WSNBlogs

JuicyCampus tells us about anonymity with an “internet expert”

Alvin Chang — Sat, 17 May 2008 16:07:14 +0000

Just in case you don’t know what anonymity is, JuicyCampus tells us all about it on its blog.

If you don’t want to watch the video, then just know the basics of the message: 1) It’s really, really hard for someone to find out who you are on JuicyCampus … 2) unless the Feds are after you… or maybe just the local cops… 3) or an organized crime organization.

Oh, and if you do watch the video, enjoy Mike and this internet expert, Candy, try to distract you from the fact that there’s no such thing as real anonymity — if someone wants to find you, they will using whatever dirty tricks there are out there.

NYU ITP truly did it this time — a virtual girlfriend

Alvin Chang — Thu, 15 May 2008 21:38:59 +0000

Tisch’s Interactive Telecommunications Program is always making some cool gadgets that keep you occupied for a few hours. For example, there was the wooden mirror, the solar bikini and, now, a girlfriend.

Every year, the ITP department creates something to draw headlines, but this year’s big draw is truly stimulating — or not, since this gal pal is 2-D.

(via Gizmodo via NY Mag | ITP solar bikini | ITP wooden mirror)

NYU Med namesake/donor helped fund investigation to link Spitzer with Fla. escorts

Alvin Chang — Sat, 10 May 2008 12:47:32 +0000

(Ken Langone, John Sexton and Billie Tisch)

Ken Langone recently donated $100 million to the NYU Med Center ($200 million total) so NYU named the Med Center after him and his wife — the Langone Medical Center.

But guess what else this man did?

According to Politics1, he helped fund an 18-month investigation into former New York governor Eliot Spitzer’s Florida escort service exploits. Why? Because, apparently, he was a target of Spitzer’s investigations when he was attorney general.

Here’s an excerpt:

Reliable sources informed Politics1 that DC super-lobbyist Wayne Berman — a longtime confidant of insurance executive Maurice Hank Greenberg — authorized a private Investigation that discovered the links between Spitzer and a Florida escort service ring. Operating under the alias code-name “Wallace C. Bernheim,” Berman directed an 18-month effort that cost an estimated $2.2 million. The investigation was allegedly paid for by a highly-secretive shadow committee Berman directed, informally nicknamed “The Group.” Sources tell Politics1 that The Group included Greenberg, Home Depot founder Ken Langone and former New York Stock Exchange Chairman Ken Grasso — all high-profile targets of Spitzer when he was Attorney General.

(The Daily Pulp | Picture from NYU)

Pennies will now be made of steel, not zinc-copper alloy — we can’t call US Mint dumb anymore

Alvin Chang — Sat, 10 May 2008 12:32:59 +0000

Right now, it costs 1.7 cents to make a penny and 10 cents to make a nickel.

I’m no expert, but that’s… dumb.

Luckily, the House voted to change this a few days ago. Now our pennies will be made of steel — yay.

(Boston.com)

When flying home for summer, second checked bag might cost extra

Alvin Chang — Sat, 10 May 2008 12:26:23 +0000

For those of you kids flying for the summer, there’s been a change in baggage policy recently.

Now, you may only be allowed one free check-in bag. So before you go with your life packed up in two bags, check your airline’s baggage policy. (Some airlines do a great job of hiding this from you.)

Just to help you out, the following airlines will charge a $25 fee for a second bag:

-Continental
-Delta
-Northwest
-United
-US Airways
-AirTran ($10)

(IHT | Dallas Morning News | Picture from Road and Travel Magazine)

As Ivies dip into wait list, does NYU get better or worse students?

Alvin Chang — Sat, 10 May 2008 12:19:15 +0000

The Ivies — Harvard, Princeton, Penn — are dipping deeper into their wait list, the NYT reports. So what does that mean for NYU?

I see two possibilities:

1) Some Ivy League-caliber students, who would’ve otherwise gone to an Ivy, are at NYU, which is why this wait list phenomenon is happening. So NYU is getting better students on the first try.

2) Students accepted to NYU are on the Ivies’ wait lists, so once they get into Harvard, they’re gone from NYU.

Keep in mind that these other schools are tiny compared to this one. And these Ivies aren’t dipping deeper than a 200 students into the wait list, which means only a few potential NYU kids are going to get plucked up in this second round of admissions. There will definitely be an affect on NYU, but it’s tough to figure out what — I guess we’ll know once we get the SAT scores for this class, if we ever do.

(NYT)

Navigating the Nightmare in Tarsem Singh’s “The Fall”

Simon Abrams — Fri, 09 May 2008 18:24:53 +0000

Tarsem Singh’s name may not be familiar but that’s because his last film was 2001’s The Cell. Even before then he was working on his dream project, The Fall, without the aid of studio backing or professional stars (save for the then little-known Lee Pace). Apparently, working with J.Lo was hell. But just because The Fall doesn’t have any big guns behind it doesn’t mean that Singh’s film is without its big ideas and bigger visuals. The Fall builds on the concept of Zako Heskija’s Yo Ho Ho (1981), the story of a sick man using Arabian Nights-like storytelling to entice a child into assisting his suicide. Where The Cell was a hackneyed story with dense, fantastic dream sequences, The Fall is a fully developed nightmare, one where the narrative framework can’t simply be tossed aside for the dream to entrance the viewer.
(more…)

Two NYU scientists elected to National Academy

Alvin Chang — Fri, 09 May 2008 17:39:36 +0000

Two NYU scientists — Helmut Hofer of NYU’s Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences and Anthony Movshon, director of the university’s Center for Neural Science — have been named to the National Academy of Sciences.

From a past WSN story yours truly wrote:

NAS is part of the larger National Academies group, are nonprofit research organizations devoted to providing “unparalleled public service by bringing together committees of experts in all areas of scientific and technological endeavor,’ according to the National Academies website. To be elected into a National Academy, one must be nominated by a current member of the respective academy. The process is secret until the final announcement of winners.

(NYU Press Release)

Reporter, a rape victim, writes series on her assault 23 years ago (incredible and valuable read)

Alvin Chang — Wed, 07 May 2008 03:17:58 +0000

Cleveland Plain Dealer reporter Joanna Connors wrote an incredible five-part series about her experience as a rape victim, from the day of her attack to now. These are personal, raw stories and they are accompanied by tips on how to stay safe.

(Plain Dealer)

“Iron Man” tickles me all too well

Matt Margini — Sat, 03 May 2008 18:51:18 +0000

Despite being part of an obscenely important demographic and therefore ruling the mainstream media with a large beer- and pizza-stained fist (slightly bent out of shape from playing too much Halo), the 18-24-year-old American male has his insecurities. “Iron Man” is, on many levels, a great superhero movie–it’s shiny, it never stagnates in exposition, faux-philosophy, or “drama,” and it invests you just enough in its characters for you to care (slightly) about the outcomes of its various explosions. But it’s also, I think, eerily thorough at playing to, and briefly (though vicariously) placating, the specific desires of its audience–to the point that it often feels like cinematic Valium or a cinematic handjob. Consider Tony Stark, and think about how obscenely fucking close he comes to a hidden, haunting archetype.

We want, desperately, to conquer the technology that seems to enslave us on a daily basis; to become masters of machines.

With celebrity easily and most often obtained through slimy means, we want to be rich and famous for something substantive, something we’ve done on our own (most likely involving technology; see: Steve Jobs).

Forget stoicism, depression, guardedness: we want to be cocky, funny, and endearingly sarcastic at all times.

We want enough power over women to justify having a system for ushering them out the door in the morning–but we also want meaningful relationships.

We want a morality (and even a pacifism) that somehow still allows us to kick some ass and set things on fire.

We want a geopolitical climate (actually, an understanding of the geopolitical climate) that clearly establishes good and evil; we want Iron Man’s civilian/terrorist targeting system.

And yet, we also want to be impossibly fucking smart–we want to have knowledge that no one else has, hording blueprints, ideas, expertise in the workshops under our giant Malibu mansions instead of feeling lost and useless amidst the cacophonous noise of everyone else’s expression. We want to build a prototype and hold a copyright.

We want, finally, to be strong–but not Superman strong, not Hulk strong, not steroid strong. Not even Batman strong, because Batman gets all his shit from Morgan Freeman. We want sovereignty and informational mastery; certainty and autonomy—we want to know how to get power and we want to attain it by ourselves.

Tony Stark has his cake and eats it too. He has many cakes, in fact; the secret to “Iron Man” is that he eats them one-by-one in front of our faces while pointing at their paradoxically undisturbed existence.