5 Things We Know About ‘Making a Murderer’ Season 2

filed under: Lists, tv
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YouTube

The immense success of Making a Murderer—the addictive 2015 documentary series that follows the incredible story of Steven Avery, a 54-year-old Wisconsin man who has been in prison since 2005 for a murder he may or may not have committed—was surprising to a lot of people, including the powers-that-be at Netflix. Reed Hastings, the company’s CEO, admitted that his main thought about the series was, “I hope it wins some awards, because it’s not going to be popular.”

The series did win awards, including four Emmys. It also racked up a legion of fans who couldn’t get enough of the twisty case—and begged Netflix to give them more. So it was hardly surprising when, seven months after the series first dropped, Netflix confirmed that it had ordered a second season. And now it looks as if we’ll be seeing more of Avery and his nephew, Brendan Dassey, this year. Here’s everything we know about Season 2 of Making a Murderer.

1. IT WILL FOCUS ON THE POST-CONVICTION PROCESS.

When news first broke that Making a Murderer would get a second season, Variety reported that, “This next chapter will provide an in-depth look at the high-stakes post-conviction process, as well as the emotional toll the process takes on all involved.”

2. EVEN BEFORE IT WAS OFFICIALLY RENEWED, LAURA RICCIARDI AND MOIRA DEMOS WERE WORKING ON A SECOND SEASON.

Laura Ricciardi and Moira Demos will again be co-directing Making a Murderer. Having spent 10 years working on the first season (without any distribution commitment), Making a Murderer is clearly a passion project for the duo. Even before they were given the official go-ahead for a second season by Netflix, the two were already at work on it.

“I think today marks four weeks since the series launched and what we’ve managed to do in the past four weeks is have several phone calls with Steven Avery which we have recorded with an eye toward including them in future episodes,” Ricciardi told the press at a Television Critics Association event in early 2016. “We have not returned to Wisconsin in the past four weeks.”

“As we said before, in relation to this story, this story is ongoing, these cases are open,” Demos added. “It’s real-life so you don’t know what’s going to happen. We are ready … if there are significant developments, we will be there. And we are looking at other stories, as well.”

3. KATHLEEN ZELLNER WILL PLAY AN IMPORTANT PART.

In 2016, Avery hired famed defense attorney Kathleen Zellner—who, according to her website, “has righted more wrongful prosecutions than any private attorney in America” in the past 23 years—to represent him. “When I watched the Avery case, I felt that the attitude toward him by the prosecutors and the state was that he was disposable,” Zellner told Newsweek. “It was almost like a class thing. [His family] didn’t matter, they had no power. The longer I watched it, the more angry I got.”

Since then, Zellner has stated that there is “significant evidence” that proves Avery’s innocence in the murder of Teresa Halbach. So expect her to play a major role in the second season.

4. WE’LL SEE BRENDAN DASSEY’S CONVICTION BE OVERTURNED.

On August 12, 2016, a U.S. District Court judge in Wisconsin overturned the murder conviction of Brendan Dassey, Avery’s nephew and alleged accomplice, and it was reported that he’d likely be released from prison approximately 90 days later. In November, just days before he was scheduled to leave prison, his release was blocked by a federal appeals court. Dassey remains behind bars today, and we’ll see this play out in season two—though part of it may be as a mock trial. According to The Independent, because Ricciardi and Demos were not present to see Dassey’s conviction overturned, they’re planning to recreate it for season two.

5. THE NEW SEASON WILL DROP IN 2017.

Though Cindy Holland, Netflix’s vice president of original content, confirmed that Making a Murderer’s second season will drop “sometime this year,” that’s as specific as they’re willing to get. “We don’t know when for sure new episodes will be coming,” Holland told USA Today. Part of that uncertainty likely has to do with the legal nature of the show, and the fact that both Avery and Dassey’s cases are ongoing—so new developments could shape the second season in different ways.

“There are certain things happening with respect to both those cases that we’re waiting to take place before we bring it to the world,” Lisa Nishimura, Netflix’s vice president of original documentary and comedy programming, told The Hollywood Reporter in late 2016. Given that the original season’s popularity was partly attributed to it being released in December—over the holidays, when people had time to binge-watch—don’t be surprised to see season two served up in December.


January 31, 2017 – 6:00pm

You Can Now Wear the Eyes of Famous Portraits As You Sleep

filed under: art, design, sleep
Image credit: 

Lesha Limonov via Behance // CC BY-NC-ND 4.0

Unlike art lovers, the subjects at the center of the world’s great masterworks have no need for shut-eye—and that’s the idea behind Belarus-based designer Lesha Limonov’s sleep mask project, “Masterpieces Never Sleep!” On the front of each sleep mask is a pair of eyes taken from a famous painting.

As designboom reports, Limonov created the masks for the International Rijksstudio Award. This year the competition asked participants to reinterpret pieces from the Rijksmuseum‘s art collection in Amsterdam and work them into their new designs. The artistic eye masks sample components from Frans Hals’s The Merry Drinker, Johannes Cornelisz Verspronck’s Portrait of a Girl Dressed in Blue, a Vincent van Gogh self-portrait, and more.

Lesha Limonov via Behance // CC BY-NC-ND 4.0

According to the video below, the project is based on a rather unsettling concept (in case wearing the eyes of a long-dead portrait subject wasn’t creepy enough):

“When night begins and the museum halls turn empty, the art masterpieces stay awake and look from the darkness. Till the morning they don’t close their eyes, monitoring what happens around.”

Good luck falling asleep with that image in your head.

[h/t designboom]


January 31, 2017 – 4:30pm

5 Ways Doing Improv Can Help Your Professional Life

filed under: Comedy, Work
Image credit: 
iStock

Improv shouldn’t be limited to comedy clubs. According to The Engaging Educator, it’s great prep for the rest of your life. The New York-based education organization teaches improv not as a stepping stone to a career on SNL, but as a way to improve your communication skills in the real world.

We stopped by one of their “Improv for Professionals” classes to see how the skills you need to be a great improvisational comedian can translate to the office. Here are five reasons why saying “yes, and” can help your professional life:

1. IT KEEPS YOU LISTENING

When you’re always thinking about what you’re going to say next, you tune out everyone else. And when you are so eager to make your own voice heard that you stop listening prematurely, you can miss out on vital information. Improv requires intense listening skills so that actors can stay in sync with each other and move the scene forward together, even when things are happening quickly. If your improv partner says “Welcome to Disneyland!” and you space out thinking about how you will respond, you’ll miss when she says “The park is closed today because it’s raining frogs.”

In the office, you and your coworkers are all working together to move towards common goals. It’s a lot easier to keep everyone on the same page when you fully pay attention to each other.

2. IT PRIORITIZES COOPERATION

Not even the most brilliant employee can carry the whole company forward alone. Good teamwork is essential, just as it is with improv. On the stage, players need to work together to create a story, and this means accepting the ideas of others and jumping in to take the lead when another player’s mind blanks. The idea is that you should not only be contributing to the scene with whatever choices you make, but you should also set up your partner for success. The same goes for working on a big client project. When one person is successful, it makes everyone else look good, too.

3. YOU MUST BUILD ON THE IDEAS OF OTHERS

The common adage in improv is that you must always say “yes, and.” In other words, you never shoot down someone else’s idea. Instead, you run with it and build on it. When someone says, “I like your house plant!” You don’t say, “No, actually, that’s a priceless statue.” You say, “Thanks! It’s super poisonous, so I wish you hadn’t touched it. I should probably call the paramedics.”

Even if an idea that gets thrown out in an improv scene wouldn’t be your first choice, you have to work with what you’re given and respect the ideas of others. That’s not so different from what needs to happen in a strategy meeting or brainstorming session.

4. YOU HAVE TO OFFER CONCRETE IDEAS

In improv, questions can kill a scene, while concrete statements move it forward. “Where are you going?” puts the onus on the other player to figure out a way to continue the story. Whereas, “I see you’re on your way to the lion exhibit. Me too!” provides a lot more for everyone to go on. In the office, questions are necessary, but sometimes, they can stall the action. Instead of taking a risk or trying something new, you end up spending all day questioning the pros and cons. You can still ask questions, but you also have to bring something constructive to the table.

5. YOU’RE GUARANTEED TO FAIL

No one is brilliant 100 percent of the time, in improv or anywhere else. Everyone has the occasional slip-up or bad idea. Perhaps you got distracted and missed what your partner said, or asked a question that brought the scene to a halt. It sucks in the moment, but if you become accustomed to metaphorically face-planting, it gets easier to handle—making it less scary to take a risk that might end with you looking silly. If you never risk failure, you might never get that big laugh—or big promotion.


January 31, 2017 – 4:00pm

French Town Needs Help Restoring Van Gogh’s Grave

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Vincent van Gogh died nearly 127 years ago—so naturally, his gravesite is beginning to show the ravages of time. To preserve the famous attraction, The Art Newspaper reports that local council members in the village of Auvers-sur-Oise and the Institut Van Gogh, a historical conservation nonprofit, are seeking donations to restore the artist’s final resting place.

The Post-Impressionist painter spent his last days in Auvers-sur-Oise—where he painted his now-famous wheat field landscapes—before dying from a self-inflicted gunshot wound in 1890. Van Gogh was buried in the town’s cemetery, and his brother Theo was buried alongside when he died six month later.

Last spring, heavy rainfall damaged the siblings’ headstones. The Institut Van Gogh needs to raise €600,000 (nearly $650,000) to repair them, and to outfit the popular tourist attraction with proper drainage, lighting, and security systems. So far, the campaign has received donations from van Gogh’s family, museums, and art lovers, but they’re still more than $500,000 short of their goal, which they hope to reach by the end of July 2017.

In addition to van Gogh’s gravesite, the Institut Van Gogh is also raising funds to mend the village’s Notre-Dame-de-l’Assomption church. Featured in van Gogh’s 1890 painting The Church in Auvers-sur-Oise, the building was badly damaged during a storm in October 2015. So far, state and government agencies have collected about $60,000 to fix the church’s roof (the local council even launched a crowdfunding campaign), but more funds are needed for the roof’s repair, and to restore the church’s grounds.

You can help preserve van Gogh’s grave by visiting helpvangogh.heoh.net and making a donation.

[h/t The Art Newspaper]


January 31, 2017 – 3:30pm

020117 newsletter

Newsletter Subject: 
Immigrant Success Stories from Banned Nations (and 8 Oscar Nominations That Were Revoked)
Featured Story: 
Newsletter Item for (91649): 6 Immigrant Success Stories from Newly Banned Nations
From the Editors: 
Newsletter Item for (91649): 6 Immigrant Success Stories from Newly Banned Nations
Newsletter Item for (91647): Why 7-Eleven Slurpees Always Taste the Same, No Matter Where You Go
Newsletter Item for (73722): 8 Oscar Nominations That Were Revoked
Newsletter Item for (91618): After 400 Years, This Forgotten Master Painter Is Getting Her First Solo Show
Newsletter Item for (90869): 11 Unusual Footraces
Newsletter Item for (91295): If the Universe Is Expanding, What Does It Expand Into?
The Grid: 
Robot-Staffed Coffee Shop Opens in San Francisco
A New Plane Seat Could Make the Middle Spot the Roomiest
Energize Your Mornings With These 7 Get-Up-and-Go Tips From Trainers
10 Facts About The Beatles' Final Rooftop Show
Fun Fact Text: 

Robert Frost was the first poet to read at a presidential inauguration.

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How 19 San Diego Neighborhoods Got Their Names

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San Diego is famous for its mild weather and laid-back lifestyle, but locals also know the city has a particularly complex web of neighborhoods and sub-neighborhoods. In fact, the city has so many nabes that even life-long San Diegans never discover some of them. Here’s a selection of some of the districts with names that have the most interesting origin stories.

1. BANKERS HILL

Take stroll through the stately, mansion-lined streets of Bankers Hill and you’ll get a hint about how it got its name. The hilly neighborhood, which contains some of San Diego’s most beautiful historic homes, seemed so rich that early San Diegans apparently assumed a bunch of bankers lived there, and a name was born.

2. BARRIO LOGAN

Jamie Lantzy via Wikimedia Commons // CC BY-SA 4.0

 
Barrio Logan only recently got an old-school-style neighborhood gateway sign, but it’s been a distinct neighborhood since the 1880s. The Logan part pays tribute to Congressman John Logan, an Illinois senator who became popular in the city because of legislation he wrote that was intended to create a transcontinental railroad from Texas to California. The railroad was never completed, but when the land for the planned railroad was sold for development in 1886, one of the main streets was named Logan Avenue in honor of Logan’s efforts (incidentally, Logan was also instrumental in creating Memorial Day nationwide). The neighborhood that bore his name became home to a large concentration of Mexican-Americans over the years, and “barrio” (“neighborhood” in Spanish) became a formal part of the neighborhood name in the 1960s when Logan Heights, as it was once known, was split in two by a freeway. Today, Logan Heights is the northern part of the area and Barrio Logan is the southern.

3. BIRDLAND

Blame a clever city planner for Birdland’s name: Most of the neighborhood’s streets are named after bird species, like the blue jay and starling.

4. NORMAL HEIGHTS

 
You may think the “normal” in “Normal Heights” refers to the neighborhood’s everyday feel, but the name actually comes from the teachers college, San Diego Normal School, that later became San Diego State University (even though, rather oddly, the school was actually located in a nearby neighborhood).

5. CITY HEIGHTS

The “Steiner, Klauber, Choate and Castle Addition” doesn’t have much of a ring to it, but such was the original name of what’s now known as City Heights, which was once unincorporated land purchased by developers named Klauber, Steiner, and Castle (a man named Daniel Choate helped them subdivide the land). In 1912, City Heights temporarily ceased to exist when it became its own city named East San Diego. But East San Diego didn’t last long, and in 1923 it was annexed by San Diego, with the City Heights name in use once again. The bigger neighborhood of City Heights is actually comprised of a collection of smaller neighborhoods with names like Teralta, Bay Ridge, and Fairmount Park; however, they’re all called City Heights by the City of San Diego and most residents who aren’t in the know.

6. CLAIREMONT

Thank a pair of developers for Clairemont’s name. In the late 1940s, Lou Burgener and Carlos Tavares put down money on a bunch of cattle land and decided to turn their acres into tract housing to accommodate the postwar influx of San Diegans. Tavares’s wife, future philanthropist and legendary arts patron Claire Tavares, suggested a family-friendly design for the new community, which had a “village within a city” concept, and they named it in her honor.

7. GASLAMP QUARTER

iStock

 
Today, the Gaslamp is home to some of San Diego’s most vibrant nightlife. But at the beginning of the 20th century, it was called “New Town” as opposed to “Old Town” a few miles away. The neighborhood’s thriving red-light district got the nickname “Stingaree,” a play on “stingray” (probably in reference to the rays in San Diego Bay as well as the dangers of the area), and over the years it developed a reputation for crime, prostitution, gambling, and unsavory characters. In the 1970s and 1980s, the city of San Diego decided it was time to clean up the area’s act, renamed it the Gaslamp Quarter, renovated it, and sold it as a historic district once filled with Victorian gems and flickering gas lamps. (The city also added new gas lamps to encourage the feel.) The neighborhood is now packed with shops, hotels, and pricey eateries that belie the neighborhood’s gritty roots.

8. GOLDEN HILL

Golden Hill got its name not from the rich residents whose houses once lined its streets, but from nature. The area was originally named Indian Hill, but in 1887 a developer named Daniel Schuyler successfully petitioned city trustees to rename the area with the help of a poem that celebrated the neighborhood’s “golden light.” What that golden light was, however, has been subject to debate, with the main guesses being that the sun made Indian Hill shine like gold [PDF] or that the area was once covered with gold-blooming acacias.

9. HILLCREST

PDPhoto.org via Wikimedia // Public Domain

 
Speaking of hills, the origin of Hillcrest’s name is pretty simple—it’s at the crest of a hill. A woman named Mary Kearney originally owned the land, but from the 1870s through the early 1900s it changed hands multiple times. The name was supposedly suggested by the sister-in-law of a developer long before the neighborhood became the LGBT center of the city.

10. KEARNY MESA

Remember Mary Kearney? She’s not the Kearny in Kearny Mesa. The community was named for a former military base—Camp Kearny—which was later renamed Miramar. And that camp was named after Stephen Watts Kearny, the U.S. Army Brigadier General who helped conquer California during the Mexican-American war.

11. KENSINGTON

 
Known for its luxurious homes, Kensington is said to have been named after a similarly ritzy London neighborhood. The neighborhood was initially called Kensington Park, but the “Park” part was dropped at some point over the years. One of the neighborhood’s subdivisions, Talmadge, has a connection to one of San Diego’s lesser-known roles—as a pre-Hollywood film center. It was named after the Talmadge sisters, a group of silent film stars who opened a real estate development there in the late 1920s (in no small part because Norma Talmadge’s then-husband, studio executive Joseph Schenck, helped finance the development).

12. LINDA VISTA

With its vistas over San Diego Bay and Mission Valley, it’s no mystery why the Spanish name for “pretty view” became Linda Vista’s name. As San Diego’s population boomed during World War II, the southern part of Kearny Mesa was named Linda Vista by housing officials and slated as a place for dense military housing—despite the fact that there were no schools, sidewalks, bus routes, shops, or other accommodations nearby. Eventually it was built out into a proper neighborhood, with a name that keeps its view top of mind.

13. LITTLE ITALY

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Italian fishermen were once part of a thriving tuna industry along San Diego’s waterfront. The “Italian Colony” that built up in what is now Little Italy is responsible for its name, though today the neighborhood is better known for its food and festivals than its fishermen.

14. NORTH PARK

You can thank lemons—and a man named James Monroe Hartley—for North Park’s name. Hartley bought the land that is now North Park in 1893 to create a lemon grove. It was part of a parcel of land known as Park Villas, but was renamed “Hartley’s North Park” because of its new owner and its location north of Balboa Park. Eventually, San Diego grew enough that Hartley’s lemon grove became desirable home-building territory. All the better, since Hartley apparently had to truck in water due to a drought that was then hitting the area.

15. OLD TOWN

iStock

 
As its name implies, Old Town has some serious history. It’s where the first non-native settlers of California dug in, building first a Spanish mission, then Mexican pueblos, and finally an American city. However, Old Town was simply known as San Diego until an upstart developer named Alonzo Horton started a nearby settlement he called “New Town” (built on an earlier attempt at a New Town that failed dramatically). That new New Town became Downtown, and Old Town got its present-day name.

16. POINT LOMA

Speaking of old: Point Loma’s name dates from long before California was populated by Europeans. In 1542, an explorer named Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo made the first landing in California, in San Diego Bay, and named its east peninsula “la punta de la loma,” or “hill point.” It took another couple of hundred years for the area to be colonized, but the name Point Loma stuck.

17. SCRIPPS RANCH

 
Suburban Scripps Ranch doesn’t seem like the kind of place where people would undertake a utopian social experiment, but that’s what happened in 1891 when an up-and-coming newspaper mogul named Edward Willis (or Wyllis) Scripps began building his dream home. He named it “Miramar,” or “sea view,” after the one-time Mexican Emperor Maximilian I’s palace. The entire family moved in to try out communal, idealistic living. Unfortunately, Scripps’ social experiment ended [PDF] when his brother Fred was indicted for sleeping with a 14-year-old girl, but Miramar Ranch—later renamed Scripps Ranch—eventually became a popular place to live. The name would later stick and become attached to the surrounding neighborhood.

18. TIERRASANTA

Tierrasanta’s name—it means “holy land” in Spanish—is a testament to its holy roots, though the community wasn’t founded until the 1970s. Before that, it was part of the Mission San Diego de Alcála Ranch. There, thousands of indigenous people were enslaved by Franciscan friars, including Junípero Serra, the controversial mission leader who became a Catholic saint in 2015. Allegations that the mission and its ranch were the site of virtual slavery or even genocide aren’t the only explosive things in Tierrasanta: The community was once a military training base and has experienced several issues related to unexploded ordnance.

19. RAMONA

Black Canyon Road Bridge in Ramona. Image credit: Wikimedia Commons // Public Domain  

Ramona technically isn’t part of the City of San Diego—rather, it counts as one of the county’s “unincorporated places.” But it gets an honorary inclusion on this list because of the strange origin of its name. “Ramona” wasn’t a historical figure but a fictitious one, the heroine of Helen Hunt Jackson’s novel by the same name. The 1884 book follows the woes of the mixed-race Native American/Scottish Ramona as she navigates racial tension and romantic tragedy in old Southern California; the book was so popular that some have credited it with largely creating the tourism industry in Southern California.


January 31, 2017 – 2:00pm

LEGO Launches Kid-Friendly Social Network

Image credit: 
iTunes Store

It might be hard for many of us old folks to believe, but 39 percent of kids register for a social media account by the age of 11. To keep children entertained and safe from the many dangers of the internet, CNN reports that toy manufacturer LEGO has launched a free social network called LEGO Life that caters to users 13 and under.

LEGO Life launched on Tuesday, and is available on iOS and Android. Like many other social networks, it contains a “news feed”—but instead of browsing selfies or posting status updates, kids can engage in building challenges, watch animated videos, upload pictures of completed LEGO products, and search for—or “like”—images.

More importantly, WIRED reports, LEGO Life is designed so kids can use it without encountering the harassment or bullying that’s common on other social platforms. Randomly generated user names and personalized LEGO avatars protect identities; kids can only share LEGO-themed photos, as images of real people are banned; and comments on other users’ photos are limited to LEGO emoji. (They can, however post regular comments on official, company-sponsored posts.) There is also plenty of adult supervision: Parents have to OK their kids’ accounts via email, and each post must be approved by a LEGO Life moderator.

LEGO Life is currently only available for mobile phones, but a web-based version is reportedly in the works.

[h/t CNN]


January 31, 2017 – 1:00pm

Could Jack Have Fit on that Door? ‘Titanic’ Director Says No

filed under: death, Movies
Image credit: 
MERIE WALLACE/AFP/Getty Images

The real tragedy of the love story in James Cameron’s 1997 film Titanic is that it feels like both of the main characters should have survived. Both Rose and Jack could have fit on that floating door that saved Rose’s life, surely. Mythbusters proved it. Cameron, however, maintains that Jack had to die, according to a new interview with The Daily Beast (and highlighted on Today).

For one thing, the script demands it. “Look, it’s very, very simple: You read page 147 of the script and it says, ‘Jack gets off the board and gives his place to her so that she can survive,'” Cameron told The Daily Beast. But it also just makes sense in the context of the story.

To think that it could have played out as suggested by the Mythbusters hosts—who he calls “fun guys…but they’re full of shit”—is a bit of a stretch, Cameron says.

OK, so let’s really play that out: you’re Jack, you’re in water that’s 28 degrees, your brain is starting to get hypothermia. Mythbusters asks you to now go take off your life vest, take hers off, swim underneath this thing, attach it in some way that it won’t just wash out two minutes later—which means you’re underwater tying this thing on in 28-degree water, and that’s going to take you five to ten minutes, so by the time you come back up you’re already dead. So that wouldn’t work. His best choice was to keep his upper body out of the water and hope to get pulled out by a boat or something before he died.

It’s a convincing argument, but our hearts will go on believing Jack could have made it through.

[h/t Today]


January 31, 2017 – 12:30pm

8 Over-The-Top Hot Chocolates to Try

Image credit: 
iStock

Drinking hot chocolate is already a decadent experience (when else is it acceptable to have marshmallows and whipped cream at the same?). But cafes around the world are taking it upon themselves to bring this sweet beverage to even greater heights. From flowering marshmallows to chocolate-covered mugs, here are eight over-the-top drinks to get cozy with this winter.

1. PEANUT BUTTER HOT CHOCOLATE // CEREAL KILLER CAFE

Chocolate and peanut butter are a match made in dessert heaven. At Cereal Killer Cafe in London, this relationship is taken to new heights in the form of an indulgent mug of hot chocolate. A peanut butter cup garnishes the rim like a lemon wedge, while the rest of the glass has whipped cream, Nutella, peanut butter chips, and chocolate sauce oozing down the sides. And because cereal is kind of their thing, they also sprinkle Reese’s Puffs on top.

2. UNICORN HOT CHOCOLATE // CREME & SUGAR

Joanna Czikalla took her customers (and their Instagram accounts) by storm when she added Unicorn Hot Chocolate to the menu of her Anaheim, California cafe. The fantastical concoction is made by loading rainbow marshmallows, sprinkles, and whipped cream on top of white hot chocolate that’s been dyed a delicate shade of pink. The beverage is one of several unicorn-themed treats offered at Creme & Sugar.

3. BLOSSOMING HOT CHOCOLATE // DOMINIQUE ANSEL BAKERY

No matter how blustery it feels outside, it’s hard not to think spring when watching a marshmallow flower bloom in your mug. Dominique Ansel (the same French pastry chef behind the cronut) invented this treat by folding a flower-shaped sheet of marshmallow into a white chocolate cup of cocoa. When the cup hits the hot liquid it dissolves, allowing the marshmallow to unfurl its fluffy petals across the width of the cup. The drink is available at Dominique Ansel bakeries in London, Tokyo, and New York City [PDF].

4. MARSHMALLOW SURPRISE // LONG STORY SHORT CAFE

The hot chocolate from Long Story Short Cafe in Port Melbourne, Australia is served in two parts: a mug with a chocolate globe and chocolate pieces on the bottom and a beaker full of piping hot chocolate. After pouring the liquid into the mug, guests can watch the chocolate sphere dissolve to reveal fluffy marshmallows hidden inside. The interactive delicacy comes in different varieties, including white chocolate green tea and a red chocolate Christmas “bauble” available around the holidays.

5. SALTED DARK HOT CHOCOLATE // SWEET JESUS

This Canadian dessert chain is known for its outrageous lattes and soft serve, but it would be a crime to leave Sweet Jesus without sampling their Salted Dark Hot Chocolate. The sinful creation starts with basic hot chocolate and milk that’s then topped with dark chocolate whipped cream, chocolate shavings, and Malden’s finishing salt. A crushed Oreo-covered rim ensures plenty of chocolatey goodness in every sip.

6. OVERFLOWING HOT CHOCOLATE // SAID

This artisanal chocolate shop, with outposts in both London and Rome, knows how to make a bellissimo cup of hot chocolate. Before filling a mug with the rich beverage, melted white, dark, and milk chocolates are spilled over the sides to create a luscious effect. We recommend having napkins close at hand when you take the plunge.

7. RED VELVET HOT CHOCOLATE // THE PICNIC BURWOOD

When it comes to decadence, this hot chocolate somehow outdoes the dessert that shares its name. The drink comes with strawberries, marshmallows, Cadbury chocolate, and a whole red velvet cupcake nestled on top. The Picnic Burwood in Sydney, Australia seats diners outdoors year round, and when they break out the patio heaters in the winter months, a mug of hot chocolate makes for a perfect cozy treat.

8. MARSHMALLOW RIM HOT CHOCOLATE // FATTIES BAKERY

Fatties Bakery at London’s Druid Street Market has found an ingenious way to ensure that every sip of their salted caramel hot chocolate has the sweetness of marshmallow included. After pouring the hot chocolate into a cup, marshmallow is piped around the rim and brûléed with a torch. The marshmallow barrier keeps the beverage contained while keeping your mouth sticky and happy.


January 31, 2017 – 12:00pm

IKEA to Roll Out Hackable Furniture in 2018

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iStock

DIY enthusiasts will soon have a new reason to shop at IKEA. As The Wall Street Journal reports, the beloved chain is developing a new line of “open source” furniture that’s set to hit shelves early next year.

Delaktig, which means “being part of something” in Swedish, is a platform that’s meant to be built upon and customized—something many customers have been doing on their own with the store’s existing products. Instead of buying a complete piece of furniture and taking it apart, shoppers will soon be able to purchase a simple unit that provides lots of room for modification.

The initial flat-pack product IKEA plans to release will be an aluminum profile with cushioning supported by wooden slats. The piece makes for a simple bed or sofa, and it can be upgraded with armrests, side tables, reading lamps, crib walls, or anything else that owners can secure to the frame. It’s made to work with standard bolt heads, so add-ons from IKEA or elsewhere can be attached easily.

“This project is not only about design, but equally about exploring materials and challenging traditional ways of production to redefine the concept of comfort,” IKEA said in a news release from last year. The Delaktig furniture will retail for between $400 and $900 when it goes on sale at the beginning of 2018. If you can’t wait that long to start your next home project, there are plenty of creative IKEA hacks you can use with what’s already in their inventory.

[h/t The Wall Street Journal]


January 31, 2017 – 11:30am