East Africa

In A Hijacking, the Pirate Life Is Tense

After Boston Bombing, Rightbloggers Turn on Immigration (Mexican or Whatever)

There's a bill working its way through Congress that would offer a "path to citizenship" to the sort of immigrants currently known in some circles as illegal. Though its application is general, it's obviously aimed at U.S. guests of the Mexican persuasion, and it only has a chance of passing because ... More >>

Feast of Appetizers: Gorge on This Year's Oscar-Nominated Short Films

Oscar-Nominated Short Films 2013

Stolen Seas: In Deep With Honest-to-God Pirates

Debo Band

LEGENDS AT WORK

Afrocubism play Celebrate Brooklyn!

The USA Champion Barista on Her Signature Beverage

The past weekend at the United States Barista Championship in Portland, Katie Carguilo of Counter Culture Coffee defeated 54 other contestants to become the first New Yorker ever to win the competition. This summer, she'll travel to Vienna to represent the United States in the World Barista Champion ... More >>

Make Koi's Edamame Dumplings, Like Chef Nick McCoy (Or Eat Them There and Help East Africa)

Edamame Dumplings at Koi​All three Koi locations -- in Los Angeles, New York, and Las Vegas -- are hosting a fundraising effort this month to help famine victims in East Africa. Through August 14, half the proceeds from the sale of two new menu items will go toward the U.N. World Food Programm ... More >>

Somalia Food Crisis Now Officially a Famine; Lavish Indian Weddings Cause Food Waste

​McDonald's is continuing to see profit growth thanks to items like frozen strawberry lemonade counteracting the rising costs of hamburgers. [Bloomberg] The U.N. has officially declared Somalia's food crisis a famine in several parts of the country, as millions of people are on the brink of s ... More >>

Rupert Murdoch's Other Other Newspaper Invokes Starving African Children in Phone Hacking Cartoon

via​Newspapers owned by Rupert Murdoch and his friends just won't stop defending their master. Days after a Wall Street Journal editorial ran in defense News Corporation's handling of the UK hacking scandal, the Times of London comes today with the above political cartoon: "I've had a bellyful ... More >>

Hazmat Modine

400-Pound Sumo Wrestler Finishes Marathon, Breaks World Record

via​Good news! Kelly Gneiting, a former U.S. sumo champion from Arizona who weighs 400 pounds, finished the Los Angeles Marathon in 9 hours, 48 minutes, and 42 seconds on Sunday, winning himself the much-coveted Guinness World Record of "Heaviest Person to Complete a Marathon." He jogged the f ... More >>

Somali Pirates Hijack American Couple's Yacht; Man Saved After Staten Island Ferry Jump; Bronx Rapist Busted (Weekend Links)

Jean and Scott Adam, an American couple, were taken captive by Somali pirates in the Indian Ocean yesterday. The pair were sailing from Mumbai to Oman when they were captured, and "sources onshore in Somalia indicated that a well-known piracy gang from northern Somalia had captured them and was ta ... More >>

New York Wine; French Bubbly (That Isn't Champagne)

​Looking for a locavoric gift this holiday season? Brooklyn Winery, Brooklyn Oenology, and The Red Hook Winery are among hyper-local wine producers right here in New York City. [NY Post] Champagne isn't the only French bubbly. Eric Asimov samples a Huët Pétillant sparkling Vouvray, Langlois ... More >>

Obama's Busted Lip, Willie Nelson's Weed Arrest & More of What You Missed While in a Food Coma

​Everyone knows Thanksgiving is a two-day holiday. The first is for eating and drinking and fighting with your family. (Maybe you go to the movies at night, that's okay too.) The second is for eating and drinking more, preferably leftovers with people you like, friends or the favorite family m ... More >>

GOLDEN TICKET

A night with two young lit stars

U.S. Travelers Will No Longer Be Able to Travel With Their Favorite Large Ink Cartridges

A tampered-with large ink cartridge.​Well, this is going to put a damper on things. According to the latest air cargo security regulations (following reports of suspicious packages found on UPS planes en route from Yemen to Chicago, which turned out to contain explosives), airline passengers w ... More >>

The U.S. Is More Corrupt Than 21 Other Countries, Which Is All Bernie Madoff's Fault

​The most and least corrupt nations have been "diagnosed" by Transparency International in their 2010 Corruption Perceptions Index, which measures the "perceived levels of public sector corruption" in 178 countries around the world. Corruption levels go from "very clean" to "highly corrupt" an ... More >>

Stallone Hawks Nostalgia in The Expendables

Morning Links: Buses to Get Faster, Police Looking for Suspects in Sexual Assault in Central Park, Rush Limbaugh Marries Again

A rendering of the new lanes.​• Starting in October, New York City buses will get express lanes on 1st and 2nd Avenues. The Department of Transportation and the MTA hope this will improve bus travel times by 20 percent. New bike lanes will also be added to part of the route. • Two New Jer ... More >>

$12 Coffee at Café Grumpy; No Kids Allowed at the Empire Room

​The Country Cooking of Ireland by Colman Andrews, a co-founder of Saveur, won the James Beard award for Cookbook of the Year, while Real Cajun by Donald Link took top honors in the U.S. category. [ABC News] The anti-corn syrup movement started in the natural and organic food world, but has n ... More >>

Premiere: Download "Acres of Skin," the Glittering, Skronking New Single From Brooklyn's Zs

Yes In My Backyard is a semiweekly column showcasing MP3s from new and emerging local talent. ​Brooklyn's Zs have always walked a jagged line between 21st Century composers and bratty art-punks; their voluminous, decade-strong output evokes everything from Schoenberg's jagged beep-boops to Gl ... More >>

HARD-KNOCK LIFE

K’Naan teaches you the ABC’s

Is African Food the Next Big Thing? Maybe With Merkato's Spectacular Catalog.

Famed Aquavit chef offers a kaleidoscope of African fare in the meatpacking district

A Walk to Beautiful

Busting the Merchant of War

The Bush administration finally nails a notorious supplier to terrorists—after he spent 30 years hiding in plain sight

Pharoahe Monch's Desire

A long-delayed comeback lashes eloquently back at its delayers

Un-Veiled

The controversial critic of Islam retraces her road to enlightenment

Heart Attack

Attempting romantic comedy, Sir Ridley Scott conquers neither

Film

Racial tensions and feminist stirrings from Mali to Maine

Kiddie Corner

Children's theater doesn't have to translate into child's play to provide intelligent fun

Rummy's Kids

U.S. Soldiers Consult With God, Ponder the End of Government as We Know It

The Gray and the Green

Stories From West Point, Between the Wars

Chronicle Of A Hate Crime

A Journalist Looks at Murderous Skinheads, Their Ethiopian Victim, and Neo-Nazism

Maid in Tel Aviv

Love, Labor, Loss

Letters

Gravity and Grace

Fazal Sheikh's Worldview

The Golden Ticket

Will Our Refugee Program Survive 9-11 and the Breakup of the INS?

Music

Lux et Veritas

Letters

'Black Hawk' Damned

Activists Protest No. 1 Movie

Fight Songs

All as It Had Been

Hollywood Revises History, Joins the Good Fight

I Dreamed of Africa

Nuruddin Farah Talks About Raw Nerves, Refugees, and the Imagination

Very Berberé

Israeli Gears

Letters

Different Times