[Photo via THE BIG PICTURE] BY SIMONE SECCI FOREIGN CORRESPONDENT ROME — The noises that people used to hear in the streets of L’Aquila, one of the main cities in central Italy, were those that you can hear in every other place in the world: People talking, traffic, kids playing. Now L’Aquila is a ghost town ruled by a terrible empty silence, a silence of death. The numbers that corresponds to the terrible earthquake, that hit L’Aquila last Monday are those of a catastrophe: 228 people founded dead, hundreds injured and more than 70.000 homeless, so far. Unfortunately L’Aquila wasn’t […]
YARRRR: Somali Pirates Seize 21 American Sailors
ABC NEWS: Somali pirates on Wednesday hijacked a U.S.-flagged cargo ship with 21 crew members aboard, a diplomat and a U.S. Navy spokesman said. The Kenya-based diplomat identified the vessel as the 17,000-ton Maersk Alabama and said all the crew members are American. The diplomat spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media. The U.S. Navy confirmed that a U.S. flagged ship with 21 members of crew was hijacked early Wednesday off the eastern coast of Somalia. MORE UPDATE: American crew members aboard a U.S.-flagged ship hijacked by Somali pirates Wednesday were able […]
HOT DOCUMENT: The Trouble With Facebook
Lily sent you a message.——————– Subject: Just like a buzzin’ fly, I come into your life, now I float away Dear Jon, I’m going to de-friend you. It’s nothing personal, which is the whole point. We’re not personal people, with each other. We don’t talk on the phone or send Christmas cards. We don’t mass email urban legends to each other. We’re just not close. Even when we were close, back in the early 90’s, we weren’t close. Right before I left Philly, I saw you at a party and you thought my name was Missy. And it didn’t bother […]
ARTSY: Detritus
“Icarus Ascending” by Jose Gamalinda, part of Detritus, now showing at T-bar BY AARON STELLA The long awaited debut of Jose Gamalinda, emergent artist and veteran bartender at Woody’s for over 18 years, has finally arrived. Now his pieces, which have hitherto remained unexposed to the public, are on display at T-bar (located at 12th and Sansom streets) in a show aptly titled “Detritus.” Gamalinda specializes in collages and reproductions in Bic pen. Most of Gamalinda’s friends, co-workers and fellow art enthusiasts were already familiar with his work. For years, they’ve prodded him to invest the time needed to actualize […]
iTunes Raises Its Prices Introduces ‘Variable Pricing’
ENGADGET: As promised, variable pricing has now been implemented at the iTunes music store. Already, we’re seeing most of the top 10 singles and 33 of the top 100 hitting the top price-point of $1.29 (encoded as DRM-free 256kbps AAC). Interesting as Amazon’s uncomfortably similar top 10 list has all these tracks priced at $0.99 (encoded as DRM-free 256kbps VBR MP3). A handful of tracks (nine in the top 100) do hit the higher $1.29 price further down Amazon’s list. MORE PREVIOUSLY: Looks like iTunes might be getting a big catalog overhaul, with most major labels finally offering up DRM […]
NPR FOR THE DEAF: We Hear It Even When You Can’t
FRESH AIR British actor and comedian Russell Brand is known for his outspokenness, his outlandish appearance and his wit — not to mention a series of raunchy on-air prank calls that ended his tenure as host of a BBC radio show. But he’s best known in the U.S. for his role as a caddish rocker in the film Forgetting Sarah Marshall, and for hosting the 2008 MTV Video Music Awards. Recently, he’s put his over-the-top persona on the page with his memoir My Booky Wook: A Memoir of Sex, Drugs, and Stand-up. My Booky Wook chronicles Brand’s struggle with addictions […]
10,000 Journalists Unemployed; The Good News Is J-School Enrollment Is Inexplicably Up, Way Up
FORBES: The Pew Research Center estimates 5,000 newspaper jobs were lost in 2008. Since 2001, more than 10,000 newspaper journalists have lost work, leaving the total count of those still employed at 47,000 nationwide. It’s getting worse, fast. Erica Smith, who runs the online layoff tracker Paper Cuts, counts nearly 7,500 newsroom jobs lost so far this year. Yet punishing times for journalism have been an unlikely boon for journalism schools. Would-be Woodwards and Bernsteins hiding out from the bad economy or learning new skills to compete stormed the admissions offices of top-tier programs last fall. Columbia, Stanford and NYU […]
DOCTOR EVIL: Leaked International Red Cross Report Calls CIA Medical Officers Accessories To Torture
WASHINGTON POST: Medical officers who oversaw interrogations of terrorism suspects in CIA secret prisons committed gross violations of medical ethics and in some cases essentially participated in torture, the International Committee of the Red Cross concluded in a confidential report that labeled the CIA program “inhuman.” Health personnel offered supervision and even assistance as suspected al-Qaeda operatives were beaten, deprived of food, exposed to temperature extremes and subjected to waterboarding, the relief agency said in the 2007 report, a copy of which was posted on a magazine Web site yesterday. The report quoted one medical official as telling a detainee: […]
SIDEWALKING: 22nd & Montgomery
[Photo by JEFF DEENEY ] INQUIRER: A 43-year-old Camden man pleaded guilty today in the shooting of a Philadelphia police officer, who chased the thug even after he was shot in the arm in Bella Vista last year. Rakin Thabit admitted that he and an accomplice robbed a man last June, and that after police approached, he shot Officer Mark Uffelman, who was hit in the left arm, during a chase. Thabit pleaded guilty this morning to four charges — attempted murder, possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, robbery and conspiracy to commit robbery. He is to be […]
HEAR YE: New Dylan
Fascinating interview with Bob Dylan by Bill Flanagan over at NEWSWEEK’s blog, which is also streaming the track “Feelin’ A Change Comin’ On” from the forthcoming Together Through Life. Here he is explaining his mystical attraction to Obama: Bill Flanagan: You liked Barack Obama early on. Why was that? Bob Dylan: I’d read his book and it intrigued me. “Audacity of Hope”? No, it was called “Dreams [From] My Father.” What struck you about him? Well, a number of things. He’s got an interesting background. He’s like a fictional character, but he’s real. First off, his mother was a Kansas […]
DENIED: Supreme Court Refuses Mumia Appeal
INQUIRER: Death-row inmate Mumia Abu-Jamal lost his bid for a new trial in the killing of a city police officer after the U.S. Supreme Court said Monday that it will not take up the case. Abu-Jamal, a former Black Panther and one-time radio reporter, had claimed prosecutors improperly excluded blacks from the jury that convicted him of murdering white Philadelphia police Officer Daniel Faulkner in 1981. Abu-Jamal’s attorney, Robert R. Bryan of San Francisco, called his client’s trial “a mockery of justice” and said Monday he would seek a rehearing by the high court. But prosecutor Hugh Burns said that […]
Wonder If Sarah Palin Can See This From Her House
Pretty awesome pix of Alaska’s Mt. Redoubt eruption HERE. TANGENTIALLY RELATED: L’AQUILA, Italy — More than 150 people died and tens of thousands were left homeless when a 6.3 magnitude earthquake shook central Italy early Monday, seriously damaging historic buildings in the medieval hill towns of Abruzzo Region east of Rome, officials said. Most of the deaths and damage were centered in L’Aquila, a picturesque fortress town at the quake’s epicenter. Outside a damaged convent, a dozen nuns still dressed in bright orange and blue bathrobes climbed into a van headed to an assistance center. Sister Lidia, the mother superior, […]
RADIOHEAD: Nude
Wow.