“Sometimes it takes seeing your hometown–especially when its a big bustling metropolis like New York City–in the eyes of someone not from there to show you the wonderful things you take for granted.”
At least, that’s the case with me.
My pal Orlando was visiting me from Indianapolis this past July 4th weekend and as usual with him, he wanted to know and explore everything about NYC; where’s the best place to get a bagel; who’ll be voted in as next mayor; did you get caught in Supestorm Sandy; where do we go for the best pastrami 0n rye sandwich; where’s that place in Harlem where I heard you can buy a dashiki; is the Statue of Liberty easy to get to; what’s the next stop on this train; is that what the girls will be wearing this summer: shorts that look like panties; ever ate at this restaurant before; are we going to see the fireworks tonight? I’d have to goggle most things of course, but I secretly admit to myself that his excitement gets me excited about this old town. My grind is usually wake up at 6am, go to work, come home, eat dinner, turn on the tv for some white noise as I work on my computer, then promptly in bed by 2am (lol!).
I usually oblige my friend of everything but the one area I wasn’t at all comfortable or even wanted to go to was the World Trade Center memorial. Orlando is a middle school history teacher and he wanted to see the new buildings and the September 11 memorial to incorporate in a lesson for his students. All I knew about the memorial was that it had a water feature. That was it. I never really thought to go there either. I know of only two people who were at WTC who survived 9/11, and only one of them personally. I, like many New Yorkers. have let that event slip into my deep subconscious where all the other ugly, frightening memories wind up to be hashed out in my later, more reflective senior years. Or by a psychiatrist.
When I tell you that the moment I walked onto the concrete promenade of the site I was struck by the feeling of it being sacred ground, I kid you not. The feeling stayed with me the whole time I was there. With still plenty of construction going on in gated areas around the park, I still zeroed in on the sound of cascading water in an open area. We walked in the direction of signs that pointed towards the memorial which I was surprised to see was a gargantuan square hole dropped down several feet into the ground with sheets of water falling into it from all four sides.
The water pooled like shimmering glass on the floor of the well, then flowed into a square canyon in the middle. From any angle that you stood around the monument you couldn’t see the bottom of that middle canyon, giving you the impression that it was endless.
Mixed emotions of grief, mourning, endings and new beginnings flooded over me as I stood mesmerized by the simple cyclical process of the water. I thought about the cleansing effect of water, the cool smoothness of the dark granite base as the water rushed over it, the endless cascade of water — like tears — and the bottomless well that would never be filled no matter how much water flowed into it.
I thought about Life and Death as this never-ending cycle and how the two things are what unites everyone and everything on this planet.
And I thought about how little we really know about anything.
The names of the hundreds of victims of 9/11 who died at the WTC are engraved into the surrounding wide metallic railing and people took to sticking small American flags into the crevices. There was also a twin monument yards away on the other end of the promenade as were short backless concrete benches scattered all around. The site was still incomplete, but you can see that it will be beautifully serene when it’s completed. It was good for my soul to see something beautiful emerge from something so horrid. My only regret was that we couldn’t stay to see the monuments lit up at nightfall, but my friend had other parts of my great town that he wanted me to see.
Imagine a city where you don’t drive in loops looking for a parking spot because your car drops you off and scoots off to some location to wait, sort of like taxi holding pens at airports. Or maybe it is picked up by a robotic minder and carted off with other vehicles, like a row of shopping carts.
Inner-city parking lots could become parks. Traffic lights could be less common because hidden sensors in cars and streets coordinate traffic. And, yes, parking tickets could become a rarity since cars would be smart enough to know where they are not supposed to be.
As scientists and car companies forge ahead — many expect self-driving cars to become commonplace in the next decade — researchers, city planners and engineers are contemplating how city spaces could change if our cars start doing the driving for us. There are risks, of course: People might be more open to a longer daily commute, leading to even more urban sprawl.
That city of the future could have narrower streets because parking spots would no longer be necessary. And the air would be cleaner because people would drive less. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, 30 percent of driving in business districts is spent in a hunt for a parking spot, and the agency estimates that almost one billion miles of driving is wasted that way every year.
Three months after they were released from being kidnapped for a decade, the three victims of Ariel Castro broke their silence. In a video recorded June 2nd, the three victims thanked everyone for their support.
Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus and Michelle Knight were kidnapped and kept in Castro’s home for 10 years. They were discovered by a neighbor and reunited with family. Castro faces 329 charges including murder, rape and kidnapping and was indicted in a 142 page document spanning the years from August 2002, when the first victim disappeared to 2007. Prosecutors are still investigating more charges, and have left open the possibility of pursuing the death penalty.
Pat Buchanan has said some… dumb and questionable things at times. His apparent hatred for other races has come out on many occasions. So hearing him say again that immigration reform would be the end of America, the collective response is oh, there goes Pat again. Like it’s expected. But at what point do we stop giving these hate mongers a mic?
Pat’s has been attributing immigration reform to America’s destruction for quite sometime now. Back in 2007, he lamented that the America where most immigrants came from European countries “is gone forever.” He questions why “third world countries” are now becoming a major source for new immigrants.
And keeping true to form, Buchanan continued his be-afraid-of-the-immigrant warning, saying that America will break up just like the Soviet Union did.
The Daily Caller posts a clip of Buchanan warning that if “you put 100 million Hispanic folks in the United States,” the southwest will become “as much a part of Mexico as it is of the United States.”
“If they have a different language, different culture, different faith, basically you get two peoples and two peoples eventually become two countries,” he said.
Buchanan went on to offer an alternate history of the United States, which he said became “one nation back around 1960, when all the immigrants who had come from eastern and southern Europe 1890-1920 had been assimilated and Americanized” through the Depression, World War II and television programming. “That brought us all together, and now we’re falling apart,” he said.
What you get is a growing disintegration of the country, a fragmentation into different parts. And we see this happening all over the world in the last few decades, where ethnic groups and linguistic minorities, ethnic minorities, cultural minorities, given the pressures of ethno-nationalism, are breaking up countries all over the world. It’s happening all over the Middle East; it happened in the Balkans, where Yugoslavia broke up into seven countries; the Soviet Union broke up into 15 countries.
You put 100 million Hispanic folks in the United States, and say 70 million of them on the southwest border, that becomes as much a part of Mexico as it is of the United States. If they have a different language, different culture, different faith, basically you get two peoples and two peoples eventually become two countries.
This is what I see as the future of America is the balkanization and disintegration of the country that had become one nation back around 1960, when all the immigrants who had come from eastern and southern Europe 1890-1920 had been assimilated and Americanized. We’d all gone through the Depression together, heard radio together, went through World War II together, and American television together. That brought us all together, and now we’re falling apart. – See more at: http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/buchanan-immigration-reform-will-cause-us-break-soviet-union#sthash.RABfrSaR.dpuf
Derek Jeter is in the final stretch of his long rehabilitation that has kept him out of games in the Bronx since he broke his ankle back in October. Saturday marked the first action Jeter has seen in a live game since spring training when he re-broke his ankle. It’s been a long and emotionally painstaking road for the notoriously impatient Yankee captain and he is in a hurry to get back where he belongs. However, fans in Scranton, Pennsylvania wouldn’t mind if Jeter took a little longer to get back in his familiar pinstripes.
Since Saturday, Jeter has been playing for the Scranton Railriders, a Class AAA affiliate of the New York Yankees. He has put on quite the clinic, doing his best to prove to the suits in the Bronx that he is ready to help his team. The passed 3 games at the newly renovated PNC Park have all been sell out crowds of 10,000 and Jeter even admitted to being a little nervous before Saturdays game. So far, Jeter’s progress has been well documented. A few scouts even marveled at how honed in Jeter seems even after missing so much time. However, Jeter’s impact on the field may not compare to the impact he is having on this small town community in Pennsylvania.
Derek is staying at the Hilton Scranton and Conference Center and I’m sure it wouldn’t be difficult for a person of his means to stay shut in his hotel suite while he is not at PNC Park but the star shortstop has done just the opposite. He has gone out to many local business to show his face and his support. And with social media being so readily available, it doesn’t take long for business to pick up at whatever local eatery Jeter is at.
Jeter has been to Osaka on Adams Avenue for dinner, the Backyard Alehouse on Linden Street for drinks. He’s been to the Downtown Deli on Spruce Street in Scranton for lunch. He’s also enjoyed a couple of steak houses such as Carl Von Luger Steak and Seafood and State Street Grill in Clarks Summit. As you may know, Jeter loves his Starbucks so he has even paid a visit to the Steamtown Mall coffee-house for a triple grande non-fat cappuccino. Staff at each local business described Jeter as friendly and approachable. Many calling him just a normal guy. It didn’t take long for word to spread each time and Jeter graciously took photos and signed autographs for fans who were nice enough to keep their distance until Jeter was finished with his meal.
Mark Grambo, 23, had dinner with his mom and sister at the State Street Grill. He described Mr. Jeter as a normal guy, dressed in jeans and a T-shirt and eating a salad.
“As a baseball fan, it doesn’t get any better than Derek Jeter,” said Mr. Grambo, noting that he’s an Atlanta Braves fan. “It doesn’t matter who you like, it was awesome. He’s the face of the game, a non-steroid using hero.” Grambo also said that within 20 minutes, the restaurant was packed.
Plenty of Yankee fans wait with bated breath for the captain to return but while he is in Scranton he seems to be doing all he can to generate revenue for local business owners. It seems the community around Scranton, PA will be sad to see Jeter go.
Under the Dome is an extremely literal title. The main characters, primarily the residents of the small (presumably New England, since it’s written by Stephen King, but not specified that I can recall) town Chester’s Mill, along with some people who were passing through, are completely trapped from the outside world under a giant mysterious dome. So far, we know nothing can go through the dome, including sound, and citizens haven’t yet found a way to contact anyone outside the dome. The only method of communication is through sight on either side of the dome.
So that’s our big premise, taken from a recent Stephen King novel of the same name. That’s by far the most important part of the first episode. The second task of the pilot is to get a passing look at who we can guess will be our major characters. Here they are in short. First, you’ve got chief of police veteran Duke (Jeff Fahey, pilot Lapidus on Lost), and his younger chief deputy Linda, engaged to a firefighter outside of the dome. Due to poor timing, many of the town’s police were out of town participating in a parade. There’s “Big Jim” Rennie, car salesman and town council member (played by Dean Norris, Hank from Breaking Bad). Big Jim and Duke have a tet a tet most of the way through the episode and appear to be keeping some sort of secret from most of the town involving bringing in lots of propane.
There’s a pair of erstwhile summer lovers, teenagers Junior and Angie. What was a fun little fling goes bad when Angie doesn’t reciprocate Junior’s love, and Junior turns out to be some sort of psycho and kidnaps Angie and locks her away in a fallout shelter. Joe, a high schooler, is Angie’s younger brother. They’re both parentless for the duration of the dome.
There’s a Barbie, an ex-military out of towner who was looking shady at the beginning and could be either good or bad. He appears to have been on some sort of mission that involved needing a gun and looks a little like Jeremy Renner. He’s staying with local journalist Julia for the time being whose husband is missing and/or dead and/or having an affair.
Phil is a local radio DJ, and Dodee is his engineer at the station. Alice and Carolyn are parents just passing through en route to drop off their troubled, rebellious daughter Mackenzie at camp, before they get trapped (if only they hadn’t stopped at that one gas station).
Those are from what I could suss out the major characters, though there may be more introduced later, and some of the characters I described may turn out to be more minor than I could have figured from the premiere.
There are two major fronts then to work with in Under the Dome. There’s the question behind what the dome actually it is, how the characters find that out, if they can communicate outside the dome, get anything in, etc.
Then, what will probably occupy more time, is how everybody deals with the situation that arises when the characters realize they’re cut off from the rest of the world. Separating all the characters from the rest of society under the dome should give us a set up for the classic science fiction situation of an external futuristic (or supernatural) power forcing humans into difficult and unusual situations. They’ll have to decide whether to work together or compete and act outside of the ways they do every day, revealing their true natures. Do people look out for each other and help to store food for the good of the whole town? Do they form gangs and compete and engage in violence? It’s a classic Lord of the Flies scenario, and the dome is their island.
As I’ve said time and again, I’m a sucker for high concept serial science fiction shows. I know by now better than to get too excited from a mere one or two episodes of a series. Big sci-fi series like these so often disappoint, and they’re a thousand times easier to begin than to end (or to, well, middle, for that matter). It’s not particularly difficult to think of a wacky situation and create a cast of characters; it’s much harder to flesh out those characters with realistic and believable motivations and create a plot that obeys the rules set out by the show, and is compelling, well-paced, and not anti-climactic.
This has the building blocks. The reason it’s intriguing is solely the future possibilities but it’s hard to ask for too much more out of a first episode. There’s nothing about the writing or the characters or the film work that stands out, but I’m affirmatively intrigued due largely to the plot, and with pilots, if the plot is compelling enough that can be enough, especially for sci-fi or fantasy.
Will I watch the next episode? Yes. It’s on CBS. I can’t remember the last show I’ve watched a second episode of on CBS. I’ve repeatedly faced let downs with these types of shows; I watched multiple episodes of Revolution which I regretted quickly, as well as Terra Nova. I’m probably never going to learn completely. All I can do is know my own biases and prepare myself for the likely disappointment. In its favor, this at least this has some source material by a credible writer to work with, and is created by Brian K. Vaughan, a comic writer whose work I’ve enjoyed.
The 20-year-old, whose birth name was Daniel Pellegrine, was rapping to a crowd at a public housing complex when he was attacked, according to Billboard, which cited local news sources. After the incident, he was rushed to an area hospital, where he died, the publication said.
No information has been released on arrests or potential suspects in the case.
Video of the shooting shows the musician breezing through a mid-tempo hip-hop track before the crowd when he suddenly collapses and falls to the ground.
Last week in northern Brazil, a referee stabbed and killed a soccer player after an argument over a call. It led to the ref being decapitated by the dead player’s fans
As for the killing of Daleste, there is extremely graphic video footage of the shooting (it presently has more than 4oo million views) on the next page.
Rest in peace Daniel “MC Daleste” Pellegrine.
– See more at: http://hiphopwired.com/2013/07/08/brazilian-rapper-shot-killed-on-stage-video/#sthash.CeGYbCGm.dpuf
I have a violet lanyard, and attached to it is a violet ID card from New York University. At the bottom, under my picture, it says, “Visiting Scholar.” Yes, friends, it’s summer and time for all good teachers, at some point in their careers, to be called a Visiting Scholar.
My entrée to this august realm is courtesy of a Great Society law that created the National Endowment for the Humanities, a publicly funded entity whose sole mission is to encourage and support the study and research of the…well, humanities. You know the humanities. They were the subjects in high school and college that promised never to get you a job or a girl/boyfriend or a terrific pile of money. You took them because the education system said that you had to. Languages, literature, philosophy, religion, music, history. They were good for the soul and nourishment for the brain. The Bran Flakes of the curriculum. The subjects that are now threatened because of budget cuts and low enrollment. The basis of our civilization and the cornerstone of our national political and cultural life.
Those Humanities. You remember them.
Anyway, I am a Visiting Scholar (because my lanyard says so) in a seminar called, Eastern Europe in Modern European History at NYU which runs for three weeks and is lead by a fact and analysis machine named Dr. Larry Wolff. There are 15 other Visiting Scholars from across the country and we’re here because of a competitive process that the NEH used to choose us.
It’s terrific. I’ve been there a week and I’m already a better teacher than I was at the end of June. I have materials I can share with my students. I have more knowledge for myself. I have perspective. But I also have the intangibles that come from being among other teachers; judgement, support and camaraderie. A representative came from the NEH to observe us this past week and I engaged him in conversation about how wonderful this seminar is so far. He remarked that he understood what many politicians are pushing and that he supported us as scholars and teachers and leaders and educators and all of the things we’d love to hear from politicians, but we don’t because they don’t understand. It’s nice to know that we have people like him on our side.
I’ve read the bunkum from right wing think tanks that say that these kinds of programs don’t make teachers better or that they cost too much and there’s no objective way of measuring how much students actually gain from having teachers participate. This shows just how anti-intellectual the non-reformers are and it further exposes their agenda that wants to further cut outstanding programs like this so that we can save money and give a buck and a quarter back to every taxpayer.
Don’t you believe any of that. This is what education should be and I’m proud to be a part of a government program that recognizes how important all of us Visiting Scholars are to our students. I’m looking forward to the rest of the seminar.
And I’m going to hang my violet ID badge up in my classroom this fall. My students should know that their teacher is a scholar.
On the last leg of their Gun Control Tour and getting the message out for stricter gun regulations, Former Arizona Congresswoman Gabby Giffords and her husband, former Astronaut, Mark Kelly were in Raleigh, NC Sunday.
After the couple had visited a shooting range, they sat down for lunch at The Pit Authentic Barbecue in downtown Raleigh with 14 hand-picked members of the organization she and her husband founded that promotes gun violence prevention called, “Americans for Responsible Solutions”. All are gun owners and are lobbying for expanded background checks. The group is attempting to drum up support at the ‘combat boot’ level by visiting key states that had voted Against background check legislation.
“Gabby and I are both gun owners. I’ve served in the military for 25 years,” Kelly said. “We are strong supporters of the Second Amendment.”
But Second Amendment protections shouldn’t stand in the way of common-sense gun controls, he said.
Kelly stated that they’re not fighting for stricter regulations because His wife was shot, but because of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Newtown, Ct. which took the lives of 20 children and 6 staff members.
“In six months since Newtown, our national response has been to do nothing,” Kelly said. “It’s unacceptable.”
“We need to do a better job keeping guns out of the hands of criminals, the dangerously mentally ill, the way we do that is we expand background checks to gun shows, private sales and internet sales,” he said.
Of course, pro-gun rights critics were quick to oppose the visit. A group known as, “Grass Roots North Carolina”, criticized the couple for sitting down only with members of their organization rather than reaching out to All gun owners as a whole.
“They own guns, but I don’t believe they represent the majority of gun owners,” said Rick Foster. “I sympathize with (Giffords), but I believe her efforts are misdirected. She’s the victim of someone mentally deranged. Her efforts ought to be focused on helping to improve the mental health system.”
“Why are they hiding from the gun owners they claim to represent?” the group said in a statement Friday.
It should be added as a footnote that the group offered 100 rounds of free ammo to the first person to track down where Giffords would be. Yes, you read it correctly. “Track Down” is how it was reported. (And they wonder why Gabby and Mark didn’t divulge their meeting location).
I Pray for Success to the Gifford-Kelly campaign of Awareness and Change for this Serious and Important regulation to bring about stricter Gun Laws with a No-Brainer approach to background checks.
Too Much Gun Violence. Too Many Deaths. Too Much Talk. “Fight, fight, fight, be bold, be courageous, the nation is counting on you,” Giffords told the crowd. The Time Is NOW Washington!
A hospital spokesman said Teresa Heinz Kerry, right, was hospitalized Sunday, July 7, 2013 in critical but stable condition in a hospital on the island of Nantucket, Mass. (Michael Dwyer, File/AP Photo)
Teresa Heinz Kerry was in critical but stable condition at a Boston hospital after being transferred there from a hospital in Nantucket, where she and husband Secretary of State John Kerry were vacationing.
A family spokesman said that Heinz Kerry was transferred to Massachusetts General Hospital from Nantucket Cottage Hospital, where she was taken by ambulance earlier today.
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) – Officials investigating a jetliner crash in San Francisco have determined that Asiana Airlines Flight 214 was traveling “significantly below” its target speed as it approached the airport and that the crew tried to abort the landing just before it smashed onto the runway. What they don’t yet know is why, and whether the pilot’s inexperience with this type of aircraft and this airport played a role.
A fire truck sprays water on Asiana Flight 214 after it crashed at San Francisco International Airport on Saturday, July 6, 2013, in San Francisco. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)
This photo provided by Antonette Edwards shows what a federal aviation official says was an Asiana Airlines flight crashing while landing at San Francisco airport on Saturday. (AP Photo/Antonette Edwards)
A day after the jetliner crash-landed in San Francisco, killing two people and injuring more than 180, officials said Sunday that the probe was also focusing on whether the airport or plane’s equipment could have also malfunctioned.
Also Sunday, San Mateo County Coroner Robert Foucrault said he was investigating whether one of the two teenage passengers killed actually survived the crash but was run over by a rescue vehicle rushing to aid victims fleeing the burning aircraft. Remarkably, 305 of 307 passengers and crew survived the crash and more than a third didn’t even require hospitalization. Only a small number were critically injured.
“When woman is lost, so is man. The truth is, woman is the window to a man’s heart and a man’s heart is the gateway to his soul.”
~ JADA PINKETT SMITH
How is man to recognize his full self, his full power through the eye’s of an incomplete woman? The woman who has been stripped of Goddess recognition and diminished to a big ass and full breast for physical comfort only. The woman who has been silenced so she may forget her spiritual
essence because her words stir too much thought outside of the pleasure space. The woman who has been diminished to covering all that rots inside of her with weaves and red bottom shoes.
I am sure the men, who restructured our societies from cultures that honored woman, had no idea of the outcome. They had no idea that eventually, even men would render themselves empty and longing for meaning, depth and connection.
There is a deep sadness when I witness a man that can’t recognize the emptiness he feels when he objectifies himself as a bank and truly believes he can buy love with things and status. It is painful to witness the betrayal when a woman takes him up on that offer.
He doesn’t recognize that the [creation] of a half woman has contributed to his repressed anger and frustration of feeling he is not enough. He then may love no woman or keep many half women as his prize.
He doesn’t recognize that it’s his submersion in the imbalanced warrior culture, where violence is the means of getting respect and power, as the reason he can break the face of the woman who bore him four children.
When woman is lost, so is man. The truth is, woman is the window to a man’s heart and a man’s heart is the gateway to his soul.
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