Amazing.
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Showing newest 62 of 107 posts from June 2008. Show older posts
Showing newest 62 of 107 posts from June 2008. Show older posts
30 June 2008
WILLETS POINT LAND/ BUSINESS OWNERS AND THEIR WORKERS TO HOLD PROTEST
WILLETS POINT LAND/ BUSINESS OWNERS AND THEIR WORKERS TO HOLD PROTEST AT QUEENS COMMUNITY BOARD 7 TO RAISE AWARENESS OF THE CITY'S CONTINUED CAMPAIGN OF FABRICATIONS TO JUSTIFY $3 BILLION REDEVELOPMENT PLAN
(New York, NY) June 27, 2008 – Willets Point land and business owners along with hundreds of their employees will hold a protest outside Queens Community Board 7 prior to their vote on the City's redevelopment plan for Willets Point on Monday, June 30. They will be joined by supporters from the Castle Coalition and Institute for Justice who oppose Eminent Domain abuse.
The Willets Point Industry and Realty Association (WPIRA), a group of land and business owners who have been operating various industrial and manufacturing family businesses for 30-70 years at Willets Point, continue to combat the City's campaign of misinformation to get approval on the redevelopment of Willets Point without a formal plan or identification of a developer.
Key Points In City's Continued Misrepresentation of the Willets Point Redevelopment Plan:
• The New York City Economic Development Corporation (EDC) continues to claim that the entire 65-acre site is contaminated and requires environmental remediation. WPIRA owns approximately 45% of the land in Willets Point and many of their sites have already been remediated. It has not been proven that Willets Point needs to be seized and capped with 6-10 feet of fill in order to address contamination.
• Willets Point is NOT blighted, it has been intentionally neglected by the City of New York for decades and former Queens Borough President Claire Shulman is partially to blame. In 1991, at the request of Shulman, The New York City Public Development Corporation commissioned a study of Willets Point. The report stated, among other things that:
- "The area desperately needs a renewed infrastructure."
- "The lack of adequate infrastructure is the most obvious impediment to the success of Willets Point"
- "Willets Point has no sanitary sewers and the few storm sewers that exist are collapsed or perpetually clogged."
Shulman ignored the advice of the experts and the pleas for help in installing infrastructure from her constituents. Because of Claire Shulman's inaction during her tenure as Borough President, the City of New York today intends to spend upwards of $3 billion dollars to redevelop the area during an economic downturn.
• The EDC continues to misrepresent its efforts to relocate businesses. At a Community Board 7 meeting on June 23, Board Member Joe Sweeney reprimanded the EDC for not reaching out to the business owners in a more effective and timely manner. While the EDC has publicly touted agreements, the track record is weak in that after 4 years they have been able to sign a contract with only 2 of the estimated 260 businesses in Willets Point. Furthermore, the contracts are contingent on the approval of the City Council to pass the City's $3 billion redevelopment plan.
• At the moment, the City has no definitive plans to address the impact on increased traffic and transit congestion in the Borough that would lead to virtually stagnant conditions on major roadways in and out of Willets Point and neighboring Flushing. The City's own Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for Willets Point stated that the plan would create immitigable traffic congestion on the Van Wyck Expressway.
• WPIRA employs over 1500 highly-skilled workers who are paid above-average wages and benefits. These 9 businesses alone generate close to a billion dollars in economic activity and millions in tax revenue for the city.
City Council Members continue to express their disapproval of the City's plan:
• On June 23, 2008, Queens Council Members Tony Avella, Hiram Monserrate and John Liu urged Community Board 7 to vote against the plan.
• On April 21, 2008, 29 New York City Council Members sent a letter to Deputy Mayor Robert Lieber about the redevelopment plan for Willets Point and wrote, "This plan is unacceptable, and we wish to inform you that without significant modifications, we will strongly oppose it, leaving no chance of moving forward."
• On March 13, 2007, Council Member Melinda Katz wrote to Deputy Mayor Lieber stating her previous request that "the certification of the project be postponed until such time that agreements in principle can be reached on the outstanding issues with all concerned parties." Katz requested a postponement of certification to allow the negotiations to continue."
DATE: Monday June 30, 2008
TIME: Rally – 6:30PM
Community Board 7 Public Meeting & Vote – 7PM
WHERE: UNION PLAZA CARE CENTER
3323 UNION STREET, FLUSHING, NY 11354
CONTACT: Patricia Jones 347-306-2442 Patricia@PJonesInc.com
27 June 2008
This Google "Ad Word" hysteria is beginning to drive me insane.
I'll have written the word "tie" in an entry 7 years ago and I'll get an email from some ham and egger looking to "swap links" with me for some men's clothing store in Sandusky. Or now you get these bullshit posts in the comments and its just people with their Ad Word pyramid schemes.
Here's another good one...
Subj: Good morning
Date: 6/27/2008 9:45:53 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time
From: safety.vest.land
To: info@gothamcityinsider.com
Good morning,
We are having a Safety Vest, Gloves, and Safety Glasses sale, and would like to know if you would be interested in seeing our products?
I can send you our website, or have one of our 25 reps nationwide come and meet in person to show our items.
Sincerely,
Tina
26 June 2008
All the posts tagged with “Alternative Energy” on Jalopnik. An interesting corral. Check it out.
Read MoreOh, Olafur. What Ever Am I To Do With You? ::sigh::
“mmHello?”
“Yes, is Olafur Eliasson available?”
“Whom may I say is calling?”
“It's Auntie Climactic.”
“One moment please.”
“Olafurrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.... phone!”
We Kinda Sorta Got Mentioned In The Times
“News of the arrests on Friday, reported in The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, was carried on BayRidgeTalk practically in real time. One person created the heading “Cops invade drug house,” and wrote: “Undercover drug detectives have closed off 93rd street between 3rd and 4ave. drug dogs on scene, looks like house is being searched.”
He or she added: “Could this be what we think it is????!!!!!!”
This is classic.
The best part is I actually dictated this post to a good friend of mine over the phone in Southport, Connecticut.
I gave him my log in info and he started the thread for me. I felt like an honest-to-goodness reporter in the old days channeling that scene in "Don't Look Back" when the reporter is dictating the story about Dylan's concert "Period. Paragraph. Semicolon. Comma."
Brooklyn Blog Helps Lead to Drug Raid {NYT}
Cops Crack Down On 93rd Street Drug Den {Brooklyn Eagle}
video Cops Take Down Alleged Drug Dealers in Brooklyn {Fox 5}
video Police, Brooklyn Neighbors Team Up To Bust Alleged Drug House {NY1}
Read More25 June 2008
Further Blurring The Lines Betwixt Soda and Shampoo
They always test this kind of shit out overseas first. The last place it hits is America. By the time it hits our shores its old news but marketed to us as "NEW!"
I remember some of the crazy shit we saw on our early Euro tours. I distinctly remember foolishly trying this peppermint flavored soda. It was fucking nasty. Tasted like I was swallowing mouthwash. Yum! And thats what I had chosen to buy at the rest stop before we were stuck in the van for a 10 hour drive.
I doubt the Pepsi Cucumber flavor will fly here in the states but the drink hits stores in Japan this summer. Perhaps you can pour it on a salad?
24 June 2008
Eliot Spitzer Hooker Glasses
Long after the Eliot Spitzer "Client #9" story the call girl, Ashley Alexandra Dupre, who brought the governor to his knees has started a posthumous trend in designer protective eye wear.
I spy just about every goddamn girl around midtown rocking these same Client #9 sunglasses and I didn't see any of them rocking it before Dupre hit the tabloids. I have no idea what brand they are or whatever but here they are:
Now you too can look like the pro who charged Spitzer $1,000 an hour for whatevs!
wait for it... wait for it...
So I still have yet to receive the coveted econo-stimuli check however yesterday I got a very official letter in the mail stating that I would be receiving it quite soon but not just yet. I'm anticipating several more of these inane letters before the actual check arrives.
What about you? R U still aw8tn stimul8n?
I want to arouse and excite the economy.
I want to instigate and prod the economy.
I want to provoke it, rouse it, spark it and stir it.
I wanna thrill it, sting it, urge it and whet it.
I wanna egg it on and goad it.
I want to pique and prick it.
I wanna massage the economy and work it into a goddamn lather!
I Wouldn't Be Surprised If This Photo Wins A Pulitzer Prize
click pic to enlarge, fool
"Experienced MIT Graduate for Hire"
An newly unemployed financial engineer looks for a job on 50th and Park.
I love how unamused/confused Tan Dan is coming up from behind.
Out-of-Work Banker Employs Unusual Job Search Strategy {The Sun}
Are Your Girls Boobs a Source of Renewable Energy?
There's biofuels, geothermal, hydro power, solar power, tidal power, wave and wind power and now breast power.
Victoria's Circuit: Harnessing the untapped power of breast motion. {Slate}
Menstrual Synchrony vs. Male Evacuation Synchronization
Menstrual synchrony was first demonstrated in a 1971 paper published in Nature by University of Chicago psychologist Martha McClintock. She had observed during her undergraduate days in an all-female dorm that close friends tended to get their periods at the same time.
The phenom was soon dubbed "the McClintock effect" and is widely held as the first example of pheromones—unconscious chemical signals that influence behavior and physiology—among humans.
Though widely accepted as a fact of female life, many psychologists and anthropologists doubt the existence of such menstrual synchrony. Nearly half of the papers published on the topic find no evidence that close co-habitation draws menstrual cycles closer together.
The reason I bring this up is because me and a guy who works at a trading desk down the hall seem to be in full evacuation synchrony.
Every time, without fail when he's gotta pee, I've gotta pee. When he's on his way to the bathroom, I'm on my way to the bathroom. When I've gotta drop a dime, he's dropping a dime.
He and I don't know each other, never spoken a word to each other and work several hundred yards apart yet still our bodies are somehow synchronized.
Perhaps we have the same exact eating and drinking patterns?
It's really fucking weird and it freaks me out. Meanwhile we pretend like we don't notice that every goddamn time I'm in the bathroom, he's in the bathroom and vice versa.
IKEA Name Generator
I always assumed the odd names of IKEA's products were bullshit, faux-Swedish.
Apparently they're not bullshit and there is a precise method to their madness. Most product names are based on a special naming system developed by IKEA. Company founder Ingvar Kamprad, who is dyslexic, found that naming the furniture with proper names and words, rather than typical product codes and numbers, made the names easier to remember.
For instance all upholstered furniture, coffee tables, and bookshelves are named after actual Swedish places. For example: Klippan is a town in Skåne, Sweden and its also the name of an IKEA sofa.
Beds, wardrobes, hall furniture all have Norwegian city names. Oslo is a name of an IKEA bed. It is also the capital and largest city of Norway and one of the most depressing places I've ever been.
Dining tables and chairs are named after Finnish cities.
Bathroom articles are named after Scandinavian lakes, rivers and bays.
Chairs and desks have traditional Swedish male names while materials like curtains have Swedish women's names. For instance BILLY (a Swedish masculine name) is the name of IKEA's popular shelf line.
Chairs and desks have traditional Swedish male names while materials like curtains have Swedish women's names. For instance BILLY (a Swedish masculine name) is the name of IKEA's popular shelf line.
All their garden furniture named after Swedish islands
Lighting: terms from music, chemistry, meteorology, measures, weights, seasons, months, days, boats, nautical terms
Bedlinen, bed covers, pillows/cushions: flowers, plants, precious stones; words related to sleep, comfort, and cuddling
Lighting: terms from music, chemistry, meteorology, measures, weights, seasons, months, days, boats, nautical terms
Bedlinen, bed covers, pillows/cushions: flowers, plants, precious stones; words related to sleep, comfort, and cuddling
Children's items: mammals, birds, adjectives. For example, DUKTIG (meaning: good, well-behaved) is a line of children's toys
Curtain accessories: mathematical and geometrical terms
Kitchen utensils: foreign words, spices, herbs, fish, mushrooms, fruits or berries, functional descriptions
Boxes, wall decorations, pictures and frames, clocks are all Swedish colloquial expressions
Curtain accessories: mathematical and geometrical terms
Kitchen utensils: foreign words, spices, herbs, fish, mushrooms, fruits or berries, functional descriptions
Boxes, wall decorations, pictures and frames, clocks are all Swedish colloquial expressions
Anyway, so Blogdilla has made an IKEA furniture name generator. Type in your name and it'll give you your official Swedish flat pack furniture name.
Read More
I'm glad someone wrote about this. I was too lazy.
High gas prices slowing down indie rock {Chicago Sun-Times}
I swear I always thought it was:
I guess I was wrong. Woulda been cooler that way though. Apparently the real words are:"Jesus Christ, Superstar
Who the hell do you think you are?!"
"Jesus Christ SuperstarRead More
Do you think you're what they say you are?"
Why is the MTA always broke?
With gas at $4 a gallon the city's buses and trains are more mobbed than usual, right? So where's all the money going then? Who the fuck knows!
The MTA had previously projected it would end the year with a $300-million surplus, finance chief Gary Dellaverson said it's now on track to close out the year with half that amount.
The MTA's finance staff also hinted at cutting about $2.7 billion worth of renovation projects. Fret not, the LIRR - Grand Central connect and the Second Avenue subway won't be affected.
So why is the MTA always broke? Didn't they just raise tolls and fares a few months ago?! Only once before, in 1980 and 1981, has the authority raised fares two years in a row.
After the meeting, MTA chief Elliot Sander echoed comments he made in Albany last week - that another fare and toll hike along with service cuts are possible if things don't turn around or additional help doesn't arrive from Albany or another source.
I don't understand, ridership is up? MTA isn't adding any more trains, where is the money?!
People are crushed up against the doors on the 2 train so whats going on? Is everyone jumping the turnstyles? Are all commuters fare beaters? Impossible.With the sudden overcrowding due to high gas prices, show me the money!!!!
MTA chief Sander said the changes should not be viewed as "cuts" because most of the projects would be included in the next 5-year program for 2010-14. But subway advocates were dubious to say the least saying the MTA is notorious for putting stuff off and sweeping it under the proverbial rug.
Meanwhile Sander received a $10,000 raise a few months ago, increasing his salary to $350,000 a year.
Sander portrayed the raise as being in the best interest of the authority, saying that other transit systems paid their executives even more.
“Our ability to retain and attract talent is significantly at risk,” Sander said. “The reality is the salary structure for the M.T.A. is set in relation to my salary.”
The Governor recently announced the creation of a new panel to help find money to keep the M.T.A. afloat and running.
Remember that story from a few years ago when the MTA suddenly found like $30M behind a file cabinet somewhere? A few months back MTA said worse case scenario we'd $3 bus and subway fare by 2010. Weren't we supposed to have flying cars by 2010 ?
I think its time the MTA hire some ex-Wall Street execs (there sure are a lot of them these days) to fix the place from the ground up. No reason they shouldn't be turning a profit with ridership and fares all way up. This is pathetic.
23 June 2008
Afronauts: Homeboys in Outer Space
This isn't the first time Slate has read my mind. In fact, it usually happens about once a week. I too have often wondered why so many eccentric blacks are SO into outer space.
I've always wondered if they go off the deep end and then become fascinated with the relatively empty regions of the universe outside the atmospheres of celestial bodies or are they so consumed with intergalactic space travel they go insane?
Basically, which came first: the chicken or the egg?
Normally when white people go crazy they'll write a really good book or they'll kill a bunch of people whereas when black people go nuts they become obsessed with outer space. You can find a serious concentration of this theory within the music world.
Just off the top of my head theres George Clinton and his P-Funk All Stars.
You've got Sun Ra and Kanye West.
There's Bootsy Collins and Pharrell.
There's Afrika Bambaataa and OutKast.
May as well throw The Commodores and Kool Keith/Dr. Octagon in the ring, too.
The title of this entry, Homeboys in Outer Space, was the title of an honest to god sitcom that aired from 1996 to 1997 on UPN 9.
I almost forgot, Riley Martin!
Slate's Jonah Weiner takes a deeper, more cerebral, look into why so many black musicians are obsessed with outer space.
Reason for canceling your subscription?
GQ will not give up on this "No Socks with Lace Ups and a Suit" thing. Guys, let it go. It's not gonna happen.
Not only that but now they're saying short sleeve dress shirts for work are back.
Check, please.
No Comment.
Since the dawn of time the trust-fund-punx from New Canaan have called Saint Marks their summer home. Begging for change and then heading back to their parents mansion by Labor Day.
And now an 18-year-old punk tells us how it is...
“Suvy calls himself a gutter punk—the closest thing, he says, to the original version. He was kicked out of his home in Philly about a year ago because, he says, “my parents are metal heads and they hate me.” He dropped out of school, couch-surfed for a while, then got picked up for breaking into houses. After seven months in juvie, he had only one plan: getting himself to St. Marks Place. “I heard about St. Marks in a Casualties song,” he says, “so I’m like, ‘Wait a second, I want to hang out there’.”The Saint Marks Punks {NYM} Read More
Me and Bill
Bill Gates Has One Week Left at Microsoft and I have one week left at my current job.
Coincidence? I think not.
Nanu, nanu, bitch
WTF? Amy Winehouse Has Emphysema
... then again when was the last time you saw Amy photographed sans cigarette in hand?
Amy's father spilled the beans on her recent hospitalization, after collapsing in her London home last week, admitting his 24-year-old daughter has contracted emphysema.
Amy's dad, Mitch, told The Daily Mail, "With smoking crack cocaine and the cigarettes her lungs are all gunked up ... She's got 70% lung capacity."
Smoking is obviously the most common cause of emphysema, in which air sacs in the lungs lose elasticity. That impairs the exchange of oxygen and carbon dioxide, bringing on symptoms including shortness of breath and coughing. The damage is irreversible. Treatment for people with emphysema range from medication to lung transplants.
Defying the odds (and the facts about emphysema) the lovable mess' U.K. publicist, Chris Goodman, said, "Amy has an early form of emphysema which is totally reversible. She's responded well to treatment.''
'Amy's covered in nicotine patches and eating like a horse,' reveals Winehouse's father {Daily Mail}
Singer Amy Winehouse Has Early-Stage Emphysema, Publicist Says {Bloomberg}
Now This Is Old School Free-Market Capitalism
Step right up! Step right up!
John McCain hopes to solve the country's energy crisis with cold hard cash. McCain is proposing a $300 million government prize to whomever can develop an automobile battery that far surpasses existing technology.
The bounty would equate to $1 for every man, woman and child in the country, "a small price to pay for helping to break the back of our oil dependency," McCain said.
McCain said the new device should deliver power at 30% of current costs and have "the size, capacity, cost and power to leapfrog the commercially available plug-in hybrids or electric cars."
In addition, a so-called Clean Car Challenge would provide U.S. automakers with a $5,000 tax credit for every zero-carbon emissions car they develop and sell.
"In the quest for alternatives to oil, our government has thrown around enough money subsidizing special interests and excusing failure," McCain said.
22 June 2008
Story Behind 'Lost Tribe' Photos Revealed
30 May we ran a story that was making the rounds "Isolated Indigenous Tribe Alive & Well In Brazil". As it turns out the photos of the "lost tribe" are real, but the story behind them is not.
The original story was that some guys stumbled upon the tribe while flying over the Amazon when in fact that whole thing was staged by the Brazilian Indian Protection Agency.
The agency knew the whereabouts of the tribe, flew over them to take pictures and then published the photos to bolster a campaign to protect endangered tribes in the area from the logging industry.
The existence of the tribe had actually been known for about a century. The Brazilian Indian Protection Agency learned about this small group of Indians about 20 years ago.
Though many are likely to criticize the agency for the flyover – clearly disturbing the tribe – they all defend their decision to take the photos and publish them, claiming the media coverage over the photos last month forced Peru to re-examine its logging policy near where the tribe lives.
Jose Carlos Meirelles from the Brazilian Indian Protection Agency said, "When I saw them painted red, I was satisfied, I was happy because painted red means they are ready for war, which to me says they are happy and healthy defending their territory."
20 June 2008
I've heard of suicide pacts but this is just crazy...
Seventeen girls, none of them older than 16, apparently made a pact to get pregnant and raise their babies together.
It all went down at a high school in Gloucester about 30 miles north of Boston.
The school's principal told Time magazine in a story published Wednesday that the girls confessed to making the pact after the school began investigating a rise in pregnant girls roaming the halls.
The principal went on to say girls were coming to the school clinic multiple times to get pregnancy tests, and "seemed more upset when they weren't pregnant than when they were."
The principal said some of the girls reacted to the news they were pregnant with high fives noting "one of the fathers is a 24-year-old homeless guy."
In May the school nurse resigned in protest at the refusal of the local hospital that controls their funds to allow them to distribute contraceptives to pupils without parental consent.
Some have pointed to films portraying teenage pregnancy in a humorous and empathetic light such as Juno and Knocked Up.
Theres also that new show on NBC The Baby Borrowers which describes itself as an "unique social experiment that takes five teenage couples on a rollercoaster ride of adult responsibility, allowing them to experience parenting firsthand."
NBC's Access Hollywood says they think the 17 Gloucester girls were emulating Jamie Lynn Spears, Britney's sister, who at 16-years-old last December said she was 12 weeks pregnant and keeping the baby.
Coincidentally, I think Jamie Lynn actually gave birth yesterday as a matter of fact.
Prototypes - "Je Ne Te Connais Pas"
I like because it reminds me of Plastic Bertrand's "Ca Plane Pour Moi".
BMW used it in a German kommercial and then Mitsubishi stole the idea and did the same. I can understand. It's a catchy tune.
19 June 2008
This stops being funny and gets painful about a minute in.
They should've went with a :30 spot instead.
18 June 2008
Writing an article on Mikhail Krug and Russian Shanson "blatnaya pesnya".
Stay tuned...
Ethanol On The Cob
Get ready for gas to go even higher, kids!
Analysts are freaking out about floods in the Midwest fucking with the corn crop yield.
Less corn = more expensive cornRead More
More expensive corn = more expensive Ethanol
10% Ethanol in gasoline = more expensive gasoline
I Spy
Saw some guys in neon green construction helmets getting ready to test the Olafur Eliasson waterfalls today off the FDR.
I don't do cameraphones so I didn't get a pic but Curbed & Gothamist were on it as usual. 
All 4 of the waterfalls will be turned on officially June 26th and they'll run everyday from 7 A-10P, 7 days a week, through October.
I think I may take up smoking just for the cigarette breaks. Sorta like converting to Judaism for the copious holidays.
Discuss.
WNYC in the News; the FCC and Underwriting on Public Radio
If you follow mon blog then you’ll know I’ve an ongoing bone to pick with NPR’s mysterious “underwriting announcer” and her androidic cadence. And so you can imagine my shock when I came across an article in Monday’s Daily News claiming that the FCC had a beef with NPR a few years ago because they felt “one of the station’s underwriting announcements sounded too much like a commercial”.
“This simply can't be possible”, I thought to myself and rubbed my eyes, “Surely they must be talking about someone else!”. For there is no way anything NPR's current “underwriting announcer” could say that could ever be misconstrued as a commercial or a “call to action”. She speaks devoid of any human emotion.
Suddenly, it all began making sense. I think.
The Federal Communications Commission is notorious for moving at the pace of a garbage barge. The FCC is still ruling on incidents from 5 or 6 years ago and so normally you won’t hear about a charge until many moons after the incident when the FCC announces their ruling.
(When I worked in radio we used to get photocopies of incidents and FCC ruling transcriptions in our mailboxes every once and a while. Nine times out of ten it was the FCC ruling on some bit that happened on Spanish radio 3 years prior. Yawn.)
I suppose it is quite possible WNYC specifically brought this fembot in to be their “underwriting announcer” because of this incident with the FCC however long ago it was - probably a few years. And since NPR knew they were now being watched, they instructed this new person to speak like an actual robot, devoid of any human emotions.
WNYC/NPR (93.9 FM, 820 AM) has agreed to make a $5,000 “voluntary contribution” to the FCC as part of a sweetheart deal to resolve the charges saying one of their underwriting announcements sounded too much like a typical radio spot.
NPR's “voluntary contribution” deal is similar to a deal Mel Karmazin once made with the FCC to absolve Howard Stern from some charges saying they’d admit no wrongdoing but promise to be vigilant going forward. Basically all the FCC wants is a handout. Don’t think your government is above taking, what basically amounts to, a bribe.
When it comes to public radio underwriting acknowledgment and advertising it’s a veritable minefield of grey area. Standard radio spots are strictly verboten under a noncommercial public radio license but what’s the difference really? It’s all in how you speak, how you read it over the air.
Price or “value” information of any sort is prohibited. For instance, you’re not allowed to say things like “Starting in the low $200’s”, “Offering free admission”, or “Available with a 6.5% APR”.
“Calls to action” are verboten, as well. Don’t get caught saying shit like “Come in for a test drive”, “Get your ticket today” , or “Buy XYZ at your local drugstore”.
“Inducements to sell” are a no-no, too. “Inducements” are basically special promotions or incentives like “Free gift with purchase”, “Includes oil changes for a year”, or “Special deals in the month of June.”
Comparative and qualitative speech is also not allowed. Basically anything that favorably compares an underwriter to competitors or industry standards is unacceptable. Descriptive information that is not “value neutral” is deemed qualitative and is not acceptable. For instance you can’t say shit like “Exceptional customer service”, “A perfect setting for a romantic evening” or “High quality medical care”.
Are you bored yet? Basically radio stations with noncommercial licenses are allowed to 'identify' but not 'promote' companies, products and events.
“The FCC's rules are more lenient for non-profit organizations and these items are permissible for those organizations. That said, many stations choose to apply the for-profit rules to non-profits for several reasons. One reason is that revenues received in exchange for promoting a non-profit are subject to unrelated business income tax(UBIT), so it is an administrative hassle to segregate these revenues and determine whether tax is owed. Another reason is that some stations want to keep their on-air sound as non-commercial as possible. Listeners may not always understand that an entity is a non-profit and may be confused by what sounds like an ad. It can also be difficult for underwriting staff to explain to a for-profit underwriter why the station permits other underwriters to use the very promotional language it has told the for- profit it may not use.”In closing, perhaps I’ve been too hard on NPR’s mysterious unnamed underwriting announcer. I know have reason to assume she must have been acting on implicit instructions to speak in a super robotic, non-promotional cadence.
My apologies, NPR. Forgive me. Read More
17 June 2008
Very clever. Probably one of the funniest sites on "the net".
Red Hook Blacks Line Up to Rob First 100 IKEA Customers. {Blognigger makes $106,000 a year and can't afford to live in Brooklyn. You got it.}
I, Informavore (Also: Michael Agger Read My Mind)
An idea will pop into my head for one article and as I'm researching or writing that article my mind gets lost down a rabbit hole of ideas for something else. For a manic mind, the internet is a blessing and a curse all at once.
mental hoarding
I've found a term for it: informavore or informivore - an organism that consumes information. The famous Princeton psychologist George A. Miller coined the term back in 1983 as an analogy to how organisms survive by consuming negative entropy (as suggested by Erwin Schrödinger).
"Just as the body survives by ingesting negative entropy, so the mind survives by ingesting information. In a very general sense, all higher organisms are informavores."
An early use of the term was in a newspaper article by Jonathan Chevreau in which he quotes a speech made by the Canadian cognitive scientist and philosopher, Zenon Pylyshyn. Soon after, the term appeared in the introduction of Pylyshyn's seminal book on Cognitive Science, Computation and Cognition. A real page turner. Haha.
porno for disposophobics
More recently the term has been popularized by philosopher Daniel Dennett in his book Kinds of Minds and by cognitive scientist Steven Pinker.
Lazy Bastards: How we read online. by Michael Agger
Also see: The Collyer Brothers Read More
Remember that show The Sopranos? Remember it ended all murky and no one knew what to think and people were pissed and David Chase was hiding out in France for awhile dodging the shit storm? Well some dude has spent the last year writing a veritable dissertation on the final episode; what we really saw, what it really meant and of course what really happened when it all went black. If you've got about 4 hours, its an interesting read.
Past Sopranos mentions
16 June 2008
Repurposing The Word "Faggot"
From this point on "faggot" will no longer be a pejorative slur for a gay man. That shit is done. It's time to stop being so hateful and homophobic and get with the program. Enough. We're taking the power back like that dude from that band.
Therefore I am hereby repurposing the word "faggot". Faggot will now be used as a term for effeminate hipsters who don't hold doors open for their girlfriends.
I am officially done with these messy just-out-of-bed but totally contrived clowns with the regulation American Apparel zip-up hoodie and the shy sort of mumbling, stumbling, bashful and mousy cadence.
I thought that dolt Patrick Moberg would signify the death knell for this drawn out era of self-effacing sheepism but I guess it lives on not unlike a Bedford Avenue cancer.
I'll take the fucking Marlboro man over dudes like this any day.
I'd sooner be a Hooters hot wings & arena football connoisseur than one of these "watch me as I sheepishly play with the loose rubber on my old Sauconys at brunch" boys.
Now witness if you will my friend Angel and I at Beacon's Closet this past Saturday afternoon.
We'd generously decided to bestow these clowns with some of our non-ironic used clothing. We braced ourselves for our trip into the eye of the hipster tornado.
As I waited for Angel to get paid I witnessed a tall, lanky dude with his short, little, cherubic girlfriend crossing the street towards Beacon's.
First they were both nearly run over by a dude on a bicycle. Lance Armstrong started yelling at the little cherub while 6' 2'', 125 lbs. in flip-flops just stood there with his boney arms folded and said nothing; dude stood down to a guy in spandex bicycle shorts. "Strike one", I thought.
Later I saw Brangelina leaving Beacon's and of course I watched as cherubic little one not only opened the door but held it open so 6' 2'', 125 lbs. in flip-flops could make his exit.
6' 2'', 125 lbs. in flip-flops didn't take the door from her, he allowed her to hold it open for him and slithered out like a faggot.
Gents, I'm not gonna get into taking your hat off when you see a lady. I'm not even gonna get into opening their car doors first, pulling out their chairs, putting on their coats or waiting for them to eat before you begin.
Let's just focus on door opening. Baby steps.
If you're with your girlfriend, YOU open the door for HER.
Would I love to go through life having doors opened for ME so I could slither out like a Park Slope garden snake, sure, but I was born a man and therefore I must abide by the rules.
Start with opening doors for the women in your life that you care about and eventually you can ramp up to opening doors for complete strangers of the fairer sex!!!!!!!!!!!
Yes, you can do it. I have faith in you, faggot.
Thank you.
13 June 2008
What Your Walk Says About You
Highlight: "Work for Your Walk: A career in data entry is super for your speed."
Everybody Panic!!!
"If we continue on business as usual, we are going to see more floods, more droughts, more heat waves, more wildfires, more ice melting, faster sea level rise...Read More
We really have less than a decade to start getting this right. If we're still dragging our feet in 2015 I think it really becomes at that point almost impossible for the world to avert a degree of climate change that we simply will not be able to manage without intolerable cost and consequences."
I bag bitches up at John Jay and go hit a matinée
Trojan is giving out free condoms today for all New Yorkers thanks to the Health Department's wonderful recent announcement that 1 in 4 New Yorkers has genital herpes —compared to the national average of 1 in 5 Americans.
As per Trojan's clever little press release, "TROJAN GIVES OUT THOUSANDS OF FREE CONDOMS TO STOP BLISTERING NEW YORK 'HEAT' OF ANOTHER KIND."
Gross.
Anyway, here's where you can grab a free rubber to replace the expired one in your wallet (hey-ohhhhh)
Have a good weekend!7:00 AM – 10:00 AM
Columbus Circle
Atlantic Terminal
Whitehall Ferry Terminal
Queensboro Plaza
149th St Grand Concourse
now until 3:00 PM
Hell’s Kitchen 45th + 9th
Borough Hall
Astoria – 30th Street
Wall Street
Upper East Side (oh well, that narrows it down, huh?)
Google Alerts (BETA)
Coolest. Thing. Ever.
Today, I stumbled upon the Google Alerts feature on, um, Google.
When I worked for Robin Quivers back in the Ice Ages, she belonged to a newspaper clipping service that would somehow find every mention of anything and everything Stern related in just about every paper across the country. How they did that I have no idea. And every few weeks we'd get a giant envelope full of highlighted & clipped newspaper articles which matched her search criteria.
Google Alerts is the next best thing. Check it out if you haven't already. I believe the feature is like 4 or 5 years old already. I'd been living in a cave.
The service will automatically email you the Google results of your search terms.
You can set the frequency of the sending of emails to “once an hour”, “once a day,” “once a week,” and so on and so forth.
The service currently offer alerts with results (keywords you input when searching) from News, Web, Blogs, and Groups.
vérité dans fiction
(Elizabeth Hurley's boobs feat. Denis Leary's Golden Girls hairdo.)
I've always sorta liked Denis Leary. I think the first time I saw him was on Remote Control back in the day in some skit.
I thought it was corny how he (or whoever decided it was a good idea) tried to revamp himself into some kind of leading man heartthrob with Rescue Me, but whatever. So be it.
Anyway, so apparently Denis is best friends with Elizabeth Hurley. He's also the godfather to Hurley's son. But surpirse, surprise Denis' wife, Ann, is not-so-secretly into this whole situation.
In Ann Leary's new novel, "Outtakes From a Marriage", there's an entire character plot line not-so-loosely based on the awkward Elizabeth / Denis situation.
In the book she's got a movie-star character named Susanna Mercer who's Australian, has a perfect body and "only dates billionaires."
The kid Denis is a godfather to is Hurley's son with billionaire Steve Bing. Hurley is now married to software mogul Arun Nayar.
"Joe Ferraro" the fictitious husband in the novel, is the star of TV's "The Squad." He "has a schoolboy crush" on the actress.
Oh boy... this is ugly. I'm still not gonna read a novel though.
See you in the non-fiction aisle.
The Learys
Wife of comedian Denis Leary skewers celebrity {Reuters}
The concept of infinity has tantalized and sometimes troubled mankind...(reprise)
I just wrote my friend a long babbling letter, as I normally do. I often get lost within the hedge maze of my own tangents, often neglecting to answer the things she's asked me about. But, I try. I just cross my fingers and hope maybe she'll find it endearing and I'll get away with it.
For some reason, it popped into my head earlier that my dad's dad had sat down one day attempting to explain the concept of "infinity" to me. I have no idea how or why it popped into my head today and even more haunting is that I have no idea how or why he was given such an insurmountable task.
He wasn't a very loving type, not the typical grandfather, he was more stoic and chill. The type of grandfather that as a kid you're sort of averse to but when you get older you realise he was the man and you see a lot of your own self inside the memories of him and what he was all about. Do you know what I mean? Good. I'm gonna pretend you just answered: "Yes!"
He was a WW2 vet that just hung out and smoked a pipe. My grandmother was lovely and nuts and used to rescue strays that would soon fall in love with my grandfather and lay at his feet near his maroon leather slippers. My grandfather ruled those little dogs with an iron fist; his iron fist was in the form of an old newspaper wrapped tight in black electrical tape. It was hysterical. He used to call me "hamburger" and that was as just about as loving as he got.
One time he was supposed to pick me up after school and he didn't see me, so he just split. Looking back now, it's amazing and I love him SO much more for something like that but as a kid, that's pretty abrasive for a grandfather; he wasn't looking to win any fans; he just didn't care. He was a cynical, stoic, free spirit. And I love him for it, now. I just didn't understand it then.
So anyway, somehow he was given the task of explaining to me one of the most puzzling concepts in the entire universe; a concept which has tantalized and sometimes troubled mankind for a billion years... the concept of INFINITY.
How do you explain the concept of unbounded space, time, or quantity to anyone much less a little wide eyed tyke? How does one explain the continuum of experience in which events pass from the future through the present to the past to a 6 year old?!
Well, as it turned out, quite simply.
He gave me two examples. For one, he drew a crude picture with a marker on a pad of recycled paper. I used to have all these sketch books at my dad's parents house that I'd draw on when we went over there. They were the more hands-off grandparent set, so I was often left to my own devices so I locked myself in my own little world and just drew and drew. I left the more hands-on involved projects to my mom's parents.
So my grandfather took a marker and told me about infinity. He said, "picture a man wearing a tall hat", and he drew a guy who looked a lot like Abe Lincoln with a giant stovepipe hat.
"Then", he continued confidently, "on the mans hat is a picture of a man wearing a hat", and then he drew another guy who looked like Abe Lincoln wearing a giant stovepipe hat.
And I imagine I must have looked up at him blankly.
"Then", he said "in the picture on the mans hat of the man wearing a hat, is another a picture of a man wearing a hat".
By now, I was surely puzzled; puzzled by him, by the drawing, by just about everything. I was six years old and starting to question life itself.
I understood what he was drawing but I'd never heard of a photograph on a hat and why would this guy have a picture of a man wearing a hat on his hat? It wasn't helping. My grandfather was asking me to suspend my disbelief in order to illustrate a most elusive concept and no one had briefed me on how to suspend my disbelief yet; that would come many years later from comic books.
He must've sensed my growing confusion and it probably frustrated him more than me. He was the type of grandfather who just wanted you to understand everything; that you should just be born with the same infinite wisdom as a 60 year old WW2 veteran.
Exasperated he set down the marker on the kitchen table and said, "Ok, picture an audience at a movie theater... and they're watching a movie of an audience watching a movie of an audience watching a movie". I understood what he was describing; I could picture it quite clearly, but I just couldn't wrap my 6 year old noodle around the concept of the continuum and time without end.
I just pictured a really boring movie. Read More
"My Bad": Forgetful British Official Left Top Secret al-Qaeda Files On Subway
The British Cabinet office has suspended a "very senior intelligence official" who left secret files on al-Qaeda operatives in Pakistan and the Iraqi security situation behind him on a train in London.
The highly classifieds government docs were found inside a bright orange manila folder which was left on the tube betwixt Waterloo Station in London and Surrey on Tuesday. Each page was numbered and marked "For UK, US, Canadian and Australian eyes only".
Classic.
A curious fellow picked the folder up, realised what was inside and passed the contents to the BBC, which last night handed the documents to police. Right. BBC and then the cops. Got it.
The highly sensitive documents were assessments made by the government's Joint Intelligence Committee. Data provided by the committee can be used to help form future policy and would have been extremely useful to any terrorist group. Not only did the documents set out the latest government assessment on al-Qaeda, also included was a "top secret and in some cases damning" assessment of Iraq's security forces.
Naturally many people are calling for the senior intelligence officials head saying "whomever lost these documents must be prosecuted and punished."
A spokesman for the British Cabinet Office said:
It is understood a full-scale police search was launched when it was realised that they were missing, as officials were concerned at the possibility of such sensitive papers finding their way into the wrong hands."There has been a security breach. The Metropolitan Police are carrying out an investigation."
It is the latest in a series of embarrassing losses of government information, including the disappearance of details of millions of child benefit recipients on a CD sent through the post.
There was reported to be "horror" across several departments in Whitehall this week that top-secret documents could have been so casually mislaid.
Shadow security minister, Baroness Pauline Neville-Jones, said: “This is just the latest in a long line of serious breaches of security involving either the loss of data, documents or Government lap tops, further highlighting the most basic failures in this Government’s ability to maintain our security.
“The Government must make an immediate statement to Parliament and an inquiry must be launched.”
Liberal Democrat shadow home secretary, Chris Huhne added: “This is an appalling breach of security, which suggests that procedures on such sensitive matters are lax to the point of utter carelessness.
“There should be clear guidelines about when such secret documents are outside carefully monitored premises.
“It beggars belief that the Government could have scored such a devastating own goal the very day that it was pushing the draconian counter terrorism laws thought parliament.”
Cheerio.
Read More
Seen Any Good Movies Lately?
Cuz I sure as fuck haven't.
And god do I hate (What have you done for me lately?) M. Night Shyamalan.
Maybe its because he reminds me of that chef I don't like, Marcus Samuelsson?
M. Night Shyamalan did The Sixth Sense almost ten years ago! Everything since has sucked. Beginning with his affected alias. I just don't like the dude, his tude or his movies. The End.
Furthermore when will these Adam Sandler-Mike Myers-Will Ferrell-Ben Stiller-Owen Wilson-character movies end? They're all the same. Drillbit Taylor?!?!? "The Love Guru"?! “You Don’t Mess With the Zohan”?!? Come on, fellas. Pack it up. Let's go.
Introducing: Nesthead The Moose
I see this woman on the express bus quite a bit. Her hair is phenomenal. I'm simply in awe of it. If anything I mock it because I'm jealous.
Her hair is like part UFO part Moosehead. I always think its about to take off.
Below: the yellow line demarcates where her actuall skull ends and its just levitating hair thanks to copious amounts of Aqua Net®. Note: I added the bird for effect but I have seen owls and pigeons building nests in there before.
They fuck you at the drive-thru
The new iPhone is not "half the price" of the old one {Machinist}
What I wanna know is Who's on First? Read More“...when you buy the new iPhone, you've also got to sign up to a two-year deal with AT&T, and AT&T has raised the price of its iPhone service plans.
Therefore the new iPhone will set you back $40 more than the old phone over 2 years. Now Gizmodo has a new calculation incorporating other charges; it shows that the new iPhone costs $1,975 over 2 years, compared to the old phone's price tag of $1,815 over 2 years -- in other words, the new phone is $160 more than the old phone. ”
12 June 2008
Is ADHD a disease?
“The U.S. government says it is. So does the professional Diagnostic & Statistical Manual for Mental Disorders. The condition's very name incorporates this assumption: attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. Lots of kids with ADHD have trouble functioning in modern society.Read More
But what if society were different? What if it were structured so that having ADHD was actually an advantage?
This isn't some futuristic thought experiment. A new study suggests that this ADHD-friendly world may actually be part of our past...”
New World Disorder: Was ADHD an evolutionary asset? By William Saletan
Eminent domainiacs coming to Willets Point
Eminent Domain + Relocation Services for Willets Point? {Curbed}
Eminent domain bid seen as study slams Willets Pt. {NY Daily News}
Willets Point Relocation Services RFP {NY Eco Dev Corp}
Willets Point Rendered, Local Love Included {Curbed}
View all Willets Point stories on this blog by clicking here
We Want The Airwaves a/k/a Will U Just Shut The Fuck Up?!
"Yeah, so anyway, whatchu doin?"
It occurred to me today that if you could listen in on all the cellphone conversations being made you'd surely kill yourself.
Especially the inane conversations that take place around 8 or 9 in the morning. Who the FUCK are you talking to?!
A guy I used to work with would walk into the office every morning talking on his cell phone. Every single goddamn fucking morning without fail.
Even if I wanted to talk to someone for absolutely no reason I don't even know who'd I call at 8:45 in the morning, they're all at work!
I walked by some dude today, a delivery guy of some sort, sitting on some steps, babbling away. It was like 5 after 9 in the morning. He was talking about absolutely nothing. Just had to speak. Can't stand to be alone with his mind for even a second of silence. As soon as there's a break in the action, he's on the phone with his boy who's doing the same thing!!
Will you all just shut the fuck up??!
How did you live before the cellphones? What did you do?!??!?!
HANG UP THE PHONE!!!!!!!!!!!!
KILL YOURSELF
Me and my Aeron strolling down the avenue...
Herman Miller and his world famous Aeron chair contraption.
It's exclusivity became a symbol of the devil-may-care dot-com bubbo.
It's so damn wonderful that it sits in MOMA's permanent collection.
They go for anywhere from $700-$1,000 each and in my office there are hundreds of them on each floor. I think the ones we have go for about $950. No wonder we're going out of business.
But, they aren't particularly wonderful. I mean, its OK, but its just a fucking chair. I don't look forward to sitting on it everyday or anything.
Unless the fact that I don't notice whether its comfortable or uncomfortable is its definitive testament? As if I'm floating on a cloud all day perhaps? Hmmmm.
It does have an awful lot of fancy knobs and pneumatic levers to adjust but ultimately it feels like a chair.
For $950 you better give me some tufted leather with some goddamn nailheads or just give me the cash, I'll sit on a folding chair. I got one at home.
I mean, I'm sitting down. How bad could it possibly be!? As long as a knife isn't stabbing me in my ass I think I can deal.
It's like a 5 star hotel. Once you're asleep what does it matter?
Hang on a minute, ScarJo is only 23?!
That means she was 19 when she did that awful faux-indie movie where it starts with a close up of her ass?! Wait, maybe I'm thinking of Charlize Theron?
Yeah, wait a minute, what ever happened to her!? I think Scarlett Johansson has Charlize Theron locked up in a closet somewhere.
See Also: How the fuck am I older than Christina Ricci? and How the fuck am I older than Christina Ricci? (Part Two)
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