Yeah, a watch isn’t a piece of data, it’s a physical object. Your view is that to really understand it, and make an informed decision about whether or not to make it part of your life, you need to see it in person.

Bazelon interweaves Kevin’s and Noura’s stories with a remarkable amount of academic research by law professors, criminologists and other social scientists. The endnotes, replete with charts and graphs, run to more than 50 pages and acknowledge intellectual debts to such thinkers as Angela J. Davis, Paul Butler, Michelle Alexander and William Stuntz. This combination of powerful reporting with painstaking research yields a comprehensive examination of the modern American criminal justice system that appeals to both the head and the heart.

There’s something beary special about the Alaska Zoo: Not only is it the only zoo in the northern state, but it also features a new polar bear Transition Center. This special facility, completed by the nonprofit zoo in 2016, is solely dedicated to rescuing orphaned polar bear cubs from the wild and nursing them back to health (there’s also a den just for pregnant mama polar bears!). While you’re there, say hello to Cranbeary, the newest addition to the zoo’s bear brigade.

After the event ends, Becca and I continue road tripping through northern New Mexico and into Utah. When I spot a trio of short buses parked on a grass lot in a random town in rural Utah, I make her pull over. As we walk around the buses, inspecting tire tread, looking for rust spots, crawling underneath to check on the chassis, and analyzing the value of their engines versus the listed price, I step outside myself for a moment. I can see how much I’ve learned over the past few months, how my research is turning into action. It’s amazing.

this year, we will host the third edition of THE DESIGN PRIZE, the award recognizing design excellence on a global scale, and will announce the winner of the annual LEXUS DESIGN AWARD, co-organized by designboom.

It makes sense that Pace feels at home outside of the city; the actor, now 40, was born in the small town of Chickasha, Oklahoma. He gained a modest, albeit devoted following by appearing on two beloved but short-lived TV series: Wonderfalls, in 2004, and, three years later, Pushing Daisies. His star, however, shot into a whole other orbit beginning in 2012, when he joined what seemed like every franchise at the time by starring in The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 2, all three of the films in The Hobbit series, and Guardians of the Galaxy—as the hooded, blue-faced villain Ronan the Accuser. His recent role as the closeted Mormon Joe Pitt in the Broadway revival of Angels in America was magically exhausting and eloquent, and it coincided with a public truth of his own—or, as a headline in The New York Times put it, “Lee Pace Came Out Seven Times a Week. Then He Came Out for Real.”

There’s a similarly comfortable vibe at Alewife, in Richmond, Virginia, a city that has forced its way onto my dining map lately. I ate extremely well in Richmond; drank well, too, since the city is a hotbed of cocktail culture. That’s what got me in the door at Alewife, where the bar serves a southern-minded array of expertly mixed drinks. I stuck around for what comes out of Lee Gregory’s galley-sized kitchen: clean, honest dishes from that magical sector where the waters of the mid-Atlantic swirl and merge with those of the South. The best was a simple plate of fried “sugar toads,” the felicitous nickname for small blowfish. Pulled from the Chesapeake Bay, they were firm and meaty, like a cross between cod and frogs’ legs, and came encased in a crust of cornmeal and Old Bay. Alewife wears its nautical theme lightly—a few tiki masks, mirrors suggestive of portholes, a drawing of Robert Shaw in Jaws. Though I know rationally that Richmond isn’t on the coast, I can’t help remembering it, up on the top of Church Hill, as a warm place where you might gaze at the horizon, watching for returning sailors.

If you can’t resist these adorable pictures of baby animals (and who can?!), you need to add Arizona’s best zoo to your travel bucket list. At the Baby Animal Nursery, there’s a weekly rotating roster of cuties, from endangered penguin chicks and striped hyena cubs. And if you’re looking for something a little more fierce than fluffy, stop by Dragon World for a glimpse of the uber rare white albino alligator. Find out 50 astonishing facts about the 50 states.

I’ve gotten big into Poshmark lately, because I’m discovering that you can find crazy deals on things from hip brands like Paloma Wool and LOQ. My first purchase on there — a discontinued, stupidly impractical Frankie Shop bucket bag with a faux-fur handle — happened so fast that it gave me some sort of gambler’s rush where I ended up buying three more things in rapid succession (schedule me an intervention). One of them was this pair of Carleen jeans I bought on discount which perfectly adhere to your bottom, are super-high-waisted with a button fly, and have these amazing denim panels.

To best preserve the life of wood flooring, Gartner advises first and foremost to always remove your shoes when you come in your house. “My clients often blame their pets for scratches on their wood floors, but it’s people who do more damage.” The biggest culprit: dirt and pebbles that get caught in shoes and then get dragged over the wood.

Langston Hughes African American Film FestivalCharles Mudede has written: "I have yet to attend a Langston Hughes African American Film Festival that doesn’t have an important black-directed or black-themed film that’s somehow been missed by the wider film community or is unavailable in any format—web, disk, cable, theater." On opening night, meet black Northwest filmmakers, sip champagne, and watch a selection of short films, including Wes Goodrich’s "Goodnight, Fred" (about the last night of Fred Hampton), Eric Dyson’s "Baby Steps" (about a man coping with depression in the aftermath of his father’s suicide), Leila Jarman’s "Dynamite" (an exploration of black male masculinity and other identities), and more. Other films and events this weekend (among many others) include the coming-of-age film On the Beat (Friday), the political documentary In the System and two VR films (Saturday), and the Mozambiquan film Motherland (Sunday). Langston Hughes Performing Arts Institute

Serving up cocktails on arrival, her cracking Christmas cracker workshops demonstrate how to make uber-cool crackers containing goodies from the London Transport Museum. “I’ve always made crackers so, for me, the class was an extension of my Christmas preparations at home and it’s really lovely to share my skills. I love sharing my love of printmaking, and showing people how simple it is to do and the wonderful affects you can achieve. It’s so rewarding to inspire this kind of creativity!”