The Upsider

vogue:

Clockwise from top left: Bali (Wilfried Krecichwost/Getty Images), André Leon Talley, Bottega Veneta bag, Marc Jacobs (Courtesy of charitybuzz), Karl Lagerfeld (Yannis Vlamos/GoRunway.com), Lady Gaga (Mario Testino)

Designers are coming together to help raise awareness about the environment at the Bid to Save the Earth benefit, hosted by Christie’s, Runway to Green, Vogue, Anna and Graydon Carter, Susan and David Rockefeller, and Salma Hayek and Francois-Henri Pinault, on Tuesday, March 29, at Rockefeller Center. But you don’t have to fly to New York to help the cause. You can start bidding now at charitybuzz.com for some over-the-top prizes that are nothing short of extraordinary, with proceeds going directly to the educational and awareness initiatives of the NGOs affiliated with Bid to Save the Earth.  As we read through the descriptions on a Friday afternoon, we can only describe them as fantasy inducing. Continue reading for our list of items that stand out from the pack.

-Front-row seats at Chanel’s Fall 2011 Couture show, a meet and greet with Karl Lagerfeld backstage, a private tour of Coco Chanel’s apartment and the Chanel Atelier, plus a five-night stay at the Ritz Paris. Ooh-la-la!

-Seven days and eight nights at a private villa in Nihiwatu, Bali, with five of your nearest and dearest.

-Tickets to a Lady Gaga concert, the opportunity to meet the music icon, and a three-night stay at the Soho Beach House in Miami, plus airfare.

-A one-hour style consultation with Diane von Furstenberg and Vogue’s André Leon Talley at DVF’s studio, including two looks and a pair of shoes from her latest collection.

-A Fendi bag customized by artist Richard Prince.

-A Carolina Herrera wedding dress, the opportunity to meet the designer backstage at her Spring 2012 Bridal collection, and, of course, two front-row seats to the show.

-Two tickets to Marc Jacobs’s Spring 2012 fashion show in New York, a meet and greet with the designer, two invitations to the after-party, and a two night stay at The Standard in New York. Plus, a Marc Jacobs collection bag.

For the full list of items on the auction block, go to charitybuzz.com.

Move the slider to compare satellite images from before and after the disaster… Just devastating.

…Over the past few decades, we have tended to define human capital in the narrow way, emphasizing I.Q., degrees, and professional skills. Those are all important, obviously, but this research illuminates a range of deeper talents, which span reason and emotion and make a hash of both categories:

Attunement: the ability to enter other minds and learn what they have to offer.

Equipoise: the ability to serenely monitor the movements of one’s own mind and correct for biases and shortcomings.

Metis: the ability to see patterns in the world and derive a gist from complex situations.

Sympathy: the ability to fall into a rhythm with those around you and thrive in groups.

Limerence: This isn’t a talent as much as a motivation. The conscious mind hungers for money and success, but the unconscious mind hungers for those moments of transcendence when the skull line falls away and we are lost in love for another, the challenge of a task or the love of God. Some people seem to experience this drive more powerfully than others….

- David Brooks