Monthly Archives: August 2010

  

When Scientology was nicer. In 1995.

From longform.org comes this 15-year old Wired article about the Internet discovering Scientology, and vice versa. It’s a quaint read; the descriptions of how the early Net adopters traded messages through Usenet is about as unfamiliar to the Facebook generation as the Pony Express was to telephone users.

The author, Wendy M. Grossman, describes how early on, a Scientologist staffer wrote a memo advocating the flooding of the Internet with “positive messages”:

“If you imagine 40 to 50 Scientologists posting on the Internet every few days, we’ll just run the SPs right off the system. It will be quite simple.” She ended with, “I would like to hear from you on your ideas to make the Internet a safe space for Scientology to expand into.”

This memo, when leaked to Usenet, caused an uproar, according to Grossman, which led to an all-out war between the church and its anonymous online critics…a war that hasn’t quite abated 15 years later. If we give the Scientologist staffer the benefit of the doubt, isn’t she basically describing the marketplace of ideas? That is, that the best, most truthful ideas will rise to the top without the need for censorship. Without reading the rest of this memo, it’s difficult to say whether the staffer intended a more insidious campaign, such as a denial-of-service attack (a flood of messages making it impossible for others to read or post to the the newsgroup). And, as Grossman writes, the church opted for a strategy of aggressive censorship and litigation, which, as we know today, didn’t help the church’s image at all.

If the church wanted to adopt a more benevolent approach today, that is, having all of its followers post to the Internet in a reasonable and rational manner…well, it’s probably too late to convince people that it was sincerely trying the “marketplace of ideas” route. What could’ve been, I guess…

  

JetBlue’s Steven Slater’s Great Escape

Steven Slater

I predict a great talk-show circuit for (former) JetBlue flight attendant Steven Slater, who had an Office Space like moment at the end of a flight and went crazy, in a happy, mostly harmless way. I mean, he’s no Sully, but he’s got to have some admirers among frequent fliers, who’ll see his maniac episode as confirmation of the madness that is modern air travel.

From the NYT:

On Monday, on the tarmac at Kennedy International Airport, a JetBlue attendant named Steven Slater decided he had had enough, the authorities said.

After a dispute with a passenger who stood to fetch his luggage too soon on a full flight just in from Pittsburgh, Mr. Slater, 38 and a career flight attendant, got on the public-address intercom and let loose a string of invective.

Then, the authorities said, he pulled the lever that activates the emergency-evacuation chute and slid down, making a dramatic exit not only from the plane but, one imagines, also from his airline career.

On his way out the door, he paused to grab a beer from the beverage cart. Then he ran to the employee parking lot and drove off, the authorities said.

And c’mon, this is as graceful as an arrest as you can get:

Mr. Slater, Mr. Krakowski said, “had a smile on his face when the cops brought him out, like, ‘Yeah, big deal.’ ” Mr. Slater was taken to a Port Authority police building at the airport and was expected to be held overnight.

Here’s his MySpace page…I don’t want to make a flip judgment, but if you’re 38 and still maintaining an active MySpace page…

General Back flying after five years off the job and having a ball. If I am on the ground, I am probably in my humble home in the ‘burbs doing something domestic and trite. like vacuuming.Or dining, as I just love to dine. Which leads to the gym, to offset the dining. Big fan of sand and sun, I am often found on the beach or in a park, anywhere I can catch some exercise and a few rays. My airline affiliation allows me amazing travel privileges, and I love to max it out with trips around the world, sometimes on a moment’s notice!Let’s go!

Music totally random and eclectic tastes here, my iPod is full of cheesy disco trash and sappy big hair metal ballads. Had a New Jack thing recently, New Edition, Ralph tresvant, etc. Must be feeling nostalgic in my years. Enjoy classical, and give me an Irish tenor anyday. Jazz and New Age, Ambient, loung, chill

Well howdy friends and loved ones! Thanks for stopping by my little piece ‘o the web! Chances are I am flying 35, 000 feet somewhere over the rainbow on my way to some semi-fabulous JetBlue Airways destination! Truly, some are better than others. But I am enjoying being back in the skies and seeing them all. The last few years have ssen me grounded, doing the daily grind,’9 to ‘5-, “real job” thing and hating most of it. Now I am back in the swing of life and having a blast. Can’t wait to see where I go next! Beating alcoholism and substance abuse “one day at a time” has opened up new worlds of opportunity for me, and I am so thankful to those who have guided me along the path to successful living, and given me new wings to fly. See you above the clouds….

Who I’d like to meet:
Anybody with a good attitude, a positive vibe, and a curiosity for the world around them. People who most appeal to me are warmhearted and kind, have a sense of right and wrong, and a decent head on their shoulders. Be whoever you are, just be real and be yourself. We are all God’s children, each unique and talented in our own right.

As the NYT puts it, he was a career flight attendant. His work itinerary, according to MySpace:

Steven- NYCFLYER’s Companies
JetBlue Airways
JFK, US
Flight Attendant

Delta Air Lines
CVG,ATL,JFK, US
Flight Attendant

1997-2002
TWA-Trans World Airlines
JFK, STL, US
Flight Attendant

1995- 1996
Business Express Airlines- Northwest Airlink
BOS, PVD, BUF, US
Flight Attendant

1994-1996
SkyWest Airlines
SLC, PSP, US
Flight Attendant

  

Eye Heart New York

Bubble Dealer

A Bubble Dealer, on Spring St. and Broadway, shortly before the market crash of 2008

UPDATE: It is now a Tumblr: http://tumblr.eyeheartnewyork.com

It’s such a nice day out, I think I’ll make yet another blog about New York…

I’ve been looking for an area to test out HTML5, some other WP themes, and to shuffle all my New York-centric BS. I don’t know if I’ll ever complete this site about New York but at least I can get it indexed now.

Trying out Inuit Types, a half-magazine, half-blog format. Seems nice, though the image handling isn’t as flexible as I’d like. Or intuitive, at least.

  

NYC Resident Discovers What Shopping in a Safeway/Key Foods/Walmart Supercenter is like for Asian/Hispanic-Americans

NYC Resident Discovers What Shopping in a Safeway/Key Foods/Walmart Supercenter is like for Asian/Hispanic-Americans

From the Onion WSJ’s New York edition, “Changes in Flushing Set Off Food Fight”, a group of people feel disenfranchised by a lack of Lean Cuisine:

The recent closure of a Key Food in Flushing was the last straw for many longtime residents, who say they feel ignored and isolated. Now, they are asking the new Asian market in the area to cater to them, too.
…
Some non-Asian residents mourn the neighborhood’s transformation, saying it feels like a foreign country. They say the Key Food, which closed in late May, was among the last grocery stores where they could buy Lean Cuisine and deli meats.

“Most of the supermarkets in the area are Asian markets and all they have is just one single aisle of food for us,” said Rosa Febles, 50 years old, who has lived in Flushing for four decades. “We feel a little left out.”

h/t @mariancw

  

The Washington Post on ‘Fuck’

From WaPo TV critic Lisa de Moraes’s column about “The View” and Michaele Salahi, who is best known for…oh, who gives a [have sex]? Just notice how the WaPo editors handle the big F:

Washington Post's word for "Fuck"

Text:

In theory, Michaele was there, with the show’s other cast mates to plug the new “Housewives” debut. But Michaele wanted to talk about how Whoopi had been “berating” her backstage on “The View.” In fairness, Michaele did explain that Whoopi also told her, “You know me, I say, ‘[have sex] this,’…but I don’t mean that. You understand that.'”

“I don’t know her personality,” Michaele emoted. “I know her from the movie ‘Sister Act’ so I don’t expect a sister to be saying [have sex with] you. ‘”

Maybe it’s a new auto-censor they’re using? But I’m guessing a human would’ve had to add the preposition ‘with’ to the second use of the ‘fuck’-substitute…but then, what human would think that “[have sex with]” is better usage there than “[have sex]”, and also think that ‘[have sex’] is a better substitution than “F***” or “*bleep*” or “screw” or good ol’ “eff”, as MSNBC puts it? Fuck, the ‘have sex’ doesn’t even make any sense in the first usage. Is this in the style book…or maybe de Moraes is thumbing her nose at the Post’s usual way of censoring ‘fuck’?

A Google search doesn’t turn up any other obvious uses of ‘[have sex]’.

Just in case the WaPo copy desk needs a quick reference for other fill-ins to censor ‘fuck’ with, here’s a short primer (attributed, wrongly?, to Monty Python), which notes “It’s meaning is not always sexual”:

Perhaps one of the most interesting words in the English language today, is the word fuck. Of all the English words beginning with f, fuck is the single one referred to as the “f-word”. It’s the one magical word. Just by it’s sound it can describe pain, pleasure, hate and love. Fuck, as most of the other words in English, has arrived from Germany. Fuck from German’s “fliechen” which mean to strike. In English, fuck folds into many grammatical categories. As a transital verb for instance, “John fucked Shirley”. As an intransitive verb; “Shirley fucks”. It’s meaning is not always sexual, it can be used as an adjective such as; John’s doing all the fucking work. As part of an adverb; “Shirley talks too fucking much”, as an adverb enhancing an adjective; Shirley is fucking beautiful. As a noun; “I don’t give a fuck”. As part of a word: “abso-fucking-lutely” or “in-fucking-credible”. Or as almost every word in a sentence: “fuck the fucking fuckers!”. As you must realize, there aren’t many words with the versitility such as the word fuck,as in these examples used as the following words;
– fraud: “I got fucked”
– trouble: “I guess I’m really fucked now”
– dismay: “Oh, fuck it!”
– aggresion: “don’t fuck with me, buddy!”
– difficulty: “I don’t understand this fucking question”
– inquery: “who the fuck was that?”
– dissatisfaction: “I don’t like what the fuck is going on here”
– incompetence: “he’s a fuck-off!”
– dismissal: “why don’t you go outside and fuck yourself?

h/t @mariancw

  

NBC Bay Area (reported or ignored) Prop 8 Decision

From NBCBayArea.com:

nbcbayarea-gay-marriage-png

How nbcbayarea.com reported Prop 8 Decision before everyone else

(look at the second paragraph)

Well, I guess it could be a web editor’s cynical statement of how this case is just one more step in the long legal wrangle. The following grafs, such as “Lawyers on both sides of the issue said they will appeal if Walker did not rule in their favor.”, would’ve applied no matter what.

h/t @mariancw

  

Anna Kendrick, etc. at the Apple SoHo store

The cast of “Scott Pilgrim vs. the World” made an appearance at the SoHo Apple store. I think I was the oldest person there, except for the older uncle who was pathetically trying to give kids money for their Scott Pilgrim cheap-ass memorabilia (even for $20-$40, no kid wanted to talk to him. I ended up giving him my lanyard because I felt sorry, and the sad fellow didn’t even say thank you).

Scott Pilgrim vs. The World at SoHo Apple Store, Michael Cera, An

Scott Pilgrim vs. The World at SoHo Apple Store, Michael Cera, Anna Kendrick, Jason Schwartzman, Edgar Wright

Kendrick plays such a difficult, uptight character in “Up in the Air”, which wasn’t a favorite of mine to begin with, that you forget that behind all those acting chops is an old fashioned hottie.

Scott Pilgrim cast at SoHo Apple Store

I would’ve gone just to see Edgar Wright talk, though. Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz were pretty much brilliant. Without his name behind the helm of “Scott Pilgrim”, I would’ve dismissed it as another cute-but-not-as-good-as-Superbad-Michael-Cera-teen-comedy. Cera was funny, but the awkward-kid-schtick only goes so far, it was a lot more interesting to hear Wright talk about trying to emulate Hong Kong movies.