Trader Joe's Joins Union Square Area Food Nexus

Come to meee Two Buck Chuck...

Trader Joe's Joins Union Square Area Food Nexus: "

So, Trader Joe's will make its NYC debut with a location on East 14th Street. The NY Times reported that a spokeswoman the store would open around three month, 'confirming a year's worth of reports that the national chain would join a growing list of food stores along 14th Street.' Which made Gothamist wonder about the food stores along 14th Street. The article noted Whole Foods, Garden of Eden, Balducci's and the Greenmarket, but didn't add Food Emporium, which we wouldn't really consider a food store. Is 14th Street now the center of where you can get all sorts of semi-upscale food? Or do other locations give it a run for the money, like the Upper West Side's Broadway Belles (Fairway, Citarella, Zabar's)? Or will developing areas, like Red Hook take over?

The great news is that Trader Joe's will also open a separate wine store. Let's hope for another grape surplus year! We created a Wayfaring Map of 14th Street Groceries - we did include departed Western Beef, plus the Citarella a bit south of 14th, and did not include the Food Emporium just because.

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(Via Gothamist.)

Russian Zookeeping

Moscow is encountering near record cold.

MOSCOW (AP) -- Arctic temperatures blanketed Russia for a fourth day on Thursday, sending electricity use surging and pushing the death toll from the cold wave to at least 31 people as even hardy Russians struggled to cope with the big freeze.

Temperatures in Moscow plunged overnight to as low as minus 24, said Tatyana Pozdnyakova, a Moscow weather forecasting service official. The temperature was the lowest recorded on Jan. 19 since 1927, she said.

Seven people died of exposure in the Russian capital in the previous 24 hours, city emergency officials said, pushing the nationwide death toll from the Siberian cold wave that swept into Moscow late Monday to at least 31.

At a zoo in Lipetsk, south of Moscow, director Alexander Osipov said monkeys would be given wine three times day, ''to protect against colds,'' the RIA-Novosti news agency reported.

Electricity use surged to record levels and towns and cities struggled to keep indoor temperatures up. Children stayed home from school and drivers struggled to start cars.

But thousands of religious believers along with winter swimmers plunged into icy waters nationwide for an annual ritual marking the Russian Orthodox Christian holiday of Epiphany. Many dipped into holes cut into thick ice on rivers and ponds in the ritual that commemorates the baptism of Jesus Christ in the River Jordan.

Taking a dip at 24 below zero ''is the most intense feeling,'' one man in the Ural Mountains city of Yekaterinburg told Channel One television.

In northeast Moscow, Vladimir Grebyonkin, an avid 65-year-old winter swimmer and scientist, said the frigid temperatures gave the water special qualities.

''These waters have their own properties, their own benefits,'' he says. ''I'm not a believer (in God), but I'm believer in physics.''

Vendors at Moscow's outdoor food and clothing markets shut their booths, and exposed ATMs reportedly froze. Traffic was uncharacteristically light as drivers were reluctant to venture out or unable to start their cars.

Outside one apartment building, residents hefted car batteries back into their vehicles after taking them inside overnight to keep them warm. Others tried to jump-start their cars.

Heat was disrupted in at least two towns in the Moscow region by water main breaks, leaving dozens of homes and thousands of people shivering. A similar accident left thousands without heat in Siberia's Chita region, some 3,000 miles east of Moscow. Russian buildings frequently are heated by municipal hot water systems.

Electricity use reached a 15-year high earlier this week, power monopoly RAO Unified Energy Systems said Wednesday. The company also said Russia might reduce electricity supplies to Finland in order to ensure deliveries to St. Petersburg and the surrounding region.

Russia's state-controlled natural gas monopoly OAO Gazprom tried to maintain exports -- a sensitive issue for Europe following a New Year's interruption in supplies stemming from a dispute between Russia and Ukraine.

Slightly warmer temperatures were expected Friday, with a forecast weekend high in Moscow of about minus 4.

TECHNOLOGY: Okay, This Mac Thing has Gone Too Far

The question I want to ask is this: Are purchases of Apple Products now Tax-exempt?

TECHNOLOGY: Okay, This Mac Thing has Gone Too Far: "All right, Mac lovers. I understand. You love your precious, shiny, beautiful Apple products that work better than anything else out there (according to you). You adore Apple and everything they do. Seriously, though, this shit has got to stop. You're starting to look completely fucking insane.



When you're making 'pilgrimages' to Cupertino, home of Apple headquarters, and calling it a 'hajj to Macca,' 'touching the Mothership' and genuflecting in front of the company headquarters sign, it's time for an intervention.

'Muslims go to Mecca, we go to Macca,' said Shawn King, host of the Your Mac Life internet radio show. 'It's that touchstone thing. People want to go down and touch the mothership.'



As soon as they arrive at the campus at One Infinite Loop, everyone poses for pictures by the sign at the entrance. The grass around the sign is worn away from the hundreds of geeks who've dropped to their knees to genuflect in front of it.



'It's like a temple,' said [New York computer consultant Laurie] Duncan. 'Catholics go to the Vatican, we go there. It's an icon of our faith. It's the culture. It's the cult. It's part of who we are, and that's the church…. It's fun. There's a bit of a thrill. It's silly when you look at it.'



Duncan said it would be nice if the company had a small museum or offered a tour.



'You go to the Vatican, you get a tour,' she said. 'You don't just go to the gift shop. Steve Jobs should offer to bless your PowerBook. He could sprinkle water on your keyboard, and then you’d have to buy a new one.'

File this one under 'what the fuck?!?' You Mac people are starting to scare me.

(Written by: Shalome)

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(Via SuicideGirls: News Wire.)

schnauz n boots

Paco is on the left, and Molly is on the right.

schnauz n boots: "

lustforliberty posted a photo:

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(Purportedly Via lustforliberty's Photos.)