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.

Last April, the USS Bainbridge was integral in rescuing Captain Philips of the Maersk Alabama. The hostage situation brought the growing issue of Somali piracy to the forefront of public attention. This month, Scott Carney has detailed the piracy enterprise in Wired, with an economic analysis and an intriguing Q&A with an ocean hijacker.

Armed men are expensive as are the laborers, accountants, cooks and khat suppliers on land. During long negotiations our men get tired and we need to rotate them out three times a week. Add to that the risk from navies attacking us and we can be convinced to lower our demands.

Wired even includes a strategy game — where your mission, if you choose to accept it, is to vicariously live out this difficult managerial occupation. Makes you think twice about hijacking a ship on open waters, eh?

(photo via wikimedia)

Good Magazine has put out an interesting chart on the best and worst seafood to consume, based on overfishing and health risks.

For the seafood I love (and I love seafood) –

• American crab, check
• Lobster, check
• Salmon (if Alaskan), check
• Oysters, check
• Sea Bass, darn
• Tuna, darn
• Shrimp, darn

A Canadian doctor posted all ten (public domain) Rorschach plates on Wikipedia, sparking a storm of criticism from angry psychologists. Said one, “The more test materials are promulgated widely, the more possibility there is to game it.” (via NYTimes)

Ever since Watchmen was released, I think of the movie every time I hear Rorschach. Am I the only one?

Here I am, à la Mad Men. I still need to finish off the first season!

This month, Wired has a great article chronicling Scott Adams, the creator of Dilbert, and his struggle with spasmodic dysphonia – a rare neurological condition that caused spasms in his hand and the loss of speech. What’s amazing to me? Through it all, he continued to publish Dilbert, giving a voice to millions of office workers far louder than one he could ever utter himself.

Janice:

i was typing in my google calendar
‘500 days of summer with jess at 10pm’
and it blocked off all 500 days from now till 2010
!!!