Tonight (Tuesday! January 3rd!) the Society for the Advancement of Social Studies is rearing its educationally boozy head at Public Assembly in Williamsburg - details here. Topic: The End of The World.

While 2012 and Nostradamus will make appearances, I'll personally be handling doomsday cults. Since I have a scant 20 minutes to tell you everthing you need to know, though, I figured I'd drop you a line here about the most important part...

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This year, we finally have a good reason to avoid New Year's resolutions: the world's gonna end in a couple of months anyhow!

And to get this (last) year off to a festive/apocalyptic start, join us for January's meeting of the Society for the Advancement of Social Studies. You'll learn about Nostradamus' predictions, doomsday cults, and all about the Maya and their calendar. Not only will you leave better equipped for the end of the world, but...

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We get asked all the time where to eat dinner or get coffee or a beer, so I thought I'd make a handy little list of places for you to keep in mind the next time you're down here. They're all pretty cheap (we're broke) and within a few block radius of the Brainery, but feel free to suggest your favorites in the comments!

Where we eat on a normal day: Line Bagels 

This is the bagel shop right near the Smith-9th Street station. They...

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I was going to write a post about the wonders of cream of tartar, but for some reason I couldn't find it in the index of Harold McGee's On Food and Cooking, so I just started looking up random things about fish. I hate fish, but they're totally interesting. 

With that, I present you with a hastily put together recapitulation of my favorite fish facts from today:

Really fresh fish smells like plants! How come? Both have...

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'Tis the most magical time of the year! 'Tis also the most expensive and over-commercialised time of the year. So if you'd like a little handmade goodness in your holidays, here's a simple method for producing your own gift wrap. All the supplies can be bought from the dollar store. You'll wrap all your gifts for a few bucks, and they'll look way classier than with cheesy store-bought wrap. Now, I'm not claiming to be a better...

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