WTF

Community Board Meeting October 21st New Hospital for Lower Manhattan

2010-10-20T06:34:00.000-07:00

1500 turn out to support a new hospital in the West Village

2010-10-17T17:04:00.001-07:00

Join Us to Rally for a New Hospital in The Village

2010-10-10T09:08:00.000-07:00

MANHATTAN — Closing St. Vincent's Hospital has left neighboring emergency rooms in chaos as they try to cope with a deluge of thousands of new patients, the the Daily News reported.

Hardest hit is Bellevue Hospital which has seen its emergency room traffic go from 8,000 to 10,000 patients a month.

The ER is so overcrowded the sick become increasingly agitated, and sometimes even violent as they wait for care, the News reported.

"We are seeing people in rapid succession continuously in every space we've got, and trying to achieve excellence in the face of substantial chaos a good part of the day and night," Bellevue’s chief of emergency medicine, Dr. Lewis Goldfrank, told the newspaper.

At Beth Israel, a newly renovated emergency room has seen an uptick of around 25 percent since the Greenwich Village health center closed its door, the News said

"Although it's stressful, it has felt more like a transition than a disaster. We felt in control," its chairman of emergency medicine told the News.

Under a staggering amount of debt, St. Vincent’s closed in April after 160 years of treating patients.

Shuttering the hospital created outrage from community residents who warned it was leaving the area with too little healthcare.

Since its closing, former staff members at the hospital have filed lawsuits alleging mismanagement of funds.

But even if they win, it won't help the patients at Bellevue.

"It’s chaos," one elderly man waiting for treatment recently told the News.

A New Hospital for The West Village?

2010-10-04T10:52:00.000-07:00

Rally to Restore Insanity?

2010-09-29T08:32:00.000-07:00

'Daily Show' host Jon Stewart announced Thursday that he'll lead a rally on Washington that aims to encourage angry citizens on both sides of the aisle to take it down a notch, or in his words, "stop shouting, throwing and drawing Hitler mustaches on people other than Hitler."
The event has been dubbed the "Rally to Restore Sanity" and will be held on the National Mall on Oct. 30. "It's real," he told his maybe-thinking-he-was-joking audience. "We are gonna do this."

In contrast with Glenn Beck's recent religious-y rally on Washington, where signs were openly discouraged, the Comedy Central funnyman urges marchers to go to town. He suggested a couple ideas, including "I Disagree With You, But I'm Pretty Sure You're Not Hitler," and "Take It Down a Notch, America."
The rally, which he also dubbed the "Million Moderate March," will lean heavy on comedy, of course. Stewart's "rival," Stephen Colbert, bum-rushed the show to announce that he too would hold his own rally nearby for "all freedom-loving patriots" to challenge the "dark, optimistic forces" of Stewart and the 'Daily Show.'
He later said on the 'Colbert Report' that in order to "fight Jon Stewart's creeping reasonableness" and "restore truthiness" he will lead the "March to Keep Fear Alive" in the same exact spot on the same day as his Comedy Central colleague.
In a statement, Comedy Central promised a face-off between Stewart and Colbert that will be "bigger than Nixon/Kennedy, Ali/Foreman, Aniston/Jolie, 50/Nas, Joe/the Volcano, Alien/Predator, Bunny/Fudd and Ecks/Sever combined."

Scaffolders At Work On The Jefferson Market Library

2010-09-17T11:57:00.000-07:00

This week saw the start of the renovations at The Jefferson Market Library in the heart of the West Village in New York City. We were amazed to watch the scaffolders building a flimsy rig around the clock tower that sways back and forth in the wind. These guys appear totally at home in the skies and even stop to have a cigarette from time to time. Last night we had a tornado watch in New York City and lots of trees were blown down and thousands of folks were left without power. (Click Here to see video from Greenwich Avenue) The scaffolding around The Jefferson Market Library however remained intact and the video today was shot the day after the storm.

Recreational POT on the Ballot!

2010-08-04T20:20:00.000-07:00

At its weekly meeting Tuesday evening, the San Jose City Council voted to put a proposed marijuana business tax on the ballot this November. The tax, which could reach up to 10 percent, would encompass business that sell medical marijuana both legally and illegally in the city.

Reported sales of medical marijuana bring in about $1.5 million annually, which means that the city could take in about $150,000. In contrast, introducing a ballot measure costs $758,000 for the first measure and $366,000 for every additional measure. In other words, it will take at least two years for the city to recoup the cost of the ballot measure under the current circumstances.

On the other hand, officials note that in this November’s election voters will also decide whether to legalize marijuana for recreational use in California. If that ballot measure goes through, the city could earn considerably more revenue from the pot tax.

There are some ironies in the marijuana tax proposal. Councilmember Pete Constant and others argued that including the illegal sale of marijuana in the tax means legitimizing an illegal activity. City Finance Director Scott Johnson countered that it would be more costly for the city to spend time determining which businesses were operating legally and which were not. In other words, people who did not pay the tax would be able to argue that they were selling pot illegally and therefore should not be taxed.

Others argued that the tax would place a financial burden on low-income users of medical marijuana. The city countered by saying that it would review the tax structure for medical and recreational marijuana if marijuana was legalized and make a distinction accordingly.

Ground Zero Mosque gets Green Light

2010-08-04T11:56:00.000-07:00

Opponents of the Ground Zero mosque are turning to the courts in a last-ditch effort to block the project that has inspired a national debate and even brought tears to the mayor’s eyes as he defended religious freedom.

Critics lost their last viable chance to derail the $100 million Islamic center Tuesday when the city Landmarks Preservation Commission voted unanimously against preserving a 152-year-old factory building at 45-47 Park Place that will be torn down to make way for the $100 million Islamic community center, called the Cordoba House.

“I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about this case,” said Frederick Bland, a commissioner, before the 9-0 vote at a Pace University auditorium. “Although it’s a handsome (building), it doest not really stand out.”

The vote drew heckles and outcries of “shame” from a handful of critics, one who held a sign saying “don’t glorify murders of 3,000.”

The American Center for Law & Justice, a conservative nonprofit, will file a lawsuit in New York Supreme Court today accusing the commission of letting politics steer its vote, a spokesman said. Still, Mayor Bloomberg and dozens other city officials are backing the center, which will include a performing arts center and other public space.

“We would betray our values - and play into our enemies’ hands - if we were to treat Muslims differently than anyone else,” said Bloomberg, who grew uncharacteristically emotional during his speech Tuesday.

There are no more public hearings on the project, which has generated national attention from Sarah Palin and other conservatives. Construction will take years, as backers still have to raise money and get permits in place.

Hurricane Higgins Dead at 61

2010-08-02T09:55:00.000-07:00

Alex Higgins, one of snooker's most talented players, explains to Jim White why his love for the game remains undimmed, despite over a decade away from the competitive arena, a ten year battle against throat cancer and vocal chords damaged in a fight.
The 1972 and 1982 world champion, a heavy smoker, was found dead in his flat in Belfast on Saturday.

Recent newspaper pictures showed a painfully thin Higgins in Spain after his hopes of having surgery to get new teeth had been dashed.

Higgins lost all his teeth during his cancer treatment but was not deemed fit enough to have the surgery.

The legendary Northern Ireland player had been suffering from throat cancer for more than a decade and he blamed his illness largely on the cigarette makers who sponsored his sport.

iPad users are " Selfish Elitists?"

2010-07-29T12:43:00.000-07:00

Users of the iPad are just a little too iProud of themselves, a new study finds. In fact, they’re a bunch of “selfish elitists.”

A technology firm grilled 20,000 Facebook users and found that iPad owners are more likely to be business-obsessed snobs who lack altruism and compassion.

These iSnobs were six times more likely to own an iPad than the average 13- to 49-year-old Internet user, according to MyType, the Web application firm behind the survey.

Critics of the iPad, how- ever, think differently.

They are more likely to be tech-savvy “indepen-dent geeks” who think Apple is a behemoth.

The study found that people making more than $200,000 a year were four times more likely than the average Joe to have one.

Among the rich and powerful, Mayor Michael Bloomberg is famously fond of his iPad.

Steven Colbert who also showed off the iPad on his Colbert Report show the evening prior to the launch and Russel Simmons are avid iPad users. I personally am waiting for the front and rear facing camera, the new OS4.1 multitasking operating system currently available the iPhone, and the ability for my iPhone to alert me via my iPad when I get a phone call. If I am watching a move, playing a game or listening to music I need a tethering capability to allow me to be alerted when a phone call comes in. OK so maybe I am a little picky but until these features are available I will not be able to run my day to day life on the iPad.

Paid to be a POT critic?

2010-07-28T12:28:00.000-07:00

Writing under the pen name 'William Breathes,' a Denver man is one of the nation's first medical marijuana critics. We do not know what his face look like because his job means that he must stay anonymous. Not only does he get to test and write about the products he is supplied with them and he gets paid every month for his efforts. There are 200 approved outlets in Colorado for medical marijuana.
It is ten years since Colorado approved medical marijuana and 2% or 100,000 residents regularly get their prescriptions filled each month. With rumors that New York will be joining Colorado in approving medical marijuana maybe as soon as next year I wonder where one should submit their resume to be considered as a critic for the local New York media?

US to strike Iran?

2010-07-25T16:24:00.000-07:00

A former CIA director says military action against Iran now seems more likely because no matter what the U.S. does diplomatically, Tehran keeps pushing ahead with its suspected nuclear program.

Michael Hayden, a CIA chief under President George W. Bush, says that during his tenure a strike was "way down the list" of options. But he tells CNN's "State of the Union" that such action now "seems inexorable."

He predicts Iran will build its program to the point where it's just below having an actual weapon. Hayden says that would be as destabilizing to the region as the real thing.

U.S. officials have said military action remains an option if sanctions fail to deter Iran.

Iran says its nuclear work is for peaceful purposes such as power generation.

Swap you my new iPhone 3GS for your IPhone 4G?

2010-07-19T12:53:00.001-07:00

I was in Cupertino and at Apple last Friday whilst Steve Jobs gave his presentation to the media as to the antenna issues with the iPhone 4G and most of the other smart phones on the marketplace at this time.
With all the recent excitement about "anetnnagate" and the Apple iPhone 4.0 I thought I would volunteer my iPhone 3GS as a straight swap to anyone who is unhappy with the new phone. My 3GS was replaced last week by Apple at the local Genius Bar so this is an unmarked 32GB in excellent condition and it's white too, so no need to wait till Apple ships the white 4G.
I have a lot of friends who have the new iPhone and not one of them has any intention of fitting the "bump" to it as you really do have to be retarded to hold the phone in a way that affects the performance. The iPhone 4G is probably the most beautiful piece of technology I have ever held in my hand and the video is stunning to say the least. Unfortunately I will have to wait until AT&T offers me an upgrade program until I own the new iPhone but in the meantime if anyone out there would like to swap?

Foursquare Madness?

2010-07-15T09:57:00.000-07:00

With the recent explosion with social media and the ability to "check in" to establishments via your smart phone I have been using Foursquare for the last few months and I am now the "Mayor" of 20 businesses in New York City. Although one of these places is my own roof deck the others have been earned by diligent checking in each time I visit. My favorite bar in the west village, Wogie's Bar & Grill is one of my recent conquests and I am the currently the Mayor and I am looking forward to the day when I will be rewarded by a free shot for checking in or get free french fries with my Philly Cheese Steak. Another bar that I am also the Mayor of on Foursquare is The Downtown Galway Hooker, on seventh avenue in New York City. When I check into Foursquare it greets me with the following message: Welcome to the Downtown Galway Hooker. Check-in for $5 "round the world" beers and the Mayor gets a complimentary small order of wings or a shot of their choice. So imagine my disappointment when I checked in as the Mayor and was told that nobody, including the owner, knew anything about the promotion on Foursquare. It would appear that there is a major flaw within Foursquare, where anyone can log in as the establishment owner and make up fictitious offers when the faithful check in. I am sure that Foursquare will "plug this hole" soon but until then, check before you buy that your social media status is validated buy the owners and that you will indeed get your well deserved Mayoral rewards.

The American Dream?

2010-07-13T12:52:00.000-07:00

The American Dream

Why does time go so fast

Slow down a little and make it last

Been eight years since the towers fell

Sent a lot of folks through hell

Chasing down the evil one

Is killing more than time

Destroying everything that once was so fine

The American Dream

Why does time go so fast

Slow down a little and make it last

Everything is broken

Even the banks have failed

Nobody has spoken

They all got bailed.....

The American Dream

Torture, lies and blatant greed

Planted deep the painful seed

That grows within the Middle East

Time is where the serpent feasts

Why does time go so fast

Slow down a little and make it last

The American Dream

Unemployment & sub prime blues

All mixed up with the swine flu

War is back to Pakistan

Becoming merged with Afghanistan

Why does time go so fast

Slow down a little and make it last

Take a breath of cool fresh air

Take another, lose your cares

Oil is leaking like a sieve

This is how our fish will live

Why does time go so fast

Slow down a little and make it last

The American Dream

Knives & Firecrackers on your flight?

2010-07-10T11:39:00.000-07:00

After taking a recent International flight, a friend of mine was emptying out his back pack when he discovered that a box cutter (see image left) he had confiscated from one of his children was tucked away in a side zippered pocket. How is it possible that after all we have been through with airport security that a weapon like this can be transported on board an aircraft? The upsetting thing about this story is that he has had this weapon unknowingly in his backpack for months and has flown not only to Europe with it but extensively throughout the US. The story does not end there however because in 2009 during a trip to California my friend also discovered four fireworks in the same backpack that had also been taken from another child. This means that on multiple flights over the last year he has innocently gone through the x-ray machines at the multiple airports airports he has traveled via and not only with a dangerous weapon but on a couple of occasions with explosive materials on his person. The ironic thing about this story is that on two occasions he was scolded by the TSA for not having his liquids in the regulatory plastic bag but nobody found the knife nor the firecrackers. The good news is that that my friend was not caught with these items on his possession or he would have been no doubt ended up in a prison cell, found himself the source of breaking news on CNN and on the no fly list for the rest of his life. Wake up America, this type of incident just highlights that we are no better prepared almost ten years after 911.

Stop trying to stop me on the streets of Manhattan

2010-07-02T10:05:00.000-07:00

Why is it that every organization these days seems to have hordes of kids on the street with clipboards trying to stop us whilst we are going about our busy lives. Democrats & Republicans alike along with Greenpeace and Children International all have no doubt good causes to promote but why do they think they have the right to pester us every single day. I care about the environment, children, HIV & AIDS, global warming, battered and abused women and kids etc. but give me a break, when I hit the streets on my way to my next appointment I am already sweating like a pig in the humid summer weather, the last thing I need is bright eyed and bushy tailed teenagers evangelizing their causes to me on the streets. I already give a lot of my time to charitable causes and my wife sits on the boards of many organizations so stop giving me a bad vibe when I tell you I am too busy to stop and listen to your pitch. Don't stand in my path or I will mow you down. I wish the city would stop these gangs of do-gooders harassing the local residents instead of trying to cripple the small businesses with their ridiculous rules and regulations. When I walk the streets I wish to do so without being molested. Is that too much to ask for?

The Fear Factor

2010-05-09T10:01:00.000-07:00

I was shocked last weekend when I was watching the news on CNN and a Breaking News alert was flashed along the bottom of the screen advising us that a suspected terrorist was caught in the NYC subway system with explosives and cyanide capsules. As someone who takes the subway almost every day this caught my attention. Thank God it was a false report and the suspected terrorist was no other than a suicidal Pace University student who was found wandering in a tunnel beneath the East River dressed in construction gear and toting a bottle of cyanide.

Aaron Fetto, 20 — who told cops was looking for an "isolated place in the subway system" to kill himself — was found by NYC transit workers along the 4-train between Brooklyn and Lower Manhattan around 5:30 a.m., police sources said.

Fetto was dressed like a transit worker — wearing a orange reflector vest, a hard hat and yellow rubber boots, said police.

He was taken aboard the train and when he was unable to provide identification, was brought to the nearby Bowling Green station, where cops were waiting.

Inside his backpack investigators found a labeled, quart-sized bottle of sodium cyanide tablets, five road flares and several bottles of water, police said.

The tablets, which are available commercially, are used for jewelry cleaning and can be deadly if ingested, police said.

Fetto was interviewed by investigators from the NYPD/FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force who determined there was no terror connection, police said. "This was not a terrorist plot," said one high ranking police source. "We believe it was a plan for an individual to kill himself alone."

He admitted to police that he was suicidal, sources said.

Cops said Fetto was carrying the flares believing he could heat the tablets up to create a poisonous gas but abandoned that plan in the fear that heating the tablets alone would only paralyze and not kill him, police sources said.

Police said the flares would not be able to burn the tablets to the temperature needed to dissolve them.

He told cops he climbed down a ladder from the Fulton Street subway station and walked along the tracks into the tunnel where he was found. He said that he planned to only hurt himself and ingest the tablets with water, said police.

I did not see any retraction from CNN but rather the story faded away to become yet another bullshit report based on the FUD factor. Fear Uncertainty and Doubt.

Goodbye Street Vendors Who will look out for us now?

2010-05-06T10:52:00.000-07:00

Ever since last weeks Times Square failed bombing attempt the local street vendors have become heros which is a far cry from what our mayor, Mayor Mike Bloomberg had planned for them earlier this year.
Under new rules proposed by the Bloomberg administration, many street vendors will be banished from their usual perches. Recently The Parks Department held a hearing on the proposal, which would cut the number of vendors in city parks by 75 percent. The rules would affect vendors wishing to peddle their goods in parts of Central Park, Union Square Park, Battery Park and the High Line—where there were some issues with artists late last year. While currently there is no limit, under the new regulations Central Park would be allowed 49 artist slots, Battery Park would allow 9, Union Square would allow 18, and the High Line just 5.
According to the NY Times, the new rules are expected to pass approval, and will go into effect next month. Vendors would also be limited to designated areas within the parks, and have to follow new dimension guidelines for their stands. This is a far cry from the adulation that was heaped on the two diligent street vendors who spotted that the truck involved in the recent failed bombing attempt last weekend. Maybe it is time to re-evalute this position and let the street vendors rule little longer. Maybe they can be paid a stipend by the city to help keep us all safe.

Times Square Bomb Attempt

2010-05-03T11:10:00.001-07:00

The Police havee tracked down the owner of the SUV that was turned into a Times Square terror bomb, a spokesman said Monday.But they still haven't identified the person who drove the bomb-laden vehicle there, lit the fuse - and split.Meanwhile, investigators are hunting a man who was caught on tape moments after the SUV - packed with enough fuel, fertilizer and explosives to ignite a massive fireball - was abandoned in Times Square.According to police commissioner Raymond Kelly, "The intent was to cause a significant ball of fire.""It's a sobering reminder that New York is clearly a target for people who want to come here and do us harm," Kelly added.Security cameras captured a white man who appears to be in his 40s leaving the scene on W. 45th St. while the Pathfinder sat with its engine running, hazard lights flashing - and smoke curling from its vents.On the video, the man takes off a dark shirt to reveal a red one underneath as he hurries along Shubert Alley."He looks around, takes off that shirt, puts it in a bag and continues to walk south, looking a couple of times in a furtive manner," Kelly said.Inside the SUV, cops found dozens of M-88 firecrackers, three tanks of BBQ-style propane, two red plastic jugs of gasoline and a metal locker densely packed with eight supermarket bags of fertilizer.The whole truck was wired to two cheap old-fashioned travel alarm clocks set to work in tandem - one to blow up the propane tanks and the other to explode the contents of the locker.Kelly said experts are investigating why the bomb didn't detonate.The materials were primitive, but if the SUV had blown up, officials said the Crossroads of the World would have been turned into a deadly inferno for scores of people.

St Vincent's Hospital Closes it's doors

2010-04-30T10:02:00.000-07:00

NEW YORK — St. Vincent's Hospital, a 160-year institution in Manhattan's Greenwich Village, closed for good Friday after months of feuding and years of financial struggles.

Closed signs were posted on the hospital's double doors at 8:15 a.m. About 100 people, including nurses, doctors, other hospital workers and neighborhood residents, had gathered by the time a large blue St. Vincent's flag was removed from the emergency room doors. Some cried, while others took pictures of the building.

Furniture was quickly being removed from the main entrance while security guards looked on, keeping passers-by out.

The hospital has been scaling down operations since filing for bankruptcy earlier this month, with debt topping $1 billion. But on Friday, the last of the medical staff left.

And at noon Friday, a last Mass would be celebrated in the hospital's historic chapel, which is graced with Tiffany-style windows.

Near an ambulance area, people placed a bouquet of white roses, a lighted white candle and a card that read, "Your light shines on. Thank you, St. Vincent's."

Since it opened in 1849, the famed Manhattan hospital has treated cholera victims, survivors of the Titanic and hundreds of victims of the Sept. 11 attacks. It also was at the forefront of the early response to the AIDS epidemic.

At its closure, St. Vincent's was the last Catholic-affiliated hospital in New York City. The nearest top-level trauma center is now Bellevue Hospital, more than two miles away.

"There's a lot of heartbroken people inside the ER. ... They have been the heart and soul of this hospital for many years," said Eileen Dunn, a St. Vincent's nurse for 24 years. "I think on 9/11 we saw what hatred could do. We're seeing today what greed and politics can do to a hospital.

"It's like a funeral inside," she said.

The city deployed extra ambulances to Manhattan's lower West Side to bring emergency cases to other hospitals; two vehicles were stationed near St. Vincent's in case someone mistakenly comes for care.

Manhattan's Lenox Hill Hospital is getting more than $9 million in state money to open a 24-hour urgent care facility in the neighborhood, but it's not clear when.

"It's very sad. I wish the hospital could stay open. But the bottom line is, it's not going to," Mayor Michael Bloomberg said Friday on his weekly radio show.

"Lenox Hill has talked about ... having an acute care facility," he said. "And that's one of the dangers: If people think you can get immediate triage needed for an emergency, like a stroke or a heart attack, and go there and find they can't do it. ..."

Bob Krampner, 90, has been a patient at the hospital over the years — surgery for a knee injury and treatment for a dislocated shoulder after a fall.

"I'm very sad to see it close," he said. "There's no place to go in the event of an emergency."

He said it's "a realistic problem" as he gets older. "I don't know where I would go. I'd probably have to go to Bellevue, which is way over on the East Side."

Dr. Frederick Fiegal, associate chairman of medicine, said the closure was a huge loss not only of emergency services but also of special programs for the elderly and frail, as well as the homeless.

Charles Carpati, chief of St. Vincent's medical intensive care unit, said he felt despair over the closing, which he called "a horrible loss to this community."

He said he wasn't sure of his future plans.

"There's not a lot of turnover for our services in New York City, but we're waiting to hear from other hospitals," Carpati said.

Dominique Sicile, a nurse practitioner at St. Vincent's for 23 years, said the hospital had excellent clinicians, physicians and staff "and that somehow has disappeared in the political aspect of what they have decided to do with this place."

Bloomberg said city officials were doing everything it could to ensure New Yorkers got proper care.

The city has enough hospital beds, and the fire department added ambulances, he said. "We're doing everything we can to make sure that you're still safe."

But Miguel Acevedo of the Robert Fulton Houses Tenants Association in Chelsea, a public housing development with more than 2,200 residents, including senior citizens, was concerned.

He said many senior citizens believe that if they had a heart attack, they may not survive while being transferred to Bellevue or to Beth Israel.

Beth Israel Medical Center on Manhattan's East Side is more than a mile away, often through thick traffic.

Event Horizon is presented by the Madison Square Park Conservancy in partnership with the City of New York

2010-04-16T10:49:00.000-07:00

Mayor Bloomberg thinks critics of the "Event Horizon" art project can take a flying leap.

The mayor passionately defended the controversial outdoor statue exhibition yesterday, and downplayed the rash of 911 calls the life-size, realistic figures have generated from pedestrians who continue to mistake them for jumpers.

"No," Bloomberg declared, when asked if they should be taken down. "It's a great exhibition. It's one of those things that gets publicity around the world, brings tourists to New York."

Since British artist Antony Gormley's project opened March 26, cops have been dispatched several times to the Empire State Building and the area around Madison Square Park, where most of the 30 cast-iron statues have been placed on roofs and ledges.

Is the US sucking up to China over Sanctions on Iran?

2010-04-04T17:05:00.001-07:00

President Barack Obama's senior economic adviser said Sunday that the government was delaying a report to Congress on exchange-rate policies of U.S. trading partners to provide more time to address China's alleged manipulation of its currency.

Lawrence Summers, the director of the National Economic Council, told the CNN program "State of the Union" that major international meetings coming up, including a G-20 economic gathering that will include China, provided the opportunity to resolve trade differences that could be exacerbated by releasing the exchange-rate report as scheduled on April 15.

Summers called the upcoming meetings opportunities to engage China and other countries that have large trade surpluses with the United States.

U.S Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner announced the delay of the report to Congress on Saturday. Many lawmakers had hoped the report would publicly admonish China for allegedly manipulating its currency to the detriment of the United States.

Geithner, explaining the delay, said the upcoming meetings are "the best avenue for advancing U.S. interests at this time."

On Sunday, Summers denied that the delayed report had any connection to the U.S. desire for China to support tougher sanctions against Iran over the Tehran government's refusal to comply with international regulations regarding its nuclear energy program.
Keeping its currency low makes China's goods cheaper on the world market and more likely to be purchased by other countries. But, analysts say, it hurts American businesses, which cannot then compete.

Some analysts have argued that this is costing the United States 1.5 million jobs and impeding the country's economic recovery.

Testing The Owle Camera Attachment for iPhone

2010-03-30T17:13:00.000-07:00

Why an OWLE?
The videos below give an example of shooting with Airplane Mode ON and OFF on the iPhone.

Getting the most out of the iPhones camera is important, but the main problem when shooting pictures or video with one is that it's still just a phone. The simplest and yet most effective feature of the OWLE is that it's built for you to hold like a camera. Taking photo's and video is as much about the device as it is the subject.
What does is have that my iPhone doesn't?

Each of the two grips are adorned with standard female tripod mounts on both the top and bottom. These 4 mounts allow you to create any accessory you want with a trip to the camera store.

The OWLE Bubo's universal "Coldshoe" mount is great because it doesn't care what kind of light or microphone you attach to it. If one light just isn't enough, then you can buy extra cold shoe's that thread into any of the Bubo's 4 tripod mounts.

THe OWLE Bubo comes Standard with 37mm lens threading, as well as a 0.45x Wide angle/macro combination lens.

The Bad News?
The OWLE Bubo does not function for live video broadcasting as every few seconds the audio screeches with interference caused by the iPhone probably trying to let FourSquare know where you are. My USTREAM account would be a perfect companion but util there is a software fix I fear live broadcasting with the OWLE is currently beyond our grasp. If anyone reading this blog knows of anyway around this please let me know. At $125.00 including a microphone for pro audio the OWLE is still a steal and great to have in my laptop bag.

This video was shot using the OWLE with the pro audio option in normal mode.

This video was shot using the OWLE & iPhone in Airplane Mode with communications switched off. The audio is excellent.

Health Care boosts Obama's Approval Ratings

2010-03-30T10:30:00.000-07:00

Passage of the landmark health care bill appears to have boosted President Barack Obama's approval rating, but it has not affected his re-election chances so far, according to a new national poll.

President Barack Obama claimed a final victory on his top domestic priority Tuesday by signing into law a package of changes to the newly enacted health care reform bill.

Among other things, the so-called "fixes" bill significantly expands health insurance subsidies for lower- and middle-income families while watering down a tax on expensive health policies. It also overhauls the national college student loan system by shifting government funding for loans away from commercial banks to new education initiatives.

The bill increases the overall cost of the health care reform legislation to $940 billion over the next 10 years, $65 billion more than the original health care bill Obama signed into law last week.

A CNN/Opinion Research Corporation survey released Monday indicates that 51 percent of Americans approve of the job Obama is doing in the White House, with 48 percent saying they disapprove. That 51 percent approval rating is up five points from a week ago, before Congress approved the health care reform bill and the president signed the legislation into law. Four in ten respondents say they disapprove because Obama is too liberal and 6 percent say they the president is not liberal enough.

A New Open iPhone?

2010-03-30T10:17:00.000-07:00

The blogosphere is going crazy with reports that Apple is to launch a new iPhone that will work with CDMA networks this summer. Speculation that Apple would expand the iPhone to other wireless carriers has been rampant for months. Many reports, citing Apple sources, have said such a move was imminent. According to a post on CNN's website US Cellular has just sent out a internal memo stating the company will receive CDMA iPhones in June 2010. Planned launch is in July 2010 with a huge promotion for it. At time of publishing nobody could get a definitive comment from Sprint, Verizon or Apple and AT&T continued denying these reports as false. With the imminent release of the iPad it would make sense that a new operating system is on the cards to allow the iPhone to do multi-processing allowing multiple applications to function at the same time and if they were going to "blow it out" across many carriers this would be the time, as Apple's exclusivity is up with ATT in July 2010. If you own stock in Apple then relax because today it has climbed 6.5 points on the strength of these many rumors and crossed $232 at time of writing.

The Tea Party

2010-03-27T09:44:00.000-07:00

Tea Party activists will arrive in Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's hometown in rural Nevada later today to rally for his defeat in November.

Sarah Palin, who derided big government spending and "the Obama Pelosi Reid agenda" on Friday, will headline the event dubbed "Showdown in Searchlight."

What is it about the "others" who live in our great country. Why do we all have to be so divided on issues such as health care & education but yet spend billions of dollars on questionable wars. Why does anyone care what Sara Palin thinks? Like the "others" in Lost, the ABC series, should we follow John Locke or should we listen to Dr. Jack. Did Jacob really die or is everyone already dead? The Tea Party folks are on the move and possibly visiting a neighborhood near you soon, so remember, be careful what you wish for because it may come true, unless you are wishing for unity and common sense to prevail.