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Calm morning by La Mo

Vista is a name of a restaurant in a Song Saa Island in Cambodia where I'm spending 3 nights for my holiday and photography.

La Mo: Photos · Blog

Compassion by Mohan Duwal

Mohan Duwal: Photos · Blog

by Mike Dang

One of the things I miss about having cable is watching The Food Network, which was probably my go-to channel whenever I felt like zoning out. I especially loved the shows where chefs took viewers to their favorite places to eat in various cities.

This is why I’ve been so happy to watch The Mind of the Chef on PBS, and that the episodes are available online for streaming. The first season follows David Chang of Momofuku fame, and the first episode covers ramen, which I also ate raw as a snack when I was a kid. I love that Chang can take such a common, cheap food item and turn it into gnocchi. It’s so brilliant.

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This week, we put together some arrangements for our friends at Boston Chefs for their annual Flavors of Fall fundraiser. We decided to use seasonal produce rather than a floral-heavy palette. And the folks over at Katsiroubas happily hooked us up with an array of veggies: mini golden beets, red beets, king oyster mushrooms, shitakes, clamshell mushrooms, micro greens and baby carrots.

We’re sharing these arrangements because they can easily be translated into simple, affordable holiday centerpieces using elements from your local grocer. We added flowers to enhance the color and vibrancy of these arrangements but used them sparingly so that the vegetables would be the true storytellers. — Ladies of Forêt

To learn more, follow us after the jump . . .

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If you open this week’s Economist, you will find what is becoming a familiar line about spending on US elections:

The election cycle that has just limped to its exhausted conclusion cost around $6 billion—a new record, as in every new presidential cycle. But when you consider that Americans were electing on November 6th not just the president but 435 congressmen and 33 senators in a vast country of 330m people, where electioneering is primarily conducted by paid television advertisements, the figure may not seem quite so high. Americans spend more than that every year on potato crisps.(emphasis added)

This is not the first time I’ve encountered this type of argument (see the chewing gum version here), and indeed I heard variants on it a number of times at a conference I just participated in on assessing the results of the US presidential election. I’ve even used versions of this line myself with my students.

That being said, I think it is time to stop saying it. While it may be true that Americans spend more on potato chips than political campaigns, there are of course several important differences worth considering here:

• Potatoes do not have to spend time or effort soliciting donations so they can be converted to potato chips.


• Once purchased, people rarely lobby potato chips for favors in enacting preferential legislation.


• Potato chips rarely, if ever, face trade-offs between trying to please the individual who bought them, their constituents, and the country at large. They can just simply be oh-so-tasty.


• Anyone in the United States is allowed to buy potato chips, not just citizens.  Indeed, even children and foreigners can purchase potato chips.


• Potato chips are accessible to all citizens, rich and poor alike (with the possible exception of people dealing with cholesterol issues).


• Sheldon Adelson doesn’t purchase $15 million worth of potato chips for his own personal use (at least I hope not).

I make these points a bit tongue-in-cheek, but the issue is a real one.  I think we are at a point where this technique of comparing campaign funding to some simple consumer good is developing as a short-hand for dismissing concerns with the current system of campaign finance in the United States.  Regardless of what one thinks is the ideal system of campaign funding, suggesting that donating money to a politician is the same thing as buying a bag of chips is not the best way to go about addressing the issue.

Thus it would be Wise to start to Chip away at an over-Baked analogy that should be covered with a Cape (Cod), stuffed in a Kettle, and Lay(d) to rest before the discussion turns Salty and feathers get Ruffle(d) in what ought to be a serious discussion.

This is Trotify, a wooden device powered by your bike's front wheel that makes it sound like you're a horse clopping along down the road whenever you're riding. There's no horse though, it's just you and your handlebar mustache on a bicycle. The £19.99 (~$32) kits come with everything you need to build your own EXCEPT the coconut. The coconut is your responsibility. The folks behind the product need at least 1,000 orders to begin manufacture though, and so far they've only received 119. I dunno, maybe they overestimated the 'bike that sounds like a horse' market. Now a bike that sounds like a rocketship -- that's a million dollar idea. Hit the jump for a video of the Trotify in action. SPOKEY DOKES FOR LIFE.

Remember when I posted the Zelda themed playing cards from DeviantARTist Nelde? WELL NOW YOU CAN BUY THEM. *gyrating hips to emphasize crotch* "Why are you doing that?" Because it feels good. Plus I wanted you to notice my new belt buckle. "It says: If you can read this you're in the running for the closest a person's ever gotten to my privates." Haha, you're in like second place!

These poker-sized playing cards are produced by the US Playing Card Company (USPCC), the same company responsible for the famous Bicycle card decks. 56 Poker sized cards Printed on Bicycle grade paper with embossed finish Unique suits (sword, heart, rupee, tri-force) and face cards Custom card backs (available in red and blue) Custom tuck box Gold foil security seal and cellophane wrapper with tear band

A deck will set you back $15 and will undoubtedly be the coolest playing cards you've ever owned. "Oh really? Because I already own a deck with nudie chicks." What -- LET ME SEE THOSE. Hey, these are dudes! "Gotcha!" Whatever, you're the one with the pecker playing cards. Hit the jump for a couple more shots of the deck.

by Mike Dang

2 Netflix DVD’s have spent the past 3 years at my house. Today, we ended the relationship amicably instagr.am/p/Sf7GVwRyIj/

— Mike Nizza (@mikenizza) November 26, 2012

My friend Karen told me how much her life has changed and how much money she saved after she decided to cancel her cable subscription.

“I’d turn on Keeping Up With the Kardashians, and then three hours would pass,” she said. “I thought, ‘Is this how I want to be spending my time?’”

I confessed to Karen that I had received a Netflix DVD rental of The Artist in June, and that it was still sitting in my apartment somewhere. There’s no reason for me to hold on to it—The Artist is now available on Netflix Instant Streaming. Paying $8 a month to receive DVD rentals in the mail seems reasonable and affordable until you realize you’re paying $8 a month to keep an unwatched DVD hidden under a stack of magazines for half a year. I canceled the DVD portion of my subscription, but kept the streaming service.

The reason I kept the DVD-by-mail subscription for so long was because, well, sometimes your friend from Dallas says she’d like to stay in and watch The Coal Miner’s Daughter with you one night, and it’s not available to stream. My solution for that is to now pay for individual streaming rentals on Amazon or iTunes (at $1.99 to $4.99 per rental, depending on the movie). I figure paying for things when you’ll actually watch it makes much more sense.

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