Hasta La Gadget!

There are cat people. There are dog people. But not all of us can eloquently explain why we’re on the side we’re on. Three-year-old Alma has no problem, however.

While on vacation with mom Emma Seabrook in Sri Lanka recently, Alma noticed lots of felines in the streets, Rumble Viral’s Claudio Ramolo told The Huffington Post. That led to the exchange, above, in which Alma is asked why she doesn’t like cats. Her answer will slay you no matter which side you’re on.

H/T BuzzFeed

by Caitlin Morton, Condé Nast Traveler

Looking for the beauty of Yosemite and Yellowstone without the crowds? These under-the-radar American parks deserve a spot on your bucket list.

1. North Cascades National Park, Washington

© Terry Donnelly / Alamy

If you want to see glaciers and temperate rainforests in one place, look no further than Washington’s North Cascades National Park. Known for its variety of ecosystems and wildlife, the park is one of the least-visited in the entire country, no doubt due to its rugged terrain and difficult hiking trails. Those up to the task, however, will get the rare experience of spotting bald eagles and hearing the numerous waterfalls that give the park its name.

2. Dry Tortugas National Park, Florida

© Ricardo Arnaldo / Alamy

Located on the southwestern tip of the Florida Keys, Dry Tortugas National Park is actually closer to Cuba than the mainland and is only accessible by boat or plane. And once you make it to the site, you’re pretty much on your own–the park doesn’t provide any facilities for camping or recreational activities. But if you’re willing to prepare, you can more than enjoy the views and history of the island and famous Fort Jefferson, whose military moat resembles an infinity pool at a luxury hotel.

3. Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve, Alaska

© age fotostock / Alamy

Although it’s the largest park in the National Park Service at 13 million+ acres, Wrangell-St. Elias only averages around 65,000 visitors per year (compare that to Yosemite’s nearly 4 million visitors). With only two gravel roads, it’s a perfectly remote spot for adventurers interested in backpacking, hiking, and river rafting.

4. National Park of American Samoa

© Robert Harding World Imagery / Alamy

To say that visiting the National Park of American Samoa requires some effort would be an understatement–you must pass through immigration and customs to enter, camping is prohibited, and there are no restaurants located on the outer islands. However, the tropical landscapes and rich Samoan culture are worth the hassle. For a truly immersive experience, consider signing up for the park’s homestay program to room with locals and learn their unique customs.

5. Great Sand Dunes National Park, Colorado

© Aurora Photos / Alamy

Beautifully set against the Rocky Mountains, the Great Sand Dunes of Colorado (the largest such dunes in North America) are like something from another planet. It takes hours to climb to the top of the dunes from the parking lot, but the feeling of standing alone thousands of feet in the air is well worth the trek. After taking in the vistas, descend by foot or by sled/sandboard and cool off in the Medano Creek at the bottom of the peaks.

6. Lassen Volcanic National Park, California

© Thomas Hallstein / Alamy
While millions of tourists flock to Yosemite and Death Valley, enjoy a more secluded experience at Lassen Volcanic National Park, one of California’s least-visited parks. As the name suggests, the site is home to active volcanoes and hot springs–you can visit them year-round, 24 hours a day. The park also features over 150 miles of hiking trails and eight campgrounds, making it an ideal location for families and experienced explorers alike.

7. Congaree National Park, South Carolina

© Zach Holmes / Alamy

South Carolina’s Congaree National Park is an ideal destination for nature- and adventure-lovers alike. Home to one of the tallest deciduous forest canopies on earth, the park offers first-rate bird watching and wilderness tours, plus kayaking, canoeing, and camping. The masses of Spanish moss make for gorgeous photo ops as well.

8. Virgin Islands National Park, St. John

© Danita Delimont / Alamy

While most of America’s national parks are more about adventure than relaxation, the Virgin Islands National Park offers equal amounts of both. Whether you want to hike or lounge on the beach, windsurf or leisurely snorkel, the island’s accommodations have you covered. And if you’re not in the mood for camping, the park even offers a luxury resort with fine dining options, tennis, and spa packages.

9. Great Basin National Park, Nevada

© Aurora Photos / Alamy

Great Basin is Nevada’s only national park, providing visitors with some of the state’s most beautiful sites–both above and below the surface. It’s an offbeat, adventurous destination for skiing and snowshoeing during the winter, but the warmer months are slightly more popular. Aside from the dozens of outdoor activities (including fishing, camping, and backpacking), the guided tours of the Lehman Caves are perhaps the park’s main draw.

10. Isle Royale National Park, Michigan

© Jim Brandenburg/Minden Pictures/Corbis

Yellowstone receives more visitors per day than Isle Royale gets in an entire year, but don’t overlook the beauty and activities of this Michigan national park. Although it’s consistently chilly and foggy, Isle Royale offers some of the most pristine views you’ll get of Lake Superior. If you’re willing to brave the cold, you can even take a scuba diving trip to the lake’s many shipwreck sites.

More from Condé Nast Traveler:
The Best Cities in the World
Top 25 Cities in the World: Readers’ Choice Awards 2014
15 Places You Won’t Believe Actually Exist
The Friendliest and Unfriendliest Cities in the U.S.
The 10 Best Small Cities in the U.S.
How Not to Look Like a Tourist in Paris

As the euphoria of victory subsides and reality sets in, Greece’s new far-left Syriza government confronts the daunting task of trying to strike a balance between the demands of its political base to end austerity and creditors wanting payment. It inherits the same limited options of its predecessor while approaching deadlines add further pressure to talks. As negotiators embark into unchartered territory, ambiguity increasingly dominates the European landscape as a deal could still prove illusive.

During the campaign, Syriza promised to deliver vast social services and simultaneously renegotiate Greece’s debt by demanding it be halved and austerity measures ended. Creditors’ initial reaction has been firmly negative, particularly in northern Europe. Searching for a middle ground could prove a futile task unless Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras begins to demonstrate fiscal responsibility and the earnest implementation of overdue structural reforms, particularly in the public sector. If progress is made, Greece’s creditors would show increased flexibility.

As Tsipras and creditors begin negotiations, a key priority must be avoiding brinksmanship and an immediate collision course. At home, Tsipras will continue to use firm rhetoric to show public confidence. In Europe, he should continue to use the language of moderation and compromise. It is unlikely that any firm agreement will be achieved in the near future. The reality is that each side will muddle through and search for the lowest common denominators as foundations and confidence-building measures for further talks. A gradualist approach could be taken in the form of stealth restructuring. In essence, it amounts to debt restructuring through a series of extensions and interest reductions in order to buy time for longer term negotiations. However, this can only be achieved within a realistic framework whereby the Greek government is still held accountable for debt with reductions but responsible future policies and practices are firmly put in place. Failure to do so will only plant the seeds for further economic ruin and establish a negative precedent for other debtor states in Europe.

Although Tsipras will approach negotiations instilled with a sense of public mandate from Greek voters to end austerity, he must not forget that leaders of European creditor states are also democratically elected. Consequently, they owe a duty of care to their own citizens for fiscal responsibility. Their voters deserve a say in how and where their taxpayer money is spent. After all, they would be responsible for bearing a large portion of any debt cancellation or reduction. In particular, German taxpayers are extra sensitive to this issue after being obliged to pay a unification tax for absorbing East Germany over 20 years ago. Levying a hefty European Union tax, whether directly or indirectly, to bail out debtors would not be easily accepted. German officials were already irritated by the European Central Bank’s recent quantitative easing of 60 billion euros.

Despite Syriza’s convincing victory, market reaction was relatively calm. For now, Europe has avoided the panic days of mid-2012 when two consecutive Greek elections held all on knife’s edge. Ideally, some form of accommodation will be eventually reached. However, should deadlock result and failure materialize, no scenarios can be excluded. Though undesirable, a Greek exit from the eurozone is no longer taboo nor unthinkable. While Europe is now somewhat better prepared than 2012 for Grexit, no firewalls are completely impenetrable and some form of market turmoil will inevitably occur.

INSIDE GREECE

Overall, Greece’s electoral outcome was generally expected and essentially a vote against the traditional establishment, austerity and the dismal status quo in Greek society mired in economic stagnation. It serves as a wake-up call and lesson for mainstream centrist parties throughout Europe and the democratic world to avoid complacency, reform from within and deliver results. Failure to do so will only fuel populist movements and make their coming to power a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Although Greece’s recent electoral process lasted roughly three weeks, Tsipras was in campaign mode for the past three years as opposition leader. Now the hard work of governing begins. The reality of power replaces the rhetoric of campaigning. He technically led the party which won the most votes, roughly one-third, but in reality it is a coalition of parties as its Greek name implies, Syriza meaning coalition. This united left front is an amalgamation of groups ranging from the center-left to far-left, including Communists and Marxists. Its right-wing, anti-austerity junior partner in government, Independent Greeks, includes hard-core nationalists and advocates an anti-immigration message with considerable racist overtones.

Behind Tsipras’ youthful image of a new generation lies a calculated political operator willing to discard allies and befriend opponents to fulfill his agenda. Contrary to his narrative, Tsipras does not represent a complete break with the past. He speaks about rupturing Greece’s vicious cycle and then actually fuels it by constantly offering vague promises of old state-centric solutions to society’s ills. Such populist rhetoric naturally wins votes and effectively appeals to many left hopeless by the economic crisis. It also reflects a past era Tsipras regularly condemns which was dominated by assertive and persuasive personalities who used the public till as patronage for personal advancement, and particularly for electoral gain. Instead of weaning the public off the opium of state dependency, his politics actually feed it.

Whereas former Prime Minister Antonis Samaras engaged in fear-mongering during the election campaign, Tsipras exploited popular emotion. He has regularly preached the politics of victimization in recent years by blaming everyone else for Greece’s hardships – the troika, Europe, international banks, the establishment and an entire array of protagonists. As prime minister, he should engage in greater introspection. The bottom line is that endemic corruption has been widespread and existed at all levels of society. Ultimately, change and reform can only take place through collective national transformation. In theory, Alexis Tsipras should now lead the process as prime minister. In practice, failure to do so will only further contribute to the vicious cycle plaguing Greece.

Greece lies at an historical crossroads. Hard decisions must be made that will determine whether it pursues a future in Europe or increasingly on its own. The threat of being left behind remains real. Firmly backed by public opinion, Tsipras vows to keep Greece in the eurozone. Although the EU can assume its portion of blame for the status quo in Greece, the roots of Greece’s misfortunes primarily lie within, that is, in decades of economic mismanagement and rampant graft. Ultimately, the will to resolve and remedy these ills and the implementation of real reform can only emanate from within Greek society.

The Beatles were certainly known for adding layers of experimental and uncommon noises to their recordings. But to find the most in depth Easter eggs hidden within the Beatles music, The Huffington Post sought out super fan Mike Brown, who has maintained arguably the most in depth list of Beatles anomalies since the ’90s. Brown’s website What Goes On, which has had a web presence since around 1997 as Brown recalls, has detailed recording notes on just about every Beatles song. Over the years, about 400 people have helped contribute to the database.

This list of anomalies even precedes Brown, as he inherited everything from a Beatles fan named Michael Weiss, who first publicly distributed it in 1992 on USENET, before the “world wide web” was prevalent. Asking how he has continued to find all these Beatles anomalies over the years, Brown explained:

Most now come from submissions — things I hadn’t noticed or considered to be that odd until highlighted. But for those that I spotted — just listening to the stereo vinyl/CDs in detail. In recent years, the availability of Dolby 5.1 Surround remixes for some tracks has opened up the ability for people to really hear stuff in detail that I was listing years before.

Jan. 30 is the anniversary of the Beatles last public performance — a 45-minute gig on the roof of their Apple Records headquarters in London in 1969 — here are some fairly deep-cut and often funny Beatles Easter eggs. A few of their classic songs may have been way dirtier than you remembered …

1. The Beatles purposely pronounce “Sie Liebt Dich,” the German version of “She Loves You,” incorrectly. This essentially makes the song “She Loves Dick.”

The Beatles recorded German versions of both “She Loves You” and “I Want To Hold Your Hand” in 1964. For “Sie Liebt Dich” the band completely mispronounced “dich” as “dick,” a mistake that seems suspicious since The Beatles spent years in Hamburg.

On Mike Brown’s “She Love You” entry, he explains, “I’m sure Paul and John knew that “Dich” is not pronounced as “Dick” but the boys are clearly singing ‘Sie Leibt Dick. Ja! Ja! Ja!'” Brown further told HuffPost:

Brown: Is that an intentional little joke? I think they probably knew, and just tried to slide it past the establishment. They spent long enough in Germany to have picked up the correct pronunciation.

The American version might have a dirty element to it as well. Brown writes that The Beatles actually might be singing something other than the official lyrics:

“Sounds like ‘She loves you, She’d love to, She loves you,’ as opposed to the official lyrics! If these are the lyrics being sung, it’s just their naughty little joke. ‘She’d love to, and you know that can’t be bad, wink, wink …'”

2. When Paul McCartney sings about laughing over dinner in “Lovely Rita,” a subtle pop is made to signify a cork.

The popping is pretty subtle, but Mike Brown believes it to be on purpose, writing in his “Lovely Rita” entry, “The pop after ‘over dinner’ — this is very much intentional, and represents the cork popping over dinner.”

The book Sgt. Pepper and the Beatles: It Was Forty Years Ago Today also references the cork popping:

“In addition to these straight vocals, some comical devices were added … There is imitation of a champagne cork popping (on the phrase ‘over dinner’ at 1’27”) using cheek finger popping.”

3. “For You Blue” begins with John Lennon very softly saying, “Queen says ‘No’ to pot smoking FBI members.”

The line is very quiet compared to the rest of the song, but by cranking the volume a bit, John Lennon’s voice come through clearly. As Mike Brown explains in his “For You Blue” entry, the song is “introduced with John saying “Queen says ‘No’ to pot smoking FBI members.” It is curious, in that this was edited in here deliberately.” Brown explained further to HuffPost:

Brown: I think that was just Phil Spector adding character to things. I don’t know why that line is of such significance. ‘Let It Be’ was supposed to be a “live” back-to-basics album. It ended up more heavily “produced” than the original concept, so adding bits of banter like that may have been part of de-studioing it.

4. George Harrison and Paul McCartney harmonizing “tit tit tit tit” in the background of “Girl” was a dirty joke.

You’d think it’d be obvious that a “tit tit tit tit” harmonizing on a song called “Girl” was a dirty joke, but this usually goes unnoticed. The Beatles Bible points out that Paul McCartney is quoted in the book, Paul McCartney: Many Years From Now, talking about the origin of the joke:

It was always amusing to see if we could get a naughty word on the record: ‘fish and finger pie’, ‘prick teaser’, ‘tit tit tit tit.’ The Beach Boys had a song out where they’d done ‘la la la la’ and we loved the innocence of that and wanted to copy it, but not use the same phrase. So we were looking around for another phrase, so it was ‘dit dit dit dit,’ which we decided to change in our waggishness to ‘tit tit tit tit,’ which is virtually indistinguishable from ‘dit dit dit dit.’ And it gave us a laugh.

It was to get some light relief in the middle of this real big career that we were forging. If we could put in something that was a little bit subversive then we would. George Martin might say, ‘Was that “dit dit” or “tit tit” you were singing?’ ‘Oh, “dit dit,” George, but it does sound a bit like that, doesn’t it?’ Then we’d get in the car and break down laughing.

That “fish and finger pie,” McCartney mentions is from “Penny Lane.” Mike Brown talked to HuffPost about the “four of fish and finger pie” line and explained McCartney has been pretty open about the dirtiness of that line saying, “Paul acknowledged [the line] as ‘a bit of smut, for the lads’ if I recall correctly!”

5. Near the end of “I’m Only Sleeping,” someone almost inaudibly commands “Yawn, Paul.” Then McCartney yawns.

Beatles Music History! believes this muddied command is made by John Lennon and explains further:

“Paul’s ‘yawn’ was added just before the last bridge, preceded by John’s instruction ‘yawn, Paul’ which can quietly be heard in the finished recording.”

Mike Brown’s entry for “I’m Only Sleeping” also points out the moment, stating that a “voice says “Yawn, Paul,” and at 2:01, he does!”

BONUS: There is supposedly an accidental “undeleted expletive” in “Hey Jude” that doesn’t get censored out.

Mike Brown told HuffPost that he first noticed this expletive “after seeing the cryptic reference to it in Mark Lewisohn’s Recording Sessions book.” Brown further said:

Brown: I think one of the funniest has to be the “undeleted expletive” in “Hey Jude.” Mainly because it’s probably the most played record in the history of the planet (I may have made that up), but radio stations seem to be oblivious to John swearing away in the background as he fumbled the acoustic guitar part … Some people think it’s Paul, fumbling on the piano. But I’m not convinced on that. I’d love to hear a clearer version of that backing.

It’s a bit hard to hear (which explains why radio stations play the song uncensored), but it does sound like someone says “wrong chord” and then shortly after shouts “fucking hell” in the background.

All images Getty unless otherwise noted.

Last night I hosted a dinner party at my house, after work, for eight mums from my son’s school. Not a major achievement as it goes – jar of curry paste, a few peppers, bit of chicken and bob’s your uncle.
Except that a year ago last night, aged 35, I was on the verge of a nervous breakdown; going through the perfect storm of divorce, an end to a year’s maternity leave and the start of a big new job, all in the same week.