the official blog of gosometime.com

An interesting post at the NYTimes describing a new study indicating that someone’s willingness to go on adventure might be connected to certain brain patterns:

The scientists also found that by increasing or inhibiting certain chemicals in the brain, they could encourage scouting behavior in otherwise timid bees, and suppress it in the thrill seekers.

Brains of Bee Scouts Are Wired for Adventure [NYT]

Via Magazine

One of the benefits of being a AAA member in the western United States, other than the roadside assistance and bumper stickers, is that it comes with their members-only magazine VIA.

Rather than the dry stuff you might expect from a publication that organizations tend to send out to their memberships, VIA is delightful.  Because it is only delivered to an audience within a certain geographic area, and it’s AAA, they also focus on much more accessible places, rather than the exotic, expensive destinations that are the focus of so many other travel magazines.

It can be a goldmine of ideas for places to go – I often find a lot quirky, unexpected, road-trippy type spots that I want to check out.  In Las Vegas, for example, I found the Neon Museum and the Pinball Hall of Fame.

In a world where so many print publications are having trouble, it’s just nice to have something like this that is friendly and sweet.

When you review a place on the internet, how seriously do you take it?  The internet has given us the power to have our opinions heard about everything.  Amazon reviews. Yelp reviews. TripAdvisor reviews.  If you worked for a newspaper or a magazine, you’d probably be governed by a standard set of standards and ethical guidelines.  But since most of us don’t work under those constraints, is there an implicit responsibility we all have to manage our own ethics and make sure we’re being fair?

Check out the Association of Food Journalists’ Food Critics’ Guidelines, which describe some best practices for restaurant critics and reviewers.  If you consider all restaurant reviews published on a daily basis on the internet, how many would conform to these?

A few examples from the guidelines:

on multiple visits:

Two visits to a restaurant are recommended. Three times are better.

on new restaurants:

To be fair to new restaurants, reviewers should wait at least one month after the restaurant starts serving before visiting.

on negative reviews:

Negative reviews are fine, as long as they’re accurate and fair. Critics must always be conscious that they are dealing with people’s livelihoods. Negative reviews, especially, should be based on multiple visits and a broad exploration of the restaurant’s menu.

To be perfectly honest, in the past I haven’t taken reviewing that seriously. But now, we’re at a point where we all need to be our own editors and keep in mind the impact that our words can have, especially with respect to thoroughness and ethics.

see also: Fuck You Yelper

Tomorrow is the annual SF Street Food Festival down in the Mission.  All indications are that it is going to be pretty epic, with many of the best vendors in the city in attendance.  Be prepared to wait in line for a *long* time, because it will clearly be more popular than last year, and last year was insane.  Just remember, good things come to those who are willing to stand in huge lines.

Also, Sunday and Monday (August 21-22), La Cocina will also be holding the 2nd Annual National Street Food Conference at Fort Mason.  Go Sometime will be there, so please get in touch if you’d like to chat at the conference.  There are a lot of interesting talks and panels scheduled, so definitely worth checking out for anyone interested in the business side of street food.

Welcome to the official blog of Go Sometime!  In the coming weeks and months we’ll post news and updates about Go Sometime, and probably a lot of other stuff that is somewhat related.