Bar/Mixology Trends per NY Times

The NY Times last Wednesday had a great review of the current mixology/bartending trends. Check out the Internet Cocktail Database for the most comprehensive the most complete resource for all manner of mixed drinks, past and present. Dallas may not be San Fran or NYC, but we have a strong cocktail culture developing all over town–The Porch, Victor Tango’s, Bolsa.

"Today drinkers don’t need to search far to find bartenders who not only squeeze their own citrus, but make their own bitters, have an encyclopedic knowledge of drinks and stock spirits imported, on the sly, in a suitcase.But as the number of ambitious bars has proliferated, so have their ways of doing things. Interviews with dozens of bartenders around the country suggest that the cocktail movement is becoming so diverse and sophisticated that it encompasses several distinct approaches and philosophies."

• PRE-REPEAL REVIVALISTS
• FARM-TO-GLASS MOVEMENT
• LIQUID LOCAVORES
  
• HOME BREWERS
  
• MINIMALISTS
  
• MOLECULAR MIXOLOGISTS
  
• FAUX TROPICALISTS
  

U.S. News Lists DISD and HP Schools in the top 100...

The results are in and Highland Park High School placed a sorry #83. Of note, DISD's Science and Engineering came in at #18 and TAG at #28. The full list is here. 

Biorb Life Aquarium

Reef One, the UK-based manufacturer of the biOrb and biUbe aquariums, has launched its new biOrb Life aquarium range at Interzoo 2008 in Germany. Paul Stevenson, owner of Reef One, told Practical Fishkeeping: “It comes in three sizes. We have a 30 litre, a 45 litre and a 60 litre. It uses the identical filtration system everybody is used to in the biOrb. It has an LED lighting system, so we have sunrise, sunlight, sunset, moonlight system of lighting.” The biOrb Life aquariums are made from 6mm acrylic and have a clear, flat front and rear panel glued to a coloured gloss acrylic wrap. The tanks sit upon an 8mm clear acrylic base.  Like the biOrb, access to the inside of the new aquariums is via a circular port in the top, into which the recessed lighting unit sits. The 30 litre model is square in shape, while the larger 45 and 60 litre models are portrait shaped. Retail prices are £200 to about £275 depending on the size that you go for. There are three colors; we have red, black and white, and those colors are available in all three sizes.

Video of the Biorb

 

One of the best desserts of all time....

It is the gooey cinnamon roll from Cici's Pizza.

I guess I am a fool: Apple Argues Only a Fool Would Believe their Ads

Apple isn't lying in television ads that tout the iPhone 3G as twice as fast as its predecessor, but customers would have to be fools to take those claims at face value, the company argues. That's essentially Apple's legal response to a lawsuit filed by San Diego resident William Gillis back in September alleging that Apple and AT&T knowingly oversold the new iPhone alongside misleading ads that promised it would perform twice as fast as the original model. Apple's 9-page reply begins early off by maintaining that any statements it made "were truthful and accurate and were not misleading or deceptive." But it was a bullet point response a few pages later the caught the eye of Wired, as it suggests that only a fool would believe what the company says in its ads. "Plaintiff's claims, and those of the purported class, are barred by the fact that the alleged deceptive statements were such that no reasonable person in Plaintiff's position could have reasonably relied on or misunderstood Apple's statements as claims of fact," Apple's attorneys wrote. More here. 

Apple finally taking orders for new in-ear headphones

Apple this week began accepting orders for a pair of new headphone options designed for iPods, nearly three months after the accessories were first announced at a September media event. More here. 

Modano & Primos Operator Join Forces To Open Italian Restaurant in the Quadrangle

A new Uptown sports-themed restaurant hopes to find success with a little Stars power. Hully & Mo Restaurant & Tap Room will be opening in mid-December. Former Primo’s operator Eddie Cervantes developed the idea with Dallas Stars center Mike Modano, Stars co-general manager Brett Hull, and Tim Headington, Dallas billionaire and owner of Hotel Joule. The 7,000-square-foot space is under renovation in the Quadrangle at 2800 Routh St., the former home of upscale Riccardi’s Italian restaurant, which closed in July. “This development, it’s gone up and down,” Cervantes said, standing in front of a large bar, under exposed ceiling in what will become the main dining area. “I think something more of a neighborhood place would work fabulous here.” More here. 

RibCap Beanie replaces Helmets for Skiing

For people who *should* be wearing helmets but, for one reason or another, don't, the Ribcap is a nice alternative to just a typical hat. In conjunction with d3o labs, the ribcap has the new material d3o, which hardens on impact. When the surface is hit, the molecules lock together to absorb the impact, creating a hard surface that lasts 10 milliseconds. Once the impact is over, the material returns to its original soft state. Although not as protective as a hard helmet, it offers considerable protection for a seemingly soft piece of cloth. The sound you hear is mothers everywhere sighing of relief. www.d3o.com

Jason Terry Donates Mink Coat during Clothing Drive

Mavericks guard Jason Terry practices what he preaches. At a coat giveaway at Dallas' downtown homeless shelter, he donated two of his own coats to the less fortunate, including a favorite mink jacket. "I was going through my close this morning and was about to put it on myself and I said, 'Nah, someone else could use it,'" Terry told FOX 4. The lucky recipient was Terry Simmons, who has been volunteering without pay at the shelter for the last several weeks. "My mouth fell, my forehead started sweating," Simmons laughed. "For the last three weeks I haven't made money so I guess God just seen fit to give me a coat." Terry has headed up the month-long coat drive at Mavericks games and Dave and Busters locations. Simmons said he always thought the NBA star was a good guy. "Now I see he has a big heart. He's down to earth. I have a lot of respect for the man."

Digital Photo Frames

ViewSonic DPG807BK

ViewSonic's half-heartedly announced a pair of 8-inch digital photo frames for your all of your half-hearted holiday shopping needs. The DPG801BK and the DPG807BK are basically the same product, with 800 x 600 resolution displays, a 500:1 contrast ratio, and 512MB of internal memory. If that's not enough memory for your um... memories, you can of course load in a memory card or USB drive (there's no wireless integration in either frame). The DPG807BK also has a remote control, which is going to be handy when you want to quickly cycle past photos of your "lovely family" from across the room. They're both available and the DPG801BK will go for $119 while the DPG807BK is $159 -- a small price to pay for the gift that says "I got this for you last night and you're lucky I even thought of it at all."

iGala Wireless Digital Picture Frame from Aequitas

We know, you started yawning at the sight of the headline, your ears will pop with relief by the middle of this paragraph, and you'll finish up somewhere around the Read link. We get it. But there's something kinda special about the brand new iGala Wireless Digital Picture Frame from Aequitas, we'll call it "common sense." The photo frame sports an 8-inch, 800 x 600 touchscreen, 1GB of internal storage, WiFi and the traditional complement of card readers. What's new here is that iGala really puts that WiFi connection to use, featuring Gmail integration (for sending photos), an alarm clock and integration with Microsoft's FrameIt service for news, traffic and weather info. The frame also hooks up to Flickr directly, which is such a no-brainer these days that we're surprised we see still so many "connected" frames lacking the feature. A full touchscreen makes all of this stuff actually possible to use, and the $239 pricetag doesn't mean you have to get soaked for the convenience. iGala is available now from Aequitas' entirely sketchy online store -- we guess you can't win 'em all.

Giant International IT7150

Not that we'd expect any reputable digital photo frame manufacturer to consort with a real, live hand model, but we've gotta hand it to Giant International for discovering this particularly unnatural, eerily glowing appendage to point vaguely at its new Intouch IT7150. Lucky for us, the device in question is not at all cheap and uninviting, featuring a 7-inch 800 x 480 LCD touchscreen, 802.11b/g WiFi, USB to PC connection cable and the standard complement of memory card slots. What makes this particularly fun is vTuner support, which allows for play back of 11,000 radio and TV stations (primarily public access and other undesirables on the TV side), in addition to the increasingly standard FrameChannel service for photo sharing and RSS subscriptions. There's also a built-in rechargeable battery for about 1.5 hours of portable use. At $349, you're certainly paying a pretty penny for all these good times, but if vTuner isn't your bag, you can drop that support and pick up the frame for $299.

Sanyo Albo

Up until now, we'd have to say that Sony's WiFi-enabled VAIO CP1 is the most attractive digital photo frame we've ever had the pleasure of laying eyes on. And quite honestly, it's still probably the sexiest in terms of, well, sheer sexy. But Sanyo's latest rival is cute in its own way, as the HNV-M70 ALBO packs a retro motif that anyone fond of The Jetsons will adore. Specs wise, we're looking at an overly glossy 7-inch LCD (800 x 480 resolution), 256MB of internal memory, 802.11b/g WiFi, WinCE 5.0 behind the scenes, an IR sensor, RSS / e-mail reader, automatic screen rotation, a multicard reader and a multimedia player for good measure. Users can also load up pictures stored on Picasa or add in captions and e-mail to grandparents for maximum enjoyment. Sanyo's set to start selling these in Japan (in black or green) next month for ¥40,000 ($423), but you can take an early look thanks to a bevy of hands-on shots linked below.