Rexfeng

Despite having proven otherwise time and time again, McDonald's still gets people asking if the horrifying image of pink chicken goop which circulated in 2010 is what's inside their Chicken McNuggets. Here's what's really happening inside McDonald's nugget factory.

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[Daniel Krieger]
Unstoppable gourmet salad chain Sweetgreen is planning a new location at 162 North 4th St. in Williamsburg. It will be right next to Umami Burger and Parm, and Whole Foods will be just around the corner, so that part of North 4th Street will soon become a row of popular, well-respected, affordably-priced chains. Sweetgreen's first location is next to The Nomad hotel, and another outpost is slated to open in Tribeca later this year. In an announcement about the new location, co-owner Nicolas Jammet explains: "Sweetgreen was born to live in Brooklyn and we could not think of a more perfect neighborhood than Williamsburg." There are currently 22 locations of the chain in the Northeast. The new Williamburg outpost will open this summer.
· All Coverage of Sweetgreen [~ENY~]

Inside the game that started it all

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The connected car got a major push from the federal government today, as the Department of Transportation announced plans for a regulatory proposal that would require vehicle-to-vehicle communication devices in a future year. The proposal comes after a year-long pilot program by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, which will be releasing a report on its findings in the coming weeks. It's just a first step towards the new communication system, but it's a big one. "By helping drivers avoid crashes, this technology will play a key role in improving the way people get where they need to go," U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx told reporters.

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"You've grown a little since the last time we met, non?"

The venerated French chef, who turns 88 years young next week, seemingly hasn't let a recent back-pain-related hospitalization slow him down: In addition to the Monsieur Paul restaurant that's already open at France's Epcot Center, Disneyland Paris has announced that Paul Bocuse has been enlisted to collaborate with Remy, the talented (and, sadly, fictional) rat chef from Ratatouille, on a bistro that will open this summer as part of its “Le Monde de Rémy."

The attraction will feature a ride that detours through the kitchens of Chez Gusteau, the central restaurant from the 2007 Pixar film. Actual ratatouille will be served to everyone along the way, which sounds fantastic. If nothing else, we're already won over by this photo, not to mention this other one from the same shoot. Four stars.

Disneyland Paris Partners with Chef Paul Bocuse for ‘Ratatouille’ Attraction
[Pursuitist]
Earlier: Paul Bocuse Remains Hospitalized in Lyon

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Filed Under: say cheese, coming soon, disneyland paris, le monde de rémy, paul bocuse, ratatouille

Greens, greens, greens.

A rep sends word that local-veggie-powered chainlet Sweetgreen will be using produce grown at nearby Brooklyn Grange when it opens this summer in Williamsburg, at 162 North 4th Street, where it'll be sandwiched between the borough's very first Umami Burger and Parm shops. The chain's Tribeca location opens this spring at 413 Greenwich Street. [Earlier, Related]

Read more posts by Hugh Merwin

Filed Under: salad days, coming soon, nomad, sweetgreen, tribeca, williamsburg

Dieter Rams' distinct brand of functionalism has inspired creatives for decades, but that hasn't stopped the legendary Braun designer from giving even more back to the design community. Rams attended a grad show at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California last year, giving an hour-long talk on design in addition to taking the time to critique and discuss the graduates' work.

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The Last of Us won this year's Writers Guild of America gong for Outstanding Achievement in Video Game Writing, in case Naughty Dog wasn't happy with its already creaking trophy cabinet. It's the right outcome out of a nominees list with some notable ...

Ladurée beef tournedos, pan-seared foie gras, artichokes and Dauphine truffled potatoes.

Two and a half years after pastry powerhouse Ladurée opened its first North American outpost on Madison Avenue, locals and tourists still queue up for its famed macarons, which are shipped from Paris weekly. On February 5, the company unveils its 65th international outpost (and its second Stateside) in the old Barolo space, which has been divided into a series of “salons” furnished with such decorative flourishes as a ceiling fresco and a wall of letters by the likes of Colette and George Sand. This location combines retail bakery, tea room, and full-service restaurant, overseen by chef Johann Giraud. His breakfast, lunch, and dinner menus are rife with Gallic classics (foie gras, vol-au-vent) and Ladurée signatures (various omelettes and “les clubs sandwiches”), but he’s added a few new dishes that reflect the local terroir—most notably, the kale-based “Salade Soho.” Also new to New York, in the pastry display case: walnut croissants and praline mille-feuilles.

Ladurée Soho, 398 W. Broadway, nr. Spring St. 646-392-7862

*This article originally appeared in the February 10, 2014 issue of New York Magazine.

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Filed Under: laduree, laduree soho, macarons, opening

A leader of a joint legislative panel investigating the conduct of Gov. Chris Christie’s administration warned that reviewing the thousands of subpoenaed papers could take weeks.

That Vignelli-designed map of mass transit options for the NY/NJ Super Bowl is beautiful, but the reality was awful. [ more › ]

Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling has admitted she may have made a mistake by marrying off Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley in the final book of the series. The comments came in an interview conducted by Emma Watson during her tenure as guest editor for the upcoming issue of the British quarterly Wonderland. Watson played Hermione in the massively successful film adaptions of the best-selling series.

"I wrote the Hermione / Ron relationship as a form of wish fulfillment," says Rowling, explaining that when she first conceived that characters she imagined they would be together by the end of the series. However, as more novels were written and the relationships between the series' lead characters became ever more complex, Rowling admits...

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With no sign of rain, 17 rural California communities providing water to 40,000 people are in danger of running out within 60 to 120 days.

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Americans are retiring later in life, on average, but many members of the baby boomer generation say they find the very idea unthinkable.

Lenovo CEO Yuanqing Yang, in an interview with Fortune’s Miguel Helft:

Right after Google bought Motorola [in 2012], I invited [Google executive chairman] Eric Schmidt to have a dinner at my house. I told him, “If you think you want run the hardware business, you can keep the business; but if you are not interested in the hardware business, we definitely can handle that, take over that.”

He remembered that, and two months ago, he sent me an e-mail. I called him back, and he asked me, “Are you still interested in Motorola?” I said, “Definitely.” We started to discuss it. I went to Silicon Valley many times. [Google CEO] Larry Page invited me to his house to have a dinner. Very quickly — in just two months — we closed the deal.

In other words, right around the time when they started dotting the i’s and crossing the t’s on the deal to acquire Nest.

Remember the kerfuffle last week about iOS calendar app Sunrise asking users for their iCloud user name and password? Scary news travels faster than good, so I thought it worth pointing out that they’ve implemented a nice improvement:

Update: since our 2.11 version, we are not sending iCloud credentials to our servers, the app generates the secure token client-side. We use them to generate a secure token from Apple. This secure token is the only thing we store on our servers, we never store your actual iCloud credentials.

Dave Addey has started a new site, Typeset in the Future, dedicated to the typography in science fiction films. His first subject, no surprise, is 2001: A Space Odyssey.

(Re: those curious Gill Sans-like M’s in the otherwise Futura titles — I asked Jonathan Hoefler about that, years ago, and he replied, “A number of 20th century faces — Futura and Gill Sans among them — were outfitted with all kinds of ‘alternate sorts’ that could basically turn them into better approximations of their competitors. (Nothing ever changes.)” So it’s not that Kubrick or his title designer swapped in the M from Gill Sans, but rather that they chose a version of Futura that came with Gill Sans-like M’s. It’s a good look. But it’s never quite sat right with me that some of the titles are set in Gill Sans, and the rest in Futura.)

Dave Llorens, one year ago:

But I’m willing to stake my reputation on the following statement: If Google Plus doesn’t have a staggering number of active users by the end of 2013, you can all come over to my office and pie me in the face.

Sounds like fun.

Interesting market share trend:

ABI Research reports that Android once again dominated the Q4 2013 shipment numbers for smartphone advanced operating systems with 77% market share of over 280 million smartphones shipped in Q4 2013. Nearly one billion smartphones were shipped in 2013, Android accounting for 78% across the year.

Android’s dominance is not quite as rosy as it seems though, with most of the growth coming from forked Android operating systems (137% year-on-year), mainly in China, India, and adjacent markets. Forked Android or AOSP accounted for 25% market share with 71 million unit shipments, as opposed to certified Android’s share of 52%, of a total of 77% market share.

In other words, one-third of Android smartphones don’t ship with any of Google’s services or apps installed.

This is old news from November, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see Samsung partner with Here Maps on Android, too. If they’re not planning for a divorce from Google, they should.

They're bringing frosting back.

All you have to do is present your MasterCard, apparently, and Magnolia Bakery will give you a free cupcake, because the occasion of Justin Timberlake's birthday (he's 33 today) is best marked with buttercream. Sadly, there haven't yet been any sightings of JT in a giant cupcake suit outside the West Village bakery singing "Bring it on down to Cupcakeville," but the night is young. [Bedford + Bowery, Related]

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Filed Under: free!, cupcakes, justin timberlake, magnolia bakery

David Wildstein, a former Port Authority official, says there is evidence to prove the New Jersey governor knew about the lane closings at the George Washington Bridge, which the governor has denied.

During his latest Google+ Hangouts session today, President Obama provided his most direct response yet to the recent court ruling that dealt a major blow to net neutrality. On the topic of net neutrality itself, Obama said, "It’s something that I’ve cared deeply about ever since I ran for office. My own campaign was empowered by a free and open internet and the ability for citizens all across this country to engage and create and find new ways and new tools to mobilize themselves." Obama said his rise to the presidency not have been possible if "there were a bunch of commercial barriers and roadblocks" between he and his supporters.

"They have authority."

But Obama carefully avoided criticizing the decision itself. "We live...

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To go along with his wind map of the Earth, Cameron Beccario has made a world map of global ocean currents with data that updates every five days or so. Not quite realtime, but still, er, current enough.

Tags: Cameron Beccario   maps

Excellent Pork Chop House, a Chinatown restaurant that is beloved by food bloggers, recently changed its name to Taiwan Pork Chop House. Eddie Huang breaks the news on Twitter/Instagram. [Twitter]

Even airport TSA agents don't really believe they're making much of a difference. Or so suggests Jason Harrington, a former Transportation Security Administration employee who's written a revealing piece for Politico on what it's like to work for the agency on the ground floor. Harrington writes that many of his coworkers found their orders questionable, from selecting people for enhanced screenings based on their nationality to the broad use of full-body scanners. Harrington also writes that he hated that the job made him pat down children and the elderly and confiscate everything from nail clippers to homemade jellies under the guise of national security.

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The Segway opened the floodgates for countless personal mobility devices, with designs that range from conservative to downright crazy. And the Aeyo—a cross between a scooter, a bicycle, and a pair of inline skates—falls somewhere in the middle of that scale.

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Bitcoin miners and investors will not be regulated by the US Treasury. The clarification came in a pair of rulings yesterday from the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), a bureau of the US Treasury Department, which said that people who mine virtual currencies for personal use and businesses that buy and sell virtual currencies purely as an investment will not be considered money transmitters, exempting them from requirements to register with the government and comply with certain money-laundering regulations that it appeared may have applied to them.

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It's no secret that subway maps are mere approximations of geography. Designed for maximum readability, they map the subway system onto stylized curves and evenly spaced stops. Still, the images of these familiar maps distorted by geographic accuracy are more striking than I even imagined.

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