Step into the shoes of LeBron or Giannis, and assemble your best squad to become king of All-Star Weekend.
Finding clues to a functional HIV cure
Scientists have identified a measurable indicator that could prove instrumental in the fight against HIV. The research focuses on cofilin, a key protein that regulates cells to mobilize and fight against infection. HIV patients have ‘significantly lower’ levels of cofilin phosphorylation. But by stimulating the T cells with additional therapeutics, researchers could modulate the levels of cofilin activity needed to restore T cell mobility.
Simple drug combination creates new neurons from neighboring cells
A simple combination of molecules converts cells neighboring damaged neurons into functional new neurons, which could potentially be used to treat stroke, Alzheimer’s disease, and brain injuries.
Cancer cells’ plasticity makes them harder to stop
Researchers have created a basic framework of how cancer cells adapt when their attempts to metastasize are blocked by drugs or the body’s immune system. Understanding the cells’ strategies could someday help scientists design therapies that keep them in check.
The 6 Zara Items Everyone Will Want to Buy in 2019
The Zara sale is now drawing to a close, but we find the best way to approach shopping at this time of year is to think carefully about the pieces that will be trending over the next 12 months. What will be the 2019 version of the printed kimono, say? Or the next It Zara coat? There are certain trends and pieces that are set to be real success stories throughout 2019—animal print is still going strong and is likely to become even more popular, and mock croc continues to dominate accessories.
Then there are some new trends added to the mix. Beige is set to be the key color for spring/summer 2019 season, and we’ve found the most amazing pair of knee-high leather boots, which are the perfect finishing touch for any tonal outfits. Pretty blouses are hardly a new trend, however, jeans with a nice top is an easy outfit that more of us will revisit this year.
Keep scrolling to discover the six items that everyone will want to buy from Zara in 2019.
Domaine de la Romanée-Conti Appoints New Co-Director (Wine Spectator)
The shareholders of Burgundy’s Domaine de la Romanée-Conti have appointed Perrine Fenal to replace Henry-Frédéric Roch as co-director together with Aubert de Villaine. Fenal is the daughter of Lalou Bize-Leroy, who served as co-director from 1974 until 1992 and now heads Domaine Leroy.
DRC has been run by members of the de Villaine and Leroy families since Henri Leroy, grandfather of Perrine Fenal, bought 50 percent of its shares in 1942. Leroy was succeeded by his daughter Lalou. When she left in 1992, her late sister Pauline Roch’s son Charles took the helm with de Villaine, but died in a car accident three months later. His brother, Henry-Frédéric replaced him, serving until November 2018, when he passed away.
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“For 26 years, he has accompanied me with competence and friendship,” de Villaine told Wine Spectator. “Henry had a strong idea of the duties of our families regarding the domaine. He was on my side for all the important decisions we had to take. Our collaboration was excellent. He was very appreciated at the domaine and by all his peers in Burgundy for his kindness, human approach and generosity.”
From 1992 until 2004, Fenal, 55, was DRC’s exclusive importer and distributor in Switzerland, where she resides. Since then, she has been a member of the domaine’s advisory board. That role will now be filled by her cousin, Isabelle Roch.
Zooey Deschanel Kicks the Dirt at Long Meadow Ranch; Gronk Chugs Hundred Acre from Bottle (Wine Spectator)
Zooey Deschanel, actor, musician and OG Millennial, has played a kooky roommate (New Girl), elf love interest (Elf) and ukulele (her band She & Him), and she can now add vineyard farmhand to her résumé. Deschanel visited Napa’s Long Meadow Ranch with MasterChef emeritus and host of the online series Purpose Project Alejandro Toro, on the show’s latest episode—and the ranchers quickly put them to work.
In the segment, the property’s farm to table manager Kipp Ramsey first takes the duo out to massage some dirt and plant kale, then leads them in picking tomatoes and herbs, and preparing a salad and squash risotto in the kitchen. Finally, all sit with Long Meadow owner Laddie Hall for a midday repast: tomato tartare with kasundi and egg yolk, and pork belly with green tomato and beet BBQ, among other dishes, Ramsey relayed to Unfiltered. The group wash it down with glasses of the winery’s Anderson Valley Chardonnay and rosé of Pinot Noir, as well as Napa Cabernet and Sauvignon Blanc.
“I believe [Deschanel and Toro] are doing a great job to spread the word on how people can source and grow their food,” Ramsey said via email.
The visit came about because, while Deschanel once played a woman fleeing a toxic attack on humanity launched by the earth’s trees (The Happening; spoiler alert?), her relationship with the plant community in real life is much more positive: She’s a sustainable food activist, and Long Meadow practices organic and biodiverse farming. The garden powers on-site restaurant Farmstead, a Wine Spectator Restaurant Award winner.
Greg Caparell
Zooey Deschanel, Kipp Ramsey and Alejandro Toro show how the salad gets made.
“We had a chance to peek at the ‘whole process,’ understanding that what truly completes full-circle farming, in this case, is the commitment to community people like Kipp Ramsey and Laddie Hall have,” Toro told Unfiltered via email. “So once again I get to circle back on my mission, which is spreading the good word through food, travel and community.”
Courtesy of Ceja Vineyards
Alejandro Toro and Dalia Ceja crush it real good.
Purpose Project, produced by Tastemade and Capital One, isn’t done with North Bay wine country there, though: Toro later visits Garden Creek Vineyards and noshes at Sebastopol’s Zazu Kitchen with wine folks Chris Benziger, and Dan Barwick and Sonia Byck-Barwick of Paradise Ridge; the former lost his home and the latter their winery in the 2017 wildfires. He ends his trip picking clusters and tasting wine at Ceja Vineyards, owned and run by the kids and grandchildren of immigrant campesino vineyard workers.
“We even had the opportunity to stomp on some of our grapes. It was the classic ‘I Love Lucy‘ old-fashioned introduction to winemaking—unforgettable experience to say the least!” marketing and sales director Dalia Ceja, who also appears in the segment, told Unfiltered.
Rob Gronkowski’s Breakfast of Champions: A Bottle of Hundred Acre Cab at the Super Bowl Parade
Perhaps no Bostonian this side of Sam Adams is more closely associated with beer than New England Patriots tight end and spring break avatar Rob Gronkowski. But after a long and illustrious career of crushing defenses and Buds Light, the 29-year-old has earned a respite from the years of cheap hits and suds his body has been subjected to, and at this week’s Super Bowl victory parade, Gronk signaled as much with his beverage of choice: a bottle of 2014 Hundred Acre Napa Valley Cabernet.
Gronk is ready for the Patriots’ parade with a full bottle
(via @7News) pic.twitter.com/NNLaI0P2eP
— ESPN (@espn) February 5, 2019
“A lot of these guys, their public persona is that they’re rough and tough football players, but they’ve got sophisticated tastes,” Hundred Acre founder and owner Jayson Woodbridge told Unfiltered. While the rest of the team partook of Luc Belaire bubbly after Sunday night’s triumph, Gronk kept the wine party flowing on his duck boat in Boston before switching to beer and the other questionable edible he is known for, Tide Pods.
“I’m in Australia right now, so at the crack of dawn here, before I even woke up, my phone just starts going crazy,” Woodbridge said, after photos of Gronk swigging his wine started appearing online. “People writing everything from, ‘I hate the Patriots, but I love this guy’s tastes’ to ‘He’s awesome, he’s an animal, I love it.'”
Woodbridge could not confirm or deny if Gronkowski ever visited the winery, though he did acknowledge he is pro-Patriots. “How they get people riled up—that’s the fun part.”
Watercolor Painter Graduates to Wine, Shares His Tricks and Techniques
When artist Sam Debey accidentally spilled coffee on a watercolor he was painting years ago, his first thought was that the project was ruined beyond repair. But he noticed that the way the coffee stretched and dried across the page “had a really neat effect,” and the mistake turned into a medium, with Debey gaining a reputation for his coffee paintings. It wasn’t long before Debey tried another drinkable, dark substance that proved to be even more difficult but stimulating to work with: wine.
Courtesy of Sam Debey
“With coffee you can make it extra strong for darker values or dilute it for lighter ones, but with wine you don’t have that flexibility,” Debey told Unfiltered. Now, his wine purchases are two-fold—he’ll pour out less than a sip for each painting and then sip the rest himself. Both his palate and palette require drier, more tannic reds. “To anyone giving wine-painting a shot, I would suggest steering clear of white wines, unless you’re painting a polar bear on a snowy backdrop,” he said. “Also you don’t want anything too sweet, because that will make the painting sticky or maybe even rot over time.”
Debey’s subject matter differs from past wine-artists who’ve dabbled in comics, architectural renderings and blotches. Using a calligraphy quill and a fine brush, Debey sketches “quirky” ideas that tell a story—like his plane-with-wine-glasses-instead-of-engines painting. “Subjects [as] absurd as the medium I’m using [are] the way I like to go.”
#WhiteWineEmoji Snubbed in New 2019 Emoji Announcement; Chard Lovers ?
You may have ? the news yesterday about the Unicode Consortium’s new batch of emojis for 2019. Did you need a visual shorthand while texting “garlic,” “yo-yo,” “falafel,” “safety vest,” “banjo” or “orangutan”? Congratulations, you have been given voice.
But if you were invested in the Great #WhiteWineEmoji Campaign of last summer and fall, you no doubt immediately scrolled down to the “drinks” category of the new v.12 emoji list only to find “mate” (hipster tea), “ice cube” (famously not a liquid) and “beverage box,” which theoretically could contain white wine, but it’s not quite what the wine-emoji agitators at Kendall-Jackson had in mind.
Kendall-Jackson
Still at large
The company, which has spearheaded the design and Unicode proposal for the white wine emoji, fired off an admirably salty press release this morning: “Where’s a white wine emoji when you need one? That’s what Kendall-Jackson is asking. It would’ve come in handy for their virtual cheers yesterday, when news broke of the 230 new emojis just announced.”
K-J director of marketing Maggie Curry obliged us with a more detailed update on the situation. “The development of a new emoji is a technical and lengthy process, and one of the obstacles facing the white wine emoji actually involves the adoption of a new technology for color variation for all emojis,” she explained via email. “Once in place, it would allow for different colors of the same emoji—as with skin tones” if you press and hold on your phone.
“Who would ever think a winery would have a part in new technology implementation and an emoji for the global keyboard across the world’s billions of phones? It is exciting to say the least.” K-J is now submitting a new proposal and hoping the Consortium approves it at one of their upcoming conclaves in April or July. That would allow a rollout sometime in the spring-to-fall 2020 timeframe. For now, we raise our beverage boxes to that.
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Meghan Markle Just Made a “Boring” Work Staple Red Carpet–Worthy
Given her acting background, Meghan Markle is certainly no stranger to the red carpet, so it should come as no surprise that she knows exactly what to wear for such an occasion. The Duke and Duchess of Sussex attended the Endeavor Fund Awards in London on Thursday night and Markle nixed a traditional red carpet gown in favor of a crisp white button-up shirt and a maxi skirt, both custom pieces by her go-to brand, Givenchy. The look reminded us of one of Carolyn Bessette Kennedy’s iconic outfits from 1999—and you know we always love a ’90s homage.
A white button-up is arguably the #1 workwear staple everyone should own, but Markle managed to make it look glam with the addition of metallic Aquazzura heels and a strategic slitted skirt to add just the right amount of sultriness for a night out. Her slicked-back hair and Givenchy clutch also made the office item look anything but boring. Scroll down to see the expectant mom’s new red carpet outfit and shop a similar look.
Newly Engaged Jennifer Lawrence Is Endorsing the Trend Meghan Markle Just Wore
Fun fact (that you may already know): Jennifer Lawrence is an avid horseback rider and even expertly rode one for Vogue‘s December 2015 cover shoot. So it’s no surprise that one of her first date nights as an engaged woman would involve a pair of Chloé horse-print trousers that perfectly represent this season’s Western trend. Lawrence’s pants instantly reminded us of an Oscar de la Renta dress that Meghan Markle wore out and about in England last week, which also covered in animals. Is this very literal animal print the new, well, animal print? We shall see, but both Hollywood royalty and actual royalty are endorsing it.
Another fun fact: Lawrence just got engaged to NYC art gallery director Cooke Maroney. The internet has been buzzing about her ring, and Lawrence did offer the paparazzi a glimpse of a ring on her ring finger upon departing Il Buco in NYC, but we have a hunch that the ultra-private Lawrence either has the diamond spun around to her palm or she’s wearing a stunt ring. You be the judge.
Keep scrolling to see Lawrence and Markle’s endorsement of the aforementioned trend (and shop it) and see a close-up shot of the ring Lawrence is wearing for her date night.
Here’s Why The Keto Diet Makes You Thirsty All The Time
So—debates about how healthy it is be damned, you’ve decided to do the ketogenic diet. And a week in, you discover one of keto’s dirty secrets: it can make you thirsty as hell.
It’s something many encounter once they go keto and it can even turn some away from the program. After all, is normal to feel so damn parched all the time? Is the weight dropping off through pure dehydration?
Men’s Health explains that there’s a certain logic in the way keto triggers cottonmouth. People who choose that program to lose weight are increasing their “fat intake to about 80 percent of your daily calories and slashing carbs to below 50 net grams per day.” That, according to the magazine, “can take a toll on the body’s hydration.”
The secret is hiding in the diet’s name. It induces ketosis—switches on the body’s fat-burning torch. Carbs are big no-nos in the ketogenic diet and a lack of carbs starts burning up the body’s supply of glycogen, which Men’s Health says contains up to “3 grams of water.”
Along with burning fat, keto also tweaks insulin levels. High insulin from carb consumption prompts the kidneys to retain water. Without more sugar, insulin drops and the kidneys drain as well.
The solution is pretty obvious: drink more water. Specifically water. Dietitian Ginger Hultin tells Men’s Health: “If your goal is to be in ketosis, many sports drinks or electrolyte replacements won’t be appropriate because the sugar content will be too high.” So choose to keep refilling with H2O. Add a bit of salt to maintain and enhance electrolytes.
In addition to water, dietitians recommend keeping a supply of keto-friendly leafy greens, avocados, or berries on hand.
Or you could just check out some informed opinions on keto and maybe even reconsider it altogether.