1. A great essay about what it’s like to be on a plane during an emergency landing: The Plane Was About to Crash...

2. Street-legal hot rods (in Germany, anyway). Want one.

3. Why aren’t U.S. retailers signing a safety code agreement with Bangladeshi garment suppliers?

4. And, for a change, fewer words and more pics: this tumbler The Worst Room is already (in)famous in NYC.

5. Cézanne’s studio is still just as he left it, and you can visit. You should visit. We should all visit.

1. A well-off, educated couple have to deal with the Kafka-esque reality of the U.S. immigration system and they are shocked–shocked!–to discover how inept it is. Hello. I’ve dealt with immigration in one form or another in 4 countries and they’re all like this. For reference, watch the film Brazil.

2. Hugh Johnson is downsizing, and his wine cellar is up for auction.

3. Spain’s economic crisis, couple with the legality of egg donation, has made it a target country for couples looking for fertility treatments. Der Spiegel details one egg donor’s experience.

4. Turning Africa into a hunting park for the super wealthy. The government is Tanzania is trying to get Massai tribes off their traditional land so a hunting company from Dubai, OBC, can bring in wealthy clients to shoot trophy animals. Are we still doing this, people? Really?

The new memory savers

Alternative title: This week in alcohol health news.

A team of researchers at the University of Reading has released findings that 3 glasses a week of champagne can help guard against aging diseases such as Alzheimer’s and dementia.

The benefits come from phenolic acid, which is found in grapes like pinot noir and pinot meunier, the stuff of which bubbly is made.

Study lead and biochemistry professor, Jeremy Spencer, was impressed with the results, telling the UK’s Daily Mail that previous research on red wine’s health benefits prompted him to look at champagne: “These grapes are used in red wine and lots of research has been done on the health benefits of red wine, so I was curious to find out if there were any health attributes in champagne.”

The test was done with rats (the only time I’m likely to think “lucky rats”). Well, they didn’t quite get to drink it, but it was added to their feedings and the sample with the bubbly did much better on memory tests than their cohort without.

Next step: moving to humans. They research team is planning a project using pensioners who will down a drink (drinks) for the good up science–for three years. When I find the sign up sheet for that research, I’ll be sure to let you know.

The Daily Mail also notes that writer Sir John Mortimer drink a glass of sparkling every day for breakfast. Every day! Lucky so-and-so. And he lived to 85.

1. Art forgery is easy, at least according to this guy who made a lot of “Giacomettis”.

2. And at least one part of Greece has a healthy economy, thanks to the best saffron in the world.

3. Gotta admire Kid Rock’s views on concert ticket prices.

4. 27 years living in the woods of Maine, without social contact, but just stealing a bunch of stuff instead. Man had a taste for high-end camping gear. But, then, I suppose one would.

5. Vice has done an article and a 3-part series on Agafia Lykov, the final member of her family of Old Believers who fled modern Russia of 1936 to live in the Russian taiga. There’s also an article (see also the previous post from Smithsonian mag).

It was just like the Armory Show! But cheaper. There was the same proportions of the good, the bad and the middling, with most resting squarely in the last category. But still some good/interesting things going on. Like this piece by artist Chris Wood:

There was this piece by Young-Il Lee, called I’m Korean:

This portrait series by John Kenny:

And much more, but the booths were so crowded that photographing the works wasn’t easy. I will say that the crowd and general ambiance was much funner, happier and less aggressive than the Armory. It was fun. And it’s free tonight from 6 to 8.

1. No one’s ever gotten off the infamous Vegas Black Book before, but this guy’s going to try.

2. Confused about class? Want to know where you fit in? (In the UK, but I don’t think it’s much different here) This quiz will clarify all.

3. A Barbie dreamhouse in Berlin. Life size. A good idea? Activists think not.

4. Do Barbie Doll prices correlate with job earnings?

5. Sass through the ages, thanks to Messy Nessy Chic.

Now, given the fad for “skinny” drinks and low-cal cocktails, you’d be forgiven for thinking this is another attempt to combat obesity, promote good health, blah blah blah. And it is, in part. The article quotes a study that shows the majority of drinkers have no idea how many calories are in a pint or a glass of wine.

Except the kicker here is that there seems to be a hope that if drinkers know how many calories are in their drink(s)(s), they won’t drink as much. And that will cut down on binge drinking (which is a bit of an issue). “Ministers are hoping that displaying the calorie content in beers, wines and spirits could encourage those who are watching their weight to drink less.”

Sure, do it, why not? More info is usually better than less. But look, I’m going to go out on a limb here–drinking impairs judgement. Sure, your average person likely doesn’t know how many calories are in their chardonnay, but I’d wager they know they’re not drinking a diet beverage. People drink for many reasons–losing weight isn’t one I’ve heard of (yet–waiting for that one–fat-burning Beaujolais?). So when the third/fourth/fifth glass is on offer, you’re likely past the point of logic and sound decisions and solidly into “why not?” land. Soon arriving in “everyone else is having one” land and then soon you find yourself in “what day is it?” land and “I’d better drink 6 litres of water” land.

So I’ll be interested to see how this turns out, and, actually, I wouldn’t mind being proven wrong. People do sometimes drink too much, we’ve seen it, we’ve perhaps done it ourselves once or twice (or thrice or…) and it is a problem. I just don’t think this is going to prove an effective method of combating what is a pretty complex issue.

1. A big step forward for feminism in France. Trousers.

2. There are corporate spies lurking everywhere.

3. Why we need the post office.

4. I think telling a TSA agent: “I can bring a bomb through here any day I want and you will never find it,” is a) a bad idea, and, b) in this case, at least, untrue.

1. A Russian family that lived in a hut in Siberia. If you’ve ever thought about living off the grid in the extreme wilderness, you may want to read this first.

2. And why are superachievers…super achievers? These guys think they have the answer.

3. What happened to much of the art looted by the Nazis? Not much, it seems.

4. And fake house fronts.

1. Did bankers ruin the world? Find out here.

2. Income equality–but no one can agree on the why.

3. A great post full on the beautiful work of A.M. Cassandre, thanks to Brain Pickings.

4. Even the TSA blog has a 2012 round-up: loaded guns and live grenades.

5. And a beautiful slideshow of some of the works in “Ice Age Art” at the British Museum in London.

Have a good week.