Month: January 2018

STOP! If you haven’t seen Oprah Winfrey’s acceptance speech at the Golden Globes, go and watch it right now, don’t worry. I’ll wait.

• Watch Prince Play Jazz Piano & Coach His Band Through George Gershwin’s “Summertime”
  A rock enigma wrapped around an R&B quandary, wearing platform shoes and purple velour. The cheekbones of an angel, dances moves and lyrics from an infernally sexy place, and more musical talent than it seems possible for a single person to possess in one lifetime….
  Two things from this: 1. Good GOD the man was talented. 2. I really wanna buy a piano.

• David Letterman’s Netflix Talk Show Sets Obama as First Guest
  David Letterman has amassed an all-star roster of guests for his Netflix talk show series, titled My Next Guest Needs No Introduction with David Letterman.
  Starts this evening, and as far as first guests go it seems like it might be ‘quite good’?

• People have spent centuries trying to prove caffeine is dangerous, but the science suggests otherwise
  When Davis Cripe died in his South Carolina classroom last May, it was a shock to everyone who knew him. He just 16, and healthy. His death made no sense, especially when the coroner said that he’d been killed by a substance most of us consume daily: caffeine.
  SCREW YOU CAFFEINE DENIERS!! (Denyers? Denyerists??)

• This British Gardener Doesn’t Build Furniture
  Remember the end of “The Giving Tree,” when the tree has nothing left to give her favorite boy except her stump to sit on? Some people think that’s a heartwarming end to a story of selfless love, while others read it and think, “I could make a tree into a way better seat than that.”
  Well this is rather lovely (in an endearingly British kinda way)

• The Need To Be Alone
  “By retreating into ourselves, it looks as if we are the enemies of others, but our solitary moments are in reality a homage to the richness of social existence. Unless we’ve had time alone, we can’t be who we would like to be around our fellow humans. We won’t have original opinions.
  I’m reading more articles this and they all ring true. They also seem to go hand in hand with more articles railing against socila media/always on lifestyles. Not a coincidence I don’t think.

• How to Take a Picture of a Stealth Bomber Over the Rose Bowl
  An aerial photographer explains precisely how he took this amazing photograph. The first thought that comes to mind staring at the photograph above is: This has got to be fake. The B-2 stealth bomber looks practically pasted onto the field. The flag is unfurled just so.
  Impressive. Definitely couldn’t have done that with an iPhone (or could you??)

• You’re Most Likely to Do Something Extreme Right Before You Turn 30
  Each year, cities, regions, and other organizers around the world host around 3,000 marathons. In large races like the Los Angeles Marathon and the London Marathon, more than half the participants are running a marathon for the very first time.
  Ahhhh our fragile egos, the realisation we won’t live forever, do all the things. How programmed we are!

• Are Gummy Bear Flavors Just Fooling Our Brains?
  Fun fact about the newsroom at WFPL, the NPR member station in Louisville, Ky., where I work: It is fully stocked with lots of candy. Mini-chocolate bars, peanut butter cups, Jolly Ranchers — the list goes on and the candy bowl is constantly being refilled.
  This is why I don’t like those purple carrots.

• Why Does Exercise Start Hurting Two Days After a Workout?
  If you’ve decided, this year, to start working out, you might have noticed a strange phenomenon: You’ll leave the gym feeling fine, and then two days later wake up sore.
  I write this comment after doing some ‘core’ exercises two days ago, sneezing, and then cursing my aching abs. The DOMS are real people!

• Japanese Waiter Exhibits 8,000 Chopstick Sleeves Left as Restaurant “Tips”
  In a culture without tipping, one Japanese waiter began to realize that customers were expressing their gratitude in a subtle (and in some cases even unintentional way) by folding the sleeves in which their chopsticks came wrapped.
  A few moments of thoughtfulness is all it takes.

• Scientists developed an electronic pill to analyze the gas in your gut
  Digestion is something of a black box. We know food gets put through a physical and chemical pulverization to make it easier to extract nutrients before we get rid of the waste. But there are all sorts of variances in each of our own unique digestive tracts.
  Dear Scientists, just pop to my place first thing in the morning, I got ALL THE FARTS YOU NEED!!

• Tua Tagovailoa’s Rise Seemed Unlikely, but It Was Part of Nick Saban’s Championship Plan
  Like everything else for Alabama, the schedule scrawled on the Crimson Tide’s locker-room wall in Mercedes-Benz Stadium showed signs of precise, meticulous planning. 6:59 p.m., kickers. 7:09, specialists. 7:19, team. 8:17, Kick UGA ASS. But things don’t always go according to plan.
  I love this kind of thing. Go against the grain, do the unpredictable, triumph.

• I Started the Media Men List
  In October, I created a Google spreadsheet called “Shitty Media Men” that collected a range of rumors and allegations of sexual misconduct, much of it violent, by men in magazines and publishing.
  I remember reading about this spreadsheet last year, the impact is has had (and is having) still reverberates.

• Inside the Amish town that builds U2, Lady Gaga, and Taylor Swift’s live shows
  In December 2016, designer Ric Lipson was in New York on a conference call with Bono, The Edge, Adam Clayton and Larry Mullen Jr.
  Who knew!

• The Encylopedia of the Missing
  From the outside, it’s just another mobile home in a neighborhood of mobile homes on the northwest side of Fort Wayne, Indiana. There’s the same carport, the same wedge of grass out front, the same dreamy suburban soundtrack of wind chimes and air conditioners.
  Nowt stranger than folk. Although these days Nowt stranger than folk on the internet, is way more accurate.

• Emma Watson’s willingness to face the truth about race is refreshing
  I hope that the actor’s acknowledgment that she has benefited from being white will lead others to ask themselves hard questions too Feminism, to quote bell hooks, is for everybody. It’s a simple enough statement.
  With every voice speaking out, a few more minds change. The fact that Emma has a large platform makes this all the more powerful.

• Improving Ourselves to Death
  Happy New Year, you! Now that the champagne has gone flat and the Christmas tree is off to be mulched, it’s time to turn your thoughts to the months ahead.
  So true. I refer you to my complete lack of resolutions. Live life as best you can and be happy people! (note: I am about a year or so OUT of this kind of mindset… goals, measures etc. and I’m much happier for it).

• The world’s first major city to run out of water may have just over three months left
  It’s the height of summer in Cape Town, and the southwesternmost region of South Africa is gripped by a catastrophic water shortage.
  Good grief, this is awful.

The eighth incarnation of Six by Nico and as we move into a new calendar year, they’ve decided to go back to some of the best dishes from 2017, but there was a twist!

The menu was announced on the 5th January, and in the days prior to the announcement it was up to the public to choose what dishes would make the cut. For each of the six courses we were given a choice.

1. Chips & Cheese (The Chippie) vs Ratatouille (Disney)
2. Pancake (Route 66) vs Steak Pie (The Chippie)
3. Mac & Cheese (Childhood) vs Wild Mushroom (Forest)
4. Sea Bream Taco (Route 66) vs Fish & Chips (The Chippie)
5. Duck (Illusion) vs Burger (Childhood)
6. Egg (Illusion) vs Lemon Tart (Route 66)

Talk about Hobson’s Choice! Some of my favourite dishes weren’t even an option, no Picnic Blanket (Picnic), no Lady & the Tramp (Disney), no Sandwich Platter (Picnic)! That said, as they evolve each dish throughout the six week run of the menu, regardless of what the final menu looked like, I knew it would be a little bit different to when we first ate them.

And so, with all the voting in, the menu for our eighth visit (from the website) looks like this:

1. THE CHIPPIE – CHIPS and CHEESE – Parmesan Espuma / Confit Potato / Curry Oil
2. THE CHIPPIE – STEAK PIE – Speyside Beef Shin / Onion Sauerkraut / Brioche
3. CHILDHOOD – MAC and CHEESE – Glazed Chicken Wing / Charred Cauliflower / Truffle
4. ROUTE 66 – SEA BREAM TACO – Guacamole / Pickled Chilli / Preserved Lime and Red Onion Salsa
5. ILLUSION – DUCK – Blueberries / Hazelnut / Wild Mushroom / Cocoa
6. ILLUSION – WHITE CHOCOLATE – Passionfruit / Lime Curd / Coconut

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But first, as always, Snacks!

Definitely some favourites here (even though the snacks weren’t part of the voting), so we had Smoked Haddock Bon Bon, Truffle and Parmesan popcorn, and Peanut Butter Milkshake. The Bon Bons were rich and packed with full of flavour, the Truffle popcorn was lost on me (popcorn is weird), but hey who doesn’t like a light creamy Peanut Butter milkshake. Some great snacks but we were eager for the first course.

I was so pleased The Chippie faired well in the public voting as it was my favourite of all the menus and I had forgotten how wonderfully light the Chips and Cheese starter course was. A little cup of the rich and light espuma, with a nice mix of confit potato pieces, some soft, some ‘edges’ and the curry oil adds a very subtle aspect to the dish without overpowering it. I love to think I’d be able to eat a much bigger serving of this but it’s so rich, I think the portion size is about right.

My rants on what constitutes a proper pie are well enough know by my friends (who I was eating with) yet we didn’t really care when this delicious deconstructed plate of tasty offerings was put in front of us. The beef shin is the star, melting in the mouth, falling apart under the gentlest of prods with the fork, I definitely COULD eat a larger portion of this. The onion sauerkraut and brioche help bring it together and it was universally praised and quickly scoffed.

The Mac and Cheese dish I remember as being good but nothing to shout about. It hasn’t really changed in content or presentation but was an absolute delight. A ‘slice’ of thick and very cheesy macaroni, with succulent chicken wing in a light barbeque sauce, all helped by the nutty charred cauliflower, definitely seemed better than the first time round!

Next up, the Sea Bream Taco – and putting aside the fact that I didn’t vote for this – which was pretty tasty although the lime salsa doesn’t sit well on my plate. The fish is clearly the star here, perfectly cooked with a nice crisp skin, sitting on top of a slightly too oily taco, all of which sits on top of a delicious guacamole. A nice idea but one of those dishes you have to move around to eat (you try cutting a taco sitting on a pile of guacamole!). As always, all well presented, and tasty enough just some aspects aren’t for me.

The final savoury dish was one of my least favourites when I first tried it, but having seen it plated up at other tables, I thought I’d stick with it (I had contemplated swapping this course out for the vegetarian option which was the same dish but with beetroot instead of duck). Alas it fell short. The duck was better than the last time, but there just isn’t enough variety of flavour for me which was surprising given it was on the Illusion menu which managed to mess with visuals and flavours pretty well. One sad little pickled mushroom was all I had to give the dish some pop. A shame (especially when the other vote option was, notably, a lot better).

Thankfully along came dessert to rescue the day! Whilst I had voted for the Lemon Tart, I was just as happy to see the Egg dish arrive. Presented as half of a frozen coconut panacotta egg, with passionfruit yolk, it was packed full of vibrant flavours, and as it melted that panacotta adds to the sumptuous of the entire plate. Wonderful stuff.

We had managed to get a table right at the start of this ‘new’ menu, and as ever I know they will tweak the dishes as they work through the 6 week run, what’ll be really interesting this time is to see where they finally end up, having had 12 weeks to fuss and cajole these wonderful plates of food into something better and better with each presentation.

Overall, as always, a good evening of tasty food. Going in, part of me thought the idea of a ‘Best of’ would diminish each dish a little as I’ve tried them all before, but instead I found myself twice as delighted to be able to revisit some of my very favourite plates of food from last year again.

Have I mentioned that the set menu is £25 for six courses (and you can swap courses between the main and vegetarian options). Add in £5 for the ‘Snacks’, and £5 for an apertif, chuck a bottle of wine in and for £45-50 a head you are being treated to high end cuisine in a laid back environment. The food quality remains high, as does the execution of each plate. It really is a fine dining experience on a budget.

I discovered the Hidden Brain podcast late last year and it’s quickly become a favourite.

The Hidden Brain helps curious people understand the world – and themselves. Using science and storytelling, Hidden Brain’s host Shankar Vedantam reveals the unconscious patterns that drive human behavior, the biases that shape our choices, and the triggers that direct the course of our relationships.

It’s a mishmash of topics, all delivered by a curious, engaged host who has enough background knowledge to ask good questions and never fails to get me thinking about how I act, how I engage with the world, and how I am affected by the world around me.

The most recent episode is one that touches on the world we live in today, tracing back through from the roots of advertising to the simple notion that is pretty evident to everyone I know, “our mental space is under attack by attention hijackers”. It also touches on how Trump became President, the first popular usage of fake news, and just how much advertisers will lie to us.

The big takeaway for me from this episode was to find a way to be more mindful with my everyday attention. It’s too easy to ‘just spend 10 minutes’ on Buzzfeed (also mentioned in the podcast) and lose most of a day without really paying attention to it; those times where a quick google at 10pm suddenly finds you watching YouTube videos at 1am are all down to manufactured content deliberately created to draw us in and keep our attention.

How often do you decide what holds your attention?

Listen to the full episode here:

And you can subscribe to future episodes using this RSS Link.

Got any podcast recommendations? I’d love to hear them.

Thanks to the people who threw a couple of these my way, if you do spot anything and think ‘that weirdo will probably find this interesting’ then send it on (Twitter usually best way). And yes, it takes a weirdo to know a weirdo…

• Commencement 1999
  Rocker David Bowie and jazz innovator Wayne Shorter accepted honorary doctorates while 580 graduates received their diplomas at the 1999 Berklee Commencement last Saturday.
  No idea why this bubbled into my timeline but it did, and it’s Bowie, and it’s wonderful. What better way to start 2018!

• Every Last Jedi
  This is a spoiler-filled first set of reactions to Star Wars: The Last Jedi.
  Yes I’ve seen it. Yes I’m in the ‘well that could’ve been better’ camp. Not bad, just not as good as we’d all hoped (at least it’s not another Jar Jar).

• A People’s History of Tattooine (with tweets)
  @tcarmody I’m just saying you can’t trust a man what plays in a cantina band. Not you, Figrin D’ith.
  Is this fanfic? I think this is fanfic (regardless of the medium). One for Star Wars geeks.

• From C-3PO’s perspective, ‘Star Wars’ is a prolonged nightmare
  Which means that soon our giddy anticipation will give way to hard, cold reality like the planet Hoth — or soft, warm reality, like a Wookiee’s hug, as the case may be. We know that C-3PO, everyone’s favorite useless golden robot butler, is going to be in the new movie.
  Is this fanfic? I think this is fanfic (regardless of the medium). One for Star Wars geeks.

• The Improbable Time When Orson Welles Interviewed Andy Kaufman (1982)
  “Sitcoms are the lowest form of entertainment,” declares Andy Kaufman as portrayed by Jim Carrey in Milos Forman’s biopic Man on the Moon. “I mean, it’s just stupid jokes and canned laughter.”
  The reverbations of my watching of Jim & Andy continue. I fear I may be entering a Kaufman-esque hole in the internet soon (or I have already?)

• The Next Bechdel Test
  The Bechdel-Wallace Test — more commonly abbreviated to the Bechdel Test — asks two simple questions of a movie: Does it have at least two named female characters? And do those characters have at least one conversation that is not about a man? A surprising number of films fail the test.
  Further, much needed, reverbations from #metoo

• An Argument Against Luxury Seating at the Movies
  The increasingly popular luxury reclining chair is a scourge on the moviegoing experience. Featuring heated seats, padded footrests and leather upholstery, these reservable, oversized, electric-powered armchairs have been installed incrementally at the country’s major movie theater chains.
  I’ve yet to try one of these, and let’s be honest, the problem with cinemas is not the seats (hint: if you talk during a movie YOU ARE THE PROBLEM)

• 30 years after Prozac arrived, we still buy the lie that chemical imbalances cause depression
  Some 2,000 years ago, the Ancient Greek scholar Hippocrates argued that all ailments, including mental illnesses such as melancholia, could be explained by imbalances in the four bodily fluids, or “humors.”
  This is STILL the line, I’ve heard it from my own doctor. Shocking.

• Achieve That New Year’s Goal By Not Telling A Soul
  If you don’t think this applies to you, you’re in good company—this topic has caused some controversy in the Curiosity office. Many of us think that a declaration of your goals is just a way to stay accountable to them, not a way to feel like you’ve already achieved them.
  I’ve already mentioned that I don’t do resolutions but here’s the thing, I do them every year. Accountability vs fear of failure is a tough balance though.

• The David Bowie Book Club Gets Launched by His Son: Read One of Bowie’s 100 Favorite Books Every Month
  Cast as the star of 1976’s The Man Who Fell to Earth, David Bowie traveled to New Mexico for the shoot, meeting with director Nicolas Roeg soon upon arrival. “I took with me hundreds and hundreds of books,” Bowie said to The Face magazine a few years later.
  Wanna start a book club, or just get some ideas? Here ya go.

• Iceland has a simple solution for closing gender pay gap: Make it illegal
  … (yup, I got nothing. Simple solution indeed).

• The year we wanted the internet to be smaller
  Americans got tired of big social media in 2017. Or at least, we stopped wanting to look at it, and we stopped pretending to like it.
  *yawn* must be the new year, didn’t we say a lot of this last year (about stepping away from social media)? I know I did…

• Why You Should Always Add Water To Your “Neat” Whiskey
  But not all whiskeys are smokey, especially as you get farther from Scotland. Still, it’s quite likely that the phenomenon remains in effect.
  First things first, Scottish whisky HAS NO ‘E’ in the spelling!! Other than that, whisky is rank, go nuts.

• Interview: Architect Marc Kushner
  Manipulating space in order to create new ways for us to live and work, architects have always experimented with their craft.
  The one profession I’d love to have gotten into, I find design (particularly when focused on how humans interact with it) to be endlessly fascinating.

• The 99 best things that happened in 2017
  If you’re feeling despair about the fate of humanity in the 21st century, you might want to reconsider. In 2017, it felt like the global media picked up all of the problems, and none of the solutions. To fix that, here are 99 of the best stories from this year that you probably missed.
  See, the world is not a bad place! Screw the media, believe in love and compassion!

• Scientists have created a drug that replicates the health benefits of exercise
  Researchers have made the breakthrough of couch potatoes’ dreams with a new drug that mimics some of the most important effects of exercise.
  FINALLY!

• Fiber Is Good for You. Now Scientists May Know Why.
  A diet of fiber-rich foods, such as fruits and vegetables, reduces the risk of developing diabetes, heart disease and arthritis. Indeed, the evidence for fiber’s benefits extends beyond any particular ailment: Eating more fiber seems to lower people’s mortality rate, whatever the cause.
  And here was me eating Fruit & Fibre for how good it tastes…

• There’s a reason using a period in a text message makes you sound angry
  When it comes to texting, the period gets a lot of attention. What they’re actually noticing is written language becoming more flexible, with texting possessing its own set of stylistic norms (sometimes informally called “textspeak” or “textese”).
  Language evolves. I’m trying not to get angry at this nonsense though. Can. You. TELL?

• Easter hunt is on: Cadbury makes batch of white Creme eggs
  British confectioner Cadbury is making a white chocolate version of its popular Easter Creme egg — and offering a cash prize for those who find them as it tries to bolster the product’s appeal.
  It’s actually offering the prize to stop any idiot trying to eat what will be the most sickly sweet thing ever invented (after tablet, obvs).

• The Top Albums of 2017
  Here is my soundtrack from the past 365 days, a very long, very weird year. All in all, there were 74 albums I went back to over and over in 2017. And here’s a Spotify playlist of the entire pile.
  Maybe I’ll just keep up with music one year behind, seems to be easier that way, let everyone else figure out the good stuff first.

• What is your album of the year and why? (Song of the year ok also.)
  So: If you had to pick one album that was your big discovery in 2017 – or just one song, if you can’t pick an album – what would it be? Why is it so great? Then they talked about watching the film when they were nine and I wanted to die, but I still love the record…
  Both a reminder that AskMeFi is still going strong, and that there is always new music you had no idea existed. Bjorn from Abba’s Piano album is bloody lovely!

• How to protect your PC against the major ‘Meltdown’ CPU security flaw
  Details have emerged on two major processor security flaws this week, and the industry is scrambling to issue fixes and secure machines for customers. Dubbed “Meltdown” and “Spectre,” the flaws affect nearly every device made in the past 20 years.
  Still ‘breaking’ but worth keeping an eye out for more on these issues.

• Rock night at the museum: Gigs and shows will accompany Rip It Up exhibition at National Museum
  The NMS has held Fringe events before but not rock gigs to accompany exhibitions. The Herald was allowed a peak at some of the 300 exhibits which will form the exhibition, at the NMS’s huge store in Granton, north Edinburgh.
  Looks like a wee day out in Edinburgh this year.