If you were a bird over the city…
Category: New York
Dominic Evangelista and Jessica Ware in the insect lab on the Rutgers-Newark campus. (Rob Forman)
Great news for bored New Yorkers looking to spice up their cockroach life: a new species of roach has been discovered in Manhattan, and this one isn’t fazed by cold weather. The hearty new species Periplaneta japonica was discovered last year by an exterminator on the High Line; like most everyone else in that perpetually crowded elevated park, it ain’t from around here. The exterminator immediately knew there was something special about it, so he sent several carcasses to the University of Florida for analysis.
This male (left) and female of the species Periplaneta japonica were found the High Line in 2012. (Lyle Buss, Univ. of Florida)
Rutgers insect biologists Jessica Ware and Dominic Evangelista were subsequently brought in to study the samples, and they concluded that the roach is common in Asia but has never been spotted in the U.S. “About 20 years ago colleagues of ours in Japan reared nymphs of this species and measured their tolerance to being able to survive in snow,” Ware tells Rutgers Today. “As the species has invaded Korea and China, there has been some confirmation that it does very well in cold climates, so it is very conceivable that it could live outdoors during winter in New York. That is in addition to its being well suited to live indoors alongside the species that already are here.”
Awesome, indoor-outdoor roaches. But before you surround the perimeter of your bed with glue traps, there’s a slight sprinkle of good news: these imported roaches’ weird foreign genitals don’t fit together with the normal genitals of our local roaches, so it’s unlikely they’re going to mate to produce mutant Godzilla-Sasquatch hybrid monster roaches. We’re just going to have tougher roaches now. Whatever; at this point we’ll take anything that isn’t bed bugs.
h /t – gothamist
It wasn’t just a club date and the start of a tour; it was also a video shoot. When Lauryn Hill performed at the Bowery Ballroom on Wednesday night, the camera swiveling over the heads of the audience suggested that the show was something more than Ms. Hill’s re-emergence after her recent three-month jail term for failing to file taxes. It was gathering the kind of material performers use to promote new releases — which, in Ms. Hill’s case, would be more than welcome.
She has extraordinary gifts. Though her voice is lower and raspier than it was when she emerged in the 1990s, she is a supercharged soul singer who stokes her songs all the way through, and her rapping is breakneck, articulate and vehement. She’s also an improvisatory, drama-building bandleader. Throughout her two-hour set, her musicians were watching for her signals; to bear down on a vamp or silence it, to unveil pretty, elaborately planned vocal counterpoint from her three backup singers or to whip up a churchy fervor.
There were some moments that seemed like an open rehearsal, but many more that had been well plotted to give old songs new life. “Lost Ones,” from 1998, arrived with two reinvented grooves, switching halfway through: first 1960s soul, then reggae. “I have to make these songs sustainable to perform,” Ms. Hill said. “You wouldn’t want me to just, like a robot, do the same thing every night.”
Yet on a larger scale, Ms. Hill has been in a holding pattern for more than a decade. After she made two albums as a member of the Fugees, she released her only solo studio album, “The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill,” in 1998; it won five Grammy Awards. It was followed by a skeletal live recording, “MTV Unplugged No. 2.0,” released in 2002, that backed new songs with only an acoustic guitar. Since then, while raising six children, Ms. Hill has toured on and off, released occasional songs online and on film soundtracks, and collaborated with rappers and R&B singers. This year, bracketing her jail term, she has released two new songs: the angry, tongue-twisting, polysyllabic raps “Neurotic Society (Compulsory Mix)” and “Consumerism,” both taking aim at greed, immorality, abuse, materialism and obliviousness.
Tim Hardaway Jr. has impressed as a rookie — so much so, he played nearly the entire fourth quarter Thursday night against the Bulls, one of the teams the Knicks figure to be fighting and clawing with for favorable playoff seedings.
But on the horizon looms J.R. Smith, who will serve the third leg of his five-game NBA-imposed suspension Sunday. When he returns, Hardaway’s minutes should take a big hit.
“It is a logjam,” coach Mike Woodson said of the perimeter spot, which both Smith and Hardaway play, along with Iman Shumpert, and often Pablo Prigioni. “That’s a good problem to have. But somebody’s not going to be able to play a lot of minutes. So they’ve just got to understand that. When you get your opportunity, you’ve got to make the most of it to help us.”
Hardaway is trying to do just that. In 42 minutes over two games, he has averaged 7.5 points and made 3 of 7 3-pointers.
“In the Chicago game, Tim stepped up,” Woodson said. “He’s a young kid that’s poised.”
“His confidence is sky high,” Carmelo Anthony said. “His work ethic. How much time he puts in. It pays off and shows when he gets on the basketball court.”
Hardaway credits Woodson’s faith for that soaring confidence.
“Coach said before the [Bulls] game, ‘People that are playing well are going to stay on the court and here’s an opportunity to play,’ ” said Hardaway, who hit a 3-pointer that launched the Knicks’ fourth-quarter rally and feels he has shown “heart” to the staff. “Once I heard that, just tried to take advantage, just tried to do the little things: play defense, run the floor hard, box out, defend on the low post.”
New York City police have determined that a photo of a boy riding a subway train is not that of an autistic boy missing for nearly a month.
A 13-year-old snapped the picture Tuesday and later posted it on his Facebook page.
Authorities said Thursday that the boy shown in the photo went with his mother to see police.
The boy resembles 14-year-old Avonte Oquendo (ah-VAHN’-tay oh-KEHN’-doh), who was last seen on Oct. 4 walking out of his Queens school.
The teen who took the photo approached the boy and asked if he was Avonte. But the boy didn’t respond.
Avonte’s parents had said they couldn’t be sure that the photo showed their son.
Police Commissioner Ray Kelly paid a visit Saturday to the father of Avonte Oquendo and expressed regret for saying he feared the missing 14-year-old autistic boy was dead.
“He was very nice to me,’’ Daniel Oquendo told The Post. “He apologized.’’
Kelly assured the family the search would continue for Avonte, who walked out of his Long Island City, Queens, school more than three weeks ago and hasn’t been seen since.
On Thursday, Kelly told WABC/Channel 7: “Unfortunately, we are not hopeful that we’re going to find this young man alive, but we are continuing our search.’’
The pessimistic comment infuriated the boy’s family, prompting the commissioner’s visit.
I looked up the word “desperate” in the dictionary, and this move by top New York Republicans to get Donald Trump to run for Governor against Gov Cuomo, perfectly defines the word.
They’re seeking to make the case that while Trump is only an apprentice politician, he’s the only Republican on the horizon who has the name recognition, guts and money to tell Cuomo, “You’re fired!”
They’re also arguing that Trump could launch a 2016 presidential run — which he has clearly been eyeing with his criticisms of President Obama and Washington — by first winning the election for governor.
So far, Trump, who only recently learned of the effort, which is backed by state GOP Chairman Ed Cox and other party leaders, hasn’t said a flat “no.’’
Asked for comment by The Post, Trump left open the possibility of entering the race and blasted Cuomo, and even Cuomo’s dad, ex-Gov. Mario Cuomo, for their records in office.
He initially said he was “very flattered’’ that top Republicans were promoting his potential candidacy for governor but noted that running for the office was “not something that I’ve ever even thought about.’’
A few hours later, however, Trump followed up with a scathing attack on Gov. Cuomo — for high taxes and his failure to approve fracking for natural gas — as well as on three-term Gov. Mario Cuomo.
The woman shot dead by a Brooklyn cop after she crashed a stolen car was part of a violent crew who police say forced a man into his home at gunpoint, robbed him and shot him as he ran away.
Shantel Davis, 23, took a bullet in the chest during a wild struggle with police after she tried to drive away from the smashup on Church Ave. and E. 38th St. in East Flatbush on Thursday, cops said.
No gun was found on Davis. Her rap sheet — which included robbery and drug busts — shows she was no stranger to run-ins with the law.
Davis was due in court Friday on charges stemming from an attack on April 23, 2011 — when she and a band of brutes allegedly held a man hostage as they robbed his Clarendon Road apartment, court papers show.
The heist netted cash, video games and jewelry, the documents show. But the thieves threatened to take 29-year-old Ralph Ragoobar to East New York and torture him for more loot. He managed to break free and started running down the street, court papers show.
That’s when Davis’ crew opened fire, striking the fleeing man three times in the back and once in the leg. He survived the wounds.
“I was shot five times,” Ragoobar told the Daily News. “I just want to move on with my life.”
Davis and two others were later booked on charges that included kidnapping, attempted murder and weapons possession.
Davis was out on $25,000 bail when two narcotics cops saw her blow a red light at E. 48th St. and start speeding westbound down Church Ave. about 5:35 p.m. Thursday, cops said.
The two plainclothes officers — who sources identified as Detective Phillip Atkins, 44, and Police Officer Daniel Guida, 27 — began to follow Davis in their unmarked car as she sped through a series of red lights before she crashed, cops said.
Davis was driving a 1998 Toyota Camry that she allegedly stole the week before. Armed with a pistol — and just a block away from her E. 52nd St. home — Davis approached the car’s owner, Vilma Craig, 57, and told her to hand over the keys, sources said.
“She had the gun pointed at me,” Craig told the Daily News Friday. “She took my car, my pocketbook and everything in the car.”
It was not clear whether the two cops knew the car was stolen when they approached Davis after she wrecked it.
The 5-foot-6, 185-pound Davis slid into the passenger side of the car in an attempt to flee, cops said.
After a brief struggle with Guida, Davis hopped back in the driver’s seat and tried to drive away.
Atkins, holding his service-issued Smith & Wesson 9-mm., began to grapple with the frantic woman and tried to stop her from putting the car into gear.
But Davis managed to put the car in reverse and hit the gas. During the struggle, Atkins fired one shot, hitting Davis in the chest and killing her.
Jimmy Kimmel did this a few days ago, when he sent a camera crew out on the streets of California to find out exactly what people knew about The Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare. The results were quite shocking, and they proved that the propaganda machine from Fox News and the Republican party was successful in dumbing down the American public on this healthcare law.
Now, Bill Maher followed and sent his crew out on the streets of New York. You would think that in a place like New York, the people would at least know what Obamacare is, but you would be wrong.
I guess when Republicans say they’re “winning” well, it’s hard to dispute that. Just look and listen to the ignorance displayed in a state where, in 2006, had the most post-graduate life sciences degrees awarded annually in the United States, 40,000 licensed physicians, and 127 Nobel laureates with roots in local institutions according to the New York City Economic Development Corporation.
Here are some examples:
INTERVIEWER: What do you think about the Affordable Care Act?
- “I think it’s …I think it’s affordable.”
- “The worst thing about Obamacare…is the first name. Obama. Why did he name it after HIMSELF?” (Prior to Obamacare, there was Clintoncare…a term coined in the 90s. When Hillary ran against Obama, she used ‘Obamacare’ to describe his ‘inferior’ healthcare plan. Republicans picked it up as a pejorative, and Obama began taking it back when he countered to Romney during a debate, “Obama DOES care.”)
- “Obamacare? I think he’s a stupid motherf***er.”
Madonna seems to have it all when it comes to fame and her career.
While she is living a lavish life these days, it turns out that she was taken to rock bottom when she was just 19 years old, right before her fame days came.
In the newest issue of Harper’s Bazaar, Madonna opens up about moving to NYC for the first time and being raped on top of a roof at knife-point.
In the last two decades of her fame, the “Like A Prayer” singer finally reveals details about a night she will never forget.
She tells the mag:
‘New York wasn’t everything I thought it would be. It did not welcome me with open arms. The first year, I was held up at gunpoint. Raped on the roof of a building I was dragged up to with a knife in my back.’
‘I was defiant. Hell-bent on surviving. On making it. But it was hard and it was lonely, and I had to dare myself every day to keep going,’
Video has emerged showing the shocking moment a Range Rover driver apparently drove through a crowd of motorbikes as it fled with its family inside for fear of being attacked.
Police have revealed the bikers started to attack the vehicle after the driver, 33-year-old Alexian Lien, hit a motorcyclist.
Apparently fearing for the safety of his wife Roslyn Ng and young child, aged five months, Lien sped off, hitting several bikers in his path.
The video shows Lien hitting another motorcyclist after his Rover was chased by the pack of bikers.
Warning: some viewers may find certain scenes in the video to be distressing.
Tucked up above 42nd Street in Times Square, situated next to advertisements for Ripley’s Believe It or Not and Madame Tussaud’s, is a new political message that feels out of place in a space touting the latest in fashion and entertainment.
The billboard, sponsored by the Heritage Foundation, is shaped like a federal tobacco disclaimer and warns New Yorkers about the dangers of Obamacare: “WARNING: Obamacare may be hazardous to your health”:
The message is just the latest political stunt from the organization that first developed the individual health care mandate in 1989 and later touted Obamacare-like reforms in Massachusetts. But this strategy is particularly obtuse. While premiums in the law’s soon-to-be opened health care exchanges have varied throughout the country, New Yorkers will experience savings of at least 50 percent as a result of Obamacare.