States Try to Alter How Presidents Are Elected
Maneuvers by those upset with the system are adding unpredictability to an already knotty campaign....
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August 11, 2007
On the CIA‘s “Black Sites”
On the CIA‘s “Black Sites”. “It’s one of the most sophisticated, refined programs of torture ever... At every stage, there was a rigid attention to detail. Procedure was adhered to almost to the letter. There was top-down quality control, and such a set routine that you get to the point where you know what each detainee is going to say, because you’ve heard it before. It was almost automated. People were utterly dehumanized. People fell apart. It was the intentional and systematic infliction of great suffering masquerading as a legal process. It is just chilling.”
944: The biggest release in the history of Icondesigner.
No, it’s not gone that far that I have pushed 944 icons so far. Perhaps I have, I don’t know, but that’s beside the point. What matters is the future. The time after 9:44 UTC.
Having gotten enthusiastic responses to the Iconizement plan I set forward in a few posts, I have been able to get ’sponsoring’ for at least two icon sets. I have a whole road ahead of me when it comes to the freeware icon sets I am producing.
This is, basically, the timeline for my upcoming icon sets. The three in the ‘hot zone’ above (the Designer Icons set 2, the War on Bad Design icons set 2 and the Designer Folders) are coming up very quickly, very possibly at the same time, when the brand new version of Icon Designer will be unveiled.
But there is more, a lot more. 944, the enigmatic number, stands for 512, 256, 128, 32, and 16; the new sizes that I will be releasing my icons in. You read that right, all new icon sets will feature super-hi res icons a month before Leopard. If anyone’s even been ready for Leopard, I am.
Apart from that, not only Mac users will rejoice. Icon Designer’s new releases come in all formats; for Windows in .ico, for Mac in ICNS, and for Linux users, PNG’s for all sizes. The growing popularity of this website has shown me that there is a righteous demand for these extra formats, and as such, you are getting them!
This wouldn’t be the Cocoia Blog if you would get out of this blog post without being peppered by desire-inducing preview images. The Designer Folders set, which will contain anodized metal, standard aqua and wooden folders with the following interesting motives;
Slight touches of reflection in the anodized steel folders (which are depicted here) are among the fine details in the new sets. The folder set is truly a showcase of new, unique ideas in folders and overflows with gimmicks and eye candy. Since there was a lot of ado going on at Macthemes over Susumu’s latest folder set release “Cats 2″ being ‘inspired’ by other sets, I set to inspire this set by cats as well. In fact, since they have always been so supportive in my life, I included a cat - he’s not so comfortable in folders, though, or so it seems.
I wanted to put a solid date on this release, and although it is highly dependent on my picky sense of perfectionism, I expect to launch Icon Designer v. 3 by the beginning of September - ideally, the last day of August. I will keep you up to date with the developments!
● Owls lost in translation
A summary of one of the several Chinese knockoffs of Harry Potter, courtesy of the NY Times:
Snape breaks into Hogwarts and rescues Lucius Malfoy from Azkaban Prison. Harry believes that he can defeat Snape and Voldemort only by strenuously practicing charms. Professor Slughorn, inspired by a book from the East provided by Cho Chang called "Thirty-Six Strategies," devises a plan enabling Harry to seize Snape in the Ministry of Magic. But Gryffindor's sword, which hung in the headmaster's office, assassinates Professor McGonagall.
When Harry confronts Voldemort at Azkaban, the Dark Lord tries to win Harry over as a fellow descendant of Slytherin. Harry refuses, and together with Ron and Hermione, kills Voldemort instead. Now what will Harry do about his two girlfriends?
In another of the books, Harry is assisted by Gandalf. No appearances by Han and Chewy, AFAIK.
Why do Video Networks Fail? One Reason: The Content
This just in: Scoble jumps ship as Podtech sinks. Im still trying to confirm that Chuck's tweet means what it says (no word back yet from Scoble or Chuck).
No surprise. I read an article where CEO John Furrier states an additional $2 million had been invested in the company in the middle of July which he expected to last only "a few months". Wow. What are they doing over there?
I don't know any of the details as to why the company is not making it except for the one I could always see myself and I believe it's the most important part of a network: quality of content.
The network has about 20 shows they list on their website. Have you heard of any of them? Aside from The Scoble Show, quick, name another show. . . Yea, I always have a hard time with that question too. I'd rather see the new networks making it but they are mostly missing that important role of creating compelling content that will resonate with enough people to sustain and grow.
Podtech is clearly a tech company. Pod. Tech. From what I can tell, they never had anyone in their company that was a professional and experienced video content producer. And not just someone but someone with good taste who can understand how the content will fit in with everything else that is out there.
First adopters are techies and the new networks have the DNA of Silicon Valley all over them. Where is Hollywood in this thinking? Content is business mostly driven by professional content creators, not the technology industry. The problem is biconditional. The traditional studio are not listening to the technologists very well on how to support the flow of their good content. There needs to be more of a collaboration.
When we take a moment to step out of the 2.0 bubble and have a look around, its easy to see that the power of the moving image is not going to burst. Online video, personal publishing, content - this type of stuff is not about today's shiny new gadgets and Ajax. When the iPhone becomes an archaic collectors item and Facebook and YouTube are only known by the old and stodgy, people will be still be creating content that will strike a chord in a big way and there will always be a big market for it.
I'd rather see the new networks making it but they are mostly missing that really important role of being able to identify compelling content that will strike a chord in enough people to sustain and grow.
August 10, 2007
Yeah Yeah Yeahs
Taken during "Maps."
‘And They Call It the Cult of Mac’
Bob Keefe:
I’m the Jackass of the Week.
Missing License Keys
Unfortunately TextDrive is having problems with DDoS attacks which means that (at least some) license key emails are queued locally instead of being fully delivered.
As noted in my previous post I am presently attending C4 in Chicago (that is, registration starts in two hours) so hopefully people registering will be okay with some noticeable delay receiving the license key.
If your copy has expired, and you are affected by the delay, please write textmate (at) gmail dot com and state this (yes, use the gmail address, since the various
@macromates.comaddresses will also be affected by the DDoS attack).And for the people affected, please accept my apology — I will look into a backup server solution when I return from vacation.
Crowd-Powered Technology
Two MIT graduate students have found a way to harness the power of steppin'. They've developed technology that generates electricity when you walk over a special sub-floor that shifts slightly as you depress each square. This magic device then converts the movement into energy. While a small step from one person won't do much, if you install this in a train station or concert areana, you're suddenly generating enough electricity to make it worth while.
While I love any renewable energy resource, the idea of directly effecting the energy output is exciting. It could become a game. Maybe they put a huge sign in Yankee Stadium that shows how many joules have been created this month. They could then compete with Mets fans at Shea. In some ways, this reminds me of the Hong Kong gym that generates electricity from treadmills. The more you exercise the more you help the community.
Not nearly enough useful technology incorporates fun. It's depressing hearing about how global warming is going to kill us all, so give us a fun way to help out. Sure, I'll still do the boring things like unplugging gadget chargers, but isn't it more pleasing to think my spastic game of tag in Grand Central is actually helping the environment?
8 ways to drive a designer mad
"#2: If the graphic designer chooses Helvetica for a font, ask for Arial. If he chooses Arial, ask for Comic Sans. If he chooses Comic Sans, he's already half-insane, so your job's half done."
Mr. Hoogestraat, virtual adulterer
For a while, Mr. Hoogestraat, sitting at his computer, stares at an image of his avatar sitting at his computer.
Six Apart donates to Creative Commons and WITNESS
First of all, THANKS to Six Apart and the community of users for the support. Creative Commons and WITNESS can really use the money and we appreciate it VERY much. A portion of the donations by users for permanent Live Journal accounts was donated to RAINN, EFF, Creative Commons and WITNESS during a recent campaign.
Unfortunately, we failed to disclose my involvement in Creative Commons and WITNESS when Six Apart was conducting the campaign. I'm the chairman of Creative Commons and a board member of WITNESS. I apologize to everyone for this oversight. I think that transparency is an essential part of everything we stand for and it really is unfortunate that we didn't handle this properly.
I would like to make it clear that while I donate time and money to WITNESS and Creative Commons, I pay all of my expenses and have never charged anything to either of these organizations... so while it doesn't make the lack of disclosure OK, I don't personally benefit financially from either of these donations from Six Apart.
Anyway, thanks again for everyone's support of Six Apart, Creative Commons, WITNESS and other organizations that I love.
BTW, Valleywag posted about the lack of disclosure.
UPDATE: BTW, my wiki profile probably is the best list of affiliations that I have if you're interested.
Comment - TrackBack
and san francisco parking still sucks
File under: whoa. The Standing Room turns three and gives a gift to its readers: the blogger's identity. (It's Sidney Chen, the artistic administrator of the Kronos Quartet!)
sting is an ape, too
Ladies and gentlemen, Paul Ford: "If we have a child and the rats do not eat it first I will teach her (or him) to fear Sting. 'Be good,' I will say, 'or Sting will come with his lute.'"
Apple Boot Camp Update Features Improved Graphics Drivers
Apple has just released a new version of Boot Camp, the company’s software for running Windows on your Mac. Boot Camp 1.4 features improved drivers for graphic cards and more.
Boot Camp is still an unsupported beta, but the Apple says the software will be included in the upcoming release of OS X 10.5 Leopard.
The new Boot Camp 1.4 includes:
- Support for keyboard backlighting (MacBook Pro only)
- Apple Remote pairing
- Updated graphics drivers
- Improved Boot Camp driver installer
- Improved international keyboard support
- Localization fixes
- Updated Windows Help for Boot Camp
You don’t need to repartition to upgrade though you will need to walk through the Boot Camp installer to burn the new drivers CD.
moscow eats
i am heading to moscow for a week for vacation. i have some dining suggestions from my travel books, and will be staying with an ex-pat who can show me around a bit, but if anyone has any solid favorites or secret gems to share, it would be much appreciated!
D.C. Restaurant Week: Love/Hate Relationship
OpenTable's site might be pretty sluggish today. Washingtonians are cramming in last-minute weekend reservations for the 167 spots participating in this year's record-breaking summer edition of Restaurant Week. While the prix-fixe menus are notorious for surcharges, limited selection and only cheap cuts of meat (hello, skirt steak; goodbye, prime rib), Restaurant Week lets anyone feel like a foodie for 30 bucks.
Pretty good deal? Not really, according to George Mason University economics professor Tyler Cowen. His popular blog, Tyler Cowen's Ethnic Dining Guide, gives readers the straightforward scoop on foods from at least 75 regional categories mostly in his Maryland-Virginia-D.C. neighborhood. Even during Restaurant Week, Cowen prefers trekking out to Eden Center, a Virginia shopping center nicknamed "Little Vietnam," or Columbia Pike for warm Salvadorian pupusas. His hideways aren't hip or hyped. In fact, many sit behind faded signs in eyesore strip malls and treat Restaurant Week just like any other seven days.
This week's Washington Post profile on Cowen promotes his new book, Discover Your Inner Economist, released last week, and his two cents about Restaurant Week. "Choose an expensive restaurant that has a reputation to protect" or one "with a formula" that can't change for a week. More and more, Cowen is being spotlighted as a public intellectual for his street-smart strategies and cultural insight, in the same vein as Malcolm Gladwell, Steven Levitt, or Stephen Dubner. While his book isn't necessarily part of the burgeoning food-lit genre—just as he's not necessarily a trained food professional—a huge chunk of it is devoted to tips like avoiding restaurants in high-rent areas and, instead, zeroing in on immigrant neighborhoods.
When he turned in a draft of his book, his editor suggested—four days before deadline—that a chapter on how to use economic theory to eat well might make it stand apart. Because Cowen had long been chewing over a book on food, the new chapter was written "almost off the top of my head" and had "zero editing, while all other parts of the book went through six or seven drafts."
Cowen spends four of the chapter's 33 pages explaining why cheap food stalls in Singapore offer some of the most exciting food in the country, which is useful if you're in Singapore but less so in Washington, where the best you can hope for at a downtown street cart is a better-than-average hot dog or burrito.
Cowen treats eating like he does all aspects of life—economically. He considers neighborhood, the amount of diners sharing and even those iron bars in the windows. Does that mean good, authentic food? Most likely yes, in Cowen's perspective. Order his book on Amazon, check out his many blogs, or consider his Restaurant Week picks, which can, of course, apply to cities other than D.C.
Facebook Data Store API
When I heard that f.bk had a new Data Store API was thinking “Wow! That’s actually hard!”.
But if you read it closer you’ll notice the operations map to what can de done in memcache (down to transactions are handled via atomic auto-increments) with a bit of cleverness, and some persistence. (pun intended) Still a nice step towards making developing f.bk apps a bit less eye-pokey-outty
Everyone is building the giant hash table in the clouds.
Restaurant suggestions in Montreal?
Am going up to Montreal in a couple of weeks--would love a bunch of restaurant recommendations. It's been a few years since I've been & there's such a buzz about the place now! Funky cheap international food and traditional good French food recs too (not too expensive). Don't like ze poutine..Thanks very much!
Celeb Chefs in Spicy Food Fight
Love a good celebrity feud here at the Blabber (hello you crazy The Hills stars), but I've never been so into a celebrity foodie feud. Anyone here watch Top Chef? Okay... you can put your hands down. I know a ton of people watch it. Well, TC guest judges Rocco DiSpirito and Anthony Bourdain have been serving up some snarky comments to one another in their guest blogs over at BravoTV.com.
First, Anthony took a pot shot at Rocco, suggesting he had plastic surgery and comparing him to -- eek! -- creepy David Gest, then also snarked about his overcooked reality series. (Remember The Restaurant -- and Rocco's Mama's famous meatballs?). Rocco fired back, denying surgery, apologized for his reality TV divaness, etc.
The latest comes from Anthony, who posted his new blog Wednesday after the show and used phrases and words like "torrent of abuse," "jealous of Rocco," "bitch-goddess fame" and "snarkologists."
It's like: Step aside, Heidi and Lauren -- the big boys know how to really feud. And it's so tasty... they make you want to stick around for dessert.
Discovery Channel team disbanding after '07 season
Los Angeles Times | Discovery Channel cycling team to disband
Coming off a dominant Tour de France performance, the Discovery Channel pro cycling team will announce it has been unable to find a new title sponsor and is disbanding.
The announcement comes in the wake of a press conference today where Tour winner Alberto Contador reiterated that he's never used doping products and was not involved in the Operación Puerto ring.
The Discovery Channel team was the only US-based ProTour team, and grew out of the Subaru-Montgomery Sports team created by Thom Weisel in 1989. The announcement will free Contador, George Hincapie, Levi Leipheimer, and the team's other riders to seek alternate teams next season. The team will still compete in the Vuelta a España and the Tour of Missouri as planned.
Jonathan Vaughters' Team Slipstream is racing more and more on the European circuit, and has signed a number of ProTour riders, including David Millar, Dave Zabriskie, Magnus Backstedt, Julian Dean, and Christian Vande Velde. Vaughters has said he hopes to win a ProTour license for 2009.
T-Mobile announced yesterday that they will continue sponsorship of the team at least through 2010, when its contract expires, despite continuing doping scandals, including T-Mobile's Patrik Sinkewitz, who tested too high for testosterone in June.
Also:
ThePaceline.com (free reg. req.) | Tailwind Ends Team Sponsor Search
Soon, we will be invincible…
“I remember those nights, planning technologies that didn’t exist yet, outsider science, futurist dreaming, half-magical. The things I could do outside the unversity setting, now that I didn’t have to wait for the pompous fools at the college! I was building another science, my science, wild science, robots and lasers and disembodied brains. A science that buzzed and glowed; it wanted to do things. It could get up and walk, fly, fight, sprout garish glowing creations in the remotest parts of the world, domes and towers and architectural fever dreams. And it was angry. It was mad science.”
The words of Doctor Impossible, from Austin Grossman’s excellent “Soon, I will be invincible”
Warren Ellis, on his creation of another mad scientist: Doktor Sleepless:
“I was ready to do another big piece of political sf, and I knew what I wanted to talk about. I wanted to talk about the subsumation of authenticity into fiction. I wanted to talk about liars, on a grand scale. I wanted to talk about the end of the world, in the major and the minor. And I wanted to talk about where I think we are today, and where we could end up in ten or fifteen years. The motor of innovation and novelty is really kind of cranked up right now, but, in contrast, the general culture is still in a sort of post-millennial shock, just laying there and drooling over its nipples.”
The just-announced Call-For-Papers for Etech 2008:
At the 2008 version of ETech, the O’Reilly Emerging Technology Conference, we’ll take a wide-eyed look at the tech that’s just arriving and cast a cynical one at some that have been emerging for too long. From robotics, health care, and space travel to gaming, finance, and art, we’ll explore promising technologies that are just that–still promises–and renew our sense of wonder at the way technology is influencing and altering our everyday lives.
A theme (ahem) emerging?
Ellis’ Tony Stark took a pop at Etech (and I joined in, embolded by the lead taken by a fictional alcoholic billionaire superhero) and the somewhat introverted web-centricity of it in his run on Iron Man a few years back.
Perhaps with Shellhead poised for mainstream glory, it’s time for science heroes again?
Perhaps, at last, some genuine outbreaks of the future…
August 9, 2007
Thoughts on Facebook's new Data Store API
they may be the new AOL, but their tech is undeniably cool
The Sun is rising and setting on Apperceptive clients on three continents, so I'm sleeping less. With that in mind, I offer you the North Pole wikipedia page.
The New Will Smith Flick
If Will Smith, Don Cheadle and Denzel Washington were not big stars, black actresses would not get work. Playing the wife of any of these men seems to be the key to having any career in Hollywood. It is sort of depressing but true. Salli Richardson is Smith's wife in this flick. She was bigish in the 90s and is having a comeback.
SFist: When The Lights Go Down In The City
I'm giving away two copies of John Vanderslice's new album Emerald City, plus show reviews for St. Vincent and Rufus Wainwright and recommended shows this week in San Francisco.
Bob Keefe Is the ‘Why Don’t You Booger Up Your Computers With Intel Stickers?’ Guy
I hereby nominate Dan Moren for a Pulitzer prize. You must listen to the audio — Jobs really handled the question with aplomb, after taking a few seconds to get his bearings.
Multi-touch patent continuation furthers multi-touch MacBook rumors
A recent continuation of a patent for a "wide touchpad" suggests that Apple is actively considering and patenting multi-touch interfaces, perhaps for the MacBook or MacBook Pro.
Openings: Mitchel London Pizza
Their new Hell’s Kitchen shop is located right next to Burgers and Cupcakes and serves a selection of ten hot and bubbly wood-burning oven pies. The Provençal gets topped with fresh mozzarella, gruyere cheese, tomato sauce, black olives and herbs de provence ($7.95/$13.95), while the Romana will score you hot sausage and roasted peppers on a gooey fresh mozzarella and tomato base ($9.95/$16.95).
London has been making pizza at the Fairway Cafe for a while now, so we'd imagine that his pies at Mitchel London Pizza won't be much different from those.
And, if you want to get an idea of what kinda pizza the Provençal pie will be like, here's a video from Serious Eats in which London and wine-shop owner Joshua Wesson pair wine with pizza—at Fairway Cafe:
Mitchel London Pizza
Address: 456 Ninth Avenue, New York NY 10018 (b/n 35th and 36th streets; map)
Phone: 212-563-7741
Tesla coil
From http://xkcd.com/
(http://xkcd.com/298/)Sigsy kindly pointed out this strip. Thank you!
Sanitation
It’s amazing how issues float to the top of multiple minds independently. I’ve been spending a lot of time thinking about how to sanitize to-be-published data. Then Rob Sayre wrote Interoperability and XSS Mitigation; XSS stands for “cross-site scripting”, the main threat that you sanitize to avoid. Sam Ruby noticed got active: Interoperability and XSS Mitigation announced the Sanitization rules wiki-space. Microsoft’s Joe Cheng is worrying, too.
mod_atom
As of now, mod_atom is, as a pure Atom Store, approaching 1.0 status. It’s interoperated with every credible client that’s tried. (Further evidence, were any needed, that the Atom protocol is Really Simple). Except for, it’s not finished, for one small and one large reason. The small reason is that it doesn’t yet generate HTML (but that’s not hard). The big reason is that it’s not safe; I can send it HTML loaded with horrible XSS exploits and it’ll stuff them into Web-space, ready to wreak havoc on the world.
Feedparser’s Whitelist Approach
What the Sanitization Wiki Page doesn’t spell out is that this logic, derived originally from Feedparser, is whitelist based. For HTML, it goes through the data, examines each element and attribute, and lets it survive if it appears on the “Approved Elements/Attributes” list.
The same approach is used with MathML and SVG markup; CSS is sanitized by removing the
url()pattern and anything that looks like it might be hiding something bad.I haven’t seen any pushback against the basic approach, which makes me happy because it seems very sound to me.
At Microsoft
Check out Joe Cheng’s AtomPub interop event notes. He writes “I’m thinking about implementing a web app that takes any AtomPub endpoint and makes a blog out of it, although I would love it if someone beat me to it.” So he’ll be looking at the same problems.
During the interop we were talking about sanitizing the payload, and I described the whitelist approach. Joe pointed out that that simply removing
style, both element and attribute, wouldn’t work for his users, because authoring tools use this to produce nice visuals that there’s no other obvious way to get.So I guess that you could look inside
styleelements and attributes and do your CSS-cleanup there in situ. Hmm.Where to Sanitize?
mod_atom actually has some cleanup code right now. If you post an Atom entry with text marked
type="xhtml", it applies a whitelist algorithm much as specified above. Which is easy, because the Apache server includes an XML parser that builds a DOM for you, and it’s straightforward to run around it checking against the whitelist. The still-unsolved problem istype="html", because that requires parsing the HTML. Blecch.Right now, the mod_atom cleanup happens as the data comes in, so the version in the Atompub Collection feeds is sanitized. I’m beginning to think that’s wrong, that the Atom Store part of mod_atom should preserve the data as-is, as much as possible; presumably, those feeds and entries will be access-controlled, not world-readable. Then there should be a separate set of feeds offered to the world for subscription purposes. They, and the HTML pages, exist only in the sanitized state.
But at this stage we’re just making this up as we go along. It’s really nice, though, that everyone seems to have realized that the problem is real and important; and if we can develop a set of Best Common Practices, that’d be good for everyone.
Avatar Rights
Wow, our own democracies could learn from this, as found by Raph:
Erik Bethke’s LiveJournal has a recent post stating that he’s offering a $5000 bounty to those who can help him draft the legal form of an avatar rights document for GoPets. Among the clauses he intends the service to sign up to:
- Due process (including player-run tribunals)
- Habeas corpus
- Free expression
- Free assembly
- Property rights
- Non-discrimination
- Account transfer rights
- Right to keep some amount of the value generated by service errors (e.g., if there’s a bug and the player benefits, they keep some of the benefit)
- Compensation to players for service outages exceeding the maximum standard downtime
- Advance notice in the event of policy changes
Cory will like this a lot.
Chris Heathcote: anti-mega: Apple is not native to the web
"When will the first interaction design CEO take the reins?" he already has, sucka, you're lookin' at him
bookmark this on del.icio.us - posted by stamen to chrisheathcoate apple design migurski - more about this bookmark...
Bourne in the NYC
This week The Observer plays the role of that guy at the movie theater by pointing out inaccuracies in a film. This time it's a New York location that's off in the new Bourne movie - which was filming here back in February of this year. (Skip the blockquote if you don't want to know any details about the movie.)
However, nothing is as it seems in the third installment of the Bourne saga, and the date, 4/15/71, proves to be code for a crucial rendezvous point: 415 East 71st Street... In an attempt to satiate a slightly unhealthy obsession with the new action flick, we did a little research and discovered that, alas, 415 East 71st Street is not the headquarters for Treadstone, the outfit that trained Bourne to be the ultimate spy/assassin. It is an apartment building over on First Avenue. The building used for the scene was actually the Family Court building down at 60 Lafayette.Apparently their first choice for this location was NYU Hospital, but you know - the patients couldn't exactly take time off from being sick. This surely isn't the only time there's been an inaccuracy like this in a movie, so what have you noticed at the theater? We'd have to say the worst so far is when Sam Raimi put Chicago's El train in the middle of Manhattan in Spider-Man 2! Photo of 60 Lafayette with the number 415 on it during reshoots of The Bourne Ultimatum in May via Merodii's Flickr.
Park Slope Porsche's Very Special Parking Placard
A no parking sign? A fire hydrant? Mere street dressing when it comes to drivers with a DOT-issued Department of City Planning placard. Streetsblog observes that a yellow Porsche convertible parked on Seventh Avenue belongs to City Planning Commissioner Dolly Williams. Hello, Dolly indeed. Streetsblog notes that Williams, Brooklyn's sole representative on the planning commission, "has been barred from participating in Kings County's most important recent land use processes." For instance, she can't attend Atlantic Yards project meeting because she has a $1 million investment in Bruce Ratner's Nets. And forget Gowanus Canal rezoning meeting, since she "owns land within the area that was to be rezoned." Question: Will the city consider taking a cue from Thailand and make public officials who do shameful things wear Hello Kitty armbands? And the Parks Department has canceled 90 parking placards for Central Park's East Drive in an effort to reduce the overall number of vehicles in the park.
DIY Bo Ssam
Recipe for David Chang's Bo Ssam Not exactly the same dish as the one on the Momofuku Ssam Bar menu but still intriguing.
Best place for quick, cheap dinner in Upper West Side?
We're going to a show at the Beacon Theater (74th/Bway) and this is one of the rare 'hoods NY we don't know as well for eats. I know there's a Ray's nearby, but beyond that, looking for suggestions. Thanks.
Shake Shack II to Open at Shea
The greatest hamburger mystery of our time has been solved: We have it from a high-level source near the situation that the location of the long-awaited sequel to Shake Shack is Citi Field, better known as the new Shea Stadium.
[Tip o' the hat to Feisty Foodie for the link.]
Perfect rain shoes for NYC!
* Thanks for designing these, Sally Rumble!! LOLOLOL.
'Top Chef': All Dressed Up
Guess what, this week's Quickfire Challenge was sponsored! You really have to hand it to the Top Chef ad-sales crew. One can only imagine the high fives at the Bravo business offices as they force "synergies" on the production team week after week. Maybe next year they can spin that process off into its own reality show—Top Ad Sales Executive. I relish the thought of hearing those magical words: "Please turn off your Bluetooth headset and go..."
Ah, but I'm beating a dead horse on this one. Speaking of which, most people wouldn't want dead horse mixed into their Cold Stone Creamery ice cream. Or cauliflower espuma. Or Sriracha sauce. But, hey, that didn't stop some of the chefs from trying. The Quickfire Challenge was to prepare toppings to be folded into mall-goers' favorite high-calorie dessert. Tre, Howie, and Dale got high marks for preparing high-end fruit-based condiments for their dishes. Hung and Casey got hung out to dry for using the aforementioned cauliflower and Sriracha. In fact, Hung emptied the proverbial pantry on this challenge. That dude seriously needs to take it down a notch. He has gone from first episode front-runner to permanent disappointment. If he doesn't make some adjustments soon, methinks he will be heading back to Guy Savoy tout de suite. [Warning: Spoilers after the jump.]
On the other side of the kitchen, Dale's solid performances have given him some nice momentum. He won the Quickfire with his peach cobbler topping and was given immunity from elimination.
In fact, not only was Dale given immunity, he was given the night off and a dinner date with guest judge Govind Armstrong. That left eight competitors to duke it out in yet another team challenge. Two teams of four were told that they'd be using mobile kitchens to cook late-night snack food for hungry Miami clubgoers. Of course, they were told this after being led to believe that they themselves were going out to the club for a night of dancing and debauchery. Oops. And of course that meant that all our attractive chefs were dressed to the nines for their shopping, chopping, and hash-slinging stints at the griddle. You gotta hand it to the Top Chef producers on this one. Each of them can officially put "Evil Genius" on their business card.
So, while Dale and Govind canoodled at the guest judge's Table 8 restaurant, the two teams slaved away producing ceviche tacos, sliders, Cuban sandwiches, quesadillas, onion rings, bacon-wrapped shrimp, cheese grits, and other assorted greasy treats.
The first group, made up of Brian, Hung, Cheesemaker Sara, and Tre, worked as a confident, energetic, thoughtful team. Let's nickname them "The Winners." The other bunch, made up of CJ, Casey, Pouty Sara, and Howie, worked like a bickering, chaotic, dysfunctional family. Let's call them "The Losers," which is exactly the position they were destined for from the very start of this challenge. It was actually interesting to be so completely certain of which team was going to be sending someone home. It certainly upped the drama you felt while watching this crew implode over the course of the evening.
Each team member on the losing side seemed to play his or her role to perfection. CJ attempted to rise above the obvious problems they faced and bring everyone together. He failed miserably, but at least he knew what needed to be done. Casey made sure her quesadillas went well enough to keep her in the competition. Then she kept her head down. Howie acted like the self-absorbed egotist we've come to know and, um, love. And Pouty Sara acted as the brunt of Howie's abuse, seething and preparing her hamburgers and milkshakes as... slowly... as... humanly... possible.
The real victor of this episode was Tom Colicchio, whose criticism of each of these losing competitors at the judges' table was spot on.
In the end, Pouty Sara's lack of assertiveness and her inability to take a shitty situation and make something out of it doomed her to elimination. On the upside, she went out with some choice words for Howie, who has clearly cemented his position as this season's Marcel. I have to admit that Sara lasted a lot longer in this competition than I imagined her youth would carry her. During the premiere episode, she was my prediction for first to go home. A prediction that she managed to defy week after week.
On the winner's side, Tre took top honors for making a great dish of bacon-wrapped shrimp and cheese grits that satisfied both drunken Miami clubbers and the judges. He also transitioned seamlessly from limo to roach-coach by simply taking off his shirt and flashing his "guns" to the lucky patrons lined up for grub. You stay classy, Tre!
Finally, if you ignored my advice about checking out the Top Chef blogs, you are missing a delightful dust-up between guest blogger Rocco DiSpirito and now permanent commentator Anthony Bourdain.
