New York City Sights – The Empire State Building
By Brian | May 3, 2009
Since last week’s NYC Sight was Ground Zero, former site of the World Trade Center (then the tallest building in New York), I thought this week’s should feature the current tallest building in New York, the Empire State Building.
And while my camera doesn’t do extremely well in low-light situations, I’ve always preferred to view the Empire State Building at night. The famous lights on it’s top section are often colored to reflect some city-centric event or holiday (blue for a Yankees’ championship, green for St. Patrick’s Day, Red & Green for Christmas, etc.). When nothing of import is going on, it’s white:
If you ever get the chance, walk south down Seventh Avenue in Manhattan from 35th Street to 34th Street. On your left, you’ll see Macy’s Department Store (the “largest store in the world”). As you walk past Macy’s and approach 34th Street, the Empire State Building appears in your view like someone opened a curtain at a Broadway theater. It’s very dramatic (moreso if you can imagine Also sprach Zarathustra in your head).
Categories: New York, New York | 2 Comments »
Reading about Torture
By Brian | May 3, 2009
Jeff Porten raised an interesting question
Categories: Political Rantings | 2 Comments »
Two Fascinating Political Videos
By Brian | April 29, 2009
Both via Megan McArdle’s excellent blog over at The Atlantic, Asymmetrical Information:
First, we have Arlen Specter, who has announced he’s switching parties, choosing to run for re-election in the Democratic parties, despite a long career as a Republican. This move gives the Democrats a 60-40 margin in the Senate, which allows them to override filibusters (assuming Minnesota eventually works itself out) which is big news, I guess, although I’m sure Arlen Specter wasn’t just in it for the publicity – he must have had some kind of personal gain in mind. Well, as it turns out, he’s happy to tell us what it was:
“I have surveyed the sentiments of the Republican Party in Pennsylvania, done public opinion polls, observed other public opinion polls, and have found that the prospects for winning the Republican primary are bleak. I’m not prepared to have my 29-year record in the United States Senate decided by the Pennsylvania Republican primary electorate.”
So, in other words, “I can’t win in that race, so I’m trying another one.” The honesty is, well, shocking.
Second, a rather clever discussion about President Obama’s plan to cut $100 million of spending out of the Federal Budget. I like this, not because of the commentary it makes on the President’s budget cuts – after all, every little bit helps – but because of the point it makes about how casually we throw around words like “million,” “billion,” and “trillion” as if they all mean roughly the same thing:
Categories: Political Rantings | 4 Comments »
Accidental Geo-Maps
By Brian | April 28, 2009
This is very cool (from Newscientist via Speculist):
Billions of photos have now been uploaded to the internet, and many are tagged with text descriptions. Some are even geotagged
Categories: Random Acts of Blogging | 3 Comments »
Photo-Op Fiasco
By Brian | April 28, 2009
OK, quick quiz: This picture was taken in lower Manhattan within blocks of the World Trade Center site. Question: on what day was it taken? Wrong, guess again. It was yesterday, April 27, 2009.
In what was clearly the dumbest move of the Obama administration thus far, a gentleman named Louis Caldera, the director of the White House military office, decided to fly one of the modified 747’s that serves as Air Force One when the President is on board, over and around the Statue of Liberty, in order to take pictures of it, which would later be given out to family, friends or supporters. The pictures were taken by someone in an F-16 fighter jet, which was trailing the 747.
According to the New York Daily News, the planes flew as low as 1,000-1,500 feet above the city, circling the Statue of Liberty and then flying over Manhattan, Staten Island, and New Jersey. As a point of reference, the World Trade Center’s Twin Towers were roughly 1,360 feet tall.
At first, Mr. Caldera and officials for the FAA claimed the flight “was approved and coordinated with everyone” via a confidential security memo that went out last week to the NYPD, the mayor’s office, the NJ State Police and other agencies. The Star Ledger (a local NJ paper) reports that the memo said, “[we acknowledge] the possibility of public concern regarding Department of Defense aircraft flying at low levels, [but] the information in this document is considered FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY and should only be shared by persons with a need to know.” They all changed their tune when the mayor of New York and the President of the United States both used the word “furious” to describe how they felt about this little stunt, and promptly apologized for the fear and panic they caused.
The reaction in New York? Well, workers in many of the surrounding buildings evacuated. Some of them ran down long staircases, just as they had on September 11, 2001. Several thought the F-16 was in pursuit of the 747, rather than escorting it, and were convinced it was going to shoot it down over lower Manhattan. One Wall Street worker said, “It’s like someone coming up to you, sticking a gun to your head for 15 seconds, walking away and hearing 20 minutes later it was an undercover cop posing for a photo.”
This woman took cell-phone video. Listen to the fear in her voice:
I believe she said, “Oh my God! That’s not normal. It’s a hijacking, I know it. It’s going around.”
Hearing about this, I can’t help thinking back to Bill Clinton’s infamous Air Force One haircut, which kept two runways at LAX closed for an extra hour back in 1993. This one wasn’t directly Obama’s fault, but it reminds me that new Presidents and their administrations are learning on the job, and don’t always comprehend the consequences of their actions.
At least Clinton’s faux pas didn’t scare the crap out of a few thousand people, though…
Categories: New York, New York | 4 Comments »
New York City Sights – Ground Zero
By Brian | April 26, 2009
For my recent visit to Yankee Stadium, I treated myself to a new digital camera (one that takes video), which means I now get to carry my old camera around every day, and photograph all those things I see in New York that make me think, “I should post that on my blog.”
I’ve tried weekly or monthly features on this blog before, all to eventual failure, so I won’t commit to any regularity, but when I see something worth capturing, I will post it under this heading – New York City Sights. Time will tell how regular it becomes.
Anyway, today’s edition focuses on the former site of the World Trade Center, known today as Ground Zero. I’m guessing that most people still think of Ground Zero as a big, empty pit, mired in political bickering and construction delays. And while it’s true that we’re almost eight years past the terrible events of September 11, 2001 and we do not have new, completed skyscrapers, there has been quite a bit of change since the day they finally emptied “the pit.” Behold:
The structure on the left is the beginning of The Freedom Tower (a.k.a., One World Trade Center). It currently stands at six stories tall, and will eventually rise to a symbolic 1,776 feet (including a rather large antenna). To the right of it (and behind the blue tarp) is the footprint of the South tower (the North tower’s footprint is behind the Freedom Tower at this angle). Those two pieces of now-sacred ground will eventually form the September 11 Memorial, currently scheduled to open on September 11, 2011 (the ten-year anniversary of the attacks).
Here’s another view of Ground Zero – this one from the Winter Garden, which is the building between the two towers of the World Financial Center (which survived the attacks). Here, you can see both tower footprints (hard to see unless you know where to look). Across the street is Century 21, a department store that has become a fixture downtown, the Millennium Hotel (to the left of Century 21), and One Liberty Plaza (to the right), which everyone thought might fall down immediately after the attacks, but turned out to be structurally sound.Categories: New York, New York | 4 Comments »
Different Diff’rent Strokes
By Brian | April 25, 2009
For anyone who doubts the effects of music in movies or television, check out these two clips:
Categories: Primetime TV | Comments Off on Different Diff’rent Strokes
The Untold History of Earth Day
By Brian | April 22, 2009
Check this out:
Today is Earth Day, a holiday created to honor the planet and to raise the consciousness of man
Categories: Random Acts of Blogging | 4 Comments »
Some Advice for President Obama
By Brian | April 21, 2009
[You should not exercise] excessive intervention in economic activity and blind faith in the state
Categories: Money Talk, The World Wide Weird | Comments Off on Some Advice for President Obama
Even loansharks took the money back
By Brian | April 20, 2009
I’ve written several long, rather technical posts on The Financial Crisis(TM). But this is short and sweet:
U.S. to put conditions on TARP repayment:
NEW YORK (Reuters)
Categories: Money Talk | Comments Off on Even loansharks took the money back
