In addition to taking your money, an increasing number restaurants are also taking video of your dining experience, at least according to the Post’s trend-spotting Carla Spartos. She notes five Manhattan restaurants that use closed-circuit video cameras to record customers in their dining rooms: Boqueria, the four star Daniel, Dos Caminos, Philippe, and Momofuku Noodle Bar. The article features anecdotal evidence from a security consultant, who believes that restaurants are no longer worried that diners......

Entrance and Exit Only, by coifmo66 at flickr Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a serious trauma at East 16th St. and Moore Pl. in Brooklyn, a water search at Kosciusko Bridge in Brooklyn, and a bank robbery on Lexington Ave. in Manhattan, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, who popularized transcendentalism in the West with the support of The Beatles, died yesterday at an undetermined age. Postmodern reality at its best: Silvercup Studios, where "Gossip Girl," is......

Less than 6 hours until kickoff at Lambeau Field and it's a balmy -6° in Green Bay. With winds at 15 miles per hour, Accuweather's real feel temperatures are -18°. While temperatures will increase by game time, it's still going to be ass-cold. The cold weather and the importance of the game makes it an event that could be one for the ages, something that seems to happen with frigid temperatures. Despite the cold weather,......

Filmmaker Ethan Coen has left his big brother behind and written three short plays all by himself. Called Almost an Evening, the triptych will be produced by the Atlantic Theater Company with a terrific cast that includes Elizabeth Marvel, who was riveting in Ivo van Hove’s unforgettable revival of Hedda Gabler, and Academy Award winner F. Murray Abraham. The plays “unsuccessfully tackle important questions. In Waiting, someone waits somewhere for quite some time. In Four......

Fox News Porn Robert Greenwald, the man behind the 2004 documentary Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch’s War on Journalism which concluded that Fox News Channel is biased to the right based on memos and footage from the network, is at it again. This time around he is using clips from the channel culled from six months of broadcasts featuring women in bikinis and pixilated nudity in a YouTube video and website that mimics a porn site called......

Long time New York resident David Wain is currently on location in LA, working on his latest film, Little Big Men, starring Paul Rudd and Seann William Scott. Wain's been spending a lot of time in LA due to his career, but, don't worry, he doesn't plan on moving there anytime soon. In fact, the only place the star of Stella and The State plans on moving is Brooklyn. In this Gothamist Q and A,......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a water rescue off West St. at Battery Place in Manhattan, missing children on Grimsby St. on Staten Island, and a DOA floater in the Harlem River off Manhattan. New Yorkers may have just seen their water bill rates hiked 11.5% three months ago, but officials are now saying property owners can expect a rate increase of another 18% as early as the start of next year. Idle speculation......

There's nothing like seeing the Gothamist Newsmap and last night seeing an alert for "Cow on the loose" in the Queens. While 1010WINS's lede is very concise - "A cow on the loose in Queens is now in police custody." - the Daily News has amazing coverage of the situation. Dimitrti Mitropoulos told the News he saw the cow near the Queens Hospital Center's parking lot (he suspects the cow was grazing), so he......

With unseasonable weather descending upon much of North America, schools getting ready to reconvene, and sports seasons getting exciting, it's a busy time of year for us here in the Ist-A-Verse. Luckily, even with all the things we have to do, we still managed to get together to let you know what we've all been up to. After cooling down from a hot weekend of many badass Sunset Junction Street Fair photo dispatches, LAist asked......

HBOVoyeur launched last week on a previously barren wall in the Lower East Side. The projection on the wall shows a film that tears down the facade of an apartment building and lets any passerby take a peak inside (HBO definitely picked the right city for this, as similar real-life scenes can seen from the street 24/7 here). The idea is a cool one, but can get old fast while watching it - which......

A look at some noteworthy television this week: Israel Baseball League Opening Day (Sunday. 11:00 a.m., 4::30 p.m., WNET 13; 10:00 p.m., WLIW 21) This special looks at the newest professional baseball league’s opening day where the Modi’in Miracle played the Petach Tikva Pioneers in the first Israeli professional baseball league. Concert for Diana (Sunday, 8:00 p.m., WNBC 4) Princes William and Harry are the driving forces behind this concert featuring their favorite musicians perform......

To tape or not to tape? That is the question before a Federal district court this week. The issue at hand is whether the police may videotape political protestors, and whether a judge would reconsider his decision that answered that question: "No." Gail Donoghue, special counsel for the city’s Law Department, began the hearing by telling Judge Haight that he overstepped his judicial powers in February when he essentially made his own court the......

After its story about how the NYPD spied on organizations for at least a year before the 2004 Republican National Convention, the NY Times reports that the city wants to keep NYPD records sealed, in fear that the media will "fixate upon and sensationalize them." Well, that's probably too late. The Times also reports that the city is worried the sealed information will hurt its "ability to defend itself in lawsuits over mass arrests."......

Texas is thawing, the Northeast is freezing, and a sort of natural order seems almost restored to the Ist-A-Verse. Almost. Londonist HQ—that is to say, the city of London—was battered by heavy winds, making it a bad time to be a twelve-meter (nearly forty-foot) tall snowman. Still, not everyone decided to keep warmly covered. Meanwhile, back indoors, the Big Brother racism is now causing all kinds of headaches for international diplomats, and Londonist got into......

Tom Shillue performs at clubs all over New York City, has a Comedy Central Presents half hour special, has appeared in commercials for Audi, Heineken, Ameritrade, Snickers, and provided voiceovers for Verizon, for Amex, and Met Life. He'll be headling at http://comixny.com/event.aspx?eid=69&sid=221on the 14th. You were part of show called Meow Mix House . For the benefit of readers, could you explain what that was? I was hosting a reality show for cats in the......

Guess what? The MTA is unhappy with Siemens, who promised them real-time information boards, because the company has failed to fix its software! The Post reports that the MTA already paid Siemens $45 million out of the $160 million contract, but the agency is now looking for another contractor to finish the job. This is very good to know - you don't actually have to finish a job in order to get paid by......

New York City is trying really hard to make sure underage teens (and 20 year olds - can't forget them) are not going to clubs and getting way drunk, lest they get into trouble. Reader Jane sent us photographs of one traffic-rerouting display sign that have been repurposed into a warning for anyone with a fake ID. We give this effort a B-. It would be much more effective to explain what the punishment......

Mid song, about two and a half in after I got to the Knitting Factory last night during Owen's quiet solo set, someone by the bar shouted out "Emo Sucks!" and the place went quiet. Yikes. I'm not sure anyone knew how to react. Well, yea, it does? But, no, this guy's good...But is this really emo? Perhaps, in the most basic and grounded sense of the word, but...is this EMOSUKS! emo? Or does emo......

Reader Eugene spotted this "lost cat" sign and offers a critique to the sign's writer "in keeping with the politically correct fervor surrounding the now infamous lost child’s cap in Park Slope":What do we mean by “White?” DNA wise, fur color is meaningless. How do you know this cat’s genetic lineage is not one and the same with the African cats held sacred by once powerful upper and lower Nile River kingdoms? "Docile" --- really?......

Ooh: A little over three weeks after the Police Commissioner announced that hundreds of surveillance cameras would be installed, all in the name of fighting crime and terrorism, to watch our every move, they are here. Three cameras were installed in Brooklyn along Knickerbocker Avenue last week, and the reaction (well, according to the people the Post spoke to) is positive, with some people eagerly enjoying safety over their privacy. The NYPD's camera project will......

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We knew that the Department of Transportation had a lot of traffic cameras up around the city but until today we'd just never thought about the idea that those cameras might be available for public consumption. But oh, they so totally are. Apparently this has been around for a while but it is new to us. We just spent the past twenty minutes feeling like Big Brother as we watched traffic move around the......

Wither the McDonald's fries and black and white cookies? The NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene want to Take the Trans Fat Out of New York! It's a big initiative to prevent cardiovascular disease, and the goal is lofty: To get NYC food establishments from restaurants to supermarkets to stop using or selling partially hydrogenated vegetable oils. Yes, we're talking trans fats which makes foods shelf stable (think the bag of Oreos or bag......

The Taxi and Limousine Commission wants to roll out some more hi-tech accoutrements in city taxis, including news on the backseat screens (again!), credit card payment, and a wireless tracking system for lost belongings, not to mention monitors for drivers that could update them about traffic. However, many drivers aren't sure if they want the equipment, which the TLC is requiring for all 12,787 hacks, because it'll cost thousands of dollars. The coordinator for the......

Fascination article in the NY Times about how video has given a truer perspective on what happened during the Republican National Convention protests. The video has both shown that the police did not employ "explicitly violent" tactics as well as helping prosecutors get guilty pleas or convictions from some protesters. But there were some cases where video actually cleared some people, like this story about Alexander Dunlop who was swept up into the fray......

Yesterday, the Department of Health unviled the new Dietary Guidelines for Americans 2005. Basically the government thinks Americans are fat and wants Americans to do something about it. Could it be a Bush administration jab at Michael Moore? Or just Big Brother looking out for our best interests. Anyway, here are some highlights: - Eat more fruits and vegetables - Drink more low-fat milk - Eat more whole grains - Exercise at least 30, even......

Gothamist was wearing a sweater and puffy coat during this week in June. There are so many things wrong with that. Anyway... - Graydon Carter likes 'em young - Tests for New York tour guides - TiVo, Your Habits, and Big Brother - Someone at Vogue actually eats - When chain restaurants attack - Kitchen cut-ups - Book for the dumped - Captain Derek - When Will Ferrell went to Harvard - Solid gold lightswitch......