Rexfeng

You know, I've never really thought how a fan oscillates. It's never occurred to me to ponder for a second the way it moves and does its fan thing. But now I can't stop watching this magical GIF explanation. So fascinating.

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From Serious Eats: New York

[Photographs: Robyn Lee]

Do you like sandwiches? Pudding? Cake? Candy? Then let me be your guide. Because that's all I'm going to feed you.

This itinerary represents my favorite places to bring out-of-towners to in the Lower East Side for a morning and afternoon jaunt. "Favorite places" does not equate to "best places," but they are, in my humble opinion, consistently good, unique, and won't break the bank. These places aren't all meant to be eaten at in one day (but you can try; more power to you). Pick and choose what sounds best. You'll probably feel disgusting by the end of it, but it'll be worth it.

Breakfast

Shopsin's So Good (top) is aptly named. But the sandwiches and freshly fried doughnuts are great too, among other things.

Start your day off with a food coma by going to Shopsins, home of the city's most daunting menus [PDF] featuring over 300 items, brought to you by one of the city's most infamously intimidating restaurateurs, Kenny Shopsin (but really, you shouldn't be afraid). Want a double-decker grilled cheese French toast sandwich? They've got that. Want pancakes encrusted with macaroni and cheese? Yes, yes you do, and you'll get 'em here. Can't decide between schnitzel, fried eggs, and banana bread pudding French toast? Don't stress; they'll serve you a combo of all three. That's just a wee smattering of all the glorious things you can start your day with. If the menu is too much for your brain to handle, I'd recommend sticking to breakfast items, sandwiches/burgers, and fried things. The prices may seem high, but the portions tend to skew huge.

Notes: Seating is limited, and they don't serve parties larger than four. You may have to wait in line if you come here on the weekend. Go on a weekday if you can. Also note the limited opening hours: Wed. to Sat., 9 a.m. - 2 p.m., Sun., 10 a.m. - 2 p.m., closed Mon. and Tues. You have to go inside Essex Street Market to find Shopsin's, located in the southwest corner of the building.

Ham, egg, and cheese sandwich, and a breakfast platter of bacon, potatoes, and eggs at Cup and Saucer.

Want something more traditional? Grab breakfast at Cup and Saucer Luncheonette, a old school greasy spoon that's been around for decades. Don't come here with a group; there are no straight-up tables in this narrow restaurant, just a long counter and seats along the window. The menu has solid diner staples that won't blow your mind, but the food is better than other diners in the area, and it's fast, satisfying, and wallet-friendly. The service is charming, too.

Digestion Break

Clockwise from top left: west side of Essex Street Market, shelves of canned goods, cookies from Beurre & Sel, and pork cuts from Heritage meat Shop.

Take a stroll around Essex Street Market. It's one of the city's oldest markets, established in 1940, with over 20 vendors offering produce, meat, fish, spices, cheeses, baked goods—hell, just look at our photo tour of the market. You may not be hungry at this point, but you will be eventually, so grab some cookies from Beurre & Sel for later.

At Economy Candy, dreams come true, if those dreams involve a bajillion pounds of candy.

Continue digesting at Economy Candy, the city's best candy store, open since 1937. This modestly sized space is packed to the rafters with all things sweet and sugary: bulk gummies, bulk M&Ms, bulk jelly beans, bulk nuts and dried fruit, giant jawbreakers, five-pound lollipops, obscure candy bars, British chocolate bars, giant Pez dispensers, and more. I'd be suspicious of anyone who didn't love Economy Candy.

Lunch

Stare into the heart of the pastrami beast at Katz's.

Although I generally steer clear of tourist-filled restaurants, Katz's Delicatessen is an exception. It's really fuggin' good. One of my friends from Germany recently had a stopover in New York City—his first visit to New York City—with time to eat only one major meal. I told him to meet me at Katz's. Prices are high—their must-order pastrami sandwich is $16.95—but the portions are so large that I only need half a sandwich to feel uncomfortably stuffed. You're getting a pile of tender, fatty, juicy meat; a little goes a long way. Hungrier folks will want a whole sandwich, but if you have someone to share with, you don't have to spend that much money here.

Note: The front register only takes cash, but you can pay by credit card at the register in the back of the restaurant by the cakes.

The Rizzak from Tiny's Giant Sandwich Shop.

My other favorite sandwich shop in the Lower East Side is Tiny's Giant Sandwich Shop. It's been my go-to sandwich shop for the last seven years. It's nothing like Katz's; it's more of a comfortable, casual, everyday spot with a wide range of consistently good, not-messy sandwiches for $10 and under, many of which come in two sizes and are vegetarian-friendly. One of my favorite combos is to split a Spicy Rizzak and a Veggiest of Them All, the former being a load of meat in bread (mostly turkey and bacon topped with gooey cheddar) and the latter essentially being a salad sandwich (but a good salad sandwich). They sort of balance each other out. Of course, if I could only choose one I'd go with the Spicy Rizzak, because meat.

Dessert

Sugar Sweet Sunshine's pumpkin eggnog pudding (top) is one of my most favorite desserts.

Sugar Sweet Sunshine has the staples of a homey American bakery. Cupcakes! Fluffy layer cakes! Cookies! Pies! Cheesecakes! All served in a cozy, colorful shop that you can comfortably linger in. The main draw for me, though, is their trifles and puddings, like strawberry lemon trifle, banana pudding, and my favorite, the seasonal pumpkin eggnog pudding. These aren't just straight-up puddings, but puddings mashed with cake and whipped cream, which is immeasurably better than pudding or cake by its lonesome.

Sugar Sweet Sunshine is probably best known for its cupcakes though, which are great in their their simplicity. No fancy-pants flavors, no softball-sized cakes masquerading as cupcakes; they do the basics, and they do them well for just $1.75 a pop.

Doughnuts on parade at Doughnut Plant.

Doughnuts more your thing? Head to Doughnut Plant, the harbinger of the pricey gourmet doughnut in New York City. It's still a small investment, though—doughnuts start at $2.50, and for that you get doughnuts made with good ingredients with interesting flavors. I always go for the moist, tender cake doughnuts, specifically the Tres Leches or Brooklyn Blackout. If you like your yeast doughnuts chewier than not, theirs might be up your alley.

About the author: Robyn Lee is the editor of A Hamburger Today and takes many of the photos for Serious Eats. She'll also doodle cute stuff when necessary. Read more from Robyn at her personal food blog, The Girl Who Ate Everything.

Still hungry? Follow SE:NY on Twitter and Facebook.

SAC Capital Advisors, the hedge fund owned by Steven A. Cohen, has agreed to plead guilty to insider trading violations, becoming the first large Wall Street firm in a generation to confess to criminal conduct.

Konami will release Metal Gear Solid 5: Ground Zeroes as a standalone prologue to MGS5: Phantom Pain next spring, and both games are confirmed to be coming to Xbox One, PS4, PS3, and Xbox 360. Konami UK tells us the packaged versions will be sold at £30, while downloadable versions are priced £20 on current-gen systems, and £30 on Xbox One and PS4. While it's yet to be confirmed, we'd say that would translate into prices below $60 in North America. It's also unknown when Phantom Pain itself will be released.

The relationship between Ground Zeroes and Phantom Pain has been as complicated as a Metal Gear Solid plot, but today's news brings some definite clarity to proceedings. Ground Zeroes was revealed first, then Phantom Pain cropped up after being teased as a game by fake outfit Moby Dick Studio. Once Phantom Pain was revealed to be a Metal Gear entry, it was then thought it and Ground Zeroes were part of the same game. Konami then stepped in to clarify they were two different games, and that brings us to today's resolution.

In the words of series creator Hideo Kojima, then: "The advanced capabilities of the FOX Engine have allowed me to tell the new story in a new way. There will be a significant difference in what Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain brings to the series, so we want to ease players into the new open world environment and its potential. As such, Metal Gear Solid 5: Ground Zeroes has been designed to introduce key elements, allowing them to fully benefit from all that the new game will offer."

Continue reading Metal Gear Solid 5: Ground Zeroes breaks cover in spring 2014

Metal Gear Solid 5: Ground Zeroes breaks cover in spring 2014 originally appeared on Joystiq on Mon, 04 Nov 2013 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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South African designers Warren Lewis and (the somewhat extraordinarily named) Porky Hefer have come up with Birdwatcher, a bird house in the form of a CCTV camera that will feed the local birds and help you scare burglars away.

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Those extreme yoga poses that feel like they’re pulling your hips out of the sockets? They might.

Spending the night in your car is frowned upon at best — and illegal at worst — but Walmart does welcome such customers with open arms to its parking lots, per its official policy. Two Walmarts in Flagstaff, Arizona are particularly known for their temporary residents, and Wired has published a photo series from photographer Nolan Conway that captures the unique slice of Americans found on these lots. Pseudo-communities have even formed between the "nomads," with one explaining that on "Christmas Eve I put a note on everybody'€™s door to come over in the morning, and I fixed Christmas breakfast for everybody." View the full series over at Wired or Nolan Conway's website.

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Headline from The Verge, yesterday at 2 PM: “Android 4.4 KitKat: Google’s Simpler, Integrated Operating System Designed for Every Phone”.

Headline from The Verge, yesterday at 3:30 PM: “Google Says the Galaxy Nexus Will Not Be Upgraded to Android 4.4 KitKat”.

A leaked draft of a report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change said that climate change could reduce output and send prices higher in a period when global food demand is expected to soar.

From Serious Eats: New York

[Photographs: Niko Triantafillou]

When the new Harvest ($8.95) dessert from Spot Dessert Bar's new fall menu arrives at your table, your first thought will most certainly be that it looks just like a freshly potted plant. And in a way it is. The leafy green stalk sticking out of the flower-pot-shaped bowl is a real mint stem (you don't have to eat it). The dark brown "soil" actually supports the plant, just as real soil would. However, unlike the mint, you really should eat the soil since it's made from a cocoa cookie crumble. But not just yet. First, your server has to complete the elaborate table-side theater of plating the Harvest.

In addition to the plant container, a second, more traditional looking serving dish is also brought out. The plate contains a small porcelain decanter, a swirl of raspberry foam and a quenelle of dark red raspberry sorbet. After removing the mint stalk with a pair of wooden tongs, the server "un-pots" the plant by turning it upside down over the raspberry swirl.

The dark brown cocoa cookie crumble makes a neat circle around the red berry shortcake that's been revealed from inside the pot. The black rose tea-flavored anglaise sauce is poured--from a great height for dramatic effect—over the cake. The complete plated dessert looks a bit like a miniature pink volcano with white lava running out of it.

The shortcake is very moist, almost wet, and has a mild, natural, berry flavor. Both the cake and the anglaise sauce are much less sweet than expected—a strength shared by many of Spot's desserts. The cocoa cookie crumble is crunchy and satisfying, like a gussied up Carvel crumble, and a good complement to the soft cake. Finally, the raspberry sorbet has the strongest, most pronounced flavor on the plate.

With the Harvest Dessert, Spot's Pasty Chef, Ian Kittichai, who has overseen the menu at Spot for the last two years, has succeeded in creating a fun and whimsical dessert experience. In terms of taste, I prefer Spot's Golden Toast (available all year around) over the harvest--but it's not nearly as much fun.

I suggest visiting Spot's woody underground shop with some friends on a cool fall or winter night and splitting a few of their specialty desserts. Besides the Harvest and the Golden Toast I recommend the new Apple dessert, or on the comfort-side, the new Peach Crumble. First time visitors should try the Green Tea Lava Cake. For hot drinks I like the hot matcha latte.

About the author: Native New Yorker Niko Triantafillou is the founder of DessertBuzz.com and an unabashed foodie nerdling. You can follow him on Twitter at @DessertBuzz.

Kanye West and fiance Kim Kardashian are suing YouTube co-founder Chad Hurley for posting a video of their elaborate semi-private marriage proposal despite signing a confidentiality agreement.

The two-minute clip was posted on Hurley's new site MixBit, where it got 1.64 million views. Celebrity gossip site TMZ quickly reposted the grainy footage, which was taken inside the event at San Francisco's AT&T Park.

The video shows an orchestra, fireworks, West getting down on one knee, and the famous couple being surrounded by a crush of guests. West and Kardashian had planned to sell exclusive footage to a division of Entertainment Television.

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New Yorkers are no doubt dutifully following the mayor's advice and eschewing eateries without perfect A grades and one Harlem eatery won't sit idly by and see their patronage drop. Astor Row Cafe, located on Lenox Avenue at 130th Street, found a way to both disguise their B grading while simultaneously advertising their Sunday brunch. [ more › ]

After NSA leaker Edward Snowden took a job at an unnamed Russian tech company earlier this week, rumors swirled about who his potential employer might be. Today, a statement from Snowden's lawyer has confirmed that the new job is at VK, a Russian social network similar to Facebook, which had made overtures towards Snowden when he first came to Russia. It's unclear what Snowden's exact duties will be at the site, but earlier reports had described it as a "technical support" role.

Snowden's lawyer @AuKucherena says that he accepted @Durov's offer to work in tech support for Russian social media website @vkontakte

— James Glynn (@jamesglynn) November 1, 2013

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What do you do if you’re a pasta company whose Italian namesake makes anti-gay remarks that the company is later forced to apologize for?  Open a chain of restaurants in Midtown, apparently!  In a campaign to raise brand awareness, the Italian pasta company, is launching a line of fast and casual Italian restaurants to make Americans eat more [...]

Stacks on stacks.

An outpost of the eternally popular Lower East Side brunch spot Clinton Street Baking Co. is opening in the United Arab Emirates in January, because fewer things in life are more enjoyable than waiting in line for pancakes and syrup when it's 103° Fahrenheit in the shade. It'll join doppelgängers of other New York–ish spots the Brooklyn Diner, Magnolia Bakery, and Shake Shack, all of which have opened in Dubai during the last few years. [Time Out Dubai via BB, Related]

Read more posts by Hugh Merwin

Filed Under: hot in here, brunch, clinton street baking co., dubai, expansions

The Banksy re-working of a landscape, initially found at Housing Works and then returned to Housing Works with a Nazi painted on it, now has an official value. Last night, it was auctioned off for [ more › ]

Just six people were able to successfully enroll in health insurance through Healthcare.gov, the government's online marketplace, during the first 24 hours it was live. Just 242 people were able to enroll on the second day.

That's according to new documents released by the House Oversight Committee, which is investigating the website's bumpy launch. Slow loading times, bugs, and errors prevented an unknown number of Americans from shopping for health insurance. The website had 4.7 million visits in the first 24 hours, the administration says.

The enrollee numbers come from the minutes taken during a so-called "War Room" meeting of administration officials and contractors called by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services...

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Okay, yes, 'Levolution' is a really silly name for a Battlefield 4 feature...but don't underestimate how cool it is. With it, you can trigger some massive destruction on multiplayer maps—which can then change the map itself a little. Ah, but how do you do it; what levolution is available on which maps? What do they look like, even?

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Third-party apps for Google Voice have six months to live. Google said today that it is ending support for apps that "are making unauthorized use of Google Voice" by providing calling and SMS services. "These apps violate our terms of service and pose a threat to your security," said Nikhyl Singhal, director of real-time communications, in a post on Google+. "So we're notifying these app developers that they must stop making unauthorized use of Google Voice to run their services and transition users by May 15, 2014."

Separately, Singhal said that today's update to the app will not allow users to send SMS messages on Hangouts with their Google Voice numbers. Sprint customers are the exception, as the company allows users to maintain a...

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Laptop Magazine:

The iPhone 5s conclusively beat the Nokia Lumia 1020 in our photo face-off, taking seven out of 10 rounds–and tying one. Even after updating the Lumia 1020′s camera software, which reduced issues with the blue color cast on many images, colors were still more accurate on the iPhone. Apple’s device also excelled when delivering detail and contrast.

The advantage that the Lumia 1020 has is that you can recompose your shot after you take it because of the phone’s very high 41-MP resolution. Overall, though, the iPhone 5s snapped better-looking images in a wider range of conditions.

FAA press release:

Passengers will eventually be able to read e-books, play games, and watch videos on their devices during all phases of flight, with very limited exceptions. Electronic items, books and magazines, must be held or put in the seat back pocket during the actual takeoff and landing roll. Cell phones should be in airplane mode or with cellular service disabled — i.e., no signal bars displayed — and cannot be used for voice communications based on FCC regulations that prohibit any airborne calls using cell phones.

Finally.

Real Kitchen, a small Chicago eatery that mostly does take-out food, dressed up as Michelin 3-star Alinea for Halloween. Some genuine LOLs here, especially the table-side dessert to-go.

Tags: food   Halloween   Real Kitchen   restaurants   video

Biscuits with butter, biscuits with gravy, biscuits with chicken, oh biscuits please save me (...from my hangover). That's not the real tagline for Empire Biscuit, a new biscuit-focused shop in the East Village, but it could be. However you top them or fill them, buttery biscuits are the universe's way of telling you everything's going to be alright and this new Avenue A eatery knows that comfort doesn't keep business hours. [ more › ]

Profits doubled in the third quarter, and the social network reported that mobile ads now accounted for about half its advertising revenue.

In a speech about eugenics and abortion, Mr. Paul appears to have taken words from a Wikipedia entry for the futuristic movie “Gattaca.”

Instead of requesting gifts for the second anniversary of the Uncharted 3 launch, developer Naughty Dog has decided to reward players by making each of the game's multiplayer map packs available for free.

Pay a visit to the PlayStation Network store and you'll find that the three DLC map packs released for Uncharted 3 now feature zero-dollar price tags. Naughty Dog has also reduced the price of a number of multiplayer items found on the PlayStation Network, though that part of the deal will expire on November 4.

While this celebration is meant to send the game into retirement with a bang, there is still one more piece of content headed for Uncharted 3. The next time you fire up the game, your PlayStation 3 will download a patch that includes the new "Dry Docks" multiplayer map, as well as numerous balance changes, all of which have been helpfully outlined on the developer's website.

Celebrate two years of Uncharted 3 with free multiplayer DLC originally appeared on Joystiq on Wed, 30 Oct 2013 19:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Amazon's customer reviews aren't all put together by thoughtful buyers: as it turns out, Amazon has a program that sends free products to some of its top-ranked reviewers in exchange for a write-up. The program is called Amazon Vine, and though it's been running since 2007, a new NPR report is bringing it some renewed attention. "I've had everything from very cheap earbuds, to $500 multifunction laser printers," Michael Erb, Amazon's current top ranked reviewer, tells NPR. "I've gotten a spin bike, which is probably valued at closer to $1,000."

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Deep breaths, everyone. Titanfall developer Respawn Entertainment will eventually make games for PS4, co-founder Vince Zampella tweeted. Yesterday publisher EA announced Titanfall would be exclusive for the life of the game to Xbox 360, Xbox One and PC, crushing the dreams of many prospective PS4 players.

After this news, Zampella assured one fan that Respawn will develop PS4 games: "Of course we will, just not the first Titanfall."

Respawn wasn't in control of the Microsoft exclusivity deal for Titanfall - that was all EA, Zampella said. "Always MS exclusive at launch, great partner and focus is good for a startup," he tweeted. "EA made a deal for the rest, we only found out recently =(."

Keep in mind that one day, you'll be able to turn those frowns upside down, PS4 players.

Zampella: 'Of course' Respawn will have games on PS4, just not Titanfall originally appeared on Joystiq on Wed, 30 Oct 2013 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The imports, from places like India and Mexico, are contaminated with insect parts and salmonella.

The accounting giant hopes to use the transaction to strengthen one of its faster-growing operations, but the combination could raise concerns about conflicts of interest.