Viral selfie promoter extraordinaire and electronics manufacturer Samsung might be to blame for the end of the Obama selfie.
Red Sox player David Ortiz took a photo with Obama on Wednesday when the team visited the White House. It later turned out that Ortiz had a deal with Samsung, signed just the day before he took the photo, to be its "social media insider." Ortiz denied that he was asked by Samsung to take the photo.
Needless to say, the White House doesn't want the President shilling for products, albeit unintentionally. On this morning's Face the Nation, White House senior adviser Dan Pfeiffer said the White House has "had conversations with Samsung about this and expressed our concerns" but wouldn't go into details.
Pfeiffer reiterated that Obama didn't know that selfie was part of a Samsung promotion, adding "perhaps maybe this will be the end of all selfies." (emphasis mine) He probably meant just selfies with Obama. It's too much to hope for that he meant there was somehow going to be a way to ban all selfies.
Should this selfie ban happen, we'll miss out on some precious moments:
Memorial Service Diplomacy/Possible Marital Strife Selfie
AFP/Getty Images
Television Scientist Selfie
Instagram: @TheScienceGuy
Unintentional Pitchman Selfie
Twitter: @DavidOrtiz
... and that's it. But think -- just think! -- of what could have been. Thanks a lot, Samsung.
As you may have heard, there's a lime shortage going on. The spike in wholesale prices—some report a standard 40-pound wholesale carton costing $25 in early February and $100 last week—is really hurting bars that specialize in margaritas. But you needn't give up tequila for the weekend just because limes are crazy-expensive. Here are 5 ideas for lime-free tequila drinks to make at home.
Tequila and Campari With Tangerine
[Photo: Heather Meldrom]
Sweet tangerines balance the bitter side of Campari in this refreshing drink that's made with rich aged tequila. Invite some Negroni-loving friends over and try this recipe for a pitcher full of salmon-hued cocktails.
This is one of my favorite tequila drinks, and it comes from the excellent Portland bartender Jeffrey Morgenthaler. It's a simple, refreshing highball made with bright, herbal silver tequila and fresh lemon, plus grapefruit bitters for a little extra flavor.
Tart kumquats have just the zingy flavor to stand in for lime in this fun and refreshing spin on a margarita made with tequila and Cointreau. A little agave nectar adds extra sweetness.
Skip citrus juice altogether with this tequila drink that's inspired by the New Orleans classic, the Vieux Carré, which is made with rye and cognac, Benedictine, bitters, and sweet vermouth. This spin is spiked with aged tequila and softened with citrusy Lillet Blanc.
This fresh and fruity drink is flavored with fresh lemon and sweet mango, plus spicy fresh-pressed ginger juice. Unless you're on Team No-Cilantro, try adding the herb as called for in the recipe—the fresh cilantro adds a delicious vegetal twist and brings the cocktail up from good to great.
theodp (442580) writes "As Facebook and Google battle to bring the Internet to remote locations, Alicia Levine takes an interesting look at the dual strategy of Zero Rating and Consolidated Use employed by Google's FreeZone and Facebook's 0.facebook.com, websites which offer free access to certain Google and Facebook services via partnerships with mobile operators around the world. By reducing the cost to the user to zero, Levine explains, the tech giants not only get the chance to capture billions of new eyeballs to view ads in emerging markets, they also get the chance to effectively become "The Internet" in those markets. "If I told you that Facebook's strategy was to become the next Prodigy or AOL, you'd take me for crazy," writes Levine. "But, to a certain degree, that's exactly what they're trying to do. In places where zero-rating for Facebook or Google is the key to accessing the Internet, they are the Internet. And people have started to do every normal activity we would do on the Internet through those two portals because it costs them zero. This is consolidated use. If Facebook is my free pass to the Internet, I'm going to try to do every activity possible via Facebook so that it's free." The race to zero presents more than just a business opportunity, adds Levine — it also presents a chance for tech companies to improve lives. And if Google and Facebook fall short on that count, well, at least there's still Wikipedia Zero."
Last month, the legendary German film maker had the chance to discuss his fowl feelings with the world during an Ask Me Anything on Reddit held with Joshua Oppenheimer and Errol Morris — his collaborators on his latest film, The Act of Killing.
Anyone who has seen one of Herzog’s film should know not to expect a straight answer from the director. Nevertheless, a user went for it, quoting his 2012 chicken video:
Look into the eyes of a chicken and you will see real stupidity. It is a kind of bottomless stupidity, a fiendish stupidity. They are the most horrifying, cannibalistic and nightmarish creatures in the world.
Herzog responded to his own reproduced quote in the AMA with what must be some kind of Bavarian proverb. “With a chicken leg on your plant, a good stein of beer in your fist, the world starts to look better,” he wrote.
Chickens of the world, the message is clear: Eat each other if you must, but look out. Herzog is hungry.
In truth, Herzog’s relationship with the chicken race is anything but clear cut. The closing segment of his 1977 film “Stroszek” ends with the main character dropping quarters into an amusement arcade to watch a hypnotized chicken dance and play the piano. Herzog has called the scene one of the best he has ever filmed and loved the chicken as a “great metaphor” — for what, he had no idea. Roger Ebert guessed that we are the chickens, dancing for some unknown force until the money runs out.
Herzog had a good deal of fun himself as questions continued to drop into the Reddit forum. He commented on everything from iguanas to his love of Nicholas Cage, leaving the points on chickens hanging out there to befuddle. Oppenheimer tried to clarify Herzog’s feelings on chickens — or maybe his own — with some insights into the nature of the birds:
I would note: chickens are living manifestations of death, bred only to be domesticated and killed. When we look into their eyes, we see the part of ourselves of which we are most afraid – our ultimate destination. Death.
Chicken eyes — so that’s what the absurdity of death looks like!
So what’s the bottom line here? Does Herzog fear mortality? Are he and his film-maker buddies waxing philosophical as they look at farm animals? Or does Herzog just hate chickens?
“Not in all forms,” he noted in the AMA. “I like them Kentucky Fried.”
The Clownesse Cha-u-kao was a friend and model of artist Henri de Toulouse Lautrec. She was notorious in Paris for her acrobatics and performed at the Moulin Rouge, among other ‘seedy’ venues. Although she entertained male clients, she was a very public lesbian, and her sauciness is not lost in Lautrec’s many prints and paintings of her.
В Пхеньяне, столице КНДР, у подножья гор Тэсон простирается Центральный зоопарк, занимая сто с лишним га. Он является научно-исследовательской и культурно-воспитательной базой, призванной распространять широкие зоологические эрудиции, углублять научно-исследовательскую работу для охраны и умножения зооресурсов страны и в то же время обеспечивать нашим жителям веселый отдых.
Центральный зоопарк есть кристал глубокой заботы наших великих лидеров, нацеленной на то, чтобы предоставить народу лучшую культурно-эмоциональную жизнь.
После освобождения страны от ига японских колонизаторов великий президент Ким Ир Сен вместе с героиней антияпонской войны Ким Чен Сук и сыном Ким Чен Иром поднялся на гору Тэсон и решил превратить этот живописный район в парковую зону для народа.
Ким Ир Сен 20 с лишним раз приезжал в зоопарк, освещал путь его дальнейшего развития. Он принял меры для приобретения редких и знаменитых в мире животных и даже послал в зоопарк вырашиваемых им в саду животных и ценные подарки от иностранных друзей.
Великий Ким Чен Ир, посетивший Центральный зоопарк, сказал, что этот зоопарк, место которого лично определил президент Ким Ир Сен, есть кристалл его горячей любви к народу.
Он прилагал большие усилия для того, чтобы лучше благоустроить центральный зоопарк как место культурного отдыха наших трудящихся и тем самым увековечить заслуги Ким Ир Сена. Невзирая на большую занятость, полководец Ким Чен Ир не раз приезжал сюда и обращал глубокое внимание на каждый животный двор и на каждое сооружение, говоря, что здесь должно быть больше животных, популярных среди наших людей. И в январе 100 года чучхе (2011), этого последнего года его жизни, он побывал в Центральном зоопарке.
Иметь такой масштабный зоопарк - гордость нашего народа. Он бесценное достояние страны, вносящий немаловажный вклад в обогащение культурно-эмоциональной жизни, обучение и воспитание наших трудящихся и учащихся, отметил Ким Чен Ир. Маршал Ким Чен Ын, честно выполняющий завещания великих генералиссимусов, решил обновить образ Центрального зоопарка с учетом требований народа и нового времени.
В мае 101 года чучхе (2012) и в этом году он приезжал сюда. Центральный зоопарк, отметил он, где десятки раз бывали генералиссимусы Ким Ир Сен и Ким Чен Ир, в минувшие 50 с лишним лет замечательно выполнял свою миссию как место отдыха, дающее людям жизненный романтизм, как пункт распространения широких знаний о животных. Сегодня наш Центральный зоопарк, бережно храня следы великих лидеров, снова обновляет свой облик, как подобает облику социалистического цивилизованного государства. Новое слово в работе мест по распространению зоологических эрудиций
Throughout the chamber opera, arias comment on these spaces, over the backdrop of a landscape, a beach, made of Cheerios. The beach of Cheerios gives birth to a human protagonist, serves as a repository of memory (as a screen for projections of family trips to the beach), and ultimately serves as a Zen garden of contemplation. Several arias intercut the various transformations of the beach. In one, a rooster, named Farinelli, sings a non-sense aria, in chicken-ese (with English supertitles), about the fundamental questions of ontology
Michael Jack Pazdon, bar manager of Goose & Gander in California's Napa Valley, dedicates a small section behind his bar to terrible liquor, like whipped-cream-flavored vodka, gifted to him by distributors. It's hidden from customers' view on a "shelf of shame," which he pillages when he needs to punish bartenders who mess up at work. He'll pour a shot, hand it to the offending bartender, and command, "Put that in your mouth and think about what you've done."
It's a bit of an insider secret, but it's true: Drinking terrible, low-quality booze is quite common among bartenders. The same bartenders who offer you sophisticated drinks with blends of oude genever and oleo saccharum are also surreptitiously sucking back MGD and cream liqueur after shifts.
A week ago I'd never heard the name Brendan Eich. If you've missed the story, he was recently appointed to be the CEO of Mozilla, the organization that creates the Firefox web browser, an organization he'd been a key part of since its inception. However, despite the fact that he'd apparently never given any particular sign of a position on the issue one way or another, it was discovered about a year ago that he'd donated $1000 to the Prop 8 campaign in California in 2008. That was the successful voter referendum, ruled unconstitutional in 2013, which overturned marriage equality in California. After holding on for a week or so in the face of a rising boycott, he gave in and resigned and quit the organization entirely.
Check out these conceptual designs for Hong Kong's proposed PleXus Tower — a segmented structure that will integrate directly with the city's transportation infrastructure. Given its undeniable Tron-like aesthetic, we'll be sure to bring our lightcycles.
via firehose ("official; Chris Onstad now works at an ad agency")
Chris Onstad has returned to the world of technology and marketing after a decade-plus stint as the sole creator of Achewood, a sprawling, multimedia comic universe lauded by TIME magazine as its 2007 Graphic Novel of the Year. Prior to building his comics business, Chris worked for DaimlerChrysler RTNA, an Internet and telematics research lab in Palo Alto, CA; he also served as Creative Director for Redline Networks, acquired by Juniper Networks in 2005. Chris graduated from Stanford University in 1997 with a Communications degree focused on human-computer interaction, fiction writing, and film. He served as restaurant critic to the Portland Mercury for two years, is launching his own line of craft-brewed Portland sodas, and still publishes Achewood several times a month. He has written for television, radio, and the stage.
Chief among his extracurriculars are cooking, dining out, writing music, fine arts, and the search for a truly American sassafras root beer.
These 1940s “feature matches” are violent, racist, and decorated beyond function. (Photos by Frank Kelsey)
Ben Marks of Collectors Weekly says: "Lisa Hix has just finished an interview with London-based author and design critic Stephen Bayley, who spoke with her about Ugly: The Aesthetics of Everything. In our piece, the two discuss the intensely subjective nature of the things we perceive as being beautiful or ugly."
Ugliness is also surprisingly hard to design on purpose, as Bayley discovered both teaching and speaking with architecture students. “If you give a class of architecture students a project, saying ‘Please design an ugly building,’ they actually find that difficult. It’s very difficult to create ugliness, although you wouldn’t believe it by walking around in any big city. Ugliness often is just an accident, but it’s often utterly fascinating.”
Reading Ugly, it’s not too difficult to suss out Bayley’s personal preferences: He’s all about clean lines, right angles, and functionality; he finds neutral colors and the natural tones of wood more tasteful than bright hues or shiny things. He’s got no use for elaborate glass paperweights, loathes taxidermy and all Victorian hobbies that attempt to capture and catalog nature, finds tattoos tacky, and has no patience for mid-Century kitsch relating to Elvis, Vegas, or tiki bars—things like aloha T-shirts, souvenir mugs, or velvet paintings.
“I’m aesthete at heart,” confesses Bayley, who also published a book called Taste: The Secret Meaning of Things in 1992. “I’m one of those people, for good or for bad, who determine the value in anything by its appearance. People think appearance is superficial. I don’t. I think appearances matter, and actually the classical Greeks felt the same. They thought beauty had a moral character. That’s my fundamental view of the world. I can’t walk down the street and not be both exhilarated by beautiful cars and beautiful buildings and dismayed and depressed by ugly cars and ugly buildings. I am just one of those poor souls.”
spoilers: the typography gets consistently shittier
When photographers James and Karla Murray began working on their book, ”Store Front: The Disappearing Face of New York,” they were simply attempting to show photos of the last family-owned businesses remaining in New York City. However, they quickly realized that as soon they were photographing these shops, they were shutting down, only to be replaced by corporate businesses or simply left to fall apart.
Ten years after the initial photos for the book were taken, the Murrays returned to many of these locations to photograph what is in place today, revealing an intriguing and sometimes depressing picture of an ever-changing city…
E 14th St & Union Square W, Union Square
Grand St & Ludlow Street, Lower East Side
2nd Ave & 10th St, East Village
2nd Ave & E 1st St, East Village
West Houston Street near Varick Street, Greenwich Village
Grand St & Ludlow St, Lower East Side
9th Ave & W 46th St, Hell’s Kitchen
Bleecker Street & Carmine Street, Greenwich Village
17% of cardiac surgeons are women, 17% of tenured professors are women. It just goes on and on. And isn’t that strange that that’s also the percentage of women in crowd scenes in movies? What if we’re actually training people to see that ratio as normal so that when you’re an adult, you don’t notice?
…We just heard a fascinating and disturbing study where they looked at the ratio of men and women in groups. And they found that if there’s 17% women, the men in the group think it’s 50-50. And if there’s 33% women, the men perceive that as there being more women in the room than men.
Twitter / @DavidOrtiz 
These 1940s “feature matches” are violent, racist, and decorated beyond function. (Photos by Frank Kelsey) 
Ugliness is also surprisingly hard to design on purpose, as Bayley discovered both teaching and speaking with architecture students. “If you give a class of architecture students a project, saying ‘Please design an ugly building,’ they actually find that difficult. It’s very difficult to create ugliness, although you wouldn’t believe it by walking around in any big city. Ugliness often is just an accident, but it’s often utterly fascinating.”
