You can watch the official Super Bowl No More ad (the first-ever Super Bowl commercial addressing domestic violence and sexual assault) and pledge to say NO MORE at NoMore.org.
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This haunting domestic violence ad will be the first of its kind to air during the Super Bowl
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These 11 apps and websites will make you miss your childhood
Between Throwback Thursday and apps like Timehop, nostalgia definitely factors into how we use technology today.
Product Hunt, a discovery website that shows you the newest startups and products, has collected a bunch of websites and apps that will make you want to relive the past. Product Hunt founder Ryan Hoover even wrote a blog post about how he thinks the emotional power of nostalgia makes it a perfect inspiration for people designing products and startups.
Here are our favorite websites and startups that will remind you of your childhood.
Use Stayed Up All Night to create retro mixtapes with a 21st century twist.
Check out Stayed Up All Night and make your own mixtape.
Play more than 900 classic arcade games on your browser at the Internet Arcade. No quarters required.
Check out the Internet Arcade here.
Nick Reboot streams all your favorite Nickelodeon shows from the 1990s and the 2000s, 24/7.
See the rest of the story at Business Insider
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The countries most likely to survive climate change in one infographic
Climate change is real, and it's coming. But we're all going to be affected in different ways. How will your country fare?
The folks at Eco Experts put together a great infographic based on data from the Notre Dame Global Adaptation (ND-Gain) Index, an annual ranking of which countries are best poised to adapt to a warming world.
While the maps provide a great zoomed-out perspective of what's going to happen globally as the earth warms, there are a few caveats to keep in mind when checking it out:
First, these maps are based on country rankings, not comprehensive evaluations of each country. In other words, the best-ranked countries are only as great as they seem compared to the countries that are performing less well.
Additionally, the ranking looks only at the level of entire countries. All of the state-specific, region-specific, or city-specific data gets somewhat lost in this zoomed out perspective.
Take the United States, for example. It gets a green-light on this map. But what about specific parts of the US that aren’t as well-equipped to handle climate change as the country might be on average? Miami Beach, Florida, for instance, is poised to see sea levels rise between 6-7 feet by the end of the century; most of the city is less than 10 feet above sea level. Multiple parts of New York City are similarly vulnerable to climate change.
Thankfully, the US as a whole has the infrastructure to adapt; the government can force people in coastal cities like Miami Beach to move inland; we can also build new airports and transit hubs closer to the center of the country. And the map reflects countries' abilities to do just that.
Here's the graphic in its entirety:
SEE ALSO: The Cost Of Living In Every Part Of The World In One Infographic
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The job market: Incentives matter
America's labour market boomed in 2014. By December there were 3m more people in work than a year earlier. Unemployment was 1.1 percentage points lower.
The ratio of jobseekers to openings fell from a peak of seven to one in 2009 to two to one in November 2014. What was behind this? The answer in a new study will not please Democrats.
The job market is hot largely because of a cold-hearted Republican reform, it concludes. Before the financial crisis, jobless workers in most states qualified only for 26 weeks of unemployment benefits.
In June 2008 that was extended, thanks to a new federal Emergency Unemployment Compensation (EUC) programme. By the end of 2013 the average unemployed American could expect benefits to last 53 weeks; in three states they could get 73 weeks' worth.
The study looks at what happened after Congress refused to reauthorise EUC in December 2013. The average limit on benefits plunged to 25 weeks, cutting off roughly 1.3m Americans immediately. Republicans argued that this would push people back into work.
Several economists disagreed. Michael Feroli of J.P. Morgan predicted that many jobless Americans, no longer required to seek work as a condition of receiving benefits, would drop out of the labour force entirely. Researchers at the Economic Policy Institute, a leftish think-tank, said the cuts would destroy 310,000 jobs by dampening demand.
In the new paper Marcus Hagedorn, Iourii Manovskii and Kurt Mitman look at over 1,000 counties that border each other but belong to different states. When counties are so close together, they assume, their economies will be pretty similar. Transport, climate and skills will not differ much. But the benefits available could have been very different.
In December 2013, for instance, people in Fairfax County, Virginia made do with 40 weeks of benefits; those in nearby Montgomery County, Maryland could get 63. Since the reform limited benefits to 26 weeks in almost all states, it hit Montgomery County harder.
Employment growth in 2014 was higher in counties that saw bigger declines in the duration of benefits. Overall, the authors estimate that the benefit cut led to the creation of 1.8m extra jobs in 2014--about two-thirds of the total. This suggests that the Republicans were right, up to a point.
However, only a minority of the new jobs were filled by people moving off unemployment benefit. Some 1m were taken by people who were previously not in the labour force. That may be because without benefits to rely on, workers were prepared to toil for less. Employers created more jobs to take advantage of lower wages. With vacancy notices popping up everywhere, more people who had given up looking for work decided to try again.
Few people, least of all congressmen, predicted these results. There is still plenty of evidence that making unemployment benefits too stingy is a bad idea, especially when an economy hits the skids. If people feel forced to take the first job that comes their way, they are unlikely to pick the one in which they are most productive. But when the labour market is improving, cutting them may give it an extra spurt.
Click here to subscribe to The Economist
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Democrats won't like why the job market is so hot
America's labour market boomed in 2014. By December there were 3m more people in work than a year earlier. Unemployment was 1.1 percentage points lower. The ratio of jobseekers to openings fell from a peak of seven to one in 2009 to two to one in November 2014. What was behind this? The answer in a new study will not please Democrats.
The job market is hot largely because of a cold-hearted Republican reform, it concludes. Before the financial crisis, jobless workers in most states qualified only for 26 weeks of unemployment benefits. In June 2008 that was extended, thanks to a new federal Emergency Unemployment Compensation (EUC) programme. By the end of 2013 the average unemployed American could expect benefits to last 53 weeks; in three states they could get 73 weeks' worth.
The study looks at what happened after Congress refused to reauthorise EUC in December 2013. The average limit on benefits plunged to 25 weeks, cutting off roughly 1.3m Americans immediately. Republicans argued that this would push people back into work. Several economists disagreed. Michael Feroli of J.P. Morgan predicted that many jobless Americans, no longer required to seek work as a condition of receiving benefits, would drop out of the labour force entirely. Researchers at the Economic Policy Institute, a leftish think-tank, said the cuts would destroy 310,000 jobs by dampening demand.
In the new paper Marcus Hagedorn, Iourii Manovskii and Kurt Mitman look at over 1,000 counties that border each other but belong to different states. When counties are so close together, they assume, their economies will be pretty similar. Transport, climate and skills will not differ much. But the benefits available could have been very different. In December 2013, for instance, people in Fairfax County, Virginia made do with 40 weeks of benefits; those in nearby Montgomery County, Maryland could get 63. Since the reform limited benefits to 26 weeks in almost all states, it hit Montgomery County harder.
Employment growth in 2014 was higher in counties that saw bigger declines in the duration of benefits. Overall, the authors estimate that the benefit cut led to the creation of 1.8m extra jobs in 2014--about two-thirds of the total. This suggests that the Republicans were right, up to a point.
However, only a minority of the new jobs were filled by people moving off unemployment benefit. Some 1m were taken by people who were previously not in the labour force. That may be because without benefits to rely on, workers were prepared to toil for less. Employers created more jobs to take advantage of lower wages. With vacancy notices popping up everywhere, more people who had given up looking for work decided to try again.
Few people, least of all congressmen, predicted these results. There is still plenty of evidence that making unemployment benefits too stingy is a bad idea, especially when an economy hits the skids. If people feel forced to take the first job that comes their way, they are unlikely to pick the one in which they are most productive. But when the labour market is improving, cutting them may give it an extra spurt.
Click here to subscribe to The Economist
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The Seahawks are on the verge of back-to-back Super Bowl wins because
The Seattle Seahawks are one win away from their second straight Super Bowl championship and being crowned as a mini-dynasty.
The Seahawks have made this leap with just two first-round draft picks in the last four years. During the same stretch, the Seahawks were tied with the Baltimore Ravens for the most draft picks in rounds 2-5 (22).
What the Seahawks appear to have learned is that first-round picks are overrated and the most valuable picks actually come in the middle rounds.
The reason for this is in part due in part to the sexiness of the top players as well an archaic point system invented by former Dallas Cowboys head coach Jimmy Johnson.
In the 1980s, Johnson created a draft pick value chart as a reference for trading draft picks. The theory was, if the first pick of the draft was worth 3,000 "points," another team would have to offer a combination of draft picks worth at least 3,000 points in order to trade for the first pick.
Many teams adopted the chart and it helped settle a lot of trades. But there was a problem. The actual value of the players being drafted looked different.
A couple of years ago, FootballPerspective.com took a look at the actual career value of players based on where they were drafted. It turns out, Johnson was severely overrating the value of first-round picks and undervaluing middle-round picks (we scaled the FootballPerspective.com data to match the Johnson points).
Now take a look at how much NFL teams are paying players in their first four years based on where they are taken in the draft.
Notice that the pay curve looks a lot more like the Jimmy Johnson curve than the actual value curve. That is, very steep in the first round, followed by a very slow decline in rounds 2-7.
In other words, just as Johnson had overvalued first-round picks, the NFL is overpaying first-round picks and the best bang-for-your-buck comes in the middle rounds. Teams can then use the savings on other players, whether that is free agents or retaining their older players with long-term contracts, something the Seahawks have excelled at.
We can see how the last four drafts — these are the players that would still be on their rookie contract in 2014 — impacted the 2014 season. Specifically, teams with more draft picks in rounds 2-5 tended to win more games this year.
The correlation is not terribly strong (R2=0.11), but the trend (red line) is positive.
For comparison, let's do the same for teams and the number of first-round picks they had during the same period.
It is a small sample, but at best, teams with extra first-round picks are doing no better than other teams and at worst, they are actually winning fewer games and unlike the chart above, the trend is negative.
Of the 32 teams, ten had their normal allotment of four first-round draft picks. Those teams averaged 8.1 wins in 2014. Five teams had more than four first-round picks, averaging 6.8 wins with only one team posting a winning record (Cincinnati Bengals, 10-6). Meanwhile, seven teams with fewer than four first-rounders averaged 8.3 wins, with four of the seven winning at least ten games in 2014.
Of course, there is no guarantee that a team is going to win more games if they give up their first-round picks for middle-round picks, but on average, those teams tend to win more and the Seahawks are the perfect example.
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This super sexy Carl's Jr Super Bowl ad has gone totally viral
You don't have to wait for the big game to see some of 2015's most-anticipated Super Bowl commercials. Many of them have already been released online and are going viral.
One of the most popular spots is this one from the fast food chain Carl's Jr. The hyper-sexual ad features model Charlotte McKinney receiving plenty of male attention before she takes a bite of the new "All Natural Burger" from Carl's Jr.
Get it? "All natural." See what they did there?
McKinney joins the illustrious ranks of past Carl's Jr "Burger Babes" such as Paris Hilton, Kate Upton, Nina Agdal Katherine Webb and Emily Ratajkowski.
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Meet the carbon-fiber Rolls-Royce inspired by the stealth fighter
The Rolls-Royce Phantom Drophead Coupe is quite unlike any car in the world.
As the only convertible in the Rolls-Royce stable of cars, it's an incredible amalgamation of world-class beauty, luxury, and performance. The hand-crafted luxury ride is one of most rare and expensive cars in the world.
To keep its more discerning customers happy, Rolls has its "Bespoke" arm churn out some uniquely over-the-top special editions.
Their latest offering is the Phantom Nighthawk. That's right, it's named after the F-117 Nighthawk stealth fighter. One look at this menacing machine and it becomes clear that this Roller is no Grey Poupon mobile. With its bright red leather interior and enough carbon fiber to make a Formula One car jealous, this thing is pure Sriracha plus Tabasco plus hit of Habanero.
The Nighthawk edition takes a run-of-the-mill Phantom Drophead and kicks it up a notch.
This ultra-exclusive ride is named after the Air Force's F-117 Nighthawk stealth fighter.
Its sleek looks definitely make good on the promise of its name.
See the rest of the story at Business Insider
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This case transforms your iPad's screen to make typing easier, and it looks like magic
Touchscreens are designed for tapping and swiping, but typing hasn't really been its strong suit. A startup called Tactus Technology is looking to change that, however.
Tactus is getting ready to release its Phorm accessory for the iPad mini — a case and screen protector combination that enables small "finger guides" to rise out of the screen. They kind of look like buttons, but you can't actually press them.
Rather, the small bumps are there to guide your fingers and help you avoid typos. The Phorm will cost $99 during its preorder period starting Feb. 12, but that price will jump to $149 when it officially ships this summer.
Here's how the case itself looks. You can slightly see the bubbles over the keyboard.
Here's a closer look at the finger guides when they're raised:
You can turn them on and off by sliding this switch on the back of the device.
Once the switch is turned on, the small lumps slightly raise from the screen like this: (Note: This isn't the Phorm, but it's an earlier prototype that shows how the technology works.)
Tactus uses a micro fluid panel for the screen protector, which enables small bubbles to appear on the iPad's display. In other words, when you flip the switch, small pockets within the screen protector fill up with liquid to form tiny bumps.
Tactus' case certainly does make typing easier, but the finger guides aren't quite as noticeable as you may think. I felt them slightly as I typed when using the Phorm case, but it wasn't a drastic change. It does make it slightly easier to keep your fingers in line, especially if you're in a situation where you can't really keep your eyes locked on the screen as you're typing.
It's sort of an alternative for haptic feedback, which you'll find as an option on a lot of Android phones. With haptic feedback, the key slightly vibrates after you've touched it to let you know that you've pressed the right letter.
Tactus' case, rather, recreates the actual sensation of touch, which the company says makes it easier for your fingers to remember where the keys are similar to an actual keyboard.
Right now, Tactus only makes a case for the iPad mini, but it'll soon release the same product fitted for the iPhone 6 Plus too.
SEE ALSO: Tim Cook is already subtly telling people why we need an iPad Pro
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Tom Brady's diet is so strict that he eats avocado-based ice cream as a treat
There have been a handful of Tom Brady profiles in recent weeks that focus on his health and fitness.
Brady has a fitness company with Alex Guerrero, a 49-year-old trainer who's typically described as his best friend, business partner, and personal-fitness guru.
Brady, 37, has said repeatedly over the past few months that he intends to play football as long as he possibly can. He has no real hobbies outside of football, so he's doing everything he can do to keep his body in playing shape at an age when most guys have long since retired.
He goes to sleep at 8:30 p.m. He avoids alcohol. He follows a year-round diet.
Brady told Greg Bishop of Sports Illustrated that he eats different foods in the summer than he does in the winter to "maintain balance and harmony" through his metabolic system.
His teammates call the food he eats "birdseed s---."
From SI:
"Take that diet. It's seasonal, which means he eats certain things in the winter that are considered "hot property" foods, like red meat. In the summer, when it's time for "cold property" foods, his diet is mostly raw. He subscribes to the 80-20 theory -- but it's not 80 percent healthy food, 20 percent unhealthy. It's 80 percent alkaline, 20 percent acidic. The idea, he says, is 'to maintain balance and harmony through my metabolic system.' That's why teammates always see him with hummus, raw snack bars packed with nutrients and what one teammate calls 'that birdseed s---.'"
A recent New York Times profile by Mark Leibovich has a great anecdote about how disciplined Brady is with his eating habits.
Leibovich says that even on vacation Brady eats kale for breakfast, and his "desserts" consist of raw macaroons and avocado-based ice cream:
"After his vacation workouts, Brady joined his family for a late breakfast that — for him — consisted mainly of a protein shake that was also high in electrolytes and included greens like kale and collards. (Brady also likes to add blueberries to his concoctions, but some other berries are off limits because they are thought to promote inflammation.) I asked Guerrero at one point if Brady is ever allowed to eat a cheeseburger. 'Yes, we have treats,' he said. 'We make them.' Like what? 'Usually raw desserts, like raw macaroons.' Ice cream made from avocado is another favorite, Guerrero said."
Even the most ardent avocado fans have to admit that's not much of a treat.
NOW WATCH: Victoria's Secret Models Hit The Gridiron In Their Sexy Super Bowl Ad
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Everything you need to know about prime rib, America's new favorite cut of beef
Even though it’s one of the most classic cuts, most of us know next to nothing about standing rib roast AKA prime rib.
The New York Times recently wrote about a resurgence in the cut and how more and more restaurants are putting it back on menus. Perhaps it was time to learn a thing or two.
So we spoke with experts in the industry from both Old Homestead Steakhouse and BLT Steak. These are the 10 things you need to know about prime rib.
Prime rib is technically a roast, not a steak. That is, unless you slice the ribs into steaks before cooking, in which case it becomes a rib eye steak.
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ROUBINI: Here's what pseudo-economists and market hacks got wrong about activist monetary policy
Since the financial crisis, central banks have been engaged in unconventional methods of monetary policy.
And these methods, which include taking interest rates to zero — or lower — and buying trillions of dollars worth of assets, have gotten a lot of people nervous about the future of the world economy.
Writing in Project Syndicate, NYU professor Nouriel Roubini says that the doomsayers and worry warts of these policies are merely "pseudo economists and market hacks" that have "barely any knowledge of basic economics."
"This assortment of 'Austrian' economists, radical monetarists, gold bugs, and Bitcoin fanatics has repeatedly warned that such a massive increase in global liquidity would lead to hyperinflation, the US dollar’s collapse, sky-high gold prices, and the eventual demise of fiat currencies at the hands of digital krypto-currency counterparts," Roubini writes.
Yet these views have still shaped public debate on the matter, and so Roubini feels compelled to explain just what these folks got wrong.
For starters, there remains an output gap in most of the advanced world, giving firms limited pricing power. There is also broad labor market slack, with too many workers chasing too few jobs. (Roubini is talking about the developed world economy, not just the US, which has seen slack come down considerably in the last year.)
There is also slack in real estate markets that are still recovering from burst bubbles, while the slowdown in China has caused a glut of manufactured and industrial goods, leading to deflationary pressures globally.
Giving a broad view of what central bank critics have gotten wrong, Roubini writes:
Simply put, we live in a world in which there is too much supply and too little demand. The result is persistent disinflationary, if not deflationary, pressure, despite aggressive monetary easing.
The inability of unconventional monetary policies to prevent outright deflation partly reflects the fact that such policies seek to weaken the currency, thereby improving net exports and increasing inflation. This, however, is a zero-sum game that merely exports deflation and recession to other economies.
Perhaps more important has been a profound mismatch with fiscal policy. To be effective, monetary stimulus needs to be accompanied by temporary fiscal stimulus, which is now lacking in all major economies.
And so for Roubini, without meaningful fiscal programs — for example, those that increase infrastructure investment — unconventional monetary policy will remain a major feature of the global economy. But this also doesn't mean the world is doomed.
Read Roubini's full essay at Project Syndicate here »
SEE ALSO: Why lower oil prices won't lead to a deflationary spiral
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The Super Bowl trailer for 'Ted 2' is out early — and it's hilarious
You can expect to see a ton of new movie trailers during tonight's Super Bowl broadcast. One of the most anticipated is the spot for "Ted 2," the sequel to the 2012 box office smash that raked in more than $549 million at the international box office.
The first movie's stars Mark Wahlberg and Seth MacFarlane (who voices the titular teddy bear) are back, but the sequel boasts a cavalcade of new talent, such as Morgan Freeman, Liam Neeson and Amanda Seyfried.
Director Seth MacFarlane needs a box office hit after the disappointing performance of "A Million Ways To Die In The West." The western-spoof underperformed at the global box office with an underwhelming haul of $86 million.
"Ted 2" opens on June 26.
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Here are the 5 phrases Taylor Swift trademarked from her latest album
Taylor Swift had a huge 2014.
She released a new album and basically dominated American pop culture across multiple forms of media.
She's also become quite a figure in the entertainment business. Earlier this year, she made the decision to rip all of her albums off Spotify, saying: "Everybody's complaining about how music sales are shrinking, but nobody's changing the way they're doing things. They keep running towards streaming, which is, for the most part, what has been shrinking the numbers of paid album sales."
Now, in another business move, she's trademarking catchphrases from her latest album "1989,"according to Rolling Stone.
She's trademarked five phrases in all with the US government, according to the legal database Justia.
Here they are:
"Party Like It's 1989"
"This Sick Beat"
"Cause We Never Go Out Of Style"
"Could Show You Incredible Things"
"Nice To Meet You, Where You Been"
These trademarks prohibit certain items, such as musical instruments, paper products, stickers, decals, handbags, guitar straps, and shopping bags, from using the phrases.
Each phrase has a specific group of prohibited items associated with it. You can check them out in their entirety at Justia.
SEE ALSO: Taylor Swift Had An Amazing 2014
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Here's what to buy instead of the same, boring brie cheese
Everyone has a favorite kind of cheese: There’s stinky cheese, yellow cheese, soft cheese, and goat cheese to name just a few.
But what about the lesser-known cheeses that you're too afraid to buy at the grocery store?
We spoke with Sydney Willcox, formerly the head cheese monger at Murray's Cheese in the Greenwich Village. She helped us come up with delicious alternatives to the most common and well-known cheese we all rely on.
Instead of brie or triple-crème cheese, try the famous Vacherin Mont d’Or.
The bloomy rind family (which both triple-crème and brie belong to) is delicious and creamy. But Willcox says to branch out beyond these two well-known options because there are so many others to try.
“My favorites are the small format, bark-wrapped, scoop-able discs such as Cellars at Jasper Hill's Harbison or the famous Vacherin Mont D'Or,” Willcox said.
The Vacherin is a soft Swiss cheese made from cow’s milk that is only sold from September to May. Instead of cutting it, you scoop it out and spread on crackers or bread.
Instead of fresh goat cheese, try an aged goat cheese.
Goat cheese is another kind of cheese in the bloomy rind family. Most people go for fresh goat cheese (also known as “chèvre” or goat in French), but Willcox said that you should give slightly aged goat cheese a chance.
The aging develops a mold on the rind, which can look a little scary, but it’s worth it since it enhances the cheese.
“A little aging adds depth, texture, and a flavorful and toothsome rind,” Willcox told us. “My favorites come from either the Loire Valley or Vermont Butter and Cheese Company.”
Instead of Parmesan, try nutty, dense cheese like Podda Classico or Piave Vecchio.
If you like the taste of Parmesan, then Willcox said to “try a Sardanian classic” cheese like Podda Classico or an “Italian masterpiece” like Piave Vecchio.
Podda Classico is made from a mix of sheeps' or cows' milk that has been aged for 6 months to a year and compressed to firm up the paste. This makes the cheese crumbly, and it can have a sweet and nutty flavor.
Piave Vecchio comes from pasteurized cows' milk. It is also nutty and dense from being pressed repeatedly while it ages.
Instead of the classic Stilton blue cheese, try Fourme D’Ambert.
Stilton seems to be everyone’s go-to when it comes to blue cheese, but Willcox said we all need to branch out and embrace other blue cheeses.
Fourme D’Ambert is a rare, 28-day-old French cheese made with pasteurized cow’s milk in Auvergne. It dates all the way back to Roman times and has an earthy, mild taste for a blue cheese.
Willcox also said for those who don't like blue cheese (or think they don't), try a milder, buttery blue like Cambozola Black Label.
Instead of Gruyère, branch out and try the rest of the Alpine-style cheese family.
Gruyère is a classic. It’s sweet but a little salty and is one of those cheeses that only gets better with age. Plus, it’s probably the best cheese for baking and is a good melting cheese for fondues, ham and cheese sandwiches, and French onion soup.
But Willcox said that there are so many other cheeses in the Alpine-style family, such as the famous French Comté cheese or other Swiss mountain cheeses such as Challerhocker or Scharfe Maxx. All of these cheeses are hard, flexible, and yellow with a strong flavor.
There are also the American spins on the old world classics from creameries such as Consider Bardwell Farm, Spring Brook Farm, and Uplands Cheese Company.
Instead of the famous Manchego cheese, try a similar-style firm sheep cheese.
“So many people love this cheese, and they should,” Willcox said. “However, there are so many amazing cheeses made in a similar style that are worth more than a mention: Ossau Iraty Vieille from the Pyrnees of France and Roncal or Idiazabal from Spain.”
Ossau Iraty Vieille was one of the first cheeses ever produced, this cheese is white with a granular texture. It’s easy to pair with anything and melts down well, too.
Roncal and Idiazabal are two other pressed sheeps' milk cheese from Spain. When they’re both aged, they can smell a little musty and have a similar texture to Manchego, but often a more full and complex taste.
Instead of Pecorino Romano, try a different kind of Percorini or a Tommes.
“Many people do not realize that Pecorino Romano is just one out of hundreds or thousands of Pecorini (sheeps’ milk cheeses from Italy),” Willcox explained. “You can find many with much more nuance and much less salt-impact.”
In addition, Willcox suggested trying Tommes cheeses from France, which are also natural rinded cheeses, though these are usually made with cows’ milk and are a bit smaller.
Because these cheeses are made from the skimmed milk leftover from butter making, Tommes are also low in fat.
Instead of Taleggio, try a different stinky cheese like Epoisses.
This semi-soft, washed rind Italian cheese has a very strong aroma (“stinky cheese”) with a mild flavor and fruity tang.
“There are so many stinky cheeses out there in the world, its so hard to generalize this family,” Willcox told us. “For a more mild taste try Morbier, for a serious kick go for Epoisses.”
Morbier is a rich, semi-soft cows’ milk cheese from France with a single black line separating the top and bottom. This used to be from when farmer’s had leftover curd and would have a morning layer and an evening layer separated by ash, but now vegetable dye is used.
Epoisses de Bourgogne is another pungent cheese from unpasteurized cows’ milk. It’s ripened in a similar way as Taleggio, but it's served in a wooden box with a spoon due to its soft texture. It has a distinctive orange/red exterior thanks to the way it’s rinsed and tastes deliciously custardy.
WATCH: How To Make The Perfect Grilled Cheese
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Here's what 'American Sniper' Chris Kyle's relationship with his wife was really like
Clint Eastwood's "American Sniper" is breaking box-office records and garnering critical acclaim with six Oscar nominations, but many are questioning the accuracy of the film, which is based on former Navy SEAL Chris Kyle's best-selling memoir of the same title.
While some argue that Kyle, who was shot and killed in 2013 by a Marine veteran suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD, may have embellished battle scenes, his widow says their relationship was just as special and loving in real life as it appeared on screen.
Bradley Cooper and Sienna Miller played Chris and Taya Kyle in "American Sniper":
The real Chris and Taya Kyle:
Taya Kyle told People magazine in early January: "I was madly in love with him and still am."
Taya, now 40, adds: "I miss him so much. I loved being in his arms. I loved holding his hand. But what I miss most about Chris is the feeling when he was in the room. He just changed the feeling whenever he walked in. I missed him even when he was just gone from the room."
But as seen in the film, the couple's relationship went through a few rough patches as Chris spent long stretches away from his wife and two young children while serving four tours in Iraq.
In 2009, to save his marriage, Chris quit the military to make his wife and children his priority.
"My relationship with him, from the beginning, was just very real. Very real, deep, passionate love. We went through some really hard times, but we found our way back to each other every time," a choked up Taya told Fox News in December. "I'll never have anything like that again, and I'm OK with that because it was special and it deserves to be set in a different category."
Taya clarified the truth behind a few key scenes between her and Kyle in the film.
WARNING: SPOILERS
1. In the movie, Taya and Kyle meet in a bar. The two take shots, and Taya becomes so drunk that she ends up getting sick. Kyle holds her hair back as she vomits.
Taya tells Fox News the story is, unfortunately pretty, close to the truth: "Yes, although I will say it wasn't shots; I think I was drinking scotch on the rocks. And then yes I did vomit, and then yes he did hold my hair back."
2. In the movie, Kyle's wedding was interrupted by news that the US would go to war following 9/11.
In reality, the couple decided to get married because Chris was about to be deployed and had only a few days of leave amid military training.
3. In one scene, Taya calls Chris, who is in Iraq, to tell him the sex of their unborn child. When a firefight breaks out, Chris drops his phone to shoot and Taya is left on the line to hear the entire ordeal, not knowing whether her husband is dead or alive.
According to Slate: "Kyle once dropped his phone during a firefight and she was forced to hear the whole thing — but not when she was revealing the sex of her baby, as in the film."
4. In the movie, Chris eventually decides to quit the military essentially because he is depressed after seeing so much death.
According to his memoir, Chris told Taya he would not reenlist because their marriage was nearing divorce.
5. At the end of the movie, Taya pulls Chris aside on the morning before his unexpected death (Chris was shot by a veteran he was trying to help) and has a long chat with him about how grateful she is that he returned home and what an amazing father he had become.
According to Slate: "This is not in Kyle's memoir, for obvious reasons, but screenwriter Jason Hall writes in an addendum to the new edition of the book that Taya told him she had this conversation with Kyle a month before his death."
When Chris was killed, he had been in the process of adapting his best-selling memoir into the film that it became. At the time, Bradley Cooper was attached to produce and star as Chris, who wished to have Eastwood direct the movie.
When Eastwood eventually signed on, after Chris' death, Taya tells People magazine the 84-year-old director "was a little choked up. He said, 'I just want you to know that your story has my heart.'"
"I feel like they all have this huge heart for Chris," Taya added. "I really feel like they truly love him and understand him."
When Taya first met actress Sienna Miller — who would be playing her in the film — she says that after just a few sentences, "I was like, 'This is good.' We just connected. It's been a tremendous blessing."
"They spent a lot of time absorbing the details and getting them right in the movie," Taya told Fox News. "Chris would be far too humble to say any of his good qualities, he was very self-deprecating in his humor, and for me to have the ability to tell them what I loved was a beautiful thing."
Through tears, Taya told Fox that she still felt her husband's presence every day:
I do in a lot of ways feel like I still have that relationship, and it still grows because of what I learn and what I experience, and how I can more deeply appreciate what he was going through and I wish that had know more at the time, as people often do. But I also know that he knows the best I could and he was doing the best he could.
We started our lives and we went through war, child birth, happiness, joking through the hard times, and he really changed me into somebody much, much better, and I'm so grateful to him. I carry him with me, I feel him with me all the time and that's a pretty special thing.
Watch Taya's full interview on Fox News below:
"American Sniper" is nominated for six Academy Awards, including best picture, adapted screenplay, and best actor for Cooper.
Taya, meanwhile, has founded the Chris Kyle Frog Foundation to help enrich the relationships of military and first responders' families.
Even though Chris was killed almost two years ago, Taya told People: "He had so much energy in life. There are some people who probably go to heaven and chill and just check in once in a while, but Chris is probably like, 'I'm watching my people!'
"I will miss him every single day of my life."
SEE ALSO: The incredible and tragic story of the real-life 'American Sniper'
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New report suggests that the footballs used by the Patriots in 'Deflategate' were not nearly as bad as initially reported
A new light has been cast on the use of illegal footballs by the New England Patriots during the AFC Championship game and if true, suddenly Deflategate does not sounds nearly as egregious.
According to Ian Rapoport of the NFL Network, 11 of the 12 balls used by the Patriots were under the allowed limit of 12.5 Pounds per Square Inch (PSI) of pressure. However, most of the balls were not nearly as deflated as many originally believed.
"As far as the 11 footballs that I am told were below the 12.5 PSI, one was about two pounds under," Rapoport said on NFL Network. "Several were about a pound under, and several more were just a tick below 12.5 PSI."
This is in stark contrast to initial reports which stated that 11 of the 12 balls "were inflated 2 pounds per square inch below what's required by NFL regulations."
Complicating matters is the admission by the NFL's vice president of officiating that the PSI of the footballs prior to the game were not recorded by the officials so there is no way to know exactly how much pressure was lost from the balls used by the Patriots or the Indianapolis Colts.
This is significant because most reports debunking the possibility that weather caused the change in pressure assumed that most of the balls had seen a 16% decrease in PSI, when that may not have been the case. Suddenly, the Patriots explanation for how the balls were deflated is at least plausible for a large number of the balls and something like a slow leak or an oversight could be used to explain the one that was two pounds under.
In addition, Rapoport also reports that the "person of interest" that was seen on video taking the bag of balls into the bathroom was an "elderly gameday attendant" and that he was in the restroom for 98 seconds.
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What hangovers do to your body and brain
If you were out partying last night, you're probably feeling at least a little rough today.
Perhaps your head is throbbing, your mouth is dry, and you are craving salt and sugar but aren't certain you can stomach any food. Even worse, if you have to get any work done, your mind is foggy and it's hard to focus.
We get it.
But what is it about veisalgia — the medical term for a hangover, derived from kveis, a Norwegian word that means "uneasiness following debauchery" and -algia, a Greek root that means "pain" — that leaves you feeling that way?
Just a note: We're looking at hangover symptoms specifically here, not the effects of long term alcohol abuse or alcoholism, though frequent hangovers are a sign that you could have a drinking problem.
Linette Lopez contributed to an earlier version of this article.
A major component of hangovers has to do with the way our bodies break down alcohol.
Researchers still don't know exactly what causes a hangover, but the way we metabolize alcohol is at least partly responsible, according to Richard Stephens, a psychology professor and member of the Alcohol Hangover Research Group, an organization that's trying to answer questions in what they call the "neglected issue" of hangover studies.
Stephens told The Atlantic that one thing researchers know that our body first metabolizes ethanol, the main alcohol in booze. But after we break that down we start to break down other alcohols, including methanol, which our body turns into formaldehyde and formic acid — toxins that make you hurt.
This process happens about 10 hours after we stop drinking.
There's a biological basis for the idea that "hair of the dog" helps — but that also explains why hangovers are a risk factor for alcoholism.
If someone has a drink the next morning, their body will soon realize that there's more ethanol in their bodies to start breaking down. Since our bodies prefer ethanol, they'll stop breaking down methanol into those toxins at this point, which is why a bit of the "hair of the dog that bit you" can at least temporarily take the pain and sick feeling of a hangover away.
Stephens says that researchers think this is why hangovers may be a risk factor for alcoholism instead of a natural deterrent to becoming an alcoholic. Studies show that alcoholics get some of the most severe hangovers around.
Hangovers actually get less severe as you get older.
This may seem impossible — lots of people recall being able to party AND study back when they were in college.
But a study in the journal Alcoholism of 51,645 Danish men and women found that the older someone gets, the less likely they are to experience a severe hangover after a binge drinking session — even after controlling for food consumption and quantity and frequency of regular drinking.
Our bet? You might just physically feel worse in general if you are older and less fit than you once were. Plus, you might have more responsibilities that force you to get off the couch.
See the rest of the story at Business Insider
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Don't listen to what these porn stars have to say about investing
CNBC went to the Adult Video News (AVN) Awards and asked some of the stars of the adult film industry how they would invest $10,000 right now.
While some of the investment ideas offered might be attractive, the rationales provided by some of the actors and actresses reflect one of the most common mistakes made in investing: the assumption that good companies make good stocks.
Let's examine a few of the quotes CNBC got.
Jesse: "Apple. [The company] is always inventing new technology [and] everyone's going to want it, so it will never go down."
Anikka Albrite: "I'm a huge fan of biotechnology, so anything that seems like it's good for the future and the health of other people."
Kelly Shibari: "Tesla, absolutely. It's a great company. It's green. They're coming out with a more consumer friendly price point for the car. I think that's a really, really good idea."
Tasha Reign: "If I had $10K to invest in a company…I think I would invest in Uber—because I use it for everything and all of the porn community is obsessed with it, and so is LA and NY. Or maybe my favorite restaurant Chipotle."
Each of these four porn stars are off to a good start in that they have a sense of how these businesses work. They're attracted to things like growth and innovation.
However, not one of these porn stars addresses valuation. In other words, they don't consider the possibility that all of these growth prospects are already priced into the stock.
You could argue that Starbucks makes great coffee, and you might be right. But if it's going for $100 a cup, then it's probably a bad purchase.
You'd be ill-advised to make investment decisions based on what these porn stars said.
But two good things came out of CNBC's feature.
Porn star Ron Jeremy had some pretty good insight into the real estate market:
"Real estate. I own a few condos and they all went up. See, there have been a lot of economic problems with real estate, but...you don't get off the roller coaster in the middle of the ride…I didn't. Everything has gone back again. I have a bunch of good condos. They make a lot of money. I think that, right now, is the best place to invest. Entertainment is the worst place to invest."
Jeremy exhibited a valuable trait that's lacking in most investors. He didn't sell at the low.
There are countless studies in the field of behavioral finance that repeatedly show that investors tend to buy high during the manias and sell low during panic. This is a money-losing strategy.
Ultimately, investing is hard. And even if we do understand investing, it's hard to be as disciplined as Ron Jeremy.
For most people, the best idea may just be to defer to a professional.
"I would put it into my [simplified employee pension] where my financial advisor makes all the decisions," Jessica Drake told CNBC.
Check out the whole feature at CNBC.com.
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Here's what job seekers can learn from Tom Brady's post-college résumé
Tom Brady is one of the best players in the NFL. He won't ever need a résumé to showcase his professional accomplishments (you can just look at his career stats!) — but at one point, he almost did.
Before the New England Patriots quarterback was drafted in 2000, he wasn't so sure he'd have a future in football, so he created a résumé "in case he had to enter the corporate world,"reports Business Insider's Tony Manfred.
This week, in honor of "Throwback Thursday" (#tbt), Brady shared a photo of his post-college résumé with his 2.4 million Facebook fans. The caption read: "Found my old résumé! Really thought I was going to need this after the 5th round. #tbt."
The University of Michigan grad was ultimately selected in the sixth round of the 2000 NFL draft and went on to become an NFL superstar. But, had he needed to enter the corporate world instead, would this résumé have landed him a job?
We asked résumé-writing experts to weigh in on Brady's CV. They say he did some things well, but other areas could use improvement.
"The bones of Tom's résumé — previous employers, dates of employment, contact information, education — are good," says Tina Nicolai, executive career coach and founder of résumé Writers' Ink. "For example, he lists his education, highlights, and awards at the top of his résumé, and the summer internships/jobs are written in reverse chronological order, which is good. And he reflects a basic overview of what he did in his duties, as well as who he worked with (upper level management, course superintendent and so on)."
Amanda Augustine, a career expert at TheLadders, an online job-matching service for professionals, agrees that the core content "isn't bad." However, she says he's missing some specific sections, and the formatting is not what she typically recommends.
"He did a good job of describing his responsibilities in each role with action-oriented verbs, but we'd suggest summing up the role in one or two sentences, and then using a couple bullets to call attention to the contributions or responsibilities that are most noteworthy and relevant to his job goals," she says.
His résumé is also missing a professional summary. "I give him an 'A' for not including one of those cookie-cutter objectives, but he should include a professional title and short professional summary to quickly sum up his value to a prospective employer and clarify his job goals for the reader," Augustine says. "Without one, it's difficult to evaluate this résumé, as we don't know Tom's non-football job goals."
The experts say his résumé is also missing a "core competencies and technical skills" section, and they think his headers could use improvement.
The main header, for instance, includes his permanent and temporary addresses. "When he wrote his résumé it was customary to include both, but that's not recommended these days," Augustine says. "Today he would have a header centered at the top of his résumé with his mobile phone number, email address, and the URL to his LinkedIn profile. He could put the city and state, but it would depend on where the job is located, and if it's near his school in Michigan or near his home."
Nicolai says by eliminating the address lines, you could save up to four lines. "Résumé 'real estate' is at a premium particularly in the opening," she said.
Brady's name at the top should also have a "branded style" to stand out and be a bit larger than the rest of the résumé, she suggests.
"This résumé style was very popular in the 1990s when jobs were plentiful and recruiters and hiring leaders had more manpower and time to read through résumés," Nicolai says. "But if this were used today, in 2014, Tom would most likely end with his résumé at the bottom of the pile."
SEE ALSO: 8 Reasons This Is An Excellent Resume For A Recent College Graduate
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