A Simple Love Like That

“I have a big problem with people masking the cheese.” -Maggie, 11-year-old president of the Sporkful Junior Eaters Society, discussing burrito toppings

“This is The Sporkful — it’s not for foodies, it’s for eaters. I’m Dan Pashman, and we’re about to challenge your assumptions about consumption and drop a sporkful of knowledge on you because we’re obsessively compulsive about eating more awesomely and because if history has taught us anything, it’s that the hosts of food shows need a lot of catchphrases.” -Dan Pashman, host of The Sporkful

And these were just some quotes from the first five minutes of this episode. SO GOOD.

From Earth Magazine:

“Scott Huler, a blogger for Scientific American, was the first to characterize the proposed North Carolina legislation as a move to make sea-level rise illegal, a tongue-in-cheek, albeit serious, characterization that quickly achieved national notoriety. Huler eloquently noted that North Carolina’s legislative ‘inquisitors’ would come to be classified along with Galileo’s papal persecutors — as having been on the wrong side of history — and that the bill was akin to basing weather forecasts on what one’s grandfather remembers.

“Perhaps the most widely disseminated, satirical, yet erudite, criticism was provided by comedian Stephen Colbert, who waxed that the North Carolina legislature’s move to give in to the NC-20 pressures was a ‘brilliant solution … if your science gives you a result that you don’t like, pass a law saying that the result is illegal. Problem solved.’

“The comedic ridicule must have been too much for the North Carolina legislature. The final version of House Bill 819, which became law in August 2012, doesn’t make sea-level rise illegal, nor does it limit sea-level rise to linear projections based on only historical data. Instead, the ratified version of the bill completely ignores the suggestions of the Science Panel altogether, showing that little to nothing in the report was actually considered. The new law requires no consideration of sea-level rise in any planning, and merely asks the Science Panel to prepare a new sea-level rise report and present it to the legislature by 2015. Furthermore, it essentially mandates which conclusions about sea-level rise must be included in the revised report, specifically requiring a ‘summary of peer-reviewed scientific literature that address[es] the full range of global, regional and North Carolina-specific sea-level change data and hypotheses, including sea-level fall, no movement in sea level, deceleration of sea-level rise, and acceleration of sea-level rise.’

“This requirement is alarming. The few papers cited by the NC-20 that claim sea-level rise deceleration, stability or even sea-level fall have been discredited or been found deeply flawed by the scientific community. Indeed, this is the reason why they were not included in the Science Panel’s original assessment. Of course, the exclusion of these dubious papers has been spun by the NC-20 to support their assertion that the Science Panel report was biased and purposefully stripped of opposing views. It seems that the state legislature is now asking for a ‘book report’ of all literature, so that legislators and coastal policymakers get to decide what science is good and what science is bad. This new requirement raises the question of why they have bothered to involve an expert science panel at all.”

I love you North Carolina, but to quote Shawn and Gus from Psych, COME ON, SON. This is absurd. 

With each incarnation since its inception in 1919 — first as a performing arts theater, then as a cinema, and now as a bookstore — the Grand Splendid in Buenos Aires, Argentina, has proven itself befitting of its majestic title. Having retained its original frescoed ceilings, ornate theater boxes, elegant rounded balconies, detailed trimmings, and plush red stage curtains, the interior of the building remains as stunning today as when it was first envisioned by architects Peró and Torres Armengol.

It’s just so pretty.