Adidas Wilson's Blog, page 152
May 10, 2017
Microsoft brings developers home for Build 2017
Microsoft Build 2017 kicks off Wednesday morning in Seattle, a homecoming for the tech giant after years of holding its annual developers conference here in San Francisco.
That’s an apt rally-the-troops move considering the escalating battle between some of tech’s biggest companies in the arenas of artificial intelligence, home-assistant hardware and augmented reality.
Some 5,500 developers have heeded the Redmond, Wash., company’s call, helping Build sell out in a day. As Facebook, Apple and Google do with their big developer confabs, Microsoft will use the event to evangelize about its strategy while urging software pros to spend time developing much-needed apps for Microsoft’s ecosystem.
Chat-bots were the big story out of Build 2016 — CEO Satya Nadella pronounced the artificial-intelligence helpers “the new apps” — but famously fizzled out of the gate when, days before the conference, hackers turned Microsoft’s Tay bot into an epithet-spewing racist.
That said, expect bots to be back.
“Last year, Microsoft got ahead of Google, Facebook, Apple and even Amazon on the notions of bots and AI,” or artificial intelligence, says Patrick Moorhead, president of Moor Insights & Strategy. “Bots have ended up so far to be a non-event, but AI is on fire. Microsoft needs to provide updates and enhancements on both.”
Moorhead also anticipates updates on the next generation of Windows 10, which is due out in September, as well as details on Microsoft’s cash machine, its cloud computing platform Azure.
“Azure is the number two public cloud platform to Amazon (and its Amazon Web Services), and I’d like to see Microsoft to give clarity into their hybrid-cloud solution, Azure Stack,” he says, referring to a platform that helps businesses combine on-premise computing power with cloud computing.
Bank on Build 2017 being used to tout Microsoft’s efforts to bite off a piece of Amazon’s booming Echo market. The Alexa-powered home assistant speaker, which just got video capability, is being matched by a new offering from Samsung-owned Harman Kardon, which just unveiled its Invoke speaker, powered by Microsoft’s digital assistant Cortana.
After three years under Nadella, Microsoft’s stock price (MSFT) is at an all-time high anchored largely to consistent gains from Azure. But the most recent quarter revealed weaknesses, particularly in Surface hybrid tablets, which experienced a 26% sales drop.
Expect Nadella to kick things off with a keynote that continues to stress his mantra, “empowering everyone on the planet” through its suite of cloud-based productivity tools ranging from Office to recently purchase LinkedIn.
Build 2017 will undoubtedly also showcase some kind of gee-whiz demo related to the company’s groundbreaking mixed-reality headset, HoloLens, an untethered device that at present remains in the hands of developers only.
While a $300 mixed-reality headset from partners Acer and HP was just announced, don’t expect that experience to echo that of $3,000 HoloLens, which Microsoft is betting on as the next generation of computing device that rids us all of our desktops and laptops as our keyboards and monitors suddenly hover in front of us.
Build 2017 takes place at the Seattle Convention Center Wednesday through May 12, and some of its big sessions will be live streamed.
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Source:
http://www.king5.com/news/nation-now/microsoft-brings-developers-home-for-build-2017/438459191
Pinterest adds visual search guides to its Lens and a new CTO
Pinterest today is adding a new feature to its Lens — its live camera search — that will help pick apart what’s in the image and make it easier to search specific parts of that image.
As you can see in the run-through above, what Pinterest calls Visual Guides based on object detection is another way that the company is trying to figure out what it is you are actually searching for when you point your camera at an object in the real world. Pinterest, at the end of the day, is trying to help you find a product and show you a bunch of other things related to that — but that also starts with the company figuring out what thing it is in that image that you are actually looking for a deeper dive.
Pinterest introduced Lens earlier this year as an attempt to continue expanding its tools for users to look at a product and immediately point them to an array of new ideas or products that might be closely or tangentially related. Much of Pinterest’s pitch revolves around helping its users discover new topics or products, like recipes or articles of clothing, that can then drive them to use Pinterest more and more. With more than 175 million users, Pinterest has worked to create a platform that has a discrete use case from Twitter, Facebook and Snap.
And that’s also the big pitch it gives for its marketing partners. Pinterest hopes to keep users’ attentions at all points of their buying experience. It starts with getting someone on the service and helping them discover a new topic, and then digging deeper into that topic. Pinterest keeps tabs on all that activity and helps its partners track those users throughout the buying cycle, eventually trying to point them to an end-product they may want to purchase. So instead of buying ads based on the hope for a conversion (in search, for example), brands and marketers can buy a full stack of ads that constitutes an entire potential customer’s lifetime.
To achieve that can be somewhat of a stiff technical problem as Pinterest looks more and more to remove any friction to pushing those users down deeper into its service. Instead of coming to the site directly, Pinterest is trying to integrate the experience deeper with reality, starting with the launch of Lenses. Pinterest is also adding a way to jump directly into Lens directly from the home screen with a force touch tap on the iPhone, much like other apps are trying to reduce that friction to getting into the core experience right away.
That’s going to require a lot of experimentation and tuning as Pinterest is basically trying to create a new kind of user behavior, and figuring out how to get a user’s full attention when they take a photo of a whole kitchen is one way to start. In addition to all this, and somewhat a sign of the company’s focus on those experiences, Pinterest’s head of discovery engineering Vanja Josifovski is being bumped up to the CTO role.
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Pinterest adds visual search guides to its Lens and a new CTO
Uber raises PA rates 5 cents per mile to help drivers afford new protections
Ride-sharing service Uber today raised its Pennsylvania rates 5 cents per mile, a move it said would help drivers afford new protections.
Gus Fuldner, Uber’s head of safety & insurance, said a new partnership with OneBeacon and Aon gives drivers in Pennsylvania and seven other states the option of signing up for a plan that covers medical expenses resulting from a work-related accident with no deductible or co-pay and provides disability income replacement and survivor benefits.
The other states are Arizona, Delaware, Illinois, Massachusetts, Oklahoma, South Carolina and West Virginia.
Fuldner said the coverage applies the entire time a driver is logged onto the Uber app, but the premium of 3.75 cents a mile is charged only on miles traveled while on-trip and earning money carrying passengers. The maximum payout from a single accident is $1 million.
“This product is completely optional,” he said. “But in states where driver injury protection is available, we will raise fares across the board to help remove any financial barriers that may prevent drivers from choosing this option.”
Uber offers trip cost estimates but does not list its rate structure. However, the unaffiliated site uber-fare-estimator.com puts current Lancaster rates at $1.05 a mile for uberX and $1.80 a mile for uberXL. Base fares, booking fees and minimum charges also apply.
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Source:
http://lancasteronline.com/news/local/uber-raises-pa-rates-cents-per-mile-to-help-drivers/article_0663b0f4-34ce-11e7-a7b3-f71c1776157a.html
Facebook created a faster, more accurate translation system using artificial intelligence
Facebook’s billion-plus users speak a plethora of languages, and right now, the social network supports translation of over 45 different tongues. That means that if you’re an English speaker confronted with German, or a French speaker seeing Spanish, you’ll see a link that says “See Translation.”
But Tuesday, Facebook announced that its machine learning experts have created a neural network that translates language up to nine times faster and more accurately than other current systems that use a standard method to translate text.
The scientists who developed the new system work at the social network’s FAIR group, which stands for Facebook A.I. Research.
“Neural networks are modeled after the human brain,” says Michael Auli, of FAIR, and a researcher behind the new system. One of the problems that a neural network can help solve is translating a sentence from one language to another, like French into English. This network could also be used to do tasks like summarize text, according to a blog item posted on Facebook about the research.
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But there are multiple types of neural networks. The standard approach so far has been to use recurrent neural networks to translate text, which look at one word at a time and then predict what the output word in the new language should be. It learns the sentence as it reads it. But the Facebook researchers tapped a different technique, called a convolutional neural network, or CNN, which looks at words in groups instead of one at a time.
“It doesn’t go left to right,” Auli says, of their translator. “[It can] look at the data all at the same time.” For example, a convolutional neural network translator can look at the first five words of a sentence, while at the same time considering the second through sixth words, meaning the system works in parallel with itself.
Graham Neubig, an assistant professor at Carnegie Mellon University’s Language Technologies Institute, researches natural language processing and machine translation. He says that this isn’t the first time this kind of neural network has been used to translate text, but that this seems to be the best he’s ever seen it executed with a convolutional neural network.
“What this Facebook paper has basically showed—it’s revisiting convolutional neural networks, but this time they’ve actually made it really work very well,” he says.
Facebook isn’t yet saying how it plans to integrate the new technology with its consumer-facing product yet; that’s more the purview of a department there call the applied machine learning group. But in the meantime, they’ve released the tech publicly as open-source, so other coders can benefit from it
That’s a point that pleases Neubig. “If it’s fast and accurate,” he says, “it’ll be a great additional contribution to the field.”
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More Than a Quarter of Americans Would Substitute Marijuana for Beer, New Survey Shows
What’s faster than a speeding locomotive? Move over Superman, it’s the marijuana industry.
Since 1996, more than half of all U.S. states have legalized medical cannabis for select ailments, and since 2012 residents in eight states have voted to allow recreational pot to be sold to adults ages 21 and up. These figures are jaw-dropping considering that in 1995, according to a Gallup poll, just 25% of respondents were in favor of legalizing weed nationally. Today, that figure stands at 60%, an all-time high.
A separate poll recently conducted by the independent Quinnipiac University found 59% support for national approval compared to 36% who opposed it. Support for a nationwide approval of medical marijuana was overwhelming at 93%.
Of course, it’s more than just the rapidly changing public opinion that allowed legal pot sales in North America to grow by 34% to $6.9 billion in 2016, as reported by ArcView Market Research. It’s the almighty dollar. Investment firm Cowen & Co. predicts that sales of legal weed could grow to $50 billion by 2026, which represents an average growth rate of more than 23% for the decade. You’d probably struggle to find an industry that could generate 23% compound annual growth for a decade.
But, does the “green rush” stand a chance at competing with one of the oldest and most profitable industries on the planet: beer? According to the latest survey results from the Cannabiz Consumer Group, this weed is growing.
Would consumers substitute cannabis for beer?
Cannabiz Consumer Group questioned approximately 40,000 Americans in 2016 about their cannabis and beer consumption habits. It was specifically interested in finding out whether beer drinkers were substituting or forgoing beer in favor of cannabis. The results showed that 27% of beer drinkers had purchased cannabis instead of beer or would do so if weed were legal in their state.
The report also implies that there won’t be a “novelty factor” associated with legalized cannabis. It’s not uncommon for consumers to flock to a new product once it’s introduced, but have that interest fade over time. The Cannabiz Consumer Group’s results suggest that won’t be the case with legal weed, since consumers “tend to be more invested in the products that they are buying, including understanding the potency, strains, and formats available and uses for pain management, holistic health, and relaxation.”
So what does this all mean for the beer industry? According to the predictions, it could cede $2 billion in annual retail sales to cannabis, with the pot industry gobbling up 7.1% of revenue from the existing beer industry.
Nonetheless, even a mature marijuana industry is only likely to generate half as much in annual sales as the U.S. beer industry, so you investors in Anheuser-Busch InBev(NYSE:BUD), which controls roughly 45% of the U.S. beer market, can probably breathe a sigh of relief.
Furthermore, as you’ll see below, pot’s pie-in-the-sky growth estimates may not come to fruition.
Legal pot’s expansion is about to get more difficult
Last month, White House press secretary Sean Spicer sent shockwaves throughout the legal marijuana industry by announcing that the Trump Administration would more strictly enforce federal marijuana regulations relative to the extremely lax Obama administration, which kept a hands-off approach to federal regulation. This statement was a clear departure from the prior administration and a potential signal that Trump may renege on his pot pledge during his campaign.
The good news for proponents of marijuana is that Trump has thrown his full support behind medical marijuana previously, and it doesn’t appear that he’ll be enacting any legislation that would otherwise compromise a patients’ access to medical cannabis. This is likely to remain entirely a states’ rights issue.
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Source:
https://www.fool.com/investing/2017/03/25/more-than-a-quarter-of-americans-would-substitut-2.aspx
May 9, 2017
SCIENTISTS FIND A HOST OF TOXIC CHEMICALS IN NAME BRAND LIPSTICK & OTHER COSMETIC PRODUCTS
A study released by the University of California, Berkeley (UBC) School of Public health has found many conventional lipstick products to contain dangerously high levels of aluminum, cadmium, lead, and other toxins. Researchers tested over 30 popular lipstick products and found this to be the case. The study was published in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives. Even women using minimal amounts of product still increase their risk of developing harmful health conditions like nerve damage and cancer by an alarming amount.
According to the study:
Most of the tested lip products contained high concentrations of titanium and aluminum. All examined products had detectable manganese. Lead was detected in 24 products (75%), with an average concentration of 0.36 ± 0.39 ppm, including one sample with 1.32 ppm. When used at the estimated average daily rate, estimated intakes were > 20% of ADIs derived for aluminum, cadmium, chromium, and manganese. In addition, average daily use of 10 products tested would result in chromium intake exceeding our estimated ADI for chromium. For high rates of product use (above the 95th percentile), the percentages of samples with estimated metal intakes exceeding ADIs were 3% for aluminum, 68% for chromium, and 22% for manganese. Estimated intakes of lead were < 20% of ADIs for average and high use.
A daily intake of these cosmetics would result in a large exposure to chromium, a carcinogen that has been linked to stomach tumours. Average use of these products could result in overexposure to aluminum, cadmium, and manganese. Exposure to high concentrations of manganese has been linked to high toxicity levels in the nervous system. Lead was also detected, and no level of lead exposure is safe for anybody.
“Just finding these metals isn’t the issue; it’s the levels that matter. Some of the toxic metals are occurring at levels that could possibly have an effect in the long term.”
– Katharine Hammond, professor of environmental health sciences and principal investigator in the study
The amount of metals found definitely needs to be brought to the attention of health regulators. But we have a problem here, as health regulators are usually connected to the corporations that develop these products in the first place. The real solution is to just stop using them. We are sold on the idea that we need these beauty products and yet they are filled with harmful chemicals. Are we not beautiful anyway? Right now there are no standards in the United States for metal content in cosmetics, which is deeply disturbing. They can pretty much put whatever they please into them, and it doesn’t take long for the bloodstream to absorb whatever we put onto bodies.
The truth is, many of the ingredients in personal care and beauty products aren’t so pretty. U.S. researchers have found that one in eight of the 82,000 ingredients used in cosmetic and personal care products are hazardous industrial chemicals. This means that 10,500 industrial chemicals are used as cosmetic ingredients, many of which are carcinogens, pesticides, reproductive toxins, endocrine disruptors, plasticizers (chemicals that keep concrete soft), degreasers (used to get grime off auto parts), and surfactants (they reduce surface tension in water, like in paint and inks). And these go on our skin and into the environment.
Did you know that everyday chemical exposure is among the leading causes of the most common cases of chronic disease in America?
What Happens To Your Body When You Switch or Stop Using Cosmetic Products
A new study led by researchers at UC Berkeley and Clinica de Salud del Valle Salinas has demonstrated how taking even a short break from various cosmetics, shampoos, and other personal care products can lead to a substantial drop in the levels of hormone-disrupting chemicals present within the body.
The results from the study were published in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives. Researchers gave 100 Latina teenagers various personal care products that were labelled to be free of common chemicals including phthalates, parabens, triclosan, and oxybenzone. These chemicals are used regularly in almost all conventional personal care products such as cosmetics, soap, sunscreen, shampoo, conditioner, and other hair products, and animal studies have shown that they directly interfere with the body’s endocrine system.
“Because women are the primary consumers of many personal care products, they may be disproportionately exposed to these chemicals,” said study lead author Kim Harley, Associate Director of the UC Berkeley Center for Environmental Research and Children’s Health. “Teen girls may be at particular risk since it’s a time of rapid reproductive development, and research has suggested that they use more personal care products per day than the average adult woman.”
Results
After just a three-day trial with the girls using only the lower-chemical products, urine samples showed a significant drop in the level of chemicals in the body. Methyl and propyl parabens, commonly used as preservatives in cosmetics, dropped 44% and 45%, respectively, while metabolites of diethyl phthalate, used often in perfumes, dropped by 27%, and both triclosan and benzophenone-3 fell 36%. The authors of the study were surprised to see an increase in two lesser common parabens, but those levels were small and could easily be caused by accidental contamination or a substitute not listed on the labels.
Co-director of the study Kimberly Parra explains why having local youths participate in the study was of particular importance:
The results of the study are particularly interesting on a scientific level, but the fact that high school students led the study set a new path to engaging youth to learn about science and how it can be used to improve the health of their communities. After learning of the results, the youth took it upon themselves to educate friends and community members, and presented their cause to legislatures in Sacramento.
Included in the CHAMACOS Youth Council were 12 local high school students who helped design and implement the study; one of the teen researchers, Maritza Cárdenas, is now a UC Berkely Undergraduate majoring in molecular and cell biology.
“One of the goals of our study was to create awareness among the participants of the chemicals found in everyday products, to help make people more conscious about what they’re using,” said Cárdenas. “Seeing the drop in chemical levels after just three days shows that simple actions can be taken, such as choosing products with fewer chemicals, and make a difference.”
What Can You Do?
Well, you can be sure to check the labels on any products you purchase. Most personal care products contain a list of ingredients, but unfortunately many cosmetics do not. If you use a particular brand that you really love you can try contacting the manufacturer directly and asking them for an ingredient list.
You can also opt for more natural and organic products, but be sure to keep in mind that in the industry of personal care products, the words “natural” and “organic” are often meaningless. A safe bet would be to buy these products from a health food store and be sure to read the ingredients or ask the sales clerk. Generally, when products do not contain specific chemicals, the manufacturers are happy to label them as such.
Because actually natural and organic products can be a bit more pricey, you may want to consider making your own. You can make a wide array of completely natural personal care products quite easily with just a few ingredients. Not only is this cheaper, but it allows you to be sure of every ingredient that will go on your body and to customize your creations to suit your specific needs. Check out “Top 5 DIY Everyday Personal Care Products” for some great homemade make-up ideas, or try a quick Google or Pinterest search!
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Amazon’s Echo family can now make calls and send messages
One of the most notable new features introduced alongside Amazon’s new Echo Show is the ability to make calls with Alexa, something that’s been rumored for a while now. And the good news is that this feature isn’t limited to just the Echo Show. When it rolls out later today (via an update to the Alexa iOS and Android apps), you’ll be able to use all existing Echo hardware to place voice calls, video calls and send messages. You’ll obviously need an Echo Show for video calling, but the support for voice calling and messaging is pretty robust.
If you have an Echo, Echo Dot or Echo Show, you can initiate calls (including video calls with the Show) and send messages to anyone else in your address book who has turned on Alexa calling. The recipients of your calls don’t even need to have an Echo — they just need to have the Alexa app installed on their phone and turn on the feature. If you have an Echo and receive a call, Alexa will alert you and a green ring will be displayed on your device. From there, you can tell Alexa to pick up the call or ignore it. As for messages, you’ll hear a chime when one arrives and the green light ring will appear on your device; you can then ask Alexa to play the message back to you.
The last calling feature is something Amazon’s calling “Drop In” — this makes the Echo Show basically work as a video intercom that you can activate at any time, whether the devices are in different places in your house or totally different locations entirely. Obviously, you’ll only want to enable Drop In with contacts you trust and don’t mind popping up on your Echo Show at any time.
With this, Amazon has basically turned the entire Echo ecosystem into a pretty robust speakerphone. Ironic considering how badly the Fire Phone flopped, but this feature makes perfect sense for the Echo hardware. When Google first unveiled Home almost one year ago, the company said you’d eventually be able to send text messages with your voice — but that feature still hasn’t materialized.
The feature is even more timely given that Microsoft and Harmon Kardon just announced a Cortana-powered voice speaker yesterday. The Invoke won’t arrive until the fall, however, which gives Amazon plenty of time to press its advantage in the growing voice-activated speaker market.
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Source:
https://www.engadget.com/2017/05/09/amazon-echo-voice-calls-messages/
Forget 10 seconds, Snapchat now lets you replay messages forever
Snapchat was built on the concept of ephemerality: once you see a message, it disappears forever.
Starting Tuesday, Snapchat is making its messages feel less fleeting by letting them replay indefinitely. A new infinity icon will allow a photo or video message to be replayed forever until the receiver exits the conversation thread. Snapchat messages, called “snaps,” could previously only be seen for up to 10 seconds before they disappeared.
“We’ve all felt the frustration of not being able to fully enjoy a Snap – even after replaying it – and we wanted to give you the option of allowing the recipient to enjoy your Snap as long as they’d like,” the company wrote in a blog post on Tuesday. “After your friend finishes viewing the Snap and taps to close it, it will delete as usual.”
The change is a notable one for Snapchat, which in its early days earned a reputation for sexting because of how quickly its messages disappeared after being viewed. The app has since popularized the Stories format, which shows photo and video messages in chronological order that disappear after 24 hours. Facebook has aggressively copied Stories in its full suite of apps in recent months.
Snapchat’s change to one of its core features also comes a day ahead of the company’s first earnings report since it became a publicly traded company in February. Wall Street is looking for signs that Snapchat is still growing and that the competition from Facebook hasn’t taken too great of a toll.
Snapchat also added a few new creative tools on Tuesday, including the ability to draw with emojis and a “magic eraser.” A redesigned menu for the app’s editing tools will “provide a foundation for introducing even more creative tools for making fun Snaps,” the company said.
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7 Ways Miami Maintains Relevancy
Whether it’s been a month or six since your last trip to Miami, you’d barely recognize The Magic City. Historic downtown is taking on a modern day revival with classic cocktail rooftop bars, craft coffee cafés and gilded boutique hotels, while the Wynwood Arts District and Brickell have expanded their pedestrian-friendly streets to include pop-up music venues and California-inspired vegan cafes. From your morning cold brew to your nightcap, here’s how Miami keeps up with an ever evolving world.
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1. Downtown Mornings
Starting the day downtown used to mean strolling out of Club Space in time for brunch Sunday. With the population doubling over the past decade, this historic side of the city is finally undergoing a much-needed facelift with cafes setting up shop on side streets near notorious late-night venues. Just around the corner from 24-hour nightclub E11even, you can get your caffeine fix at All Day, with nitrogen-infused Brooklyn blend and Florida eggs served four ways: caste iron-fried, soft scrambled, poached or baked with pecorino and citrus on sourdough. The Scandinavian-meets-midcentury modern Miami cafe is the work of Panther Coffee’s Camila Ramos and The Corner owner Chris MacLeod, so it’s no surprise the cafe not only looks sleek in its minimalist design (think loft-style spaces, dark wood banquets and branches hanging overhead), but it also nails both the coffee and the cuisine. From the street, the one pop of color standing out against the stark white interior is a neon green sign glowing with words spelling out 10 different types of coffee options, from double shot to hot drip. Espresso is brewed in the custom-crafted La Marzocco Strada machine—the largest in the world—from small-batch beans expertly sourced from roasters like Birmingham’s Revelator and Miami’s Per’la. The menu, meanwhile, is the work of Charles Lutka, who pulls from his previous stints at Michelin-starred Marea in NYC and Miami’s late-night Korean barbecue joint Gigi to craft locally inspired brunch fare with a haute twist. Expect decadent dishes like French toast with tres leches batter and pecan butter and lamb merguez tartine served with za’atar on olive toast. Anything you order will also pair perfectly with one of the 10 caffeine fixes, from the double shot espresso with sweet Florida milk to the nitrogen gas-infused “royal tea.”
2. Wynwood Expansions
The arts district has seen its fair share of pop-ups from galleries to drive-thru cinemas, but the Wynwood Yard is combining all of these concepts with a multipurpose space perfect for a food truck-served lunch during the day, as well as live music and yoga in the evenings. What started as a 10-month pop-up has become more permanent with a bar, a garden by Little River Cooperative and cuisine ranging from omakase sushi food truck Myumi to healthy bowl test kitchen Della. Order one of Della’s popular vegan bowls filled with quinoa, black coconut rice, tangy ginger tempeh and Maduro-style ripe plantain and dig in at one of the picnic tables placed out front. Wi-Fi is free, so this spot easily doubles as a co-working space, but if you would rather work in the comfort of an air-conditioned coffee shop, drive over to nearby Panther Coffee, a locally based roaster with brew just as good as their people watching in the typically packed cafe. Order a cold brew and one of Cindy Lou’s Cookies’ Morning Glory Muffins before setting off on a street art and shopping tour of the neighborhood.
The highlight is the living street art gallery Wynwood Walls, which started in 2009 on six buildings spanning the 25th-26th Street complex. It has now expanded to over 80,000 square feet of walls painted by more than 50 street art and graffiti artists from around the globe, including French artist Invader (behind video game-inspired space invader mosaics) and South Africa’s Faith47. Start at the beginning, exploring the street art, before weaving in and out of the galleries lining Northwest Second Avenue. Here, you’ll also find a number of boutiques like Melbourne-based skin care line Aesop and vintage-inspired glasses showroom Warby Parker. In addition to some of the larger labels, Wynwood also houses independent boutiques like Plant the Future, with its living art installations and hand-blown glass terrariums, and Mexican concept and design shop Malaquita, featuring everything from rainbow-colored sacred string artwork to hand-painted cowboy boots.
Miami is home to a slew of restaurants branded by big name chefs like Daniel Boulud and Jean-Georges Vongerichten, but the city is turning over a new leaf with the trend veering toward plant-based cuisine. The celeb chef behind California-based Matthew Kenney Cuisine brought his concept down south and gave it a Florida spin, opening up the seasonally focused Plant Food + Wine in Wynwood’s new Sacred Space. Take a seat on the patio next to the reflecting pool in this oasis-style spot and get ready to dig in to a list of dishes that taste almost too good to be purely plant-based. Start with the flora artisanal cheese plate of white truffle, smoked cheddar and mixed pepper cashew and macadamia-crafted cheese before moving on to one of the mains like the banana leaf tamale with cacao mole and shiitake mushroom or the coconut ceviche tacos with sunflower chorizo.
For a meal just as beautifully presented but delivered in a quick service setting, head to wellness bar DIRT in SoFi and order from the paleo, vegan or gluten-sensitive menus filled with clean dishes like the kimchee-spiced Seoul Bowl or the Santorini salad with housemade harissa-spiked hummus (both pictured above). This is a spot that caters to all dietary requirements, so if your friend wants an option topped with organic, grass-fed meat, they’re in luck. One of the top picks: the dirty sandwich with homemade chicken apple sausage served on locally baked Zak the Baker bread.
4. Beach Bootcamp
Miami is a city known for its beaches and sex appeal, and while you’ll find plenty of upscale fitness studios like SoulCycle and Exhale, trainers are taking to the shores making the most of Miami’s natural resources. Dubbed the “wellness power couple,” celeb trainers Christopher and Tracie Vlaun behind V Art of Wellness have brought their boutique fitness brand of beach bootcamps to the sand in front of the newly opened beach house-inspired hotel, The Confidante. Based in Miami and hosting retreats in the Caribbean and Cabo, the duo have brought together their areas of expertise (from Tracie’s 15-year career as an Elite model and Chris’s functional fitness training background) to develop intimate beach-based fitness classes that range from high intensity interval training to TRX body sculpting taught by top trainers like former Division 1 athletes.
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5. Cuban Cabaret
Cuba is in the spotlight right now, and in turn, so is Cuban culture. Supper clubs are making a comeback in Miami and one of the hottest acts in town is the 1940s Cuban cabaret-inspired El Tucán, with an 11-piece Latin orchestra playing as the house act and cocktails curated by Bar Lab, the team behind local favorite Broken Shaker. Music ranges from DJ sets to bands playing Parisian pop, while the tapas-style cuisine from chef Jean Paul Lourdes highlights Caribbean and South American flavors. Sister venue to the French-themed Bâoli, this spot in Brickell has a personality all of its own, capturing vintage Cuba from the tropical-style bar to the golden palms lining the theater. Take a seat for one of the two dinner shows and indulge in a cocktail just as decadent as the setting, such as the namesake El Tucán, a vodka-based libation with lemon and watermelon juice served up in a copper toucan glass.
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6. Down to Earth Rooftops
In this one-upping society, every hotel is clamoring to create the highest and most enticing rooftop bar on the beach. But what visitors don’t know is that the better rooftop is more down to earth, providing a closer look at the true sultry Miami scene. Part of the Downtown revival, boutique hotel The Langford opened up a little over a year ago in the historic 1925 Beaux-Arts Miami National Bank with throwback travel-inspired rooms (think vintage trunks) and one of the city’s best restaurant groups, Pubbelly, behind their restaurant PB Station and rooftop bar Pawn Broker. While the rooms capture one part of the vintage element, the bar captures the other through its cocktails. Sit al fresco staring out at the city’s skyline while sipping on a Prohibition era cocktail like the bathtub gin-inspired Giggle Water, a bubbly version of a gin and tonic served in a ceramic bathtub.
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7. Midnight in Paris
With six sister restaurants in Brazil, Paris 6 has taken its French-meets-Latin American concept to Miami Beach with the opening of the 24/7 bistro. The first of the Brazilian-owned bistros to open in the U.S., this contemporary brasserie is a nice addition to Miami’s late-night dining scene of empanadas, sandwiches and fast food joints lining South Beach. Venezuelan-born chef Atilio Padra whips up a menu of traditional fare like entrecote Béarnaise and filet mignon au poivre vert alongside some of the more modern twists like duck croquettes and lamb over apricot couscous in a setting that looks straight out of Paris’s sixth arrondissement. With a Midnight in Paris-esque design, the bistro every bit fits the bill from its Damask-covered walls and chandeliers to the red banquet seating and signature green bar with gilded gold etching, designed just for the Miami location. The one whimsical touch: caricature celebrity paintings commissioned by Brazilian artist Flavio Rossi. Whether you’ve missed dinner or are looking for a late-night feast, this is the perfect spot unassumingly tucked along bustling Collins Avenue just across the street from some of the city’s hottest nightlife venues like Wall at the W South Beach.
Source:
https://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2017/04/ways-miami-maintains-relevancy-food-cabaret.html
Essential Vietnam: Food and Sightseeing Guide to Saigon and Hanoi
Compelling and astonishingly beautiful, few places in the world offer the spectacular (and often overwhelming) splendor that Vietnam does, and this magic is especially apparent in its largest cities. In Saigon (or Ho Chi Minh City), you’re met with staggering French architecture dating back to the 18th century, endless stalls selling the famed banh mi sandwich, and meticulously landscaped parks boasting temples and palaces. Hanoi’s streets are alive with the sounds of motorbikes zooming past, the clamor of pots and pans from street vendors slinging noodle soups and sizzling grilled pork, and the glistening sparkle of its picturesque pagodas. Whether you’re going for the first time or the 15th, this guide to Vietnam’s most bustling cities will take you deep into the heart of one of Asia’s most resplendent, resilient, and humbling countries.
Ho Chi Minh City
Formerly known as Saigon (most of the locals still refer to it this way), Ho Chi Minh City is the perfect representation of old meets new. You’ll find colonial French architecture juxtaposed with whizzing motorbikes and crowded markets. Gleaming skyscrapers are flanked by centuries-old temples and pagodas. It’s a city that demands a few days of exploration to truly understand the interesting contrasts.
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Food
Vietnam’s food differs from north to south, and with Ho Chi Minh City located in the south, the delicacies you’ll find here tend to be more flavorful and spicy than the ones in Hanoi. These are the dishes you have to try when wandering the busy streets.
Banh Cuon: A hearty rice dish that’s steamed to perfection, banh cuon is a thin rice sheet filled with a hearty serving of ground pork, mushrooms, and shallots. It’s served in bite-size pieces and is often enjoyed for breakfast with a drizzle of fish sauce (a necessity in most Vietnamese cuisine), bean sprouts, and cucumber. Tip: If you can, order it from a street vendor so you can watch the locals prepare it on their larger-than-life metal woks.
Where to try it: Banh Cuon Hai Nam, 11A Đường Cao Thắng, phường 2, Quận 3, Hồ Chí Minh, Vietnam
Banh Xeo: Another dish that’s as fun to watch as it is delicious to eat, banh xeo is basically a large and savory crepe. Named after the sizzle it makes when it’s cooking, this crepe-pancake hybrid is topped with equal parts pork, shrimp, and bean sprouts. It’s served for breakfast or lunch with, you guessed it, fish sauce.
Where to try it: Banh Xeo 46A, 11A Đường Cao Thắng, phường 2, Quận 3, Hồ Chí Minh, Vietnam
Banh Trang Tron: This is one dish you won’t find outside of Ho Chi Minh City. Created by the street food purveyors who set up shop along Van Kiep Street or Su Van Hanh Street, this bite-size snack is a mix of rice paper that’s served like a salad with eggs (usually quail), sliced green mango, squid, beef jerky, basil, mint, sometimes shrimp balls, and peanut, as well as a hearty serving of chilis.
Where to try it: Street stalls on Van Kiep Street or Su Van Hanh Street
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Banh Mi: Unless you live under a rock, there’s a good chance you’ve heard of, or tried, the famed banh mi sandwich. All cities in the country have their own version, but Banh Mi 37 Nguyen Trai, a hole-in-the-wall stand on Nguyen Tai, serves up one of the best. The bread is freshly baked and is filled to the brim with grilled sausage, thinly sliced pork, cucumber spears, cilantro, and chili.
Where to try it: Banh Mi 37 Nguyen Trai, 37 Nguyễn Trãi, Bến Thành, Quận 1, Hồ Chí Minh, Vietnam
Pho: A staple that can’t be left out, pho varietals can be found all throughout the country. However, don’t confuse the ones you enjoy in Saigon with the ones in Hanoi or Halong Bay—or vice versa. The pho in Saigon is slightly sweeter and fishier.
Where to try it: Pho Le, 414 413, Nguyen Trai Street P.7,Q5, Ho Chi Minh City
Vietnam’s capital is nothing short of a street food paradise. The labyrinth of bustling alleyways, motorbike-clogged avenues, and streets of the Old Quarter and the Truc Bach area are full of vendors selling bowls of pungent soups, crispy fried meats glazed with spicy sauces, and veggie-laden rice paper rolls. Like Saigon, street food culture reigns supreme here; however, an international influence can be found in some of its most revered bites.
Bun Oc: Snails are savored in Hanoi, which is why you’ll find bun oc, or snail vermicelli soup, on many local menus. The snails are roasted, dumped into a broth, then mixed with thin rice noodles, green bananas, fried tofu, prawns or fish cakes. Like most soups in town, it’s topped with a big serving of herbs, like mint or basil, and chili sauce.
Where to try it: Bun oc Co Them, 6 Hàng Chai, Hàng Mã, Hoàn Kiếm, Hà Nội, Vietnam
Cha Ca: As distinctive to Hanoi as bang trang tron is in Saigon, this crispy fried white fish is typically served on a bed of fresh herbs, like dill. The filet itself is seasoned heavily with garlic, ginger, and turmeric, and the fish is served alongside a big bowl of rice noodles, peanuts, spring onions, red chili slices, and a mouthwatering sauce. It’s meant to be mixed together, which is how you’ll see the locals devouring it on Cha Ca Street in the Old Quarter.
Where to try it: Cha Ca Thang Long, 21 Đường Thành Cửa Đông, Hoàn Kiếm, Hà Nội, Vietnam
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Bun Rieu: This is comfort food at its best. This creamy soup is much like pho, with big servings of rice vermicelli noodles, crab, and a fresh assortment of herbs, like mint, basil, and dill. The main difference is the broth: Here, it’s tomato-based. You’ll find many renditions of this soup all throughout the city, some with ground pork, minced dried shrimp, and tofu.
Where to try it: Bun Rieu Cua, 40 Hàng Tre, Lý Thái Tổ, Hoàn Kiếm, Hà Nội, Vietnam
Banh Goi: The perfect street snack for when you’re on the go, banh goi is a fluffy deep fried pastry filled with mushrooms, minced pork, steamed quail eggs, and a spicy seasoning. It’s often served alongside sweet-sour dipping sauces made with garlic, chili, sugar, lime juice, and fish sauce. It also pairs well with a cold Hanoi Beer.
Where to try it: Street food carts in the Old Quarter; or for a vegan option, try Banh Goi Chay, 66B Tran Hung Dao Street, Hoan Kiem District
Nem Chua: A delicacy for locals, nem chua can be hard to stomach for foreign visitors. This raw fermented pork dish is made by mixing ground pork, chilies, sliced garlic, white peppercorns, Thai chilies, sugar, and a spicy seasoning. The garlic, chilies, and sugar are placed inside the pork and rolled up like a sausage, or they’re spread out in a large baking sheet and wrapped in plastic. The whole dish is then fermented for up to three days, sliced into small squares and served inside a banana leaf.
Where to try it: Street food carts in the Old Quarter
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Source:
http://www.vogue.com/article/saigon-hanoi-vietnam-travel-guide
