Link roundup

1. Chipotle says paying an ad company was a waste of money. (Their product is actually good, and thus they don't need to spend a lot of money on advertising.) Via.

2. It appears that the outline of Bill Gates's mugshot photo is the default photo in Outlook 2010. Via.

3. Jessica Alba's nude scene in Machete was computer generated.

4. Interactive map shows crime in Los Angeles. Via.

*Buy Sin City toys at Amazon.

Link roundup

1. Beyonce dancing at a block party on her in-laws' street.

2. Jersey Shore is apparently called The New Jersey Life of Macaroni Rascals in Japan.

3. Michael Caine offers his interpretation of the end of Inception. Via.

4. Hide your delicious lunch from office thieves by placing it in Lean Cuisine frozen meal boxes. Via.

*Buy Inception spinning tops at eBay.

Link roundup

1. NY Jets receiver Braylon Edwards was just arrested for a DUI, with two other Jets in his car. It's ironic because the Jets organization makes available to its players a free car service staffed by off-duty police officers.

2. Crisp Chipotle Shrimp with Corn and Scallions recipe.

3. How to Convert an iPod Hard Drive to Compact Flash. Via.

*Buy iPods at Amazon.

Link roundup

1. Gerard Way talks about the Umbrella Academy:

Describing how he thought of the character [the White Violin], Way said: “I was in a café in New York, and they had a white violin decoration on the wall, and for some reason I had never seen a white violin in my life. I also thought it would be a cool character for a comic book!”

Via.

2. Yahoo gained more share of the search market than Bing during the last month.

3. "Candy maker Mars Inc., computer company IBM Corp. and the U.S. Department of Agriculture have mapped the cacao genome in an effort to improve cocoa crop quality and sustain the world's supply of the key ingredient for chocolate." The results are going to be publicly available at www.cacaogenomedb.org. Via.

*Buy The Umbrella Academy at Amazon.

Link roundup

1. The NY Times editorial board opines that it's a good move to rename High Fructose Corn Syrup as Corn Sugar.

2. You can watch the season premier of Survivor Nicaragua online (yes, former NFL coach Jimmy Johnson is really part of the cast).

3. "The mystery Togo team that played Bahrain in an international soccer exhibition was made up of 'unidentified players and their shadowy handlers' and belonged to a 'mafia group' the country's sports minister told The Associated Press on Wednesday."

Photo set showing a meal at Thomas Keller's The French Laundry

Review of the current menus at Thomas Keller's The French Laundry, and photo set showing off the beautiful food. (His restaurant Bouchon is far and away my favorite in Los Angeles.) Via.

*Buy Keller's Ad Hoc at Home at Amazon.

Pumpkin and Apple

Pumpkin and Apple by Kristin Tercek, who has lots of prints on sale for $15 here.

Self Indulgence

"Self Indulgence" by Nouar, who has lots of prints on sale at Etsy.

Link roundup

1. Redskins cornerback DeAngelo Hall insisted a (tall) female reporter take off her heels before interviewing him.

2. "How to Delete Yourself from the Internet." Via.

3. "Millions of songbirds are illegally killed each year for a pickled or poached bird dish known as ambelopoulia."

*Buy shoe lifts at Amazon.

Kickapoo Joy Juice

Kickapoo Joy Juice on sale at Amazon.

Link roundup

1. An argument for why "even strict vegans should feel comfortable eating oysters by the boatload." Via Peter Feld who adds: I remember a cookbook in the ’80s whose preface praised [squid] as a protein source and said "some vegetarians prefer to think of squid as unusually mobile vegetables."

2. Gregg Easterbrook:

Last season, the Patriots had no offensive coordinator, with Belichick covering that post; this season, they also will have no defensive coordinator. It's Belichick, Belichick and more Belichick -- no coordinators. Is this an ego-trip thing -- he wants to prove he can do something no major football coach has even attempted since, say, Leo Meyer? TMQ has been complaining for years that NFL clubs are overstaffed at coach, since it's hard to believe a head coach needs 19 more coaches, which is how many Mike Shanahan has at Washington, including a safeties coach, a tight ends coach and an assistant coach for the special-teams coach. Belichick is veering to the other extreme.

3. A new store owner talks about the costs of running a hobby shop.

*Buy NFL bobbleheads at eBay.

Pin-up girl chocolate

Packaging for Mindy's Hot Chocolate by Kyle Tezak. Via.

*Buy pin-up calendars at Amazon.

Pie Lab

PieLab - - an experimental pie cart in Portland. Via.

*Buy Sell Your Specialty Food: Market, Distribute, and Profit from Your Kitchen Creation at Amazon.

Alice in Wonderland-themed restaurant and more by The Asylum

A few projects by The Asylum:




Business cards and pop-up book-style website for the White Rabbit restaurant (surprisingly fun to navigate).









Chocolate Research Facility (in Singapore, alas).






Kaiju-themed mailer for Blackjack fashion.










The Salad Shop (in Singapore). Via these sites.

*Buy chocolate at Amazon.

Link roundup

1. Slideshow of astonishingly high-calorie desserts at chain restaurants. Via.

2. Meet Larry Garrison, the guy news programs pay to feed them a steady diet of people to appear on their tabloid shows. For example, a "78-year-old retired propane inspector from Manheim, Pennsylvania, who thinks that he and his wife might have found Natalee Holloway’s remains while snorkeling off the coast of Aruba." Via.

3. The bizarre story of Dan Quayle's son. Make sure you watch the campaign ad.

*Buy political memorabilia collections at Amazon.

Link roundup

1. Denny's has a new $4 sandwich called the Fried Cheese Melt, a sandwich made with "four fried mozzarella sticks and melted American cheese grilled between two slices of sourdough bread."

2. Inventory clearance sale at the BBTS.

3. You have to be a suspicious of an article about the history of Madden Football that doesn't mention that when they couldn't compete with 2K Sports on quality, they used a bundle of money to buy the NFL's exclusive license. But there's still some great history including this:

"Madden's" secret weapon? A man named Sandy Sandoval. Officially, Sandoval is the director of athlete relations for EA Sports; unofficially, he's the game's answer to World Wide Wes and Winston Wolf -- part fixer, part bon vivant, the guy who helped give the game its inimitable pro football cachet.

Need an in-game ratings boost, what Madden (the man) calls "more juice"? Call Sandoval, as quarterback Byron Leftwich once did. Jonesing for an advance copy of the game? Call Sandoval, as Carson Palmer, Chad Ochocinco and dozens of other players have done. Need to drop a few pounds, albeit digital ones? Consider it done. Last year, Philadelphia Eagles coach Andy Reid asked Sandoval to slim down his in-game avatar, a little quid pro quo for introducing Sandoval to former "Madden" cover athlete Brett Favre.

"I just saw Andy at the owners meetings," Sandoval said. "He comes up to me and is like, 'Sandy, thanks for hooking me up. I saw myself in the game. My wife loves it. She loves looking at me skinny!'"

Via.

*Buy NFL bobbleheads at eBay.

Posters by The Uprising

Posters for Lost Signal and Deep Danger, Lobsterfest, and LCD Soundsystem by The Uprising. You can watch trailers for the movies here, and buy posters here.

*Buy concert posters at Amazon.

Link roundup

1. Thomas Barnett on declining mosque attendance in Europe:

What this data reminds us of is the underlying reality that, when people immigrate from a more religious environment to a less religious environment, they're not doing it to export their religion but to take advantage of the economic opportunities they are certain they will find there. Given enough time and opportunity, secularization follows. But not all succeed in this quest, and those dissatisfied types are particularly susceptible to radicalization--in that classic, Marxist alienated sense.

Thus, a big flow of immigrants sees two trends emerge: 1) an overall slow secularization among the bulk; and 2) a scary radicalization among the vastly unsuccessful minority. On the second point, don't assume that economic failure is required to qualify, because anything that makes you unhappy in your new life can do it. Thus the classic case is the moderately successful, well-educated type who, for some combination of reasons, feels deeply alienated in his new world.

And yeah, a certain lack of success in one's personal life is frequent within this crowd, so maybe they got the education, and maybe they're struggling a bit in their career, but what really irks them is this sense that life has not panned out as hoped for in terms of success in marriage, family and so on. EVERYBODY is susceptible to this disillusionment in life, but discombobulated immigrants more so. And when a radicalized alternative pathway is dangled in front of one's face by recruiters, it can easily become the path of least resistance. Immigrants are particularly susceptible because they feel some guilt for leaving the homeland and the old ways.

2. 9 Ideas for Creative Jalapeno Popper Fillings.

3. Steve Thomas's video game propaganda images are now available as a calendar.

*Buy propaganda posters at Amazon.

Link roundup

1. Nighttime photos of Tokyo Disney Sea's submarine harbor.

2. A judge is allowing to proceed a lawsuit alleging that Coca-Cola has falsely claimed that Vitaminwater has healthy benefits and is anything more than sugar water.

3. Video of a fighter pilot ejecting from his plane moments before it crashed.

*Buy Tokyo Disney Sea collectibles at eBay.

Link roundup

1. Robin Hanson:

I’ve been sick, so watched tv more than usual. Watching Journey to the Center of the Earth, I noticed yet again how folks seem to like adventure stories and games to come with guides. People prefer main characters to follow a trail of clues via a map or book written by someone who has passed before, or at least to follow the advice of a wise old person.

2. London tube station located in the third story of an office building. Via these sites.

3. Bacon and Tomato Guacamole recipe.

*Buy The Rough Guide to Ultimate Adventures at Amazon.