Matador Network's Blog, page 2263

Google cars and cyclist safety [vid]

It’s gotten to the point where I’m a little bit terrified to go out on the road because I know how many people are texting or using their smartphones. Distracted driving is just a part of our world now, and virtually everyone I know has done it at one time or another. What’s particularly scary is when you catch yourself not paying attention, and you realize that, had a cyclist or a pedestrian been standing there at the moment you got distracted, you could have done them serious harm, or even could have killed them.

So what does a bike-friendly future look like? It might involve self-driving cars. Google has been working on self-driving cars for a while, and I’ve always wondered about problems with cyclists and pedestrians. It turns out, self-driving cars might actually be more courteous to bikers than human drivers are. At the very least, they check behind them for cyclists before turning, which is more than I can say of most cars in the city (check out the 1:02 mark of the video above if you want to get straight to the bike-related technology).

Obviously this is a future that is a ways off, but we may well be seeing safer, more bike-friendly roads in the next few decades.

The post Google’s robot cars are nicer to cyclists than you are appeared first on Matador Network.

5 things you can cook in a hostel

Photo: Leo Hidalgo

HOSTEL KITCHENS ARE TO COOKING what steampunk is to Victorian drama. All too frequently a schizophrenic collection of pots, pans, half as many knives and twice as many teaspoons as any sane chef could ever need. But the handicapped chaos of the hostel kitchen at dinnertime is no excuse to cook like all your mother ever taught you was how to boil an egg, heat some toast, and mix some reluctant-to-dissolve, slightly gelled instant coffee.

Nossir. For the pride of your parents, and the sake of a species that spent thousands of years mastering the cooking of things, you can do better. The hostel resident that knows some basic recipes is the hostel resident who gets more friends at the dinner table and packed lunch the next day.

We want you to be that hostel dweller. So here are five easy-to-learn, hard-to-burn recipes to put in the back of your moleskine.

To keep things practical, a Good Hostel Recipe(tm) will need to have at least three qualities:

It should be vegetarian. For the widest appeal, and because meat — unlike, say, a carrot — decays with a vengeance familiar to the old gods. Eating — or worse, feeding everyone else — off chicken is grounds for a swift and enduring punishment.
It should have not more than 4–5 ingredients. Excluding spices, because the one thing everybody abandons in hostel kitchens are spices. So we’ll assume some of those are already available. Moreover, the ingredients should be things you should reasonably be able to find as much in Delhi as Chicago.
It needs to be cookable in a hostel kitchen. Which is to limit it to things that can be made in pans, pots, or an oven. No spaghetti maker, muslin bags, or cake moulds.
Bonus points if it can be made into a packed lunch. Because it’s a reason to be smug indeed when you find yourself with a snack on hand when you’re waiting in that place, for that thing, much longer than you anticipated.

1. Bread

Photo: Emily Carlin

Obviously. Bread is the one thing people have been making in the most basic conditions since the first of your ancestors got some flour wet. For real bread, you literally need only flour, salt, yeast, and water, plus an oven to stick it into. Here’s a recipe to get you going.

If you think finding yeast is a bit of a luxury, drop it, and combine flour, water, salt, and oil to make parathas (or chapattis as they’re known in other parts). Parathas are almost impossible to screw up, unless you’re really trying hard to, and taste delicious — because salt + oil = happiness. Here’s a recipe.

With both, you can mix spices into the dough at the beginning to get some amazing flavours (paprika and dry onion bread, anyone?). So consult the spices-left-behind shelf of the kitchen and try to find something interesting to mix into the dough. Both forms of bread will also carry well and so can be taken on extended bus rides the next day.

2. Dal

Photo: iris

Need something to go with your bread? Make dal. Put some oil or butter in a pan, fry up some onions and garlic until they go clear, add a bundle of the orphan spices, two or three cups of washed red lentils, and water. Then leave on a low heat and stir, topping up with water occasionally until the lentils turn into a soft, porridgy-type thing. That’s dal (purists will disagree, but you’re cooking in a hostel kitchen, so we left hair-splitting back at the four-star hotel up the road you aren’t in). Speaking of splitting, split peas will also work, if you can’t find lentils.

Dal is not as portable as, say, bread, but you can store it in an old ice-cream tub or something similar if you have leftovers you want to take with. Or, if you have the time the next day, you can mix in some flour to bind the dal into what are essentially vegetarian hamburger patties that can then be fried / grilled and taken with or eaten for the next night’s dinner.

3. Mushroom pasta

Photo: Matt @ PEK

Purists will have a heart attack, but you can make a half decent mushroom pasta with cream, mushrooms, onions, and a packet of instant soup (onion or mushroom work best). Fry up the onions and mushrooms until they’re soft, then add the cream and the packet soup. The soup powder essentially serves as a cheat by boosting the flavour of the whole dish and making the cream thicker. Stir occasionally on a low heat until it’s all thoroughly mixed and smells delicious, then put onto pasta and pretend you’re a champion.

Sadly, this won’t transport well (or even be terribly delicious in the morning), but it does make for an incredibly low-effort, filling dinner.

4. Soup

Photo: Harsh Patel

Much like dal, soup pretty much involves some frying, followed by a period of leaving it on a low heat until the dish turns mushy. For a veg soup, you simply sauté some garlic and onions until they’re soft, add in some others if you like (mushrooms or pumpkin, perhaps) plus a little bit of water so you can cook the whole lot into a kind of wet mess. Finally, add some cream to give the soup a base, and gently stir on a low temperature until all the flavours mix and it begins to soupify. Keep tasting it and adding salt, pepper, and/or other spices as you go until it’s delicious. There’s a good overview to the basic principles of souping here.

Soup will transport the least well of any of these dinners but makes up for it a little through its ease of cooking.

5. Pie

Photo: star5112

Now you’re showing off. God gave us butter to make us happy and something called shortcrust pastry to help us eat it better. Shortcrust pastry requires only butter and flour (and a tiny bit of salt) to make and allows you to turn essentially anything into a pie.

Yes, that’s right. Anything. Into. A. Pie.

To make shortcrust pastry, you need only chop the butter into smaller bits, put those bits into flour, and work it with your hands until you get a thickish, crumbly pastry. Spoon some tiny amounts of cold water into the dough until it starts to stick together, and you have shortcrust. Here’s a recipe. The world is now your…erm…pie.

You can roll out the shortcrust (use a bottle or a thermos flask if there’s no rolling pin) into a flat sheet, fill it with nearly anything, and fold it over to make a pie out of it. For an easy vegetable pie, mix together some canned veg with a can of cream of potato soup (use a little extra flour for thickening if you need, but it shouldn’t be necessary). Put that filling into your pie crust, bake in the oven until it’s done, and share with people you like. For transportability, you can make little pie-lets, bake them separately, and take them on the road tomorrow.

The post 5 things you can cook in a hostel kitchen appeared first on Matador Network.

The world's 15 most expensive hotels

There’s shoestring travel, then there’s budget travel, then there’s travel, then business travel, and then elite travel. Way, way, way up — way higher than any of those — is megarich travel. It’s the type of travel that only happens on private jets and with chauffeurs. It’s “I have a pet tiger and I could easily get away with feeding someone to it” travel.

Naturally, this level of travel requires a certain type of accommodation. There are no hostels, no shared bathrooms, no trips to the ice machine at this level of accommodation. This is Wolf of Wall Street lodging. This is “I need a place to spend the night while my manservant replenishes my yacht’s cocaine vaults” lodging.

You get the idea. These are the most expensive hotels in the world. Here’s what spending more than the majority of the world’s annual income is on a single night in a hotel room looks like.

1. The Apartment at the Hotel Connaught in London

At $23,500 a night, the Apartment offers a private butler and menus designed by Michelin-starred chef Helene Darroze. It has a wrap-around balcony overlooking London’s incredibly posh Mayfair area.

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To get a good idea of just how over-the-top British blueblood opulent this place is, check out their interactive site regarding the Apartment — it includes stories of the butler flying to Paris after guests left to return the shoes they’d forgotten, and a guy who wanted to cook his wife a meal, and had a Michelin chef passing him tips behind a secret door. I mean, Christ.

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2. The Presidential Suite at the Hotel Cala di Volpe in Porto Cervo, Italy

At $26,000 a night, the Presidential Suite at the Hotel Cala di Volpe in Sardinia offers three bedrooms, a solarium, a private pool, and a fitness area.

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Each of the three bathrooms has a jacuzzi, an “oversized shower,” and “dual vanities of Sardinian marble.”

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3. The Shangri-La Suite at the Shangri-La Bosphorus in Istanbul

At a mere $26,385 a night, the Shangri-La Suite takes up the entire top floor of the Shangri-La hotel, overlooking the Bosphorus Strait in Istanbul.

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There’s a TV embedded in that bathroom mirror, by the way. The room has three private terraces that give you views of pretty much the entire Istanbul skyline.

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4. The Presidential Suite at the Mandarin Oriental in Shanghai

Located in spectacular, skyscraper-heavy Pudong, the best suite at the Mandarin Oriental is about $26,450 a night. It’s a two-bedroom apartment with its own wine cellar, and staggering 25th-floor views of the Shanghai skyline.

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It, of course, has butler service, and they promise flexible check-in and check-out, saying you can enjoy your full 24 hours in the hotel. I should fucking hope so.

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5. The Royal Suite at the Hôtel Plaza Athénée in Paris

The Royal Suite is the largest hotel room in Paris, with 450 square meters. It’s also $27,000 a night…$27,000 which totally couldn’t have gone towards paying off my student loans instead.

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The suite includes televisions concealed behind the mirrors, and “all the embroidery is done with gold thread.” In large part, what you’re paying for in this suite is proximity to gold.

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6. The St. Regis Villa at St. Regis Mauritius

The St. Regis Villa on Mauritius is the largest villa on the island and costs $30,000 a night.

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It includes a Jacuzzi, a lounge, a bar, and a private chef. The best amenity listed on the site by far, though, is that they specialize in “discreetly addressing guests’ needs.”

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7. The Royal Suite at St. Regis Saadiyat Island, in the United Arab Emirates

At $35,000 a night, the Royal Suite at St. Regis is the largest hotel room in the UAE. It has two floors, butler service, and a private theater.

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It also has a swimming pool and a games room. The master bedroom takes up pretty much all of the bottom floor and looks out over the ocean.

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8. The Royal Villa at the Grand Resort Lagonissi in Athens

The Royal Villa, at $35,000 a night, once played host to Mel Gibson and Leonardo DiCaprio (I assume on separate occasions — you can only produce so much cocaine and booze on short notice). It has two master bedrooms, each with marble bathrooms with their own steam baths, as well as the butler’s quarters.

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There’s also a private massage area, a heated pool, and a private deck overlooking the beach.

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9. The Penthouse Suite at the Grand Hyatt Cannes Hôtel Martinez

At a quaint $37,500 a night, the Penthouse Suite at the Hotel Martinez in Cannes offers views of the Bay of Cannes (from a terrace Jacuzzi, of course), and two king-size bedrooms.

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Strangely, compared to the other suites on this list, the Grand Hyatt’s amenities list, rather than using the words “opulence,” “luxury,” and, “gold-leaf covered heated toilet seat,” lists things like “wireless internet,” “a bathrobe,” and “Windows that open.” Don’t let that understated description fool you, though — according to Billionaire.com it is the fourth most expensive hotel room in the world (though CNN says it’s third).

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10. The Hilltop Estate Owner’s Accommodation at the Laucala Island Resort in Fiji

Not only is this villa $40,000 a night, but you can’t just book the room. You have to apply for the privilege of giving them enough money to pay the equivalent of most four-year in-state college tuitions over the course of a day.

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The entire island is owned by Red Bull’s billionaire owner (I know what you’re thinking: Red Bull was a billion dollar idea?), and consists of 25 villas, but this is the best. It has panoramic views of the island, free massages, horse rides on the beach, and I imagine it allows you to hunt the deadliest game of all: man.

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The webpage — which uses the word “opulent” like it’s a good thing — also says it provides a private cook, a chauffeur, and a private nanny. It will, and I quote, make your “undreamt of pleasures come true.” Which sounds like an underestimation of the weird pleasures people dream about.

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11. The Ty Warner Penthouse at the Four Seasons in New York

The Ty Warner Suite at the Four Seasons in New York will set you back a cool $45,000 a night. It’s the highest hotel room in New York, with a 360 view of the city, and it took 7 years and $50 million dollars to build. The room has its own art concierge and also a huge library. It only houses three — with accommodations for a child (and let’s be honest, the only child that will ever stay here is Prince George).

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Here’s their website’s pathologically detailed description of the bathroom: “The master bathroom is entirely clad in custom slabs of rare Chinese onyx and includes sinks carved from solid blocks of rock crystal, underlit with LED lighting. Unwind in a chromatherapy infinity soak tub or an oversized Dornbracht steam rain shower with six body jets. Other features include a Toto Neorest toilet with wireless remote, sensors and heated seat, and floors with radiant heat. The walls, ceiling and sink in the jewel-like guest powder room are fashioned from semi-precious tiger’s eye stone.”

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12. The Sky Villa at the Palms Resort in Las Vegas

At $40,000 a night, the Sky Villa offers a private glass elevator, a glass spa jutting out over the balcony with views of the strip, a dry sauna, and 24-hour butler service.

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There are actually a few Sky Villas, but the most luxurious one is called the Hugh Hefner Sky Villa. Because it’s Vegas, so of course.

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13. The Burj Al Arab in Dubai

No catalogue of the gaudily expensive would be complete without a mention of Dubai. While many of our other hotels on this list get a spot by merely having an absurdly expensive and luxurious suite, the Burj Al Arab gets on for having nothing but absurdly expensive luxury suites.

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All of their suites are duplexes, and the cheapest of them is $2,000 a night. Not including taxes and fees. The most expensive is $12,000 (depending on the exchange rate). This may well be — overall — the most expensive hotel in the world.

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The amenities? You can get around in their Rolls-Royce, Mercedes, and helicopter transfer services. Or take advantage of their personalized butlers. Also, you can go to their four swimming pools and private beach, or get free access to a nearby waterpark. It’s a great place to go to show your complete contempt for the concept of moderation.

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14. The Shahi Mahal Suite at the Raj Palace Hotel in Jaipur, India

$45,000 US. For a night. It’s got 6 bedrooms, a private theater, a library, and a private kitchen staff, but again: It’s 45 grand a night. It’s a particularly good fit if you’re a Bond villain, royalty, or need a nice place to get together with some friends for an old-fashioned partition of a third-world country.

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15. The Royal Penthouse Suite at the Hotel President Wilson in Geneva, Switzerland

At 60,000 Swiss Francs a night — or about $68,000 US depending on the exchange rate — this is the most expensive hotel room in the world. The suite has hosted the likes of Bill Gates and Michael Douglas, and includes its own private elevator, gym, and pool table; it has maximum security, a Steinway Grand Piano, and a panoramic view of Lake Geneva.

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The good news is that it sleeps up to 6 people (it has 12 bedrooms and bathrooms, but the site says it only sleeps 6). So you can split the price with your other comically rich friends.

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The post The 15 most expensive hotels in the world appeared first on Matador Network.

How to piss off someone from Galicia

Photo: João Almeida

Here’s the thing you’ll never realize: We’ll keep smiling at you, talking to you, we might even say you’re right. But deep inside, our opinion about you has changed. You’re no longer that exotic foreigner who came to ask for directions, someone we thought for a moment we might want to be friends with. You’ve done two or three of these things. In a row. You’ve been blacklisted.

Ask about the Galician language, and refer to it as “your dialect.”

Galician (galego) is one of Spain’s official languages, along with Catalan, Basque, Aranese, and Spanish. We know, most people abroad don’t know about it (we clearly have a marketing problem — everyone knows about Catalan and Basque!), but that doesn’t mean it’s not a language in its own right.

Refer to it as a dialect to the right person, and you might even get a free history lesson after being asked, “A dialect from what language? Spanish?” Nope: Galician and Portuguese used to be the same language, and no one thinks of Portuguese as a Spanish dialect. After Castilla conquered Galicia in the 13th century (a century after Portugal’s independence), early Galician-Portuguese fragmented and started evolving in different directions, giving birth to Galician in the north and Portuguese in the rest of the territory.

Assume we like flamenco and bullfighting, eat paella all day, and are outgoing.

Spain is a big and diverse country, and those stereotypes apply mostly to the south. Don’t expect flamenco shows in Galicia — our traditional music has Celtic roots, so you’ll find bagpipes and a feeling of being in Ireland or Scotland. Instead of paella, we eat lots of vegetables, potatoes, pork, fish, and seafood. Bullfighting exists here, but it’s not popular.

As for that image of Spanish people being always happy and outgoing, you might find we’re a bit different. We are famously suspicious of new things and people, so we need time to decide if we like you or not. That being said, if we decide we like you, you’ll have earned a place in our heart forever.

Say it always rains in Galicia.

I know, I know. All your Galician friends are constantly complaining about the grey, rainy weather on their Facebook updates. But it’s not that bad, and we hate it when people assume there’s a cloud that lives over Galicia, making it impossible for us to see the sun. We think there’s a national conspiracy, led by weathermen, to spread that idea. They always point it out when it’s sunny everywhere but here, while forgetting to mention it when the opposite happens. Even worse, because of Galicia’s location (in the northwest, that part just above Portugal), they tend to stand in front of Portugal, hiding Galicia from view with their heads!

And while we complain a lot about the weather (we are a bit weather obsessed, it’s not small talk at all), our summers can be perfect. We don’t call ourselves Galifornia for nothing.

Doubt the quality Estrella Galicia.

Estrella Galicia is our local beer, and we just love it. You will learn to order una Estrella instead of una cerveza, and even to frown slightly if the barman says they only have other brands. But you won’t see how important it is for us until you witness how our eyes start shining whenever we come across a bar outside Galicia where you can order it. Sometimes we even approach people drinking Estrella, asking, “Do you like that beer?” And when they say “yes” (they will say “yes”), we smile proudly and say, “It’s from when I’m from.”

Chances are you’ll love it too (it wins international beer contests quite often), so you shouldn’t really worry about this.

Do an impression of our accent by adding -iño onto every word. And then say we sing when we speak.

Everyone has an accent. Yes, you too, my dear friend from Madrid, so please stop trying to speak like we do, because: First, you’re doing it wrong, and second, even though we’re smiling at you, we don’t find it funny and we secretly hate you. And yes, our diminutive is -iño instead of -ito, and maybe, just maybe, we use it a lot. That doesn’t mean you should end every word with it in an attempt of…no, we don’t even know what it is you’re trying to do.

Get offered a shot of coffee liquor or some other homemade spirit, and don’t drink it.

If you’re in a restaurant after eating lunch or dinner, dessert, or coffee and the waiter comes with some homemade spirits “on the house,” you should drink them. It means that he liked having you there (or that you spent lots of money), so it would be rude to leave without having a shot or two. You know it’s not easy for us to decide we like you in such a short amount of time, so you should appreciate it!

Claim table football was invented by the Germans.

Ok, there are lots of theories about this. But one of them is that table football or foosball (we call it futbolín) was invented in 1937 by Alexandre Campos, a guy from Finisterre, during his convalescence in a hospital in Cataluña. He created a way for him and other kids in the hospital to play football.

Also, futbolín is different here — players have two legs and the field is not completely flat. Don’t say it shouldn’t be like that. We don’t understand how people can play with those weird one-legged players.

Say you prefer Mediterranean beaches because the water is warmer.

We are really proud of our beaches, and the water temperature only makes them better. Walking into the water is always a challenge that provokes nervous giggling, and yes, sometimes you’ll just spend a minute there because you notice your limbs are getting numb. Oh, but that refreshing feeling when you get out of the sea and lie on the towel. What a perfect moment! That’s why we find the Mediterranean boring. And suspicious — the sea is only that warm on our beaches when someone has just peed in it.

Plus, a few years ago The Guardian placed Praia de Rodas, in the Cíes Islands, at the top of their world’s best beaches list. You can imagine how proud we are. International recognition!

After hearing where Galicia is, say, “Oh, so in the Basque Country.”

Get a map: Spain is a big country! Basque Country is not in the northwest at all, it’s just west from Cataluña. But you still need to cross Cantabria and Asturias before arriving in Galicia. So, no, we are not close to Basque Country. You’ll find out if you decide to go by bus from Bilbao to Santiago de Compostela. You’ll have lots of time to think.

Lose interest when you realize we are neither Basque nor close to the French border.

Oh, come on. We are also interesting! We are the Spanish Scotland (there’s even a petition on Change.org to David Cameron to consider accepting Galicia as part of the UK if Scotland becomes independent)! We eat octopus! We are mysterious! Please, pay attention to us!

The post How to piss off someone from Galicia, Spain appeared first on Matador Network.

40 impressive city skylines [pics]

1. Shanghai, China

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Home to nearly 24 million people, Shanghai is the most populous city in the world. It’s gone through an enormous building boom since the early 1990s, with almost 7,000 buildings of more than 11 stories erected in the past 20 years. The tallest skyscraper is Shanghai World Financial Center at 101 stories, but perhaps the most distinctive structure is the Oriental Pearl Tower, a TV tower with LED-illuminated spheres.

2. New York City, USA

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Considered the cultural capital of the world, New York sports a skyline easily recognized by almost anybody in the world. The crown jewel of this epic view is the Empire State Building, constructed in 1930 and towering 102 stories over midtown Manhattan. It was the tallest building in the world until 1972. The new One World Trade Center, located in the financial district, was completed just this year and is now the tallest building in the city at 104 stories.

3. London, England

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Though London lacks the leviathans of most of the other cities on this list, its skyline is no less distinctive. The architecture in London spans centuries — from historical sites like Big Ben, the Palace of Westminster, and Tower Bridge, to more modern structures like the London Eye, the Gherkin, and the Shard — and is a fascinating way to trace the development of one of the Western world’s urban superpowers.

4. Dubai, UAE

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When I think of Dubai, I think of numerous and often unusual skyscrapers. Huge, silver spires reaching high into the sky over the Persian Gulf. Dubai is home to more completed skyscrapers higher than 820ft than any other city in the world. The crowning achievement of Dubai’s towering reputation is the Burj Khalifa, the tallest manmade structure in the world. It has 163 floors topping out at 1,918ft, but the tip of its spire reaches 2,722ft (over a half mile).

5. Vancouver, Canada

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Thanks to active and thoughtful urban planning, Vancouver’s been ranked one of the most livable cities in the world for over a decade. Its distinctive skyline is the result of an architectural preference for building upward instead of outward — high-rise apartments as an alternative to sprawl. The tallest building in the city is Living Shangri-La, a mixed-use building containing both a hotel and condos, standing 62 stories.

6. Hong Kong SAR, China

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Debatably the best skyline in the world, Hong Kong is built on less than 50,000 acres, directly resulting in a dense high-rise environment and earning it the title of the “world’s most vertical city.” Hong Kong has more buildings taller than 500ft than any other city in the world. The International Commerce Center, at 118 stories, is the tallest building in the city and the third-tallest on the planet.

7. Singapore

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Its own island city-state, Singapore is the fourth-largest financial center in the world. Its largest buildings are located in the historic heart of the city, with Republic Plaza topping the list at 66 stories. However, even more impressive is Marina Bay Sands (developed by Las Vegas Sands), which is the most expensive building in the world at $5.7 billion.

8. San Francisco, USA

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San Francisco is the second most densely populated city in the US, after New York. Its most distinctive piece of architecture is, of course, the Golden Gate Bridge, but the skyline proper is dominated by the Transamerica Pyramid — only 48 stories but with a very distinctive spire. Due to the infamous earthquakes, the buildings in SF tend to be of the shorter variety.

9. Istanbul, Turkey

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Istanbul has a skyline that combines old and new architecture, a diverse mix of mosque and metropolis. For example, the highest point in Istanbul is the 945ft Camlica Hill, which was recently declared the new site for the Camlica Mosque (soon to be the defining landmark on the evolving Istanbul skyline).

10. Shenzhen, China

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A young city, Shenzhen has flourished as China’s economy has transitioned. Nothing more than a coastal village 40 years ago, Shenzhen now has 23 buildings over 656ft tall. The largest building in the city is Kingkey 100 (also called KK100) at a colossal 100 stories, but I personally prefer Shun Hing Square (with its two light-up antennas).

11. Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

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Kuala Lumpur’s architecture has a variety of influences, ranging from Asian traditions, to Malay Islamic structures, to modern and postmodern architecture. The Petronas Twin Towers, at 88 floors a pop, are the tallest twin structures in the world.

12. Seattle, USA

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Home of the 605ft Space Needle, Seattle has one of those skylines they print in silhouette on coffee mugs (which has nothing to do with the major java culture in Seattle, nor the fact that Seattle is home to Starbucks HQ). Seattle’s total area spans 53,718 acres, of which 6,189 acres are parks and open areas.

13. Paris, France

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This list would be woefully incomplete without Paris, the skyline with one of the most well-known and well-recognized centerpieces. Looming high above the city, the Eiffel Tower stands at 1,063ft, a full 305ft above the current next-tallest building (though two 1,050ft buildings are currently under construction, expected to be completed in 2017).

14. Panama City, Panama

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From high-rises to Spanish colonial buildings to French- and Antillean-influenced townhouses, Panama City has a wide variety of architecture to marvel at. The skyline, however, is rapidly changing and will soon no longer look as pictured, as there are over 100 highrise projects currently underway. The city’s current 127 completed projects make it 45th in the world based on highrise building count.

15. Philadelphia, USA

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Philadelphia has some of the oldest architecture in the United States, as well as the most historically significant, including Independence Hall (birthplace of the Declaration of Independence and the US Constitution). A long-standing law ordained that no structure could be built taller than City Hall (erected in the late 1800s and standing only nine stories high), so Philly was skyscraper-free until 1987, when the ordinance was lifted and One Liberty Place was constructed. Since then, only the Comcast Center has been built taller, standing 57 stories high.

16. Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

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Rio de Janeiro is a beautiful city situated in a mountainous harbor region, the whole of which has been designated a UNESCO “cultural landscape.” While the city may be more famous for the statue of Christ the Redeemer on the mountaintop, it also boasts some impressive architecture, with Rio Sul Center topping the list at 48 stories.

17. Beijing, China

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Beijing has been the capital of China since the 1200s, but while its most famous architecture might be the historic Forbidden City and the Temple of Heaven, it’s also a modern metropolis. Its tallest building is a massive 74 stories (the China World Trade Center Tower III), and it features some architectural marvels like the complex geometry of the CCTV Headquarters.

18. Busan, South Korea

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With a metropolitan population of 3.6 million, Busan is the second-largest city in South Korea and the fifth-busiest global port. Currently, the Lotte Town Tower is under construction in Busan, which is expected to rise to 1,673ft upon completion in 2016, and will at that time be the 10th-tallest building in the world.

19. Toronto, Canada

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Toronto is the biggest city in Canada, with a name that means “meeting place” in the native Huron language. It has 1,800 buildings over 100ft tall, though the tallest in the city have been around for at least 20 years. The absolute tallest, First Canadian Place, is 72 stories and was constructed in 1976.

20. Taipei, Taiwan

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The skyline of Taiwan’s major metropolis is marked by the architecturally distinctive and until-recently-tallest-building-in-the-world Taipei 101. In the interior of the top of the building hangs a massive steel ball that serves as a damper to offset structural shifting caused by typhoon winds and mild earthquakes.

See 20 more awesome city skylines

on page 2 >>

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What you're REALLY swimming with

“DON’T YOU KNOW that fish pee in the ocean?” is no longer the worst excuse you can have for avoiding a trip to the beach. The ocean (and any body of water, really) is crawling with microorganisms invisible to the naked eye — unless looked at through a telescope, that is.

Photographer David Littschwager took this photo of of seawater, magnified 25 times under a microscope. His photograph shows how much life is contained in a single drop of water from the ocean, from crab larvae, to worms, and loads of bacteria. Maybe some of it is from fish pee, but I bet there are nastier things we don’t even know about floating around our bathtubs.

Read more about it here.

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On growing up in a hotel

Photo: Jean-Philippe Rebuffet

1. You old folks still get it on.

I learned my first German phrase (jetzt bücken Schatz, “bend over, darling”) as an innocent 10-year-old, only to be traumatized while discovering its meaning because the walls were too thin and the elderly couple from Hamburg was making the most of their honeymoon.

2. You’re always leaving shit behind.

Among my collection of unclaimed souvenirs are a sword, several single earrings, and Nikon binoculars that are probably worth more than what you paid for your flight to get here. We love it when you leave us spontaneous gifts; however, more often than not you’ll want them back, and sent overseas, at our expense. Under the bed, in every drawer, be nice, check twice. Please don’t forget your wooden dildo set next time.

3. You’re too easily given to negative feelings about things you don’t know or are unable to relate to.

I’ve met people who were truly shocked to see for themselves that Mexico wasn’t just all a cactus-laden desert with sporadic gunfights, as advertised by their local media. I’ve placed Israeli and Palestinian couples at the same table, only to have them take a day trip to the beach together. I’ve had Dutch and German families laugh out loud sharing jokes about each other’s nationality.

To judge someone without having taken a single moment to try and understand their point of view and their own struggles will never result in anything good.

4. Shit happens, lots of it, and you can’t help it.

We were all excited when we first opened our hotel after intense renovating and decorating for a whole year. One week later, 9/11. Guests have complained to us because a hurricane decided to pay our city a visit during their stay, as if we had the power to fix it with a couple phone calls.

5. You’re cheap in all the wrong places.

They were about to check out, so I asked them if they’d enjoyed their vacation:

“Oh yes, the luxury cruise was fantastic! I also really loved the spa you recommended, and on the way back I even bought an amber collar for my dog; he hates to wear them, though. We loved your hotel and everything was amazing, perfect. Can we get a discount?”

6. Love is blind, and strange.

Impossible couples, we’ve seen them all. One man was so unbelievably tall, and his girlfriend so freakishly short, we were truly concerned he might accidentally fart her eyebrows off.

7. Stereotypes help.

Growing up in a hotel means people watching 24/7, and people judging 48/7. You quickly learn which are often true and which aren’t at all. Yes, we stock up on beer when we’re expecting Germans — same goes for wine and the French. Nothing wrong with that, it just makes sense, and everybody wins.

8. You put yourselves through pointless obstacles.

As we shared our biographies at the pool, I learned that he went to university, got his masters, and worked a high-salary job he disliked all year long in Chicago just so he could spend a week doing nothing on a Caribbean beach. She, on the other hand, chose to spend her college fund on a small house near Tulum and now lives in a beach town on the Caribbean, where she works all year long teaching English just so she has something to do. Who do you think is smarter or more successful?

9. You actually steal cats.

We were renovating our soon-to-be hotel when we found a weak and abandoned kitten among the rubble. Bambú became a legend at our hotel. She would get mentioned on every other review because she captured the spirit of our establishment and purred like a BMW (she once got stuck inside one; we only realized it wasn’t the engine until we turned it off). Although we can’t be certain, we’re pretty sure this one couple who was constantly raving about her is to blame. The fact that their departure coincided with Bambú’s disappearance only added weight to our suspicions after discovering cat hair on their bedspread.

Bambú, we miss you. Seven years weren’t enough. Hopefully you didn’t end up in Canada.

10. You never know who you’re talking to.

Me: Hahahah, yes you’re right, it wasn’t the best of ideas to put a fork in the electrical socket. I have my moments. So what do you do for a living back home?

She: I’m currently the president of Sri Lanka.

As a general rule of thumb, just talk to everyone as if you were speaking to the first female president of Sri Lanka about your own shortcomings. This way you’ll go places.

11. Conversation doesn’t require a common language to be engrossing.

Displaying a joie de vivre which remains unmatched by anyone else, one of our recurring guests can only communicate through movement and a speech generator, having lost the ability to speak after a terrible college football accident. He often sets his speech generator to the voice of a female with a heavy British accent, which only adds to his already deadly sense of humor. Although his machine doesn’t allow for inserting text in other languages, he’s found a way around this and writes words phonetically in English.

He always has a “GRA-see-ass” (thanks) button ready for his visits to Mexico.

12. You learn to make the most of your time with those whose company you enjoy.

Seemingly a law of hotel life, those who rub you the wrong way are in it for a 20-day stay. Unless you live in a drab business hotel, inspiring people will share your roof often enough for that not to be much of a bother.

One French guest gave me what were by far some of the most pleasant and hilarious conversations I’d ever had. We’d assigned each other an alias the first day and were having such outrageous amounts of fun during my ‘free walking tours’ that four sunny days together went by and we failed to catch each other’s names. She left unexpectedly. Never to be seen again is something I’d rather it not end with; however, the quality of our time together and the memories will suffice.

The post Things you learn about people growing up in a hotel appeared first on Matador Network.

5 ways to stoke your kids on nature

Photo: CIA DE FOTO

Having been a kid until recently, legally speaking (and, internally, for probably the rest of my life), I know all about the wonder and excitement that comes from being immersed in nature, surrounded by the calls and chirps of an orchestra of unseen animals, and being dwarfed by and seeing my parents equally small among impossibly tall trees or rock formations. Getting out of the house and into the wild was a special treat, since my parents were 9-to-5ers, and it was always too hot in Las Vegas to go out by myself.

Now that I’m older, I routinely forget that every once in a while I need to get back out, away from the sharp unnatural angles of the city, my apartment, and the corners of the bills that keep showing up every month without fail. I need to get back to the trees, to the crisp air, and to paths that were made by water and generations of animals rather than people and asphalt pavers.

Here are five places that make it easy to stoke out your kids on adventures in nature (and which can be pretty fun for you,too).

1. The park / forest

Maybe it’s really difficult to get out of the city limits. That’s why nearly every major city in the country (and much of the world) has a park of some sort. Park staples include grass (which comes with a host of experiences every kid needs, like grass stains and the itchiness), trees, maybe some body of water or a garden, and, if you’re lucky, a handful of animals. Go have a picnic or collect some bugs or enjoy a moment of silence while your kid cartwheels herself sick. Either way, the park is the easiest way to get a little nature into your and your child’s life.

I’m of the opinion that regardless of where you live, your kid needs to spend some time in the woods, to climb trees and feel the mossy squish underfoot (and, of course, if you have the opportunity, do some ziplining). The first forest I can remember visiting was Muir Woods, just north of San Francisco, and if you’re looking for the mac-daddy of forests, that one will do. There’s something magical about being enveloped in mist and the impossibly red bark of trees so big you can climb inside them. And when I say you, I mean adult you — those trees are freakin’ huge and crazy old.

Make a day of it, teach your kids about how trees make oxygen, and that forests like that aren’t everywhere because of deforestation and why it’s important we conserve the forest (which, admittedly, was a lot for my young brain to grapple with, and I think I cried about it a little at the time, but it was an important lesson nonetheless). Either way, the forest is a necessity in a ‘natureducation.’

2. The canyon

Mother Nature is beautiful, but she’s also a kickass force to be reckoned with, and that’s apparent nowhere more clearly than in a canyon. Even better if that canyon is surrounded by desert — a hostile environment, everything spiky (if you’ve never had the pleasure of meeting one in person, a tumbleweed can be an asshole), where the ground is harsh and jagged, and, yeah, it’s really hot.

I remember going to Red Rock Canyon in Nevada in the middle of summer when it was really too hot to be outside and marveling at the animals that managed to make life happen without air conditioning. Watching lizards do push-ups (yes, this is a thing), and seeing bobcats off in the distance scaling sheer cliffs of burnt-red sandstone.

Later, following the Calico Tank trail down between sheer walls to the cooler shade and softer ground below, I learned that the canyon landscape exists because of the slow wear-and-tear of moving water and wind over an impossible amount of time, which threw my short life into harsh perspective. Again, a moment where young me came a little too close to the big realizations and questions about life, but the canyon made it easy to shake those off and get lost in the reds and tans of the land.

3. The (insert body of water here)

Another must, be it the ocean, a river, lake, stream, whatever (and, yes, make him wear that god-awful tacky life-vest — it’s a rite of passage). Some of my fondest memories throughout my entire life have happened on water, from weekend trips to Lake Mead on a dumb pontoon boat with my dad, to summer floats down the Clackamas River in an inner-tube with my besties, and even a guided boat tour down Glen Canyon.

Being able to get sun-drunk and safely interact with a bottomless body of water, to paddle at the surface while musing about what sea-beasts lurk below, and to, again, feel very small in the wide world, is the perfect recipe for a great day and a forever memory. Plus, if your kid is the brand that somehow never stops bouncing off the walls, a full day of swimming at the lake will guarantee that she’ll sleep the whole car ride home and the entire night after.

4. The wildlife refuge

The purpose of the wildlife refuge is to create a microcosm of an ecosystem and protect the plants, land, and wildlife from the ever-broadening expanse of people. With some 560 refuges in the US alone, you should be able to find a variety of habitats relatively close to wherever you are, and should definitely take your kids to experience the other side of nature, the multitude of non-humans with whom we share the planet. Each reserve is home to its own population of animals with their own unique and perhaps unusual behaviors, which really need to be seen (and subsequently explained).

Take Kofa National Wildlife Refuge near Yuma, Arizona. The 665,000 acres of desert are home to a variety of wildlife doing their wild thing. The bird-watching there is prime, with easily seen species including the American kestrel, northern flicker, Say’s phoebe, cactus wren, phainopepla, and orange-crowned warbler. Catch them in August, and you’ll see the bighorn rams fighting for dominance and mates by running headlong into each other (a perfect way to broach that awkward subject). So when your kid wants to see some animals and get a dose of nature, skip the zoo; go to a refuge.

5. The backyard

When I was younger, I had a couple of books of the One Small Square series. The idea was this: Rope off a one-foot-by-one-foot square and study it. Catalogue all the kinds of leaves, dirt, rocks, bugs, and debris — literally anything you can find in that small square. Draw them, research them (the books were specific to types of places, so you could just look up and reference what you were finding), get super scientific about it. As a kid, I loved that stuff, grouping and organizing and cataloguing and researching, and spent hours teasing apart my one-square-foot plots like I was going to make the next biggest archaeological find.

The gem of this, of course, is that it can be done literally anywhere you have a small square — the front yard, the backyard, the small grassy patch behind the apartment. It costs nothing and will get your kid interested in the smaller stuff while, for a change, making them feel big among the infinite ants, rolly pollies, spiders, leaf bits, twigs, and grass roots of the world.

The post 5 easy ways to get your kids stoked on nature appeared first on Matador Network.

22 hottest peppers in the world

The Scoville Heat Unit (SHU) is a subjective scale used for measuring the spicy heat of peppers (and other hot foods). It’s a function of capsaicin concentration, though it’s not as accurate as the actual measurement of the capsaicin content of a pepper because it’s assessed empirically by panels of testers.

In ascending order, here’s how the hottest peppers in the world rank. (Fyi, we’ve blown right past the rather tame jalapeño.)

22. Madame Jeanette (225,000 SHU)

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The Madame Jeanette hails from Suriname and is a lovely smooth, yellow pod that packs a surprising punch. Named for a prostitute from Paramaribo, it has neither fruity nor floral undertones — it’s just hot. The Madame Jeanette can commonly be found in traditional Suriname and Antillean cuisine, often tossed into dishes whole to add spice to every bite.

21. Scotch Bonnet (100,000-350,000 SHU)

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The Scotch Bonnet is a Caribbean pepper, and it gets its name from a perceived resemblance to the Scottish Tam o’Shanter (those floppy plaid hats with the pom-poms on top). It has a little bit of sweet to go along with all that spicy and is most commonly found in hot Caribbean dishes like jerk chicken or jerk pork, though it crops up in recipes as far away as West Africa. They’re one of the main ingredients in the famous West Indian hot pepper sauces, which differ from country to country but can be found in almost every household in the Caribbean.

20. White Habanero (100,000-350,000 SHU)

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The first of many varieties of the famed habanero to make the cut, the white is particularly rare and difficult to cultivate. These peppers grow on tiny bushes, but each one produces an exceptionally high yield. There’s some debate about whether they originated in Peru or Mexico (some people go so far as to differentiate between Peruvian White Habaneros and Yucatan White Habaneros), but regardless of their origins, these peppers can be found lending heat to traditional Mexican stews and salsas. Their influence has even extended out into the Caribbean, where they’re employed in sauces and marinades.

19. Habanero (100,000-350,000 SHU)

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This habanero is the orange kind you can buy in the grocery store, but just because they’re readily available doesn’t mean they’re less vicious than any of their cousins on this list. Originating in the Amazon, this pepper was brought northward through Mexico (where most of them are grown now). The habanero is actually a different variety of the same species as the Scotch Bonnet, though it’s used more in Mexico than in the Caribbean, lending a fruity and floral kick to Yucatanian food.

18. Fatalii (125,000-325,000 SHU)

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The first pepper on the list from the Eastern Hemisphere, the Fatalii is a chili from central and southern Africa. Brave souls claim that its flavor is notably citrusy (though how anybody can taste anything through that much burning is beyond me), and so it’s used largely in fruity hot sauces from its native Africa through the Caribbean.

17. Devil’s Tongue (125,000-325,000 SHU)

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Similar in appearance to the Fatalii, and definitely a member of the habanero family, the Devil’s Tongue was first discovered growing in Pennsylvania among its habanero relatives. Nobody’s quite sure where it originated or how it came to be growing in the field of an Amish farmer, but it’s become renowned for its bright, fruity, and sometimes slightly nutty taste. Because its past is a mystery, however, there are no real ‘traditional’ uses for the Devil’s Tongue — experts recommend eating them fresh in salsas or salads, if you can take the heat.

16. Tigerpaw NR (265,000 — 328,000 SHU)

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This new type of habanero pepper was scientifically engineered, rather than naturally cultivated. The “NR” in the name signifies nematode resistance, as the US Department of Agriculture’s research division (ARS) developed this particular pepper plant to be resistant to root-knot nematodes, a parasite common to many pepper and tomato plants. Because of its distinctly unnatural upbringing, the Tigerpaw, like the Devil’s Tongue, lacks traditional use in cuisine. However, its similarity to the traditional orange habanero means it’s easily substituted in any of the multitude of habanero recipes used throughout Mexico. (Be cautious: It tends to pack a bigger burn than its more traditional relative.)

15. Chocolate Habanero (aka Congo Black) (300,000-425,000 SHU)

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Chocolate Habaneros originated in Trinidad and in fact have absolutely nothing to do with the Congo. This one’s a favorite of many ‘chiliheads,’ who somehow remain conscious long enough to detect a rich, smoky flavor buried somewhere under all that heat. Chocolate habaneros have been dubbed the “ultimate salsa pepper,” though you’re more likely to find them in world-famous Jamaican jerk sauce.

14. Caribbean Red Habanero (300,000-475,000 SHU)

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An upgraded version of the habanero, clocking in at almost twice the spice, this adorably small pepper approaches sinister levels of heat. Like many of the other contenders on this list, the Caribbean Red likely hails from the Amazon basin (though some argue for Yucatan origins) and is a staple in Mexican cooking, where it can be commonly found in salsas and hot sauces. More creative uses of the pepper include a guest appearance in “Caribbean Red Pepper Surprise” ice cream, though, according to one consumer, “The surprise is, your brain is on fire, and your taste-buds are in love, but your fillings have melted.”

13. Red Savina (200,000-577,000 SHU)

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Yet another habanero cultivar, this bad boy’s been selectively bred for generations to produce larger, heavier, and spicier fruit — to give you some idea of where this list is headed, the Red Savina was the hottest pepper in the world from 1994 to 2006, and we’re not even halfway through. As a close relative of all the habanero peppers, the Red Savina shares the well-established Central American origin story but was developed further in California.

12. Naga Morich (aka Dorset Naga) (1,000,000-1,500,000 SHU)

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Naga Morich means “serpent chili” in Bengali. Sister of the famed Ghost Pepper (yet to come), this beauty is native to northern India and Bangladesh, where it’s often eaten green (read: unripe) and raw, as a side dish. The Dorset Naga is a particular strain of the Naga Morich pepper that was selectively bred for maximum heat — the first pepper on earth to break one million SHU (double the rating of the Red Savina). Aside from mind-numbing heat, they also boast a fruity flavor; some claim to taste notes of orange and pineapple, but personally I find the idea of being able to taste anything amidst the mouth-fire highly suspect.

11. Trinidad Scorpion CARDI (800,000-1,000,000 SHU)

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The Trinidad Scorpion gets its name from its homeland and its appearance; its Trinidadian origins are self-evident, as is the rest of it, once you get a look at one. They have a little stinger opposite the stem, which looks like the poisonous barb on the tail of a scorpion. The “CARDI” addendum stands for Caribbean Agricultural Research and Development Institute, the research group responsible for the breeding of this particular pepper. We’re now well within the ‘dangerously hot’ range, a fact further evidenced by the two main uses of the Trinidad Scorpion CARDI: firstly, in military-grade mace, and secondly, mixed in with marine paint to prevent barnacles from growing on the bottoms of boats. But I guess you could put it in your food if you really wanted to.

10. Bhut Jolokia Chocolate (800,000-1,001,304 SHU)

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The Bhut Jolokia (aka Naga Jolokia) is more commonly known by its Americanized name, the Ghost Pepper. The chocolate variant of this pepper is a very rare naturally occurring permutation of the standard red and is named not only for its rich coloring but also for its notoriously sweet flavor. Don’t be fooled by the sweetness, though — it’s just as spicy as its red cousin, at over a million SHU. Native to India, the Ghost Pepper is responsible for some of the most brain-searing, tongue-sizzling curries and chutneys in the entire world. However, it’s also used in military weapons and smeared on fences to ward off stampeding elephants.

9. Bhut Jolokia (aka Ghost Pepper) (800,000-1,001,304 SHU)

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There’s not much to be said here that hasn’t already been covered in the section about the Chocolate Ghost Pepper. The standard red variant of this pepper is much easier to find than the chocolate and is the fuel for restaurant challenges and idiotic YouTube videos worldwide. Fun fact: The Ghost Pepper is an inter-species hybrid between the species containing all of the habanero cultivars and the species containing the Tabasco pepper (of taco-sauce fame).

8. 7 Pot Chili (over 1,000,000 SHU)

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The 7 Pot Chili gets its name from its alleged ability to provide enough spice for seven pots of stew, and at over a million SHU, I’m inclined to believe it. Unsurprisingly, this little demon is also from Trinidad, where evil peppers grow like weeds, and you’ll find it in many of the same dishes as the other Caribbean peppers in the habanero family — stews, marinades, and hot sauces. The 7 Pot (sometimes called the 7 Pod) displays all-over “pimpling,” a texture only found in the spiciest of peppers (appearing as though they’re boiling themselves from the inside out).

7. Gibralta (aka Spanish Naga) (1,086,844 SHU)

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The Spanish Naga is grown, of course, in Spain but was actually developed in the UK. Like the 7 Pot, this one’s so fiendishly spicy that its skin is bubbling and wrinkled, an effect probably exaggerated by the unique conditions under which it’s grown: The plants have to be kept indoors in enclosed plastic tunnels and subjected to blisteringly hot temperatures in order to churn out peppers that spicy. Since they’re largely man-made, there aren’t any traditional dishes that use the Gibralta chili, but they’re available in Western Europe if you’re interested in concocting a curry and then never tasting anything again for the rest of your life.

6. Infinity Chili (1,176,182 SHU)

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Most of the rest of the peppers on this list have been engineered by humans. I guess once we identified the hottest pepper in the world, all we could do from there was make them hotter ourselves. The Infinity Chili was engineered in the UK by breeder Nick Woods, but it only held the world record for two weeks before it was ousted by the next contender, the Naga Viper. Like the previous two, this pepper is red and wrinkly and shriveled and horrible looking — as would you be after eating it.

5. Naga Viper (1,382,118 SHU)

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Nature never intended this pepper to exist. It’s so strange, so very unholy in its spiciness, that the plants can’t actually produce offspring exactly like the parent. Okay, fine, it’s not because it’s an evil abomination — it’s an unstable three-way genetic hybrid between the Naga Morich, the Bhut Jolokia, and the Trinidad Scorpion, which can’t naturally incorporate the genes from all three breeds into its seeds. If you want to grow it, you have to get the seeds from its human creator, Gerald Fowler (and the waiting list is several thousand people long).

4. 7 Pod Douglah (aka Chocolate 7 Pot) (923,000-1,853,396 SHU)

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The mean sister of the 7 Pot Chili, the Douglah (also known as the Chocolate 7 Pot) is characterized by heavily textured dark brown or even purple skin. This pepper comes agonizingly close to 2 million SHU — so one would imagine flavor is the last thing anyone’s thinking about as they’re lying on the floor, weeping — and yet, many say the Douglah is one of the most deliciously flavorful peppers, with a full-bodied fruitiness unmatched by others of its spice level. Hailing from Trinidad, land of the brutal pepper, this variety can be found in many of the same dishes as the other Caribbean contenders.

3. Trinidad Scorpion Butch T (1,463,700 SHU)

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This cultivar of the Trinidad Scorpion is the pride and joy of Butch Taylor, owner of Zydeco Hot Sauce in Mississippi. Tiny, red, and sinister, this pepper has a little stinger on the end, characteristic of the scorpion peppers. The Scorpion Butch T is so spicy you have to wear safety gear to cook with it (that means masks, gloves, full-body suits — the works), and cooks have claimed numbness in their hands for up to two days afterwards.

2. Trinidad Moruga Scorpion (2,009,231 SHU)

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The Moruga Scorpion, the first pepper ever to break 2 million SHU, held the world record for spiciness for several years (in fact, it was only ousted from its sizzling throne about six months ago) and hails from, you guessed it, Trinidad. Each fruit is about the size of a golf ball and contains as much capsaicin as 25 milliliters of police-grade pepper spray. This is the spiciest naturally occurring pepper known to man, but, like the Douglah, it’s also famously fruity and flavorful. Fans recommend adding a small amount to any dish for an explosion of flavor, as well as the endorphin rush that accompanies the consumption of something that spicy.

1. Carolina Reaper (1,569,383-2,200,000 SHU)

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This is it. The big one. The grand emperor of spicy peppers. The Carolina Reaper claimed its crown in November of 2013 as the spiciest pepper of all time, blowing the Moruga Scorpion’s measly 2 million SHU away by over 200,000 units. And it’s one nasty-looking pepper, fully equipped with the texture and scorpion tail of the Trinidadian heavyweights, though it lacks the natural heritage of the Moruga Scorpion. The Reaper was engineered in South Carolina by Ed Currie, owner of PuckerButt Pepper Co. They have a whole line of Reaper-based merch available on their website, if you’re brave. Personally, I like the taste of food, so I have to pass. What can I say? I fear the Reaper.

The post 22 of the world’s hottest peppers (and where to eat them) appeared first on Matador Network.

Can we debate #BringBackOurGirls?

A POWERFUL SOCIAL MEDIA TREND is uniting the world in the attempt to rescue the Nigerian schoolgirls kidnapped by Boko Haram last month. But many are questioning whether the ‪#‎BringBackOurGirls‬ hashtag and the call for American military intervention will really help the situation.

In an article titled Dear Americans, your hashtags won’t #BringBackOurGirls, Nigerian-American journalist Jumoke Balogun thanks the world for its concern but calls out the campaign, stating it will do more harm than good for Nigeria.

Jumoke asserts, “You can’t do anything about the girls missing in Nigeria. You can’t. Your insistence on urging American power, specifically American military power, to address this issue will ultimately hurt the people of Nigeria.”

“You might not know this,” she continues, “but the United States military loves your hashtags because it gives them legitimacy to encroach and grow their military presence in Africa.”

No question people genuinely care about and are outraged at this deplorable act, but let’s get real. Are the celebrities, politicians, and general public who’ve been motivated to join this viral trend possibly driven by more than legitimate concern for the missing children? Is this hashtag being used for political gain, to showcase current-events savvy, to be perceived as a good person and, dare I say, a good parent?

As cynical as you may find this opinion, do you honestly think we’ll be able to enter into an insightful debate about this situation using hashtags alone?

Have your say! Have you been trending #BringBackOurGirls? Do social media campaigns such as this have any influence on international politics?

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