AdamSmith

I had that very same thought -- it's a wonder some of that Russian iron work, masonry, etc. hasn't broken off or crumbled in their hands.

I have a paralyzing fear of heights and I can't resist watching these things. (Now cue zipperzone to remark on their evident deathwish etc. )

Hersheys to create 3D chocolate printer Hersheys is to partner with 3D systems to create a 3D printer for creating chocolate and other edible products Printing your own 3D chocolate could soon be a reality Photo: Getty Images By Rhiannon Williams 2:13PM GMT 17 Jan 2014 telegraph.co.uk The US chocolate manufacturer did not reveal the cost of the deal or if and when the printed products will be available to consumers. Three-dimensional chocolate products are created by melting chocolate, tempering it and depositing it onto a substrate in two-dimensional layers as little as 0.05 mm thick. Chocolate is a notoriously difficult material to 3D print with due to issues controlling the temperature and viscosity of the material adequately. Last week at CES 3D Systems unveiled what they claimed to be the first food-safe 3D printer, along with the three-dimensional sweets it produced. It uses an ink jet print head to paint water over a fine later of sugar, which hardens and recrystalises the sugar into complex geometric shapes. British company Choc Edge claims to be able to create a chocolate replica of your face using a 3D printer, costing between £50 and £80 per design. William Papa, Vice President and Chief Research and Development Officer of the Hershey company said: “Whether it’s creating a whole new form of candy or developing a new way to produce it, we embrace new technologies such as 3D printing as a way to keep moving our timeless confectionery treats into the future.” Following the recent announcement Photoshop users will soon be able to create, refine and print 3D models from their desktop, it is conceivable we could be printing our own food from the comfort of our future kitchens. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/news/10579401/Hersheys-to-create-3D-chocolate-printer.html

A great delight! Thank you.

Oh, well. Been nice knowing you all. http://mobile.nytimes.com/2014/01/17/science/earth/un-says-lag-in-confronting-climate-woes-will-be-costly.html

Putin to Gays: Leave Kids Alone and You'll Be Safe The Russian president contends LGBT people will be welcome in Sochi for the Winter Olympics, as long as they don't try to speak to children. BY Sunnivie Brydum January 17 2014 11:46 AM ET Advocate.com Just three weeks from the opening ceremonies for the Winter Olympic Games in Sochi, Russia, President Vladimir Putin today warned LGBT Olympic visitors to "leave children in peace," according to a translation from Russian news outlet R-Sport. Speaking to a gathering of Olympic athletes at the Russian mountain Olympic village Friday, Putin said that gay and lesbian visitors — and presumably athletes — will be safe, so long as they stay away from children. "We do not have a ban on nontraditional sexual relationships," said Putin, according to the Guardian's translation. "We have a ban on the propaganda of homosexuality and paedophilia. I want to underline this. Propaganda among children. These are absolutely different things — a ban on something or a ban on the propaganda of that thing." "We are not forbidding anything and nobody is being grabbed off the street, and there is no punishment for such kinds of relations," continued Putin. "You can feel relaxed and calm [in Russia], but leave children alone please." Aside from implying that LGBT people are inherently predatory and looking to "recruit" young people, these latest comments undermine months of vague "assurances" from Putin and numerous other Russian officials that LGBT people would be safe and welcome in Russia, despite a nationwide ban on "propaganda of nontraditional sexual relations" in areas visible to minors that took effect last summer. Putin himself has previously promised that LGBT people will be "comfortable" in Sochi, claiming that his administration's top priority is to host a well-organized Games with "the creation of equal terms for all athletes." But Russian politicians and sports officials have issued contradictory messages about whether the anti-LGBT law will affect Olympic athletes and spectators, essentially proposing a "don't ask, don't tell" policy wherein they promised no one would be prosecuted under the law so long as they don't speak publicly in support of or about LGBT identities. The International Olympic Committee said it is "completely satisfied" with Russia's vague promises that all rights will be respected at the Games. Since the ban on so-called gay propaganda took effect last July, LGBT Russians and visitors have been beaten, harassed, and arrested for attempting to peacefully assemble, carrying pro-LGBT signs, waving rainbow flags, or sometimes simply for walking down the street. A 22-year-old transgender woman in Russia committed suicide shortly after she was kicked out of her home and fired from her municipal job because her employers feared running afoul of the propaganda ban. http://www.advocate.com/sports/2014/01/17/putin-gays-leave-kids-alone-and-youll-be-safe-0

Commentary Op-ed: The Curious Case of Ronan Farrow Ronan Farrow, the soon-to-be MSNBC host, plays it close to the vest with his love life, but isn't afraid to publicly blast his famous father. Is this a conflict or simply a choice? BY Neal Broverman January 17 2014 4:06 AM ETAdvocate.com Ronan Farrow is pretty damn funny. “90% of the world's data was created in the last 2 years, according to the World Econ Forum,” he tweeted recently. “That's a whole lot of One Direction fan fiction.” And he’s as accomplished as he is amusing — entering college at 11, becoming a Rhodes Scholar, working for former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and now writing a book about foreign policy and gearing up for his own MSNBC show. He's 26, slackers. As the son of actress Mia Farrow and either legendary director Woody Farrow or legendary crooner Frank Sinatra (the sparking cerulean peepers kind of give it away), he had a leg up on late bloomers like Rachel Maddow and Don Lemon, who didn't get their own cable news shows until they were old farts in their 30s or 40s. Regardless of family connections, Ronan is clearly a brilliant and charismatic figure and maybe, hopefully, a political contender one day. We need a guy like this on our team. Vice magazine already says he is. In response to a New York Times profile from the fall that obliquely referred to some sort of relationship between Farrow and Jon Lovett, a former Obama speechwriter, Vice essentially outed him. It wasn't just a salacious, we-saw-him-at-a-bathhouse article, but a keen commentary about why dancing around the truth of Farrow's life is detrimental to society (the New York Post, on the other hand, soon after published a prurient Page Six item saying Farrow is attracted to both sexes). Both the Times and Vanity Fair, which recently interviewed Ronan's mother, avoided discussing the younger Farrow's love life, though “neither publication seems very interested in protecting Farrow’s privacy,” wrote Vice’s Christopher Glazek. “The articles reveal bracingly personal details about Farrow and his family, including lurid speculations about paternity and painful references to the drawn-out custody disputes with Allen. Why a veil of secrecy for this particular detail? Is 'outing' even a thing that publications worry about anymore?” The Times didn't have cooperation from Farrow and, as Vice points out, NYT writer Michael Schulman may not have been able to confirm whether Farrow is, in fact, gay. Schulman could have also thought it a weird angle to chase after, but it remains a pointed omission. If he was unquestionably straight — something no one has ever, in the history of the universe, been afraid to reveal — I'm sure Schulman would have found a way to describe his girlfriend or mention how he's too busy for lady friends. Relationship status is central to one’s identity, and for a profile to not go there means someone — the writer or the subject — is avoiding something. It also means we’re not that far removed from puff pieces on, say, Jodie Foster or Neil Patrick Harris that touch on everything in their lives except who shares their bed. The Gray Lady again profiled Ronan, this time with his participation, in a recent edition of its magazine. Again, no mention of Farrow's love life was included, though the wunderkind discusses his large family, which includes 14 siblings of varying races and backgrounds. Writer Jesse Lichtenstein notes that Ronan "prefers not to address rumors about whom he’s dating" and is not forthcoming about his personal life. But is his family not personal? Farrow has previously tweeted about the Sinatra rumors — his mom told Vanity Fair it's quite possible Frank is Ronan's dad — and told Lichtenstein, “Look, I get it, it’s hilarious, it’s wild. There are salacious aspects of the story I’m able to sit back and appreciate with everybody else. And then it’s, ‘O.K., how do we move to the substance and redirect this conversation so we’re actually talking about stuff that’s useful?’” I believe Ronan sincerely wants any conversation involving him to focus more on his interests in policy, equality, and justice, and less on his celebrity. But it gets hard to reconcile that belief with the tweet bomb he dropped during the Golden Globes. “Missed the Woody Allen tribute — did they put the part where a woman publicly confirmed he molested her at age 7 before or after Annie Hall?” Cue the mushroom cloud. Ronan was referring to ’90s accusations by Allen's daughter, Ronan's sister, that the director molested her. I feel for anyone who's endured the trials the Farrow family has, but to discuss a subject like that in such a public forum and yet remain conspicuously silent on whether or not you're gay gives me bad pre-2012 Anderson Cooper flashbacks. Ronan doesn't need to fly a banner over Times Square or turn his MSNBC show into the last season of Ellen, he just need not shrink from it (I, in my Advocate capacity, unsuccessfully reached out to Ronan a few times via Twitter). I asked Lichtenstein, the author of the most-recent NYT piece, if he thought it invasive to ask Ronan directly if he’s gay. “I acknowledge in the piece that he has tweeted about his family and the rumors about who his dad is, but that in general he doesn't like to talk about his private life,” Lichtenstein emailed me. It’s a delicate dance we journalists do, trying to provide candid profiles of celebrities and newsmakers while still trying to conform to their requests and their publicists’ requests, and attempting to dodge their own agendas and image-crafting. I hate that I, Lichtenstein, or any other writer still has to worry about just coming out and asking that question — not because it makes our jobs harder, but because in 2014, mentioning being gay, bi, or trans shouldn’t be dissimilar to telling a reporter you’ve gone vegan, your grandmother is Indonesian, or you enjoy “Wrecking Ball.” If it’s not yet totally innocuous to be out now in public life, I would hope someone as principled as Ronan Farrow would tell any and all dissenters to fuck off. His mother would. NEAL BROVERMAN is a columnist for The Advocate and the editor in chief of Out Traveler. Follow him on Twitter @nbroverman http://www.advocate.com/commentary/2014/01/17/op-ed-curious-case-ronan-farrow

Madonna's new boyfriend is 26!?! That's the same age as her pacemaker. Joan Rivers

Nonetheless...

So after triumphing in Sharknato, Ian Ziering is now a guest MC on Chippendales. Looking great! Anderson Cooper has entirely too much fun with it. http://www.cnn.com/video/data/2.0/video/showbiz/2014/01/17/ac-ridiculist-ian-ziering-chippendales-dancer.cnn.html

Le plot epaisse. http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jan/17/francois-hollande-julie-gayet-closer-france-revelations

They heard you!