Rexfeng

Each 250,000 of the CAH Holiday Bullshit subscribers got one square foot of a wooded island in Maine, called Hawaii 2 (nee Birch Island). Read the rest

The U.S. economy grew at its quickest pace in 11 years in the third quarter, the strongest sign yet that growth has decisively shifted into higher gear.

If you charge your phone in a Metro station, you are technically stealing their electricity. [ more › ]

Comments

Here's proof that you don't necessarily need thousands of dollars to build something unique with LEGO. Although you might need a lot of blue blocks (and around 1,900 pieces total), the simplicity is perfect in BrucilSprout's microbuild of Wind Waker's sea chart.

Read more...

Bruce Schneier:

I am deeply skeptical of the FBI’s announcement on Friday that North Korea was behind last month’s Sony hack. The agency’s evidence is tenuous, and I have a hard time believing it. But I also have trouble believing that the U.S. government would make the accusation this formally if officials didn’t believe it.

It's actually happening! After initially canceling the film's premiere following threats from a group of hackers, Sony Pictures will now allow The Interview to play in select theaters on Christmas day — and reportedly plans to release it online, as well. It is, after all, the internet's favorite movie.

If you're looking to see the movie with family on Christmas day — or see the movie while the rest of the family watches Annie — here's a list of every theater that's confirmed to be showing The Interview on December 25th. If you see any that we've missed, let us know!

Continue reading…

Manhattan has plenty of bridges—they're its most recognizable landmarks, really—but exactly how many more would it need if every last person drove a car? Matt Taylor, a transit engineer, has seen this bizarro-Manhattan, and it's not pretty.

Read more...

Team Fortress 2's End of the Line update—while paired with a really fun film —was anemic, to say the least. After so much hype ended in such a trainwreck, many feared Valve might've been signaling its intention to put Team Fortress 2 out to pasture, or at least ease off on making new stuff for it. The new Smissmas update, however, begs to differ.

Read more...

Don't expect to dawdle in the ramen shop.

The glass entryway to the tiny Ramen Lab space on Kenmare was steamed up like a bath house today for a round of early tastings. Despite a curious electrical outage, chef Jack Nakamura was demonstrating his signature dramatic technique for straining the noodles and serving the house's two signature ramens: A classic chicken shoyu made with a clear and ultra concentrated chicken broth and a vegetarian miso ramen made with caramelized miso and oolong tea instead of stock, and topped with spent grains from the xo sauce at Momofuku's Kaizen Trading Company. There will also be a seasonal ramen and gyoza, but little else, other than tea, beer, and sake. The idea is to focus on tradition and ramen education.

The Sun Noodle team, which owns the shop, has painstakingly recreated the feel of a traditional ramen-ya. The space is small even by New York standards, with just 10 seats. The ramen bowls were custom made for the restaurant in Japan with aluminum in the ceramic to keep the soup hot, eggs come on the side, never in the bowl, and one partner even joked about adding timers to encourage American diners to eat quickly, as ramen diners do in Japan. The timers aren't likely to actually make an appearance, but just know that diners who take a long time are probably being judged. This is not a restaurant to dawdle in.

Assuming, the electricity goes back on quickly (as it should), expect an opening in early January, with ramen flights and classes to launch once things settle down.

Even as restaurants talk about smaller portions, they continue to serve a full day's worth of calories in a single meal — or even a single dish.

It was a good year for pizza, pastrami, fried chicken, and corn desserts in New York.

Choosing the best new restaurants of the year is a somewhat philosophical endeavor. The critic wonders: What are the culinary establishments that best represent where we're going, or where we should be going, as gastronomic community? But picking out the top new (or relatively new) dishes is easier: These are the items we crave. These are the dishes that will keep a critic going back after the review process is over, or that will lure guests back as the restaurant ages. And that's an important distinction. Sometimes we dine out for the larger experience, for a night out at, say, Eleven Madison Park, where our enjoyment is derived from multiple factors like service, ambience, and wine. But other times we crave a single burger, taco, or steak. While I like to think all of these dishes speak to our larger New York culinary scene, what's most important is that they make me hungry.

1. Marta's Carbonara Pie

If Neapolitan pizza, in all its deliciously bastardized forms, is unquestionably one of New York's trademark foodstuffs, the ultra-thin crust pies of Rome could be the next import to achieve citywide fame. This is all thanks to the fine work of Danny Meyer and chef Nick Anderer at Marta. Anderer's best effort involves taking the flavors of Carbonara (pancetta, egg, and black pepper) and throwing them onto a pizza, with soft potatoes substituting in for the spaghetti. The chewy, crispy, fatty, and funky product that results is something you want to eat every single day. 29 East 29th Street, (212) 651-3800, martamanhattan.com.

2. Roberta's Pastrami Sandwich

The pastrami sandwich, like pizza, is a quintessential Big Apple delicacy, and while nostalgia will convince some that Katz's is the best, Roberta's puts out the better product. "The trick is a light smoke (so it doesn't taste like barbecue), a gentle cure (so you can actually tell that it's beef), a subdued peppering (this is New York not Sichuan Province), and a thick cut (to prove how tender the pastrami really is)," I wrote in my three star review of Roberta's. And guess what? The sandwich is now available in the take-out spot next door for $12, which is $8 cheaper than Katz's. 261 Moore St., 718-417-1118, robertaspizza.com.

3. Momofuku Noodle Bar's Hozon Ramen

Who would've thought that the finest ramen by pork-centric chef David Chang would ever be a vegetarian ramen? In fact, the mushroom and chickpea ramen, which takes advantage of Chang's instant-umami hozon product, is one of the city's best ramens period. See my piece from earlier this summer, where I used nearly 1,000 words to wax poetic about this stunning noodle soup. 171 First Avenue, momofuku.com.

4. Dirty French's Mushroom Mille Feuille

Who knew fungi could mimic flaky pastry? Chef Rich Torrisi knew. He layers royal trumpet mushrooms with so much butter that this savory creation is indubitably just as unhealthy as a proper Napoleon. And then he finishes the affair with enough green curry to render it Thai. This is the type of creatively delicious vegetarian fare diners deserve at more expensive tasting menu haunts like Per Se. Until then, it's available for $17 at Dirty French. 80 Ludlow Street, (212) 254-3000, dirtyfrench.com.

5. Cherche Midi's Prime Rib

Let's be honest: there are too many cote de boeufs overrunning our city's dining rooms. So it's refreshing to see Cherche Midi's Shane McBride and Daniel Parilla give us our meat in a slightly more old school way: via a mammoth prime rib. It's essentially two steaks in one. On the inside you have an easygoing, medium-rare cut of cow. On the outside, you have a dry-aged deckle that's as tender as barbecue brisket and packed with as much dry-aged flavor as the truffle section of your local gourmet market. 282 Bowery, (212) 226-3055, cherchemidiny.com.

6. Root & Bone's Fried Chicken

This fried bird isn't for everyone — my good colleague Robert Sietsema isn't a fan of the sugary tea brine. But enough people dig Root & Bone's masterpiece to engender pretty crazy waits during prime time. The flesh is gently sweet and assertively salty. The crust is properly crunchy. And it's all tied together with a sprinkling of lemon dust for a whisper of unexpected freshness. 200 East 3rd Street, (646) 682-7076, rootnbone.com.

7. Ivan Ramen's Spicy Chile Ramen

How good is this blend of dashi, peppers, and pork? Here's what I wrote in my two star review of Ivan Ramen: "It has the depth of flavor you'd expect from a fancy French sauce that some guy spent half his life learning to make. And then there's the heat, which lights your GI tract ablaze like a Roman candle going off in both directions. I dare you to eat it on a first date." 25 Clinton Street, (646) 678-3859, ivanramen.com.

8. Estela's Crazy Breakfast Sandwich

One day, the corporate food scientists at Cinnabon will start stuffing bacon and eggs inside of their delicious cinnamon rolls, and on that day those scientists will rule the world. Until then, we have Estela, which places an egg, some avocado and pancetta inside a Danish pastry. So in the sweet-savory breakfast game, Estela reigns supreme. For now. 47 East Houston Street. 212-219-7693. estelanyc.com.

9. Cosme's Corn Pudding

Corn, with all its sweetness, can easily go over the top, especially for dessert. But that's not the case at Cosme, where chef Enrique Olvera whips the maize into a heady, vegetal mousse. Only the husk meringue on top gives the dish its proper sugars. The result is a creamy, crunchy Mexican take on the Australian pavlova. 35 East 21st Street, (212) 913-9659, cosmenyc.com.

10. Batard's Schnitzel

Schnitzel isn't so much a traditional German dish at Batard as it is a European-inclined fried chicken. Chef Markus Glocker pounds down a milk-fed bird, boasting an interior that's as soft as good veal sweetbreads. He then fries it in enough butter and olive oil to make you think he's trying to do for breadcrumbs what Joël Robuchon does for mashed potatoes, which is make them incredibly unhealthy. And tasty. 239 West Broadway, (212) 219-2777, batardtribeca.com.

11. The NoMad Bar's Burger

I only awarded a single star to the latest endeavor by the Made Nice group (Eleven Madison Park), but this Garment District hangout has produced what's possibly the city's most compelling new burger, a mix of dry-aged chuck laced with bone marrow and suet. The product is so soft and silky I'm half certain you could spread this burger on a piece of toast like a foie gras terrine. 10 West 28th Street. 212-296-1500, thenomadhotel.com.

12. Aldo Sohm's Foie Gras Lollipop

Every year I make a New Year's resolution to eat more foie gras, but the chief flaw of so many duck liver dishes is that they're prepared like a warm, gooey dessert, finished with this balsamic reduction or that fruit compote. The team at Aldo Sohm Wine Bar exercises a more steady hand, using the foie to anoint a slice of tomato bread, softening the acidic fruit with a healthy dose of drippy duck fat. And a generous grind of pepper over the whole affair gives the three bite treat as much spicy oomph as an au poivre steak. 151 West 51st Street, (212) 554-1143, aldosohmwinebar.com.

13. Contra's Popcorn Mousse

Pastry chef Fabian von Hauske, a Noma alum, gives us the fine dining equivalent of movie theater popcorn: maize mousse, topped with icy mandarin granita. It's sweet, gritty, vegetal, and awesome. It's all par for course for Contra, a restaurant that thrives on throwing diners outside their comfort zones for a very fair price: $55 for five courses. 138 Orchard Street, (212) 466-4633, contranyc.com.

14. Aquavit's Salmon Tartare

How do you amp up the umami-rich oils on hay-smoked salmon? Toss in some trout roe. It's a stupidly simple technique and Aquavit chef Emma Bengtsson surely isn't the first to do it, but she's certainly one of the few to make this tired dish feel new and delicious again. Bravo. 65 East 65th Street. 212-307-7311, aquavit.org.

15. Bar Primi's Seafood Salad

Seafood salad is one of those dishes I've grown accustomed to never ordering because it's often a terrible mess of cold, rubbery shellfish doused in too much lemon. So kudos to Bar Primi's Sal Lamboglia for giving us a pile of soft potatoes, warm octopus, and ruby red shrimp that seem to collapse in the mouth like cotton candy. 325 Bowery, (212) 220-9100, barprimi.com.

16. Ma Peche's Fried Chicken

Yes, this is the third fried chicken on this year's list (see also: Batard, Root & Bone). It was a good year for eating crispy birds in New York! What Ma Peche's Paul Carmichael brings to the game is one of the world''s tastiest (and hottest) peppers. He brines his chicken with habanero, seasons the bird with habanero paste, and then amps up the crust with habanero powder. The rigorous process imparts the chicken with the chile's gorgeous fruitiness, while the capsicum pain is subdued. 15 West 56th Street, 212-757-5878, momofuku.com.

17. Bar Bolonat's Halva Creme Brulee

There are those who believe that the creme brulee is a perfect dish, that it needs no improvement. Well, they're wrong. And the Israeli-inspired Bar Bolonat is proof of that. Chef Einat Admony fortifies the custard with nutty halvah. She anoints the burnt exterior with Persian cotton candy, which looks and tastes like what would happen if dental floss were made out of sugar. And so what you get is a textural contrast times three. The French wish they'd thought of this. 611 Hudson Street, (212) 390-1545, barbolonatny.com.

18. Empellon Al Pastor's Namesake Taco

As Enrique Olvera opens a kick-ass South of the Border spot where dinner costs about $100 per person, Alex Stupak, with a high-end Mexican joint already under his belt, is doing just the opposite, virtually giving away tacos for $4 apiece. I found the venue to be putting out solid food on its opening night, and that's still the case nearly two months later. The best item is the namesake al pastor, balancing smoky chiles against musky, spit-roasted pork, and a slice or two of tart pineapple. Put that in a warm, house-made corn tortilla and call it $4 well spent. 132 St. Marks Place, 646-833-7039, empellon.com/al-pastor/.

After success in London, the team behind this ode to the sardine can say they want to hit NYC next.

It looks like at some point in the new year, New York City will get its very first restaurant devoted entirely to canned food. Tincan, which architecture firm AL_A has been operating as a pop-up in London since September, promises on its website that it will arrive in New York in 2015, after ending its run in the UK tomorrow. There's no more detail than that at the moment, but presumably the pop-up will operate the same way in New York that it did in London, serving all manner of tinned fish in a jewel box of a space lined wall to wall with sardine cans.

The concept is actually not too far from what the folks at Maiden Lane, or various pintxos joints around the city are doing with fancy fish in cans, only at Tincan there are no cheese and charcuterie platters or passed tapas to supplement the canned stuff (though the cans do, at least, come with sides like bread or salad). Plus eating at Maiden Lane is not like eating in a sardine can museum. Eater has reached out to the Tincan team to find out when and where the pop-up might touch down. Stay tuned.

Instead of gut busting Lansky's sandwiches, Upper West Siders can now gorge themselves on cheese-and-red-sauce-drenched offerings from the Major Food Group dudes, who debuted their second Parm location in the neighborhood Monday night. They're abandoning the nightly specials menu from the Mulberry Street outpost, offering instead an everyday menu of pastas, main courses, salads, vegetables and, of course, parmesan sandwiches. The spot has been mobbed for the past two nights and will likely stay that way for the foreseeable future; getting in when they debut lunch on Thursday might be a tad easier. Maybe. [ more › ]

The three people behind the immensely popular Twitter accounts @HistoryInPics and @EarthPix have raised $2 million from investors. What started as just a handful of Twitter accounts is quickly growing into a media empire that they call All Day Media. Let's just hope All Day hires some editors and fact-checkers with some of that cash.

Read more...

 Finding a good app can be like looking for a needle in a truck stop bathroom. Apple and Google aren’t doing much to help you sift through their messy app stores. Facebook has tried to step up, but sometimes you don’t care about your friends and just want a new mobile toy to play with. So Facebook is taking haters’ worst nightmares and turning them into an app discovery tool. Read More

While perhaps a coincidence, the failure, which lasted about 10 hours, began after President Obama said the U.S. would respond to an act of “cybervandalism” against Sony Pictures.

Read 1 remaining paragraphs | Comments

Next year, companies are expected to spend more money on digital advertising than on TV commercials in China.

Profcyclist told students that they could bring a 3"x5" card to an exam; a clever student wrote overlapping notes in blue and red ink and brought in gels to read them.

The latest incarnation of Bowien's insanely popular restaurant is offering a few classics and a whole lot of new dishes.

After its sneak attack open last night, the question on many peoples’ minds was how similar the menu at this new Mission Chinese Food would be to the original. Luckily for OG MCF fans, all of the classics like Kung Pao Pastrami and Salt Cod Fried Rice are still on offer. The menu at this new location pays homage to old school Chinese restaurants in form and length, while subverting typical offerings with playful flavor combinations and the inclusion of decidedly non-Asian dishes, like Hot Cheese Pizza. So basically it's Bowien doing what he does best. It’s also worth noting that the new MCF has two prix fixe options going for $69 and $99 a pop and that the cart service being used for the cocktails will also be employed to wheel out the restaurant's prime rib. Take a look at the full menu below:

In 2016, a rearview mirror with a video display built in will be a standard option on the Cadillac CT6, the carmaker's upcoming flagship sedan. With the wide-angle video feed enabled, the "mirror" will offer a field of view up to four times greater than that of a standard mirror, according to GM. Of course, when you use a camera mounted in the car's rear instead of a mirror, you won't have to deal with kids or luggage getting in the way of your view, either.

No more children muddling up your view

And Cadillac has apparently worked hard to make sure that the screen won't be difficult to see in less-than-stellar conditions. In a press release, the company says that it's using a "high dynamic range" camera that produces a "video feed...

Continue reading…

Comments

Watching TV is already one of the top things to do when you're feeling lazy, and soon it'll require even less effort. UK telco Virgin Media is set to trial a new wristband that monitors your pulse and can tell when you've fallen asleep. It'll then beam a message to your TiVo and tell it to pause the current program and start recording it for later viewing. When you wake up, you can pick up right where you left off. Perfect for all of those food comas that are bound to happen over the holidays. The device — designed by a 14 and 15 year old — will go into trials next year. Maybe someday the software behind it will make it to other fitness wearables, though there's no news on that front yet. You can sign up to be on the trial list right...

Continue reading…

I think Dave Winer is onto something big here:

This is a huge disconnect, and we let it happen. The problem isn’t with the NYPD, the problem is with the blanket total support we give our military when it fights in Afghanistan and Iraq. The price of placing zero value on the lives of the people of these countries is that our lives in turn become worthless. What goes around comes around. You reap what you sow. There are dozens of adages and fables that explain this phenomenon. The lives of the people of the foreign countries are worth exactly as much as ours. We overlooked the behavior of American soldiers in these countries. Now the cops want to know why we treat them differently.

And they’re right to ask. Why? If the army can arbitrarily kill thousands in Iraq, why can’t they kill a few people in Staten Island, Missouri, or Ohio? You “support the troops” why don’t you support us, they ask.

Let's hope these two all-stars get involved.

The government of France, it seems, is worried that "the Anglo-Saxons" are conspiring to "dethrone" them as masters of the culinary world. So now, in true superhero narrative form, the Foreign Ministry has launched a "gastrono-diplomacy" that proposes easing immigration laws so foreigners can stage under its chefs. They're also recruiting many-Michelin-starred superstars Alain Ducasse and Guy Savoy to devise a 20-point plan.

It comes out next month, but according to a draft seen by the Telegraph, the duo recommends things like limiting starters and mains to no more than three to keep quality high, and also cooking with fresh local ingredients, not the readymade stuff used in enough French kitchens these days that the government recently introduced a "homemade" label in hopes of publicly shaming them. The chefs say this hasn't worked anyway, because food can still be frozen or vacuum-sealed. Finally, to put online review sites like TripAdvisor in their lowly place, they suggest taking out more ads. Also, for some reason, they're inviting Steven Spielberg to dinner.

Even if it seems a little wonky, the plan amounts to a serious attempt to change the critical tides. These days, Tokyo has more three-Michelin-star restaurants than Paris, and no French eateries this year made the World's 50 Best Restaurants' top 10. Only five are on the list at all right now. The ministry says the ranking, by a U.K.-based magazine, is unethically "influenced," so France has to step up to "re-enchant the world." That already began this week, of course, when living legend Paul Bocuse unbuttoned his chef's jacket a little to show off the totally radical rooster tattoo on his shoulder.

[Telegraph UK]

Read more posts by Clint Rainey

Filed Under: oui chef, alain ducasse

Photo © Janus van den Eijnden

Photo © Janus van den Eijnden

Photo © Janus van den Eijnden

Photo © Janus van den Eijnden

Photo © Janus van den Eijnden

Photo © Janus van den Eijnden

Romania-based architecture collective visualSKIN arrived at the Amsterdam Light Festival with a splash this year, installing a three-dimensional projection of a 17-century ship against a backdrop of water. Titled ‘Ghost Ship,‘ the installation makes use of two intersecting images projected onto perpendicular curtains of water that can be viewed from multiple angles. The piece is in reference to a Dutch East India Company ship, The Amsterdam, that was wrecked in a storm during its maiden voyage to Batavia in 1749.

In a fortunate coincidence, and unbeknownst to visualSKIN beforehand, Ghost Ship also rests on the former site of a large water fountain designed by sculptor Albert P. Termote that was removed more than a decade ago. You can see more views of the installation right here. (via Designboom)

Tesla's automated battery swap stations that boost cars with a fully charged power pack instead of a slow charge are finally becoming a reality. First shown off over a year ago, the company announced today that it's ready to start a pilot program for...

Street food magicians the Halal Guys blessed the East Village with a brick-and-mortar eatery over the summer. And today they're dousing the Upper West Side in magnificent white sauce, debuting a new outpost on 95th Street and Amsterdam Avenue. Let the lines full of post-Gin Mill drunks commence! [ more › ]

 Disagree with Sony’s decision to pull The Interview from theaters? So does President Barack Obama. In a statement during a press conference this afternoon, President Obama said: “I am sympathetic to the concerns that [Sony] faced. Having said all that, yes, they made a mistake. We cannot have a society where a dictator someplace else can start imposing censorship here in the… Read More