Rexfeng

The use of IV solutions to combat mild illnesses is common among some Asian immigrants in New York City, but the fate of one woman has sent a scare through the communities.

Given the United States' intolerance for copyright infringement and the piraters that propagate it, you'd think Uncle Sam would be a little more keen on making sure that his men were playing by the book themselves. As it turns out, a whole mess of computers running unlicensed, illegal copies of Windows 7 belong to none other than the US Army itself.

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As far as tyrannosaurus rex replicas go, this one seems pretty cheery. Sure, it has sharp teeth and claws but they look playfully toothy. One thing scary about it though: the head and eyes seems to follow you wherever you go. Like the paper T-Rex is watching your every move. What's scarier? It's not actually moving. How is this possible?

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Remember Guy Laramée, the French artist who sculpts shockingly realistic landscapesout of old books? Well, he's still at it—and his latest is an ode to the Encyclopedia Britannica, the publishers of which announced last year that they would stop printing the 245-year-old volumes.

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The things some people can do with a pencil and paper are just ridiculous. The things some people can do with Photoshop or iPad apps is just unreal. Art is amazing! But what might be as impressive as any of that is what this guy did with MS Paint. He created an unbelievably photo realistic picture of Santa Claus with everyone's favorite stick figure drawing medium.

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It may seem a little opulent, but a lot of us won't leave home with at least our smartphone—maybe even two—and a tablet. And eventually one of them is going to need a battery boost, so instead of carrying charging cables and adapters for every single device, toss this single colorful USB adapter in your bag and you're all set.

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From Serious Eats: New York

Editor's Note: Welcome to a new episode of 1 Minute Meal, a series of video snapshots documenting the places, people, and foods that make New York a vibrant food community.

Clay pot rice, listed on the menu as "Rice Casserole," at A-Wah in Chinatown. [Photograph: James Boo]

When Delong Chang, a longtime cook in Chinatown, opened A-Wah, he decided to focus on bo zai fan, a dish that was popular where he grew up in southern China. Preparing this comfort dish (listed on the menu as "rice casserole" and typically called "clay pot rice" in English) involves cooking rice in clay pots until the edges are slightly crusty—and in this episode of 1 Minute Meal, Chang explains how the experience of opening that lid should feel. Watch the video below and pay a visit to the restaurant, or its new second location at 48B Bowery.

Previously on 1 Minute Meal

Noodles by Hand in Manhattan's Chinatown »
Doughnuts and Coffee for Past and Present »
Life of a Slice Man and Sal and Carmine »
A Different Kind of Factory at Jomart Chocolates »
Appraising the Perfect Muffin at Blue Sky Bakery »
A League of Tortas at Tortas Neza in Corona »
One More Pupusa at El Olomega in Red Hook »
Lechonera La Piraña in Mott Haven »
The Arepa Lady of Jackson Heights »
The Indonesian Food Bazaar in Astoria, Queens »
The Lemon Ice King of Corona, a Queens Classic »
A Day in the Life of The Baoery, a Pop-Up Restaurant »
Khachapuri, a Georgian Bread Baked into South Brooklyn »
David's Brisket House, the Jewish Deli Run by Muslims in Brooklyn »

About the videographer: James Boo has been a Serious Eats contributor since 2010. Working as a freelance journalist, he is also the founder of Real Cheap Eats and a documentarian. Check out his food-and-travel blog, The Eaten Path, for more journeys to the real meal.

Reuters is back with more details on the Fukushima labor mess, and this time the focus is on the issues facing homeless laborers being recruited for work. In a follow-up to a wide-ranging report earlier this year, Reuters details how many homeless people are being picked up from train stations and carted out to go clean up nuclear waste and other debris from the 2011 tsunami that wreaked havoc on the region. Many of these people are not being paid even the minimum wage, the report claims, and end up with next to nothing after fees are taken out of their checks to pay for food and lodging by the myriad subcontractors involved in the $35 billion cleanup. Adding intrigue to it all, Reuters says many of those subcontractors are organized...

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Some three months after being acquired by Google, Bump — a company that makes data sharing tools — is calling it quits. In a blog post today Bump CEO and cofounder David Lieb said that Bump and Flock will be shut down on January 31, 2014 given that the team working on it are "now deeply focused on our new projects within Google." After that date, the apps will be removed from Apple's App Store, as well as Google Play, Lieb says, but not before users have 30 days to export their data.

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From Serious Eats: New York

Editor's note: Welcome back to Fast Food International, where we explore fast food chains from around the world that have landed in New York.

[Photographs: Krista Garcia]

Country of origin: Spain
Locations worldwide: Over 300 in Chile, Colombia, France, Italy, Mexico, Portugal, Spain, the US
NYC locations: One, in the West Village

From a distance, the tiled mosaic sign announcing 100 Montaditos in a vaguely Basque font and diners standing around the marble-topped bar could almost fool a passerby into thinking this isn't a typical West Village watering hole. The Spanish being spoken inside doesn't shatter the illusion, but listen closely and you'll hear both Castilian and Caribbean. And if you happen to show up on a Wednesday, as I did inadvertently, it will be dollar night, catnip for the NYU crowd and Bleecker Street fray. The cheap eats Spanish chain couldn't have picked a better location for its recent New York City debut.

Even on a regular night the montaditos, tapa-sized sandwiches, top out at $2.50, putting five-dollar foot longs to shame (as long as you order more than one). And yes, there really are 100 varieties, from the simple and traditional like Spanish tortilla to American-only options like five variations on a Philly steak. In exchange, you won't see any anchovies or squid on the menu like you would in the home country.

This is imported fast food done right. In addition to the low-priced namesake , there are also $2 fries and patatas bravas, and house wine is a ridiculous $4 a glass (and to add further authenticity the restaurant also serves cola sangria, a.k.a. kalimotxo, and clara, a beer and soda combo, for $3). The production is a well-oiled machine for only being open a few weeks. You fill out a form; five sandwiches are recommended per person, which is more or less correct if you are treating this as a dinner rather than a snack, and then the assembly line goes to work.

#88 Triqui Triqui ($2.50) is considered a premium montadito. It was also one of the most successful because the flavors were all distinct yet compatible. The mild ham (American deli-style, not jamon) paired well with the strong blue cheese and arugula, and received a surprising sweet note from a touch of strawberry jam.

#3 The Chorizo ($1) was on the opposite end of the complexity scale. It was advertised as containing tomato, but the fruit was neither noticeable nor missed, frankly. Olive oil was the only other ingredient.

#70 The Philly Steak and Cheddar ($2) wasn't anything special, but it had to be tried for the sake of novelty. The predominant flavor was salt with beefy undertones.

#90 El Albondiga ($2.50) was a mini meatball sub, saucy and mushy. The parmesan and marinara made sense; the bacon probably wasn't necessary.

Going one ingredient too far appears to be a hallmark of 100 Montaditos once you get above the $1 category. This pulled pork sandwich ($2) also contained bacon, but in this case the unexpected extras were cream cheese and aioli. The thing is, that with the proportions being so small, these flourishes are barely detectable.

The standard rolls (also available in chapata, i.e. cibatta, cereal, which is whole grain, and chocolate for the five dessert offerings) are crackly with a soft interior, and the fillings are mostly more exciting than sliced turkey breast padded with iceberg lettuce even if some of the combinations seem slightly misguided. Even if 100 Montaditos isn't masquerading an artisan operation, it's still a step up from Subway.

About the author: Krista Garcia is a freelance writer and reformed librarian. Being obsessed with chain restaurants and Southeast Asian food, she would have no problem eating laska in Elmhurst and P.F. Chang's crab rangoon in New Jersey on the same day. She blogs at Goodies First.

Beyond the joys of stomping people into goo from the cockpit of a giant robot, Titanfall is largely a traditional shooter, though unlike other, modern console shooters Titanfall won't allow snipers to cheat the system. "Sniping is in the game, but ...

Some high-end hobby magazines have experienced steady circulation growth even as costs rise, and raise more revenue with special events for subscribers.

Fascinating bit from the Conan O’Brien show. Makes me wonder just how prevalent these canned segments are.

Great story from Wil Shipley. Proves the adage: It can’t hurt to ask.

Expired is the new local.

A handsome, newish Danish restaurant called Rub & Stub sources most ingredients from surplus, almost-expired, and other less-than-perfect-but-still-edible food that's normally discarded, and judging by BBC's look at the restaurant, people are into it. The place is run almost entirely by volunteers (its project manager and head chef are paid) and sends all profits to charities in Sierra Leone, and it's the latest in a string of waste-not-want-not models that have popped up in the last year, including this hippie-ish outfit in Somerville, Massachusetts, and that ambitious expired-goods supermarket founded by a former Trader Joe's president just a few towns over. And with Rub & Stub's reclaimed wood and chalkboard menus finally putting freeganism together with a dining room made of barnyard wood panels, isn't it about time that Brooklyn gets its own nonprofit restaurant? Maybe in 2014. [BBC, Related, Related]

Read more posts by Belle Cushing

Filed Under: haute dumpster diving, copenhagen, doug rauch, food waste, freegans, gleaner's kitchen, rub & stub

Foie isn't free.

It probably won't flummox anyone who planned to dine at either establishment in 2014, but nonetheless, Ryan Sutton drops the stunning nuggets of price-hiking news that each of Thomas Keller's fine-dining restaurants will raise their prices: The French Laundry is adding $25 to each menu, for a total of $295 per diner (minus wine), while Per Se has added $15, for a total of $310. (Lunch prices are also going up.) On the bright side, the food critic notes this is the first time since January of 2011 either restaurant has raised its prices, and service is still included in the cost of the meals. [Ryan Sutton/Twitter]

Read more posts by Hugh Merwin

Filed Under: planned service changes, per se, the french laundry, thomas keller

It's tough getting a game console for Christmas, because, sometimes, you get the wrong one.

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Rap Genius is having a rough Christmas. After controversy surrounding their search-engine optimization techniques, changes within Google have sent the search results plummeting for the much-feted lyrics-annotation site. As of press time, RapGenius.com is on the fifth page of Google Search results for "rap genius," with nearly half a dozen articles about this very controversy ranking higher. RapGenius.com is still the first result on Bing.

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The theft of credit and debit card information for as many as 40 million Target customers, first reported by independent journalist Brian Krebs, is prompting banks to take action.

JP Morgan Chase, Santander Bank, and Citibank have capped debit card purchases and ATM withdrawals for customers whose accounts may have been compromised. Some smaller banks are out-and-out canceling customers' cards.

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In case anyone had any doubts, the Cronut line is still going strong. Dominique Ansel posts a shot of the holiday crowd yesterday, which grew to over 200 people. Ever-thoughtful, he "welcomed them with a Motown acapella group singing Christmas carols." [Instagram]

A single idea, executed exceptionally well: graphic designer José Guízar has been illustrating various windows that have caught his eye in New York City. He thinks of it as an “ode to architecture,” and posts windows weekly.

The site he built for it is also exactly what it should be, no more and no less: Windowsofnewyork.com

To follow me on Twitter click here.

Iron Maiden hired a BitTorrent analytics company called Musicmetric to determine where piracy of their music was highest, then scheduled tours of those countries. They made millions touring Central and South America. Iron Maiden LLP has outperformed the UK music sector as a whole and was named one of the "1000 Companies That Inspire Britain" by the London Stock Exchange.

"Having an accurate real time snapshop of key data streams is all about helping inform people's decision making. If you know what drives engagement you can maximize the value of your fan base. Artists could say ‘we're getting pirated here, let's do something about it’, or ‘we're popular here, let's play a show’," said Gregory Mead, CEO and co-founder of the London-based firm.

In the case of Iron Maiden, still a top-drawing band in the U.S. and Europe after thirty years, it noted a surge in traffic in South America. Also, it saw that Brazil, Venezuela, Mexico, Columbia, and Chile were among the top 10 countries with the most Iron Maiden Twitter followers. There was also a huge amount of BitTorrent traffic in South America, particularly in Brazil.

Rather than send in the lawyers, Maiden sent itself in. The band has focused extensively on South American tours in recent years, one of which was filmed for the documentary "Flight 666." After all, fans can't download a concert or t-shirts. The result was massive sellouts. The São Paolo show alone grossed £1.58 million (US$2.58 million) alone.

How Iron Maiden found its worst music pirates -- then went and played for them [Andy Patrizio/Cite World]

(Image: Estadio Saprissa Iron Maiden, a Creative Commons Attribution (2.0) image from adels's photostream)

Allen Pike:

The behaviours that make us human are not professional. Honesty, frankness, humour, emotionality, embracing the moment, speaking up for what you believe, affection, sincerity. Quoting extremely offensive trolls. These are all things that will make some people love you and others hate you. When you get more attention, these aspects of your personality fuel the inevitable backlash. As your audience grows, the chance of any given action triggering criticism asymptotically approaches 100%.

Master of the optical illusion, brusspup, has recently uploaded a new video featuring a dinosaur of the tiny-armed variety. Staring at you. Wherever you go. That's a pretty neat (creepy?) trick, no?

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UBS and Bank of America agreed to lower their fees on financial contracts with the struggling city that a borrower typically cannot alter even in the case of bankruptcy.

It's a universal truth that meat tastes better when served table side by puffy pants-wearing, sword-wielding waiters who may or may not boast sexy Brazilian accents. That's exactly what to expect when dining at the city's newest meat mecca Fogo de Chao, a Brazilian-style steakhouse bringing you as much fire roasted meat as you can handle, plus an abundance of accompanying dishes guaranteed to snap the button on your Dockers. What began as a single enterprise out of Porto Alegre, Brazil in 1979, now boasts outposts all over the country, including the brand spanking new 16,000 square foot behemoth on West 53rd Street, the largest of the chain's outlets in the world. [ more › ]

When Titanfall touches down on the Xbox One, it will be the Atlas leading the charge thanks to its balanced blend of armor and firepower - a design feature adding much-needed versatility to a machine that would otherwise spend its days stomping puny ...

Blizzard expressed hopes during Blizzcon that they would be able to launch the open beta of Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft this month, but an update to the Hearthstone site's news feed explains that it's just not in the cards. "We believe the right ...

— Love this Khoi Vinh essay on what’s missing from streaming music. I totally agree.

Joseph Menn, reporting for Reuters:

As a key part of a campaign to embed encryption software that it could crack into widely used computer products, the U.S. National Security Agency arranged a secret $10 million contract with RSA, one of the most influential firms in the computer security industry, Reuters has learned. […]

Undisclosed until now was that RSA received $10 million in a deal that set the NSA formula as the preferred, or default, method for number generation in the BSafe software, according to two sources familiar with the contract. Although that sum might seem paltry, it represented more than a third of the revenue that the relevant division at RSA had taken in during the entire previous year, securities filings show.

If this is true, RSA might as well just shut their doors and turn out the lights, because no one will ever trust them again.