In a recent experiment, 82 undergrads, all self-described Christians, filed in for a test that researchers billed as a handwriting personality assessment.
First, though, the test-takers were offered a drink, a very diluted lemon-flavored glass of water, and asked to rate its sweetness, sourness, bitterness, and disgusting-ness. Then, they were asked to copy a short passage from either the Bible, The God Delusion, the Quran, or the dictionary. Finally, they were given another drink, which was supposedly different (but actually the same exact flavor).
What's remarkable is that the students found that second drink of lemony water tasted more disgusting after reading about Islam or atheism, according to Miller-McCune's Tom Jacobs report on the paper “Gross Gods and Icky Atheism," suggesting a link between moral taste and our literal taste taste.
I think they wanted to believe that the most expensive bottle of winein the world must be the best bottle of wine in the world, must be the rarest bottle of wine in the world. I became increasingly, kind of voyeuristically interested in the question ofyou know, why do people spend these crazy amounts of money, not only on wine but on lots of things, and are they living a better life than me?
The still life and Brillat-Savarin’s banquet are traps for the viewer or guest—and even more so for the patron. The more elaborate the banquet, the more the guests will worry about whether they are appreciating it enough, and the more the host himself will ignore the food to better spend his time showing off his money. The fancier the meal, the harder the test.
Our mission is to re-connect diners to the land and the origins of their food, and to honor the local farmers and food artisans who cultivate it.
Outstanding in the Field is a roving culinary adventure – literally a restaurant without walls. Since 1999 we have set the long table at farms or gardens, on mountain tops or in sea caves, on islands or at ranches. Occasionally the table is set indoors: a beautiful refurbished barn, a cool greenhouse or a stately museum. Wherever the location, the consistent theme of each dinner is to honor the people whose good work brings nourishment to the table.
Ingredients for the meal are almost all local (sometimes sourced within inches of your seat at the table!) and generally prepared by a celebrated chef of the region. After a tour of the site, we all settle in: farmers, producers, culinary artisans, and diners sharing the long table.
This may be one of the coolest things I've ever seen. Check out the gallery. The event closest to Boston, at Westport Rivers, is ALREADY sold out. And it's not until August! I want to go to all of them.
Maybe when I'm done with the gastronomy program they will hire me...
At some very touristic hot-spots, (Kupfergraben corner with Dorotheenstraße) a whole lot of people of all ages spontaneously started "helping" him with the dispachwork project and plastic construction pieces in all colors, between old stones, gave an interesting new twist in Berlin.
There were five or ten people who wanted to know what my background was to provide guidance on everything, and I told them I work as a photographer and that I had no precondition apart from a desire to try, together with the person seeking advice, to become more aware of how his or her problem could be solved. Furthermore, I said, my experience was that people often know what is wrong in their lives and that simple questions from an outsider can help provide clarity in relation to the problem.
For these kinds of facts, the analogy of how to boil a frog is apt: Change the temperature quickly, and the frog jumps out of the pot. But slowly increase the temperature, and the frog doesn’t realize that things are getting warmer, until it’s been boiled. So, too, is it with humans and how we process information. We recognize rapid change, whether it’s as simple as a fast-moving object or living with the knowledge that humans have walked on the moon. But anything short of large-scale rapid change is often ignored. This is the reason we continue to write the wrong year during the first days of January.
