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E D I T I O N 8 N O . 4

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FEATURES

THE FLOWER EFFECT ON MEN'S DATING

p.18 p.30 GENTRIFICATION B R I N G

p.44 H U M A N S Y E A R

2 1 6 7

I T

Flora p.58 FOUND

O N T H E T A B L E

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THE

FLOWER

EFFECT

ON MEN'S DATING Text by Gary W. Lewandowski Jr. Photos by Al Martin

W

hether it is red roses for Valentine’s Day or a bouquet of fresh-cut flowers as a bride walks down the aisle, flowers are inextricably linked with relationships. But can the mere presence of flowers influence relationships, such as affecting dating prospects?

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Apparently they can, if we are to believe the results of experiments done by Nicolas Guéguen at the University of Southern Brittany.

In the first experiment, Guéguen randomly assigned female participants to watch a video of a male discussing food while participants were either sitting in a room decorated with three vases full of flowers (roses, marigolds, and daisies), or sitting in a room decorated with empty vases.

Women who sat in the room with flowers rated the male in the video as sexier and more attractive – and they were more willing to date him.

Next he assessed whether flowers would have the same effect when a flesh-andblood male was involved. So he set up an experiment involving 100 female undergraduate and a man judged to be attractive. Each of these young women were led in turn to a room where the man was waiting. The researcher welcomed them both as part of the study, although – unknown to the young women, the man was part of the experiment. He then led them to separate rooms, where the woman watched the food video, all the time thinking the man was doing the same thing.

Once the young woman had watched the video, she was collected by the researcher

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and led to the man’s room where they were told to discuss the video. After allowing them to talk alone for a few minutes, the researcher entered the room and asked them to wait for a few minutes while he printed off some questionnaires which they would both be asked to complete. While he was away, the man, who used a script in order to have a similar interaction with each participant, engaging the young woman in small talk, complimenting them (“You seem very nice…”) and asking for their phone number.

Some 80% of women who had watched the video in a room with flowers gave out their phone number compared to 50% of women who had not sat in a room with flowers.

Guéguen didn’t stop there. He wanted to be sure that flowers really have a large impact on the outcome. So he ran another experiment, where an attractive male asked 600 young women, all of whom were walking alone in a shopping mall, for their phone number. However, the male didn’t just make his requests at any old place in the mall – he specifically asked for phone numbers either in front of a flower store, a cake store, or a women’s shoe store.

As predicted, and consistent with the previous studies, the male was more

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successful in getting a woman’s phone number when he asked her for it in front of a flower shop. Although he was rejected the majority of the time, he got lucky on 24% of occasions when he asked for a phone number in front of a flower shop, compared to a 15.5% success rate near the cake store and an 11.5% success rate near the shoe store.

So it seems flowers can influence women’s perceptions of a male’s attractiveness and dateability whether in a lab or in a shopping mall.

In each case, it is possible that flowers’ close association with romance is responsible for the effect, or, it may be that flowers put people in a good mood that then makes them more generous in their ratings of others and their subsequent behaviour.

“ Don’t forget the flowers” is always a good tip for men hoping to find new partners – and these experiments prove that they can be unusually effective. a TMM T H E M I L L M AG A Z I N E

Dr. Gary W. Lewandowski Jr. is the co-founder/co-editor of scienceofrelationships.com. As a Professor and Department Chair at Monmouth University, Dr. Lewandowski has published over 25 research articles. Dr. Lewandowski’s research focuses on the self and relationships, which includes attraction, pick-up lines, relationship maintenance, infidelity, and break-up. This article was originally published on The Conversation.

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GENTRIFICATION BRING IT Te x t b y Jo n a t h a n Wy n n a n d A n d r e w D e e n e r

A

group of long-time, mostly Latino residents of Los Angeles’s Boyle Heights neighborhood staged protests outside a trendy new coffee shop called Weird Wave Coffee, holding signs that read “Amerikkkano” and “WHITE COFFEE.” Across the country in Brooklyn’s rapidly gentrifying Crown Heights neighborhood, locals lashed out over a new restaurant with decor that included fake bullet holes and a menu that offered a drink called “40 ounce rosé” (malt liquor and wine) served in a paper bag.

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Over the past few decades, gentrification debates return of the middle class to London’s center have migrated from the pages of academic city. journals into the streets and the mainstream press.

In the U.S., academics and urban planners first started extensively talking about and debating gentrification in the 1970s.

T

he word, in many ways, is tinged with negativity. And for good reason. In tight real estate markets, it can lead to development that privileges profits over community and shuts people out of neighborhoods they have lived in for decades.

But what about cities struggling to overcome the threat of bankruptcy like Hartford?

How does gentrification look in New South cities like Austin and Nashville, where midcentury urban planning destroyed residential communities and left downtowns largely unoccupied?

Between 1950 and 1970, urban manufacturing went overseas and white middle-class citydwellers moved to the suburbs.

Concerns over blighted urban centers grew.

Sociologists, planners and geographers found new cultural and economic trends to study related to the rise of artist and middle-class loft living and the return of capital investment to urban centers.

Today, the meaning of gentrification no longer refers to the “return to the center.” Instead, it usually means that new and affluent residents or developers are investing in a neighborhood.

This infusion of capital changes the relationships within and between communities. Demand increases and property values rise; poorer residents are displaced as wealthier people move in; new shops appear and the public image of the neighborhood changes.

While doing research on the economic health of Hartford, one of us asked the head of a downtown High demand can incentivize landlords to evict residents, at times using egregious practices – Hartford nonprofit about gentrification. like hiring someone to harass renters – in order to escalate rental prices.

Her response?

“We could use some of that. But we are so far away from it, it’s not even an issue.”

Extreme gentrification takes place in the highestrent, highest-demand places like San Francisco or New York’s Greenwich Village.

If residential patterns and urban areas vary, so too must the story of gentrification. In other Rents in New York’s once-booming Bleecker words: Have big cities hijacked the gentrification Street have become so astronomical that vacancy is now a problem of too much demand, rather debate? than not enough.

THE ORIGINS OF GENTRIFICATION “Gentrification” is a term coined by the British Property owners now keep their storefronts sociologist Ruth Glass in 1964 to explain the empty, hoping a major chain will want to locate 32

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G

entrification isn’t all negative. In an influential and counterintuitive study, Lance Freeman and Frank Braconi, who study urban development, found that poorer residents were less likely to move out of gentrifying neighborhoods than nongentrifying neighborhoods. Safety improves with gentrification, and so can services and amenities.

city is the state’s capital. Half of the city’s real estate is made up of government buildings, educational facilities or hospitals – all of which are nontaxable. With a US$65 million deficit, Hartford is now on the verge of bankruptcy.

Where is Hartford’s gentrification? Or, more precisely, is there a kind of gentrification that would be welcomed in a city like Hartford? A place like Hartford could learn from smaller cities, which are less afflicted by the bloated real estate and speculation that plague places like New York and San Francisco.

In a deindustrialized small city like North Adams, Massachusetts, for example, gentrification is welcomed. The old mill city near the Berkshire Mountains had its sprawling electrical manufacturing plant, Sprague Electric, transformed into a contemporary fine art museum, MASS MoCA. The museum, in turn, helped transform the city from a shrinking post-industrial community into an arts and cultural destination. The museum injected $34.4 million into the local economy in 2015, drawing While some neighborhoods experience positive tourists, lowering unemployment levels and outcomes, gentrification studies are mostly creating opportunities for new businesses. concerned with access to housing, public space and the loss of community. It seems impossible Tourism jobs are not the skilled union jobs not to view New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles Sprague Electric once offered. But without or Boston through the lens of skyrocketing real other opportunities, the community welcomes this kind of gentrification. The town was built estate and displaced residents. for 20,000, but only has 13,000 residents. The community wants – indeed, it needs – more What about other kinds of places? people.

THE URBAN IN-BETWEEN When cities experienced population and There is also what we could call “empty lot” economic decline decades ago, some, like New gentrification. Gentrification doesn’t always York and Boston, found ways to rebound. displace existing populations. Consider cities Others, like Detroit or Connecticut’s capital city, like Nashville, Tennessee and Austin, Texas, where suburbs bloomed in the postwar era.

Hartford, did not.

Hartford continues to experience unusual and difficult financial circumstances. The city has low home-ownership rates and high poverty rates. But maybe more significant is that the

The center cities never housed the heavy manufacturing of northeastern and Rust Belt cities; until recently, they remained sites of light manufacturing, parking garages and empty lots.

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In the early 2000s, former Austin mayor (and real estate entrepreneur) Will Wynn sought to build more residential properties in downtown Austin, and Austin has since seen dramatic residential growth.

T

Empty lot gentrification has its own issues: It can create downtowns for elites. Concerns over gentrification beyond Austin’s city center have grown, and Austin’s famed music venues are getting priced out.

A TALE OF TWO KINDS OF CITIES In bloated real estate markets like New York or San Francisco, critics of gentrification see even the smallest changes – a new park or a new coffee shop – as harbingers for inevitable neighborhood ruin.

For cities needing gentrification, the issues are different. The conversation about popular cities has made academics and policy analysts timid about gentrification. Ailing small cities need to increase visibility to attract more people and develop a stable tax-base.

he principles of urban activist Jane Jacobs for healthy city life still hold: diverse uses of streets and public places, mixed-use buildings, a variety of economic and commercial opportunities and local excitement about community building.

But simply getting people into the city cannot be overlooked.

In North Adams, new opportunities come from investing in the arts. In Pittsburgh, an openness to technical innovation, museums, universities and a dynamic restaurant culture are creating national buzz about a city that continues to lose Hardly a call for free market-driven housing policy, there is no reason policies that minimize population. Detroit just hired the nation’s first the negative effects of gentrification – rent chief story-teller to help move the narrative away control, mixed income housing and limited from stale stereotypes. Throughout European equity cooperatives – cannot be combined with cities, night mayors are charged with inspiring excitement around urban nightlife. efforts to attract the middle class.

The gentrification debates should also not blind us to what made New York and San Francisco attractive cities in the first place.

Hartford will never become New York. But why not look to North Adams, Pittsburgh or Columbus for examples of a different kind of gentrification?

Weird Wave Coffee, in other words, might be welcomed in Connecticut.

aM T M T H E M I L L M AG A Z I N E

Jonathan Wynn is an Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Andrew Deener is an Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of Connecticut.

This article was originally published on The Conversation.

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HUMANS YEAR 2167 Te x t b y B r y a n G a e n s l e r Photos by H. Heyerlein

W

e live in a world shaped by technology, and another 150 years of advancement and discovery will transform it even further. Life in the year 2167 will be amazing, exciting, convenient — and yet still recognizable to someone from 2017.

Any specific prediction about what the 22nd century will look like will almost certainly be wrong.

Nevertheless, breaking developments in science and fiction may point the way to what the future might hold.

It is inevitable that we will experiment on ourselves.

The wealthy will routinely edit their genes and design their babies. Rich or poor, almost everyone will be implanted with internet chips, so that with a flutter of an eyelid we can always be online. And having removed the need for sleep, we will be far more productive and have far more time for leisure.

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MORE HUMAN We will certainly live longer than we do now, and remain largely healthy until we reach the end. But earlier promises of rejuvenation and immortality will have never come to fruition. And those cryogenically frozen heads? They’ll still be in storage.

More audacious experiments will begin to change the very definition of consciousness: Computers will have achieved sentience, and many (but not all) of us will accept that machines have the same rights as human beings. Some people will even have begun heading in the opposite direction, uploading their consciousness into software, freeing themselves of the limitations of a decaying human body.

faster than light. We will not have yet reached a postscarcity society, where money no longer exists.

And finally, what about the most exalted of science-fiction dreams, that of time travel? Well, there’s a reason why any story about time travel is full of paradoxes: because it’s sadly something that (at least in my opinion) will never happen in the real world.

Even in the year 2167, there will only be one way to travel through time: year by year, together, into the unknown future.

Nuclear fusion or other new power sources will mean limitless, cheap energy. As a result, flying cars will finally be a reality.

NO MIRACLES Our lives will be set against a backdrop of permanent climate change — the damage will already be done. Wars will have been fought, governments will have fallen, and the gap between rich and poor will have increased dramatically. But in the big cities of North America reclaimed by the water, the stark reality is that people will adapt and life will go on.

Looking outward, the staggering number of stars in our Milky Way galaxy suggests that we will have made radio contact with other intelligent life — and will be wrestling with the consequences. Indeed we may have begun the journey to the stars ourselves, using slow, cumbersome arks that take centuries to make the trip.

REALITY CHECK As futuristic as all of this sounds, the utopian Star-Trek style future that many of us hope for will still be a work of fiction. Teleportation will be theoretically possible, but utterly impractical. And whether by warp drive or worm holes, we will not be zipping around the galaxy at speeds

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" Looking

outward, the staggering number of stars in our Milky Way galaxy suggests that we will have made radio contact with other intelligent life — and will be wrestling with the consequences."

B r y a n

G a e n s l e r

HUMANS YEAR 2167 Te x t b y B r y a n G a e n s l e r Photos by H. Heyerlein

Bryan Gaensler is the Director of Dunlap Institute for Astronomy and Astrophysics at the University of Toronto.

This article was originally published on The Conversation.

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Flora FOUND

ON THE TABLE Te x t b y C a n d a c e M a t t i n g l y

The effect of flora in the home and workplace has been shown to stimulate both the senses and the mind. The presence of flora can improve mental cognition and performance. Flowers generate happiness by increasing positive energy and helping you feel relaxed and secure.

Improving your mood and reducing stress-related depression, flora can help you achieve an optimistic outlook on life, bringing you enjoyable visual stimulation and perceived happiness. If you are sick, the presence of flora can significantly speed up your recovery time. Spending time with flora increases your feeling of vitality and your energy levels. Another benefit of flora is that many have medicinal properties. Natural herbal remedies are optimal for treating common illnesses. Consuming flora provides many benefits as well, including upping your intake of vitamins and minerals. Lavender, a fragrant flower and an edible herb, has relaxant properties and provides vitamin A, calcium, and iron. By infusing flora into our food and surroundings, we can feel more vibrant...more alive.

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Lemon&Lavender Vegan Pound Cake

Ingredients

Directions

For Pound Cake: 1/2 cup vegan butter at room temperature 1 cup white sugar 3 tablespoons vegan egg powder 1/2 cup almond milk 2 tablespoon lemon zest from about 1 large lemon 1 tablespoon lemon juice 2 teaspoons vanilla 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour 1/4 teaspoon table salt 1/4 teaspoon baking soda 1/4 teaspoon baking powder 2 tablespoons fresh lavender

Preheat oven to 325°F. Spray an 8×4-inch loaf pan with coconut

For Glaze: 1/2 cup powdered sugar 1 tablespoon lemon juice plus more, as needed

Allow to cool on a cooling rack. Combine the glaze ingredients

oil. Combine vegan egg powder and almond milk and set aside.

In a large bowl, beat the vegan butter with the sugar until light colored and fluffy for about 3 minutes. Add the vegan egg mixture and beat in well after each addition, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed. Beat in the lemon zest, lemon juice, and vanilla. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, salt, baking soda, and baking powder. Add the flour mixture to the butter mixture mixing between each. Fold in the lavender.

Scrape into prepared 8×4-inch loaf pan and level batter. Bake in preheated oven for 35-45 minutes or until a toothpick in the center comes out clean. Allow to cool in the pan for 15 minutes then run a knife along the edges to lift and remove from pan. and drizzle over the cooled cake. Add lemon zest and bits of lavender to top.

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Strawberry & Thyme Cake Ingredients For Cake: 3 cups self-rising flour, sifted 1 cup plain flour, sifted 1 cup caster sugar 1 ⅓ cup butter, melted 1 ¾ cup sweetened condensed milk ½ cup milk 6 eggs, beaten lightly 2 tsp vanilla bean paste 1 tsp fresh thyme leaves For Frosting: 4 egg whites 1¼ cups caster sugar 1 ½ cups butter, softened 1 cup strawberries, diced 1 cup strawberries, halved 5 sprigs fresh thyme Directions Preheat oven to 325°F. Grease and line four round cake pans with baking paper. Combine flours, sugar, butter, sweetened condensed milk, milk, eggs, vanilla and thyme in a large mixing bowl. Using an electric beater; beat on low speed for 2 minutes

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or until just combined. Increase speed to high and beat for 3 minutes or until the mixture is thick and pale.

Divide mixture among prepared pans; bake 45 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool completely on a wire rack. Using a serrated knife, level cake tops. Meanwhile, make meringue buttercream; mix egg whites and sugar in a large bowl.

Place the bowl over a saucepan with simmering water; using a hand mixer beat for 10 minutes (making sure that the water does not boil or touch the bowl) or until hot to touch and sugar has dissolved.

Remove bowl from saucepan and beat meringue for a further 5 minutes or until meringue is firm and glossy peaks form.

When lower part of the bowl feels cool, reduce speed to low, cool slightly and gradually beat in butter. Let butter whisk out completely before adding more.

Place into a large piping bag fitted with a round nozzle. Place 1 layer of cake on a cake stand. Pipe over one-quarter of frosting mixture, then sprinkle with one-third of the diced strawberries.

Continue layering with the remaining cake layers, frosting mixture, and strawberries. Lightly smooth remaining meringue frosting mixture over the top and sides of the cake. Decorate with halved strawberries and thyme leaves.

Rose & Raspberry Macarons Ingredients For Macarons: 4 ounces Almond Flour, 115 grams 8 ounces Powdered Sugar, 230 grams 5 ounces Egg Whites, 144 grams 2 1/2 ounces Granulated Sugar, 72 grams 1 Vanilla Bean, Scraped 1/2 teaspoon Kosher Salt, 2 grams 1 1/2 teaspoons rose water 1-2 drops red gel food coloring For Filling: ¾ cup fresh or frozen raspberries 2 tbsp granulated sugar 1 Tbsp lemon juice 6 Tbsp unsalted butter, room temp Directions Preheat oven to 300°F. Line two baking sheets with Silpat macaron sheets or parchment paper. Set aside. Have ready a large pastry bag fitted with a large open piping tip. Over a large bowl, sift together almond flour and powdered sugar. If large pieces do not go through sifter, grind the bits more finely in a food processor then sift again until all the almond pieces are very fine and incorporated into sifted mixture. Set aside. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment, combine egg whites, sugar, seeds from scraped vanilla bean (save the bean for another use) and salt. Using medium speed, mix egg white mixture for 3 minutes then increase speed to medium-

high. Continue mixing 3 minutes longer then increase to full speed and mix 3 minutes more. At this point, add desired gel food color and rose water. Beat on full speed for one minute longer or until you have achieved a very stiff, dry meringue that clumps inside the whisk attachment when removed. Add the almond flour mixture then using a rubber spatula fold the dry ingredients into the meringue using a fold then smear technique. Fold the dry ingredients in once then “smoosh” the meringue against the side of the bowl to incorporate the dry ingredients and deflate the meringue. This process should take about 25 folds. **Take your time with this process. Do not overmix. If your batter becomes runny, you’ve overdone it and sadly your macarons will not be pipeable. Scoop about half the batter into prepared pastry bag. Pipe small circles on prepared baking sheets. Whack your baking sheet on a hard surface once or twice, turn and repeat. Bake in preheated oven for 18 minutes, until a macaron can be cleanly easily peeled off baking sheet.

Cool completely on baking sheet set on a wire rack. In a small saucepan over medium heat, combine ¾ cup raspberries, 2 Tbsp granulated sugar and 1 Tbsp lemon juice. Heat until bubbling.

Mash up the raspberries with a spoon then push the mixture through a sieve, pressing on the raspberry seeds to get the most juice out. I got ⅓ cup syrup. Keep the syrup/juice and discard seeds. Let cool to room temp. In a medium bowl, beat 6 Tbsp butter until whipped and white (2 min on high), Add in room temp raspberry syrup and beat until whipped and fluffy (2½ to 3 min on high). Turn half the macarons so that they are flat side up. Pipe half the macarons with a dollop of filling. Top each with another macaron. Refrigerate. Remove from refrigerator 2 hours before enjoying.

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Candace Mattingly studied English literature and interpersonal communications at UNC. She lives with her husband, twin toddlers, and their dog in North Carolina.

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