Hersh til It Hurts: Seymour Hersh on Journalism, Secrecy and the Truth

Veteran investigative journalist Seymour Hersh in The Guardian on secrecy and lies in the Obama administration, the truth sbout the death of Bin Laden and the failures and future of American journalism http://www.theguardian.com/media/media-blog/2013/sep/27/seymour-hersh-obama-nsa-american-media

Unleashing Wonder: 3-D Printers

As DITHOB mentioned a few years back 3-D printing in all of its shoddy glory appears to be the wave of the future, some kind of future anyway, for better or for worse. A.J. Jacobs writing in yesterday's New York Times Sunday Review section takes it an another direction when he engages an engineer to help fabricate an Italian dinner. Madonn', the future is surely unwritten. I wonder if it is palatable. Read the article here As we also wrote earlier, there was recent controversy about the 3-D printers capacity to "print" a handgun. So let's see: 3-D Printers (x pizza + handgun) = Food fight! -Deep in the Heart of Brooklyn

Autumn Citrus

Lulav and etrog vendors help their customers prepare for Succoth on Avenue J

NYC Mayoral Primary: The View from The Beltway

Kelli Goff at The Root sums it all up: "[T]he outcome of New York City's Democratic primary puts this silly theory about black voter bias to rest once and for all. Black voters are, like other demographics, informed voters, and if you effectively speak to their issues, they will vote for you. If you don't, they won't -- regardless of your skin color." The complete article here http://www.theroot.com/blogs/end-racial-politics-new-york

Bill Thompson Supporter US Representative Charles Rangel on Bill and Dante de Blasio

From CAPITAL NY - Reid Pillifant wrote: Asked if he was surprised by de Blasio's performance among black voters, Rep. Charles Rangel said, "Not after I saw that commercial for de Blasio with his son." I asked Rangel if he thought the ad, which is narrated by de Blasio's 16-year-old son, Dante, was really that effective. "Effective? Hell, it was mind-blowing," he said. "That was the kid that they're looking for in stop-and-search. That is him! Big goddam afro, black kid, he's the one! In other words, the candidate's son." He let out a laugh. "And then the mayor, I don't know--he was so beautiful, in calling Bill de Blasio a racist for exposing his family," he said. "I mean, by having your family, your biracial family, come forward is racist, because they see that you're really Americans, and we don't have time for that, either you're Jewish or Christian or black or white, I don't know." "But I know one thing, de Blasio handled these things so beautifully well, I can understand how people felt very comfortable endorsing him," Rangel said. Article from Capital New York by Reid Pillifant here http://capitalnewyork.com/article/politics/2013/09/8533733/rangel-thompson-supporters-will-hold-strategy-meeting-tonight

Dispensing Wisdom



New York City Subway Chewing Gum Vending Machine
Circa 1960s (?)



September 11, 2001

Never forget

Pre-Primary Days in NYC

As the Democratic (and Republican) primary in NYC approaches, Outgoing Mayor Mike steps in it with his own extremist brand of political commentary,http://nyti.ms/1dQAVjF , while RealClear Politics website reviews the current polling numbers, http://realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2013/other/ny/new_york_city_mayor_democratic_primary-3741.html , for what they are actually worth; and Ford Fessenden's interesting article accompanying the infographic in the Saturday NY Times on the voting blocs among the ethnic enclaves and neighborhoods of New York, in the current primary race and post-Bloombergian political environment may add up to a whole lot of nothing as the proof is in the pudding and it will ultimately be in the magic of the primary election itself, in actually which candidates' voters and how many of them make the effort to get out to the polls to (perhaps for the last time as we will be again using the mechanical voting machines) pull the lever and set the wheels and reels spinning.Whether this will result in a primary Dem run off or simply pave the way for the November election, we will have to see. So it will be up to the voters now to get out there and do their duty. And where it stops no one will know until (hopefully) primary night.

New York New York still a helluva town.

-Tony Napoli

Deep in the Heart of Brooklyn

The Perils and Potentials of "Feeding the Beast"

David Carr writing in the NY Times on the new paradigm in political journalism. Quoting Liz Sidoti, national politics editor for The Associated Press, who says she loves social media’s ability to reach and involve audiences, but she is less fond of what it is doing to the political press corps that is feeding the beast. “I worry that reporters are so busy looking after the bells and whistles that they need to on social media that they are not working as finders of fact, asking the tough questions and doing the analysis,” she told me."

Similarly, Peter Hamby, a journalist who can function in both traditional daily reporting and political analysis and who is comfortable in social media observes 

"that politicians who came of age in the Twitter era — Gov. Chris Christie, Gov. Martin O’Malley, Senator Marco Rubio and others — will have an advantage over Hillary Rodham Clinton, who relies on a command-and-control approach in which information is carefully doled out and any journalistic offenders are disciplined."

“I wonder if the machinery of Clinton-world, the layers of staff and ’90s-era wise men, are prepared to deal with the next generation of Instagramming journalist, social media natives who fetishize authenticity,” he said."

Full article in the NY Times  here http://nyti.ms/17BxRFi

'Gravity' Kills: Trailer from Alphonso Cuaron's Forthcoming Film

Sandra Bullock and George Clooney in Director Cuaron's October release. Space is the Place; The trick is Survival.

Trailer here http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=EPAibX5Mexo&desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DEPAibX5Mexo#