Friday evening roundup

Tom Laskawy takes on Scientific American's anti-organic article.

I was reading this fascinating article about the lottery on the platform at McPherson Square when I won a different kind of lottery and stepped into what turned out to be a non-air-conditioned car. I tried to switch at the next stop, but the next car over wasn't open, so I went back for more another twenty minutes of sweltering fun.

Courtesy of Grist, some tips for staying cool.

As my two regular readers know, I'm not one to turn things into vegetarian vs. meat-eater, much less over someone who's trying, but my gut reaction when someone says that vegetarian food isn't as good is that that person is an idiot. I guess he's talking specifically about vegetarian restaurants and I rarely go to restaurants, much less vegetarian ones. So I can't speak to how hard it would be for someone with a serious restaurant habit to become a vegetarian. In fact, I'll give him that, because when I travel for work, I find veggie options very limiting. But it's not because they're not possible--it's because most chefs don't care enough to create good veggie options. Which is silly, because there are enough of us out there to make a difference, business-wise. I won't touch the cupcake thing because I could give a $hit about cupcakes, but I do know that Chef Chloe's vegan cupcakes won some Cupcake Wars, and those weren't even the chocolate beer cupcakes with Irish whiskey buttercream. And I know I've made a very simple cream out of silken tofu that people couldn't believe wasn't cream.