Huffington (Issue #80)

ALIENS! | JARED LETO | PERFECT SELFIES

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THE HUFFINGTON POST MAGAZINE

DECEMBER 22, 2013

HOW YOGA LOST ITS SOUL

By Carolyn Gregoire

12.22.13 #80 CONTENTS

Enter POINTERS: NSA Judgment Day...

Queen Bey JASON LINKINS: Looking Forward in Angst DATA: Americans and Their Christmas Trees Q&A: Jared Leto HEADLINES MOVING IMAGE

Voices KALI HAWLK: How I Escaped College With Zero Debt

NATION OF YOGIS Yoga’s journey from ancient spiritual practice to big business.

BY CAROLYN GREGOIRE

SETH SHOSTAK: Is Alien Life Surfacing Nearby?

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Exit TECH: Welcome to the Era of Getting ‘Digital Work Done’

TOP IMAGE: COURTESY OF ELENA BROWER

THE THIRD METRIC: Finding Peace at Frank Lloyd Wright’s Palmer House TASTE TEST: Ginning Up a Spot-On Martini MUSIC: Dog Ears TFU

MAN WITH A PLAN Can Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong reinvent health care as we know it?

BY HOWARD FINEMAN

FROM THE EDITOR: Yoga, Inc. ON THE COVER: Illustration for

Huffington by Viktor Koen

LETTER FROM THE EDITOR

Yoga, Inc. N THIS WEEK’S issue, Carolyn Gregoire follows yoga’s progression in America from an obscure spiritual practice to a $27 billion industry.

Yoga, as Carolyn writes, was traditionally a way of “stilling the thoughts of the mind in order to experience one’s true self, and ultimately, to achieve liberation (moksha) from the cycle of birth and death (samsara), or enlightenment.”

While the initial, New Age devotees embraced this spirit, yoga became a predominantly physical practice once it entered the cultural mainstream, riding the fitness wave of the 1970s.

“The very fact that if you ask

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the average person what yoga is, they immediately think of a beautiful woman doing stretches and bends, that tells you how commercialized it has become, and how limited,” says Philip Goldberg, a spiritual teacher and author of American Veda.

Carolyn points out the irony that a practice meant to offer freedom from the ego has become a “vanity-driven pursuit.” However, she writes, yoga in America is beginning to return to its more mindful origins. Current fitness trends are more and more rooted in mental and spiritual well-being, as many

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LETTER FROM THE EDITOR

look for ways to escape the constant distractions from technology.

Elsewhere in the issue, Howard Fineman profiles a man who is trying to change the way we look at health care. As Howard puts it, Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong wants “to map the molecular life of all of mankind in the service of better health for each individual.”

This mapping would result in a more personalized system, one in which doctors could easily access a patient’s medical information and develop an individually tailored wellness program — a compelling idea that has captured the attention of many.

In our Exit section, Bianca Bosker explores the growing number of “selfie-help apps,” which present users with a variety of ways to touch up their images before posting them on the Internet — “eyelashes can be added,

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teeth whitened, smiles stretched, pounds shed, clocks reversed, genes fought,” Bianca writes.

Of course, most don’t want to appear as though they’ve leaned on the apps to look better. Getting

Carolyn points out the irony that a practice meant to offer freedom from the ego has become a ‘vanity-driven pursuit.’” caught editing a photo is “very embarrassing,” one 18-year-old girl tells Bianca. “People are hyper aware of not wanting to seem fake in their pictures. As much as they edit them, it has to come off as natural.”

Finally, as part of our continued focus on The Third Metric, we go in search of tranquility in Frank Lloyd Wright’s Palmer House.

Join the conversation on Twitter and Facebook

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LIKELY UNCONSTITUTIONAL A federal judge ruled Monday that the collection of Americans’ phone call metadata by the NSA is likely unconstitutional, paving the way for future lawsuits that could land a case in front of the Supreme Court. According to the judge, the program violates the Fourth Amendment prohibition on unreasonable searches and seizures. It came into the spotlight earlier this year when former government contractor Edward Snowden released documents detailing the surveillance. The agency says the spying is key to preventing terrorism, but the program’s scope and secrecy have both liberals and conservatives outraged. “A secret program authorized by a secret court was, when exposed to the light of day, found to violate Americans’ rights. It is the first of many,” Snowden said of the ruling.

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FACEBOOK ADDS VIDEO ADS

Facebook began rolling out video ads to some users’ newsfeeds this week. The ads will play automatically, but without sound. People can avoid the videos by scrolling past them, but won’t be able to remove them from their feeds.

Many took to social media — including posting on Facebook — to complain, saying the ads will be annoying and could alienate users.

SHUTDOWN AVERTED

GAY PRIDE

A bipartisan budget deal passed the Senate Wednesday, averting another government shutdown that would have occurred in January. The $85 billion compromise was approved by the House last week. The deal will lessen some of the automatic spending cuts known as sequestration.

It passed overwhelmingly in the House but faced larger hurdles in the Senate, and some Senate Republicans ultimately joined with Senate Democrats Tuesday to avert a possible GOP filibuster. The GOP remains fractured on the final deal, with conservative groups arguing that it gives up the major gains the party made with the sequester cuts.

President Barack Obama announced Tuesday that two of the U.S. delegates to the 2014 Winter Olympic Games in Sochi, Russia, will be Billie Jean King, the tennis legend, and Caitlin Cahow, an Olympic medalist in women’s ice hockey. Both women are openly gay. The decision was seen as a jab at Russian President Vladimir Putin in the wake of the passage of stringent anti-LGBT laws in his country this summer. The new legislation makes it illegal to discuss gay relationships or rights in front of minors and imposes fines for holding gay pride rallies. “The U.S. Delegation to the Olympic Games represents the diversity that is the United States,” National Security Council spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden told CNN. “We are proud of each and every one of them.”

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WARMEST NOVEMBER EVER

November 2013 was the hottest November since record-keeping began in 1880, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The average global temperature for the month was 56.6 degrees Fahrenheit, 1.4 degrees over the average November temperature in the 20th century. Almost every region was warmer than usual, though portions of North America were actually cooler than average. Next year could be even hotter due to El Niño conditions, research suggests.

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Beyoncé is breaking records after the release of her self-titled album on iTunes last week. The singer dropped the album on Dec. 13 without any pre-release announcement. Apple reported the surprise album is the fastest-selling in iTunes history, and Beyoncé has officially hit No. 1 on the Billboard 200. The digitalonly album also broke the iTunes record for first-week sales in the U.S., selling more than 600,000 copies.

THAT’S VIRAL SO YEAH, YOUR CHRISTMAS CARD AIN’T GOT “S*** ON THIS

A selection of the week’s most talked-about stories.

HEADLINES TO VIEW FULL STORIES

WESTJET SAVES CHRISTMAS

FIRST WORLD PROBLEMS READ BY THIRD WORLD KIDS

WE COULD BE LIVING IN A HOLOGRAM

WHAT YOUR FAVORITE CHEESE SAYS ABOUT YOU

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JASON LINKINS

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GODSPEED TO THE RNC FOLKS TRYING TO DE-SUCKIFY THE 2016 PRIMARY NE THING that’s really terrible about any presidential election process is nearly everything about the presidential

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election process.

There’s a lot of silly drama when states try to move up in the primary calendar, there are far too many debates, and the whole thing is just absurdly long. It shouldn’t be this hard to nominate and elect a president — why

Balloons fall on delegates after Mitt Romney spoke at the Republican National Convention in Tampa, Fl., in August 2012.

Enter can’t this just take a couple of months? This is America! — and it’s high time we killed the whole thing with fire.

Well, the precious footfalls of baby steps are at least pattering in the distance. CNN’s Peter Hamby reports that “handpicked members of the Republican National Committee,” who have met in “a series of closed-door meetings since August,” have proposed a “sweeping plan” to lessen the obvious awfulness of the GOP primary process, in the hopes that maybe the 2016 election won’t be so excruciating for their nominee.

And that is the primary driver of these reforms. According to Hamby, lingering memories of the GOP primary debates, in which Mitt Romney had to “stake out a number of conservative positions that came back to haunt him in the general election,” loom large in the party’s motivation.

Go read the whole thing, but here are the back-of-the-cerealbox details.

ORDER WILL BE RESTORED TO THE PRIMARY CALENDAR: One thing that we all worry about ahead of any presidential primary process is whether this will be

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the election cycle in which interloping states — hoping to grab some of the cachet of traditionally early primary states like Iowa and New Hampshire, in a rabid game of brinksmanship — finally push things so far back on the calendar that the 2016 nominating process gets rolling around Halloween 2015.

This time around, the RNC plans to dole out heavy penalties.

It shouldn’t be this hard to nominate and elect a president — why can’t this just take a couple of months?

This is America! — and it’s high time we killed the whole thing with fire.”

The working group proposes that any state not named Iowa or New Hampshire or Nevada or South Carolina that “attempts to hold its nominating contest before March 1 would have their number of delegates to the convention slashed to just nine people or, in the case of smaller states, onethird of their delegation — whichever number is smaller.” (The big loser here would be serial prima-

Enter ry calendar scofflaw Florida.)

Also, to lessen the influence of early primaries, any state that stages its nominating contest before the second week of March must award its delegates proportionally. (After that date, states are allowed to be all #YOLO about how they award delegates.)

EARLY CONVENTIONS: “The Republican National Convention will be held either in late June or early July, though ideally on a date before the July 4 holiday.” Yes. Let’s do this. Why did anyone have to stomp around Tampa, Fla., in the hottest and swampiest days of August?

The perceived advantage here is that a candidate can only spend funds raised for the general election after he or she is officially nominated, so the sooner that gets settled, the better. Romney was widely perceived to have been hamstrung by this rule in 2012.

LIMITING THE NUMBER OF DEBATES: Oh, sweet, sassy molassey, let it be true! As Hamby notes, “the 2012 campaign saw an eye-popping 20 Republican debates,” each more jaw-droppingly worthless than the one before it. If there’s

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one way the primary process has threatened to destroy America, it’s when two parties with open primaries combine for 40 debates and pulverize everyone’s will to go on living.

These RNC reformers note the weird way in which the 2012 debate season played out allowed obvious losers like Herman Cain and Michele Bachmann the chance to be the perceived frontrunner, drawing time and attention away from more viable candidates. (One exception: Rick Santorum definitely used shrewd debating skills to demonstrate his viability. He wasn’t one of the flash-in-the-pan candidates, he was a pugilist who blazed a survivor’s path from single digits to second place.)

Of course, your next step in divining the ins and outs of these changes is to pop on over to Frontloading HQ, where procedural sherpa Josh Putnam offers his typical super-detailed take on the finer points of these proposals.

His bottom line? “Will it work?

Time will tell.”

Let’s hope it does, because no one wants to see 40 debates in 2016, except possibly Satan himself.

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Q&A

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Jared Leto on Playing a Transsexual Character

“I couldn’t imagine what Rayon went through. You learn to be funny, witty and charming like she was, because if you can make people laugh, you’re less likely to get your ass kicked.”

Above: Jared Leto as Rayon in the factbased drama Dallas Buyers Club. Below: Leto attends the Dallas Buyers Club premiere during the 8th Rome Film Festival on Nov. 9.

FOR THE FULL INTERVIEW, VISIT HUFFPOST LIVE

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Nanjing, China 12.12.2013 Armed police take part in a memorial event for the 76th anniversary of the Nanjing Massacre, which left about 300,000 Chinese dead when the Japanese occupied Nanjing during World War II. PHOTO OR ILLUSTRATION CREDIT TK

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Central Otago, New Zealand 12.14.2013 The women’s coxless fours compete during the 2013 Meridian Otago Rowing Championships at Lake Ruataniwha.

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Guangzhou, China 12.15.2013 A fire broke out in the unfinished Jianye Building at about 7 p.m. on Sunday, with around 380 firemen attending the blaze. About 1,367 residents within a 150-meter radius of the building were evacuated to nearby hotels. The cause of the fire is still being investigated.

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Yangon, Myanmar 12.16.2013 Women carry buckets of gravel on the banks of the Irrawaddy River. The gravel is used for the foundations of large corporations being built throughout the country.

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Tokyo, Japan 12.11.2013 A Sunshine International Aquarium staff member dressed as Santa Claus embraces a zebra shark as he swims with fish inside the aquarium.

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Sanaa, Yemen 12.16.2013 A Yemeni girl receives a polio vaccination during a threeday immunization campaign to vaccinate more than four million children under five years old against polio.

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Buenos Aires, Argentina 12.11.2013 A fan of Argentina’s Lanus climbs a fence as fireworks explode outside the stadium before the Copa Sudamericana final soccer match against Brazil’s Ponte Preta. Lanus took home the cup.

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Bangkok, Thailand 12.08.2013 A pet monkey grabs a Thai national flag at Democracy Monument, where protesters are camping out. The main opposition party announced it was resigning from parliament to protest what it called “the illegitimacy” of the government.

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Aleppo, Syria 12.12.2013 Members of al-Tawhid Brigade (Unity Brigade) enjoy the snow in Aleppo, where the number of clashes against Syrian Regime Forces were reduced due to snowfall.

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Voices

KALI HAWLK

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How I Escaped College With Zero Debt THE TOTAL AMOUNT of student loan debt collectively hanging over our heads is staggering. Two out of every three college students graduate with outstanding loans, and the effects of student loan debt aren’t temporary. According to a recent article on Nerd Wallet, the expected retire-

ment age for millennials is now ten years beyond today’s average.

Because of the amount of debt Generation Y carries and must somehow repay, we’ll most likely be working until age 73.

If the average twenty-something has somewhere around $25,000 of debt to their name, then I must be a highly unique member of the millennial generation. I graduated from Kennesaw State University,

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Voices a fast-growing school in the suburbs of Atlanta, in 2011. It was the same year that the total amount of student loan debt in the U.S. reached a whopping $1 trillion, but when I graduated, I did so as a completely debt-free individual.

I never accumulated credit card debt, and more importantly, I got through a four-year university without taking out a single student loan. Considering the statistics, coming out of college without a cent in the red sounds like a nearly impossible feat. But my positive net worth stands as proof that it is possible (and no, you don’t need a wealthy family or a sugar daddy to make it happen).

Here’s how I managed to escape college as a debt-free millennial: I scored scholarships. When I went off to college, three scholarships that were awarded for academic merit came with me. Two, I received for scoring the highest SAT scores in the county where I attended high school. The third was the HOPE scholarship, which was huge for me. Funded by the Georgia lottery, it was generously awarded to any student who had and maintained a 3.0 GPA or better. It was a really good incentive for keeping my grades up to

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standard in college. Though I had classes I slacked in, I made sure my GPA stayed well above the cut-off for receiving HOPE, and I eventually graduated with a 3.6.

I stayed in-state and went to a cheap school. Going out-of-state was never an option. The out-ofstate fees seemed downright unreasonable, especially considering how many universities there were in Georgia that I could at-

Out-of-state fees seemed downright unreasonable, especially considering how many universities there were in Georgia that I could attend.” tend. And although I had wanted to attend the University of Georgia, the historic school in Athens was more than three hours from my home and expensive. Kennesaw State University, on the other hand, was cheap and was close enough that I could live at home. Kennesaw State’s tuition was also incredibly low. When I started, a semester only cost about $3,000, fees included. My HOPE scholarship covered the tuition, while my other schol-

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arships covered the fees and helped with textbook costs.

I never thought to fund my lifestyle with loans. It never occurred to me that taking out student loans for things other than paying for classes was even an option.

I was shocked when I realized some of my friends, who I thought simply came from families with a highly accessible Bank of Mom and Dad, were actually spending the money they received from taking out loans on nights out, clothes and booze. Imagine being in your 30s and still working to

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It never occurred to me that taking out student loans for things other than paying for classes was even an option.” pay back — with interest — four years or more of partying.

I worked part-time instead. I spent more money than I probably should have in college, but it was money that came in the form of a paycheck, not a sum of money I would eventually have to pay back (again, with interest). I worked part-time, first at a bookstore and then in an office as an administrative assistant, and I slowly learned how to manage my own money.

Voices After a few hard lessons, taught by a miserably small dollar amount in my checking account after too many parties, shopping sprees and impulse buys, I gradually learned to want less and to save more.

I chose not to go to graduate school. Being a history major meant I endured endless comments about the fact that I would have to go to grad school to be successful. Deciding to ignore what I secretly agreed with wasn’t easy, but in the end I chose to walk away from a Masters degree after I finished my undergrad career. I could not afford to pay for graduate school out of pocket, and I did not believe that my job prospects would be greatly improved with more degrees.

Two and half years later, I believe I made the right choice. I’m still with the company I got hired at three months after graduation, but I’ve worked my way up a little; I’ve gotten multiple raises and more responsibility. I’m not working in a museum or teaching college kids about the history of Ireland like I had dreamed about in the past, but I do have a stable job that pays the bills.

I’ve also been able to work on side hustles I’m passionate about,

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like writing. And while I may not be teaching kids about Ireland, being debt-free has allowed me to save for an overseas trip, and I will actually be visiting the Emerald Isle next year. I’m able to save over 30 percent of my income and I’m planning on retiring early — possibly within the next 20 years.

I’m able to do all of this because I made decisions that set me up to

I’m able to save over 30 percent of my income and I’m planning on retiring early — possibly within the next 20 years.” earn my degree in exchange for the smallest amount of money possible. Avoiding debt was, and always has been, a top priority. In hindsight, the steps I took in college seem ten times more valuable and worthwhile today. I’m so thankful I am one millennial who defies the statistics and lives without any debt to slow me down.

Kali Hawlk blogs about common-sense financial advice at Common Sense Millennial.

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Is Alien Life Surfacing Nearby?

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XTRATERRESTRIAL LIFE may be showing up in some obvious places. No, this is not about hairless aliens that have come to Earth in saucer-shaped craft, but less sophisticated life just next door. Âś A century ago, scientists believed there was only one obvious stomping ground for alien biology in our solar system: Mars. Because it was reminiscent of Earth, Mars was assumed to be chock-a-block with animate beings, and its putative inhabitants got a lot of column inches and screen time. Red Planet residents were generally assumed to be similar to us: size-wise,

A rock approximately 10 inches tall and 16 inches wide sits in front of NASA’s Mars rover, Curiosity, on Mars in September 2012.

Voices technology-wise, and wise-wise.

By 1900, astronomer Percival Lowell was energetically shopping the idea that canals laced the martian surface, the handiwork of aliens desperate to irrigate a dry world.

However, sophisticated inhabitants fell out of favor (with scientists, if not with filmmakers) once spacecraft revealed the landscapes of Mars to be desiccated deserts, efficiently sterilized by deadly ultraviolet light from the Sun. The surface was inhospitable, to put it gently.

Nonetheless, it was still possible that microbial Martians were living a few hundred feet underground, where watery aquifers could shelter life happy to do its thing in the dark.

Consequently, expert opinion shifted. Our best chance for finding Martians was not to sit behind a small telescope in Flagstaff, Ariz., as Lowell did, but to send drilling apparatus to Mars that could suck muck from far beneath the surface and examine it microscopically. That’s a tough task, of course. It hasn’t been done — or even planned in detail.

Mars still remains the astrobiology community’s number

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one choice for “nearest rock with life,” but there are many researchers who argue that the moons of Jupiter are better bets.

In particular, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto are all thought to hide vast oceans of liquid water beneath their icy, outer skins.

Europa is the most promising case, and has the thinnest skin.

The best known approach to examining this moon’s watery

No, this is not about hairless aliens that have come to Earth in saucer-shaped craft, but less sophisticated life just next door.” habitat envisions a robotic probe that would melt a hole through 10 miles of granite-hard ice, and lower some sensors to look around. Again, not yet on the drawing boards.

But either way, our favored approach to finding biology beyond Earth involved drilling down deep — either through rock or ice.

However, discoveries bandied about at the American Geophysical Union meeting held earlier this month in San Francisco have

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revised the game plan.

Consider Mars — a poster child for geophysical inactivity, or so it was thought. The Red Planet has long been assumed to be as inert as medieval peasantry, but closer examination shows that it’s less torpid than believed. Orbiters have photographed features known as “dark slope streaks” extending down the sides of crater and canyon walls. These sinewy stains are about the width of your living room, and grow longer as the sun and summer raise the surface temperature. They

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sometimes extend a half mile or more, and come and go with the seasons. The obvious — and most plausible — explanation is that these streaks are caused by mineral-laden ice just under the surface, melting in the warmth.

It wets the landscape as it runs downhill.

Mind you, the idea that these streaks are salty water (which helpfully has a lower freezing point than pure water) is based on circumstantial evidence only. Pictures, in other words. But if true, it suggests that the quickest way to find Martians might be to land a rover on the streaks, scoop up the wet dirt, and check for microbes

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In this Hubble Space Telescope image, Jupiter’s moon Ganymede is shown just before it ducks behind the giant planet. Many researchers believe that Jupiter’s moons are more likely than Mars to hold the title of “nearest rock with life.”

Voices living in their own miniature martian spring. No need for the deep drilling project: life may be right there for the finding — in damp dirt. That’s a real game changer.

The other news concerns Europa, the albino ice-ball-of-amoon in orbit around Jupiter.

The Hubble Space Telescope has found a cloud of what seem to be dismembered water molecules a hundred miles or so above Europa’s south pole. The likely scenario here is that liquid is being spewed into space from the ocean below as Jupiter pulls and tugs on Europa’s frozen skin. The geysers seem to be located in cracks in the surface ice.

Almost a decade ago, Hubble found watery plumes shooting out of Saturn’s moon Enceladus, so this phenomenon isn’t new.

But Enceladus is a runty orb, so the water erupting from its frigid epidermis dissipates into the vacuum of space, and is gone for good. Europa is a beefier satellite, and can pull the material shot up from the cracked-and-crazed polar region back down to pile up on the surface.

Consequently, if there’s any life holed up in the Stygian waters beneath Europa’s glisten-

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ing exterior, then bits of biology might be just lying in handy heaps right there on the icy, south-polar landscape.

It’s good news for mankind, or at least for that fraction of it that would be interested to know if there’s life beyond our world.

For years, astrobiologists have been speculating on the possibility of finding some sort of small, squirmy critters on Mars or Eu-

Red Planet residents were generally assumed to be similar to us: size-wise, technology-wise, and wise-wise.” ropa. But in neither case did they have reason to think that the proof could be found on the surface of these worlds, within easy robot reach. Now that’s changed.

Carl Sagan once said that “somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known.”

“Somewhere” may be a landing spot only a short rocket ride away.

Seth Shostak is a senior astronomer at the SETI Institute.

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QUOTED

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“ It does not matter how pretty you are, or how smart you are, if your body looks different most people find it hard to be around you.”

— HuffPost commenter Geraldine_ Chittenden on “‘Disabled’ Mannequins Remind Us That Beautiful Doesn’t Mean ‘Perfect’”

“ If I had kids, my kids would hate me.”

— Oprah

in her cover interview with The Hollywood Reporter

“ It is the keys to the kingdom.”

— NSA official Rick Ledgett

on the documents in Edward Snowden’s possession in the hands of an adversary

“ Empathy is the only thing that can save modern civilization from crashing in on itself.”

— HuffPost commenter Shuggah

on “What This Coffee Shop Did After A Thief Stole From The Tip Jar Is Nothing Short Of Amazing”

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“ Religious folk can still practice their religion; they’re just finding it harder and harder to practice their bigotry.”

I do movies where they get a good review like 15 years later.

— HuffPost commenter NWBrunette

on “Colorado’s Masterpiece Cakeshop Must Serve Gay Couples Despite Owner’s Religious Beliefs, Judge Rules”

— Ben Stiller

in an interview with The Huffington Post

“ The Kim dynasty legend is the main capital he has, and he’s squandering it like there’s no tomorrow.”

— North Korea scholar B.R. Myers on why the execution of Jang Song Thaek was a serious misstep by Kim Jong Un

“ 20 years down the road. Are we gonna remember Rob Anders or Nelson Mandela[?]”

— HuffPost commenter ljjblackfly

on “Does Rob Anders Still Think Nelson Mandela Was A Terrorist? It Seems So”

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12.22.13 #80 FEATURES

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D E S P E R A T E LY S E E K I N G S E R E N I T Y

The $27 Billion Industry That Reinvented American Spirituality

BY CAROLYN GREGOIRE

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>> In 1971, Sat Jivan Singh Khalsa moved to New York to open a yoga studio. A lawyer moonlighting as a Kundalini yoga teacher, he set up shop in Boerum Hill, Brooklyn, opening a school to share the teachings of the spiritual leader Yogi Bhajan. At that time, there were only two other yoga studios in the city. ¶ It was a time, as Khalsa told The Huffington Post, when “people confused yoga and yogurt. They were both brand new and nobody knew what either of them were.”

In the more than 40 years since Khalsa opened his school, he has watched as yoga in America has evolved from a niche activity of devout New Agers to part of the cultural mainstream. Dozens of yoga variations can be found within a 1-mile radius of his studio in Manhattan’s Flatiron district, from Equinox power yoga to yogalates to “zen bootcamp.” Across America, students, stressed-out young professionals, CEOs and retirees are among those who have embraced yoga, fueling a $27 billion industry with more than 20 million practitioners — 83 percent

of them women. As Khalsa says, “The love of yoga is out there and the time is right for yoga.”

Perhaps inevitably, yoga’s journey from ancient spiritual practice to big business and premium lifestyle — complete with designer yogawear, mats, towels, luxury retreats and $100-a-day juice cleanses — has some devotees worrying that something has been lost along the way. The growing perception of yoga as a leisure activity catering to a high-end clientele doesn’t help. “The number of practitioners and the amount they spend has increased dramatically in the last four years,” Bill Harper, vice president of Active Interest Media’s Healthy Living Group, told Yoga Journal.

Previous page: Students practice yoga at Jivamukti Yoga, a studio that is embracing the spiritual elements of the practice.

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More than 30 percent of Yoga Journal’s readership has a household income of more than $100,000. As American yoga master Rodney Yee remarked at a 2011 Omega Institute conference, compromising the authenticity of the practice and ignoring its traditions is “ass-backwards.” “It dumbs down the whole art form,” he said.

Others are more optimistic about the evolution of yoga in America, welcoming the conversations and occasional yoga-world infighting that have accompanied its rise.

“If you value yoga and the traditions it comes from, it’s a good problem to have,” Philip Goldberg, a spiritual teacher and author of American Veda, tells The Huffington Post. “Ever since the ideas of yoga came here in book form and then the gurus started to arrive, it’s all been a question of how do you adapt these ancient teachings and practices, modernize them and bring them to a new culture, without distorting or corrupting them, or diluting their effect?

That’s really the key issue here.”

Of course, much of yoga’s appeal is the fact that it can be traced back roughly 5,000 years — in a world of exercise trends and diet fads, it’s a tradition that

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has stood the test of time. Traditionally, Yoga (Sanskrit for “divine union”) has one single aim: stilling the thoughts of the mind in order to experience one’s true self, and ultimately, to achieve

Yoga’s journey from ancient spiritual practice to big business and premium lifestyle... has some devotees worrying that something has been lost along the way. liberation (moksha) from the cycle of birth and death (samsara), or enlightenment.

The Westernized, modernized form of the ancient practice expresses just one component of what was originally considered yoga. The physical practice of postures, or asana, is one of eight traditional limbs of yoga, as outlined in the foundational text of yoga philosophy, The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, thought to be more than 2,000 years old. These limbs present a sort of eightfold path to enlightenment, which includes turning inward, meditation, concentration and mindful breathing. The Sutras make no mention of any specific postures, but the original 15 yoga poses were later outlined in the Hatha Yoga Pra-

Kundalini yoga teacher Sat Jivan Singh Khalsa opened a yoga studio in New York in 1971, at a time when there were only two other studios in the city. He is pictured here at Kundalini Yoga East.

PHOTOGRAPH BY WENDY GEORGE

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dipika, dated to the 15th century CE, making it one of the oldest surviving texts of hatha yoga, the yoga of physical exercises.

The way we practice asana — usually in a crowded, mirrored room — has also changed over the years to suit modern needs.

Traditionally, yoga was a private, personal practice that involved a sacred bond between student and teacher (guru), part of the oral system of imparting knowledge known as guru-shishya paramparya.

“In the West, there are streams where this authentic transmission from living masters to students still exists,” Viniyoga founder Gary Kraftsow said at the Omega Institute Being Yoga conference in 2011. “But there’s a lot of yoga that’s made up, modern stuff, with no understanding of depth and meaning of text.”

Although the guru-student tradition may have gone the way of the loincloth (which was, yes, the original yogawear), Indian knowledge has been steadily spreading in the West since the 19th century (Henry David Thoreau is commonly said to be the first yogi in America). But the physical practice didn’t really catch on until the “new cultural era” of the

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1970s, a time of surging interest in both spirituality and physical fitness, Goldberg explains.

“Following the fitness and exercise boom in America, it was the physical practices [of yoga] that caught on,” he said.

“ How do you adapt these ancient teachings and practices, modernize them and bring them to a new culture, without distorting or corrupting them, or diluting their effect?”

That fitness and exercise boom — propelled by the emergence Richard Simmons and Jane Fonda as fitness stars, and the at-home video workout — led to growing scientific interest in yoga and meditation. More and more American research demonstrated their measurable physical and mental health benefits, legitimizing yoga in the eye of the public.

Today, yoga has come to be seen as something of a panacea for the ailments of modern society — tech overload, disconnection and alienation, insomnia, stress and anxiety. And in many cases, the timeworn technique is the perfect antidote to the modern speed of life that’s created a culture of

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stress and burnout. Yoga has been shown to help fight everything from addiction and lower back pain to diabetes and aging, in addition to boosting overall wellbeing and stress relief.

“Yoga is a traditional way of easing pain and people are flocking to it,” says Khalsa. “We’re on our phone all day, in front of the TV, in front of our computer. We hardly ever get away from it. But you can come to a yoga class and get rid of all this ‘stuff.’”

Still, it’s the tradition that many worry is being lost. Yoga’s proven health benefits don’t mean that every form of adaption of the practice is valuable, says Goldberg. “People are very concerned about this, and for good reason,” he says.

Variations began to proliferate as research on yoga’s health benefits became more robust. At that time, the practice became more widely accepted — and the industry started to cash in.

“The sudden boom of interest led to people wanting to fill the demand by getting more teachers trained, and studios discovering that they can make more money training yoga teachers than giving classes in some cases,” says Gold-

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berg. “The standards can get compromised along the way.”

The new emphasis on asana meant that yoga institutions could train new instructors to teach physical poses without necessarily knowing much about the larger framework of yoga.

Balancing the old and the new is the “number-one challenge” for the Yoga Alliance (YA), the largest nonprofit association representing yoga teachers, schools and studios,

ViraYoga’s Elena Brower leads a yoga class at the the Pipilotti Rist Pour Your Body Out installation at New York’s Museum of Modern Art on Feb. 1, 2009.

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Students practice yoga at Jivamukti.

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according to CEO Richard Karpel. “[When] the Yoga Alliance created standards for teacher training programs back in 1999, one of the primary focuses was on respecting diversity … nobody wanted an organization to tell people how to practice or teach yoga,” Karpel told The Huffington Post. “By [2011], the balance had shifted … where the concern was more about rigor.”

Currently, all YA-certified, 200hour teacher training programs include 20 hours of philosophy, intended to give teachers a deeper understanding of the practice’s origins. “Every studio, every teacher, and every teacher-training program counts,” Karpel says, adding that YA recently implemented a new social credentialing system to gain more feedback on various teacher-training programs.

“Yoga’s very popularity creates the possibility of corruption and distortion, and lowest common denominator teachings,” says Goldberg. “The very fact that if you ask the average person what yoga is, they immediately think of a beautiful woman doing stretches and bends, that tells you how commercialized it has become, and how limited. What yoga has

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meant for thousands of years is not just that.”

Complaints about the commercialization of yoga go as far back as the Beatles’ 1968 trip to India, but as the multibillion-dollar industry

“ The very fact that if you ask the average person what yoga is, they immediately think of a beautiful woman doing stretches and bends, that tells you how commercialized it has become.” has grown, so have efforts to keep the practice rooted in tradition.

In 2010, the American Hindu Foundation launched the “Take Back Yoga” movement to raise awareness about the practice’s Hindu roots. “Our issue is that yoga has thrived, but Hinduism has lost control of the brand,” AHF cofounder Dr. Aseem Shukla told The New York Times.

The movement didn’t gain much traction, but it did spark a conversation about yoga’s modernization and adaptation. Religion aside, some have argued that yoga has become an elitist practice that’s inaccessible to the majority of Americans. As one Bustle writer put it, “inner peace comes with a high price tag.”

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The presentation of the female “yoga body” in the media has also drawn criticism.

“The yoga body is Gwyneth Paltrow’s body — the elongated feminine form,” Karyln Crowley, a women’s studies professor at St. Norbert College, recently told ELLE. “That is still the way yoga is represented in mainstream media.”

And of course, many have noted the irony that a practice originally intended as a vehicle for transcending the ego has become a seemingly vanity-driven pursuit.

Wellness junkies share Instagram shots of kale smoothies and selfies of figure-contorted inversions and balancing postures — there are more than 400,000 photos tagged #yogi on Instagram, enough to warrant a New York Times trend piece.

“Isn’t yoga supposed to be about turning your gaze inward?”

The Times quipped.

But in true yogic fashion, Khalsa and some other more traditional practitioners, like ViraYoga founder Elena Brower, are unperturbed by these changes.

When Brower practices and teaches yoga, she puts a personal issue at the forefront of her mind — something that she’s confused or conflicted about. While she’s practicing, she is simply with that issue, “until all the movements in my body and the way I’m pay-

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“Yoga is the time where we don’t have our phone, we are just with ourselves, our bodies and our movements,” ViraYoga founder Elena Brower says.

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ing attention to my breathing can actually shift the way my brain is holding that thing.”

The veteran yogi and Art of Attention co-author invites thousands of students into her SoHo studio each week to help them get away from the stress of the city.

“Yoga is the time where we don’t have our phone, we are just with ourselves, our bodies and our movements,” Brower said.

“There’s something very magical about that time; something very important and healing about giving yourself that time.”

Her work as a teacher, Brower explains, is to simply give people that opportunity for self-healing.

“The job is one of just holding space for people to do their own healing. That’s all.”

With the fitness era giving way to the explosive growth of interest in wellness and mindfulness practices, more and more Americans are taking health and healing into their own hands, and the role of yoga is evolving yet again, making the gradual move from a purely physical activity to a tool for holistic healing. This time it’s not just focused on the body, but also the mind.

“There’s a level of conscious-

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ness and an evolving way that people are talking and thinking,” Jivamukti Yoga teacher Celina Belizan told The Huffington Post.

“It’s this new language that people are talking in more and more.”

More and more studios, like Jivamutki and Virayoga — popular downtown Manhattan yoga centers — are embracing the spiritual elements of the practice, drawing students into their studios with chanting, meditation and traditional teachings.

The rise of “spiritual but not religious” has supported this return to yoga’s traditional teachings. More than 1 in 3 Americans describe themselves as spiritual but not religious, according to a 2012 Pew Forum survey.

Goldberg explains that this inward-facing spirituality — in which individuals, whether or not they ever set foot on a yoga mat, turn inward to develop a connection with something larger than themselves — is fundamentally a yogic one, and that in fact, we are becoming a “nation of yogis.”

“People are taking charge of their spiritual lives in a very yogic way,” he says. “That’s changing the face of spirituality in the West.”

Carolyn Gregoire is a features editor at The Huffington Post.

brave new world MEET THE LA BILLIONAIRE REINVENTING YOUR HEALTH CARE

B Y

H O W A R D

F I N E M A N

SANTA MONICA, CALIF. —

YOU HAVE BEEN DIAGNOSED WITH LUNG CANCER.

There is a bewildering array of drugs, and combinations of drugs, that may shrink the tumor and prolong your life. Or they could make matters worse and give you terrible side effects.

In the past, this decision was mostly a crude guess, and it was often wrong.

No longer.

Now, your doctor draws blood and tissue, sends the information to a medical Big Data center that, in seconds, sequences your entire genome and, more importantly, maps how the proteins and the cells in your body are translating your specific DNA mutation into tumor cells. Your doctor then accesses a secure global “bank” of cancer DNA and tissue, and develops an individual cocktail for you, administering it with precise nan-

otechnology. You recover at home, monitored by high-information devices connected through transmitters to your doctor and clinic.

This is a glimpse of the future that Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong of Los Angeles has spent a decade imagining — and is now rapidly assembling. The technology and science are all at hand, he says.

It’s “just” a matter of putting them together into a logical and humane whole.

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“We now can create a pathway to fight cancer to a standstill,” Soon-Shiong tells me in an interview here. “Not to cure it, per se, but to make it a survivable feature of the human condition.”

While he is focusing on cancer — his specialty — his basic idea is at once profound and simple: to map the molecular life of all of mankind in the service of better health for each individual. Linking research, treatment and careful monitoring is also the only way to control costs and create accountability in medical care, he says.

The question is whether his approach is practical, or even possible. Soon-Shiong is out to prove that it is — and that it is, in fact, the only way forward.

While the most powerful man in Washington struggles to expand health insurance, the richest man in Los Angeles is methodically constructing a far more fundamental medical effort: a digitally enabled, science-driven, personalized health care system.

With Washington distracted by the insurance issue — and with federal science and tech research hampered by “sequester” budget cuts — privately funded efforts such as Soon-Shiong’s are all the

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more crucial.

President Barack Obama and Dr. Soon-Shiong share certain affinities, including vaulting ambition, a multicultural background, a knack for systematic thinking and an obsession with basketball.

But while Obama grapples with health care from the outside-in — from government and politics — Soon-Shiong works literally from the inside-out, guided by his own knowledge of everything from the

“ We now can create a pathway to fight cancer to a standstill.

Not to cure it, per se, but to make it a survivable feature of the human condition.” molecular structure of cancer to the balance sheets of hospitals and the computing and fiber-optic requirements of Big Data.

In a secure warren of office suites on the west side of Los Angeles, the surgeon-turned-drug-magnateturned-entrepreneur has laid out his health care vision in a series of floor-to-ceiling flowcharts.

The proprietary charts, and the money and medical experience behind them, are the road map that Soon-Shiong has refined over a decade on his way to courtside Lakers seats and a net worth of $7 billion from the drug companies and patents he’s sold.

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Known in-house as “The Rocket Ship,” the mostly privately funded project aims to link supercomputers, super-fast data networks; personal monitoring devices; wired hospitals, clinics and phones; nanotechnology; and genome and molecular “proteomic” sampling into a system that can provide individually tailored wellness care and cancer therapy at affordable prices.

So far, Soon-Shiong tells me, he has poured $800 million into 60 companies, university research

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programs and his own “do tanks” — all under the aegis of a company he calls Nantworks, in honor of the nanotechnology he used to create a breakthrough cancer drug.

The son of Chinese émigrés who originally settled in South Africa, Soon-Shiong isn’t the first corporate buccaneer to have had such a vision, nor is he the only one now.

The founders of Netscape and AOL were early movers, and now everyone from drug companies to telecommunications giants want in on the action. Universities, seeking both pure research triumphs and business for their hospitals, are working hard on pieces

Dr. Patrick SoonShiong, 61, is attempting to develop a digitally enabled, personalized health care system.

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of the system, too.

After all, health care is onesixth of the economy, and the Baby Boom is aging fast.

But, at a youthful 61, SoonShiong may have the right combination of polymathic mind, medical experience, research chops, financial resources, ego and salesmanship to get his comprehensive “Rocket Ship” off the ground before anyone else.

Indeed, parts of the flowcharts have come to life. They include a supercomputing facility in Arizona for rapidly sequencing entire human genomes; a national highspeed network called National LambdaRail; a research “bank” with tissue samples and sequenced genomes of cancer patients; a company that produces low-power medical monitors for easy home use; another that produces sophisticated body monitors; and research affiliations with hospitals, clinics and cancer-care centers nationwide. He also has deals with AT&T, Verizon and Vodafone.

Last month, Soon-Shiong struck a deal with government officials in London to provide data processing services to the U.K.’s DNA data bank.

“In the past, the scientific,

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technological and digital pieces did not in exist to assemble the whole,” Soon-Shiong says. “Now they do. I like to look for patterns, in science and life. It’s what I do.”

Only an interconnected, instantaneous, molecule-to-manufacturer managed care system can tap science and save money, he insists.

Studying Soon-Shiong’s flowcharts recently, a potential tech vendor marveled at what, at first glance, seemed like the work of a

The richest man in Los Angeles is methodically constructing a far more fundamental medical effort: a digitally enabled, science-driven, personalized health care system.

NASA programmer and a physics professor who stayed up too late one night.

“Looks like you’re trying to boil the ocean here,” the vendor said, using a dismissive engineering phrase for an answer too large for the problem.

“Let me correct you,” SoonShiong replied in his stately South African accent. “I am boiling the ocean.”

If anyone can boil the ocean, it might be Soon-Shiong, says Dr. Eric Topol, author of The Creative Destruction of Medicine and the director of the Scripps Translational Science Institute in La Jol-

ANDREW D. BERNSTEIN/NBAE VIA GETTY IMAGES

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la, Calif.

“His sense of hypomania as he pursues this can be overwhelming,” says Topol, who has no ties to any of Soon-Shiong’s Nantworks projects. “But he has had a career of purposeful activity so far, to be sure. I am very supportive of the concept he is pursuing. I hope he can do it, and maybe he is the kind of guy who can do it.”

Soon-Shiong all of his life has

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been taking on seemingly impossible tasks, finding bigger answers for lesser questions, thinking far outside of the box.

No one has questioned his intellect or drive. His family fled China during the war with Japan in the late 1930s. His father, Chan Soon-Shiong, became a grocer and respected dispenser of Chinese herbal remedies. Both parents were Hakka, an ethnic group admired in China for brains and ambition, but seen as outsiders who stressed kinship and mutual help

Soon-Shiong, who is a big LA Lakers fan, is seen at a game with Will.I.Am in 2011.

KEVORK DJANSEZIAN/GETTY IMAGES

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for their own.

From the start, Soon-Shiong refused to be trapped by circumstances or tradition. Despite living in the twilight zone of South Africa’s apartheid — neither “white” nor “colored” — he studied medicine at the country’s premier university and managed to get an internship (for half pay) at the top “white” hospital. His chosen specialty was the pancreas and, later, pancreatic cancer. Why? “The pancreas is by far the most complex organ in the body,” he says.

It didn’t take Soon-Shiong long to start thinking beyond South Africa. He got a research grant from the Royal College of Surgeons in London, and moved with his young wife, Michele Chan Soon-Shiong, to Vancouver, to pursue graduate research. Three years later, UCLA invited him to join the school’s faculty. He performed the first successful pancreatic transplant on the West Coast.

That’s a career for some doctors. But at 30, Soon-Shiong was just getting started. He had his father’s interest in medical chemistry and his own eye for the main chance. He saw it in pharmaceuticals. He used Asian connections to build a business manufacturing

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generic drugs.

But that was a means to another end: inventing new drugs. While working on a NASA grant to study the behavior of human cells in weightless space, he became fascinated by the role of protein molecules in cells. If healthy cells grow by ingesting protein, why not use albumin protein to deliver cancerkilling drugs to tumor cells?

The ultimate result was Abraxane. It encases a well-known tumor-fighting drug (paclitaxel) in injectable nano-packets of protein. Soon-Shiong developed a complex system for freezing the material and spraying it through tiny nozzles to manufacture the

Magic Johnson greets SoonShiong at at an Urban Economic Forum cohosted by the White House Business Council and the U.S. Small Business Administration in March 2012. Among the topics discussed were future entrepreneurs.

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particles. The idea was to target the drug and avoid the side effects of paclitaxel.

There were medical skeptics, and others who questioned SoonShiong’s business practices as he built his pharmaceutical empire.

He once settled a corporate case out of court with his own brother.

His pride and salesmanship occasionally clash with scientific caution. The FDA once ordered him to tone down promotional claims about his nanotechnology standards. Early in his career, he touted a diabetes treatment based on what turned out to be only a temporary success with a single patient.

But the FDA first approved the Abraxane technique in 2005. Abraxane is now approved in the U.S. for breast, lung and pancreatic cancer treatment. Regulators in Europe recently gave Abraxane tentative approval for its first use there, for pancreatic cancer.

Soon-Shiong eventually sold both his generic drug company and the company he built around Abraxane. He took stock in Celgene, the company that that acquired Abraxane. Celgene’s stock price has soared 188 percent since the acquisition was announced in June 2010.

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He is the richest man in LA. His wife retired from her career as an actress to rear their two children.

One is in college and the other is heading there.

So now what? He has signed the “Buffett Pledge,” promising to give at least half his fortune to charitable causes. Some people might retire, or turn entirely to philanthropic work. Not Soon-Shiong.

Having plunged as far as possible into the micro-world of cell

“ I have an obligation to use what I know to try to bring real, usable medical science to every doctor and bedside and patient.” and cancer biochemistry — down to peptides and organelles — Soon-Shiong has turned the lens around to look at humankind as a whole, as though we are a gigantic cellular system.

“I’ve been thinking about this nearly a decade,” he says.

He began acquiring companies and patents, some seemingly far afield from medicine. For example, Soon-Shiong owns numerous patents in the hot field of machine vision. How he can integrate that into his health care pursuits isn’t clear.

But give him time.

“I probably could make more money — a lot more money — from that business, but I want to

ANDREW D. BERNSTEIN/NBAE VIA GETTY IMAGES

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stay focused on medical care,” he tells me.

“I have an obligation to use what I know to try to bring real, usable medical science to every doctor and bedside and patient,” he says.

In a sense, he is returning to his ethnic communitarian roots as Hakka Chinese. Only now, the community is the entire human race

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and all of the DNA, proteomic and cellular information we possess.

“We need to and must protect privacy,” Soon-Shiong says. “But I think that people will be willing and even eager to share medical information about themselves for the greater good of mankind.”

Until recently, few outside of the health care industry or LA knew about Soon-Shiong. But now, he is carefully stepping into the media limelight to promote his ideas, his company and his values.

Soon-Shiong speaks with former record executive and fellow Lakers courtside seat holder Joe Smith.

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Proud of his achievements but restless for more, Soon-Shiong has decided that visibility means business and more attention for his holistic approach to medical care. A dedicated sports fan, he bid on, but failed to win, the Dodgers. He bid on, but failed to win, rights to a new National Football League team in LA. But he did manage to buy Magic Johnson’s interest in the NBA’s Lakers.

When the Lakers are at home, you often can see Soon-Shiong (usually with his wife) in his courtside seat in the Staples Center.

He watches with a player’s appreciation of the game, having started shooting on netless hoops back in South Africa when he was 10. When he arrived in LA in 1980, he was able to play pickup games at UCLA’s Pauley Pavilion, and became a rabid Lakers’ fan. The Lakers were then reemerging with a fast-paced, flowing but disciplined style of play they called “Showtime.”

Soon-Shiong fell in love with “Showtime.” Lakers games, he says, are “a sacred space” for him — the only time he isn’t thinking of his work.

But of course there is a science and a pattern involved even in being a fan. It has to do with where

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he sits.

Given his net worth, many years as a fan and close ties to the team, he could have any seat, with the possible exception of Jack Nicholson’s.

Soon-Shiong chose seats at the end of the court, halfway between the basket and the corner. It’s the end of the court on which, as the home team, the Lakers play the last quarter. So Soon-Shiong can

“ In the past, the scientific, technological and digital pieces did not in exist to assemble the whole. Now they do.” watch the action under the basket and study fast breaks as they come toward him.

There are other angles. The seats are close to the Lakers bench, which he can observe and eavesdrop — or visit during breaks. He is visible in the arena — political and business leaders know where to find him — but isn’t center court, with the Hollywood crowd. He is near the tunnel through which the Lakers enter and leave.

“This is the perfect place to sit,” he explains at a recent game. “I see everything.”

Howard Fineman is the editorial director of The Huffington Post.

Exit

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BEFORE

AFTER SMOOTHED OUT!

WHITENED!

BIANCA BOSKER

RUBBER STAMPED!

Welcome to the Era of Getting ‘Digital Work Done’

BY BIANCA BOSKER

Exit FEW WEEKS AGO, a friend posted a “#carselfie” to Instagram. It was a beautiful photo — she peered up at the camera from under a beanie and looked positively radiant in the passenger seat of her car — and I duly “liked” it. “#Toogorgeous,” another friend wrote in a comment under the photo.

She’s a stunning lady. But the photo, I learned later, was in fact “#toogorgeous” to be true: She’d had some digital work done.

My friend, like millions of others online, had spruced up her selfie with Perfect365, a free app that lets people instantly smooth skin, excise zits, highlight eyes and even resize noses before sending their image out on the Internet.

Perfect365 belongs to a growing breed of selfie-help apps, like FaceTune, ModiFace, Pixtr and Visage Lab, that let anyone with fingers and a smartphone transform basic snapshots into flawless Annie Leibovitz portraits (Buzzfeed’s John Herrman dubs this “selfie surgery”). Eyelashes can be added, teeth whitened, smiles stretched, pounds shed, clocks reversed, genes fought. And artfully, too: unlike the previous generation of portrait-

TECH

BIANCA BOSKER

A

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FaceTune’s “Patch” tool on HuffPost Live General Manager Daniel Koh.

editing apps, which left figures with the two-dimensional masks of anime characters, these apps, like the best plastic surgeon, leave few obvious marks. I, for one, would never have guessed the #carselfie had a little help.

While many claim social media has provided a more authentic and unvarnished view into people’s lives, the popularity of these selfiehelp apps suggests precisely the opposite. We’ve always cherrypicked what we share online, but more than ever, what you see isn’t

Exit what you get. Even as people use Snapchat to share silly photos that, crucially, disappear after a few seconds, those same social media users are delighting in new ways to edit their lives and present an evermore perfected, artificial image of their world. We’re hungry for ways to exert more control over our images, not less. And who’s to blame us? The rise of selfie-help represents a new way for people to cope with the relentless judgment of the web and the pressure to disclose more online. It also hints at the start of an airbrushing arms race that could make impossibly attractive photos the norm.

“There’s definitely more pressure to have a better version of yourself or put your best foot forward,” said Caroline Tien-Spalding, director of consumer marketing at ArcSoft, Perfect365’s parent company. “You don’t know how long that photo is going to live or how long the impression that you’re putting out there will last.”

While selfies have lost their stigma, these selfie-help apps are still taboo. Just 50,000 Instagram photos have been tagged #Perfect365 — mostly people playing with the app’s makeup filters for dramatic effect — but the app has

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been downloaded 17 million times since its launch two years ago.

People’s reluctance to acknowledge the handiwork of their digital dermatologists hasn’t much hampered the success of this type of app: ModiFace’s suite of about 20 editing apps have been installed nearly 27 million times, and FaceTune, since its debut this past March, has topped Apple’s rankings as the most popular paid app in 69 countries, including the U.S. These selfie-enhancers skew toward teens and 20-somethings,

Perfect365, a free app that lets people instantly smooth skin, excise zits, highlight eyes and even resize noses before sending their image out on the Internet.” who are highly active on social media, and are also overwhelmingly female. Seventy percent of the users of FaceTune, which its creators, perhaps naively, thought was “gender neutral,” are female. And two-thirds of Perfect365’s users are under 24 years old.

The pictures end up on dating profiles, Instagram, Facebook or even Christmas cards. (The chief executive of ModiFace said there’s always a bump in downloads

ALEXIS KLEINMAN

Exit around the holidays.) An 18-yearold high-school student in New York, who declined to be named to protect her privacy and her friends’, said that nine out of ten female friends quietly edit their Facebook profile photos before they’re uploaded, sometimes making an arm look skinnier or blurring a double chin, other times just tweaking the lighting to make it more flattering.

“I’ve had phone calls where girls will ask me to go on iChat and send me four different versions of the same picture — with different lighting, with different skin,” she said. Among her peers, iPhoto’s suite of tools is still the most popular, she said.

Much as in real life, the only thing worse than looking zitty, wrinkled and tired is looking like you’ve sought help. If you get caught editing a photo, “it’s very embarrassing,” the 18-year-old said. “People are hyperaware of not wanting to seem fake in their pictures. As much as they edit them, it has to come off as natural.”

Though Perfect365 offers a range of dramatic makeup styles, with names like “Enchant,” or “Ocean,” the app’s most natural-looking filter, which gently evens skin tones, is the most popular. (According to ArcSoft, 80 percent of people either use the “Natural” filter or custom settings.) The co-creator of Face-

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Perfect365 in action on HuffPost Tech Associate Editor Alexis Kleinman, before (left) and after (bottom).

With this app, users must first align their face with “KeyPoints,” then choose the effects they wish to apply, from adding false eyelashes and sweeping on blush to evening-out skintones and whitening teeth.

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Tune, Nir Pochter, agreed that most of their users opt for only minor improvements, like whiter teeth or fewer pimples, that don’t reveal any futzing with the photo.

“My impression from our users is that they want to look in all their photos how they know they can look, because they saw it in their best photos,” he said.

Jacqui Adkins, a 29-year-old FaceTune fan from South Amherst, Ohio, recently used the app to spruce up a shot of herself and her 7-year-old son. She touched up her skin, covered up a scratch on her son’s chin and then made the picture her Facebook profile photo. The appeal, she said, was that she could subtly fix temporary flaws caused by a breakout or poor lighting.

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We live in a world where everything you see on TV or in a magazine is edited to make a person look great. I want to look good too.”

Another FaceTune aficionado, Jennifer Brewer, 32, said she sees the apps as a necessary response to flawless Photoshopped fashion spreads. She doesn’t have great skin, she conceded, and the app lets her “even the playing field.”

“We live in a world where everything you see on TV or in a magazine is edited to make a person look great,” Brewer wrote in an email. “I want to look good too.”

So may everyone else. Even with a small fraction of Facebook and Instagram’s users currently morphing their photos, it’s clear these apps have the potential to make touching

The HuffPost Tech team, “perfected” with Pixtr.

Exit up de rigueur, so that every casual snapshot has the polish of a Vogue photo shoot. Sebastian Thrun, the co-founder of Google X, told me in an interview last year that he imagined technology like Google Glass, with its ever-present camera, could push us to share photos that are “uglier” and “more personal.” But, a contradictory trend is in motion: our pictures are getting prettier.

These apps are attractive for the simple reason that they work. To be fair, I fall precisely in these apps’ prime demographics — 20-something, female, active online. Yet I’ve found myself drawn to them much more quickly than I’d have liked, in large part because my pictures really do look better. And every other photo looks worse.

After browsing the FaceTunetweaked portraits on Instagram, and editing a few of my own, I’m horrified to see the photos I’ve shared on Facebook in the past. I have blotchy skin in one picture, and I’m too pale in another. Red eyes! Too-yellow teeth! The selfieenhancers set a new baseline for photo perfection, and unlike Instagram filters, the face fixing happens covertly, without any acknowledgment of the digital intervention.

It seems inevitable we’ll face

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even more fictions from each other online. But then the high-schooler from New York tells me a story about her friends that suggests there may be a strange authenticity to our photo fakery as well. She recounts how one of her friends asked her if another girl had tried to make herself look skinnier by blurring her waist in a bikini photo she’d

People are hyperaware of not wanting to seem fake in their pictures. As much as they edit them, it has to come off as natural.” uploaded to Facebook. (Indeed, the girl had.)

“I cringed when I heard that story today,” the 18-year-old told me.

“Her insecurities are exposed.”

In the images where the selfieenhancement isn’t done so carefully, and the cheek is just a tad off or smile a bit over-stretched, you learn more about a person than an unaltered photo ever could have revealed, and more than they’d ever want to admit on social media: In our effort to fix everything, we reveal what isn’t going right.

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Finding Peace at Frank Lloyd Wright’s Palmer House

COURTESY OF THE PALMER HOUSE

BY KATE ABBEY-LAMBERTZ

The great room at the Palmer House.

Exit UST A SHORT WALK from the University of Michigan’s buildings and bars teeming with college students lies a hidden house, tucked into woodlands, where peace and privacy prevail.

Those who catch a glimpse of it in Ann Arbor, Mich., might recognize the style. Famed architect Frank Lloyd Wright designed the brick and cyprus home for William and Mary Palmer. Construction started in 1951, when Wright was in his 80s.

At the Palmer House, walking paths wind through the two acres of greenery, and a herd of deer often wanders up to the patio of the home, which now functions as a peaceful hotel for one guest or family at a time.

The home’s relationship to its surroundings is no accident.

Though prolific and highly successful, Wright focused on nature and tranquility in his work. Ahead of his time, he created and practiced organic architecture, using principles from nature to guide his designs and use of materials.

He produced environments where home and setting were one, like the Palmer House or Fallingwater in Pennsylvania.

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AP PHOTO/COURTESY FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT FOUNDATION, JOHN ENGSTEAD

J

Study nature, love nature, stay close to nature.

It will never fail you.”

“I go to nature every day for inspiration in the day’s work,” the architect said. “Study nature, love nature, stay close to nature. It will never fail you.”

It’s the details that make Wright’s buildings subtle masterpieces. Using the equilateral triangle as a recurring design element, there’s barely a right angle in the entire Palmer House, from the hexagon beds (six triangles) to the shower. On the outside, a pattern of polygonal cutouts resemble abstract birds; when the swaying

Construction began on Frank Lloyd Wright’s Palmer House in 1951, when he was in his 80s.

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COURTESY OF THE PALMER HOUSE

Above: A pattern of polygonal cutouts on the Palmer House’s exterior resemble abstract birds. When trees move in the wind, the shadows appear to show birds in flight. Below: Wright used the equilateral triangle as a recurring element throughout the house.

Exit trees move in the wind, the shadows appear to show birds in flight.

Wright’s homes reflect his regard for simplicity — they have open plans, a hallmark of his style, and most have large windows to let in natural light.

At the Palmer House, its current owner Jeffrey Schox told Concentrate Media, the angled rooms prevent sound from traveling, giving a quiet and serene feel.

It has small, solitary bedrooms, and upon entering the great room, “you’re drawn out through the great room and into nature outside,” Schox said.

“Simplicity and repose are the qualities that measure the true value of any work of art,” Wright said.

The Palmer House urges visitors to take in its hidden features and surroundings, and its owners do, too. Gary Cox, caretaker of the home and owner Schox’s father, said they require minimum stays of two nights so guests “spend some serious time in the house, see it in the morning light and the evening light.”

“The more time you spend in the house, the more riveting it becomes,” Cox said.

Schox fell in love with the Palmer House when he was an en-

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gineering student at U of M. He would go on runs through the arboretum, and there he caught sight of the house’s unusual cantilevered roof. He spent the next two years visiting other Wright homes.

After eventually becoming a patent attorney, Schox and his wife Kate moved to San Francisco, but he often returned to Michi-

That was the first of our ‘holy shit’ moments.

We had just acquired a true American icon.” gan to visit family and meet with clients. When the Palmer House went up for sale in the midst of the housing downturn, his mother Sue sent Jeffrey an email with the listing to “his” house. At Christmas, they sat down as a family to consider the option.

“It was a back of a napkin kind of thing, and we talked about it for an hour or so,” said Gary Cox. They wrote a letter to the son of the original owners. Mary Palmer passed away in 2011 after living in the home for more than 50 years and then stayed in an assisted living home in the last years of her

ARCHIVE PHOTOS/GETTY IMAGES

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life; Frank Palmer died in 2000.

Schox sent an offer and their vision for the home’s future, a place where visitors could explore its beauty in peace. The offer was accepted without a counter.

“That was the first of our ‘holy shit’ moments,” Gary Cox said.

“We had just acquired a true American icon.”

Jeffrey didn’t move back to Michigan; instead, Gary and Sue act as caretakers. The home is occupied about half the time, with Cox staying there when he comes into town.

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Groups can rent it out for meetings.

And the home has become part of the family’s traditions; they gather there each Christmas.

When the family first started renting it out in 2009, they were worried about letting strangers loose in a house with historical significance and original furniture pieces. But they’d be happy to have nearly all of their Wrightloving visitors return.

“We want you to live in it,” Gary Cox said. “It’s a home, not a museum. Once we explain the significant to them, they get it.”

We think Wright would approve.

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“You listen to Fallingwater the way you listen to the quiet of the country.”

— Frank Lloyd Wright, on the house he designed in Pennsylvania

TASTE TEST

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Ginning Up a Spot-On Martini

BY JOE SATRAN

’M NOT A BIG FAN of martinis. They often strike me as too astringent and bracing, with too much bitterness and too little acidity. And I suspect that I’m not alone. Despite their central place in the cocktail pantheon, I rarely see people drinking them in bars, and I rarely encounter someone who cites it as their default drink.

Still, they’re one of the oldest

I

THE GINS

cocktails around, a holiday favorite, and usually one of the first names out of people’s mouths when they are asked to name a mixed drink. So when we were brainstorming cocktails to put through the Taste Test ringer, they were near the top of our list.

We assembled four leading brands of vermouth — two expensive ones and two cheap ones — to pair with the nine types of gin we

From left to right, with prices per bottle: New Amsterdam ($14 for 750 mL), Hendrick’s ($41 for 1 L), Gordon’s ($24 for 1.75 L), Plymouth ($36 for 1 L), Brooklyn ($42 for 750 mL), Georgi ($10 for 750 mL), Tanqueray ($30 for 1 L), Bombay Sapphire ($35 for 1 L), Beefeater ($28 for 1 L)

PHOTOGRAPHS BY DAMON DAHLEN

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TASTE TEST

THE VERMOUTHS From left to right, with prices per bottle: Noilly Prat ($14 for 1 L), Vya ($20 for 750 mL), Dolin ($14 for 750 mL), Martini ($10 for 1 L)

had on hand. Then we mixed up about 40 different martinis and served them to our brave staffers to see what they thought.

Almost all the martinis used a relatively (but not crazily) dry recipe of six parts gin to one part vermouth. (We experimented a bit with higher levels of vermouth,

but we didn’t include those in the central tasting.) We did not use any garnishes, so if you always include olives or lemon in your martinis, be aware that results may vary. And with all due respect to James Bond, we stirred the drinks rather than shaking them, to preserve their clarity.

A NOTE ON RATIOS Most of the martinis we tasted were mixed with a relatively dry ratio of six parts gin to one part vermouth, because that’s how most people tend to like their martinis. However, mixologists and vermouth lovers have been pushing much wetter mixes for the past few years. So near the end of our experiment, we played around a bit with the proportions, trying out martinis made with a 3:1, 2:1 and even 1:1 ratio of gin to vermouth. It made a huge difference in the taste of the drink. Martinis with more vermouth were much sweeter than our baseline. Our tasters were divided on their judgments of these wetter martinis though. Novice martini drinkers generally liked them more than the dryer samples, while veterans liked them less. That said, most agreed that more vermouth did a good job masking the harsh off-flavors of cheap gin. So if you’re whipping up a batch of martinis using Georgi gin, or for a group of avowed martini haters, try using a bit more vermouth than you normally would and see how it goes.

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TAP FOR THE TASTERS’ VERDICTS

BOMBAY SAPPHIRE + VYA

TANQUERAY + DOLIN

HENDRICK’S + NOILLY

NEW AMSTERDAM + DOLIN

BEEFEATER + VYA

NEW AMSTERDAM + MARTINI

GEORGI + VYA

BROOKLYN + VYA

GORDON’S + MARTINI

BOMBAY SAPPHIRE + NOILLY PRAT

PLYMOUTH + MARTINI

GEORGI + NOILLY PRAT

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MUSIC

HUFFINGTON 12.22.13

Dog Ears: Let It Snow

In which we spotlight music from a diversity of genres and decades, lending an insider’s ear to what deserves to be heard.

BY THE EVERLASTING PHIL RAMONE AND DANIELLE EVIN

DRY THE RIVER Dry The River is the harmonically smoldering folk-rock quintette captained

by Norwegian-born Brit anthropology/ medical major Peter Liddle (vocals, guitar). The lineup comprises Matthew Taylor (vocals, guitars) Scott Miller (bass, vocals, glockenspiel), Jon Warren (drums) and Will Harvey (violin, viola, keys, mandolin). The East London ensemble was founded in the late aughts amid Southampton’s burgeoning gritty music scene. Dry The River crossed the pond to record their debut full-length with producer Peter Katis (The National, Interpol and Jónsi).

Magic moments include Lollapalooza, the iTunes Festival and the Glastonbury Festival. Discover these gentlemen with “Family,” from their 2012 debut Shallow Bed. BUY: iTunes GENRE: Alternative ARTIST: Dry The River SONG: Family ALBUM: Shallow Bed

MICHAEL KIWANUKA BLACK REBEL MOTORCYCLE CLUB North London folk/soul artist Michael Kiwanuka was born in the late ’80s, the son of Ugandan survivors of Idi Amin’s bloodthirsty regime. His boyhood was flooded with the classic influences of Dylan, Redding, Withers, Hendrix, and Nirvana. After arts studies at the University of Westminster, Kiwanuka made his way as a session player, and soon after landed in the studio with producer Paul Butler (The Bees) for his freshman full-length. Collaborations/ shared stages include Adele, Chipmunk, Bashy, Labrinth (Tinie Tempah) and James Gadson. This youngblood’s oldsoul sound is earnest in its every note and breath. Revisit the fully inspired title track “Home Again,” from Michael Kiwanuka’s 2012 Home Again, a divine collection.

BUY: iTunes GENRE: Singer/Songwriter ARTIST: Michael Kiwanuka SONG: Home Again ALBUM: Home Again

California rock trio Black Rebel Motorcycle Club is comprised of frontman/ bassist Robert Levon Been, guitarist Peter Hayes and drummer Leah Shapiro. In 1999, BRMC’s self-released debut attracted a rock royal fan base and a flurried bidding war for their contractual affections. BRMC has since amassed more than a half-dozen long-players to acquire. The ensemble’s tracks have graced TV’s Sons of Anarchy, Hell on Wheels, Bates Motel, and films such as The Twilight Saga: New Moon and End of Watch. Shared stages include The Call, The Dandy Warhols, Henry Rollins and The Duke Spirit. With a trove of rock treasures to collect, get “Weight of the World,” from their 2005 release Howl. Play it loud!

BUY: iTunes GENRE: Rock ARTIST: Black Rebel Motorcycle Club SONG: Weight of the World ALBUM: Howl

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MUSIC

EDDY ARNOLD

NINA SIMONE

Country crooner Eddy Arnold was born in Henderson, Tenn., in 1918, son of a sharecropper. At the age of 7, Eddy picked up the guitar, and by his teens, “the Tennessee Plowboy” was a regular on the local club circuit and radio. In 1943, Arnold became a member of the Grand Ole Opry. The next year, championed by RCA executive Steve Sholes, Arnold released his first vinyl, produced

by Chet Atkins. Collaborations include Colonel Tom Parker, LeAnn Rimes and Jim Reeves. With 85 million records sold, this Country Music Hall of Famer’s credits comprise countless chart-toppers, The Eddy Arnold Show, and a host of films. Accolades include the Country Music Association’s first Entertainer of the Year award, the National Medal of Arts, and induction into the Grammy Hall of Fame. This country royal passed away in 2008, just shy of his 90th birthday. With seven decades of classics to collect, remember Eddy Arnold with his 1949 title “C-H-R-I-S-T-M-AS,” from A Golden Oldies Christmas.

Singer, pianist, arranger, composer and activist Nina Simone was born Eunice Kathleen Waymon in February 1933 in Tyron, N.C. Simone, often referred to as the High Priestess of Soul, grew up the daughter of a preacher. She was one of eight children raised in a strict Methodist home. A child prodigy, she started playing the piano at age 4, eventually going on to study at The Juilliard School of Music. By Simone’s mid-20s, her starlit trajectory was set with Porgy & Bess, ascending the songbird into the empyrean with decades of classics. Accolades include more than a dozen Grammy nominations and a place in the Grammy Hall of Fame Award. Simone held two honorary doctorate degrees in music and humanities. She passed away in France in 2003. “What a Blessing in Jesus,” from Nina Simone–Gospel, captures that golden voice.

BUY: iTunes GENRE: Holiday ARTIST: Eddy Arnold SONG: C-H-R-I-S-T-M-A-S ALBUM: A Golden Oldies Christmas

BUY: iTunes GENRE: Gospel/Jazz ARTIST: Nina Simone SONG: What a Blessing in Jesus ALBUM: Nina Simone–Gospel

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ROBERT RANDOLPH & THE FAMILY BAND Pedal steel virtuoso Robert Randolph was born in late-’70s New Jersey, son of a minister. Amidst a teenhood on the precipice of rebellion, Robert found his musical calling at Philadelphia’s House of God Church. On the verge of the aughts, Randolph made his mark in venues across NYC, sharing bills with the likes of Victor Wooten, Soulive and Medeski Martin & Wood. Among the Family Band members are Danyel Morgan (bass), Marcus Randolph (drums), and Lenesha Randolph (vocals). Collaborations/shared stages include Eric Clapton, Ben Harper, Leon Russell, the Roots, the Dave Matthews Band and John Mayer. Accolades include the 2005 W.C. Handy Blues Award for Best New Artist Debut and the 2002 Jammy Award for New Groove of the Year. Randolph’s talent has given way to a collective handful-plus of projects to date. Get “Salvation,” from the 2010 We Walk This Road (Deluxe Version), produced by T Bone Burnett.

BUY: iTunes GENRE: Rock ARTIST: Robert Randolph & The Family Band SONG: Salvation ALBUM: We Walk This Road (Deluxe Version)

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MANDEL NGAN/AFP/GETTYIMAGES (BUSH); BRENT LEWIN/BLOOMBERG VIA GETTY IMAGES (COFFEE); NASA IMAGE COURTESY JEFF SCHMALTZ, LANCE MODIS RAPID RESPONSE. (CHINA)

The Government Spends a Crazy Amount on Official Portraits

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Two Words: Carbonated Coffee

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‘GAY AWAY’: A PILL FOR ALL YOUR GAY CURE NEEDS

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China’s Smog Problem Is So Bad Now You Can See It From Space

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Woman Flips Neighbor the Bird With Christmas Lights

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RACHAEL GARCIA/ETSY (MOUSE CHESS SET); AP PHOTO/REALLY BIG COLORING BOOKS INC. (CRUZ COLORING BOOK); JUSTIN SULLIVAN/GETTY IMAGES; CHIP SOMODEVILLA/GETTY IMAGES (GUN CONTROL LAWS); PAUL DRINKWATER/NBC/NBCU PHOTO BANK (KELLY)

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Yes, This Is a Taxidermied Mouse Chess Set

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A Ted Cruz Coloring Book Now Exists

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‘NETFLIX ADULTERY’ PLAGUES 51% OF ALL RELATIONSHIPS

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Congress Has Passed No Gun Control Laws Since Newtown

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Megyn Kelly Really Wants Kids to Know Santa and Jesus Are ‘Just White’

Editor-in-Chief:

Arianna Huffington Editor: John Montorio Managing Editor: Gazelle Emami Senior Editor: Adam J. Rose Editor-at-Large: Katy Hall Senior Politics Editor: Sasha Belenky Senior Food Editor: Kristen Aiken Senior Voices Editor: Stuart Whatley Pointers Editor: Robyn Baitcher Viral Editor: Dean Praetorius Creative Director: Josh Klenert Design Director: Andrea Nasca Photography Director: Anna Dickson Associate Photo Editor: Wendy George Senior Designer: Martin Gee Infographics Art Director: Troy Dunham Production Director: Peter Niceberg AOL MagCore Head of UX and Design: Jeremy LaCroix Product Manager: Gabriel Giordani Architect: Scott Tury Developers: Mike Levine, Sudheer Agrawal QA: Joyce Wang, Amy Golliver Sales: Mandar Shinde AOL, Inc. Chairman & CEO:

Tim Armstrong

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