The most viral pastry of our time is teaming up with Shake Shack to create what will no doubt be the most insane foodiot line since the Ramen Burger! Shake Shack HQ has just announced that for one day only (September 17th), the wildly popular fast food joint will be selling a "Cronut Hole Concrete" made with the leftover centers of Chef Dominique Ansel's famous pastry. How many days and nights will YOU camp out in Madison Square Park to obtain of these precious treats? [ more › ]

Here comes another playlist to get you in the mood for the change of season in a mellow way. 

1. The Boxer feat. Mumford & Sons and Paul Simon - Jerry Douglas
2. Hymn #35 - Joe Pug
3. Pretty Girl at the Airport - The Avett Brothers
4. Animal Tracks - Mountain Man
5. Under the Same Sun - Ben Howard
6. Your Rocky Spine - Great Lakes Swimmers
7. High Speed - Coldplay
8. Pillow Talk - Wild Child
9. Heart & Bones - The Pines
10. Blood - The Middle East
11. Wake Me Up - Avicii ( WILD CARD )

Enjoy everyone :)

styleclassandmore:

http://www.styleclassandmore.tumblr.com

Style For Men

www.yourstyle-men.tumblr.com

VKONTAKTE -//- FACEBOOK

Last night NASA's Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer (who we just call LADEE) launched in to space aboard the Minotaur V rocket from a launch pad in Virginia. The event could be seen by many on the East Coast... even those of us here in light polluted New York City. Former NASA photographer Ben Cooper took an amazing photo from the Top of the Rock, which he noted is "about 200 miles north of the launch pad." Clear skies, full hearts, can't lose! [ more › ]

Sept. 5,  By Christian Murray

A motorcyclist was killed after colliding with a Jeep in the vicinity of 39^th Street and Queens Boulevard yesterday, according to police.

The bike rider was traveling south on 39^th Street at 3:40 pm when he collided with a 39^th Street north bound Jeep Liberty.

When EMS arrived on the scene, the victim, a 53-year-old white man, was unconscious and unresponsive. He was transported to Elmhurst Hospital where he was later pronounced dead.

There is no criminality suspected, according to police.  The identity of the deceased was later named as Eugene O’Donnell, from Palm Beach Gardens (Florida).

The operator of the Jeep Liberty was issued a summons for Failure to Yield.

UPDATE:  The police said that speed was not a factor in the incident.

UPDATE: According to three people who wrote into this site, the driver of the Jeep Liberty was turning into the Citibank parking lot. However, the police did not have those details.

Weiss Field Watch

Step with an open mind into one of the most closed and unknown countries in the world. North Korea is not only wonderfully interesting, but also surprisingly accessible. In 2013, the curious traveller who wants to experience one of the last Communist dynasties should book a ticket to Pyongyang, the capital of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) aka North Korea. Exclusive travel is an understatement here because less than 5000 western tourists visit this little known Asian country annually. If you are the kind of traveller who likes to come home with original stories and photos that nobody else could have taken then put this destination high on your hotlist. We answer five questions on how to do it.

1.How do you get to North Korea?

Probably the most surprising thing about visiting North Korea is that anyone can do it (even American Traveler’s). Traveling there is neither complicated nor dangerous and it’s even relatively affordable. Just book a trip with the English, Beijing-based tour operator Koryo Tours, which has been taking curious tourists to North Korea for more than fifteen years. In 2012  Koryo Tours took around 2,500-plus tourists to DPRK of which a third were Americans. Koryo Tours arranges your visa, books your flight or train from Beijing to Pyongyang and also makes sure that you discover this country in a fascinating way. It starts with a 1,5 hour flight from Beijing to Pyongyang in a Tupolev aircraft of Air Koryo, the national airline. A vintage chic first class, beautiful stewardesses wearing white gloves and red lipstick, a meal that rivals many American carriers and the Pyongyang Times, a North Korean newspaper translated into English. If your flight is at night (which is highly unlikely) the views are spectacular: the Yalu River that separates China from North Korea, on the Chinese side, brightly lit and bustling and on the North Korean side, complete darkness. Onboard there are mainly visitors and tourists but also some North Koreans who are easily identifiable by the de rigueur badge of the Great Leader they wear. The same Kim Il Sung observes the Tupolev as it lands at Pyongyang’s international airport. The group of international tourists know in advance what to expect, thanks to a briefing in Beijing the previous day. Laptops, cameras, lenses, video cameras are all allowed. In 2009 we still had to hand-in our cell phone at the airport, but nowadays you can take your phone inside the country and buy a local sim card too from which you can make and receive international phone calls. There are internet connections in most big hotels since 2008, plus the western guides have internet on their smart phones.
Our British guide Hannah Barraclough from Koryo Tours shares her adventures via InstaGram, live from North Korea.

WWW.INSTAGRAM.COM/HANNAYKORYO

2.Are you free during a trip to North Korea?

Yes and no. Exploring alone is a no-no. Either you book an individual trip to North Korea and have two local guides and a driver in a stylish vintage Mercedes assigned to you, or you go in an international group. In the case of the latter, two local guides, a Western guide and a driver also accompany you. Requests can be made but because the program is so tightly organized you are kind of restricted as a tourist. In other words, you get to see the North Korea that the government wants you to see. This in itself is already fascinating. Of course there are limitations. It is strictly forbidden to take photographs of military installations (but isn’t this the case in any country?), such as the border with South Korea. Bowing to statues of the Great Leader is requisite. But however well orchestrated the trip tries to be (which is equally true of many Western packages where the tourist only sees and experiences the things the tour operator shows them) you still get a glimpse of the real North Korea. In the capital, Pyongyang, with its empty streets (only the happy few drive cars) stunningly dolled up girls in blue and white uniforms, work the middle of intersections. Between the official visits to museums, monuments and mausoleums, you get a remarkable insight into the daily life of the North Korean. On August 15, Liberation Day, everyone sits in the park. There is picnicking, dancing, singing, playing… Families sit on the grass beneath the trees and most ladies wear sumptuous dresses. It’s a good moment to sit down with the locals and have a great and relaxing time.

3.What’s on the program?

A week in North Korea is a mixture of visits, tastes and experiences. From going bowling in a very rigid, Communist looking bowling alley (balls made in USA), and a ride on the Pyongyang subway, to visiting a school library and a local music school where accordion, piano and guitar are taught with collective zeal. The male members of the group have already been told to pack a tie for the visit to the mausoleum of Kim Il Sung. Also included in the excursion package is a visit to the DMZ (Demilitarized Zone) between North and South Korea. On the way there, you pass several border controls on a motorway where almost no cars drive. As a tourist you can stand close to the actual and fragile line between the two foes. A photo of the blue sentry box and resident guard with South Korea just five meters away, serves as a souvenir. Less official is the beautiful North Korean landscape, to be enjoyed from your window on the many bus trips: green paddy fields, abundant space and the occasional farm or village. One of these visits takes us to the North Korean coast, heavily guarded by the military. You immediately notice Japan looming across the water on the other side. Despite this detail, a relaxing gourmet lunch follows at a small restaurant on the beach with freshly grilled fish, duck and seafood.

4.Is visiting North Korea something for everyone?

Some tourists may wonder whether travelling to a country like North Korea is ethically correct. No doubt, everyone decides for himself or herself but the same equally applies to other countries that are not 100% politically correct or corruption free. Tourism is a source of income for the North Koreans. Another important aspect of tourism is the interaction between the foreigner and the North Korean. At least the visitor gets to see the inhabitant as he really is and vice versa. Travelling to the DPRK raises a corner of the veil for both sides. Perhaps this interaction will pave the way for more freedom and peace for everybody. All you need as a tourist (apart from a chic tie) is an open mind and the belief that something human lies behind a country like North Korea, despite negative reporting in the West. Discovering one of the most secretive countries in the world does have its own strange aspects and rules. As a true and seasoned traveller you now have everything in perspective.

5.Are the Mass Games really so spectacular?

Yes, yes and yes! There are only a few words to describe an event of this size and impact. This is DPRK’s main attraction and quite simply the most amazing thing you will ever see! Mass Games can basically be described as a synchronized socialist-realist spectacular, featuring over 100,000 participants in a 90 minute display of gymnastics & dance, accompanied by music, all wrapped in a highly politicized package. Literally no other place on Earth has anything comparable and it has to be seen with your own two eyes to truly appreciate the scale on display. The Arirang or Mass Games run weekly each year from July/August and continue until mid September. 80.000 dancers and gymnasts train throughout the year to perform for their compatriots and especially for their leader. The backdrop is made by over 20,000 cardholders who sit in the audience and make patterns appear through the synchronized turning of colored cards. As a tourist, attending and taking photos of these events is absolutely no problem. Prices for an evening range from 130 dollar for third class seats to 450 dollar for VIP seats. Want to see yourself?
Check out the “I want more” video from the music band Faithless, filming made possible by Koryo Tours.

THE VERDICT We totally loved traveling to North Korea with Koryo Tours. It was one of the most surprising trips we ever did in last years. From the interesting group of travellers we met during the trip to singing karaoke and socializing with the locals while having a drink and rolling a cigarette together. The highlight? The Mass Games, a mind-blowing event (we went two times) that can only be witnessed here in the DPRK. If we would go back to North Korea? Yes, in a flash.

HOW TO GO The British travel company Koryo Tours organizes excellent! trips into the DPRK out of Beijing. Trips can be made in a group or individually, according to your own budget and wishes. For travellers with less time, you can book a Mass Game Break that lets you witness the Mass Games and discover Pyongyang in a couple of days. Departure is always out of Beijing and depending on the type of trip you have booked this is either by flight or by train. Flying is with Air Koryo, which has 3 flights a week to Beijing. The flight only takes 1,5 hours in a comfortable airplane in economy and business class configuration.

WWW.KORYOGROUP.COM

WHERE DO YOU STAY Lodging in the DPRK is very straightforward. In Pyongyang we stayed in the super cool 47-storey Yanggakdo Hotel. It is a western 3 star (Chinese 4 star) equivalent and equipped with a revolving restaurant on the top floor, bars, shops, swimming pool, bowling, casino, and other entertainment facilities such as Karaoke. The hotel has reliable electricity, heating, air conditioning, hot water with even foreign TV channels including BBC World and Japanese and Chinese TV, and internet access is available. In a small café beside the hotel, bottled beer is served at 0,40 euro a throw.

VISA & MONEY A visa for North Korea is easily obtained with the help of Koryo Tours. They will apply the visum for you, so there is no need to organize it yourself. The official exchange currency in DPRK is now Euros (USD were taken out of circulation in 2003). We recommend you bring Euros however Chinese Yuan, USD, and Japanese Yen can be used in most cases. It is best to bring small bills/coins as change can be a problem. Travellers’ cheques are impossible to cash in the DPRK. The official currency, the DPRK Won is now valued at roughly 170 won to 1 Euro. It may be possible to get hold of real DPRK money in the hotel but this is for a souvenir only and cannot be used to purchase goods. The best currency to use when buying goods remains the Euro but keep in mind that all goods sold to visitors are rather expensive.Tipping is appreciated in North Korea. For example 5 euro per day for the guide is a good amount. In restaurants or bars, it is at your own discretion if you want to tip the waitresses or not.

CLIMATE We highly recommend to go during the summer months, when the Mass Games take place. Summer however is fairly hot and humid during the day and cooler at night.

The post NORTH KOREA INSIDE OUT first appeared on classe touriste.

Lots and lots and lots of rain means no fishing but misty mornings!

A favorite tale of children’s book publishers and parenting blogs is set in a land not so far away, where the evil e-reader is a slayer of the bedtime story. In another version of the telling, however, joining forces with the wise and age-old printed book is a powerful piece of hardware capable of storing an infinitely appealing range of adventures to be guided by a child’s imagination--perhaps more interactive than a sleep-ridden invention conjured by an overworked parent at the end of the day.

The market is now, of course, flush with digital storytelling inventions. But few deliver quite like the InfiniScroll, a new app with a seemingly endless number of illustrations spliced to create a story and flashing pictures that unravel as a child scrolls up and down the iPad screen.

“We wanted to break the linear format of traditional storytelling and create an app where kids were both taken in an ever-changing visual journey and in control of the narration,” explains Luca Prasso, CEO of Curious Hat, the makers behind InfiniScroll and other kid-themed apps.

InfiniScroll comes loaded with 80 drawings, each depicting a different object or character, say, a big-nosed astronaut or a smiling elephant head. Combining these with each other and narratives leads to a vast array of permutations.

By vertically stacking the illustrations, the Infiniscroll makes it easy for both parents and children to not just choose but construct their own adventures. One story consists of five connected panels that unfold from the bottom up. Scroll up and a new drawing appears; scroll back down and you get a different image than before. Drawings can be locked in place, anchoring storyboards together (or not) when you’ve written a keeper (or not). Kids can even record and insert noises at each step of the narrative to help the imagery come alive.

The drawings were conceived and executed by Italian illustrator Francesco Chiacchio. Prasso and the InfiniScroll team brought Chiacchio onto the project after discovering a series of what Prasso describes as “infinite illustrations.” These sketches, entitled bestiario, imagine dozens of peevish creatures whose curving, serrated, and patterned features evoke a vibrant world of wildlife.

Chiacchio’s original artwork for InfiniScroll further builds on these themes and forms. He produced a cast of friendly characters that can be easily mixed and matched. As a story progresses--or conversely, derails--it’s impossible to tell where one illustration ends and another begins.

The drawings are refreshingly simple and don’t resort to flash to keep the kids engaged, unlike the kinds of digital beasts that populate the latest computer animated films. It’s an irony Prasso is well aware of, having previously worked with partner and Curated Hat CTO Erwan Maigret at Dreamworks on developing the technology that powered such titles as Shrek and other landmarks of the genre.

Together, the two have released several interactive apps, like Phlip and Eye Paint, which both integrate the iOS camera for creative ends. “We believe that with mobile devices we can go beyond the passive experience of watching a movie or reading a linear book,” Prasso tells Co.Design. “One of our goals in designing apps for children is to connect them with their parents, to create more meaningful opportunities to create and interact.”

InfiniScroll is available for download from iTunes App Store.

[Photo by Albert Ve?erka/Esto, courtesy Weiss/Manfredi]

The plan to transform 30 acres of Long Island City's waterfront with a mixed-use development and modern urban park began, like many Bloomberg megaprojects, back in 2007, and now, finally, the first piece of Hunters Point South is a reality. The lengthy timeline isn't that surprising; what's surprising is that the first part to open won't be the housing, but rather the first phase of the 11-acre public park. Designed by Weiss/Manfredi and Thomas Balsley Associates, the park, described by Marion Weiss, is a green "charm bracelet" across the riverfront, with an esplanade linking different "heterotopias," from a dog run and playground to wetlands and a sandy beach. Mayor Bloomberg will officially open the park tomorrow, but it's already accessible to the public.

[Photos by Albert Ve?erka/Esto, courtesy Weiss/Manfredi]

The design team, which consulted with ARUP for the park infrastructure, wanted to capitalize on the Manhattan skyline, with every section offering unobstructed views. Even the upland streets have skyline views, and they were made over with stormwater-filtering bioswales and plantings to be green corridors that lead visitors to the park. The park, combine with the new infrastructure and new streets, cost $66 million.

The park itself is mostly a manmade topography, formed of landfill from when the site was industrial. A large green oval, which Michael Manfredi calls the "Sheep Meadow of the park," anchors the newly opened five acres. It's part real grass, part artificial turf. "That was a tug of war with the Parks Department," said Weiss during a (very rainy) tour on July 1st. The Parks Department wanted artificial turf, and City Planning wanted real grass. Parks argued that real grass turns to dirt if it's overused, and considering the park is directly across the street from the development's new school (opening this fall), the oval is destined to be used for sports games. A compromise was reached, and there's a smaller inner circle of artificial turf, and a larger oval of real grass.

[Photo by Albert Ve?erka/Esto, courtesy Weiss/Manfredi]

Next to the oval sits the pavilion, a structure that holds two buildings under one continuous accordian-like canopy. It provides shade (but does not protect against a torrential downpour), and holds a park maintenance facility, restrooms, a concession stand, and a raised plaza. Weiss and Manfredi both love how the pavilion and the oval interact, nothing that they "play off each other" to create a unique communal space. "The pavilion gives the park a stature," said Weiss. "It links it to the community." The canopy will eventually host 64 solar panels (they are not yet installed) that will power more than 50 percent of the park, and it's designed to accommodate enough panels to power the entire park in the future.

[Photo by Albert Ve?erka/Esto, courtesy Weiss/Manfredi]

Moving south from the pavilion, there's a sandy beach, not-so-coincidentally located where the Water Taxi Beach used to be. To the north of the oval, visitors find a playground shaded by trees near the edge of the river, and an "interpretive rail garden" planted with colorful native grasses and flowers.

Working with multiple agencies and firms, according to Weiss and Manfredi, proved difficult. "Keeping the ambitions and expectations of all groups moving forward to something where the whole is greater than the sum of the parts" was the most challenging part of the project, according to Weiss.

[Photos from the very rainy July 1st tour]

In a post-Sandy city, the first question that comes to mind with new waterfront developments is "how did it fare during the storm?" Hunters Point South, it turns out, fared very well. "We were surprised at how well the water drained," said Manfredi. "We always anticipated that there would be a major storm." Every part of the park is design to take on water. After Hurricane Sandy, all of the major surfaces were undamaged and intact, and most of the trees survived because all grades in the park were calibrated to accommodate storms, so the tree roots were protected.

The second, southern section of the park will curl around the waterfront, reaching toward the entrance to Newtown Creek. This part capitalizes on the man-made landscape, with a 39-foot elevation and a cantilevered pier that juts out over the river and wetlands. While the first part incorporates more urban elements, the second section has a "wild ecological profile" with riparian trails that follow the river's edge.

Work has not yet begun on this portion, but Weiss and Manfredi say it's ready to be advanced. "The city wants to start fairly soon," says Manfredi, but phase two is contingent upon how fast the residential portion is developed." Work began on the first two residential buildings (925 units) in March, and the city issued an RFP for another 1,000 units in May.

UPDATE: A previous version of this article incorrectly stated that the park cost $66 million to build. However, $66 million includes the cost of new infrastructure and new streets, as well as construction of the park. Additionally, the solar panels on the pavilion are not yet installed. Curbed regrets the errors.
· Weiss/Manfredi [official]
· Thomas Balsley Associates [official]
· Hunter's Point South coverage [Curbed]

A little Friday advice: if you work for one of the great mammoths in the history of technology, and your faltering CEO just emailed to say he's departing, make sure you click the right buttons when you reply.

Read more...

Football season is almost upon us, and it seems the Jets have decided to start their annual tradition of completely melting down on and off the field a bit early. The Jets beat the Giants Saturday 24-21 in a preseason game, but that included Geno Smith throwing three interceptions, and Mark Sanchez injuring his throwing arm after Rex Ryan put him into the game in the fourth quarter with backups. It's unclear whether Sanchez will be ready for the season now, and Ryan received immediate criticism for the move—and he responded by totally losing it during the post-game press conference, as you can see below. [ more › ]

Jason Zogg lives on the 21st floor of a Mies van der Rohe apartment building in Lafayette Park, one of Detroit's best neighborhoods. He pays $800 a month in rent and has a free parking space.

It's one of the benefits of living somewhere other people don't want to be. The equivalent rental in Manhattan would be well in excess of $3,000. And Zogg could forget about keeping a vehicle.

It's not the only benefit of being in Detroit at the moment. Though the city just filed the biggest municipal bankruptcy in history, its decline is opening up opportunities. Zogg, an urban planner who has a consulting job with a local utility, is currently refurbishing a big art deco building, re–purposing a parking lot into a park, and conceiving a master–plan for the neighborhood where he works. He's only 28.

"I came here from the East Coast, because as an urban planner, I'm interested in opportunity," he says. "When I saw Detroit, I saw a huge amount of opportunity, almost a blank slate. I felt I could make a difference; that this was the place to be, and this was the time to be here."

That Zogg saw Detroit at all is down to Challenge Detroit, a program that's working to attract professionals back to the city. Over the last year, it has hosted 30 "fellows"––both recent graduates, and people like Zogg, who have a few years' work experience. The twentysomethings have spent four days a week with local employers; then, on Fridays, they've collaborated on social problems, working with local nonprofits.

They tackled nine challenges in all, covering areas like education, food access, and entrepreneurship. For example, they worked with Beaumont Health System to develop a new health and fitness curriculum for Detroit's kids (see video above). They convened teachers from public, private, and charter schools to create a new and easier–to–use enrollment system. And they hooked up with an incubator, called Techtown Detroit, to identify ways of encouraging more startups to come to Detroit (and hopefully employ more locals).

Zogg reckons there's a certain cachet in being part of a resurgence. Google, Facebook, and Twitter have already set up offices in the city. One friend of his recently moved to Detroit, and secured funding for a startup, having failed to find backers in California. "Even though it was the same business plan, they were able to get money, because Detroit is now so cool and interesting," he says.

Zogg likes the Midwest so much that he's planning to stay, even though the program is over and another Challenge cohort is arriving. He believes that most of his group will remain in the city, because prospects are better than in other places.

"I've lived in New York, and D.C., and Boston. The barriers to entry there are hard to overcome, with the amount of college debt Millennials have, the incomes we're making, and starting our careers in the middle of the recession," he says. "You can have a life in Detroit and be part of a group of people who are committed to see the city become something great again."

We have no "dirty little secrets" in public radio (we care too much?) but are totally riveted by this Reddit thread on other industry secrets.

Last night The Whitney unveiled and lit up their life-size 3D installation of Edward Hopper's "Nighthawks "painting. As we noted yesterday, the famous work features a 1940s diner which never actually existed, but the museum claims it was inspired by the Flatiron building (the two have similar shapes), where their installation is housed. [ more › ]

Nothing will ever be as good as The Shining recut from 2006, but when someone sent us a link titled "Breaking Bad as Romantic Comedy" the sound of clicking in the office was deafening. [ more › ]

For 16 minutes today, this was the Chicago Tribune’s homepage. Why they changed it back, I don’t know.

(h/t)

So far, the neighborhood has mostly resisted the invasion of soul-crushing corporate eateries in favor of mom-and-pop shops that keep the area's distinct character alive. [ more › ]

As Ben mentioned in our previous post, our top priority right now is improving the stability of The Old Reader.  To start, we’re going to get The Old Reader a much needed hardware upgrade.  This week, we’ll be relocating the application to a top tier host located in the United States, tripling database capacity and adding over 10 times the network capacity.

The move is going to entail exporting all of the posts from about 6 million subscriptions, moving that data approximately 5000 miles and then importing it into the new database servers. This is a big move, and unfortunately it’s going to require about 48 hours of downtime.   

The new environment will be ready to roll on Tuesday at which point we will begin the transfer and maintenance window.  We’re shooting to begin that maintenance window at approximately 12AM GMT Wednesday.  During this time, we’ll be frequently updating Twitter, Facebook and Status page to make sure you know as soon as it is back up and running.

Thome Browne’s apartment.

We’re pleased to announce that The Old Reader will officially remain open to the public! The application now has a bigger team, significantly more resources, and a new corporate entity in the United States. We’re incredibly excited to be a part of this great web application and would like to share some details about its future as well as thank you for remaining loyal users. We’re big fans and users of The Old Reader and look forward to helping it grow and improve for years to come.

First off we want to say that it’s rare to have an application that inspires as much passion as The Old Reader has as of late. We think that’s a sign of greatness and all credit for that goes to the wonderful team that has been running the show including Dmitry and Elena. We’ve gotten to know them pretty well this past week and they are smart, honest, and passionate people. We’re happy to announce that they are still a part of the team and we hope they will be for a long time to come.  The new team will be managing the project and adding to the engineering, communications, and system administration functions.

So now for the future. The Old Reader is going to retain all of its functionality and remain open to the public. Not only that, we’re going to do everything in our power to grow the user base which will only accentuate the things that make this application special. To facilitate these improvements, we’re going to be transitioning The Old Reader to a top tier hosting facility in the United States this coming week. It’s going to require some downtime and for that we sincerely apologize, but it’s also going to mean A LOT more servers, 10x faster networks, and long-term stability. We realize that doesn’t make the downtime easy but rest assured that things are looking up.

Over the coming weeks we’ll talk more about the new team of The Old Reader. We’re looking forward to introducing ourselves and making significant improvements to this incredible application. Thanks for reading and thanks for using The Old Reader!

August 1, By Christian Murray

A new program to keep the streets of Hunters Point clean was launched today.

Two workers from the Doe Fund, an organization that helps homeless people rebuild their lives, will be cleaning a number of designated streets in the neighborhood three days per week, six hours per day.

The announcement comes at a time when it appears unlikely that alternate side of the street parking will be implemented in Hunters Point.

The Doe Fund workers function will sweep the sidewalks, empty garbage and pick up trash. They will be covering Vernon Blvd (50^th Avenue through 45^th Ave.) and 11^th Street (50^th Avenue through 45^th Avenue)—as well as some parts of Jackson Avenue.

“This is just the beginning and I hope to expand the program,” said Councilman Jimmy Van Bramer, who held a press conference in Hunters Point yesterday to announce it.. His office provided $34,000 in funding for the program.

“The cleanliness of the streets has been an issue for a long time,” Van Bramer said. “Our goal is to make the area more livable and do it in a way that everyone can feel good about.”

Van Bramer said that the program is separate from the alternate side of the street parking issue, which would make way for street sweepers.

“I don’t think [alternate side parking] is actively under consideration right now,” Van Bramer said. “While individuals and organizations continue to speak about it, I don’t think it is moving forward.”

“Our office is not big on that at this point anyway,” he said, so his office is focusing on the Doe Fund.

 

We’ll probably eat lab-grown meat one day. It’ll be more ethical and environmentally friendly than the cow-grown stuff, plus it could be fairly cheap. But when we’re imagining The Future, why stop at growing mere meat when you can grow whole new organisms?

Living Food is a stomach-churningly ambitious concept by RCA design, biology, and robotics student Minsu Kim. It proposes the use of synthetic biology in fine dining, a world of haute cuisine in which modernist chefs would continue trending toward mad science to grow delicious, still-living organisms for you to eat.

“We design almost every element of food, such things as a taste, color, smell, texture, and ambience of dining,” Kim tells Co.Design. “As a designer, I propose an idea on what we could design further in the future.”

A vegetable could play with your fork while noodles tickle your tongue.

In Kim’s future, plates are breathing, pulsating, writhing things. Like alien species, her synthetic tasting menu looks dual parts shocking and organic, as if it’s been yanked from the bottom of the sea to be placed straight on a plate. Here, a vegetable could play with your fork while noodles literally tickle your tongue. And in this way, Kim imagines food as not a mere aesthetic or olfactory sensation but as a “fictional character” that generates an inherent empathy.

“I want to open up a discussion,” she explains. "Would you eat them? Why not? Do you think of it as a life-form? Or just a substance acting like life-form? What made you think so?”

It would also unleash the ultimate design challenge for chefs. Right now, they repurpose a finite set of Earth’s ingredients into delectable meals. But what if there were literally no end to the possibilities of what eating could be to any human sense? What if, like a beast in the Serengeti, you were filled with a blood lust to consume what was on your plate? What if, like a dramatic movie, a dish could leave its diners in tears, wrought with climactic catharsis over dessert?

Or what if the next diet fad is fueled by Cheeze-Its that open their eyes and say “Mama?” when you’re just about to bite?

See more here.

[Hat tip: dezeen]

UPD: We have received a number of proposals that we are discussing right now. Chances are high that public The Old Reader will live after all

Since we launched first public version almost a year ago up until March 2013 we have been working on The Old Reader in “normal” mode. In March things became “nightmare”, but we kept working hard and got things done. First, we were out of evenings, then out of weekends and holidays, and then The Old Reader was the only thing left besides our jobs. Last week difficulty level was changed to “hell” in every possible aspect we could imagine, we have been sleep deprived for 10 days and this impacts us way too much. We have to look back.

The truth is, during last 5 months we have had no work life balance at all. The “life” variable was out of equation: you can limit hours, make up rules on time management, but this isn’t going to work if you’re running a project for hundreds of thousands of people. Let me tell you why: it tears us to bits if something is not working right, and we are doing everything we can to fix that. We can’t ignore an error message, a broken RAID array, or unanswered email. I personally spent my own first wedding anniversary fixing the migration last Sunday. Talk about “laid back” attitude now. And I won’t even start describing enormous sentimental attachment to The Old Reader that we have.

We would really like to switch the difficulty level back to “normal”. Not to be dreaded of a vacation. Do something else besides The Old Reader. Stop neglecting ourselves. Think of other projects. Get less distant from families and loved ones. The last part it’s the worst: when you are with your family, you can’t fall out of dialogues, nodding, smiling and responding something irrelevant while thinking of refactoring the backend, checking Graphite dashboard, glancing onto a Skype chat and replying on Twitter. You really need to be there, you need to be completely involved. We want to have this experience again.

That’s why The Old Reader has to change. We have closed user registration, and we plan to shut the public site down in two weeks. We started working on this project for ourselves and our friends, and we use The Old Reader on a daily basis, so we will launch a separate private site that will keep running. It will have faster refresh rate, more posts per feed, and properly working full-text search — we are sure that we can provide all this at a smaller scale without that much drama, just like we were doing before March.

The private site?

Accounts will be migrated to the private site automatically. We will whitelist everybody we know personally, along with all active accounts that were registered before March 13, 2013. And of course, we will migrate all our awesome supporters and people who donated to keep the project running (if you sent us bitcoins, please get in touch to get identified). Later this week your account will get a distinct indication whether it will be migrated to the private site or not. If you see that message and believe that it’s wrong, or if all your friends are getting migrated and you are left behind — please, drop us a line.

Give me my data!

You will have two weeks to export your OPML file regardless of our decision. OPML export link is located at the bottom of the Settings page — use the top-right menu to get there. All posts that you saved for later by using Pocket integration will obviously remain in your Pocket account.

But you could…

For those who would like to start the usual “VC, funding, mentor” or “charge for the damn thing” mantras — please, spare it. We’re not in the Valley where it might be super-easy, and, after all, not everyone wants to be an entrepreneur. We just love making a good RSS reader.

We really want The Old Reader to be a big and successful project, with usable free accounts. But this is not possible to achieve with what we have, so unless someone resourceful takes over the project and brings it to the next level, it is not gonna happen. We had over 2 000 new registrations after the blackout last week. This is amazing and sad at the same time.

If anyone is interested in acquiring The Old Reader and making it better, we are very open and accepting proposals at hello@theoldreader.com. We would be waiting for them for two weeks, supporting and maintaining The Old Reader as usual. Please don’t write us if you don’t have resources to maintain a site used by tens of thousands of people every day, or if you don’t know how you would improve The Old Reader. And please spare our time if you just want to buy the domain name and park a bunch of silly ads there — it’s not going to happen.

We value our community very much, and we will either pass the project to somebody who we know is going to take a good care of it, or we will switch it to private mode.

What next?

From one point of view, it’s not a big deal: “RSS is obsolete”, nobody died, we don’t owe anybody anything, you name it. Also, there are a lot of good readers around to choose from, a large part of them is smaller than The Old Reader and had not experienced growing pains of 80 000 daily active users in no time. But for us, it’s heartbreaking.

I will finally get back to work on my small studio — Bespoke Pixel — which has been run by my awesome partner all this time. Dmitry will keep being bright young software developer, making scalable and beautiful projects. Our team will stay together, and will keep working on making the private version of The Old Reader awesome.

We feel great responsibility for the project. We’d rather provide a smooth and awesome experience for 10 000 users than a crappy one for 420 000.

Sorry, each and everyone if we failed you. You are an incredible, supportive and helpful community. The best we could possibly hope for.

All the love,
Elena Bulygina and Dmitry Krasnoukhov