Report: It Pretty Incredible That Americans Entrusted With Driving Cars | The Onion - America's Finest News Source

Heh.

"Americans make millions of mind-boggling, idiotic mistakes every day,
and when taking into consideration the sheer amount of lives that
could be lost due to just the slightest human error while driving,
it's actually pretty goddamn shocking that we let citizens operate
4,000-pound machines capable of going 200 mph," the report read in
part, later adding that if one truly thinks about who their neighbors,
friends, and children are as people, the absolute last thing one would
be comfortable with would be them merging onto a busy highway with
cars traveling 85 mph.

All kidding aside, it is pretty amazing.  Destructive force routinely placed in the hands of cretins and imbeciles on a daily basis.

Stringer: Give MSG ten more years, but then … « Second Ave. Sagas

This makes good sense.  Penn Station IS a problem, and we need the flexibility to be able to address capacity constraints without being held hostage to a 50 year deal. 

The Penn Station problem, as I've written lately, is often tough to discern in media coverage. Some prominent city historians and architectural critics have grown too obsessed with rectifying a 50-year wrong. They want to promote the Moynihan Station venture as penance for Penn Central's decision to tear down the Beaux Arts Penn Station, and they want to move Madison Square Garden to build something that looks majestic. That solution doesn't address the fundamental problem: Penn Station rail capacity is maxed out. The platforms are too narrow, and the trans-Hudson rail tubes are too few. How can a new MSG and a new Penn Station improve rail capacity into and through New York City?
To that end, Stringer has an answer, and he lays it out in the ULURP recommendation [pdf]. Noting that both Moynihan Station and the Penn Visioning plan do not "go[] far enough, nor address[] the physical constraint of the Garden on meaningful improvements to Penn Station," Stringer first calls for improvements at the track level. Amtrak's Gateway Tunnel will work, he says, only if platforms are wider, and to widen platforms, MSG and its support columns must go. "While moving Madison Square Garden," he writes, "would potentially lead to a new, modern head house serving as a grand gateway into New York City, the true benefits in moving the arena would be increased below-grade flexibility that would allow for efficient track design."
Thus, says Stringer, it's time to develop a master plan for area. Involving all stakeholders — MSG, the city, the state, the feds, the MTA, New Jersey Transit, Amtrak, area business — will be a challenge, but the future economic development of the Midtown area and the city on the whole depend on it. "Master plans for regional and mass transit improvements can take years, sometimes decades, to implement," Stringer says. "The city must begin to create a master plan now and not wait until the system is so congested as to be broken."

Of course the arena operators have to talk their book, but it's funny how a 50 year renewal is a natural right, and a 10 year renewal is an artificial constraint.  If we're not ready to move forward with improvements in ten years, give them another ten.  And if necessary, another ten after that.  But to write off the possibility of a fix for 50 years is madness.

Menchaca vs. Gonzalez: Jabs and Left Hooks in Red Hook

This is going to be an interesting race. 

Gonzalez (D–Sunset Park) primary challenger Carlos Menchaca accuses the 10-year incumbent of being missing in action in the months following Sandy's assault on Brooklyn's largest public housing complex — a charge Gonzalez denies, and she says she has the photos to disprove it.
Menchaca hopes to pull the district that includes Sunset Park, Greenwood Heights, Red Hook, and parts of Bay Ridge, Park Slope, and Borough Park from under Gonzalez by campaigning on his relief work in the massive housing projects that stretch from Clifton to Richards streets, where last fall over 6,000 residents were left without heat, hot water, and elevator service — and, according to Menchaca, without the aid of their councilmember.

This is a district that could use a breath of fresh air.

Mazzone's Hardware Store Now Hiring

Need a job? I've always been pleased with the service at Mazzone's.
Looks like they have a couple of openings.

Busy retail hardware store in Brooklyn seeking full and part time employees.

Position 1: Garden Center assistant. Should have a basic understanding
of how to care for plants. Must be well spoken, able to communicate
well with customers and fellow employees, and able to lift up to
50lbs. This is a seasonal position but could lead to year round
employment based on performance. Starting salary 8-11/hr depending on
experience.

Position 2: Retail sales/stock. Applicant must be well spoken and able
to communicate well with customers and fellow employees. Knowledge of
hardware and/or Benjamin Moore paint a plus, but not required. Must be
able to work in a fast paced environment.

http://newyork.craigslist.org/brk/ret/3705561643.html


Typos courtesy of my iPhone

Controversial Pro-Palestine Ads Went Up At Metro-North Stations On Passover: Gothamist

Pam Geller is an absolutely awful human being, and she is 100%
responsible for these ads running.

The MTA was forced to run these types of ads by none other than racist
lunatic freak and grifter Pam Geller. Now Geller will use these ads
to raise more money for yet more hateful anti-Muslim ads.

At least the money is going to the MTA. How does a person like Pam Geller
sleep at night?  No link to her hateful blog.

Fracking Wastewater Injection Spurs Earthquakes, Study Finds

This is another cause for considerable concern about fracking:

A new study in the journal Geology is the latest to tie a string of unusual earthquakes, in this case, in central Oklahoma, to the injection of wastewater deep underground. Researchers now say that the magnitude 5.7 earthquake near Prague, Okla., on Nov. 6, 2011, may also be the largest ever linked to wastewater injection. Felt as far off as Milwaukee, more than 800 miles away, the quake—the biggest ever recorded in Oklahoma—destroyed 14 homes, buckled a federal highway and left two people injured. Small earthquakes continue to be recorded in the area. The study appeared today in the journal's early online edition.

I've never once seen it raised as a possibility in the press, but I have always wondered if the 2004 tsunami that killed a quarter of a million people was set off by oil and gas exploration.  There is a great deal of extraction going on in the immediate vicinity.  But literally, never once did I see a single instance of speculation in the news media about the potential that this disaster could have been unwittingly caused by man. 

Human activities are capable of massive, horrific unintended consequences.  There is a huge amount of money to be made in extractive industries, and very little profit margin in ensuring the public's safety.  Fortunately, the self interest of NYC which relies on upstate water for our very existence provides a counterbalance to what is usually a massively stacked deck in favor of exploitation.

Awesome Rock Formations: Photos

Basalt formations, a la Led Zeppelin's Houses of the Holy, looking
like paintings from fantasy novel covers.