randomwalks/dj

A-H-H-H-H! Bluehill at Stone Barns!!!! I cannot recommend this place heartily enough. It is just above New York City, along the Hudson River, just outside Tarrytown. Totally worth the drive out of the city. Some years back, Dan Barber, the chef at Bluehill Restaurant in the city cut a deal with David Rockefeller to turn his family estate into a working organic farm with a restaurant and educational center. and it is worth every penny of the tens of millions of dollars they spent in making it operable and beautiful. Its worth the trip just for the stonework, let alone the beautiful wood beams and wonderful lighting.

Then, there is the food. OMG!!!!! Elegant, imaginative, fresh, beautiful food! and a great wine list....


If you have been paying attention, you will remember this card was used to make the Virginia cabin, some posts back. I admitted in that posting, I believe, that I had borrowed the cardstock because it looked like stacked logs. Well, now you can see the *real* restaurants representation. I may have to make another one or two...I want to make the grouping of buildings around a stone courtyard which you walk through on the way from the valet parking point to the restaurant...you get a peek into several other structures...must go up there for one of the tours or classes....

c. 2004

Originally posted by skm from Tiny Buildings, on July 21, 2007 1:06 PM

Sure, it may be a tad photoshopped, but Augusta's photo of herself holding all the ingredients for making semifreddo with looks pretty damn cool. Or scary. It'd be a lot easier to cook with 16 arms though, assuming you could coordinate them all to worth smoothly together.

Originally posted by Robyn Lee from Serious Eats: Main, on July 20, 2007 3:00 PM

How come I hadn't heard about 2 Days in Paris?  There really isn't anything better than a Julie Delpy movie set in the city of lights.  Sigh.

Originally posted by Michael Sippey from (un)filtered, on July 20, 2007 2:41 PM

From Slate's "Hypothetical questions they should ask at the presidential debates":

As you are flying home from Moscow--having told the world you will never deal with terrorists--hijackers, posing as reporters, seize Air Force One. ... I'll start with Senator Obama. Do you negotiate with the hijackers in the hope of saving lives, or do you flee into the bowels of the craft, then pick them off, one by one, with makeshift shanks and your bare hands?

Originally posted by Anil from Anil Dash, on July 20, 2007 2:24 PM

I usually don't blog Apperceptive work over here, but this morning Katharine Daniels, the executive editor of The Women's International Perspective Internet News Service, brought my attention to Patricia Vásquez's coverage of the the case of Haleh Esfandiari imprisonment and (supposed) confession on CNN.

Here's a short bio of Mrs. Esfandiari, excerpted from the article:

Professionally, she is Dr. Esfandiari, Director of the Middle East Program at the Woodrow Wilson International Center, who holds a Ph.D. from the prestigious University of Vienna. An exceptional scholar, she is a recipient of a MacArthur Foundation “genius” grant, given "to individuals …who show exceptional merit and promise of continued creative work." Without question, she is highly regarded by her peers. One scholar has described her as the "gold standard" of Middle East analysts.

Not just a scholar but also a writer, at Princeton University Dr. Esfandiari didn’t just teach her students Persian language and literature, she taught them to love it as she did. Former students say her passion for her homeland was contagious! She taught Farsi using Persian folk tales, poetry which she effortlessly recited by heart, and old black-and-white films. She even cooked them Persian food. Before coming to the States in 1979, she worked in Iran as a young journalist for the Farsi edition of Iran's leading newspaper, Kayhan.

Originally posted by David Jacobs from hello, typepad, on July 20, 2007 9:32 AM

I usually don't blog Apperceptive work over here, but this morning Katharine Daniels, the executive editor of The Women's International Perspective Internet News Service, brought my attention to Patricia Vásquez's coverage of the the case of Haleh Esfandiari imprisonment and (supposed) confession on CNN.

Here's a short bio of Mrs. Esfandiari, excerpted from the article:

Professionally, she is Dr. Esfandiari, Director of the Middle East Program at the Woodrow Wilson International Center, who holds a Ph.D. from the prestigious University of Vienna. An exceptional scholar, she is a recipient of a MacArthur Foundation “genius” grant, given "to individuals …who show exceptional merit and promise of continued creative work." Without question, she is highly regarded by her peers. One scholar has described her as the "gold standard" of Middle East analysts.

Not just a scholar but also a writer, at Princeton University Dr. Esfandiari didn’t just teach her students Persian language and literature, she taught them to love it as she did. Former students say her passion for her homeland was contagious! She taught Farsi using Persian folk tales, poetry which she effortlessly recited by heart, and old black-and-white films. She even cooked them Persian food. Before coming to the States in 1979, she worked in Iran as a young journalist for the Farsi edition of Iran's leading newspaper, Kayhan.

Originally posted by David Jacobs from hello, typepad, on July 20, 2007 9:32 AM

And we shall call it “maclet” -dj

Originally posted by Adam from randomWalks, on July 20, 2007 9:10 AM

   

Art Siegel (artolog) has been sharing photographs and the story of two Great Horned Owls who chose to winter atop Bernal Heights here in San Francisco. In early April, the first passed away from Avian Herpes Virus leaving one. Today, Art shares the sad news that the second owl was found dead under pine tree yesterday afternoon.

Photos from artolog.

Originally posted by Heather Champ from Flickr Blog, on July 20, 2007 8:38 AM

Two of the posts I'm most proud of having written last year are Making Something Meaningful and How do we judge our tools?. It looks like the sentiment behind those posts is catching on.

• Nick Bradbury on Conserving your limited attention: "When I hear someone complaining about all the feeds competing for their attention, I have to wonder why they don't just unsubscribe from most of them."
• Jeremy Zawodny on Getting off the hype treadmill: "I made an conscious decision to drop virtually all "news" sources from my subscription list that felt like breathless hype machines that provided little new insight."
• And Steve Rubel, who seems to have gotten a lot of conversations started with the conclusion that "[T]he bigger story in the long run is how these sites change business and our society."
• Mike Torres captures a related point about insularity, "It used to be fun watching the "A-list" bloggers discover the obvious things that folks outside the U.S., little kids, and even big companies have been tracking for months; sometimes years."
• There was a nice nod from O'Reilly Radar last week, too.

And of course we visited the blogosphere's reality distortion field yesterday. Now we just have to see if this is just a blip of self-criticism, or if people actually want to change what they pay attention to.

Originally posted by Anil from Anil Dash, on July 20, 2007 8:29 AM

A former Reagan aide warns of an upcoming "police state"
Rogue Presidency post in Talking Points Memo

"Mark J. Rozell, a professor of public policy at George Mason University who has written a book on executive-privilege issues, called the administration's stance "astonishing."

"That's a breathtakingly broad view of the president's role in this system of separation of powers," Rozell said. "What this statement is saying is the president's claim of executive privilege trumps all."

powered by performancing firefox

Originally posted by joshua mack from DefinitiveInk, on July 20, 2007 7:54 AM

Harry Potter is so on the brain. It's all we've been thinking about at work, home, over IM and in our sleep - for the past week! We're definitely taking part in the events tonight in Philadelphia, and certainly staying up all night to get a head start on finishing the book. As decided, we're turning off all phones, TVs, radios and computers, as well as not venturing out of the house until we're done, in case someone ruins the end of the book by blabbing "X died!" or "X lives!"

In preparation for this weekend, i'm going to run the oven to make vegetarian Shepherds Pie. (It's a large dish that equates to many servings since we won't have the desire to cook while in the middle of reading!)

I assume by Sunday morning we all should be done with the book, so i plan to make Egg in the Basket, which i thought was called "Toad in the Hole," along with fake sausage for breakfast.

Throughout Sunday afternoon over our HP7 discussion, i'll make some nice little sandwiches to eat with scones, little cakes and tea. I'm intrigued by lemon curd so perhaps i'll make a batch of that for the first time.

Sadly for be, i'm not into pumpkin juice and pretzel "wands" dipped in frosting, nor those horrific Bertie Bott's beans (of which apparently rotten egg is worse than vomit... ugh!)

I CAN'T WAIT!

Originally posted by beXn from beXnlog, on July 20, 2007 6:59 AM

This is the reason, partly, that Will Wright wasn't at GDC this year he was at the TED conference giving this talk!

Originally posted by jane from game girl advance, on July 20, 2007 6:37 AM

The chef's table—where you sit in or very near the kitchen to get a bird's eye view of the proceedings while a special meal is cooked for you—is a concept many serious food lovers find appealing. ForbesTraveler.com gives its list of the nine best examples in the U.S.

Among them are:

• Café Gray: Chef Gray Kunz's private table seats up to 12. According to the restaurant's site, "With a little guidance from you, Gray will create a specialized menu for you and your guests. Time Warner Center, 10 Columbus Circle, 3rd Floor, New York NY 10019; 212-823-6332, ask for Maureen Farley Schilling; cafegray.com
• Hotel Bel-Air: Known as Table One, the chef prepares a seven-course surprise dinner—while respecting any dietary restrictions you or your guests may have. $150 per person and $1,250 minimum. 701 Stone Canyon Road, Los Angeles CA 90077; 310-943-6710; hotelbelair.com
• Telluride Ski Resort: The chef's table at Allred's seats four to six guests; chef Bob Scherner and crew will cook a five-course surprise tasting menu ($100 per person) with a wine-pairing option ($150 per person). Take the gondola to Station Saint Sophia; 970-728-7474; reservations via OpenTable.com
• The English Grill at Brown Hotel: Chef Laurent Géroli creates a seven-course prix fixe meal using fresh local ingredients, with wine pairings ($150 per person; four-guest minimum, table seats eight). 335 West Broadway, Louisville KY 40404; 502-583-1234, ext. 7166; brownhotel.com

Originally posted by Adam Kuban from Serious Eats: Main, on July 20, 2007 6:00 AM

story link: a casual stroll through battery park

joanne

Originally posted by Drew from Rocketboom, on July 20, 2007 5:57 AM

To help celebrate the 40th Anniversary of Eric Carle’s first illustrated book, NPR paid a visit to his home to pick his brain about his life, his work, his inspiration, and his favorite color. In addition to a short article and fifteen minute audio interview, NPR has also put together an audio slide show- pairing illustrations from Carle’s many books with excerpts from his interview.

Originally posted by Jared from Drawn! The Illustration and Cartooning Blog, on July 20, 2007 3:59 AM

Last month i was in Colombia for (and thanks to) the Pixelazo festival.

I then asked Alejandro Tamayo if he could point me to any artist worth meeting in Bogota. Several names came to his mind but when i had a look at the images of Adriana Salazar's machines, i just said "Stop! Stop! no more names, how can i get to meet her?" How could i not want to know more about a girl who creates delicate and elegant (but slightly ludicrous) machines that smoke, tie shoes, pull thread through the hole of a needle, relentlessly measure walls, switch the light on and off, on and off, on and off, dust walls, cry while another one dries its tears, etc.

What is your background? How did you start creating machines? Is "machine" the correct word to describe them by the way?

I studied fine arts at the Jorge Tadeo Lozano University, here in Bogota. At the very end of my career, just when I was starting to develop my last academic project, I came to the encounter of moving devices, by chance, or maybe because I just couldn’t stand stillness. After that I decided to work with a more specific kind of movement: human actions that are performed repeatedly and without any awareness of what happens to the body meanwhile. I started thus with smoking, as an action with a very complex body movement involved. The idea of isolating this action, from its context, resulted in a sort of “machine-like object”, but with the exact opposite functions a machine would usually perform: it just had no purpose, no practical value. Besides, the object that resulted was rather clumsy, simple and almost hand-made, so there is no fancy technological operations involved, and no industrial mass-produced object as a result of the process. The word machine seems then incorrect, in that sense.

Mademoiselle, Máquina fumadora (Smoking machine)

What fascinates you in the absurd and the useless?

The fact that it is precisely through the absurd and the useless that we can really get to understand what us humans are like: we can perform coherent and beautiful actions that still have no purpose. The purpose of our actions, or even better, their ends, somehow always escapes our comprehension, and yet we keep moving and doing things. It is fascinating then to see, as in a distorted mirror in front of us, what we do, but without our presence: just the action repeating itself over and over.

Porristas

What is your relationship with the machines you create? Do you see them as mere objects for galleries or do you develop a more personal relationship with them?

There is something I really like about them: Their design is always the result of very simple mechanical or physical processes, and it is conceived by the mind of an amateur: There is no engineering or high-tech involved. The result is therefore a very personal interpretation of a movement, so it turns to be more an expressive device than a robot or an automatic appliance.

On the other hand there are a couple of pieces that work very well with galleries, but not because they look good in them or because they are commercial. Both the smoking machine (Mademoiselle) and the careless machines (the ones that start making a toast, and end up drunk and unsynchronized) invert the social roles of the actors in an exhibition opening: When the guests drink and smoke while looking at the art pieces, these two art pieces drink and smoke while looking back at their beholders.

Máquina desempolvadora and La desaparición de las necesidades

How do you develop them? On your own? or do you collaborate with someone else to build up the technical elements?

The whole process of designing and building these objects is rather interesting. I am becoming first of all very comfortable with the fact that they are created in sort of a naïve way. I need to understand what is going on in there, and I need the viewer to do so too, so I tend to avoid complex operations or technological novelties that could leave you just amazed and overwhelmed. Nevertheless, I have always had the support of people that obviously know how to do certain things better than me, especially concerning working with metal or other industrial materials that require special instruments. The rest is just small disco ball motors working!

Máquina que intenta amarrar un zapato (Machine that tries to tie shoes)

Are your works a comment on technology, human beings or their relationship to technology? Maybe all of those?

Certainly all of those. I am not a moralist towards technology, but I love to show its ironic side, I love to laugh at the fact that we truly believe technology is progress, and that it is eventually going to save our lives: in my pieces there is always something that remains incomplete, some sort of imperfection that becomes an effective part of the work. It is as if our actions as well as our machines were always failing to succeed their task. Maybe what humanizes our technological world isn’t its tendency to boost human form or function, but its constant failure, its fragility.

There is in fact one of my pieces that is actually a “trying machine”, a machine that makes an effort and always fails (machine that tries to thread a needle): it is small, modest, and stubborn as a man.

Is there any artists that has influenced you or that you particularly appreciate the work of?

I know I should probably be bringing influential figures here, such as Rebecca Horn or Jean Tinguely, or even Stelarc or Wim Delvoye. I discovered that the artists I love the most are those who are completely alien to my processes and those whose work is most disturbing and uncomprehensible. In the research process for my last piece “llorona” (crying woman), for example, I rediscovered some fascinating Man Ray pictures, and I fell in love with Hans Haacke’s Condensation Cube. I also truly related to this last piece in the sense that it is very complex, theatrically complex almost, and at the same time it is the simplest thing of all!!!

What is the reaction of the public when they see your art pieces?

I’ve seen all kinds of reactions. I like the fact that this kind of things tend to escape the discursive, enclosed, and elitist approach to contemporary art. I like, for example, when people laugh at them or when they become interested in how they work or in how they relate to certain human experiences. I had once a group of industrial design students that came with a very unexpected and interesting approach, from the designer’s point of view. I had never thought of my work as design, but I understood that definitely design played a very strong role in it: The human being is able to redesign its body and modify it to perform a certain function, and artists are mostly perception and body designers. I owe this discovery to the input from the public.

Thanks Adriana!

All images courtesy of Adriana Salazar.

Originally posted by Regine from we make money not art, on July 20, 2007 2:47 AM

These made me very happy:

They're the page navigation links at the bottom of Slate's multi-page stories, and each image shows how the set of links looks when the mouse if hovering on the 1, the 2, and the NEXT, respectively. I'm very much enjoying the fact that the yellow highlight on the rightmost link matches the vertical height of the other two, making the whole block a tightly coupled unit.

Originally posted by (author unknown) from tecznotes, on July 19, 2007 11:06 PM

Macintouch Reader Reports: iPhone

With the earbuds in, using the phone function, the caller’s voice is now comfortably in the middle of my head, in the center of my aural space. This makes talking on the phone SO much easier, since I don’t have to automatically shift my attention to one ear, and exclude the other. It feels like telepathy, really.

What a dramatic change in how I talk, done so simply, and found so unexpectedly…

Originally posted by Adam from randomWalks, on July 19, 2007 8:50 PM

3 different design proposals by well-established design firms for Bloomberg's complex, information-rich online interface.

I am curious: which one is your favorite & why?

"web design shop" thehappycorp uses social interaction, personalization & different forms of lava lamp inspired or Newsmap-like data visualizations. it includes a cyborg-like wearable sensor to monitor the health of the worker, a Wii golf game with a handicap depending on on your actual market performance (& somehow an old-style telephone wired to the keyboard).

design firm IDEO presents on a more natural way of navigation. the left screen shows general information, while on the right, drilled-down detail data dynamically pops-up. several wearable display devices can be attached to the screens, post-it style. a form of "tactile scrolling" on a touch panel allows users to cascade between the different information panes.

finally, Ziba Design focuses on a restrained use of color, & a wide range of data visualizations, from simple bar charts to complex 3-D data representations that make use of animation & motion. they also envision some sort of "space-saving" holographic displays & a blown-up version of the iPod wheel for navigation & interaction.

[link: portfolio.com|via lvhrd.org]

Originally posted by (author unknown) from information aesthetics, on July 19, 2007 8:07 PM

In case you missed it, we launched a redesigned Serious Eats on Wednesday.

We've been working toward this redesign for a while now, and it makes me SO HAPPY to see it alive on the web, especially now that I've gotten some sleep. I feel super fortunate that we were able to assemble such a great team of smart and passionate folks to tackle this project -- Mike @ Mule Design, Raphael and Robyn and the rest of the Serious Eats team, and Apperceptive. They are all rock stars in my book. Thanks also to Movable Type for making it all go.

This redesign is just the beginning, there's a lot more in store for seriouseats.com.

Also, if you are in New York, you should come and join us at the Gothamist-A Hamburger Today QBQ BBQ II Burger Bash next Saturday, July 28th. There will be burgers, beer, and Grandmaster Flash. What more could you want?

Originally posted by Alaina Browne from A Full Belly, on July 19, 2007 7:02 PM

While everyone else was busy trying to find someone to blame in the congestion pricing gridlock, it turns out that lawmakers have been actually trying to work out a plan. Of course, this may come too late for the city to qualify for federal funding, but progress is progress. The NY Sun reports that Albany Democrats "were close to agreeing to a deal in which they would authorize the city to begin implementing the infrastructure of the program, such as buying and installing cameras." The deal would also create the congestion pricing commission that Assembly Leader Sheldon Silver had wanted - the commission would study congestion in the city. The Daily News reports that "Silver wanted assurances the MTA would submit a capital plan in early 2008 on how congestion pricing revenue would be used for mass transit" as well. Politicians are hopeful that the city can still qualify for federal funding; Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno said the U.S. Department of Transportation sort of keeping the door open ... because they think the plan that the mayor submitted was the best plan, and this is the biggest community in the whole country." And how is congestion pricing possibly making its way through Albany? Because Governor Spitzer is also negotiating with lawmakers about raises for legislators. Ah, politics. Update: Monty Hall time, a deal was made between Governor Spitzer, Assembly Leader Silver, Senate Majority Leader Bruno and Mayor Bloomberg. Streetsblog has the details, here's some of them:

The 17 member congestion pricing commission is made up as follows: 3 appointees -- Mayor 3 appointees -- Governor 3 appointees -- City Council 3 appointees -- State Senate majority leader 3 appointees -- State Assembly speaker 1 appointees -- Senate minority leader 1 appointees -- Assembly minority leader SUMMARYOF CONGESTION PRICING LEGISLATION · NYC is authorized to present and implement a detailed congestion pricing plan to address traffic congestion within a zone of severe traffic congestion in Manhattan. Such plan shall include (a) the geographic area to be covered; (b) the proposed dollar amount of any congestion pricing fee; (c) the technology to be used to implement such pricing plan; and (d) the number and scope of exemptions granted from such fee requirements. The Mayor shall submit the traffic mitigation plan by August 1, 2007. · NYC may not impose or collect any fee for traveling into or within designated zone unless the implementation plan has been approved by the State Legislature by March 31, 2008 and signed into law by the Governor, pursuant to a request from the Mayor that the State Legislature consider such plan where such request has been approved by the City Council. · A NYC Traffic Congestion Mitigation Commission shall undertake a review and study of the issues related to the implementation of the plan submitted by NYC. It may also review and study other plans to reduce traffic congestion and other related health and safety issues. The Commission shall have 17 members comprised of appointees by State and City officials.

Senate Majority Leader Bruno's office issued a press release touting the agreements made, which included "additional property tax relief for seniors, secure desperately needed capital investments to help the State’s economy -- particularly Upstate -- and to provide New York City with the ability to move forward with Mayor Bloomberg’s ambitious plan to relieve traffic congestion." MTA CEO Elliot Sander gave a statement saying, "The MTA is thrilled that an agreement has been reached to advance congestion pricing, which is critical to funding the long-term needs of the transportation system." And here's part of Mayor Bloomberg's statement,

"This agreement to move forward with congestion pricing marks a critical milestone in our efforts to make PlaNYC a reality, and to provide a better quality of life for us and for future generations of New Yorkers. By moving forward in our effort to clean our air and fight congestion, we will help our economy, improve public health and make critical improvements to our public transportation system...This agreement is a victory for the broad coalition of environmental and environmental justice groups, transit and public health advocates, organized labor and civic leaders who worked tirelessly for years to make real and important progress for our environment and our mass transit system. I also want to congratulate the leaders of both houses of the Legislature and the Governor for their support for this key element of PlaNYC and their commitment to moving it forward. We will continue to work together to access the federal funds that are available. Certainly there will be discussion of the details of various components of our plan, but together we have made a commitment to a greener, healthier and more livable New York."

Originally posted by jen from Gothamist Weekly Favorites, on July 19, 2007 3:25 PM

An AHT reader pointed out that there's a face in the burger from the previous post. ("It's really freaking me out," she said.)

Do you see a face in this burger?

How 'bout when my Serious Eats colleague Robyn Lee mods the pic ...

Originally posted by Adam Kuban from Serious Eats: Main, on July 19, 2007 2:50 PM

Fraser Speirs: “From an architectural perspective, Git is gloriously simple. There are four essential objects: blobs, trees, commits and tags.”

Originally posted by Brent Simmons from ranchero.com, on July 19, 2007 2:34 PM

Q: How do riders pee during a long stage of the Tour? A: Like this.,
originally uploaded by mathowie.

Apparently, during Stage 10, race video caught one of the Saunier Duvals in the middle of a nature break.

With widespread DVR use, somebody was bound to capture the mistake, and credit to Matt Haughey with the quick Tivo finger. At least it didn't air on German TV -- they might not be able to handle this.

Look for this one on the Rollastrator tonight, with circles and arrows and a paragraph explaining what each photo is.

Originally posted by Frank Steele from Tour de France 2007, on July 19, 2007 2:27 PM

According to Discover Magazine. Thanks, Anil.

Tesla Yaginuma is cuter though.

Originally posted by Mie from Kokochi, on July 19, 2007 1:38 PM

It will be safe to read Serious Eats prior to and just after the release of HP and the Deathly Hallows. We won't blog any spoilers—unless there's a MAJOR food-related plot line in the book. And even then, we'll give you fair warning ;)

Originally posted by Adam Kuban from Serious Eats: Main, on July 19, 2007 1:13 PM

A new rumor about the second-generation iPhone states that Apple is planning to launch it so soon after the first iPhone that it will confuse the rest of the industry.

Read More...

Originally posted by jacqui@arstechnica.com (Jacqui Cheng) from Infinite Loop, on July 19, 2007 10:55 AM

Zabriskie in the Stars and Stripes,
originally uploaded by Frank Steele.

CSC's Dave Zabriskie, the US time trial champion, wasn't just sandbagging to try to take the Lanterne Rouge. Zabriskie finished more than 30 minutes behind Stage 11 winner Robbie Hunter, and was eliminated.

The Team CSC website mentions only “persistent knee pain” as the reason for Zabriskie's exit. He must have gotten caught behind even the Moreau peloton, chasing two desperate groups while riding solo.
By the way, this reminds me of one of my primary irritations with the Versus coverage -- they don't seem to address anything that happens after they leave the finish line. I suspect the logistics and time change issues would make this difficult, but there have been several times I've wished they would do an injury update as they finished their “Extended Primetime Coverage,” even if it was from a studio back in the US.

Also:

VeloNews | Stage Notes: Zabriskie heads home; German cycling on the ropes

NYTimes.com | In a Notably Speedy 11th Stage, Hunter Sprints to Victory

Edward Wyatt at The New York Times suggests Zabriskie has hurt his marketability:

Zabriskie’s contract with the CSC team ends this year, meaning that he is looking for a new contract – an effort that is not likely to be helped by his Tour performance this year.

Given Zabriskie's much improved climbing, in evidence at the Giro and Dauphiné Libéré, and his TT cred, I don't think he'll have any trouble finding a new team.

Originally posted by Frank Steele from Tour de France 2007, on July 19, 2007 10:43 AM

According to NY1, Governor Spitzer just announced "that the state has given the city the green light to proceed with the plan, but he stressed that no agreement has been reached on tolls." NY1 reports, "The agreement creates a commission of representatives from the mayor's office and the governor's office, City Council members, and State Senate and Assembly members to review plans for implementation."

We don't have an Albany or City Hall bureau (yet), so your best sources for up-to-the-minute coverage are:

• The Daily Politics
• City Room
• The Politicker

Here is a press release from City Hall:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

July 18, 2007
No. 247
www.nyc.gov

STATEMENT FROM MAYOR MICHAEL R. BLOOMBERG ON CITY BEING AUTHORIZED TO MOVE FORWARD WITH CONGESTION PRICING:

"This agreement to move forward with congestion pricing marks a critical milestone in our efforts to make PlaNYC a reality, and to provide a better quality of life for us and for future generations of New Yorkers. By moving forward in our effort to clean our air and fight congestion, we will help our economy, improve public health and make critical improvements to our public transportation system.

"This agreement makes clear that delay was unacceptable and the need to protect our environment and fight congestion simply could not wait. We will begin immediately to prepare for the installation of needed equipment to make our traffic plan a reality.

"This agreement also creates a commission made up of representatives of our Administration, our partners in the City Council, Senate, and Assembly and from the Governor's office to review our plans for implementation. I am certain that through our work with the commission, our traffic plan will be implemented expeditiously.

"This agreement is a victory for the broad coalition of environmental and environmental justice groups, transit and public health advocates, organized labor and civic leaders who worked tirelessly for years to make real and important progress for our environment and our mass transit system. I also want to congratulate the leaders of both houses of the Legislature and the Governor for their support for this key element of PlaNYC and their commitment to moving it forward. We will continue to work together to access the federal funds that are available. Certainly there will be discussion of the details of various components of our plan, but together we have made a commitment to a greener, healthier and more livable New York."

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Originally posted by Aaron Naparstek from Streetsblog, on July 19, 2007 10:41 AM

During the Wednesday-night rush hour, a steam pipe at 41st Street and Lexington Avenue exploded, sending steam, mud, and pieces of the street hundreds of feet into the air. One person died and at least 20 people were injured. Initially, many people's first reactions were that it was a terrorist attack, what with the loud, thunder-like rumbling that shook buildings and the cloud of smoke and steam. People ran from the area of the explosion, evacuating their buildings and Grand Central Terminal in a rush. But about a half hour after the explosion (the first 911 call was reported at 5:57PM), NYPD confirmed that it was not a terrorist attack. Many people likened it to a volcano. During a press conference last night, Mayor Bloomberg explained that the 24" pipe that had been installed back in 1924 and that it may have exploded because it came into contact with cold water. He also took time to praise New Yorkers, saying, "We couldn’t be prouder of our New Yorkers. The people that should respond knew exactly what to do and how to cooperate and work together, and the person in the street understood that we’re all here together and they knew not to panic. They rushed around, helped each other. It's what you would expect; it’s inspirational to all of us." Asbestos, a known carcinogen, was a concern of city officials, but tests have come back showing no asbestos in the air, though some is present in the debris. Regular visitors to the area are familiar with steam vents and Con Ed workers along Lexington Avenue - here's a photograph of one of those steam pipes. It's unclear what the exact cause is so far, but we're sure we'll find out once the investigation is completed. The City has created a "frozen zone" - 40th Street to 43rd Street between Vanderbilt Avenue and Third Avenue - and will not allow people to enter the zone (though people already in the zone may leave): "As clean-up work progresses, the city will work to shrink the size of the frozen zone." And the city urges people not to visit the zone. A crater about 15 feet by 25 feet in size was left after the explosion. The truck's driver is in a medically induced coma, with burns to 80% of his body. The school bus seen in the photographs belonged to Pierce Country Day Camp of Roslyn, L.I. - the Daily News reports "but luckily, the kids had been dropped off minutes earlier." The one fatality seems to be a woman who had a heart condition. Subways, which were diverted last night, are running normally, with the exception of 4/5/6 and 7 service bypassing Grand Central and the S line being suspended. Buses with routes near the frozen zone are also affected. (Check MTA alerts here.) The NY Times has an article on "Asbestos and Aging Pipes Remain Buried Hazards". One of our readers pointed out this was reminiscent of another deadly steam pipe explosion in Gramercy Park back in 1989. Photograph at top by ~Raymond on Flickr; photograph at bottom of emergency responders inspecting the crater - and the red tow truck inside it - by Seth Wenig/AP

Originally posted by jen from Gothamist Weekly Favorites, on July 19, 2007 10:36 AM

Serious Eats contributing editor Adam "The Amateur Gourmet" Roberts interviews one of our favorite writers and food mavens, John T. Edge, over on Salon.com, in which he did a nice job picking up on the subtleties in Edge's new book, Southern Belly, the Ultimate Food Lover's Companion to the South.

Many of the figures you write about are cultured and sophisticated or go against the popular stereotype of what it is to be Southern. How do you define a Southerner?
First, thank you for recognizing that in the book. I believe that the South has been a benighted and tortured place for a long time -- it still is benighted and tortured, but I love it -- and one of the few things that blacks, whites, Jews, Christians, whomever can hold high and say we created this together is our music and food. It's not stratified by way of class and not divided by way of race or religion: It's something in which Southerners can take pride. I want to write about a South that's evolving. Because I recognize that South myself; I recognize a multifaceted, multihued South that isn't stuck in 1865, codified when the Civil War ended. The evolution of the South didn't cease in 1965 during the Civil Rights movement: The culture evolved.

The South I see is a place on a map but it's also a system of beliefs, and when it comes to cooking it's a place that respects and honors simple cooking that's not simplistic. There's an honesty and a forthrightness to Southern food in this day of molecular cuisine, a lot of which I like, by the way. I had bacon cotton candy in South Carolina a few weeks ago.

Originally posted by Adam Kuban from Serious Eats: Main, on July 19, 2007 10:30 AM

Accidental Blogger captures Discover magazine’s list of The 7 Most Wondrous Moments in Science. The entire post is worth a read, but the featured list is:

• Otto Lowei: discovering the chemical transmission of nerve impulses
• René Descartes: developing the Cartesian co-ordinate system of perpendicular lines and planes
• Nikola Tesla: designing the alternate current motor
• Edwin Hubble: discovering the existence of galaxies outside the Milky Way
• Robert Hooke: discovery of the cell as the building block of all living organisms
• Henry Becquerel: discovery of radioactivity
• Alexander Fleming: discovery of penicillin

There’s more on the Discover blog, too.

Originally posted by Anil from Anil Dash, on July 19, 2007 10:08 AM

On Monday, July 9 the transportation committee of Community Board 8 on Manhattan's Upper East Side took up the issues of congestion pricing and a new pair of crosstown bike lanes.

Congestion pricing, it turns out, was the evening's non-controversial issue. Even after a series of impassioned speeches against Mayor Bloomberg's traffic reduction plan the committee voted to support it, 10 to 4 with one abstention.

"You've treated us to quite a debate," Dept. of Transportation Bike Program Coordinator Josh Benson said as he stood up to present the 90th and 91st Street bike route plan (download it here).

"You haven't heard anything yet," heckled one member of the crowd.

Ryder Pearce sells DOT's Upper East Side bike route plan to a skeptical Community Board 8.

Benson then introduced DOT staffer Ryder Pearce, a youthful member of the City's Urban Fellows program, making his first-ever Community Board presentation.

As a part of the City's ongoing bike network build-out, Pearce said, DOT plans to stripe new, Class II bike lanes along E. 90th and E. 91st Streets with a small segment running along E. 89th Street near the East River and a special treatment for the pedestrian-only block of 91st Street between Second and Third Avenues.

"As you can see there are no crosstown routes on the Upper East Side right now," Pearce said, pointing to the New York City bike map. The new lanes would connect the East River Greenway directly to Central Park's 90th Street entrance, also known as the Engineer's Gate. Along the way, the bike route would link Carl Schurz Park, Gracie Mansion, Asphalt Green and the Guggenheim Museum and "would provide for the growing residential population" living in new towers around York and East End Avenues, a long walk from the nearest subways.

Controversy over the bike route centered around the one-block stretch of 91st St. running through the Ruppert Yorkville Tower Condominiums. The block has been closed to motor vehicle traffic since the 1970s and is considered by many to be a neighborhood "play street."

Recognizing the community's concerns, DOT presented the Board with four different design options for the pedestrian street: no markings, a marked bicycle lane, directional pavement markings and signs. DOT's preference, Pearce said, is "to keep the residential feel" of the "shared space" by not putting down a bike lane or any other markings. For a number of people in the room, none of the options were good.

"There are children and elderly who consider that street a park," one Yorkville Tower resident said. "People want to walk there without having to look both ways and worry about getting run over. I am absolutely opposed to this bike path."

Pearce pointed out that cyclists on the westbound street would be traveling up a rather steep hill. He observed the street during several site visits, noting, "You don't see cyclists shooting through. You don't see them running people over." An older man in the crowd shouted back, "Oh, yes they do!"

Four or five community members stood to speak on behalf of the bike route plan. As seems to be the case in most New York City bike lane battles these days, supporters had youth on their side, opponents had New York City accents.

Glenn McAnanama, president of the Upper Green Side said he thought DOT had chosen the ideal crosstown bike route. "Ninety-first Street is the natural connection from the Greenway to the Park," he said. "If you go too much further north you're getting into a lot of traffic at 96th and further south, you're not connecting to the Central Park entrance."

"The fears are overblown," McAnanama said. He pointed to the new bike route running through Carl Schurz Park at East End Avenue and 86th Street as an example of "shared space" working in the neighborhood. "People were very afraid before the lanes were put in, but there haven't been any problems," he said. "Cyclists know and sense a shared space.

Members of the Community Board weren't convinced. One Board member said, "I for one believe bicycling is a recreational activity. I don't believe that it is a legitimate mode of transportation."

As the meeting wound down and it became clear that DOT's plan wasn't going to gain CB8's blessing on this night, a man in the crowd began dictating a motion to committee chair Chuck Warren:

Whereas illegal biking is found more often than legal biking; Whereas biking causes danger to children and old people; Whereas bicyclists should be licensed in the City of New York and an extensive education program should be inaugurated and the bicycle laws strictly enforced at all times so that they obey the traffic laws…

The committee's final resolution didn't include this language. It rejected DOT's plan and asked the agency to go back to the drawing board. Community Boards, it is important to remember, only have "advisory" power over city agencies and City Hall has said that it would go forward with its bike network build-out over Community Board objections.

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Originally posted by Aaron Naparstek from Streetsblog, on July 19, 2007 9:30 AM

We grew up in the days when stickers were all the rage -- in particular, we cherished those huge Lisa Frank stickers showing unicorns frolicking and bubble hearts flying through clouds. Stickers were really quite the coolest thing when you're a kid.

Well, we all may be much older, but we still love stickers.

That's why it's great to see that printing company Moo launched their customizable StickerBooks today. Don't have any photos or illustrations to use for your StickerBooks? You can choose from ReadyMade StickerBooks featuring the art of some great independent designers.

The real fun, however, is using your artwork and photographs (from services like Flickr, Vox and LiveJournal) for a custom book.

• Stickers are printed on high-quality, scratch-proof vinyl
• Six stickers are printed per sheet.
• There are 15 tear-out sheets
• Each sticker is 22mm x 22mm
• You can choose the colour of your StickerBook

Moo cards and stickers would be great for announcing that new baby. Check out their inspirations page for more ideas.

And right now, Moo is offering free shipping in July.

Originally posted by Nested from Nested, on July 19, 2007 9:29 AM

Michael Eric Dyson's new book 'Know What I Mean: Reflections on Hip-Hop' arrives serendipitously. A few months after the Imus controversy that somehow created a never-ending quasi-debate about rap music, Dyson hopefully brings a more nuanced, "insider" approach to the...

Originally posted by BrandonSoderberg from hiphopmusic.com:, on July 19, 2007 9:09 AM

As if AT&T wasn't already just coming along for the iPhone ride, Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster says that he believes the companies have a revenue sharing agreement over the iPhone's monthly subscription fees to AT&T. Apple could indeed be making out like a bandit.

Read More...

Originally posted by jacqui@arstechnica.com (Jacqui Cheng) from Infinite Loop, on July 19, 2007 6:08 AM

Was anyone else wondering why Entourage's star hottie Adrian Grenier was single and not dating?

Silly us! The actor has had a secret ongoing relationship with a Sports Illustrated swimsuit model for over two years. People.com reports that Adrian has been quietly dating Melissa Keller, and that friends of the actor are calling her his girlfriend. The couple may have decided to take their love a tad more public, as Melissa was keeping her man company at his 31st birthday party earlier this month. Also, on July 14, the duo snuggled at a Los Angeles bash, where, says a spy, they "seemed oblivious to everyone around them."

Well, good for Adrian, but bad for my friend Donna, who was convinced she was destined to marry him.

Originally posted by Tracy Pepey from Daily Blabber, on July 19, 2007 5:50 AM

One of my favorite features of New York Magazine is the Approval Matrix. They place a bunch of items on a two-dimentional axis with Brilliant/Despicable on the x-axis and Lowbrow/Highbrow on the Y-axis. I've always wondered if everyone else reads it like I do. So, I thought I'd show you how I read it. Here is this week's matrix if you want to check it out yourself.

Originally posted by (author unknown) from Capn Design, on July 19, 2007 5:43 AM

particle writes "On behalf of the Parrot team, I'm proud to announce Parrot 0.4.14 "Now, with Seat Belts!." Parrot is a virtual machine aimed at running all dynamic languages. Parrot 0.4.14 can be obtained via CPAN (soon), or follow the download instructions. For those who would like to develop on Parrot, or help develop Parrot itself, we recommend using Subversion or SVK on our source code repository to get the latest and best Parrot code.

Read more of this story at use Perl.

Originally posted by brian_d_foy from use Perl, on July 19, 2007 5:39 AM

Did I say two three’s a trend? I forgot to mention the guy who started it all, both this month and in the last century, too: Michael Sippey’s blogging again, for reals this time. The design is better than yours and there’s even some thinking behind it.

Originally posted by Anil from Anil Dash, on July 19, 2007 5:05 AM

Pork tenderloin is an incredibly versatile and easy cut of meat to cook with. You can use it whole or, to really speed up the preparation process, cut into medallions. Tom Valenti, best-selling cookbook author and owner of Ouest restaurant in New York City, came up with this incredibly flavorful recipe for his book Tom Valenti's Soups, Stews, and One-Pot Meals.

If you don't want to fire up the grill, cook the medallions in a sauté pan over medium-high heat for five to six minutes per side for medium-rare, seven to eight minutes for more well done.

Pork Tenderloin Medallions

Ingredients
2 pork tenderloins (about 1 pound each) , cut crosswise into 1 to 1 1/2-inch medallions

3 cloves garlic. peeled and thinly sliced

1/4 cup olive oil

1 quart water

4 large Spanish onions. peeled and cut into small dice

2 cups cider vinegar

1/4 cup light brown sugar

1 1/2 cups tomato ketchup

1/4 cup molasses

1/4 cup chipotle chiles in adobo, pureed in a blender

4 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce

1/4 teaspoon Tabasco sauce

1/2 teaspoon cumin seeds

Coarse salt

Freshly ground black pepper

Procedure
1. Put the pork medallions in a baking dish. Scatter the garlic slices
over the pork and drizzle with the olive oil. Cover; let marinate in the refrigerator for 2 to 3 hours.

2. Bring the water to a boil in a large, heavy-bottomed pot over high heat. Add the onions, and boil until tender, 2 to 3 minutes. Remove onions with a slotted spoon; discard.

3. Gradually stir the vinegar and brown sugar into the boiling water; let boil for 5 minutes. Stir in the ketchup, molasses, chipotle purée, Worcestershire sauce, Tabasco sauce, and cumin seeds. Remove the pot from the heat. If not serving immediately, let cool, cover, and refrigerate for a few days or freeze for up to 1 month. Reheat before proceeding.

4. Remove the pork medallions from the refrigerator and let come to room temperature. Set aside half of sauce. Prepare an outdoor grill for grilling.

5. Brush off the garlic slices and excess oil from pork
medallions, season them on both sides with salt and pepper, and place them on the grate over the hottest part of the grill. Grill, basting with the remaining half of the barbecue sauce, for about 5 minutes on each side.

6. To serve, place 1 pork portion on each of 4 plates and serve the
reserved barbecue sauce alongside.

Originally posted by Ed Levine from Serious Eats: Main, on July 19, 2007 4:31 AM

This week, several things cropped up on the radar which collectively suggest some sort of tipping point. Or, I suppose, more likely that the point has tipped and we are starting to see the effects.

The first announcements were released in conjunction with the event, Casual Connect. Sony Online announced the relaunch of Station.com, a portal for the casual experience of games, including access to trials of Sony's MMOs. Nickelodean announced plans to spend $100 million over the next two years on casual games and virtual worlds. Oh, and did I mention that casual games are still dominated by female players?

Gamasutra didn't pick it up, but this week also saw the news that Barbie Girls, a virtual world aimed at, you might guess, preteen girls, experienced astonishingly explosive growth, reaching 3 million users in sixty days.

And you thought WoW was popular.

Then in recent game announcements, Ubisoft released details on a new series of games specifically for girls. The Imagine series include aspirational games based on professions, like fashion designer, veternarian, and figure skater. There's also a virtual baby doll with Imagine Babyz. Throw in Imagine Equestrienne and I'm so there.

Speaking of things equine, Atari is coming out with a horse-riding simulation game, My Horse and Me. The language in the official PR is carefully gender-neutral, speaking very coolly of the "Horse-enthusiast community", but you cannot convince me that in North America, at least, this game is not targeted specifically at horse-crazy girls between the ages of seven and fourteen. Which is to say, nearly all girls.

You may also have read that the PS3 has finally sold 1 million units in Japan eight months after launch. It took the Wii six weeks to reach the same milestone. Why? In part because flocks of non gamers (many of them women) bought a console, some, I've no doubt, for the first time in their lives.

Originally posted by jane from game girl advance, on July 18, 2007 11:04 PM

Incase anyone was wondering just how many Starbucks there actually are in Manhattan, the answer is 171. For some inexplicable reason (perhaps to become the next big viral video star), New Yorker Mark Malkoff decided to hit them all up in just one day. On June 29th at 5:30am Malkoff makes his first of many purchases at 181st and Washington Heights, then for over twelve hours he travels by bike from store to store until a friend with a car decides to help him out. His caffeine-fueled journey ends at 60th and Broadway at 2:56am, we can't imagine he got much sleep for the next few days. Watch his video here. Just how much did Starbucks shake out of his pockets in just over 20 hours? The grand total came to $369.14. This figure would have been less if a barista at 96th and Madison didn't accept an $80 bribe for a piece of pound cake after hours...and if he also didn't make accidental repeat visits to six of the same Starbucks. Next up: the Duane Reade Challenge?

Originally posted by arts_jen from Gothamist Weekly Favorites, on July 18, 2007 8:03 PM

Star Wars Galaxies announced a short while back that it would be creating a Galactic Senate from its playerbase. While this sounds like an amazing move towards a more democratic MMO, unfortunately it's not really: the players - Galactic Senators - were nominated by the playerbase, but chosen by SOE staff.

As with all standard dictatorships, the method by which the Senators were chosen remains secret.

Appointment

Candidates for the Galactic Senate may be nominated by any player in good standing, and self-nominations are also considered. Clarity and influence are among the top desired traits for a Senator to possess. An election commission comprising of the Star Wars Galaxies Community Team will appoint the title of Senator to players from the pool of nominations. Once appointed, a Senator will serve a 6 month term at which point the position will be open to new candidates.

What a Senator Can Do

• Propose Senate topics for a vote.
• Request a redress of issues by the development team.
• Attend the Convocation in-game event.
• Vote on Senate legislation

What a Senator Cannot Do

• Propose any backwards regression of updates.
• Ban players
• Squelch or otherwise mute players.

Maybe they're chosen based on their forums reputation and performance?

The list of the chosen is here, not that it really means much to anyone who doesn't play (or probably anyone who does, seeing as the chances of your sharing a server with, and knowing the Senator in question, are minimal).

Originally posted by Alice from Wonderland, on July 18, 2007 5:32 PM

I really liked Mark's column: Summer Express: 101 Simple Meals in today's NYTimes. I liked this list so much - great easy ideas I can tweak. 22, 40, 60, 99 - yum! What were your favorites?

Originally posted by missus_p from Serious Eats: Main, on July 18, 2007 2:24 PM

The failure of congestion pricing (at least for this legislative session) has cast a pall on NYC-Albany relations. Not least because Mayor Bloomberg spent some time yesterday slamming state lawmakers. He said:

New York City is today poorer because of Albany's inaction yesterday, and I think, sadly, it appears that we jeopardized, at best, and probably lost, a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to do something with someone else's money. "And [we] demonstrated once again that Albany just does not seem to get it."

However, Democratic State Senators and Assembly members are saying that Mayor Bloomberg's arrogance and refusal to really speak with them about the program. The NY Times has this fun graphic - the Circle O' Congestion Pricing Blame - and has two interesting quotes. First, from congestion pricing opponent Assemblyman Richard Brodsky*: "When it came time to deal with people he didn’t control, he didn’t know how to do it." Then Assemblyman Keith Wright said that in spite of the Mayor's claims he sent lawmakers mailings, the Mayor only met with him twice (and only met with Assembly Leader Sheldon Silver once); Wright said, “I told the mayor that occasionally - occasionally - individual members have been known to move an agenda. He just gave me a blank stare.” State Senator Malcolm Smith, the Democratic minority leader, said on NY1 that Bloomberg "spit" in the face of Democrats by supporting Bruno and the State Senate Republicans. The Daily News reports that there are still talks about congestion pricing, but it's unclear what will happen. Other congestion pricing supporters, while disappointed, are happy with Bloomberg's work. Partnership for New York City president Kathryn Wylde told the NY Sun, "We were frankly amazed that the mayor was able to get it to this point. And we're prepared to get it done next year if we can't get it done this year. Federal dollars come and go. Who knows, maybe we'll have a New Yorker as president, that can help us." * Fun stats from Streetsblog: Brodsky had claimed he was fighting for the interests of low- and middle-income NYers by opposing congestion pricing, but 53% of his Westchester constituents seem to have annual incomes of more than $75,000. Streetsblog compares that with two congestion pricing supporters, Assemblymen Jose Rivera (Bronx) and Adriano Espaillat (Manhattan), whose districts each have 91% of the populations earning less than $75,000 (about 63% actually earn under $35,000). Photograph of Bicycle Clowns meeting "Sheldon Silver" (the dude wearing the Smog Hog lectern) by Times Up on Flickr

Originally posted by jen from Gothamist Weekly Favorites, on July 18, 2007 12:01 PM

Quick Post

He'll be writing about photos [via sippey]

http://morris.blogs.nytimes.com/

Originally posted by (author unknown) from Capn Design, on July 18, 2007 11:38 AM

With the good neighborhood Chinese restaurant something of an endangered species, I am happy to report that the Grand Sichuan International on 24th Street and Ninth Avenue (212-620-5200) is still turning out first-rate, moderately priced food. GSI is a mini-chain that periodically gets the "gone downhill" reports from diners, but based on Monday night's meal, the food at 24th and Ninth at least is, if anything, going uphill. Here's what we had last night, with nary a loser in the bunch:

• Dan Dan Noodle with Chili Sauce
• Sichuan Wonton with Red Oil
• Pork and Crab Soup Dumplings
• Sautéed Shredded Potatoes with Vinegar (what I call Chinese hashbrowns)
• Sautéed and Dry String Beans with Minced Pork
• Spicy Double-Cooked Pork (the fattier version)
• Fresh Baby Chicken with Young Ginger Root
• Shrimp with Sichuan Sauce

For dessert, we got sweet orange slices, fortune cookies, and a request to vacate our table.

As for the other locations: Peter Meehan liked the one at 19-23 Saint Marks Place (at 8th Street; 212-529-4805). The one at 50th Street and Ninth Avenue is closed, and I have heard good recent reports on the one at 1049 Second Avenue (at 56th Street), called Grand Sichuan Eastern (212-355-5855).

Has anyone recently eaten at the Grand Sichuan at 125 Canal (at Chrystie Street; 212-625-9212) or Grand Sichuan NY at 227 Lexington Avenue (b/n 33rd and 34th streets; 212-679-9770)? It's very difficult to keep track of all these iterations, but if we attack this problem collectively, we should be able to do just that.

Originally posted by Ed Levine from Serious Eats: Main, on July 18, 2007 11:00 AM

For all those who, seeing the first "100-dollar laptops," have wondered "when can I get one?" the answer is: sooner than expected.

One Laptop Per Child founder Nicholas Negroponte said this week during a speech in Geneva, Switzerland, that a retail version of the laptop may be commercially available in September 2007, according to a report published by local blog GenevaLunch. Negroponte presented the laptop project at TED2006 (watch video or read summary) and had already spoken of the possibility of a commercial rollout, suggesting however a longer time-horizon. The laptop may be sold under a "buy one, pay two" model (the second going to a kid in a developing country).

Currently, 7,000 of the computers are in use, said Negroponte. He expects to see this figure grow to 1 million by the end of the year. And being the ambitious visionary we know, he believes that within five years -- if not sooner -- OLPC could account for 20 percent of the world's computer production ... Rolling out large numbers of computers could be made easier by last week's announcement that OLPC and Intel -- which until then had pursued competing inexpensive computers for developing countries (OLPC's laptop is built around a chip by AMD, Intel's main competitor) -- have agreed to work together.

Originally posted by (author unknown) from TED | TEDBlog, on July 18, 2007 10:47 AM

Errol Morris is blogging at nytimes.com on photography, and kicks it off with a post on the relationship between photos, their captions and "truth."

Truth or falsity “adheres” not to the photograph itself but to the statements we make about a photograph. Depending on the statements, our answers change. All alone — shorn of context, without captions — a photograph is neither true nor false.

Originally posted by Michael Sippey from (un)filtered, on July 18, 2007 9:34 AM

Yay, Sonnet!  You're on the list, too!

Originally posted by Michael Sippey from (un)filtered, on July 18, 2007 9:10 AM

piercecountylibrary posted a photo:

Antonio starts reading the fifth Harry Potter book on the Explorer Bookmobile as our countdown to the final installment in the series continues...

Antonio comienza a leer el quinto libro de Harry Potter en el bibliobús el Explorer a la misma vez que estamos contando los días para que salga el ultimo libro de la serie...

[This is also Day 71 of our 365 Library Days Project.]

Originally posted by piercecountylibrary from Photos from everyone tagged bookmobile, on July 18, 2007 7:02 AM

With the fifth Harry Potter movie making big bucks in the box office and the seventh (and final!) book set to be released on Saturday, I feel like everyone's talking about Harry Potter and the stars of the film. Potter himself -- Daniel Radcliffe -- made the cover of People last week for being one of Hollywood's richest young stars. (He's making $50 million for the last two Potter flicks.) Well, he's also moving on from Potter a bit. No, not another naked role. He's starring in the new movie December Boys, which opens September 14. The premise? It's about four orphan teens growing up in a Catholic convent -- with little chance of being adopted at their age -- who take a trip to the seaside that gives them hope. The movie poster landed in my inbox this morning and wanted to pass it along because it looks good! Or maybe I have Potter fever like the rest of America.

Are you into it too?

Originally posted by sbyrne from Daily Blabber, on July 18, 2007 6:50 AM

Your overstuffed kitchen drawer of take-out menus is minuscule compared to the menus Daniel Rayas collected over a four month period. Newsday has a fantastic profile of the Texan grandfather who moved to New York City to help care for his newborn granddaughter and found a flexible part-time job that has taken him all over the city. Looking to make some money to pay for room and board, Rayas responded to an ad on Craigslist offering cash for collected menus. It was placed by online eatery guide Allmenus.com, and they put him to work immediately, offering $2 per menu collected. Rayas, who says his motto is "No menu left behind," walked up and down city streets soliciting menus from pizza parlors, Chinese takeout restaurants, taquerias, and any other place that sold food and had a delivery menu. He collected 10,000 different menus in four months and wore out a pair of boots in the process. Now an expert at popping blisters and taping his feet, Rayas once walked into a hardware store and was instructed on a method to repair his soles by a clerk from the Dominican Republic (it involves a $4 bottle of compound cement).

Along the way, Rayas has picked up more than menus. He's learned the streets of New York. He's even seen some sights, including Louis Armstrong's house in Corona. "But the people have been the real experience," he said. The second of 18 children and an eager conversationalist, he's talked with Afghans and Koreans in Flushing, Indo-Caribbeans in Richmond Hill, Jamaicans in Jamaica and Spanish-speaking immigrants all across the city. "Chinese people believe in menus," he said. "Jamaicans don't. I ask, 'Do you have a menu?' They point to the wall."

Having scoured the city, Rayas has journeyed to other New York towns like Rochester, Syracuse and Buffalo. Newsday reports the AllMenus folks have sent him to Chicago where he blew through the Windy City vacuuming up menus. And they may even send him to Europe to collect menus on a different continent. Daniel Massey's article has a lot of great specifics about Rayas's menu hunt, including details like the most common restaurant name and his favorite restaurant slogan (Great Wall, and Seven Days Without Pizza Makes One Weak). City Councilman Simcha Felder wants to ban delivery menus dropped in residential buildings, which would probably be a boon to an online repository of takeout place menus. Until that happens, however, Daniel Rayas will keep collecting them like found $2 bills.

Originally posted by nyc_daveh from Gothamist Weekly Favorites, on July 18, 2007 6:08 AM

photographs courtesy Isabella's Oven

I had a truly great pizza in a new pizza place on Saturday, and though I'm not going to tell you that I have seen pizza's future and its name is Isabella's Oven, the way Jon Landau did a zillion years ago when he saw Springsteen live and declared that he had seen rock and roll's future, I will say I had a pie that would easily make a New York City top ten list and maybe a national one as well.

Now in New York, when you declare a pizza place that's not on anybody's radar to be Pizza Hall of Fame-worthy, there can be hell to pay. But I'm willing to stand the heat of the wood-burning oven.

A couple of weeks ago, as I noted on Ed Levine Eats, I got a call from Alex Raij of Tia Pol raving about a pizza she had just eaten on Grand Street at Isabella's: "Beautiful wood-burning oven, great pizza, I just figured you're the guy who wrote the book on pizza, you should know about it."

Fast forward to Saturday night. My wife, Vicky, and I and our friends Bob and Marcia had just left the Sunshine Cinema on Manhattan's Lower East Side (Once is very much worth seeing, by the way) and were confronted with the age-old "where should we eat?" question. We tried a couple of old standbys in the neighborhood, but they were either booked or too noisy. It was getting kind of late, so Bob suggested we get something light, like a slice of pizza. I remembered Isabella's. I didn't have an address or phone number. All I knew was that Alex told me it was on Grand Street next to the fine bialy bakery Kossar's.

Sure enough, when we drove by Kossar's, there it was, a sliver of a pizzeria that looked like it might be getting ready to close. We parked and went in. The first thing I noticed was the beautiful wood-burning pizza oven. We asked for a table for four. "Right this way," the friendly server said. "You're just in time for the music."

We walked past the pizza oven through a door and hit an outdoor patio lined with metal tables and chairs facing the back of the building, a brick wall. A seriously talented jazz trio was playing standards on a makeshift bandstand in front of the wall.

Our server gave us the menus. We ordered a 16-inch Margherita DOC, made with tomato sauce, buffalo mozzarella, basil, extra virgin olive oil, and some Parmigiano, as well as a pear-and-gorgonzola salad.

Our waiter bought us plastic plates to share the salad, which was unexpectedly good, though the greens could have fresher. He told us to save the plastic plates for our pizza.

The pizza was astoundingly good. If Isabella's can manage to consistently turn out pies as good as the one we had on Saturday, it might make it into my top ten pizzas to be found in this country. It was Neapolitan style, but better. The crust had a high lip (cornicione, the Italians call it) and had the magic pizza crust one-two punch: a crisp exterior edge that gave way to a tender interior. The mozzarella di bufala was just melted through and sparsely distributed on the pie. The sauce tasted of high-quality canned tomatoes, and the basil was fresh. I didn't even taste the Parmigiano-Reggiano, but this pizza didn't need the flavor kick it would provide anyway. The only thing the pizza did need was a little salt in the crust and a little Sicilian sea salt tossed onto the whole pie à la Anthony Mangieri at Una Pizza Napoletana.

For dessert, we split a Nutella pizza topped with sliced bananas. Perfecto.

Our waiter asked us how the pizza was. "Phenomenal," we said in unison. "Tell me about the place," I said to our waiter.

He smiled and answered, "Well, we opened three weeks ago, and we're still figuring things out. We were mentioned by this snobby food critic on a blog recently, and it's been kind of crazy ever since."

"Do you know who it was?" I asked.

"I think the guy was named Lee or Leev or something. I'll go ask the owner and find out."

A minute later he came out to our table and announced that the snobby critic that mentioned Isabella's on a blog was Ed Levine.

Levine, huh? We all started to laugh before my wife pointed to me and said, "That's Ed Levine." The waiter laughed nervously and immediately high-tailed it to the pizza oven and returned with the owner, a T-shirt clad Italian American named Philip Marino. He said his mom, Frances, was around the restaurant business growing, that he had gone into club promoting for awhile, and that now he and his mother had opened Isabella's.

"My mom makes everything but the pizza," Marino said. "Luigi Olivella from Naples makes the pizza. We take everything we do here pretty seriously. And I think it shows."

I couldn't agree more, and as a snobby food critic, that's a strong recommendation.

Isabella's Oven
Address: 365 Grand Street, New York NY 10002
Phone: 212-529-5206

Originally posted by Ed Levine from Serious Eats: Main, on July 18, 2007 5:45 AM

For the past year, my friend Jason Williams and I have been working on a restaurant mapping site for New York City called Eatmaps.

One challenge we've faced is finding a way to display the 27,000 restaurants in New York without writing our own mapping engine from scratch. Current JavaScript maps from Google or Yahoo become noticeably pokey with just a few hundred markers on them, and effectively unusable once the number exceeds a thousand. The solution we've come up with is a kind of forced marriage between Flash 9 and the Google maps API that we're releasing today as a standalone component called the Million Marker Map.

The map is just a technology demo at present: it's brittle, buggy and only works on Firefox and Safari. However, it demonstrates three features of the upcoming Eatmaps site that I hope other map developers will find interesting and worth hacking on:

• Support for large data sets. The map works fine with over a million markers, although there's no way right now to load that much data in efficiently.

• Support for vector overlays. Both Google and Yahoo allow you to serve custom tile layers, but there are cases where you want to draw (and interact) with more dynamic objects (like ads, heaven help us). As an example, we're including an overlay of the New York City subway system, still inexplicably missing from Google and Yahoo maps despite the fact that it is the year 2007.

• A way to 'spraypaint' regions of interest on a map. For example, you might only be interested in places along a certain street, or convenient to your commute, or within a couple of blocks of the water. Current maps only let you limit your search by specifying a center point and radius.

Jason and I will release the Flash code for this map component under an open source license once the Eatmaps site is complete, and we would be especially glad to hear from collaborators who want to put it on a more solid footing.

Originally posted by (author unknown) from Idle Words, on July 17, 2007 11:00 PM

What drove you to make the changes??

obviously feedback etc...

But what specifically are you trying to accomplish? (not saying that you haven't just would like to see the insights you used)

Originally posted by Kbear919 from Serious Eats: Main, on July 17, 2007 9:00 PM

Yesterday we officially launched a brand new version of AIGANY.org which was beautifully and smartly designed by the dynamic duo of Greg D’Onofrio and Patricia Belen over at Kind Company. They’re a small but extremely talented shop in Brooklyn that’s doing some stellar work, including a terrific and invaluable resource commemorating the work of Alvin Lustig.

AIGANY.org is the official site for the New York chapter, not to be confused with AIGA.org which was famously and wonderfully redesigned earlier this year by Happy Cog for the national organization. Naturally, our site is focused on all the design-related events that the chapter puts on in New York City during the fall, winter and spring of each year. All modesty aside, it’s really a hell of a lot of stuff; you’d have to TiVo the majority of a television season just to attend half of these events each year.

So to help keep everyone apprised of what’s going on, this redesign features a new blog called, somewhat cheekily, DESIGNY (RSS feed). Get it? DESIGNY, design-y and design-New York? Corny puns aside, we’ve staffed this blog with a hand-selected coterie of up-and-coming design tastemakers: Randy J. Hunt, Louise Ma and Michael Brenner. Between them, they’ll be covering all of the events we put on, and more.

Like everything that a non-profit organization does for the first time, DESIGNY is a work in progress, so we’ll be fine-tuning it over the coming months. I should say that the blog and the site have also all been done with very little or absolutely no money… contrary to AIGA’s image as the premier trade organization for design, we have very little cash to spend even on something as important and high profile as our Web site. I say that to encourage folks to keep this ascetic reality in mind when providing feedback on what we’ve done on the site — constructive criticism, good or bad, is always welcome, but please remember that a hell of a lot of financially unrewarded volunteer hours went into getting us this far. I also say that to point out that these folks — Kind Company, Randy, Louise, Michael and our tireless Web maestro, Thomas Hines — deserve a special commendation for stepping up in service to the design community. They did awesome, as far as I’m concerned.

Originally posted by Khoi Vinh from Subtraction, on July 17, 2007 8:42 PM

I've been enjoying the podcasts over at Geegaw and was inspired to start my own reading series.  My first podcast (!!!) features a poem I wrote, "Our Special Visitor."  I probably won't read my own work very often but I was feeling celebratory tonight.

Adriana Jacobs: Our special visitor

Originally posted by Adriana from Stingy Kids, on July 17, 2007 8:38 PM

Welcome to the new Serious Eats! Same content, same great conversations, wrapped in a shiny new design with a few new cool features. Many of the changes are based on feedback we've heard from you, and we're eager to hear what you think. This is just the beginning, more changes will come based on your feedback, and we'll be posting more information on what's new on the site.

Easier to find
We've kept what you love about Serious Eats, and made it easier to discover what you might have been missing before. We've launched two brand-new site sections, Eating Out and Recipes.

Our redesigned home page gives you a complete view of everything that's new across the Serious Eats universe. Here you'll find the latest from:

• New! Eating Out: Dining advice, restaurant recommendations, and related news. Have dining advice to share or need a restaurant recommendation? Post it to Talk > Eating Out.


• New! Recipes: Our new section featuring a unique take on our favorites and our weekly Cook the Book feature. As our collection grows, we'll be adding functionality to make it easier to browse, search, and save your favorites. Need a recipe, or want to share one? Post it to Talk > In the Kitchen.


• Required Eating: Our main blog, updated continuously throughout the day


• Talk: The food forum and community for Serious Eaters


• Videos: Tons of original programming you can't see anywhere else


• News and Updates from our team's blogs: Ed Levine Eats, A Hamburger Today, and Slice.


• Site search powered by Google: It's easier to find exactly what you are looking for whether it's where to eat in Paris, tasty chicken breast recipes, or where to buy special ingredients.

Easier to share
Now it's even easier to share your favorite stories, posts, and talk topics. You can:

• Print a printer-friendly version of page


• Email it to a friend


• Share a link via one of these popular link sharing services: del.icio.us - Digg - Facebook - Reddit - StumbleUpon

We need your help getting the word out to an even bigger audience of Serious Eaters — don't be shy about sharing the site with your friends and family!

Technical notes and sending us your feedback
We've tested the new design to work with any common computer, but it's always possible we missed something. If you find any strange bugs, or anything looks broken, please let us know in the comments.

Problems logging in? The quick remedy is to delete your Serious Eats cookies in your browser, and then try to log back in [how to delete browser cookies]. If you still have problems logging in, please email support@seriouseats.com, and we'll help you out.

Thank yous
Special thanks to the Serious Eats team who have put in many long nights and weekends to make this happen. A lot of the changes are invisible to readers but keep the site running smoothly and lay the groundwork for future site features and improvements. Special shout-out to Raphael, our uber-talented and tireless web developer. None of this would have been possible without him. Thanks also to our technology partner, Apperceptive.

Stay Tuned
There are even more improvements across the site — we'll be posting more soon to help you find out about what's new in Talk and how it's easier than ever to follow Serious Eats.

Originally posted by Alaina Browne from Serious Eats: Main, on July 17, 2007 6:45 PM

We were very conscious that our audiences, our people, are artists themselves, musicians themselves, the record store clerks of America, and we wanted to remind them that they're being told to shut up and not have an opinion and not state your opinion unless you are a politician or a Middle East expert. And we wanted to remind them that actually the voice of the poet, and the artist, and the musician is often where the deeper wisdom comes from. Those voices have always been heard, have always needed to be present and have always played a role.

The Nation: "'Arthur': The Little Magazine That Could"

Originally posted by Mike from randomWalks, on July 17, 2007 5:33 PM

As we've had an influx of new people looking into Movable Type 4.0 during the beta, either for the first time, or for the first time in years, one thing that keeps coming up is "the template tags look cool -- but what can I do with them?"

Things have been quiet around here as the team is super busy fixing bugs and getting closer to release candidates for MT 4.0, so it seemed like a good time to recap a little bit of the history of MT's template tags and then cover what's new and upcoming for template hackers.

First, the basics. MT's template tags were designed to be simple enough for anybody who knows HTML and CSS to be able to make a great looking blog or site, without knowing how to program. To enable that, all the basic template tags (which you can see on a site like MTTags.com) work like a simple mail merge program: You make your HTML (or XML, or whatever) page, and then substitute in MT's template tags so the program can insert your blog data automatically. This works for any entry, archive, or page in the system, and is pretty easy to understand.

Bonus: Because MT evaluates its template language internally, if you're doing a security audit when bringing in templates from a third party, MT's template tags can only do the things the application itself is allowed to do. That also means that MT's templates can generate code in any scripting language you want, whether that's PHP or ASP or JSP or whatever. And it lets us do cool things like checking the syntax on your template tags right within MT's editor.

But let's get to some simple examples, "Hello World"-style. To make an HTML page that says

<h1>Title of Your Entry</h1>
<h2>March 4, 2009 09:25 AM</h2>
<p>This is the text of the entry that you wanted to display on the page.</p>

All you need to do is put the appropriate tags in your MT template. Like so:

<h1><MTEntryTitle></h1>
<h2><MTEntryDate></h2>
<p><MTEntryBody></p>

Now, of course, you can get a lot more fancy than that. Oh, and here's something new: you can use XML-style namespace prefixes if you prefer. And tags are case-insensitive. So, if you're more used to XML namespaces, maybe your template looks like this:

<h1><mt:entrytitle></h1>
<h2><mt:entrydate></h2>
<p><mt:entrybody></p>

Sweet. But obviously, we want to do a lot more than just throwing our blog entries and titles up on a page. That's where some of the coolest improvements in MT4's templating comes in. You've got the full ability to get and set variables right in your templates. That's been around for a while, but it's easier than ever to use, and a heck of a lot more powerful.

<MTGetVar> and <MTSetVar> do exactly what you'd expect. (<MTGetVar> is also called <MTVar> if that's easier for you to remember.) You can name variables whatever you want, and if you've got a longer variable, use <MTSetVarBlock> to stash away a block of text, including HTML or MT template tags or whatever else you want. If you want that block of text to be evaluated for template tags on the fly (instead of just once, when you're setting the variable) for use in something like a loop, then just use <MTSetVarTemplate>. It's too much power for any one geek to handle!

There are tons of clever and complex things you can do with just these template tags (let alone our new and extended support for conditionals, loops, and boolean logic, which we'll get into more later) but here's some quick examples:

• Let's say you're publishing a CSS file for your site as a Movable Type template, and you want to set a variable to store a color value, so you can change it throughout the template later. Just put this at the top (using "#ccc;" to represent the grey color you're using):
  
  <MTSetVar name="mycolor" value="#ccc">
  
  And then throughout your template, you can use regular CSS with your variable, like so:
  
  body, p { background-color : <MTGetVar name="mycolor">; }


• You can even use variables inside of the attributes for MT's template tags. MT4 supports including entries from any blogs on your system in a template, aggregating your posts together using the IDs of your individual blogs. Including entries from blogs numbered 1, 2, and 4, would look like <MTEntries blog_ids="1,2,4">. But you might want to change the blogs you're including in the future, so variables are handy. Just use
  
  <MTSetVar name="blognumbers" value="1,2,4">
  
  And then in your template, substitute the variable:
  
  <MTEntries blog_ids="$blognumbers">
  
  The template tag knows that the $ means "this is a variable" and does the right thing, automagically.

Of course, there are infinite examples for these things, and MT4 lets you do If, Else, Unless loops and even Loops using variable arrays. But these first few examples should help get your gears turning as to what's truly possible using just the built-in template tags in MT4. Be sure to check out the Movable Type 4 Templating page and its corresponding wiki page for more info.

Originally posted by Anil Dash from MovableType.org - Home for the MT Community, on July 17, 2007 5:11 PM

M.I.A.'s crazy dirtstyle video for her song Boyz is available on the iTunes music store for 2 bucks.

Originally posted by weevil@wileywiggins.com (Wiley Wiggins) from News of the dead, on July 17, 2007 4:19 PM

While I'm over at 80stees, here's a gorgeous Link teeshirt. That's Link in my absolute favourite art style, plus on a decent colour teeshirt. Yum!

Originally posted by Alice from Wonderland, on July 17, 2007 4:18 PM

Stage Notes: Soler latest in Colombian legacy; Call him Captain Rasmussen now

ThePaceline.com (free reg. req.) | Graham Watson: About Face!

It was something of a coming-out party for Discovery Channel today, as the team that frequently declares itself the best in the world looked that way for one spectacular stage.

Popovych took the red race numbers of most combative rider, after riding in front of the peloton for nearly the entire day. Gusev factored in the early breaks, then Contador launched an assault on the Col du Galibier. Meanwhile, Levi Leipheimer hovered right there with Rasmussen, Valverde, Mayo, and Evans.

The team had 3 riders in the day's top 13, and has Contador and Leipheimer sitting in the GC Top 10 tonight.

Bruyneel was singing Contador's praises after the stage:

“The third week will be difficult for Alberto, but he's a big hope for the future. We want to build the team around him for the future,” said Discovery Channel sport director Johan Bruyneel. “He's a future Tour de France winner.”

And yet, as always, the Disco boys all point to the Pyrenees as this year's proving ground.

Also:

ThePaceline.com | TdF St 9: Dynamic Duo

Originally posted by Frank Steele from Tour de France 2007, on July 17, 2007 3:50 PM

a color frequency graph depicting the popularity of colors in the final theatrical posters of the 25 top-grossing U.S. films, sorted by MPAA rating & category.

overall, it seems that black & dark-hued backgrounds are the predominant color. also, flesh tones are an alternative & recurring range of colors, whereas white is mostly only used as an accent color.

[link: underconsideration.com|via thinkingpictures.blogspot.com]

Originally posted by (author unknown) from information aesthetics, on July 17, 2007 3:08 PM

The awesome live mess that is Paper Rad is coming to the Museum of Modern Art's Pop Rally,....to refresh your memory, it's the type of thing that usually has Cat Power like stuff. Ill be doing something also. Maybe file sharing "live"?!, maybe more "glockenspeil", maybe comedy, I dont know. But It will be fun. Paper Rad favs such as Dr Doo, Extreme Animals, DJ JAZZY JEXX will play. Also playing will be the Slo Jams band. I also have information that if you come there will be free "mouse pads" ..... ,c u there, .... More info here. To refresh your momory.
Extreme Animals

Dr Doo

Bruce

Originally posted by (author unknown) from Cory's Web LOG, on July 17, 2007 1:06 PM

With the priority that the Chinese place on food in their culture, it's a shame that the recent food scares have been tinged with a hint of racism, says Jeff Yang in the Washington Post:

That's troubling, because it reinforces the notion that befouled food is the consequence of a foul culture. Chef and gustatory adventurer Anthony Bourdain may have said it best in a 2006 Salon interview in which he noted that there's "something kind of racist" about culinary xenophobia: "Fear of dirt is often indistinguishable from the fear of unnamed dirty people."

Originally posted by Adam Kuban from Serious Eats: Main, on July 17, 2007 1:00 PM

If you like useful tips with a slight TextMate bias then The Pug Automatic is a great blog to add to your news reader.

It has a TextMate category with useful tips such as how to simplify / specialize the paste online command or a “grep in project” replacement for the native “find in project”.

Originally posted by Allan Odgaard from TextMate Blog, on July 17, 2007 12:00 PM

So you walk down the street and suddenly the wall to your left starts sprouting flowers, drawings and other animations. You slow down to watch closely, and the animations slow down, too.

That's because you're controlling them. Although you may not realize it immediately, motion sensors and a camera have locked on to you and given you control over the interactive wall. That's how a new street-level ad by software maker and TED partner Adobe works. The interactive wall, 7 feet (or about 2 meters) high and 15 feet wide, is part of a campaign to market Adobe's new Creative Suite 3 software package (which includes well-known programs such as Photoshop). It's installed these days in New York's Union Square -- look for it along the wall of the Virgin Megastore building -- and, according to a NYTimes story (from which we borrowed the picture) it will soon be re-created in London:

The line at the bottom of the wall is actually a slider that moves with the controlling passer-by, unleashing more -- or less, depending on the movement -- creative juice. See it in action via this Gizmodo video.

Similar interactive walls, a mix of technology and art installation, are not new. However, this is possibly a first in a very busy street (and indeed, the movements of people in the background also affect the animation). When you walk by it, as we did today, it is not self-evident that you or one of the other pedestrians "control" the animation: it takes a moment, also because there is no visible explanation of how the wall works. But that may actually be Adobe's intended effect: people stop, wonder, talk, try to figure out, touch the slider (but that's no touchscreen), jump in front of the camera to see if it has any effect. In a word -- the current magic word of advertising -- they engage.

Originally posted by (author unknown) from TED | TEDBlog, on July 17, 2007 11:45 AM

After a two year hiatus, PodWorks 2.9 is out.

"PodWorks is a Mac OS X (Cocoa) application that compensates for the iPod's only downside: Apple only allows you to copy songs to your iPod"

Originally posted by (author unknown) from Gus's blog, adventures in Flying Meat., on July 17, 2007 10:31 AM

From Slice reader Matt from New Brunswick, New Jersey:

Great site. I've been reading it for a while. Anyhow, I'm not sure if this interests you guys or not, but in the last year there's been a lot of pizza street art and tagging in New Brunswick. I just did a post about it on my blog, which has been tracking street art in New Brunswick for the last six months (hubcitystreetart.com). Like I said, not sure if this is even of interest to you guys, especially since it's going on in central New Jersey.

Dear Matt,
This definitely interests me. Doesn't matter where it is, as long as it's pizza, I'm into it. Interesting that someone has taken up the tag "Pizza." Took long enough! Now s/he must start traveling and spread the tag throughout the globe!

Hasta la pizza,
Adam

Originally posted by Adam Kuban from Serious Eats: Main, on July 17, 2007 10:20 AM

The Health News Digest is running an informative piece this week on lactose intolerance. According to the article, an estimated 30-50 million Americans (or about 10 to 15 percent of the population) may experience the characteristic symptoms of lactose intolerance. The symptoms are caused by the lack of the enzyme lactase, which breaks down lactose, or milk sugar, into the more digestible simple sugars glucose and galactose. On the flip side you have Jeffrey Steingarten, "the Man Who Ate Everything," who claims that lactose intolerance is an overblown contrivance of a nation of deluded and finicky eaters. Perhaps the truth, as is the case with many things, lies somewhere in the middle?

In most aged cheeses, lactose is largely absent. Most of it is carried off in the whey that is separated out during the cheesemaking process. Following removal of the whey, whatever small amount of lactose is left in the cheese is then consumed over the course of aging by active bacterial cultures and converted to the more digestible lactic acid. Therefore cheeses that are young and have a high water content such as Cottage Cheese or Ricotta will consequently have more lactose than more firm, older cheeses like Gruyère or Parmigiano-Reggiano. Yogurt is also quite digestible, since it is produced with lactic-acid producing bacteria similar to those in cheese.

Of course, lactose intolerance falls on a spectrum for many people—some people are okay with one or two glasses of milk while others feel symptoms even with hard cheeses. Where do you fall on the spectrum of intolerance?

About the author: Jamie Forrest publishes Curdnerds.com from his apartment in Brooklyn, New York, where he lives with his wife, his daughter, and his cheese.

Lactose molecule from sci-toys.com

Originally posted by Jamie Forrest from Serious Eats: Main, on July 17, 2007 10:14 AM

Sci-Fi Hi-Fi: “PodWorks is a Mac OS X (Cocoa) application that compensates for the iPod’s only downside: Apple only allows you to copy songs to your iPod.” Walt Mossberg says, “For Mac users, I recommend PodWorks...”

Originally posted by Brent Simmons from ranchero.com, on July 17, 2007 10:03 AM

Something is going on at US Apple Stores besides people queuing up for iPhones, and it's all good for Apple.

Read More...

Originally posted by cjade@arstechnica.com (Charles Jade) from Infinite Loop, on July 17, 2007 9:59 AM

This is very interesting, and something I would tend to agree with.

It’s easy enough to find out how long copyrights last, but much harder to decide how long they should last—but that didn’t stop Cambridge University PhD candidate Rufus Pollock from using economics formulas to answer the question. In a newly-released paper, Pollock pegs the “optimal level for copyright” at only 14 years.

Pollock’s work is based on the promise that the optimal level of copyright drops as the costs of producing creative work go down. As it has grown simpler to print books, record music, and edit films using new digital tools, the production and reproduction costs for creative work in have dropped substantially, but actual copyright law has only increased.

Instead, corporations like Disney, Warner Bros. and other major players are hard at work making sure they can continue endlessly extending current copyright terms so that no one EVER gets their meaty little paws on icons such as Mickey Mouse or Batman—whose copyright terms are coming up fast, thus technically entering them into the public domain.

Discuss!

Originally posted by Luc from Drawn! The Illustration and Cartooning Blog, on July 17, 2007 9:15 AM

A technical virtuoso with boundless imagination, Will Wright has created a style of computer gaming unlike any that came before, emphasizing learning more than losing, invention more than sport. With his hit game SimCity, he spurred players to make predictions, take risks, and sometimes fail miserably, as they built their own virtual urban worlds. With his follow-up hit, The Sims, he encouraged the same creativity toward building a household, all the while preserving the addictive fun of ordinary video games. His next game, Spore, which he previews here, evolves an entire universe from a single-celled creature. (Recorded March 2007 in Monterey, CA. Duration: 16:49.)

New: Download this talk in high resolution (480p) >>

Watch Will Wright's talk on TED.com, where you can download it, rate it, comment on it and find other talks and performances.

Read more about Will Wright on TED.com.

Embed this video: Use this code to run the video on your own site:

Originally posted by (author unknown) from TED | TEDBlog, on July 17, 2007 8:35 AM

Asian-based sources are reporting a flurry of second-generation iPhone news, some of which sounds much more believable than the rest. One thing that we don't think is believable? A September launch.

Read More...

Originally posted by jacqui@arstechnica.com (Jacqui Cheng) from Infinite Loop, on July 17, 2007 5:41 AM

"When I think about you, I multi-touch myself..." Apple is kicking off the multi-touch interface wave with the iPhone, but is multi-touch ready for larger displays? Some people think not. At least not yet.

Read More...

Originally posted by justin.berka@gmail.com (Justin Berka) from Infinite Loop, on July 17, 2007 5:15 AM

Apple's calendar application celebrates five years of essentially being useless, but change is on the horizon.

Read More...

Originally posted by ars@niload.com (Erik Kennedy) from Infinite Loop, on July 17, 2007 4:30 AM

We have a meeting with Six Apart later this week to discuss new features we should have on this and other BW blogs. We're running on an antiquated platform, I'm sure at least a few of you have noticed. But I've been so out of the loop that I'm hard-pressed even to put together a good wish list.

What should we ask for?

(Yes, PXL and others, we'll bring up the question about a smarter, quicker and automatic way to moderate comments...)

Originally posted by stephen_baker from BusinessWeek Online - Blogspotting, on July 17, 2007 3:15 AM

After the success of our Gothamist-A Hamburger Today QBQ BBQ last year (that's quality before quantity), we've decided to team up with Serious Eats/A Hamburger Today for another burger event at Water Taxi Beach in Long Island City. At last year's event, Chef Harry Hawk served up four regional burgers from around the nation. This year, you get to choose what burgers are served, with the top three vote-getters across Gothamist, Serious Eats, and A Hamburger Today making the menu. First, the nitty-gritty details of the event: Date: Saturday, July 28 Time: 5 p.m. Place: Water Taxi Beach (map) Cost: $13.50 for 3 burgers Payment: Tickets are available through TicketWeb Important Details: Please be sure to bring your ID when you come; no one is permitted on the beach without an ID or an of-age legal guardian. Getting There: Water Taxis depart from E. 34th Street in midtown Manhattan on a varied schedule (visit nywatertaxi.com). Subway riders should take the No. 7 train to Vernon Avenue/Jackson. Walk along Vernon Avenue to Borden Avenue, turn right. Look for signs for Water Taxi Beach. For more travel options, visit the beach's site. Instead of four burgers, we're serving up 3 burgers this year. What burgers will they be? Here's the list that you get to vote from:

The Motz Burger: A four-ounce fresh-not-frozen burger served with Schnack sauce. This burger hails from Long Island City and was invented by burger expert and filmmaker George "Hamburger America" Motz. The Onion Burger: Popular in El Reno, Oklahoma, the Onion Burger was born of frugality. Throw a half an onion on the griddle, add to that a ball of ground beef, and smash it all together with the back of a spatula. You've essentially extended your meat by mixing in onions. The onions caramelize as they cook embedded in the beef, giving you a sweet, crusty oniony patty. The Pimento Burger: Pimento cheese is big across the South, usually as a spread eaten on celery stalks or as a filling between two pieces of white bread. But in Columbia, South Carolina, they use it as both cheese and condiment on the burgers. Pimento cheese, for all you Yankees here in New York City, is a mixture of grated cheddar, chopped pimento, mayo, hot sauce, and black pepper. (Horseradish, mustard, and Worcestershire sauce are three common options.) The Guber Burger: We served this one at last year's bash, and it seemed to be a hit, so we're putting it on the ballot in 2007. Made locally famous by The Wheel Inn in Sedalia, Missouri, the guber burger features a heaping dollop of peanut butter applied to the burger right as the hot patty comes off the griddle. The Nut Burger: George Motz discovered this candidate in while researching his upcoming burger book. It was, he said, "like eating sundae topping on a burger. It's coarsely ground peanuts mixed with mayo, topping a burger. It's great!" The Butter Burger: A regional delight originating in -- where else? -- Wisconsin, the Butter Burger takes a very liberal dosing of butter after coming off the griddle. Those of you who have visited the Midwest recently may have had one at the rapidly expanding Culver's chain, where it's a specialty. The Hammmburger: A burger topped with Jubilat Polish slab bacon‚ essentially Canadian ham, hence the extra mmmeaty name of this burger. This one is the creation of Water Taxi Beach's Harry Hawk.

Vote now for what you think should be on the menu. Voting closes on Friday, July 20th at 6 p.m. To keep it fair, one vote per person. Free Polls - Take Our Poll Special thanks to Six Apart, who have donated a keg of Orlio Common Ale for sponsoring the event. Purchase your tickets to the event now! $13.50 for three burgers (you can mix and match your burger choices). Photo of the Guber Burger from last year's Gothamist-A Hamburger Today QBQ BBQ

Originally posted by tien from Gothamist Weekly Favorites, on July 16, 2007 1:53 PM

Missnita knows that wind-up teeth gotta eat too.

Originally posted by Robyn Lee from Serious Eats: Features, Videos and Required Eating, on July 16, 2007 1:30 PM

Rock Band versus Guitar Hero III. Very interesting:

So what did Activision/Red Octane decide to do with Guitar Hero III? They decided to "game up" the game. In that single decision, they told the serious player that they fundamentally had no understanding of what the game was really about.

Boss battles? With power-ups? The horror....

So what does Harmonix do with Rock Band? Is there any goofy bullshit, any power-ups, and "battles?"

No. Just music stuff. A ton of career modes, a drum kit controller, vocals. Music, music, music, music, music, music.

Music.

Originally posted by jane from game girl advance, on July 16, 2007 1:27 PM

Mayor Bloomberg returned from Sun Valley's media mogul conference to stump for his congestion pricing program at three churches yesterday. And today he's headed to Albany, as the congestion pricing program will be discussed by the Legislature. The Bloomberg administration has pointed out that the federal Department of Transportation is pretty willing to give $537 million in funding to NYC if the concept of congestion pricing is passed by Albany lawmakers, but the deadline for that money is today. The NY Times notes how after his visits to churches in Brooklyn, Queens and Harlem, Mayor Bloomberg "cast the possibility of missing the deadline in stark tones" while speaking with reporters. He implied that other big transit projects, like the Second Avenue subway, bus expansion plans, and JFK airport-downtown Manhattan rail link, could be jeopardized and that other businesses might leave if congestion pricing is not passed. Congestion pricing supporters and opponents both held a press conferences at City Hall yesterday. Supporters questioned why the state wasn't willing to take the $537 million to better the air and mass transit. Opponent State Senator Ruben Diaz of the Bronx said, "Who is going to show me that the people in the South Bronx suffering from asthma will not be suffering after the mayor's plan?" while Assemblyman Richard Brosky said there isn't enough support for the plan, "No one is going to get bribed into accepting a bad idea." The State Senate drafted a bill on Friday to help usher congestion pricing through, and Governor Spitzer reportedly "onvened a last-minute negotiating session to try to finalize a deal " for congestion pricing and other lingering Albany issues. As it happens, Assembly Leader Sheldon Silver, widely seen as the man who is standing in the way of the plan (Senate Majority Leader Joe Bruno and Governor Eliot Spitzer support it), will be meeting with some Assembly members in Manhattan today while the Mayor is in Albany.

Originally posted by jen from Gothamist Weekly Favorites, on July 16, 2007 12:46 PM

Pigs are very smart, and can escape from just about any fencing you can rig up. But they can also be trained like dogs. So when they are piglets, teach them to come to you by shaking a can of...

Originally posted by Matthew from Tricks of the Trade, on July 16, 2007 12:22 PM

Brooklyn Vegan was co-presenting yesterday's Citysol concert at Solar One on the Lower East Side's Stuyvesant Cove, so we're sure he'll have a post on the proceedings shortly. However, we must point out an awesome photograph from Gothamist reader TomVu, who snapped this picture of Les Savy Fav bassist Syd Butler taking his child to work with him. (Les Savy Fav @ Citysol, by TomVu at flickr)

Originally posted by nyc_daveh from Gothamist Weekly Favorites, on July 16, 2007 11:48 AM

Someone out there is a genius:  I've just been friended by Carl Kasell on FB.

Originally posted by Michael Sippey from (un)filtered, on July 16, 2007 11:06 AM

The Gothamist-AHT/SE QBQ BBQ II

Photograph courtesy of Jason Perlow

Last year, Serious Eats burger site A Hamburger Today teamed up with Gothamist for the Gothamist-AHT QBQ (that's Quality Before Quantity), we've decided to team up with them again this year for another burger bash at Water Taxi Beach in Long Island City, Queens. At last year's event, chef Harry Hawk served four regional burgers from around the nation.

We're doing something similar this year, but this time you get to choose which burgers will be served, with the top three vote-getters across Gothamist and A Hamburger Today/Serious Eats making the menu. Some are regional specialties, and some are original Water Taxi Beach creations. I'll get to the candidate burgers in a bit, but first the nitty-gritty details.

But before the details, can I tell you that later in the evening, Grandmaster Flash will be spinning at WTB? OK, the deets:

Date: Saturday, July 28
Time: 5 p.m.
Place: Water Taxi Beach (map)
Cost: $13.50 for 3 burgers
Payment: Tickets are available through TicketWeb
Important Details: Please be sure to bring your ID when you come; no one is permitted on the beach without an ID or an of-age legal guardian
Quality Before Quantity: Because the griddle is small and we're cooking these burgers the right way, we're emphasizing quality. If last year's event is any indication, the lines will get long. But with good company, the wait seems to fly by
Getting There: Water Taxis depart from East 34th Street in Midtown Manhattan on a varied schedule (visit nywatertaxi.com). Subway riders should take the No. 7 train to Vernon Avenue/Jackson. Walk along Vernon Avenue to Borden Avenue, turn right. Look for signs for Water Taxi Beach. For more travel options, visit the beach's site

Instead of four burgers, we're serving three this year. What will they be? Here are the candidates that you get to choose from:

The Motz Burger: A four-ounce fresh-not-frozen burger served with Schnäck sauce and pickles. This burger hails from Long Island City and was invented by burger expert and filmmaker George "Hamburger America" Motz.

The Onion Burger: Popular in El Reno, Oklahoma, the Onion Burger was born of frugality. Throw a half an onion on the griddle, add to that a ball of ground beef, and smash it all together with the back of a spatula. You've essentially extended your meat by mixing in onions. The onions caramelize as they cook embedded in the beef, giving you a sweet, crusty oniony patty.

The Pimento Burger: Pimento cheese is big across the South, usually as a spread eaten on celery stalks or as a filling between two pieces of white bread. But in Columbia, South Carolina, they use it as both cheese and condiment on the burgers. Pimento cheese, for all you Yankees here in New York City, is a mixture of grated cheddar, chopped pimento, mayo, hot sauce, and black pepper. (Horseradish, mustard, and Worcestershire sauce are three common options.)

The Guber Burger: We served this one at last year's bash, and it seemed to be a hit, so we're putting it on the ballot in 2007. Made locally famous by The Wheel Inn in Sedalia, Missouri, the guber burger features a heaping dollop of peanut butter applied to the burger right as the hot patty comes off the griddle.

The Nut Burger: George Motz discovered this candidate in while researching his upcoming burger book. It was, he said, "like eating sundae topping on a burger. It's coarsely ground peanuts mixed with mayo, topping a burger. It's great!" (Related: The Nut Burger on AHT.)

The Butter Burger: A regional delight originating in—where else?—Wisconsin, the Butter Burger takes a very liberal dosing of butter after coming off the griddle. Those of you who have visited the Midwest recently may have had one at the rapidly expanding Culver's chain, where it's a specialty. (Related: Video of Solly's Grille butter burgers)

The Hammmburger: A burger topped with Jubilat Polish slab bacon—essentially Canadian ham, hence the extra mmmeaty name of this burger. This one is the creation of Water Taxi Beach's Harry Hawk.

Vote now! Polls close Friday, July 20 at 6 p.m. One vote per person.

Free Polls - Take Our Poll

Special thanks to Six Apart, who have donated a keg of Orlio Common Ale for sponsoring the event.

Originally posted by Adam Kuban from Serious Eats: Features, Videos and Required Eating, on July 16, 2007 11:00 AM

NPR has an interesting little article about the Scholastic editor who discovered Harry Potter. Don't miss the sidebar, which includes a 1998 interview with JK Rowling, in which she discusses, among other things, the last chapter of the final book, her favorite characters, picking out names and writing the last book.

Originally posted by (author unknown) from Rebecca's Pocket, on July 16, 2007 10:30 AM

Daniel is giving everyone a peek at MarsEdit 2. Looks awesome.

Originally posted by (author unknown) from Gus's blog, adventures in Flying Meat., on July 16, 2007 10:09 AM

An AppleScript for Apple Mail to move all unflagged, read messages from each IMAP inbox to an “Archive” mailbox.

Originally posted by John Gruber from Daring Fireball, on July 16, 2007 10:00 AM

• Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a dead body in the water off of Houston St. on the west side of Manhattan, a shooting at Lincoln and Classon in Brooklyn, and a water rescue off Coney Island's Surf Ave. in Brooklyn.
• A young woman from upstate was crowned Miss New York last night. "An exhausted"-looking Miss NJ looked on, after two weeks of scandal and intrigue.
• Famed Central Park red tailed hawk Pale Male is fine after a construction worker pelted him while he was on his perch.
• Longtime area attraction at Rye Playland may never reopen.
• Remember searching for the prize in a cereal box? Cops found $100,000 stuffed in a box of Cap'n Cunch when they raided a Washington Heights heroin distribution center. They also found $12 million in drugs.
• City schools are operating with the assistance of lots of cash from private organizations and individuals.
• Aides to Governor Spitzer are fully aware of his anger management problems. He sees it as a problem-solving tool.
• Native Americans are getting involved in a sport that is mostly played by white affluent Americans: lacrosse, which was invented by Native Americans.

An untitled photo of a young trio of Mets stars at Shea, by jukeboxgraduate at flickr

Originally posted by nyc_daveh from Gothamist Weekly Favorites, on July 16, 2007 9:37 AM

People love wardrobe malfunctions. Janet Jackson's nip slip was one of the most replayed TiVo moments ever. Sadly, I can't show you Paris Hilton's tatas -- gotta keep things PG-13 around here or the lawyers get after me -- though one took place a moment after this photo was taken.

Here's hoping I don't suffer the same fate next week on vacay... though, thankfully, it wouldn't make headlines.

Originally posted by sbyrne from Daily Blabber, on July 16, 2007 9:15 AM

Summer = sangria, right? Dinner with friends was the perfect excuse for me to make a giant pitcher of red sangria. Below is the recipe I came up with after reading a few variations. Take this to party, and you will be invited back.

Red Sangria Recipe
2 bottles red wine
3/4 cup brandy
1/2 cup triple sec or cointreau
3/4 cup orange juice
fruit: I used 1 orange, 1 apple, 4 nectarines, and 1 pint of strawberries, all sliced into small bite size pieces. You could use more, less, or different kinds of fruit depending on your preference.
optional: 1/2 cup sugar

Combine all ingredients in a large pitcher and refrigerate, covered, 2 hours or up to 2 days. Serve chilled and/or over ice. Enjoy!

Originally posted by Alaina Browne from A Full Belly, on July 16, 2007 9:07 AM

Since I took over development of MarsEdit back in February, a lot has happened! I’ve released several bug-fix releases, and a modest 1.2 feature release, which added support for Growl, image uploads to Picasa for Blogger users, and early support for the Vox weblog system.

And of course, I heard feedback. Lots of feedback. MarsEdit users know what they want, and they’ve helped shape the priorities for the next major release of MarsEdit. And working on MarsEdit 2 is how I’ve spent a great deal of my time over the past few months.

I don’t want to give too many details away, because (crosses-fingers) things can always go wrong and features get pulled, but the release is starting to gel in some areas. Here is a sneak-peek at the new post editor window as it stands today:

(Click for full-size image)

Suffice to say, there are some features you can glean from the screenshot. The post editor window, and some other important parts of the user-interface, are being given a significant overhaul. I think most MarsEdit users will find it a refreshing cleanup, that manages to pack more features into MarsEdit without ruining its visual simplicity.

As for the complete feature list. Well, why don’t we wait until the features are actually complete :)

Originally posted by Daniel Jalkut from Red Sweater Blog, on July 16, 2007 8:02 AM

From our friend Pablo Aravena comes these photos of Roadsworth's Tour de France installation in the UK.

Originally posted by (author unknown) from Wooster Collective, on July 16, 2007 5:27 AM

At TED, we make a job of scouring the world for ideas worth sharing and for speakers able to share them in the most compelling ways. So we pay attention when somebody delivers a great speech. And Apple CEO Steve Jobs certainly did so when, last January, he introduced the iPhone at the annual Macworld trade show in San Francisco, five months before the device actually hit the US market.

Communication coach Carmine Gallo has deconstructed Jobs' job for BusinessWeek.com. A good primer for any speaker, with concrete, memorable examples. Read Gallo's column, watch Jobs' speech, or consider this cheat sheet: 1) Build up the presentation to something unexpected; 2) Stick to one theme per slide, and make them visually attractive; 3) Vary the speed and tone at which you speak to electrify the audience; 4) Three things are absolutely key: rehearse, rehearse, rehearse. 5) If you're passionate about the idea or the product, show it.

Originally posted by (author unknown) from TED | TEDBlog, on July 16, 2007 3:51 AM

On a sushi-filled New York Times op-ed page, Trevor Corson offers us a prescription for sushi eating in America, and Stephen Shaw says the pregnancy police are all wrong in advising pregnant women not to eat sushi.

Here's what Corson says:

What we need isn’t more tuna, but a renaissance in American sushi; to discover for ourselves—and perhaps to remind the Japanese—what sushi is all about. A trip to the neighborhood sushi bar should be a social exchange that celebrates, with a sense of balance and moderation, the wondrous variety of the sea.

I suggest that customers refuse to sit at a table or look at a menu. We should sit at the bar and ask the chef questions about everything—what he wants to make us and how we should eat it. We should agree to turn our backs on our American addictions to tuna (for starters, try mackerel), globs of fake wasabi (let the chef add the appropriate amount), gallons of soy sauce (let the chef season the sushi if it needs seasoning), and chopsticks (use your fingers so the chef can pack the sushi loosely, as he would in Japan). Diners will be amazed at how following these simple rules can make a sushi chef your friend, and take you on new adventures in taste.

In return, the chefs, be they Japanese or not, must honor the sushi tradition and make the effort to educate us—no more stoicism. They must also be willing to have a candid conversation about the budget before the meal; it’s the only way American diners will be willing to surrender to the chef’s suggestions. Sushi should never be cheap, but it also should never be exorbitant, because that makes it impossible to create a clientele of regulars.

This all sounds well and good, but the idea that sushi chefs will volunteer straight talk about how much a sushi meal is going to cost and abandon their classic stoicism strikes me as a bit of cross-cultural social engineering that just isn't going to fly. Corson is asking sushi chefs to ignore hundreds of years of cultural breeding. Conversely, the idea that Americans shouldn't order what they have clearly demonstrated they like is also not likely to happen. In theory, Corson's prescriptions sound like a persuasive cultural exchange program. In reality, it is not going to happen.

And just when you thought we were finished with sushi there's more.

Steven Shaw argues that it is perfectly safe for pregnant women to eat sushi and furthermore that the pregnancy police have merely added a layer of unnecessary worry to a pregnant woman's already lengthy list of rational and irrational fears.

Serious Eater Meg Hourihan, having just given birth to beautiful Ollie, must weigh in here. And let's hear from Nina Planck. It seems to me that even if there's the slightest risk of food-borne illness from eating raw fish, that might be too much for most women.

Of course, the real question is what's the big deal about not eating raw seafood for nine months. Shaw says that the combination of warnings about parasites in sushi and about mercury in certain species of fish is scaring pregnant women off cooked seafood as well, which is problematic because the "fatty acids in fish are the ideal nourishment for a developing baby." Is this true?

Finally, Shaw argues that the "sushi ban is insulting to Japanese culture." That strikes me as patently ridiculous, but then again I'm not Japanese.

Originally posted by Ed Levine from Serious Eats: Features, Videos and Required Eating, on July 16, 2007 2:59 AM

craigslist missed connections blog

 bookmark this on del.icio.us - posted by yatta to craigslist humor via:marisaolson - more about this bookmark...

Originally posted by yatta from del.icio.us/yatta, on July 16, 2007 1:43 AM

In technology, one of the best ideas to emerge from the world of social software is the ability to tag other people’s works and creations for our own reference. There are some interesting behaviors that come from having a free-form text description of our own information, but the behaviors that come from tagging other people’s stuff have been the subject of an enormous amount of research and speculation with good reason: Fascinating things happen.

The most profound, to me, is the tag “toread”. Though sometimes used as a public indicator with the knowledge that others can see this declaration of intent, toread is usually a simple reminder that the tagger wants to come back to that story, that article, that bit of information, and give it the attention and focus that it deserves.

There are, of course, some social uses for this sort of information. In an imaginary geek-dating scenario, tagging the right book or blog post with toread could be an assertion of identity. Or it could be used as a social filter: “Everybody with [insert horrible author here] tagged ‘toread’ can safely be ignored.”

But the reason “toread” is profound is because it’s the biggest tag in an invisible tag cloud that surrounds us all. We can’t truly see all of the aspirations that John Battelle calls the “database of intent”, and it’s a good thing we can’t. Aside from those quiet desires that lurk inside us, though, there is something simple and beautiful about the desire to come back to read something interesting.

The idea of “toread” shows us everything great about humans: Our desire to know more, learn more, and improve ourselves. Toread represents the idea that we can be the sum of the knowledge of everyone who’s ever preceded us, that given enough time we can absorb the cumulative learnings of humanity. It’s the tag that represents the fundamental desire for self-improvement, and for bettering ourselves and the world. It’s one of our most popular tags, even though its presence is always redundant — we wouldn’t save anything if we didn’t intend to read it again. Toread is to want to live.

At the same time, toread represents everything that’s tragic and flawed about humans. We intend toread but get busy with the mundane minutia of our lives. We only choose toread the things we already know. There’s something bittersweet and wistful about the fact that everytime we save something toread, we’re acknowledging that we can’t read it right now, because life gets in the way. And then someday we die, never having had or made the time toread.

The most beautiful thing, though, is that we have the tools to make manifest this part of human nature that’s always been with us. In our idle hours, we can look at the wanderings of the minds of our friends and family, browse through their intentions and aspirations, and maybe even adopt some of them as our own.

A big thanks to David Weinberger for the prompt to think about toread, just one of many brainstorms that were inspired by his delightful and insightful Everything is Miscellaneous. Thanks also to Smeerch for the photo above.

Originally posted by Anil from Anil Dash, on July 15, 2007 11:49 PM

a tableware collection that questions the "landscape of dining". inspired by the popularity of geography & topographic maps as a media of visual communication. made up of cups, plates, bowls, place mats & a tablecloth, the collection explores the visual landscape of dining by using outlines & descriptions to illustrate the eating experience, making it feel like a journey.

[link: topoware.org & flickr.com|via mocoloco.com]

Originally posted by (author unknown) from information aesthetics, on July 15, 2007 11:13 PM

From the best of Craigslist, Facebook: I love to hate you.  "First of all, you allow people from high school that I've never even spoken to add me as their friend. I dont know them other than the fact that we were apparently in the same homeroom together in grade 9 before I got the braces off. Its creepy that they remember the overalls and the plaid raincoat I was wearing the first day of high school. Please do not allow these people to seek me out."

Originally posted by Michael Sippey from (un)filtered, on July 15, 2007 1:29 PM

The saga of red-tailed hawk Pale Male on Fifth Avenue continue! Lincoln Karim, one of Pale Male's most passionate advocates, witnessed a construction worker on the roof of 1040 Fifth Avenue spitting and throwing rocks at Pale Male. Karim detailed the incident on his website, PaleMale.com, and wrote:

A most despicable display of human behavior on 1040 Fifth Avenue (the Jackie O Building). At 2:48:50PM I saw two men appear at the top of the water tower and look down at Palemale. I photographed them but never expected them to molest him. 2:49:02PM - The two men are noticed by Palemale. The man on the right disappears but remains close by. The remaining man spits on Palemale. Not satisfied with spitting on Palemale the man drops an object on the innocent animal. arrow shows the object falling toward Palemale. The man smiles as he makes his first hit. The man drops another object toward our hawk. The man is delighted with his second hit. Palemale looses his balance as the object strikes his back.

Karim told the Post, "I usually look for the red-tailed hawk [Pale Male] in this area and when I looked up the building, these two construction workers were very close to the bird. Next thing I see, they are throwing rocks at the bird. This is a federally protected bird and this person should be arrested." Karim says that by the time the NYPD and Department of Environmental Conservation arrived, the "contractor claimed that they just fired the man and that he left the building without them knowing." The NYPD says they will be investigating. And it's unclear whether Pale Male was hurt and how extensive his injuries might be. Back in 2004, animal lovers were outraged when 927 Fifth Avenue decided to remove Pale Male and his companion Lola's nest. After community outcry, 927 Fifth decided to build a new nest for the hawks. Pale Male and Lola have been seen on the Upper West Side as well. Photographs from Lincoln Karim's PaleMale.com

Originally posted by jen from Gothamist Weekly Favorites, on July 15, 2007 7:28 AM