Moreso than any seat I think I’ve ever seen, the Karuselli Chair looks like something that should be stationed front and center on the bridge of the starship Enterprise. Can’t you just see Kirk in there, doing a power swivel to talk biz with Spock or Scotty? In reality, the fiberglass classic was not conceived in space; it debuted fifty years ago here on Earth, and this short vid gives a fascinating glimpse behind the scenes of how it’s made.
Wall Street is worried. Not about government regulation or investigations by law enforcement agencies. No, the countries financial institutions are concerned about cyber attacks. The Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association, or SIFMA,…
This week we’re hearing again – and potentially seeing – the Samsung virtual reality headset. This headset is said to be similar to Google’s #cardboard setup, allowing you to make use of your Samsung smartphone for the display in a head-mounted virtual reality experience. Then there’s Oculus Rift, the highest-end of the bunch, ready to take on all interlopers. Samsung … Continue reading
Let’s all agree that it’s been a tough eight years for real estate since the boom times that began to collapse in 2006. Millions lost their homes to foreclosure, more than a million are still underwater, owing more on their mortgages than their homes are worth. Still more are just above water, but not enough to pay the commissions and closing costs to sell their homes.
There’s been a lot of publicity about improving markets, higher home prices, and even bid wars in some areas. However, for the most part those bid wars are in a very tight price range band and the competition there isn’t being felt in most of the rest of the market. Real estate investors have fueled most of the demand over the past few years, and they’re still quite active in buying up deeply discounted properties that end up in rental service.
This mini-bubble of price increases isn’t coming from anywhere near normal demand from first time or resale buyers. It’s been from investors and mostly cash purchases. Armed with this information, the consumer who wants to buy a home but is afraid of seeing its value drop after purchase isn’t necessarily overreacting. I believe that it’s more likely that on average home values will appreciate in the future, but nothing like the boom years.
Conservative estimates place the next ten years’ appreciation at possibly 2 to 3 percent per year in most areas. That average will obviously be exceeded in some of the hot markets in California, Arizona, Florida and New York. However, these will be isolated pockets, and if you’re not buying there, it’s not information of great value to you.
Far from sneezing at 3 percent or so appreciation, it’s at least a rising of value, and if a home buyer intends to stay in the home for 8 to 10 years, they should get their investment back with interest. However, there is a way to increase your ROI (Return On Investment) by changing your perspective and goals when you’re buying. We’re a consumer driven economy, and the real estate industry responds to consumer wishes like any other business. If the consumer wants granite countertops and all of the newest bells and whistles in a home, then that’s what the market will attempt to provide.
Buyers who want those bells and whistles will be willing and able to pay for them, and that’s great. However, if you’re buying in that mode, then expect little more than that 2 to 3 percent appreciation in value over time. If you’re willing to “buy down,” forgoing the bells & whistles, maybe installing them yourself, you’ll be buying below that “consumer driven” market pricing.
Think more like a real estate wholesale buyer and you’ll increase your chances at much higher appreciation numbers, perhaps in the double-digits. Pass on the granite countertops and install them later. Buy a smaller home with add-on potential, add a bedroom and bath, and you just created value appreciation. Do a good inspection, but be willing to take on a few repair headaches and you just might be buying below market value from the start.
If you can buy a home with some repair issues and maybe some correctable dysfunctional floor plan problems, you’re poised to do that rehab work over time and profit handsomely. The other important advantage you’ll enjoy is much less competition on the buy side, giving you greater negotiating clout and a discount purchase price opportunity. If you can lock in some appreciation at the closing table, you’re starting the game with an advantage over the retail buyer.
It is OK to want the best from the start, but be ready to pay for it and settle for normal value appreciation in the future. Buy something less than your dream home, lock in a discount below market value at closing, and improve the property and you’ll be one of those homeowners who will skew the selling statistics in the future. Your buy-at-wholesale and sell-at-retail approach will make you very happy down the road.
“Eating is unfeminine. You should feel guilty about it. But also sexually aroused by it.”
In one sentence, College Humor manages to nail the ridiculous mixed messages just about every food ad targeted at women pushes on viewers.
Move over, sultry voiceovers telling women to eat “guilt-free” or “indulge” or “embrace your inner goddess.” This is officially the only dessert commercial we ever need to see.
A leaked European Union trade document, published by the Washington Post, reveals the dangers of the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership for communities and our climate. The document, similar to a previously leaked EU proposal for a chapter on energy which I wrote about here, makes it clear that the EU is looking to use this secretly negotiated trade pact as a back-door channel to get automatic, unfettered access to U.S. fracked gas and oil. If this proposal moves forward, we would see more fracking for oil and gas in the United States, more climate-disrupting pollution globally, and increased dependence on fossil fuels in the EU. So, while oil and gas companies on both sides of the Atlantic rake in profits, everyone else is stuck paying the costs.
To understand the real implications of the proposal, let’s look at some key elements and translate what each means for communities, energy policy, and climate.
1. “The EU proposes to include a legally binding commitment in the TTIP guaranteeing the free export of crude oil and gas resources by transforming any mandatory and non-automatic export licensing procedure into a process by which licenses for exports to the EU are granted automatically and expeditiously. Such a specific commitment would, in the EU’s view, not require that the U.S. amend its existing legislation on oil and gas.”
Translation: The United States should scrap its process for reviewing the impacts of exporting natural gas and crude oil and automatically send the EU our gas and oil.
Here is the background. In the United States, companies must secure a license to export crude oil and natural gas. Exports of crude oil to the European Union are allowed only if the president determines they are consistent with the national interest and they pass an impact assessment. The EU proposal, however, would require the United States to “automatically and expeditiously” approve crude oil export licenses without even considering the national interest. That leaves no room to even examine how more dirty fracking and more dangerous exports will harm communities here at home. Exporting crude oil to the EU would mean windfall profits to Big Oil, more fracking, and more climate-disrupting pollution.
With respect to natural gas, the EU proposal would remove the U.S. Department of Energy’s requirement to review whether exports are in the public interest before approving any exports. The rubber-stamping of exports would lead to increased natural gas production — most of which will come from dangerous fracking. The natural gas would then be transported to export facilities and cooled and liquefied for overseas shipment — an extremely energy-intensive process that creates a dirty climate-disrupting fuel.
2.“EU and U.S. companies would be first beneficiaries.”
Translation: The oil and gas industries will be the first ones to benefit. Not much explaining to do here! Increased fracking for oil and gas and more exports means more profits for corporate polluters. The oil and gas industry may, in fact, be the only beneficiaries. Certainly American communities and our climate would lose out.
3. “Only a dedicated chapter [on energy] will allow for the necessary coherence and the required visibility to fulfill this role. Having energy and raw materials addressed in provisions dispersed throughout different chapters of a TTIP agreement would not result in the kind of integrated disciplines that are required to address the specificities of these products and the way in which they are traded.”
Translation: We can deal with energy trade issues through an energy chapter (the EU position) or by dispersing language throughout the TTIP. This text could indicate that the U.S. wants to do the latter — a sly approach, as it would be less visible to the public but would likely have the same harmful results.
The Sierra Club believes there must not be anything anywhere in trade deals that guarantees “free trade” in fossil fuels or otherwise hinders climate action, so scrapping this energy chapter is one place to start.
4. “In the future, an energy and raw materials chapter negotiated between the U.S. and the EU could serve as a platform for each party’s negotiations with energy and raw materials relevant partners such as Mexico for instance.”
Translation: Watch out world! This proposal isn’t just for sending unfettered exports of U.S. oil and gas to Europe. An energy chapter is also a dangerous precedent for agreements with other countries, such as Mexico. Every country must be able to manage its own energy sources, natural resources, and climate policies. Trade agreements can’t stand in the way.
5. “In conclusion, a clear signal from the U.S. at this stage that it is accepting the principle of negotiating a specific chapter including provisions on unrestricted access to U.S. natural resources would show our resolve while further encouraging investments in the upstream and downstream energy sectors.”
Translation: The EU wants the green light from the U.S. for an energy chapter in TTIP. Further translation: Let’s get mobilized! Trade agreements negotiated behind closed doors cannot put corporations before people and countries. The first step to ensuring that trade agreements actually protect communities and the public is to stop U.S. “fast-track” legislation that would facilitate the approval of harmful trade pacts without sufficient Congressional or public input.
Sergio de Arrola is a Spanish guerrilla artist and photographer who is uncomfortable with the moniker “artist.” His work ranges from portraits taken in South America to a photo essay of American life shot while pedaling his bicycle from New York to Los Angeles in 48 days. Sergio’s mission, it seems, is to depict the world in black, as well as striking color. These days, one of the Spaniard’s most attention-grabbing projects involves “pasteup” large format printing and his “Banksy” style guerrilla street art displays. In the dead of night, Sergio and his team stealthily paste massive images all over Madrid. Glue, rollers and huge photos are the basic tools this photographer employs in his efforts to transform the various barrios of Spain’s capital. I recently caught up with de Arrola to talk about art, large format printers, travel and run-ins with the Spanish authorities. He was also kind enough to give me permission to share his photos with the rest of the world here. Here’s what he had to say.
What do you like about being an artist and photographer? What do you dislike about the artistic life?
Sergio de Arrola: I don’t know if I consider myself an artist. I think I’m working on it. I work everyday trying to make coherent work that represents myself as a human being. I like art that involves emotions and real life. I like to talk with the people in my portraits. I love to relate to the emotions of the people that I portray in my work. I don’t hate anything about art. I can hate some institutions or people that try to cheat and that don’t try to make something serious.
You’ve worked in Barcelona and Madrid. Can you compare and contrast your art and life in both cities?
Barcelona is a really arty city. When I arrived there in 2004, it was even more so. The city was painted with colorful graffiti from artists from all around the world. Back then Madrid was the opposite. It was a very “political” city. Art was only in museums and “serious” institutions. Now the balance has changed. Barcelona is trying to be more “serious,” and Madrid is becoming funkier. I really love the beach and the vibe of Barcelona, but I also enjoy living in a big city like Madrid, where you’re more anonymous than in a little town.
Why did you create the Rolling Habits street project?
The main reason was because I wanted to share my photography with people in a direct way. Show them my work when they’re working or just living life. I think people are more receptive when they’re walking in the street compared to when they’re walking around a museum. I enjoy this. I also like seeing my work in different formats. Normally when you take a photo, the context is closed, but when you paste it up on a wall, this changes. The image is given a new dimension because it’s interfering with the environment. In the future, I hope I can paste photos up in other cities and countries.
Have you ever gotten into trouble with the police for pasting up large format photos around Madrid?
Sure! Sometimes we run around in the night to avoid contact with the police. If you’re not doing anything too risky or prohibited, like crossing the highway or something like that, in the end it’s only paper and glue — and the glue is almost water. If the police catch you, you can just take the paper off the wall. It’s always better if I don’t talk with the police too much. The work is illegal, but at the same time it’s kind of friendly. On the M-30 highway in Madrid, I once pasted up 30 portraits (two meters each) on the walls to the highway entrance. When the police caught us, they were very aggressive at first, but in the end, everybody was laughing and chilling out with five police cars and 10 cops, plus four of my friends. The police took some of my posters away as a “proof” to show to some “important” guy.
What is your favorite brand of large format printer?
My experience in printing is totally amateur. I’m not an expert. I have an HP5000. It’s a large format plotter. You can print up to 1.5-meters wide, so it’s perfect for big paste up projects.
What other projects are you working on now?
I have an “intervention” paste up on a 14-meter wall in Barcelona that I’m very excited about. It’s gonna be massive! I’m also editing a book about a bicycle trip I made in the U.S. last year. I took lots of portraits and very nice images about the loneliness and the beauty of North America. I’m also thinking about my next big trip. I want to join a tour from Cairo to Cape Town. This time it’s not gonna be alone, but the intention is the same. I’ll take portraits and reflect on the reality of the places I visit.
This article was originally published in The Blot Magazine.
A few things happened over the past week that made me wonder whether or not I had officially grown up:
1. My parents got smartphones and tried to jump into the 21st century without training.
2. I finally watched the Game of Thrones finale and started pondering if it was too late for me to be a warrior.
3. I went to the dentist (more on this later).
4. I had extra days off at work, which typically leads me to spend time thinking superfluously.
Age-wise, I’m definitely an adult, as I’m turning 30 in October (holla!). But growing up involves more than a numerical cut-off. It’s about mindset: abandoning youthful ideology, recognizing hard truths, remembering to get an oil change, and buying your own self an ice cream cone. This doesn’t come easy.
Right now, I’d say I’m 75 percent grown up. I have a job and health insurance, plus guest towels in my bathroom, which, if you ask me and I am, is the ultimate sign of maturity. I’m also fully aware that The Lion King was not based on a true story.
Yet 25 percent of me still believes you can make friends by sharing your dessert at lunch, and checks for bad things under my bed every night before I go to sleep. Considering I believed in Santa Claus until the fifth grade, it’s no surprise I’m running behind grown-upness-wise. I was verging on age 10 when my grandmother accidentally broke the news about Jolly Old St. Nick.
“You’re still pretending about Santa for your little brother, aren’t you?” She asked me during a car ride over summer vacation. I felt like all the ice cream in the entire world had melted.
“Huh?” I said.
“Ronnie still believes in that stuff, so you need to go along with it for a little while longer. Don’t ruin it for him.”
Ruin WHAT!?
I’d had my doubts, of course; I knew there were disputes as to who was the “real” guy. But there was also a bunch of proof: The Christmas cookies we left out that were eaten in the morning. The magic feeling in the air around the holidays. The news coverage of Santa’s flight progress on Christmas Eve. The wish lists mailed directly to the North Pole. One time I even saw hoof prints in the snow on our roof — you could put someone in jail with that kind of a case!
Therefore, I could never be sure Santa was a fraud until my grandmother destroyed him with her imagination ax. I’ve long since come to terms with the situation, but there are other things I’m unwilling to forfeit.
For instance, I was legitimately bummed when the dentist didn’t let me choose what color toothbrush I got to take home on my visit. When did that start happening? It was bad enough they scaled back on toothpaste. LET ME PICK OUT A DAMN BRUSH.
Also, remember free cookies at the grocery store? Only for kids. It’s really like that. FYI — I don’t not want cookies now; if anything, I want two.
Looking through photos, it’s unclear where I’m at in the whole grown-up process. I appear most mystified by life around the time I received first communion at church. The Catholics lay a lot on you about Heaven, Jesus, and managing your sins, and it’s hard to balance all that while also finding the perfect outfit …
I also look pretty innocent here, searching for treasure in the leaves … I’d have taken candy from any stranger that day, and I probably still would.
I think I am most grown up while chopping wood on my first and last camping trip. Super adult of me, right? I can tell by the level of how much it sucked.
Finally, I honed in on this picture at my grandparents’ house in Florida.
They used to live in a big place on a lake with an orange grove, and everything in the world was possible. We looked for gators and went fishing and only once did my bubble of awesome burst when fire ants obliterated my bare feet; then I came back and obliterated them with my Keds.
Looking at that photo, I decided you grow up a little bit each time you learn what it means to lose something you can’t get back. Time, of course, is the most significant loss to digest, but it’s hard to understand the value of a minute. I only totally get it when I’m on my way to work in the morning.
When my grandparents died, when there was no more house on a lake with an orange grove, I grew up a lot. When Santa Claus stopped delivering gifts, I grew up too.
When I crashed my car a month after I got my license, and was forced to drive 200 hours with my mother in order to get another one, I grew up a shit ton.
Any time I wasted an opportunity to try something new or act spontaneously, I grew up because I was stuck with the end result.
Some people grow up faster than others depending on when they lose what (I’m talking to you, Teen Mom!). Some people choose to grow up by eluding their faith or fancy. You also gain things along the way.
The one thing I haven’t lost is my imagination, and all the wonderings that once made me believe in Santa. I still think people are inherently good (except the bitches who work for United Airlines), I get really excited about rollercoasters, and I consider birthday cake one of the best things ever. Furthermore, to this day, I’m devastated by the death of Littlefoot’s mom in The Land Before Time. What an emotional rollercoaster.
Most importantly, I continue to believe if you try really hard, one day it will work out. Whatever it is you’re trying for, it will work out. Even if you want to be Batman like this kid…
You have to live with a little romance, or you’ll never experience a miracle.
That said I’m hoping to be the next Arya Stark! I’m at least going to dress up like her for Halloween this year.
See, I’m like 75 percent grown up.
Turkey’s first directly elected presidential race dominates the political climate. There are three nominees but only one has a campaign logo, so only one has a chance as well. The country’s prime minister and presidential hopeful Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s campaign logo has stirred up public opinion. During the tumultuous announcement of his presidential candidacy, PM Erdogan did not talk about resigning for a fair presidential race but unveiled his new campaign logo — a red rising sun and a twisty road.
As I saw PM Erdogan’s logo on the huge screen of the glossy new hall in Ankara last week, I couldn’t help but feel like I’d seen it before. It looks a lot like President Barack Obama’s 2008 campaign logo.
Obama’s logo was inspired by the “O” in his name, as the Chicago design firm who created the logo explains, but what inspired Erdogan’s logo designers is vague. As Justice and Development Party (AKP) officials explain, the rising sun in Erdogan’s logo symbolizes birth of a new Turkey and also implies a “light at the end of the tunnel.” But we wouldn’t know that it means more than that for Erdogan’s keen supporters.
Obama logo vs Erdogan logo
The striking similarity between the two logos soon became a funny trend topic on social media. Some smart online posters posted a doctored logo of Malibu liqueur, in a way to imply that AKP campaigners have stolen the logo from Malibu bottle, not from Obama.
AKP’s social media guerillas, known as AK Trolls, were quick to find out the real Malibu logo.
They were even quicker to find something else to defend Erdogan’s plagiarized logo: it writes Prophet Mohammed’s name in Arabic there in the twisting road, claimed AK Trolls. This ludicrous justification even stirred the dose of fun in social media.
That was OK if it would stay there. However, someone believed that and the logo turned into a sacred item then. All of a sudden another discussion has emerged. Erdogan’s blind supporters were revering the new logo while his stern opponents were saying this is just another form of exploitation of religion for political purposes.
I would still ignore it if it would stay there. Two days ago on 6 July, country’s finance minister who is controlling a budget of TRY 436.3 billion (approximately $218 billion) with 2014 figures also joined the gang: “Did you know that ‘Mohammed’ in Arabic is used in the logo of our presidential candidate, Mr. Erdoğan?” FM Mehmet Simsek wrote via his verified official Twitter account.
This is where the words end. So let me share my favorite logo for Erdogan’s presidential campaign without a word.
This is an “I Do” you won’t believe they did.
“Married At First Sight,” a new FYI channel reality show that premieres July 8, follows three couples who get legally married the moment they meet. A sexologist, psychologist, sociologist and spiritual adviser play the Cupids who used “scientific matchmaking” and continue to counsel the suddenly betrothed from honeymoon to early nesting, according to the show’s website.
The marriages are absolutely binding, the show’s publicist assures. They were all performed on the same March weekend at a Manhattan hotel. And those who wish to get unhitched can have their divorce financed by the show within six months.
While the concept might seem outrageous, the show’s spiritual adviser had a different take.
“This is not to promote arranged marriage,” Greg Epstein, the humanist chaplain at Harvard University, told The Huffington Post. “What the show is promoting is for people to think long and hard about what really makes for a long-term relationship, what really makes for a good marriage. The show is trying to get people to think in a different way on how they are choosing potential partners.”
At the suggestion that the program makes a mockery of marriage, Epstein replied that he takes marriage seriously and that it is the most important relationship that a human being can have. “But that being said, if one couple on a TV show happens to get divorced — I’m not saying they will or not — that is not going to destroy the institution of marriage,” he added. “Millions are getting divorced. We’re already making a mess of marriages we’re choosing for ourselves.”
What the show, based on a Danish series of the same name, deems an “extreme social experiment” is “potentially a cause for hope,” Epstein said. “I think it can make [people] stop and think, maybe it’s not about finding the perfect person; maybe it’s about being the right partner.”
Check out the preview above and let us know what you think of the idea.
(Hat tip, New York Post)
This is site is run by Sascha Endlicher, M.A., during ungodly late night hours. Wanna know more about him? Connect via Social Media by jumping to about.me/sascha.endlicher.
