Rexfeng

When he was 20, Christopher Knight walked into the woods of Maine and didn't speak to another soul (save a quick "hi" to a passing hiker) for 27 years, during which he lived not off the land but off the propane tanks and freezers of his neighbors.

He started to speak. A little. When Perkins-Vance asked why he didn't want to answer any questions, he said he was ashamed. He spoke haltingly, uncertainly; the connection between his mind and his mouth seemed to have atrophied from disuse. But over the next couple of hours, he gradually opened up.

His name, he revealed, was Christopher Thomas Knight. Born on December 7, 1965. He said he had no address, no vehicle, did not file a tax return, and did not receive mail. He said he lived in the woods.

"For how long?" wondered Perkins-Vance.

Knight thought for a bit, then asked when the Chernobyl nuclear-plant disaster occurred. He had long ago lost the habit of marking time in months or years; this was just a news event he happened to remember. The nuclear meltdown took place in 1986, the same year, Knight said, he went to live in the woods. He was 20 years old at the time, not long out of high school. He was now 47, a middle-aged man.

Make sure you read until the end. This isn't a just-the-facts-ma'am piece on some hermit; it turns out that someone who has spent almost three decades alone has something insightful to say about being human.

Tags: Christopher Knight

Ikea is synonymous with the suburbs; part of the furniture shopping ritual has always included an often-lengthy drive to a industrial or semi-rural area of your town. But this summer, the company is testing out a new paradigm for its empire: Stores in the city. With far fewer spots for cars.

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The first location will open in San Francisco in 2015, with the second outlet debuting in Los Angeles shortly thereafter. [ more › ]

Anna Bernasek, writing for the NYT, compares typical iPhone monthly bills in the U.S. (Verizon) and U.K. (Three UK):

So why the $41.50-a-month difference in price? Several factors are involved, but an important one is regulatory policy. Britain has forced companies to lease their networks to competitors at cost. The United States has not, allowing a formidable barrier against competitors.

Update: Benedict Evans says the Times is all wrong:

Odd fact-checking failure by the NYT. MVNOs aren’t mandated in the UK & aren’t why mobile is so much cheaper than US.

A bill that requires all smartphones manufactured after July 1st, 2015 to include anti-theft measures if sold in the state of California was signed into law today. California governor Jerry Brown signed the bill, which was introduced back in February, and finally cleared the State assembly two weeks ago. Its aim is to make phones a less attractive target for thieves by requiring built-in tools that let consumers remotely lock, wipe, and disable the devices.

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Semil Shah, “iOS First. Android Much, Much Later”:

The most common trap here is the early iOS app which gets some buzz. All of a sudden, the founders hear “When are you building for Android?” The natural, enthusiastic response to sincere requests of the Android chorus is to go ahead and build for Android and seek more downloads, more growth, more revenue. I have a different view though. The proper response is: “No. Buy an iPhone.”

Sudden death is always tense in Super Smash Bros. Everybody starts out with 300% damage. Anything can happen. The slightest touch can send someone spinning into outer space. Or, a battle can drag on against the most insane odds to become a nail-biter to end all nail-biters.

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Amazon.com will purchase video game streaming service Twitch for approximately $970 million in cash. There you go, streamers. Happy? It wasn't Google! "Like Twitch, we obsess over customers and like to think differently, and we look forward to...

The mom of an underage Taco Bell employee is filing a $5 million class action suit against the owners of two Manhattan outposts for reportedly making her daughter give customers change in fake $20's, reports the Post. The girl was first pushed into the scheme when management accused her of accepting fake bills (which they apparently manufactured themselves) as payment from customers.

She then was forced to pass the buck back to customers and keep the scheme going, or else pay out of her own pocket. When she refused to continue the scheme, supervisors threatened to have her arrested. This turns out not to have been the wisest move, however, since the girl then went to the cops herself, armed with one of the fake bills and a taped conversation. The franchise owners in question have declined to comment on the situtation.
· Taco Bell Forced Workers to Give Out Bogus Money: Suit [NYP]
· All Coverage of Taco Bell [~ENY~]
[A Manhattan Taco Bell Foursquare]

Pretzel! Pretzel!

After limited-release test-marketing in a few far-flung franchised locations earlier this year and some recipe refinement, Little Caesars Soft Pretzel Crust Pepperoni Pizzas are now ready for a nationwide roll-out, which happens September 1. The burnished crust pie may become a permanent menu item if all goes well, and things are already looking up. "I'd buy one in a heartbeat," an R.I.T. professor emeritus tells USA Today. "It sounds better than a pizza bagel." Plus, each pie costs $6.

The chain's actually been hard at work on some version of this finger-food mashup since 2012, . The latest wisely eschews cheese sauce for a four-cheese blend, and mustard, which was testers reported was "a pretty polarizing flavor." The salted pretzel pie has pepperoni tomato sauce, and what purports to be a burnished pretzel crust. Chief executive David Scrivano hints there may be some sort of Pretzel Bites side order option in the near future too, so the chain's clearly positioning to extract all it can before the entire fast-food sector hits peak pretzel. If Little Caesar's hustles them out fast enough in oversize peanut-butter-filled animal shapes, they may even pioneer the first Dominique Ansel lobster tail knockoffs.

Pretzel Pizza: Newest Fast-Food Twist [USA Today]

Read more posts by Clint Rainey

Filed Under: the chain gang, little caesars, pizza, pretzel pizza

Real mountains are slightly more heart-healthy.

If Arby's is diabolically plotting something bigger than depleting the country's strategic brisket stocks, here's proof in the form of a $10 "Meat Mountain," an off-menu monstrosity whose name says it all. Everybody knows Arby's makes roast beef, though many now know its barbecue brisket because of those astoundingly long commercials, too. The origin story of this sandwich, if you believe it, began with the chain trying to alert customers to the fact that it serves other kinds of meats.

To that end, the chain asked managers to put up posters displaying its meats stacked helpfully like geological rock layers. However, in a world desensitized to kitchen-sink-food atrocities, customers just interpreted the posters as a menu suggestion. "People started coming in and asking, 'Can I have that?'" Christopher Fuller, an Arby's VP, tells the Washington Post. The answer, of course, was yes, absolutely. Now 10 bucks scores you this: two chicken tenders, 1.5 ounces of roast turkey, 1.5 ounces of ham, a slice of Swiss cheese, 1.5 ounces of corned beef, 1.5 ounces of brisket, 1.5 ounces of Angus steak, a slice of cheddar, 1.5 ounces of roast beef, and 3 bacon half-strips. It's apparently so huge, no packaging at the store can even begin to contain it.

The $1 Meat Mountain from Arby's: It's Exactly What It Sounds Like [WP]
Related: How Arby's 13-Hour Brisket Ad Ruined Barbecue for the Rest of US

Read more posts by Clint Rainey

Filed Under: a nugget is born, arby's, meat mountain, the chain gang

Peter Kafka and Eric Johnson, reporting for Recode:

Amazon is buying videogame streaming site Twitch for more than $1 billion to edge past Netflix and Youtube in a race for younger viewers, according to a source.

Google had been in talks to acquire the company, but that deal died, according to the source. Amazon then entered the picture and completed what is one of its biggest acquisitions to date, this person said.

For the uninitiated, Twitch is a platform for making and talking about videos of videogame play. About a million users a month record themselves playing videogames, while the rest — pegged at 50 million unique viewers in July — watch and comment on the videos. In January, Twitch reported that 58 percent of its viewers spent more than 20 hours per week on the site.

The future of TV is online streaming, not traditional “channels” that come through cable or satellite. It occurs to me that Google’s 2006 purchase of YouTube for $1.65 billion has proven to be one of the smartest and most important acquisitions of the Internet era. My son and his friends watch far more YouTube content than they do traditional TV. Cable TV is dying.

The scene at Bouchaine Vineyards in Napa.

The 6.0-magnitude earthquake that struck the San Francisco Bay Area early yesterday morning stands to devastate the local wine economy. The quake's epicenter was in Napa Valley, home to more than 500 vineyards, and while it is far too soon to estimate the wine-country-specific damage, numerous photos of wrecked storage rooms and punctured barrels, not to mention general reports from producers, are starting to come in, and the situation looks grim.

In addition to vineyards and other industry-side facilities, wine bars, retail outlets, and restaurants lost inventory during the earthquake. Barrels storing last year's grapes tumbled to the floors, breaking open, while bottles in cellars or on store shelves fell to the floor. One business owner estimated a loss of "'at least' $15,000 to $20,000 of wine inventory," while another, whose cellar holds an estimated $1 million of inventory, said "99 percent" of the inventory was left intact. One distributor who was holding 80,000 cases said his damage was just one bottle of wine. In the case of Silver Oak Winery, several bottles of "irreplaceable" wine were destroyed.

Structural damage remains a separate issue — in one case, a winery's water tank became untethered, which will delay this year's production, which is already hampered by drought. In the images below, each barrel you see damaged or destroyed is the equivalent of 25 cases, or 300 bottles of wine.

An online forum has been created for winemakers in need of help navigating the recovery process.

RT @insidescoopsf: @jbonne on the initial #napaquake effect on Napa's $13b wine industry http://t.co/guNrPkVizL pic.twitter.com/2UswAO8b6b

— Jonathan Kauffman (@jonkauffman) August 24, 2014

More scary photos of barrel destruction in Napa. Wine leaking all over the floor! pic.twitter.com/zf1fD9htFr

— Maureen Downey (@moevino) August 25, 2014

Man surveys fallen wine barrels after the magnitude 6.0 quake in Napa, California. (Photo via Reuters) pic.twitter.com/lyrrugEb5Q

— ABS-CBN News Channel (@ANCALERTS) August 25, 2014

Keep our friends in Napa in mind. go out and buy a bottle of Naps wine for dinner tonight. They don't deserve this. pic.twitter.com/jIiCSmoqU7

— Adam Lee (@SiduriWines) August 24, 2014

Damage the Napa #quake caused at Bouchaine, the winery closest to epicenter. Barrels cracked, spilled wine, $$$ lost. pic.twitter.com/2DrgHgKgGx

— Juan Carlos Guerrero (@JuanCarlosABC7) August 24, 2014

Pool of red wine & toppled over wine barrels at Napa Barrel Care after #earthquake .. Each barrel holds 300 bottles pic.twitter.com/7LuPqOFc57

— Anjali Hemphill (@AnjaliHemphill) August 24, 2014

Earthquake at @SilverOak pic.twitter.com/uSfHX2WzBk

— David Duncan (@DavidSilverOak) August 24, 2014

California earthquake shatters prized wine collections in Napa Valley http://t.co/0FLs6iyRGv pic.twitter.com/FZ7arqySta

— dna (@dna) August 25, 2014

The losses from California's Napa earthquake could top $1 bln—and yes, some of that's wine: http://t.co/wy84yfMPPa pic.twitter.com/HC1txRwFgC

— SpeedReads (@SpeedReads) August 25, 2014

Spilled wine quite a sight after Napa earthquake http://t.co/x0t02fIWHE photos via @anabanana0924 pic.twitter.com/B1paFPkYXP

— NBC Bay Area (@nbcbayarea) August 25, 2014

What a shot of quake damage in Napa wine country. pic.twitter.com/3zapEL8dJE

— Troy Hayden (@troyhaydenfox10) August 24, 2014

Napa's newest wine bar Cadet estimates $15K-$20K in lost wine inventory. Reopening soon tho. http://t.co/bOxLsuZdpG pic.twitter.com/PKu9RMiNjd

— Paolo Lucchesi (@lucchesi) August 24, 2014

#DailyFeedback Vintners in Napa Valley are hurting after this weekend's earthquake. Suggest songs about wine. pic.twitter.com/iqhcCyhwSe

— 91.3 WYEP (@WYEP) August 25, 2014

I'm happy all my napa peeps are safe but the earthquake wine destruction is breaking my heart pic.twitter.com/9zRPXB6h9X

— Cortney Pagano (@ccpag828) August 24, 2014

Cult Wine Bar will be ok! Downtown Napa got hit pretty bad! Keep u posted when we open back up pic.twitter.com/IjNqrYNGk6

— Charles Woodson Wine (@TwentyFourWines) August 24, 2014

I call for a wine bucket challenge in honor of the fallen in Napa. But dump the bucket in your mouth #earthquake pic.twitter.com/QlDoWy0zV5

— Miki Matteson (@Miki_Matteson) August 24, 2014

Photos of #napaquake damage shared by a @KING5Seattle viewer who now lives in Napa & works in wine industry. pic.twitter.com/5IERiNq9fU

— Ted Land (@TedLandK5) August 24, 2014

Napa, Ca. Whole Foods wine section! #Earthquake pic.twitter.com/ZSQnUWKq59

— Shannon (@PeaceIsUponUs) August 25, 2014

LIVE: Napa earthquake updates from California officials streaming here http://t.co/mHrRw2xs7k pic.twitter.com/JGKxFqcbAS

— KHOU 11 News Houston (@KHOU) August 24, 2014

It's not just wine.

A Napa olive oil shop lost most of its inventory in the earthquake http://t.co/kMJrsSVn2M #napaquake pic.twitter.com/MixAPPImf7

— KTVU (@KTVU) August 24, 2014

Damage at Lucero Olive Oil in Downtown Napa. #earthquake pic.twitter.com/dtHZMlAGD6

— Matt Keller (@MattKellerABC7) August 24, 2014

Napa restaurants assess the Northern California earthquake damage [Inside Scoop SF]
A Big Earthquake Hit Northern California This Morning [Daily Intelligencer]

Read more posts by Hugh Merwin

Filed Under: disasters, earthquakes, napa valley, san francisco, wine

Remember that rumored $1 billion deal Google worked out to purchase the internet's most popular game-streaming service? Amazon may be taking it over. According to The Information, folks close to the deal say that Twitch and Amazon are in late stage...

T-Mobile's approach when it comes to luring new customers continues to nab loads of users. This time around, the so-called UnCarrier is offering a year of unlimited data on its LTE network for customers that convince friends to make the switch from...

3D-printed implants just got one of their biggest real-world tests to date. Peking University Third Hospital has successfully implanted the first 3D-printed vertebra in a 12-year-old boy with cancer in his spinal cord. The bone substitute is made...

Jared Zichek decided to make his own, and says you can, too. Read the rest

Sleep tracking is one of the best features of the Jawbone Up fitness tracker, but it could serve a purpose beyond helping you feel less groggy in the morning. Jawbone's data science team has collated the sleep information from last night in northern California — which was hit by its biggest earthquake in 25 years — and used it to show what percentage of Up wearers in each city were woken up at 3.20AM PT. Napa was among the worst affected areas, whereas Santa Cruz barely registered a tremor, according to the sleep data.

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One of the best possible pairings of all time.

If there’s an opening that sums up the current high-low culinary climate in a nutshell, it’s got to be Birds & Bubbles, from Sarah Simmons, who runs the visiting-chef pop-up venue City Grit in Nolita. The North Carolina native’s southern menu runs the gamut from black-eyed-pea falafel to crawfish étouffée, while the whole philosophy of the restaurant is spelled out in its name—a reference to the signature buttermilk-brined fried chicken accompanied by a split of Champagne (from a 40-bottle-strong list) for $55.

And why not? Even a sweet-tea addict from Alabama might admit that a good glass of bubbles with crisp acidity and a delicate fizz nicely cuts the greasy richness of that southern staple. “Champagne is one of the best pairings for food overall,” says Simmons. If you don’t believe it, just try the pimento-cheese croquettes washed down with the Philipponnat Brut Reserve Rosé.

Birds & Bubbles, 100B Forsyth St., nr. Grand St.; 646-368-9420; Sept.

*This article appears in the August 25, 2014 issue of New York Magazine.

Read more posts by Robin Raisfeld and Rob Patronitie

Filed Under: fall preview 2014, birds and bubbles, champagne

The world's largest rubber duck is now no longer free to take selfies with, with it having been moved further inside the Tall Ships Festival in San Pedro. [ more › ]

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HL2: episode 1 on the Oculus Rift with Razer's Hydra motion controllers so you can see your hands move? Hell yes. Check out this Half-Life VR mod video from Kiwi YouTube gamer Goldfish highlighting some of the amazing dev work.

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Marketers, manufacturers and retailers are recognizing the group’s potential as the consumers who will drive the economy in the decades ahead.

Kristoffer Brady is a San Francisco based motion graphic designer with a great hand for futuristic screen graphics. This video is a montage of his work for Simian, an upcoming independent film.

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It didn't take long for people to "beat" the Silent Hills teaser—but nobody understood how exactly they did it. There were theories, sure, but nothing concrete...until now.

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I do not officially have a bucket list¹ but if I did have one, watching a total solar eclipse would be on it. Was just talking about it the other day in fact. Well. I am pretty damn excited for the Great American Eclipse of 2017!

In August 21, 2017, millions of people across the United States will see nature's most wondrous spectacle -- a total eclipse of the Sun. It is a scene of unimaginable beauty; the Moon completely blocks the Sun, daytime becomes a deep twilight, and the Sun's corona shimmers in the darkened sky. This is your guide to understand, prepare for, and view this rare celestial event.

It goes right through the middle of the country too...almost everyone in the lower 48 is within a day's drive of seeing it. Cities in the path of the totality include Salem, OR, Jackson, WY, Lincoln, NE, St. Louis, MO (nearly), Nashville, TN, and Charleston, SC.

Weather will definitely play a factor in actually seeing the eclipse, so I will be keeping an eye on Eclipser ("Climatology and Maps for the Eclipse Chaser") as the event draws near. Early analysis indicates Oregon as the best chance for clear skies. Matt, I am hereby laying claim to your guest room in three years time. So excited!!

[1] Also on this hypothetical bucket list: dunking a basketball, going to outer space, learning to surf, and two chicks at the same time. ↩

Tags: 2017 solar eclipse   astronomy   space   Sun   USA

Clones of Swing Copters in Less Than 24 Hours

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Contributions to the ALS Association have surged since the challenge started trending online in late July.

 Product Hunt, the YC-backed social network for sharing links to interesting new startups and apps via a Reddit-like interface, has been banned from Reddit. We first got wind that links to Product Hunt could no longer be submitted to Reddit from a comment on a video published to YouTube by Google Ventures announcing that the search giant’s investment wing invested in Product… Read More

Robert McMillan, reporting for Wired:

A year ago, Tom Landesman — who works for security and anti-spam company Cloudmark — had never seen an iMessage spam. But he and his company now say that, thanks to one particularly aggressive campaign from a junk mailer, it accounts for more than 30 percent of all mobile spam messages.

These kinds of spam campaigns come and go. Cloudmark spotted its first one late last year, when the scammers were flogging imitation designer handbags. Lately, the spammers have been pushing deals on knock-off Ray-Ban and Oakley sunglasses. […]

“It’s almost like a spammer’s dream,” says Landesman. “With four lines of code, using Apple scripts, you can tell your Mac machine to send message to whoever they want.”

I think the headline is hyperbole, but I have gotten two iMessage spams this month, both of them hawking those knock-off Ray-Bans. I just went ahead and reported them to Apple.