Tasting Table is smart. Really smart. After the buzz began about Le Fooding coming to New York, everyone tried figuring out how to get in.

The website only stated:

Registration is not open yet but links to get the secret access codes can be found on several AmericanFooding-friendly websites covering news, food, fashion and citywide events.

To get a shot at one of 100 secret access codes for Le Fooding, all one needed was to friend Tasting Table on Twitter or fan them on Facebook. Instantly, word began spreading, culminating in (what one would assume is) thousands of new friends on both social media networks. It wasn’t an opportunity to win free tickets; it was a chance to purchase them. But since Tasting Table was the first media outlet to give the opportunity, foodies in NY pinned on them their hopes of eating with David Chang and Wylie Dufresne.

Before Tasting Table ever got the codes out to their winners, the NY Times posted the secret on their Dining Out blog. Now anyone who signs up using the NY Times link can buy the tickets themselves — no raffle necessary. But now there’s more buzz around Le Fooding and Tasting Table has gained a wider audience in the NY foodie circles. Brilliant, eh?

Being the nerd that I am, I was excited today when introduced to Modx, an open-source PHP-based CMS to develop websites. Although Wordpress currently reigns supreme among CMS users (including myself) today, Modx seems like an ideal solution to launch a non-blog site. Anyone have experience using it? I think I’ll try install it on the Longitude’s server and give it a whirl.

This week’s Springwise newsletter led me to Wokai, a Kiva-like startup for China. The Kiva model won’t work in China because of government restrictions: credit cannot be loaned, only donated. Wokai collects donations and uses its field partners to distribute and collect the money. Once the loan is repaid, it is recycled and loaned to another borrower. It’s a really cool way of getting around restrictions for micro-credit — after all, those participating in microlending as donors aren’t really in it for the interest they’ll make.

I’ve put out a new survey for my clients. Take it for a chance to win one of 4 $25 Amazon.com gift certificates!

Go there now

When President Clinton flew into North Korea to release current.tv reporters Laura Ling and Euna Lee, it brought the communist country again back into the American news spotlight (not that the missiles haven’t attracted world-wide attention). Sara Wang joined a group of Chinese businessmen and crossed the border into North Korea for four days. Her account of the trip in Slate is a rare glimpse into this mesmerizing, yet saddening world.

The store was empty except for three 10-foot-tall heaps on the ground—one of cabbage, one of tomatoes, and one of turnips. There were no price tags and no customers. A middle-aged woman in a black uniform stood behind the counter, which held small piles of peanuts and pine seeds that looked as though they had been there for a long time.

In 1999, a 7.3 magnitude earthquake rocked Taiwan, devastating its central region. And a few years later, while teaching English in Tainan, I had the chance to visit the rebuilding in Taichung and see firsthand the earthquake’s destruction. During that time, I experienced several minor earthquakes and typhoons of my own, leaving me to wonder how my ancestors ever survived living on an island in the natural disaster-prone East Asian waters.

As I get older and news of disasters pile up, this is something I think about more.

Typhoon Morakat swept the island on Sunday, causing mudslides in Kaohsiung, crashing a helicopter, and killing 62 people. There are hundreds still missing. The typhoon then roared into China, displacing 1.4 million people in the southeast region.

The Boston Globe has documented this devastation in arresting collection of photos. I haven’t yet called my parents to ask about the status of my relatives in southern Taiwan, but I think that’s the next phone call I’m going to make.

Photojojo has a great new project to unbrand your camera strap by creating a custom fabric cover. I was planning to buy something new (like this clever seat belt strap Photojojo also sells), but making my own cover seems like an even better way to go. Time to break out the sewing machine!

Scientists estimate that humans have evolved for thousands of years. But according to New Scientist — along with our appendices, we have lingering characteristics that don’t make evolutionary sense… things that seem to make us inherently human.

1. Blushing
2. Laughter
3. Pubic Hair
4. Teenagers
5. Dreams
6. Altrusim
7. Art
8. Superstition
9. Kissing
10. Nose-picking

Because I’m working with a financial services client, I’ve been thinking a lot about the meaning of success. In America, successful accomplishments of personal goals are often tied to happiness and fulfillment. But as a recent study shows, this is not a universal concept.

Researchers found that while Americans link happiness to personal achievement, Japanese link happiness to social harmony. The same dichotomy occurs when talking about unhappiness — Americans cope through anger and aggression while Japanese cope through self-improvement.

It’s interesting to me that this one concept, happiness, is a result of two different stimuli in two different countries, and I wonder whether the expression of happiness differs as well. While working on oral care, I’d always hear that a smile is a universal symbol of happiness. Is that really true? Or does that also differ?

(via Mindhacks)

In a nutshell, Time Magazine tells us that working out to lose weight is a waste of time.

The basic problem is that while it’s true that exercise burns calories and that you must burn calories to lose weight, exercise has another effect: it can stimulate hunger. That causes us to eat more, which in turn can negate the weight-loss benefits we just accrued. Exercise, in other words, isn’t necessarily helping us lose weight. It may even be making it harder.

The LA Times fires back, citing a high correlation between those who exercise and those who lose weight. In other words, while some people will eat back their calories, there’s evidence that others don’t.

While losing weight is not the only reason to exercise, it’s the primary reason for millions of people who sign up for gym memberships each year. I’d be interested to see if this article impacts gyms around the country…