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Tour The Gorgeous Florida Estate Where Thomas Edison Spent His Winters

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Thomas Edison Summer House

The Edison-Ford Winter Estates in Fort Meyers, Fla., is the the combined winter homes of Thomas Edison and Henry Ford.

Edison purchased the property, located on the beautiful Caloosahatchee river, in 1885. The brilliant inventor's good friend, Henry Ford, bought the land next door several decades later.

Edison and Ford enjoyed fishing, boating, and planting exotic trees and plants during their leisurely winter stays.

The Edison family continued to visit the Florida retreat, dubbed Seminole Lodge, even after Edison's death in 1931. In 1947, Edison's wife, Mina Edison, deeded the property to the City of Fort Myers for $1. The Ford estate was acquired in 1988. Both properties are now open for public tours, also featuring Edison's botanical gardens, rubber laboratory, and a museum. 

A pier overlooking Caloosahatchee river was constructed soon after Edison bought the property in 1885.



Edison's pier became a popular spot for fishing, boat watching, and riverfront picnics.



We can see why — the views are breathtaking.



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If You Thought Dubai Was Insane, You Should See Kazakhstan

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astana baiterek

It's party-time on spaceship Nursultan.

KAZAKHSTAN'S capital, Astana, celebrated its 15th anniversary on July 6th with a petrodollar-fuelled party. It happened also to be the 73rd birthday of the country's strongman president, Nursultan Nazarbayev, who commissioned this epitome of surreal bombast rising from the Central Asian steppe.

During the festivities, crowds gathered around Astana's architectural landmarks as the president's graven image gazed benevolently down from a bas-relief on a high white column meant to represent the country emerging from the ashes of the Soviet Union. Mr Nazarbayev has ruled this state of 17m people, scattered over a territory the size of Western Europe, with an iron fist. He is one of only two Central Asian leaders to have been in power since before the Soviet Union's collapse in 1991. Islam Karimov, next door in Uzbekistan, is the other. (They loathe each other.)

Without Mr Nazarbayev, Astana would not exist. In 1997 it replaced leafy Almaty, 750 miles (1,200km) to the south near the Chinese border, as Kazakhstan's capital (though Almaty remains the bigger city). In the days when oil prices were high, the president decreed that a space-age metropolis would rise from the marshy land on the left bank of the Yesil river. The city bakes in summer and plunges to -40°C in winter. For the president, Astana is the site for flights of architectural fancy as extreme as the continental climate. The capital is meant both to awe his adoring public and to beam soft power across the Central Asian steppe where Kazakhstan, as the economic powerhouse, has pretensions to regional leadership.

Astana has all the weirdness of Pyongyang and little of the human scale of Canberra. It is a collection of monuments and boulevards on a scale that screams "L'état, c'est moi". The president surveys his city from his marble-clad, blue-and-gold-domed palace. The jewel in Astana's crown is usually reckoned to be a Norman Foster pyramid, the Palace of Peace and Accord. It flashes neon at night, houses an academy of Turkic studies and is supposed to promote reconciliation among the world's religions. It is one of several buildings that displays Mr Nazarbayev's obsession for hosting conventions, expositions and conferences.

A study in Asian authoritarian kitsch is provided by the Bayterek tower, which is meant to represent a poplar tree holding the golden egg of the Samruk, the mythical bird of Kazakh happiness. On the observation deck, 100 metres (330 feet) above ground, visitors may lay their hand in the gilded imprint of the president's and make a wish. More visually pleasing is the Khan Shatyr ("the Khan's Marquee"), a vast transparent tent made of space-age fabric. Meant to echo the nomads that exist no more, the 35-acre (14-hectare) site houses, among other things, a shopping mall and a beach resort. It is where Mr Nazarbayev held a lavish 70th-birthday bash.

The ruler is a modern-day khan himself, with a thriving cult industry. He is immortalised in statues, in films and in print as a children's fairy-tale hero. He rules Kazakhstan as a one-man show, rigging elections, muzzling the media and brooking no opposition. Yet Western leaders beat a path to his door. Britain's prime minister, David Cameron, was in Astana this month drumming up business. A former British prime minister, Tony Blair, has a consultancy contract as Mr Nazarbayev's sultan of spin. The president longs for the Nobel peace prize.

He is no crude dictator. He has a popular touch, and many Kazakhstanis like the political stability and rising living standards his regime supplies. Elsewhere in the region, both are in short supply. Yet, in one of the world's top 20 oil producers, the dollars are not trickling down to everyone. In late 2011 a growing gulf between haves and have-nots came into focus when security forces opened fire on striking oil workers in the western energy hub of Zhanaozen, killing 15. The turmoil erupted just as Mr Nazarbayev was opening his latest architectural indulgence in Astana, an arch marking Kazakhstan's 20th year of independence. The contrast between Astana's spaceship cityscape and the shabby streets of Zhanaozen, with their crumbling, Soviet-era, rabbit-hutch housing, could hardly be greater.

Astana's name could scarcely be more mundane: it means "capital" in Kazakh. Yet its Persian derivation has connotations of a "royal porte", and the widespread belief among Kazakhstanis is that the city will one day be renamed Nursultan, after the man who had it built. Mr Nazarbayev has modestly rejected such an idea, but does not appear to mind his capital assuming his name after he is gone. It must be the second best thing to being immortal.

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Exercise Doesn't Just Help Shed Fat — It Changes How Fatty Tissue Works

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woman exercising crunches working outEXERCISE is the closest thing medicine has to a panacea. Though hitting the treadmill is more effort than swallowing a pill, the benefits are worth it. Even modest amounts of exercise protect against diseases ranging from diabetes and osteoporosis to heart attacks and senility.

Exercise works its magic in many ways. It improves the power and efficiency of the heart; it boosts the release of certain neurotransmitters (the chemicals nerve cells use to talk to each other); and it stimulates cells' garbage-disposal machinery. Now a group of researchers led by Charlotte Ling of Lund University, in Sweden, has discovered another effect of exercise. It alters the way genes work in the tissue that stores fat.

In a paper published in the Public Library of Science, Dr Ling and her colleagues report the effects of six months of moderate exercise on 23 male couch-potatoes who were in their 30s and 40s. The men were supposed to attend three workouts a week. In the event, they managed an average of 1.8. Nevertheless, besides finding the usual effects--reduced heart rate, lowered blood pressure and a drop in cholesterol levels--the researchers also observed changes in the men's adipose tissue, the place where fat is stored. Specifically, the way fat cells in this tissue expressed their genes had altered.

This is epigenetics, a rapidly developing branch of biology that focuses not on the genes themselves but rather on how particular genes behave in specific cells. Which genes are active in a cell can be changed by making chemical alterations (known as epigenetic markers) to their DNA. Such alterations let the body fine-tune its response to the environment, and modern gene-sequencing techniques can detect them without too much difficulty.

Dr Ling, who is interested in adult-onset diabetes (often associated with too much body fat), knew that exercise stimulates epigenetic changes in muscle cells. These alter how muscle processes sugar. When she and her colleagues looked for similar alterations in their charges' adipose tissue, they found lots--18,000 markers distributed across 7,663 genes. This matters, because adipose tissue is not just a passive store of energy, it is also an organ in its own right, producing a range of biologically active chemicals that have all manner of effects on the rest of the body.

Genetic epicentre

What all these epigenetic markers are doing remains obscure. But among the altered genes were 18 known to be associated with obesity and another 21 linked with adult-onset diabetes. When Dr Ling's colleagues picked two such altered genes and silenced them completely in laboratory-grown fat cells, the cells changed, becoming more efficient at processing and depositing fat. That leads, Dr Ling notes, to the hypothesis that one reason exercise is good for you is because it improves the ability of fatty tissue to do its job. Lipids thus get stored in the right place instead of settling elsewhere in the body, where they do harm. As she observes, if you do have surplus fat it is better to have it stored in fatty tissue than in the liver or the pancreas.

This study is only a beginning. Working out which epigenetic changes wrought by exercise are important, and which incidental, will take time. But, given worries about how overweight people are becoming, and the incessant message from many governments that their citizens should take more exercise, studies like Dr Ling's should help by shining light on the way exercise actually works its magic.

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A Former IT Guy Is Building A Supercar To Rival The Bugatti Veryon

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hal twin engine supercar

A new supercar is brewing, one with the performance and looks to rival a Bugatti Veyron. The project is taking place in Australia, of all places, and right now is in its very early stages.

The new supercar, which hasn’t even received a name yet, is the brainchild of Australian entrepreneur Paul Halstead.

The 67-year-old, who made his fortune in the IT business, has long dreamed of building his own car and came close to accomplishing it during the 1980s.

Back then, Halstead was running a performance car dealership and attempted to build and sell Alfa Romeo Sprint coupes modified to fit a mid-mounted V-8. The car was called the Giocattolo and was extremely advanced for its day, coming complete with Kevlar body panels, Brembo brakes and suspension developed by former McLaren F1 engineer Barry Lock.

Unfortunately, Halstead only managed to build 15 examples before he had to fold operations due to poor sales. Now, 30 years on since the Giocattolo, Halstead is working on a new mid-engined supercar.

Halstead is also in charge of an automotive design and engineering firm, HAL, which among its numerous duties supplied De Tomaso with Ford V-8 engines and built a Pantera race car. More recently HAL built a Holden Monaro concept powered by a 7.0-liter V-8 sourced from the Chevrolet Corvette Z06.

It is this engine, the race-bred LS7, that will serve as the basis of Halstead’s new supercar, albeit it with a twist: two of the engines, rolled over at 45 degrees, will be bolted together and used to power the wheels. Instead of merging their internals to form a single crankshaft, like in the aforementioned Veyron, which essentially features two W-8s on a common crank, Halstead explains that a “trick” transfer case will allow the two separate crankshafts of the LS7s to match up with a single six-speed sequential gearbox.

An estimated peak output of 1,200 horsepower will be derived from the 14.0 liters of swept capacity, which will then be channeled to the rear wheels via the sequential ‘box and a limited-slip differential. The mighty powerplant will be mounted to a lightweight carbon fiber tub and housed in a svelte body composed of more carbon fiber and Kevlar.

Looking at the official drawings, it’s clear Halstead and his design team were influenced by the McLaren F1 as well as some modern Maseratis. The front, in particular, is reminiscent of a Maserati GranTurismo, while inside there is a central driver’s seat with a passenger seat to either side, just like in the iconic F1 supercar. Instead of doors, Halstead’s design calls for a jet fighter-style sliding canopy.

As for production, Halstead says the project is simply a bit of fun and not a serious business venture. He plans to show the completed version, due in 2016, at the Detroit Autorama hot rod event where he hopes to win the prestigious Ridler Award. The final performance of the car and the level of interest, particularly from potential investors, will dictate whether a small run will enter production.

Halstead is a great admirer of men like Horacio Pagani and Christian von Koenigsegg, who have achieved their dream of building world-class supercars, but concedes it’s a very difficult business.

“I have been there with the 15 Giocattolos I built in the ‘80s and I really do understand just how difficult it is to become a Pagani,” Halstead explains. “That man is a true legend for what he has achieved.”

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SEE ALSO: The 50 Sexiest Cars Of The Past 100 Years

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The Best Little Beach Towns In America

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Lighthouse in Lubec, Maine

Nightlife-driven souls looking for Floridian action point their convertibles toward the likes of Fort Lauderdale and Key West. But a certain quieter, off-the-radar destination on the state’s Gulf Coast holds a different kind of allure.

See the best little beach town in the US >

The cult-fave town of Boca Grande is a throwback, an Old Florida time warp with such whimsically named streets as Damnificare and no chain stores or ye-olde theme restaurants. This idyllic escape features a much-photographed lighthouse watching over Gasparilla Island State Park and long, quiet beaches touched by gentle surf. Boca Grande is a wonderland, a place that defies the clichés of Florida beach towns—all the sloppy, party-hearty aspects—while embodying the best of what the state has to offer.

In the free and easy days of summer, the quest for a great American beach town like Boca Grande is a national passion. Beach towns are a mainstay of the hot months, a beacon for countless citizens looking for a reprieve from the daily grind. The Great American beach town, apart from being idle as all get out, is also resolutely democratic, conscious that the sand belongs to all. These spots serve as emblems of our God-given right to get too much sun and to eat tasty—if nutritionally unfortunate—fried food.

Take the island of Chincoteague, VA, the gateway to the not-to-be-missed seven-mile-long Assateague National Seashore, a wondrous backdrop for beach strolls rich with herons, bald eagles, foxes, and the famed wild ponies. Visit in July, when the Pony Round-up and Swim engulfs the island, with ocean-going cowboys herding the ponies across the channel between Assateague and Chincoteague, where the colts are auctioned off to keep the herd at a manageable level.

Of course, the West Coast has no shortage of sandy attractions. In Santa Cruz, CA , the Giant Dipper roller coaster at the Beach Boardwalk amusement park keeps visitors screaming for more cheap thrills. Check into the Casablanca Inn, where most rooms have ocean views, and order some fresh seafood at the restaurant, which also overlooks the mighty Pacific.

And salt water isn’t needed for a great beach town. On Lake Michigan, the Silver Lakes Sand Dunes Area draws a faithful midwestern crowd seeking downtime and summer fun.

So get that beach chair and cooler ready—and prepare for the simple pleasures of summer at one of these classic retreats.

More from Travel + Leisure:

Boca Grande, FL

This Edenic escape on the Gulf of Mexico is a real slice of Old Florida, with a much-photographed lighthouse watching over Gasparilla Island State Park, tree-lined streets without traffic lights, and long, quiet beaches touched by gentle surf.

Stay: The Gasparilla Inn, a member of the Historic Hotels of America and the National Trust for Historic Preservation, is the classic resort and comes complete with a golf course. It’s closed during the hottest months, though; the best alternative is its sister property, the Innlet, which features a waterside restaurant and a relaxed vibe.

Eat: A funky Florida spot with character, Temptation—think murals of leaping tarpon and a neon martini sign—serves local grouper, pompano, and soft-shell crabs.



Chincoteague, VA

This small, serene island just off the Virginia coast is the gateway to the 37-mile-long Assateague Island National Seashore—a nature refuge that’s home to wild ponies, herons, woodpeckers, and foxes. It’s accessible to boaters and via car over the Route 175 bridge.

Stay: A Victorian-era home has been turned into Miss Molly’s Inn, a seven-room B&B that offers high tea in the afternoons.

Eat: The Chincoteague Diner is a welcome destination after a long day on the beach. Fill up on baskets of fried seafood (flounder, scallops, shrimp) or barbecued baby back ribs.



Lubec, Maine

Lubec is all the way Down East, right near the border with New Brunswick, Canada. Its assets include an elegant Victorian/Greek Revival–style downtown, 97 miles of shoreline, two lighthouses, and easy access to the former Roosevelt summer home on Campobello Island, which is now an international park.

Stay: The Peacock House Bed & Breakfast, installed in an 1860 Federal-style residence, has ocean views, an eclectic library, and manicured gardens.

Eat: Stop by the Water Street Tavern for hearty bowls of haddock chowder, lobster “mac n cheese,” and views of the bay islands.



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13 Works Of Art Made From Google Maps

How A Mysterious Tweet Exposed JK Rowling As The Author Of 'The Cuckoo's Calling'

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By now almost everyone will have heard the news — J.K. Rowling, the author of the "Harry Potter" series of books and one of the most successful writers ever, published a low-selling but highly praised detective novel under the name Robert Galbraith earlier this year.

The story was broken last night by Richard Brooks, the arts editor of the UK's Sunday Times. It's clearly a huge scoop — but how exactly did Brooks manage to crack the literary world's best-kept secret?

Thanks to Sarah Lyall of the New York Times, we believe we know the point where the investigation began. In an interview, Brooks told Lyall that the story started when a female colleague tweeted about the book, and an anonymous twitter user told this colleague that the book was in fact by J.K. Rowling. This anonymous twitter user then disappeared, according to Brooks' account.

After doing some digging, we believe we may have found the tweet. On Wednesday, India Knight, one of the Sunday Times' star columnists, began tweeting about "The Cuckoo's Calling." Here's one key tweet:

At this point a random Twitter user chimed in to say something about the obscure book. While this user appears to have since deleted the tweets, you can see Knight's surprised responses:

India Knight Twitter

It's unclear exactly who Jude Callegari is, or how he or she would know the real identity of Robert Galbraith. The account is still active, though it has no tweets since July 2.

Whoever it was sent by, the anonymous tweet was enough to get Brooks digging, and soon he had found that "The Cuckoo's Calling" had the same publisher, editor, and agent as Rowling's last book, “The Casual Vacancy." The books also shared themes in their linguistics and content, Brooks noted.

By Friday night he had enough to go to Rowlings with his findings — and by Saturday morning, she had confessed, though she told the Sunday Times she had "hoped to keep this secret a little longer."

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Where To Eat, Drink, Party, And Shop In Berlin

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Berlin Off the beaten path

Like the proverbial phoenix rising from the ashes, Berlin keeps adding new feathers to its cap, from ghetto gourmet dinner clubs to romantic cuddle bars that rarely make it into the tourist guidebooks. To lift the veils that shroud these hidden delights, find one of those decadent hotels in Berlin and head for these eclectic hotspots where you can rub elbows with the coolest crowd in town.

Shopping:

Flohmarkt am Mauerpark is Berlin’s newest flea market and definitely qualifies as bargain hunter’s dream. Rummage through booths brimming with reclaimed treasures from the 50s to the 70s and relish the thought that you could pay lots more for the same goodies in high end collector’s shops. Established in 2004, Flohmarkt takes place every Sunday under the beautiful chestnut trees in Prenzlauer Berg next to Mauerpark. Besides the novel antiques, art supplies and homemade curiosities, prepare to be tempted by the delicious treats like waffles with Nutella and fresh squeezed orange juice.

Culture:

Dedicated to art created solely by women, the Verborgene Museum is a non-profit organization that unearths and displays works by relatively unknown ladies whom might otherwise be forgotten. Focusing on 20th century female German artists, this museum is not considered hidden because it’s tucked away (but it’s relatively easy to find at its location at Schlüterstrasse 70). But its focus on the obscure works of female painters, photographers and even architects is what makes this museum a one-of-a-kind exploration of the sacred feminine.

Private Dining:

Make new friends and indulge in gourmet German food at the intimate dining experience offered exclusively at Zuhause. Seating is limited to 12 people per evening and the dinner menu is driven by the seasonal harvest so they never offer the same menu twice. Although you will be presented with eight courses, it’s not an eating marathon; it’s a tasting menu complete with appropriate wines for each serving. The elegant yet relaxed atmosphere fosters a sense of geniality where fun is shared regardless of language barriers.

Known as “the ghetto gourmet,” Fisk & Gröönsaken in Berlin Prenzlauer Berg serves you dinner in their living room. That’s right, their living room. Only eight lucky people at a time get to savor this exclusive menu served on a rather erratic basis. To know when they are serving, you have to sign up for the newsletter available on their website. With emphasis on locally-produced ingredients, you’ll find inventive salads with ingredients like with scallops, couscous and oranges. Fresh fish dishes are sautéed with mushrooms swimming in cream sauce and complimented with fresh picked parsnips. The lemon tart topped with thyme ice cream is an unexpectedly divine combination.

Hidden Bars:

This place is too cool to have a phone or even bother with putting their name on the door, so when you make it to Gipsstraße 5 Mitte, just walk into The Greenwich like you knew it was there all along and you’ll be cool, too. Prepare to be enchanted by the dreamy atmosphere created by the huge fish tanks flanking both sides of the narrow lounge that’s covered in lime-green upholstery. It really doesn’t look as gaudy as it sounds –must be the green lighting that makes it work. Hang with Berlin’s totally hip crowd while sipping exotic drinks and trancing on tunes.

Vinyl Tapes Shop BerlinMusic Venues:

If you get a kick out of the music of the fifties and the sixties, head to the Soul Cat at Reichenberger Straße 73, one of Berlin’s secret hideaways that deliver more for less. Not only is it cheap in comparison to other venues around town, dressing down is considered hip, so there’s no need to put on the nines to have a great evening.

For the hard core rock and punk, Dazzle Danz club at the corner of Danzigerstr and Schönhauser. The venues attracts some of the best acts in the biz. On weekends you will find the place packed to the rafters with locals dancing to live bands in a concert setting, but during the week DJs rock the house spinning hot tunes in a chill atmosphere.

Considered one of the best cuddling bars in Berlin, the laid back music you’ll find Ä Neukölln on the corner of Weserstraße 40 and Ecke Fuldastraße fits perfectly with the retro ambiance. Billed as Berlin’s only live music and soap opera venue, this cozy pub offers delicious drinks and nibbles in a romantic, relaxed atmosphere where you can curl up on a comfy sofa in a corner booth lit by candles and indulge in a little friendly one-on-one fraternizing.

To find out what’s happening during your visit to Berlin, check out their underground magazines Tip and Zitty that feature weekly club listings and the articles on the hottest places that have mushroomed from the fertile streets of this blossoming city.

This post has been sponsored by HostelBookers, a leading budget accommodation website in the travel industry that does not to apply a service charge and is, on average, 8.7% cheaper than its nearest competitor. It features over 20,000 hostels, cheap hotels and budget properties on its website in over 3,500 destinations across the world.


SEE ALSO: The Exuma Cays Are Filled With Swimming Pigs

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12 Things Americans Love That The Rest Of The World Finds Bizarre

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A few weeks ago, we brought you the highlight responses to a Reddit list asking what things Americans do that the rest of the world finds bizarre.

Of course, there's an endless list of things that reveal major cultural differences.

Today, we bring you a follow-up list to a related thread: which is also on Reddit.

Here were some key ones.

NASCAR

"I don't get it, why would someone watch that?" — SirenEveLine

Kurt Busch, NASCAR Crash

Pep rallies and cheerleaders

"I go to an international school in Europe, and the American community in the school decided that having some "school spirit" would be a fantastic idea. So they made us sit in the gym for an hour while the student council tried to get us to sing a song and then we watched teachers vs students basket ball. It was bloody painful." — CharizardTurtle

"Why do you need a group of young girls to get you all excited to support your American Football/Basketball/Hockey team. In all honesty when they come on the sports ground here its seen as kinda pervy if you're a man and watch them perform." — HMFCalltheway

usc cheerleaders

PB&J sandwiches

"I don't like the texture and the taste gives me cold sweats, I don't know why." — thisismmaximme, French

"I manage to gross out my coworkers if I bring one for lunch." — moonshine_life, currently living in China

Peanut butter

Suing everyone for everything

"In my government class, we brought in an American lawyer and a German lawyer. My teacher asked "Okay, say a family takes a child to the zoo. The child is sitting on the ledge, falls into the cage and is eaten by a bear. Explain what legal action would be taken.

"American lawyer: "The zoo would be sued for an unsafe facility, the bear would likely be put down and the zoo would probably have to pay a penalty.

"German lawyer: "Everyone would think the parents were idiots for putting their child on the ledge of a bear cage. They might even have to give the zoo compensation for bad publicity. It's kind of a common sense thing." — PinkieDash1321 Judge Judy

Hostess baked goods

"Twinkies, ding dongs, cupcakes..etc. Why America? They have no flavour, they are dry, and the texture is horrid. So plain and bland. Also the fact of the extremely processed aspect of them.. The fake cream, icing and cake which can last years in the packaging. Mmmmm preservatives bleh! — New Zealander." — bushbuck

twinkies slogan box

Driving huge cars

"You pay less for your gas guzzling tank then i do for my fuel efficient car in EU and you are complain." — Shultzi_soldat

mercedes-benz gl550 suv

Cheese in a can

"It's not even cheese. It yellow, cheese flavored whipped cream." — CanadiansUpYourButt

cheese whiz

'Seinfeld'

" Massively popular in the US. Didn't catch on or translate in the way other shows like say Friends or Cheers did." — Lost_Afropick

Seinfeld

Hearty breakfasts

"I'll have some bacon & pancakes with syrup." In what world do they go together!? — digitalcampfire

breakfast eggs pancakes

Dr. Pepper

"As an Aussie, I had this for the first time the other day. I think it tastes shit, I don't get the hype." — SoddingGit

"Apparently Dr. Pepper tastes like cough syrup to a few of my Korean friends." — spokaney

Dr. Pepper

Ice

"I've been to several countries in Europe and I was in heaven the few times I found an ice cold drink.

"I was in Florence when my friends and I eyeballed large drinks filled to the top with ice and immediately flocked over to the restaurant. Once the bill came we realized they were 15 euros a piece!" — chefbsba

ice cube tray

Guns

"Popular in America but not other countries: guns. Popular outside America but not in America: socialized healthcare." — immalearnya

"Japan has some of the toughest gun laws in the world. The police can be severely prosecuted for discharging a weapon improperly. The Yakuza don't use guns because it causes them too much trouble with the law, if a member is caught with one he'll probably lose a finger to dishonor." — Suko88

Gun Store

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World's First Test Tube Burger Is Ready To Eat

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test tube burger meatThe world's first test tube burger will be cooked and eaten at a live demonstration of "cultured beef" technology in London next month.

The burger is being created from thousands of strands of artificial meat that have been painstakingly grown from stem cells in a laboratory.

Prof Mark Post will explain how he created the test-tube meat at his laboratory at Maastricht University in the Netherlands, before serving the resulting patty to a mystery diner.

He will present the beefburger as a "proof of concept" that laboratory-grown meat could in future become a sustainable alternative to farmed beef, pork or chicken, potentially cutting billions of tonnes of greenhouse gases currently released by livestock.

The meat could also be deemed suitable for vegetarians because it would dramatically reduce the need to slaughter animals, he is expected to say.

But the success or failure of the product, known as "in-vitro meat", could hinge on the reaction of the diner, whose identity is expected to be revealed in the run-up to the event on August 5.

Until now the only person to have tasted lab-grown meat is a Russian journalist who snatched a sample of cultured pork during a visit to Prof Post's lab – before it had been passed safe to eat – and declared himself unimpressed.

The burger will be made up of approximately 3,000 strips of muscle tissue, each measuring about 3cm long by 1.5cm wide.

Each strip is grown from a cow stem cell, which develops into a strip of muscle cells after being cultured in a synthetic broth containing vital nutrients.

The resulting strips begin contracting like real muscle, and are attached to Velcro and repeatedly stretched to keep them supple.

The meat, which will be ground up into a patty with similar strips of fat, may not sound as appealing as a fresh steak but Prof Post said it could satisfy the growing global demand for meat, which is expected to double by 2050.

Speaking at a conference last year, he said he had already produced meat with fibres almost identical to those in real beef, but it had a pinkish-yellow hue which he hoped to turn into a more realistic shade before making his first burger.

"We are going to provide a proof of concept showing out of stem cells we can make a product that looks, feels and hopefully tastes like meat," he said.

He estimated that the first burger would cost about £220,000 to produce, but next month's launch is almost a year later than he anticipated at the time. The current cost could be cut dramatically by industrialising the laborious process, however.

Funding for the project was provided by an anonymous and wealthy benefactor, who Prof Post described last year as a household name with a track record of "turning everything into gold".

The benefactor's identity is expected to be revealed at the event, although it is not clear whether they will be the person to sample the fruits of their investment.

Prof Post has also previously suggested he would like a celebrity chef to help him cook the burger.

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The 5:2 Diet: 'My Children Force-Fed Me To Stop My Mood Swings'

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GrapefruitDevotees claim the Fast Diet is an easy way to lose 2lbs a week. So why did it leave Lucy Cavendish tetchy and exhausted?

Everyone I know is on the Fast Diet, the 5:2, intermittent fasting…call it what you will. I can barely go anywhere without people talking about it.

As they will tell you, you eat anything you want for five days of the week, and diet for two. This means fewer than 500 calories a day (600 for men) for two non-consecutive days a week. It has been billed as the diet that anyone can do. After all, goes the theory, how hard can it be to watch what you eat and drink two days a week when you can eat and drink whatever you like the other five?

Not since the days of Atkins has an “ultimate diet” been taken up by so many people. I know as many men as women who are on it, and all claim to be losing around 2lb a week, giving them a steady weight loss over the months as they adjust to it.

The joy of it is its simplicity. The Atkins Diet, which became popular in the late 1990s, was tricky and no fun. All we did was eat endless protein, which made our breath smell. Robert Atkins, the American physician behind it, had a heart attack in 2002, leading many of his critics to suggest the high levels of saturated fat the diet encourages were to blame.

A decade later, the Dukan became the diet de nos jours. Billed as the weight-loss plan that the French wanted to keep secret, the Dukan was another protein-based regime that encouraged disciples to eat, on alternate days, a few vegetables. That the Duchess of Cambridge’s mother Carole Middleton, with her admirably svelte figure, was said to be a follower only added to its allure. However, last week, Dr Pierre Dukan, the retired nutritionist who devised the regime, was censured by France’s national medical body for failing to observe medical ethics, after he prescribed a woman who wanted to lose weight in the 1970s an amphetamine-derived drug believed to have killed hundreds of people.

Now we have the 5:2. It burst into the national consciousness last year, after the BBC broadcast a Horizon documentary in which

Dr Michael Mosley showed how it not only helped him lose weight – 14lb over several months, and 25 per cent of his body fat – but dramatically lowered his cholesterol, too. Mosley then wrote a book about his findings with the journalist Mimi Spencer, who recently showed off her 5:2-honed body in a national newspaper. Before her Fast Diet, she said, she “didn’t have the confidence” to wear a bikini.

Well, I’m not after a beach-babe body. I just wanted to lose a few pounds, so I went and bought the book anyway. It is comprehensive and inspiring, full of all the reasons why the Fast Diet could work for me, meal plans with fewer than 500 calories a day, and tips on how to handle the dizzy spells from not eating much.

The authors recommend, perhaps sensibly, that a 5:2 adherent should try fasting on the same days each week. They suggest a Monday, after the over-indulgence of the weekend, and a Thursday, before the over-indulgence of the coming one.

Fair enough. I don’t eat much anyway. I rarely eat breakfast, have something simple for lunch and then I eat dinner with my children. Then I snack, and maybe have a glass or two of wine… but I figured I could cut those out with ease. The idea of two days eating very little sounded like a breeze – until I actually went on the diet.

I started on a Monday after a particularly indulgent weekend. All was fine at the beginning. I spent an hour or so re-reading the Fast Diet book at the breakfast table. It all looked good. I salivated at the recipes. I couldn’t wait to make a tuna, bean and garlic salad.

Unfortunately, I then did nothing but fixate on food. The Fast Diet menu planner suggests dividing your fast-day calorific intake over two, rather than three, meals: breakfast (one boiled egg and half a grapefruit) and a light dinner in the evening. I ate my egg without the customary buttered soldiers happily enough – but, unfortunately, the act of having breakfast seemed to kick-start my metabolism. I found I didn’t just want one egg. I wanted two. And who knew there were 155 calories in a boiled egg? By lunchtime, I was uncharacteristically starving.

Cravings came upon me. I wanted cheese, ham, chocolate, an apple, two apples, maybe some cherries, yoghurt and ice cream, more chocolate, an iced bun… Worse, by dinner, I had started to feel faint. I was so hungry, in a rather obsessive way, that I couldn’t think of anything to do but eat my tiny tuna salad and then go to bed, exhausted.

I assumed this was because I’d just started the diet. But instead of striding onwards on fasting days, getting some kind of energy from my denial and a sense of hope that the weight would come off, I became lethargic, negative and fixated on food. All I wanted to do was go to bed, shut my eyes and hope this would make the non-eating hours fly by.

This made everything worse. I started fantasising about all the food I would eat on non-fasting days. I felt pathetic. I found the minuscule amount of food almost insulting. What grown person can get by on that? It was like existing on air.

“It takes a while to get used to,” says Dr Mosley of his diet. “Most people who drop out do so in the first two weeks, but you need to give it time. It’s important to play around with the 5:2 idea and find a pattern that suits you. If you don’t usually eat breakfast, stick with that.”

So I stuck with that for another four weeks, but it didn’t get any better. On fast days, instead of experiencing a primal rush, my energy levels dropped – and dipped lower as the weeks went by. Any weight-loss benefit was counteracted by the fact that on my non-fast days, I ate twice as much as I would normally. I felt like a hamster stuffing food in my cheeks, storing it up for winter. I even ate pizza.

I became bad-tempered. As, like many women, I have a history of erratic eating, my children didn’t seem remotely surprised that I veered from an egg and cucumber for dinner one day to fried bacon sandwiches the next. To them, this seemed relatively normal. However, my being scratchy and exhausted upset them, to the point that they started trying to feed me to prevent my hunger pangs.

“I am sad to hear that,” Dr Mosley tells me. “The body does adjust. Remember, it’s a general guideline: one diet doesn’t fit all, but the general premise of cutting calorie intake to the quarter of what you are used to, on two days a week, does work. It does, however, depend on what your calorie intake was in the first place.”

I’m not the only person to feel this way about the 5:2. I talked to a close friend who admitted she was finding it as hard as I did.

“I can’t bear it,” she said, as we toyed with some lettuce on one of our agreed fast days. “All I want to do is wolf down an avocado and cheese on some sourdough.”

This seems to be a major drawback – that the denying of food leads to an insurmountable, joyless obsession with it.

Another friend told me she found it hard to stick to her designated fast days. “My job changes all the time, and involves a lot of socialising, which means lunches and dinners, and I lose track of the days,” she said. Others admitted to similar feelings of tiredness and exhaustion. One told me she starts her fasting day just after lunch so that she can spend at least half of those 24 hours asleep. “I can’t eat in my sleep,” she said, morosely.

It occurred to me that we have ended up doing precisely what we were supposed to avoid – making dieting difficult.

“No one diet fits every person,” Dr Mosley reminds me. And, he admits, you can cut yourself some slack: “If you’re lacking in energy, eat more than 500 calories. Spend your two days eating just protein and veg, or cut out carbs.”

Mosley also suggests remembering that, on the days you are not subsisting on a boiled egg and a stick of celery, you can eat anything you want – from pizzas through to chocolate waffles. Even better, as the entire planet seems to have embraced it, it is possible to be sociable and diet at the same time. Even restaurants and food chains such as Pizza Express now offer ‘‘Fast’’ meal options for those on low-cal regimes.

So, I am not giving up. I am taking Mosley’s advice and cutting just the carbs and upping the calories and… doing it my way. And hoping it works this time.

SEE ALSO: THE FAST DIET: Get Thin Quick By Starving Yourself Two Days A Week

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Sushi Chef Creates Edible QR Codes To End 'Fish Fraud' In California Restaurants

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Harney Sushi 1.JPGBeneath the deep purple cuts of healthy tuna and the smell of fresh wasabi, there lies a sushi underbelly in America that will make your stomach turn.

Fish gassed with carbon monoxide to keep it pulsing bright red long after expiration. A dysentery-causing mackerel species—long banned in Japan—criminally plated as “white tuna.” Cauldrons of fish scraps plucked off processing plant floors, boiled into unholy stews of aquatic sinew, and served as upscale maki. Trash, at $15 a roll.

Rob Ruiz, executive chef at San Diego’s Harney Sushi, has seen it all. Before helming the hottest sushi spot in the city, Ruiz was exposed to “atrocious” practices while working his way up the ranks at beachside parlors and conveyor-belt hole in the walls. But this week he’s unveiling an invention that could change it all: edible QR codes.

The codes are printed on rice paper with water-based ink and stuck to Harney’s sushi. Diners who use their smartphones to scan them will soon be able to see the state of a species’ global stock, where their fish was hooked, and even the actual faces of the fishermen behind the catch.

Harney is launching its QR codes in an area of the country that’s particularly plagued by fish fraud. A recent report found that 52% of seafood in Southern California was mislabeled, the highest rate of mislabeling in the U.S. Nationally, the study showed that one-third of sushi was not what restaurants said it was. “Some of the fish substitutions we found are just disturbing,” one of the report’s authors wrote.

As word of seafood mislabeling has spread through the sushi industry, and consumers have caught on, Harney and its brand of sustainable fish has taken off. In April, the restaurant released its first edible QR code, which sent users to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) FishWatch website. Since then, sales of sashimi have nearly doubled.

Harney Sushi 2.JPG

“People are ordering more straight fish because we’ve given them more confidence,” says Ruiz, holding a sashimi tray, his hands covered in tattoos of sushi knives. “If they were scared about trying some of the specialty fish, now they can scan the code and know everything we have is traceable.”

The restaurant is now selling more than 1,000 pounds of sashimi-grade fish each week, all prepared by Ruiz and his team of chefs who spend their off-days surfing.

Harney’s new code -- it’s first species-specific scan -- sits atop slices of the restaurant’s albacore tuna, a sustainable substitute for the overfished ahi. It redirects customers to aYoutube video on the Washington-based fishermen who hook the tuna. Next month, the restaurant will introduce scans for its urchins. “By the end of next year, each fish on Harney’s menu will come with its own species-specific QR code,” says Ruiz, adding that several local restaurant owners have inquired about creating codes of their own.

Harney Sushi 3.JPG

Such a sustainability effort begins with picking the right fish. Just up the road in La Jolla is a NOAA facility where Ruiz spends a good chunk of his time picking the brains of the world’s top marine scientists to figure out which fish populations are healthy enough to throw on next month’s menu. Soon, he’ll have even more experts to tap as the NOAA branch moves into a new $76 million dollar home next month.

“I walk around in there,” he explains excitedly, “and I’ve got Susan, who’s been studying only albacore for fifty years. Then just down the hall I can find Martha, who’s done just eels for half a century.”

If Ruiz sounds like a chef trying to play scientist, remember that he’s working with a food firmly rooted in the strictest of traditions, where simplicity and painstaking attention to detail are valued over innovation. A culinary art so decidedly old-school that during his apprenticeship under a Japanese master, Ruiz was frequently hit and publicly humiliated.

This culinary curiosity in oceanographic data, and this model of the Chef Scientist, may very well be key to sustainable sushi’s future. Better that sushi chefs pick at scraps of academic research than sushi eaters pick at actual scraps.

Whip out your phone and scan one of Harney Sushi's QR codes:Inline image 2

Nate Hindman and Joe Epstein are "On the Road With Free Enterprise" this summer, visiting small businesses and entrepreneurs, checking out the local flavor, and telling the stories of free enterprise in more than 20 communities across the U.S. Follow their travels on FacebookTwitter and Instagram.

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Diet Soda Could Actually Be Worse For You Than The Regular Stuff

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Diet Coke, Coca-Cola, soda, diet soda

Diet sodas may be calorie-free, but they could be worse for your health and your waistline than ones with sugar, a new report suggests.

Over the long term, fake sweeteners like aspartame, sucralose, and saccharine might mess with our bodies' abilities to process the calories from sweet things, making it harder for us to metabolize the sugars we get from other sources like candy, cookies, or even fruit.  

Purdue University scientist Susan Swithers found in a meta-analysis of 26 health and diet studies that artificially-sweetened sodas — unlike water — were often still associated with many of the same ailments common in people who drink sugary sodas, and may actually increase the risk of obesity, metabolic syndrome and Type 2 Diabetes. 

We first heard about Swithers' analysis via NPR. She discussed the results in an an opinion piece published in the July 10 issue of the journal Trends in Endocrinology and Metabolism.

According to Swithers, the trouble with artificial sweeteners is the same thing that makes them so popular — they taste a lot like sugar and have few or zero calories. For example, the molecule for sucralose (found in products like Splenda), is extremely similar to the molecule for sugar. That is why it tastes eerily similar — it is tricking our bodies into thinking we are eating something sugary.  

But our bodies cannot metabolize sucralose. It just passes through us. This is its charm— and its potential danger. Normally, when our body detects that we have eaten something sweet, it anticipates the arrival of much needed energy and activates mechanisms to capture it. If we continuously fool the body with sweet tastes that do not bring any energy or nutrients, we risk teaching our own metabolisms to stop responding to sweet tastes entirely. We are essentially "crying wolf," and when we finally do eat something with sugar, the body ignores the signal and fails to process it properly. 

Over time, whatever calories people think they are cutting with artificial sweeteners might just be returning to them in the form of poorly metabolized sugars from other foods. 

The data Swithers examines does not establish a direct cause-and-effect relationship between sweeteners and obesity, it simply sees a strong correlation — just as strong as we see with regular soda. There could be other explanations. 

For example, it may be that using artificial sweeteners changes people's behavior in other ways — some might think because they are drinking a "diet" soda, they can afford to eat an extra helping of French fries.  

In any event, the data does indicates that fake sweeteners are not helping people lose weight, and should not be treated as a totally safe and neutral alternative to sugary drinks.

"Findings from a variety of studies show that routine consumption of diet sodas, even one per day, can be connected to higher likelihood of heart disease, stroke, diabetes, metabolic syndrome and high blood pressure, in addition to contributing to weight gain," Swithers said in a press release.

The trend was consistent in virtually every study Swithers examined, even though each used different research methods, examined different populations of people, and had different ways of accounting for factors like ethnicity, education level and other dietary habits.   

Of course, the American Beverage Association has  already offered rebuttals to news outlets NPR and USA Today, which includes the statement,

"Low-calorie sweeteners are some of the most studied and reviewed ingredients in the food supply today. They are safe and an effective tool in weight loss and weight management, according to decades of scientific research and regulatory agencies around the globe."

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The Wealth Gap Is Crushing America's Youth [CHARTS]

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student tired math homework studying study

Mention the ever-widening wealth gap in America and chances are most of the focus will be on the grown-ups. 

Their 401(k)s were pummeled during the recession, their earnings plummeted, and even a college degree couldn't guarantee them a job in shaky economic times. 

But what about the children?

Under the radar, study after study has shown just how the growing wealth gap could stymie upward mobility for America's youth. In a telling report  by Washington, D.C.-based think tank, The Hamilton Project, a team of researchers uncover economic data that show exactly how income inequality can impact social mobility in America. 

"It is too early to say for certain whether the rise in income inequality over the past few decades has caused a fall in social mobility of the poor and those in the middle class," the authors write. "The first generation of Americans to grow up under this inequality is, on average, in high school—but the early signs are troubling." 

Family incomes have declined for a third of American children over the past few decades.



And forget what you heard about the American Dream. "In fact, in terms of both income inequality and social mobility, the United States is in the middle of the pack when compared to other nations, most of which are democratic countries with market economies," the authors write.



The reality is that it's even tougher for poor children to make up for their parents' lost ground. A child born to parents with income in the lowest quintile is more than 10 times likelier to end up in the lowest quintile than the highest as an adult (43% vs. 4%).



See the rest of the story at Business Insider
    


You Can Eat At Every 3-Star Michelin Restaurant In The World For $275,000

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The Fat Duck London

Foodies travel the world to dine in the very best restaurants, but getting to all of these places is no easy feat.

Two British luxury travel sites, VeryFirstTo.com and Holidaysplease.co.uk, have teamed up to offer a tour that will let foodies dine in all 109 3-Michelin starred restaurants in the world.

The program will take about six months and will take guests to all 3-Michelin starred restaurants across 12 countries, including Japan, England, the U.S., Hong Kong, and France.

Guests will sample amazing culinary creations by the world's best chefs at restaurants like The Fat Duck in England, Lung King Heen in Hong Kong, Sushi Yoshitake in Tokyo, Per Se in New York, and Le Meurice in Paris. They'll eat at about one restaurant every other day.

Participants will also stay in five-star luxury hotels like the Trump International in New York, the Conrad in Tokyo, the Hotel de Paris in Monte Carlo, and Claridge’s in London.

“This is a truly exceptional and sensational gourmet travel experience, it is by far the most lavish we have ever organised,” Charles Duncombe of Holidaysplease said, according to the Daily News.

The package costs about $275,000 per couple, including airfare and lodging. Although that might seem like an extraordinary number, when you consider that a meal at one of these restaurants might cost upwards of $1,000,  a hotel room at a luxury property could cost over $1,500 per night, and trans-continental airfare for an around the world trip could run in the hundreds of thousands, it's actually not a bad deal.

SEE ALSO: 40 Meals You Should Eat In Your Lifetime

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Why Modernism Is The Worst Thing That Ever Happened To Architecture

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Nikos Salingaros is unafraid of a controversial statement. A professor of Mathematics and Urban theory, he has been using his scientific approach to study architecture and urban environments for years, and has come to a conclusion:  is just about the worst thing that happened to architecture.

As Salingaros explains, not only is it impossible to have any “Green” architecture within a modernist framework, but, moreover, Modernism encourages us to deny our biologically-evolved senses and embrace an unnatural, inhuman built world – and why? Because there’s a whole lot of money and power behind those “modernist boxes.” As Salingaros puts it:

“Architectural Education ever since the Bauhaus, and continuing to the present day without interruption, teaches students to interpret built forms according to very peculiar abstract criteria, and not through their own biologically-evolved senses and cognitive intelligence. This is radical training in sensory denial: desensitizing people so that their interpretation of the world can be defined by others with an agenda.”

I interviewed Salingaros to get to the bottom of his theories and understand his anti-Modern crusade. 

AD: Can you describe what you mean by your term “Architectural Myopia”? How has Architecture Education passed on this “condition” through generations?

Michael Mehaffy and I coined this term to describe the curious (and alarming) phenomenon whereby someone who has gone through architecture school can look at a horrid, inhuman structure, and declare it to be great architecture. Such persons literally cannot see what is right in front of them. The corollary is also frightening: those same people look at older historical and vernacular structures and totally miss their intense degree of embedded life and humanity. To such people, “old” means useless, shameful, and is marked for elimination.

Architectural Education ever since the Bauhaus, and continuing to the present day without interruption, teaches students to interpret built forms according to very peculiar abstract criteria, and not through their own biologically-evolved senses and cognitive intelligence. This is radical training in sensory denial: desensitizing people so that their interpretation of the world can be defined by others with an agenda. But because of this architectural myopia, a large group of people happily accepts the conditioning and doesn’t realize what’s going on. And they don’t understand why others disagree drastically with them.

51d44acab3fc4b58340001b6_the quest to liberate architecture from modernism s evils an interview with nikos salingaros_nikosAD: Do you think that the recent movements in Architecture Education — the rise of interest in public-interest designdesign-build programs, etc. — could be hinting towards a shift in the way Architecture Education forms architects’ minds?

Absolutely. All of these developments are moving architecture in the right direction of becoming liberated from modernist dogma. Of course, the core problem is not yet touched, but maybe that’s coming as well. However, it is possible for the entrenched image-based way of thinking to permit minor changes at the periphery while fiercely protecting its core (which consists of a fundamental dogma and not a body of discovered results) from any revision, because that would lead to catastrophic implosion of the system itself. The system is adapting for its own survival, not by becoming more adaptive to human sensibilities, but by using fashion to keep up appearances.

Whenever I teach a course at my Architecture School (not every semester), my students are surprised to discover that other instructors cover none of our material, nor does it even appear in the textbooks for their other courses. This means that what I consider as the core body of architectural knowledge (see, for example, my book “Unified Architectural Theory”, 2013) is not taught on a regular basis. And in most schools, it is never taught at all. Therefore, we are producing architecture graduates who are ignorant of the basis of their discipline (other than technical knowledge on construction and materials), yet have been misled to believe they are educated enough to build for humanity. This is an alarming situation that would not be tolerated in any other professional or academic field.

AD: One could call you a one-man crusader against Modernism. Why, in your opinion, is Modernism so damaging (in both “developed” and “developing” nations)? Why the crusade?

That’s not true. I’m certainly not alone. I’m simply one of many who refuse to conform to the cult of industrial images and who speak out for a more human alternative. Ever since the 60s and 70s serious critics of modernism have been actively building, writing, and lecturing. The establishment in power takes care never to mention us, and denies our existence. Today there is a sizable network of architects, urbanists and thinkers who argue for more or less the same things as I do. I am part of this larger movement.

Modernism is damaging to all cultures, yet those that are wealthy can and do periodically escape its suffocating effects. They possess other sources of emotional nourishment. But it is the economically impoverished cultures dependent upon the industrialized West, and those that are subjected to “soft oppression” by the dominance of the global media, that suffer most deeply. They have no way out. Their own elites are forcing the modernist dogma down their throats.

A crusade? Not really. Simply an educational effort to let people know they don’t have to accept this century-old cultural hegemony of a banal inhuman style to shape the built environment, and that their own feelings, which rebel against the modernist dogma, are in fact valid. Yet it’s very sad that, even when people realize the truth, and actually glimpse the liberating potential of our ideas, they are still captive to accepted opinion and are reluctant to speak their mind. They are terrified to risk change.

AD: Although you are an urban theorist, you are a mathematician by training. What does architecture stand to gain from mathematic and/or scientific principles?

The only way to startle global culture so that it stops following a sterile movement is through reason. Science is based on reason, so this is a way out, possibly the only solution to get us out of a real cultural muddle. Non-adaptive architecture and urbanism have been perpetuated by entrenched power and the opinion of a small elite group, and, to a large extent, through a benign but ultimately disastrous conformity. Human beings find it natural to conform, but conforming to emotionally stultifying design and building practices does not do the world any good: it just perpetuates a monumental mistake. You need to shine the scientific light of reason on the damaging consequences of this conformity to break out, and even then it’s not easy.

In science (but unfortunately not in society) a correct fact can overturn a flawed but accepted practice that is being followed by the majority. Minority scientific opinion really carries enormous weight because of a system that has strict guidelines for validation. Society is not scientific, however, but power-driven. Either the manipulated majority rules, or a tiny elite in power rules, even if those are leading society towards its own destruction. We see this continually in human history. But since the Enlightenment, the world has embraced scientific training as part of general education. Has it made any difference? We’ll see.

AD: Could you describe what role ornamentation plays in architecture?

Ornament is the key to understanding the process of life, both biological and architectural.Ornament generates ordered information. It adds coherent information that is visual and thus immediately perceivable on a structure. Successful ornament does not stick something on top of form: instead it spontaneously creates smaller and smaller divisions out of the whole. Just like biological life, which is all about information: how to structure it, how to keep it together as the living body, and how to replicate it so that the genetic pattern is not lost forever. But without ornament, either there is no information, or the information is random, hence useless.

The loss of ornament is the loss of vital architectural information. Ever since that fateful moment in history, there is little life in architecture. Unornamented forms and spaces are dead, sterile, and insipid, defining a sort of cosmic “cold death”: an empty universe where no life can exist. But for a century, this empty state has been the desired aim of architects: to remove information from the built environment. New design developments may seem to be re-introducing information, but this is deceptive in that it is random. Components do not align; forms have no connectivity; there are no small-scale sub-symmetries; all the key informational patterns are missing. The complex informational coherence of living structure is deliberately avoided.

AD: Why is it that so much “Green” architecture is anything but? And what is the problem with “Green” ranking systems such as LEED?

When people try to create life within a framework that is meant to eliminate it, the result is disappointing, to say the least. Green architecture cannot be generated with the modernist/industrial rubric that so many architects are working in today. It’s simply impossible. That’s why the results are frustrating. LEED is a rich society’s certification, improving the energy properties of buildings but always within the high-technology approach. I don’t see how it can possibly serve a world where the majority of buildings are self-built out of local and scrap materials. A truly green architecture needs to be low-tech and low-cost, by definition. Otherwise, it is just meant for one tiny segment of the construction industry.

LEED for individual buildings works to improve the modernist glass box with techno-fixes. It starts with that unstated pre-condition. But we really should abandon the glass box altogether as a monstrous misunderstanding and stop worshipping it as an article of faith. On the other hand, LEED Neighborhood Development is a far broader and more intelligent approach, and I have hope for genuine improvements here. The focus is on urban complexes, their distinct scales, interactions, paths, open spaces, etc. and not on individual glass boxes. Just paying attention to movement reveals the complex nature of living spaces.

AD: What would be examples of actual green or sustainable architecture?

Everything built before the industrial age had to be sustainable or else it was not used. An energy-guzzling typology was simply too wasteful to survive. Cities evolved to optimize energy use and human interactions. So we can look around at all the older structures and learn our lessons on how to build for passive energy use. Sustainable architecture is there right in front of us: but disdained and bulldozed because it does not look “modern”. Add some of today’s technological gadgets, and we can create marvels. Again, we cannot expect people in the developing world to rely upon imported high-tech components: that’s a recipe for disaster. Some people actually wish to create this dependence, for their own profit, but it does not serve society.

AD: Are you familiar with the work of Neri Oxman, an “anti-modernist” who studies natural systems in order develop multi-functional materials? Is this a kind of approach to architecture that you would support?

Yes. Neri Oxman is doing similar work to my friends at the Institute of Advanced Architecture of Catalonia. They are studying how biological forms are generated, which is great. For the moment, people are working with 3-dimensional cutting and molding machines, which are the stuff of architecture schools. But there are profound implications for the real world. Once the generative process is better understood, it can be applied to use affordable local materials to build adaptive forms, just like in the millennial practices of vernacular architectures. No longer cute models with fancy materials, but real buildings. These important experiments are leading us out of the glass box.

I have to caution, however, that this experimental approach to form making is not hijacked to generate inhuman buildings. Experimentation and research should be applied towards adapting to human needs and not usurped to further promoting abstract, inhuman architecture. We already see designs for ridiculous forms having an interesting complexity, but which are totally unsuitable for actual buildings.

AD: Just as you believe that Modernist architecture is unsustainable, so too do you suggest that Modernist-planned cities are non-resilient. What would a resilient city look like — would it be the result of non-design? What role — if any — should architects play in planning cities?

I’m shocked by urban monstrosities proposed almost daily, coming from the offices of starchitects and from younger starchitect wannabees. Those schemes are so oppressively anti-human, so totally malevolent; and yet they are the products of good intentions and the most prestigious architectural training. There is something dreadfully wrong here, when young architects wishing to do good propose inhuman prisons of unspeakable horror. For this reason, I would be extremely reluctant to employ an architect to design a city, or a portion of urban fabric, unless that person also has training in the topics I write about.

It’s not that we don’t know how to design cities fit for human beings: many of my friends certainly know how to do that. I myself have developed and published extensive practical guidelines. But because the product of adaptive, resilient design looks like a traditional city (without wishing to be a copy of anything), it is attacked as “not modern”. Clients at the highest levels all seem to want inhuman cities because those look “modern”. It’s all about look and starchitect image branding: not about use, nor human adaptation, nor resilience. And governments and planning committees seem unable to break out of that destructive behavior pattern.

AD: You once suggested that architects could, in theory, change the system: “the small towns, smaller design and planning firms, and individual traditional architects — could, in principle, counter the trend of the vast monolithic power of the globalized engineering firms tied to starchitects who work for third-world regimes.” How could this come about? 

I don’t know. I’m not optimistic nowadays. In theory, the bottom-up approach should work, letting small-scale practice and innovation run free in the classic entrepreneurial model. It works with technological development, for example. But we face two serious problems. First, with the mind-set of all the schools and the media. They simply will not accept the required innovation. Not only do they ridicule through direct intervention whatever does not conform to stylistic dogma (again, it’s the image); but also more subtly, because the population at large has come to expect certain images promoted and sold by the starchitects. Therefore, the small independent architect cannot sell a truly adaptive design to a client.

Second, even if the client desires human-oriented architectural and urban innovation, and is willing to oppose the status quo, the bank and insurance company will not approve a project because it is “unusual”, and the local building codes will block it. An inflexible construction industry used to doing things the old (modernist) way will create problems. Builders and subcontractors prefer simply to continue with what they have been doing all along: it makes a profit, so why change the model? The market has become totally dominated by industrial types of images, and the construction/finance industry has aligned itself to reproducing precisely those images. In this extremely restrictive climate, no true innovation can ever occur.

SEE ALSO: 14 Gorgeous Structures In The Running For "Building Of The Year"

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Here Are 7 Apps That Manage Your Money For You

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A bevy of money management apps have flooded the smartphone market over the last few years.

The tricky part is picking which ones work for your needs, so we did some digging to find the best of the bunch. 

Here's what we came up with: 

mint.com1. Mint Quickview

Mint made the Mac App Store's Best of 2012 list for a reason. This simple, clean app shows how much you are spending in each category of your budget by monitoring all of your transactions. We love signing in and getting a quick, dirty rundown of where our money has gone over the last week, and using their personalized budget tools to stay on track. We highly recommend adjusting your budgets for summer months. You might spend less on transportation when the weather is nice, and chances are you could use that extra cash to flesh out that restaurant tab, right? 

Price: Free

Available for Apple and Android.

app2. Manilla

This is the all-in-one financial organizer. Manage all of your accounts, from credit cards to magazine subscriptions, in one place and even make custom accounts for your rent or cleaning service. Get reminders for bill payments, and monitor all of your travel reward points, too. You'll always know what you owe, how much money you have and can plan for upcoming bills and expenses without having to sift through tons of paperwork. 

Price: Free

Available for Apple and Android devices.

DailyCost App

3. DailyCost 

If you want to isolate the expense tracker function of Mint in a super simple day-to-day app, then DailyCost is a great buy.  A wide variety of categories lets users input all of their daily expenses. Holding your phone horizontally, you will be able to see graphs and statistics on your spending. The app also tracks your weekly and monthly spending by category and can be backed up to iCloud for Mac users, so you'll never lose your data.

Price: $1.99

Available for Apple only.

Toshl App

4. Toshl Finance

If you're a heavy traveler, Toshl is an excellent expense and budget tracker. It works with any currency and lets you separate your travel budget from your day-to-day expenses. It comes with all the trappings of a regular money management app, too, such as bill organizer and alerts, and can be synced across all your devices.

Price: Free

Available on Apple and Android devices.

app5. Tricount

Next time you organize a group activity, Tricount will split up the expenses for you. Create the expense report on your phone and organize by person, how much they owe, and then share via email so everyone knows their share. With options for expenses, balance, share, and configuration, the app does all of the math for you.

Price: Free

Available for Apple and Android devices.

app6. Check

Never miss a bill payment again. This app reminds you when your payments are due, and lets you pay on the spot from a bank account or credit card, or you can schedule a payment for the future. Connect all of your accounts to the encrypted app and then view them all in one place for easy access and payment options. You'll never overdraft or miss a payment again.

Price: Free

Available on Apple and Android devices.

Venmo App7. Venmo

Make and share payments with friends. This app uses the same technology to pay as LivingSocial, Uber and Airbnb. Pay with your debit card or transfer funds from a linked bank account, right to a friend's Venmo account. It is Verisign Certified.

Price: Free

Available on Apple and Android devices. 

SEE ALSO: The wealth gap is crushing America's youth

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Famed Architect Zaha Hadid Unveils Her First Building In New York City

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Famed architect Zaha Hadid is known for her curvy, futuristic buildings from China to Belgrade. Now, for the first time, the Pritzker Prize winner has been commissioned to design a building in New York City.

A rendering of the glass and steel building, an 11-story condominium adjacent to the High Line, was released today by developer Related.

The development, at 520 West 28th Street in Chelsea, will have 37 residences, as well as a roof terrace, indoor pool and spa, entertainment space and playrooms.

From the rendering, it looks like the condo will feature Hadid's iconic undulating walls and incredible views of New York's favorite new public park:

zaha hadid high line condo

SEE ALSO: The Otherworldly Architecture Of Zaha Hadid

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The 12 Best Honeymoon Spots For Newlywed Gay Couples

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gay couple sitting on beach

DOMA (the Defense Of Marriage Act) is dead, and that means that gay couples around the U.S. will be getting married in spades. And more weddings means more honeymoons.

We asked travel experts to weigh in on what they think will be the hottest honeymoon destinations for newly married gay couples.

And while honeymooners may want to avoid places like Russia, which recently passed severe anti-gay laws that will even impact gay foreign tourists, there are plenty of awesome destinations that are just waiting to welcome gay newlywed couples with open arms.

Provincetown, Cape Cod, Massachusetts

Located at at the very tip of Cape Cod, Provincetown is a charming resort town that has been drawing in gay travelers for years.

"This is a gay Mecca, which makes it an obvious choice for gay honeymooners," Pauline Frommer, the publisher of Frommers.com, said. "It's famous for drag shows, restaurants, and a vibrant gay community that's been there for decades."

The town is chock-full of quaint guest houses, elegant restaurants, and has access to the incredible beaches of the Cape Cod National Seashore.

"Massachusetts was one of the first states to allow same-sex marriage in the U.S., and right away wedding bells were ringing in Provincetown," Ed Salvato, the editor in chief of gay travel magazine ManAboutWorld, said. "It has all the tourism infrastructure and the tolerance—no, the celebration of diversity."

There are dozens of charming gay-friendly guesthouses and inns, but the Crown Point Historic Inn & Spa and Surfside Hotel & Suites offer exclusive romance and honeymoon packages.



Tel Aviv, Israel

Tel Aviv has been billing itself as a gay-friendly destination for a while now, doing its best to lure in gay tourists from around the world.

But it really cemented its reputation as a gay travel destination last month, when France's first married gay couple chose to honeymoon in the Israeli beach city—an event which was documented by multiple news publications. France's first married gay couple stayed at the Diaghilev Live Art Hotel, a sleek design boutique hotel.

"Israel has a very open and large gay community," Pauline Frommer said. "If you've ever wanted to travel to the Middle East, it's a cosmopolitan, fascinating city. It has fascinating museums, extraordinary restaurants, gay clubs and gay bars. It's very warm and welcoming to gay couples."

Frommer added that gay couples may want to take a side trip to Jerusalem, but may have to keep their relationships under wraps there since the ancient city is so religious.



Napa and Sonoma, California

Between the miles of pristine vineyards and the great food and wine that often accompanies it, there's something incredibly romantic about wine country.

And California's wine country has plenty to celebrate this year, with the Supreme Court ruling that overturned Proposition 8 and made same-sex marriage legal within the state.

"With its abundance of wine, winery tours, and unique bed and breakfast getaways,  this area is quickly becoming a popular destination," Mark Novak,  president of HotelCoupons.com, said. "It is also very close to San Francisco which has long been a very friendly city to the LGBT community. The area recently celebrated the DOMA decision at its annual Gay Days celebration with an expected 40% increase in attendance."

Honeymooners will want to sip the region's delicious wines, explore quaint towns like St. Helena and Yountville, stay at a charming bed and breakfast like The Inn on First in downtown Napa Valley, take the wine train, and just relax with their new husbands or wives. 



See the rest of the story at Business Insider
    


New York Trophy Homes Are A Bargain Compared To Blockbuster Listings In London, Hong Kong, And Monaco

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Odeon Tower Penthouse

Jaws dropped when a triplex penthouse at the Pierre Hotel hit the market for $125 million, the highest-ever asking price for a New York City home. But believe it or not, that’s nothing compared to trophy home prices in cities like Monaco, London and Hong Kong, which are also setting new records for residential real estate.

The current record-holder for the world’s highest total sale price is billionaire Rinat Akhmetov’s 2011 purchase of a penthouse at London’s One Hyde Park condominium for a reported £136.6 million, or $219 million — approximately $8,774 per square foot. And a 35,500-square-foot penthouse at the under-construction Tour Odéon condominium in Monaco is now reportedly on the market for £250 million, roughly $391 million, or $11,000 per square foot.

“New York real estate today is still undervalued on the global stage,” said Stan Ponte, a Manhattan broker at Sotheby’s International Realty. “If you walk through properties in London and you hear the prices they’re getting on the simplest apartments, it’s shocking.”

Knight Frank, the London-based real estate consultancy and brokerage, recently ranked New York City at No. 8 on a list of the world’s most expensive cities. In New York, according to Knight Frank, $1 million buys approximately 474 square feet of luxury real estate. The tiny principality of Monaco, where $1 million buys only 172 square feet, was ranked No. 1, followed by Hong Kong, London, Geneva, Paris and Singapore (tied for fifth place), Moscow and, finally, New York.

These discounts are one reason deep-pocketed global investors — such as Russian billionaire Dmitry Rybolovlev, who famously purchased a 15 Central Park West penthouse for a New York City record of $88 million — have been so quick to snap up properties here, brokers said. And while industry observers said they initially expected international buyers’ feverish interest in Manhattan real estate to fade, economic turmoil in Europe over the past few years has prevented that from happening.

million chartYolande Barnes, director of residential research at the London-based real estate brokerage Savills, said she had anticipated interest in global real estate “would cool this year.” Instead, “the world economy continues to suffer setbacks,” she said. “People like real assets in those situations, and the U.S. looks like a very good value.”

And despite the ongoing inventory shortage here, New York actually has more housing available than some other cities around the world, said Andrew Hay, the global head of Knight Frank’s residential division. Construction costs and land prices are more affordable in New York than in some other in-demand cities, Hay explained.

“New York’s supply has been quite generous, whereas in other locations [the] amount of product is incredibly limited,” said Hay, who is based in London.

The famed resort destination of Monaco, for example, borders the Mediterranean Sea on a tiny strip of land about the size of Central Park. Not only is space for building in the principality limited by nature, but then-ruler Prince Rainier III banned construction of new high-rises in the 1980s.

Back in the U.S., the Pierre’s $125 million penthouse isn’t even the most expensive property in the country. Copper Beach Farm, a waterfront estate in Greenwich, Conn., hit the market in May for $190 million with David Ogilvy & Associates. The Owlwood estate in Los Angeles, which sits between Sunset Boulevard and the Los Angeles Country Club in Holmby Hills, is on the market for $150 million. And in Dallas, the Crespi Hicks estate was listed in January for $135 million by broker Douglas Newby of Douglas Newby and Associates.

Newby said the Crespi Hicks estate, which comes with a guesthouse and pool, is the largest residential property located in any U.S. city. The mansion is located in the exclusive Mayflower Estate area of Dallas, which is also home to former President George W. and Laura Bush, and Newby estimates that the land alone is worth some $50 million.

Yet Dallas real estate doesn’t have the same kind of international appeal as New York, he said, noting that most of the out-of-town potential buyers so far have hailed from California and other parts of the West Coast. And neither the 25-acre Crespi Hicks estate nor the 50-acre Copper Beach Farm are nearly as expensive as New York City when it comes to price per square foot.

European palaces

European cities boast some of the most expensive real estate in the world.

Take Monaco — home to the glamorous casino and resort destination of Monte Carlo — which has long attracted vacationing celebrities.

The royal ban on new construction there was lifted in 2008, and the first high-rise to be built since then — the under-construction Tour Odéon — may soon surpass One Hyde Park as the most expensive condo development in the world. The building, which will offer residents an in-house caterer and chauffeur, is being developed by Monaco-based Groupe Marzocco, designed by architect Alexandre Giraldi and marketed by Fred Schiff of Knight Frank. A spokesperson for the project said prices at the building start at $9,215 per square foot.

As for the $391 million penthouse: It has five floors and an infinity pool overlooking the Mediterranean Sea.
At London’s One Hyde Park, units for sale in the building are priced at an average of £7,000, or $11,240, per square foot, according to Knight Frank. When it hit the market in 2007, One Hyde Park “redefined the market in London and globally,” Hay said.

Developed by British developer Christian Candy and Waterknights — a company owned by the Prime Minister of Qatar — One Hyde Park is adjacent to, and managed by, the Mandarin Oriental Hotel, and offers a private squash court, spa facilities and valet services. The eponymous interior design firm Candy founded with his brother Nick is the project manager and interior designer.

A spokesperson for Candy & Candy said that there are three sponsor units still available at the property, where 82 apartments, worth some $2.9 billion, have been sold so far.

In London overall, the average price per square foot for a high-end residential condo is about £4,000, or $6,122, per square foot, Hay said. By contrast, the average price for the top 10 percent of all Manhattan apartments sold in the first quarter was $1,925 per square foot, according to a market report from New York City brokerage Douglas Elliman.

And the average price per square foot of closed sales at Manhattan über-condo 15 Central Park West was $5,009 as of mid-June, according to real estate data provider CityRealty. (At Extell Development’s hyped One57 in Midtown Manhattan, two penthouses are in contract for between $90 million and $100 million, a spokesperson said, but those units haven’t yet closed.)

Other superpricey London listings include a 50,000-square-foot mansion at 18 Carlton House Terrace, which is reportedly owned by a member of a Saudi Arabian royal family. The home, located near Buckingham Palace, is asking £250 million, or $7,675 per square foot. And last year, a 45-room mansion in Hyde Park reportedly hit the market for £300 million, or some $483 million. That 60,000-square-foot home belonged to the late Crown Prince Sultan bin Abdul-Aziz of Saudi Arabia.

London prices are so high due to a combination of factors, including its strict regulations for new building, England’s reputation for political stability and the city’s location between Asia and North America, which makes it attractive to wealthy Middle Eastern and Asian buyers looking for stable investments, according to Lulu Egerton of London-based brokerage Strutt and Parker, the U.K. affiliate of Christie’s International Real Estate.

“A lot of the Mideast and Far East regions, which have got huge bursts of wealth, they’re looking for wealth preservation and they’ve happened upon England,” she said.

“If you’re going to have a trophy asset — if you’re very rich — to add to your portfolio, owning a piece of London real estate is like gold,” she added.

Geneva, where $1 million buys just 344 square feet of property, is also one of the most expensive cities in the world, according to Knight Frank. Located high in the Alps and renowned for its ski resorts, the exclusive vacation spot measures only six square miles. In 2011, a home just outside of Geneva was listed for $12.2 billion, setting a new world record for most expensive residential real estate listing. Dubbed the “Gold House,” the home was supposedly decorated with some 440,000 pounds of solid gold and platinum. Owned by British designer Steven Hughes, it is no longer available for sale after many alleged that the listing was a fake.

In Paris, the sought-after French capital, $1 million fetches 409 square feet of space, according to Knight Frank. The 12-bedroom Palais Montmorency mansion on Avenue Foch hit the market in 2010 with an affiliate of Christie’s for a reported $140 million — at the time, the second-most expensive listing in the world. The 28,000-square-foot home, which still appears to be on the market, was built in 1912 and boasts a ceiling painted by French artist Henri Rousseau.

In Russia, real estate prices have skyrocketed since the real estate market was privatized in 1991, after the collapse of the Soviet Union. In Moscow today, there is not nearly enough luxury development to satisfy the country’s many billionaires. Many of the city’s high-end homes are concentrated in the coveted Golden Mile neighborhood, which has a number of new upscale residential developments alongside historic mansions.

This combination of strong demand and limited supply has driven prices up — $1 million buys only 463 square feet of real estate in Moscow, according to Knight Frank — as well as sending rich Russians in search of real estate in cities like New York.

Keep reading at The Real Deal >

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