Building your own computer is generally reserved for the hardcore, the devoted, the geeky. But with Razer's Project Christine, it's as easy as playing with Legos. Really big, actively mineral cooled Legos. Also it looks like a badass rack of rockets or something, which is cool as shit.
After almost two decades in business, Montgomery, Texas, restaurant owner Michael De Beyer has decided to sell Kaiserhof Restaurant and Wunderbar so he can help offset the medical bills of employee Brittany Mathis. The 19-year-old, who works alongside her mother and sister at the German restaurant, was diagnosed with a brain tumor but has no health insurance. (She's not yet signed up for medical insurance through the Affordable Care Act, she explains.) De Beyer hopes to give Mathis $2 million, and in addition to the prospect of getting more time with his family, he says he just can't stand by and watch his employee get sicker. "I have to try something because it's not right," he tells KHOU News.
Boss sells restaurant to save employee with brain tumor [KHOU]
Read more posts by Belle Cushing
Filed Under: it's a wunderbar life, aw, faith in humanity, video feed
    
|
The interior of the next Audi TT has just been shown at CES 2014. To say it's full of technology is probably an understatement when you look at the huge map where the instruments would normally be.
At CES 2014 in Las Vegas, Sony's Kaz Hirai just announced an ambitious new interface concept — Life Space UX. The idea is to merge your home and technology into a seamless experience. "The conventional boundaries are being transformed, if not vanishing altogether," said Hirai. In a demonstration, Hirai showed off windows doubling as screens and vice versa. "Imagine being an avid surfer and having the perfect wall-sized window to see the world's most vivid surf spots in real time on your television," he explained.
|
|
Late last year, Apple outfitted 254 of its US stores with small, low-power Bluetooth transmitters. Called iBeacons, the transmitters work in tandem with iPhones running iOS 7 and the Apple Store's dedicated app to provide users with very precise location information and guides to getting the most of their shopping trip. Now a company called inMarket is the bringing the technology to provide a group of US grocery store customers with deals, reminders, and rewards.
Former pro gamer Hong Jin Ho (aka "YellOw," pictured) has been spending his retirement as a Korean TV star. Today, however, it was announced that Hong is coming back to the StarCraft: Brood War eSports arena. Good news, indeed!
It barely got a mention at Intel's CES 2014 press conference this evening, but Dual OS is real. The company confirmed that Intel processors will power computers that can switch between Windows and Android with the press of a button, just like the Asus Transformer Book Duet we tried earlier today. Intel demonstrated the technology on a laptop during the company's press conference, right after introducing "Intel Device Protection Technology," an idea that should help Intel-based Android devices meet corporate standards for enterprise security.
Intel isn't the only company pursuing Windows and Android in the same device here at CES, however. Earlier today, AMD announced a partnership with BlueStacks to run fullscreen and windowed...
Intel announced today that it will no longer rely on minerals sourced from war-torn regions to produce their processors. During the keynote, CEO Brian Krzanich stepped aside to present a video discussing the minerals needed to produce the chips in everyday technology and how they're obtained. The company paid special attention to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, a country whose bloody perpetual war, funded by the sale of diamonds and essential metals like tin and tungsten, has claimed millions of lives in the last 15 years. Intel ended the presentation on the difficult question of how to solve this industry-wide problem, and committed itself to trying to change course in a meaningful way.
[Photographs: Chelsea Ross]
Kiss your New Year's cleanses goodbye, there's fried chicken French toast to be had. Honey Butter Fried Chicken ups the comfort ante on brunch with a new selection of weekend brunch dishes. Because the only way to make honey butter-slathered fried chicken more salacious is by heaping it over a plate of challah French toast.
The brunch roster at Honey Butter Fried Chicken is concise and sensible, adapting their straightforward mantra of locally sourced fried chicken with honey butter to morning preparations. The aforementioned fried chicken and French toast ($10) is a thing of beauty. A few slices of soft, eggy challah bread serve as the foundation, adorned with a couple pieces of some of the best fried chicken Chicago has ever seen, impossibly succulent and sheathed in a crispy golden-brown crust. A hefty dollop of honey butter oozes overtop the chicken, seeping into the crackly nooks and crannies, enriching the poultry to the nth degree. It adds a mild, heady sweetness to the fresh-from-the-fryer birds. Meanwhile, the French toast soaks up a syrup of its own, a potent bourbon-maple syrup. If this dish were a music video, it would be "Single Ladies" and the French toast would be the adept backup dancers to the Beyonce chicken.
It's hard to out-wow a dish like fried chicken and French toast, but Honey Butter's brunch sandwich ($10) certainly makes a strong case. This hulking beast consists of fried chicken and fried egg striated with braised greens, bacon, and garlic aïoli on a buttery bun. This is what breakfast sandwiches dream of becoming. It's a sturdy sandwich, requiring python-like jaw acrobatics to capture a full bite, but it's worth it. Again, the chicken is rightfully the star, enhanced with egg, aïoli, and those tender, slightly smoky greens. The rich, doughy bun is the perfect pillow for the melee of indulgence.
Simply by adding items like French toast and egg to the equation, Honey Butter Fried Chicken proves that brunch need not be encumbered with bells and whistles to be decadent and delicious. When stellar fried chicken is at the forefront, it needs very little supplement to make it one of the most destination-worthy brunch spots in Chicago.
[Photographs: Liz Clayton, unless otherwise noted]
New York City boasts one of the broadest selections of places to drink—or buy things to drink—in the entire world. Why's it so hard, then, to find a tea shop? While we watch a new generation of international tea-cafe chains move into the landscape, we thought it was also time to take stock of a few great spots in the city to pick up teas of all kinds.
Tea cafes can often feel like gift shops, but stepping into the far-flung Bellocq at the water's edge in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, feels more like opening a mysterious gift boite. The London-born tea blender has had this outpost for a handful of years, quietly open five days a week nestled among the increasingly upscale post-industrial East River shoreline. Look here for eye-catching flower-infused blends, a decent selection of green and oolong teas, and a specialty in black teas and gift sets. The presentation is striking, as is the welcoming atmosphere. And it's only a ferry ride from midtown.
Bellocq Tea Atelier: 104 West Street, Brooklyn NY 11222 (map) 707-431-2962; bellocq.com
The spacious Soho outpost of upstate tea importer and blender Harney and Sons creates just the right setting for those seeking a broad, cozy tea experience: a wide selection of teas in a large, museum-bookstore style room on Broome Street, with staff who'll gladly sample you that day's special tea and talk with you to lead you in the right direction. It's got a more mass-market feel than some places, but that also makes it approachable. The massive array of tins on the shelves include many varieties of black, green, white, oolong and herbal teas, including flavors, and a special line of Deeprak Chopra institute Ayurvedic teas! Sit down in the rear cafe for a more langorous tea enjoyment, with clotted cream and the whole nine yards.
Harney & Sons: 433 Broome Street, New York, NY 10013 (map) 212-933-4853 harney.com
Known in Japan for their well-presented, high quality selection of Japanese green teas, this Kyoto-based company keeps a hidden-away NYC outpost below vegan gem Kajitsu on East 39th. There's nowhere to sit and chat with your sencha, but the warm and expert staff will guide you through tasting anything you're curious about—within reason, we assume. The handsome counter offers a small, thoughtfully curated selection of wares, and you can also take a green tea to go (even though you won't want to leave) in one of their irresistible animal-themed cups. Priced from the very-very-fine to the completely doable, Ippodo is a wonderful go-to for anyone serious about their green tea.
Ippodo: 125 East 39th Street, New York, NY 10016 (map) 212-370-0609 ippodo-tea.co.jp
Looking for a more continental tea experience? Parisian boutique tea seller Les Palais des Thés has extended its international empire to two NYC tea rooms: one in Soho and another on the Upper West Side. Look here for a variety of both affordable and rarer teas across all categories, as well as some unusual tea-hybrids like Earl Grey Oolong (a little bergamot goes a long way). The shops also offer guided education, such as classes in particular types of tea, or general tea-tasting. And there's a hearty selection of gift items as well, naturellement.
Les Palais des Thés: 156 Prince Street New York, NY 10012 (map) 646-513-4369 us.palaisdesthes.com
At last, someone has taken the name all teaophiles have secretly mumbled to themselves for generations: tea drunk. This Chinese tea nook is perfectly East Village simple: it's small and serious, with a limited selection of teas (focusing mostly on green, oolong, and white styles) and a deep offering of knowledge and exploration. The shop offers an intense program of tea education—in academic-style, 100 level to 300 level classes. Sit and enjoy your tea in the small and simple cafe, or get a membership that allows you to preorder reserve teas and enjoy a more curated tasting experience shipped to you on a monthly basis, and get tea drunk on the regular in the comfort of your own home.
Tea Drunk: 123 East 7th Street, New York, NY 10009 (map) 917-573-9936 www.t-drunk.com
[Photograph: Max Falkowitz]
This small tea shop in a Flushing mall is all about fine teas from Taiwan and China, with common styles like oolong and black alongside rare pu'ehrs and specialty aged teas (decades-old tea aged in a pomelo, anyone?). Prices can get high but they're fair for the quality, and if you're not sure what to ask for, the shop offers a dirt-cheap tea tasting that costs a mere $5 per tea, which goes for five steepings to show you how the tea develops in the pot. Selections change constantly, so call or visit the shop to ask the merchants what they're most excited about.
Fang Gourmet Tea: 135-25 Roosevelt Avenue, Flushing, NY, 11354 (map); 888-888-0216; fangtea.com
Bosie is more of a tea room and bakery than a tea shop, and there are few better places in Manhattan to drop in for a pastry (we recommend the Paris-Brest) and well-made pot of tea. But you can buy any of their teas over the counter, including a mellow Golden Monkey and a lively Blue Darjeeling. They pay attention to the details here, timing each pot's steeping individually and warming up chilled pastries on the counter before bringing them to you table, and that care extends to the tea selection and warm service.
Bosie Tea Parlor: 10 Morton Street, New York, NY 10014 (map); 212-352-9900; bosienyc.com
[Photograph: Max Falkowitz]
There are plenty of places in Chinatown to buy tea, but if you're looking for an emphasis on quality over price and a tea seller who'll help you navigate the selection, head to Sun's Organic Tea Shop. The specialty here is an exhaustive supply of herbal teas and rare herbs and spices (oh hi, Grains of Paradise), but there's also an impressive amount of green, black, oolong, and white tea, priced by the ounce and very reasonably so. Though the tea quality can vary, owner Lorna Lai can steer you toward her favorites, including a deceptively complex tie guan yin and an exceptionally smooth mao feng.
Sun's Organic Tea Shop: 79 Bayard Street, New York, NY 10013 (map); 212-566-3260; sunsorganic.com
So many drinks, so little time. Keep in the loop on Twitter, or sign up for our weekly newsletter.
The venerated French chef Paul Bocuse, who turns 88 next month and is probably the most respected chef's chef in the world, has been receiving medical care at a hospital in his native Lyon for more than a week. Bocuse, who has had mobility issues for some time, suffers from Parkinson's disease and a history of heart disease, but is being treated for back pain. Representatives cautiously describe the situation as ongoing, but emphasize that the chef is faring well. Meanwhile, Bocuse's restaurant group earlier today opened the third location of Ouest Express, his fast-casual restaurant designed to compete with places like McDonalds. It even has a drive-through window. [AFP, Lyon Capitale, Lyon Capitale, Related]
Read more posts by Hugh Merwin
Filed Under: the pope, ouest express, paul bocuse
|
|
PepsiCo-owned Frito-Lay has unleashed Mountain Dew–flavored Cheetos in Japan, replacing the iconic orange cheese dust of the original with yellow, powdered exobiological fizz. No word on whether this is just a trial run before bringing the snack to the U.S. as part of soda's infiltration into everyday foods, but a sprinkling of neon-coated corn would doubtlessly add another few dimensions of flavor to any Mountain Dew Passion-Fruit Frenzy Salad. [Brand Eating, Related]
Read more posts by Belle Cushing
Filed Under: much ado about dew, cheetos, frito-lay, mountain dew, pepsico
|
|
Let's say that personal pint of Cherry Garcia you have stashed in the back of the break room freezer feels lighter all of a sudden, and now Glenn from Accounting won't make eye contact. Or maybe you suspect that you have a Chunky Monkey junkie living right under your own roof who assumes that all ice cream in the house is fair game to anyone with a spoon. Or perhaps you just need a tongue-in-cheek gift for that Karamel Sutra fan who never learned to share with others.
Well, Ben & Jerry's has come to your rescue.
For less than six bucks via their online store, you can now safeguard your favorite ice cream flavor with a cleverly engineered working combination lock. No... really.
The Euphori-Lock is a two-piece plastic collar contraption designed to fit standard pint containers. One half slides up over the bottom of the pint. It screws into a top ring outfitted with a three-wheel dial mechanism. Rearrange the digits, and voila—your Phish Food or fro-yo is locked up tighter than Fort Knox, inaccessible to unauthorized midnight-tasters.
I'm not saying I don't trust my wife and daughters. I'm just saying I've become fiercely protective of my Scotchy Scotch Scotch... and they can have a taste when I offer them one. Or when they pry that unlocked pint out of my cold, dead hands.
About the Author: Todd Brock lives the glamorous life of a stay-at-home freelance writer in the suburbs of Atlanta. Besides being paid to eat cheeseburgers for AHT, pizzas for Slice, and desserts for Sweets, he's written and produced over 1,000 hours of television and penned Building Chicken Coops for Dummies. When he grows up, he wants to be either the starting quarterback for the Dallas Cowboys or the drummer for The Gaslight Anthem. Or both.
By far the most controversial part of LG's new webOS smart TVs is going to be the feathered digital assistant that accompanies them. Meet Bean Bird, a brown little, well, bird shaped like a bean. The bird won't live in the entire LG webOS TV interface, like Microsoft's infamous Clippy did in Office. Instead, it will just show up during an LG TV's setup process. The idea is to get you to actually complete the entire setup, every single step — many users don't, and so therefore don't take full advantage of the features on their smart TVs.
Bunny ears or loop?
As a kid, you may have only learned a couple ways to lace and tie up your new Sketchers, but alas, there are two trillion more. Ian's Shoelace Site provides step by step guides on lacing a Double Helix, Starburst, and even the elusive Pentagram lacing technique. If you're feeling adventurous, you can even learn the ins and outs of "Ian's Secure Shoelace Knot," the top rated technique on the site which can withstand three times the tension of more common knots.
Ian's Shoelace Site claims to be the number one shoelace hobbyist site in the world, and says over 11,000 people visit every day. Whether you're looking for the best knot for your running shoes or the cure for your "Granny Knot" woes, you now know where to...
AT&T today announced a new "Sponsored Data" program that lets developers and brands pay to deliver content to your mobile device outside of your data caps. It sounds great for consumers on its face — you'll be able to get more stuff without paying for it! — but in reality it's a huge blow to the free and vibrant market of the internet economy, and the first step towards a new era of carrier control.
Here's just a simple example: right now you can rent Elysium from both Apple and Google for $4.99. In addition to the amount you'll pay to rent the movie, streaming that movie over mobile broadband will also obviously count against your data plan, an additional cost that you pay monthly to carriers like AT&T. Sponsored Data allows...
Ben Crair, story editor for The New Republic:
In most written language, the period is a neutral way to mark a pause or complete a thought; but digital communications are turning it into something more aggressive. “Not long ago, my 17-year-old son noted that many of my texts to him seemed excessively assertive or even harsh, because I routinely used a period at the end,” Mark Liberman, a professor of linguistics at the University of Pennsylvania, told me by email. How and why did the period get so pissed off?
I used to write more formally in texts and IMs, but as time goes on I’ve developed/accepted more of a dashed-off style, super terse, and without thinking about it, I do often omit the trailing period. Hitting “Send” feels like punctuation enough.
External hard drives are a basic utility at this point, but LaCie has spent the last few years trying to make its products stand out with luxurious industrial design. In 2011, it teamed up with silversmithing company Christofle to produce a pebble-shaped USB key that currently sells for around $200. Last year, it announced a limited edition hard drive created in partnership with designer Philippe Starck. And for 2014, it's introducing a new Christofle-designed hard drive, the 1TB LaCie Sphere. Plated in silver and polished to a shine, the Sphere resembles a kind of high-end Nexus Q, with a few tastefully unobtrusive logos engraved on the side. At the bottom, a single USB 3.0 cable connects and powers the hard drive, with a blue status...
Behold the very first of Lego Simpsons sets!, as leaked by Eurobricks user Carlos S claims. There are no details about it beyond what we can see on this photo of the box: 2523 pieces, six minifigs including the full Family plus Flanders. It looks fantastically detailed and—apparently—it even opens showing its interior, like some of their other architectural sets.
Generally speaking, architects are brilliant and creative people with a wide range of talents. That sort of versatility is part of what makes them good architects in the first place. But let's be honest. Just because some people are good at a lot of things does not mean they're good at everything. Take yachts, for instance.
Lord Norman Foster, renowned architect and founder of Foster + Partners, has proposed a massive network of elevated pathways for cyclists in London. Dubbed 'SkyCycle,' the cycling routes would follow London's vast suburban rail network for over 220 kilometers (136 miles), allowing cyclists to traverse the UK's capital without encountering cars or pedestrians.
SkyCycle would consist of a number of routes, most of which would connect with other lines at points. Each route would be able to accommodate 12,000 cyclists per hour. The network as a whole would serve almost six million people, half of whom live and work within 10 minutes of one of its 200 entrances. As the majority of London's rail network was created in the steam era, the...
Brad Pitt’s Make It Right Foundation has built 100 energy-efficient and eco-friendly houses in New Orleans to replace homes damaged by Hurricane Katrina. Unfortunately, the organization believes that some of the wood it used is now rotting, reports The New Orleans Advocate.
The organization used TimberSIL, an innovative glass-infused wood product produced by a South Carolina manufacturer, to build porches and outside steps. The absence of chromated copper arsenate and other chemicals typically used to prevent rot and decay was a selling point for Make It Right.
The absence of chemicals for preventing decay was a selling point
"Instead of treating the wood with toxic chemicals, it's actually infused with sand, or silica, such that...
Craig Mod, writing for the New Yorker, says goodbye to cameras as photography transitions to the use of "networked lenses".
After two and a half years, the GF1 was replaced by the slightly improved Panasonic GX1, which I brought on the six-day Kumano Kodo hike in October. During the trip, I alternated between shooting with it and an iPhone 5. After importing the results into Lightroom, Adobe's photo-development software, it was difficult to distinguish the GX1's photos from the iPhone 5's. (That's not even the latest iPhone; Austin Mann's superlative results make it clear that the iPhone 5S operates on an even higher level.) Of course, zooming in and poking around the photos revealed differences: the iPhone 5 doesn't capture as much highlight detail as the GX1, or handle low light as well, or withstand intense editing, such as drastic changes in exposure. But it seems clear that in a couple of years, with an iPhone 6S in our pockets, it will be nearly impossible to justify taking a dedicated camera on trips like the Kumano Kodo pilgrimage.
And indeed, the mid-tier Japanese camera makers (Panasonic, Fujifilm and Olympus) are struggling to find their way in the networked lens era. A few years ago, I wrote a post called "Your company? There's an app for that." about how smartphones were not only going to make certain devices obsolete, but drive entire companies and industries out of business. This bit, about cameras, seems almost quaint now:
Point and shoot camera -- While not as full-featured as something like a PowerShot, the camera on the iPhone 3GS has a 3-megapxiel lens with both auto and manual focus, shoots in low-light, does macro, and can shoot video. Plus, it's easy to instantly publish your photos online using the iPhone's networking capabilities and automatically tag your photos with your location.
The best camera is the one you have with you the one with built-in posting to Facebook.
Jonathan Krim, introducing the Wall Street Journal’s replacement for AllThingsD. The Journal learned a lesson: this one feels like part of the Journal itself, everything from the name to the visual design. AllThingsD always looked and felt like an independent entity.
Inspired by the escalating blade count of the razor industry, Nabisco has developed a new snack called the Quadriscuit.
"At the moment, this hyperwafer can only exist for six milliseconds in a precisely calibrated field of magnetic energy, positrons, roasted garlic, and beta particles," lab chief Dr. Paul Ellison told reporters at a press conference outside Nabisco's $200 million seven-whole-grain accelerator.
The last line of the piece made me LOL for real. (thx, meg)
Tags: food physics science
Coders have announced that a new Kanye West-themed cryptocurrency called Coinye West will launch on January 11th. Coinye is based on Bitcoin, the virtual currency that approximates cash on the internet, but will be easier to use, the creators say. "Coinye West is a cryptocurrency for the masses," the creators tell Noisey.
The effort may be nothing more than an elaborate joke, but launching a cryptocurrency is actually relatively easy since the Bitcoin source code is public. Many serious and half-serious clones have launched, but Coinye and the meme-cenric Dogecoin are getting a lot more attention than Litecoin, Namecoin, and other virtual currencies that attempt to improve upon Bitcoin. Perhaps Snoopcoin is next?
Penny Arcade the comic is officially distancing itself from PAX, the yearly gaming convention held in Seattle, Boston and Melbourne. Co-creator Mike Krahulik announced the ideological split in a blog post, as part of his New Year's resolution to be ...
For servers, the tasting menu at Eleven Madison Park requires more than just tray-balancing skills, card tricks aside: Your fine-dining server is increasingly likely to be a culinary school or Ivy League graduate, The Wall Street Journal suggests, as more and more hopefuls who might have once slummed it as a line cook (longer hours, less than half the salary) now vie for plum front-of-house jobs, where they can gross $150,000 per year and strive to constantly improve their standing: "It's hard for us to keep our staff from coming in three or four hours early," Will Guidara of EMP says. And it turns out that the acceptance rate for wait-staff positions at places like Per Se and Le Bernardin is as low as 10 percent, a figure that lands between admissions at Yale and Cornell. [WSJ, Related]
Read more posts by Belle Cushing
Filed Under: the ivory pepper grinder, eleven madison park, service
|
|
Gun owners who felt like they were getting the cold shoulder from Toby Keith's I Love This Bar & Grill's no-gun policy are in luck: The newly launched 2amendment.org will be "just like Zagat," says founder Bryan Crosswhite, who is also the proprietor of the Cajun Experience in Leesburg, and the brains behind Open Carry Wednesdays for all those who love glocks and gumbo. Participating restaurants will receive gold-and-black decals to stick to front doors next to the "American Express cards welcome" and "People Love Us on Yelp" messages, which is how assault-rifle-toting moms will know where ammo and strollers are welcomed equally. Ten restaurants have registered since Sunday's launch, and the inevitable app is coming soon. [Washington Times, Earlier, Earlier]
Read more posts by Belle Cushing
Filed Under: open carry-out or eat in, cajun experience, guns, open carry, toby keith
|
|