Rexfeng

With physical and virtual visits “off the charts,” libraries across the country are thinking up innovative ways to keep users happy.

When Owen Suskind was three, a switch flipped within him and he went from a typical chatty rambunctious three-year-old to autistic.

I had just started a job as The Wall Street Journal's national affairs reporter. My wife, Cornelia, a former journalist, was home with him -- a new story every day, a new horror. He could barely use a sippy cup, though he'd long ago graduated to a big-boy cup. He wove about like someone walking with his eyes shut. "It doesn't make sense," I'd say at night. "You don't grow backward." Had he been injured somehow when he was out of our sight, banged his head, swallowed something poisonous? It was like searching for clues to a kidnapping.

After visits to several doctors, we first heard the word "autism." Later, it would be fine-tuned to "regressive autism," now affecting roughly a third of children with the disorder. Unlike the kids born with it, this group seems typical until somewhere between 18 and 36 months -- then they vanish. Some never get their speech back. Families stop watching those early videos, their child waving to the camera. Too painful. That child's gone.

But a tenuous connection remained between Owen and his pre-autistic self: Disney movies. And through them, Owen slowly learns how to communicate with the outside world again.

So we join him upstairs, all of us, on a cold and rainy Saturday afternoon in November 1994. Owen is already on the bed, oblivious to our arrival, murmuring gibberish.... "Juicervose, juicervose." It is something we've been hearing for the past few weeks. Cornelia thinks maybe he wants more juice; but no, he refuses the sippy cup. "The Little Mermaid" is playing as we settle in, propping up pillows. We've all seen it at least a dozen times, but it's at one of the best parts: where Ursula the sea witch, an acerbic diva, sings her song of villainy, "Poor Unfortunate Souls," to the selfish mermaid, Ariel, setting up the part in which Ursula will turn Ariel into a human, allowing her to seek out the handsome prince, in exchange for her voice.

When the song is over, Owen lifts the remote. Hits rewind.

"Come on, Owen, just let it play!" Walt moans. But Owen goes back just 20 seconds or so, to the song's next-to-last stanza, with Ursula shouting:

Go ahead -- make your choice!

I'm a very busy woman, and I haven't got all day.

It won't cost much, just your voice!

He does it again. Stop. Rewind. Play. And one more time. On the fourth pass, Cornelia whispers, "It's not 'juice.' " I barely hear her. "What?" "It's not 'juice.' It's 'just' ... 'just your voice'!"

I grab Owen by the shoulders. "Just your voice! Is that what you're saying?!"

He looks right at me, our first real eye contact in a year. "Juicervose! Juicervose! Juicervose!"

Walt starts to shout, "Owen's talking again!" A mermaid lost her voice in a moment of transformation. So did this silent boy. "Juicervose! Juicervose! Juicervose!" Owen keeps saying it, watching us shout and cheer. And then we're up, all of us, bouncing on the bed. Owen, too, singing it over and over -- "Juicervose!" -- as Cornelia, tears beginning to fall, whispers softly, "Thank God, he's in there."

This is the best thing I've read in a month, so so heartbreaking and amazing. Just pre-ordered the book...can't wait to read the full version.

Tags: books   crying at work   Disney   Life Animated   movies   Owen Suskind   Ron Suskind

Comcast is sparing no expense to swallow Time Warner Cable. In addition to the $45 billion it will spend to expand its waistline from coast to coast, Comcast has padded the pockets of nearly every lawmaker responsible for overseeing the telecom giant's bid. According to a Politico investigation, the company has directed millions of dollars to lawmakers through its political action committee and donations to charitable causes and groups, and millions more on lobbying them.

Politico reports that 15 of the 18 members of the Senate Judiciary Committee, which will hold a hearing on the Comcast deal on March 26th, have taken some form of contribution from Comcast. In the House Judiciary Committee, where a similar hearing will take place, 32...

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Sebuh Honarchian, a developer from Los Angeles, showed up at the South By Southwest Interactive trade show in Austin, Texas on Saturday because he heard there would be a Bitcoin ATM and he needed to pay rent. He found the machine in a corner of the trade floor, flashed it a QR code on his phone, and retrieved $3,000 — less than five BTC at current prices.

"I just cashed my Bitcoin out because I need to pay some bills, you know I got rent and other things," he tells The Verge. "You have to cash out your Bitcoin sometimes whenever you need to spend it. These machines make it really easy."

There are at least three companies making ATMs designed for Bitcoin, the virtual currency that approximates cash on the internet. Two of the models...

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Our favorite new taqueria, the East Village's Otto's Tacos, has debuted the first of their special monthly tacos. For a week this month the tiny taqueria will be frying up Buffalo Chicken Strips Tacos; wonder where they got that idea? [ more › ]

“Transitioning to Community Ownership” is Mozilla-speak for “It’s dead, Jim.”

Those packaged Blue Bottle coffees that were released in the chain's San Francisco locations on Thursday will be coming to the New York outposts in the next few weeks. For now, they only have the New Orleans style coffee in the 10.66 oz milk carton, but there are larger sizes in the works and you will be able to buy the coffees at Whole Foods in late May. [Eater SF]

Chances are high that if you've eaten ramen in New York City, your noodles came just across state lines from New Jersey's Sun Noodle. The company creates a special rye noodle for ramen maestro Ivan Orkin, and Keizo Shimamoto uses their product for his Ramen Burger; they're also fixtures at Smorgasburg. [ more › ]

Last year, I predicted that the rising tide of Android gaming would raise all boats — that indie game consoles like the Ouya, the Shield, and the Gamestick could mount a challenge against Xbox and PlayStation because of all the attention they were getting as a whole. Sadly, it looks like I was wrong. This week, the leader of the indie console charge is standing down.

Ouya was in the right place at the right time in the summer of 2012. One of the early Kickstarter darlings, the $99 hackable Android game console raised $8.5 million on the strength of its convictions and the résumés of its founders. Ouya CEO Julie Uhrman — a former VP of digital distribution for IGN and GameFly — offered a compelling vision of a game system that...

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Bristol, Connecticut is only 100 miles outside of Manhattan.

Hollywood restaurant Pink's — known for its chili dogs, as well as its bacon-chili-cheese dogs with chopped tomatoes, as well as its mozzarella-topped Giada de Laurentiis hot dog — is opening a vendor stand within Bristol, Connecticut's Lake Compounce amusement park, where it joins (of course) kiosks and restaurants like Fried Bats, the Croc Pot Cafeteria, and the Funnel Cake Factory.

Pink's, which turns 74 years old this year, is known for very long lines and an endless parade of random celebrity appearances (James Earl Jones! Kim Kardashian! Orson Welles!). It operates mini-outposts elsewhere in California and Vegas, but this is its first East Coast location. In Connecticut, Pink's will even be serving its trademark vegan dogs, and if none of the above is sufficiently compelling, just remember that the famed hot-dog shack is where Bruce Willis proposed to Demi Moore, and that there's also a behemoth "Brando Dog" blanketed with chili, onions, and mustard on the menu.

See you May 17.

LA-Based Pink’s Hot Dogs Coming to Lake Compounce [NBC]

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Filed Under: hot diggity, coming soon, connecticut, hot dogs, lake compounce, pink's

Those fortunate enough to score a pre-release copy of Titanfall can enjoy the game without fear of retaliation from Microsoft or developer Respawn Entertainment. This unexpectedly permissive news comes courtesy of no less a source than Respawn...

San Francisco wants to cut its landfill waste down to absolute zero by 2020. While a city-wide plastic bag ban has been in effect for a few years, new legislation approved by the Board of Supervisors this week sets its sights on the bane of tap-water enthusiasts and thirsty environmentalists alike: Bay Area, say goodbye to the plastic water bottle.

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Dainese has been developing a wearable airbag system the company hopes will help save skiers from broken bones and injuries after a wipeout on the slopes. And somehow, it's managed to fit all of the hardware into a jersey that doesn't look like it adds much bulk or weight to a skier's outfit. Because after all, safety gear doesn't work if you don't want to wear it.

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New Comic: Consultant

The Nomad hands out monocles to guests that complain that they can't read the menu. Monocles are apparently having a moment right now, and according to T Magazine, some chefs are using them in the kitchen. One of the founders of Warby Parker explains: "A lot of them are getting monocles that they clip on to their aprons." [T Magazine]

After over a year, the artist who was arrested for replacing ordinary New York sidewalk ads with satirical PSAs about an NYPD drone strike program is in the clear. Animal New York reports that all complaints have been dropped against Essam Attia, who was initially charged with three felonies and two lesser charges in December of 2012. Those charges were reduced last year, and now they've been dismissed altogether, something Attia attributes partly to his attorney prolonging the case until media furor had died down. "It was old enough news that it didn't matter anymore," he tells Animal.

Attia's striking drone posters and alerts were a common sight in Midtown New York during the fall of 2012. The artist behind them, though, remained...

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One might wonder: how the hell do you turn a game as cinematic as The Last of Us into a movie? One will keep wondering. Sony's doing it, working alongside Naughty Dog and Screen Gems to make their PS3 hit into a film.

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Joshua and Heidy Smookler have signed the lease on a space at 1209 Jackson Ave. in Long Island City for the first permanent version of their hit noodle operation Mu Ramen. The Smooklers started serving ramen in Bricktown Bagels last year, and then they moved it to various locations, including their apartment. But after Pete Wells put Mu at the top of his ramen list this week, they received 2,000 reservation requests in less than 24 hours and decided to stop the ramen pop-up nights altogether. The new location is about four blocks from the Court Square Subway station.

Today Joshua tells Pete Wells: "I literally got inundated with investment opportunities...I was trying to meet with all those people, so I had to stop that anyway." If everything goes according to plan, the new Mu Ramen restaurant will open in July. There's also a slight chance that they might revive the pop-up inside another restaurant before then.
· Mu Ramen on Temporary Hold [NYT]
· All Coverage of Mu Ramen [~ENY~]
[Photo: Facebook]

The original.

Perpetually busy Yakitori Totto spinoff Totto Ramen, which has two New York locations, is reportedly opening in Allston next to a branch of sports bar Tavern in the Green. A Chowhound user spotted the sign at a restaurant under construction that bears the Totto name, as well as its distinctive rooster logo. [Chowhound, Related]

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Filed Under: expansions, boston, new york, ramen, ramen-yas, totto ramen

QuizUp, the pub-style trivia game that became a smash hit on iOS, has finally made the jump to Android. It's now available in the Google Play Store — four months after the addictive app made its iPhone debut. If you've played the iOS version, don't expect much in the way of change, but there's little reason for Plain Vanilla Games to deviate from a proven formula. After linking up a Facebook or Google+ account (or signing up by email), you'll pick a topic to be quizzed on from over 400 possibilities, QuizUp then matches you up with another player who shares your level of expertise. Matchmaking is generally based on the game's leveling system, but occasionally you'll face off with a more experienced player. If you've already played...

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Former executives at Dewey & LeBoeuf were accused of using accounting gimmicks to fool banks and investors.

Metal Gear's creator took to Twitter to talk about the conceptual origins behind the name of series protagonist Solid Snake. Over eight tweets.

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How do you adequately craft a memorial for one of the worst days in a country's modern history? That's the question that was posed to architects and artists as part of a competition for a dual-site memorial commemorating the attacks in Norway on July 22nd, 2011. On that day, 77 people were killed, eight by an Oslo car bomb and 69 in a massacre at a youth event on the island of Utøya. After holding an open competition, Norway has decided to install a pair of memorials designed by Swedish...

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Twitch is moving to establish itself as the place to watch E3, after signing a three-year deal to be the gaming conference's official streaming partner. The deal with the Entertainment Software Association means official conference streams will be...

It's been over four years since Dyson introduced a fan that somehow worked without visible blades. And besides releasing a few new models over the years, the company hasn't announced any major updates to its Air Multiplier line since 2009. But it turns out that's because Dyson's engineers were finding clever ways to make these fans even quieter—up to 75 percent quieter to be exact—on three new models being rolled out today.

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Videos of wingsuit flights are never not awesome but this one just might be the best. And it's not because of the snow. Though the beautifully fresh powder helps. And it's not because Dan Vicary, the flying man in the video, zips around for three miles. Though the astonishing views certainly don't hurt. But it's because when you're watching the video, you realize that this is all being filmed by another flying man in a wingsuit. Someone is flying a few feet behind capturing every second of this flight.

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The CIA has asked the Justice Department to investigate whether its officers were monitoring members of the Senate Intelligence Committee while they were working on a report about the previous administration's detention and interrogation programs. That inquiry, which was reported by The New York Times and the McClatchy news agency, came only after members of Congress complained to the CIA Inspector General's office about improper monitoring of the committee members' computers.

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“Everybody has their one thing that they’re good at, and if you ever find it, you want to stick with it.” —Rick Baird

Great short film from Grantland.