Month: December 2016

Approximately $64 billion is spent on art every year. It’s estimated that anywhere from 2 to 50 percent of those pieces out there are counterfeits. Here’s how experts spot the fakes.

1. TAKE A CRACK AT READING THE CRAQUELURE.

Craquelure—the web of fine cracks on old paintings—is unique to every work of art. For centuries, forgers faked the phenomenon by splintering their paintings with solvents, pencil sketches, formaldehyde, and frozen beeswax. (One time, the forger Han van Meegeren aged a fake Vermeer by baking it in a pizza oven.) Today, many museums keep a thorough record of what a painting’s cracks look like, and scientists use Reflectance Transformation Imaging to create a “topographic map” of the original’s cracked surface [PDF].

2. POINT OUT FAKES WITH NUCLEAR FALLOUT.

There were approximately 2000 nuclear bomb tests between 1945 and the Nuclear Test Ban treaty in 1963. Those explosions soaked our planet in radioactive isotopes—particularly cesium-137, carbon-14, and strontium-90—and contaminated the world’s soil, including the flax and linseed oil used in modern paint. The result? Most paintings created after 1945 contain these isotopes. With the help of a mass spectrometer, scientists can examine a painting to see if it has too many of these radioactive atoms. The technique proved that one of Peggy Guggenheim’s favorite paintings, an abstract piece attributed to Fernand Léger and supposedly painted in 1913, was actually made years after Leger’s 1955 death.

3. REMEMBER THAT TREE RINGS DON’T LIE.

Painters such as Rembrandt and Holbein loved painting on wooden panels. Like all things wooden, those panels contain tree rings, and experts can examine those rings—a method called dendrochronology [PDF]—to double-check the work’s authenticity. (How? Over periods of nice weather, trees grow thick and healthy rings. When weather is rough, rings thin out. Experts can compare and match the pattern of weak/healthy rings to known tree samples to determine the wood’s age and origin.)

4. PEEL BACK THE LAYERS WITH INFRARED RADIATION.

Painters usually draw sketches on the canvas before getting to work. Experts can see these covered-up scribbles with infrared reflectography, a technique that fires wavelengths of radiation into the artwork to reveal what’s hiding under coats of paint. In 1954, art historians discovered a second copy of Francesco Francia’s The Virgin and the Child with an Angel. Decades of controversy soon followed, with the general consensus being that the copy in London’s National Gallery was a 19th century forgery and the version now in the Carnegie Museum of Art was the real one. In 2009, infrared reflectograms helped pinpoint the fake: The forger had sketched the National Gallery’s painting with graphite, a material that wasn’t available during Francia’s lifetime.

5. SEE THROUGH THE SURFACE WITH AN X-RAY.

Even traditional x-rays can unearth a painting’s hidden underbelly. For years, curators at the Fogg Art Museum believed their Portrait of a Woman was made by the great Francisco de Goya. But in 1954, an x-ray revealed that a different portrait was hiding beneath the surface! More analysis showed that the buried painting contained zinc white paint—a pigment that didn’t exist when Goya was alive. Busted.

6. LOOK FOR FISHY PIGMENTS WITH LASERS.

In 1923, the forger Han van Meegeren successfully passed his fake The Laughing Cavalier off as a work by the 17th century Dutch portraitist Frans Hals. Experts later realized they had been duped when, using x-ray diffraction, they discovered the painting was dabbed with synthetic ultramarine paint, a pigment invented 162 years after Hals died [PDF]. Today, art historians use Raman spectroscopy to detect these out-of-date pigments. (To oversimplify the process, the technique involves firing lasers at a pigment. As light scatters off the paint, the machine picks up each pigment’s unique chemical fingerprint.)

7. SPOT FRAUDS WITH UV LIGHT.

In 1989, the FBI arrested Robert Trotter for forging the works of 19th century American still life painter John Haberle. The Feds nailed Trotter thanks to good old fashioned UV light [PDF]. That’s because a shower of UV light makes the varnish on old paintings shine. Newer paintings, however, don’t fluoresce as much, and they often emit an uncanny uniform glow. Trotter had coated his fakes with a copal varnish, which, under UV light, created a sheen that looked good to an amateur, but to a professional was too consistent for a 100-year-old painting.

8. EMBRACE YOUR INNER SHERLOCK HOLMES.

Before we had fancy machines to catch fakes, curators used the Morelli method. Giovanni Morelli was a 19th century Italian art critic who had a knack for authenticating paintings with his naked eye. He knew that artists followed formulas when painting tiny details such as ears, eyes, or fingernails, and he believed if an art critic memorized an artist’s habits for painting these body parts, he or she could determine who held the brush. (Morelli was a doctor by training and believed identifying art through trifling details was parallel to diagnosing a disease.) Incidentally, Morelli knew Arthur Conan Doyle’s uncle, and it’s possible that his ability to pinpoint tiny telltale clues inspired Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes.

9. DON’T FORGET: TYPOS TELL ALL.

For 17 years, Shaun Greenhalgh forged everything from fake Gauguin sculptures to 3300-year-old Egyptian statues in his backyard shed, aging his “ancient” artworks with tea and clay. He fooled countless art lovers and museums until 2006, when Scotland Yard came knocking. His big mistake? Experts at the British museum discovered three of his cuneiform scripts were littered with spelling mistakes. (To Greenhalgh’s credit, the Victoria and Albert Museum was so impressed with his forgeries they included his fake works in an exhibition in 2010.)

BONUS: ONE GREAT PARTY FACT ABOUT MICHELANGELO

Did you know that Michelangelo started his career as an art forger? In 1496, the 20-year-old forged the sculpture of a centuries-old sleeping Cupid, buried it in acidic dirt to make it look old, and sold it as an “antiquity.” He pulled off the charade so well that when the buyer realized it was a fake, he wasn’t even that mad: Michelangelo kept his money and news of the fraud catapulted him to fame.

Reporting by Sam McPheeters, Lucas Reilly, and Jennifer M. Wood.

 
After hunting down the right holiday gifts for everyone (hopefully by using our helpful guides), it’s time to lock yourself in a room and start wrapping. Make the job a breeze without resorting to gift bags by mastering this fancy wrapping technique common in Japanese department stores.

Inspired by a video of a man wrapping presents at breakneck speed in Japan’s Takashimaya department store, YouTube user BeatTheBush created a step-by-step tutorial for wrapping presents like a pro. After dissecting the video, he was able to figure out how it’s done—and now passes that wisdom on to us. With a little practice, you can be as efficient as one of Santa’s elves.

[h/t Pop Sugar]

If weddings, graduation ceremonies, and cute animal commercials cause you to melt into a puddle of tears, take comfort: You’re not alone. Nobody quite knows why some people cry when they’re happy, but in the video below, Business Insider’s Graham Flanagan explains why positive emotions may prompt us to turn on the waterworks.

According to Yale psychologist Oriana R. Aragón, we might shed tears to regulate particularly intense feelings. In 2014, Aragón and her colleagues conducted a study—which was later published in the journal Psychological Science—in which they examined how subjects reacted to emotionally triggering pictures, like cute babies or happy reunions. They found that people who exhibited negative responses to positive things (like crying at a graduation) were able to moderate strong feelings more effectively than others.

“People may be restoring emotional equilibrium with these expressions,” Aragón said in a release. “They seem to take place when people are overwhelmed with strong positive emotions, and people who do this seem to recover better from those strong emotions.”

But why should we control favorable emotions instead of reveling in them? Research indicates that individuals who can regulate their emotions are generally happier and less distressed than those who can’t.

Plus, you have to admit—a good cry can feel pretty good. As Business Insider points out, emotional tears exhibit higher levels of stress hormones, and they also contain endorphins, a.k.a. nature’s painkillers. So go ahead, weep during that cereal commercial. We won’t laugh at you. Not too much, anyway.

[h/t Business Insider]

Dog owners may lament that their furry friends are great at sniffing out poop on walks or in litter boxes, but for one city, poo-locating canine experts are a boon for cleaning up pollution. A team of trained dogs in Fair Haven, New Jersey is helping find where human waste is polluting local waterways, the Associated Press reports.

The doggies were able to map out problem areas for the city in just a few days, according to Fair Haven mayor Ben Lucarelli’s comments to the AP. The canines came from the Environmental Canine Services, a Maine-based company that provides fecal-finding dogs to towns across the country. They have recently been deployed to several Jersey towns, including Red Bank and Middletown, to help improve water quality.

The dogs are trained to specifically hunt down errant human waste while ignoring animal feces, helping locate broken sewer pipes or where waste has leaked or washed into the environment by the rain. By locating problem areas for leaky pipes or septic tanks, the dogs can help the city pinpoint where to direct its repair funds and clean up its water sources.

[h/t AP]

If you’re like most people, you’ve given up on quite a few budgets in your time.  This is likely because sticking to a budget is not just crunching a few numbers and categorizing your expenses. In order to make your budget work for you, you have to first consider your own habits and behaviors, and then adjust your plan accordingly. When our budgets work against us it’s usually because we have the wrong idea about how they work to begin with. Here are six common budgeting myths, debunked.

MYTH 1: BUDGETING MEANS GIVING UP ON STUFF

One of the biggest myths about budgeting is that it’s an exercise in deprivation: You cut out all the fun things (like restaurants and shopping) and never enjoy your money. It’s almost certain that you’ll bust your budget if this is your mindset. Rather than think of your budget as a sacrifice, think of it as a plan that empowers you to do what you want with your money. The easiest way to do this? Ask yourself why you want to budget in the first place. Maybe you want to get out of debt so you can finally afford to travel the world; maybe you simply want to support the family you love. Whatever your answer, you’ll see that when your budget has a purpose, it works for you rather than the other way around.

When you create a budget, you prioritize your spending. Focus on your needs first (food, rent, utilities), then use any discretionary spending on the things that make you happiest. Reduce the amount you spend on everything else.

MYTH 2: A GOOD BUDGET IS STRICT

A good budget isn’t strict; it’s realistic. Let’s say your plan is to pay off your debt as quickly as possible, so you build a budget that doesn’t leave any room for fun (after bills and groceries, all your extra money goes towards your debt). A budget this strict is practically doomed to fail.

Instead, allow yourself some flexibility. Give your budget some realistic breathing room and you’ll be more likely to stick with it and achieve your goal. That’s not to say you should continue a pattern of overspending, but learning how to get your finances in order takes time and patience. Focus on cutting back one area at a time rather than everything at once.

MYTH 3: I’M TOO BROKE TO BUDGET

Many people assume budgeting is for rich people. The truth is, if you don’t have much money to begin with, budgeting is crucial. It’s simply a way to maximize the efficiency of your dollars. Without a budget, you have no plan, and chances are, you’re not spending your money in the most resourceful way.

MYTH 4: BUDGETING IS ONLY FOR PEOPLE WHO ARE STRUGGLING TO MAKE ENDS MEET

On the other hand, you might think budgeting isn’t for you because you’re not broke. In reality, most everyone needs a budget; unless you’re a billionaire a few times over, you have a limited supply of money that needs to be allocated in the best way possible.

And, should you get that raise you’ve been hankering for, don’t throw your budget out the window. An increase in income is usually accompanied by an increase in frivolous, mindless spending. There’s a term for this in the personal finance world: lifestyle inflation. When you have a budget, you can curb your temptation to splurge.

MYTH 5: BUDGETING IS TOO MUCH WORK

Most people have no problem coming up with a budget (and there are online tools and apps that makes this easy). The hard part of budgeting is sticking to it. To help yourself succeed, automate your priorities. Call your bill providers and ask to move your due date closer to your payday, then automate your payments so you pay your bills first each pay period. If you have any debt payoff or savings goals, automate those, too, in order to pay yourself first. (Bonus: If you have a student loan, most loan providers offer a small interest rate discount when you set up a direct debit payment.)

MYTH 6: UNEXPECTED EXPENSES ALWAYS COMES UP, SO BUDGETING IS A WASTE OF TIME

If you feel like budgeting seems pointless, you’re probably doing it wrong. If there are surprises every month, it’s a sign that you’re likely not looking at all of your transactions when you budget. Review your spending from the past year in order to look beyond recurring monthly expenses. Keep an eye out for things like car insurance premiums, vet bills and other pet costs, tax payments, and home and car maintenance. If you find the same expenses popping up semi-regularly, you probably want to add a new category to your budget.

For the tools and resources you need to secure your financial future, head to Allstate.com.

The Arcade Providence is America’s oldest surviving indoor shopping mall, located in Providence, Rhode Island. Built in 1828, it’s designated a National Historic Landmark, but isn’t really practical as a shopping center anymore. So what can we do with this building? Well, in 2013 Northeast Collaborative Architects turned it into 48 micro-apartments, along with 17 small stores on the ground floor. The rent is low (starting at $550/month). The only catch? The tiny apartments have proved so popular there’s now a waiting list to get one.

In this 15-minute video, we go inside the building, visiting a 225-square-foot apartment and seeing how practical it really is. (Bonus: There’s free wifi in the lounge.)

Around the world, shopping malls are changing. Kansas City’s Metro North Mall is now bleak and abandoned, but it’s being redeveloped as a mixed-use community, including 117,000 square feet of residential units.

The gigantic West Edmonton Mall contains multiple hotels, and has plans to develop apartments as well. In Japan, the Morinomiya Q’s Mall is housed in a former baseball stadium, and is designed with serious workouts in mind. The Destiny USA shopping mall in Syracuse includes miniature golf, go-karts, a rock-climbing gym, and boasts a “vibrant nightlife scene.” Is your shopping mall keeping up?

(Image by Loodog, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons, used under CC-SA 3.0 license.)

For decades, Nickelodeon has made the world a wackier, slimier place for millions of kid viewers. Now a handful of artists who grew up watching Nick’s programming have the chance to show off work inspired by the network. On Friday, December 9, the Mondo art gallery in Austin, Texas is kicking off their “Nick-Nick-Nick-Nick-N-Nick-Nick-Nick…Nickelodeon Show!”, showcasing pieces from eight artists.

The art on display will include prints paying tribute to The Ren & Stimpy Show, SpongeBob SquarePants, Rocko’s Modern Life, and Aaahh!!! Real Monsters among others. Featured artist Dave Perillo told the gallery he’s “thrilled to be part of the Nickelodeon show with Mondo.” He continued:

“I grew up watching Nickelodeon when my family first got cable in the early ‘80s, with shows like Pinwheel and You Can’t Do That on Television. Always wanted to get slimed for saying ‘I don’t know?’ or food poisoning from Barth’s Burgery.”

Following the free Friday night opening reception from 7 to 10 p.m., the gallery will be hosting a Family Day on December 10 with face painting, a photo booth, and a slime building workshop from 10 a.m. to noon. Art lovers looking for a fresh take on childhood nostalgia can check out the exhibition before it closes on December 17.

[h/t Mondotees]

Ever wonder who is behind the names of your favorite fast food joints? Now you can put a face to the burger. 

1. McDonald’s 

Before Ray Kroc turned the modest burger joint into a corporation, McDonald’s was just a BBQ drive-in in California. The restaurant was founded by brothers Richard and Maurice McDonald—known as Dick and Mac—who were the company’s namesake. 

2. P.F. Chang’s 

The name of this restaurant is actually a hybrid of two of the founder’s names. P.F. comes from restaurateur Paul Fleming’s initials, and Chang is a simplified version of chef Philip Chiang’s last name. 

3. Church’s Chicken 

Church’s Chicken gets its name from founder George W. Church. He opened the first chicken joint in 1952, right across from the Alamo in San Antonio.

4. Wendy’s 

Founder Dave Thomas tried out the names of all five of his children before settling on Wendy, his daughter Melinda’s nickname. The little redhead became the face of the restaurant and now, as an adult, Wendy can be seen in commercials promoting the restaurant. 

5. Taco Bell 

Taco Bell gets its Bell from its founder, Glen Bell. The restaurateur originally sold burgers at a fast food restaurant called Bell’s Burger. After the market got too crowded, he decided to bring the taco to the fast food world. His first shot at tacos was called Taco Tia. Later he opened Taco Bell after a friend suggested the name.

6. Denny’s 

Before Denny’s was a late-night diner, it was a doughnut shop called Danny’s Donuts. The name Danny was simply chosen for the alliteration. Eventually the focus was switched to coffee and the name was changed to Danny’s Coffee Shop. The name was changed again to Denny’s Coffee Shop to avoid confusion with another area establishment, Coffee Dan’s. The company finally shortened the name to Denny’s in 1961, and has stuck with it since.

7. Papa John’s 

Most people are familiar with the face of Papa John, because he can be seen on most promotional media for the company. John Schnatter is the restaurant’s founder, and he opened the first Papa John’s in 1985. The Papa part of the name is likely inspired by Schnatter’s grandfather, “Papaw” Ackerson. 

8. Carl’s Jr. 

Founder Carl Karcher is the namesake behind Carl’s Jr. He and his wife, Margaret, opened a drive-in BBQ called Carl’s after finding success in hotdog carts. Then, Karcher opened two smaller restaurants in 1956 and called them Carl’s Jr. because of their size. 

9. Jimmy John’s 

Jimmy John Liautaud was just 19 when he opened Jimmy John’s in 1983. After graduating next-to-last in his prep school class, his father told him he could either join the military or start a business. Liautaud took a loan from his father and started a restaurant. 

10. Bob Evans 

Robert Lewis “Bob” Evans opened a truck stop diner near his farm in Rio Grande, Ohio in 1946. Unsatisfied with the current sausages on the market, he decided to make his own using hogs from his farm. From there, the chain has seeped into 19 different states. 

11. Tim Horton’s 

Just as the name suggests, the beloved Canadian doughnut shop was founded by ice hockey player Tim Horton. The defenseman played in the NHL for 22 years, most of which was spent on the Toronto Maple Leafs. Horton opened a doughnut and coffee shop in 1964 as a way to make money once his hockey career ended. 

12. Carvel

Older lovers of the ice cream shop probably remember founder Tom Carvel from the company’s commercials. The businessman invented soft-serve ice cream, but he may be better known for his distinct voice. 

13. Sbarro 

The pizza joint got its name from founders Carmela and Gennaro Sbarro. The couple opened up a deli in Brooklyn that specialized in fresh imported meats from Italy. The family-run business soon entered the pizza market and began to expand. Carmela was known as “Mama Sbarro” and became the mascot of the chain, working at the original Brooklyn location well into her 80s. 

14. Perkins 

Matt and Ivan Perkins opened Perkins Pancake House in Cincinnati, Ohio in 1958. Eventually the chain combined with Smitty’s Pancake House to become Perkins Cake & Stake. The Perkins brothers retired in 1979, and sold their remaining share of the company. 

15. Baskin-Robbins 

Brothers-in-law Burton “Burt” Baskin and Irvine “Irv” Robbins both had a passionate love for ice cream, so they each opened ice cream shops in California. Baskin’s Burton’s Ice Cream Shop and Robbins’ Snowbird Ice Cream eventually merged together in 1953. 

Kiwis, the squat vertebrates endemic to New Zealand—not to be confused with the hairy fruit—are odd birds. The endangered, chicken-sized kiwi is the smaller cousin of species like the ostrich and the emu, but shares more characteristics with mammals than the average fowl. Here are 11 facts about the New Zealand avian icon: 

1. They lay really, really big eggs. 

Kiwi eggs can weigh up to one quarter of an adult bird’s body mass. To give you some perspective on that number, the average American woman weighs 166 pounds—if she gave birth to a kiwi-sized baby, it would weigh just over 40 pounds as a newborn. By proportion, the kiwi lays the largest eggs of any bird in the world.

2. They cannot fly.

Like their relative the ostrich, kiwis are flightless birds belonging to a group called ratites.

3. Like Bruce Springsteen, they’re born to run.

As Audobon magazine wrote of the advantages of the bird’s obscenely large progeny, “the giant egg means that kiwi chicks hatch pretty much ready to run, with a belly full of yolk that they can live off of for their first two and a half weeks of life.” If only human babies were that self-sufficient. 

4. They’re “honorary mammals.”

Kiwis are so unlike other birds that some biologists call them “honorary mammals.” They have several mammal-like qualities, including feathers that feel more like hair, heavy bones with marrow, and strong legs for running. The only real mammals native to New Zealand are bats—many of the country’s contemporary mammalian residents were introduced over the course of European settlement in the 1800s (though rats, capable sailors that they are, came over much earlier). 

5. They don’t see well … 

Kiwis don’t have great eyesight. Though the birds are nocturnal, they can’t see very well in the dark. Instead, they rely on other senses to hunt. 

6. … But they have a great sense of smell. 

A new study of kiwi genetics by German researchers finds that the bird has a more diverse set of odor receptors than other birds, but several genes normally involved in color vision are inactive, explaining why they rely more on scent than sight. 

7. They have weird nostrils (for a bird). 

Most birds have nostrils at the base of their beak, near their head. But kiwis have them at the tip of their nose, like most mammals. They use their long sniffers to locate worms and other bugs within soil.

8. They have whiskers. 

When their nose fails them, kiwis also have long, cat-like whiskers to help them navigate dark conditions and find food on the forest floor. 

9. They live for a long time. 

Baby kiwis take anywhere from three to five years to grow to their adult size. The birds can live to be 25 to 50 years old. 

10. They’re being eaten by dogs. 

There are about 70,000 kiwis left in New Zealand. The government of New Zealand estimates that the population decreases at a rate of about 27 kiwis per week. Dogs, cats, ferrets, and stoats kill them, and rats compete for food with them. Only 5 percent of kiwis hatched in the wild will make it to adulthood. 

11. They’re an emblem of New Zealand.

During the mid-1800s, New Zealanders adopted the bird as the country’s de facto mascot. Its image appeared on trademarks for medicine, insurance, universities, stamps, military badges, and on currency.  By the end of the first world war, the term became a nickname for troops from New Zealand, and later for the population at large. The term is also synonymous with the New Zealand dollar. 

Additional sources: The Encyclopedia of New Zealand, New Zealand Department of Conservation