November 20, 2021

Alice Waters Opens First-Ever LA Restaurant with LULU at the Hammer Museum

The Chez Panisse legend heads south of the Bay along with chef David Tanis.

https://www.thrillist.com/eat/los-angeles/alice-waters-opens-restaurant-lulu

November 20, 2021

London's Best Winter Pop Ups

https://thenudge.com/london-things-to-do/winter-pop-ups/



Winter pop ups have become a stalwart of the city in recent years…

…which makes the people behind them truly seasoned professionals.

So allow us to present you with a little selection of seasonal, eggnog-spiced winter pop ups that you can think warm fuzzy thoughts over, and actually get round to booking before everyone else does. They include three sets of igloos on the Thames, a cinema hidden within a fairy-lit forest, al fresco curling lanes, and more…

FESTIVE THINGS TO DO


The Museum of Architecture’s Gingerbread City | Belgravia



Building an entire city out of gingerbread may sound like a half-baked idea…

…but when it’s constructed by the architects & engineers at the Museum of Architecture, it’s actually pretty impressive, with over 100 artists and architects constructing their own sugar-dusted, fairylit gingerbread edifices… READ MORE

Details: 4th December – 9th January | 6-7 Motcomb Street, Belgravia, London SW1X 8JU | From £8.50


Electric Winter at Between The Bridges | Southbank



This one’s pretty self-explanatory. The Bridges: Hungerford and Westminster, next to the Southbank Centre. The Between: a raucous pop-up covered terrace with street food vendors, bars, live music, festive film screenings and massaoke. READ MORE

Details: Tuesday – Sunday, 18th November – 23rd December | Queen’s Walk, South Bank, SE1 7PB


Club Curling | King’s Cross



If you’re a bit rusty on the old curling, you can brush up here: Coal Drops Yard in King’s Cross is hosting a trio of pop up curling lanes for the festive period. You’ll get 45 mins on the (fake) ice, and there’ll be a pop up bar serving signature cocktails, too.

Details: 11th November – 30th December, daily 12-8pm | Coal Drops Yard, London N1C 4DQ | £5 – pre-book or just turn up

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much much more at the top link

November 20, 2021

I Made the World's Blandest Facebook Profile, Just to See What Happens

My new Facebook account had the most generic interests possible, and still it brought me to a place no one should ever have to go.

https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2021/11/facebook-experiment-toxic-centrist-content/620731/



In 2019, a researcher at Facebook conducted an experiment to see whether the platform really has a tendency to send users down a rabbit hole of extreme and conspiratorial content. The employee set up a pair of fake profiles—for Trump-supporting “Carol Smith” and Bernie-loving “Karen Jones”—and then led each one down the path of least resistance, liking whichever groups and pages Facebook’s recommendation system served up. Not a huge surprise: It took less than a week for Carol to be pushed toward online communities dedicated to QAnon, and for Karen to be swamped by lewd anti-Trump material.

The details of this experiment were found among the thousands of documents shared with reporters last month by the whistleblower and former Facebook employee Frances Haugen; “Carol’s Journey to QAnon,” in particular, has featured heavily in coverage. But the mere existence of the rabbit hole wasn’t shocking in itself. In 2017, the reporter Ryan Broderick published a bloggy version of the same idea at BuzzFeed News: “I Made a Facebook Profile, Started Liking Right-Wing Pages, and Radicalized My News Feed in Four Days.” When that piece came out, Facebook responded, “This isn’t an experiment; it’s a stunt.” Now we know that Broderick’s stunt produced, if nothing else, a replicable result.

Carol’s journey, like Karen’s and Broderick’s, addressed specific, urgent questions about how Facebook might polarize and confuse American voters. Facebook’s fake accounts started out by liking Fox News and Donald Trump, or else Elizabeth Warren and MoveOn; the one created for BuzzFeed went with the Republican National Committee and then–White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus, as well as Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. Taken all together, they show how Facebook’s mechanics, left unchecked, can grab ahold of even the slightest political leaning and bend it to grotesque extremes.

But none of these experiments has that much to say about what might happen to a Facebook user who doesn’t care about politics at all. Let’s say you never gave the platform any hint about your ideology, or how you’ve ever voted, or whether you even have. Let’s say you made yourself as bland and centrist as you possibly could be, and then let the system do its algorithmic work. Would your account get pulled into some other kind of rabbit hole? And if it did, what would be waiting there?

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November 20, 2021

AOC and Jamie Raskin Ridicule 'Evil Imbecile' 🤡 McCarthy On IG Livestream

“Look at those different color ties and haircuts! I’ve never seen a more diverse Republican Party.”

https://www.thedailybeast.com/aoc-ridicules-evil-imbecile-mccarthy-during-record-eight-hour-speech



https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/kevin-mccarthy-rant-react-build-back-better_n_61971469e4b044a1cc0523e7

https://twitter.com/NickKnudsenUS/status/1461537118279192581

November 20, 2021

Trump Announces $230 Picture Book to Fleece Dumbasses in Time for Christmas

https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-announces-dollar230-picture-book-to-fleece-dumbasses-in-time-for-christmas





https://www.axios.com/trump-book-coffee-table-29bcec81-74d3-4eef-975d-c529002bdf29.html

November 20, 2021

NYT Spelling Bee November 19, 2021

https://www.nytimes.com/puzzles/spelling-bee

November 20, 2021

Madonna's Former Miami Home Is Reportedly Being Sold for $32 Million--By a Dog

The pampered pooch, Gunther III, supposedly acquired the mansion as part of an $80 million inheritance from a German countess

https://www.architecturaldigest.com/story/miami-real-estate-dog



You might think you spoil your pet, but when German countess Karlotta Liebenstein died in 1992, she left a staggering $80 million-plus inheritance to her German Shepard, Gunther III. Since then Gunther and his progeny have enjoyed the high life—and a diverse portfolio of luxury real estate holdings, including, supposedly, a Miami mansion once owned by Madonna. The Material Girl sold the nine-bedroom, 8,400-square-foot Tuscan-style villa at 3029 Brickell Avenue to Gunther IV for $7.5 million in 2000. And now his grandson, Gunther VI, has put the luxury waterfront property on the market for $31.75 million, the listing agents say.



“We have sold countless multimillion dollar homes, but this is definitely a first,” Compass realtor Ruthie Assouline, who is co-listing the property with her husband, Ethan, told Architectural Digest. “When the handlers initially told me a dog owned the property, I didn’t believe it.” Whether this is indeed true has become a topic of debate over the past few days. Gunther’s primary residence is in Tuscany (of course), but, when he’s in town, he reportedly sleeps in Madonna’s former master bedroom, nestled in a custom Italian red-velvet round bed overlooking Biscayne Bay.

A gold-frame portrait of the catered-to canine sits on top of the fireplace in the living room, which also includes intricate custom woodwork on the ceiling and a coral grand staircase. Gunther III comes from a vaunted lineage that dates back six generations (about 40 human years). His handlers have invested wisely in numerous sectors, from real estate and publishing to sports teams and
nightlife. Today, worth nearly a half billion dollars, he’s considered the world’s wealthiest dog. Gunther lives better than most of us—traveling by yacht and private jet, dining on prime rib and caviar, and collecting sports cars the way other dogs collect bones.

Aside from its rather unique seller, Assouline beams about the 1.2-acre property’s breath-taking bay views and the expansive acreage lined with royal palm trees and lush landscaping. The gated estate, which sits on a 51,000-square-foot lot, is one of only a half dozen waterfront homes in this exclusive enclave (Sylvester Stallone was once a neighbour). It comes with its own dock and 100 feet of water frontage. “There is an incredible energy with beautiful original elements that can’t be replicated,” Assouline said.

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https://www.compass.com/listing/3029-brickell-avenue-miami-fl-33129/917327716472232521/

November 19, 2021

8 Ways to Mix Up a New Old Fashioned This November and Beyond

Level up your Old Fashioneds, from unique garnishes to a different liquor entirely.

https://www.thrillist.com/drink/nation/how-to-celebrate-the-old-fashioned-this-november-and-beyond









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November 19, 2021

A Grifter Is Born: MAGA teen Nicholas Sandmann urges Kyle Rittenhouse to sue media for defamation

In a column this week, Sandmann writes: ‘The parallels between me and Kyle Rittenhouse are impossible not to draw’

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/kyle-rittenhouse-nicholas-sandmann-defamation-lawsuit-b1960885.html



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November 19, 2021

Disgusting. Soulless. I hope they break Travis Scott in court case by case by case by case.

Travis Scott continues to sing as he watched a passed-out fan at #ASTROFEST.

https://twitter.com/donwinslow/status/1461723646632685570