Rexfeng

Instead of tuning into Twitch online, soon Brits will have a physical venue to watch their favourite eSports competitors duke it out. Gfinity, a league organiser for multiplayer games such as Counter-Strike: Global Offensive and Starcraft II, says it...

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Who is ths "John Smith" person and why does he get one?

Here's a nugget of wonderful news for those who thought Starbucks came off a little stingy when it announced a holiday deal called "Starbucks for Life" that was really a sweepstakes for 30 years of free coffee for ten lucky Starbucks cardholders: That perk now comes on a $5,000 card made of 10-karat hammered gold that almost literally screams, "I trump all other cards," no matter how much assayable metal they may contain.

Eligibility is now open until January 5 for those who partake in the chain's app, or are packing a humdrum Starbucks Card. In addition to the ten lucky Americans, three Canadians and one person from the U.K. will win one. By next year, all fourteen of them will no doubt be exchanging sad emails about what it's like carrying a hefty piece of gold on a daily basis just to get their morning coffee. There are other prizes, too; several folks will win Chestnut Praline Lattes, but you can't really use those as currency to board a plane in an emergency during the gerbil zombie apocalypse.

[Official site]

Read more posts by Clint Rainey

Filed Under: the chain gang, starbucks, starbucks for life, ultimate starbucks card

Hopefully, everything will be Instagram ready.

Back in May rumors started swirling that domestic maven (and not so secret mean girl) Martha Stewart would open a cafe. Now, Bloomberg gets the exclusive scoop, that the Martha Stewart cafe is definitely opening in the Starrett-Lehigh Building in Chelsea, which is Martha Steward Living HQ and also the new home of a Takumi Taco. There's no opening date yet, or menu, but expect everything in it to be just so. Also, don't rule out the possibility that this is just another jab at Gwyneth Paltrow, who opened her Goop pop-up in Dallas recently.

DC's next big movie officially has its cast. Confirming earlier rumors, Jared Leto is officially onboard to play the Joker in the upcoming Suicide Squad film, directed by David Ayer. He's joined by a long list of actors including Will Smith, Tom Hardy, and Margot Robbie, who will each play Deadshot, Rick Flagg, and Harley Quinn, respectively. The actors will team up to form the titular Suicide Squad, a group of supervillains tasked with completing black ops missions for the US government.

The villains are coming out to play

"The Warner Bros. roots are deep on this one," said Warner Bros. Studios worldwide production boss Greg Sullivan in a statement. "David Ayer returns to the studio where he wrote ‘Training Day’ and brings his...

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 There’s a new entrant in the already-competitive online game streaming space: game developer, publisher, and retailer Valve just announced the beta version of Steam Broadcasting, a tool for watching your friends play from within the company’s popular game store and community hub. Read More

The high divorce rate of the late 1970s and early 1980s is starting to look like a historical anomaly, not a trend.

You've always got a place to jot down ideas with a smartphone in hand, but can your Nexus 6 keep you warm on a cold morning? Not likely, and definitely not like this Paper Scarf from Little Factory can, while giving you over five-and-a-half feet of white space to scribble down notes and doodles.

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And you can do pretty much anything during those quests. I covered myself in pig's blood and danced around a quizzical swan. According to Infini-Quest, my actions won't soon be forgotten. I should hope not.

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Rambo Tribble writes "South Korea has instituted large fines for selling unregistered "selfie-sticks". The problem arises because many of the devices are using Bluetooth radio spectrum, and must be certified to do so legally. Expressing doubts that the regulations and stiff fines will influence sales, one official said of them, "It's not going to affect anything in any meaningful way, but it is nonetheless a telecommunication device subject to regulation, and that means we are obligated to crack down on uncertified ones."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Filed under: Etc.

Gas prices traditionally take a dive come winter, as demand cools faster than the daily temperature and producers switch to the cheaper "winter blend" of gas. That, however, doesn't account for the precipitous fall in prices, with 2014's nationwide average $3.69 high point, to last week's average of just $2.79. In fact, prices are expected to dive even further in the coming weeks.

According to Bloomberg, fuel prices in parts of the US could be set to plunge even further than they already have, hitting numbers that haven't been seen since the global economy began it's slow trudge out of the Great Recession, back in 2009. That could mean gas going for $2 a gallon. In fact, some fueling stations in the south and Midwest are already shilling dino juice for just $2.20 a gallon.

"We could see the cheapest one percent of stations get within a few pennies of $1.99 over the next two weeks," Patrick DeHaan, an analyst at GasBuddy, told Bloomberg. "We'll see at least one station in the nation at $2 by Christmas. And that's not really a prediction at all. That's more like a certainty."

Why the big plunge? Well, the usual suspects - winter fuel and falling demand - are being accompanied by OPEC's curious decision to maintain its production pace of 30 million barrels per day.

"Given that OPEC has decided not to cut production and, for all intents and purposes, are entering into a market share war with the rest of the world, $2 a gallon could be in the cards," Andy Lipow, the president of Lipow Oil Associates, told Bloomberg.

Provided OPEC continues fighting for market share and ignoring the laws of supply and demand, things should continue being easy going for American consumers at the pump.

Experts predicting sub-$2/gallon gas for parts of US soon originally appeared on Autoblog on Mon, 01 Dec 2014 17:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Cheesy dreams.

You've probably seen, during the course of the last few months on Twitter or Facebook, this beautiful mock-up of a bed that looks exactly like a delicious pizza. It's got a red-sauced flat sheet, a pepperoni and cheese duvet cover, and some crusty pillowcases. It also happens to not exist in real life, being the creation of Brooklyn-based artist Claire Manganiello, who says the rendering came about after she and a friend were talking about "how nice it would be to be able to crawl under the cheese layer on a piece of pizza and then eat your way out."

Perhaps because everyone has felt this exact thing at one time or another during their lives, and also because Katy Perry and Cara Delevingne and people like that are on the cheesecore vanguard, Manganiello is now in the midst of raising $125,000 on Kickstarter, and the sheets are going for $100, $125, and $150 for early backers, depending on bed size, of course. It may not be edible, but Managaniello says she expects to ship orders in pizza boxes.

[Mashable]

Read more posts by Hugh Merwin

Filed Under: cheesecore, claire mangeniello, pizza bed, snooze

A Momofuku vet is at the helm of this new Koreatown restaurant.

Korean barbecue chain Kang Ho Dong Baekjeong's first Manhattan outpost is firing up its table grills for a soft opening tonight. The L.A. outpost has Jonathan Gold's blessing, so hopes are already high. There's another location in Flushing, that opened last year, but this one's under different management, and Momofuku and Jean Georges vet Deuki Hong is at the helm in the kitchen. The menu looks pretty traditional, with several grilling packages available and a handful of other options like stir-fried squid and noodles. Expect lunch options to follow down the line. 319 5th Avenue, Koreatown

Dinner Menu

I am still very much looking forward to the Shaun the Sheep movie, but the first official trailer is not inspiring much confidence:

Yeesh. That makes it look like The Smurfs movie or something. Movie company marketing departments don't seem to know what to do with quirky stuff like Shaun or Wallace & Gromit. Has an Aardman movie ever had a good trailer? (via digg)

Tags: Aardman Animations   movies   Shaun the Sheep   trailers   video

Hotel, restaurant and car service companies are now frequently using sophisticated systems that allow them to identify their best, and worst, patrons.

Chance Miller, writing for 9to5Google:

According to the latest data from IDC, Google, for the first time ever, has overtaken Apple in United States schools. The research firm claims that Google shipped 715,000 Chromebooks to schools in the third quarter, while Apple shipped 702,000 iPads to schools. Chromebooks as a whole now account for a quarter of the educational market.

IDC says that the lower-cost of Chromebooks when compared to iPads is a huge factor for school districts. Chromebooks start at $199, while last year’s iPad Air, with educational discounts applied, costs $379. The research firm also says that many school corporations prefer the full keyboard found on Chromebooks instead of the touchscreen found on iPads. Some schools that use iPads, however, supply students with a keyboard case as well, but that only further increases the cost of iPads compared to Chromebooks. IT departments also tend to favor Chromebooks because they are simpler to manage when compared to iPads.

Interesting trend. Makes me wonder whether there are any other markets than education where Chromebooks are gaining traction.

There are only two rules to Cyber Monday, the other side of the Thanksgiving shopping weekend. It has to occur on Monday. (That's what the word "Monday" means. It's a day of the week.) And it has to be online, which is why the word "Cyber" is in there. If you read the phrase, or better yet say it out loud, you'll know all the rules. They are not complicated.

Yet somehow that second rule escaped the Washington Redskins organization this year. In a fit of 1997 nostalgia, tryptophan-induced hysteria, or just garden-variety stupidity, the team is offering a Cyber Monday deal for season tickets that you can only complete over the phone. Like, you have to dial a phone number. And talk to a person. It's almost amazing you're allowed to...

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Seamus Mullen, Ivan Orkin, and more sit down to talk about the first year on the way west side.

Until a year ago, the far West Side in the 40's was one of the last remaining areas in Manhattan without decent food. But then Gotham West Market brought major talent to the area from the hipper regions of downtown and Brooklyn, opening one of the city's first upscale food halls. But, things haven't always gone perfectly smoothly. In less than 12 months, the market lost two major vendors, The Brooklyn Kitchen and Saltie offshoot, Little Chef. Now, Ivan Orkin who owns Slurp Shop, Ken Priest who manages Genuine Roadside, Seamus Mullen of El Colmado, and Christopher Jaskiewicz, President of Gotham West Market, sit down to talk about their first year, how they are changing the idea of communal dining in New York, and what's next.

How did you all end up as part of the market?

Chris: We have about 1,250 apartments in Gotham West and we wanted to do something spectacular for the tenants. And also create a free-standing business that would be a destination. So, we set out to attract the best chefs, and that's what lead us to people like Ivan and Ken and Seamus.

Ivan, you were already working on your Lower East Side restaurant when you heard about this, but you were still in Tokyo. Were you concerned about doing two projects in New York at once?

Ivan: I really didn't want to do this project because I had already signed a lease on another project and I just had this terrible feeling they were both going to open at the same time, which kind of happened....the restaurant business follows Murphy's Law almost down to a tee.

But, I had an opportunity to be an anchor in the market....so it was hard to say no. The ramen shop downtown is much more of a flagship restaurant, and it's a very chef-y restaurant. I really felt like here at the Slurp Shop I was going to have a chance to see what the feel of a really fast-casual Tokyo-like shop would be like in the States. I just couldn't pass on that opportunity.

And Ken, how did Genuine Roadside end up here?

Ken: I'm from the West Coast so I was involved in markets there. It's a very good way to get your name out there and be part of something new with a lot of different operators. So, us being a new concept, it was great to be able to get on board with somebody like Ivan or Seamus, because [the people who come here] might not be our customers today, but they'll be our customers tomorrow. And we might bring somebody else through the market. So, it's good for everybody. The success of everybody is on everybody. It's not just one operator. Everybody's got to hold their own to keep people coming in.

Eating in a communal environment had such a negative stigma attached to it.

Seamus?

Seamus: I was always meant to be in a market. When I lived in Barcelona I was cooking at a restaurant called Alkimia. I lived about two miles from the restaurant, and I would walk to work almost every day through the Boqueria Market, and I kind of fell in love with that idea of having a restaurant in a market. It was something I always wanted to do, but the opportunity never really presented itself in New York. I think a lot of that was just because for so long the notion of eating in a communal environment had such a negative stigma attached to it. We thought of it as a food court, like a Sbarro's and all that horse crap.

When I first heard about this, it was really what we were looking for: an opportunity to do our tapas bar concept, which we figured we would do in a communal environment, and also to really change the notion of what it means to eat in a food hall. It was really a chance for us to do what we wanted to do in an environment that had yet to be proven, which was also nice, having a bit of a challenge. And I think just the fact that it's serving an underserved neighborhood, that this is probably one of the last few emerging real estate markets in New York really appealed to us. I think if we can become a cornerstone of this community as it develops around us, it'll really set us up for longevity.

What does a day look like at the market for all of you? What time does everyone arrive? When is it busiest?

Ivan: At the beginning we were working 18 hours a day, seven days a week, and everybody was on hand all the time. And now, I can pass through here on my way to my other place. I pop my head in a lot and check in. We start at 11:30, so by 8:00 in the morning we're prepping and getting ready.

Ken: There's a buzz in here from 7:00 in the morning on. With Blue Bottle, Court Street doing breakfast, and ourselves. Cannibal is doing really nice late-night business as well. It works for everybody.

The idea of a food court and of communal dining, in the States at least, had this really horrible reputation up until about a year ago. How is this project different?

We have the opportunity to shift the way people see food halls.

Ivan: I think what Seamus said is really apropos. We have the opportunity to shift the way people see food halls. We're not at the mall in Westchester where there's, you know, a McDonald's or a Sbarro. Nothing wrong with those places, but it's not what we do. Just because it's an open space where you grab different things on a tray and then join your friends doesn't mean that the quality is any less. Our food cost is the same here as it is downtown. I spend the same amount of money on our product, spend the same amount of money on training my staff and paying my staff, it's just not an inexpensive proposition. We pay real money to make real food and ultimately I want people to see that's what they're really getting is this curated atmosphere.

The upscale food hall is something that's been going on around the world for a really long time. It's just that Americans are coming late to the party. I hope people can get past this old food hall image that doesn't do justice to what we do.

Where's everything being made?

Chris: One of the things we did is keep the back of the house sections, the storage and food prep, out of the public eye, downstairs. Each operator has their own facility downstairs. I personally took a page out of the Walt Disney World book by proposing that, because Disney World has tunnels under the Magic Kingdom, so that the guests don't see the back of house. People here can look around and experience what we want them to experience.

All of you guys operate other restaurants, so how is it different to run a restaurant that's in a communal space?

Seamus: Physically, one of the main differences is there isn't a clear definition of where your space ends and where someone else's space begins. So, you can populate your space and create as much of a vibe within your space, but ultimately it needs to jive with what else is going on within the rest of the space. You're not a solo entity. I mean, it's the first time for me as an operator that I haven't had the final word on decisions. It's really easy when you're running a stand-alone restaurant to say, "This is the way it's going to be, because that's ultimately the way I think it should be." This requires a different level of communication.

I've been a boss for a long time and now, there are eight bosses.

Ivan: There are compromises, always. It's also about being a grown up. You've got to know that there's pluses and minuses. I go downtown and, like Seamus says, I'm more of a master. I could say "Let's paint the place purple," and it's purple. That's cool, but it's also nice to know I got everybody and we all got each other's back.

I've been the boss for a long time and now there's eight bosses and everybody has to be willing to step off a little bit.

Some things have changed since you guys opened, namely Little Chef and the Brooklyn Kitchen are no longer here. Do you feel like this space only works with very specific vendors?

Chris: We're fortunate to have a terrific core group of operators that are here doing well. You know, we watch their sales every day. Because it's a market we're going to make some changes sometimes, we're going to keep things fresh, we're going to try new venues, we're going to be creative. Becoming stale is the enemy, and we don't want anything to become stale. One of the ways to do that is to introduce new people, new concepts occasionally into the market.

Do you guys have anything in the works coming?

Chris: Yes, we are going to use the old Brooklyn Kitchen space creatively, for holidays [and] for events. We have several offers now on my desk for other locations within the market.

Everybody who's here also does a lot of stuff outside of this market. What's on everybody's plates and radars at the moments outside of the market? Chris, would you guys do another market?

Chris: We are actually exploring putting a market in another building we're developing in Brooklyn. We're developing a 50-story building at 250 Ashland. We might put a market at the bottom of that building.

Ken: We're working on a Genuine in Nolita.

Ivan: I also have a lot of new businesses down the pipe, I'm just not decided what exactly they're going to look like.

New York? Tokyo?

Ivan: Somewhere in the States, possibly New York. I'll know by the end of the year or so. I want it to be good, and I tend to stew on things until I'm sure.

Seamus: We're opening in the Meatpacking District later this month, early December, pending permits. And I just opened in London and then later in 2015 we're opening a bigger, full-service, stand-alone restaurant in 1 Hotel in Brooklyn Bridge Park. So that'll be towards the end of 2015. And we'll see what happens with the market in Brooklyn because that's certainly something that we want to continue to do. The thing we like about the tapas bars is that we can expand it or collapse it depending on the size. It works really well in the market environment, but also works as a stand-alone.

Filed under: Europe, Government/Legal, Diesel, Ownership, Emissions, Technology

Anyone even vaguely familiar with the European auto market knows that diesel-fueled vehicles take up a huge portion of the roads there. A combination of high fuel efficiency, useful torque in tightly packed cities, low CO2 emissions and tax incentives all contribute to the popularity. However, ever the iconoclasts, the French government wants the oil burners off its roads in the coming years.

"In France, we have long favoured the diesel engine. This was a mistake, and we will progressively undo that, intelligently and pragmatically," French Prime Minister Manuel Valls said in a speech, according to Reuters. Under his plan, the country would begin ranking vehicles by the pollution they create next year, and cities would be free to limit access from the worst offenders.

In addition, Valls plans to use taxation to push drivers to other options. Part of the plan includes raising the tax on diesel by two cents per liter in 2015. Also, drivers who trade in their oil-burner for an electric vehicle are eligible for up to 10,000 euros ($12,500), according to Reuters. The only problem with that, though, is that France's network of nuclear power plants might not be able to take the added load of so many EVs charging.

The country's environment minister suggested a similar tax hike on oil-burners in 2013 to improve public health. While the fuel has its advantages, diesel emits more nitrogen dioxide than gasoline. One report claimed that the substance could cause 420,000 premature deaths in Europe each year.

The move could rankle the roughly 80 percent of French drivers who own diesel-fueled cars, but it's the latest attempt to lower pollution levels in France. A proposed plan earlier this summer could cover much of Paris with an 19-mile-per-hour speed limit (30 km/h). There was also a very brief attempt to limit cars from entering the capital by their license plate number.

France says diesel cars a 'mistake,' announces phase-out plans originally appeared on Autoblog on Mon, 01 Dec 2014 14:29:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Early this year, designer Asher Vollmer released one of 2014's best games with Threes, a title that boiled mobile puzzle games down to their very basics. It was simple, but wonderfully addictive, and it spawned a legion of copycat games. Now he's trying to do something similar with a much more complex genre: the real-time strategy game.

Vollmer's next game, Close Castles, is a collaboration with artist Dominique "Dom2D" Ferland: a game that aims to be a more accessible alternative to complex experiences like Starcraft. He describes these games as "miserable pain engines designed to give players the worst possible experience," adding that "I intend to fix all that with my new game." Close Castles will differ in a number of ways: matches...

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They're cruising the streets for embarrassing tweets. It's no secret that every year, the number of people driving under the influence of alcohol shoots up around Christmas. As part of its yearly crackdown, police in Sussex and Surrey are taking to T...

The periodic table is perhaps the most iconic scientific visualization in the world—but that doesn't mean it can't show more. Now, Google has amped up every scientist's favorite to show how elements really get used in the real world.

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This Frank Rich interview with Chris Rock is fantastic, full of keen comedic, political, and sociological insights from Rock.

Q: What do you think of how he's done? Here we are in the last two years of his presidency, and there's a sense among his supporters of disappointment, that he's disengaged.

A: I'm trying to figure out the right analogy. Everybody wanted Michael Jordan, right? We got Shaq. That's not a disappointment. You know what I mean? We got Charles Barkley. It's still a Hall of Fame career. The president should be graded on jobs and peace, and the other stuff is debatable. Do more people have jobs, and is there more peace? I guess there's a little more peace. Not as much peace as we'd like, but I mean, that's kind of the gig. I don't recall anybody leaving on an up. It's just that kind of job. I mean, the liberals that are against him feel let down because he's not Bush. And the thing about George Bush is that the kid revolutionized the presidency. How? He was the first president who only served the people who voted for him. He literally operated like a cable network. You know what I mean?

Q: He pandered to his target audience.

A: He's the first cable-television president, and the thing liberals don't like about Obama is that he's a network guy. He's kind of Les Moonves. He's trying to get everybody. And I think he's figured out, and maybe a little late, that there's some people he's never going to get.

And this:

Q: What would you do in Ferguson that a standard reporter wouldn't?

A: I'd do a special on race, but I'd have no black people.

Q: Well, that would be much more revealing.

A: Yes, that would be an event. Here's the thing. When we talk about race relations in America or racial progress, it's all nonsense. There are no race relations. White people were crazy. Now they're not as crazy. To say that black people have made progress would be to say they deserve what happened to them before.

Q: Right. It's ridiculous.

A: So, to say Obama is progress is saying that he's the first black person that is qualified to be president. That's not black progress. That's white progress. There's been black people qualified to be president for hundreds of years. If you saw Tina Turner and Ike having a lovely breakfast over there, would you say their relationship's improved? Some people would. But a smart person would go, "Oh, he stopped punching her in the face." It's not up to her. Ike and Tina Turner's relationship has nothing to do with Tina Turner. Nothing. It just doesn't. The question is, you know, my kids are smart, educated, beautiful, polite children. There have been smart, educated, beautiful, polite black children for hundreds of years. The advantage that my children have is that my children are encountering the nicest white people that America has ever produced. Let's hope America keeps producing nicer white people.

Q: It's about white people adjusting to a new reality?

A: Owning their actions. Not even their actions. The actions of your dad. Yeah, it's unfair that you can get judged by something you didn't do, but it's also unfair that you can inherit money that you didn't work for.

Tags: Barack Obama   Chris Rock   Frank Rich   interviews   politics

Thomas Keller's two marquee restaurants will ask diners to pay for dinner at the time of booking, according to Nick Kokonas, the founder of the ticketing system that Keller will start using in 2015.

Thomas Keller's Per Se in New York and The French Laundry in Napa Valley, two of America’s most expensive and best-reviewed restaurants, will join the small but growing ranks of culinary establishments asking guests to pay for their tasting menus at the time of booking, rather than at the conclusion of the meal. That's according to Nick Kokonas, the founder of the new ticketing service that both venues will adopt next year.

Starting in the spring, both of Keller’s three Michelin-starred spots will switch from OpenTable, the industry leader in online reservations, to Tock, Kokonas’ upstart booking service that’s set to launch in the first quarter of 2015. A pilot version of that system has been in place for years at Alinea and Next, two of the Chicago eateries that Kokonas owns with chef Grant Achtaz, as well at a handful of restaurants across the country, including Coi in San Francisco, Trois Mec in Los Angeles, and, during its final services, WD~50 in New York. The benefits of pre-paid dining include providing restaurants with a more steady cash flow up front, as well as cutting down on profit-killing no show diners.

For reservations, "Per Se and The French Laundry will work exactly like Alinea. Pre-purchase of the tasting menu, phone call to every guest," Kokonas wrote in an email yesterday afternoon. Individual beverages or wine pairings will be purchased at the restaurant.

One aspect of the Kokonas system that The French Laundry, at least, will not use is dynamic pricing, according to Inside Scoop SF. That policy lets restaurants adjust the cost of a meal according to the day and time. Alinea, for example, charges as little as $210 for dinner earlier in the week, and as much as $275 during peak hours. But The French Laundry, like most tasting menu spots, charges a single price throughout the week, $295 for lunch and dinner. Per Se, in turn, asks $310, with two shorter options available at lunch. Service is included at both restaurants.

How will a pre-paid system be received at either restaurant? A table for two at The French Laundry currently ranks among the country's most difficult bookings; there's surely a deep bench of prospective guests who'd be willing to put up the funds necessary to dine there long in advance. As for Per Se, same-day or same-week bookings are not difficult to obtain for most party sizes.

The Chef's Table at Brooklyn Fare is currently the only other major New York restaurant that employs a pre-paid dining model, though guests are only charged the full menu price ($255, plus service) about a week before dinner, not at the time of booking.

Update: It should be noted that the Thomas Keller Restaurant Group have declined to comment on pricing and payment policies under Tock.

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The Apple co-founder’s emails in past lawsuits — a mix of blunt threats and cheery financial promises — have made him an exceptional witness against his own company, even from beyond the grave.

The online publisher, with a quickly growing portfolio of lifestyle and news brands, will announce on Monday that it has just closed a $46.5 million round of financing from General Atlantic, a New York investment firm.

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