away, and you will miss them so much it hurts.

Next: Learn forgiveness and bestow it generously.

Finally: Don’t let anyone give you any crap. Mastering a balance of these last two will take you a lifetime, so you had better get started now.

Mindy Kaling

When my wife first read about Facebook buying Oculus VR, our conversation went something like this:

Wife: Guess which mega-corporation just purchased Oculus?
Me: Google?!  Good for them!
Wife: Nope.
Me: Microsoft?  Trying to compete with Sony’s Morpheus? (Yes, I even hyperlinked that in our verbal conversation.)
Wife: Nope again.  It was Facebook.
Me: Facebook??  Why? A company based around sharing pictures of kittens and babies? What could they possibly do with VR? A fully immersive world surrounding you with kittens and babies just falling from the sky?

In truth, this deal brings about a bunch of questions and can be viewed from a bunch of angles with both optimistic and pessimistic forecasts.

First, let me go into Facebook’s side of the story.  Mark Zuckerberg (CEO of Facebook) wrote that while the Oculus Rift has a great potential for gaming (a potential he intends to help promote and accelerate), he also sees it as a platform for many other social experiences which Facebook wants to be a part of.  One of his examples that struck me was, “Imagine enjoying a court side seat at a game…”, since this is getting close to some ideas we’ve been working on at Synergy (I suppose I should be comforted in the validation of some of our dreams).

However, critics of this (which includes me, although I’ll try to keep my bias to a minimum) don’t see Facebook as a major software developer.  As I mentioned above, I could see companies like Microsoft or Google, which frequently (and successfully) branch out in R&D, take something like the Oculus Rift and do great things with it.  Google already has Google Glass, while on the opposite side of the tech spectrum also purchased Boston Dynamics (the designers of BigDog and PetMan).

Facebook, on the other hand, has a social media website and phone app and purchased companies like Instagram and WhatsApp to eliminate competitors in their realm.  Jumping into VR seems like such a far leap for them, especially for the whopping $2 Billion price-tag (although most of it was in stock).

Let me go on a tangent for a moment to express what I mean.  As a gamer, I really enjoy seeing some of the indie game Kickstarter  projects — mainly because a lot of game concepts start with a single or few individuals who have a game “vision”. But, as anyone who works in TV/movies, music, and writing can tell you, as soon as you bring in a publisher or investors to help fund that “vision”, they get their own creative license and start to warp that concept in an attempt to give them the most return on their investment.

With Kickstarter, potential players can fund the games they want to play *before* they are developed, so the designers don’t need to worry about pleasing major investors.  It is a similar concept where games like Minecraft let people buy the game while it’s still in early development and use those funds to continue building the game.

In fact, the creator of Minecraft, Markus “Notch” Persson, contributed $10,000 to the Oculus VR Kickstarter.  How does he feel about Facebook buying Oculus VR?  “I did not chip in ten grand to seed a first investment round to build value for a Facebook acquisition,” is what he wrote in his blog.

That sentiment is shared by a large number of Kickstarter supporters and is a shared mentality among contributors across many of the different Kickstarter and other crowd source projects — not just for Oculus VR.

Too Long, Didn’t Read (TL:DR) Version – The vision of Virtual Reality like the Oculus Rift is now a competing ground for big companies, including Sony, Valve, and now Facebook.  There’s a good chance this will be our future and will be exciting to see.  However, this buyout could act as a detrimental blow to future crowd source projects, since people will be less likely to contribute to something that may just be bought up by a large company and potentially lose that initial “vision” the original donators were attempting to nourish.

When we last heard about AMC’s semi-secretive new series based on Annie Jacobsen’s best-selling book about Area 51, it was being helmed by producers of The Walking Dead and The Good Wife. Well, strike that last part. AMC announced at its upfronts yesterday that the series is officially in development with Gale Anne Hurd from The Walking Dead executive producing, but now X Files creator Chris Carter has been brought to co-executive produce and write the script.

As far as actual information about the show… yeah. Maybe a tick or two above bupkis, max. All AMC said is that its “a contemporary conspiracy thriller revealing the true story behind the infamous Area 51, America’s most mysterious military installation,” which seems unnecessary seeing as the cinematic masterpiece Independence Day already spilled all the beans about Area 51 way back in 1996. But what do I know, right?

Here’s what The Hollywood Reporter had to say about the source material when the show was first announced a few years ago:

Jacobsen’s book revolves around the famed military installation in the world that has never been acknowledged by the U.S. government and explores the myths about the area and those who believe that region is home to aliens, underground tunnel systems and nuclear facilities. Jacobsen interviewed 19 men who served on the base and additional servicemen who were employed there.

So, there’s that, too. I guess we’ll have to wait and see. In the meantime, here’s a picture I found on Getty when I searched for “Area 51.” I think it speaks volumes.

A lot of people woke up today with a surprise in their email: Cash from Amazon. In some cases, it was hundreds of dollars worth of credit. So why the sudden burst of generosity? It was ordered by the court!

So, who sued Amazon?

Nobody! Apple and five major publishers were dragged into court over accusations of price-fixing. As you may have guessed, they lost.

Wait, so Apple and five publishers were actually fixing the price of books?

It’s a little more complicated than that. Apple essentially made publishers sign a contract where the Apple store got the lowest price on ebooks. That made Apple, de facto, the price floor for ebooks. You get no points for guessing what happened next.

The publishers used that clause to jack up prices everywhere?

Yep. The prices of ebooks ballooned in 2010 and just as promptly deflated in 2012, when the government called B.S. and started handing out lawsuits. Whether or not that was a deliberate effect is a question of some dispute; it’s certainly not out of the realm of possibility that Apple just straight up did not care what the fallout was. But intentional or unintentional, a whole lot of books were price-fixed, and a whole lot of people are seeing money because of it.

So what does Amazon have to do with any of this?

Basically, it’s cheaper and more effective to meet the terms of the settlement by just refunding anybody who bought an ebook from Amazon. Amazon, surprisingly, wasn’t involved with this, maybe because they saw a hated rival about to fall off a cliff and just popped open a beer to watch the fun.

So, what about Amazon’s enormous and arguably distorting role in the market?

That, my friend, is a lawsuit for another day.